From left, club chairman Andrew McDowell, TECT trustee Kate Barry-Piceno, Avan Polo from Surf Lifesaving NZ, deputy mayor John Scrimgeour and Boyd Harris.
From left, club chairman Andrew McDowell, TECT trustee Kate Barry-Piceno, Avan Polo from Surf Lifesaving NZ, deputy mayor John Scrimgeour and Boyd Harris.
Monday saw a major milestone in the building of a new surf lifesaving headquarters at Pukehina Beach.
It was the first day on site for builders Cassidy Construction following a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday.
The handover belies months of work that has already taken place at the site, and a decade-long quest for a new building.
Chairman Andrew McDowell and his immediate predecessor Boyd Harris have been at the forefront of the project.
“This is a huge threshold, especially for Boyd and I - but also for the whole club,” says Andy.
“It’s a time when we’ve gone from our whole focus being pre-build, funding, architecture, building contracts and appeasing the gods, to handing that area over to Cassidy Construction. It’s their baby now.”
But it won’t be a case of being totally hands-off.
“Boyd and I are considered kind of the project managers for Pukehina Surf Rescue, so we have the authority to go on-site and check the construction which will be a cool job.”
The plan is to open up the site from time to time for open days to allow the community to see progress.
“[We want to] take our public through and give them ownership of what Boyd and I have been nurturing for perhaps 10 years.”
Hare Williams and Tohu Ripeka Smith at the blessing of the site of the new Pukehina Surf Rescue building.
In May, TECT announced its latest $500,000 contribution to the project.
“It was that last TECT funding announcement that really got us to a point where we could say, ‘we can actually kick off here’,” says Boyd.
“We’re getting there, and we are still getting donations in kind and that all comes off the bottom line.”
Builders working on the project have been offered accommodation in Pukehina at a competitive rate.
Boyd says it’s an example of the community buy-in for the project.
“That’s what’s been really heartening and humbling for us. We could have gone with consultants the whole way, but we’ve had people come out of the woodwork and managed little bits of it using their expertise from their own work life - it’s just been fantastic.”
As far as possible it will be business as usual for the club during construction work.
“We’ve put a Portacom down there that will be our home for the next year,” says Boyd, “and we’ve got a TECT-sponsored trailer that can carry a full rescue set up. We are just going to have to be a little bit dynamic with the way we do things.”
Junior surf will also carry on and the club is putting together a team to travel to the world championships in 2024.
While the club is already strong, the hope is that the new building will help boost numbers further, as new buildings have at other clubs.
“We’ve talked to other clubs who have had rebuilds, so we’ve got the ins and outs and watch-out-for-this and watch-out-for-that.”
The old building was removed in March.
“What we did then was, we took out 800 cubic metres of sand and just under 400 cubic metres went to the boat ramp for the restoration and regeneration of the sand dunes down at the boat ramp,” says Andrew.
An artist's impression of the new Pukehina Surf Rescue building.
The restoration is a Pukehina Residents Association project.
“That made [the area] a lot more user-friendly which is really wonderful because that’s part of the kaupapa of our club, that we look after everybody in the community, so it was really cool to put those loose ends together and create that. Now it’s becoming quite a useable space for kids to play in and it gives us a beach for junior surf as well.”
The new building will provide the club with 530 square metres of floor space - against the 100 square metres of the old building.
“We’ve done our club operations from that 100 square metres for 26 years and now we are going to have so much more room to move and so much more room to engage the community,” says Boyd.
Cornerstone sponsors for the project have been Surf Lifesaving New Zealand and TECT, from where around half the cost has come, with other funders including Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Lotteries Grants Board, Baytrust, Lion Foundation, Mackay Strathnaver Trust, Black and White Beauty and the Acorn Foundation.
“Plus there have been a lot of others at different levels and people who have donated goods in kind,” says Boyd.
