Te Ara Kahikatea Incorporated Society secretary Grant Dally, left, Gael Blaymires and Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Garry Webber cut the ribbon to officially open the pathway.
Te Ara Kahikatea Incorporated Society secretary Grant Dally, left, Gael Blaymires and Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Garry Webber cut the ribbon to officially open the pathway.
A dream to create an asset the town can be proud of has been realised with the opening of the Te Ara Kahikatea Pathway.
The idea for the pathway to be used by walkers, runners and cyclists, belonged to Gael and Cedric Blaymires who put it to the Te Puke Environmental Forum which created the Te Ara Kahikatea Incorporated Society to drive the project.
Sadly, Cedric Blaymires died last year and didn't see his dream completed.
Gael Blaymires, Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Garry Webber and society secretary Grant Dally cut the ribbon to officially open the pathway last Friday.
While the official opening took place on Friday, the pathway was already being used.
"It's gratifying to see mothers with prams, cyclists and lots of other people using it," says Blaymires.
The Te Ara Kahikatea Incorporated Society was officially formed with the signing of a memorandum with Western Bay of Plenty District Council which owns most of the land through which the pathway travels.
The path begins at the Hera Memorial.
The 4km route starts at the Hera Memorial in Jubilee Park.
It travels alongside Te Puke Highway and follows the Waiari Stream and heads around the Te Puke dog pound and wastewater plant via a boardwalk before returning under the railway line on to the northern end of Lawrence Oliver Park and back to Jubilee Park.
The pathway has been planted with a mix of natives such as kahikatea, manuka, pohutukawa, rimu, totara and includes 700 cookianum flax plants from council's ecological fund, plus 250 tenax flaxes from Te Puke's Forest & Bird branch.
Dally says one of the greatest rewards of the project has been turning former wasteland and wetland into a lovely community asset.
The project has been made possible through $69,000 TECT for the wetland boardwalk, $14,000 from council's Community Matching Fund, $12,000 from the Walking Access Commission, $11,500 from Bay of Plenty Regional Council and $2900 from Te Puke Community Board.
Local business have donated or discounted goods and services including timber from Pukepine Sawmills ($15,000), the 400m section of pathway from the cemetery to the Waiari Stream built by Fulton Hogan ($12,000), building work by Peter Boomen ($4200) and earthworks by Ken Edkins ($3000).
Voluntary groups involved with the project include Environment Te Puke, Te Puke Rotary, Te Puke Forest and Bird, Creative Te Puke, Sunday Riders and Women on Wheels.
