Tommy Wilson: Take off the hand brakes

The Pilot Bay boardwalk was a hot hangi stone of contention. Photo/file

The breath of life, or hongi, is unique to this country, and outside of some Eskimo tribes who press noses when greeting each other, there is no other salutation to compare it.

The hongi is more and more becoming a preferred greeting and is, in my opinion, the perfect symbol to celebrate the way we are breathing new life into the safe anchorage of the downtown CBD of Tauranga.

If I were the marketing guru in charge of breathing new life into our CBD, I would stylise the hongi to represent our new pathway we are walking to make our city the culturally coolest in all of Aotearoa.

You can walk anywhere and everywhere on this planet if, as John Rowles once sang "I only had time" and, here in Tauranga, we are finding new spaces and places to take a walk on the right side and wild side of life.

Studies have linked walking to a host of benefits, including larger (and stronger) brains, lower stress and improved creativity.

Eureka moments and walking has proven to be a catalyst in the generation of fresh and new ideas, much like a hongi.

In fact, Plato and Aristotle did much of their brilliant thinking together while walking and, who knows, their noses might have touched along the way.

So more walking and walking boardwalks is a no brainer. Not just for Aristotle and the other brain-boxes of past generations, but for all of us alive today needing to share the breath of life and walk and talk together.

I can clearly remember when the new Pilot Bay boardwalk became a hot hangi stone when first proposed.

"Never going to happen, not on my watch" according to a few vote-foraging councillors and Pilot Bay naysayers, who thought it would be a "pain in their harbour side".

Now look at it, it is an absolute toanga - a treasure for Tauranga.

The same circumstances for the proposed breath of life into the Memorial Park boardwalk where a few lone voices will, hopefully, have cold water poured on their objections.

How cool would it be to take a stroll into The Strand, where the kids can play on the Hairy Hounds and us oldies can kick back on the stairways to heaven.

So too for our tourists, who are arriving in ever-increasing numbers. I have always been a fan of teaching the art of storytelling in our tertiary institutions, to local Maori who can share them on a walking talking tour around Mauao or promenading down the boardwalks of Pilot Bay and Memorial Park.

All walks, wherever they are, can only be good for a community, as we have seen already, and now that we have a new pulse beating in the downtown heart of Tauranga, the more walks leading into the CBD the merrier.

Helping pump new blood into the heart of Tauranga (safe anchorage) is a group of community kingpins who, for my two bobs' worth of bringing back our city soul, are exactly what the walking doctors ordered.

Known as CAG, the Civic Amenities Group are a fresh breath of life needed to take us from God's waiting room to the reception lounge of Aotearoa New Zealand.

CAG is all locals who have the collective capacity to make things happen far quicker than the slow sleeping tide of a three-year term, when elected members come in and then flow out again, singing the same song as John Rowles when they leave.

"So much to do - if we only had time."

One thing is for sure, we are walking back to a time when walking was healthy for the wealthy, the wise and the working class, and Tauranga is taking a healthy U-turn from being a $2 town to one where the currency of its success will be measured by the pulse of its downtown CBD.

The time is ripe for Tauranga's tree of tourism to be prepared for harvest - and the lowest hanging fruit, in my opinion, is creating an open, exciting arena in the CBD, where we can continue to plant a new orchard of opportunities heading into the future.

If this is to happen and happen now we have to take off our hand brake and stop treating every opportunity as a hot hangi stone, as we allowed with the Pilot Bay boardwalk.

If we have to take a walk on the wild side and park the naysayers in their walking frames - then so be it.

The rhythm of footsteps is a primal way to connect with one's deeper self and the community we live in.

For this to happen, we need more walkways, boardwalks and community-minded kingpins like the CAG group of successful locals, who can breathe life into the safe anchorage of Tauranga.

tommykapai@gmail.com