Pathway to heaven: A Napier success story

All the way with the Pathways Trust, from left Bob Morrison, Brien Mahoney, Barbara Arnott, Sue Page, and Jude O'Connor, making way for a passing cyclist. Photo / Paul Taylor

It's gone on for years and years and kilometres and kilometres, but it's finally done its dash.

That's Napier's Rotary Pathway Trust, formed in 2002 and wound-up on March 31, after 20 years raising over $2 million to develop a network of now more than 50km of paths walked, run and cycled by hundreds, sometimes maybe thousands around Napier each week.

The paths revolutionised the Napier beachfront, from Bay View to Awatoto, which on a new wave of leisure and recreation activity have sometimes been regarded as the unlikely successful free option to such Marine Parade attractions as Marineland, the bumper boats and Can-Am cars.

They also sparked a national legacy, as a seed in 2008-2017 Prime Minister John Key's support for a national cycle and walkways which rocketed ahead with a Government infusion of $50 million.

Remarkably five originals were present at a Napier City Council Sustainable Napier Committee meeting on Thursday when for a valedictory delivered by 2001-2013 Mayor Barbara Arnott, one of the five and their chair since founding chair John Hennessey, former own of Hawke's Bay Telephone Co, died at the end of 2018.

It was he who drove the project, and the one of the other founders on hand was Sue Page, who Arnott credits for the groundbreaking step of getting each of the local clubs of global service organisation Rotary International to put forward someone to be on the trust.

The other survivors are Bob Morrison (secretary), Brien Mahoney, and Jude O'Connor, the quintet after telling councillors the last $600,000 had been forwarded for the completion of the Ōtātara Pa to Dolbel Reserve Walkway trotted-out of the meeting in the War Memorial Centre for a nostalgic but brief look at some of the fruits of their labour.

The other founding member was the late Alan Watton, a Rotary member in Taradale who was also a roading engineer with the Hastings District Council.

The trust's objective was to see an off-road pathway network that circumnavigated the city, and for the most part this has been achieved, said a report to the Council.

Notable sectors of the pathway include Westshore to Bayview Pathway (completed in 2003), Marine Parade Pathway (2004), Tūtaekurī River Track (2006-2008), Breakwater Road Pathway (2008), Ahuriri Pathway (2009), and Maggies Way Walkway – Taradale Hills (2015-2022).

In addition to the leisure and recreational use, obvious on all fine days and still common on other days, has been Napier successfully hosting national events such as the Air New Zealand Marathon and Iron Māori.

Arnott said the trust and its supporters had donated over $1,520,000 and countless hours to achieve this vision over the past 20 years, while there had also been a significant bequest, from Basil McCoward and recognised in the name Maggie's Way, after his wife, Margaret.

Arnott said it wasn't a "meeting" trust, but a "working" trust driven to get things done.

"We went out and planted trees, because we were in touch with the community," she said.

"We walked the walk and talked the talk. We made decisions where we wanted the paths to go, and if the people didn't want it somewhere we would change."