Jan Nisbet with an old and new walk brochure. Photo / David Haxton
Jan Nisbet with an old and new walk brochure. Photo / David Haxton
Thirty-five years ago, Jan Nisbet helped produce a small booklet chronicling a handful of the best walks in Kāpiti.
Helping her create Footloose in Kāpiti was the late June Rowland and Kāpiti Weekday Walkers as well as the then Kāpiti Borough Council.
Other booklets have come out over the years but the latest one, called Walks of the Kāpiti Coast, produced by Kāpiti Coast District Council and spearheaded by tourism-focused contractor Janice Hill, delighted Nisbet.
“It’s so cool that I decided it needed a launch.
“Janice has done an incredible job and it was a way of saying thank you to her.”
The booklet comprises many more walks too — a total of 18 — ranging from easy to epic, including some from the old booklet.
The launch, which took place last night, was also a good time to celebrate the many people who have contributed to the district’s cycleways, walkways and bridleways over the years.
Nisbet said a key moment was in 2002 when the council set up the Cycleway, Walkway and Bridleway Group (CWB) at the same time as central government put out a policy expecting every council to get the most out of all modes of transport including walking and riding.
Most councils didn’t start doing anything until 2005 but in Kāpiti, the late Leon Kiel and Kāpiti Environmental Action (KEA) were lobbying for a cycleway beside the proposed Western Link Rd, which is now the Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway.
That lobbying landed on the desk of council officers Andrew Guerin and Jessica Polglase, who started a project looking at various connection options starting in Raumati.
It rapidly expanded to the whole district when Kiel and Linda Kerkmeester developed a desired CWB network.
“From that time on, when anyone came to do a subdivision, they were supposed to always refer to the map,” Nisbet said.
There is still an active CWB advisory group, which meets regularly and features a variety of people from different organisations, who give council ideas and heads-up.
Trail network vision
Meanwhile, at the launch, plans to try and develop an interconnecting Kāpiti Coast trail network from Manakau to Battle Hill and beyond were announced.
The network would be in three different levels — the coastal plains, mountain foothills, and deeper into the backcountry.
Janice Hill and Steve Lewis with a proposed Kāpiti Coast trail network plan.
Lots of the trails exist but work is needed to complete the network jigsaw.
“We would need to build about 30km of trail to connect all the existing stuff that might give us up to 250km worth of network,” said Steve Lewis, who is driving the network idea.
He said investment in a completed network could give a “great return” and “has potential to sit Kāpiti well within those Great Walks, Great Rides, economic development type of thing”.
“It could really put us on the map as a destination.”
There was a lot of work to make the vision a reality.
He said a trust needed to form especially to “dip into the bigger funding streams as opposed to the council stuff because they haven’t got any money”.
“We don’t have to reinvent any wheels, we just have to follow on and utilise how other areas have been doing it.”
Getting support from iwi, local authorities and private landowners would be important too.
