Wheels come off tour de cycleway plan

National race plans have crashed. Photo / Kenny Rodger

The Government originally hoped a race the length of the country could have been held on a new cycleway, named after Sir Edmund Hillary.

The idea, which came out of February's Job Summit, was originally for a cycleway covering the length of the country.

The Government has since said it would instead be made up of a series of "Great Rides" similar to the Otago Rail Trail, with a long-term aim of creating a network throughout the country.

One News last night reported details it obtained about the $50 million cycleway.

Ambitious initial plans were for a race like the Tour de France to be named the Sir Edmund Hillary Explorator, it reported last night.

Prime Minister John Key said that might happen later.

"There's still potentially over time a possibility," he said. "We are just building the cycleway a bit like a patchwork quilt."

Costs for the single route have proved prohibitive at $33,000 a kilometre for a basic gravel path, $500,000 a kilometre to widen a state highway, and $1 million a kilometre for clip-on bridges.

Mr Key promoted the cycleway saying it would create jobs and draw tourists. International cycle tourists spent around $199 million during their stays in New Zealand last year.

Labour MP Chris Hipkins was critical of the repeated downgrading of plans.

"The ambition was big when it was announced, it's been scaled back completely, it's now got to the point where it's a bit of a joke really."

Mr Key was willing to be patient: "Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is the New Zealand cycleway going to be."

- NZPA