Regional parks
Coastal trail and the river-mouth ferry
The urge to walk the coastline is as old as humankind. Within three years, the 4500-kilometre England Coast Path will be opened, initiated in 2014 under a Conservative – Liberal Democrat government. Aotearoa is geographically twice…
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Criteria for crossing revisited
The principal objective of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail is to provide primary access to Te Muri. Based on vehicle countsfor 2013–2014, Wenderholm Regional Park receives an estimated 225 362 visitors per year, and Mahurangi Regional Park 59 595. It is probable then,... read more
Criteria for non-footbridge crossing
There were good and obvious reasons for considering a footbridge. But there were also a good many reasons why a footbridge across the Pūhoi Estuary, as part of the long-proposed Mahurangi Coastal Trail, was a less-than-optimal solution. Firstly, it would have had to... read more
Mahurangi-initiated 50-year plan hit by mainstream media
Dr Ronald Locker had suggested it as a national park. It was 1973, when he had suggested creation of a national park to protect his beloved Mahurangi Harbour, in Seacoast in the Seventies, which he co-authored with Professor John Morton and David Thom cbe. What Locker…
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Car-free Te Muri no mirage
The indications were entirely auspicious, even before the wrap-up. Then the commissioners, who had just finished hearing submissions on the future development of Te Muri, outlined the points they expected Auckland Council’s planning officers to cover in further... read more
Convince the commissioners and Te Muri car-free forever
Auckland Council and the community are now in accord. Scheduled to be published today, are the council’s recommendations to the commissioners who will effectively determine the future of Te Muri. When the draft management plan was published in November 2015, most... read more
Garnering major help to connect this coast
You read it there first… …in a full-page spread in Junction Magazine, profiling ‘uber-human’ Tessa Berger, the 21-year-old chair of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail Trust. Anyone reading the glossy Matakana-based magazine’s description of Tessa’s achievements to date,... read more
Future is in increasingly self-funding regional parks
Operational budget $14.5 million, acquisitions budget $0.0 million, result misery. With a new one, on average, added every other year, regional parks had been the most popular purpose Aucklanders’ rates were put to over the last 50 years. But since 2010, when the... read more
Submission by Mahurangi Action Incorporated to Auckland Council on the draft Auckland Regional Parks Management Plan variation in respect to Te Muri
Submitted 18 March 2016 Executive summary added 26 March 2016 The following is Mahurangi Action Incorporated’s submission, as lodged in PDF format on 18 March, but without the executive summary provided here. In the pursuit of transparency, this submission was... read more
Mahurangi Action on draft variation in respect to Te Muri
The submission needs to begin by putting the planning process in context. The timing of the Auckland Regional Parks management plan variation in respect to Te Muri, coinciding as it does with the regional parks 50th anniversary, presents Auckland Council with an... read more
FORParks single-issue newsletter on walk-in open day at Te Muri
Event Walk-in open day at Te Muri Topic Draft management plan variation Where Te Muri woolshed—west of campground When 10.30 am 2 pm Saturday 20 February Low tide 12.22 pm Note Allow at least 20 minutes to walk in from terminus of Ngārewa Drive Hello Friends of... read more
Share Te Muri with walking Aucklanders or two thousand of their cars
Event Walk-in open day at Te Muri Topic Draft management plan variation Where Te Muri woolshed—west of campground When 10.30 am 2 pm Saturday 20 February Low tide 12.22 pm Note Allow at least 20 minutes to walk in from terminus of Ngārewa Drive It’s been timed for low... read moreLong-form formal Te Muri submission support for the Mahurangi Coastal Trail
Auckland Council has provided an online form that short-changes the Mahurangi Coastal Trail. While it allows submitters to respond to the primary actions and developments contemplated in the draft variation to the Auckland Regional Park management plan, the Mahurangi... read more
Reasons to believe that Judge Arnold Turner Footbridge will receive a fair shake
Prospects for the Mahurangi Coastal Trail aren’t as dismal as they appear. Or at least as they fail to appear, in the ‘primary actions and developments contemplated,’ in the draft variation to Auckland Regional Parks management plan published yesterday. While... read more
New parks czar delivers best possible Te Muri Christmas present
On 18 December 1965, Aucklanders awoke to a Christmas present for posterity. Nine months earlier the region had learned that, thanks to the establishment of an authority that was able to act in the combined interests of 32 separately constituted cities, towns and... read more
Post-Paris, Auckland Regional Parks 50th anniversary time to rethink
With the 50th anniversary of the opening of Wenderholm to be marked this Friday, supporters are calling for a bold new community–council plan for the regional parks network’s next 50 years. The original visionaries, the region’s first planner, Frederick W O Jones, and... read more
Disdaining the input of community groups: council plans to form its own
It’s simultaneously one of the best and the most preposterous proposals of the draft plan: Establish a friends group for the park and wider network of Mahurangi regional parks. Preposterous because, having relegated the concept most widely supported by community... read more
Until March to counter draft management plan to relegate coastal trail
Anybody who’d read the summary of phase-1 submissions would be utterly flummoxed. Of the 140 who made submissions to the Auckland Regional Parks management plan, 101 explicitly supported the concept for a Mahurangi Coastal Trail as the primary access to Te Muri, and... read more
21-year-old president rocks coastal trail dream for untouched paradise
Updated 11 November 2015 Her Facebook lit up. It is clear from the rapturous response to the New Zealand Herald article featuring newly elected Mahurangi Action president Tessa Berger, that Facebook is an essential tool in spreading the Mahurangi Coastal Trail... read more
Recurring regional parks rear-guard action or help lead 50-year-plan charge
By now it should be abundantly clear to all friends of regional parks. The Auckland Regional Parks network, about to begin celebrating its 50th anniversary, is seen by senior council management, and many elected representatives, as overly costly and in imminent need... read more
Without friends 50th celebrations might have been requiem for regional parks network
It is 35 years since Yes Minister first ran, yet public servants still shamelessly subvert the democratic process as effortlessly as breathing. In a particularly preposterous case of usurping the authority of elected representatives, Auckland Council senior management... read more
World cup causes celebrity fundraiser to be rescheduled for March 2015
Updated 1 December 2015 Update This proposed event was rescheduled, then reimagined following the spectacularly successful Buy this beach campaign that has seen Te Awaroa Beach become part of Abel Tasman Nation Park. Long story short, the timing of the event will be... read moreInitial-feedback summary strongly confirms support for coastal trail as primary Te Muri access
Published by the Mahurangi Magazine 6 November 2015 with light subediting for style and consistency. Notification of public consultation on the intention to undertake a variation to the Auckland Regional Parks Management Plan to include Te Muri was undertaken in... read more
Mahurangi Action Te Muri Regional Park Phase 1 Submission
As submitted 19 August 2015 Preface Mahurangi Action Incorporated (established 1974 as Friends of the Mahurangi) is well known to be the initiator of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail concept. This unapologetic focus on the proposed coastal trail and Judge Arnold Turner... read more
Views sought in first phase of planning long-term future of Te Muri
It is only the first phase, but it might also prove to be the most important. When, in its dying days in 2010, the Auckland Regional Council purchased the $15 million, 407-hectare Schischka farm, a large part of the motivation was to take pressure off Wenderholm, the... read more
Personal invitation to be one of the celebrated Mahurangi Coastal Trail 100
There will only ever be one, Mahurangi Coastal Trail one hundred. In one hundred years’ time, the 100 visionaries who, on 1 November 2015, pledged to support the bid to make the Mahurangi Coastal Trail the Auckland Regional Parks 50th anniversary, legacy project, will... read more
Need for a 15 Nov Mahurangi Coastal Trail celebrity fundraiser 1-pager
Update This proposed event was rescheduled, then reimagined following the spectacularly successful ‘Buy this beach’ campaign that has seen Te Awaroa Beach become part of Abel Tasman Nation Park. Long story short, the timing of the event will be determined only after... read more
1 Nov. Mahurangi Coastal Trail celebrity fundraiser
The Auckland Regional Parks 50th anniversary, legacy project. That is what the Mahurangi Coastal Trail must become, if Aucklanders are to mark the first fifty years of their incomparable network of regional parks in a manner befitting its scale and vision. And in... read more
Opportunity to embolden parks chief by bussing in bridge supporters
The Mahurangi Coastal Trail has been paid a considerable compliment. Friends of Regional Parks, in addition to making the coastal trail its flagship project, is making the concept the subject of its annual general meeting, on 29 June. Amongst the speakers will be... read more
How trail can help save a habitable planet
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Guardian is throwing everything at it. Well, nearly everything. While its ‘Keep it in the ground’ campaign is all over its environment section, there is no trace, on the newspaper’s main online masthead, of the millennial moral issue. Last... read more
Three separate vs. one magnificent Mahurangi Regional Park
Waitākere Ranges Regional Park is more than 19 times the combined size of the three Mahurangi regional parks. Waitākere Ranges dwarfs the combined 900 hectares of the largely contiguous regional parks of Mahurangi, Te Muri and Wenderholm, including the 407-hectare... read more
Roll on the regional parks rolling 50th celebrations
Auckland Council is planning to push the regional parks 50th boat out. But rather than one grand event, or weekend, the celebrations will likely take the form of a season of events, rather like the way Warkworth’s 150th anniversary was celebrated. For that calendar of... read more
Invitation to informal celebratory Wenderholm sunrise breakfast
There were very good reasons for celebrating in 2016. Thirty-first of March is the 50th anniversary of the purchase of Wenderholm Regional Park, meaning that the main celebratory event could justifiably been held on Tuesday. But while there was a certain amount of... read more
Trail trustees sign on and board votes to support
This week sees concrete step number three, with step four imminent. Concrete step one towards the Mahurangi Coastal Trail was last November, when Christine Fletcher’s parks, recreation and sport committee voted for work to proceed on the Te Muri Concept Plan. The... read more
Second concrete step taken as the coastal trail wins Friends
Friends of Regional Parks is strictly a high-level, umbrella group. It was formed to ensure that the Auckland Regional Parks network survived and flourished under the new unified governance arrangements for the region. So for Friends of Regional Parks to make a... read more
Next step on coastal trail is trust and working group
Trust is the essential element in any successful collaboration. And it is never more so when that collaboration involves various community groups, elected council representatives, and council staff. Trust was clearly a key factor in Mahurangi Coastal Trail gaining its... read more
Regional parks 50th celebrations perspective unapologetically regatta-centric
Submission to Auckland Council Appropriately, Friends of Regional Parks’ submission has a largely regional-parks-centric viewpoint. But when putting its oar in, Mahurangi Action’s view is unabashedly regatta-centric. It is hoped, however, that Auckland Council will... read more
Auckland’s 175th and regional parks’ 50th anniversaries and Anniversary weekend as an annual major event
The decision as to which year to celebrate is slightly easier for the 50th anniversary. Auckland’s 175th anniversary is to be celebrated on Auckland Anniversary weekend 2015, eight months ahead of the day Captain William Hobson planted the Union Jack at Britomart... read more
Coastal trail gains first concrete step
No better proof could possibly be had. Sat in the top-floor council chamber in the Auckland Town Hall, nine supporters of a $0.9 million coastal trail could have been excused for feeling unsure as to whether Auckland Council’s busy parks, recreation and sport... read more
Wrong for Mahurangi but right for Great Barrier
Submission deadline 28 February 2014 Ron was wrong about two important Mahurangi issues. At the time he wrote Jade River : A History of the Mahurangi, Dr Ronald Locker dismissed sedimentation as a serious threat to the health of the harbour, despite Dr Thomas... read more
Mahurangi Coastal Trail high-tide Seaweek walk
Corrected 25 February 2014 Event date 9 March 2014 Last year’s was a low-tide walk, and wade, with the odd wallow. Partly to demonstrate that the Pūhoi River can be readily be crossed at low tide, and partly to avoid the need to arrange for craft to ferry folk across,... read more
Looking back over 50 years of regional park history
In the early 1960s, Mr F W O Jones, Auckland’s regional planning officer, was concerned at the rapid growth of urban development along Auckland’s coastline, which was preventing all but a favoured few from having access to good beaches. He recommended that large... read more
Low-tide walk to sample low-hanging fruit
Mahurangi can best ease the region’s growing pains by not housing its share of Aucklanders. According to the introductory video on the new unitary plan website, Aucklanders want a high quality, more compact city, in the face of the expected 30-year growth rate of 600... read more
First draft of report for coastal trail discussion at club
Draft report for Mahurangi Club discussion Te Muri is the centre of four regional park identities: Mahurangi East, Mahurangi West, Te Muri and Wenderholm. Mahurangi Regional Park was extended by a $15 m purchase of 407 hectares of adjacent farmland during the... read more
$15 million Te Muri purchase lucky Te Araroa break
Updated 10 July 2015 An additional argument has surfaced for the coastal trail. Between Pūhoi and Wenderholm, it was planned that Te Araroa should follow the south bank of the Pūhoi River. However, that plan unravelled when a property holder along the route refused to... read more
Ten minutes and local board agrees to walk
A coastal trail, for the most part, should be built close to the water. But not only is it necessary to skirt the steep and cliff sections of the coast, the elevation gained rewards walkers with views that more than compensate for the slight exertion involved. The... read more
After a century or more ferrymen to work Sunday
Once, they were an essential part of the roading infrastructure. Ferrymen were paid the princely retainer of £15, or more if they were very lucky, to be on hand to transport travellers across the region’s various rivers. Pūhoi River ferryman George Ryan received £20... read more
Friends oppose local board bid to control regional parks
Friends of Regional Parks (FORParks) has joined ratepayer and resident associations and others across the region in opposing the move by some local boards to take control of ‘decision-making and oversight’ of regional parks in their wards. Local board control of... read more
Road would ruin future for Mahurangi coastal trail
The grandest entrance to the harbour is from the sea, under sail. Coming a sublime second is to discover the Mahurangi on foot, from Waiwera. Currently, this requires closely judging the tide and some determined wading, to cross the Pūhoi. Once across the river, the... read more
A unique role for Mahurangi and public transport
The public transport needs of the Mahurangi, in most ways, are unremarkable. Warkworth and Mahurangi East have long needed both a local bus service as well as better connectivity to Auckland’s bus system. But what is unique about the Mahurangi is that it is... read more
Te Muri acquisition key to coastal trail
It was to form part of a scenic coastal road. In 1966, when the regional council secured 63.8 hectares of coastal land at Te Muri for that purpose, such car‑centric thinking went unchallenged. Subsequently, the regional council’s ardour for the coastal road... read more
Captain Jones’ legacy complete at Te Muri
Captain Jones had first tried to secure Ōrewa Beach. But £10 000 was too rich for the government of the day, and so most of the land between the highway sea was subdivided—with a single beach house now fetching the several million dollars that that figure equates to... read more
Management plan review time for re-reading wedding bans
Weddings weren’t expected to be the subject of a Mahurangi Action Plan workshop. Nor did the Mahurangi Magazine expect to be posting wedding banns anytime soon. Nevertheless, the prospect of reversing the rule that effectively disallows the likes of weddings at Scotts... read more
Review of management plan opportunity for re-reading wedding bans
Mahurangi Action Planning Workshop 24 August 5.30 for 6pm–8pm Venue Old Masonic Hall Weddings weren’t expected to be the subject of a workshop. Nor did the Mahurangi Magazine expect to be posting wedding banns anytime soon. Never-the-less, the prospect of reversing... read more
Well worth the day out
Letter Just a note to say thanks for the very pleasant, and as you said, affirming, planting day at Sullivans Bay, Mahurangi. It was great to be there, and to catch up in such pleasant surroundings for such a good cause—well worth the day out. The Mahurangi Magazine... read more
Planting day at Sullivans Bay: Think national, act local
Event Taupö Open-Ground Open Day, 7 June 2008, 10am–2pm Sunday’s weather was sublime, as was the planting at Sullivans Bay, on a number of levels. Regional councillor Christine Rose said to the editor on her arrival, ‘I couldn’t resist your email’—notifying ‘Mahurangi... read more
Planting day at Sullivans Bay: Badly eroded hillside behind campground
Event date 18 May 2008 Come and help us plant trees! We are replanting the badly eroded hillside behind the Sullivans Bay campground. In exchange for your help, we will provide a barbecue lunch and hot drinks, hundreds of grateful trees and our thanks. Get to know... read more
Success again after three decades bleatin’ into submission
The local’s vehicle-free concept blew the regional council’s plans for a road bridge across Te Muri out of the estuary. It was 1986 and test drilling in the bed of the estuary had rudely reminded locals that the splendid isolation Te Muri enjoyed was about to be lost... read more