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Regional parks – from zero to heroic 28 in 50 years

But in that time the population tripled, and there’s no budget for future acquisitions
Giselles and Gabrielles of their grandchildren

Giselles and Gabrielles of their grandchildren

That, in modern meteorological history, Aotearoa has never been hit by a tropical cyclone, is no fluke. The clue, of course, is “tropical”. Not that a tropical cyclone can’t survive beyond the tropics, or even beyond the subtopics—Gabrielle was in the subtropics within a couple of…

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Hungry-Creek-Road-first policy right for the wrong reasons

Hungry-Creek-Road-first policy right for the wrong reasons

Prioritising private-light-vehicle access via Hungry Creek Road, ahead of a footbridge across Te Muri Estuary, is counter-productive policy making, fundamentally incompatible with Auckland Council’s own declared climate emergency. Fortunately, the tens of millions that would be…

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Coastal path and the greater Mahurangi regional park

Coastal path and the greater Mahurangi regional park

Wenderholm, objectively, was where it started. While the 1729-hectare Centennial Memorial Park established in 1940 is recorded as Auckland’s first regional park, Wenderholm was the first of a half-century of regional parkland acquisitions that resulted in today’s 41 000-hectare…

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Te Muri, the Mahurangi Coastal Path, and previous trials

Te Muri, the Mahurangi Coastal Path, and previous trials

From day one, preserving the sense of splendid isolation that is Te Muri, was the mission of the Mahurangi Coastal Path. Since its 1973 purchase as regional parkland, Mahurangi West locals had the run of Te Muri, or at least the coastal margin of Te Muri that was compulsorily…

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Splendid summer to protect Te Muri sense of isolation

Splendid summer to protect Te Muri sense of isolation

Already three years behind in its 10-year review, the draft regional parks management plan is now not due to be approved for release until November. Submissions on the monumental—the current document runs to 504 pages—and monumentally important…

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Te Muri Crossing coffee-and-croissants drop-in day

Te Muri Crossing coffee-and-croissants drop-in day

Te Muri Crossing high tea 2022, will be on Mother’s Day. Mothers who were treated to Sunday’ high tea at Tu Ngutu Villa clearly enjoyed the afternoon, the star-studded speakers, and the silent auction. The silent auction, after initially having nothing not on offer at the…

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Te Muri Crossing high-tea silent auction online

Te Muri Crossing high-tea silent auction online

Generous Friends of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail: The design and consenting of this 260-metre boardwalk-and-footbridge Te Muri Crossing is what your bids will help to complete. Because some of the best friends of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail were unable to be present…

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Grand start to greater Mahurangi coastal path

Grand start to greater Mahurangi coastal path

Even Conservative-led England has its England Coast Path. A coastal pathway from Waiwera to Waipū, Whangārei or anywhere, once built, will seem the most obvious, and most marvellously magnificent thing in the world. Coastal urban Tāmaki Makaurau can…

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Imperative for private-vehicle-free Te Muri future

Imperative for private-vehicle-free Te Muri future

Not everyone supports the proposed Te Muri crossing. Nor does everyone who supports the proposed Te Muri crossing, support every aspect of it. For example, many Mahurangi West people would have preferred that development of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail began…

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Regional parks review round-1 feedback deadline extended

Regional parks review round-1 feedback deadline extended

Round one of Auckland Council’s 10-year regional parks management plan review began 1 September. It was to end next Monday afternoon, close of play, but has been extended to 26 October. The 12 October date continued to appear in the discussion paper linked, but has...

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Tidal-river power and grid electricity

Tidal-river power and grid electricity

Most public transport in Aotearoa is fossil-fuel powered. But that would not excuse the key component of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail, the ferry, being fossil-fuelled. Fortuitously, as described in Minimum Impact 100% River-Powered, a fossil-fuel-free…

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Mahurangi Action president’s report

Mahurangi Action president’s report

The planned fivefold increase in population of its tidehead town is critical to the future of the Mahurangi watershed. If, within a couple of decades, a town of more than 20 000 has an attractive, swimmable river as the hero element of a broad linear…

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Region survives serial secessionism

Region survives serial secessionism

Serial attempts to turn the clock back six decades have failed, and deservedly. For without regional governance, Aucklanders would be much the poorer, for example, 27 sublime regional parks poorer. It would also lack a cohesive planning mechanism to cope with…

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Coastal trail and the river-mouth ferry

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 Pūhoi River revisited

Criteria for crossing Pūhoi River revisited

The principal objective of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail is to provide primary access to Te Muri. Based on vehicle counts, Wenderholm Regional Park receives an estimated 225 362 visitors per year, and Mahurangi Regional Park 59 595. It is probable…

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Criteria for non-footbridge crossing

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…

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Car-free Te Muri with coastal trail no mirage

Car-free Te Muri with coastal trail 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…

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Convince the commissioners and Te Muri car-free forever

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…

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Garnering major help to connect this coast

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…

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Future is increasingly self-funding regional parks

Future is 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…

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