New Otaki River walkway opens

Posted on 11 December 2006

Cr Chris Turver and Max Lutz cutting the ribbon opening the Otaki River wal

The new highway to sea walkway on the Otaki River opened on Sunday 3rd December.  The 3.5 km walkway is starts at the highway near Winstone’s shingle crushing plant, and runs along the top of the stopbank to the estuary at the river mouth. 

The sun was shining as over 100 people turned out for the official opening of the walkway, with speeches from Friends chairman Max Lutz, GW’s Kapiti Councillor Chris Turver, Kapiti Coast District Council Mayor Alan Milne, Otaki Community Board chairman Andre Baker and a Maori blessing by Reverend Hira Royal took place with water taken from the Otaki River. 

The walkway has been created by Greater Wellington and the Friends of the Otaki River group, and they expect to carry out some more environmental beautification planting in the years to come to make it an attractive recreational area.  It is expected to become even more popular with walkers and dog owners. 

	People at the opening of the Otaki River walkway

Councillor Chris Turver said “As part of our flood protection programme we support and fund environmental enhancement programmes and the northern stopbank between the main highway and the estuary is a natural beautification site.” He also said that there are few walkways on the Otaki River as it is still very wild and there is still work in progress to protect lives and property from flood waters.

After the opening ribbon was cut by Councillor Chris Turver and Max Lutz, everyone had the opportunity to enjoy a sausage from the barbeque provided by the Otaki Recreational Fishing Club, and stroll down the walkway to the sea.  Graeme Campbell, Flood Protection Manager at Greater Wellington, said “It’s great to see such a good turnout for the opening of the river walk; it shows there is a lot of local support for areas such as this.”