Christmas greetings to you all and we just wanted to give you a quick update on the Te Ahu Pātiki project.
Hopefully some of you will get a chance to go and explore the new Te Ahu Pātiki conservation park over the summer. You can access it via Orton Bradley Park or the Te Ara Pātaka tramping track.
If you come up from Orton Bradley Park you will find that the Mt Herbert walkway and Faulkners Track are much improved, with some great track upgrades having been carried out by Matt Coultas from ‘Graded Earth’. With the grazing stock now removed, you will see the grass is growing long, but hope you also notice in the bushed areas that small ferns and many seedlings are growing too, and the amazing regeneration showing the gorse in many places.
Fence improvements will be starting in late January carried out by Matt Latham and his team from ‘Two Boys Fencing’.
Work to legally protect the park is also happening in the background! This includes placing easements with the Walking Access Commission on all the existing walking and farm tracks and taking out a covenant to protect and restore native biodiversity with the QEII National Trust. An ecological survey will soon commence to gain an accurate picture of the biodiversity and ecosystems on the property.
We are grateful to all the public who have donated to help set up the park, and to Christchurch City Council Biodiversity Fund, Walking Access Enhanced Access Fund and ECAN Zone Priority Fund who have also committed grants toward the work.
Te Ahu Pātiki will ultimately come under the management of a new Trust comprising of members from the three partner organisations, Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke, Orton Bradley Park Trust and Rod Donald Banks Peninsula Trust. Things are progressing well for this to be set up and put into place in 2022.
As you can see there are many strands to this project but they are all starting to fall into place. We are so grateful to all of our supporters for making this project possible, and a huge thanks also to our Trustees for the hard work they have all put in this year!
Meri Kirihimete from the Rod Donald Banks Peninsula Trust