Far North Support for Te Araroa
Gimme shelter (and long drops)
22 May 2001
The Far North District Council has granted $14,660 to build shelters and long drop loos on Te Araroa’s proposed 120-km Ocean to Ocean Trail from Ahipara to Kerikeri.
FNDC Mayor Yvonne Sharp, a core member of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs, said the allocation had gone into the Council’s draft annual plan.
“The trail is a great initiative, and I totally support it. We’re looking forward to working with the Community Business and Environment Centre in Kaitaia, DOC and WINZ to see if we can leverage employment, and to encourage community ownership of the trail.”
Exact location of the shelters will be discussed with Northland DOC, who wanted the facilities placed where tramping times in two DOC-run forests exceeded eight hours.
The shelters have fresh-water collection tanks, and will be snugged into ridge sites within the Herekino and Raetea Forests. No timetable has yet been set for construction of the tramping stopovers.
The Te Araroa shelter, costed at just $3,580, was designed by architect Nigel Cook. It's a roofed 6m x 6m structure with just two walls - a back wall and one interior wall of 15mm exterior ply that extends 3 metres at right angles out from the middle of the back wall. This gives a double "extended verandah" design. The shelter will have its back to the prevailing weather, but if the wind changes, one side or the other of the 3m interior wall will provide shelter in bad weather.