Porirua Support for Te Araroa
Red Ribbon Raiha Day
25 February 2000
Porirua Mayor Jenny Brash on the Raiha Walk
Te Araroa got its first signed-up council through-walk - the new $38,000 Raiha Walk which carries Te Araroa markers along its 1.5 kilometre length, and connects the city centre through to the Colonial Knob walkway, pointing south to Wellington.
On February 23, Mayor Jenny Brash and Te Araroa’s Trailblazer Geoff Chapple exchanged gifts then cut a red ribbon to open the new walk. Three hundred children and adults, accompanied by a council staffer with a bucket of boiled lollies, surged forward under blue skies.
They walked a dappled path, across an elegant new footbridge, past the sweeping stone steps of the former Porirua Asylum, which - since the old gothic building was jolted to oblivion by a 1942 earthquake are the Steps to Nowhere - and on down a long boardwalk. A PA system blasting out early rock ‘n roll and Maori performance songs, and a sausage sizzle, marked walk’s end at Camp Elsdon.
"If all councils on Te Araroa’s indicative Cape Reinga to Bluff route do what Porirua is doing, we can have a continuous foot trail - and we can have it soon," said Chapple.