Ranges track upgrades: an update

The controversial track upgrade programme in the Waitākeres is having its ups and downs, writes JADE REIDY. Storm damage to already-open tracks and Covid delays have been balanced by a $1.9m injection from the government.

The Bill Haresnape Track in Titirangi (pictured, right) reopened in August 2021 and work is now under way on the Fenceline Track and Auckland City Walk. This has been happening alongside storm repairs that temporarily closed sections of the open track network. Affected tracks included Ahuahu, Winstone, Karamatura Loop and Karamatura Camp. There was also significant damage to the recently completed Muir and Gibbons Tracks.

Auckland Council’s kauri dieback manager Lisa Tolich says the repairs have been a priority and may delay start and completion dates for the planned upgrades for Kuataika, Houghton, Zion-Hill, Buck-Taylor, LongRoad, Fairy Falls and Whatatiri over the next seven months.

On the plus side, the government’s new $1.9 million Jobs for Nature funding has created 32 full-time jobs in the Auckland region for two years, with the result that some tracks in the five-year programme may open sooner than planned. New tracks in non-kauri forested areas will also be created.

Aucklanders have paid $11.6 million to date to re-open tracks in regional parks across Tāmaki Makaurau, the bulk of them in the Waitākeres. At the end of the current track reopening programme in 2024 there will still be 46 closed tracks and nine permanently closed in the Ranges. The Council has signalled that its long-term operating expenditure will become unsustainable by then. Local Board chair Saffron Toms thinks that funding to upgrade more tracks is not at risk.

“The track work is funded by the Natural Environmental Targeted Rate and is ring fenced. The council can’t take it and spend it on anything else. The only point of negotiation is how the money is spent within that rate,” she explains. “They wouldn’t make the decision to scrap it without consulting with Aucklanders, who last time wanted that rate spent at the highest level.”

As the programme progresses, the proliferation of hard structures in the Ranges is becoming “quite extreme” she says. This comment is echoed by TrackShape principal Norm Judd, who has worked in the region’s parks for more than a decade.

“The benefits to our physical and mental wellbeing of re-accessing the tracks are being affected by walking on unending kilometres of hardened surfaces and boardwalks,” he says.

Lisa says the hard structures are required to protect kauri root systems and track design is a blend of considerations.

“Each track is assessed on a site-by-site basis,” says Lisa, “with the design methodology taking into account a number of different requirements and guidelines along with cultural and heritage considerations agreed with Te Kawerau ā Maki, and overall visitor experience.”

The Council’s precautionary approach that centres on track upgrades and cleaning stations is still being questioned by many, including Norm. “We are still no closer to understanding how to prevent kauri dieback or whether, in fact, we really need to. This joint approach was agreed in December 2018 with Te Kawerau ā Maki and promoted to an unsuspecting Auckland public in 2019 without robust science to inform us of the true behaviour of PTA.”

To find which tracks are open, contact Arataki Visitor Centre and for a scientific viewpoint on track upgrades and progress with understanding kauri dieback, see page 16.

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