Waimea Weekly
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Wednesday 5 March 2014
Relay unites thousands
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Tough start for Wheelers Page 29
White water wonder Most of the 250 plus competitors at the weekend’s Buller Festival were from out of town, but Nelson boy Tommy McDowell made sure he was up there with the best – taking out the C1 open men’s slalom. The Buller Festival is New Zealand’s premier white water event and attracted a large crowd of out-of-town competitors – including a former Olympian from the UK. The festival started off with the popular boater cross, an event which sees kayakers race together down the river. Over the course of the weekend there was also kayak and canoe slalom, rafter cross, SUP race and the classic cardboard cup, which involves making a vessel out of cardboard and tape and taking it down the river. The event is held every year and
showcases exactly why Murchison is known as the “four river plains”, with its top spots being used by hundreds of competitors over the weekend. Event spokesperson Sophia Mulder says this was no doubt the biggest weekend on the Murchison calendar, with plenty of money spent in the town. “I think this year we had a lot of people coming from further. We had a lot of international competitors and not just professional athletes but some just here for a good social time,” she says. “There was a good long queue everywhere, the Four Square was flat out, the petrol station was flat out. I don’t think they’ve sold as much bread, meat and beer as they did this weekend.”
Tommy McDowell competes in the canoe slalom at the Buller Festival over the weekend. Photo: Barry Whitnall/Shuttersport.
Development boom for region A 120-site holiday park on Lower Queen St, a $50 million lifestyle village on Wensley Rd in Richmond and a 95 lot rural residential subdivision in Wakefield are the latest developments to get the green light as the Tasman district continues to grow. Queen St Caravans and Motorhomes has already started stage one of their holiday park development which will be open in time for next summer. Ben Nevis Holdings had a resource consent for their 95 lot rural residential subdivision on Totara View
Rd, Edward St and Gossey Drive North in Wakefield signed off last Tuesday, while commissioners have approved the Olive Estate lifestyle village at 109 Wensley Rd. A resource consent for the Lower Queen St holiday park was granted last September, and co-owner Rod Yarrell says they are presently working on installing fencing and the underground cabling and water pipes. He says it has been a big job with 600 metres of trenches, 3.5 kilometres of electric cabling and 210 metres of fencing.
Simon Bloomberg
Senior reporter Reporter
simon@waimeaweekly.co.nz “We’ve already spent four months on this stage. We are powering-up 50 sites for selfcontained motorhomes and caravans and then we’ll get started on the ablution block and laundry. “We have consents for 120 sites but we’ll probably only put in around 90 so they’ll
all be a bit bigger. There’s also going to be camping sites and 12 cabins but we won’t be taking permanent residents.” The holiday park is being developed on the site of Rod and his partner Linda Manera’s business, Queen St Caravans and Motorhomes at 442 Lower Queen St and Rod says they have already been getting inquiries from prospective customers. “Demand will be huge judging by the SEE PAGE 2
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