A major project for the club benefits the wider community, and this
entails constructing a pathway, Te Ara Piko Pathway, around the Pauatahanui
Inlet. The scale of this project is significant, so Plimmerton Rotary and the
Porirua City Council have been working in partnership. The pathway runs along the northern edge of the inlet through
native salt marshes and wetland habitat – a nationally important estuary.
Both
the Rotary Club of Plimmerton and Porirua City Council were recently recognised
for their work on the Te Ara Piko Pathway in the 2011 Encore Awards, co-hosted
by the Department of Conservation, Wellington Hawke’s Bay Conservancy,
Conservation Board and Greater Wellington Regional Council. The Encore Awards
honour people going the extra mile to restore, protect and enhance nature and
history, and enable others to enjoy it.
The Council has committed significant funds
to the project and several organisations, including the New Zealand Walking
Access Commission, and Trusts have also donated generously.
Club members advocated for the pathway and
acted as project ambassadors, promoting it at festivals, and establishing their
own nursery.
Councillor
Denys Latham said that the partnership between the Council and the Plimmerton
Rotary has been a successful one for many years. “I congratulate Rotary and our Leisure Assets
team for the great work they are doing. The club pushed hard for this pathway,
beginning in 2000, and the Council had to respond.”
Rotary
club members have assisted with fundraising and actively helped with revegetation
plantings along the pathway.
More photos of the progress on the walkway are
available on http://rotary.angnz.com/projects/pathway/index.htm
