Funding helps community track upgrade

JULIA WADE

Wanderers and walkers traipsing from a quiet suburb to Mangawhai Domain have an easier path to travel thanks to a neighbourhood group and recycled community funds.

Winding along the easement between the Domain and Spinnaker Lane, the newly-named Anchorage Community Track offers walkers an alternative route to the facility, a tranquil meander along the natural wild environ of the upper estuary with spacious views over mangrove tips towards the southern hillside of Mangawhai Road.

Maintained by The Anchorage Association Inc. (TAAI) who oversee the collection of homes along Kedge Drive, Spinnaker Lane and Halyard Way, TAAI were one of eight lucky recipients in Mangawhai Community Opportunity Shop Trust’s (MCOST) latest granting round, receiving $5000 to help upgrade a portion of the well-formed track.

TAAI committee member David Barlow says the group are thrilled about the grant.

“The TAAI identified a 107 metre section of existing roughly-formed track that needed to be made safer and easier to walk on at any time of the year,” he says.

“We are already seeing increasing numbers of people from all age brackets enjoying the easy walk around the fringes of the upper estuary and the man-made ponds which feature fish and bird life very close to suburbia.”

Due to the construction of a $17,000 concrete path, the track is now all-season with TAAI funding two-thirds of the cost and the MCOST grant making up the balance.

“It is now our aim to have the track incorporated into the Mangawhai Tracks website, administered by Gordon Hoskins, and also into various itineraries for the annual Mangawhai Walking Weekend,” Barlow says.

“TAAI wish to acknowledge the generous grant from the Mangawhai Community Opportunity Shop Trust, and we are now calling the path the Anchorage Community Track to recognise its location and part community funding from the Trust.”

TAAI currently has over 100 members, with more than half volunteering their time and energy to regularly maintain the track. The Association works similar to a body corporate and administers certain affairs of the 108 landowners in the geographical area comprising Kedge Drive, Spinnaker Lane and Halyard Way, TAAI member David Barlow says. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

A birds-eye view of the concreted section of The Anchorage Community Track, named so to recognise the funding from MCOST aka ‘The Factory’, and is now ready for walkers no matter the season, rain or shine. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

“We are already seeing increasing numbers of people from all age brackets enjoying the easy walk around the fringes of the upper estuary…”