News and media
Wanaka link
.jpg)
In case you wondered, the photograph on our banner was taken by Gilbert van Reenen, vet, tramper, Te Araroa Otago Trustee, and one of this country’s best lensmen. Otago blue, Otago brown, Otago reflected upside down. Kilometre-high glaciers once pushed into the Wanaka basin, and melted back into this shining lake. Wanaka township – not quite visible in the gap to the left of the picture - lies on glacial till along the most distant shore, at the foot of those two moutonnes.
And around this same shoreline comes Te Araroa. The Wanaka Community Board has just approved the calling of tenders for a 5-km track from Damper Bay to Glendhu Bay. The Queenstown Lakes District Council is contributing $130,000 this year, the Department of Conservation $40,000, and the Upper Clutha Tramping Club $6,500. The project manager is Mark Symons. The total budget is $400,000, and the estimated shortfall of $223,500 into 2009-10 is underwritten by an allocation in the QLDC’s community plan. Te Araroa Trust ally, the Upper Clutha Trails Trust, has also said it’ll help raise remaining funds –
The Google Earth map shows the lake with Te Araroa’s line GPSed onto it -
.jpg)
Red is track that's open. Turquoise is track with legal ROW, but still to be completed. Purple is bypass meantime along an existing roadway. In year 2000 the Otago Regional Council extended the existing track around the western side of the lake by building the Millennium Track (A-B). Last year the ORC budgeted $180,000 for a Millennium Track extension to Damper Bay (B-C). The earthworks consents are now in place for the B-C work. The track just given sign-off by the Wanaka Community Board and funded substantially by QLDC and DoC runs from Damper Bay to Glendhu Bay (C-D). The Motatapu Track begins at E, headed south. The track section B-D is the last unfinished section in the 58-km Te Araroa route from Wanaka to Arrowtown.
