Manawatu¯ riverside bonfire goes off
It was party time on the beach in inland Palmerston North as Awapuni celebrated the transformation of the city’s downstream river park with a bonfire, music, food trucks and marshmallows.
The Ko¯anga spring bonfire was created out of waste vegetation removed to create a tribute to Ahimate Pa in the area more recently known by locals as Waitoetoe Beach.
City council leisure assets planner Jason Pilkington said close to 1000 people turned up on Saturday night, the food trucks and sausage supplies sold out and more than 60 bags of marshmallows were toasted.
He said the evening was a celebration of the development of the park that would turn it into what he thought would be ‘‘one of the best urban wilderness spaces in the country’’.
Most of the changes were part of the council’s long-term plan to create a linear park following the Manawatu¯ River through the city, encouraging more people to find more things to do along its banks.
There is about $630,000 in council budgets for improvements at Ahimate Park, the name adopted for the former Waitoetoe Park and old gravel and concrete sites during community consultation about its development.
The agreed plan included play features such as log runs, fall nets and bike tracks, many of which had been worked on by volunteers.
At the edge of the shingle beach, vegetation had been removed, the riverside pathway had been diverted inland, and a large, grassed picnic space was taking shape at the bonfire site.
A few trees were kept and willow pods have been planted that will grow into shade igloos.
Across the river, further vegetation has been removed, opening up a view to the He Ara Kotahi pathway to Linton, and the cycle and pedestrian bridge being built over the Turitea Stream. Visits to the park were already up by 15 to 20 per cent as interest in the developing features was piqued.