Bridge opened in memory of two Golden Bay locals
Two Golden Bay locals were remembered during the opening ceremony for a new cycle and walkway.
The Christine Pullar bridge over the Motupipi river near Tākaka was officially opened yesterday in an afternoon unveiling ceremony, after being open for use for twoand-a-half weeks.
The bridge was named for cycling advocate Christine Pullar who died in April. Built as a cycle and walkway separate from Motupipi Bridge, it forms part of the cycleway from Tākaka to Pōhara.
During the ceremony, a plaque memorialising nine-year-old Robin Snelling was unveiled. Snelling died in September 1993 when he was hit by a car on the bridge.
The ceremony saw students from Snelling’s former school, Motupipi School, perform a short song in his memory.
Members of Snelling’s family were in attendance, as well as representatives from Tasman District Council, local iwi, and the Golden Bay Cycle and Walkways Society.
Golden Bay Cycle and Walkways Society chairperson Axel Downard-Wilke said the ceremony was ‘‘awesome’’ and had a high turn out of Golden Bay residents.
During the ceremony, the new bridge and its plaque were both blessed, with people
‘‘The world lost a really good brain at the same time. Who knows what he might have achieved... He was a great kid.’’
Helen Rhodes about her son, Robin Snelling
invited to touch the plaque as they walked past. The cycleway had been open for twoand-a-half weeks so far. It was already seeing a sizeable amount of use from local cyclists and walkers.
Downard-Wilke said Pullar would have been ‘‘thrilled’’ with the bridge’s opening. In her role as the chair of the Golden Bay Cycle and Walkways Society, Pullar had fought hard for the bridge to be built, and had spearheaded the campaign for its funding.
In an interview with Stuff before she died, Pullar said that pedestrians and cyclists using the popular cycleway had been forced to walk or cycle on Motupipi bridge, which was ‘‘extremely dangerous.’’
An energetic, community minded person,
the naming of the bridge was dedicated to Pullar’s memory.
Snelling’s mother, Helen Rhodes, said she had contacted Golden Bay Cycle and Walkways Society and asked them if they could place a plaque memorialising Snelling on the new cycleway.
The group had no idea that a boy had been killed on the bridge. As it had happened 30 years ago, there weren’t many people still in Golden Bay who remembered the tragedy.
Snelling had been a ‘‘typical country kid’’ who loved being outdoors and in his gumboots. The nine-year-old had a talent for engineering, and from a young age had been taking apart engines to see how they worked. Rhodes had been told on multiple occasions by his teachers that Snelling was in the top percentile of students. There had been plans to test him for his high IQ. ‘‘The world lost a really good brain at the same time. Who knows what he might have achieved... He was a great kid.’’
Snelling had been watching whitebait fishermen at work in the Motupipi river after school when he was hit by a car while crossing the road, which had a 100kph speed limit then.
Rhodes said the new cycleway was a ‘‘kind of closure’’ for her family, in knowing children and cyclists were safe from the cars on the bridge.