Trackies renew Breve Street walkway

17 Oct, 2022

JULIA WADE

Armed with spades, tools and wheelbarrows of grit and determination, Mangawhai’s awesome gang of track-makers recently re-established a local favourite path which had become lost to stormy waters.

Members of Mangawhai Tracks Charitable Trust [MTCT] colloquially known as the ‘Trackies”, have been teaming up on regular Friday mornings to work on Breve Street’s walkway, a track linking the short cul-de-sac lane off Moir Point Road, to the estuary.

After successful lobbying by Adele Mangnall of Piroa-Brynderwyn Landcare Group, Kaipara District Council [KDC] asked the Trackies to undertake the work in return for a grant, which MTCT chair Gordon Hosking says would naturally be immediately invested into another of their community projects.

“Council was aware locals were concerned at this loss of access and had been agitating for some time for its reconstruction so we enthusiastically accepted the job. Breve St had suffered extensive damage from stormwater especially at its lower reaches where the track was essentially along the bottom of the gully leading down to the harbour,” he says. “We’ve completely realigned the track higher up on the southern side of the gully, extending it south along the face above harbour with resulting spectacular views.”

The work involved safety work such as benching (excavating sides to form one or more horizontal steps) and significant shoring up of the sandy embankment both above and below the track before the new surface was compacted and metaled, Gordon says.

“The entry from Breve Street was re-established to a safer position and fences constructed to give safe access and the original steps in the upper part of the track were replaced and widened and a handrail installed along much of its length,” he says. “At a prominent viewpoint beneath a very large pohutukawa a bench seat was installed. The result is the transformation of a washed-out gully track into a delightful walk in its own right as well as assured access once again to our harbour.”

PHOTOS/JOEL CAYFORD