Wilson Road Community Site 

On July 25th, we opened the Wilson Road Taiari/Taieri river access site on farmland owned by the Winmill family. The Winmill family, who farm at Rotherwood, have been incredibly generous with their desire to open up this site to public access. “We didn't approach them and ask them for public access,” says Caitlin Daley, Tiaki Maniototo’s project manager. “They approached us saying they had this area and they wanted to allow the public in there.”

 

Tiaki Maniototo has worked closely with the Winmill family and Herenga ā Nuku (the Outdoor Access Commission) to develop this site, creating signage and planting out the area in flood-tolerant natives. Herenga ā Nuku funded the signs. 

 

Amie Pont of Herenga ā Nuku has been involved in the project since its inception. “Most of our mahi for this project has been to work with the group in advising what the tenure of land is,” she says. “But in this instance it was great to be able to offer the landholders our Walking Access Easement instrument, creating public access in perpetuity so it is secure for generations to come. The easement has enabled the Winmills to be quite specific in how it can be accessed (such as allowing dogs under control but no firearms) while encouraging safe access to the Taieri / Taiari.”

 

Nina Winmill says her young family have enjoyed many adventures down at the river, and they wanted the public to be able to share this special place too. “It's a really cool area,” she says, “There's a lot of wildlife down here, and it's an area of land we're not using. It would be great to get some families down here, having a look at the planting that's been done, and going for a walk”.

 

For Caitlin, having the opportunity to open up a site like this, only about 15 minutes’s drive from Ranfurly, is a major win for the community and for our project  “The Taiari scroll plain doesn't have a huge amount of public access,” she says. “I think it's really important that the community does have access to the river to learn more about it.”

 

 “It's one thing to be able to talk about these places and tell people about them, but it's a completely different thing for people to be able to experience them for themselves.”

 

Many of the native plants have been put in by locals on one of our community planting days. The students of St Johns School have visited twice, putting hundreds of plants in on each occasion. 

 

The site features a short walk that leads visitors from a parking area to a small oxbow lake near the river.. The hope is that in time, the site will become a rich spot for birdlife.