The project team led by AECOM on behalf of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) picked up a best practice award for environmental sustainability at this year’s New Zealand Roading Excellence Awards, with the judge’s commenting that the project:

“Demonstrates what can be achieved when all stakeholders pool resources and work together to achieve a sustainable community supported outcome.”

Te Rerenga Wairua - and the project to renew it - has had a high public profile from the very beginning of the project, with a large number of significant stakeholders. As such, community consultation and involvement was a high priority for AECOM, NZTA and DOC. The project is a clear illustration to the sector of the benefits of instigating a detailed, engaging community consultation programme at a project’s inception.  

A ‘project control group’ that included all of the key stakeholders was established by DOC in the initial stages of the project. This enabled consultant’s AECOM to proceed with full community buy-in at each stage of the project. The project control group included representatives from DOC, Enterprise Northland, Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri who were charged with assisting the management of the project and providing local information and advice.

From the outset, the project team looked to collaborate with local iwi Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri to ensure the best outcome for both the environment and the culture of the local people. This initiative has gone along way towards restoring the Government’s relationship with these iwi.

The area holds important cultural and spiritual prominence to not only local iwi, but all Maori, as the departure place of the spirits as they travel along Te Ara Wairua (the spirits’ pathway) on their final journey to Hawaiiki. It’s also one of New Zealand’s top tourist destinations, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Previously, visitor facilities including roads, toilets and car parking were inappropriately located on an area considered sacred to Maori. They were also inadequate for the volume of traffic and visitors to the site. Scars remained in the ground from buildings that had previously been removed, affecting the visual appearance of Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga).

Working closely with the community

In order to get the local community involved with the project, a planting day was organised on Arbor Day to celebrate the start of planting on the site. This brought project ownership and a real sense of pride to the local people.

Children from New Zealand’s northernmost schools: Waiharara, Pukenui, Ngataki, Te Kao and Te Hapua planted 100 pohutukawa trees together with kaumatua of Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri, teachers, parents and grandparents. The children were given the native plants prior to the day and had nurtured and grown them in preparation for the event.

This innovative project is the first in New Zealand where training and work experience for local people was a condition in the contract. As a result, more than 20 locals were employed in the construction and revegetation programmes.

Te Hapua resident Phillipa Evans, who graduated from an apprenticeship scheme to work on the project, says: “I never thought in a million years I’d be driving a roller. I used to think, how am I going to drive this? But practice makes perfect.”.

Local workers were hired to lay more than 17,000 square metres of coconut matting used as erosion control measures on the steep slopes. They also hand-picked thousands of native seeds used to propagate the hundreds of thousands of native plants that have been used to revegetate the area.

As part of the revegetation programme, AECOM and the NZTA supported a Northland Polytechnic / DOC / iwi initiative to establish a purpose-built, fees free NZQA accredited horticultural nursery. Over 500,000 plants, including 17 targeted native species, have been propagated and used to revegetate the area. Once the revegetation programme is complete the nursery will function as a commercial operation in its own right.

Nursery Manager, Wayne Petera of Ngati Kuri says: “This project is already acting as a positive catalyst for development by others in the community who are leveraging off this initiative to further improve visitor facilities and experiences. We also have small businesses positioning themselves to gain better access to visitors and to improve the quality of the environment.”

The concept of creating a purpose-built nursery from seeds collected in the area to combat the environment’s unique issues is an innovative idea that helped save over $500,000 and employ and up-skill many local people in the process.

In the long-term the project will continue to provide job opportunities for the people of the far north. Visitor numbers are expected to increase by about 5 per cent each year, in part due to reducing tourists’ heavy reliance on tour bus transportation. The increase in free independent travellers will increase tourists’ length of stay and average spend, generating further economic benefits for the region.

The provision of work experience and training for local people has had a number of positive benefits. The resulting feeling of ownership by the local community has meant there has been almost no vandalism or theft from the site. This project also helped to overcome a severe lack of skilled resources and has clearly demonstrated to the wider industry that this type of community involvement not only works, but can add real value to a project.

This project has future-proofed Te Rerenga Wairua for the continuing growth in tourist numbers. But at the same time, it has ensured that the cultural and natural significance of the site is respected and protected. AECOM’s innovations have proven to be highly effective on this challenging site and the general public will be largely unaware of the major site works that were carried out to achieve these results. In fact, the environment has been returned to a much healthier and more natural state than before the project started.