Fiordland Community Board news, August 2024

Kia ora and hello again to all the fabulous folk of Fiordland.

This is issue three of Community Board News, intended to keep you in the loop of the work of your Fiordland Community Board.

If you take the time to read these, thank you, it would be good to get some feedback about whether this type of communication is helpful.

Getting to know your community board – Kate Norris

In the summer of 1998, I moved to Fiordland for my first job on the Milford Track, and I've never looked back. Te Anau is now my beloved home, where I’m raising my four children, aged 10 to 20 years, and running a tourism business, Trips & Tramps.

This community is incredible – so supportive and full of positive energy. I love being part of it, and feel so fortunate to have a World Heritage Area right in our backyard. I’m passionate about sustainability and making sure our community stays a fantastic place to live.

Being a long-term local, I understand the unique challenges and opportunities we face with our blend of conservation, tourism, and agriculture. I am dedicated to supporting our locals by actively listening and advocating for their needs. My goal is to create a thriving environment where residents and visitors can prosper and enjoy everything on offer. I believe together, we can navigate challenges and seize opportunities to make Fiordland an even better place to live and play!

Te Anau Basin Development Plan

After 10 months of multi-pronged consultation and idea gathering, the Fiordland community got the chance to view key proposed projects and future development concepts in the Draft Te Anau Basin Development Plan at walk-in sessions held at the Distinction Lakefront on Saturday and Sunday 17 and 18 August.  

The walk-in sessions were well attended, with 135 people visiting across both days.  All the feedback will be collated and reviewed before the release of the finalised plan, which will be launched in the coming weeks.

Once this is done, we can move on to actioning some of the priorities and projects that the community has identified as important through this process.  There will be further communication and opportunities to provide feedback on each of the projects as they progress.

Playgrounds

Although the Te Anau Basin Development Plan has not yet been finalised, we have heard loud and clear from families and local children that they want improved play and recreation options from Southland District Council.

Thanks to the amazing Council staff putting in a great application for us, Fiordland has secured $360,000 in funding from the Better Off Fund run by central government for the refurbishment of existing playgrounds.

After a period of public engagement, Manapouri’s Village Green playground has been the first to benefit with new goalposts, a shed for equipment and other pieces of permanent play equipment installed.  The official opening was held last month with over 100 children and adults attending and celebrating this cool play space.

Work is being done on planning a nature play space for the Henry Street Playground. There was a public survey and community information collected by engaging with local residents, parents, a teacher and children to plan what will be Council’s first nature play playground.  I’m very excited about what I’ve seen and heard so far and it really makes me wish I was six again! More information about the proposed playground will be shared in the next few weeks.

Lions Park will be the next playground to get a facelift.  There are a number of ageing pieces of equipment that have served our community very well over a number of decades, but they are getting rusty, brittle and mouldy beyond safe and economically sensible maintenance levels.   The Better Off Funding gives us the opportunity to make Lions Park a really amazing playground, rich with different play experiences to build young minds and bodies.  We’ll be looking for members of the public to help us decide on the final concepts for this, so watch out for communications in that space.

Te Anau Airport Manapōuri

Leases: Lease interest continues to grow for the existing site lease spaces and café leases.

Guidelines and Expressions of Interest (EOI) documents have been prepared by Great South and are awaiting the governance group’s review and approval of these in the next couple of weeks.  Although this hasn’t been fully tested there appears to be early interest in the building of hangar homes and further commercial hangars. A lack of progress in updating existing leases and advancing new lease inquiries is the single most significant risk to the project and is currently a priority focus for the Governance Group and Council.

Infrastructure: Water quality at the airport site is now confirmed as potable and a six-week in-system water-testing regime is in place. Sewerage treatment at the onsite system has been confirmed as adequate to meet immediate effluent treatment needs for the day-to-day airport operations. Both water and sewerage connections to the Manapōuri schemes are planned for the 2026/2027 financial year, subject to final design and necessary approvals.

Runway and terminal: A review of the runway and aircraft apron condition has been completed, including the evaluation of friction and Benkelman beam testing. Projected draft capital budgets have been developed.  

An assessment had been completed to identify capital and maintenance requirements in the terminal and these have identified both considerable operational savings and cost-effective capital investments that will improve operational aspects of the terminal.

 The airport designation indicated that this was due to lapse in 2025. This has been reviewed and while the designation does have a lapse date of 16 May 2025 the District Plan does not stipulate a lapse date for the designation and therefore the designation will continue in perpetuity as the District Plan takes precedence.

Event/s strategy: Work is under way and we’ll have more information available at a later date.

Community Partnership Grants

At our June meeting we approved the following grants for these awesome community groups, all run by amazing volunteers, doing what they can to make Fiordland a better place to live, work and play in.

We’re really pleased to be able to support such a diverse range of community groups and projects.

Matariki pou

This is not a Fiordland Community Board project, but we really want to give a shout out to the people involved in developing the series of pou (artworks) celebrating Matariki that create a wayfinding experience throughout Southland.

The idea is that travellers can journey from one town to the next to see the works and read the stories of the area and how the stars relate to the landscape.

The structures, created by artists Steve Solomon, Keri Whaitiri and James York, are a joint project between Southland District Council, Te Ao Mārama and iwi.

Each pou represents one of the prominent stars in the Matariki cluster and also the star Puaka.  The Te Anau pou looks amazing and can be located by following the road beyond the boat club until you’re in front of the rodeo grounds.  There will be an official opening advertised soon.

In conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed getting this update. Remember you can let Southland District Council know if you see any issues with Council services or parks by phoning 0800 732 732 or using the Antenno app to report it. If you want to discuss anything in the newsletter I’m available by phone on 027 924 0557, or you can pop into the RDP service station and say “gidday” 7am-3pm most days.

Cheers,

Diane Holmes

Fiordland Community Board chair