News and media

Ripped off

• 05 Sep 2008

In May Te Araroa signed up a paper road leading away from the water's edge at the Taiharuru Estuary, north of Whangarei.

We had a legal right to do this, and bolstered our case anyway by paying for half the costs of the fence that now marks out the paper road.

From the Pataua - northern - side of the Taiharuru Estuary, a Te Araroa tramper wades the estuary at low tide, makes landfall on the south side, walks up the paper road, connects to Harambee Road, tramps up and over Te Araroa's Kauri Mountain Track, then walks on down to Ocean Beach and the Whangarei Heads.

So what's this ? Maintenance volunteer Mark Percy was doing a routine check in the area and found the TA logo and chevron that marked the entrance onto the Taiharuru paper road had been prised off, and replaced by a short, felt-tipped, knuckledragging cry.

Mark didn't have a replacement logo in his toolkit at the time, but the restitution, as it emerged with chainsaw, glue, the steady hammering in of the flatheads, and the final re-marking with felt tip, was a good strong response to the knuckledragger, we thought.