The Upper Clutha Tracks Trust (UCTT) is making progress on its two track projects along the Hāwea River.

The local charitable trust has received resource consent for a new 4.8km public walking and cycling track on the true right bank of the river, stretching from the Hāwea Dam to Camphill Road.

The track will be of a simpler standard than the Hāwea River Track on the opposite side of the river, UCTT treasurer John Wellington told the Wānaka App.

It will be similar to the Clutha River tracks “where you have the wider, easier track on the right, with the Upper Clutha River Track, and the slightly simpler Newcastle Track on the left”, he said.

The UCTT is also planning to upgrade a well-worn section of the Hāwea River Track between Butterfields Reserve and Camphill Road to bring it up to “commuter standard,” John said.

The cost of the two projects is estimated at around $390,000 and the UCTT has around half of that so far, with support from Otago Community Trust and Queenstown Lakes District Council, plus a six figure contribution from the trust’s own reserves.

Funding applications have also been lodged with the Lotteries Commission and Central Lakes Trust, which UCTT hopes to hear back on in June.

If everything goes to plan, John said he hopes construction of the track could begin later this year.

“We’d like to finish it by the end of next summer and, if it could be earlier, that would be even better.”

The Upper Clutha Tracks Trust (UCTT), formed in 2006, has brought around 95km of local trails and 20 individual tracks to fruition.

It is because of the work of its volunteer trustees that residents and visitors can now cycle or walk all the way from John Creek at Lake Hāwea through to Wānaka and beyond to Glendhu Bay or Luggate and beyond.

While the trust’s ideas are limitless/endless, its work is slowed down by funding limitations, and to that end it has created a Friends of the Trust Supporters group, which costs $35 per year.

“We are urging people who use the tracks to sign up for it if they can,” John said. “The more people actively supporting us that way, the more we can do.”

Sign up here.

PHOTO: Supplied