Work is planned for two areas of Wānaka’s lakefront to improve existing active transport pathways. 

A cycling path from the Wānaka jetty to the new toilet block on Mt Aspiring Road will be upgraded within the next month, funded by the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) tracks renewal budget.

Wānaka ward councillor Quentin Smith told the Wānaka App an interim upgrade was required because stage four of the Lakefront Development Plan (opposite Pembroke Park) is “a couple of years away”.

“I was concerned that we had really poor connectivity between the Dinosaur Park and stage four.”

An upgrade “will get us through the three or four years”, he said.

A pathway past the Wānaka Watersports Facility will be designed to be “intuitive” for users. PHOTO: Wānaka App

In some places the lakefront path is “just a skinny little track”, Quentin said, and the upgrade would involve scraping a wider path and gravelling the surface.

The work should be completed in the next month as it must be done in this financial year.

Simon Telfer of Active Transport Wānaka said there were 740 bike movements and more than 1,000 pedestrians on the lakeside shared path on Easter Saturday.

“As the seasons change we still have days of over 750 people biking and walking on the pathway,” he said.

“It continues to demonstrate that if we provide the community with safe, accessible, high quality walking and biking infrastructure it will get a lot of use”. 

The second area to be upgraded is the path around the Wānaka Watersports Facility and adjacent carpark, which will be formalised and rerouted.

Quentin said this was one of the key goals of a 2015 project to improve connectivity around that area. This upgrade will be funded through the Tourism Infrastructure Fund.

Active Transport Wānaka is working closely with QLDC on the design of the pathway past the Watersports Facility, Simon said. 

“Safety for people walking and biking is our number one priority as is making the design intuitive for local users and for those from out of town,” he said.

“Another focus for us is the pathway through the marina which is complex due to topography, underground services and balancing the needs of marina users with the safety of people walking and biking.”