The Wānaka Upper Clutha Community Board has agreed to rename the town’s Millennium Path ‘Te Ara Maumahara’, which means ‘memory path’.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) proposed to rename the path to recognise the pathway’s original legacy and “celebrate its revitalised focus based on an improved explanation of human history, cultural inclusion, and enhanced relevance to local history”.

Councillor Lyal Cocks spoke against the proposed name change, saying “even though the path and tiles have been improved and altered, it is still our Millennium Path and should be named that”.

The Upper Clutha community got behind the project to recognise the millennium just after the 1999 floods during which Wānaka took a hit, Lyal said.

“The project was quite uplifting for the community. Many contributed in a variety of ways and many businesses invested.

A council working group updated the content of the original tiles.

“While I acknowledge and respect council’s intention to reinstate Kai Tahu’s ‘footprints in the landscape’, there needs to be some balance and we don’t need to do it with the name of this historic pathway, especially as there is now a Māori memory map and new tiles recording mana whenua history in this area, included in the improved pathway.”

Board member Barry Bruce said while there was “a lot of passion” relating to the Millennium Path, the board also had “a duty to honour the long term history of our area”.

“We have future proofed it,” he said.

QLDC parks and open spaces manager Maddy Dowman said the council appointed working group, which was established in 2020 to advise on the pathway, had agreed to the new Māori name “and were happy with it”.

However, Liz Hall, a member of that working group and one of the original organisers of the Millennium Path, told the Wānaka App the working group was not told of the proposed name.

“I definitely think more Māori information should have been put on the path,” she said.

“But I also think the Millennium Project is a piece of history in itself for this town. 

“There just seems to be an attitude around Wānaka that we don’t preserve historical stuff anymore.”

Liz said the council failed to look after the pathway, the council mower damaged tiles, and eventually the tiles “did look terrible and they did need to be replaced”.

“Seeing they’ve changed it all you can hardly call it the Millennium Path anymore.”

She said she was not the only local disappointed with the history lost along with the original tiles.

“Lots of people have asked for copies of their tiles”, she said, adding that if people wanted copies she could provide them.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App