Auckland's Eke Panuku buys final 'puzzle piece' to connect Puhinui stream

Tuesday, 11 July 2023

Awa Rangers working towards reviving Puhinui Stream through pest control and replanting

The 12-kilometre stretch of Puhinui Stream will soon be fully united, after Auckland Council’s urban regeneration arm’s latest purchase of 7.6 hectares of land.

The land at 901 Great South Rd, Manurewa is a wetland and includes a length of the stream that for now is inaccessible to the public.

Eke Panuku, the council-controlled organisation focused on urban regeneration in Auckland, expects to have a seamless 3km stretch of river available to walk and cycle, between Manukau’s Hayman Park and the Auckland Botanic Gardens in five years.

Sold to Eke Panuku by Te Whatu Ora for $4.5 million, the new site will be integrated into a large, multigenerational plan to rehabiliate and regenerate the Puhinui Stream called Te Whakaoranga o te Puhinui.

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It’s been called the largest investment in south Auckland public space in nearly a decade.

This 7.6 hectare plot contains the final stretches of the Puhinui stream that is inaccessible by the public.

Eke Panuku Priority Location Director Richard Davison said the purchase has been many years of work in the making.

While Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown had tasked the agency, like other council-controlled organisations, with reducing its operating expenses in the face of a massive budget hole, he did support this investment.

“It’s great to see more parks opened and streams rehabilitated for Aucklanders to enjoy,” Brown said.

“I’m pleased to see areas in South Auckland that have previously missed out get their fair share of investment in nice spaces, which is something I support. Well done to everyone working together on this.”

Eke Panuku found $5m to save, by slowing down some urban regeneration projects in town centres, including in Manukau, Davison said, but found a way to keep this big purchase on the table.

After five years of regeneration work, it’s hoped the Puhinui stream will be a vibrant public place once again, as seen in this artists impression of the site.

“This land acquisition has been planned and budgeted for within the wider Eke Panuku budget and funding process for some time now as part of our work to transform Manukau,” he said.

“Realising the potential of the Puhinui Stream was identified in our Transform Manukau plans as one of the five key moves to bring about the scale of change and bring in much-needed private sector investment for this key southern hub.

“The restoration of this natural asset will be a great amenity for current and future residents.”

This map shows how the missing stretch of the Puhinui will help connect the stream from Hayman Park to the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Eke Panuku expects more than 3500 homes will be built in the Manukau and Wiri areas, and as such is working to fund investment in the area to the tune of $30m.

Local mana whenua Te Ākitai, Ngaati Tamaoho, and Ngaati Te Ata are members of an iwi group called Te Waiohua, southern tribes whose history in Tāmaki Makaurau goes back thousands of years.

Te Ākitai Waiohua chair Karen Wilson said the wetland is an “integral part of the Puhinui river catchment.

“Returning this land to its natural state of a healthy wetland and ngahere will help realise the intent of Te Whakaoranga o te Puhinui to return ora to the people and places of Te Puhinui.”

Councillor for Manurewa-Papakura ward, Angela Dalton said this is the largest council investment in a south Auckland public space in nearly a decade.

“The purchase of this wetland site has always been part of the vision of the Transform Manukau programme, and I am beyond thrilled that we now have this final piece of the puzzle in place.”

The site is immediately above the Manukau Superclinic.

Until the late 1960s it was all a rural area, when urban development of the Manukau City Centre began.

In 1973, the 7.6 hectare site and the land south of it was vested in the Auckland Hospital Board, and the Superclinic opened in 1997.

The project is expected to take five years, and community feedback will inform the design, including upgrading the Raataa Vine Stream Reserve, which connects to the Auckland Botanic Gardens via a motorway underpass to the east and Great South Road to the west.