Latest news with #TeAhuATuranga
RNZ News
15-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Groundbreaking storytelling with a sculpture park you can drive through
Te Ahu a Turanga is a new $824 million 11.5-kilometre four-lane highway connecting the Lower North Island East to West. It opened this week. And not only is it an impressive bit of infrastructure, replacing the old Manawatū Gorge Road, it is, in effect an enormous sculpture park you can drive through. Through art, design, pattern and planting it places a cloak across the land, including references in sculpture to instruments of weaving. Weaving is an apt metaphor because not only is the road a connector but Te Ahu a Turanga has seen five Iwi come together for the first time, and woth Waka Kotahi its involved a roading partnership touted as a benchmark for co-design. The art itself is also a collaboration - between artists Warren Warbrick, Sandy Adsett, and James Molnar. Our Culture 101 guests Warren and Virginia Warbrick collectively call themselves Toi Warbrick. In the rohe or area of iwi Rangitāne, their passion for history and placemaking is conveyed through music, performance, writing about history and significant public art projects.
RNZ News
15-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
A monumental sculpture park you can drive through
Te Ahu a Turanga is a new $824 million 11.5-kilometre four-lane highway connecting the Lower North Island East to West. It opened this week. And not only is it an impressive bit of infrastructure, replacing the old Manawatu Gorge Road, it is, in effect an enormous sculpture park you can drive through. Through art, design, pattern and planting it places a cloak across the land, including references in sculpture to instruments of weaving.
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Te Ahu a Turanga: The story behind the art on New Zealand's newest highway
Warren Warbrick with his artwork Hine-te-Iwaiwa with the roundabout in the background. Photo: RNZ/Pokere Paewai The new Te Ahu a Turanga Highway crossing the Ruahine Ranges is bookmarked on both ends by mahi toi (artwork), by two prominent Māori artists. The first drivers [. crossed over the 11.5km four-lane highway] on Wednesday morning. It replaces the old State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge which closed in 2017 due to slips Warren Warbrick (Rangitāne) was one of three artists who worked on the project. He said it was good to see his work go from drawings on paper to computer models to finally seeing it become a reality. "For me it's not really whether I'm happy or not, it's whether our people are happy," he said. The overarching concept for all the art pieces along the road was 'he aho tangata' - 'the human threads that bind us.' On the Palmerston North end of the new highway stands one of Warbrick's sculptures made of a concrete base named Aputa ki Wairau and a metal structure named Hine-te-Iwaiwa . Hine-te-iwaiwa Photo: Supplied/NZ Transport Agency Warbrick said the metal structure represents a turuturu, or weaving peak, whose 'thread' connects with the roundabout on the other side of the highway near Woodville. "Each of the roundabouts, although they are not created to look like turuturu but they are symbolic of it, so when you have two turuturu you have a line that stretches between the two that is referred to as the aho, or the sacred thread... So what we are looking at is the idea of the roundabouts being the turuturu and the road being that sacred thread." The 12 metre high sculpture on the Woodville roundabout is named Poutahu, and was designed and created by prominent artist Sandy Adsett. Warbrick said he has known Adsett for many years and it was great to have the opportunity to work with him. "It's one thing to know him but its quite a different thing to work with him, it's been very very cool," he said. Sandy Adsett Photo: credit the NZ Arts Foundation Adsett (Ngāti Pahauwera, Ngāti Kahungunu) told RNZ there would be a lot more artwork along the highway but the soil on the either side wasn't able to hold much weight, so they shifted focus to the roundabouts, the lookout and the bridges along the highway. Adsett said the Poutahu sculpture near Woodville was based the structure of old wharenui that had a vertical pole at the centre of the whare to provide strength to the tahuhu (ridge beam). "I was learning as I went, on what could happen and of course the engineers would say 'well we could do [this] but we can't do that.' So there was a lot of discussions about the structure so it was interesting." Poutahu Photo: Supplied/NZ Transport Agency Adsett said if there was going to be artworks and sculptures on major infrastructure projects like the Ahu a Turanga highway he was glad that the imagery was specific to New Zealand. "I think that in terms of Aotearoa our imagery is specific to Aotearoa, it's indigenous, so for overseas travellers or even for our own people to see the works, I won't say it's a comfort thing, but it's a pleasure to feel as though they have the ability to stand in these prominent public places and hold their own." It will be interesting to see the response to the artwork from both Māori and non-Māori, he said. "I think the enthusiasm and the encouragement of our different iwi was one that you respected and wanted to try and offer something and hopefully... our own people will accept the works... that we were able to do." Poutahu looking west towards Te Ahu a Turanga Highway. Photo: Supplied/NZ Transport Agency
RNZ News
12-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Iwi partner with NZTA and hope future projects can follow same model
Te Ahu a Turanga Highway iwi lead Kingi Kiriona. Photo: RNZ/Pokere Paewai Iwi in Manawatū are crediting part of the success of the new Te Ahu a Turanga Highway to a partnership between them and the NZ Transport Agency and are hopeful it can be a model for future infrastructure projects. The 11.5 kilometer four-lane highway opened to the public on Wednesday, replacing the old State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge which closed in 2017 due to slips. Kingi Kiriona was the iwi lead when the highway project began five years ago. At the beginning everything was a test and there were some testing times as a result, he said. "Getting five iwi together is hard in and of itself, particularly if you know the iwi from here, and so getting everyone together at Board that was a challenge but I think a further challenge was realised when expectations were brought up at the table and there was no one within the leadership who could understand or even give effect to those expectations." For everyone involved to persevere and see the vision become a reality deserves some recognition, he said. In 2020 a target of a 30 percent Māori workforce on the project was set. "I'm proud to say that actually a year after my appointment we were able to hit that, but of course in order to hit that we needed money, we needed resource, we needed people, so it was like the give that kept on giving. We started out with a Board, then we ended up with a kaiārahi, then we ended up with the first ever iwi outcomes team for any roading project in New Zealand," Kiriona said. Having iwi on board helped to expedite a lot of things particularly when it came to consenting, he said. Kiriona said Te Ahu a Turanga could 'absolutely' be a model for future infrastructure partnerships, but it wouldn't be easy. "Every region, every iwi has their own dynamics but I'd like to think that if it can happen here it can happen in other places as well. And now that an exemplar has been realised I think there is a tauira (example) for the likes of other iwi and Waka Kotahi to follow.' Representatives of five iwi groups from both sides of the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges were involved, Rangitāne ki Manawatū, Rangitāne o Tamaki nui a rua, Ngāti Kauwhata, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Raukawa. Ngāti Kauwhata spokesperson Meihana Durie was a part of the karakia during the formal opening . It was important for all the iwi to come together to recite the karakia and get the highway off to a good start, he said. "He tauira pai pea tēnā mō ngā ara katoa o te motu nei kia kaua e haere tapatahi ki te mahi engari mē āta kōrero ki ngā iwi, ki ngā hapū. Whakaae katoa ngā iwi, ngā hapū ki te hanga o tēnei rori nō reira mātau katoa e tino harikoa ana i tēnei rā." "This project might be a good example for other roading projects around the country to not go directly into the work but to speak first with the iwi. All the iwi, the hapū (in the region) agreed to the building of this road so we are all very happy today." The Minister of Transport Chris Bishop was also present at the formal opening to cut the ribbon. He said the Government would be taking the learnings from the partnership for future projects. "I think both NZTA and local representatives said it was a bit of an experiment, but it seems to have gone really well and obviously we'll take the learnings out of this for future projects," he said. The Labour MP for Palmerston North, Tangi Utikere backed the partnership, calling it "trailblazing". "It is the first in Aotearoa, New Zealand of this extent. I've been fortunate in my roles to visit on more then a few ocassions and you can really feel the sense of partnership and commitment to what's really important here. And as people travel through this piece of highway they will not just see it but I'm sure they will experience it as well." Echoing the words of Rangitāne o Tamaki nui a rua kaumātua Manahi Paewai at the formal opening on Saturday, Kiriona said the 'true test of partnership has just begun.' "It's easy to apply a five year timeframe to a partnership and see it through in this way, but actually what happens next?"
RNZ News
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
New highway replacing Manawatu Gorge road is now open
The roads looks near completion at the Woodville end. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham The four-lane Te Ahu a Turanga highway is now open to drivers, becoming the new State Highway 3. The first commuters are now driving over the 11.5 kilometre highway that connects Ashhurst and Woodville. It replaces the old Manawatu Gorge Rd, which closed in 2017 following slips, and took five years to build. Joy Kopa from with Positively Woodville, speaks to Kathryn about what the new road will mean for the town.
