More than 80 whānau and community members joined a dawn blessing last month to unveil and officially open the new pathway that connects Pā Street to Queen Victoria Street and Papakāinga at Te Āwhina Marae.

This fabulous new community asset was built with assistance from funding carried over from the former Transport Choices programme.

But there was a bonus from the construction project for the neighbouring Nature Kids Preschool who approached the construction team for CJ Industries to see if they could take the spare spoil from the excavations to build their own bike track.

The contracting team went one better and Project Manager Chris offered to build the track for them and much to the delight of the youngsters it came with a show and tell for the kids before work began.

Foreman Nathan broke ground that day by filling a little chaps’ toy dumper with the ‘bigger digger’ while Vaughan made the earth vibrate with the four-tonne roller, and Glen let the kids climb through one side of his big truck and out the other.

Members of the team then worked during their own time to get the track completed with the project using up a good chunk of the waste spoil generated by the pathway development project.