Wai o Taiki Bay Residents Association

23/05/2026

Mahesh Muralidhar, National’s candidate for Tāmaki, walked Wai-o-Taiki Bay Nature Reserve with us to see the Auckland Council works now underway through the reserve.

This is a long-standing nature reserve and recognised avifauna habitat beside the Tāmaki Estuary, with existing shared paths, cycleways and accessible neighbourhood connections in place.

We raised the questions residents have been asking for months: where is the full project and funding plan, the evidenced needs case, the public consultation, and the environmental and compliance record?

Residents are also seeking clarity on whether less destructive access options were properly assessed, including better wayfinding to shared pathways, use of existing paths and lower-impact route design — and how coastal erosion risks and habitat protection have been addressed.

There is also a value-for-money question. How does $4,706,518.65 of new public spending through a nature reserve to duplicate parallel accessible pathways, stack up?

If private wastewater pipes or other infrastructure matters are part of the reason for taking this route through the reserve, where is the record showing that?

These are the questions we asked Mahesh to consider against National’s own priorities: prudent public spending, practical conservation, biodiversity, transparency and local accountability.

Thanks Mahesh for taking the time to visit, listen, and see the issue, quite literally, on the ground.

23/05/2026

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Ahem. Blush. Thank you.

So yes, we noticed the new flyer around Wai-o-Taiki Bay using some very familiar words. We love that there’s some discussion being had.

We also noticed our flyer was taken down and replaced by the new flyer. There was, and always is, room for both — and space for more than one view to sit side by side. We still hope that’s how great communities work.

The new flyer says that access and the environment are “not mutually exclusive.” We agree. That’s already true here.

That’s what makes Wai-o-Taiki Bay special: kids on bikes, people walking, prams, playgrounds, birds, mangroves, muddy shoes, shortcuts, slow walks, a picnic at the top of the nature reserve looking out over Tāmaki Estuary and along to Tāhuna Tōrea, and the last bits of wild coastal edge, all in the same place.

Access to the wild — and the very well-paved — is already here.

Our neighbourhood is wrapped in a multi-million-dollar network of shared paths, cycleways, and footpaths connecting us to Tāmaki Path, Glen Innes, the Eastern Bays, Tāhuna Tōrea Nature Reserve, nearby playgrounds, and far beyond. Fernwood Playground sits right in the middle of these existing residential and transit routes and is already publicly listed as wheelchair and pram accessible.

So there’s no debate about public access. It’s a fair question about how and why Auckland Council / Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board are progressing $4.7m of new concrete through a long-standing nature reserve and crucial avifauna habitat to enable a slightly shorter parallel route to a playground people can already access.

The flyer says the project will provide “safer, more inclusive access while protecting the environment.” That sounds lovely. We would like it to be true.

We don’t know who researched and wrote the flyer, but they seem confident about the project’s purpose, funding and environmental protections. If they have found the official public plans, ecological assessments, funding records and cost-benefit analysis showing how excavating and concreting the nature reserve protects it better than using the existing funded accessways, we sincerely invite them to share those links in the comments. We’ll happily read them. We may even print them and put them back on the nature reserve works sign.

Which is the slightly awkward bit.

The last many residents heard, this was a “Tāmaki Greenway” proposal back in 2017. It went to consultation, and the Wai-o-Taiki nature reserve path was halted by Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board after community feedback. Yet the proposal did move along — renamed, reframed, and advanced — without current residents being shown the public notification of this change, the original consultation feedback, approved plan, consistent and complete policy compliance trail, authority-to-proceed record, or evidence that the project meets Council’s requirements for prudent use of public money.

It has now re-emerged as Auckland Council’s Tāmaki Path - Stage 2: an almost $5m shovel-ready works programme already underway. Since 2017, the new resident population of Wai-o-Taiki Bay has grown significantly, and they bring their ideas, voices and needs too. Yet Auckland Council has not offered them an opportunity to review the plan, be consulted, or have their feedback considered and reflected in a final, fit-for-purpose plan that shows prudent use of public money.

Right now, Auckland Council is running an open, visible and accessible consultation process for Maybury Reserve — less than a three-minute bike ride from the nature reserve — through . Good. That’s what real public engagement looks like.

So we’re wondering: where was the community consultation process for Tāmaki Path Stage 2 through Wai-o-Taiki Bay Nature Reserve? Nine years between the only public consultation, a halted proposal, and works now underway is a long time in policy, public-land and infrastructure development.

The flyer also points people to an Auckland Council website link and says to search “Tāmaki Shared Path - Stage 2” there and on . We tried. We still couldn’t find a working public project page, approved plan, environmental assessment, funding record, or compliance trail for the nature reserve works.

If those public pages and records exist, please share the links in the comments. We’ll happily read them.

Different views are always welcome. Anonymous claims are not public records, and we’ve already asked for the records.



Auckland Council, Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board, Mayor Wayne Brown — please explain the $4,706,518.65 bill.

Speaking of bills and rates ... SpoonBill highly rates MC Hammersmith

22/05/2026

Please get along to Shaun Lee’s highly recommended exhibition, Shorebirds of the Tāmaki Estuary, at UXBRIDGE Arts.

This stunning photographic exhibition is also a public record of loss — a natural history of the Tāmaki shoreline, its mudflats, shellbanks, roosts, and the native shorebirds being displaced from the places they have depended on for thousands of years.

Shaun Lee’s images document the “sleepless shorebirds” of the Tāmaki Estuary: birds that rely on shoreline refuges and are being pushed out by repeated disturbance, development and the steady concreting of the habitat they need to survive.

“We have turned soft, open spaces into hard, closed environments. When the tide comes in, these birds literally have nowhere to sleep.”

For many Aucklanders, conservation starts with songbirds like tūī in our gardens and communities. Another avian emergency is happening on the shoreline, where vulnerable shorebirds are rapidly losing the places they feed, rest and roost.

That is what makes Wai O Taiki Bay Nature Reserve so important. This nature reserve and shoreline also support its immediate neighbour, Tahuna Tōrea Nature Reserve — These are birds without borders, moving with the tides between feeding grounds, roosts and refuges.

Auckland Council and Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board have pushed through a $4.7 million concrete transit corridor through sensitive shorebird habitat, without proper public consultation — even though existing bike lanes, cycle paths and accessible paths already connect Fernwood playground (its intended destination), to the Tāmaki Path.

Obvious ecological impacts aside, the issues also include a lack of transparency, judgement and prudent spend: why pay $4,700,000.00 to concrete through an established nature reserve when accessible connections already exist?

When we damage, rather than protect and preserve their habitat, we lose the birds and their critical role in our natural world.

Now you see them. Now you don’t.

This exhibition is sponsored by Tamaki Estuary Protection Society, whose vital work supports the protection and restoration of the estuary’s waterways, shorelines and native wildlife.

See the exhibition:
https://uxbridge.org.nz/shaun-lee-on-shorebirds-of-the-tamaki-estuary/

Learn more and support Tāmaki Estuary Protection Society:
https://teps.org.nz/

Please share — and help protect Wai O Taiki Bay Nature Reserve so future generations can enjoy the shorebirds of the Tāmaki Estuary.

Shaun Lee on Shorebirds of the Tāmaki Estuary Meet the designer behind the Shorebirds of the Tāmaki Estuary exhibition. Hear some insight into Lee’s background, his journey into conservation and the challenges facing the shorebirds in the Tāmaki Estuary. For more about the exhibition, click her...

18/05/2026

Awesome mahi from Conservation Volunteers NZ. We’d love to welcome you here, too! We need your advice on growing the shorebird habitat that’s disappearing fast through rapid transit development. We offer a mean-as morning tea, too ☺️

14/05/2026

Thank you James Christmas for coming down to Wai-o-Taiki Bay Nature Reserve and walking it with us.

We followed the old coastal path through to Tāhuna Tōrea and looked at where coastal erosion is already cutting into sandbanks and wetland habitat.

We talked about the value of unpaved wildness: places where kids can explore, people can listen to songbirds, and wildlife has room to move or rest, to sing, find food and nurture their whānau.

This is not partisan. We welcome anyone willing to come and see what is happening for themselves.

Our concerns are simple, it's not just about protecting essential habitat and wildlife; it's also about the extraordinary cost. A $4.7M concrete transit corridor is being built through this nature reserve, when shared paths already connect Tāmaki Path, Glen Innes, Tāhuna Tōrea, nearby playgrounds and reserves, and beyond.

Thanks again, James, for showing up, listening, and helping bring attention to a place so many in the community love.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and share this with friends, whānau and neighbours who care about Wai-o-Taiki Bay Nature Reserve. Scan the QR (Quacks Rock) code for more info.

12/05/2026

Today’s “progress”.
Your rates in action.
Still no clear answers.
Still no public consultation.
Still a nature reserve, for now.

Sign. Share. Ask why.
👉 https://keepwaiotaikiwild.my.canva.site/

Auckland Council, Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board, Mayor Wayne Brown, ratepayers and residents still need clear answers on why $4.7M is being spent on a transit corridor through Wai o Taiki Bay Nature Reserve when existing connections already serve the area.

12/05/2026

Spoonbill knows a good habitat (and petition) when he sees one, please sign his today | https://keepwaiotaikiwild.my.canva.site/

12/05/2026

The Hon Tama Potaka | 2026 Action for Nature plan |

The Government has set out its priorities to restore biodiversity in New Zealand and make a difference for nature, in the ‘Action for Nature’ – Implementation plan for Te Mana o te Taioao – Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy.

“Biodiversity underpins our environment, our economy, and our way of life. It connects people to place, to whakapapa, and to each other.

At the same time, nature is under pressure. Around 75 per cent of our indigenous species are at risk. Without action, we risk losing more of what makes New Zealand unique.

Action for Nature sets out a clear direction for smarter investment, stronger partnerships, and better use of information to guide decisions.

This means more native species returning to the places people live, work and visit, and making sure funding goes to projects that deliver real results."



https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2026-04/Action%20for%20nature_%20Te%20Mana%20o%20te%20Taiao%20NZ%20Biodiversity%20strategy%20implementation%20plan.pdf