A zipline over the old quarry at Cape Wanbrow has captured the imagination of some in the community since the winter of 2015, when the idea was first floated by Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher.
Last week a member of the Oamaru Adventure Park group backing the idea, Select Contracts regional director Darron Charity, said the development team was continuing its "due diligence" on the proposed attraction.
"There are many stakeholders to engage with and listen to at the early stages of any project and this project is no exception.
"We believe extra time spent now on due care and mitigation strategies will result in a higher chance of successfully getting the project through planning approvals and into construction," he said in an emailed response to the Otago Daily Times.
"Pending a successful application, the tourism attraction could be operational by summer 2018-19."
The Waitaki District Council’s 69-page Oamaru Adventure Park Market Summary and Design report, released in November last year, showing a zipline starting above the quarry, travelling over the Oamaru Harbour and landing on the historic breakwater was created by Select Contracts to attract investment in the harbour.
But Oamaru Adventure Park Ltd director Greg Martin told the ODT earlier this year the group had yet to settle on a design. Not everyone was pleased with the initial proposal. This winter several conservation groups, including BirdLife Australia’s Australasian Seabird Group and Forest & Bird, spoke against compromising Oamaru’s "spectacular" and "nationally important space for seabirds".
Especially at risk were the rare endemic Otago shags nesting on the closed Sumpter Wharf in the harbour, they said.
