At the time when the great Benmore dam and associated hydro-electricity generating stations and canals were being constructed in the Upper Waitaki, a unique and widely representative committee of stakeholders was formed in the early 1960s.
In those days, the New Zealand Electricity Department was led in this huge project by an engineer with wide vision, Mr Max Smith.
The Upper Waitaki hydro-electricity complex gained international awards for its imaginative and highly productive system. The late Dr Eric Stubbs (well-known Oamaru GP) and Sid Hurst (a pastoral farming leader in Lower Waitaki irrigation), as active members of the North Otago Tree Planting Association (the earliest established tree-planting group in New Zealand), came together to form the Waitaki Lakes Committee.
Parts of this story are recorded in a book written by the late Sir Arnold Nordmeyer, himself a key player in the evolution of the internationally famed New Zealand social security programme, born of a team of professionals living in the early 1930s in Kurow. The Waitaki - the river and its lakes, the land and its people (1981) has a foreword contributed by the late Allan Dick MP, himself an active member of the committee.
The primary goal was to ensure that the huge hydro-electricity complex was suitably framed with recreational and landscape amenity appropriate to the scale of introduced generating facilities. Ever since its completion, there has been a persistent challenge to install an ongoing maintenance and funding programme consistent with the initial vision.
Representatives of some of the original stakeholder groups came together recently at an annual meeting of the Waitaki Lakes Committee. They heard something of the present-day vision for the Waitaki Valley offered by the mayors of the Waitaki and Waimate districts, Alex Familton and and John Coles, together with that of the local MP, Jacqui Dean. Discussion tended to be dominated by such current issues as the replacement of the Hakataramea bridge and the planned cycleway linking Mt Cook and the ocean north of Oamaru, with much of it closely following the shoreline of the great Waitaki River. But Mr Familton had a broader vision.
Meantime, the Otago Regional Council has approved a tentative 30-year programme for an Otago transport strategy, with recommendations forwarded to Transit New Zealand, the major funding and roading highway operation agency. But when we look forward 25 years or more, there may well be other options that deserve to be examined. For example, I favour investigation into a new network of monorail systems that would provide attractive "blue ribbon" corridor connections between the key South Island tourism resorts.
An exciting asset in its own right. And I believe it is not too early to consider such an investment, which would carry the burgeoning international tourism industry on to a fresh and imaginative chapter of advance.
What you see "on the journey" is often an even more exciting experience than the resorts themselves. And a trip alongside the Upper Waitaki lakes can be an exciting experience.
The Waitaki Valley is one of the most important contributors to national wealth - renewable hydro energy, pastoral farming supported by continuing expansion in irrigation stand apart as key partners, but there is also an excellent legacy of social reform and education for a nation to be found in these parts. New Zealand today needs to build upon its export income to provide better "balance of payments" accounting performance.
The Waitaki Valley, on a per capita basis, is already making a contribution that is important not only to the welfare of Otago and South Canterbury residents but also to the standard of living sought by those living in the Auckland "super city" in the far north.
Important community-wide discussions these days are focused on the better management of our freshwater assets and rural landscapes that provide a sound setting for increasing numbers of settlers seeking quality lifestyle. With time to plan and room to grow, the forward-looking prospects for the Waitaki look attractive today.
• Jolyon Manning, of Alexandra, has been a member of the Waitaki Lakes Committee for 45 years.
