An Oamaru cycling advocate is "ecstatic" work is about to start on a children’s learn-to-ride bike park at Oamaru Harbour.
Competitive cyclist, triathlete and Oamaru resident Adair Craik said Oamaru’s "cycling culture" should improve once children started to use the 720sq m bike park next to the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail terminus, and she urged Waitaki parents to embrace cycling as part of a healthy lifestyle.
"People have got lazy. We have allowed our children to sit in front of Xboxes, sit in front of TV and forgotten that they can make their own fun.
"We have forgotten how to teach them how to be kids.
"We used to bike around to get to friends’ places, we used to bike to school, we used to love to get that fresh air in our lungs."
And, importantly, children who learnt cycle safety early would start "getting parents and their grandparents aware that kids are on the road, and we need to be more accepting of sharing the road".
"Kids can teach parents how to keep cyclists safe on the road," Ms Craik said.
"Because they take the lessons home."
While the roughly $250,000 bike park north of the pedestrian rail bridge at Oamaru’s waterfront was officially a Friendly Bay Railway Bridge Restoration Trust project, it was spearheaded by Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher and Cr Melanie Tavendale after the idea was first mooted on social media two years ago.
The council committed about $130,000 to the project and approved plans for the park last year. Last month, the Otago Community Trust put $55,000 towards the project. Cr Tavendale said the learn-to-ride park would add to Oamaru’s waterfront area that was already "buzzing" and "exciting for families" and complement the town’s growing cycling focus.
"With Alps 2 Ocean, and work happening on our BMX track, and all of our downhill biking, we’ve got some really good biking options locally. And it was a real natural ‘how do we teach our young people how to be good on bikes and to enjoy the outdoors?’" she said.
Mother to children aged 3 and 5, who are both riding bikes, Cr Tavendale said her children would be excited to "zoom around" the park once it opened.
"They both love their bikes. And they can’t wait."
Mr Kircher said construction would likely be completed in two stages.
The track would be completed first; play equipment would be installed on the islands created by the track; and the second stage, a "major bit" of landscaping on the seaward side of the bike park with a seating area and wall would be completed before the track was ready for use in the new year.
Additional funding for the bike park had come from the council’s playground budget, Mr Kircher said. And some of the budget would come from "in kind" donations from contractors, including Whitestone Contracting Ltd.
However, fundraising for the project was not over.
"We’re all good to go. What I don’t want to do is say ‘we absolutely don’t need any more money’. If we get any more donations — of money, or materials, or whatever — it’s all going to be used to make it an even better facility."
