Fire station Givealittle-athon dry run for coastal trail

Solid Foundation: As with any build, an awful lot must be spent just to get above ground level, and although the building is paid for, another $150 000 is needed including $18 000 for office and kitchen essentials, and $15 000 for landscaping. image Caitlin Owston-Doyle

Mahurangi West has much to thank Pūhoi for. Historically, it was one of two watering holes achievable. Locals, on reaching the Notice Tree, would know whether to head to Pūhoi, or to Waiwera, to find the evening’s frivolities.

This year, support from the Pūhoi Community Forum played a pivotal part in convincing Auckland Council to keep Te Muri car free, which was the strategic goal of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail initiative.

The support came in the form of a bold concept for Pūhoi to form the western portal to the greater Mahurangi regional park. Park users, arriving by public transport or by car, could freely walk, cycle or horse trek into the 900-hectare regional park estate. The same route would form part of Te Araroa, the national walkway. In turn, this passion for trails has precipitated a project exploring how best a walkway–cycleway might link Pūhoi and Warkworth.

Meantime, the Mahurangi Coastal Trail project is being refined to embrace a chain-ferry alternative to the earlier plan for a nearly 300-metre-long footbridge across the sensitive landscape of the Pūhoi Estuary. Once detailed plans have been agreed upon with Auckland Council, a major fundraising programme will commence, a key part of which will be a Givealittle campaign, advised and encouraged by Adam Gard’ner and Duane Major of Buy this Beach fame.

Duane Major believes there is tremendous potential for a post-social-media version of the 24-hour telethons that were an instant success when they were introduced to Aotearoa in 1975. There is one way to find out. The Pūhoi Rural Fire Force currently has a Givealittle campaign running, to help close the gap in funding its new fire station—$150 000 will see finishing touches such as sealing the access road, landscaping and office furniture in place. So the plan is to offer a swag of rewards, large and small, as inducements to pledge during Guy Fawkes weekend.

Mahurangi West’s Best: Proprietors of all of Mahurangi West’s magnificent lodgings are gifting accommodation to reward the most generous contributors to the Pūhoi Fire Station’s Guy Fawkes weekend Givealittle-athon image Tu Ngutu Villa

Mahurangi West, in particular, has great cause to be grateful to the Pūhoi Rural Fire Force, given that it provides the first emergency response, such as when a resident collapses with a suspected heart attack. Given how congested State Highway 1 can be between Mahurangi West and Warkworth during holiday traffic, this can literally be the difference between life and death. So Mahurangi West seemed to be a fruitful place to test the concept, by approaching the purveyors of high-end accommodation. The response was unequivocal, and typified by the proprietor of Tu Ngutu Villa, overlooking Mahurangi Regional Park:

Look, those guys are magnificent!—absolutely count me in. When we had that serious fall, they were first on the scene. After stabilising the injured man, they blocked off a section of the road with their trucks for the Westpac helicopter to land.

Fundraising campaigns, theoretically, should be carefully planned over months, if not years, before being rolled out. But Buy this Beach proved that urgency can also be the friend of a successful campaign, creating a will-they-make-it-or-won’t-they buzz. During the next three weeks, the all-important mission is to line up rewards for just about every level of offering.

Nor will those 36 generous souls who have already responded to the Givealittle campaign miss out on the rewards—the total pledged by any one donor by the weekend’s end will be the qualifying amount.

A list of the rewards to date is below.