TECT All Terrain Park Wins Top Honour

Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Tauranga City Council won the New Zealand Recreation Association’s (NZRA) 2011 Outstanding Park Award for their collaboration on the TECT All Terrain Park at Thursday night’s NZRA annual awards ceremony.

Located half way between Tauranga and Rotorua, the 1,640 hectare adventure playground was designed to meet both the requirements for a sub-regional park as well as an area to accommodate displaced or burgeoning recreation groups away from residential areas.

TECT is a one of a kind park in terms of size, diversity of terrain and its scope to host both motorised and non-motorised recreation activities.

“In addition to providing local residents with a fantastic resource, the park has engaged the community at many levels and continues to do so,” said NZRA Chief Executive Andrew Leslie. The park has been supported by local businesses and volunteers who have given thousands of hours.

Leslie commented that the judging panel were most impressed with Councils’ ability to take multiple, and sometimes conflicting, use and make it work. “A wide range of user groups with seemingly incompatible activities have found a win-win situation. The project is innovative and collaborative with strong management,” he added.

The NZRA Outstanding Awards were presented during NZRA’s annual conference awards dinner, which was held at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium. Recreation professionals from all around the country attended the conference, entitled “Recreation – we’ve got it covered”, which focussed on high level strategy, development, policy, and planning topics relevant to and across the range of sectors that make up the recreation industry. The key areas of this year's conference were: access, research, health, the impact of natural disasters and the future of the recreation industry.

“Recreation is essential to our physical and mental wellbeing,” said Leslie. “We are fortunate in New Zealand to have access to great outdoor parks and reserves, we have modern recreation facilities and a dedicated group of professionals who are committed to delivering innovative, safe, appropriate and entertaining recreational services.

“The awards are about thanking those people, and recognising those among them who raise the bar, develop original solutions and inspire New Zealanders to get active and healthy,” he said.

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