Well-known New Zealand architect Chris Kelly can't wait to begin designing a new visitor and education centre for what he suggests is Hawke's Bay's "most loved mountain".
"When you see Te Mata Peak, you know you have arrived in Hawke's Bay. And when someone comes into town as a visitor, there is a mountain, Te Mata Peak, where you can take them to experience the story about your region."
Mr Kelly's Wellington firm, Architecture Workshop, won a competition in 2010 to design the new Te Mata Park Visitor and Education Centre. It had previously designed the new Waitomo Caves Visitor Centre and the Peregrine Winery building in Central Otago.
"The [Te Mata] challenge is to design a centre which fits into a fantastic environment but will still be a building that looks strong. That's what we talked about in the interview and came up with a response that was worthy of Te Mata Peak. The mountain has so much heritage, Maori and European stories around it and it was very interesting learning about all of those aspects."
The visitor centre will be located just past the park's main gates. It will showcase and inspire ideas about the environment, archaeology, history and culture of the park and the region. It will also enhance what is already a significant regional tourism asset, meeting increasingly high visitor expectations and providing facilities for large numbers of visitors.
The centre will also make it easier for people to access the recreation options at Te Mata Park.
"The increase in cruise ships coming into Hawke's Bay means there's quite a demand for buses to go to the peak, part of the design will enable the centre to better manage that demand."
Mr Kelly said he had been keeping in touch with the Te Mata Park Trust and its chairman Bruno Chambers to track progress of the project.
"We've got the next set of plans ready to go but obviously the trust has got some more fundraising to do, but they are making steady progress."
The trust needed to achieve $4m to fund the project and to date it had raised $2.25m. It included $1.1m from Hastings District Council, $500,000 from Hawke's Bay Regional Council, $250,000 from Napier City Council and $400,000 from private philanthropists and charitable trusts by fundraising consultancy Giblin Group.
Mr Chambers said other funding applications had been made to the Lotteries Commission and the Eastern and Central Community Trust. More recently individuals had come forward to offer funding or commit in other ways to the project.
"It is very reassuring and gives us momentum on the fundraising front and we would certainly like to talk to anyone who wants to make a donation of any kind to the project."
The trust is hoping to raise $50,000 from the community.
The trust had applied to the Hastings council for a resource consent to begin building the project and if all went to plan work should start late next year.
"The trust didn't have to make the resource consent publicly notified but we made the decision to do so because it's such an important project. Hopefully it will have a lot of positive submissions from people."
Submissions close on Friday and if a hearing is needed to review the submissions, it was likely to be handled by independent commissioners.