Rainbow path paves way for Auckland cyclists

Auckland's new rainbow cycle path in Mount Albert. Photo / Chris Loufte

There is a colourful new reason to get on your bike in Auckland, with the opening of a rainbow-themed cycle path.

The Rainbow Path is part of the north-western cycleway from West Auckland's Henderson to and downtown Auckland, and runs for almost 500m next to the Unitec campus in Mt Albert.

Auckland Transport's Kathryn King, manager for walking and cycling and road safety, said the idea came about as that stretch of the path needed remedial works carried out on it.

"When we looked at what work needed to be done on it, the grey was a coloured texture that was applied and we discovered that we could have any colour on there.

"It opened us up about thinking about what we could do with it, to make it more attractive to people - particularly as they're coming up on a steep hill there. It's a reward to get up there."

The resin surface is the same as that seen on the well-known and popular pink cycle path on Nelson Street and cost just under $40,000.

It took about two months to complete because of rain, and officially opened to the public just over a week ago.

"We've had really positive feedback,'' King said.

"On social media, we've been watching people's comments. My favourite one was someone who took their 4-year-old daughter and how excited she was and they had to ride up and down a couple of times."

King said the rainbow-coloured bike path is thought to be the only one of its kind in New Zealand and there would be moves for similar creative ideas to be carried out when it came to public infrastructure in future.

"We strive to ensure with any of our new infrastructure or opportunities for maintenance of existing infrastructure, to see what we can do to make it more attractive and more exciting for people to use.

"So there'll be more opportunities for us to do things like this ... where we can make our transport infrastructure pretty world-leading.''