Whanganui District Council begins work on new flying fox at Kai Iwi Beach

Kai Iwi beach playground will host a new flying fox.

A double flying fox is being built at Whanganui’s Kai Iwi beach playground, almost two years after the original was removed for safety reasons.

The line used to extend from the playground’s pirate ship across the Kai Iwi stream but the new ones will come to a halt before crossing the water.

An engineer’s report in 2022 said the backstay wire on the flying fox was broken and the weight of the wire was pulling on the wooden platform, and it was removed in October that year.

The following month, Kai Iwi residents Sharron and Colin Caseley started a petition calling for its reinstatement.

It received 605 signatures - 90% of which came from people living out of the area.

Whanganui District Council property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan said the new installation would likely come in under the $180,000 set in the council’s 2023/24 annual plan.

However, the final figure would not be known until construction was complete.

The flying fox was taken down in October, 2022. Photo / Mike Tweed

“The concrete went down this week and we’ll have to leave it for a fortnight so it can cure,” she said.

“After that, the contractor will go back and put in all the cables and other bits and pieces.”

O’Hagan said that would take three or four days and then the flying fox was good to go.

The council worked with the Kai Iwi community on the project and the new flying fox’s trajectory was in “spitting distance” of the original, she said.

“We were replacing it rather than fixing the existing one and we’ve landed on a location. It just won’t be going over the stream.

“The good thing about this is it will be up to modern-day playground standards and it will be new, bright and shiny.

“It will be around a little bit longer than the old one.”

Whanganui Rural Community Board Kai Iwi representative Michael Dick said he had pushed hard to get the original flying fox fixed.

Even if the new one was ”not quite as daring”, he was pleased to see it being installed.

“It will be good for little kids but we will miss the teenagers absolutely flying past - using it to its maximum,” Dick said.

“That was great to watch.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.