Brian Rudman: Parkland purchases cap a gloriously green year for region

In 100 years' time, Aucklanders could well be looking back and cursing our generation for failing to create a decent public transit system when we could. But hopefully they will still celebrate 2005 as the year of the public park.

This week's purchases of the 36.7ha parkland and lakes that surround the Chelsea Sugar Refinery in Birkenhead and the 126ha Arrigato block at Pakiri Beach for public enjoyment, cap a gloriously green year for the region.

The curtainraiser was in May with the official celebrations of the purchase of Kaikoura Island the previous year. Then in October came Pierre and Jackie Chatelanat's generous gift of their 843ha Kaipara Harbour-fronting farm, followed swiftly by the conclusion of a deal by the regional council to buy 247ha at Kaipara's South Head.

Then came the Tuaman Pakiri Beach property, followed soon after by the purchase of the neighbouring Arrigato block.

As an inner city dweller, it's the Chelsea acquisition that really captures my imagination. It's from that green clifftop area that the tui and wood pigeon and other native birds make their day trips across the harbour to feed in the backyards of Herne Bay. Mainly, I regret to say, they loiter on the northern slopes. But the odd tui does risk it across the Jervois Rd ridge to bleat in my backyard, to say nothing of the best forgotten, goldfish-eating kingfishers.

The historic Chelsea estate is the key building block towards the realisation of the dream of a predator-free mainland island on the Uruamo headland, which has possessed local residents, veteran political activist Tony Holman and his wife, heritage planner Dinah, for many years.

In 1997 they established the Chelsea Regional Park Association to promote their idea of bringing together four contiguous areas of coastal forest: Chelsea refinery, Kauri Point Centennial Park, Kauri Point Domain and the large Defence Department munitions dump. There is still money to be raised for the purchase of the Chelsea land, to say nothing of a deal yet to be sorted out over the Crown-owned munitions dump. But with the inspired doggedness the Holmans have brought to the campaign along with the firepower that a trust headed by retired High Court judge Sir David Tompkins can wield, I'm optimistic of a good outcome. The dream is just too good to consider any other outcome. Imagine an urban sanctuary just a short ferry ride from downtown Auckland where locals and visitors alike can pop in to see kiwi and tuatara in their natural environment.

Okay, so we can all dream. But with activists like the Holmans doing the wishing, dreams do sometimes have a way of coming true.

This column was supposed to be a quick survey of the highs and lows of the year, a shuffle through all that "visioning" by bureaucrats that ended up more like the doodles of the sight-impaired. But I can't bring myself to sour the moment by raking over disasters like Vulcan Lane and Khartoum Place, or worrying further about impending silliness like the removal of the flourishing liquid ambars of Queen St because they are foreign overstayers.

Instead, let's look to 2006 and the on-going visioning of the future for Auckland's downtown waterfront. There have certainly been consultation and reports aplenty, but so far, nothing has emerged that's more than sensible. Sensible is, of course, good. Particularly in a city where a lot of what happens doesn't even reach that pass mark.

But is "sensible" enough, when it comes to the redesign of Auckland's priceless front door?

The biggest hurdle to achieving something inspirational is the mindset of the politicians and bureaucrats who see the exercise, first and foremost, as an income generator for the region's insatiable appetite for more drains and trains and buses.

If ever there was a time to put the land into the hands of an independent redevelopment authority, where the words "mixed-use commercial" were banned, it's now. Who knows, with an open brief, they might even see the symmetry of developing a mainland island on the city side to match the one over the harbour at Chelsea. Imagine, tui in the city without the need for artificial feeders.

But that's a project for next year.

Until then, thanks for all the year's input. I'll be back mid-January.