Latest news with #Manawatu
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Automotive
- RNZ News
A monumental sculpture park you can drive through
Te Ahu a Turanga is a new $824 million 11.5-kilometre four-lane highway connecting the Lower North Island East to West. It opened this week. And not only is it an impressive bit of infrastructure, replacing the old Manawatu Gorge Road, it is, in effect an enormous sculpture park you can drive through. Through art, design, pattern and planting it places a cloak across the land, including references in sculpture to instruments of weaving.
RNZ News
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Te Ahu a Turanga: The story behind the art on New Zealand's newest highway
Warren Warbrick with his artwork Hine-te-Iwaiwa with the roundabout in the background. Photo: RNZ/Pokere Paewai The new Te Ahu a Turanga Highway crossing the Ruahine Ranges is bookmarked on both ends by mahi toi (artwork), by two prominent Māori artists. The first drivers [. crossed over the 11.5km four-lane highway] on Wednesday morning. It replaces the old State Highway 3 through the Manawatū Gorge which closed in 2017 due to slips Warren Warbrick (Rangitāne) was one of three artists who worked on the project. He said it was good to see his work go from drawings on paper to computer models to finally seeing it become a reality. "For me it's not really whether I'm happy or not, it's whether our people are happy," he said. The overarching concept for all the art pieces along the road was 'he aho tangata' - 'the human threads that bind us.' On the Palmerston North end of the new highway stands one of Warbrick's sculptures made of a concrete base named Aputa ki Wairau and a metal structure named Hine-te-Iwaiwa . Hine-te-iwaiwa Photo: Supplied/NZ Transport Agency Warbrick said the metal structure represents a turuturu, or weaving peak, whose 'thread' connects with the roundabout on the other side of the highway near Woodville. "Each of the roundabouts, although they are not created to look like turuturu but they are symbolic of it, so when you have two turuturu you have a line that stretches between the two that is referred to as the aho, or the sacred thread... So what we are looking at is the idea of the roundabouts being the turuturu and the road being that sacred thread." The 12 metre high sculpture on the Woodville roundabout is named Poutahu, and was designed and created by prominent artist Sandy Adsett. Warbrick said he has known Adsett for many years and it was great to have the opportunity to work with him. "It's one thing to know him but its quite a different thing to work with him, it's been very very cool," he said. Sandy Adsett Photo: credit the NZ Arts Foundation Adsett (Ngāti Pahauwera, Ngāti Kahungunu) told RNZ there would be a lot more artwork along the highway but the soil on the either side wasn't able to hold much weight, so they shifted focus to the roundabouts, the lookout and the bridges along the highway. Adsett said the Poutahu sculpture near Woodville was based the structure of old wharenui that had a vertical pole at the centre of the whare to provide strength to the tahuhu (ridge beam). "I was learning as I went, on what could happen and of course the engineers would say 'well we could do [this] but we can't do that.' So there was a lot of discussions about the structure so it was interesting." Poutahu Photo: Supplied/NZ Transport Agency Adsett said if there was going to be artworks and sculptures on major infrastructure projects like the Ahu a Turanga highway he was glad that the imagery was specific to New Zealand. "I think that in terms of Aotearoa our imagery is specific to Aotearoa, it's indigenous, so for overseas travellers or even for our own people to see the works, I won't say it's a comfort thing, but it's a pleasure to feel as though they have the ability to stand in these prominent public places and hold their own." It will be interesting to see the response to the artwork from both Māori and non-Māori, he said. "I think the enthusiasm and the encouragement of our different iwi was one that you respected and wanted to try and offer something and hopefully... our own people will accept the works... that we were able to do." Poutahu looking west towards Te Ahu a Turanga Highway. Photo: Supplied/NZ Transport Agency
RNZ News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Midday Report Essentials for Wednesday 11 June 2025
technology environment about 1 hour ago In today's episode, the government is being warned there could be diplomatic retaliation from Israel after New Zealand joined with a number of other allies in imposing sanctions on two Israeli far-right ministers, a New Zealand vessel has pulled up six tonnes of protected stony coral in a single trawl, the four-laned, 11.5 kilometre Te Ahu a Tararanga - linking Manawatu and Tararua - has officially opened to traffic, and experts are warning women who use period tracking apps are a goldmine for advertisers, and information from them - in the wrong hands - could result in risks to job prospects, workplace monitoring, health insurance discrimination, cyberstalking, and limit access to abortion.
RNZ News
11-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Manawatū Tararua Highway opens
transport infrastructure 26 minutes ago The four-laned, 11.5 kilometre Te Ahu a Tararanga - linking Manawatū and Tararua - officially opened to traffic on Wednesday. Principal project manager Grant Kauri spoke to Charlotte Cook.
RNZ News
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
New highway replacing Manawatu Gorge road is now open
The roads looks near completion at the Woodville end. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham The four-lane Te Ahu a Turanga highway is now open to drivers, becoming the new State Highway 3. The first commuters are now driving over the 11.5 kilometre highway that connects Ashhurst and Woodville. It replaces the old Manawatu Gorge Rd, which closed in 2017 following slips, and took five years to build. Joy Kopa from with Positively Woodville, speaks to Kathryn about what the new road will mean for the town.
