| 37 Department of Conservation: Paparoa Great Walk The Paparoa Track is the 10th of New Zealand’s Great Walks. Above, trampers in the Pororari Valley. Photo: Neil Silverwood. Opposite, mountain bikers on the Pike29 Track – Owen Kilgour REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Big nature thinking. Landscapes | Water | Environmental www.kumanu.co.nz Image: Jason Mann Photography Nature-based solutions Kūmānu deliver sustainable nature-based solutions specialising in landscapes, water and environmental projects. Formerly known as Nelmac, Kūmānu partners with clients to achieve sustainable outcomes for communities and companies, throughout the top of the South Island and across New Zealand, including working with the Department of Conservation (DOC) on various of the Great Walks. “We care for all things across landscapes and landscape architecture, water and the environment. We do that locally throughout Te Tauihu (Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough), as well as at a national scale. Our biosecurity projects in particular, go from the top of the north all the way down through the South Island,” says Business Development Leader, Dave Taylor. Kūmānu are a big team with the skills and depth of capability to offer projectspecific, enduring solutions, from design through to delivery, and long-term maintenance. The work they did on the Paparoa Track was no exception when they were awarded the tender to work with DOC to construct the 11 kilometre Pike 29 Memorial Track, and a further five kilometre portion of the Paparoa Great Walk, from Moonlight Hut. It was challenging work with Nature throwing everything she had at them including rain, wind, snow and more rain, but they successfully delivered and did what they set out to do, explains Kūmānu Project Manager Andy Evans, who remains impressed with how hard everyone worked in such conditions. “We have a solid history of track–building, and we brought a commitment to working hard, but also to working closely with DOC to achieve their brief of building a trail that looked like it had been there for 100 years. Nature heals fast and the mosses and ferns re-establish very quickly, particularly on the West Coast. We took great care with rehabilitating the track we left behind us, removing plants then replanting them and Nature took care of the rest. If you went through there now, you’d think it had been there forever, so we proudly achieved their brief.” “That aligns with our ‘big nature thinking,’ adds Dave. “That’s an all-encompassing end-to-end thinking, and a commitment to thinking more broadly. When we’re doing work like this we consider where the water flows, the biodiversity, and how we make it last and function over decades, not just right now. We want it to be something we continue to be proud of over time, and that’s what we achieved with the Pike 29 Memorial Track project.” Kūmānu takes an intergenerational view, looking to build enduring partnerships as they work on projects built to last for generations. They’re a team of 250+ staff with skilled people on the ground working to nurture nature, while doing everything from landscape architecture through to landscape construction, restoration planting, conservation, trail and track management, ongoing pest and weed control, and asset management, including Three Waters assets. Across the Kūmānu team they have the skills and ability to understand their clients’ needs and work closely with them to achieve their goals. They call themselves 'designers and do-ers' and they’re there from the first survey right through to delivering the project, and the ongoing maintenance that follows, nurturing mutual respect through its whole lifecycle. Anything involving landscapes, water and the environment is a project Kūmānu is interested in partnering in, to put their skills and experience to work to achieve what their client wants in an environmentally sound and sustainable way.
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