The proposed Wanaka watersports facility is a well-thought-out proposal to meet a specific need, writes Prue Wallis of Wanaka.
The negativity and hostility which surround the Wanaka watersports facility issue are horrifying.
Also astounding is the very large number of protesters I have encountered who have not even checked the website (www.wanakawatersports.co.nz) to see what the proposed building will look like among the trees on the foreshore, or to discover exactly what it consists of and what it is for.
Wanaka is being offered the opportunity to provide far, far greater access to the lake for local and visiting rowers, kayakers and multisport swimmers of all ages, abilities and disabilities than we have at present.
It will provide a much needed base for many decades, from which the young people of this town may develop skills in those very sports which have produced so many of our lauded Olympic medallists.
Protesters perpetually cry that they are not against the facility itself, just that it should be on that splendid site called "somewhere else''.
Alas, "somewhere else'' does not exist.
No other area on either side of the bay meets all the requisite criteria for the establishment of such a facility -- above all the criteria for safety.
Entrance to the water from the beach is shallow and sandy, can be accessed easily by swimmers, by those carrying boats in and out of the water and by the disabled. It is unique in that it has been officially designated free of motorboats and jet skis.
It offers swimmers, rowers and kayakers the opportunity to train safely over the long distances they need in order to prepare for national competition.
It faces directly into the nor'wester which so unexpectedly blows up on our lake.
Swimmers and those in light rowing shells and kayaks will find themselves in such conditions being helped back to base, not blown further away.
The proposed site is readily accessible by car and trailer and by bicycle.
It has established parking areas.
There are no near neighbours to be troubled by early morning activity.
The facility will be largely screened from the road by the magnificent sequoias and people on the lake are likely to be too busy doing whatever they are there for to worry about a well-designed building in the trees occupying a very small proportion of a very long beach.
The bike and walking trails behind it won't disappear.
The beach in front remains available to walkers and picnickers.
It is not a social venue.
It consists of a boat-storage shed, changing areas and toilets (which will be available to the public) to service the non-motorised watersport clubs otherwise unsupported in our town.
Much misinformation was delivered to walkers passing the proposed site before the submissions process.
I met an outraged Canadian couple who had been assured the giant sequoias were to be felled.
Of course they are not, nor are all the trees in the area - and more will be planted.
Neither is it the beginning of an unstoppable spread of sheds and cafes along the Roys Bay foreshore, as has been rather hysterically claimed.
It is a very well-thought-out proposal, to meet a very specific need in this town and I, for one, will be sad and ashamed if my generation is the one to kill this project.
Wake up, Wanaka.
The choice before us is not where a watersports facility will go.
It is whether we have one or not.
● More than 1000 submissions have been received by the Queenstown Lakes District Council on the proposal. A resource consent hearing is to begin on February 29 at Edgewater Resort. Prue Wallis' husband, Sir Tim Wallis, is patron of the Wanaka Watersports Facility Trust.
