Preparation work began recently at the site of the park in the river next to the Camp Hill Rd Bridge, at Hawea Flat. The project has been a long-held vision of Central Otago Whitewater Club stalwarts Roy Bailey and Gordon Rayner.
The park will cost more than $500,000 to build and will be funded by Contact Energy as a mitigation measure agreed upon by Contact and the club as part of Contact's suite of resource consents for the Clutha catchment, applied for in 2001.
Mr Bailey said the park would have two large weir structures to restrict the flow of the river and create "play waves" for kayakers. Rock for the river enhancements will be transported during the next fortnight from the building site for the National Transport and Toy Museum's new exhibition hangar, at Wanaka Airport.
Fulton Hogan is working on site, levelling an area for the rock to be stored and creating a car park. The river enhancements will be added between February and June next year. The park has been designed by top whitewater park designer Scott Shipley, of the United States.
During the years since the idea was first mooted, consents from the district and regional councils, Department of Conservation and other organisations had been needed, along with considerable consultation with the kayaking community and analysis of overseas whitewater play park designs. But the work and the nearly decade-long wait would be worth it, Mr Bailey said.
"For us, it will be great. We've got somewhere to go where we know there's going to be a wave working the whole time that we can play on and it will be really great for the development of the sport."
Contact Energy engineer Denis McEntyre said there would be minimal disruption to users of the Hawea River Track.
