The first sod was turned yesterday afternoon on the 32km Kawarau Gorge Trail — linking the Queenstown Trails Trust network with the Lake Dunstan Trail — which will take about two years to build.
Southern Lakes Trails chairman Aaron Halstead expected the cost would run somewhere between $8million and $10m.
It had been a "long time coming" and had taken a huge amount of work from a large number of people.
The trust was "incredibly grateful to the landowners", including the Department of Conservation and Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand, who had provided access for the trail.
The new trail, the Lake Dunstan Trail and a Wānaka link are all being funded from a $26.3m pool provided by central government ($13.15m), Central Lakes Trust ($11.15m) and Otago Community Trust ($2m).
"The original proposition was 30 communities would be linked up with this $26.3m pool," Mr Halstead said.
While funding was approved in 2016, it had taken until recently for the Kawarau Gorge Trail to be signed off.
"To be honest, I understand there are processes in government, and they take time, but our original plan was when we finished the Lake Dunstan Trail [two years ago], in a perfect world, would have been to roll straight into this trail.
"And we were sort of led to believe, with the [conservation management strategy partial review], that we would be looking at maybe three months, four months. It took 39 months.
"There was definitely some frustration along the way."
Those delays had also impacted the bottom line.
Because the original funding was approved in 2016, because of the massive increase in the cost of building and materials during the intervening years, the trust now faced a "massive shortfall", Mr Halstead said.
"We’re being challenged, as a trust, to find innovative funding sources or find [other] ways of doing things, [while] keeping the quality as high as we’d always planned.
"We’re going to probably request some philanthropy — it might be for the bridges, or some other bits and pieces — and that’s all still to be worked out."
Challenges aside, Mr Halstead was thrilled to see work finally under way and believed the trail would create massive benefits for Queenstown, both in terms of tourism and business.
He pointed to the Rail Trail as an example of what cycling and walking infrastructure could do.
"We talk about ‘regenerative tourism’ and ‘sustainability’ and I know they’re kind of throw-away words ... but in reality, when you pull them apart, what that’s about is trying to get people ultimately to stay longer and spend more."
The trail, being project managed by Southern Land Development Consultants, would include two 92m-long suspension bridges over the Kawarau River, providing access to the Waitiri Peninsula and over the class 4 Citroen Rapids, a bolted-on section beneath the Nevis Bluff, being built by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, and an underpass opposite Oxbow Adventure Co at Victoria Flats, near Queenstown.
