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Visitor information
Overview
The Wai Kahua Waka Bridge is at the Puhi Kai Iti Cook Landing Site National Historic Reserve in Gisborne. The footbridge crosses Kaiti Beach Road.
The bridge is in the form of a waka (traditional Māori canoe), communicating the rich history of the region and celebrating 1000 years of navigators arriving by sea a Turanganui-a-Kiwa.
The bridge sits alongside the Cook Landing Monument. It is the main link between the multi-award-winning Puhi Kai Iti landscaping works and the surrounding hillside walkways.
Getting to the Wai Kahua Waka Bridge
You can park at the Puhi Kai Iti Cook Landing Site, right next to the bridge. From the Pacific Coast Highway in Gisborme, take Hirini Street heading south. Follow this street until it turns into Kaiti Beach Road, where the bridge passes over the road. Just before the bridge, turn right into the landing site carpark.
You can also walk to the bridge from the various stopping points on Queens Drive and Titirangi Drive. You can park at the signposted gun emplacement, Cook’s Plaza, or picnic spot and follow the easy walking tracks through light bush to the bridge.
Technical information
The main driver for the vertical alignment and span was crossing Kaiti Beach Road. Because of close proximity to the port, a 6.2 m vertical clearance has been nominated to permit safe movement of large vehicles.
The waka is a 24 m spanning steel box girder with curved hull. The decking is steel plate with an anti-slip topping added over the top. Internal steel ring beams and stiffeners add structural rigidity to the steel-plated hull. The waka is painted brown, carefully selected to celebrate the colour of traditional waka crafted from totara (a native New Zealand timber).
Anti-slip treatments over the 2 m usable width steel deck consist of lightweight 4 mm thick fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) Treadwell DeckSafe” flooring panels attached to the deck using Sabrebond SMP60 polymer adhesive.
The hull plate extends above the deck to create a 1.1 m high balustrade system. This is topped with a timber rail.
The waka is supported on steel piers at both the west and east ends. To the east, a small ramp connects the footway from the hillside to the waka. On the western side a steel staircase connects the waka to the existing landscape features and Captain Cook Memorial.
The western bridge pier and staircase are founded on reinforced concrete footings excavated and cast directly onto bedrock at 2 m below existing ground level. On the eastern side, the pier is founded on a pad footing supported by a pile group socketed into rock circa 6 m below existing ground level. Small reinforced concrete plinths are incorporated into the upper face of the pad footings so the large concrete pads can be concealed and buried with at least 300 mm of topsoil and grass. The small eastern approach ramp is founded on a small pad footing supported by the existing slope.
The bridge also incoporates a laser-cut tau ihu (prow board) and taurapa (stern post) with traditional artwork detailing from our collaboration with local artist Nick Tupara.
Key partners
We would like to thank the following organisations for their help and support in getting this project off of the ground.
