Leigh walkway re-opening unlikely to be soon

The popular walkway around Leigh Harbour, or Omaha Cove, is likely to stay closed for some time yet.

Department of Conservation Tāmaki Makaurau district operations manager Rebecca Rush says a landslip that came down after heavy rain last month caused significant damage.

“It will require geotechnical advice and input from different areas of DOC,” Rush says.

“As well as the large slip, there are significant cracks in other areas of the pathway, which we consider at risk of subsiding in future.

“An initial assessment has been done but it’s too difficult at this point to provide time estimates or give an idea of the final outcome for the walkway.”

Blue Penguin coordinators Jenny and Tony Enderby say the slip is easily the largest in recent years.

“The Leigh Penguin Project wasn’t too badly hit with only one trap affected,” they say.

“Our team that work that trapline has a good relationship with the landowners and have access through a property to re-join the trapline at Mt Pleasant Road. To date no penguins have nested on that side of the harbour ,which is lucky.”

Enderby says it looks like the track will remain closed until the remaining pines are felled – some are leaning on others and pose a risk to anyone below them.

“Our penguins project has been more affected by the weather, with a large number of mainly young birds washing up dead between Tawharanui and Pakiri.”