Welcoming Point Developed As A Lookout And Link

Welcoming Point has been transformed into a more inviting area for walkers, cyclists, and boaties navigating the Inner Harbour channel and entrance to the Iron Pot.

Offering spectacular views of Napier’s Inner Habour, Welcoming Point has been landscaped to create a much improved link between the wharf used by the fishing fleet along West Quay and the picturesque Iron Pot.

Commissioned by the Napier City Council, the West Quay Design Group developed a design that has seen Welcoming Point pushed out and a ramped pathway formed above an extended seawall of hefty limestone boulders.

Strips of garden bed are planted with varieties adapted to withstand a marine environment, including Marlborough rock daisy and an additional pohutakawa, which joins a specimen tree already established on the site.

Three pou (carved symbolic posts), ten metres tall, were sculpted by local master carver Hugh Tareha and craned into position. These are topped by symbols representing a kahawai, a gannet and a traditional Maori design.

An original corner of seating, with concrete wing walls offering shelter from the wind and providing commanding views of the Inner Harbour, will be upgraded. West Quay’s floating jetty, popular with young anglers, has been left untouched.

Welcoming Point also looks spectacular at night, with garden bed uplights and LED fittings in timber bollards lighting up the corner site.

There is potential for further developing the area, layering timbered platforms to the water-edge to form a ‘welcoming point’ and mooring for waka.