Te Rewa Rewa Bridge

 

The Te Rewa Rewa Bridge is about a ten-minute drive north of New Plymouth and well worth a visit. The design is amazing and the way it frames Mt Egmont/Taranaki (when there are no clouds!) . . . well, it’s just stunning. 

It was opened to the public in 2010 and extended the well-known New Plymouth Coastal Walkway (now 13 km long) so you can walk or bike from Port Taranaki to Hickford Park in Bell Block. 

 

We didn’t have time to take the walkway from New Plymouth to get to the bridge, so we drove up past Rotomanu Lake in Fitzroy. Looking over the lake, you can see the bridge in the distance.

There’s a small parking area close by and it’s a short walk to the bridge. 

The appearance of the bridge changes depending on the direction you’re viewing it from.

This stunning bridge spans the Waiwhakaiho River and is made of three steel tubes—two beneath the deck and the remaining one, together with 19 curved ribs, forming a distinctive arch. It's said that it is reminiscent of a breaking wave or a whale skeleton, and you can see why by the photos.

The Te Rewa Rewa Bridge was the result of a design/construct competition for an iconic bridge run by the New Plymouth District Council in 2008. Two years later it was completed and officially opened to the public on 5 June 2010.
 

This bridge has won five awards! Two prestigious international awards and three awards in New Zealand:

• International Bridge Conference: Bridge Awards 2011 - Arthur G. Hayden Medal for a single recent outstanding achievement in bridge engineering demonstrating innovation in special use bridges
• Ingenium Excellence Awards 2011 - award category for projects $2 million to $10m
• International Footbridge Awards 2011 - Aesthetics Medium-Span Winner (for bridges with spans between 30 metres and 75 metres)—Poland
• Roading New Zealand Supreme Award in the 2011 Roading Excellence Awards
• 2011 Taranaki Master Builders supreme award for a commercial facility

Some other interesting facts I found:

• Project value: $2.85 million
• Length: almost 70m
• Height: 10m at highest point
• Width: 2.5m
• Construction: 2008-2010
• Designer: Peter Mulqueen of Novare Design Ltd
• Contractor: Whittaker Civil Engineering Ltd

We saw some whitebaiters in the river below the bridge . . .

. . . and then spoke to some in the car park as we were leaving. Not too many in their bucket, but enough for breakfast!

Two happy whitebaiters.

And as we drove back past the lake, another fisher . . .