I was born and bred here, a Smith’s ave local. When I was a teenager I would workout every day, part of it was to be social with the other neighbourhood kids, part of it was stress relief. I played all sports; basketball, rugby, league, everything. Our community would come together at the Papakura High School fields, from teenagers to 30 year olds. We’d just play and socialise.

Now, the few spaces we have left are hard to access. We can’t walk, bike, skate, or scooter all the way around the estuary. Some paths are broken and unusable, others just stop halfway into them. What a waste of a resource. Our community is disconnected.

Papakura’s roads are dangerous these days. You have to be really confident to ride your bike because you have to ride on the road. I’ve been riding forever. Even when I had flash cars I would park them up and still use my bike. I’d go all around Manukau, right out to Clevedon. I could almost name all the people on one hand who have road confidence and actually ride around this community these days.

Kids around here will ride their bikes to school up to about college age, then they stop. I rode with my son to school for three years, calling from behind, teaching him to ride the roads safely and gain more confidence.

We need to tell the agencies what we want, like investment in bike safety and education, not just infrastructure.

Families should be able to take weekend rides together, we should have a path around Pahurehure Inlet connecting to Karaka. Cycleways should be painted bright pink. Its already happening in the city, why not extend it everywhere. Sometimes you can’t tell the difference between a bike lane, a bus land and a T2 lane because they’re all the same colour.

Money can’t buy a ‘100% safe’ Great South Road, so lets spend money on what is achievable – pink pathways, education, and connecting our communities. And lets do it now!