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Katikati Haiku Pathway
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Katikati Haiku Pathway 
The Uretara Stream runs through the Haiku Pathway. (Photo: Selwyn Mair) The small town of Katikati in rural Bay of Plenty may seem an unlikely home to one of the finest haiku monuments outside Japan, but that's where you'll find the Haiku Pathway, a meandering riverside stroll punctuated by boulders engraved with poems.
The pathway was officially opened in June 2000, with 24 engraved river boulders, as one of New Zealand's Millennium Projects (its specially designed footbridge was dedicated as the sun rose on January 1, 2000). It is the largest such pathway in the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest collection of "haiku stones" outside Japan.
The driving force behind it is Catherine Mair, a well-known haiku poet and former editor of winterSPIN, who has long links with Katikati. She was born in the homestead on her grandparents' farm, spent many happy childhood holidays there, married at the homestead and later owned the farm with her husband, Selwyn. When the hard decision came to sell the land, Catherine convinced the developer that part of what was to become a housing subdivision should form a haiku pathway.
Her vision coincided with a drive to reclaim the Uretara Stream for the town. The river had been a vital link between settlers and the outside world in the 1870s, but 120 years later the land around the river as it passed behind the main commercial area was a wasteland.
The pathway runs either side of the Uretara Stream and links the town's centre with the Highfields subdivision via the footbridge. The pathway has already been extended once and plans are to extend it further. The park-like setting, which includes trees, seats, and picnic tables, is also a popular venue for one of the town's annual Summer Twilight Concerts.
"It's a bit improbable, isn't it?," Catherine says of the decision to create the pathway. "A country town that had never heard of haiku - but it was the right people at the right time. Even the blokes on the big machines moving the rocks into place got caught up in the magic of it, and the original engraver turned down a lucrative contract so he could finish his work here."
Winning haiku from the biennial Katikati Have-a-Go Haiku Contest have been engraved on flagstones and set into the pathway as a means of involving the community, including children, without compromising the quality of the boulder poems.
Each of the boulder poems has been carefully selected to reflect its surroundings - there is even one boulder placed in the stream in the happy expectation that it will be covered by water during floods and left high and dry in the summer. Catherine hopes the pathway is a constant voyage of discovery, and that visitors find new dimensions each time they're there, depending on the hour, the weather, the season.
The pathway forms only one of the many artworks in this self-proclaimed Mural Town. The involvement of the Katikati Open-Air Art umbrella group was vital in the early days of the pathway, while the goodwill and support of the Western Bay of Plenty District Council has also been invaluable.
Catherine is now chairwoman of the Katikati Haiku Pathway Focus Committee, which until early 2007 was chaired by the late Ted Harris. It was Ted, who was a councillor at the time, to whom Catherine turned for help in turning her dream into a reality.
The Haiku Pathway committee has, in mid-2007, overseen the engraving of a further three haiku boulders, bringing the total number of pathway project haiku to 30. These three boulders are at The Landing, the site of the jetty where the town's first Ulster Irish stepped foot in their new home. The committee hopes that these "outriders" will encourage people to make a circular walk through town - starting at the pathway, crossing to The Landing (which also features a mural and wooden sculpture) and back through town admiring the many murals.
Blessing in July 2007. (Photos: Sandra Simpson)
The Haiku Pathway guidebook has been updated and reprinted to include these three newest poems, as well as small biographies of each poet, a potted history of the project and a map of the pathway. The book sells for (including post & packing within New Zealand): $7 for 1; $12 for 2. For orders of more than 2, please inquire for costs. Send a cheque (made out to the Katikati Haiku Pathway Focus Committee), your name and postal address to Sandra Simpson, 82 Grace Rd, Tauranga 3112.For those ordering from overseas, the cost (including P&P) in New Zealand dollars is:
Australia: $11 for 1, or $19 for 2.
Rest of the World: $12 for 1, or $20 for 2.
Payment may be made through the committee's PayPal account, please e-mail for details of the payee account, or for the cost if you wish to purchase more than 2 guidebooks.
Meanwhile, in 2005 a local Rotary club donated a model logging dam as a water feature to both mark the centenary of Rotary International and the area's milling history, and asked Catherine to help them choose a haiku from those submitted by local writers to form part of the installation. The park featuring this model sits on the other side of the main road, opposite the main entry to the pathway.
The Haiku Pathway footbridge. Haiku by Jim Kacian (US).
(Photos: Sandra Simpson)
To see Katikati's murals and to learn more about the town, go here.
To find out more about haiku stones in Japan, go here.
