Earlier this month, Te Ahu a Turanga – the Manawatū Tararua Highway – was officially opened to the public, to much acclamation, particularly from local iwi and other people living in the Manawatū and Tararua District. The highway is a project of national significance, led by the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA), and has successfully replaced the Manawatū Gorge section of State Highway 3 (which was closed in 2017 due to a series of slips and concerns regarding the resilience of the road).
Te Ahu a Turanga is an 11.5km route to reconnect the Manawatū, Tararua District, Hawke’s Bay and northern Wairarapa, stretching across the Ruahine Range between Ashhurst and Woodville. The new highway was opened to the public in June 2025 after more than four years of construction, restoring a vital transport connection for communities and businesses in the wider region.
Buddle Findlay has played a central legal advisory role across all phases of the project, including designation, consenting, land acquisition, and iwi engagement. We supported NZTA, and latterly the Te Ahu a Turanga Alliance, in this work, through an initial process to designate land for the new highway, and in a process where an application for resource consents was referred directly to the Environment Court for consideration. Because of the support of iwi and the collaborative process adopted, these were very efficient processes, with the direct referral being one of the fastest such process undertaken in New Zealand.
More information on how Buddle Findlay supported this significant project is available in our Te Ahu a Turanga Manawatū Tararua Highway case study.
