The Sky is the Limit

Four years ago, when the Missing Wingman Trust approached the Manawatū District Council about creating a living memorial to honour past and present NZDF personnel and their families, James Adamson, MDC Community Assets Liaison knew the perfect spot.

“Mount Stewart falls within the flight path for Ohakea and it just so happened to have mature trees, ready to be logged on Council owned land.”  The site was earmarked for the project, with the revenue of the logging providing funding to kickstart the project.

Landscape Architect Rebecca Wilson took the space and created on paper a multi-year project which incorporates native plants, trees, walking paths, a swing and steps etched with the poem ‘High Flight’.

On Friday 16 August, the largest planting event for the project thus far took place and it was all hands-on deck as over 5000 plants, many grown by Council’s own Kawakawa Nursery, went into the ground completely changing the project from one in construction, to one with life.

Walking paths had been previously established through Council’s Long Term Plan funding.   The paths take the shape of the Missing Man aerial formation stretching from the Mount Stewart monument North towards the top of the hill.  Best seen from the Mount Stewart Halcombe Road or in the air, as flights landing into NZDF Base Ohakea will experience, the paths are a feature for the living memorial.

With the help of NZDF Base Ohakea, Missing Wingman Trust, MP Suze Redmayne, Green By Nature and Ricoh, who all donated time to the project through planting, the planting day was the perfect illustration of the importance of this project to the district.

“As a multi-year project, conditional on funding, the site is currently at a state where the vision has been established and can be shared by visitors,” Adamson explains.  “It’s a special project and one that will be close to home for many as the role of NZDF Base Ohakea has played an integral part to our region’s history.”