Economic cycles

Remember the National Cycleway? Unfortunately for John Key, quite a few people still do. That genius idea to get the economy literally rolling from Cape Reinga to Bluff has had several downsizings since the Prime Minister first drunkenly (possibly) jotted it down on a beer-soaked coaster. But evidently it's still front-page news - even when nothing at all has happened yet:

Prime Minister John Key is expected to announce today that construction will begin by summer on the first legs of his national cycleway, including a route from Lake Wakatipu to Bluff. He will announce several trails for his "patchwork quilt" of a cycleway between Kaitaia and Bluff, on which the Government will spend $50 million over three years. Details were unavailable last night, but Mr Key will announce the schemes to Local Government NZ's annual conference in Christchurch.

No details? It's quite a long article, and it's on the front page - there must be some hard facts somewhere...

Queenstown planner Mike Barnett, who researched those for Venture Southland, gave a "no comment" when asked if he expected the green light today.

Green Party tourism spokesman and cycling advocate Kevin Hague would not reveal anything other than confirming he would be in Christchurch for the announcement.

"I am sorry I am unable to comment but I look forward to commenting tomorrow," said Mr Hague, whose party has worked with the Government on the national cycleway under its memorandum of understanding with National.

Perhaps, then, the article should have been published... tomorrow. But maybe the local trusts doing the grunt work on the Cycleway will have more information?

Members of trusts working on North Island cycleways had yet to learn of any details but were looking forward to Mr Key's announcement.

[...] Trust chief Kelvin Hainsworth said it hoped ... Waipa District Council wants to ... the Brian Perry Charitable Trust is leading a group hoping to start ... Hauraki District councillor Mike Hayden said his council's delegation to Christchurch hoped to ... A Bay of Plenty group hopes to hook up with the Hauraki trail...

Helpful. Honestly, I can barely contain my anticipation.