With the unique design inspired by the karaka tree, the bridge’s roots are on the Massey side of the river and the canopy of the ‘tree’ is on Dittmer Reserve, between Victoria Esplanade and Ruha Street.

Karaka has strong links to our iwi, Rangitāne. Generations of karaka once lined Karaka Grove at Massey University, providing food and shelter for the people that once lived there. Karaka trees also once covered the southern riverbank on land between Turitea Stream and the Fitzherbert Bridge. Māori settlers cleared some of the forest to plant kūmara. When converted to farmland, the first European settler to farm there protected the remaining trees.

Rangitāne o Manawatū designed the pattern on top of the bridge to symbolise the pūriri , the native moth, that forms a hole when they burrow into bark. The koru patterns represent people.

Dittmer Drive, Victoria Esplanade, Palmerston North