As mentioned in the earlier post, there is a completion event scheduled for Thursday 16th, but it is only for big knobs in the government and their guests.  A public event is scheduled for Saturday. From the NZTA website :-

The Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway is nearly ready to open to traffic, so the M2PP team would like to invite you to the Kāpiti Coast ExpressDay – your chance to experience part of the Expressway before it opens to traffic later in February.

Walk or bus 5 kilometres of Expressway between Te Roto Drive in Paraparaumu, or Te Moana Road in Waikanae. Thanks to the generosity of Mana Coach Services ExpressTours will run from both sites throughout the day.

The ExpressDay route is open to pedestrians and mobility scooters/wheelchairs on one side and tour buses on the other side. People can also choose to try out 5 km of shared pathway alongside the Expressway.

Start your journey at either Te Roto Drive in Paraparaumu for fun and entertainment, or Te Moana Road in Waikanae, for education and expert speakers….

At the Te Moana Zone there’ll be Expressway experts sharing their stories about construction and more and the Expressway 101 tent will be the place to find out more about how you’ll use the Expressway and revisit some of the Mackays to Peka Peka construction, environmental and archaelogical stories.

All you ever wanted to know about the Expressway, so it seems.  That balloon graphic is a little ironic considering that activists opposed to the Expressway toted balloons at the opening of the Waikanae railway electrification in February 2011, one balloon for every house eliminated to make way for the Expressway.