Author: grant corbishley

March 5, 2021

We have had a few newsletters recently, but we are now back to the usual monthly one. If you have news and events to share, please email me at the address at the bottom. This time we are featuring some of the great sunsets we have been seeing.

Koha Coffee this Sunday

Koha Coffee is on at the hall this Sunday, 7 March from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm. Naomi is giving it a go at hosting, so come along give her some support. Bring some food to share and enjoy catching up with people you know and meeting some you don’t.

Seed-to-Feeds was all go!

We made this year – just! With an overnight change of Levels just before our event, we decided to go ahead with the takeaway version of the meals but with a twist. Ticket holders could collect their meal and decide whether to sit in the hall at appropriate socially distanced spacings, or take their meal home, to the park or to the beach. About 40 guests felt comfortable staying so the hall was buzzing for a few hours. The picture below shows preparation for the event.

The theme for the event was Koe wai koe? and the explanation unfolded as the evening progressed. The phrase translates as Who are you?, something we were wanting people to share with the people around them, but Level 2 did limit the amount of mingling we could do. But Ko wai koe? literally means Whose waters are you? and we wanted people to think about the river or stream that they could identify with from where they were born. We also wanted them to identify with the waters that come with the place they live in now, and for many of us that is the buried creek in Houghton Valley, that many locals are working towards recreating on the surface of the landfill.

Enchanted – Art in a Garden

The art show that was to happen this Saturday has now been postponed to Sunday March 14. It will be the same beautiful garden, community vibe and great art – just with better weather.

It starts at 11 am in Te Kawakawa Commons Community Garden behind the bus stop near 48 Hornsey Road.

Hungerford Road roadworks

Planning phases for the works between View Road and Queens Drive are underway for mid-March. More information will be available closer to the time.

This work will take approximately a week to complete, however it is weather dependant. Work will take place between 7 am – 6 pm. There may be teams outside of these hours setting up and disestablishing the site before and after work. Due to the gradient of the road this site is considered a high profile work site. Road works can be disruptive so please be patient while the work is completed. The road will be considered residents access only for the duration, so keep this in mind when travelling.

(157 recipients, 92 opens)

February 24, 2021

Seed-to-Feeds last reminder

A last reminder for signing up to our Seeds to Feeds meal this Sunday. Eventbrite tickets are available with all the event details. The tickets are koha tickets, whatever you can afford.

If you are coming, please note that the meal is BYO. And if you like your wine in a proper wine glass, you might like to bring one as well!

If you have some vegetables that you would like to donate to the meal, bring any that require cooking to the community hall on Saturday morning between 10.30 and 11.45 am. For salad veggies, bring them on Sunday morning at the same time. If you can’t make those times, contact Sylvia.

See you there!

(158 recipients, 87 opens)

February 18, 2021

Seed-to-Feeds is all go: sign up now!

On Sunday February 28 from 4 pm – 7 pm at the Houghton Valley Community Hall (80 Houghton Bay Road) we are having a local food celebration dinner using produce from our local gardens, wild foraging and other gardens from not far away. We really hope you can come and enjoy the delicious 3-course, chef cooked, vegan meal, and get together with and learn about your local community.

Please sign up as soon as you can so we have a good idea of numbers leading up to Sunday week. You also have the option of buying a meal for someone in the community. Eventbrite tickets are available. Like last year, the Eventbrite tickets are koha tickets, whatever you can afford. But be sure, you will get a fabulous meal for your money! The money raised will go towards community projects, and will be held in trust by the HVPA.

Some of you may be concerned about gathering if we have to go back to Level 2, so to make things easier to commit to the event we have decided that at Level 1 we have a sit down meal, at Level 2 it will be a collect your meal in eco-friendly takeaway containers. But let’s hope we make it this year!

To dream of a stream

Many members of the community have been trying to raise awareness of the fresh and marine water quality and the general ecology of Houghton Valley and Houghton Bay, and to find a solution to improve it, including lifting our creek, which has been buried under the landfill. Over the last ten years we have done various things including:

• The development of a web site in 2011 titled, When the Creek Talks Back, www.houghtonvalley.org.nz, which documents the history of the valley; the current state of the fresh and marine water quality; and community-led projects such as painting the original line of the creek on the landfill surface in 2012;
• Participation in the 2014 International Waterwheel Symposium with artists’ projects about the state of our waterway, including asking locals to post letters to the creek, and discovering our springs, see Documenting the Flow video;
• Ongoing tree planting in Buckley Road Reserve, around the HV School, and on the Te Raekaihau Headland;
• A WCC funded feasibility study and report on lifting the creek undertaken by Cardno Engineering in 2015;
• Negotiations in 2020 with WCC over the creation of an urban farm, using the profits to fund the creek lifting and general ecological restoration;
• Undertaking eDNA testing of springs in 2020;
• A current analysis of future options for the valley, which is leading to the development of a hundred-year plan to rebuild the local ecology.

This year we have taken an exciting step forward and have submitted an expression of interest to the Freshwater Improvement Fund, part of the 1.245 billion dollar Jobs for Nature Programme for funding to help design and construct a new creek and wetland system that prevents leachate contamination and provides the community with a connection to our waters once again.

Predator Free: Island Bay to CBD

Predator Free Wellington is getting ready to step out into the next phase of their project: from Island Bay to the CBD. This will involve 19 suburbs including Houghton Bay. Many of you may already have a trap on your property and they say keep up the good work! But in a bid to get more people on board, they now will be implementing a trap or bait station system on properties every 50 metres that they will service for you. All you need to do is say YES! to allowing them to put something on your property and they will do the rest. So sign up now and they will contact you when they are ready to go and let you know if your property is needed for the trapping”net”.

(158 recipients, 92 opens)

February 2, 2021

Seed to Feeds in Houghton Valley

Our Seeds to Feeds date has been changed to Sunday February 28, so as not to clash with the Newtown Fair. So please save the date to come and enjoy a delicious meal, and get together with and learn about your local community.

It will be a local food celebration dinner at the community hall, using produce from our local gardens and others from not far away. Being a Sunday and so that children can come, it will be from 4 pm – 7 pm. Tickets will be available soon, and we will let you know when you can sign up. Like last year, the Eventbrite tickets are koha tickets, whatever you can afford. But be sure, you will get a fabulous meal for your money! The money raised will go towards community projects, and will be held in trust by the HVPA.

A local art exhibition

Local artists are getting together for an exhibition with a difference on Saturday March 6. Rather than gallery walls, the works – paintings, ceramics, sculpture and textiles – will hang from trees and lean against runner beans! If you are looking for something original and affordable, you’ll love this enchanting exhibition. The artists will be around to talk about their work and little ones can search for hidden (arty) treasures along the garden paths.

Koha Coffee

Koha Coffee this Saturday February 5 from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm at the Community Hall. Andrew will be hosting – please feel free to bring some kai to share and come and enjoy the company of your neighbours. You will be able to see also the kitchen and entry spruce up, funded by a WCC community grant.

Houghton Valley Progressive Association meeting

On Sunday 13 February at the Community Hall, our local Residents’ Association will be holding their first meeting for the year. Come along at 4 pm to find out more about our valley’s projects and community issues for the new year.

Roadworks??

Road cones around the bottom of Houghton Bay Road saying “Please do not park here on 2nd February” seemed to signal the beginning of roadworks. But no, on the day a helicopter came and hovered until its load was attached. Wondering what it would be, we watched and waited, and finally saw a swimming pool being airlifted up to one of the new properties overlooking the bay.

There have been several new buildings being worked on all around the valley and they all have faced their own challenges with our difficult terrain. Spare a thought for those early builders who built your old house, they probably did everything by hand!

(156 recipients, 102 opens)

December 18, 2020

Holiday time! Come to our local Christmas ice cream stall this Friday and Saturday evening

(156 recipients, 88 opens)

December 3, 2020

The state of our water

In November, leachate once again spilled into Houghton Bay and the marine reserve. See the article by RNZ. Whilst we need to keep authorities aware of the issue, and the we’re-sick-and-tired-of-your-failure-to-address-this-issue approach shows a genuine and passionate concern, a few locals here wonder whether there is a more constructive way of getting something done. Imagine instead inviting Council staff to a meeting in a community orchard in beautiful sunshine, greeting them with a mihi and providing tea and home baking during a discussion about how to create a regenerative water management plan for the entire catchment. And discussing also how a plan to grow local fruit and vegetables could help fund the environmental project.

That’s exactly what we did last Friday (we even fluked the sunshine!), and the resulting discussion was open and frank. Despite there being no current plan to fix the leachate problem, it comes as no surprise that everybody, everywhere would like to be able to fix the problem! So really we need to focus on what is stopping the plan from happening.

We have all inherited a beast in the form of a badly constructed landfill, despite its fairly benign recreational fields face, and any form of remediation will be expensive and tricky to implement. Harassing the authorities to come up with a solution will just get them to throw inadequate amounts of money into quick fixes that don’t really work. Rather we need to put the best of our innovative and lateral thinking into how this issue can be resolved in a way that regenerates our environment, enhances our community recreation, and provides an effective way of dealing with the water events in our valley. Real regeneration takes time and the local group feels that a 100 year vision is needed. That should give us a bit of time to make the right first steps.

We welcome your thoughts about what you would like Houghton Valley to be like in 100 years. Please send them to the editor.

Seed to Feeds in Houghton Valley

Seeds to Feeds vegetables are being planted and are growing as best they can in this rather cool and stormy weather. However, there is still time for you to start a garden and grow some vegetables for the community dinner in March. We may be changing the date, as it clashes with the Newtown Fair, going to both would be too much even for the best of us!

Now is the time to plant broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, tomato and capsicum and carrot seedlings or get seeds planted for carrots, runner beans, broad beans, beetroot, zucchini , spinach and silver beet so that they will be ready in time for the beginning of March. Have a look at this planting timeline. A deep cardboard box or a big paint bucket are good containers for a simple garden for potatoes or tomatoes. Drill drainage holes in the bucket, but rather than in the bottom, drill them around the sides about 5cm from the bottom, this will give the plants a small reservoir of water for dry spells.

If you would like some garden creation help, some seedlings, or to be involved in any other way, please contact Sylvia, our team coordinator.

Koha Coffee this Saturday December 5 from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm at the Community Hall. Katy will be hosting this last one of 2020 – please feel free to bring some kai to share and come and enjoy the company of your neighbours.

Houghton Valley Progressive Association meeting

On Sunday 6 December at the community hall, our local Residents’ Association will be holding their last meeting for the year. Come along at 4 pm to find out more about what exciting (and necessary) things are going on in the valley.

Roadworks programme

WCC Traffic have postponed the work on Hungerford Road and View Road this holiday season but these other works in the neighbourhood will be happening:

• Southgate Road kerb and channel replacement and footpath repairs, 7 – 16 December with two-way stop/go traffic management;
• Hornsey Road resurfacing 26 – 29 January, detour with resident access only;
• Sutherland Road resurfacing 15 December with two-way stop/go traffic management.

(157 recipients, 95 opens)

October 28, 2020

Houghton Valley School Fair This Weekend!

Houghton Valley School are looking forward to hosting you at their annual fair this Sunday 1st November from 10am – 2pm. We will have treats and fun for the entire family including:

• Pony rides, sumo wrestling, gumboot throwing, archery;
• Crepes, wood fire pizzas, ceviche, lamb on a spit;
• Amazing live music (see below)
• Bespoke crafts, bric-a-brac and oodles of pre loved clothes, books and toys!

Please support our Zero Waste aim by bringing your own bags, keep cups, plates and cutlery.

Seed to Feeds in Houghton Valley

We now have a confirmed date for our Seeds to Feeds feast in Houghton Valley, so save the date for Sunday 7 March 2021! The time will be for an early dinner, so that kids can come and have fun too.

Some of the local team will be at the school fair this Sunday helping run the plant stall, so come and check out if there are any vegetable seedlings you could buy to start you own veggie garden for your summer meals and the Seeds to Feeds one as well. They are also running a special kids activity to create a mini cardboard box garden.

We’d love to have more people to grow some vegetables for the dinner! If you are not sure how to go about it, or would like some help just to get things going, some of the team members can come round to your place and help set you up with an easy no dig, container or cardboard box garden in a sunny, sheltered spot. If you would like some garden creation help or to be involved in any other way, please contact Sylvia, our team coordinator.

Now is the time to plant potatoes, pumpkins and spring onions so that they will be ready in time for the beginning of March. To get the timing right for other vegetables, have a look at this Planting timeline. A deep cardboard box or a big paint bucket are good containers for a simple garden for potatoes or tomatoes. Drill drainage holes in the bucket, but rather than in the bottom, drill them around the sides about 5cm from the bottom, this will give the plants a small reservoir of water for dry spells.

If you have a sunny corner that is a bit wild, consider growing a pumpkin plant, or two, we have some seedlings just sprouting at the moment.

Katy will host Koha Coffee on Sunday 8 November, 10.30 am – 12.30pm at the Community Hall. This is a week later because of the school fair. Come in and exchange news, make contacts, and discuss local events and issues. A warm welcome to new residents as well as the regulars.

South Coast Emergency Planning Workshop

WREMO invites coastal residents to an emergency planning workshop to discuss coastal hazards and the impacts households face, as well as steps that households can take to better prepare before, during and after a major event. This workshop is for anyone who lives along the South Coast of Wellington, from Owhiro Bay to Breaker Bay.

• When: Sunday 15 November, 10 am
• Where: Owhiro Bay School (hall), 96 Happy Valley Road

For more information, visit the Facebook event, to register for the workshop visit the WREMO website.

(157 recipients, 99 opens)

October 1, 2020

Tree Planting on the Headland

The following article has been contributed by a young local:

“On a Sunday in August me and my dad walked to the Awawa track on Te Raekaihau by Princess Bay. We walked up to meet Brian, the person who invited everyone to this tree planting. I walked up to find the planting site while my dad helped Brian carry up more native plants.

I found the planting spot and started helping. My dad and I looked for free spaces to plant the new trees in the sun spot that had been cut by the Council ranger amongst the karo trees. My dad found another sun spot through some gorse and started planting up there. Brian’s dog, Whī, smelt a rat under the little abandoned shed I was sitting in, but she was tied up so she couldn’t go get it. We kept planting for a while. We planted: kawakawa, ngaio, tarata, taupata, harakeke, kowhai, mahoe and other natives. Brian let Fee go to search under and over the shed floor but unfortunately she couldn’t find the rat.

We got to have lots of yummy snacks made by Brian and the other volunteers. Brian told us about the health of the stream, why we planted the plants we did, about when Houghton Valley School was a dump and about the next tree plantings.

My dad and I walked home with Brian and Fee talking about so much stuff. It is exciting planting trees because there will be more birds in Houghton Valley living on the food they provide. Thanks to Brian and the other volunteers for all their mahi (and the cookies!).”

Isabel, 12, (student at SWIS, volunteer tree planter and cookie eater).

Seed to Feeds in Houghton Valley

Seeds to Feeds is happening again in Houghton Valley! We have a core team of people to help with growing food over the summer months, and cooking, hosting and coordinating a community dinner in early March. The team attended the offical Seeds to Feeds launch on September 21, along with 10 other keen suburb groups from around Wellington.

The local team is meeting this Saturday to start planning the growing, some related workshops and the event itself.

If you think you might like to grow some vegetables for the dinner, but are not sure how to go about it, two of the team members can come round to your place and set you up with an easy no dig or container garden in a sunny, sheltered spot. We will also have seeds provided by Seeds to Feeds (sponsored by Kings Seeds and Bunnings). If you would like some garden creation help or to be involved in any other way, please contact Sylvia, our team coordinator.

General Food Growing in Houghton Valley

Following on from the last Seeds to Feeds event and before the current one, there has been some discussion amongst the locals involved and some of the Seeds to Feeds organisers about how growing food in Houghton Valley could be more than just providing for an annual community dinner.

Houghton Bay Farm is a backyard enterprise, providing salad greens for Commonsense Organics. Our community gardens near the school and at Te Kawakawa Commons provide a modest supply of vegetables, and many individuals have their own garden beds. What if we could all combine to create a distributed urban farm, supplying vegetables to the local community?

Some discussions have included even bigger ideas, such as looking at using under-utilised Council land for growing vegetables on a larger scale, based on the Kaicycle model of an urban farm in Newtown. There has been an encouragingly positive response from WCC, but there are still many issues to sort out such as integrated recreation, soil quality, shelter and water drainage. But wouldn’t it be great to be able to buy a veggie bag filled with produce grown literally on your doorstep?

What do you think about these ideas? Things are at a very initial stage and we want to create a wider community discussion over the next few months. Something to talk about at Koha Coffee perhaps!

Houghton Valley School Fair

The school fair is coming up soon! This year it is on Sunday, 1 November from 10 am – 2 pm. As always, there will be delicious food, great entertainment, things to buy, and activities for all the family. The garden stall is run by the local community. If you are potting up seedlings, do them now so that they are reasonably established before the fair. More details in the next newsletter!

Koha Coffee is back in action: Andrew will host this Saturday, 3 October, from 10.30 am – 12.30 pm at the Community Hall. Come in and exchange news, make contacts, and discuss local events and issues. A warm welcome to new residents as well as the regulars.

Planning for Growth

WCC has two years to make changes to the District Plan, which sets planning controls and building guidelines. The first draft will identify target areas. Houghton Valley is not a targeted area, but we need to consider the parts of the city that we value and the changes that could happen.
This document gives some more information about the process. If you are interested in making a submission but need a sounding board for your ideas, drop into Koha Coffee on Saturday at the hall at 10.30 and Ken will provide as much information as he can.

(154 recipients, 102 opens)

September 4, 2020

eDNA results

The eDNA sampling of our local stream near the Hungerford Road playground has produced some encouraging results. Not only are there Koura (freshwater crayfish) but there are signs of a native fish, the banded kōkopu. (Photo from NIWA.) These creatures are surviving in our very fresh but only inches deep spring water, cut off for 70+ years by the landfill pipes.

Not surprisingly, the results found no fish life in the stream once it had entered the pipes below the landfill. And when you see what comes out into the sea after a long dry spell you can see why!

This photo was taken by a surfer, Dominic Geers, and featured in a recent NZ Herald article.

Seed to Feeds

The Seeds to Feeds event people are asking Houghton Valley if they want to participate again this year, growing food over the summer months and hosting a community dinner in early March. We need to get a volunteer team together before we can commit to the project. Things to get involved with include:

• Event planning
• Food growing at the community garden or your own backyard
• Meal preparation
• Setting up the hall
• Assisting with serving and cleaning up

If you would like to be involved, please contact Jenny.

Report on Hungerford Rd Maintenance Plan

The plan is to start this December but if that is not possible, then February 2021. The works will take about 2 – 3 weeks. The key impediment is the steepness of the road and the safety issues that raises as it is at the limits of heavy vehicle capacity. This will mean barriers and a rota of road closures for the west and east sections of the road. There is also a possibility that works needed in View Road could be incorporated into the same time frame.

The road will be closed during work hours. Buses will be re-routed to Houghton Bay Road and off-street parking and access during the works will be negotiated with work crews. Rubbish collection and deliveries will be allowed access and it was stressed that all care will be taken to ensure disability and other high-needs access will be assisted by the crews when informed. It is important that services such as taxis and Uber are informed when booked during this time.

Locals offered suggestions about points of congestion such as school pickup times and placing signage well away to allow detours. There was considerable comment over issues of speed on Hungerford Road and the intersection at the top. These comments were taken back to WCC planners to see if improvements such as signage and traffic calming could be incorporated into the work.

As this Sunday is still Level 2, Katy will postpone Koha Coffee, hopefully only until the following Sunday. You can check our local Facebook Group for the new date. If you are new, you may need to sign up for the Facebook Group, but it is there for other local news in between the newsletters.

The Koha coffee will still be 10.30 am at the Houghton Valley Community Hall, next to the Playcentre. A warm welcome to new residents as well as the regulars.

Update on the Runway Extension

The following is an excerpt from the Guardian of the Bays 2020 Annual Report.

Things are on hold at the Airport (WIAL): the Civil Aviation Authority has still not decided on the required safety margin for any runway extension; the COVID-19 emergency has pushed out expansion plans for months, even years; and while WIAL says it still plans to extend the runway, they have delayed the timeline to some undetermined future.

However, the runway extension is only part of a much wider airport expansion. WIAL is stretching its boundaries into Miramar (e.g. the golf course), Moa Point (where it now owns half the residential properties) and Rongotai/Lyall Bay (e.g. the control tower, retail space and plans to utilise that industrial land for plane parking). The airport is also planning some major changes along the breakwater and on the Southern end of the runway at Moa Point.

There has been discussion on the desirability of the airport passing into public ownership so that the focus is on public service rather than the goal of maximising profits for the private sector for whom the environment, social disruption, public health and climate change are peripheral concerns. Yet WIAL continues to look to ratepayers and taxpayers to subsidise its activities – with as few strings attached as possible.

Rongotai Candidates Meetings

If you are interested in hearing our local Rongotai Candidates speak, here are a few options hosted by local residents’ Associations:

• Kilbirnie Community Centre: Saturday 19 September, 2.00 – 3.30 pm
• St Annes Hall Emmett St, Newtown: Thursday 24 September, 7.30 – 9.30 pm
• St Mathews Church, 98 Washington Ave: Wednesday 30 September, 7.30 pm
• Gateway Baptist, 33 Park Rd Miramar: Monday 28th September, 7.30 pm

(149 recipients, 96 opens)

July 30, 2020

Is anybody there?

Continuing our stream awareness theme, this week a trio of residents conducted their own stream life survey of the little stream near the Hungerford Road playground both before and after it enters the pipe beneath the landfill. They used a Wilderlab eDNA mini kit to take samples of the water in the stream near the bridge over the side stream and from the pipe 6m below the field. The kit collects genetic material shed by organisms through the loss of skin, hair, scales, fluids and faeces. While we are sure there is life in the clean water, we want to know if anything is surviving in our buried stream.

Community Meeting for Hungerford Rd Maintenance

There is a meeting tonight (Thursday 30 July) at 7 pm at the Houghton Valley School Hall put on by Wellington City Council and Fulton Hogan to discuss the major maintenance and resurfacing of Hungerford Road this coming paving season, and the impact this will have on residents and through traffic. The most local residents were advised in a mail drop, but others are welcome to come and see what is proposed. There are various options, and they would like to explain the reasons for the work and the various constraints of the job.

This Saturday August 1 at 10.30 am at the Houghton Valley Community Hall, next to the Playcentre. A warm welcome to new residents as well as the regulars. Andrew is hosting.

(148 recipients, 88 opens)