April 1, 2024
Welcome to new subscribers and new visitors to the valley – see photo above!
Koha Coffee
Sunday April 7, 10.30 am – 12.30 pm
Koha Coffee has been on the back burner so far this year due to a large number of other things happening. (Same with the newsletters actually …) But we are getting back into the swing of things, starting this Sunday. So come along to the community hall with some kai or a koha and catch up with what’s been happening locally.
Weed and Feed at the Pines
Saturday, April 13, 9.30 am – 1.30 pm
This Te Ohu o Te Raekaihau weeding session will be a special (and hopefully annual) collaboration with the owners of The Pines to celebrate the end of the weeding season and the start of the planting season.
Come along for a morning of weeding a large patch of Cape Ivy followed by a feed provided by The Pines. The programme is:
- 9.30 am – a discussion on upcoming activities and issues with the Te Ohu o Te Raekaihau group (optional);
- 10.00 am – weeding session;
- 12 midday – lunch at The Pines
Meet at the The Pines, which is at 50 The Esplanade. Come up to the top car park behind the chapel. Bring gloves and sturdy shoes. All tools and instructions are provided. In the event of bad weather it will be postponed to Sunday 14th April.
As this is a catered event, please RSVP / sign up via Meetup or send an email to teraekaihau@gmail.com.
Seeds-to-Feeds recap
Our fifth Seeds-to-Feeds on 2 March was another great success, they just keep getting better and better!
Many thanks to Leone and helpers for the spectacular food; our old hall for the gorgeous setting; Jacob for the beautiful guitar music; Tina for the awesome mihi and karakia; Daniela Fuenzalida Photography for the gorgeous photos and Sarah and Ange from Seeds-to-Feeds for being so gorgeously upbeat and providing the extra finishing touches. And thanks too for the extra helpers on the day, the community gardeners, home gardeners and sponsors (CommonSense Organics and Kaibosh) for their contributions to the food and of course all the happy guests.
To see more of Daniela’s photos watch our slideshow. Make sure you come next year!
Update on Lifting the Creek
Since our petition presentation to Wellington City Council, we have been waiting to hear whether they did put some money into their Long Term Plan, and whether it could be used for a more sustainable solution such as we have been proposing. The Council in turn have been waiting to hear whether they will be obliged to do something about the situation from a report due at the end of March outlining their obligations under the updated Natural Resources Plan. We don’t know if that will affect their commitment to do something or not.
The next action with WCC will be for us as individuals from Houghton Valley community to ask them again to support our Lifting the Creek project when the formal LTP consultation process starts on April 12th.
However, with some unexpected and totally awesome support for our concept both from a technological and aspirational point of view we recently made a presentation to Greater Wellington Regional Council. They were impressed and encouraged us to submit to their Long Term Plan. We really feel like the current is building!
The main aim is still to get enough funding to create a whole catchment plan, which will then make it easier to establish costs and find extra construction funding over and above what WCC has. The catchment planning process will involve an initial consultation with the wider community and users; the map below is indicative only.
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