July 18, 2018
Back to straight newsletters again!
Kae Miller Trust Founder’s Day
The Kae Miller Trust is celebrating its Founder’s Day this Saturday 21st July at 1pm. This is held at the Alice Krebs Lodge (the little building up on Te Raekaihau headland). The lodge will be open for visitors from 1pm, if you would like to come and see inside and find out about its heritage and the remarkable woman who built the lodge. Afternoon tea will be provided. A little earlier (11am) there will be a small number of native shrubs planted in the nearby Peace Grove created by Kae in the 1980s.
Little Blue Penguins
The Kororā or Little Blue penguin is the smallest of all penguins. It is recognised by its plain steely blue coat above, with satiny white below. Whilst younger birds are much less settled, fully mature birds tend to be sedentary and return to the same site every year. Colonies are only visited at night for breeding.
Houghton Bay has a resident population of Kororā with many recorded sightings on Naturewatch. Our beach is an off-leash dog exercise area, and it is well known that dogs are one of their biggest threats, with a number of dog attacks recorded in the media over time. If we can protect our resident population of Kororā, it’s likely that we will see increased numbers of them.
A local dog owner has succeeded in training his dog to avoid Kororā, by using a found penguin carcass and a training collar on a low setting as a deterrent. If you are interested in training your dog please contact Brian. Timing for the training will depend on the availability of another dead penguin!
Report of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association AGM
About twenty people braved the weather on Sunday 8 July to attend the AGM of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association. It was gratifying to see such a response to the organisation’s appeal for support.
The meeting began with a mihi and waiata for the guest speaker, Luana Carroll, the principal of Houghton Valley School. Luana then introduced herself and spoke of her focus over her first two terms at the school; getting to know the children and grappling with the issues of the National Education Review, the new School Charter and the school as a Civil Defence Centre. She welcomed community input into developing the School Charter, the intention of which is to make us consider what we want for our children. She also expressed her gratitude for the community help at the school fairs, and said she would like to find ways for the school to give as well as receive.
The group then discussed the issues facing the HVPA, each taking a minute or two to express their thoughts. The general feeling was that both the Association and the hall were necessary for the community. Thoughts and ideas canvassed at the meeting included:
- HVPA has a strong influence when lobbying local government. The old title of “progressive” comes from this lobbying role to get the best for the community. The Council needs a community group to interact with;
- If the hall and the HVPA go, they would be hard to get back. The hall is the only facility in the valley that can be hired out;
- Next year a new act will require HVPA to come up with a new constitution. Two people have offered to investigate alternative structures, including a marae;
- Let the hall serve the school and Playcentre and vice-versa. The school is bursting at the seams while the hall is often empty. Playcentre has used the hall for rainy day dancing. It is a great opportunity for the school and play centre to work together with the HVPA on community and environment issues. Could we build some of these ideas into the curriculum?
- The school has the Fair, the Playcentre has The Great Debate, what can the HVPA do?
- It is hard to get involved as parents, parents will go where their children go. Include children focussed activities in the hall;
- There’s enthusiasm in the community to get involved. The committee needs to let people know how they can assist, and what activities are suitable for the hall;
- A calendar of current hall use would be useful to see where the gaps are. A flyer with the calendar asking for suggestions and community needs to go out to reach new residents not yet on the newsletter list;
- A second table tennis table has been offered, as well as an offer to re-cover the cushions;
- The HVPA doesn’t turn down any reasonable suggestions and can offer koha and rent-free sessions, and even some funding to get projects started. Anyone with an idea needs to be the champion of the event.
- Suggestions so far: register hall on TimeBank, mid-winter dinner, craft beer festivals, pre-fair storage, clothes auction for school fair, dance for adults, yoga and art classes, fruit and vegetable swaps, theatre groups, fix it workshops, bring back the bird banding.
So all in all the event was positive and should result in some renewed vigour. We will keep you updated as the ideas, research and and planning unfolds.
(170 recipients, 98 opens)