Local Happenings

September 20, 2018

Houghton Valley School fair

Saturday October 27, 10 am -2 pm

The school fair is fast approaching, and the school would love to see lots of people from the Houghton Valley Community sharing the day with them. There will be entertainment, great food, games and activities including pony rides, petting zoo, bouncy castle and all the usual favourites: craft stall, silent auction, toys, books and clothes, cakes, tea shop… the list goes on.

As well as being he school’s annual community event, the fair is also its biggest fundraiser, and this year the money raised will go towards the playground, and updating the school’s technology.

If you are able to donate second hand clothes, books or toys in excellent condition, or to make some craft items, jams or chutneys for the fair, it would be much appreciated. Items can be dropped at school, or be picked up – please contact the school or Karen.

They are also planning a pre-fair social get together at the community hall, where there will be some of the best clothes for sale – the date is likely to be the evening of Friday October 19th – please let Karen know if you might be interested and the date will be confirmed.

Plants for the school fair

The local community has contributed to the school fair for several years now, by running the plant stall and supplying plants for the stall.

The time is right now if you want to plant some vegetable seeds or make herb cuttings. That will give them about six weeks to grow enough but not too big. Also if you have some seedlings in your garden, potting them up now will mean they are reasonably settled. If you have some plants in pots already, give them a weed or prune to make them look attractive. Plants are usually delivered on the day, it is good to give them a decent water the night before.

Building work at the school

Dear Neighbours of Houghton Valley School,

From 7 September Construct Wellington Ltd will be building a new classroom extension near the gates to Houghton Valley School. This work is expected to be completed by the end of January 2019 at the latest.

• Vehicle parking and traffic: Most traffic around the main gate will be between 7 am and 8.30 am. Contractors will aim to park in the bottom car park;
• Noise: There may be noise during the hours allowed by Council: 7.30 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday and some Saturdays, particularly the week of Sept 15  – 21 as the piles are put in.

We know there has been a lot of building work at school over the last year or two, and we thank you for your understanding. If you have any questions or concerns please contact the school, or Shane of Construct.

New shed celebration at Te Kawakawa Commons

Te Kawakawa Commons is having its Grand New Shed Opening Sunday 7 October at 1 pm.  Bring a picnic lunch or enjoy the snacks on offer, check out the new fruit trees and vegie garden layout and explore the numerous bush tracks. The shed is sponsored by the Houghton Valley Progressive Association and the Council “Stone Soup” funding for community gardens. The new shed is beautiful but really just a great excuse for a spring community get-together (maybe in the sunshine!) See you there! Ring Ken for more information.

Events around Wellington

September 19: Celebrate 10 years of the Taputeranga Marine Reserve at the PechaKucha Taputeranga evening, 7.30 pm. Twelve speakers will present their views on the South Coast and the Reserve.
September 22: Check out the Otari-Wilton Bush open day  from 10 am – 2 pm. There will be plants for sale, guided walks, kids’ activities, and food and handmade gifts for sale.
September 22 – 30:  Enjoy activities and colourful and fragrant puāwai – including thousands of tulips – at the Botanic Gardens Spring Festival.
September 21 – 30: Join New Zealand’s biggest citizen science project to gather information on the abundance and distribution of the New Zealand pigeon, also known as kererū, kūkū or kūkupa. You can log your observations at The Great Kereru Count. (link not current)

(list cleaned of paradise.net and clear.net defunct addresses??)

(mailing list clean-up, 123 recipients, 86 opens)

August 28, 2018

It’s tui time again in Houghton Valley

Those of you who live in the lower part of Houghton Valley will be once again surrounded by the continuous sounds of tui as they call to attract mates or fight off competitors. The Council may not approve of our abundance of karo trees, but the birds are certainly happy with their sweet flowers. Play the recording below for to experience their sounds near Hungerford Road.

Photo above is by our ex-local bird man, Peter Reese.

Are you going to our iconic event: The Great Debate?

This Thursday Houghton Valley Playcentre is holding its 21st  annual “The Great Debate”, a comedy debate between central and local government politicians, and TV and local personalities. This year’s moot is that “It is easier running the country than being a stay-at-home-parent”.  The fantastic line up of speakers are:

• JO RANDERSON (writer, actor)
• TAMATI COFFEY (TV presentor, Labour MP)
• ANAHILA KANONGATA’A-SUISUIKI (Labour MP)
• BRIAN DAWSON (Wellington City Councillor)
• FLEUR FITZSIMONS (Wellington City Councillor)
• DAVE TOWNSEND (local personality)
• NICOLA YOUNG (Wellington City Councillor)
• all led by our charming host and MC MP for Rongotai PAUL EAGLE

There will be nibbles provided, drinks available for purchase at the bar and raffles on the night. Local band The Wooden Box will be playing live music.

This is one of the Playcentre’s big fundraisers for the year, all proceeds go towards our fabulous volunteer-run Playcentre in Houghton Valley. The details are below:

• The Great Debate
• Thursday 30 August @ The Pines
• Doors open 6.45 pm, debate starts 7.30 pm
• Tickets $25

Milk delivery update

Eketahuna Country Milk have been really pleased with the response to glass bottle milk deliveries. They are looking to start the market supply in about 6 weeks. Some details:

• The milk will be pasteurized;
• The milk will be full cream (the old silver top);
• It won’t be skimmed initially;
• They will look to develop the range in the medium term;
• The milk isn’t registered organic but is free from hormones and antibiotics;
• The cows are all grass fed and free range;
• The herd that the milk comes from is a jersey X herd. They haven’t tested for A2 milk but approximately 80% of the herd are A2.

There is enough demand for them to develop a home delivery system. There will be a delivery charge, yet to be determined but as low as possible, and hopefully as the number of customers increase they will revisit this charge.

They deliver meat as well at the same time as the milk and they plan to deliver in the early hours of the morning, so you will wake up with your meat and milk at the door.

Timber for the community gardens

The old telephone pole jarrah timber planks have been delivered and carted in to the community gardens near the school for rebuilding the beds on the lower site (pictured). The new beds will be constructed collaboratively, organically, and in true vernacular style. Come along on Sunday afternoons about 2 – 5 pm if you want to be involved, or just come to look, chat or help weed the the other beds.

Koha coffee – Saturday September 1

Koha Coffee will be held in the community hall from 10.30 am til about 12.30 pm this Saturday. Come and share your news and ideas with other locals and enjoy good food and coffee.

(171 recipients, 95 opens)

August 16, 2018

Do you want to get your milk in glass bottles?

A couple of Eketahuna farmers (Steve and Pip Olds) are setting up a dairy processing plant to produce milk in glass bottles for possible delivery to households in Wellington. They will initially sell their full cream milk at weekend local markets in Lower Hutt and Central Wellington, run as a refilling station.

They are also gauging interest to see if a home-delivery service will also be viable, and if so in which suburbs. If you are interested in home delivery (and/or the bottle refill option at the markets) you can read more about it and register your interest here. (link not current) You can also listen to their RadioNZ Interview.

Kae Miller Trust founder’s day planting

Founder’s Day for the Kae Miller trust was celebrated on July 21. Twenty four plants donated by the Forest and Bird Nursery were planted in the nearby Peace Grove to infill between the flax plants. Afternoon tea was held at the lodge including some of the Trustees and two of Kae’s grandchildren, with a surprise visit from two Maori women, one of whom had stayed in the lodge just after her baby was born at the Tapu te Ranga Marae in Island Bay.

They had come to bury the whenua of her son who is now 17 months old. They planted a small manuka near the blue seat, and sang a haunting waiata into the beautiful blue horizon.

The headland is special to many people, and over the years there have been plantings for whenua, memorials and dedications to International Peace. Not all are strictly ecological plantings, so please be aware that they have meaning to someone and treat them with respect.

Guardians of the Bays

The Guardians of the Bays group had their AGM on August 1. This resident’s group is opposing the airport runway extension proposal on social, cultural and environmental grounds. An extension would also have a visual impact on a reasonable number of our local people.

The minutes report that they have had a quiet year while the resource consent is on hold, but have still been working on the case.

Fruit Tree Plantings

Three Fruit Tree Guardian groups turned up at Innermost Gardens on August 12 for a fruit tree planting workshop organised by The Sustainability Trust, and to collect their fruit trees to plant on public land in and around Houghton Valley.

The fruit tree sites near the school welcomed a new apple and a replacement feijoa for one that had died.

Three feijoa trees made their way to Te Kawakawa Commons. Also two fruit trees were planted near the top of Sinclair Park, no pictures as yet.

Forest restoration in Australia

One of our dedicated tree planters was recently on holiday in Northern New South Wales when he stumbled upon a very successful community led coastal reforestation project. He was making his way down to the beach at Fingal Head and couldn’t help but notice the beautiful bush on the track. It was around dawn and there was a noisy chorus of Australian birds. He discovered that the place had been extensively sand mined in the 1960s and was left as a wasteland. A community led planting initiative started in the 1980s and the results have been nothing short of spectacular.

He bumped into a couple of blokes who were involved in the project and spoke at length with them about it. He found it heartening to see such a successful community led initiative. Planting trees is a simple but positive action that we can all take to help mitigate the damage we are doing to our planet.

(170 recipients, 98 opens)

August 2, 2018

A Boost for our Community Gardens

Our two local community gardens have received grants from the Wellington City Council for improvements to their infrastructure: about $3,000 in total. The garden next to the school will get some new raised beds using more permanent material. Some old jarrah telephone pole timber has been sourced as a durable, non-treated option. Te Kawakawa commons has funding to install a water tank next to its new shed and to build a herb garden.

Amy Bird, WCC Community Resilience Advisor, who manages the Wellington City Council “Stone Soup” pool of funding for community gardening, visited the valley garden last Sunday and met with six of the garden regulars. As usual many more ideas about resilient communities than just community gardens were discussed!

WCC sees community gardens as small-scale, low-investment neighbourhood communal gardening ventures, where the primary purpose is growing vegetables or fruit. They support community gardens through:

• Creating partnerships with organisations like the Sustainability Trust, Mokai Kainga and Enviroschools;
• Supporting the development of a local community gardens network with funding from their general grants pool;
• Providing public land for gardens;
• Recruiting volunteers and linking them with projects;
• Providing subsidised compost and free mulch.

And while we are on the subject of local food, next year’s Neighbours’ Day is planned to be held from March 22 – 31 2019. Ten days to celebrate ten years! A good time for a harvest festival, or any other neighbourly type activities, have a think about what you could do.

Call for Proposals to use our Hall

At the HV Progressive Association AGM the committee decided to invite proposals for attracting more community use of the hall, or engagement with the Association. If you have an idea, they can help fund it from a total pool of $3,000. The pool may be for one or several proposals so even if yours is just a small cost still get the idea in. Ideas floating around are:

• improving the seating with new cushions;
• better heating;
• a new coffee machine;
• registering with TimeBank;
• a mini-beer festival.

You can discuss any ideas at Koha Koffee if you want a sounding board, otherwise email your proposals to Ken.

Koha coffee – Saturday August 4

Koha Coffee will be held in the community hall from 10.30 til about 12.30 this Saturday. We are hoping to make it a regular event now on the first Saturday of each month.

Come and share your news and ideas with other locals and enjoy good food and coffee.

Houghton Valley Progressive Association Subscriptions

With a new year starting, the HVPA is asking for you to renew your membership or to support the organisation by joining up. Membership is $10 for a single or family (and with your membership you get a free set of 6 hall cards!)

You can pay online to Houghton Valley Progressive Association at BNZ Kilbirnie, 020 520 0143013 00. Please make sure you provide your name and Sub2018 in the payment details.

To receive your cards please email Ken with your address details or come to Koha Coffee to pick them up.

(169 recipients, 98 opens)

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)

July 4, 2018

Welcome to part three of our three-part look at the Houghton Valley Progressive Association in the lead up to their AGM on July 8 (4 pm in the hall). We hope to see you there! In this newsletter we look at how the HVPA could be active in promoting community stewardship (kaitiakitanga) of our valley and coastline. These are the questions we have been asking about potential stewardship of Houghton Valley:

• How can we care for the soil, the water, the air, the plants and the creatures in our valley and our bay?
• How can the HVPA help the community pool their environmental care resources – knowledge and labour – to achieve the best possible result?
• How can we develop kaitiakitanga as a lifestyle, a cultural, a recreational and an educational opportunity?

Although stewardship encompasses many aspects of the environment, forest restoration has been one of the more popular activities, so we will look briefly at what has been happening with the restoration of our local reserves.

Forest regeneration in our valley

Due to early farming in Houghton Valley our present forest cover is secondary growth developed from completely bare hillsides. Once farming ceased the slopes quickly reverted to gorse, which regularly went up in flames around the 5th of November. It was not until sky rockets were banned that natural regrowth started to make good headway.

Intentional planting of natives in the began in the 1970s. The corner of Buckley Road and Houghton bay Road was one of the first to be planted, to ‘beautify’ the newly completed rubbish tip. In the 1980s, Kae Miller planted natives on Te Raekaihau Headland (the reserve at the end of View Rd South), and other locals planted more fire resistant natives to try and prevent the constant setbacks.

Forest restoration has blossomed in Houghton Valley, and recently there have been several different groups planting at Te Kawakawa Commons, Buckley Road Reserve, the gully between the school and the playcentre, the zigzag (steps down to Lyall Bay), Te Raekaihau Headland, Cave Road, and Te Raekaihau Point. The Wellington City Council has also been involved, providing hundreds of plants for locals to plant, and ranger assistance.

Different approaches to forest restoration

All these groups have been working independently and following their own ideas about environmental restoration, or just working things out as they go. Some have done their own research about what is best for their patch, others rely on the recommendations of the Council. Some battle on with just a few loyal volunteers, others tap into resources such as Conservation Volunteers, internet volunteer opportunities, students or corporate volunteers, or they ask the Council for help.

The Council will not let volunteers to use machinery or sprays on their land without specific training, but will do such work if asked. Council contractors often are fairly heavy handed when clearing or maintaining tracks, and many a lovingly planted tree has been mown down if it was too close to the track. They also use sprays to control weeds, which not everyone appreciates.

Some groups prefer to do their restoration without chemical or mechanical assistance, maintaining that chemical sprays reduce both the microbial and future plant diversity of the regenerating area, and that weeds can be used as protection for new plants in a harsh climate. It needs more after care, but no revegetation project will be successful without after care. No matter how thorough the preparation, weeds will still return before the new plants are big enough to shade them out.

Some of our projects

Te Raekaihau Restoration Group: plants up on the Te Raekaihau Headland have to cope with some very harsh conditions. Some plants were chosen for survival out in the open but were planted by clearing pockets amongst the weeds. Other plants were chosen for planting in light wells cleared in the karo canopy. Karo has been deemed a “weed” by ecological purists. However it isn’t long lasting and it is ready made shelter for young trees. It is more fire resistant than gorse and the flowers provide good fodder for bees and birds. Where light wells were not created, understorey plants have not survived as the light levels were too low and not enough rain reached the plants in the summer. TRiG works in conjunction with the Kae Miller Trust, which has also done planting around the Alice Krebs Lodge on the headland.

Te Kawakawa Commons: Te Kawakawa Commons is a community garden and recreation area that provides a sanctuary for local families and wildlife alike. With the establishment of vegetable gardens for public use, the planting of native vegetation to encourage wildlife, and the
building of a network of short tracks, the area has been transformed from a scrubby wasteland into a valuable community resource. With generous amounts of mulch supplied by the Council over 6 years there has been a very high plant survival rate and energy in fact has to go into creating airspace for competing plants and to keep the paths cleared to enjoy it all. Without the help of the Conservation Volunteers they would be struggling to do this.

Friends of Buckley Road Reserve: since this group started in 2002, with the help of the WCC they have planted more than 6,000 trees in the reserve that runs the length of Houghton Valley, alongside tracks and under the karo canopy. Flax planted in the wetland below the playground near Hungerford Road has unfortunately succumbed to yellow leaf disease, but other wetland plants such as kaihikatea are still thriving.

Houghton Valley School Rainforest: since 2004 school students have been planting trees with the help of the school caretaker. There is an outdoor classroom where children can learn about the environment and how to care for it. Tracks through the forest are popular for exploring, playing and cross country running.

This area has been looked after by more than one interest group, and their approaches have been quite different. In the last couple of months the WCC was asked to help clear a small part below the road that included old man’s beard amongst the weeds. It has now been planted with Council supplied trees by students from outside the community. The results look impressive to the casual observer, but now there is no sign of the many self fertilised regenerating seedlings that had been growing amongst the weeds.

Another sad thing is that in 2002 the area was cleared in a similar fashion and planted with trees, very few of which have survived. So the net result of forest regeneration in the last 16 years is virtually nil, whereas other parts of the rainforest that did not undergo clearance in 2002 are coming away well.

It is hard to know whether the lack of success over the last years was the result of the initial condition of that particular patch, the effects of clearing and spraying, or the lack of aftercare, but we do know that we need to ensure that this time they survive!

Drawing on our cumulative experience

What lessons can we take away from the success or otherwise of our tree planting efforts in the valley? There is now enough cumulative experience that we can start sharing what works and what doesn’t. Wouldn’t it be good to pool our knowledge and come up with a best solution approach to forest restoration in Houghton Valley? Another thing is that trees need five years of care once planted, and weed and pest control is virtually ongoing. So once a person or people have taken on a small patch, to have enough time or energy to work elsewhere is difficult to achieve. So to create a labour pool as well as a knowledge one, could mean we help each other out with our projects; making for variety, further sharing of knowledge, and an increase in community feeling.

What can the HVPA do to assist planting groups?

• The Houghton Valley Progressive Association could help co-ordinate a valley wide collaboration of knowledge and labour resources, with people meeting in the community hall to share their ideas;
• The HVPA has charitable status, and with that comes a level of respectability and trust. Funding from grants needs to channel through such an organisation, and corporate volunteer groups may prefer a similar backing to a project;
• The HVPA carries public liability insurance, often necessary in these times, which can be extended to approved projects.

Making Kaitiakitanga part of life itself

Tree planting, beach clean-ups, stream restorations, these are all seen as feel-good activities, but they are mostly on the fringes of daily life and are usually sidelined when the pressure of keeping afloat becomes too much.
Kaitiaitanga is an essential part of Maori culture, and for them a lifetime commitment. Is it possible to make looking after our wider environment an intrinsic part of our lives? How could we achieve it? We would love to hear your ideas.

We all understand about looking after our house and garden, and one would hope that most people take pleasure and pride in doing so. Looking after the environment could be seen as gardening beyond the boundaries, or suburban permaculture. It can be a way of getting fit, improving health, educating children, or simply feeling good. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a tree you have planted grow and thrive, and over many years the pleasure increases exponentially!

(169 recipients, 98 opens)

June 27, 2018

Welcome to part two of our three-part look at the Houghton Valley Progressive Association in the lead up to their AGM on July 8 (4pm in the hall). Our school principal, Luana Carroll, will be the guest speaker at the AGM.  This is a chance to welcome her and hear how the school values their relationship with its community. As well we will discuss the future of the Association.

In this newsletter we look at the HVPA’s greatest asset: the community hall.

However firstly, a word of explanation as to the origin of the content of these newsletters. It has been put together by a group of locals concerned about the future of the HVPA. The viewpoints and suggestions expressed are theirs and not of the organisation per se. Some of the viewpoints are provocative, to stimulate discussion. For if we lose our organisation through community indifference we also lose our community hall. Maybe it is worth sticking our necks out to create a reaction if it helps to keep them both going. We fully realise that the views may not be yours. If you want your views or suggestions to be heard then come along to the discussion. That is what community is about!

These are the questions we have been asking about the community hall:

• Do we still want our community hall with the problems of use and maintenance that ownership entails?
• Will the hall ever be the main focus of our community again, and is this important for our community?
• Should we treasure our hall and pass it on to the next generation?
• The hall is currently underutilised, how could we use it more?

Multi-storey apartments mooted for Houghton Valley

The Houghton Valley Progressive Association is struggling to look after their dilapidated hall, and are considering selling it. A developer has expressed an interest in buying the land and wants to build a multi-storey apartment block on the land. The upper apartments would take full advantage of the spectacular views.

“We can do our bit towards solving the housing crisis” says a HVPA spokesperson.

This is only a scenario and not a reality, but it is a fact that members of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association once believed ‘they’ had no choice but to demolish the hall, sell the section and maybe use the proceeds to buy play equipment or a similar gift for the valley. In 1997 they got to the point of inviting real estate agents in to advise on the sale of the land. However, a resident and relative of the original donors of the land, pointed out to the meeting in no uncertain terms:

“You can’t sell the community hall, because it belongs to everyone!”

 As far we we know, our community is the only one in Wellington to own both their hall and the land; others are owned by the Council and/or sit on Council land.

History of the community hall

In 1929 a local family donated a piece of land to the HVPA, and the association raised 100 pounds towards materials and used voluntary labour to build a hall. The design had to be shortened as excavation of the rocky soil was so difficult. It was opened on 10 August 1929, and was named the Haughton Valley Hall. A lower terrace of the land was developed into tennis courts.

The use of the hall was intended to be for community meetings and club rooms, but early on it was rented to the education department for use as the valley’s first school.

The hall was the hub of Houghton Valley community throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s and WWII. The HVPA ran it to full capacity with regular dances, sporting activities, civics classes for children, League of Mothers meetings, and card and quiz evenings.

However community use of the hall declined in the 1950s with the advent of the car, cheap petrol, and television. Indeed those who lived through this period describe community life in terms of “before the car” and “after the car”.

The hall’s dominant use from 1942 was as a Playcentre but this ceased in 1997 when the Ministry of Health decreed the lead paint on the outside walls made the building unsafe for children. So the HVPA leased old the tennis court land to the Playcentre Movement, and the current playcentre was constructed that year.

Another important community use of the hall in this period was as a Civil Defence Centre. Up to 50 local residents met there regularly till the early 1990s to train in triage, social welfare, communication and other systems so that the community could be more resilient in the event of an emergency.

Other activities included Cubs, Scouts, Brownies, the Townswomens’ Guild, the Tennis Club. The hall has always been a place of dance and music, more recently taking the form of dance studios.

By the 1980s there was serious concern about declining use of the hall and by the 1990s it also needed a lot of work. When the playcentre lease and the sale idea fell to the ground a few local residents stepped up and volunteered considerable time and even materials to repair rotten walls, replace the roof and strip and paint most of the building to avoid demolition. The hall has since been repiled and the floor strengthened to enable vigorous activities such as dancing.

This generation of Houghton Valley residents inherits a community hall in a far better state than twenty years ago.

For the next 12-15 years, the HVPA successfully maintained a regime of ensuring the maintenance costs were covered by allowing small businesses to use the premises. It was mostly used as a dance studio and still is today. One local took on most of the maintenance during this time.

In 2012, there was a change in management, and a renewed commitment to make the hall once more a community resource and the hub of community activity. Lectures and public meetings, Neighbour’s Day celebrations, banner painting, Koha Coffee mornings and a kitchen upgrade was the result of the revival. However keeping this momentum has proved difficult, because the hall had become virtually invisible over the years it was let out, and the focus of the community has shifted to the school.

We are on the cusp of change

A lot of the discussion from the hall’s history is very similar to our concerns today, in particular the balance between use and income to ensure maintenance, but also how the use of the hall reflects the ebb and flow of community involvement generally.

The community use of the hall is currently at an ebb again. These days people lead incredibly busy lives whether they wish to or not. The popularity of the school has meant the arrival of more younger households into the area, and family life is generally all-encompassing.

However, over the years there have been several occasions of crisis, and each time a few individuals have come forward and either revived or downright rescued the hall. Long may the cycle continue!

Koha Coffee Saturday June 30

Not a complete ebb though … this Saturday June 30 Koha Coffee will be held in the community hall from 10.30 til about 12.30. If you haven’t been to the hall, or not for a long time, come and experience its old fashioned charm for yourself; have coffee, eat goodies, play table tennis or the piano, dance in front of the mirrors, browse the lending library, and meet and chat to other locals. And if you have been recently, come and catch up again.

Envisioning the future of our hall

So what happens now? That’s the question the last quarterly HVPA meeting asked, and is looking to the community for their ideas. Do we keep the hall partially rented and partially used by the community, leaving the the responsibility of looking after it to a few volunteers? Or do we lease the hall fully to someone and use the total rent to keep it in good shape? Is there anything else that could be done? A timeline is also required as we need to appreciate our current users.

Thinking outside the square

The Common Unity Project has set up a Remakery in Epuni to rebuild and upcycle unwanted stuff including old bicycles and remnant fabrics. The operation also promotes urban food growing and bee keeping, has a local food shop and a local food catering service. School children grow sunflowers for bees and sell their seeds around the country.

(167 recipients, 100 opens)

 

June 20, 2018

It’s been a while since the last newsletter, but there have been several recent issues, actions, reactions and changes in focus; creating questions that have needed some clarification before putting them out to the wider community for discussion.

The AGM of the Houghton Valley Progressive Association is coming up on Sunday 8 July (4 pm in the hall). There will be a discussion focussing on these questions – encompassing the role of the HVPA, the use of the hall and the care of the environment of our valley. The discussion and consequent decisions will be the basis of the aims of the HVPA for the coming year.

We will also celebrate the HVPA new year with a talk by our school Principal, Luana Carroll, on how she sees the school interacting with the community and caring for the area.

Up until the AGM there will be three newsletters at one week intervals, each featuring one set of questions, and providing some background information to support the discussion. We start here with the questions about the Houghton Valley Progressive Association.

• Should the Houghton Valley Progressive Association reinvent itself – its name, its structure, its activities – to become more relevant?
• How can we make it one of the community’s greatest assets?
• How can it reflect a new outlook, based on principles of proactive community and kaitiakitanga of the place we inhabit?

History of the HVPA

In 1925, the residents of Buckley Road, Houghton Bay Road and View Road formed the South Melrose Ratepayers and Residents’ Association, with the aim of getting action on long overdue basic services such as a bus service, milk supply, electric street lighting, an extended water and gas supply and extended drainage, as well as telephone services.

In 1926, owing to confusion with Melrose, the Association was renamed the Haughton Valley Progressive Association. By then many of the services had been improved along with the building of 30 more houses.

In 1927, a local family donated land on which to build a community hall and tennis courts. There is a fuller account of these early beginnings on the Houghton Valley website.

From its beginning, the HVPA has been a voice for our community,
negotiating with the City Council over the provision of services to the suburb and the use of the generous amounts of public land in the area, with meetings often reported in the Evening Post. For instance, in 1936 and 1937, local issues included the tar sealing of the roads. Hornsey Road had potholes and Houghton Bay Road had ruts two feet wide and ten inches deep. Buckley Road in particular was in need of improvement:

“A member described the condition of Buckley Road South as unfit to carry any vehicular traffic and said it was nothing more than a gorse-covered clay track, which tradespeople would not use. It was absolutely necessary to have the road completed, as the risk of fire was too great; there was also the difficulty of access in case of sickness in the district … in cases of sickness it had frequently occurred that six doctors had been rung up. It seemed impossible to get doctors to go there because the road was impassable.”

The  image show the state of the roads and the number of houses in the lower valley in 1938. If you would like to view the image in more detail, the link is: https://files.interpret.co.nz/Retrolens/Imagery/SN70/Crown_70_D_14/High.jpg

In 1944 issues were a little more refined, such as the need for a bathing shed at Princess Bay and an improved bus route.

The HVPA continued to contribute to the vitality of our community in a range of ways over the years. It facilitated Civics lessons for our children and dances for the adults in the 1930s; preschool education since the 1940s; and, until the Civil Defence reforms of the mid 1990s, it helped ensure the valley had a strong contingent of trained volunteers in the event of a Civil Emergency.

Every decade or so another small group of Houghton Valley residents has stepped forward and replaced HVPA members who can no longer contribute their services to our community. Similarly the community uses of the hall have periodically changed in ways unimaginable to our HVPA ancestors. The time has come again for such review and the need for refreshment is upon us now.

The Association name

As you have seen, our organisation name has been changed once before. We are beginning to wonder whether this now quaintly old fashioned name is appropriate for today. In 1926, progress in the valley was important to establish basic amenities.

“Progress” over the years since has included filling large areas of the valley with the city’s excess garbage and converting its clean waters into high-risk leachate and pumping it several kilometers to Happy Valley tip (or out into the bay in high rainfall). Projects that didn’t make it included converting our fields into a light-industrial zone, or covering several of them in tarmac for a netball faciilty!

Today, we need to progress beyond “Progress”. Progressive behaviour involves careful resource use, ensuring access to affordable and democratic infrastructure, conserving our endemic soils, water, forests, wildllfe and solar potential, and respecting our Maori taonga.

Other community entities include the phrase “Residents and/or Ratepayers Association”, and are perceived as being the channel through which ratepayers lobby the Council for improved services. But maybe we need an entity that is ours first and foremost, for us to help improve our own community. Looking to the Council for help may not be the only solution.

The Association structure

The HVPA is a registered association with charitable status, like a club or society, exempt from having to pay tax. But with that status comes obligations in the form of committee meetings complete with agendas, financial reports, voting and minutes. Designed to keep organisational and financial accountability, it is never-the-less an archaic system not suited to people with busy lives. Many groups doing good work in the valley at the moment are completely ad hoc, operating on zero budgets and an email list.

Maybe it is time to find a more appropriate organisational model to base our community voice on, one that increases the inspirational activities and decreases the red tape. We have to bear in mind the realities of public liability and the possible need for applying for grants. However, trusts are less demanding in terms of membership, and one of the most enduring community models in this country is the marae. It’s time to think outside the square!

The Association role

Recently there have been examples of concerned locals doing something about a situation that bothers them. A small group approached the Council and the Cook Strait News (May 24) about the need for a better playground at the top of Sinclair Park. Another local called in the Council to help with weed clearing, who did their job in a typically insensitive manner (see photo). In earlier times people would have come to the HVPA, who would have discussed the issue with the community and approached the Council on their behalf.

A community organisation is there to listen to and represent its community. It can be slower and sometimes more fraught to get the wider community engaged in a project, but it is ultimately a far richer experience – the making of friends and the making of community.

(166 recipients, 98 opens)

April 6, 2018

Another medley of items: this time video is being featured, maybe it will inspire you to send in some footage you have taken that celebrates the place where we live. Don’t forget I am happy to use photos that you have taken for the newsletter banner.

Dolphins in Houghton Bay

Last week there were literally hundreds of dolphins in Houghton and Princess Bays. A workmate of a local took some drone footage of them sporting near the shore. An amazing sight!

Houghton Valley Progressive Association meeting

The next Houghton Valley Progressive Association meeting is coming up this Sunday, 4pm at the community hall. All are welcome. Under discussion will be the GWRC Long Term Plan and the WCC Long Term Plan coming up for consultation on April 15.

If you are interested in what is happening over the hill, the Kilbirnie-Rongotai Progressive Association is having a meeting on 12 April at the Harbour City Chapel at 7.30 pm. They will be having a guest speaker from Wellington Water with an update on storm water and the Kilbirnie pump station.

Water in our sea and skies

Upper Houghton Valley has a fine view of the Baring Heads, a promontory at the South-West entrance to Wellington Harbour. Dave McArthur has a spectacular view of the headland and has documented the ever-changing forms of water in the sea and sky over several years. Together they form a graphic ‘riff’ on his view of that headland.

This ‘animated’ version of his still images was compiled by Geoff Hume-Cook of Transforming Images, who is a past and now honorary local. The video clip was made in 2014 as part of a Waterwheel Online Conference, in which several local artists participated.

Wonderful Drama: WATER (Clip for part 2 of Dave McArthur’s contribution) from Transforming Images Ltd.

(167 recipients, 85 opens)

March 21, 2018

Hi everyone,

This week (March 19 – 25) is local food week in Wellington, the sixth year Wellington has celebrated it. So I have been around and photographed all the wild/community fruit trees I know of in the valley, and they feature in this newsletter. If I have missed any, feel free to contact me and I can add to the list. Most trees are fairly young and not fruiting yet, but it is good to know that there are sheltered pockets in the valley where fruit trees can survive the wind, salt and the Council mowers!

Little Free Libraries in Houghton Valley

Little Free Libraries, or Lilliput Libraries, is an international movement that promotes community, responsibility, and the love of reading. Little free libraries are small book exchange libraries that people are starting to put up all over their neighbourhoods. Locals get together to make and decorate them. They are placed on private property out near the footpath so that passers-by can give or take books from it. Each one has a caretaker.

If you are interested in designing, building, hosting, or being a guardian of a Little Free Library, please contact Jessica.

For more information, check out the following websites:

https://lilliputlibraries.wordpress.com/

https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/the-magic-of-little-free-libraries

Upper Newtown Development

As the Salvation Army complex is nearing completion we have heard through the grapevine that Newtown New World is going to have an $80 million makeover of their current store. It is intended to be their headline store for Wellington.

Maybe one of these big players could expand their social services and fit in a post office!

Community Fruit Trees in Houghton Valley

Te Raekaihau Headland surprisingly has a couple of fruit trees tucked away in sheltered spots. Site No.1 is an apple tree at a junction of several tracks including the Kae Miller track, known as Bulldog corner because of the bulldog statue commemorating a local pet. The tree was planted by a local, Piebe Kooistra, who during his latter life created and looked after many tracks on the headland and planted many trees. Site No. 2 is a loquat tree at the Alice Krebs Lodge near the highest point of the headland.

On the Southern Walkway track leading up to the horse paddock behind the school, five fruit trees were planted on the bush side by locals as part of the WCC Fruit Tree Guardians Project. Site No 3. has two feijoas and a apple planted near the bottom gate, and site No 4. has two apple trees further up, near the track to the school.

On the track from the Southern Walkway down to the School, school children planted two feijoas at a sharp bend, site No. 5. Unfortunately only one has survived. At the bottom of the path and along a bit is site No. 6, an established apple tree, which bears a good crop of apples most years.

At the top of the Southern Walkway track, just before Buckley Road, site No. 7 is a group of four apple and pear trees planted by another local fruit tree guardian who is no longer living in the valley. This is a great spot for more trees as it is very sunny and sheltered.

The community gardens just North of the School, site No. 8, has three fruit trees, a lemon, a pear and a feijoa.

 

 

(mailing list clean-up, 166 recipients, 75 opens)