Hōngongoi / July 1, 2025
Our newsletter is finally sporting its Te Reo title, something that we have been meaning to do for some time. And as well as some language diversity, the photos in the banner are showing the biodiversity that is starting to flourish in our reserves. Thanks to the locals who spotted and captured these gems, and here’s to a resilient and diverse future here in Haewai Houghton Valley!
Koha Coffee
Saturday, 5 July, 10.30 am – 12.30 pm
Come along to the Community Hall at 80 Houghton Bay Road this Saturday for another catch up with locals and find out what’s happening. Bring along some kai or a koha. Andrew is hosting.
This month we have some special guests coming along: Kate and Clare, who are promoting the Local Climate Adaptation Project. They are looking for locals to be involved, and will be there to explain and answer questions. There is more information below and on the WCC website.
Local Climate Adaptation Pilot
The Local Climate Adaptation Pilot is a WCC project working with local communities and Mana Whenua to build a shared understanding of how climate change is already affecting different neighbourhoods – and what options exist to adapt to future disruptions such as coastal flooding, heavy rain and sea level rise.
The pilot is starting in the Island Bay/Houghton Bay catchment: which includes Island Bay, Houghton Bay, Berhampore, Southgate, Mornington, Kingston and Vogeltown. A key part of the process is setting up a small Community Panel made up of eight local residents. The Panel will bring community perspectives into the conversation and help shape a Local Climate Adaptation Report for the area – combining local insights with technical advice to inform Council decisions.
Are you keen to be involved or want to learn more? Come along to Koha Coffee this Saturday (see above) or email climateaction@wcc.govt.nz to find out what the Community Panel will do, how to apply, and how this mahi will support Wellington’s climate resilience.
Springs working bee
Sunday, 20 July, 10.00 am – 12.00 midday
Do you know about our seeping springs in the lower valley near the playground? There are several south of the stream on the track up to Buckley Road. Come along and help us give them a little love. There is plenty of weeding that can be done, and we will also dig a bit of a channel to try and collect and direct the water into the wetland area, rather than having it disperse nowhere in particular.
Bring gloves, gardening tools for weeding and a spade for digging. Best wear gumboots and clothes you don’t mind getting muddy! Some kai will be provided afterwards.
Meshtastic: our local off grid network
Four locals are now connected via the Meshtastic network, which will allow these people to communicate in an emergency when the power and internet are down, as it uses free radio bandwidth. Other suburbs around Wellington are creating these important resilience communication networks.
Meshtastic works best when lots of locals are connected, because line-of-sight is required – fairly difficult in our terrain – so we are hoping lots more of us will join up. The transmitting Sensecap you buy for about $70 is not much larger than a credit card, and connects to your phone via Bluetooth. Communication is through the Signal App, which works the same as WhatsApp.
The Haewai Houghton Valley Community Association is willing to bulk buy devices for a discount, so if you are interested contact meshtastic@houghtonvalley.org.nz to be put on the list. Here’s the Meshtastic website
Exploring Environmental Personhood
Environmental Personhood is a term that is being heard more and more. So far in New Zealand it has been granted to Urewera National Park, Whanganui River and Taranaki Maunga. But what exactly is it?
In brief, Environmental Personhood is granting the same legal rights to environmental entities as we have for humans. It not only provides better protection for nature than many of our current systems, but it creates a mindset shift from an anthropocentric worldview to a holistic worldview.
Environmental Personhood has been granted to significant entities in our landscape, but why couldn’t it apply to any natural entity? Could it apply to Haewai Houghton Valley? Over the next few newsletters, we will delve into this more, looking at how it works, and how it could be applied to our landscape and our ‘Lifting the Creek’ project.
Going, going, gone
It’s goodbye to the old playground, and the new one on its way. We did get our community option in the end, with a few tweaks to accomodate some of the submission comments. The revised plans are on the WCC site. However, some of the colours are not exactly what we asked for – we are working on that.
(172 recipients, 129 opens)
Sunday, 4 May, 10.30 am – 12.30 pm
Sunday, 25 May, 2.45 – 4.30 pm
Te Kawakawa Commons hosted about 30 visitors to the garden. It was great to catch up with neighbours, meet new people and watch the kids marvelling at the monarch butterflies. A few strawberries magically disappeared but it must have been the birds! The free flower seeds and Geranium cuttings also proved very popular. Having the new stairs up to the garden made a huge difference to its accessibility, especially to one neighbour whose baby is due very soon.
Submissions are due on the playground options by 5 pm on Monday 24 February. So if you haven’t voted yet please do!
Of course we’d love you to vote for Option 3 after all our community effort, but it is up to you (or your children) to decide.
We finally have another Little Library nearly ready to be installed near the View Road bus stop. The cabinet has been made by local retired builder Barkie and painted by yours truly. It will start with some books from the Southern Landfill Recycle Centre, who we thank for a discount on their already low prices!
Sunday, March 16, 10 am – 2 pm
Te Kawakawa Commons has a small vegetable garden, some fruit trees, shady seating spaces and beautiful regenerating bush to wander through. There will be an art trail for kids to explore, with little painted houses for them to view (and parents to purchase, with proceeds to buying more compost).
Saturday, March 8, 5.30 pm – 8.30 pm 
Saturday, November 16, 10 am – 2 pm
WCC has created Our Changing City, an interactive pop-up exhibition designed to raise awareness about the impacts of climate disruption and explore how we can collaboratively prepare plan for a resilient future in Pōneke.
On Saturday, the Te Ohu o Te Raekaihau group held a community weeding session and trialled a competition: The Rhamnus 1000. Evergreen buckthorn – or Rhamnus alaternus – is a big threat to Te Taiao on Te Raekaihau. It prevents native plants from establishing by forming dense stands of salt and wind tolerant bushes that grow on steep escarpments.
In August we applied to the WLG Community and Environment Fund for $1,500 for 12 stacking chairs for the community hall, to make events and workshops more comfortable and seating arrangements more versatile. Our application was successful, so we will order the chairs shortly. We thank Wellington Airport and the Trustees of the fund for their support!
We also applied to Wellington City Council for $1,000 towards operational expenses for the Community Association, something they give every year to Residents’ Associations. This includes any expenses other than for the hall, such as food for events, photocopying etc. WCC have now granted this, we thank them for this financial boost!
Our Wee Free Library near the Playcentre and Community Hall has been succumbing to wind and rain damage since it was first installed in 2019. We’re not sure if the one remaining book was intentionally placed there, but it kind of says it all!
Saturday, October 5, 10.30 am – 12.30 pm
Sunday, 3 November, 12 pm – 2.30 pm
The tracks in the Buckley Road reserve have been getting a bit of an upgrade, with a digger smoothing them out, and creating channels to allow water to drain off the track rather than along the middle of them. The track up from the playground has been done, work is still progressing along the upper track.
The top banner this month shows some of what has been happening on our local headland reserve. Over 2,500 plants have been planted by the community and a Corporate group with one more Corporate group to come. Weeding sessions have begun, tackling tradescantia, common ivy and tidying up some of the sets of steps. There is plenty more weeding to do over the next few months, but don’t be fooled into thinking that only planting trees is fun. It’s all great, not least just being on the reserve!
Our community garden is in need of some more tools. If you have any that are not being used please consider donating them to a worthy cause. Tools needed include a fork, draw hoe, rake, grubber and shears.
Saturday August 31, 7 – 11 pm
Dust off your dancing shoes, we are having a ceilidh at the Community Hall to shake off the winter and welcome in the spring! A ceilidh (kay-lee) is a fun family Scottish dance evening. We will have a live band – 
Did you know that you can hire our community hall? It is mainly used as a Dance Studio, but it is available at other times for hire, including Saturdays after 10 am, Sunday afternoons, and weekdays until 3 pm. Sunday mornings are available by special arrangement and weekday evenings during school holiday periods.
The hall can be used for recreation classes, workshops, rehearsals, recitals, talks, exhibitions and meetings, or even if you just need a large indoor space for a bit. It can also be used for community or fundraising events and quiet private events. We have a no-alcohol policy, so you need to factor that in!
Our hall hire rates are: