
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.
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