Friday 6 March, 10 – 11 am, corner of Houghton Bay and Hungerford Rds
Houghton Valley School are celebrating the completion of our local playground after a journey of over 3 years, and would like to invite the community to come along and join in an “opening” with karakia, speeches, waiata and kai.
Part of the the design process for the playground involved students at Houghton Valley School sharing their vision for play and the future of Haewai Houghton Valley. Some of these ideas were incorporated into artwork on the fence panels.
Celebrating its completion is an important way of connecting the school and the wider community, so we hope you can make it!
Neighbours’ Day at Te Kawakawa Commons
Saturday, 7 March, 10 – 11.30 am, behind the bus stop near 44 Hornsey Rd
Te Kawakawa Commons is hosting a neighbours’ Day get together celebrating using herbs every day. Fresh herbs are a great way to add homegrown flavour to your day. Join them over herb tea and muffins, and discover flavoursome herb oils and vinegars, delicious herb and vegetable dips, and soothing herb teas. No garden? No problem! Many herbs can be grown in a pot on a sunny windowsill. Register your interest for catering purposes.
Their Children’s Day event last weekend had some fun crafting happening in the garden.
The poetry session in March has a change of venue as the Alice Krebs Lodge is booked, but the home venue is not far away. Bring along a few favourite poems or short extracts of environmental writing for sharing.
Summer Celebration dinner re-cap
The Seeds-to-Feeds Summer Celebration Dinner a couple of weeks ago was another successful event with amazing food and a friendly vibe.
The weather even managed to feel something like summer and our hall really does scrub up well with lots of people and colourful bunting and table settings. The Seeds-to-Feeds team did a sterling job promoting it so we pretty much sold out, with lots of people coming from different places as well as locals.
Nga mihi o te tau hou ki a koutou, happy new year everyone! Now that the holidays are over, it seems that people want to DO STUFF! This newsletter is packed with what you can do right here in Haewai Houghton Valley.
The banner photo this time was taken by a local, sitting up late on Te Raekaihau to catch the Aurora Australis from the latest solar storm.
Koha Coffee at the community hall
Saturday, 7 February, 10.30 am – 12.30 pm
Come along to the Community Hall at 80 Houghton Bay Road on Saturday week (save the date!) for the first Koha Coffee of the year. It’s a great way to catch up with locals and find out what’s happening. And of course the hall is worth a look if you haven’t been before – it’s our community secret treasure. Bring along some kai or a koha. Andrew is hosting.
Haewai Summer Celebration Dinner
Saturday, February 21, 5.30 – 8.30 pm
Time for another Seeds-to-Feeds local food celebration at the Community Hall! It’s dinner this time and the meal will include locally grown and foraged ingredients as well as some from not far away. We have another delicious vegetarian menu with plant based and gluten free options including:
Mushroom tortellini, ratatouille, quinoa salad, foraged salad and ciabatta and rye bread;
Fruit and nut-based cakes and desserts;
Drinks from the wild South Coast.
Please sign up soon so that we have a good idea of numbers leading up to the event. Bookings are koha based, with a recommended $20 for an adult and $10 for a child if you can afford it. Otherwise you can just pay what you can afford, or if you can’t afford anything we don’t mind, we’d love to see you anyway!
Meet the local horses
Sunday, February 22, 10 am – 1 pm
The Wellington City Light Horse Club is having a Community Day with pats, grooming and pony rides. This is at their Houghton Bay Club grounds, half way between the school and Sinclair Park. Access is from the Southern Walkway route (the Gut Buster) either from Buckley Road down or the field below the school up.
Events at Te Kawakawa Commons
The beginning of March celebrates both Children’s Day (March 1) and Local Food Week (March 1-7). So our local community garden Te Kawakawa Commons is hosting two events at the garden in Hornsey Road (It’s a lovely bushy place up behind the bus stop near No 44). So come along and join in the fun!
Children’s Day: Sunday, 1 March, 10 – 11.30 am – Make a seed bomb, and a picture using fresh and pressed petals, flowers and leaves from the garden. Please let them know if you are coming, and how many children so they can prepare enough supplies: aileendavidson16@gmail.com
Using herbs every day: Saturday, 7 March, 10 – 11.30 am – fresh herbs are a great way to add homegrown flavour to your day. Join them over herb tea and muffins to discover flavoursome herb oils and vinegars, delicious herb and vegetable dips, and soothing herb teas. No garden? No problem! Many herbs can be grown in a pot on a sunny windowsill. Registration required: aileendavidson16@gmail.com
Other community involvement opportunities
What else is going on that you can join in with? Here is a sample:
Poetry on the headland – on the first Saturday of each month until May (7 February, 7 March, 4 April and 2 May) there are some informal poetry reading and discussion sessions at the Alice Krebs Lodge on Te Raekaihau from 5 – 6.30 pm. For the theme of the month and confirmation closer to the time go to the Meshes of the Afternoon website;
Te Ohu o Te Raekaihau – every second weekend of the month, alternating Saturdays and Sundays, this forest restoration group holds weeding sessions during the summer months and weekly planting sessions in the winter months. For more information sign up for their newsletter or go to their FaceBook Page;
Haewai Community Bookshare – do you have books you love sitting on your shelves that you would be happy to let others read? Inventaire is an open source book-sharing platform that turns personal book collections into an interconnected local distributed library. Join the Haewai Community Bookshare Group to extend your reading and meet new people;
Haewai Houghton Valley Community Association – our committee is looking for a few more people to join them. We are a great group interested in building community connections and enhancing our beautiful environment. We are open to whatever role you would like to take on, but there are a few roles that we need covered: including Secretary, Hall Bookings and Membership, or even something simple like keeping the community noticeboard up-to-date. If you would like to help in any way please contact admin@haewaihoughtonvalley.org.
You are invited to a relaxed gathering on the first Saturday of each month from December until May at the Alice Krebs Lodge on Te Raekaihau.
A chance to enjoy summer on the headland, to share poems and short extracts of environmental writing from authors from Aotearoa and around the world. Sessions are informal, small, open to all and free of charge.
The loose theme for December is “The Moon” with passages and poems for the moon particularly welcome. Your own writing is welcome too.
Feel free to bring snacks, and if the weather is poor we can meet at a house on Hungerford Road. For more information and a contact number if the weather is dubious go to the Meshes of the Afternoon website.
The next get together will be Saturday 3 January, and as there won’t be a newsletter before then, make a note of it now and check the website for the next theme.
A local distributed library
Do you have books you love sitting on your shelves that you would be happy to let others read? Inventaire is an open source book-sharing platform that turns personal book collections into an interconnected local distributed library.
The Inventaire project is underpinned by Wikidata and has a strong ethical foundation. The platform has a firm commitment to never sell personal data.
Locals have created a dedicated group – Haewai Community Bookshare – so that you can share with friends or not quite perfect strangers and make some great new connections (and maybe even new friends!) while you are about it.
Joining is fairly simple: create an account on Inventaire, and you can add your own books by searching for them, using your webcam to scan a book’s barcode, or entering the ISBN number. Then join the Haewai Community Bookshare Group rather than choosing the Public or Friends options.
The collection online is already rich, even though there are only a few members. Every book added strengthens and diversifies the collective library, and keeps stories, poems, and knowledge circulating, rather than gathering dust on the bookshelf.
Climate Adaptation Workshop follow-up
Seventeen locals attended the workshop we had as part of the WCC Climate Adaptation Pilot Programme. The format was mostly sharing thoughts around large maps of the area. There were lots of good stories, and surprisingly wind was as much a concern as the flooding, landslips and coastal inundation the programme is mainly dealing with.
The WCC team also attended the school fair and talked to over 60 more people. But if you have missed out so far, WCC have some more ways for you to share your thoughts and insights on how our community can respond to climate disruption, so that they can build an understanding of local issues, values, and opportunities for Climate Adaptation. There are three main ways to share your perspectives online:
We had another lovely afternoon meal in the hall for our Seeds-to-Feeds Wild Spring Lunch to kick off the Seeds-to-Feeds season. Over the summer we will be growing vegetables towards a dinner in late February. We will let you know more closer to the time.
It really is happening this time, this is a last reminder. Have you got your tickets yet? Do so ASAP to secure your place! See the menu here. Tickets are $15 plus a small booking fee. Anyone who would like to help forage for wild kai, meet at the Princess Bay carpark, 2.30pm on Saturday 18th. (The weather should be okay under the trees.)
Haewai Catchment Climate Adaptation Workshop
Saturday, 1 November 10.30 am – 12.30 pm
We’re excited to be collaborating with Wellington City Council to run the first of two or three community engagement workshops as part of the Council’s Local Climate Adaptation Pilot Programme, which is running in the Paekawakawa and Haewai catchments.
Join us for coffee, kai, and conversation at a relaxed, family-friendly community event at the Haewai Houghton Valley Community Hall. It’s our normal Koha Coffee time, but we are also going to share our thoughts, ideas and local knowledge about how our community can respond to the challenges of climate change, including coastal inundation, landslips, storms and flooding. Your voice is important!
Please RSVP so that we know the numbers.
Wellington City Council have organised interactive map-based activities where you can share your ideas, experiences and knowledge about the neighbourhood and explore what makes Haewai Houghton Valley special. Children can participate in a climate related colouring contest or get busy with lego building.
Everyone who takes part can go in the draw to win a 200-litre emergency water tank sponsored by the Haewai Houghton Valley Community Association.
This event is part of the Local Climate Adaptation Pilot in the Paekawakawa / Haewai catchment, where Wellington City Council, mana whenua, and the community are working side by side to shape a shared vision for a resilient and thriving community. More information on the pilot programme is here.
Raranga harakeke at the hall
Sunday, 2 November, 11.30 am – 4.30 pm
Flax weaving is back on again at the community hall. Experience the joy of learning, sharing, and reconnecting with the art of weaving.
Whether you’re a first-time weaver or returning to refresh your skills, all are welcome. We’ll cover basic weaving techniques and tikanga (customs) and provide a supportive, creative space to connect with Māori arts and crafts alongside others.
Beginners session 11.30 am – 1.30 pm, returning weavers 1.00 pm – 4.30 pm. Bring 5-6 rau (blades) of hārākeke and a bag to take away the leftovers. A Koha would be appreciated, but is not required.
Houghton Valley School Fair
Saturday, 15th November 10 am – 2 pm
Don’t forget to gather together some donations for the school fair!
Spring is here: having a declutter? – save your quality clothes, books and toys and drop them into school from beginning of November (sorry we are not able to store donations before then);
Silent auction donations: if you, your workplace, or someone you know can contribute a voucher, experience, product or service, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at hvsfundraisers@gmail.com if you can help – ngā mihi!
Green thumbs? Get some seedlings going in the windowsill to sell in our plant stall.
Contact Anna if you have any questions about the fair and see you in November!
We have postponed the lunch a couple of weeks for two reasons: the end of the school holidays might not be the best time for people to come, and more importantly, there is an event there is an event to mark two years of Palestinian persecution at Pukeahu War Memorial Park by Steadfast for Palestine, that many people would like to go to.
Apologies for the last minute change. If you have already bought a ticket you will be contacted separately. If you were planning to come we hope you can still make the new date, and if you couldn’t make this time we would love to see you!
So do consider coming and enjoying a delicious vegetarian meal (vegan and gluten free available too). The menu includes soup, bread and spreads, foraged salad, vegetable savouries, cakes and tea and coffee.
Tickets are $15 plus a small booking fee. The first $5 will go towards the wonderful work that the Seeds-to-Feeds team continues to do for us. The $10 plus any more you wish to donate on top of that will go towards Haewai Houghton Valley community projects.
Houghton Valley School Fair is coming
Saturday, 15th November 10 am – 2 pm
Come join the community for a tremendous day out at the HVS fair – great food, games, entertainment, bargains! Fun for the whole family. What can you do to help?
Spring is here: having a declutter? – save your quality clothes, books and toys and drop them into school from beginning of November (sorry we are not able to store donations before then)
Silent auction donations: if you, your workplace, or someone you know can contribute a voucher, experience, product or service, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at hvsfundraisers@gmail.com if you can help – ngā mihi!
Green thumbs? Get some seedlings going in the windowsill to sell in our plant stall.
Contact Anna at hvsfair@gmail.com if you have any questions about the fair and see you in November!
Website upgrade
It was recommended that we change our website host to make technical changes easier. So we have been beavering away rebuilding the site and continuing the upgrade that we started (and then stopped) a couple of years ago. There is a new domain name as well: haewaihoughtonvalley.org. The old website will disappear after 17 October.
The website is still mostly the same, but is generally fresher looking, and the WordPress sections are now more responsive to screen size changes. We have also been upgrading the content and adding lots more. Not finished yet though!
Our website is mostly a record of Haewai Houghton Valley and what has been going on here and what still is going on. There will be still a few gaps by the time the official changeover happens, our history section won’t be complete for a while as we are aiming to create something special for the Haewai Houghton Valley Community Association Centenary Years (2025 – 2029).
For keeping up with the latest news however, this newsletter and our Facebook Group are good to get communications from.
Sunday, 7 September, 11.30 am – 2 pm and 1.30 – 4.30 pm
Te Motu Kairangi raranga harakeke is back this Sunday at the Community Hall. The group is dedicated to learning, sharing, and reconnecting with the art of Māori flax weaving, and you are welcome to come along and have a go.
They are again offering a special beginners session in the morning as well as a returners session in the afternoon. If you are new please bring 5-10 rau (blades) of harakeke (if you can), sharp scissors, an old towel (if you have one) and a bag to take away the leftovers. A Koha is appreciated, but not required. One project for the beginners is to help make putiputi woven flowers to help decorate the hall for our Wild Spring Lunch in October. Please note there will be no Koha Coffee this weekend, come weaving instead!
Seeds-to-Feeds Wild Spring Lunch
Saturday, 4 October, 12 pm – 2.30 pm
We are having another community meal at the Community Hall. We are kicking off this year’s Seeds-to-Feeds local food festival with a lunch that celebrates the fresh kai that is springing up wild in our gardens and on the hillsides. Come and enjoy a delicious vegetarian meal (vegan and gluten free available too). The menu includes soup, bread and spreads, foraged salad, vegetable savouries, cakes and tea and coffee.
Tickets are $15 plus a small booking fee. The first $5 will go towards the wonderful work that the Seeds-to-Feeds team continues to do for us. The $10 plus any more you wish to donate on top of that will go towards Haewai Houghton Valley community projects.
Slow down in the valley – we need a speed bump!
A young resident has started a WCC petition to promote safer driving at the bottom end of Houghton Bay Road. She wants school children to be able to walk or ride safely to school and to the new playground. Please add your signature to this great initiative! This has been an issue for years as the number of vehicles taking the “shortcut” over Hungerford Road has increased. Around ten years ago a traffic count put the number of cars at 1,000 per day going back and forth over the hill. About the same time a slightly subversive sign appeared for a few days at the corner.
School Quiz Night
Feel like a night out to help fundraise for the school? Make up a team and register.
Planting at the Playground
A couple of weeks ago a bunch of keen gardeners and the Principal from Houghton Valley School came and helped some community members to plant the earth bund near the playground.
The bund is there to help with wind protection, and the raised part means we can have slightly bigger plants without their roots penetrating the landfill capping. The bund is pretty heavy clay, we hope that the plants will survive the summer, but so far there has been a decent amount of rain to get them started.
Exploring Environmental Personhood (part 3)
Environmental Personhood is part of our 100 year vision for Haewai Houghton Valley. Last time we looked at what that meant for our natural habitat and non-human residents. This time we will look at how the human elements here can help support the identity and integrity of our environment.
It’s all very well having a beautiful environment, but we need to be able to engage with it, to enjoy it and to care for it. For instance, take the petition above where children are not allowed to walk to school because the traffic on the road is dangerous. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to walk or cycle to school completely away from the road, enjoying bush and water and wildlife on the way? Could there be play points on the way, community generated artworks to look at or engage with, history panels, fruit to harvest and munch and wildlife rehabilitation projects to check in on?
Other 100 year vision ideas include:
Growing food and medicines in back gardens, urban farms, community orchards, food forests; providing wild foraging; and harvesting fresh water from our springs;
Having houses with worm-farms, compost toilets, rainwater tanks, solar power, non-toxic materials, fibre optic internet (no cellphone towers), minimal waste production and increased tree cover in gardens for carbon capture;
Having a central school / hall / community hub with food market, civil defence, share / swap / repair resource centre, Biz Dojo, Craft Dojo, local entertainment programme;
Travelling by walking, e-bus, e-bikes, and an e-car club
No doubt there are many more ideas – do you have some you’d like to share?
Come along to the Community Hall at 80 Houghton Bay Road this Sunday for another catch up with locals and find out what’s happening. Bring along some kai or a koha. Leone is hosting.
You can just have a good old chin wag, but if you are keen there will be a rāranga hārākeke session for beginners going on as well, before more weaving in the afternoon. You might want to make a day of it! See below for more details.
Rāranga hārākeke at the community hall
Sunday, 3 August, 11 am – 1 pm and 1 – 4.30 pm
We are delighted to make our community hall available to Te Motu Kairangi rāranga hārākeke group on the first Sunday afternoon of each month from August until December. They are dedicated to learning, sharing, and reconnecting with the art of Māori flax weaving, and you are welcome to come along and have a go.
This first time they are offering a special beginners session in the morning as well as a returners session in the afternoon. If you are new please bring 5-10 rau (blades) of harakeke, sharp scissors, an old towel (if you have one) and a bag to take away the leftovers. A Koha is appreciated, but not required.
If you love it, they will be back on September 7, October 5, November 2 and December 7. Or if you are really hooked they weave every Sunday rotating around Haitaitai, Breaker Bay and Miramar as well.
Playground update
The new playground is not quite done, but is now open for use. Word spread around the school like wildfire and it has seen a lot of use of the last few days. Lots of happy sounds coming from it so we hope it meets with general approval, even though the end result is rather different from where we started off. Interesting to see how it is being used, one thing we never thought about is that the much larger matting area allows for good play area when the winter grass is boggy (or just mud), for running around or such things as kicking a ball or doing cartwheels.
So what’s coming up? They are going to lower the height of the swing seats, the installed chain length allowed for a perfectly level surface. The slide colour will change to a more browny red, which was the original choice, as close as we could get to the rusty red of the matting. The seats and picnic table are being refurbished. The fencing with the panels of children’s artwork will be installed in a couple of weeks, after which the school will arrange an “opening”. The bund will be planted with the help of a few school children with plants to help create a wind break, there will be more planting near the roadside and grass will be sown in the spring.
Meshtastic: an off-grid network
Do you want to be able to be connected to others when the power and internet are down? The meshtastic network uses free radio bandwidth. Other suburbs around Wellington are creating these important resilience communication networks.
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. Meshtastic website
Coastal reserves management plan
It’s the final week of public consultation on Tātou ki Uta – our draft Coastal Reserves Management Plan. Submissions close at noon, 5 August 2025. WCC would appreciate support, critique or even just corrections for what has been proposed. The pages that most relate to Houghton Bay include 71 -77 of the main document, and page 8 of Appendix B, but you are welcome to engage with other parts of the document as well.
Exploring Environmental Personhood (part 2)
As we mentioned in the last newsletter, Environmental Personhood is granting the same legal rights to environmental entities as we have for humans. This concept is at the core of our ‘Lifting the Creek’ project.
In an ecosystem, everything is interconnected, including us, and needs to be considered as a whole. Everything in our environment should be treated with respect as if it were one of us. What that means for our ‘Lifting the Creek’ project includes:
A healthy indigenous forest cover with thriving manu (bird), mokomoko (lizard), invertebrate and freshwater fish populations; with an animal-pest and weed-pest free status; and with many walking tracks;
An enduring system of Kaitiakitanga led by locals and recreational and employment opportunities to engage with and care for the area;
Our stream flowing above ground once more and regulating stormwater flow naturally with wetlands;
A pristine beach and marine reserve.
These ideas are taken from the 100-year vision that we are building for our community. Both the vision and the ‘Lifting the Creek’ project include community based ideas as well. We will look at these next time.
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 (part 1)
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.
Come along to the Community Hall at 80 Houghton Bay Road this Sunday for another catch up with locals and find out what’s happening. There is still plenty going on or about to happen in Houghton Bay, this year seems to have been non-stop!
Bring along some kai or a koha. Leone is hosting.
Recording our dawn chorus
Sunday, 4 May, 5.30 – 7.30 am
There is an interesting local research project afoot to take part on International Dawn Chorus Day early on Sunday morning, as part of Reveil, a 24-hour planetary broadcast of live bird sounds at dawn. Hungerford Road locals Kate Genevieve and Lucas Putnam will stream live from the spring near the Buckley Road Reserve playground, affectionally known by some as The Teapot Creek, between 5.30 and 7.30 am. If you see people with microphones in the morning twilight down by the stream, that’s what they’re up to.
As part of Aotearoa’s contribution to Reveil, collaborators are also testing off-grid, disaster-ready communication tools, including FM transmission and the Meshtastic mesh network, to support growing local response efforts. If you are interested to learn more, Meshes of the Ata Hāpara has more details and welcomes contributions, with the hope of making creative research into communication networks an ongoing community practice.
You can listen to Reveil 2025 from 4pm NZDT on Saturday 3 May to 5pm NZDT on Sunday 4 May at ecologies.fm. The livestream will be recorded and available for later listening.
Haewai Harvest Dinner photos
We have made a slideshow of the Seeds-to-Feeds dinner, using photos by taken by Paddy Flanagan and using Timebank credits. Watch it here
Haewai Houghton Valley Community Association AGM
Sunday, 25 May, 2.45 – 4.30 pm
This AGM marks the beginning of several Centenary milestones. In 1925 the South Melrose Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association, the first name for our community organisation, was formed. As well as the meeting, we are having a special afternoon tea to mark the occasion, and you are warmly invited to come along.
We will have some archival material on display. If you have some community memorabilia of your own, or something about the history of your house, please bring it along to share.
If you would like to get more involved with community activities, we are looking for people to join our committee (and yes it is fun!) In particular we are looking for someone to take on the role of Secretary, but you could also take on a general role or do a small role such as looking after the membership. Please contact admin@houghtonvalley.org.nz if you are interested. Otherwise, you could start by becoming a member of the HHVCA and support us to support the community. Only $10 per person per year. Sign-up form
Our next Ceilidh is coming!
Saturday 7 June, 7 – 10.30 pm
The Ceilidh we had last August at our community hall was so successful that everyone clamoured for another. And here we are: it’s time to book your tickets to make sure you get a spot. A ceilidh (kay-lee) is a fun family Scottish dance evening. We will have a live band – Schiehallion – who will call the dances, and supper to keep you going strong.
Tickets are $25 per person + $2 booking fee, children under 10 free. Book your tickets now!
Come along to the Community Hall at 80 Houghton Bay Road this Saturday for another catch up with locals. Bring along some kai or a koha. Andrew is hosting.
We might be getting a visit from a candidate for this year’s Wellington City Council election in the Motukairangi / Eastern Ward: Jonny Osborne. He wants to learn more about what is going down in our corner of the world and what we need as a community. He says he likes to talk trees, so he should fit right in, we have a few round here and quite a few of us like to talk trees too!
A Local Climate Adaptation Programme Pilot
Wellington City Council is planning to run a pilot project in the Houghton Bay and Island Bay catchments to look at how we can adapt to climate change: looking at what is at risk now and in the future, and what could be done about it.
They would love your feedback on their approach to the project before it begins. This includes how they can reach out to members of the community, how the community can participate, or general comments about the pilot and its process. Feedback indicates that as a community we are interested in being part of this pilot so please take a few minutes to answer their survey.
The pilot is outlined on the WCC Let’s Talk site. Feedback is open until 14 April.
Another great dinner!
Once again we had a warm and friendly meal at the community hall for our Seeds-to-Feeds Haewai Harvest dinner, with a mixture of locals and others from elsewhere. The hall looked really festive and the food once again was delicious. The adults had a good time chatting and connecting, and the children were happy too. This time there were two photographers, so we will put together another slideshow once the photos are all in.
Our resident guitarist Jacob De Ruiter couldn’t make it this time, but he has kindly let us put one of his musical composition and video pieces on our Houghton Valley Community Youtube Channel. Great music and footage of our coastal environment!
Our local community gardens both had a successful open day.
Houghton Valley Gardens had a productive day with regular members doing some gardening in between hosting visitors, including a Pedal Ready cycling group. A young Iranian couple helped plant up some seedlings and WCC Community Gardens Network co-ordinator Stacey Gasson popped in for a look and a chat. The photo below and the newsletter banner are hers – we were too busy to remember to take any!
And Miranda writes about our other community garden in Hornsey Road:
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.
Events calendar
A reminder of upcoming events:
May 4: Koha Coffee at the community hall (Sunday).
May 25: Haewai Houghton Valley Community Association AGM at the community hall, starting 3 pm. We have a speaker as well, save the date.
June 7: Another Ceilidh at the community hall, save the date! Get your tickets
