Mahuru / September 4, 2025
Raranga harakeke at the community hall
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?
(174 recipients, 96 opens)