{"id":676,"date":"2025-08-06T05:20:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T05:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/news\/?p=676"},"modified":"2025-08-06T17:59:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T17:59:56","slug":"newsletter-no-191","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/newsletter-no-191\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsletter No. 191"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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September 5, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koha Coffee<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By popular demand, Koha Coffee this month will be on a Sunday (8 September). So if Saturday commitments have kept you away up until now, come along from 10 am \u2013 12 midday. \u00a0Bring some nibbles if you wish, or help consume what the others bring! This event will be hosted by Katy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earthquake preparedness<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On September 3, Houghton Valley School hosted Ana Faatoia from WREMO\u00a0for a session on\u00a0community earthquake preparedness at a household level. If you missed it, there is a follow up evening on September 24 from 6.00 \u2013 7.30 pm where you can\u00a0find out how your community can work together during and after a major disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Community Emergency Hub at Houghton Valley School will host this interactive session for all residents and visitors of the area. Any questions, contact Ana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fools and Dreamers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dave McArthur comments below on an inspiring, recently made NZ film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUpwards of a dozen Haewai folk attended the Wellington film premiere of Fools and Dreamers with a panel discussion at the Penthouse Cinema on July 5.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This half hour documentary has a universal message: it is the inspiring and humbling story of how a caring, observant, patient individual (and a bicycle) can play a pivotal role in regenerating the vital forests, soils, water and air needed to sustain our children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film also has considerable local relevance to us residents in the valley of Haewai: our school and many of our homes are sited near a major city dump, which is a time-bomb. Much of the valley\u2019s rainwater is funneled into the dump, contaminated with leachate and pumped to Happy Valley dump. An earthquake, intensive rainfall, electrical grid collapse or other similar extreme event could disrupt this whole system. Fools and Dreamers has valuable lessons in how we can ameliorate these risks, both locally and globally.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, I grew up on a Wairarapa farm. I was inculcated in the belief that gorse is evil, to be burned, bulldozed and poisoned even if this eradicated all else too. I then moved to Christchurch where I first encountered the two stars of the movie, Hugh Wilson and his trusty bicycle. One day, on the side of a busy street, Hugh gave me a brief and revelatory lecture on the botany of gorse. In five minutes he so liberated me from my ignorant mind-set that ever since I too have championed gorse as an invaluable, native forest nursery. That was over 50 years ago, yet still Wellington people demonize and poison this wonderful ally.
<\/em>
[The newsletter header photo shows how much gorse there was on the western hills in 1989. Karo and other pioneer natives are now shading it out.] Ed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The generous, young film-makers at Happen Films have made Fools and Dreamers<\/a> freely available on the internet, so have a look.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you aren\u2019t\u00a0so ruggedly fit\u00a0there\u2019s always an e-bike!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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Dave continues his interviews with local e-bike users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny record of the arrival of e-bikes in the valley of Haewai would be very incomplete if it omitted the impact of Dan Mikkelsen. Many of us were startled, is not stunned when we first saw him pedaling a bike laden with two children and cargo up our steepest roads with such speed and ease. Who was this super athlete? And what\u2019s with all his weird and wonderful shaped machines?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the first two words to come to Dan\u2019s mind when he thinks of e-bikes are Bicycle Junction<\/strong>, which is his shop in Newtown. Freedom <\/strong>and liberating<\/strong> are his next two words. And what does his daughter Helena associate riding on e-bikes with? Singing<\/strong>, singing<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(136 recipients, 106 opens)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 5, 2019 Koha Coffee By popular demand, Koha Coffee this month will be on a Sunday (8 September). So if Saturday commitments have kept you away up until now, come along from 10 am \u2013 12 midday. \u00a0Bring some nibbles if you wish, or help consume what the others bring! This event will be … Continue reading Newsletter No. 191<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":802,"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haewaihoughtonvalley.org\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}