Southern dogs under control, behaving and returned

Of the 3,410 registered dogs living in the district, only 152 were listed in the South Wairarapa District Council’s Dog Control Activities complaints register for the year to July 2024 _ 13 more than the prior year but down 57 on 2021-22. The highest number of complaint offences _ 83 …

Toast to the new Taste Wairarapa

By Joelle Thomson, Wine Writer Taste Wairarapa stepped in where Toast Martinborough left off on the third weekend of November this year. The well-known Toast Martinborough food, wine and music event has run for 30 years and will return in January 2025 in a reincarnated form with Foley Wines as …

How Well Do We Know People In Our Community? – December 2024

By Lyle Griffiths Born in Whanganui, Mariana McDermott first lived with her mother in the home of her grandmother. After her mother remarried, the family moved to Martinborough, to Hikawera, where her stepfather, Tiki Mahupuku McGregor, built his own home. It was close to the old meeting house, which had …

Kitcheners ram-raid brings out community support

A front-end loader assault on a bank ATM which collapsed part of a verandah, ripped open a cafe frontage and wrecked building support beams netted the culprit nothing – but brought a swell of community support for the damaged Kitcheners Cafe business. Within nine hours of the ATM ram-raid on …

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Clothing Swap returns to lower footprint

December 9, 2024 December 2024 Comments Off on Clothing Swap returns to lower footprint

Another clothing swap was held in November and attracted a lot more people than the previous event.

It was fun shopping for good clothes and not needing your credit card! There were some really great items and I personally scored a pretty top and two pairs of good jeans. 

It feels every bit as good as buying new. Even inspired me to clean out my chest of drawers. … Continue Reading

40+ Pink Ribbon volunteers help fundraising drive – December 2024

December 9, 2024 December 2024 Comments Off on 40+ Pink Ribbon volunteers help fundraising drive – December 2024

By Lyle Griffiths

The Pink Ribbon collection on 27 and 28 October saw more than 40 volunteers each do a two- hour shift at five sites throughout Martinborough town. The result: a total of $4,500 was collected from willing donors.

Area coordinators Jan Barrett and Kathryn Keogh want to sincerely thank all the volunteers who made it so successful.

Breast Cancer is the most common female cancer in Aotearoa/New Zealand, with one in nine women diagnosed every day.

Andrea Canning, one of the collectors has just recently been through three years of treatment.  … Continue Reading

Community support services and some fun

December 9, 2024 December 2024 Comments Off on Community support services and some fun

This month we celebrate 1 year of Heartland Services in Martinborough.

Twelve months in we are really starting to see some gains from the connections we have been making in the community.

As with anything new it takes time, and when people haven’t had anything like Heartlands before it’s an adjustment. 

We are thrilled at what we have achieved and to what 2025 will bring. Our senior community is certainly a strength, and we will look to build the support we can offer in that space, continuing services with Age Concern, Hospice Wairarapa and Digital Seniors. … Continue Reading

Farewell to a native species dying in the lake?

November 11, 2024 November 2024 Comments Off on Farewell to a native species dying in the lake?

Older Kakahi/freshwater mussels show only sluggish growth – with almost no juveniles to replace them.

By Martin Freeth

Freshwater kākahi – native mussels once a key food source in Lake Wairarapa – face potential extinction as they pay the cost of urban discharges and farm run-off. 

Lake Wairarapa’s supertrophic water quality is pushing kākahi towards extinction and the ecologic future of the lake and its precious wetlands is highly uncertain despite the efforts of various stakeholders.

(Supertrophic: a trophic level greater than 5 means water quality is rated “very poor.” Lake Wairarapa is saturated in phosphorus and nitrogen and has poor water clarity. It has been officially classified as supertrophic since 2012).

Kahungunu Iwi, the lake’s kaitiaki/guardians, told The Star earlier this year that “the lake is dying.”

Urban discharges and farm run-off have long been recognised as causing serious decline in the water quality of Wairarapa Moana – the North Island’s third-largest freshwater body and part of the globally-recognised Wairarapa Moana lakes, wetland and river environment.

The science-based, official LAWA (Land, Air, Water Aotearoa) website records Lake Wairarapa as supertrophic because of its persistent high nitrate and phosphate readings, and levels of algae and sediment. 

There’s been little change since water quality monitoring started in 1994 – despite a Water Conservation Order placed on the lake for its ecological value and despite a 2020 declaration of

Wairarapa Moana’s international importance under the Ramsar (UN) Convention on wetlands.

Kākahi are a key bioindicator of ecological health and the plight of this species is highlighted in a new research report from NIWA marine and freshwater ecologist Mark Fenwick after 10 years’ systematic monitoring at two Lake Wairarapa sites.

The research has shown relative abundance of older kākahi but their growth is slow and there’s an almost complete lack of juveniles in the monitored populations. 

“It is possible that the effort required by adults to extract food from the sediment rich water leaves them without the necessary strength for growth and reproduction,” Fenwick said in a report. … Continue Reading

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Sports

Martinborough golf by a hank – of wool

  We start at the end of the month, when the annual Baabraa Trophy between Martinborough and Eketahuna was fought out on a glorious Sunday in Martinborough. A field of 70 played a stableford round and the average stableford points for the two clubs were calculated. Eketahuna scored an average …

Lady golfers show Rosebowl winning ways

September has been an up and down month weatherwise for golfers, some beautiful early spring days followed by cold and rain. Thankfully for the important days the weather has mostly come to the party. Early in the month the Cotter Rosebowl was successfully defended at Carterton by Martinborough’s team of …

Stunning first 4 – 1 win for Marty Women’s FC

By All-knowing Football Reporter It was always going to happen. After a few draws, some losses the newly-formed MWFC won their first game. An impressive and resounding victory. It started with ‘The Fox in the Box,’ the striker who plays in the traditional Number 9 role of marauding the penalty …

Regular Features

From the Mayor

By Martin Connelly Water services have been a political football for some time. We associate …

EVENTS

Wellington Heritage Festival WHEN: October 26 – November 17  WHERE: * Wellington Region – 140 …

How Well Do We Know People in Our Community?

By Lyle Griffiths Pforzheim in Southern Germany was where Thomas Röckinger lived with his family, …

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Could ZERO growth be the answer?   So, Martinborough’s sewage woes continue, and have seriously …

THE STAR BOOK REVIEW

    By Brenda Channer – Martinborough Bookshop “Costanza” by Rachel Blackmore This is a …

THE STAR  BOOK  REVIEW  

By Brenda Channer –  Martinborough Bookshop “All the Colours of the Dark” by Chris Whittaker. …

EVENTS – October 2024

Discover Te Muna  WHEN:     Saturday, Sunday, October 19 – 20  TIME:      …

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