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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Green energy buffs living Off the Grid

November 11, 2024 November 2024 Comments Off on Green energy buffs living Off the Grid

Frank Cornelissen, lord of all the solar panels he surveys.

By Lyle Griffiths 

Up on the heights of Martinborough, Frank and Lisa Cornelissen have built their new home. Wanting to conserve energy and be as self-reliant as possible, they have installed solar panels, a wind turbine and created a battery storage area in a separate building.

“To begin with we didn’t know where to start,” says Frank. “We knew it was going to cost us $27,000 to link up to the transformer up at the top of the hill and then of course there would be charges for the power. We decided to pursue other options.

“We investigated solar panels and decided to purchase 12 x 315-watt Photovoltaic solar panels which could be ground-mounted. They could also be shifted if necessary.

“Our initial plan was to place them facing the Northeast to capture the most sunlight. But large trees on our boundary shaded the panels until 10:00 a.m. in winter.

“Eventually we realised that to gain the maximum amount of sunlight we would have to position the panels for both midwinter and mid-summer sun on the shortest and longest days. The panels are now set to latitude 40 degrees, but we have accepted the fact that there will always be some shading.

“The other dimension we had to consider was the angle at which to position the panels.

“Having tested the system, we have since installed another 11 panels each producing 400 Watts.”

The DC electricity generated by the panels is then sent to an Inverter Conversion unit which is housed with the batteries. This stores electricity in the batteries and converts to AC electricity to use in the house. … Continue Reading

From the Mayor

November 11, 2024 November 2024, Regular Features Comments Off on From the Mayor

By Martin Connelly

Water services have been a political football for some time. We associate “Three Waters” with the last Labour government, but it had been started by the John Key government, following the Havelock North deaths and carried on by the next two governments. 

Now that National is back in power “Three Waters” has been replaced by “Local Water Done Well” (LWDW). It can be a bit hard to describe LWDW in simple terms. 

Under recently-passed legislation, local councils have less than a year to develop plans to manage and fund water services, to the point where they are financially sustainable and government-approved.

Although not legally required, it has become obvious that the only way for most councils to ensure financial sustainability, is to set up Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) to operate those water services. This is because a CCO will be able to borrow money more favourably than a council.

For those not familiar with CCOs, they are entities set up to conduct activities on behalf of councils.

They are governed, managed and operated at arm’s-length from councils through an independent board of directors. 

Our water services are currently managed by a CCO called Wellington Water.

This CCO is owned by the four Wellington Cities and us. The shareholding councils appoint a board of directors who then appoint a CEO.

Our Council has been exploring two different types of CCO to deliver future water services in the South Wairarapa. One would involve four shareholding councils, ourselves, plus Carterton, Masterton and the Tararua Councils. The other CCO we are considering is one that would include all the councils in the Greater Wellington Region plus the Horowhenua District. … Continue Reading

Considine Park family friendly summer destination

November 11, 2024 November 2024 Comments Off on Considine Park family friendly summer destination

By Angela Brown 

It has been exciting to finally see the Pump Track becoming a reality – which I am sure will be well used by our children. This, together with our free swimming pool and Story Walk, makes Considine Park the perfect summer destination, pack a picnic, sunscreen and sunhats and pop on down.

With more visitors to the park a friendly reminder – this is not an off-leash exercise area.

What do you like about Considine Park and our other green spaces? How could they be improved? Please pass on your thoughts to the Community Board – we would love to hear from you, and this would help any future developments.

The Pump Track is a wonderful example of community fundraising – there are so many positive benefits for getting involved with raising funds collectively to achieve a common goal. Shout out to the Martinborough Community Market who run tea rooms with all the proceeds going to support local initiatives. There is a team of supporters who supply goodies and who work in the tearooms to make this possible.

We are extremely fortunate to periodically have funds available for distribution via the Pain Estate.

There is understandably continued interest in the future of the Estate, and we can share the following update:

The Martinborough Community Board and South Wairarapa District Councillors were recently invited to attend a workshop to discuss the Pain Estate. Legal representatives from Simpson Grierson provided an overview of the legal status and potential implications relating to future use of the farmland, and this information remains Legally Privileged for the time being, so we are unable to provide details. … Continue Reading

EVENTS

November 11, 2024 November 2024, Regular Features Comments Off on EVENTS

Wellington Heritage Festival

WHEN: October 26 – November 17 

WHERE: * Wellington Region – 140 events

                * Wairarapa for 1st time – 11 events

HOW: “Crowd-sourced” local events

WHY: Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Entry Price: Not stated.

Personal health record on-line access

WHAT: DORA (Digital On-Road Access) 

digital classroom bus

WHEN/WHERE: Tues 5 November 

Martinborough Health Centre (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Thurs 7 Nov:

Pirinoa Medical Centre (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Ruakok Quiz Night

WHEN: Friday 30 November 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Ruakokopatuna Hall

WHAT: FUNd-raiser

BRING: food, drink, brains … 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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