Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association

Entry is free, but you must register so the organisers know the numbers coming. Links to free tickets for the two events are below:

• Bioblitz public day guided walks
• Bioblitz public day stream sampling

Kia ora to the fantastic recycling community of Ngaio and Crofton Downs,

Thank you all so much for your mahi in recycling so much material over the last few years. We have been keeping a record of what has been collected, and soon the Sustainability Trust website will have a page where you can see how much has gone through our collection station.

Now however, I want to let everyone know that there has been  significant and welcome change to the recycling of plastic lids. There is good reason, which I explain below, but first the changes.

We are now accepting ALL plastic lids and caps and there is no need to separate by plastic type, or to check that they are recycle type 2 or 5. These lids and caps can also be unnumbered, the only catch is they need to be a lid or a cap.

We have been collecting other items with the lids and caps, such as pill pots, contact lens cases, and laundry scoops We will continue to take these, but they still need to be separated out for processing.

Items other than lids and caps

• Must still be labelled as a #2 or #5 type plastic
• Must be separated into #2 and #5
• Must be clean

You can find out more on Te Aro Zero Waste’s updated Plastic and Metal Recycling webpage.

Why this change – and why only caps and lids? 

The reason for this change is the Caps and Lids Recycling Scheme which is an industry-funded programme operated by the Packaging Forum, and designed to ensure as many metal and plastic caps and lids as possible are diverted from landfill (more info here). This funding is however only for caps and lids, so other items need to be processed separately. These items will still be sent to the processors who took No2 and No5 plastics in the past, and need to be separated to avoid contamination at processing and consequently a lower quality product.

Assessing Aotearoa’s war on Nature, a talk by Professor Jonathan Boston

• at Ngaio Union Church
• starting 7pm
• on Sunday 1 December

Jonathan Boston is Prof Emeritus at the VUW school of governance. He was seconded to the Climate Commission for a time recently, and has researched managed retreat.

He will address what he sees as the coalition Government’s attack on Nature, and in particular on climate change.

Jonathan’s recent article ‘The war on nature’ was published in the November issue of Policy Quarterly, which can be read by clicking here.

It is time again for our annual photo competition.

The categories for 2024 are: gardens, insects, and could do better – a very wide interpretation of each category will be accepted, and we will put them into one of the categories when they are submitted.

Eligible entries will need to be still photos taken in Ngaio or Crofton Downs, with no restrictions on date . They can be taken at any time – if you have a favourite sitting in a photo album, then that can be entered as long as it was taken locally.

There is also no age limits on the photographer – all budding photographers are welcome to enter.

To submit your entry, email it to  photo@ngaio.org.nz (preferably as an attachment) and we will sort them into a category.  The deadline for entries is 17 November, with the winners announced at our AGM on 20 November.

There are prizes of $50 for the winner of each section, and all entrants will receive a one year membership of NCDRA.

Trails Wellington and Korimako Track Builders are proposing new mountain biking and walking trails above the Silverstream property development in the suburb of Crofton Downs. These are on the eastern side of the Te Wharangi Ridge, the Skyline Walkway. See the map below.

There is a meeting to discuss this at Ngaio Town Hall 5.30pm–7pm, Thursday 17 October.

Visit wcc.nz/crofton-downs-trails to read more about the proposal and give feedback. Opportunity for feedback closes Thursday 31 October.

Wellington Airport is publicly consulting on potential flight path options for northerly jet departures from Wellington. The options are:

• Maintaining the current flight paths
• Changing the northerly route for jet departures before 7am to fly between Horokiwi and Korokoro
• Changing the northerly route for jet departures to a similar route used before December 2022 over Newlands Ridge
• Any other proposal raised through this engagement process

This follows changes made to flight paths for jet aircraft departing Wellington to the north in December 2022. In general, these changes have meant fewer departures over Newlands and more over Khandallah and Broadmeadows.

You can read more detailed background on the options in this document: Flight path changes that may affect your suburb.

NCDRA is proud to be organizing the 2024 Pride in our Streets Clean Up, to be held in October, with support from Wellington City Council.

Follow this link to adopt a street for cleaning – StreetCleanup

By 20 October 2024, we want our members, and anyone else who lives locally to adopt a Street or two, and then during the week of 21 – 27 October, to clean up any rubbish which is making the place untidy. We want to see as many people out and about with rubbish bags doing some solid mahi to keep our neighbourhood looking and feeling its best! We will be providing rubbish bags and gloves courtesy of Wellington City Council.

On Sunday 27 October, bring all the rubbish you have collected down to Ngaio Town Hall where we have organized to have it collected and taken away.

Do you want to be  involved?:

• Visit our website at www.ngaio.org.nz, and navigate to street Cleanup.
• Sign yourself or your family up for the Clean Up then choose a local street  (or two!) from the list – select your street – StreetCleanup
  • Wait for email confirmation that your selection is available, and that you are the team member  for that street/s.
• Keep an eye out for the bags and gloves which will be delivered to your door on the weekend of 19 and 20 October.
• GET RUBBISH CLEARING during the week of 21-27 October!
• Have fun, and send us an email with your stories and photos! (to info@ngaio.org.nz)
• Deliver your bags to Ngaio Town Hall on 27 October from 12.00 to 2pm.
  • Enjoy the pleasure of having made a difference, and of living in the cleanest suburb in Wellington

Together we can make a real difference

We are holding a waste workshop by Wasted with Kate in conjunction with the Council’s Waste Minimisation team. Kate is a fantastic presenter and has run several of these in the past for the Council. Ngaio has been asked to host because of our record of projects to minimise waste in our community.

The workshop will be on the evening of Tuesday 3 September from 6pm. Full details on the poster below – and this link takes you to the Facebook event – | “Waste-Ed” with Kate | Facebook.

There is a cost of $10 pp to attend (with discounts for pairs). The entry costs are subsidised by WCC, and all attendees will leave with a Goodie bag which is valued at $40.

To go direct to the bookings for this event – follow this link Waste-ed /3rd September 2024