Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association

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

Working Bee at Cummings Park today – POSTPONED.

Due to the weather – the call has been made to postpone this event to a later date when we can expect the weather to be better. Our apologies if this has affected your plans today!

“When was the last time you heard the intricate melody of a tūī’s song? What about the sharp shriek of a kākā?

If recently, that means all is going according to plan. Wellington is one of the few cities in the world where native bird numbers are increasing, and this isn’t by chance. For decades, local organisations have been hard at work enhancing the mouri or biodiversity lifeforce of Wellington and these efforts are clearly paying off.

In particular, Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne has just entered the second generation of our 500-year plan — Living with Nature, Tiako Taiao, Tiaki Tangata. This next generation is focused on extending the biodiversity ‘halo’ from outside the large ecosanctuary fence and bringing people and nature together once again. We have a new name for this project — Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara, otherwise known as Sanctuary to Sea.

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Founded in 2017, Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara | Sanctuary to Sea is a collaborative project, led by Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne in strategic partnership with mana whenua Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, Department of Conservation, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Wellington City Council, Victoria University of Wellington, Morphum Environmental Ltd., GHD, and CentrePort. Our 100-year vision is to heal the mouri/lifeforce of the Kaiwharawhara water catchment. To do this, we approach our restoration work in three key interrelated parts aimed at enhancing the wellbeing of the Kaiwharawhara awa/stream, ngahere/forest, and tāngata/people. 

A whaitua or water catchment is the area of land where all water naturally flows out at a common location. The large Kaiwharawhara catchment encompasses all the suburbs stretching from Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne in Karori to Mt. Kaukau/Tarikākā in Khandallah. The two main branches of the Kaiwharawhara stream — Te Māhanga stream and Korimako stream merge together and flow out to Wellington Harbour via the Kaiwharawhara estuary. Ngaio and Crofton Downs are located at the heart of the Kaiwharawhara catchment. Therefore the ongoing success of this environmental work rests with you.

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Local businesses, restoration groups, residents associations, and organisations have answered nature’s call for support. You too can help nature thrive by getting involved in environmental initiatives near you. 

Join us Saturday, 20 July 11:00am – 2:00pm at Cummings Park for a community working bee to enhance the native bush planted by Railway Roopu Cumming Park. This event will be held in conjunction with Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne and Ngaio Crofton Downs Residents Association. You can RSVP on Facebook (see the event at Ngaio Working Bee or by emailing Nate at sanctuarytosea@visitzealandia.com.

Find out more about the Kia Mouriora te Kaiwharawhara | Sanctuary to Sea project by visiting https://www.visitzealandia.com/About/Sanctuary-to-Sea.