Our little online shop for fund-raising T-shirts and tote bags for He Ara Pukerua has recently been besieged by a bot attack. My apologies to the folks whose email addresses were monitoring online orders, who now have to delete thousands of spammy emails. I have temporarily disabled the online shop until I work out what happened and how to better mitigate future attacks.
Porirua and Whitaker’s Chocolate are throwing a Choctober Fest: cafés throughout Porirua for the whole month of October will be using Whitaker’s chocolate to create their own unique beverages and baked goods! The Pukerua Bay café are participating, Greedy & Co. at 98 Rawhiti Road (Tue-Fri 8am-1pm, Sat 9am-1pm). Their entries will be:
Raspberry gateau hot chocolate: A velvety, creamy hot chocolate with a raspberry twist, topped with whipped cream.
White Chocolate Cheesecake Brownie: a rich, decadent chocolate brownie topped with a creamy white chocolate cheesecake and berry swirl.
For more information, see the Porirua Choctober Fest site, or follow it on Facebook
Last weekend we submitted our comments and the changes we want to the proposed variation to the Porirua District Plan for land around Pukerua Bay.
The variation would allow new housing developments on the eastern side of the village, off Muri Road and the Mt Welcome farm (the former deer farm off SH59). Read information on Porirua City Council website.
We suggested a number of changes and additions to strengthen environmental protection, explicitly acknowledge the impact of climate change, the need to identify funding for infrastructure before work starts, and changes to the urban design to improve accessibility and neighbourhood connections. The documents are:
On 21 March 2023, Moira Lawler and Iain MacLean presented an oral submission to the hearing panel considering the proposed draft District Plan. These are the notes we provided to the panel in support of the submission.
We are again having direct access to the north, and work is continuing—so keep to the lowered speed limit. The latest from Waka Kotahi follows.
Good morning,
State Highway 59 between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki is now OPEN.
There are still active work sites along this corridor, so please take care and keep to the restricted speed limit for the safety of road users and crews.
We thank you for your patience.
Ngā mihi,
Anita De Klerk, Wellington Transport Alliance
Are you keen to get involved in a discussion about climate change, focused on issues and solutions in Pukerua Bay? Want to find out what others are doing, and how you can be part of a community response that starts from our strengths and the positive things we are already doing?
Whether as an individual or as a member of a group, you are warmly welcomed to a community workshop to be held on Sunday 16 October, from 2–4 pm, in the Pukerua Bay School and Community Hall. (Please note the change in date.)
The purpose of this workshop is to:
This will be a ‘stocktake’ meeting where we develop an understanding of the local impacts of climate change, ascertain what issues are on top for people and map our connections with each other. We will also consider the UN Sustainable Development Goals and think about what they mean for our village.
We really look forward to seeing you! Light refreshments will be provided.
| When | What |
| 2.00 pm | Karakia timatanga |
| 2.10 pm | Workshop overview |
| 2.15 pm | Whakawhanaungatanga – intro, why are you here |
| 2.30 pm | Brief overview from Council |
| 2.40 pm | Sustainable Development Goals exercise – Led by Barbara Nebel Grab a cup of tea and reflect |
| 3.10 pm | Lightning reportback from each group |
| 3.20 pm | Synthesise reportback and discussion |
| 3.45 pm | Next steps |
| 3.55 pm 4.00 pm–4.30 pm |
Karakia and close Pack up |
It’s that time where we all vote for who represents us on our local government bodies (Porirua City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council), and who serves as mayor of Porirua city. The election runs from 16 September to 8 October; more about voting is available at the Electoral Commission’s Vote NZ site.
Pukerua Bay “Meet the Candidates” public meeting
Date: 7 pm, Wednesday 14 September (ical)
Venue: Pukerua Bay School and Community Hall (map)
Come and find out what your candidates are about, and grill them with your pointed questions. We’re asking candidates for information relevant to Pukerua Bay, and putting together responses as they come to hand on our election page, “2022 Local Government Election”. More information on the Porirua City Council candidates is available on the Porirua City Council “Candidates for Election” page.
Waka Kotahi has issued an up-date on SH59 as at 11.42 today, saying the road will remain closed until further notice.
Radio NZ reported the road will re-open on Thursday.
SH 59 will not be re-open on Monday 12 September. There is more work to be undertaken. Waka Kotahi has provided the below up-date
Crews are working 24 hours daily to get State Highway 59 between Pukerua Bay and Paekākāriki reopened next week.
As of this morning, Friday, 9 September, 19,000 cubic metres, approximately 2500 truckloads of earth has been removed from the site as part of slip remediation, and slope benching works. Another 6,000 cubic metres, almost 800 truckloads, is to be removed this weekend.
Weather permitting, earthworks will be completed early next week.
The final part of the operation will be clearing the work site, installing edge barriers and reinstating the road before reopening safely to the public, which will take an additional 2-3 days.
On Monday, 12 September Waka Kotahi will provide an update on the expected timeframe for reopening the road.
Here are the FACEBOOK and TWITTER links for sharing.
We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Ngā mihi, Anita De Klerk (she/her)/ Customer Communications and Engagement Advisor
You should have received the September 2022 edition of the Kōrero community newsletter in your mailbox by now. It is also available as a PDF download on our Kōrero page.
A community-led initiative to make Pukerua Bay pest-free, of mustelids and rats.
Rat traps and tunnels courtesy of Department of Conservation, to keen Pukerua Bay trappers for a $20 donation, which will help buy more traps.
Kelvin Hastie will be there to share his experiences making Crofton Downs Wellington’s first pest-free suburb and we will demonstrate how to use your trap and get you started. We will also have a speaker from the Kapiti Biodiversity Project.
