This is a World Class event with nearly every building in the city from the 1930s resplendent in the Art Deco facade (some Spanish Mission) that they were built with after the city was rebuilt following the 1931 earthquake.

Thousands of people dress in the styles of the 1930s, there are several hundred lovely classic cars from the 1920s-1940s paraded around the streets and there were 200 functions and happenings with 1930s themes such as ‘Gangsters and Flappers’, ‘Prohibition Party’, ‘Depression Dinner’, ‘Prison Pudding’ and ‘Late Night Libation’ to name just a few.  And the weather was fine with a pleasant 28ºC daytime temperature. 🙂

With all that it was a bit hard for the Waikanae Beach Carnival to compete for our attention…

The Kapiti Coast’s railway museum in Paekakariki, Steam Incorporated, is running a train to Napier on Friday, hauled by a restored diesel from the 1950s.  The annual Napier Art Deco Weekend is this Friday-Sunday. There are no regular trains to Napier these days, so this is a rare opportunity.

The train leaves Paekakariri and stops at the other Kapiti stations (Paraparaumu, Waikanae and Otaki).

Details on the group’s Facebook page here

The next stage in the consultation process about the future of Waikanae Beach is for volunteers to be part of a working group with Kāpiti Coast District Council and the Waikanae Community Board.

There will probably be four to six sessions of 1.5 – 2 hours at weekends or in the evening depending on majority preferences, with the broad areas of focus being

Another reader contribution on the theme ‘acts of kindness’.

KCDC remains silent despite a looming water shortage crisis says Districtwide
Councillor Jackie Elliott, who was alerted to the Waikanae river flow shortage
by concerned council staff.

We remain the only district in the region without water restrictions while the
Waikanae river flow has depleted to 1061 litres per second as of yesterday.
Says Cr Elliott, “Councils and farmers were warned late last year this would
be a dry El Niño summer and the forecast for weeks ahead shows no reprieve.”

A shallow river flow decreases more rapidly than a normal flow, and should the
level drop below 750 litres per second which is predicted to happen within
three days, Council staff will be unable to draw off the river as it has done
all summer.

Yet KCDC management have not issued one public water use restriction measure.

“It appears income from water meters is more important than conserving water
for the sake of the health of our waterway. So as a Councillor, I implore you,
to conserve our precious water please, “He Taonga Te Wai” says Cr Elliott.

The recharge scheme is designed to top up the river, but only has consent, with
strict conditions, to supplement the river flow with aquifer water at up to 20%
percent of the total flow, meaning we could hover on the fine line of breaching
consent for the foreseeable future.

“This would leave Council no option but to resort to supplementing the
Paraparaumu, Waikanae and Raumati water supply with bore water, an option that has drawn much criticism in the past,” says Cr Elliott.

Written by Cr Jackie Elliott
Please contact for more information on 0210452762 or
Jackie.elliott@kapiti.govt.nz

*******************************

Clearly the KCDC is going to have to use bore water soon.  Would this problem have arisen if instead of wasting many millions of dollars on water meters, they had built a reservoir instead?

The front page of yesterday’s Kapiti News had the article shown about a house that had been rented out for 12 years and when the owners went to sell it, their realtors believed methamphetamine (often called ‘P’ in NZ for ‘pure’ amphetamine) had been used in it.

It turned out the loss in property value was $50,000 because of the decontamination and repairs required.  If the house had been used by meth cooks, a bulldozer would have been the cheapest solution. You wonder, though, why this wasn’t suspected by the owners during regular inspections.

Repeated meth use can show up in mood disturbances, violent, aggressive, paranoid behavior, confusion and insomnia. There may be a deterioration of the person’s appearance.

Our advice if you suspect someone is a drug abuser, is report it to the police.  We have done this once about a suspect man in Waikanae.

Pohutukawa normally blossoms in scarlet in December, but there are orange variants around which blossom a bit later.

the Olde Beach Bakery has its own garden outside

With kids back at school, this is now less crowded on weekdays.  We bought some pies at the Olde Beach Bakery in Ono Street (Maori for six, nothing to do with Yoko) and went to a seat overlooking the beach. Another couple brought their sun umbrella as can be seen on a seat further along.  The high tide mark is visible near the water.