When driving to the ‘Ewy’ on-ramp we deliberately avoid this intersection by using the intersection of Ngarara Road and Te Moana Road, much safer. It may be a good idea to avoid it in the opposite direction, too.

by Sue Lusk

I sent an email to Kāpiti Coast District Council with comments and concerns about the accident on the corner of Park Avenue and Te Moana Road and their Traffic Engineer has promised to get the designers to look at the layout again:

NZ is ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ according to the 2016 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’. But NZ, in the opinion of experienced anti-corruption whistle-blower Penny Bright, is a ‘corrupt, polluted tax haven – a banana republic – without the bananas’. “Throw Transparency International’s ‘Corruption Perception Index’ into the rubbish bin […]

via NZ is ‘perceived’ to be ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ according to Transparency Int Corruption Perception index – it’s not says an anti-corruption whistleblower — Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch

At first glance this may resemble a memorial wall, but closer inspection reveals it is composed of individual ceramic tiles cemented onto the wall surface.

an open letter to the Mayor and Councillors of KCDC, also to the Kapiti Community and beyond

Some years ago, the KCDC decided that a macron should be included in the name of Kapiti, but whoever decided to take this action did not apply to The New Zealand Geographic Board to obtain a legal view.

I have obtained proof that a proposal was never received from the District Council by the Board regarding adding a macron to the a in Kapiti.

For such a request to be accepted, the KCDC would be expected to have conducted a consultation, and any such proposal would also be subject to public consultation through the NZGB’s standard process: none of this did happen.

Therefore KCDC’s actions of including the macron were and still are totally unlawful.

‘Kapiti’ in the long form of the name, is part of the bit meaning boundary line and is not spelt with a macron in the standard te reo Maori promoted by The Maori Language Commission.  So this ‘Kapiti’ definitely does not relate to cabbages.

Kapiti with a macron in standard te reo Maori has the meaning of ‘cabbage’.

In consideration of tourism, let alone the local residents of Kapiti, the sensible thing to do is to expunge the macron from all signage and letterheads etc., thus doing everything to annul such frivolous derogatory comments referring to our lovely area as the ‘Cabbage Patch’.

This is not going to be cheap, but this irresponsible situation has been brought about by the idiotic self indulgence of a previous Mayor, which has then been perpetuated by the successive Councils, much to the annoyance of the community.

I trust that you are now fully aware that this macron subject has grown from a sore to a full grown boil, and that you should now take this matter up in the same spirit that you took with the ‘Osbourne hedge’ debacle, but this time with the Community at heart.

Should you have any doubt about the authenticity of my comments, then I will be pleased to provide copies to you of the confirming detail.

Not only has the ill-conceived action of KCDC done to detriment to the area, but your actions have also slid into the NZTA, who also have erroneously utilized it, naming the Expressway effectively ‘The Cabbage Expressway’. What other damage has been done?  Oh yes -– even a local paper is now showing a heading of the ‘Cabbage Patch’.

Trusting that retrospective action will now be taken by KCDC, in an effort to alleviate the detriment of the error, in the earliest and most affordable way -– such as the speed taken by Council in the ‘Osbourne hedge’ situation!

The majority of the Kapiti residents have a sincere appreciation of the area, and under no circumstance do they need being classified as living in a ‘Cabbage Area’.

Roy Bradbury,  a concerned ex-Waikanae Councillor

Undated.

It nominally starts at 10 am, although those who think the council will listen to them can show up at 9:30 and register for their 3 minutes of public speaking time on whatever council matters they choose.

The meeting agenda is here.  The most interesting items are always those that the council bosses don’t want the people they serve to know about, the “public excluded sessions”. All you get told is the subject(s) to be covered. This time it is the ‘Peka Peka to Otaki Expressway Property Agreement’, which we assume relates to property owners in the vicinity affected by the Ewy extension, including property owned by the council itself.

If you can’t make it, you can listen and view on the live streaming broadcast here, although this gets turned off for the secret sessions, and its visual and audio quality isn’t great anyway..

Another page of the council website always worth a visit is the job vacancies as this tells us what new bureaucrats the council boss intends to add to the already considerable KCDC staff.

Seen yesterday.  Registered as a 1955, but actually a 1954 model, and with some customisation.

Looking west with the Otaihanga Domain opposite.

Here’s a little known fact about New Zealand’s biodiversity, we have a staggering amount of different land snails for the size of our country.

via Photo of the week: New Zealand’s native micro-snails — Conservation blog

Just outside the Sunday Cantina café.  This is looking west and shows the sunflowers now in bloom.

On the opposite side (behind the camera) an area has been painted lime green in readiness for another mural.  Sue Lusk of Destination Waikanae says: “[artist] Abby found it very hard on her back and knees and we wondered about marine ply panels for this one (which would be good if the planters are eventually demolished).”

Like the sculpture garden, there seems no good reason for demolishing the flower planters. The open area really only requires relatively small expenditure to improve it.

It is more important to spend the allocated money instead on expanding the Mahara Gallery building by adding a second story.