These establishments are first and foremost property businesses. See earlier posts.

Retiree Dorothy Webster has dipped her toes into retirement village living. Here she explains why you must do the maths before signing the dotted line.

After spending a working life paying off your mortgage and/or accumulating savings, there comes a time when you wonder how you are going to live in old age without parting with your hard-earned capital? I have been investigating the choices for retirement.

There is the lifestyle choice of going to live in a retirement village but the terms can vary considerably. Some places I researched are a bit kinder, you purchase the property and when it is sold you get the capital gain less a commission for selling it. Both of these options have a weekly fee for the use of services such as swimming pool, club house, workshop etc.

The villages in Australasia have a variety of terms so it pays to read the small print. They also have contracts that require exit fees when you leave. They all expect you to leave the property in excellent condition so a coat of paint and either a commercial carpet clean or replacement is also at your cost.

However, if you go into a village as husband and wife and one of you becomes ill and needs to be moved into the care facility the costs will increase substantially. You will still have to pay the weekly fee for your property and use of their facilities plus you could have to find approximately $1000 a week for care of your spouse. When they are getting the capital gain as well you could soon see your life savings disappearing fast.

Read the rest

This was very well attended — both by stallholders and visitors.  Sue Lusk and her team clearly put a lot of work into making it a success. The weather is always unpredictable but fortunately, it stayed dry.

Greyhounds as pets

Burning House — not really as there was a bit of wind so it wasn’t safe. The fire brigade had this inflatable as a means of demonstrating that in a burning building there is less smoke and heat at floor level, so crawl out of it.  The kids could experience it as shown, but it probably wasn’t (too) scary. 🙂

A jazz band on the central stage.

Valerie Roberts looks proud of her Creations.

Designs from Kenya.

Artist Joan-Marie O’Dea (centre)

Less usual garden ornaments.

On the Main Road by the wall, the one the NZTA/KCDC wants to tear down. Stallholders were not in favour of that.

Nature-inspired ornaments by Carolyn Hodgson Pottery.

A singer/guitar player on a second stage for Zeal members.

Becoming a familiar story isn’t it? (They have around 21 days to come up with the requested info). They decline to notify the public of the presence of 1080 in storage which they should be doing (remember Whitianga?). Or if it is burnt which they also recently declined to do in Levin. And increasingly, info […]

via Official Information requested by Horizons from NZ Defence Force about an environmental hazard at Ohakea Air Base was not disclosed for more than a year later — Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch

From Carol Sawyer HOLLYFORD AERIAL 1080 DROP, OCTOBER 2017 – DISASTROUS RESULTS ! (These results come from inside the Dept of Conservation itself, but I doubt that they would have seen the light of day if they were not exposed here! DoC need to understand that not all their employees agree with their poisoning ways.) […]

via Since a 1080 drop in Fiordland’s Hollyford Valleys in late 2017 the rat population has INCREASED & native birds, deer & trout are in severe decline — Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch

Jeremy Seamark confirms that these ants were found in the Liddle subdivison (seemingly from the days when it was a plant nursery), in Waikanae Park and a neighbour of his in Rewa Rewa Crescent has them.  Thus they are certain to be in several places in Waikanae.

It was one of the topics discussed at the Paraparaumu-Raumati Community Board on Tuesday.  Representatives of the Wellington Regional Council said that it is their responsibility to eliminate pests from public parks, this is being done with ant baits.

However, on private property the owners need to deal with this themselves.  The more people who act collaboratively, the better the chance of clearing them from a neighbourhood.

On the NZ Landcare Research website it states:

Control Tools
A wide range of products have been developed, and are still being developed, in the war against pest ants, although not all are effective in the control of Argentine ants. The field of ant control products is a dynamic one, with new insecticides and technologies being developed all the time. Many retail and commercial pest control products lay claim to their ability to kill ants, but may not have been independently assessed for their effectiveness against Argentine ants specifically, and not under New Zealand’s particular conditions.

The primary types of ant control products available are:

Baits
Residual Surface Sprays
Granular Ground Treatments
Space and Cavity Treatments

Read the rest

The Tasman District Council website also has information on Argentine and Darwin’s ants (similar but different) including videos of ant control seminars.

Argentine and Darwin’s ants have only become established within Tasman District within the last two decades but have spread rapidly through urban areas and are starting to spread onto rural land.

Despite an aggressive campaign to contain them within the urban areas, they have continued to spread, and the present tools are not providing effective control. There is concern about their impact on activities in homes and gardens, in rest homes and hospitals, and their potential effect on horticultural crops and on native fauna.

Read the rest

Houses of the Tutere Street north end in the foreground.

In brief, this entourage may be connected to an environmental group called The Nature Conservancy group as stated by another source. It is a group that partners with corporations to fund conservation. This trend sees companies known for their polluting practices dubbed by many as ‘greenwash’ corporates. Just another sneaky way into yet another cash […]

via New info on the recent 6-helicopter entourage over Fiordland by the head of NZ’s Dept. of Conservation & 30 odd international bankers — Rangitikei Enviromental Health Watch

Before the ‘Ewy’ cut its swathe across the scene.  Painting by Wallace Trickett.

Board members from left: Kathy Spiers, Bernie Randall, Guy Burns, Jonny Best, Cr Fiona Vining and Cr Mark Benton.

For a change, Geoffrey went along yesterday evening to the Paraparaumu-Raumati Community Board meeting.

The ward covers a much bigger area than Waikanae and for that reason has two councillors rather than the one in each of Otaki, Waikanae and Paekakariki.

This board seems to have a better dynamic with smoother interaction than is the case in Waikanae. There was also a more interesting set of topics at the meeting than is usually the case in Waikanae although, of course, that may be atypical.

We’ll cover a couple of these topics separately, but will just mention one in this: the scourge of methamphetamine, a.k.a. Crystal Meth, ‘P’ (in NZ) and ‘Ice’ (in Australia.)

It was reported from the meeting held in Paraparaumu on Monday that Meth is the easiest illegal drug to obtain in Kapiti, almost like going down to the store and getting a pound of butter.  One man said that he could go down the street and get a supply within two minutes.

The consequences on economic and social life are not nice — particularly if there are children in the house. Teachers told what they are like when they come to school and Cr Vining said that as a family lawyer in Kapiti for 3 and a half years, she’s heard some shocking stories.

There are no Kapiti-based drug and alcohol services, detox etc., or a crisis service for mental health.  The current service is reported to be difficult to access with scant resources to meet ongoing needs.

The board endorsed the resolution from the previous night:

“The Kapiti Health Advocacy Group requests the Government to fund better access for addicts to receive rehabilitation and mental health services.”