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PAGE 14 Wednesday <strong>November</strong> 8 <strong>2017</strong><br />
BAY HARBOUR<br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Your Local Views<br />
Community concern over<br />
a proposed commercial<br />
development in Church <strong>Bay</strong><br />
has forced a rethink on how<br />
it will look<br />
Kathie Smith – ‘Beauty is in<br />
the eye of the beholder.’ So too<br />
is how we view our lifestyle. Recently,<br />
Church <strong>Bay</strong> and Diamond<br />
<strong>Harbour</strong> have been described<br />
as sleepy and rural. These views<br />
were expressed in opposition to<br />
the proposed<br />
commercial<br />
development<br />
at Church <strong>Bay</strong>.<br />
When I bought<br />
a section here<br />
nearly 15 years<br />
ago I did not<br />
expect to be sleepy. I considered<br />
I had bought harbourside and<br />
urban in an area renowned for its<br />
many clubs and in an environment<br />
that motivates activity.<br />
Like many retirees, I am<br />
constantly busy and sociable. My<br />
section was in an undeveloped<br />
subdivision, indicating there<br />
would be change. Change is one<br />
of life’s guarantees – it keeps us<br />
alert, energised, motivated and<br />
growing. When I moved into my<br />
new home there were about six<br />
vehicle movements a day past<br />
my driveway. Now there are 100.<br />
Great – a lot of people sharing<br />
and enjoying this wonderful<br />
place. From conversations with<br />
other retirees and young families,<br />
we are looking to the future<br />
with additional services and<br />
choices.<br />
Green MP<br />
Eugenie Sage<br />
welcomes the<br />
challenges that<br />
come with her<br />
new ministerial<br />
portfolios<br />
I AM humbled and privileged<br />
to be the new minister of<br />
conservation, minister for land<br />
information, and associate<br />
minister for the environment.<br />
I’ve spent much of my life<br />
working to protect New<br />
Zealand’s native species, our<br />
special landscapes and our rivers,<br />
lakes and aquifers. I welcome the<br />
challenge.<br />
It was wonderful to be at<br />
Banks Peninsula’s Hinewai Reserve<br />
on a sparkling day on Sunday<br />
to celebrate Hinewai’s 30th<br />
anniversary and honour Maurice<br />
White. An accountant and business<br />
person with a keen interest<br />
in birdlife, Maurice’s vision and<br />
generosity led the Maurice White<br />
Trust to buy the original 109ha<br />
Hinewai block in 1987 and, four<br />
years later, the 870ha Otanerito<br />
Station with help from the nature<br />
heritage fund.<br />
Thirty years ago, neighbours<br />
and local farmers puzzled at legendary<br />
botanist Hugh Wilson’s<br />
plan to allow nature to heal itself<br />
and have scrubby, gorse-covered<br />
hills regenerate into native forest.<br />
With help and hard work by volunteers<br />
to get rid of the browsers<br />
(goats, wild sheep, possums)<br />
and in the absence of bulldozers,<br />
stock, and herbicides, those<br />
dreams have come true.<br />
The forest is regenerating<br />
throughout Otanerito Valley. In<br />
parts of Hinewai, native trees<br />
have completely smothered<br />
blocks of gorse once fire and<br />
stock were removed.<br />
Native wildlife is<br />
flourishing from songsters like<br />
korimako/bellbird and riroriro/<br />
grey warbler to fish like kokopu<br />
and eels, tree weta and a host<br />
of insects. Banks Peninsula’s<br />
hills were once clothed in rich<br />
forest before the fires of human<br />
settlement. Hinewai shows<br />
what is possible when people<br />
work together with purpose and<br />
vision.<br />
We need to do that all across<br />
New Zealand to improve the<br />
prospects for 3000 native plants<br />
and animals threatened with<br />
extinction, and to enable every<br />
Kiwi child to be able to experience<br />
wild nature close to home.<br />
I can hear tui in Auckland and<br />
ruru/morepork in Wellington<br />
but not in Christchurch because<br />
both species are extinct in the<br />
city. We can change that if we<br />
Local<br />
News<br />
Now<br />
New minister up for the challenge<br />
ANNIVERSARY: Banks Peninsula’s Hinewai Reserve celebrated its 30th anniversary on Sunday.<br />
Fire rages, homes at risk<br />
have a vision similar to that of<br />
Hugh and Maurice and people<br />
like Colin Meurk, who protected<br />
the now magnificent Travis<br />
swamp from diggers and subdivision.<br />
Many enjoy nature in the back<br />
country – in the mountains and<br />
headwaters of rivers like the<br />
Rakaia and Rangitata.<br />
We need more spaces for<br />
nature in Christchurch that are<br />
close to home, and that children<br />
can have easy access to for play.<br />
That’s why proposals for a forest<br />
sanctuary using some of the<br />
residential red zone land are<br />
exciting.<br />
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