HATAITAI’S One Love music festival rocked all day long to the beat of its 13th anniversary on Saturday, despite there being 5000 fewer punters than last year.

And it’s no wonder the crowd was a bit light, with so many events crammed into one weekend for the capital.

Wellington was packed to the rafters with the second day of Sevens at the Cake Tin, Te Rā o te Raukura at Te Whiti park in Lower Hutt and Te Rā o Waitangi celebrations at Waitangi Park.

But One Love was still as colourful as ever, with music from Sola Rosa featuring Spikey Tee and Rachel Fraser, Don McGlashan, The Eastern, The Midnights, Mungo’s Hifi and Richard Nunns and the Etymologists.

Not to mention the mysterious trumpet player who spontaneously emerged from the foliage, tooting away to on-stage entertainment from the side of the hill.

The festival is held every year at the velodrome in Hataitai to celebrate “unity within diversity” on Waitangi day, coinciding with reggae legend Bob Marley’s birthday.

“Waitangi Day was a politically charged day in Aotearoa 13 years ago,” says event director Hadden Morrison. One Love was intended as a day to celebrate unity within the community.

And it’s been going strong ever since, he says.

“It still serves the same ideals, but now we have live bands celebrating our national day together without prejudice and association of religion, politics, sexuality, creed or colour.”

BIG SMOKE: Fire Officers make their way towards the fire above Hutt Valley.

FIRE engulfed the hills above Wingate in Lower Hutt after a witness says she heard a sound like tires popping in a spare parts yard above her home.

The woman, who lives on Cambridge Tce about 700m from the edge of the fire, saw smoke from her window “some time after lunch” and called the Fire Service.

When she went outside she heard a sound like a “small pop of tires blowing up” coming from the  Pick-A-Part yard on the hill above the Wingate over-bridge.

The hillside above the scrap yard was burning.

Tara Noble watches the fire spread.

Tara Noble (17) saw the smoke from her home in Naenae at about 3pm and drove with her family to see the fire.

Miss Noble says the burning area was small at first, “and then started crawling up the hill”.

The Nobles were held inside a cordon set up by the Fire Service when Cambridge Tce was closed to traffic from Wingate bridge to Hewer Cres.

NewsWire saw motorists being diverted away from the area.

Many were angry at the diversion, including one motorist who ran the cordon and tried to drive on to Wingate.  The driver was turned back by police.

Fire officers fight the fire on the ground.

Station Officer Gareth Hughes of Avalon Fire Station said at the scene the first emergency call came in at 2:26pm for a “scrub fire” above the Pick-A-Part scrap yard.

Twenty two fire vehicles responded, including his crew, which was called away from the Te Ra o Te Rakura fair at Te Whiti Park in Waiwhetu at 2:40pm and were the fourth pump at the scene.

An Air Control helicopter and police also attended.

Mr Hughes estimated the fire to be 1km square, ranging over two or three ridges of the hill.

The helicopter began water dumps drawn from the Hutt River until a reservoir and landing area could be set up on park land adjacent to Wingate Bridge.

A Fire Service command centre was established at the Pick-A-Part scrap yard and a team of Rural Bush Force officers could be seen working in the burnt scrub.

A reservoir dam was set up on the traffic island adjoining Wingate Bridge and the helicopter made 10 to 15 drops by 4:30pm.  Water for the reservoir came by hose from a hydrant on Hewer Cres.

Locals lined the street to watch the helicopter deliver its pay load.

Police at the scene said the pedestrian cordon at Wingate was to protect the helicopter landing area and keep people out of the chopper’s flight path.

The Air Control helicopter collects a new payload from its reservoir.

]]> http://www.newswire.co.nz/2010/02/hills-above/feed/ 1 http://www.newswire.co.nz/2010/02/carnival-atmosphere/ http://www.newswire.co.nz/2010/02/carnival-atmosphere/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:12:54 +0000 Kylie Klein-Nixon http://www.newswire.co.nz/?p=14444 THE heart of the city was transformed on Saturday night as the super sevens carnival hit town and streets were blocked off for Wellington’s party of the year.

More than 73, 000 people flooded into the capital for the two-day event, with an estimated one in seven of them staying on to celebrate in Courtenay Place.

Costumes were everywhere.

Dorothy, Toto and the Tin Man shared a drink with the cowardly Lion at one table, while a few tables down a green-painted Wicked Witch partied with Batman.

Despite the rugby outcome, the atmosphere was jubilant, with people proudly parading their outfits and clustering around speakers and on balconies to dance.

Police presence was unobtrusive and the more than 10, 000-strong crowd seemed generally well behaved.

Duty officer Inspector Anaru George called the number of arrests over the course of the evening “quite conservative” considering the size of the event.

“It was a good-spirited Sevens as per usual,” he says.

The larger numbers joining in on the party were probably a result of crowds from Hataitai’s One Love music festival merging with Sevens fans.

Extra staff from the Hawkes Bay and Palmerson North assisted Wellington Police with 14 arrests and 35 evictions from Westpac Stadium during the matches on Saturday.

Most of the evening’s 63 arrests were for minor offences and infringement of the open alcohol ban in Courtenay Place.

There were some drunk driving arrests also, but no serious incidents were reported.

Speaking before the event, Wellington city councillor John Morrison said organisers work closely with police to ensure behaviour at the event is acceptable.

“While one might predict complete mayhem at an event like this, there’s always a very good atmosphere and little trouble,” he said.  “They come for the party.”

The IRB rugby sevens tournament brings an estimated $16 Million into Wellington over the course of the weekend.

Next year may be the last time the Sevens are held here.

The Dominion Post reports that Wellington organisers have failed to secure the city as a permanent venue for the event, with the NZ Rugby Union throwing it open for bids when the Wellington tenure expires next year.

Both Auckland and Dunedin are likely to bid to host the tournament in 2012.

So far as the rugby itself is concerned, it was not a great night for the home team.

The NZers were muscled out in the semi-final by Samoa (14-24), which was itself beaten by Fiji in the final, 19-14.

 ”They’re always in good spirits,” he says of the thousands who come to the Capital for the annual IRB rugby sevens tournament.

TOP GUNS: Outside J J Murphy's in Cuba St - from left: Gary Skedgwell, Michelle Clifford, Paula Allen, Daniel Roberts, Brett Phillips and Mary-Ellen Earl.

“It’s a good atmosphere,” says Eugene, who manages James J Murphy and Co.

The Sevens – the third biggest night after St Patrick’s Day and the Cuba Street Carnival – is not like some other big events, he says.

In the case of the AC/DC concerts, for example, he laid on extra security “because we didn’t quite know what the crowd would be like”.

Plans for the Sevens weekend have been city-wide, says Wellington City Councillor John Morrison.

“The idea is to turn the whole city into a party. That’s the broader philosophy we try to bring to these events.”

Courtenay Place was to be blocked off from Cambridge Tce to Taranaki from 6pm on Saturday evening to 6am Sunday morning. Parts of adjoining Blair and Allen Sts also had traffic restrictions.

Courtenay Place and Queens Wharf had big screens showing the games, creating a “Sevens village type concept”, with marquees and music.

Mr Morrison says the rewards of hosting events like the Sevens make town being “a bit of a mess” afterwards worth it.

“You can go without this kind of thing, but then you wouldn’t have much of a city.”

The impact on traffic was expected to be the biggest problem, but Wellington City Council events manager John Dawson says blocking off the streets adds another dimension to the Sevens.

“It provides an opportunity for people who didn’t get into the stadium to participate,” he says.

“With that number of people, we would have had to close the area anyway.  So it’s a health and safety issue as well as event promotion.”

Council spokesperson Richard MacLean says the cost of closing the roads, which comes out of the council’s $1.8 million events development fund, is “not hugely expensive”.

Traffic management costs for Saturday night were budgeted at $8000.

Marketing for the Sevens event is funded by the downtown levy, a rate collected from central business district retailers and businesses specifically for tourism promotion.

Mr Morrison says businesses encourage the council to do whatever it can to bring in big events: “Everyone buys into it.”

He would not say how much the Sevens marketing budget is, but says increased revenue coming into the city over the weekend exceeds it.

Of the expected 70,000 people attending the event, 40% will be from out of town.

The council predicts that $15 to $16 million dollars will be punched into Capital’s economy this weekend.

TAI Tokerau MP Hone Harawira says the tinorangatiratanga flag is not a symbol of hatred – and wants all kiwis to embrace it.

The flag they call the tino rangatiratanga flag was launched as the “Maori flag” in 1990 and first flown at Waitangi on February 6 that year, he says.

“In 2010 we honour the fact that 20 years later it has become the flag chosen by 80% of Maori as our national flag,” says Mr Harawira.

“Who on earth would want to hate that?”

Mr Harawira says race relations in New Zealand have not been dealt with honestly and the Treaty should be the basis for harmonious relations and governance in New Zealand.

“They will continue to be an issue until this country wakes up to its real history.”

He is critical of recent negative mainstream media coverage, because his views are completely different from that of other MPs.

“They like to put us in boxes so they can explain us to their audiences easier.”

He says there is a desperate need for unity within Maoridom in 2010.

However, high profile critic Buddy Mikaere says the situation is not one of total despair.

“I don’t know if it’s desperate, but the whole Treaty claims process is forcing that kind of change,” says Mr Mikaere.

“In recent times, the forestry settlement in CNI (Central North Island) has been a good model that people can use by working together. The last couple of decades have been divisive.”

Waitangi Day celebrations were due to start today at the Copthorne Resort in Waitangi, where the Governor-General will host a reception for the Diplomatic Corps, and representatives from the Government and Maoridom.

Flag Facts

• The Maori flag was designed in 1990 by Hiraina Marsden, Jan Smith and Linda Munn.
• The whole colours represent the balance of natural forces, masculine and feminine, with a white swirl that can symbolise the cloud over Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud.
• In December last year, John Key agreed for the flag to be flown on Waitangi Day at significant sites to recognise the partnership between the Crown and Maori under the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

THE WEEKEND’S top temperatures in Wellington saw thousands flocking to beaches – and more of the same is on its way.

It was hard to find a car park on Saturday at Days Bay (above), where children enjoyed jumping off the bridge while others relaxed on the beach or played in the water.

Lyall Bay was just as packed.

Many spent the day beachside, but the races in Trentham also attracted throngs of people. They experienced a scorcher of a day with temperatures recorded at 28.7 degrees.

Met Service consultant meteorologist Ross Marsden says: “With a high over the next few days the weather will continue to be good.”

PAIN AT THE PUMP: Jolyon Riddiford is one who's paying more.

CONSUMERS put their hands in their pockets for an additional $20 million worth of petrol in November, the fifth consecutive month of higher spending on fuel.

Statistics New Zealand recently released figures showing that from October to November 2009, petrol sales were the largest contributor to a 0.8% boost in total retail sales.

After a turning point in July, fuel sales have been rising consistently, and by November were up 2.3%. 

In the same month, motor vehicle sales fell 3.2%, or $17 million, the largest recorded fall since January 2009.

SALES CRASH: Falls in the number of cars sold.

From a peak in car sales in May 2007, the November numbers were down by a quarter.

Mark Stockdale, senior policy analyst at the New Zealand Automobile Association, says the increase in petrol purchases could be a result of summer, with people travelling more, and a general improvement in the economy.

“An improving economy means more commerce – so that could have increased diesel sales in that period for freight.”

In a statement, government statistician Geoff Bascand says: “The total retail sales trend has been rising since February 2009 (up 2.5%), at an average rate of 0.3% per month.”

Mr Stockdale says petrol and diesel sales could follow suit.

“[The] general economic upturn suggests we could expect to see modest rises in fuel volumes. However, that will be tempered somewhat by expected increases in global commodity prices, which are recovering after worldwide demand fell during the economic crisis.

“The other major factor will be the NZ dollar, which is currently quite high, but if this falls this will have a negative impact on demand as the cost of imported fuel rises.”

PERFECT BLUE: Owhiro Bay looks safe.

A POPULAR  Wellington beach that was closed last week with high bacterial contamination has exceeded Environment Ministry safety guidelines repeatedly this summer.

Enterococci bacteria at Owhiro Bay have exceeded the ministry’s most dangerous “action” level on five occasions since summer water quality testing began in November.

Under the guidelines, a bacterial count of more than 140 units per 100ml triggers an alert and follow-up monitoring. When two consecutive samples show levels above 280/100ml, an action response is triggered and the beach is closed to avoid health risk.

Ingesting water contaminated with enterococci bacteria can cause diarrhoea, stomach cramps and vomiting. Cuts and skin lesions can also become infected.

While Greater Wellington Regional Council testers have recorded a number of action readings at Owhiro Bay, on each previous occasion they fell back to safe levels within 24 hours.

Last week, however, they recorded consecutive readings of 372 and 1024 – almost four times action levels – and the beach was closed. 

Regional council water quality scientist Summer Warr says the high readings were almost certainly caused by the previous weekend’s high rainfall. Heavy rains flush out stormwater systems which may be cross-connected with sewers.

She says the Wellington coastline experiences “high energy” pulses of rainfall that can quickly flush stream and stormwater outfalls.

“That’s why we warn people not to swim at [urban] beaches for 48 hours after a heavy rainfall.”

While this warning is issued at the start of the summer bathing season, “the regional council doesn’t have any specific strategy for letting people know”, Ms Warr says.

CONTAMINATION CULPRIT: Waters from Owhiro Stream flow into the bay

She warns that Owhiro Bay seems to be more susceptible to exceeding the guidelines.

“There are definitely other options around Wellington that have reliably lower results – places like Scorching Bay and Princess Bay that have fewer stormwater outfalls.”

Owhiro Bay School principal Karen Hardie says water quality in the area has long been a concern.

Children have been barred from Owhiro Stream, which runs behind the school, after repeated council warnings about possible contamination.

She says she was not aware of the regional council’s warning to avoid beach swimming after heavy rains, but will include the advice in the next school newsletter.

Iqbal Idris, from Wellington City Council’s water management service Capacity, says blocked drains on private land are often to blame for elevated bacterial levels at city beaches.

“The beach closure at Island Bay last month was eventually traced back to a drain at a block of flats 3km away.”

He says the Owhiro Bay catchment stretches as far north as Brooklyn and includes a number of potentially contaminating sites, including landfills.

Engineers are inspecting and replacing drains in the area as part of the council’s long-term sewerage pollution elimination project.

Since the city council began the project in 1993, the quality of fresh water feeding into the sea has dramatically improved, Mr Idris says.

He points to the Overseas Passenger Terminal culvert, which recorded a faecal coliform count of 38,500 cfu (colony-forming units) per 100ml in 1994. Ten years later, after extensive work to the stormwater system, the median level was down to 1,500 cfu/100ml.

He urges the public to do their bit by notifying the council about blocked drains or sewage overflow.

AN early morning pea souper slowed commuter traffic on the Hutt Rd early today when low lying fog cloaked the Capital during rush hour.

The fog bank extended across the city from Oriental Bay to Petone, but had begun to lift by 8:45am.

The low, dense mist, which the Met Service calls radiation fog, follows on from yesterday’s meteorological cloud show, when the mouth of the harbour disappeared under a white haze called “round-the-corner fog”.

Met Service duty forecaster Allister Gorman says fog of this kind requires unique environment to happen.

“It’s really specific to Wellington, because the Cook Strait provides a gap in the barrier of mountains that starts in the north east of the country and carries on all the way down to the Southern Alps,” he says.

It is called round-the-corner fog because it has come from the Hawkes Bay and gets sucked into the harbour by a light southerly.

This morning’s mist, a more common form of low cloud, is a result of the extra moisture in the air condensing overnight in light winds.

While round-the-corner is the most common kind, Wellington usually only sees five to ten days of fog a year in the city compared to 90 in Hamilton and 50 in Christchurch.

Mr Gorman  say Wellingtonians can expect to see a little more mist on the water tomorrow if light winds prevail over night.