Trip to Turitea

The weather was kind for a few hours today and I joined two council staff members on a trip to the Turitea Reserve. All councillors have been given several opportunities to go up to the reserve by 4-wheel-drive to familiarise ourselves properly with the “lay of the land” prior to our workshops and later decision-making over the proposed change in status of the Turitea Reserve. Until my trip today, nobody had taken up the road-trip offers; however, several of us have been trying for weeks now to get an aerial view (the only way the entirety of the reserve can be seen) and, with luck, the weather will be kind enough to let us take off tomorrow.

Every Monday for the past few weeks, some of us have scheduled our day for the helicopter trip. And every Monday, the weather has packed it in and the trip has had to be postponed. Tomorrow is our last chance to get up before our workshop tomorrow night so when yesterday’s helicopter flight was cancelled, I became concerned that I may have ended up in the discussions tomorrow night without having seen everything I want to see. The decision over the Turitea Reserve is arguably the most important single decision to be taken in this term of council and it has ramifications for this city that will have an impact for generations of Palmerstonians. We must ensure that we are all as fully informed as possible before we reach the stage of making such a decision.

Council staff had to go up to the reserve today and offered three seats in the 4WD vehicle to councillors. So, I took the opportunity to go. Mark, our driver, had taken me up a couple of years ago and on that trip we had wonderful views of… the road! The ranges were in the clouds and I saw little more than the road and some scrub at the side - even the edges were indefinable with the low cloud cover.

Today, the sun shone for a short time and rain held off. We came into the reserve across private land, up from the Kahuterawa Valley. While I have seen many photographs and aerial shots of the reserve, nothing really prepared me for the enormity of standing on the ridge and seeing the peaks, valleys, forests, etc. Or for seeing the snow on the ranges as I looked back across the Wairarapa. It was bitterly cold up there today and the wind was having a wild time (the noise of the wind has to be heard to be believed!). The damage from possums over the years is quite an eye-opener and while there are good pest control measures in place, there is really only the width of the ridge road between our controlled area and the conservation land controlled by the Department of Conservation. I suggested that perhaps the ridge road should be renamed possum highway as I could not really see the point in our pest control measures when only metres away they can roam, uncontrolled. Looking at some of the damage being done to plants up there, it is also obvious that there is at least one hare managing to keep a full belly.

It is unfortunate that the public open day only took people in from the other side, as far as the 80 metre mast. As I had been up that side previously, the trip today was from the other side and we went as far as the 80 metre mast before turning back. I understand that the difficulties associated with access from that side, and the length of the trip (three hours just to the mast and back), meant that the public tour could not extend out to where I was today, but sadly, this also meant that the people who went on the open day trip did not get the opportunity to see enough of the reserve. I was surprised to see that there are considerable differences in plant growth, scrub and bush along the length of the road and, of course, some of the best views are to be seen from that part of the reserve. We are extremely lucky to have this fantastic asset on our doorstep and I hope that an opportunity will be created sometime soon for everyone to have the opportunity that I have had.

I am really pleased I took that opportunity today. We measured road widths, checked out tree and scrub heights, looked at valleys, ridges and accesses, and took photographs to show the rest of my fellow councillors tomorrow night. By the time we get through the workshop and possibly the helicopter overview tomorrow, I feel I will be going into the decision-making process as informed as possible.