Councillor's Corner - November 2011

The Waikato Anchor Ceremony
On 20/11

In the year  2011

@20.11hrs an historic event took place in Tutukaka

Sunset at 20.11hrs we gathered to welcome the second anchor to the foreshore of Tutukaka, opposite her counterpart of the ex HMNZS Tui.

11 years since we brought the Waikato down to final resting place, 11 years ago the anchor was dropped for the last time!

A few months ago the anchor was lifted from the sea to commemorate the sinking of the ex HMNZS a decade earlier.

Whilst we managed to get the anchor of the ex HMNZS Tui out in time for her 10 year celebration, the Waikato’s anchor proved to be more elusive! So not in time for the 10 year celebration, but in time for another audacious date! (20/11 2011,20.11)

With the help of tech divers , the RNZ Navy, Tutukaka Coast promotion volunteers and Total Marine we finally priced her of the seafloor a few months ago.

After hours of grinding and polishing she was lifted in place, welded up and got her coats of Penatrol, which will keep her looked tanned without oxidizing away.

Looking back a decade ago the world was a different place, and so was Tutukaka.

The vision of these projects to create the “Dive Capital” of NZ paid off, but since that time other communities got into the sinking act as well. The frigate “Wellington” went to Wellington, the “Canterbury” was about to go alongside the Waikato (“brothers in arms”), however government interference saw her placed in the Bay of Islands.

I wonder if in the future there will be more ships made available for conversion to artificial reefs, unless a “Rena” takes place, it will be unlikely.

The cost of the Waikato project was close to $800,000.00 without financial assistance from Government.

In Australia all costs are met by the government, making the difficult project a lot easier!

If you ever managed to dive any of our Tutukaka wreck you no doubt will be impressed. The committee that got the project underway had to sign a personal guarantee to a loan of $50,000 from WDC, this was covering a shortfall due to thefts of a lot of the metal that was taken off the ship to pay the bills….

A few years ago we managed to pay the debt of……whilst it was a pain, this downside has always paled into insignificance compared with the excitement of sinking a ship with a team of friends: Sonny Wellington, Peter Vink, Malcolm Pullman, Andy Britton and Jeroen Jongejans will forever carry a big smile of their face when they think back….the risks were great, however the rewards and exciting memories are  even bigger!

There is nothing more motivating in life when someone tells you it can’t be done…..we never took NO for an answer!

Councillor's Corner - August Focus 2011

Rugby world cup arrived in Whangarei! Paint the town Red!

On the 8^th of September,  the “Hub” will be opened and within this new Hub there is the (now double in size) Whangarei Art Museum and new downtown information center plus the new bus stop.

First exhibition in the new WAM building will be “All Blacks, Hard on the heels” from Peter Bush, acknowledged as the world’s best and most accomplished photographer of Rugby.

Also the new art and heritage trail, the new cover on the Victoria Street Bridge canopy, extended walkways and soon a number of options will be presented for the Town Basin park area.

In the next three years the focus will be on the development of “Sense of Place” in the Town Basin and CBD, connecting both with extended malls and canopies, smarter parking and better walking lanes.

The entrance to the city from various roads will also be improved to make our district more welcoming and inviting, rather than just a toilet stop to drive past!

Regarding these upgrades, our Tutukaka Coast will not miss out. Significant upgrades of the information about the Tutukaka Coast and the activities, walkways, accommodation and transport options will be available in both information centers

 From a clean up around our stonewalls in Glenbervie, we are also included in terms of repetition of the welcoming theme along our tourist route with a variety of flags, the improvements of the Tutukaka Boat ramp facilities, the walkway from Matapouri to Whale Bay etc

Besides all these obvious improvements the wastewater treatment still carries a high priority and electronic equipment recycling will now be available as well.

The www.wdc.govt.nz site has all the updates on things like the new proposed  Parking Strategy and the “leader” is always full with other WDC updates.

All and all this month is an exciting and early start to our summer. Games are in Whangarei on the 14^th and 21^st of September, the finals in Auckland on the 23^rd October.

We can expect lots of international visitors on our coast, let’s all make them feel welcome and give a great time to remember.

Councillor's Corner - July Focus 2011

No doubt you will all have been aware of the 2011-2012 Annual Pan proposal that will determine the planned service levels for the year ahead. Those of you that are interested in this stuff will have made submissions, those that aren’t will just have to live with the outcomes!

This assumes that making a submission will have an impact…well, sometimes it does, and it most definitely raises the level of awareness of councilors to our issues. Thanks to those in our community who made submissions and spoke to them, we now have some good results coming out of this process.

The major wins will be the $150.000 for the Tutukaka boat ramp improvement and widening that should start of soon….we will be able to have 2 boats loaded and unloaded at a time, making the process twice as fast….as long as people can back their trailers in a straight line!

The other win is the Ngunguru foreshore protection, $500.000 has been set aside to look at our and 2 other foreshores and start some of the urgent work to protect  and enhance the Ngunguru waterfront.

All going well the  footpath in Shoebridge Crescent will be started soon (I know, it was supposed to be there already…storm damage repairs keep on getting priorities) and an upgrade on the walking track from Matapouri to Whale Bay is on the cards…to be started soon…and so it should be!

The Ngunguru Sandspit is still on the agenda, and Anneke Muilwijk’s  art exhibition in the old Library in Town showed a snapshot of a community that is determined that this is not forgotten!

The consultation on the “Hundertwasser” proposal is generating a good bit of discussion…isn’t that the purpose of any “artwork”?

Preparations for the RWC 2011 are in full swing, this should be able to give all businesses a bit of a boost at a time when they need it most.

Upgrades in the I-Site and on our entrance way into Town may flow on with more visitors on the Twin Coast Discovery route and bring more visitors to Whangarei and our Tutukaka Coast. In Northland we have the lowest GDP in NZ and are winners in all the wrong statistics. I will be working within WDC to drive economic development, become more “enabling” for those that want to set up or enlarge a business, improve facilities and get better outcomes for our community….Whenever we feel like things are not quite what we would like let’s spare a thought of the tribulations in Christchurch… with all our challenges our glass is still more than half full!

Cheers,  

Jeroen