Thousands attended the popular festival despite cancellation of water-based activities. Photo / Krystal Gibbens, RNZ
By Krystal Gibbens of RNZ
The cancellation of water-based activities at this year’s Island Bay Festival didn’t put too much of a dampener on the day.
Thousands of people congregated at the festival, which had to cancel one of its headline events, the Blessing of the Boats, this week.
The festival said the decision was made in line with public health advice after thousands of litres of untreated sewage spilled into the sea around the southern coast after a long outfall pipe backed up at the Moa Point Wastewater Plant.
A rāhui remains in effect from Ōwhiro Bay to Breaker Bay, and the public is advised to stay off south coast beaches, not to collect or eat shellfish from the affected coastal waters, avoid the area around Tarakena Bay altogether, and avoid contact with sea water or spray.
At the festival, Rosie said they went every year and made time for the Blessing of the Boats and the Tangata Manu Birdman Beach Party.
The beach party was moved to Shorland Park and will be held on Friday, February 13.
She said it was a shame the events had been affected by the wastewater discharge.
“It doesn’t feel like the normal Island Bay festival.”
Sam said she was very disappointed Blessing of the Boats had been cancelled. She said it was what many people came to the festival for.
“It’s a big Catholic community so I think it’s really important for them to see that and obviously the Italian side.”
Kate said the real disappointment was Wellington’s infrastructure.
“This is not the first time we’ve had sewage going into the sea,” she said. “We’ve just got to stop making these mistakes.”
She had brought her stepson and his partner who were visiting from overseas to support the event and they had enjoyed the variety of street food available.
Leanne said the kids were “bummed” they couldn’t go swimming and the sewage situation needed to get sorted.
Anika hoped not being able to go in the ocean wouldn’t deter people from coming to the festival, but she said what was going on in the ocean was sad.
“I’ve talked to quite a few people who are really grieving what this means for the creatures that live here for the marine life, for the diversity that we have, that has taken so long to protect,” she said.
For many, the water events were not why they came to the festival.
“We live locally, so it’s nice to come down and support and come check it out,” said Dave.
William said he and his family lived up the street and came to the festival for something to do.
He said with a young baby they wouldn’t have gone to the beach anyway.
Lin from Christchurch and Jan from Melbourne saw the festival advertised and decided to come along.
The pair had come for a pickleball tournament, which they pulled out of because of injuries.
Lin said the pair had seen signs about the wastewater, but it hadn’t affected their trip at all.
“We’ve just been having an amazing time because Wellington weather’s been great and we’ve just been doing a lot of sightseeing,” said Jan.
The festival is scheduled to run from February 8-14.
Wellington Water says the latest results show there is no indication that untreated wastewater has reached the inner harbour.
Tests taken on Friday show wastewater is still discharging into the ocean and people should stay off south coast beaches.
But there is no sign the polluted wastewater has reached Eastbourne, Petone, the CBD or Kilbirnie.
Some areas where there had been higher readings also looked lower than in previous days.
Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett said the results were positive news, but for now the advice is still to stay out of the water.
“What we will be doing is building up a pattern and a trend from the testing in the days ahead,” he said.
“By the end of the week we might be in a better position to sort of say with some confidence and provide some clarity, whether or not that can change.”
Leggett said the clean-up of the Moa Pt plant would also continue over the next week.
“Our hope is that by this time next week, we will have a much cleaner plant, which will allow the assessments to start taking place so we can understand what it’s going to take to rehabilitate the plant and get it back operating.”
While people weren’t able to dip a toe in the seawater at Island Bay, the Marine Education Centre Bait House was also open during the festival.
Visitors were told that the facility had stopped its seawater intake the night before the wastewater spill because of the predicted heavy rain.
“All our marine life is healthy and happy,” the ducation centre said on its Facebook page this week.
“We dodged a bullet. Many years of operating a tiny aquarium on the South Coast and being in tune with nature as much as possible paid off.”
One of the biggest attractions of the bait house is its touch pool where people can pick up starfish and other critters, and while people were given the option to ditch the hands-on experience if they were concerned about the water, most were still quick to dive in despite the water issues nearby.
- RNZ