Jim Aitken from Mahurangi Oysters in happier times, serving customers at the New Zealand Food Show last year. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
This is a transcript of Simon Wilson’s weekly newsletter Love this City – exploring the ideas and events, the reality and the potential of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
“We are temporarily closed till July,” says the notice on the website of Mahurangi Oysters, where it also proclaims, referring to happier times, “Shuck that’s good!”
The Aitken family has farmed oysters at the bottom of the Mahurangi Peninsula, south of Snells Beach, for decades.
And they’ve always had to put up with a bit of raw sewage that spills into the harbour in heavy rain. But they’ve coped: they have very extensive protocols for cleaning the water, and the council has set limits. With the current number of connections to the wastewater system in the area, Watercare is permitted no more than 15 overflows a year.
This year, there have already been 31 overflows, spilling 1.85 million litres of wastewater into the harbour. The plant has been closed for 89 days.
“It is no longer tenable,” Jim Aitken told the council this week, “to clean the water to grow safe oysters.” He’s a tough-looking guy, a farmer who loves his work, and throughout his presentation he did not break down in tears.
But he must have been close.
Aitken was there with other aquafarmers from the area, all of them desperate to persuade the council to do something about Watercare and about the resource management rules that govern them.
“We brought this to light seven years ago and it’s been ignored,” he said. “Families are facing bankruptcy, there’s reputational damage, the destruction of intergenerational businesses.”
“We’re doing everything right,” said his friend Ross Robson, a farmer for 25 years. “We spent over $1 million last year on consents. For what?
“It’s Watercare and you’re the council, but it’s the same thing. You’re the same thing. You do need to make this right to us. It’s unacceptable to us that we are suffering.”
Watercare is working to resolve the problem, but that is expected to take until 2028. And the wild weather of climate change is not going away.
“Some of us won’t survive. Some financial support is desperately needed.”
Mayor Wayne Brown said, “We will be asking the chief executive what options we have here, because it is a difficult situation.”
Phil Wilson, the chief executive, said, “It’s been suggested that officers should report back with more information, and that’s good.”
Mahurangi is what happens when development is allowed in rural areas without the infrastructure to support it. Everybody knows this. Everybody knows the solution is to ensure development contributions are large enough to build the infrastructure – and that the agencies in charge of that process are functional enough to ensure it happens in good time.
Everybody also knows it’s way harder to do that than it should be. But growth should benefit commerce, not cripple it.
Finally, some sanity is about to prevail in the regulations governing e-scooters. In a general tidy-up of transport regulations, the Government has announced that e-scooters will be allowed in bike lanes. This should help to reinforce the idea that they are not allowed on footpaths.
New rules will also mean that children can ride bikes on footpaths and vehicles must give way to buses leaving a bus stop.
There are still other issues with e-scooters. In many cities overseas, you don’t see them much any more, because they’ve been superseded in the micro ride-share market by e-bikes.
The advantage: bikes have to be returned to a lock station, so there are no randomly abandoned two-wheelers littering the pavements. They also have to be hired from a lock station, which means no joyriders taking a beeping spin down the road.
Something for the council to think about there?
Chris Bishop, already the Minister of Transport, RMA Reform and many other things, has taken on a new role: Upzone Commissar.
When Auckland Council recently reaffirmed its commitment to six-storey limits for development near transit hubs such as main railway stations, Bishop warned that it may not be enough. In places like that, he wants real housing density.
This week he confirmed it, announcing that the council must upzone “walkable catchments” of about 800 metres around five stations on the Western Line: Maungawhau (Mt Eden), Kingsland, Morningside, Baldwin Ave and Mt Albert.
Zoning in the first three will have to allow buildings of “at least 15 storeys”; in the next two, it will be at least 10 storeys.
Mayor Brown has been generally supportive, although he hasn’t commented on what he thinks about Wellington setting the rules. Having an Upzone Commissar was never part of Brown’s “fix Auckland and stop Wellington interfering” concept of how to be mayor.
Richard Hills, chairman of the planning committee, says councillors were “leaning in that direction anyway”.
It’s going to be hotly disputed, of course. Sally Hughes, of the Character Coalition, told RNZ it was particularly worried about “special character” areas that would have to be “sacrificed when it’s not really necessary”.
This was a reference to streets with villas. But it was the council’s insistence on special character even in suburbs (such as Kingsland and Morningside) that are not full of villas that led Bishop to demand higher building limits. Those suburbs in his sights do have some villas, but their special character zones also cover a lot of simple cottages and nondescript buildings.
There is also the question of “viewshafts”: the views of Maungawhau and other maunga that have been protected in the planning rules since the late 1970s.
I asked Bishop what this will mean for viewshafts, and the answer seemed to be that they’ll be protected, mostly. He said the council would be able to “modify” the 15-storey and 10-storey heights “to the extent necessary to accommodate a qualifying matter (such as the protection of viewshafts) if this level of development is inappropriate”. More to come on this soon.
Meanwhile, Brent Kennedy, of the Uptown Business Association, says it has its own plans for growth in the Maungawhau area.
Uptown encompasses the shops along the top of Symonds St, Mt Eden Rd and New North Rd, for which the UBA has a “community vision”, created by businesses and residents. It has also worked with the University of Auckland, AUT and Unitec “to brief 550 students at all levels to imagine development of the precinct consistent with the community vision”. (More on this soon, too.)
And there’s a plan for a “pedestrian gateway” to the commercial area around the Powerstation, leading down to the Maungawhau station. This includes a pedestrian-friendly shared space on Nikau St, opposite Galbraith’s pub.
Kennedy says the UBA has shown all this to the local boards, councillors, the CRL, Eke Panuku and Auckland Transport. “It takes a lot to get traction on any future thinking in the city,” he says, very truthfully.
But he knows Mayor Brown has directed senior council executive Barry Potter to review “all the dimensions of the CRL opportunity” and report back by the end of July. We watch and wait.
One thing that’s puzzling about Bishop’s telescopic height limits: why is he fixated on station precincts on the Western Line? Why isn’t he demanding the same for Meadowbank and Glen Innes stations on the Eastern Line, and Parnell, Newmarket, Remuera, Greenlane and Ellerslie stations on the Southern Line? They’re no further away than Mt Albert.
Auckland Council has signed off its Annual Plan, with a $9.4 billion budget, for the 2025-26 year that starts on Tuesday. Of that, $5.13b is operational expenditure and $4.27b is capital spending.
A third of the money ($3.4b) goes to transport. That includes the public transport system and all the maintenance of non-highway roads. Another $2.1b goes to water: providing drinking water, managing stormwater and dealing with wastewater.
Community spending is set at $1.25b, and there’s $788 million for the natural environment.
There’s also $1.384b under the general heading “local government”.
I asked the council what that covers. The group chief financial officer, Ross Tucker, explained: “Under our local government investment, we have a range of funding for significant programmes, including the flood-affected property buyouts and the Port of Auckland annual capital programme. The operating spend also captures a wide range of activities that don’t fit into other investment areas, such as large value grants to Auckland Museum, Motat and others.”
Those property buyouts are budgeted at $452m, and the port will be spending $165m on its capital works programme, which includes extending Bledisloe Wharf. IT costs are also included in the “local democracy” spend.
The council received 13,016 responses from the public on the budget while it was in draft form, including 3001 pieces of feedback at in-person events.
About $3b of the income is from rates, which are rising by an average 5.8% this year. Other key revenue comes from transport fares and other fees and charges ($1.9b), borrowing ($1.7b) and the council’s operating surplus ($1.1b).
Tucker says the council group is about to end the current financial year with a $126m “favourable” opex outcome: it has spent $96m less than it budgeted for, and received $30m more in revenue.
You can have four, but a professional can have 12.
That’s the new rule for dog walking, adopted this week by Auckland Council. It was going to be six for everyone, but the change of heart came about after an exhaustive process of consultation and consensus-building.
And if you do walk four at once, at least two must be on-leash. There are no limits to how many of the professionals’ dogs are kept on-leash.
The council has not revised any rules for dogs in public reserves such as Monte Cecilia Park in Three Kings and Madills Farm in Kohimarama, where local boards have introduced restrictive new regimes. The council delegated authority for such decisions to the local boards in 2012 and does not have the power to overrule them.
But it has updated the rules for walking dogs in 13 regional parks, where it retains authority. Many of them include beaches.
Despite the explosion in dog numbers in the city in recent years, the trend is not towards having more off-leash areas. That’s because of concerns about public safety, birds and other wildlife, faecal contamination of the ground and a general desire by iwi, which were sometimes the donors of the parks, to keep dogs restricted.
But off-leash areas remain. One is in the Botanical Gardens in Manurewa, where it’s been decided to keep the status quo for now, recognising that further reform is possible when the gardens are redesigned at some stage.
Mayor Brown wondered whether the off-leash area in the gardens could be contained by fences, as is the case at Meola Reef. Officials wondered whether big chain-link fences in the Botanical Gardens would be welcomed by many members of the public.
A bigger controversy has sprung up around the off-leash area at Te Arai South Beach, known to locals as Forestry Beach. It’s in the far northeast corner of the city, one beach up from Pākiri.
The council proposal was to keep all dogs on a leash and, although 80% of the locals said no, the original plan remained in the recommendations.
The main reason seemed to be that nesting sites for several endangered species, including fairy terns, Caspian terns and oystercatchers, were said to be at risk.
The local councillor, Greg Sayers, prepared an amendment: dogs would have to stay on-leash in the carparks and getting to the beach, but could be off-leash along four kilometres of the total 20km of beaches in that part of the city.
Officials clarified that the risk to birdlife in that 4km stretch was probably minimal.
In the end, Sayers didn’t put his plan forward, but proposed instead that the recommendations for Forestry Beach be sent back to the panel that had done all the work, along with his plan, so a new working group could come up with a solution.
The dog lobby, iwi and the council will be represented on the working group.
Why didn’t he put his plan to a vote? He told me he didn’t think he had the numbers.
This happens quite a lot at the council. A councillor has a proposal and speaks passionately for it, but fails to persuade enough others to support it. So it dies.
Something to think about in September/October when we vote for a new council. It’s not enough for politicians to have good ideas (however you perceive them) if the only thing they do with them is proclaim loudly on Facebook and everywhere else how they made a pretty speech about them.
The question to ask is this: What examples can they point to where they negotiated well enough with their colleagues, before it got to the speechifying, so that they had the numbers to actually make policy and get things changed?
About half the councillors and the mayor know they have to do this, and do their best with it. The other half fume and are endlessly frustrated that no one’s listening.
Meanwhile, the dust is refusing to settle at Monte Cecilia Park, where the local board has voted to ban off-leash dog walking, even in the bowl in the middle of the park that really isn’t much use for anything except giving dogs a good run (see photo).
Local dog-owner Owen McMahon has commented:
I could enlarge, at length, on the community, the beauty, and the absence of aggression [all the dogs are good boys, he means] in the sanctuary of Monte Cecilia Park. Instead, I have attached a photo ... Our visit to the park was spontaneous. We did not know any of the people present, and no one knew we were taking the photo.”
He said his dog, Sophie, “loves to run up the hill of the bowl and back down to us again and again, just for the sheer joy of it. Walking on a leash is no exercise at all for a dog, even when you weigh only 6.6kg.
“I cannot understand what is the problem the local board is trying to solve.”
Mayor Brown ended the council discussion by declaring, “I’d be quite happy to ban them in Ponsonby. Especially in cafes.”
Who doesn’t love the mayor and his little jokes.
How about a 2km light trail through the city, full of art and history and beauty to explore? You may have seen some of it on Queen St, but there’s a lot more to discover.
Tūhono opened last weekend, tracing a path from the original spring whose waters once ran where Queen St is now, among the birds and plant life of the valley, down to the original foreshore.
“Guided by light and sound effects created by Māori artists,” they say, “this modern form of Matariki splendour is a celebration of wai (water). The local awa (the waters of Te Waihorotiu stream), moana (the Waitematā harbour) and the life-giving value of rain are attributed to the stars in the Matariki cluster: Waitī, Waitā and Waipunarangi.”
Because Matariki is a time of reflection and connection, marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, the light trail offers a chance to do the same: “To pause, think, take it easy,” they say, “and gather your people for a journey into the rich history of the city centre.”
Step 1 is Waimahara, where you step down from Queen St at the corner of Mayoral Drive, into Myers Park along a stairway designed by Tessa Harris (Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki), with patterns depicting pātiki (flounder), and discover the lights, sounds and sculptures on show in the underpass. Waimahara, commissioned by Auckland Council, is a permanent multi-sensory artwork by Graham Tipene (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Hauā, Ngāti Manu), technology experts IION and others.
Step 2 is Tūrama and Taurima, back on Queen St. A series of art installations tells ancient stories of place as you walk towards the sea. There’s Horotiu, a 9m kaitiaki who guards the ancestral river while greeting the waharoa (archway) in Aotea Square by artist Selwyn Murupaenga. This area carries the ngā tapuwae o ngā mana o te whenua (the footprints of local iwi) who lived here for hundreds of years.
Next comes Manu Korokī, inspired by the works of the revered ringa whao, Fred Graham, who died only last month. Flocks of manu (birds) take flight on opposite sides of Queen St with an accompanying audio track mimicking their birdsong. Look up and you’ll see Kāhu Kōrako high in the crosswires, representing an older kāhu (a hawk) whose plumage has lost the dark colouring of youth and is now grey.
Turn left into the historic Strand Arcade and you’ll arrive in Elliott St, where Taurima shines among the trees. With symbolism of pātaka kai (food storehouse), the fluoro-neon art suspended overhead is by Lissy Robinson-Cole (Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Hine), Rudi Robinson-Cole (Waikato, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Pāoa, Te Arawa), Ataahua Papa (Ngāti Koroki, Kahukura, Ngāti Mahuta) and Angus Muir Design.
As you head down to Queen St on Victoria St, look back to the Sky Tower: you might see bespoke Māori art projected onto the city’s biggest canvas. Walk towards the harbour and you’ll notice Kawau Tikitiki (a shag) suspended in flight above the street, acknowledging this bird’s revered constancy of purpose, resolute nature and speed of action.
At the site of the original foreshore, between Shortland and Fort streets, stands the waharoa Te Wehenga. As you walk beneath this archway, the illuminated imagery changes from whenua (land) to moana (sea). This is in keeping with the role of waharoa in Māori architectural tradition: marking the junction of realms, a transition point where you leave something behind and progress to something new.
Tūrama was created by Graham Tipene, Ataahua Papa and Angus Muir Design, with support from Auckland Council and the city centre targeted rate. There are QR codes to scan along the way, explaining more about each element of the story.
Step 3 is Tūhono, the downtown part of the light trail that begins in Te Kōmititanga, the square outside the railway station and Commercial Bay shopping centre, and features permanent works of whāriki (woven welcome mats) where Queen St meets the sea.
Tūhono (to tie together) is an all-new trail of light installations and lightboxes linking Te Kōmititanga along Galway St to Takutai Square and Māhuhu ki te Rangi Park (near Spark Arena). Artist Arama Tamariki-Enua (Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Tumu-te-Varovaro, Ara’ura) infuses ancestral rhythms and motifs with vibrantly modern colours to create an immersive experience for everyone.
In Takutai Square, she worked with Angus Muir and Catherine Ellis on a light and sound installation using patterns that reference tukutuku panels and carving in Tumutumuwhena, with the repetition of the patterns forming the star-like shapes of the Matariki cluster. An accompanying soundscape, developed in collaboration with Peter Hobbs, brings back sounds of the foreshore and forest before the modern city was founded. The works are projected onto Te Rou Kai, the pop-jet fountain, and 16 sculptural stones by an older generation of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei artists.
The Tūhono light projections in Takutai Square are playing every evening until Thursday, July 10, with a seven-minute light and sound sequence every quarter-hour from 5pm until 10pm.
You can think of Tūhono as a waka, pointing towards Takaparawhau (Bastion Point), the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei ancestral stronghold. After the light show in Takutai Square, stroll beneath the illuminated trees of Beach Rd, watch the 10-storey laser projection onto the Nesuto building and other light designs within the precinct of Te Tōangaroa, by Spark Arena, including Te Mātahi o te Tau by Tyrone Ohia and Angus Muir Design.
These new downtown activations for Matariki are presented to the city by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and Britomart Group, with support from Auckland Council and the city centre targeted rate. There’s more at matarikifestival.org.nz.
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MetService warns severe weather will continue, with more thunderstorms on the horizon.