The celebrated conservationist David Bellamy gives the thumbs up to Wairarapa wine but a big thumbs down to wind farms.
The world-renown bearded botanist was in Wairarapa yesterday and said he thought wind farms were are bad way of helping the environment because they did more harm than good and they
were not a reliable source of energy.
"I think they are a stupid idea. If you want to put them in, put them far away from where people live."
He said back in the UK with a higher population density, wind farms were a blight on the landscape and were only generating power a quarter of the time.
"One minute it's blowing too hard and the next minute there is not enough wind. All this time the power has to be backed up by other sources," he said.
"They have industrialised the landscape. Why can you suddenly stick up these large road systems, all in huge concrete blocks, and huge towers? They're noisy, they're ugly, and they kill birds and bats," he said.
He suggested solar power as a much more environmentally friendly option for an alternative fuel source.
"If I was your prime minister I would have subsidised solar power a long time ago."
Mr Bellamy was lunching at Coney Wines vineyard just south of Martinborough yesterday while visiting New Zealand on holiday with his wife. During his whirlwind stop in Wairarapa he had another chance to sample the region's wine.
He owns his own small vineyard in Tuscany and was very impressed with the local wine and food at Tim and Margaret Coney's Dry River Road vineyard.
He stayed in the Martinborough Hotel in 2000 and had dinner with the then South Wairarapa mayor John Reid.
"They didn't half look after me," he said as he caricatured a drunken sway.
He said in the years he has been coming to New Zealand many things have changed, particularly the food.
"It used to be mutton pies, now you have amazing food," he said, although he admits he does miss the mutton pies.
He climbed Mt Ruapehu on Wednesday and took off to tour the West Coast of the South Island yesterday afternoon.
He intends to investigate first hand whether the glaciers are retreating or advancing, as many scientists have suggested glaciers worldwide are retreating due to global warming.
