Happy with - or accepting of - Waverley Wind Farm

Trustpower has this wind turbine in Antarctica. Photo/ file

Huge turbines towering over the area may not be ideal but the Waverley Wind Farm will have some benefits, Ngā Rauru kaiwhakahaere Anne-Marie Broughton says.

And new Waverley resident Wayne Farrow thinks it will be a positive thing.

The wind farm and its transmission line got consent on July 7 but may be appealed.

Ngā Rauru made a submission on the proposed farm, then went over it point by point with the applicant, Tilt Renewables, a wind and solar company split off from Trustpower last year.

Tilt was able to remedy many of the tribe's concerns but not the visual effect of the 160m turbines, Ms Broughton said.

On the plus side, Waipipi Stream is to be protected and enhanced. Water needed during construction will be taken from bores and other on-farm sources - not the Whenuakura River. Any ponds that are drained will be replaced.

"They have undertaken to establish like for like. I think we will get hopefully an even better outcome."

Tilt Renewables is also to revegetate the strip of South Taranaki coast where there will be no turbines. Ngā Rauru will be one of the preferred suppliers for that planting. It has plants in its Kii Tahi Nursery and staff with 14 years' revegetation experience.

There could be other jobs for the iwi too. Ms Broughton said it would keep in contact with Tilt. It would know before construction began and its people would have time to get training.

The turbines will generate electricity without emitting climate-changing carbon dioxide as gas and coal do when they are burned, she said.

That was also a plus for new Waverley resident Wayne Farrow. She arrived from Wellington, with her small business, in December last year. She knew the wind farm was on the cards and was undismayed.

She's been up close to wind turbines in Wellington's Ohariu Valley, and said they could be a drawcard for visitors.

"They are so majestic, so tall and magnificent, that you really do need to experience them close up."

Some residents fear the wind farm's transmission line will cut across their rural view of Mt Taranaki. But Ms Farrow said the mountain was often hidden by cloud.

"I think you buy [rural houses] for perhaps the tranquillity, and I don't think the wind farm is going to change that."

She has exceptionally good hearing, and could not hear the Wellington turbines when she was close to them.

Getting the new technology happening would be good, she said, with jobs while the wind farm was being constructed and transferable skills learned.

"I just think we have to be a lot more positive about things. There is so much said about the little towns of New Zealand losing doctors, medical centres, factories, schools. We have got to accept the new and embrace it."