Now in my new home, Taranaki, we have more pohutukawa facing the axe.
The trees alongside the Waitara River have been the focus of a community fight for the past year but the Taranaki Regional Council looks immovable.
I don't understand how there can't be a compromise that delivers the flood bank protection required while retaining these trees. Engineers are a pretty clever lot and finding a solution that keeps the trees seems possible. It also seems ironic to be proposing to chop down trees to aid in flood protection when trees are part of nature's way of preventing erosion and stabilising banks, especially pohutukawa with their extensive root systems.
Does it take another protester perched in the branches to force a re-examination or does Waitara miss out on the glory because it's too far in the back blocks? Waitara is not exactly home to the movers and shakers of Taranaki.
Also this week the Salvation Army's working group on eradicating poverty in New Zealand issued a report showing the impact your geographical location has on your well-being.
No zombie town sound bites this time but a similar message - some parts of our glorious country are doing it tough compared to others. Whanganui was not the winner in the race to the bottom this time - our cousins in Northland and Gisborne led the way, with our town coming in third.
The report talks about the risk of creating two New Zealands with rising inequality, driven by employment opportunities and housing pressures, plus significant variances in outcomes for crime, education and harm and neglect of children. We already know about that within Whanganui - a city of such strong contrasts within our boundaries, not just when compared with Auckland.
But trees do make a difference. Study after study shows our well-being is connected to nature yet when it comes to working out solutions for infrastructure that keeps trees, a fight seems to be required, even to get a second opinion.
People are not going to stop caring about trees - instead we need to see our councils recognise those community values from the start and work alongside the people who want to keep special trees in their special places.
Trees are important in Auckland, they are important in Whanganui and they are important in Waitara. I really hope the council has a change of heart on these beautiful riverside trees.
-Nicola Young has worked in the government and private sectors in Australia and NZ and now works from home in Taranaki for a national charitable foundation. Educated at Wanganui Girls' College, she has a science degree and is the mother of two boys.
