Waipara

Nice weather for ducks

by Gareth January 15, 2009

A couple of days ago, NIWA published its climate summary for 2008 — a comprehensive overview of all the weather events that went together to make last year what it was. In general, 2008 was sunny and warm for New Zealand, but with many notable extreme weather events — a “rollercoaster” of a year, according [...]

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Solar wind sculptures

by Gareth July 22, 2008

Time to nail my colours to the tall thing. Submissions on Mainpower’s Mt Cass windfarm consent application close on August 1st, and I’m running out of time to get one in (being busy, and all that). The opposition is getting itself organised, with a web site to co-ordinate dissenters, including a very nice gallery of [...]

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All together now

by Gareth July 8, 2008

It’s getting hectic down here in the Waipara bunker: articles to write, truffles to harvest – stuff is piling up, not least in a multitude of tabs in my web browser, items set aside as possible subjects for posts here. So here’s one of my infrequent omnibus posts to give me some room to move [...]

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Sight of the wind

by Gareth June 23, 2008

Time for me to front up on wind power. As I mentioned last year, our local lines company, Mainpower, is planning a windfarm on the ridge of Mt Cass above the eastern edge of the Waipara Valley. That’s a good chunk of the skyline visible from my veranda. Some of it will be hidden behind [...]

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Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain

by Gareth February 12, 2008

I usually save my thoughts on weather for On The Farm (the other blog), but this summer in the Waipara Valley – especially the last 24 hours – has set me thinking. As the climate warms, Canterbury is projected to see an increased frequency of drought conditions. At the same time, the rain that does [...]

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How green is my skyline?

by Gareth August 14, 2007

Readers with functioning short term memories may recall that my local lines company, Mainpower, through its Local Generation subsidiary is planning to build a wind farm on Mt Cass, looking down over the Waipara Valley. The site (or a large chunk of it) can be seen from the comfy chairs on my veranda, testing my [...]

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Getting windy in the front row

by Gareth June 14, 2007

All Black hooker Anton Oliver’s been putting the boot into Meridian Energy’s plans to build a 176-turbine windfarm on the Lammermore Range near Dunedin, called Project Hayes. Oliver, and notables such as poet Brian Turner, don’t like the potential damage to the landscape, but Oliver’s been doing some research: “When you look at the practicalities [...]

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