Photo Courtesy Gulf News
It’s not often that a large cruise liner includes Waiheke Island in its list of port visits, but that’s just what happened during the first week of January, this year. Hundreds of visitors were shuttled between ship and shore by small boats, offering their passengers to experience Waiheke cuisine and adventure.
Read MoreEarly in the New Year, many were astonished to see the large cruise ship Seabourn Encore anchored just outside Matiatia, with passengers delivered to shore by lighters, to enjoy organised tours or get themselves around while on the island. One way to take the pressure off the ferry service…
However, locals and visitors alike have experienced numerous delays to Fullers services due to vessel breakdown, as well as congestion at Matiatia and confusion around the downtown locals’ lane, which is currently not working satisfactorily.
Several initiatives are underway to address some of our most pressing traffic and transport issues. The Waiheke Transport Forum had its first meeting on December 6, with a mandate to look at ways to improve the island’s roads, cycleways, car parks marine transport and footpaths. And the Waiheke Pathways Plan released by the Local Board last month sets out a 10-year programme of upgrades, improvements, new paths and maintenance that should make getting around the island safer for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.
Since mid-December, Project Forever Waiheke has been monitoring use of the Explorer buses, the numbers of vehicles arriving on selected Sealink sailings and the traffic flow along Belgium Street, and will be providing the data to the Local Board at the end of February.
The Local Board is also working hard to establish a more open and collaborative relationship with Auckland Transport in 2019. Cheers to that!
Meanwhile, Waiheke holiday-home providers are continuing to fight a potentially crippling local body rates increase, and many local low-income earners are feeling the pinch due to recent increases in rent, rates, ferry fares, car parking and petrol.
On a more positive note, two no-waste nomads from The Rubbish Trip will bring their zero-waste message to islanders on 31 January and 3 February. A pilot citizen science project to assess and regenerate kelp along the north shore of the island will begin this March. Auckland Council is for the first time providing a floating waste barge to help boaties dispose of their litter and debris correctly. And a dotterel chick that hatched on the High School field took to the sky on 13 January, thanks to the efforts of everyone involved in protecting the nesting site.
Finally, here’s an idea that could be pertinent, from one of the most over-touristed places in the world: Venice to charge day-trippers up to €10 to enter city.
Read MoreOpinion: a levy on incoming tourists should be seen not as a revenue-grabbing tax, but as user pays congestion charge, writes Tim Hazledine.
Since when is a border tax on an export industry a good idea, asked Brian Fallow in the New Zealand Herald last Friday.
I can answer that. March 4, 1985. That's the day the NZ dollar was freely floated on the foreign exchange market. Before that, we had a fixed exchange rate along with controls on imports to protect domestic import-substituting industries.
Read MoreOngoing efforts into the restoration of Rangihoua wetlands are to be undertaken by the Sustainability Network’s Million Metres restoration programme, Waiheke Resources Trust, and an American eco-friendly products company breaking into the New Zealand market.
When donations are made through millionmetres.org.nz this company will match donations dollar for dollar up to $25,000.
Read More“If Auckland is to have an integrated transport system that provides choice and affordable ticket prices, we need to allow competition at the Downtown Ferry Terminal,” says Waitemata Local Board member, Rob Thomas.
Read MoreWaiheke Budgeting Services manager, Amelia Lawley, looks at the home rental market on the island and assesses the likely effects here of proposed changed to national tenancy laws.
A young couple with a three-year-old live in a two-bedroom house in Rocky Bay. The rent is $520 per week - when they moved in it was $450, but there have been two rent increases in the 15 months they have lived there.
Read MoreThe Waiheke Island Tourism Forum expects a summer staffing crisis is just around the corner: At a recent meeting with Immigration New Zealand and the Ministry for Social Development, local business owners could count about 100 vacancies between them going into summer - and the tourism forum expect the problem to be double that number.
Read MoreAuckland Council is offering a one-off grant opportunity for conservation groups to cover essential planning, administrative and project facilitation costs.
This opportunity is designed to help community-led Pest Free Auckland/ regional biodiversity outcomes through increasing councils support for groups (the term loosely includes any entity involved in community-led conservation – organisations, schools, iwi, groups…..) to overcome identified barriers to participation. To do this, we have developed a one year, one off grant (at this stage) delivered through an Expression of Interest in Smarty Grants with the development of a more inclusive support package for groups that will be ‘co-designed’ alongside other NETR work in the future.
Many people visiting the island are not aware of Waiheke’s reliance on rain water, our typical summer droughts, or even how to minimise water use… But most respond positively, when they learn of the local situation, and play their part in conserving water. Read more, and get signs here!
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A community-led initiative committed to developing sustainable community and tourism strategy for Waiheke Island, and to monitoring tourism impacts.
