September 30 2025
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Water storage a ‘game changer’ u by Andy Bryenton
The prime minister, parliamentarians, civic leaders and dignitaries gathered by the shore of a new lake in Redhill last week, cutting the ribbon on a reservoir they have high hopes will transform the horticultural landscape.
In tribute to Albie Paton There was standing room only in an overflowing Maungatūroto Country Club last Sunday, as hundreds of people, from the wider Kaipara and beyond …
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Climate resilience grants go local Three Kaipara initiatives promoting community resilience to a changing climate have received tens of …
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Time to savour the flavour Savour Northland is about to begin, and creative culinary minds across Kaipara are working on fresh ways to …
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The completion of Te Waihekeora Reservoir, managed by Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust, brings to an end a fiveyear plan working in tandem with other TTTWT reservoir builds around Northland. A similar project established in Kerikeri, during the Muldoon administration, was cited as an example of the transformative property of irrigation. Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust leaders Kathryn de Bruin, Dover Samuels and Murray McCully were present to witness the almost-full reservoir commissioned. They had been present at the first turning of the soil just after the Covid pandemic, and now stood alongside Christopher Luxon, Shane Jones, NRC chair Geoff Crawford, mayor Craig Jepson, council and mayoral candidates and prominent locals, as Reno Skipper of Te Uri O Hau gave a karakia and welcome to the finished water source. “I want to record my appreciation for five years of fortitude and determination, which have brought us here today,” said Mr McCully. He gave thanks to the foundation investors who have already taken up a share of the water, and also to the memory of one of the architects of the water scheme, the late Mr Ken Rintoul. Murray McCully delivered the figures, too. Te Waihekeora cost $26 million to build, with $11 million in pumps and pipes filling it when water is plentiful in winter, to relieve the dry conditions of a west Kaipara summer and leverage potentially vast agricultural gains. Three
p Kathryn de Bruin, Shane Jones, Dover Samuels, Christopher Luxon and Murray McCully cut the ribbon at the Te Waihekeora reservoir
thousand hectares, he says, will be made green and growing with this water. “This is a game changer for this district,” said Mr McCully; a sentiment echoed by the prime minister in his own address. “This is an important day, not just for the Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust and for the region, but for New Zealand,” said Mr Luxon. He noted a recent 19 per cent growth in the horticulture sector across New Zealand, and the reservoir could deliver an estimated 440 jobs to Dargaville.
“We are really wanting to invest in infrastructure across New Zealand, and projects like this enable that to happen.” Shane Jones, who was instrumental in the reservoir construction plan, had a strong message for Kaipara locals. Take this opportunity and make the most of it, as other regions of New Zealand would be looking at Te Waihekeora with envy. “There were a lot of doubting Thomases when this initiative was first promoted,” he said. continued on page 3 …