Public Transport Spine survey, last days

Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council have partnered with NZTA to investigate the public transport corridor that runs through the Wellington CBD, between the railway station and the regional hospital in Newtown. The study is reasonably comprehensive: instead of looking at quick fixes, it’s asking what we should be doing in the long […]

Hands around the Basin – a protest

A guest post from Alex Braae The Basin Reserve is for many Wellingtonians a special place, and for many different reasons. The Basin is a place where memories are created, and I know from experience what an amazing spot it is for kids to play. It’s part of our heritage, and part of the life […]

Going slowly for maximum pleasure

It was a beautiful Sunday in Wellington today. The air was crisp and cool but the sun was bright and the first signs of spring were visible. For example, as I wheeled along the waterfront promenade this afternoon, a few brave young men and women were in sleeveless tops or short shorts, anticipating temperatures that […]

Overpass My Ass

We’re sorry it’s taken the Wellingtonista so long to weigh in on The Overpass. If truth be told we’ve all been kind of dumbfounded by the horror of it all. We’ll have more on the whole thing soon, but if you’re as appalled as we are (and if you aren’t, you might want to read […]

Notional Significance: Gorge

[See all Notional Significance posts] The stretch of Hutt Rd from Kaiwarawhara to Ngauranga is a long, dry slog through an artificial valley. The western side is almost natural, covered by tenacious regeneration, but often cut, buttressed and battered to keep the slope from failing, occasionally sliced by gullies and roads that scrabble up to […]

Notional Significance: Reclamation

[See all Notional Significance posts] Kaiwharawhara is a node, a knot, a tangle of paths and histories. It’s where the eponymous stream meets the harbour, though quakes and reclamations have long since nudged the mouth seawards from its original position at the fault line, engulfing foreshore, shipwrecks and shellfish beds in the process. It’s where […]

Notional Significance: Skyway

[See all Notional Significance posts] The stretch of motorway that leaps out from the bluff was known in the Sixties as the “Kaiwarra-Thorndon Skyway”, incongruously combining the Jetsonian optimism of the term “skyway” with a mangled contraction of “Kaiwharawhara” that today would only be used by Pakeha blokes of a certain age. Both the skyway […]

You can’t trust the new real-time bus system; don’t

Earlier this month Alan heralded the beginning of the roll-out of the Regional Council’s new Real Time Passenger Information project. So far, though, I’m not happy. Just as numerous pieces of publicity in local and community newspapers have failed to alleviate my suspicion that the system is not all it is cracked up to be, […]

How we could actually improve our roads

If you’ve ever driven from Newtown to Kilbirnie, you’ll know how godawful the intersection with State Highway One is. The problem is that in order to cross the constant stream of traffic, you are forced to rely on the kindness of strangers giving way to you of their own accord. One enterprising young man had […]

Notional Significance: Disinterment

[See all Notional Significance posts] The entry to Bolton St cemetery is unremarkable: a gap in a white fence off a respectable street, a canopy of pines, plain crosses against a corrugated iron fence. But I know that I’m passing into a territory that would have the earth-magic wing of the psychogeographical movement panting with […]