500th edition
Thur 14.04.11 - wed 20.04.11
the best and most read weekly newspaper in wanaka
8,300 free
inside:
Getting the chop page 2
Five New Zealand artists have been busy painting large billboards along the Wanaka lake front. They all started with a ‘blank canvas’ last Saturday and all were completed for the opening ceremony at the Festival of Colour on Tuesday. The artists are Simon Kaan from Dunedin, Lonnie Hutchinson from Auckland (both Ngai Tahu artists) and Michael Tufffery from Wellington. They were joined by Hayley ‘Flox’ King from Auckland’s Cut Collective, pictured above with her painting ‘Home is where the heart is’ and Fleur Elise Noble. The theme of the paintings was to pick on the idea of pouwhenua –markers that tell something of people and place. If you are looking for an unusual piece of art you can make an offer to the organisers of the Festival of Colour.
Streets of colour page 3
PHOTO: CHARLOTTE TRUNDLE
New Clutha hydro-dam? Malcolm Frith
A giver not a taker page 5
Free Text-Classifieds
02 20 SUNSPT
Sunspots: our new way to advertise page 7
Drilling work will begin in two weeks time near Luggate to determine whether or not the site is suitable to build a new hydro-electric dam. Already this week workmen have been preparing an access track in the area to enable the large drilling machine to enter the site. Contact Energy said it is planning to undertake geotechnical investigations at Devils Nook, two kilometres downstream from the Luggate Red Bridge. The company claims this is necessary to investigate the ground to determine if it could be a possible place to build a hydro-dam.
“No decision has been made on a preferred development option. Luggate is one of four possible options,” Contact Energy’s hydro project manager Neil Gillespie said. Contact Energy said New Zealand needs more energy to power the country for the next 100 years and beyond. Last year the company – the owner of the Clyde and Roxburgh dams – said that it was starting to review old plans for a number of possible future hydro developments on the Clutha River/Mata-Au. “Currently, we have much greater detail on the geological conditions of the three other possible site options (Queensbury,
Devils Nook.
PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Beaumont and Tuapeka Mouth) than we do for Luggate and we want to gain a comparable level of information for all four possible future options,” Neil said. The drilling rig is due to be set up and working just after Easter. The work, which will last for three weeks, involves putting
down six drill holes to a depth of 10m-30m. “The knowledge gained from the bore holes drilled will give us greater insight and understanding on the design and construction requirements at the Luggate site and contribute to our overall assessment of future hydro systems,”
Neil said. The drill findings will be analysed, but it will be several years before any decision is made on where the new dam will be sited. “We have no predetermined date as to when work will begin. The earliest date could be 2015, to be completed
by 2020. But this is highly unlikely,” Neil said. Environmentalists opposed to the proposed dam were quick to condemn the drilling work this week. “The Luggate dam proposal, like all Contact Energy’s old plans for large dams on the Clutha, is too destructive, too backward thinking and too problematic.” Chairperson of the Clutha Mata-Au River Parkway Group Lewis Verduyn said. “We don’t need another earthquakeprone dam on the Clutha River, sited over yet another active fault,” he said.