leave them be

I can fully understand why Wellington wants a new motorway as I lived there for many years. For me the building of motorways is really a last gasp of a oil addicted society and unfortunately when the oil runs out or becomes too scarce, well then we will have spent a lot of money for roads that not many can afford to use. So i'd look at alternatives to motorways which really means looking at alternatives to personal cars and that is a big one. cars have become more than vehicles, they reflect a lot of us, we feel safe within them, it is our space and it will take a lot of pain for people to give that up. The silly thing is that as there are positives to having your own car, there are also a lot of negatives and the same is true for shared transport, whether that be car-pooling buses or trains. It is pleasant to sit with the same people every day, to chat eventually to them, to smile and say hello. The fanatical attraction we have for our own personal transport seems to me to be a reaction to feeling disempowered within our society.


The motorway option chosen near Wellington goes through sacred Maori Land - an urupa. And tangata whenua are rightly disappointed that the route will disturb their land.

The Dominion Post

Takamore Trustees, which oversees the urupa, met agency representatives last month and refused to endorse new adjustments to the routes near the urupa.

Spokesman Ben Ngaia said yesterday that the trustees were waiting to see the detailed maps, but it was "an understatement" to say they were disappointed the western route seemed to have been chosen.

"Out of the two options, the one that we preferred was the eastern because of the level of impact it left on the waahi tapu."

Our sacred places are too important to develop them, we should respect them and when we do that we respect ourselves and our connection to this land.