NewsBank (Kapiti News)

THE WONDERFUL Waitaki district sure knows how to stimulate the summer road-tripper.

My final column for the year and this brilliant local paper.

WITH CHRISTMAS fast approaching we’re getting our menus ready for pre-Christmas parties and the family get together on December 25.

Ihad brownish hair when I started Kāpiti News at the end of January 2001. It’s now more grey/silver.

The production of low-carbon beef is set to accelerate after a study found younger dairy cattle produce almost half the emissions of older steers.

Paraparaumu business owner Chelsea Gill was midway through a busy workday as a real estate agent last year, when something caught her eye in a window and made her heart drop.

If you thought the silly season was already upon us the good folk at Stats NZ and Treasury have got news for you — another week of news, in fact.

As this is the last edition of the Kāpiti News, it’s time to celebrate your community newspaper and thank people.

Limited TV series: Matlock (8 episodes), streaming on TVNZ+

Under usual circumstances I would be summing up the year, congratulating our incredible volunteer organisations, celebrating our business community and reflecting on a year full of successes, challenges and milestones.

It’s a well-known fact that people are living longer, but along with that comes a realisation that lifespan is not as important as healthspan.

Two long-serving and respected Paraparaumu College teachers have departed having made a positive difference to the lives of many.

‘This is no time for ease or comfort, it is the time to dare and endure” — wise words from Winston Churchill — and relevant to the drench-resistance battle that our sheep sector faces today.

Rakauoteora Te Maipi — known to many as Koro Don — may be stepping away from his role as Kāpiti Coast District Council’s kaumātua but his fire for te reo Māori and Māori culture will continue to burn.

The Reserve Bank has cut the Official Cash Rate by 1.25% from 5.5% to 4.25% this year and most pundits believe it will reduce the rate further to around 3.5% by the middle of next year. As a result, the wholesale rates at which banks fund their fixed-rate lending have also dropped as have fixed mortgage rates.

A Paraparaumu community long affected by flooding issues can look head to winter in 2025 confident rain will no longer pose such a threat to property and infrastructure.

A trust deed has been signed for the Affordable Housing Trust with Kāpiti Housing Solutions, marking the next step in Kāpiti Coast’s journey to providing more affordable housing in the district.

Burt Munro passed away on January 6, 1978, aged 78. And had the 2005 movie The World’s Fastest Indian not been made for the modern generation, many would have not even known about the World Speed Record he set in 1967, riding his 1920 Indian Scout Munro Special motorcycle.

When it comes to buying a ram, there’s plenty to ponder.

Farmers are being urged to keep up to date with measures to control C. ovis — sheep measles — after the Ovis Management programme reported a spike in infection rates.

Mia Thomson is the recipient of the annual Paraparaumu Beach School Board Outstanding Achiever Award.

Evan Potter says every farmer has paddocks they aren’t making money from.

The Kāpiti Health Advisory Group (a Kāpiti Coast District Council advisory committee) is proposing that the existing services at the Health New Zealand owned Kāpiti Health Centre in Paraparaumu be expanded into a polyclinic.

Kāpiti Coast District Council is supporting six local community projects that aim to increase access to community and affordable housing in the district.

Kāpiti Mayor Janet Holborow has expressed disappointment in the Government’s decision to place tolls on the new Ōtaki to north of Levin four-lane highway.

Yes, sometimes carmakers do listen. After media and customer feedback about the overzealous nature of its advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), GWM has announced it’s made significant revisions to the way they work on two models.

What are your thoughts about the 25th-anniversary milestone?

Aconsultant planner is encouraging the developer of a proposed subdivision in Ōtaki to amend a consent design and get on with construction.

Photographer Roger Smith, from Waikanae Beach, is one of the winners in The Nature Conservancy’s 2024 Oceania Nature Photo Contest.

The Camino Frances is considered the most well-marked and popular long-distance walk in the world. Following an ancient pilgrimage route, the trail starts in the small French village of St Jean Pied de Port, traverses the Pyrenees and then crosses Northern Spain to what is believed to be the resting place of the Apostle St James in Santiago de Compostela.