The Makara region, 15 minutes drive from Wellington city, is enjoyed by a wide range of recreational  users. Two golf courses, playing fields, Pony club, the hall, a café, art & craft gallery, scenic roads and tracks for joggers, cyclists and four wheel drive enthusiasts bring people into the valley to pursue leisure activities.

The rugged rural coastline with its rockpools, walkways and spectacular views  forms a major attraction as anyone who has come out in a light southerly on a Saturday or Sunday can attest to. Fossicking in the rock pools, swimming, fishing, diving, lighting a fire and cooking up a feed, watching the sun go down, listening to the sound of waves venting  their fury on the rocks or lapping the shoreline on a quiet moonlit night, all these things have one thing in common. They are recreational pursuits that people do to take them away from the hustle and bustle of city living. Makara is a time-out zone for city residents. People come here to get away from it all.

Meridian Energy has the potential to ruin all that. From the moment you come over the hill your senses will be assaulted by the sight of seventy spinning turbines each 125 metres high (three times the height of the Brooklyn turbine) silhouetted against the skyline. If Meridian is successful in its proposal, by the time you get into the valley you will hear them and you will continue to hear them right the way through the valley and around to Fisherman's Bay and on up to the gun emplacements. The whole beach area will be subject to noise pollution up to 24 hours a day, day in and day out. And the conditions when the noise will be the most dramatic? A light southerly, the conditions when most people come down to the beach to get away from it all.

No one would deny that sustainable alternative forms of energy generation are our only real hope for the long term future of the planet. We do not oppose the sensible development of wind turbine power generation. What we are opposed to is siting these industrial complexes close to peoples properties in an environment that is used recreationally by thousands of people.

New Zealand is basically empty. There are plenty of areas that are out of sight and many kilometres from the nearest residents around New Zealand that could be put to productive use in supplementing the nation's energy resources. The TrustPower wind power station built 11 km outside of Palmerston North is a prime example.