Long love affair with Upper Hutt

We continue our series on the secret lives of our city councillors with talking to one of the city’s prolific volunteers.

Paul Lambert’s most recent weekend serves as the perfect example of how he goes about things.

The 67-year-old city councillor is both an unabashed enthusiast of all things Upper Hutt and a volunteer in many quarters..

While it may not be a hidden talent, Lambert is marked by his unflagging ability to involve himself in the community in a probably unrivalled way.

Friday had Lambert pitching in with setting up the City of Song concert, a duty which changed with the event’s transfer to the allweather Lane St auditorium.

That night he was hosting timekeepers for the Karapoti Classic mountain bike event at his home. The next morning he was at Karapoti itself, helping set up up the Rimutaka Lions’ food van for the umpteenth year in a row.

In the afternoon he was at the Wellington Brewday at Trentham racecourse, part of a 40-strong Cossie Craft Beer Club excursion and, as he offers, ‘‘as a client only’’.

Hours later and Lambert was back at Lane St, helping the annual music night he has been associated with for several years.

The City of Song, and a lot of his eclectic volunteering, fits with the English-born Lambert’s lifelong interest in music which charted its course when as a teenager he attending the famous 1969 and 1970 Isle of Wight festivals.

English folk is his favourite genre and that fits well with volunteer work for the city’s longestablished Mainly Acoustic club and handling publicity for the Upper Hutt Brass Band.

Lambert, who with his wife Stephanie live in the Akatarawa Valley on a one-hectare garden property, has been in love with Upper Hutt since he began a 16-year tenure as the city’s promotions manager [when a Petone resident].

‘‘That’s where I got the nickname Mr Upper Hutt,’’ a nomenclature he still lays a certain claim too.

‘‘A lot of people I met with that work became my friends and that’s something I love about the volunteer work too,’’ Lambert said.

‘‘I guess I’m just one of those