Brynderwyns are on the national political radar
It has been a great season but grass growth is slowing down and it was obvious that 16 mouths would not make it through the winter on a small hectare of grass.
Seven of these mouths would have lambs in a few months’ time, so last year’s lambs had to go. That was the message the grandchildren received last week.
“But not Mary,” was the plaintive reply. Yep — the Wellsford sale is on Tuesday.
Just to explain, Mary is a gold-plated lamb who should not be here. Her mother abandoned her at birth and she spent her first night in a sorry state by the fire. Even with being force-fed home-made colostrum, she didn’t look good.
“Put her out of her misery,” I was told.
“We’ll see how she is in the morning,” I replied.
Miraculously, she survived the night and after a vet visit — $120 of antibiotics, energy fluids and the colostrum later — she gradually came right. An $80 bag of milk replacement was bought and Mary was bottle-fed for six months to use it all up. She has a debt to repay.
So Mary was again on the block but grandson Alex had a plan. I arrived home from bowls on the Monday to be presented with two cans of Irish stew with lamb, and a packet of liquorice bullets that look strangely like sheep droppings, as a trade for Mary.
The sacrifices we make!
The deal was done and Mary stayed. She may be productive in the future, based on the ram’s current interest. He isn’t her father, for the purists out there.
Tuesday last week had us with a trailer-load of six lambs heading to Wellsford. The Brynderwyns were out and the Mangawhai road is a bit interesting with a loaded trailer in a hurry.
We made it on time: $70 each for the lambs. That’s compared to $105 at the same sale three years ago. I wistfully reflected on the sale of my own pet lamb 70 years earlier. The stock agent assured me he would look after Topsy.
But the three quid return assuaged the brief moment of grief — that’s $189 in today’s money. How times have changed — a reflection about how difficult it is for sheep farmers right now.
But, back to the Brynderwyns. We came back through PaparoaOakleigh and it is great to see that both alternate routes have been upgraded pretty well in preparation for the Brynderwyns closure.
Both roads were busy which does raise the question about how much business Northland is really losing as a result of the Brynderwyn closure. It is inconvenient but we all make sacrifices for a greater good!
This closure was a long considered and consulted decision of the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) board to future-proof the resilience of the highway for the next 10 years. They considered a number of alternatives in coming to that decision.
It is very disappointing, therefore, to see the chairman of Northland Regional Transport Committee (RTC) Joe Carr attacking the decision describing it as “a fiasco and unjustifiable,” as if he is the fount of all knowledge in the matter of this complex roading decision.
To get the context right. The Brynderwyns are part of State Highway 1, wholly owned by NZTA and the NZTA board make all decisions in respect to that. They seek input and consultation and the RTC is an important component of that.
The Brynderwyns alternative and /or upgrade is specifically identified in the coalition agreement and the Government Policy Statement on Transport for the next 10 years. The Regional Transport Committee needs to have it in its Regional Land Transport Plan to assure full government funding and the chairman should be absolutely supporting the plan, not railing against it.
So, as Northlanders, lets support the Wellington-based board in voting significant funds to make Northland’s most important road as resilient as possible as part of the “Roads Of National Significance”.
The Brynderwyns are clearly on the national political radar and we don’t need local grandstanding to compromise that.
Quiz
1 How many toes does an ostrich
have on each foot?
2 What city was the National
Basketball Association founded in?
3 In which year was the Louvre officially established as a public museum?
4 Bleachers are an American rock
band formed by who?
5 Author Roald Dahl served as a
fighter pilot during which war?
6 In which novel did Sherlock
Holmes first appear?
7 What is the largest airline in Latin
America?
8 Which newspaper acquired the popular word puzzle game Wordle in 2022?
9 At what age did Usher release his
debut album in 1994?
10 What decade was the first motor race held that was classed as Formula 1?
To get the context right. The Brynderwyns are part of State Highway 1, wholly owned by NZTA and the NZTA board make all decisions in respect to that.
History
1775 Paul Revere begins his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning colonists that British troops are approaching.
1840 Samuel Revans prints NZ’s first newspaper, the a month after he arrived in Port Nicholson (Wellington).
1847 A Māori utu raid on a farm near Whanganui leaves four members of the Gilfillan family dead, including artist John Gilfillan whose many sketches provide insights into the area’s early colonial history.
1906 Earthquake then fire strike San Francisco, leaving between 3000 and 6000 dead.
1909 Joan of Arc receives beatification by the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican.
1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power to become prime minister of Egypt.
1978 The US Senate approves the complete turnover of the Panama Canal to Panama on the last day of 1999.
2016 Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop stage biography of America’s first treasury secretary, wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
2018 Cuba selects First Vice President Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez as the sole candidate to succeed President Raul Castro.
2022 Russia launches a full-scale offensive to seize Ukraine’s east.
2023 Fox and Dominion Voting Systems reach a US$787m defamation settlement in a case exposing how the network promoted lies about the 2020 US presidential election.
Birthdays
● Actor James
Woods is 77. Actor-director Dorothy Lyman is 77
● Actor David Tennant is 53
● Reality TV star Kourtney
Kardashian is 45
● Actor America Ferrera is 40
Quiz Answers
1. 2. 2. New York 3. 1793 4. Jack Antonoff 5. World War II 6.
7. Latam 8.
9. 16 10. 1950s
Complaints
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