Saturday was another awesome day at Makara!
The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great event – This was the final public event in our Love Your Coast Wellington Education and Clean-up project.

More than 80 dedicated volunteers of all ages met at our Education Station at Makara beach on Saturday morning. There were many familiar faces from previous years, but it was really good to see plenty of new faces too.

After a Health and Safety briefing from Programmes Manager Oliver Vetter, the capable Meridian staff led the convoy of 4WD vehicles over the hill to Opau Beach on the West Wind Meridian Wind Farm to show some love to an almost untouched bay.

Those feeling more like a walk in the wind, grabbed their gloves and bags and headed out around the points of Makara Beach to see what treasure they could find.

After only a couple of hours everyone returned for a tasty BBQ with more than 3,000 litres of rubbish in their utes. They picked up hundreds of kilos of fishing gear, buoys, crates and line but also the old culprits; thousands of pieces of single-use plastic, straws, cigarette butts, water bottles and microplastics.

Huge thanks to Meridian Energy for sponsoring this event every year, and allowing us to bring our education programme to the schools for free!
Thanks also to Phoenix Drinks for hydrating us with their amazing juices and The Makara Cafe handing out coffees for the volunteers.

Special thanks to Carly Anderson of Meridian Energy for always bringing such amazing energy and supporting our work, Sara Stuart, Joe Warmington and Katie Timzen and Tony (on the Sausages..) for their fantastic work on the day.

Please join us from 9.30am to 2.00pm on Saturday 2 December 2017 for a fantastic day of adventure and exploration, all the while cleaning up the beautiful Makara Beach and the coastline on Meridian Energy’s West Wind farm. This wild piece of spectacular coastline, although well looked after by the locals, is affected by a regular flow of waste, so we are going to give it a good pre-summer clean-up. Meridian has been working with Sustainable Coastlines in communities to raise awareness and support coastal clean-ups around Wellington since 2012.

Important note: All participants need to register through the form below!

Meet at the Sustainable Coastlines ‘Education Station’ container on Makara Beach at 9.30am, Saturday 2nd December to sign-in and collect equipment, for a 10.00am start. From there we will split into teams and head out along the coastline on foot and by 4WD vehicle to clean-up the area from Makara Beach and Meridian’s Ohau Bay.

Bring your own 4WD or jump in one that is provided to join the convoy. This will be a unique opportunity to explore the incredibly beautiful bays that are usually closed to vehicle access where unfortunately, tonnes of plastic rubbish washes up.

Please note that this is a beautiful but remote and energetic stretch of landscape which, like all outdoor activities, comes with inherent risks.  The Sustainable Coastlines and Meridian Energy teams will endeavour to reduce risks whenever possible and will assist in the unlikely event of an accident, however by participating in this activity you are assuming full responsibility for you and your children’s safety.

Any questions, please contact Programmes Manager – Oliver Vetter at oliver@sustainablecoastlines.org