Waimea Weekly
03 548 2770 41 Nile Street East, Nelson
03 548 2770 03 548East, 2770 41 Nelson 41 Nile Nile Street Street East, Nelson
Locally Owned and Operated
41 Nile Street East, Nelson
Wednesday 14 February 2024
Page 21
Ruby skis way to Olympics
Bringing the sun to Wakefield Page 4
‘These things can be absolutely devastating’ GORDON PREECE & SARA HOLLYMAN After five days of hard slog, fire crews walked away from the Lee Valley fire after preventing the next Pigeon Valley disaster. The blaze, which started on Wednesday, 7 February, five years after the nearby Pigeon Valley
Fire, burned across roughly nine hectares of pine forestry. About 11 local homes were evacuated, with none reported to have been damaged in the fire. “At one point, nine fire crews and seven helicopters were battling the blaze which was on difficult to access, steep terrain.” “We learnt a lot of lessons from
Pigeon Valley and we also learned that you need to get in very quickly and bring in resources quickly, which we did,” says FENZ senior advisor community readiness and recovery Nelson Marlborough, Darren Crawford. He says the community remembers Pigeon Valley very well. “Their learning was that these
things can be absolutely devastating. These things can be incredibly serious. We do live in a vulnerable area for wildfires.” He says FENZ made the decision to evacuate 11 properties early-on. “We just don’t take any chances.” Darren says the community rallied around FENZ so much so
that they had to put out a call for no more baking. “We were inundated, the community really responded massively in support of FENZ, the baking was a signal from the community that they cared and wanted to support us. The
FROM PAGE 1
Molesworth by mower ELOISE MARTYN Lawnmowers are being greased, oiled and primed in preparation to ride an 86km stint in support of cancer sufferers. Organisers of the Mowsworth Rampage challenge are calling on Nelson Tasman ride-on mower owners to join in the ride which will see the mowers driven from Molesworth Station to Hanmer Springs – an 86km journey to fundraise for Nelson Cancer Society Tasman and Nelson Tasman Hospice. “We have had friends and family members over the past
Riding 86 kilometres through the Molesworth Station on a ride-on lawn mower sounds like hard yaka but as Stuart Newport explains ‘this challenge is nothing compared to what cancer patients go through every day’. Photo: Eloise Martyn.
few years affected by cancer, some have lost their battle, others are still fighting, Hospice and Cancer Society are important to us,” Mowsworth Rampage organiser Stuart Newport says. “Hospice is not funded so we really want to support them, they support anyone who has a life-ending illness not just cancer,” Stuart adds. The journey will see riders mount their mowers - minus the blades - with family, friends, or workplaces sponsoring them to raise much-needed funds for the organisations.
SEE PAGE 5
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