Friends of Miramar Peninsula

Raising Public Awareness

The Miramar Peninsula/Te Motu Kairangi is a prominent feature of Wellington Harbour/Te Whanganui-a-Tara. This green promontory is visible from most places in the city. It greets travellers arriving by air and sea. It is a playground for the many people who walk, cycle and drive its coastline, eat at its famous Chocolate Fish Café, walk on its hills, and swim in, sail and fish its waters. But its future is threatened by neglect, environmental degradation, and pressure for housing development.

Saving, protecting and restoring the natural features, historic sites, and native birds and other wildlife at the north end of the peninsula is therefore important to all Wellingtonians – indeed to all the people of Aotearoa since the peninsula contains the sites of some of the country’s earliest Māori settlement and military fortifications dating back to 1885.

We raise public awareness of the need to protect and enhance this precious place through:

• running an active media campaign, with articles, letters, media releases and interviews

• holding public meetings

• sending regular email newsletters to members

• meeting with interested parties, including Forest & Bird Wellington, Te Motu Kairangi Ecological Restoration Society and Enterprise Miramar Peninsula, as well as Mau Whenua and Taranaki Whānui. In September 2023 we held three hui with community and environmental organisations and iwi representatives to try to forge a consensus on the future of Te Motu Kairangi

• producing billboards. Our distinctive “Stop destroying our precious peninsula” billboard stood at Miramar Cutting until the announcement that property developer Ian Cassels had quit the Shelly Bay project. (Unfortunately, by that time his company had carried out massive earthworks, destroyed pōhutukawa and other landmark trees and disturbed nesting sites of kororā, the little blue penguin.).