Damian Light

Nice! Hope they got a good view. Was pretty chilly up here in Tāmaki
Makaurau Auckland too, but worth it.

Total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth moves directly between Sun & Moon, casting shadow across full face of Moon, turning it red (commonly known as a “Blood Moon”). Only occurs during a full moon, when the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up in near-perfect alignment — known astronomically as a syzygy.

🌑Last night we were lucky to experience a total lunar eclipse and Blood Moon. This is the only one for the year and we won't see another one until 2028.

I took this photo through my telescope in my backyard in Botany.

I've got more which I'll post once I've had time to review them properly.

Here are the timings from start to finish for tonights blood Moon thanks to @stardome-nz.bsky.social

The best time to see the blood Moon will be from midnight to 1am (New Zealand time), with the peak of the eclipse occuring just after 12:30am.

Annual Plan 2026/2027 Auckland's Annual Plan sets out what we aim to achieve over the next financial year and how we will fund these plans.

What's important to you?

Auckland Council and Howick Local Board Annual Plan sets out what we plan to achieve over the next financial year and how we will fund it.

Have your say before March 29th. Visit your local library or go online at: akhaveyoursay.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/annual-plan-...

📅Sat 7 March: Howick Village Cultural Food Festival (www.facebook.com/events/16239...)
📅 Sun 8 March: Howick Historical Village LIVE Day (www.historicalvillage.org.nz/eventsliveda...)
📅 Sun 8 March: Pakūranga Rotary River Festival and Family Carnival (www.facebook.com/share/p/1DX3...)

This coming week:
📅 Mon 2 March: Pest Free Howick Ward Advisory Group
📅 Wed 4 March: Celebrating our Enviroschools
📅 Thu 5 March: HLB Workshop (see aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeti...)

We took the opportunity to ask local residents for their feedback on our priorities for the next year.

You can have your say by going to your local library or online at akhaveyoursay.auckland.council.govt.nz

On Sunday we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Auckland Brit & Euro Classic Car Show at Lloyd Elsmore Park. This event by the community, for the community is always popular and the good weather helped bring the crowds from across the country.

On Friday we had an opportunity to tour the Watercare Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant. This site handles 74% of Auckland’s sewage treatment so it was good to have the opportunity to understand how it works. Check out my post for more: bsky.app/profile/dami...

On Thursday we had our Business Meeting for February – held on the 4th Thursday of the month, these formal meetings are where we make our decisions that impact the community.

I’ll write up a summary of the decisions we made later this week.

Lloyd Elsmore Park is home to many sports clubs and community orgs. 4 times a year, clubs and groups get together to discuss issues or ideas they may have in common. Lloyd Elsmore Park User Group (LEPUG) met last Monday and I attended, along with HLB Chair Bruce Kendall.

Weekly Wrap Up. 23 February 2026. What I've been doing as one of your Botany representatives on the Howick Local Board

Each week I’m providing a quick summary of the meetings and events I’ve attended as a member of the Howick Local Board (HLB). This is my report for last week, starting Monday 23 February.

Operating 24/7 requires dedicated team of maintenance, operations, & management. Great to have opportunity to tour and understand this important process.

Thank you to everyone who ensures that our wastewater is treated properly, looking after our environment and people.

Once processed, the water is discharged into the Manukau Harbour with the outgoing tide. This happens approximately 12 hours after the sewage enters the plant, showing the incredible efficiency of the operation.

No chemicals are used, with special bacteria that eats nitrogen and ammonia.

Final stage involves filtration & disinfection using powerful ultraviolet (UV) that kills any remaining pathogens. Almost perfectly clear water flowing out of this final stage.

Sewage is treated through 3 stages – mechanical, biological, & filtration. 1st stage separates solids from liquid using rotating filters & sedimentation tanks.

2nd stage carried out in 9 large reactors & clarifiers, each holding 31.3M ltrs (enough to serve 200k people).

Last Friday the Howick Local Board had the opportunity to tour the largest treatment plant. The Māngere plant handles roughly 75% of Auckland’s wastewater (nearly ¼ of NZ’s wastewater) managing an average of 4.5 cubic metres a second and peaking at 12 cubic metres a second.

Wastewater treatment Learn more about how we treat Auckland's wastewater.

Dealing with wastewater for Auckland’s 1.7 million people is a big job. Every day Watercare collects over 400 million litres of wastewater, which runs through a network of 18 treatment plants, 518 pump stations and more than 8,000km of pipes.

vimeo.com/156766572?fl...

We also still need to close some sessions to protect sensitive information which isn't ready for public release yet. The decision to close workshops is made by the Chair, with advice from staff.

As of January 2025, these are open to the public by default. While everyone is welcome to attend to observe open sessions, there is no opportunity for the public to speak or ask questions.

Workshops are informal sessions used to canvass issues, prepare local board members for upcoming decisions and to enable discussion between elected members and staff. We don't make decisions here - they're made at our monthly business meetings.

On closed agenda for this week:
🏢Community Grants review (12-1pm)
🗣️Staff and Member updates (4-4:30pm)

On open agenda:
🅿️AT regarding their Howick Town Centre Parking review (11-11:30am)
📍Local Board Plan 2026 continued (1:30-3pm)
🛣️AT regarding road safety (3-4pm)

Howick Local Board Workshop. Open Agenda and Closed Agenda. Date: Thursday, 5 March 2026 Time: 11:00am Meeting Room: Howick Local Board Meeting Room Venue: Pakuranga Library Complex, 7 Aylesbury Street, Pakuranga

This Thursday is our next Howick Local Board workshop.

📅 Thursday 5 March 2026 11:00-4:30pm (closed 12-1pm and 4-4:30pm)
🏢 Howick Local Board Meeting Room, 7 Aylesbury Street, Pakūranga

See the open agenda and attachments here: aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeti...

It's the 10th anniversary of the Brit & Euro Classic Car Show!

Sun 1 March 10am - 3pm
Lloyd Elsmore Park
Free entry

Howick Local Board will be there seeking feedback on our annual plan. Come chat to us about what's important to you.

We're proud to support this through our Event Partnership Fund.

Puberty blockers ban anxiety grinds on as ‘very, very worried’ children and families look for support 'Ultimately, there's a very real chance that it's going to cost people's lives.'

There’s not much I can add to this piece this morning other than to ask you to read it, because it contains the words of those actually affected by this ban - the people whose voices have been missing the entire time. Heartbreaking. While the ban has been paused, our communities are still suffering.

📅 Fri 27 Feb: HLB tour of Māngere Wastewater Treatment Plant
📅 Sunday 1 Mar: Brit and Euro Classic Car Show at Lloyd Elsmore Park (www.facebook.com/events/24215...)

This coming week:
📅 Mon 23 Feb: Lloyd Elsmore Park User Group Meeting
📅 Thur 26 Feb: Howick Local Board business meeting (aucklandcouncil.resolve.red/portal/meeti...)

On Saturday HLB Botany representatives Mike Turinsky and I attended the Huntington Park Neighbours Day, run by the local resident and ratepayer association. See more here:
bsky.app/profile/dami...

We were due to discuss the new dump station for Half Moon Bay but the item was withdrawn so staff could work on the advice more.