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The Waitahora Wind Farm is an alternative energy development project planned by Contact Energy for wind turbines atop the Puketoi Range in New Zealand. The Puketoi forms one side of the bucolic Waitahora Valley, near Dannevirke in Southern Hawke's Bay.
The proposal calls for 58 turbines up to 125 meters tall, or 52 turbines 150 meters off the ground.
The wind farm proposal is getting some opposition from local residents. An Environment Court in Hastings, N.Z., presided over by Judge Craig Thompson and two commissioners, is in its second week of hearings on the proposed wind farm. The court heard the application by Contact Energy to build the wind farm, which would be the largest in New Zealand and capable of powering 70,000 homes.
The court also heard testimony from Di Lucas, BSc, MLA, FNZILA, the founder of Lucas Associates. She is a registered landscape architect, a member of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects (NZILA) and a Fellow of the NZILA. She testified against permitting wind turbines on the Puketoi Range, a recognized and prominent landscape. She told the court the wind farm would disturb a landscape ''frozen in time.'' ''The Waitahora is an enclave of lush pastoral landscape that epitomizes the scenes that sell New Zealand . . . tourism to the world,'' she told the court.
Ms. Lucas said the landscape ''has not been formalized or titivated,'' nor ''considered in an holistic landscape sense.'' Editor's note: ''Titivated'' means to make decorative additions to or spruce up.
''This landscape is an enclave demonstrating a special nature-culture combination, an identity and sense of place,'' she added in cross-examination.
Ms Lucas said a smaller scale wind farm of five turbines about 30 to 50 meters high ''could possibly be accommodated without drastic affects on the landscape.''
Contact Energy said the site is ideal for wind turbines, but they must be of the proposed scale to be of economic value.
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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