Motorists returning to Auckland from the Easter weekend on Monday afternoon from Coromandel or Tauranga were slowed to a crawl for much of the length of SH2. As they passed the site of Fonterra’s proposed new mine at Mangatawhiri they were entertained and informed by a resolute group of ACA folk.
“Fonterra plans coal mine here” was hung on a 2.4m x 1.2m billboard from the overbridge where the mine site starts, alongside one saying “Fonterra could use Wood Waste”.
The various anti-coal messages included “Coal causes drought” – very pertinent in the white parched fields of Mangatawhiri.
A traffic count suggested a hundred cars were passing the site every six minutes so at that rate we talked to about 2,000 vehicles, most of them with multiple passengers. Further along where traffic neared a standstill leaflets were handed through the windows to those interested.
The heartening thing was the huge number of toots of support we got, along with friendly waves and thumbs up. The few thumbs down were a tiny minority and none of them looked to be having a good time!
Eight people were kept very busy holding all this stuff but we had a great time. What did we learn? Next time start earlier in the day and have more people so we can run shifts!
Auckland Climate Action 
Yay! Kick-ass job ya’ll!