Ahh... North Canterbury. Or as Royce McKean would prefer, an acoustic ghetto.

The Waiata Vineyard in tranquil Hurunui is a 365Ha property that allegedly sports 53 Orchard-Rite frost fans.

These are the topic of heated debate over the granting of a consent for use that appears to have circumvented the normal sequence of checking with the neighbours about the noise. (assuming that’s the responsible sort of thing that the Hurunui District Council does).

As you could imagine the residents surrounding this BLOT on the acoustic landscape are making a bit of a fuss.

We can only hope that their concerns can be heard over the noise of the fans.

This picture shows a section of the vineyard. Click on it at your own peril as it will open a sizeable 1.2MB picture!

I say a section because I can only (reliably) count about 34 frost fans. I assume that Mr Royce McKean of McKean Estates (the absentee landlord that owns this monstrosity) has paid for what he received. He’s certainly not getting what he deserves and nor are the neighbours of this industrial site.