Your cheery little article last month giving details of a windfarm “development” in Ohariu Valley near Wellington belies an issue that should be ringing alarm bells for lifestylers across this country.  Meridian is currently gearing up the same juggernaut process that steamrollered all local concerns last year to gain resource consent for its Westwind farm just to the south at Makara. The proposal for our valley has shattered the local residents, who quite reasonably fear that everything that they treasure about their lifestyles here will be lost once it becomes festooned with these abominations.  Power companies like Meridian however are in a race with each other to grab sites all over the country where they can put in more and more turbines – projections are bandied about that in time “up to one pecent of the countryside” could be covered in windfarms. Because the collosal turbines need to be located on exposed ridges and hills, that means they will in time be visible over the entire country.  Gone for ever will be many of our iconic natural landscapes and views.  So watch out: coming soon to hills sourrounding you also could be a windfarm of mind-popping proportions, with all their attendant noise, visual and health-related intrusions, and spelling doom to your little piece of paradise.