Lyric Waiwiri-Smith joins the Peri Zee on a walk on foot on the upper Hutt-E asks if she has what it takes to overthrow one of New Zealand’s oldest mayors.
Peri Zee has an idea for almost every corner of the city center of Upper Hutt, from cavities and sidewalk cracks to Main Street’s closure stores. Walking around town, she for every minute to watch a car beat over a hole or discuss the aesthetics of the cobblestone sidewalk, worn out of decades of footsteps. It would be a little tedious for some, but there is no bad to have a laser focus in your neighborhood – especially if you want to be the mayor.
The Climate Transport and Change Consultant, who spent the last 14 years working with and for local councils, was one of the first candidates for mayors of the country in 2025 when, in June 2024She raised her hand to say “I want the great job,” announcing that she would be running for the council of the city of Upper Hutt. She challenges holder Wayne Guppy, who, reelected in October, would steal Tim Shadbolt’s crown as the oldest mayor of Aotearoa. Guppy is the mayor here since 2001, a year after this reporter’s birth, while Shadbolt held the City Hall of Consecutively from 1998 to 2022 (as well as 1993-1995).
We met in Brewtown, a row of press breweries between a kart path and an outdoor stage that hosted Six60 in early February, hidden in an industrial area of Upper Hutt. It is a popular meeting point for the growing population of young families in the city, but this place was once a tire factory, ZEE reminds me – her father worked here when she was a child.
The 34 -year -old woman lived essentially at the Upper Hutt throughout her life, except for a passage in Amsterdam in her 20s. His “politically vocal” and “very Dutch” grandparents settled in Wairarapa decades ago, before their parents moved to Wallaceville when Zee was a child.
Today, she lives in rural surroundings, with her two young children, two dogs, her husband and other pride and joy: her garden, where her view of a self-sustainable superior Hutt is exerted on a small scale. She shares some wise advice that her husband gave her just before putting her hat in the ring for the city: “You can’t be running for mayor and Be a homesteader. ”
In a dish of salad, sauerkraut and smoked meat from TE Aro Brewing, Zee shares his urban view to the Upper Hutt. She says her focus as mayor would be in what the advice can “create for communities to feel communities” – and that is why one of their mayor priorities would be to bring two new train stations to the city, one in Clouston Park, the other in Timberlea, extending the number of train stations in the city to seven.
ZEE argues that the new stations – which would have significant costs and construction times – knock out some of the city’s immediate questions: road congestion (especially for passengers who drive to Hutt Upper station to achieve proper public transport), social isolation between northern and city center suburbs and housing, with the potential of homes to be built along the train line. The season in Timberlea would be complemented by the ZEE plans for a new community center in the suburb, which could at some point turn into a larger retail center.
Housing growth would also address the growing population of young families in the city, but also the concerns of ZEE to become a “insurance retreat” as climate change worsens life patterns in other specifically Petone areas of Wellington and is harder for owners to get insurance. Hutt Valley’s coastal city is experiencing land subsidence and increasing sea level, twin blows that must make the community disappear within Next 30 to 50 years.
The thinking of the future may be quite dark, but Zee is one of those types of glass and a half, citing singer/activist Joan Baez: “Action is the antidote to despair … I still feel good, because I’m acting.”
We left Brewtown, we went to Fergusson Drive and went through a business not yet ready H2O XTream Aquatic Center (The pool reopened a week after we talk) to reach the major brutalist chambers of the board. Zee puts his thoughts in the building quite frankly: “It doesn’t look very inviting, doesn’t it?” Well, no – it looks like a prison.
The building itself is symbolic of the limitations it sees within the council: a little old, unchanged and without much appeal to its locals. As a mayor, Zee expects her to be someone that her voters will feel connected – and that’s why she is trying to use social media platforms like Tiktok as campaign tools, why should other way you should spread your messages to the masses?
“I love the local government and always wanted to see it improve,” says Zee. “I tried to make changes as a community advocate, but I felt that there was so much structural and cultural change that they needed to happen inside the council so that they could start accepting different ways of thinking.
“This will really require a fundamental change. The starting point of how you see the opinion of your community influences how you do everything as advice.”
Next to the board building is the local library and then the Hutt train station are parked, where in the middle of the afternoon lines and rows of car are parked – a visual reminder of how many places need to drive to access public transport. And in front of the train station, there is one of ZEE’s favorite coffees: Cake & Kitchen, which offers beautifully baked slices and a place for the locals to talk, follow the work or just wait for the next train.
A Quadra de Fergosson Drive is Main Street, where you can find the mall (called “NZ’s Saddest Mall” ThingBut, as Zee points out, there is a Jane Lorna there now), the big and large hip utensils store, some retro operations stores and some empty spaces for a good mixture of pillars and new spaces that breathe a little life in the city.
But the EEE eyes are glued mainly to the floor, where it inspects all the nicks collected by the cobblestone and point each hole in the road. Upper Hutt’s roads are relatively old and used, with few improvements made over the years the board is currently paying a $ 11 million grade to two roundabouts, one of which will be moved about 10 meters from its current location in an attempt to improve congestion. The money would probably have been more reserved to actually update the roads, says Zee.
We address Mangaroa Farm, a lifestyle block and a market farm hidden behind the city center in the Whiteman Valley. This place incorporating the symbiosis between farmers and the environment reflects the hopes of EEE to a self-sustainable city, where most foods consumed by local inhabitants are cultivated locally, and communities are able to live self-sufficiently. ONE Bogan City This is also a city of property: lifestyle may be more closely related than we think.
Returning to the city to Wallaceville station, our last stop of the day, Zee is still debating ideas for the future of Upper Hutt where she will focus in the coming months of her campaign before the local election rush increases the speed in July, and the vote for vote in September and will ponder how she approaches her husband for covering schooling.
So what makes her think she has what it takes to overthrow Mayor Wayne Guppy? “I am a candidate for change for more reason than wanting to change the way they do everything,” says Zee. “At the moment, there is a wide interpretation of what is the role of a counselor in local government … The way they think about it here is not as progressive as it could be.”
“I think there is more in terms of leader and community champion, but also connecting with their communities … It’s so important to have a mix of skills around the board table, but everyone should be connected. I think that’s what the community is angry here: they feel they are not being communicated.”
Changing City Hall has not been a great tradition at Upper Hutt since his advice formed in 1966 – Rex Kirton, predecessor of Guppy, kept the city for 24 years and he was only the third mayor of the city. The challengers have made decent attempts in the past, such as counselor Angela McLeod, who was second in Guppy in 2019 and 2022, and has not yet announced if she will contest the city again.
But with the composition Problems with access to health After the loss of the city’s post-hours care, as well as the tension on rates increase (Hutt Valley’s inhabitants pay some of the highest rates in the region) and as the advice is spending their money, especially after the reopening of $ 55 million from H2O Xtream, the people of Hutt superior can be tempted to break character and decide that it is time for a to change.
Remembering on the road that brought her here, Zee can’t help but laugh when she remembers a moment from the last local election in 2022. At a community event, a colleague played Guppy on her shoulder and warned him, “Be careful, she will be after her job.”
