Wellington pokes fun at infrastructure woes with road cone Christmas tree

Christmas in the capital will look different this year with road cones replacing pine needles on the city’s Christmas tree.

Elves joining festivities over the coming weeks also won’t be adorned in their usual garb, instead sporting high-vis vests and road cone hats.

It may all sound a bit strange but comes at a time when road cones are a familiar sight around the city with endless infrastructure upgrades, and uncertainty around whether the $7.4 billion Let’s Get Wellington Moving project will go ahead.

This year’s holiday celebrations will be sized down but held in four different locations across the city to allow for everyone to get a piece of the action.

Christmas in the Quarters will see a range of entertainment and activities on offer including choirs, performances, bands and music groups, with the grand finale in Waitangi Park.

As part of the fun, a massive Christmas tree has been put up on Courtenay Place - but it’s got a slightly different look to previous years.

Rather than foliage, it’s made of colourful road cones and tinsel.

Wellington's new-look Christmas tree has been constructed from colourful road cones. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington City Council’s manager of city events, Stephen Blackburn, said the tree represents the different infrastructure projects going on in Wellington to make it “fit for the 21st century”.

“We are having some playful fun with a road cone Christmas tree and elves wearing hi-vis vests and road cone hats throughout the festivities.

“The locations may differ from previous years, but the usual crowd-pleaser activities and performances will be back to entertain kids of all ages.”

With the Golden Mile reconstruction, the Town Hall and Civic Square refurbishment, desperate repairs needed to the water infrastructure, updates to the rail network and earthquake strengthening across the city, there’s no shortage of works needed in Wellington - but there is a shortage of cash.

The chief executive of Wellington Water recently revealed it will cost $1 billion a year, every year for 10 years to fix Wellington’s ageing water network, and the Town Hall refurbishment budget has exploded from $182 million to a possible $329m.

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has denied there is a financial crisis at the council - but councillor Diane Calvert says there is, and “significant decisions” have to be made.

Calvert sought legal advice to reveal the council needs to cut capital expenditure by “tens of millions of dollars if not hundreds of millions of dollars” in the coming years.

A draft budget is yet to be put together but the council met last week to discuss the situation. Any budget will need to be put out for public consultation next year before a final call is made.

Many of the cuts on the table were in the suburbs and included ditching skatepark upgrades at Ian Galloway Park and Waitangi Park, which will save $1.1m, and removing upgrade funding for Khandallah Pool after the budget increased to $11.7m.

Whanau said councillors couldn’t do everything they wanted and she is keeping a laser focus on making the city centre a green and vibrant place where people can come together and businesses are supported.

Vita Molyneux is a Wellington-based journalist who covers breaking news and stories from the capital. She has been a journalist since 2018 and joined the Herald in 2021.