Local residents in western Waipā have recently been reporting a marked increase in rubbish and curious objects turning up snagged in trees, hedges, fences and other unusual places.
A community initiative in Te Pahū has been collecting up the flotsam and jetsam and noticed it was not the usual roadside rubbish – it was almost exclusively made up of beach-related items.
It extended as far inland as Te Rore, where a beach ball, a child's swimsuit, an empty tube of sunscreen and three light-weight body boards were all retrieved off the roof of the local hall over the last two weeks.
This mystery inspired all sorts of plausible and implausible explanations, from a malfunctioning passing recycling truck, to a cargo hold failure in a Hawaii-bound aeroplane, but it was finally solved after a message on the Te Pahū community Facebook page came to the attention of a local employee for an energy company.
![Beachy items blown into Te Pahū by faulty wind turbines. Photo/Supplied](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/DYAZKT2MC4N6U4ZK6N4TC6IN2E.jpg?auth=ac8369f6ef20ddebc06d7bfaf421869af128f3da45d4a0d84aa96dc1d8e00224&width=16&height=12&quality=70&smart=true)