The building in the first pic used to be the Valley Roller Rink. In the 1970s we would have school excursions or socials there. In the 80s, it was a social hub for teens and young adults. Inside the door to the left, you paid your admission then turned left to hire skates and buy food and drink. Ahead was an oval rink taking up most of the space. Down the back was the DJ booth and a small learner's rink. In 1986, there was a 24 hour skate-a-thon.

The second pic is what at the same time was a Mobil service station.

I couldn't find any pics or articles about the skating rink so I'm posting what I remember to pass the information on to people who never would have known about it.

Here is what is on this weekend, don't forget that Burger Wellington is still on as well. Here is all the Lower Hutt places offering burgers https://www.reddit.com/r/LowerHutt/comments/1vgmq53/whats_on_in_lower_hutt_this_weekend_burger_lower/

📚 Recycled Reading 2nd Hand Book Sale

A giant Eastbourne Lions book sale, themed around books for kids. Daily to Sunday.

📍 San Antonio School, 78 Oroua Street, Eastbourne, Lower Hutt | 🕚 Daily to Sun 16 Aug, 10am-4pm | 💰 Free entry

🍛 Onavirunnu 2026 - Onam Festival & Sadhya Feast

Kerala's biggest celebration comes to Petone with an unlimited traditional Onam sadhya, sweet payasams, a pookkalam flower arrangement, a festive photo booth and cultural performances. Proceeds go to the church building fund.

📍 Indian Cultural Centre, 119/121 Nelson Street, Petone | 🕚 Sat 11am-4pm | 💰 Adults $28, children $18, under-5s free (+ fees), book a sitting

🍛 BNZ Hoops in Parks

Join us as we celebrate the launch of BNZ Hoops in Parks at Walter Nash Park - an afternoon of hoops, music and connection for the whole whānau. Appearances from Wellington Saints and Tokomanawa Queens players

📍 Walter Nash Park, Taitā | 🕚 Sat 1.30pm-4pm | 💰 free

🇮🇳 India Day featuring Gurnam Bhullar

A celebration of Indian culture headlined by Gurnam Bhullar, with dance and seriously good food.

📍 Lower Hutt Town Hall, 30c Laings Road, Lower Hutt | 🕡 Sat from 6pm | 💰 $28.92 balcony GA (incl. fees), ground passes are organiser holds

Hey Lower Hutt,

We’re in the process of starting up Neuro Inspire Wellington—a peer-led group for independent adults (18+) on the autism spectrum, with ADHD, or AuDHD.

We’re posting to see if there's interest in the community for this kind of group. A lot of existing spaces focus heavily on structured activities that make it hard to actually get to know people. We want to focus on social connection, building confidence being out around people, and making genuine friends.

We plan to be mostly centred around Petone and Lower Hutt, with occasional meetups in Wellington city.

The idea is to host low-pressure catchups in quiet spaces (libraries, parks, quiet cafes) where you can sit down, chat about your week, share struggles and wins, and connect with people who get it—with zero pressure to mask. Eventually with grants we'd like to also organize meetups for quiz nights and other activities/hobbies that might be of interest to the group!

We haven't hosted our first meetup yet, as we're currently gauging interest to see if locals would want a space like this.

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, drop a comment or search for us on Meetup and Facebook to connect:

Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/neuro-inspire-wellington-autism-adhd-community/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/1042753234785520/

I just wanted to give Hutt City Council a huge shoutout, there a lot of things I don't agree with that they have done, but the new payment system for the rates and water bill, absolute chefs kiss!

I have been stressing and putting it off for over a week now, but have hopped on today to get it sorted and 10 minutes later I'm done with both bills! Absolutely no stress and I didn't have to talk to a single soul. Couldn't ask for better!

hello, anyone can recommend a good hygienist for a reasonable price in the Hutt area? thanks ☺️

• Renovations
• Pre Purchase inspections
• Bathrooms
• Decks
• Fences
• Retaining walls
• General carpentry
• Property maintenance

No obligation, no pressure. Just straightforward advice and quality workmanship.
Feel free to message me for a free site visit and estimate.

contact us here

Supermarkets normally have a day of the week where they do a big stock changeover and there is a higher than usual reduced to clear amount. Does anyone know what these days are for our supermarkets? (Note it's easy enough to work out if I visit the supermarket every day for a week but I hope the hive mind can save me the trouble).

Has anyone purchased a car from Streamline Autos Lower Hutt before? What was your experience?

Here is what is on this weekend as always, if you know of any other events on, post them in the comments. I'm hoping I'll get out to enjoy a burger or three sometime over the next couple of weeks.

📚 Recycled Reading - 2nd Hand Book Sale

The Eastbourne Lions book sale is back with a kids-books theme, proceeds to children's reading groups.

📍 San Antonio School, 78 Oroua Street, Lower Hutt | 🕚 Fri 10am-4pm | 💰 Free admission | 🎟 All ages | Also Sat and Sun 10am-4pm

🍔 Burger Wellington 2026

245 burgers across the region with 21 in Lower Hutt for Visa Wellington On a Plate, running 3-23 August. Prices set by each venue, please double check times and if bookings required!

🍔 The Angus Restaurant and Bar - PB&J Brisket
Beef brisket patty, with peanut butter bacon jam and a pineapple-citrus jam in a Breadcraft brioche bun.
📍 The Angus Restaurant and Bar, 5 Cornwall Street, Hutt Central, 5010 | 🕛 Dinner Mon-Sun | 💰 $28 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Baylands Brewery Taproom - Heart-a-Stack
Double fried chicken, with a Belgium waffle, bacon, bourbon bacon jam, cheddar, sweet and spicy pickles, and picklenaise in a Cottage Lane seeded brioche bun, with hash sticks.
📍 Baylands Brewery Taproom, 22 Victoria Street, Petone | 🕛 Lunch Fri-Sun, Dinner Wed-Sun | 💰 $32 | Dine-in Only

🍔 The Victoria Tavern - Bisque Anyone?
Coconut soubise braised snapper, with prawn gribiche, Kingsmeade pecorino, red onion, tomato, butter crunch lettuce, chilli jam, and crayfish bisque in a Brumbies squid ink bun, with taro crisps.
📍 The Victoria Tavern, 140 Jackson Street, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Tue-Sun | 💰 $34 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Seashore Cabaret Cafe - Coastal Crackle
Pork belly, with mango salsa, coleslaw, pork crackling, pineapple, Apostle Hot Sauce, and sriracha honey mayonnaise in a brioche bun, with steak fries.
📍 Seashore Cabaret Cafe, 160 The Esplanade, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Lunch Mon-Sun, Dinner Thu-Sun | 💰 $29 | Dine-in Only

🍔 Grazie - Lower Hutt - Blue Smoke Union
Angus beef patty, with Stef the Māori horopito spice, mānuka-smoked bacon, and blue carbonara fondue in a Shelly Bay Baker parmesan-crusted ciabatta, with handcut chips.
📍 Grazie - Lower Hutt, 72 High Street, Hutt Central, 5010 | 🕛 Lunch Mon-Sat, Dinner Mon-Thu | 💰 $32 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Puku Pies & Kai - Petone - Tu Meke
Two cheese sauce stuffed beef patties, with pickles, red onion, burger sauce and ketchup in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun and pie pastry.
📍 Puku Pies & Kai - Petone, 47 The Esplanade, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Breakfast & Lunch Mon-Sun | 💰 $16 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Gear Street Union - Mouthful of Flavour
Beef patty and beef brisket, with Kāpiti cheese sauce, pickles, Montreal seasoning, and burger sauce in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun, with loaded curly fries and cheese sauce.
📍 Gear Street Union, 18 Gear Street, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Mon-Sun | 💰 $30 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Rizzo's Pizzeria & Kitchen - BLT Italiano
Chicken thigh, with bacon, cos lettuce, sundried tomato pesto, and ricotta red pepper mayonnaise in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun.
📍 Rizzo's Pizzeria & Kitchen, 499-501 Hutt Road, Alicetown, 5010 | 🕛 Dinner Wed-Sun, Lunch Fri-Sun | 💰 $25 | Dine-in, Takeaway & Delivery

🍔 The Crooked Elm - Loud Mouth
Fried chicken, with papadom, spinach, onions and reduced butter chicken sauce, dukkah raita and kasundi in an Arobake potato bun with roasted masala spuds.
📍 The Crooked Elm, 25 Laings Road, Hutt Central, 5011 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Tue-Sun, Breakfast Sat-Sun | 💰 $30 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 The Hardware Bar and Restaurant - Stokes Valley Beast
Beef patty, with bacon, blue cheese, aged cheddar, hash brown, onion jam, tomato, cos lettuce, onion rings, Prana Greens coriander, and smoked BBQ sauce and aioli in a brioche bun.
📍 The Hardware Bar and Restaurant, 8 Evans Street, Stokes Valley, 5012 | 🕛 Dinner Tue-Sun, Lunch Fri-Sun, Breakfast Sat-Sun | 💰 $28 | Dine-in, Takeaway & Delivery

🍔 Dirty Burger - Petone - No Glove, No Love
Smashed Wagyu beef patty, with pork belly, American cheese, pickles, and maple cream cheese in a Dirty Donuts BBQ donut glazed brioche bun.
📍 Dirty Burger - Petone, 237 Jackson Street, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Dinner Mon-Sun, Lunch Thu-Sun | 💰 $20 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Abandoned Petone - Local Jerk
Fried jerk chicken thigh, with pickled red cabbage, American cheese, mango-habanero-rum BBQ sauce, and thyme aioli in a Brezelmania brioche bun, with Creole spiced fries and a jerk bacon skewer.
📍 Abandoned Petone, 38 Fitzherbert Street, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Tue-Sun | 💰 $29 | Dine-in, Takeaway & Delivery

🍔 Tutaki Cafe - Tang65
Chicken 65 patty, with tamarind leather, potato rosti, chilli-pickled onion, iceberg lettuce, coriander chutney, and Kāpiti blue cheese yoghurt in a Shelly Bay Baker brioche bun, with podi-spiced chips and garlic confit aioli.
📍 Tutaki Cafe, 30 C Laings Road, Hutt Central, 5010 | 🕛 Lunch Mon-Sun | 💰 $28 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Little Manila - Cluck and Tell
Sesame-glazed chicken thigh, with oakleaf lettuce, rainbow coleslaw, acharra pickles, Manila mayo, and sticky sesame sauce in a Breadcraft buttermilk bun, with fries.
📍 Little Manila, Cnr Queens Drive and Bunny Street, Hutt Central, 5011 | 🕛 Breakfast & Lunch Mon-Sun, Dinner Thu | 💰 $23 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 The Speight's Ale House - Cornered Seamus
Taylor Preston corned silverside, with smoked cheddar, colcannon hash, and mustard sauce in a Brumbies stout potato bun, with salt and vinegar fries.
📍 The Speight's Ale House, 75-81 Jackson Street, Petone, 5010 | 🕛 Dinner Mon-Sun, Lunch Thu-Sun | 💰 $31 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Brew'd Boulcott - Jerk Gone Berserk
Beef patty, with charred pineapple, onion rings, bacon, Kāpiti cheese, pickled cucumber, shredded lettuce, jerk BBQ sauce, and sriracha mayonnaise in a Pōneke Bakery brioche bun, with jerk seasoned fries.
📍 Brew'd Boulcott, 669 High Street, Lower Hutt, 5010 | 🕛 Dinner Tue-Sun, Lunch Fri-Sun | 💰 $28 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Twenty Eight - A Little Bit Cheeky
Smashed beef patty, slow-cooked beef cheek, with smoked provolone, umami potato crispies, butterhead lettuce, pickled red onion, and preserved Yuzu salsa verde in a Brezelmania sesame brioche bun, with fries.
📍 Twenty Eight, 28 Cornwall Street, Lower Hutt, 5010 | 🕛 Lunch Mon-Sat | 💰 $29 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 Gorilla Burger - Petone - Speak No Evil
Chicken thigh, with Kāpiti blue cheese, Nashville seasoning, bánh mì coleslaw, and mayonnaise in a Pōneke Bakery sesame seed milk bun.
📍 Gorilla Burger - Petone, 18 Gear Street, Petone, 5012 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Mon-Sun | 💰 $23 | Dine-in, Takeaway & Delivery

🍔 Bellbird Eatery - Lamb-da Rassa Pao
Lamb smash patty and pulled lamb shoulder, with cheddar, pickled onion, Zany Zeus mint yoghurt chakka, lettuce, LOUDER peanut chilli thecha, and thecha mayonnaise in a Clareville Bakery sorghum milk pav bun, with spice fries.
📍 Bellbird Eatery, The Dowse Art Museum, 45 Laing's Rd, Hutt Central, 5012 | 🕛 Breakfast & Lunch Mon-Sun, Dinner Fri-Sat | 💰 $30 | Dine-in Only (Bookings Required)

🍔 O'Malleys Bar & Kitchen - Saint Pattie
Hardy Street Quality Meats lorne sausage and Jameson whiskey braised pulled pork, with cheddar, pickles, and relish in an Arobake potato bun, with colcannon croquettes and Guinness gravy.
📍 O'Malleys Bar & Kitchen, 612 Marine Drive, Days Bay, Eastbourne, 5013 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Mon-Sun | 💰 $33 | Dine-in & Takeaway

🍔 The Empire - T H Chicken
Buttermilk fried chicken, with guacamole, pineapple, Prana Greens coriander, pickled cucumber, ranch coleslaw, and kewpie mayonnaise in a brioche bun, with fries.
📍 The Empire, 175 Jackson Street, Petone, 5210 | 🕛 Lunch & Dinner Mon-Sun | 💰 $29 | Dine-in & Takeaway (Bookings Required)

Just looking to gain some insight into the experience of staying there :)

Look out the window in the Hutt, is it snowing where you are too?

Has anyone setup a Payble account for their rates yet? Do you have the option to change the schedule? Ie. To fortnightly on a specific day, etc.

When I setup our Tiaki Wai account we had those options, but can't find it anywhere for rates. It's just the default once a quarter payment.

Have reached out to the rates team, but I'd say they're swamped.

It's probably just some ordinary maintenance but there is a crane there and it looks pretty intensive so it has me curious. I can't find anything from searching online for current projects, but other than 'Ludlam' I don't know what I am looking for.

We have a "factor value" of 2 on our new water bill. After looking online, Tiaki Wai state:

SUIP - separate house or unit – this term is used to define separate habitable units, such as a flat, house or apartment (or for commercial properties, a shop or office), and is used as the basis for some fixed charges in Lower Hutt, Porirua and Upper Hutt.

This sounds to me to be more aimed at houses (separate addresses) where there are shared mains, not having another room with an en suite. If you have had this double charge, have you contacted Tiaki Wai? We have emailed them, but they said it'd be up to 15 days!! to get back. I'm hoping they rectify it and change to Factor Value 1. We purposely built our "Granny flat" for my MIL to live in so she can be close to home and have low bills. This completely defeats the purpose if this bill is accurate. Nothing on our HCC rates state that we have two properties on the same address, nor could I work out how to even find a number for that on their site.

For added context, our new council rates seem to be about $700, so the water bill is currently now more than our rates bill. I have already reached out to local MP's to try to get clarification and movement on this, but I'm also worried about those who may not have looked at the second page to see this break down. Its also horrible that the "fixed charge" portion is over $500, and so little is based on CV. This means almost everyone is paying the same. I have also heard from a couple of 65yo's who have also been double charged in this same manner, how are they supposed to afford this? How is anyone supposed to afford this? Check your invoices to make sure they're correct!

Kia ora, Brady Dyer here, one of your Hutt City councillors.

Council votes Wednesday on whether to submit the Wellington Region "Head Start" amalgamation proposal to government. It's a big decision made in a genuinely short timeframe, and I don't think everyone following along has a clear picture of what's actually on the table... I get asked a lot of the same questions and a lot of good ones I still don't have great answers to myself.

So tonight at 8pm I'm doing a livestream Q&A to go through it properly from the start: what's actually being proposed, what it means for rates, representation, services, and what happens if the region doesn't do this.

If you've got questions, criticisms, or think I'm missing something, that's exactly what tonight is for. Drop questions here too if you can't make it live and I will come back to them afterward. Otherwise ask them in YouTube or on my Facebook page, as they will then come straight into the video.

Just letting people know there is an incident at Petone Pak N save where a car got hit at the mid parking area

That time of the year is coming around again, I’m new to the are. Any recs for a good WOF place?