ONERAHI EV CHARGERS INSTALLED IN PADDOCK NO CAR HAS EVER REACHED

Two brand new EV chargers have been installed at the end of a gravel turnaround in Onerahi that, by the council's own admission, has never been driven on by a car. The nearest sealed road is 180 metres away, separated by a drainage ditch and what locals describe as "a fair bit of gorse".

The chargers, painted a confident shade of green, were switched on last Tuesday. Whangarei District Council says they form part of a wider Northland EV rollout. No vehicle has yet plugged in. A council contractor was seen testing one of them with an extension cord and a kettle.

Local resident Moana Whareumu, 71, who walks her dog past the site daily, said she'd watched the whole thing go in over six weeks. "Three blokes, two diggers, one of those little orange fences. I asked one of them how a car was meant to get up here. He said that wasn't his department. I said what was his department. He said cones."

A second resident, Ravi Singh from up the hill, said the council had spent more on the access track signage than the track itself. "There's a sign telling you not to drive on the track. The track you can't drive on. To get to the chargers. For the cars. That can't get there."

A Whangarei District Council spokesperson told The Daily Yarn the location was chosen as part of a "network coverage strategy" and that vehicle access was "a phase two consideration". Asked when phase two might begin, the spokesperson said the matter was "with another team".

In 1974 they put a bench at the end of that same track and nobody sat on it either. The bench is still there. The chargers now keep it company.