Questing for the sun on GBI As the days grow shorter and colder, Ro and I here in our shoebox on a sandhill cherish every warmth-infusing ray of sun that lights and warms our living spaces and our hearts. May we all have lots of sunshine, literal and figurative, in our lives! The miracle of Lina! We had the most splendid, packed-full, joyous and precious three days with our beloved Lina. She stayed in the same cosy sleepout as Paul and Mary, at Christina and Johnny’s magnificent, even sacred, location at the south end of grand and glorious Kaitoke Beach. The moment she arrived we whisked her off for a swimming baptism in Kaitoke Stream. In the next two days she also swam at the Mermaid Pool near her sweet nest, and with us at Blind Bay and the south end of Medlands, and she enjoyed a blissful bush walk to the hot pools and a soak in one of the hidden private pools that only locals know about (“the hot pools alone had me pondering moving to the island,” she wrote). Between all that, we toured as far as Awana to the north, Okupu Wharf to the west (selfie site) and Pa Beach to the south – where she was impressed by the big selection of organic food at the Stonewall Store, and shared endless talking and laughing, and of course, eating! Lina’s a woman of many sparkling attributes and talents; among them she’s a chef, and she prepared beautiful meals with fresh produce from Okiwi Passion, the Community Gardens, generous friends and our garden. Lina LOVED our homemade kombucha (“absolutely sublime! must be world’s best, honestly – and I’ve tasted so many in different parts of the globe”). From someone who bottles it and sells it in shops, that was a compliment indeed! Necessity forced Ro’s first time off island since we moved here The Barrier Air 16-seater flies the 102 km to Auckland Airport at an average speed of 278 kph and a top altitude of 7000 ft. We flew past Waiheke Island on the descent, at about 2500 metres, so we had a bird’s eye view of what we’ve heard about its rampant development. Geography is everything in determining the fate of a region. If only the whole world were either mountainous or small distant islands! Our favourites of the trip: * Flying just above the ever-shifting bank of clouds and sometimes level with clouds sticking up from the main mass, so we saw them close up from the side. Awesome in the original sense of the word and very special. * Fascinating conversations with taxi drivers of different nationalities. * Seeing parts of the Barrier we always wondered about – the cliffs always tantalisingly around the corner beyond Medlands, and the island-stradding bush-covered hills between Charlie and Winnie’s farm and the Hauraki Gulf. * Our research into current trends! Waiting for our flight home, we took little observational polls of people walking past, using four or five samples of ten people for each: · footwear: more than 9 out of every 10 wears running shoes or sneakers. In Golden Bay crocs were standard, and we thought they’d be tops, but it seems they’ve peaked and declined – not one person wore crocs. Why people want to tie and untie shoelaces (only one pair was velcroed) when they can just slip in and out, I don’t understand. Second most popular was sandals, largely jandals. A few had leather shoes, just one pair of hiking boots, no one barefoot. · backpacks vs luggage: On average, only 3 out of 10 had packs, and 100% of the luggage was pull-along. Carry-in-your-own-hand suitcases don’t seem to exist anymore, and younger generations might wonder why I’d even mention them. · cell phones: about 3 out of 10 people walking past were using their phones. If we add those holding their phones, the number increased to about 7 out of 10. * Best of all, a liberating celebratory purifying sunset swim of joy when we got back. Banded rails In Golden Bay, we enjoyed the quails. Here it's rails. These roadrunner-like birds are beloved on the island, like free-ranging community pets. Gone from most of New Zealand since the 1970s because of extensive wetlands drainage and the introduction of ferrets, on GBI they’ve taken refuge (like the rest of us), where they’re thriving and happy. Though historically they’ve rarely been seen, mainly remaining under the cover of wetland vegetation, here they feel safe enough to wander freely in the open. This photo was taken on the island several years ago. Banded rails are strong though reluctant fliers. When they do fly, mainly at night, they can travel surprisingly far. Unlike most garden birds these days, most of which are introduced, rails are welcome in gardens, where not only do they leave plants undisturbed, they eat slugs and other unwelcome insects, and they’re very endearing to watch. GBI has the largest population of black petrels in NZ It was a successful breeding season for the island’s black petrels, or takoketai, with over 200 chicks fledging from burrows near the highest mountain, Hirakimata. Takoketai used to breed throughout the North Island and northwest Nelson. Now, as New Zealand’s most at-risk seabird from commercial fishing, they breed only on Great Barrier Island and Little Barrier Island. This photo was taken on Hirakimata. The 200 chicks have now left their burrows for the first time, to attempt their maiden flight out to sea. Once at sea, they head due east on an epic 13,000 km journey across the Pacific to the Pitcairn Islands, then north to the Galapagos Islands off the west coast of Ecuador. They’ll spend 3-5 years there before returning to Aotea to breed for the first time. Takoketai chicks occasionally crash land on lower parts of Aotea before making it out to sea. People on GBI who find one on the ground can carefully pick it up with towel or gloves (they can bite) and move it to a sheltered and safe location under dense vegetation. From there it can attempt another takeoff the next night. Aotea FM tenth anniversary It was also a great season for our fab community-initiated-and-run local radio station. The tenth anniversary bash outside at the Claris Club featured T-shirt sales, an exhibit of photos from the early days of the station and panel discussion among the founders, but really, it was all about a fundraising concert by Auckland-based Kiwi icon Sola Rosa. The event was “massive” to quote Kathy, our wonderfully competent and personable station coordinator, which is an accurate description of the celebration, which raised $5000! Presenters Linda and Lynda The panel of pioneers Sola Rosa The stage Local Board goes 100% solar A clean, green step forward for Claris! The council service centre, the library and the health centre got an all-in-one solar upgrade, including an electric vehicle charging point. Sorry to say, the buildings were previously run mainly on diesel. Now, like most of the rest of the island, they’ll be powered virtually 100 percent from the sun. Can’t get much more powerful than that life- and energy-giving star of ours. Local Board chair Izzy Fordham and school kids’ waiata at the opening celebration, and the EV charge point A dentist office was recently fitted out near the other facilities in Claris, and it’s using solar from the same system. Nancy of Flash Dental flies over from “New Zealand” every month for a few days, but during the rest of the month those who chomp down too hard on a guava seed or unpopped popcorn kernel still have to go “to town” for help. Pondering on the dunes Sea foam is a phenomenon we’ve seen all our lives, but one day after swimming as we sat on the dunes watching the “jump-ups” on the distant rocks, Joanna asked, “Water is colourless and transparent, but why does the foam on breaking waves appear white? Now we know! Sunlight is white – the sun emits visible light of all colours, which combine to give white light. Foam is made of bubbles, which are very thin liquid films with air inside. Compared with a water droplet of the same size, a bubble absorbs much less light than the droplet because it has so little matter, plus the air inside the bubble isnt a good absorber of light. So the light coming out from a bubble is brighter than that from water, which is just a large collection of water droplets, and appears white under the sun. It’s the same for the brighter foam on a carbonated drink – here, our ginger-lemon kombucha! Return of the Wholefoods Handbook Carrie is amazing. What talent, what generosity! I’ve been lucky to have the pleasure of working with her on all sorts of projects to which she brought her design and photography skills, enthusiasm, can-do attitude and kindness. When Ro and I left Golden Bay for the Barrier, where there’s no print shop, she took over distributing the Wholefoods Handbook, that little book I wrote in 2002 with the original local title Golden Bay Organics Wholefoods in a Nutshell. I thought other organic shops might want to stock it, and they certainly did – virtually all of them! 15,000 copies later, they’re still ordering. In 2012, thanks to Marsha’s help with writing, Tina’s with layout, and Sage’s with the cover, we published a much-expanded tenth anniversary edition, to include over 100 new products that had found their way to New Zealand. For all these 17 years, wonderful Kelly at Unlimited Copies has printed them at low cost in keeping with the kaupapa of the book: to introduce as many people as possible to whole foods they may be unfamiliar with or not know how to use – to boost individual health, organic shop sales and organics throughout New Zealand. Kelly further touched my heart when she came to the launch of the tenth anniversary edition! Under the umbrella of CEEDS trust, all proceeds from sales support initiatives for the greater good New Zealand-wide, especially environmental organisations and projects. When I handed the distribution over to Carrie, she waved her design wand over the cover and introductory pages for a makeover. This dear, talented woman is never at a loss for good ideas! Instead of driving to town to collect printed books from Kelly, bringing them home to pack as orders arrive and returning them to town to post, she recently asked Kelly to pack and post as well as print, which she’s gladly doing for a small fee. Carrie just emails the invoices to Kelly to print and enclose. Brilliant! Since access to a print shop is no longer needed, I’ve resumed coordinating the project from out at sea here on the Barrier! Nowhere can escape it Not long ago, a number of people here devoted an entire year of their lives to trying to prevent the aerial drop of brodifacoum poison on Rakitu Island just off the Barrier coast – everything from months of encampment on DoC’s lawn, to petitions, letters, public meetings and meetings with decision makers, legal advice, marches, information stalls, Aotea Poison Free signs and bumper stickers, online posts, letters in the Bulletin week after week, even a comic allegory play. After all of Ro and my lost causes in Golden Bay, we knew it was another futile effort and didn’t participate much. We gave a donation and signed the petition, I edited a flyer and we supported them with all our hearts! Now another environmental fiend has reared its ugly head. The inner harbour of Auckland’s Waitemata “needs” to be dredged – Ports of Auckland, cruise port extension, and America’s Cup village (to be inhabited for two weeks next March). The dredging will occur; the issue is where the toxic sludge will be dumped. Why not on land? No. Instead the so-called Environmental Protection Authority has approved dumping 250,000 cubic metres of dredge sludge 25 km off the east coast of the Barrier every year for the next 35 years. This is a 500 percent increase from the current consent. The protest is also heading for Auckland. This fiend too must opposed with time, effort, expert assistance and money https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/protect-aotea-great-barrier-island. Local and international stakeholders and influencers have been asked for support: local iwi and other residents, the wider Auckland community, media, politicians, marine experts, yachting communities, marine conservation organisations, high-profile celebrities, legal experts, America’s Cup syndicates, foundations, charitable trusts and individual philanthropists who care about preserving the oceans (how could anyone not care about it?), and many others. We're forced to spend our time pushing back – it could be precious time of joy, co-creating and delighting in a world of peace and plenty for all. At the same time, the legal battle has begun. Ngati Rehua Ngatiwai ki Aotea lodged an appeal based on what ought to be a fundamental given: safeguarding our environment by supporting the rights of our indigenous people to protect our land and oceans as mandated in the Treaty of Waitangi. The appeal was accepted by the High Court in Wellington and hearings are underway. The judicial review submitted by SPACE, the Society for the Protection of Aotea Community and Environment, will be heard simultaneously. The grounds for the appeal are obvious enough for schoolchildren to understand: * The sediment plume blocks the sun from reaching organisms at the bottom of the food chain on which the rest relies: phytoplankton à zooplankton àlittle fish à big fish à us. * The sediment is toxic – it’s dredged from ports where heavy metals accumulate from anti-foul paint on ship bottoms. It contains copper, zinc, lead and other heavy metals. Tension between the protection of our environment and current economic frameworks seems to be intensifying. Dumping tonnes of this sludge into the ocean is, in Elise’s words, “a wildly irresponsible, deeply shameful, ecologically and environmentally unconscionable, globally controversial, short-sighted and short-termist, irretrievably massive leap backwards” Listen to this beautiful Ancestors Chant produced in support of the campaign: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=645658319239360 Recipe of the Month I sent our daily smoothie recipe to my herbalist-by-skpye friend Mary Allen. What a surprise to find it arrive back to me in her newsletter! Lil Red Bill wrote that he’s "pleased to announce that The Little Red Van has found a new home. Erwin has once again breathed life back into her" and he’s "looking forward to seeing her happily skipping around Golden Bay once more." When we left, Lil red went to Malcolm, then Erwin, then Rose, then Bill, and now ??. Here she is in Northland soon after we found her when we arrived back in New Zealand in 1999, never to leave again, and in our garden home days in Pohara. Lucia was my guest on Can’t Live Without Music with an hour of her favourite Argentinian music. She really was a natural and she liked being on radio so much she’s going to start her own show! We brought our old transistor radio down to the beach to listen to Sam’s show the day his mother, visiting from Guernsey Island, played the accordion on air. :-) Kaitoke Beach beauty View from the main road above Kaitoke Beach – yeah, you can just stop on the road and take photos! If a car comes along, they just go around you, no prob. Nearly the same view taken by someone else, clearly on another day! Morning fog from our back deck If that's our view to the south, and this is our view to the north … … then what on Earth is this?*** *** It’s the reflection of our view to the north through the back door onto the hills to the south.
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