Power and Glory on Great Barrier Island A roundup of events, phenomena and photos from our island home, beginning with a warning from MetService that turned out to be not quite right. Scary as the warning may have been, instead of high winds and heavy rain, Barrierites were treated to a week of spectacular big seas, surpassing even the might of a similar event several years back. Less welcome were the unprecedented high tides that covered the big, wide beaches, washed away sand and cut into the dunes. Photos were emailed back and forth, attached to PMs and posted on Chitchat, footprints proliferated on the beaches, at least at low tide, and no conversation was complete without expressions of astonishment about the mighty waves. Photos by Bree, Margaret and me. Kaitoke Beach Here’s where I almost became one with my subject matter! I was only in up to my feet but an unexpected wave came in right up to my knees and the pull was so strong going out it was almost “down came Joanna, camera and all”! The tide came right over the huge beach and cut into the dunes. Medlands South end Medlands Rakitu Island from Whangapoua. Whangapoua is another Very Wide Beach and the tide came right up to the dunes. All Ready Free & let’s talk about life! I’ve already introduced lovely Kat, founder and baker par excellence at Glow Sourdough. Wednesday mornings she gets out of bed at 4:30 am and drives to Tryphena to bake 36 loaves of fresh slow-ferment sourdough, which she’s already looked after for the two preceding days. They’re treasured by lucky island households who are either members of her Bread Club or who have made it onto her weekly list before they’re all sold out. She also made incredibly yummy sourdough hot cross buns at Easter time. This is her equally lovely partner, Bodhi, who launched his first CD in April at an outdoor concert at the art gallery. All Ready Free was recorded out in nature on the island. It’s a totally, well, free and wholly original creative mix of partly spontaneous spiritual heart-based singing, rapping, chanting, didge, taonga Māori and birdsong, with friends contributing voices and music on some of the tracks. His website is allreadyfree.me. Bodhi invited me to his radio show to talk about Life, but as it happened he came to mine. I loved anticipating the different perspectives we’d bring, with our very different life experiences and difference of 40 years of living on Planet Earth. Using his album title as a starting point, we talked about freedom in many senses – the simple freedom to choose and its moral foundation, freedom from your conditioning and your past, freedom as a state of mind vs actual tangible freedom, and the big question of remaining at inner peace while aware of and even working among those who are suffering injustice and other social traumas. And then we talked about the self – the duality of its surface aspects of thoughts, feelings and body, and its deeper permanent essence, and about living with surrender and trust, self-enquiry as a means of personal growth and better relationships. Stuff like that, and we had fun too and it was pretty cool. The classical connection The following Sunday I phone-interviewed Rick Young, our favourite presenter on the Radio NZ Concert Programme, who would soon be leaving the station after 20 years to pursue other interests. Ro and I loved his late-afternoon show, The Classical Connection, and his presenting style, always warm, gracious and good-humoured, and over the years I didn’t hesitate to tell him so! We became email friends, and he was happy to oblige my request for an interview. I’ve interviewed a lot of people in the studio and by phone, about topics from homoeopathy, herbal medicine and women’s physiotherapy to a very indie type of music literally called noise, to a very different sort of music with specific healing qualities, to the worldwide menace of screen-induced myopia in children, to a sailboat voyage from Tahiti to British Columbia, plus a few about friends’ favourite music, and of course, life! Rick was by far the most prominent person, and I was even more excited than usual! The interview turned out to be great fun, more a conversation than a formal interview. Rick even put me on the spot with one of his very popular classic cryptic clues! He was kind and made it easy! It was “a degree reversing Swedish singers”, 4 letters beginning with “a”. Can you work it out? He gave a different music-related clue every day during his show, and hundreds of people would be in a mad rush to text in, vying to be in the top 12. Afterwards I finished the classical hour with some of Rick’s favourites: Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Elgar, Jupiter from The Planets by Holst, the slow movement from Mozart’s clarinet concerto, and Solveig’s Song from Peer Gynt by Grieg. Rick said he imagines the presenter’s desk at RNZ Concert is very similar to the one at little old Aotea FM, and it is, just a bit more flash, and the phones are identical! You can listen to our 25-minute interview and Rick’s picks here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yisywkxzd94oy5l/Joanna%20interview%20with%20Rick%20Young.mp3?dl=0 Missing are the first few seconds of the interview (“It’s my absolute pleasure to introduce Rick Young, who has been a presenter on Radio New Zealand concert for 20 years”) and the last few seconds of the show, when I wrapped it up and said goodnight. 21st century alchemy Meanwhile a few km down the road at the Claris Conference Centre, what seemed an almost alchemical workshop was going on as part of the Barrier’s annual Off the Grid festival. The speaker was a rep from SOURCE hydropanels – a solar technology needing only sunlight and air to make drinking water! They look like solar panels but instead of generating energy they use the power of the sun to create an endless volume of clean, reliable drinking water from air. Installed on roof or ground, they extract water vapour from the air to make, mineralise (with calcium and magnesium), ozonate and deliver drinking water to a tap without need for another power source. https://www.source.co To us hydropanels seem to be upscaled distillers. The jury is out on hydropanels, with both sceptics and believers. Some say they’re an “incredibly inefficient means of making water that has caught the imagination of billionaire backers and ill-informed philanthropists” and “There’s no place on earth where a hydropanel is the most cost-effective source of water”. That’s all I know! 21st century awesomeness A festival workshop of high interest to Ro and me was on a more familiar topic also relevant to Great Barrier Island and in fact the entire world: the transformation of Denmark’s Samsø’s Island, which we’d read about four years ago in Australia’s wonderful Renew magazine. In just ten years, this island went from 100% reliance on imported oil and coal to 100% renewable electricity. Check out Renew, a not-for-profit organisation "that has inspired, enabled and advocated for people to live sustainably in their homes and communities since 1980”: renew.org.au If you doubt the potential of renewable energy, or you’d love to be inspired, look beyond the Barrier to Samsø, whose 4000 inhabitants have been energy-positive for the past decade, producing more energy from wind and biomass than they consume. Samsø’s transformation from a carbon-dependent importer of oil and coal-fuelled electricity to a paragon of renewables started in 1998, when the island won a government competition to take on the challenge of becoming a showcase community, to prove that the country’s target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 21% was achievable. The contest funded the salary of one person tasked with making the island’s 10-year renewables plan a reality. And he did! In less than a decade, the transformation to carbon neutral was complete. By 2000, 11 one-megawatt (MW) wind turbines supplied the island’s 22 villages with enough energy for self-sufficiency. Two years later 10 offshore wind turbines were generating 23 MW of electricity to offset emissions from the island’s cars, buses, tractors, and ferries to the mainland. The island sells the excess energy to the Danish national grid. In addition, three district heating systems were built to supply three-quarters of the island’s houses with heating and hot water from centralised biomass boilers fuelled with locally grown straw. Houses outside the heating districts replaced oil furnaces with solar collectors or biomass boilers. Now Samsø residents’ carbon footprints are NEGATIVE, on average negative 12 tonnes per person per year, compared with a Danish average of +6.2 tonnes and a New Zealand average of +8 tonnes. The community came to the party with great gusto, contributing enthusiasm for both self-sufficiency and emissions reduction as well as funds to achieve the goals. For example, the wind turbines are owned by a combination of private owners, investor groups, the municipal government and local cooperatives. Locals contributed about $2.7 million (converted to NZ dollars) to buy two turbines outright, and individuals bought the other nine. Two offshore turbines are cooperatively owned, and the five owned by the municipality generate income to reinvest in sustainability projects. The island’s vision now is to be fossil fuel-free by 2030. Islanders already own the highest number of electric cars per capita in Denmark. The municipality has replaced its diesel-powered ferry with one that runs on gas, and in time the ferry will run on island-generated biofuel and wind-charged batteries. Other petrol-powered vehicles will be replaced by electric or biofuel alternatives. My conclusions: 1) The Barrier is off-grid, power-independent and wonderful, but the Samsø model of community energy independence is much further finessed and progressed than our model of individual energy independence. 2) Samsø exemplifies Margaret Mead’s oft-quoted words: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Sea Cleaners This charitable trust has been working full time for nearly 20 years to try to stem the plastic tide, or at least hide it. Sea Cleaners coordinates volunteers to clean up coastlines all around the country. Sometimes their work is in partnership with the New Zealand Navy, simultaneously collecting rubbish and training youth in humanitarian aid response. In 160,000 total hours with volunteer help, they’ve removed from the sea nearly 100 million pieces of rubbish, or 10.9 million litres, enough to fill 325 shipping containers. It’s all crammed into – plastic! bags and brought to “resource recovery centres”, where it’s no doubt landfilled, plastic bags and all. Sea Cleaners and the New Zealand Navy recently coordinated a clean-up around the shores of the Barrier. Groups in different locations collected a total of over 10,000 litres of debris, mainly plastic. Like many islands, ours is a landing spot for waste from the mainland. Among the junk were toxic items such as batteries from cars, boats and solar power, and a wheelbarrow tray from the giant containership Rena that grounded off Tauranga ten years ago and later broke in half. Items from the Rena are still coming ashore along the east coast of North Island. The Rena was the largest ship ever lost in New Zealand waters. It was 236 m long, weighed 40,000 tonnes and carried 1300 20- and 40-foot containers. The financial and ecological costs of the disaster were also the greatest in NZ history. He ingoa o ngā wāhi o Aotea – place names of Great Barrier Island Since our first visit to New Zealand, for seven months in 1989-90, I’m been fascinated by Māori place names, for they hold clues to flora and fauna, natural features and history. I’ve been learning the meanings of some of Aotea’s place names, which link us to people, events and culture going back a thousand years. Aotea: Great Barrier Island’s Māori name likely comes from the waka Aotea, one of the great voyaging founding waka. The harbour between Raglan and Kawhia is this waka’s final resting place and is also called Aotea. The Aotea Memorial Waka distinguishes the main street of Patea in South Taranaki. It was built in 1933 to commemorate the settlement of the area by Turi, leader of the Aotea waka, and his hapū. Ruahine: The high peak in the south of Great Barrier is named for Turi's granddaughter. Santi and his mum cheer after reaching Ruahine Lookout. Okupu: The mythical navigator Kupe was aboard one of the first waka to arrive from Hawaiki, before the waka Aotea. The ridge above Blind Bay, where we first lived on the island, is called Okupu – fully Ō-Kupe-Mai-Tawhiti, meaning “of Kupe from far away”. Kupe is believed to have eventually returned to Hawaiki, leaving from Hokianga, in Northland, which is a noun that means “return”. This is the view to the west from Okupu Ridge. Ngā Taratara (spikes) ō Toi: At the northern tip of the island, The Needles are part of Ngā Poitō ō Te Kupenga ō Toi, the floats of the net of ancestor Toi, who arrived from Hawaiki in the 12th century. When viewed from the ocean in certain weather, The Needles seem to bob like floats on a net.Te Moana Nui a Toi, “The Big Sea of Toi”, is the name for the ocean around Aotea. Kaitoke: The reef at the mouth of Kaitoke Stream, the main river emerging from the wetlands is an important marker for seafarers. Its name means food (kai) from the conger eel (toke). Te Motu Tohorā: The name of the island (motu) off Cape Barrier in the south refers to the fluke of a rolling right whale. Thanks to Joan Carroll for the photo: https://joan-carroll.pixels.com/ Te Ahumatā: Matā is obsidian, a hard, dark volcanic rock, whose flakes were used to make cutting tools and traded around Tāmaki Makaurau (the Auckland region). The name of Aotea’s highest peak, Hirakimatā, refers to the flash of lightning striking obsidian. Rocket roulette The phrase “existential threat” has been bandied about casually of late in reference to climate change, Covid, nuclear war, 5G, the end of nature, alarmingly decreasing sperm counts etc. Another such threat appeared literally out of the blue. In early May the headline read Chinese rocket to come crashing down to Earth at unknown location. The rocket was an 18-tonne “vehicle” that had launched the first module of China's new space station the previous month but now earned a dubious distinction as one of the largest ever chunks of space junk to plummet to Earth in an uncontrolled re-entry. When the big day dawned, we started tracking. On one ever-lowering orbit the rocket’s path went right over Golden Bay … … and on another it grazed the Barrier. It’s truly a mad, mad, mad, mad world. Lunar transcendence With the moon behind a cloud-covered sky, at bedtime we gave up on seeing late May's lunar eclipse. After lights out, around 11, something moved Ro to raise his arm and move out the blind. Lo! The moon! Right above our eyes! It was still mostly obscured but the clouds kept shifting, which was very special to see as we lay on our backs looking up and a bit backwards. The patch of light coming through the moving clouds sometimes brightened, sometimes dimmed, a very nebulous moon indeed. We waited patiently and then – a break in the clouds and there was the partly eclipsed! moon It phased in and out, but at times we could see it clearly! It reminded me of the time we were tramping the 220-km Northville-Lake Placid Trail in our old stomping grounds of the Adirondacks Mountains of northern New York State. One night we planned to stay in a lean-to, but others were in it, so we slept outside. Mosquitoes were driving us nuts and we couldn’t breathe with our heads in the sleeping bag – I longed for a straw I could poke through for breathing!, so we were awake and AMAZINGLY we witnessed a total lunar eclipse we had no idea was going to happen!
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