Cruising into 2017 on GBI Rock on! What a story! And to think we never knew anything about it until announcements of 50-year celebrations popped up in the Barrier Bulletin, the Barrier Chitchat facebook page and Aotea FM. It’s Radio Hauraki, New Zealand’s pirate radio station, which broadcast from the ship Tiri beyond government jurisdiction in the Hauraki Gulf, three miles past New Zealand borders, in the last years of the ‘60s. For nearly 40 years after the government nationalised pioneer radio stations in the 1930s, all NZ radio stations were controlled and operated by a government agency – the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, which didn’t grant licenses to competitors. When plans for the pirate station were publicised, the government used all possible tactics short of violence to stop it. The day the crew first tried to sail the Tiri out of Auckland Harbour, police lowered a drawbridge across the dock in Auckland Harbour. After the Tiri got through with the help of a huge crowd of supporters, a police boat chased and stopped it. Following acquittal in court, the pirates sailed the Tiri to its mooring near Channel Rock and began broadcasting. New Zealanders who’ve lived here much longer than Ro and I will know that the station was hugely popular! It was one groovy station, playing Doors, Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane, and the Who, all the rock music shunned by the stodgy New Zealand government of the conservative, short-haired, unhip older generation that was throttling young New Zealand. It wasn’t just a radio station – it was a rebellion! The safe harbours of Tryphena and Whangaparapara on Great Barrier Island, where the ship often took refuge from horrendous weather, played an important part in keeping the station afloat, as well as on air when the government tried to nail them here, because the harbours are in territorial waters where they weren’t permitted to broadcast. You won’t believe it – the NZBC actually based two observers on the island to spy on the Tiri at sea. When the boat left its mooring they came down to port to try to catch them on air, but meanwhile locals were observing the observers and tipped off the crew. The DJs couldn’t play off records in the rough seas of the Gulf, so they prerecorded programmes in Auckland and had the tapes delivered, by seaplane to Tryphena and then to the Tiri by locals Bill and Ngaire Gibbs on their fishing launch, as well as supplies and parts. Each time the crew faced near disaster along the coast, including during the stormiest winter on record, Bill risked life and launch to come to their aid. Sometimes they were no match for the sea. The first Tiri was lost on the rocks along Great Barrier’s coast following a famous mayday message from the on-shift DJ, and the second was nearly lost in another big storm. The gale was so bad that the boat was ripped from its mooring and driven by the wind 80 km over mountainous waves. The stalwart pirates carried on broadcasting! In 1970 the government gave up trying to control radio and took applications for private stations. (I can’t resist commenting that though this may have been a good thing, it was at the start of a steep, very slippery slope descending into privatisation, corporatisation and profit-isation of our very lives.) Radio Hauraki plays on, the only pirate radio station in the world to be granted a land broadcasting license. We’ve heard and read many more stories about adventures and misadventures in the Hauraki Radio days! If you’re keen to find out more or revisit what you already knew, you can track down the book Radio Pirates: How Hauraki Radio Rocked the Boat or the film Three Mile Limit. A group gathered at the Arts and Heritage Village at Claris, on a day that promised rain but barely delivered, to hear stories of Radio Hauraki told by those who lived it and locals who helped out, and to witness the unveiling of the original Tiri buoy. You may find someone familiar in the photo! A local guy rescued the four-metre buoy from obscurity, damage and rust, and refurbished it and placed it permanently on site. Ian Magan, one of the pirate announcers, reads out the plaque, which doesn’t tell you any more than what you already know! Cool Groves & Hot Tracks Since 2009 the Barrier’s had an island-based, island-themed non-privatised community station of its own, run "by the sun”, and by a charitable trust and plenty of volunteers and supporters. I’ve mentioned Artie, our favourite presenter. The day he played a whole show of Dylan originals and covers, I loved it so much I said to Ro, “Let’s bring him a gift!” It wasn’t just for that show but all of them! I ground up some cinnamon sticks and we brought it to him the next day. He was very touched. You can see the wee jar next to the computer. His show is in a class of its own. He always has a fun theme and chooses from his vast collection of classic blues, jazz, rock, pop and more. His knowledge of music history is just as vast. In his inimitable style and voice he shares some tidbits about the artists and occasionally his commentary on events in the world. We’ve said it was worth it to come here just to find out about Cool Grooves & Hot tracks! See what I mean on Wednesdays and Thursdays 3:30-6 pm (next year – he’s away til after the holidays) livestreaming at http://www.aoteafm.org and let me know how you like it! Swimming in a time of jellyfish A few weeks ago the unwelcome soft-bodied free-swimming aquatic animals with a gelatinous umbrella-shaped bell and trailing tentacles made their way around to “our” side of the island and have remained ever since, some days and tides too numerous to mention, sometimes just one or two, but always some. As ever-adaptable humans, but mostly lucky that geology and Tangaroa provided some alternatives, we still haven’t missed a swim. When the tide’s out in the afternoon we’ve been going to the rock pool by Memory Rock in the middle of Medlands Beach. It’s not the sea, but it’s safe from stings. Or to the Mermaid Pool between Kaitoke and Medlands. It's larger, deeper, rock-lined and idyllic, but a bit of a mission to get to. That’s fine in summer but the rest of the year it would be too far on cool, windy and/or rainy days. I spotted a Merman! Kaitoke Beach from the edge of the Mermaid Pool, low tide. Both pools are magical! They vanish beneath the surface as the tide comes in and then reemerge as it goes out. You can’t lose track of time and tide in these pools! The rock pool behind Memory Rock will soon cease to exist, an inaccessible “memory” for the next six hours! This oystercatcher pair that hangs out on the beach and dunes nearby is now a threesome, with the hatching of baby Tio (in the grass at the back). Oystercatcher footprints. A dotterel is trying against a whole lot of odds to hatch a newbie in its scrape-in-the-sand nest right at the foot of a walkway to the beach. Bird-care people put up this small barrier to warn people who'd otherwise have no idea they’re destroying something precious. When the tide’s high in the afternoon, we go to the river, at its deepest and clearest when the tide is in. A lot of cropping reveals an oystercatcher pair on the far bank, who call the river home. People who’ve lived on the Barrier for many years say they’ve never seen the jellyfish so bad, that they're proliferating worldwide as pollution, overfishing and climate change alter ocean ecology. Magic pools and Kaitoke Stream can only go so far for people wanting an ocean swim or a play in the surf. If those jellyfish don’t go back where they came from, there’ll be a whole lot of unhappy holidaymakers in a few days. Santa Parade at the Claris sports field Kaitoke School Mad Science Laboratory Dennis was visiting at the time – can you spot the back of his light-coloured cap (hint: foreground)? The Christmas pohutakawa next door It’s buzzing with bees! Didn’t want to get too close! Happy Holidays to all and every possible best wish for 2017 for all of us and everyone, our beautiful planet and the entire vast, unfathomable universe.
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