Issue No.29 • MAY/JUN 2016 • $8.00 Including GST
How Pure … And Who Profits?
Ocean Beach Alert Risky Dam Taxing Fizzies Coastal Hazards Online Hustling Vakameasina
9 772253 262016
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Foodies Pick Favourite Brands
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Issue No.29 • MAY/JUN 2016
THIS MONTH What local brands do leading Hawke’s Bay foodies put in their shopping baskets? How ‘pure’ or ‘miracle’ is the water we export … and who should profit? ‘Eco-development’ is coming to Ocean Beach … what does that mean? Does The Dam stack up? Understanding our coastal hazards. Improving the life skills of our RSE workers. Plus health, food, travel, fashion, arts and culture, and upcoming events.
FEATURES
22 CONTROVERSY RENEWS AT OCEAN BEACH
Keith Newman
Coming to OB: leading-edge ‘ecotourism’ or over-development?
30 WHERE DOES HB’S FOOD FUTURE LIE?
Tom Belford
HB’S TASTE MERCHANTS Jessica Soutar Barron Foodies pick HB’s top food brands. How do we capitalize on them?
38 MANUFACTURING ‘PURE’ WATER
Sarah Cates
Our aquifer water is not so pure, but profits are still to be made.
44
POLITICAL BUZZ Tom Belford The Dam is a risky proposition … Is it worth it?
50
VAKAMEASINA Mark Sweet A success story: Life skills for Pacific Islanders picking our fruit. Page 1 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Issue No.29 • MAY/JUN 2016
LIZZIE RUSSELL Lizzie is writer, project wrangler and arts promoter. She’s been living and working back in her home ground of Hawke’s Bay for five years, initially with Hastings City Art Gallery and more recently as a freelancer. She also co-ordinates the Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition and Pecha Kucha in the Bay. KEITH NEWMAN Keith is a journo with nearly 40-years’ experience across mainstream and trade media. He’s won awards for writing about hi-tech, produces Musical Chairs programmes for Radio NZ and has published four books, one on the internet in New Zealand and three others on New Zealand history.
> BEE in the KNOW 08 Rowland Smith … golden boy of shearing. Wellness index. Hot/Not. Sort your woodburner. Electric cars. World Environment Day. New Fish & Game team. Bio-dynamic comes to HB. HB Foundation gives. EIT grads. Matariki. Babies’
MARK SWEET Napier-born, Mark worked overseas in Hong Kong and Scotland, before returning to Hawke’s Bay, and establishing Pacifica restaurant. Re-creating himself as a writer, Mark’s first novel Zhu Mao was published in 2011; an extract from his next novel, Of Good and Evil, has been short-listed for the Pikihuia Awards, will be published soon.
super-brains. Measuring NZ’s wellbeing. Pure HB campaign. Fluoride to DHBs. NZ is happy! Oil lobby $$. Mobile travel. Events not to miss.
> CULTURE & LIFESTYLE 60 THE SCENE Lizzie Russell
Marathon: Going the distance. Garden of Eaden at HCAC. Parlour Projects. Visiting Asia at HCAG. Young Country at MTG. Caring online. New heart for Havelock North. Napier in colour. The smiling tattooist. Book reviews.
JESS SOUTAR BARRON Jess is a wordsmith and project manager whose past gigs have included time with Sky TV, Hastings District Council and Band, as well as three years as a communications managerwith the Metropolitan Police Service. She also produces Fruit Bowl Craft Jam.
Wuts on pleasures of clay. Mangapapa and Ormlie. 72 TRAVEL: WHANAUNGATANGA Ngahiwi Tomoana 74 FOOD: MORE HIP THAN HIPPIE Jennifer Le Comte 78 HOME DESIGN: KEY TO SUCCESS IS TEAMWORK Lizzie Russell 92 TO DARWIN TO PEARL Charlotte Panton 94 WE SHOULD BE SMARTER NOW Miles Robertson 96 THE TALE OF TORU Mary Kippenberger
> IDEAS & OPINIONS
MANDY WILSON Mandy Wilson manages advertising and store sales for BayBuzz. She’s worked in print media in the Bay for 20 years or so (Wow!). In her leisure you can spot Mandy walking or cycling one of the numerous tracks throughout Hawke’s Bay or sipping hot chocolates in any number of cafes. 027 593 5575
56 COASTAL HAZARDS: COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU HB Regional Council 84 OPPORTUNITIES LOST Rex Graham 86 ROAMING David Trubridge 88 TIME TO TAX FIZZIES? Tom Belford 90 ONLINE HUSTLING Matt Miller Follow us at: FACEBOOK.COM/BAYBUZZHB Selected BayBuzz articles are archived at: WWW.BAYBUZZ.CO.NZ For editorial enquiries contact Tom Belford: editors@baybuzz.co.nz For advertising enquiries contact Mandy Wilson: mandy@baybuzz.co.nz, 027 593 5575
ISSN 2253-2625 (PRINT) ISSN 2253-2633 (ONLINE)
THE BAYBUZZ TEAM EDITOR: Tom Belford. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Lizzie Russell. SENIOR WRITERS: Bridget Freeman-Rock; Jessica Soutar Barron; Keith Newman; Mark Sweet; Tom Belford. COLUMNISTS: Anna Lorck; Damon Harvey; David Trubridge; Mary Kippenberger; Matt Miller; Paul Paynter; Sarah Cates. EDITOR’S RIGHT HAND: Brooks Belford. PHOTOGRAPHY: Tim Whittaker; Sarah Cates. ILLUSTRATION: Brett Monteith. CREATIVE, DESIGN & PRODUCTION: Ed. ADVERT ART MANAGEMENT: TK Design. ADVERTISING SALES & DISTRIBUTION: Mandy Wilson. ONLINE: Mogul. BUSINESS MANAGER: Bernadette Magee. PRINTING: Format Print. COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM WHITTAKER Page 2 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
This document is printed on an environmentally reponsible paper produced using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp sourced from Sustainable & Legally Harvested Farmed Trees, and manufactured under the strict ISO14001 Environmental Management System.
FROM THE EDITOR TOM BELFORD
When is enough, enough? As I looked over the range of the articles in this edition of BayBuzz, I noticed a theme, there by accident. It has to do with limits. Or when is enough, enough? Take our article on water bottling – Manufacturing ‘Pure’ Water. The Regional Council is trying to placate a concerned public by emphasizing that only a tiny percentage of water available in the Heretaunga aquifer has been committed thus far to water bottling. Environment Minister Nick Smith is taking the same tack at the national level, trivializing the amount of water consented for this purpose. What’s not said is that, under present ground rules, there are no limits on the amount of water that ‘could’ be consented, so long as such extractions don’t adversely affect neighboring bores or minimum flows required in surface waters. But what if the data shows – as it does – that groundwater under the Heretaunga Plains has been lowering throughout the most recent twenty years just studied, with evidence it could be longer than that? When do we begin to worry? Apparently not soon, as HBRC drags its heels on beginning a deep well exploration programme to sharpen understanding of the aquifer’s capacity. Up in the Bay of Plenty, one water bottler, Oravida, enjoys a consent to extract up to 146,000 cubic metres a year (compared to 820,000 cubes for HB’s Miracle Water), equal to 146 million litres a year, from the Otakiri aquifer. Their website claims the water “originates deep in the Antarctic and is filtered through volcanic rock for more than fifty years before being bottled and exported”. Oravida markets the water at $1.60 a litre, meaning if all 146 million litres were sold it could be worth $233 million a year. Yet the company last year paid only a whopping $526
Page 4 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
in compliance costs. That’s the community’s reward. But I digress! Or take the dam, as discussed in my Political Buzz article. Late last December, HBRIC applied to HBRC for a consent to add 25,000 hectares to the footprint of the CHB water scheme. In January, the consent was approved without public notification. So now the dam’s footprint has doubled to 50,000 hectares (adding prospective customers) … with no effect “more than minor” says HBRC staff. But that math is dwarfed by the escalating cost of the scheme, which now has a total cost of $900 million, including $333 million in construction and $556 million in on-farm costs. And what Garden of Eden is promised in CHB for this sum? Is it based on dairying, orchards and vines, seeds … or fairy dust? With the dam, the goalposts shift regularly. When is enough, enough? Or take Ocean Beach, as discussed in Controversy Renews at Ocean Beach. On the table is a so-called ‘Nature Preservation Zone’ to be created at Ocean Beach, as proposed in the new Hastings District Plan. Given the huge sweep of the District Plan, this proposal has flown entirely under the radar of most people who treasure and enjoy Ocean Beach … as is. By including the NPZ in the Plan, the Hastings Council embraced a concept originated by developer/ecologist Andy Lowe. But now, in the Environment Court, Lowe is challenging the HDC’s version of the NPZ – which allows considerable ‘eco-development’ – as too limiting. Many readers will recall an earlier vision Lowe had for Ocean Beach, which included 900+ homes. That was quashed. More lately Lowe has focused – admirably and effectively – on species restoration at Cape Kidnappers. So now the theme is eco-tourism. And the question is: Will the development
contemplated in the NPZ to be clearly specified, limited to a reasonable scale, in a truly eco-friendly manner, with further development rights foreclosed? Or might it blossom out of scale with its natural surroundings, and expand a bite at a time until we have strip development on Ocean Beach? Again the question is … what is enough? What are the limits? In this case, the Environment Court will decide. After you’ve weighed these heavy issues (and I haven’t even mentioned our stories on coastal hazards, taxing fizzie drinks, or improving life skills for RSE workers), you can relax with our ‘lighter’ fare – HB’s Taste Merchants is guaranteed to whet your appetite. There, we asked ten esteemed foodies to tell us what ‘must have’ items they would include in a food basket intended to show Hawke’s Bay at its best. Compare their picks with your own. We’d love to hear yours – send them to editors@baybuzz.co.nz Enjoy!
TOM BELFORD Tom’s past includes the Carter White House, building Ted Turner’s first philanthropic organization, doing heaps of marketing consulting for major nonprofits and corporates. Tom writes an acclaimed blog for professional NGO fundraisers and communicators in North America and Europe, and is a HB Regional Councillor.
A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES
WHATEVER YOUR PROPERTY NEEDS ARE WITH BAYLEYS IT’S MADE POSSIBLE. Need a bigger garden? Time to sell the family home? Or perhaps you’re looking for an investment property? It’s a world of possibilities out there, so it’s great to know that Bayleys can provide you with the market knowledge, know-how and support to get the result you want.
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Stonewood’s Newest Showhome opens in Havelock North Through the entrance foyer, past the formal lounge and into the family area the delightful heart of this contemporary home is revealed. You’ll enjoy every aspect, from the master suite to the butler’s pantry, as well as the handily located study, which sits next to the main entry, making it ideal for someone working from home.
Stonewood Homes Hawkes Bay’s newest showhome, now open in Havelock North, continues to offer the same superior standard set by previous showhomes the company has proudly built and displayed in various areas of Hawkes Bay. “We like to use our showhomes as an opportunity to showcase the latest in products, innovation and design,” explains Managing Director Peter Barnes. “We’re particularly excited about this new home because it is the first showhome from our fantastic new Your Style range of homes. This incredibly comprehensive range is something never seen before in the New Zealand home building market. With its huge variety of exterior rooflines and cladding types, combined with four different size choices for each design, it puts the design decisions in our clients’ own hands, so we can work much more easily with them to help them find their own unique style.” The new showhome will be open for viewing Wednesday to Friday, and Sunday 12pm to 4pm or by appointment for those unable to visit during opening hours. 22 330
WIR
W.C
BATH
BED 4
BED 2
BED 3
ENSUITE
DOUBLE GARAGE Robe
hwc
Linen
Robe
Robe
mw Butler's Pantry
Fr FOYER
KITCHEN
PORCH
13 160
LAUNDRY BED 1
DINING STUDY
LOUNGE FAMILY
Photo from previous Havelock North showhome.
Optional Fireplace
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BEE in the KNOW
Golden Boy of Shearing
April 2 was a good day for Rowland Smith. “The greatest,” the world champion shearer says with a grin. Just after his win at the New Zealand Shearing Champs in Te Kuiti, he received a Facetime call from partner Ingrid Baines introducing him to his second-born child who had arrived during his win. “I’d told Ingrid to wait till Monday. We were lucky with the family support.” The three-time Golden Shears winner received more Page 8 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
than a trophy and a new baby girl that day – as part of his prize he’s off on tour with fellow Hawke’s Bay top shearer Johnny Kirkpatrick and manager Sam Saunders to compete in Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales in late June. It’s all part of the hopeful journey towards qualifying for the Worlds in Invercargill at the end of the year. In the meantime, Rowland is a Conroy Removals Senior Sportsperson of the Year finalist at the HB Sports Awards in May.
BEE in the KNOW
Hawke's Bay Wellness Index Jobs on Seek.co.nz
Homes For Sale
[25 April 2016]
[Realestate.co.nz]
Lamb price at Stortford
299 1,031 $80 277 33 116 268 7,515 3,025 25 April 2016
[ Up 27 from February]
AVERAGE [ 18 April ]
[ Down 75 from February ]
Drunks Taken to Detox/Home
Dwelling Assaults
[REINZ]
in March 2016 [Down 15 from February]
in February 2016 [ Down 18 from Feb 2015 ]
in February 2016 [ Up 6 from Feb 2015]
Burglaries
HB Hospital Emergency Department presentations
Giant jaffas given away by Pipi in Havelock North in March
[ 24 Feb to 24 April 2016 ]
[ Up from 2,785 in January ]
Homes Sold
February 2016
[ Up 109 from Feb 2015 ]
Visitors to MTG
Admissions, March
4,522 [ Including FREE children ]
[Family violence indicator]
[ Up 492 from same period last year ]
106.3 [Mar 2016]
Visitor Nights
Commercial & Private
1,525 UP 5 GB
Bay Espresso coffee sold
Gigabytes of data downloaded, in March, on average, by NOW residential customers.
[ Up 112kg from January ]
.66%
kg
[ Over YE February 2015 ]
What's Hot
What's Not
Aquifer water
Miracle water
Wairoa by rail
Wairoa by road
Nature Preservation Zone
Strip development
Water storage
$900m dam
Fizzie tax
Fizzie fat
HBRC 4
HBRC 5
Mahia rockets
Mahia goats
Heretaunga orchards
Ruataniwha frost
Dixon
Foss Page 9 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
Fireplace Sorted? As the temperatures drop and the need for indoor heating rises, talk around the water cooler turns to fireplace compliance. Simply put, if you’re in urban Hastings or Napier, time is up for upgrading from the old domestic fireplace to more environmentally friendly heating – modern wood burner, heatpump, flued gas fire. If you have a fireplace from 2005 or before, it’s now illegal to use it. As part of their nationally mandated Clean Air Strategy, HB Regional Council are writing to thousands of ratepayers whose records show they have not upgraded. If you’re one of those, best get in touch with HBRC and suss how to make quick use of the financial assistance and load scheme available to get warmed up by the book. If you are rolling with an new-and-approved fireplace, make sure to burn only dry wood this winter and keep your chimney clean and your neighbourhood smoke-free. Why does all this matter? The fine particulates released to the air by fireplaces and inefficient woodburners (made even worse if wood is not dry) cause and worsen respiratory illnesses of all kinds. And this ill health leads to lost school and work days as well.
Electric Cars Wellington-based energy consultancy Concept have published a report showing that electric vehicles will be far more effective than rooftop solar panels for New Zealand as we work towards cutting carbon emissions.
The report’s analysis shows that while over time, solar panels will begin to replace other renewable energy sources – think hydro, wind, geothermal – electric cars will actually replace their petrol and diesel powered counterparts, cutting our overall emissions significantly. The other simple reason for New Zealand to focus more effort on pushing for an increase in the use of EVs (electric vehicles) is seasonality. We harvest the most solar energy in the summer months and require the resource most
in the winter months, leading over time to the need for mainly natural gas-powered 'peaker' stations, which could be turned on and off as our demand peaks and falls. Not the case in Australia of course, where their demand is highest in summer as hot and bothered Australians crank up the air-con dial. The Concept report estimates an EV in New Zealand could reduce annual carbon emissions by around 1.4 tonnes per year in the short to medium term and then up to 1.7 tonnes annually in the long term.
Why then, if EVs can make a proper difference, is there still no policy from government? The only recent notable action it seems is Nissan ceasing to offer the only affordable EV family saloon, the Leaf, for sale here since November.
World Environment Day World Environment Day is observed on 5 June each year in more than 100 countries, and is one of the most popular days on the United Nations calendar. Every year, there’s a different host city and/or country and a specific theme. Wellington hosted in 2008 with the theme “Kick the Carbon Habit”. This year it’s Angola’s turn. The theme is the fight against the illegal trade in wildlife and the slogan “Go Wild for Life” encourages us to spread the word about wildlife crime and the damage it does – eroding precious biodiversity, threatening the survival of elephants, rhinos and tigers as well as many other species. It also undermines our economies, communities and security. Learn more at www.unep.org/wed
Page 10 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Mark Venman
BEE in the KNOW
BIODYNAMIC New Fish & Game Officers Fish and Game recently announced two new officers for Hawke’s Bay – Nathan Burkepile and Mark Venham. Nathan Burkepile comes from Texas via Idaho, Whangarei and Rotorua and has an MSc in wildlife and range management. His main interest has been in game birds and he has 15 years’ experience in monitoring and managing upland game birds and waterfowl, and restoring their habitats. Mark Venham is a Scotsman with a BSc (Hons) in zoology from Glasgow University and a background in fisheries management. He’s also an experienced river and lake angler and is looking forward to Hawke’s Bay’s many and varied fishing opportunities. Fish and Game Hawke’s Bay acting manager Andy Garrick is impressed with the new officers’ experience and skills and says the pair’s arrival also restores local staffing levels and reduces the level of input needed from outside the region. “Priorities for our new staff include ongoing participation in resource management processes with the aim of protecting water quality and quantity, monitoring of sports fish and game resources, enhancement of habitat, and getting to know our license holders.” Let’s hope the newbies’ first duck shooting season is an uneventful one. Nathan Burkepile
For the first time in six years New Zealand's annual biodynamic conference is happening in Hawke's Bay. It is open to all and will appeal to those who work with the land, farming, gardening or raising animals. The theme of the conference is Transformative Agriculture: Educating towards a deeper understanding of ourselves and the earth. The Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association in cooperation with Taruna College is hosting the conference from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 May 2016 The keynote speaker is Hans van Florenstein Mulder who has many years' experience in biodynamic agriculture. He was a founder and director of biodynamic education at Taruna College. Also presenting at the conference are practitioners and educators in the field of biodynamics and anthroposophy, the broader philosophy of which biodynamics is a part. Alongside presentations, field trips and workshops are set to be a particularly hands-on and engaging part of the conference. Participants will have opportunities to visit biodynamic farms, take part in star-gazing, share observations and experiences, ask questions and meet like-minded people. If you want to know more, visit the Bio Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association at:
biodynamic.org.nz Page 11 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
Foundation for Giving
The Hawke’s Bay Foundation is a charitable trust that attracts gifts, trusts and legacies and invests them for the benefit principally of the Hawke’s Bay region. Donors are Hawke’s Bay people and families who see benefit in supporting community causes through this simple foundation structure, and are able to choose which causes their donations support, though many leave these decisions to the Foundation trustees. The major benefit of this kind of philanthropic set-up is the fact that the donated funds increase and remain in perpetuity, so the ‘pie’ is constantly growing, while the earnings from these investments are distributed annually. To give an idea of the scale and scope of the Foundation’s giving, in 2015 they distributed over $117,000 in grants from their own investment income as well as funding from the Tindall Foundation. Forty-four local organisations benefitted, including Age Concern, Dove Hawke’s Bay, Hastings Giants Boxing Academy, Project Prima Volta, Napier Community Food Bank and Marae Whakaute. On June 1 the Hawke’s Bay Foundation’s annual funding round opens. You’ll find information on how to apply for funding for a community organisation or cause at:
hawkesbayfoundation.org.nz Page 12 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Caps & Gowns Aplenty The streets of Napier from Clive Square to Marine Parade were full and lively as two separate EIT graduation parades took place recently, leading into three capping ceremonies at the Municipal Theatre.
Systems, Tara Cooney (Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design) and Melanie Gregory (Bachelor of Recreation and Sport) who represented their classmates as they addressed the audiences.
Graduate numbers were up on last year, with a total 879 diplomas, degrees and postgraduate qualifications awarded, compared to 851 in 2015. 447 grads received their qualifications in person during capping week.
Another highlight of the 2016 graduation was the large cohort of Masters of Nursing graduates, with 14 out of the successful 18 in attendance.
Graduation ceremonies were notably special for each of the ceremonies’ honoured valedictorians - Andrew King, graduating with a Bachelor of Computing
The first graduating class of EIT’s Bachelor of Teaching (Primary) had their moment in the sun too, celebrating the completion of the three year future-focused practicebased degree.
MATARIKI This year Matariki will begin on June 6. Set your alarm and head out before dawn to check out the set of seven stars of the constellation, and keep an ear out for any Matariki Maori New Year events. In the meantime, test your Matariki knowledge with our short quiz: 1. Does Matariki mean ‘Tiny Eyes’ or ‘Eyes of God’? 2. What are the two other names for the Matariki star cluster? 3. To the nearest hundred, how many lights years from Earth is Matariki? 4. Seven stars are visible, but approximately how many stars actually make up the constellation? 5. Maori New Year celebrations were revived in the year 2000. Who began these celebrations and where? To find out more about Matariki visit teara.govt.nz/en/matariki-maori-new-year Answers: 1 > Both. Mata Riki (Tiny Eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God). 2 > The Seven Sisters and The Pleiades. 3 > 400 light years. 4 > 500. 5 > Te Rangi Huata in HASTINGS!
HB Foundation’s Jules Nowell-Usticke with head coach Craig McDougall and members of the Hastings Giants Boxing Academy.
BABIES & THEIR SUPER BRAINS If you’re familiar with the struggle of learning a second language then you’ve probably wished at least a hundred times you’d grown up bilingual. New research delves into this and proves that of course children who are exposed to different languages while they’re young find learning them much easier, but it’s tiny infants who are the real marvel.
BEE in the KNOW
Measuring NZ’s Wellbeing It’s becoming clear that the traditional methods for measuring the success of a country – economic indicators like GDP and productivity – provide a less-than-complete picture. Economic and export figures don’t show what it is to ‘be well’ across society. So Sovereign and the AUT Human Potential Centre have joined forces to explore and identify the challenges facing New Zealanders on the macro and micro level, and to take a snapshot of life in our ever-changing, fast-paced world. The Sovereign Wellbeing Index reveals how we are faring in terms of employment, health, community, money and vitality, using the results from a short public quiz. There are reports now from 2013 and 2015, and the research highlights so far include: • People with strong connections to family, friends and those living within a supporting community are doing the best. • Kiwis aged 55+ are the most awesome (flourishing). • It’s not necessarily what we earn but whether we’re living within our means that matters. • Getting enough sleep is an important foundation for wellbeing. • Nearly two thirds of young people show signs of depressed mood. • New Zealand wellbeing compares poorly to that of European nations. Visit mywellbeing.co.nz to take the quiz and read the full reports.
It all comes down to the basic building blocks of language. Learning languages depends on the brain’s processing of sounds, or ‘phonemes’. There are about 800 phonemes in all the known world languages combined – an average of about 40 phonemes per language.
Mothers who talk to their unborn babies are helping them learn language, as the mum’s voice is one of the most prominent sounds a baby hears. Gradually babies figure out which phonemes are the most common around them, in effect zeroing in on the language(s) in which they are immersed.
Babies’ brains are naturally able to actually perceive the difference between all 800 phonemes. They are ripe and ready to learn any language at all. How’s that for gifted?
Time to turn up the audio tapes – give the baby an easier route to multi-lingualism.
Page 13 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
BACK TO TH
Bringing you up to date on p
Fluoride Decisions heading to DHBs
Pure HB gathers support In BayBuzz #28, Pure Hawke’s Bay’s Bruno Chambers, Scott Lawson and Will MacFarlane outlined their group’s initiative in supporting Hastings District Council’s decision to make the district an official GM Free food producing zone in the local Plan. This move is being attacked by Federated Farmers who are challenging HDC in the Environment Court. You can’t have missed the ‘We Grow GM Free’ billboards and signs that have popped up across the Hastings District. Growers and exporters are also trying to gather political support for the cause from across the spectrum, including hosting conversations to update ACT leader David Seymour in mid-April. Pure HB are aiming to raise $150,000 for the campaign to ensure Hastings Distict’s valuable GM Free status is secured in law. You can help out by donating at purehawkesbay.org. The Chinese have strict standards on water sold as ‘mineral’ and artesian, and the levels of nitrate in the batch of New Zealand Miracle Water were higher than acceptable. More to come from BayBuzz on this one!
Page 14 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Here in Hawke’s Bay and in particular Hastings District, the fluoridation of our water supply has long been a controversial and hotly contested issue at the local government level.
of local decision-making; others will be relieved that it will be treated by a ‘more authoritative’ health body from now on. However you sit on the issue, it will soon be time to voice your opinion.
The final chapter on the subject is now being written, because in April Health Minister Jonathan Coleman and Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne announced proposed legislative changes to appoint District Health Boards (DHBs), rather than local councils, to make the decisions around fluoride in community water supplies.
Once drafted, the Bill will pass through the normal Parliamentary processes. Other interested parties (including communities and individuals) will be able to comment on the Bill as it is considered by the Health Select Committee.
Many will see this as an unwelcome erosion
If the Bill passes by the end of next year, it would probably come into force in mid-2018.
NZ at #20 on happiness report Back in March-April 2015, we made Happiness the issue in BayBuzz #22. Brooks Belford wrote a feature looking into the depths of what makes us happy, and at the same time we conducted a reader survey on whether Hawke’s Bay was happy. For the most part, we were, though we don’t claim our research pool was particularly exhaustive. Across the desk this month has come news that New Zealand is sitting pretty at number eight in the 2016 update of the World Happiness Report, slightly ahead of Australia who came in at number nine.
The results are based on roughly 1000 ‘life evaluations’ carried out each year in 157 countries, as measured by the Gallup World Poll. They use the Cantril ladder question: "Please imagine a ladder, with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?" New Zealand averaged a score of 7.334, while happiest country Denmark scored 7.526 and Burundi came in last with a score of 2.905.
HE FUTURE
n previous BayBuzz articles.
BEE in the KNOW
Mobile Travel Planning In BayBuzz#28 Matt Miller investigated the pitfalls and benefits of booking travel online as opposed to with a trusted travel agent like the team at World Travellers Best Travel. Business Insider’s latest data shows that those who are embracing the independence and efficiency (most of the time) of internet booking and travel research are doing so on mobile. Most of the ten largest travel websites – like TripAdvisor, Expedia and Hotels.com – are now seeing mobile account for more than half of all visits.
Oil Lobby Spending
Let’s hope all the relevant HB tourism and travel sites are mobile-optimised and ready to catch some of that action.
In BayBuzz #28 we reported that a positive international tipping point had been reached, with 60% of new investment in energy sources now going to renewables. However, the lobbying machine for fossil fuel is still spending mightily. According to new estimates presented by British nonprofit research group Influence Map, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch/Shell and three oil-industry groups alone spend US$115 million a year on advocacy designed to “obstruct” climate change policy. This excludes ‘dark money’ – the money spent by big oil on think tanks and institutes that front their agenda. At this stage researchers have been unable to unravel the funding of these many groups. We also reported on planning underway to deal with climate change impact in Hawke’s Bay. Since then, the Royal Society of New Zealand’s expert panel has released its report, Climate Change Implications for New Zealand (www.royalsociety.org. nz/climatechange). The report offers infographics and examples depicting what seemingly small changes in average climate conditions could mean for NZ. For instance, with a 30cm rise in sea level, the
current ‘1 in 100 year’ extreme sea event would be expected to occur once every year or so in many coastal regions. Meantime, NZ has offically signed the Paris Climate Treaty, amidst charges by Green Party co-leader James Shaw that: “…our emissions have actually gone up about 11% since the National Government came to office in 2008, and current projections are that our emissions will actually increase another 94% by 2030, which is obviously well above what our ambition is to reduce our emissions.” Even at that the Government has padded the numbers by allowing businesses to buy bogus carbon credits. Shaw’s interview on TV One’s Q& A is worth a listen:
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-anda-news/govt-hugely-offclimate-change-targetgreens-video-6464602
James Palmer Correction BayBuzz #28 included the feature article Climate Change – How Hawke’s Bay will feel the heat and on page 26 discussing the challenge we misquoted HBRC’s new strategy manager James Palmer. We printed that he “sees no simple solution to the conundrum but a bunch of insidious choices.” What Mr Palmer said was there was just a bunch of “invidious choices”. We apologise for any alarm caused for our most careful readers.
Page 15 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
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The BUZZ around the BAY Health and Wellbeing Expo May 14 The Hawke’s Bay Health Collaborative presents an expo at Duart House to raise funds for Cranford Hospice. Your $5 ticket (available from any HBHC practitioner or by calling 844 0587) gets you expo entry to the expo and a raffle, access to friendly health practitioners and a range of free health awareness presentations.
Lumina - 2016 North Island Tour May 15 Presented by The New Zealand Dance Company and performed at the Napier Municipal Theatre, Lumina features three spectacular pieces of contemporary dance from three choreographers at the top of their games: Malia Johnston, Louise PotikiBryant and Stephen Shropshire.
EIT Music Students Gig May 18 Head to the friendly Common Room in Hastings to support up and coming local talent as they present their latest block of learning.
Sparkle May 21 Held at Church Road Winery, Sparkle 2016 is the region’s finest black tie charity event, raising funds this year for Enliven Positive Ageing Hawke's Bay.
Hawke’s Bay Sports Awards May 21 Celebrate the fastest, strongest and very best at the Sports Awards. Book a table at sporthb.net.nz and enjoy a three course meal, beverages and a look at the achievements of our many talented athletes over the last year.
69th Hawkes Bay Bird Club Annual Bird Show and Sales May 21 If you’ve ever had a hankering to see a display of Yorkshire, Norwich, border, colour fed/non-colour fed, gloster, lizard and roller canaries, budgerigars, zebra finches, Bengalese finches, British birds, foreign finches, foreign hook-beaks and lovebirds, then now is your chance and Napier’s Army Drill Hall is your place.
Page 18 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Lumina
Into the East May 22 New Zealand Folk/Alt/Country duo Into the East are hitting Central Hawke's Bay for one show only, at the CHB Municipal Theatre.
CMNZ presents: Enso String Quartet May 24 One of the United States’ most accomplished and inventive young ensembles returns to New Zealand after their successful 2012 tour. They’ll perform Dutilleux’s Ainsi La Nuit, along with works by Beethoven and Ravel, and an exquisite miniature from Auckland-based composer Alex Taylor – a new commission written especially for this Enso String Quartet tour.
Enso String Quartet
Hawke’s Bay Better Home & Living Show 2016 May 27 This year’s show at Pettigrew Green Arena features over 120 exhibitors showcasing home improvement products and services, including landscaping, outdoor furniture, home décor, kitchens, heating and solar options.
Winter FAWC! June 2-26 Back for its fourth year, the Winter F.A.W.C! Series will run across four weekends in June. (Every Fri/Sat/Sun, 3-26 June). Events range from $30 to $250 in price and include everything from cooking classes to vineyard bonfires, night markets and themed dinners of all descriptions. See fawc.co.nz for all the details on the 55 delicious and unique events.
The BUZZ around the BAY Into the East
Chris Priestly
Let’s Dance June 4 Gather a crew and dance the night away to Soul, Funk, Boogie, Pop and Disco in the Opera House Plaza while supporting Cranford Hospice.
Pecha Kucha Night June 7 Support 8 to 10 brave locals as they share their passions, obsessions, afflictions and collections, confined to the 20 slide Pecha Kucha format. Head along to PK once and you’ll be hooked. The second PK night for 2016 will be held at the Havelock North Function Centre.
Chris Priestley and Julian McKean with special guest Victoria Vigenser June 11 Make your way to unique gig venue Rumpy at 212 Argyll Road, Otane to join Chris and Julian for a night of NZ songs, new and old, original and collected. Special guest Victoria Vigenser will add luscious harmonies. Julian and Chris have been recording and performing together since the Acoustic Confusion days 35 years ago and will relive some of those songs as well as those from Chris’s most recent albums, Unsung Heroes and Rogues. Phone 06 856-8367
Winter FAWC!
HASTINGS CITY
MATARIKI NIGHT MARKET THURSDAY 9 JUNE 5–8PM HERETAUNGA AND MARKET STREETS
Hastings City transforms into an exciting evening destination for the whole family, as we celebrate Matariki (Māori New Year). There’ll be free live music and entertainment. Art, craft and fashion. Fresh produce and diverse street food. And much more! Matariki is all about getting involved so join the food, fun and festivities and help celebrate the Māori New Year. Hastings City Night Market
HCNightMarket
www.hastingscity.co.nz
Page 19 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
The BUZZ around the BAY Hastings Pak'n Save Edible Fashion Awards Evening Extravaganza June 11 Now into its 12th year, the Edible Fashion Awards challenges entrants to create an innovative garment made entirely from edible food items, imitation food items or food packaging. Entry is open to anyone from kids to experienced designers, so it produces some incredibly varied and imaginative results. This year’s theme is “Fantastical”. Registration and pre-judging for entrants takes place during the day in the Exhibition Hall at the HB Showgrounds and then the event culminates with the evening extravaganza. Tickets available at ediblefashionawards.co.nz
Ryman Healthcare Season of the Wizard of Oz June 11 & 12 The Royal New Zealand Ballet returns to Napier Municipal Theatre with a new ballet created by RNZB Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia in Florence in 2010. Sit back and be charmed by this delightful two-act ballet based on L. Frank Baum’s much-loved story of friendship, love and growing up.
I put a spell on you! June 25 Jazz diva Margot Wuts presents her tribute to the legendary Nina Simone at the Common Room. This was the first sell-out show of the 2015 HB Arts Festival.
NOW Bay Urban Adventure Race June 26 Brace yourself and your team of 2–4 for anything in the third Bay Urban Adventure Race. Enter at buar.co.nz and get set for a mental and physical challenge while supporting the fundraising efforts of Taradale Primary School. Wizard of Oz
Page 20 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Controversy Renews at Ocean Beach BY KEITH NEWMAN
Will Ocean Beach become a leading-edge, ecotourism destination or succumb to over-development? Its future hangs in the balance as developers prepare to challenge Hastings District Council (HDC), Maori concerns and conservationists over zoning limitations at the Environment Court later this year.
tim.co.nz
Developer and landowner Andy Lowe claims the rules around the Nature Preservation Zone (NPZ) – a concept he persuaded HDC to embrace in its new District Plan – are so prescriptive an ecotourism business he envisions may not be viable. Critics reckon his appeal is simply a cover for intense development. Lowe isn’t happy with a few camouflaged huts hidden in the dunes; he wants to create something that will put Ocean Beach on the ecological – and ecotourism – map. He imagines a fully-fledged operation attracting bird watchers, school visits, daytrippers and overnighters wanting to live and learn among nature and be part of the restoration process. The area under contention covers several thousand hectares from the Ocean Beach Surf Club and carpark owned by HDC to the Clifton side of Cape Kidnappers, taking in the private property of Julian Robertson, Lowe, and the Hansen family. Last year’s Hastings District Plan change praised the impressive record of landowner investment in enhancing biodiversity, conceded ecotourism should be profitable enough for reinvestment in conservation, but placed clear limits on development. Lowe’s plans, as yet vague, appear to include a large visitor centre; accommodation – possibly chalets, lodges and motel style units; and commercial outlets including a café and maybe a restaurant. Future Ocean Beach Trust (FOB) and the Waimarama Marae Committee (WMC), who are lobbying to limit Lowe’s leeway in the NPZ, fear any slackening of the rules will contradict the proposed environmental benefits.
Popular destination The nine-kilometre-long stretch of Ocean Beach is a popular destination for tourists and day trippers picnicking, walking, swimming, fishing, snorkelling and surfing. While the main road is currently being widened, ultimate access is still through a narrow, steep and winding metal road across Maori land. There is not yet an official camping ground, although freedom campers often take advantage of a paddock adjoining the surf club, and their use of the club’s water and facilities often causes tension. The flat area behind the sand dunes and hilly beach frontage, known as Haupouri Flats, is farmland intersected by a river running from Cape Kidnappers to the beach, which at times pools into a lagoon. It is currently toxic with a high fecal coli rating. There are 32 small baches at the southern end of Ocean Beach on Maori land owned by Pukepuke-Tangiora estate, while the bulk of the farm and beach front titles extending northward are owned by six registered landowners under several company names, with intertwining directors and shareholdings.
Developer and landowner Andy Lowe claims the rules around the Nature Preservation Zone (NPZ) ... are so prescriptive an ecotourism business he envisions may not be viable. Critics reckon his appeal is simply a cover for intense development. Andrew Lowe, Ocean Beach Land Holdings, Tennyson OB Ltd (Lowecontrolled companies) and Ocean Beach Wilderness Property Ltd (OBWP, a contentious Hansen-Lowe partnership) all filed identical submissions to the plan change, complaining the provisions, rules and standards imposed undermined the purpose of creating the zone. They want an expanded building zone, increased building limits and ‘floor print’, slackened thresholds on commercial and residential activity, and more temporary ‘events’ (only six a year are permitted) to help support “conservation, tourism, educational, recreational, research, food production and cultural benefits”. When the NPZ was finally signed off in September 2015, HDC approved four Ocean Beach ‘development zones’ – the camping ground, a node around the woolshed area, those at Cape Kidnappers, and an area in the hills and dunes to the north of the main nodes. The Council plan included very specific rules for structures “appropriate” for the different landscapes and ecological characteristics. When the majority of their requests were dismissed by HDC, Lowe and co appealed to the Environment Court.
Page 23 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
“We are still in partnership but it’s not a friendly partnership. Andy tries to push his weight around.”WARWICK HANSEN Raising the stakes In 2001 US billionaire Julian Robertson acquired Sommerlee Station, now the internationally acclaimed Cape Kidnappers Golf Course and The Farm luxury accommodation, for around f $20 million. Entrepreneur and developer Andy Lowe entered the picture during a difficult period when Warwick and Juliet Hansen (nee Gordon), whose family have owned land at Ocean Beach since 1860, needed funds to buy out two brother’s in-law. In 2006, Lowe was sold a shareholding in 600 hectares of wilderness and farmland and a small plot of land around the woolshed on the flatlands. Lowe and his investment company Hill Country Corporation began seeking a private plan change to develop the Ocean Beach village, cynically branded ‘Loweville’ by opponents. This plan was dropped in 2008 after a prolonged wrangle with HDC, conservationists and Waimarama Maori, including an 8,000 signature petition campaign led by BayBuzz publisher Tom Belford, environmentalist Chris Ryan and FOB. Concurrently Lowe entered into a partnership with Roberston paving the way for the acclaimed Cape Sanctuary and leading on to proposals for the NPZ and the Cape to City biodiversity project.
Page 24 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
In the NPZ process Robertson gained concessions for 13 development nodes; potentially 43 residences among the pines trees on 2,000 hectares of his Cape Kidnappers land, tithing future property owners in perpetuity for financial support to Cape Sanctuary. He’s not involved in the Environment Court appeal.
Rural zone overridden All the Hansens ever wanted was to continue farming and breeding and raising some of the best horses in the world. They objected strongly to Lowe’s failure to consult them on the activities of their joint venture company and the inclusion of their farmland in the NPZ. Separate to Lowe’s partnership in OBWP, Warwick and Juliet Hansen and their two daughters own the 890 hectare Haupouri Trust land, 260 hectares of which is in the NPZ. The Hansens run 1,400 cattle, 10,000 sheep and operate the biggest sport horse breeding operation in Australasia. Their legal team headed by environmental lawyer Matt Lawson will ask the Environment Court to return all their land to rural zoning. While HDC insists the new zone won’t impact their farming practices, Warwick Hansen says any future council might have a different view. “They could easily prevent us
from harvesting pine trees or strip grazing cattle or say how other things should be done.” Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule says the zone covers 3,026 hectares and Hansen owns 343.6 hectares of that. The law, he says, means all decisions of this type are contestable “as is happening in this case”. Lowe sees his Ocean Beach developments as integral to the $6 million, five-year, Cape to City ecological restoration project in conjunction with HBRC, DoC, Cape Sanctuary, Landcorp Research, iwi, hapu and landowners, and wonders why HDC is trying to put the bureaucratic brakes on. He claims HDC has been too heavy-handed with rules limiting the size, height, number and location of buildings to support the ecotourism business. “We are not confident the council conditions, in its decision on the zone, would enable the landowners to sustain the preserve for future generations.” Strangely silent in the fray is the Regional Council. Councillor Tom Belford notes that HBRC was a major voice in challenging Lowe’s more extensive plans eight years ago, but has said nothing to date about the NPZ. “Our Regional Council is heavily invested, philosophically, reputation-wise, and financially with Andy in Cape Sanctuary. I’m not surprised that the powers-that-be would not want to rock the boat.”
“New Zealand lacks opportunities for the higher paying ‘syrah’ or ‘chardonnay’ style nature lovers. Staying overnight among nocturnal animals such as tuatara and calling petrels is a lifechanging experience not available anywhere yet.” JOHN CRAIG Biggest eco-preserve Environmental lawyer Martin Williams, on behalf of Lowe and co, says “the landscape and ecological resource values” of the Ocean Beach zone, the “largest ecopreserve within private land on mainland coastal New Zealand”, were severely depleted until the landowners made a multimillion dollar investment. He says they went well beyond what most rural landowners are required to do and claims the council has failed to provide the promised framework to enable reasonable economic return, including definitions which exclude overnight accommodation. Hansen, despite having two directors and a 49% shareholding in OBWP, is stunned that Lowe won’t discuss his plans and is using the 51% leverage to pursue his own agenda. “I brought in a professional director, former All Black captain David Kirk, to try and sort this out and he’s tearing his hair out.” Does Hansen feel ripped off? “Absolutely... Andy goes to council with his preservation zone and Cape to City and they think that’s
great but they don’t talk with the other property owners who have to deal with it all.” He says HDC seems blind to the implications. “This is the first time an NPZ has been placed on private land and one of the owners is opposed to it.” The fall out between Hansen and Lowe dates back to the decade-old Ocean Beach village proposal. Hansen would have been happy with 100-200 homes, while he says Lowe insisted on 1,000 buildings. After a good start to their joint venture arrangement with Julian Robertson in establishing the Cape Sanctuary predator-proof fence, which ran through his productive farm land, Hansen says “Andy just took control”. Failure to consult over the new zoning and ecotourism business was the final straw. “We are still in partnership but it’s not a friendly partnership. Andy tries to push his weight around.” Hansen wants to “split the land” and is trying, so far without success, to dissolve the partnership. While some might view Lowe’s overall plan to preserve and protect the land and
attract eco-tourists as something good for Hawke’s Bay, Hansen worries about how his partner operates. “If it was most other people I might view it quite positively.”
Chardonnay ecotourism Environmental consultant Prof John Craig of Green Inc, an expert witness for Lowe in his efforts to loosen up the zoning rules, explains the Ocean Beach operation is intended to be a cut above the rest with multiple forms of paid involvement and overnight stays.
I called in to Smile Haus to get a check up and to make sure that my teeth were OK. I got talking to Rachel, the hygienist at Smile Haus and decided to book in to get my mouth checked out completely. Rachel was really easy going and made me feel at ease with being there. My next visit was with Wynton, the dentist who checked out my mouth. When we realised there was some work to do, straight away I saw dollar signs thinking “Oh no, this is going to cost me a fortune!” Wynton was amazing and made me feel at home and went through the list of things I needed to have done on my teeth. He said I could do a bit at a time so it was affordable and do the most important teeth first
and work our way through the list in my own time. All my life I have only gone to the dentist when I really had to, like for a sore tooth. It always seemed so expensive so I didn’t make it a priority. Thanks to Rachel and Wynton and their wonderful staff, Laine and Kate, I now know exactly what is going on with my teeth and realise that we can save my teeth just by doing a bit at a time and maintaining and looking after my teeth.
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Page 25 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
“New Zealand lacks opportunities for the higher paying ‘syrah’ or ‘chardonnay’ style nature lovers. Staying overnight among nocturnal animals such as tuatara and calling petrels is a life-changing experience not available anywhere yet.” Craig, an award-winning conservationist and retired professor of environmental management at Auckland University, says old fashioned camping just won’t cut it and is in fact high risk because of the difficulty inspecting for rodents and pests. “Cabins and motel style accommodation offer the greatest and safest opportunities for living among nature.” He points to Zealandia in Wellington with its three-story high buildings, Penguin Place in Otago with hides for bird viewing on the beach, and Miranda Shorebird Centre with large shore buildings for bird photographers. Failing to offer viewing areas at Ocean Beach deprives photographers and visitors from opportunities to view the New
Page 26 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Zealand dotterel or the rare shore plover, encouraging them to wander over the sand hills and cause damage. Craig questions HDC’s double standard, supporting farmers’ ability to remove sections of scrub in the rural zone while limiting nature-enhancing activities.
Devil in the details While commending council for leading the way in the transforming of Ocean Beach into “a nationally important biodiversity hotspot” he says its policies and rule structures mean it can never equal or improve on “lesser ventures” around the country. Craig says the size of the proposed visitor centre, aviaries, accommodation and other ecotourism opportunities, and requiring development to be kept away from trees and screened from the beach and road, are too limiting. While the need to involve people and yield income is recognised in the NPZ, it
is “unnecessarily constrained under the proposed rule framework”. Hansen remains sceptical, believing Lowe’s scheme, including two 1,000 sqm viewing platforms, is “without a doubt to develop and do what he likes in the area around the woolshed which he owns” and to ensure that Hansen land in the zone “is not allowed buildings or development”. FOB trustee Paddy Maloney, already concerned at the flexibility for developers to apply for non-notified changes beyond those already agreed to, believes Lowe’s substantial building plans and ambition for “excess development” compromise the objectives of environmental enhancement. Maloney worries about the vagueness of Lowe’s plans. He continues to propose a series of buildings “all along the beach area with no details given on where, how high and how many square metres they’ll take up”. With no plans submitted and no room for dealing with the “actuals…the devil is in the detail”. He says FOB compromised in many areas. “We wanted a six metre height limit on buildings in the development zone, but council agreed on 10 metres there and eight metres in the Hills zone. Waimarama Maori were much more in opposition than we were, they didn’t want anything on the campground.” He’s troubled that landowners also want the Outstanding Natural Feature and Landscape (ONFL) classification removed and are seeking ‘permitted activity’ status. If deriving “maximum financial flow” is the model Lowe is pursuing, then “that’s what he’ll do and within 20 years the place will be full …We contest that,” says Maloney. “We need to protect the open character so we don’t have ribbon development; that would change the whole environment and that’s why the council kept it small.” Mayor Yule says if the appeal against HDC is successful the developer will be able to construct a larger footprint of buildings for the purposes outlined within the existing development nodes, but there will still be a “maximum cumulative gross floor area…so it is not open-ended”.
Maori cautious During the three-year submission and hearing process, concerns were raised about protecting archaeological sites relating to early Maori settlement, damaging the remnants of a former whaling station, risk to fragile dunes, ancient flora and fauna, regenerating kanuka and manuka bushland and the coastland itself. In its case to keep Ocean Beach pristine and underdeveloped, if not undeveloped, FOB submitted “expert opinion” suggesting pa sites, middens, pits, terraces, historical sites and artefacts had the potential to “gain international significance”. Rather than modifying the provisions as requested by the landowners, it says the
“We need to protect the open character so we don’t have ribbon development; that would change the whole environment and that’s why the council kept it small.” PADDY MALONEY
zoning should revert to ‘rural’, something over a dozen other submitters, including the Hansens, agreed with. The Waimarama Marae Committee (WMC), kaitiaki (caretakers) of the coastal and inland area at Waipuka (Ocean Beach) remain concerned about damage to waahi tapu (places of spiritual and cultural significance including urupa or burial grounds) and historical sites, particularly in the sand dunes and around the proposed camping ground. Lowe and co are challenging the mapping of archaeological sites claiming there are “clear errors”.
The WMC also worried about development creep and at the hearings sought an updated cultural impact assessment from that completed in 2007. “We told Andy’s lawyers we’re not antidevelopment just ensuring our waahi tapu and sacred sites weren’t desecrated,” says chairman Bayden Barber. “Our concern is that words like ‘preservation zone’ and ‘ecotourism’ are just instruments to meet his development plans of a decade ago under a different skin. We don’t want that scale of development.” He knows it’s going to be an expensive exercise defending their cultural interests. “We don’t have a lot of lawyers but we might be able to pull some resources.”
Specifics at stake For now HDC has limited the campground to two hectares, kept the
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entire Ocean Beach/Haupouri development node to 10 hectares; a quarter of what the developers sought, and moved it further north of the surf club. Buildings have to be screened from view of the beach and road with a proposed 15 metre building height reduced to 10 metres and a footprint of 5,000m2, half that asked for, although that could still be changed at council’s discretion. Under the HDC Plan, Lowe and co have consents for 1,200m2 structures at the campground, but sought 2,000m2, potentially allowing 40 chalets of 50m2 each, 20 buildings at 100m2, or some combination thereof (or larger buildings with council approval). Subject to cultural, archaeological and visual impact reports and resolving water and sewage issues, this could still be a permitted activity. In their appeal Lowe and co want the Ocean Beach/Haupouri node expanded up the valley to the existing sub-division, then further north from the woolshed area. Maloney is horrified at the potential for a series of larger buildings along the Haupouri Flats area (the proposed camping ground) linking with the expanded Ocean Beach/ Haupouri node. “The overall full length would in due course be a fully ‘developed zone’.” The landowners also want the definition of conservation enhancement
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Page 27 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
tim.co.nz
Bayden Barber and management activity to include accommodation, ecotourism and ecoeducation activities as permitted activities.
Fresh thinking needed Lowe’s environment consultant Prof Craig claims separating people, human activity and development from the environment discourages private investment in conservation and fails to change behaviour in support of biodiversity. He says it encourages a perception that natural heritage is associated with zoos, offshore islands and small tourism oriented destinations. “Until restoring native biodiversity becomes a viable land use and until people can be seen as part of nature, New Zealand’s biodiversity will continue its decline.” Craig says the ability to earn an appropriate income from biodiversity is the key to longterm sustainability, for example paying for costly pest control and habitat management. He claims the concept of landowners recreating habitat and enhancing native biodiversity is poorly addressed in current policies nationwide and by relaxing the conditions for the NPZ, Hastings could lead the way. For the time being there’s an awkward stalemate between ‘think big’ entrepreneurial enthusiasm touting userpays environmental sustainability, old school hands-off environmentalism and entrenched bureaucracy. In the brittle buffer zone are
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“We told Andy’s lawyers we’re not anti-development just ensuring our waahi tapu and sacred sites weren’t desecrated.” BAYDEN BARBER broken relationships that need attention. Hansen and Waimarama Maori both feel disrespected in their dealings with Lowe, believing much angst and misunderstanding might have been avoided if they’d got around the table much earlier.
Table talk way overdue Waimarama Maori are indignant they weren’t consulted on the Cape Sanctuary or the NPZ, but remain graciously open to the possibility. Bayden Barber says it’s common knowledge that when discussing land occupied for centuries by Maori, you sit around the table “and have that kanohi ki te kanohi korero (face to face conversation)”. After that, the developer puts their plans to councils and others and “there’s a better chance of things moving forward” rather than talking to lawyers and ending up in court. While sites of significance are nonnegotiable, “pretty much everything else we can work around”, says Barber.
Asked whether the strict rules and call for part of the land to revert to rural zoning mean the NPZ was a waste of time, Mayor Yule says “the preservation of special areas, in this case of environmental and cultural importance, is never a waste of time.” He remains hopeful the mediation phase with “an attempt to align positions” will negate the need for a full Environment Court hearing. Andy Lowe says he’s looking forward to exploring possible common ground on adjusting the conditions, but “it would be inappropriate” to respond to further questions from BayBuzz ahead of the mediation, expected to occur in July with Lowe’s personal participation. He has told others that he no longer had any interest in doing any sort of development at Ocean Beach and that “all he wanted was for the whole beach to be covenanted into a wilderness reserve”. A leading-edge ecotourism development may yet evolve at Ocean Beach, provided the Hansens can farm unhindered, Maori interests are respected and even honoured in a new kind of partnership, and the risk of any Loweville II is definitively curtailed. Meanwhile, unless there’s further serious compromise, Lowe and co vs HDC supported by FOB Trust, the Waimarama Marae Committee, Heritage NZ and their respective experts, will be heading to the Environment Court.
Our local foodies say “eat local and seasonal”. Then why should overseas consumers buy HB food?
Where Does HB’s Food Future Lie? BY TOM BELFORD PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM WHITTAKER
Perhaps more than any other asset, food ‘makes the world go round’ in Hawke’s Bay. Yes, we have cycling, art deco, trout fishing, Maori culture, landscapes and beaches, but do any of these do more to ground the ‘Hawke’s Bay’ brand than food? Our region’s branding history includes ‘fruitbowl’, ‘wine country’ and, with broader meaning, ‘we grow great things’. To some, our food makes Hawke’s Bay a destination … a place to visit to sample world-class restaurants serving our best local-grown ingredients. Says Annie Dundas, Tourism HB director: “Food is becoming an increasingly important way for people to experience a destination. For a long time it wasn’t a driver for travel, but that has changed with the desire for people to truly understand the provenance of what they eat and to share in that experience with others.” To others, our food is our major product … driving exports to discerning overseas consumers. “Tourism in, food out are linked … they benefit each other” as marketing maven Kim Thorp points out. Discerning overseas consumers might sample Hawke’s Bay’s best, inspiring them to add our region to their travels. And the ‘promise kept’ (Kim’s favourite definition of a ‘brand’) when they visit keeps them buying our Bostock apples and Firstlight steaks and premium wines when they return home. When Jessica Soutar Barron and I first talked about inviting some Hawke’s Bay foodies to name their favourite food brands, I was thinking about exports. If one were to put together a basket of Hawke’s Bay foods (and beverages) that would best show off our region’s provenance to the outside world, what dozen or so items would they include? But as you’ll see in the following pages, our intrepid foodies responded differently. Pretty much to a person, their mantra was ‘eat seasonal and eat local’! Yes, you’ll see a few brands pop up that might find their way to shelves in, say, Whole Foods in the US or
Sainsbury’s in the UK, but that wasn’t the focus of our ‘advisors’. Perplexed, I took the ‘export’ challenge to Kim. If foodies in overseas markets are delivering the same message to their premium consumers, why would these overseas consumers be interested in distant Hawke’s Bay’s offerings? Through Kim’s telescope, the ‘Hawke’s Bay’ brand, which might provide a strong sales platform for our food exports, narrows from a remarkable, appealing climate … to food and wine production enabled by that climate
Can ‘Hawke’s Bay’ deliver as the uber-brand that lifts all the individual HB food brands seeking to compete in overseas markets? … to food and wine in the ‘premium’ space. And, given his assessment of the global marketplace and its most discerning consumers, ‘premium’ in the food space means something very specific … natural and authentic. These are the most highly valued attributes, and top-end consumers seek them out anywhere. “Natural is what these people will spend more money on.” These top-end consumers are passionate about the products they buy, have limitless information at their fingertips, and avidly use social/digital media. So they can be invaluable champions of a brand, but also merciless critics if deceived or disappointed – if the brand doesn’t keep its promise. In the context of food and Hawke’s Bay, our promise of ‘natural and authentic’ rests
on our food products coming from a clean, healthy environment, from high standards of animal welfare, and from remaining a GM free region. As Kim sees it, the worst thing we could do marketing-wise, either as a region or as individual food brands, is “live a lie”. In his view, Hawke’s Bay’s story is authentic today, but anything that might “derail” or “disrupt” our ability to promote its products as natural and authentic – from dirty rivers to GM growing – would undermine our export prospects. “Anything that muddies those waters does not help at all.” If one accepts that view, how then to best project the ‘Hawke’s Bay’ brand to the outside world? Can ‘Hawke’s Bay’ deliver as the uber-brand that lifts all the individual HB food brands seeking to compete in overseas markets? It’s a ’chicken and egg’ question. Kim says that it would take huge amounts of money to effectively project the ‘Hawke’s Bay’ brand as such; that’s probably beyond our capacity. Our strongest effort to ‘sell’ Hawke’s Bay lies in tourism, to make our region a destination. Although as noted at the outset, those tourists return home, hopefully, as ‘ambassadors’ for NZ’s food exports. As Kim sees it, it’s the individual HB food brands that need to tell their stories more aggressively. “We can do much more to capture and inform about the natural attributes of what we have.” Those stories of authenticity should be delivered with “consistency and more budget … it does cost, sadly”. That’s how the ‘Hawke’s Bay’ brand will grow abroad … hopefully with the image clarity and appeal of a Tuscany. With that bigger picture in mind, on to our local foodies and their foodbaskets.
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HB’s Taste Merchants
Bart Narracci
BY JESSICA SOUTAR BARRON
Every foodie has a list. The ultimate shopping list, the list you pull out when planning a party, the desert island list: “If I could only eat ten things for the rest of my life, they would be...”. And being a loyal bunch, much of what’s listed is local, linked to friends and family, loaded with as much memory and meaning as it is taste and texture. Hawke’s Bay is well endowed with edibles. High end, some of it, luxury, value-add items, but also roadside stalls, in season PYO, home gardens, and the preserving and pickling that goes with that. Our food culture includes advocates and ambassadors, restaurant and cafe operators, chefs and caterers, the producers themselves. BayBuzz asked ten of them to share their personal food basket of Hawke’s Bay, their list of the tastes they can’t live without.
Bart Narracci Bart Narracci of Bellatino’s in Havelock North knew right away Hawke’s Bay was the place for him when he first glimpsed the ‘sunshine’. In his Italian grocery in Auckland he stocked a lot of fruit from Hawke’s Bay. “The peaches from down here had a sticker with the sunshine on it. One day I said to Emma (Narracci’s wife and business partner), ‘Let’s track down the sun on those stickers’. We arrived and just fell in love,” explains Narracci. Narracci was immediately impressed with the people who produce food in Hawke’s Bay. “There are a lot of clever people down here who know what they’re doing; it’s in their blood.” He’s another who sings the praises of Clyde Potter from Epicurean. “He’s incredible. He’s been growing for 30-odd years and he has a lot of knowledge.” Narracci’s list is made up of things stocked in his shop. That’s not monocular selfpromotion but honest necessity. Life is home and the shop so Narracci feeds his family from what he has in store, right down to his 11 year old’s appetite for pate. The Narracci children, Isabella and Santino, are honoured in the shop’s name, an old Italian tradition. Bellatino’s is all about family, feeding his own and other people’s; his ready-made
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meals are a life-saver for parents, with up to 15 different options and two soups in the winter months. “There’s no rubbish, nothing nasty, everything is fresh,” he says. After eight years in the Bay Narracci is still enamoured by it. “How perfect is it here? Everything is so close and so easy.” Narracci’s list includes Bellatino’s own black raspberry vinaigrette, organic glutenfree chicken liver pate, and fair trade organic coffee blended by near-by roastery Hawthorne. Local staples are Epicurean’s mixed organic micro/macro salad, Scott’s strawberries, Hohepa cheese, Village Press oil, Flanagan’s free range eggs and Telegraph Hill balsamic drizzle - “A condiment every pantry should have!” Anissa Talbi-Dobson
Anissa Talbi-Dobson Anissa Talbi-Dobson is honest but apologetic. “I never go shopping. I always get my supplies from the Farmer’s Market because I’m there anyway and everything I need is there.” Some of her groceries she trades for chocolate, from her L’Atelier Chocolat stall, fitting for a product originally used as currency. “It’s a time thing, but also it’s logical for us to support local as much as we can,” says Talbi-Dobson. “This is a foodie part of the country, there is so much fresh produce here.” Of particular delight for Talbi-Dobson are those under-the-radar road-side stalls so iconic to the Bay and something not found in her home country of France.
“For me those stalls represent trust from human to human, and that’s a really New Zealand trait, they’re trusting and friendly, kind and helpful.” Talbi-Dobson’s list reflects her belief that food can be curative and act as a preventative against sickness. “What we put into our bodies is not just a separate entity, it’s part of us, and it’s more than just fuel,” says Talbi-Dobson. Her pick of Hawke’s Bay’s best can all be found at the Farmer’s Market – bar Little Black Bird’s doughnuts, a decadent treat to cure all ills – Wheat’s Up wheatgrass, Brave Brewing EPA, Old School Ferments kimchi, Links Organics heirloom vegetables, Te Koha apple cider vinegar, Ti Kouka sausages, Oh My Goodness bread and Berry honey comb from hives managed by husband Joe’s apiarist uncle, John Berry.
Kent Baddeley
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With a repertoire of 200,000 dishes and 45 years working 80 hour weeks in restaurants, Kent Baddeley has a massive amount of choice in favourite flavours. But when it comes down to it his food list is predominantly fruits and vegetables, local, as in right outside his kitchen door, and seasonal. “I call it nano-seasonal because it’s about today and what’s good to eat right now,” he says.
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His choices favour colour and give him a paint box of textures to play with. “I’m about layering those textures and tastes, with crisp, soft, acid, crunch. I’m like a kid; I like pretty things.” Baddeley grew up on a farm in Matawhero and ate breakfast while wandering the fields; it was foraging before foraging was hip. “It’s a birthright in New Zealand to get food from your surroundings. When you can only cook from what you grow, raise or shoot you become creative and resourceful. It’s amazing how few things you really need.” A walk around his restaurant garden means tasting the rare and unusual. “I like things that make me think ‘That’s weird, that’s crazy’. I like exposing people to new things.” These include black tomatillo, Mexican cucumber melons, yellow raspberry, Chilean guava, Texan tarragon and a fat fluffy leaf called all-herb, he says is very good in a sandwich. Other favourites are grown by specialist producers Epicurean and Links Organics: yukon, watermelon radish and kale sprout heads. Every day in his kitchen at Hastings’ 1024 is different, and every dish is a homage to the producers who made the ingredients. He takes his inspiration from what he has at hand, but a permanent favourite is shiitake mushrooms grown on oak in Tutira. Telegraph Hill’s black olive powder and pink and white terraces cheese made by Origin Earth also make Baddeley’s list.
Lucinda Sherratt There’s something celebratory about the list Lucinda Sherratt serves up. It celebrates local and seasonal of course, but also it combines a love of taste and nutrition, reflective of Sherratt’s past as a chef and nutritionist. For someone for whom healthy eating is a high priority there are plenty of treats on Sherratt’s list. If you are going to eat something decadent, make sure it’s of the best quality, she says. The menu at Sherratt’s Hastings cafe
Prue Barton Little Black Bird is an extension of the way she eats at home. “I grow a lot of my own food,” says Sherratt, who grew up on a farm in Rissington in Hawke’s Bay. “We had chickens and pigs, and foraging was a big part of life. It still is a norm rather than a novelty.” Sherratt feels this is an integral part of the cuisine of Hawke’s Bay, whether foraging in the wild, in the garden, or at out-of-the-way food stalls. “When people visit they always comment on how cheap and bountiful our produce is.” There are things Sherratt tries to avoid. All processed foods are out, everything is made from scratch; she avoids supermarkets. Her one real weakness is her Saturday morning treat: freshly delivered pastries from a French pastry chef, a definite benefit of living at Te Awanga. Sherratt’s list features Epicurean radicchio, Chantal’s fresh turmeric root, Hapi walnut and parsley cheese, L’Atelier Chocolat’s caramels, Arataki honey comb, Harold’s pretzels, and jaggery and split mung dahl from Sherratt’s local Indian shop. Her wine picks are Argent cabernet sauvignon from Lucinda Sherratt
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Collaboration and montepulcianno from Beach House. The list also includes Little Black Bird’s own smoked paprika tomato sauce and cold pressed juices, and apples from Sherratt’s mother’s tree.
Prue Barton Fresh, local and seasonal are so much a part of Prue Barton’s food list that if I ask her again in a month, it’ll be different. She’s a hunter-gatherer, going out of her way to find local flavours. “I look for little treasures everywhere, I’m always foraging around, picking things up and making them into dishes.” Much of what is on her list stands on its own, rather than being an ingredient to incorporate into a dish. At the top of the list are figs: “There’s nothing like biting into a fresh fig, although we do enjoy filling them with blue cheese, wrapping them in prosciutto and baking them,” she adds. Fresh figs with Arataki’s blue borage honey is an easy alternative. “This is what I’m enjoying at the moment, it’s seasonal because for me that’s what Hawke’s Bay is about,” says Barton. “We only eat what’s around, what’s fresh, what’s happening.” “We do a lot of Bostock chicken. It’s got real texture and the flavour is amazing.” Barton’s restaurant Mister D celebrates this locally-raised organic meat with a simple French roast chicken with green salad from Epicurean and Hohepa feta cheese. Truly celebrating seasonality is all about Hawke’s Bay fruit and Barton visits Longlands Fruit and Veg especially for golden queen peaches and quince. She gets the autumnal flavours to last well into winter by making peach chutney and quince jelly. Barton’s wine pick is Beach House pinot gris. “For this shoulder time of year pinot gris is a great wine because it goes with a lot of things,” she says. “It’s our have-at-home wine: not too
serious, not too heavy. It’s invigorating and it’s made just down the road.” Barton’s list also includes raspberries from Raymond Road, Village Press olive oil, and ciabatta and sourdough breads from Mister D.
Annie Dundas Annie Dundas eats out, a lot. Of course, as general manager of HB Tourism it’s part of the job, but it’s an enjoyable part. Her list includes a number of dishes straight off menus from some of Hawke’s Bay’s favourite eateries; the attraction is not just the food, it’s the whole package. “If you talk to foodie people who visit Hawke’s Bay, one of the things they love is the combination of good food and good wine in incredible locations,” says Dundas. “There are opportunities for people to meet these amazing producers and chefs, and there’s a great sharing of knowledge. People in Hawke’s Bay do that very well, they are willing to share their little piece of Hawke’s Bay with anyone who is keen to learn. You don’t get that access in big cities.”
Annie Dundas
Dundas’ list features chicken sandwiches from Milk and Honey, chocolate mallow puffs from Picnic and Isaac Hayes Chocolate Salty Balls from Bistronomy. It speaks of a life buzzing from event to event, but Dundas is also a home body, she makes her own muesli, and, after a full calendar of eating out, enjoys a simple boiled egg. Dundas’ list also includes Aromatics port marinated mushrooms, Bay Blueberries, Bostock chicken, Paolo’s chicken liver pate from Vetro, Ya Bon’s breads, pastries and pies, Holly Bacon, and Origin Earth cheese, and a long list of favourite wines from Elephant Hill to Craggy Range and everywhere in between.
Jennifer Le Comte
Jennifer Le Comte “Knowing the food is about knowing the terroir,” says Jennifer Le Comte, a restaurant chef by trade and now operator of Opera Kitchen in Hastings, and The Picnic, Smiths and Albion Canteen in Napier. The particular micro-climates and geography that inform flavours in the Bay mean they are specific to the place and its conditions. On Le Comte’s list are apricots from growers in the small area around the Petane Domain. She explains, there’s a particular micro-climate there that means the apricots are the first of the season. Similarly the asparagus grown in tunnel houses in Awatoto are four weeks earlier than elsewhere. Le Comte believes the best way to enjoy Hawke’s Bay cuisine is to watch the seasons change, search out the true gems of the terroir, be brave enough to explore back roads and stop at roadside stalls. “Buy in season, that’s when produce is cheapest and freshest, then use those skills
we all have in our families to store produce for the rest of the season, freeze it, preserve it, bottle it,” says Le Comte. Le Comte is a proponent for seeking out seasonal flavours directly from the grower, and, from a restaurateur’s perspective, building a relationship with a producer means securing ingredients that are new or rare. “Clyde Potter from Epicurean has always been vital to what we can present to our customers. He grows some very interesting things and will grow whatever you want really,” says Le Comte, who puts Epicurean’s lemon verbena on her list. “For me, it signals the beginning of summer.” Le Comte’s list also includes Rod McDonald Wines’ One-Off Syrah Viognier, Bilancia’s La Collina Syrah and Brave Brewing’s Farmhouse Ale, sour dough from The Picnic, barnea olive oil from Village Press and comb honey from Arataki, figs from Ruby Glen in Meeanee and goats’ milk kefir from a secret provider somewhere off State Highway 50.
w. redbarrel.co.nz | e. wine@redbarrel.co.nz | a. 265 Te Mata Rd Havelock North | p: 06 877 9400
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Kate Lester
Kate Lester Kate Lester is the chef d’jour for Hawke’s Bay weddings, and any event held in an out-of-the-way place (think packhouses, woolsheds and paddocks). She celebrates Hawke’s Bay produce with every event she caters. She’s often cooking for large numbers, so her list is made up of ingredients that can be stretched to forty diners or even 150 wedding guests. “I’m not a complicated cook, my secrets are salt and lemon juice.” Lester explains how these two can create magic as long as the original produce is top quality. “People think my food’s amazing but it’s good ingredients, they’re just blown away by the flavour.” Much of that raw ingredient comes from Lester’s local butcher, who makes sausages especially for her – strings and strings of them – as well as preparing pork for her famous pulled pork canapés. Her other favourites are Orcona’s smoked chipotle chilli flakes and harissa paste, and Aromatics smoked mushrooms, all three punching up the big flavours in her dishes.
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Also on Lester’s list are seasonal fruit bought at the gate: Kirsten’s cherries, Bay Blueberries, Scott’s strawberries and raspberries. Lester’s mum makes tomato sauce and plum sauce in the season and they are both favourites, gifting those seasonal fruits to the rest of the year. As with all foodies, coffee is vital fuel, her pick is Bay Espresso’s Dark and Divine beans.
John MacPherson Meatballs are a very Hawke’s Bay thing, John ‘Mac’ MacPherson says. And the best meatballs are from BJs Bakery. “If you’ve never had one you must, they are a deep fried bread stuffed with some weird meat paste that no one knows what’s in it. They’re off the hook.” MacPherson owns Advintage, one of the top online wine sites in New Zealand. He runs the business from Havelock North. “I’m a guy so my list is meat, sauce and booze.” Vegetables do feature. He considers gai lan from Delight Plus near Countdown Napier one of the best Hawke’s Bay offerings; it’s
John MacPherson
Ian Thomas
broccoli florets in garlic sauce. Onion bhaji from Namaskar in Havelock North is also on the list. “I’m actually super fussy about quality,” Macpherson says. “As a family we hunt out the good stuff, we’ll go on these big food missions all the time.” MacPherson believes Hawke’s Bay people should have strong views on food because we produce so much of it. “In sweetcorn season, for example, everyone’s super opinionated about who’s got the best. People really care. What does Hawke’s Bay do? We produce food and wine so not caring is not good enough. You have to have an opinion,” says MacPherson. “My list is things made by friends or the neighbour across the creek, handmade things by local producers who are just good people. Why wouldn’t you eat that way?” Alongside the meat and booze, sharing food with friends is high on MacPherson’s priority list; his dinner parties are legendary. “Food, wine and friends, that’s not a bad combo,” he laughs. MacPherson’s list also includes Scott’s strawberries, Holly bacon, Village Press olive oil, pork sausages from the Village Butcher in Havelock North, One-Off Chardonnay from Rod McDonald Wines, beer sticks and black pudding from Deli Meats, and the artichoke dip from Deliciosa in Havelock.
Ian Thomas Ian Thomas has always been involved in food, in various capacities: free range egg producer, the official Eggs Inc ambassador known as The Egg Man, host of wine and food tours, now The Paella Man with Paellaa-gogo. Thomas was one of the people roped in by Graeme Avery to get the inaugural
Farmers’ Market up and running in 2000. “I was excited by what he was proposing so I took on the role of chair of the HB Farmers’ Market group.” There were 17 stalls at that market, the first of its type in New Zealand. “Which is funny because there’s about 30 producers who claim they were there!” Thomas is freshly involved with the Market after a hiatus of a few years. Using only Farmers’ Market ingredients, he cooks up dishes every Sunday in Hastings. “Whatever’s in season, that’s what we cook,” explains Thomas, who’s a stickler for the rule, using only 100% Hawke’s Bay grown produce on offer at the Market. “I am determined to stick to that because I believe that’s what farmers’ markets should be.” In reality it means there’s no butter in his Market meals, because no one in Hawke’s Bay is making butter, similarly no cream; he uses Hohepa quark instead. “That mentality creates opportunity. If you show the gaps, if you keep creating openings, then people see opportunities for themselves.” Much of Thomas’ list is raw ingredients: a shoulder of lamb, celeriac, gala apples. “Everybody has their apple, mine is gala. To really enjoy any fruit, only eat it in season. That way you create treats for yourself,” says Thomas. Thomas’ pick for bread is chia loaf made by Entice. “It stands out as a really lovely food that just happens to be a bread, rather than simply a vehicle for other food.” Between two slices he enjoys middle bacon from Holly and aubergine pickle from Aromatics. Also on Thomas’ list is St Andrews Limes lime and mustard seed dressing, Village Press truffle-infused olive oil and Wild Venison chorizo. He’s fuelled by Alpha Domus Aviator in the evening and a plunger of Aurum 18 Carat Gold first thing every morning.
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Manufacturing ‘Pure’ Water BY SARAH CATES
Think of ‘pure’ water … the kind in a bottle. What springs to mind? Probably images of vibrant water cascading over rocks, snow-capped mountains, a crystal clear river meandering its way through thick forest teeming with native birds. Like the depiction on Miracle Water’s website … The aquifer under Tomoana is like an oasis in the desert and is protected from surface activity. Starting from the beautiful snow-capped Ruahine Ranges (home to New Zealand native birds), Tomoana’s aquifer is recharged with some of the world’s finest quality water from the Ruahine Ranges via the Ngaruroro River. New Zealand Miracle Water extracts
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pure soft mineral water from their aquifer once it has been aged and naturally purified for 45-55 years. This natural artesian supply of water is free from bacteriological and viral contamination therefore no filtration or chemical treatment is required. And from OnePure … OnePure mineral water comes from New Zealand, a green landscape of forests, mountains, glaciers, and rivers, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. New Zealand’s isolation and primarily rural landscape make it the ideal location from which to source premium mineral water. From the pristine forest ranges of wild New Zealand, we bring you the taste of purity in OnePure mineral water. You’ll probably recognise Miracle Water
and OnePure as Hawke’s Bay’s start-up water bottling merchants, the first already shipping Heretaunga aquifer water overseas, the latter to begin its production later this year. Vanguards of what could become a burgeoning industry in Hawke’s Bay. Only 2% of water currently extracted from the Heretaunga aquifer (nine consents, 4.25 million cubic metres) is allocated to water bottlers, but there’s no upper limit on the consents or volume that could be granted. Unlike farmers and growers, there's no 'natural' limit on the water needed. When ‘Hawke’s Bay’ exports a Bostock apple or a Firstlight venison steak or a Te Mata Estate Coleraine, we – and our overseas customers – know exactly what the product is. Indeed its pedigree can be traced to its original orchard, paddock or vineyard. One might think it would be easier still to vouch for pure water.
tim.co.nz
How pure? But in reality there is no such thing as pure. Pure water would simply be hydrogen and oxygen. Even when water is ‘purified’ it still retains some of its mineral qualities. All water contains traces of what it has touched on its journey from its origin to its final destination, or extraction point. This constitutes the water’s make-up, its DNA. The overall quality of natural fresh water is further modified by local land-use and its varying discharges. These individual qualities make each water source unique. So a more accurate description would be ‘natural potable’ water. It doesn’t have quite the same ring as ‘Pure’ or ‘Miracle’. However, the basic expectation of anyone consuming water, whether from a bottle or the tap, is that the water is free from contaminants. Our aquifer water is frequently referred to as the ‘world’s finest water’, mineral rich, naturally purified and free from bacteria and
Only 2% of water currently extracted from the Heretaunga aquifer is allocated to water bottlers, but there's no 'natural' limit. other contamination – so much so it does not require filtration or chemical treatment. When we learn that Miracle Water has in fact been recalled from China after exceeding the Chinese maximum acceptable level for nitrites, naturally, we snap to attention! Exposure to nitrate and nitrite mainly occurs from consuming food and water that contain these chemicals. Sources of nitrate and nitrite can find their way into our water via many potential sources – poorly maintained wastewater treatment plants, septic tanks, industrial waste and land runoff containing
fertilizers and animal waste. Excess nitrate and nitrite can cause methemoglobinemia (Blue-baby syndrome), a condition that decreases the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the tissues. This mainly affects infants under the age of six months and can be fatal. High nitrite levels, driven by nitrates in the water, would be a particular concern for Miracle Water, as they proclaim: “NZ Miracle Water would like to see fresh New Zealand water being used for mixing New Zealand infant formula across Asia and the Middle East”. Do we have excess nitrates in the Heretaunga aquifer? Or was Miracle Water’s recall due to production issues? HBRC reports upward trends in nitrate levels in some monitoring wells in the Heretaunga aquifer. None of these levels yet exceed NZ drinking water standards, but 10% of sites have levels greater than 50% of the standard. Miracle Water and OnePure claim it is not our aquifer at fault.
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[Editor’s note: Both Miracle Water and OnePure declined interviews with BayBuzz, insisting on replying to written questions. A curious approach considering that both companies might anticipate a need to proactively build community goodwill.] Miracle Water wrote: “It is not an issue for the aquifer, the problem occurred in our treatment system”. OnePure responded: “We have never had an issue with any of our shipments since production begun. We have a rigorous analysis and testing regime prior to a production run. Each batch is sent to an independent laboratory and released to the market only after positive test results are confirmed.” Dirk Haselhoff, a Napier-based water expert, and director of Ozone Technologies, who has worked closely with the Heretaunga Plains aquifer for many years, comments on the situation: “I am confident that any issues around the water quality are a result of bad handling and the treatment methods applied. Nitrites are not present in our local water, but are created by the treatment process. However, before we are able to be completely certain that the water is suitable for international export, a broad spectrum analysis of known contaminants should be undertaken. To our knowledge that has not been done to date. We can assume that the water treatment advisors used were not aware of the correct procedures to ‘treat’ water. It is essential we try and keep the water as close to its natural state as possible.” Haselhoff feels the entire handling of the situation has been very poor. “The most important thing is to deliver a high quality product that meets the expectations of the
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customer. Good supermarkets want to know where the water is sourced, and that it is free from contaminants. For this to happen we need product security, stronger regulations, and appropriate governance at that level.” So what, then, is the quality of the water being exported? The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) is only responsible for monitoring possible adverse effects on the environment. They monitor the volume and flow of the water extracted, and warrant works and structures are designed to the best engineering practices and are maintained to a safe and serviceable standard. They ensure
these standards are not good enough for the Chinese market. Drinking Water Standards New Zealand (DWSNZ) describes potable as being drinking water that does not contain or exhibit any determinant to any extent that exceeds the Maximum Acceptable Value (MAV). The values are based on the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) information. DWSNZ are applicable to water intended for drinking, whether it is from a public or private supply or where it is used. The exception is bottled water, which is subject to different standards. Bottled water in New Zealand, as in
“I am confident that any issues around the water quality are a result of bad handling and the treatment methods applied. Nitrites are not present in our local water, but are created by the treatment process.” DIRK HASELHOFF the bore meets the necessary conditions that enable monitoring to take place, and that the well head is constructed in such a way that safeguards human drinking water from potential groundwater contamination. Bottlers do need to supply a yearly water sample from the well, which Haselhoff describes as “a very narrow field of tests, in fact most contaminants are not tested for”. Iain Maxwell, chief regulator at HBRC, notes: “We don’t have to guarantee that the quality of water being extracted meets the particular standards they are wanting to use it for.” Both OnePure and Miracle Water claim that their source water meets the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand. But
most countries, is regulated as a food and falls under the Food Act 2014, National Programme 3. National Programme 3 requires businesses to use good food safety practices and keep written records. They must also ensure their staff have the right skills to produce the food, and record this. If a food is recalled the issue must be recorded. The records must include the extent of the issue, and the action taken. All food sold in New Zealand must meet the requirements of the Australian New Zealand Food Standards Code. The principles within the code are set by WHO, in association with the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). FAO/WHO developed a guide called
Codex Alimentarius for food safety standards. The code plays a central role in the development and harmonisation of international food standards for health protection and trade. The Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) manages New Zealand’s participation in the code. However, New Zealand participation in the CA only covers meat and dairy products. MPI commented to BayBuzz on the recall of Miracle Water’s shipment: “All food and beverages in New Zealand have to be safe and suitable for consumers. In the case of bottled water exports, MPI is not required to issue export certification. Bottle water exports may be issued with a ‘free-sale certificate’ (FSC). An FSC ensures the safety and suitability of the food product you are exporting. These are accepted by most countries including China, for border clearance purposes. It’s the responsibility of companies to ensure their bottled water meets the requirements of the destination markets. For China, specifically, the requirements can differ depending on, for example, whether the water is mineral water or standard drinking water.” Effectively, no authorities in New Zealand are proactively validating the quality of exported water. ‘Mineral water’ and ‘Packaged water’ are subject to a different set of standards in China.
OnePure is marketing premium mineral water from the “pristine forest ranges of Wild New Zealand”, aimed at the high-end Chinese consumer. OnePure presents itself as a ‘top Zelanian’ water brand in China and is aiming to fill a highly profitable gap that currently exists in the Chinese market. Miracle Water are selling soft artesian spring water aimed at families, suppling the consumer with 7 litre pouches of water that are used in water machines. Mr Ju (managing director of Miracle Water) sees a natural synergy with Fonterra, who provide China with milk powder. The National Standard of the Peoples Republic of China have set the maximum permissible level of nitrite in mineral water at 0.1 mg/L. The maximum permissible level of nitrite for packaged or spring water is 0.005 mg/L. New Zealand drinking water standards for nitrites are set at 0.2 mg/L for long term exposure, with short term exposure at 3 mg/L. On an international level there are great differences as to what is considered a ‘safe’ amount. FSANZ uses the standard set by WHO, which is 3mg/L. But China has opted for the minimum amount in water that is possibly destined for use in infant formula.
Treated or not? Under the National Programme 3, any business that has to recall a product must take steps in order to rectify the problem. Miracle
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Page 41 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Photo by Sarah Cates
“I listen to all the arguments as to why bottling water is fine but I find it morally wrong for our water to be given away, and sent overseas with no local added value.” CYNTHIA BOWERS, HASTINGS DEPUTY MAYOR
Water’s website claims its natural water from New Zealand’s unspoilt environment is so pure it needs no treatment is not true. All bottled water must be treated, as all natural water contains micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi. However, as Miracle Water found out, the treatment process can be fraught with difficulties! Some procedures can actually introduce contaminants, known as Disinfectant By-Products (DBPs), into the finished product. Evidently Miracle Water is taking steps to rectify their difficulties. They decided to get expert help. In early March 2016, they advertised on SEEK for a Water Quality Control Manager. The role of this manager is to “ensure the quality of our water is up to the standards of the countries we will be exporting to”. The right applicant will need a plethora of skills from understanding an entire water treatment process that includes filtration, chemical treatment, ozone and UV applications, to monitoring and testing the water on a regular basis. The successful applicant must have experience in “manufacturing pure water”, ISO auditing systems, and have the skills to implement a Food Safety Management Programme. Ability to speak Mandarin would be advantageous.
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Apparently it takes quite a bit of treatment – and one wonders at what cost – to produce ‘pure’ water from the Heretaunga aquifer. Section 4.2 of the Chinese National Food Safety Standards for Bottled Drinking states: “Name of bottled water shall be real and scientific. Not name bottled drinking water after one of several substances’. OnePure? Miracle Water? Whatever treatment is involved, if manufacturing and exporting ‘pure’ water is to be the region’s silver bullet replacing fading oil and gas prospects, our exporters need to be fully compliant, or the ‘Hawke’s Bay Pure Water’ brand will quickly turn foul. Business Hawke’s Bay CEO Susan White says that issues of standards should be addressed at the national level, but adds: “Our international brand in the food and beverage industry is recognised as 'high end' or 'premium products'. If there is a systemic problem within a company it needs to be dealt with very seriously and swiftly." Consultant Haselhoff admonishes: “It is essential we maintain the opportunity to export New Zealand water. We must get it right. New Zealand could be a big player in the bottled water industry … Avoidable problems, such as those fashioned by Miracle Water, are bad for our New Zealand brand. It could damage the entire industry.”
The market beckons The International Bottled Water Association reports that the consumption of bottled water in China reached 39.5 million cubic metres last year. At 15% of the global market, China is the top market for bottled water. Globally, bottled water is the world’s fastest growing beverage, reaping enormous profits for corporate giants Nestle and Coca-Cola. Steven Solomon, author of Water, said: “For the first time in history, the fundamental economic and political rules governing water are starting to be transformed by the power of market forces. Under the duress of scarcity, the iron laws of supply and demand are propelling the market economy’s expansive, profit-seeking mechanisms to colonize the realms of water. Beckoning bonanza profit opportunities have set off a world-wide scramble to control water sources and infrastructures, and to commercialise water as an ordinary commodity like oil, wheat, or timber.” The idea of Hawke’s Bay becoming a part of this “commercialisation of water” is not sitting comfortably with many members of our community. Cynthia Bowers, deputy mayor of Hastings comments: “I can see two aspects of this, the logical commercial side, where I would normally sit … and the emotional and environmental aspects. With this one
I find myself in the ‘other camp’. This is an unusual experience for me. I listen to all the arguments as to why bottling water is fine but I find it morally wrong for our water to be given away, and sent overseas with no local added value.” HBRC have framed the water bottling issue around the resource quantity and effects of extraction. Maxwell says: “One good thing is that the council is not picking ‘winners’ – it is left to the market to decide.” Maxwell was referring to the ‘first come, first served’ approach to allocating resource consents. He adds: “The community might need to get used to changes in the market. Internationally water is becoming scarce, but in New Zealand we have a good supply. All our indicators across Hawke’s Bay tell us there is no widespread scarcity, it is only some areas within the aquifer system where river flows might be effected”. However, in April HBRC released a report documenting steady decline in Heretaunga aquifer levels over the 1994-2014 study period, with data indicating the decline could stretch back 45 years. The probable cause … groundwater pumping. Despite the ‘assurances’ from HBRC, Councillor Bowers is not satisfied. “I am not a scientist and I am having to accept the HBRC science that I am being told – I am struggling with this! The community’s faith in HBRC has been shaken. I am sure they have a great science team but I can’t understand this. No one is really going out of their way to explain the proof that it’s fine to keep extracting the current amounts of water out of our aquifer. I feel HBRC have an attitude of ‘We are right! You are wrong!’” Both Bowers and Maxwell agree that over the last two decades people’s attitude towards water and the environment has changed. Maxwell comments: “I have seen a lot of changes in the last twenty years, I am pleased that the community are taking an interest in the value of water, it’s a catalyst for discussion”. Bowers concludes: “It’s a philosophical question. Should we be giving our water away for foreign export? I am not convinced from an environmental, social, and economic point of view it’s a good idea. I call for the Regional Council to look at placing a moratorium on the granting of further water consents for bottling plants.” HBRC councillor Peter Beaven calls the current handling of our water “nonsensical”. “Existing New Zealand policy is that no one owns the water, the water is free and is allocated on the ‘first come, first in’ basis. Here lies the problem. We have got to stop saying no one owns the water. Everyone owns the water. The local community own the water. When we start seeing it from this point of view we can re-frame the discussion.” In 1968 ecologist Garrett Hardin popularised the ‘tragedy of the commons’ concept, in which individuals acting in their own best interest over-use and deplete an
unregulated common resource – such as the Heretaunga aquifer. Short-term private gain degrades long-term public good. The inability to restrict usage encourages individuals to consume as much of the resource as possible. In contrast, Nobel economist Elinor Ostrom studied successful shared commons around the world, and found that by working together people managed their systems for the benefit of all. Some two billion people live successfully within such managed commons in the world today. Beaven is thinking along these lines. He proposes: “The local community should be able to decide who can use the water based on a set criteria with clearly defined boundaries. These criteria could include aspects of efficiency of water use, environmental impacts, the social costs and benefits of an activity, what the industry brings back into the community – the circulation of wealth. Possibly we could charge some type of resource rental or royalties to an industry where the profits leave New Zealand. The point is that it is
“We have got to stop saying no one owns the water. Everyone owns the water.” PETER BEAVEN not right that the local community do not receive any type of benefit from the bottled water industry. We need to ensure the water will benefit the future generations of Hawke's Bay.” Craig Foss, National MP for Tukituki reflects the party line: “The government’s position is plain! No one owns the water!” What this means for our future is unclear. Anna Lorck, Tukituki Labour spokesperson says: “It is time we put all the facts on the table, encouraged and engaged with everyone, so I’d support calling for a referendum and raising this question at this year’s local government elections. As for charging users of water, again this is for the community to decide. For me, great things grow in Hawke’s Bay, not plastic bottles.” The real issue being raised by our political commentators is under what conditions, if at all, we would be happy with water bottling. At present, the people of Hawke’s Bay are not satisfied. Sufficiency of renewable water supply, relative to other needs, and financial compensation to our community for the exploitation of our water are the critical questions. Both of these require substantial investigation. “When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac. In the meantime, we bottle away.
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Page 43 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Garden of Eden or White Elephant? BY TOM BELFORD
With requisite farmers, an investor, and lenders apparently at the ready, will the Ruataniwha dam proceed, or will it remain contested for several more months? Standing in the way are hurdles including a lawsuit and an election. Page 44 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
On May 26, the legal appeal mounted by Forest and Bird, challenging the land swap necessary for the dam to proceed, will be heard by the High Court. The ‘loser’ in that venue might indeed appeal to the Supreme Court. So long as this or any legal threat to the project remains, it would seem unlikely that HBRC (and perhaps HBRIC lenders or investors as well) would dare to commence construction of the project. And of course, the election of the next regional council in early October might bring a different majority view as to the wisdom of the project. So it’s not a bad time for taking stock of the dam situation. As it stands today, the proposed Ruataniwha dam has a $905 million price tag – $333 million to build the dam itself and its distribution network, $16 million in development costs to date, and an estimated $556 million in on-farm costs required to adapt farming systems and provide reticulation to actually use the water. For ratepayers the financial exposure consists of $80 million the Regional Council would invest in the project, plus potentially $36 million in HBRC water purchases from its own scheme (presently in public consultation), plus any risk presented by earning insufficient funds to repay loans (and interest) with the Port as collateral. And then there’s environmental impacts. Are we looking at a white elephant here, or a Garden of Eden in Central Hawke’s Bay?
farmer-participant would be committing about $68,000/year in water fees. HBRIC CEO Andrew Newman boasted that the April commitments signified “the CHB community has unequivocally demonstrated its commitment to and desire to see the Ruataniwha water storage scheme go ahead”. A bit of overstatement, as 200 eligible CHB farmers – half of the farmers in the scheme footprint – have said ‘No’ to the scheme. Where does it go from here? The significance of the initial uptake for the water is twofold.
Key condition
Financial risk
In April, the Ruataniwha scheme confronted a major milestone – the requirement to sell 45 million cubic metres (cubes) per year in water contracts to Central Hawke’s Bay farmers. On the day of reporting (April 27), the figures were as follows:
HBRIC contends that about 43 million cubes sold is the threshold that would deliver a positive cash flow from the scheme. This is still to be independently confirmed. It also becomes the platform from which long-term water uptake builds, which is an area of contentious projection. HBRIC holds to a ‘base’ case that predicts 100% uptake of 104 million cubes by year 15 of operation. Its ‘severe’ case predicts 82% uptake in that period. All HBRIC scenarios presented so far assume 64% uptake (about 67 million cubes) by the time the dam would be operating in three years. The uptake rate after financial close becomes an important factor in whether the scheme can meet an HBRC-imposed requirement that the scheme yield a 6% dividend per year to the Regional Council throughout its life of 70 years. In its base case, HBRIC would need to borrow, cumulatively, $25 million over the first 15 years of the scheme to pay that return; with 82% uptake, it would need to borrow $72 million to pay the same return. As daunting as those figures are, there’s also the risk that the true ‘severe’ case might be significantly lower than 82% uptake. Moreover, CPI increases in revenue are modeled at 2%/year. At 2% CPI (the long term average) the dam income increases by
• 42.8 million cubes in signed contracts, representing contracts signed by 196 farms from the eligible pool of 400-450; • 3.0 million cubes ‘advancing’ to completion; and, • 2.7 million cubes committed in ‘call options’, where the buyers commit nonrefundable fees for the right to make future purchases. These various commitments total 48.5 million cubes, seemingly sufficient to meet the ‘condition precedent’ set by the Regional Council as one of several such milestones for the project to proceed. HBRIC chairman Andy Pearce predicted on the day that the total would reach 50 million cubes by June. The 48.5 million cubes would initially irrigate 15,700 hectares. Given the water’s present price, it would appear the average
A bit of overstatement, as 200 eligible CHB farmers – half of the farmers in the scheme footprint – have said ‘No’ to the scheme. 50% every 20 years – the projected income goes from $27 million at full uptake to more than $40 million annually. If CPI tracks at the more recent 1% level, the annual income only rises to $33 million. That’s a big difference. An independent review of these projections is due in May, but it’s not clear whether or how Deloitte’s will construct a true worst case set of uptake and inflation assumptions and resultant revenue … or whether they will simply confirm HBRIC’s spreadsheets add up. Further complicating any financial risk assessment is understanding what conditions, if any, might allow scheme participants – the 196 farmers – to withdraw from the scheme. I’ll come back to that issue. Finally, it’s important to note that the monies possibly borrowed by HBRIC to meet the annual 6% dividend are not the only – nor even the most significant – borrowings required to get the scheme off the ground. At this writing, the complete financial construct proposed for the scheme – investments and borrowing – is still confidential. What is clear is that any borrowing by HBRIC and any of its subsidiary companies, such as the joint venture operating the dam, would need to be secured by HBRIC assets (think: Port).
Economic benefit? It’s clear what the 196 farmers signed up for the scheme might get. Assuming they’ve made prudent decisions about how irrigation can improve their productivity, they would
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“... the CHB community has unequivocally demonstrated its commitment to and desire to see the Ruataniwha water storage scheme go ahead.” ANDREW NEWMAN
tim.co.nz
stand to earn more income, and more generally look forward to some increase in the capital value of their land, given both water rights and enhanced on-farm infrastructure. Some might invest just for the latter reason. What farmers actually would do with their irrigation water – and how well – determines the degree to which the rest of Hawke’s Bay might benefit. HBRIC’s lead consultant on farm economics has emphasized that farmer productivity is the key to making the irrigation scheme succeed: “We note the severe impact on profitability incurred if the investment generates only average productivity. For that reason farmers not wishing or able to generate top 20% performance will either need to decline participation, sell, or transfer management of their property to another person.” HBRIC expects that 70% of CHB properties in the scheme would change hands within five years. So much for strengthening Central HB’s social fabric. And what does the rest of Hawke’s Bay get? The HBRIC-promised ‘Garden of Eden’ to unfold in CHB boils down to the array of land uses actually expanded or adopted by scheme farmers. HBRIC data, representing the farming/ land use intentions of the 196 farmers who have signed water contracts, indicates we can
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expect the following farm allocation (by water volume contracted): Mixed arable 49% (30%) Dairying 22% (35%) Sheep/beef/dairy support 26% (19%) Pipfruit/grapes 2% (16%) Other 1% However, in the brackets above are the land-use assumptions used in the most recent estimates used by HBRIC’s consultant to calculate the economic benefits of the scheme for the region. At the time (April), the consultant touted the possibility of substantially more orchards and vineyards in CHB under the scheme as the chief driver of the scheme’s improved job and GDP prospects. Councillors Rex Graham and Peter Beaven, each with decades of hands-on experience with orcharding, as well as a broad spectrum of HB pipfruit and grape growers they and I consulted, ridiculed the consultant’s assumptions. Nevertheless, ignoring that expert feedback, HBRIC ‘refreshed’ its benefit estimates from the scheme to more than 3,500 ongoing jobs and a boost to regional GDP of $380 million a year. What’s required, at the very least, is that HBRIC consultants go back to the drawing board to re-calculate the economic returns
that will accrue to Hawke’s Bay from the land use actually anticipated by current signers of water user agreements. Until then, HBRIC’s job and GDP claims should be regarded as garbage in/garbage out.
Damn the environment To address the environmental impact of the dam, we actually need to start with the CHB sewage treatment fiasco. About eight years ago, a public meeting occurred in the Havelock North Community Centre, where attendees gave then-regional council chair Rex McIntyre a grilling over the deteriorating state of the Tukituki River. Responding to an appeal initiated by two committed environmentalists, David Renouf and Bill Dodds, the Environment Court – over Regional Council objections – had just set new tougher sewage treatment standards for CHB to meet by September 2014 … plenty of lead time. Clearly there was already a recognized pollution problem with the river. Despite the deadline, CHB did nothing for years, then in June 2012 the Regional Council – recognising a continuing wastewater mess would threaten its case for the dam – presented its proposal to dispose of treated wastewater on land, and indeed bought the land to do so and planted trees on it to soak up the nutrients.
But CHB rejected that subsidy, and pursued a Rube Goldberg approach that isn’t working to this day. CHB is on the verge of failing to comply with the new standards. Eight years gone by, problem still not fixed. Yet HBRC assured the Board of Inquiry on the dam and Plan Change 6 (the plan to ostensibly clean-up the Tuki) during its 2013-14 hearings that this problem was getting resolved … an assurance that the BOI accepted at face value. The proposed dam was first mooted in 2009. To the existing wastewater problem, the dam would introduce the spectre of more pollution from intensified farming. A stakeholders group started in mid-2011, on which I served. A year later, two key reports were on the table. First, the Macfarlane report – a desktop projection of what land uses would emerge after irrigation was made available. This same analysis underpins all economic projections – jobs, farm profitability, GDP impact – surrounding the scheme, as described earlier. And based on Macfarlane’s predicted land uses, a modeling study that acknowledged the existing pollution, and predicted a 25% increase in nitrogen leaching from intensified farming, along with a 15-22% increase in phosphorus loss. This increased nutrient load sounded scary to Forest & Bird, Fish & Game and other environmentalists.
And even more scary to HBRIC and the Regional Council. Here you see the seeds of the Council’s failed attempt to minimise the need to address nitrogen leaching in its Plan Change 6 proposal. HBRC came up with an environmental plan that downplayed nitrogen loss, which could be expensive to mitigate, and didn’t really attack it. They focused on phosphorus, which they saw as cheaper to control. Their consultants were warning that serious N mitigation requirements would make irrigation unprofitable in many cases and reduce overall return on capital below its cost … not appealing to dam advocates. The P-focused approach was telegraphed in the infamous Tukituki Choices consultation document, which then-regional councillor Tim Gilbertson, a staunch supporter of the dam, described as “thinly disguised propaganda” that “treats the reader as an idiot”. That document and the draft Feasibility Report for the scheme were both presented to stakeholders at our very last meeting in August 2012. And we were asked to approve both on the day. Environmental leaders strongly objected. In their report to Council, the dam project team noted environmental stakeholders were not supportive, but overruled them. HBRC approved the feasibility study forthwith – this being the key decision that officially commissioned HBRIC to advance the scheme.
All of this landed in the BOI’s lap in 2013-14. Now, if the Council, which pretends to be an environmental regulator, had seized the environmental challenge seriously, demonstrating it had a programme to restore the health of the Tukituki – clearly putting the catchment on a positive trajectory – then a fruitful stakeholder discussion might have occurred regarding if and how future intensification might be accommodated. Instead, the Council put forward its weak mitigation plan that the BOI soundly rejected as “hands off ”. The BOI noted that the nitrogen load in irrigated area would increase 70%, from 2,970 tonnes/year to 5,059. They also noted that phosphorous losses would increase, and would need to be substantially reduced to below even current levels. Accepting the critique of environmentalists, the Board took a tougher stance on nitrogen pollution in particular, noting in the process the irony that the Council’s chief science consultants had in other venues actually endorsed the approach the Board was now ordering. The Board’s plan sets a target limit on N (the so-called DIN limit), maximum leaching rates for different soil types, and requires Farm Environmental Management Plans (FEMPs) that commit each farm to operate within those limits. Not a bad outcome on paper.
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Page 47 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
tim.co.nz Four regional councillors – Barker, Beaven, Graham and myself – applauded the BOI decision. But HBRIC was horrified that a DIN limit had entered the picture and fought to squeeze the requirement down. Litigation ensued. So, where are we now? If the dam proceeds, it will be operating before there’s any evidence that Tukituki pollution is being reduced. What happens if the Tukituki is turning to custard because of dam-induced farming intensification? The BOI judgment clearly states that, given farming intensification, there might well be a need to toughen up the FEMPs of dam customers over time. But there’s the rub. Under the rules, it is HBRIC that oversees the environmental behavior of its irrigatorcustomers. HBRIC, who needs the steady revenue from irrigators, decides how tough to be on them. And if it’s too tough and farmers don’t agree on required mitigation measures, they can pull out of the irrigation scheme, with a consequent loss in scheme revenue. Couldn’t happen? Back in 2008, a HBRC hearings panel, including councillor Christine Scott, approved additional water allocations for dairying in CHB, rejecting the contrary recommendation of the HBRC staff, which already considered the Tukituki over-allocated. Why? Because the farmers involved had already made their infrastructure investment. Who seriously believes HBRIC or HBRC would roll back intensified farming to protect the environment after $905 million had been invested in this storage scheme? Effectively, we have ceded control over the ecological and recreational health of the Tukituki to HBRIC and its subsidiary water company. We’ve got the foxes guarding the hen house.
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And it gets scarier still, because the leadership of HBRIC, setting the tone, is disdainful of the BOI’s environmental regime. HBRIC delights in explaining how irrigators in the scheme, given various twists and turns in the BOI consents, will essentially never have to comply with the environmental targets. At best they might be asked to try harder. So, the dam would present us with major increase in nutrient load in the catchment, to be mitigated by yet-to-be-tested farm plans overseen by the dam operator. There
HBRIC expects that 70% of CHB properties in the scheme would change hands within five years. So much for strengthening Central HB’s social fabric. can be no doubt that intensified animal farming, whether dairy or beef, will lead to more nutrient loading into river systems and the soil and eventually the ground water. HBRC will measure that impact in the rivers. And the challenge will be how (and whether) individual farmers are identified as responsible and required to mitigate their effects. A sketchy situation, compounded by noncompliant wastewater treatment in Waipawa and Waipukurau. Not a confidence builder if you care about the Tukituki! Lately we’ve been offered a hastilyconceived ‘opportunity’ by HBRIC to purchase so-called ‘environmental flows’
(i.e., stored dam water) to help mitigate environmental problems with the Tukituki – at a locked in cost of $36 million. Ironically, this would make HBRC the largest single purchaser by far of its own dam water! Of course, putting more water into the catchment might well be useful; the concept deserves more robust examination. But even if the utility of some amount of ‘environmental flows’ were established, ratepayers would already be subsidizing the dam to the tune of $80 million (with a rate of return about half the level of the institutional investor), plus a heap of borrowing. It’s not at all clear why ratepayers should need to pay additionally for environmental benefits the dam should be providing already as its highest priority. We’ve put the cart before the horse here. Before adopting a $900 million water storage scheme, the Regional Council should first demonstrate that it can and will ensure a cleaner, safer river by reducing nutrient loads and increasing minimum flows. And by far more aggressively promoting and incentivizing land use and soil management practices that are suited to dry conditions and improving water retention in the Tukituki catchment, as well as on-farm water storage. Only if it is established that environmental ‘headroom’ in fact then exists – to safely accommodate more intensified farming – should we consider a major dam, and explore its financial viability within that proven environmentally sustainable regime. Until then the proposed Ruataniwha scheme seems far too risky for the environment, too dubious in terms of economic benefit derived from quantum invested, and too financially risky for ratepayers.
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Vakameasina [ Treasures of Learning ] BY MARK SWEET PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK SWEET
Cliff Kwai from Vanuatu says: “You learn all your life until you die, because everything is always changing...”
The classroom is a pre-fab. Nearby, an ex-school hall has been converted to a lounge with comfy sofas and chairs, big flat screen TV, and a pool table. Across the driveway is a dining room and kitchen, and in a long low building beside apple trees, are the sleeping quarters. It is nearly seven o’clock. Men have finished their evening meal and are making their way to the lounge. They’ve had a long day picking and won’t be staying long. They have a five o’clock start in the morning. The accommodation and facilities are provided by their employer, a fruit grower, as part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, which sees around 3,500 Pacific Islanders living and working in Hawke’s Bay during the fruit-picking season. In the classroom, Pauline Hayes is turning on the computers and making sure the overhead monitor is working. Her password doesn’t pass and she calls a colleague for help. All is well by the time a mini-bus pulls up outside and a group of men take their seats for their first lesson in computer use. These men too have worked all day, and they have yet to eat. Pauline has brought chicken and bread and salad. But the lesson comes first, and it’s soon obvious that enthusiasm to learn computer skills outweighs thoughts of food. Most of the men have cell phones; they text, and talk, and Google, but none have used a computer before. Pauline asks them to write about themselves; their names, where they are from, who comprise their families. She shows how to create a Word document, how to connect to the web, and how to download photos from websites and attach it to the text. Most have no trouble with using the keyboard; the configuration is the same as their phones. And a printer churns out a hard copy of each man’s story and a picture. In Havelock North more RSE workers have gathered at the Arohanui Centre in Middle Road. There are five women in the group of mostly men, and four are learning to use modern sewing machines, but one woman stays with the men to hear Matt Stewart talk about chainsaws. She tells the group she has a chainsaw back home. Maintenance and safety is the main message, but not until Matt introduces his six chainsaws, each one bigger than the other, and talks about cross-cut and ripper chains, and long bars, and girth and grunt. He has his audience intrigued when he strips down a chainsaw, pointing out where and what is damaged when they aren’t maintained properly, or are fed the wrong fuel mix. Filters, chains, carburettors and clutches are passed around, and Matt has some practical gauges for measuring the 50:1 fuel to oil ratio. “No,” he says to a question, “a cap of cooking oil is not okay.” In a room next-door Liz Maddock is showing her students how to size patterns for dress making, and each has a near-new machine to sew on. Later she will assist her students in choosing durable models most suitable for purchase to take back home. Liz Maddock is regional co-ordinator for the education programme, Vakameasina, which in 2016 is fully subscribed with over 800 places filled by RSE workers. The RSE scheme brings workers from Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga to Hawke’s Bay to prune, pick, and pack. They play a vital role in the fruit-growing and viticulture industries. Without them much of the fruit wouldn’t come off the trees and grapes wouldn’t make their way to the bottle. “It is not easy for them,” says Liz Maddock, “they are separated from their families, and living in a very different environment and culture. And it’s hard work.”
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Training emphasises the practical, from installing solar panels ...
Vakameasina began in 2010 after a government review of the first year of the RSE scheme decided ‘to fund a pilot training scheme to lift the literacy, numeracy and financial literacy of RSE adult migrant workers, who often had relatively limited formal education.’ (Roorda, 2011- www.aid.govt.nz) “Some students have never been to school and have low literacy skills,” confirms Liz Maddock, “but some, women especially, can have great numeracy skills from selling in the market. They can calculate much quicker than I can.” The scheme is funded through the New Zealand Aid Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Fruition Horticulture (BOP) Ltd were the successful tenderers to design and deliver a training programme. In consultation they identified five core modules around which to teach literacy and numeracy skills: • Financial and Personal Goal Setting • Budgeting in New Zealand • Payslips, Deductions and Employee Rights and Responsibilities • Remittances • Health and Safety These topics are taught in night classes, and extensively covered on the Vakameasina website (www.vakameasina. co.nz), and for all but Health and Safety, are straightforward to teach.
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“We learn how to convert a grass cutter to an outboard motor by putting a propellor on the end. That was very useful. And we learn how to use a bicycle to make power by attaching an alternator to charge a battery.” As Liz Maddock explains: “We have developed ways to help students take responsibility for their personal health, including eating well, hygiene, and sexual health.” Assisting in developing resources was Gill Lough, now retired, but formally a family planning health promoter based in Hawke’s Bay. Lough was first involved in the RSE scheme in 2009 when she assisted with a programme for the employers, educating them about recognising health issues, and how best to help their workers. Later she worked directly with workers and soon saw the importance “to be careful that the messages being given are the correct messages.” And she recalls an experience when, “talking with a group in Hastings about healthy food they said they didn’t eat fish,” because it was not healthy food. “Someone had told them fish and chips were bad for you.” Of course, it was the frying in oil process that was unhealthy, not the fish itself. Educating from the stance of rights and responsibilities is a core of Vakameasina. As
Gill Lough explains, RSE workers “have the right to a minimum number of hours’ work each week, the right to dry, warm, sanitary housing, and the right to see a doctor if they need to, but they also have responsibilities. “A simple health responsibility is to wash hands after going to the toilet, which isn’t always practised in some cultures. In the class washing hands is linked to singing happy birthday, and once when I visited a group of women, I could hear them singing happy birthday from the bathroom, and I fed that back to the teachers; that the students were integrating that part of the programme and remembering to do it. It sounds simple, but it’s an example of linking English teaching to washing hands, and our resource was working.” Liz Maddock saw the need to include the most delicate of health issues, sexual health, into the programme and with her background in family planning, Gill Lough, was invited to develop resources that made it easy to talk about sexual health in a way that was inclusive and unthreatening. “The basis was keeping yourself safe,” says Maddock, “and Gill developed a card
... to cooking
based system around the appropriateness of behaviour; what is okay, and what is not okay.” “It is a very sensitive topic,” says Lough, “so you have to do it gently, but you can be specific, and get the message across without offending people. Even with a mixed group you can do it without embarrassing people.” While the Vakameasina education programme has literacy and numeracy at its core, the range of topics offered has expanded since inception, largely due to asking the students what it is they would like to learn.
At the Arohanui Centre, Coral Gardiner is instructing how to install and hook up a solar panel, at the request of her students. And as Cliffson Willie Kwai from Vanuatu explains: “Many people don’t have electricity back home so this is very useful.” He first learned solar technology last year and has since installed a panel at his house on the island of Ambae, “for lighting and charging the phone.” Cliff Kwai is most interested in courses with a practical application. He has learned
how to set out house foundations using a hose filled with water as a level, and how to maintain small engines – generator, lawn mower, chainsaw. And he says: “We learn how to convert a grass cutter to an outboard motor by putting a propellor on the end. That was very useful. And we learn how to use a bicycle to make power by attaching an alternator to charge a battery.” Cliff speaks English well, “because I joined a cruise ship when I was 17 and
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Page 53 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Liz Maddock
Gill Lough
“It is not easy for them. They are separated from their families, and living in a very different environment and culture.” learned on the boat.” But he says: “I asked my friends what they wanted more of [from Vakameasina] and they say, we want more English training.” And he adds, ‘Some people say two-hour (classes) not long enough, and every time tutor ask at end of course, people say, we want more.” Liz Maddock attests to the enthusiasm for learning expressed by the RSE workers when she conducts end-of-class evaluations, and she says “a lot of students say how surprised they are at how easy it was to learn.” Cliff Kwai attributes his attitude to learning to his father, a retired teacher, who told him: “You learn all your life until you die, because everything is always changing, especially with all the new technology.” He recognises the value of education for his own children, and as well as saving for the their future schooling, he is currently paying for his sons to learn English and French. In preparation for the next week’s class on cooking, Coral asks her students what they’d like to learn. Cookies, says a woman. Banana cake, says another, and a man wants to know how to make chicken curry. Other requests are for steamed vegetables, salads, and Cliff Kwai asks for potato gratin. Coral Gardiner is one of the mainstays of Vakameasina, and along with other tutors Trish Cummins, Mathilda Schorer, Hilary Heath-Caldwell, Katherine Searancke, and Yavanna Redgrave, deliver invaluable instruction and resources to RSE workers. The impact of their teaching was observed by Gill Lough when she visited
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The Vakameasina education programme is offered free to participants. Vanuatu and “saw solar panels, and a village installing new water systems, and one had opened a new clinic” … all with knowledge from the Vakameasina programme. Cliff Kwai is building a new house for his family which includes “a room for my parents, a room for my brother, and for my own family.” And says Cliff: “The certificate we get at the end of the course, especially from the leadership classes, has meant some people have got jobs with the government. They’ve learned how to run meetings and organise people.” And as Gill Lough observed: “Some of what they [RSE workers] learn in New Zealand is unexpected.”
In one village she met a couple who “were doing things together; taking up projects and running with them.” The woman accompanying Lough said she had noticed how men took greater interest in family life on returning from New Zealand, and some of the children said it was good seeing their dads do work he hadn’t done before. The Vakameasina education programme is offered free to participants, who are also subsidised with travel expenses, and often supplied with a meal. It is an invaluable resource for the RSE workers, who play such a vital role in the Hawke’s Bay horticulture industry, and a constructive way of giving thanks for their contribution.
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COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU – COASTAL HAZARDS Hawke’s Bay Regional Council
STORMS, WAVE DIRECTION AND ENERGY, BEACH AND CLIFF PROFILES, AND MAN-MADE STRUCTURES – THEY ALL NEED CAREFUL CONSIDERATION WHEN THINKING ABOUT HOW OUR COASTLINE COULD CHANGE IN THE FUTURE. SEA LEVEL RISE BETWEEN 0.5 AND 1.5M IS PREDICTED OVER THE NEXT 100 YEARS, SO THE SEA WILL HAVE AN INCREASING IMPACT ON THE SHAPE OF OUR COAST. A project being pushed along by some of the region’s councils and tāngata whenua groups will help people better understand the possible impacts of these hazards, and develop plans to lessen their possible effects on our community. The power of tsunami was shown to be horrific on Boxing Day 2004 in Sumatra and Thailand and in the more recent event which decimated the Japanese coast in April 2011. Locally, there is a focus on tsunami, as well as the increasing effects of coastal erosion and coastal inundation. People in Hawke’s Bay are familiar with images of homes wrecked by coastal swells at Te Awanga or the stretches of gravel beach at Westshore seasonally eroded by wave action. This is life at the coast as we know it. But jump forward to 2065 or 2120 and these effects will be more pronounced. New research tells us what our much-prized coastline will look like due to sea level rise in the 100 years to 2120. The good news is that our communities and local authorities have time to plan and to make appropriate decisions.
In her 2014 report, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment stated that, over the past century, the average global sea level rise has been about 20cm. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change expects average sea levels to rise by up to a metre by 2100, while identifying that about 70% of coastlines worldwide are projected to experience sea level change within about 20% of the global mean. Climate change could result in more severe storms hitting Hawke’s Bay. Factoring in these predictions, an impact on our coastline is certain.
Hawke’s Bay people who live, work and play in our coastal areas will – over time – feel the impacts of sea level rise. What is being done? The ‘Clifton to Tangoio Coastal Hazards Strategy 2120’ investigates long-term coastal hazards. This cross-council and tāngata whenua led approach has agencies working together to manage or reduce the risks from these hazards along Hawke’s Bay’s shoreline. And what of the faces behind this important work? In this case, the Coastal Hazards Joint Committee includes Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Napier City and Hastings
www.hbrc.govt.nz
ADVERTORIAL District Councils, with tāngata whenua groupings Mana Ahuriri, Maungaharuru Tangitū and He Toa Takitini. The aim is to understand what these coastal risks mean and work to build a more resilient community. To start with, this work focuses on the most populated stretch of Hawke’s Bay coast, from Tangoio to Clifton. Broadly, and longer term, there are two ways to act. One is to protect people and property from the hazard; the other is to move them so they won’t be affected by the hazard. “We are likely to end up with a mixture of both of these concepts,” says Peter Beaven, Chair of the Coastal Hazards Joint Committee. “The key issue will be what the Hawke’s Bay community can afford in the long term. By considering these issues now we can take an informed and planned approach to making these decisions,” added Mr Beaven. Napier is known as a coastal city, so any remedy needs to be planned carefully and not rushed into, according to Napier Mayor Bill Dalton. “Making a change in one place in the Bay can affect another. There is a need to maintain Napier’s best coastal features as well as we can, not just for our residents but visitors as well. We are, after all, a tourist destination and one of the main reasons visitors come here is for our coastal scenery. But how do we do that with a limited number of ratepayers?” “Perhaps it’s time for Central Government to step up,” he says. “It’s not just Napier that is affected, Some of New Zealand’s big cities are expected to be affected to varying degrees, that is Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington. Why can’t we share this cost across the whole of New Zealand, because it does affect everyone,” adds Mayor Dalton. Comments from tāngata whenua give balance and weight to this project. Tania Hopmans speaks to hapū and marae for Maungaharuru Tangitū. She relates the coastal impacts following Napier’s 1931 earthquake. “Natural disasters like the 1931 earthquake resulted in massive change to our landscape and our lives. Much of Te Whanganui-ā-Orotu - the Napier inner harbour - was uplifted, with the loss of a taonga and source of kai for many hapū. The benefit of the research conducted for this project is the time we have to understand the changes coming to our patch of the coast, and importantly to explore options with our whānau, hapū and marae and then to get plans under action.”
Mike Adye is HBRC’s Group Manager Asset Management and the project’s convenor. While wary of the scale of the planning issues to be addressed, in particular the potential future effects on property owners who live along the coast, he is mindful of the need to plan and ultimately act. “The project team was established in 2014. We’ve taken a careful and deliberate approach, seeking to use the best science we can and learning from similar work carried out in other parts of the country.” This is a complex project that looks into the future. It assesses how increased storm energy and possible tsunami scenarios will affect coastal erosion rates and the frequency of storm waves overtopping beaches, using 2015, 2065 and 2120 time plots. New research on coastal inundation and erosion adds to studies already completed that model tsunami effects from a 3m, 5m or 10m event – representing the effects of a once in every 200, 750 and 4,000 years tsunami.
It is certain that sea levels will rise, but authorities are not certain how fast this will happen. The Coastal Hazards Joint Committee is taking a staged approach, breaking this project into four parts. The first stage is concluding now, having defined the hazards and understanding the risks around those hazards. Stage 2 will focus on getting the framework in place to make decisions, which will wrap up in 2016. Stage 3 will see responses developed and agreed for some of the most at-risk coastal areas. Stage 4 then starts in 2017 and will continue for many years, when agreed measures will be put in place. Realistically these plans will be considered by the respective Councils in their long term financial plans, and will be open to consultation in the next round of Long Term Plans early in 2018.
If you know it, show it As of 3 May 2016, new hazard information is available publicly on relevant property owner LIMs (land information memorandums). The councils and tāngata whenua working on this project agreed on the need to share this
Brett Monteith Mobile 021 1684 381 bretthamiltonmonteith@gmail.com facebook.com/gupillodes
information publicly, so that property transactions can rely on informed decision-making. While the new information may result in changes to regional and district planning rules in the future, there are no immediate plans to change existing regulations. Saying that, regulatory changes may come through as a result of working with community groups, deciding how agencies respond to the risks. Coastal Erosion Scenarios have been modelled for coastal erosion with a range of probabilities ranging from ‘almost certain’ to be an impact in the specified time frame, to ‘very unlikely’ that there will be an impact. Rates of erosion are very storm dependant, since large amounts of erosion can occur in any storm. The timeframe in which an impact occurs will depend on the size and frequency of storms hitting our coast, and the direction that waves come from. The only part of this that can be predicted is the average annual rate of erosion.
Good information can help anyone who might be affected to plan and prepare for the likely effects of climate change over time.
Predicted coastal inundation: the lighter pink shows how the area expands between 2065 and 2120.
ADVERTORIAL
Wave models assume a worst case and that of reaching
Coastal Inundation Coastal inundation is flooding by the sea. It happens where high tides and storm surges overcome coastal barriers (natural or manmade). This leads to low-lying coastal land being flooded. With sea level rise, more and more areas are susceptible. Project modelling focuses on areas most likely to be affected by waves over-topping beach crests. The models rely on the effects of spring/ seasonal tides, storm surge events and the compounding effects of sea level rise. Tsunami Tsunami hazard mapping has modelled the potential effects of different heights of waves, coming from near source (Lachlan Fault) or distant source (Chile, Peru, etc.) earthquake events.
Mike Adye is HBRC’s Group Manager Asset Management and the pr the coast at high tide. They conservatively represent the the scale of the planning issues to be addressed, in inland flooding that may occur from a once in every 200, 750 and 4,000 years tsunami.
Stage 1: Define the Problem
Stage 2: Framework for Decisions
Stage 3: Develop Responses
Stage 4: Respond
A h p o
m
particular the potential future effects on property owners As of 3 May this year, new hazard who live along the coast, he is mindful of the need to plan information becomes public on and ultimately act. relevant property owner LIMs (land
information memorandums). “The project team was established in 2014. We’ve taken a careful a to use the best science we can and learning from similar work carrie country.”
This is a complex project that looks into the future. It assesses how possible tsunami scenarios will affect coastal erosion rates and the overtopping beaches, using 2015, 2065 and 2120 time plots. New re and erosion adds to studies already completed that model tsunami event – representing the effects of a once in every 200, 750 and 4,0
The Coastal Hazards Joint Committee is taking a staged approach, b parts. The first stage is concluding now, having defined the hazards around those hazards. Stage 2 will focus on getting the framework will wrap up in 2016. Stage 3 will see responses developed and agre coastal areas. Stage 4 then starts in 2017 and will continue for man will be put in place.
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As of 3 May 2016, new hazard information is available publicly on r (land information memorandums). The councils and tāngata when on the need to share this information publicly, so that property tran Gardening & tree trimmings... decision-‐making. Monday - Friday 8-5, sat 8-12 $10 per vehicle Green waste MUST be free of all other rubbish
While the new information may result in changes to regional and di there are no immediate plans to change existing regulations.
Saying that, regulatory changes may come through as a result of wo deciding how agencies respond to the risks.
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Karen Toulmin
Page 60 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Going the Distance BY LIZZIE RUSSELL
When the inaugural Air New Zealand Hawke’s Bay International Marathon was announced in June last year, I was struck by the glossy, familiar Hawke’s Bay-style marketing. It looked like a fun weekend away with friends in wine country. The golden hues of autumn vineyards. Big Hawke’s Bay skies. A couple laughing in a cellar door. The imagery clashed with my idea of a marathon, which is something painful and totally foreign. Long distance runners themselves have always seemed like another species. But they are among us, and they’ve been training. The Bay’s first marathon event on May 14 (which also includes 10 kilometre and half-marathon options) will see an influx of first-time and veteran runners from around New Zealand and overseas. Plus for a number of local runners, it’s a chance to enjoy a little home-turf advantage on the flat limestone track. I met with three Hawke’s Bay runners to explore how and why they keep at it. As it turns out, they’re a lot like the rest of us, only faster … and more durable. Lucas Du Rossi, 20 “Running at its greatest is alone, no music, no pain, early in the morning, gliding – it feels like flying,” says Lucas. “You just wish those flying days would happen more on race days.” Lucas is one of a handful of what he calls “club runners with no lives”. They’re at the point where they work jobs in order to be able to run. They’re knocking on the door of the truly elite level, and the training-racing sequence is what drives them through their days and weeks. He’s planning to do the half marathon in May. “I’m better at the short stuff.” Full marathon runners peak in their early to mid thirties and 42 kilometres is not a distance he’s race-ready for. But he’s been interested to see the running tracks around the Tukituki
filling with new faces in recent months. “Some I’ve just started seeing out there and I’m thinking, shit, it’s only a month away!” So if not a marathon on a limestone track, what’s his ideal run or race? “A hilly, wet, cold cross-country in the middle of winter. Gnarly!” A regular with Napier Harriers, Lucas started running at sixteen after a few years as a tearaway youth had left him
“Running at its greatest is alone, no music, no pain, early in the morning, gliding – it feels like flying. You just wish those flying days would happen more on race days.” LUCAS DU ROSSI lost and low. He decided to say yes to the next opportunity, and that happened to be a family friend inviting him for a 10 kilometre run. He was surprised to find running came easily. He’d hated team sports and PE at school, but the solitude, the tangible progress and the competitve nature of running hooked him then. He’s still hooked now. “Maybe when I’m fifty there’ll be something else that gives me the same thing that running does now,” but for the foreseeable future he’s putting one sneakered foot in front of the other.
Eric Phimister, 65 One of Lucas’ role models is a senior figure in the Harriers club and the wider Hawke’s Bay running scene, Eric Phimister. He finished fifth in the recent Specsavers Hastings half marathon (which Lucas won), but is sitting the HB Marathon out. Eric has run four marathons since taking up running at 38. Highlights have been returning for a marathon in his hometown Lymington on England’s coast, and travelling with his brother, sister and sister-in-law to Amsterdam to complete that marathon alongside thousands of international runners. But the ongoing joy for Eric is the Harriers club, where a broad community of mixed ability is growing year upon year. “Parents bring the children along and watch the kids running and then decide to get into it too. And then you’ve got one of our members Eric Speakman, who’s working towards qualifying for Rio.” A regular still in masters (35 years and over) races, Eric runs distances of eight to twenty-four kilometres about five times a week. Why? There’s a hundred reasons and there’s no reason. It’s part of him, he says. “Running is wonderful for head clearing and problem solving. You’re out there and there’s nothing more to do, your body is running and you just have your thoughts. I think everyone should run.” Everyone? Eric concedes that there are some decent reasons for individuals not to run, but insists that for the most part it’s just about finding your body’s natural pace and style. “You’ve got your Morris Minors and
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Eric Phimister your E-Type Jags – like Lucas. My wife runs too. She’d call herself a plodder, but she’s still a runner.” Karen Toulmin, 32 When I mention Karen Toulmin to Eric, he grins. “She beat me in the Hastings half, she came in fourth.” Another E-Type Jag then. Karen is taking on the full marathon in May, the first she’s done in seven years since having her two children and taking up her main sport, triathlon. “I’m looking forward to the course – it’s flat, so it’ll be kind in that respect. My aim is to run it in good time with sustainable pace, so I don’t hit the 30 kilometre mark and collapse or have to walk. They’re not going to be fourminute kilometres!” Karen is an Australian import living on a sheep and beef farm up the Taihape Road with her Kiwi husband and their children. It’s a life lived at full throttle, especially when you throw in 15–18 hours a week of running, swimming and cycling training. Karen was a sporty child and kept the running up through her high school and university years when many others let it go. She had her children at 28 and 29 and
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Lucas Du Rossi
“You’ve got your Morris Minors and your E-Type Jags – like Lucas. My wife runs too. She’d call herself a plodder, but she’s still a runner.” ERIC PHIMISTER felt that it was: “Three years of kids, kids, kids. I needed to find a balance and take on something for myself. I’m all about remembering that kids don’t have to stop you doing something you really want to do.” She finds one of the benefits of her regime is the enthusiasm her children are already showing towards physical activity. Right on the verge of professional level, Karen is in her third full season of triathlon. “I’ve really worked out in the last twelve months that this is absolutely what I want to do, so I’m giving it everything.” To that end, Karen has had to face up to the selfpromotion side of a sports career. It hasn’t been a natural step, though you wouldn’t know that to look at her Facebook page or website karentoulmin.com The big event for Karen this year is the Triathlon World Champs (30-34 year age group) on Australia’s Sunshine Coast. “I’m
not going over there to come second,” she says, “I’m working really, really hard.” A total of close to 5,000 people will be participating in the three events on May 14. You can find the course map and all other information at:
hawkesbaymarathon.co.nz
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Garden of Eaden
Parlour Projects
The beautiful high-ceiling space at the Hastings Community Art Centre on Russell Street has a jam-packed lineup this autumn and winter. Exhibitions change every couple of weeks here and it’s often a great spot for discovering new artists with work at affordable prices. From June 30 to July 2 John Eaden presents his third exhibition here. His paintings depict interpreted and invented landscapes using Hawke’s Bay as a starting point. “In my work I hope to connect with the viewers and convey a sense of time, place and identity,” says John. Some of the paintings are based on actual locations in and around Hastings; others, inhabited by figures, are imagined and refer to European painting in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. See creativehastings.org.nz/ exhibitions for the latest on shows at the Community Arts Centre.
Twenty-six year old Sophie Wallace didn’t originally envisage Hastings as the spot for her first contemporary dealer gallery. But things happen. Good things, fortuitous things. The redevelopment of the old Municipal Power House (now home to the Opera Kitchen too) has resulted in a beautifully light-filled, open space for Sophie’s gallery, Parlour. Timing is working nicely too – the gallery opened in mid-April and Sophie is coming to the end of a contract with the Auckland Art Fair, after which she’ll be here in the Bay permanently, presenting work from emerging and established contemporary New Zealand artists. On opening night people sauntered from HCAG’s Visiting Asia opening along Eastbourne Street to Parlour, and Hastings felt cool. The place was packed with people. There was an excited air about the room. A collecton of Ans Westra and Wayne Youle’s collaborations hung on the walls – terrific work but you’d only have seen them if you went back after the crowd left. “I’m sensing that Hastings is on the verge of a renaissance, and it’s great to be a part of that,” Sophie said the following day. And what of the bigger picture? Dealing art in the age of the internet?
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Sophie honed her skills at New York’s famed Pace Gallery before returning to New Zealand and developing Parlour while working in Auckland. She hopes to develop her own career alongside those of emerging artists she represents. There’s something perfect about that – a young gallerist working with her own contemporaries, using technology and techniques that are very much of this time. The first show Ans Westra and Wayne Youle: The Best Stories Ever Told (Revisited) is presented in conjuction with renowned Wellington dealer gallery, {Suite}, and is on until May 14. After that, local phototgrapher Billie Culy will have an artist-in-residency at Parlour – creating new works in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. Parlour is open Wednesday to Saturday from 10am to 3pm or by appointment.
parlourprojects.com @parlourprojects
Visiting Asia in Hastings The opening of Visiting Asia at Hastings City Art Gallery in mid-April suggested the cities of Asia as the new art pilgrimage destination, taking the place of Paris and New York. The crowd was younger than usual, vibrant and involved, enjoying Vietnamese lemonade and goodie bags of paper cranes and lychee lollies while surrounded by recent work from some seriously major contemporary New Zealand artists. Visiting Asia is a show developed by Te Tuhi in Auckland, HCAG and the Asia New Zealand Foundation, based on an earlier exhibition at Pataka in Porirua called Imagine Asia. It features work in a mix of media and materials made by New Zealand artists while on residencies in Asian countries including China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. HCAG favourites Reuben Paterson (whose solo exhibition filled the main gallery with enormous glitter paintings in 2014) and Tiffany Singh (she presented the food item
– beeswax icon swapping interactive project here in 2012) are joined by a group including Ben Buchanan, Kushan Bush, Steve Carr, Liyen Chong, Tim Corballis, Kerry Ann Lee, Jae Hoon Lee, and Erica van Zon. Together these artists give the viewer a whirlwind glance at new places and cultures through a New Zealand lens, and at the same time offer an exciting snapshot of the outward-looking, connected current state and future of contemporary NZ art. Visiting Asia is on until July 17.
Young Country at MTG Contemporary research and poetry by Kerry Hines collides with photographs from 19th century railway employee William Williams in a new exhibition at MTG Hawke’s Bay. Young Country offers a new and multifaceted view into our collective history through Kerry’s wry, accessible poems and the photographs themselves have been re-created as gorgeous albumen prints by contemporary photographer Wayne Barrar. The exhibition runs until June 26.
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Caring Online Social media is providing a platform for social giving in Hawke’s Bay as community groups gain strength and numbers. ‘You made my day – Hawke’s Bay’ is a public Facebook group founded by Silke Whittaker seven months ago that has gained almost 3,000 members. It’s an online space where the Hawke’s Bay community share acts of kindness, engage with each other, and offer or ask for a hand to share the load. Since the group’s inception countless acts of kindness have been exchanged, from home baking and excess fresh fruit and plants to meals in restaurants for busy mums, vouchers, beauty treatments and free professional services. “Pretty much everyday somebody’s day is made by an exchange of kindness,” says Silke. “I encourage Hawke’s Bay people to join the group on Facebook and get creative in their ideas for making someone’s day. With winter approaching, surplus heaters, warm clothing, blankets, bedding, excess firewood etc would be appreciated so everybody can stay warm and cosy during the coming months.” Everyday neccesities are becoming common features within the group too. “During the last seven months I’ve realised that there is a huge need for the basics, like groceries, out there in the community. Lots of families, solo parents and people in general struggle to meet the basic needs.” This insight inspired Silke to contact local supermarkets to see if they would be willing to donate food vouchers for people in need. Countdown responded to the query promptly and offered a weekly
Photo: Hastings Countdown manager, Richard O’Mahony with ‘You Made My Day’ founder Silke Whittaker and Countdown group manager, Wayne Dohmen.
$100 grocery voucher for a family, person or organisation in need for the next three months. Every Monday a post in ‘You made my day – Hawke’s Bay’ asks for nominations of a family, person or organisation. Every Wednesday the recipient is announced. Other Facebook groups doing good in our community include ‘Magic Beans’, which facilitates the swap of homegrown and homemade goods and enables a fortnightly koha box for a family or organisation in need, and ‘Out and About with the Kids in Hawke’s Bay’, which is a family support page giving voice and sharing advice for young families. You made my day – Hawke’s Bay: facebook.com/groups/youmademydayhawkesbay Out and About with Kids in Hawke’s Bay: facebook.com/OutAndAboutWithKidsInHawkesBay Magic Beans Hawke’s Bay: facebook.com/groups/1227167697312060
The Beating Heart of theVillage A community fundraising drive continues in Havelock North as locals seek to make up the shortfall in the funding needed for the Havelock North Village Green upgrade. Moving the historic Eric Phillips designed cricket pavilion was not included in Hastings District Council’s initial plan for the park’s upgrade, but local support has seen it added to the list of developments. Locals are tasked with raising $150,000 to cover half the cost of the building’s relocation to the place of the current Plunket building on the Te Mata Rd side of the Village Green. “It’s a wonderful example of the community coming together,” says Hastings-Havelock North ward councillor and mayoral hopeful Adrienne Pierce.
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“Moving the pavilion and bringing all the action together will centre the place.” Hastings District Council are spending $1.5 million on the project which will see the Village Green become a hub for the
growing village of Havelock North. The upgrade will include a revamp of the skate area, a children's ‘splashpad’, seating, and shaded areas. Work is expected to be complete by summer.
NAPIER IN COLOUR Napier is looking more colourful than ever thanks to the 29 street art projects which make up New Zealand’s first Sea Walls Festival. You can find out more about the murals, the artists and the work of international nonprofit, the PangeaSeed Foundation at: www.pangeaseed.foundation Download the map and spend some time scouting the city and Ahuriri for these murals with marine conservation messages. Murals as numbered below:
The Smiling Tattooist Most people would agree that tattoos have now nestled comfortably into the mainstream. That being the case, isn’t it time more of us knew and followed the work of some of the artists at the top of the game?
1. Aaron Glasson, photo by Tre Packard 2. Charles and Janine Williams, photo by Janine Williams 3. Askew One, photo by Zane Meyer 4. DSide, photo by Yoshi Yanagita
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
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Last November at the International Tattoo and Art Festival in New Plymouth, Hawke’s Bay’s Karl van den Linden took out the Marv Lerning Tattoo Machines Award for Best of Day – Saturday, beating many internationally renowned artists. His winning tattoo – an intricate and delicate, smoky black and white leg sleeve – is consistent with the style he’s been developing over the last four years. Karl describes his signature look as “Realismsurrealism” and it’s proving a winner with tattoo enthusiasts from the Bay and beyond. There is currently a six-month waiting list to get in at Karl’s friendly private studio, Only the Brave, in Taradale. A creative child, Karl grew up drawing and making art, and always expecting excellence of himself, often discarding drawings out of frustration. “If you can imagine something but you’re not getting there, it drives you crazy!” Karl began a traditional tattoo apprenticeship with Napier’s Bloodline Tattoo Company at 21. He learned the classic techniques and refined his skill, but says “I’d always envisaged a softer line, black and greys, a different kind of work, and that’s what I’ve been trying to create since then.”
facebook.com/KvlTattooer-653095774739032/ instagram.com/kvl_tattooer/
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BOOK REVIEWS
Title: Shackleton’s Journey Author: William Grill Publisher: Flying Eye Books Price: $32.99
Title: Raymie Nightingale Author: Kate DiCamillo Publisher: Walker Books Price: $22.99
Title: The Course of Love Author: Alain de Botton Publisher: Penguin Price: $37.00
This is a beautiful, detailed children’s picture book, full of information on Shackleton’s perilous and dramatic two-year journey to Antarctica. It begins with a short biography of the man himself (didn’t like teachers, but did like books) and covers the preparation that resulted in 26 out of 5,000 applicants and 69 dogs being selected as crew for the journey.
Within the first few pages of this wonderful book aimed at readers of about nine and up, we know that Raymie, Beverley and Louisiana are all at the terrifying Ida Nee’s baton twirling lessons for diverse but important reasons. We also know that the three girls will be friends, joined together through the bizarre circumstances of their lives.
The Antarctic palette of grey, blue, white and black, printed on parchment-like paper give the book the effect of an artefact from the journey itself. The production of the book ensures that it will become a family favourite, something to be treasured and passed on.
Raymie is recently fatherless and is convinced that should she win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition he will see her in the newspaper and come home. She has also recently been abandoned by her surf lifesaving coach whose advice she takes extremely seriously – ‘flex your toes and isolate your objectives’. The girls’ journey toward competition success (or sabotage, which is Beverley’s objective) leads them to use each other’s strengths to support each other through their weaknesses.
What happens after the ‘happy ever after’? Rabih and Kirsten meet, fall in love, marry and have children; conventional novels might end the story there. The point of difference with this novel is that it is a philosophical investigation into a relationship after the first flush, a real marriage that suffers the tension between two distinct personalities with their own deep-seated issues.
Exciting Wardini Books News In April Gareth Ward AKA The Great Wardini, co-proprietor of Wardini Books (with wife and our reviewer Louise) added another string to his bow. He was awarded the 2016 Storylines Tessa Duder Award for his manuscript The Sin Chronicles: New Blood. The Tessa Duder Award is made biennially, when merited, to a New Zealand writer for a published or unpublished work of fiction for young adult readers aged 13 and above. Gareth’s book will be published by Walker Books in 2017. Congratulations Gareth! Wardini Books are moving into the Napier market, opening a second store to complement their Havelock North shop. You’ll be able to find them at 44 Hastings Street (next to Bistronomy) from 1 July.
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Each girl finds that she is brave enough to conquer life’s trials, with or without the Little Miss Central Florida Tire crown, and that with good friends, there’s not much that can’t be faced. Told with great humour and love, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
Louise Ward – www.wardini.co.nz
A strength of the writing is the insertion of a third, neutral voice in the relationship between Rabih and Kirsten. It analyses their actions, reactions and responses, their misunderstandings and stubborn refusals. Many novels leave us screaming at characters not to do this or say that – de Botton’s third voice does this for us, winnowing out root causes for certain behaviours, viewing and offering situations up for non-judgmental inspection. This is a novel that endeavours to gently point toward universal human failing but also great human strength. It is an examination of the nature of love after the hormones have calmed, a long term relationship that is not plain sailing, that stretches and shifts, that accommodates and survives. The Course of Love is a wonderful tale of a thoroughly ordinary relationship, but elevated by its gentle observations on what it is to live with another person.
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
My First Time: Pleasures of the clay BY MARGOT WUTS Every activity seems to be that much more exciting when it involves getting dirty. From weeding in the rain when the soil turns to mud, to kneading wet dough and ending up covered in flour and crusty dried bits. Both of these things I love very much. Possibly it's the sensory memory of playing in dirt as a child that makes this experience so delightful, but more likely I just love the feeling of mud squelching between my fingers. Another habit was carrying around a large sketchbook, trying to imitate the beautiful nude paintings on my childhood home walls. There was something so much easier about not having to bother with drawing clothes and something alluring about the opportunity to explore the naked bod in such a permissible way – much to my grandmother's disgust!
was rearing its head and I could see by this time that I was creating something not too shabby. Realising that the proportions that felt the most right to me were my own was a heartening revelation. Although I have a penchant for the female form, this feeling doesn't necessarily always extend to my own.
What began as an idea of something new to try for this column became an amazing combination of the two most gratifying occupations of my childhood, and a truly wonderful morning.
A little bit more clay, and more gentle touching and I was done. I couldn’t have imagined that I’d come away from this morning having made something that I loved, but I did.
I am not the most confident when meeting new people and this became quite obvious to the darling woman who had so generously offered her time to me, so we started off with a good strong coffee and a chat to get the morning started. I felt very fortunate to have the opportunity to get to know the remarkably talented Kay Bazzard, wizard of the human form.
I'm also grateful that the memories of things I loved as a child were awoken in me again. Everyone needs to remember the uncluttered pleasures of childhood.
Shortly after, feeling completely at ease and more than a little excited about the morning's plan, I followed my tutor down through her garden to the studio. The surrounding trees and bush made it easy to feel inspired and I kept catching glimpses in the undergrowth of moss-covered works of art calling me over to discover their history.
Bringing Home the Gold Winning national recognition for the quality of our design and print work
Already having come to terms with the likelihood that my work would be abstract in style, and not for a moment thinking that I might actually be able to create something believable, I was thrown to discover that my morning mission would be sculpting a female torso. With my clay in front of me, a lumpy tubular, thing, I felt as though I was at kindergarten with no idea where to begin. The starting point was a lesson in the skeletal structure of the human body, which I quickly came to see as being quite crucial in the process. As a result of this, and expert guidance, to my utter shock a lovely shape started to emerge. After a while I felt something was a little off-balance, but standing back to see things in perspective I soon realised that being so generously endowed myself made the pert little boobs look out of place and unrealistic. The problem was easily fixed with a bit of extra clay and a gentle touch – a very gentle touch! The naked female form is just so beautiful to me and I was completely entranced with the process; how when one really studies the form of a body part it becomes the same as any other. One shoulder was looking as though it was suffering from some pretty severe muscle wastage, and although at first I had anticipated the need to be a lot freer with my interpretation, my competitive side
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Grand Old Dames with Fresh New Energy Mangapapa Hotel
Boutique hotels housed in historic homes may seem to some people an old-fashioned hark back to an English past, but there are a couple of examples here in Hawke’s Bay with interesting histories and modern outlooks. Both Mangapapa Hotel and and Ormlie Lodge are seriously hitting their straps in 2016. Mangapapa Hotel Originally the home of Sir James and Lady Wattie, this slice of Hawke’s Bay history was purchased by Japanese buyers in 1998. It’s just had a $4 million, six-month refurbishment, and Mangapapa has already received a TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award just months after reopening. The refurbishment included revamps of each of the twelve luxury rooms, increased disabled accessibility throughout the buildings and an imaginative interior update designed by local company Smoke N Mirrors. While the accommodation brings in visitors from around the world, the restaurant attracts local diners looking for something unique. Executive chef Paul Condron’s ‘paddock to plate’ philosophy sees him tailoring his menus to guests, using as much produce as possible grown on the estate. On the first Thursday evening of each month the team presents Mangapapa Plates – a chance to enjoy a special chef ’s menu alongside wines of a selected winery. The restaurant is open to the public for
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dinner from Wednesday to Monday with a five-course set menu, and for high tea seven days a week. Bookings are essential. “Mangapapa high tea is gorgeous, and includes a glass of local Osawa Methode Traditionelle NV,” says Guest Relations star Emily Atkinson, “people have said it's better than The Ritz!”
Ormlie Lodge Anna Geor bought Ormlie 18 months ago and for most of that time has been managing the boutique hotel from New York where she’s been working. Anna moved home to Hawke’s Bay in March at the same time as her new guest experience manager Jess Fargher, and together they are developing plans to see Ormlie reach its potential. Anna is charmed by the Lodge’s past. “The house was built by William Nelson for his daughter Gertrude, and I’ve heard that she used to practice her golf swing on the balcony, hitting balls from up there towards the neighbouring golf course.” But her passion is for its future. Staffing
Ormlie's Anna Geor & Jess Fargher and ownership changes over recent years have meant there have been turbulent times, but now under Anna’s leadership things have stabilised. The cosy bar is a welcoming spot for an after-work drink, the ballroom is an adaptable space for up to 150 guests seated and head chef P Kennedy Taylor with sous chef Damian Oehlrich are extending the restaurant’s reputation for elegant dining. Plus, is there anywhere else in Hawke’s Bay where can you pop in for breakfast, lunch, dinner, high tea or a drink seven days a week?
WHANAUNGATANGA BY NGAHIWI TOMOANA
Twenty years or so ago I was here in Guangzhou and I remember reporting about baby girls being collected in early hours of the morning (4am while I was walking) and being delivered to the Grand Hotel where I was staying.
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planeload of American adoptive parents met and cuddled these babies for the first time before whisking them off to the States to become Americans. No sooner had they left than another planeload arrived. A further wave of excited parents also arrived before we left. That was during the days of the ‘One-Child’ policy and male babies were preferred. They reckon 3,500 unwanted baby girls were adopted every month in this way from this province. Twenty years on there are young girls about 20 years old, sisters and cousins to those I was talking about, everywhere walking, running and exercising as Mere and I walk the early morning streets. So it seems that not all the girls were exported, and just as well. They dominate the service industries, whereas 20 years ago it was the Filipinos who covered this field. One of the girls is even jogging in fashionable high heel running shoes. E ki e ki! Now Mere wants some, so no doubt we will be heading off to a fake shop to get a pair. Hong Kong is the safe and mature mega-city, with colonial architecture expression everywhere. And although high finance and bustling, it is almost like an old people’s home compared to Guangzhou whose buildings stick out at jaunty angles with curves and twists giving the fingers to tradition. And their food is like that too. In Hong Kong you get a perfectly sized and cooked fish fillet with the best sauces in a dainty dish. For the same price in Guangzhou you get the skin served up as entree, then the head and bones deep-fried, then the guts in a soup, then the
fillet in dripping gravies. Whoa! And these restaurants are serving our fish here and have been for a while. They want to increase volumes, but need security of supply before they go upping the ante in the marketplace; hence our visit here. These chain restaurateurs and superstore owners have all visited Hawke’s Bay Seafoods and been hosted at Tomahawk Lodge for an underground BBQ! They reminisce to Mere and I of the unique blend of food and hospitality they received from us, so turn everything on for our brief stays with them. Fresh fruit, food, fish, fashion and friendship. And that’s the main thing – friendship, relationships, whanaungatanga. Business increases as a result. They tell us it’s an important thing for them to be invited into our home, as over decades it’s the first time ever they’ve been into anyone’s home but their own.
D
uring our morning hikoi we walk along the river for about an hour and decided to break off and walk through a bit of scrubland. We walk down a well-kept walking track until we are stopped by a teen on a bike, who we can’t understand. Nor can he understand us, so he gesticulates for us to return the way we came. We can see the next road about a half-kilometre away, so we carry on and he follows us on his bike and we try to talk to communicate with each other. He goes to an app on his phone and shows me the quotation, “When the mountains and the rivers meet it is the end of the rope”. Okay we say and carry on walking for another 100 metres and he shows me another Confucius
saying, which on the app says, “The lunatics have taken over the asylum”. And as we are reading the app two armed guards arrive, make us turn around and we are marched back the way we came at gunpoint. When we are finally off the property and the guards turn back the boy on the bike shows us one more saying, “Still water runs deep”. We all laugh, high-five, shake hands and look for our next adventure. What I think he was trying to say was, “Turn around or get shot”. Then, “Have you lost your marbles?” Then, with an ‘I told you so’ look, “Run and don’t look back.”
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n the way back to the hotel, again off the beaten track, we come across a frog farm where frogs are being hacked in half and dropped into boiling fat, and a backyard piggery where pork heads are split, then marinated in oils and hot spices before being slowly basted in a waiting wok. Piglets are bonged on the head, gutted, and then stuffed with herbs to be slow roasted in nearby ovens. Everyone watches us watching them, and only get agitated when I try to photograph them. So I don’t and we are allowed to watch their goings on. We also come across a fisherman on the river using bamboo, a metre square net and a rope to catch hundreds of the small fish varieties we see everywhere in this once highly toxic river. Well enough for now. We are off to Shanghai. I wrote a good piece the other day but it vanished from my phone never to be seen again. My best korero never to be read! Take care, hope all going well. Mgoi, doxhie. Hei Kora.
Ngahiwi Tomoana is chairman of Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated and chairman of MBIE’s Maori Economic Development Advisory Board. Morgan getting his gear off at a Phoenix game.
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
MORE HIP THAN HIPPIE BY JENNIFER LE COMTE PHOTOGRAPHY BY TIM WHITTAKER
In 1974 one of the most popular healthy eating books of all time was published: Moosewood Cookbook. Its mothership was the Moosewood Cafe in New York, where chef Mollie Katzen served predominantly vegetarian cuisine. It became the hippie cookbook, full of whole grains and root vegetables, pulses and a dozen ways to use yoghurt. It's been revised a couple of times and appears on most cookbook collectors’ shelves, including mine. Moosewood was popular at the time and useful for cooks, but it wasn't mainstream. It was a way of eating squeezed into a box labelled ‘healthy’, ‘hippie’, ‘vego’, ‘alternative’! It fitted into a broader lifestyle sympathetic to the same ethos. Much more recently Kinfolk, another lifestyle love-mark, released their recipe book, Kinfolk Table. Full of whole foods and just as inspirational, but it's not boxed in, it's almost mainstream! The thread that links Moosewood to Kinfolk is continuous. Its current iteration comes down to how the most recent generation interprets it. Whole grains and fermenting are very current, but anyone who was cooking thirty years ago knows they've been current before! The big difference is now healthy eating is not just favoured but expected; at home, yes, but also in restaurants. There aren't 'healthy' options, or even 'vegetarian' options, goodness isn't marginalised, it's celebrated.
In my kitchen I'm responsible for five kitchens in Hawke's Bay: Opera Kitchen, Smiths, Albion, Picnic and my own at home. They are very different, but there's a philosophy that runs through all of them. It's about using quality, acting consciously, and providing for all the food experiences people in Hawke's Bay want to enjoy in their day. It could be called ‘clean eating’, certainly that is a current food buzzword, but it's also a call to action. It's a simple way to eliminate food that's processed or refined. Why eat anything that's going to clog up your palate or drag down your body?
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Glory to the vege Seasonal and local are common sense, especially in Hawke's Bay. There are no excuses here, fresh food is everywhere. A carrot that's been in storage then sat on a truck is simply not going to be as healthy as one just picked, plus the taste will be diluted. But the positioning of those seasonal, local vegetables can be improved. They are not just for the side dish, they deserve the spotlight. There're plenty of ways to satisfy the palate beyond serving up the fall-backs of cheese and protein. One of the most umami dishes on our current menu makes pumpkin the hero. It's given a kick with quark and tahini, and some tartness with green tomatoes (from the final stripping of a local tomato harvest, which saves them from being tossed out). It's not the token vego on the menu, it's a go-to dish. Vegetables, grown well, don't need anything to make them taste great. The sprinkle of grated cheese or the dollop of sour cream are a giveaway that the vegetable is not up to the task.
Mainstreaming goodness This March in Auckland's hip Ponsonby Road, Orphan's Kitchen put up a menu that had the restaurant booked out and punters
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Eating out used to be a treat, and rules about diets and regimes were thrown away on a night out. Now people expect to be able to stick to their favoured way of eating whether they're eating out or staying in. I want to support them in that. It's not what you do occasionally that matters, it's what you do every day. Diners expect vegetables, not as a side dish but as the main affair, and that's exciting to me because it pushes me to be more creative.
Inspiration
queuing. And it was all vegetarian. With no excuses and no apologising. It's not edgy or trendy, it's common sense … if the fresh produce is up to the task. The ultimate in local and seasonal is foraged fare. In Lyttleton the restaurant to visit is Roots. Their menu is predominantly foraged food, with the menu changing daily to accommodate what's available. It's very ‘now’ but also very exciting because it stretches cooks to look further than what's easy. A big part of what my team and I do in our kitchens is look ahead. We are not at all nostalgic about tastes and textures from the past. We know if we are excited about a particular ingredient, others will be too. We do often explore ways of reintroducing ingredients familiar to us: barley, bulgar, buckwheat, kombucha, kefir, kimchi, quinoa. They all have massive health benefits, but must also deliver a unique flavour profile that works hard for us in a dish.
Food fads & dietary requirements I'm a big proponent of eating the rainbow. Eating lettuce and calling it your vegetable quota doesn't really cut it. I want to see red, orange, purple, light green and dark green; add some berries and nuts, some grains. More and more, in our kitchens, our chefs are using meat as a garnish rather than the main ingredient. It gives vital flavour but you don't need much to do the job, especially when it's high quality.
Here are two food ideas that are inspiring me at the moment. They're healthy-eating, and delicious. As with most restaurant recipes (as opposed to those designed to be made at home), these are 'babushka' recipes – a recipe within a recipe within a recipe! It feels complex and time consuming, but for foodies that's the fun bit! And it means you can be sure of the quality of each element you're putting into the dish. From Gjelina: Make your own creme-fraiche. There's no substitute and it's almost impossible to find a shop-bought variety that's this good. Stir buttermilk into good-quality heavy cream, partially cover and leave in a warm spot until the cream tastes slightly sour and has thickened to a pudding-like consistency. This can take between 24 hours and three days. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. It'll last about two weeks. To make the buttermilk, take a cup of good quality whole milk, stir in a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice OR white vinegar. Let it sit for five minutes until it begins to curdle and become acidic. You can use buttermilk in place of milk where a lightness is required, such as in milk-based breads and pancakes. From the Modern Hippie Housewife: Make your own probiotic lemonade. For this you need to make whey, but that's not hard. Take good quality greek yoghurt, add a pinch of salt and let it drip through a muslin cloth in the fridge for a few days. Once that's done you'll have two useful ingredients: labneh, a delicious soft cheese found in Middle Eastern recipes, and whey, the liquid that's left. With this whey, make lemonade by dissolving 1/3 of a cup of sugar in 6 cups of hot but not boiling water. Put this in a glass container with an air-tight lid. When the liquid is room temperature stir in the juice of six lemons and half a cup of whey. Leave this at room temperature for three days. Then put it in the fridge. This will slow the fermentation process down but not stop it completely.
Jennifer Le Comte ... operates foodie favourites Opera Kitchen, Smiths, Albion, and Picnic.
WHAT'S HOT AT JARKs OUR TEAM:
ThE KiTchEn sTAff co-Owner/head chef: peter poszeluk. 20 years of catering experience, 9 years as restaurant owner/chef. sous chef: sumesh 10 years experience in restaurants in india, dubai, singapore & nZ. chef De Partie: Maneesh 9 years experience in restaurants in india & nZ. chef de Partie: chelsea part time kitchen, part time Foh. Dishy/Kitchen hand: caolan 4 years for Jarks part time, looking at moving into the film industry. OUR fRiEnDs
these 4 gentleman & others have made us their 19th hole for a quick beer after Friday golf. We were happy they represented Jarks at the recent Victim support golf tournament. From left to right shay o Brien, Bruce nicol, ian allison, keith Burrows. OUR nOTicEs
» $15 WeekdaY LUnCh MenU a selection of main meals $15ea steak, chowder, fish n chips, pizza’s & more » Mon, tUe, Wed $15 eVening MeaL speCiaL 1 meal per night $15 - specials change weekly » FUn FridaY MUsiC nights Live music most Friday nights from 8ish til latish
118 Maraekakaho road hastings (old Corn exchange) phone: 06 870 8333 Check out our facebook page for up-to-date info weekly
Page 77 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Key to Success Is Teamwork BY LIZZIE RUSSELL
I’m drinking coffee with Michal McKay in her elegant living room. She tells me the story of her recent double adventure: moving to Hawke’s Bay and renovating her house. This is Michal’s first “grown-up home” as she puts it. “I’ve always been an apartment girl, never had a garden!”
“People ask me how I’m getting on down here, meeting people and so on, and I tell them I think I’ve met just about every tradesman around, they have just been marvellous.” The irony is that Michal McKay, Hawke’s Bay’s most stylish new import has had an illustrious career in the world of design. She’s widely known as a sophisticate and a style leader, and a previous editor of Cuisine and Vogue Singapore, fashion and beauty editor of Vogue Australia and Vogue New Zealand. She was vice-president and creative director worldwide for Aramis, part of the Estee Lauder brand in New York. But perhaps she is best known on these shores for her long tenure as editor of home design bible, NZ House & Garden. Last year Michal made the move from Auckland and began renovating a 2000 Peter Holland-designed house in Havelock North. She enthuses about every detail of the renovation project. From Matthew the builder who came back to see the finished product long after his duties were complete, to Desiree, “The most fabulous curtain maker”. It’s clear that it’s the people who have made this project so successful. Michal’s advice for anyone taking on a
“There has been the lovliest sense of bonhomie, helpfulness and pitching in. Everyone has taken great care with my home and they have a sense of ownership of the project. Everything has been done with such good humour and kindness.” similar venture is that the team is at the centre of the project. The key is finding the right people to work with, who understand what you’re trying to create and work well alongside each other. She says what’s been remarkable about Hawke’s Bay, in that sense, is the way the tradies and suppliers have worked so well together and supported one another. During our chat there’s a knock at the door and in files the tiler, followed by the plumber and the builder. They’re popping in to take another look at the bathroom; Michal’s tiled shelving, a request that, at first, had seemed like a
tall order, now sounds like it’s gaining popularity around town. Michal greets them like dear friends, which they’ve become. We agree that when you have a team of people working in the tight confines of your home for weeks at a time, you’d best get comfortable with them. The Hawke’s Bay property market is bouyant and alongside the hubbub of buy and sell are those who are building their first homes, family homes, holiday homes and retirement homes. Or there are those who have bought a house and used their vision and a big dollop of patience to turn someone else’s previous dwelling into a dream home of their own. Although it’s been a challenging project, Michal says it’s been her ‘way in’ to Hawke’s Bay. “There has been the loveliest sense of bonhomie, helpfulness and pitching in. Everyone has taken great care with my home and they have a sense of ownership of the project. Everything has been done with such good humour and kindness.” Michal now works with clients intrepidly taking on renovation and interior design projects, using her décor and design skills honed over decades to help create beautiful homes for others.
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Michal works from her renovated Havelock North Home. One wall of her home office is taken up with this large custom-made bookshelf, keeping the space both cosy and functional.
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Page 80 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
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Page 81 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Cream, white and warm wood make for a light-filled living room.
The treasures in Michal’s home tell stories of a life of travel, and display her tasteful eye for detail.
Antiques and shell, ceramic and glass artworks from Michal’s time spent in the Cook Islands.
Page 82 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
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“Humanity has spent the last 200 years wrecking our environment. We are all responsible for this and we all need to participate in the restoration.”
Opportunities Lost BY REX GRAHAM
Conspiracy theories abound about why some of us – councillors and the public at large – don’t support the Ruataniwha dam project. One was that it was somehow related to the amalgamation debate – “amalgamation in disguise”. And that our supporters are “Hastings corporate growers and orchardists – all major and thirsty water users.” Well I’m afraid it’s not so intriguing. We simply do not think the project stacks up financially or environmentally, and believe there are much better ways to invest $80 million to achieve our region’s economic development objectives. I suppose it’s not surprising that some of our adversaries need to invent obscure reasons why we are against this project, but it’s still very frustrating as we try to engage in a rational debate. It is not sensible to spend 80% of your capital cash reserves on one mega-project that benefits a few farmers in Central HB with relatively small economic benefit to the wider community.
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We also don’t think that it’s sensible to put an extra 9,000 hectares of dairying in Central HB, and it’s disturbing that 8,000 hectares of that is projected to be on light soils, more prone to leaching. A great many of us in Hawke’s Bay think this is environmental and economic madness, especially considering the new information on the environmental impact of intensive dairy farming on light soils in Canterbury. These light soils are not suited to dairying; it is not dairy farm country and we don’t want or need any more dairy farms on our light soils in Central HB.
Economic claims And what about the much-celebrated economic impacts? The new Ruataniwha economic analysis cites the impending growth of an additional 4,000 hectares of horticulture in Central HB, both apples and grapes. I’m afraid it will be a long time before this happens, if it ever does. This is basically fantasy, just like a lot of claims around this project. The problem is these unrealistic predictions – dreamed up by I’m not sure who – are underpinning the new growth projections, which then of course also become a nonsense. I think the saying is ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’. The real expansion in horticulture is already occurring in Heretaunga, where growers currently deliver 20,000 containers to our port and expect to double this over the next five years. And this doesn’t include the growth in wine from the same region. Put this against the 9,000 extra containers assumed to go through our port as a result of a total investment of $900 million in the Ruataniwha dam water delivery scheme. The $900 million is in itself mind boggling; but it is also incredible to think that anyone could have thought that this was the best ‘first up’ investment option for our region. To add to the injury, many of these Heretaunga growers still don’t have water security and in fact in the 2014 drought
our council was cutting water off to some orchards in Heretaunga whilst they were planning this dam in Ruataniwha. It will now be a long time before we sort this issue out and my bet is that before then we will get another bad drought which will threaten the integrity of this growth. This is a very serious opportunity lost. However, despite tardy regional governance, these Heretaunga growers have just got on with it and invested their own capital in their businesses, underpinning our region’s growth and GDP over the next decade … without getting a huge ratepayer capital subsidy.
Alternatives The HBRC has a role to play in supporting regional economic development and this rightly includes water storage. But I propose that our capital could be much more wisely applied. Water storage and irrigation are certainly one of the most important things that the world and our region needs to apply ourselves to. But we should be encouraging private investment in water storage and I would like to see the HBRC promote and assist famers to do their own schemes. We need to to help them develop their farm environmental plans and their water use/ storage strategies. Look at ways to remove barriers and make it easier for them and especially ways to reduce the absurd compliance costs that are currently in place. But we also need to think about other capital-hungry challenges that are facing our region now and in the near future. Opportunities to improve our community. Humanity has spent the last 200 hundred years wrecking our environment. We are all responsible for this and we all need to participate in the restoration. Our ancestors, experts of their time, advised our farmers
Orcharding growth is in Heretaunga to grass the steep hill country and let stock graze in the rivers and streams. They also introduced pests such as rabbits, ferrets and possums, believing each time that they were doing a good thing. More recently we have over-consented water takes from our rivers and allowed phosphate and nitrates to leach and overflow into the same lakes and rivers. It’s a bloody mess and we need a plan and capital to fix it. This won’t happen over night, but we need to begin the process, make a start and this will take serious commitment and community investment capital. The job is just too big to ask a small bunch of farmers to do it alone and this is simply just not fair. We need to have a much greater focus and investment into hill country erosion that is eroding the productive value of many of our farms and clogging our streams and estuaries. And whilst we are at it, we are going to need capital to fix the environmental tragedy that we have created at Lake Tutira. Parts of the upper Tuki in Central HB are choked with gravel that is putting over 1,000 hectares of highly fertile land out of production; we will need capital to fix this. Parts of Napier have been designated as
the “Most at risk regions in NZ to sea level rises” and we need to devise a plan and allocate capital to manage this. We need to ensure water security for the Heretaunga plains and Gimblet Gravels wineries that are at risk right now. The issues and challenges are endless and we just can’t afford and should not use 80% of our ratepayer capital reserves on one doubtful mega-project that will benefit so few. I am really excited about the future of Hawke’s Bay. Sure we have some challenges, but there are huge upsides. Our economy is strong and growing as our farmers and growers produce highend products for booming Asian markets. I predict that over the next few years our growth rate and GDP will out-achieve all other regions outside Auckland, and with this our people will have bountiful employment opportunities. We have already become an attractive place for visitors and new settlers. We need to foster and protect this growth, but we also need to ensure that at all times our industry – whether it be farming, horticulture or otherwise – works in harmony with the environment. There is no point in having a flash new car if your kids can’t swim in our rivers.
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Roaming BY DAVID TRUBRIDGE
On a cold southerly interlude to our hot summer I walked along the route of the old Gisborne coast road north of Mahanga. It is spectacularly beautiful, climbing up 500 metres around the seaward edge of the Wharerata Ranges, before rejoining SH2 on its northern descent. Low clouds snagged on the hill tops and misty rain drifted in the wind. The grassy track looped in and out of the folds, a larger echo of the countless contour lines of sheep tracks engraved on the steep slopes that tumble to the sea. The horizon rose far out in the distance as the ocean fell away below me. Walking is a rhythmic immersion in the moods of place – of weather and land. My reverie was broken when I came around a corner to encounter a pile of logs completely blocking the track. Freshly peeled, their greasy rounds offered a challenging and hazardous obstacle to clamber over. Branding on the logs showed this to be the work of Pacific Forest Products. On the other side, past a sea of churned up mud and parked machinery, a site safety sign warned of workplace hazards and forbade entry. Yet I was on a public right of way! This is not legal – the regional council has a duty to keep it open – but it is
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indicative of attitudes to rights of way in New Zealand. European countries are laced with countless old ways, dating back hundreds and even thousands of years. They are part of the rich tapestry of history, remnants of very different lives, from when walking was the only transport for most. The English language retains many old names for these routes: trods, leys, drongs, sarns, snickets, bostles, carneys, herepaths. Many were created by the accumulated passage of people over common land. But various Land Enclosure Acts between 1750 and 1820 stopped all that. Wealthy landowners who made up Parliament passed laws saying that if someone fenced off land then they would own it. Of course only they could afford to do this. George Monbiot in the Guardian considers that the enclosures could be said to have been acts of greed and plunder that foreshadowed our environmental crisis. They certainly helped the industrial revolution with all the newly landless peasants looking for work in the cities.
This wrong was put right recently in separate acts in England and Scotland that finally enshrined the right to roam in law. People can now use open land for recreational purposes as long as they do not do any damage. In Scandinavia it has always been thus, with no enclosure act taking away medieval roaming customs. The law accepts the fact that the land has been here much longer than we have, and that those who own it only do so temporarily – they are really no more than custodians who will hand it on to future generations. In New Zealand it is a different story, despite the fact that the country used to be covered with extensive Māori footpaths. Captain Cook commented on how fast news of his movements travelled. Richard Cruise wrote in 1820 that “there was scarcely a part of the island (NZ) visited by our people, however distant, to which one or more pathways did not lead.” And in her book on Te Rauparaha, Patricia Burns wrote that “Māori had learned to walk hundreds of kilometres without fatigue, living off the land, and guided by the stars and their extensive knowledge of physical landmarks.” But unlike Europe, these trails were never given any legal status. Our law started with British colonialism when surveyors, often on the other side of the world, drew up paper roads and title blocks. These wider public
Richard Cruise wrote in 1820 that “there was scarcely a part of the island (NZ) visited by our people, however distant, to which one or more pathways did not lead.” roads used by carts, and later by vehicles, supplanted the old ways whose usage died out. We are like Britain at the time of the Enclosures Act. History of Māori movements has been ignored and effectively eradicated. I think it is about time that early Māori paths are given the same recognition as the old bridleways and herepaths of Britain. If it works there with so many more ramblers, surely it can work here? It is true that we have one of the largest conservation estates; it covers nearly 30% of the country. But all the wild, remote and mostly empty hill stations are legally off limits. In the 2000s Jim Sutton and the Labour Government attempted to introduce the right of linear access (i.e., trails only). But it was stopped by a scurrilous campaign of misinformation by Federated Farmers who claimed that Sutton was proposing area access (roaming, which is legal in the UK).
A watered down version, called the Walking Access Act (WAC), came into law in 2008, which trumpets our freedom to explore our land, but simply reiterates public access to existing rights of way. So New Zealand is still way behind Europe. In general I have found that local farmers are generous in allowing me to walk on their land when I ask them. But I am concerned about the increasing amount of farmland owned by corporations, especially the overseas ones, who are unlikely to show such generosity. For this reason alone, Sutton’s proposed legislation needs to be resuscitated and Federated Farmers put on a leash. No one should own the earth, it is what gives everything life. It was here long before us and it will be here long after us. It is the spirit which invigorates all of us, and it feeds us with food, clean air and fresh water. Ultimately we are all responsible for the earth. In addition, the physical and spiritual well-being of so many people, me included, depends on access to wilderness and untouched nature. Of course I would never walk through people’s gardens or planted fields but I do believe I should have the right to walk wherever I like elsewhere, as long as I respect those who use the land and cause no damage to crops or animals. Like countless billions of other life-forms, we are merely temporary residents. It was man, not a sky-dwelling deity, who wrote the words in the bible that say we have ‘dominion’ over everything on this earth. We do not, nor do landowners or logging companies. All routes covered by the WAC are mapped out here: http://wams.org.nz/ wams_desktop/index.aspx. You have the right to walk on these trails, though I would still recommend contacting the landowner or farmer first out of courtesy.
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Page 87 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Time to Tax Fizzies?
Evidence – and demand – mounts for the introduction of a soft drink tax as a tool to curb obesity in New Zealand. Seventeen countries now do so. The public health community in NZ strongly supports such a tax, as does the general public (over 80% in a recent Herald poll) … a rare convergence of expert and layperson views these days. In a recent Public Health Expert article written in reaction to the UK recently adopting a soft drink tax, doctors and public health professors summarized the NZ situation as follows … “NZ adults consume approximately 29 teaspoons of sugar per day, and children consume approximately 25 teaspoons. Beverages are the highest contributor to total sugars intake for Kiwi kids and the second highest contributor for adults … Kiwis far exceed the World Health Organization free sugars target of less than 10% of daily energy (about 12 teaspoons of sugar). “Furthermore, NZ has the third highest rate of obesity in the OECD and many children suffer from tooth decay. “In response to similar problems in the UK, a plan for a new soft drink tax has just been announced in the UK budget … The measure will tax soft drink manufacturers according to the volume of the sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs) they produce or import
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… The tax looks substantial enough to make a notable difference in soft drink prices. The measure translates to a 25p (53c) per litre tax; which (for a NZ$2.50 1L bottle) would be a ~21% price increase if manufacturers and retailers fully pass it on to the shelf price (without reducing their profit margins). Most regular soft drinks including Coca Cola, Pepsi, and 7Up contain 10 or more grams of sugar per 100mL … “Additionally, the tax will probably generate a lot of revenue, estimated at between £520 million to more than £1 billion. The UK Government says it will spend the revenue on fitness programmes and extended school hours for children so they can take part in more sports.
Is this new tax likely to work?
“There is a vast amount of evidence that taxes can reduce consumption in other areas: especially for tobacco, alcohol and carbon taxes. While the specific evidence for SSB
BY TOM BELFORD
taxes is more limited, it is substantial enough to start acting in our view. For example, there is now evidence published in peer-reviewed journal articles on the Mexican soft drink tax experience in regard to: the effects of increased prices, estimated price elasticities, and changes in beverage purchasing for SSBs and beverage alternatives. Mexican data showing reduced production of soft drinks and increased production of bottled water is also favourable …
What about New Zealand? “The case for a soft drink tax in NZ might seem even stronger than in the UK, given that NZ has higher obesity levels and obesity is probably a more important contributor to health inequalities. Furthermore, NZ is less wealthy than the UK (on a per capita basis) so it can less afford the burden of obesity-related disease and dental disease on its taxpayer-funded health system. “NZ Governments also have had good experience with the use of health-promoting taxes in the past. The annual tobacco tax increases from 2010 to January 2016 are at a world-leading level. There has also been use of revenue recycling (albeit at a modest level) from alcohol taxes into revenue for health promotion (to the former ALAC, now the Health Promotion Agency). Petrol taxes are also used to fund roading and ACC. “We suspect that adopting a soft drink tax in NZ would be a wise move to consider and that
the public would support it if the revenue was recycled into other interventions that benefited child health or wellbeing. Waiting for more ‘definitive evidence’ would probably not be wise given the likely costs to public health of further delays. Moreover, the government is currently supporting other obesity strategies with similar (or even less) supporting evidence, so why act differently now? “Of course a soft drink tax is no panacea. It is one component, albeit an important component, of a package of policies to address obesity that signals ‘seriousness’ to industry and stimulates a change in product formulation … Mexico has introduced a wide suite of interventions that are anticipated to work together to reduce SSB consumption; including constrained sales of calorie-dense foods in schools, restricted airtime for junk food advertisements on children’s TV programmes, and a tax on packaged snacks. “We consider that introducing a SSB tax could be an important component of a comprehensive government strategy to help fix the obesogenic environment in NZ and to also improve oral health for both children and adults. Such a tax could complement policies to restrict sales of calorie-dense foods in schools and to restrict junk food advertisements to children on all media as recommended in the ECHO Report. These measures would also help address health inequalities.
Conclusion “… Recently, the NZ Government has claimed that the ‘evidence is not yet in’ for a tax on sugary drinks … Nevertheless, we suggest the recent evaluation of the Mexican sugary drink tax in the BMJ tips the scales; one would always like more evidence, but at some point the evidence is sufficient to act to protect public health. A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute (9) on this issue concluded that an incomplete evidence base
should be no barrier to action: ‘We should experiment with solutions and try them out rather than waiting for perfect proof of what works, especially in the many areas where interventions are low risk’. ” This analysis is reinforced by the following appeal to Government signed recently by 74 NZ health professors …
Dear Cabinet Ministers “We are very concerned by New Zealand’s appallingly high rate of childhood obesity, the fourth highest in the world. In addition, every year more than 5000 children under 8 years old require general anaesthetic operations to remove rotten teeth. We applaud the government for making childhood obesity a national health priority, however, its action plan of 22 ‘soft’ strategies, which was launched last year with no extra funding, is not sufficient to change current trends. We urge you to implement a significant tax on sugary drinks as a core component of strengthened strategies to reduce childhood obesity and dental caries. “Multiple authoritative bodies world-wide have reviewed the available evidence on sugary drinks taxes. They have concluded that such taxes are likely to be one of the most cost-effective interventions available and have recommended that they should be part of a comprehensive approach to reduce childhood obesity. The recent WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, co-chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, recommended a tax on sugary drinks as its number 2 recommendation … “The sugary drinks companies, speaking through the Food and Grocery Council, are behaving exactly like the tobacco industry when faced with the prospect of effective policies aimed at reducing the consumption of their products. The arguments, which the industry lobby group repeats, aim to create
doubt in the public’s mind and spook politicians into inaction. Fortunately, the public are not so easily confused and there is majority support for a sugary drinks tax (over 80% in Herald Poll last week). “Cabinet Ministers should not allow industry tactics to frighten them off implementing cost-effective policies that could change current trends and help to create a legacy of declining obesity, diabetes and dental caries. The industry arguments are as readily refuted for sugary drinks as they were for tobacco. “Dr Coleman (Health Minister) has rightly said on many occasions that there are no magic bullets for reducing childhood obesity. His statements mean that it is an untenable argument to wait for magic bullet evidence before acting. Indeed, the evidence supporting sugary drinks taxes is stronger than the evidence for any of the 22 strategies in the government’s existing plan. In addition, a sugary drinks tax would be expected to raise $30-$40 million which could be used to boost funding for obesity prevention programs … “As a matter of urgency, we urge Cabinet to strengthen its plans to reduce childhood obesity and dental caries by introducing a 20% excise tax on sugary drinks in the forthcoming budget. The evidence, health professionals, and the public strongly support this measure, and current and future generations of New Zealand children will be the beneficiaries of this legacy.”
Sources: 1. Public Health Expert blog, University of Otago (Dr Wilma Waterlander, Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Cliona Ni Mhurchu, Dr Cristina Cleghorn, Dr Andrea McDonald, Dr Helen Eyles, Prof Tony Blakely): http://bit.ly/1TfR4kU 2. The Open Letter to Cabinet can be read here – http://bit.ly/1U3spm7 – with a full listing of the signers and an annex with links to supporting studies.
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Page 89 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
Brent Currie
Photo: Sarah Cates
ONLINE HUSTLING BY MATT MILLER
Farm machinery. Exciting stuff... yeah, nah…? From the comfortable vantage point of our over-fed, affluent 21st century, surrounded by our uber-connected smart devices, you might be forgiven for looking at agricultural equipment as a bit boring. Perhaps a bit ‘everyday’ and not worthy of mention in a column that is focused on the latest trends and best practices in online business and the global, digital economy of tomorrow. But you would be wrong. The evolution of agricultural technology has played a hugely influential role in human progress. From the sickles and scythes of the earliest civilisations, to the British agricultural revolution that paved the way for the industrial revolution (the key invention of that seismic transformation was, of course, Jethro Tull’s patented seed drill), to the GPS-guided driverless super-harvesters of today that clear vast cereal fields 24/7, agricultural equipment continues on its relentless
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march to produce more food for more people for less money … and the world’s economies are always looking for cheaper, better ways to produce food. New Zealanders are really good at inventing farm machinery. Call it number 8 wire mentality or Kiwi ingenuity, but to build a successful business you need more than just engineering smarts. Our New Zealand manufacturers are a long way from the really important, really big markets, like the United States, Canada, Latin
America, and Europe, and manufacturing can be a very tough industry to crack, due to scale and labour market issues. Despite these challenges, there are companies in Hawke’s Bay who are making their mark in the global marketplace for agricultural equipment. One of those is Hastings-based manufacturer, Hustler Equipment. I had a chat with Hustler’s marketing manager Brent Currie to find out how the team at Hustler are thriving in this highly competitive, high-technology industry, and how they are using digital marketing to win a global audience. (Disclosure: Hustler have been Mogul clients since 2009) Hustler Equipment is a third-generation family-based business that has been designing and manufacturing farm machinery since 1961. In the last ten years, export has become the focus of the business and Europe and the Americas have become increasingly important markets. For Brent, success in business is impossible without innovation. The company’s tagline is ‘Rethinking the Everyday’ and this neatly sums up their approach to product development – looking at their customers’ everyday problems from a fresh perspective, finding out their real needs, and proposing
solutions that are often radical. This is especially important in overseas markets, where New Zealand farming approaches can differ markedly from local practices, and this can give Hustler an edge. Brent applies this relentlessly innovative approach to the company’s marketing too. He saw early on that customers were researching more and more of their purchases online, and this meant that the company needed to jump into digital marketing, “boots and all”. This was a huge shift for Hustler, which had traditionally relied on massive amounts of print advertising. To move from print, which was costly, hard to manage, and almost impossible to track its effectiveness, to digital, which promised so much but was completely uncharted territory for the company, was a big step to take, but Brent was committed. He decided that Hustler needed to be so good at online marketing that its digital activity would become one of the company’s key points of difference. The rise of online video has been one of the most important developments in Hustler’s marketing. Like most buyers in the internet age, farmers tend to research online before they buy a product, and Hustler’s research told them that farmers love to watch videos of machinery in action. Accordingly, the company invested heavily in this area, and decided to produce a short promotional video for every product in their range, and publish the videos on the company’s website using the Wistia video platform. The company’s export focus meant that they would need foreign language versions of the website to cater to non-English speakers, and the content would also need to be tailored to reflect the different farming practices and traditions around the world.
Hustler’s investment in digital marketing paid immediate dividends when their redeveloped video-centric website launched in 2013 and produced a 600% increase in leads within a month of launch. The number of leads from the website eventually increased from one per month to at least 30 per week. Of course, digital marketing does not stand still and Brent is very keen to ensure that the company is using the best practices. The emergence of social media as a mainstream marketing channel, and the social networks’ voracious appetite for
sector, but you have to be different.” Brent tells me that his favourite company is Tesla Motors. It might sound a bit of a stretch to compare a family-owned business in Omahu Road to the world’s most famous innovative engineering company, but after spending an hour with Brent Currie, you can see how people like Elon Musk approach solving problems. As Brent says, “You can’t be run-of-themill, or a little bit better. You have to be ten times better.”
“Like most buyers in the internet age, farmers tend to research online before they buy a product, and Hustler’s research told them that farmers love to watch videos of machinery in action.” content marketing, has meant that Hustler has needed to develop a social media content strategy. From a company that had never used social media before, they have come a long way: social is now the second-biggest provider of leads, after direct contact via email. Their proactive approach to online marketing is illustrated by the fact that Google search provides fewer sales enquiries than social and email. Managing online enquiries, scheduling lead follow-ups, maintaining contact lists for email newsletters, and trying to make sense of all the data that comes with multi-channel digital marketing can be an overwhelming task. To cope with the complexity, Hustler recently chose Hubspot, an integrated online marketing platform, to host their blog and email newsletters. Another system, another learning curve, but for Brent it’s just part of the job. “Digital is pretty scary for a lot of people in the ag
Matt Miller co-owns web company Mogul Limited, based in Havelock North, but serving clients around the world, including BayBuzz. His beat for BayBuzz is online trends and best practice.
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To Darwin To Pearl BY CHARLOTTE PANTON
I was on a small boat, in the middle of a fairly rough day on the Timor Sea; with three men I had only met that morning. I was as far from home as anyone could get these days: reception was a myth and we couldn’t see land. As we went about our laborious work, the small talk drifted to our homelands. “I’m from Wairoa, originally”, said one. “I’m from Porangahau”, said the other. “I’m from Taradale”, said I. “I’m surrounded by blimmin’ Kiwis,” complained the Australian. I must backtrack and set the scene. Let’s assume BayBuzz readers know Hawke’s Bay, my home. You’re probably less familiar with my recent port, Darwin, Australia. Darwin is similar in population size (146,245) to Hawke’s Bay. But hugging the equator, the everyday heat of Darwin melts Hawke’s Bay’s most scorching summer day faster than an ice cream sandwich on a BBQ. The Territory’s dry-season droughts make our summer of ‘97/98 look juicy. Most noticeable of all, Darwin has humidity like Hawke’s Bay has wine. It’s everywhere; you can bottle it. Darwin is the gateway city to some of Australia’s most beautiful places, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Kakadu National Park and the breathtakingly remote Kimberley region (Australia’s version of the Marlborough Sounds: hot, isolated and full of crocodiles, but also extravagantly beautiful). Many backpackers flock to this far-flung city for work and adventure. Heavily-accented Europeans run the bars, short Swedes run the roadwork signs and nightmare Scotsmen run around drinking everyone under the table. It’s also home to a handful of Hawke’s Bay ex-pats who have found themselves working in an industry not many people would have ever imagined.
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The very day after graduating from university back in 2012, I found, through family-friend connections, a job as a deckhand for Paspaley Pearling Company; one of the major movers and shakers in the cultured pearl world. Working on a boat in the middle of the ocean was the last thing I ever expected to do, given my well-documented fear of the ocean – just ask my sailing-mad dad. However, when an adventure like that pops up – and you’re jobless after graduating – you’d be mad not to jump on in. My role developed into Operations Room Supervisor on the MV Paspaley IV. My day began very early in the morning, setting up the UV filtration systems, managing fisheries compliance, managing assistant workers, keeping the technicians on schedule, maintaining equipment, adhering to hygiene/ cleaning and dealing with live organisms.
Essentially I ensured everything within the operations room ran as smoothly as possible. We were a crew of about 50 people. The boat operated on a well-developed system: we brought shell onboard every day, stored them in massive tanks overnight, then operated on them and put them back in the ocean the next day. It was a huge cycle that would go on for about two weeks at a time, sometimes more. The Paspaley Pearling Company is a family run company. During the early 50’s, Nick Paspaley Senior and the Kuribayashi family, Japanese pioneers of pearling, battled with the Australian government to start culturing pearls in the Kimberley region. This relationship spawned, and to this very day, 50-plus years on, Japanese technicians still work hand in hand with Nick Paspaley Jr and his son James to create the most beautiful pearls in the world.
Pearling Naturally occurring, a pearl is the result of an oyster’s defence mechanism to a foreign object such as a parasite. In an attempt to protect itself, the oyster sheds fine particles, called nacre (nay-KHER), coating the invader. Nacre is a calcium carbonate concoction commonly known as mother-of-pearl. As time goes by, enough nacre is laid down to cover the parasite and a pearl is created. So, what is a cultured pearl? By exploiting
the oysters’ immune response, and coupling up with science, technology and surgeon-like precision, humans have been farming oysters and mass-producing perfect pearls. The science behind the cultured pearl involves an operation that combines a shell bead (nuclei) and a piece of donor oyster tissue (saibo, SIGH-beau). Once placed inside another oyster’s gonads, saibo forms the womb-like pearl sac, which will nurture the materialising pearl by covering the nucleus in nacre. After two years in the warm waters of the Kimberley region, these seeded oysters are harvested for their pearls. Depending on their pearl quality, the oysters are then re-seeded for another harvest. Using this transplant technology, pearl technicians have been successfully seeding oysters for almost a century. Just as champagne can only be called so if it comes from Champagne, Paspaley South Sea pearls only come from the largest and rarest of oysters, the South Sea Pearl, Pinctada maxima. This oyster has the most beautiful nacre of any mollusc; key to creating the iridescent lustre that Paspaley pearls are famous for. These oysters are found in the warm waters off the Western Australia coast, with plentiful grounds found south of Broome, one of the original pearling towns. The Paspaley diving fleet collects thousands of wild shells each season, to be seeded by Paspaley’s team of Japanese technicians. After explaining this intricate process of seeding pearl oysters, I’m often met with exclamations of “Oh, so they aren’t even real?” Richard McLean, pearling advisor and
pearl room manager for Paspaley, has an answer for the dubious: “We may start the process…but from that moment onwards, the shell starts the process of creating a pearl. What quality, size and colour this pearl will be, we don’t know until the pearl is removed. Two years is a long time to wait for a crop not knowing what the result might be, so harvest time is a special time of year.” I agree, after experiencing three harvests and seeing thousands upon thousands of pearls, awe and amazement did not fade. In fact, knowing exactly how the pearls were made and being part of the blood, sweat and tears of their creation, has made me appreciate cultured pearls even more.
The Porangahau connection Growing up snorkeling for paua off the coast of the family farm at Whangaehu Beach, south of Porangahau, Richard McLean heard through the grapevine that there was an Australian company that paid people to dive. So he packed up all his diving gear and landed in Broome. Fast-forward through eight seasons of diving, five years skippering, to operations manager, then farming operations manager and now to his current role, McLean recently celebrated 30 years with Paspaley Pearls. It’s been an interesting life for the Hawke’s Bay ex-pat who, over the decades, has helped a large number of his family and extended family work in the industry. One such family member was his younger sister Jean, and her husband Richard Kibblewhite. In the late ‘80s, the couple joined McLean in Broome, Richard went pearl diving and Jean alternated between working in the showroom on land, and working at sea. After four years in Broome working for Paspaley, they moved home to Porangahau for good. They put their skills to good use, tapping into the newly-developed paua quota management system, eventually expanding into crayfish and wet fish. Nowadays, they own the fishing company Splashzone Ltd. They catch crayfish, paua and inshore fish species, for both export and the local market. Jean credits the amazing time the couple spent working with her brother and the
Paspaley family for inspiring their interest in the fishing business. Our summer months coincide with the off-season for Paspaley pearl divers, and many of the New Zealand divers come back and catch Splashzone’s paua quota. One of these returning divers is Jean and Richard’s eldest son, Sam Kibblewhite. Through his uncle, Richard McLean, Sam got work and is now onto his third season diving for Paspaley. Like his uncle and parents, he loves it and plans to keep doing it for some time. I met Sam from Porangahau on that fairly rough day on the Timor Sea, when the ships we worked on did collaborative work. And the benefits of the family’s continuing connection with the pearling world don’t stop there. Another brother of Jean’s, Hamish, is a keen horse polo player and enjoys a game when he’s back in Hawke’s Bay from working in China. It was during a visit to his brother Richard in Broome that he attended the annual Cable Beach Polo, of which Paspaley is a major sponsor. Hamish thought that a similar event would go down a treat in his hometown of Porangahau, with its long, sandy beaches. With the support and influence of family and friends, including Richard McLean and Marilynne Paspaley (sister of Nick Paspaley Jr), Porangahau Beach Polo celebrated its third tournament last year. Held just after Christmas on Te Paerahi Beach, the event attracts players and guests from all over the world – England, Mongolia, China, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Argentina, Australia, and of course New Zealand. The Porangahau Beach Polo committee is made up of local polo players, polo trainers and members of the McLean family. Check out their website (porangahaubeachpolo.wix.com/ porangahaubeachpolo) for more information. Although I have now said goodbye to Darwin and Paspaley, I am still enthralled with pearls and the rich history they leave behind. I’m not the only Hawke’s Bay local to head over to the pearling world, nor am I the last. My younger brother swears he’s going to work with them once he’s finished university – just like I did.
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Miles is the tallest child, top row, centre
We Should be Smarter Now BY MILES ROBERTSON
I’m still surprised to find myself back in Hawke’s Bay. Maybe for the rest of my life.
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am bred, not born here. My family comes from ‘up North’, but my earliest memories are of growing up across from Cornwall Park in Tomoana Road (Hastings). I had a wonderful adolescence at Awarua Crescent (Havelock North), my family living at that time in one of John Scott’s early ‘Group Houses’. Next came Auckland and uni, which was mostly free in those days, positively spoilt compared to now. From this time on, only returning to the Bay for visits of shorter and shorter duration … until now, thirty years on, back again. My reasons for rejoining this community are several: my parents, one of my siblings and friends of longstanding are here; the madness that Auckland has become is no longer doable. Hawke’s Bay has cast a spell
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that makes me want to linger now. I’m living on the coast - it takes a lot of beating. The intervening years could be described as diverse. I worked for firms in Queensland after graduating. I became a ‘cruising yachty’ on ‘The Coral Coast’ (a great life). I lived and worked on Fraser Island, built film sets on the Gold Coast. Twenty years across the Tasman sped past. The homecoming in 2009 was momentous. I work remotely from Auckland at present. Hawke’s Bay in my childhood was unequivocally the ‘Fruit Bowl’. If asked what Hawke’s Bay produced I would have said ‘apples’. The Bay was pretty grounded back then. Buying vegetables from roadside stalls is an early memory. There were trips to ‘the dump’, past the new subdivision of Flaxmere. On these car
journeys we could legally choose to wear seat belts or not. The dump was strategically situated over the artesian water supply. 245T and other noxious poisons were dumped with impunity in this era… to then seep down through the gravels into the water below. School holidays were spent at Ocean Beach. The ubiquitous floral print dresses and khaki shorts made holidays classless. Everyone drove a Ford, Holden, or some variety of British car. There were no ‘McMansions’, only baches. They were then as they are now – quirkily built structures with oddly proportioned rooms. The sense of being transported back to the past is acute when I’m at Ocean Beach. It has the same feel now as it did then. The juddery ‘new bridge’ (circa 1970?)… and then the baches; do they possess heritage value? I say ‘yes!’
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y childhood and its particulars are so far removed from the present they are Dickensian. The Mahora shops: there was the grocer behind his counter taking down jars and unscrewing their lids as my mother consults her list. Then weighing these items on a set of scales using pounds and ounces. “That’ll be so many shillings and pennies Mrs. Robertson.” Most likely next will be the butchers shop across the road with sawdust on the floor. I have this lifelong impression of butchers as cheerful people.
The bookshop in Mahora was my favourite destination. It was a toyshop as well. Here I collected my ‘Look and Learn’, and bought Airfix models. I was a lucky kid born in a lucky time. The sweetshop and ice creamery in Mahora comes to mind too, with its painted polystyrene Peter Pan themed wall composition. ‘Peanut-slabs’, ‘gold medals’, ‘aniseed wheels’, ‘liquorice-straps’ would all ensure a rich store of painful memories from future visits to the ‘murder-house’ (the dental clinic at Mahora primary school). The fruit and veg shop on the corner adjacent the sweet shop was owned by folk from somewhere in ‘Asia’. So much of the vegetable production in Hawke’s Bay was done by folk like these. A tortured part of ‘Asia’ we were aware of was Vietnam. Its war and brutal reportage played out shockingly in black and white on our screens at dinner-time. We understood how normality could dissolve into a waking bad dream in an instant. Visits to the Napier museum instructed us that a seemingly normal day could be overtaken by events of biblical proportions. The ground coming rippling towards you. Big splits opening in it. Cars being swallowed. Buildings coming down around your ears. Land heaving up out of the sea. The citizenry is then left to deal with the smell of decomposing sea-life, their personal inconvenience and collective tragedy. The tremors and occasional jolts of the Bay’s seismology reminded us that it was all, after all, only in a restless sleep. The profile of Te Mata Peak was food for thought: “Stay sleeping giant!”
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verall we were fairly upbeat. The above and belowground rivers flowed, the sundrenched plain produced… and how! Wattie’s canned. The Works slaughtered. Life seemed pretty good. Even winter days with icy starts were followed by hours of enchantment under an improbably blue sky. The encircling ranges with snow on them could hold their own against scenery anywhere. The hermit kingdom of Hawke’s Bay. To my
days. In retrospect I believe Murray cast a spell that ushered in a new era. Are we ‘Tuscany’, a la Aotearoa…? I think closer to the mark is ‘Hobbitton’. We are blessed with so many natural attributes, that as locals, we are understandably a little complacent, because this is our ‘normal’. We are a bit inward looking – the world and its affairs are someplace else, away over the horizon, where the cruise ships come from. We are mostly happy, prone to contentment.
I “The sense of being transported back to the past is acute when I’m at Ocean Beach. It has the same feel now as it did then. The juddery ‘new bridge’ … and then the baches; do they possess heritage value? I say ‘yes!’ astonishment after leaving I would encounter people who had never been to the centre of my universe. We’re on a sticky-outy bit of Maui’s fish. If your errand is to Wellington or further south, travelling from most places you are not going via Hawke’s Bay. What has this produced? The Bay has always had a strong sense of self and regional identity. There is snobbery here and always has been. The Bay tends to be a bit selfreferencing and a bit secretive. How the land was initially acquired is not much discussed and little understood. The changing face of Hawke’s Bay: the carpeting of grapes, the proliferation of olives. There is a greater degree of sophistication here now. Just having left school I worked for Murray Jones as a kitchen hand at the Village Restaurant in its very early
believe the future of the Bay is bright. There is too much in our favour for it not to be so. The stalled regional development caused by Auckland will inevitably be resolved when that place just can’t hold anymore. The dam will break, and the influx from elsewhere will flow out over the rest of New Zealand – with all that’s good and bad about that. We are seeing this already. I seriously question sending our precious artesian water over to China. Natural resources are best utilized to add value, to products we create, surely? The possibility of making the Tukituki more water-deprived and slimy in summer, by damming it, feels misguided. And the idea of fracking here seems patently absurd. These are contentious opinions of mine no doubt, but it is water that flows in Hawke’s Bay’s arteries, and this very water that keeps our collective heart beating. The essence of the Bay is its perfect fusion of silty soils and abundant water. The unintentional attempt to poison us all by siting the dump over the artesian supply failed when I was a kid. We should be smarter now, and empowering ourselves not to jeopardize the prosperity that water brings. Nor compromise the aesthetic delight it provides us with, gratis, on a daily basis, whether crossing one of our numerous bridges, engaging actively with it by swimming, walking, cycling or fishing; or maybe just relaxing in the shade on a riverbank, during a baking hot day. Like generations of families here have always done.
Page 95 • Issue 29 • May / Jun 2016 • BAY BUZZ
The Tale of Toru
Katie was eight years old and wanted a puppy. A specific puppy. A next-door puppy; a little-ball-of-scruff puppy. “No, no,” I said with firm intent. “No, no,” I said emphatically. “Ask your father,” I said with resignation. Fingers were twisted and deals were brokered. Yes, Katie could have a puppy, but that puppy would definitely stay outside and sleep in the laundry. Definitely. Every day Katie walked the hundred metres to the beloved hawthorns to cuddle the newly named Toru. At last eight weeks had passed and it was time to carry the wiry bundle home. Toru became a live-in-the-laundry puppy for at least an hour. His progression to kitchen puppy tick-tocked away a good ten minutes. The living room beckoned. By nightfall his cosy basket lay empty as Toru became a sleepin-Katie’s-arms kind of a puppy. Toru glued himself to Kate’s side for the next ten years. Every morning when she and Michael left for school he would line up with his friends Tahi, Rua and LambLamb to wave goodbye. The four friends would be back in position to await the school bus return as it unloaded their human buddies. Toru and Kate were inseparable until time played its awful trick. Puppies age and little girls grow wings. Toru tried to fly. He lived in Ohakune, he tasted Tauranga, Auckland made him shake and shiver and in the end he returned alone to Te Rangi Farm. Home was empty of all but Peter and I. We were no substitute for Kate, but we did our
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BY MARY KIPPENBERGER
best. Toru waited for his Katie, ever ready, teeth bared in a toothy grin, his secret wink, his thumping tail. His love would be rewarded whenever she made the long trip home. We were happy to be surrogates for Toru, but touring became a problem. Storytelling takes us the length and breadth of NZ. Toru was too old to leave behind so we took him with us, sneaking into motel units under the cover of darkness. The plan worked well … until it didn’t.
Toru died at 15 years. He joined his friends under the ancient Chinese maple. We arrived in Rotorua on this particular day expecting a motel, but found a hotel. A plush, very pleased with itself hotel. It looked grandly down on us as we considered our dilemma. There was only one way in, up the marbled stairs, past the coiffed concierge, the polished mahogany, the immaculate guests, past the pristine manager with hands clasped behind a ramrod back. We considered our options. Run? Confess? Cry? After furtive discussion we decided on concealment and subterfuge. I grabbed the tatty old blanket of questionable heritage that had found its way into our car but had never found its way out.
I tucked Toru under my arm, arranged the blanket and hissed his instructions. Peter booked us in. I floated past, a ship in full sail, head held high, smiling my beneficence, a gracious nod to the desk, to the manager, to my public. I swept by, around the corner and leapt into the waiting lift. Our top floor suite was magnificent and I could happily have settled in for the night, but Toru was an elderly statesman and required relief every two hours. Every two hours this strange old woman would sweep back past the coiffed concierge, past the suspicious manager, past the sipping patrons, nodding a gracious greeting to her puzzled public. Still wearing the tatty, lumpy blanket, the pantomime would play again minutes later. All night. Toru died at 15 years. He joined his friends under the ancient Chinese maple. Four dogs, four cats, one sheep, three ponies and a cow (just the head and tail because we ate the middle). The whole family had returned by the time Toru left. We were sad of course; it is the price of love and Toru had earned our tears. It is amazing how much a little hairy dog with steroid shoulders, shocking breath and the ability to clear a room could get under your skin. Unconditional love. Imagine if we all loved like dogs love. Loved no matter our colour, our creed, our abilities, our disabilities, our background, our status, whether we were gay or straight, rich or poor. Just unconditional love and loyalty. What a world that would be.
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