Issue No.23 • MAY/JUN 2015 • $8.00 Including GST
Toot Your Own Horn Life After 80 In HB
Going Clubbing Find Your Passion
The Ahuriri Estuary Gem Clean-up Overdue
Winston Peters & Peter Dunne
Advice for Hawke’s Bay
Political Buzz
Water Bottling, Dam, Amalgamation
9 772253 262016
03
Better Ways to Pay Rates Kitchen Envy Roundup Warning Top 5 Food Memories Gut Instinct Rules
Announcing the arrival of AirpointsTM when you sell with Bayleys. Bayleys is the only full service real estate company that gives you Airpoints DollarsTM when you sell your property. This means not only will you get a great result, we’ll also put something towards your next getaway to celebrate. Every $2,000 in the sale price achieved will earn you 1 Airpoints Dollar*, which you can spend on Air New Zealand flights, upgrades, Koru memberships, or items from the AirpointsTM Store. For more arrival info, go to bayleys.co.nz/airpoints or call your local Bayleys office on 0800 BAYLEYS. *To a maximum of 500 Airpoints Dollars. Visit bayleys.co.nz for terms and conditions. Airpoints Programme terms and conditions also apply. Licensed under the REAA 2008.
Issue No.23 • MAY / JUN 2015
THIS MONTH Hawke’s Bay’s 80-year-olds aren’t slowing down. Napier needs to clean up the Ahuriri Estuary. Decisions approach on amalgamation and the dam. What about water bottling? Hawke’s Bay boasts clubs for every interest and passion. Advice to HB from Winston Peters & Peter Dunne. Are there better ways to fund local government? Plus food, the arts scene, and Brendan’s humour.
FEATURES
22 TOOT YOUR OWN HORN
Jessica Soutar Barron
Life after age 80 in Hawke’s Bay.
30 AHURIRI ESTUARY: CLEAN-UP OVERDUE
Bridget Freeman-Rock
We need to take care of our prized urban ecosystem.
38
POLITICAL BUZZ Tom Belford The calm before the storm: amalgamation, the dam decision, aquifer water bottling, Māori political empowerment.
46 GOING CLUBBING
Keith Newman
Ageing bikers, cowboy pistol packers, ham operators, coffin builders – clubs for every taste. Page 1 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Issue No.23 • MAY/JUN 2015
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.
Meeting Karpovsky
> BEE in the KNOW 08 Justine Kidd awarded. Wellness Index. Hot/Not. Renewable power. Chinese pay for GMO free. Women’s Centre. Sport HB chief. Taine Randell flies. Sick NZ. Rotary thanks. Water warrior. Nature corridor. Ageing HQ. Events not to miss.
> IDEAS & OPINIONS 78 NEEDED: NEW WAYS TO FUND LOCAL GOVERNMENT Lawrence Yule 80 TRUST REGIONALS TO DEVELOP OWN OPPORTUNITIES Peter Dunne 81 PUTTING HEART BACK INTO HAWKE’S BAY Winston Peters 84 GUT INSTINCT STILL RULES Paul Paynter 86 MEGATRENDS & INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES Sam Howard 88 OFF WITH HIS HEAD David Trubridge 90 SMART FARMING: ROUNDUP … FRIEND OR FOE Phyllis Tichinin & Angela Hair 92 FREE LUNCHES WON’T CUT IT Anna Lorck 94 TAKE THE BLINKERS OFF HORSE OF THE YEAR Damon Harvey
> CULTURE & LIFESTYLE 54 STATE OF THE ART Roy Dunningham 58 ARTS Jessica Soutar Barron George Nuku. Meeting Karpovsky. Iona performance centre. Birdwoods celebrates. MEKKA online. Scrabble champ. Bodybuilders compete. Book reviews. Leo Bestall. MTG and ANZAC. Kevin ‘Events’ Murphy. Waka hourua. Parlour music. Winter FAWC. 66 TASTE TOP 5 Alexandra Tylee 70 KITCHEN ENVY Clare Tanton 96 BEATING THE BREASTPLATE Brendan Webb BayBuzz articles are archived 30 days after publication at: WWW.BAYBUZZ.Co.NZ For editorial enquiries:editors@baybuzz.co.nz For advertising enquiries:mandy@baybuzz.co.nz
THE BAYBUZZ TEAM EDITOR: Tom Belford. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Jessica Soutar Barron. SENIOR wRITERS: Bridget Freeman-Rock; Jessica Soutar Barron; Keith Newman; Mark Sweet; Tom Belford. cOluMNISTS: Anna lorck; Brendan webb; Damon Harvey; David Trubridge; Paul Paynter; Sarah cates. EDITOR’S RIgHT HAND: Brooks Belford. PHOTOgRAPHy: Tim whittaker; Sarah cates. IlluSTRATION: Brett Monteith. cREATIvE, DESIgN & PRODucTION: Empire Design; coast & co. ADvERTISINg SAlES & DISTRIBuTION: Mandy Jensen. ONlINE: Mogul. BuSINESS MANAgER: Bernadette Magee. PRINTINg: Format Print. cOvER PHOTO By SArAh CAteS Page 2 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
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. 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. BRIDGET FREEMAN-ROCK Bridget is Hawke’s Bay grown, and a bookworm by vocation, or a ‘literary scientist’ to borrow a German term for the ubiquitous arts degree in English. She freelances as a writer, editor and translator (German), and proofreads BayBuzz, alongside postgrad study and ventures in poetry and fiction. 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 ISSN 2253-2625 (PrINt) ISSN 2253-2633 (ONlINe)
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
“Damn Fools!” The controversy surrounding bottling Heretaunga aquifer water for export highlights all sorts of flaws in the way we conduct local government business in Hawke’s Bay. It also exposes some major policy shortcomings in New Zealand’s treatment of one of our most precious assets (the other being soil) … shortcomings that Hawke’s Bay alone can’t fix. Here are some of the water bottling questions and assertions put to me over and over in the past few weeks – in emails, phone calls, social conversations and encounters on the street. • Was someone asleep at the switch (or worse, crazy) in awarding these consents? • Who awarded them in the first place (Napier, Hastings or Regional Councils)? • Why don’t we (the public, councillors) know something like this is happening in advance, so we can at least raise questions and express our concerns? • How much water has been consented for extraction, and is this amount sustainable? How do we know whether we have so much water that we can give it away for export? Where’s the data? • How can we be giving away water for export at the same time orchardists and other growers (to say nothing of home lawn sprinklers) face possible bans on water use? • Irrigators need to defend – with substantial documentation – the quantum of water they wish to extract according to their land area, soils, crops etc; bottlers seem to get as much water as they want no questions asked. Where’s the fairness in that?
Page 4 • Issue 23 • May / June 2014 • BAY BUZZ
• Are we charging someone for this water, and if not, why not? Shouldn’t our region get some direct financial return for our region’s water? Should overseas investors profit from our free water? • Aren’t there ‘higher uses’ for this water that would create more jobs here in Hawke’s Bay or yield more value that would better reward the region for its asset? And can’t we allocate our water to those uses? Not one of these questions is silly or inappropriate. Some have more defensible answers than others from a narrow consenting standpoint. The last two are hugely important from an economic development standpoint; and the sustainability question is paramount. But on its face, the situation seems to defy common sense. And that’s why so many people are rightfully alarmed, incredulous … and angry. Whoever is letting this happen must be, as one email said: “Damn fools!” Well, to some extent I agree. Collectively our region’s elected leaders – and especially we at the Regional Council – are damn fools for allowing this situation to proceed entirely under the radar. Part of the problem arises from the routine delegation of consenting to council staffs. In theory (and most practice) that’s a sound management approach. And so 95% or more of ‘normal’ consenting happens without elected councillors ever being aware. If anything, in the past we might have asked once a year … how much does this consenting cost and how fairly are we charging applicants? Earlier this year I argued to my council that councillors should be made aware as a routine matter of each and every consent application
that walks in the door. Some councillors disagreed, regarding this as undue interference with management. However the proposal was accepted; now councillors receive a regular spreadsheet that at least provides a topline heads-up on what applications are coming through the pipeline. However, the water bottling consents had already been granted in 2013 by HBRC, with the staff, using its discretion under the RMA, compounding the injury by having also decided that broad public notification was not needed. Clearly, some applications can raise important public issues that should be aired at a political level. And that’s a judgment I as an elected councillor must have the opportunity to make – to get the issues on the table in full public view. With the new alert process in place, I pledge to take that opportunity whenever I deem necessary. No longer can councillors say: we didn’t know. I can’t respond here to all the questions raised above, but I’ve begun to address them in my Political Buzz article later in the magazine. And I’ll press for a full-scale HBRC review. This edition isn’t all ‘heavy stuff ’ though. For a lighter look inside Hawke’s Bay, check out Toot Your Own Horn, looking at life after age 80 here, and Going Clubbing, for a peek at some of the more unique passions that mark our lifestyles in Hawke’s Bay.
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.
BayBuzz
Needs You! And Yours. Of course, anyone can just read BayBuzz. And we’re delighted that you do. But here are some other ways you … or someone you know … or an organization or business in which you are involved … can actually help inspire content for the magazine. Foreign Correspondents Hawke’s Bay sends a steady stream of emissaries out into the wide world beyond our region. We’re not talking Dannevirke, but rather Dubai, London, Shanghai, California, New York … even that weird place called Oz. And they’re both taking in the world, comparing it to home (pluses and minuses), and representing Hawke’s Bay to the ‘unwashed’ who live beyond our borders. Can they write? If so, we’d like to read their stories and observations. Can they shoot a photo (or even a video) or take a selfie of something we need to see to believe? If so, we’d like to view it. In short, BayBuzz is looking for ‘foreign correspondents’ who can show us the world as seen by Hawke’s Bay expats. And either make us envious of their good fortune, or make us happy to be right here! Maybe one of those emissaries is your daughter, son, sister or cousin. Get ahold of them. Tell them BayBuzz wants to hear from them. We have a magazine and a website eager for their dispatches.
Returnees Some Hawke’s Bay expats have ‘seen the world’ … and seen enough!
Page 6 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
And home they’ve come. We’d like to know about them too, and hear their stories. What was their overseas experience? Why are they back? Just back from Sydney? We’ve probably heard that one … but give it a try. Just back from Uzbekistan? We’re all ears! Generally, we’ve published ‘returnee’ stories in groups of three or so, under the rubric … They’re Back! We’d like to do this, with your help, with more regularity. Again, they could be your daughter, son, sister or cousin. If they’ve returned to the motherland in the last year or so, get them on our radar screen. By ourselves, we can’t monitor all the borders all the time.
Spies Finally, we need domestic spies. The BayBuzz team is pretty good at scanning the local scene and knowing who’s who and what’s what. But we have blinders just like everyone else … our network needs constant expanding and refreshing. We need BayBuzz readers to alert us to upcoming events, identify individuals and organisations whose special achievements deserve recognition, clue us in to new and
innovative businesses that will help put Hawke’s Bay on the map … and yes, share juicy gossip of community relevance. Naturally, we can’t cover everything and everyone. We’ll leave the ‘normal’ stuff – like hatches, matches and dispatches – to Hawke’s Bay Today. Instead, BayBuzz is looking for the bold, the brash, the brilliant … the undiscovered, unnoticed and unusual. We think our readers have the inside scoop on this kind of stuff. And we hope you’ll share it with us and your fellow readers.
How? It couldn’t be simpler. Whatever kind of content you might be able to share – Foreign Correspondents, Returnees, Spies – all it takes to get our attention is an email. Our computers are never turned off! Of course, we can’t promise that you’ll see each and every submission in print. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Don’t be shy.
We’re at editors@baybuzz.co.nz Or: PO Box 8322, Havelock North And we’d love to hear from you and yours.
suBscrIBE TO BAYBuZZ BEE in the KNOW
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BEE in the KNOW
Primary Sector Pride
Photo by Graeme Brown / Young Country magazine
Justine Kidd has been awarded the inaugural Hastings District Council Hawke's Bay Primary Sector Industry Leader of the Year Award, which recognises innovation in the local industry. Page 8 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Kidd is CEO for the Bel Group, a Central Hawke's Bay dairy farming business comprising nine dairy farms totalling 2700 ha and milking 8,800 cows. She is also Chair of the Dairy Women’s Network and works with a number of other industry organisations in volunteer, mentoring, management and governance roles. In 2013 Kidd was named the New Zealand Dairy Woman of the Year. Her nomination said, “Justine is a leader who achieves outstanding business results while growing a team of people around her. It is never about Justine, it is always about the results and the people who are achieving them.” This award is testament to that.
BEE in the KNOW
Hawke's Bay Wellness Index Jobs on Seek.co.nz
Homes For Sale
[April 27, 2015]
[Realestate.co.nz]
Lamb price at Stortford
230
1,735
Homes Sold
Petrol, Regular
Dwelling Assualts
[REINZ]
Average at BP
[Family violence indicator]
in March 2015 [Up 23% from Mar 2014]
[ April 27 ]
in February 2015 [ Up 6 from Feb 2014]
Monthly Retail Spending
HB Hospital Emergency Department presentations
Giant jaffas given away by Pipi’s in Havelock North
[ 22 Feb – 21 Apr 2015]
[Giant jaffas consumed in March 2015]
April 27, 2015
AVERAGE
$110.48 [ April 20 ]
[ Down 163 from February ]
245 $1.809 111 122.6 Million [ Up 2.5% over March 2014 ]
$
March 2015 [Paymark]
Visitors to MTG
Paid admissions, March
3,330 [ Down 245 from February ]
6,950 3,774 70 [ Down 16 from same period, 2014 ]
70 gigabytes of data downloaded, per month, on average, by NOW GB residential customers.
Bay Espresso coffee sold [Jan 2015]
Hawke's Bay Guest Nights [Year end Feb 2015]
1,384 3,808,028
[ Up 267 kg from Jan ]
kg
[ Up 2.8% year over year ]
What's Hot
What's Not
Bees
Wasps
Phablets
Tablets & smartphones
Treaty claimant groups
Māori advisory committees
Winston Peters
John Key
Ahuriri Estuary
Napier stormwater
WWI enlisted men
WWI generals
Forest & Bird
DoC
Hockey turf
Te Mata Peak Visitor Centre
NKII / Environment Court
HBRC – ‘Too hard’
Page 9 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
Power Shift Good news on the power front according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit held recently in New York. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than it is for power from coal, natural gas and oil combined. The tipping point happened in 2013 when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, versus 141 gigawatts in new plants burning fossil fuels. By 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added. On top of this the price of wind and solar power continues to plummet. It's now the same or cheaper than grid electricity in many parts of the world. Solar is the newest major source of energy in the mix and currently makes up less than 1% of the electricity market today, but by 2050 solar could be the world’s biggest single source according to the International Energy Agency. The big question now is not if but when will the world transition to cleaner energy, and it all comes down to money. Investment is needed, internationally, in the billions of dollars each year, to continue the steady improvements in our big switch from fossil to clean fuels.
Chinese supermarket chain features this point of sale poster for a Hawke's Bay pumpkin grower. Note the big selling point: the origin is a “pollution free and GMO free” region. The price the pumpkins are selling for is $6.20/kg, which is huge money. In contrast to what NZ Government wants to believe, 'GMO free' and 'pollution free' are selling propositions that can set our products head and shoulders above the competition. Page 10 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
The Rest Is History … And Much More
It's been at the heart of Hastings City since 1921, but now with a refurbishment, a new paint job and an overhaul of its programmes the Women's Rest has gone from grand old dame to a thoroughly modern Millie. The Rest and the Women's Centre, which runs the programmes and services provided within it, are a coming together of an historically significant building, some very contemporary initiatives, and good, oldfashioned grassroots community support. Programmes are designed to appeal to all walks of life, and are run by volunteers and members of the community who are dedicated to helping others. Some of what the Women's Centre is set up to provide is helping women dealing with depression and abuse, but lots of it is just an outlet for fun. Service Manager, Margot Wilson explains the aim of the Centre: to reach as broad a range of women as possible, and to provide services that aren't offered in other places in a warm and welcoming environment. “But we do a lot of fun things too,” she is careful to point out. “Joy can be the thing that really makes the difference.” It is a place where all women are welcome, and the programme is so broad there really is something for everyone. “It feels like people care about you here,” says Margot. “It's nice, and women deserve that.” Cathy Barclay has been Service Coordinator at the Centre for 15 years. “We want there to be lots of laughter here, because in the past the focus has been on the serious stuff,” she says. “We still work in those areas of family violence, abuse, counselling, but we want there to be opportunities for play too.” In a contemporary setting it could be asked is there still a need for a women-only space. Both women feel there is. “Many women still need places where they feel safe and secure from men,” Cathy explains. “A lot of men understand that and are open to it. In an ideal world we would be a People's Centre, but at the moment women come here thinking it is an environment just for women and we have to honour that.” A bright new building heralds a bright new future for the iconic Women's Rest, but one with deep roots. “It is still really new but we are encouraging women to come in and get involved,” says Margot.
Cathy Barclay & Margot Wilson
ORIGINS The Women's Rest was the first building purpose-built for women in Australasia. It was built in a time when there were no public facilities for women in the city. “Basically this was a public toilet for women,” says Margot. “That was when there were no toilets in shops, no cafes to go to. Women would come here and buy their lunch, write their letters, leave their parcels.” In those days there was a matron on duty who made the tea and doled out biscuits. It was also a place for mothers to attend to the needs of their children, and the newly refurbished Rest still has a nursery and baby changing facilities.
ARTWORKS An addition to the new look Women's Rest is a collection of works gifted by local artists. This project has been led by trust member Kate Howard, who set out to source works which brought a sense of home. Many of the works have a tactile nature or reflect a domestic origin. “We wanted to bring the heart and the home into the building,” explains Howard. Works include those by Leanne Culy, Raewyn Tauira Patterson, Sophie Blokker
and Robyn Fleet, with some beautiful found textile pieces by Christine Pattullo. “The process of choosing artists is that one led to the next,” says Howard. “People were incredibly generous. A lot of the artists felt that their pieces had found a good home.”
ACTIVITIES The programmes on offer are diverse and include a counselling service, which the Women's Centre has run for many years. There is also: 1. Monday Meanderers – an early morning walk-and-talk around Hastings 2. What's the buzz? An opportunity to discuss local issues 3. Migrant Women's Support Group 4. Lesbian Coffee Morning 5. Eucha 6. Painting 7. Cultured Purls – a chance to sit, knit and natter 8. Singing 9. Massage and mirimiri 10. Naturopathy 11. Social Snappers – a relaxed way to learn how to take better photos
Page 11 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
NEW! Chief for Sport HB
Mark Aspden has started as Sport HB's new chief executive, replacing Colin Stone. A lawyer and former chairman of NZ Football, Aspden says: “Hawke’s Bay is already a very strong sporting region. I am looking forward to working with the team at Sport Hawke’s Bay and with other key stakeholders to continue to grow sport and recreation in the Bay," he says. His first priority should be advocating adherence to the new HB Sports Facilities Plan, recently adopted by our region’s five councils, which will attempt to bring planning and funding order to the current chaos and competition surrounding the location of council-supported sports facilities. Page 12 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Tony Porter & Taine Randall
AIrPOrt ScOrES tAINE rANdAll All Black great Taine Randell has been appointed to the board of the Hawke's Bay Airport. He is the Crown-appointed director and replaces Stuart Webster who’s off to California. Randell holds a number of commercial directorships, including Kahungunu Asset Holding Company, Fiordland Lobster Company and freeze-dried snack food business Kiwigarden. Hawke’s Bay Airport chairman Tony Porter welcomed the appointment saying Randell brings both mana and business acumen. “The board is well balanced and equipped for the many exciting developments ahead,” he said. Alongside Randell, the Crown has reappointed Jim Scotland for a further term.
BEE in the KNOW
SIcK dAtA
1. The majority of premature deaths in NZ are caused by ischemic heart disease, trachea, bronchus and lung cancers, and cerebrovascular disease. 2. Our leading risk factor is dietary risk. 3. Deaths from road injuries have dropped by 34% since 1990. 4. Death rates among 5-9 year old females have dropped by 55% since 1990 (our biggest decrease).
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 is an international collaborative project that aims to find out what makes us sick and what kills us, nation by nation.
5. Death rates among 80+ females have dropped by 18% since 1990 (our smallest decrease).
The GBD includes 500 researchers in 50 countries led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. It’s the biggest such effort in history to look at trends in health, or the lack of it, and includes data around diseases, injuries and risk.
7. The top five reasons we are living with a disability are back pain, depression, neck pain, anxiety and falls.
The facts and figures on New Zealand are:
Here's an interesting article on the origins of the GBD 2010 project: http://nyti.ms/1aNGz6E
6. The top five ways we die in New Zealand are heart disease, lung cancer, strokes, colorectal cancer and self harm.
8. The top three risks of disease here are diet, body-mass index and tobacco smoking. 9. Alongside 14 comparative countries New Zealand ranks the worst, or near the bottom in COPD, colorectal cancer, drug use disorders, Alzheimer's disease, asthma and schizophrenia.
Rotary Thanks The Stortford Lodge Rotary charity quiz night and auction held recently at the Hastings racecourse raised over $5,000 for the Child Cancer Foundation. Over 200 guests were entertained and cajoled by quizmaster Chris Tremain at this inaugural event. Organiser Stewart Brodie says the success of the event resulted from the participation of all who attended as well the generosity of local businesses and individuals who contributed in many ways, including
those within Stortford Lodge Rotary who donated items for the charitable auction over and above the efforts they put in to making this a successful event for all concerned.
Thanks to: PK Furniture, John Staniford (Artist), Sileni Estate, Nick Fedaeff (Artist), Envy Shoes, Hawke's Bay Racing Club (Ric Chalmers), Vet Services Hawke's Bay and all the other local businesses and individuals who generously supported and contributed time, product and vouchers to be auctioned or raffled to help raise money for The Child Cancer Foundation.
Page 13 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
BEE in the KNOW
WAtER WARRIOR
Nature Corridor A new environmental project has been launched on a massive scale in Hawke's Bay. Cape to City is an ecological restoration project with a strong focus on wide-scale predator pest control. It links in to existing projects of this type, including Cape Sanctuary. Cape to City encompasses 26,000 hectares of land between Cape Kidnappers and Hastings, extending south to include Waimarama and areas of forest in Kahuranaki. Within this area there will be ‘corridors’ of vegetation created, like the Maraetotara Stream, that encourage native birds to pass along and eventually make their way into our own backyards. One stream of the project is education, and Ruud ‘Bugman’ Kleinpaste is the ambassador for this. His focus is the importance of education in helping younger generations understand the value of biodiversity. “In Hawke's Bay, with the Cape to City initiative, we are in a perfect position to explore some transformational ideas to ensure that the next generation of New Zealanders builds greater understanding and respect for the ecosystem services our biodiversity provides and how to look after the planet by rediscovering its operating manual,” says Kleinpaste. Hawke's Bay Regional Council, Department of Conservation, Landcare Research, Cape Sanctuary, the Aotearoa Foundation and various land-owners in the Cape to City catchment are working in partnership on this project under the umbrella of the Hawke's Bay Biodiversity Strategy. The partnership brings together two significant projects; Poutiri Ao ō Tāne and Cape to City. The former was established in 2011. Follow the project on Facebook at:
Dr Mike Joy has released a new eBook called
Squandered: The Degradation of New Zealand’s Freshwaters Joy is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at Massey University. He researches and teaches freshwater ecology, especially freshwater fish ecology and distribution, ecological modelling, bioassessment and environmental science. Of the book Joy says: “I want to try and show how in the last few decades environmental protection was deregulated, allowing a few to profit by polluting on a massive scale and how that has led to the destruction we see today. I want to show also how this reality is denied and covered-up so that relatively few are aware of the full extent of the damage.” He has made the eBook available as a free download at:
waterqualitynz.info Page 14 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
www.facebook.com/capetocity
Ageing in Style Half-way between Napier and Hastings, a new use for an old(ish) building is giving a new lease on life to older adults. Presbyterian Support East Coast's Enliven Centre has taken over the grand art deco cum Aztec former winery on Pakowhai Road. It means a permanent home for the day respite programmes the Centre offers to people over 65, supporting their physical and emotional wellbeing. Rebekah Charlton is the Community Services Manager at Enliven and she and her team are thrilled to be offering their programmes from such a warm and welcoming space. “We have amazing people attending and we want to provide a service and a space that is just as special as they are,” Charlton says. “They have contributed so much to society, and it is nice to be able to give back.” Some clients self-refer, while others are referred by their doctor, carers or family. “The initial idea of attending a day programme for older people is quite hard for some,” says Charlton. “It depends on the person and how they view their ageing process. Some people have a great sense of relief when they attend the programmes, while others are hesitant at first.”
Enliven has been running day programmes for nine years, but had to operate out of a variety of leased halls in both Hastings and Napier, which often limited the programmes they could provide. “We are quite central now so the whole of Hawke's Bay can access us. It also means we can have bigger groups and a wider range of activities,” explains Charlton. Enliven is contracted by HBDHB to provide support and programmes for clients who may otherwise be socially isolated or have a high risk of falling. Recently, this contract was amended to include people living with dementia who wish to access day respite. ‘Stand Tall Balance Improvement Programme’ is one of the initiatives that Enliven is offering to attendees. This course decreases the older person’s risk of falling. ‘Senior Chef ’ has been another particularly successful programme. Consisting of eight weekly sessions of a couple of hours each, the programme addresses nutritional information for older people, and gives practical ideas and recipes when cooking for one, giving participants the techniques, knowledge and confidence to cook at home. DHB had funded the programme, however Enliven is now looking at other ways to fund it since the contract ended.
“Nutritional needs change after the age of 60. People need more protein, for example, so you can have things like full fat milk, where you may have avoided that before,” says Charlton. Charlton feels the new space has given her clients a new lease on life. “It's amazing feeling the difference in the groups that come,” she says. “The vibrancy that comes out of them, they are more alive, more talkative, have more energy. The space itself lifts it and makes them feel they're worth something.” Enliven is a service of Presbyterian Support East Coast and as a nonprofit organisation, is always looking for people to help out in various ways. Get in touch on: 06 877 8193 or events@psec.org.nz
Page 15 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
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The Buzz around the BAY Mel Parsons 8 May
Mel Parsons
Fly My Pretties star and well-loved kiwi singer/songwriter Parsons is back in NZ and heads out on the road to celebrate the release of her new album ‘Drylands’. In Hastings she plays Playhouse Theatre.
Mega Mohaka Trail Event 10 May An opportunity to run over the rugged East Coast hills of Waiotia Station, which is located at Mohaka, 90 mins north of Napier, 35 mins south of Wairoa.
Hawke's Bay Sports Awards 16 May The awards recognise innovation, excellence and contribution to sport and recreation in Hawke’s Bay from grassroots through to elite level, and the outstanding achievements of Hawke’s Bay athletes, coaches and officials. At Pettigrew Green Arena.
NZSO presents Into The Storm 19 May Benjamin Britten’s ‘Four Sea Interludes’ from his masterpiece opera Peter Grimes followed by British violin star Anthony Marwood taking on Britten’s brilliant and imaginative ‘Violin Concerto’, pushing the violin to the extremes of its power. At Napier Municipal Theatre.
Ed Byrne
The Pink Floyd Experience 21 May
Sleeping Beauty 29 May
If you never got to see the original Pink Floyd, this is as close as you’re ever going to get! At Napier Municipal Theatre.
The classic performed by Moscow Ballet ‘La Classique’. At Napier Municipal Theatre.
HB Business Hub 22 May
Mud and Guts Challenge 31 May
The new ‘watering hole’ co-locating council officials and government agencies working to assist small and mid-sized HB businesses hosts an Open Day from 10am to 3pm for local business owners/operators to learn the services on offer. At 36 Bridge St, Ahuriri.
The ultimate mud run challenge, featuring a 9 kilometre obstacle course with 50+ gruelling, unpredictable purposebuilt obstacles at Mountain Valley Adventure Lodge.
Wairoa Maori Film Festival 29 May 10th annual Wairoa Maori Film Festival, held at Kahungunu Marae, Nuhaka, from Friday May 29 to Monday June 2.
Winter FAWC Throughout June The Food and Wine Classic is back this winter with a platter of delicious treats for gourmands.
Ed Byrne 20 May Brilliant Irish stand-up comedian, Ed Byrne, is back at the NZ International Comedy Festival for the first time since 2009; with his hugely successful show ‘Roaring Forties’. At Napier Municipal Theatre.
Page 18 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Wairoa Film Festival
The Buzz around the BAY
Katchafire
National Horticultural Field Days 5 June
Katchafire 20 June
Horticulture’s ‘Big day Out’ at the Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds
Before embarking on their European and Australian tours in July, August and September, Katchafire will go on their annual New Zealand Winter tour. Playing Napier at The Sideline Bar.
Hurricanes vs Highlanders 5 June This year’s only Super Rugby match in Hawke’s Bay. At McLean Park.
Six60 6 June A high energy live show playing songs off their debut album as well as performing for the first time songs from their new album. At Pettigrew Green Arena.
NZCT Chamber Music Contest Finals 21 June The longest running youth music competition in New Zealand and the only nationwide chamber music competition for young secondary school musicians and composers in the country. At Napier Municipal Theatre.
Mud and Guts Challenge
Page 19 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
The BUZZ around the BAY
Six60
Salute 24 June The Royal New Zealand Ballet collaborates with the New Zealand Army Band and New Zealand composers and choreographers in a programme of works to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli landings. At Napier Municipal Theatre.
Norsewood to Takapau Fun Challenge 12 July
Hawke's Bay Councils' Long Term Plans
Enjoy a fun, family and friends event along scenic country roads. Starting from the historic Norsewood Village, take the back roads to Takapau on an undulating course. Register with Sport HB.
Our councils' Long Term Plans are have been released in draft form and are open for submissions from the public, either individuals or groups.
HB Hunt Raceday 27 June
Central Hawke's Bay District Council
May 8
Spectacular jumps, racing action and an annual Mid-Winter Christmas party. At Hastings Racecourse.
Napier City Council
May 13
Hastings District Council
Fitwear Art Deco Grand Prix of Bodybuilding 27 June Watch the clash of titans and amazons as they battle it out to claim the overall titles, amazing trophies and fantastic prizes. At Napier Boys' High School.
Page 20 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
The closing dates for Long Term Plan submissions are:
May 15
Hawke's Bay Regional Council
May 18
Wairoa District Council Andrew Marwood
TBA, maybe
The BUZZ around the BAY
Page 21 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Willie Wetere, 81
Toot Your Own Horn Life After 80 in HB
BY JESSICA SOUTAR BARRON PHOTOGRAPHS SARAH CATES
Late last year singer/songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen turned 80 and announced he would recommence smoking, a habit he’d abandoned in his fifties. Speculation is he decided to ‘set aside a life lived for the future and, instead, embrace the pleasures of the present’ (New York Times 20 Sept 2014). He himself said: “I’m looking forward to that first smoke. I’ve been thinking about that for 30 years. It’s one of the few consistent strings of thoughts I’ve been able to locate.” 76,000 people in New Zealand are aged over 80; 5,500 of them live in Hawke’s Bay. There are nearly twice as many women in that demographic as men. Only 200 are Māori. Figures are creeping up slowly every year. By 2031, across New Zealand, over-80s will reach 144,000, then 330,000 by 2061. By then we’ll have more ‘seniors’ (those aged over 65) than children. Visit the Hawke’s Bay DHB website under ‘Services for Older People in Hawke’s Bay’ and you get an idea of what the DHB sees as priority areas: less able to live independently, the need for enduring power of attorney, assessment tools for Alzheimer’s, disability, mental health. Stats aside, over-80s are almost invisible. Many live in units, villages, entire subdivisions of seniors. Social exchanges happen in clubs and venues specifically for seniors. To the commercial world they are uninteresting, neither voracious consumers nor employees. Aside from ads for sildenafil, most senior-targeted promotion is aimed at those caring for parents and
grandparents: ads for funeral homes, retirement villages, insurance. In shops, on the street, in the post office, most of the general populace are guilty of making mass generalisations about ‘oldies’. It’s a type of xenophobia. Many of us will get to be 80, or at least 65+, but if we’ve still got a way to go, we don’t seem much interested in peeking into the future to find out what life is like there. But people over 80 aren’t just fodder for statistics and generalisations. Their experiences of the world, their challenges and enthusiasms, their attitudes to their own lives are diverse. They’re opinionated, witty, rebellious and more than any demographic, they ‘embrace the pleasures of the present’. Four over-80s met BayBuzz reporter Jess Soutar Barron at Heretaunga Seniors in Hastings to discuss life, death, drugs and old folks’ homes. Pearl, Rex, Grace and Claude all attend the club at various times during the week, for cards, bowls, keep fit sessions, lunches and housie.
Independent living Pearl Green turned 80 last August. “It’s bloody wonderful,” she says. “My mum died at 56, my sister at 50. I celebrated my 80th with a yeehaa and a yahoo!” Grace Scott is 86. Claude Davidson, 96. Rex Simpson lives with wife Pat just up the
street. He rode his new mobility scooter here; he’s 89. Grace’s husband died 12 years ago. “I’ll never get over it. I still miss him,” she says. Claude’s wife died eight months ago. Life has changed, but it goes on. “I was never allowed in the kitchen, I’d never even cracked an egg, but you’ve got to feed yourself. My wife did the cooking for 75 years.” Nowadays Claude cooks every meal.
“You never think you’re old. You just keep acting like a young person. You’re only as old as you feel and mostly I feel about 60, although when you’re unwell you can be as old as the hills.” If he doesn’t know how to do something, he looks it up on his iPad. He’s always been an early-adopter of technology. An engineer, he tinkers until he works it out. “I wake up, check my mail, read the news, play solitaire until I win. If you want a recipe, it’ll give it to you and tell you how to cook it. I have Spotify for music, every artist I’d ever want I’ve got there,” he explains, calling it his hobby.
Page 23 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Claude Davidson, 96
“I have a hobby. Smoking cigarettes,” says Pearl Green, who has smoked since she was 17. “I gave up for 11 months, then smoked again the day I buried my husband. It’s a terrific hobby. I smoke a pack a day,” she says, and when Claude looks shocked she adds, “That’s not a lot when you’re a smoker. I’m 80, I’m still kicking, I thoroughly enjoy a cigarette.” Pearl’s husband died ten years ago after 67 years of marriage. “It’s the biggest heartbreak I’ve ever had. I talk to his photograph,” she says. Claude does the same. “I have to behave, she might be watching me!” he laughs. Living alone has been a major life change for Pearl, Claude and Grace. Rex still has his wife Pat. “It gives you a fright when you have a fall,” says Pearl. “I’ve often wondered: living alone, if you fall and go unconscious, who would know?” When Pearl’s husband died she moved into town. “That’s really big,” she explains, potentially more so being only partially sighted. “On the farm I had my husband and my daughter to help me. When I shifted to town I had no one.” Practical things like downsizing furniture and rehoming family possessions are as challenging as emotional and mental changes.
Mobility Getting out and about can be hard. Claude
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Rex Simpson, 89
still drives. Rex has his mobility scooter, and is an enthusiastic advocate. “They’re marvellous. You have to remember you’re a pedestrian,” he says. Because Pearl’s eyesight is poor she uses taxis. “It’s easier to stay home,” she admits, “but it’s more important to get out of the house.” Grace walks everywhere and, up until a major fall 12 months ago, was at the gym multiple times a week.
“They checked my brain, and told my family, ‘He has the brain of a 40 year old ... on marijuana.’ So I was allowed to live.” “I miss the gym. I’ve always been fit,” she explains. “It’s very important to get out every day, or the walls can close in.” Since 80, Claude has had to renew his licence every two years following a medical. “They make it harder each time,” he says. “It’s not your eyes, it’s not your health, it’s your memory.” “I don’t believe in doctors having that authority,” says Rex. “They don’t dig any deeper. Doctors don’t know how you drive.” Pearl began losing her sight when she was working on the family asparagus farm. It was planting season and someone was missing
every other row. She was angry, then scared when she realised it was her. “It was very frightening. I cried a lot,” she says. “I always believed God punished the bad ones and I was a really good person.” Claude lost an eye at 25 when he got a fragment of steel in it. Then a few years later his hearing began to go when he was working in the canning plant at Watties. Eleven years ago he was so sick he was hospitalised. “They were deciding would I live or would I die,” he explains. “They checked my brain, and told my family, ‘He has the brain of a 40 year old ... on marijuana.’ So I was allowed to live.”
Healthcare Health and wellbeing become more of a focus, either self-driven or under the advice of healthcare professionals, because what would have been a small knock or a soon forgotten fall at 40 can be a real issue at 80. But many over-80s are not as weighed down with pharmaceuticals as we might think. Grace doesn’t take a lot of medication. Neither does Claude. Rex takes insulin for his diabetes. Pearl’s on 15 + a day. “I don’t know what all the pills are for,” she admits. “But if I don’t take them, I’ll die.” Claude shares his medical secret. “When you go to the doctor don’t ask ‘What can I take?’ Ask ‘What can I get rid of?’” he says. “They never take you off anything, so they add more things but don’t get rid of the things you’re already taking.”
Pearl Green, 80
Grace Scott, 86
Rex has been in hospital a few times. “The hospital doctors scrapped all my pills.They said ‘You don’t need any of those’ and my doctor agreed. So I think ‘Why did I take them in the first place?’” “I’m against pills,” says Claude. “I wouldn’t have any but I have to satisfy my doctor.”
Care homes Claude is adamant about one thing, the need to stay in charge of one’s own life. “You run your life. You don’t want to end
up in a home. You can see for yourself, visit, and if 70% of the people there have lost their memory, don’t go.” Claude explains: “I’m not going to family, they’ve got their own lives to live. I won’t be a burden, but I’ll be on my last legs before I go into a home.” Pearl is opposed to a rest home too, unless it’s absolutely necessary. “I’m too independent.” Grace has spent some time in a care facility, but now lives in her own home. “The doctor put me in when I was really sick. I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this, I can’t stand all this
sitting business.’ I was there ten days then I walked out.” All four agree the government’s focus is keeping seniors in their own homes, and they all see rest homes and retirement villages as money-making ventures. “If you’ve got a few bob to spare,” advises Claude, “invest in a retirement home.” “They’re robbing the old people,” says Rex. “They’re not there to look after you.” “They’re running a business,” agrees Claude.
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Page 25 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Peter Dobbie, then and now, 83
Speeding over 80 Peter Dobbie was born in 1932 in Hastings. His primary school was what is now the Paper Mulberry cafe on State Highway 2. “Mothers didn’t work in those days,” says Peter, of his childhood. “And we lived on full cream milk and roasts three times a week.” Peter has a brother a year older and the two of them would bike over the hills to catch the school bus. It was a daily, and mandatory, slog. Especially when his father “decided to move to the wopwops to milk cows.” “There was no emphasis on healthy living in those days, it was just life.” Peter explains. It bred in Peter a lifelong commitment to being strong and healthy, something that has held him in good stead. At 83 he bikes into town most days, even goes as far as Clive and Napier from his home in Hastings; works out at the gym four times a week; chooses fish oil, flax seed oil, chia seeds, manuka honey over medications. And on rest days cruises around the region on his 600cc motorbike. He recently got a speeding ticket, and says the cop got a shock when he realised his age. “I like the thrill of it. You either like bikes or you don’t,” he says. “I haven’t grown up yet. I’ve had that many speeding tickets; I’ve even lost my licence.” He also has a Holden ute he uses for longer trips. “I’ve been a Holden man for 40 years, but this is my first V8.” As a school leaver Peter did his compulsory military service. It was 1950 and New Zealand was still on edge after World War 2. “They were a bit concerned that Japan would emerge as a fighting nation. But the Americans fixed that by dropping a couple of atomic bombs.” Through the army Peter did a plumbing apprenticeship and then went where the work was. In 1954 he got his first motorbike
- a BSA Bantam - while working in Kawarau on the housing boom there, brought on by the burgeoning pulp and paper industry. The 50s and 60s took him all over New Zealand. “I’ve got a hell of a good memory,” he says. “I like revisiting the places I’ve been because I like seeing how they’ve changed.” The high-rise building boom of the 60s saw Peter move to Wellington. “If I had my life over that’d be my number one pozzie,” he says. “Cities grow on you and I’ve always loved the climate of Wellington.” Around that same time Peter started playing squash and was a founding member of the Island Bay Squash Club. He also played a lot of badminton, and when jogging was the sport du jour, he took that up too. “Being active all your life makes you healthier when you’re older,” he says. “As you age you have to adapt, do something gentle, take up yoga. Adjust your thinking to what your body tells you.” “Feeling good, being well, that’s terribly important to me,” says Peter. “I’m right into what’s healthy.” Peter’s secret is attitude. “Your head space has got to be right, mix with younger people, keep fit,” he explains. “You’ve got to have a purpose, you’ve got to have something to get you out of bed.” His one worry is losing his independence, he says. “I don’t want to end up in a rest home. When I go, I want to go out like a light.”
60 years traveling When Elberta Van Rangelrooy’s mother was 85 she boarded an airplane for the first time and flew from Holland to New Zealand. She came back three summers in a row. She was 93 when she died in 1995. Elberta is 81 this month and will celebrate
her 60th wedding anniversary with Arie on Boxing Day. “We came out as an engaged couple,” she explains, and married a month after arriving in New Zealand in 1955. “I followed my love.” Arie was a painter and paper hanger, and, now retired for over 20 years, the two still travel regularly and extensively, balancing their time between family in Holland and their beautiful vegetable garden in Havelock North. “I have two countries I can call home,” says Elberta. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been home to Holland. I would rather have a car that’s 25 years old than miss out on travel.” In the last year they’ve travelled to Holland, Ireland and Bali where they holidayed with family. But although she still feels mentally able to get on a plane and fly long distance, Elberta admits that changes in big cities mean she’s not as confident as she once was. “I do perhaps feel less safe travelling now that I’m older,” says Elberta. “Europe has changed.” Flying itself takes a particular mindset. Elberta explains she walks a lot on the plane, and thinks of it like a “rainy weekend where you have to stay inside and read all day.” Rather than winging away this year Elberta and Arie’s Dutch family - she still has a brother and a sister living in Oosterbeek near Arnham, as well as a son in The Hague - will come down under for the 60th Anniversary celebrations. To balance out the jet-setting, Elberta spends most days in the garden. She’s grown vegetables since her children were babies and now grows everything she needs, except potatoes, which take up too much space in the petite plot. Between raising children and retiring, Elberta worked in retail, having been raised
www.lookingback.co.nz
Page 27 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
behind the counter of a shoe shop. “We retired together, Arie and me, then we went to Europe with our backpacks on,” she says. “We’ve been really lucky. Almost all our family have been here, and that’s good because then they can imagine what our lives are like here.” Between visits Elberta is a convert to Skype and Facebook, and a keen tablet-user. “I love it because I can see the family, the extended family, new babies, the children. I leave them little notes on Facebook.” Travel itself has done a lot to stimulate both Elberta and Arie as they’ve aged. Elberta believes they are far more adaptable because of travel, the need to convert currency and time zones, navigate public transport and new technologies. Their ability with languages also helps keep their brains active and engaged. As well as English and Dutch, Elberta speaks French and German. When Elberta boarded the ship that took her to a new life in New Zealand 60 years ago, her mother wouldn’t come to say good bye. Then forty years later, at over 80, she came too. Perhaps travel runs in the family, no matter how far apart that family is.
Music through the ages Willie Wetere has played music all his life. Born in Cambridge in 1934, he moved to Hastings 20 years ago to follow his love, Jackie. “When I was seven my sister sang and I played the uke,” he says. His mother played the piano and he moved on to the guitar, playing in the family band from 12 years old. Then for his 21st birthday his dad bought him a saxophone. “He gave me the sax and sent me to Auckland, he said ‘You’ll get lucky there, in the big smoke.”
The Flip Side Marilyn Scott is coordinator at Heretaunga Seniors where most of the 106 members are over 80. Although she knows there is a lot of happiness and positivity amongst the 80+ demographic, she warns against glossing over the very real issues older adults live with. “It’s not all roses,” she says. Social isolation and a lack of connectivity is a big challenge. Although the very old don’t shy away from new technology, the cost of broadband is out of reach to many, keeping the right to drive through the bi-annual drivers licence medical can be a
Page 28 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
In Auckland the era of the Māori Show Bands was beginning. Dance halls all over the city were full, and they all needed bands. Willie hooked up with other Māori musicians playing any gig they could find, and ended up playing in most of the bands of the time, as a fill in, a reserve, a floater. In 1958 Willie made it to the finals of ‘Have a Shot’, the 1950s version of ‘X Factor’. It was held in a packed Auckland Town Hall. In the crowd was legendary music promoter Phil Warren, and after the show he approached Willie with an offer to join one of his bands. “He ran lots of night spots and he wanted to sign me up. I thought I was too green, I was what’s called a ‘green horn’.” Friends and fellow band members assured Willie he had what it took and Willie joined the Phil Warren coterie. “I was getting a lot of jobs after that,” Willie explains. “Good paying jobs, in the biggest dance halls in Auckland.” Then, just as the wave was peaking, he knocked out his front teeth in a Sunday social game of rugby. “You can’t play a sax with no front teeth,” he says. He found work as a crane driver, and after some time went back to playing music at night. For years he put in long days, and longer nights. He worked til he was 75, but by 60 he’d had two heart attacks and two years ago he had quadruple bypass surgery. The days of the Māori Show Bands are now part of the rich fabric of New Zealand music history.They included Prince Tui Teka, Dalvanius Prime, the Maori Volcanics, the Howard Morrison Quartet. Willie played with them all. “There were lots of dance halls and they were all full. I miss a lot of people in the game, all us musos were really close; we were like family,” says Willie. “People danced, they’d go out and enjoy themselves. People liked to socialise, that’s what I liked about them days.” In the heydays of the live music scene
struggle, having confidence to connect with neighbours and community is difficult, and with family more and more moving away to bigger cities, loneliness and seclusion can increase. Nutrition is another major issue. Many over 80s have lost a partner and if that partner did the majority of cooking they are having to learn new skills at an older age. Even if they have always cooked, cooking for one can become monotonous and expensive, so they cut corners or slide into a mentality of ‘can’t be bothered’. Also, as the memory goes so too can the ability to cook. Simple things like buying vegetables, then keeping them fresh, when there’s only one person to eat them can mean people skimp on vital vitamin intake.
Elberta Van Rangelrooy, 81
“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been home to Holland. I would rather have a car that’s 25 years old than miss out on travel.” Willie was a versatile and adroit musician who could slot in to any band. “I played everything. If I couldn’t find a piano I’d jump on a bass and adapt.” His seven children and countless mokopuna all play music. A group of five of his grandsons recently won Battle of the Bands. Willie still plays the sax and the clarinet, often accompanied by Jackie, who sings. “As you get older you lose it, your hearing goes, your fingers begin to hurt,” he explains. But continuing with music also helps Willie stay active. “All my old muso friends … they still call in,” says Willie. His sax continues to be a big part of his life; he calls it his ‘machine’. “That sax has travelled a lot,” he says. “She’s a lovely machine this one, she’s done a lot of work for me.”
A lack of advocates for older people has multiple flow-on effects. “If they go to the doctor,” explains Marilyn, “they are a fairly staunch generation this one, so they don’t complain, they’re not assertive, they’re frightened of upsetting the apple cart.” In situations like this, strong connects with family are invaluable, but many now have family overseas or there’s only a tenuous link. Hearing issues can really impact older adults’ quality of life as they can struggle to be heard and understood. When there’s no family around to help, groups like Heretaunga Seniors, Age Concern or Enliven can help. Issues come when people are not linked in to their wider community.
Rarely is such an important ecosystem situated so close to a city centre
Ahuriri Estuary Clean-up Overdue Ahuriri Estuary is one of our special places. It holds deep cultural and historical importance for local MÄ ori and provides us with much-loved recreational opportunities. Moreover, it’s of national significance as a wildlife and fisheries habitat, providing a rich feeding ground for a diverse range of species, including intercontinental migratory birds. BY Bridget Freeman-rock PHOTOGRAPHS tim WHittaker
Rarely is such an important ecosystem situated so close to a city centre. And with that privilege of proximity come attendant responsibilities. So are we looking after it? And who is ensuring that we do?
Safe to swim, safe to eat? The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council takes weekly water samples at Pandora Pond over the summer months to test for faecal bacteria, and while it recommends avoidance after heavy rainfall and if there’s obvious discolouration, it deems the water quality ‘fair’ (generally suitable) for swimming. Oliver Wade, HBRC coastal scientist, explains: “The reason the grading’s only ‘fair’ is not because of the actual results but because of the risk we’ve given to the area due to inputs and historic non-compliance” – inputs being stormwater, industrial run-off, agricultural activity upstream, high numbers of birds (associated excrement), etc. In fact, with its ‘fair’ grade, Ahuriri Estuary currently rates the best in Hawke’s Bay in terms of recreational health, with five of the other seven monitored estuaries (from Mahia to Porangahau) graded ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. But that’s small comfort for Māori and environmental groups who deem ongoing pollution unacceptable. The estuary has traditionally been
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a kaimoana foodbasket for local hapū and whānau, and continues to be fished by Napier residents. While HBRC also monitors water quality for shellfish edibility and the estuary passes criteria for this – with Mahia and Waipatiki (both open beaches) being the only other monitored sites in the region that do – due to its urban context and the proximity of shellfish beds to stormwater drains, they take the precaution of recommending shellfish from the estuary not be consumed.
to suffer harmful effects. However, as he notes, the fact that there is contamination renders the shellfish, from a tangata whenua perspective, inedible and therefore deprives Māori of their customary right.
Napier stormwater discharge When I walked with my eight-year-old son around Pandora Pond recently, he lamented that he hadn’t brought a bucket with him to scoop off the grey oily scum from the back water behind Thames and
Astonishingly, due to historical precedents, Napier City Council has not had resource consent for their stormwater discharge. Cockles and flounder (popular estuary catch) are both sediment feeders and therefore susceptible to heavy metal contamination. HBRC doesn’t specifically analyse shellfish for contaminants, but in 2008, at Mana Ahuriri’s invitation, ecotoxologist Dr James Ataria from Lincoln University did. While he found elevated levels of heavy metals, these still fell within ministry guidelines for health: an adult would need to eat 6kg of shellfish a day
Tyne Streets. Here one of the drains for Napier’s stormwater and neighbouring industrial activities flows directly into the estuary, bringing heavy metals, polycyclics (PAHs) and other pollutants associated with urban run-off (roofs and roads). There’s a gate to shut off the outlet in the event of a major spill (such as in 1987 when Tanelith, a chemical used to treat timber, was spilled into the drainage system) but Isabel Morgan, who has passionately
“...the grading’s only ‘fair’ ... because of the risk we’ve given to the area due to inputs and historic non-compliance.”
Expected consent will regulate stormwater flow into the estuary for the first time.
defended the estuary for over 40 years against development, toxic waste and further degradation, says she’s more worried about the daily accumulation. “It’s been 30 years since we first asked for contaminants to be treated at source, and nothing’s happened.” Astonishingly, due to historical precedents, Napier City Council has not had resource consent for their stormwater discharge, and thus no formal monitoring or discharge requirements from the regional council. That said, a 2008 trade waste bylaw has tightened how industry deals with its waste, and in 2012 a new stormwater bylaw was activated to regulate what goes into the estuary. Under the new leadership of Napier Council’s CEO, Wayne Jack, a resource consent application was filed with the regional council last December, triggering an RMA process: submissions were called for, with response from a range of environment, community and Māori groups, leading to a pre-hearing roundtable discussion. HBRC put forward the conditions NCC will have to meet, which will set stringent standards around discharge quality. According to HBRC’s resource manager, Iain Maxwell, all parties appear satisfied with these. Maxwell is confident of signing off a consent within weeks. However, as regional
councillor Tom Belford observes, whether setting proper effluent conditions ‘at the end of the pipe’ will produce the desired result depends ultimately on how effective NCC’s stormwater and trade waste bylaws prove to be. Bill McWatt, water assets manager for Napier Council, concedes there is “quite a lot to be done” to meet the consent conditions, but says the council will work hard to ensure this happens, as is their obligation. He says that the council has been working with a number of industries in the Pandora industrial area in relation to the new stormwater bylaw, and so far 11 companies have obtained approved PPPs (Pollution Prevention Plans), with a further 21 in the pipeline. Enforcement would be a last resort. Wayne Jack says that further to regulation, they have a team working on how they can improve things, such as finding ways to capture contaminants, riparian plantings, and education (both of the public and business).
It’s bigger than the Pond For many the estuary is synonymous with Pandora Pond, but the catchment, Te Whanganui-ā-Orotu, extends from Awatoto, Meeanee to the Poraiti hills and all the way up to Bay View, with an intricacy of freshwater networks and tidal flows. This means that addressing the identifiable issue of Napier’s stormwater is only one piece of the puzzle. There is still much to be done in even understanding the workings of the estuary, its ecological communities, and what effects we’re having both directly and indirectly, not to mention the potential impacts of climate change. For example, HBRC monitors four sites around the estuary annually, checking sediment for heavy metal concentrations and nutrient amongst others. Data from the last five years is currently being analysed, with results to be reported within the next few months, but indications would suggest that while all concentrations are well below guideline levels, there is an increase in heavy metals upstream of the Westshore Bridge, with questions open as to where that contamination may be coming from. The complexity of the catchment and the overlapping jurisdictions and agencies involved also means that answers as to who is responsible for what, under what terms
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“The entities were saying to each other, ‘I didn’t know you did this, I didn’t know that was our responsibility’ – it was amazing!” PIRI PRENTICE, Mana Ahuriri
Industrial drain empties into estuary
of reference and investigation, and how we proceed, remain murky at best. The Ahuriri lagoon once covered an area almost eight times the size it is now. Oliver Wade says “the dynamics have been changed so hugely, it really bears no resemblance to what it did 80 years ago.” With European settlement came land reclamation and drainage, while the 1931 earthquake’s dramatic tectonic shift raised the seabed by two metres, reducing the estuary by a third. Post-the-quake, Tuteranuku and Matawhero islands (of spiritual significance to Ahuriri hapū) were levelled for fill to create the airport and Maraenui, and large rivers, such as the Tutaekuri which once flowed into the estuary, were diverted. Wade sees a problem with defining the benchmark, “Where’s our beginning point? For example, ‘restoration’ – what are we restoring? We haven’t got a clue how it was originally.” Nonetheless, the remaining estuarine area is one of the most ecologically valuable in the country, and Isabel Morgan believes we should be doing all we can to keep it clean. “We are fortunate to have the estuary; we’ve got to look after it.” She says the Ahuriri Estuary Protection Society (established 1981 – an umbrella group for a number of environmental and community groups, including Forest & Bird) has been waiting a long time for a draft management plan they can constructively comment on. A game-changer in this respect is Mana Ahuriri Inc., the entity representing the seven Ahuriri hapū with claim to Te Whanganui-ā-Orotu, who are on the verge of signing off on their Treaty settlement. As part of their $20 million-plus claim, MAI have successfully negotiated for kaitiaki status, including $500,000 to assist in the management of the estuary; this places them in a pre-eminent role for future decision-making.
Estuary management plan needed Piri Prentice, chair of Mana Ahuriri, says last year when they called together the councils and various entities involved to find out where we’re at with the estuary and what’s happening, they were surprised by what they perceived as “a total lack of coordination. The entities were saying to each other, ‘I didn’t know you did this, I didn’t know that was our responsibility’ – it was amazing!” He says it was apparent to everyone at the table that there was need for a collaborative approach.
Committed parties are voicing the same aspiration for Ahuriri: that we can swim in the estuary and eat the food from its waters. As part of their Treaty settlement terms, Mana Ahuriri are in the process of establishing a stand-alone, multiparty, statutory committee – the Ahuriri Management Committee (AMC) – to manage the Ahuriri, with the express priority of coming up with a comprehensive management plan for the estuary. It will be permanently chaired by Mana Ahuriri, and is made up of eight members, with four representatives from Napier City Council, Hastings District Council, HBRC, and the Department of Conservation, and four from MAI. Napier Council’s Wayne Jack has proposed a model of estuary management based on the successful case of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales. Effectively an estuary three times larger than Sydney Harbour, Lake Macquarie faced similar issues with urban and agricultural run-
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“It’s been 30 years since we first asked for contaminants to be treated at source, and nothing’s happened.” ISABEL MORGAN, Ahuriri Estuary Protection Society
off and severe degradation. But within a decade of implementing a comprehensive collaborative management plan, with strong input from indigenous groups, the water body became an award-winning example of effective environmental practice. Jack says “it’s a similar concept to what we want to apply here to the Ahuriri catchment.” Piri Prentice has been impressed by the councils’ positive approach, and is hopeful that the committee will achieve a good outcome. He wants the estuary to receive full recognition –“the lot: environmental, cultural, historical” – but above all he wants to see action. Meanwhile, the regional council-sponsored TANK group are also working through a collaborative process towards clarity around the estuary. Made up of 30 stakeholders from a wide range of organisations and tangata whenua groups, TANK has been tasked with reviewing land and fresh water management in the Tutaekuri, Ahuriri, Ngaruroro and Karamu catchments, and connected to all, the Heretaunga aquifer system. They are scheduled to provide their initial recommendations to HBRC by September next year. Mana Ahuriri did have a place at the TANK table, but stepped down last year. HBRC’s strategy and policy manager, Gavin Ide, says they will need to find different ways to engage Mana Ahuriri in the TANK process, but how that engagement happens is an open question for both parties. So how do the separate TANK and Ahuriri management paths converge? There’s an overlapping of organisational
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representation between the Ahuriri Management Committee, the Regional Planning Committee and TANK. “So hopefully through that connection, we can pass messages from one to another without the left hand working in total isolation and then coming up with something at the 11th hour and totally undermining or cutting across what the right hand is doing.” While there’s always the risk of this happening, Ide sees that “good community engagement can act as a mitigating factor.” In any case, the Ahuriri Management Committee will expect to ratify any plans that come through the TANK process in relation to the estuary, and the TANK group will need to have regard to any planning documents ACM come up with. Either way, plan changes will need to be finalised by the Regional Planning Committee (made up of
nine council representatives and nine Treaty claimant groups) and go through the full RMA submission process. Gavin Ide: “It’s a matter of making sure all the ships are heading in the same direction and that everyone can dedicate some time and resource to whichever direction is needed,” a view wholeheartedly endorsed by Piri Prentice. A somewhat confusing situation to be sure, but at least Mana Ahuriri, the Regional Council, Napier Council, and other committed parties are voicing the same aspiration for Ahuriri: that we can swim in the estuary and eat the food from its waters. That seems a pretty straightforward benchmark. Can we get there in ten years, as in the case of Wayne Jack’s Lake Macquarie model? Only if, in Piri Prentice’s words, we “get on with it!”
POLITICAL BUZZ
Political Buzz BY TOM BELFORD
In many ways, politically in Hawke’s Bay we seem to be adrift in the calm before the storm. A variety of critically important decisions loom before us, or in some cases have just been made, that will have far-reaching impact on our region. Amalgamation Perhaps the most ‘pregnant’ pause involves the fate of amalgamation. The Local Government Commission is presumably in the process of preparing its final official reorganisation plan. The Commission made no announcement in April, and will meet next in late May, at which time their plan is expected. Public notification would trigger the 60 working day time frame during which petitions demanding a region-wide referendum on the plan would need to be gathered. Ten percent of voters in any jurisdiction affected by the plan can force a referendum. Meantime, elected councillors and council staffs across the region wait expectantly. On the one hand, in some respects it’s ‘business as usual’ as councils go about awarding and monitoring of consents, repairing roads, maintaining reserves, enforcing by-laws and preparing their five separate Long Term Plans (LTPs) for 2015-2025. On the other hand, important major decision-making processes involving the
overall well-being of the region either sit in the ‘politically too difficult’ box, or move in slow motion, or continue to surface the competitive instincts deeply embedded in our councils’ DNA. Some examples …
climate change – it’s hard work merely getting people from three councils in the same room. Fortunately, we might have 50-100 years for this group to deliver its recommendations.
Economic development. Believe it or not, there has been an official regional economic development strategy in place (REDS to those in the know), honoured more in the breach than in execution. Somewhere in the multicouncil labyrinth REDS is in the process of being updated, or at least dusted off to look fresh on the shelf. A rather big issue to be progressed so quietly. Coastal erosion. We have a multi-council Joint Committee charged with developing a strategy for mitigating the coastal erosion (and even inundation) predicted to intensify from Clifton to Tangoio as a result of global warming. The Committee was created in April 2014; its terms of reference were adopted nearly a year later, in March 2015. The Committee is working at the same pace as
Sports facilities. Our five councils have signed an agreement pledging to rationally approach the selection, siting and funding of high priority sports facilities in the region. Several codes have been jointly identified as in special need of improved or expanded facilities – gymsports, cricket, indoor court sports (basketball, volleyball), and softball. I strongly support this agreement as a much-needed first step toward intelligent facilities planning, but of course the verdict is out on whether it will actually change the erratic and competitive behavior of territorial authorities and sport codes. For example, how does a Napier velodrome fit into the new regional strategy? And it does nothing to relieve the financial and administrative stress on the hearty band of volunteers who keep most of HB’s sports activity afloat.
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Page 39 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
POLITICAL BUZZ
Shared services. In 2012, our five councils organised HBLASS (Hawke’s Bay Local Authority Shared Services), whose mission is to achieve cost and service delivery efficiencies for the region in areas like procurement and information management. When was the last time you heard of a savings announcement from HBLASS?! (Regional councillors were recently informed of a $930,000 savings for the five councils in insurance premiums, the first achievement of note.) With four councils opposing amalgamation, one would think HBLASS would be showcased as the vibrant alternative engine of local body collaboration and savings. But even its chairman has termed its results “disappointing”. HBLASS is run by the chief executives of our five councils. Enough said. LTPs. Finally, the Long Term Plan process now underway itself underscores the need for amalgamation. Some aspects of LTPs are largely local – eg, how should Hastings deal with a withering CBD, or new toilet facilities for Pandora Pond? But the fact is, no one knows how much ratepayer money is being spent across the region in critical areas like tourism and events promotion, maintaining parks and reserves, expensive and potentially duplicative recreational facilities, and economic development. However, that doesn’t deter advocates of these programmes in the least from pitching each council for more ratepayer funds.
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These are some of the more practical problems raised by having five councils in Hawke’s Bay … five councils whose temporary zeal for ‘collaboration’ at any time is directly proportional to their fear of being consolidated.
Water and the dam The second major third-party decision affecting Hawke’s Bay and anxiously awaited as I write (but revealed by the time you are reading this) is in the hands of the Tukituki Board of Inquiry (BOI).
Council meeting, HBRIC reported that purchase commitments for only 15 million cubic metres of water had been secured from CHB farmers, against a minimum requirement now estimated to be 46-47 million cubes. Nevertheless, with the BOI decision still pending and with only modest water purchases (all conditional on that decision), councillors voted 5-4 to give authority to HBRIC to borrow up to $2 million in additional funding to carry on the campaign for the dam into 2016. Councillors Barker, Beaven, Graham and
Environment Court: “To not aspire to and attempt to at least maintain the quality of water abdicates the functions of a regional council …” Recall that, after a successful appeal to the High Court by Fish & Game, Forest & Bird and the Environmental Defence Society, the BOI was instructed to revisit and reinstate conditions that would more stringently limit nitrogen discharges into the Tukituki catchment. The BOI’s ultimate decision could render the CHB dam proposed by HBRIC unviable if it effectively blocks the farming intensification assumed in the economic case for the dam. Whatever the BOI proposes, its decision can be appealed to the High Court by any party to the dispute. In the meantime, at the March HB Regional
Belford opposed the borrowing authority, taking the view the dam is not viable … enough is enough. At the subsequent Regional Council meeting in April, no additional water purchases were reported by HBRIC. The BOI decision is not the only obstacle the dam must still overcome. Part of the land required for the reservoir the dam would create was secured via a ‘land swap’ whereby DoC exchanged currently protected conservation land for other land of less conservation importance outside the footprint of the reservoir. Forest & Bird has appealed DoC’s decision through a DoC-conducted hearing process.
The appeal was heard in April and parties await DoC’s decision. Forest & Bird has indicated they will appeal to the High Court any decision to proceed with the swap. If the land in question is not made available for water storage, a very significant portion of the proposed storage capacity of the dam scheme would be eliminated … another challenge to the scheme’s viability.
No degradation Still more bad news for Regional Council water policy-makers came down in March from a strongly-worded Environment Court decision. In this case, Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Inc (NKII), Māoridom’s largest representative entity in Hawke’s Bay, challenged key changes proposed by the HBRC to its overall Regional Resource Management Plan. Basically, HBRC in its new Plan Change 5 proposed to relax existing objectives in its current plan, which do not allow the degradation of current groundwater quality in the region’s aquifers, and to adopt an ‘overs and unders’ approach to managing overall water quality. Under HBRC’s interpretation, water quality could be allowed to degrade in some waterways so long as it was improved in others. The Environment Court said ‘Balderdash!’ to both positions, although couched in more formal legal terms. Said the Court: “…it is a function of every regional council to control the use of land to maintain and enhance the quality of water in water bodies – ie including water in aquifers, and to control the discharges of contaminants into water (again, including water in aquifers). This function is not an option – it is something a regional council is required to do, whether it be difficult or easy.” And regarding the ‘overs and unders’ approach: “We conclude that [the Council’s] approach to the interpretation of overall quality is fundamentally flawed, and that drafting and/or interpreting the Change 5 objectives in that way could result in a more degraded and unacceptable water outcome.” The Environment Court went on to chide the HBRC for being the only regional council in NZ to espouse the it’s “too hard” approach. And noted: “…even if what has been done is the past is irreversible, it would be irresponsible to use that as an excuse not to try to apply better standards from this point on.” Finishing with: “To not aspire to and attempt to at least maintain the quality of water abdicates the functions of a regional council …” Pretty stern stuff. And HBRC, at last acting wisely, opted to not appeal the decision. What this decision means is that any rules developed by HBRC with respect to water quality going forward can be tested and challenged as to whether they might permit further degradation of water quality in the region. Embarrassing that the Environment Court needed to tell us that.
Where’s the accountability? The stronger protection of water quality in Hawke’s Bay secured by the Environment Court decision was achieved by NKII, challenging the Regional Council, at its own expense, for the greater good. NKII didn’t even have legal counsel. They were represented by two policy wonks and chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana. This team defeated a battery of HBRC senior scientists, policy planners and outside legal counsel. Back at the BOI, this same HBRC and HBRIC team, but augmented by more consultants and lawyers, put forward a water quality scheme that was initially rejected by the Board, upon hearing the counterevidence of environmentalists. When the BOI back-tracked on a key aspect of the environmentalist-backed approach it had just endorsed, the environmental team again prevailed in the High Court, against lawyers for HBRC and HBRIC. Then NKII prevailed over the HBRC team in the Environment Court. And as noted above, another legal challenge may await the DoC ‘land swap’. Isn’t it time to ask: Who’s responsible for driving HBRC/HBRIC
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POLITICAL BUZZ
Mayor Dalton & Mana Ahuriri’s Piri Prentice, soulmates on airport name change.
policy and strategy down a consistently losing course on these matters? Councillors or HBRIC directors? Senior staff? Outside consultants and lawyers? What is the quality of advice being given? And how much more of it should we take? I’d like to hear from BayBuzz readers on that.
Now add water bottling Two editions ago, BayBuzz reported on the situation regarding consents granted for extraction of water from the Heretaunga aquifer for bottling and sale overseas. [See Exporting Our Water to China.] We noted that seven consents have been issued that would permit close to 3 million cubic metres of water per year to be extracted. At present, for all purposes, about 1,687 consents exist for water extraction from the Heretaunga aquifer, involving 151 million cubic metres per year. The 3 million cubes allocated for bottling constitute about 2% of the total current allocated volume. There’s nothing stopping other consent holders with existing rights to extract water, say for processing or irrigation, to expand their operations to water bottling (as one recent application to HBRC indeed does). Before doing so, however, bottlers might want to read HBRC’s latest State of the Environment (2009-2013) report, which mentions that 18% of monitoring sites on the Heretaunga and Ruataniwha aquifers have
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increasing nitrate concentrations (and more sites show significant levels of manganese and iron). HB bottlers might need to sell their ‘pure’ water as ‘mineral-enriched’. The defense for these consents from HBRC is that the Resource Management Act only authorizes HBRC to intervene to regulate any effects that such water extraction might have on the environment. HBRC is not authorized to determine that any given use takes priority over another
So it is not surprising that heaps of people are upset about the water bottling issue. Ngati Kahungunu has called for a moratorium on water bottling consents. use – eg, that irrigation to keep trees alive should take precedence over bottling water for export. The existing water allocation regime is simply ‘first come, first served’. The HBRC position assumes of course that in fact there is no significant effect (more than minor) from allowing large-scale water extraction for bottling. Substantial hydrology studies are only now underway to assess the aquifer and its inter-related surface waterways, but won’t be completed for a year or more.
Staff insist that the overall volume of water in the Heretaunga is so great that adverse effects are not likely. A 2006 study estimated about 250 million cubic metres of water is recharged each year from rainfall and flows from the Ngaruroro River. This view has meant that consents for water bottling have not been publicly notified. And thus no ‘official’ opportunity has been presented for the public to become informed and debate the matter. When some water users (such as growers on the Heretaunga Plains) are seen to be facing irrigation bans because their water use is deemed to be environmentally damaging (eg, because of lowering surface water flows), it’s rather difficult for Joe Blogg to reconcile that with unrestricted water bottling for China. [And then there’s the environmental impact of all those plastic bottles; but that’s China’s problem.] So it is not surprising that heaps of people are upset about the water bottling issue. Ngāti Kahungunu has called for a moratorium on water bottling consents. At the very least, the Regional Council is mucking up the public relations management of this matter. And arguably there’s a case for a much more precautionary approach to such consents … otherwise why go to the expense and trouble of massive hydrological studies of the Heretaunga water system? But most importantly, the public wants to know: Even if the aquifer extracts prove
sustainable, should there be a hierarchy of preferred use, and are we giving away a precious asset without getting commensurate value to the region – a public good – in return?
Maori have arrived And not just with respect to the water debates already described. Nine Treaty settlements involving Hawke’s Bay ‘natural groupings’ are wending their way through the Crown-managed negotiation process. The next one up for final resolution (expected in June) involves Mana Ahuriri, whose sphere of interest includes – as most people in Hawke’s Bay now realize – the airport, as well as the Ahuriri Estuary. Most Hawke’s Bay residents are relatively clueless about the Treaty settlements; if anything, they might be aware that sums of money are being transferred from the Crown to various Māori groups. While money is important, what might become more interesting are the other conditions and arrangements that are included in the settlements … and Mana Ahuriri’s expected settlement is an excellent example. Most readers are aware of the airport name change controversy – with the proposed name being Ahuriri Airport Hawke’s Bay. Fewer people are probably aware that Mana Ahuriri will be given the first right of refusal to buy the Crown’s 50% ownership stake in the airport. Fewer still might be aware that the settlement will include a statutory committee of eight representatives as caretakers of the Ahuriri Estuary, with four of those reps selected by Manu Ahuriri. And even fewer realize that a new statutory Regional Planning Committee for Hawke’s Bay has been established at Crown initiative as part of the settlement process. This committee has equal numbers (9 each) of councillors and Māori representatives (one from each of the Treaty settlement groups) and is charged with reviewing and recommending policy on all major RMA-related matters coming before the region – such as Plan Changes. This article doesn’t aim to debate these specific conditions or others to come like them. The point here is that a very significant empowerment is occurring, changing relations both within Hawke’s Bay Māori community and between Māori and local/regional government. Our political stew will thicken. Much more on this evolving transition to come. * * * * * So it’s all blue skies as I write this piece on a brilliant ANZAC Day. But the political storm is just about to begin. While this magazine is still on your coffee table, we will have heard from both the Local Government Commission and the Board of Inquiry. Then it’s ‘game on’!
Whanganui is big enough to entertain and small enough to keep it real. Enjoy arts, music, the landscape and our rich heritage. Spend a weekend.
TAKE A
NEW LOOK
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Languishing CBDs
Page 43 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Hawke’s Bay Motors on the move BY PIPPA BROWN
A new commercial development confirms the growing confidence Bay Ford Bay Mazda has in a strong Hawke’s Bay economy. The locallyowned business with dealerships in Napier, Gisborne and Hastings has big plans in mind when they relocate their Hastings-based site across town to Stortford Lodge. The new premises, developed by HBM Properties Ltd are expected to open in July. The opportunity to invest in a prime site and supply a major servicing facility for the motoring public, as well as focusing on vehicle sales were reasons behind the move. Dealer principal Tim Macphee says with 25,000 vehicles passing through the Stortford Lodge roundabout every day the area is fast becoming the heart of the region. “Stortford Lodge has become the hub and is possibly the agriculture centre of Hawke’s Bay – since the expressway route changed everyone is feeding into this area.” “We’re investing heavily in The Bay and have utmost confidence Hawke’s Bay will boom. Our new development is a huge endorsement for the area.” General manager Stephen Salkeld agrees moving the Hastings-based business to Stortford Lodge made sense. “This is where our primary industries are driven from and with many other businesses and associated services based here it will be easier to deal with their motoring needs by offering an accessible one-stop-shop. We’ve put a lot of thought into this and how it’s been designed – this is going to be a really strong servicing facility.” As well as new and used vehicles the motoring centre will boast an enormous service department, including a new fullyequipped tyre servicing and retail centre stocking a full range of tyres; an integrated Bay Motorcycles shop with their own service and parts department; a valet and grooming centre; a finance and insurance department dealing in standard consumer finance, leasing and warranties and with the added convenience of an adjacent Mobil fuel station next door. Ford and Mazda are amongst the leading brands, both in Hawke’s Bay and nationwide. It stocks a full range of vehicles and motorcycles and has the facility to hold up to 60 used vehicles with access to hundreds more within the Bay Ford
BIG PLANS: From left, Bay Motorcycles manager Jono Kight, group operations manager Murray Green, general manager Stephen Salkeld and dealer principal Tim Macphee look over the architectural drawings at the site of the new Bay Ford Bay Mazda Stortford Lodge-based facility opening in July.
“We’re investing heavily in The Bay and have utmost confidence Hawke’s Bay will boom. Our new development is a huge endorsement for the area.”
Tim Macphee
Bay Mazda group. “We’re excited with the new product coming through and will be stocking soon-to-be-released Fords, including the all-new Mustang, Ranger and Everest and recently released Mazda CX-3 and CX-5 and the new Mazda 2,” Stephen says. Effectively the new building will house four franchises under one roof. Joining the Ford and Mazda dealerships will be Suzuki Motorcycles and Can-Am Motorcycles, stocking a full range of motorcycling accessories and holding the Can-Am Spyder franchise. Bay Motorcycles manager Jono Kight says they are planning to incorporate an elite service facility solely for road bikes into the showroom. Upstairs will be The Bay’s largest motorcycle accessory shop and it’s expected the up-market store will become a destination for motorbike enthusiasts. Stephen says Bay Ford Bay Mazda are lucky to have two of the leading brands, which are some of the top-selling vehicles in the region. “What we are putting here is a mega-site. The type of large metro multi-functional dealership, which is normally built in large cities. It’s a huge step for us and we are putting a lot of confidence in Hawke’s Bay to support it.”
Going Clubbing
Hawke’s Bay offers a club for every passion Social clubs play a cohesive role in society bringing like-minded people together for fun and fellowship. And there’s something for everyone in Hawke’s Bay. BayBuzz delves deeper into an eclectic selection, including clubs for ageing bikers, role-playing shooters, Ham radio enthusiasts and elderly folk preparing for their own demise. BY KEITH NEWMAN Page 46 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
The Ulysses Club, old bugger bikers
tim.co.nz
‘Adventure before dementia’ The throaty sound of dozens of approaching motorcyclists is guaranteed to get the attention of pub or café patrons. But when the Ulysses Club drop their leathers and helmets revealing they’re more akin to Grey Power than Black Power, the exclamation is often ‘Hey they’re a pack of old buggers’. The Ulysses Club consciously defies stereotypes, having been founded in response to a 1983 letter to Bike Australia magazine suggesting bikers over 50 were embarrassing and should grow old gracefully. The indignation was immediate. The editor sketched a logo and a reader suggested the name, based on Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Ulysses, about the bored, middle-aged hero of Ithaca chasing new adventures with his old shipmates. That aptly describes the lure of the road for many older bikies. “Our local motto is
‘Adventure before dementia’,” quips Hawke’s — “they don’t get any better” — and currently Bay president Cliff Heydon. “Nationally rides a 1994 Honda CB 1000. it’s ‘Grow old disgracefully’, but we do that “I do it for the sheer enjoyment … riding socially not on our bikes.” to my skills, sightseeing, meeting people and The Ulysses Club is part of a world-wide network with 3,000 members including 30 New Zealand branches who ride locally, join national “I do it for the sheer rallies and even gather for international AGMs. enjoyment … riding to my The Hawke’s Bay club with borders stretching skills, sightseeing, meeting from Raupunga in northern Hawke’s Bay to Dannevirke in the south has 120 members. people and at the end of the
A hell of a ride Heydon’s been riding for 40 years. His love for two-wheeled speed began with a scooter, then got serious with a challenge from his father to piece together the scattered parts of a Triumph Thruxton 900, essentially a hotted-up Triumph Bonneville. He graduated to a Norton 750, tried Japanese bikes including a Honda Goldwing 1800 flat 6
day being able to say ‘what a hell of a ride’.”
at the end of the day being able to say ‘what a hell of a ride’”, says Heydon. A Ulysses Club run might include mystery rides around the region, crossing the Napier-Taupo road ride for pub ‘n grub,
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Peter J. Thompson and Grace Terry, The DIY Coffin Club
an overnighter to Taranaki, or further afield on a national event. On a typical run you’d see Harley Davidsons, Ducati’s, Suzuki GSX 1000s and Goldwings. Some members have 250cc machines; one has a 150cc Vespa and there are hobbyists with multiple bikes. Anything with two wheels that’ll travel comfortably at 100km/h is welcome. New or returning riders are urged to sit an advanced motorcycle course to increase their comfort and capability. Some don’t realise how powerful modern bikes are, says Heydon. Hawke’s Bay riders include retired accountants and farmers, mechanics, electricians, plumbers … former gang members wanting to hang with a different crowd … and a number of women, who started out riding pillion but now have their own bikes.
Oldest and boldest The oldest is Alex Wallace an 80-year-old former watersider who, astride his Honda ST1100, does all the big rides – 10,000km in 10 days, Far North to Bluff, Napier to New Plymouth and twice around Australia. “He’s been riding most of his life,” says Heydon. There are protocols: noone overtakes the leader or “you’re on your own”; a staggered formation, one on the outside, another close to the white line and 10-15 metres
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between riders to prevent pile-ups on sudden breaking. Everyone watches out for the rider behind and tail-end Charlie with cellphone, first aid kit and fire extinguisher stays with anyone in trouble. The Ulysses Club takes a stand when riders’ rights are eroded, for example the ride to Parliament protesting the ACC-led increase in registration from $250 for a 50cc scooter to $600 a year for larger bikes. “We were never going to win. The Government made up their mind based on
ANZAC weekend has purchased stretchers, splint kits and defibrillators for Hawke’s Bay St John. If there’s not enough cash it dips into club money to make it happen.
Every day above ground – top of the bucket list A 75-year-old former nursing tutor from Havelock North, moved by the plight of those who struggle with the high cost of dying, brought light relief to a difficult subject by forming the Hawke’s Bay DIY Coffin Club.
“We were never going to win. The Government made up their mind based on bullshit figures. ACC needed more profit, it had nothing to do with accident rates.” bullshit figures. ACC needed more profit, it had nothing to do with accident rates,” asserts Heydon. Ulysses is now pushing for another unlikely change – registering bike owners rather than bikes. “Some guys have 6-7 bikes as a hobby and can’t afford to register them. You can only ride one bike at time but the Government say that’s too hard to police.” They’re also big on giving back to the community. Their national charity is St John and the Brain Injury Trust. An annual ride at
Grace Terry, a nurse for 45 years who included ‘death, dying, loss and grief ’ in her EIT courses for 20 years, says forming the club was “a big undertaking” but she’s heartened that within six months it had 73 members. It took nine months to find suitable premises; the old Hastings Netball Centre in Sylvan Rd, rescued from the wrecking ball after local residents protested Hastings District Council demolition plans. A request for government assistance to build lower-cost coffins for the needy was
“Anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director. We want more transparency, particularly around the cost.” rejected, leaving lower-income bereaved battling for a Work & Income (WINZ) funeral grant of up to $1,900 after asset testing and upfront payment. It’s almost impossible to be buried for under $5,000, even with a DIY casket starting at $375. A full service with basic casket and no flowers can stiff you for around $10,000; plots alone are around $2,000. The DIY Coffin Club eventually found “ten good keen blokes”, retired carpenters, woodworkers and builders, to cut and assemble timber for caskets that club members can adorn as they see fit. About 18 have been created in traditional and shoebox styles, lined with plastic as required by law, often doubling as bookshelves or storage before serving their final purpose. One woman’s white coffin stores extra bedding; an elderly member has pink carnation decals on his and a 93 year old with fading eyesight is being assisted to paint dancing horses on hers. People keep “asking burning questions” about death and dying and yes, there are
HB Pistol Club
Photograph Sarah Cates
options for the 70% of people who prefer cremation — a wood turner is designing and creating urns. Members openly declare that making and decorating their own coffins has helped change their perceptions of death, even adding humour through open discussion.
Short lives marked As a social club with a practical purpose in mind, the DIY Hawke’s Bay Coffin Club is a charitable entity and an advocacy group. It’s working alongside Atarangi Maternity
Hospital, midwives and the Sudden Neonatal Death Support Group donating tiny coffins for babies who don’t make it. These complement the special Māori kete bags another group is providing. “The District Health Board doesn’t have any budget for that,” says Grace. Purchasing a baby coffin from a funeral director costs around $200 imported from China. “I think it’s exorbitant.” Grace has sought support from 30 clubs and groups, most recently white or cream material and lace for the baby coffins.
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Laurie Winton, ZL2GT Napier Amateur Radio Club
It’s hopeful that amendments to the 1964 Crematorium and Cemeteries Act will create stronger guidelines for the funeral industry. “Anyone can set themselves up as a funeral director. We want more transparency, particularly around the cost.”
Coffee and coffins “Statistics tell us that there are 50,000 isolated, lonely elderly in New Zealand. We have people joining in and coming alive, because they enjoy it so much … They can’t wait to come along the next Tuesday,” says Grace. There is however an acute awareness that they could lose their premises at a moment’s notice. “We couldn’t manage with a smaller venue. We have the workshop space where the noisy and dusty work goes on, the hall for painting, varnishing and building baby coffins, and a separate social space.” If the wrecking ball is anywhere in sight, members declare they’ll lay down in their coffins and stage another protest.
Looking for a sign – the lure of radio signals Amateur radio enthusiasts no longer need to spend hours twisting knobs on clunky valve-based equipment in dusty man caves, straining beyond the whoop and squeal of alien noises on the short wave band to hear another human voice.
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Today’s transmitters and receivers are more akin to home electronics and no less intrusive than a Skype session. And Ham radio hasn’t been made redundant by the internet, which helps track down equipment, strengthens inter-club contact, provides directories of operator call signs and electronic acknowledgement cards. Hobbyists don’t like to be confused with unregulated CB radio enthusiasts and neither, I am warned, do they like corny headlines about local amateurs “hamming it up”. Short wave frequencies, now referred to as medium wave, are allocated by the Amateur
to build equipment to doctors and lawyers. “It’s a proud tradition” dating back to the days of Marconi and “not just a hobby for old men,” insists Jennings, although local membership remains fairly static.
Cabbages and things There’s something magic about calling “CQ…CQ”, an open call for anyone listening and then having a strange voice, a “Mahomed or Yuri or Vlad” responding with your sign and theirs, he says. The ritual in first contact has each party reporting on signal strength, location and
“We have the workshop space where the noisy and dusty work goes on, the hall for painting, varnishing and building baby coffins, and a separate social space.” Radio Service on a worldwide basis. You need a Radio Spectrum Management agency transmitting license to establish competence before getting a call sign. Toronto-born Lee Jennings, seasoned Hawke’s Bay operator and examiner has granted 70 licences over the past eight years; most to those aged 40 to 60 years and a few to those in their teens and 20s. Hams range from techno-geeks who love
equipment types before exchanging names and deciding whether to take it further. “If the other guy is dull you may say ‘seven three … see you later’.” However, if he says “I’ve been planting a row of cabbages and you say I’ve got a bunch of cabbages too and I’ve got white fly on them, what do you do about that?”, it may be the start of a frequency friendship. There are around 4 million Ham radio
enthusiasts worldwide; 5,500 in New Zealand and 150 operators in Hawke’s Bay. Most belong to the Hastings-Havelock North Club or the ZL2GT Napier Amateur Radio Club plus “a few loners”. Jennings, who’s been on the air for 62 years, says everybody knows everybody and members are welcome at each other’s meetings. While the local club started after the 1931 earthquake, Napier club president Laurie Winton says two local Hams maintained the first communications with outsiders for three days after the quake, becoming the de facto telegraph office. The 75 year old says Ham operators still make themselves available for Civil Defence purposes, specifically when search and rescue teams go beyond cellphone coverage.
Using moon bounce or earth-moonearth (EME) communication they can communicate with the other side of the planet, says Jennings. Operators can also access 20 low earthorbiting satellites built by amateur radio enthusiasts and launched through various space programmes, including NASA, to repeat their signals. You never know who you end up chatting with. In the 1960s Jennings was on air
“It is so much fun to squeeze the trigger, there’s a big flash and a cloud of smoke and you can attain a good accuracy. It’s not fast so you have to relax.”
New calling kit The Napier club has about 35 members and recently sold older equipment to reinvest in kit for its Latham St club rooms which doubles as a high frequency (HF or 3MHz-30MHz) and very high frequency (VH or 30MHz-300MHz) base station. Not everyone has powerful enough equipment or the aerial configuration to talk around the world, although three or four local stations are powerful enough to reflect signals off the underside of the moon when it’s seven degrees off the horizon.
with US senator Barry Goldwater and in later years a US air force commander and astronaut Chuck Brady. Famous operators include recent visitor to Hawke’s Bay, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, a lifelong Ham. In Napier there are about 40 antennae, which can be a maximum of 12 metres and require a building permit. There have been complaints that they’re unsightly and some councils want them banned. Winton says it’s an ongoing process “opposing district plans when they’re unduly restrictive.”
The Napier club barely breaks even. It sells amateur radio kits to other clubs to cover costs and a shocking increase in the annual electricity bill to $700 will require further fundraising.
Pistol packing posse puts fun into firearms Flying home from Christchurch last year I encountered 11 members of the Hawke’s Bay Pistol Club celebrating trophies and awards they’d won at the Cowboy Action Nationals at Ashburton. Among the posse, who would have looked more at home in America’s Wild West, was club secretary Leonie Gale, current world Woman’s Cowboy Action title holder, who’d just scored National Lady Champion. Club president Rick Brockman-Palmer, who runs an Onekawa auto workshop, says members “do pretty well on a national scale … the team spirit is very strong.” They regularly compete for North Island, South Island, regional and national titles, often ending in the top three. Brockman-Palmer, the Cowboy National Champion back in 1998 and an accomplished Action shooter, has been president for 16 years and is in the team that’s held the National Rifle Association of New Zealand nationals title for the past three years. Not bad for a 65 year old with two knee replacements.
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World & NZ champion Leonie Gale demonstrates Cowboy Action at Hawke’s Bay Pistol Club
Photograph Sarah Cates
The Hawke’s Bay Pistol Club was founded 36 years ago when competitive shooting at the Commonwealth and Olympic games was attracting a new target audience. Among the founders was Julian Lawton, who won bronze and silver medals at the Commonwealth Games and represented the country at the Asiatic and Olympic games. Until six years ago the club held steady at around 46 members, then exploded to 107 including a high court judge, self-employed and retired people, “some of the best business managers in the city…and a guy who sweeps the roads for Napier City Council”. The oldest is in his 80s; most are in the 30-60 bracket, and a number of teenagers are part of the combined secondary school team mentored by the club. There are about 12 women who are “pretty high calibre and very competitive”. It’s a sport that gets in your blood, says Brockman-Palmer, who’s been shooting for 25 years. As a mechanic he wanted a hobby that didn’t involve messing with cars. He was hooked after a friend introduced him to the Bayview club. Members can train for different codes and competitions. The Asiatic Games operates on Olympic-level International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) standards for air pistols to full bore shooting. Action or Service Pistol shooting is based on the International Pistol Shooting Page 52 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Confederation (IPSC) rules. It’s about accuracy and speed; you might start with your gun at a 45 degree angle or holster draw on static or moving targets. “We all shoot service pistols used by the military or the police from an old Smith & Wesson 38, right up to a Glock.”
Dressed to thrill In Cowboy Action, replica guns are used, mostly made in Italy, “which are in many cases better than the originals” with shooters moving around targets, often placed in Hollywood-style movie sets.
“There’s great camaraderie. If you are a member the positive feelings will grab you.” “Some people might think it’s a bit of a dag,” says Brockman-Palmer, but they’re very disciplined, accurate competition shooters, who take on rival clubs on a monthly basis. “They take extreme pride ensuring their entire accoutrements are period, from holsters, vests, shirts, trousers, boots, hats. Everything’s got to be right.” Another option is the Black Powder group, which uses historic-style firearms dating back to the 1870s, including flintlocks
and muzzle-loaded duelling pistols for fun or competitive shoots under strict rules. Black powder is purchased in a tin and the lead balls cast by members using linotype, wheel weights or old fishing sinkers. Powder must be applied precisely otherwise you get the fireworks but no accuracy. “It is so much fun to squeeze the trigger, there’s a big flash and a cloud of smoke and you can attain a good accuracy. It’s not fast so you have to relax.”
High school shooters At the club’s dedicated pistol range two senior members specialise in training high school pupils in the use of air pistols. “We took out the National Secondary School Championships three years ago and have been in the top five ever since,” says Brockman-Palmer. While pistol shooting is demanding and requires discipline, he insists anyone can do it. And he claims it’s not expensive. “You shoot what suits you and what you can afford. It’s a lot cheaper than owning a stock car and would cost as much as being in a rugby club if you were playing every weekend.” His biggest thrill is competing and fellowship with other enthusiasts and collectors. “It’s like owning a vintage car. Everyone has their own preferences … There’s great camaraderie. If you are a member the positive feelings will grab you.”
new to New Zealand Innovative and Ingenious Thalgo introduces iBeauty iBeauty is a sleek, modernistic and compact “instrumental cosmetic” module combining three technologies to offer programmed treatments of 30-60 minutes. • iBeauty Skin Purify Reviver harnesses sound vibration to exfoliate and purify with a deep cleansing peel protocol (30 minutes) - $120 • iBeauty Hydration Corrector uses sequential ultrasound to promote lymph drainage, infuse hydrating products and stimulates fibroblasts to encourage collagen and elastin renewal (45 minutes) - $160
French skincare innovator Thalgo celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015 with the launch of the brand’s first professional device to revolutionise facials. For five decades Thalgo has been a world leader in marine skincare and pioneer of thalassotherapy (the therapeutic use of the ocean and marine products to restore and remineralise the body). The brand is renowned for its cosmetic research and formulation of marine algae; to extract mineral-rich ingredients that, together with plant concentrates and proteins, form the basis of all Thalgo products. In keeping with this reputation for research and innovation, scientists spent several years researching the “perfect” device to become the company’s first technology offering.
• iBeauty Youth Activator uses tri-polar radio frequency to plump, firm and regenerate the complexion, minimising the appearance of lines and wrinkles and lifting facial contours (60 minutes) - $180
French International Thalgo trainer Camille Pruvot came to Auckland recently to mark its launch here and to show therapists the procedure. Camille gave Andrea the treatment. Apart from being a blissfully relaxing and enjoyable experience, my skin responded to the three protocols and treatment products like a withered plant after a long drought. It looked instantly softer and plumper, as if it had guzzled gallons of fresh water, much brighter, certainly cleaner (and those pesky smile lines melted away) as well as being super-receptive to products I used at home in the days afterwards.
Andrea says that one of iBeautys most compelling assets is that it will meet contemporary consumer demand for time efficient treatments that produce real results.
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
State of the Art BY ROY DUNNIGHAM PHOTOS BY BILL KEARNS
Artists need to sell work. That’s the plain truth of the matter. The myth of artists starving in a garret may have applied to van Gogh, but even he could only stand it for ten years. There are some artists locally who live primarily for their art, but even those with another job face the costs for materials and the presentation of work, not to mention the costs in time, as other projects get set aside and social time is sacrificed. It helps, too, to know that you are appreciated. A growing pile of unsold work in the studio is dispiriting. Talk is cheap. Anyone can tell you that your work is great, but real sincerity is when they pull out their credit card. The occasional sale for a couple of hundred dollars may satisfy the parttimers, but the real professionals need professional outlets for showing and selling from solo exhibitions. In fact, solo shows are something of a litmus test for artists, as
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any technical or intellectual shortcomings will become sharply apparent. I often hear art viewers say how much talent there is in Hawke’s Bay but, I wonder how sustainable that talent is. The real strength of local art is not with the parttimers, however admirable they may be. It lies with that dedicated group prepared to put in the sustained hard work necessary to achieve professional standards of technical skills and consistent development of ideas. Not too long ago we had four dealers who
were serious about showing contemporary art: Judith Anderson, Black Barn, Wine Country and Paper-works. Now all except Paper-works have closed. There are now no dealer galleries within the Hastings/ Havelock North districts for the first time that I can remember. Some of our leading artists, like Wellesley Binding, Para Matchitt, Martin Poppelwell and Gary Waldrom probably sell more work outside of Hawke’s Bay than they do locally. Indeed, Gary Waldrom’s recent show at Ahuriri’s Quay
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Flash Harry by Gary Waldrom
Gallery is his first local show in thirteen years. Other artists, especially those still emerging, need sound local venues. One gallery that is regularly showing contemporary local art is Napier’s a+e Gallery. Owner Annika Bennett says she has dual market. There are local buyers of course, but there are also visitors who would like to take away something with a local flavour. She admits that it is not practical to show work that is too challenging, but she wants to show
contemporary art of a good standard. Fane Flaws, Tish Scott and Paula Taafe are artists who have shown there so far. The upstairs location of Paper-works in Emerson Street, Napier, might well make it one of Napier’s best kept secrets. It is well worth the climb though, as it stocks a huge range of original works, mainly (but not entirely) on paper by top national and local artists. Gretchen Albrecht, Philip Trusttum, Dick Frizzell, Para Matchitt, Jo Blogg and Martin Poppelwell are just a few of them.
“Not too long ago we had four dealers who were serious about showing contemporary art: Judith Anderson, Black Barn, Wine Country and Paper-works. Now all except Paper-works have closed.” Owner Annabel Sinclair-Thomson sees a seasonal pattern in sales, but observes that tourist traffic seems to have faded lately. Richard Meyers of Quay Gallery, also in Napier, has just held a great exhibition by Gary Waldrom, but comments that the market has yet to fully recover from the recession. Artist Freeman White doesn’t have a local dealer since Black Barn closed, but he doesn’t see that as a great problem. He finds that the market has changed and the growth of social media in particular has enabled buyers to deal directly with the artist. White suggests that perhaps dealers have to adjust their approach to be more flexible and to cast their artist and client nets a bit wider. He contrasts some Wellington dealers, whom he sees as something of a tightly closed shop, with the Paul Nache gallery, which operates very successfully from the perceived isolation of Gisborne. Interestingly, he observes that there are still plenty of buyers, including a growing field of international clients willing to buy from the higher end of the market, and younger people who have to buy from the lower end. This leaves a significant slump in the middle market. The public galleries play a role that is complementary to the dealers. Community galleries like Creative Art Napier and the Hastings Community Art Centre form a very direct link between artists and the community at large. They can also be a vital stepping stone for emerging artists to gain experience and exposure that could further advance their careers. The professionally curated and presented exhibitions of MTG and the Hastings City Art Gallery showcase the top end of local and national art. MTG sees its role as presenting a national level of work from both local artists who have reached this standard and national artists who can be a source of inspiration and aspiration for local artists. Exhibitions are sourced from both the MTG’s own collection and from outside. The new director, Laura Vodanovich, insists that they have an ongoing, robust debate around the calibre and relevance of what they develop and deliver.
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Freeman White with River View Tuki Tuki
The Hastings City Gallery has a policy of showing the best contemporary art from within and outside Hawke’s Bay that will challenge and engage artists and viewers alike. It also mounts educational programmes and shows with which viewers can interact. Dealers mostly present only work that buyers can display in their homes. Some contemporary art is too big for this and only the public galleries can sponsor that kind of work. A good example is MTG’s installation of Rodger Kelly’s The Talisman Project last year.
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Hastings City Art Gallery has been limited in that area by constraints of budget and resources. When Hastings District Council withdrew the then Exhibition Centre from the management of the HB Cultural Trust, it was the right thing to do, as the Hastings City Gallery has flourished since then. Perhaps the time is coming when a renewed sharing of roles and resources along the complementary lines suggested by Ken Gorbey some years ago should be reconsidered.
Is this an argument supporting amalgamation? The first 15 years of this century have been the best ever for art in Hawke’s Bay, but I see no room for complacency about the future. I have been asked what I think of Creative Arts Napier banning Michael Hawksworth’s Media Girls. [Ed: a sampling of which appeared in the last edition of BayBuzz.] Well, there are plenty of equally pornographic works on show in the great
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Annika Bennett of A&E Gallery
Annabel Sinclair-Thomson Paper Works Gallery galleries of the western world. Try Rococo masters Boucher, Fragonard and Clodion for starters and, if you want violence towards women try Delacroix’s Death of Sardinapalus or Rubens’ Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus. So what about Mean Girls? They are handsome compositions making adventurous use of picture space in the Baroque tradition. Is there a touch of “Look what a naughty boy I am?” about them. That could have been left to gallery viewers to decide.
“I often hear art viewers say how much talent there is in Hawke’s Bay but, I wonder how sustainable that talent is. The real strength of local art is not with the part-timers, however admirable they may be. It lies with that dedicated group prepared to put in the sustained hard work necessary to achieve professional standards of technical skills and consistent development of ideas.”
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Spread Our Wings
In June, Hasting City Art Gallery will unveil new works by sculptor George Nuku. Nuku splits his time between Omahu Marae at Fernhill and Rouen in Normandy, France. His works in plexiglass and polystyrene are elaborate carvings in a traditional style juxtaposed against contemporary manufacturing materials. Nuku also works in stone, wood and bone. "I have a tendency to go into a zone for a time, then I don't want to see that material for a while,'' he explains of his prodigious output, including much of the interior of the Omahu Marae wharekai in carved polystyrene. Nuku hopes to follow his HCAG pieces with work for the Hastings Civic Square, which is in a holding pattern until costs associated with the earthquake strengthening of the Opera House are confirmed. "You have more chance of generating the time, energy and money needed for
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a project if you believe in the idea," says Nuku. "The metaphor there (in Civic Square) is to do with the kāhu – the hawk – and I think that's cool." Nuku's work has a majesty that belies the humble materials from which it is carved. "I think I subconsciously brought home all the cathedrals I saw in Europe," he explains. "It affects you so much that you want to express it back here: that divinity in architecture." Nuku has grand plans for works at his home marae and for public sites in Hawke's Bay. "With every move we make we've got to do things beyond compare and without peers. That's the fastest way to winning," he believes. Nuku's works parallel his bright, strong view of Māori in Hawke's Bay. "We have been here over 1,000 years. We are this place – the only way forward is to spread our wings and envelope everyone."
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Meeting Karpovsky
COMING SOON
An interdisciplinary work created through collaboration between the two actors is coming to Hastings thanks to the Arts on Tour initiative. Meeting Karpovsky brings together awardwinning actor Helen Moulder and legendary dancer Sir Jon Trimmer under the direction of Sue Rider. The story was devised by Moulder and Trimmer revisiting a number of the classic dances Trimmer has performed as part of the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Trimmer has been a mainstay of the company for 56 years.
Meeting Karpovsky ... Shows at the Playhouse Theatre Saturday 13 June at 7.30pm
The story revolves around ballet-obsessed Sylvia with her two left feet, and the famous dancer she has manifested in her attic. The Listener says of Meeting Karpovsky: "An extraordinary work full of humour, delight, drama and surprise". The play includes music by Tchaikovsky, Weber, Stravinsky, Adam and Bach.
Hastings Community Arts Centre 106 Russell Street, Hastings
Tickets are $32 Book at the centre, or online:
www.creativehastings.org.nz/tickets
Music Space Iona College's new performance centre has now opened, with a concert from Neil Finn on piano accompanied by the Iona choirs. The building is one of two made possible by a bequest from the Blyth Family. The music venue is named after the family as the Blyth Performing Arts Centre and was designed by architects Stevens Lawson to reflect the shape of a musical instrument case. Shannon Warren, Iona's principal, sees the building as the result of a generous gift and hopes that spirit will endure in the space. "Generosity is a quality we hope our girls embody," she said. On performing in the new space Neil Finn remarked that the Blyth was one of the most acoustically perfect venues in which he had performed. In addition to the music centre the school has built a new library and additional classrooms.
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Behind the scenes at a top tourism attraction
hB onlinE:
bobo Vincent and Nina Michaelson, both 28, have been back in the Bay for a year and a half after a decade elsewhere. Now they have started MEKKA, an online business selling homewares with a particularly Hawke's Bay aesthetic: refined rustic or bourgeois bohemian (aka Bobo).
Vincent says being based in Hawke's Bay gives them the best of both worlds and allows them the freedom to run their own business without being too tied down. “Starting an online business in Hawke's Bay was an easy choice because we could escape bigger city issues of finance and cost, but in many ways we can be anywhere, because we're online,” he explains.
Birdwoods celebrates its tenth birthday this year and with it ten years of providing a top tourism attraction. Louise Stobart who owns the operation gives some insights into what makes their venture a success. Like many things it starts with a good story. Ten years ago it was a gamble to open a gift shop in Havelock North let alone one down a very long country road, but Louise had a vision, backed by good intuition. "It wasn't planned or mapped out, but we knew we had to have something for everyone who came here." Birdwoods now includes a sculpture garden, sweet shop and gallery filled with art and craft from New Zealand and the Stobart's home of Zimbabwe. The secret to their success is the engagement staff have with customers. "Every single person who comes in we greet, we're interested in, we can have a conversation and recommend other places," says Louise. Tips from a successful tourism operator: 1. Love the customers. Remember their names and their stories 2. Promote Hawke's Bay at large 3. Create a sense of belonging and family for staff 4. Exceed customers' expectations, every time 5. Be warm, friendly and generous 6. Always look for better or new ways to do things
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Some of MEKKA's merchandise is made by Vincent, and some is cleverly sourced from around the world, although an unplanned skew towards local artisans has developed. “As we grow we want to find new artists and expand our own products. It wasn't in our original plan to focus on local but it seems like we are, so that's something we can grow too,” Vincent says. Both Vincent and Nina are from Hawke's Bay, but met in Wellington then travelled, living in Korea for two years before coming back to the Bay. Being here does come with compromises, and settling back in was challenging.
“Certainly settling in was not totally easy – we questioned whether we'd made the right choice, but we are happy with it now,” says Vincent. “It was a difficult decision to come back here – we knew we wanted to come back to New Zealand, but if we went to Auckland we may as well be anywhere. Hawke's Bay really feels like real New Zealand; it feels like home.” What's made the decision to be based here easier is the Hawke's Bay ‘vibe’ of wineries and long summers. “What's made it harder is at my age a lot of my friends are everywhere else in the world other than back here,” explains Vincent. “We're always aware of what we're missing out on and we can get restless.” MEKKA's aesthetic is presented online in a series of photoshoots based around the couple's lives. “We try to share our normal life,” says Vincent. “It is a little bit curated, but they are the things we do and enjoy doing. Because we're online we have to bring as much life into it as possible so it's not just the static image on a screen.”
www.mekka.co.nz
Jeff Grant
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
ART DECo In LYCRA Michelle Middleton, aged 50, is putting on her art deco glam with a twist this June as Napier gets set to flex its muscles at the inaugural Fitwear Art Deco Grand Prix of Bodybuilding. Michelle is one of dozens of competitors who will compete after months of hard work.
Wordmaster NZ Masters Championship of Scrabble is an invitation-only, best-of-the-best and has just been won for the ninth time by Hastings man Jeff Grant. Over three days he played 23 games of scrabble in a pool of the 24 best players in the country and came up trumps. He has also won the NZ Championship 16 times and competed at ten World Championships.
Bodybuilding takes the expected regular gym trips and fastidious food habits, but also requires discipline, focus and a methodical approach to planning for the big day. Competitors pack on bulk, then tone down by limiting calories, so muscles are particularly defined on competition day. The infamous spray tan then helps highlight muscles under bright
stage lights. Competitors range from teenagers to over 50s. Organiser Sarah Parr says bodybuilding isn't all about big muscles and fake tans, "For a lot of people it's a form of selfbetterment, it's a sense of achievement. People feel better about themselves, it's a great confidence booster." "It is really fun," says Sarah, "The hard work isn't, but the end result is." Art Deco Grand Prix takes place at Napier Boys' High School from midday on Saturday 27 June with a number of categories including bikini, sports model and fitness model. John Cocking in his art deco 'Bertie' role, himself a former bodybuilder, will MC. An art deco dance extravaganza will open the show.
He started playing as a ten year old and was a founding member of the Hastings Club, which started in 1981 and still meets every Tuesday from 1pm at the Hastings Library (all welcome). He has written for the American Journal of Recreational Linguistics since 1977 where he specialises in palindromes and anagrams. He is also the author of The Concise Dictionary of Two-Letter Words. Jeff says his love of Scrabble comes out of his love of words, but at the top levels Scrabble is more about maths and playing the odds than it is about words. “I love the people – they're all word lovers – and I like the competitiveness. Every game is different and you are creating order out of chaos. The bag of tiles is chaos and you create order on the board."
Jeff Grant's Scrabble Tidbits: • The most difficult word to spell: HOUYHNHNM • Jeff 's highest single play score: 221 (he's done it twice) • Jeff 's highest game score: 751 (the game included seven bonus words (where all seven tiles are played in one turn)) • Handiest two letter Scrabble word: QI • Jeff 's all-time favourite word: TAGHAIRM defined as ‘inspiration sought while lying under a bullock's hide behind a waterfall’. (Another favourite is UCALEGON – ‘a neighbour whose house is on fire’.) Michelle Middleton
CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
booK REVIEWS Title: Etta and Otto and Russell and James Author: Emma Hooper Publisher: Penguin Price: $37.00
Title: My Sunshine Away Author: M.O. Walsh Publisher: Penguin Price: $37.00
Title: The Secret Life of Luke Livingstone Author: Charity Norman Publisher: Allen and Unwin Price: $36.99
Eighty-two-year-old Etta lives in Saskatchewan and has never seen the sea. She leaves a note for her husband Otto and begins a 2,000 mile journey to the water, packing a rifle, some chocolate and her best boots. The note ends with a promise of sorts: I will try to remember to come back.
This is the finest, most lyrical piece of writing I’ve read in a while. Baton Rouge, Louisiana comes to sweltering, swampy life from the very first page as our protagonist describes the rape of his friend and neighbour, 15-year-old Lindy Simpson. He ends the opening chapter with:
The strands and themes that run through the novel raise it above the formulaic: in the past Otto was at war, while their lifelong, disabled companion Russell farmed the dusty dry earth. In the present Otto finds ways to cope on his own and Etta finds unlikely companionship in a coyote named James. There is deep love, friendship, remembering and forgetting; a story untangled as Etta walks.
I should tell you now that I was one of the suspects.
Charity has an amazing talent for pulling you in to her novels and making you walk in her characters’ shoes. In the case of Luke Livingstone, this involves a dramatic change of footwear as he drops a bombshell on his perfect, privileged family – he has identified as female since his early childhood and can no longer continue life as a man. A wonderful read that reminds us that a little kindness, and an effort at understanding, goes a long way.
Hear me out. Let me explain. He doesn’t say if he is innocent or guilty. We soon know that there were four suspects and as the story of each is unravelled, the lives of the characters in this small community are examined in detail. One of the most chilling players is the psychiatrist, Mr Landry, a huge, intimidating man whose presence fills the page with menace and the fear of what may lie behind the locked door in his house. My Sunshine Away is a beautifully written mystery, examining what we do with the truth when it is found. It is full of empathy and love, twisted as that may sometimes be.
Louise Ward www.wardini.co.nz
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
AnZAC
MARKED
MTG is hosting a very personal telling of the ANZAC story with an exhibition including items from the museum's first director, Leo Bestall, who served in World War I. Leo Bestall, taken on his 21st birthday in France, 21 November 1916, gifted by Mrs Mary Bestall. Hawke's Bay Museums Trust, Ruawharo Tā-ū-rangi [81072]
Leo Bestall Leo Bestall fought through two world wars. He enlisted at the end of 1915, aged 20, and served with the New Zealand Medical Corps for three and a half years in Egypt and on the Western Front. In 1941, after the outbreak of the Second World War, Leo joined the Church Army and was posted as Captain to Maadi Camp, near Cairo. There he was responsible for the morale, spiritual welfare and recreational needs of New Zealand soldiers. Home in Hawke's Bay, Bestall was a driving force of the Napier Society of Arts and Crafts and in 1936 became the first director of the Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery. For over 20 years Bestall spearheaded the construction of the three main gallery spaces
Hawke's Bay Museum and Art Gallery Director 1936-1959 in the museum. Bestall's significant collection of objects, diaries and photographs are an important part of the collection of both World Wars at MTG Hawke’s Bay.
From the Uttermost Ends of the Earth, Hawke’s Bay at War 1914-1918 concentrates on Hawke's Bay's contribution to the Great War. MTG director Laura Vodanovich says, “It’s a very big story to tell, and the exhibition deliberately draws on local, personal experiences to reveal the scale, impact and consequence of the First World War." The exhibition story unfolds in stages; from the excitement of enlisting to the horror of the first modern war; the brutal reality of Gallipoli, the harsh deserts of Palestine and the Sinai, and the nightmare landscapes of the Western Front. From the Uttermost Ends of the Earth is curated by Lucy Hammond, her last show before leaving Hawke's Bay for a curatorial role in Dunedin. The show has been more than a year in the making, drawing on the resources of the Hawke’s Bay Museum Trust Collection, volunteers supporting the curators, and items generously loaned by the community.
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CULTURE and LIFESTYLE
Murphy Move
After ten years at Sport Hawke's Bay Kevin Murphy takes up the role of Events Coordinator at Napier City Council this month. Murphy says a third of his previous role will segue nicely into the new position. "Some of what I did at Sports Hawke's Bay is very similar to what I do now, but from a slightly different angle," he says. Relationship management is the big cross-over with much of the role focused on working closely with events' organisers and promoters. There are a number of barriers to having a truly thriving events scene in the Bay and Murphy sees part of his role as breaking those down. Sports organisers need to be happy with the way their sport is being hosted in the Bay. Events in the nonsporting space need more focus on selling tickets, and selling them early. It's a lesson Hawke's Bay people need to learn if they want to attract quality events. "Some of the promoters have got cold feet in the past and we need to talk to them. We haven't done that in any meaningful way and we need to ask how we can support them as a region," explains Murphy. "They need us to buy tickets and we need to buy earlier. Promoters have pulled events because they haven't got strong presales. A promoter puts his balls on the line and if it's not looking like it's going to fly financially, they are less motivated to run events." With his Sport Hawke's Bay hat on, Murphy sat on the Regional Events Group since its inception three years ago and will continue to do so. The Group comprises all councils as well as other organisations and works at a regional level. He is also the regional representative on the NZ Association of Event Professionals.
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Ancient Sails Te Matau a Māui is the name of the waka hourua (traditional double-hulled sailing vessel) that is berthed in the Ahuriri Harbour, Napier. The waka is currently travelling to a festival of such vessels in Rarotonga and Aitutaki. 'Te Manava Vaka Festival' will see a number of waka hourua crews meet from around the Pacific. Michelle Smith from the trust that operates Te Matau a Māui says the crew is made up of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds, and will use ancient techniques to get them to their destination. "On the way to Rarotonga they
are doing traditional navigation, that means no instruments," says Michelle. Te Matua a Māui has made many journeys around New Zealand including a trip to the Chatham Islands, a sail down the South Island and most recently a peaceful protest to support the halt of forced closure of Aboriginal communities in Australia. A documentary about waka hourua will screen on Māori TV in June. Te Mana O Te Moana – The Pacific Voyagers chronicles the voyage of a group of over 100 PanPacific Islanders on a fleet of seven sailing waka.
Sitting Room Sessions
CULTURE & LIFESTYLE
FAWCing Fabulous June is jam-packed with food and drink thanks to Winter FAWC! (the Hawke's Bay Food and Wine Classic). There are 47 events in the 2015 programme totalling just over 3,000 tickets. Some events sell out fast but there are still tickets available for many. This year's programme sold $12,000 worth of tickets in the first 15 minutes of being on sale as FAWC! goes from strength to strength. Events in the 2015 programme include such appetising temptations as: • • • • • • •
This arrived in the BayBuzz inbox from local cultural patriarch Fane Flaws (artist, musician): Hi MUSIC LOVERS - I am forwarding this message from our fabulous local music supporter JAMIE MACPHAIL who has been hosting brilliant 'HOUSE CONCERTS' for some time now. He has a great space at the cottage at CRAB FARM and always hosts QUALITY ARTISTS. In my experience these events are consistently excellent. AN INTIMATE, COMFORTABLE, CLOSE UP EXPERIENCE OF ORIGINAL MUSIC PRESENTED IN HIS LARGE LIVING ROOM I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH TO SUPPORT THESE SITTING ROOM SESSIONS!!!! CHEERS FANE it exudes the untamed enthusiasm that seems to orbit the legendary, almost mythical Macphail Sitting Room Sessions. Jamie Macphail explains where the idea came from and how it's grown into a bit of a beast. “Seven years ago my sisters asked me what i wanted for my birthday and i said i wanted this guy called Warren love to play in my sitting room – never thinking it would actually happen. he did it, and until he stood up to sing i hadn't thought about what it would be,” Macphail says. “it was a singer/songwriter in the corner and we were all totally mesmerised. it was so completely different from hearing music in any other context.” it took another few years for Macphail to
iron out the chinks, but now the Sitting Room Sessions are a regular happening. Macphail wonders if they might be a bit too regular, as he's hosted a dozen this year already. “it's run a bit rampant,” Macphail confesses.
Why Sherry is the new Gin Medieval Winter Feast Trinity Hill Goes Bollywood Cider House Rules Truffle Kerfuffle Murder Mystery - Death by Dessert Mutton Dressed as Lamb Ball
Over four weekends – June 6 to 29 – Winter FAWC! promises to be a month of hearty, warming tastiness from the plethora of talent Hawke's Bay has in the wine and food field. In locations all over the region.
The gigs are ‘by invitation only’ affairs. if people are interested they'll need to contact Jamie Macphail directly to be put on the invitation list. Musicians who have played the Sitting Room Sessions include Sam RB, Mike Chunn, Tiny Ruins, Julia Deans, The handsome Family, and Devilish Mary and the holy Rollers. For Macphail the most extraordinary one ever was the recent Session featuring Mary Coughlan. “one of the huge bonuses for me is meeting these gorgeous creative people. They become friends,” says Macphail. There's strict protocol involved in the Sessions. “no chatting to each other; i insist on that. it's like being in a concert hall except there's only 40 people, and for the people in the front row, you are really close,” Macphail says. “The joy of the house concert is that this is where music started, it's what it's about, there's something really ancient about it that people really do feel,” Macphail says. “Artists adore an audience that really does listen. it's hard to get a gig where people shut up and listen.” To get your name on the invite list: jamie@macphails.co.nz
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Taste
TOP5 BY ALEXANDRA TYLEE PHOTOS RICHARD BRIMER
I love the ceremony of food. The rituals and the immediacy of it. The excitement when it is feijoa season again and golden queen, whitebait, basil and cherry. Or when you discover a particularly delicious new type of cheese and you start thinking about what to eat with it and under it and drink alongside it.
ARTS and LIFESTYLE
Also the way it is such a basic need and desire … it brings everyone back to the earth or the sea or the land and to their own roots. We have all had lots of great meals, but for me it is the ones where there is no expectation that I remember. And often it was not the actual food but more the events that led up to it, or surrounded it. So, I am going to tell you about my top five food experiences of all time ... the ones that have stuck with me, and influenced how and why I cook the way I do.
5
Ham & Cheese Sandwich Timaru Railway Station
Now this is a funny one, but to me it shows that with food it is not always about how amazing the actual dish is, but how hungry you are and the situation. A friend and I had hitchhiked from Dunedin for a 21st in Timaru. We had not left Dunedin until it was getting dark and after a few very short rides ended up flagging down a bus. We had not had dinner properly or much lunch, I was rather cold and very hungry by the time the bus eventually dropped us at the Timaru railway station. As soon as we got there we rushed to the cafeteria only to find that all they had left were some of those sandwiches made of thin white bread with one piece of dodgy ham, thin slice of processed cheese, and a thin layer of bright yellow mustard. So that was what we ate and I still remember how good it was. The funny thing is, try as I do, even though I have often bought them again when we are on a road trip, I have never been able to recreate that feeling or capture the taste again. Maybe I will have to go back to Timaru, but somehow I think I am better off just to keep that memory a memory and simply enjoy that.
4
Potato Samosas Darjeeling, Northern India
I had been on a trek for two days which went from Darjeeling up into the surrounding hills; from there you could see across to the range of mountains that Mt Everest is part of. The track was lined with wild rhododendrons and orchards and you stayed in private houses along the way and ate whatever they were having. By the time I got back to Darjeeling I was ready for a hot shower and food. We stopped at a local café which was full up with locals; not a tourist in sight. They all seemed to be eating tiny samosas, plucked out of a big round oven by a man sitting cross-legged on top of it, so I had some too and did again and again. The pastry was deliciously flakey without being too rich or heavy, the filling was spicy, but not too spicy, and with the sweet fruity sauce that it came with, it was the perfect meal. I have always meant to try and make some myself, but the problem is I don’t have the right oven or atmosphere, so really all I can do is go back to Darjeeling and try and find that café.
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3
3RD eQUaL
Bread Rings Athens Airport
I had just found out I was pregnant with Henry by a doctor who could speak no English, but instead made large gestures over my tummy and had a huge grin on his face. And all the nurses stooped around making the same gestures and rubbing and poking my tummy. We were on our way home from a three year stint in London and had stopped in Athens to catch up with all the Greek goddesses and visit the Parthenon. We were nervously waiting at the airport for our plane; we had some cheap deal where they did not allocate seats. Instead there was a mad scramble for seats when they opened the door as everyone ran to get one as apparently they always over-booked the flights.
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Suddenly I spotted a man selling round bread things. They were shaped like doughnuts, but bigger and thinner. I bought one; it was chewy and soft with a delicate very moreish flavor. I ate quite a few and the morning sickness I was feeling, for a while at least, was relieved. I decided actually I could quite happily live out my pregnacy here at the Athens airport eating these bread things. But of course suddenly the doors opened and we rushed on, just getting a seat, and that was that. I have never tasted anything like them again, but I live in hope.
3
3RD eQUaL Tuna Tempura Logan Brown Restaurant, Wellington
Logan Brown in Wellington can be rather intimidating I suppose and formal. But for the first three years of its conception, when I was
living in Wellington in a warehouse behind the St James and Mermaids, it was our local. I worked long days and often the thought of cooking was tiring. It was a much easer option to just pop into Logan Brown on our way home, before they had their main dinner rush. I nearly always had either the crab cakes or the tuna tempura and they would cook Henry a simple piece of chicken or steak. And then sometimes when I needed a place to celebrate it worked equally as well, just add a bottle of champagne to that and you were done. It was the familiarity, not having to think, the service, the high stud, and easy good taste. It was always the same, but then different enough to be still interesting. For those three years it was a part of our lives like a flatmate might be. We shared birthdays, work stuff and an awful lot of weekday meals. Also Al Brown’s food tastes like it is
made with a lot of genuine care and a real understanding of flavours. And if his Depot Eatery was in Hawke’s Bay we would be there. As it is, we have been known to drive to Auckland just for dinner because one of us really felt like one of their fish sliders, or braised bone marrow.
2
Green Beans Uncle Charles
My uncle Charles lived in Fulham in London. One time when I was in between jobs he asked me to come and clean his house. He had one of those tall skinny fivestory terrace houses and it was full of years of accumulated life, so cleaning it was quite a thing. Charles was rather exotic to me. He was an artist who I met for the first time the day before my first wedding. But at the same time he looked and spoke just like my father and his home was filled with paintings of rural scenes in the Wairarapa, so being with him in London was a lovely experience. When I had cleaned for a while he suggested we walk down to his allotment garden, which was next to the Thames River, and pick some beans. The allotment was very social with everyone chatting in a friendly competitive way about their vegetables and flowers. Later at home we had the beans smothered in butter and salt and pepper (just as Alice Tylee, my grandmother and his mother, used to cook them), with chicken, sitting out in his tiny little back garden. They were the best beans I have ever tasted, sweet and tender. Maybe it was the air or the water, who knows. I don’t care; I am just glad I was there with Charles eating them.
1
Lunch Florence
I was in Italy to taste espresso blends with our green coffee bean wholesaler, but had stopped in Florence to meet the owners of La Marzocca espresso machines. First he showed me his factory and an amazing museum full of vintage La Marzoccas. Then he took me to lunch at what he said was a typical Florentine restaurant. It was not grand, but very classically Italian. All the waiters were grandfathers … maybe great-grandfathers. Anyway I had no expectation of what was to follow but will try to convey the enormity of the experience. We started with a tortellini in a beef consume. The flavour of the consume was delicate and strong at the same time, while the pasta was as soft as soft and melted away in your mouth. Next, chicken breasts, grilled over hot coals and then slowly cooked in pounds of butter,
open daily from 10am
was something I will never forget. Served with just a perfectly dressed rocket salad. Pudding was wild raspberries just picked from the hills around Florence. I love raspberries and wild ones are so much better. When the waiters described them I got a vision of the old men still in their black and white outfits, carrying wicker baskets and walking in the forests up above Florence collecting these raspberries themselves. It was the simplicity, the understated dignity that over delivered, the thick worn plates, water tumblers, the waiting staff and the smells coming from the tiny kitchen. The quiet confidence and permanence of it all, which gave you room to breathe, so you could really relax and experience the restaurant properly. All of these experiences and others like them have helped to deepen my delight and fascination with food. It is about nutrition certainly and that is very important, but food seems to also have, given the right situation, the ability to transform not just itself but its surroundings.
114 Havelock Road
BooK noW: 877 0008 www.offthetrack.co.nz
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Kitchen Envy
BY CLARE TANTON KITCHEN DRAWINGS & PHOTOGRAPHS ANDY COLTART
Do you find yourself daydreaming? Of gleaming sinks and pristine benchtops. Of the sumptuous meals you will cook in your new kitchen. The one you’re going to create when you finally get around to renovating your current kitchen, which is a nightmare.
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It could be said that Andy Coltart has seen more kitchens than he’s had hot dinners. He’s a design connoisseur, an architectural maven and one of the people behind the shire of Black Barn, which includes a vineyard, bistro and deluxe holiday accommodation, as well as homes along the Tukituki. “The thing you find with most people is they are stuck,” explains Andy. “They’ve either just done their kitchen or they want to do it or they’re thinking about doing it.” “Then people just do the kitchen up and they’re not happy with it. It’s pretty sad if you spend a lot of money and you don’t absolutely love it.” So where do you start? And how can you end up with a kitchen you love?
Creating the wish list
“The thing you find with most people is they are stuck, They’ve either just done their kitchen or they want to do it or they’re thinking about doing it.” And if you are going it alone be prepared to ask yourself the same sort of questions, and to be extensive: Who in the family cooks? Do you like company while you’re boiling and broiling or do you prefer to fry in peace? Brigit says that scenario building isn’t too far to go, in fact it’s a must. Imagine yourself walking into your kitchen after a day at work, pouring yourself a glass of wine. Where are you going to sit? What do you want to see? Both Andy and Brigit insist that when
creating a kitchen wishlist you should be completely honest about what it is you need from your kitchen, not just what you’re lusting after; what suits you, your family and your lifestyle, that’s the key. Andy laughs: “A lot of kitchens - in every magazine you flick through - you’ve got a big stone island bench and two aubergines on the end and bang, you’re done. We say that’s for open heart surgery! It looks like the surgeon’s going to walk around the corner and do the job.”
“The best thing you can do when you’re renovating your kitchen is to look at a lot of kitchens,” Andy says. “Get yourself in the right headspace.” From there create a kitchen wishlist. Many clients go to an architect with screeds of magazine cutouts. That’s great, says Andy, but also advises that the wish list is “better created over a couple of years, rather than a couple of days. You need to be patient if you want to get it right.” Brigit Christie, an architect who works alongside Andy, says a kitchen should be more about how you feel in it than the way it looks. “It should exude your personality, it shouldn’t be ‘Oh, I want HER kitchen’ because your personality is different from someone else’s,” she says. If you have an architect on board with your build, expect them to ask a lot of questions. “Architects have got to spend a lot of time with their clients,” says Andy, “to really get inside their lives.”
// // //
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Island kitchen
“The best thing you can do when you’re renovating your kitchen is to look at a lot of kitchens. Get yourself in the right headspace.”
Andy Coltart
Changing shapes Before renovations begin in the kitchen, your daydreaming should include some serious overthinking of how best to use the space available to you. Getting the basic shape right, in terms of light, space and use, is a vital first step. “Years ago it was the golden triangle,” says Andy. “It does apply still but you’ve got to be a bit looser with it.” Brigit chimes in: “I think the triangle was for the 50’s woman who had to whistle round and look efficient. I don’t think it matters so much anymore. It was thought up in a different time when there was one woman doing the job, but now there’s at least
someone else in there to make the drinks!” Nowdays, some go for galley kitchens – a corridor with utilities and benches on both sides. But Andy warns, “It can be a thoroughfare and you’ve got to be careful with that. It’ll drive you nuts.” Galleys can have their upsides. For those who like to be fully immersed in their cooking experience being in the galley is a good option. “I love cooking on boats for that reason,” says Brigit. “You feel so efficient, it’s like doing a dance.” Andy’s pick is the U-shaped kitchen. “Like the 50’s circuit kitchen that goes around the wall, but without the table in the middle. It’s
not a thoroughfare, and you’ve got your own space and can go from side to side.” If space is an issue, put an island in the middle for a similar effect. Andy proposes an island with an in-built rubbish hatch and an extra sink. “That is so handy. Imagine having two people in the kitchen, one doing dishes while the other is working.” For many, the kitchen is the heart of the home. More than just a room, it is the place where mornings and evenings are spent, where friends are welcomed, and where numerous special events take place. It makes sense then that the kitchen should be a space that reflects its owners. “You’re not doing it for a photo shoot,” says Andy. “Well if you are, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. Do it because you want to make your life easier and have more fun, for it to be more relaxing to entertain guests.” Build a kitchen you love and you will surely create some wonderful meals – and memories – as a reward.
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Page 75 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
“Be honest with your life. It’s good to see stuff.”
Tricks of the Trade Some parts of a kitchen rebuild make perfect sense when you visit the finished project, but may be overlooked during the vital design stage. Consider these handy hints from the experts.
Free your fridge Think carefully about where you put your fridge. “Generally you need a fridge that’s accessible to someone who’s not in the kitchen,” explains Andy, “otherwise - especially if you have kids - they’re constantly in and out. That’s a better rule than the golden triangle one.”
Use space wisely When thinking about shelving, shallow is best. “The most economical pantry space is just a long flat wall with shallow shelves,” Andy proposes, “but it’s very rare you can afford that space, so we do a lot of over cupboards in the kitchens we design.”
Be a show-off “Be honest with your life,”says Andy. “It’s good to see stuff.” Decide what you want to see when you walk into the kitchen: rows of shut cupboard doors, or piles of gleaming plates and bowls ready to be used. “We’ve done a lot of dressers that actually have no cupboards and just have shelves from the ground up,” says Andy, “they’re the best thing.”
Get the right fit Work out what is the right size kitchen table for you. “Some people might go somewhere and see a table they like but then realise you can’t even have a conversation over it because it’s too wide. The ultimate width of a table is 850mm, I’m absolutely paranoid about it.”
Play musical chairs Once you have the perfect table, find a secondary seating place. “It’s important to have more than one option to eat at,” says Andy, “or for the kids to sit and do their homework.” Page 76 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
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Page 77 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
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Needed: New ways to FuNd LocaL GoverNmeNt BY lAwrence YUle PHOTOGRAPH TIM wHITTAKer
Nobody likes paying rates, but without them modern infrastructure and the services people seem to expect from local government would not exist. With an average daily cost of $5 per household, what you pay your council is now usually less than your electricity bill and for many families less than your daily caffeine fix. Equally many households now spend more on telecommunications and data access than they pay to their city or district. For some, such a choice may appear better value for money or a higher priority, but they are wrong. Council expenditure generally provides extremely good value for money and collectively we can do things far more efficiently than individually. Discussing future funding arrangements for local government is never going to be an easy conversation. The recently released Local Government New Zealand Funding Options Report generated significant media attention. The report is a culmination of work by a dedicated group of political, economic, banking and private sector experts. Interestingly, following its public release commentators were evenly split on the merits of a different approach to funding what your council does.
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The board of LGNZ (which I chair) were unanimous in their view that future funding arrangements had to be reviewed. Not because current systems are failing, but rather the future poses very different challenges than are present today. Most of the challenges are around changes in population, where people live and how ageing infrastructure was originally funded. The salient issues are these: • In the next two decades 32 out of the 68 councils in New Zealand will experience population decline. • For most areas in New Zealand the percentage of the population over 65 will increase from 10-20% to 20-30%. A significant aging of the population and many more people on fixed incomes. • Much of the infrastructure for water, wastewater and storm water was built in the 50s and 60s, and in many cases this was funded almost entirely by the Crown. Much of this infrastructure is coming to the end of its useful life. • The majority of the roading network was built with the government funding 90% of the cost. Today the government only funds around 50% of these costs.
• New issues relating to natural hazards, earthquake strengthening and climate change have begun to generate massive costs, which have not been properly considered in current funding models. • A large chunk of Crown-owned land pay no rates because of a government imposed exemption law. In law, rates are a tax on property and unlike central government taxation they are unconnected to the income earning ability of an individual ratepayer. Simple in concept, they use relative wealth as determined by property value to calculate your share of council expenditure. Equally, the collection of these rates is done completely independently from the central taxation system. A property-based system of collection is regressive on fixed income people even if they are asset rich. I often hear commentary that many councils are indebted and that somehow this debt is out of control. In fact, the situation is quite the contrary, with total local government assets valued at $117 billion and total debt at just $10 billion. This very conservative ratio is often forgotten because people find the numbers so large. Against this background ratepayers across the country need to realise that the world is
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changing. No longer will previous funding arrangements reliant on property value be fair. And in many they will become far less affordable for our aging population. Importantly, we need to understand there is an ever increasing demand for better services, often with people not wanting to pay for them. The discussion paper released by LGNZ includes these options: local income tax, sharing of government revenue, local expenditure tax, regional fuel taxes, and sharing GST with the Crown. Additionally there is discussion about further enhanced efficiencies in the delivery of services and a serious conversation about reducing the level of services offered in order to reduce budget pressure. I have not personally ruled any of these concepts out, apart from a poll tax. This form of tax may appear the fairest form
“Importantly, LGNZ is not advocating that more money needs to be introduced into the system. It is suggesting that a property based rating system alone will not fairly fund the changing makeup of New Zealand.”
Take the BayBuzz Funding Options survey Cast your vote online at: www.baybuzz.co.nz Or mail your views to: BayBuzz, PO Box 8322 Havelock North of revenue collection, but as Margaret Thatcher found, it is very unpopular. Importantly, LGNZ is not advocating that more money needs to be introduced into the system. It is suggesting that a property-based rating system alone will not fairly fund the changing makeup of New Zealand. To convince any government that council should take some of their resources will be no easy task. The first hurdle will be to convince taxpayers and ratepayers alike that there is a problem, and then secondly show that councils are operating as efficiently as they can with the current resources available. In Hawke’s Bay we are not immune from these issues. Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay have declining populations. Even in Napier and Hastings where the population is growing, people are getting relatively older. Unless we can find a more balanced
system of funding council costs, the older generation particularly are going to be further reliant on government handouts or the very unpopular reverse mortgages. I sense that many people would prefer something different. It is instructive that how things are done in NZ is not mirrored everywhere across the globe. In many countries, including Europe, taxpayers make a direct contribution towards local services. By international comparison, NZ has one of the higher levels of local funding for council services. Leading an organisation that is challenging the status does mean speaking out and raising difficult issues with citizens. Such an approach may not be popular, but I would rather test new options than walk through the next two decades knowing that what we are doing today will ultimately fail. I accept the government will not want to give away GST revenue or set up locally-based taxation. But faced with the challenges outlined they may be left with no choice. Achieving greater efficiencies can take us only so far. If people continue to insist on increased levels of service, value the communities they live in, and yet face a fixed income, they will demand a different approach.
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Page 79 • Issue 23 • May / June 2015 • BAY BUZZ
TrusT regionals To develop Their own opporTuniTies BY RT Hon PeTeR Dunne, uniTeD FuTuRe LeADeR
The current debate about the impact the lopsided Auckland housing boom is having on the rest of the country is a timely reminder that we have never really got the hang of regional development. Labour-led governments have generally been in favour of it, without quite understanding what ‘it’ is, using it instead as an opportunity to pork-barrel popular, often unsustainable local projects. The Nelson Cotton Mill of the late 1950s and the West Coast’s Matai Industries in the 1970s are the most blatant examples. For their part, National-led governments have been inherently more suspicious (except during by-election campaigns), fearing that it might lead to a form of centralised planning. The combination of their inaction and relatively frequent changes of government have meant that nothing much ever really happens. Every now and then regional and local government step into the breach, but they often have less idea than their central government counterparts. Local government-led regional development is like a modern version of the cargo cult – expensive projects developed at ratepayers’ expense in the often vain hope something may turn up. I live in Wellington where we currently have two classic examples of this thinking. Our port company wants to dredge deeper harbour channels to make it possible for larger container ships to come into Wellington Harbour, despite the fact that
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their existing wharf capacity is far from fully utilised, and there is no evidence larger ships will want to call here anyway. The driver seems to be more a case of Auckland and Tauranga being able to handle such ships, so Wellington feels it should too, even though Auckland and Tauranga are our major import and export ports. And then there is the case of extending the airport’s runway, which the City Council seems ready to commit hundreds of millions
maximum effect the things it is best at. That means trusting our regions to develop their own opportunities, rather than decide them for them. But then we have to be prepared to back their decisions. Hawke’s Bay is a very good example of where central government thinks it knows best when it comes to regional development. A couple of years ago, Hawke’s Bay decided to market itself and its produce to the world as GE Free, only to be stopped by the
“Regional development is not about a wish-list of regional nice-to-haves ... but about trusting our regions to develop their own opportunities, rather than decide them for them.” of dollars towards to make Wellington more attractive to long-haul flights. This coming at the very time when the numbers of long-haul flights into and out of airports other than Auckland are being wound back, and none of the airlines is expressing any interest in longhaul flights into and out of the capital.
Not about ‘nice-to-haves Regional development is not about a wish-list of regional nice-to-haves, but about ensuring that each region can do to
government on the grounds we marketed ourselves as brand New Zealand, not a series of competing brands within it. It decided instead that what would go down really well in the region was a massive dam to boost irrigation and foster dairy conversions. The facts that the proposal was widely rejected locally, and was unlikely to achieve the economic benefits claimed, and would certainly inflict significant environmental damage were deemed secondary considerations. ConTinued on p82
puTTing hearT BaCk inTo hawke’s Bay
BY RT Hon WinSTon PeTeRS, neW ZeALAnD FiRST LeADeR
Hawke’s Bay is part of the beating heart of heartland New Zealand, but like many other regions it suffers from neglect and its people being taken for granted. Like many regions it is creating first class export wealth, but getting second class treatment from a Government with an outdated ideology and an obsession with a ‘rogue state’ called Auckland. Amongst the enterprises Hawke’s Bay is recognised for internationally are its horticulture, wine, and sheep and cattle farming. The climate in the province is dry and temperate and creates excellent conditions for growing grapes that create
cage called the Beehive and shocked some parrots off their perches. It’s a strong first step towards regions holding governments to account and demanding a fair go, to take back your future. Our House of Representatives is supposed to represent all New Zealanders, but that simply does not happen now. Parliament is becoming like some corporate body that exists for itself with little connection to the people outside who exist in the ‘real’ New Zealand.
“The territorial struggle in the region should be placed behind a combined commitment by leaders to promote and protect the future of this jewel in New Zealand’s regional crown.” some of the best wines in the world. Tourism, unique cultural traditions, a picturesque landscape, fishing and untapped resources offer more avenues of economic activity. The question we then have to ask is why this region, like many others, has hit bottom-level socio-economic status? Where is the plan? Where are the ideas that produce jobs and prosperity? How are you being empowered (or at least not hindered) in creating a deserved future for the region? Northland voters recently rattled the
One of the biggest falsehoods being spread internationally is that New Zealand is some sort of ‘economic rock star’! The truth is the economy is resting uneasily between a booming immigration and housing market in Auckland and the necessary Christchurch earthquake rebuild. Under National, Auckland has turned into what seems like a separate country that is detaching from the rest of the economy. The Reserve Bank is running a monetary policy to manage Auckland,
not New Zealand. The distortions caused by addressing Auckland problems means the whole country suffers, and export provinces in particular, through rising interest rates and an alarmingly overvalued dollar pushed up by currency speculators. This obsession with Auckland threatens the future of many regional communities. New Zealand is being steadily assetstripped with a steady decline of services across a wide range of government departments. Throughout the rest of the country, health facilities, police stations, courthouses and other community connections are being shut down. The lack of an effective regional policy also means that cities such as Napier and Hastings do not get their fair share of infrastructure investment. It means fewer well-maintained state highways and the loss of a functioning railways system. Confused and centralised policymaking and huge spending blunders by KiwiRail on the Cook Strait ferries have damaged the whole rail system. And the Napier-WairoaGisborne line has been a casualty of these mistakes. This is unacceptable. The roads are not capable of carrying big increases in the number of heavy truck and trailer units. It will be more expensive in the long run than restoring the rail links. ConTinued on p82
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winston peters Cont...
peter dunne Cont... Indeed, the Board of Inquiry that was established and other related approval procedures were designed in such a way to facilitate the outcome Wellington had already decided would suit the national interest, regardless of the regional impact. The same type of thinking afflicts much of our transport planning as well. Regional concerns and interests run a distant second when it comes to planning our national transport infrastructure. The Napier-to-Gisborne rail line is a classic in this regard. Its future is determined by how it fits into Kiwirail’s national model, not the contribution it could make to regional development. Recently, I argued the cancellation of Air New Zealand’s Taupō to Wellington flights with a senior executive of the company. He dismissed me, saying that Rotorua was only an hour away from Taupō, and that many people living on Auckland’s North Shore were further away than that from Auckland Airport! A point completely and arrogantly missed. The fallacy in our thinking about regional development is the dangerous assumption that one size fits all, the capital knows best, and New Zealand – longer than the length of Europe – is all the same from its north to south. That is clearly not so. Yes, we abolished provincial government in favour of a unitary national system nearly 140 years ago, but that did not mean we abolished the distinct identity of our regions. Noone would seriously suggest that Auckland is the same as Otago, Canterbury is no different from the Bay of Plenty, or Hawke’s Bay has just the same issues as the West Coast. Yet the ‘one size fits all’ approach clearly implies that, which is utterly absurd.
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What’s each region best at? The key to developing effective regional development policies is enabling regions to focus on what they are best at, not at all inconsistent with the overall national interest. So, if Hawke’s Bay wishes to market itself internationally as the home of GE free produce, let it do so, as the benefit that will accrue to it as a consequence of export markets and opportunities will also accrue to New Zealand as a whole. If Hawke’s Bay does not want the Ruataniwha Dam, let it have the power to stop the project in favour of something more regionally and environmentally sustainable. In turn, building viable regions through strong regional development policies is the way to counter the dominant growth of a region like Auckland, because the necessary infrastructure they create leads to long-term jobs, stable populations, better communities and stronger families. But – and there are a couple of major ‘buts’ – regional development also requires regional organisations that are coherent and share a common vision, all of which places pressure on local and regional government and its organisation. If regions cannot articulate a focused regional vision and set of aspirations, we will simply end up with more of the same. Wellington will continue to do what Wellington has always done, and the divide between the major cities and the regions will grow ever wider. Hawke’s Bay, with its population, the fertile Heretaunga plains, good infrastructure, and long reputation as the ‘fruit bowl of New Zealand’ is well placed to play a leading role in redefining regional development in New Zealand. A coherent regional vision, and a central government prepared to back it will set the scene to let that happen.
New Zealand First has a strong commitment to regional development and our view is that the country is more prosperous when the regions are thriving. Local outcomes are nearly always the best. Too many decisions are made in an office at central government level. A blanket policy that might be good for Southland might not fit in Hawke’s Bay. The present viewpoint that ‘one size fits all’ really means that one size fits no one. Our economic policy is that all New Zealanders should share in a wellbalanced and thriving economy and that no region should be left behind. For example we have a long standing ‘Royalties for the Regions policy’, that will help the development of regional communities and economies. Under this policy, no less than 25% of the royalties paid on extraction of minerals or other resources – whether it be coal, limestone, lignite, gold or others – will be placed in a fund for use in regional development in the region of extraction. With this policy, hundreds of millions of dollars that now go straight into central government coffers will stay in the regions to fund local infrastructure and build stronger communities. We also want to get some breathing space in Auckland so it fits in with an overall economic plan that benefits all New Zealanders. That means drastically cutting immigration numbers to sensible levels and curbing the huge speculation in houses from within and outside New Zealand. Our immigration policy puts the priority on the skills New Zealand needs – not on just having record numbers of people arrive to prop up consumption. The issue of foreign ownership of our resources must also be tackled head on. We will put the brakes on foreign ownership by imposing strict controls over foreign ownership in the areas of land, housing and strategic business assets. That will require that we start collecting comprehensive information on foreign ownership of land and houses for the first time in New Zealand. National has deliberately avoided collecting information on foreign ownership. That is totally irresponsible and must end. No country has ever prospered by being exploited by foreign ownership and control. The profits pouring out of New Zealand are desperately needed here for new investment and development.
“ ... no less than 25% of the royalties paid on extraction of minerals or other resources ... will be placed in a fund for use in regional development in the region of extraction. Too many decisions are made by that toothless poodle called the Overseas Investment Commission. It must be replaced with a new and powerful agency with real power to stop the sell-off. Only purchases with proven benefits to New Zealand in terms of jobs and real new investment will be allowed. This can only benefit the regions. One of the aspects the new agency will consider, that is not covered by the OIO, is tax. Currently foreign investors have access to tax advantages that do not apply to residents. This tax advantage is another way foreign owners are fleecing Kiwis. A report published late last year made disturbing reading. Although Hawke’s Bay
had the second highest rate of innovative business growth of all 17 regions, the economic, social, health, unemployment and crime statistics had been sliding for ten years. On a more positive note, people are happy to be living in the area. Something else needs to happen to help Hawke’s Bay make better progress to use its resources and help its people. There is a song with the line “united we stand, divided we
fall” and it could be that some community leaders might start thinking about the people they represent rather than their territorial ambitions. They could also try to put petty differences aside and present some common principles for progress to the government. Changes to local government structures are being imposed from above and what a wonderful diversion this is creating in Hawke’s Bay.
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Page 83 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BuZZ
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GUT INSTINCT STILL RULES BY paul paynter
I’ll be frank about it – you’re not quite right in the head. Seeing as we probably haven’t met, you might think I’m a bit presumptuous, so let’s put you to the test. Have you ever suffered a mental illness? Do you have a phobia? What about an anxiety disorder? Or have you ever made a mind-bogglingly stupid decision? Any inkling of a ‘yes’ and I warmly welcome you to the glorious dysfunction that is humanity. You’d be surprised how many wonderful people have just ticked ‘all of the above’. The driver for many of these ‘failings’ is subconscious and automatic – a powerful internal force. It’s us, but we can’t control it very well. As individuals we’re frail, flawed and more irrational than we’d care to admit. One strategy to mitigate our individual failings is to act collectively. As a collective, surely our failings balance out and we make better calls. We embrace democracy on this basis. But look at the nutters, dullards and tyrants that we tend to elect or tolerate – Stalin, Mao, a couple of Bush’s, Franco, Mussolini, al-Bashir, Al-Assad, Saddam Hussein, Mugabe, Idi Amin, Gaddafi … and don’t get me started on South America. Most baffling of all were the disciplined, rational, unemotional Germans who, under an MMP-type system, democratically elected Hitler and for a decade thought him a first-rate leader. Sometimes the collective approach just magnifies the scale of our irrationality. And yet we forget the lessons of history and think
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it will be different this time around. We like to think we live in an enlightened age of science and reason, but there is increasing evidence that we’re kidding ourselves.
‘System 1’ acts first Recent MIT studies seem to show that the primitive part of the brain, the basal ganglia, seems to have a more powerful role in decision-making than we’d previously thought. That is, we’ve been working on the basis that we aren’t Neanderthals anymore, but it turns out we are. The New Scientist magazine (4 April 2015) suggests “intuition, biases and gut instinct” are still our primary drivers. We develop ‘belief systems’ that provide us with an immediate position on something, without actually having to think about it. Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman labels this automatic, intuitive process ‘System 1’, and it’s something we’re often not conscious of. When Ports of Auckland announced they were seeking to reclaim some of the harbour to build a couple of gigantic new piers, the first we (including the mayor of Auckland,) heard of it, was on the national news. I bet, like me, you immediately had an opinion on whether it was a good idea or not. This opinion wasn’t based on reading the business case, the environmental impacts
report or the financial forecasts – it was based on gut feel. Kahneman’s System 1 is ruling the roost. From here we can find plenty of evidence to reinforce our impetuous opinion. Nassim Taleb, Distinguished Professor at NYU, has written extensively on this phenomenon. He calls it ‘confirmation bias’; how we look for ‘comfortable’ evidence to corroborate our existing beliefs. When confronted with opinions that we agree with, our brains register barely a flicker of activity. But when we’re confronted with a contrary view our brain activity goes crazy. I’m sure you’ve felt this phenomenon. Mostly we don’t like to confront the alternative view because, to us – it’s wrong. The confirmation bias is even more disturbing in that if you hold the orthodox opinion or the prevailing societal view, you’ll find a constant supply of supportive ‘evidence’ to reinforce your System 1 perspective. So it’s a world where we’re inclined to make hasty decisions and then look for evidence to justify them. Our region has a number of vexing issues on the table right now. Local body amalgamation and the Ruataniwha Dam are at the forefront, but there’s also lots of chatter about exporting our water to China, GE Free Hawke’s Bay, fluoride, fracking and global warming. How do ‘normal’ citizens develop a sensible position on these things?
Enter ‘System 2’ The solution is ‘System 2’ thinking – that is the rational consideration that occurs in our conscious minds. The problem, however, is that System 2 is slow and cerebrally taxing. It turns out the lame-sounding – ‘I don’t
have time to think about it’ – excuse, is right on the money. Apparently System 2 is a recent evolutionary development and we have an extremely limited capacity. There has been some excellent debate on the Ruataniwha Dam with mostly rational, well-constructed arguments on both sides. Sadly, given how our brains work, I’d wager very few people have changed their minds. To do so people would have to achieve ‘unbelief ’ and this isn’t so easy. First you need belief, probably based on System 1, then a great deal of System 2 rational turmoil that leads to converting you to the opposite belief. This ‘road to Damascus’ experience is possible, but not so common. Most people are not as open to the contrary view as they’d like to think. Even if you do have time for some System 2 thinking on, say, an important regional issue, the scientists and economists that should assist your thinking, often don’t agree. That’s hardly surprising as these professions are based on belief too. You won’t study science or become a research scientist unless you believe it’s very important. Science needs belief every bit as much as religion needs it. You can see many instances where the same data leads scientists to different conclusions, and their beliefs are quite possibly to blame. Belief is a filter through which hard data can become distorted. Politicians also work on the assumption
that 95% of citizens won’t bother with System 2 thinking. All you need politically is for System 1 to say ‘sounds like a great idea’ and you’re away. If you assume the public will mostly just employ the intuitive System 1, then detailed transparency and disclosure don’t warrant so much effort. People of higher status, like politicians, have one additional flaw which amplifies their errors – overconfidence. They tend to overestimate their knowledge and underestimate the risks. This can lead them to thinking councils can profitably run tourist attractions, for instance. The evidence indicates they cannot. Napier councillors’ foray into art deco buses was a prime example of their failure to override their System 1 brains. It’s now difficult to believe that councillors believed this venture could be successful. Similarly Splash Planet has never made a profit and probably never will; at least while the Hastings District Council run it. They do show signs of having worked this out and they’ve made at least one exceptional call. The Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park, while HDC ran it, consistently made a loss that burdened ratepayers. Now it’s leased to a private sector operator and generates income for ratepayers. The good news is that System 2 appears to be able to program System 1. So if you’ve been, say, an environmentalist for
Brett Monteith
20 years, your System 1 brain will in most cases, instinctively reach conclusions a typical environmentalist will agree with. So we needn’t allow our brains to terrorise us, believing System 1 is an autonomous, omnipotent force. We can control it to some degree. The secret to programming your System 1 ‘beast’ lies in self-awareness. We need to be mindfully aware of our entrenched beliefs and catch our System 1 brain at the very moment it cries out its conclusion. So next time you feel this moment; lurching towards an opinion that’s based on little information … tug the reigns. ‘Hang on a minute. I’m going to think about this. I’m not sure you’re right.’ This shouldn’t be all that difficult, because it’s the very process we worked on as children; suppressing our natural reactions in preference for something out of the prefrontal cortex. We may never be able to control our primitive brains, but hopefully, with effort, we can become more rational and open-minded about critical issues. Basically, what the psychologists tell us we need to work hard at is: believing our beliefs less strongly.
Paul Paynter is our resident iconoclast and cider maker. Sometimes he grows stuff at Yummyfruit.
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Page 85 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • Bay BuZZ
Megatrends & InvestMent OppOrtunItIes BY SAM HOWARD
Forecasting long-run economic trends is hard. The future is uncertain and we rely on our past experience to make predictions. Thematic investing attempts to identify future secular trends that will drive economic growth and asset returns. ‘Megatrend’ is the term we use for economic, environmental and political transformations which have long-lasting significance to society. While many of these transformations are initially man-made or a result of technological progress, they are themselves powerful forces of innovation and competition. To identify these trends we need to assess the behaviour of producers and consumers when faced with changes in technology, income and relative prices. The thematic investment strategy acknowledges a more holistic approach, which recognises that the effects of such trends can work in opposite directions across industries and countries. For example, the rise of a disruptive trend such as e-commerce has benefitted consumers, but had a negative effect on traditional retailers who lack an online presence.
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The economic impact of megatrends can take years to reach its full effect. When a technology is invented, it does not enter the market for a few years. Although the pace of diffusion has become faster due to globalisation, it can still take years before the technology becomes commercial. Sometimes relative prices need to move in the right way for the pace of adoption to achieve full potential. Remember $5,000 cell phones? So, what are some megatrends that are important on a global scale, but with special relevance to Hawke’s Bay? Demographic developments will be one of the key drivers of economic trends in the coming decade. While the pace of population growth will decline, the global population will expand rapidly in some regions, and by 2025 some 900 million more people will probably live on the planet. The bulk of the increase
is expected to come from Africa, the Middle East and Emerging Asia. Food security is a global issue. The problem is all too obvious: the global population rose by 120% between 19612011, but according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation arable land only grew by 9%. As a result, the number of people supported per hectare of farmed land rose from 2.4 to 4.9. By 2050, global agriculture production will need to have risen by an additional 70% from today’s levels to meet growth in food demand resulting from an increased population, rising incomes, and a shift in preferences to protein-rich diets. Yet, the supply of arable land is restricted due to urbanisation, soil degradation, and competing land usage. Water is fast becoming an important strategic resource and a possible source of instability. The distribution of freshwater supply is skewed, with about 1.2 billion people globally now facing some level of water stress. According to the UN, sources are expected to drop by 20% by 2030 because of demand pressures and climate change. It is suggested that climate change will likely have different effects on water resources and
US organic food market was $35 billion in 2013.
“Water is fast becoming an important strategic resource and a possible source of instability. The distribution of freshwater supply is skewed, with about 1.2 billion people globally now facing some level of water stress.”
quality across regions, by putting subtropical regions under greater stress, increasing the frequency of drought in dry regions, but also increasing resources in high latitudes. And from a water quality perspective, increased human activity, chemical runoffs and inadequate wastewater treatment are contaminating aquifers and surface water, which will exert greater pressure on resources. In much of the emerging world, in the absence of proper irrigation facilities, erratic rainfall leads to high variability in
farm output. Trends in lifestyle are changing with more people aware of taking precautions for the future. Efforts are being targeted at maintaining wellbeing throughout the process of ageing. Although advances in medicine will likely extend longevity, consumers have become more aware of non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and heart problems. Exercise, wellness and a healthy diet are now widely considered effective in preventing these diseases from occurring. The growth in demand for organic food has been remarkable. In the United States, which accounts for about half of the world’s organic food market, retail sales in 2013 were valued at US $35 billion, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The industry now encompasses over 18,000 certified organic farms representing a 245% increase since 2002. In addition, organic is neither a select phenomenon, nor is it a niche reserved to the privileged, according to a survey by the Hartman Group. While there is debate over whether organic food is indeed healthier than its alternative, consumer preferences have clearly shifted in favour of it. A similar argument can be made for food products where production is based on principles of fairness and sustainability. These megatrends should be good news for Hawke’s Bay. As a region our economic wellbeing is largely determined by the success of our food producers. There is
little argument that we are world-class at producing high quality food. Our natural resources, combined with a history of research and innovation and the clean green NZ story, have put our province in a strong position for future growth. So what are the risks and how does a small investor gain exposure to these megatrends? When considering your options, it’s important to draw a line between the trend and the investment opportunities available to you. Too often investors identify the trend correctly, but choose the wrong investment vehicle to express it. Investing during the early stage of a theme carries significant risk because of limited investment opportunities and the hype that is created. The best thematic opportunities are frequently outside of investable companies. Here in Hawke’s Bay, businesses such as Bostock Organics, Firstlight Foods, Te Mata Mushrooms, Rockit Apples, Arataki Honey and many others are seizing the opportunity, but they are not open to general public investment. There are, however, businesses which operate in the primary sector and are publicly traded on the sharemarket. They include Scales Corp, Fonterra Shareholder Fund, Synlait Milk, Rural Equities and PGG Wrightson. Megatrends aside, investors need to carefully analyse any business they intend to invest in. It is important to know that the business is in a strong enough position to take advantage of the external factors that will have such a pronounced influence on their markets. This is especially true when investing in the primary sector, where investors should take a long term view and be ready for the volatility that comes with fluctuations in currency, weather, competition, disease, tastes and so on. It’s a long game.
Sam Howard is an authorised financial advisor at First NZ Capital Securities Ltd. A copy of FNZC’s Disclosure Statement is available on request.
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Off With his head BY DAVID TRUBRIDGE
Photos by David Trubridge
Melbourne. I leave the Yarra river – and all further reference to the tangata whenua – and walk south through Alexandra Gardens, Victoria Park and King Domain. High above me on stone plinths King Edward VII and the Marquis of Linlithgow (the first governor of Victoria) strut on their horses. An imposing avenue of trees rises up to a gargantuan stone pyramid supported by Greek columns. On each corner a midget Roman centurion leads a chariot – or is it a steam train? – on which stands a goddess: Patriotism, Peace and Goodwill, Justice, and Sacrifice. It is a garbled mass of imagery: Classical Greece is juxtaposed with ancient Egypt, or is it the Aztecs, whose pyramids were used for bloody sacrifices. High atop a cenotaph lumpy Barlach-like figures are compressed under a bier in memory of the RAN and their sea battles. A text in Roman script covers one side of the building: “Let all men know that this is holy ground. This shrine is established in the hearts of men as on the solid earth. It commemorates a people’s fortitude and sacrifice. Ye therefore that come after give remembrance.” I chose to come through here because
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it was green on the map – so that I could walk on soft grass not concrete, and beneath trees, not walls of glass and steel. I find it deeply offensive that here of all places – in this semi-remnant of nature – I should be confronted with all this guff. Isn’t it time that we moved on and faced up to the realities of the 21st century? Over a hundred years ago Oscar Wilde described patriotism as the last refuge of scoundrels, as so amply demonstrated by Bush and his mates. Have we learnt nothing? Would today’s young ever give up their cell phones, put on uniform and go to fight in a filthy war
of politicians on the other side of the world? But the real issue is: what is this place called Australia or New Zealand now? What is our place in the world? At the core of that issue is LAND. These stone remnants of colonialism are filled with British hubris. The goddesses honoured are historical, not the greatest goddess of all, Mother Earth. Britain transplanted its culture everywhere round the globe, doggedly intact and indifferent to its surroundings. Local flora and fauna were brushed aside and British replacements installed. Likewise the irksome natives and all their knowledge of the land. Striding aloft on his horse in his imperial uniform the marquis issued his orders from London. How different from the first arrival, Captain Cook, with his instructions from the Admiralty to respect the natives – a result of the romantic French thinkers of the 18th century. Since then Britain had come to see itself as the pinnacle of human achievement and all others as inferior. Yet these ‘natives’ had evolved to live in a highly attuned balance with their environment, which had survived intact for about 50,000 years, longer than just
about every other race on Earth. No chance of exploitative British culture doing that! Rather than seeing this and learning from it, the British chose to pretend that the Aborigines did not exist as humans, doing their best to destroy them. And Abbott’s government is continuing this genocide today with the backing of the majority of Australians. What do the Aborigines think of ‘peace’, ‘goodwill’ or ‘justice’? Though I am sure they understand ‘sacrifice’! Now in the 21st century we see colonialism for what it is: based on the capitalist exploitative model which today is proving a failure. It demands endless growth which is impossible in a world of finite resources. We are destroying our rivers and our soils (not to mention Nauru for its phosphates) for even more dairy herds. Australia’s fragile land is being stripped bare into a dust bowl by extractive British-style farming. So the monuments in the parks are symbols of failure, of the same excessive hubris that destroyed so many past civilisations. The statues spread their malign gaze in the green parks, just where we should be seeking clues to a better future in nature. From about 10,000 years ago, when humans first started agriculture – when we corralled animals into pens and plants into fields – we set ourselves on a collision course with nature, and ultimately with ourselves. Some peoples, like the Aborigines, continued to live in balance to this day as hunter-gatherers. These nomads were much healthier than the early farmers who contracted many diseases from animals, exacerbated by crowded living. In them, as in nature, lie clues to a better future for us, if only we are prepared to look and listen. Yet in our concrete wastelands, deafened by noise, choking on smog and blinded by technology,
we suffer from ‘nature deficit disorder’. When dictatorships are deposed one of the first actions is to tear down their statues and monuments, and of course their flags. Rather more respectfully, we should do the same to all the Edwards and Linlithgows, and to our outdated ensign of empire, maybe consigning them to museums.
nature gardens. The neat rows of cultivated British flowers, kept alive by copious watering, should be replaced by indigenous plants that grow naturally. Here we can find and understand our place on Earth and our place in nature. Here in the heart of our cities we can honour this land, we can feel and connect with it.
“So the monuments in the parks are symbols of failure, of the same excessive hubris that destroyed so many past civilisations. The statues spread their malign gaze in the green parks, just where we should be seeking clues to a better future in nature.” And really we should do the same to the war memorials, not because we dishonour the dead, but because these monuments honour the wrong things and are offensive to the local subjugated races. Instead we should turn our parks into
And maybe here we can start to build our own nation, based, not on outdated and failed exploitative models, but on the land and on peoples who respect nature by living in balance with it. Unless we do all that, our civilisation is in for a rough ride.
The Ultimate Orchard and Vineyard Choice
For Further Information Contact: www.ecrl.co.nz | Tel: +64 6 876 9835 400 Ellison Road, Hastings 4122
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Sponsoring insight into smart farming in Hawke’s Bay Phyllis Tichinin (left) and Angela Hair, concerned about chemical risk
Photograph Sarah Cates
Roundup … FRiend oR Foe? BY PhYllis Tichinin & AnGElA hAiR
Roundup, the farmer’s and backyard gardener’s harmless friend … or not? The most ubiquitous of weed killers, most likely there’s some in your garage or shed right now. Over the past forty years users and consumers have been told it is harmless; it breaks down in the soil quickly; it’s as safe as salt; and weed resistance is not an issue. Well, that’s what Monsanto claimed about its glyphosate-based herbicide. Research from around the world is now contradicting that complacency. The World Health Organisation has warned glyphosate is a probable carcinogen and warns New Zealand producers to keep glyphosate residues out of food.
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Roundup™ was the first glyphosate based herbicide on the market in 1974. Since Roundup™ went off patent there are hundreds of similar spray formulations, which make it the most widely used herbicide/pesticide on the planet. Glyphosate is used extensively in Hawke’s Bay to dry off grain crops and kill pastures before they are sown with crops like tomatoes, squash or onions. It is used to spray between the vines in vineyards, by councils to control the roadsides, and people happily spray it on the driveway wearing only jandals. How wise is this? Have we been naïve about the safety of this ubiquitous spray? At the recent Food Matters lectures in Havelock North, two world-leading experts discussed what they are seeing in the field and in the human genetics lab regarding glyphosate herbicide use. Dr Don Huber is an Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology from Purdue University in the USA. He is also a Defense Department expert in biosecurity threats. In his talk he highlighted that it takes about 10 to 20 years for half of the glyphosate
to breakdown in the soil. He documented dozens of examples of severe plant and animal mineral deficiencies caused by glyphosate use. He is particularly concerned about the failure of seed crops, infertility in animals and birth defects in humans ranging from autism to anencephaly, where the baby is born without a brain. Dr Gilles-Eric Seralini of the CRIIGEN bio-molecular lab in Caen, France, discussed his 2012 experiment with rats. Some were fed glyphosate-sprayed food; others were fed non-GMO and non-glyphosate food. This study was unusual because it was not funded by Monsanto who makes Roundup™ and because it looked at all indicators of rat health over the life of the rats. The rats were researched for two years rather than the usual three month study. What they found was that rats fed glyphosate-sprayed food died earlier, had kidney and liver damage, and developed massive breast and testicular tumours. The pressure from Monsanto and the biotech industry to retract the journal article was immediate and intense. In an unprecedented move, the editor was fired
and the article was retracted. Seralini’s research was again evaluated and cleared by an independent panel of world experts in this type of experiment and stands as valid. These serious health effects are being confirmed by numerous studies overseas. In mid-March, the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm, IARC, officially pronounced glyphosate a “probable carcinogen”. Dr Gloria Swanson of Seattle Washington has created a series of graphs charting the correlation between glyphosate use in the USA and the official incidence rates of 32 major degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, autism and infertility. There is a strong correlation for every disorder. The correlation for autism is the strongest. But we’re here in clean, green healthy NZ, right? So, why should we care about this? In Auckland both glyphosate and its derivative AMPA have been found in marine sediment in the Waitemata Harbour and Hauraki Gulf. This is believed to have come largely from the spraying of urban roadside weeds. Glyphosate residues are found in animal foods that contain genetically modified grains that are heavily sprayed with glyphosates and these residues filter through into human food. Glyphosates have been found in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, indicating absorption, and one study has found increased chromosomal damage to residents after glyphosates are sprayed. Our premium markets are quickly becoming savvy about the impacts that glyphosate residues have on their health and fertility and they would prefer not to have it in their food. Very low concentrations of glyphosate have been shown to disrupt hormones in humans, which is the first step towards development
of cancer. The levels of glyphosate in food are much higher than that. Our markets will increasingly be willing to pay premiums for organic or low-glyphosate residue food. Making matters worse, the actual active glyphosate in the herbicide may only be part of the problem. The surfactant or ‘sticker’ used to keep the spray on the plant is a particularly nasty chemical. It is truly toxic, but USA EPA regulations don’t require those sorts of ‘inert ingredients’ to be safetyevaluated in the pesticide application and most governments around the world have followed suit. Because of our higher rainfall conditions, NZ formulations have more of this toxin than most other countries and
“I consider glyphosate to be the most serious threat to human health introduced in the 20th century.” here it can be as high as 15% to 17% of the total volume of some glyphosate sprays. Moreover, glyphosate use has farming disadvantages. Glyphosate used on fields, even several years previous, has been shown to substantially reduce the minerals available to plants and make them more susceptible to pests and fungal diseases. So, more costly sprays are needed to get the crop to maturity with less profit to farmer. Dr Huber said in his Havelock North lecture: “I consider glyphosate to be the most serious threat to human health introduced in the 20th century.” When asked for the best alternative when an herbicide really is needed, he replied, “Paraquat! … Well, it breaks down quickly in the soil and it is so toxic that people treat
it with respect and protect themselves,” he said to the shocked audience. So how can we get ourselves out of this situation and move toward better market returns and better health? It will probably help to remember what we were doing in agriculture before 1974 and the introduction of Roundup™. We disked in pastures and waited a bit longer for the grass residues to breakdown before planting. We could do that again, as well as plant diverse, flowering cover crops between the vines and mow or disk them periodically. We could use gas cylinder flame weeders on our pathways and use lawn clippings for mulch around the base of shrubs or trees. There are remediation approaches to help de-activate and eventually decompose glyphosate residues in the soil. Coincidentally enough, they involve pretty much the same things as biological agriculture programmes: get your calcium and magnesium levels up; add manganese, copper and zinc through foliar spray nutrition. And do whatever it takes to lift humus formation and microbe diversity in your soil, because it’s the soil microbes that ultimately detoxify glyphosate and produce the flavourful, spray-free, nutrient-dense food we all want. If we’re serious about being an international food bowl of the highest quality and about food tourism, we need to look seriously at what we can do to reduce glyphosate use. “That’s not particularly convenient,” you might say. But consider the alternatives. Cancer isn’t convenient either. Not being able to conceive is devastating. Having an autistic child or looking after a parent with Alzheimer’s is heartbreaking. No one wants that for themselves. And our overseas food markets certainly don’t.
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Free lunches won’t cut it BY ANNA LORCK
Photograph Sarah Cates
There is no such thing as a free lunch. And for every child who gets one at school, we know the price they are paying at home is likely to be far greater than the cost of a sandwich. When kids are turning up to school hungry, one can only imagine what they are trying to cope with at home and what their
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parents are trying to deal with, or not. Feeding your child is a parent’s responsibility – there is no ‘should be’ about it. No one can argue with this, but when parents don’t provide, for whatever reason, whose job is it? What do you do when children come to school hungry and yet they are there to work hard and learn so they can gain their educa-
tion? In this land of milk and honey and child poverty … you feed them. That’s what schools do, and that’s what they will keep doing. I don’t believe there is a school in the country that’s letting children go hungry. The kids know it, the parents know it, the teachers know it, and the government knows it.
Child poverty is reality for thousands of Kiwi kids. It doesn’t matter what side of the political fence you sit on, no one can ignore it – we all pay for child poverty. One in four New Zealand children, that’s 260,000, live in poverty, going without the basics most of us take for granted. A survey in Northland showed 22% of students turning up with no or little lunch. Given our region’s demographics compared to Northland, we’d be similar. I’ve talked to enough teachers to know it’s happening here, and not just in low-decile schools. Charity Kidscan is a conduit for individuals, community, business and Government to work together providing food, clothing and basic healthcare in schools, to enable disadvantaged Kiwi children to reach their potential. It supports thousands of disadvantaged children a day, in 500 low-decile schools nationwide. Anyone can help. It costs just $15 a month to provide a child with the basics for a year and 100% of your contribution goes to the kids. You know, it used to be about seeing adverts on television to save children in Africa, now it’s about saving children in our own backyard. It’s obvious that regardless of who is responsible – the problem won’t fix itself. But feeding kids in schools, which is absolutely the right thing to do, is not the answer to child poverty.
It’s about the parents The only way out is long-term work for parents – yet the days of getting a secure job for a guaranteed 40 hours a week, from the same employer are numbered. Long-term unemployment has for some people become their life and we have generational welfare dependency where families, with a range of different circumstances, spend their entire lives on benefits. In our fast-paced changing world where technology is everything, the job market is changing in front of us, but we are slow to react and recognise change. That’s our nature. It’s not uncommon to find people are now working two or even three part-time, casual or permanent, jobs to make up their income. This will increase dramatically. I’m not stuck in my ways. I think we should embrace the future of how we work not resist it. No longer having the same job, day after day, doesn’t have to be a bad thing. As we move with the times, it will open us up to more variety and the ability for people to use and learn different skills and gain far more experience. Over time, it means more job opportunities, not less, if we are prepared to roll with it. The more we accept, adapt and adjust to change, by embracing and taking up the challenges for new and different working options, the better-off we will all be – and the possibilities are endless – if the working week is a thing of the past, why not kick it for touch? We will even see some of the existing balance of control between employer and employee moving … and that certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. We are experiencing a revolution in work. This is not going to evolve over decades because technology is leading the way and it’s moving so fast. We have no choice but to keep up. However, the state welfare system is our Achilles heal. It is broken and holding back those who desperately need to be in a position to get the work as and when it comes. The present system actually disincentivises people from working, and if you know the system you can ‘work it’. When people crunch the numbers and find out they are only marginally better off working, or even worse off, than staying on a benefit, what type of message is that sending? Government welfare is meant to help those in need, so that they can have the tools and support needed to progress in life. But it’s not working. If it were, there would not be increasing numbers of children turning up to school hungry. I’ve never met a child who doesn’t want to learn, they are hungry for it. But to invest in them so we don’t waste their education opportunity, we need to start with their parents getting better working incomes. We must take a paradigm shift in the way we look at work and welfare. Free lunches for our future generation won’t cut it.
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Page 93 • Issue 23 • May / Jun 2015 • BAY BUZZ
Take the Blinkers Off Horse of the Year BY DAMON HARVEY
tim.co.nz
It was great to get a lot of feedback from BayBuzz readers about the controversy that has surrounded Horse of the Year (HOY). Just to note … my comments in the last BayBuzz were made prior to the latest and most successful edition of the event – the last event to be managed by EventPro and the Hansen family. This year’s Horse of the Year was incredible. Although some of the financials won’t be settled yet, the event was forecast to make a considerable profit. Stallholder numbers were up, as was their revenue; entrants/competitors were also on par if not better than previous events; and gate sales were well above average. In fact I heard that 2014 gates sales were surpassed this year on Saturday, a day ahead.
of the paddock and back into the arena. I also spoke with a couple of the local event managers bidding for the event. They spoke confidently about their prospects. They, like many, hoped that the controlling trust would look favourably at the event being managed by locals rather than outsiders. But speaking from experience, I regularly see our region’s decision makers getting sucked in by those that flaunt their national and international success. Therefore I doubt a local event manager will be successful. To be clear, my concern with an outof-town event manager is not about their capability but more about how they would embrace the local community, especially the volunteer network and supplier businesses.
“I was at a lunch prior to the final event at HOY and I spoke with some stallholders, who, like us, hoped that someone would step in, sort it out and get the Hansens out of the paddock and back into the arena.” So what’s the next development in the ongoing saga of Horse of the Year? With all of the success, I was actually hoping for some ‘making up’ to occur between the owners and the event managers. Perhaps someone would offer an olive branch. However, the questions I posed previously still remain unanswered. And in fact, the board and owners of the event have been wearing a muzzle … or blinkers! I hoped that someone would mediate and sort out what has become a very public mess. I was at a lunch prior to the final event at HOY and I spoke with some stallholders, who, like us, hoped that someone would step in, sort it out and get the Hansens out
Will they be able to build an army of volunteers – an asset that the event heavily relies on? Will they understand the needs of all the local stakeholders? And will they show preference and loyalty to local suppliers? This event currently has an economic benefit to the region of over $12 million, and some of this is due to the fact the Hansens gave priority to using local suppliers. Lastly – what is the next event manager’s passion for making the event a success? Will they jump ship or ask for more money when the going gets tough and their time sheets show they have spent more time than what was budgeted? I also wonder what their actual loyalty might be to the region. If the event is at risk
of moving elsewhere, such as Auckland, will they do everything to keep it here? The trust now also has its report from Sport New Zealand. This independent review of the event, its structure and overall performance would by now have been digested by the board. Will this report now be a public document, or will we get a sanitised version? As ratepayers, we are stakeholders in the event. We deserve to know what has gone on and what improvements have been recommended. It may also shed some light on where things have gone wrong and clear up much of the innuendo regarding who hasn’t performed. I’ve just been to the Sport New Zealand conference. The theme was “Walking in your Customers’ Shoes”. We were told many times that we need to create events and experiences that are what our customer wants, not what we think they want. For example, we heard from the marketing guru behind the highly successful Big Bash 20/20 Cricket in Australia. This is a cricket league that has targeted families and brought in new, exciting technologies to keep the fans entertained and engaged. At some stage, an event like HOY will need to evolve and develop new ways of engaging with its customers. All events eventually hit a flat line or experience less growth than previous years. HOY for 17 years has been growing, and it will take some innovative thinking to ensure that its customers continue to return. Hastings ratepayers are investors in HOY, so please give them the courtesy of being transparent in the decisions that have been made. Horse of the Year is too great an event to go backwards.
Call 0800 SPEEDY today! hastings@speedysigns.co.nz 903 Heretaunga Street West, Hastings www.speedysigns.co.nz
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Beating the Breastplate BY Brendan weBB The sweat-soaked messenger gasped for breath as he raced up the stone steps to Lawrencus Yulus’ fortress in Hustings. Clutching a roll of parchment, he ran down the dark corridor and pounded on the doors of the ruler’s chamber. Lawrencus, wearing only a satin loincloth and a heavy gold chain, grabbed his toga as the doors burst open. Kneeling behind him was a small bald man. “How dare you burst in on us like this!” roared Lawrencus. “Pleatus the tailor is giving me a private fitting in preparation for the Battle of Amalgamatus. Now he’s lost his thread.” The messenger dropped the scroll and fled. “Great Caesar!” said Lawrencus, picking it up. “It says here that Scrutinus the auditor has discovered Napierion’s sewers, aqueducts and streets haven’t been updated since the quake of AD31.” He studied the scroll and suddenly
citizens discharge their waste into the sea it’s so pure you could bottle it. In fact a group of investors has approached me to do just that. “So if Scrutinus or anybody else wants to start sniffing around my outfall, they’d be very welcome,” said Lawrencus. “Perhaps you could hold an open day,” murmured Pleatus. “You know Lawrencus, I sometimes wonder where we would be today without all of your borrowing,” he said after a few minutes. “We wouldn’t have spent millions on an unsafe Operus House or a Stadium Heretuscany. We wouldn’t be able to employ all those highly qualified scribes in your headquarters; we’d have no district scheme, no town planners or building inspectors, no dog-control officers or parking wardens. But thanks to you, Hustings has them all.” Lawrencus stared down at the man’s shiny head. He had the uneasy feeling the fellow was mocking him.
“So when the great amalgamation battle begins, the gods will look down on Heretuscany and see a peacock fighting an ostrich, a bunch of turkeys standing on the sideline and two headless chooks dancing in the distance.” understood how he’d ended up owing 80 million drachmas to the moneylenders while those smug Napierions had stayed debt-free. It was an outrageous dereliction of civic duty. He wished he’d thought of it. “Napierions might call me Debtus Maximus, but my waterworks are in excellent order for their age,” said Lawrencus proudly. “The citizens of Hustings quench their thirsts from the abundant bladders of Artesia, the God of Fresh Water, but only after it has been magically enhanced by Fluoridus, the God of Strong Teeth. It’s got such miraculous powers that we’re thinking of bottling it for the pilgrim market in Lourdes. “Hustings’ roads are the best-maintained in the country because we’re always repairing them. We’re also cutting chariot speeds on rural roads to reduce wear and tear. “And as for sewage, by the time Hustings’
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“How long is this going to take?” he growled. He’d been holding his stomach in for several minutes and was getting giddy. Red dots danced before his eyes. “How long is a piece of string?” replied the small bald man, adding up the knots. “Uh oh, looks like you’re a size 96XD now, so we can forget about body-hugging armour. What about a calf-length leather skirt, with Moroccan brass inlays, silverstudded belt and elephant-hide sandals?” Lawrencus gritted his teeth. “Just get on with it,” he hissed, “and don’t stick any chook feathers on my helmet this time. I don’t want the gods looking down on me and seeing a bantam’s backside.” The bald man nodded and slid a bunch of white chicken feathers back into his bag. “I’ve got ostrich, pheasant, partridge or peacock,” he said. Lawrencus frowned. “Peacock,” he replied.
“Smart choice,” smiled the small bald man. “Peacock will certainly make you stand out on the battlefield. I’ll add a couple of designer dents in your helmet for that grizzled-veteran look” Lawrencus said nothing. The fellow was starting to annoy him. The small bald man leaned forward. “Bullish Doltus will be wearing a longnecked helmet crowned with a plume of ostrich feathers for the amalgamation battle. It’ll have a narrow visor, earmuffs and a large mouthpiece.” The small bald man hoisted armour plating on to Lawrencus’ shoulders and strapped a heavy brass breastplate on his chest. The ruler’s body, once as rock-hard as the limestone hills he grew up on, sagged under the weight. He could barely breathe and his right knee was starting to give out. “I hear regional chairman Fentonious Wilfus wants his helmet to reflect both his rural background and his council,” continued the small bald man, “so he’s getting a brass sheep’s head surrounded by turkeys, set in a golden pond. “The leaders of Wairorus and the Central Bay of Hawks say they can only afford basic helmets, with feathers from two headless chooks. “So when the great amalgamation battle begins, the gods will look down on Heretuscany and see a peacock fighting an ostrich, a bunch of turkeys standing on the sideline and two headless chooks dancing in the distance.” The small bald man smiled and left the chamber. Lawrencus twirled slowly around the room, flickering candlelight transforming him into a shimmering, god-like figure. The whole of Heretuscany now lay within his grasp. He relaxed his stomach. There was the sound of metal grinding and a chorus of creaking leather. A brass buckle snapped and embedded itself in the far wall. “We have a size 100D in stock at the moment,” a voice called from down the corridor.
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The Tempur ZERO-G Platinum It’s here, in Hastings, at Bedpost. We are truly excited about this bed. A perfect balance of function, practicality, comfort and aesthetics. Whoever decided that beds were just for sleeping never had a Zero-G Adjustable Base. These are the ultimate in lifestyle enhancement. With the flick of a button the preset ZERO-G position transports you into the perfect relaxation zone. Not only comfortable to sleep on; the Tempur ZERO-G Platinum is a state of the art piece of furniture. When the spine is positioned at zero gravity, full body muscle tension is relieved and circulation improved. This can also assist your breathing as you sleep and allow you to find the perfect position for sleeping, relaxing or checking your email. Finding a perfect sleep position is one of the best things you can experience because it allows you to not only feel more relaxed, but also helps you to fall asleep quicker and enjoy a more rejuvenating sleep. If you are struggling to get a good night’s sleep this may be the perfect solution, Tempur beds provide outstanding comfort and support for a feeling of instant relaxation. They come in a range of sizes and comfort options to accommodate your specific needs. The feedback from my clients has been amazing, often saying they will never go back to a conventional bed. I invite you to come into my store to test Tempur for yourself.
Michael White Owner
Bedpost Hastings 320 Heretaunga Street, Hastings. Ph (06) 8709421