BB#44-Nov-Dec-2018 by BayBuzz

N o 44 • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2018 • HAWKE’S BAY UP CLOSE, IN DEPTH

HB Health System Ailing

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Meth epidemic sweeping region Māori driving HB power shift Losing our battle with plastic

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44 BayBuzz November/December 2018 Just how bad is the methamphetamine scourge in HB? Are we fighting a losing battle with plastic? HB’s health system is within a few years of collapse … what’s the rescue plan? Māori power shift underway holds major implications for our region. The cybersecurity risks we all face. Pandora Pond: Napier’s toilet. Port requires investment. A saint for Hawke’s Bay? Black Barn Cinema celebrates. Alexandra Tylee’s Christmas cake. Mary Kippenberger’s travails. Plus stuff you must know! Above: Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pakipaki. Photo: Tom Allan.

Bee in the Know 8 Bee in the Know / Lizzie Russell

10 Did You Know? Improving your Hawke’s Bay IQ.

34. Stacia Jensen. Photo: Tom Allan

Events / Lizzie Russell 40 of the Bay’s best coming attractions.

Ideas & Opinions Features 26 P & Qs: Meth In Hawke’s Bay / Rosheen Fitzgerald Meth use has become an epidemic in our region.

Repurposing Plastic / Keith Newman We’re awash in plastic, and recycling alone won’t save the day.

Making the Port Call / Paul Paynter Major port investment required … only question is how.

HB Health System in Crisis / Bridget Freeman-Rock Our region’s health system is unsustainable … what must change? Intro interview with DHB chair Kevin Atkinson by Tom Belford.

CBDs Are Social Centres / Pat Turley Comparing the evolution of Hastings and Napier CBDs.

Power Shifting: Making Room For Māori Voices / Keith Newman The region’s Maori asserting themselves politically, amidst internal struggles.

Cyber Insecurity / Keith Newman How at risk is your online data and privacy?

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Listening… The Key to Marketing / Matt Miller HB firm FOLKL offers new market research approach.

Poop In Pandora / Andrew Frame How long will Napierites put up with ‘flush less’?

24. Hopetoun Brown close the Harcourts Hawke's Bay Arts Festival. Photo: Florence Charvin

15 Years of Black Barn OpenAir Cinema / Jess Soutar Barron

Culture & Lifestyle

Old Dogs, New Digs / Jess Soutar Barron

Neighbourhood Watch Jane Mackersey, Jess Soutar Barron, Benny Fernandez & Eileen Page report on their hoods.

86. Alex Tylee's Christmas. Photo: Florence Charvin

Did Anyone Say ‘Cameo Creams’?/ Jenny Keown

Mother Suzanne Aubert / Jess Soutar Barron

Christmas Food? No Pressure! / Alexandra Tylee

Letter From the Country / Mary Kippenberger

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Featured Contributor Rosheen FitzGerald Rosheen FitzGerald is new to the BayBuzz team and brings an eclectic collection of knowledge and interests. She’s an emerging writing talent who ties together skills as a researcher and problem-solver with disciplined wordsmithing. With a degree in psychology she can get to the heart of the story whatever it might be. Rosheen is a contributor to The Hook website where she unleashes her passion for theatre, contemporary dance and avantgarde experimental feminist poetry. When not writing she is mixing convoluted but delicious cocktails and needlefelting hundreds of miniature ladybugs for the Steiner school fair. Twelve years ago, Rosheen relocated from her home town of Dublin to Haumoana, which is “About as far away from where we were as possible!” she says.

Articles online at: baybuzz.co.nz Editorial enquiries editors@baybuzz.co.nz Advertising enquiries Robyn Henson robyn@baybuzz.co.nz 021 126 2672

The BayBuzz Team EDITOR: Tom Belford ASSISTANT EDITORS: Jess Soutar Barron, Lizzie Russell SENIOR WRITERS: Rosheen FitzGerald; Bridget Freeman-Rock; Keith Newman; Jess Soutar Barron COLUMNISTS: Andrew Frame; Mary Kippenberger; Matt Miller; Paul Paynter; Sarah Cates EDITOR’S RIGHT HAND: Brooks Belford PHOTOGRAPHY: Tom Allan; Florence Charvin; Tim Whittaker ILLUSTRATION: Brett Monteith DESIGN: Unit Design Max Parkes; Giselle Reid MARKETING: Carlee Atkin ONLINE: Mogul, Liz Nes BUSINESS MANAGER: Bernadette Magee PRINTING: Format Print

Photo: Florence Charvin

BayBuzz Regulars

BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North ISSN 2253-2625 (Print) ISSN 2253-2633 (Online)

This document is printed on an environmentally responsible paper produced using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp sourced from Sustainable & Legally Harvested Farmed Trees, and manufactured under the strict ISO14001 Environmental Management System.

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Robyn Henson Robyn has a passion for people and sales, with years of multimedia experience, selling and helping design ads in print, digital and radio. A member of the Live Poets Society, she's into Reiki Healing, Swedish massage and hypnotherapy (advertisers … watch out!).

Bridget Freeman-Rock Bridget, Hawke's Bay grown, lived abroad in Australia and Germany before returning with her family in 2009. She has a fairly eclectic, free-range writing vocation, freelancing as a writer, copyeditor, translator and occasional performance poet.

Keith Newman Keith is a journo with over 45 years’ experience across mainstream and trade media. He’s won awards for writing about hi-tech, produced music programmes for Radio NZ and published five books, one on the internet in New Zealand and four on New Zealand history.

Matt Miller Matt Miller co-owns web company Mogul Limited, based in Havelock North, but serving clients around the world, including BayBuzz. His beat for BayBuzz is digital trends and cool businesses.

Florence Charvin

Paul Paynter Paul Paynter is our resident iconoclast and cider maker. Sometimes he grows stuff at Yummyfruit.

Hawke's Bay is the adopted home of French photographer Florence Charvin. Florence likes to photograph people and what they are passionate about.

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Heavy Lifting Ahead

BayBuzz’s Tenth Anniversary celebrating is done, gone … now, back to heavy lifting. And if there’s a theme to this edition of BayBuzz, it might be ‘unsustainability’. You see, our major features deal with situations here in Hawke’s Bay that we simply cannot accept going forward. In ‘P’ & Qs: Meth in Hawke’s Bay, Rosheen Fitzgerald reports on the ‘P’ epidemic in Hawke’s Bay. A user on every street in HB, says MP Lawrence Yule. Users whose personal self-abuse ripples through their families and into the community. Bridget Freeman-Rock writes about our DHB’s plan – recently out for public consultation – to transform the delivery of health services in Hawke’s Bay. Reading her extensive interview notes on the Clinical Services Plan and doing my own homework, my conclusion in Health System at the Brink is that health care services in HB are on life support … and it’s only going to get worse without major change. In Repurposing Plastic, Keith Newman looks at the deluge of plastic waste – ugly and costly at best, lifethreatening to marine life at worst – steadily worsening despite the efforts of our more enlightened recycling populace. Sure, we consumers have our part to play, but the real battle is upstream where all our ‘stuff’ is wrapped and packaged. Another unsustainable situation exists at our port, which despite all its efficiencies, must either soon upgrade to capitalize upon serious welcome growth in produce and timber exports, or, conversely, stagnate and backslide as the larger cargo and cruise ships of the future pass us by. Paul Paynter offers one solution in

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You see, our major features deal with situations here in Hawke’s Bay that we simply cannot accept going forward.

his column, Making the Port Call, and notes that doing nothing – not making a major investment in Napier Port – is clearly not an option. So maybe the theme is ‘floods’ – floods of meth, patients, plastic, produce/logs. Only the last of these is good news! Change must occur in each of these areas. And in others as well. Keith Newman looks at the issue of Maori power in Hawke’s Bay, where change is also the watchword. The region’s nine Post Settlement Governance Entities (PSGEs) are beginning to assert themselves, triggering realignment of power within our Maori community and also lifting expectations regarding Maori participation in local authority (i.e. Pakeha-dominated) decision-making. This process is not exactly peaceful, as Keith reports in Power Shifting: Making Room for Maori Voices. In Poop in Pandora, Andrew Frame looks at recent episodes of Napier sewage overflowing into the Ahuriri Estuary and asks how long the public will tolerate that situation … the result of NCC’s historic under-investment in its wastewater and stormwater piping system. I suspect the patience

of the Ahuriri PSGE, which now holds the final say over environmental management of the estuary, will run out quickly. NCC exhortations to ‘flush less’ whenever it rains should send some political careers down the drain. Pat Turley shows how the Hastings and Napier CBDs have evolved over the last 50 or so years. Contrasting Hastings’ and Napier’s CBDs with some surprising stats, he notes approvingly that our CBDs are becoming social centres as much as commercial centres, with councils having an important role to play. As I noted at the outset, a lot of heavy lifting in this edition. But we haven’t neglected the lighter side, courtesy of Alex Tylee’s Christmas recipe, a heap of neighbourhood news, culture and lifestyle tidbits from Jess Barron, events not to miss and stuff you’ve just got to know from Lizzie Russell, and Mary Kippenberger’s latest trevails. So, heavy lifting and light relief. Enjoy … and tell us if we’ve got the balance right!

Tom Belford tom@baybuzz.co.nz

Tom is a HB Regional Councillor. His past includes the Carter White House, building Ted Turner’s first philanthropic organisation, doing heaps of marketing consulting for major non-profits and corporates.

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George Nuku George Nuku splits his time between Omahu in Hawke’s Bay and Rouen in Normandy, France. His significant fully immersive multimedia piece Bottled Ocean 2118 is currently installed at the MTG in Napier.

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Nuku has been involved in over 50 projects internationally. Many of his works are permanent installations in galleries and museums in the Netherlands, the US, the UK and France. He also participates in outreach programmes with schools, community groups, prisons, and the

public. Nuku works in bone, stone and wood but is particularly celebrated for his work with polystyrene, plastics and plexiglass. A celebrated artist he represents Heretaunga around the world, raising awareness of environmental issues and responsibilities.

Hoppy Days "Did you know over the 16 weeks to 25 February 2018, beer generated almost $379.3 million in sales across supermarkets and liquor stores – an increase of 6.3% ($21.3 million)?"

Statistics recently released by Nielsen suggest our blossoming craft beer scene is in for a bumper summer season to follow the last one. Last summer saw a rise in beer and wine across New Zealand, but craft beer was the star economic performer. Over the 16 weeks to 25 February 2018, beer generated almost $379.3 million in sales across supermarkets and liquor stores – an increase of 6.3% ($21.3 million) on the previous summer. In the same

"Really? Also, almost half a million Kiwis now call craft beer their preferred drink – an increase of 18% in the last year. Hoppy days indeed"

period, wine recorded an additional $5.2 million, bringing the total category value to $354.3 million (up 1.5% versus previous year). Craft beer was the main growth driver, with these brands rapidly increasing their popularity among New Zealanders. Almost half a million Kiwis now call craft beer their preferred drink – an increase of 18% in the last year. Along with spending numbers, the research also delved into who these

craft beer drinkers are, and found that they’re a unique mix of foodie and fitness. They are more likely to frequent cafés, bars or the gym. They’re into new types of food and willing to pay for it, while still being concerned about sugar content, general health and wellbeing. Almost half of these drinkers are in their twenties or thirties and they have a higher than average personal income. Just over two-thirds of them are male.

Did You Know?

The Environment Centre has moved and can now be found at 1004 Karamu Road in Hastings (next to Nourished for Nil). Head in to see the team there – they offer free specialist recycling of all household batteries, oral care products, ink cartridges, coffee pods and much more.

Indigo Restaurant in Napier’s Hastings Street can now boast (toast?!) the largest whiskey collection in the Southern Hemisphere – with a whopping 830 bottles.

Napier Port just passed a huge milestone – handling a record 5 million tonnes of cargo in the last year. Think logs and apples.

Following requests from bus passengers, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council now allows small dogs and cats to travel, free of charge, on goBay public transport in off-peak times (between 9am and 3pm on weekdays and anytime during the weekend or public holidays).

In September, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) registered on New Zealand roads officially passed the 10,000 milestone. Five years ago there were just 210 registered.

Christmas Day didn’t become an official holiday in New Zealand until 1910.

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If you have any Police-related queries, you can visit Hastings Library on Wednesdays between 1pm and 2pm or the Havelock North Library on Tuesdays between 1pm and 2pm for Coffee with a Cop.

The region’s advocacy group for the creative sector, formerly Creative Hawke’s Bay, has relaunched as Nga Toi Hawke’s Bay. Check it out on Facebook: NgaToi Hawke’sBay

World Kindness Day is November 13. If you miss it, you don’t need to wait ‘til next year to be kind.

Earlier in spring, the Hawke’s Bay EV Owners Group formed and held their first “Meet & Greet”. Over 160 electric vehicles are now charged up in Hawke’s Bay – almost three times the number last year!

72 cruise ships are scheduled to visit Napier this summer, up on 60 last season. We’re at the point where Napier Port needs to turn down more cruise visits.

U-Share is taking on Uber and coming to Hawke’s Bay! Fingers crossed for an early-2019 arrival.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council received 20% more calls to its Pollution Hotline over the past year, highlighting the community’s growing dissatisfaction with people who abuse the environment. 1,095 calls were made to the Pollution Hotline in 201718, compared with 915 in 2016-17. Of these 696 were for air complaints and 224 for surface water complaints.

Hawke’s Bay’s Cape Coast features in a new book: by award-winning author Neville Peat MNZM. The book covers the science of a warming, rising, stormier sea and its effects on lowlying areas, as well as asking the tough questions, “What should be done? And who should pay?” The book is out in bookstores now.

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Condé Nast Traveler recently announced the results of its 31st annual Readers’ Choice Awards with The Farm at Cape Kidnappers named the number one lodge in Australia and the South Pacific. Cape Kidnappers was also named #20 in the Best Resorts in the World … the only New Zealand property to feature in this list. A two night ‘Romantic Getaway” for two this month will set you back $8,211 (including meals and drinks), but if you had to ask …!

The annual HB Wine Awards – NZ’s longest running regional wine competition – celebrated 18 years in October, with Church Road and Villa Maria Group picking up 6 and 9 trophies respectively. Villa Maria’s Single Vineyard Keltern Chardonnay 2017 took top honours as Champion Wine of Show.

Also at the Wine Awards, Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers “Hall of Fame” was introduced to celebrate those who have demonstrated exemplary commitment, innovation and dedication to growing the Hawke’s Bay wine industry. The inaugural 2018 winner was Te Mata Estate’s John Buck. (Photo: Richard Brimer).

New Zealanders spend an average of 18 hours per week online, up from 15 hours per week in 2015. 78% of us access the internet regularly from mobile devices, up from 65% in 2015.

The Environment Centre will be running their Sustainable Backyards programme throughout November. The month-long programme is packed with 38 events, workshops, and activities to grow the sustainability of our community. Almost all events will be low cost, no cost or Koha. See environmentcentre.org.nz for the details.

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BEE I N T H E K N OW

Chefs from top left: Ashley Jones, Elephant Hill James Beck, Bistronomy Jeremy Rameka, Pacifica Casey McDonald, Craggy Range Restaurant Stephen Tindall, Te Awa Winery Restaurant

Hats On to Bay Cuisine Hawke’s Bay restaurants have once again proven their gastronomic chops with success at this year’s annual Cuisine Good Food Guide Awards. Elephant Hill took out the Yellow Brick Road Best Winery Restaurant award, with the judges commenting that, “The modernist winery building captures stupendous views, your eyes sweeping down through rows of vines to the cliffs and ocean beyond.

Global Push on Greening up Packaging Chicago-based food giant Kraft Heinz Co has announced a selfimposed deadline to make 100% of its packaging globally recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. “Everything is on the table,” said Caroline Krajewski, head of global corporate reputation, in a recent interview. “We have a tough road ahead of us on certain packaging types, and there are issues where we’ll have to band together with third parties and industry coalitions because no one of us can progress change in that area by ourselves.” The announcement sets Heinz

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The spacious, airy dining room overlooking the patio and pool sets an elegant and inviting stage to enjoy Ashley Jones’ refined, flavoursome dishes. Smooth and unobtrusive service delivers a superlative experience.” In a coup for Hawke’s Bay, Elephant Hill was also awarded two coveted ‘hats’, as were Pacifica, Bistronomy and Craggy Range Restaurant.

Te Awa Winery’s restaurant was awarded one hat. In this year’s awards, just four restaurants received full marks under Cuisine’s ‘hat’ rating system – Auckland’s Cocoro, Clooney and Zayuza, and Roots in Lyttleton were each awarded three hats. Cocoro took out the Restaurant of the Year award, won in 2017 by legendary Napier restaurant Pacifica.

alongside other major consumer companies including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Nestle SA and Colgate Palmolive that have set explicit deadlines to make their products more friendly to the environment. Colgate Palmolive announced in May it had committed to 100% recyclability of plastics in packaging across all its product categories by 2025, and reported it has already made significant progress in advancing its 2020 packaging sustainability goals, with currently 98% of its packaging PVC-free. Likewise, Unilever vowed last year to ensure all of its plastic packaging is fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Nestle has the same ambition for 2025. Procter & Gamble’s “Ambition 2030” goals include its 20 leadership

brands having packaging that is 100% recyclable or reusable, launching more sustainable innovations and ensuring all manufacturing sites will cut greenhouse gas emissions in half. Major challenges for Heinz are ketchup packets, multi-laminate Capri Sun juice pouches and the packaging of individually wrapped Kraft Singles cheese, which can’t be easily recycled, because multi-laminate packaging uses both foil and plastic, which can’t be separated easily. New packaging will have to balance sustainability with requirements for food safety, shelf life, distribution, cost and appearance, Krajewski said. Perhaps it’s time for the global giant to take a look at what the Hawke’s Baybased Bostock Brothers are up to?

November 2-11: F.A.W.C

BayBuzz Event Guide November 2-11 F.A.W.C. Join the foodies for a range of fabulous food and wine experiences all around Hawke’s Bay. fawc.co.nz

November 7-11 Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition The 6th biennial exhibition promises a wide array of outdoor artwork from around 80 New Zealand artists, all set in the stunning landscaped setting of Round Pond Garden, just south of Hastings. Funds raised go to Cranford Hospice. wildflowersculpture.com

November 10 Total BS at Moana Park Winery In this case BS stands for Beef & Syrah. Enjoy an afternoon made up of lashings of Syrah and generous helpings of succulent beef prepared by Kent Baddeley and served straight from the firepit. moanapark.co.nz

November 10 Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction Tickets may be tough to find by now, but if you can get them, you’ll be treated to all the exciting auction action thanks to the generous support of the wine industry towards Cranford Hospice. hawkesbaywineauction.co.nz

November 9 CHB Boulevard Day – Into the Future

November 10 Hawke’s Bay Vape Day 2018 at HB Showgrounds

Join the retailers of Waipukurau as they take their wares onto Ruataniwha Street for the annual Boulevard day where bargains abound. eventfinda.co.nz

This R18 event will cover all things vaperelated – from classes and competitions to networking and scoping out new stock on the market. hbvapeday.co.nz

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November 11 Hastings Christmas At the Races Where better to celebrate the upcoming festive season than trackside? There are delectable hospitality options on offer to make a proper day of it too. eventfinda.co.nz

November 11 A Russian Triple Bill at Napier Municipal Theatre The Imperial Russian Ballet Company returns with a programme featuring Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides and Carmen. eventfinda.co.nz

November 13 Pecha Kucha Night at MTG Century Theatre It’s the final PK Night for 2018 so gather a group and head along for an evening of presentations on local speakers’ passions and predilections. facebook.com/pechakuchahb

November 17-18 Napier Wellbeing Market at Taradale Town Hall Check out the stalls and attractions to focus the mind and your summer intentions on natural health, holistic medicine, stress-free living, fitness, wellbeing, diet, nutrition, spirituality and happiness. eventfinda.co.nz

November 18 Peak Trailblazer at Te Mata Peak The ninth Peak Trail Blazer aims to ‘Do some good” for all involved – the competitors and the community. This year funds raised from the running and walking event will be split between Havelock North Primary’s hall upgrade project, Nourished for Nil, and Eye Care for Africa to help set up a scholarship fund to enable a student from Havelock North High School to travel to Africa to see the work Hawke’s Bay optometrist, Niall McCormack, does in the orphanages. peaktrailblazer.co.nz

November 18 Napier Full Day Sail On Board Spirit of New Zealand at Napier Port Here’s your chance to get a taste of the famous tall ship, the Spirit of New Zealand at sea. Age 10 years and over only, numbers very limited. spiritofadventure.co.nz

November 18: Sail On Board Spirit of New Zealand

November 18 Show Me Shorts – The Sampler at MTG Century Theatre The Show Me Shorts festival takes the guess-work and head-scratching out of your short film decision making. The films on offer feature a first date, an imaginary friend, an identity crisis, a vindictive toilet, Temuera Morrison in boxing gloves, lots of dogs, cats, and a visit from the President. eventfinda.co.nz

November 19 End Of Life Choice Bill – Public Meeting David Seymour is coming back to town to share information and hear opinions on the End of Life Choice Bill. Napier Boys' High School, 5.30pm.

November 21 Campbell Bros & Stortford Auto Sales Aquathon Race #1 at Pandora Pond This is a fun series of events to get involved in over the warm months. The first of them offers the choice of two distances – the Long Course (750m swim followed by a 4.5km run) and the Short Course (200m swim followed by a 2km run). eventfinda.co.nz

November 22-23 Strange Caravan Tour at Haumoana Community Hall A collective of renowned kiwi songwriters and solo artists, tracing lineage to many of NZ’s most loved bands, join forces for The Strange Caravan Tour. Think Bret McKenzie, Age Pryor, Justin Firefly, Nigel Collins and Ben Lemi, performing new and original music in the sweet, rustic venue at Haumoana. eventfinda.co.nz

November 24 Impact Pro Wrestling: Live At Paisley Stage Book early for this two-hour spectacle of family friendly professional wrestling action – body slams, brain busters and back breakers at the Paisley Stage in Napier. eventfinda.co.nz

November 24-25 Women’s Lifestyle Expo at Pettigrew Green Arena The expo features over 120 companies presenting everything from jewellery and beauty products and information to crafts, fitness, plus food and wine sampling. eventfinda.co.nz

November 25 The Ossian Street Vintage Market at F.G Smith Eatery, Napier Popping up on the last Sunday of each month, this market in Ahuriri is a great spot to hunt out vintage treasures and special collectibles. eventfinda.co.nz

November 25 Shed 2 Triathlon Series Race # 2 at Pandora Pond Think summer – think triathlon. This series runs through summer, and event number 2 features a bunch of different events across multiple distances, including the Kids’ Aquathon. trihb.kiwi

November 25 Waihua Christmas Fete at Waihua Station, Wairoa Raising funds for Starship Children’s Hospital, the fete offers a great day out in a beautiful historic garden setting, with stallholders from around the North Island offering a superb array of artisan wares, food and beverages. waihuastation.co.nz/waihuafete

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December 6 Operatunity: Cinderella – A Christmas Pantomime at Bay City Outreach Centre, Hastings Using famous songs, overacting, parody and ghastly jokes, Operatunity presents the iconic Christmas pantomime in the tradition of the old English theatre. With jokes, repartee, great singing, madcap antics and slapstick humour, the show is sure to delight young and young-atheart. eventfinda.co.nz

November 28 : Colin, Brad & Greg from Whose Line Is It Anyway? Napier Municipal Theatre

November 25 Social Climbers – Roger Hall Comedy at Napier Municipal Theatre Send a group of teachers, a school counsellor and a reluctant daughter off for a weekend of bush walking, sparkling wine and rough weather – the result? Roger Hall’s signature comedy and social commentary. eventfinda.co.nz

November 28 Colin, Brad & Greg From Whose Line Is It Anyway? at Napier Municipal Theatre If you’re a fan of audience participation, then this is the show for you. Using their quick wit, Colin, Brad and Greg will take contributions from the audience to create hilarious and original scenes, just like a live version of Whose Line? eventfinda.co.nz

November 30-December 6 Christmas Tree Showcase at The Salvation Army, Napier Gather the whole family and enjoy a journey through The Salvation Army’s forest of over 100 trees. Get in to the Christmas spirit and take along any nonperishable food items and Christmas gifts for local families in need if you can. eventfinda.co.nz

December 1 Jingle & Mingle Christmas Party at River Park Event Centre, Waipawa Make the Christmas party easy this year. Book a table and kick back with a delicious buffet meal, beautiful surroundings, friendly hosts and an after-dinner covers band. eventfinda.co.nz

December 1 Piece-Makers Market at Hawthorne Coffee Roasters, Havelock North Perfect for finding unique and highquality Christmas gifts, the PieceMakers Market presents beautiful items from small businesses who produce their goods locally, by hand or practise other ethical design, manufacturing and trade principles. facebook.com/PieceMakersMarket/

December 1-2 The Ryman Healthcare Season of The Nutcracker at Napier Municipal Theatre RNZB presents the iconic ballet for the festive season for the first time since 2010. This enchanting ballet is a Christmas gift for the whole family. eventfinda.co.nz

December 1 Black Barn Growers’ Market opens for summer

Bringing a diverse mix of music to Central Hawke’s Bay, Sanctuary Sounds is a three-day family-friendly festival of camping, friends, food, stalls and music from Swamp Thing, The Rude Boyz, The Blistered Fingers, New Age Leper, Melting Faces, Hot Janola and many more acts from near and far. sanctuary-sounds.co.nz

December 8 Four Seasons Spring Art and Craft Fair at All Saints Church, Napier Check out offerings from Deanta Hand Craft, ReBorn:Up-Cycled Creations and Jane’s baby goodies and toys, Abi Road Designs NZ, Fossil Jewelery, Perks Pantry Products and more. eventfinda.co.nz

December 8, 15, 22, 29 Summer Sessions at Abbey Cellars Winery & Brewpub, Hastings Wile away a relaxed afternoon listening to the chilled sounds of local talents while sipping on boutique wines and beers in the vines. eventfinda.co.nz

December 12 Twilight Christmas at the Races Celebrate the end of the year and treat yourself and your colleagues, friends or family to a fun-filled day out with some exciting racing action, plus live entertainment and great food while you watch the sun go down. hawkesbayracing.co.nz

December 14 & 16 Napier Civic Choir Choral Concert – Handel’s Messiah at St Paul’s Church, Napier

As well as all the best and freshest seasonal produce, the picturesque market is crammed with baked breads, locally roasted coffee, flowers, meat, pickles, olive oil, lavender products and more. The market runs all summer on Saturday mornings. blackbarn.com

Enjoy one of the best-known works in the choral repertoire – the Messiah. Its breadth includes both intimate arias and the immensely famous and stirring Hallelujah chorus. eventfinda.co.nz December 1-2 : The Nutcracker

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December 7-9 Sanctuary Sounds Music Festival, Takapau

December 15 Napier Civic Choir Orchestral â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Beethoven Beauties at St Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Church, Napier The Napier Civic Choir closes the year with a feast of some of the most popular of Beethovenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works for orchestra. Coriolan Overture, Piano Concerto No.4 in G major, Symphony No.3 in E flat major â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Eroica. eventfinda.co.nz

December 16 The ABBA Show at Napier Municipal Theatre More than â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;just another cover actâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, The ABBA Show celebrates all things ABBA with 2.5 hours of live musical performances, a live backing band, replica costumes, theatrical lighting and effects and all the dancing an ABBA fan can handle. eventfinda.co.nz

December 18 Tattletale Saints Duo Tour at EastEnd CafĂŠ & Bar, Wairoa Winners of Â the Tui for Folk Album of The Year in 2014, Tattletale Saints are touring New Zealand with 13 intimate acoustic duo concerts around the country in support of the release of two new singles. eventfinda.co.nz

December 27-January 6 : Black Barn OpenAir Cinema

December 27-January 6 Black Barn OpenAir Cinema Keep an eye out for the confirmed lineup for the fifteenth season of the outdoor cinema. The 18/19 season will run over nine nights from 27 - 30 December 2018 and from 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6 January 2019.Â blackbarn.com

December 31 GnFnRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s at The Cabana Farewell 2018 with New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier Guns Nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Roses tribute act. The GnFnRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s will take you back to the late 80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, when Rock still rocked, and a roughshod band of misfits called Guns Nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Roses ruled the world. cabana.net.nz

January 6 Sundaze with The Puketapu at Sacred Hill Cellar Door The Dartmoor Valley collaboration offers up an afternoon of live music with delectable, well priced country lunches using the freshest local produce made by the chefs from the Puketapu, matched with Sacred Hillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wines. Beers, cider and soft drinks will also be available. eventfinda.co.nz

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BEE I N T H E K NOW

Laser Eyes in the Skies

Located in the Brabazon Range of southeastern Alaska, Yakutat Glacier is one of the fastest retreating glaciers in the world.

NASA has launched its newest satellite, ICESAT-2, and it promises to give researchers their sharpest look ever at melting glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice, which make up much of the Earth’s frozen regions. The frozen areas – collectively known as the cryosphere – with all their melting ice are contributing to sea level rise, and ICESAT-2 will provide important information about how quickly it’s happening. ICESAT-2 is a replacement for and a major improvement on the original

20 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

ICESAT, which launched in 2003 and operated until 2009, measuring the Earth’s ice with a single laser beam. In the interim, NASA has been taking measurements of the cryosphere from airplanes flying over Greenland and Antarctica, a stopgap programme known as Operation Icebridge. The new satellite is certainly a step up from the original. It has six lasers, firing 10,000 times a second. All those pulses of light will give this satellite incredible precision. NASA says it will be able to measure the change in

elevation of the ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland to about a sixth of an inch, less than the width of a pencil. That will help scientists develop a better sense of how much and how quickly that ice is melting in a warming world. Tom Neumann, deputy project scientist for the new satellite, said it would provide “a phenomenal picture” of changes in the planet’s ice sheets and water. “It’s going to enable science discoveries in the cryosphere and polar research for years to come.”

Proud coach Craig McDougall with boxer Saili Fiso. Photo: Tom Allan

LIVE HERE, GIVE HERE: Giants Boxing Academy Giants Boxing Academy is one of just 50 local organisations to receive a grant from Hawke's Bay Foundation in their 2018 funding round. Transforming the lives of young men through the discipline of boxing is all in day’s work at the Hastingsbased boxing academy. Using a skills and fitness-based programme, Giants helps young boys and men reach their full potential, both in and out of the ring. “We are growing youth to be the solution, not the problem, says Head Coach Craig McDougall. “Working together we can guide and support Hawke’s Bay youth to live lives they value.” Started in 2011, the Academy has enjoyed ongoing financial support from Hawke’s Bay Foundation. “Hawke’s Bay Foundation has supported us from the beginning, sharing our view of developing a successful community,” says Craig. “They pay it forward from generous people allowing us to work with others who are less fortunate.” Ninety boys and young men train at the Giants gym up to six times per week. “We use the discipline of Olympic-style amateur boxing to provide skills, opportunity and development for youth, their whanau and Aotearoa,” says Craig. Craig and his team work with youth from all walks of life, many of

whom have had few positive role models in their lives. “The programs we run aim to instil discipline, confidence and resilience to teach young boys and men how to be fit, well-mannered and active members of our community,” says Craig. “With the support of Hawke’s Bay Foundation, we are growing young people who will give back to our community in the future and continue to make Hawke’s Bay a remarkable place to live.”

HAWKE’S BAY FOUNDATION: Connecting Generous People with Causes that Matter Hawke’s Bay Foundation is a simple way you can support your community for generations to come. We receive gifts and bequests, large and small, from individuals, families and businesses. All donations are pooled and invested forever, with only the interest being used to support local community organisations bringing about positive change in our community.

To find out more, visit hawkesbayfoundation.org.nz

BayBuzz is pleased to support the Hawke’s Bay Foundation

SAILI FISO: Punching above his weight A young man with a bright future, Saili Fiso, is making a name for himself in the national boxing arena. The 25-year old middle-weight boxer from Hastings recently attended the NZ National Championships in Christchurch, where he took out the current New Zealand number two in the quarter finals and beat the previous Youth Commonwealth Games representative in the semis. After narrowly losing to the New Zealand number one and 2018 Commonwealth Games quarter finalist, Saili was awarded best runner-up for Elite boxers. Saili has been training with the Giants Academy for five years and coach Craig McDougall says the young boxer is definitely one to watch. “Saili is an inspiration to all of those around him,” says Craig. “Inside the ring, he is clever, accurate and courageous, and he applies these same qualities outside of the ring with a large amount of humility and respect.” Craig says the young man’s future looks very promising as he works towards representing New Zealand in boxing, as well as starting his own business within the next few months.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 21

BEE I N T H E K NOW

International Triumph for Whangawehi Project The Whangawehi Catchment Management Group won the Pacific category of the prestigious Asia Pacific International River Prize Awards in October for its river restoration project at Mahia. So far the collaborative work of the group and many volunteers has resulted in the protection of 13 kilometres of river, the establishment of 160,000 native trees on 60 hectares of riparian margins and the retirement of 15 hectares of native bush block. Monitoring has revealed a 95% survival rate of plants, an increase in native bird and fish life and a 15% improvement in water quality, the highest improvement in water quality in the region. The local whitebait population – once almost extinct – is now abundant, and the endangered longfin eel has now grown to healthy populations. A key element of the project’s

22 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

success and forward-planning is an environmental education programme developed with Te Mahia School to transfer local knowledge around Matauranga Maori and indigenous practices, with the hope that these school children will be the next generation of Kaitiaki (guardians) of the land and the river. The work doesn’t stop there – a recently announced Mahia Pest Free project in collaboration with Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is an extension of the pest management work initiated by the Whangawehi Group. The group is also working to develop an extensive walkway through the Whangawehi catchment. Other initiatives include the development of branding for any meat products produced under a catchment management plan protecting the waterways. “Fantastic news for the Whangawehi Catchment Group and a deserving

tribute to a project that has truly set the bar for collaboration, partnership with tāngata whenua and community engagement,” said Iain Maxwell, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Group Manager Integrated Catchment Management said. “Their personal commitment, passion and drive for the project have been instrumental in this outcome.” The Whangawehi project was the only New Zealand finalist in the Asia Pacific International River Prize Awards, and was also the Supreme Winner at the 2017 Green Ribbon Award, the New Zealand Government’s most prestigious environmental award.

Correction: the Bostock Chicken photograph on page 89 of BayBuzz 43 should have been credited to Brian Culy. Our apologies for this mistake.

AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO DENTISTRY WITH WYNTON PERROTT

What’s the big deal with dental hygienists? Photo: Brydie Photography

Dear Boobs One awareness effort from this year’s Breast Cancer Awareness month (October) promises to hold the attention of readers around the country and abroad. Tauranga mother, physiotherapist and breast cancer survivor Emily Searle has collated and published a book consisting of 100 letters written by women affected by breast cancer, who have undergone surgery. The book, Dear Boobs features letters by women from around the globe, aged 24 to 71 and from all walks of life, including Hawke’s Bay’s Sacha Garrett, and is a collection of intimate, courageous, and sometimes hilarious letters from women to their departing or reconstructed breasts. What stemmed from Emily Searle’s cathartic letter writing – or narrative therapy – has become a way for women to come together to reflect and acknowledge the healing and the acceptance of their post-surgical chest, and to share those stories and experiences with supporters, patients and family members of those dealing with breast cancer. The book has been sent out to reside in waiting rooms at doctors’ surgeries, medical centres, oncology, surgical and out-patient departments and libraries mostly in New Zealand, but also in Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA and some Pacific Islands. Their purpose, Emily says, is to raise awareness, share wisdom, inspire healing, and to celebrate the “incredible” breast cancer community. Dear Boobs is available to purchase online at www.thedearboobsproject.com.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 23

BEE I N T H E K NOW

Harcourts Hawke's Bay Arts Festival

Photos: Tim Whittaker. tim.co.nz 24 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

Hastings Fringe Festival

Photos: Simon Cartwright NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 25

“I thought I was helping my bros. They didn’t have any money … I thought I was doing a good thing. I wasn’t.” BRENDON WARNE

Photo: Florence Charvin

P & Qs: Meth in Hawke’s Bay Story By Rosheen Fitzgerald

“Most people in Hawke’s Bay have at least one P user in their street,” claims MP Lawrence Yule. No one Bay Buzz interviewed disputes this claim, or even appears shocked – not the police nor the government; not researchers, nor therapists; not recovered addicts, nor community activists. Measuring illegal drug use is not an exact science. Yule proposes testing wastewater residue to understand the scope of the problem. In October, Police Minister and MP for Napier, Stuart Nash announced that New Zealand Police would be expanding the scheme trialled in parts of Auckland, Whangarei, and Christchurch to cover much of the country, including Hawke’s Bay. Nash hopes that the data gleaned will “allow us to target resources appropriately – both health resources and police resources.” The New Zealand Health Survey ties Hawke’s Bay with Northland as regions of greatest use. Of the general population, 1.4% admits to using methamphetamine in the past year, compared with 0.8% nationally. This jumps to 2.3% in Hawke’s Bay neighbourhoods with the least deprivation.

Amphetamine Use in Hawke’s Bay by Neighbourhood Deprivation Quintile (least  most deprived) 1 2 3 4 5 2.3% 1.0% 1.2% 1.1% 1.7% (Source: Ministry of Health New Zealand Health Survey 2014-2017)

Public health research psychologist, Amber Logan, speaks from experience of extensive community consultation, which focused her PhD research on this issue. “It’s everybody’s problem. It’s our community. Characterising it as a brown people’s problem or a poor people’s problem is just wrong.” She sees users from every section of Hawke’s Bay society, giving this example … Sid and Nancy (not their real names) own a beautiful home in a desirable suburb. Their garden is manicured; a row of red band gumboots, lined up from large-to-small, at their door. They are small business owners. They pay their taxes. Their cherubic children – clean, cared for, stylishly clothed – beam from photographs across the walls. But they have clawed their way back to middle-class bliss from a nadir of addiction, ill-health and despair. “Corporate munters, we called ourselves…at the beginning I still went to work in a really nice place, dealt with people all day… it gives you the ability to tell yourself you’re fine.” According to Detective Sergeant Dave de Lange, head of Eastern Police’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, synthesising meth is relatively simple, though dangerous, making methamphetamine the lifestyle drug of choice, over home bake heroin, which previously dominated. Former meth cook turned anti-P activist, Brendon Warne, claims to have extracted the chemical

from native plants, some of which do contain ephedrine. Since banning the active ingredient, ephedrine – a nasal decongestant – ready-made meth, or its component parts, are imported. Although prices

“Corporate munters, we called ourselves…at the beginning I still went to work in a really nice place, dealt with people all day… it gives you the ability to tell yourself you’re fine.” are dropping – a gram selling on today’s streets for $500 just a few years ago fetched up to $1,000 – New Zealand is one of the more expensive markets, making import lucrative. On the dark web, a gram can be obtained for as little as US$9 – a profitable mark up, even with customs seizures. From conversations with community police, Logan concludes, “There are several millions of dollars of meth changing hands every week in Hawke’s Bay.” Yule favours introduction of the model trialled in Northland – using proceeds of crime to fund more robust and immediate treatment. He and Nash are putting party political differences aside to work across the aisle for change. Nash has visited police in Whangarei and is impressed by their results. “This isn’t about politics…it’s

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 27

Chris Jenkins. Photo: Florence Charvin

Redemption Song Chris Jenkins had a sheltered upbringing in a strict Christian household. “I had a lot of rebellion in me”. The family patriarch sought to curb Chris’ rebellious nature with harsh, sometimes physical, discipline. At an up-market Christian boarding school, he dabbled in cigarettes and alcohol. Despite being an accomplished student and athlete, his indiscretions led to exclusion. A ‘normal’ (decile 9) high school first exposed him to drugs. No longer tolerated in the family home, he moved in with an older couple, whose son introduced him to intravenous drug use. A bender landed him in juvenile court for joyriding and burglary. Treatment for opiate use led him to methamphetamine – the greater high cut through the dampening effect of methadone. He quickly moved into manufacture and distribution – “the money we were making out of meth was unbelievable … we just used it on drugs … I have nothing to show for it.” Meeting his wife settled him, but

28 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

their relationship was volatile, even after children. “I would get violent. The marriage was pretty toxic.” He was imprisoned for domestic abuse then bailed to his parents’ house. “I was physically at rock bottom … I lost my job, my family, my freedom … I got out with only the clothes I was wearing when I was arrested.” A friend introduced him to the twelve step programme. He got sober and attempted to patch up his relationships with his wife and kids, but without addressing his underlying issues his problems persisted. “Drugs weren’t actually the problem – for me they were the solution … abstinence without recovery is a really horrible place to be.” Despite his history, he was prescribed an opiate-based painkiller for a physical condition, leading him back into the cycle of drug abuse. An ultimatum from his wife sent him to rehab, but he resented his enforced sobriety and the marriage dissolved. “I had no hope … I didn’t care if I lived or

died. I was a wreck. Just broken.” The ensuing binge led him to “spiritual rock bottom” from which he re-entered rehab and lasting recovery. Today, he works with recovering addicts through WIT (Whatever It Takes). “For all the damage I’ve done in society I want to do some positive stuff – to restore balance.” He has not seen his children in five years but is working on mending those relationships, as he has with his father. He now feels compassion for his ex-wife who suffered the worst of his excesses. A new relationship and new fatherhood has opened his eyes to the capacity for joy that comes with being fully present to one’s own life. After numbing himself for years, he allowed himself to cry for the first time at his grandfather’s funeral – “One last gift from my grandfather, even after he’d died, was that ability to feel stuff … we had a little newborn baby – feeling the feelings that came with that was very special.”

about doing what’s right for our community – investing in social and medical infrastructure that will provide addicts with the outcomes they need, but also to invest in law and order to ensure that we can stop the supply.” Detective de Lange is mustering assets seizures – trying to make good on the promise crime doesn’t pay. He hopes increased numbers will expand the police’s capacity for prevention, and funnel users into treatment, rather than being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Nash promises that more than a quarter of new police recruits will be focused on organised crime, which he holds responsible for the supply of methamphetamine on our streets.

Your Brain on Meth

Methamphetamine was first given to fighter pilots in World War II as a stimulant to aid focus and wakefulness. It was prescribed for weight loss before negative effects led to criminalisation, though not cessation of use. It can be swallowed, snorted, smoked or injected. The initial rush creates a surge of dopamine – the happiness hormone – far in excess of other drugs…or sex, gambling, chocolate. Warne, former meth cook who has since become a

licensed minister, likens it to a religious experience. “It made me feel like Superman. I thought I was enlightened – I actually got really spiritual.” This rush subsides to a wakeful high. Middle-class Nancy recalls, “Meth makes you feel like you’re getting a lot done, but you’re just doing fuck all really fast.” As the high drops off, users binge to maintain a buzz that, thanks to tolerance, has diminishing return. After an extended, often dayslong, period without sleep, comes the ‘tweaking’ stage, which Nancy remembers thus: “You’ve got vertigo, you’re confused, you think people are saying things they’re not” – before a crash where users sleep for days. A period of semi-normalcy can ensue, though this disappears with frequent use. When the brain becomes accustomed to elevated dopamine levels, withdrawal can be excruciating. Logan highlights the risk of suicide at this point, or of beginning the cycle of abuse again. “The dopamine’s burned out – they literally can’t feel good.” “You want more and more, faster and faster, until you’re a slave to the drug. That’s the nature of the chemical profile of meth – highly addictive, creates tolerance very quickly, very hard to treat.” Logan describes the effects on

the brain as analogous to a car whose engine – the impulsive, fight or flight response – is revved up, while the brakes – the higher processing functions allowing rational thought and inhibitory responses – are failing. Meth also damages the ability to lay down new memories, challenging traditional methods of therapy that support users to form new, more healthy habits. The effect on children in utero is most chilling. These changes occur in the developing brain with profound and permanent cognitive and behavioural consequences.

Guilty victims

Dr Joseph Stone, a clinical psychologist in the field, has first-hand experience, having raised two adoptive sons exposed to methamphetamine in utero. Despite extensive and expensive therapeutic intervention, his elder son’s inability to control violent impulses or to learn from correction led to incarceration. “The first wave of methamphetamine affected babies are now young adults and are hitting the prison system and the adult mental health systems,” he says. As a clinician, he believes there is widespread misdiagnosis – as ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Autism

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 29

Spectrum Disorders – although he is quick to point out not all such diagnoses can be attributed to maternal methamphetamine use. “A child should be comprehensively evaluated and have a diagnosis respective of their history and symptomology.” He believes it is in the interest of upper management of health resources to provide diagnoses that can be medicated rather than offering more expensive global support services. “It becomes all about treating the ADHD instead of looking at the trajectory – this kid is not ever truly going to get better.” Law enforcement and government are invested in a model that separates out ‘innocent’ addicts to be offered treatment, from ‘guilty’ criminals to be punished. But users who become ensnared do not remain innocent for long. Lack of impulse control combined with an energy surge leads to violence. Methamphetamine has even been implicated in war crimes. Logan believes methamphetamine contributes to violent crime and domestic and child abuse. The insatiable hunger the drug arouses drives crime – theft, manufacture, dealing. From her years of use, Nancy says, “Every heavy meth user is a dealer at some point.”

More money, more problems

Detective Sergeant de Lange believes money is the primary motivator for methamphetamine distribution, and puts the blame on gangs. He dismisses the idea gang leaders are invested in its eradication. “If that’s their policy they’ve got work to do.” Yule agrees, “There’s a whole supply and funding going on … they get it but the money

Estimates of Social Cost and Harm of Methamphetamine Social cost per dependent user

Social cost per casual user

Harm per dependent user

Harm per casual user

$116,600 $8,300 $111,300 $7,900 Personal harm

Community harm

Total harm

$256.4m $91.4m $347.8m Intervention cost

Social cost

$16.4m $364.2m (Source: New Zealand Drug Harm Index 2016)

overrides any concerns.” Nash believes gangs have stepped up their game, taking on a clandestine business model that is sophisticated and lucrative. He vows to invest “significant amounts of money, resource and energy into going after these guys who are peddling misery into our communities.” As leader of Dannevirke’s Black Power chapter, Brendon Warne was a large-scale cook and distributer. “I thought I was helping my bros. They didn’t have any money … I thought I was doing a good thing. I wasn’t.” He says leaders are averse to the disloyalty meth inspires, and have even begun drug testing. “Gangs don’t control P, once P comes into the gang, P controls the gang. They can make a lot of money but it always crashes – when your members are on it they don’t love your club, they love that stuff, that’s the only thing they love.” Clearly there is a

clash between the illusion of power that drug dealing offers, and the reality of running an organisation when members are getting high on their own supply. User Nancy never resorted to contact with gangs, but had a steady supply of independent manufacturers. One had a big, beautiful house, surrounded by “toys” – the trappings of wealth – but insisted they congregated, sometimes for days, in a dingy garage. To move between rooms, he opened and locked each consecutive door behind him. “He was completely paranoid, but he was right to be. It didn’t help him in the long run – he went to jail in the end, lost everything.” In Logan’s research population, she sees the allure of fast cash that meth can present. “Imagine a young person who doesn’t feel they have many prospects in life, can’t get a job, maybe dropped out of school, in a disempowered

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30 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

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We want to get into schools, be real, talk with them, show them what happens to people, what the true stories are, doing it right. You only get one chance with youth. BRENDON WARNE, ANTI-P MINISTRY FOUNDER

place. Methamphetamine is an opportunity for a young person like that.” It’s an issue Stone comes up against in mandatory counselling for offenders, some of whom are making, though not retaining, big money. “I have nothing to offer a guy like that – what am I going to say, ‘McDonalds is hiring’?”

The ripple effect

The New Zealand Drug Harm Index estimates the monetary social cost of drug use. It’s a new and complex measure taking into account personal and community harm, petty and organised crime, loss of taxation revenue, policing and court costs, the price of intervention. For addicts, methamphetamine tops the bill with the highest cost per user: $116,600 per annum. For those without compassion for people locked in the cycle of addiction, Logan hopes this will motivate change. “Surely they can see how much it costs the community … there’s a really good economic reason apart from the social, moral and ethical reasons.” Logan and Stone come face-to-face with the wide and far-reaching community consequences in their educational talks. Grandparents raising grandchildren, some with profound behavioural problems. Exploitation of family and friends for money. Elder abuse. Vulnerable children exposed to predators while parents crash out. Domestic violence. Stone likens it to “throwing a rock into a still pool. Trauma spreads through the pool. If you’re in the pool those ripples are going to hit you, even if you don’t get hit by the rock.” Of the users he treats, 95% trace addiction to traumatic wounding. Transmission of trauma through society perpetuates drug abuse in a vicious circle.

Community problem, community solution

Everyone Bay Buzz spoke to spontaneously suggested that holistic engagement from all of us is needed to tackle this problem. Education and awareness are first steps.

Warne founded the Anti-P Ministry, travelling the country, spawning chapters from Whangarei to Otago. His Facebook page, featuring a weekly online church, provides support to thousands. “P took over my life, now fighting P is more important. I want to raise awareness, prevention, education.” He brings qualities that once made him a gang boss to his activism. Walking down Dannevirke High Street, he is clearly an important community leader. A woman asks to take his photo. Hone Harawira stops to hongi. A dinged-up banger full of patched-up kids throw up their hands in recognition as they hoon past. The Ministry’s work is funded by merchandise sales – hoodies, t-shirts, hats, stickers – that consciously mimic gang insignia. It makes people look up, show respect. He’s lost some support over his unorthodox methods, over concerns they would prevent efforts to procure funding. “Fuck your funding. We’re doing this because of the people … we’re grassroots.” His work has brought him into unlikely partnership with local law enforcement who refer users and families to the organisation. A community policeman stops to chat – he’s grateful for the work they’re doing in the town, both as an officer and a citizen. Warne says, “I’ve always had issues with the police but they’ve supported us and helped us achieve – without them we couldn’t have done it.” The visibility of his movement has made dealers unwelcome in town, as well as educating the community and supporting users to quit. He provides a safe space, food and counselling for users coming off meth. Since getting clean, he earned a qualification in mental health and addiction. “I’m going to do this until my last breath. I’ve got a lot to fix.” Meth erodes social fabric, sowing distrust in families, in communities. “They’ve usually burned their bridges, but the key is to integrate them back into the community – helping them build trust relationships back with

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“The return of nature’s gift, our native birds, to the people of Hawke’s Bay. For too long, Hastings and Napier have been ecologically barren, our unique birdlife absent, and our children growing up with no dawn chorus.” CHARLES DAUGHERTY, CHAIR OF HB’S BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY

Amber Logan and Dr Joseph Stone. Photo: Florence Charvin

If we tackle meth we tackle most of the other problems in the community at the same time. AMBER LOGAN, PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH PSYCHOLOGIST, COMMUNITY METHAMPHETAMINE EDUCATOR

family,” says Logan, adding that an integrated person is much less likely to use, to self-harm, to suffer psychological problems. For lasting recovery, Logan’s research champions the efficacy of a Family Systems Approach: offering support and education to the “constellation of people and social systems” around the user. Involving them in recovery and placing support structures around them help them to help their loved one. In such cases, “that person will have a much better chance of staying off meth and the family will have a much better chance of being resilient.” Family ties bring users to treatment. Losing children to CYFS is a primary motivator. “They tend to respond to treatment and get well because they want their kids back,” observes Logan. For user Nancy, surprise pregnancy led her to recovery. “We were lucky we had a bit of health education, that you don’t do that when you’re pregnant. I understood what that kind of toxic

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behaviour would do to an unborn child.” Therapeutic courts, where sentences are suspended on condition of treatment, have been trialled in Auckland and Wellington. From Logan’s academic and Stone’s practical perspectives, they present an opportunity for change. Currently, they see a dearth of wrap-around support and a lack of communication between underfunded, siloed services with long waiting lists. Nash admits, “we really do not have the social and medical infrastructure in place to deal with the methamphetamine epidemic at the moment.” Logan is invested in educating all sectors of society and community. “Unless we get community action we’re not going to get change. It takes all of us to recognise the problem and realise it could be our neighbour, our friend,” says Logan. “As long as we keep saying it’s someone else’s problem we’re divorcing it to someone else’s solution. We need a bigger solution than that.”

Blueprint for Change 1. Challenge stereotypes: all sectors of society use, more so in affluent areas. 2. Raise awareness: knowing the signs helps family and friends intervene. Sudden weight loss, unnatural wakefulness followed by long periods of rest, irritability and insolvency are all indicators. 3. Community support: offering help to family and community as well as to users themselves. 4. Wraparound services: communication between services so that when help is sought it can be given, fast. 5. Harm reduction: encourage injectable contraception for users to stem the flow of meth-affected children. 6. Skilled therapy: ensure therapists are educated in the effects of this particular drug rather than applying a generalised treatment model. 7. Follow the money: using asset seizures to fund treatment and to de-incentivise dealing. 8. Therapeutic court: shifting from a judicial model of punishment to one of treatment.

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Repurposing plastic: scaling the synthetic mountain. Unless New Zealand phases out far more than single use bags and urgently

bolsters its capacity for transforming end-of-life plastic into something commercially compelling, we’re setting ourselves up for a future of overflowing landfills and waste warehousing Darren Green, Green Sky Waste Solutions. Photo: Tom Allan

Story by Keith Newman Plastic forms an integral part of everything from cars to furniture, office and household appliances and a cornucopia of containers, but its fastest growing, lowest cost form – the bags, wrappers, straws and caps that litter our roadsides, river banks and foreshore – are the most difficult to recycle. While high-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics (grades 1-2) including bottles, trays and containers have a clear path for being transformed into more of the same, there are limited options for other plastics (grades 3-7), particularly if they’re contaminated. Larger plastic items delivered to collection points may be crushed for landfill or shredded and melted to create resin, but there’s little separation of other plastics that could be used in the mix. Big picture recycling is complicated by the fact that there are 67 local authorities with different sorting and recycling processes for this long-lasting oil and natural gas derivative. From May, China began rejecting shipments of our bulk plastic waste. They’ll only take quality and that requires a lot more sorting, something “most of our recovery facilities wouldn’t be able to achieve,” says 3R Group’s Dominic Salmon. That’s resulted in a massive backlog, mounting with every kerbside collection, as recyclers wait for container ships to the few destinations still prepared to take our virtually worthless plastic trash.

Subsidised recycling

Hawke’s Bay kerbside collection company Green Sky Waste Solutions can still export bales to some markets because of its high-level sorting, although chief executive Friederike Lugt admits glass and cardboard recycling now subsidise plastics. And it’s an increasingly competitive business. Green Sky recently lost its Central Hawke’s Bay contract when that council began outsourcing services to Auckland-based companies. It’s had the Hastings and Napier contract since 2012 and last October opened a 700 square metre sorting plant at Whakatu where its fleet of trucks unload cardboard, bottles, tins and plastic.

Plastic, oil, energy Currently fossil fuels represent 99% of feedstock for plastics. According to US environmental journal Grist, about 4% of the world’s oil production is used as feedstock for plastic, and another 4% or so provides the energy to transform the feedstock into handy plastic. However, biomass source materials for plastics are gaining interest: starch,

Lugt, wife of Green Sky founder Darren Green, says its 500kg export bales are 40% each of grade 1 and 2, and 20% of soft plastics. It doesn’t compact as that makes further sorting difficult and avoids long-term stockpiling which degrades waste. Green Sky is in discussion with potential manufacturers in Palmerston North, Auckland and Wellington for recycling options. A dilemma facing all collection companies is that contracts, performance and planning – including the recent Joint Waste Management and Minimisation Plan – are based on weight; while soft plastics only comprise two percent of the weight collected, the volume is growing. Lugt attributes this to increasing population and consumption, growing use of plastic packaging and ‘light weighting’, for example, the average 350ml water bottle going from 18grams to 10grams. “We’re picking up two to three times what we were five years ago,” with a huge increase in water bottles possibly

cellulose, sugars, lactic acid, organic waste, vegetable oils, micro-organisms. Less new plastic would save significant energy. According to the U.S. EPA, manufacturing new plastic from recycled plastic requires twothirds of the energy used in virgin plastic manufacture. And the plastics industry energetically promotes the energysaving virtues of plastic (e.g. use in cars and planes reduces weight, reducing fuel consumption).

due to water quality concerns and chlorination. While Hawke’s Bay encourages kerbside sorting, many households still dump everything in a single bag, partly through laziness and the lack of clear guidelines. Individual computer chipped bins for glass, paper and plastic will be introduced in Napier and Hastings from 2020 for improved monitoring and management. 3R’s Dominic Salmon says sorting and collection technologies need to improve as the political landscape “is charging” for change. A proposed per tonne levy will apply across all landfills including the 350 that currently don’t pay and yet take demolition materials, plastics and anything inert. That’ll bolster Environment Ministry coffers to encourage diversion, product stewardship schemes and contestable funds for on-shore processing.

Slagging the bag

In New Zealand, we use over 1.6 billion plastic bags annually. After carrying groceries and possibly getting

EnvironmentCentre

Hawke’s Bay

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second use as bin liners, they mostly end up in general rubbish landfills or blowing about and fragmenting into microplastics. The United Nation’s Environmental Programme (UNEP) says microplastics from plastic bags, ingredients in personal care products and even synthetic clothing, are one of the biggest threats to marine biodiversity. Greenpeace, representing the Plastic Free NZ coalition, wants to eradicate other ‘avoidables’ which make up an estimated 77% of the plastic waste washed up on our beaches. Greenpeace Oceans campaigner Emily Hunter wants a ban on plastic cutlery, straws and stirrers and a deposit system for plastic bottles with cash for returned empties. She proposes levies on “problematic” items such as coffee cups, food packaging and cigarette butts, targets for plastic reduction and incentives to “produce reusable packaging that doesn’t hang around in our oceans for centuries”. In 2017, packaging was a $4.2 billion business in New Zealand, employing around 50,700 people in 5,917 companies and contributing 1.8% of GDP. Packaging Forum members, manufacturers, brand owners and retailers have pledged to make all packaging recyclable or compostable by 2025 with nothing going to landfills after that date. Forum chairman Rob Langford wants comprehensive product stewardship across the packaging supply chain and increased investment in onshore processing for recycling and composting. He wants to make it as simple as possible for consumers “to do the right

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36 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

thing”. One option is the Forum’s Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, with its green and white bins, expected to be in Hawke’s Bay by the end of the year. To date the scheme, funded by 65 major brands, has bins strategically placed outside 400 supermarkets nationwide, collecting around 13 tonnes of soft plastic weekly, including shopping bags, bubble wrap and most kinds of film and wrappers. Forum spokesperson Lyn Mayes says the soft plastic collected, stored, baled and processed is expected to rise to 600 tonnes this year, the equivalent of about 150 million plastic bags. That’s up from 360 tonnes in 2017, but still only 11% of what we use annually. The day BayBuzz spoke to Mayes she was fielding reports of food scraps, cans and coffee cups being dumped into bins despite ‘no rubbish please’ labelling. Collectors were having to send contaminated content to landfills. Mayes says the scheme struggles because it has to pay processors to take what it collects. It is stockpiling ahead of new agreements with onshore processors who make resin for bollards, posts, decking, electrical cable covers and other recycled products. She’s hopeful a trial with an Australian company using it for roading mix will spark interest from New Zealand companies. Replas Australia which makes furniture, park benches, fitness and playground equipment canned an earlier deal because of a supply glut and the fact New Zealand councils and industry weren’t buying enough of their products. Mayes and others suggest true

circular economy initiatives need councils and government departments who sort and supply waste plastic to buy recycled end product so there’s “a pull through effect”. 3R Group’s Salmon poses the challenge, “Can you claim to be genuinely recycling if you are not buying recycled?” He says Flight Recycling in Lower Hutt has capacity to expand its processing of post-household PET plastics into more bottles, trays and containers, and in a perfect world, councils would be supplying them with raw product. Some supermarkets are replacing styrofoam meat trays with hydro-locking PET trays and several companies are already repurposing bulk plastic waste and even polystyrene as aggregate for concrete, building blocks and road seal. 3R Group, the Packaging Forum and the Sustainable Business Network are looking at innovative uses for collecting and processing lubricant containers.

Rural residue

Spray and chemical containers, silage wrap, buckets, drums, pipes and sheets from the agricultural and horticultural sector are also being diverted from landfill to turn into resins and low-grade oils. Agrecovery provides nationwide free recycling of containers up to 60 litres from 3,000 approved companies if customers triple wash and drain them and take caps off so they don’t become missiles in the crusher. It sees Hawke’s Bay as a growth area, with five collection points at Hastings, Napier, Waipukurau and Wairoa; it

“Everything we need can be made out of grades 1-2, which are readily recyclable.” FRIEDERIKE LUGT, GREEN SKY WASTE SOLUTIONS

will also turn up to larger sites with a shredding machine. Agrecovery sends the ‘shred’ to Astron Plastics in Auckland, one of Australasia’s largest processors of plastic waste. It converts this into resin for underground cable covers, bins, tubs, plant pots, slip sheets, bar chairs and wheelie bins. Earlier this year Astron partnered with Plasback, owned by crop packaging company Agpac, as part of a government-accredited product stewardship scheme. Since 2006 it has bagged and recycled over 10,000 tonnes of used rural plastics. Astron received $500,000 from the Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) this year to expand the range of plastics it can recycle, including silage wrap which has previously been sent offshore. It can now heat, treat, shred and make pellets for the creation of Tuffdeck and Plaswood products and Tuffboard, a plywood-replacement product for farm use.

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In an ideal world

Photo: Tom Allan

“So far our little community has helped save almost three million meters of plastic wrap from going into the environment.” STACIA JENSEN, LILYBEE WRAP

Commitment to change

As older packaging is phased out there’s a need for recyclable or compostable replacements. A Hawke’s Bay couple, Stacia Jensen and Miko Hayashi, got in on that game early with their LilyBee food wrap. The protective sandwiches film is made from locally-sourced beeswax, natural cotton, organic coconut oil and dammar gum tree resin. It can be washed in cold water and reused many times. It was trialed with family and friends and as demand grew, was publicly launched at Napier and Hastings Farmers Markets in late 2016 before going global. “It started with an online shop ... and Miko and I were doing everything for the business. We now employ about eight people,” says Stacia. The product is made at a warehouse in central Napier. “So far our little community has helped save almost three million meters of plastic wrap from going into the environment.” However, some alternative packaging is already creating more problems than it solves. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, warns there are unsubstantiated claims for some so-called biodegradable and compostable plastics.

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He wants Government to help resolve the confusion. “One can’t simply toss these products onto the compost heap, or into our recycling bins, and go away thinking ‘job done’.” While the logical option might appear to be paper bags, Dominic Salmon says based on lifecycle; the hot water and fibre required, “it’s much more environmentally friendly to produce plastic bags”. And claims aside, plastic alternatives need to be tested for strength, integrity and how they break down, as some require a commercial composter at 70-80 degrees Celsius. Claims for oxy-biodegradable product are only true if there’s sunlight and moisture. “In an anaerobic landfill where there’s no oxygen it doesn’t break down”. And Salmon asks whether genuinely biodegradable product from cornstarch or plant or food-based materials is coming from the waste stream, or using up valuable resources and putting food prices up? What’s needed is a composting infrastructure for this packaging and national standards for imported and locally made alternatives, which a government and industry working group is hoping to recommend by the end of the year.

Salmon says single use plastics in particularly are being “demonized”, despite having an important function as a strong protective barrier, providing an elongated shelf life for food and materials. Green Sky CEO Friederike Lugt agrees plastics “are a wonderful product” that earn a bad rap when “there’s no monetary value attached (and) we disrespect them.” Lugt, having recently completed a post-graduate degree in environmental management, believes recycling of low-end plastics is simply a stop gap measure. Phasing out all grades 3-7 plastics would create a much better economic base for recycling companies. “It’s all a by-product of fuel ... they’re usually made in layers and the printing often causes problems for recyclers.” Anyway, Lugt claims, “everything we need can be made out of grades 1-2, which are readily recyclable.” She believes tyres, batteries, e-waste and disposing of second-hand clothing are far greater issues, including the emerging problem of recycling drink bottles into synthetic clothing. “Clothing is 5% of our waste industry, and even when the plastics are turned into polyfleeces and the like and are no longer wanted, it’s still plastic.” Hard questions are being asked. Why do we import, create and use packaging that can’t be recycled? Why would we dump it on countries already struggling with poor infrastructure or rack up carbon miles sending plastic waste offshore then importing it back as park benches? Unless there’s a revolutionary change of attitude and convincing reasons for businesses to invest in plastic recycling, we’ll continue to be swamped by the synthetic excrement of our throwaway society.

Resources: Biodegradable and compostable plastic guide: www.pce.parliament.nz/publications/ biodegradable-and-compostableplastics-in-the-environment

Unison is pleased to sponsor robust examination of energy issues in Hawke’s Bay. This reporting is prepared by BayBuzz. Any editorial views expressed are those of the BayBuzz team and do not reflect the views of Unison.

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I D EAS A N D O P I N I O N TO M BEL FO R D

Health System at the Brink Robust public consultations this year around the region’s Long Term Plans have resulted in tens of millions of dollars being allocated to improving water infrastructure, to major amenities in our CBDs, and to serious upgrades in environmental protection. And currently underway is a massive consultation on future-proofing the Port, to be followed by another consultation on investing potentially $100 million in re-foresting the region to achieve soil conservation, water quality, biodiversity and revenue goals. Certainly the funding of these aspirations is important, and worthy of public review. But arguably, an investment even more critical, because it literally touches every life in Hawke’s Bay, has been before the public for consultation in recent weeks … with little public notice. The issue? Avoiding the collapse of Hawke’s Bay’s health delivery system. Does that sound too alarmist? Then read the warnings embedded in the discussion paper the HBDHB has just consulted upon, titled Transforming Our Health Services: Clinical Services Plan: the next ten years. Consultation on the Clinical Services Plan has been quiet in part because the DHB isn’t as practiced or creative in the art of public communication as our other local authorities have become (when they wish to be). Partly also because the warnings sounded have been voiced before (“Heard this before…yawn”). Partly because the changes required of ‘the system’ are operational and cultural and couched in bureaucratic terms, with no giant dollar figure to shock us to attention. And possibly most importantly, because the changes required also involve behaviour change on the part of each of us as agents of our own health and, when help is needed, how we as consumers use the health system. And we don’t really want to hear about those.

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HBDHB chairman Kevin Atkinson. Photo: Florence Charvin

It’s much easier to castigate the health system for not enough beds or nurses or doctors than to blame ourselves for tolerating unhealthy housing and domestic violence, or indulging in alcohol abuse, smoking or obesity-inducing lifestyles. As a community, we can choose to focus either on addressing these drivers of demand or pressure on our health care system, or on the bottom of the cliff … the infrastructure required to treat the ultimate consequences. The DHB can note its concerns about the drivers (plus warnings about demographic trends worsening the prognosis), and it obviously has a role to play in health education, but it can only most directly deal with its own operational capabilities. Hence the ‘boring’ Clinical Services Plan (CSP), which addresses how each of the parts and players in Hawke’s Bay’s health ecosystem – the hospital itself, primary care providers, specialists, home care providers, pharmacists, mental health caregivers and NGOs – must adapt and collaborate to re-invent how care can be delivered optimally in the face of limited resources and steadily rising demand. The main message of the CSP is headlined: “We cannot continue with the status quo.” Followed by: “It is clear we need a new approach if we are to achieve equity amongst our population and meet future demand. We cannot sustain services into the future if we continue to provide them in the same way we do now … We aim to fundamentally shift our

system and invest more in preventative care and primary health services, to improve consumer experience and outcomes, and avoid the need for more costly hospital treatment wherever possible.”

Way forward

Of course, for many, the first ‘solution’ is simply more money. And without question that would help. $8 billion in new money for health care has been committed by the current Government (after blasting the previous Government for severe under-investment). However, in a recent BayBuzz interview, HBDHB chairman Kevin Atkinson doesn’t see this as substantially changing the equation in Hawke’s Bay, since much of the $2 billion/year ‘new’ money will be spent on major capital infrastructure in Auckland and other population centres, while DHBs still run operating deficits. He expects the relative allocation of taxpayer money for health – as compared to other sectors, like housing and education – to remain steady … unless a Government comes along ready to raise taxes to increase the overall pot. He says, “We’ve got to be prepared to move forward knowing that there’s not going to be any dramatic increase. No Government’s going to come along and double the amount spent on health care.” So, there’s no magic money wand from Wellington. At the same time, Atkinson says, “Beyond any doubt, carrying on as we are now is unsustainable beyond another one or two years.”

Therefore, serving more people better in Hawke’s Bay – at a time of increasing demand from a growing (and largely impoverished and more likely unhealthy) young population, coupled with a significantly increased aged (and health care costly) population – will require: 1) Fundamentally changing how services are delivered; and, 2) Redeploying existing funds to integrated primary and community-based care that can strengthen the focus on prevention, improve accessibility, and treat patients at less cost. “We can work a lot smarter … and over time should offer our health services 24/7,” says Atkinson. “The integrated family health centre is the way of the future.” Another area he emphasises is improving our present “bleak” health literacy, particularly among youth and pregnant mothers, including building upon the increased free youth access to primary care the Government is funding. The changes previewed in the CSP seem well-reasoned and in line with best practice elsewhere. But they imply a skilled (and continually up-skilling) healthcare workforce outside the hospital – from home care people working with recent hospital dischargees and vulnerable seniors, to mental health caregivers and GPs. The CSP doesn’t quantify that need, or the extent of any workforce gap. Atkinson says that’s the next step. Assuming stakeholders buy into the CSP, its money implications will be worked into the DHB’s next annual plan and five-year strategic funding

programme. He notes that a significant share of DHB’s $600 million budget is currently spent outside the hospital, and these are funds ($250 million) that could be better deployed in the integrated community-based framework envisioned in the CSP. Alongside that, the funding model for supporting primary care, driven by GP visits, may need to change. His main point: the alternative … simply assuming more demand for hospital beds and increasing their number by 100% as ‘business as usual’ projections would require, is just not viable – it’s even more expensive and does nothing to mitigate the underlying health issues. So, where does that leave the hospital … the tip of the iceberg – perhaps more aptly, the lightning rod – that garners most of the local media attention and related public complaint? According to the CSP: “…the hospital takes a narrower focus in future. If we can achieve our ambition in other areas, in future the hospital will be a place providing specialist assessment and decision making for patients with critical illnesses or injuries, followed by intensive therapies for the first 24-48 hours of inpatient care before discharge or transfer to community settings; or delivering services that require specialist teams or equipment that isn’t feasible or cost effective to replicate in multiple settings.” Consumers will still come to the hospital for issues that should be addressed at primary care, overloading capacity and compromising care for those truly in need. ‘Elective’ services will still be rationed through

a government-dictated process that yields mystifying and sometimes outrageous priorities (“The current system is just wrong,” says Atkinson). Flash points like these will irritate the public, eroding confidence in the overall competence of ‘the system’. Effective partnerships, like contracting surgeries to Royston (about onethird of surgeries), can help relieve the pressure on the hospital. The Napier and Hastings health centres and paramedic services could be utilised more. And highly specialised treatments will still be referred to major centres. But the main adjustments that are needed: better self-care (including health literacy) and better utilisation of other parts of the system by providers and patients alike. And that is what the CSP proposes. The CSP gets my endorsement for its logic. But the ultimate test will be its implementation over the next few years. Either it is financially supported and all players buy in. Or the system will collapse. And that’s not hyperbole. [Editor note: The article that follows by Bridget Freeman-Rock examines how those working in and around the present HB health care system are responding to the CSP.]

Royston Hospital is pleased to sponsor robust examination of health issues in Hawke’s Bay. This reporting is prepared by BayBuzz. Any editorial views expressed are those of the BayBuzz team.

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Ensuring your healthcare needs are met so you can get the very best out of life

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 41

Dr Kevin Snee. Photo: Florence Charvin

HB Health System in Crisis Story by Bridget Freeman-Rock For those on the coalface of health, it’s no news that the way we deliver healthcare has to change. The unsustainability of our current approach is manifestly evident. When I speak with nurses from the hospital’s emergency department, they describe a health system in crisis, that’s breaking apart in every way. “We don’t go a week without being declared Code Red in ED,” one of them tells me. “And we’re blowing the budget on callback rates.” They speak of being over-run and overwhelmed, of being inundated with “GP stuff”, of “diabolical” dental issues, the end results of chronic illness, of social-related ills like domestic violence and alcohol abuse. They note the overflow from private residential aged care, where there’s no after-hours medical provision – “come 5pm or on any given weekend these patients become the hospital’s problem.” And they point to issues of access and affordability, of inconsistencies across primary health and poor communication between agencies. All these issues that are highlighted in the DHB’s draft Clinical Services Plan (CSP), recently released for public consultation.

A beautiful document but …

Sue Revell, nurse practitioner and clinical coordinator in ED at HB Hospital, has 30 years’ experience in the field. When she arrived from the UK 13 years ago, ED was seeing on average 65 patients per day, with a 9-1 patient-nurse ratio, and she says she found the workload “huge”. The daily average has since doubled, and nurses are now frequently managing 15+

“We’re keen to have people in hospital for as little time as possible. Because hospitals are dangerous places – you pick up infections, you decondition.” DR KEVIN SNEE

patients at any given time. “Each day, each month, each year the standard of care is dropping,” says Sue. “Patients are rushed, they’re not listened to, we miss things, because we’re running all the time.” While she says the CSP “makes perfect sense, it’s a beautiful document,” she’s sceptical about whether it will translate into change on the ground. And it’s scepticism, or a certain jadedness, I meet with almost everyone I interview. “Yes, we do fundamentally need to change how we’re delivering our healthcare, but every year the annual plan talks about reducing inequities, improving Māori and Pasifika health, the need to engage more between secondary and primary care – it’s been written every year for I don’t know how long.” She says, “We all believe in this,” but the trouble is the enthusiasm and funding tends to go in at the fact-finding stage; when it actually comes to “doing the hard yards, it seems there’s no money for it. Or there’s money for the trial, which shows it works, but then it’s not implemented in the same way, so they lose bits of the puzzle.” Sue’s big concern is the ‘how’. “It’s the implementation they seem to fall down on.”

Expensive consultations

Sue says it’s not enough to look at the crowding in ED and say the patients should all be at their GPs. There’s a general lack of adequate health understanding and knowledge of the health system, for starters. But often they’ve already been to their GP and been sent on due to pressures, not having facilities, needing specialist services, or haven’t been served well in the past. There are a lot of inconsistencies in the capabilities and service provision of general practice. “The GP might be the best place to send your patient but what if they can’t afford it?” It can cost $70 to see a GP (if it’s after-hours and you’re not enrolled in the medical clinic), with additional costs for treatments – in ED it’s all free. Sue says while cost is a huge barrier, accessibility is just as influential. “Can you get an appointment when you need it, which is usually today? You might not need it clinically, but it’s another day off work, because you’re not feeling very well or you need it sorted and now you’ve got the opportunity to do it. “It’s accessibility, it’s the cost, it’s getting in to see the GP when you can. A lot of people who are on low wages have more than one job, and

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“As a society we have had a collective agreement to let people be in abject poverty – since the mid-1980s we have voted to lower the health budget.” Photo: Florence Charvin

it’s difficult to find the right time… We get a lot of kids brought in at 10pm, because that’s when the car came back to the house, when one of the parent’s shifts ended.” The rise of living costs is compounding the situation, as too job insecurity and poor housing. She says patients often don’t have any sick days and can’t afford to take time off to give their injury or illness the due recuperation required. These are the impacts of poverty and the statistics that disproportionately affect young, Māori and Pasifika families.

Going private

At the other end of the spectrum of pressure (with our aged population set to double over the next decade), 80-yearold Marie Dunningham is recovering at home from a hip replacement. The former Plunket nurse and Grey Power secretary says, “The only time you get good service is when you’re deteriorating at a fast pace, or if they stuff up,” which happened in the case of her husband’s unchecked diagnosis last year.

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MARIE DUNNINGHAM

Marie, who’s been fiddle-fit and contributed actively to the community all her life, waited years for treatment while she watched her mobility and independence diminish, despite all efforts to do ‘the right thing’. When she could no longer walk to the letterbox, she gave up on the public health system and went private – her family chipped in to fund the $30,000 operation at Royston. “I didn’t have a choice, but at least I was able to pay it – many can’t.” She believes if she’d had surgery five years ago, she would have recovered quicker, with a better chance of returning to being a productive member of society. “They wait until it’s too late.” As the CSP outlines, earlier interventions (and preventions) will lead to faster turn-around and ‘bounce-back’, incurring less overall cost. “That has to make sense,” says Marie. But she’s adamant that if the emphasis shifts to keeping elderly at home rather than in hospital/residential care, we will need a far better home care system – care is too short, it’s not done properly and people remain isolated, in her view. “The elderly need more

support at home, they need more variety of support, and support that isn’t hurried.”

Broader avenues of access

The DHB representatives I speak to, CEO Dr Kevin Snee, Dr Colin Hutchison and secretary Ken Foote, say there’s broad recognition, not just locally, but internationally, that health systems need to do far more outside of the hospital than in it. We need to think differently, to move away from the traditional one doctor, one patient model, explains Hutchison, to primary care teams delivering ‘modules of care’ for a cohort of people. “Often the most relevant primary care practitioner isn’t a doctor.” By way of example, Snee points out that 16% of New Zealanders will experience mental health issues at some point in their lives, and yet, mental health services currently only cater for 5%. Those with mild to moderate mental health problems receive limited support; indeed there’s “not much in the way of public treatments even for relatively severe cases”.

Snee says the emphasis will be “on getting mental health workers into primary care”, alongside GPs for instance. “That’s a model we see successfully used in other parts of the world.” He says the challenge won’t be funding it so much as finding adequately trained people. “So we’re not going to be able to do it all at once, but we can do it over time.” And that’s reflective of the broader plan, which is about what the DHB and its health partners are going to do over the next 10-15 years. Once the concept of ‘directional change’ is approved (December, all going well), an ‘implementation plan’ will be developed, with a staged approach, and alongside that Snee says the DHB will be working to make their case to central government for additional funding ($300-400 million) to upgrade the hospital, which is no longer fit for purpose. Looking at workforce requirements (such as more mental health practitioners) and IT “to support the model going out” will be a key focus. But Snee is clear, there’s no more money coming in to fund “lots of additional staff”. “So we need to be looking gradually over time at how we shift our thinking and our resources to do things differently. When people tell

me there’s no money, well actually we spend about $600 million per annum. If you just rethink 2% of that, that’s $12 million. There is money there, it just needs to be well deployed.”

Community flexibility to services

As to how change might look, Snee brings up the Havelock North water crisis, during which, by necessity, general practices in the area “adapted really quickly to work in a different way” – they used the telephone more to consult and triage patients, delegated certain treatment procedures to nurses, made use of community pharmacists. And some of that has continued on. Last year the Community Pharmacy Contract introduced more community flexibility to the way services can be commissioned and run, and the DHB is rethinking the way community pharmacists can work as part of the health system, says Snee. “What you’ve got in community pharmacies is an under-utilised, highly trained group of clinical professionals”, who in the past spent a lot of time counting out pills. With robotics on the horizon, the move by supermarkets into the pharmacy space, and a profession that’s

relatively young (average age: mid-30s) and female, there’s appetite to develop new roles. Pharmacists could become the first-point of call for minor ailments and “the whole nine yards”. Evidence from elsewhere indicates that if primary care is broadened out, providing ready availability and sameday access, then the pressure on ED services is bound to decrease. Similarly, Snee wants to make sure that those things that really need to be done in the hospital are high quality and efficiently done. He notes that surgical procedures are becoming less and less invasive and rehabilitation services work to get people back onto their feet as quickly as possible to counter ‘PJ paralysis’ – the rapid deconditioning that happens for patients left sitting in bed.

Not enough GPs

If you’re registered with a GP, good for you; if not, best of luck. Many general practices no longer take new patients, most have waiting lists. GPs are also an ageing force. At the Hastings Health Centre, there are at least four GPs who’ll retire within the next 5-7 years. “There’s no guarantee we’re going to be replaced,” says Dr Alan Wright.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 45

Attracting and retaining doctors in the provinces is an issue, “It’s not just about sunshine and fly-fishing”. Dr Wright says he hasn’t had a salary increase in 10 years, despite mounting expectations on GPs to deliver more, with ever bigger responsibilities and without the required tools or funding. He says he’s seeing burn-out in general practice, and like teachers, “we’re at the point where we’ve had enough.” He says, while Hastings Health Centre is already making changes to its model, employing nurse practitioners and primary care assistants (who are not fully trained doctors) to take up certain elements of urgent care, it’s still contingent upon GPs being “the default situation”, both for patients as well as for the professional oversight. “Until you can get a situation where those practitioners are mandated to work independently, you’re still going to need GPs to provide the back up for that service. You’d have to change everything about the way health care is delivered in New Zealand for the numbers of GPs to be sufficient.” Many will argue that this is exactly what needs to happen – a radical, fundamental overhaul. But whether there is the willingness and the foundation

of trust required is questionable. What the Hastings Health Centre would like to see is more care, which the DHB funds in hospital, being funded instead in the community. If a patient comes to the GP with chest pain, for example, it will cost them about $250 (for ECG and an x-ray). Until the DHB transfers costs over for urgent care services, says Wright, you’d be a fool not to “short-circuit your doctor, get an ambulance and head straight to ED.” He says there are models already for this kind of partnership, like the Coordinated Primary Options (CPO), a programme that’s developed individual pathways over time to keep people out of ED. “So if you’ve got a suspected clot in your calf, a DVT, you don’t go to ED anymore because they can’t manage you any better than us. You come to us; we’ve got the ability to provide that care free of charge, including the scan, including the treatment, because the DHB have given us money to do that. We’ve just had it audited, it’s brilliantly successful. We need to do more and more of that stuff; it just requires a bit of trust and funding.” One of the biggest drawbacks, says Wright, is GPs don’t have access to

diagnostic investigations – Wright can’t order an MRI for a patient of his, for example, the patient has to be referred to a specialist. “GPs are actually quite good at working out what’s wrong, and what’s right, for their patients … The DHB needs to release things like the diagnostics into primary care so we can see whether we can do it more appropriately.” Wright would like to see an honest conversation on surgical priorities. He says he has lots of patients with “simple, fixable problems, like hernias and carpal tunnel syndrome and ganglions, which interfere with their work capabilities ... Yet I’ve got other people who are not going to achieve a great deal from having their surgical procedure and yet a lot of money is spent on them and then we can’t do the simple stuff … Let’s do more of the simple stuff and say no to some of the complex stuff. We have to be honest with people – it doesn’t matter what you call it…but there is rationing in this society.”

Funding

For those in the ‘trenches’ – the nurses, GPs, patients like Marie – it’s difficult to imagine the plan having any teeth for change if it isn’t properly resourced, and

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46 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

Rana and Michelle with the mobile dental van at Kimi Ora School, Flaxmere. Photo: Florence Charvin

funded. They tend to be sceptical about the DHB’s intention to redeploy funds as just another exercise in cost cutting. But for those involved in the big picture perspective, who are looking with an eye to systemic change, which is what this plan signals, we don’t require more dollars, but better use of the ones we have, as Snee commented above. Graeme Norton, chair of a national collective of consumer councils, is adamant “the funding is there, we just need to stop doing stupid stuff.” Over 80% of our health spend now is on long-term conditions, and as Norton points out, “the drivers are not in health at all … Income status, behaviours, social connectedness, housing, etc – it’s these social determinants that determine your degree of wellbeing.” Shifting focus to a more holistic approach sits at the heart of the government’s ‘wellbeing budget’, he notes. Norton cites data that shows over a 15-year period we spent more than two thirds of our health spend for the over-65s on the 9% of the population who are in aged residential care. The average stay was 8 months. That industry has largely been captured by corporations. “We’ve got this really perverse system which is ratcheting up the cost of the last years of life when actually most people would prefer to

be supported at home.” In contrast, only 2% of the health system spend is on prevention. “There’s a whole bunch of worried well-off who clog the patient rooms of GP sessions because they can afford to pay the co-payment – they don’t need to be there.” Personally, he’s frustrated that he has to pay to go to a doctor or online every three months to order the prescription medication he will need every day for the rest of his life, along with a 6-monthly blood test. “I could go to a hole in the wall and get the pill; my phone would have a QR code on it that would approve me getting it. All that stuff’s doable, but we’re not doing it and we’re not incentivised to get there.” Norton believes the current health system routinely disempowers people, whereas it should partner with people over time so that they make the right choices and are well supported. While we train and recruit for skill, a clinician’s capacity to ‘coach’ people may ultimately be more important. “We leave the best player on the bench. We do stuff to people or for them, or sometimes with people, but it’s hardly ever enabling them to continue to do it themselves without support.” The CSP doesn’t go far enough for Norton – “It’s not grounded in our acceptance that we’re miles away from

where we need to be. And it’s not brave enough to accept that things have changed.”

More consumer engagement

Rachel Ritchie, chair of HB Consumer Council, is more diplomatic: “In the big scheme of things, we think the CSP is going in the right direction.” They see the inclusion of person/whanau-centred care in the plan as positive, but ultimately, as with most people I speak with, it’s change on the ground that they’re more interested in, and that’s often “hard to see in the DHB world.” “To date the system has been about providing what the DHB and health services, clinicians, the Ministry of Health decide needs to be provided. I say, talk to your community, find out from them what’s needed. And then change the service provision to fit what the consumer needs for their best health outcomes.” Currently, explains Ritchie, health is streamed, and it’s a vertical, top down direction, creating very siloed approaches, “because that’s the way the money flows.” But people don’t move like that – their needs are eclectic and ranging. We need a more horizontal, across board approach, with a focus on different demographics (youth, men’s health, older populations, etc), rather than on services, per se.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 47

Photo: Florence Charvin

“At the moment the hospital’s a big white elephant chewing up all the resource. With the demand on healthcare, the cost, we’ve got to have a primary care led health system.” BAYDEN BARBER

Bayden Barber, Hastings District councillor and chair of Health Hawke’s Bay – Hawke’s Bay’s amalgamated primary health organisation (PHO), an umbrella for general practices – agrees. “For too long,” he says, “plans have followed the provider, those delivering services.”

Respectful relationships

What’s identified as important to Māori in terms of health, is often whānau, whānau relationships, culture, says Barber, with the patient and the health practitioner communicating on equal terms, not in a hierarchical doctor-patient paradigm. Barber is impressed with the Nuka South Central Foundation in Alaska, a self-determined indigenous healthcare model, which is included in the CSP. He notes there are no ‘patients’ but rather ‘customer owners’. “They own the health system, they own their own health.” The biggest difference in the Nuka model, he says, was the way health professionals engaged with people on a one-to-one basis or as a group-whānau. “Their whole philosophy is around respectful relationships” where ‘customer-owners’ are part of the healthcare solution, not just a patient or another number walking through the door. “How we relate to our whānau translates into health outcomes, and

48 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

they’ve shown that in Alaska with some of the health improvements they’re seeing, just by changing the way they engage with individual families, iwi.” “If you don’t get the relationship side of things right, people don’t engage. And we have high disengagement with healthcare in many communities – they might be enrolled but they don’t engage.” Health Care Home, a NZ primary healthcare model tabled in the CSP for Hawke’s Bay, incorporates aspects similar to the Nuka system: holistic, person-whānau centred, wrap-around care. Barber sees this as a “major development”.

Investing in young, poor, brown

Dr Taemumu Richardson has a wide spectrum of GP experience in both rural and urban communities, including working for Māori health providers, and has been on both the PHO and DHB’s clinical councils. When we meet up, she hands me a post-it note: The differential access to the goods, services and opportunities of society. “That’s a definition of racism,” she explains, and for her, that’s the white elephant in the room. As she sees it, the health inequities at the heart of the health system, consistently affecting Māori, are symptomatic of institutional racism and the

ongoing legacy of colonisation. She says it’s a striking omission that neither word is mentioned in the CSP. Richardson says the CSP doesn’t acknowledge the work the health sector will need to do on those upstream determinants of health, beyond just clinical services, in order to have equitable outcomes. However, she does see a lot of positives in the plan. The CSP states an objective to have no difference in health outcomes between Māori and the general population – a pretty radical statement. She observes that you never actually see a goal of ‘no disparity’ written in an official document. Although we have all the evidence we need regarding health inequities, Richardson doesn’t think people really understand the level of unmet need in the community and the kind of investment and disinvestment that will be required. Politically, the disinvestment discussion is a hot potato, and it will be very hard for a DHB to undertake in isolation. It’s not that there’s “no fat in the system,” says Richardson. “If we genuinely commissioned with health equity as our goal, we would actually be able to make quite significant gains with the money we have already.” But doing this would require strong and consistent leadership commitments across the whole of Hawke’s Bay, “which is more than saying that on a document”. It would mean being clear about investing in young, poor, brown families, with health equity as a priority, having an understanding that institutionalised racism and colonialism are the barriers to us being able to realise that vision, and seeing that we all stand to gain a better health system, a more equitable society, if we address this. What’s become apparent to me through the prism of the CSP (a dry policy document), is that health is a much bigger conversation than ‘clinical services’. Like climate change, it’s almost overwhelming in the degree to which it permeates all aspects of our social structure and the extent of what needs to change on all levels. And it’s a conversation we all need to be having. The Clinical Services Plan is just that … a piece of paper. But most I spoke to agree that it’s a fairly bold first step down a road we have to take. No one disputes that we cannot continue as we are. And it’s not just the ‘system’ that needs to change. As individuals we must change how we frame health and partner in our own healthcare.

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Toro Waaka. Photo: Florence Charvin

Power Shifting: Making Room for Māori Voices Story by Keith Newman Councils and Pakeha leaders take it on the chin as BayBuzz gives the Māori perspective on what’s wrong with local co-governance in Hawke’s Bay. Debate over the shape of co-governance at the region’s decision-making tables is heating up as Hawke’s Bay Māori reclaim mana and over half a billion dollars in land, resources and cash in Treaty of Waitangi settlements. As nine hapu (sub-tribal groups) flex their newfound political and financial muscle, elected representatives and council officers across the region are responding warily to the inevitability of a stronger Māori voice in shaping local government policies and plans. There’s talk of these Post Settlement Governance Entities (PSGEs) challenging the structure of overarching iwi authority Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Inc (NKII), while councils’ traditional Māori committees angle to be more than simply cultural advisors. With more Māori on local councils than ever before, marae committees becoming more connected, and hapu talking about huge developments and investments, it’s no wonder there’s angst over how the Treaty partners plan to work together. Recent Crown-led initiatives, including ‘three waters’ and new Resource Management Act (RMA) co-governance tools, are placing even stronger emphasis on closer working relationships. At the same time, the power play underway within Hawke’s Bay Māori leadership looks no different than in pakeha politics, with the same drivers of ambition, agendas and historical grievances further complicating the path to co-governance.

Different expectations

Already there’s a clash of worldviews between Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s processes and the more holistic and philosophical Te Ao Māori (Māori world) approach of its PSGE partners. The Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Act, insisted on by Ngati Pahauwera when it became the first Hawke’s Bay hapu to settle, created a framework to discuss, oversee and sign off RMArelated plan changes and policy statements ahead of full council agreement. The resulting Regional Planning Committee (RPC) comprising the nine PSGEs and nine councillors as equal voting members was supposed to improve engagement over the health of our rivers, aquifers, estuaries, wetlands, water quality, biodiversity and the environment. However, in July, after nearly five years, RPC co-chair Toro Waaka, frustrated at HBRC’s narrow interpretation of the Act, called for the councillors to be replaced with commissioners. Although the Government has dismissed that challenge, it did underline the fact that both parties were operating with different expectations. Waaka, chair of Ngati Pahauwera PSGE, claims HBRC treated it no differently than other submitters when it raised concerns around environmental and water degradation in the Long Term Plan. “We didn’t speak to our submission because we thought we might be in conflict and would still be involved in the decision making ... in the end we missed out on the whole discussion.” In the case of the Tutaekuri, Ahuriri, Ngaruroro and Karamu (TANK) catchments plan change, Waaka says the RPC was essentially asked to rubber

stamp the recommendations of council scientists and experts. He says the RMA and the HB RPC Act both have strong references to Māori participation and co-governance and yet “it appears that people in power don’t actually want to let go any of it”.

“NKII makes assumptions about certain things that we don’t buy into. While they say they’re a mandated iwi authority, that might be the case for fish.” TORO WAAKA, RPC CO-CHAIR

Api Tapine, Napier councillor and trustee of Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa PSGE, says the way the Act is being interpreted doesn’t contribute toward genuine partnership and he struggles to find how Māori values are given effect. While HBRC officers are “doing their damndest” it ends up constraining both parties — “it’s like a push-me, pull-you and we’re getting nowhere.” Rex Graham, chairman of HBRC and co-chair of the RPC was shocked and disappointed at the public rebuke by the PSGEs, but agrees further discussions are needed to get things back on track.

An imperfect model

NKII chairman, Ngahiwi Tomoana says the RPC Act needs to be revisited as it’s an imperfect model with a structure that remains “subservient to HBRC”.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 51

“Māori concerns about waterways, aquifers, river berms have been falling on deaf ears for around 30-years and even now ... Māori are still seen as a problem child.” NKII CHAIR, NGAHIWI TOMOANA

Top: Ngahiwi Tomoana. Photo: Tim Whittaker tim.co.nz. Bottom: Des Ratima. Photo: Florence Charvin.

52 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

The next step toward “longer term co-governance, co-management and co-operation”, he says, will take “courageous leadership in partnership modelling” rather than deferring all the hard questions back to central Government. Tomoana says the PSGEs have gone through “a torturous process” and are still a bit “punch drunk” after “20-years in the trenches fighting the Crown”. They’re exercising independent authority, which they’ve not had before, and come out swinging at anyone; at times including their own neighbours, local government and iwi; “even trying to break up NKII to get some of our resources”. That, says Tomoana graciously, “is a natural phenomenon” he’s seen with other settlements. It’s “an evolutionary phase until they find they’re not big enough to make a dent in social, economic and environmental issues” on their own. He says the local Māori economy won’t go ahead without strategic alliances with the private sector and local and central government. “As big as we think we are in terms of our settlements, there are private family trusts in Hawke’s Bay that have even more

money, so we need to be collaborating with each other.” Tomoana says hapu claims were always part of a wider iwi strategy, that’s why NKII is keeping out of the way while they’re developing their own “institutional capacity”. He’s encouraged that claimant groups already tipped the scale for greater involvement in the Matariki Hawke’s Bay Regional Economic Development Strategy (HBREDS) at an October review meeting. During a vote on who should lead the way, the PSGEs voted for Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay “because both felt they were being neglected throughout the process”. This “is the new reality” says Tomoana, where the old power bases can be outvoted by new groups “who have assets and capital to contribute to the equation where previously they were largely silent”.

Who speaks for whom?

Treaty settlement groups in other regions have had up to 25 years to build capacity, but the reality is only just dawning for Hawke’s Bay PSGEs, who represent around 26% of the population. With increasing pressure for all

public bodies to consult across all issues, the question keeps coming up, who has the mandate to speak for Māori? Iwi authority status is held by NKII and Kahungunu Asset Holding Company, which manages the fisheries settlement and other iwi investments. NKII represents six taiwhenua; Wairoa, Whanganui a Orotu (Napier/Ahuriri), Heretaunga (Hastings area), Tamatea, Tamakinui a Rua (Southern Hawke’s Bay/ Dannevirke) and Wairarapa. Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga is the most resourced, with around 200 staff dealing with health, welfare, social, environmental and cultural development. Marae put forward candidates for the governance bodies in the lead up to iwi elections in April 2019, including the role of chairman, currently held by Tomoana, the longest serving tribal leader in the country. He’s been on the NKII board for 30 years and chair for 22 with no plans to walk away. In regional Māori politics there’s a three-year term which suffers the same obstacles as mainstream electoral cycles; low voter engagement, with Māori communities not always connecting to their local marae. However, Taiwhenua o Heretaunga

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kaihautu Marei Apatu, is hopeful the recent “marae aspiration hui to help define dreams and visions” will see accountability and transparent processes “to manage asset portfolios so they can each create wealth.”

No single voice

Just as there’s no single voice for the five Hawke’s Bay councils, there’s no single answer for who represents Māori. “While everyone wants one voice from Māori, when we want to speak to Government we get sent to 36 different departments that reside in Hawke’s Bay,” says Tomoana. NKII must relate to three regional and eight local authorities and decision making is about getting the right people around the right table at the right time. “Traditionally power has always rested with the hapu, but we all come together in times of high strategic value ... but at a leadership level NKII needs to be there as well.” Tomoana says NKII was set up to handle all government contracts that were to be devolved to Māori. “Our constitution still says that ... We have to provide a social return to all Māori.” Toro Waaka, a former CEO of NKII who resigned when it backed off from representing his Ngati Pahauwera

tribal area, says NKII “makes assumptions about certain things that we don’t buy into; while they say they’re a mandated iwi authority that might be the case for fish.” He says Taiwhenua o Heretaunga “does an excellent job of community development and services”, but every taiwhenua has its own constitution which can be problematic. A good word to describe Māori representation, he says, is “fluid”. Des Ratima, the chair of Nga Marae o Heretaunga, representing that district’s 18 marae, muses; “You can’t say let’s have an election for the mayor of the Māoris. It just doesn’t go that way.” He says whakapapa (genealogy) will have an input as will mana (prestige and respect). Māori leadership can be “demanding and parochial; one day they’ll be for you and the next against you”.

Korero mai marae

Ratima, says Nga Pou o Heretaunga, erected in Hastings Civic Square in 2013, representing an ancestor from each marae in Heretaunga-Takitimu, was a symbolic “galvanising” of an agreement to work together. Previously he says marae provided numbers for health, education and other research, but were rarely beneficiaries.

“The idea was to collectivise our marae and get them to speak with their own voices and interact a lot more.” He agrees there’s often a disconnect between how councils operate and how Māori want to operate. A good example is the controversy around the zig zag track cut into Te Mata Peak. “It never started properly and it wasn’t followed through properly.” Ratima says, the first question should have been, is this a hapu or an iwi issue? “If it is a hapu issue then both Waimarama and Pakipaki will have a position and neither of them is wrong. If it’s an iwi issue then NKII might ... take the lead, then ask the others what they think.” Through a process led by Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and her council, the landowner and Māori “we’re getting to see each other’s point of view”. Ratima, colloquially known as ‘the mayor of Whakatu’, says representative leadership is an important debate that needs to be had. “I don’t care whose leading that as long as the beneficiaries are part of that pathway.”

Long game afoot

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Api Tapine. Photo: Florence Charvin

narrowly avoided a referendum on Māori wards during the last electoral cycle, conceding its current representation was adequate, although its Māori Joint Committee (MJC) is under review ahead of the 2019 elections. Chairman, Robin Hape, says there’s a long game afoot around co-governance “to see what appetite there is for more effective Māori representation”. The review is considering a broader role for the marae-based MJC, which also includes six councillors and the mayor, and whether PSGEs and NKII should have more of a voice. “Māori don’t have anywhere else to go...how we come to grips with the system and work with it is not just up to us.” Hape would like to see improved capacity among Māori to engage with local authorities. “Local government is not something that is well understood by our people and there’s an apathy about getting out and voting.” Hastings has four elected Māori councillors: Henare O’Keefe, Jacoby Poulain, Bayden Barber and Ann Redstone; Wairoa District has three: Hine Flood, Denise Eaglesome-Karekare and Charles Lambert; Central Hawke’s Bay has Shelley Burne-Field; Api Tapine is the

solitary Māori on Napier City Council; none were elected to HBRC. Api Tapine was pleasantly surprised when “around 47” Māori looked to play a role in regional politics last election. “We are slowly being found at the decision-making table so we don’t have to litigate to inject our perspective, we can participate.” He says the PSGE structures are the first opportunity to form relationships with government and business. “Once it’s more settled and appreciated how those structures can be used to build sustainable relationships we will get a more balanced airing of viewpoints.”

Back to the people

Hastings councillor, Henare O’Keefe, believes much of the interaction between Māori and councils is too clinical. “I think we need to take this country back from the bureaucrats. Just look at health and safety, it’s become draconian.” What’s needed, he suggests, is to get back to basics. “You can laugh, love and forgive within that infrastructure. Humanise it, humble it, focus on the soft infrastructure ... take it back to the people.” On the marae, he says, it’s often hard

to tell who’s in charge. “You collaborate...you are cleaning the toilets one minute, then giving a speech, then in the kitchen...it happens seamlessly.” The paramount thing before councils get around the table with Māori is, “Have you got a relationship?” Having a hongi and a welcome onto the marae doesn’t mean you have a relationship. “It’s a lot more personal and it needs to be continuous. Interact on the marae, at the rugby ... over a cup of tea.” And Māori need to have that relationship with councils as well, “it works both ways,” says O’Keefe. While the current NKII and the Taiwhenua structure “can be seen as disjointed”, he says “we have to make it work through collaborating and sharing resources and ideas and being open and transparent with one another.” Ideally, he would like to see marae, hapu and iwi more united with stronger leaders so it’s obvious who should sit at the table. “I don’t grieve over it ... I just get on with it.”

Respecting values

All the leaders spoken to by BayBuzz agree that meaningful engagement can only be achieved by a concerted effort

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 55

Marei Apatu. Photo: Tim Whittaker tim.co.nz

to understand and respect each other’s values. Currently Māori feel they’re up against entrenched systems, processes and interpretations of “power sharing” which frustrate the relationship. Robin Hape, chairman of Kahuranaki Marae and CEO of Pahauwera Development Trust says Treaty principles of partnership are often left to individuals to interpret but “usually the power is in someone else’s hands ... We have to find that accord to see how decision-making can be shared.” Ngahiwi Tomoana says Māori concerns about “waterways, aquifers, river berms... have been falling on deaf ears” for around 30 years and even now, when hapu and iwi are “solutions focussed”, Māori are still seen as a problem child. “We have some institutional capacity now, we have our own scientists and legislators who read everything that’s going on and are able to contribute.” Marei Apatu, whose role at Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga is to manage relationships with central and local government on matters including the RMA and development planning, says there’s not been a proper open

56 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

“It’s not a great track record, HBRC is still demonstrating the bad characteristics of behaviour and attitude that my tipuna have had to put up with for generations.” MAREI APATU, TE TAIWHENUA O HERETAUNGA

discussion about how the Regional Council and Māori can work together. He says a process was set up in 2003 for facilitating and supporting marae and hapu as they prepared for Treaty settlements. Today, his staff of thirteen, including a hydrologist, ecologist, scientists and specialists, who were involved in the TANK process, are there to advise the PSGEs. He believes the Bay of Plenty District Council has got the model right. It’s fully supportive of its seven iwi representatives and has twelve Māori staff – “they had the right conversation at the right time ...ten years ago.” Apatu says Hawke’s Bay Māori have been trying to establish that kind of relationship with HBRC “since Adam was a baby”, but it’s not a great track record. “They’re still demonstrating the bad characteristics of behaviour and attitude that my tipuna have had

to put up with for generations.” He is encouraged that Pieri Munro has been appointed to manage Māori partnerships, but says he needs a support team around him.

New song sheet needed

Apatu says Māori groups need to be “singing off the same page” if they’re going to try and deal with big issues that affect plans and policies such as the quality and quantity of water. “You need a political arm and strength and capacity ... and they’re now starting to call on us for that help.” Api Tapine suggests the size and complexity of territorial local authorities means they ‘compartmentalise’ while Māori want to deal with things holistically. “We like to look at the effect of one thing on another, rather than dealing in isolation.” For example, he says, recognising

river water levels have as much to do with irrigation and the economy as they do with life sustaining habitats is currently “a challenge”. Tapine agrees both parties need to listen more, conceding Māori are sometimes in a hurry to achieve balance and “can mis-hear or only hear through our lens”. He’s hopeful efforts to better understand each other’s values will avert the need for Māori seats. Tomoana says the national Iwi Chairs Forum has been talking to Cabinet ministers for fifteen years on how relationships can be improved. One of the tools to emerge is the Mana Whakahono ā Rohe: Iwi Participation Arrangements, designed to assist tangata whenua and local authorities discuss, agree and record how they will work together under the RMA. “It clearly stipulates each council must join with iwi or hapu partners to determine new planning systems and strategies ... they can get a smack on the hand from the Crown if they don’t.” Adding complication is the formation of the Office for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti (the bridge) which further side-lines the iwi leaders. It has the goal of “making the

Crown a better Treaty partner” by advising the public sector, including councils, on how to engage with iwi groups and which ones to deal with. How all of this plays out in the regions is yet to be seen. Toro Waaka wonders how HBRC will respond to all the shifts and changes, including the new Māori Crown relationship agency, but his cynical side suggests this is an all too familiar tactic. “That’s what they (the Crown) do ... moving furniture around, slick marketing, giving people false hope ... but let’s see what happens.”

Fit for the future

The changing central Government landscape in relation to managing Treaty relationships comes at a critical time for Hawke’s Bay Māori, who are embroiled in their own power play of conflicting boundaries, personalities, agendas and end goals. One undercurrent to the debate is whether NKII, the taiwhenua and the PSGEs should be rolled into one, to prevent duplication and provide a more inclusive structure. There’s a caution about a large entity created for one purpose (NKII) crossing into other responsibilities and perhaps

usurping the authority of newly asset rich settlement groups. “Māori need to sit down with Māori ... to see if these are the best mechanisms to achieve our aspirations,” says Tapine. Toro Waaka remains concerned that NKII’s resources are centred around Hastings. Once the settlements are sorted, he says the PSGEs will be looking to advance the conversation about restructuring NKII as “a more transparent and representative organisation”. For those wanting another iwi authority to arise from the settlement groups, Apatu quips, “been there done that”. After many hui with the best kaumatua, he says it’s clear there’s a lack of connectivity in the region. NKII’s longstanding chairperson Ngahiwi Tomoana says there’s a lot of “political envy” and “mischievous korero” from those who have amnesia about where the iwi organisation came from. He insists there’s room for everyone. “It’s not one or the other, it’s hapu and iwi and whānau”. For now, he says NKII is the “default mechanism” and the structure is sound while Treaty claimant groups build up their capacity.

Editor Note: Watch for the ‘right of reply’ in a future edition.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 57

Life is getting riskier out on the wild western digital frontier with hackers, crackers, phishers, scammers, social media giants and foreign spy agencies strip mining our data, often with massive artificial intelligence engines doing the dirty work.

“If every other country is under attack why would New Zealand be an exception?” TONY KRZYZEWSKI, SECURITY EXPERT

Story by Keith Newman “We are at war already ... we are under attack ... we need to defend ourselves ... and accept the internet is a dangerous place,” says Hawke’s Bay-based security expert Tony Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski, a pioneer in IT networking and security, says, “We are fighting for our businesses, our economy, our privacy and in some cases for our democracy.” The digital world, he says, touches everything and the internet is no longer the great leveller many thought it was. “It’s the dystopian future” where “information or data is the new gold”. In May, Krzyzewski became one of eight Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) ambassadors promoting cybersecurity awareness and a new generation of tools that identify bad websites, filter internet domains and flush out and remove illegitimate emails. He challenged the New Zealand Defence Forum in 2017 with his warfare wake-up and repeated his concerns at GCA/Verizon Cyber Trends 2018 in London earlier this year. The Government Communications Security Bureau’s (GCSB) CORTEX cyber security system claims to have protected government agencies and crucial national infrastructure from $39.47 million of potential harm in the 2016-17 year. In the same period its National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – which built CORTEX and provides hands-on incident response – reported 396 incidents: 31 serious and 122 from “state-sponsored computer network exploitation groups”.

Foreign state attacks

In April, New Zealand joined in denouncing ‘foreign state’ attacks and in October, specifically condemned attacks by Russian military intelligence. We weren’t hit directly but the GCSB observed “a range of activity in New Zealand” and was “very concerned”. Krzyzewski says the White House confirms it’ll use the internet as an attack system in cyberwarfare and “if every other country is under attack why would New Zealand be an exception?” International hits like the Russian ransomware attack against the Ukrainian banking system create a ripple effect. “The Maersk Shipping Company was collateral damage; it was crippled and it cost US$320 million to resolve”. Getting Maersk container ships in and out of New Zealand ports meant reverting to manual processing. Ransomware nearly crippled the British National Health Service. “Hospitals were running a very old operating system and it went from hospital to hospital encrypting hard drives. They said give us the money or you won’t be able to use your computers. They were locked out.” Krzyzewski says New Zealand is very lax on protection against cyber-attacks because we’re still self-regulating with no “mandated cybersecurity set of controls for critical infrastructure”. He warns of “pinch points throughout our power distribution systems” mainly because of the geographical lie of the country with Hawke’s Bay particularly vulnerable.

The power industry is working on new standards of protection, but he says we’re still behind many countries in building up our defences. The biggest danger is compromised gas or fuel supply, waste water treatment systems, the ability to pump water, and anything to do with the economy, such as banking systems.

Broken encryption risks

InternetNZ chief executive, Jordan Carter, warns a proposal to give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted devices and communications places all New Zealanders at risk. A recommendation to force vendors and service providers to give up encryption details to help track child sex offenders, terrorists and organised crime was leaked from the ‘Five Eyes’ joint spy agency (New Zealand, Canada, Australia, US and UK) August conference. End-to-end encryption also protects online banking and travel bookings. “Without it no-one will have trust in the Internet.” Krzyzewski says Australia’s recent support for encryption breaking underlines those concerns. “It’s not a good look for what Five Eyes claims to stand for as it threatens the very thing that keeps financial and other transactions safe from prying eyes.” Ironically the GCSB is investing $120 million strengthening Government encryption for internal and international communication. Regardless of those who are critical or paranoid, Krzyzewski says the

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 59

and be aware that responding to an offer could result in your being caught in a scam,” says the company.

AI fuelled attacks

Tony Krzyzewski. Photo: Doug Casement

“The criminals have changed tack, they don’t need to raid the bank mechanically anymore, they raid electronically.” TONY KRZYZEWSKI, SECURITY EXPERT

GCSB is essential for NZ Inc. “Every nation has a department tasked with protection against foreign government and criminal attacks.” Being at the edge of the world makes no difference. “On the internet you are just a number waiting to become a statistic, distance doesn’t matter.” He rejects assertions we’re not pulling our weight in Five Eyes: “We have very good and knowledgeable people... we may be small but we’re not weak.”

You are the product

Krzyzewski says the social media revolution has seduced us into giving away personal information with little apparent concern for what happens to it. On the internet, “If it’s free, you are the product and you are being sold”. And we shouldn’t be surprised, “it’s there in the small print, your information is not yours”. At the end of August, a Facebook security breach exposed nearly 50 million user accounts, with an admission the site’s under constant attack from those wanting to clone accounts and

60 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

steal information. In early October the Google+ consumer social network was shut down after a two-year-old bug potentially exposed the data of up to 500,000 users. Government-led cyber security agency CERT NZ reported 736 cyber security incidents between April and June, more than double the 2017 figures. The majority were phishing and credential harvesting; attempts to obtain user names, passwords and credit card details. Most came through emails and links appearing to be from legitimate financial or commercial brands. Direct financial losses were $2.2 million with most amounts under $500. Hawke’s Bay internet provider NOW has seen an increase in phishing attempts using its logo and trying to steal customer information through a variety of means. It’s concerned at how convincing these attempts are becoming and has moved from “a reactive to a proactive mindset” educating customers to be more suspicious of contacts they weren’t expecting. “Do your research

Once a machine is compromised it can be joined to a network and used to attack other machines or it may monitor for logins and passwords. Rather than someone tapping away at the keyboard trying to hack an account it’s mostly likely a bank of computers fuelled by artificial intelligence (AI) running thousands of combinations. The problem, says Krzyzewski, is the inherently insecure 46-year old email and transport mechanisms undergirding the internet, cybercriminals using smarter technology to exploit loopholes, and the fact that businesses and individuals aren’t taking threats seriously enough. Having a firewall protecting from external attack is no longer sufficient as many criminals know how to get inside and work their way out whether that’s at individual, commercial or central or local government level. Krzyzewski says many organisations are way overdue for an audit of their vulnerabilities. He has “every Microsoft Windows password precracked in a look up table” and when he’s on-site won’t have a coffee until he’s found a loophole. “I usually don’t wait more than half an hour. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’m seeing exactly the same vulnerabilities I saw in the mid-90s.” When asked ‘What should we do?’, his typical response is the CEO should write a press release explaining what the organisation plans to do when key information gets leaked or they can no longer service their customers. “From that point on everything you do is to prevent that ever having to be sent.”

True losses concealed

Krzyzewski says the US and UK claim 50% under-reporting of cybercrime and suggests our local numbers are likely to be very conservative, largely because people don’t like to admit they’ve been vulnerable or gullible. He’s aware 50% of crime investigated in the UK and 25% in NY’s Manhattan is now cyber-related. “The criminals have changed tack, they don’t need to raid the bank mechanically anymore, they raid electronically.” He cites a New Zealand case where $238,000 was invested in shares that weren’t real and another example

Jordan Carter, Group Chief Executive, InternetNZ

InternetNZ chief executive, Jordan Carter, warns a proposal to give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted devices and communications places all New Zealanders at risk.

where a financial controller sent $74,000, overseas, allegedly on instruction from the chief executive. “Fortunately, we caught it and got the money back but in a lot of cases you never do. This was a very specific ‘whaling attack’; they knew how the organisation worked and compromised the system by registering a domain that only had one letter different.” Krzyzewski says a lot of useful data about cybercrime in New Zealand isn’t being captured, because of the silo approach between government departments and agencies. “We’re too decentralised and not even having the conversation.” Meanwhile, the fallout continues from the 2013 breach of three billion Yahoo accounts and the 2012 LinkedIn hack. Those login and password details are still helping compromise other accounts and behind the recent “sextortian scandal”, blackmailing recipients in exchange for not sharing alleged videos of them viewing porn. Currently there’s no local law requiring companies to report breaches, although an urgent revision of the 25-year old Privacy Act has been waiting in the wings for five years,

proposing fines of up to $10,000 for failure to report compromised data. CERT and Netsafe offer online ability to report attacks and breaches and a new Cyberstrategy is about to be adopted with a focus on education and protection. Meanwhile, Kyzyzewski, InternetNZ and others are calling for a much broader debate on achieving a more cohesive and tactical response to cyberthreats.

Resources: InternetNZ: encryption concerns: https://internetnz.nz/encryption CERT: Threat landscape reports and reporting: www.cert.govt.nz/ NetSafe: cyberbully, scams and reporting: www.netsafe.org.nz

NOW sponsors the BayBuzz Technology Series to enhance public understanding of our region’s technology achievements and opportunities. Analyses and views presented are those of BayBuzz and its editorial team.

Hawke’s Bay Foundation’s 2018 Community Distributions Connecting Generous People that Care with Causes that Matter

Community Impact Fund Grants

Grant

Dove HB

Age Concern HB

6250

English Language Partners

Age Concern HN

2500

Epic Ministeries

2500

Plunket HB

2500

Equippers Hastings Trust

1000

Project Prima Volta

3000

3500 750

Paul Henare & Paora Winitana

2250

Paul Hunter Centre

4500

Autism NZ

700

Barnardos

6000

Family Works

2000

Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust

1000

Big Brothers Big Sisters HB

3500

Hastings Community Patrol

4000

SPELD

1000

Birthright

2500

HB Orchestra

1000

Summer in the Parks

1000

Breathe HB

2000

HB Youth Trust

2250

Sustaining HB

2000

CAB Hastings

2500

Hearing Assn Napier

1000

Victim Support

4500

CAB Napier

3500

Heretaunga Seniors

2000

Wairoa Financial Literarcy Service

3000

Camp Kaitawa Trust

1500

Heretaunga Womens Centre

3500

Wharariki Trust

7000

Canteen HB

1500

Leg-up Trust

2500

Youth Development Trust

1000

5670

Zeal Education Trust

2500

Total Distributed from Community Impact Fund

CCS Disability Action

2000

Napier Community Foodbank

CHB Budget Service

4000

Napier Family Centre

7250

CHB Parents Centre

2000

Nga Kairauhii Trust

2000

Child Matters

4000

Nourished for Nil

4000

Donor Specified Grants

Christian Lovelink

2000

Orokohanga Music Trust

2500

Sydney Clayton Memorial Fund

Connecting for Youth Employment

2000

Pakeke Centre

3000

Barry Family Fund

970

Parkinson’s HB

1500

Cranford Hospice

Total Funds Distributed in 2018

$136,590.00

5026.06 325.13 $141,941.19

www.hawkesbayfoundation.org.nz

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 61

been milking the old cow quite hard in order to subsidise rates. In the last year the Port has paid a dividend of $10.7 million, about 20% of the Council’s revenue. Over the years the Councils have found this subsidy (lowering your rates) a hard addiction to give up, and and the increase in road fatalities.

Ownership

What offends many is that the Port is currently 100% owned by the Regional Council and people are horrified that such an important strategic asset may fall into the hands of nasty, private sector profiteers. Naturally, I’m horrified that it’s currently in the hands of nasty, public sector profiteers. You see the HBRC have

I D E AS A N D O PI N I O N PAUL PAY N T E R

Making the Port Call “Napier Port is proudly owned by the people of Hawke’s Bay. The Regional Council is committed to keeping it that way,” declares HBRC’s ‘Our Port’ consultation document. Err, well they’re 51% committed to keeping it that way. The HBRC are actually suggesting they would sell down up to 49% of their shareholding in the port in order to facilitate an eye watering $320-350 million of investment. This investment is needed for the endless stream of cruise ships visiting our fair city, but even more so for the rapid growth in exports that is forecast.

The need

The industry I know best is apples and it is on a roll. The new intensive growing systems are at least 25% more productive and some new apple varieties like ‘Envy’ are inherently more productive too. There is a wall of fruit coming. Already there is a lot of posturing in the press. Anna Lorck is pushing for a referendum, arguing a decision of this magnitude warrants a voter mandate. Opponents rightly point out that a simplistic yes/no vote has severe limitations. Firstly, it all too often degenerates to base ideological beliefs and the answer would be an emphatic NO. Secondly, they point out that there are options, some of which may be more palatable than others. Chairman Rex Graham outlines the reality that “the port does not have capacity to borrow to fund this growth without requiring additional funding from ratepayers or taking debt to imprudent levels.” I fear he is right. Rates would need to be increased $956 on average per ratepayer and given their other ambitious projects and associated rate rises, it will be a hard sell. The port company is actually

owned by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment company, which carries the asset on their books at $238.4 million. So the investment they’re recommending will result in a port worth at least 2.5 times what it is today. It’s extremely ambitious and it needs to be. You see, the shipping business has changed a great deal in the past decade. We used to think of big ships as carrying say 4,000 containers, but now they are building them with as much as 20,000 container capacities. As the modern ships get bigger, the smaller older ships are being retired. The key factors in this new age of larger ships are the depth of the draft and length of the wharf. The HBRC seems certain that the proposed investment is necessary and the productive potential of Hawke’s Bay totally justifies this view. “The Port remains the region’s single biggest economic enabler” they say, and in this regard the statistics don’t lie. International shipping companies are an arrogant breed. Unless they are well serviced, they won’t come. Most of them are strongly supportive of port consolidation and they would love to cut a few ports off their schedule. Less stops are more efficient for them and someone else can suck up the inland shipping costs, the traffic congestion and the increase in road fatalities.

Ownership

been milking the old cow quite hard in order to subsidise rates. In the last year the port has paid a dividend of $10.7 million, about 20% of the Council’s revenue. Over the years the Councils have found this subsidy (lowering your rates) a hard addiction to give up, and thus have greatly undermined the ‘retain full ownership’ option. If the port had retained its profits for the last decade or so, it would not have $86.6 million in debt and would have a more attractive balance sheet. It’s strange how people who love public ownership talk of governments as ‘we’ or ‘us’. Self interest motivates many of the participants in these entities the same way it does in the private sector. In any event, it’s widely believed that governments are good and noble, while the private sector is selfish and evil. The truth is that governments have been the over-achievers in war, genocide, torture, monopoly exploitation, corruption, nepotism, greed and all the other deadly sins. Power corrupts. The private sector do have some nasty players, which you read about in the papers, but most business owners are good citizens and decent employers. The key advantage they have over the public sector is a bigger pool of talent and they’re often stumping up with their own money. Get it wrong and your career comes to an abrupt end. To succeed in the private sector you are more likely to develop a skill set that is better aligned with say, owning a port. The port is unquestionably a regional strategic asset of the highest order. In a country with relatively high costs of land, labour and capital, we need to make the most of our advantages. The two that are critical to Hawke’s Bay are our relatively cheap and

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 63

abundant water supply and our ready access to the port. In many continental situations the inland freight costs are as much or more than the seafreight. Moreover seafreight is about seven times as fuel efficient as trucks and you can navigate oceans in their natural state while inland transport requires expensive and unsightly roading and rail networks. Get it on a ship quickly and everybody wins.

Which option?

A partial sharemarket listing is the Council’s preferred model. They argue that will optimise the port’s value now and in the future, while retaining operating control. Minority shares will be widely dispersed and this dilutes the power of individual shareholders. It also makes it relatively easy to issue new shares and to raise further capital in the future. The key deficiency with this option is that investors will come from predominantly outside of Hawke’s Bay and will prioritise the dividend yield over strategic regional objectives. As I’ve said before, I’d prefer a share placement with local exporters, whose key motivation would be to achieve the service levels they need from their

What should reassure you about private sector investment in our port, is that it’s worked exceptionally well for Tauranga. The Port of Tauranga was little more than a fishing port in the 1960s, but the berths were open and accessible and it needed less dredging than Napier.

port. A constitutional cap of 5% should be put in place in order to make sure no single shareholder could become too powerful. If this measure is put in place, I don’t really care if they sell 49% or the whole lot. I know I’m in a minority here. What should reassure you about private sector investment in our port, is that it’s worked exceptionally well for Tauranga. The Port of Tauranga was little more than a fishing port in the 1960s, but the berths were open and accessible and it needed less dredging than Napier. Dairy, timber and kiwifruit ensured the port grew rapidly. Tauranga has always had a commercial mindset and it has been stealing business from a ponderous Ports of

Auckland for decades. So the evidence is there that a mixed ownership model can work. I’d stomach any of the proposed funding models in order to get the job done. To not press forward would likely condemn the Napier Port to a slow decline in shipping companies servicing it and ultimately consign it to becoming a second tier feeder port. We need to make the difficult call now and to accept that however uncomfortable it is, the community will look back in 100 years and be satisfied we got it right.

Paul Paynter is our resident iconoclast and cider maker. Sometimes he grows stuff at Yummyfruit.

How best to fund our Port’s growth? Have your say We’re consulting on four options. Go to hbrc.govt.nz and search: #ourport for everything you need to know. You can make your submission:

Online

Through social media

64 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

In writing

In person at one of our drop-in sessions

www.hbrc.govt.nz

Wine: Stories from Hawke’s Bay Mark Sweet. Photographs Tim Whittaker

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A must for those wishing to know more about the Hawke’s Bay wine industry – its history, wine pioneers and current producers and their outstanding wines. Graeme Avery, Sileni Estates

I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in a well-researched piece of important wine history, a glimpse into many of the characters who have helped build a thriving wine industry, a winemaker’s view of what makes the region and its wines special, or a beautifully illustrated adornment for a coffee table. Bob Campbell, Master of Wine

A splendid new book … an extraordinary trove of images. John Saker, Cuisine

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N PAT T UR L EY

CBDs Are Social Centres Our town centres are the heart of our communities. Our CBDs are social history mirrors and their change and vibrancy tell a tale. When founded 145 years ago (1873), Hastings was undoubtedly raw and fledgling. Its history of booms and busts is mainly a story of growth, renewal and fresh investment in businesses, buildings, orchards and farms. Significant events include the 1931 earthquake, which claimed numerous remarkable Hawke’s Bay buildings. The district today is booming. The Park Mega Centre Hastings portfolio very recently sold to a Wellington couple for an eye-watering $21 million and 6.47% yield. The 1950s, 60s and 70s were hyper-successful for Hastings. In 1951 Alan Berry began his career as an accountant in Russell Street North. In 1969 pharmacist David Hughes started practice in central Hastings. Both retired professionals have contributed to this story. In those golden days farming, horticulture, and their related industries and services were big drivers. The same is true today, but central Hastings’ and Napier’s commercial make-up is distinctly different. Before the 80s, livestock sale-day on Wednesday, as well as Friday night activity, brought country people into Hastings. Hospitality, retail and the service businesses were in full swing. The town rippled, beer and cash flowed freely. Hastings CBD had seven stock and station agents: Dalgety & Co, NZ Loan & Mercantile, Williams & Kettle (ASB corner and SBS opposite), Hawke’s Bay Farmers (IMS Building), de Pelichet, McLeod & Co, and Murray Roberts & Co, which was assimilated into Wright Stephensons. They provided services to the rural community including

66 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

grocery. The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Queen Street garage serviced cars and sold new ones, including the 1920s Buick Master Six. The Gardner & Yeomans’ timber mill was located where Spotlight is today. The Tourist Motor & Farming Company garage stood where Kiwibank now stands. In the 1950s and 60s, Queen Street was a short stub and did not cross the railway. The shunting yards stretch from Heretaunga Street to Watties caused St Aubyn Street lengthy delays when freight wagons were worked to make trains.

CBDs, like shopping centres, require format and design adjustments to remain current, relevant and successful. Competitive pressures are significant, and when it comes to town places, people generally vote with their feet, and businesses follow.

Rural road transport firms in and around the CBD included: Sherwoods, Mills (Countdown), Wilkies and Powdrells. They could not carry goods or livestock more than 64 km (40 miles), because of laws protecting government rail transport and railway jobs. By the 1960s and 70s there were 11 pharmacies in Heretaunga Street and at least a dozen standalone menswear businesses in Hastings. Friday night shopping was until 9pm and the city centre hummed. Heretaunga Street and nearby hotels

in that era included: the Hastings Hotel beside the town clock tower, the Pacific, Albert and Grand, The Carlton Club, The Mayfair and The Stortford Lodge. They were supplemented by at least five chartered clubs including The County Club and Hastings Club. In the 1970s, barn type pubs took hold in the CBD and elsewhere – the Angus Inn, the DB Heretaunga and DB Te Mata. Hastings CBD department stores included Westerman’s, Roach’s and Bon Marche. Heretaunga Street was a busy west-east thoroughfare. Traffic backed-up giving way to more frequent trains late on Friday afternoons and at other times. This chaos by the 1970s prompted the main street rail-crossing closure and a ring-road, followed by the 1980s partitioning of Hastings with the pedestrian-only mall and a reformatted fountain. Much as they are today, Hawke’s Bay CBDs were places for business, shopping and recreation. They were energised by social interaction. Retail needs were mostly met in the town centre. In modern times supermarkets and Large Format Retail (LFR) located outside CBDs meet an array of shopping needs. Napier has partially resisted, Taupō has prohibited LFR outside the CBD, and Hastings has kept LFR semi-central. Stock agency brands are considerably fewer, and current-day rural retailers are remotely located. Businesses that have long since moved out of the heart of CBDs include bus depots, garages and car dealerships, cartage firms, grain stores and timber mills. Today, inner-city people traffic revolves around small shops or modest scale speciality retail and hospitality. Farmers department store is the only major space retailer that regularly swims against the tide by locating in CBDs.

Hastings City, 1982. Source: Alan Berry Collection

Hastings City, 2018. Photo: Tim Whittaker. tim.co.nz NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 67

Emerson Street, Napier 1957. Source: Alan Berry Collection

As for Napier

In 2003 Turley & Co intensively surveyed Napier’s core CBD composition, and again in 2015-18. Some recent hype around changed innercity property uses is unfounded. The surveys confirm hospitality and cafes is unchanged at 14%, and banking and finance at 5%. Fashion accounted for 32% of shops in 2003, and 15 years later is barely diminished at 29%. The most significant change for central Napier is the escalation of national and Australasian retail brands from onethird to just over a half. Shop numbers

overall are almost unchanged. By 1995 Napier had controversially established a new CBD format. The city abandoned a traditional model whereby cars could park right outside main street shops. Napier created a people-centric CBD with ample offstreet parking and multiple foot-traffic access points. The heart of Napier has not looked back and its inner-city vibrancy is self-perpetuating. Napier City prime retail rents are 40-50% higher than Hastings, and Napier pedestrian numbers are superior. In the last 10 years, the top three main

street Napier foot-traffic survey points have declined only 4%, which is impressive in the face of big-box and online retail. Pedestrian numbers for Hastings’ best three main street locations have declined 34% over the same period. Hastings’ best retail site re-leased in 2016 at 17% below its prior rent. Relative rent determines property wealth and underpins new buildings viability. Napier’s 460 metres Emerson Street is 80% people focused. In contrast, Hastings’ main street is two-thirds focused on cars, and in the mall, cars are prohibited. The mall and fountain

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Exceptional property Exceptional service Exceptional outcome

Emerson Street, Napier 2018. Photo: Tim Whittaker. tim.co.nz

The silver-lining is Hastings District Council is looking at the CBD and rethinking what might work best for the future.

with the railway create an east-west wall that solidly partitions the heart of Hastings – for three decades. The rail-crossing and mall, and possibly Railway Road, should be re-opened to one-way car traffic through to Market Street. This format could be adopted for the main block with replacement off-street parking very nearby. The silver-lining is Hastings District Council is looking at the CBD and rethinking what might work best for the future. The HDC has allocated $4.5 million for CBD reworks and betterments. There may be further funding for land acquisitions. The Council is consulting and taking expert advice from inner-city design specialists. It could be an exciting new era for central Hastings. CBDs, like shopping centres, require format and design adjustments to remain current, relevant and successful. Competitive pressures are significant, and when it comes to town places, people generally vote with

their feet, and businesses follow. For town centres, it is either a downward spiral or a self-perpetuating upward cycle. Palmerston North has developed a city master plan that recognises the significance of inner-city success, which has spinoffs for its broader urban area and region. The city will invest $31 million over the next six to eight years in CBD reformatting and streetscapes betterment. Its population at 87,000 is 1.1 times that of Hastings (80,000). However, its CBD budget is 6.9 times greater than Hastings’ $4.5 million CBD budget. Social history and success will continue to be mirrored in the hearts of towns. The vibrancy of CBDs contributes significantly to the confidence and reputation of communities, and the relationship between these things is intertwined. In the face of modern retail changes, and decentralised offices, CBDs need to be strong social and people-centric town places. Today I would have to say, Napier’s got it right; Hastings’ inner-city risks being locked in a downward spiral. Pat Turley is a Hawke’s Bay-based 20-year veteran property consultant and valuer. The contents of this article are not for property decisions reliance. Any future projections made may prove erroneous. www.turley.co.nz

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N MAT T M I L L E R

Listening… The Key to Marketing Will Innes and Henry Lyons are the newest kids on the block at the Tech Collective in Bridge Street, Ahuriri, with their marketing consultancy startup FOLKL (pronounced like a cross between folk, focal, and local). In true startup fashion, like a scene from Flight of the Conchords or Silicon Valley, they don’t have their own office yet so their desks are in the corridor. Fortunately, their corridor-office is right next to the café, so coffee is readily available. In the world of startups and incubators, we always hear about the importance of the ‘elevator pitch’ – the 30-second summary you give someone when they ask you what your company does. I ask Henry and Will what their pitch is. They admit they don’t have one – and they are not fazed by it. Henry even jokes that the whole concept of elevator pitches is a symptom of a dysfunctional industry, and this “cookie-cutter” approach to marketing is exactly what they are working to overturn. They started FOLKL less than a year ago. In March they moved into the Tech Collective, and their experience has been great. “From deciding to move in, it only took a week before we were set up and working.” While FOLKL is a brand new business, Will and Henry are no newbies in the marketing world. The idea for the business came about from what they learned while working together for ten years at advertising agencies. They were frustrated with the structure of the business model, and the emphasis agencies were putting on ‘big data’ technology-led, quantitative approaches to marketing. Henry and Will believe that using human-centric research, asking people the right questions – and listening carefully to what they have to say – should lead. And this is the common approach across all projects they work on.

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Henry says it’s especially pleasing to see that the human-centric approach to research that they both worked on in their academic careers – and predicate their business on – is actually working in ‘real life’ here in Hawke’s Bay and beyond.

What are they working on at the moment? They tell me they are working with a mix of businesses and organisations across different sectors; from product development and community research, to digital marketing. A lot of it is confidential and they can only give me broad details. Recently they’ve been developing an e-commerce strategy for an established Wellington-based fashion label. In line with FOLKL’s human-centric approach this doesn’t mean just analysing market and sales data; they also conduct in-depth interviews with staff and customers, and they have analysed the role that digital media plays in how this company’s customers make purchase decisions. The digital landscape is constantly changing, so FOLKL are engaged on an ongoing basis to ensure that the solution is of maximum relevance to both the customer and the business. The long-term plan for FOLKL is to change fundamentally the way businesses and organisations gather feedback and make decisions. For example, by canvassing a much wider range of opinions, making fewer assumptions and bringing a more nuanced approach to research, creating better

communication between businesses and their customers, involving people much more in decision-making, and moving businesses beyond their current preoccupation with reducing people’s opinions and behaviour to numbers in a spreadsheet. Now it sounds like an elevator pitch is emerging, but that’s a lot of stuff to fit into a 30-second spiel! In addition to years of industry experience, both Henry and Will have strong academic backgrounds. Will has a double degree from Victoria University in marketing, sociology, media, and film, while Henry has just completed a Master’s at The London School of Economics and Political Science, where he continues on as a PhD candidate. His thesis was on the impact of digital media on the politics of an innercity London community. In this era of fake news, falling voter turnouts and Russian election meddling, this sounds like extremely important work. And Henry’s London connections mean he is still part of WARC, the World Advertising Research Centre. This gives access to a massive amount of data about the latest trends in media consumption and consumer behaviour from around the globe. Given their big-city experience and global outlook, I ask them why they have chosen Hawke’s Bay as the base. Both of them are from here, they love the lifestyle, and they refuse to accept that you can’t run a modern business like theirs from somewhere like Hawke’s Bay. Two weeks ago, the team expanded to include Bradley Minton, who has a diverse business background that includes roles in the financial, fashion, and food sectors. Like most new business owners, they don’t have a great deal of spare time. Will has a two-year old and likes

Brad, Will and Henry. Photo: Tom Allan

to go to Waimarama. He says he enjoys surfing, although Henry has never heard about Will being a surfer before. Henry is learning the Greek language. They both love cooking. They seem to be enjoying life, although they are clearly working very hard. Henry says it’s especially pleasing to see that the human-centric approach to research that they both

worked on in their academic careers – and predicate their business on – is actually working in ‘real life’ here in Hawke’s Bay and beyond. And they’ve discovered a lot of local businesses doing great work with an international focus. This gives them a great deal of hope for the future of the business. With FOLKL’s access to global

insights and their innovative approach, it looks like Hawke’s Bay will be wellserved with a distinctive source of marketing advice. Matt Miller co-owns web company Mogul Limited, based in Havelock North, but serving clients around the world, including BayBuzz. His beat for BayBuzz is digital trends and cool businesses.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 71

I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N A N D R E W FR A M E

Poop in Pandora During early September’s atrocious weather, Napier’s continuing water woes became even more evident. Napier City Council (NCC) issued a notification for residents to refrain from taking baths, or flushing toilets for 36 hours on 5 September, as the city’s wastewater system failed to cope with the amount of rain that had fallen almost continuously for 24 hours. For the second time in less than 18 months, NCC released stormwater and sewage into Napier’s Ahuriri Lagoon, otherwise known as ‘Pandora Pond’ after more than 90mm of rain fell in 24 hours between the 4th and 5th of September. That’s almost twice the average for the entire month of September! Similar events occurred last April, when the tail ends of Cyclones Debbie and Cook successively hit Hawke’s Bay hard and our fair city discharged 2.5 million litres of wastewater into the estuary. In both cases warning signs were erected around the estuary and immediate areas warning against swimming and the collection of seafood due to the public health risk of possible contamination from sewage in the water. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, the region’s environmental watchdogs, were alerted. “But how does sewage get in the stormwater?” you might rightly ask. It’s to do with infrastructure, namely pipes. Ideally rain falls from the sky onto your roof, into your spouting and into the stormwater system via gutters and stormwater drains and creeks, eventually into rivers and out to sea. Unfortunately some spouting goes into the wrong drains around the house – wastewater drains from bathrooms, showers, laundries, which gets blended with sewage from … um … ‘other drains’. During severe weather events, such as the one we went through, having

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the wrong pipe going into the wrong drain can greatly increase the amount of wastewater in the system. But Hastings and rural Hawke’s Bay had more rain than Napier did – at one stage I saw a reading of 191mm for HB, 66mm for Hastings and ‘only’ 43mm for Napier in 24 hours. So how come Hastings only started to feel the effects of the severe weather a day or so later, with Porta-loos distributed to some residents in the suburb of Akina, as their stormwater and sewerage systems started to struggle?

It has been known for some time that Napier’s water infrastructure was aging badly and in need of repair soon, if not overdue – our bores, pipes and reservoirs are letting us down.

It could be something to do with Napier being coastal. The seas were certainly huge for most of the week and it would be hard for the water to drain out into Hawke Bay when the sea is doing its best to get back onto the land. It could be the fact Napier is the lowest point in the region, with many areas below sea level. Water naturally runs downhill and it might take a day or so of heavy rain for natural drains to back up the height difference between Napier and Hastings. Or it could be that Napier’s pipe infrastructure just isn’t up to it. It has been known for some time that Napier’s water infrastructure was aging badly and in need of repair soon, if not overdue – our bores, pipes and

reservoirs are letting us down. You might remember during the region’s contentious amalgamation debate three years ago that Napier’s infrastructure was a rather large sore point. I was strongly opposed to amalgamation, believing it was promoted merely as a cynical attempt to sell off and/ or privatise council departments (like water) and assets. Amalgamationalists claimed Napier’s pipes were in a bad way and would likely cost many millions to repair and replace, while NCC’s vanguard staunchly defended its underground assets. A report from Waugh Infrastructure Management Ltd prepared at the time commented that many kilometres of Napier’s stormwater and wastewater pipes had already reached the end of their expected useful lives. Fully 39% of Napier’s wastewater pipeworks and 10% of water supply pipeworks are of the asbestos cement type, and the report noted that all of these would need to be replaced within 10-30 years. The report observed: “Under Napier’s current renewal funding methodologies, rates will need to increase substantially in the future to meet renewal needs – alternatively debt funding will have to be used. In either case it is possible that the cost of replacing existing assets will fall disproportionately on future ratepayers.” Nevertheless, Mayor Dalton claimed at the time:“Napier is very well positioned to meet any future infrastructure related growth or renewal challenges … The short answer is Napier’s infrastructure, I can assure you, is in excellent shape.”(Sep 2015) It looks like council hierarchy might have, yet again, spoken too soon. It’s clear that something needs to be done – and urgently! After last year’s rain event and stormwater release the Regional

Pandora Pond. Photo: Tim Whittaker. tim.co.nz

Council said the deluge was a ‘one-infive-year’ event, but has since escalated that estimate to once-a-year. To its credit, NCC has finally put aside over $20 million for refurbishing its water systems in the coming years, but after almost back-to-back yearly events, and years of constant deferral of investment and replacement to keep rate increases down, could it be too little, too late? Our climate is changing and experts agree the weather is getting more severe, more often. Sea levels are expected to rise and

Smarter Thinking Online.

Napier’s population is expected to grow by at least 2,000 households in the next ten years – increasing the demands and challenges on infrastructure even more. If we don’t do something to counter its effects fast, we face severe safety and public health issues. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s regulatory department and some regional councillors have already aired concerns and displeasure with how Napier City Council management has dealt with these recent events. As have Maori leaders. Perhaps we should delay some of

NCC’s glamour projects, like the $45 million seafront Aquarium upgrade, until we have the city’s water supplies going in and out safely – for the health of our people and our environment. After all, who will visit the refurbished aquarium if we’re all afloat or too sick to get there?

Andrew Frame is a 40-year-old husband, father, and life-long Napier resident. He writes the www.napierinframe.co.nz website and promotes all things HB on social media.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 73

Neighbourhood Watch A series bringing you the buzz around HB’s ‘hoods’. Photos: Florence Charvin

Opposite: Quasimodo stands watch at the SPCA shop. Above right: Fiona Hislop at the SPCA shop.

Hastings: Second-hand Capital of New Zealand JESS SOUTAR BARRON I like old stuff, discarded, still smelling of its earlier, other life. As a kid, my idea of a good time was roaming around scrap yards and mooching through neighbourhoods where the bi-annual inorganic rubbish collection was on. Once, as a treat, my mum took me through Broadcasting House in Auckland the night before it was demolished. I came away with a record box and an umbrella stand. Moving to Hastings, White’s Traders was my Mecca. A cob-webbed, dusty, rusty wonderland. It’s mothballed now. On their last day of trading my friend bought all their signage for a few hundred dollars. The last thing they handed over, in an old nail box, was the category signs. They now hang in the Common Room: ‘POTS’, ‘PANS’, ‘PLATES’.

Even without White’s, Hastings is a well-spring of fine flotsam. I traipse through my city looking for one more Temuka bowl to match my collection. I fondle fondue sets and salivate over SylvaC. I dream of finding the original teasmaid, the orange vinyl kitchen stool, the turquoise cake tin with the white Persian on its lid: Op Shop Bingo. By taking a carefully mapped path from the West 300s to the East 300s, it’s possible to amble through at least ten op shops, each with its own flavour. In the Far East is Saint Vincent De Paul. Vinnie is the patron saint of charitable works and much of this treasure trove has a religious bent. If you need a St Chris medal for a going-away gift or a gold flecked icon for that nook in the kitchenette, then this is your place.

Around the corner is one of two Sallie Army shops bookending the city (the other is at the West End near Rush Munro). This place is small, which means it’s a not too overwhelming ‘beginners’ op-shop. Here you’ll find that wot-not you didn’t know you needed and one of those nutriovens we were all supposed to migrate to about ten years ago. From there the Orphan Aid shop by the clock tower is crammed with clothes and toys. My kid told me not to shop there because it’s only for orphans, but really anyone with a coin purse is welcome; give generously (it’s for the children). From here, the Cranford Shop is a short walk and really the crème de la crème of op-shopping. It’s unmatchable on quality, but it can be steep – I once paid

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NEI GH B OUR H O O D WATCH

Village Veterans JANE MACKERSEY

a whopping $8 for an orange and white tin biscuit caddy with a Quant daisy motif. But really, when we’re talking a few dollars, nothing’s ‘pricey’ in the grand scheme of things. Up on the West Side, SPCA shop is a double-fronted glory box tastefully laid out and well curated. This is top-notch junk; a treat to browse in. Decisions on what goes where next to what hint at an artistic eye and it often feels a shame to break up a suite of citrus-tinged trophies so beautifully set together (but that scalloped-edge Tupperware cannister is calling!) Continuing the pet trope, For the Love of Animals is a little further on. Small, but with hidey-holes, it’s a lovely entrée to the big gun over the road: Restore. This is the motherlode, a curiosity shop of upcycle, reuse, new life wonders. The front window is dedicated to ‘retro’ and ‘vintage’, two key terms that attempt to differentiate tat from treasure. The main room is filled with the detritus of domesticity. Out the back is a megaload of what’s ‘out the back’ at most people’s places: tools, electrics and furniture that ‘has potential’. By the time you’ve traversed the town you’ve helped the poor, the orphans, the animals, the homeless, the dying, and you’ve picked up a George Forman grill, a Kinks LP, and a vintage Crown Lynn butter dish. It’s a win-win-win. There’s a serious point here too. There is too much stuff in the world. We are too quick to replace old with new. But op-shops furnish the gewgaws we search for in Spotlight … at a fraction of the cost. Or the doings for fancy-dress costumes. Or trinkets that make terrific gifts for children. Thousands of perfectly good cups, often in sets of six (more often, five). Silver, bone-handled cutlery. Wooden toys. Picture frames. Cotton fitted-sheets and Irish linen table cloths. Goblets, tumblers, flutes. As city centres like ours push against big-box retail encroaching on their boundaries, we need to embrace all the little ways we can shop without them. And when one of those is buying from an op-shop we’re also putting our money into the hands of real people who do neat stuff with it. Retail therapy, as I see it.

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The recent Havelock North Business Association awards included celebration of longevity, acknowledging decade and quarter-century milestones. Our members had to register and not all took advantage this year, so the list is not exhaustive. Here are some of the longer journeys.

Te Mata Mushroom Company (51 years)

Harvested its first mushroom crop in 1967, just a small part of the cropping operation run by Te Mata Nursery, a partnership between the Speeden and Hawley families. By 1973 all other crops were phased out. Today, the second largest mushroom farm in New Zealand, the farm produces over 20 tonnes of mushrooms each week. Purchased in 2012 by Michael Whittaker, the business operates seven days a week, 364 days a year and employs around 110 staff – all from its original site in Havelock North.

Unichem Jeff Whittaker Pharmacy (55 years)

In 1963, as a 24 year-old roving pharmacy reliever and manager of the Hastings Urgent pharmacy, Jeff saw an opportunity to open a pharmacy in Havelock North. He purchased an old building in Te Mata Road, home to the Roundabout Dairy and E J Treachers lacquer finishing workshop, previously a butcher shop. He completely renovated the interior and built his own fitting and fixtures and opened on April 1st 1964. After his first week’s trading, with 28 prescriptions and seventeen pounds in the till, Jeff knew he was going to make it. He employed his first assistant, Jaanee Treacher.

Terry Longley & Son (57 years)

Terry Longley (Sr) began funeral directing in Hastings in 1961, learning and crafting the art of funerals and death care, and building a reputation that led to his son, Shann, joining him in 1987 to form Terry Longley & Son Funeral Services. Shann’s wife Monique joined in 2007 and their son, Terry Longley (Jr) in 2014, making it a 3rd generation funeral home, which continues to innovate and celebrate life, while still providing a tradition of dignity to the families of Hawke’s Bay.

Arataki Honey (74 years)

In 1944 Percy Berry bought nine acres in Arataki Road and, with his son Ian, registered Arataki Apiaries Ltd. In the 1960s a second processing plant was established in Waiotapu, south of Rotorua. In Hawke’s Bay, expansion continued in the 1980s with the purchase of Ashcroft’s Honey. The 1990s was a boom time – Arataki “Squeeze Me Honey™” was released to the market as a convenient dispenser of liquid honey and this continues to be Arataki’s number one seller. In the 2000s Arataki grew their community presence with the visitor and education centre in Havelock North. Today Arataki Honey Hawke’s Bay division has nearly 50 employees.

Gilmours Pharmacy (80 +years)

The Havelock North Pharmacy was established in the early 1920’s in Te Mata Rd. Harold Baltrop was one of the original owners and through the years the pharmacy passed through the hands of Edward Leigh, James Mantell de Montalk, Donald Syme and in 1972 to Ed Gilmour, and the business was renamed Gilmours Havelock North Pharmacy. Ed retained Gilmours for 30 years, selling the business to Nick and Claire Wallis in 2002. In 2010 Liz Dixon and Tim Klingender bought the business, which is now solely under Liz’s care. The combined years of staff service at Gilmours is impressive, with Sandra Vetter as the longest standing member, having first worked under Ed Gilmour.

Te Mata Estate (120 years)

Over the last 120 years, the original vision of Bernard Chambers to produce internationally recognised and globally-competitive fine wines, from cabernets grown in the sunny Havelock Hills, has become a reality. Under the direction of the Buck and Morris families since the 1970s, the modern Te Mata Estate crafts wines that are globally regarded for their quality and finesse. Using a regular team of Hawke’s Bay residents to pick the fruit, the winery remains independent, family owned, and entirely committed to the future of New Zealand fine wine.

Other institutions have served Havelock North well for over 50 years Havelock North Club (69 years)

Established in 1949, The Foundation

And these businesses have passed decade or longer milestones 10 Years +

Toby and Zara Buck.

Members, a group of local businessmen, bought the ‘White’ house on Campbell St, after some disagreement with the proprietor of the ‘Exchange Hotel’; more lately known as the ‘Happy Tav’. History says a few orchards were lost and won in illegal card games in the Club. With contention it was voted women could become members of the Club. Previously, they could only sit in the library and wait for their husbands to bring their sherry; often they were forgotten about.

The Havelock North Volunteer Fire Brigade (99 years) was formed in 1919 following a fire that destroyed Eve’s Brick Kiln and house. During its first year, the brigade

attended just 2 callouts – both grass fires. Last year, the brigade’s 34 men and women attended 265 callouts. In addition to fire calls and training every Monday night, brigade members present the “Firewise” education program in schools and fit free smoke alarms to residential properties in Havelock North.

Adamo Advintage ASB Bank Birdwoods Gallery BlackBarn Bistro Blackboard Jungle Event Cinema Gemco Gifford Devine HN Grant & Douglas Optometrist Hawthorne Coffee Hillmac Electrical Lolita Mackersey Development Papillion Pure Catering Redcurrant Ribbonwood Cottages Rock my Baby The Loading Ramp Unio Zierra

20 years +

2 n 5 Dollar Shop Fringe & Beyond Green Door Garden & Gifts HN Function Centre

Woodford House (124 years)

opened in 1894 with 22 students and five teachers. Woodford is now home to nearly 330 students, including approximately 180 boarders, and 70 staff members. Woodford House stands as a leading boutique and girl-centric boarding and day school, providing every girl with an exceptional education and endless opportunities.

25 years + Annah S Cadeaux

30 years +

Andreas Hair & Beauty BP2GO Millward Motors Clothesline Collections Diahann Boutique Jacksons Bakery

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 77

NEI GH B OUR H O O D WATCH

Ganesh MS, Kristy Isaacson, Phillipa Page and Jamie Buckley.

Ahuriri Offers Food for Body & Soul EILEEN PAGE

Ahhhhh Ahuriri, where people from all walks of life unwind while feeding the

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body, mind and soul through healthy food information, consultations and choices to eat. Ahuriri has become a destination because of its great community vibe, simplicity, natural beauty, peacefulness, fun and customized service. It is refreshing to be by the sea every morning, the atmosphere is inspiring,

the people in all the shops and businesses are lovely and the village is out of the hustle and bustle. As well, the village is easily accessible to people of all ages – via the beach, the pathway (walk or bike), free parking or the bus. Four new businesses, opened by entrepreneurs passionate about

healthy food and their customer’s experience of food, have been attracted to Ahuriri: Healthy Eating, Roots, MYLK and Mexi Mama.

Food is well recognized as more than fuel for the body. It is central to culture, social life, comfort, health and the economy. With Hawke’s Bay as the food bowl of New Zealand, much more is possible. Healthy food choices can get complex, as anyone knows who has researched what impacts the way their body feels or performs. Every cell has DNA and chemistry and it’s individual to each person. The convenience of healthy options in the Ahuriri Village, saving people time, is special. As Phillipa Page, registered nutritionist and owner of Healthy Eating says, “There is so much potential for health in what people eat and do on a daily basis; food can be medicine or poison. The difference can be individual, based on how each person’s body digests and reacts to foods.” Phillipa helps people find the foods that make them feel well, energized and high functioning through each age and stage of life. Sometimes simple food changes can have huge benefits for mind and body health. Healthy Eating, conveniently situated in the Ahuriri Pharmacy, helps people understand the power they have for taking charge of their own health through food.

Ganesh MS opened Roots (#slowpressedjuicebar) to pursue his passion to provide healthy, natural and

fresh food. After working in the fast food industry Ganesh had a vision of supplying delicious and healthy food to people. Roots was established in Bridge Street after Ganesh and his wife did market research; initially developing a menu for juices and smoothies. They continue their ‘R&D’ updating their menu with new products. “We tried the natural and healthy eating concept ourselves by eating natural to semi processed food (frozen fruits) and found a difference in our energy and sense of well being.” Roots makes their own almond milk and buys only organic coconut water as the base for all smoothies. They use plant based sweeteners including maple syrup and dates to avoid processed sugar. How could you resist smoothies called Cacao Delight, Hail Kale, Pink Dragon and Mad Mango?! Or smoothie bowls that taste just like ice cream? With regular customers from Havelock North and Hastings, who just can’t get enough of these smoothies, Roots is a destination in Ahuriri.

Kristy Isaacson opened MYLK in Ahuriri to provide fresh, healthy takeaway meals – including special diets and meals for one – using high quality, New Zealand ingredients. As a professional chef for 20 years she wouldn’t have imagined putting her creations in a box. However, as a wife and mother, in addition to her entrepreneurial dream, Kristy understands the need for convenient and healthy food. Imagine different mains, desserts and salads each night with minimal

planning, shopping, preparation or clean up. Menus change each week. She describes an initially gun-shy customer coming back with bright eyes, looking healthier and happy – that makes it all worthwhile.

Jamie Buckley runs Mexi Mama, where chefs spend time to make delicious, authentic food from scratch. It’s lighter, fresher and local, served in a relaxed, social, colourful environment with music and fun. “It doesn’t feel like work and we work hard to have regular customers who all enjoy the experience.”

Each of these businesses recognizes customers are unique and appreciate being treated as individuals, listening to their needs and accommodating as best possible. They all see Ahuriri as a community where openness and individuality are central to the buzz and eclectic is appreciated. The owners collaborate with their neighbours, suppliers and each other to make the best possible service and products available, referring their customers to help meet each customer’s total needs. They are shocked when the ‘old-style’ competitive and protective behaviours show up. By creating a cluster with a common philosophy about food, service, people and business, these four have raised the bar for food and health, making quality living and individual service the most important elements. And where better to cluster than a setting that offers a relaxed and rejuvenating vibe … Ahuriri.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 79

NEI GH B OUR H O O D WATCH

Living in the Central City BENNY FERNANDEZ Our beloved Napier CBD is on the verge of a major transformation. One of the positive spinoffs of having a city centre with real historical significance is that it presents well and both locals and tourists enjoy visiting it. Add the fact that it’s near the beach and has a wide range of retail, offices and hospitality businesses and you have a great city to live in. The measure of any ‘liveable’ city can come down, pretty simply, to diversity. These combining factors (office space aside) boil down to three

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categories: retail, food & beverage (hospitality) and residential. Personally, I think we have the first two practically nailed. The third, however, needs a little work. Residential opportunities in the CBD are few and far between, and what’s there is becoming more and more coveted. However, with new centralised developments helping bring this missing ingredient to our beloved city, we’re well on our way to seeing more full-time, inner-city dwellers here in Napier. This is very, very exciting! The trick here will be in the variety of residential offerings that are likely to come online. Catering for a broad range of city types, from students and local retail/hospo workers, all the way

to top-end ‘penthouse players’, will be critical in creating a colourful mix of downtown townies. That said, none of this can come to fruition unless we get the landlords onboard. The process of bringing any space up to code (to be a dwelling) is not only time-consuming, but also potentially very costly. This is partly a consequence of the Canterbury quakes. It’s for our own safety. Earthquake strengthening must meet a minimum rating, and revised fire egress requirements must also be met. And that’s just the beginning. For the most part, the spaces in the CBD that would make good apartments, are on the first floor, and oftentimes above retail space.

The other consideration here is that word that no-one likes to talk about. Parking! Parking is the other critical piece of the equation. But fear not good people of Napier! The team at NCC have a firm grasp on the car parking issue, and solutions are being formulated as we speak. NCC staff has drafted a comprehensive parking strategy about to be presented to council. This includes a variety of parking applications, which will make our city easier to visit and navigate in the long term, while still

retaining the look and feel of the space. Those who have gone through the process towards residential will tell you that it can be daunting at first. However, there are also some good people around with the experience and vision that can help navigate through the constraints. As long as you are aware of any potential hurdles early in the piece, and you are flexible enough to take on solutions that fit within this framework, it is definitely possible to develop a great residential property that will meet your needs in the city.

Napier has the potential to be a worldclass destination, even beyond what we already have to offer. If we can pull together and motivate those people who hold the key to the city, change the use on a bunch of space, and encourage residential movement into town, our city could be transformed into something very, very special. Benny Fernandez is the friendly face and force behind one of central Napier’s favourite coffee stops – Georgia on Tennyson.

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C U LT U R E & L I F EST Y L E

Charles Ropitini. Photo: Tom Allan

Mother Suzanne Aubert the road to sainthood Story by Jess Soutar Barron Pakipaki is an unassuming place from the road. But turn off the highway just south of Hastings and you’ll find a settlement steeped in history, and a collection of buildings standing as testament to a wealth of stories whose wairua seems to hang in the air. Immediately ahead, is a small wooden church, minus a steeple. To its right, a John Scott church, quintessentially 1960s, its pedestrian proportions belying the surprising grandeur of the interior. And straight on, an Anglican stone church erected in the 1920s. With three historic marae here too, Pakipaki is packed with importance. The first of these churches is the focus of a body of work linked to the canonisation of New Zealand’s first saint: Mother Suzanne Aubert (also known by her cleric name, Sister Mary Joseph). In December 2016, Pope Francis declared Aubert ‘Venerable’. Focus now shifts from proof of her historical and theological virtue to the recognition of a miracle. With one miracle Aubert will be declared ‘Blessed’ (the case for this has been presented and awaits Vatican hearing); on recognition of a second miracle she will become a saint. Aubert was a skilled herbalist, medical practitioner and social welfare pioneer. The sainthood journey involves all the geographic areas Aubert made her home during her life in New Zealand. A French nun, following the mission

“There’s a lot to think about but we need to be ready to offer hospitality to pilgrims to honour Mother Aubert. Religious tourism is a thing in itself. With mainstream tourism you can choose whether to welcome people or not, but with pilgrims you don’t have a choice, they just come.” CHARLES ROPITINI

of Bishop Pompallier, Aubert came here in 1860, first to Auckland. Ten years later she arrived in Meeanee, where she stayed for 12 years. Then, after nearly three years in Pakipaki she travelled to Jerusalem on the Whanganui River, and later to Wellington where she died in 1926 aged 91. Her time in Pakipaki was short but significant. Those involved in the road to sainthood that covers this part of Aubert’s life are working hard in preparation for what canonisation might mean for the settlement. Charles Ropitini is part of the group

weaving many different needs and work programmes together to be ready. His relationship with the Catholic mission at Pakipaki is a life-long journey; he was baptised in the Scott Church as an infant. Charles knows that sainthood for Aubert will bring pilgrims to Pakipaki, potentially thousands. “There’s a lot to think about but we need to be ready to offer hospitality to pilgrims to honour Mother Aubert,” says Charles. “Religious tourism is a thing in itself. With mainstream tourism you can choose whether to welcome people or not, but with pilgrims you don’t have a choice, they just come.”

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Left: Church of the Immaculate Conception, Pakipaki. Photo: Tom Allan. Top right: Church of the Immaculate Conception, circa 1940. Bottom right: Charles Ropitini with kaumatua Hera Ferris. Photo: Tom Allan.

A key component is providing facilities for visitors – toilets, rest-stops, places to stay – but at the centre is a need to look after the original, humble wooden chapel: the Church of Immaculate Conception. Built in 1880 by Sister Aubert and financed by her dowry, the church has been home to community initiatives since the regular mass was moved to the ‘new church’ in the late ‘60s. The older church was relocated to its current corner site to make way for the new build. Since then, it has housed Sunday school, a carving training programme, gardening equipment, and nesting welcome swallows, among other things. A spraypainted mural from the 1980s dominates the far end. Conservation architect Chris

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“Everything we know of colonisation…she was the opposite. She wanted to learn, she listened, she ate with Maori. She had a curiosity of indigenous people.” CHARLES ROPITINI

Cochran is preparing plans to preserve the building, and the Historic Places Trust is making decisions on its protection status. For those on the ground in Pakipaki the current main occupation is fundraising.

Aubert’s time in the small settlement was certainly informative; she began her renowned Maori language manual here and refined her knowledge of endemic plants. It was in Pakipaki that Aubert started to hone her instincts and skills with Maori medicines. Already proficient in te reo and tikanga, Aubert fitted well into the Pakipaki community, and was accepted and trusted with knowledge. Charles feels her drive to build expertise in medicine came through her own ill-health, and once she left Pakipaki for Jerusalem it was on the behest of Pakipaki kaumatua who felt she would benefit from being there. “She called her time here in Pakipaki the happiest years of her life,” explains Charles. “It is in our DNA and our

Altar, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Pakipaki. Photo: Tom Allan

whakapapa to demonstrate this happy place, and the root of our happiness is our spirituality. That spirituality transcends Christianity.” Pakipaki at the time was the gateway to Heretaunga and an important stopping-place on the journey through to the coast. A few years before Aubert arrived the railway had come through and Hastings was becoming a township. The tiny nun walked across the district regularly, ministering to Maori and Pakeha, but she had a particular affinity with Maori. The church here is the only one in the region to still have a weekly

mass completely in te reo. “Everything we know of colonisation…she was the opposite,” believes Charles. “She wanted to learn, she listened, she ate with Maori. She had a curiosity of indigenous people.” Now, 145 years after Aubert first arrived in Hawke’s Bay, with six bundles of luggage, two pianos and packs of courage and compassion for the people she found here, Pakipaki hapu are preparing for her sainthood, whatever it may bring. Charles Ropitini trusts in the small community’s ability to save her historic

church, its John Scott neighbour, and to host pilgrims. “If we can get this right and place Suzanne Aubert at the heart of everything, then the rest will fall into place.”

Pakipaki Whare Karakia Charitable Trust is keen to hear from skilled craftsmen or retired builders who would like to contribute their time and expertise to this project: ppwkct@ gmail.com To contribute to fundraising: givealittle.co.nz/cause/a-restorationproject-church-of-the-immaculate

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 • BAYBUZZ • 85

Chocolate and Strawberry Frozen Roulade. See recipe over page. Photo: Florence Charvin

Christmas Food? No Pressure! By Alexandra Tylee When I was growing up, Christmas was all about the food, and you knew exactly what food this would be, especially the puddings. I remember every year with wonderful regularity the dining room table groaning and moaning under the weight of an array of glorious Victoriana, wobbly jellies, creams, and aspic things we never ate at any other time of the year … and which have since vanished along with the moa. I am not really sure if I am a traditionalist, but it can be comforting to not have to think and instead always cook the same dish for the same occasion, knowing that it will be crowd pleasing. In this current climate of infinite choices and options for every decision, having traditions certainly helps make things easier, if even for a brief second, instead of being overwhelmed. Somewhere in the time between when I was too small to help in the kitchen and now when I am very seldom out of one, things have changed. Traditions have given way to fashions and food trends, allergies and Masterchef. The pressure is on to come up with a dish or a menu that not only sums up Christmas, but caters for all of your extended friends’ and family’s different dietary requirements and expectations.

And if cooking is not your thing, then as Noel Coward said: “Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn’t everyone?”

Certainly Jamie, Annabel or Nigella are very helpful, and they offer lots of advice in the magazines at this time of year on how to entertain with ease, but they don’t necessarily understand your particular situation. At the end of the day it is up to you to create food that is just the right balance of satisfying while not being too heavy, amazing without being over the top, potentially vegan without being mundane, and fulfilling with so much warmth and delight, that your friends and family will remember it until next Christmas. No pressure! One very good solution I think is to come up with your own new traditions, updated and made current. Maybe more Ottolenghi than Victoriana, more multicultural than the motherland, wherever that may be. And this way you can choose a dish or menu that is relevant to you and your family, and it

can reflect not just what is in season, but how you all like to eat. What would I cook? Well for me Christmas is the day before my second son’s birthday, he was due on New Year’s Eve 2000 and he only lived for three months after that. And as each year gets closer to that birthday the air around me seems to get stiller and more refined. I find part of me wanting to slink off like a cat and wait it out in a cave until the new year, but that is not possible or sensible. So instead let’s make a cake, the ultimate cake to celebrate his wonderful life and all the other wonderful lives of babies and mothers that we know and meet. And after all, how appropriate is that, a birthday cake for Christmas day. And if cooking is not your thing, then as Noel Coward said: “Why do I drink Champagne for breakfast? Doesn’t everyone?”

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Photo: Florence Charvin

Chocolate and Strawberry Frozen Roulade

175g dark chocolate, chopped roughly 6 organic eggs 175g caster sugar 2 tablespoons cocoa 2 tablespoons icing sugar 500g vanilla ice cream ½ cup fresh strawberries, chopped into smallish pieces, or cherries if they are still around 1 tablespoon berry powder for dusting

Set oven to bake at 180C and line a non-stick sponge roll tin (23cm x 33cm) with baking paper. Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally; it is important that the

bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water because then the bowl will be too hot and the chocolate will split. Once melted, remove the bowl from the heat and let the chocolate cool for about 15 minutes or until it is still just a little bit warm. Separate the eggs. In a beater whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then set the beaten egg whites aside in another bowl. Again in the beater, add the egg yolks and sugar, mixing them together for 3-4 minutes until thick and pale. Now pour the melted chocolate into the egg yolks and gently fold it in by hand. Carefully fold two big spoonfuls of the chocolate mixture into the egg whites, and gently incorporate until they are almost mixed in; be sure not to over mix them and lose all of the air you have just whisked in. Next do the same with

the remainder of the chocolate mix. Then sift the cocoa over the mixture and fold this in. Pour the mix into the lined tin, gently tilting the tin back and forth so the mix goes evenly into the corners. Bake in the oven for 20- 25 minutes, until it has risen and when you poke it with a knife it comes out clean. Have a tea towel laid out ready on the bench, dusted generously with icing sugar. Turn the cake out onto this straight from the oven, carefully peeling the paper off the underside. Roll it up from the long edge and then leave it to cool, rolled up with the towel. Put the ice cream into a bowl and let it soften enough so you can beat it with a spoon, and mix it into a smooth texture like whipped cream. Fold in the berries. Now working quickly so the ice cream does not melt, gently unroll the cake and spread the ice cream over the cake leaving about 2cm around the edge. Now roll the roulade and filling into shape, peeling off the towel as you go. Leave the end of the tea towel tucked underneath and use it to wrap up the finished roulade, twisting the towel edges to keep the whole thing secure. Now lift the roulade onto a tray and put it into the freezer. Yes it’s a little odd putting a cake in the freezer, but trust me it likes it, it gets a lovely sticky texture. When you are ready to eat the roulade, take it out of the freezer about 5 minutes before to let it soften. Then put it on your best serving dish and shake icing sugar, berry dust or cocoa over it. You could also serve it with chocolate ganache and whipped cream. After all it’s Christmas!

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LOOKING TO SPICE THINGS UP A BIT? Then why not visit Napier’s Indigo Restaurant and Bar for that spicy point of difference. They do all your favourite curries like butter chicken, rogan josh and tandoori better than most, but they stand out for their huge menu using local fresh meats, produce and wine and beer. On top of this, Indigo has become widely known as the home of New Zealand’s – if not the southern hemisphere’s – largest whiskey selection, with over 800 and counting.

24a Hastings Street, Napier Open Thurs-Sun for Lunch 12-2pm and Thurs-Mon for Dinner 5-10pm indigo-napier.co.nz Phone: 06 834 4085 indigotakeaway.nz indigo-napier.co.nz indigotakeaway.nz

The downstairs dining area caters for 75 guests while the upstairs banquet and function room caters for 50 and doubles as the Amber Bar, named after the colour of whiskey. Amber is also the colour of beer and Indigo boasts a large range of local beers such as Giant, Brave and its own craft beer range, Napier Brewing Company, brewed at the Westshore Inn. If you don’t feel like dining out then there is always the takeaway option, both pick-up and delivery across Hawke’s Bay. Indigo’s special food containers keep food hot for up to an hour enabling deliveries to not only Napier but to Hastings and Havelock North as well. So next time you are looking to spice up your life check out Indigo Restaurant at 24 Hastings Street, Napier or find their App at the Apple or Google App store and order in.

C U LT U R E & L I F EST Y L E

15 Years of Black Barn OpenAir Cinema Story by Jess Soutar Barron The Black Barn OpenAir Cinema has witnessed some memorable nights. In the 2009-10 season, Rocky Horror Picture Show screened. Half an hour in, a southerly hit and, instantly, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. Many of those who’d come dressed up, especially the men in fish-nets and suspender belts, had to leave. “They weren’t used to being that exposed to the elements,” laughs organiser Urs Blum. He and his wife Doris established the annual outdoor film season after seeing similar ideas in their home country, Switzerland. Now, celebrating its fifteenth birthday, the festival is a mainstay of Hawke’s Bay’s summer events calendar. Hunt for the Wilderpeople was another highlight. It played last year on a freezing night when rain threatened, yet packed out the amphitheatre’s capacity of 1100, attracting lots of families with visitors in tow, bundled into sleeping bags. This Way of Life was another big hit; made locally, it drew a huge crowd. The biggest night, however, was Earth, in the ‘08/’09 Season. So many

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“It’s a totally different ambience to a mainstream theatre; it’s casual and it’s about having a good time with friends. It’s a buzz to see people enjoying themselves." DORIS BLUM

people turned up Urs and Doris had to get creative with seating: “We had people sitting outside the cinema, behind the bushes.”

Mostly, nights spent at Black Barn Cinema are balmy: The sun setting over vineyards, the vista stretching as far as Napier. It’s quintessentially Hawke’s Bay. Add in a glass of wine, an antipasto picnic, friends and family close by, it really is all the best bits of the Bay, bundled together in one glorious package. “When the sun goes down, it’s a magical place…” begins Urs, to which Doris adds: “A beautiful natural environment. You can sit with friends, watch the sun go down, then the movie starts.” Urs and Doris, known to many for their yoga studio, seem to get a kick out of working on this project together. They share a vision for what they are

Urs and Doris Blum. Photo: Tom Allan

creating for the community. It’s as much to do with the setting at Black Barn as it is about the movies. “We sell it as an experience,” explains Urs. “And that includes the food carts and the wine stall.” Doris agrees: “It’s a totally different ambience to a mainstream theatre; it’s casual and it’s about having a good time with friends. It’s a buzz to see people enjoying themselves,” she says. “It gives you a boost doing something for the community, giving back. It fills you up. It’s so exciting – Wow! – a total high, when it all comes together.” This coming season Black Barn Cinema will host another nine-night

season. The film list includes: Mamma Mia 2, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society and Oceans 8. A new addition this year will be a People’s Choice Night where three potential films are floated, and the crowd picks their favourite via social media. Urs and Doris are careful to point out that it’s their loyal sponsors that are the real reason they can confidently commit to season after season of the outdoor cinema. “They are our safety net,” says Urs. NZME and Sommerset Partners have been with Black Barn Cinema for the full fifteen years. The new season starts on 27 December.

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C U LT U R E & L I F EST Y L E

Ric Coleman. Photo: Tom Allan

Old Dogs, New Digs Story by Jess Soutar Barron The volunteers at Menzshed are master fixers. Their projects include one-off, small tasks for individuals, often paid for in cake and koha, through to council jobs like access ramps. The popularity of the Menzshed means the Hastings branch is now moving from its current home, the old toilet-block at Windsor Park netball courts, to a space three times bigger. Through November and December, an army of volunteers will move every tool, every piece of machinery, every donated bit of wood, every bicycle part and every half-finished project to a re-commissioned building at the A&P Showgrounds. The Hastings branch boasts 75 members, although not all turn up regularly to get involved in projects; some are just in it for the monthly

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socials. NZ’s first Menzshed opened twelve years ago … Hastings’ and Napier’s are three years old. “It gets guys out from home twiddling their thumbs and into something that’s active,” says Ric Coleman, current chairman. He explains the existence of the Shed helps with mental and physical health. “It gives blokes a sense of having achieved something, keeps them sane, gives them longevity.” Retired chippies, sparkies, blocklayers, tradies of all types find a new working life at Menzshed. Metal workers, electronics specialists, ex-military, IT technicians are all represented among the Menzshed ranks. As a youngster Ric trained for seven years as a typewriter repairman; when he’s not at Menzshed, Ric now

“If you don’t keep your hand in you get stale. Your health goes down very quickly if you’ve got nothing to look forward to.” RIC COLEMAN

fixes lawnmowers in his spare time. He explains that switching off the working-man mentality and psyche is difficult. “These are pretty proud guys, they’ve worked for 40 years, then what?” says Ric. “They know their screwdrivers from their

wrenches, they’re still useful. I think they feel guilty just sitting at home doing nothing.” Fixing bicycles is a big part of the contribution the Shed makes to the community, not as a replacement to the local bike shop, but as a charity role. These bikes are passed on to lowdecile schools, families in need and recently released inmates. The blokes at the Shed also take on a mentor role, working weekly with a group of special needs students from EIT. Tools are donated – there’s currently 29 claw hammers and no room for any more – with excess tools being shipped to the Pacific Islands to help with aid projects. Menzshed isn’t just about working together, it’s about looking out for each other, companionship, ‘mateship’. They’re always open to new members. “We’re a load of old guys who have a bloody lot of fun,” says Ric. Menzshed is a charitable trust and part of a network of similar hangouts across New Zealand, and internationally. Napier’s Menzshed has 60 members and CHB has 34. In Wairoa a similar outfit is in the start-up phase and will also welcome women (on alternate days).

Above: Alan Harris. Photos: Tom Allan

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Look, Books!

C U LT U R E & L I F EST Y L E

Story by Jess Soutar Barron

Chocolate sweetens collaboration

Joe Dobson. Photo: Florence Charvin

Story by Jess Soutar Barron Joe Dobson has a lot on his mind, and most of it’s covered in chocolate. He’s a constant whirl of chocolate-infused creativity that bubbles out in collaborations with a whole range of interesting fellow artisans. Most recently he’s worked with local innovator Lily Bee to put his chocolate and their wax wraps together as a response to the zeitgeist rethinking conventional packaging solutions. Joe’s La Petite Chocolat collaborations extend into the charity space too. He’s just released a bar for Women’s Refuge. “It’s really cool!” Joe’s enthusiastic about the potential to pair up with other makers, mix up flavours, come up with new ideas. “Working on these projects becomes a little bubble of

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creative survival!” Other chocolate combos have included Brave Brewery releasing a chocolate stout, Hawthorne providing coffee for espresso chocolate and David Trubridge Studio commissioning bars in the trademark coral lamp design. Winery collaborations have included a winery’s dukkah, and another with a signature fortified red. And a particularly memorable one designed to match a pinot noir. “It was a truffle with blue cheese, walnut and dried mushroom! Delicious!” Intrepid, innovative creations from a tiny chocolate producer that does everything by hand from making bars to hand sticking labels. Keep an eye out for new collaborations in the near future.

November every year sees books galore unleashed on Hawke’s Bay with the annual Lions Book Sale. Now in its 31st year the sale incorporates 90,000 books and magazines as well as a plethora of other treasures, including 800 jigsaw puzzles. Alan Harvey who leads the team of 40 volunteers that runs the sale has a few standout highlights: “We once had a saxophone that got $3,500,” he recalls. “And an atlas we got $3,700 for, it was from 1855, I think.” Alan’s been with the Lions for 44 years. He says the sale takes a lot of time from a lot of people, but it’s worth it. Last year they earned $35,000 that went directly to community initiatives, little and large. “We assist young and old in various ways,” he says, listing past projects including $35,000 on the Weka Scout Camp swing bridge, $25,000 to the playground at Windsor Park in Hastings and $50,000 to refurbish Ronald McDonald House in Wellington. Over the two days of the book fair 5,000 people attend, with a queue of over 400 waiting to get in at 8am when the sale opens. Lions Book Sale runs over the weekend of 17 and 18 November at the Hawke’s Bay A&P Showgrounds in Hastings.

GOING GREEN JE N N Y K E OW N

Did anyone say ‘Cameo Creams’? Tepache at Hapī. Photo: Ashley Scott

I’m a lady fighting plastic, but on the day of writing this column, I’ve lost the war. Currently, I’m finishing off a Cameo Cream from a plastic packet (bought by my husband may I add) to give me the required end-of-day sugar boost to keep writing (I’m a writer by trade). The other day I bought a Kinder Surprise for my daughter at the supermarket to stop her moaning. Of all the evil single-use plastics out there, this has to be top of the pops – a tiny plastic toy, encased in a plastic egg, covered with chocolate! Plus, what an amazing parenting moment. I keep forgetting to say no to straws when ordering smoothies. I can’t give up pasta (which comes in plastic). I can’t give up berries (which come in plastic). The list goes on. That’s right, I’m the first to put up my hand and admit changing habits is hard, especially when plastic is ubiquitous. I mean, for Pete’s sake, it’s even in our tea bags! However, it’s also fun. Really. Nothing beats the heroic ‘I’m-beatingthe-stupid-corporations-and-theirunethical-plastic-packaging’ feeling swanning past the nappy aisle or the rice aisle and not buying the stuff. About nine months ago, our family began a journey of reducing single use waste, basically borne from our horror at our overflowing rubbish bin and what it was doing to the planet. We’ve come a long way, and as you can see, still have a way to go, but I’m keen to share my tips, advice and, conversely, my failures with you. One of the best ways you can cut waste is to take some inspiration from how your grandmother lived her life – cook and bake from scratch when you can.

My latest culinary waste-free discovery is fermentation. This is truly exciting, because it’s so delicious, easy, uses vege and fruit scraps, is good for your gut and cheap – so many wins.

I choose fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, which are better for my family and better yet, my money goes directly to growers in Hawke’s Bay. I shop for fruit and vege at the Hastings Farmers Market and local growers in Meeanee – using my cloth bag of course! As I’m married to a vegetarian, we mainly make and eat simple vegetarian meals like vegetarian lasagne (lasagne is one of the only foods at the supermarket that is packaged in just cardboard!), stir fry, vegetarian pizza, omelettes and falafel wraps. I buy my dry staples from bulk food stores, either Bin Inn in Taradale or Hastings or Chantal’s in Napier, and this includes flour, oats, nuts, seeds, and popcorn. I put the dry ingredients in cloth bags or jars. To be honest, I’m still working out an efficient system for this kind of shopping, but like everything, it requires planning. Pro tip: toddlers and bulk food stores are an unhappy combination. The last time I took my one year old in to Bin Inn, he was determined to use the steel scoop to fling popcorn on the floor, and when I

wrenched the scoop from his hands, I might as well have cut off his finger for the wailing that ensued. When I have time, I bake bread. I have the easiest bread recipe in the world. Go to one_lady_fighting_plastic on Instagram and you’ll find it in my stories. Freshly baked bread has to be one of the best smells in the universe. My latest culinary waste-free discovery is fermentation. This is truly exciting, because it’s so delicious, easy, uses vege and fruit scraps, is good for your gut and cheap – so many wins. Recently I made the beautiful, refreshing Mexican drink, Tepache, at a workshop run by Plastic Free Hawke’s Bay, Te Matau a Maui (that I co-founded) and Hapī in Napier. (If you want to come to a wastefree workshop, follow Plastic Free Hawke’s Bay on Instagram and Facebook) I’ll end this with a recipe for Tepache – the chilli flakes are the hero ingredient!

Tepache Ingredients 2 litres of cold, unfiltered water Rind and core of one pineapple 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar Chilli flakes to taste!

Method Put pineapple rind, core and coconut sugar in 2 litre sterilised jar Pour in water Chilli flakes for taste Cover with muslin cloth Leave to ferment for a week to two weeks Drink when you think it’s ready! Nice with ice!

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N MA RY K I P P E N B E R G E R

A flattened hand, crotch lift

Alice in the flood. Photo: Michael Charlton-Jones

We might have been both flooded in and out, the river may have risen higher than we have ever seen it in 30 years, causing more destruction than ever before. We might have dug, planted, extended, mowed, weeded and encouraged hundreds of seeds into life. Alice (6) might have given us the definitive list of rules for pigs, including: they must not drive, they must not pretend to be human, they must not play rugby and, most importantly, pigs must not climb a beanstalk just to touch a fluffy cloud. It’s not rocket science I’m sure you will agree. We might wake at 3am every morning to the rumbling of logging trucks as they carry the forest away. The forest so vast the neighbour’s beast lay low for three years without sight nor capture. A forest so vast it will take 18 months for the last truck to pass our way. I might want to mention the new clock above my head, ticking like a dripping tap and every hour neighing like a horse, but I will resist. Instead I want to talk about a Wwoofer (Willing Worker on Organic Farms). Henri, a young Frenchman with lanky build and ringleted hair. I’d

96 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018

like to say it was all ooh laala and croissants but I can’t. Last summer the sun was unrelenting as it tends to be in our little pocket of CHB. The wetland was dried and cracked. The mother mallard and her twelve black and yellow ducklings had deserted, the quail had left for a long lunch, the frogs had gone to ground and all that was apparent that morning was a lone kingfisher balancing on an overhead wire. Everyone was at the garden ripping out blackberry, replacing fences and stacking firewood, while the grandies gathered pinecones. Fresh from a good night’s sleep and a large breakfast it was time for Henri to join the whanau working bee. My beloved Big Red was poised and pointing, garden bound. Magnanimously I handed Henri the keys, showed him the simple gears and hopped in. Key turned, Henri revved the engine and without pause slammed straight into the house. My expletive was involuntary, my suggestion for him to leave the vehicle clear, my questions pointed. Yes, he did have a licence but had lost it. Careless. He couldn’t see without his glasses and he didn’t wear said glasses

Finally, the whanau heard the commotion and came running. Someone was paralytic with laughter and wishing loudly for a camera.

because he felt he looked better without them. I drove, and suggested to Peter that a chainsaw may not be a good choice for our guest. And headed home. The limestone track follows the wetland bank and I slowed to survey the drought devastation. The raupø were colonising, working their way further and further into pond central. They needed cutting back, this was the window. With lopper in hand I put one foot gingerly on the cracks. It held, one more halting step and another and another. I had this. I cut a bundle and decided it was time to brave the centre. I pushed the boundary and paid the price. Slowly but surely I started to sink. I scrambled, I grabbed at branches, but still I sank. A cry for help was next on the agenda, a louder cry, an even louder cry. Suddenly I heard the thud-thud of running boots and around the corner came my friend Henri. He leapt the leap of the young and bounded onto the cracked pond. “No!” I cried but he was on a mission. “Don’t worry,” I pleaded. “Get Peter,” I suggested. “I’m okay,” I lied, but the two languages didn’t mingle and before I knew it the Frenchman had gone straight for a flattened hand, crotch lift. I lived many years without a flattened hand, crotch lift and have been none the worse for it. On this day I was to receive two such upward lifts. Finally, the whānau heard the commotion and came running. Someone was paralytic with laughter and wishing loudly for a camera. Someone kinder found a plank and with collective effort I was suctioned out and back on terra firma. Henri has returned home. He’s wearing his glasses now. I thank him for his good intentions and kind heart. I’d best get on, Christmas is coming, the clock is ticking…and neighing. Have a good one. Arohatinonui.

How well do you really know your health?

Health and Care

When it comes to understanding the true state of our health, it tends to get a little murky. Dr Colin Hutchison aims to change all that. Dr Hutchison is a consultant nephrologist (kidney guru), physician and founder of Shape My Health – a cohesive team of private health specialists and health professionals who seamlessly collaborate to assess and then proactively manage your health so you can enjoy a full and active life. Rather than waiting for illness or conditions to strike, Shape My Health is about acting now to prevent potential future problems. A robust, personal health assessment creates a detailed map of where your key indicators sit right now and what you can do to avoid health issues, small and significant, as you age. “We’re great at keeping most things in order in our life – finances, insurance, even down to keeping an eye on tyre pressure,” says Dr Hutchison, “yet we overlook the number one thing that affects everything we do, our health. The earlier we take control of that, the better our future looks.” The Shape My Health Personal Health Assessment process measures risk factors and lifestyle behaviours that potentially impact health as you age. It’s a complete body system assessment that covers cardiovascular, respiratory, abdominal, neurological and musculoskeletal systems. It also includes blood tests, hearing, vision and lung function. Conducted by dedicated health professionals, it provides a clear and thorough roadmap of your current health and its impact on a healthy future.

“Once we have a clear picture, we create a detailed strategy so our clients can achieve the best health possible and nip any issues in the bud before they become significant,” explains Dr Hutchison. “Knowledge now makes all the difference for the future.” Dr Hutchison says it’s an important chance to spend quality time on truly understanding personal health. Assessments occur over a series of in-depth consultations with our team of medical professionals. From here, a complete and detailed report is prepared and shared with clients with a practical and thorough 6 - 12 month plan aimed at correcting and maintaining key health indicators. Shape My Health plays a pivotal and proactive role by managing the clients’ plan moving forwards. “The reality is, the way you live now directly impacts you for the rest of your life. Get ahead of the curve and give yourself the best chance of good health, long-term.” Telephone our team on 0800 555 060 or visit shapemyhealth.co.nz to learn more.

Proactive Health Assessment and Care

BAYSWATER EUROPEAN

JAGUAR RETAILER OF THE YEAR 2017/18

The team at Bayswater European were thrilled to be awarded Jaguar New Zealand Retailer of the Year 2017/2018 at the recent Jaguar Land Rover New Zealand Excellence Awards. This is the second year running Bayswater European has received this prestigious award. Our small but dedicated team are extremely proud that our efforts to consistently deliver the first-rate service our valued customers deserve has been acknowledged in this way. Certainly there has been much to celebrate for Bayswater European over recent months, as we also launched our new state of the art Jaguar Land Rover Showroom facilities in Carlyle Street, Napier. Our new showroom provides a fitting showcase for our vehicle line-up. As such, it not only supports the positioning of the Jaguar Land Rover brand but also puts our customers firmly at the heart of our business. We greatly appreciate the support of both our customers and Jaguar Land Rover New Zealand and thank them both. Bayswater European 93-107 Carlyle Street, Napier Ph. 06 650 0799 bayswatervehicles.co.nz

THE ART OF PERFORMANCE