BB#45-Jan-Feb-2019

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N o 45 • JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2019 • HAWKE’S BAY UP CLOSE, IN DEPTH

What to do in Hawke’s Bay this summer

Inside: Summer event guide

Discover the Cape Coast Bay’s best ice cream Climate change Tsunami coming Go organic

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45 BayBuzz January/February 2019 Re-discover Hawke’s Bay – over 100 things to do, places to see, events to catch this summer. Explore the Cape Coast. Raft the Mohaka. Where’s the Bay’s best ice cream? Who’s driving the region’s commitment to organics? How will Hawke’s Bay adapt to global warming? A tsunami is coming! High-tech water research. Behind the curtain for two HB productions. Sleep warning! Paul Paynter’s resolutions. Alexandra Tylee’s summer treats. Mary Kippenberger’s lessons. Plus stuff you must know! Cover: Mohaka Rafting, page 42. Above: Re-discover Hawke’s Bay, page 20. Photos: Florence Charvin


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Bee in the Know 10

34. Discover the Cape Coast. Photo: Tom Allan

Summer Event Guide / Lizzie Russell

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

Ideas & Opinions 74

Features

It’s Bedtime! / Tom Belford Not getting enough sleep is really bad!

20 Re-discover Hawke’s Bay / Tom Belford intro Our tourism friends suggest their favourite summer places and experiences.

76 How to Make 2019 Better / Paul Paynter Paul’s resolutions are not that shocking.

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Discover the Cape Coast / Keith Newman Take a tour of the Haumoana/ Te Awanga/Clifton coast.

Adapting Hawke’s Bay to Climate Change / Bridget Freeman-Rock It’s coming. We can’t avoid it. But we can prepare for the impacts.

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Mohaka Rafting / Bridget Freeman-Rock All skill levels can challenge the Mohaka … Bridget & Flo did.

Slipping Slowly Sideways … And Then / Keith Newman A major tsunami will hit Hawke’s Bay. Why are we so sure?

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Organics in the Bay/ Rosheen FitzGerald The Bay is into organics in a big way. Here’s how and who.

Hi-Tech Water Wisdom Needed / Keith Newman Using helicopter-borne scanning technology to better scope our aquifers.

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74. It's Bedtime! Photo: Tom Allan


34. Discover the Cape Coast. Photo: Tom Allan

Culture & Lifestyle

92 Books for Summer / Louise Ward & Pam Bennett

78 Behind the Scenes: Preparing for La Traviata and Les Misérables / Jess Soutar Barron

82 Preserve the Memories … Eat the Fruit / Alexandra Tylee

48. Organics in the Bay. Photo: Florence Charvin

94 Reader Quiz & Crosswords

86 Frozen Assets / Jess Soutar Barron

96 Dancing Lessons / Mary Kippenberger

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Follow us at: baybuzzhb

Featured Contributor

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

Florence Charvin Working on the summer issue of BayBuzz made me realise the wide array of summer activities available in Hawke’s Bay. The highlight for me was the white water rafting mission Bridget and I were sent on. Going down the wild Mohaka waters was so exciting. I came home exhausted but thrilled by the experience. It was epic. Summer for me means going to the beach with my kids (Ocean Beach is our favourite), long evenings in my garden drinking rosé wine and sharing a meal with friends. Eating ice cream. Just the normal summer things really.

Reach BayBuzz by mail BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

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; Pat Turley EDITOR’S RIGHT HAND: Brooks Belford PHOTOGRAPHY: Tom Allan; Florence Charvin 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: Karyn Worthington

BayBuzz Regulars

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.

Lizzie Russell Lizzie has been working in the arts and communications in Hawke’s Bay since returning in 2010. Along with her work for BayBuzz, she also runs Tennyson Gallery in Napier.

Jess Soutar Barron Jess is a wordsmith and project manager whose past gigs have included time with Sky TV, Hastings District Council and Band, as well as three years as a communications manager with the Metropolitan Police Service.

Rosheen FitzGerald Rosheen is an emerging writing talent who ties together skills as a researcher with disciplined wordsmithing. Her degree in psychology gets her to the heart of any story. Rosheen is passionate about theatre, contemporary dance and avant garde feminist poetry.



F R O M T H E ED I TO R TO M BEL FO R D

Kick back, but look ahead

Ah, summer and the holiday season. A time to rest and rejuvenate, although it doesn’t feel that way right now, as the BayBuzz team crashes to get this edition to bed before Christmas! We’ve tried to strike a balance between helping you kick back and enjoy the break, while also equipping you to contemplate some serious challenges ahead of us in Hawke’s Bay. For the ‘kick back’ part, we assembled a heap of suggestions about how you – and your out-of-town guests – might ‘re-discover’ the Hawke’s Bay right at our doorstep. Start with our feature article, Re-discovering Hawke’s Bay, where we’ve asked a few experts from our tourism industry for some pointers on the places and attractions, many off the beaten path, that they recommend to visitors. Then read Mohaka Rafting and Discover the Cape Coast for closer looks at two possible excursions you shouldn’t miss. After all that exploring, treat yourself to an ice cream, but not before canvassing all the decadent possibilities described in Frozen Assets. If you’re then feeling guilty, and thinking about healthier food – the best HB offers – read Organics in the Bay, where you’ll get some facts about the organic world and meet HB’s leading organic purveyors. Once so fortified, you can move on to our heavier features. Water is on everyone’s mind during the dry season, and in High-tech Water Wisdom Needed you’ll learn how the Regional Council is using the latest airborne technology to scope our underground water resources far more accurately, leading to smarter future water planning. Then there’s the opposite water

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problem, inundation. More specifically, the catastrophic flooding caused by a tsunami, caused by a major offshore earthquake. Hawke’s Bay (the entire East Coast) is overdue for this scenario. Get the details in Slipping Slowly Sideways … And Then! Hope you’re reading this on high ground! When the tsunami comes, all we can do is be prepared as best we can, run like hell for high ground when the waves come, then return to pick up the pieces that survive. We can prepare, but we can’t prevent. But an even greater calamity lies before us – one for which we have plenty of warning, could do something about, but choose in the main to ignore or defer taking seriously. And that’s global warming. Political stupidity of global proportion has pushed us to where it is now almost inevitable that observable and accelerating global warming will trigger disruptions in our natural systems with consequences whose scale we can barely begin to understand. As a nation, New Zealand is a bit player in this drama. But still we are obliged morally to make the most heroic efforts we can to arrest our greenhouse gas emissions. At least for now we have a government that seems prepared to set a proper course, and we should lend our support, setting partisanship aside. But we must also recognise that the effects on nature our economies and personal behaviours have triggered (unwittingly in the past, but with increasing complicity over the last 20 or so years) are now rolling with certainty toward us. And we must begin to adapt. Starting right here in our own patch, Hawke’s Bay. Our feature Adapting Hawke’s Bay to Climate Change sets the stage by

describing some of the impacts we are facing and the initial responses that could be undertaken. Adapting to climate change has many dimensions, and the Regional Council will be a core player in this process. Which is why, in examining the capital needs of Napier Port, regional councillors have necessarily placed those, and options for financing them, in the broader context of how other intergenerational responsibilities, like adapting to climate change, must also be met and funded in years to come. Private capital is available to sustain the Port; whereas public monies will be required to lift stopbanks, build groynes and seawalls, relocate public infrastructure, plant sufficient trees … and provide boat service to most Napier residents. This bigger picture will be further developed in future BayBuzz editions. Meantime, whether it’s exploring Hawke’s Bay, or exploring Hawke’s Bay’s future, hopefully you’ll find plenty here to stir your imagination. Enjoy!

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.


Nine-year-old Asti with Nourished for Nil’s Christina McBeth. Photo: Florence Charvin

FEEDING FAMILIES, NOT LANDFILL Nine year old Asti loves Fridays. That’s the day her family gets food from Nourished for Nil. “When we get our goodies, Asti is always the first in there unpacking it and when she sees something that she likes, her eyes light up,” says mum Jessie. Diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis, the mum of “three beautiful girls” is unable to work and reliant on a benefit. “The pressure of coping on a low income gets very frustrating and I am forced into debt to survive, which leaves me worse off and struggling to afford the basics. Often I’m not even left with enough to buy school lunches. It’s frustrating and scary.” One night, when things were at rock bottom for the family, Jessie contacted Nourished for Nil. “Things were so bad. I didn’t even have bread or milk, so I went without so my girls could eat.” Jessie had no way of getting to the distribution centre, so Nourished for Nil’s Christina McBeth dropped off a box of food on her way home. “I was so overwhelmed that someone I didn’t know helped me, and the organisation has been a help ever since.”

LIVE HERE, GIVE HERE: Nourished for Nil A $4,000 grant from Hawke’s Bay Foundation has provided a welcome boost for food redistribution charity, Nourished for Nil. The grant was one of 50 awarded to local charities in the Foundation’s latest funding round. Founded in February 2017, Nourished for Nil is the brainchild of Christina McBeth and Louise Saurin, who modelled the organisation on food rescue charities in Palmerston North and Wellington. “I have always had a personal dislike for food waste and often wondered what happened to food leftovers in cafe cabinets at the end of the day,” says Christina. “I was disappointed to discover that eight out of ten cafes admitted to either throwing unsold food out or giving it to a pig farmer.” By now, Nourished for Nil has ‘rescued’ more than 350 tonnes of food. On any given day, the charity serves rescued food to up to 300 people at their Hastings Distribution Centre, and shares bulk food deliveries with schools, kindergartens and other charities. Food is made available to anyone who wants it and comes to get it, with no questions asked. “We are spoiled here with an abundance of produce, vast

orchards and even manufacturing. So supply can meet demand and we can focus on redistributing food that was otherwise destined for landfill and make it available to any and all.” Christina says thanks to the generosity of HBF donors, charities such as Nourished for Nil can continue to make a positive difference in our community. “I absolutely love the Hawke’s Bay Foundation model because it is future proofing, thinking beyond today and now. The fund creates financial security for organisations that they can not only count on, but will continue to grow.”

HAWKE’S BAY FOUNDATION: A better and more lasting way to give Hawke’s Bay Foundation is a simple way you can support your local community. Our smarter giving model turns your initial donation into a growing fund, with the interest being used to support local charities, for generations to come. To find out more, visit hawkesbayfoundation.org.nz

BayBuzz is pleased to support the Hawke’s Bay Foundation


BE E I N T HE K N OW

Photo: Tom Allan

Stuart Ainslie Scotsman Stuart Ainslie took over the pilot seat as chief executive of Hawke’s Bay Airport last March, landing here after senior airport management roles in Australia and the UK. He inherited a

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strongly climbing operation, with total passengers expected to hit 1 million by 2025, and possibly sooner (annual rate is now 719,000). Anticipating that growth, he immediately set out to lift the sights of the existing masterplan. We see the first fruits of his efforts in the

new terminal facilities opening in mid-January. Stuart aspires for the airport to have “a unique, vibrant and inspiring sense of place that reflects the region, a successful freight business established, and the airport positioned as a showcase for sustainable development.”


THE EXPERIENCE YOU NEED & THE SUPPORT TO SUCCEED

Take another look at EIT We’re a long-standing resident of Hawke’s Bay, with an educational legacy of over 40 years. Today we offer over 140 programmes, including undergraduate, postgraduate and Masters’ degrees. EIT degree qualifications are equivalent to those gained at any NZ university, complying with New Zealand’s stringent qualifications framework, and come with an assurance of quality that is recognised and trusted worldwide. On this solid foundation, we ensure our programmes are always relevant to our region. We connect and consult with local industry, students gain work experience and employment from local employers, and their skills and qualifications benefit our whole community. As lifestyles have changed, so have our programmes. Talk to us about flexible, part-time and online options for study. If 2019 is your year for returning to tertiary study, making a career change, or gaining a postgraduate qualification – take another look at EIT.

eit.ac.nz | 0800 22 55 348 |


February 13-17: Napier Art Deco Festival

January 4 (and Fridays through summer) Food Truck Friday at Moana Park Winery

BayBuzz Summer Event Guide

Summer Friday evenings look, sound, smell and taste great at Moana Park, with music, firepit, great wines, cold beers and delicious casual fare. eventfinda.co.nz

January 4 (and February 1) Fraser Mack at Crab Farm Winery Join Hawke’s Bay favourite Fraser Mack at Crab Farm Winery’s restaurant for a few hours of acoustic originals and covers. eventfinda.co.nz

Dec 15 – January 7 Fiesta of Lights at the Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds Now in its 20th year, this is a celebration of light and fun and family. Open from 9pm till 11pm nightly.

Dec 27 – January 6 Black Barn Open Air Cinema Ocean’s 8, Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri – plus lots more! Movies overlooking the vines, under the stars – a Hawke’s Bay summer classic. blackbarn.com

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January 2 (and Wednesdays through January and February) Te Awanga Organic Farmers Market at Te Awanga Community Hall

January 5 Summer Cycling Carnival - Tineli Gran Fondo Ride

Check out our newest market – by the seaside and crammed full of organic goodness. Weekly events include yoga, food demonstrations and workshops. facebook.com/TeAwangaFarmersMarket

Here’s a chance for club cyclists to get in on the elite action. Ride the hill circuit the elite cyclists will face as they count down their final laps of the course. Register early at ramblers.co.nz

January 4 Summer Cycling Carnival - The Big Bike Film Night at MTG Century Theatre

January 5 Vantage Elite Road National Championships - Women & U23 Race

Emerging and established independent film-makers form the collection of short films in the Cycle Chic Film Tour. eventfinda.co.nz

Head along to watch this exciting event and encourage the elite cyclists. Hit the ‘Party on the Hill’ at the Botanical Gardens or gather by the Marine Parade finish line. eventfinda.co.nz


January 5 (and Saturdays through summer) Summer Sessions at Abbey Cellars 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

January 5 (and February 2) Saturday Live Music Session with Jess Atkin at The Urban Winery Enjoy music from Jess Atkin and her talented family, alongside some of Hawke’s Bay’s best wines, craft beer on tap and delicious food in Ahuriri. eventfinda.co.nz

January 5 Mack at the Paisley

January 11: Summer Cycling Carnival

Fraser Mack continues his summer of song throughout Hawke’s Bay, this time hitting Napier’s Paisley Stage. eventfinda.co.nz

January 6 Vantage Elite Road National Championships - Men & U23 Race The highly anticipated Elite Men’s Race is on the final day of the Champs and follows a 166km course over Napier Hill streets and Hawke’s Bay rural roads. Cheer the cyclists on and enjoy the ‘Party on the Hill’ at the Botanical Gardens. eventfinda.co.nz

January 6 (and January 20, February 3, February 17) Sundaze with The Puketapu at Sacred Hill The Dartmoor Valley collaboration offers up an afternoon of live music with delectable, well-priced country lunches made by the chefs from the Puketapu, matched with Sacred Hill’s wines. Beers, cider and soft drinks also available. eventfinda.co.nz

January 8 Summer Cycling Carnival - Bay Espresso Winery Fun Ride Take the 26km ride from Clive and back again, with a delicious lunch stop at Te Awanga Estate. Suitable for all ages. summercyclingcarnival.co.nz

January 9 BNZ Botanic Beats at Napier Botanical Gardens Gather the family and head for the picturesque Botanical Gardens for a casual evening of music from Project Prima Volta and Marvin’s Children (playing a Motown tribute). eventfinda.co.nz

January 11 The Narcs Not Over Summer Tour at the Cabana January 10 A Summer’s Day - TOTO, Dragon and Jefferson Starship at Church Road Winery

Iconic Kiwi rock’n’roll band The Narcs present a rocking tour of classic Kiwi music and a chance to hear some new tunes including the band’s latest single release, ‘Not Over’.eventfinda.co.nz

Kick back at Church Road and take in classic songs from the talent-packed trifecta – the ultimate Summer’s Day. eventfinda.co.nz

January 12 Another Day In Taradise at Moana Park Winery

January 11 Summer Cycling Carnival - Family Fun Ride Start at the Soundshell – either in fancy dress or in your lycra – and ride the 1.1km Criterium circuit down the iconic Marine Parade. The road will be closed, so it will be safe for all ages to ride. summercyclingcarnival.co.nz

January 11 Summer Cycling Carnival - Black Barn Vineyards Criterium Check out the high speed and exciting race for spectators to watch as riders tackle the 1.1km circuit on Marine Parade, with sprint laps every 10 minutes. summercyclingcarnival.co.nz

January 11 NZ Singing School Classics at MTG Century Theatre Presented by the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, NZ Singing School Classics is your chance to hear performances from the advanced classics students of the 2019 New Zealand Singing School. The school enables auditioned students aged 16 years and over to study intensively and perform publicly at a professional level. eventfinda.co.nz

Now in its 14th year, Another Day in Taradise is a relaxed, family-friendly event combining Moana Park wines, boutique beers and delicious food, all matched with a great selection of music, just outside ‘Taradise’. moanapark.co.nz

January 12 2019 NZ Singing School Showcase at the Tabard Theatre Head to the Tabard to hear from the students of the NZ Singing School. Performances include musical theatre solos and ensembles and will also feature our 2019 artist in residence, Geoff Sewell, founder of Amici Forever. eventfinda.co.nz

January 13 Church Road Live - Summer Sessions Isobelle Walker, Eilish Rose and Dan Sharp feature in this chilled-out afternoon of wine, food and music in the sunshine. eventfinda.co.nz

January 13 Puketapu Sunday Sessions with Fraser Mack Hit the Puketapu for a relaxing afternoon of great food in a charming atmosphere accompanied by Mack and his acoustic guitars. eventfinda.co.nz

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January 23 Julian Temple Band at Common Room Playing tracks from their latest album Antarctica (which peaked at number 1 on the Independent Music NZ charts and number 5 on the Official NZ Album Charts) plus their five previous albums, JTB brings their raw, organic show to Hastings’ favourite live music venue, Common Room. undetheradar.co.nz

January 24 White Ferns v India - 1st ODI at McLean Park

January 21: Blackcaps v India

January 20 Shed 2 Triathlon Series Race #3 at Pandora Pond January 14 NZ Singing School Gala Performance and Prize Giving at Napier Municipal Theatre Check out the grand finale of the 2019 NZ Singing School. Performances will include musical theatre and opera ensembles, solos and massed choruses, as well as a performance by Geoff Sewell. eventfinda.co.nz

January 18 Bowie Tribute Four: AB4 at the Cabana Bowie fans, unite. In the fourth year since Bowie’s passing, take in the magic of his music and life thanks to the AB4 Band (Roy Brown, Owen Vickers, Andrew Donnelly, Dennis Maunder). eventfinda.co.nz

January 19 Bridge Pa Wine Festival Abbey Estate, Alpha Domus, Ash Ridge, Ngatarawa, Oak Estate, Paritua, Red Metal and Sileni present the fifth annual Bridge Pa Wine Festival. Gather a crew and head for the Bridge Pa Triangle for a day of wine, food and music, all helped along by the ‘hop-on, hop-off’ buses. facebook.com/bridgepawinefestival

Think summer – think triathlon. This series runs through summer, and the events feature a bunch of different races across multiple distances, including the Kids’ Aquathon. trihb.kiwi

January 21 Blackcaps v India - 1st ODI at McLean Park What’s a Kiwi summer without a day at the cricket? Support the Black Caps as they take on India on right here in our backyard. eventfinda.co.nz

January 25 UB40 ft. Ali, Astro & Mickey at Church Road Winery It’s a UB40th! The legendary band’s latest tour celebrates 40 years making music and performing live. Expect hits like ‘Red Red Wine’, ‘Cherry Oh Baby’, ‘Rat In Mi Kitchen’ and ‘Kingston Town’, and support from some special guest artists. ub40.nz

January 26 (and February 2, 9, 16, 23) Jazz on the Village Green in Havelock North

January 23 Campbell Bros & Stortford Auto Sales Aquathon Race #3 at Pandora Pond

Kick back and relax in the sunshine with friends and family. Music from 4pm to 6pm. artsinc.co.nz

This is a fun series of events to get involved in over the summer months. You’ve got the option 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). trihb.kiwi

January 26 The Deep Purple Project at the Cabana

January 19 Brown Sugar - Rolling Stones Experience at Paisley Stage The return of Brown Sugar promises more Stones glory - some of the finest songs from the past 50 years turned up and loud and live. eventfinda.co.nz January 25: UB40 at Church Road Winery 12 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

This summer the White Ferns will test their game and themselves against some of the world’s best in a historic tour, including this thriller against India. eventfinda.co.nz

New Zealand’s only dedicated Deep Purple tribute band hits Napier for a night of rock at the Cabana. eventfinda.co.nz


January 27 (and February 3, 10, 17, 24) Summer in the Park at Cornwall Park, Hastings Enjoy the beautiful setting of Cornwall Park while delighting in music from local talents. This free concert series has been running for 17 years – a Hastings classic! 3 - 5pm. artsinc.co.nz

February 1 Devil’s Elbow at Common Room Check out Hawke’s Bay favourites Devil’s Elbow – their sound has been described as punk-influenced, alt. country-flavoured, electric-folk, garage rock n' roll. facebook.com/devilselbowofficial

February 2 – 9 2019 Women’s World Golf Croquet Championship at Heretaunga Croquet Club (formerly Te Mata) Heretaunga Croquet Club and Marewa Croquet Club are the two venues to host this major golf croquet event, featuring competitors from 56 countries. sporty.co.nz/gcwomensworlds

February 9 and 10: The Frank Burkitt Band

February 8 Bowie Tribute Four: AB4 at Common Room There is enough Bowie magic from AB4 to go around! The Bowie tribute act crosses the bridge and takes it to Hastings too. eventfinda.co.nz

February 9 Devil’s Elbow at The Old Mill Two Hawke’s Bay gigs in quick succession for the local band should keep the fans happy, and make them a few more. See them play in Napier at the rustic Old Mill venue. facebook.com/devilselbowofficial

February 9 The Frank Burkitt Band at Common Room When story teller, songwriter, singer and guitarist Frank Burkitt relocated to Wellington from Edinburgh with his partner and backing vocalist Kara Filbey, he formed The Frank Burkitt Band with mandolin player Cameron Burnell and jazz double bassist James Geluk. The band is taking their unique show on their longest tour yet, including two stops in the Bay. eventfinda.co.nz

Shhh.... They're Correcting their Vision Are you worried about your vision getting worse? Orthokeratology (Ortho K) works by wearing a specially designed contact lens which gently reshapes the corneal surface while you sleep. Upon waking, the contact lens is removed and the reshaped cornea gives clear natural vision for the entire day.

Are you or your family...... Getting blurry vision? Sick of wearing glasses? Lacking confidence? Active in Sports? Contact Lenses annoying?

Want to know more? Give us a call at Shattky Optometrists to book an Ortho K Screening appointment with Tim Eagle

We deliver unequalled eyecare and stunning eyewear for all ages. For more information visit Shattky today in Hastings and Waipukurau. HASTINGS / 116 Russell Street South / 06 876 3777 WAIPUKURAU / 36 Ruataniwha Street / 06 858 9117

www.shattky.co.nz shattkysoptometrists

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February 23 Marlon Williams at Black Barn Performing songs from his #1 NZ album Make Way For Love and more, Marlon and his band (Dave Khan, Ben Woolley, Gus Agars and Dan Luscombe) will play the Black Barn Amphitheatre. Book early! blackbarn.co.nz

February 24 Shed 2 Triathlon Series Race #4 at Pandora Pond Even if you’re a beginner, this series is worth having a crack at – with different races over different distances, it’s ideal for athletes of all levels. trihb.kiwi

March 9: MCL Construction Triple Peaks

February 10 The Frank Burkitt Band at Rumpy What a treat – an early evening show amongst the hills of rural Central Hawke’s Bay, with the Frank Burkitt Band’s tight-knit harmonies and wellcrafted arrangements to round out your weekend. The gig will be outside if weather permits. eventfinda.co.nz

February 13 Blackcaps v Bangladesh - 1st ODI at McLean Park Round up the troops, pack a picnic (leave the alcohol, glass, and cans at home) and head to the park for another afternoon of classic summer fun as the Black Caps take on Bangladesh. eventfinda.co.nz

February 17 Hiboux Migrations North Island Tour 2019 at Paisley Stage Supported by Roadeater and Come to Dolly, Hiboux will be playing all new material and some old favourites, in support of their second full studio album. undertheradar.co.nz

February 20 Campbell Bros & Stortford Auto Sales Aquathon Race #4 at Pandora Pond Head for Pandora Pond for the secondto-last event of this fun series which offers the chance to hone your skills and have some fun while you’re at it. trihb.kiwi

February 13 – 17 Napier Art Deco Festival This year’s festival has a focus on the fabulous fashion of the era. From flapper dresses to ‘baggies’ and all the gorgeousness in between, there are extra fashion-flavoured events to partake in, and you’ll see an upping of the ante when it comes to dressing up, dahling. Alongside the festival favourites like the Vintage Car Parade, Soapbox Derby, Gatsby Picnic and Depression Dinner, hop to it to the Hastings Art Deco Fashion Flaunt (Thursday, 5:30pm in the Hastings Mall), the Fashion Speakers Series (Friday, 2:30pm at the Napier Conference Centre), and don’t miss Fashion on the Foreshore (Saturday, 6pm at the Soundshell). One of the greatest new additions to the fashionable festival? The Festival Style Hub on Marine Parade’s Lower Lawn. All day and into the evenings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday you can pop along and book in for hair and make-up with a glass of bubbles. artdeconapier.com

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February 24 Puketapu Auction and Fair at Puketapu Lake Craft stalls under trees beside the lake, pony rides, apple bobbing, boat rides and fun competitions – the ideal summer family day out. puketapuauctionfair.co.nz

February 24 Church Road Live - Summer Sessions Iris, Larisa & Arahi and JR take the stage, offering music to accompany the wine, food and relaxation on the Church Road lawn. eventfinda.co.nz

March 1 The U2 Show - Achtung Baby Joshua Tree Album Tour at the Cabana The U2 Show Achtung Baby bring their Joshua Tree album show from Melbourne to NZ, promising to delight and excite any U2 fans. eventfinda.co.nz

March 6 – 7 East Coast Farming Expo at the Waiora A&P Showgrounds Two days of interactive exhibits and seminars, providing opportunity for East Coast and Hawke’s Bay farming communities to interact with industry innovators and experts. eastcoastexpo.co.nz

March 9 MCL Construction Triple Peaks 2019 in Havelock North

February 13-17: Napier Art Deco Festival

Run, walk or mountain bike the challenging but beautiful 55km track in this iconic Hawke’s Bay event. Proceeds go towards the Te Mata Park fundraising campaign, One Giant Chance, to establish new trails and plant more native trees on a new stretch of land for the Park. triplepeakschallenge.co.nz


We’ve got an amazing Hawke’s Bay Summer sorted 7 Days

Saturday December 8

Sunday December 9 December 27 ~ 30 January 2 ~ 6 Sunday December 31

The Bistro flings open its doors to the Summer courtyard for lunch under the vines or drinks at the bar. Dinner Wednesday to Saturday nights. The Black Barn Growers’ Market opens 9 ~ noon every Saturday of Summer Sol Lounge from 4pm ~ Oddisee with Ron Johnson ~ Bistro Black Barn OpenAir Cinema ~ Amphitheatre

(NYE) Sol Lounge ~ Tim Richards with Gareth Dobson ~ Bistro

Saturday January 12

Nest Fest ~ Amphitheatre

Saturday January 19

The Black Seeds & L.A.B ~ Amphitheatre

Sunday January 20

Sol Lounge from 4pm ~ Peter Urlich with Rob Carrol ~ Bistro

Saturday February 9

Black Barn Yoga on the Terraces ~ Amphitheatre

Sunday February 17

Black Barn Yoga on the Terraces ~ Amphitheatre

Saturday February 23 Sunday February 24 Saturday April 20

Sunday May 12

Marlon Williams ~ Amphitheatre Sol Lounge ~ Out of Sorts with Cameron Morris & Jesper Tjarnfors ~ Bistro The Big Easy ~ Easter Saturday. Riding out from Black Barn Vineyards ~ Growers’ Market & Olive Shed The Proclaimers ~ with support from Mel Parsons ~ Amphitheatre

Plus Cellar Door 7 days ~ Outstanding accommodation always blackbarn.com for all bookings and more info


BayBuzz Summer Offer W IN ! Subscribe or gift BayBuzz by February 28 to be in the draw to win the Black Barn Ultimate Experience Black Barn Ultimate Experience • Two nights’ accommodation for two couples at a Black Barn Luxury Retreat • Lunch for two couples at Black Barn Bistro • A gift hamper from the Black Barn Kitchen Store • A mixed case of Black Barn wine from the Cellar Door.

Plus EVERY person who purchases or gifts a BayBuzz subscription (1 year, 6 issues) for $30 by February 28 will receive ONE cash voucher for $20. Redeemable at any ONE of the following friends of BayBuzz: Clearview, Birdwoods, Mister D or Hohepa Creative Works.

Get your $20 cash voucher to use at:

So, your out of pocket cost for a year of BayBuzz is just $10! But you must act by February 28.


Here’s more on the Black Barn Ultimate Experience draw The draw winner will receive two FREE nights’ accommodation for two couples at one of Black Barn’s luxury cottages in Havelock North.* Plus lunch for two couples at the Black Barn Bistro to the value of $150.* Plus a gift hamper full of locally-sourced gourmet goodies from the Black Barn Kitchen Store. Plus a 12 bottle mixed case of current release Black Barn wine from the Cellar Door. (*Dates subject to availability)

Ways to pay Option One: PayPal or Credit Card Just proceed to www.baybuzz.co.nz/subscribe, where you can use your credit card or PayPal account to make a secure payment. If you’re gifting a subscription, post your gift form to BayBuzz. Option Two: Electronic Bank Transfer Complete the subscription form below and post to BayBuzz. If you’re gifting a subscription, include your completed gift form also. Transfer your payment to BayBuzz at: BNZ acct. no. 02-0655-0083775-000. Identify yourself as the payer. Option Three: Pay by Cheque Complete your subscription and/or gift form(s) and send in with your cheque. Please make the cheque payable to BayBuzz and post to: BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

Subscribe or gift Already a BayBuzz subscriber? Buy a gift subscription for a friend and you can join the the draw.

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Did You Know? 5

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You can have a pop-up wedding in Hawke’s Bay thanks to new business Quick Hitch. Show up with the paperwork, rings and 24 nearest and dearest, and in 90 minutes the knot will be tied. Check it out on Facebook for the low-down on this global wedding trend that’s found its way to the Bay.

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In November three events – The Hawke’s Bay Wine Auction, the Hospice Holly Trail and the Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition – donated a whopping combined $660,500 to Cranford Hospice.

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Looking to chat with a Justice of the Peace? JPs are available at Hastings Library (Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, 2pm-4pm), Flaxmere Library (Tuesday mornings, 10am-12 noon) and Havelock North Library (Saturday mornings, 10am-12 noon).

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The first stage of the $20.2 million Hawke’s Bay Airport expansion will be ready to welcome passengers to the region on 15 January.

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Ivy, the new bronze sculpture by worldrenowned British artist Tony Cragg, which was gifted by the Reydan and Roger Weiss Trust to the people of Hawke’s Bay and placed outside MTG, is the only piece by the artist on public display in New Zealand. [The Weiss family is behind Elephant Hill.]

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In BayBuzz’s Ten Year Anniversary issue we asked for photos of our readers with their oldest edition. We saw a few and reminisced over old covers and then came Linda Ward’s pic with her oldest – April / May 2011, when BayBuzz was still a broadsheet! Thanks to all who sent photos, and congratulations to Linda!

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Marie Taylor, owner of Plant Hawke’s Bay and deputy chair of the Biodiversity HB Guardians committee, was named the Supreme Winner of the NZI Rural Women New Zealand Business Awards in late November. Marie is also an inaugural Guardian for Biodiversity HB since 2017 and was part of the group who together wrote the Hawke’s Bay Biodiversity Action Plan.

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In other biodiversity award news, Des Ratima ONZM, who is deputy chair of Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay Foundation Board, was awarded the Linden Estate Leader of the Year Award 2018 at the PAN PAC Hawke’s Bay Business Awards on 16 November.


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Conventional wisdom says that Napier’s reclaimed land all uplifted in the 1931 earthquake. But only a third did, the remaining two thirds were drained. We’ve built the city on a (rather vulnerable) drained wetland.

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It costs $9,909 to print 5,000 BayBuzz magazines. Whew! Thankfully, they’re durable – 46% of our subscribers save their mags and 43% share them with friends and rellies [that’s great, but hmmm … get them to subscribe!]

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The five most popular New Year’s resolutions: Exercise more, Lose weight, Eat more healthily, Take a more active approach to health, and Learn new skill or hobby. Studies show 80% of these fail by February.

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Hawke’s Bay’s apple industry is forecast to grow by a million trees per year for the next five years.

Kiwis will soon be able to identify where their fruit and vege come from, now that the Consumers’ Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Act has been passed. The law change will mean fresh or frozen fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and seafood will be required to display their country of origin.

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Chinese New Year in 2019 is on Tuesday, the 5th of February. And we’re heading into the year of the Pig.

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Mt Tarapōnui in the Maungaharuru Ranges is Hawke’s Bay’s highest peak (1,308m) and the highest non-volcanic peak in the North Island outside the axial range.

According to Plastics New Zealand, an industry association of about 160 companies and organisations, NZ imported about 250,000 tonnes of virgin plastics in 2017. Just over half of that was used to make packaging, with the rest turned into products for markets such as building and construction, electronics, sports, fashion, office equipment and transport.

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According to HB Tourism, last year 155,315 guest nights were booked in Hawke’s Bay via Airbnb, generating $15.2 million in income for private homeowners. Hope y’all are reporting that to the IRD!

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HBRC has issued its new 20-year pest management rules for the region. Feral goats are now officially pests, and feral cats remain in the plan.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 19


I have a hunch that we locals don’t fully appreciate the huge variety of attractions, experiences and venues our own backyard offers. Some of these we’ve enjoyed, but then forgotten about. Introduction by Tom Belford

Morere Hot Pools. Photo: Florence Charvin


For many Hawke’s Bay locals, summer brings that anguished refrain, “Oh no, the rellies will be here for a whole week … again. What can we do with them this time?!” Well over half of visitors to Hawke’s Bay are our own friends and relatives, spending over two million ‘guest nights’ with us in our homes and sleep-outs each year, many of those in the summer. It’s the ‘curse’ of us living in such an enticing region. They come to visit us! And, as stunning as the view is, how often can we take them to the top of the Peak? Or the Aquarium? Hopefully this article will give you some alternatives you haven’t thought about for showing off Hawke’s Bay … and keeping the rellies – and yourself – entertained.

Note that I’ve emphasized ‘yourself’ as well. I have a hunch that we locals don’t fully appreciate the huge variety of attractions, experiences and venues our own backyard offers. Some of these we’ve enjoyed, but then forgotten about. Some we might never quite get to because they’re off the beaten track and require a bit of a trek (we’re a big region). And, to be honest, there’re a lot of things to do and places to see that many of us never realized were here. So it occurred to me that a useful feature for this BayBuzz summer edition – for us locals and our visitors alike – might be a sort of bucket list of the less familiar attractions here in the Bay. And who better to ask for suggestions than some folks in our regional tourism business … people who excel at showing off Hawke’s Bay to the outsiders who come to visit our region each year.

Mahia Peninsular. Photo: Kirsten Simcox


Te Awanga Estate cellar door. Photo: Lee Warren

EDITOR’S PREROGATIVE

OUR EXPERT GUIDES Katie Nimon, general manager of Nimon’s Transport. It’s her family’s business that moves more visitors than anyone around our region. What I like about Katie’s list is that she urges us to make a bit more effort to explore and expend some healthy energy – the walk to Sunrise Hut, out to Mohi Bush, exploring a farther out beach, Kairakau. Anna Baldwin, tourism coordinator for CHB. Anna’s list does a marvelous job of ‘selling’ Central Hawke’s Bay. But there’s one attraction in particular to note, because it’s temporary (concluding March 1st) – the Nga Taonga o Tamatea – Te Hokinga Mai exhibition at the CHB Settlers Museum in Waipawa. This is a unique exhibition, bringing home to CHB taonga that presently reside in museums and private collections around the country. Juliet Harbutt, proprietor of Hunter Gatherer Tours. Among other things, Juliet organises bespoke tours for visitors wanting to get up close to Hawke’s Bay artisan food producers and crafters. And she knows visitors like to shop, so she suggests So Vintage and Golly Gosh out on the Cape Coast.

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Louise Stobart, proprietor of Birdwoods Gallery & Sweet Shop. First of all, I must say, who would not take a visitor to Birdwoods?! But Louise suggests we venture farther out her road to the Patangata Tavern (and beyond that, the Mangarara Eco Farm). Or out to Clifton’s new Hygge Café. Or over to the Westshore Fish Café. Do you think she’s into food?! Hamish and Di Prins, proprietors of Prinsys Tours. Hamish and Di entertain a heap of cruise passengers, but also organise bespoke tours for those wanting to get a more intimate look at the Bay, whether that involves an on-farm visit or a more in-depth winery experience. Their list would take us to Te Puia hot springs, Shine Falls and the variety of DOC huts. Sandy Woodham, proprietor of Mahia’s Beach Café. Nothing better than a local guide, and by all accounts, Sandy knows Mahia best. Just go to her Beach Café and ask for pointers. She’ll direct you to places like Mahanga Beach and the Morere hot pools. Damon Harvey, chairman of Sport Hawke’s Bay. OK, Damon’s not officially in the tourism biz, but given his passion for sport, especially cycling and surfing, he does get around the Bay. So Damon wants us to walk or bike, not drive, to the Puketapu Pub, hike to Maraetotara Falls and Shine Falls, and check out the mountain biking park in Wairoa.

Finally, I have a list of my own, prepared I will confirm, before reading these others. As it turns out, there’s some overlap – you’ll find Patangata Tavern, Shine Falls and Maraetotara Falls on several lists. But I do have a few ‘uniques’ to add: If you head to Shine Falls, be sure to include a stop at the Guthrie-Smith Arboretum, a 90-hectare treasury of 20,000 species of trees, exotics from around the world and natives, with great hillside picnic spots overlooking Lake Tūtira. In search of a remote beach? Go a bit beyond Katie Nimon’s Kairakau Beach to even quieter Mangakuri Beach, about 35-40 minutes from the Red Bridge. For the most immersive Māori cultural experience in Hawke’s Bay, touching family, spiritual, historical, landscape and ecological aspects, organise a visit to the Hakikino Conservation Reserve and surrounds through Waimarama Māori Tours. For great small winery outings at opposite sides of the Hastings District, visit Te Awanga Estate overlooking the ocean on the Cape Coast and de la terre winery & café out Taihape Road in the hills of Sherenden. Both serve you great wine, pizza and platters. Te Awanga adds occasional music on Sunday afternoons. And de la terre features the craft skills of Tony Pritchard, from rammed earth buildings to his hand-crafted furnishings and woodwork throughout. Mohaka Rafting. What can I add to Bridget’s terrific feature on p.42! And, finally, yes, you’ll undoubtedly go up to Te Mata Peak … again! Check out the complete lists that follow. Some of the recommendations will be familiar (but have you actually ‘been there, done that’?), but I’m sure you will discover some nuggets you weren’t aware of.


Top: Kairakau Beach. Photo: Florence Charvin. Above: GodsOwn Brewery.

KATIE NIMON: NIMON’S 1. Ruahine Forest Park, particularly the walk to Sunrise Hut. A magical place with so much history. Explore beyond the hut and you’ll find views across central North Island, that you couldn’t imagine. 2. GodsOwn Brewery is worth the drive or the transfer out there! The hospitality is second to none, not to mention the food and drink. I’ve

even found myself jumping on the trampoline: you’re never too old! 3. Walking up to Kaweka J, via the Makahu Saddle, is like being on the set of The Lord of the Rings. Such an extreme landscape, made even more rewarding by the extreme incline. 4. Heading out to Kairakau Beach for a day or an afternoon, really feels like getting away. The beach is rugged but

quiet enough to relax. Stopping in at the Patangata Tavern for some country hospitality makes a day of it. 5. Mohi Bush, a while past Maraetotara falls, is a childhood favourite; exploring the forest with my grandpa. It doesn’t seem so big now that I’m older, neither does the fairy cave next door at Wairunga Golf Course, but still just as enchanting.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 23


ANNA BALDWIN: CHB TOURISM COORDINATOR 1. Artmosphere Gallery in Waipawa is the quirky, unique and fun creation of photographer Helmut Hirler and artist Sally Maguire, with a large collection of art in the beautifully restored ‘De Stackpoole’ homestead. Plus, they have created a picnic garden filled with sculpture and treasures. 2. Oruawharo Homestead is a majestic 1879 homestead set amongst beautiful gardens, brought back to life by Peter and Dianne Harris. Be amazed by the incredible art and antique collection and wowed by the sheer size of the house and gardens. Enjoy their High Tea of homemade delights (bookings essential). 3. Junction Wines cellar door sits right on the junction of SH2 and SH50, and their vines grow on the Takapau Plains. The cellar door is nestled within John and Jo Ashworth’s family home. Former All Black John has created a fantastic rugby museum as well … a change of pace from your standard cellar door experience

CHB Settlers Museum. Photo: Florence Charvin

24 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Artmosphere Gallery, Waipawa. Photo: Florence Charvin

4. Swing Bridge. You need to see this 100m long bridge to believe how cool it is, connecting walkers and cyclists with both sides of the Tukituki river on the fabulous limestone river pathways. 5. Limestone Loop is a tour locals have created offering an eclectic mix of food, art, wine and retail delights as you travel through beautiful countryside around Waipawa and Tikokino to SH50. My top stop would be Lime Rock Wines, where Rosie and Rodger will tempt you with beautiful tastings and wonderful stories about their winery. Meander the day through galleries, gardens, shops and art, and end your tour at the Tikokino Country Hotel for a cold beer and delicious food. 6. Pukeora Hill offers a magical view, looking over rolling farmland and the twists of the Tukituki River from the ranges to the coast. The

wonderful ‘Forest of Memories’ creating a hillside covered in specimen trees and plantings with meandering walking tracks. And the mountain bike trail is also well worth a ride. 7. CHB Beaches. Pourerere Beach is a firm favourite for us, with safe swimming for little people in the lagoon, Te Angiangi Reserve to meet the underwater locals and kilometres of space. Our beaches offer quiet and isolation even in the height of summer … the hum of boats and people. 8. Backpaddock Lakes. The purpose-built water and outdoor events venue features three manmade lakes including Cable Park Lake with two cable wakeboarding systems. You can also enjoy paddle boarding, kayaking, skiing, boating and sailing. 9. Longest Place Name is located just under an hour south of


100m long swing Bridge, Central Hawke’s Bay. Photo: Florence Charvin

Waipukurau, where you will find Taumata-whakatāngihangakōauau-o-tamatea-turipukakapiki-maunga-horo-nukupōkai-whenua-kitanatahu, meaning “The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as ‘landeater’, played his flute to his loved one.” Locals simply call it Tamatea Hill. 10. CHB Settlers Museum features the Nga Taonga o Tamatea Te Hokinga Mai Exhibition running until 1 March, celebrating the homecoming of many taonga from the area. The exhibition is a first of its kind, bringing home taonga from MTG Hawke’s Bay in Napier, Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, and from private collections around the country, including a piupiu not seen in public since 1909. A once in a lifetime opportunity for CHB.

Wakeboarding at Backpaddock Lakes.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 25


Left: Māori Star Compass (Te kapehu whetū), Waitangi Estuary. Photo: Florence Charvin. Right: Hohepa Creative Works in Napier. Photos: Charlotte Anderson.

JULIET HARBUTT: HUNTER GATHERER TOURS 1. Māori Star Compass (Te kapehu whetū). Beautifully planted on the edge of the sea at the Waitangi Estuary. Best early in the morning or dusk. The Māori star compass divides the 360 degrees around a canoe in the open ocean into different whare (houses). The navigator had to learn where the sun, moon and stars would be in the sky in relation to the houses at different times of year. 2. Black Barn Growers’ Market (Dec – Feb) hosts a small, intimate circle of artisan producers from wild flowers to whitebait fritters. The perfect place to meet friends. A little patch of HB magic. 3. Sweet Shop at Birdwoods. Have you tried the sweet shop … every child’s dream, from age 2 – 82. Shelf upon shelf covered with bright, colourful, round, stripped, spotted and sticky treats. Some rarely found anywhere else.

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4. Red Bridge Café. A converted container that has sailed the world ends up as a tiny café along the Tukituki, a hub for visitors from around the world? Everyone comes here for the ambiance, the charm, the doughnuts and coffee. 5. Hastings City Gallery. Small, quirky but never disappoints and their gift shop has simple, elegant pieces of local art available for sale. From Ema Scott’s timeless polished stones to the artistic, beeswax bags. Plus the pou in the gardens outside remind us of the strong Māori presence in the Bay. 6. Black Barn Kitchen Shop. It doesn’t seem possible that so much can be crammed into such a small space and yet there’s plenty of room to browse. From local food and wine to exotic picnic rugs, woven bags for the market and raincoat just in case. 7. Hohepa. Hohepa Trust combines biodynamic land-use with providing a home and way of life for those with intellectual disability. Haumoana location offers freshly picked vegetables and exceptional

cheese and dairy products. At new Hohepa Creative Works in Napier, Hohepa residents create the candles, hand woven clothing, and wooden toys they sell there. 8. So Vintage Shop (Te Awanga). Owned by Mehdi from France and Korreen, a Kiwi whose love of French brocantes, sort of giant car boot sales meets flea markets with pizzazz, brought them together. There’s always something that takes your fancy, from small antique French bottles to huge vintage industrial lamps. 9. Golly Gosh Shop (Te Awanga). Mother Sophie’s artistic flair and love of flowers, son Mark’s photographic skills and his wife Suzy’s design experience has resulted in a range of stunning, elegant and unique cards, bags, wrapping paper and tee shirts featuring flowers as everything from teapots to fairies! 10. Winston’s Favourite Walk. Winston, my Jack Russell, loves the track from the far end of the Clive carpark (south side of the river bridge), walking toward Haumoana. Set back from the coast it’s flat, not too windy, has dramatic views of Cape Kidnappers and the wetlands team with bird life.


Avantiplus Pedal Power Taradale for Electric Bikes h lt a e h r e t t e b Cycle for Janice recently went into Avantiplus Pedal Power in Taradale to fix her old bike, but after talking to the team she purchased an Avanti e-bike. This has allowed Janice to cycle further every day, even on the windiest of days. Janice says “I went on an amazing journey on my bike over an 18-month period, where I lost a total of 20 kilos in weight, enabling me to decrease my medication for diabetes significantly. At my age in retirement I can enjoy venturing around our beautiful Bay by cycling 30-40 km’s a day on the cycleways and stay healthy and fit”. Congratulations Janice, from the team at Avantiplus Pedal Power. What a fabulous success story!

Janice Smith has enjoyed a great improvement in her health with significant weight loss and improved well being since purchasing an Avanti Discovery electric bike.

The team at Avantiplus Pedal Power in Taradale have been providing bikes to the Hawke’s Bay Community for more than 25 years. While they stock an extensive range of quality bikes in every style imaginable, they have experienced

a large growth in the sale of the electric bikes. To meet this growing market, they stock difference styles and brands of electric bikes. Dave the Sales Manager says “we have had many customers trading their existing bikes in for electric bikes, enabling them to enjoy the pathways and commute with ease”. Steve, the owner of Avantiplus Pedal Power explains that “fundamentally an e-bike is just a regular bicycle with an electric motor to assist when needed. This is great news for cyclist allowing many to extend their cycle years and enabling them to get out and enjoy the great cycleways we have in Hawke’s Bay”. Andrew the Workshop Manager at Avantiplus Pedal Power said “the brands of e-bikes which we have chosen to stock are of high quality, well tested and come with a proven back up service. We stock e-bikes brands such as Avanti, Scott and Flying Cat”.

If you are considering an e-bike the team at Avantiplus Pedal Power invite you to see, feel and test ride one today.

340 Gloucester Street, Taradale • P 06 844 9771


LOUISE STOBART: BIRDWOODS GALLERY & SWEET SHOP 5. Tainui Reserve. Take your dogs off lead, and enjoy the 40-minute loop around the reserve amidst some lovely old trees in the heart of Havelock North. The dogs can have a swim in the stream on the way back. 6. The Mart in Havelock North. Visit Rod and Donna’s real gem of a second hand shop. Go quickly because rumour has it they might close. 7. Kirsten’s Cherries. Summer has truly arrived when the delightful Kirsten opens her stall at the corner of Longlands Road and Railway Road by the train crossing, selling the most tasty of cherries and stone fruit. Follow the trail of pips down the road! 8. Hygge Café. This is the former Clifton Café near Cape Kidnappers. Take a fresh look … it has had a great new makeover. 9. Artmosphere Gallery – a lovely gallery near Waipawa with lots of New Zealand artists represented to suit all tastes and budgets. Then carry on and enjoy the delights of Waipawa which appears to be booming! 10. Birdwoods Sweet Shop. Finally, how could I not suggest you visit and enjoy Lorraine (our oldest serving Sweet Shop Granny) and the delicious home-made decadent truffles. Above: Lorraine at Birdwoods Sweet Shop. Below: Kirsten’s Cherries. Photos: Florence Charvin

1. MTG. Having lived here for 15 years and NEVER been, we finally went recently and we found the whole experience so enjoyable. 2. Go to the award-winning Westshore Fish Cafe. Take the warm bag of oily goodness to sit on the grass on the opposite side of the harbour to watch the action. 3. Patangata Pub where Middle Road meets the Tukituki. Go on a Saturday afternoon and hang out with the bikers to eat honest pub food and drink a cold beer! 4. Mangarara Eco Farm. Book in with friends at Rachel and Greg Hart’s lovely rustic farm lodge, only 30 minutes from Havelock North near Horseshoe Lake down Middle Road. Learn about sustainable farming.

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Napier Botanic Gardens. Photos: Florence Charvin

HAMISH & DI PRINS: PRINSYS TOURS 1. Te Puia hot springs. Enjoy an amazing drive through Hawke’s Bay countryside to Puketitiri and experience the thermal hot water pool amongst the NZ native bush of the Kaweka Ranges. 2. Shine Falls is a 45 minute walk among the rocky farmland west of Lake Tūtira along SH 2. Spectacular water falls where you can enjoy a picnic and swim in the crystal clean fresh water.

3. The Taradale to Puketapu scenic cycle route along the bank of the Tutaekuri River. Take time at the half way point to enjoy an ice-cream or coffee at the store or a beer at the one of Hawke’s Bay favourite country pubs, The Puketapu Hotel. 4. DOC Huts. Take a family walk to one of the many Hawke’s Bay DOC huts as a day trip or an overnight stay. Many walks among the bush-clad hills of the Kaweka and Ruahine Ranges that will suit all levels of fitness.

5. Napier Botanical Gardens. Explore this beautiful urban oasis, a small walk up Napier Hill from the city centre. A great place for children and adults to relax amongst the plant and bird life. 6. Art Deco Walks offer a terrific way to learn the history of Napier city. Move back in time as one of their guides explains how Napier was rebuilt in art deco style following the devastating earthquake in 1931.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 29


Mahia. Photo: Kirsten Simcox

SANDY WOODHAM: THE BEACH CAFÉ, MAHIA 1. The Beach Café – of course visitors must start at our licensed café, offering mouth-watering pizzas, our popular burgers, and our well known fresh fish and chips. A great place to enjoy the buzz. 2. Mokotahi Hill. For a great walk and to see great views. 3. Mahia Holiday Park. Right on the beach. Very family-friendly cabins, motel and tent sites. Plus an extra bonus with a café for the early morning coffee.

4. Mahia Seaside Markets. Enjoy our local produce and arts and crafts. Running 9am to noon every Sunday from December to March. 5. Mahia Golf Club. nine-hole course provides a challenge for any golfer. 6. Mahanga Beach. A short drive from Mahia. Lovely sandy beach great for kids, surfcasting, gathering pipis and popular for boggie boarding. 7. Coronation Reserve. Just south of the boat ramp at Whangawehi. A popular spot for daytrippers for

swimming, diving and exploring the rock pools. 8. Morere Hot Pools. A great place to relax and enjoy the mineral pools along with a large outdoor pool. And for the keen walkers, there are 3 walking tracks from 20 min loop walk to a 2.5 hour walk that is more of a challenge. 9. Surfing. Great well-known and popular surfing areas. Ask a local to point you.

PICTURE PERFECT Finding the right painting for your home can be tricky, but not with Quay Gallery. Simply visit us at the gallery or go online, select from a stunning range of artworks and you may ‘try before you buy’. Our in-home service will deliver the selected works to you so you can see exactly how they’ll look in your home. No cost – no obligation – no risk. PERFECT

QUAY GALLERY 6 Hastings Street, Napier Open 7 days 10-5, weekends 10-4. Phone 06 835 4637 info@quaygallery.co.nz • quaygallery.co.nz Layby and gift vouchers available.

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THE HAKIKINO CONSERVATION RESERVE

Conserving our past to enlighten the future Our mission is to bring back the original environment of our homelands by replanting and replenishing native bush and conserving the remnants of the 14th century fortress site of Hakikino on our family land. We hope that the tours we hold in the Hakikino Conservation Reserve will help further the understanding of our people, culture and our connection to the environment. Our tourism business helps fund these and other community initiatives.

Our tours are all private, informal and relaxed - book one today Ask about our group and locals discounts

Phone 021 057 0935

www.waimaramamaori.co.nz


DAMON HARVEY: CHAIR, SPORT HAWKE’S BAY 1. Cray Bay, a walk around the bays south of Waimārama is a great walk at low tide either for a swim or to explore, dive or surf. 2. Havelock North Walkways. Take time to explore the many little walkways around the foothills of Havelock North. 3. Fish ‘n’ Chips on the Beach. Grab some kai from the fish ‘n’ chip shop at the Haumoana junction and head to Te Awanga to watch the surfers. 4. Bike in Waipukurau. Get started at Russell Park along the river and head toward the mountain bike park. An easy ride for young and old. Either cross over the swing bridge and head back to town or go up into the mtb park.

Clockwise from top: Shine Falls. Pou at Hastings Civic Square. Photo: Florence Charvin. Giant Brewing. Photo: Florence Charvin

5. Visit the new MTB Park in Wairoa – this is a great little park for all levels of riding. 6. Craft Beer Tour of the Bay. HB has a great range of craft brewers and you can now take your own little tour – Zeelandt, Westshore Hotel, Roosters, Abbey Cellars, GodsOwn, Brave and Giant.

7. Puketapu Pub. Walk or bike from Pettigrew Green Arena for lunch at the pub. Follow the river along and stop for a bite to eat before crossing over the river and heading back to the Arena carpark. 8. Maraetotara Falls. It’s not a secret and will be on everyone’s list. But it’s a must! 9. Shine Falls – take the kids for a short walk to Shine Falls before everyone else reads these BayBuzz suggestions! 10. Visit Hastings Civic Square and take a look at the 18 pou representing all Marae in the district. Also check out what’s on display at the Hastings Art Gallery.

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TOU R I S M D I R ECTO RY

High Tea

Experience the Magic. Connect with the land that grows your food Stay at the Mangarara Eco Lodge in Hawke’s Bay. mangarara.co.nz | thefamilyfarm.co.nz

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the


The Cape Coast is ‘a blue zone’, a term coined by National Geographic, where people tend to live longer, healthier lives finding a balance between technologically driven and more laid-back lifestyles.

for many thriving businesses from tradespeople to artists, craftspeople and digital-era entrepreneurs. According to the 2013 census the overall population was 2,260, up only 20 on the previous decade, with a more significant increase expected when 2018 results are available. Around 120 new homes in sub-divisions are expected to be completed by 2020.

Magnetic pull of the sea

Story by Keith Newman Rumours persist that the Cape Coast – where ozone-charged breezes vitalise the atmosphere and the setting sun reflects shades of red across cloudy skies on lazy evenings – is among the healthiest places on the planet. Perhaps the longevity of some residents gives credence to a 1961 newspaper report extolling the “elixir vitae (elixir of life) for which the district is renowned”, created by cross winds weaving the clouds and the Pacific Ocean, unobstructed for endless empty nautical miles, battering the stony beaches? In today’s terms, the Cape Coast is ‘a blue zone’, a term coined by National Geographic, where people tend to live longer, healthier lives finding a balance between technologically driven and more laid-back lifestyles. The area has its own microclimate. It can turn on a sunny day when it’s raining in the cities, be deceptively calm when the wind is buffeting the plains, then curate its own wild display when wind and tides hammer the shingly beach with mountainous waves. The Cape Coast is an umbrella term that quickly gained traction when adopted in 2009 by groups working toward coastal protection and beautification and a more cohesive identity for Haumoana, Te Awanga and Clifton. It’s a 15-minute drive from the twin cities of Napier and Hastings and the village of Havelock North and a base

There are many reasons to visit this stretch of coast between the Tukituki River mouth and the southern cliffs of Cape Kidnappers. During the summer months and holiday weekends a steady stream of traffic and cyclists head out to soak in the atmosphere, explore or visit the award-winning wineries and restaurants, museums, zoo, world-famous gannet sanctuary and other attractions. A visit to the coast might be as simple as admiring the scenic beauty, flicking out a baited line and relaxing until you get a bite, having a picnic, camping, glamping, swimming, surfing, boating, cycling or just taking a leisurely walk. For its size the Cape Coast offers plenty in the way of hospitality. Elephant Hill (recently awarded Best Winery Restaurant & ‘Two Hats’ by Cuisine), Clearview Estate and Hygge (formerly Clifton Café) have well established restaurants, and wine tastings are offered at perennial top wine award winners Clearview Estate, Beach House Wines and Rod McDonald wines at Te Awanga Estate. The music scene is lively over the summer months with groups and solo artists regularly performing at Gannets Bar, Clearview Estate and Hygge with Sunday Sessions at Te Awanga Estate until February. Major replanting and beautification across the length of the Cape Coast is currently underway as part of the Hastings District Council Cape Coast Reserves Plan. And a more collaborative joint council approach to coastal protection has begun to restore a sense of hope in the future. A key to revitalising the area came in 2012 when the Rotary Pathways “landscape” project backed by the Regional Council created a limestone cycle track from Black Bridge to Clifton which now intersects with Napier, Clive and Havelock North. Overlaying the track, now used by 17,000-20,000 people a year, is the Te Matau-a-Māui Art and Heritage Trail with signage highlighting natural and

The gannets at Cape Kidnappers. Photo: Florence Charvin JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 35


Ian Hope at the British Car Museum. Photo: Tom Allan

historical features that are mostly overlooked in the reference books. In Boyd’s history of Hastings, City of the Plains (1984), there’s a single mention of Haumoana, Te Awanga (Clive Grange: see Haumoana) and Clifton, all in the same paragraph. In Matthew Wright’s Hawke’s Bay, the History of a Province there’s one mention of Te Awanga.

Heritage trail of history

And yet the area has a rich history with archaeological evidence of a strong Maori presence over 800 years. Whatonga, from the Kurahaupo waka, took up residence between Te Awanga and Clifton around 1250 A.D, calling his first house Heretaunga, later adopted for the plains of the wider region. His famous son Tara-nohu was born there and chiefs including Hikawera II and Hawea also had hilltop pa. Captain James Cook had his first unfortunate encounter with local Māori off the coast of Te Awanga in October 1769 resulting in Te Mataua-Māui (or Te Kauwae a Māui, Māui’s fishhook/jawbone) being given the European name Cape Kidnappers. The Cape Coast has its share of entrepreneurs and dreamers. Some have been game changers; the world class Cape Kidnappers Golf Course, luxury lodge and The Farm restaurant; the

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Cape Sanctuary wildlife preservation project; the groyne at the Tukituki river mouth; the Clifton rock revetment; and the plan for public art along the Te Matau a Māui Art & Heritage trail. Some dreams, however, were too audacious to get off the ground. Take W.B. Rhodes, one of New Zealand’s earliest land speculators, who, in 1839 imagined the area as a seaport and capital for Hawke’s Bay. He claimed to be one signature short of purchasing a massive tract of land from Wairarapa to Wairoa when his trading station burned down and Māori and missionaries railed against his bold proposal. After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi inside the Tukituki river mouth on 20 June 1840 he was stripped of most of his claim, but he and brother Joseph eventually leased or purchased much of the Cape Coast and beyond calling it Clive Grange Estate.

Haumoana pipe dream

In 1879, new owner Land Wars veteran Major-General Sir George Whitmore picked up on Rhodes’ vision proposing “the most flourishing port and city on the East Coast”. Whitmore, and ten investors in the Clive Grange Estate and Railway Company Ltd, planned a harbour sheltered by Cape Kidnappers, residential

From the early 1970s Ian Hope’s passion for Morris Minors turned into an obsession that gave birth to his British Car Museum literally stacked with vehicles and memorabilia. development on both sides of the Tukituki River and a bridge for road and rail access. Only six weeks after the ‘South Clive’ prospectus was issued, it was all over; the company failed to raise the money, the market slumped and the focus was now on Napier Port. The isolation of the Cape Coast was finally broken when a single lane ‘Black Bridge’ opened in May 1888 raising the possibilities for the area still dominated by three large farms. When families headed to Clive Grange Beach and campground at the


Tukituki river mouth during the summer holidays, headmasters noted in early February 1904 that many children were still absent from school. In the first decades of the 20th century, the throng of drays, early motor vehicles and cyclists continued with Burden’s Camp near the Te Awanga Lagoon and Maraetotara River where row boats and yachts operated an added attraction. Clive Grange was divided into small farms and residential sections for what was to become Haumoana, with the former Clifton Station oats paddock forming the base of what become Te Awanga.

Access and accommodation

On October 6, 1956, the new two-lane Black Bridge opened bringing another milestone in the area’s evolution. In recent years many homes have been offered as holiday rentals; some booked months in advance, as people flood into Hawke’s Bay for a break or to attend Art Deco week, Mission or Black Barn concerts, Horse of the Year and other events. Two recently upgraded freedom camping reserves, Haumoana Domain and Clifton Reserve, along with three paid camp grounds; one at Te Awanga and two at Clifton, can swell the local population by around 1,000 during peak periods. On crossing the Black Bridge, there are two entrances to the Cape Coast, one sharp left toward Haumoana and the river mouth, the other keeping right along the straight that curves into East Rd where the ocean comes into view. Here you are flanked by two local attractions – the Hawke’s Bay Farm Zoo and the imposing warehouse boldly branded as ‘the world’s largest collection of British cars’. From the early 1970s Ian Hope’s passion for Morris Minors turned into an obsession that gave birth to his British Car Museum literally stacked with vehicles and memorabilia. He outgrew his first museum in Te Awanga moving to an old packhouse in 2000 which now houses over 450 vehicles, which he says echo the first car ownership experience of many New Zealanders over 45-years of age. The vehicular nostalgia runs the gamut from Austin, Morris, Triumph, Vauxhall, Jaguar, Hillman, Rover, Wolseley and at last count over 40 Morris Minors including ‘ute’ and station wagons — 80% still in running order.

Haumoana Farmyard Zoo. Photo: Tom Allan

Going to the zoo

Across the road is the Hawke’s Bay Farmyard Zoo established in 2004 by Dyan and Cliff LeCompte in response to tourists and passers-by leaning over the fence to engage with their animals. On acquiring a growing menagerie for their petting zoo they hosted 18,000 people in opening year with families feeding the animals and enjoying the picnic space. Today around 23,000 drop in annually to engage with their goats, sheep, highland cattle, ponies, donkeys, llamas, deer, pigs, calves, ostriches, emus, cockatoos, turtles, guinea pigs, rabbits and pheasants. They no longer do horse trekking so it’s now down to pony and train rides, children’s parties, and 15 surrey bikes for groups to take out along the cycle trail. The growing number of tourism businesses along the Cape Coast are good for each other, says Dyan LeCompte. “People who haven’t got time to drive out to Ocean Beach or Waimarama come out to enjoy the beach or go fishing ... the fact there are other attractions is a bonus.”

In the first decades of the 20th century, the throng of drays, early motor vehicles and cyclists continued with Burden’s Camp near the Te Awanga Lagoon and Maraetotara River where row boats and yachts operated an added attraction.

Cape View Corner is the commercial centre; a block of shops including the popular Gannets Bar, a takeaway and a well-stocked Four Square. Across the road are the remaining homes in the so-called “Haumoana extension” (often referred to as the H21, although only 16 remain). This row of established homes and baches has, much to the frustration of locals, become the default reference point for media when they’re occasionally buffeted by high seas or when discussions about climate change arise.

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Between the signs

Above and right: Outfoxed. Below: Clearview Estate. Photos: Tom Allan

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While the welcome to Haumoana and Te Awanga signs on Clifton Rd are about 1km apart, Hastings District councillor Rod Heaps, related to the pioneering Burden family of Te Awanga, insists the white bridge in front of Elephant Hill is the boundary. The land either side of Elephant Hill restaurant and winery was once a 200 acre (81 ha) tobacco farm owned by German entrepreneur Gerhard Husheer, who from 1912 planted different varieties and built curing barns and kilns. His first successful harvest was celebrated with the community, but mildew destroyed the following year’s crop. Random tobacco plants continue to appear in local gardens and paddocks more than a century later. To the south of the old tobacco farm, Husheer’s friend Anthony Joseph Vidal pioneered local winemaking. He arrived in the country from Barcelona, in 1888 aged 22-years, learned the craft from his uncle, Joseph Soler in Whanganui, then expanded from an old racing stables at Te Mata to Te Awanga in 1915. After a lull of several decades when local vineyards were left to deteriorate, Tim Turvey and Helma van den Berg established Clearview Wines in 1989


C L E A RV I E W E S T A T E WI N E R Y

RESTAURANT CELLAR DOOR since 1989

Winemaker Anthony Joseph Vidal arrived in the country from Barcelona, in 1888 aged 22-years, learned the craft from his uncle, Joseph Soler in Whanganui, then expanded from an old racing stables at Te Mata to Te Awanga in 1915.

on the old Vidal’s site. They led the charge for a resurgence in winemaking, winning 10 medals and a trophy in just over a year. Co-owner Helma van den Berg said she and Tim had a vision to create an alfresco Mediterranean-styled lunch restaurant where they would sell their own wines, which they continue to do 30 years on. Today the Cape Coast is one of Hawke’s Bay’s primary winegrowing areas, with awards and medals regularly presented to boutique vineyards for a range of red and white varieties. The area is particularly suited for classic white varieties, including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon produced by Clearview Estate, Elephant Hill, Beach House Wines and Te Awanga Estate. Grapes are also grown for other prominent Hawke’s Bay wineries.

Cricket and adventures

Each block of land along the coast has it own story, having been put to many productive uses down the decades. Two historic properties and a luxury

homestead were merged into the 400 acre (162 ha) Te Awanga Downs farm in the mid-1970s by Chris and Marki Nilsson. At the rear of the property is the Clifton Country Cricket Club, which rated a mention in the World’s Most Remarkable Cricket Grounds in 2016. The club is involved in the Cape to City environmental restoration project, re-establishing native species and regenerating birdlife with over 10,000 plants recently established on the grounds. Around 2016 part of the Nilsson’s property became the base for Outfoxed, an adventure playground set up by son Matt Nilsson and wife Amy. It offers clay bird shooting, archery, paintball, motorbike rides and golf. As you head past the Te Awanga Hall and domain on the ocean edge, you’ll spot the popular Te Awanga Point surf break off the mouth of the Maraetotara River. Toward the end of Clifton Rd, opposite Hygge Café, Wool World has been established in the original red oxide Clifton Station shearing shed, built in 1886. It’s the home of wool industry memorabilia collected by Ian Richardson including pens, shearing gear, wool presses, valve radio, wool bail stencils from old Hawke’s Bay stations and other items true to the era. Photos, maps, shearers graffiti and other history of the Gordon family’s Clifton Station are also featured. The working museum of the wool industry offers blade and mechanical shearing displays twice a day during the tourist season, as well as demonstrations of wool classing, spinning and weaving.

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Gannet watching

Nearby is the pickup point for both overland and coastal tours to the worldfamous Cape Kidnappers gannets, featured on the Hastings’ City logo. The graceful Australasian gannet with its distinctive black eye markings and pale gold crown, or as one commentator described them, “pale honey-gold heads and Cleopatra eyes”, have been nesting at Cape Kidnappers since the 1870s. Around 22,000 people visit between October to May each year when chicks are being fattened up for their own trans-Tasman flight. The 12 ha Cape Kidnappers Reserve, one of the world’s most accessible mainland colonies with around 20,000 gannets in peak season, was gifted to the Crown by property owner Frank Gordon in 1914. The birds with a two-metre wing span, fly for hours to catch food for their young in a spectacle that can often be observed closer to shore during the annual “boil up” when smelt, herrings and whitebait leave the river systems. The sound of the gannets, gulls and other birds working with bigger fish to herd the migrating shoals creates an equivalent human frenzy as young and old run with their fishing lines to haul in crazed kahawai as the sea literally boils with activity. Clearview Estate. Photo: Tom Allan

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Camp and marine club

Clifton Motor Camp and beach has a long history of being the ideal holiday spot, offering a sheltered beach with safe swimming and fishing, although encroaching erosion has changed the terrain considerably over time. The Gordon family donated the beachfront to the Crown in 1936, although adjoining property owner, Colonel Neilson continued to drive his sheep among those who were swimming and sunbathing for the next 15 years. The Clifton Marine Club with its ramp, winch facilities and club rooms was formed around 1960, for members who lay cray pots, go paua diving, netting, long lining or deep sea fishing. Neville Bawden, who’s been a member since he was 11 years old, says near the Cape at 70-100 metres depth there’s a good array of species – gurnard, groper, kingfish and terakihi, trevally, blue cod and even tuna. Everyone’s welcome at the club, with many taking advantage of the facilities or entering the fishing competitions. Observers are often amused and confused with the dozens of boat trailers bobbing about in the sea. What they’re

seeing is a classic Kiwi innovation that resolved the perennial problem of launching boats in the choppy, steep, gravelly foreshore which damaged hulls and motors. In the late 1960s regular camper and fisherman Fred Hickey put larger wheels on his boat trailer and made a cradle and polystyrene floats so it could be ‘parked’ 200 metres out to sea, then winched ashore after a day’s fishing. At first many of the locals thought he was crazy, but it proved so successful that nearly every boat in the Clifton Marine Club soon converted to the system. After ad hoc efforts were made to protect access to the camp and club and the loss of three roads, a more serious rock revetment was built between 2016-2018 as part of a wider plan for a more attractive end point to the popular coastal destination. It’s a relief, says Bawden, to see the road finally protected but a shame it wasn’t done two years ago, “we would still have another 20 camp sites left”. While positive about growth and development, he says the Cape Coast is still “in a kind of limbo” waiting for further positive action following four years of joint council coastal hazard meetings.

A clear plan to protect the area would make a huge social impact, says Bawden, a long-time resident of Te Awanga. “I still have nightmares about what might happen if they don’t agree to do something ... I’ve got everything tied up here.” An action plan before Hastings Council now promises to prioritise protection where that’s deemed practical and affordable. Otherwise, erosion will not only undermine more properties, infrastructure and parts of the cycle track, but the confidence of local residents and businesses as well, with visitor dollars seriously declining. If coastal protection and beach crest maintenance is actioned, the Cape Coast could confidently continue its trajectory as “a jewel in the crown” to quote Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst, as a location that gives Hawke’s Bay a literal edge.

Disclosure: Keith Newman is current chairman of coastal protection advocacy group Walking on Water (WOW Inc) and a trustee of the Cape Coast Arts & Heritage Trail, as well as a regular BayBuzz senior writer.

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

Mohaka Exploring Hawke’s Bay


Rafting


Mohaka rafting guide Lucio Luoni


Story by Bridget Freeman-Rock Photos by Florence Charvin

Snow has dusted Mt Tarapōnui (at 1,308m Hawke’s Bay’s highest peak) as Florence and I strip to our swimsuits in a boatshed in a paddock just north of Te Pohue off the Napier-Taupō highway. It’s 10am on a weekday morning in November, and the air is bracing. We’re at Mohaka Rafting (mohakarafting.co.nz) – an outdoor recreation operation set up in 2009 by local Norm Brown. With his stable of expert guides, he offers 3-5 day fully catered expeditions as well as an array of half and full-day river experiences, from a sedate grade 2 river ‘splash’, to a more adventurous grade 3 immersion (that’s us), to the white water, hardcore grade 5 quest. While most of his clients are tourists – international backpackers, cruise ship day-trippers – we’re on a mission to discover the joy and thrill of our own backyard. We quickly layer up in a merino, fleece, wetsuit, windbreaker and the ‘booties’ that will keep our feet warm for the four-hour duration on the mighty Mohaka. Together with a Danish farming couple, we’ll be rafting 25km of this 172km river on a journey that will take us through changing vegetation and breath-taking geological features, along wide-flowing, rippling courses, narrow limestone gorges, and frothing white water; a journey that will do more than convince us how dynamic and beautiful our landscape is in this pocket of backcountry wilderness. In a white van and trailer, we wind downstream of the Mohaka Bridge

along Waitara Rd, past Glenfalls DOC camping grounds, stopping in a pine clearing near Everett’s to view the magnificent Oxbow ringed by steep mountain ranges and down below us striking rock formations known as the Organs. Here you can see how tectonic activity along the Mohaka fault line (one of seven that criss-cross the river) has created a distinctive geological boundary, between greywacke to the west and the younger, sedimentary rocks (sand-, mud- and limestone) of the East Coast basin. The Mohaka here runs along the base of the Maungaharuru ranges (escarpments formed by tectonic faulting and folding pressures; the hills below them by slumping and erosion), before cutting through at Maungataniwha, flowing out into the Pacific Ocean at Mohaka settlement between Tangoio and Wairoa. From Everett’s we take a dirt track down to the river, don life vests and hardhats before gently launching our raft. We begin on a smooth wide stretch: willows and pine plantations on the east bank, mānuka scrub and regenerating bush on the west, greywacke river stones – so far, so Hawke’s Bay. Our Italian rafting guide, Lucio (who works in the NZ off-season on rivers in Chile, Patagonia, Italy) talks us through the moves we’ll need to know and how to save ourselves if we tip; we practise – ‘easy forward’; ‘back paddle’, ‘stop’, ‘right over’, down!’ We quickly get the swing of things.

The river is wild and gorgeous, but along these middle reaches its green waters have a soapy silkiness to them that feels luxuriant. With ample opportunities to bob, plunge and drift, we take them all. Mohaka translates as “place of dancing”, an ancestral name from Hawaikki. Indeed, as we cut and shimmy with our paddles, rafting the rapids becomes like a dance, in time to the water’s push and flow and Lucio’s adeptly attuned commands. Lucio says the Mohaka is world-renowned – when he tells people overseas he works on the “river of floating stones” (i.e. the pumice strewn here from two ancient volcanic eruptions), they know immediately which river he’s referring to. Less than an hour in, we come ashore to explore an historic gold mine from the 1880s. No gold was found, so the two Aussie miners, we’re told, blasted it with gold dust and sold it on to some poor gullible bugger. It’s now home to an endearing weta whānau, which we meet in the narrow damp tunnel, eye to eye. Florence is on the look-out for our blue endangered duck, but, endemic to this area, today it eludes us. We see plenty of common and paradise ducks. We pass a kiwi conservation area. And while there are intermittent birdcalls as we enter deeper into native beech forest on either side, we don’t hear the resounding sound of prolific birdlife the Maungaharuru was once famed and named for. We navigate three sets of larger

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Further on, before the last of the narrows, we face the intriguing cone peak of Te Kooti’s Lookout (733m). I smell sheep and, as the river turns, am vindicated to spy them high on a hill, cleared between bush.

rapids before lunch, nothing scary, but exhilarating enough to make us whoop as the water splashes over us. The bush is denser now, the hills dramatic, steep. We come to the Upper Narrows – where the river runs deep and deceptively calm, walled in by smooth sedimentary cliffs. We jump from a 5-metre ledge. We pass volcanic ignimbrite rocks and water-sculpted boulders in magical

shapes – a frog, the imprint of a fish. We spot the story of tectonic uplift cross-bedded with geometric precision in a sheer cliff face. We scan layers of perfect fossilised shells – in this moment of seemingly unspoiled nature so far from the coast, a strangely symbolic reminder of rising seas. As we head around the dogleg bend towards Te Hoe Drop, the largest set of rapids on this trip, I can hardly look down at the water for the sublime, jaw-dropping sight of Kingma Peak – two immense limestone walls high along the skyline, imposing and majestic and somehow spooky like the ruins of an ancient castle. This is Lord of the Rings territory, Florence whispers. And then it’s time to man the paddles as we twist and toss between boulders in a flurry of white whipped water – I confess my heart leapt a little. Further on, before the last of the narrows, we face the intriguing cone peak of Te Kooti’s Lookout (733m). I smell sheep and, as the river turns, am vindicated to spy them high on a hill, cleared between bush. We pass a huge slip on the forested west, so big it dammed the entire river nine years ago – these friable pumiceous soils won’t hold still. As the river eases into open land, long grass, before the Te Hoe

River convergence there’s a sense of emerging blinking into light. We arrive at a bridge (and the end of our journey) just minutes ahead of the rain clouds sweeping over the ranges. I am suddenly cold, teeth chatter, toes numb, as I peel off my wetgear, pull on my dry clothes, a pair of socks. I am grateful for the hot tea and Farmbake biscuits, for the makeshift tarp awning. And looking out at the river moving swiftly ever on to the sea, in the stillness of this place in the middle of nowhere, I could wish for nothing more. On the road trip back, we bounce along gravel through private land – Poronui Station – and up along the ridge of Landcorp’s Waitere Station at the back of Tūtira – a 2,000 ha hill-country sheep and beef farm. It’s treeless up here, and these high green pastures seem to touch the sky’s vast grey canopy.

NB. The minimum age for this trip is 12, and while I would definitely consider taking both my boys (age 12, 14) and my gold-card parents, and never, for a minute, felt less than safe, you’d want to be sure those on board are confident swimmers. The grade 2 trips are a family-friendly 5+.

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Organics Bay in the


The New Zealand organic sector, now worth $600 million, is booming. Story by Rosheen FitzGerald. Photos by Florence Charvin.

Organics Aotearoa New Zealand’s biennial market report to Parliament earlier this year showed a booming industry, growing twice as fast as conventional farming. Organics still only constitute 2.2% of our collective grocery bill, but since the most frequently purchased organic goods are fresh produce, this figure is almost certainly masked by the trade in market and roadside stalls, and from specialty grocers. Although 80% of us, at least occasionally, make an organic purchase, only 7% have a complete understanding of what ‘organic’ really means. A good starting answer is Scott Lawson’s explanation on his True Earth website: “Growing organically is a science, which involves maintaining a balance in an environmentally sustainable and non-polluting system. It is labour intensive and involves the use of compost, careful tillage and rotation, and encouraging natural predators” and “without the routine use of synthetic agricultural chemicals such as fungicides, herbicides and growth regulators.” With organics, no part of the system exists in isolation – from soil micronutrients to ethical working practices. There are no quick fixes. Instead, dedicated farmers, makers and distributors plunge their hearts and minds,

sweat and toil, money and skill, into producing traceable, sustainable, chemical-free food. Their labour of love is in service of an ideal that filters from the very earth beneath their feet, through plants, animals, people and community.

“Organic is better for the soil, subsequently it’s better for waterways, subsequently it’s better for the environment, subsequently it’s better for people.” ANDY TAIT-JAMIESON, TI KOUKA ORGANIC FARM

Marion Thomson has been up to her elbows in organic dirt for decades. She’s a community educator, teaching free, marae-based horticulture courses through EIT. And as Organic Farm New Zealand’s certification manager, she’s responsible for auditing and accrediting organic certification for the domestic market from Gisborne to Dannevirke. “Organics are a validation of safe, healthy, ethically produced food,” she explains. “It’s a verification that covers

Kaye and Alan Keats in their home garden. Photo: Florence Charvin JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 49


Aunty Hanui Lawrence and Marion Thomson at Aunty’s Garden. Photo: Florence Charvin

land and growing practices, social and ethical practices, and environmental practices. It’s a holistic picture of growing.” There’s a number of different regulatory bodies involved: Asure Quality, the government verification body; BioGro, NZ’s preeminent and largest certifier; OFNZ, BioGro’s regional, domestic wing; Demeter, the anthroposophical assurance; and Hua Parakore, certification based on kaupapa Māori under Te Waka Kai Ora. Currently, there is no regulation on use of the word ‘organic’. Some grow under organic principles but don’t have the time, money or inclination to jump through hoops for certification. They rely on local familiarity and trust regarding their practice and produce. Whether consumers take their word depends on the relationship they have with the grower or distributer. From Marion’s seat on the National Council of the Soil and Health Association, she’s campaigning to restrict use of the highly marketable ‘Organic’ label to products that adhere to an independently verified production standard. Past and neighbouring land use, soil quality, crop types and inputs used, and resource management are all parts of the picture. Strictly regulated, plant and sea based

50 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

inputs are permitted in organics, but no chemical sprays or pharmaceuticals can be used on land or animals. In December, agriculture minister Damien O’Connor announced a national standard for organic production would be progressed this year as a government bill, commenting: “A national standard gives consumers confidence in organic claims and businesses certainty to invest and innovate in the growing sector. It’ll also help grow our organic export trade as it brings us in line with international approaches to regulation.”

“Organics are a validation of safe, healthy, ethically produced food. It’s a verification that covers land and growing practices, social and ethical practices, and environmental practices. It’s a holistic picture of growing.”

Down to earth

what True Earth’s Lawson chooses to grow at his Ngatarawa farm. “Our main focus is to build resilience into our soils and our wider system. We look at the right types and varieties of crops, in the right location, at the right time of year.” Scott turned away from conventional farming in the 1990s, motivated by sustainability concerns. “Everything was like an insurance policy … You needed all these structures and support mechanisms, which were often reactive rather than proactive.” Scott urges caution over the largely unseen issue of food security. While horticulture, arable and livestock farming are secure, closed systems, globalisation has disenfranchised large scale,

A fundamental principle of organics is building healthy soil. BioRich diverts organic waste from industry, converting into a valuable resource what once caused huge environmental headaches and methane emissions in landfill. Operations manager Nigel Halpin has seen demand for their certified organic compost burgeon, turning over around 40,000m3 annually. He credits its popularity to tangible benefits for earth and produce. “Using compost, you improve your land’s ability to hold water and nutrients, which is good from a holistic point of view. You’ll get less leeching and better use of your land.” Understanding the land also informs

MARION THOMSON


“We have very few independent seed companies left in the world. They’re all connected to the chemical companies.” SCOTT LAWSON, TRUE EARTH Photo: Florence Charvin

commercial vegetable seed production. Although heritage organic seeds are produced at small scale and preserved locally, they are unavailable at the scale required for bigger, competitive enterprise. So, oddly, seed produced in New Zealand is sent to Europe for processing, then bought back by NZ farmers. “We don’t own those seeds. We don’t have any control over it,” Scott explains. Increasingly, major corporates hold the seed patents, control global production and could potentially hold NZ to ransom over its GE Free status. “We have very few

independent seed companies left in the world. They’re all connected to the chemical companies.”

Second nature

Healthy land creates healthy crops to feed healthy animals. For livestock farmer Andy Tait-Jamieson, organics is instinctive, a return to tradition. “I started farming the way I had assimilated growing up on a farm. I quickly discovered that was what we now call ‘organic’.” To him, routine use of antibiotics in conventional livestock farming

indicates a failure of process. “It means there’s a stress on that system, things are out of balance.” Andy rejected pressure to overstock his land and then rely on pharmaceutical intervention to squeeze a diminishing profit margin. Although his meats are now sold at a premium, he argues this is the true price of healthy, ethically-produced food. “I don’t even attempt to justify the cost. It should be the other way around … You can buy a loaf of white bread for a dollar. There’s a plastic bag there and thirty pieces of white bread.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 51


Gretta Carney at Hapī Kai Co-Op. Photo: Florence Charvin

Something’s wrong. Don’t ask why organic is so dear, ask why other food is so cheap.”

Growing strong

The Bostock name is synonymous with organics in Hawke’s Bay. They grow most of New Zealand’s organic apples, for both domestic and export markets, as well as other premium produce. As conventional orchardists living on-site in the 1990s, the Bostocks became concerned by carcinogenic effects of organophosphates, which were sprayed liberally in those days. To safeguard the health of their own family, including young sons Ben and George, they converted their orchard to organic. This changed the course of New Zealand’s apple industry and influenced Ben and George into careers rooted in organics … hence Bostock Brothers Organic Free-Range Chicken. Although their chickens account for just 0.3% of the national market, they provide respite from an industry that is largely unregulated and dominated by just four large corporations. “We’re basically a roadside stall compared to the rest of the industry,” says George. Their point of difference lies in their organic status. Smaller flock sizes

52 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

avoid the need to routinely feed the antibiotics used routinely elsewhere. Chefs credit birds grown slower without hormones for producing superior tasting meat, as well as allaying ethical concerns. “Animal welfare is absolutely critical to our business,” George explains. “That organic certificate is the strictest standard for welfare in New Zealand.” Their philosophy of care permeates through both the apple and the chicken businesses to their workers, for whom John Bostock founded Bostock’s Organic Kitchen four years ago. Concerned that staff were forced to travel to source unhealthy lunches, he engaged a chef to produce wholesome, seasonal, organic-where-possible fare. It has been a success, providing nutritional education that spreads out through the workers’ families into the community. “It’s much healthier and it’s subsidised for staff, but it’s open to the public as well,” George says. “Everyone’s welcome.”

Local market

As well as a wealth of organic producers, Hawke’s Bay needs distribution networks to supply demand. Te Awanga local, Krystie Miller, is

“As a region we get to decide the kind of economy we want to build. Hawke’s Bay is a hotbed of shift when it comes to organics. There’s a real potential for us to be able to adopt something for the country and for that to resonate out.” GRETTA CARNEY, HAPĪ

bringing her organic passion to the people. She’s pulling together a new midweek organic market by the beach. She aims to make a space for locals and organic enthusiasts to gather, eat good food, listen to local musicians and stock up on produce. Through her lifestyle and nutrition business, she’s observed the transformative effects of wholesome foods. “I know how important it is to eat good, natural foods and be prepared, because it’s too easy to run out of food and go get take away!” Krystie has carefully researched her stallholders to ensure they meet a high


– though not necessarily organic – standard. “As long as they have respect for the animal or food, they nurture the soil, look after and respect everything in the process, they don’t spray with chemicals, then I’m happy with that.” More than just a place to shop, Krystie’s vision is to create a food hub, where people come for social interaction, meet growers and makers, get educated through talks and demonstrations. She hopes by inspiring a community invested in health, the desire for organics and wholesome food will grow.

Grassroots

Kaye and Alan Keats have been meeting the demand for organics in the Bay since 1984. What started as an organic cooperative aligned to the Steiner School has evolved into Hastings’ cornerstone Cornucopia. Over those years they have observed a shift in their customers. “It was very much alternative people back then, but now it’s quite mainstream,” Kaye observes. “People have become aware, started looking at labels, wondering where their food comes from.” Their business model is about relationships … with growers and consumers. They’re motivated to ensure stock is sustainable to produce and purchase. Kaye says, “We think about food miles and food security. By buying local you’re supporting the environment, and you’re supporting the local economy.” Alan adds, “If you don’t support the growers then you lose the supply.” Consumers come to them for assurance and education. “We have a trust relationship with our customers. We’ve

been doing this a long time. We have really strong ethics, and are really concerned the things we sell are okay.” It’s a mantra backed by the shop’s BioGro organic certification, allowing them to sell uncertified products, as long as they’re satisfied of progeny and products are labelled correctly.

“The basis of good health starts with nutrition. To avoid processed foods, to avoid chemicals, must provide a healthier lifestyle.” ALAN KEATS, CORNUCOPIA ORGANICS

Kaye, a medical herbalist and nutritionist, promotes an understanding of how the substances people put into their bodies have health outcomes. Awareness of eating fresh, seasonal, local produce connects people back with where their food comes from, she says. “If you eat ‘dead food’ it doesn’t enliven your mind and your soul…food that’s really alive and vibrant will help you feel vibrant.”

Nourishing body and soul

The process of creating living food from the ground up has been paramount in Gretta Carney’s long journey with organics. In her work establishing the Hua Parakore certification

standard, she acknowledges the metaphysical connections to the land organics can offer. It’s a holistic system: kaupapa (values) inform tikanga (practices) to produce ngā hua (outcomes). In her research, Gretta’s found qualitative differences between regular organic farmers and those who used a biodynamic or Hua Parakore framework. Both involve a spiritual component. “They develop this real faith in forces outside them that make their system work and they generate the energy.” Hua Parakore informs how Gretta runs her café and market stall, Hapī Ora. Both she and her co-founder are health practitioners who uphold a principle of food as medicine. She promotes a change of thinking towards taking control of our own wellness. “The difference between someone who goes to a doctor and wants a bandaid versus a holistic healing model is that you are responsible for your own health. You need to support and maintain your own health. Someone else can’t do it for you.” Gretta was an early proponent of a vision to see New Zealand fully organic by 2020, and although she knows this is now unobtainable, she still has high hopes for Hawke’s Bay. Like many others working every day in the small but dedicated organics world, she sees this way of thinking as a big opportunity for the Bay, socially and economically. “As a region we get to decide the kind of economy we want to build,” she suggests. “Hawke’s Bay is a hotbed of shift when it comes to organics. There’s a real potential for us to be able to adopt something for the country and for that to resonate out.”

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 53


Who’s Who in Organic Hawke’s Bay GROWERS Bostock New Zealand: John Bostock is the largest producer of organic apples in the country. Plus a host of other produce. Coming soon, Bostock Organic Wine. Lawson’s True Earth: Scott and Vicki have been growing organic vegetables and berry fruit since the 1990s. Hohepa: Biodynamic vegetables, meat and dairy with a social conscience. Also offer a line in natural crafts and candles. The Chef’s Garden @Epicurean: Clyde Potter grows and distributes greens to home and commercial chefs throughout the region. Te Koha: Biodynamic horticulture specialising in heritage, disease resistant fruit. Check out Clare and Erin’s juice and apple cider vinegar.

Humming Hill Farm: Supplying homes, supermarkets and cafés from their free-roaming 400 strong flock in Havelock North. Beady Eye: produced on Heather Smith’s biodynamic farm at Tauroa Station in the Tukituki Valley by Nick Radley. As well as eggs they breed and raise cattle, sheep and grow fabulous feijoas among a few other things. They are invested in biodiversity and sustainability education. SELLERS Cornucopia Organics: One-stop organic shop on Heretaunga Street. Chantal Shop: Napier’s organic retail fixture since 1983, now operated and 50% co-owned by Tess-AlexanderWard and Tim Stevens. With a 50% stake held by national organic and natural foods retailer, Huckleberry.

plants and produce sold at the Napier and Hastings Farmers’ Markets. Setha’s Seeds: Setha Davenport and Roddy Branagan run courses as well as growing and selling heritage seeds and garlic from Tūtira. Uncertified but run on organic principles. Koanga Institute: In Wairoa, educates on organic principles and holds New Zealand’s largest organic heritage food and seeds collection, sold nationwide. BioRich: In Awatoto, the place for certified organic compost to build your soil. Pacific Wave Organics: Providing alternatives to chemical sprays and inputs from plant and sea. BREAD Ya Bon: Authentic French bread and pastries made with organic flour.

JJ’s Organics: Uncertified organic produce grown at their property on Riverbend Road.

Norton Road Organics: Peter Alexander’s farm shop, stocking home-grown fresh produce, juices and dry goods.

Bremdale Coastal Gardens: Supplying vegetables, fruit, nuts, herbs and honey from Nuhaka.

Te Awanga Organic Market: Midweek market for fresh produce by the beach.

BUTCHERS

EATERIES

Stonecroft Organic Wine: Small, family-run operation over two vineyards.

The Organic Farm: Wide range of meat products and small goods at Hastings shop and the Farmers’ Market.

Bostock Organic Kitchen: Fresh, wholesome, reasonably priced lunches.

William Murdoch: Natural winemaking at Gimblett Gravels.

Hapī Kai Co-Op: Ready-to-eat meals and store cupboard staples designed for health.

Supernatural Wine Co.: Boutique biodynamic vineyard at Millar Road.

Bostocks Free Range Organic Chickens: Providing poultry for restaurants, supermarkets, butchers and markets around the country. Mangarara Family Farm: Organic beef, lamb and pork in Elsthorpe.

Taste, Cornucopia: Family-friendly café cuisine. The Wholefood Kitchen @ Chantals: Plant-based meals and treats.

DAIRY & EGGS Lindsay Farm: Raw organic milk from a family-run farm in Waipukurau. Sentry Hill Organics: cow and sheep milk dairy products from Central Hawke’s Bay. They also produce Pasture Poultry Free Range Organic Eggs.

54 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

Oh My Goodness: Gluten-free baking made from organic buckwheat milled on site. WINE

Villa Maria Organic: Vidal’s Joseph Soler vineyard managed by Jonathan Hamlet. HEALTH, BEAUTY & BABY

GARDENERS

Weleda – Biodynamic skin and health care products grown in Havelock North and distributed internationally.

Kahikatea Farm: Organic plants, flowers and vegetables grown on permaculture principles. They also have a strong educational component.

Millstream Gardens – Home-grown cosmetics and health products.

Links Organics: Seasonal organic

Pureborn Organics – Organic cotton babywear based in Taradale.



McLEAN PAR K

NAPIER-HASTINGS FERRY

Illustration: Brett Monteith


Adapting Hawke’s Bay to Climate Change

Story by Bridget Freeman-Rock Photos by Florence Charvin With global warming, Hawke’s Bay faces a warmer, drier, stormier future, which, on the surface of things, looks to be a mild prognosis. “Droughts are nothing new,” I’m told. “We’re a maritime country, we’re used to variable weather.” “I wouldn’t mind less frosts.” We tend to judge the future by what we know. But on our current trajectory (with global greenhouse gas emissions reaching record heights in 2018) the planet will be 4C warmer than pre-industrial times before the end of this century (the Paris Accord was to keep it well below 2C). What’s important to understand is a further raise to the 1C increase we’ve reached now won’t unfold as a linear, evenly rolled-out probability, but bespeaks volatility and disruption to every facet of our biosphere. Key to helping me unpack how this might play out in Hawke’s Bay is the Regional Council’s CEO, James Palmer, who is also a board member of the Deep South National Science Challenge, a 10-year project (currently in its 5th year) to develop the tools and frameworks to understand, predict and respond to future scenarios in New Zealand. Palmer visited Antarctica some years ago and has witnessed firsthand the changes happening there. He believes the consequences will be profound: “The melt is real, it’s extremely rapid and it’s on a scale that’s utterly breath-taking.”

Rising seas and liquid soils

Haumoana has become the pin-up poster for coastal erosion and sea-level

“There’s no free lunch in any of this. All of the options in the future will incur cost within the community and involve some level of ongoing risk. This is the reality we face with the change in climate.” JAMES PALMER, HB REGIONAL COUNCIL CEO

rise (certain to rise 1m by 2100 under a 1.5+C global warming scenario) both for the ocean’s visible encroachment and for HBRC’s adaptive pathways coastal strategy, which is seen nationally as leading the way on local government response. With much of our coastal development less than 0.5m above the high spring tide mean, Haumoana is one of our coastal communities staging a managed retreat from the shore over the coming century. The first stage is to buy time with coastal barriers. In the meantime, insurance companies are signalling their retreat from what is an entirely foreseeable red zone. By 2040 the sea will have risen 30cm; if we can’t level global warming, by 2118 this could be 2m and rising. But it’s not just those living close to our coasts who will see the impacts of global warming unfold, and the inexorably rising seas are just one expression

of what will inevitably be a rapidly changing world. James Palmer points to the little ripples you can see scoured into our hillsides like stretchmarks. “If you could put a time-lapse photo on those, do a visualisation of the whole of Hawke’s Bay over, say, 100 years, what you’d see is basically all our soils being like liquid, sliding off our landscapes into our lowland and then coastal environments.” It’s a disturbing image. For soil loss, driven to a huge degree by land clearance (and we’ve cleared over 80% of our vegetation), along with the associated availability of water drying up, is bad news for agriculture, indeed for the future of civilisation itself, as has been repeatedly shown around the planet over millennia. And it’s greatly exacerbated by climate change. It’s inevitable, says Palmer, that an alteration of atmosphere and rainfall distribution – a key variable in a highly interconnected, dynamic system – will have a change-effect on the landscape. What this means for Hawke’s Bay is unclear, although with less rain when and where we need it and heavier rainfalls projected, “we do expect more erosion and sedimentation but potentially more gravel as well,” and more gravel heightens the risk of flood inundation while reducing the performance of stopbanks.

Floods

Tangoio Marae is a wahi taonga for the hapū who gather there, but its future hangs in the balance. For the small

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 57



“It’s time to hear our rangatahi, time to let them speak – they’re a lot more accepting of their dreams, and they’re pragmatic.” PERERI KING, TANGOIO MARAE COMMITTEE CHAIR

settlement of Tangoio climate change is already a reality, in a catchment that’s one of Hawke’s Bay’s worst flood zones, on a coastline exposed to rising seas. The low-lying plains in the Te Ngarue catchment are subject to severe flash floods, with compounding issues of sediment and silt run-off from steep terrain to the north – a legacy of land-use (farming and forestry) combined with fragile pumice soils. NIWA hydraulic modelling shows projected rainfall/run-off increases, together with sea-level rise, will increase both depth and intensity of flooding, particularly with ‘Bola type events’. Chair of the marae committee, Pereri King, says although they are exploring all options, including relocation, the hapū have little choice but to stay and protect. (Maungaharuru-Tangitū hapū once moved seasonally between coast and mountain but these 4 ha in the Tangoio valley are all that remain in landholdings of the vast tracts of land confiscated by the NZ government in the 1860s.) This means developing and strengthening the surrounding stopbanks. It also means the prospect of building new facilities that are uninsurable. Of nearly 6,000 registered marae members, two-thirds are under 25 years of age. Pereri King says climate change adds further to the weight of Māori, and while his people are “survivalists”, he’s hoping for a miracle solution.

observable change is relatively imperceptible, says HBRC climate scientist Kathleen Kozyniac. Weather projections for Hawke’s Bay show considerable variance; the most reliable climate change indication (aside from evident temperature and sea rise) being a decline in frosts. The problem is there are roughly 40 extant climate models for longrange predictions (most with a northern hemisphere bias); NIWA has drawn on six to forecast for our region. To remedy what has been “a critical gap” the Deep South National Science Challenge (hosted by NIWA) has been developing an ‘earth system model’ specifically tailored for NZ conditions, and calibrated against 50 years’ of observed and recorded climate patterns here. It will give us finer scale predictive capability for what climate change will deliver by way of rainfall, etc. It will begin “spitting out predictions” sometime next year, and James Palmer says HBRC will be “watching that very closely”. He envisions that the model will become “a national tool – much like the Met service provides us with days and weeks, this will provide us with months and years.” And expects it to show an increased intensity of extreme weather events, particularly as a consequence of our geographic location, with strong oceanic influences and more tropical systems moving down from the north.

Weather modelling

Traditionally Hawke’s Bay’s rain falls largely in the winter months, from a south-westerly flow across the country, followed by long, hot summers. Global warming will change rainfall patterns and distribution. But at this stage the

Storms

Ian Macdonald, who heads the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management team (14 full-time staff and 250 trained volunteers), is already planning for an escalation of extreme

weather-related events. “There will be more of them and they’ll be occurring outside the traditional seasonal zones, for example, more cyclone-type events in summer.” “We deal with risk, and risk is a function of the likelihood and the consequences of an adverse event. From our perspective, climate change will not only make existing hazards worse… but changes our risk profile over time.” While Hawke’s Bay’s greatest hazards are currently earthquake and tsunami, extreme weather events (currently at number 5 on the list) may become our number one hazard, says Macdonald, as we see 1-in-100-year weather events more regularly experienced. Stopbanks have effectively remedied flooding on the Heretaunga Plains, enabling horticulture and protecting our townships, so much so that we’ve ‘forgotten’ the risk, he says, creating infrastructure and economic investment in areas that were once more prone to flooding. “With climate change leading to more extreme weather events and inundation, our stopbanks will no longer be adequate – we either risk losing the productive activity either side or need to invest substantially in building bigger stopbanks and wider beams, to anticipate and withstand greater flooding events.” HBRC is looking to upgrade its flood and drainage infrastructure from a 1-in-100 to a 1-in-500 annual exceedance probability, which will cost tens of millions of dollars in all likelihood, and even then won’t provide certainty of protection. “Much like the conversation on the coast about defence versus retreat, at some point the costs of defence exceed the benefits,” says Palmer. “It may be that we need to think


about sacrifice areas where some extent of flooding is deemed acceptable.” CDEM has been undertaking its own hazard research and impact analysis: “Our focus is working with communities,” says Macdonald, “developing resilience within communities and individuals. And being as ready as we can be for response…as well as recovery.” Macdonald points out that a big weather event, like Cyclone Bola, can disrupt the sectors we’re most dependent on – tourism, agriculture, horticulture – and statistically we’re well overdue. So “how do we bounce back from something like that?” It can take years. One of the big issues for the region, Macdonald says, is around local-source tsunamis as the result of a large nearby earthquake off our coast. Napier will be in an increasingly vulnerable position with climate change – under a worstcase scenario, the inundation zones will cover up to two thirds of the city, thus upping both the impacts of a tsunami and the evacuation safe zones.

Horticulture

Flooding aside, our apple boom looks safe for the moment, in terms of industry projections (which are predicated primarily on temperature changes), and even offers opportunities for landuse changes that could help us meet our Paris Accord conditions, with highvalue yields per ha, low GGE and carbon sequestration potential. Brent Clothier and Alistair Hall, scientists at Plant & Food Research, say impacts on horticulture in Hawke’s Bay will be reasonably modest – under the extreme scenario harvest dates for Royal Gala apples, for example, will come forward two weeks by 2050, with a reduced growing season. They speak of a three-tiered adaptation approach, the first being tactical (eg. changing pruning schedules or spray programmes), which horticulture, as a highly interventionist system does constantly, modifying practice to respond to, and control, any number of variables, season by season. The second, strategic: “Different varieties, different practices”. For example, Plant & Food is breeding new varieties of fruit tolerant to climate change; golden kiwi (which tolerate warmer winters) may replace Heywoods green in frost-free areas; orchards may install nets to protect crops from hail. Thirdly, transformational adaptation – adopting new crops, growing in new locations. While we may

60 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

“Quite simply, the more sustainable we become … the more resilient we will be when the shocks occur. And the shocks will happen.” IAN MACDONALD, HB CIVIL DEFENCE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT GROUP LEADER

see more kiwifruit production in our region in future, the biggest change may be the migration of apple and pipfruit production south into the Ruataniwha basin, which has formerly been too cold for growing much more than grass. A shift from farming animals to vines and orchards could lower the country’s GGE substantially (courtesy of agriculture, we’re one of the biggest per-capita

GGE-emitters), and with the window on mitigating global warming fast closing (we have a decade, basically), there’s more at stake here than opportunity.

Vines

Te Mata Estate wine-maker Peter Cowley says he doesn’t feel threatened by climate change … yet. Warmer temperatures could well be a boon for HB red wines, which sit at the cooler end of


the Bordeaux-type growing spectrum, although “once you get up to 38C days the vines will struggle”. They stop photosynthesising and you don’t get the tannins, colour, or flavours ripening. He notes that overseas climate change is talked about constantly – hotter wine-growing regions like South Australia are “having a terrible time”. But here in a more buffered climate, the hardy, adaptive nature of viticulture means it’s relatively well-placed to cope (“though I wouldn’t be promoting syrah”). “We are constantly aware of the how the vintage is going,” says Cowley, and can respond to disruption as it happens, harvesting earlier if need be or downgrading from a top-wine to a stillgood bulk blend. Te Mata has several vineyards around the Bay with quite different micro-climates where different grape varieties are grown – while it wasn’t a strategic decision, it does put them in more a resilient position, says Cowley. Grapes have a relatively low water-demand and precision irrigation means inputs are ever-less, but lack of water, especially with gravelly soils, would spell trouble. “If we ran out of water, after 2-3 weeks vines don’t bounce back.” And there’s the rub…

“What we’re now seeing is more warm spells in the middle of winter, unpredictably and for short periods of time, and then we’re getting cold snaps in the middle of summer. ” JAMES PALMER, HB REGIONAL COUNCIL CEO

Water security

We’re now at a point where the groundwater resources of the Ruataniwha basin and the Heretaunga system are fully allocated (and not, as CHB has discovered, necessarily equitably under our ‘first in, first served’ legislation). Lowering the groundwater table obviously affects those with shallower bores, but also drops the water levels of our streams and rivers, impacting both the ecology and amenity values of our waterways. And climate change will twist the screws.

With disruption to the steady, predictable seasonality of water coming into the system, we may find ourselves going into summer months with less groundwater resource than usual, while periods of low rainfall (i.e. drought) will result in greater irrigation demand on depleted resources. More worryingly, says Palmer, a 1C increase in temperature significantly accelerates the evapo-transpiration rate, so the efficiency of our irrigation systems will drop. “We run the risk of there being increasing demand on our water resources to sustain even our current levels of production.” Increased irrigation efficiency by way of technology and production practices will become imperative. Although HBRC is currently looking at two propositions for water storage (managed aquifer recharge in the Ruataniwha basin and above-ground storage systems; stream flow augmentation in the Ngaruroro catchment), “our emphasis is on security of existing use, including municipal supplies for Napier and Hastings.”

Health impacts

Professor Alistair Woodward of Auckland University says an increase

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“My art work is a way of recording what’s happening at ground level.” SUSAN MABIN, ARTIST

in droughts and a reduction in rainfall on the east of the country will put a lot of pressure on our rural economy – and mental health problems among those working in the rural sector correlates strongly to how well (or not) the rural economy is performing. “Communities under stress – that’s something we have to anticipate and prepare for.” While we won’t see the extremes of heat experienced elsewhere around the globe, more hot days will increase incidents of heat stroke, aggression and heart disease, especially for outdoor workers, and with air quality expected to decline, we’ll see an

62 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

increase in respiratory problems. Droughts, floods and increased temperatures may lead to water contamination and toxic algal blooms; mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, may reach our shores. “Think of climate change as a threat multiplier,” suggests Woodward. Adding that the outcomes won’t be equally distributed, with those most vulnerable likely to be hardest hit.

Fire

While Queensland burns with record-breaking heatwaves and unprecedented wildfires, hot on the

heels of California and the annihilation of Paradise, it’s sobering to consider that warmer, drier conditions on our east coast could extend the high-extreme risk period for wildfires to 4-6 months of the year by 2040 if we cannot keep warming in check. What of the regional council’s afforestation plans, which will surely add fuel to that risk? James Palmer says, “it’s an enormously difficult set of trade-offs” because forests are both our smartest carbon sequestration strategy and the best way to mitigate against the drying effects of warming, but


when they burn, they release all that carbon into the atmosphere. HBRC is currently looking at what to plant where, “and future fire risk is part of that overall calculus”. Native forests have a lower burn risk, while eucalypts and radiata are more combustible, for example, reinforcing the need for forest diversity. While fire is one of the scarier outcomes of climate change, the thing Palmer finds scariest of all is “the upset to the predictability of the seasons”. Climate stability, which enabled life as we know it to flourish, has been borne of the extremes between the weather systems at the poles and the equator. “As a consequence of climate change, the poles are warming much faster than the equator, so the differential between the two is closing and as a result, the stability between those systems is breaking up.” In New Zealand, “What we’re now seeing is more warm spells in the middle of winter, unpredictably and for short periods of time, and then we’re getting cold snaps in the middle of summer. So, while there’s a warming trend, there’s actually more variability and perturbations, and trying to grow things in that environment, whether it be a vegetable crop or horticultural crop: incredibly challenging.” Not to mention for our indigenous ecosystems, which will have to adapt to variances in their food source and reproductive life cycles.

Money

Whether it’s transitioning to more diverse, sustainable land-use practices to build resilience into our landscape and regional economy, upgrading flood protection infrastructure, planning coastal work, transport futures or water storage, global warming is going to cost considerable sums of cold hard cash. The proportion of household income in NZ spent on climate change adaptation is set to dramatically increase over the next few decades. HBRC is considering making it the focus of their next long-term plan, says Palmer, with a step-change in capital investments and a mix of public-private funding approaches likely. Staff are working to pull together “a whole-of-organisation view of climate change … to identify where the gaps are and ensure that we’re applying resources as best we can.” A warmer, drier, stormier, more uncertain future will throw up difficult decisions and challenges we can neither insure ourselves against nor fully foresee. We will need to think hard about our priorities and what we truly value. “There’s no free lunch in any of this,” says Palmer. “All of the options in the future will incur cost within the community and involve some level of ongoing risk. This is the reality we face with the change in climate.”

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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10 alarming projections for Hawke’s Bay How does Hawke’s Bay fit into the equation when “the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon” (David Attenborough) and nothing less than radical, immediate change will turn the ship from the brink of global disaster? 1. Soil erosion Soil erosion is expected to accelerate with climate change – at the current rate of annual loss, we stand to lose it all from our hills within a century. Goodbye agriculture, hello desert. 2. Wildfires On a warmer, drier east coast, by 2040 we may be facing a high-extreme risk of wildfires 4-6 months of the year. We urgently need more landcover (for the soils, for resilience, for carbon sequestration), but if we don’t plant trees now we’ll be chasing our tail, as the forests that will mitigate drying (and thus fire risk) will paradoxically increase the risk and danger under warmer, drier conditions. 3. Storms and flooding Storms and flooding may become our number one natural hazard, with 1-in-100-year weather events occurring more frequently, and a higher probability of 1-in-500-year exceedances. We need to invest millions in upgrading our stopbank and stormwater networks, and we’ll need to consider ‘sacrifice areas’. 4. Tsunami risk Rising sea levels combined with more extreme weather events, mean even a small tsunamic event could have colossal impact, and coastal Hawke’s Bay faces a high tsunami risk (read Keith’s article, p66). A small tsunami will close the airport and port, for starters, and damage Napier’s wastewater system (in low-lying Awatoto), and that’s just the public infrastructure. 5. Sea-level rise Current emissions put us on target to bequeath future generations a 5-10+ metre sea-level rise by 2300, which would completely redraw the map for Hawke’s Bay; two thirds of Napier will face inundation within a century. Clifton, Haumoana, parts of Clive, under the rosier 1.5-2C scenario will have undergone managed retreat.

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6. Insurance Insurance companies bail: homes in low-lying areas will become uninsurable in the near-future (and thus unmortgage-able and devalued), eroding communities – those remaining will be the vulnerable with nowhere else to go. Higher seas risk widening the economic divide. (Stuff.co.nz has an excellent interactive feature on this: Beach Road) 7. Climate change impacts Māori disproportionately. Māori are more likely to live in low-lying areas, with higher engagement in coastal activities (eg fisheries) that will be climate disrupted. Acidifying oceans, as a result of increased CO2 in the atmosphere, are already affecting the growth and shell-formation of paua. Climate change will also exacerbate respiratory illness and poor housing (damp, mould), issues with higher statistical representation of Māori. 8. Horticulture Horticulture will potentially face increased hail storms and damaging summer rainfalls, and more biosecurity risks – pests, disease – though how this plays out is an unknown quantum. Seasonal instability will be massively challenging for all growers. 9. Water security Water security is a biggie. Already our aquifers are fully allocated, and with lower winter/spring recharge predicted and higher evapo-transpiration rates, our freshwater resources will become worryingly constricted. Some productive landuse activities will no longer be viable. 10. Wine And for those who love wine, Hawke’s Bay’s hip syrah: gone… Climate change will also rob the zing from our sauvignon blanc turning it undrinkably flat. If that’s not a reason for action…

Adaptation Toolkit • Diversify Not monocrops or silver bullets, but multiple, multi-pronged approaches: a patchwork of land-use and land-cover. • Plan for the future HB Coastal Strategy is an example of a forward-looking, multi-staged, dynamic plan for responding to the treats posed by rising sea levels. • Prioritise Where/how do we invest protection, what do we sacrifice, what are our values, how will we fund this? Climate change is going to hurt, however we cut it. • Be nimble With an unpredictable environment, adaptation will need to be continuous, fluid, to meet both risks and opportunities. Viticulture is an example of a sector that can make micro-adjustments. • Build resilience In landscape, productive systems, communities – through environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability. • Make art It’s a viable way to process and make sense of things; it’s also a carbon-neutral activity.



Slipping slowly sideways … and then! Be gone when it’s long and strong

Story by Keith Newman Earthquake and tsunami experts are using the East Coast as a giant laboratory, probing, listening and measuring the rumbles and shifts in the tectonic plates and wondering, not if, but when, the patient will have a seizure. Apparently all the symptoms are there and the world is watching, with those of us who live along the coast urged to prepare for the worst; to train our muscle memory to grab the essentials and head for the hills at short notice if the spasm is long and strong. There are few written records of tsunamis smashing into the Hawke’s Bay coastline, although there’s geological evidence it happens about every 900 years. Minor structural impacts were reported in 1960 and 2010 when larger than usual waves swashed our shores after high-end quakes struck Chile. New Zealand has had 10 tsunamis higher than 5 metres since 1840, the Gisborne tsunami on 25 March 1947 was 10 metres high. I was reluctant when asked on World Tsunami Awareness Day to write a feature about the latest science surrounding our neighbourhood Hikurangi fault and growing rumours of an overdue mega rumble sending a destructive deluge toward our coast. I have an aversion to disaster movies, The Day After Tomorrow, San Andreas, Cloverfield, Towering Inferno, Jaws...the genre is a giveaway; it never ends well, although Hollywood always finds some cheesy romance to offset the destruction and adrenaline pumping tension. TV, YouTube and Facebook clips

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of the aftermath in Sumatra in 2004, Samoa in 2009, Chile 2010, Japan in 2011 and Indonesia in September 2018 have shown clearly the destructive power of nature without having to fictionalise anything. Despite living on the coast with evacuation zone signs around the corner and having seen large council maps showing the potential path of shock wave devastation, I was in denial.

Facing our fears

Being a diligent journalist, I was forced to face my fears. What was this new information; was the big one coming soon? The HB Emergency Management team’s presentation to the HB Regional Council at the end of October was the start of an information tidal wave of links and reports I needed to wade through before interviewing hazard reduction team leader Lisa Pearse. I was feeling a little edgy as days before my interview there had been a cluster of quakes off California’s San Andreas fault and a deep and wide 6.2 quake off Taumarunui that rocked my home office. Was this a potential trigger for wider activity? That’s the question Pearse and her colleagues are pondering, since the swarms of quakes off Porangahau following the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, something not seen for at least 15 years. “Off the coast of Gisborne... Porangahau...Kapiti and Kaikōura... a slow slip or a series of slow slip events...lit up at the same time.”

New Zealand has had 10 tsunamis higher than 5 metres since 1840, the Gisborne tsunami on 25 March 1947 was 10 metres high.

Pearse is concerned we may have underestimated how tsunamis form and perform, particularly after the last one in Japan overturned a lot of assumptions about subduction zones. “It was a lot bigger than they ever anticipated, overtopping their tsunami defence walls.” A main concern for her team and the East Coast Lab: Life at the Boundary project, which she and fellow scientists initiated in 2014, is the fact that the subduction zone south from Cape Turnagain is locked and pressure is building. “That’s a worry because the plate keeps moving and putting pressure on that locked part of the plate boundary and one day that pressure will be released through a big earthquake.”

Assessing the risks

Subduction zones are where most of the world’s deadliest earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis occur, and scientists are signalling that we need to be aware of this risk. Pearse says Kaikoura is at the


Hawke’s Bay Tsunami Evacuaton Zones Red zone Covers the beach, foreshore and marine environment. Should be evacuated in any sort of tsunami threat.

Bay View

Orange zone Evacuated by Civil Defense in the event of a major threat from a distant source tsunami Yellow zone All zones, including the yellow zone, shoul be self -evacuated if a long and strong earthquake is felt. More information at civildefence.govt.nz

Westshore

Napier South

Clive

Whakatu Haumoana

Te Awanga


The fact is we may only have 15-20 minutes before the wave impact pummels and pushes through coastal communities and that’s a real life challenge for anyone, particularly the elderly and infirm.

southern end of that subduction zone which then flows into a network of faults including the inter-related Hope and Alpine faults. The locked part sits right under Wellington extending through to the bottom part of Hawke’s Bay. “If we did have a big earthquake on that plate boundary the whole of the North Island would be affected.” The “slow slip phenomenon” was uncovered by geoscientist and GNS Science project leader Dr Laura Wallace in the Hikurangi subduction zone 15 years ago. Dr Wallace’s efforts have placed New Zealand at the global forefront of studies on tectonic plate boundary processes and resulted in more than $60 million in international research funding being raised to investigate what’s going on and the potential threat it poses. Lisa Pearse, who’s worked in emergency management for around twenty years, says this increased scientific focus has resulted in a “fundamental change in thinking and in understanding what this fault is capable of”. While attending the Transformation,

New Zealand Emergency Departments conference in Taupō in September, she heard Dr Wallace describe the Hikurangi subduction zone as “the master fault in New Zealand”. Unlike the Alpine Fault, its buried underwater like a hidden mountain range. “We don’t actually see it, so we probably tend to ignore it at our peril.”

Dire possibilities

She says science papers a decade ago mostly focused disaster risk assessment on the Alpine Fault, volcanoes and the Wellington Fault. “Hikurangi is almost mentioned as an afterthought when it came to the risk of tsunami.” After Kaikōura there were forecasts about the increased risk of a quake around 7.8 on the Richter scale and while that concern has eased, no-one’s breathing easy yet as international evidence still hints at dire possibilities. “That’s why the scientists are trying to get a better understanding what these things mean... the reality is, the risk is still 2.5% greater than when Kaikōura happened.” Pearse says geological evidence suggest New Zealand faces similar risks to Japan, but they’re far better prepared. “We have to learn from science what Japan has now committed to long-term memory over 1,300 years, including historic markers along the coastline.” The force of the last big one resulted in an international collaboration of tsunami scientists, and the formation of the Geodynamic Processes at Rifting and Subduction Margins project or Geoprisms. The US-based project chose three global sites where scientists are

now working together – Cascadia in the west of North America, the Alaskan and Aleutian margin, and the Hikurangi margin extending from Poverty Bay-Gisborne down to the lower North Island. A key reason Hikurangi was chosen was the Earthquake Commission’s investment in the nationwide GeoNet system which allows scientists to use GPS to locate what’s happening with our land mass. From October, as part of a multiyear process, a number of research ships have placed instruments off the coast of Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa with local scientists joined by those from Canada, the UK, the US and Australia to better understand the earthquake and tsunami potential. Off the coast of Hawke’s Bay two ships including NIWA’s R/V Tangaroa deployed “a whole bunch of really expensive, internationally funded, equipment”.

Sensing the seafloor

GNS Science project leader Dr Wallace says the research is a priority for New Zealand scientists with the instruments recording hundreds of small earthquakes that cannot be accurately located with land-based technology. Among the instruments are 19 seafloor pressure sensors, that record upward or downward movement of the seabed and can detect slow motion earthquakes offshore. There are also eight ocean bottom seismometers and two precision arrays of seafloor transponders tracking horizontal movement of the seafloor. All of this is to ensure we are better

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Planning an evacuation Is your home, school, workplace in a tsunami evacuation zone? >P re-plan and practise the route to take your family inland or to higher ground. > I f you feel a long or strong earthquake, drop, cover and hold.

Getaway Kits Everyone should have a packed getaway kit easily accessible at home and at work which includes: > Torch and radio with spare batteries > Any special needs such as hearing aids and spare batteries, glasses or mobility aids

> Toiletries – towel, soap, toothbrush, sanitary items, toilet paper > Blankets or sleeping bags > Face and dust masks

>W hen shaking eases, get to your safe location by foot or by bike.

> Emergency water and easy-to-carry food rations such as energy bars and dried foods

> I f possible avoid driving, as roads may be congested or damaged.

> First aid kit and essential medicines

> Have a grab bag including essential medication, documents, torch, radio

> Essential items for infants or young children

>O nly when you are safe, check social media, radio or www. hbemergency.govt.nz for information.

> Change of clothes - wind/ waterproof clothing and strong outdoor shoes

prepared for the worst-case scenario. Concurrently every effort is being made to strengthen and streamline our risk management, including the GNS Science open-all-hours geohazard risk monitoring centre. The emergency mobile alert system that can reach cellphone users based on their geographic location and risk... if the phone’s on and within coverage...is also being enhanced. The baseline though is the Civil Defence PR campaign launched in 2016 – if it’s “Long or Strong, Get Gone”, which carries an important sub-text. We cannot rely on sirens, loudspeakers, the radio, the web or our neighbours ... we’re on our own if the big

one lets rip. We’re told 90% of coastal dwellers have got the message, but Pearse isn’t convinced, with evidence showing too many people fuss around looking for things and waste precious time. The fact is we may only have 15-20 minutes before the wave impact pummels and pushes through coastal communities and that’s a real life challenge for anyone, particularly the elderly and infirm. There’s talk of community evacuation plans but that conversation is still evolving, and even emergency services are being advised to get out quickly so they can be available in the aftermath. If the quake is strong enough to

> Pet supplies > Include important documents: identification (birth and marriage certificates, driver’s licences and passports), financial documents (e.g. insurance policies and mortgage information), and precious family photos.

make you unsteady on your feet; there’s a sudden sea level fall or rise, or the sea is sounding like a jet engine, don’t join the ‘oooh aaah’ crowd thronging to the beach for a selfie, evacuate all coastal zones for higher ground or as far inland as possible. Plan by having your essentials – including medication, torch, radio, phone, documents – in a grab bag. Rehearse the journey by bike or on foot during the day and night so your escape is more intuitive. If and when the rock ‘n roll nightmare eventuates, at least you can say you’re prepared. As for me, I can no longer bask in the safety of my own ignorance.

“Placing families first.” Napier 06 835 9925 | Hastings 06 870 3399 | www.beth-shan.co.nz

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Hi-tech water wisdom needed

We shower and swim in it, soak our gardens and crops with it, drink it and even allow giant bladders of it to be exported so others can make huge profits, but we only seem to appreciate our aqua vitae when its quality and sustainability is threatened. Story by Keith Newman


Dr Smith says the Havelock North drinking water contamination event was “at least partly a consequence of poorly understood aquifer complexity”.

capacity, security and safety of our groundwater and aquifer resources have proven inadequate. In fact, he says, existing knowledge of parts of the aquifer systems may be inaccurate, with potentially “environmentally-damaging and commercially-restricting” outcomes when it comes to water management decisions. That’s certainly the case at deeper levels or when information on small-scale pathways is required over larger areas in more complex geological settings. While the council has made significant progress in recent years; its model for the Heretaunga Plains aquifer system being recognised as a finalist in the 2018 Local Government New Zealand Excellence Awards, more detail is now needed. The main concern is that our groundwater, which moves through a body of permeable and porous saturated rock and intricate networks of buried river channels hidden in our aquifers, is more complex than previously understood.

DR JEFF SMITH, PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST REGIONAL COUNCIL

Age concerns

The reality is, we don’t know as much about the Heretaunga and Ruataniwha aquifers as we thought we did. While the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council claims a good understanding of how the aquifer works it’s not as clear about certain groundwater pathways, interactions with streams and rivers and susceptibility to contamination. In an effort to stop us treating groundwater as an endless resource it’s no longer issuing new consents for large groundwater extractions and has commissioned a survey using ground breaking hi-tech aerial electromagnetic (AEM) technology to better understand the vulnerabilities. Over the past decade our water supply has become front of mind through droughts threatening the great things that grow here and the 2016 Havelock North water crisis and its flow-on effects across the country. There’s been huge investment in infrastructure, monitoring and treatment and now with concerns about river flows and groundwater levels, we urgently need more accurate data to inform long term planning for

sustainable irrigation, development and residential supply. We’re told two thirds of Earth’s surface is covered by water — 97% of it in the oceans. The remaining three percent of non-salt water is frozen or in rivers, lakes, streams and underground aquifers which provides 30% of our drinking water.

Supply and demand

It’s already unsafe to drink local water in many parts of the world because of infrastructure failure or contaminated sources, and the only winners are booming bottled-water businesses. Demand is only going to increase as the level of wells and rivers gets lower and, in some places, dries up, pushing water value skyward. A recent NASA study suggests one third of the Earth’s largest groundwater basins are over-exploited with water being removed from 21 of the 37 largest aquifers faster than it can be replenished by rain and snow. The Regional Council’s principal scientist Dr Jeff Smith says SkyTEM survey technology is being deployed because past efforts to map the

One of the key triggers for the new survey was a GNS Science investigation into water age and the source of the Heretaunga Plains groundwater which revealed “the aquifer system is much more heterogeneous than previously thought,” says Smith. Council scientists need high-resolution data to look into the variability of aquifer sources and properties and to determine changes in flow paths and the impacts of groundwater pumping. Dr Smith says the Havelock North drinking water contamination event was “at least partly a consequence of poorly understood aquifer complexity”. Over six weeks in the summer of 2019-20 SkyTEM tools will be deployed during an intense helicopter flyby going deeper and wider than has previously been possible. The estimated $2 million project will identify where water sources originate, intersect and merge; the potential for contamination, and ways to protect existing and potential drinking water supplies. Costs include $6000 a day for the technology, the helicopter and a crew from Perth. Funding is covered in the council’s 10-year Long Term Plan (LTP). HBRC scientists are currently preparing data and logistics for the survey and locating areas where infrastructure, including power lines and

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underground pipe networks, may interfere with electromagnetic data collection. The SkyTEM rigid hanging frame, to be choppered around the region, will carry an array of ancillary sensors including a magnetometer, laser altimeters, video cameras and GPS equipment. SkyTEM has a Dual Moment transmitter that allows for collection of accurate images from both shallow and deep geology with a low-noise receiver to detect subtle geological changes. It’s geared to stay calibrated throughout data acquisition. In the first stage the survey will fly 2000 km throughout the Heretaunga aquifer system with the first reports available within six weeks of fieldwork being completed.

Better than boring

Previously gathering groundwater data was a boring process. In fact, it required many bores, but they weren’t deep enough to deliver the kind of data HBRC needs to confidently futureproof its understanding of ‘hydrological flow paths’. Dr Smith says little was known about the deeper aquifer system with “sparse drilling logs from relatively shallow bores insufficient for capturing the different sources and small pathways that make up the system”. SkyTEM, launched in 2004 can do this at a much lower cost than a deep-drilling programme. It was previously used in oil exploration, then advanced by the Danish government and universities to map groundwater resources and map large aquifer systems in Denmark, Netherlands, India,

China, US and Canada. It’s capable of identifying subtle changes between sand, clay, silt, gravel and tills that define the location and potential vulnerability of groundwater resources. The survey will probe to depths at least 300 metres below ground level and in some cases down to 450 metres with line spacing of 200 metres and sounding intervals at 11 metres. “This will provide a spatially dense dataset from approximately 2000 line-kilometres of flying throughout the Heretaunga Plains,” says Dr Smith. The second stage will map the Ruataniwha aquifer. The highly detailed 3D hydro-geological models will give a much clearer picture of groundwater and surface water interaction, the extent of deep groundwater resources and the boundaries that define recharge areas in confined and semi-confined areas.

Smart modelling tools

Once the data is analysed and developed into smart modelling tools, council scientists will have a more accurate flow model to plan for future contingencies such as river flow, droughts, contamination alerts and potential leaching into the aquifers. The SkyTEM solution aligns with the councils 2017-2021 Strategic Plan requiring water to be allocated sustainably based on its highest value as well as identifying outstanding freshwater bodies and better understanding the trends and risks for each catchment. Dr Smith says the modelling will identify vulnerability to contamination from land-use activities and discharges

to groundwater “reducing the uncertainty of transport model predictions that might show areas that are sensitive to being impacted by outside sources and pathogens”. HBRC is working with stakeholders in high-risk areas to ensure efficient water use while exploring alternative sources, including managing the effects of intensive land use and irrigation and creating groundwater protection zones to prevent contamination. GNS Science will interpret the data and develop the 3D hydro-geological model. In 2020, a 3D “pathogenic transport model” will be developed so scientists can use the software for “rapid and robust upscaling and downscaling” to build and calibrate models based on shifts or changes detected. By the end of this stage the new Heretaunga groundwater flow model will be available to inform the implementation of the TANK Plan Change and by 2020-2021 the tools will be able to assess “risks of pathogenic contamination and source protection areas”. In the meantime, we’ll have to rely on existing data and science until the new model can more accurately plumb the mysteries of the deep aquifer and its groundwater properties.

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.

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BACK-UP GENERATOR POWERING THE WAY FOR WAIMARAMA Pictured: (L-R) Unison Relationship Manager, Danny Gough and Waimarama Controller for Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Civil Defence, Peter Morrell with the generator.

To bolster the resilience and boost capacity of Waimarama’s power supply, Unison Networks has introduced back-up generation capability into the community. The 680kVA diesel generator – a first on Unison’s network – provides back-up supply for up to 450 properties in the area, in the event of a planned or unplanned outage on the network. It is located adjacent to the fire station at the intersection of Waimarama and Te Apiti Roads. Unison Relationship Manager, Danny Gough says the generator allows a more resilient, adaptable and reliable power supply for the community. “The back-up generator provides an alternative power supply at critical times, such as if the network suffers damage, and adds capacity during high load demand situations.

“Added generation also allows us to be adaptable and manage routine maintenance in the area without significantly disrupting power supply for our customers,” says Mr Gough. Waimarama Controller for Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Civil Defence, Peter Morrell considers the generator a welcome addition given the unpredictable nature of the weather. “There was a major weather event a few years ago where the supply was lost, and the battery back-up failed, causing telecom services to shut down. “It was one of those storms you never forget as the community was completely cut off, the roads were damaged, power was lost, and then the phones failed. A helicopter was required to fly in replacement batteries.

“Having this back-up is going to be excellent support for keeping our community up-andrunning,” says Mr Morrell. Once the capability of the generator is realised, Unison will be looking to utilise the solution at additional sites across its network regions. “While the primary use of the generator currently is alternative supply, which is useful for planned and unplanned outages, there are other functionalities which will be built in and used over time including voltage support and peak demand management to future-proof the area for growth,” Mr Gough says.


I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N TO M B E L FO R D

It’s Bedtime! When I was a kid, I used to cringe at the nightly call from my mom – “It’s bedtime!” [Made worse by the occasional, “And take a bath!” But I digress.] “Why was it bedtime?” I silently rebelled. And perhaps in that early resistance to a voice of authority was born my lifelong determination to function on as little sleep as possible. And ever since, I have considered that anything more than six hours sleep a night was for wusses – 1am to 7am, 2am to 8am, even less, just fine, maybe with a weekend sleep-in to ‘catch up’. After all, what are we accomplishing when we’re asleep? Sleeping two more hours over an 80-year lifespan (average for Kiwi males is 79.5 years) basically wipes out nearly 7 years of ‘productive’ life. What a waste. Boy, was I wrong! Only upon sitting down to do some research for this column – intended merely as, ‘It’s summer, get some rest’ – did I discover how wrong. Now I’m a sleep zealot! Although still more in theory than practice.

Why we sleep

My research led me to the international best-selling book, Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams. Its author, Matthew Walker, is one of the world’s foremost experts on sleep, having run the sleep labs at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. It’s amazing what they put willing participants through and measure in these labs (to say nothing of the research done with other poor critters). The book draws comprehensively from every bit of sleep research out there, not just his own, underscoring the overwhelming extent of expert consensus on the matter. So, when Walker begins with the following assertions (which you might greet with some skepticism, as I did), consider that all the experts agree. “Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling

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your risk of cancer. Insufficient sleep is a key lifestyle factor determining whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. Inadequate sleep – even moderate reductions for just one week – disrupts blood sugar levels so profoundly you would be classified as pre-diabetic. Short sleeping increases the likelihood of your coronary arteries becoming blocked and brittle, setting you on a path toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and congestive heart failure … Sleep disruption further contributes to all major psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, and suicidality.”

One of the most alarming realities established by sleep research is that sleep lost cannot be regained. His book examines each of these impacts in detail. And these are merely the impacts on personal well-being. Compounding them on a societal scale becomes truly alarming, as I’ll illustrate later. Indeed, the WHO has declared a ‘sleep loss epidemic’ throughout industrialised nations.

Body clocks & biochemistry

Marvelous nature has dictated sleep for all creatures, giving each one an internal biological clock, reinforced by daylight and darkness, what we term a ‘circadian rhythm’ that our brain enforces upon our bodies. And like it or not, for humans our clock is 24 hours and fifteen minutes, with a recycle time of 16 hours; after 16 hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail in terms of cognitive performance. The cues of light and dark are processed by the suprachiasmatic nucleus in our brain, regulating everything from alertness to body temperature. The clock is enforced by a chemical flow of melatonin, beginning at dusk, telling the body ‘It’s dark, get ready to sleep’. Then,

when light returns, the brake is put on melatonin, and the body is summoned back to wakefulness. In addition, an independent process is at work. Throughout the day, a chemical called adenosine builds up hour by hour in the brain. It turns up the dial on sleep-inducing regions of the brain, creates a ‘sleep pressure’ that ultimately cannot be resisted (for most people, after 12-16 hours of being awake), not matter how much caffeine we use in the attempt. Given Walker’s valuing of sleep, he detests caffeine, which acts to block, but not remove, the adenosine. “The consumption of caffeine represents one of the longest and largest unsupervised drug studies ever conducted on the human race.” One of the most alarming realities established by sleep research is that sleep lost cannot be regained. The systemic damage done by each sleep-short night cannot be restored by ‘catching up’ subsequently. Sleep is needed to dissipate the daily build-up of the adenosine produced each day; the chemical doesn’t simply disappear, it accumulates without sleep. Thus chronic sleep-short individuals, like me, are effectively exposing themselves to chronic fatigue and a raft of nasty physical and mental side-effects. Walker warns: “…millions of individuals unwittingly spend years of their life in a sub-optimal state of psychological and physical functioning, never maximizing their potential of mind or body due to their blind persistence in sleeping too little.” Idle warning? A survey for Southern Cross Healthcare reported that 27% of Kiwis say they “feel tired or fatigued when you wake up” every day! Another 17% feel that way 3-4 times a week.

Sleep benefits

Clearly there’s a reason for this sleep business. In simplest terms, our brains must re-group, sorting and storing the day’s vast amounts of stimuli and inputs, re-calibrating and preparing


for the day ahead. Ironically perhaps, the brain keeps working; we simply lose wakefulness. In this process, not all sleep is the same. Monitoring technology shows us the brain is performing different tasks during the different stages of sleep, so the amount and quality (or not) of each type of sleep has different mental and physical effects. For example, during REM sleep (dream state), your brain actually stops sending any messages to your limbs. If it didn’t, your body might actually carry out the dramatic escapades you are dreaming about! Sleepwalking is the mildest form of things going awry in this respect. During sleep, the brain is doing things like archiving fresh learnings so they can be remembered the next day (and years later), creating ‘shelf-space’ for new ones, mollifying painful ones, fine-tuning various chemical balances (e.g. glucose and insulin) and restocking the immune system. Sleep deprivation profoundly disrupts all of this. Unfortunately, I haven’t the space here to go into all the neurochemistry involved (it’s described very accessibly in Walker’s book).

hours of sleep, the risk increases 11.5 times. In the US, sleeplessness causes a car accident every 30 seconds. Medical practice – At issue today amongst NZ’s medical staff – doctors, nurses, midwives – are continuous lengthy hours (e.g, 12-hour shifts, lasting a week or more!), threatening their own wellbeing and those they care for as the risk and reality of error increases (a risk documented globally). Hence the pressure for ‘safe staffing’ rules, which need major improvement. Yet one DHB’s response (not HBDHB) was to place posters with the admonition: “Don’t stop when you’re tired. Stop when you are done.” Education – Teenagers have an earlier circadian rhythm than adults (who rule), by as much as three hours. So, early waking, say 6:30am, for early school starts is effectively getting them up at 3:30am. In addition to crippling educational performance, Walker notes that this chronic sleep deprivation occurs at “the most susceptible phase of life for developing chronic mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and suicidality.”

Good sleep habits Social risks

Sleep deprivation isn’t just bad for the individual; it has major social implications. Here, very briefly, are just three. Driving accidents – 11% of New Zealanders report having fallen asleep at the wheel. Someone up at 7am and driving at 2am, with no alcohol, is as cognitively impaired as if they were legally drunk. Driving on less than five hours of sleep, your risk of a car crash increases threefold; with just four

There’s hope! But not from sleeping pills. Here are tips compiled from a variety of expert sources. 1. Stick to a sleep schedule (#1 on Walker’s list). Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day, as this will help train your body clock. Don’t sleep in on weekends or after a late night. 2. Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol before bedtime. 3. Avoid large meals and beverages late at night.

4. Exercise is great, but no later than 2-3 hours before bedtime. 5. Don’t take naps after 3pm, as this can reduce your sleepiness at night. 6. Relax before bed, allowing for some quiet activity such as reading or listening to music. 7. Make your bedroom dark, cool and gadget-free – less light (including alarm clock faces), lower your body temperature, no distractions. 8. Don’t stay in bed if you are awake. If you do not fall asleep within about 15 to 20 minutes (estimated time, do not use a clock), get up and do some relaxing activity until you feel sleepy. Better than lying in bed worrying and becoming anxious about not sleeping! 9. Get the right sunlight exposure. Early daylight exposure is key to setting regular sleeping patterns.

Resources: Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker, Penguin Books WellSleep, Sleep Investigation Centre, University of Otago/Wellington Ministry of Health: www.health.govt. nz/your-health/healthy-living/foodactivity-and-sleep/sleeping National Sleep Foundation: www.sleepfoundation.org and www.sleep.org (US)

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.

www.royston.co.nz

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N PAUL PAY N T E R

How to Make 2019 Better Here are five steps you can take in 2019 that will improve your life and the wellbeing of our entire community. Embrace Moderation – How about we drink less alcohol?

I heard a health guru a while back say 20% of people drink alcohol never or seldom, 60% of people drink in moderation and about 20% of people drink way too much. Apparently the 20% that are enthusiastic consumers are responsible for 75% of alcohol sales. That sounds like a really big problem. Wowsers blame the price of alcohol or the number of stores, but they have cheaper and more readily available alcohol in many parts of the world. The truth: it’s time to take responsibility and to do some growing up. Lay off the grog, eh? But if you really must ignore me, how about a craft cider?!

Eat Better – And while I’m at it, eat less and eat better.

I was on an Air New Zealand flight last week and sat next to a woman about my age. She was substantially and reassuringly fatter than me. She declined the tea and coffee service and then hauled a can of soft drink out of her ‘pig stealing bag’. When the biscuits came around she took two, or was it three. Then she went for a handful when the sweets were offered. Stop doing this to yourself and say no to sugary crap this summer. Mostly it’s served up by multinational corporations who are content to take your dollar and give you diabetes. Hawke’s Bay has super abundant produce of the highest quality. Treat yourself with raspberries or something that is actually good for you and good for our local economy. Yes, I know I need to take my own advice. I love dumplings and fear I have become one. Time to shed 5kg and plenty of you porky pies should join me.

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Click Smarter – The mainstream press are becoming clickbait tabloids.

If an online headline says something like ‘the surprising facts about Princess Eugenie’s wedding’ or ‘Epic twitter take down’ … please don’t click on it. Unfortunately, I can tell you are not resisting because there is much more of this nonsense appearing in the press. And I’m sure it’s demand driven. It’s mind numbing rubbish and needs to be rejected. Mostly the headlines are grossly exaggerated or shamefully misleading. I know this because I’ve ‘accidentally’ clicked on these things a couple of times.

Fight the Power – The pendulum has swung too far on Health and Safety and building bureaucracy.

I was standing on an industrial site a while back and the phone rang. Naturally, I answered it, only to see the painful and desperately contorted face of my host. “You can’t talk on your phone outside,” he said. “It’s a hazardous place.” No it bloody isn’t. I was standing on some tarmac that was large enough to land a light aircraft. There were no vehicles around and short of tripping over my own feet, there was not risk to my wellbeing. It might even have been safe to txt. I’m similarly frustrated every time I drive past the Hastings Opera House. We’ve missed the chance to host about 200 fantastic events since they shut the doors. I always fancied it would be a death trap in an earthquake, but personally I’m happy to take my chances now and again. I’m not suggesting we allow children’s concerts in there, except perhaps Highland dancing, but consenting adults should be allowed to take a punt. You’re about 40 times as likely to die on the roads than earthquakes, but they don’t shut down even the blackest of blackspots.

The construction sector has also lost the plot. We built a compressor shed recently and had to dig out 1.2m of earth and pour a 600mm floor. Apparently an earthquake could move the building 1.5m sideways. I don’t care. If it falls down I’ll build another one. No one actually works in there and it’s a tin shed, not a hospital. Similarly there is a house being built nearby. I have watched a bevy of rugged workmen prepare the foundations over the last two weeks. They’re hard at it every day, but to the casual observer, very little appears to have happened. They need to be careful or they’ll end up with a contract to reseal some local roads. It’s not all councils’ fauIt. The designers are now over spec’ing everything to make sure it gets ticked off. Unless you start pushing back, you can expect to be required to hermetically seal your kitchen and develop a nutrient management plan for your bonsai garden. Take every chance in 2019 to tell the bureaucrats when they’re talking bullshit. They are decent people and I honestly think they haven’t twigged. But after you drink, eat, browse better and push back more, relax and …

Be Grateful – When you draw the curtains each summer morning, put aside the mental health crisis, P addiction, housing shortages, chlorinated water and skin cancer.

Take a deep breath and know you’re so lucky to live in a peaceful place with an endless summer, abundant produce, low unemployment and to have your life enriched by the inspiring people who cross your path daily.

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


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Bonus Game

Lynda and Adam Corner. Photo: Tom Allan

Story by Jess Soutar Barron

“These things are amazing: mechanics, skill, really intricate game play.”

Pinball wizards gathered in Havelock North before Christmas for the inaugural International Flipper Pinball Association event in Hawke’s Bay,

ahead of rolling out a league in the Bay this year. Organisers Lynda and Adam Corner have been playing pinball for 30 years and are ranked among the

best in the country. “It’s challenging, but you don’t have to be good to enjoy it, you can just play it. Then again you can get really good at it!” explains Lynda, who says it used to be so popular everyone was playing, then it went underground before resurfacing recently. It hits those triggers of nostalgia, retro design and a desire for a low-fi antidote to a hightech life. “It’s had a global resurgence. Pinball’s coming back and it’s ramping up pretty quickly.” It’s a fringe sport that appeals to hardcore collectors and pop culture enthusiasts as most games lean heavily on iconography from comics and films. The machines themselves are as much of a draw card as playing the game. In the Corners’ collection there are pinball machines that reference Twilight Zone, Judge Dredd and, personal favourite The Addams’ Family. Although they are proud of their collection, they suspect there are other pinball devotees in Hawke’s Bay, and they’d love to meet them. “We know there’s more machines out there somewhere. We hear rumours!” Lynda asks any fellow fanatics of ‘flippers’, ‘plungers’ and ‘bumpers’ to get in touch at pinball.hb@gmail.com

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Preparing for La Traviata and Les MisĂŠrables Story by Jess Soutar Barron Photos by Tom Allan


While we are outside enjoying the sunshine, a whole chunk of the community is locked up in dark rooms in deep concentration. It’s over the summer months that Hawke’s Bay’s annual big musical theatre productions will be in development. Festival Opera’s La Traviata is cast and rehearsing, due to open in mid-February. Napier Operatic Society’s Les Misérables has just wrapped auditions – a long and gruelling process involving over 200 wannabe thespians – and will commence intense rehearsals through January and February ahead of a May opening. Lisa-Jane Easter is at the helm of ‘Les Miz’, a show she’s directed twice previously. She says Hawke’s Bay has a wealth of all-singing, all-dancing performers, something that was apparent right from the beginning of the process. “We have completely got an abundance of talent here but sometimes someone will audition who you haven’t seen before. There’s a rawness there,” explains Easter. “My ‘Christine’ for example, she took off her Red Bands at the door, opened her gob and sang like an angel.” Her ‘Valjean’ too showed his skill in projecting emotion during his audition. “It was so real, so beautiful, I burst into tears.” Right through the summer months Easter will run her cast of 50 through tightly disciplined rehearsals up to three times a week for long hours at the Tabard Theatre. It’s a stone’s throw from seaside Ahuriri, but a world away from sunshine and ice cream. “We can hear the beach from where we are, we can hear children playing!” laughs Easter, “This work is hard and fast, but I enjoy my confines and my boundaries.” The La Traviata chorus of 40, with a few locally-based leads, rehearse weekly – working from inch-thick scores in Italian - long before the full cast and orchestra get involved. Rehearsals are serious with everything from posture to breathing under the watchful gaze of artistic director José Aparicio. Anna Pierard who runs Festival Opera explains the process, “There’s a protocol in the rehearsal room, it’s very much about teamwork. Everyone knows when you’re not pulling your weight and you see how important it is to not let each other down.”

“We can hear the beach from where we are, we can hear children playing!” laughs Easter, “This work is hard and fast, but I enjoy my confines and my boundaries.”

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LISA-JANE EASTER

Directing

The company’s creative team includes Scottish stage director John Wilkie, who will be assisted by local Katherine Winitana. At 21 she has a degree in commercial music, is a song writer, jazz and blues singer and now opera convert. She began singing in the Festival Opera chorus and is Assistant Director for La Traviata after directing one part of the HBAF’18 show Scena. “Being a creative person, I always want to do something different,” laughs Winitana. It was during lessons with Pierard that Winitana “got the opera buzz”. “I fell in love with it,” she says. Directing though, brings a new dimension to her passion for the artform. “Directing is a different perspective. Picking out details makes you more aware, you’re working harder. I’ve got this brand-new taste for directing; it’s fresh and new and I want to experience every part of it.” Directors put in a lot of background work before rehearsals even begin. Easter goes back to the original text. She knows the production well after seeing it eight times alongside her own productions of the epic story, but she’s re-reading the Victor Hugo novel to reacquaint herself with the themes and original intentions. “Directing is very much done with your heart,” Says Easter. “The director’s job is to honour the playwright’s intentions. You have a plan of what you’d like to see.” Winitana too does much additional research. “The director needs to know not just the storyline but when it was set, what’s going on in the world, traditions. The performance is just the tip of the iceberg.” For Easter, part of the preliminary work includes getting her cast

match-fit. There’s plenty of anaerobic exercise so actors can meet both the physical and vocal demands of the production. Some lift weights or drop weight to prepare for their roles. “It’s lots of muscle memory and a lot of fitness,” says Easter. “You’ve got to be really fit to be in musical theatre, there’s no taking short cuts.” Working alongside the directing team, both La Traviata and Les Misérables have a wealth of talent in their crews. Easter is thrilled to be working alongside musical director Mark Oldershaw, calling him her “musical crush”. “It’s a beautiful creative collision,” she says. “It helps to have someone who thinks the way you do.” Winitana too is working with a highly skilled team, many flying in specifically to work on the show. She’s keen to soak up as many parts of the business as possible. “In the creative industries, the more things you can do the more valuable you are.”

Which show?

For both, decisions on which show come months before anything else. A final decision on La Traviata happened only days after 2018’s Madame Butterfly closed. Most of the recent Festival Opera works have been tragedies although “tragedy in the hands of an expert has plenty of chiarscurro,” explains Pierard. Les Misérables’ rights have been bought by a consortium of theatre companies who share costs, costumes and sets. Easter specialises in the epics and after a sell-out season of Phantom of the Opera was a perfect choice for Les Miz. This Napier Operatic production comes complete with all the kit, but usually a set would be designed and built in parallel with rehearsals. Festival Opera’s build began in December in a warehouse, the set designed by Aparicio himself. La Traviata’s stars arrive in mid-January and are here for five weeks. An opera company in sunny Hawke’s Bay

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is a desirable proposition as it’s seen as the perfect place for a working holiday. For this reason Festival Opera often “gets lucky”, booking stars that usually need many years’ lead-in time. While they’re here the international leads coach those singers based here, especially the youth development programme Project Prima Volta. “Once everyone’s in town, it’s exciting,” says Pierard. Winitana agrees: “We’ve been lucky with the leads we’ve had. They’ve slotted in, done the work, talked to us like we’re equals.” Singing opera takes particular dedication. Having skills and techniques handed down to a new generation of performers is an important part of the process. For Katherine Winitana that includes many skills beyond the actual singing: reading music, breathing correctly, positioning and posture. Winitana: “All these endorphins are released, you’re on a high. It’s those little successes that build the piece.” “You have to use your whole body to control your voice to throw it over a 52-piece orchestra,” explains Pierard. “It takes management, coordination, confidence and concentration.” “You can’t ‘be yourself’. It’s acting. You work hard in rehearsal to not be

“Directing is a different perspective. Picking out details makes you more aware, you’re working harder. I’ve got this brandnew taste for directing; it’s fresh and new and I want to experience every part of it.” KATHERINE WINITANA

yourself,” she says. Both casts will move into the Municipal Theatre two weeks before opening night (La Traviata at the beginning of Feb and Les Misérables in early May). From there, the intensity kicks up a notch, explains Easter. “In those production weeks, they are getting tired, they’ve already been going for hours and hours. My job becomes about keeping them well and keeping them focused.” Wrapped around both productions is an army of volunteers who take on every little task from feeding and watering actors to promoting the show

and selling tickets. The full theatrical package only comes together in the very last days when the orchestra arrives for the final three or four rehearsals. Among those musicians about 12 will come from Hawke’s Bay and they appreciate the opportunity to play in a ‘pit’ with singers above them, something relatively rare in the provinces. Then the hard work sees its payoff, the technical rehearsal whizzes by, as does the dress. Opening night: the curtain rises, and Hawke’s Bay’s two biggest shows of the year present the fruit of all those hours of work to their audiences.

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A LEXA NDRA TYLEE FO OD

... Enjoy

the fruit! Since I was very young, summer in Hawke’s Bay has for me been synonymous with haymaking, Christmas lilies, and an urgent fever of activity directed at the abundance of fruit and vegetables that burst forth. Whenever I see a jar that looks vaguely like it could hold jam or bottled peaches I grab it and box it away with all the other jars I plan to fill one day. I am sure you would find at least two such boxes stored away in some dark corner of any Hawke’s Bay home, ready for the moment when we all finally get the time or the inclination to fill them. Bottling fruit is in my DNA. Some of my earliest memories are of being pulled into a smocked liberty dress on the hottest day of the year for the 1-hour drive to Hastings to fill the car with beetroot, peaches, tomatoes and anything else that happened to jump into the boot. Even though they appear every year, the constant stream of summer fruit and vegetables coming into season still always fills me with amazement and delight, closely followed by a nagging need to grab the biggest preserving pan I can find and start peeling and chopping up a storm. Now, I really don’t have the time for bottling and preserving, and drowning all that beautiful fruit in tons of sugar is no longer desirable. I have never smoked cigarettes, but I can imagine just how smokers must feel when they are giving up, when I have to resist a box of second apricots which are calling out to be turned into chutney or jam. Other than preserving, there are other simpler, faster and healthier ways to prolong the fruit season; one is to simply wash the fruit and then throw it whole into the freezer. As long as you don’t leave them there for longer than 6 months they will retain their flavor and nutritional value. Every summer I enjoy reacquainting myself with the wonderful people that grew all this bounty. They were as big a part of my childhood as my doctor or most of my second cousins; the apricot lady on the way into town and the Caccioppolis for apples were just some of these people who we visited every summer. So maybe I will simply have to get over myself and just enjoy the summer fruit as much as I can while it is here, and then when winter comes, hunker down with a good red by the fire and the odd roast brussel sprout.

Blueberry and Banana Ice Cream

Serves 2 Gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, sugar-free, yummy ice cream and an especially good recipe for children to make and eat. A couple of things need to be done the day before.

250g fresh blueberries 2 teaspoons maple syrup 2 ripe bananas Preheat oven to 180⁰C. Line a large oven pan with baking paper and place the blueberries onto the paper in a single layer, sprinkling the maple syrup over the top. Now put the tray into the oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the blueberries have started to go sticky and syrupy. Put these into a bowl and into the fridge to chill overnight. Peel the bananas and slice on the diagonal, and freeze overnight. So the next day take the bananas out of the freezer and leave them on the bench to warm up for 5 minutes, then put the bananas and the blueberries into the kitchen wizz and blend them until they are smooth. You want this to happen quickly as you don’t want the bananas to warm up and go soft. If hard banana clumps form, stop the wizz and break them apart with a knife so they will blend faster. Once smooth, take the ice cream out of the food processor. It is now ready to eat, or freeze for later.

Photos: Florence Charvin

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Watermelon and Halloumi Salad

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side dish This is a great summer salad. If you want it to be vegan or dairy free just don’t add the halloumi but maybe add more avocado and dukkah.

For the dukkah (makes 1 cup)

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¼ cup hazelnuts toasted ¼ cup cashew nuts toasted 3 tablespoons sesame seeds toasted 3 tablespoons coriander seeds toasted 1 tablespoon cumin seeds toasted ½ tablespoon fennel seeds toasted ½ tablespoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon table salt pinch red chilli flakes

For the salad 1kg watermelon, cut into 1.5cm cubes without the rind 1 medium cucumber, peeled and cut into 1cm cubes 1 handful mint leaves, chopped finely pinch flakey sea salt 1 avocado ½ cup dukkah (see above) 1 tablespoon olive oil 250g halloumi (or more if you love it), sliced lengthways ½ cm thick 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil pepper to taste

To make the dukkah Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you get a coarse grind.

To make the salad Put the watermelon and cucumber into a large bowl, add the mint, pinch of salt, and mix them all together. Lay this mix onto your serving platter. Take the avocado out of its skin and cut it into even slices, dip the slices into the dukkah and turn over until they are covered, then lay the avocado on top of the watermelon mix. Heat a frying pan to high heat and add a glug of olive oil. Dip the halloumi slices into the dukkah, coating them evenly, then place them into the hot pan. When the halloumi is brown turn it over and brown the other side, sprinkling over more dukkah for good measure. Place the melted halloumi on top of the salad, and sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Finish with a good grind of black pepper.


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Ice cream and a Hawke’s Bay summer go hand in sticky hand. Wherever a leisurely day might take you, you’ll never be far from a frozen treat. Story by Jess Soutar Barron. Photos by Florence Charvin.

Frozen


Assets


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Flavourites: We asked our local ice cream makers for their favourite flavours.

Caroline from Lick This: Coffee Walnut

Steve from Lick This: Peanut Butter

Emiko from Gelato 2U: Matcha

Nori from Gelato 2U: Lemon, Lime and Bitters

Vaughan from Rush Munro’s: Dark Chocolate Orange


Ice cream being made at Lick This on Marine Parade

Delicious and decadent, ice cream has a rich story to tell about Hawke’s Bay.

With Hawke’s Bay the ultimate summer holiday destination, providing the perfect scoop-in-acone is an essential community service.

From fresh fruit used in street-stall fro-yo, to the development of New Zealand’s oldest ice creamery, to the handmade artisans who make up an essential part of the Bay brand, in ice cream there’s a narrative that illustrates perfectly Hawke’s Bay’s position as premium food producer. At almost every fruit stall from Berry Tasty in Bayview to Havelock’s Strawberry Patch there’s a squeeze machine that pumps out frozen yoghurt (or plain ice-cream) laced with fruit. In our fruit-heavy months the excess gets frozen down and kept to be pushed into cones and sold on to customers. Buying fresh strawberries is now intrinsically linked with buying ice cream this way. Fruit stalls have found a way to sell us extra product, some of it out of season.

That innovative approach to making full use of our assets is a microcosm of what’s happening in all parts of the ice cream sector in the Bay. New Zealand’s oldest ice creamery, Rush Munro’s, opened here in the 1920s. Its famous ‘ice-cream garden’ is still bustling after 90 years in Hastings. Recent rebranding has embraced the heirloom styling of the garden, referencing the roses and trellis that are now iconic. But those working on the inside of Rush Munro’s have their eyes on the future as much as on the past. Vaughan Currie is the general manager brought on by owner John Bostock to steer the company into the 21st century. Fitting for anything hanging under Brand Bostock, Rush Munro’s is slowly going organic with six flavours recently

released. It seems a simple thing. Rush Munro’s was predominantly organic ‘back in the day’, but supply chains and producers have changed and delivering organic ice cream is far from easy. For one flavour alone eight organic producers contribute product, everything from orange peel to chocolate. “The challenge is we need to source ingredients, then source them again and again,” says Vaughan. There are holes too in the organic supply chain; some work happens onsite to ensure a flavour can be delivered as ‘organic’. For example, there are no organic almonds sold in New Zealand as slivers or pieces, only whole, so the almonds found in the scorched almond ice cream are all chopped at the Rush Munro’s factory in Hastings. “With the ginger kisses,” Vaughan explains. “We

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Left to right: Molly and Vaughan in the Rush Munros’s ice cream garden, Caroline and Steve from Lick This and Nori and Emi from Gelato 2U.

have to smash them ourselves”. Coffee is brewed onsite too, for the mochaccino variety. For a big brand that’s available nationwide Rush Munro’s is still very much hand-crafted with some Number 8 ingenuity needed to stay true to the organic vision. By not skimping on that, Rush Munro’s is one of the offerings spearheading the evolution of the organics market in New Zealand. To mature an industry, diversification is needed. “Organics can’t just be confined, it needs to move up the supply chain and provide more food groups so it’s more available to people,” Vaughan says. “To be a greater influence sustainably and environmentally it needs to cover more (segments of the market),” says Vaughan. “We’re seeing that overseas because the market is larger; in New Zealand we are getting there.” To the extent consumers want organic, brands like Rush Munro’s want to meet that need, but there’s a whole range of smaller producers – who in the past have only provided finished products – whose own businesses will grow as the entire industry gets more sophisticated. With Hawke’s Bay the ultimate summer holiday destination, providing the perfect scoop-in-a-cone is an essential community service. The two ice cream parlours that bracket Marine Parade are

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postcard-perfect examples of the type: Lick This at one end and Cool Chick beyond the port at East Pier. The latter screams childhood and caters to every demand, from banana splits to donut sundaes, in a kaleidoscope of flavours, toppings, sprinkles and cones. Dominated by mass market brands, it’s the chance to eat ice cream on the beach or on the swings that pulls the crowds. It seems kids care less about flavour and more about location when it comes to ice cream. For the real frozen treat gourmand Lick This has the other beaten. Owned and operated by the same family for 12 years, all their product is made onsite, although they do hold nostalgic freezer space for some Rush Munro’s flavours. Caroline and Steve Manning are a prime example of a Hawke’s Bay couple doing it for themselves, opting out of the regular 9-5 model of ‘working for the man’ and putting their purse where their passion is. “Ice cream is a great product because it appeals to everyone – little kids right through to the elderly, men and women – it’s a happy purchase,” says Steve. “You don’t have to convince people, you don’t have to ‘sell’ it to them.” Steve gave up his ‘real job’ to concentrate on Lick This, learning the gelato-making trade, adapting it to the Kiwi palate and slicing out their own piece of the Hawke’s Bay dream, walking distance from the beach. As well as being one of Hawke’s Bay’s best

“Organics can’t just be confined, it needs to move up the supply chain and provide more food groups so it’s more available to people.” VAUGHAN CURRIE, RUSH MUNRO’S

gelatai Steve is also a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Amid his collection of 500 antique ice cream scoops he shares stories from the ice cream world from the history of the ‘penny-lick’ to the fat-to-fruit ratio that makes the perfect scoop. Out the back the three vital stages of gelato production are under construction: a carefully crafted, handmade custard, matured overnight; custard and flavours batch churned together on a slow freeze cycle; additional accoutrements added by hand. ‘Flavour’ may mean seven bananas or a kilo of berries; additions include chocolate chips, cookie bits or hokey-pokey (Steve is very fussy about the size of his chunks, “You have to be able to actually see the pieces”.) This DIY delivery of gelato, but on a large scale – Lick This rolls 300,000


scoops a year – is very Hawke’s Bay, particularly as it incorporates only locally-grown ingredients. To support it Steve finds new markets for his product, alongside the busy parlour, and new flavours to entice and excite the customer base. Bacon, maple and banana was a flight of fancy that stuck; Avocado though was one step too far and after a limited run was taken off the blackboard, never to return. Seasonal fruit is an important part of the process with the more unusual flavours such as rhubard sitting alongside the regulars like feijoa. A short walk towards town another gelateria gives Hawke’s Bay a hint of a future with more immigrants joining the community. Nori and Emiko Ninomiya have been running Gelato 2U for about a year with Emiko at the helm and Nori, a winemaker by trade,

Their matcha tea gelato is very popular, miso is in the experimental stages, but the pick is damson plum made with local fruit but distinctly reminiscent of ume, the Japanese preserved bitter plum.

Smarter Thinking Online.

lending support. Their tiny shop is a flavour bomb with 16 tubs on offer, many dairy- and gluten-free. Choices change frequently. “Flavour is a never-ending story,” laughs Nori. “We always have more coming and we vary it day-by-day,

week-by-week.” The customer-base, even in the busy summer season, is over half locals, with many making the trek over from Hastings specifically for a scoop of their favourite. Most exciting to see are the careful first steps towards bringing a Japanese-Italian flavour fusion to Hawke’s Bay. Their matcha tea gelato is very popular, miso is in the experimental stages, but the pick is damson plum made with local fruit but distinctly reminiscent of ume, the Japanese preserved bitter plum. Hawke’s Bay’s culture of artisan producers, its commitment to the best local ingredients, its organic and premium produce aspirations, and its love of fresh fruit can all be seen through ice cream tinted lenses. Out and about this summer savour the flavour, but also celebrate this prime example of Hawke’s Bay at its best.

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

Books for Summer The Girl on the Page – John Purcell Yep, another girl in the title, but I can guarantee you’ve never met a girl like Amy before. She’s a mass market book editor tasked with pulling a blockbuster from Helen, a reluctant literary author. Amy’s chapters are crude and pornographic whilst Helen’s are beautifully crafted, reflective of her own writing and that of her prize-winning husband, Malcolm. As the worlds collide, so does the writing. It’s a funny, heartbreaking conundrum of a novel that seeks to address what the heck ‘literature’ might be, a madcap mashup of bonkbuster and literary novel. So clever.

PAM BENNETT, POPPIES BOOKSTORE

LOUISE WARD, WARDINI BOOKS Bridge of Clay – Markus Zusak The author of The Book Thief has created a massive, bizarre, beautiful story of life, death and love in which five brothers scrap, support, struggle and swear themselves to adulthood with it falling to the fourth brother, Clay, to save them all. Zusak’s manipulation of language to control plot and the reader’s emotions is strikingly compelling. Read it once, have a cup of tea and a cry, and read it again.

92 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

The Lost Man – Jane Harper Nine Perfect Strangers – Liane Moriarty Nine people go on a health retreat that promises to transform them. They are all desperate, stricken, relatable characters; people we know, have met, or might actually be. This is a fabulous dissection of personality in which each character discovers a life-changing truth, but not in a cheesy, surface kind of way. It’s the clever, dramatic plotting that leads them to self-discovery as Tranquillum House turns out to be not quite your usual retreat. It’s a cracker of a read with a deft, light touch, full of humour, darkness and light. Just like life.

This book absolutely blew me away. I loved her first book, The Dry, but this one, her third, kept me totally riveted from the beginning to the end, a real page-turner. Set in the searing heat of a vast cattle station in outback Queensland, Jane weaves an engrossing story about family and secrets, and the violence and suffering that can echo through generations. The vastness of the landscape, the all-encompassing heat and the hard men that manage and tame the environment are brilliantly described … and it’s also a complex and utterly enthralling mystery.


The Moon Sister – Lucinda Riley The next instalment in the intriguing and addictive ‘Seven Sisters’ series, each featuring one of the six adopted daughters of ‘Pa Salt’. Lucinda Riley takes us on a fascinating ride yet again and provides a romantic theme too. Tiggy D’Apliese takes a job on an isolated Scottish estate caring for animals, her passion. When she decides to find out about her family

history, the story moves on to Spain, South America and then New York. Tiggy will have to choose between family and a return to Scotland. Readers will wait with bated breath for the next instalment.

The Reckoning – John Grisham John Grisham’s gripping new novel wades into Mississippi’s racist past. Pete Banning was a returning war hero,

a farmer who on one cool October morning in 1946 rose early, drove into town, walked into the church and calmly shot and killed the Reverend Dexter Bell. Banning’s only statement about the crime was to say, “I have nothing to say”. And so the murder of the esteemed Reverend Bell became the most mysterious and unforgettable crimes Ford County had ever known.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 93


a $50 dining voucher to either Black Barn, Clearview Estate or Mr D

Summer Reading Quiz Since you have heaps of leisure time to read this summer edition, we think there’s little excuse for not carefully exploring every nook and cranny of the magazine. And this quiz will test your diligence. If you care to send us your answers, we’ll throw the perfect scores in a draw and award one winner a $50 dining voucher to either Black Barn, Clearview Estate or Mister D. Just list your responses #1 to #20 in an email to editors@baybuzz.co.nz (or note to BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North). Must enter by 28 February.

1. Which carnival kicks off in Napier in January? 2. Who is New Zealand’s longest place name named for? 3. What is Hawke’s Bay’s highest peak? 4. Which magazine coined the term “blue zone”? 5. What is Te Kapehu? 6. How many guest nights will friends and rellies spend with us this year? 7. How much organic compost does BioRich turn over every year? 8. In which year was Oruawharo Homestead built? 9. Who is Vaughan Currie? 10. What kind of museum does Ian Hope run? 11. Which winery is at the boundary between Haumoana and Te Awanga? 12. Who is playing at Mary Kippenberger’s place on 10 February this year? 13. What does Mohaka translate as? 14. How many scoops of ice cream are rolled at Lick This every year? 15. What are the Bostock Brothers’ first names? 16. Which country experienced a devastating tsunami in 2010? 17. When does La Traviata open? 18. Which herb is added to Alexandra Tylee’s Watermelon and Halloumi Salad? 19. Who wrote Nine Perfect Strangers? 20. How many advertisments are in this edition? (No groaning … they’re our lifeblood)

Puzzle answers Down: 1 Waimarama, 4 Art Deco festival, 5 Vineyards, 8 Strawberries, 10 Rush Munro, 11 Swimming, 12 Tourists, 14 Peaches, 16 Sun.

Down: 1 Samoa, 2 Misused, 3 Electrode, 5 Beach, 6 Capable, 7 Sunscreen, 10 Sea nymphs, 13 Reckoning, 15 Mark Twain, 17 Cossack, 19 Dukedom, 21 Purer, 22 Wales. Across: 1 Summer, 4 Abacus, 8 Smashed, 9 Camping, 11 False teeth, 12 Bach, 13 Radio, 14 Numbered, 16 Ice cream, 18 Radon, 20 Togs, 21 Pohutukawa, 23 Bizarre, 24 Jandals, 25 Go-kart, 26 Gnomes.

Across: 2 Black Barn, 3 Ocean spa, 6 Cricket, 7 Holidays, 9 Barbecues, 12 The Mission, 13 Cruise ships, 15 Cherries, 16 Splash planet, 17 Marine parade.

Quick crossword

Cryptic crossword


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Set by Bomber Across

Set by Bomber

2 Venue for outdoor movies. Coal shed? (5,4)

3 Hot water attraction melts canoe sap (5,3) Across A gamefor insect (7) 2 6 Venue outdoor movies. Coal shed? (5,4) 3 7 Hot water attraction melts canoe A shy idol organised time off work (8) sap (5,3) 6 9 ADolly game insect lines up, we(7) hear, for charcoal burners? (9) 7 12 AThorium shy idol organised time off work (8) radiation where Phil will play? (3,7) 9 Dolly lines up, we hear, for charcoal burners? (9) 13 Takes it easy with joints at the port? (6,5) 12 Thorium radiation where Phil will play? (3,7) 15 Takes Broadcast her cries pipfruit 13 it easy withfor joints at (8) the port? (6,5) 16 Broadcast New app tells Nash where go for water 15 her cries forto pipfruit (8) fun in Hastings (6,6) 17 New Marchapp behind Napier seafront (6,6)fun in Hastings (6,6) 16 tellssoldier Nashalong where to go for water 17 March behind soldier along Napier seafront (6,6)

Down 1 Target a male sheep in Western Australia, where there’s an annual beach day! (9) 4 I loved artefacts distributed for a fun week in February (3,4,8) 5 Six northeast facing quadrangles where grapes grow (9) 8 Brits err, as we ferment soft-fruit (12) 10 Hurry! No rum spilt for ice-cream maker (4,5) 11 Two thousand and one in playground item that is moving through water (8) 12 Visitors to USSR? It collapsed! (8) 14 A speech rotted stone-fruit (7) 16 A star in his undies (3) Answers on page 94

Set by Bomber Across Across 1 1 Season (6) Season (6) 4 4 Counting device(6) (6) Counting device 8 Destroyed or drunk (7) 8 Destroyed or drunk (7) 9 Sleeping in tents (7) Sleeping in(5,5) tents (7) 11 9 Dentures 11 Holiday Dentureshome (5,5) (4) 12 13 device 12 Listening Holiday home (4) (5) 14 Totalled (8) 13 Listening device (5) 16 Frozen treat (3,5) 14 Radioactive Totalled (8) gas (5) 18 16 Swimwear Frozen treat(4) (3,5) 20 21 Zealand's Christmas tree (10) 18 New Radioactive gas (5) 23 (7) 20 Strange Swimwear (4) 24 Summer footwear (7) 21 New Zealand's Christmas tree (10) 25 Soap Box racer (2-4) 23 Garden Strange (7) 26 ornaments (6) 24 Summer footwear (7) Down 25 Soap Box racer (2-4) 1 Pacific nation (5) Garden ornaments 2 26 Treated badly (7)(6) 3 Electrical conductor (9) 5 Sandy shore (5) 6 Competent (7) 7 Lotion (9) 10 Female sea deities (3,6) 13 Calculating (9) 15 Author of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (4,5) 17 Member of Russian ethnic group (7) 19 Royal rank (7) 21 Less diluted (5) 22 Principality in Great Britain (5)

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 95


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

Dancing Lessons Photo: Katie CJ Priestley

It’s 9.30 am and sweltering. I’m just back from the garden where I’ve been chatting to plants and ponies alike. No one can hear me, it’s probably best that way. Later the mokopuna will join me for pea picking, potato digging and egg hunting. Yesterday I found a hidden nest with 63 eggs. Our chooks, happy but sneaky. Very sneaky. The house is quiet. Peter gigged last night at the wondrous Common Room and slumbers still. I could do housework, but there’s time enough for drudge when the day is done. I’ll write instead. Last week we were the entertainers for the Taradale RSA Concert Party Golden Jubilee celebrations. Arriving early, we waited outside our dining room destination. The next door function room was in full swing. Nose pressed to the window I watched old and young as they rocked and rolled. The one-man piano machine took a break and the next one-man band took his place. With ease he roused the room to rise and join together for a bit of line dancing. Unexpectedly my old hips did an involuntary wriggle and my thumbs itched towards my belt. I dismissed the very thought – sharpish thank you very much – but not before my mind had time to take a lightening visit down memory lane. It was Pete’s mum’s 80th birthday. For reasons only known to herself she wanted us to teach her and her friends line dancing. Inwardly we snorted, outwardly we beamed, congratulated Cecily on such a splendid idea and thanked her so much for choosing us. We tracked down the glorious Gloria Mason and she patiently taught us the

96 • BAYBUZZ • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

moves. The party went well and everything fringed and fabulous was quickly relegated to the closet’s darkest corner. Some months later Peter was asked to conduct a small exclusive wedding, 40 guests at most. Feeling shy and out of place I had a gin and tonic. I don’t drink. Inexplicitly I had another and another until four had slipped into my unsuspecting mind. At this point I was smiling at everyone and possibly everything.

The room was full, the RSA community, young, old, single or coupled, all walks of life included, everyone together on the dance floor, laughing, having fun, loneliness and isolation banned.

On to the empty dance floor came a one-man band with all the bells and whistles. He smiled at the quiet group and broke out into ‘Achy Breaky Heart’. I found myself rising and floating alone on to the empty dance floor. With thumbs in my belt and a swing in my step, off I went. Side one, behind two, side three, touch four, one, two, three, hitch, five, six, seven, touch. Look at me go. Still all by myself. Peter forgot to join me. What a sight we could have made, the vicar and his wife. Right chasse, left chasse, heel together, side split, six, seven, eight, kick. On and on and on, just me, all by myself. I think I may well have been quite entertaining that night,

but not perhaps in the way I imagined! Back to the present. As I watched I found that I was smiling, I hadn’t stopped smiling for twenty minutes. The room was full, the RSA community, young, old, single or coupled, all walks of life included, everyone together on the dance floor, laughing, having fun, loneliness and isolation banned. It seemed I needed to learn yet another lesson. I climbed down from my lofty high horse. Nose still pressed to the window, everyone who had pushed through the swing doors invited me to join in and maybe I just might have. Maybe I just might have pushed through shyness and two left feet. Maybe, despite being old and round I just might have joined in and had fun. We were about to meet the wonderful concert party, so I’ll never know. But, in my bag of prejudices and snobbery, it was time to let this one go. What’s next? Maybe it’s time for a little gnome in the garden. Just one and quite small. Lessons take time. I hope your summer is going well. We are wall-to-wall storytelling, concerts and music festivals. One of the things I have loved about reading BayBuzz is realising the extraordinary innovation, people and places we have in Hawke’s Bay. Once I retire my mouth I look forward to hanging out here, but until then we’ll be loading up the bus and travelling on to destinations afar. You might notice in the gig guide that the Frank Burkitt Band is coming to our place on the 10th of February at 5pm. Come and play at our house. We’d love that.


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

This book is a treasure … I love the photographs, both old and new … all my expectations were exceeded. Tim Turvey, Clearview Estate Winery

An engaging read that I heartily recommend for the depth and character it adds to the Hawke’s Bay wine experience. Alwyn Corban, Ngatarawa Wines

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

Special summer offer $59 • Free shipping in NZ • Order your copy now at winestorieshb.co.nz


READY FOR SUMMER

There are plenty of reasons to warm to a sun-drenched sale. There are so many elements to a classic Kiwi summer: beaches, baches, barbecues and... buying and selling houses. For just as the shrill cicadas hit their peak in February and March, so does the real estate market. Encouraged by the glorious weather, sellers and buyers emerge refreshed and revitalised from their Christmas breaks, ready to make the sale rooms sizzle. If your New Year’s resolution is to make a move, contact the sales professionals at Bayleys. Their years of experience selling homes will ensure you enjoy a very happy and prosperous 2019.

0800 BAYLEYS | bayleys.co.nz EASTERN REALTY LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

A LT O G E T H E R B E T T E R

Re s i d e n t i a l / Co m m e rc i a l / R u ra l / P ro p e r t y S e r v i ce s


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