BB#47-May-Jun-2019 by BayBuzz

N 47 • MAY / JUNE 2019 • HAWKE’S BAY UP CLOSE, IN DEPTH

Saving Our Fishery

Inside: BayBuzz event guide

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May/Jun

Women want to lead Can we become a hi-tech region? Healthy diet for you and the planet A new breed of farming Digitising HB history Let’s burn more wood

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47 BayBuzz May/June 2019 Saving Hawke’s Bay’s fisheries. Alex Walker, Sandra Hazlehurst, and Kirsten Wise want to lead. Farming for profitability and sustainability. Fostering technology innovation in HB. Producing energy from biomass. Healthy diet for the planet. More plugs for EVs. The Knowledge Bank. Turley on urban trees. Paynter on censorship. Graham on Port investment. Nash on gun control. Travers on EIT future. Trubridge on climate inaction. Tylee offers comfort food. Kippenberger says “It’s only love”. Cover Photo: Tom Allan. Above: Cycleway from Waitangi to Puketapu. Photo: Florence Charvin

Bee in the Know 8 Ian Macdonald

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

12 Events / Lizzie Russell 88. Exploring Hawke’s Bay. Photo: Florence Charvin

Features 22 Saving Hawke’s Bay Fisheries / Bridget Freeman-Rock Will new players, policies and fishing practices turn the tide?

32 Scaling Tech Growth Hurdles / Keith Newman What our region must do to become a technology leader.

52 Women Want To Lead / Sophie Price Profiling Alex Walker, Sandra Hazlehurst, Kirsten Wise.

58 Touch Wood: Reusing Our Residues / Keith Newman Converting wood waste to energy, like Christchurch Hospital.

42 Future Farming In Hawke’s Bay / Tom Belford The seeds are being planted for farming that suits our environment.

48 Charging Your Electric Vehicle Where HB early adopters can plug in.

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84. Digitising Hawke’s Bay History

Ideas & Opinions 64 Eating To Save Yourself … And The Planet / Tom Belford The right diet for our personal health and warming planet.

What Can We Do? / David Trubridge Rejecting the business/financial powers behind global warming.

68 The Value Of Urban Trees - II / Pat Turley The social and health value of trees.

72 Our EIT/ Geraldine Travers EIT thrives because we understand and respond to local needs.

92. Comfort Food. Photo: Florence Charvin

74 Addressing Gun Control / Stuart Nash Tighter control needed … and quickly enacted.

84 Digitising Hawke’s Bay History / Kay Bazzard

Confront The Poison, Don’t Censor / Paul Paynter Threatening ideas need to be understood and challenged, not buried.

On the Napier Port / Rex Graham Why a minority IPO of Napier Port strikes the right balance for HB.

78 Super Weather Sensors / Matt Miller Weather-predicting technology of local firm Metris is award-winning.

Culture & Lifestyle

80 Time To Demand Answers / Andrew Frame Key issues for Napier voters this election year.

88 Exploring HB: Waitangi To Puketapu / Bridget Freeman-Rock

92 Comfort Food / Alexandra Tylee

96 It’s Only Love / Mary Kippenberger

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Featured Contributor

Articles online at: baybuzz.co.nz Keith Newman The massive technological shifts and changes we’re currently facing may only be properly understood by the historians of the future. The latest wave of tech-driven transformation is impacting everything. We need less bureaucracy, more creative, connected-up thinking, open conversations (wanangastyle) and better story tellers to help the region re-imagine its future. Can we be a hitech haven, should we be pioneering more sustainable energy and environmental solutions; wood power, plastic processing? I love talking to experts, influencers and thought leaders about how we can be better prepared to invest in the future so it doesn’t take us by surprise.

Editorial enquiries editors@baybuzz.co.nz Advertising enquiries Mel Blackmore mel@baybuzz.co.nz 021 911 098 Reach BayBuzz by mail BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

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

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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Photo: Florence Charvin

BayBuzz Regulars 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.

Bridget Freeman-Rock Bridget is a free-range, ecofriendly, fair-trade teutonophile who researches global environmental policy for fun. She’s a poet, writer, copyeditor, currently working on a book, and in her spare time co-coordinator of thehook.nz.

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

Andrew Frame Andrew Frame is a 41-year-old husband, father, and life-long Napier resident. He writes the www.napierinframe.co.nz website and promotes all things Hawke's Bay on social media.

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

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

Amplifying the

Finest

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

March 15. What a difference a day makes. Most tragically, to fifty fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, grandparents, children, friends and colleagues. And to their families and friends. To a frightened city. To Muslims across New Zealand. To our national psyche. To global perceptions of New Zealand. To the survivors, it was a day that spurred personal grief, anger, disbelief, revulsion, compassion, reflection and prayer. And an outstanding collective national outpouring of sympathy and moral support. As well as important Government steps taken within days to prevent similar gun violence, and a serious inquiry into how Facebook and other social media can be held responsible and accountable for transmitting murder. But for all us survivors, did it really mark an ‘end of innocence’? Do we rightfully claim to ourselves and the world, ‘This is not us, not New Zealand’? Of course, this deranged killer is not New Zealand. But looking at the bigger picture, neither are we innocent. We should ask … Are we individually and as nation more committed to the easy symbols of unity – a dual-language anthem, the occasional haka or karakia, ethnic festival days – than to the far more difficult eradication of deeply-rooted prejudices? For a country that doesn’t even register or count ‘hate’ crimes, perhaps we should at least re-commit to elementary civility and tolerance. More demanding things like respecting that Treaty of Waitangi claims represent legitimate redress of past injustices. Are we individually and as a nation

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committed to closing – as opposed to widening – a stunning gap in economic well-being between the most welloff New Zealanders and the roughly 700,000 living in debilitating poverty? The top 10% of NZ households receive 25% of the total population’s income and hold 53% of the wealth. About 15% of New Zealanders live in poverty … 200,000 NZ children are deemed to live in unhealthy poverty, a situation that in many cases will violate their well-being for their entire lifetime. Are we individually and as a nation committed to eliminating our atrocious levels of domestic violence? Taking just this last issue … We are so far outside the international ‘norms’ with respect to domestic violence that we must seriously question our national mental health. We boast of our dearth of gun-related homicides (8 in 2015), yet 47% of all homicide deaths in New Zealand are family related. We seem blissfully uncaring (or more charitably, unaware) that one in three NZ women experience physical and/or sexual abuse from a partner in their lifetime. New Zealand suffers about 120,000 incidents of reported domestic violence each year. That’s 329 each day. Responding to family violence accounts for 41% of a frontline police officer’s time, yet it’s estimated that three-fourths of interpersonal offences by a family member are not reported to Police. Here in Hawke’s Bay, female rates of hospital stays for assault are increasing. Not tragic deaths as in Christchurch, but individual acts of violence that will have life-altering effects for those victims. And, in fact, in the four years from 2009 to 2012, an average of 32 people were indeed killed each year

as a result of family violence … deaths just not on the same day and not at the hands of a terrorist. If domestic violence were a disease, like the measles, New Zealand would be declared to be in a pandemic state. We’d have to seal our borders. Bring in the World Health Organisation. And human decency and morality aside, what would that do to our international image? Would John Oliver’s treatment of New Zealand, the country he “most likes to make fun of”, be so charming? Perhaps he’d note that although we beat our women and kids, we do slaughter our lambs humanely. And Stephen Colbert’s next interview with Jacinda Ardern might not be so admiring. So, will the events of March 15 increase our resolve to deal more earnestly and honestly with any of these fundamental issues that belie our ‘innocence’ and do in fact constitute an important element of ‘who we are’? Will we really come to terms with violence? I submit that an appropriate measure of whether we have been moved beyond hand-wringing will be found in our future domestic violence statistics. They will tell us who – and how innocent – we are.

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.

Photo: Florence Charvin

BEE I N T H E K N OW

Photo: Florence Charvin

Ian Macdonald Ian Macdonald is a superb, confidenceinspiring public servant. However, the less you see or know of Ian, the better! If he is in the news or shows up in the wee hours in your vicinity, most likely that’s because, unfortunately, natural disaster is at hand. Do what he (and his team) says … quickly. He’s the boss.

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Because Ian, since 2011, is the group manager for Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM). A shared service of all HB local authorities, emergency services and other organisations, CDEM is tasked with preparing for and managing civil defence emergencies. Top threats on CDEM’s risk list – earthquake, tsunami, volcanic ash, human pandemic, flooding/major

storm event, biosecurity, urban fire (multiple), rural fire, and hazardous substances event. Ian is a New Zealand Army reserve officer and is a qualified regional planner. Prior to his CDEM role, he was an environmental and strategic projects manager at Hastings District Council. Want to know more: www.hbemergency.govt.nz/ hazards/hazards-in-hawkes-bay.

Struggling to keep focus on climate change amidst the multitude of frightening headlines and startling reports? Here’s something to offer perspective. About halfway between the mainland of Norway and the North Pole sits the Svalbard archipelago, home to one of the northernmost human settlements on Earth, Longyearbyren. The town is a hub for Arctic explorers and scientists and home to the Global Seed Vault, which was started ten years ago. The seed ark, popularly known as the ‘Doomsday Vault’, is embedded deep in the permafrost and stores nearly a million seed samples from around the world for safekeeping in the event of war, famine, disease and climate change. The seeds are stored at minus-18 degress Celsius, with an ultimate capacity to hold up to 4.5 million crop varieties. The vault holds material transferred over the last three years from AgResearch’s Margot Forde Germplasm Centre (MFGC) in Palmerston North. Deposits from the MFGC to the Svalbard vault

will continue on an annual basis to build up a diverse collection of plant species of interest to New Zealand agriculture. A new report has shown that while it’s supposed to be indestructible, the frigid Norwegian landscape – serving as a natural coolant for the genetic material it protects – is being profoundly affected by climate change. Recent years have seen permafrost in the area begin to melt, avalanches to strike and at one point in 2017, water to collect and freeze at the beginning of the tunnel to the vault. The report on climate change in the Svalbard archipelago by the Norwegian Center for Climate Services states that “from 1971 to 2017, a warming of 3-5 degrees Celsius has been observed … with the largest increase in winter and the smallest in summer.” Svalbard’s glaciers are “losing more ice through melting and calving than they are accumulating through

snowfall,” according to the report. “All of the well-observed glaciers are shrinking.” The warming of the surrounding ocean “has halted sea ice from forming”. The report projects changes from a period of 1971-2000 until 20712100 based on various scenarios for global warming. “Under medium to high scenarios for future climate emissions,” the annual air temperature will increase by approximately 10 degrees Celsius under high emissions and 7 degrees Celsius under medium emissions, scientists found. That temperature increase will lead to drastic changes for the region, according to the report – heavy and more frequent rainfall, more avalanches and mudslides, a shorter snow season, the melting of nearsurface, coastal and low-altitude permafrost. While those responsible for the Seed Vault say it is not in immediate danger, the situation is now being more closely watched. In the worst case scenarios that have been modelled, humanity might not survive, but the seeds would! The Norwegian government continues to invest heavily in the Seed Vault, adding extra funding for the concrete access tunnel and a service building for emergency power and refrigeration units and other electrical equipment in the last year.

The Doomsday Vault

Did You Know?

As a small country, New Zealand’s emissions make up only 0.2% of the world’s total GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, but per person we’re up there. Our gross emissions per capita are fifth highest among developed countries.

The Hawke’s Bay Bird and Wildlife Rescue now has a sweet new ride! A generous local animal lover has gifted the charitable trust a brand-new Peugeot Partner van, fully kitted out and operational. You may see it on the roads while the team head out on their rescue missions.

Bostock New Zealand and Mr Apple have teamed up to exclusively grow and market the Posy Apple – New Zealand’s sweetest apple – into Asian markets. This is in response to demand for higher colour, sweeter apples which come on earlier than other varieties, in this case, harvested in early February.

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After the success in Gisborne in March of Spirited Women – All Women’s Adventure Race, the event will be hosted in Central Hawke’s Bay in 2020. Check Facebook for the details and start working on your team.

The New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards 2019 saw Hohepa cheeses awarded five medals. Golds for the Dambo and Fenugreek, silvers for the Blue and Herb Garlic, and a bronze medal for the Vintage.

Working on your family history? Volunteers from the Hawke’s Bay Branch of the NZ Society of Genealogists Inc. are onsite at the Hastings Library to help with family history queries on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 5pm.

Neuroscientists have only recently discovered ancient nerve receptors in our skin called C-tactile afferants. These emerged early in our evolutionary history – long before language, and even before the receptors that tell us to move our hand away from pain – a sign that they’re vital for the protection of life and health. These nerve fibres lie within our hairy skin, concentrated in our back, trunk, scalp, face and forearms, and respond to slow and light stroking, producing pleasure which is not sexual, but the kind of feeling brought about by the touch between a mother and baby, what neuroscientists call ‘social touch’. It’s believed that we need C-tactile stimulation from birth for the social brain to develop.

It’s not just you – beer has become BIG business in the last few years. NZ’s brewing industry is now worth $2.3 billion. It contributed $331m in GST and $315m in excise tax to the tax barrel in the year to March 2018. With 4.6 breweries for every 100,000 people in the country, NZ now has more breweries per capita than any other country (UK has 3 for every 100,000 and Australia has 2). And we drink it ourselves – only 10% of beer produced in NZ is exported, compared to 70% of our wine.

On the Hawke’s Bay coast westerly winds are associated with vibrant fisheries and fishing, whereas northerly and north-east winds are not. This is probably due to the upwelling that occurs with a strong westerly (traditionally seen in spring), resulting in increased nutrients (such as plankton and krill) and productivity. Wind data from Hawke’s Bay show that since 2000 spring wind runs have not averaged over 250km/h as tended to occur in the 1980s and 1990s, with the oceanographic climate tending towards La Nina conditions and easterlies since the turn of the century.

This year Matariki rises on June 25 – 28. Which reminds us - have you visited the Atea a Rangi Star Compass (Celestial Compass) at Waitangi Regional Park? By the sea off SH2 at Awatoto.

A recent HBRC dive survey of the Ahuriri Inner Harbour has given an ‘all clear’ on marine pests that we don’t want to see in Hawke’s Bay coastal waters – Mediterranean fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii) and Clubbed tunicate (Styela clava). Both pests form colonies competing with native species for food and space. Their impact on native species and habitats means they pose a significant risk to our underwater reefs, and to fishing and shellfish harvesting.

While we celebrate Queen’s Birthday on the first Monday in June (also the official start of the NZ ski season), it’s not even observed as a public holiday in the UK.

Clive came close to becoming the provincial centre of Hawke’s Bay in the early days of European settlement. It controlled the river route into ‘the interior’ (Waipawa and Waipukurau), and it also had water access to Ahuriri along the Waitangi Creek and the inland lagoon (now reclaimed land). Before any roads were formed, there was a boat service operating between Clive and Napier at Pandora Point.

Currently, electric vehicles can be re-charged at 27 locations throughout Hawke’s Bay. And with other stations along major highways, you can now drive an EV to Taupo and Wellington without worrying about the ‘empty guage’. See our EV map on page 48.

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May 25: Aron Ottignon & Myele Manzanza at Hastings Community Art Centre. Photo: Michael Hobbs

BayBuzz Event Guide

May 11 Saturday Night Session with Model A at the Urban Winery Kick up your heels with this live, classic rock 'n' roll band. theurbanwinery.co.nz

May 8 Bob Log III with Labretta Suede & The Motel 6 NZ Tour at Paisley Stage American slide guitar one-man band Bob Log III is a spectacle and a party. Rock 'n' Rollers Labretta Suede & The Motel 6 will play in support of Bob Log, promising a high energy night out at the Paisley Stage. eventfinda.co.nz

May 10 A.U.R.A. - The SIL Album Tour at Paisley Stage To celebrate the March album release, A.U.R.A (the solo project of New Zealand born singer-songwriter and multiinstrumentalist, Albert Mikolaj) is joined by Ben Lemi (French for Rabbits, Trinity Roots, Dawn Diver), Deanne Krieg (Ida Lune, Congress of Animals) and Samuel Austin. eventfinda.co.nz

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May 10 & 11 Night Markets at the Chameleon Club, Hastings

May 12 Mothers’ Day – Don’t forget!

Peruse local treasures (think vintage clothing, music and food) from around 15 local stallholders and makers at the Chameleon Club in Hastings. facebook.com/chameleontheclub

May 11 & 12 NZ Craft & Design Show at McLean Park

May 10 & 11 The Road That Wasn’t There at MTG Century Theatre

Mother’s Day weekend might just be the perfect time to check out some quality handmade goods, and meet the artisans and artists who make them. Live music, kids’ activities and high tea all on offer too. eventfinda.co.nz

Presented by Tour-Makers with the award-winning Trick of the Light Theatre and Zanetti Productions, this is the story of a girl who followed a map off the edge of the world. Combining puppetry, shadow play, and live music, and exploring a land of possibility in a paper world, The Road That Wasn’t There is a curious tale for curious kids aged 8 and up, and sure to delight adults too. eventfinda.co.nz

May 10 & 11: The Road That Wasn't There

May 12 The Proclaimers at Black Barn Vineyards Sit back and sing along with the Reid twins at this autumn concert overlooking the Black Barn vines. Scottish favourites The Proclaimers are here in NZ for eight shows, and the Black Barn gig closes out the tour. New Zealand singersongwriter Mel Parsons will open for the band. Mel has recently released her new single I Got The Lonely. eventfinda.co.nz

May 13 Exhibition Talk with Art Curator Jess Mio at MTG Hawke’s Bay The current exhibition Five Pākehā Painters features 12 works from the permanent collection, by Rita Angus, Jenny Campbell, Geoffrey Fuller, Dick Frizzell and Martin Poppelwell. The selection of paintings illustrates the way in which people of European heritage in New Zealand have responded to the land of Te Matau a Māui / Hawke’s Bay over a period of 90 years. Join curator Jess Mio for a discussion on the exhibition. eventfinda.co.nz

May 16 – June 1 Les Miserables at Napier Municipal Theatre Under the direction of Lisa-Jane Easter, Napier Operatic Society presents one of the world’s favourite musicals. Featuring one of the most memorable scores of all time and based on the Victor Hugo classic, Les Misérables has been seen by over 65 million people worldwide. eventfinda.co.nz

May 17 Salsa Bueno at the Urban Winery The Urban Winery is joining forces with Latin Roots Hawke’s Bay Salsa Academy to make a salsa star of you! But only if you’re game. Participation is optional, so either head along ready to take the plunge, or sit back and sip, watching the action. theurbanwinery.co.nz

May 16 to June 1: Les Miserables

May 17 – 19 Hawke’s Bay Better Home & Living Show at Pettigrew Green Arena Check out the latest trends and innovations in indoor and outdoor living, sustainable living and style, plus Ask an Expert sessions, advice from industry professionals and the chance to win prizes, all under one roof over one weekend. homeandgardenshow.co.nz

May 18 Air New Zealand Hawke’s Bay International Marathon Offering 42km, 21km, 10km and 3km kids run options, the HB Marathon festival of running showcases the best of Hawke’s Bay, with scenic routes and a delicious finish at Elephant Hill Winery. And yes, there is still time to enter! Online entries close on May 16, and late entries will be accepted in person at registration, unless sold out prior. hawkesbaymarathon.co.nz

May 18 Adam McGrath - Ragged Ramble Tour at EastEnd Café & Bar, Wairoa Fans of The Eastern – and anyone with a soft spot for folk/country roots are going to want to see the band’s lead singer Adam McGrath on his small town tour. eventfinda.co.nz

May 21 & 22 2019 Hawkes Bay Career Expo at Pettigrew Green Arena Young people and those looking for a change, head for the Pettigrew Green Arena for this big interactive expo consisting of over 60 providers who can offer ideas and answer questions about academic options, business and industry. eventfinda.co.nz

May 22 CMNZ Presents The Brodsky Quartet at MTG Century Theatre The UK quartet will give a pre-concert talk at 6:45pm, before the music begins at 7:30pm. The programme features works from Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Bartók. chambermusic.co.nz

May 24 The CanInspire Handbags and Gladrags Auction at Taradale Town Hall The CanInspire Charitable Trust has been supporting people with illness, trauma and loss since 2010. Here’s a fun, glam event to offer support for the work the trust does in the community. eventfinda.co.nz

May 25 Waipawa & Districts RSA Centennial Celebration at Central HB Municipal Theatre, Waipawa

May 18: Air New Zealand Hawke's Bay International Marathon

Marking a century of local support for returned, ex-service and serving personnel and their families, the centennial celebration will feature military vehicles on display, guest speaker, awards presentation and entertainment. eventfinda.co.nz

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June 3 The Wiggles Fun Tour at Napier Municipal Theatre

May 25: Aron Ottignon & Myele Manzanza at Hastings Community Art Centre. Photo: Michelle Grace-Hunder

May 30 Sitting Room Session with Delaney Davidson at the Haumoana Hall

May 25 Aron Ottignon & Myele Manzanza at Hastings Community Art Centre Check out this world-class, one-off piano and drum collaboration. Berlinbased Aron Ottignon mixes jazz, roots, Caribbean, Afro-beats and more, and collaborates with World Music and Afrobeat superstars. Myele Manzanza is the son of a Congolese master percussionist, born and raised in NZ listening to hip hop, jazz and dance music. As an artist he brings an eclectic style and diverse skill to his craft to create a genrebending experience rooted in jazz and African rhythm. artsinc.co.nz

May 25 Jordan Luck Band at the Cabana Experience the Kiwi classics of The Exponents, plus more from The Jordan Luck Band live, with support from Auckland band ekko park. undertheradar.co.nz

Delaney is back in the Bay, this time with band including Sean Donnelly, Anita Clark and Chris O’Connor. Hunker down in the Haumoana Hall for an evening of magic with the Lyttleton singersongwriter. Enquiries to jamie@macphails.co.nz

The delicious and warming winter edition of the region’s celebrated Food and Wine Classic is back. Head for the F.A.W.C! website for all the details on four weekends of special food and beverage events. fawc.co.nz

June 8 The Pink Floyd Experience at Napier Municipal Theatre

Be among the first to view the Hawke’s Bay Art Review – a selected biennial regional exhibition and award, showcasing work from local emerging and established artists in printmaking, painting and drawing, sculpture, photography, multi-media, design and ceramics. 2019 Guest judge Bill Milbank will announce the The Gordon Harris Premier Award on the night, and the exhibition runs through June 27. thecan.co.nz

The 2019 tour of this major tribute act celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Pink Floyd’s album The Wall. eventfinda.co.nz

What a way to spend a Sunday morning – hunting through a treasure trove of vintage clothing, vinyl records, jewellery, secondhand furniture and accessories in Ahuriri. eventfinda.co.nz

May 27 Showquest at Pettigrew Green Arena

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June 7 – 30 Winter F.A.W.C!

May 31 Opening of The 2019 Hawke’s Bay Art Review at Creative Arts Napier

May 26 & June 30 The Ossian Street Vintage Market

Showquest is a new nation-wide performing arts competition for schools and students years 1–13. Head along to support our Hawke’s Bay schools. showquest.nz

They’re back! Wiggles Emma Watkins, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Anthony Field will appear along with popular characters Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus, Captain Feathersword and their “brand new friend” Shirley Shawn the Unicorn. eventfinda.co.nz

June 3: The Wiggles

June 8 & 9 William Colenso College Book Sale at William Colenso College Last chance to hit up this Napier tradition – it’s been going for thirty years, and this is the last annual book sale. Grab some literary bargains while supporting the school. eventfinda.co.nz

June 7 - 30: Winter F.A.W.C!

June 21 CMNZ Presents Francesco Turrisi ‘Northern Migration’ at MTG Century Theatre

June 11 Pecha Kucha at MTG Century Theatre Over the last 7-8 years PK has become a must-do for those in the know. If you haven’t already joined the merry band of followers and speakers, check it out. It’s a great way to learn and laugh and to realise we have some inspiring and intriguing characters here in the Bay. facebook.com/pechakuchahb

June 16 Ranui Farm Half Marathon, 12k & 5k Trail Run at Ranui Farm Park, Waipukurau The Ranui Farm Park course offers a mix of farmland with mown trails, some limestone trails and some single track mountain bike/running trails. Add in the café, shelter and some stunning views and you’ve got a stellar winter running spot. This run is event three of six in the Hawke’s Bay Trail Running Series and there are three distance options. hbtrailrun.co.nz

Francesco Turrisi, one of the most striking pianists to come out of the European jazz scene in recent times is touring New Zealand with Northern Migrations – featuring original solo piano compositions and improvisations, narrating the story of his lifelong journey from the heart of the Mediterranean to the moody surrounds of Ireland. chambermusic.co.nz

June 30 (two shows) Room On the Broom at Napier Municipal Theatre

June 22 The Hendrix Project - Jimi Hendrix Tribute at the Cabana

Adapted from the award-winning picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, Room on the Broom is presented by the team behind The Gruffalo and features songs, laughs and scary fun for children aged 3 and up – and their grown-ups of course! eventfinda.co.nz

Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Foxy Lady, Voodoo Chile – Hendrix fans, congregate at the Cabana for your anthems! eventfinda.co.nz

June 30 NZ String Quartet: National Tour 2019 at Church Road Winery

June 29 Motel California Eagles Tribute Band at the Cabana Motel California takes to the Cabana stage for the first time, with an irresistible mix of Eagles classics, from Take it Easy to Tequila Sunrise. eventfinda.co.nz

The New Zealand String Quartet take you through the 18th to 20th centuries on their 2019 tour. The programme consists of Haydn’s String Quartet in G Major, Op. 33, No. 5 ‘How do you do?’ and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 12 in Db Major, followed by Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major. eventfinda.co.nz

June 20 Harcourts Hastings City Matariki Night Market The weekly night markets bring inner-city Hastings to delicious life on Thursday evenings, and this one will be even more special, with extra entertainment and an early celebration of Matariki. eventfinda.co.nz

June 30: NZ String Quartet National Tour 2019 at Church Road Winery

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B E E I N TH E K N OW

BayBuzz Winners Congratulations to recent BayBuzz prize-winners, Kirin Harrison, Linda Ward and Christine Hardie. Kirin was the lucky winner of the generous Black Barn Ultimate Experience as part of our major summer new subscriber promotion. Her prize includes two nights’ accommodation for two couples at one of Black Barn’s luxury cottages, plus lunch for two couples at the Black Barn Bistro and a gorgeous gift hamper of locally-sourced goodies from the Black Barn Kitchen Store, topped off with a mixed case of Black Barn wines. Huge thanks to Black Barn for this fantastically generous prize! As we celebrated ten years of BayBuzz last year, we put the call out to readers and subscribers for the oldest copy of the magazine – in any of its various forms from over the decade. Linda Ward won, with her copy of the April/May 2011 Buzz Digest. Linda’s prize was a $50 gift voucher to Chantal. The summer issue of BayBuzz included a quiz which saw nine perfect scores returned. The drawn winner here was Christine Hardie, whose prize was a $50 dinner voucher to Mr D. Many thanks to all who entered our competitions.

16 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

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Keirunga Theatre Arising Havelock North’s artistic hub Keirunga continues to rise from the ashes of the destructive 2016 arson, with the recent opening of the boutique theatre. Art studios have already re-opened, and spaces are now available for hire and use by the community. President of the committee running Keirunga, Juliet Cottrell says that by mid-winter the adult education classes will be running again, and so any potential tutors or teachers should get in touch to secure space. “Old groups are re-grouping, new groups are forming. The new spaces we have created will bring a much needed injection of creativity to our community. We have been waiting a long time to move back in. We hope to be the hub of many new creative endeavours in visual, performing, and textile arts and craft, both contemporary and traditional.” In the meantime, however, the focus is on the opening of the theatre and the fundraising programme ‘Please Be Seated’, which was launched in April with the aim to find sponsors for each of the 50 seats. Retractable tiered seating has been installed in the modern theatre space, offering the flexibility to transform from a workshop, cabaret or exhibition space to an intimate theatre space in a matter of minutes. The new programme of theatre at Keirunga includes Young and Hungry Arts Trust’s performance of I am Maori on Sunday 16 June, Hawke’s Bay Youth Theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet on July 5 and 6, and Daniel Betty’s one-man-show Vincent on July 23 - 26. Visit keirunga.org.nz for more information on Keirunga’s future plans, and details on the Please Be Seated campaign.

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MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 17

BEE I N T H E K N OW

Gun Buy-Backs and Hand-Ins On Thursday 21 March, less than a week after the Christchurch Mosque Attacks, New Zealand’s gun regulations changed in relation to MSSA (military-style semiautomatic) weapons. Changes by an Order in Council, under section 74A(c) of the Arms Act, came into force adding two more groups of semi-automatics under the MSSA definition: a semi-automatic firearm that is capable of being used in combination with a detachable magazine (other than one designed to hold 0.22inch or less rimfire cartridges) that is capable of holding more than 5 cartridges; and a semi-automatic firearm that is a shotgun and is capable of being used in combination with a detachable magazine that is capable of holding more than 5 cartridges. By April 12 The Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines and Parts) Amendment Bill came into force with cross-party support, meaning a number of firearms which are owned by firearms licence holders are now held unlawfully if the person does not hold an E endorsed firearms licence. Offences relating to the use of MSSAs or shotguns with more than five rounds include: • U p to 10 years’ jail for resisting arrest. • U p to seven years’ jail for use in a public place; presenting them at another person; carrying them with criminal intent or possession while committing an offence that has a maximum penalty of three years or more. • U p to five years’ jail for importing, possessing, or supplying or selling, or using a banned part to convert a firearm into an MSSA. People who find themselves in possession of a now-illegal weapon are encouraged to contact Police to make arrangements for handing

them in by the end of September as part of the amnesty scheme. In the week following the terrorist attack, over one thousand people contacted NZ Police in relation to weapon buy-backs and amnesty, with some wanting to simply hand over any guns, including nonMSSAs. Anyone wishing to get rid of any weapons and/or ammunition should contact local Police. All information on the new laws, and the amnesty, plus the relevant form can be found here: bit.ly/2WptOY. And see Police Minister Stuart Nash’s column on gun legislation on page 74 of this BayBuzz.

None of this should bother hunters and landowners who deem themselves capable of shooting game, rabbits, possum, rats and other pests without an assault weapon!

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In any talk about fisheries, one of the first things you’ll hear is that New Zealand has a “world-leading” quota management system, making it one of the most sustainable and best performing on the planet. But the reality is, increasingly, this is just another untrue ‘fish story’. Story by Bridget Freeman-Rock. Photos by Tom Allan

Saving Our Fishery

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 23

NZ may have led the world with the quota management system (QMS) to control harvest levels – a bold move back in the 1980s when NZ was one of the first countries to implement one, effectively reducing overall fishing effort and rationalising its industry – but we lag behind internationally when it comes to managing the marine environment upon which these very fish depend. It’s a blunt tool and by many accounts it needs not just sharpening, but an entire redesign.

Recreational fisher Wayne Bicknell (on right) and commercial fisher Rick Burch (left) have been mates for 40 years. Their shared grandchildren (Wayne’s daughter married Rick’s son) are what motivate them to push for change: “We’ve both had a lifetime of enjoying the ocean – we want that for our grandkids too.”

World-leading … in NZ

When you look at NZ’s industry reporting, it’s all in glowing terms, manifestly out of step with the alarm raised about significant declines of fish (some scientists claim the oceans will be devoid of seafood by 2050). And there’s no room for a hint of critique here … I have been warned in no uncertain terms. But as Raewyn Peart notes in her excellent review commissioned by the Department of Conservation, Voices from the Sea: Managing New Zealand’s Fisheries (2018): “Frequent reiterations of the proposition that New Zealand has a world-leading system when issues arise is arguably unhelpful … It can trivialise what are serious issues, imply that no change is needed, and impede open, honest public discussion about the

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nature of the problems faced in fisheries and the best way to resolve them.” In fact, there’s often little overlap between what happens on paper and the reality at sea – what the regulatory body understands, what the industry wants, and what fishers themselves observe don’t always align. To run an effective QMS is expensive and research intensive, but by international standards we run ours at a relatively low cost in comparison to value of landed fish. The QMS initially applied to 26 species but has now expanded to 98 (divided into 642 individual ‘stocks’). The amount spent on empirical stock assessments, however, has dropped by half, with most of the $21 million research fund focused on high-value export fish and very

little on the ‘people’s fish’ – those on the inshore fishery. Most of the fishery stocks haven’t had empirical assessments for 20, even 30-plus years. In Hawke’s Bay, the last trawl survey was undertaken by MPI/NIWA in 1993 on snapper, but deemed ‘incomplete’. There’s been no on-water research to gauge the state of our fish stocks since. Instead, MPI is reliant on self-reporting from fishers for its baseline data, setting harvest limits, some would say, on sketchy assumptions. Fish discards at sea are not accounted for, and that’s a big problem – how many juvenile fish are we losing and what’s in the bycatch? We don’t know – though footage I’ve seen suggests a distressing level of waste. Currently rules are inconsistent,

open to interpretation and hard to comply with. Often they’re completely baffling for those who must adhere to them – why do undersize gurnard need to be landed, for instance, while snapper and travelly are ‘returned’ to sea (and by instruction not recorded)? There are an estimated 7,000 compliance rules and proscriptions to abide by, depending on where, what and how you’re fishing. Yet they don’t appear to be protecting our fisheries adequately. It’s tricky to detect illegal harvesting without onboard ‘observers’, but currently for inshore fisheries that coverage is less than 1% of vessels annually (deepsea is at 8%). That’s been the chief argument for cameras on board, but then how to analyse such mass amounts of data? AI will be key, say Fisheries NZ, but we’re not there yet. Moreover, it’s questionable whether such a singular approach, measured solely on the productive yield of individual stocks, is even sustainable from a management perspective. One of the original intentions underpinning the QMS, was that by having a stake in the fishery, fishers would be motivated to guard against overfishing and the collapse of their income source. But through the aggregation of tradeable quota, NZ’s fisheries are now largely in the hands of a few conglomerates. In NZ over 80% of quota is owned by five corporations; 60% of its offshore catch is taken by foreign charter vessels. Those out on the boats hauling the fish have increasingly no stake (or security) in the game

at all, working as tenant fishers for ocean tycoons. It’s relevant to question whether this is the kind of system that’s best in terms of both social and ‘stock’ sustainability.

Hard to change

LegaSea (representing recreational and sports fishing associations) and environmental groups say a fully independent statutory inquiry into NZ’s fisheries management system is required – indeed Labour’s 2017 election policy commit to an independent review into the performance of MPI and the QMS. So far, no review except from MPI itself which has been appraising its fisheries management system since 2015. The only detailed proposals so far encompass electronic reporting and vessel-monitoring regulations. They recently consulted on proposed changes to the QMS: primarily around changes to discards, offences and penalties, the process of adjusting catch limits and technical tweaks, and an emphasis on encouraging innovation. Cameras are now on hold til later this year. Wayne Bicknell of LegaSea HB, is incredulous. “This is it?” he asks, pointing to the submissions brochure. “This is their answer to reviewing the QMS – it’s a fiddle. Every 3-4 years they bring in another one of these, and you’ve got to consult on it, but nothing changes. Apart from the odd tweak, there’s been no meaningful move on the QMS in 30 years. If you’d had a business going for 30 years, you’d have to change things, wouldn’t you? That’s

The amount spent on empirical stock assessments, however, has dropped by half, with most of the $21 million research fund focused on high-value export fish and very little on the ‘people’s fish’ – those on the inshore fishery.

why we asked for a total review. “Electronic reporting – that doesn’t save any fish, it’s just a formality of running a commercial fishery. They’re really hanging their hat on this, as being the biggest thing they’ve done in years – which it is. But it’s just a progression in time, like every other industry has done in adapting to the digital sphere.” He was interviewed for a BayBuzz article in 2012 (Fishy Business, on BayBuzz website); what he was saying then still stands, word for word. “Nothing’s changed,” reiterates Wayne.

Innovation

Rick Burch has been a commercial fisher in Ahuriri for almost 40 years, for the last 25 he’s been developing

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 25

“There’s not one person in MPI that I’ve met who’s worked on a fishing boat. I’m told what to do by people who don’t know what the hell is going on out there, with no science to back it up.” RICK BURCH, COMMERCIAL FISHER

Local fisher John Wheatley, selling the day’s catch down at the wharf.

his own light-weight trawl gear, addressing carbon footprint, benthic impact and release of juvenile fish (with a 78% success rate). He shows me footage of a conventional diamond-mesh net – there are whitebait and other small fish caught in the mesh, they look not just dead but damaged; it’s clear nothing escapes. Rick’s worked with world-class netmakers and technicians, received international attention for his innovations and an award for sustainable business, but he says MPI have never shown interest until now. Support for innovation and improving practice has not been forthcoming for small fishers like himself. “I get paid $2.40 for a kilo of snapper that cost $40 in the supermarket. That does not allow me to buy the best electronic equipment.” He’s critical of what he sees is a lack of hands-on, informed knowledge and spurious science – such as CPUE (catch per unit effort) reporting, where stocks

26 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

are measured against past catch efforts without factoring in the idiosyncracies within a mixed fishery. Your tarakihi CPUE might have fallen, he says, not because there were less to catch but because you may be targeting other in-season species. Rick believes our fisheries have been mismanaged. To be blunt: “We’ve fucked it up.” He sold his own quota some years back when he was no longer able to catch his allocated tonnage. He shows me a photo from 1994. “With flounder, I wouldn’t catch in a year what I used to catch then in a three-hour trawl shot; hoki, once everywhere, is now the rarest fish I catch… but the ministry didn’t even notice.”

Hawke’s Bay’s blue bit

It was Wayne and Rick’s agitation that spurred the regional council to commission a report on what we do, don’t, and should know about our marine environment.

This led to the multi-stakeholder Hawke’s Bay Marine and Coastal Group, and a research roadmap last year. In regards to fisheries, it identified a paucity of information on our most commonly fished species and little understanding about the effects of demersal trawling to the benthic seafloor. But this is part of a bigger picture of unknowns. “When we brief our land managers,” says HBRC marine scientist Anna Madarasz-Smith, “we tell them where our rivers are, we tell them where the trees are, the cliffs. For our marine resource managers we go, well, there’s your blue bit – it’s just blue, we can’t even characterise it.” HBRC councillor Neil Kirton points out that a third of the regional council’s operating environment is under water, but “we’ve never spent a dime on it”. Through HBRC’s ‘hotspot’ project, “We’re just starting to do so. We allocated a trifling $200,000 in the marine

“One wonders how you can even contemplate a sustainable fishing resource when you have no idea what the influences are, where these fish are coming from, where they’re going to, their habitat dynamics – it’s the wild west out there, and that situation will continue while we have this enormous knowledge deficit.”

disappearing, but a lot of it comes from land practices, farming.” The siltation of waterways, for example, leaching out into the marine area and covering the spawning grounds for new fish. Hence NKII’s Kahutia afforestation programme with riparian planting efforts around upstream water sources. “We’re not just relying on our efforts on the sea, we’re relying on our efforts on the land, and that’s where regional council and iwi and environmentalists, corporates, farmers can all work together in order to achieve a shared vision around our water, which leads to our marine environment, which leads to a much healthier fisheries environment.”

NEIL KIRTON, HBRC COUNCILLOR

Sustainable management

and coastal budget for it, which essentially buys us a few ups and downs with a submarine camera to look in the first instance at the Wairoa Hard snapper beds, and very little else … My view is that we need collaboration with central government and to quickly get up to over a $1m a year invested in research.” He’s disturbed by the inshore influences of wastewater discharge (from municipal outfalls, marina, cruiseliners) and the impacts of sedimentation: “What you’ve got is a very dynamic, complex ecosystem, obviously affected by immediate stressors but then impacted probably to a calamitous level by climate change … The issues are huge and the investment is minuscule.” Ngahiwi Tomoana, who has just closed Ngāti Kahungunu’s wholesale purchase of local fishing giant, Hawkes Bay Seafoods (see page 30), believes more needs to be done from a whole picture view. “People are blaming the commercial fishermen for the resource

NZ has the fourth largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, but our marine space lacks a consistent management approach. The Fisheries Act is largely focused on single ‘stock’ management based on the theoretical construct of maximum sustainable yields (MSY), an approach that doesn’t recognise ecological complexity, ecosystem connectedness or the impact of cumulative stressors (such as trawling, sedimentation or climate change). Nor does it include statutory public participation, unlike other environmental legislation. The Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge (sustainableseas. co.nz) is about to complete Phase 1 of its 10-year research project into developing a holistic, inclusive ecosystem-based marine management (EBM) approach for Aotearoa, which would have as its objectives, both “healthy, functioning ecosystems and a thriving blue economy” – not business as usual, but an economy that builds economic value into genuinely sustainable practices, resonates with kaitiakitanga-based approaches and recognises “the need to define values beyond traditional one-dimensional measures of monetary return”. Anna Madarasz-Smith says the regional council is looking to get on aboard the Sustainable Seas Challenge to explore how EBM could work here in Hawke’s Bay. “It’s quite a young concept for NZ, though it’s not internationally,” she explains, “it would be a first.” She believes in Hawke’s Bay we’re in a unique position to try something new: “We do require some impetus to move in that direction. Whether that’s just maturity as organisations – and that’s that paradigm shift – or whether

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“There’s so much missed opportunity. Recreational fishing is a billion-dollar industry in NZ, and we take just 6% of the catch, yet the system is weighted towards export, commodity fishing.” WAYNE BICKNELL, LEGASEA HAWKE’S BAY

it’s an overarching legislative policy, I don’t know. It just seems sensible that you manage it as a whole.”

Local area management

Hawke’s Bay’s inshore fishery comes under Fishing Management Area 2, which stretches 1373km from East Cape down to Wellington and up to Kapiti Island – an area many argue is too big, doesn’t align with localised stocks and undermines efforts to manage our fisheries effectively through collective initiatives, such as the Springbox, a 235km2 zone out past Cape Kidnappers where the springs bubble out, attracting scores of fish. The Springbox is closed (voluntarily) to commercial fishing from December through February each year, an agreement monitored by locals and recreational fishers and respected by the dozen or so commercial fishers in HB. But what happens when a boat from Wellington comes up (which happened) and takes out 12 tonne of gurnard, as they legally may? Rick believes local area management is the way to go: “Let’s work together and run our own coast”. He says there are examples of this already, such as the Springbox, but also earlier local body decisions to close the inshore area from Cape Kidnappers to Waipatiki to large fishing boats and to protect the Wairoa Hard between Nuhaka up to Mahia Peninsula (no boats allowed), and there is talk of imposing horse-power limits in certain areas of the Bay. Ngahiwi Tomoana says NKII would “support that to the hilt” and is keen to see the Government use HB’s fisheries management area (FMA2) for “recalibrating” how we do fishing. Now that

28 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

iwi are “in the wheelhouse”, they want to do better than the law, using their cultural base to influence both regulations and commercial behaviour. “Use us as an example,” he insists. When the idea was put to Minister Stuart Nash at a public forum in Napier, he gave an impassioned response: “Go for it! I’m all for local area management, it’s the ideal, in my view.” But Steve Halley, MPI’s Inshore Fisheries manager, cautions, “You ensure sustainability by managing the stock across their whole biological range … stock moves, it doesn’t recognise any boundaries.” However, he concedes there’s a need for much greater integration. “In the future we are likely to be investing a lot of time, effort and resource into this; it’s a level of thinking far more complex than just looking at individual stocks. We want to start working with communities, councils to look at more holistic plans.” He acknowledges that government partnerships have tended to be at the large corporate level (such as the $52m project on precision seafood harvesting). He says while there’s a “strong intention” to consider more EBM approaches (and where to trial them) and to look at how to support smaller scale fishers and inshore fisheries, he’s reluctant to raise expectation. “It’s a case more of watch this space rather than anything concrete.”

Where to from here?

The future must point towards an integrated, holistic management of resources. In the long-run it’s more pragmatic and less-expensive, and with issues like climate change facing us, we can’t think in silos. It appears Fisheries NZ under Minister Nash is open to this direction in the marine space, if only in principle as yet. This shift requires investing substantially (both at the local and national level) in overcoming our ignorance about a world that’s been largely invisible to us. We need to know, not guess, what’s happening in our coastal and marine environments. With modern technology, this should be possible. And then take action. This entails a willingness to take more inclusive, collaborative approaches and a bit of boldness in seizing opportunities. The political grunt required can’t just rest on a minister’s shoulders – we’re all going to have to do some lifting and demand the necessary changes.

Consumer power By virtue of New Zealand’s quota management system, all NZ fishing, whether bulk-harvested, trawl-caught with conventional nets or the latest tech, or hooked on a long-line, can claim to be ‘sustainably caught’. You’ll find that statement on every company website. But if you’re happy to accept the word ‘sustainable’ at face value on the packaging, then “Welcome to a world without fish”, for that’s where business as usual will take us. So how to eat fish in Hawke’s Bay without a guilty conscience? What are the more sustainable options, if you’re not in a position to go out and hook a fish yourself? • Get the Best Fish Guide mobile app or download from bestfishguide.org.nz. Forest & Bird have ranked the ecological sustainability of 85+ commercial species on a traffic light basis: “great to eat”, “ok”, “worst choice”. • Make provenance and best practice a selling point. Before you buy fish, ask where it’s from and how it was caught. Request sustainable fish choices on menus in the eateries you patron. • Buy local, buy seasonal, same as you would for any other premium produce. Ask your local fishers what’s in season – yes, fish have seasons too, and these differ with species. • Head down to the Ahuriri wharf and buy direct off the boat from small, independent fishers, such as John from Tinopai Sea Harvesting (facebook.com/tinopaihb). It’s cheaper for you, he gets paid more, and he’s doing his bit to fish as sustainably as possible. • Enjoy fish at following restaurants: Craggy Range, Pacifica, Bistronomy, Hygge Café in Clifton. They purchase genuine fresh, local, sustainably caught, in-season fish from Napier’s independent outfit, Better Fishing. As consumers, we need to demand more transparency, more sufficient proof and provenance. We must question beyond this particular fish species is endangered, but also has it been caught under fair labour conditions, how was the ecosystem impacted, was the animal itself respected? These issues are barely, if at all, addressed by our present regulatory system. And until the public demands change, our fisheries will suffer.

UNISON CONNECTS WITH THE HAWKE’S BAY COMMUNITY With another bumper winter sports season about to kick off, Unison is looking forward to encouraging inclusion and participation in junior sport in Hawke’s Bay again in 2019, through its Greatest Supporter Programme. We started the season on a high at the Unison Girls’ Rugby Gala Day – which aims to encourage more female participation in our national game. Over 370 budding women’s rugby players from Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Schools across Hawke’s Bay took to the field in age-based Rippa or Sevens tournaments at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park on Thursday 4 April. While honing their skills, participants also had the opportunity to view the Women’s Rugby World Cup and meet Women’s Rugby World Cup 2017 Champion Black Ferns, Marcelle Parkes and Jackie Patea-Fereti. Unison Group Chief Executive, Ken Sutherland says Unison is proud to support the growth and development of rising female rugby players in the region through its partnership with Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union – under the Greatest Supporter Programme. “The Gala Day is a fantastic recruitment tool to bring current and aspiring female rugby players together, to encourage participation, develop talent and ultimately strengthen the game in Hawke’s Bay. “Supporting events such as this – across all sporting codes – is also a great opportunity for us to develop stronger relationships with our young people and their families, while educating them on how to stay safe around Unison’s network,” says Ken.

HAWKE’S BAY PRIMARY SECTOR AWARDS Unison was proud to be involved with the Hawke’s Bay Primary Sector Awards for the first time this year, sponsoring the Hawke's Bay Professional of the Year Award, which was awarded to Mark Harris. We are grateful for the strong relationship we have with our rural customers, the primary producers of Hawke's Bay, and it was great to celebrate and connect with you. Unison Relationship Manager, Danny Gough (left) presenting Mark Harris with the Hawke’s Bay Professional of the Year Award.

Cortez Te Pou from Karamu High School playing in the Unison Barbarians team with close support from Mahora School pupils.

Unison reaches over 10,000 children in Hawke’s Bay annually through its involvement with junior rugby, netball, hockey and football, providing financial assistance and/or sports equipment, along with the infamous Greatest Supporter kit bags. As part of this programme, we also run a variety of competitions and campaigns throughout the winter sport season to maintain engagement, and at the end of the season the Unison Medal ceremony is held, acknowledging parents, coaches and players. The ceremony also recognises one outstanding player from each team who has shown work ethic, discipline and fair play throughout the season.

Takitimu Seafoods Ngāti Kahungunu (NKII) has realised a long-held dream through its recent purchase of Hawkes Bay Seafoods, the region’s largest fishing entity, answerable for 70% of the catch landed at Ahuriri and 80% staffed by iwi members. “Two hundred years ago we were absolute fishermen,” explains Ngahiwi Tomoana, who as chairman of NKII since its inception 24 years ago actively pursued the acquisition. “ If you go back 30, 40 years, we had no contact with Tangaroa, except customary fishing, because we’d been decommercialized out of the game.” QMS quotas were given to fishers according to their reported fish takes, but subsistence fishers earning below a certain threshold (ie, most Māori) had already been locked out of the market. When this was challenged under the Treaty of Waitangi in the early ‘90s, Māori were ceded 10% of the fisheries, which they’ve steadily built up over the ensuing decades, now owning half the quota. The QMS has been a pathway for Māori to “repatriate our relationship to the sea”, but until recently NKII had been “leasers of fish” under a contractual arrangement for

30 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

employment and training. Now it’s the first iwi in the country to own the whole process ‘from bait to plate’, and it has huge ambitions. Ngahiwi sees the Kahungunu coastline as “the fruitbowl of the ocean – there’s no other fishery in New Zealand that matches the variety and diversity of fish that we can fish off our coast … We want to preserve that as the best fishery we have in the country, and we can only do that if we, and this is our aim: take less fish and make more money.” By “turning hunter-gathers into food specialists”, ensuring each fish caught is the very best and that it’s marketed with its provenance and story. Ngahiwi was mightily impressed by the abundance and beauty of the paua he saw in the Chatham Islands recently, a result of the coastline being “locked up” for the last 10 years. “Now we can do that here too, so we’re looking at rāhui, at prohibitions up and down our coast that will restore weightable kaimoana for our families… we’ve got a 660km coastline and if we lock parts of it up every year for a 20-year period, we’re going to have a healthy rock fishery.” He implies the same could happen with catching methods for commercial fisheries. NKII have been trialling nets so more juvenile fish escape, and Ngahiwi says the inshore fleet will shift towards more long-line fishing. Ngahiwi says the iwi has worked against commercial trend in the past on crayfish quotas, the eels, paua, and will do so again on a whole range of species (gurnard, tarakihi, snapper) if necessary. In a pre-emptive move, NKII are looking to partner with Animated Research Ltd to “experiment with putting their cameras on some of our boats, so we get real-time intel on what’s happening in the ocean, collecting our own data… we want to know what’s happening.” The iwi’s experience of eeling – where they haven’t touched their commercial quota for 15 years in order

I’m scared shitless about what could go wrong. But we’ve got all these great ambitions, and not to do it, not to take this commercial step is to inhibit, or retard our ambitions in the whole environmental sector.” NGAHIWI TOMOANA, NKII CHAIRMAN

to rebuild stock, says Ngahiwi, only to see it plundered (legally) by fishers from outside the area – has seen them keen to exercise political influence and close some of the regulatory loopholes, including the “open book” permitting of species like tuna and mackerel, which are not on the QMS. NKII already has a 2,600-hectare licence to farm fish off the coast, and while it’s their ambition to put in a mussel farm, the iwi wants to turn part of it into a recreational fisheries park too, putting in a sunken wreck as a fish aggregating device, that’s also good for diving, tourism, recreational fishing. “We are bringing a wide-angle lens to the fisheries because we want our fisheries to be here for another thousand years.” Ngahiwi is frank, the $70 million investment is “a huge risk for us as an iwi. “We’re under microscopic scrutiny from the conservationists, from the recreationists, from the Ministry, and from ourselves as well – everyone is watching…. I’m scared shitless about what could go wrong. But we’ve got all these great ambitions, and not to do it, not to take this commercial step is to inhibit, or retard our ambitions in the whole environmental sector.”

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If Hawke’s Bay is to become a centre of digital expertise – capable of meeting our immediate hi-tech needs and capturing new opportunities for growth – we’ll need out-of-the-box thinking and a more collaborative and co-ordinated strategy. Story by Keith Newman Photos by Florence Charvin

The Fingermark Team

Scaling Tech Growth Hurdles

“You have to have a scheme and strategy; to be brave and go into the cities and say we want your business in Hawke’s Bay and this is what we’re going to give you as an incentive.” LUKE IRVING, FINGERMARK CEO

34 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

During national Techweek, 20-26 May 2019, Business HB will attempt to showcase the best the region has to offer in robotics, automation and leading edge software to bolster local awareness and hopefully draw the attention of outside investors and innovators.

Tech advances are clicking along more quickly than our educational institutions or local authorities are able to grasp, and our region is only one contender among many trying to stay on the up-side of the digital divide. Wellington and Tauranga, for example, are making significant investments pitching to tech trojans, skilful software designers and intellectual property (IP) creators, and even Gisborne is claiming Rocket Lab in its tech hub marketing hype. The latest EIT-Business HB research suggests Hawke’s Bay has an almost desperate need for technical skills to cope with a rapidly changing workplace where innovation is the norm and quick thinkers with digital era skills are in hot demand. Barry Soutar, CEO of Māori nonprofit organisation Te Tira Toi Whakangao (T3W), on a mission to create 100 Māori tech companies by 2023, says we can no longer build economies solely on horticulture or dairying and our regional challenges are even more basic than diversification.

Upping digital stakes

“We have no choice; tech is involved in every industry and forecast to replace dairy as our second largest export earner before 2022.” Soutar, a director of Orawa, which plans a hi-tech accelerator for Hawke’s Bay, and the brains behind this year’s hackathon, says that seismic economic shift is coming at us quicker than we imagine. He claims we’ve passed “peak cow”, with dairying growing at less than 1% on a $40 billion base, while tech is growing at around 12.5% on a $12 billion GDP base. And Soutar says we’ve also passed “peak tourism” in many parts of the country. “The carrying capacity of the asset can no longer sustain the volume of tourists, so you have to increase the quality of the experience, for example

using technology for better story-telling, so they’ll pay you more.” There’s no question Hawke’s Bay has come a long way in the past five years. There’s been significant progress overcoming geographic isolation through airline competition and reduced fares. And the regional rollout of the Ultrafast fibre optic broadband digital highway is expected to be completed by 2020.

Our region is only one contender among many trying to stay on the upside of the digital divide. With good broadband, groupware, videoconferencing and cloud-based computing, digital entrepreneurs with valuable IP can work with virtual teams across the region or anywhere around the world. A catalyst for collaboration has been the HB Business Hub in Ahuriri, a co-location centre for 18 different agencies including Business HB, the economic development arms of Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay, Napier and Hastings councils, and representatives of Callaghan Innovation employed by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. The HB Chamber of Commerce also lives there. Another group hosted at the hub and focused on attracting business includes Napier Port, Hawke’s Bay Airport and five council economic development managers. Business HB CEO, Carolyn Neville, says this relatively recent coordinated approach means customers no longer have to run around five different offices and it’s a distinct advantage for her team as they try to generate a buzz for the Bay as a place of innovation and entrepreneurship. Just down the road from the Business

Hub is Wallace Development’s Tech Collective, a hive of activity that gives a glimpse of the kind of work environment that attracts hi-tech talent. Here, local success stories including global cloud accounting maven Xero, telco and tech solutions firm NOW and software developer Webfox are clustered in purpose-built workplaces around an open plan area with a coffee shop, meeting rooms and other shared facilities. Another key tenant is international cloud-based property management software company Re-Leased which plans to more than double its team of 60 software developers over the next three years. Its $10 million investment, including a $5000 incentive to attract candidates and even help train them, will help it meet the demand coming from clients in 40 countries. The Tech Collective also has a hot-desking centre in Havelock North and plans for another facility in Hastings designed to promote networking and collaboration among those in this critical sector. The tech sector is not always visible given that software development in particular is often embedded in everything from business systems to robotics, automation and fruit sorting While it’s not difficult to come up with a couple of dozen extraordinary regional companies who have developed world class systems, it’s more difficult to quantify the unseen scores of smart software coders, designers and engineers working from their home offices. One idea to build and support local capacity is to create an informal co-working space where a growing number of freelancers working on contracts in the ‘gig economy’ can share skills or collaborate and support each other. Business HB’s Carolyn Neville notes, there’s a clear gap in tech support across the growing area of food processing and definitely room for growth in all areas of the primary sector and niche areas

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 35

“Businesses who need experience and specialist skills which are more abundant in big cities might need to start paying big city salaries.” HAMISH WHITE, NOW CHIEF EXECUTIVE

36 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

like hemp, where “disruptive ideas and technology can break new ground”. While the Business Hub is “a nice asset”, says Fingermark CEO Luke Irving, the councils’ joint initiative needs to go much further. “You have to have a scheme and strategy; to be brave and go into the cities and say we want your business in Hawke’s Bay and this is what we’re going to give you as an incentive.” He says local authorities and their officers need to start “thinking outside the box” and become more engaged in not only attracting hi-tech companies but helping existing ones innovate and grow. He was disappointed his proposal for a tech campus in the middle of a Hastings vineyard – “with a real point of difference” to attract other businesses – was denied. “As soon as you scratch under the surface, the Heretaunga Plains zone is all tied up ... They make it too hard ... while they liked the idea, there was no offer of help and no-one was going to make any concessions.” The response was, “If we let you do it everyone’s going to want to do it.” But he asks, “Is that such a bad thing?” Therein lies the challenge of competing land use and whether there can be

compromise to allow rural-commercial co-existence.

Support systems lacking

Fingermark has been widely promoted as the poster child to attract hi-tech businesses to Hawke’s Bay. [See BayBuzz, Sep/Oct 2017, Bom dia Fingermark] Irving was recently asked to contribute to workshops encouraging businesses like his to come here, but after thinking about it he withdrew. “I couldn’t do it ... the council needs to get behind it ... they’re not providing the support or incentives ... businesses don’t just move here off their own bat.” Although that’s exactly what Irving did when he moved to Havelock North three years ago, closely followed by 15 of his Auckland-based staff who are mostly internationals. Fingermark works in the healthcare and hospitality sectors using “world-breaking computer vision stuff”, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence to solve problems for four of the top ten biggest fast food brands in the world, including KFC and McDonalds. It collaborates with global tech giants including Intel and NCR using data from drive through signage and

security cameras to streamline service provision. Fingermark has a development office in Brazil and locally employs about 35 staff, 12 involved in software development and coding, with that number expected to double this year. Irving says companies like Fingermark bring huge benefits to places like Havelock North, where “28 people buy coffees, lunch, go to restaurants and the pub on a Friday”. He’s now creating a co-working space in Hastings for robotics, computer vision and machine learning that may open opportunities for EIT students and help stem the post-high school exodus from the region. This design-thinking lab could allow students to see how Fingermark’s business operates, including how it negotiates with McDonalds and KFC globally. This kind of collaboration and lab space, Irving suggests, could attract more technology businesses looking for graduates.

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MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 37

“We can no longer build economies solely on horticulture or dairying and our regional challenges are even more basic than diversification.” BARRY SOUTAR, CEO T 3 W Barry Soutar, CEO T3W. Photo: Rebecca Zephyr Thomas

unrealised growth potential, says NOW chief executive Hamish White. He says we clearly need to lift our game in the weightless economy and for some businesses that might involve thinking differently; becoming part of an ecosystem of collaboration, collegiality and industry partnerships. White cites software development, software as a service (SaaS) and gaming success stories evolving around Weta Digital and Xero in Wellington which have attracted talent that related industries can draw from. While that potential exists in Hawke’s Bay, it’s still “pretty boutique”. White says technology is an enabler, accelerating change in every business. “Business as usual is not an option. You have to ask, how do you remain relevant and efficient while constantly anticipating how you can innovate to meet the needs of customers.” NOW is growing well beyond the

industry curve at 20% revenue growth per annum, with 90% of that coming from outside the region – mostly from competitors – and it partners extensively to integrate new services and support its internet provision business. While councils might have to look at zoning and other ways of removing barriers to growth, White reckons the biggest challenge will be getting access to the talent and experience pool. That will require a mindset shift to attract people away from their existing networks of friends and collaborators. “Businesses who need experience and specialist skills which are more abundant in big cities might need to start paying big city salaries.”

Why Hawke’s Bay?

While lifestyle and a place to raise a family are drawcards for new companies, skilled people and entrepreneurs, Xero chief executive Craig Hudson says

this needs to be balanced by real business opportunities. He suggests Hawke’s Bay needs to tell its story better, including evidence that local authorities are helping to grow existing businesses, something that’s pivotal for new players looking to set up shop. “When I was looking to come back from the UK, I wanted to dig around under the hood and see where the awesome companies were that excited me.” The next step, suggests Hudson, is to explore the lifestyle options and “see if your wife and family fall in love with an area”. Xero, still majority-owned by local entrepreneur Rod Drury, expects to add another 20 people to the 39 already employed in Hawke’s Bay support roles over the next year. The majority are local hires, with seven internal transfers so far; some, says Hudson, are grateful they could

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“We’re a regional exporter of services in a weightless economy. Much of our specialist labour don’t need to be here,” MIKE PURCHAS, SPORTSGROUND.CO.NZ

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 39

afford to buy a home, something they could never have imagined in Auckland or Wellington. With so many cities pitching to host tech companies, Hudson says the big question will always be “why Hawke’s Bay?”

Keeping profits local

But hi-tech business isn’t always reliant on having local talent. In an increasingly virtual world you can be a global competitor from a modest office in the Tuki Vineyard, on the outskirts of Havelock North. That’s where Sportsground.co.nz owner Mike Purchas runs a massive on-line sports publishing company, which registers half a million people for organised sport, including draws, and records results. The cloud-based competition management system covers most major codes from school to club and professional level sports and is now making inroads into Australia. It’s the digital partner for Netball NZ, NZ Rugby Union, Touch New Zealand and Football New Zealand. It also works with hockey. The revenue from Sportsground. co.nz comes back to Hawke’s Bay, but his two most senior full-time developers are based outside the region as are most of his clients. “We’re a regional exporter of services in a weightless economy. Much of our specialist labour don’t need to be here,” says Purchas. In recent months his company has worked on projects for Datacom with engineers and software developers based in Auckland, and senior developers in Brisbane. “We’re in constant contact, using modern project management and development tools so they’re more productive than being in an office with other noisy staff.” Sportsground.co.nz employs local helpdesk and sales people. Since Jetstar came to Hawke’s Bay, his salespeople are now based here, with only hot-desking in Auckland. The former Hawke’s Bay ‘old boy returned home’ can’t imagine working in an Auckland office and the productivity loss that would mean through travel and the cost of living. The quality of life and freshness of produce in Hawke’s Bay rate highly – “I’d never trade it in a million years.” Purchas believes one way to encourage more hi-tech businesses to Hawke’s Bay would be hosting tech expos every two years pitched at

40 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

decision-makers from entrepreneurial companies. “Getting them here to see what’s possible might be a good start.”

Hacking export answers

A taste of what that might look like is being proposed through a 48-hour Hawke’s Bay hackathon run by T3W, which last year attracted new hi-tech business to Gisborne as part of its inaugural event. T3W executive Barry Soutar expects to attract “a broad spectrum of talent – commercial tech developers, design thinkers, creatives, entrepreneurs and investors – for an accelerated product activation opportunity”. He’s been meeting with CEOs of 13 local companies who’ve done global business to work out a five-year strategy to resolve the issues that “keep them awake at night” and match them with experts using leading edge solutions. So why would these mostly wellpaid millennial tech high-flyers want to give up a week of their time to come to Hawke’s Bay? “They come for lifestyle, the tourism experience, culture and landscape and a greater purpose for the universe,” says Soutar. The idea is that their “intellectual input” into multiple projects will lead to a lift in prosperity for the region, helping generate wealth through the creation of IP that can be commercialised. He’s very specific that unless the company is focused on making millions and has at least one existing international market, he’s “not really interested”. During last year’s hackathon a woman running a global gaming design business feared she would be replaced by a robot or artificial intelligence that invents storylines. The underlying concern was that this would be done with no cultural awareness, making it completely inappropriate to Māori. Amazon Web Services brought in a box of its latest beta versions, including the Alexa AI engine, and they wrote a software solution in 48 hours, says Soutar. Following this year’s hackathon, new companies might be created and possibly even assisted by spin-off venture Orawa, which is about to establish a local business accelerator or hi-tech centre for innovation.

Soutar warns, innovation won’t happen in provincial New Zealand if you can’t provide a direct path for dealing with offshore tech companies. The accelerator, most likely in Hastings, will be about “management of deal flow, giving a centre of gravity for finding the right talent, matching opportunities, capital and the market,” he says. While elements of this are already in place, he says it’s not coordinated “so there isn’t single place for it to coalesce” in Hawke’s Bay. He claims an effective accelerator will bring tech to town and provide co-working spaces where companies can start to commercialise ideas with active participation of mentors as part of capability programmes. “In the lightweight digital economy you can be global pretty quickly on a lower asset base, but you have to have a stocktake of assets, IP and talent ... and look at the future of work and where you should be going.” Working with existing success stories is only one part of the equation; another is how you get start-ups into growth phase so they employ, produce and contribute more to the region. As Xero’s Craig Hudson says, its often a chicken and egg situation. “A number of businesses in Hawke’s Bay could potentially scale much faster if they had better talent at a higher level, but they’re not going to attract that kind of talent unless they are growing. It’s a constant play-off.” The risk is those tasked with regional leadership may still need convincing that our backbone hort-agribusiness is under threat, or that diversification means something more than a different variety of animal, vegetable or fruit. To succeed as a tech hub we’ll need to get serious about growing existing businesses, paying people what they’re worth, and developing the entrepreneurial clout needed to convince cutting edge coders and innovators to base themselves in the Bay. Otherwise, some of the best ideas for boosting our economic fortunes may never see the light of day.

Māori economic engine

Orawa is conducting an inventory of mainly Māori resources – high calibre people, capital and experience – and how they’re “connected to the economic engine of the country and internationally”.

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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Future Farming in Hawkeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bay

Being economically and environmentally successful is where the future of food production lies in Hawke’s Bay. Do both or fail.

Story by Tom Belford An impressive trio of Hawke’s Bay finalists was presented recently at the annual Ballance Farm Environment Awards. These are farmers who outproduce their industry and local benchmarks, while lowering their environmental footprints. For example, for the top winners, Nick and Nicky Dawson, their per cow and per hectare production is well ahead of district and national averages, while nitrogen leaching rates are consistently low, daily water use is onethird the industry average, 20% of the farm is retired from grazing and stock is excluded from all waterways. Each of these three husband-wife teams – representing sheep & beef and dairy – demonstrate that farming can be both economically and environmentally successful. And that, most simply put – being economically and environmentally successful – is where the future of food production lies in Hawke’s Bay. Do both or fail. Today our region’s best farmers and growers are proving that these two objectives do not compete; in fact, they go hand in glove. And they are employing a wide range of strategies to achieve their success – using water more efficiently, altering their planting and grazing regimes, reducing their nitrogen and phosphorus inputs (and costs and leaching), diversifying crops, protecting and enriching their soils, protecting waterways with fencing and riparian planting, using the latest technology to monitor and farm with precision, and more. These best Hawke’s Bay farmers are drawing a line in the soil, so to speak. They employ the practices they use enthusiastically because these are the smart approaches that deliver win/win outcomes, not begrudgingly because they are required to by regulation.

Permission to farm

Make no mistake, the environmental benchmarks Hawke’s Bay farmers – all NZ farmers – must meet going forward will only stiffen … they will not relax. And that’s because of the broad and increasing public demand for better environmental practices. The public is setting the mark in two ways – as citizens with their votes they are insisting politically on tougher regulation and standards, and as consumers with their wallets they are supporting the brands and products they deem to be best meeting those standards. Recent Colmar Brunton polls separately conducted for the Ministry of Environment and NZ Fish and Game yielded the same findings – fully 82% of New Zealanders want improved water quality in their rivers, lakes and streams. And while industrial and municipal polluters also play a role, it’s farmers who are in the bulls-eye. Add in concern about global warming, the health impacts of chemical use, efficient water use, and animal welfare, and it would be foolhardy for any farmer or grower to expect they will not need to raise the bar if they wish to retain community permission to farm. The regulatory pressure from Government and regional councils is matched – and then some – by the marketplace behavior of consumers who are increasingly valuing ‘integrity’ in their food purchases. This is happening in a technology environment that now provides unprecedented transparency in the food production process – from farm or orchard to plate. And even this scenario is conservative … it simply relates to how we produce the conventional foods we always have. But there’s even more change ahead. At the leading edge of the food revolution is disruption to the very nature of the food we produce and how – from

meat and dairy to alternative sources of protein, from food grown in fields to food produced in vertical greenhouses, from food grown by blokes in gumboots to food grown by MBAs and PhDs wearing lab coats. This scenario is not all some ‘greenie’ fantasy; it represents the advice about the future given by every rural bank, every analyst of overseas food markets, every food technologist. But with change comes opportunity. In my wanderings around Hawke’s Bay, I tend to encounter the farmers and growers who are embracing change, keeping abreast of the exemplar practices and practitioners in their sectors (in NZ and abroad). They are excited by the prospects ahead. And they are growing in numbers.

What kind of change?

Ensuring the resilience of farming, farmers and growers in Hawke’s Bay can be tackled on many fronts – from continuous improvement of farming and growing practices around the edges to more ambitious efforts to change entire farming systems, as well as performance measures and expectations. One farmer might today be ‘experimenting’ on some of his land with a better mix of pasture plants and non-chemical inputs that retains more moisture and builds more nutrition value while costing less. He’s looking incrementally for more profitable and sustainable yield per hectare. Another might be focused on better managing effluent from feed pads, or on fencing streams and riparian planting. He’s aiming to stay ahead of the regulators … and taking advantage of a $30 million matching fund established by HBRC to encourage erosion control and protect streams from cattle. Another might be happy with his yields but is now looking to build up

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 43

LEFT TO RIGHT: Ballance Farm Environment Awards 2019: winners Nick and Nicky Dawson, and finalists Judy Bogaard and Dave Read, Suzanne Hoyt and Pete Swinburn

soil carbon … even thinking about banking some carbon credits and longterm legacy. While another is converting his lowest-yield steep country to forestry to improve his long-term financial gain. Another might be introducing the latest technology to precision map water and nutrient needs across his property to eliminate excessive water or fertilizer use (and cost). He’s looking to get an edge and improve the bottom line. Another ‘agripreneur’ might be trialing an entirely different crop – hemp, kiwifruit or manuka. A $100,000 project is underway now in CHB to examine kiwifruit prospects. Someone else has decided to ‘go organic’, aiming for the premium overseas market that now accounts for $335 million in NZ exports, up 42% over the last three years. And elsewhere a group of sheep and beef farmers has organized a voluntary sub-catchment committee to jointly tackle soil erosion, recognizing soil is their most valuable asset. The point is: all of these represent practical ways to raise the bar for farming and growing in Hawke’s Bay. How do we accelerate this process and gain more ‘converts’?

Where to get help?

Awhile back I was sitting with the former president of HB Federated Farmers, in his ute in the middle of one of his pastures in Onga Onga. Fed Farmers and I are not often on the same page, but I had heard this fellow was trying something different. He showed me how he was experimenting with different plantings and natural inputs to improve his soil while spending less. The positive results were plain to see on the ground, and he

44 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

recited off the top of his head the costs he was saving in the process. He considers the results so far very promising. I asked why he had decided to try this, and where he got the advice he needed. A medical issue in his family had led him and his wife to reconsider and question their use of chemicals on their land. So, a very unique ‘conversion’ motivation. He began independently to read more and watch videos online, particularly with respect to regenerative farming (which focuses on improving soil health naturally). The more he studied, the more he concluded that a different approach deserved testing. What I heard was, effectively, selftaught. So I asked about farm advisors. He said that he, like most farmers, only heard from fertilizer consultants (i.e., salesmen), who were not inclined to recommend alternatives to … more fertilizer or the latest formulation thereof. In other words, not a source for alternative or leading-edge approaches. However, their advice comes free, as opposed to independent farm advisors, who come at a cost. I’ve heard a second observation from farmers skeptical of advisors – the consultants have no skin in the game, they take their fees and move on, long gone if/when their advice doesn’t yield manna from heaven. That’s perhaps an unfair generalisation, but nevertheless a perception that does cause farmer resistance to outside advice. The other source of advice for many farmers and growers comes from their sector organizations – groups like Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ and HortNZ. But these groups are heavily focused on government policy and compliance checklists, often defensively, as

opposed to educating farmers and growers on the ground one-on-one about win/win practices. So, it appears more options are needed.

Another way forward

At the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, two new initiatives are underway that aim to deliver more support for resilient farming practices. One – Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) – involves a re-thinking of HBRC’s approach to engaging with farmers on-property around land use and advancing environmental improvements. HBRC has divided the region into three zones and is substantially expanding its farm advisory staff in each area, soon to reach 20-plus advisors under the current Long-Term Plan. The immediate driver of this effort to engage farmers directly is a $30 million Erosion Control Scheme provided in the LTP over the next ten years to implement erosion control and protect on-farm streams and waterways. The Council’s own funding has been augmented by another $5.4 million from the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund. Approximately 252,000 hectares of Hawke’s Bay hill country has been identified as being at high risk of erosion, with an estimated 3.3 million tonnes of sediment emptying into the region’s waterways every year, ultimately into our estuaries and Hawke Bay. This severe loss of soil has a direct economic impact on farmers, while also degrading water quality and aquatic and terrestrial habitat. Through the Scheme, HBRC advisors will initially be working with farmers to develop farm plans focused on erosion control that involve afforestation,

land retirement, fencing and riparian planting, using a combination of council funding (up to 75% of works cost) and farmer investment. The programme only began last July and had to be organised from the ground up, but already 29 applications are being processed with a total value of $1.9 million, with more inquiries in the pipeline. But as important as erosion control is, this scheme will just open the door to further engagement of HBRC advisors with farmers over time. The Integrated Catchment Management approach is at its core a relationship management programme that will aim to provide trusted advice and support across the broad set of issues farmers face as they must meet regulatory objectives – e.g., water quality, biodiversity, pest control, carbon sequestration – while also improving productivity. As part of this programme, research looking into HB farmer environmental practices, attitudes, motivators and communications preferences is underway to identify the best strategies for future engagement. I think of the ICM structure and programme as the first step toward growing a trusted farm extension service – erosion control and relationship building today … long-term environmental and economic resilience, soil health and carbon sequestration in the future. A second initiative will help to develop the future vision, knowledge and farmer outreach plan.

Future Farming Initiative

HBRC’s current Long-Term Plan also set aside $650,000 over three years to launch

a ‘Future Farming Initiative’ (FFI). The FFI will create a permanent farmer-led “local hub of knowledge, research, education and opportunity for profitable and resilient farming that ensures the health of the region’s soil and water, communities and farmers into the future”. The ultimate question FFI aims to answer: What do we want Hawke’s Bay’s ‘best performance’ to look like in the future with respect to soil health, clean waters, food quality, animal welfare, biosecurity, and profitability? The idea here is that our region’s future farming resilience – and marketplace success – will require systematic attention to identifying evidence-proven, leading-edge farming practices that are directly relevant to Hawke’s Bay conditions and deliver win/win environmental and farm profitability outcomes. These practices, demonstrations and case studies – compiled from our own region and wider NZ and overseas experience – should be promoted persistently via farmer outreach and education, and their adoption and success celebrated by the entire Hawke’s Bay community. The premise of the FFI is that we need a dedicated Hawke’s Bay-focused engine to drive this. Annual awards – like the Ballance awards – and the occasional farm days are fine, but what is lacking is day-to-day ‘evangelism’, getting the best practical knowledge to farmers and supporting their uptake of it. And then communicating and celebrating the resulting successes for marketing advantage and

community-wide support. Over the past ten months, a ‘working group’ of Hawke’s Bay farmers, growers and farm consultants, supported by HBRC, has been refining the Initiative, its mission and scope of activities, taking inventory of comparable efforts (and prospective sector and academic partners), and determining its permanent structure and governance. The group represents a broad range of farming experiences and philosophies, from ‘conventional’ sheep and beef farmers to practitioners of ‘regenerative’ farming. The working group has wound up on the same page, reflected in the problem and mission statement they have agreed upon (see next page). And the next steps will be to complete the formal organisation structure, recruit and appoint the first board, and begin the ‘real work’ in July. While the Integrated Catchment Management approach and the Future Farming Initiative are important enablers to a resilient farming future in Hawke’s Bay, they would be ineffectual if a ‘coalition of the willing’ was not at hand to champion change. That is, a vanguard of farmers and growers who are already committed to raising the bar for themselves and the broader community. From what I see of HB farmers and growers, that vanguard is clearly present, ready and able. Moreover, I believe our region is at a tipping point, where those willing to adopt change enthusiastically are on the cusp of outnumbering those satisfied with where they are and for whom change is a nuisance.

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 45

HB Future Farming Initiative Mission Statement Problem Society today is challenging the environmental cost and impact of producing food. Public concerns include the degradation and loss of our soil and water resources, food safety and soil nutrition, animal welfare and agriculture’s contribution to climate change. A failure to respond to these issues at scale will guarantee a loss of confidence in NZ’s food sector by both the community at large and individual consumers, leading to increased regulatory intervention and consumers migrating to alternative food producers and products. Farming needs to address these public concerns while also contending with on-farm on farm production, production, compliance and cost issues that impact on business viability.

Response Food producers will respond, we believe, by embracing practices practises or systems that lower food’s environmental footprint, and in fact restore soil health, landscape function and water quality, while improving on-farm resilience, productivity and profitability. The Future Farming Initiative aims to help farmers find those solutions and ensure they are persistently presented with the best available and relevant options for navigating this changing and more demanding environment.

Mission Our ambition is to make Hawke’s Bay’s farming the pride of our entire community. To shine a light on our region’s existing and emerging expertise and create a local hub of knowledge, research, education and opportunity for profitable and resilient farming that ensures the health of the region’s soil and water, communities and farmers into the future. Ongoing success will be indicated by measurable improvement in farm performance (environmentally and financially), enthusiastic acceptance of our food products by domestic and overseas consumers, and the pride our community demonstrates for its farming sector.

46 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

Education to feature at Horticulture Field Days “With support from our key partners, we have put together a quality programme of interactive and diverse modules to encourage students to mark horticulture within their top picks for careers.” The Hawke’s Bay A&P Society is unapologetically committed to championing the primary industries. With a genuine commitment to improving outcomes for the sector, a key focus of all events organised by the Society is to create practical actions to address major issues facing stakeholders.

Capability Development Manager for Apples & Pears NZ Erin Simpson said, “the GrowingNZ Innovation programme challenges our most talented students – they are the innovators and capability drivers who will continue to grow the Horticulture Industry into the 21st century.”

The BNZ National Horticultural Field Days 2019, held at the Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds Tomoana over two days 26 & 27 June, presents an opportunity to provide positive initiatives.

The GrowingNZ Innovation Challenge was specifically developed with the Young Enterprise Trust to engage top students from years 9-11 and highlight the prospects within the Primary Sector.

New to the Field Days will be the GrowingNZ Innovation Challenge, this fast-paced programme produced by the Primary Industry Capability Alliance (PICA) will give participants the opportunity to undertake investigative research and use their practical knowledge of science, technology and business to solve a series of real-life problems facing horticulture.

attending from across the north Island. Event Manager Di Roadley said “With support from our key partners, we have put together a quality programme of interactive and diverse modules to encourage students to

NATIONAL The Education Programme will run NATIONAL over two days with Eastern Technical HORTICULTURAL HORTICULTURAL Institute facilitating the ‘Taster Modules’, which will cater for the large DAYS FIELD DAYS FIELD number of secondary school students

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mark horticulture within their top picks for careers.” One of the main reasons Hastings is home to the largest Horticulture focused field days in New Zealand is the importance of the horticultural industry to this region. With national figures from Fresh Facts showing horticulture as being an $8.8 Billion industry at the year ending June 2017, with an aspiration to achieve $10 Billion by next year, there is no doubt the industry is growing exponentially. A&P Society General Manager Sally Jackson acknowledged “We know that the massive growth within the sector has been accompanied by prominent labour shortages right across businesses and regions. The Education Programme at the BNZ National Horticultural Field Days is an effective way we can work alongside businesses to play a significant role in addressing the shortfall of quality people.”

2009-2019

CELEBRATING YEARS

2009-2019

2009-2019 CELEBRATING CELEBRATING

YEARS YEARS 2009-2019

CELEBRATING

Charging Your EV

Taupō

Rangitaiki

Wairoa

For most Hawke’s Bay drivers, 99% of their trips go no farther than Taupō, Waipukurau or Wairoa.

5 Pūtōrino

Te Haroto

So, as this map indicates there’s no reason to fear an ‘empty tank’ if you’re driving an electric vehicle (EV). And indeed, if you’re venturing beyond the ‘hood, you can be equally fearless about continuing on to faraway Wellington or Auckland! For more detail on precise charging locations and plug-in types, go to: www.plugshare.com (where there’s a trip planner tool and an app you can download). After agriculture, transportation is the largest source of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions. So it’s now safe, beneficial and timely to get charged up about EVs.

Tūtira

Eskdale

Napier

Public charging station

50 High power charging station

48 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

Hastings

Tūtira

Ohakune

Waiouru

Napier

Taihape

Hastings

Mangaweka

1 Whanganui Waipukurau Marton

Bulls

Dannevirke

2 Palmerston North

Woodville

Pahiatua

Levin

Eketāhuna

1 2 Ōtaki Paraparumu Waikanae

Masterton Paekakariki

Carterton Greytown

Porirua Featherston Upper Hutt Lower Hutt

Martinborough

Wellington

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 49

YOUR AIRPORT – A GATEWAY TO GROWTH The expansion and redevelopment of Hawke’s Bay Airport into the most vibrant and successful regional airport in the country will help propel our beautiful region forwards, as we prepare to welcome one million passengers by 2025. But the project hit a stumbling block in February, which required some quick and clever thinking to keep this key development on track.

A CREATIVE SOLUTION TO A COMPLEX PROBLEM When the airport’s lead construction contractors, Arrow International, went into voluntary administration in early 2019, years of planning and intellectual property were suddenly at risk – not to mention the incomes and livelihoods of the construction team. Here, Hawke’s Bay Airport’s proactive approach to risk management was entirely evident. Working at speed to resolve the issue, airport management met with sub-contractors and members of the board within days of the event, quickly undertaking to retain key personnel by establishing a whollyowned subsidiary company – Hawke’s Bay Airport Construction Limited. With guidance from Hawke’s Bay Airport Chief Executive Stuart Ainslie, whose wide experience in complex development projects overseas helped inform the decision, and under the auspices of the subsidiary, the project was able to continue near-seamlessly with the same project managers, quantity surveyors, engineers and other team members remaining on board. What’s more, with a Hawke’s Bay company now leading the expansion, this airport is now very much being built by the people of Hawke’s Bay, for the people of Hawke’s Bay – and remains on track for completion in 2020.

THE PROJECT SO FAR Travellers flying in and out of Hawke’s Bay will already be enjoying the benefits of Stage One of this $20.2m project, with the opening of the new arrivals hall and baggage claim area in January. But there is so much more to come. Hawke’s Bay Airport now moves to Stage Two – the construction of new airline counters and airline back-of-house facilities to the south of the existing terminal building. During Stage Three – the final stage of this project – the airport terminal and forecourt area will be further enhanced and imbued with Hawke’s Bay flavour, including the establishment of an expanded range of food, beverage and retail offerings showcasing the very best of our region.

THE TERMINAL

A SENSE OF PLACE

Expect to see major changes over the coming months, as the airport check-in area, being established at the southern end of the terminal, quickly takes shape. The new check-in counters will be operational towards the end of this year.

Each airport project will continue the narrative of the Watchman Road installation under the guidance of local artist and Mana Ahuriri representative Jacob Scott. With his experienced design eye, Hawke’s Bay Airport will embody the very essence of our region, our landscapes, our culture and our people.

ACCESS AND CARPARKING Remodelling of the airport’s internal roading and carpark will commence over the coming months, including the construction of a new roundabout at the juncture between the new entranceway and the airport’s existing ring road. This will improve wayfinding and simplify access to the main carpark. By the end of August, travellers will enjoy new, highly robust, stateof-the-art car park access control technology and will be able to choose from an expanded range of payment methods – including tap-and-go on exit. Reconfigured access points in and out of the carpark will help with vehicle dispersal around the parking areas. As part of Stage Three of the terminal redevelopment, the forecourt will also undergo an upgrade so that the available space in front of the terminal is used more efficiently. The improved design aims to facilitate a smoother transition for passengers who are dropped off and collected from the airport.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE The expansion project is just one of a number of infrastructure projects Hawke’s Bay Airport will undertake in coming years. The team is midway through the development of an overarching Masterplan – designed to ensure safe, customer-focused and sustainable air transport in an out of Hawke’s Bay and to make the very best use of the 183ha site, now and into the future. Hawke’s Bay remains in a period of unprecedented growth and continues to benefit from a competitive airline environment. Over the last three years travellers to and from Hawke’s Bay have enjoyed a 45% increase in seat capacity and a 22% average decrease in fares. That has, in turn, stimulated a 47% increase in overall passenger movements – 740,000 travellers in the most recent 12-month period. www.hawkesbay-airport.co.nz

Hawke’s Bay Airport – your airport built by our people – is this region’s gateway to sustained future growth.

Proud supporters of:

Women Want to Lead The past three years have been quite busy for Hawke’s Bay councils. With the ongoing saga of brown drinking water in Napier, the desecration of a local taonga in Hastings and a foul stench still hanging over Waipukurau, the question is: Have the Bay’s local government representatives done enough for the people to see them serve again? Sophie Price talks to three mayoral hopefuls seeking your vote this year. And make no mistake, the campaigning has begun! Story by Sophie Price

Alex Walker: “I’ve only just begun!” Three years ago Alex Walker put her hand up to lead a council that was rotting. A 12-year sewage problem, a building consent department that no one wanted to work with, a myriad of water issues, and a community that didn’t look too favourably on its local body. “I felt that the leadership in the district was quite one-dimensional,” she says. “[That] the well-being of our communities across the board needed to be paid attention to in whole different ways and actually pulled together. It wasn’t just about one issue. It wasn’t just about a dam.” “To be honest, there were challenges everywhere across the council business and across the funds that council were responsible for. And so, we have had to take quite a patient building block mentality [to] build the vision and build the business from the bottom up.” Has she turned it around? The most pressing issue Walker had to deal with was the Waipukurau wastewater treatment plant. Despite the millions of dollars spent on it, for

years it has consistently failed to meet the consent requirements initially set by the Environment Court. “I made a promise to this district that I would bring fresh eyes to everything. [I] asked the question and pushed and finally got the answer that our waste water treatment ponds were not operating and were never going to operate in the way they needed to,” she says.

“There were challenges everywhere across the council business and across the funds that Council was responsible for.” ALEX WALKER

Walker admits that as governors the CHB councillors did not act fast enough for the community. “We didn’t push and question and challenge enough to get the action as fast as we needed it. So, it was quite some months of disruption to that part of the community. We should’ve managed to

find a way to act faster.” So, Walker fronted up to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and admitted that the treatment plant was not working. “I’ll never forget sitting in front of the Regional Council, telling them about it,” she says. However, it is one thing to admit that you have a problem – fixing it requires action. Following an independent review, Walker claims council is close to landing on a practical option for the district, facing an endof-June court deadline. Any solution to bring the plant up to code will likely end up costing the district as much as $40 million. However, several questions remain: Whatever the fix, can the district pay for it? How will costs be spread across the community – will the whole district be paying for it or just the urban users? Walker admits they will have to work on how to make this affordable for the community. Another inherited problem was the district’s broken Building Consent Authority (BCA). For years allegations floated around about the toxicity of the authority, with the controversy reaching the point that former councillor

MAY/JUNE 2019 • BAYBUZZ • 53

Andy Watts campaigned to have the BCA reviewed. After much animosity between councillors and the authority, an independent audit was conducted into the BCA’s practices. However, Walker says that things have changed for the better, that the BCA is an “incredible success story”. Whether it is or not is for the public to decide. A more current issue is the $250,000 suspensory loan that the council decided ‘in principle’ to give to CHB Water Holdings Ltd (CHBWH) so the $100,000 worth of consents and intellectual property from the defunct Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme could be more thoroughly investigated. Questions have been raised around whether or not this project would serve the whole CHB community and not just a handful of farmers. Walker argues that water storage “has a role to play” in ensuring water security for the district and that it is Council’s responsibility to explore what value is left in the $20 million spent on the RWSS. “If Central Hawke’s Bay had to start that process all over again, we would really struggle.” She says water security goes beyond the handful of farmers that need it to survive and that there were members of CHBWH that did not have land that needed to be irrigated. “[It’s] not about their direct benefit,” she says, adding that when the terms and conditions are drawn up for the loan, they will be strict – with Council directing what the money can be used for, and when/if the money needs to be paid back. However, no decision had been made on the money at the time this article is written, as the matter was out to public consultation. Big decisions for a small council and Walker is aware that relying on the land-based rating system to continue to pay for infrastructure is just not sustainable in the long term. “It’s the burden that sits on local government.” But she says one way to address this was to ensure that those who are sitting at the council table have the right skills to navigate the district through these times, and that the voters have the power to make this happen. Walker says “I have only just begun” in terms of creating lasting change in CHB, looking forward to initiatives such as Thrive – a community wellbeing strategy. She says one of the most important things for her is to help her community recognise that they have the power to

54 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

change anything. “I think I already knew this, but it’s been amplified, that everybody I come in contact with, when you strip it right back, has the same values and the same views on what success looks like for our community in Central Hawke’s Bay. We might disagree on how we get there, but actually when we strip it back, we’re the same. And the talent that resides in a small community is amazing.” “I’m just excited about the future of Central Hawke’s Bay.” And so she seeks a second term. A formidable candidate, not easily challenged.

Sandra Hazlehurst: Righting the Ship Hastings has had a rough few years as well. The district’s council single-handedly put water supplies across New Zealand on alert after one of its bores caused more than 5,000 people to fall ill with campylobacter. This sparked a Royal Inquiry whose raft of recommendations affect all councils in New Zealand. On top of this, Council gave consent for a track to be carved into the side of Te Mata Peak, a path that also carved

a deep divide through the district. While all this was happening, its leader jumped ship to vie for a MP position. All eyes then fell on his deputy Sandra Hazlehurst, who was voted in as the Hastings District Mayor midterm – watching to see if she could right the battered Hastings Council. “There is a significant change between the previous mayor Lawrence [Yule] and the vision the council has today,” says Hazlehurst. She says the council has had to rebuild and regroup, understand what is important to the people and then come together with a vision to deliver. “And there has been a lot of change and a lot of challenges, water being only one of them.” But it was the big one, and one Hazlehurst had to solve fast. With the pipework from Hastings to Havelock North completed, time will tell if the $50 million set aside for new water infrastructure for the district will be enough. Then there is the Three Waters Review – drinking water, storm water and sewage – the council is undertaking that will feed into the national policy overhaul. It has been a long process, and while it is not finished yet, things are happening. Next, Hazlehurst had to reunite her

community after a council blunder – issuing a consent to carve a track up the back of Te Mata Peak without consulting with tangata whenua or the public. Not only were key stakeholders not consulted before the track was cut, in an effort to fix the situation Council has spent around half a million dollars, and it hasn’t finished yet. Hazlehurst defends her council, saying consents are dealt with by regulatory staff – that governance has nothing to do with this process. “We made a mistake. It should have been a publicly notified resource consent, tangata whenua should have been consulted and then all our community could have had their voices heard. That was a part of the process that was missing.” She says dividing the community is the last thing anyone wanted. But it has been and now Council is doing what should have happened from the beginning – holding a publicly notified resource consent process to remove the track, with the consent being put before an independent commissioner. As soon as Hazlehurst worked through the Te Mata Peak debacle, a landslide at Cape Kidnappers saw two

people hospitalised and the popular walk to the gannet colony closed to the public. Mindful of what happened with Te Mata Peak, Hazlehurst swung the other way and had more than 100 people in the council chambers for a fourhour meeting so the governors could hear everyone’s view on how Council should proceed. “The biggest thing I have learned is to listen to our people and to make

“There is a significant change between the previous mayor Lawrence [Yule] and the vision the council has today.” SANDRA HAZLEHURST

sure our councillors are informed and are a part of every decision-making process,” she says. Another learning from both affairs for Hazlehurst was the importance of

having the region’s tangata whenua involved in any discussion that affects the community as a whole. For Hazlehurst this had to be more than just lip service, there had to be a culture change within her council. This has begun with staff having access to bi-weekly te reo lessons. A more sweeping change was introduced in March with councillors voting to appoint Māori representatives with voting rights to several standing committees. “We are very, very culturally aware now,” she says. “We’re bringing fundamental cultural change into the organisation.” However some argue this is one more case of Council acting on an important issue without the public consultation Hazlehurst now touts. Another partnership Hazlehurst has been working on involves Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta. She sees the Minister’s offer to pay local bodies to deliver more for their communities as a way forward to “ensure that we don’t take on too much as local government.” She says this approach is already yielding tangible results. “Last year we got 125 young people into full time

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sustainable employment,” referring to a project that government funded, but Council led. Hazlehurst seeks another three years in the top job because she hasn’t finished making the positive changes she knows she can for the district. “There are just incredible opportunities here and so taking those opportunities and expanding them to the wider district to make a better place is my motivation.” What does a “better place’ mean? Hazlehurst wants to build 1,000 new homes for the district, combat climate change, protect the region’s soils and make the wellbeing of the people a top priority. “As a district we are enjoying strong economic growth, but we need to ensure everyone shares in our economic prosperity,” she says. Will a contender or two emerge to challenge her record and aspirations? Stay tuned.

56 • BAYBUZZ • MAY/JUNE 2019

Kirsten Wise: Re-balancing the scales Many in Napier assert that the voice of the people of Napier has been talked over, dismissed or otherwise ignored at the city’s council table in recent years. Not only do these constituents believe they are not getting any attention from the representatives they have voted in, they feel their views are ignored time and again by their council on issues that affect them. Fairly or not, this is the widespread perception, and in politics, perceptions count. “What I’m constantly hearing from people out in the community is that they don’t feel that they are being

listened to. They feel that Council’s just got their plan and they hand down that plan come hell or high water, and they are not going to listen to what the community wants,” says councillor Kirsten Wise. As mayor, Wise says this will be one of the first things that will change. An early contender for the 2019 Napier mayoralty race, this loyal ‘born and bred’ Napierite has had an interest in politics since the age of three, when she proclaimed to her parents that she was “going be the first woman prime minister of New Zealand.” As that honour went to Jenny Shipley, Wise instead turned her attention to local politics, winning a seat on the District Health Board in 2010. It was here fellow Board member and former Napier mayor Barbara Arnott asked if she would be interested in running for Napier City Council – and while national politics was in the back of her mind – local politics was in her heart. “I just fell in love with it,” she said. “You do really feel like you’re in a position where you can make change.” But for Wise it is more than that – it is also about being able to connect directly with the local community. “About being the voice for people that can’t or don’t have the ability, or don’t have the confidence, to do it themselves.” Six years as councillor means Wise is no novice when it comes to the issues that affect Napier. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. She claims if she were to vote again on projects such as the velodrome, the outcome would have been very different, including a less drawn-out process. In hindsight, would other things have turned out differently? Because in her six years, Wise has been a part of a council that has spent millions on feasibility studies for projects that never see the light of day. Part of a council that cannot get its water right for the people who drink it. Part of a council who thought a conference centre was more important than a war memorial. Part of a council that saw a disruptive loss of staff. And now she is part of a council that, at the time of this writing, proposes to increase rates by a possible 6.4% to fund projects like a controversial new aquatic centre – an increase that could hit many of her fixed-income constituents hard. Laundry list aside, Wise claims she has learnt from past mistakes, citing the War Memorial as an example of

Wise wants to know why Council is committing $50 million to a new pool (she believes Onekawa could be upgraded to be fit for purpose) when that money could be spent on a new library (there is only $15 million set aside for this) and a new civic building (there is no money set aside for this). Perhaps most importantly for Napier residents, the money could go towards fixing their water. Wise says there have been valid reasons for chlorinating the town’s drinking water supply, but she’s critical of how poorly these reasons were communicated to the public.

Wise says governors need enough information to be able to do their jobs effectively; it is this lack of information that leads NCC to make bad decisions. “In this current term there has been too much control in the hands of council staff.” Wise says this is the one thing that could have been done better – recognition that it is the mayor and councillors who provide the direction to staff, who then take that direction and implement it. “I think that it’s been a little bit the other way around,” she says. “So that’s something, again, that definitely needs

“We’ve done some fantastic things as a council. But I also think that we have had far too much of a focus on governance and not enough focus on democracy.” KIRSTEN WISE

She notes that Council has identified $8 million worth of water projects they can pull forward into the next 12 months, but questions whether this is enough. “Let’s push out some nonessential projects because we have just got to get the basics right.” Wise says the culture at Council must change, as does the current local model where CEOs are essentially in charge. “We’re constantly told as governors that ‘no, we’re not going to give you that information, that’s operational’.”

to be improved and changed.” So if she is elected mayor – who will be running the council – Kirsten Wise or CEO Wayne Jack? “Me. End of story. He may find that challenging, letting go of control,” she says. “For me it is very much a team approach … it will be the elected public servants who will be running our council.” With an ‘open seat’ for the Napier mayoralty, no doubt one or two other candidates will vie to lead the team.

C&C001665WiB

how she has changed. She regrets being on the wrong side initially on the War Memorial issue – but she is proud of the fact that she owned this mistake and then set about to rectify it. She says after two years, Napier can now move forward with a community-led project that all stakeholders are happy with. The War Memorial issue underscored for Wise just how little the community’s point of view was taken into account by Council when making big decisions. “We’ve done some fantastic things as a council. But I also think that we have had far too much of a focus on governance and not enough focus on democracy. And certainly, if I am successful with the mayoralty, that will change, there will be much more of a community-centric culture.” For Wise, this would mean consultations that are not about ticking boxes, instead a more transparent process that truly engages the community and validates their input. This may be cold comfort to people who do not want to lose the Onekawa pool – but Wise, along with five other councillors did their best to hold their ground. It was six for and six against the move to the new site on Prebensen Drive; Mayor Bill Dalton used his casting vote to settle the issue. With a 51% to 49% split in submissions on the project, Wise says Council doesn’t have a mandate to build a “big flash pool” that will cost each ratepayer an extra $67 a year, plus an increased entrance fee. “A huge part of our community will not be able to afford to go there,” she says.

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Touch Wood Reusing Our Residues

Story by Keith Newman New Zealand has been a tree farm for the world since the late 1700s when traders acquired native timbers for ship’s masts and building material. Today we export so much that disposing of our wood waste has become a largely unrealised energy opportunity. Commercial logging and processing is our third largest export trade covering around 1.8 million hectares with about $5 billion earned annually from shipping to Australia, Japan, Korea, China and the US. It’s a messy business, leaving massive amounts of offcuts, slash and waste. And more to come with an additional 100 million trees being planted annually as part of the Billion Trees programme, helping offset our climate change responsibilities. Wood is a proven energy source for boiler systems at sawmills and pulp and paper plants around the country, but around 95% of all industrial heat, outside the wood processing industry still comes from fossil fuels. Havelock North-based energy consultant Christian Jirkowsky recently negotiated part of a $45 million contract to design, supply and commission “the most advanced energy centre in the southern hemisphere” using wood biomass to provide steam for Christchurch Hospital. The deal between the Ministry

Christian Jirkowsky. Photo: Tom Allan

of Health and Austrian-owned Polytechnik Biomass Energy, funded by the Government’s earthquake insurance settlement funds, will replace coal-fired boilers at the hospital, placed at risk through the 2011 earthquakes. The local announcement came just as Germany, one of the world’s biggest consumers of coal, announced it would shut down all 84 of its coal-fired power plants over the next 19 years to meet its climate change commitments. Meanwhile the Ministry of Education has recommended at least 60 schools that still use coal-fired furnaces for heating move to renewable wood energy, including pellets. The price of conversion is seen as reasonable but pellets can be double the cost of coal and schools often struggle with where to be best spend often tight budgets. An Energy Efficiency and Conservation Agency (EECA) pilot helped fund 31 schools to convert during 2007-2010 with the ministry paying for fuel but that assistance is no longer available.

Third world heating

While we might be a first world country when it comes to power, Jirkowsky, says we’re still “third world when it comes to industrial heat”. His comments are aimed particularly at dairy corporates. “If we are to have any chance of meeting our climate change agreements over the next 10-15-years, we need to target animal agriculture ... the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.” Jirkowsky, general manager of Polytechnik Biomass Energy New Zealand, believes government investment in the Christchurch Hospital installation could be a trailblazer, incentivising others to head in the same direction.

“While we might be a first world country when it comes to power, we’re still third world when it comes to industrial heat.” CHRISTIAN JIRKOWSKY, POLYTECHNIK BIOMASS ENERGY NZ

He and his New Zealand team previously installed two large wood boilers at the smaller Burwood Hospital and will be responsible for sales, service and management of the new deal through supply depots in Christchurch and Havelock North. The renewable energy champion had hoped Hawke’s Bay might have shown more interest in moving to woody biomass, but other than a few commercial glasshouses he’s had limited interest. Jirkowsky says consultants who’ve recommended coal and gas for twenty years continue to do so because biomass doesn’t meet the short-term return on investment demanded by large companies, despite the long-term benefits for industry and the environment. And he suggests many local managers of big companies aren’t empowered to make those decisions, regardless of how old or inefficient existing plants are or how high the operating costs are. However, the Christchurch rebuild, says Jirkowsky, has provided an opportunity “to try and get things right ... by installing new and future-proofed systems.”

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Nelson Forests sawmill near Blenheim; Burwood Hospital Christchurch. Photos: Polytechnik Biomass Energy New Zealand.

Far less emissions

When Christchurch Hospital’s new Energy Centre is online from 2020, its two 7.8 MW capacity boilers will use about 45,000 tonnes of biomass annually and emit far less carbon dioxide than fossil fuel-based burners. On biomass energy plants wood will be screened to remove dirt, rocks and fines, then processed through a chipper or shredder. The main fodder will be untreated sawdust, wood chips, bark, pallets (mostly with nails magnetically removed) and horticultural and garden waste with a high green content. The resulting heat-energy exchange will boil water, create steam or thermal oil for industrial or commercial heating and drying plants. Brian Cox, executive officer of the

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Bioenergy Association applauds the Government for “putting its money where its mouth is” after signalling it wants to reduce emisisons through process heat. “It is encouraging to see that its own investment decisions are making Canterbury a role model on how 20 petajoules (PJ) of coal and gas could be replaced by biomass fuel by 2050.” One of the big hurdles to wood burners has been proving there’s a sustainable supply of fuel. “For years people said there’s not enough fuel ... that’s no longer an argument,” says Jirkowsky. There are now 6-8 potential suppliers in Christchurch – sawmills, forestry owners, wood processors and horticultural companies with pruning and other waste, creating a competitive market to earn extra revenue.

Don’t waste waste

He cites the recently closed Waverley Sawmill, which filled up whole gullies across many hectares, 5-20 metres deep, covered it with top soil, then used it for dairying. “They didn’t know what to do with their wood waste.” And Jirkowsky says some forestry companies should be doing a better job of collecting their wood waste to avoid environmental disasters such as Tolaga Bay, where it ended up in the sea before being beached. “Cleaning up the slash on beaches and burning wood waste contaminated by seawater produces dioxin and HCI emissions ... 10 to 20 times higher than any combustion system.” While Jirkowsky celebrates every big bio-energy win, he says there are many

dairy companies still installing coal and gas-fired boilers. He cites Oceana Dairy in South Canterbury installing a new 55 MW coal-fired boiler and Open Country Dairy installing gas boilers for its North Island plants. Jirkowsky says the Christchurch Hospital project will offset about “ten times more CO2” than Fonterra’s Brightwater site in Nelson, which co-fires coal and woody biomass. Canterbury still has 30-years of consents for large coal-fired boilers for milk powder processing, food and beverage manufacturers and a university. An Environment Canterbury list of coal consumers shows Fonterra’s Clandeboye plant in South Canterbury will continue to burn up to 64 tonnes of coal an hour through its seven boilers, although the company says no new coal boilers will be installed after 2030. ECan chairman Steve Lowndes wants a speedier transition for the dairy industry in particular, suggesting there’s a risk to trade as international consumers are favouring low-carbon products.

Pan Pac wood power

One of the country’s biggest users of wood energy is Pan Pac Forest Products at Whirinaki, north of Napier, which has

“Consultants who’ve recommended coal and gas for twenty years continue to do so because biomass doesn’t meet the short-term return on investment demanded by large companies, despite the long-term benefits for industry and the environment.” CHRISTIAN JIRKOWSKY, POLYTECHNIK BIOMASS ENERGY NZ

used biomass boilers to generate electricity and provide steam for its pulp and processing plant since the 1970s. Pan Pac cuts and mills a large percentage of the forests between Central Hawke’s Bay and Wairoa, mostly exported as logs, finished lumber or wood pulp. “The boilers generate steam as the main energy for the pulp mill and kilns,” says environmental manager,

Dale Eastham. There’s an instant return on investment “because we feed off our own waste and the transport cost is about 100 metres” with offcuts and trimmings from processed logs and two bin trucks regularly carting slash from forest sites. It’s all put through ‘the hogger’, a huge woodchipper and bulldozed into storage. “Our two boilers go through a couple of hundred tonnes of wood a day.” However, there are times when there’s a deficit. “When we’re marginally short we have to bring in waste wood from other areas including sawmills and forests and we even accept wood waste from the public.” Pan Pac’s resource consent is for untreated wood waste with emissions strictly monitored. It has another site in the South Island with a more advanced Polytechnik boiler, which is cleaner burning and semi-automatic with no need for constant on-site monitoring. Pan Pac’s energy options are limited – electricity off the grid, gas, hydro or biomass. It can operate in a limited fashion on “relatively cheap” gas back-up, but that requires a pipeline. “Not so long ago a pipeline broke and

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Pac Pac’s wood processing plant is powered by its own waste.

that caused huge problems.” Eastham says there’s definitely a turn away from coal. “The cost and requirements for burning coal these days are getting more onerous.”

Options underplayed

Jirkowsky believes bioenergy should be part of the country’s overall renewable energy plan, but has struggled to get a meeting with Climate Change Minister James Shaw to explain “what’s out there and what’s possible”. He’d like to see greater financial incentives for waste stream energy plants such as wood energy boilers, biogas from digestors and the creation of biochar. Reducing our reliance on imported charcoal through carbonating agricultural waste and wood residue might be a step in the right direction. The resulting biochar, he says, would be good for barbeques, soil conditioning to store water and prevent nitrogen leaching and for cattle, cow and chicken feed to reduce methane emissions and odour. Jirkowsky believes a large industrial plant could quickly replace imported charcoal, mostly from “unsustainable deforesting” in Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia. He insists we need to get a better handle on repurposing our wood waste. In Otago, schools have wood energy plants for heating, something

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Jo Field and Dale Eastham, the environment team at Pan Pac.

“The cost and requirements for burning coal these days are getting more onerous.”

increase its capacity. Up the coast in Gisborne companies are investigating forest residue for heating and humidity control of large glasshouses to grow tomatoes and provide jobs. Jirkowsky suggests it would make good business sense to use orchard and vineyard waste for generating energy for industrial plants at Awatoto or heating swimming pools. The current approach of burning or mulching chemically treated material only adds to air pollution and soil contamination. Jirkowsky’s not holding his breath though. While major in-roads are made in Canterbury “gas is still cheap enough and the cost of carbon emissions still too low” for large industry in Hawke’s Bay to consider replacing their fossil-fuelled systems. He laments, that despite advances in wood biomass use, “we’re still 10-15 years behind Europe in using these technologies”.

DALE EASTHAM, PAN PAC

adjacent schools in Havelock North ought to consider. And he notes Nature’s Flame, New Zealand’s biggest wood pellet plant in Taupō, is about to significantly

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.

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

Eating to save yourself … And the planet Meat eaters of the world … lay down your knives! You are destroying your health and the health of the planet. That essentially is the message of the EAT- Lancet Commission, which convened 37 leading scientists from 16 countries in disciplines ranging across human health, agriculture and environmental sustainability “to develop global scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production”. Lancet will be familiar to most as perhaps the world’s most prestigious general medical journal. They probably didn’t pick a bunch of wild-eyed radicals for this assignment. Here is the warning of one of those scientists, Prof Walter Willett MD, of Harvard University’s School of Public Health: “Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts. Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%. A diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods confers both improved health and environmental benefits.” Unless we move in this direction, says the Commission’s report, “today’s children will inherit a planet that has been severely degraded and where much of the population will increasingly suffer from malnutrition and preventable disease”. The report, titled Food in The Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems, proceeds down two tracks, describing itself as “the first attempt to set universal scientific targets for the food system that apply to all people and the planet.” First, consumption – the Report

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relies on the best global science relating nutrition to health outcomes to identify a core diet that, with geographic and cultural variations, would meet the caloric requirements of the world’s population in the most health-beneficial way. Second, production – it then describes the strategies needed to produce this food on a global scale in a manner the planet can sustain. Mixing good news and bad, the Report says: “Food is the single strongest lever to optimize human health and environmental sustainability on Earth. However, food is currently threatening both people and planet.”

The planetary health plate

According to the Report, more than 820 million people lack sufficient food, with many more consuming unhealthy diets. “Unhealthy diets now pose a greater risk to morbidity and mortality than unsafe sex, alcohol, drug and tobacco use combined.” The Report estimates that globally approximately 11 million deaths per year could be prevented by changing toward healthy diets, representing 19% to 24% of total deaths among adults. So, what should we be eating? To the moderately health-conscious individual, there are no surprises here. “The planetary health plate should consist by volume of approximately half a plate of vegetables and fruits; the other half, displayed by contribution to calories, should consist of primarily whole grains, plant protein sources, unsaturated plant oils, and (optionally) modest amounts of animal sources of protein.” In this global diet, dairy foods constitute about 6% of calories, while beef, lamb and pork together would account

for barely 1%, with chicken and other poultry another 2.5%. [I wonder what NZ Beef and Lamb, Fonterra, DairyNZ – even Bostock Brothers Chicken – think of that future scenario? But that’s a different article.] The Report notes that these are caloric ranges that provide ample scope for variation across geographies, cultures and demographics, both population-wide and for individuals. But the ‘planetary plate’ does provide a global consumption target against which optimal food production strategies can then be devised.

Filling the plate

The Report warns: “Global food production threatens climate stability and ecosystem resilience. It constitutes the single largest driver of environmental degradation and transgression of planetary boundaries … A radical transformation of the global food system is urgently needed.” The good news is that the Commission finds that global capacity exists for sustainable food systems to provide healthy diets to an estimated 10 billion population by 2050 without exceeding biophysical limits. But with this proviso: “However, even small increases in the consumption of red meat or dairy foods would make this goal difficult or impossible to achieve.” Five strategies, some sure to raise Hawke’s Bay eyebrows, are proposed to meet this goal. First, action international and national commitments to the dietary shift recommended above: “Increased consumption of plant-based foods – including fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains – while in many settings substantially limiting animal source foods.” Effectively, a massive social re-education regarding

W ho le gr ain s

“Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts. Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%.”

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PROF WALTER WILLETT MD, HARVARD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH:

Animal sourced protein

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improved management of fisheries and fish stocks and expansion of aquaculture production. Fifth, cut global food losses (i.e., before food reaches the consumer) and consumer waste in half. “Actions include improving post-harvest infrastructure, food transport, processing and packing, increasing collaboration along the supply chain, training and equipping producers, and educating consumers.”

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healthy food, backed by appropriate food marketing. Second, move from producing high quantities of food to producing healthy and diverse food. This would include a shift away from producing high volume crops used for animal feed. Third, sustainably intensify food production to increase high-quality output. “This would entail at least a 75% reduction of yield gaps on current cropland, radical improvements in fertilizer and water use efficiency, recycling of phosphorus, redistribution of global use of nitrogen and phosphorus, implementing climate mitigation options including changes in crop and feed management, and enhancing biodiversity within agricultural systems.” Fourth, feed humanity from existing agricultural land (i.e., zero expansion into remaining natural ecosystems, including species-rich forests). Half the planet, 50% of Earth, should be protected as intact ecosystems. Plus,

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Dare I say it … food for thought in a region driven by primary production.

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

500 Southland Road, Hastings 4122 P: (06) 873 1111 F: (06) 873 1112

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

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N DAV I D T R UB R I D G E

What Can We Do? It is a sunny Saturday March 16 as I write this. Yesterday was New Zealand’s darkest day as hate and terror erupted in Christchurch, at the same time as school children’s protests against climate change inaction spread round the globe. And I am trying not to hear the agonising cries of my daughter-in-law as she gives birth to our first grandchild in another part of our house. In the garden a bell bird calls out its three pure notes. It is a moment that is full of too much emotion. Death … birth … and an ongoing battle for the future … while nature sings on. It feels as if the finely woven threads of human culture are unravelling. Homo sapiens overcame its early survival challenges to become the super dominant species it is now, because of its social bonds. Unlike all other species before us, we learnt to communicate so that our cultural knowledge could be passed on from generation to generation, growing as it went. We came to believe that we were the pinnacle of evolution, that we were above nature and had only to answer to our own laws. Then came the Anthropocene, the new era in which life on the planet is controlled, not by geological or astronomical events, but by humans. Ironically, this brought home the crushing realisation that we are not separate after all, but just one more life form on Earth, totally dependent on nature. And this is causing those vital social bonds to shatter, resulting in suspicion, hatred and brutal selfishness. The school children’s street protests are laying out a claim for their future, for them and my almost-granddaughter. They are screaming – “We want you to panic” – when all they see is indifference and inaction from world leaders. They are right to be afraid because, as we are going, it will get a lot worse and it is they who will suffer.

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The Paris agreement of 2015 was based on a limit of 2C temperature rise, with an “aspiration of 1.5C”. Leading climate scientists now say that we have just 12 years to avoid “catastrophic environmental breakdown”. But we can only do this if the limit is 1.5C rise (UN’s IPCC Report Oct 2018), so even 2C is hazardous. Now we hear that the “incredibly conservative” IPCC report left out key dangers: such as a tipping point which could be reached very soon in the Arctic. If we trigger that we could send the world into a runaway spiral of climate change way beyond our worstcase scenarios. Warnings about the acute dangers of inaction are now coming, not from fringe greenies, but from establishment bodies like the IMF, insurance companies and the UN. World leaders are being told they have a “moral obligation to act”. And yet … unbelievably, still nothing happens. 2018 saw an all-time high of carbon emissions pushing us towards a 3C rise. Why? I have often imagined this scene: a new leader is voted into office on an exciting idealistic agenda. It could have been Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama or even Jacinda Ardern. They sit down at their new desk thinking, ‘This is the moment, now let’s …’ Then a line of men in shiny suits sidles in and stands in a ring, looming over the desk: “Sir (or Madam), you need to know how things really happen around here”. The world we live in today is not run by elected leaders or governments, it is run by big business who pay millions of dollars to get sympathetic candidates elected to act in their interests. John Key did not run this country; he was too willing to further the interests of money dealers and corporation bosses. We were patronisingly assured that it would benefit us all – but of course it didn’t. The “trickle down”

went the other way with much more than a trickle. In the 2015-2016 US election cycle, oil, gas, and coal companies spent $354 million in campaign contributions and lobbying and received $29.4 billion in federal subsidies over those same years – an 8,200% return on investment. As I write, the IMF has released what they call a “shocking” and “extremely robust” estimate of the true cost of fossil fuels in 2015. They say that fossil fuel companies received global subsidies of US$5.3 trillion. This is equivalent to $10 million a minute — more than the entire world spent on health care. Similarly, the EU revealed that Britain spent €12 billion a year supporting fossil fuel industries and just €8.3 billion on renewable energy. What is going on?! We know for a fact that burning fossil fuels causes climate change, yet our governments continue to pour our money into supporting it. This is a criminal act and an existential threat against future life on Earth. The school children get it. Why don’t more people? Why can’t we elect leaders with some moral integrity? Because we are fractured; we are mired in divisive rancour that produces hate killings; we are paralysed by self-satisfied complacency. Those who depend on the status quo to stash away millions in tax-free havens want it like this – they want people like Trump to sow hatred and discord so that we are not united against them, and instead fight each other. The haves are taught to despise the have-nots and to build walls to protect themselves. It is OK to hate “the other” – they do not deserve your compassion. The extraction industry has tripled since 1970 while global population has only doubled. Extraction and primary processing of metals/minerals are responsible for 20% of health impacts from air pollution and 26% of global carbon emissions. Together with oil, coal

The Pilbara region in Western Australia has some of the world’s most ancient natural landscapes, with over 700 historic Indigenous archaeological sites and 10,000 rock engravings (Petroglyphs). But The Pilbara also hosts Australia’s ‘engine room’, where massive extraction of oil, salt, natural gas, iron ore and manganese occurs.

and gas extraction they produce 53% of the world’s carbon emissions – even before accounting for the fuel burned. This shows how the worst carbon emissions hide behind the products we use, like our phones. We have just too much stuff and we don’t need it. What can we do? Our best, and I would say only, hope for the future lies in the Green New Deal, proposed here by the Greens and in the US by some Democrats. Like the successful original New Deal of 1930s America (the result of a much smaller ecological crisis, the dust bowl), it is based on the belief that our current financial/economic system

is the cause of our problems and unless it is changed, we will go nowhere. I believe that this is our last shot at avoiding climate catastrophe. Simultaneously, as I have written before in this magazine, we have to start from the bottom up to develop stronger and caring local communities. Communities that accept racial, political and age differences — we are all in this together and will only survive if we pull together. In New Zealand we have a better chance than most of doing this, with a relatively sympathetic government for now. If one outcome of the

Christchurch massacre is stronger communities then that will be something positive to take from it. In Hawke’s Bay we can take greater control of our lives by shutting out multinational businesses and supporting local ones. We can listen to Māori when they say, “I am the land and the land is me”. We can drive much less and switch to electric cars, refuse plastics, stop buying so much stuff, eat less meat, fly less … and care more, care for each other, for the land and for the future. In this way we can weave back together warp and weft, aho and kanoi, into a resilient cloak of community.

P E W F A

06 870 3598 butchery@theorganicfarm.co.nz theorganicfarm.co.nz organicfarmbutchery 300 Eastbourne Street, Hastings, Hawke’s Bay

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

The Value of Urban Trees Urban trees offer a sense of place and a connection with the past. Environmentally crucial and a cultural touchstone, they have a massive role to play in urban New Zealand. In terms of their environmental benefits, trees provide habitat, sequester carbon, mitigate stormwater runoff, cool the air and surfaces, and reduce solar radiation by up to 90%. Manchester researchers in Research Gate 2014 reported: “The physical benefits of urban trees are well known … they intercept airborne particles, thereby reducing pollution levels, they provide shade and cooling, and they intercept rainfall, reducing runoff and surface flooding.” They found that trees “reduced runoff by 60%”, their shade cooled urban populations by up to 4-7°C, and cooled surfaces by 15-20°C. The study reported that trees’ evapotranspiration (whereby trees release water into the air) “removed up to 50% of the energy from incoming radiation.” Shading by trees is the other cooling effect. Trees that are well-placed reduce building air-conditioning costs by 20-50%. In climates characterised by cold winters and hot summers, deciduous trees near homes and other buildings offer cooling in the summertime, and solar gain in winter.

Well-being

In terms of human benefits, increasing evidence indicates that trees considerably improve our mood, sociability, well-being and health. Trees are shown to help reduce stress, improve our attention capacity and assist illness recovery. An article on human health effects in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2013) said there was a “convincingly strong” connection between

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100 million Michigan trees decimated by an invasive beetle, and the coinciding increase of heart disease and pneumonia for populations nearby. It is surmised that people’s health deteriorated due to tree losses and the connected adverse well-being effects.

University of Washington research indicates larger trees on residential properties, as well as street trees, can add 3-15% to market values. Homes adjacent to “naturalistic parks and open spaces” transact at 8-20% greater market value than homes not near trees. The research review Metro Nature, Environmental Health, and Economic Value by Kathleen Wolf and Alicia Robbins suggests urban green or “metro nature” places have significant linkages to a community’s economic outcomes via well-being and prosperity effects. Wolf and Robbins suggest improved valuation tools are necessary for making better decisions about metro nature investment. This theme includes creating and preserving urban parks and woodlands, and in general growing and nurturing urban trees. The effects of trees are significant, and our knowledge of trees and their benefits is ever-developing. What we do know so far makes a compelling case for increased urban trees and greening. Yet urban tree losses in NZ are widespread. For example, the Waitematā

Local Boards conducted a recent study for the following suburbs: Arch Hill, Freemans Bay, Grey Lynn, Parnell, Ponsonby, Western Springs and Westmere. The report shows a canopy loss of 61 hectares in 2006-16, which is represented by 12,879 identified individual tree removals. The actual total is likley considerably greater.

Economic value

University of Washington research indicates larger trees on residential properties, as well as street trees, can add 3-15% to market values. Homes adjacent to “naturalistic parks and open spaces” transact at 8-20% greater market value than homes not near trees. Softening tree protection rules might have gains for an individual property owner or developer, but a corresponding greater economic loss to the neighbourhood – before any accounting for environmental damages. In cases of insurance claims, the monetary value of trees lost must be established. The Standard Tree Evaluation Method uses an assessment score and considers costs to buy and plant trees, as well as maintenance costs and tree age. The STEM valuation, in one example, assesses $9,000 for a Hastings single amenity tree 25 years of age. The STEM valuation finding may not coincide with a real estate market valuation before and after trees, given property sales evidence. The City of Melbourne tree valuation method is an alternative to STEM. The Melbourne method is based on trunk diameter and considers a tree’s amenity setting. In one example an inner-suburb pin oak (Quercus palustris) age 30-years with a trunk diameter of 0.53 metres, is valued at $32,200. Urban tree values climb considerably

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: 144 years Frimley Park necklace poplar (Populus deltoides subsp. Monilifera ‘Frimley’), the largest of its type in the world and largest deciduous tree in New Zealand. Photo: Pat Turley. 159 years Tasmanian blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus subsp. globulus) at St Columba Church in Havelock North; 145 years pin oak (Quercus palustris) at St Luke’s Church in Havelock North saved 40 years ago assisted by Joe Leete; 90 years Canary Island date palms (Phoenix carnariensis) on Kennedy Road, Napier. Photos: Tom Allan.

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Keirunga Havelock North woodland oaks in autumn – mainly English oak (Quercus robur) and red oak (Q. rubra). Photo: Tim Whittaker. tim.co.nz

for larger and older amenity trees. The added market value of orchard trees to land is considered alongside other development including power and water installations, fencing, roadways, buildings, and housing. Similar to the STEM and the Melbourne method, the basis for assessing the value of an orchard tree involves evaluating its qualities and the stage of its development. The cost of reinstating trees and other land improvements has an influence on market values. But cost and market value rarely coincide, indicating either a development profit or loss. Such as for apple varieties now fashionable versus trees no longer in vogue. Heritage values that communities ascribe to heritage buildings, artworks and unique trees usually exceed costbased or market economic factors by a considerable margin. Hastings has a Gingko tree, about 140 years of age, that has a unique whakapapa. The irreplaceable female Gingko and its history are highly-treasured, notwithstanding the seasonal stinky tendencies of the tree. It can be fairly said that all trees are unique.

Keirunga oaks

Arthur’s Pass Gulley oaks at Keirunga in Havelock North are a community treasure. Keirunga is a gifted woodland holding more than 100 legacy trees

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including 80-year-old oaks. There is no other public land, oaks-dominant woodland quite like this in Hawke’s Bay. Keirunga is a unique and nationally significant heritage place. Hastings Council is the custodian of this intergenerational community asset. The STEM and Melbourne valuation methods would determine the collective value of the Keirunga woodland trees of at least $2,000,000 if not $5,000,000, or possibly greater. The Keirunga oaks are by any measure a significant public asset and they are non-replaceable. Their planter and benefactor George Nelson is deceased, and his generosity and legacy was a one-time gift. The value of trees to our planet and people is multifaceted. The well-known plea “Save the trees” is increasingly appreciated – over 4,000 people signed the save the Keirunga oaks petition. In the past 24-years in New Zealand there have been 10 tree-related fatalities not involving tree-cutting. This included one on a council reserve and one on DoC land. The others were road-related accidents such as trees striking cars. The chance of being killed by a falling tree in NZ is 1:10 million – that is the same chance of being killed by lightning. Council thinking needs to shift away from seeing trees as a problem and

cost, and instead seeing them as an asset that is worthy of investment. The costs of properly managing well-grown trees are usually justified by the benefits these trees deliver. There is also the massive costs and lead-time necessary to establish significant trees. Councillors need sound information and they need to ensure staff are properly accountable for our public and urban places trees. Hawke’s Bay’s heritage trees that represent our local communities, their stories and whakapapa are very valuable, and these trees are irreplaceable. Like artworks and treasured buildings, they tell a story – our very old trees are part of us. Urban trees offer incalculable benefits and value to everybody. The injudicious cutting of public trees should always be firmly opposed, and the felling of amenity and heritage trees should be the absolute last resort – surely this is something we can all agree on.

Pat Turley is current volunteer chair of the Maraetōtara Tree Trust’s riparian plantings and principal of Hawke’s Bay valuation and property strategy company Turley & Co. His farming background includes pipfruit growing and forest harvesting in NZ and the UK, and he grows exotic and native trees.

The Kirkpatrick family with mentors Alex Ensor and Marianne Greyling. Photo: Florence Charvin

BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS HAWKE’S BAY Every day in Hawke’s Bay, children are failing to attend school, subjected to domestic violence, are lost and lonely, lack an adult role model, and need one-on-one support. There are also children living with their family or carer, who for a number of reasons, need additional outside support. Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawke’s Bay (BBBS) offers one-toone positive mentoring for children in our community. Currently 25 young people, aged between 6 and 12 are buddied up with a volunteer mentor in Hawke’s Bay. Mentors spend a minimum of one hour each week doing fun activities and providing friendship and support to help their young buddies develop confidence, communication and interpersonal skills. A 2018 grant from Hawke’s Bay Foundation helps fund the agency’s recruitment and reporting systems to ensure child safety requirements are met. Potential mentors undertake a rigorous recruitment and induction process, which includes police vetting, a home inspection and a comprehensive training programme. Research highlights the powerful and lasting impact that mentors have on children’s lives. Positive outcomes include reduced drug and alcohol use, less truancy and

anti-social behaviour, improved confidence and better relationships with family and peers. “Mentors provide children with strong social connections which help them navigate through life’s challenges,” says Patricia Small, Case Manager, BBBS Hawke’s Bay. “They assist children to set and reach goals, improve self-worth, and perform routine daily activities to the best of their ability. Mentors are reliable, positive role models who children can build long-term, trusting friendships with, and above all, have fun.”

FAMILY TRAGEDY LEADS TO FRIENDSHIP In 2017 a Gisborne family was struck down by tragedy when a mother of three children suffered a severe asthma attack and passed away in front of her three children, then aged 11, 9 and 1. The three children are now living with their grandfather in Napier. Jaezahn (10) and Maia (13) were referred to BBBS to be matched with mentors. Jaezahn has been matched for one year with Alex (a family court lawyer) and Maia is matched with Marianne who works in accounts. Both girls love spending one-on-one time with their Big Sisters who offer guidance, a listening ear and support. David, the girl’s grandfather says “the BBBS

programme is giving the girls vital support during a difficult time; their mentors are fantastic people who are making a positive difference in their lives.” Alex says being a ‘Big Sister’ is the most rewarding thing she has ever done. “It’s incredible seeing Jaezahn’s confidence grow and our bond continue to strengthen. Hanging out with her is the highlight of my week”. Marianne says “I never expected that mentoring would teach me so much. It’s great how two people can connect and form such a strong bond as Maia and I have. I’ve truly made a lifelong friendship.”

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N G E R A L D I N E T R AV E R S

Our EIT

As I write this article the horrific events that took place in Christchurch are still fresh in my mind. I speculate about the antidote to such ignorance, prejudice and fear. The answer is of course education and positive interpersonal relationships, which are EIT’s core business. It is always a source of satisfaction to me when I hear people referring to EIT as ‘our EIT’. And that this language is also used in Tairāwhiti is testament to the successful merger that took place in January 2011, uniting Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. It is somewhat regrettable therefore, that as a precursor to a major restructuring, as proposed by Government, the ITP sector was portrayed as ‘broken’. Although it is certainly true that a number of our peers have suffered from financial and governance issues, that has emphatically not been the case here. Nor was EIT affected by the national downturn in enrolments last year, with this year telling an even more positive story across all campuses. In fact, 2018 saw the highest number of enrolled students (10,000) in the institute’s history. In both Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti, the percentage of Māori enrolments surpasses the percentage in the general population. Indeed, such is our success with these learners that other education providers choose to visit EIT to gain an understanding of our ‘secret’. One of the challenges of our merger is to cater for the educational needs of a huge geographical area and we proudly make education accessible from Te Araroa to Dannevirke. In terms of the quality of education EIT provides, we enjoy being rated in the highest category in terms of both our performance and the confidence the government has in our ability to

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monitor our own performance. Part of the consultation for the proposed changes in the vocational education sector involved meeting members of our community to hear from them about areas of our current performance or provision that were in any way deficient. I was so heartened by the response of our stakeholders who talked about our responsiveness, accessibility and relevance. Conversely, they expressed a great deal of concern about the potential difficulties of dealing with a large impersonal, centralised organisation, which would inevitably lack an understanding of the unique needs of our environment.

We are aware of the strength of the EIT name and ‘brand’ which inspire confidence and recognition right across central New Zealand and in many overseas jurisdictions, producing real, tangible, financial value. I know in my former role as a school principal I appreciated being able to pick up the phone and negotiate a learning experience uniquely suited to my students’ needs. I remember when, ten years ago, schools were seeking solutions to the growing number of disengaged senior students. We simply wanted to keep them involved in the learning process. Together with EIT, a number of Hawke’s Bay school principals

discussed how to actively collaborate. At the end of February 2009, Hastings Girls’ High School, for which I was Principal at the time, and EIT launched an innovative programme. It was designed to bridge the gap between secondary school and tertiary study. The one day a week programme, Te Ara Pounamu, gave a career direction to my students who struggled to gain NCEA Level 1 in Year 11 and who were interested in hospitality. They were able to study towards a level 2 certificate in hospitality while continuing with their normal school studies. The programme was a huge success and provided a template for the Hospitality Trades Academy, which has since seen an impressive number of Year 12 and 13 students coming through to get a taste of different career options. We are aware of the strength of the EIT name and ‘brand’ which inspire confidence and recognition right across central New Zealand and in many overseas jurisdictions, producing real, tangible, financial value. As well as catering to the needs of school leavers, and other learners of all ages, we are also active participants in international education. This takes a variety of forms from our Auckland campus situated in Queen Street, which provides postgraduate qualifications in business and health, to agreements to deliver teaching and qualifications in China, and of course students from around the globe who join our mainstream classes in both Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti. The benefits of this provision are numerous and include exposing both our New Zealand students and our community at large to ethnic diversity, which adds to understanding and tolerance. I firmly believe that cultural

”It has been pointed out to me frequently that we are the largest population area in the country without a university. Hence the opportunity for quality, accessible tertiary education is particularly important to our region.” GERALDINE TRAVERS

Photo: Tom Allan

ease and proficiency are an essential part of the education we provide. It has been pointed out to me frequently that we are the largest population area in the country without a university. Hence the opportunity for quality, accessible tertiary education is particularly important to our region, as is the provision of EIT’s range of degree and postgraduate programmes.

All the more reason – and due to our strong connections with industry, local businesses, community and iwi – it is outstanding that EIT is still going strong and registered student numbers are still hitting new records. These numbers are proof that EIT is a trusted partner and anchor institution for the people of Hawke’s Bay. We believe the loss of our name and

the ability to chart our own course is a serious concern. And we are resolute in putting that view to Government.

Geraldine Travers is chair of the EIT Council and a Hastings District Councillor. She was principal at Hastings Girls’ HS for 19 years and awarded a MNZM for service to education.

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N ST UA RT N AS H

Addressing Gun Control Discussions during the development of the gun control bill have taken us to the sanctuary of the mosques. They have allowed us to witness the supreme effort of trauma surgeons in a hospital emergency department. We have caught a glimpse of family circles now with an empty chair, or two, in their household. We know there are many widows. There are children who have been to funerals of a sibling, a parent, a grandparent. There are elderly members of our community who never got a chance to say farewell to an old friend. As well as the victims and the bereaved, we have walked through the worlds of the gun users and dealers. Women have talked about their lives on farms, we have been taken through the landscape of a high country sheep station, introduced to the atmosphere on rifle ranges, and heard of the wildlife in the mountains and valleys frequented by recreational hunters. The Police Association reminded us of the everyday reality for frontline cops, listening to instructions and warnings on the radio as they head to a callout, wearing body armour to enable them to walk into danger. This legislation is just the first step of many to make our country safer. The all-of-government response is ongoing.

What else we are doing

Police are acutely aware of how vulnerable and frightened some communities still feel after the terror attack. They have established a special operation to reach out to these groups to provide reassurance and advice. Police have made almost 2,000 visits to schools. They have made almost 1,400 visits to places of worship. These visits are mostly, but not exclusively, to our mosques. But I’m also aware of a visit made by police to a Chinese Christian Church, which normally has 150 people at its Sunday service.

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Many had stopped coming because of fears and false rumours about threats. Police were able to reassure this congregation. Fourteen police officers with specialist cultural knowledge and skills have been deployed to liaise with ethnic communities in Christchurch. The diversity of our police force is growing as we rollout 1,800 extra officers which means that police are increasingly drawn from the communities they serve. They can speak the languages and know about faith and cultural practices. Police have also made almost 150 visits to gun clubs. This is an important community for police. It is worth repeating the assurances given by government from the earliest days: There are good people in all of our communities who will find themselves in possession of banned firearms, parts and magazines. This is because we are changing the law, not because these people have done anything wrong.

The amnesty and buyback

That is why we have an amnesty and are putting in place a buyback scheme. To date, more than 300 weapons have been handed over during the amnesty. More than 1,100 online forms have been completed for more weapons and parts to be handed over. There have been 1,900 phone calls to the dedicated police freephone 0800 311311. The amnesty runs to 30 September but there is provision to extend that date, by Order in Council, if necessary. Alongside that amnesty, the buyback will now be structured within a statutory framework. The framework will provide certainty for all participants and create a transparent system for compensation. Police have consulted extensively with Australian officials about their experience with almost 30 amnesties

and buybacks since the 1990s. We want to take the time to get it right to avoid some of the pitfalls and legal risks encountered across the Tasman.

Next steps

With passage of the Arms Amendment Bill completed, we have begun work on an Arms Amendment No. 2 Bill, which we hope to see around June. That bill will address some long-debated questions around a gun register, the licensing regime, the system of police vetting, and the ‘fit and proper person’ test, storage requirements and penalties, amongst other matters. I hope Parliament can again come together to work collaboratively on the next stage of reforms. We are driven by the need to ensure public safety is as strong as it can be, and by the memory of 50 men, women and children who were taken from their loved ones on 15 March. I also want to acknowledge gratefully that in the weeks since the attacks we have asked a lot of our public servants, officials, and their families. They have made this country a safer and better place. In marking ANZAC Day recently, we remembered those we have lost in war, the military and the civilians. We remembered those who have served our country, and who have worked to make it a safer place, where freedoms are protected. The primary duty of government is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its citizens; and to allow them the ability to go about their lives free from harm and free from the fear of harm. Our freedoms also include making room for diversity, tolerance, and inclusion. This should mark who we are as New Zealanders. My thoughts remain with our Muslim communities and the people of Christchurch.

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

Confront the poison, don’t censor I’m still finding it hard to make sense of the massacre in Christchurch. I’m battling with emotion and disbelief, the censorship of information, and a raft of strange behaviours. In the first days and hours after trauma, decisions are often clouded by emotions; the primitive brain takes control and often makes bad calls. For example, the hastily-prepared changes to gun regulations, which many welcome in their gut, might deserve more thought. The Government moved to change the gun laws in less than three weeks. That’s “a recipe for bad law making” said ACT MP David Seymour. Those that would ‘fix’ the law are the same crowd that left a gaping loophole allowing large magazines to be purchased independently of the gun. Did they get it right this time? Time will tell. Action on guns is needed, and good politics. However, it suggests that the government can simply change laws and eliminate the problem. In an emotional state, the public might wish that, but it’s not true. The real solution to defusing Brenton Tarrant types is to understand how they think and then to combat their poisonous ideology. We all know that that’s a very difficult thing to do and the legislature probably only has a minor part to play. The problem is extremely complex. Violent radicals come of many persuasions, and are borne of concerns, fanned to excess, about immigration, race, culture, religion, philosophy and their social and economic struggles. It’s a problem that needs deep and sustained analysis and a multi-faceted solution. Saying that would be honest, but politically unrewarding. People want simple explanations in a crisis in order to achieve what boffins call ‘cognitive closure’. Psychologist Maria Konnikova says

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that as our need for an explanation is heightened, we tend to “rush for definition … produce fewer hypotheses and search less thoroughly for information.” We’re also “more likely to form judgments based on early cues”. Our PM nailed it with early cues, fronting up decisively and showing genuine compassion. That’s a fair start, but not by itself a solution to the core problem.

Action on guns is needed, and good politics. However, it suggests that the government can simply change laws and eliminate the problem. In an emotional state, the public might wish that, but it’s not true. In the days that followed, quite a lot of information surrounding the event was banned or restricted, and I doubt that was the right approach. In recent times I’ve been surprised by the strong trend to ban, censor, de-platform or otherwise shut down ideas we don’t like. A couple of generations ago those seeking to censor information were on the conservative right, but strangely this trend is now dominated by the emerging illiberal left. The first person that is short of information is the perpetrator, Brenton Tarrant. The press have widely reported that he’s been denied access any form of television, newspapers or the internet. However, punishment is supposed to come after due process; technically Tarrant is ‘innocent until proven guilty’. That’s hard for me to even say, but it is important that the judicial process

remains as cold as charity. Tarrant should have a newspaper delivered daily, as it would be a win for civilised society. The reports I’ve read show that his actions have been utterly ineffective. In fact they’ve been counterproductive to his objectives. The outpouring of love and compassion for the Muslim community has been amazing and NZ is a better and more tolerant country than it was a few weeks ago. The reactions of New Zealanders have been lauded around the world. This vile perpetrator’s efforts have been an abject failure and I’d be happy for him to know that. Tarrant’s manifesto has also been banned. I looked at it briefly before it was and I’d still like to read it. I’m not going to become a fascist, a white supremacist or foster any Islamophobia by reading it. I just want to understand how these people think and refine my arguments against their ideology. How can you combat an enemy you don’t understand? The ‘safe space’ people want to protect me from such poison, but I don’t want to be protected – I want to confront it. Everything from the Bible to Game of Thrones to Cormack McCarthy novels contains disturbing ideologies, heinous crimes and visceral violence. None of them suggest these things are pathways to a fulfilling existence. In fact, they’re mostly salutary warnings against such things. This manifesto would be too. The livestream of the event has also been shut down. There has been unrelenting furious anger about the fact the terrorist event was livestreamed and Facebook has been widely castigated. One commentator even went so far as to say they were complicit in the crime. Facebook doesn’t have long rows of censors assessing the suitability of such streams or any posts. Facebook also does not have fancy algorithms

that can discern a real event from a fictional one on a livestream. They rely on users to notify them of inappropriate content and, yes, consequently they were slow in responding. How to better handle such scenarios – raising vexing issues of both principle and practice – requires much more thoughtful debate. What I found really surprising is that I know quite a few people who watched the livestream of the shooting. These included a middle-aged mother of two, an IT operator and a factory worker who clustered around a phone with her colleagues. They had heard about the event and were interested in what was going on. It might seem sick or macabre to some of them in retrospect, but at the time they simply wanted to see what was going on. I’ve been wrestling with this issue. I certainly don’t want 9 year olds to see it, but would I watch the livestream if I had the chance? At the time of the event there is no doubt I would have, but even now I wonder whether I could actually benefit from it. You see, I feel hopelessly numb. I’m immersed in the ubiquitous grief and emotion, but something in me refuses to believe this has actually happened

Smarter Thinking Online.

Photo: Florence Charvin

in NZ. I wonder if confronting the horror of that day might actually be helpful in coming to terms with it. The video of these horrific events might be used as some voyeuristic entertainment by some, but not among the watchers I’m aware of. I’m not convinced that banning the footage is the right call. Censorship has its place, but please don’t let the rules of this world be

made for a perverse minority. The myriad of compassionate and right-thinking New Zealanders need to live in a world where, as we see fit, we can honestly and courageously confront the things we must.

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

We are an award-winning full-service digital marketing agency. Since 2007, we have been providing considered, effective solutions that drive success for our clients. www.mogul.nz

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

Super Weather Sensors “The weather: everyone grumbles about it, but noone does anything about it.” MARK TWAIN

Hawke’s Bay company Metris are doing something about it. With a network of online sensors stretching from Pukekohe to Central Otago and a sophisticated cloudbased data centre, their revolutionary approach to weather monitoring has just landed them the innovation award at the 2019 Hawke’s Bay Primary Sector Awards. I’m talking to Paul Heaps, Metris sales and service manager, who has the look of a teenager who has just been given the keys to the family BMW for the first time. Paul is extremely excited about what the future holds for Metris. Winning the award has been the most satisfying moment so far in a very hectic career, and opportunities are presenting themselves for the business at a rapid rate. Predicting the weather can be a thankless task. Weather forecasting – especially predicting frost – is vitally important for farmers and growers, and extremely time-sensitive. They need accurate, up-to-the-minute information to make decisions about when to spray their crops, for crop thinning or to speed up fruit maturing, and in the case of serious diseases like apple scab, delaying spraying for more than a couple of hours can destroy entire orchards overnight. Paul jokingly refers to himself and his friend Mark Bart as “Two punks from Te Awanga”. Paul is an electrician and Mark has a Ph.D and a background in measurement science. Before they invested in Metris, their journey started when Paul casually asked Mark a question about temperature telemetry. The inevitable

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“Wouldn’t it be cool if… ?” discussion followed and their direction was set. To support growers’ decision making, they have installed 130 sensor nodes across New Zealand. These are low-power units that run on narrow band Internet of Things (IoT) technology – meaning each sensor has its own unique connection to the Internet. Their sensors measure a set of environmental data, like temperature, rainfall, solar radiance, and leaf wetness. Apart from accurate weather data, these sensors are useful for all sorts of different applications, including disease modelling and frost alerting. They also have around 40 full weather stations, which are modem-driven 3G devices.

Before they invested in Metris, their journey started when Paul casually asked Mark a question about temperature telemetry. The inevitable “Wouldn’t it be cool if… ?” discussion followed and their direction was set. Long before Paul and Mark got involved, Metris was started by Hawke’s Bay meteorologist Howard Staines. Howard has been producing daily forecasts for more than twenty years and is a local legend for the accuracy of his reports. When he first started his forecasting business, Howard would send a painstakingly written report as a Word document sent by fax.

After 20 years, Metris now sends thousands of emails per week to thousands of subscribers, who pay to access the data on a subscription basis. Like a lot of technology companies, Paul and Mark thought about building a smartphone app, but wisely they decided that it would have slowed them down too much. Instead, they have concentrated on making their data available via an application programming interface (API). This is a lightweight, structured data format that can be read easily by machines, so the data can be incorporated easily into other devices and programs. One of the problems Mark and Paul have run into is how to manage access to the Metris data. Their email sending software has shown that many of their customers share their data with a large number of non-subscribers. This is not malicious. Paul says it is simply because the data is so accurate and useful that their customers can’t wait to share it with their friends and colleagues. As you would expect, theirs is a highly technical business. Maintaining networks spread across large areas can be a logistical nightmare and it’s impractical, if not impossible, to send technicians to check each sensor in a network that stretches from Pukekohe to Central Otago. For this reason, the sensors themselves need to be self-regulating, and the network uses specialised software so the sensors can monitor each other and detect problems. Metris have enlisted the help of a university researcher who specialises in network engineering to help with the arcane science around calibrating and diagnosing problems automatically. The network of sensors, the software they have created, and their expertise allow Metris to offer “unparalleled weather insight”, but this is worthless if their customers don’t trust them. Paul says that Metris can show their

Paul Heaps checking an orchard sensor. Photo: Tom Allan

customers concrete evidence of the success of spray forecasts. Success for their customers can mean saving money, protecting crops from hail damage and disease, or a reduced need for spray. However, the most important benefit for their biggest customers is increased yield or packout rate. This is a measure of how many of the fruit are actually good enough to sell, which goes straight to the grower’s pocket. The human factor is important when you see the international competitors that inhabit the weather forecasting business. Norwegian company YR is an example of a global weather network. While huge and well-resourced, their forecasts lack the specific details that make Metris’ information so compelling.

But big data is definitely changing the weather forecasting business. When Paul and Mark first met Howard, he was running the whole Metris forecasting operation from a private server in his basement. Those days are long gone. Mark has set up a hosting environment at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and now it all runs in the cloud. Weather forecasting generates an enormous amount of data, and it takes serious computing resources to ‘crunch’ it. From taking eight hours each day, it now happens in only two hours, and this means Metris’ customers can get their accurate forecasts before 8am each day. Despite the advanced technology and automation, the business of forecasting is still very much an activity

for the human mind. The business is very reliant on Howard, although there is a succession plan being developed for if and when he decides he has had enough of the daily forecast. There seem to be endless opportunities for Metris. Their sensor data is useful for a huge number of possible applications, and there is strong international interest. But the two punks from Te Awanga expect to stay in Hawke’s Bay for a while yet, and it feels like their journey is just beginning.

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

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

Time to demand answers With local body elections only around five months away, it’s time to start asking questions of those who fancy themselves taking a seat at the council table. Here are four Napier issues I want to hear clear, public positions on from any potential NCC candidate:

To chlorinate or not?

That is the question. The chemicals NCC have been adding since the fallout from the Havelock North crisis and subsequent E.coli scares in Napier’s own supply are doing a fantastic job of clearing out sludge from the city’s ageing water infrastructure. Our once clean, pure tap water now spouts forth occasionally in shades ranging from Clayton’s single malt whisky to Porter stout, with more than a hint of potentially harmful manganese from the old pipes. But why chlorine? Are there other options? Christchurch City Council, like Napier, used to pride themselves on their pure, clear water quality before the earthquakes. Unlike NCC, they have put up a fight against the chlorination of their water system and are targeting for areas of the city to be chlorine-free by May. Napier ratepayers are less fortunate. The ‘temporary’ chlorination of our water in February 2017 continues two years later, with council management confirming chlorination is “definitely now permanent”. Do aspiring councillors believe our water needs to be chlorinated, or do they prefer other options? Why haven’t any incumbents been as vocally opposed to the treatment of their water as their Canterbury comrades? Or have they just been drinking council management Kool-aid?

Transparency

Thinly veiled, or all smoke and mirrors? When councillor Kirsten Wise

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attempted to take a belated moral highground on the Napier War Memorial she repeated the phrase “we were told/ were not told” eight times in a HB Today Talking Point. Implying that information councillors were fed by council management – and dutifully relied upon to vote unanimously to remove the memorial elements – might not have been as neutral as it could have been. They could have just asked Napier Skating Club their thoughts on such matters. It’s not all one big happy family at Napier City Council, as their PR department might try to convince us. It’s nigh on impossible to get three people to agree on everything all the time, let alone 13. With closed-door, public-excluded meetings and inaccessible councillor ‘workshops’, it appears that for years quite some effort has been put into ensuring councillors toe ‘party lines’. Recent issues like the War Memorial and Napier Aquatic Centre have surfaced some apparent ‘rebellion’, but the timing has been far too close to elections not to appear opportunistic. One of the biggest obstacles to transparency at NCC is the “Elected Members Code of Conduct” councillors must sign each new term – basically an employment agreement that, in its current state, limits what they can say and who they can say it to. Our elected officials must often ask permission from the council CEO – their sole employee – before making certain statements. No wonder things often appear scripted! Whatever happened to ‘Vox Populi’? As a new councillor, would you willingly sign a contract that could limit your voice and those of the people who elected you? How would you stand up to a bullying, or misinforming management? And what are incumbents so afraid of? You were elected by Napier ratepayers to make decisions that best represent

and benefit our city. How can you spend huge sums of ratepayer money based on management recommendations that have appeared flimsy at best and outright misleading at worst?

Generation debt

Over $40 million for a pool residents didn’t request in a place they never asked it to be. Another $10 million of a total $51.3m to make Napier’s National Aquarium more enticing to tourists. While the city’s water infrastructure is in dire need of an immediate overhaul in the tens, if not hundred-plus millions of dollars. Never mind settling leaky building lawsuits with ratepayer funds, the costs of re-establishing Napier’s desecrated War Memorial, and repairing or replacing the city’s Public Library. NCC’s Long Term Plan predicts council debt is meant to peak at $135 million in 2028. That’s only nine years away – three council terms. With a large portion of Napier’s population retiring on fixed incomes in that same period, where do Napier councillors think all this extra money is coming from? And if NCC’s claim that any further delay to the planned Prebensen Drive aquatic centre would cost an extra $3,000 per day is true, that debt will only increase. Six of our reliably rubber-stamping councillors, plus the nearly-departed mayor, dutifully concurred, and the project and its associated debt proceeded to the next stage. Councillor Tony Jeffery, who opposed the decision, was quoted: “I believe fiscally it’s irresponsible, with the information we have now, to go ahead with this … I don’t want to leave a legacy of debt after 18 years of service to this city.” How would potential councillors balance such huge levels of discretionary debt with urgent and unavoidable infrastructure needs?

Student climate change protest, Napier. Photo: Paul Bailey

Has any sitting councillor who voted for the Prebensen Drive pool queried the $44m price tag? By comparison, Sydney’s Olympic pool complex including a roofed 50m competition pool, diving pool, grandstands, leisure areas and room for 25,000 people cost $65 million to construct. Hmmm!

Youth, the environment and climate change

On the day of the horrific Christchurch terror attacks, thousands of New Zealand youth joined millions of others across the world in marching to protest inaction on climate change. And why shouldn’t they? The UN predicts we may have only ten years to avert potentially irreversible climate

change effects. The same next three council terms before Napier’s forecast financial debt will peak. Today’s youth will face far bigger environmental challenges than we have had to. So why haven’t we given them more of a say in the future of their city and its environs? Between our consistently high sunshine hours and regular sea breezes, Napier should be a solar and wind energy powerhouse. So where are Napier’s environmental initiatives? Why haven’t the old guard pushed harder for change? Instead of approving low-lying housing developments on reclaimed land that are threatened with sea level rise or liquefaction, why not push higher inland and require

solar panels, or renewable energy sources on new builds? How would our aspiring local body politicians represent youth better and what environmental initiatives would they champion? These are only a few pertinent questions facing those who hope to lead Napier. And ratepayers must demand answers. Does Napier deserve better representation than we’ve been getting? My answer to that is a resounding “Yes!” Andrew Frame is a 41-year-old husband, father, and life-long Napier resident. He writes the www.napierinframe.co.nz website and promotes all things HB on social media.

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I DE AS A N D O P I N I O N REX GRAHAM

Why a minority IPO of Napier Port strikes the right balance for Hawke’s Bay As the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council considers a minority IPO in Napier Port, Chair Rex Graham, talks through the process and considerations.* As I write this column, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is coming to the sharp end in terms of deciding whether or not to proceed with a minority initial public offer (IPO) of Napier Port. This decision is likely to be made soon, representing the culmination of nearly two-and-a-half years of rigorous and detailed work by councillors and Port and Regional Council staff. I’ve been a supporter in principle of a minority IPO in Napier Port and I’m looking forward to considering all of the information, including the final investment case, together with my fellow councillors in making this decision. This is an important decision for Hawke’s Bay and as we have moved through this process, it’s been important to me that we keep in mind the objectives that have led to a minority share sale emerging as the Regional Council’s preferred option: • It would provide the funds that the Port needs to invest in its future, starting with a new wharf; • It would protect ratepayers from the significant costs of funding Port development; • It would retain majority ownership and control with the Regional Council; • It would diversify and de-risk the Regional Council’s assets and income streams. Additionally, it would allow the Regional Council to maintain a strong balance sheet to enable it to deal with the challenges that our region faces

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as a consequence of climate change. The impacts are already being felt in Hawke’s Bay and the Regional Council must be financially prepared. As we approach this decision, these objectives have not changed. They remain the drivers for why we are advancing the detailed work for a minority IPO of Napier Port. After two-and-a-half years of work, it’s worth recapping on how and why we have got to this point.

It would allow the Regional Council to maintain a strong balance sheet to enable it to deal with the challenges that our region faces as a consequence of climate change. Napier Port is a strategic asset for Hawke’s Bay. It’s associated with approximately half of the region’s Gross Regional Product and is indirectly associated with around 27,000 local jobs. It is an important part of the Hawke’s Bay economy, directly connecting our region, our industry and our products to international markets. In order to continue to service our region, our Port now needs to invest in its future, principally through the building of a new wharf and then through a programme of investment over the coming decade. The job of the Regional Council is to find the best way to provide the funds that the Port needs to enable it to do this. In April, the Napier Port Board

approved a detailed business case for the Port’s proposed new wharf. This approval is one of the key conditions set by the Regional Council that must be satisfied before any vote to approve a minority IPO. The Regional Council will consider the business case as part of the final approval process for any IPO. A new wharf is vital to the future of our Port and our region. It has reinforced my own view that doing nothing is not an option. We also cannot afford to cover the costs of the investment the Port needs ourselves, without placing unreasonable demands on ratepayers. I’m personally not prepared to do that. We need external capital to help fund our wharf. I acknowledge that a minority IPO doesn’t please everybody, but nothing pleases everyone. If the information all stacks up and the Regional Council votes for an IPO it could strike the right balance for Hawke’s Bay. I acknowledge the feedback received during our comprehensive consultation on a minority IPO late last year. The majority of submitters supported an IPO, but also supported local ownership and the ability for locals to invest if they wanted to. As we have undertaken the preparatory work ahead of a vote on a minority IPO, the Regional Council has identified and will put in place a number of protections that would further protect its majority ownership position. Post any IPO, the Regional Council, will retain the ability to determine the Port’s Board. Additionally, we have voted to place two majority shareholder-appointed directors onto the Port Board, increasing the Council’s visibility over governance of the company. We will also put in place measures which further protect key Port land and we have been working through how we will ensure that a priority

Napier Port. Photo: Tim Whittaker. tim.co.nz

allocation is offered to Hawke’s Bay locals in any sale of shares. I’m looking forward to pulling all of the information together, reviewing the final investment case and making a final decision with my fellow councillors based on all of the work completed by the Port, the Regional Council and our advisors. The case for investment in the Port has become more and more compelling and I’m committed to securing the funds the Port needs. Finally, the Regional Council has a massive work programme ahead of it to remediate large areas of Hawke’s Bay’s natural environment which have

historically not been sustainably managed. We have vital work to do in terms of cleaning up and protecting our waterways, investing in upgrading critical infrastructure like our stopbanks, which are coming under increasing pressure, and planting our hill country to stop massive volumes of silt clogging our rivers and coastal marine environment. Climate change poses a great threat to Hawke’s Bay. It is our job as the Regional Council to respond to this threat, protect our natural environment and future-proof our region for more and more extreme weather. All of these reasons are why I am

now very keen to review the final investment case against the Council’s objectives. We need to deliver a solution for our Port and our region. Along the way we need to retain control of a strategic asset, protect ratepayers from Port costs and build our capacity to deliver the natural environment the people of Hawke’s Bay need and deserve. That’s what the decision we’re considering is all about.

* Disclosure of interest: The editor (Tom Belford) is a Hawke’s Bay regional councillor.

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Digitising Hawkeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bay History

“There are hundreds of different stories that have been brought in and we have attracted a hundred or so volunteers who are passionate to help with the project.” PETER DUNKERLEY

Story by Kay Bazzard

Linda Bainbridge, Peter Dunkerley and Rachel Johnson. Photo: Tom Allan

“The Knowledge Bank is an ever-growing digital record of Hawke’s Bay and its people. Stories of the events, people, celebrations, tragedies and day-today life that helped form the culture and landscape of the Bay we know today are gathered here in an easy-toaccess format. Our volunteers collect personal and business stories, photos, memories and magazines, digitising them for everyone to read and enjoy.” The introduction on the Hawke’s Bay Knowledge Bank’s website describes clearly what they do. The Knowledge Bank, at Stoneycroft in Hastings, started nine years ago. “It was James Morgan’s baby; he’d been talking about the idea for a long time and it has required a lot of patience and been a long steady process,” says Peter Dunkerley, the current Knowledge Bank chair. “The first challenge was in getting Stoneycroft available from the Hastings District Council that had purchased it from the Ballantyne Family trust in 2003.” The Stoneycroft homestead is significant. It’s a historically listed category two building, highly visible on the junction of Omahu Road and the Expressway – a steeply-gabled Victorian-styled colonial house set amongst trees and now restored to its original state. “It is very exciting the way the Knowledge Bank project has caught people’s imagination, and this is obvious when sifting through the collections on the website,” says Dunkerley. “There are hundreds of different stories that have

been brought in and we have attracted a hundred or so volunteers who are passionate to help with the project.” Keeping the work flowing is the responsibility of the two paid staff, part-timers Rachel Johnson, technology manager and Linda Bainbridge the daily administrator. Rachel’s role looks after the technology and training volunteers; she has been working there several years and is an integral part of the organisation. “It would be difficult to replace her as she has developed a specialist knowledge of the systems,” says Dunkerley. Linda Bainbridge manages the collections and supports training, organises work flow and meetings, shows people around, runs open days and does the promotional work via social media and talks to groups in the community. “We want people to know that if their family has lived, worked and played in Hawke’s Bay that their collection of photos and letters is exactly the kind of thing we want,” she says. “It’s amazing how often people think their records of the past are not important. But it is – it reveals how people lived then, how much life has changed, washing for example, riding to school on horseback, kids always outside playing, family dynamics. We want to encourage people to bring in their family stories and photos.”

Volunteers key

An advisory committee of six led by Grant Ancell deals with operational matters. They decide content and the

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Clockwise from top left: Allis-Chalmers bulldozer clearing scrub at Taradale; Buster Alexander, who started with the Leopard Brewery on leaving school, 1955; Marine Parade, Napier, 1962; Peter Buhre, manager of Mayfair Hotel, Hastings.

order of work. He loves it and as a volunteer he’s there most days, working closely with staffer Linda in managing the collections. “When a collection comes in to us, we look at it and decide, is this of interest, can we use it, is it related to what we do?” he says. “The photos are scanned at high resolution, documents are also scanned, transcribed by typists and put online, and while some information may not be used on the website we don’t want anything lost for ever, so we digitise it and it is then available for reference. Once the collections are recorded and digitised the paper materials are returned to the owners.” Ancell says, “We have off-site transcribers, they listen to recordings of oral histories and type it out while working from home, but we only have

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three people doing this at the moment and we need more volunteers.” “Working with volunteers at the Knowledge Bank requires a flexible and giving structure,” says Peter Dunkerley. “Our people might go away for two months, there may be health issues or family pressures, so things don’t always go according to plan and the unpredictable workflow requires a longer term perspective. We just take stock every so often, note our progress and can be pleased with what has been achieved for an organisation with a somewhat uncertain workforce.” Volunteers seem to enjoy the social aspects of their work, sitting down at morning and afternoon tea times and lunching together. “It is very companionable,” says Ancell. On a typical day there will be a group of about 12-15

volunteers working on site, some come for the entire day or a couple of hours twice a week, others may do two or up to four full days. “It depends on what you want to do,” says Linda, “and it’s up to me as volunteer support to make sure our volunteers are working on the things that hold their interest and when they do get stuck with a computer question they are supported.”

History on a budget

Working on a budget of $60-$70,000 per annum, it’s the Board’s job to keep control of growth, sufficient to keep it manageable while keeping to a budget. To achieve this they use a free-touse computer software programme, the open-sourced Ubutu system that’s similar to Windows. Marketing is by word of mouth and through social

media such as Facebook, Neighbourly and Volunteer Hawke’s Bay. Sourcing funding is a full-time activity for the Board of four, consisting of Barry Cole, Bev Watkins, David Shand and Peter Dunkerley, who says, “We do all the money stuff to enable it to work long-term, developing the strategic plans to make the organisation sustainable into the future, but most of our effort goes into chasing funding. “We have been very much supported from the beginning by Hastings District Council – by former mayor Lawrence Yule, now mayor Sandra Hazelhurst and councillor Malcolm Dixon. We have received $25,000 per annum from them and with extra project funding of $6,000 per annum for three years we have been able to cover wages of the staff. Dunkerley reports major success in acquiring funding of $25,000 in 2019 from Napier City Council, and will be asking again for further grants. But the longer-term goal is to secure council funding on a three-year basis, including help from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. “So, if we got three lots of $25,000 per year that would make the whole thing more viable.” The Board also seeks project grants from public charities and other sources and has received donations from

philanthropic individuals that helped them through a shortfall in 2017. This year they hope to break even. “Next year we hope to be able to take a step forward. We need to be able to look after our staff a little more fairly and to look at a longer term structure because we really need a manager, someone to liaise between the Board and the staff, so we are getting the word out.” The manager would need to be a volunteer because a paid manager would require considerable extra funding. The Knowledge Bank recently has launched its new website thanks to Mogul and their employee Chris Webb, who is also a volunteer with Knowledge Bank. ‘Spec’d’ at $30,000, they got it done for $12,000, with a mix of professional input from Mogul and funding through Eastern and Central Communities Trust and public charities. The major projects keeping everyone very busy include the Spiller photography collection from Napier. With a million images it is like “eating the elephant a teaspoon at a time” according to Peter Dunkerley. The Balfour diaries are being transcribed – the daily diaries of a Hawke’s Bay farmer, giving great insights on the early history of Hastings. They are

working with MTG on this project with a volunteer working at MTG two days a week using their equipment. The information will go up on the MTG website, but will be accessible from HBKB website. “Our vision is to work with the Hastings and Havelock Libraries in a similar way and in particular we are connecting with young people, they are our future and it is a high priority and it’s working,” says Dunkerley. Paid commissioned work is given priority and an example is the John Bostock family histories. Bostock is publishing a book and the volunteers have been assisting by archiving and image scanning photographs. Bigger things like the A & P Show will be a future project, hopefully to be funded by HDC. This will be a major history of the Show’s first five years and Dunkerley is certain that amongst the volunteers someone will have a passion for it and take up the challenge. So much more could be done, like connecting with the Central Hawke’s Bay and Wairoa Museums to share historical knowledge. However it all requires funding and the freely-given time of the volunteers who work so hard. The Hawke’s Bay Knowledge Bank would welcome more of both!

63 Hastings Street P 06 834 1331 tennysongallery www.tennysongallery.nz

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

Waitangi to Puketapu

Exploring Hawke’s Bay Intrepid BayBuzz explorers, Bridget and Florence, set off on bikes recently along one of Hawke’s Bay’s cycle trails to track the Tutaekurī River up into the hills of Puketapu.

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Exploring Hawke’s Bay: Waitangi to Puketapu Story by Bridget Freeman-Rock. Photos by Florence Charvin.

We start with coffee at the Box near the Clive BP, then head out along the river mouth, circling the salt-swept back of Hohepa farm and residential services (est. 1956), its award-winning cheesery, before crossing the Ngaruroro River as it empties into Waitangi Estuary. From the busy highway, we spy a plain white stone that marks with approximation (“in this vicinity nearer the sea”) William Colenso’s doomed mission station (1844-1852). Beyond is the splendid Ātea-a-Rangi star compass, part of the newly enhanced Waitangi Regional Park and wetlands, with its ring of carved wooden pou and stone looking out across Hawke Bay, from the white cliffs of Cape Kidnappers to Matarouahou (Napier bluff, or Scinde Island as it was once known), and on a fine day beyond to Mahia Peninsula. From this watery meeting point of rivers, we cross the Tutaekurī and head inland, flanked by the smoking stack of the Ravensdown fertiliser plant at Awatoto. It’s a gritty, atmospheric moment, as we pedal under the rumbling concrete bridge towards a wiremesh fence and the rear of the factory, and up beside steaming industrial mounds of BioRich compost, seagulls circling. The sky is huge here and sitting low in the landscape there’s an expansive feeling of space – windswept grass, a far-off line of willows, and small in the distance the Kahuranaki range. Bemused by a rectangle of neat bright green on the flats, we encounter the Awatato Flying Field for model aircraft. We meet cows on the stopbank and find the aesthetic in a line of thick dense poplar running parallel to the straight limestone path, power lines, and rows and rows of apple trees, stacks of apple bins. There’s a cidery smell to the air the further we ride towards Brookfields, where we discover the concrete

pylons of the single-lane bridge are the canvas for vivid, unexpectedly luminous street art. In 1862, the Hawke’s Bay Herald warned that the Tutaekurī “has become devious in its course… and that the cutting of a new and direct outlet is the only guarantee of safety to the agricultural flats of the neighbourhood.” By this they meant south Napier, where the river would often flood, for the lower Tutaekurī used to flow from Meeanee along Riverbend Road through present day Maraenui and Marewa into Te Whanganui-a-Orotū (the old inner harbour), not out to Awatoto at all. In 1936, post-quake, the river was redirected towards the Ngaruroro. From Brookfields we follow close to the river as we whizz along the back of Meeanee, under the Expressway, the edges of Taradale. Travelling up river, from the elevation of the stopbank, allows us to see familiar aspects from a whole different angle to the one usually travelled by road; it brings an exhilarating sense of freedom and a spatial, re-proportioning orientation to place. At Otatara Pā, we walk up to take in one of the most spectacular panoramic views in Hawke’s Bay. From the palisade escarpment above the old quarry (yes, one of NZ’s most impressive archeological sites was quarried for roading last century before finding protection as an historic reserve in 1972), we can look back across from where we’ve come to the coastal horizon. Most of this land between Clive and Napier was once covered in a network of waterways and wetlands, lagoons and the great lake, Te Whanganui-a-Orotū. One hundred years ago, EIT just down the hill (and in a former life, the Hawke’s Bay Polytechnic) was a place to gather shellfish. The 40-hectare reserve (which includes two pā, the visible remains of terraces, dwelling

sites and kumara pits) is one of the largest and oldest pā sites in Hawke’s Bay (ca 1400-1820). Home to some 3-5,000 people in its heyday, it was of huge strategic and historic importance to Māori. Back on the iWay we continue the Puketapu loop, one of Lonely Planet’s prettiest picks for cycling in NZ. From here all those apples give way to vineyards – tight rows banked up to the hills. While it’s still a smooth run, we are gently rising, and the hills are closing in. We cycle through mature stands of Douglas fir, eucalypt copses, banks of willow, a magical grove of silvery poplar. We stop to admire a giant gum. In the tiny settlement of Puketapu the popular pub is closed, so we sit outside on a bench eating ice cream from the busy general store. There’s been a public house here on this site since 1885 – in the early days it was a major crossroads and important staging point for the stage and mail coaches, the horse and bullock trains, heading to Taihape, Rissington, Puketitiri, Taupō, Wairoa, Gisborne… Turning on to Vicarage Road, we visit St Michael and All Angels – a colonial weatherboard church (built 1910) nestled picturesquely on the hill above a war memorial, with a dear little cemetery that includes old graves of sheep-farming pioneers, such as the Bicknells of ‘Willow Brook’ who settled in the area in 1856. Crossing the narrow single-span suspension bridge and a favourite summer swimming spot, we turn back along the Oamaranui river side to peddle the 20km or so down to the sea and to Clive, with a short detour at Redclyffe Bridge, past Waiohiki Marae and the region’s oldest golf course (1896) to sample the brew from a new pop-up coffee bar outside Waiohiki Creative Arts Village. We are home in time to pick up kids from school.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Trail between Awatoto and Brookfields Bridge; Puketapu cemetery; looking out towards Te Mata Peak from Otatara Pā; cycling the Puketapu loop; Otatara Pā Historic Reserve, one of NZ’s most impressive archaeological sites - in this view you can see the imprint of garden terraces in the hillside; the pop-up coffee bar outside Waiohiki Creative Arts Village; Waitangi Estuary.

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Comfort Food

A LEXA NDRA TYLEE FO OD

Sometimes something as simple as having your family sitting down together at a table and eating a meal together, in the light of modern stresses, can become very precious indeed and is a wonderful opportunity to nurture and nourish. By comfort I don’t mean eating a whole tub of ice cream when your heart is broken (like they seem to do repeatedly in soppy movies), though I guess that is probably a very valid thing to do. But rather the way people always rally around when someone is ill or has died or had a baby, filling your fridge with casseroles and soups. Food has an amazing ability to ground you, and at the same time transport you to a place that is safe and warm. And I believe that the benefits are almost as great for the person making the food as for those receiving and consuming it. Making chicken soup from scratch, from boiling up the bones to pouring the finished soup into a jar and delivering it to your neighbour or friend. It is satisfying on a very deep level. At Pipi we are able to do this each night and I am always honoured when people choose to come to Pipi after a funeral or when they are going through a difficult time. What people find comforting obviously varies a lot depending on the age, country of origin, body type, but generally people seem to enjoy dishes that have history and are tied up with memories. I am sure you all have your own stash of these recipes – Aunt Martha’s sultana cake, or great granny’s beef stew – that deliver the perfect level of comfort and nutrition. But just in case you need inspiration here are a couple of mine. Photos: Florence Charvin

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Pipi Sticky Date Puddings (from Pipi ‘the cookbook’) Serves 6

For the date puddings 180g dates 85g prunes 300ml water 1 teaspoon baking soda 75g butter 150g soft brown sugar 2 eggs 1 cup flour 3½ teaspoons baking powder 120g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped into bits no smaller than your fingernail (or they will melt completely) For the caramel sauce 440g caster sugar ½ cup water 80g butter 160ml cream To make the date puddings Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line six of the cavities in a muffin tin with greaseproof paper so the paper comes 3cm over the top of the tin, creating a much bigger container for

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the mixture, which means you get bigger puddings. Put the dates, prunes and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Take off the heat, add the baking soda and then blend well in a whiz. Now cream together the butter and sugar with an electric beater. Add the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking powder together. Then fold this and the chocolate into the creamed butter and sugar. Add the date and prune mixture. Fill each muffin cavity three-quarters full. Put in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes until just done. You want them to be still a bit squishy but not runny. If not serving straight away, reheat for 5 minutes in a steamer. Serve with caramel sauce. To make the caramel sauce Making the sauce can be tricky, the sugar can easily crystallise. but I think it’s all about confidence and having a very clean heavy-based saucepan. And also, apparently not stirring helps. Also helpful is using a clean pastry brush to push any of the liquid that shoots up the side of the pan back down into the rest of the sauce. Mix the caster sugar and water in a saucepan on a gentle heat. Bring to the boil and cover for 3 minutes, then remove the lid and gently boil until it becomes a deep caramel colour. Once this happens, quickly remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and cream.

Spicy Chicken and Kūmera Soup Serves 6

For the soup 2 tablespoons light olive oil 1½kg kūmera, peeled and medium chopped 1 large onion, roughly diced 120g chopped ginger 2 tablespoons red curry paste 2½ litres good chicken stock 500ml coconut cream 1kg leeks, finely sliced 50g butter 1 tablespoons light olive oil 1½ teaspoons flakey sea salt 500g cooked chicken Good bunch of coriander, broken up ½ cup toasted cashew nuts, roughly chopped Put a glug of olive oil into a large pot over a low heat; once hot add the kūmera and onion. Cook slowly for 10-15 minutes until caramelised, stirring often so they don’t stick. Then add the ginger and curry paste, and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring. Add the chicken stock and coconut cream to the pot, simmer for 20-25 minutes until the kūmera and onion are well cooked. Blitz with a hand wand or food processor until smooth. In a separate heavy-based pan on a low heat, melt the leeks with the butter and a little olive oil until soft but not brown, do this with the lid on the pan, removing to stir every so often. Now gently stir the leeks into the soup, and add the salt. Break the chicken into bite sized pieces, and add it to the soup, then simmer for 5-10 minutes to heat the chicken through. Serve into bowls, sprinkling the coriander and cashew nuts on top to serve.

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

It’s Only Love I am sitting at the table of our Rotorua Air BnB. We have eight days of storytelling in front of us and two weeks behind us the Christchurch massacre. In The Warehouse today I hugged two strangers – the checkout woman in mutual consolation and a beautiful young Muslim woman. I have never knowingly hugged a Muslim person; I have barely raised my eyes to groups of young men here to pick fruit. It’s as if I can’t see. Shame on me. The outpouring of grief and love. The kindness and compassion. Our Jacinda. The determination to kick racism to touch. It has all brought me to my knees. So many tears. The new New Zealand. Our home, our native land. Aotearoa. Let’s not drop the ball. James is gorgeous. He is 13 years old, my eldest grandchild and I love him. He and his equally gorgeous brother, Hamish were first to arrive at Te Rangi farm a decade ago. They brought their parents with them. They are gorgeous too, but let’s get back to the point. James is a teenager. I have always joked that when the teens started appearing on the farm I’d be off to the old people’s home tout de suite. However, I am happy to report that I haven’t had to pack my bags. James is funny, compassionate and kind to the old one. He and his mum and dad decided that Central Hawke’s Bay College would be his destination. I was so happy, not only because I have worked as a part-time counsellor there for 16 years, but because I believe in local schools for local kids. On the back of the news I told the principal that James’s decision meant the rest of the mokopuna would follow. Seven cousins at Pukehou Primary, seven cousins at Central Hawke’s Bay College. Therefore, I would need to

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I hope you are all happy. I’m grateful my eyes have been opened and I’m moving differently through my days.

be at college until I am 78. I did think Lance looked a little pale, but he braved a hug and I look set to stay at my beloved job a while yet. It’s funny this process of ageing. When you arrive you look around with the inward eye of a 30-year-old. It comes as a shock when people want to carry your bags or give up their seats for you. Resistance and disbelief are a first response, but eventually you embrace it and in fact I catch myself feeling a tad put out if I have to carry my own shopping! And I’m getting messages. Clearer by the day. Kids at school saying how I’m just like their grandmother, or the last weeks call to a parent who observed that her child thought I was really, really, really old… but cool. The current call noted her child got on well with the elderly. The last three months have seen us frenetically busy with whānau, festivals, events, work and storytelling. The end of this particularly gruelling gallop

is in sight. Just Rhubarb telling tales at the National Australian Folk Festival to go and we can draw a few breaths over winter. Well I say breathe, but the garden is yelling and the 13 fireplaces on the farm won’t burn on air alone. The garden is still providing for us, veges and fruit wink amongst the weeds. I proudly picked 15 rock melon last week. I imagined the delight as I delivered my bounty around the farm. Matthew declined, Sarah and Danny pulled faces behind my back, Janelle said she would have a slice, Michael looked like he would rather eat his own shoe and all moko politely shook their heads. Peter and Kate are always good for fruit, but the rest have had brownie points deleted from their accounts. I think it’s time I checked out my Rotorua neighbourhood. I hope you are all happy. I’m grateful my eyes have been opened and I’m moving differently through my days. In the words of my friend Mark Laurent, ‘It’s only love in the end, that’s all.’

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