BB#67-Nov-Dec-2022 by BayBuzz

N 67 • NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2022 • HAWKE’S BAY UP CLOSE, IN DEPTH

WOW! Kate Mackenzie wins again 9 772253 262016

Nov/Dec

A day in the life of a GP • Home wasn’t built in a day Passion for permaculture • ’Tis the season to be jolly Hospice Holly Trail: passing the baton • Oh … what a pavlova

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OF HAWKE’S BAY

67 BayBuzz November/ December 2022

Inside a GP practice that seems to work. Hastings getting a grip on housing. What’s the problem with finding workers? Water issues could drown the Regional Council. Hospice Holly Trail gets fresh team. Kudos to retiring Port chair. The secret sauce of AskYourTeam. Frail population overwhelming our health system. Kate Mackenzie wins WOW. A pooch for a monarch? Let’s see real Māori art. Credit to EIT. Living organically in Poukawa. Yvonne Lorkin visits Maison Noire. Pavlova if you must. Surviving families and buying books at Christmas. Photo: Florence Charvin

Bee in the know 4 6 7

Features

Editorial enquiries editors@baybuzz.co.nz Advertising enquiries Mandy Wilson 027 593 5575 mandy@baybuzz.co.nz Reach BayBuzz by mail BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

BayBuzz Team EDITOR: Tom Belford C&L EDITOR: Michal McKay SENIOR WRITERS: Kay Bazzard; Tom Belford; Abby Beswick; Rosheen FitzGerald; Bonnie Flaws; Michal McKay; Keith Newman; Tess Redgrave; Mark Sweet COLUMNISTS: Andrew Frame; Fiona Fraser; Yvonne Lorkin; Kate McLeay; Paul Paynter; Dominic Salmon; Jess Soutar Barron; Ian Thomas; Louise Ward BUSINESS WRITER: Brenda Newth VIDEOGRAPHER: Patrick O'Sullivan EDITOR’S RIGHT HAND: Brooks Belford PHOTOGRAPHY: Florence Charvin; Jack Warren ILLUSTRATION: Brett Monteith DESIGN: Unit Design Max Parkes; Giselle Reid ONLINE: Elizabeth-Marie Nes; Lee Tong BUSINESS & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Kathleen Botha PRINTING: Blue Star Group

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.

From the editor BayBuzz hero Hinewai Ormsby Bee in the know

About the cover It’s a big congratulations to one of Hawke’s Bay’s very own – multi award winning artist and creative, Kate Mackenzie, who has just won the WOW Supreme Award for the second time. To get a taste of her talent see her new exhibition at Muse Gallery now. Photograph: Florence Charvin

Featured contributor

16 A day in the life of a doctors’ general practice Tess Redgrave How one GP practice is coping with medical complexity, health bureaucracy and changing roles. 24 Home wasn’t built in a day Mark Sweet Hastings has become a hotbed of housing entrepreneurship. 32 The battle for the Bay’s best talent Bonnie Flaws Are we in a worker shortage, or a workers’ malaise? 38 Water, water, everywhere … who will get it? Tom Belford New Regional Council will inherit a torrent of water issues.

BayBiz … 46 Alasdair MacLeod sets sail Brenda Newth Kudos to the chairman who presided over the Port shares sale and a future-proofing wharf. 52 Leading questions Fiona Fraser AskYourTeam finds success in helping businesses listen to their employees.

Ideas & opinions

Mandy Wilson – Advertising Manager Mandy came back on board BayBuzz early this year because she believes in the “incredible small team which makes BayBuzz happen” and wanted to “be a part of making the magazine grow.” She also wanted to carry on working alongside clients with whom over the past 20 years she has built a wonderful relationship and helped watch their business grow. Meantime, when she is not investigating how new businesses are developing, she can be found communing with nature amongst the tuis on Te Mata Peak or on one of the Bay’s beautiful beaches. Photograph: Florence Charvin

2 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

56 Health crisis – what crisis? Dr Tim Frendin Our health system is becoming overwhelmed by human frailty, a biological inevitability. 60 Long live King Charles Spaniel Paul Paynter If we’re going to have a monarch, here’s a better approach. 62 Achieving sustainable construction and demolition Dominic Salmon About half of all waste to landfills is from C&D, but HB companies are changing that. 64 EIT has delivered for Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti students Stephen Hensman Credit to EIT for the countless students transitioned from school to trades or degree programmes. 66 Hawke’s Bay now well set to deal with elective surgery Anna Lorck HB has more public access to surgery and ability to attract more clinicians than ever before.

Culture & lifestyle 70 From watering cans to winning WOW! Michal McKay WOW – Kate Mackenzie has won the Supreme Award again. 74 Passing the baton Michal McKay After a decade of chairing the Holly Hospice Charity, KK Márffy hands the baton to a new team.

82 Culture clash Rosheen Fitzgerald Why don’t we feature Māori art … by Māori?! 86 Permaculture thrives in Poukawa Kay Bazzard Jo and Aaron Duff are living their dream – organically with nature. 92 ’Tis the season to be jolly Kate McLeay Kate advises on how to make the most of family reunions over the festive season. 94 Oh … what a Pavlova! Ian Thomas Ian isn't the pavlova maker this season – son Tom is the master.

96 Santé to Maison Noire Yvonne Lorkin Maison Noire's vineyard is a little postage stamp of verdant green – but it wasn't always. 102 All I want for Christmas Louise Ward Need inspiration for Christmas gifts? Louise has the perfect answers. 104 Mouthy Broad Jess Soutar Barron How to be great at tête-à-tête.

Photo: Florence Charvin NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 3

F R O M T H E EDI TO R TO M BEL FOR D

We wrap up the year examining some really ‘grunty’ issues – healthcare, housing, water, jobs – all from a Hawke’s Bay perspective, but all heavily influenced by ‘externalities’, including policies from Wellington. Three articles look at the state of our healthcare from differing perspectives. Reporter Tess Redgrave was given access to the frontline day-to-day workings of a Havelock North GP practice, Te Mata Peak Practice. This practice is using a new array of roles, technology and improved internal collaboration to be able to service more patients and more complex patients, especially older people, with multiple medical issues. Physician and geriatrician Tim Frendin, a veteran of thirty years at Hawke’s Bay Hospital, sounds an alarm about the escalating burden on the entire health system placed by human frailty – a biological imperative we can’t escape. In 1980 about one in seven died over 85; by 2060 it is estimated 70-80 percent of us will live past 85. But in what state? We live longer and longer, but then reach a point where many of us become dependent, simply unable to care for ourselves or recover without complication from common afflictions. How are we then taken care of? Frendin argues our healthcare system at every level is unprepared to meet the needs of this fasting growing segment of our population, including here in Hawke’s Bay. MP Anna Lorck, who has served on the now extinct DHB Board, defends the Labour Government’s progress in stepping up access to elective surgeries, providing some historical perspective on ‘waiting list’ manipulation. Digging out of the backlog is being assisted here in Hawke’s Bay by private

investment in surgical capability both by Royston/Evolution and Kaweka Hospital, which will be available to public system overflow. Housing is another issue that baffles governments at every level. But here in Hastings, with leadership from the Hastings District Council and a huge array of iwi, central government and private sector partners, we seem to be cracking the nut. Mark Sweet took the Hastings road tour and reports on the amazing amount of housing development that is well underway. Where there’s a will there’s a way. And it keeps growing. Since his report was filed, the Government has announced another $18.5 million in funding for Hastings to enable more infrastructure completion (roads, water systems) needed for housing construction. Hello Napier?! And then there’s my reporting beat, water. A Regional Council with five newbies and five returning first termers will confront a host of complex, controversial water decisions in its coming term – from water storage in various guises to a master plan mandated by government to be completed by the end of 2024 for all the region’s freshwater management. Hopefully my overview of the choices ahead and their ‘back stories’ will shed some light on the debates to come. Then there’s HB’s search for workers, investigated by Bonnie Flaws. Kudos to two of our outstanding business exemplars – retiring Napier Port Chairman Alasdair MacLeod and Chris O’Reilly, CEO of steadily growing AskYourTeam. Plus our HB building industry’s progress in dealing with construction waste during these booming times for construction, reported by Dominic Salmon. That’s a heavy load of issues, but

we’ve provided plenty of space for celebrating our arts, culture and lifestyle. Michal McKay tells the history of the Holly Hospice Trail and its visionary leaders over the years … and the new blood taking the reins. And she tells the story of local artist Kate Mackenzie, now a two-time winner of the World of Wearable Arts Supreme Award. Kay Bazzard takes you to Kahikatea Farm in Poukawa, where Jo and Aaron Duff have devoted 17 years to implementing permaculture principles to create a naturally resilient organic haven, with a Food Forest and outstanding plant nursery. Yvonne Lorkin visits boutique winery Maison Noire on Waimarama Road, the pride of winemaker Guillaume Thomas and artist wife Esther Smith. Our cultural milieu is not without issues. Rosheen FitzGerald suggests many pākehā need to re-think their ‘colonial’ approach to Māori art and artists, recognising what and who is authentic. “It is important that we normalise Māori being on the forefront of telling Māori stories,” she argues. Finally, we’ve also left room for very essential holiday guidance – Louise Ward on books, Ian Thomas on pavlovas, Kate McLeay on family holiday gatherings, and Jessica Soutar Barron on making party chit chat. Enjoy! And have a joyful and replenishing holiday season.

Tom Belford Tom has been a two-term 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.

BayBuzz is subject to the New Zealand Media Council. Complaints to be first directed in writing, within one month of publication, to editors@baybuzz.co.nz. If unsatisfied, the complaint may be pursued with the Media Council at: info@mediacouncil.org.nz. Further detail and complaints form are available at www.mediacouncil.org.nz.

4 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

Te Mutunga kē mai o te tiakitangat The new standard in surgical care

The wait is over. Kaweka Hospital brings together an expert team of surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses, technicians, and other support staff delivering exceptional surgical and post-operative patient care. Kaweka Hospital’s specialists offer surgery in a wide range of fields including ENT (ear, nose and throat), general surgery, gynaecology, urology, ophthalmology and gastroenterology.

Kaweka Hospital, established by Hawke’s Bay clinicians for the people of Hawke’s Bay. Ask your GP for a referral to one of our specialists or visit our website:

www.kawekahospital.nz 209 Canning Road, Hastings

BAY B UZ Z H E R O

Hinewai Ormsby Former science teacher, tourism operator, avid tree planter, mum and second term Regional Councillor is now the first Māori chair of the Hawke's Bay Regional Council. Congratulations Hinewai.

Photo: Florence Charvin

BE E I N TH E K NOW / L I ZZI E RU SSELL

The BayBuzz Twelve Days of HB Christmas… It’s that time of the year again, when ‘who’ to give ‘what’ becomes the all too familiar annual Christmas test. So let’s try to keep it local and as kind to the environment as we’re being to our true loves this gifting season. A few ideas from the BayBuzz team.

BE E I N T HE K N OW / L I Z Z I E R U S S E L L

The BayBuzz Twelve Days of HB Christmas…

ONE

special getaway weekend. Think a hike and night in a DoC hut in the ranges, the luxury of a glamping experience with Clifton Glamping, or rent a bach and hit a HB beach for some long walks, crayfish and balmy summer nights with that sea breeze cooling your sun-kissed skin.

TWO

Learn something new – give the gift of learning, and make it a double pass for you and your giftee. Being novices is always more fun when you do it as a pair. Ever tried your hands at the pottery wheel? Get in touch with Holly at morganmade in Napier’s Market Street for a voucher for a private lesson. It’s a double-up gift too because you have the experience, and you get pottery to keep!

8 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

morganmade pottery. Photo: Florence Photo: Florence Charvin Charvin

We are My Ride Hastings and My Ride Taradale Made up of two bike enthusiast families, and operating within the largest independently-owned NZ cycling network, we provide riders in the Bay with over 50 years of the best service and advice.

dea ethical underwear. Photo: Florence Charvin

THREE

pairs of locally designed and made, beautifully sustainable and comfortable dea underwear. Underwear for wearers who love the environment as much as their skin, dea feels like a gamechanger in this realm. Check out the gorgeous colours (natural dyes of course, set with soy milk instead of metal salts) like pomegranate, walnut, avocado and cream, and the lush range of styles at dealoves.co.nz

FOUR

My Ride Hastings and My Ride Taradale are Bosch & Shimano certified agents, carrying the largest range of e-bikes in the Bay.

Tickets to concerts and events! Here’s FOUR upcoming summer fun events to ponder: A Summer’s Day Live at Church Road, featuring UB40, Jefferson Starship & Dragon (December 29), Lorde and Gin Wigmore both have concerts at Black Barn (March 1 and 11 respectively) or of course, there’s bound to be something suitable at the 2023 Napier Art Deco Festival (February 16-19).

FIVE

Napier’s Corbin Road are champions of the slow beauty movement, Corbin Road products are kind to the planet, creating less waste decluttering the beauty cabinet by needing less, all while offering effective, clean results. FIVE of our favourite products, that would make seriously great gifts are: the Body Oil (which includes lovely Kawakawa), the Hand Sanitiser, the Restorative Cleansing Balm, the Multi Vitamin Face Oil, or even better, go all out and buy them the Complete Skincare System. Find all the details at corbinroad.co.nz or visit 58 Dalton Street.

Pop into one of our stores, mention this ad, and receive a Premium Bay Buzz Service for $99 (valued at $130)

503 Karamu Rd Hastings Phone 8703500 340 Gloucester St Taradale Phone 8449771

myride.co.nz NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 9

Sommelier Sidebar In the first of a regular 'sidebar', Smith & Sheth Oenothèque sommelier Jason Lambert shares the lowdown on selecting wines for your Christmas and summer holiday drinking and why wine makes a great gift for that picky family member.

It’s never easy pleasing everyone, but good wine selection can smooth over even the biggest festive grinch come dinner time. Dry and crisp whites like Riesling and fan favourite Sauvignon Blanc pair well with salty, smoky canapés and platters or oysters if you’re going all out. A structured Rosé will also complement just about anything. Next, a rich and textured Chardonnay is a must for your festive drinking. It will work with roast poultry and pork (with crackling, of course) just as well as it will in a glass sitting beside the pool. A medium-bodied Syrah or Cabernet is a great friend to ham and lamb with its berry flavours mirroring all those Christmas condiments and spices, as well as for summer BBQs that run long into the night.

The perfect gift You can't go wrong with a magnum for that wow factor, a voucher for a one-of-a-kind wine studio experience or club subscription with exceptional wines arriving on your doorstep twice a year. Pop in to see us at the Oenothèque and we can help with a gift for the pickiest recipient. Jason. www.smithandsheth.com

The BayBuzz Twelve Days of HB Christmas…

SIX

More local goodness for the bathroom cabinet. Hawke's Bay start-up Luxworks delivers utterly beautiful skincare and room / aura sprays. The SIX products on our wishlist this Christmas season are: The Set the Space and Cleanse the Space quartz-infused room sprays, the Hemp Oil Cleanser, the Aloe and NZ Glacial Clay Mask, the Rosewater and Silver Face Refresh and the nourishing Pomegranate Face Oil. Kerry from Luxworks also runs workshops for youngsters in the school holidays, so keep an eye on the social channels and see luxworks.co.nz for the info on this unique product range.

SEVEN

Trees and plants for the win! Ideal for kids and teens, fruit trees that they can watch grow as they do. We’re saying SEVEN is a great number to crack into home horticulture (odd numbers, rather than even, for visual satisfaction) – so enlist other family members to put together a growable collection.

EIGHT

Hawke’s Bay Farmers Market Dollars (to spend at your EIGHT favourite stalls) – for us that’s going to be Bay Blueberries, Good Vibes Fungi, Harald’s Bread World, Henry’s Juice for a Vit C hit, Hermana (mmmm Tacos), Monsieur Macaron, Nieuwenhuis for goaty cheesy deliciousness, and chats and charcuterie from Chris and Mike at The Deli.

NINE

Hospitality vouchers for the fun and festive season! Here’s NINE of our go-to excellent foodie spots to shout a loved one or two to: In Napier – Central Fire Station, Matisse, Hunger Monger, Sai Thai. In Hastings / Havelock North – Asian Diner, Craft & Social, Hastings Gin Distillery, Brave, Piku, Mary’s.

TEN

Help someone you love discover the gift of Yoga in 2023 with a TEN-class pass. Gypsy Yoga operates out of the Pacific Surf Club on Napier’s Marine Parade, the most idyllic spot for morning practice. Ten classes with teacher Laura Jeffares will change a mindset and a bod, we speak from experience. If a super slick vibe is more their thing, take a look at gorgeous new Havelock North studio, Alma on Joll Road or the Pilates Practice in Queen Street , Hastings, it’ll change your life. And there is also the luxury weekend of all time with our own Wellness columnist Kate McLeay - go out to Cape South Country Estate and Wellness Retreat near Waimarama – you’ll never want to leave.

ELEVEN Make a pact to get out and about more, day-tripping and exploring our fabulous region. Promise and plan for ELEVEN missions – one a month in 2023, skipping next December because by then it’s the mad festive rush all over again. Endless options in glorious Hawke’s Bay, but here are eleven suggestions from us: • Grab your bike (or hire one from Napier City Bike Hire & Tours on Marine Parade) and hit the Hawke’s Bay Trails. The Water Ride can take you south to Clive, west to Puketapu or north to Bayview with tons of sweet spots and stops along the way. • Head up country for a beach day at Waipataki. Towel, sunblock, umbrella, picnic and a good book. Sunny day perfection right there. • Cool off with a dip at Maraetotora Falls. • Make like a tourist and take in an Art Deco walking tour. There’s loads to learn about Napier’s architectural history from the passionate Art Deco Trust volunteers. Details at the Art Deco Centre at the top of Tennyson Street. • Drive or cycle your way around the Bridge Pa Triangle for a classic wine country experience. The cellar doors in the area are Abbey Cellars, Alpha Domus, Ash Ridge Winery, Oak Estate (site of THE best platter), Paritua Winery and Sileni Wines. • Haven’t been down to CHB for a while? Enjoy a change of scene and check out the shopping in Waipawa and Waipukurau. We love TenKu in Waipukurau for fashion, homewares, gifts and Hawthorne Coffee to fuel the day out.

• Pick a spot between October and May to visit the Guthrie Smith Arboretum and Education Centre at Tūtira (guthriesmith.org.nz). • Get up at a decent hour on a weekend morning to hit Red Bridge Coffee on the way out to Ocean Beach for the best seaside walking you can throw a stick at. (The dogs who frequent Ocean Beach give it bonus points in the battle for Best Beach in the Bay.) • Have you been to the Faraday Centre in Napier? This super underrated museum of technology is run by lovely volunteers and offers hands-on experiences relating to our tech history. Details at faradaycentre.org.nz. • Limber up and challenge each other with a decent walk. Bell Rock, White Pine Bush, Boundary Stream. Have a hunt on doc.govt.nz for lots of options. • Enjoy an inspiring cultural day out exploring the galleries and public art around the region. You’ll find all the spots to hit at hawkesbaynz.com

Jan from Napier City Bike Hire & Tours Photo: Florence Charvin

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Jump Starters There’s nothing like the whole world shutting down to refocus us on the benefits of buying and supporting local. BayBuzz talks to three Hawke’s Bay businesses who have moved swiftly to turn a crisis into a positive, and found strength in community spirit along the way. Story by Giselle Reid and Lizzie Russell.

Ultrella From small beginnings selling jars of natural deodorant at the Piecemakers Pop-up and Hereworth Christmas markets, Mel Lewis soon realised she had to take her business to the next level if she was going to compete with a growing number of competitors in the personal care space. The new business was over a year in the planning. “My customers had told me the products they wanted to be using, but I didn’t have the technical skills to create them.” Through the Hawke’s Bay Business Hub, she applied for, and won, a Callaghan Innovation R&D grant at the start of 2019. That financial support enabled her to work with a leading product formulator to bring her ideas to fruition. Ultrella Natural Deodorant is the first deodorant in NZ and Australia (“and the whole world, as far as we know”) to be able to reduce sweating naturally. The hero ingredient is a natural Botox alternative called IBR-Snowflake®, a plant extract made from Summer Snowflake bulbs. This ingredient has been clinically proven to reduce sweating by 36% ... up until now you’ve had to use an antiperspirant to get results like this. Ultrella was launched the Friday before lockdown. “It was a completely surreal day,” says Mel. “I very nearly didn’t go ahead, but then I kept thinking, ‘If I don’t do it now, when will I do it? There’s never a perfect time to launch a business, so I just leapt in and went for it.” Prior to lockdown, she had been in negotiations with four major NZ retailers, but those conversations halted immediately. In this instance, being small worked in her favour, quickly pivoting to focus

entirely on online sales. Fortunately, Ultrella already had an online store, built by Aimee Stewart’s team at Connect Plus. “When it looked like we were going into lockdown, I made a dash up to our warehouse in Napier, and loaded up my car with as many boxes of products as I could fit in so we could dispatch from home if required. It was such a lucky move.” There were a couple of nervous weeks as Mel waited to find out if Ultrella was included on the MBIE’s register for Essential Goods. Once that was established, Ultrella was good to go. “Having the population at home, spending a lot of time online, actually worked in our favour during those first few weeks. It gave us a chance to connect with potential customers and educate people about our ethos and our products.” The groundswell of ‘buy New Zealand’ made sentiment on social media, and in particular the now 500,000 strong New Zealand Made Products Facebook page, provided a huge kick-start for Ultrella. The response to one unsponsored post on that Facebook page was “mental”, says Mel, “I had over 1,000 comments and questions to respond to. It took me days to go back to everyone. I posted on the Saturday night. By Sunday lunchtime it was obvious we were going to run out of courier supplies. It was really stressful trying to get more down from Auckland. The support from other local businesses was incredible.” Mel put out a call for help and Steve Christie from Blackroll NZ, Tom Ormond from Hawthorne Coffee, Nathan from Blackbird Goods and Shaz and Garon from Ecokiosk were among the

Ultrella founder, Mel Lewis. Photo: Florence Charvin JULY/AUGUST 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 23

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B E E I N THE K N OW / L I Z Z I E R U SS E LL

TWELVE

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AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO DENTISTRY WITH WYNTON PERROTT

Dental Implants What you need to know Dental implants have been around for a long time in dentistry. Today, they are still considered an optimal option for replacement of missing teeth.

THE REAL DENTAL BENEFITS OF IMPLANTS ARE: • Looks and feels like a real tooth • Very stable, can be used for chewing just like a real tooth • Long term solution • Conservative treatment as adjacent teeth are not altered • Can be used for single tooth or multiple tooth replacement An initial assessment is needed with your dental professional. This will ensure that you have adequate bone support to have a dental implant. The dental implant can then be placed under local anaesthetic and not long after, you will have a natural looking tooth in your smile.

92 Te Mata Road, Havelock North 877 7278 | smilehaus.nz Photo: Florence Charvin

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 13

B E E I N TH E KN OW / K AY BA Z Z A R D

The Vision of June Wayne International art printmaker’s work being exhibited at CAN in January 2023 As one of the world’s most prolific and sophisticated lithographers June Wayne initiated the Modern Fine Art Print Renaissance. She also prefigured some of the most important movements in the 20th century of modern printmaking while reviving the dying art of stone lithography after World War Two. Following the Francoise Gilot exhibition in 2022, with this collection of June Wayne’s graphic works, Creative Arts Napier presents another important print artist of the 20th century, thereby providing a rare opportunity for enthusiasts to enjoy and enhance their knowledge of stone lithography. Supporting the exhibition is a catalogue designed to assist viewers. The exhibition is presented in chronological order and reveals Wayne’s experimental and cutting-edge print techniques over seven decades. Every lithograph is reproduced in full colour, with a detailed narrative explaining its significance, important points in her career and her links to the Tamarind Institute. JUNE WAYNE – Exhibition at Creative Arts Centre, 16 Byron St, Napier - January, 2023

IONIQ 5 Designed for beauty, but engineered for efficiency.

BOOK YOUR TEST DRIVE, CONTACT US TODAY. Bayswater Hyundai Hastings: Paul Kerr - pkerr@bayswatervehicles.co.nz, Phone 021 226 8218 Bayswater Hyundai Napier: Keagan Govender - keagan@bayswatervehicles.co.nz, Phone 021 305 470 www.bayswatervehicles.co.nz

14 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

1744, London. 1976, New York. 2012, Hawke’s Bay.

Celebrating a decade in Hawke’s Bay and a legacy dating back 278 years. With over two centuries of history behind the Sotheby’s name, 2022 marks ten years of exceptional real estate, in Hawke’s Bay. Our innate knowledge of the local market paired with our unrivaled global reach, continues to set us apart. Just like those who came before us, we bring excellence, expertise and an assurance that your property will be treasured, elevated and valued above the rest. Thank you to all our clients, suppliers, friends and families for supporting us in making these first ten years exceptional.

THIS PAGE: James Newman, David Doig and KJ Patel

A day in the life of a doctors’ general practice Story by Tess Redgrave Photos by Jack Warren It’s 9 am on a recent Tuesday and just over half of Te Mata Peak Practice’s 42 staff (many part-time) are gathered in the downstairs meeting room. Everyone is wearing navy blue scrubs (a routine continued since the first Covid lockdown) so it’s nigh impossible, at a distance, to view name badges and work out who is a doctor, a nurse or administrator – not to mention a whole lot of other new roles I will encounter as the day progresses. “Right! First up, we have on duty this morning …” Vikki Bond, Medical Support Facilitator, with a distinct Scottish burr and glistening pinkshaded hair, is running the meeting. She has only been at the Te Mata Peak Practice (TMPP) since January, but she has 30 years’ experience as a certified dementia practitioner, has been a military police officer in the British Army, and is a trained facilitator. Vikki is one of a wave of new staff who are part of a major gear change for this GP practice. More on that to come. I am here to witness the Practice in action, so back to the morning hui – a 15-minute daily start to the day. “We’ve got three nurses completing training on ear suctions looking for ears to examine.” Vikki surveys the wide circle of staff. “Any volunteers?” Several people raise their hands. “You can try me,” says the Practice’s Managing Director Kunjay Patel, known as KJ. The hui continues with a discussion on how best to define, for patients who are unsure, the roles of the two nurse practitioners on staff.

“Yes, we all do house visits,” the three doctors chime when I look slightly incredulous remembering my own 1960s Havelock North childhood and the GP arriving at the front door with his brown leather bag.

“These are nurses with advanced education, clinical training and the demonstrated competency. They have the legal authority to practise beyond the level of a registered nurse and prescribe medicines,” Vikki offers. “Or I like this simple definition: nurse practitioners have the brains of a doctor and the heart of a nurse.” There is much laughter and then all eyes are on a video as it runs through pronunciation of Māori greetings and farewells as part of TMPP’s ‘Te Reo Tuesday’. Keita Rasell, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, and a health coach at the Practice, turns to her colleagues. “If anyone has a query about pronunciation in real time, I am happy to go through things with you.” And then the daily hui is over and the staff (mainly female) ranging in age from 18-70 and comprising mixed nationalities – UK, Māori, Indian, Scottish, Danish, German, South African and NZ European – leave to get on with their day. “Ata mārie,” calls someone.

A little over a year ago this GP practice, like many around the country, was struggling with a crushing workload and staff burnout, highlighted by Covid.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 17

“A year ago we broke so many systems; we re-formatted, re-developed and changed them and we all invested a lot of money in upgrading the Practice.” KJ Patel

KJ Patel, GP

To hear more about this and big changes in response, I sit around the table in the meeting room with TMPP’s three directors. Interestingly, they are all second-generation doctors. KJ, 47 years old, is the son of an anaesthetist and a gynaecologist. He came from the UK to NZ in 2006 and to this practice in 2008. As well as being the current Managing Director, he is a GP and medical educator. David Doig, 49, whose father was an obstetrician and gynaecologist in Christchurch, began at Te Mata Peak Practice nearly 20 years ago and now specialises in nutritional and environmental medicine and patients with complex conditions. James Newman, 37, also hails from the UK where his father was a GP and his mother was a nurse. James is late to our meeting because he has been on a house visit to a dying patient. “Yes, we all do house visits,” the three doctors chime when I look slightly incredulous remembering my own 1960s Havelock North childhood and the GP arriving at the front door with his brown leather bag. “We do most of our home visits in lunch hours or after hours,” says

18 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

James, who looks after a lot of the Practice’s older population. Nearly one-tenth of TMPP’s enrolled patients are over 80 years old.

Some history

Wind back just a few years and there were six doctors working here, all siloed as independent businesses. As one-byone three left, KJ, James and David continued on with long waiting lists – up to three weeks – and with little chance of employing another GP with such a severe shortage in the country. They were also drowning in ever increasing amounts of admin, plus dealing with their own frustration at the ongoing lack of government funding for primary health care. “Nine percent of the health budget while 70 percent of the interactions, consultations and work is being done in General Practice across NZ,” they claim. Plus more and more of the workload from Secondary Care seemed to be falling into Primary Care’s lap. For example, no surgical spaces in hospitals, resulting in GPs managing chronic pain; support services at home falling back to the GP; increased workload for palliative care; more drug

addiction and hepatitis being handled in the community; a lack of cardiologists meaning more appointments needed at GPs; gastroenterology being managed in the community; elderly care being done at a local level rather than secondary. (“General Practice’s increasing workload comes from our ageing population.”) And an overwhelming amount of a GPs resource being absorbed into mental health. “And not just depression and anxiety but also bipolar, schizophrenia and mental illness that hasn’t been categorised,” explains KJ. “The hospital end of the system is getting screwed on this too, so we’re not blaming them but it’s a big problem.” Mindful of staff burnout, and their own – James’s GP father died at work, age 64, of a haemorrhagic stroke, David’s father at 66 of a heart attack and KJ’s father had a stroke at work six months before he retired – the three directors literally decided to take matters into their own hands.

Break and fix

“A year ago we broke so many systems,” says KJ. “We re-formatted, re-developed and changed them

Health coach, Keita Rasell, and health improvement practitioner, Shannon Houston

and we all invested a lot of money in upgrading the Practice.” First, they doubled their nursing team from three to seven and in a nod of acknowledgement at the dispiriting lack of pay parity for nurses between primary and secondary healthcare, gave their nurses a five per cent pay rise, taking a pay-cut for themselves. Then they began tackling the load of admin pouring into the Practice. “We were processing hundreds of pieces of health critical data every day,” says KJ. “There is so much over-sharing by hospital disciplines. We’d get a notification that a person’s referral had been received, then what priority it’s been assigned, then a letter, then a notification that the referral has closed - just give me the clinic letter and the plan. Just tell me when the booking is. We’d get a notice that the referral was going to be triaged. We don’t need to know that. “There is just such nonsense stuff that comes in – this patient had a fluoroscopy and we’re letting you know, but no clinic details are included - what’s the point? Hospital doctors can order a test and expect us to follow them up without cc’ing us into the result, then we

have to ask our nurse to chase it and then action it. We’ve become secondary care’s secretaries. We can’t order MRIs without jumping through hoops. “The system is so stupid that sometimes hospital doctors will request that we do a referral to another discipline because they’re not allowed to do it themselves. “So one of the biggest re-focuses we’ve had is getting our admin team to function in broader roles. They’re doing much more, for example, recall management and enrolling and processing new patients. TMPP’s nursing team have had changes to their clinical roles and now provide admin support too. “In the last year we’ve got our waiting list down from three weeks to one and we want to get it down to sub one.” The Practice is also one of the first in New Zealand to employ Extended Care Paramedics (ECPs). These are top tier paramedics who have been trained in General Practice so they can do the day-to-day call backs and review of patients with acute medical issues. “This has freed our GPs because we’re not dealing anymore with coughs, colds, cuts and sneezes and increasing amounts of the urgent general practice

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Practice manager, Sharee Fawlk

workload, and can deal with more complex non-urgent stuff,” says KJ. “The medical conditions GPs are dealing with on a daily basis are becoming more complex,” adds David. “People are living longer and they have multiple co-morbidities or conditions at the same time. With the elderly a lot of the warning lights don’t go on, they don’t get the symptoms that tells them something is wrong. They don’t cough and don’t have a fever, but they’ve got pneumonia. We play a lot of ‘spot the cancer’ here too and it’s not always easy.” Another significant change here is setting the Practice up as a company with 10% of profits going to an employee trust, so staff can all have shares in the company. “We’re still finalising the paper work,” says James, “but we’ve told the staff and we’re going to set up a Board.” “We want to empower as many people as possible and build it into the DNA of the company,” adds KJ. Traditionally this Practice has been a holding and distribution company for six individual businesses with shared investment in the premises while each individual business would make its income depending on how much work

20 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

The Practice is also one of the first in New Zealand to employ Extended Care Paramedics (ECPs). These are top tier paramedics who have been trained in General Practice so they can do the day-to-day call backs and review of patients with acute medical issues.

the doctor was doing. “Now we’re less territorial; we’re working as a team and together we can hold each other to higher clinical standards.”

Practice stats

I finish talking to the three directors and leave them to their monthly strategy meeting with Practice Manager Sharee Fawlk, who has been instrumental in helping TMPP re-structure its internal systems. The TMPP waiting room upstairs is pin-drop quiet. It is hard to believe there are currently some 8,700 enrolled patients here with the

directors aiming for a maximum enrollment target of 12,000, dependent on GP recruitment (they have just brought on two part-time GPs). On average, the practice has 540 scheduled appointments per week spread across the GPs, nurses’ clinics, a health coach, health improvement practitioner and clinical pharmacist, with another 80 people per week on average walking into the Practice, without an appointment, for urgent care. The patient make-up of TMPP is 89% European with just under 10% of patients over 80, and 28% 65-plus. Of the rest 29% are under 25 and they usually come for things like contraception, pregnancy, endometriosis. Bulk government funding for GP practices is paid monthly on a capitation basis (i.e. per patient enrolled) with differing factors such as age, gender, quintile and ethnicity factored in for every person enrolled, so that there is not one set per capita rate. Rates are generally higher for patients at either end of the age spectrum – under 5 years and over 65s. In August this year the TMPP directors wrote to their patients explaining that they had to increase fees as a

“The medical conditions GPs are dealing with on a daily basis are becoming more complex. People are living longer and they have multiple co-morbidities or conditions at the same time. With the elderly a lot of the warning lights don’t go on, they don’t get the symptoms that tells them something is wrong.” David Doig

direct result of the government imposing what amounted to a significant funding cut in real terms. “As of 31 March 2022, national inflation rises were running at 6.9%,” they wrote. “Additionally, general practice has experienced a range of further cost pressures which has meant our total costs have risen by over 10 per cent compared to this time last year. The government has imposed a funding increase of just 3%.... “We think this is unfair.” The letter suggested patients lobby their local MP and the Minister of Health – one of several signs this Practice is not hanging back in the shadows. Earlier I had noticed a laminated poster on a wall, Patient Participation Group: Do you want to help improve our services? “That’s something that’s been around for a couple of years,” says

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Sharee Fawlk. “If we are going to change something or introduce a new service we ask the participation group for feedback.”

Practice at work

One of the heart beats of TMPP, is the ‘Treatment’ room, which includes a Nurses Station and is set up to handle emergencies. It has an ECG machine, defibrillator, oxygen, suction machine/ aspirator for clearing obstructions from airways, a plastering station, suture kits, and equipment to take bloods and specimens. Adjacent to this is the new and ground-breaking tele-consult room (nicknamed the ‘goldfish bowl’) where Emergency Care Paramedics (ECPs) deal with acute patients over the phone. Every call that comes into TMPP is fielded first by a three-person Call

Centre down in the basement, colloquially-named the ‘Mushroom Room’. If calls are acute, they are logged with the ECPs who will do a fast call-back and assess whether to forward on to outside emergency services, to a TMPP GP, or carry out their own phone or face-to-face consult – both of these charge the usual GP-visit fee. “I used to work at the bottom of the cliff dealing with emergencies,” says Dale Walters, one of the three paramedics (two are on duty each day). “Now I am at the top of the cliff doing a lot of preventative medicine.” Dale has 35 years experience as a trained paramedic with St John Ambulance. Keen to broaden his skill set and be part of a new direction for paramedics, Dale did a postgraduate diploma in health sciences at Auckland University of Technology. This has enabled him to move into General Practice work. Most of the 20 to 60-odd calls a day fielded by the ECPs are for things like coughs, colds, parents worried about sick children, chest pains, fractured ankles, head injuries, mild asthma attacks and viral illnesses. The paramedics can issue basic medicines such as pain relief, antibiotics and Ventolin, which are listed in Standing Order guidelines developed in conjunction with TMPP’s clinical pharmacist, Steph McAllister. The paramedics are also on hand if an emergency patient arrives at the clinic. “The other day a man collapsed in the surgery and I was able to resuscitate him quickly in the Treatment room,” says Dale.

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Paramedic, Dale Walters

22 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

He has only been at TMPP for four months and is still finding his feet. “I’m going to enjoy this immensely,” he says, “but I am not yet. I am so used to dealing with trauma – car accidents, cardiac arrest, major asthma attacks, temporising them and moving on. Now I am dealing with things like skin rashes and working with patients in a whole new way.” On a busy week the ECPs can return 190 phone calls with the majority being resolved over the phone without the patient needing to come in. That’s a big circuit breaker to the GP workflow. “And that’s what I am already enjoying,” says Dale. “I love being part of a bigger functioning unit and a multidisciplinary approach.” Adjacent to the ECPs, Penny Rhodes looks busy at the Nurses Station. She is the Practice’s Nurse Manager and has been here for nine years. She is in charge of the clinical flow day to day, rostering nurses to work either in the treatment room, be on duty to support patients and the doctors, or help with practical work such as giving immunisations, taking blood pressures and assisting in a small day-surgery room. A new nurses’ role at TMPP is the ‘Inbox Nurse’. Each nurse is now regularly rostered on to help with the overflow of information coming into the clinic. Says Penny, “The Inbox nurse deals with hospital notifications, test results, discharge summaries – things that we as nurses understand, but are not going to impact on patient management.” The Inbox Nurse is another TMPP innovation that has had a huge impact on GP workflow, at the same time extending nurses’ skills. Most GP practices in NZ now have a registered nurse with mental health credentials on staff to whom doctors can refer patients for free appointments (in TMPP’s case funded by Health Hawke’s Bay.) I catch Sarah Heke, one of two mental health nurses working part-time, on a break between appointments. She has been here seven years, three working in mental health, and says she is mostly dealing with depression and anxiety. Sometimes her job is simply to refer a patient on or she will work with them building a care plan and setting goals. “We all have a cognitive brain and an emotional brain,” she says, “and it’s often the emotional brain I am working with.” Sarah is also running two nurse-led clinics a week at St Andrews Church in

Hastings where her husband Warren Heke, the church pastor, had already established some support for a homeless community. Next, I pop my head around the corner of Dr Katie Goatley’s room. She arrived from the UK in mid-July and says the main difference she is noticing here from her UK GP role is the team support. “Everybody has got each other’s back.” Down the hall I find Health Coach Keita Rasell and her colleague Health Improvement Practitioner Shannon Houston. Keita has a degree in natural medicine and has worked in a variety of organisations including Kaupapa Māori Health. Shannon is a trained occupational therapist. Both provide support to patients who want to make changes to their physical and/or mental health. Says Keita: “Shannon might work on a behavioural change plan with a patient and I can then follow up with more repetitive engagement to help them stay on track.”

As the day goes on, I meet and talk with many staff at Te Mata Practice and watch as a steady flow of patients come and go through the front foyer. The atmosphere remains calm and quiet

Next, I pop my head around the corner of Dr Katie Goatley’s room. She arrived from the UK in mid-July and says the main difference she is noticing here from her UK GP role is the team support. “Everybody has got each other’s back.”

and belies what is going on behind the many closed doors. This prompts me to ask Practice Manager, Sharee Fawlk, whose idea it was to let BayBuzz in for a peek behind the scenes. “Mine,” she laughs. “When I started 12 months ago, I had no idea how complex this place was. Everything happens at the back-end and this seemed like an opportunity to lift the veil a bit…” I wait until director KJ has completed his last consult and then step into his room where his electric guitar hangs on the wall next to his desk – a reminder of the hobby he will get back to one day.

Not that he is complaining. He is already thinking about his next project: to get a young Registrar on board. “Someone that we can show the joys of General Practice to and they can in turn stimulate us with new ideas and new evidence,” he says. In fact, KJ is off to Auckland the next day to brush up on some of his medical educator skills. He says he aims to be in General Practice for the long haul. “I hope when the time comes to retire that I feel torn about leaving,” he says. “I love General Practice. “And teamwork is the panacea to all ills.”

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air

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

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 23

Home wasn’t built in a day

Story: Mark Sweet Photos: Florence Charvin

Our region’s shortage of housing attracts a great deal of criticism, much deserved. But in fact, a band of in-tune players is addressing the affordable housing issue in Hastings, and with determined behind-thescenes efforts are making commendable progress against the daunting challenge.

A partnership between Hastings District Council, government ministries, mana whenua and community groups has been established to address the acute shortage of affordable housing in Hastings and its social consequence of homelessness. December 2022 is the third anniversary of the Hastings Place Based Housing Plan. BayBuzz investigates how well it is working. ‘Place-based’ acknowledges local challenges require local solutions and best outcomes are achieved when community stakeholders have a seat at the table with local and central government. The Plan’s core partners, who meet six weekly, are Hastings District Council (HDC), Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD), Kāinga Ora, Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK), Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi (NKII), Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga (TToH), Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust (HTST), and Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (HBDHB).

The ministries

MSD, the social welfare ministry, is responsible for assisting homeless into accommodation. They administer the Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant for the cost of emergency accommodation, mostly in motels. More than fifteen hundred people are currently in emergency housing in Hastings. Highest earners from the Special Needs Grant in the year ended March 2022 were Hastings Top 10 Holiday Park, $3.08m, and Frimley Lodge Motel, $1.15m. Top 10 has imported container houses to meet demand. MSD also manage the Public Housing Register, the waiting list, with over 800 current applicants in Hastings, and MSD determine income-related rents for public housing tenants (25% of net income). Kāinga Ora manages the social housing portfolio, renovates existing homes, builds new social housing, and Left: Kauri Street, Mahora

Throughout the district, at Waimarama, Kohupatiki in Clive, Waipuka Ocean Beach, Bennett Road in Waipatu, Paki Paki, and Bridge Pa, papakāinga are completed, under construction, and planned.

Above: Plunket Street, Stortford Lodge

is funded by MHUD. In Hastings, since September 2020, they have delivered 188 social houses, 62 transitional, and 133 houses are currently in design and construction stages. (KO 22/07/22) At a hearing before Commissioners at HDC in September, a Kāinga Ora spokesperson said their 2021-24 target of 400 homes was on course, and that 75% of need was for one and two bedrooms. Dotted throughout older Hastings suburbs are new Kāinga Ora infill houses, singles and multiples. In Raureka and Mahora, clusters of up to 45 houses, one to six bedrooms, built to Homestar 6 standard, are a model of cohesive social housing design and amenity. In Flaxmere, close to Te Aranga Marae, social, transitional, and private housing are intermixed. Transitional housing was introduced in 2017 to provide short-term housing

26 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

for those transitioning from living in substandard accommodation, mostly motels, to finding secure housing. MHUD contracts with developers in transitional housing builds. In Flaxmere, Soho Group, owned by Sam and Jonathon Wallace, built 18 houses, and at Stortford Lodge, Auckland based Trevor Pearce, has just completed 14 two-bedroom semi-detached dwellings. A feature of the Pearce build is a Council requirement to install retention tanks to reduce the impact of heavy rain on the stormwater system. Properties are secured by MHUD with purchase or long-term leases. TW Property Group, owned by Simon Tremain and Cam Ward, recently sold a cul d’sac development of 28 houses in Mayfair to MHUD. Half are transitional housing managed by Te

Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, and half are social housing managed by Kāinga Ora. A feature of the TW build is that ten of the homes are accessible catering for people with mobility needs. TW Property Group is the parent company of HB Construction, a major contract builder for Kāinga Ora and active in building medium density cluster housing for the private market. Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK), the Ministry of Māori Development, supports and funds Māori housing initiatives, especially papakāinga, the building on ancestral land with multiple persons ownership. Having no cost of land component, papakāinga gives whānau easier access to affordable housing, $350-$450,000. Also assisting affordability are favourable mortgages from Kiwibank being underwritten by Kāinga Ora. Currently no deposit is required for a loan below $200,000, but a deposit requirement of 15% for every dollar borrowed above $200,000 applies. Throughout the district, at Waimarama, Kohupatiki in Clive, Waipuka Ocean Beach, Bennett Road in Waipatu, Paki Paki, and Bridge Pa, papakāinga are completed, under construction, and planned. At Waipatu Marae multiple infill papakāinga homes are dotted among the existing houses, and across Karamu Road, on land previously the site of Clyde Potter’s Epicurian Supplies, Waipatu are to build up to 30 homes. Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (HBDHB) is partnered with TPK in delivering the Child Healthy Housing Programme, which upgrades Māori owned homes to be warmer and healthier, preventing childhood respiratory illnesses and rheumatic fever.

The Council

In the first year of the place-based plan, a strategy document on Hastings District’s housing aspirations, policy, and achievement goals was developed in collaboration with partners. The Medium and Long Term Housing Strategy, Kāinga Paneke, Kāinga Pānuku, was signed jointly by Mayor Sandra Hazelhurst and Iwi leader Ngahiwi Tomoana in February 2021. Kāinga Paneke, Kāinga Pānuku, is a detailed masterplan of housing development in Hastings District with a goal of meeting projected demand of 7000 new houses over the next ten years, 2500 of those being medium density. HDC actively encouraged medium density cluster housing and smoothed the consent process with their 2020 Residential Intensification Design Guide, and HDC was one of the first councils to include papakāinga building codes in its district plan. HDC is also a developer. Three sites in Flaxmere, yielding 135 sections, are being formed in stages. Council have contracted out the infrastructure build, roading and services, and are currently in negotiation with developers. By end 2022, it is Council’s intention to have entered into agreement(s)

with building developer(s) who will buy the land and build new affordable housing. HDC have stated they would like to see 20% of homes as dedicated social housing. Being the local authority, it is HDC who collate and publish regular updates of the place-based partners’ work stream. The initial goal of 650+ homes, currently stands at 499 either completed, under construction, or site ready.

HDC hosts the six weekly meetings of the place-based partners, and chief executive, Nigel Bickle, appointed in 2019, is well qualified for his role, having had a thirty-year career in the civil service with senior positions in the Ministries of Housing, Immigration, and Social Welfare.

Mana whenua

Ngāti Kahungunu are represented in the partnership by NKKI, the Iwi’s governance and enterprise organisation. Nigel Bickle credits former NKKI chairman, Ngahiwi Tomoana, as instrumental in Hastings being chosen as the first district to trial a place-based approach to housing supply. NKKI are active in the housing sector through their land development and construction company K3 Kahungunu Property. In Napier, K3, is in partnership with government (MHUD) and a private developer (David Colville) to lead the staged subdivision and building of up to 600 homes, expected to begin in 2023. K3 has an emphasis on providing training opportunities for Māori by way of trade apprenticeships, and creating business opportunities in the design, materials, supply, manufacture and construction processes.

Clockwise from top left: Kauri Street, Mahora; Gilbert Close, Mayfair; Korowai Street, Flaxmere; Waingākau Village, Flaxmere

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 27

“The government’s national plan, Housing First, wasn’t working. They were trying to solve a local problem with a national solution. It doesn’t work that way. We needed a local solution.” Warren Heke Pastor of Hastings Church

Warren Heke. Photo: Florence Charvin

In another project, agreed June 2022, K3 Kahungunu Property has partnered with MHUD and Te Puni Kōkiri, who are funding $45.3m to build 131 new homes in Ngāti Kahungunu rohe, which stretches from Wairoa to Wairarapa. A long-term project, where, when, and how many of those houses will be in Hastings, has yet to be determined. Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust (HTST) is the governance body managing the Treaty of Waitangi settlement with the Crown. The settlement acknowledges multiple Crown breaches in land purchases that left Heretaunga Tamatea whānau virtually landless. One of the Trust’s first investments was the February 2020 purchase of 22 hectares on the eastern fringe of Flaxmere. Combined with a neighbouring 5.6ha site HTST are planning a subdivision yielding up to 400 homes.

28 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

Discussions about partnering with relevant ministries is underway and HDC is supporting the land use plan change. Two more properties, in Havelock North and Flaxmere, were purchased in June 2021, and are now included in the place-based plan work stream, supplying around 50 new homes.

Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga (TToH)

Our meeting begins with karakia, a prayer, invoking spiritual guidance and protection. Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga, “is a Kaupapa Māori organisation. There is philosophy in everything we do,” says chairman Mike Paku. “Our basic core values are the building blocks on which everything sits. We don’t do anything without referring to our kaupapa, our philosophy.”

Established in 1987 as a charitable trust, Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga (TToH) is the largest of the six taiwhenua in the Ngāti Kahungunu rohe, with over 9,000 registered members. From humble beginnings in a Flaxmere shed, TToH is now based in a sprawling complex, previously the DB Heretaunga Hotel, and provides a range of services in health, education, pastoral care, and housing, has 430 employees, and 2021/22 revenue of $53m. In the housing sector, CEO Waylyn Tahuri-Whaipakanga says, “We are in a unique position, working across the whole spectrum, from homelessness to being real estate agents selling homes.” The real estate arm of TToH is Waingākau residential subdivision of 120 homes in west Flaxmere. The homeless support element, while always being a TToH service, has recently expanded into emergency and transitional housing. “There’s been homelessness before but now we have homelessness on mass. We’ve always supported homeless whānau, but it’s only in the last four years we’ve had transitional housing. “Emergency housing used to be for victims of domestic violence, needing to move. Now there’s such a chronic shortage (of houses) we have whānau with both parents working, who lose their rental, can’t find another, and end up in emergency housing in a motel.” Working closely with MHUD, MSD, and Kāinga Ora, TToH are currently supporting whānau in both emergency and transitional housing. With transitional housing TToH, “manages the tenancy, and the social needs of the whānau. We talk about how to be a good tenant, and how to prepare for permanent tenancy. It’s a wrap around service.” Building community and relationships, whānaungatanga, is a core of TToH kaupapa.

Serena Hakiwai, communications manager illustrates. “An aspect of the Korowai Street transitional housing is it sits alongside Waingākau, our subdivision development, and when the Korowai whānau had all moved in, the Waingākau whānau held a pōwhiri at Te Aranga Marae to welcome them into the community.” Waylyn adds, “We want people to have a buy into the community, where they know their neighbours and support each other. We’re forming community together where everything’s joined up.” That Māori are disproportionally excluded from secure housing is an issue TToH are actively addressing with home ownership the ultimate goal. Mike Paku imparts some background. “You have to remember,” he says, “for a long time Māori have been told you will never own your own home. That’s the message they’ve been given which has led to choosing a lifestyle with the attitude, if I’m never going to own my own home, why should I save for a deposit, may as well enjoy all the consumables.” It hasn’t always been so, and Mike reflects on his youth. “When I first went to work, I was encouraged by our

“Now there’s such a chronic shortage (of houses) we have whānau with both parents working, who lose their rental, can’t find another, and end up in emergency housing in a motel.” Waylyn Tahuri-Whaipakanga Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga

kaumatua to get my own home, and to talk to Māori Affairs about the pathway.” The Māori Affairs Department had a property division offering equity assistance and low interest loans but, “when devolution of Māori Affairs took place the housing section wasn’t replaced (1989). Devolution also saw the closing of the freezing works which were the biggest employers of Māori in the region.” Whakatū closed in 1984, followed 10 years later by Tomoana, with a combined loss of 4500 jobs. The economic and social damage for Māori from the free market policies of

the 1980/90’s was severe and lasting. The latest census (2018) cited the proportion of people living in owner-occupied dwellings as 64.3% overall. For Europeans it was 70.5%, for Māori, 47.2%. The earliest census data, from the 1930’s, showed 70.5% of Māori lived in owner-occupied dwellings. (info@stats.govt.nz) “Clearly,” says Mike Paku, “mainstream have failed Māori in housing and there had to be another pathway.” Waingākau is a destination on that pathway but the journey hasn’t been easy. “There was a lot of push back from the community in west Flaxmere, from those who had built on Kirkwood Road. There was a fear that our development would pull values down. Usual stuff. They’re Māori houses so they’ll be slums. We had to get over that.” Get over it they did. Twelve houses are completed, several are under construction and forty sections are formed and serviced, ready for the builders. Waingākau is different from normal subdivisions. “Our model is far more complex than the usual developer who prepares the sites and sells. We start with the whānau .” Serena Hakiwai explains one initiative. “Sorted Kainga Ora has a

We love the environment! Our team of scientists monitor and study the condition of the region’s waterways, land, air and biodiversity, to understand how climate change and human activity will affect them in the future. This highlights where action needs to be taken. Find out more about our three yearly check on the health of our environment hbrc.govt.nz, search: #SOE

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 29

Hastings District Council Heretaunga-Tamatea Settlement Trust

Boston Cresent 2.1 Hectares 30 Houses HousingType: Iwi/Affordable

Waingākau Village 10.7 Hectares 100+ Houses HousingType: Iwi/Affordable

Te Taiwhenua O Heretaunga

Flaxmere Avenue 2.4 Hectares 35 Houses HousingType: Affordable Tarbet Street 1.7 Hectares 35 Houses HousingType: Affordable

Omahu Rd

Flaxmere Ave

Chatham Rd

Henderson Rd

Flaxmere

Caernarvon Drive 4.7 Hectares 60 Houses HousingType: Affordable

Wilson Rd

Swansea Road 5.6 Hectares 40 Houses HousingType: Affordable / Social Mix

Dundee Drive 5.6 Hectares 100 Houses HousingType: Iwi

Flaxmere Masterplan Housing Areas

Stock Road 2.2 Hectares 200 House HousingType: Iwi/Affordable

Heretaunga-Tamatea Settlement Trust

Kauri Street 40 Houses HousingType: Public

Lyndhurst Stage 2 350 Houses

Tōmoana Road 28 Houses HousingType: Public

Pakowhai Rd

Kāinga Ora

Pukatea Street 16 Houses HousingType: Public

TPK

Waipatu 30 Houses HousingType: Papakāinga / Marae Based

Nikau Street 22 Houses HousingType: Public

MHUD Frederick Street 5 Houses HousingType: Affordable

Private

Little Tōmoana 5 Houses HousingType: Public

Omahu Rd

Current Greenfield Areas

Heretaunga St

Fenwick St 35 Houses HousingType: Public

Campbell Street 44 Houses HousingType: Public

Karamu Rd

Hastings Cunningham, Anson, Jellicoe, Grove, Beatty, Hood, Sussex 113 Houses HousingType: Public

Railway Rd Howard St 250 Houses

Napier Rd

Iona 400 Houses

Havelock North

Hastings & Havelock North Masterplan Housing Areas

30 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

Brookvale 500 Houses

Havelock Rd Mangarau Cresent 20 Houses HousingType: Affordable

Havelock North

great success rate in getting people housed so we made the decision to run a programme internally. We had 42 applicants. There’s a site tour on right now.” All aspects of home ownership are covered, budgeting for saving a deposit, dealing with banks, lawyers, building contracts and catering to individual needs. Also assisting Waingākau first home buyers is a shared equity scheme, funded by Te Puni Kōkiri, which offers top-up deposit loans, interest free for 15 years. Of the place-based partnership, CEO Waylyn Tahuri-Whaipakanga says, “For the first time we are kept informed about all the housing developments across the district. We support each other. If there are difficulties we’re working through, someone else might be able to support us, and we are able to support others.” Mike Paku concludes. “All the partners have a shared vision to uplift whānau by putting them into homes. It’s a shared vision we all work to enable.” And he adds, “What is good for Māori is good for everybody.”

No home

In a timber panelled room at Saint Andrew’s Hall on Market Street are a row of lockers. The keys are held by rough sleepers. The lockers are the closest they have to a home, somewhere they can store valuables, clothes, medication, sleeping gear. The initiative is part of the support offered by Warren Heke who recognised the need when he became Pastor of Hastings Church. “One of the first things I realised was that the best place to impact the community was right at the front door. There were people in very real need, disenfranchised, disconnected from community.” The Church in Heretaunga Street invited rough sleepers to drop-in, to rest, have a coffee. “On Sundays the congregation shared lunch after morning service and because guys had been coming to the church during the week, they came one Sunday and asked what was happening. I explained and invited them to eat with us. They piled plates with food and stuffed food in their pockets. “It was a meeting of two very different cultures, one of normal society and one of desperate need, which led me to thinking about how we could connect.” Discussion with the congregation was challenging. “They’re very un-polite.”

“How polite would you be if you were starving?” “They’re so unclean and smell.” “You’d smell too if you had nowhere to wash.” Christian values prevailed and the congregation welcomed their homeless guests, who soon learned there was enough food for everyone, and containers were provided so they could take some away. Later homeless were offered use of the kitchen and laundry. “We earned some credibility with a section of our community that was notoriously hard to engage with by getting beyond the transactional relationship.” Transactional relationship? “Yes, look at all our Social Services. They define people based on what they lack, and if they reach a certain criterion they are supplied with their need, so it becomes a transaction where the currency is your lack.” By building trust and mutual respect Warren Heke says, “guys share information about themselves they’d never normally talk about. Backgrounds, relationships, trauma, addictions. It helps us, help them, in making good decisions about their caring.” In talking to rough sleepers about their housing needs, Warren says, “The standard Kiwi dream of a house on a piece of land is the farthest from their aspiration. The responsibility of that situation is overwhelming. When you’re managing a raft of problems you don’t want to add any more. For people with addictions and mental health issues managing any sort of accommodation can be difficult.” What about a shelter where they can sleep, wash, cook? “Shelters are an anathema to many, especially councils. There’s almost a stigma attached to having a shelter in your city, as if it means you’re not dealing with the problem.” His attitude is pragmatic. “We can’t solve homelessness, but we can help lessen the suffering.” Warren Heke encountered the Hastings Place Based Housing Plan in 2020 when in discussions with council about homeless policy in the Medium and Long Term Housing Strategy, Kāinga Paneke, Kāinga Pānuku. “The government’s national plan, Housing First, wasn’t working. They were trying to solve a local problem with a national solution. It doesn’t work that way. We needed a local solution.” Council commissioned a report on homelessness in Hastings. “The results of the study was to create a day space

“Shelters are an anathema to many, especially councils. There’s almost a stigma attached to having a shelter in your city, as if it means you’re not dealing with the problem.” Warren Heke Pastor of Hastings Church

where the homeless community feel safe, connected and included.” A partnership was formed. “I’d met the Bishop of Waiapu at council, and together we called a meeting of the faith-based communities to talk about homelessness and what, as people of faith, we could do to help.” Consequently, Anglican Care Waiapu, council, and Warren Heke had, “weekly meetings all year and together, collaboratively, we’ve worked out what needs to happen.” Their goal for the new premises “is to create an integrated community hub. Integrated in the sense of bringing the communities of providers and users together, with a common way of connecting.” Already service providers, like MSD and TToH, come to their homeless clients in the hall, and a health service is provided on site thrice weekly. A heads of agreement has been signed, “where I will lead the response, and council and Anglican Care Waiapu will give me the resources and support to make it sustainable, and to do it well.” What is different about this initiative is that Warren Heke is not a service provider. His role is “to host and chaperone” the relationship between homeless and the agencies that can help them, and as such, “doesn’t fit in to any of the existing funding pathways.” At a recent meeting with council and Anglican Care, Warren was introduced to an MHUD place-based plan representative from Wellington. She told him she’d heard about his work, and asked, “Is there anything we can do to help?” He told her their “budget was only half-way there.” She asked him to send the details, and “I’ll see what we can do.” Connections and relationships are core to the place-based approach. As Warren Heke points out. “I’m a Pentecostal, partnering with Hastings Council and an Anglican bishop, working from a Presbyterian building, and the CEO of Anglican Care is Catholic.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 31

The battle for the Bay’s best talent After a rough two and a half years in which businesses have been put through the ringer with Covid policies, we now have open borders and shifting dynamics in the labour market. Story: Bonnie Flaws Photos: Florence Charvin

A certain level of churn is normal in the labour market, but we are told something called the ‘Great Resignation’ – people leaving their jobs in droves, or seeking better ‘work-life balance’ – is upon us. There is certainly clear marketing around the idea from job advertisers and HR businesses. Seek is running a banner advertising ‘The Great Job Boom: more jobs, less competition’, for example.

Like the rest of New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay is feeling the workforce angst, as our conversations with local employment experts indicate. There is no question the country is short of workers, and for the last couple of years people were clinging to the security of a steady job in the face of so much uncertainty. Now emerging from the fog of Covid, for many of us it seems like a good time to reassess our life paths and career ambitions. So, for businesses who are already facing soaring costs, inflation, rising interest rates and upward pressure on wages, the mood of a labour force thirsting for change is another challenge. The July Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research shows business confidence is at its lowest since March 2020. A net 62 percent of businesses expect a deterioration in general economic conditions over the coming months, a big jump up from 34 percent last quarter. Equally, there has been a mental health and cultural fall-out from the Covid era, which took a heavy toll on everyone, and workers now have

“In general, the employment market is in the most challenging state that it has been in, in my 18 years in recruitment. It is in very difficult shape and the resignation and departure of Kiwis offshore is a part of that issue.” Rachel Cornwall, Populous People

greater expectations about flexibility and wellbeing in the workplace. A recent survey from the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) found that one in four workers plans to change jobs in the next 12 months, despite not necessarily being unhappy in their current role. Of those, 78 percent were looking for flexible working hours or hybrid working set ups.

Bay is booming

In Hawke’s Bay the labour dynamics are exceptionally tough, says executive recruiter and founder of Populous People, Rachel Cornwall. A now constant theme of her work, she says, is that it is more and more challenging to find good people. And while the government had made it very hard for people to get into the country these last couple of years, undoubtedly exacerbating shortages, pre-dating all of the Covid disruption was massive provincial economic growth coupled with not enough people. “In general, the employment market is in the most challenging state that it has been in, in my 18 years in recruitment. It is in very difficult shape and

the resignation and departure of Kiwis offshore is a part of that issue.” There are also some Kiwis who have decided to come home after being away for a long time, but this seems at best to be balancing out the young people who are now leaving at a faster rate, as the world opens up again. There has been a bit more turnover in the market these last few months, she says, whereas previously people were staying put as long as they felt valued and remunerated well. The positive part of the story, and what people often don’t recognise, is that at the macroeconomic level Hawke’s Bay is flourishing, Cornwall says. “We’ve had increased economic activity and our pace of growth is higher than most parts of the rest of the country. There’s been this great investment in our primary sector – look at Irongate, look at Whakatū. So all of these businesses are growing and yet our working population is not keeping up with the growth of the businesses,” Cornwall says. And then there are all of the services that sit around those core sectors. The need for large cool stores, the new

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 33

“There has always been the English plumber, the South African plumber, the Welsh roofer, the Scottish gas fitter – and that’s what has dried up,” Alison Donovan, Turfrey

34 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

wharf just completed at the port or even the construction at the sports park – all of this points to the positive pressures of growth. But for employers there is a danger they can’t sustain the business model that sits around that growth due to the labour shortage, she explains. Cornwall says that while it is not hard to recruit high calibre people for senior roles – that tier of worker is still willing to move to, or within Hawke’s Bay for the right job – it is harder to find really good people in core roles such as accountants, engineers and sales people. Alison Donovan, people and capability manager at Turfrey, a local company that provides goods and services for the construction and infrastructure sectors and employs more than 200 people, says all businesses are having “people issues” at the moment. The border closures have had a big impact on a lot of businesses, including Turfrey, which brings in labour on a small scale. “There has always been the English plumber, the South African plumber, the Welsh roofer, the Scottish gas fitter – and that’s what has dried up,” she says. Despite this, she says they are not understaffed. The issues she has

encountered have been around ensuring the right labour is in the right location on the right project at the right time. As Turfrey operates across the North Island, they have resolved the labour squeeze by sharing staff across regions as needed. Holding on to staff is difficult as employers will now offer incentives, such as use of the company boat on the weekend, to lure workers away, Donovan says. “The challenge is to engage with your employees and be connected to them. It’s not just about wages and being able to pay someone 50 cents more to entice them to come work for you. It’s about trying to retain your employee. So we introduced a team benefits framework last year to have something more to offer employees.” This involves things like medical insurance, a paid day off on your birthday after two years, bonuses and long service leave, she says.

The ‘shoulder tap’

John McKeefry, strategic partnership manager at Havelock North-based consultancy AskYourTeam, says there is an increasing trend towards targeting the ‘passive candidate’.

“So this is people who aren’t looking. They are actually quite happy in their role. And so you now have the rise of ‘search’ in the standard recruitment areas. This used to be something done for technical specialist roles. This is going on mostly on Linked In.” Recruiters will ring or email people, to see if a conversation will lead somewhere, to pique the interest of people, McKeefry says. “It was probably there pre-Covid, but as the labour market has tightened it has grown. They are quite expert about it and it’s gotten more sophisticated.” Donovan says it’s something she has also had to start doing to recruit for Turfrey when looking for hard-to-recruit administrative and management roles. She uses Trade Me Scout and Seek Talent Search to draw out any candidates who are not actively looking. “A bit like a gentle shoulder tap,” she says. McKeefry says that in this context, employers have got to make sure they are doing everything right to retain valuable staff. AskYourTeam produced a white paper about The Great Resignation, advising employers on how to hold on to people, based on an offboarding

survey of nearly 1,000 people. It comes down to three things, he says: the employee experience, the quality of the leadership and how valued they feel. With business growth and labour demand increasing in Hawke’s Bay, particularly in horticulture, employers need to be aware of these dynamics, he said. “I’ve only been here 13 years but for most of that time Hawke’s Bay was quite depressed. The closing of the meat works, ripping out apples – that sort of thing. Well now, they’re planting apple … so you’ve got that demand, a bigger economy, people moving here. There is a need for building capabilities, and as those businesses grow also middle managers, R&D, engineering and product development.” Kelly Doyle, people and culture manager at Rockit, which grows tiny sweet apples for the export market and employs about 170 permanent staff, says both skilled and unskilled labour is short at the moment, much of it still to do with the lengthy border closures. “For us, we used to have a lot of working holiday travellers that used to come in for our unskilled roles and that’s just left a big gap.” The environment has become

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AskYourTeam produced a white paper about The Great Resignation, advising employers on how to hold on to people, based on an offboarding survey of nearly 1,000 people. It comes down to three things, he says: the employee experience, the quality of the leadership and how valued they feel. John McKeefry, AskYourTeam

increasingly competitive and driven resignations with skilled roles, she says. “We’ve definitely had some turnover, but not a significant increase in resignations. We have grown quite rapidly and a lot of our vacancies have been because of that growth rather than people leaving. But there is a lot of competition in Hawke’s Bay in those horticulture roles.” Instead what she’s finding is that there are less applications and she needs to move quickly to secure people. As a result she says she’s very aware of what Rockit needs to be doing to retain workers and how it is looking after people.

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“The reports that we’ve had in the last 18 months show increased anxiety is a key factor for a lot of people, which it never was before, or maybe for a small minority. But it’s become a major issue for a lot more people.” Shiona Dyer, Dale Carnegie

“For us, we used to have a lot of working holiday travellers that used to come in for our unskilled roles and that’s just left a big gap.” Kelly Doyle, Rockit Shiona Dyer, director of the Hawke’s Bay branch of workforce training franchise Dale Carnegie, agreed that a lot of people are getting shoulder tapped and will move very easily if they are dissatisfied with their job. “In the Hawke’s Bay market, where there’s been a lot of movement, particularly in the primary industry, people are inspired to move very quickly, because there’s lots of opportunities for them.” Dyer says this trend is particularly visible in the middle management area. “That’s the biggest challenge for employers at the moment. And that is generated by not looking after their employees.” Cornwall says workers are ultimately looking for good workplace balance, and situations with colleagues and cultures that inspire people to do their best work. “The young ones want to learn and develop. One of the major factors that keeps people in a role or pushes them away is their element of training and development for their own growth,” Cornwall says.

Wellbeing in the workplace

On the question of wellbeing and work, the EMA survey found that 91% of workers reported having felt negative physical effects as a result of work – fatigue, headaches and problems sleeping, that kind of thing - and 87% had experienced negative emotional

36 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

effects as a result of work: anxiety, excessive worrying and irritability. The upshot is that the workforce is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted, and staff shortages are reported to be one of the main drivers. Dyer says that through its training programmes, Dale Carnegie has an ear to the ground on worker sentiment and trainers have been hearing a lot more about worker anxiety than they used to. “The reports that we’ve had in the last 18 months show increased anxiety is a key factor for a lot of people, which it never was before, or maybe for a small minority. But it’s become a major issue for a lot more people.” I asked her why. “I think it’s the unknown and I think it’s the extra stress on the people who are in jobs because of the lack of labour underneath them. So everyone’s running on reduced teams and that’s been compounded over the winter with influenza and Covid contacts – there were people who didn’t have full teams for three-to-four months. So there has been a lot of burnout.” Doyle says it is now more socially acceptable to be open about these things and that’s a good thing. Rockit has a focus on wellbeing and has been running a number of initiatives and developed a culture of managers talking to people about mental health and keeping the lines of communication open. And this is part of Rockit’s strategy for retaining workers, she says. “We are talking about wellbeing initiatives, we are looking at employee engagement and we are making sure we are talking about a development plan for them. And, you know, flexibility

certainly comes up for the office staff and we’ve got a very flexible approach. We care about results, not where someone is sitting. We need to be flexible or otherwise we’d be left behind.” Staff do still want to come into the office and connect with colleagues, she says, because despite enjoying flexible work, people have also missed the social side of office work – morning teas and Christmas parties. So it’s important the organisational culture is still maintained, she says. So, is the ‘Great Resignation’ just a buzz word? With so many different factors at play, perhaps it’s too simplistic. Perhaps it better captures workers’ unhappy mood side of things – burnout, anxiety, desire for better workplace culture – which these experts do find real and unprecedented, as opposed to people actually abandoning the workforce. It’s more about well-being than numbers. Cornwall says while people are changing jobs at a high rate, it’s an economic catch up from Covid. “I think the Great Resignation is a dangerous message to really push too hard. If it was a great resignation there would be a lot more people available for work. But because the migrant work force has not been let in there is a feeling that there is a lack of people. “There are so many compounding economic factors right now that it feels like a great resignation. People do have choices as to where they work. But good people are staying put and being developed.”

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Water, water everywhere … who will get it? Just as Hawke’s Bay has been literally overflowing with water these past months, so too are our decisionmakers barely afloat in coping with water policy issues. Tom Belford Some issues are of our own making, as our councillors (especially Regional Councillors) attempt to get on top of the best available facts and science and then reconcile that information with the disparate values and demands of myriad regional interest groups. In addition, directives and initiatives from central government create mandatory bottom lines and schedules that must be accommodated by our regional policies. And infusing the decision-making process throughout is the mandate for co-governance on these matters with iwi representatives, who in many cases are still digging into the issues, stretched thin as they give shape and resources to their own internal policy-forming processes. Even just picking a place to begin in providing an update on the region’s water issues is daunting. So, for starters, I’m omitting ‘3 Waters’ – the Government’s plan to lift management and funding of drinking water, stormwater and wastewater infrastructure – from this discussion. BayBuzz has covered this issue thoroughly online; just google ‘3 Waters’ on our website if that’s your interest. Here I’ll focus on freshwater water supply, allocation and quality, and the status of decision-making around those issues.

Stage-setters

When it comes to water supply and allocation, two broad ‘stage-setters’ must be taken into account. First is the government’s National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2020 (NPS-FM 2020). This new framework sets critical ground rules our Regional Council must adhere to:

1. It requires that, “Freshwater is allocated and used efficiently, all existing over-allocation is phased out, and future over-allocation is avoided.” 2. It prescribes a clear priority order for water use: • “first, the health and well-being of water bodies and freshwater ecosystems; • second, the health needs of people (such as drinking water); • third, the ability of people and communities to provide for their social, economic, and cultural well-being, now and in the future.” In other words, protect the aquatic environment, provide adequate drinking water, and only then consider commercial uses. [With respect to water quality, the NPS requires local authorities to, “Ensure that the health and well-being of degraded water bodies and freshwater ecosystems is improved, and the health and well-being of all other water bodies and freshwater ecosystems is maintained and (if communities choose) improved.” It is quite prescriptive as to how this must be accomplished.] So here in HB we must phase out existing over-allocation (or more meaningfully, over-use) and avoid it in the future … requirements with huge implications for future water use in Central HB and on the Heretaunga Plains. To get started, what do we know about current allocation and future water supply and demand? Enter the second ‘stage-setter’. The task of documenting that ‘knowledge base’ falls to the HBRC’s ‘Regional Water Assessment’, a project in the works for two years that has yet

to produce its final report. An ‘Interim Report’ has existed for a year, but only officially seen by a chosen few, mostly within HBRC. BayBuzz understands that a ‘Final’ version might be forthcoming by year’s end; it must be approved by councillors before any wider public release. The Interim Report sets forth three basic demand and supply scenarios, making assumptions about ‘constrained’ and ‘unconstrained’ demand growth rates, about differing climate assumptions, and about achieving differing levels of water efficiency and conservation. Public comments have been made by some privy to the Report that emphasise the ‘worst case’ scenarios. Thus you might have read of ‘water shortages’ (over the baseline season of 2019/2020 ) predicted in the range of 84m3 (by 2040) to 200m3 (by 2060). Get out those excavators and start building mega-dams! However, not touted at all is a scenario indicating that – based on improved water use – demand might increase only one percent by 2040 and decrease by three percent by 2060. I’ll wager you haven’t read that before! Inquiring minds should want to know exactly what can be achieved in terms of ‘improved’ water use – for example, might it include incentivising farmers to focus on improving soil health (which yields higher water retention)? The Interim Report includes an overview discussion of the various ‘interventions’ that could reduce demand or increase supply – all of these will need to be examined in granular detail as future projects and choices are served up. We are promised a more robust range of supply/demand scenarios in the Final

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 39

Regional Water Assessment. It begs for completion, public release and debate. Logically, why would we make any consequential water allocation decisions before that? And yet we are. Because individual projects and initiatives have clocks and timetables of their own. I’ll now address several. TANK is perhaps the best example.

TANK (Tūtaekurī, Ahuriri, Ngaruroro & Karamū catchments)

The TANK consultative process was launched ten years ago with the goal of arriving at a multi-stakeholder consensus of how the major freshwater bodies around the Heretaunga Plains should be managed, dealing with both water allocation and quality. HBRC committed to abiding by the recommendations of this group. The environmentally sound and equitable use of water in these catchments in the heart of Hawke’s Bay is the central water use issue of the region from an economic perspective. A consensus with many important features – including a ‘cap’ on existing allocations (with future allocations based on ‘actual and reasonable use’), barring of dams on key waterways, tougher water quality standards, better source protection for drinking water, among others – was achieved and presented to HBRC in 2018. There it foundered in HBRC’s Regional Planning Committee for two years, with Māori reps effectively demanding a re-do of the entire plan. A Plan Change (PC9) was officially notified in May 2020, submissions from 240 parties were heard by an

independent Hearing Panel, which finally rendered its decision this past September 9th. The decision, seen as a ‘win’ by HBRC, affirms the key provisions in HBRC’s notified plan. Still, earlier consensus long gone, the Panel notes: “There are some very contentious areas where there are polarised views. Our decisions do not resolve all of these tensions; rather they reflect our collective best judgment about where the lines should be drawn.” Complicating the Panel’s work was the Government’s issuance of the NPS-FM 2020 during this period, significantly changing the underlying ground rules, as noted above. Previous TANK submitters had until 26 October to appeal the decision to the Environment Court. No water policy-making process in Hawke’s Bay has been more exasperating. Uncertainty remains for all interests – environmentalists, our urban councils, growers and processors, and iwi. Nonetheless, appeals are expected. Face each other in a circular firing squad … and fire.

Water conservation order

And management of the critical TANK catchments gets even more complicated. As the TANK process was evolving, some environmental and recreational groups, and two marae reps, sought a ‘Water Conservation Order’ from government, viewing that as a means of imposing greater protection for the Ngaruroro River. WCOs are higher level statements of objectives and do not include the regulatory detail of a plan change. That process entailed a different

Special Tribunal being set up by the Environment Minister, and basically hearing much of the same evidence and argumentation considered by the TANK process … to the extreme consternation of HBRC and most of the TANK participants. The Tribunal issued a draft Conservation Order in 2019 for the upper Ngaruroro (above the Whanawhana cableway), while declining one for the lower river, and this has been appealed to the Environment Court by 9 parties, including HBRC. As this is being written, a final Court decision is expected by the end of October.

Even bigger picture – Kotahi

Including all the TANK catchments and the policy-making just described, is a new requirement set by the NPS-FM 2020 that the Regional Council must notify a water plan for the entire region by December 2024 that will give effect to the NPS-FM 2020 by the end of December 2025. HBRC has already begun a broad public consultation for Kotahi. It will need to ‘mop up’ and somehow reflect the array of rulings described above, as well as other water policy and planning decisions, mostly addressing specific projects, flowing elsewhere through the HBRC pipeline.

Water storage – CHB

The most controversial initiatives seeking to progress in the region involve water storage. And the granddaddy of these would be efforts to resuscitate the Ruataniwha Dam.

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40 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

Dam 1, apart from other shortcomings, failed in 2017 when the Supreme Court refused to allow the consent holders (HB Regional Investment Corp) to flood land that was protected as conservation land. Any attempt to revive a Dam 2 must find a way around that edict, which would require legislative action … unlikely but not impossible under a Labour Government. Hence, critical to the revival effort is buying time in hopes of a more damfriendly regime. However, the consents to build a dam on the Makaroro River, now owned by private parties (chiefly Tim Gilbertson, 50 percent and Hugh Ritchie, 15%), expire in June 2024. And so the consent owners have sought a five year extension of the consents to get their house in order as it were. Even as they scramble to pay $260,000 in unpaid development charges to HBRC. The matter now sits before an independent Commissioner, whose decision will be informed only by the applicants’ information and by an ‘Officer’s Report’ to be prepared for HBRC by a planning consultant. As this is written, the latest guesstimate is that the report would be submitted by mid-October, with a decision shortly after that. Despite the obviously major ramifications of the extension decision, no other parties – other than those handpicked as ‘interested parties’ by the applicants (a loaded deck) – are permitted to participate in this process. And when the decision is given, only the applicants have a ‘right of objection’ which could lead to a hearing. If the consents are not extended, any plan to build a large-scale dam

anywhere in CHB would need to start from scratch, coping with the new NPS-FW 2020 requirements that existing over-allocation must be phased out and priority use of water must be given to protecting ecosystems. As well as CHBDC’s existing designation of protected ‘Significant Natural Areas’ at the site. Would Dam 2 be dead? For CHB dam-builders, there’s always a Plan B! If the consents are extended, then a major political battle of the previous Dam 1 scale, or larger, will be joined. And, I’ll wager, with the same result … no dam. Let’s be clear. Any dam intended to hold 100m3 of water in CHB is primarily intended to protect and continue the existing misallocation of most of CHB’s allocated water to a handful of dairy farms. Existing water – and any ‘new’ water, if there were to be any – must be re-allocated along terms that: a) meet the regulatory strictures of NPS-FW 2020; and b) are based on an updated assessment of the CHB land uses that would make the best use of extracted water going forward. Until our CHB and HBRC politicians have the balls to tackle the issue of allocation squarely, transparently and with optimal future land use in mind, addressing the water security aspirations of CHB will be stymied. Meantime … Another CHB water storage initiative – Managed Aquifer Recharge – seems to have more merit and has gained more traction. In simplest terms, this trial project would capture surface water at high flow, and through a

combination of settling pond and direct injection, use that water to ‘recharge’ the underlying aquifer. Such schemes are employed successfully overseas. The trial would be undertaken on the property of Phil King in Tikokino. Key to the project will be using some of the recharge water to trial innovative land use and irrigation. This aspect is being planned with the HB Future Farming Trust. HBRC is sponsoring and planning this trial directly and after extensive local consultation filed the requisite resource consent application on September 16th. It is estimated that the consenting process will take 5-6 months. During this period the project team will undertake detailed planning and procurement for construction and concurrently look to firm up the Landuse/Irrigation Innovation Trial. Another CHB-related water extraction proposal comes from eight irrigators – Tranche 2 extraction from the Ruataniwha aquifer. As BayBuzz previously reported, the eight T2 applicants are seeking 15m3 of Ruataniwha aquifer water ‘discovered’ by the Commissioners who made the decisions about Tukituki management and the proposed dam back in 2015. Even then the Regional Council objected, believing the aquifer was at the razor’s edge of depletion. And now, seven years later, it is even more evident that we need to be saving water in that aquifer, not allocating/depleting more of it. The hearing by three independent commissioners on those applications will commence on 15 November.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 41

At the time, all the TANK parties had occasion to visit Glazebrook’s site and ‘kick the tyres’, and seemed to judge the scheme a win/win. That said, the project was not formally endorsed by the TANK process.

Water storage – Heretaunga

The TANK parties were aware of potential water storage opportunities involving the Ngaruroro River. More recently, HBRC has said two of these options could deliver 25m3 of water to the Heretaunga Plains. One of these, first mooted in 2019, is a proposition put forward by landowner Mike Glazebrook to raise the height of an existing dam on his Maraekakaho property so as to store approximately 5m3 more water. The additional water would be captured from high flows on the Ngaruroro, as Glazebrook is presented consented to do. Most of the additional water would be fed in dry season through the progression of streams leading eventually to the Karamū Stream, with the aim of enhancing lowland flows and thereby the aquatic ecosystem. [This video describes the scheme: https://bit.ly/3MAxKRr] At the time, all the TANK parties had occasion to visit Glazebrook’s site and ‘kick the tyres’, and seemed to judge the scheme a win/win. That said, the project was not formally endorsed by the TANK process. HBRC was awarded PGF funding to investigate full feasibility of the scheme, stipulating a co-design process with Māori, but this work has been frustrated by Māori opposition in the Bridge Pa community. Unfortunately, this opposition could result in PGF ultimately abandoning the project. The same PGF funding has allowed HBRC to investigate other dam-building that could augment environmental flows, provide ‘new’ water for Māori, and help offset the effects of commercial takes as permitted in the TANK decision. The TANK plan, with environmentalist support, expressly banned dams on the main stems of the Ngaruroro and Tūtaekurī Rivers and four of their key tributaries. It was conceded that small scale dams at other sites previously looked at by HBRC might be suitable. HBRC has explored those sites further, all below the Whanawhana cableway. Preliminary work has identified a preferred site off the Ngaruroro and now the likes of Tonkin & Taylor and GNS are conducting geotech, seismic, hydrological, and terrestrial and aquatic ecological assessments. If this work indicates a viable dam site, then the Regional Council would need to approve full-scale feasibility investigation (including economics, service footprint). Any subsequent decision to actually build a dam would require full

42 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

Glazebrook dam

public consultation. Conceivably, this might occur as part of the Kotahi master water planning process.

Navigating these waters

Several challenges seem to confound prudent water decision-making. First, the frustrating time consumed – years, during which facts, science, legislation and players change and institutional knowledge is lost. Most of the HBRC’s most knowledgeable staff – water, science and planning – involved in the earlier investigations are now gone. The new Regional Council has five new councillors and five who have served but one term. The biggest issues outlined above – TANK and Ruantaniwha Dam 1 – were shaped and debated by their forebears and just now re-emerge on the Council’s agenda. As governors, most Councillors have a steep learning curve ahead. The Government through its NPS-FW 2020 has thrown out the old paradigm that allowed water takes indiscriminately, for whatever purpose, on a first-come, first-get basis. Now the resulting over-allocation must be clawed back, and all use of extracted water must serve the environment first. Our politicians, the public, current commercial water users need to absorb that reality and its implications. That leaves water storage schemes – of whatever scale and format – needing to face much more demanding criteria and scrutiny, including assessing what long-term land use is most deserving of irrigation. And before jumping to those schemes, opportunities and incentives for greater water efficiency, conservation and in-soil retention

must be given a far higher priority. Second, All this must be done in the new – and totally legitimate – framework of co-governance. That said, presently – and probably in the near-term – greater Māori engagement is more a drag on decision-making than an enabler. Māori advocates have internal disputes, individual and group agendas, differing levels of knowledge, and personal peccadillos no less than members of the Pākehā tribe! And an inclination to prove new-won power. Even when worldviews converge, producing more joint ‘Yes’s than ‘No’s, the clocks of Pākehā decision-making and the clocks of Māori decision-making do seem to run differently. Co-governance leading to the ‘greater good’ in the water space will take time to evolve. Third, although legislatively provided for, relegating so many of our community’s most urgent and strategic decisions to non-elected surrogates – to faceless commissioners and even more faceless outside planning consultants – seems a huge dereliction of duty. But that’s what we’ve done on most of the issues described above. Commissioners approve dams, mandate ‘new’ water, extend/deny consents, write rules of profound environmental and economic consequence. Where’s the public accountability in that? I close in frustration, knowing that a number of key decisions affecting Hawke’s Bay’s water future might be made by the time you are reading this forecast! So I hope you’ll stay tuned to BayBuzz’s online service, where we’ll try to make sense of where we’re headed on a regular basis.

NAPIER NIGHT 9 DEC 13 JAN 27 JAN 10 FEB 24 FEB

5:30–8:30pm Clive Square, Napier. Come along to enjoy delectable food, refreshments and live music. Meet your friends, bring your family and picnic rug.

Keep an eye on facebook for postponement dates.

facebook.com/napiernightfiesta

HAWKE’S BAY FUTURE FARMING TRUST Launched with seed funding from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, the Trust’s mission is: “To promote, inspire and celebrate profitable farming systems that enrich the environment and the community.” The Trust aims to expand Hawke’s Bay’s hands-on knowledge of best, restorative farming practices, focusing on innovation, science insights, new technologies and farming systems change. As Trust Chair Liz Krawczyk puts it: “We are all about demonstrating and communicating leading edge practices here in Hawke’s Bay that will help our region’s primary producers achieve financial and environmental sustainability.” We identify, publicly recognize and promote Hawke’s Bay best practices, practitioners and champions, and also promote non-Hawke’s Bay/New Zealand practices with potential upside relevance to our region. So far the Trust has supported onfarm demonstrations, confirming, for example, the potential for building soil

Coming soon: the launch of our major project comparing conventional and ‘regenerative’ farming practices here in HB.

carbon content and nutrient holding capacity. We’ve helped fund realtime water monitoring technology in the Mangaone Catchment. And we’ve sponsored workshops and field days – with more planned – to spread awareness of farming practices that both increase farm productivity and lessen adverse environmental footprints. Over time we will document the superior performance by Hawke’s Bay’s farmers and growers across all farming sectors – pastoral, horticulture, viticulture. Coming soon, launch of our major project comparing conventional and ‘regenerative’ farming practices on an experimental farm here in Hawke’s Bay. The question we ask is: What should

Hawke’s Bay’s best performance look like in the future with respect to soil health, clean waters, food quality, animal welfare, efficient water and energy use, and profitability? Joining HBRC as Keystone Sponsors supporting our work are Bayleys Country, Napier Port and Hastings District Council. Our current trustees are: Liz Krawczyk, Phil Schofield, Scott Lawson, John van der Linden, Will Foley and Tom Belford. We encourage you to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to learn about leading edge farming practices in Hawke’s Bay. To learn more about HB Future Farming Trust, visit our website; www.hbfuturefarming.org or email us at info@hbfuturefarming.org

BayBuzz is pleased to support Hawke's Bay Future Farming Trust.

Bay Biz

Port Chair retires. AskYourTeam listens.

Alasdair MacLeod and Todd Dawson at Napier Port. Photo: Alphapix, John Cowpland

Photo: Florence Charvin

BayBiz

/ B RENDA NEWTH

Alasdair MacLeod sets sail On a Friday in mid-December, Napier Port will bid farewell to its chairman, Alasdair MacLeod, who steps down after nine years at the helm of one of Hawke’s Bay’s most prized assets. It’s a story of hard graft, achievement, excellent team building and communication skills, and deft navigation of complex local politics. But most of all, MacLeod’s story as chair of the port, is a love story. A love for the region, the port’s infrastructure and machinery (hard to resist for a civil engineer), but most of all, a love for the 300 or so people that work at the port. The genial Scot, known equally for his silver semi-mullet/goatee combo and flamboyant over the top footwear as his exceptional governance and relationship skills, retires in line with the port’s policy and commitment to good governance. Current port independent director Blair O’Keefe will be his successor. Exactly how MacLeod came to New Zealand, ended up in Hawke’s Bay and as chair of the port is an interesting story, that begins with (you guessed it) love. He migrated to New Zealand in 1979 to be with Mary, his now wife of 43 years, and they settled in Gisborne. He found the bilingual environment very similar to the highlands of Scotland, where English was the second language. “I loved the East Coast. Māori people are very similar to highlanders. It was almost like I’d come home. From day one I was completely smitten.” On the career front, his LinkedIn profile shows lots of leadership roles, lots of innovation and transformation,

“The only negative thing I can say about Alasdair (and I’m happy to be quoted on it) is he has very questionable shoe fashion sense!” JEREMY WILLIAMSON, CRAIGS INVESTMENT PARTNERS

and lots of directorships and chairman roles. He ended up as a partner in consultancy Deloitte – by accident, he says – and led its e-business practice and primary sector strategy practice. His Twitter descriptor is equally quirky: ‘Former bus-driver, fisherman, tree-pruner, digger-driver, drainlayer... and other stuff’, and his photo bears a passing resemblance to another great Scot, Billy Connolly.

Early days

In 2012, MacLeod moved to Hawke’s Bay, while commuting to Wellington. In 2014 he retired. “I was desperately keen to do nothing,” he says, “but that lasted only four weeks. Mary said: ‘Enough’s enough, get out of the house!’” Jim Scotland, former chair of the port, had heard MacLeod speaking on New Zealand’s red meat strategy, and invited him to interview for a role as port director. In some ways it was the ultimate gig for the former civil engineer and digger driver from a seafaring family, who loves playing with things.

Six months later, he was promoted to chair. During his interview for the chairmanship, when quizzed on his top three priorities he replied: “Health and safety and people, health and safety and people, health and safety and people.” Fast forward to 2022, and what a ride the MacLeod chairmanship has been. An IPO, hiring of two key executives in CEO Todd Dawson and CFO Kristin Lie, a major infrastructure project that came in six months early and on budget, and charting a course through the many challenges of the pandemic. Prior to the initial public offering (IPO), Napier Port was wholly owned by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council through its investment company, HBRIC. The share float (45% of shares) came about as an elegant solution to a need for capital. The rest is history. The success of the share float was described by journalist Jonathan Hill (Stuff: 27.08.19) as a “win:win case study for local government…because it has successfully brought private capital into a public asset while protecting the things that matter most to a local community.” MacLeod says that working on the float, and preparing the port for the IPO was: “the second most daunting project (after the red meat strategy) I have done in my entire working life”. He praises the courage of Rex Graham and Rick Barker from the regional council, as well as CEO Dawson and CFO Lie (two hires that he’s exceptionally proud of) who were equally influential in powering through

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 47

“One of his great traits is that he is open minded and invites feedback.” SHAYNE WALKER, NGĀTI PUROU HOLDING COMPANY

unbelievable amounts of work. Of his own workload at the time, MacLeod says it was an all-consuming process. “I loved it, but it was hard work.”

The CEO

CEO Dawson joined the port in early 2018. MacLeod says that hiring Dawson was one of the highlights. “He’s been an absolute joy. Todd is fabulous. I will always have his back, and he will always have mine.” Speaking of his recruitment process Dawson says: “I wasn’t really sure if I wanted the role…so decided to be completely myself in the interview. “I think I challenged their thinking

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48 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

“The philosophy is that principles are pervasive in everything that goes through the port . And if we are aligned on that, it makes it easier.” TODD DAWSON, NAPIER PORT CEO

and perception on what was happening in the industry, and brought some new ideas to the table. “My previous boss Chris Greenough taught me the importance of managing the board. What I learnt was that governance is all about ‘nose in, hands out’. Management decides the strategy and once it’s decided, the board endorses it. I had seen the success of that. “And that was really important to me from the start, that I was working for someone who understood that, and was happy to go with that process. “Alasdair is good at running governance. He really understands the

difference between governance and management.” Dawson says MacLeod supported him in his first few months as a new CEO. “He was there when I needed him, to have a regular catch up and to test ideas.” And speaking of the leadership the port showed during the pandemic, Dawson says that he and MacLeod wanted to do what’s right. “The philosophy is that principles are pervasive in everything that goes through the port . And if we are aligned on that, it makes it easier. “During Covid…we had taken the wage subsidy, but when we knew we were going to make a profit, the first principle was to pay it back. But then it was also: what’s the next principle in terms of the hierarchy? Who gets the benefit if the business is doing well? And this is where Alasdair and I see eye to eye. For me, it was people first.” Dawson says that MacLeod is very generous, and builds strong relationships. “Something that sticks out for me; he has built quite a trusted relationship with senior Iwi, linked to people. “He values diversity of thought, and I’ve learnt from him in that regard. He’ll make sure that everyone has a say.

“He has good relationships with people across the port. People know who he is, he’s quite visible. He turns up to as many of the health and safety forums as he can. “From a CEO perspective, it’s good that I know he has trusted me to make the right calls and get on and do stuff… but equally he’s given me a heads up when there may be concerns from other members of the board, and vice versa I’ll let him know about any community concerns. We have a no surprises approach which is good to help our level of trust,” says Dawson.

The owner

Reflecting on the port’s share market float, former Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and HBRIC chair Rex Graham says the IPO was extraordinarily successful. “I didn’t expect that it would add $100 million to the council’s balance sheet. Two weeks after the IPO, HBRIC’s balance sheet was worth slightly more than before the float, and that’s a really relevant point.” He says it was crucial during the whole IPO process that there was a competent team at the port. “At governance level we had Alasdair, and we

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 49

“He values diversity of thought, and I’ve learnt from him in that regard. He’ll make sure that everyone has a say.”

“Preparing the port for

the IPO was the second most daunting project I have done in my entire working life.” ALASDAIR MACLEOD

TODD DAWSON, NAPIER PORT CEO

had Todd as CEO. We had the confidence that we had a well-run port, and a port that was very well governed. “But I had to be sure that Alasdair was up for delivering the IPO. So I asked him and he said ‘yes I am’. And he has been outstanding. “Alasdair MacLeod was the right man for the time. He has done a great job for all shareholders, including the Regional Council,” says Graham. Jeremy Williamson, Head of Private Wealth and Markets at Craigs Investment Partners, joint leader manager for the port’s share float says the IPO’s complexity came from the interaction with HBRIC, (the council’s investment owning subsidiary). “Alasdair managed that relationship really well. “The Port board is one of the more functional boards that I’ve been involved with. I was struck by their collegiality. I can imagine them having a drink together, which you probably can’t say for all boards, and that’s a hallmark of Alasdair’s leadership. “The only negative thing I can say about Alasdair (and I’m happy to be quoted on it) is he has very questionable shoe fashion sense!” On the subject of his footwear choices, MacLeod jokes it has become so much of an expectation, he can’t let his public down. Shayne Walker – former Napier Port associate director, current CEO of Ngāti Porou Holding Company, and former chairman of Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, first met MacLeod seven years ago, during the establishment of Hawke’s Bay’s Matariki framework. Walker remembers challenging MacLeod on the lack of Māori engagement. “He responded really positively,” says Walker. “One of his great traits is that he is open minded and invites feedback. “He was really influential in ensuring that (the development of Matariki) all happened in partnership, and he’s a great partner in that sense.

50 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

“Alasdair MacLeod was the right man for the time. He has done a great job for all shareholders, including the Regional Council.” REX GRAHAM

“I think a lot of that has to do with his Scottish whakapapa. They have a clanship structure, similar to whānau/ hapu/iwi. And so Scottish whānau can often resonate with Māori quite quickly, and also (the Scots) being colonised themselves, there is some sort of affinity. “He has spent so much time up on the coast in Māhia that he knows how to engage with Māori effectively.” Walker says MacLeod understands Māori really well. “Every time we caught up he’d have a koha to give me, a reflection of his depth of understanding of our tikanga.” On MacLeod’s contribution to the Bay, Walker says he’s been fantastic for the region. “The port’s transformed under his leadership and, as a significant cornerstone business, that means he’s contributed to our region. “As a consequence of our relationship, when I became chair of the DHB it made it easier to open doors for our staff to do things together (during Covid) and keep our community safe.” Commenting on whether MacLeod’s retirement is the end, Walker says: “He’s got too many gifts not to contribute to our community. It will be inevitable that he will contribute in some shape or form.”

Slipping the moorings

And while he has a sense of achievement about what the collective of board and management have done, the man himself has mixed feelings about stepping down, admitting to being “torn about leaving, but it is the right thing to do”, and that he is “not as challenging now as I was years ago”. Familiarity supposedly breeds contempt, but in MacLeod’s case familiarity (with the port) has bred a lasting, deep affection. He says he has fallen in love with the place, and gotten so immersed, making it harder to be analytical and detached, and that’s what’s required to really drive change. When asked what he’ll do on the

morning after stepping down as chair, MacLeod joked that he’d probably cry, but he’s open and honest enough to say that he will miss it desperately. “I will be really sad, it’s quite an emotional thing.” It remains to be seen whether MacLeod’s retirement 2.0 is any more successful than his previous attempt. Granted, he has other pastimes these days, other chairmanships and grandchildren to keep him on his toes. But one thing we do know, he’s a man that likes to be busy, and as his illustrious career demonstrates, he has a lot to give to organisations and to people. There’s no doubt that he’s earned his retirement, but it would be a brave person that would bet against him popping up again somewhere significant, sometime soon.

Alasdair MacLeod • Husband, father, grandfather • Chairman Napier Port, SilverStripe, TradeWindow • Chairman Hawke’s Bay Big Brother, Big Sister • Former Chairman Tomatoes NZ, Optimal Workshop • Retired partner, Deloitte • Major contributor to Hawke’s Bay Matariki framework • #2 user of port CCTV system

Napier Port • Successful IPO – a win:win case study • Repaid Covid wage subsidy • Leadership on mandatory Covid vaccinations • Introduced Covid PCR testing • Delivered Te Whiti (6 Wharf) early and within budget • Leader in Hawke’s Bay business community

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Leading questions So much of the technology we use today reduces the requirement for face-to-face human interaction in the workplace. But Chris O’Reilly’s tech-based insights company is all about supporting managers to ask honest questions, listen to the answers and do better when leading others. It sometimes feels like a lifetime ago. A fresh-faced university graduate took a job as marketing director for the regional economic development arm of the then Hastings City Council. It was his first role, and like anyone in a similar position, he wanted to make an impact. “I remember this brochure I was tasked with developing,” begins Chris O’Reilly. “It was aimed at what we called ‘non location-dependent industries’. It was 1984, I was keen to make an impression and I had some big ideas on getting some large Auckland businesses to relocate, including inadvertently targeting Ports of Auckland to move down here. The irony is, of course, that some 35 years later, they might have actually considered that!’” And another irony, not lost on Chris, is that in 2022, Hastings has become so attractive that he’s moving his own organisation – AskYourTeam – in. Right now, the 40-strong head office crew are beginning to pack up their desks and shift them a few kilometres down the road, from Havelock North to the former Hastings Health Centre building on Queen Street. Chris and the business – which has gone from start-up to grown-up – have completely outgrown their premises. It’s quite something, for a business that is notoriously difficult to describe. At its heart, says Chris, AskYourTeam is finding ways to better involve people in running their organisations. It’s a business that straddles the human resources space, the customer experience space,

52 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

and more recently, has entered new realms by, for instance, creating a framework to assess and enhance Māori cultural competency within organisations. Another AskYourTeam innovation, a tech tool called Ethical VOICE, helps identify instances of worker exploitation and modern slavery – a hot topic for the current government, which is hellbent on finding a solution to the worrying trend of abuse of, in particular, migrants. AskYourTeam started life, however, as a company called True North, the brainchild of Andrew Bayly. Marcus Smith and Jo Dowley were the other co-founders and initially, the idea was, says Chris, “delivering an MBA in a box. We quickly learned that that wasn’t going to work longer term, but that what leaders really wanted were the tools to get it right – so that they could run a better, safer work environment where people flourish.” His passion for leadership started when he was just 27 and was chosen as CEO for Christchurch’s Red Bus company, which was being deregulated and the operating model changed. “I don’t think anyone else wanted the job!” Chris quips, but says he made it his mission to “just talk to people, ask questions and involve them in the changes we needed to make.” It didn’t always go smoothly. “Actually, on the very first day, I went down to the cafeteria and got a pie thrown at me. I hadn’t realised that the company was so fragmented that the cafeteria was effectively only for drivers – managers never stepped foot inside

it. So part of that initial culture change was to bring the team together – to get the drivers to work with the mechanics, to have the tourism staff talk to the passengers, and for everyone to tell me what the business needed so that I could find a way to make it happen.” While it was a big challenge for a mid-20s first time CEO to bring his whole company on the journey, sometimes Chris was able to see simple leadership solutions that his predecessors had perhaps not. Even if, he says, not all would be as viable in today’s health and safety environment. “We operated out of a three-storey building with a number of entrances and everyone had different ways of getting in. So I bought some chains and padlocks, and created just one route, which meant everyone had to see everyone else – the admin staff would chat with the drivers, the mechanics would see the cleaners.” It’s just one illustration of many examples Chris is able to offer from his time spent at major New Zealand and global businesses, such as Citibank and KFC, that demonstrate how enjoyable leadership can be when all voices in a business are heard and most importantly, acted upon. And that’s what AskYourTeam does – it creates software that helps organisations reach their full potential by asking the right questions, involving every level of the business and gathering answers anonymously so that people are able to speak their truth. Why is software required to achieve

Photos: Florence Charvin

MP Anna Lorck with Youth MP and former igh School student Keelan Heesterman.

gratulations to ur school leaders oss Hawke’s Bay

Anna Lorck MP for Tukituki

anding proud for your peers and for the ur region.

started your year of leadership at a r history where school life, your learning ent and how you keep connected with d teachers has certainly changed from when “I’m out meeting with n in Year 9. Who would have imagined that local communities, ring would basically become part of the nd yet as young people always do, you rise to please get in touch nge, adapt and make the most of technology a visit or ch us a thingto or organise two!

daughters who, like me grown up and book anhave appointment hool here, I am forever learning more by at my office.” o the younger generation’s ideas for a better Climate Change, for wellbeing. I know you Electorate office making the most of every 06 8701 470opportunity ahead s you continue on your own journey for Karamu Chambers ccess. Keep129 flying high. Queen St East Hastings anna.lorck@parliament.govt.nz

Anna Lorck

To keep up to date Yourup local Tukituki sign forMP myfor e-news: Follow me on Facebook: lorcktalk@parliament.govt.nz /AnnaLorckMP

06 870 1470 anna.lorck@parliament.govt.nz

Authorised by Anna Lorck MP, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

54Lorck • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 uthorised by Anna MP, 129 Queen Street East, Hastings

what seems like a pretty simple objective? “We hear organisations say, all the time, that people are their greatest asset,” explains Chris. “It’s become almost cliché! Yet what I see over and over again is leaders who are out of touch with what’s going on in their own business. And the main issue tends to be that they just aren’t involving their people and gaining their feedback. How many of us go to work and think ‘there’s a way we could do this better, but nobody ever asks me’? People doing the work invariably have the best ideas on how to improve things. As a leader, you’re an idiot if you think you have all the answers. But you do need to know how to get them.” He’s certainly not one to shy away from taking his own medicine. The 60 staff spread across AskYourTeam’s offices (there’s the HQ in Hawke’s Bay, a Wellington office and they’re in the midst of establishing an Australian team as demand grows over the ditch) all use the software every three months, feeding back to Chris and his leadership team valuable insights into how they’re tracking, what might need improving, and where opportunities lie. “Invariably,” Chris says with a smile, “I hear about my own need to improve in the areas of communication and leadership effectiveness, clarity on strategy, that sort of thing.” Ethical VOICE – the tool that helps flush out instances of bullying, harassment and intimidation at work – has already been warmly welcomed by several members of our Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, as well as global apparel manufacturers such as Kathmandu, who use it in their factories in China to ensure that every piece of their clothing is being produced as ethically as possible. The tool also recently attracted the attention of HRH Princess Eugenie and her Anti-Slavery Collective in the United Kingdom. “It’s pretty amazing for the AskYourTeam team, based here in little old Hawke’s Bay, to have created something that can actually have an impact on society. We see lives changing with the work that we do.” Certainly, Chris has a deeply-held commitment to doing the right thing by his fellow humans which comes, he thinks, from his upbringing. His father, Laurie O’Reilly, was the New Zealand Commissioner for Children, a law lecturer and the first-ever coach for the New Zealand women’s rugby team. Mum Kay was a national netball selector and coach, and together they

operated an open-door policy at their Christchurch home. “I don’t think I realised at the time how hugely influential my upbringing would be,” muses Chris, who, as a sidenote, played two games “badly” for the Magpies as a 21-year-old. “We lived in an environment of social justice and social equality. My parents were both advocates for those that needed it, so our house was always full of street kids, unwed teenage mothers, and travellers from around the world. My sister and I can only remember about nine months of our lives when we didn’t have the spare bedrooms full!” “I think it all led to me asking, ‘how do we better value and respect people?’” So, what’s next for Chris and AskYourTeam? Well, there’s that move to consider – bigger premises to house a greater number of staff as they grow (and a rooftop terrace, if you please!). There are possibilities for further expansion into Europe, and partnerships to develop with external organisations, governments and charities. While seed funding for AskYourTeam came from private equity and small capital raises, Chris anticipates there will be a requirement for more capital in the coming year, particularly as the Ethical VOICE platform takes off. And he also sees plenty to be done in the diversity and inclusion space. “If you have a look around, there are far too many people like me leading companies,” he says. “We’ve still got a long way to go on diversity.” It wouldn’t make sense to end the interview without some of Chris’s own insights into what trends might be emerging in the workplace in a post Covid world. “People are looking for a lot more purpose in what they do,” says Chris. “And they’re demanding more balance – and maybe that’s a percentage of time based at home, and some time in the office. Leaders need to find ways to be more present and available to their teams, wherever those teams are based.” “Having said that,” he says, no doubt remembering that day he locked all the doors but one at the bus company, so his colleagues would actually talk to each other, “nothing builds trust like having a face to face relationship”. www.askyourteam.com Fiona Fraser is the director of Contentment PR & Communications. Nominate a savvy entrepreneur to feature in an upcoming column by contacting fiona@contentment.co.nz

No Question About It: Younger workers – of any generation – rarely stay put at a given job Retaining talent, particularly among younger employees, is even more critical in today's environment. The Younger Generation are known as being quick to switch jobs for a better opportunity elsewhere – at a signficant cost. Three Ways to Improve Your Retention Rate: Diversify Your Workforce – A more diverse workforce will lead to more engagement among younger generations Build a Culture of Engagement – It is a fact that highly engaged employees are happier and more productive, they also stick around Help Employees Grow and Develop – nearly 90% of millenials rate professional growth and development opportunities as important

Focus on Retention Strategies Now The challenge of reducing turnover among young workers isn’t going away – not with this generation or any of those that follow. The best retention strategy is to take steps now that make your organisation more appealing to employees who are early in their careers: embrace diversity, create an engaging culture and help them develop skills for professional development

To learn more about how Dale Carnegie Training can improve your retention call Shiona on 021 990 192, or Annette on 027 208 1550 Email shiona@dalecarnegie.co.nz, or annette@dalecarnegie.co.nz

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 55

IDEAS + OPINION DR TIM FRENDIN

Health crisis – what crisis? A local clinician’s view from the front line

Although the current and visible ‘crisis’ relates to large numbers of our population experiencing Covid, flu or other winter viral illnesses, the fundamentals of ‘the human condition’ driving demand for health care have been increasing, essentially unnoticed, in the background over many years.

The call is now out that healthcare in NZ is in crisis. For those on the inside, increasing pressures on our system have been evident for too long. Now however this is apparent to us all – overcrowding in hospitals and EDs, difficult to access GPs and specialists as well as increasing waiting times and thresholds for elective surgeries. To complicate further, workload pressure is the major factor behind high rates of burnout now reported within our clinical workforce. Perhaps most worrying however, some commentators foresee the potential collapse of our health systems as a direct result of inadequate resources to care for older people within our community. How can this be? In simplest terms, the very real strain on our health system is the result of a mismatch between clinical demand of our population and resources allocated to meet this demand. Whilst it is relatively easy to focus on increasing resources to match increasing demand, less attention has been paid to the factors influencing demand in the first place. And although the current and visible ‘crisis’ relates to large numbers of our population experiencing Covid, flu or other winter viral illnesses, the fundamentals of ‘the human condition’ driving demand for health care have been increasing, essentially unnoticed, in the background over many years. What has happened? Modern health care has increased life expectancy within our population by preventing deaths at premature ages, particularly from vascular disease such as heart attacks and strokes. In 1980 about one-third of our population died younger than age 65 whereas about 1 in 7 died over 85. By 2016 the rate of deaths at age 65 or younger was almost halved to about

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one in six, and one in three survived to 85 or beyond. By 2060 it is suggested that only 1 in 25 will die under 65 and seven or eight out of 10 of us will likely live beyond age 85 – now the fastest growing part of our population. This enormous change in population demography is occurring within a remarkably short period of time in human history. The price for living longer – both for the individual and society at large – is yet to be fully appreciated. With medicine changing deaths from young to old, society is now seeing for the first-time large numbers of elderly people whose health behaviours and demands are not the same as those of a younger population. Nor do they align with expectations of our health system. Despite advances in medicine, humans remain mortal. When death is delayed to an older age, other, often multiple, illnesses or disabilities are likely to have occurred. Health demand from each of these additional health problems is relatively easy to understand and factor into health planning for an ageing population – for example it is known that admission rates to hospital increase as age increases, people aged 85 or older are admitted at least four times as frequently as people aged 65-69. Then there is frailty Frailty is challenging! It is estimated that without serious illness the average life expectancy for each of us would be in the order of 85-90 years. Towards the end of this ‘natural’ lifespan there is an inevitable wind-down and ultimate failure of bodily systems, recognisable as the state of frailty. As our population ages towards the limits of our potential lifespan many more of us will become frail towards the end of life. Frailty however can also be accelerated in younger people by factors such as other medical conditions, particularly multimorbidity, or social deprivation. Frailty is characterised by vulnerability to illness and complications of treatment, and also dependency – the need for assistance from others for basic activities of daily life. As frailty increases there is a predictable progression of dependency, at first requiring help with activities including housework, shopping and finances, then needing help with dressing, showering and toileting, before finally needing full-time supervision or care

for significantly debilitated or bedbound individuals. This care required by increasing numbers of our population can only be provided by human hands. And heavy dependency requires many hands. It is argued that this type of work, in particular at-home and rest home caregiving, is largely undervalued by society, a critical factor in the compromise of community support services currently able to be provided throughout the country.

Frail individuals requiring ongoing care at discharge now occupy large numbers of acute hospital beds, the result of inadequate caregiving resources in the community, whether this is home-based or within residential care. Frailty is known to be the most important determinant of health outcomes for older individuals, more so than either age or comorbidity. Frail people are more likely than robust individuals to have poor outcomes after illness or surgery, including increased complications, length of hospital stay and greater likelihood of transfer to residential care or death. Potential to benefit from interventions, such as surgery or medication, is also compromised by degree of frailty. Despite these observations, the extent of health demand relating to frailty is not widely appreciated. Although we are now well advanced in technology and understanding of the ageing process, there is still no straightforward or routine way to characterise frailty for individuals. Assessment tools do exist but vary with differing underlying concepts used to explain frailty or resources needed to assess in the first place. This lack of a universal way to describe frailty creates difficulties not only in clinical situations which would be better informed by an awareness of frailty, but also within our health system, which is unable to accurately account for numbers of affected people. A better way to talk about frailty may be a good start. Local study To look at possible effects of frailty on health demand, a local study was

conducted after the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak of August 2016. Approximately 300 people of average age 82 were recruited, 120 of whom had been affected by campylobacter, the 180 unaffected enrolled as controls. Outcomes over the next three years were determined in relation to the degree of dependency for each individual at the time of the outbreak (this is a simple substitute for frailty). Looking at dependency for control individuals (not affected by campylobacter), the risk of death within three years and health demand, as measured by total days in hospital over one year, were greatest for dependent people – risk of death at three years was one in three for people receiving daily home help compared to one in six for independent people. And people receiving daily home care spent three times longer in hospital over one year than independent people. Strikingly, the study showed that mortality and hospitalisation for dependent individuals increased further in the year after they were affected by campylobacter. Dependent individuals with campylobacter then stayed, on average, eight times longer in acute hospital care over the following year than non-affected independent individuals of similar age and comorbidity. This extreme compounding of health demand after dependent individuals experienced an additional health insult is an unexpected but important finding, and one not previously described in the medical literature. Implications however are profound for our health system. Scale of frailty problem Frailty has always existed but now it’s a problem of scale. Since about 2008 people over the age of 80 have occupied more acute adult hospital beds than for all other ages combined – and numbers of older and frailer people in hospital beds continue to grow with population ageing. For unwell, frail, older people, admission to hospital is often urgent and unavoidable, as much due to dependency – immediately needing someone (often multiple staff members) to provide basics of care when confined to bed – as to the underlying medical or surgical problem itself. Recently in HB up to 180 people have occupied acute medical beds at any one time, despite planned capacity for acute medicine of 120 beds. Overflow

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 57

and overcrowding have understandable and detrimental effects on the rest of the hospital, including deferral of scheduled elective surgery for many people. Dependency which persists after acute illness is one of the biggest challenges facing our health system. Frail individuals requiring ongoing care at discharge now occupy large numbers of acute hospital beds, the result of inadequate caregiving resources in the community, whether this is homebased or within residential care. Although it is argued dependency is only one aspect of frailty and too crude for precise assessment, it is simple to understand and count. Health agencies providing formal care at home have accurate information about individuals under their care, but are unable to account for large numbers of the elderly for whom care is informally provided by family or others. In 2019 Hawke’s Bay District Health Board funded home care for 2,500 individuals, approximately one-third of whom were receiving daily care. However, overseas data – using dependency – indicates that approximately 35 percent of people over the age of 65 need care or support less frequently than daily, whereas about eight percent need daily help at home. For Hawke’s Bay this suggests up to 10,000 individuals currently require less than daily help and 2,500 individuals need daily help. These numbers suggest a significant shortfall in current publicly funded home care and indicate that most support in the community is

either provided informally by family, whanau and others – or is not adequately in place, precariously exposing individual vulnerability. The health system must provide for us all, not just the elderly. Modern medicine is for everyone. But it is important to understand that presentations to hospital are the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of healthcare demand. The increasing dominance of the elderly within the Emergency Department and acute hospital beds reflects a much larger pool of similar individuals remaining in the community who, in view of accumulated conditions and frailty, generate markedly disproportionate workload for other health providers at the same time. Although seemingly simple, the lack of a relatively straightforward way to account for severity and scale of frailty within society is a major problem for healthcare. Unanticipated health care demand is already exhausting – and has potential to overwhelm – the capacity of many clinical services. The bottom line? Population ageing is climate change for healthcare. More than 40 years ago the prospect of ‘compression of morbidity’ was first raised, speculating that modern medicine had the potential to minimise the burden of chronic disease and disability within our older population. This initial optimism has transformed to an expectation, both within healthcare and society, that health problems of older age can be treated as effectively as for young people. Vigorous efforts

are made along these lines in a constant attempt to control and minimise demand. Reality however is different. With increasing life expectancy, the burden of multimorbidity and frailty in our population has markedly increased. As frailty progresses, health outcomes are determined more by ageing biology than underlying disease or illness, and for which medical or technological intervention is increasingly ineffective. Healthcare’s struggle is now a numbers game. Without adequate workforce and basic support for our most vulnerable population, hospitals will predictably fill if the rest of of our health system is stretched beyond capacity. So, is healthcare in crisis? The definition of crisis includes a state of instability, a possible turning point with potential for decisive change. There can be no doubt about the current instability of healthcare. But whether our new health structure is able to recognise this as a turning point and correctly anticipate and adequately plan for our future remains to be seen. Timothy Frendin, MB BS FRACP, is a practicing physician and geriatrician working full time, until earlier this year, for more than 30 years in Hawke’s Bay Hospital. His clinical and research interests include the health challenges of older people and their effect on the sustainability of our Health System. He has served as Clinical Director of Services for Older People within HBDHB and on the National Executive of Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.

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IDEAS + OPINION PAUL PAYNTER

Long live King Charles Spaniel After the Queen’s passing, she received a great deal of adulation and it was much deserved. She was probably the best monarch in British history and there was barely a misstep in 70 years on the throne. We shall not see her like again. Perhaps the Queen’s only obvious flaw was her penchant for the barbarous ‘sport’ of fox hunting. In any event, a reflection on the monarchy should put aside any affections for the Queen. The only question is whether a constitutional monarchy or a republic is best for modern New Zealand. We retain the mythical idea of a king or queen, but in reality they have little power in the Commonwealth. Their oath talks about dispensing justice and mercy as well as some duties to the Church of England. Royalty actively undertook these functions a few hundred years ago, but no longer. Democratically elected governments make the laws and put forward Prime Ministers and Governor Generals. A modern king or queen never expresses dissent and merely rubber stamps the ‘will of the people’. In reality our Monarch pretends to be something they are not and they put on a very good show. They have palaces, fancy clothes, guards and coachmen dressed in silly costumes and speak to us with an upper class Victorian affectation. I’m not buying it. Behind the façade these are ordinary mortals with ordinary problems. Many years ago when Queen Elizabeth spoke of her annus horribilis I thought she was coming clean about her haemorrhoids, but really she was speaking Latin to commoners in order to sound fancy and superior. Being superior is an easy sell as people have always ‘wished for kings’. One of the great foibles of human

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One of the great foibles of human nature is to dream that our leaders will be wise, noble and just and might look after us like a benevolent father. They never have, but each new generation is born anew, seemingly with this delusion in their DNA. nature is to dream that our leaders will be wise, noble and just and might look after us like a benevolent father. They never have, but each new generation is born anew, seemingly with this delusion in their DNA. Overdressing has always been the great stage effect whereby people present themselves as superior to others or, in the case of lawyers, in partial justification of their bill. Such an approach pervades academia, the judiciary, the freemasons, the catfurred mayoralty or in a more subtle form, anyone wearing a suit. When a Government Minister comes to town you can bet they will be overdressed. I’m not critical of such displays of superiority – because they work. It is difficult to resist the feeling that someone that is well dressed is of greater wealth or power. It’s a very human reaction that takes a great effort to overcome. For this reason we should consciously mistrust a man in a tie – he is lying to us from the first instance. He may well be an esteemed gentleman or an absolute shyster and nothing can be concluded from his dress. The vast wealth and pomposity of the royal family is very difficult to stomach. You can see why so many societies have executed queens and tzars, as they are offensive by nature. Such hereditary wealth and status seems fundamentally incompatible

with the ideals of an egalitarian NZ. In truth almost no one is arguing that people should be equal (really they are not) but that if they are to be elevated in their standing this should be on the basis of merit – their good character, achievements or preferably both. That is the basis on which our Governor General is selected. I’d wager that anti-monarchist views would be largely quelled if this was the basis on which we appointed a new King or Queen. But the monarchy is not of this ilk. At the coronation they hold an orb which suggests they have been appointed by God to rule over the earth. This sounds like fairytale stuff to me. Kings and queens historically achieved power through brutal wars, assassinations or by being born into the tyrannical family of the day. I don’t believe in a God that orchestrates such matters. Before you criticise or seek to destroy long-standing institutions you need to make a very good case for what will replace them. Communist Russia and China attempted to eliminate religion, seemingly discarding compassion for the individual in preference for tyrannical nihilism. Many point out various potential flaws in the Republican system, the most significant being that, as is the case for royalty, one day you’ll end up with a complete numpty as your head of state. For these reasons I support the retention of the monarchy, but in a different form. If the sovereign is just a figurehead, then why not choose a much more cost effective figurehead. Instead of King Charles I suggest we appoint a carefully selected King Charles Spaniel. There are a number of advantages of such a move, beyond the huge cost savings to the public. Royal births, deaths and marriages would occur at shorter intervals increasing the enter-

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tainment. There would of course still be infidelity and sex scandals; perhaps it would just be the neighbor’s Labrador jumping the fence and rogering the king’s niece. With dogs I don’t think it would be inappropriate to have a dedicated royal channel where such events could be live streamed. Doggy royalty could also be a nice little earner for the UK. The royal palaces could be freed up to be £20,000 a night luxury homestays. People could be charged £1000 to pat the King, Queen or puppies for thirty minutes at a time. Surplus pups could be sold off for perhaps £10,000 a pop. In keeping with tradition, they could be shipped off to breed with hemophiliac Dobermans in Germany. It could also revolutionise fox hunting. We could just have the hounds chase the foxes and thereby eliminate the overdressed toffs on horseback. Even more just would be for the foxes and hounds to join forces and to chase

the aristocrats fleeing naked across the fields. You can’t tell me that such a sight wouldn’t have greater appeal that orthodox fox hunting. The final advantage of my approach is that it creates an institution that stands against the idea that there are amazing people that we should clamor to see or who can magically make our lives better. The press should be legislatively compelled to report on the queen’s amazing post-puppy figure or the elegant new kennel a princess has bought so as to mock such ideas. Jacinda, the governor general or the queen are not going to meaningfully improve your life and your best bet is to ignore them. If there is anything great or noble, it lies within you.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 61

IDEAS + OPINION DOMINIC SALMON

Achieving sustainable construction and demolition

Sustainability needs collaboration to be truly successful. It needs people to get talking, sharing ideas, and working towards common goals. The construction and demolition (C&D) industry is no different and, in the Bay, we’re seeing a growing understanding that more sustainable practices and outcomes are the future of a successful C&D industry. Connecting the businesses and organisations which have put sustainability at the fore with one another, and with those just starting their journey, is something 3R is very keen to help with. We recently hosted a series of Tradie Breakfasts, partnering with Hastings District Council, to help get the conversation started and create more awareness in the industry that sustainability is fast becoming a requirement for success. Sorting waste onsite so it can be reused or recycled, sourcing and using recycled material, designing buildings to avoid waste and be easily tak-

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Customers are increasingly demanding sustainability from the businesses they interact with, including from the building sector. It’s estimated, on average, one new-build home generates four tonnes of waste to landfill. en apart, and constructing buildings to meet high efficiency standards, are all central to sustainable construction practices. In Hawke’s Bay there are a number of businesses taking the lead, some of which spoke at our breakfasts. Like Atkin Construction, which has been a member of the NZ Green Building Council since 2010. The company has doubled its business over the past five years but managed to reduce waste to landfill. It’s achieved this through on-site sort-

ing into multiple waste and recycling streams, reusing materials where possible and using a waste company which aligns with its goals. DCA Architects of Transformation influence sustainability at the design phase, with a focus on minimising waste and emissions right from the outset. Environmental Design Manager Marie Fleming has been instrumental in the Bay in growing a network of sustainability-focused C&D professionals. Bin Hire sits at the end of the pipeline, working to sort waste so it doesn’t all end up in cleanfill or landfill. Their system boasts an impressive diversion rate of 42%. As a result, on average, they sort and divert 70 to 120 tonnes of material from landfill per week. On the not-for-profit front Wharariki Trust works with builders, salvage yards and Te Whatu Ora, with funding from Te Puni Kokiri, to improve whanau-owned homes in critical need of repair where there are sick children. Taking this circular approach means the Trust can afford to help more families improve their quality of life while giving materials a second life rather than going to landfill. Customer demand The drivers for this change in the status quo are coming from multiple sources. Customers are increasingly demanding sustainability from the businesses they interact with, including from the building sector. It’s estimated, on average, one new-build home generates four tonnes of waste to landfill. This expectation also influences social license to operate as the expectation grows for tradies to do something about the waste their work creates. Central government demand The general public are, of course, not the industry’s only or even biggest

It’s important to remember this doesn’t only affect the big contractors. The sustainability requirements in their contracts will filter down to their subcontractors too. clients. Central government requires all new non-residential government buildings, with a capital value over $25 million, to meet a minimum Green Building Standard Green Star rating of five. From 1 April 2023 this will apply to all government buildings with a capital value over $9 million. Waste is one of the many aspects considered in Green Building Standards. Similar requirements have also started to appear in region and local council tenders too. The Auckland City Rail Link project worked with its supply chain and recycled some 97% of the waste that was generated during its April 2021 phase. Private sector demand The private sector is also starting to require sustainable practices for new builds. Major organisations such as Fisher and Paykel, Foodstuffs, Bupa, Tonkin & Taylor as well as large developers are making Green Star ratings, or similar, a requirement for awarding contacts. It’s important to remember this doesn’t only affect the big contractors. The sustainability requirements in their contracts will filter down to their subcontractors too. Supply chain demands The supply of construction materials is another factor. The plasterboard crisis from earlier this year is a good example, with stocks so low it was being sold second hand for many times its usual cost. As a result, developing alternatives is becoming more important – be they new, sustainably-made products, repurposed or recycled. One example, saveBOARD, makes a building industry-compliant plasterboard alternative from upcycled milk and juice cartons. As a result, some four million kilogrammes of soft plastic and fibre are kept from landfill each year. Alternatives come with their own challenges though, compliance being a big one. The building industry is heavily regulated, for good reason, so new products need to meet certain requirements before they can be

used. Getting alternative materials approved isn’t something one business alone is always able to achieve – collaboration is far more effective. Landfill levy Another driver is the expansion of the waste to landfill levy, which took effect on 1 July this year. It means the levy has been applied to cleanfills which take C&D waste for the first time – at a rate of $20 a tonne – increasing the cost of landfilling this waste. Consider that around half of all waste to landfills is C&D waste, some 3 million tonnes worth. Around 80% of this goes to cleanfills. The levy for cleanfills is set to increase by 50%, to $30 a tonne, in 2024. Keep in mind around 20% of C&D waste goes to municipal landfills where that levy will double, to $60 a tonne, by 2024. Further increases are also more than likely in the coming years. The carbon aspect While it’s desirable to have a building which operates with low emissions (‘embodied carbon’), the emissions from the construction materials across their whole life cycle is also a consideration. Waste reduction in C&D isn’t just about sending less to landfill or cleanfill. Waste represents a carbon footprint – the energy used to create that material. This is where designers and specifiers play an important role, as do organisations that set standards for materials. Change is happening From the feedback at the Tradie Breakfast it’s clear the industry is starting to take notice. Some are making substantial changes while others are keen but unsure on their next steps. Looking to examples overseas it’s clear it’s a space where we’ll see a rapidly changing focus. I encourage anyone in the industry who is unsure to reach out to those who are well along their journey. I’m looking forward to seeing what the buildings of the future look like.

3R design, implement and manage product stewardship schemes for individual businesses or industry-wide groups. They also help businesses take a fresh look at their waste to first minimise and then recover what would otherwise be wasted.

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IDEAS + OPINION STEPHEN HENSMAN

EIT has delivered for Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti students On the eve of the biggest reforms in a generation in vocational education, which will see EIT becoming part of Te Pūkenga, the new New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, it is worthwhile reflecting on what our local polytechnic has achieved in almost 50 years. EIT has, for many years, been by far and away the single most popular tertiary choice for school leavers in Hawke’s Bay. Hawke’s Bay once lamented the lack of a university in the province, with the implication being that the region was not being served at a tertiary level. It was a view I once subscribed to, but no longer consider to be the case. In the early days as a community college and then a polytechnic, EIT was the place to go for skills training but since the early 1990s EIT has been phenomenally successful in its gradual entry into and then expansion

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of degree level programmes. I think that’s made a huge difference and contributed significantly to what is available for young people. Offering a wide variety of degree programmes and many trades, the institute is able to provide students with tremendous choice. One obvious advantage is that young people have been able to remain at home to do their degree study, rather than having to leave the area for university. It’s made degree-level study more accessible to them as well as all the other programmes that EIT provides. If you go back in history, you will see that Taradale woman Margaret Hetley initially donated the 20-hectare site that EIT in Hawke’s Bay is on, for the purpose of establishing a university. For various reasons, which I won’t go into here, it was not a university that was established on the land, but rather the institute that has become EIT.

Over the years we have seen EIT thrive and flourish and through its own creativity and entrepreneurial spirit, gradually get to the point where it is able to offer degree level programmes. Margaret Hetley’s vision has come to pass in a much fuller way than perhaps she had envisioned because EIT has been so responsive to the needs of the practical industries as well. During my time as Taradale High School Principal I was fortunate enough to have a lot to do with EIT, mainly through the Trades Academy run through the Hawke’s Bay Campus. Trades Academy also operates on the Tairāwhiti Campus. Trades Academies were a government initiative whereby education providers, both schools and tertiary, were given the opportunity to apply to establish a Trades Academy. EIT got on board and decided to negotiate with schools just to see if there was a mutual demand that they could fill. And it was a brave move on their part. They invested a lot of resources in liaising with us with no guarantee that enough schools would be on board to make it viable. There was also no guarantee that an eventual application to the government would be successful. Schools were initially torn between the benefits of the Trades Academy and the internal challenges of sending students to EIT for a day per week, such as transport, the effect on other school subjects, staffing and funding. Despite the potential hurdles, EIT persisted, thanks to the efforts of then Deputy Chief Executive Claire Hague and Paul Hursthouse, who is now EIT’s Trades Academy Manager. They were able to build strong relationships with the schools to get this project going. The need that it was filling was

truly significant, because as a country we had fewer trades people than we needed. Apprenticeship numbers were low, and employers were favouring adult apprentices over school leavers. We knew as a sector that we needed to provide skills and opportunities to our young people in order for them to gain apprenticeships when they left school. There have also been a number of students who weren’t necessarily thriving in the school environment, and this gave them a viable career pathway. So, it was not just the industry whose needs were being fulfilled, but also those of students. The risk for us in high schools was that young people would not see the value of remaining at school and would leave to become ‘NEETs’ – not in education, employment, or training. EIT also showed its flexibility in extending Trades Academy to Year 13, which further stemmed the flow of early school leavers. The positives of this move far outweighed any issues that had to be dealt with in the process. The Trades Academy programme has also expanded over the years and not only includes the traditional trades, but also courses

“Having watched EIT’s interaction with schools and seen the way countless numbers of students transition from school to trades or degree programmes at the institute, I believe that our region has been well served.”

like hair dressing, business and health among others. Having watched EIT’s interaction with schools and seen the way countless numbers of students transition from school to trades or degree programmes at the institute, I believe that our region has been well served. Tertiary education – from skills training to degree and even postgraduate level – has been easily accessible both in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti. But the provision of services goes even further than that, with EIT’s Regional Learning Centres in places like Hastings, Waipukurau and Wairoa becoming focal points in the community. The last couple of years has seen

some big changes begin in the tertiary sector through the government’s Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE). This process is seeing the transition of EIT, along with 15 other Institutes of Technology, and Polytechnics (ITPs) and a number of Industry Training Organisations into Te Pūkenga. EIT becomes part of Te Pūkenga from 1 November and will be co-branded as EIT Te Pūkenga until next year when further changes will be decided on. The good news for Te Pūkenga is that, in my opinion, EIT has been operating at an optimal level. The key for Te Pūkenga is to build on the solid foundation that EIT has laid over the last few decades. I would suggest that it is vital that Te Pūkenga keeps the regional focus that EIT has strongly developed and stays connected with local schools, communities, iwi and industries.

Stephen Hensman is a former Principal of Taradale High School. He now works as an Education Consultant for Interlead and is supporting a network of schools and ECEs in the Taradale district.

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 65

IDEAS + OPINION ANNA LORCK

Hawke’s Bay now well set to deal with elective surgeries The vision I see is that we will be positioned as one of the leading health regions in New Zealand, and especially for attracting highly skilled clinical staff where they can work and enjoy one of the best places to live and raise a family.

Hawke’s Bay, a region once starved of operating theatres, now has more public access to surgery and the ability to attract more medical staff and clinicians than ever before. What I know from the many local surgeons I have met and talked with, is they love to do. So when looking for a place to base themselves, if they can see a position that is going to provide the work they trained to do – they will come. It might be hard to believe, but with so much investment into health capital infrastructure in the past three years here in the Tukituki electorate, in both the public hospital and private sector, Hastings and Hawke’s Bay is now well set up for the future. If I was able to leap forward a few years from now, the vision I see is that we will be positioned as one of the leading health regions in New Zealand, and especially for attracting

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highly skilled clinical staff where they can work and enjoy one of the best places to live and raise a family. In the past few months we have seen the private local hospital Royston, which had six theatres, invest $11 million and open two new day theatres. Then right next door to our regional hospital the brand new Kaweka Hospital has been built with four theatres providing 1,500 public operations to start with this year. Plus we have an eighth theatre at Hawke’s Bay’s regional hospital nearing completion. It’s impressive. But to put it into perspective it’s taken an entire decade, and funding from the Labour Government to finally get our 8th theatre as part of a major surgical expansion project underway as we get on with rebuilding our hospital. Together, all this new operating space, gives Hawke’s Bay an unprece-

dented advantage, with more capacity than ever before to perform thousands more public operations, and as we transform to the new single Health New Zealand structure, we could soon become one the best regions to live in for getting access to surgery. While this doesn’t diminish the enormous suffering that people have been experiencing with unacceptable delays and cancellations, there is real hope on the horizon. I believe we are going to see significant improvements happen relatively quickly. And certainly faster than we have seen for many, many years. As the local MP for Tukituki, and a former elected HBDHB board member, I have gained a real insight into the health system. Serious under-funding and politically driven ways to report surgeries and waiting lists created what can only be described as a very broken and unfair service. The damage was really done when, as conservative governments do, National cut taxes and froze infrastructure investment. It is also worth reminding people that National put not a penny more into our regional hospital for new capital building. Instead, as one senior doctor told me, they were told to cut spending on operational budgets if you wanted to

I believe we are going to see significant improvements happen relatively quickly. And certainly faster than we have seen for many, many years.

build anything, and so year on year, this basically cut to the bone any flesh the hospital had to run the hospital. By 2014, you had to be “in more pain to access the publicly-funded operating table”. Patients in need of surgery were ranked by their pain and assigned a number – they only made it on to the waiting list if their number was high enough to meet five different criteria thresholds. The National Government only counted the number of people who had an operation each year, not the number of people turned away. Behind the scenes there was a ‘real waiting list’ and the one that was reported. New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA) chairman Dr Mark Peterson, who was also chief medical officer in Hawke’s Bay, was reported as saying patients were assessed by clinicians and told that in an ideal world they would have this procedure in the next few months, but as hospitals didn’t have capacity, they no longer met the criteria. The Health Funds Association of New Zealand, in conjunction with the New Zealand Private Surgical Hospital Associations, conducted a survey of unmet need that found 170,000 Kiwis are turned down from the waiting list every year. It reported 280,000 Kiwis met the clinical threshold for elective surgery, but only 110,000 were placed on the list. When waiting list times were reduced from six to four months, National basically lifted the threshold to access it. On top of this was a postcode lottery where you could only have your operation where you lived. For example, while there would be spaces available in Palmerston North for a new knee, if you lived in Hawke’s Bay you couldn’t get that spot. A study showed that under National, one in three people requiring elective surgery were being turned away from waiting lists to meet Government targets. Research recently published in The New Zealand Medical

Journal found 36% of patients who needed hip and knee replacement surgery at Whangarei Base Hospital and Hawke’s Bay Regional Hospital from June 2012 to June 2013 were turned away as there weren’t enough resources. Leap forward to 2022, and we are finally seeing capital investment and movement. Exacerbated by Covid, the number of people waiting longer than four months for their first appointments with hospital specialists had doubled because of the pandemic, and the number of people waiting longer than four months for treatment had more than trebled. But today we now have one public health system and there is the opportunity to work together to get the treatment people need – no matter what part of the country they live in. HNZ has been instructed by the Minister of Health Andrew Little to make full use of all resources including private capacity and clear the backlog. And it’s this attitude that we need and we are now seeing underway in Hawke’s Bay. Performing public operations in private hospitals is not new. But for our region we have never been in as strong a position as we are now to access this significant operating capacity. Over the coming year I do expect to see many more people who have been turned away and waiting, in some cases many years, finally start getting their elective operations. In my view there are no excuses, the Government has told hospitals to pull every lever. Yes, some operations will be prioritised over others, there are emergencies and accidents that bump people off, even at the last minute – but on the whole I think people accept this, as long as they are given a fair and reasonable explanation. As we start moving through the waiting list, I do think this will take a change in mindset from a culture within the hospital environment that has not been accustomed to having this new capacity. But if you know someone who has been waiting a long time, please support them to get in touch with my office. It’s my job as your local MP to work and advocate for them and you.

Anna Lorck is Labour MP for the Tukituki constituency and previously served as an elected Board member of the Hawke's Bay DHB.

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Culture & Lifestyle There’s nothing like Christmas to cheer the soul – so dive in to find much that does just that – Ian Thomas passes on Pavlova – Kate McLeay’s friends and family tell the jolliest tales – Jo and Aaron Duff reveal their permaculture passion – at the Holly Trail there’s a passing of the baton and WOW! Kate Mackenzie has won the Supreme Award AGAIN.

ABOVE: Artist Kate Mackenzie. Photo: Florence Charvin

Hastings District Council is proud to sponsor BayBuzz culture and lifestyle coverage.

Culture / MI CH A L M C K AY

From watering cans to winning WOW! Kate Mackenzie has just won the World of Wearable Arts Supreme Award for the second time. Her first was in 2014. Her second time entering. It’s an accomplishment gained only once before. And yet another notch in Kate’s constantly growing list of artistic achievements. In the past 21 years she has never failed to add an art related award to that list, including being named a Local Great in 2017 by Hastings District Council.

Photos by Florence Charvin Of the 21 award winners, Kate’s entry stood out. With a deep pot of more than $185,000 in prize money spread across three recurring sections – Aotearoa, Avant-garde and Open plus three new sections for 2022 – Architecture, Elizabethan Era and Monochromatic. Kate, who also won the Open Award entry, competed against 88 final entries by 103 designers from 20 countries and regions around the world. Before taking up her brush, Kate was adding to the household purse working in accountancy. That was her day job midst raising three children. Art came at night. She always knew she had creative genes – which she credits to her mother. But doing something constructive about it only happened when her second child Lochie was born. “I saw a watering can under a hedge – one of those lovely old-fashioned ones and I painted it – folk art style,” she recalls. Friends started turning up with their watering-cans wanting them painted. Her husband Ian encouraged her while she investigated pastels and paint. But still at night. “Going to bed at 3am was constant to create my art. And it was not until local couple Iain and Ray McLean, who were fundraising at the time,

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“It turned into a bit of a rush. The china cabinet inspired me, and I knew I was always going to use it, yet I needed something cohesive with it – and that is when the Singer sewing machine inspired by my mother’s came in.” needed a work of art for an auction and asked me for one of my artworks to auction. And it just snowballed from there.” Her work is constantly evolving. And as a strong environmentalist she adds, “The environment is a big part of a library of ideas I have. I paint what is current – so my work is a snapshot of history. But very subtle.” Art is now her full-time job. But her entries to WOW are “like a drug”. She has entered every year of WOW, missing only one final since she began in 2013. And has been placed in and won many sections as well as winning the Supreme Award the second year she entered. “It’s the icing on the cake for me, not necessarily the driving force, but it’s part of the whole and a ‘must’ in that whole.” Another essential outlet for her creativity.

As her entries take a year to create, it is easy to understand how they fit into her schedule. In 2019 when it was announced that the show would not be staged that year – another result of Covid – Kate put her entry aside and did not bring it out again, until quite late after they had announced that WOW was happening again this year. “It turned into a bit of a rush. The china cabinet inspired me, and I knew I was always going to use it, yet I needed something cohesive with it – and that is when the Singer sewing machine inspired by my mother’s came in.” The result: award-winning Wanton Woman. “The narrative of the entry plays a huge part in the judging. I started with history – the 19th century – Wanton Woman was a bit of a rebel and was not going to be hindered by the societal mores of that time. She wanted to grieve openly – and the whole idea of black conveys that. It was Victorian times so when Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria introduced her mourning protocol – wearing only black for the next 40 years of her life – Wanton Woman wears a hat instead of a veil indicating her desire to have a new life, maybe marry again.”

THIS PAGE: Kate beside her next artistic move – a portrait of tulle in her unmistakeable style revealing a step into another genre.

“The Widowed Seamstress sits lifeless like fragile china for display only. She has morphed into the mediocre furniture bequeathed to her and is taunted by her redundant blue gown hanging in the corner. The dusty grief clock chimes a slow and flat tune as she escapes into a dream… Riding a penny through town her sadness catches the wind and she begins to feel alive again. Her legs are freed from the moral fibres of her skirts, a door opens and something ignites from the depths of her womanly desires.” KATE MACKENZIE’S STORY OF HER WANTON WIDOW

Photo: Stephen-A'Court

To gain inspiration for her artwork, Kate will “sometimes sit and rest my mind – and often the first image that I come to will be the one that I use.”

By that time Kate had also incorporated pleating into the skirt “that looked like the old accordions of the 19th century” and a new veneer, which she felt looked more cohesive because of its wood finish, had been applied. Obviously, it had been finally dispatched and delivered, complete with written narrative, an essential part of the entry. “I think the judges liked my story,” she says with a slight smile.

Ever changing artwork When entering WOW, Kate always creates a story. And she starts that process by choosing her main component of the entry. Having selected the china cabinet with the balancing force of the sewing machine she started the critical process of evaluating the overall structure of the costume. “For instance, when reviewing the sleeves which were the drawers from the sewing machine, they definitely suggested the opening of new possibilities for the Wanton Widow, so had to be. But I found them overpowering so I needed to rethink those.” Actually, some last-minute editing in the 48 hours before submission was needed as she felt the original was too heavy and clunky. “I rethought the juxtaposition of the pieces I was using cutting away some of the wood and getting rid of some of the polycarbonate. By then I had 24 hours to make and 24 hours to photograph the entry. I rushed off to Spotlight to find the fabric I needed. This was obviously going to be another all-nighter.” Making the box for it to be dispatched was another story. A particularly stressful one. “My mother got sick and was taken to hospital, so I was running up to the hospital to see her. Then rushing back to continue with the box which had been designed specially to hold the wheel of the entry which folded up in front.” The bike wheel represented a need to be brave and bold – getting on it was an escape – so it conveyed the image of one night, perhaps one night only.” When Kate was announced as winner, she says she was initially surprised, “but I think I was protecting myself and in retrospective I think it was worthy. The costume must have great stage presence. And I was so fortunate in that I had a great model who interpreted the story of the entry perfectly. When she came on stage she just transformed and became the Wanton Woman.”

To gain inspiration for her artwork, Kate will “sometimes sit and rest my mind – and often the first image that I come to will be the one that I use.” Surrealism and symbolism are an inherent part of her work and for her new exhibition at Muse Gallery in late October and the month of November, she has moved forward – something which is consistent with her creativity. She explains that her thinking is constantly evolving so every exhibition is a surprise. The fundamentals of her style are there but what transpires is always different. So, what craziness has she moved on to now? (Note, ‘craziness’ is Kate’s own interpretation of how she would like to see her work processing.) This one titled The Rise of the Tattered is based on the use of paint, in an original way. Her last exhibition focused on incorporating plastic tubing into her work, “I liked the paintings,” she explains, “but as an environmentalist, I did not like the plastic I was using, and I was searching for something to replace it. I have found it. With the paint application I have used in The Rise of the Tattered I have moved on from the cables. “The paintings reflect the fact we are all feeling rather tattered, so we need to get up again and find new ways of doing things. Our social fabric has changed the way we are put together, how we think and now with this messy fabric we have as a result we need to realign.” Her progression from her use of paint in this exhibition is also apparent in a single work which fools the eye yet hints at what is coming next. Upon initial viewing it looks as if the wall has been painted. It has not. It is fashioned with pieces of tulle which float together to make the whole – a delicately crafted face. “I was determined I would do different,” she says firmly. “It’s a bit like WOW. I do not enter to win, but for the pull of creating something unique which has an underlying message. That is the drug.”

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 73

THIS PAGE: Retiring chairperson of the Hospice Holly Trail Charitable Trust, KK Márffy, with her friend Freddy. Photo: Florence Charvin

Culture M I C H A L M C K AY

Passing the baton Every two years a dedicated team with an ‘eye’ for an appealing home is out scouting the Havelock North terrain for beautiful houses and gardens. Places guaranteed to entice, not only those living nearby but from all over the country, to abandon our own four walls for a three-day tour peeping into other people’s properties. Properties that are part of the renowned Hospice Holly Trail. Story by Michal McKay Photos by Pippa Márffy and Florence Charvin

Supported by the Hospice Holly Trail Charitable Trust which raises funds for Cranford Hospice, the trail is held biennially in November when gardens are at their flowering best. And this year will see its full re-emergence after being thwarted somewhat in 2021 by Covid uncertainties. It will also be the swansong of its current chairperson KK Márffy, along with most of her committee. KK will have held the baton for over ten years when she departs after handing over yet another vast pool of dollars to the chair of Cranford and the baton to a brand-new team to be led by Penny Manahi as chair and Leigh Kilsby as deputy. Last tour it was $330,000 which broke the record and hopes are high for another record-breaking event that will bring the Holly Trail’s contribution to Cranford to well over the $2.3 million. For the past decade or so, KK’s tenure has been her life. And she acknowledges that the days to come when the Holly Trail is no longer hers will be filled with a sense of loss and sadness. “There will be a huge void, but it is time for some fresh thinking and new blood. The team that is coming in is all a good ten years younger so l am sure there will be a different approach which will be very appealing to those who are already dedicated followers and visit every second year as well as newbies. Visitors arrive from all over New Zealand and even beyond to make the three days of their tour a very well planned visit – restaurants, wineries, walks AND shopping are all highlights. Most coming for the tour have an itinerary which may make a less intrepid soul quite limp.

“In that first year when I became chair, we did a lot of extra things such as cooking and floral demonstrations and had a school choirs’ night singing special performances plus an opening night. We have refined the tour content substantially since then – if it does not make good money, it just is not worth all the effort.” KK MÁRFFY

Conversely the eyes of the retailers in Joll Rd and Havelock Village sparkle with anticipation of a guaranteed influx from out-of-town – and now with the developments in Hastings of charming new precincts including the Municipal and the Opera House, there is even more that will appeal to the purse. 2000 saw the birth of the Hospice Holly Trail. Its name was the brainchild of the original chair Mary Stewart along with Debbie Nott and Sandra O’Sullivan. At that time, the Hastings City Council was initiating fundraisers specifically aimed at all the forthcoming work envisioned for the Municipal area. “Dinah Williams, who was a councillor, approached me to come up with an event which would be part of a village festival,” says Mary. “I discussed it with Debbie Nott – recognised in these parts for her effervescent personality and design talent, plus her ability to successfully shoulder tap! My brother-in-law suggested a kitchen tour which was my kick-start. Then I heard about other area events and the importance the beneficiary played. We chose Cranford as a guaranteed lure for

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 75

the philanthropically minded, and it needed funds desperately at that time – they still do but we have helped. It was of instant appeal. Our aim right from the beginning was to ensure that all the money raised went straight to the Hospice; any expenses had to be from sponsors – and no-one said ‘no’. “We got a committee together – again no-one said no,” laughs Mary. Sally Hansen, Sandra O’Sullivan and her sister Sue Fagan who were both floral artists and of course Debbie, who knows everyone and is a renowned floral designer. The committee was small but very well connected. Christmas was an easy decision as a theme because, again, it had instant appeal. “A designer was allocated to each house and he or she would collaborate with the owner to create the Christmas theme with flowers and objets d’art. And there was a convenor, assigned to monitor the visitors when they came in and who would find a group of volunteers to help. “Later I was given a ‘heads-up’ that parking was of premium concern, so Neil Tucker from Karamu Rotary stepped up for handling that job. It was a real community effort, and no-one wanted to be paid. For instance, our artwork for the shop windows, the signage, brochures were done by Willie Ransfield and Natalie who volunteered straight away. All the florists wanted to be a part of it – Diana Hough, Nicki Plowman who had Flowers by Tania and, of course, Debbie, Sandra and Sue. Marie Donaldson did the ticketing and I put in all the signage myself. No-one knew,” she chuckles. “We did have some seed money from the Gwen Malden Trust which has been a consistently supportive sponsor from the very beginning, but obviously everything had to be either given ‘in kind’ or sponsored.” Or done by one of the committee members. “That first year we raised $45 thousand, and everyone was happy,” Mary says. After ten years during which time the Hospice Holly Trail gained a reputation for its excellence and became a ‘must’ in many a diary, Mary finally handed her baton on. “I felt it needed someone new. Debbie is still involved but I went on to work for the Dingle Foundation where I also spent ten years.” KK picked up that baton in 2012 from Jo Smith. “It was really by default,” she explains. “Debbie Nott just said, KK you should do it.” So, she did. “In that first year when I became chair, we did a lot of extra things such as cooking and floral demonstrations and had a school choirs’ night singing special performances plus an opening night. We have refined the tour content substantially since then – if it does not make good money, it just is not worth all the effort.” Today the trail involves two years of planning, 350 volunteers, sixty organisations who sponsor the event, over twenty floral designers, 11 homeowners who generously volunteer their homes to be part of the Trail and seven committee members who manage the event. One could be justified in saying it has really blossomed. And despite the odds they have never missed a trail. “Last one we were at level one, and that meant a lot of peeling back,” explains KK. “So, we didn’t have a fête and in fact that was a good move. We have

76 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

ABOVE: Mary Stewart, the first chair of the Hospice Holly Trail Trust – a post she held for ten years. Photo: Florence Charvin.

A designer was allocated to each house and he or she would collaborate with the owner to create the Christmas theme with flowers and objets d’art. And there was a convenor assigned to monitor the visitors when they came in who would find a group of volunteers to help.” MARY STEWART

decided not to have it again. It was a great attraction in the earlier days but a big task for Mel Harper the original fête co-ordinator and Robyn Bryant who took over her reins in 2014. The fête was always well supported and a great meeting point, but it didn’t make any funds. Over the years we have been quite stringent in assessing what works and what doesn’t in the way of making money,” KK explains. “That is our raison d’être and the rule is now that everything must be cost effective. We have wonderful sponsors; most particularly BioRich our very generous principal sponsor and Creative Marketing our digital sponsor and the two generous Trusts. But working with a charity was a whole new learning curve for KK. “For instance, discovering that we had to pay GST on our ticket sales despite the fact that all the funds raised go to charity, was a bitter pill to swallow and still seems incredibly unfair.”

LEFT: Designer Katie McHardy. RIGHT: Designer, Ali Evers-Swindell.

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ABOVE: Table setting by designer Ali Evers-Swindell.

“As we got such a great response to the smaller more creative homes. By that I mean homes that are not overwhelming or unobtainable. I want homes that reflect the character of the owners – that period of monochrome we went through recently you couldn’t tell anything about the owners – now I look for homes that are attainable.” KK MÁRFFY

KK has tried to transition from the ultra-expansive, smart architecturally designed homes that used to be a tour given, to those that are more ‘real’ “as we got such a great response to the smaller more creative homes. By that I mean homes that are not overwhelming or unobtainable. I want homes that reflect the character of the owners – that period of monochrome we went through recently you couldn’t tell anything about the owners – now I look for homes that are attainable. “We have quite a few small houses this year – a cluster in Te Awanga which is an area filled with treasures and another cluster in Matangi which makes it easier for parking. We try and have groups of homes together so that the Trail works more effectively. And this year we have our lunch venue where we will have delicious food from Piku, Paella A Go Go and Fork and

78 • BAYBUZZ • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022

Noise with Hawthorne coffee at a centrally placed marquee in the Matangi Road group. It will also function as our meeting point.” Getting the balance between traditional and contemporary; grand and eclectic is so important. Security and parking also play a huge part but somewhat silently. If a house that is perfect is not in an accessible position, which makes it difficult for parking or takes time to walk to, then the committee just has to say ‘no.’ Kim Cuming and Jenny Higgy take care of security and parking – a massive job. And the team of supporters who are under the jurisdiction of the convenor are on shifts, which means there is always someone at the door to greet – “an essential”. Jo Newbiggin takes care of the ticketing which is another mammoth and strategic task. In the meantime, KK has found her own role has also evolved to a great extent. Her favourite part of the tour? “Selecting houses ... it’s all about the way we live. I love homes and design myself, so I really enjoy that.” Creative Marketing host their website. And Pippa, KK’S daughter – who is a photographer and graphic designer – is responsible for Instagram and all the design work and photography. A hard-back book is also produced for each house filled with the photographs Pippa has taken. “We do that as a gift for the owners,” says KK. “It’s just a wonderful way of thanking them for the mammoth contribution they have made in being a part of the trail.”

OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Camellias on tree – designers Trish Wallace and Chloe Clark; Christmas candles – designers Sandra O’Sullivan and team; Christmas tree – designer Debbie Nott; Christmas tree and parcels – designer Katie McHardy; Champagne table setting – designers Trish Wallace and Chloe Clark.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 79

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ABOVE: A garden setting in one of the Havelock North houses from the 2020 Hospice Holly Trail.

Sponsorship in all forms is vital to the Holly Trail coffers. “For instance, Speedy Signs in Hastings sponsor all our signage which is a considerable contribution,” explains KK. And Kaye McGarva from Muse Gallery is donating a stunning painting by John Lancashire whose art walks out of her gallery even before it is on the walls of an exhibition. No doubt this auction then will have many bidders. “At the heart of it people are so willing to buy tickets for a cause that is so dear and to many so near to them,” says KK. As she rolls off what seems to be a never-ending list of responsibilities for the chair it is easy to understand how big this role has become. “It is a huge responsibility – particularly when you consider Health and Safety rules today. And that is just the start.” And probably explains why the new

incoming team have Penny Manahi as chair and Leigh Kilsby as deputy chair– a new position that indicates just how much the Holly Hospice Trail has grown since its origins two decades ago. And one fact is quite clear. There is no doubt that the Hospice Holly Trail has become a ‘Must’ for those who love the camaraderie that pervades the Trail. Special friends from all over the country and sometimes beyond make it their regular get together and then there is that particular bonding that comes with the mother and daughter trips. And “we’ve noticed that increasingly more men are interested ,” KK comments. The Christmas bells will be ringing merrily for the trail in Havelock North this November in no small part due to Mary Stewart and KK Márffy’s vision.

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Culture clash

Culture R O S HE E N FI T ZG E R A L D

It’s the thing that everyone is talking about but no one wants to talk about … on the record. This country is in the process of decolonisation, taking an honest look at where we are, how we got here and where we’re going. Following global trends, attempts are being made to right the wrongs of indigenous disenfranchisement and honour te tiriti promises of partnership, participation and protection. But it’s awkward. Few deny the injustices of the process of colonisation, but the imperial mindset is so ingrained in our hearts and minds, institutions and practices, that forging an equitable path forward can feel arduous and opaque. Pākehā paralysis – fear of saying or doing the wrong thing can lead people to ignore the issues entirely. These issues play out in art as in every other arena. The best of art holds a mirror to society, reflecting and commenting on the cultural zeitgeist, offering the chance to see the world through another’s eyes. This is the gift of the mahi of Putaanga Waitoa (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou, ‘Avaiki Nui, Pākehā) artist and activist. With the magic of her camera lens she empowers Māori, showing them to the world through indigenous vision. “It is important that we normalise Māori being on the forefront of telling Māori stories. Throughout our history, pākehā have played the white saviour as if we do not have the ability to do this ourselves, as if we need saving, as if we need a voice. However pākehā cannot see into a world they do not inhabit, yet they are still first and foremost celebrated for Māori art, and storytelling,” she explains. “Indigenous people are the original story tellers, and it is time we are celebrated in the same capacity as non Māori.” Her 2020 exhibition, Who am I to wear moko kauae, challenged stereotypes to elevate the mana of the wāhine in her portraits. However, her choice of hero image was deemed too confrontational for prime gallery

“When they signed the Treaty Hobson said, ‘We are now one people’. We’ve never been one people, we never were one people, we’re many people that live in the same place and if we work together we’ll have unity in our diversity.” WHAKAKOTAHI ARARAU

position. “Pākehā can be affronted by authentic indigenous art, they prefer something that looks Māori but they can relate to, because it’s looking down on us, from their point of view,” she muses. Wāhine, a touring exhibition showing here as part of the Arts Festival, curated and photographed by a French female anthropologist, rang alarm bells for Putaanga. Looking at Māori with an anthropological eye feels undignified to her. “It feels like an extension of colonial postcard portraiture, for pākehā eyes, by pākehā eyes. Why can we not celebrate Māori for carrying such a kaupapa but rather celebrate, hold space, fund a pākehā who appropriates it?” she asserts. For Putaanga, the fact this woman’s work is elevated, while her mahi was pushed out of sight lest it offend, is a continued act of cultural colonialism. Audiences get a pleasing experience of ethnic flavour without having to come into contact, physical or financial, with the culture they are admiring on their walls. For her, tangata whenua should come first, to be given the opportunity to tell their own stories from their unique perspective, without filtration or sanitisation for a pākehā audience. If audiences want Māori content let it come from Māori. This was precisely the issue raised by

a mural by Erika Pearce, a pākehā artist from Auckland who painted Hastings’ library wall with twin profile portraits of a Māori and a Muslim woman surrounded by a swirl of indigenous symbols. The intention behind the piece, solidarity between cultures in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, was lost in a storm of controversy. Hastings District Council’s Pou Ahurea (Māori Advisor), Charles Ropitini (Heretaunga), was surprised to see his niece portrayed, in an image taken from her kapa haka rōpū. “She was never asked, I don’t know if Erika spoke to the culture or to people involved,” says Ropitini. The artist maintained all references were licensed stock photos, but this then raises questions about who acquires, buys and sells imagery of indigenous people. Legally she is in the right but morally this has the feel of a colonial land grab – just, only by the rules created by a system designed to oppress. More than the portrait, it’s the patterns to which Ropitini objects. “I can tell that a Māori hasn’t done the artwork because of the placement of the korus. Someone just placed a whole heap of curly things on a mural… We read kowhaiwhai like our language and I can’t read that because it’s not ours. It doesn’t follow Māori conventions of kowhaiwhai.” The mistake is

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“You can’t fix intergenerational prejudice, it’s about ignoring it and carrying on and having strong leadership that enables the equality of Māori and non-Māori and enables our people to put artworks in that tell stories, to implement bilingualism and to do it with depth. If the pākehā aren’t going to talk about it then the Māori will. It’s my job to make the Māori feel comfortable, and take ownership and learn.” CHARLES ROPITINI

particularly egregious as Heretaunga, via Toimairangi, the local Māori art school, is the leading centre of kowhaiwhai work in the country. Toimairangi, incidentally, do not believe Māori art should exclusively be done by Māori. They teach traditional methods to anyone who wants to learn, regardless of ethnicity. Unsurprisingly, as for pākehā and every other ethnicity, Māori are not a hive mind. They hold a range of nuanced opinions on issues of entitlement and culture. The difference here is an artist taught traditional methods can execute work with a level of understanding that will never come from copying googled stock imagery. A Kahungunu artist had intended to paint a mural as part of the Culture Canvas project but dropped out, last minute, leaving Pearce’s design to be rushed through the consultation process. By then organisers were embroiled in complaints regarding another mural in the festival, Poihakena Ngawati’s portrait of internationally recognised Kahungunu artist George Nuku. Some found the work aggressive and intimidating, a charge often levelled at indigenous artists by those who know they have good reason to be angry. Notably, many public complaints about Pearce’s mural were from pākehā, upset that their culture went unrepresented. When we examine the very real, systemic erasure and dismissal of indigenous culture in the past versus the present pervasiveness of colonial culture these fears seem laughable, but when we are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Backlash is a function of white fragility. Cherry picking history to emphasise the bits that make our ancestors look good, while dismissing or diminishing that which makes our legacy awkward leads to skewed thinking.

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Shame is uncomfortable and the natural human reaction is to push it away. The infamous incident in Havelock North’s playground, where a woman was asked to leave for wearing moko kauae, sparked a surge of supportive protest. But up in the hills, rumours were circulating that the wāhine Māori in question had been asked to leave, not because of her cultural marking but because she was smoking. This is backlash in motion. It is easier to reinforce harmful stereotypes of Māori health and parenting than to accept one of our own could have acted out of prejudice. Curator of Napier’s MTG, formerly of Hastings City Art Gallery, Toni McKinnon sees backlash as a function of “ignorance of history. They have something to lose and they know it. I feel it. I wonder what change means for my kids. Will they be able to get a job? It’s a bizarre psychology.” But like the banning of books that discuss slavery in American schools, this attitude values potential harm to pākehā above actual harm done to Māori for generations. McKinnon advocates for honouring Te Tiriti by establishing genuine co-governance. Keeping pākehā in leadership roles will not instigate the kind of change necessary. “For Māori, the pain of the past comes through generations and generations. Being a coloniser – I’m not being guilt ridden – surges through the way you see things, all your value judgments, what you think is good. How you perceive the world comes through generationally. You are afflicted by coloniser mentality. The only way to make change is to hand back power to those who can deal with it properly. “Pākehā think they have something to lose but they don’t realise they have so much to gain. We’ll be in a better place. It will be a better world. We’ll start chipping away at health,

education, incarceration, all those negative stats in which Māori are overly represented. Hand back the resources. Then they’ll sort it.” The flipside of backlash and white fragility is white guilt. Guilt can be used as a weapon by some Māori to shame pākehā into renouncing privilege. But guilt and shame are barriers to real change, more likely to foster resentment, to further race baiting. More productive would be to acknowledge past injustices, recognise their consequences and make positive, affirmative action to encourage and achieve equity. Charles Ropitini is making such changes, advocating to make Hastings a city where both Māori and pākehā feel a sense of belonging. Many of the motifs we associate with Art Deco are actually revivalist, taken from ancient indigenous cultures. Twenty-three years ago, Council decided to remove all reference to indigenous art forms in the city’s architecture because it was uncomfortable; they didn’t know how to speak to it. Rather let people believe their buildings have purely colonial origins. Ironically, Landmark Square, whose plaque only refers to the good works of the Landmark Trust in preserving landscape, history, architecture and art in public places, is in fact the only pā site in Hastings’ CBD obtained in a fraudulent land grab. Ropitini believes educating everyone, Māori and pākehā alike, on the indigenous roots of their city, and incorporating Kahungunu art into new municipal additions will increase civic mindedness and understanding between cultures, combatting the feeling that Māori are not welcome in the city streets. Taking ownership of public spaces when one is naturally disenfranchised is the remit of graffiti artists, in this country disproportionately Māori. Some of the most talented Māori artists

“The only way to make change is to hand back power to those who can deal with it properly.” TONI MCKINNON

in this region use the street and the train yard as their gallery, their way of getting art to the world. The fact that these rangatahi are criminalised, denied paint and seen as hooligans, rather than given space for their gifts to be fostered is a failing of the state and a legacy of colonisation. It never occurs to most that their work might be valuable. A just system would allow such artists to thrive, let them be seen and heard, rather than them resorting to forcing their way into the public eye where their work is maligned. The long tangled roots of colonialism run deep through all Aotearoa’s

institutions, even through the tendrils of our minds, for we are shaped by our environment. The true process of decolonisation has to acknowledge, examine and dismantle these structures, without and within. Just changing your email sign off to ‘ngā mihi’ and proceeding with imperial practices is akin to placing a sticking plaster over a gaping social wound. Change needs to be systemic, continuous, and evolving. Even the way we conduct these conversations warrants examination. One of the many refusals of an on-record interview for this piece was accompanied by the assertion that this is

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not how Māori kōrero. The very act of interviewer quizzing subject for information is steeped in colonialism, invoking a certain power dynamic, anathema to te ao Māori. Wānanga and hui, gatherings in appropriate cultural settings, with kai, following tikanga, are productive spaces for conversations to happen. The most destructive space for nuanced kōrero must be online. While the concise format is primed for the rapid sharing of ideas, social media is a machine in which people are the product. Algorithms designed to reward combative behaviour eschew genuine understanding and connection in favour of bun fights – contests over who can manufacture the most outrage. Whipping up followers via viral Tik Tok into a like-button smashing frenzy might be soothing but is ultimately self-serving and is not going to change hearts and minds. Neither is this a topic that can be addressed comprehensively in a single article. Rather this is just the start of a continuous kōrero that should permeate our words, deeds and minds. Systemic change is necessary and inevitable, so get on the waka or get left behind.

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Jo and Aaron Duff have created a way of life that is sustainable, resilient and regenerative. Photographs by Florence Charvin

Permaculture in Poukawa

Culture K AY B A Z Z A R D

Permaculture is a system of conscious design that mimics the patterns and relationships of nature to provide for human needs for food and labor-saving systems. The term ‘permaculture’ was first coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is a positive response to the environmental and social challenges of our time.

The passion for permaculture drives everything that Jo and Aaron Duff do on their farm in Poukawa. Kahikatea Farm is their life and they tread lightly on the land. As kaitiaki of this place they apply the principles of “Earth care, people care and fair share,” making a living and sharing their knowledge with others. Aaron and Jo bought this block of fenced farming land on Te Mahanga Road Poukawa in 2005, its sixteen acres spread wide over a hill, surrounded by fertile low-lying farmland. These rich, productive lands were originally wetlands with magnificent stands of kahikatea that stretched from Lake Poukawa to the Peka Peka wetlands and the farm’s name acknowledges that history. On the mild and sunny September day that I came here the valley was velvety green and beautiful. The last time I visited Jo and Aaron was in 2009, when they were still developing their organic farm on permaculture principles, industriously planting trees, establishing a kitchen garden,

constructing growing houses for the plant nursery and digging swales. They had recently been blessed with their first child, Anna, then a baby of three months. The site was exposed to the biting winds from the south and west, and the couple were living with their baby in a humble caravan and a burning ambition to make their permaculture dreams a reality. My recent visit was in extraordinary contrast. Their hill was covered in trees, shelterbelts of pines and eucalypts reaching high above my car as it wound up the drive. Arriving at their cottage I peered through a screen of flowering medicinal and food foraging plants to be met by their three enthusiastic canines, and Jo emerged to greet me. She took me to the plant nursery, and I was struck by the many tunnel houses where their plants and herbs are propagated and by the sheer variety of species (over four hundred). We then walked through the maturing food forest with its microclimates of sheltered spaces, past the small, lush grass paddocks where their three white

Galloway-cross cattle graze. Permaculture is a system of conscious design that mimics the patterns and relationships of nature to provide for human needs for food and labor-saving systems. The term ‘permaculture’ was first coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is a positive response to the environmental and social challenges of our time.

Everything is connected

Relationships form an important component of permaculture thinking – everything in natural systems is functionally connected, from humans to soil microbes to trees, to the hydrological cycle. Relationships with customers, visitors and workshop attendees provide opportunities to learn and share knowledge. Jo is the lynchpin of the farm – nursery and office manager, teacher, plant specialist, marketer, mother and wife of Aaron. A debilitating back injury in 2011 prevents Aaron from doing physical work on the farm – it was a serious setback, but they have learned to live

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In the beautifully sheltered bowl of land below the food forest is a place of play and recreation, somewhere to celebrate the summer evenings when the work is done. There’s a cute wattle and daub hut for summer sleepouts that their girls have helped them build and a bar-cum-kitchen for serving the drinks and picnics enjoyed with friends and visitors. with this reality. They are partners in the enterprise: “But,” says Jo, “luckily, he has enjoyed the opportunity to be ‘house daddy’ to our two daughters, Anna and Eliza. He also does the finances, which involves making me define more clearly what is a ‘want’ and what is a ‘need,’ as I am always wanting to explore new plant varieties.” The myriad tasks are shared with their colleague and friend, Gigs – the carpenter, fencer, tree pruner and allround skilled right-hand man and with Kiwi/Argentine couple Bride and Berna, who live on-site while building their

tiny home. In the nursery four part-time workers are employed at the height of the season propagating, potting up plants and preparing orders for delivery. The plant nursery is impressive. Here they specialise in perennial food plants, culinary and medicinal herbs (possibly the largest range in the country), dye plants, pollinator attractors, lesser-known nut and fruit trees, plus natives for on-farm planting. It’s the income earner for Kahikatea Farm, as are the deeply satisfying educational courses. Horticultural students from EIT visit Kahikatea Farm to learn about

the principles and reality of permaculture growing. Naturally – due to the plants being certified organic – Cornucopia in Hastings was an early supporter of their project and has always stocked their plants out front on Heretaunga Street. Interest has grown and now their Kahikatea Farm website generates 90 percent of their orders from all over the country. Some informative relationships have developed through the ethno-botanic preferences of customers with origins in China, Japan and elsewhere, providing Jo with

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LEFT TO RIGHT: Gigs, Christiana, Jo and Patricia.

Naturally – due to the plants being certified organic – Cornucopia in Hastings was an early supporter of their project and has always stocked their plants out front on Heretaunga Street. Interest has grown and now their Kahikatea Farm website generates 90 percent of their orders from all over the country. insights into alternative varieties to grow and the ways they are used. The seasonal demands on Jo’s time are many and varied, and she follows a strict regime to manage the many seasonal tasks requiring her attention. Jo’s favourite project is the Food Forest – a perennial food system that lies on the east and north facing slopes and she yearns to spend more time there growing the diverse and complementary mix of plants (a permaculture principle) that ensures greater biodiversity, soil health and food resilience. Through it runs the swales, the on-contour ditches that capture rain otherwise lost through run-off, it percolates into the soil, tree roots and understory of perennial vegetable plants that provide forage for the meal table. Plants are chosen to fit the permaculture ethos of being multifunctional and perennial as a one-off planting for a long-term harvest requires less work and less soil disturbance than annuals. In the beautifully sheltered bowl of

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land below the food forest is a place of play and recreation, somewhere to celebrate the summer evenings when the work is done. There’s a cute wattle and daub hut for summer sleepouts that their girls have helped them build and a bar-cum-kitchen for serving the drinks and picnics enjoyed with friends and visitors. The Duff family don’t take holidays away from home and it is here, near the clear water pond (water-storage) and the magnificent views towards the hills, that they take their breaks from the constant demands of work. Through the arc of seventeen years they have slowly and methodically created shelter from the high winds and built a home and farm buildings. Using permaculture principles, they have planned and developed all their growing systems. The soil fertility is restored and the land has been productively planted. Most importantly, they can be satisfied that they have fulfilled their intention to create a way

of life that is sustainable, resilient and regenerative. While this past winter has been difficult with Covid filtering through the family and workforce, and record rainfall making the land wet and boggy, Jo says if they are ever having a bad day, they look out on what they have created on the land and know they are so lucky to be doing what they are doing. There are many goals yet to be achieved and they will happen. Just the time frame is uncertain. Some projects will fail and be replaced with other exploratory projects and they are always learning. Permaculture represents a lifetime of holistic engagement with nature, a life of great personal significance to Jo and Aaron Duff and the team at Kahikatea Farm. Follow Kahikatea Farm on Facebook and Instagram Web: kahikateafarm.co.nz or permaculture.org.nz

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Culture

WEL L B E I N G / K AT E M C L E AY

’Tis the season to be jolly My mission this Christmas issue was to gather some sage advice around making the most out of reunions with family and friends. How to avoid the potholes. It got me thinking. About me and my relationship to Christmas. I don’t know about you but I have mixed feelings about Christmas. I really don’t want to sound all Scrooge or Grinch. But maybe I am. Maybe I need a jolly good sage smudging, or a sneaky little exorcism of the Ghosts of Christmas past. I’ll share some of where I’m coming from and you decide.

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I grew up experiencing lavish Christmas events of note. ‘Traditional’. Whose tradition it was I’m now not sure. Copious amounts of beautifully wrapped gifts, an elaborately dressed table heaving with food. We probably would have said we loved Christmas. I truly dearly and deeply love and appreciate my late parents and all they did for us. Even when times were tight on the farm and they still heaped it on. But here comes the Grinch in me again. The politics of a complicated Mumma who had strong views about the extended family were tricky. Living with that same stressed-out mother for about a month in her pursuit of her own concept of perfect and having this as a role model for family Christmas was not peace on earth or entirely festive. I know. Grinch, Grinch, Grinch, Grinch, Grinch. More Grinch time again. The commercialism of Christmas leaves me cold but I still play the game. The

getting of more ‘stuff’ when I really yearn for a backpack and the peace on earth bit makes me feel uneasy. I’ve wandered a lot in my adult life so many festive seasons have been spent with bunches of fabulous crazies in random places. These are still my favourites and what I aspire to these days. Once on my own on the French Alps skiing all day when I was an au pair girl. Many times in the village in Uganda in a treehouse we built on Lake Victoria with our adopted American family. Leslie eating food filled with love and laughing with whoever we had gathered from around the globe. A couple of times next to the tree climbing lions on the Uganda/Congo border watching our mates the lions hang out. The last one in Africa in a beautiful lodge called Wildwaters that we built on an island in the middle of the Nile River Uganda roasting turkeys on a spit to feed a house full of guests. The machete our rockstar Ugandan chef Wambogga got out to carve the turkey still makes me chuckle and cringe simultaneously. Sometimes I even remember to remember Jesus. I’m actually a devotee of Jesus so I’m tempted to exaggerate and tell you he’s my No 1 priority at this time of year, but this would not always be truthful. You see I’m also a big fan of the truth. So don’t get me started on the inner conflict of the Santa scenario. If you too have a life, views and family that has the Christmas status ‘It’s complicated’, then this is for you and me. A little inspiration from people a

lot wiser and funnier than me that may be of help to us both. I want to live and love what Christmas is really about and be truly grateful, festive, forgiving and free. If you do too then read on.

“Maybe Christmas (he thought) doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.”

Koro Morehu Munro, research and development advisor for the Wairoa community

— The Grinch

Koro Morehu has family returning from overseas and all his children and grandchildren will be at their Wairoa home this year. His first pointer is PLANNING IS ESSENTIAL. He started talking of filling the pool, putting up sunshades and tents everywhere and I started to smile wide. On their first night together the family sit and wananga and hear from everyone – whakawhanaungatanga. They then plan their time together. They cook outside on the BBQ and hangi cooker and keep the kai simple. Visitors are welcome but the family don’t travel anywhere unless it’s essential. They set a theme for each Christmas – this year “families are forever.” Their gathering is about connecting, listening and learning. They are full of laughter, kids playing, music and the odd cold one. They are always grateful for everything.

Louise Stobart from Birdwoods Gallery, Café & Sweet Shop outside Havelock North

Louise came at this from a hospo point of view. She said “Book. Book. Book.” Make sure you book in advance if you are planning on eating out to avoid stress. She advised to be chilled and patient over the busy time in cafes and restaurants. She pointed out what we all know – that there is a real lack of hospo staff NZ wide so supporting local with your advance notice and also patience will go a long way. For large groups of friends or family she suggested taking a picnic and heading to your favourite beach. “Head to Bellatinos or your favourite food store or fish and chip shop, stock up, park up at the beach and enjoy each other.”

Mary-anne Scott, award-winning author, from Havelock North

Mary-anne said that spending Christmas with family is her ultimate festive joy. She noted that for some years, for various reasons, some family members can’t make it. Her top tip is “to chill out and let adults – both young and old – make their own decisions.” She then said, “It’s good to say this out loud … I must take my own advice.”

Kaye McGarva from Muse Art Gallery in Havelock North

Kaye initially thought she didn’t have anything insightful to say apart from what she thought was the obvious … don’t try to do too much. Simple wisdom. It may become the mantra for many. This year Kaye’s Christmas is in Auckland with her partner Richard’s family. Instead of giving gifts they have decided to have Christmas lunch at a fancy restaurant. This will be a first for them so she is hoping it will be as relaxing and enjoyable as it seems in her mind.

SOUTH AMERICAN SPICED BUTTERFLIED LAMB LEG

PREPARATION & PLATING 1 Ovation Lamb leg

Mandy Wilson, BayBuzz Sales & Marketing Legend from Hastings

Mandy has a big family and they all get excited about all being together. Her kids, nieces, nephews, brothers, sisters and partners all usually head to her brother’s bach in Waihi or hire one at Waimarama. They all bring food and just have open food for all. They cook turkey in the oven and pork, plus lamb on the spit, fire up the BBQ and make salads and play volleyball and rounders. They keep the peace by lots of love and laughs, no judgement, and basically they are happy and high on life and all so grateful for having each other. So there it is treasures. Keep it simple. Be organised. Chill out. Be grateful. Keep the main thing the main thing. Make the most out of this coming season to be jolly. If you are one of those people with a super smooth sailing life and a harmonious family full of happy times … then well done, you treasures. I’m so happy for you! Please write your secrets in the comments box on the BayBuzz website. We are coming to your place next year. Love Kate xxx

Kate McLeay a mindfulness mentor, yoga teacher and retreat host based out at Cape South Country Estate and Wellness Retreat near Waimarama in Hawke’s Bay. www.katemcleay.com

Lamb spice rub Olive Oil Chimichurri Butternut squash salad METHOD 1. Butterfly open the lamb leg and rub with a generous quantity of the spice rub and leave to marinate for at least two hours. 2. Lightly oil the whole surface of the lamb and seal well on a bbq or grill. 3. EITHER, finish the entire cook on the bbq by indirect heating OR transfer to a baking tray and finish cooking in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 30-45 minutes. 4. Loosely cover with foil and rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing. 5. Thinly slice lamb leg and plate, or for sharing lay out on a platter. 6. Serve with butternut squash salad, chimichurri and spiced pepitas. For the full recipe visit www.ovationchefready.com/ recipies/south-americanspiced-butterflied-lamb-leg Ovation Butterf lied Lamb Legs available at

HAVELOCK NORTH

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Oh … what a Pavlova! Who doesn’t love a Pav!? To be fair, I’m not a great consumer of desserts. I can see the merit of a Pavlova, but it’s just not for me. Having spent twenty years in the egg industry, promoting the consumption of those delectable oblately spheroidal taste bombs, I confess I’ve never made a Pav. I do partake during the festive season. A slice is nice but let’s face it, how much cream and sugar does one require? The Pav is a seasonal, national treasure rather than a year-round staple. It’s a dessert that knows its place as a summer celebration centrepiece and I salute our wonderful Pav for that … infinitely more appropriate and authentic than the colonial winter Christmas. Fresh berries, meringue and cream fit the mood perfectly, whereas holly, fake snow and the fat man dressed in a red winter coat, sweating like a Republican in a pride parade, have no place in our sunny climes. BBQ that venison! Don’t hitch it to a sleigh. I have a clear recollection of my first encounter with Pav culture. It was over a coffee soon after my arrival in Aotearoa in 1992. The conversation, in a Patoka farmhouse, was centred around Pavlovan nuances and required characteristics: “Chewy…crunchy… soft…brittle”, “Turn the oven off and leave it in there for a week”, “Use eggs that are 4 weeks and 3 days old”, “Eggs with white shells are best”, “Don’t make a Pav on a humid day”, “Add cornflour to make it stable”. At that stage, I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. “Sure, it’s part of the national cuisine, but isn’t it just meringue with cream and fruit on top?” I proffered. That was not the right thing to say. There would have been fewer disdainful looks had I suggested rugby was just a game. It was explained to me

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We have our own family Pav wizard. My son Tom took up the challenge a few years ago and is now well on the way to being whispered about in dessert circles.

that not just anyone can make a good Pav. There exists a cabal of desserteratti who have the special touch. I heard whispers of Helen Halliday’s amazing Pavlova and eventually, some months later, I tried it and immediately understood what all the talk had been about. It was a wondrous moment of enlightenment. Truly a national dish of note. Leap forward thirty years and we have our own family Pav wizard. My son Tom took up the challenge a few years ago and is now well on the way to being whispered about in dessert circles. He started with the book Pavlova by Genevieve Knights, which I thoroughly recommend, and is now a Pav-savvy chappy. Making a Pav is now his ‘thing’. We should all have a ‘thing’. Whether it’s a good curry, lasagne, or perfectly cooked lamb, we should all have our ‘thing’ – or more than one ‘thing’ – we do well, and we’re known for in family circles. Or if you’re an Instagramer, your thing could be viewed by thousands of blasé scrollers. If you’re more of a decorator than a creator, pyramids of commercial Pavs greet shoppers in supermarkets during the silly season. Decorating, after all, is really the trick. Cream and fruit enhance the perfectly made Pav and can hide all manner of disasters. Whether you want a demure and understated offering, or you’d rather something festively akin to a Carmen Miranda headdress, the possibilities

are endless: hokey pokey, kiwifruit, toffee, baked peaches and mascarpone. Bailey’s custard, chocolate, cherries, caramelised banana, rhubarb, jellies, salted caramel, milo drizzle, toasted almonds and walnut brittle, saffron pears, passionfruit syrup, lavender and lemon sherbet dusting, pineapple chunks, boysenberry coulis, banoffee custard, raspberry ripple, strawberries. Do not be shy. Let your creativity loose!

Don’t forget the mayo!

For me, the highlight of Pavlova making is the bowl of egg yolks you’re left with. These can be transformed, in less than five minutes, into luscious mayonnaise. Now we’re talking! I love making mayo. It’s one of my ‘things’. Named for Mahon, the capital of Menorca, it’s a creamily textured emulsion of good oil and vinegar, or lemon juice. It is infinitely adaptable to whatever herb or spice you fancy. I often use a mixture of white wine vinegar and lemon juice blended with sunflower and olive oils. Olive oil has a strong flavour so is best diluted with a mild oil. Add capers from the jar or fry them first to accompany fish. Add roasted garlic and rosemary to complement roast potatoes. Warm yourself up by adding chipotle or sriracha sauce. Remoulade and tartar sauces are both easy to make by adding capers, pickles, and herbs to your base mayo. Lemon and orange zest for flavour. Add interest with a little saffron. Make this the day before to give the flavours time to infuse and serve with prawns or cold chicken. Ian Thomas is a caterer and formerly free range egg farmer, cooking demonstrator, and manager of a commercial food production business. He specialises in cooking paella paellaagogo.com

Culture W I N E / Y VO N N E LO R K I N

Santé to Maison Noire Photos by Florence Charvin “My perfect Christmas present?” asks artist Esther Smith. “Easy. A trailer load of mulch.” Not exactly what I was expecting when asking Esther and her husband, winemaker Guillaume Thomas of Maison Noire wines, what their Christmas wishes were for 2022. But as I quickly discovered, nothing would be as expected. Hurtling south along the Waimarama Road toward the coast, it’s all rolling green paddocks, with a few sheep here, a muscle-bound bull there and slips in the landscape from storms gone by revealing connective fascia of limestone and clay. From fenceline to fenceline, the classic farmland seems to blend together. That is until you hit rapid number 1286. Within seconds of turning into the narrow driveway, you’re thrust into a leafy oasis. A garden absolutely heaving with the colours and textures of a smorgasbord of exotics and natives. A garden loud with honking tui, flying low like a feathery Luftwaffe between blossoms. Fat kēreru are frequent “and we have moreporks too,” boasts Esther, bounding out to meet me with husband Guillaume Thomas and Henry, their ‘car mad’ cat who quickly leaps into my Citröen. The circular garden is snaked with pathways and cute hideaway spots and has a distinct lack of weeds due to the careful placement of…mulch. Ah. I get it now. “Guillaume said ‘When you look down on the garden from up the hill, it looks like one of your paintings Esther!’

And I didn’t realise that when I was designing it, but he’s right,” she laughs. Guillaume and Esther’s 1.5ha Maison Noire (or ‘black house’) property is planted half in vineyard and half in a riotous garden, with a black, self-designed home and a cottage-turnedart-studio-slash-shed (housing the most prehistoric forklift I’ve ever seen) sitting in the middle. “We bought it in 2010 and began planting straight away,” says Guillaume. “Back then we didn’t see many birds out here at all, so we think in a small way, our efforts have helped bring them back.” Back then was also where I wanted to go. Back to their beginning. Before leaping into art full-time, Esther spent many years working in retail and suffering nightmares of sinking and being stuck. “Turned out I was trapped in my life, not living my true purpose, so I chucked it in and went off to art school.” And Guillaume? “The great thing about being a young winemaker is that you can travel across the hemispheres chasing the harvests,” he says. “In 2006 I was supposed to go to South America. One of my friends said he’d arrange work for me but he forgot! He apologised and said he’d also been working in New Zealand and if I’d like, he’d put me in touch with the winery there.” That winery was Hatton Estate on Gimblett Road, and Guillaume began working as an intern alongside another French winemaker David Ramonteu. David and his wife Kate Galloway (also a winemaker) lived next door

“The great thing about being a young winemaker is that you can travel across the hemispheres chasing the harvests. In 2006 I was supposed to go to South America. One of my friends said he’d arrange work for me but he forgot! He apologised and said he’d also been working in New Zealand and if I’d like, he’d put me in touch with the winery there.” GUILLAUME THOMAS

to Esther in Havelock North. “They needed accommodation for their interns and asked if I’d take one,” said Esther. “I wasn’t keen at first because I liked living on my own, but I thought, what the heck, it’ll only be for a short time. So Guillaume moved in.” As luck would have it, his contract ended just as love was blossoming. However Esther, being a little older than Guillaume, didn’t see a future. “I thought he’s young, he’s travelling the world, he needs to live his life, all that

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sort of stuff. But my friends thought I was crazy. “A handsome young Frenchman wants to be with you and you’re just going to let him leave?” Months of messaging followed until one day Guillaume challenged her to come to France and see if they ‘could make a go of it’. “My parents said for goodness sake, just go for it! So I jumped on a plane and that was that. I didn’t want to be that person wondering what could have been.” Guillaume was soon back in New Zealand, making wine for the likes of Church Road and Alpha Domus and living with Esther. Apart from struggling to understand fish & chips being served in newspaper, hot dogs on

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sticks and our unspeakably early dinner time, he settled into kiwi life easily. Yet something was niggling. “I said to Guillaume, I’m living my dream with my little house and my little art studio, but life’s short and we’re a team, what do you want to do?” He told her he’d like his own grapes and his own wine label and that he loved Hawke’s Bay. So together they decided to make it happen, exploring the region, even investigating a little patch of land high up on the Waimarama Road. Despite it being on the small side, something kept pulling them back to it. They built the little cottage to live in first, then their daughter Lily was born in 2012 and with being an office,

a home and an art studio, things in the tiny cottage soon became very cramped. So Esther began designing their new house, the cottage was converted into both a flat and an art studio and in 2015 they also planted their vineyard. To say it was a busy time is like saying Adele can carry a tune. Speaking of tunes, not only is Guillaume the winemaking force behind one of New Zealand’s most exciting boutique wine brands, his vinous skills are very much matched by his vocal talent. Born and raised in a small village just minutes south of Nantes, in France’s Loire Valley, his teens and early 20s were dominated by dreams of finding fame and fortune

as a singer in a rock band. However, disillusionment with the music industry set in and that’s when winemaking took centre stage. “I still love to sing in choirs and stuff,” he says, and today Guillaume sings baritone for the Hastings Choral Society. The vineyard beside their house contains syrah, cabernet franc and chenin blanc, a signature grape from Guillaume’s home in the Loire and his personal favourite wine. It’s also not irrigated, however its clay soils retain moisture, so when the surrounding coastal hills cook under the summer

sun, becoming camel-coloured and crispy, Maison Noire’s vineyard is a little postage stamp of verdant green when viewed from above. Guillaume’s other grapes, arneis, chardonnay, freisa (pronounced ‘fray-sha’), albariño, cabernet sauvignon and merlot all come from an eclectic blend of local growers. The artwork for Maison Noire’s label is also idiosyncratic. “I bought a book on fonts and fell in love with Bifur, a 1930’s French style. We tweaked it slightly to make it more readable,” says Esther. Despite some wine retailers not warming to the label and being tricky

to win over, the wines have proven a hit with online consumers and Guillaume is in hot demand as a presenter at wine clubs and tasting groups all across the motu. But it hasn’t all been happy clappy. Like any business relying on nature, there have been nail-biting times. “Once all our chenin blanc rotted off the vine and then the birds just raced through the grapes and it was total annihilation,” said Esther. Also losing litres of product every time wine goes through filtration and bottling is tough on a business that’s so small.

CHRISTMAS IS COMING...

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 99

“We bought it in 2010 and began planting straight away. Back then we didn’t see many birds out here at all, so we think in a small way, our efforts have helped bring them back.” GUILLAUME THOMAS

Guillaume also works full time as the Health and Safety manager for a local pack house and orchard – so it’s hectic. “Guillaume’s always frantic, working in the vineyard, making the wine and doing his other job, and I’m always frantic dealing with my galleries and getting commissions completed, meaning it’s madness,” she adds. Madness yes, but harvest time at Maison Noire is a hoot, with friends, neighbours and family all catching up over secateurs and buckets of bunches. “We love hearing them all chatting and cackling away down the rows and I’ll lay on a huge spread for morning tea and lunch,” says Esther. “It’s like being back home where all the families would come and celebrate the harvest with an hours-long banquet. Everyone connecting in a relaxed, unhurried way,” adds Guillaume. “Sometimes we’ll sit here and wonder if it’d be nicer to just live in town with a small section and a small garden,” says Esther, “then we’ll look out across the vineyard toward the ocean

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and pinch ourselves. That’s crazy talk!” Speaking of looking. I can’t help but clock the telescope by the window. “I love to gaze at the night sky,” gushes Guillaume. “I’m fascinated with space, and I just think it’s supercool that we have Rocket Lab in Hawke’s Bay.” He doesn’t use it much these days, mainly because when night comes, he’s knackered. “But I did stay up to watch the last super moon back in August.” With Santa also about to zoom across the night sky, Christmas in the Maison Noire household is a very kiwi affair, with Esther’s family traditionally gathering at the Puketapu Reserve. “Everyone brings a picnic, all the cousins play soccer, it’s very relaxed,” she adds. “Sometimes we’ll have family Christmas up here and we love cooking up a storm, although it did take a while for Guillaume to adjust to the kiwi Christmas habit of having a hot roast meal at midday in the middle of summer.” Guillaume’s Christmas wish is also a little strange, professing his desire for

a large terracotta amphora in which to make wine. “They’re quite expensive and they come from Europe, but I’d love to experiment with cabernet franc or freisa, with a super-long maceration (soak) in a clay vessel.” But Esther can’t be swayed from her desire for mulch. “I prefer practical things,” she shrugs. “I once got a garage door from my parents. They also gave me a toilet one year because I was building a house and then I got a ladder.” Surely there must have been a romantic gift for your engagement or wedding? “Hah!” she chuckles, “That would be the wheelbarrow.” esthersmithart.nz maisonnoire.nz

Yvonne Lorkin is a wine writer, the Co-Founder and CTO of WineFriend (NZ’s No.1 personalised wine subscription service) and she’s a proud, born and bred Hawkesbaylien. winefriend.co.nz or yvonnelorkin.com

KENNEDY PARK RESORT NAPIER MASTER SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR Lance Baylis | Powerlifting

WINNERS

GLENN COOK TECHNOLOGIES LIFETIME CONTRIBUTION TO SPORT Donald (Doc) McDonald | Rowing Ross Holden | Broadcasting

SPORTY.CO.NZ VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR Wim Barendsen | Canoe Polo

RACHAEL KNIGHT EMERGING SPORTSPERSON Hannah Hunt | Canoe Polo

STIRLING SPORTS SPORTS ORGANISATION OF THE YEAR Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union THREE WISE BIRDS COMMUNITY INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR CHB District Council | Waka Takaro

EIT JUNIOR TEAM OF THE YEAR Athletics Hawke’s Bay Gisborne Men U18 4x100m Team

BREBNER PRINT OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR Nick Hogan | Rugby Union

TREMAINS SENIOR TEAM OF THE YEAR James Brott and Oscar Ruston | Rowing

PETANE COACH OF THE YEAR Mark Ozich and Josh Syms | Rugby Union

PALADIN DISABLED SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR Guy Harrison | Swimming and Golf

ZEELANDT GRASSROOTS CLUB OF THE YEAR Triathlon Hawke’s Bay | Triathlon NGĀTI KAHUNGUNU IWI INC ACTIVATING TE MATAU A MĀUI Jorian Tangaere, Raiha Huata, Whetumarama Paenga | NKKM o Kahungunu

Rachael Knight

MEDIAWORKS SENIOR SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR Emma Twigg | Rowing

FORSYTH BARR HAWKE’S BAY SUPREME AWARD

Culture B O O KS / LO UI S E WA R D

All I want for Christmas In this age of waste not, want not, it’s a good idea to head to a book shop. A real life book as a gift is a no brainer: shareable, recyclable, and most importantly, the giver is able to borrow from the receiver. You can’t do that with socks.

But where to begin with the trickier members of the whanau? Your favourite bookseller has the smarts to deal with this. You only have to ask for some ideas, and your Christmas Day could pan out like this… Uncle Reg will only read political biographies. He’s read everything and has many, many opinions. He’s already read Blue Blood, Andrea Vance’s (fairly) non-judgemental and well researched narrative of the National Party’s leadership implosion. You give him Chris Finlayson’s Yes, Minister. Reg is quietly pleased and regales all and sundry with tales of bipartisan bad behaviour and what the hell happened after John Key left until everyone offers to help in the kitchen. Nanny Ngaire just wants a good yarn. She’s read the Seven Sisters series and is deeply disappointed in Lucinda Riley for dying. She unwraps Harbouring by the inimitable Jenny Pattrick. Set in 1850s New Zealand it charts the lives of the poorer members of society: Welsh immigrants Huw and Martha, and smart but enslaved Hineroa. The story evokes a sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal life, told through the eyes of the underdogs. Ngaire loves an underdog; she appreciates the author’s wit, and her ability to conjure a character in just a few words. You are now Nanny Ngaire’s favourite. Maia has been veering wildly over the past few weeks between the exhilarating joy of gazing at her newborn and sobbing whilst rocking the screaming ball of fury to whom she has given life. You put the baby in the arms of a now snoozing Reg and give Maia a glass of wine and a copy of Emily Writes’ Needs Adult Supervision. Maia spends the pre-lunch period laughing, gasping in

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horrified hilarity at Emily’s birth story involving a lift and a poo, and coming to the realisation that she actually is coping, and that it’s normal for parenting to be messy, blissful, chaotic and really, really hard. Carson is a spooky little kid. At ten years old, he’d rather read about corpses than cars, funerals in favour of fishing and investigation over action. Although male, Carson is happy to read books with female protagonists because he’s smart enough to realise that about half the population are female, and they can be quite interesting. You give him The Deadly Daylight by Ash Harrier. Alice lives in a funeral home, gets resonant messages from the possessions of the dead, and knows that George Devenish didn’t die just because of his sunlight allergy. With the aid of George’s niece, Violet, Alice learns not just about the circumstances surrounding George’s death, but about how to be a friend whilst embracing your glorious differences (and applying eye shadow to corpses). Poppa thinks the baby doesn’t need a present, but he’s pleasantly surprised that when he gets his turn for a cuddle after Reg wakes baby with his snoring, the little one focuses her new eyes on Gavin Bishop’s Friend, in which a child and a dog negotiate how they, and their koro, are feeling. Baby absorbs the rumble of Poppa’s voice, a voice she recognises, and starts to latch on to speech patterns and sounds. Ka pai, Poppa. You want to be the best Auntie, but what on earth are teenager’s reading these days? Being quite well read, you remember that Haruki Murakami said,

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” Having trusted your bookseller to find you a gem, fourteen year old Anahera unwraps her gift to reveal Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and discovers a story of Lady Death, unexpected romance, mystery and friendship. Anahera is thrilled and will soon blaze a reading trail among her peers, just as soon as she’s uploaded a video of her updated bookshelf to TikTok. Mum and Dad, the sandwich generation in the kitchen, have finished cooking, cleaning up and diverting various family members from bickering. They deserve a bloody good read. Put the kettle on and hand them their presents. There’s a new Kate Atkinson, Shrines of Gaiety, and as she opens it Mum shrieks with excitement – she is transported to Jazz Age London, ditching her pinny for sequins. She waves it at Dad who bats her away as he discovers he is the recipient of a brand spanking new Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger, about a salvage diver, terrified of the deep and pursued for a crime he doesn’t understand. Shivers. The post lunch room is hushed, only the quiet rustle of a turned page nudging the quiet. New worlds have been entered and you revel in the knowledge you have created this rare Christmas calm. Feeling full of love for your whanau, you reach into your bag for the gift you gave yourself. With a contented sigh, you crack the spine and settle in. This could be your Christmas Day. Just pop in to the bookshop, the one where the booksellers read, eat, sometimes sleep, read some more and spend their working hours matching books with people. It’s too easy. Mere kirihimete, and panui koa!

Culture MO U T H Y B R OA D / JES S S O UTA R B A RRON

How to be great at tête-à-tête Here’s a fun fact to drop into dinner-party yarns: Before next year, we’re each going to have 50 more conversations than we would have in an ordinary month. With two years of non-contact time behind us, we’ve got a lot of chat to catch up on. Now, we’re heading into an unmasked silly season and all the boozing, munching and yakking that goes with it. By the time we’ve each done a work party (or two if we’re a plus-one), a school disco, a fundraising committee Xmas-drinks, a date with mates, a Pinot&-Paint with The Girls, festive bingo at the squash club, an extended-family pre-Christmas meet-up and Chrimbo cocktails up the road at Suzie’s – at five confabs per event, we’ll have talked ourselves hoarse by New Year’s Eve. To help get match-fit in time for the gab-fest ahead – after careful research, in-field testing and scientific experimentation – I present ten Top Tips for holding a decent chin-wag. 1. Remember their name There’s plenty of tricks to this – google them – but the best is to say their name often so it sticks in your brain. It’s a great way to show people who’s in charge of the colloquy … and when that’s you it’s easier to keep the pace lively and move the subjects along. 2. Put up with the small talk It’s painful, especially for introverted overthinkers like us, but it is necessary to warm up. A tip from funnyman Jerry Seinfeld is to start with questions to which the answer is a number. Try: “How long have you known <Host’s name here>?” rather than “How do you know <Host’s name here>?”. It’s much easier to get a flow on when you start in familiar territory. Charging right in with, “Putin’s actions are a reaction to contemporary, Westerninfluenced Ukraine being a constant threat to Russian existence: Discuss…”

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is probably a little heavy compared to “What do you do to keep busy?” 3. Be interested not interesting The pressure comes off when you realise it’s not your role in a convo to be interesting. No one cares that you just spent a month in Bali, people only care that you care about them. Practice asking questions that get people talking. It’ll give you plenty to bounce off and once you’re rolling, the badinage will bound along. 4. Have a recommendation Being interested means really listening to what people are into, then adding to their inventory. Rather than swinging the chitchat back to you, build on what they are sharing. If they tell you they recently went on a yoga retreat give them a recommendation for the podcast on cults that you just downloaded. If they tell you they love baking, share your tip for perfect scones. A recommendation is a gift to thank someone for sharing time with you. 5. Include a gooseberry Awkward confabs are easier if there’s a third person involved, so pull someone in if chat begins to dry up. “Have you met…?” is a great way to kick a conversation into a new gear. A three-way gives more fodder for a decent powwow. It’s basic maths: with a menage-a trois, the responsibility for keeping up the prattle is now only 33% yours. 6. Keep your hands visible and don’t look down Simply, if your hands are hidden your new bud is going to start wondering where you’ve put them and why. And if you look down they’ll wonder what’s got your attention. 7. “Yes, and…” not “No, but…: This is Improv 101. Build on the conversation you’re having together. Don’t

detract, distract, dismiss or disagree without adding to the debate. What you’re doing is creating a dialogue rather than trying to win a dispute. 8. Stay out of the weeds There’s nothing worse than a person listening to your shaggy dog with its clever twists and hilarious punchline then picking at one tiny detail that has nothing to do with the overarching universal truth you’re attempting to illustrate. 9. Side-by-side It’s tempting to korero face-to-face but this is a mistake. If you’re uncomfortable facing things head-on, try standing next to each other. This way you’ll feel like you’re on the same team. It’s less combative. Plus, shoulder-to-shoulder, if topics wear thin, you can join together in your united critique of everyone else at the party. It’s a unifying experience. 10. How to leave As important as it is to know how to begin, it’s vital you know how to call it quits. This is where all your new-found techniques come together. “Well, Giles, I found our repartee enlightening, and I’ll leave you in the safe hands of Mike here. He loves country music too so you’ll have plenty in common. I’m going to send you a link to that podcast but I must catch Kate before she gets caught up in another goss session.” If that fails, you can go back to these tried-and-true exit lines: “I’ve just seen a guy who owes me $50 … hold my glass” … or, even better, “These oysters vol-au-vent are playing havoc with my insides, please excuse me…”