IT’S A TEAM EFFORT... WE COULDN’T DO IT WITHOUT OUR CONTRIBUTORS

CONNOR CRAWFORD

I am a working artist and photographer with a colourful and rhythmic perspective. I enjoy shooting the front covers of Ponsonby News.

DAVID HARTNELL - MNZM

For the last 53 years I’ve been a freelance entertainment journalist and author. I’ve lived in the Grey Lynn area for nearly three decades; I have met and interviewed some amazing people.

HONOUR MITCHELL

I have lived in the Ponsonby area all of my life. I write the column ‘Teen Picks’ which explores everything on offer in the greater Ponsonby area.

HELENE RAVLICH

A freelance writer and copywriter for almost 20 years, I have written for publications all over the world and couldn’t imagine myself in any other job.

KEN RING

My yearly NZ Weather Almanacs began in 1999. During the tragic 2011 Christchurch earthquakes, my work created international interest. I currently live in Ponsonby.

LUCY KENNEDY

I am a young local writer who loves to read! Each month you will find my reviews of new books for people who love to read as much as I do.

PHIL PARKER

Journalist and published author, I have had a career involving both wine writing and hosting boutique wine tours in the Auckland region.

PUNEET DHALL

I am an Aucklander of Indian origin, Punjabi and Sikh. I have a keen interest in food, wine and politics.

ROSS THORBY

I have had a wanderlust for travel ever since I was old enough to own a passport. Since I discovered cruising, I have become unstoppable.

SOFIA ROGER WILLIAMS

A vegan for over a year and vegetarian for over seven years with a passion for writing. I am a local student reviewing some of Ponsonby’s best vegan eats.

MIKE LEE: IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY, THE SPIRIT OF OLD GREY LYNN ENDURES

The massive floods which deluged the city on the evening of 27 January and the tropical cyclone which smashed into the region and much of the North Island two weeks later were a devastating double punch, recovery from which will take years and tens of billions of dollars.

In Auckland, the killer storms took six lives, including MOTAT tram volunteer David Leonard, and then heroic Muriwai volunteer firefighters, Dave van Zwanenberg and Craig Stevens. It wrecked hundreds of homes and severely damaged thousands of others. Many others, now precariously situated on eroded cliff tops, have been rendered vulnerable as have many more located in or adjacent to water courses. Just like the Christchurch earthquake of 2011, and now in Turkey and Syria, where the death toll has reached over 45,000, it’s a brutal reminder of the power of nature which we disrespect at our peril. Environmentalists have long warned us that humans have been waging war against nature – now it seems nature is waging war against us.

The two massive storms are a wake-up call and raise searching questions about official assumptions of endless growth and our climate change priorities. Clearly, we are failing to match the drive for urban intensification with adequate infrastructure, stormwater in particular, and even failing to manage our existing infrastructure, especially street catch-pits. These events have demonstrated just how unrealistic is the drive to intensify Auckland anywhere and everywhere, embodied in Council’s Plan Change 78, given the geographic and climate realities.

One could get the impression from the big developer lobby and political 'urbanists' that Auckland is flat like a Monopoly board, with all that that suggests. They overlook just how rugged Auckland’s natural terrain really is, especially in our ward; a series of ridges, gullies, flood plains and eroding sea cliffs, from Hobson Bay through to the Meola Reef. A city we may be, but that’s just the ‘skin’ on the surface. We ignore geography and the forces of nature at our cost.

Of the three local board areas which make up our ward, AoteaGreat Barrier, Waiheke, and Waitematā, interestingly it was the city rather than the islands which sustained the most damage. The 27 January floods severely impacted parts of St Marys Bay, Herne Bay and Grey Lynn. The damage to properties on Dryden, lower Hakanoa, Cockburn, Tutanekai and Sackville streets Grey Lynn was localised but quite devastating. Here dozens of people lost their homes, some permanently, and least four people came close to drowning that night.

The courage and fortitude of those most affected deeply impressed me. Throughout that long anniversary weekend, despite the shock and trauma and damage to their houses, men and women toiled long hours to remove flood damaged carpets, curtains, heavy furniture, household appliances and to try to salvage personal items. Some were obliged to remove internal lining and soaked insulation from their houses. They laboured those long days without any outside assistance from the authorities, helped only by other local residents, including cabinet minister David Parker, who generously pitched in to lend a hand.

I would like to mention some of the Grey Lynn locals I met in the aftermath of the floods, who in the time of crisis rose to the occasion. Judge David McNaughton was one. The McNaughton home was damaged in the flood, as was the nearby Hakanoa reserve in which David and local volunteers have worked so hard to remove weeds and revegetate with native species. During this crisis and the days following, David in his non-judicial baseball cap and jeans was a rallying figure for the neighbourhood. Across the street, Dr Joseph Earles, during the height of the flood, coolly kayaked over what was a 3 metre hedge to rescue neighbours Dick Johnson and Anna Coddington and their two children who had been trapped in an upstairs bedroom by rapidly rising flood waters roaring down from Grey Lynn Park. Dick, Anna and the children survived, but their once lovely home is totally wrecked.

During one of my evening calls to the area with a council officer to hustle up more rubbish skips, I saw two women lugging flood damaged items from a basement. The pair turned out to be our much-loved chanteuse, musician and songwriter Linn Lorkin and her friend, singer Jennie Cruse. We were invited upstairs, thankfully undamaged, whereupon in no time at all Linn, partner Hershal Hersher and Jennie, were performing wonderful music. I found it very moving. A truly memorable moment in that rather grim time. On the Saturday immediately after the floods Linn and Hershal had performed a concert from their porch, boosting the morale of their hardpressed neighbours up and down the street who paused from their labours to clap and cheer.

This is the true spirit of old Grey Lynn undaunted in the face of adversity. It’s the Kiwi spirit now to be seen across our cyclone damaged, suffering, wounded country, especially Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti. The survival of that spirit is one comfort we can take from this tragic time. (MIKE LEE)  PN www.mikelee.co.nz

PUNEET DHALL: TO OUR FATHERS WITH LOVE

Zen and the art of noodle making and ripening the perfect berries.

It took until my own father’s funeral to realise that he had always been my greatest friend. You see, when it's done right, there is nothing more powerful than the love between a parent and their children. As Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

All of these thoughts passed through my mind as I stood by the stairs down a narrow passageway leading to the outdoor dining area of Ponsonby’s ‘Ramen Takara’. I was standing alongside inspirational owner/chef Yuki Yamaguchi as we surveyed a collection of small print photos on the wall. A number of the prints portrayed Yuki at various stages of life with her beloved father - Nobuyuki. The prints show Yuki’s chef father standing unflinchingly by her side as he supports her in the first few months of setting up her restaurant.

You see, Yuki was born on the slopes of Mt Fuji. Her own father in his early childhood had discovered ramen and fallen in love with this soupy, noodly, national dish of Japan. It inspired him to become a ramen chef and in turn inspired Yuki to follow in his footsteps.

This journey brought Yuki to New Zealand where she set up her first Ramen Takara restaurant in Browns Bay 16 years ago, and then on Ponsonby Road 8 Years ago. Yuki has many secrets that makes her ramen so delicious, but for me the factor I love most is the ‘close to perfection’ consistency and taste of her freshly made noodles. You can see the clinical precision, the obsession with the smallest details, the artistic perfection in every dish and every noodle.

These qualities are synonymous with Japanese traits and also abound in one of my favourite Marlborough producers - Takaki Okada of Folium Vineyard. Takaki lives almost in solitary on his small dry farmed and organic vineyard in the Brancott Basin. The vines are his friends and he tends to them daily, seeking to understand each and every contour of his vineyard in his endeavour to make the greatest wines. His goal; to attain the singular most pure expression of his terroir is his neverending life’s pursuit. Both Yuki and Takaki manage to display an incredible serenity in their character and approach while remaining so incredibly industrious in their work; a lesson to us all - wise eyes, gentle smiles, tough hands.

As such, it feels like an honour to pair these two delights together. Yuki’s Tan Tan Ramen is without doubt the signature dish at Ramen Takara. The dish has its roots back in China but came across to Japan in its ramen form in the early 20th Century. A rich sour and spicy sesame base with pork mince to make a rich dark red soup, the bok choy and shredded leek offering vital green colours and crunch. With such a brooding dish it has to be pinot noir. The 2018 from Folium Vineyard is the only choice. The wine displays a singularity along the palate - a linear shape from opening flavour, through secondary characters of light mushroom and earth with a lingering finish and the most supple, delicious ‘rolling sublimely and visceral over your tongue’ tannins, which I tend to find connects the greatest pinot noir from Waipara through to Blenheim. This is a wine to be savoured, you cannot rush to your next mouthful of food, some zen needs to be applied in the pace of your meal for full sensory impact!

(PUNEET DHALL)  PN

@puneetofponsonby