BayBuzz Jan/Feb 2014

ENERGY Independence

for hb

DAM CALL Making the

JAN/ FEB 2014

INCLUDING GST

CAPE COAST Asset or albatross?

J’ALeIME Bay VOICES

David Marshall, Damon Harvey Paul Paynter, David Trubridge Tim Frendin, Claire Hague, John Barnes Kay Bazzard, Adrienne Pierce Prue Barton, Brendan Webb

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Sport in Hawke’s Bay Is it about the fun or the money?

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772253

262009

by keith newman

Showcasing the recently completed, Te Uranga Waka,

ATTN13GEM30

the home of Maori Studies at EIT

FROM THE EDITOR

Dr Russell Wills, our local pediatrician who serves as the Children’s Commissioner, issued Child Poverty in NZ: Building on progress to date, which reported that, appallingly, fully 25% of New Zealand’s children live in poverty. This report and its supporting website is at www.childpoverty.co.nz Dr Wills was obliged to organize private financing of the report on his own, after the Government rejected his request to publish official measures and targets. An expert advisory appointed a year earlier had proposed a new law requiring the Government to measure child poverty, set targets to reduce it, and report annually to Parliament on progress towards those targets.

Dig into the issues!

BY ~ tom belford

Since our last edition, consideration of Hawke’s Bay’s two blockbuster issues – amalgamation and the CHB dam – has progressed in important ways.

In November, the Local Government Commission issued its recommended option for Hawke’s Bay – a single unitary authority consolidating all five councils in our region.

And starting 18 November, the Wellington-appointed Board of Inquiry (BOI) began to hear evidence and submissions on the Regional Council’s proposed management plan for the Tukituki catchment, together with consent applications for the proposed Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme. Our update on the process is at page 30.

With the dam process in a ‘quiet phase’ until the BOI issues a draft decision in February, the amalgamation debate will probably feature in the public eye over the next several weeks.

The LGC is taking submissions on its preferred option through 7 March, to be followed by public hearings and an LGC-sponsored region-wide opinion survey on amalgamation. We can expect fierce debate on the issue, including a war of submissions and public consultation efforts.

Given that NCC has already decided it has a mandate to submit in opposition to amalgamation, Mayor Dalton (elected by less than 20% of eligible Napier voters) and his council have put a new spin on ‘consultation’, renaming it ‘engagement’.

However, before succumbing to ‘Dalton delusion’, I urge residents of Hawke’s Bay to actually read the report of the Loc al Government Commission, which provides a lucid rationale for the recommendations made.

Unfortunately, this is an aspect of New Zealand’s reality that the National Government would prefer to sweep under the carpet.

The Government could also do without the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, who issued her report: Water quality in New Zealand: Land use and nutrient pollution.

The Commissioner, who understatedly terms her report “not good news”, observes: “It is almost inevitable that without significantly more intervention, we will continue to see an on-going deterioration in water quality in many catchments across the country…”

The culprit is land use intensification, especially more dairying, of precisely the type promised by the CHB dam scheme. So as the BOI plays around with ‘mitigation’ measures, it’s worth noting a key conclusion of the report: “Mitigation may be able to ‘hold the line’ or even reduce nutrient losses in some cases.

But mitigation cannot offset the increase in nutrients that comes from large-scale change to more intensive land uses.” This report is at www.pce.parliament.nz Adding to our challenges, councillors from throughout the region were briefed recently on the latest findings regarding the impact of climate change on our coastal environment. This report, prepared by US oceanographer Dr Paul Komar, will be completed and released in January. The conclusions will come as no surprise – a sea rise of one metre by the end of the century will produce serious problems for Hawke’s Bay, especially in light of expected higher storm surges and waves.

The Regional Council is planning a coastal strategy review involving all stakeholders, and a workplan for that inquiry will be brought forward in June.

None of these reports is a scintillating novel. If it’s escape you want this summer, stay away from them.

But the reality is, you can’t escape these issues. Each has huge implications for the future of Hawke’s Bay. If you do nothing more, pick just one – amalgamation, the dam, child poverty, protecting water quality, regional impact of climate change – study up and speak out.

Tom Belford

And if you’re seriously concerned, you might examine the several hundred pages of supporting analyses of the Hawke’s Bay situation, prepared by consultants who actually conferred with locals and dug into councils’ budgets and plans, as well as regional economic and social data. The LGC proposal and all supporting material is at www.lgc.govt.nz As important as these matters are, however, we should not lose sight of a few other critical issues that were tabled before Christmas.

Amalgamation

Child Poverty

PCE Report

ISSUE No.16 : JAN / FEB 2014

THIS MONTH Sport touches so many in Hawke’s Bay … how healthy is the sector?

Could Hawke’s Bay declare energy independence? The Cape Coast … our region’s neglected gem.

Updates on the dam and amalgamation. New faces in Hawke's Bay arts scene. And what’s with this French invasion?

FEATURES 26

J’AIME LE BAY

By Jessica Soutar Barron Who are all these French people around the Bay?

30

MAKING THE DAM CALL

By Tom Belford While the Board of Inquiry ponders the dam, ecologist Mike Joy weighs in with ‘Damned if you do’.

Mandy Jensen phone 027-593-5575 Mandy Jensen manages advertising and store sales for BayBuzz. She's worked in print media in the Bay for 20 years or so (Wow!).

In her leisure you can spot Mandy walking or cycling one of the numerous tracks throughout Hawke's Bay or sipping hot chocolates in any number of cafes.

ISSN 2253-2625 (Print) ISSN 2253-2633 (Online)

6Is Sport in

Hawke's Bay Game-Ready?

Sport is more than fun, fitness and games … in Hawke’s Bay it’s a potential economic powerhouse. Keith Newman reports.

18 bring on the electric cars Suppose Hawke’s Bay wished to declare ‘Energy Independence’ for the region. How might we even start to contemplate such an aspiration? Tom Belford considers the possibilities.

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going coastal This publication uses vegetable based inks and environmentally responsible papers. The document is printed throughout on Sumo K Matt, which is FSC® certified and from responsible souces, manufactured under ISO 14001 Environmental management Systems.

The Cape Coast – Clifton, Te Awanga, Haumoana – an under-appreciated regional asset or a looming victim of climate change? By Anthony Vile.

jan/feb 2014

contributors >

IDEAS & OPINIONS

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

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CUTTING THROUGH THE FOG OF PAROCHIALISM David Marshall

24

DEVO-EDUCATION Paul Paynter

28

THE ‘BIG A’ DEBATE Adrienne Pierce

42

IT’S TIME TO RE-EXAMINE WHAT WE PUT ON OUR SOIL John Barnes

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AT ONE WITH THE NATURAL WORLD David Trubridge

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teaching teachers Claire Hague

50

SUSTAINING HEALTH IN AN ERA OF AUSTERITY Tim Frendin

THE ACADEMY OF SPORT … CHANGING LIVES Damon Harvey

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BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES: EXERCISE … YES, WE HAVE TO FACE UP TO IT Kay Bazzard

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RENEGOTIATING THE RULES FOR DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP Keith Newman

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TASTE TE AWANGA Prue Barton

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STATE OF THE ARTS Jessica Soutar Barron

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HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS Jessica Soutar Barron

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JESS SOUTAR BARRON Jess is a wordsmith and project manager whose past gigs have included time with Sky TV, Hastings District Council and Band, as well as three years as a communications manager with the Metropolitan Police Service. She also produces Fruit Bowl Craft Jam and Pecha Kucha in the Bay. KEITH NEWMAN Keith is a journo with nearly 40-years’ experience across mainstream and trade media.

He’s won awards for writing about hi-tech, produces Musical Chairs programmes for Radio NZ and has published four books, one on the internet in New Zealand and three others on New Zealand history.

MARK SWEET Napier-born, Mark worked overseas in Hong Kong and Scotland, before returning to Hawke's Bay, and establishing Pacifica restaurant.

Re-creating himself as a writer, Mark's first novel Zhu Mao was published in 2011; an extract from his next novel, Of Good and Evil, has been short-listed for the Pikihuia Awards, and is due for publication early 2014.

TOM BELFORD Tom’s past includes the Carter White House, building Ted Turner’s first philanthropic organization, doing heaps of marketing consulting for major nonprofits and corporates. Tom publishes BayBuzz, writes an acclaimed blog for professional NGO fundraisers and communicators in North America and Europe, and is a HB Regional Councillor.

getting the pip Brendan Webb

THE BAYBUZZ TEAM > EDITOR Tom Belford Senior writers Jessica Soutar Barron, Keith Newman, Mark Sweet, Tom Belford columnists Anthony Vile, Brendan Webb, Claire Hague, David Trubridge, Kay Bazzard, Paul Paynter, Phyllis Tichinin, Robyn McLean, Roy Dunningham editor’s right hand Brooks Belford photography Tim Whittaker, Sarah Cates ILLUSTRATOR Brett Monteith creative, design & production Steff @ Ed art assistant Julia Jameson advertising sales & distribution Mandy Jensen Online Mogul business manager Bernadette Magee printing Format Print

BAYBUZZ POSTAL: PO Box 8322, Havelock North

All BayBuzz magazine articles are available online. Visit BayBuzz at: www.baybuzz.co.nz

Letters to the Editor We encourage readers to criticize, expand upon or applaud our articles as they see fit.

All of our magazine articles are published online – www.baybuzz.co.nz – where you can always comment … at any length and as often as you like.

But we are also happy to publish a limited number of readers’ letters here. You can email us at editors@baybuzz.co.nz or mail us at BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North.

Does a farmer really ever retire? By Kay Bazzard Kay, you missed the elephant in the room! Each of your examples tried farming and moved on, selling out to corporate enterprises. None of their children apparently saw farming as a desirable lifestyle.

How many of our farmers are governed by slanted economic theory? They farm ‘products’ without any thought to the impact of their activities on the Land.

Where are the farmers who seek to improve the capacity of the property to sustain generations of their family? Why is it all work and no lifestyle? Why the need to retire in the mid-fifties?

Who could feel proud of producing a block of land that was only fit to plant trees on? Have a look at Pat Kane’s submission to the Ruataniwha Dam Board of Inquiry.

Ian McIntosh

To The Editor,

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Dear Editor, Many thanks indeed for the article by Phyllis Tichinin, A Better Alternative for CHB, which sets out the better approach to water storage being used in Canterbury.

This should be tried in Hawke’s Bay … below is the summary of my opinion.

Regards, Hamish McHardy

Opinion [Abridged] On behalf of Arden Properties Ltd and Tukituki Ltd, which own land by the river at Red Bridge, and on my own behalf as a Regional Council taxpayer, I am raising my concerns about the Makaroro dam.

The site of the dam and the height of the dam wall. Partly because of difficulties with braided rivers, the other dam sites proved unsuitable, and we are left with the belief that Makaroro is the least most unsuitable site available.

The allowance of great increases in Nitrogen: I attended a meeting of Ruataniwha farmers at Onga Onga to discuss Plan 6 at which several farmers asked, “what about the increase in nitrogen?” To be told by Council (whose mandate is to protect the environment), “Don’t worry about it, we are allowed many times more nitrogen than what is presently emitted.”

We would like to correct an error made in Keith Newman’s article, Destination Hawke’s Bay, where it says that Waimarama Mäori Tours is receiving government assistance.

We are not and never have received government assistance.

We think our story is worth telling accurately because it is the story of perseverance, passion and fortitude. It is the story we know we share with just about every other start up small tourism business in Hawke’s Bay. A start up tourism business by individuals requires money, commitment, blood, sweat, tears and a big dose of patience.

We run a small family tourism business, and like everyone else, we have struggled to make it all work. If it were not for the thousands of unpaid hours worked by family, friends, and the wider community, the donations of raw materials we were given, and the ability to access business loans, we would never have been able to create the tours that Waimarama Mäori Tours now runs.

To be in a region that is not on the traditional tourist trail, and is not known for Mäori Tourism Experiences means we have relied on Hawke’s Bay Tourism to promote the region, as well as help to promote our products. We strongly believe that the time we have spent working with Hawke’s Bay Tourism has been one of the keys to our success.It would be a disservice to all of those who have helped and worked with us to allow

The poor rate of return of the project and the funding of the project: The low return on the project leads to questions of how its investment is funded. It appears it is one of the least economic of the sixteen dams currently being considered in New Zealand. The potential concern is the Regional Council will subsidise the dam from other assets or cashflows and or levy higher rates on Hawke’s Bay ratepayers than would otherwise be the case.

Remedy: This project has been researched and promoted by the ambition of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Many questions have been raised that have not been answered, and comments from experts that might be negative have either not been sought or neglected. As suggested by the mayors of Hastings and Napier district councils, the project should be further assessed by independent parties, including Treasury.

your readers to think we received any kind of government assistance.

Regards, Robert MacDonald and Denise Prentice, Owner/Operators Waimarama Mäori Tours [Editor reply: We apologise for the language that could be construed, wrongly, to suggest that Waimarama Mäori Tours has received government assistance, as in financial. We know firsthand that WMT has been built on the back of Robert and Denise and their army of committed volunteers. Our reporter was attempting to paraphrase a comment by HB Tourism’s Annie Dundas that WMT was so highly regarded by NZ Tourism that the government agency is featuring WMT in its own promotions.]

advertorial

Euro City Driving Progress in Hawke’s Bay 2013 started with Managing Director Terry Elmsly deciding to buy out his business partner. A move, according to Terry, that is the initial step in a significant 2-5 year growth strategy for both his dealership of luxury vehicle brands Audi, Volkswagen & Skoda and for the greater Hawke’s Bay region itself.

Terry recognised that Euro City, in its current location in Carlyle Street Napier, would quickly outgrow the site, due to the growing customer base & increased number of vehicles being serviced. Terry says, ‘The old buildings that currently house Euro City have become inefficient when it comes to workshop flow, ultimately affecting productivity’.

In addition, the building no longer complied with the giant German automakers corporate identity standards.

This spurred on one of the biggest moves in Terry’s business career yet.

Together with a select group of local business people, entrepreneurs, and councillors, Terry is the driving force behind a new super development soon to be built in a high profile, vacant site along Prebensen Drive, Napier.

‘Re-engineering Euro City ready for a new purpose built dealership, is going to provide a whole new tier of benefits for the business, our clientele and the community’, says Terry. These include a state-of-the-art dealership, new technology based vehicle service facilities, and not to mention thousands of square meters of available sites for like-minded businesses wanting to be in the super site business park.

What is currently acres of paddocks, right across the road from high profile national retailers Mitre 10 Mega, Farmlands & Hunting & Fishing, to name a few, Terry’s new development, built on a main arterial route into Napier’s CBD with one of the highest traffic counts in the

L to R Napier Councillor Mark Herbert, Napier Mayor Bill Dalton, Euro City Managing Director Terry Elmsly, Napier City Council CEO Wayne Jack, and Lawyer Steve Lunn on the corner of the new Euro City dealership. province, is already attracting phenomenal interest by businesses.

Terry is a firm believer Hawke’s Bay is ready for this. With his team of business colleagues including Mayor Bill Dalton, Councillor Mark Herbert and Council CEO Wayne Jack, the park has been given the green light. In conjunction with the expertise of the McKimm Family (Big Save Furniture), lawyer & friend Steve Lunn

(Lunn & Associates), Architects Paris Magdalinos and specialist real estate agents Bayleys, this is one of the biggest property developments to be undertaken in the Bay. To find out more about having your business located in Prebensen Drive, email terry@eurocity.co.nz or daniel.moffitt@bayleys.co.nz

Aerial view of the new super site business park.

Euro City, 93 Carlyle Street, Napier. Ph 06 835 8810

www.eurocity.co.nz

Is Sport in Hawke’s Bay Game-Ready?

Damon Harvey, new board chairman of Sport Hawke's Bay and a trustee with Team Hawke's Bay Trust (Team HB) alphapix.co.nz

alphapix.co.nz

alphapix.co.nz

tim.co.nz

Sport is more than fun, fitness and games … in Hawke’s Bay it’s a potential economic powerhouse, as Keith Newman reports.

Flagging interest revived Sport HB first began working on a Regional Sport and Active Recreation Strategy in 2003 when all five local councils agreed that shared resources and economies of scale sounded good.

After launch, however, the followthrough just wasn’t there.

Continued on Page 8

»

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

alphapix.co.nz

Sport has not to date been a frontrunner in Hawke’s Bay’s economic stakes. However, there’s a growing view that a proactive regional strategy could more than double annual earnings to around $40 million in 2014.

While tourism and its wine, food and art deco allies get the highest profile, a proud sporting heritage which attracts large crowds and has ample capacity for more lucrative drawcard games, remains on the sideline.

A decade ago, attempts to get local councils on the same team with a regional sports strategy failed miserably when interest flagged and the invisible attitude barrier between cities went up.

Now, a high-level team of determined civic and sports leaders is preparing a fresh game plan by pitching Hawke’s Bay as a first-choice location for national and regional games and international fixtures.

Sport Hawke’s Bay (Sport HB) and the Hawke’s Bay Sports Council are both refining long-term strategies, informed for the first time by thorough market research.

Sport HB chief executive Colin Stone, says one of the challenges has been the lack of a regional bid fund to underwrite events. “It’s always been a major hurdle when coming up against Taupö, Taranaki or Palmerston North who are more proactive.”

He reckons a half-million dollar pool from councils and businesses should do the job, but first the region must build a compelling case for the economic pulling power of the region’s combined sport-related assets and resources.

“If we are going to be serious about attracting events we have to offer far more than our fantastic Mediterranean climate, and saying ‘the doors are open, come and enjoy the sunshine’.”

Rick Barker, former Labour MP and now HBRC councillor, says he’s never understood why the Bay doesn’t make better use of its facilities and assets by hosting more national and international sports tournaments and events.

Barker, who’s the Regional Council’s representative on the Sports Council, claims the region has often shown a “lack of vision and initiative”, and suggests amalgamation may end the parochial stand-offs which prevent Napier and

Hastings making unified bids for events.

“When the Olympics were held in Sydney a number of teams came to New Zealand to do their preparation …

Hawke’s Bay had the ideal environment and climate. It was a huge opportunity and we missed it.”

Damon Harvey, new board chairman of Sport Hawke's Bay and a trustee with Team Hawke's Bay Trust (Team HB), is frustrated at the limited support for the Trust’s ‘Come on the Bay!’ brand at various council sport venues.

Team HB’s mandate is to fly the flag for sport in Hawke’s Bay, provide branding materials to the various codes and helping get ‘more bums on seats’ at the major games.

Despite forging an alliance between the Hawke’s Basketball Team, HB United Football, Sport HB and the Magpies, it struggles to maximise the impact of that partnership without council support.

While there’s firm evidence that sport events bring national and international profile and financial windfalls for local businesses, especially hospitality and accommodation, he says, this hasn’t translated to any sustainable funding.

Sport HB’s Colin Stone is hopeful the latest economic data will be a game changer. Numbers crunched by local economist Sean Bevin show the combined revenue generated from 19 Hawke’s Bay sports events over a 24 month period was $47 million.

After imported goods and services and promotor’s bills were deducted, that netted $21.75 million to the GDP of the region, a number Stone reckons could be doubled over the next year, “if we all put our minds to it and paddle the waka in the right direction”.

Stone says the 2011-2012 numbers were achieved without a coordinated plan, a regional strategy or a bid fund to help win events. “I bet the moteliers of Hawke’s Bay would be at a loose end if it wasn’t for sport.”

Stone says there are a number of regional level facilities that can be used to drive events into Hawke’s Bay, including the Regional Sports Park, the A&P stadium and showgrounds, Pettigrew Green Arena, Nelson Park, Park Island and McLean Park in Napier.

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Is Sport in Hawke’s Bay Game-Ready?

“They [councils] lost ownership so it became a Sport HB strategy, and then by default it was referred to as Colin’s strategy, which was a nightmare for me,” says Stone.

Since then Sport HB has been back around the table with Sport NZ, its primary government funder, developing a more accurate data model to describe the sector, including an inventory of all the codes, active participants, facilities, and the social and economic impact.

Sport HB, is tasked with facilitating growth by building sector capability, supporting school sport and promoting physical activity among those at risk. It barely escaped financial difficulties this past year, and as a charitable trust has several masters it must answer to: Sport NZ, the five Hawke’s Bay councils and the health sector.

From July 2014, a new four-year plan comes in play, including championing the region as the ‘go to’ place for sport events. Pivotal to ensuring local authorities have “far more skin in the game” is the involvement of the Regional Sports Council, chaired by Stone.

The Sports Council, now developing a 10-year ‘regional sports strategy’, comprises senior officers and politicians from all five councils, the heads of regional sports bodies and representatives from Pettigrew Green Arena and the Regional Sports Park, the key non-council-owned facilities.

A regional facilities ‘blueprint’, cataloguing every sporting venue and identifying any glaring gaps, opportunities or obstacles, is expected in March.

“Despite the challenging political environment we have made good progress and come through with a unified and progressive stance which is heading in the right direction,” says Stone.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Bastion with bright future Napier City Council sports facilities administrator Andrew White describes

Colin Stone, CEO, Sport HB Hawke’s Bay as being “a bastion of sport” and the Sports Council as the “biggest melting pot for regional sports ideas”.

He says people flock to major events and local weekend games. “A lot of people play sport; a lot of people play a lot of sport; a lot of people watch sport … Just go to Park Island on a Saturday morning to watch junior sport or in the afternoon the place is just jam packed with cars.”

White is involved in preparations for the Cricket World Cup in 2015 at McLean Park with teams training at Nelson Park. “It’s a big event that will really expose Napier to the world with a billion people expected to watch the game on TV.” Hastings City councillor and sports advocate Wayne Bradshaw says he’d like to see overall management and planning of sports in Hawke’s Bay “done better”.

Despite the achievement of the Hawke’s Bay Sports Park, he says his own council has been slow to deliver an updated sports and recreation strategy.

One of the principals behind the Sports Park was no cannibalisation.

“I’d like to see a snapshot that shows whether we are growing sport or just moving it around.” While Hastings has significant number of sports fields, one of the reasons soccer found a place at the Sports Park was to free up the shoulder season for softball at Akina Park.

Meanwhile Sport HB has forged an alliance with Tourism Hawke’s Bay as part of the Regional Events Strategy to ensure sport is right up there with all other events' planning and promotion.

Damon Harvey points to the examples of Wellington's hosting of AFL games and Auckland's hosting of the newly created NRL Nines event in February. “Perhaps Hawke’s Bay could adopt a team in the NRL and they play one of their games here.”

HBRC councillor Rick Barker proposes building the reputation of other codes to the high level of one-day cricket. “Sport and tourism go hand-inhand; they both promote Hawke’s Bay and there’s a great synergy.”

He points to the P-class national yachting championships that attracted many people from Auckland to Ahuriri in 2011. “Many had never been to Hawke’s Bay; they went home with baskets of fruit and bottles of wine and many came back. The Mission Concert appeals to a certain segment, but sport appeals to a much wider range.”

Crunching the numbers A 2011 Lincoln University-Sport NZ survey proved a wake-up call when it revealed sport made a $5.2 billion contribution to our national GDP. Additional health benefits and productivity gains allegedly added a billion dollars; and the benefits of participating or being a volunteer, brought the estimated overall value to $12.2 billion.

Sport NZ estimated over 90% of young people and adults in Hawke’s Bay engaged in at least one sport or recreational activity annually. Around 33,000 people volunteered across various sports and according to data for the 2008-2009 year,

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Is Sport in Hawke’s Bay Game-Ready?

the overall contribution to the regional GDP was $179.6 million or 2.8%.

At the time Sport HB reckoned this was a little low, as it didn’t take into account the direct economic benefit of sports visitor spending in Hawke’s Bay, which it thought might be around $40 million gross.

Now armed with data that proves its economic assumptions, Sport HB is awaiting results from its facilities inventory, trends and participation research to give it a better understanding of the issues ahead for schools, regional sports organisations and community groups.

With the right data under its belt it will be able to build a watertight business case for local government and the codes to make a more concerted effort to think, act, invest and promote regionally.

“The challenge will be to match the top-down expectations from the Government and the bottom-up expectations of the community, which don’t always align,” says Stone.

Bid fund proposed The facilities inventory will include identifying any barriers to winning events to the region. While McLean Park is “massively underutilised” and the only suitable venue for some major sports, Team HB trustee Damon Harvey claims conditions can be prohibitive and the venue needs to be more marketable.

“When the Olympics were held in Sydney a number of teams came to New Zealand to do their preparation …

Hawke’s Bay had the ideal environment and climate.

It was a huge opportunity and we missed it.” rick barker

Regional Councillor Rick Barker Its branding arm, Come on the Bay, used the Phoenix Football Club from Wellington versus the Newcastle Jets at McLean Park on Labour weekend as a test case to scope out the risk in running a drawcard event.

Neither Central Football nor HB United wanted to take it on and local councils showed no interest, so Team HB went cap in hand to ten local businesses to underwrite the deal with the support of Sport HB. Negotiations with Napier City Council

(NCC) however proved difficult. Rather than being charged a flat fee of say $20,000, Harvey says “everything asked for had a cost and there was a multiplying effect with little flexibility,” including getting signage on the field.

The Phoenix game was telecast throughout Australia and parts of the UK and Asia, but there wasn’t even a welcome to Hawke’s Bay or Napier sign on field. “A great opportunity to showcase the region was lost,” he says.

“It was a beautiful spring day, the weather was magic, the sun was shining on the stand, the place was nearly packed with 9,000 people but it was a huge risk,” says Harvey.

Continued on Page 10

» Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Is Sport in Hawke’s Bay Game-Ready?

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

10

The exercise and the game ended with no winners. While the trust just broke even, Harvey says it shouldn’t have been about that. “It should have been a success with something left in the kitty to enable the next event.”

His sense was that any promoter would be likely to think twice about using that facility again.

NCC’s Andrew White insists a lot of negotiating went into the contract.

While aware some cities “do more” to attract sports tournaments and games including putting up money, he insists Napier will subsidise ground charges, although he’s unsure whether that’s at the level of other regions.

Sport HB’s Colin Stone says local businesses put themselves on the line to ensure the Phoenix game and the forthcoming international hockey events at the Sports Park got the go-ahead.

“There was nothing in it for them, it was purely goodwill.”

Stone’s vision is that local authorities and corporate Hawke’s Bay create a regional fund of about half a million dollars to “proactively and aggressively” win multiple events. “That way we could be working on events all the time; some might take a hit others might add to the pot. It would be an incentive to get them here.”

While running regional events has been made “incredible difficult” through twin city politicking, Stone is confident there’s a “refreshing” wind change.

“Wayne Jack, the new CEO at Napier City has been fantastic to deal with. He gets it and I think there’s a real opportunity to work proactively, which hasn’t been a priority before.”

Rick Barker says under amalgamation it won’t be Napier’s McLean Park or Hastings facilities, it’ll be Hawke’s Bay’s facilities.

“With a regional strategy we could do a whole lot better in this space.”

Shaped by shifting trends The traditional codes – rugby, rugby league and cricket – are holding their own with strong club loyalty, while netball remains the most popular, and football and hockey are experiencing steady growth, as are a range of customised sports.

The growth in people playing hockey, particularly from Hastings and Central Hawke’s Bay, puts the squeeze on the two turfs at Park Island; the average is about 850 people per turf but Hawke’s Bay is around 2,500.

That pressed the right buttons for the development of the new Unison Hockey Stadium currently under construction at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park in Hastings, ahead of the first inter-

Reliance on gaming funds too much of a gamble Over the past decade the sports sector has managed to produce a raft of sports administrators who are great at filling out forms, but seem to have lost the art of community fundraising, claims Sport HB chief executive, Colin Stone.

A growing number of schools, sports bodies and other groups are vying for the same pool and any sports organisation that relies on gaming funding is “on a rocky pathway,” says Stone.

“I see many organisations taking on employed staff and then 18 months later they’re back to kitchen table administration because the gaming application didn’t come through.”

He says the hand-out mentality can’t last. “The trend is definitely going back to running casino nights, quiz and funny money nights and while you have to work at it, it can be fun and create a social vibe around the organisation.”

Hasting councillor and former hockey administrator Wayne Bradshaw recalls with nostalgia the days when players and supporters would pick peaches or pumpkins or have socials or other fundraisers for equipment and uniforms.

When hockey was established at Park Island in Napier the hockey fraternity put up about a million dollars. “With the Sports Park there’s no contribution required from the sporting codes; it’s all coming from ratepayers and community trusts.”

He suggests there’s a growing culture of letting others do the hard yards and is concerned big projects like the $56 million Sports Park, for which the council contributed $19 million, absorbs large chunks of money which reduces possible funding for smaller community groups.

“If the pool from lotteries or gaming is being diminished and more people are putting their hands out … there’s going to be some disappointed people at the end.”

Already a lot of codes have been caught out as grants and trusts that used to pay for everything are no longer paying wages. He says every sporting code and club needs to have the fundamentals of finances and succession planning in order.

Colin Stone was brought from Wimbledon in the UK as general manager to help set up the Napier Rovers Football Club, handling the commercial side so coaches could be employed and players got what they needed to be successful on the field.

While most clubs do an OK job, as head of Sport HB he say his group is having to assist a number of bigger organisations who are

struggling with governance, strategic planning and accountability, while depending on volunteer leaders who are time-poor.

He’s an advocate of clubs working together and sharing facilities where possible to achieve economies of scale and avoid financial difficulties.

“One of the challenges we have is we’re a passionate lot, and everyone’s happy for amalgamations to take place … as long as it’s not their club that loses their badge and blazer.”

Stone says there’s an opportunity for a number of codes in a similar location to combine so they can afford to pay a parttime administrator or secretary. “What’s to stop a bowls club, athletics club and cricket club sharing one club room with maybe one committee to run the different sports.”

Napier City’s facilities administrator Andrew White agrees it’s logical for some sporting codes to partner or share resources. He says some codes plan to manage difficulties well, others leave it too late.

“There’s a lot of history and tradition with some clubs … and protecting that is their most important thing,” says White.

Sport HB’s mandate is leadership and capability development, but as a charitable trust it also has to go cap in hand. In its 2012/13 annual report, Fred Koenders who retired after 12 years as chairman, said the funding environment was challenging and each year it had to do the same if not more “for progressively less government investment”.

The board was prepared for a budget deficit of $70,894 to hedge against “financial ill winds” but was rescued when its investment returns delivered a surplus of $62,629. Despite being modestly funded and facing financial uncertainty, Koenders said Sport HB continued to punch above its weight.

Over the 2013 year it distributed over $330,000 to 51 regional projects from the Government’s Kiwi Sport funding through Sport NZ, although applications were received for over a million dollars.

The money, to improve children’s sports participation and skills, is allocated regionally, based on the number of school students – 65 applicants were unsuccessful. “It’s just another opportunity alongside gaming and trust funding,” says Stone.

Is Sport in Hawke’s Bay Game-Ready?

A life-long passion begins

alphapix.co.nz national women’s hockey tournament games in April.

Swimming is another area of attention.

While remedial work is underway across a number of public swimming pools, the emerging view is that existing facilities are neither luxurious nor adequate and there’s a need for a regional facility. If that’s proven, a decision needs to be made on location and whether to build a 30 metre or 50 metre pool, or one with a hydraslide.

Napier City Council is trying to

accommodate the overlapping of winter and summer sports codes which came to light in its refreshed 2012 Activity Management Plan for sportsgrounds.

Much of the crossover is created by longer football seasons, making it difficult to prepare the grounds for other codes during the traditional crossover period.

Sports facilitator Andrew White says this is partly to do with “changes in the design of sports”, where more versatility and opportunity is built in so

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Flexible sporting fix Sport HB’s Stone says time pressure, working longer hours, transport and cost issues have created a demand for a more flexible sporting fix through “nonconventional or abbreviated” experiences.

Rather than having to turn up on a Saturday or Sunday morning or afternoon, sports codes are developing new products and services including ‘pay to play’ and one-off sports better suited to the ‘time-poor’.

Twenty-20 cricket, futsal (indoor football), fast netball, 3-on-3 basketball and sports that cut down the number of Continued on Page 12

» Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

Hawkes Bay’s

people around the fringes have more opportunity to participate.

That also requires flexibility in the way sports grounds and facilities are designed to cope with unexpected growth or changing needs of codes. “If we had no ability to provide extra space, then we would be severely challenged,” says White.

Sharing of facilities is also a growing trend that’s being encouraged. At Park Island different sports codes – football, rugby, softball – co-exist using the same club rooms. “It’s proven to be a much more sustainable model for sport organisations, rather than clubs building independent facilities,” says White.

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Is Sport in Hawke’s Bay Game-Ready?

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Local economist Sean Bevin reckons there’s a strong case for a deliberate and integrated marketing plan for regional sport; and considering its economic impact, a fairer share of public and private funding.

Bevin, the director of Economic Solutions, completed the first major analysis of the importance of sport in Hawke’s Bay in March 2013, indicating a greater number of national and international sports events would bring significant economic benefit to Hawke’s Bay. An extra bonus would come from teams training in Hawke’s Bay as well as competing here. Longer events attracting the most participants, spectators and supporters, including age-based sports, where families tend to come to support their children, would bring the greatest benefit.

Bevin’s research, commissioned by Sport HB, covered 19 events staged in the region over 2011 and 2012, ranging from rugby league and rugby union to cricket, athletics, marathons, mountain biking, orienteering, basketball, netball, bowls, biking, softball, tennis, sailing and Iron Mäori.

All up, 76,000 people, including participants and supporters, attended 14 national, two international and three inter-regional events; 46,000 or 60% of them from out of town.

Bevin’s economic modelling estimates the total ‘spending impact’ from the events was $46.8 million. After deducting the cost of running events, what locals spent, imported goods and services and equipment, the combined regional GDP impact including new visitor spend was $21.8 million. That included accommodation ($6.5m), food and beverages ($4.3m), transport ($6.5m), retail ($3.3m) and activities and attractions ($1.1m).

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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The shortest event was the half day for Iron Mäori 2011; the longest was 16 days for the Optimist P Class sailing competition in Napier; the average was three days.

The highest numbers attended Horse of the Year, the Colgate Games Athletics at Hastings Regional Sports Park, the HB Spring Racing Carnival, the annual National Cricket Camps at Riverbend, Havelock North and the Iron Mäori event.

Over the two years there were 168,000 accommodation nights taken up by visitors to the Bay with an average stay 3.7 nights.

School-age tournaments, for example, saw an increase in holiday park or budget motel accommodation, while regional and international events saw an increase in higher-value hotel and motel bookings.

Coming soon: international hockey people in a team and the time needed to participate are in demand.

There’s been a significant rise in those participating in duathlons and triathlons, where, as Stone puts it, “people can train at their leisure, pay their $20 to enter and then go home after they’ve won their spot prize.”

This might include the Triple Peaks and the Cape Kidnappers Challenge, where about 800 competitors train and then perhaps do another two events during the year. Iron Mäori, for example, a locally-created event, has become so popular it’s now held around the country and in Australia.

Stone maintains sport is still cheap entertainment despite the moaning about club or pay-to-play fees. He shares the anecdote of two squash players complaining over the $6 cost of a game of squash, then going up to the club rooms afterwards to continue grumbling over an $8 beer.

He suggests society has become used to sport offered by volunteers at limited cost, while demanding a higher quality offering they’re not prepared to pay for. “Hawke’s Bay is one of the worst regions, we’re a bunch of tight arses.”

He says that’s particularly true of junior sport, where the grumbling is about transport, affiliation costs and membership fees.

A less quantifiable activity is the return to the playground for many young people who simply organise themselves to get down to a local park for a game of touch or just to toss a ball around. Perhaps this

includes many of the 15-18 year olds who annually drop out of organised sports.

Local economist Sean Bevin says events are happening across Hawke’s Bay all the time: “We’re right up there in terms of sports participation and involvement” and have everything needed to host larger events.

Bevin, who’s involved with the Napier City Rovers, says the annual under-19 Labour Weekend tournament, for example, attracts about 50 teams from across the country. “That’s a lot of people coming into the Napier-Hastings area.”

If we’re planning to put out the invitation to escalate the hosting of larger events, he suggests we also need to gear up our tourism, accommodations and facilities, and make certain that the right technology is in place.

“You have to meet modern-day needs with internet, and everything TV and media agencies want to plug into for 21st century communications. We can’t afford to be ad hoc about things.”

Before the new regional approach has even begun to flesh out the hopes and dreams of a new era of cooperation, the sporting calendar for 2014 is already looking vibrant.

There’s the Black Caps one-day cricket on January 19; Horse of the Year in March, which typically brings in $12 million; the women’s international hockey tournament starting in April; the National Indoor Bowls Championships at Pettigrew Green Arena in June; and for the first time since the 1990s, the All Blacks will play a test match at McLean

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Craig McDougall, Flaxmere Boxing Academy

The Academy of Sport …

Changing Lives by ~ damon harvey, Chairman, Sport Hawke's Bay

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

14

The Bay is graced with many high performers in sport – individuals like Israel Dagg, Brooke MacDonald (mountainbiker), Bobbi Gichard (swimmer) and teams such as the Magpies, Hawks and Hawke’s Bay United.

But as a community we tend to look at those that win or are successful as our only high performers.

They get put on a pedestal as high achievers – which they do deserve due to their hard work and performances, but there are many other unnoticed high performers within sport.

I’m not talking about sport administration volunteers (although they are also deserving of the term); I’m talking about the mentors and members of sport academies that are popping up in the region.

I believe academies such as the Sport Hawke’s Bay/EIT High Performance Academy, Hastings Intermediate Sports

Academy, Havelock North High School’s Sports Academy, IMS Paora Winitana & Paul Henare Basketball Academy and lastly the Flaxmere Boxing Academy are making a huge impact in our communities.

Why? Because the mentors that lead these academies are nurturing wellrounded teenagers, who abide by a set of rules that equally apply to competing and becoming solid community leaders.

Now to some that may seem impossible – most teenagers apparently are only thinking of themselves … and some not thinking with their brains.

I beg to differ. An entire underbelly within sport is using sport today as a way of developing the next generation of community leaders.

I believe these academies -- where success is measured both ‘on the field and off’ – are making a true difference to social behaviour within the community

My best decision For example, I attended the end of year celebration of the basketball academy in my capacity as co-chair of the Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sport Trust.

It was held on a Saturday, and with a large family and a long list of weekend chores – including driving our own children to sport – I looked for an excuse not to go.

However, my conscience got the better of me. I knew that these kids had put in the hard yards getting up at 5am most school day mornings, so the least I could do was go along and show support.

It turned out to be the best decision I made over the weekend.

Head coach/mentor Paora Winitana has set high standards for those who are successful at gaining entry into the academy.

They are expected to improve their oncourt skills, but also to live by the academy’s virtues of ‘excellence, integrity and passion’.

The academy’s aim is ‘preparing future leaders, on and off the court’.

I consider myself an OK public speaker.

I need to be well-prepared and always use a script, but at the Hastings Sports Centre, you could have heard a pin drop as five academy members gave unprepared insights into what they had achieved as an academy member.

None of them told a story about how many hoops they could shoot in a row or how fast they could get down the court.

Instead they spoke about how the academy had made them better people.

As an academy member they are required to do good deeds in the community and we heard how two members observed a potentially dangerous assault by a man on a group of teenagers in Napier.

Rather than turn a blind eye or run for cover, the two teenage boys intervened and a violent situation was prevented. The incident was reported to the police and an arrest was made.

To me this was a courageous example; but to many in the academy it was all part of being in the fold.

No-hopers?

The following day I was in Hastings and observed the darker side of being a teenager.

A young adult (approximately 18-20 years old) was pushing a young child with a broken leg in a wheelchair. He was outside the local ‘legal high’ dealer. I watched and wondered what was going on.

Then out of the corner of my eye I spotted his female partner (and perhaps the child’s mother) walking across the road and harassing a passerby for money, which was then duly spent with the dealer.

I have a tendency to judge people too quickly and in this instance I was no different. I looked and judged them as

troubled youths (I didn’t think of these more generous words) and then quickly cast them aside as no-hopers.

I then wondered if they had been given the same opportunities as the academy guys, and how they had gotten into this situation.

What was their family background? Did they ever have a mentor or a role model?

What was the tipping point to end up in this situation? How could it have been different for them?

There’s a phrase often used to promote the benefits of a new sport facility in the region: ‘A youth in sport, is a youth out of court’.

It’s generally true. But sometimes I think there’s too much emphasis on the development of sport facilities and not enough on ‘youth development through sport’.

Don’t get me wrong. We need a strong portfolio of regional facilities, but we then need to make sure that these facilities are well-utilised.

There should be as much emphasis on sport development – both in programmes that provide opportunities for all our youth and also the more aspirational academies.

The current crop of academies are mostly privately funded and are supported by a loyal and local band of businesses and charitable trusts.

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The Jarrod Cunningham Youth Sport Trust provides over $40,000 a year to development of youths in sport, some of which goes to the academies.

Our only kick-back is that we see the nurturing and personal development of teenagers who then have the potential to go on to greater things.

I hope that our region’s leaders – who are challenged by teenagers brawling in the town and the easy access to buying ‘legal highs’ – look outside of the ring and consider the benefits of academies and other sport-focused programmes as part of their community plans.

It’s people like Paora Winitana and Craig McDougall from the boxing academy (HB Today’s Person of the Year) and their funding partners that need our support.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Cutting through the fog of parochialism by ~ David Marshall onzm, napier

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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To those watching the process closely, there were few surprises when the Local Government Commission (LGC) announced its reorganisation proposal in Napier back in November. A single Hawke’s Bay Council, a unitary authority, was proposed, with community boards in each district. Community boards, criticised as ‘toothless’, will almost certainly be superseded by local boards; this was foreshadowed in the draft proposal.

And given that the announcement was made in Napier, it was perhaps no surprise that Napier was recommended as the administrative centre for this new Hawke’s Bay Council, at least in the meantime.

For those who have long advocated for a single voice for Hawke’s Bay, who have believed that five separate councils for 150,000 people was unwieldy at best, and who believe that as a region we have wallowed near the bottom of the league tables for too long, this was great news.

However, for others, it has been greeted as a farce, a recipe for massive unemployment, the death of democracy, central government forcing unwilling locals into some sort of dictatorship, an appalling notion and much more in similar vein.

One suspects that many of those making extravagant comment in print and on the radio have not yet read the LGC draft proposal for Hawke’s Bay. Their criticisms and fears are all dealt with in a calm and wellreasoned way in the proposal.

Nevertheless, it is worth looking in some detail at some of the initial reactions.

Napier and Hastings are separate communities of interest In fact, the region has two distinct but closely related halves. There is the rural hinterland of Wairoa, rural Hastings, and Central Hawke’s Bay, and there is the urban conurbation of Napier and urban Hastings. The interests of these two centres will become more and more aligned. They will increasingly share similar interests in the labour market, in the provision of shopping, education, health and recreational facilities, and in the location of services and facilities.

It is estimated that about one third of the workforce in each city lives in the other, and traffic on the expressway reinforces that view.

Trying to portray Napier and Hastings as somehow separate communities is simply

perpetuating the parochialism of decades ago. We are becoming an ever more closely linked community, certainly not separate.

This proposal is being forced on us by central government More candidates tipped stand into2013 This is simply untrue.

Thetorequest look at reorganisation of Hawke’s Bay local government arose from a broad assortment of civic leaders in Hawke’s Bay. The LGC is an independent statutory body; it works and reports independently from central government.

Napier will lose its identity The same of course was said about Havelock North when it amalgamated with Hastings, and Taradale with Napier.

Neither lost their identity. In fact, both have flourished as part of a larger authority.

Under the draft proposal, each community will keep its special identity. The new HB Council would have a ward system to ensure it can speak with a region-wide voice and not be dominated by one area. The HB Council will deal with the ‘big picture’ matters – regional plans, advocacy to central government, environmental issues, a whole of Hawke’s Bay leadership role.

A second tier of local boards, which when established under legislation due to be passed next year, will have very wide powers.

Local boards will deal with local matters uniquely important to each community, and the considerable list of such matters includes: local roads, bridges, footpaths, car parks, street lighting; management of community events, libraries and community facilities such as halls and cemeteries; neighborhood improvements; traffic control; camping grounds, parks and reserves; landscaping of public spaces.

Unlike community boards, local boards would be a statutory part of the HB Council. They would share decision making on non-regulatory matters, and not rely on delegations from the governing body. They would work much like borough councils used to.

We don’t want to be saddled with Hastings debt The draft proposal makes it very clear that debt in any part of the region can be ring fenced. The ratepayers who incurred this debt will be paying it. The LGC has

recommended ring fencing for ‘at least six years’. In their final proposal, this may be extended. However, in any case, it is difficult to conceive how a Hawke’s Bay Council with a minority of Hastings ward members could ever somehow force other areas to accept debt from Hastings, or any other area.

This proposal is forced amalgamation It will not be forced. Every interest group in Hawke’s Bay is adamant that this matter should be settled by the will of the voters through a binding referendum. Talk of mustering support for a democratic vote is simply a distraction. A handful of even a few voters can trigger a vote and there will be no need for all the charade of ‘seeking our democratic rights’.

Shared services are the answer This has become almost a mantra. Despite repeated assertions, there is scant evidence that this has actually happened in any meaningful way between Napier and Hastings and the LGC noted this in their proposal.

This proposal will lead to massive unemployment In fact, a united voice for Hawke’s Bay is perhaps the best vehicle for increasing employment. At present, Hawke’s Bay sits near the bottom of all the regional indicators (Department of Statistics, and regional GDP growth in the last triennial statistics, 2007-2010)) for unemployment, tourism numbers, and population growth.

This is accompanied by a rise in social problems and growing inequality.

The recommendations to make the governance and administrative centre in Napier seems to have been almost completely ignored by the critics. When Napier Hospital closed, there was a gradual but significant shift of intellectual and economic capital to Hastings and Havelock North. There are now only a handful of clinicians and managers working for the HBDHB still living in Napier.

Here at last is a way of partly redressing this loss and cementing Napier’s role in the region.

But it is an opportunity which if not grasped and exploited by Napier interests will certainly go elsewhere.

So what can you do? Actually several things: • Keep an open mind. Do not believe

everything that a number of self-serving local body politicians are saying. Read the LGC draft proposal (www.lgc.govt.nz) • Make a submission to the LGC supporting the idea of local boards. There is a template for making submissions in the draft proposal document. This is the best way of keeping the ‘local’ in ‘local government’. Affirm the idea that Napier should be the administrative and governance centre for the HB Council, and the region. Ask that the number of elected councillors be increased – the suggestion of nine members is too few.

Sixteen would give better representation to Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay in particular, and the other wards should be adjusted accordingly.

• Make a submission to the Local Government Parliamentary Select Committee, if possible, also supporting the introduction of local boards as part of the Local Government Amendment Bill now before Parliament.

• When the time comes, exercise your vote on reorganisation. The recent local body elections drew only 43% of voters and this is a shameful figure.

It is interesting to see ourselves as other see us. Just two days after the LGC announcement of its draft proposal, the Dominion Post editorialised with the head-line,

‘Hawke’s Bay needs a single council’.

Some of the comments from that editorial are worth repeating.

“Talk of local government amalgamation arouses strong passions. Elected councillors fear for their livelihoods … Only Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule is looking past parochial interests to the bigger picture … He sees what people from outside the region see. Despite their parochialism, Napier and Hastings are two sides of one coin … It is ridiculous for both to pursue separate agendas … The world is shrinking; competition for people, skills and capital is growing. Hawke’s Bay needs a single council focused on regional interests, not four councils jockeying for advantage … the size of the new council is a legitimate subject for debate. What is not is the question of amalgamation itself … Hawke’s Bay needs to think and function regionally. The ties that bind the region’s residents are far greater than the differences that separate them.”

Would that some of this thinking might permeate the fog of parochialism, which is swirling around Napier in particular. It seems sometimes as if our civic leaders are trying to build a wall around Napier City to keep out the barbarian hordes. How much time, effort and ratepayers’ money is being spent on reports which no other council is aware of, faux consultation in the face of council pre-determination, simply tilting at windmills

and talking up conspiracy theories about the end of local democracy?

Now is the chance for strong leaders to step-up, declare their interest in representing Napier on the HB Council regional stage, or better still to lead it, to seize the opportunity offered by the LGC to cement Napier as the administrative centre of the region. Napier’s civic leaders would be far more credible if they were looking to the future and not trying to shackle Napier to the parochial past.

Many of us have come to live in Hawke’s Bay from other parts of New Zealand, and other countries. Few of us have had the pleasure of seeing our children return to Hawke’s Bay, though many would love to – the opportunities are simply not here. Many of us have worked hard both in and for our communities, and the region.

It is almost embarrassing to hear and read some of the paranoia, petulance, parochialism and plain ill-informed comment from some civic ‘leaders’ in recent weeks. At last, a door has opened to a better future; let us make sure we do not slam it shut.

David Marshall is a retired Napier dentist. He and Gabrielle have an adult family of five daughters. With more than 25 years experience in local government and statutory health boards, he was awarded the ONZM in 2003 for services to local government and the community.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Unison CEO Ken Sutherland expects electric cars to be viable within a decade.

Bring on the electric cars!

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

18

Suppose Hawke’s Bay wished to declare ‘Energy Independence’ for the region. That is, 100% of our region’s electricity and transport fuel requirements produced locally and/or from renewable sources.

Is such a goal ridiculous, pollyannish? How might we even start to contemplate such an aspiration? And what would its benefits be? Consider the possibilities.

The first steps Last October, Mayor Lawrence Yule convened an oil and gas forum, keynoted by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, which presented a spectrum of opinion on the desirability and safety of oil/gas development in Hawke’s Bay. The centre of attention of that forum was fracking, although the broader risks and benefits of oil/gas development were tabled.

Last December, the Hastings and Napier Councils jointly announced a

small-scale ‘gas to energy’ project at the jointly owned Omarunui landfill. Here, methane gas created from waste would be used to drive a 1 MW power generator.

Private firm Pioneer Generation Limited will fund the plant, with the councils expecting to earn about $70,000 from sale of the landfill’s methane gas.

In the same week, the Hastings District Council voted to explore a new-technology ‘waste to energy’ process (gasification/ pyrolysis) and facility instead of further

developing the Omarunui landfill.

Also in December, the Government awarded oil and gas exploration permits for tracts within Hawke’s Bay. This is certain to reignite heated debate and opposition regarding the prospect of fracking in our region.

And for its part, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, charged with protecting the environment, decided it would launch a public engagement process in 2014 to consider the region’s potential oil and gas and renewable energy options. The scope of this exercise will be determined in March.

It would appear that our councils are prepared to bring fresh energy to energy.

Where might all of this lead?

Current energy profile Unfortunately, energy usage statistics in New Zealand are not easily ascertained on a regional basis. What we do know are some very basics about the two forms of energy we consume – electricity and petrol.

According to Unison, Hawke’s Bay businesses and households – 62,502 connected customers in all – consume 971 gigawatt hours of electricity per annum.

Nation-wide, electricity consumption by sector is nearly equally divided by industrial (36%) and residential (35%) users, followed by commercial (24%) and agriculture

tim.co.nz

all exported; for our own consumption we then import less expensive fuel.

However, the picture is brighter with respect to electricity. In fact, Hawke’s Bay can already claim to be 100% renewable with respect to its normal electricity sourcing. Says Unison: “Under normal operating conditions, Hawke’s Bay is supplied by renewable generation. A portion of this renewable generation can be substituted by thermal generation from Whirinaki (up to 155 MW) if there are security of supply issues being experienced on the National Grid.”

Seeking ‘energy independence’ As a new regional councillor, I am particularly interested in our region’s energy future. Along with councillors Rick Barker and Rex Graham, I am advocating that the energy study to be undertaken by HBRC be ambitious and aspirational, encouraging sustainable economic development.

In the first instance, HBRC’s planned public engagement is driven by the

Electricity generated from Omarunui landfill methane expected to earn $70,000/year for Hastings and Napier Councils.

Government’s determination to expand oil and gas exploration and development in New Zealand, including our region.

The Regional Council submitted during the Crown’s recent consultation on potential exploration permits in Hawke’s Bay, indicating clear opposition to any development that might endanger our groundwater supplies, including the Ruataniwha and Heretaunga aquifers.

Consequently, the HBRC energy review will certainly examine the merits or otherwise of oil/gas development in the region. Many will view this simply as a question of whether or not we should exploit Hawke’s Bay’s oil and gas resources as an export commodity, a la Taranaki. I, for one, however will advocate that we examine whether and exactly how (if the resource is commercially viable and safely recoverable – a giant ‘if’) our region would benefit from development, including meeting our own regional energy needs.

Continued on Page 20

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Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

(5%, including forestry and fisheries). As a rural province, we might expect a greater agricultural usage.

And for the typical residential consumer, electricity is consumed for water heating (30%), space heating (29%), electronics (12%), refrigeration (11%), lighting (8%), cooking (7%), other appliances (3%). This all adds up to the average NZ household using about 8,000 kilowatt hours per year.

As for fuel, nation-wide we sold roughly 114 petajoules of petrol in 2009 (most recent figures) plus 112 PJs of diesel (1 PJ diesel = 26,000,000 litres!).

Here in Hawke’s Bay, each year we import in excess of 250 million tonnes of fuel through Napier Port, accounting for virtually all of the region’s petrol and diesel consumption.

In Napier, for example, nearly 100,000 cars and trucks, and 1,200 tractors are powered from those imports; one might at least double that number to get the regionwide picture. Less than 10% of Hawke’s Bay households have no access to a car; 15% have access to three cars or more.

The average NZ household uses 1,231 litres of petrol and 170 litres of diesel per annum. With 54,618 households in Hawke’s Bay, that would translate to 67.2 million litres of petrol and 9.3 million litres of diesel.

Of interest given our region’s significant rural economy, according to MAF, in one year the average sheep/beef farm uses 8 litres/hectare of fuel (55% diesel), the average dairy farm uses 64 litres/hectare (75% diesel), and the average orchard uses 324 litres/hectare.

Where does HB energy come from?

As noted, our liquid fuel is imported, virtually all through Napier Port. Not a good start for ‘energy independence’. While NZ produces oil, it is high quality and virtually

19

Bring on the electric cars!

The gap between solar power costs and economic viability is steadily closing.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Of course, new jobs are always promised, and have indeed been generated in Taranaki. But these days even industry advocates portray oil and gas exploitation as ‘transitional’ as we move inevitably and necessarily toward a carbon-less energy future. Whether they do so simply as smart manipulative public relations, or out of pragmatic expectation of eventually conclusive (in another generation or two) political resistance, or genuine moral conviction about local and global environmental impacts, remains to be seen.

But in any case, the issue is before us in Hawke’s Bay. And while there’s clearly money to be made by oil companies and the Crown if development proceeds, it is not at all clear how any significant part of that rich revenue stream might find its way into Hawke’s Bay pockets. This must be part of the inquiry conducted by HBRC. If oil/gas development becomes a reality, then we must focus, first, on health and safety (individual, community, environment) and, second, on fair reward. Hawke’s Bay should take no risk, build no infrastructure for which we are not fully compensated … and then some.

Indeed, if we think imaginatively, how might we ‘barter’ our supply to meet our demand for fuel? And how might we tap into the income stream to secure investable funds to meet our region’s ‘public good’ needs … including when the resource is gone in 50 or so years?

So, the HBRC energy review must look broadly at regional oil and gas development.

But it must go further still. Also within its purview will be an examination of renewable energy options for Hawke’s Bay. Such options could yield these benefits: • Produce energy that is environmentally benign; • Generate new revenue streams within the region; • Reduce dependence upon electricity/fuel purchased outside Hawke’s Bay; • Reduce outflow of payments for electricity/fuel purchased outside Hawke’s Bay, keeping more wealth and spendable income within the region

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(e.g., $0.36 of the residential consumer’s electricity dollar goes to a generator elsewhere in NZ, plus $0.08 to carry it to HB); and/or, • Enhance the environmental reputation of Hawke’s Bay. In August 2008 the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) presented its Hawke’s Bay Regional Renewable Energy Assessment (prepared by Auckland consulting firm Sinclair Knight Merz), which exhaustively canvassed the region’s renewable energy opportunities. The report has gathered dust since then. It offers an excellent starting point for re-examining our situation in light of changing pricing and other underlying assumptions, as well as more aspirational economic development goals for the region.

Four other regions – Bay of Plenty, Northland, Southland and Waikato – have completed comprehensive ‘energy strategies’ charting their energy challenges and opportunities. We should look at their plans as well for guidance as to the scope of the HBRC review.

Renewable options The Government’s energy policy aims for 90% of energy generation from renewables by 2025; we’re currently at 77%. With respect to renewables, two possibilities in particular deserve attention for Hawke’s Bay. The first is ‘waste to energy’.

When the Omarunui methane-toelectricity project was announced, Mayor Bill Dalton said: "This initiative will improve the security of the electricity supply to Hawke’s Bay while the ratepayers of both cities benefit as the sale of the gas creates a longterm, secure income stream for the landfill.

Converting the gas to energy will also help offset the requirement for non-renewable resources, such as coal and oil to be used for power generation."

This is a small-scale project with notable benefits. What if we think much bigger about Hawke’s Bay’s energy future?

That’s where the prospect of a biomass plant, under consideration by the Hastings District Council as noted earlier, becomes

especially intriguing. While HDC is motivated primarily by the need to re-think waste disposal and its associated costs, such a project could deliver numerous benefits, including emissions control, security of electricity supply, liquid fuel, and revenue from energy production and other byproducts (such as roading material from the slag residue).

And whereas earlier waste burning systems generated harmful emissions, the latest technology, effectively vaporizing waste at very high temperatures, eliminates that downside. The latest technology can also utilise waste inputs of all kinds, from wood waste to plastic to tires (a nasty waste product).

Says Mayor Yule, “We need to think of waste as a resource. Why should we waste this resource – out of sight, out of mind – when we could convert it to energy? I can’t think of any single reason why you wouldn’t do this."

In the U.S., with the technology being trialed by the Defense Department (America’s biggest energy consumer!) to generate power for military bases, in four hours one ton (imperial) of waste creates enough gas to produce 1,580 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which would power an average home in the U.S. for about a month and a half – at one-third the emissions of coal – and 42 gallons of renewably sourced fuel.

That’s with a 12-ton-a-day gasifier; existing blast furnaces converted to the technology can handle as much as 2,000 tons a day.

The system HDC is considering would generate 8 MW per day, against Unison’s existing peak capacity of 186 MW. Such systems are modular and can readily be increased in scale.

Scion, a Crown Research Institute, has looked into the nation-wide energy potential of wood-based biomass energy.

They concluded: “Technologies currently exist for producing synthetic natural gas and second-generation liquid biofuels from woody biomass. There is significant scope for the biomass feedstocks for these processes to come from existing plantation forest resources. For example, excluding sawlogs, the “surplus” wood (residues, chip, pulpwood, MDF and log exports) available from the current harvest in 2010 could be 9.5-14.8 million m3, which equates to 12-23% of national liquid-fuel demand, or 33-52% of national heat demand.”

Closer to home, we asked Unison for an opinion – would locally sourced biomass generation be more economic than remote generation? Their reply: “If there were a way of managing waste that reduced investment in waste management, and the by-product of energy

Bring on the electric cars!

Waste to Energy – Gasifica2on Process Air/Oxygen

Waste Streams

Gasifier

Ash/Slag By-product

Clean Syngas

Gas clean-­‐up

Steam, Electricity and

Sulphur By-product

System under review by Hastings Council production came at a net cost that was less than buying remote generation, then yes, it could be economical for Hawke’s Bay.” key factors Friday, The 20 December 2013 affecting viability, according to Unison, are: • The costs of existing waste management that can be avoided; • The waste feedstock volume, characteristics and consistency; • The costs of carbon emissions that are avoided by combusting greenhouse gases; • The electricity quantities that can be produced and the average price for it; and,

• The capital cost of plant and equipment.

It should be noted that the new 1 combustion technology also produces revenue-earning synthetic gas as well as a slag that can be used for roading material.

Offering considerable advantages, ‘waste to energy’ clearly should be looked at as a piece of Hawke’s Bay’s energy future.

Solar power Also on the list should be solar generation.

The EECA renewable energy assessment for Hawke’s Bay noted, remarkably: “The solar energy available from the total exposed rooftop areas of New Zealand, if captured,

would equate to about twice the total national energy use.”

However, today less than 1% of NZ’s electricity is generated by solar. EECA estimated that by 2010 the installed solar thermal capacity of NZ would be upwards of 100 gigawatt hours per annum.

For the typical residential consumer, the investment just doesn’t add up. A $9,000-$12,000 PV system (suitable size for a household) will produce about 4,000 kilowatt hours per year – about one-half of the average household’s consumption.

At best, even with the consumer selling unused electricity back to retailers, the payback period would be 10-15 years; but is more likely to be 20 years or more.

Currently, no government programs exist to financially incentivize solar installations.

But the times are a’changin! Unison reported 60 applications for PV connections for 2013 as of mid-December, compared to 20 in 2012.

With respect to Hawke’s Bay, the EECA report calculated the theoretical solar energy potential, then simply noted that because of the region’s ample exposure to solar radiation, “there is a potential for substantial increase in the uptake of solar thermal use.”

Two trends should accelerate PV installations – PV panels are becoming much Continued on Page 22

A new style of heat pump has arrived

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

The Designer Series

»

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www.HBR.co.nz 06 878 8002 / 06 835 8002 enquiries@hbr.co.nz

Authorised Installer of

Bring on the electric cars!

The average NZ household uses 1,231 litres of petrol and 170 litres of diesel per annum.

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Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

22

more efficient (panels in development have topped at 44% efficiency; high-end commercially-available panels at present are about 20%). And the prices of panels, conversion and storage batteries are declining, and are likely to make home solar generation viable in the coming decade, according to Unison CEO Ken Sutherland.

Plus Hawke’s Bay has another advantage.

Because the region is in the top 10% for sunshine hours, energy output for the same panels would be 10-30% better than in other areas. So appealing is HB's sunshine that Dezhou, China's 'Solar City', has proposed a sister-city relationship with Hastings to demonstrate the possibilities.

Unison, which is strictly a transporter of electricity, is agnostic as to its source.

However, Unison watches the solar space carefully, as quality hook-ups conforming to connection standards are needed to protect the safety and integrity of the overall distribution system. The company is involved in trial installations to test technologies and gauge consumer preferences. At some point, say Unison, “we may develop and offer services that assist customers to optimize their new ‘own plus grid-supplied electricity’ systems.”

Ken Sutherland notes that electricity demand in New Zealand, which until recently had been forecast to grow at 1.5% a year through 2050, is now expected to be level until 2020. So, in fact, at the moment there is no pressing need

for additional electricity supply.

However, he anticipates another bump in electricity consumption in a decade … from electric cars, which Unison has also been trialing. It’s estimated that the typical electric car would consume as much electricity as a typical household.

And for electric cars to become viable, the ‘holy grail’ is improving storage battery performance and cost (both of which are occurring), then ensuring ample plug-in, recharge capabilities – including, especially, at home. The typical daily commute in the district is 32 kilometres, and the current electric cars can travel typically 130 kilometres. The key psychological barrier to overcome in a rural province is ‘distance anxiety’ – fear of ‘running out of power’ as it were.

Conversion from carbon-burning cars to electric vehicles is our major pathway to lessening our dependence on fuel imports.

Wind power While the EECA study in 2008 identified a number of wind farm opportunities, a combination of consenting issues and the flat projections for energy demand have placed wind farm generation in limbo at present. Meridian Energy, which acquired development rights for two potential sites in Hawke’s Bay, and operates 356 MW of capacity via four wind farms in NZ, has said: “Like other generators, we recognize that the demand outlook for the next five years is

probably flat to slightly declining.”

Whether it's biomass, solar or wind, Ken Sutherland notes that any new source of local generation must contend with the very low current marginal costs of generating New Zealand’s electricity remotely, primarily from hydro and geothermal.

“But certainly,” he adds, “if the choice between remote generation and local was cost neutral, you’d look to go local.”

What next?

As Sutherland commented regarding the region's energy use, "There's no one in Hawke's Bay managing this." Hopefully, the Regional Council energy strategy review will get underway promptly in 2014 and be robust. As a councillor, I will certainly be advocating that. And surely, that review should identify energy conservation opportunities as well as energy generation.

As part of that review, the region will need to sort out its requirements for any oil and gas development that might occur. First, do we wish it to proceed at all? Second, how do we ensure the health and safety of our communities and environment (not the least of which, water security)? And third, if it proceeds, how do we optimize the economic and social benefits to Hawke’s Bay. Meantime, the HDC ‘waste to energy’ investigation will hopefully lead to a decision to embrace that technology and bring it on-line within 3-4 years, helping to meet regional needs for both electricity and liquid fuel, while more favourable pricing nudges solar development forward.

With a greater commitment to generating power from biomass and solar, Hawke’s Bay can not only secure its ‘independence’ from the national electricity grid, but indeed over the next decade become a net exporter of electricity, to our region’s financial benefit.

Bring on the electric cars!

Sources: Unison, SCION, Electricity Authority, Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority, NZ Stats, NZ Transport Authority, Port of Napier

Devo education by ~ paul paynter

As a boy I was briefly captivated by this band called Devo. I thought they were cool, much like I thought birthday parties and robots were cool. It turns out Devo weren’t cool. They wore silly costumes that were a cross between Star Trek and The Wiggles. And their music was forgettable.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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However, Devo did get noticed for their name. Devo is short for ‘de-evolution’, the name the band members gave to the concept that society is no longer evolving and is now starting to regress. That idea still has validity.

Most people would agree that NZ is, in many ways, worse off than it was thirty years ago. We seem to be on the wrong track in critical areas like: the standard of living, the environment, the family unit, community connectedness, housing for the poor, mental health, drug abuse, political activism, income inequality and the national cricket team. Sure, our TV’s are better quality; but in terms of the comfortable, egalitarian New Zealand we reminisce about, we’re on the slide.

Most disturbing of all, our once revered educational standards appear to be in a dramatic state of decline. In the recent 65-country PISA study, NZ 15 year olds fell from 7th to 18th in Science, 7th to 13th in Reading and 13th to 22nd in Maths. China, Singapore and Hong Kong make up the top three places in all three categories.

While I’m a cynic about Chinese statistics, there’s no doubt about their demanding school system. My sister has taught in China for half her career and is now principal of a school there. She confirms attitudes of students and parents there are much more intense than in New Zealand. Children understand it’s a ‘dog eat dog’ society, with a hard life ahead for the mediocre student.

Asian students bring their appetite for academic excellence to New Zealand and are disproportionally apparent at school awards ceremonies. While Auckland is full of Asian immigrants, they are not the only ones with an appetite for hard work.

Ubiquitous in restaurants and bars are Eastern Europeans and South Americans.

These kids are smart, hardworking, and don’t want to go home. If our youth don’t start fronting up, the immigrants will be running the show in a generation.

So, how can we turn our floundering academic performance around? Here are six ideas to shake the tree.

Define student performance At the centre of our declining educational standards is the lame NCEA system, with its ‘Did not achieve’plus three ‘Achieved’ levels. This avoids students being demonstrably ‘beaten by their peers’ and they can happily sit in a large mediocrity called ‘achieved’.

In the old days students got a percentage. I got 58% for the midyear maths test, while Bruce got 70%. Bruce did better at maths than me. When I got 58%, my teacher said “Come on Paul, put a bit more effort in. I want to see your result starting with a six at the end of the year.”

Why did we trade a precise measurement of performance for an imprecise one?

These days. many students, come exam time say “I’ve already ‘Achieved’ so the final exam isn’t that important. I can’t really be bothered working too hard.”

Reward teacher performance Most successful people I know can point to a teacher or two that changed their lives. Sadly these superheroes of teaching didn’t get paid any more than the rest. In fact, my best teachers had between five and ten years experience – enough to know what they were doing, but not so much they were worn out. The highest paid teachers are often the long service types, in yesterday’s brown jacket, marking time

until retirement. I know many passionate tim.co.nz teachers that leave the profession as it just doesn’t offer financial rewards for excellence. The prevailing teacher culture seems to grind them into getting an ‘Achieved’ grade too.

Let’s pay our best and brightest more in teaching, like we do in most professions. To do so, we’ll have to make some assessment of how each teacher performs – something the unions are sure to vigorously oppose. How might we grade and pay our teachers? Why not let the students do it for us? Even now I can recall very clearly how I’d rate my teachers. Let the students rate all the teachers, then pay an extra 10% to the top quartile and 10% less to the lowest quartile. In this way we can reward the best and give the worst a message.

Encourage educational innovation The education system is run by the government. This guarantees it’s inclined to be a bureaucratic monoculture. Even when they do come up with a new idea – NCEA, Charter Schools, Bulk Funding, or whatever – there are howls from the schools that it won’t work. They may be right, but every business I know, tries new things. What is clear from the innovation experience is that there are more good ideas than bad ones.

In education we should be trying many different things to see if they work. The roll out doesn’t need to be nationwide.

We can test individual schools, groups of schools, types of schools. What is important is that we’re trying things. History shows a great deal of progress has been made by tinkering – not bold national policy frameworks or UN initiatives, but people at the grass roots, messing about.

Teach money and relationships Two areas that desperately need a school curriculum are ‘money’ and ‘relationships’.

Young (all) people need to understand money, how credit works and many other basic financial concepts. Honestly, the self-help section of the bookstore shouldn’t be filled with How to Make a Zillion in Property, but How I Borrowed Too Much and Went Bankrupt. Similarly they need to learn effective verbal communication and how to manage interpersonal conflicts. I think it was once assumed their parents would teach them these things, but that appears not to be happening. Too many young people are hopeless in these critical areas of life skills.

Read The biggest challenge is to get our young people off the cerebral junk food.

Grand future achievements are unlikely to find their genesis in Grand Theft Auto or Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The problem with these things is they are terribly addictive. The disciplined might be able to avoid these terrible afflictions, but for many only the approach of Alcoholics Anonymous will work.

The next step is to get the whole household reading. Professor James

Flynn, a lecturer of more than 50 years, has spoken at length about how students’ knowledge of literature has deteriorated over that time. He points out that university often doesn’t help this situation, as there are too many prescribed texts and readings. Students have little time to read in other fields of study, or for pleasure. His solution was to write a book recommending 200 works as worthwhile reading. An hour’s reading a night and you can tick off the lot in about five years.

If you are to truly be free, he says, “You need to know something about science, and nations other than your own and their histories, and the human condition.”

The study of the human condition is the greatest study of all. The most successful people I know are all great students of the human condition, and they all read novels.

Young people are unlikely to take my advice, or that of the venerable Professor Flynn, so instead they should look at some recent success stories. If you want to be successful, observe successful people and do what they do. Young Kiwi women are leading the way. We’ve all heard about the recent successes of Lorde and ManBooker Prize winner, Eleanor Catton.

Both these women have been voracious life-long readers. Their brilliance didn’t just happen, but is a product of lengthy mental development. Lorde reads about three books a week and in 2012 competed at an international secondary schools literary competition in South Africa. She proofed her mother’s 40,000 word masters thesis and knew all about Eleanor Catton before you or I had heard of her.

Reading makes you smart. It’s not so important that your children and grandchildren can read, so much as they do read. Reading, like nothing else, causes the brain to concentrate and to think. Children who don’t read are destined for a Matrix’of high-tech serfdom. If we don’t reignite our love of reading, de-evolution will find us swinging through cyberspace like primates in just a generation or two.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

Get back to basics I spent years at university, confused and disillusioned. I simply could not find any inspiration in what I set out to study – the fashionable Bachelor of Business Studies.

Then I had an epiphany. I may be the only middle-aged man to say this, but I owe my modest education to Woodford House – School for Girls. While I was state schooled, my spirited younger sister was sent to Woodford, for her own good. She wrote to me about Oscar Wilde, The Iliad and Aristophanes. I started reading about these things and discovered my passion.

Then I found Kant, Kafka, Koestler; I read them all. The good news is I could spend as much time on my new hobby as I liked, as the ‘non-subject’ business degree seemed not to make many demands of me. After graduation I stayed on to study arts and horticultural science. And so my critique of subject options is founded on hard experience. I found there are three broad subject categories in education.

Firstly there are technical subjects, like chemistry, maths, accounting and, if you insist, IT. Here you need a solid grounding in very precise areas. Students who focus on these areas are often not that wellrounded, but they have learnt some specific skills that society values.

Secondly there are intellectual subjects like history, literature or philosophy. Here students are taught to think critically and develop cultured minds. It’s for this reason our best lawyers often have an arts degree as well. Writers, academics and politicians often have these degrees, but don’t let that put you off. If you study these things you may well be less well paid, but you’ve probably have better general knowledge and a better understanding of people.

Thirdly, there are ‘non-subjects’. These include the likes of management, media studies and marketing communication.

Most of these subjects are relatively easy and enjoyable. In many cases you can save yourself a lot of time by reading the three best textbooks on these subjects. For most, that’s all you need to know.

If a subject is easy and fun, it’s probably a waste of time. Sadly academia has to some extent replaced the vinegar of scholarship with a facile balsamic glaze. Success in any worthwhile sphere is borne of sweat and tears. The good news is that, where the road is hard, the personal satisfaction is greater and usually, so is the salary package. Right now the highest paying undergraduate degree across the OECD is a Bachelor of Engineering.

I’ve studied all three categories and in the folly of my youth, mostly took ‘non-subjects’.

So take it from me; study arts or science, depending on your proclivities. Avoid ‘nonsubjects’ like the plague.

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Mehdi Sanssar

David Ramonteau

J’aime Le Bay Hawke’s Bay is New Zealand’s le Midi: the south of France.

There’s bohemian bonhomie here.

Entrepreneurship but long, languid lunches over which to discuss it.

Opportunity to enjoy the finer things in life, and plenty of time to do so with friends and family. Maybe it’s the weather. Or the landscape. Or a flight of fancy conjured up by my imagination.

Fuelling my Francophile fascination, I keep bumping into interesting, eloquent and talented French people living in the Bay and making that living in wine, chocolate, jewellery, furniture making, brocante (that’s French for ‘junk’ – sounds much better, right?!).

The French have landed and they’re a bunch of bon vivants with their joie de vivre and their je ne sais quoi.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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We are exotic Anissa Talbi Dobson is la petite chocolatiere behind Le Petite Chocolat.

She is our savant de chocolat, not just in quality or flavour combinations, but in the way she conducts her business – from ensuring ethics in every part of the supply chain to the inspired collaborations she ignites.

Much of what Anissa does is play. She takes her base product, which is boutique couverture shipped in from France and made from single origin cacao beans, then works her magic: adding flavours and textures.

“I’m not obsessed with eating chocolate,” she says. “It’s more the alchemy, the physics and, in a big way, people’s reaction to eating good

story by ~ jessica soutar barron photos by ~ sarah cates

chocolate. It brings so much happiness.”

Careful to ensure every person involved in making her finished product – 70 gram bars of pure heaven, in twenty flavours – gets a fair deal, Anissa is hypercritical of the mainstream chocolate industry, which she says is built on exploitation.

“Chocolate is a political food,” says Anissa. “I knew from the start if I was going to make chocolate it would be organic and fair trade. You can’t care for the beans if you don’t care for the people who grow them.”

Anissa arrived in 2009. It was coup de foudre and after a few trips home to France and a wedding (she married kiwi Joe Dobson in 2011) she set up shop making her chocolate from the kitchen at Te Awanga Estate winery.

“There’s lots of opportunities here because it’s still very new. France is an old country, everything’s been done before; but here things are exotic, and we are exotic within this environment.”

Collaboration and innovation are constant threads running through Anissa’s work.

So far collaborations have included a chocolate made with Clearview Estate dessert wine, another with Salvare dukkah, one with Hawthorne coffee, and a collaboration on packaging with artist Freeman White.

“There’s so many amazing people around who I want to work with and so many products I want to play with. If we can do something together then why not?”

Elsewhere David Ramonteau orders a short black and a pan au chocolat when I meet him at Ya Bon, the cute French bakery owned

by the cute French baker Moise Cerson (see, I told you they were everywhere).

David was born into winemaking: there’s vin in his veins. His family vineyard is in a traditional, orthodox winegrowing area and, as the eldest, David was expected to take over from his father. Instead he left, travelling the world as a wine consultant.

In 2000 he met fellow winemaker Kate Galloway and now lives in Havelock North. As well as making wine under the Alluviale label, together their enfant de l’amour is Dada Wines, a winemaker’s equivalent of the concept album; you can drink it but you won’t get it.

“With Dada I’ve tried to forget everything I’ve learnt about wine, and go back to basics. That’s what life is about: finding your uniqueness and sharing it.”

David says he benefits creatively from being based in Hawke’s Bay. “I get a lot from being here. There’s an amazing artists community, which is something I’d never have access to at home.”

“In France I didn’t have enough freedom to be myself; for people like me, growing up in a very strict culture, it’s hard to extricate yourself. I’m more free here, so New Zealand is very special,” explains David, who does admit there’s parental pressure to return home.

David describes his family home as being geographically similar to Hawke’s Bay with mountains and the sea. But attitude-wise the two places are far apart and David feels a kind of freedom of spirit living here.

“Globally this country is very advanced.

The light is very bright and it shines on the people.”

“People who come here, from elsewhere, have to forget about ‘Home’.

Anissa Talbi Dobson

J’aime Le Bay

Marion Courtille Parlez-vous Hawke’s Bay? For Anissa Hawke’s Bay is genereux (generous) From Marion: Luxuriante! (lush) Mehdi says it’s chaleureux (warm and comfortable) Francois calls it bon vivre (the good life) David thinks of Hawke’s Bay as ailleurs (somewhere else) “It’s used to describe exotic places people escape to. Hawke’s Bay is my ailleurs. It’s where I escaped and it’s a nice feeling. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

That gets rid of a lot of luggage. But personally I don’t think I know where home is for me anymore.”

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Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

A nice drive along a sunny beach Marion Courtille emails me from France where she’s on holiday over the summer. She trained as a cabinet maker in a very old, traditional art school in Paris, where she lived for ten years before moving to New Zealand to work for David Trubridge.

“I always wanted to do something that would reflect both my practical and creative sides. David is one of few designers who operates his own production workshop and encourages his staff to engage in research, development and manufacturing as intrinsic parts of the design process.”

Marion also makes her own line of jewellery with leather as the main material.

“I translate traditional methods of woodworking to leather. My objects are turned, carved, laminated and joined like wood to create tactile and innovative forms,” she explains.

I ask her about a particularly ‘French’ aesthetic that is permeating Hawke’s Bay. “I think we are all inspired by where we are from, what we grew up with, what we have been surrounded by; the richness of Europe’s cultures and traditions ... consciously or not.”

Making a home for herself here, Marion enjoys a strong sense of community she feels she didn’t have in France.

“Coming from an often stressful Parisian way of life, I really appreciate the softness of living in Hawke’s Bay. I swapped the métro for a nice drive along the sunny beach to go to work every morning.”

Like a bike I meet Mehdi Sanssar and Francois Guittenit in Mehdi’s tres chic design store, So Vintage.

Mehdi travels to France multiple times a year to bring back antique, often industrial, furniture and objects.

Francois is a cabinet maker who operates Le Workshop and works with Mehdi to make rustic European furniture.

Both Mehdi and Francois agree being in Hawke’s Bay gives them opportunities to enjoy much of what New Zealand as a whole has to offer.

“It’s a bit rural but there’s lots of activity. The climate is good, and there’s great food and wine,” says Francois.

Both Mehdi and Francois, have started their own businesses out of need rather than a particular entrepreneurial bent.

“There’s not a lot of work here, so what do you do? What are your options?

Do you work in a job you don’t like or do you do your own thing?” says Mehdi.

For Francois working for himself means having time to enjoy Hawke’s Bay and be with his children.

“In France they work hard for their money and they work long hours. Here, the surfing’s good, and the fishing, and it needs to be a balance between that and working,” he says.

Operating their own businesses is more possible here than in France, where entrepreneurship must contend with bureaucracy.

Francois explains: “France is very competitive and bureaucracy holds up everything; paperwork, documentation. It feels like a big machine and you don’t have enough energy to push it. But here it’s like a bike: You just jump on and go.”

CLEARVIEW ESTATE

WINERY & RESTAURANT

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The ‘Big A’ Debate by ~ adrienne pierce

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

28

The big amalgamation debate is pretty emotional and will continue on to the bitter end.

Anyone for the plan is branded as power crazy and wanting it to happen for their own evil ends. Not to mention the conspiracy theorists that see amalgamation as a plot by the Government to get more control of the regions.

So it’s difficult, pretty much impossible, to say let’s look at the facts … because for a huge number of people it depends on where the facts come from or who created them. Depending on where you sit in the debate, unless the ‘facts’ say what you want them to say, then they are rubbish!

The referendum will sort it out once and for all and each individual voter will have a say, so it’s important that we really try to keep it all in perspective – yeah right!

As a new Hastings District councillor I have been heartened on the few occasions that I have been in meetings with councillors from the other councils. Everyone is representing their people for all the right reasons because there is a huge amount of time required and there is certainly not much money or any glory to be had. In most cases there is a genuine intent to serve the people who voted for them and to work for the greater good of the region.

Jeff Whittaker is a Havelock businessman, ex-National MP, and the last remaining councillor from the old Havelock North Borough Council. He recalls it as being a very emotional and stressful time. He was vehemently opposed to merging Hastings and Havelock North in 1989, and according to a poll at the time so were 92% of Havelock North voters. He recalls that

there was much heated debate at the time around the notion that if amalgamation was to happen then it should be one unitary council including Hastings and Napier; he was in favour of this happening as were a number of fellow councillors.

As far back as 1963, the Havelock North News* warned that Havelock North and Taradale would become “the innocent victims of the Hastings/Napier ratrace” and “Until the civic administrators of both Napier and Hastings are prepared in all sincerity to work for the province as a whole instead of their own parochial interests, they should receive no encouragement in the pursuit of their bigoted policies of selfinterest.” Sound familiar?

Whether we like it or understand it, each ‘town’ or ‘village’ has a brand and it is those brands that need to be nurtured within the bigger entity. Both Havelock North and Taradale have managed to do this over the years and hold onto ‘who’ they are by keeping a central tight CBD and offering

a distinctive ‘lifestyle’ within the bigger city and region.

Havelock North and Taradale could be compared in the present debate to Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay. I think distance is the difference in the present situation and I don’t think the two smaller players should be in the new Hawke’s Bay Council. Lawrence Yule was strong on leaving them out at the beginning of the debate three years ago.

Why bully them into participating when the three main players need to get organised into a cohesive body? That may take a little time depending on who is voted onto the Hawke’s Bay Council and who the leader or mayor is of that entity.

There will be enough angst at the table without making the two smaller councils join under duress. Both mayors seem confident they can continue to operate as they do; how can anyone else who does not work within those Councils or communities argue the point?

The objective for me would be to get a consistent voice across the three urban councils and then have Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay join if the people of those areas can see a benefit. There are lots of ways to make this scenario work, especially if all the councils agree and add this to their submissions.

At least then we will have only two politicians – Mr Dalton and Mr Nash – reminding us all of the perceived negatives for Napier. I am optimistic, confident even, that there are a big number of Napier people who see the benefits of amalgamation and will vote accordingly. *Source: Havelock North, The History of a Village, by Mathew Wright.

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tim.co.nz

Board of Inquiry considers plans for Ruataniwha dam and Tukituki management

Making the Dam Call With the review underway at the hands of the Government-appointed Board of Inquiry (BOI) finishing in January, a relative hush has settled over the Regional Council’s proposed plan for managing the Tukituki catchment.

The BOI, having heard and read 27 days of evidence and submissions, will render its decision in February on the two matters before it – a Plan Change that will govern quality and use of the waters of the Tukituki, and the separate bur interrelated proposal to build a water storage scheme in Central Hawke’s Bay. The BOI has the final word on the Plan Change; its decision can only be appealed on points of law. The farmers and recreational users of the Tukituki will need to live with whatever regime the Board dictates. That regime will include standards for water quality, minimum flows intended to protect aquatic habitat, a water allocation scheme, and attendant monitoring and mitigation conditions.

How well the BOI’s decisions satisfy the contending parties and in fact meet stated objectives is the question of the day.

The BOI’s role with regard to the proposed Ruataniwha dam is critical, but not determinative. The BOI will effectively need to decide whether, given the new requirements it is installing in its Plan Change, the proposed water storage scheme can indeed operate within those parameters.

With all parties acknowledging that a dam providing additional irrigation capacity would lead to intensified farming in CHB, the issue is how much adverse environmental impact that intensification will have (along with additional effects of blocking the natural flow of the Makaroro River and inundating 372 hectares of land, including 122 hectares of ecologically significant habitat, to create a seven kilometre long reservoir).

Considering those issues, the BOI will decide whether to award consents to the Regional Council’s investment company, HBRIC, to build the dam.

At that point, if consents are granted, the decision whether to proceed with the project or not passes back to the newlyelected Regional Council.

The Regional Council is committed

to a comprehensive review process that includes, in addition to weighing the analysis of the BOI: 1. An independent peer review of the business case and underlying economic assumptions for the water storage scheme; 2. An evaluation of the potential impacts of the investment on Council’s future balance sheet, operating position and rates; 3. Identifying and evaluating options for alternative investment of the funds presently earmarked for the dam, in view of the HBRC’s strategic objectives; 4. And a special public consultation process, lasting at least four weeks.

Completing these steps is likely to push any final Regional Council decision on the dam into April or May. As noted earlier, the effects of farming intensification on the environment, and whether those effects can or will be effectively mitigated, is at the heart of deciding to build the proposed Ruataniwha dam.

This issue is addressed exceptionally well in the article that follows by Mike Joy, senior lecturer in environmental science/ ecology at Massey University.

dam update

Damned if you do by ~ mike joy More water storage-irrigation schemes are planned for many parts of New Zealand.

On the face of it, increased agricultural production sounds like a great idea, bringing a much needed boost for the economy and even some protection from climate change impacts.

But is it really that simple, and who are the winners and losers?

There is incontrovertible and stark evidence that the progression from largescale irrigation to farming intensification (usually dairy conversion) gives rise to increased environmental degradation.

Notwithstanding ratepayer and taxpayer subsidies, the huge capital investment required for irrigation infrastructure necessitates conversion to more intense and inevitably less sustainable forms of farming.

This progression creates gains for a few Continued on Page 32

»

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dam update

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entrepreneurs, some increase in production, but not necessarily profit, and does not take into account the losses for many. There are gains for the developers, the suppliers of infrastructure, and capital gains for the existing landowners, but the biggest winners by far are the financiers. More investment for infrastructure and the resulting increased land prices lift farm indebtedness and given that New Zealand farmers are already among the world’s most indebted, that is the last thing we need.

The environmental issues arising from irrigation fall into two broad categories: first the local ecological impacts of a dam on the waterway, and second, the ensuing impacts arising from the obligatory intensification. The water used for irrigation eventually ends up, laden with nutrients, in either groundwater or back into the river downstream causing human and ecological health issues.

On top of the freshwater impacts are intensification impacts on the land, with heavy metal (cadmium) contamination of soil from the overuse of fertilisers and soil compaction from high stocking rates.

Of the many ecological effects of the dam, one example is the blocking of native fish migration both up and down stream; with two thirds of our native fish listed as threatened we are already among the world’s worst. So every dam becomes yet another blow to freshwater biodiversity.

Then there is the lake formed by the dam; it blocks the downstream movement of sediment, which builds up behind the dam, and scours out the riverbed downstream.

This build-up of sediment can make these lakes short-lived. For example, the Patea dam built in 1984 had lost half its volume by 2010 through sediment infilling, so in another few decades will be virtually useless.

The lakes provide very poor habitat for most of our native flora and fauna because the unnatural ramping up and down of levels makes the shoreline virtually uninhabitable and prone to erosion. The claims made by irrigation promoters of improvement in habitat quality or water quality downstream are completely baseless.

The effects of irrigation intensification on human health are already becoming obvious in Canterbury. The medical officer of health there called the rising nitrate levels in groundwater a ticking time bomb, as many bores already exceed nitrate limits, putting babies’ lives at risk. What’s more, there are considerable lag times for nitrate build-up in groundwater, so we are only just beginning to see the effects of problems we created perhaps 20 to 30 years ago.

To give some economic context to the nitrogen health issue; a high-producing Canterbury dairy farm under irrigation

"... intensification means more reliance on external, unsustainable inputs like fertiliser from the Middle East and palm kernel." leaches 130 kilograms of nitrogen for every hectare, every year. Just one kilogram of nitrogen will pollute just over 88 cubic metres of water from pure to the level where it is undrinkable. A typical irrigated farm of 400 hectares will thus pollute 4.6 million cubic metres of water every year.

To remove that leached nitrate to make it drinkable again will cost somewhere between 50 cents and one dollar per cubic metre. So for that polluted water from a single large farm to be made safe for human consumption would cost at least two million dollars, many times more than the profit on the farm to pollute it.

Federated farmers have been strident in claiming the advantages of water storage to mitigate climate change impacts. But this argument is only credible if the water is actually reserved solely for a drought, the reality is that, as described above, a dam just drives more intensification, so that when the drought inevitably comes even more animals and farms are at risk.

In the end, the vast majority of New Zealanders are worse off, losing the very values that once made this country unique – clean, safe water to drink and swim in and clean, safe food.

The big question then becomes: Is irrigation and farming intensification better for the country? The environmental record says a clear no; the economic question has never been answered because there has never been an honest evaluation of the real costs.

Yet another problem is that intensification means more reliance on external, unsustainable inputs like fertiliser from the Middle East and palm kernel from Asia.

We are running up a huge economic and environmental debt for dubious worth of supplying the world with the lowest value milk products.

Ultimately, large-scale irrigation and agricultural intensification is a social justice issue; cultural, aesthetic and ecological wealth is being usurped by a small sector of society at the cost to all New Zealanders.

We can easily lead the world in producing sustainable safe clean food, we must change and make that the norm and stop this race to the bottom.

[Editor’s Note: This column first ran in the DomPost, 29 November, then-titled: 'Intensification benefits untrue'.]

The Cape Coast: Clifton, Te Awanga, Haumoana

going coastaL What is it with the coast? Why is it some people just end up ‘going coastal’? Some primeval urge to be near the sea? The sound of waves bouncing around in our unconscious, echoes of primeval origins. by ~ Anthony Vile

tim.co.nz

going coastal

“…the Indian Boy Tiata, Tupia’s servant, being over the side, they seized hold of him, pulld him into the boat and endeavourd to carry him off, this obliged us to fire upon them which gave the Boy an opportunity to jump over board and we brought the Ship too, lower'd a boat into the Water and took him up unhurt. Two or Three paid for this daring attempt with the loss of their lives and many more would have suffered had it been for fear of killing the boy—. This affair occation'd my giveing this point of Land the name of Cape Kidnappers: it is remarkable on account of two white rocks in form of Hay Stacks Standing very near it: on each side of the Cape are tollerable high white steep clifts.

The specific sound of the Te Awanga surf amplified by the rolling shingle stuck on rinse cycle tapping out an endless rhythm, white noise of the most natural kind. It creates an amplified sense of place.

The southern-most curve of Te Matau O Mäui – The hook of Mäui – is named Cape Kidnappers but could equally have been named ‘Cape Rescue’ depending on which side of the story you sit. Perhaps a metaphor for the present situation.

Today, the Cape Coast refers to the stretch of coastline extending from Haumoana to Clifton. A unique place, resplendent with natural beauty, cemented in the history of Aotearoa not only by the first European explorers, but by Mäui himself, his hook now a permanent feature defining the geography of the bay. The Cape Coast rich in heritage of national significance no doubt.

Those first to occupy the land, the fauna of prehistory, came from the sky, the birds that feature strongly in the iconography of the place and the coast story. The infamous gannets continue to journey here for a yearly stopover, attracting tourist dollars along with them.

The second wave of occupants were human, settling in Te Awanga overlooking the Maraetotara river and the sea, safe in elevation. Occupation at Tiromoana Pa has been carbon dated as far back as the 11th century, one of the earliest identified settlements in the country.

The Cape Coast is now home to a vibrant, diverse, creative community who for whatever reasons have chosen to domicile on this thin strip of dirt.

A strip of dirt much maligned and misunderstood by bureaucrats, battered by the elements, loved by locals, tourists, foodies, explorers and day-trippers … an asset to the region.

In a certain sense there is a great freedom in being a coast dweller …

Black Bridge demarking the point of no return. Freedom to unwind on a daily basis, to wander the shoreline, to collect treasures, encouraging a child-like freedom to dream.

So what is the collective dream for the coast? Is there one? Does it need one? Is the place fine just how it is, or could there be improvements? If so, what needs to happen and who is steering the waka?

Continued on Page 36

»

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

The line between land and sea remains tenuous at best. At times welcoming, at others plain frightening … think Anzac Cove or media footage of the Japanese tsunami.

The foreshore is the place where life emerged from a fermenting stew of primordial soup, where cultures collided, where the Queen’s chain rattles. The horizon is an omnipresent temptation to travel further, to reach beyond, but also a reminder that the big one may not be so far away. It’s part of the Kiwi psyche. Aaah! Life at the coast … salty, noisy, prehistoric.

When moving to Hawke’s Bay three years ago it seemed so obvious. Post-global financial meltdown, urbanity didn’t hold too much appeal measured against an option at the seaside. Why didn’t everyone else do it? They do on the Gold Coast. Was there some hidden catch?

The specific sound of the Te Awanga surf amplified by the rolling shingle stuck on rinse cycle tapping out an endless rhythm, white noise of the most natural kind. It creates an amplified sense of place.

Research shows that the sound of waves alters wave patterns in the brain, lulling you into a deeply relaxed state. Relaxing in this way can help rejuvenate the mind and body.

Supporting the sound, the sea air is full of negative hydrogen ions, charged particles that improve our ability to absorb oxygen by neutralizing damaging free radicals (positive ions). These negative ions can also balance levels of serotonin, the feel good hormone, making us less prone to anxiety … hence the popularity of seaside holidays and coastal occupation.

A feeling perhaps shared by the venerable James Cook, who visiting what he came to name as Cape Kidnappers on 15th October 1769 was moved to write in his diary the following account:

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going coastal

tim.co.nz

In the coastal hazard zone

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

36

The coast in a word: dynamic In reality the Cape Coast is a truly unique piece of NZ landscape and culture that deserves a genuine commitment from those in positions of public trust bestowed with the responsibility of kaitiakitanga. Commitment to creating solutions to some endemic problems in order that confidence and investment in the area can be reignited.

The coast in one word is dynamic. Not just the physical nature of the landscape and ecology, but the people who have been attracted to life on the edge, sea level rise be damned, a glass of blush in hand, a crayfish passed over a fence, just don’t drop in on my wave and we’ll all get along.

The floating trailer is a unique invention; its cultural value needs to be celebrated. It is representative of the type of character who lives on the coast and the type of solutions that can be found for unique problems. The old-school Burt Munroe approach to getting things done.

Just do it, make it work and get on with it.

I don’t know how many reports have been commissioned over the years to address coastal issues. The coast is a dynamic living ecology. It is a natural system that is in perpetual state of flux forever looking to achieve balance. As such, it is as much a part of the rivers that feed the Bay as it is a part of the ocean ecology and its cycles of tides and weather.

It bridges the worlds of land and sea and as such supports life in a thin precarious strip.

A report commissioned by the Regional Council, to be released to the public in January, confirming heightened expectations of sea level rise, will highlight the risks involved in not proactively managing the coastal environment in a holistic fashion.

One elephant in the room when it comes to coastal erosion is the quarrying of shingle at Awatoto. The report highlights the significant impact of this activity on the southern coast. Winstone Aggregates has secured resource consents for gravel extraction till 2017.

This will help satisfy the annual demand of every New Zealander for eight tonnes of aggregates. The issue of gravel extraction has been skirted around in other reports over the years, but it seems only natural that if you remove 30,000 cubic metres of shingle from Awatoto, maybe another 30,000 cubic metres might want to fill that hole!

Walk on Water (WOW) chairperson Ann Redstone asks why HBRC has just allowed Awatoto to roll over its consent for extraction to 2017, “when it knew eight years ago this and heavy river extraction was impacting the Haumoana coastline?”

Perhaps what is needed for the coast is a regional paradigm shift. Professor Paul Komar, professor emeritus from the ocean sciences college of Oregon State University, who as a HBRC consultant has studied our coast more than most, offers one: “Putting a stop to extraction would mean the coast would stabilise the gravel beaches south of Napier as far as Haumoana … The beach is the buffer. You want as strong a buffer as possible between you and the rising sea levels. It just makes sense not to extract gravel from the sand and beaches."

If the aggressive mining of the coastal shingle is partly responsible for coastal erosion on the Cape Coast, then what of the plans for the Ruataniwha dam? The

rivers cannot be separated from the ecology of the coast. They are one and the same.

The sooner the paradigm shifts to embrace a whole system approach to environmental management, the sooner we can start emptying those tourists’ pockets of their cash. It has to be an easier way of milking foreign currency than connecting Betsy to the milking machine every morning and evening.

Turning worst case into best New Zealand has 14,000 kilometres of coastline, the tenth-longest in the world. Hawke’s Bay has 353 kilometres.

There is no doubt that with sea level rise imminent, coastal management is not only a regional issue, but a national imperative. With one metre of sea level rise now forecast by 2100, we will need some significant Burt Munroe-style innovation. There is no time like the present.

The New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) directs district and regional councils on how to manage the coast in their jurisdiction. That policy, as excerpted below, sets the stage for how local and regional government has missed the mark historically when it comes to delivery of what these bodies are charged with … guardianship.

NZCPS Policy 15: Natural features and natural landscapes To protect the natural features and natural landscapes (including seascapes) of the coastal environment from inappropriate subdivision, use, and development: Recognise that tangata whenua have traditional and continuing cultural relationships with areas of the coastal environment, including places where they have lived and fished for generations.

A long conversation with Darkie (Mick) Unahi, 83-year-old kaumatua from Matahiwi Marae, and Jacob Scott, both long-term residents of Haumoana with whänau connections back generations, brings alive the richness and complexity of the history of the Haumoana/Te Awanga area. The lack of sympathy for local knowledge regarding management of the environment over the years is astounding. Who better to contribute to the understanding of the ecology than those who have witnessed it over a lifetime, in conjunction with inherited stories stretching generations.

“The river was our supermarket. We didn’t need to go into the shops. The fish we caught fed Päkehä families as well as Mäori,” says Darkie Unahi.

Continued on Page 38

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going coastal

How do the polticians see it?

Regional Councillor Peter Beaven

Hastings Councillor Rod Heaps

NZCPS Policy 27: Strategies for protecting significant existing development from coastal hazard risk …recognizing that hard protection structures may be the only practical means to protect existing infrastructure of national or regional importance, to sustain the potential of built physical resources to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations…

The Regional Council and the Hastings District Council also have their own coastal policies – the Hawke’s Bay Regional Coastal Environment Plan and the Coastal Environment Strategy, respectively.

“Hastings District has an extensive coastline covering some 78 kilometres. The Coastal Environment contains a complex mix of natural and built features, as well as significant cultural, heritage and recreational values, which the Hastings community needs to manage in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.”

The coastline needs to be preserved; bottom line, it is too important to take a ‘do nothing’ or ‘wait and see’ approach.

We can’t get fixated on the preservation of a few houses only, but need to be looking at the big picture even beyond Haumoana, Te Awanga, Clifton to include the whole coastline of the Bay.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

38

There is immediacy to this with new information coming in through revision to the Komar report. Most importantly, we need to preserve the road access that is the lifeline for the coastal community as well as the tourism opportunities that the road opens up. There is an opportunity by being proactive that we don’t want too miss.

We need to be taking a ‘whole of coast’ view and that means understanding the effect of gravel extraction at Awatoto and other locations as well as understanding the effect of the dam proposal on gravel dispersal via the Tukituki. It may mean quarrying of river stone is halted in order to stop down-stream effects.

HBRC and HDC need to be working together with the community to create that strategic plan. for the area.

The issue most in need of resolution is coastal erosion. We are investing in things like the place-based plan, but without nailing the coastal erosion issue it might be for nought.

It really is a time to put a positive spin on this. Processes have been caught in a negativity … I’m not sure from where.

With new blood in the Regional Council and new eyes hopefully we can achieve positive outcomes.

The engineering of groynes has been shown to work; the science says if we don’t do anything the risks associated with global warming will be amplified.

If the science says stop the gravel extraction that’s what we need to do.

There has been a recent change of tide at the Hastings District Council as regards dealing with the coast in a more positive manner and I am happy about that.

I stand behind the Te Awanga community when it comes to development. There was an overwhelming outcry against it and that needs to be listened to.

We are lucky to have in Hawke’s Bay a beautiful, enchanting landscape. The definition of landscape has come to include also culture. The sustainability of the culture of the coast is as vital as the landscape itself; the two cannot be separated. We are also lucky to have a district policy regarding ‘landscapes of significance’; the Cape Coast is highlighted as one. Significant not just because of the natural beauty, but for cultural reasons as well.

The imperative of any coastal protection policy is then one of cultural protection as well as land. Land is more tangible and easier to put a number on; culture is more difficult, yet the culture that the coast supports is readily evident on any day when the weather and the tides are cooperating. Surfing, fishing, kai gathering, beach fires, playing cricket, riding quad bikes, horses, cycles and motorcycles, or just going for a walk.

But sadly, instead of being seen as a natural regional playground, the Haumoana to Clifton coast is used in a university-level geography class as an illustration of how things can go horribly wrong with process. If progress is to be made, there needs to be a breakthrough in what seems to have become a stalemate. Meetings being undertaken for the community planning process have not been well attended; perhaps something tantamount to coast issue and consultation burnout is occurring. Just as the sea cannot breach a well-engineered wall, the local community has not over the years surmounted the formidable council decision-making processes.

going coastal

tim.co.nz

Who hasn't enjoyed the Clifton Cafe?

“The coastline needs to be preserved; bottom line, it is too important to take a ‘do nothing’ or ‘wait and see’ approach. We can’t get fixated on the preservation of a few houses only, but need to be looking at the big picture.” peter beaven

need to be resolved on the Cape Coast.

Now is an opportunity for an integrated, inclusive push with a ‘Yes, we can!’ approach to getting things done.

Much planning is in process, with many inter-related issues and activities on the table:

Perfect opportunity The coastal management, planning and policy space is very busy on the Cape Coast at the minute.

Community plans are being authored; subdivision and development plans refined. There seems to be a perfect storm of opportunity brewing that may provide the catalyst to put aside any bad blood that has been generated over the years and deal once and for all proactively and collaboratively with the key issues that

• The ongoing debate over coastal erosion, gravel extraction, and the groynes.

• The Ruataniwha dam and potential effect on the bay of Tukituki River flows and health.

• The Hastings District Plan review proposing rubber-stamping areas for development both in Te Awanga and Haumoana.

• Master plans and design controls required for proposed development areas.

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The question is now how to reinvent the process as an example of best case, not worst. The value of intergenerational local knowledge about a place cannot be underestimated. Stories, common sense and tested solutions are where discussions need to start.

• The HDC community plan currently being authored as a non-statutory guide to frame community led actions and projects, including closer relationships with Matahiwi Marae and an art and heritage trail along the cycle track.

• Work to preserve road access to Clifton Motor Camp and the boat ramp.

• The possibility of a managed retreat or relocation of the Clifton camp to a nearby location.

• Ongoing resilience of septic tank systems as waste management.

• Continued work on the National Cycleway running through the area.

• Consistent spectacular output from local vineyards and associated restaurants.

• Ongoing coastal access to Cape Kidnappers itself and the gannet colony.

• The fabulous species restoration work at the Cape Sanctuary project.

• The Clifton Country Cricket Club planting of natives at their home turf and building impressive community spirit in the hills behind Te Awanga.

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going coastal

Coastal dreaming What is the collective dream for the coast? Walk on Water (WOW) and the Cape Coast Community Group (CCCG), with wide community support, in 2010 created a strategic vision for the coast.

The document was used as a submission to the Hastings Council’s Long Term Plan. It included a rebranding of Haumoana, Te Awanga, Clifton and Cape Kidnappers under the descriptive term ‘The Cape Coast – Giving Hawke’s Bay an Edge’.

WOW has worked tirelessly to develop the profile for the community, as well as solutions to the biggest elephant in the room – coastal erosion and hard engineering as an effective and economic solution. WOW’s Ann Redstone says the group has got the cost down from “ridiculous” estimates of up to $40 million to around $8 million, including a $4 million contribution from Hastings District Council as a trade-off for not having to re-route access and replace infrastructure.

The basic premise of the WOW group needs to be the basis of further action:

Bay coastal property the influence of Coastal Hazard Zones potential effects on property rights.” , according to the HBRC coastal value report.

The tide comes in and goes out.

The gentle waves lull us into a sense of security. The inevitable consequences of sea level rise and changing weather patterns parked out of mind for now.

Let’s hope that between now and the next ‘event’ a positive pathway for the coastal community and the authorities to work through their differences is charted.

Ann Redstone “One of the factors that can influence price is a perception that a property is affected by a stigma, in the case of Hawke’s

Anthony Vile is Director at Urban Futures Research Lab, a multidisciplinary urban think tank and design studio providing leading edge solutions to issues of planning, sustainability and resilience in architecture, urbanism, and design. www.ufrl.co.nz

A pain in the arse for councils?

The Cape Coast is a regional recreational asset, used by people from all across Hawke’s Bay and is a prime visitor location. It has a rich and colourful past steeped in Maori and European history and an amazing future as a centre for tourism, hospitality and the creative arts if it is given the chance to show its true potential.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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The key words are ‘regional’ and ‘potential’. The WOW document maintains its legitimacy and thankfully now can be incorporated into the community planning process. For WOW spokesman Keith Newman, the biggest issue is coastal protection, including WOW’s well-developed plan for a groynefield protecting the area from Cape View Corner to the Tukituki river mouth. The key to achieving this is recognition of the regional value and importance of the coast.

Meanwhile, there has been no real major storm event since Easter 2010 and thus no real media coverage of life out here on the edge. Summer is upon us with long enjoyable days by, in or on the sea. The boat ramp is open again and kai stocks have been replenished.

Increasing numbers of bikers roll past on a weekly basis. Properties continue to come on the market and sell. Insurance companies are still dubious about some high-risk properties on the wrong side of the invisible lines demarking the coastal hazard zones.

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Or a regional recreational asset?

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It’s time to reexamine what we put on our soil by ~ John Barnes, managing director, Fertiliser New Zealand

We seem to have survived the recent spate of food safety scandals with most of our markets intact.

But that shouldn’t make us complacent, for our reputation as the producer of safe, healthy food has taken a hit, and it’s inevitable our exports will come under ever more intense international scrutiny as a result of these recent food scandals.

Testing methods to see whether there are illegal residues in food have become increasingly sophisticated, and they

can now pick up tiny residues in food, as we found last year when residues of dicyandiamide (DCD) were found in Fonterra milk, during random testing.

DCD was only ever used by around 5% of farmers. But when DCD residues were detected in our milk supply, the reputation of all dairy farmers was on the line, and so were our export markets.

So we are going to have to be ever more vigilant about our food exports, as our competitors will seize on the discovery of even the tiniest residue in food exports, and use it to undermine our reputation and brand.

This is a real concern, as city-dwelling consumers are becoming ever more interested in the way food has been produced, and will react swiftly to any food contamination scare. Consumers want to feel good about what they are eating, and reassured that food is safe and has been produced in a way that doesn’t harm the environment. These expectations put even more pressure on farmers to produce safe, contaminantfree food.

Need to re-think farming practices All these converging trends suggest we need to re-think some of our conventional farming practices, and look for more sustainable and biological methods of farming that won’t result in chemical residues in food.

We also need to examine everything we put on our soil, and seek to reduce our chemical inputs into farming as much as possible.

In particular, we need to question the wisdom of continuously applying large amounts of superphosphate fertiliser to boost pasture growth – something that

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is regarded as ‘standard practice’ on most farms.

For there is a real risk, if we continue to pour more and more superphosphate onto our farms, that residues of nitrogen will end up in food.

The discovery of illegally high nitrate residues in milk would be a blow for our industry and for our reputation as producers of safe food. So I believe the time has come to look for other ways of boosting soil productivity that don’t rely on the constant use of superphosphate fertilisers.

There are other well proven, less expensive and more sustainable ways of boosting soil productivity that dramatically reduce the need for synthetic urea. And they can get the same productivity outcome.

Farmers can create a nitrogen cycle within their farming systems, by natural methods such as boosting the microbiology of the soil, and using the good old earthworm, which provides nitrogen for free – as much as five tonnes of nitrogen per hectare a year. A healthy, balanced, productive soil should contain billions of microorganisms such as earthworms and fungi and bacteria, which help to break down organic matter and liberate nitrogen

and other minerals from the soil. Clover also produces nitrogen in soils. In fact, 20% clover pasture will give farmers around 60 kilograms of nitrogen a year for free.

Less cost, less pollution These methods could save on expensive inputs and add many thousands of dollars to farmers’ bottom lines. For constantly applying synthetic fertilisers to soils is an expensive practice, as nitrogen needs to be applied every few weeks to boost pasture growth, and veterinary products are often necessary as well, to sort out animal health problems such as bloat or grass staggers.

Applying synthetic fertiliser is polluting as well, as around 30% of fertiliser will leach into groundwater and surrounding waterways, which is wasteful as well as polluting. Using alternative methods of boosting soil productivity could also help solve the problem of nitrogen pollution of our rivers and streams, which is becoming more serious by the year.

For all of these reasons, I believe the time has come for a debate about some of our farming practices, and ways of reducing our reliance on chemical inputs. As a stakeholder in agriculture, I look forward to participating in that debate.

A healthy, balanced, productive soil should contain billions of microorganisms such as earthworms and fungi and bacteria, which help to break down organic matter and liberate nitrogen and other minerals from the soil.

John Barnes

FERTILISER FACTOIDS New Zealand’s pastoral farmers spend $1.5 billion annually on fertiliser

The average sheep & beef farmer spends about $60,000 on fertiliser New Zealand fertiliser use (urea) has increased 600% since 1990

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At One With the Natural World by ~ DAVID TRUBRIDGE

In December, Hastings District Council announced its Landmarks Awards at a grand celebration in the Opera House.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Landmarks is the vision of the late Hastings mayor, Jeremy Dwyer.

He wanted to encourage art and beautification in the city, to instil a deeper sense of pride and place, as he had seen in some overseas cities. Two years ago, the awards were a small event in the Shakespeare Room, so they have already come a long way, and Jeremy would be proud.

This is not a review of the event, but rather some personal reactions to it.

As an observer and also a participant, it was a revealing experience for me to see the two aspects of our culture, Mäori and Päkehä, in action alongside each other. For the most part we did it the Päkehä way, with lots of hype, musical jingles and commercialism.

Part of the vision of Landmarks, and one of its vital aspects, is getting business to become involved by supporting the

initiative. But this is the awards night, the time for the creative people to be honoured. I believe that it is not the time or place for companies to promote themselves, because it only becomes a crass intrusion. As long as the names of the sponsors are given good exposure, that is enough.

I have been to other similar awards such as the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards, and none of the considerable number of sponsors get up and speak. This would shift the balance away from creativity and culture, which are nourishing. We get enough of the superficial world of consumerism everywhere else.

I was asked to be the guest speaker in a break in the awards. It was, in essence, similar to the article I wrote recently for BayBuzz about the importance of art and how it has been a part of human culture throughout our evolution as humans. It was there while we were struggling desperately to survive an ice age thousands of years ago, and we have done it ever since; it must be important.

I also showed how I believe art is closely tied up with our connection to nature and why that is so relevant now, when nature is increasingly under stress from human activities.

Ngā Pou o Heretaunga The final Jeremy Dwyer Supreme Award went to Ngä Pou o Heretaunga which is the collection of 18 pou carvings that stand outside the Hastings City Art Gallery.

No award was more appropriate or more richly deserved.

This was a visionary initiative, driven

by Tama Huata of Waipatu, who formed the coordinating group Ngä Marae o Heretaunga. Funding came from the Hastings District Council, mostly from a bequest fund, with additional cash raised

by Tama. Each of the local participating marae was asked to carve a pou to represent one of their ancestors. They chose their own carver and were given totara logs supplied by Tuhoi from the Ureweras. Now the carvings stand together under the trees in central Hastings, tall silent presences of authority and grace. Once forgotten pathways that criss-crossed Heretaunga plains are remembered by the figures as they face back down these foot-worn links to their marae.

All the carvers gathered on the stage to receive the award. Now the evening came alive. Tama gave a speech in te reo honouring the artists. Kahurangi Mäori Dance Theatre were also part of the occasion. First a group of women came on

Eighteen Pou now grace Hastings’ civic centre

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“... all over the globe indigenous cultures have respect and a sense of oneness with the natural world, which they see literally as ‘mother nature’. She cares for us as much as we must care for her – like all mothers.” giving force of nature close to our hearts is vital for our existence.

A further demonstration of caring for the future was given when the Landmarks Landscaping Award was announced.

The winners were another Mäori group: Kohupatiki Marae for their Operation Pätiki. They are replanting the banks of Clive River (which they call the Ngaruroro, as it was before being diverted). The aim is not just to have more trees and flax, but ultimately to improve the river’s water quality and to bring back fish such as pätiki, the black flounder that used to be plentiful here … and even the kahawai that used to swim up as far as Whakatu.

The proceedings were opened and closed by prayers. I would argue that Christianity has no more place here than commercialism, but the gentle, softly spoken Mäori words spared me from hearing religious platitudes, and added a ritual bracketing to an important occasion.

Western culture seems hell-bent on shopping itself to extinction, and maybe our only hope for a better future lies in cultures such as Mäori, whose rituals are intrinsically tied up with caring for the land.

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stage to sing the waiata ‘E Pari Ra’. The audience was full of many of the artists’ whänau who knew the words and joined in. This was deeply moving and committed singing with an enduring resonance and relevance. Finally a group of men, also from Kahurangi, performed the powerful haka ‘Tika Tonu’ which projected out into every corner of the Opera House.

Contrast of cultures The contrast of the two cultures could not have been greater. It exposed the superficiality of commercial culture and its lack of enrichment to our lives, while demonstrating the poignant and relevant sense of ritual embedded in Mäori culture. But it goes further than that, because there is a reason for the ritual. As I pointed out in my speech, all over the globe indigenous cultures have respect and a sense of oneness with the natural world, which they see literally as ‘mother nature’. She cares for us as much as we must care for her – like all mothers.

There is no word in English that translates rãhui. Instead we have to use a made-up combination – like ‘to put in place a temporary ritual prohibition, closed season, to ban …’ – to preserve vital resources. This is no coincidence.

Western commercialism sees the land as a resource to be exploited. Colonialists and missionaries, working hand in hand, eradicated the inconveniently egalitarian customs and stories of indigenous peoples in order to make resource extraction easier.

So today, as our populations continue to grow, a healthy future for us and the planet is threatened by unrestricted commercial exploitation. More and more we need the sensitivities and caring that are often found in indigenous cultures, and which are expressed through their art. If art helped us survive the crisis of an ice age, it can help us survive the crises of today such as global warming and polluted nature.

Western art is too often incestuous, only about itself and driven by commercialism, like so much of western culture. We have been through a period of idolising consumerism, but the zeitgeist is shifting towards an awareness that holding the life-

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Teaching Teachers by ~ claire hague, EIT Deputy Chief Executive

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can’t teach, teach teaching.”

So began An industry of mediocrity, a recent article in the New York Times about the current state of teacher training in the USA. It took me back some years – 30 to be precise. My first experience in charge of a classroom was at the age of 21. I was in my honours year at Victoria University in Wellington.

Having decided at some stage during my Bachelor of Arts programme that I wanted to be a secondary school teacher, I took up a government scholarship.

In those days it helped to pay our way through university and into a one year post-graduate teacher training programme in Auckland or Christchurch. A condition of that scholarship was to undertake a week of classroom observation at a secondary school in Wellington, presumably to check that I knew what I was letting myself in for.

In the old days I was sent to Onslow College for the week. It was then a large co-educational school with generally highly motivated

students and a liberal approach to education that included no uniform – relatively rare even today. Against regulations I was left in sole charge of a music class on my last day there – the relieving teacher obviously wanted a break.

I had one evening’s notice to prepare something – and remember at that stage I hadn’t even started teacher training – and so there I was, at age 21, with 50 minutes to fill with a class of kids only a few years younger than me. I came from a teaching family though – how hard could this be?

The first 30 minutes went well – I kept them busy and the class hated their relieving teacher so I briefly benefited from a honeymoon period. The next ten minutes were harder – I had no idea how to time a lesson so I basically ran out of work for them. Ten minutes before the bell, I ran out of ideas and in desperation told them “do anything you like, as long as it’s quiet.” That was my mistake. One of the boys at the back put his hand up with a sly grin on his face. “Please miss!” he said.

The rest of the class waited in anticipation.

“Yes?” I asked. “If we’re allowed to do anything we like as long as it’s quiet, can I have a wank?”

Ten years later I would have batted that question away effortlessly and with enough wit for both parties to emerge unscathed

from the moment. At 21, I had absolutely no idea how to respond and stood gaping while the class erupted around me. It was a memorable welcome to the occasionally bizarre world of teaching.

My actual teacher training year was much better, but still far from ideal. In response to some flak about trainees having far too little to do, the Auckland College of Education where I spent my post-graduate year upped the theory workload with a ridiculous number of weekly assignments that kept us busy.

Unfortunately, classroom practice stayed the same – three blocks of time at three different schools where we were paired up with staff who looked after us and gave us opportunities to teach, sometimes observed and sometimes on our own.

I’m forever grateful to those people, some of whom did a fantastic job mentoring me on top of being incredibly busy themselves.

But at four weeks each, these practicum experiences did little to prepare us for the real world of the classroom because of the small amount of time that we actually spent in the teacher role.

So in hindsight, the title of the New York Times article – An industry of mediocrity – is probably not far off the mark. That article focuses on the current state of teacher education in America, noting that the

monopoly previously held by universities in training teachers is now under threat from a new model being delivered by nonuniversity organisations.

The leaders of this model are turning the teacher education world on its head by focusing on a number of areas to improve teacher capability in the States.

These include selecting only the best and brightest as trainees; introducing long periods (in some cases up to a full year) of classroom practice for the trainees, with ‘master’ teachers instructing, modelling and supporting; and three years of postgraduate mentoring in the classroom.

with EIT to deliver the programme. Next year seven more will join. Interest in the programme is high, with applications being received from throughout New Zealand as well as Hawke’s Bay. An intake of 35 new trainees is expected in 2014.

Local principals have described the degree as an outstanding opportunity for Hawke’s Bay, which “sets the platform for other training institutions.” They see that linking trainees to host schools for the full year, with close support from EIT supervisors and teachers, is a model that should produce quality new teachers for the profession … and the emphasis on putting theory into practice is the key to that improvement.

So primary teacher training seems to be in good heart in Hawke’s Bay. As always – the key will be the availability

of jobs at the end, but the active partnership with local schools makes regional employment more likely, and advice from our local principals suggests the skills gained by the trainees in this practice-based degree should generate a competitive edge in the wider national job market.

As I discovered at Onslow College in 1983, teaching isn’t for the faint-hearted, and mediocrity should have no place in the teacher training world. Our kids, with the challenges many of them face, deserve only the best teachers trained by highly effective people and programmes.

If the results for our children show clearly the benefits of this new approach, I look forward to seeing practice-based teacher education continue to flourish here in Hawke’s Bay.

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EIT steps up The good news is, Hawke’s Bay is already onto this.

After Massey withdrew its face-toface primary teaching programme from Hawke’s Bay, EIT responded to community demand by launching New Zealand’s first undergraduate practicebased degree in 2013, the first Institute of Technology to deliver a Bachelor of Teaching (Primary).

The impetus for a Hawke’s Bay-based degree came from four local principals, who approached EIT with the proposal.

Widespread consultation with the sector, iwi and Pacific groups followed.

Twenty-nine trainee teachers are enrolled in the first intake for the fulltime three-year programme, which is modelled on best practice research from New Zealand and overseas. The students spend two days a week, every week, at designated schools in Napier, Hastings and Havelock North and two days at EIT. They also undertake school-based block practicums.

In 2013 six local schools partnered

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THE BEST YEARS OF

OUR LIVES by ~ K AY BAZZARD

Lisa Gray

Belly dancing for fitness at Bellizone

Exercise: Yes, we have to face up to it “I am responsible for the way I age” This ‘moment of truth’ fully revealed itself to me at the age of 60, when I found myself clutching my daughter’s arm for stability as we walked through the cobbled streets in the old walled city of Istanbul. I heard myself say, “Have you noticed there are no old people about, this would be really difficult for the disabled or elderly.”

Then, I realised the significance of what I had said.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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That image of myself as a rickety, prematurely old and dependant person led me to a decision. I may have been 60 in years, but in my head I was 40. I would push back the neglect of many years by getting fit. I joined the gym on my return and found the routine of fitness training did not come naturally – as I treaded the treadmill I would think how much easier it would have been if I had begun an exercise regime earlier.

Ten years later and I still regularly exercise.

My exercise of choice is pilates for strength and balance, aqua aerobics for general fitness, walking the dog, and gardening. The routine carries me along and my body thanks me for my efforts; I’m probably fitter and healthier than I was at 40.

Roy J. Shephard of the Dept. of

Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, describes the progression from young adulthood through to old age.

“Young adulthood typically covers the period from 20-35 years of age, when both biological function and physical performance reach their peak. During young middle-age (35-45 years), physical activity usually wanes, with a 5-10 kg accumulation of body fat. Active pursuits may be shared with a growing family, but it becomes less important to impress either an employer or persons of the opposite sex with physical appearance and performance.

“During later middle-age (45-65 years), women reach the menopause, and men also substantially reduce

their output of sex hormones. Career opportunities have commonly peaked and a larger disposable income often allows energy demanding domestic tasks to be deputied to service contractors.

The decline in physical condition thus continues and may accelerate.

“In early old age (65-75 years), there may be a modest increase of physical activity, in an attempt to fill free time resulting from retirement. By middle old age (75-85 years), many people have developed some physical disability, and in the final stage (very old age, over 85 years) they become totally dependent.

A typical expectation is of 8-10 years of partial disability and a year of total dependency.”

Dr Shephard acknowledges the wide inter-individual differences at any given chronological age. “In terms of maximal oxygen intake, muscle strength and flexibility, the best preserved 65 year old may out-perform a sedentary 25 year old.

Whether assessing fitness for continuing employment or recommending an exercise prescription, decisions should thus be based upon biological rather than chronological age. Because [for the normal older person] initial fitness is quite low, the aerobic condition of a senior can be improved by low intensity of training.”

Very wide range of choices All of the exercise programmes for the 50+ age group in Hawke’s Bay that I researched (see side box) were age appropriate, and will restore strength and fitness while providing for socialisation and

‘visits’ to Kiwi Seniors. Kiwi Seniors, with close to 800 older adult members, runs from ten community-based facilities across Hawke’s Bay: the Wairoa Community Centre, Hastings Sports Centre, Rodney Green Events Centre, Hastings RSA, Taradale Rugby Club, King Georges Hall, Memorial Hall (Waipukurau), and Wairoa Presbyterian Hall.

Kiwi Seniors was introduced in 1991 as an incentive to those aged 50 and over to keep fit, socialize and stay active. This programme includes badminton, table tennis, group exercise to music, resistance exercise with hand weights or dynabands, exercise with balls and tai chi. The sessions are 45-50 minutes and adaptable to all fitness levels.

Colin Stone, chief executive, Sport Hawke’s Bay says, “It is important that we continue to provide services and programmes that assist in keeping our older adult population independent, healthy and active and out of the health system. Once older adults fall into the health system it becomes more costly.”

Sport HB spends over $100,000 per annum to run its older adult programmes, which include Sit and Be Fit, Rest Home Programmes, Kaumatua Programmes and Kiwi Seniors, which have traditionally been funded via a balance of user pays, DHB and Sport HB funding. The DHB reduced its funding earlier this year and targeted its Kaumatua programmes, which has meant an increase in user pays for Kiwi Seniors, (although the programme is still subsidised strongly by Sport HB.) ACC continue to provide support to the Falls Prevention Programme (Upright and Active) run by Sport HB, but programmes (and funding) have been more limited this year.

Exercise programmes for the 50+ in Hawke’s Bay ✔ Pilates, Heretaunga Women’s Centre, Hastings ($8) and private providers ✔ Yoga, mostly private providers ✔ 50+ Body Balance and Body Pump, Peak Fitness, Havelock North, $4 ✔ Aqua aerobics, Hilton Brown Swimming, Havelock North, $5.50 ✔ Aqua jogging, Swimgym, Hastings, $8 ✔ Zumba Gold and Line dancing, Frimley and Taradale, $8 ✔ Zumba Gold, St John’s Ambulance Hall, Havelock North, $8 ✔ Belly dancing classes, Lisa Gray, Bellizone, Napier, $10 ✔ Run Walk Hawke’s Bay, Hastings and Napier, $40/pa ✔ KiwiSeniors, Sport Hawkes Bay, $3.50 ✔ Sit and be Fit, Age Concern, contact any branch, $2 ✔ Tai chi, Age Concern, Onekawa, $2 NB: This is just a small sample of the programmes available.

Dr Tim Frendin, writing in BayBuzz (July, 2012) concludes, “We can improve the likelihood of getting to and maintaining healthy old age with relatively simple lifestyle measures – a healthy diet, no smoking, regular exercise, a little alcohol, something to occupy our time and our mind and a good social network. On achieving such an age, however, there is much progress yet to be made in accommodating our health needs and demands. We’re not quite ready for old age.”

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

fun – and the social component of group exercise is a great motivator for most people.

Courses cost between $2-$10 a session.

Organised sport is an option for many reasonably fit and motivated people playing lawn bowls, croquet, tennis, cycling, walking and tramping. Run Walk Hawke’s Bay is a running and walking club that aims to motivate and assist people to run or walk within their capabilities – the majority of members are aged over 45 and very social.

Water exercise is very popular and swimming is the exercise of choice for those who prefer individual exercise. Water is relaxing, cool and provides an almost weightless environment for increasing aerobic fitness and toning up. All the conditions normally associated with exercise: sweating, straining and pounding are not fun and don’t occur in water. Aqua aerobics avoids risk of injury and is the ideal exercise for the less fit or older person.

For the already fit, water provides the natural resistance which helps to tone and strengthen muscles throughout the workout.

Pilates, yoga, Body Balance for 50+ and tai chi strengthen the body core, improving balance, movement, flexibility and calming the mind.

Dance fitness programmes are fun and combine mental coordination, aerobic exercise with social interaction. If you like the sexy moves, Lisa Gray leads a group of belly dancers, the oldest member is 64 and several over 50. Felicity Mardon runs line dancing and Zumba Gold classes to average attendances of 30 women aged between 5090, five times a week to the rhythms of salsa, cha cha, rumba and rock ‘n roll.

The very unfit and elderly benefit greatly from regular exercise and Sport Hawke’s Bay’s older adult programmes received over 47,000 ‘visits’ last year, with 20,000

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Sustaining Health in the Era of Austerity by ~ Dr Tim Frendin

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

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Currently, medical and political corridors – nationally, internationally, but also locally – are filled with talk regarding sustainability of health systems. Individuals, communities and societies all wish to ensure that we have the best of access to appropriate and effective treatments, care locations and clinicians … while ensuring equity of access without inappropriate healthcare rationing.

How will we manage to accomplish this?

Modern medicine is vastly expensive and would be unaffordable to society without complex systems of healthcare delivery, funding and coordination. Unfortunately, despite this heavy regulation, the cost of healthcare will continue to increase, a result of changing population demands and expectations, as much as increasing cost of improved treatments, technology and salaries.

Western societies in recent decades have committed increasing proportions of GDP to healthcare, but, as the US illustrates, without necessarily delivering better quality of care or health outcomes.

NZ government, via Vote Health, funds a predominantly public-delivered health system accessible to all residents; however not necessarily all services to all people.

NZ Vote Health has increased funding from 7% of GDP in 1990 to 10% of GDP in 2010, amounting to some $14.8 billion in 2013/14. Whilst our proportion of GDP spend on health is currently greater than OECD average, our total dollar spend is somewhat less than the OECD average in view of lower NZ income per capita.

In recent years, this increased funding has been in line with increased demand for health services. However, the Government has clearly signalled that future annual funding changes, starting with the 2013/14 financial year, will now be less than anticipated demand, a ‘falling uplift’ of the national healthcare spend.

Where is the need greatest?

For medicine to improve health and wellbeing of our community as a whole, we need to have a clear understanding of the needs and challenges confronting our population and prioritise our efforts accordingly.

Despite relatively recent success of modern medicine in effectively treating many of the diseases of ‘western society’ such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension

and diabetes, our whole population has not benefitted equally. Significant disparities of health outcomes persist within our population. These endure through individuals’ lives as a result of ‘social determinants’ of health experienced early in life, such as poverty and limited educational attainment.

Our Mäori and Pacific populations are particularly disadvantaged by social inequity and carry a major cost – on average, a loss of some seven years in total life expectancy compared to our Päkehä population. It is imperative that major efforts are now being undertaken within health and other agencies to address disparities of health outcomes by specifically focusing on these early social determinants.

Prominent recent examples of this include targeting high levels of childhood immunisation, government initiatives for housing insulation for low-income earners, and the current call from the Children’s Commissioner to urgently address childhood poverty. Hawke’s Bay DHB now has an explicit intention to focus on health disparities, exemplified by the appointment of our Director of Population Health to the local position of Equity Champion.

Additionally, whilst our total population is projected to rise slowly over the next 20 years or so, Hawke’s Bay, and New Zealand in general, will experience unprecedented changes in the age profile of our populations.

At present almost half of Hawke’s Bay births occur in families within the lowest quintile of social deprivation in our society; many of these births are to Mäori and Pacific families. The proportion of lowest quintile births is expected to rise further.

Without effective means of addressing social determinants of health within these sectors of our community, disparities of health outcomes for the duration of these children’s lives are to be expected … generating a significant healthcare cost.

Meantime, Hawke’s Bay’s population will grow exclusively in the over-65 age group.

Our population over-65 years of age will increase from 15% of our total population in 2011 to 25% in 2021, with greater proportional increase in those over 80 years of age. This increasingly elderly population will increasingly challenge current models of healthcare provision and should cause us to re-focus on how best to provide

healthcare for our entire population for the duration of their lives.

Ageing our population We have successfully ‘aged’ our population with modern medical practice.

This improved population health and longevity is a result of healthier lifestyles on average, together with widespread use of effective treatments and systems of service delivery. Improved life expectancy has occurred specifically by reduction in ‘premature mortality’, that is, by prevention of an early death for many of our population.

Medicine does not extend the ultimate age a human may attain, but does allow more of us to achieve our individual potential lifespan. However, successful population ageing carries a significant cost to many individuals and society in general.

These costs are now the major driver of the increasing cost of modern healthcare.

Understanding the specific challenges an aged population poses and planning accordingly is now at the heart of sustainable healthcare for our entire population.

Dying at older ages is much more costly in dollar terms to society than dying younger. Much of this cost is for ‘care and support’ rather than for increased medical treatment, but the cost is still borne by our health dollar.

For an individual, living to an increasingly older age carries an increasing risk of disability and dependency towards the end of life. For those over age 90, more than half on average will be significantly disabled or dependent 12 months prior to death.

Interestingly, those from poorer socioeconomic or educational backgrounds are more likely than average to be dependent at this age, clearly indicating the power and lifetime persistence of effects of social determinants of health experienced at a very early age.

In Hawke’s Bay Hospital, acute bed occupancy over the past ten years has increased only for people over the age of 80 years; however, this increase is almost double the occupancy increase anticipated by population growth alone for this age group. This statistic is alarming and requires careful consideration. Unchecked, this escalating demand from our ageing population will in time progressively compromise hospital capacity.

More frailty In ageing our population we have possibly contributed to infirmity of our older population. Frailty is the concept of ‘lessened reserve’. The older individual has increased vulnerability to insult, needs greater time to recover, and faces the likelihood of onset of dependency … an indicator of potential futility of medical intervention and foreshadowing impending, though not necessarily imminent, mortality.

Frailty does now account for an increasing proportion of acute hospitalisation. Other factors contributing to excessive hospitalisation of our oldest are likely to include demand arising from our culture of ignorance of mortality, in which unrealistic acute models of care are applied to frailty.

Frailty can and does occur in absence of significant pre-existing disease or disability. For each of us, frailty is inevitable if we live long enough. It is therefore increasingly common in older people and, recognising it, we are able to understand the likelihood of irreversible cascade towards the end of life.

✔ Specific targeting of the social

determinants of health to reduce life-long health disparities from the earliest of ages; ✔ A focus in midlife on healthy lifestyle (lack of mid-life fitness is also a strong predictor of disability and dependency towards the end of life); ✔ Population-wide use of effective treatments for acute and chronic disease; and, ✔ Towards the end of life, an explicit change of focus, understanding limitations of intervention, to a supportive rather than curative model of care.

Health sustainability requires more than just wise spending of our limited health dollar. In medicine we need to treat the treatable at all times to give our entire population the benefit of a healthy life for as long as possible.

However, we must also be more open with our population about limitations of our treatments, and allow us all to understand the ultimate inevitability of death. When this becomes foreseeable, a more supportive role for the duration of their life should be allowed.

Frailty and dependency in an increasingly older population clearly signals that an aggressive approach to treatment has unlikely benefit. Given the scale of such frailty, a more enlightened care approach towards the end of life might free significant health dollars to be invested earlier in the lives of our population.

Tim Frendin is a physician and clinical director for older persons’ health at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board. The opinions expressed in this article are personal and should not be taken as representing the view of HBDHB.

Pre-Planning: An Act of Love When you pre-plan funeral arrrangements, it’s an act of love.

Your family has a burden lifted. And your wishes are assured.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

De-escalating intervention This recognition should allow a different approach to the afflictions suffered at this stage of life. Knowing that many of our acute treatments will afford little if any prospect of cure, we can instead focus on care and support necessary to maintain quality as opposed to quantity of remaining life.

Older people are highly likely to be aware of limitations of both medicine towards the end of their life and interventions they would choose to undergo. Many wish for comfort rather than life-prolonging measures, but unless these wishes are readily accessible, unwanted and unwarranted acute intervention can and does occur.

If we as clinicians and community understand better the limitations of our current acute and interventional approach to the care of our frailest population, we can consider the merits of providing such care in locations apart from an acute hospital.

This shared care model is embraced in the concept of ‘primary-secondary integration’, whereby primary care aims to manage people as far as possible in locations closer to home, supported by hospital-based resources (secondary services). HBDHB is now progressing this approach.

Good quality and appropriate care can be ensured in these locations only with sufficient resourcing and with community endorsement of the merits of this approach. Central to this ‘de-escalation’ of intervention at a clinical level, however, is the need for shared understanding –

between the individual, their attending clinicians and their families – of the goals of any treatment. Only in this way can unrealistic individual expectations be modified. Changing societal expectations, however, requires conversations to be led by health leaders; conversations that must frame health around the assured clinical outcome of mortality.

This rationalising (as opposed to rationing) of health resource – by providing care towards the end of life that is appropriate to need and likely benefit – has potential to mitigate some of the healthcare costs incurred by an ageing population.

Armed with better understanding not only of effectiveness of treatments, but also of limitations of intervention, particularly towards the end of life, we as a society need to reorient our expectations as to what a fully effective health system should deliver.

A possible framework for a new approach may include:

51

Est 1878 Queen St West, Hastings Phone: 878 5149 www.tongandperyer.co.nz

Memories of a LIfetime of Love

TechFocus

Renegotiating the rules for digital citizenship Keith Newman talks to an educational bridge-builder who’s helping reconnect Hawke’s Bay parents with their digital age offspring.

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

52

The growing digital generation gap is making many parents feel alienated, uninformed and ill equipped to supervise the online behaviour of their children, who appear to be perpetually tapping away at something riveting on their mobile devices.

Smartphones, iPads and tablet computers, once considered luxury items and banned in the schoolyard, are now in use by many pre-teens and teens as mainstream learning and communication tools.

“Online is the new playing field where young people are doing their risktaking unsupervised, and for some, it’s having an impact on their emotional development,” says Anj Webster, who’s been running parent and student workshops at Hawke’s Bay schools.

Webster, who is director of visual arts and technology at Havelock North’s Hereworth School, says some parents are trying to upskill, while others suffer in frustration, feeling “left behind, out of the loop, powerless and estranged” because their kids know more than they do.

They want to understand more about the social networking sites, gaming apps and other things their kids are engaging with, how it is affecting them, and how to manage their screen time.

Webster is the mother of two teenage daughters who grew up with social media.

She’s completing her Masters in Education on the impact of technology on learning and online behaviour, and says taking punitive measures is unhelpful and putting boundaries in place can be a battle.

She says the digital world is highly engaging for young people who love meeting, talking, interacting and competing online, and recommends building a relationship around the use of technology as early as possible.

“If you put rules in place while they are young then you can let them out slowly, but if you start broad it’s much harder in the teenage years.”

Anj Webster, Hereworth School Homework for parents Webster urges parents to do their homework so they can make informed decisions. Take time to find out about a particular game or site children are interested in and whether there is any age censorship; restrict time online and ensure the smartphone or tablet has a designated place overnight other than the bedroom.

Turning the wireless network off at night might help, but Webster says even then young people can use offline apps that will keep them up late at night.

No matter how out of touch they may feel, parents should not underestimate their own power. “Children don’t come wired with wisdom to manage themselves online and many continue to get themselves in a pickle.”

While there might be a place for confiscating technology, it can have a negative impact as being connected and “part of something bigger than themselves” is associated with young people’s sense of identity.

As technology becomes more pervasive at schools, Webster says there will be a growing need for strategies and policies around cyber safety and cyber citizenship. The need for digital literacy is huge, and includes “understanding

Caption goes here

how to engage in a world that, along with the technology, keeps evolving”.

A real concern is that teachers and school leaders are already overwhelmed by their existing commitments. “Many don’t have time to understand how to use the resources or get a big picture view of what is going on.”

They’re not helped by the National Administration Guidelines for education, NAG5, which require schools to ensure a safe physical and emotional environment for students, creating “a massive blurred grey area” that extends beyond the school boundary.

That can include stepping in to deal with quite “explosive situations” including text and online bullying or the uploading of explicit or other inappropriate still or filmed images.

Protect online reputation While technology provides a great opportunity to be entrepreneurial and creative, Anj Webster says young people need to be more resilient and protective of their online identity, privacy and content.

She’s big on young people taking personal responsibility for their online reputation, their behaviour and the consequences of choices made. “No one else can do it for you. It’s your reputation and

Cyber bully backlash Although the internet can be a conduit for working out relationships and conflicts, when these escalate into cyberbullying or inappropriate material going viral, the victim becomes very visible.

Webster says one in five children are now experiencing cyber bullying, and that’s only

the ones who are brave enough to report it. More often it’s girls who report bulling and research shows more girls appear to cyberbully than boys.

A recent concern was the Latvian site Ask.fm, with 65 million mostly teen users, where anonymous questions could be asked and answered. It ran into trouble when individuals began “trolling and flaming” to see how much others could handle, even challenging them to commit suicide – nine did.

While Netsafe, supported by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice and InternetNZ, provides warnings and helpful advice for concerned parents and teachers in New Zealand, Webster says it’s only a small unit and “the ambulance at the bottom of the hill” for those who get into trouble.

Webster says teens need to feel comfortable in openly discussing the sites they visit and issues like online bullying, to ensure it is not accepted as a normal behaviour or ignored in the hope it will go away.

This kind of behaviour is often not reported because teens fear parents will come down hard on them or take away their technology. “When young people are encouraged to be part of the solution, and can develop their own ideas about raising awareness and options, it is very powerful.”

She says the laws are changing to protect people and expose perpetrators.

She welcomes the Harmful Digital Communications Bill as “a case of the law catching up and saying what some people are doing online is not OK.” Webster says young people need to take their power back. It’s OK to go off Facebook for a while, to take time out, to say ‘no’ to friend requests or even delete your entire Facebook page and start again.

She suggests auditing Facebook friends every six months. “Do you really want those same 800 people following you when you leave high school and go to university or into the business world?”

Accelerated learning Faster fixed and mobile broadband is facilitating fundamental shifts in what is taught, how and where, and presenting a challenging curve for schools, teachers and students that will impact the education system for the foreseeable future.

Webster, says schools must rethink how technology is changing children’s learning ability in order to prepare them for the workplace of the future. There’s already evidence of a shift away from the teacher at the front model designed for industrial age graduates.

She says 21st century learning places the student’s voice, needs and skills at the centre, with a more holistic view around collaboration, the integration of subjects, and teaching around how the wider community operates.

Innovation, creativity, entrepreneurial thinking and the ability to solve real-world problems are keys to the skill sets of the future, where “adaptive and flexible thinkers” are in demand.

Key to this is meta-cognition – thinking about thinking – the ability to stand back and ask yourself how you are doing something, why you are doing it and whether this is the best way.

Essentially this is about learning how to learn for an age in which people have multiple jobs and need to continue acquiring skills.

Webster says there’s already evidence that the digital age is not only widening the generation gap but actually rewiring the way our brains process information.

Research shows children as young as two years old are truly becoming digital natives.

“The neurological make-up or wiring of their brain looks different as a result of using digital technologies.”

Using the mega-cognition metaphor, perhaps we all need to be asking what we’re filling our minds with, why, and where it’s taking us, considering we are already deeply immersed in the digital learning revolution.

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Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

you have to manage it and live with it.”

Many young people have multiple online identities and it’s too easy to misrepresent yourself or have others misrepresent you.

“It’s important to be informed about privacy and security settings to limit what people can do with your information.”

Young people need to establish some norms and expectations around respecting others, how they want to be respected and to realise they have the power to control their online world.

While research shows social networks are a forum where shy and insecure teenagers can feel part of something, which is good for their esteem and development, there are plenty of opportunities for harmful communications to undermine esteem.

She urges a “think before you click” approach, particularly around uploading personal images. “What happens on your social media site can affect judgements people make about you at school, university, in the workplace or in employment opportunities.”

Girls in particular need to be careful about putting themselves into vulnerable situations where they are having photos taken or taking photos and sharing them with boyfriends. “Don’t give your Facebook and other passwords to anyone and don’t post any photos of yourself that you wouldn’t show your grandma.”

She says online activities and postings create a permanent shadow even after you think you’ve deleted them. “It’s like a digital tattoo … even when you’ve had it removed, it leaves a scar that can be with you the rest of your life.”

53

TASTE TE AWANGA Smoked Kaimoana

Te Awanga Sav

Local Fruit & Veg

La Petite Chocolat

Pot Set Yoghurt

tim.co.nz

Anissa, le petit chocolatier

Missy P says ...

“Being a food forager, I always have my antennae out for the unusual.”

Missy P is Prue Barton, proprietress of Mister D.

handful of crushed up vine cuttings collected from across the road at our neighbouring vineyard. Now I will prepare the kahawai rillettes …

When cool, flake and debone the fish, adding 1 finely-diced onion which has been cooked in butter. Picked from our small herb garden, I add chopped marjoram (a herb with sweet pine and citrus flavours), a pinch of sea salt, and ground black pepper with a splash of balsamic vinegar. Serve in a rustic bowl with crusty bread on the side. This is the Mediterranean … Hawke’s Bay style!

Summer and Sauvignon Blanc need no introduction, so I zip into Clearview Winery and choose a bottle of Te Awanga Sauvignon Blanc 2013 to serve with the rillettes. This crisp and refreshing wine will be perfect.

• Smoked fish rillettes • Avocado and watercress salad • Berry and tarragon compote with Origin Earth Pot Set Yoghurt Returning to my bike, I smell a pungent aniseed aroma. The wild fennel is flowering and so that means the time is right to collect fennel pollen. This can only be described as a labour of love and compares to harvesting saffron without the pecuniary advantage. It takes hours to collect one small jar of pollen, but the result is well worth the effort. Not today however, as I have more gathering to do.

Anissa – a french chocolatier of petit size – creates her small batches of the very best handcrafted organic chocolate bars. No butter, eggs or cream are to be found in Anissa’s chocolates.

Beetling down the track with the sun in my eyes and the thrill of the next find, I come across a roadside sign displaying buckets of avocados. These are big beauties from the Haas variety.

They have a nutty, creamy rich flavour; now all I need is some greens to make a fresh salad. Remembering there is watercress in the stream, I peddle off in search to find (it is important to avoid plants that drain from fields where animals, in particular sheep, graze).

To prepare the salad, cut the avocado in half, stab the stone with a knife, and then twist to free the stone. Peel and slice the avocado just before tossing with the watercress. Make sure you wash the watercress thoroughly just using the tender leaves and then flick dry. Splash a little Village Press Frantoio olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad as a dressing. Frantoio is one of the most Continued on Page 56

»

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

This is my secret. A quarter acre slice of wild beach paradise. Bondi this is not!

Take a stroll in any direction on the Cape Coast and you will come across tiny artisan producers, orchards, berry farms, substantial and family vineyard operations, and natural food gems just to gather. Being a food forager, I always have my antennae out for the unusual.

Waking early to the loud cacophony of gulls I decide to investigate. Out the drive and heading right I grind down the limestone track on my bike. Yes, the kahawai are running and my neighbours are out with their surfcasters. Scuttling across the rough stones and down the bank I see the spoils of their casts. My grinning friend hands me a glistening kahawai and announces it is all mine.

This river-run ocean fish is rich in flavour and texture, and is perfect for smoking.

Smoked fish will be on the menu today.

You need to bleed the kahawai immediately - as this minimises the flesh from darkening - and then gut. If the fish isn’t to be eaten straight away, the flesh from un-bled kahawai takes on a brownish colour and is nowhere near as good to eat. Leave the scales on as this keeps the fish moist in the smoking stage. Smoke the kahawai whole for around 10-15 minutes with the lid on, and then leave the lid on for another 5 minutes … resisting a peep as all the smoke will evaporate! At home I use a small portable stainless steel fish smoker with manuka chips, and a small

55

Jeanne Calment

taste te awanga

[2

Jeanne was a French supercentenarian who had the longest huma She ascribed her longevity and youthful appearance to a diet

tim.co.nz

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

56

highly acclaimed oil varieties, exhibiting delicious fruity, nutty flavours. It is also perfect served with fresh crusty bread and at Mister D we serve this prestigious oil with our ciabatta. [In Tuscany, an olive oil processing factory is also called a ‘frantoio’.]

Another hive of artisan activity is to be found in the kitchen at Te Awanga Estate just 800 metres back from the main road. It is here that Anissa – a french chocolatier of petit size – creates her small batches of the very best hand-crafted organic chocolate bars. No butter, eggs or cream are to be found in Anissa’s chocolates. Catching my attention are the unique and delicious flavours such as white chocolate, lemon and poppy seed, and orange and toasted sesame seeds.

The ‘La Petite Chocolat’ range is sold at the Hastings Market, online, at our local Haumoana Four Square and straight from the Cellar Door at Te Awanga Estate. This fresh, pure, quality chocolate is simply chocolate at its best.

In close proximity, just back from the coastal strip, is the only berry garden in our area.

Located at 52 Raymond Road, ‘Blakcatberries’ is planted with approximately two acres of berry fruit and 1.5 acres of apples.

Raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries are grown here. The variety of blackberry grown is Karaka – a hybrid berry that has been achieved by crossing two varieties in the New Zealand hybrid programme achieving that delicious ‘old fashioned’ flavour.

Julie and Tony’s chosen variety of boysenberry is ‘McNichol’s choice’ – these are good-sized berries with a sweetness and flavour that is hard to beat. They are lovingly hand-picked and sold fresh from the farm and through local markets. They are currently developing their jam range and sell frozen berries all year round by arrangement. Loading up my basket with these luscious gems, I get that smug feeling that can only be felt when living in places like this.

Picking fresh French tarragon from our garden I start to prepare the compote. Make a light sugar syrup of 2 parts water to 1 part sugar, adding the tarragon stalks and fresh vanilla pods. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, then take off the heat and leave to cool. Just before serving, toss the fresh tarragon leaves and syrup with the berries, and serve with a dollop of Origin Earth Pot Set Yoghurt and a drizzle of Arataki honey.

Origin Earth Pot Set Yoghurt is set in the pot that you buy it in. It has a thin layer of cream on the top, and under this is the thick creamy yoghurt. Perfect for garnishing the berry compote achieving a healthy garnish to boot. Origin Earth is a Hawke’s Baybased company producing fresh milk that is not homogenised. The owners Joni and Richard live only a stones throw away, but their factory is based at the end of Te Mata Road in Havelock North. Their fresh milk is available just hours after the morning milking and all of the milk they use can be traced back to the farm, the paddock, and the animals of origin.

Lunch is served.

taste te awanga

[ 21 Feb 1875 – 4 Aug 1997 ]

uman lifespan in history, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days. iet rich in olive oil and eating nearly 1kg of chocolate a week.

than just another

cookbook!

57

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state of the arts

Christine Heaney, Creative Napier manager

Hawke's Bay has three arts trusts working on our behalf. Creative Napier and Creative Hastings look after community programmes, and are in many ways the artsy arms of the local councils. Creative Hawke's Bay works across the region, ‘dedicated to supporting and developing the professional creative sector’. story by ~ jessica soutar barron // photos by ~ sarah cates

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

58

A tale of two cities Christine Heaney manages Creative Napier. There the big project on the cards for 2014 is development of a community arts centre. On 12th December Heaney received the letter.

It announced Creative Napier had secured $300,000 from the lotteries commission for the project.

The plan is to refurbish the old borough council chamber building removed from Herschell St when the Hawke's Bay Museum became MTG. With keystone funding in place, the task now will be securing the remaining investment required to get the building up and running.

"There are so many things that could be happening, but they are all hooked around the need for a building. It needs to be flexible; everything to everyone.

The large majority of the arts community in Napier is looking forward to using it," says Heaney.

Pitsch Leiser is Heaney's opposite number at Creative Hastings and, although relatively new to the role and the region, he is making great strides in ensuring Creative Hastings is delivering on its mandate.

"The role of Creative Hastings is to highlight artists in the region to locals and visitors in a participatory way," Leiser says.

"It's important to build an understanding in the wider community of what we have.

Unless people know about the treasures buried here, we can't celebrate them."

Although it has a busy well-used community arts centre, public space is a strong theme for Creative Hastings in 2014. Ironic, considering Creative Napier is wanting to move away from public space into a home of its own.

After decades working in arts development, including roles in Auckland and Wellington, Leiser is well versed in making full use of what's around him.

"From a creative perspective, I am constantly asking, ‘What is there that's exciting? Where is the talent? And, how can we in the arts help build community?’ Art, dance, music – it all has the ability to bring communities together. And it's part of our role to uncover and showcase the multitudes of talent that's in the wider district."

Missing regional voice?

The third arts trust is Creative Hawke's Bay. A result of Creative New Zealand funding priorities in 2000 and a victim of Creative New Zealand funding cuts ten years later, Creative Hawke's Bay currently appears to be in hibernation.

It does run Hawke's Bay's Pecha Kucha Night, but rather than focusing on projects, the group is in a phase of 'wait and see'.

"We're marking time, waiting for things to align," says Roger King who chairs the Creative Hawke's Bay board, which includes Dr Suzette Major from EIT and Te Rangi Huata from Ngäti Kahungunu Iwi Inc.

Alignment could come through amalgamation; an inevitable consideration in any conversation about what 2014 will bring.

Art and artists often set the way for the rest of us to follow. With three different arts bodies serving Hawke's Bay – three separate boards, two community arts advisors, one existing building (Hastings), one building in waiting (Napier), dozens of projects, events and initiatives, and certainly three distinct agendas and strategies – will 2014 see the amalgamation of our arts trusts?

Roger King, Creative Hawke's Bay board chair

Pitsch Leiser, Creative Hastings manager

Art goes on While the year ahead may bring political change and ultimately realignment of priorities, programmes and associated funding pools, both Creative Napier and Creative Hastings are busy getting on with business as usual.

Alongside the gigantic task of establishing a new facility during 2014, Creative Napier will hold its annual summer series of concerts in the Napier Soundshell and its Children's Art Expo, which sees 300 children take part in a broad programme of workshops over five days.

"It's our job to deliver a good chunk of Napier City Council's arts policy, promote and foster community arts at a grassroots level," explains Heaney. "And create opportunities for the public to engage with the arts."

Creative Napier's remit from council calls for ten events a year, but in 2013 they held 20.

"Public speakers, concerts, flash mobs, a workshop to decorate penguin boxes – someone painted one that said 'Breed well'. That was hilarious."

Heaney feels that because of the lack of a permanent space, Creative Napier has to be particularly innovative about where it holds events.

"We use the streets and outside locations. In 2014 we will have a street Continued on Page 60

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Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

Roger King would like the three bodies to merge.

"One creative agency for the region makes sense. Arts should be the trail blazer for demonstrating how amalgamation could be successful. Collaboration is good, but it's not the same as being one organisation," says King.

"Resources are hard enough to find without splitting them up all over the place. Arts organisations have always been run on slim funding, but there would be opportunities to make savings having one where there have been two or three."

The three 'Creatives' have already worked together on one project.

Despite some early teething problems, the annual Regional Art Guide is now being produced by Creative Hastings and Creative Napier, with some midwifery services provided by Creative Hawke's Bay. The most recent guide also has a newly introduced online version, something Pitsch Leiser spearheaded (http://www.hawkesbayartguide.co.nz) Christine Heaney won't be pressed into giving an answer on potential amalgamation of the two cities' councils or their relevant arts trusts, but 2014 will see a rebranding of Creative Napier, with some reference to the relationship with Creative Hastings.

"If the arts can't get it together in terms of talking to each other, then heaven help us. We should be leading the way in those kinds of discussions."

Leiser believes any new infrastructure in the arts would support the employment of a few key people and would require some savvy strategic thinking around how the arts can develop a portfolio through the year that is sustainable.

"Whatever it is, it cannot become a monolith that sucks up all the resources and kills off the little shoots that could grow into a very beautiful tree. We need to foster those sprouts and see which ones survive."

59

state of the arts

piano," she says. This initiative will be along the lines of the Play Me I'm Yours project found in cities around the world, where pianos are painted up by artists and left in public places for people to play.

Business as usual for Creative Hastings consists of a summer series of outside concerts, regular exhibitions in the Hastings Community Arts Centre, a big role in the Hastings Blossom Parade and Live after Five. In the past this has been held in the Opera House Plaza, but in an attempt to cut costs will be moved to the Community Arts Centre.

For 2014 Pitsch Leiser is also playing with some new ideas, including Backyard Summer Fest, an inaugural event held in January at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds, and a sculpture and carving symposium.

Another project involves arguably the 'ugliest wall in Hastings'. "We are supporting a project to put our community's stories on the KMart wall that runs along St Aubyn Street," he explains. "When people walk down that road and see their stories and it's relevant to them they're proud. That's a great way to engage people in the arts."

Civic pride Both Leiser and Roger King are

watching the developments in Hastings' Civic Square with interest, beginning with the erection of 18 pou, hoping they herald the beginning of a new wave of civic pride in the arts.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new civic square development will unfold and how that space will be used," says King.

Leiser agrees: "When visitors come they want to see what is unique to our city and that will always be our indigenous stories."

"Ngäti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated is a key player in this conversation. Mäori in this region have an enormous wealth of stories and resources that are just waiting to flourish. They don't need us, but it's good if we can weave together and tell the story of the value of the arts to the wider community."

From his overview position, Roger King can see some big holes in Hawke's Bay's art scene, including funding gaps, a lack of strategic direction and a need for an injection of art from outside the Bay. "What is key is the need for strong leadership and a strong vision: in venues and at a political level."

Of work from outside, King says: "Hawke's Bay does very well internally.

There are a lot of artists showing their

Not your average

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

60

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Contact us on info@hawkesbayoperahouse.co.nz or 06 871 5290

“We have fantastic talent and we have opportunities to grow that and attract more creative people here.

That can be done if we are willing to work collectively and lift our game. Really we all want the same thing: to grow a vibrant community in which to raise our kids, and be a place funky enough to show off to our friends.” pitsch leiser work, a lot of theatre and certainly a lot of classical music. But there is not a lot from outside the area coming in. There is no place in Hawke's Bay showing the cutting edge of contemporary art in this country."

He explains the importance of such opportunities to local audiences and artists: "Being exposed to a huge range of work from around New Zealand helps to contextualise what our own artists are doing."

home is where the art is by ~ jessica soutar barron

Newcomers with big ideas, bold attitudes and some pretty brazen opinions about our arts scene are making Hawke's Bay home.

And in so doing they're waking us up to the potential to make more of what we have, and to explore new ways of doing.

Christine Spring, chief executive at Hawke's Bay Opera House

New fans for opera Anna Pierard left home having finished her schooling at Sacred Heart in Napier and went to Victoria University, then overseas with the National Youth Choir.

She auditioned then trained as an opera singer at Guildhall in London, and then went where the work was, as a mezzo soprano: "Taking my suitcase and buying my own salt and pepper wherever I went."

At Guildhall she'd met husband, flutist, then tenor and now conductor José Aparicio. They based themselves in Spain.

From there they travelled, performing in operas all over Europe, and occasionally came back to visit Pierard's family in the Bay. When their first child was born, Pierard and Aparicio moved back here for good, putting down some form of root system although the pull of working abroad was still strong.

"It was really when I became a mother that I realised opera was not something I could take or leave. And that singing was not something I could give up easily, if at all."

For Pierard, and for Aparicio, music had become a reason for being, and a way of life. Now living in Napier they needed to find ways to ensure their life-blood was still present and vital.

"Opera is a misunderstood art form in terms of its reason for being and its relevance; really it has always been aimed at the populus and should continue to be.

Personally I don't want to be part of the generation that allows opera to be obsolete.

My own understanding of the art form is developing and growing and it's my job to bring people along," Pierard explains.

Now, Pierard is extending her passion for opera in two distinct directions.

Determined to create a viable professional opera company in Hawke's Bay with the potential to tour, she has established Festival Opera, which will mount its first production – The Marriage of Figaro – as part of Art Deco Weekend 2014. Pierard is focused on creating new fans of opera, enlivening what can be seen as a staid art form, and introducing a fresh relevance that chimes Continued on Page 62

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Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

tim.co.nz

Anna Pierard of Festival Opera, Andrea Brigden of Hawke's Bay Youth Theatre and Christine Spring, the new chief executive at the Hawke's Bay Opera House have all made the conscious choice to settle here, when each could enjoy their pick of places to live and apply their talents.

Two have returned after long absences; one has made a new home for herself here. They are just three of a whole bunch of go-getters growing the arts in Hawke's Bay with the kind of vim that comes with being new round here.

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home is where the art is

tim.co.nz

Andrea Brigden, Hawke's Bay Youth Theatre

Bee in the know ~ jan/ feb 2014

62

with contemporary audiences.

Hand in hand with this endeavour is Festival Opera's youth initiative. It has taken 15 young people from across Hawke's Bay and over the summer will introduce them to the form, then work with them to devise a 15 minute reworking of Figaro.

"The opera comes first and from there we know we need to stimulate younger audiences. There was a realisation that this region has the venues and the people and the support to have a really quality product, in terms of an opera company, and every opera company needs a youth initiative."

From the beginning of the youth project, called Prima Volta, Pierard began to tap into the very real issues facing young people in Hawke's Bay. A world away from the glitz of Europe's opera houses, the startling stats around youth and suicide, violence, lack of work and training opportunities stimulated a response in Pierard.

"Opera is what I know and so it is my avenue for doing what I can to help our youth. But we should all be teachers, we should all be socially responsible and we should all parent beyond our own children."

Now she is hoping Hawke's Bay will come on board.

"What I want Hawke's Bay people to do is to support Hawke's Bay people who are attempting to help Hawke's Bay people.

To make it a circle and complete it, and when that is done to grow that circle and include more people. It's a type of philanthropy of spirit: to know that your own children are fine and to begin looking at what others need."

When asked if Hawke's Bay is now home, there's a long pause before she answers.

"If this project opens hearts and minds

Anna Pierard, Festival Opera then yes. We've experienced so much here and grown our partnership and our family here. We're not going to give up easily.

Particularly with Project Prima Volta ‌ I personally can't just step away from that, I can't give hope then not follow through."

Connectivity Another arty-type who is blazing a path for Hawke's Bay's youth is Andrea Brigden.

As a young person Brigden left Hawke's Bay for the UK and now that she's back, and director of Hawke's Bay Youth Theatre (HaBYT), it's primarily the young people she's here for.

"I left when I was 15, but I always knew I was going to come back here. Hawke's Bay was always home. So I found myself a husband and brought him with me and he loves it here."

Brigden now lives in Central Hawke's Bay and is an essential figure at the newly refurbished Waipawa Municipal Theatre.

"I think there's quite a lot happening in the arts in Hawke's Bay and I guess that's because I seek it out. I look for it and when you're into the arts it makes itself visible."

In her role at HaBYT Brigden is charged with igniting a passion for performance in Hawke's Bay's youth.

"What I'm aiming to do is not just teach them, but also open up opportunities for them, things they won't have access to otherwise," she says.

HaBYT takes young people from 15 to 18 years and gives them skills in acting and theatre arts. Brigden would like the company to grow and to extend its reach to include people in their early twenties, as well as being a pre-entry platform for tertiary education providers in the area of performing arts.

"I don't want it to be just a bit of fun while they're at school. Many have an aspiration to work in performing arts and being in a company opens them up to the potential of working in the theatre," she explains.

Brigden finds giving young people an experience of professional theatre in the Bay can be a struggle, although she is generally optimistic about the arts scene.

"There is a lot of theatre here but to be honest it's not the kind of stuff they really need to be exposed to. I would like them to see more contemporary New Zealand theatre, stylistically interesting, touring pieces, where there are perhaps opportunities to have workshops with performers and find out about process."

As with Anna Pierard's project, creating in young people a thirst for performing arts early on in their lives could be the key to keeping those disciplines alive. Developing audiences now means they'll demand those art forms from the world later on.

"It's important because if we didn't have creativity then we'd die on the inside. Personally, if I'm not being creatively stimulated then I feel stifled. I think that's the same for everyone."

For Brigden, an extension of that personal creative need is the need to connect with others working in the arts.

Although she admits that from an acting point of view it would sometimes be nice to be in Auckland or in Wellington, she is proud of the community of theatre makers operating in the Bay, but believes more opportunities would be created if those relationships were solidified.

"There is a lot of potential for collaboration here but we need something more that helps facilitate that," Brigden explains.

home is where the art is

"There's this buzz that happens when you meet someone who also works in the arts – there's so much going on, but now it's got to be about connectivity."

The business of arts At the far end of the performing arts spectrum stands the Hawke's Bay Opera House – established, prominent and terribly grown up. Newly appointed chief executive Christine Spring is at the helm.

Never having lived in Hawke's Bay, and having not been part of a small town community for 30 years, meant it took some time for Spring to acclimate.

"I wanted a base that would allow me to come and go. For me Hawke's Bay has all the benefits: good food, good wine, sunshine and family."

Tempted early on in her stay by a job opportunity in Melbourne, Spring made the choice to let that go and instead commit to the Bay and to New Zealand.

"I like the outdoor lifestyle. I like the proximity to family. But I do think it's a hard community to integrate into. That part has been an interesting experience and not an easy process."

Spring's pre-Opera House career includes multiple degrees, a long stint as an airport engineer and numerous high profile positions in international

organisations. The Opera House job has brought with it a dose of reality.

"An aspect I've learned here is that $500 is important. I've worked for so many years on multi-billion dollar projects that this job brings me back down to earth.

It's easy to forget what normal is, so I've enjoyed the reality check; it's been good for me," Spring explains.

Although the change in career path, from airports to opera houses, may look radical, there are strong parallels.

"Both are large public-use facilities.

In both, what's important is customer service, keeping the toilets clean, commercial nous and good negotiation skills. The core skills are very similar."

19 the role of the Opera Spring outlines House has having four foundation principles: to be a hub of culture in Hawke's Bay, to fully embrace community engagement, to be a venue of corporate excellence and to 19 be financially sustainable. On that point: "We have a mandate from Hastings District Council to lessen our need on Council funding and grants," says19Spring.

"If we want the Opera House to make it as a stand-alone commercial entity we need to use business skills, not artistic ones, so I hired a good manager* to look after the artistic direction and that meant I could 19

work relationships and grow the business."

Spring is using her newcomer's view to assess the opportunities and the challenges in the Hawke's Bay arts community.

"The strengths in Hawke's Bay are in the passion and commitment of the people.

But there are holes. There are aspects that aren't as cohesive as they could be.

Hawke's Bay is blessed with a large volume of venues and what's important is how we support each other and how we draw on each other's strengths."

Although her background is not in the arts, she is an avid consumer of culture.

"If I was in Melbourne I'd be in jazz clubs on a Sunday night. In Paris I'd seek out obscure and fabulous small art galleries.

Abu Dhabi is rich in the variety of events it brings in. But I go and get my big city injection so I'm not hungry for it when I'm here, and a city is what you make it.

The Hastings City Art Gallery is fantastic, the MTG is brilliant, I love Hastings' Night Market. If you always hunger for what you had then you miss out on what you have. You need to enjoy what's here.

And personally, I like being part of the evolution of the arts in the Bay; it's really very satisfying," she says. *Hawke's Bay boy returned, Glen Pickering has a strong arts background and was hired

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Getting the Pip

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Fentonious looked up as the sound of sandals echoed down the corridor leading to the meeting room of the regional forum, the Ruralus Regulatum, in the heart of the seaside fortress of Napierion.

He put his head down, pretending to study his agenda as councillors filed into the chamber and took their seats.

But his hooded eyes were following the group of newcomers who had ousted several of his long-standing councillors a few months earlier.

He scowled as he heard the booming voice of Rictus Barkus, a former senator, down the hallway. Barkus had led an unsuccessful bid to take the chairman’s role, backed by the newcomers. Now Fentonious was enjoying watching Barkus trying to get comfortable on the hard benches of provincial government after spending years ensconced in the plush leather seats of the senate.

A bearded man with a lean and thirsty look strode into the chamber, carrying what appeared to be a sack of apples.

It was Rexus Graymattus, the spokesman for disgruntled fruitgrowers whose patchwork of orchards carpeted the rich plains of Heretaungus.

Although he had spent some of his youth in Hustings, the heart of the region’s horticultural district, Fentonious always felt more comfortable mustering sheep than mingling with fruity types who grew beards and wore sandals.

He glared as Rexus began crunching an apple, juice dribbling through his whiskers on to his order paper as he chatted to Petrus Beavenus, another newcomer who no doubt would insist on comparing apples with apples, thought Fentonious. If he had his way, he would convert those annoying rows of fruit trees into lush green dairy farms, irrigated with water from rivers fed from his beloved Double-Dragon Dam down in the Central Bay of Hawks.

Then his cold gaze came to rest on a figure at the far end of the table, busily underlining parts of the agenda. It was Thomas the Bellringer, editor of the subversive underground paper Baybus.

Fentonious’ dark eyebrows met in an angry scowl. The election of this skeptic scribe by a handful of votes had caused panic in the council’s executive ranks.

Posters of his face, pock-marked by wooden darts, had been hastily removed from the council staffroom. An effigy of a donkey, with Thomas’s face and a large

ponytail, had been secretly burned the previous day in a private ritual, attended by a group of handpicked councillors.

Taking a deep breath, Fentonious picked up an olive branch he’d found under a neighbouring farmer’s tree the previous night. Looking closer, he now realised it was actually an old branch from a fig tree. He hoped his councillors wouldn’t notice the difference.

“This branch symbolises how I see this forum operating,” he announced.

“With dead wood and leaves to cover up the parts you don’t want the public to see?” Thomas murmured.

Fentonious gritted his teeth and pretended not to hear. He was used to dealing with brainless sheep and clumsy cattle, not a wily fox like this.

Then Rexus Graymattus raised his hand.

“Can we get some water?” he asked.

“We never have enough water around this place.”

Fentonious banged his gavel.

“Our water is reserved for those who need it and are prepared to pay for it,” he said. “Dairy farmers for example.”

Rexus said nothing. He licked his lips and spat out several apple pips. They ricocheted off the table and arced through the air, landing on Fentonious’ agenda.

Fentonious leapt to his feet, frantically shaking the pips off his papers.

“Keep your rotten fruit to yourself,” he bellowed. “I’ve got sheep with better manners than you.”

Rexus was unmoved.

“Do you realise that you could feed 300 young fruit trees with the water that just one cow drinks each day,” he said.

Fentonious’ hand gripped the gavel tightly.

“Cows turn all that water into milk, for your information,” he snapped. “Can you name a baby that can feed on young fruit trees?”

Rexus nodded.

“Cydia Pomonella,” he said.

Fentonious looked at him blankly.

“The baby codling moth,” replied Rexus. “Plus baby sawflies, weevils, spotted spider mites, peach tree borer, scale and leaf-curling midges. They feed on them all the time. I assume you’ve heard of woolly aphids?”

Fentonious thought quickly. He had plenty of woolly two-tooth ewes at home, but he’d never heard of any breed called Aphid. He hesitated, wondering whether Rexus was just making things up.

Fentonious Then Rexus spoke again.

“It’s a sucking insect that lives on plant fluids – that’s if the trees can get enough water to produce fluids in the first place.”

Several of the new councillors nodded in agreement.

“And anyway,” continued Rexus, “your precious cows not only turn water into milk, they turn it into urine which gets into our rivers and pollutes them.”

Fentonious was breathing heavily.

He wondered if he could hit Rexus with a well-aimed fling of the gavel. He made a mental note to practise his throwing back on his farm using a gnarled old pear tree stump covered in grey moss.

Now that he thought about it, the matted stump looked vaguely like Rexus.

“We’re not here to talk about water anyway,” he snarled.

“We have an executive committee of high priests that deals with water matters on a need-to-know basis, and you don’t need to know.”

“I don’t know anyone who knows what’s going on, even those on a needto-know basis, which I know they don’t,” replied Rexus.

Fentonious felt his head swimming.

He banged the gavel so hard it woke several sitting councillors.

“Morning tea time?” asked one.

Fentonious nodded and got to his feet.

“I think a cup of tea would be an excellent idea,” he said. “Now, who takes milk?”

“Just water for me,” said Rexus.

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