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Our Landscape What is Central Otago going to look like, what’s Central Otago going to be like, what’s Central Otago going to mean to those New Zealanders who live here in 2057, or who see it for the first time in 2107? Will it look like every other region in this country, indistinguishable except for its backbone ranges rising above valleys which are identical up and down the nation – artificially soaked, fertilised green, and crammed with dairy cows? Will those ranges be, as Meridian Energy Ltd appear to dream, forested with a spiderweb network of wind turbines (most of them idle) wires and pylons? Will the once unforgettably barren, thyme-scented, rocky hills of Alexandra, Earnscleugh and the tussocks of the Pig Root be smothered in a dark, monotonous blanket of pines? Will the rivers be little more than dry
stone beds, because no-one had the courage to lead the Councillors in shouting ‘It doesn’t have to be this way! This is not what we want!’ Its up to us to recognise what we have here and what it means, to prioritise what we value, to recognise that despite the brevity of our holiday on earth, there are big decisions which outlast us and affect those who follow our footprints and who will think of us with either gratitude, or disdain, pondering what was lost. I finish then with a question, asked in a children’s story by the butterfly, to the rosehedge. It’s the one which matters most, the vital question we must each ask ourselves here in Central Otago: ‘What do you leave? What did you give to the world?’ Let’s hope we can answer that question proudly, and not with embarrassment or shame.
This is ‘our landscape’, but we are brief caretakers. A century on another community will be saying the same: what they see, what they inherit, what it might mean to them depends on us and not what we say, but what we do. It’s a heavy responsibility, and it could indeed make ‘the world of difference.’ We can leave them a priceless gift if we have the courage: a landscape truly like no other.