Plenty 08 2017 aug web

Plenty culture :: media :: art :: food

Ainsley Gardiner is making movies and Swamp Thing are making waves, Darryl Church turns 21 while Plenty goes to Katikati, we learn how to say Nรกndor Tรกnczos properly, and Sulata gets cooking and we finally get fashionable in the foothills of Manawahe.

FR E E M A GA Z IN E

ISSUE 08 plenty.co.nz

02 / things we love 04 / to thine own self

24 / 21+2 30 / swamp thing 35 / seraphic 40 / passchendaele 42 / katikati so good they named it twice!

47 / saving the bay

st

20 / not your usual pot

Augu

17 / bee the change

ANDY T AYLOR info@plenty.co.nz

08

12 / standing on the shoulders of giants

in d e x

08 / an interview with ted dawe

SARAH TRAVERS design@plenty.co.nz ISSN 2463-7351 plenty.co.nz

fb.com/plentyNZ

Andy Taylor

Oh, and another thing – we have to write the editorial.

Sarah Travers

“We”? Wordy stuff is your department Andy Taylor

Ya but we could collaborate on this one, bring in your perspective – might make it more interesting.

Sarah Travers

Spose. What shall we cover this time?

Andy Taylor

I figure we could start off by thanking everyone, particularly the writers, who are preserving an independent media voice in an age of cut and paste journalism.

Sarah Travers

Yup, good idea – it’s also a nice way of thanking them for working hard for the love of it.

Andy Taylor

Exactly – especially Katee, Jennie and Sulata, who put up with your nagging about deadlines.

Sarah Travers

Ha, I like to think of it as ‘touching base’ – but constantly.

Andy Taylor

We should also thank all our awesome advertisers and remind people that they can subscribe to Plenty – we’re a free magazine but we rely on the support of advertisers and readers in order for us to keep on keeping on, and one of the best ways people can keep us in print is by subscribing. Subscribers get Plenty delivered to their door, and y’know, get to be a part of the family.

Sarah Travers

Andy Taylor

That sounds creepy.

I’ll reword it. Oh, and we should also remind people to get in on our cool competitions, ‘like’ us on Facebook, and sign up for our e-newsletter for extra content, behind the scenes stuff, and info on great stuff happening around the BOP. Sarah Travers

Leave it with me, will figure out something to do with it.

Andy Taylor

You’re not just gonna cut and paste this conversation are you?

Sarah Travers

NOPE.

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THINGS WE LOVE

No.3

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go on then!

WE TRAVEL THE HIGH ROADS AND LOW ROADS OF THIS LAND CALLED PLENTY IN SEARCH OF GREAT ARTICLES AND ALONG THE WAY WE FIND SOME STUFF SO AWESOME WE JUST HAVE TO SHARE IT. GET ON OVER TO PLENTY.CO.NZ TO SEE HOW YOU CAN GET SOME.

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Bee a part of change and have the funkiest lunch in the office with BeeWrapt’s awesome bees’ wax food wrappers, which you can read about in this issue. You can also get your hands on some of them for free – yes, free – by entering our latest competition. They are made right here in the Bay, and we apologise profusely for the lame bee reference in the opening sentence.

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TO THINE

OWN SELF. WORDS JENNY MICHIE PHOTOGRAPHY RIKA FUKUSHIMA

04

Nándor Tánczos may well have one of the most mispronounced names in the country. Certainly in my head he’s always been Nandor Tandor but I know that’s not right, so while his dog and my dog establish sprawling space at the café where we met, I need to establish the correct way to say his name.

“It’s two syllables – first one is Tahnt – rhymes with aunt. Second is zosh.

So Tahnt-zosh. My first name is said Naan-dor with a long ‘a’ like the bread” he explains with a smile. I suspect he’s had this conversation before. And with that outa the way and our respective hounds equally sorted, we can begin.

Nándor Tánczos is an immigrant; his father was a refugee from the 1956 Hungarian uprising and his Cape Coloured mother left South Africa as it was constructing the brutal racial segregation that was Apartheid. Respectively, his parents were a refrigeration engineer and a Home Economics teacher/entrepreneur, so we can assume education and hard work were important family values. They found sanctuary in England, where Nándor and his brother were born, and in 1974 the family immigrated to New Zealand.

Being an early and avid reader, young Nándor had great expectations of coming to a land where Māori culture was dominant. His visions of living in a raupō whare and wearing a puipui to a country school were dashed somewhat when the family moved to Takapuna on Auckland’s North Shore. A wonderful place to grow up, digging for pipi on the beach and working in the local dairy for milkshakes and peanut slabs, but not a multicultural experience.

However, those early days as a new migrant gave Nándor both empathy for others, especially second-generation immigrants, and started his own path of self-discovery.

“My whole life has been a journey of recreating an identity and sense of belonging, in a way”.

At 14 he spent a year in Hungary with his grandparents.

The complete immersion and living under a communist regime had a profound influence on the teenager from Takapuna and fuelled a desire to become a journalist. The family relocated back to England when he finished school and he promptly enrolled in a journalism course in the North of England. Only to drop out towards the end of it.

During the year-long Miners’ Strike the government froze the union’s strike fund; Nándor was on the ground and collected money for the workers, though he was physically prevented from entering mining villages in the North. “That was the first time I’d ever seen the police used so explicitly as a political force. What I saw in Britain was the police used to destroy a movement.”

He was also involved in the anti-nuclear movement and lived on the road; campaigning for peace.

We of a slightly older generation have known Nándor when he entered Parliament as the dreadlock-wearing, skate-boarding, civil rights and hemp-promoting young Rastafarian. ...A far cry from the usual crop of MPs, both in looks and attitude.

Coming back to New Zealand in 1985 Nándor was keen to continue his studies to understand the world and make it a better place. During his last year at Waikato University he had a Road to Damascus experience with his discovery of Rastafari. “It wasn’t that I became a Rastafari, it’s just that when I discovered who and what Rastafari was, I realised that’s exactly what I was already.”

“The reason I wanted to be a journalist was to be a fearless defender of the truth – after a while I realised that was an unlikely career outcome”.

We of a slightly older generation have known Nándor (in the way that one ever really knows a public figure) since 1999 when he entered Parliament as the dreadlock-wearing, skate-boarding, civil rights and hemp-promoting young Rastafarian List MP for the Green Party. I was working in Parliament at the time and he was a far cry from the usual crop of MPs, both in looks and attitude.

Then followed a complete immersion of another sort. In Thatcher’s Britain there was much to protest and this he did.

Nándor did in fact introduce a bill to allow hemp production, which was then illegal (it’s a great source of nutrition as well as cloth and the traditional hemp rope) but the Labour-led government of the time decided it was such a P L E N T Y. C O . N Z // A U G U S T 2 0 1 7

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good idea “We’re going to think of it ourselves”. They voted his bill down and introduced their own legislation which effectively did the same thing (but not as effectively he says).

Nevertheless, it is still an issue that Nándor is passionate about, but not in the way many people would think.

“We’ve taken pastoral farming to an extreme,” he says. “There’s a whole lot of places where we’re trying to grow dairy cows and it’s just not good land use – such as the Canterbury Plains. Our number one environmental issue – and this is true around the world – is pastoral farming. Hemp production, whilst not a magic bullet, is part of the solution of creating mosaics of productive use; that is exploiting the specific niches and microclimates that are in our landscapes instead of this paint-roller effect where we say we’re just going to grow grass everywhere and put cows on it.”

This is in fact permaculture. Nándor’s pet project, which brings us back to how he came to be here in the Bay of Plenty some years after leaving Parliament, which was his ‘home’ for almost nine years (he left after realizing if he stayed any longer, he wouldn’t want to leave, so comfortable is that particular golden cage).

Nándor’s wife is from Murupara and the family moved to the Bay several years ago. But even without his wife’s roots to the Bay, Nándor has long held a torch for this place.

“Lots of sunshine, it’s beautiful, it’s got some of the richest history in the country, both Māori and Pākeha; it’s one

of the earliest places for Māori settlement and it’s a stronghold of te reo Māori – people are still growing up here as native speakers. And we’ve got this amazing geology. The earth moves, it’s so alive!”

They intend to stay. Nándor says he feels more at home here than anywhere else in the country, partly because it’s so welcoming. “There’s loads of beautiful places but in a lot of smaller centres you get the feeling that if you weren’t born and bred there you’re never quite going to belong.”

Last year Nándor was elected to the Whakatāne District Council. After so many years in Parliament, why enter local government? “There are so many amazing things going on here but I felt there was a disconnection, things aren’t quite integrated together.” And this is where his passion about permaculture comes into play. The essence of which is to link things together to create beneficial relationships.

“It wasn’t that I became a Rastafari, it’s just that when I discovered who and what Rastafari was, I realised that’s exactly what I was already.”

“I see the potential for this area to be leading in sustainability, in resilience, in regenerative economic and community development and so I felt like I had a useful perspective to bring to the politics of the place.”

So in two year’s time what is a job well done on Council going to look like? “Apart from competently doing the basic work, the day to day stuff that needs to be done well to keep things moving, there are a few things that I want to see some progress on.”

One of them is the Awatapu Reserve, a lagoon formed by the diversion of the Whakatāne River in the 1950s. The original area is called Otamakaokao and a group of locals have started a kaitiaki group and is engaging with the community and council to restore the mauri of the area. “The water is really degraded because it was cut off from the river, so it’s dying. So we’ve got this project to bring it back to life and I’d like to see some real progress on this – it’s about ecological restoration, about community development and also about food security. I want to see a management plan for the reserve which is grounded in what the community wants.”

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“Another marker of success would be real progress towards solar power, where we are seeing solar panels on public buildings and some kind of process for helping households into solar hot water.”

Here Nándor sets me right on the Council consent fees for solar panels. I thought there was a hefty fee but in fact there are no consent fees for putting solar panels on your house. “A proposal came to council to start charging fees for solar, but Council decided not to do that. Actually the Mayor was very strong on it. But I’d like to see more done.

Whakatāne is regularly the sunshine capital and yet there’s barely any solar power here. I’ve got a three point solar plan for the District and I want to make progress on that.”

The third area where he’d like to see progress is in the creative sector, and he really sees the creative industries as a cornerstone in the economic development of the area.

“Creative workers bring their own work with them; when they work in that sector, they often work primarily online and we’ve got UF broadband here. You can do what you do and live in the most beautiful part of the country. So at the minimum we need a clear strategy in place as to how we are going to support the creative sector in this District.”

I’m a huge fan of this idea. I’ve long thought Whakatāne should be to the North Island what Nelson is to the South - a natural home for the creative arts.

Nándor wraps up the interview by bringing us back to permaculture.

“Most people apply permaculture to land use, around small holdings and lifestyle blocks, but what I teach is social permaculture.” And it is important to recall here that he’s got a postgraduate diploma in management and sustainability from Waikato University and is working on a thesis around applying permaculture design to economic development.

“The great model of sustainability is nature itself. So we need to look at what are the characteristics of natural systems and how we can apply that to our own economic systems. And when you start to do that, it’s a very fruitful way of looking at things.”

Despite not being able to sensibly pronounce his name, I’ve kept an eye on Nándor Tánczos for over 20 years. He was an interesting man in Parliament and he is now an interesting man here in the Bay of Plenty, with tangible goals to improve the area and the people in it. What I didn’t realize then but do now is that he also possesses a quality that I’m valuing more and more the older I get. It seems the wise advice Polonius gave to his son Laertes in Hamlet - “To thine own self be true” - embodies the man sitting across from me.

Plus, he’s got a dog. Need I say more?

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AN INTERVIEW WITH

Ted Dawe WORDS JENNY MICHIE PHOTOGRAPHY MICHELLE HYSLOP

Ted Dawe grew up in rural New Zealand and it is arguable that no one has ever captured the East Coast of the North Island in a more striking – or confronting – way than he has. His depictions of growing up along our coast and in our settlements have seen his novels gain fame and notoriety and become some of the moststolen books in our school libraries.

Jenny Michie caught up with him to talk about banned books, writing, publishing and how ageless rural towns are indeed a thing.

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“Do you still censor novels?”

She said not very often, so I asked if they’d censored 50 Shades of Grey?

And she said, no they hadn’t...

PLENTY What first got you into writing?

TD I came in through the school route. I was never a writer as a kid, but as an English teacher I began to teach kids to write and I learned things about writing by teaching them. And then I began to write myself, in a small way, as there’s something about writing . . . you feel you’ve got no right to call yourself a ‘writer’ until you build some sort of track record.

When I was teaching, the hardest thing was to get boys to read novels. This was before the internet so they read things like the Guinness Book of Records but never a novel, and I felt they were missing out. When you read a novel it’s not a passive experience, your imagination interacts with the story; trying to anticipate developments, fleshing out characters. With a short story or a TV show - you walk away and it’s all complete - you don’t have that lingering friction - that’s what a novel does.

I decided that I wouldn’t mind writing a novel, something that spoke to young men in a powerful way. It was the end of the school year, my wife Jane and I had six weeks’ holiday lined up at Whangarei Heads. I figured I needed 80,000 words, this equated to about 2000 words a day. It’s quite hard writing 2000 words a day, especially 2000 decent words. You can write 2000 crap words but 2000 decent words means you’ve really got to be focused.

My routine went like this; I got up at five every morning and then I wrote until I couldn’t write anymore. Mid-morning my son Oliver (who’s 20 now), would wander into the room – he was three or four then – and he would insist that I play with him. It was wrecking my routine, I needed a plan. So what I did was I blacked out the windows of his bedroom so he slept really late. He was too young to understand why the sun was so high in the sky when he got up, but I managed to get my full quota of words written. Anyway I did it and it took me six weeks.

PLENTY And the result was Thunder Road.

TD Yes. I sent it off to Penguin and Longacre Books and I sent a third copy off to the Richard Webster prize for unpublished manuscripts. After about three weeks I got a letter back from Penguin saying, ‘We liked the book but it’s no good for us’, and about two weeks later I got a letter from Longacre saying ‘We liked your book and here’s a contract’.

I was thrilled, but ironically about three or four weeks after that I got a call from the guy from the Richard Webster thing saying ‘You’ve won the prize for the best unpublished manuscript - $5000.’

I said ‘That’s great news, and it’s the second piece of good news about that book; I’ve got a contract from Longacre.’

He asked if I’d signed it and I told him that of course I signed it, and he said, ‘Oh well then, you haven’t won it as it’s officially published so you won’t be getting the $5000.’ So that was that!

Longacre supplied me with an editor, the author Emma Neale, who took the manuscript and went to town on it. She just covered it in red ink. Occasionally she put a line through eight pages consecutively. She’d say they were good pages but not for this book, they’re slowing things down too much. It’s tough to take but it’s what you need to hear from an editor.

Thunder Road eventually came out in 2003 and it was a smash hit; particularly with boys. I went to an enormous number of schools and talked to groups about it. All the time kids used to harangue me about Devon, the main character. ‘Why did he do this? Why did he think like that?’ It really made me analyse him. Finally, I thought I’d write a really big comprehensive door-stop of a book about Devon; everything, right from the very beginning.

PLENTY A Devon Compendium?

TD Yeah and so I wrote 800 pages and sent it off to the publishers at Longacre, but they just laughed at me and said you can’t publish a book like this! At this point the last Harry Potter had just come out, and I said, ‘What about Harry Potter?’ And they said, ‘You’re not JK Rowling!’ That put me back in my place. So I was sulking about this for quite a long time and I was speaking to a school out in Waiuku and I told the kids about this and they said you should just cut it in half; Part 1 and Part 2.

So that’s what I did, and I turned the first half of it into Into the River and the second half is called Into the World.

But the whole project took years of rewrites and rejection.

I got so pissed off that I hired my editor and even paid for a proof reader. Finally Emma said, ‘Well, now it’s ready to go you should send it to the publishers.’ But I was the little red hen: I baked the cake, I’m going to eat the cake.

PLENTY So you self-published Into the River?

TD Yeah, what a crazy idea that was. And then I did it again with Into the World. I was too bloody-minded: I’ve started this thing and I’m going to finish it. I did it all.

Jane, Oliver and I went out to Huia and took the photo on the cover of Into the River – that’s Oliver’s shadow in the corner of the bottom of the creek. Jane’s an art teacher so she got her students to Photoshop it to make the image to look dark and moody. In the American edition they wanted a new cover, but I insisted that I keep the original because it’s a special cover for me.

PLENTY Let’s come back to you for a bit. Where were you raised?

TD My parents were schoolteachers, my sisters and I and were born in Mangakino. But no sooner than we’d popped out that Mum and Dad went across to Ruatoria.

So those vital years, up to about age six or seven, were my first powerful memories and those early scenes of Into the River are Ruatoria based. They are East Coast memories and Māori town memories.

PLENTY You portrayed the small (Whareiti) and the river really well.

town

TD A river imprints itself on you in a powerful way when you’re very young. It would never do that to me today. There’s too much else in my head but back then, the smells and the sounds and the mystery of it - you never forget it. You’re not taking notes but you never forget it.

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PLENTY What I found when I started reading Into the River was that I had no sense of what year it was set in because the rural town is so ageless.

TD Yes, it’s a thing isn’t it? They may or may not have cell phones, but other aspects stay the same; the noises, smells and the spirit of the place. Rural town boys have a different life than they do in Auckland, they do go and spend all day in the creek. They don’t do that in Auckland.

PLENTY In addition to being a hit, Into the River made headlines in other ways.

TD The book came out in 2012 and did extremely well. It got Book of the Year, the supreme prize. Had it not won that prize no one would have ever heard of it. But as a result it was heavily promoted in every little shop around New Zealand. One day the Censor rang me up to tell me my book had been submitted by someone from Family First for censorship. Did I have anything to say about this?

I was a bit worried at this point and asked, “Do you still censor novels?” She told me not very often. I asked if they’d censored 50 Shades of Grey? No they hadn’t. The Censor was very thorough, though. She did a 14-page analysis; a literary analysis, an intelligent analysis, and I was flattered at the effort they put in to it. So I felt quite vindicated. She asked if I minded if they put a sign on the cover that said ‘For Older Readers’? I said ‘no’, and I thought that was all done – whew!

But then that was again challenged by Family First. This time it went to the review board. Once again it was uncensored but they decided to slap an R14 ruling on it. This was the first time this had ever been done. People I spoke to thought the R14 ruling was OK and that I wouldn’t mind. At first I didn’t, but then later I thought, no, there are people who are 11 or 12 and want to know about sexuality and adult issues (because these things haven’t arrived in their lives yet) and where else can they ask? They want to read about it privately and in the context of a story. So I was against it, but that wasn’t why it was a bad ruling.

Most of my novels are sold to libraries. (You don’t get big sales for YA novels in New Zealand.) Within a couple of days every one of my books came off public library bookshelves – all over New Zealand.

It was illegal to display them there.

Into the river went from being the most borrowed Young Adult book in New Zealand to being completely forgotten in the space of a month. And it stayed like that for two years.

Finally one day I wandered into the Auckland Library. There was a mock bonfire commemorating books that have been banned around the world. I asked the duty librarian ‘Why isn’t my book there?’ And they said, ‘Ted, your book’s not banned.’ I explained that it might as well be banned because I checked the computer and no one was borrowing it anymore; they had 60 copies and every one was sitting in the basement.

No one could borrow it, loan it, read it in public or display it in anyway.

And that was when CNN and The Guardian got interested...

Into the River, left, complete with DIY cover, and Ted Dawe, right, DIY publisher.

At that point the libraries mobilised and challenged the Review Board. They forced the book to be resubmitted to the Censor who overturned the censorship ruling. This again was challenged, and a complete blanket ban was placed on it – no one could borrow it, loan it, read it in public or display it in anyway until the whole issue had been resolved, and this was going to take some months. It was at this point the fiasco went viral, and media from all over the world reported it. CNN and The Guardian were interested because it’s an unheard of thing for a so-called modern Western democracy to ban books these days.

And finally the same committee that banned the book met and unbanned it. They realised they had painted themselves into a terrible corner and they were making fools of themselves, and so that was finally the end of that.

PLENTY

And did the sales come back?

TD Yeah it had a resurgence. I went into an online forum called Ask Me Anything on Reddit – it’s a hugely popular one – and as a result of that people bought heaps of e-books all over the world. Some people just bought it as a protest. So for a little while, by New Zealand standards, it sold really well. And that brought the book back from obscurity. Now that it’s settled, kids are reading it in school and some people are enjoying it – and some people are outraged by it.

PLENTY And now there is talk that Into the River might be made into a movie.

TD Yes, amid all this excitement a guy called Paul Judge, who is a film lecturer, bought the rights to the film.

So for the next few years he has it tied up but the tough part is that he needs to come up with about $6m in order to make a movie, and that takes some doing. I liked his proposal because he wrote a précis that showed me he really understood Into the River. He’s got strong ideas about it. It would have to have a unique NZ flavour, and it could only be made here. All about being Māori in a white world, burying your culture and bringing it back out again.

Growing up in Ruatoria gave me an empathy for te taha Māori. I speak Māori and I’ve always absolutely imbued their values into my own value system. There’s an earthy humanism that I really like and it infiltrates everything I write and think.

PLENTY What are you working on now?

TD I’ve decided to write a novel with a woman as the central character. Growing up in the 60s and 70s. Surviving abusive relationships. Struggling to look after her son. It’s got a long way to go but has begun well.

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Standing Standing on the shoulders of giants WORDS KATEE SHANKS PHOTOGRAPHY ANDY TAYLOR

Film maker Ainsley Gardiner has always found housework tough. In her “self-discovering 40’s”, she has happily realised why being a housewife, keeping things tidy, and cooking dinner is such a chore.

“It’s actually because I’m a creative person, working in a creative industry and anything that is not creative, like housework, diminishes my creative energy,” she beams. “It’s not that I’m lazy or unskilled – I’m creative. It’s a legitimate thing!”

Standin

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S

ITTING IN THE SUN-DRENCHED KITCHEN of her Whakatāne home, her creativity is also expressed through gesticulation, because Ainsley is one of the most prolific gesticulators I have ever spoken to. When she talks about filmmaking she is passionate, and her hands endorse her words – she even punctuates with them – as she recalls being a Doc Martinwearing teen from the capital who moved to the Bay with her father Sir Wira Gardiner in the 1980s.

“Although I had lived in Wellington until then,” she says, “we whakapapa to Te Teko, so it’s home.” And it was while growing up in Whakatāne on a diet of “really bad Hollywood movies” that Ainsley learnt what made a great film and ultimately fell in love with the genre. So much so, that she began the groundwork to fulfil her desire to write and direct, enrolling in the 1995 Avalon Film and TV production course.

As they do, things developed from her first producer’s role and, between studying and 2003, Ainsley had coproduced a 26-part series, produced a number of short films and made her first feature length film Kombi Nation.

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Writer/director Ainsley Gardiner waiting for the crane to get in position on the set of Waru. Image supplied.

She had also gotten to know Taika Waititi and together they worked on three short films and two feature-length films – including the award-winning Two Cars, One Night and Boy. She also formed Whenua Films, with actor/producer Cliff Curtis, and Miss Conception Films with Georgina Conder.

In recent times her creative energy has been poured into Waru, a film that opens next month and which brings together nine Māori woman directors who share their insight into child abuse in a sequence of eight short films that become one. At the centre of their stories is Waru, a boy killed at the hands of a caregiver.

Now, just over two decades after cutting her teeth in the industry, Ainsley believes she has come close to full-circle, and she harbours the desire to share her passion and skills with the Bay of Plenty by bringing movie-making to the region.

“I didn’t want to do Waru, I didn’t want to make a film about child abuse. In fact, I was almost indignant someone would try to bring Māori women together and that’s the story they wanted to tell – of all the stories – that story. It pissed me off.”

“Six years ago traffic and the cost of living brought me and my three daughters from Auckland back to Whakatāne. As much as I didn’t dislike Auckland, the creative industry of filmmaking is a real heart and soul industry. When you’re working you put so much of yourself into the job and, at the end of it, you are exhausted.

“Auckland didn’t do much in terms of allowing me to refill my creative tanks so I would return to Whakatāne to get centred. I realised, almost as a side effect, it would be an awesome place to raise my girls – and it has been.”

When she returned, she took up surfing. “The ocean is the place I recharge and, being in recharge phase, I surfed all the time. I’d drop the girls at school and my first priority was to check the surf – I wasn’t discerning when it came to the swell.”

Ainsley’s recharge phases are followed by a development phase, when surfing takes a backseat, then the engagement phase, when surfing pretty much goes by the wayside.

“Right now I’m engaged in writing so I have to be disciplined – I make sure I get two hours of work done in the morning before I check the surf and before I do anything at home otherwise my creative energy is diminished. But a bonus has been the discovery that my work is as creatively charging as it is taxing. If I get my two hours of writing done before anything else, I feel capable, energised and motivated and then I can tackle the boring things. Like housework and dinner.”

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“Quite selfishly, I agreed to do it to upskill – my thing has always been about upskilling. But it turned out to be an amazing experience. Not only is it the first time in 28 years a film has been written and directed by Māori women, the last was Mauri by Merata Mita, I feel like it has the potential to contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.”

“Since moving back my goal has always been to make movies in the Bay of Plenty, and that hasn’t changed” Ainsley says she completed the film believing that if people should be brought together to brainstorm solutions for our country’s appalling rate of child abuse, it should be women, particularly mothers, who have that conversation – not male politicians.

“The most amazing part about Waru is seeing how well Māori women work creatively together. Not to take away from any male director I have worked with, I think women are a lot more reciprocal with their energy.

You’re working your arse off and, where a man might say thank you, women are very conscious of how each other is doing and are always prepared to offer support.”

Ainsley describes herself as a lazy feminist – but a feminist nonetheless. “I want my girls to understand

Writer/director Ainsley Gardiner, DOP Drew Sturge and 1st AD Puti Simich on the set of Waru. Image supplied.

there’s a lot not right in this world in terms of how women are represented, treated, seen and contemplated.

I give them lectures in a benign way and along the lines of, ‘I know Nicki Minaj says bitches, it’s fine when Nicki Minaj says bitches, Nicki Minaj is allowed to call herself a bitch and to call other women bitches – men are not.’

But ultimately, I’ve been lucky to have had a great 12 months working alongside women, firstly with Waru and then the Breaker Upperers.”

T

HE BREAKER UPPERERS, which is currently in production, is an irreverent comedy about two cynical women (Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami) who run a business breaking up unhappy couples for money. It came about after Carthew Neal (producer of Hunt for the Wilderpeople) contacted Miss Conception about the project, which also stars James Rolleston, and it will be being handed back to Carthew in December for release next year.

But what excites Ainsley right now is a book adaption, Spark, she is working on. “It’s super, super cool and I really, really love it,” she says, with added gesticulation.

“It is written by a Nelson woman, it’s young adult action sci-fi and I’m very excited. Basically, Spark is about a genetically-modified teenage girl who discovers she has extraordinary powers and who is genetically connected to her best friend - whom she has to save from being killed. It’s basically an action movie.”

Action movies are Ainsley’s secret shame. “Actually they’re not even my secret shame, they’re my non-secret shame and everybody knows it. I want to blow up cars and flip stunt women over fences and houses – I would have liked to have been a stuntwoman if I’d been fitter.”

“I love Taika and I’ve never held any jealousy of FOMO (fear of missing out) or anything like that with him, but when I saw Hunt for the Wilderpeople I admit I had a little FOMO over the car chase scene. I was like dammit, I would have liked to be there for that car chase. And then I saw Thor and I was like OMG, I felt very unBuddhist-like in my jealousy.”

Lead actress Ngapaki Moetara and writer/director Ainsley Gardiner on the set of Waru during the morning karakia. Image supplied.

“I want to make movies like the first 20 minutes of Wonder Woman where hot, strong empowering women are kicking arse. Truthfully, I wish I’d made Wonder Woman. And Spark has allowed me to create my own action opportunity; that’s what women do.”

Ainsley is also working with a couple of other filmmakers who are interested in putting together a package of short films whereby each writes and directs one short film to be shot in the provinces. “When I was asked to be involved in this I was like sure, if you come to this province. So the plan is to shoot three back-to-back short films, hopefully in Whakatāne, in the spring.”

And then there is also a full feature, written by Briar GraceSmith, that will also hopefully be filmed in Whakatāne.

WHAKATANE GOLF CLUB Championship course - one of the finest golf courses in the Bay of Plenty.

With fast running greens and lush, forgiving fairways, the course offers golfers of all levels a challenging but rewarding 18 holes.

Relax afterwards at our lounge bar and restaurant/cafe with tasty home-made snacks and meals.

Par 70, 6009m course just 10 minutes from town near the airport.

WHAKATANE GOLF CLUB 181 Golf Links Rd, Paroa 07 308 8117 whakatanegolfclub@clear.net.nz www.whakatanegolf.com

“At the end of the day I want to make films my daughters will be proud of”

“Since moving back my goal has always been to make movies in the Bay of Plenty, and that hasn’t changed.

There are places filled with creative potential but that also suffer from poverty, disconnection and isolation.

Creativity and connection are balancing forces to all of that. People need to be able to have a voice and also a platform to express that voice – to feel, be seen and heard. I actually love the very specific nature of how people work together and similarly, that is what I am interested in, Whakatāne and the wider Bay of Plenty. How would we do things differently here?”

Ainsley said she is not big on one size fits all because the one size that has always been used in this country is the Hollywood size. “I’m always interested in what’s different about here, and what we can do differently here, and how we make that fit into our mahi. I haven’t quite figured it all out yet, it’s only been six years – I need a couple more,” she laughs.

And as film becomes more prolific in the Bay, Ainsley says she reminds herself daily that making movies is a privilege. “I’ve always done this industry on the blind faith that everything will work out. I’m lucky that the combination of talent, hard graft and a huge amount of luck, particularly luck in relationships I have formed, has worked. I’ve been very lucky in that I have found my tribe within New Zealand film. You can’t get anywhere without a tribe.”

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Ainsley singles out her involvement with Merata Mita as a defining relationship. “I was so lucky to have had her in my life. She was one of my mentors and the message she gave me most strongly is that it is a privilege to be a filmmaker.

Everybody is a storyteller but to be resourced to tell stories through the medium of film is a privilege and we’re not to take that lightly. The kaupapa at the 2017 Big Screen Symposium was a risk. Taika’s wife Chelsea stood and said we (filmmakers of today) don’t risk anything, people like Merata risked everything.

“When she did her Bastion Point documentary and her Springbok Tour documentary she risked life and limb, received death threats and had to smuggle her film out of places. I know with Merata, and others like her, we stand on the backs of giants and that even more so, it means we have a responsibility to do something powerful with our work. Film is a means by which we can either make social commentary or challenge social commentary. At the end of the day I want to make films my daughters will be proud of.”

Ainsley freely admits that she has hated filmmaking a lot of the time that she has been a filmmaker. “It’s hard work, often thankless, and often unstable. Sometimes I’ve thought, “That’s it, I’m going to get a normal job, but then I realise I couldn’t have done anything else. There are always good days and there are always bad days.”

“But everything I’ve done has always lead me back to film.”

Bee the change Not so long ago, being an eco-warrior meant long hair, questionable fashion choices and sacrificing home comforts - but thankfully those days are gone and being environmentally conscious is now not only practical and cost effective but also downright cool.

WORDS SARAH TRAVERS PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED

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I

F I TOLD YOU that you’d never need to buy another roll of plastic cling film and be able to wrap your play lunch in a product that would extend its life all while using a funky, attractive and environmentally friendly material, would this peak your interest?

Yeah it would, and it has also caught the eye of quite a few others around the country. BeeWrapt cloths are washable, reusable food wraps that mimic the qualities of plastic wrap while using all natural materials and being entirely reusable.

They are also extremely practical – and they look fantastic.

Bees are the masters of food preservation Variations of oiled and waxed cloths have been used for hundreds of years, and most likely by your grandmother too, but this particular incarnation is the brainchild of Trudy Kendall of Tauranga, and it came about purely as a byproduct of the beehives on her family property in Papamoa. “Bees are the masters of food preservation,” Trudy says. “They create beeswax to line their hives, keeping them watertight and bacteria-free, and to seal their honey stores indefinitely. I was dipping our cheeses, using our beeswax, and it proved the very best way to store them. I would crack off the beeswax

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and throw it away, but that all seemed so wasteful. It was the spark of an idea to find a way to use and reuse the fabulous properties of beeswax in the household kitchen.”

It was all very much experimentation at first however Trudy recalls. “I didn’t realise the wax would crumble and crack, and the first ones lasted for only a month or two, so I tried blending the beeswax with a native tree resin and manuka oil to make it flexible. Then, when pressure and heat are applied in an infusion machine, the finished product is impermeable to liquids and resistant to odours - if food becomes stuck, it can easily be washed off and the wax wrap reused.”

“There was life before plastic, and that we can store food successfully without it.”

Appropriately, she named the product of this trial and error process BeeWrapt and it has proven to be an instant success. “It was made for cheese and bread but it is also incredibly functional for vegetables,” Trudy says.

“Everything lasts longer when in contact with beeswax. The cotton allows the food to breathe and the wax protects it from fridge humidity, so foods don’t wilt and soften, or crack and dry out. You can easily get twice the life out of veggies – things like salad greens and loose-leaf vegetables.”

Trudy Kendall BeeWrapt founder

What’s more, because the cloth can hold its shape, it can be fashioned into a pouch for mushrooms or, by using the warmth of one’s hand, moulded over a bowl as a cling film replacement. It also serves as an excellent alternative for single use plastic in lunchboxes, cutting down on the need for plastic wrap. “The way I see it,” says Trudy, “if we don’t have cling film in our households, and don’t use it in front of our children, they will not become accustomed to using it and it won’t become a default to use cling film when they grow up. Basically, we can phase out these wasteful practices by modelling good alternatives.”

With bright and striking prints as well as more contemporary patterns to choose from there is a ‘look’ to suit all visual tastes.

“I’ve been collecting fabric all my life,” says Trudy, “and I really want to remind people that there was life before plastic, and that we can store food successfully without it.”

“New Zealanders are so great at embracing new things, especially when they see the commonsense in it.”

From humble beginnings at home, to trialling the BeeWrapt product at the Rotorua Night Market, Trudy now has a team of seven women making and selling BeeWrapts on a part time basis - except for Trudy who seems to work double time.

“We sell the wraps mainly at food shows and home and garden shows,” she says. “People need to see how they work before committing themselves. They often buy at the shows then come back for more, and more people are beginning to recognise the product.

New Zealanders are so great at embracing new things, especially when they see the commonsense in it. We are such a practical nation. And I love being able to tell people that their reward for using a little less plastic in their life, is that their food lasts longer – and that our planet may be a little better off.”

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Sulata Food

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Words h Sulata Ghos Photog raphy Sarah Travers P L E N T Y. C O . N Z // A U G U S T 2 0 1 7

Aaah! The good old trusty Crock-pot, also known as a Slow Cooker. It brings to mind thoughts of coming home to a warm steamy meal that smells like, well, well, a Crock-pot meal.

Let’s face it, there is absolutely nothing sexy about the slow cooker; it rarely features in the kitchen capers of celebrity chefs, it usually lives under the kitchen sink, and can you think of one time - ever - in the history of Hollywood rom-coms that someone invited that special someone over for a romantic slow cooker dinner for two. No, you can’t.

Well, we are here to change that.

With a bit of effort on the weekend, you can have a taste sensation on the Saturday and several hearty and tasty meals prepped and frozen and ready to be enjoyed on those tiring Wednesdays when you come home from work and just can’t be bothered spending any time in the kitchen but can’t stand the thought of another pizza. So listen up Nigella, Jamie and James Cameron – here begins the lesson.

Fattier cuts of meats do better in slow cookers than leaner cuts.

SUL ATA’S CROCK-POT TOP TIPS

Brown beef mince before freezing.

Sauté onions to release the sweetness.

Meat on the bone is more likely to be juicier at the end of all that cooking.

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Chip otle Chicken Taco Bowls This is an entry-level slow cooker recipe. Easy prep, easy cook and easy to eat!

Start off with these ingredients, but don’t be afraid to make it your own by adding some of the awesome local produce we have here in the Bay.

- I NG R E D IE N TS -

- PREPAR ATION -

1 kg Chicken Thighs

1

Chop the onion and sauté in one tablespoon of olive oil. Add minced garlic and cook for a couple of minutes more. Allow it to cool.

1 tablespoon Oregano

2

Marinate the chicken with the herbs and spices.

1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

3

In a freezer bag, add the marinated chicken, followed by sautéed onions, black beans, corn and salsa.

4

Let all the air out of the bag and seal the bag and freeze.

5

When ready to cook, thaw the meal in the refrigerator.

3 tablespoons Chipotle Sauce 1 tablespoon Ground Roasted Cumin

1/2 teaspoon Ground Red Chilli 1/2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika 1/2 White Onion 5 Cloves Garlic 1 cup Salsa 1 can Black Beans 1 cup frozen Corn Salt – to taste 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

- COOK Transfer everything from the freezer bag to the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours.

Remove the chicken on to a platter and shred it with two forks. Add it back into the slow cooker and combine.

Serve with a side of cooked white rice.

Add all the trimmings you fancy!

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Serves four

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Chilli Con Carne

This is one of those recipes where you can do all the prep ahead of time and put everything together in the freezer. All these veggies are available from your local supermarket, but your specialist veggie store or one of the Bay’s local markets are awesome places to pick up the best, freshest, produce like capsicums and jalapeños.

- I NG RE DIE N TS 700g Beef Mince

1/2 teaspoon Black pepper - cracked

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 can Black Beans

1 Onion

1 can Red Kidney Beans

5 cloves Garlic

1 tablespoon Ground Roasted Cumin

1 Red or Green Capsicum

1 tablespoon Oregano

1 Jalapeño (optional)

1/2 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

3 tablespoon Tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon Ground Red Chilli

salt – to taste

1/2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika 1/2 teaspoon Fennel seeds 1 can beer

Great food, excellent coffee, and the best sweet treats in the Bay. We also have plenty of gluten free options, and we do catering.

Café Coco Open Monday - Saturday 10 Richardson St, Whakatane P. 07 308 8337

- PREPAR AT I O N Chop the onions. Dice the capsicum. Chop the jalapeño if using. Mince the garlic.

1 2

In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and sauté the onions. Set aside and let cool.

Add the rest of the oil in the pan and cook the mince so it is no longer pink. Set aside and let it cool.

3 4

In a freezer bag, add the cooked onions, garlic capsicum, jalapeño, tomato puree, all the herbs and spices along with the mince and drained beans.

5

Seal tightly before freezing.

- COOK -

Add the thawed chilli con carne ingredients into the slow cooker.

Add the beer and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Serves four

21+2

WORDS ANDY TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED

PLENTY HAS MET QUITE A FEW INNOVATORS IN ITS TIME - DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS, AND ARTISTS - AND WE’RE ALWAYS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED ABOUT JUST HOW MANY OF THEM BEGAN IN THAT CLASSIC KIWI R&D LABORATORY - THE SHED. BUT DARRYL CHURCH DIDN’T START ON THE ROAD TO BEING ONE OF NEW ZEALAND’S BEST ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNERS IN A SHED – NO, THAT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS. INSTEAD, HE STARTED IN A CARPORT. Sitting in his Rotorua office with a well-oiled team swirling around him, one of New Zealand’s mostawarded designers can see the funny side of his first solo foray into business 21 years ago. “I bought a drafting table from some guy - it was so cheap I literally ran out the door – and somehow managed to get it into my wife’s Mazda 323. So I had that and a huge old CRT monitor on my computer all set up in our converted carport!”

At the time he had a perfectly good job with an architectural practice in Rotorua, and didn’t really have the inclination to go it alone, but knew that he did want to go further somehow. “I don’t think I ever really had any huge ambitions, and I certainly never envisioned

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all of this,” he says looking around him, “but I was really passionate and excited about design. Basically I just wanted to be more involved in the whole process, and of course purely as an employee that wasn’t possible.” In the end it was his wife Lee-Ann who was the catalyst, first suggesting the idea and then encouraging him to set up as Darryl Church Architecture. And of course providing the Mazda.

Top: Lakesyde Business Centre, Rotorua The Redwoods Visitor Centre Toilets

Overnight success and a meteoric rise to stardom did not immediately follow. Instead, he embarked on years of hard graft, working on housing projects from Whangarei to Wanaka, slowly building a solid reputation for innovation and unique design.

“There were some lean times in the beginning,” he admits. “But then there always are when you start something like that, and when you are young you don’t tend to focus on the obstacles. Well, you do, but one of the benefits of being young is that you underestimate them!” Spend any time in the presence of Darryl Church and you are struck by his passion for his profession, but also his active sense of humour. Architects can be a fairly buttoned-down bunch, but this is a man who not only competed in national-level mountain biking and in the world championships for BMX, but also jumped a BMX into the harbour off a ramp on the Port Ōhope Wharf. On television.

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Darryl Church, left, and Werner Naude The early years of Darryl Church Architecture were mostly consumed with residential property because that was where the market was, but it was Church’s first forays into commercial work that began to turn heads.

These were mostly small-scale office buildings and school alterations work, but his first proper break came with Porter Hire Head office in Hamilton, a design that still looks like it is fresh out of the box today.

After moving to the Advocate Printing Building in Rotorua and taking on three staff in 1998, the next move came in 2006, to Trinity House, by which time the practice had grown to four full-time staff. The global financial crisis had just knocked the stuffing out of the residential market, and though there was no conscious effort on Darryl’s part, an organic shift, if you’ll excuse the phrase, saw his focus move to commercial property, and the result would be some of his most iconic designs.

The Redwood Visitor Centre toilets, Waipa Wood processing workshop, Trinity House itself, and Bright Wild Thomas office building would establish the firm’s reputation as a force to be reckoned with, though Darryl does still produce residential designs, with the stunning Tarawera Cabin recently featuring on TV’s Kiwi Living as a prime example. Though Darryl can’t say which of these he likes the most - “It would be like choosing between my children,” he laughs - collectively these projects played an integral part in the recent transformation of the city’s downtown. “I’m a Rotorua boy,” he says, “so it has been great to be a part of that and to see how things are taking shape in a quite distinctive way. Although I do get almost offended when people see a new building going up and they say it must be one of mine – I really don’t want to have a signature and strive to approach each project from a different angle. It’s the site context, the clients brief and a narrative that we weave into the designs that makes them unique.

But the more you talk to people the more I think – hope! – that it is the difference they are noting, and I’m pretty happy with that.”

Well certainly they’ve been noticing something – clients were actively seeking Darryl Church Architecture’s vision and the business was growing exponentially, and in keeping with his desire to be different Darryl set about shifting the goal posts once more.

“I feel embarrassed to admit it, but it’s only in the last five years that I’ve treated this as a business rather than just a hobby that I really, really love. Architecture is a very ‘incremental’ business; before you can work on large scale projects you have to work your way up in increments: from a $1million to a $2million to a $5million to a $10 million building to a $15 million building and so on. To complicate it further, you also need to work in value increments by genre of building typology as well.

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ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN IS VERY MUCH ABOUT PROBLEM SOLVING AND OVERCOMING CONSTRAINTS, AND IN THAT REGARD HAVING A REALLY GREAT, VERSATILE AND TALENTED TEAM MEANS YOU CAN NOT ONLY SOLVE PROBLEMS, BUT SOLVE THEM WITH A DEGREE OF FLAIR AND CREATIVITY.

WHEN YOU ARE YOUNG YOU DON’T TEND TO FOCUS ON THE OBSTACLES. WELL, YOU DO, BUT ONE OF THE BENEFITS OF BEING YOUNG IS THAT YOU UNDERESTIMATE THEM!

Just because you have completed a $5million office building, doesn’t mean anyone trusts you to design a $5million school building if the previous largest school you designed was $1million value.

And to get to that point where I’d like to be involved in the larger commercial projects that interest me, I knew I needed another pair of hands. Not just more staff, but a fully fledged partner.”

That partner came in the form of Werner Naude who was, conveniently, already close at hand, having joined the firm two years earlier after relocating from South Africa. Like Darryl, he had a lifelong passion for design and had been attracted to engineering before choosing architecture as his path. “I’m drawn to the creative aspect of architecture,” he says, “of starting with an idea in your mind and building it into a reality that has a significant impact on the people it serves. Good design requires time – slow thinking – time for the intuitive aspect of creativity to percolate through your mind. And what I liked about Darryl was that we were on the same wavelength in this regard.”

Health and Sciences Building, Toi Ohomai Campus, Rotorua Bright Wild Thomas & Lee Building, Rotorua – a stylized graphic image of Mokoia Island is wrapped in a glass veil to the exterior of the building

It was this shared vision that recently saw Darryl and Werner standing before several hundred people at a reception at Toi Ohomai’s Institute of Technology – designed by Darryl himself fittingly – to announce not only their partnership but the 21st anniversary of Darryl going solo – and also the rebranding of the firm: DCA Architects of Transformation has a team of ten staff, and both Darryl and Werner are quick to point out that this is strength of the company.

“The power of a team is hard to overestimate,” Darryl says.

“Architectural design is very much about problem solving and overcoming constraints, and in that regard having a really great, versatile and talented team means you can not only solve problems, but solve them with a degree of flair and creativity.

And it also means that clients can create a relationship with the individual parts of the team and know that they are in good hands and go straight to the member of the team that they need.

Which works well for us because we don’t have a reception!”

“We have some very talented and passionate individuals,” he adds, “and we like to see things differently and to be life-long learners rather than staying with the tried and true. Architectural design has impact, and we take our responsibility very seriously, so we like to keep our ears and our eyes open. We design for the future, and the possibilities we have before us are really exciting.”

Here’s to the next 21 years.

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Everything under the sun Native ConnectionNZ We don’t just think Whakatāne is a great place to live. We also think it’s a great place to do business, and to prove it we are highlighting three new businesses that have shunned the congestion of the main centres to call Whakatāne home.

Check out Wharekai at 126 The Strand, Whakatāne

Wharekai Davina Thompson, owner and head chef at Wharekai Whakatāne, describes her latest venture as something that families have done for generations: gathering and making kai on the marae. Except in this case you can find her at 126 The Strand in Whakatāne.

"Whakatāne is a unique town, and the people are very community focused."

Wharekai offers home cooked food inspired by both the food from the marae and talking to customers. “I love talking to the manuhiri,” she says, “and I actually get a lot of the ideas and food from our manuhiri.” Davina says she’s always learning, but that you learn by your mistakes as well as by your successes. Wharekai has received an amazing response from the community, and Davina describes Whakatāne as a unique town and the people as very community-focused. She loves to work with other local businesses to give back to the community, including providing a Christmas meal for those in need, supporting local events, arranging donations for those affected by the Eastern Bay floods, employing a “pay it forward” system for customers, and trading in what she calls ‘koha currency.’ “We use the same kawa or tikanga from the wharekai on the marae, so people barter with stuff, like lemons for a feed and a koha for coffees. It’s about giving.”

Mind Body Movement

Mind Body Movement is a yoga and pilates studio offering classes for all levels as well as private sessions. Owner Amy Green describes the space as being all about mindful movement – getting people to stop thinking negative thoughts and stressing, and to move with your breath to connect to the present moment. She was always a lover of yoga but got into pilates after suffering a serious back injury, and had been teaching in the area for three and a half years before going out on her own and starting Mind Body Movement. “I really had no idea how I was going to do it,” she says, “but I knew the time was now, and after working with a local real estate agent I finally found the perfect space. The studio is a place to escape and reset – it’s a space where people can come and feel like they’re part of a community.”

“It’s a space where people can come and feel like they’re part of a community.”

The studio is still evolving, and Amy says she is a strong believer that having faith in yourself will make it happen.

“People often ask, ‘What if I fall,” she says, “but it’s far better to think, ‘What if I fly!’”

You can find Mind Body Movement at 1/240 The Strand, Whakatāne

Pear Lisa Turpie is no stranger to the Whakatāne retail scene, having previously owned The Good Life on The Strand for eight years. Her new venture on Appenzel Drive, Pear, is a home furnishing and furniture store offering French and European-inspired pieces. “I’ve always been in retail and love helping people,” Lisa says, “and I live quite nearby so saw that this area has so much potential. Whakatāne is awesome, and I wanted to open something that complemented the other stores. It was just a matter of finding a niche – and I think I’ve found it.”

"Whakatāne is awesome, and I wanted to open something that complemented the other stores."

Her advice to others is to be passionate about what you’re doing. “Starting a business is hard work, a lifestyle choice, but make sure you get good advice and do your homework.” Lisa also says she is fortunate to have loyal friends and customers she’s met over the years who know and trust her taste.

“I know what I like and have had really good feedback,” she says, “and I’m keen to inspire people with the products I have to create unique spaces in their homes.” Pear is certainly doing that with style.

You can visit Pear at 2D/B Appenzel Drive, Whakatāne

Discover a

We would like to hear about your new business!

CONTACT:

Priceless Lifestyle

Live, work and invest in the Whakatāne District Take the opportunity to live your dream

Kelly.Thorn@whakatane.govt.nz

whakatane.com

whakatane.govt.nz

SWAMP THING WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY ANDY TAYLOR DESIGN NICOLA DOBSON

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IF WRITING ABOUT MUSIC REALLY IS LIKE DANCING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE - AS HAS OFTEN BEEN SAID - THEN THIS WILL BE A QUICK WALTZ THROUGH A GOTHIC MANSION ON THE SHORES OF LAKE ROTORUA. Hamurana Road, on the northern shore of Lake Rotorua, to be precise - far from the bright lights of Vegas on the southern side, and yet remarkably close to the southern dark of the Deep South in the US of A. Because this is the home of Swamp Thing, a twoman blues roots juggernaut that seem to have been exiled from below the Mason-Dixon via Alcatraz and who are possibly one of the best bands in Aotearoa today. Accept no substitutes; this is not some pale tribute band foisting awkward Clapton covers on the non-comprendo crowd in the garden bar, this is the real deal – dark, brooding bayou boogie, loud, intense and demanding of your attention. And by the looks of things, they may also be the people your parents warned you about.

SWAMP THING

“A lot of this CD came from playing around with sound,” says Barker, “mixing things up and pulling some inspiration from a recent rip to Louisiana. We have a fairly dedicated fan base and so we like to keep changing things, to keep making things different for them and interesting for ourselves. If you don’t do that you can become just a cabaret version of yourself.”

“A LOT OF THIS CD CAME FROM PLAYING AROUND WITH SOUND...”

SAYS BARKER

Barker has been a musician since he was sixteen, spent many years as percussionist with The John Butler Trio and also toured with the Split Enz reunion in 2008. He’s genial and voluble, and takes the term multi-instrumentalist to a whole new level. He is also a sought after music teacher, and as our interview draws to a close a young student is waiting at the door for piano lessons.

In person then, Swamp Thing are nowhere near as bad as your parents would have you believe.

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ORMED IN 2010 by Michael Barker and Grant Haua, Swamp Thing have produced three criminally underrated albums and built a solid reputation as a must-see live act.

They may be a two piece, but both their studio and live sound sees them punch way above their weight, and their brand new studio offering Rumours & Lies sees them continue to mine the rich seams of what they like to call Swamp Pop. Recorded in Barker’s Twisty Pole home studio, Rumours & Lies is, however, a departure from their earlier recordings, which often featured just the duo with stripped back arrangements and no overdubs.

This new outing sees the inclusion of Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper’s Black Quartet string section, horns and even a sousaphone (Google it – we had to).

Like all great partnerships there is a yin and yang to Swamp Thing, and the yin to the yang (or is that yang to the yin?) of this duo is Tauranga based Grant Haua, who has - let’s just be honest about this - a voice that many singers would sell their soul for. It’s part Tom Waits growl and Screaming Jay Hawkins howl, with a hint of Keb’ Mo’ and the telltale signs of someone who has spent a lot of time listening to Blues and Motown and way too many late nights laughing and hanging out downtown.

They say we all get the faces we deserve, and to say Grant Haua got the voice he deserves is probably not stretching things. Sitting in the Hamurana studio talking, he is just a guy from the Bay with an easy smile and a quiet intensity, but when he sings, you know that this is a voice that has been lived in.

Like Barker he is a life-long musician, but it wasn’t till the 90s that he started writing his own songs – “You just get sick of covers n’ shit, you know bro” – and when the two met through a mutual friend they clicked immediately. “When I heard Grant sing – for about two seconds – I knew this was the guy I wanted to be working with,” Barker says.

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OR ALL THE POWER and hard-out dirty, husky goodness this duo conjure up, it is the sheer precision that strikes you when you see Swamp Thing live in the flesh. They may be the product of that classic Kiwi DIY mentality with a home-built studio, but there is none of the She’ll be Right attitude that condemns other bands to mediocrity. This is peddle-tothe-metal and hell-for-leather Saturday night stuff, with no self indulgence, no slacking off, and no coasting, just weapons-grade low-down that needs to be danced to.

The precision and perfection of their live show is the product of an awful lot of touring, everywhere from the Okere Falls Store just up the road to the, er, Republic of Whangamomona.

“That was a cool gig,” laughs Barker, “Whangamomona is a self declared Republic in East Taranaki and we played for the Rural Riders Association. The highlight was a chariot race – well, when I say chariot it was actually a big old armchair on two snowboards towed behind a V8 truck through the mud. A really cool bunch of people.”

“And a pretty rowdy bunch of people,” says Haua. “Crazy, but safe. We’ve also played at a rest home – for Michael’s Mum – that was really beautiful, very cool. Not so rowdy.”

Perhaps even more peculiar than their performance in the Republic was Swamp Thing’s appearance – by invitation (though the producers probably won’t like us saying that) – on New Zealand’s Got Talent in 2013. Check it out on Youtube: Barker and Haua are clearly having a ball, though the judges can’t quite seem to figure out what to make of their barnstorming three minutes of aural assault. “Grant’s son is a huge fan of that show,” says Barker, “so we thought why not do it. It was about the only way we’d get some primetime exposure and Grant’s boy got such a massive kick out of it! It did kinda alienate a few people – mostly the hipsters who didn’t think it was cool. But hipsters never come to shows or buy music anyway, so who cares.”

Their touring schedule also sees them performing overseas, from regular shows in Australia, where Barker spent many years prior to Swamp Thing, as well as time in Louisiana, where a track on their new CD was recorded. “We play overseas a few times a year,” Barker says, “particularly festivals, and one of the real standouts for us is the Woodford Folk Festival in Queensland – it’s extraordinary, with about 20 performance locations and just great crowds of happy people. Again, crazy but safe.”

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“We sell a lot of CDs at festivals,” Haua adds, “and people still do buy CDs!” “It’s a fairly antiquated format,” Barker admits, “but we like it, and look at vinyl, it’s making a comeback. A lot of people like something they can hold in their hand, something with cover art and liner notes.”

THIS IS PEDDLE-TO-THEMETAL AND HELL-FOR-LEATHER SATURDAY NIGHT STUFF, WITH NO SELF INDULGENCE, NO SLACKING OFF, AND NO COASTING, JUST WEAPONS-GRADE LOW-DOWN THAT NEEDS TO BE DANCED TO.

If you go to only one live gig this year - well, then you should really get out more - but if that is the case then go see Swamp Thing.

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seraphic /SƏˈRAFɪK/ adjective characteristic of or resembling a seraph or seraphim; angelic; blissful; sublime.

Model and now photographer Danielle Hayes, local model Akeylah Wade, and makeup artist Laura Kara went out with Kate Sylvester’s new Woodland collection in search of the sublime. In the foothills of Manawahe they found it.

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PASSCHENDAELE FROM HOME FRONT TO FRONTLINE

WHILE ALL NEW ZEALANDERS ARE AWARE OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF GALLIPOLI IN OUR MILITARY HISTORY – AND NATIONAL PSYCHE – VERY FEW INDEED KNOW EVEN THE NAME OF THE BATTLE THAT REMAINS OUR GREATEST MILITARY DISASTER. IT COST THE LIVES OF NEARLY A THOUSAND KIWIS – A REMARKABLE NUMBER OF THEM FROM THE BAY OF PLENTY – AND NOW A NEW SERIES OF ARTWORKS AND AN ACCOMPANYING EXHIBITION BY ROBYN HUGHES AIMS TO BRING THIS TRAGEDY BACK INTO FOCUS.

WORDS ANDY TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY KEN DOWNIE

In a few short hours on a miserable morning on 12 October 1917, more New Zealanders were killed or maimed on the sodden clay of Passchendaele in Belgium than on any other day in our recorded history. It was a battle that arguably surpassed the brutality and futility of all those that took place during the whole of the Gallipoli campaign, and together with our Commonwealth allies New Zealand paid a terrible price. A grand total of 700 yards of enemy territory were captured at a cost of 11,650 New Zealand, Australian and British casualties: that equates to the frightening figure of 16.6 casualties for every yard gained.

In Britain or Canada the name Passchendaele is a byword for the waste and horror of the First World War, and yet in New Zealand it is largely unknown, all but forgotten, and pushed into the shadows of what occurred in the Dardanelles in 1915.

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To the generation that witnessed the from anonymity. “The artwork really 1914-18 struggle, this would have been tracks my attempts to understand truly mystifying. Passchendaele was what happened,” Hughes says. “And designed to break the deadlock of a the more I researched, and found conflict that had lapsed into endless diaries and letters, the more I was trench warfare; it was to put an end to struck by how these were just regular, this senseless, enormous and relentless young Kiwis being asked to achieve carnage by smashing through the the impossible. People like Monty German lines and breaking out into Ingram, who went from being a bank open country. Passchendaele was to be clerk in Whakatāne to serving in a a turning point, the beginning of the machine gun unit in Passchendaele; end, a triumph achieved by applying his diary describes frontline action in lessons learned in previous defeats. lurid detail, and I have incorporated But it was not; instead, these grand that into one of the works. It was ideas foundered in mislaid plans and voices like his that I wanted to be Belgian mud, with hundreds of young heard, to tell their own story.”

New Zealanders dying brutal and anonymous WAIST DEEP IN MUD OCTOBER 11TH, 1917. deaths, far from Mixed media on paper. 2016. their homes and far from the glory they and their families must have imagined.

Commemorating Passchendaele – Home Front to Frontline by Robyn Hughes aims to bring those young men back

ROBYN IN FRONT OF HER PIECE ‘LAMENT’ Acrylic on canvas. 2016

In keeping with the enormity of the battle itself, this is a dense, detailed and sprawling work that is both reminiscent of her earlier work, Monte Cassino, while also broader in scope and intensity.

In Passchendaele, Hughes’ large canvasses bring to life not only the experiences of those that suffered in the Belgian mud but also in the vacuum of uncertainty at home in New Zealand.

“I tried to present a visual timeline of events,” Hughes says, “and for me the work really sits at the intersection between art and commemoration. It commemorates those who served on the front line, and also those who were ‘doing their bit’ on the home front – knitting socks for soldiers, making up parcels, raising money to support the war effort. I’ve

referenced fragments of information, but I hope that the viewer will bring their own stories and knowledge to the work. For example, the issue of censorship of the press interested me: the soldiers accounts and letters told a very different story from the ‘glorious’ advances that were often reported in the press.”

Passchendaele was recognised rightly at the time as a terrible and outstanding catastrophe in a year already described by one writer as a ‘carnival of death’, but it was also a catastrophe that young New Zealanders featured in with heroism and resolve. The enduring

tragedy of Passchendaele would be if the sacrifices made by more than one thousand New Zealanders in October 1917 were allowed to fade into history, and that is why Hughes work is so timely, and so valuable. This is an exhibition that rightly deserves to be seen up close, in all its detail and grandeur; it debuts at Te Kōputu a te Whanga a Toi in Whakatāne on 17 September till 3 December.

Museum Display and Galleries Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi Esplanade Mall, Kākahoroa Dr, Whakatāne Monday - Friday: 9am - 5pm Saturday - Sunday: 10am - 2pm whakatanemuseum.org.nz

KATIKATI

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KATIKATI

So good they named it twice One of the things we love most about this land called Plenty are the awesome communities to be found right in our backyard. On the highways and byways of the Bay there are some great places that you probably pass by quite often, and that’s a hard-out shame because you should really stop awhile and smell

Location, location, location – if Katikati isn’t the geographic heart of the Bay of Plenty then, well, frankly my dear, it should be. Close to the coast, near the main centres, and with the mountains as a backdrop this small but perfectly formed town of 4,500 people should also be your next staycation.

Because the Kaimai Coast manages to pack most of the features that make the Bay such a cool place into just a few square kilometres - rolling surf, a tranquil harbour, thermal pools, sub-tropical gardens, and orchards. What more do you want, and it’s easy to see why the area was chosen by the ‘gentleman entrepreneur’ George Vesey Stewart.

the coffee. No one does small town charm like we do in the Bay, so we’re gonna be bigging up the little places in between in the coming issues of Plenty,

But say Katikati to most Kiwis and they think murals. And yes, there are indeed a lot of murals here, including a new work by the famous Mr G.

and first up it’s Katikati – so good they named it twice!

WORDS ANDY TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY BOB SACAMANO

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In the 1870s Stewart convinced the New Zealand government to make 10,000 acres available for what was to be the country’s first planned Irish settlement, and then he set about populating it with settlers from, um, Ulster in Northern Ireland. He had originally considered Hokianga (which would have made this a very different story), but thought Katikati offered better land and access to markets, and he carefully planned the layout of the town with

DISCOVER

Jacqui Knight of Katch Katikati with ‘Barry’ - one of the town’s best known sculptures.

Jacqui is on the right.

two distinct groups in mind, one comprised ‘of country gentlemen to provide capital and congenial social atmosphere’ and another of ‘tenant farmers’ who would do all the hard yakka. Stewart’s utopian vision came a bit unstuck as the gold fields – which he saw as the fledgling town’s primary markets – began to run dry, but the Ulster men and women were a hardy bunch and they stuck it out, slowly building an agricultural industry, a community and a town.

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Mon / Weds / Fri 9-5pm Tues / Thurs 9-late Sat 9-noon Upstairs, Cherry Court, Katikati

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The Museum makes Katikati even more worthy of a visit, with an outstanding collection of tikanga Māori artefacts and a reproduction 1900s school room and homestead kitchen that will make you glad you weren’t around in the good old days.

A great place to learn more about those early settlers and the Māori who occupied the area prior to the influx of Ulstermen is Katikati’s latest addition, the brand spanking new and really rather awesome Western Bay Museum. Housed in the town’s old fire station in the middle of the main drag it has been a community labour of love with support and endorsement from the business sector, and it

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Clockwise from top, a recent mural work by the renowned Mr G, Katikati's original jail, part of the Haiku Walkway, and a sample of the many local walks available.

is far removed indeed from the usual dust and clutter of small town museums. In fact, Te Papa National Services Te Paerangi has provided guidance, support and advice to the Museum, helping it develop and progress into a 21st century facility, though Manager Paula Gaelic is also quick to express her appreciation to the hard working volunteers that have made the Museum a reality.

Volunteerism – that classic kiwi staple of getting stuff done, but it is work that has paid off nicely: the Museum makes Katikati even more worthy of a visit, with an outstanding collection of tikanga Māori artefacts and a reproduction 1900s school room and homestead kitchen that will make you glad you weren’t around in the good old days. A rongoā herbal medicine garden is under construction out the back, and for a different form of medicine you can pay a visit to the town’s original jail, which functioned largely as a drunk tank in its heyday (one might say it seems remarkably small for that task given the town was filled with Irishmen, but that would be unkind and we’ll get letters so we won’t go there).

And if history is your thing then the Athenree Homestead is also a great spot for another amazing step back in time. Captain Hugh and Adela Stewart’s family seat is in the process of being fully restored as an authentic and exact rebuild (in style, character and size), re-using original materials wherever possible, and as such it is a living historic homestead and garden park nicely reflecting the cultural heritage and pioneering foundations of the area. They also do awesome scones.

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Ambria Gastrobar - award-winning gastronomy.

Try our New Zealand fusion menu or watch the sun go down on the deck with a world class New Zealand wine or a refreshing craft beer.

But say Katikati to most Kiwis and they think murals. And yes, there are indeed a lot of murals here, including a new work by the famous Mr G. Jacqui Knight of Katch Katikati says the murals were initially created to promote the town during a downturn in the kiwifruit industry in the 1990s, but since then the project has taken on a life of its own. So much so that other towns have tried to get in on the act and steal the Mural Town crown (you know who you are, and we’re not having it!).

“There are currently 67 murals and pieces of art around the town,” Jacqui says, “mostly depicting the history and culture of the area – so it’s basically like living in New Zealand’s biggest open-air art gallery. The murals are organised by the local group Katikati Open-Air Art and they also offer hour-long mural tours which are quite popular. And they host the NZ Mural Contest and Arts Festival which opens this year on the 30th September and runs through until the 7th October with a load of activities, including having seven artists painting murals with the theme of this year’s Festival – The Future are our Children.”

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If size really does matter to you then Katikati is also home to New Zealand’s biggest rugby ball.

Aren’t they worried they might run out of wall space? “We are, but we have a cunning plan,” Jacqui says, and we’ll leave it at that. If you want the full story – and a whole big bag of cool stuff to do in town, you can find the Katch Katikati crew at the library, also on the main drag.

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Less well-known than the murals but also way cool is the Haiku Pathway that follows the riverside walk and features boulders engraved with haiku poems written by poets from around the world. The boulders are beautifully weathered and this is the biggest collection of haiku stones outside Japan and the only haiku pathway in the Southern Hemisphere. And if size really does matter to you then Katikati is also home to New Zealand’s biggest rugby ball.

But mostly it’s the little things that make small town BOP so cool, and Katikati does that pretty well too. “We’re a friendly place,” Jacqui from Katch Katikati says, “we’re small town New Zealand written large. Lots of great shops, lots of nice people who are genuinely pleased to welcome you to Katikati and show you round. Come for a weekend getaway, check out the shops, eat some great food, and go home with a back seat full of fresh produce that you can buy from roadside stalls.

We’re just up the road, and we’re a breath of fresh air.”

We couldn’t put it better.

KEY EVENTS Friday night plant and produce market Every Friday 4 - 6pm Monthly Lions Moggies Market Second Saturday of the month Katikati Avocado Food & Wine Festival 13th January, 2018 Katikati A&P Show 4th February, 2018 Katikati Twilight Concert Series 6th and 27th January, 10th February, 2018 Aongatete Festival Under the Figs 23rd and 24th February, 2018 Full details can be found at

www.katikati.org.nz

Stockists of: The Western Bay Museum showcases the historic, cultural and artistic stories of the Western Bay with ever-changing exhibitions in the Taylor Bros Transport Ltd Gallery. Schools are invited to experience our Seeka Kiwifruit NZ Ltd 1900s School Room Programmes. Group bookings are welcome for Museum tours and a day in Katikati can be tailored to suit.

Western Bay Museum The Old Fire Station, 32 Main Road, Katikati Open: 10am - 4pm 7 days; closed some public holidays phone: 07 549 0651 email: info@westernbaymuseum.nz or bookings@westernbaymuseum.nz

www.nzmuseum.com

• Macjays • Vassalli • Zafina • Seduce • Elm • Marco Polo • Scope ...plus many more 46 Main Road, Katikati Phone 07 549 1001 Kellys of Katikati

WORDS BY ANDY TAYLOR

THE AUTUMN OF 1942 HOW THE BAY WAS SAVED FROM THE REICH saw dark days indeed for New Zealand. Singapore had fallen to the Japanese Army in February, Rommel’s army had launched a surprise offensive in North Africa, and in the Atlantic Uboats were sending freighters to the bottom faster than shipyards could send them down the slipways; the northern hemisphere seemed poised to fall under Axis control within months. Then, in March, word reached the New Zealand government that fascism was set to strike even closer to home. Adolf Hitler, brooding in his Berlin bunker, was casting Prime Minister Peter Fraser, a cruel and covetous eye over then destroy key infrastructure yet another jewel in the crown targets and spread mayhem until a of the stumbling British Empire: garrison force could be dispatched from the Fatherland to occupy and Ngongotaha.

It had been late in that enslave Aotearoa. The country’s month that startling intelligence future hung in the balance, and just reports began reaching one man – Sydney Gordon Ross – Wellington: a commando unit of stood in the way of Ngongotaha, the Bay of Plenty, and the Wehrmacht had PRIME MINISTER all of New Zealand been landed on the PETER FRASER falling under the Nazi Bay of Plenty coast jackboot. and made their way In March 1942, to Ngongotaha – from Rotorua police popularly known to constables to the Office locals as “The Sunny of the Prime Minister, Side of the Mountain” the same question was – and established being asked: was Ross a base from which the man for the job? they planned to let loose hell. First they At first glance, would assassinate many would have

thought not. Born the son of a blacksmith in Thames in 1909, he moved to Auckland with his family at an early age. Tall and slim with a long, sharp nose, Ross drifted through a variety of jobs including electrician, baker and labourer, but his real calling seems to have been crime. By the mid1930s he had convictions for theft, burglary and false pretenses, with time spent in a borstal, but he topped this in 1939 by winding up in jail for breaking and entering in Te Puke.

It was while serving this sentence of nearly four years that Ross came under the influence of one P L E N T Y. C O . N Z // A U G U S T 2 0 1 7

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Charles Alfred Remmers, an ex-London policeman who had come to New Zealand in 1912.

Remmers signed up to the New Zealand police but soon wound up on the other side of the law – and in prison – after it was found that his late night patrol duties offered opportunities for burglary that he was unable to resist. Upon his release in 1915, Remmers went straight for nearly 20 years until he became involved in an ill-advised used car dealership in Wellington that saw him – in a caper straight from a B-movie - impersonating a clergyman and being convicted for forgery. By 1937 he was once again a guest of His Majesty, and it was during this period of incarceration that he met Ross, 20 years his junior, in Waikeria Prison near Te Awamutu.

Fellow inmates remember the two as firm friends who shared a disdain for authority and the love of a good yarn, but they also recalled that there was something more to both men than the average petty crim. Remmers’s dislike for the government seemed more than just bitterness, and in private Ross spoke of friends in high places, foreign connections that went to the top in Germany, and he appeared to be receiving funds from those connections

while incarcerated. One man who served time with Ross says that he made it clear that once released he had plans in store and places in those plans for a chosen few colleagues from Waikeria. But what those plans were he never fully disclosed.

On 28 March 1942, Ross was finally released from prison. Instead of visiting family or friends however, he went directly and at great haste to Wellington. And well he may have hurried, because what he told Robert Semple, Minister for National Service, whom he met on the following day, was earth-shattering.

Ross said he had been in contact with a German agent named Barnett who had asked him to join an established sabotage unit of Nazis and sympathetic Kiwis based in Ngongotaha. They had been landed on the Bay of Plenty coast by a long-range Uboat and were under the command of the disgruntled Remmers, who had been released from prison prior to Ross in 1941, and who had chosen that location for health reasons; it was, after all, The Sunny Side of the Mountain.

Ross said he had been approached because of his contacts and underworld connections, which the infiltrators would find good

- ROSS AND REMMERS -

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use for, and had been offered handsome remuneration for joining. He said he told Barnett that he would think it over, but instead he went straight to the authorities; despite his colourful past he was, he said, a loyal Kiwi who could not abide the thought of a Naziruled New Zealand, but was fearful that the police would not believe him, and that was why he had chosen to reach out to higher office.

They had been landed on the Bay of Plenty coast by a long-range Uboat And he had found just the right man: in the previous weeks there had been a flurry of intelligence reports across Semple’s desk about a shadowy group across the Tasman called – appropriately – Australia First, who planned to form a spy ring and aid invaders. Arrests had already been made and the story was to break in New Zealand in the very next day’s Dominion Post. Bob Semple was a downto-earth Australian who hated red tape and liked to get things done. When Ross walked into his office it made perfect sense that if there was skullduggery going on across the ditch then why not in New Zealand, and this was Semple’s chance to stamp it out before it took hold and everything was mired in bureaucracy. But there was more: Semple’s name, in addition to that of the Prime Minister’s, was top of the list of targets. Semple’s and Fraser’s lives were in danger.

There was no time to lose, and that same day Ross and Semple met with the Prime Minister. Fraser too was horrified but perhaps not surprised – he had also seen the reports on Australia First

– and he took what would be a fateful decision to summon not the NZ Police Commissioner, but the head of the Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB), Major Kenneth Folkes, and to place the entire matter in his hands.

Folkes was a very different man to Semple and Fraser. Newly arrived from the UK – he had only recently been promoted from Lieutenant – he came from an unremarkable background in the carpet industry, but despite this he seized the initiative and set about establishing a lavish counter-insurgency scheme that would not only knock the Nazi interlopers for six but establish the newly formed SIB as a force to be reckoned with. He immediately decided Ross would go undercover so that the full extent of the plot could be reeled in, and within days Ross had become Captain Calder of the Merchant Navy, complete with officer’s uniform, almost-new Ford V8 and all the petrol and hotel vouchers he would need to travel about while establishing contact with the Nazis. It was all strictly hush-hush, with Ross roving at will, wining and dining, and meeting clandestinely with both his Nazi(s) wranglers while at the same time feeding information back to Folkes.

Ross was a dedicated and adept double agent; huge folders of intelligence were complied by him in just a few short weeks, with Nazi sympathisers being whittled from the woodwork by the wily Ross everywhere from Te Puke to Tauranga to Wellington. SIB agents followed hotly in his tracks, adding and confirming the veracity of his reports, and the dossiers on the Nazi network grew so swiftly that Captain Meikle, SIB head

- FOLKES AND SEMPLE -

in Auckland, who became Ross’s wrangler, stepped in to silence concerns by Rotorua police about the shifty movements of the known criminal Syd Ross in their city. This was not the game for the Rotorua plod, Meikle said, noting that they were a mob that could not even catch a cold.

Meanwhile, in the capital Folkes, began to prepare for the worst: Article 18(b) of the Defence Act of Great Britain passed wide constitutional powers to the SIB -with Folkes as head- in the event of a direct insurgency threat, and Folkes believed just such a threat existed. As Hugh Price writes in The Plot to Subvert Wartime New Zealand, Folkes “and a handful of senior officers thought it scandalous that the Prime Minister ‘lacked the guts’ to take the step that would smarten up New Zealand’s act ‘. . . but what can you expect from a government that is just a band of bloody wharfies.’”

With the government so badly hamstrung and the SIB the sole bastion of professionalism in a sea of bumbling yokels, Folkes, Meikle and the Bureau were flirting with extreme measures indeed. In June of 1942, the Nazis of Ngongotaha were taking New Zealand as close to a military government as it

would ever come.

The Rotorua police may have been unable to catch a cold but they certainly had a better nose for bullshit than their big city colleagues.

Because that was precisely what the whole story of Nazis in Ngongotaha was.

Ross was a relatively B-grade criminal but a first class actor; his entire story was a hoax, helped along by a willing audience driven by the anxiety of invasion fever and the fervid desire for certain officials to further themselves and their causes. The flimsy tidbits of intelligence on “Nazis” that Ross fed the SIB were grossly exaggerated purely to serve their own ends, and Folkes’ desire to action 18(b) has been described as bordering on a coup attempt.

Remmers was certainly part of the game, but only as a talented liar and shit-stirrer rather than an actual fascist, and the main reason for his and Ross’s success was the culpability of the SIB, who, to put it kindly, lacked the talent required to see through the fog of war and their own thrusting ambition. Ross and Remmers P L E N T Y. C O . N Z // A U G U S T 2 0 1 7

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were larrikins, two men who liked to yank the chain of those who brought them to task for their criminal past, but the real crime was that they were ever taken seriously.

The genuinely serious repercussions of the SIB’s actions however, were – luckily for all involved – neatly overshadowed by how the farce that would become known as The Folkes Affair played out.

The Rotorua police may have been unable to catch a cold but they certainly had a better nose for bullshit than their big city colleagues.

In July, with things reaching fever pitch, and Folkes rather ostentatiously demanding troops be placed under his command, Fraser finally asked the police to step in; they wasted no time in doing what should have been done weeks earlier and swooped on the Ngongotaha address listed as the Nazis’ HQ. There they found an elderly Native Department clerk, a dry-cleaner and three nurses, none of whom showed the least signs of insurgency. It was, to put it mildly, all a bit awkward for everyone involved. How had the government, and the top intelligence unit in the land, been duped? How had no one bothered to cross-check Ross’s reports and question his motive? And why had no one knocked on that door in Ngongotaha and spoken to the clerk, the dry cleaner or one of the nurses?

It was so awkward in fact that everyone involved – again in classic B-movie closingcredits style – agreed to smile, shake hands and forget the whole thing. Ross tried a failed closing act by disappearing into the bush and whipping himself

50

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with barbed wire to simulate Nazi torture, but by that time the game was well and truly up and no one was buying it. When he next met Meikle, the Captain gave him a wink and left the room; they would never see each other again.

The exposure of the hoax led to an inquiry by the attorney general, and Folkes bore the brunt of it. In early 1943, in a move of supreme utu, the red-faced SIB was taken over by the Commissioner of Police, and Folkes returned quietly to the UK and the carpet trade, to which he was apparently much better suited.

Ross and Remmers were never charged; they had caused the government enough embarrassment without the media circus that would no doubt have accompanied their court appearances. Charles Remmers, arguably the director of the whole thing, went on to face a higher court in September 1943 when he died of leukaemia at Otaki, aged 55. His leading man, Syd Ross, was soon back on police radar however, being convicted of

assuming a name, receiving stolen property and false pretences, and this time he was imprisoned in Paparua prison, near Christchurch.

Ross, being Ross, soon managed to escape, purloining a bicycle along the way, but – perhaps lacking the directorial guidance of the mastermind Remmers – he gave himself up just six hours later. This time there was no grand scheme, no fast cars and flash uniform for Sydney Gordon Ross, and he was charged, somewhat demeaningly, with bicycle theft. He returned to prison and died in 1946, aged just 37, from tuberculosis.

His obituary of 8 November 1946 in the New Zealand Truth lists Ross as “a tall slim crook who tried to bluff his way through life, but never thoroughly succeeded.”

In that he may have failed, but perhaps the life of Syd Ross still has something to teach us the dangers of blind acceptance of authority.

THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN

Ngongotaha on the shore of Lake Rotorua.

April 1951 WA-27571-F Whites Aviation Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.

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