waggy dog tales

Little North Island town of Turangi finds salvation in big track proposal

2009-11-05T20:17:00.000-08:00

The summer heat roasts this little town, nestled under the cloak of Mount Pihanga at the head of Lake Taupo. Slowly it bakes brown before yawning into autumn. The deciduous trees deepen in colour casting a vibrant pallet of earthy hues across the land. Lying at an elevation of 350m, winters are harsh. It’s not unusual to walk out and snap the panes of ice that sometimes lie on the ground all day.

Every day nearly 5,000 vehicles pass through, the occupants may get a fleeting glance of the river below as they cross the bridge into town. Beneath flows the mighty Tongariro, its virginal waters sourced from snow-fed springs and filtered through alpine herb fields and ancient forest. It sparkles, bubbles, swirls and chatters – mystifying anglers and soothing souls. At times, angry, as it snarls and bites at its banks chewing through the land. It’s the raison d’etre, the reason for being, why thousands of anglers come to fish this world-famous river. It’s also the reason why this town exists.

Turangi has three ski fields within reach, one of the best one-day walks in the world, a National Park with active volcanoes in a primitive landscape and thermal pools. It offers challenging hunting, fishing, mountain biking, hiking and white water rafting and sits on the edge of our largest lake.

The Rough Guide to New Zealand describes it as a “small, flat, seemingly characterless place”. Centred in the middle of the North Island it is four hours drive from Auckland and Wellington and 40 minutes from Taupo. “It’s halfway to everywhere and that is the problem, a town that the public by-passes,” says Ross Baker, local motel owner and member of the advocates for the Tongariro River group.

Baker thinks Turangi is a town in crisis. “You only have to walk to the town centre and all the shops are empty,” says Baker. “Employment is limited, the number of fishing licences have been falling steadily in the last few years, the condition and the size of the fish has decreased.” The minimum size of caught trout reduced from 45cm to 40cm last year.

He sees salvation in a project that brings together the spectacular beauty and character the world heritage park region has to offer. A short drive away is the best one-day walk in New Zealand and listed as one of the top ten in the world, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

It is estimated that up to 70,000 people do the crossing every year between December and April. Baker says last summer there were queues from start to the finish. “People have started complaining about congestion and the track just can’t deal with the numbers. People come here for an alpine experience not to be in a queue,” he says.

The crossing is one of the regions biggest earners but has a limited season throughout winter. Baker estimates as many as 50,000 people miss the trip because of the extreme weather the alpine crossing can throw out.

He wants to find another great one to four day walk that provides a direct link from Turangi to Tongariro National Park and possibly circuit to Turangi. “State Highway One runs straight through this town, the tourists come here, they just need the walks provided - even the walks are here but the links are missing,” he says.

Baker refers to the popular walking and biking tracks that stretch along both sides of the Tongariro River up to the winter fishing limit, the Fence Pool. Beyond that is another network of roads and tracks that service the Rangipo Power Station. Here, a sophisticated system of well-maintained tracks remain from an ambitious hydro scheme conceived in the sixties, when this sub-alpine region was earmarked for another power station on the Tongariro river.

Beech and podocarp forest cover the area, used by hunters, trampers, and mountain bikers and serious canoeists. The area includes the beautiful Tree Trunk and Pillars of Hercules gorges, especially spectacular after high river flows and planned water releases from the hydro scheme. For the more adventurous a wide range of tramping tracks and huts go deeper into the Kaimanawa mountain ranges.

There is one link missing from the chain. Several thousand hectares are locked up in the Tongariro/Rangipo Prison farm on which are eight individually secured units. The advocates have been denied access by local prison management to extend the tracks because of concerns for security.

Baker points out State Highway One is closer to the units than where the proposed track above the river will be. As there is no main ring fence around the prison the highway poses more of a threat. Below the prison, the river channels through a steep wilderness gorge accessed only by white water rafting groups.

Luke and Pianika Boddington run Rafting New Zealand in Turangi. “Turangi gets missed a bit and doesn’t get the support and promotion that National Park and Taupo get. It’s in a prime location but, being in the middle, people just drive through and miss it,” says Luke Boddington.

Although they like the idea of more tracks they do have concerns about the impact the tracks and more people may have. “The last thing we would do is support something that would hurt the environment,” says Luke Boddington. The area is getting busier over summer, more rubbish is left and people wash in the river so we’d like to see it taken away from the river he says “It’s a balancing act and needs to be managed well, whoever builds it must manage it from the start,” says Boddington.

Richard Balm, has designed and worked on over 120km of biking and walking tracks in the Taupo region and is a member of the cycling advocacy group Bike Taupo. He says when the group design a track it is planned to be a dual purpose bike and walk track. Balm was part of the team to build W2K from Whakaipo to Kinloch on the western side of the lake. It has been so successful there are plans to extend it right around the lake.

He can’t see a problem with the Turangi/Tongariro tracks, and says it will only take time before the access through the prison land will be resolved. Although he doesn’t have any environmental concerns about accessing the Tongariro River he gives more consideration to the success of a planned three-four day trek. “People like tradition and tracks that go somewhere naturally, like the coast to coast. When you put things in artificially they don’t work so well,” says Balm.

MP for Taupo Louise Upston is right behind extending the tracks because “it fits within the strategy of the governments national cycle way. There is such an extensive network there it makes sense to fill the gaps.”

Upston intends to work with the Department of Corrections to find ways to move through the “challenges in the gap in the route”.

“The advocates were denied access after approaching the Department of Corrections so we need to see if they are valid reasons and how these risks can be managed. There is an alternative but it is not as desirable,” she says.

She bubbles with enthusiasm planning how the national route could run through the Waikato River Trail to Atiamuri, linking to Lake Taupo and further south connecting to the central North Island national bike route where the Turangi proposal will join.

Rotorua International Airport is due to open in December and this will encourage tourists to see the wider Taupo area as a destination and not a place to pass through says Upston.

She says it’s a balancing act, between promoting the walk and bike trails, and overcrowding and doesn’t foresee any repeat of the “trail of ants” on the Tongariro Crossing. “As soon as other walks are made available numbers may increase but it also spreads them around. The people that enjoy the outdoors are not the ones that trash it,” says Upston.

Turangi takes its name from the Maori leader Turaangitukau who was the keeper and guardian of the tribal God Rongomai. It is home to the Ngati Tuwharetoa people who settled around Taupo Moana, the inland sea, over 500 years ago.

Following the introduction of brown and rainbow trout in the late 1800s, Europeans began to find an interest in Turangi and until the 1950s, the town stayed a sleepy trout fishing settlement and Maori community.

By 1960 the population had grown to about 500. Historic cottages and lodges remain between the old highway and riverbank on the eastern side of State Highway One.

In the “great hydro electric power era” of the sixties bulldozers moved onto ancestral land of the Ngati Turangitukua, sub tribe of Ngati Tuwharetoa on the western side of the highway. Construction started on a new hydro town in 1964 to service the Tongariro Power Development. By 1968, Turangi’s population grew to 6,500.

The town cost $16 million and boasted a state of the art shopping mall, a well-planned grid of streets and a stencil of weatherboard workers cottages. It stands as a fine testament to a model utilitarian town but remains a bland and ugly monument with an empty, soulless, draughty shopping mall dubbed the “tomb”.

It was the vision of Tuwharetoa that New Zealand’s first national park was gifted to the nation in 1887 to ensure the sanctity of the mountain temples of Tongariro.

Tuwharetoa Trust Board director Rakei Tairoa says Ngati Tuwharetoa have always been used to agreements with public access since 1926 when the agreement with the crown and Tuwharetoa Trust board was established.

“If people want to make tracks on private property they will need to talk with the private land owners, most of which outside of the Department of Conservation is Tuwharetoa. The one significant landowner above the Whitikau stream, on the western side of the Tongariro River, is the Lake Rotoaira Forest Trusts. Access was allowed across the land to build the power project, says Tairoa.

“Currently people walk up and down the river now. People go walking and fishing there to enjoy and respect the space, that is wonderful, that is beautiful. What is now going to be proposed is an extension across crown and private land and that will need to be negotiated,” says Tairoa.

There is no problem if the Trust is approached correctly as landowners but we are used to dealing with the crown or supporting ministry not private entities he says.

It’s a land of special character and extraordinary beauty at peace in an environment originally shaped by powerful primal forces and deserves to be shared. Tongariro National Park, offers breathtaking scenery and active wilderness experiences in harsh volcanic landscapes.

If the town visionaries fulfil their dream, for every person that now leaves Turangi two more will come and stay instead of passing through. Many will stay longer and instead of driving down that stretch of road, turn off and stop.

“One of the real shames of this country and its wonderful conservation areas is that so few people get to enjoy it,” says Upston.

Film Review Coco avant Chanel

2009-11-05T20:12:00.000-08:00

Coco avant Chanel

Dogged mental courage molded by misfortune is often required to breakthrough barriers and succeed. Good looks help as well. Anne Fontaine’s film, Coco avant Chanel shows the metamorphosis of the woman behind the iconic label, Chanel.

“You like seeing me on all four legs,” she says with haughty disregard to her soon-to-be saviour, racing magnate Etienne Balsan, caught on her knees attending to a hem.

French actress, Audrey Tautou weaves a magnificent performance of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel supported by a talented French cast. Beautifully feline and untamed, like a sleek black cat, “Coco” stalks her prey, stage-managing her early connections.

Coco is introduced as a rejected figure of a little girl, clutching a teddy and deep in baby dreams, as she travels with her father through the isolated slate-grey villages of northern France when he abandons her at the Aubazine Monastery’s Orphanage.

We meet an aloof and fun-loving Coco again 15 years later in Moulin working as a seamstress and moonlighting as a cafe-concert singer. She acquires the legendary nickname, Coco, from the song she sings to smirking soldiers, “Coco qui a vu Coco”.

Coco plays her hand among the frivolous world of the idle rich and with a determined courage mesmerizes the snobbish boors of her gentrified audience. Even in love, she is no kitten, “A woman in love is helpless, like a begging dog,” she confides.

Estranged and ever observant, like an elegant black lily among a bed of crowded peonies, she declares the haute couture in the sea-side town of Edwardian Deauville is, “like being in a pastry shop”.

Coco disregards fashion and embodies a stylish hauteur. Early influences from the orphanage flash through her story, monochromatic tones, the simplicity and union of black and white, a practical work ethic, the profound effect of the nun’s habit in her design, and the androgynous influence that personified the early Chanel.

Coco’s life is weaved on an intricate tapestry of determination and rejection. She is never satisfied in love or manages to break through the bourgeoisie barrier. The film liberates a woman who entered a man’s world leaving a legacy of chic artistry.

Coco avant Chanel is a film that walks with dignity. Audrey Tautou embodies in “Coco” a fascinating and gutsy defiance of social norms. The film is inspirational and makes that Chanel handbag appear a little bit closer.

Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel) starring Audrey Tautou (Amélie and The Da Vinci Code ), Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola, Marie Gillain and Emmanuelle Devo. Directed by Anne Fontaine (The Girl from Monaco). Rated PG contains coarse language. Running time 110 mins. Drama, Biography. French with English sub titles. Now showing at selected cinemas nationwide.

Relief mission tells of animal tragedy in tsunami-ravaged Samoa

2009-10-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

The World Society of Protection of Animals programme and media manager Bridget Vercoe talks to Pippa Brown after spending five days in Samoa leading a relief mission to assist the animals affected by last week’s tsunami.

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2009/10/relief-mission-tells-of-animal-tragedy-in-tsunami-ravaged-samoa/

Rare kokako settle back in the Waitakere rain forest after 50 years

2009-10-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

The haunting melody of the once endangered kokako, or blue wattled crow returns to Aucklands Waitakere ranges. Pippa Brown looks at what it means to the manawhenua to have these beautiful birds back.

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2009/09/rare-kokako-back-in-the-waitakere-rain-forest-after-50-years/

Atenisi University's new Pacific programme challenges 'outsider' history

2009-10-11T23:09:00.000-07:00

A new Pacific programme is set to change traditional colonial perspectives and encourage Pacific Island students to rewrite their own history. Pippa Brown speaks to Pacific Studies Researcher Dr Opeti Taliai.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-pacific-programme-to-challenge.html

Pacific radio defends ban over 'unbalanced' Fiji interview

2009-10-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/07/pacific-radio-defends-action-over.html

Operation Grapple nuclear test victim frustrated at governments lack of action

2009-10-11T22:48:00.000-07:00

Cook Islander Tau Grieg shares her story with Pippa Brown of her fight to be recognised as a victim of nuclear radiation in the 1950's. They hope this month’s granting of the right to sue over British nuclear testing in the Pacific will be the turning point in their private battle to succeed.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/06/couple-in-lonely-fight-against-pacific.html

Up to 5,000 non-resident New Zealand children may be missing out on school

2009-10-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

Thousands of Pacific children may be missing out on education in New Zealand because their parents are overstayers, says a Pasifika school trustee spokesperson. Pippa Brown talks to Ben Taufua.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/06/thousands-of-pacific-children-miss-out.html

Kalafi Moala explores Tongan democracy

2009-10-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Kalafi Moala explores Tonga's desire to move the country into the future while keeping hold of it's unique Tonganness established over 3,000 years ago. Pippa Brown reviews the discussion.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/06/moala-explores-tongan-democracy-and.html

Tributes flow for Dr Ron Crocombe

2009-10-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Pippa Brown attends the Auckland memorial service of “Papa Ron” the father of Pacific Studies.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/06/tributes-farewell-father-of-pacific.html

Cockle population death thought to be due to global warming issues.

2009-10-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Pippa Brown attends an environmental photography exhibition at Auckland Zoo’s Old Elephant House and finds 80 per cent of the cockle population died at Whangateau Harbour earlier this year.

Keeping eyes on precious Whangateau Harbour

Photo: Pippa Brown. Photographer Dr Roger Grace stands next to Wavelets in mangrove seedlings taken in a few cm of water in the setting sun of Whangateau Harbour.

The death of 80 per cent of the cockle population at Whangateau Harbour early this year is threatening the harbour itself, says marine biologist Dr Roger Grace.

This week, Auckland Zoo is holding a photography exhibition, Eyes on Whangateau Harbour, to coincide with World Environment Day on June 5.

The Whangateau Harbour, known for its abundant marine life and inter-tidal environment, is recognised as the least spoiled mainland estuary in the Auckland region.

Its uniqueness extends both above and below the water. Dr Grace equates it to how other estuaries in the Auckland area must have been in pre-human times.

The clarity of the water is mainly due to the abundance of cockles.
“If the cockles die there won’t be as many to filter the water,” says Dr Grace, who is also a Whangateau HarbourCare Group member and Greenpeace photographer.

He attributes their sudden decline to “another of those climate change things”.

Photo: Pippa Brown. Photographer Dr Roger Grace with flounder.

The combination of low tides at midday and very hot conditions happened twice this year in January and February and “although the event is not unusual in itself, frequency is a factor”, he say.

High temperatures probably played a major part, but a toxin or parasite could also be involved, says Dr Grace.

“This would weaken the cockle beds and make them less likely to cope with high temperatures,” he says.

The quality of water is due to other factors too. The catchment area surrounding the harbour is small and residential areas of Omaha and Point Wells have been kept to sandy low-lying areas where runoff is filtered through the sand.

“It is important not to develop higher ground,” says Dr Grace. There is an increased danger the amount of silt going into the harbour will increase when surrounding forestry is harvested.

Despite losing 80 per cent of the cockle population this year, Dr Grace thinks the quality of the estuary water is better than the rest of Auckland.

The water leaving the harbour can be clearer than that coming in from the open sea, he says.
“Visibility can be up to 15m in the harbour. It is a snorkeller’s paradise in the right conditions,” he says.

The Whangateau HarbourCare Group hopes to either promote the area around Shoe Island for a marine reserve or extend the area west from the already protected Kahikatea forest into a scientific research area.

Both would achieve the same thing, he says.

They hope a shellfish ban will prevent further depletion of cockle stock.

The group wants a proper management plan in place to stop further degradation of the estuary and has put together a 10-point protection plan for the harbour.

By Pippa Brown ⋅ June 4, 2009 ⋅

http://www.tewahanui.info/wordpress2/?p=1822

Public watchdog Penny Bright fights for Auckland's rights

2009-10-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

Pippa Brown attends a local meeting where residents say the National government's idea of an Auckland Super City has been rail roaded through.

Super City a ‘bigger public trough for bigger public snouts’

Caption: Public watchdog Penny Bright with MP John Carter at Ellerslie War Memorial Hall.

Auckland’s report on local governance is “fundamentally flawed”, says water pressure group media spokesperson Penny Bright.

Bright told a meeting of Auckland residents there had never been a cost-benefit analysis of either the Super City or proposed council-controlled organisation model.

Around 80 people attended the public meeting at Ellerslie War Memorial Hall, one of a series held by the Government, to share views on the proposed changes to councils and the planned Super City.

The council-controlled organisation model is undemocratic because the board is selected not elected, says Bright.

The public cannot go to meetings and they have no say on its statement of intent, she says.
Bright says the report recommends $28 billion of Aucklanders’ assets be transferred.
She calls it a “corporate coup and asset grab”.

“The Super City is a bigger public trough for bigger public snouts,” says Bright. She is concerned smaller contractors will be replaced by big multinational companies.

She wants more transparency in the process as well as the details of public contracts to be available for public scrutiny.

Associate Minister of Local Government John Carter and National MP Peseta Sam Lotu-liga were at the meeting.

“It is not the intention of this Government to interfere with the assets of Auckland,” says Carter.
He agrees that more work needs to be done on the council-controlled organisation model. Carter says the speed of the process is to give a level of certainty.

“We do think there has been sufficient time to consult and do things properly,” he says.
Ellerslie resident 80-year-old Robin Gray spoke on behalf of many of the people at the meeting.

“People of Auckland have been robbed of their democratic right to vote.

“People should have their final say,” he said.

Earlier this month the Green Party released a statement saying although the Government had no plans to privatise water it was not ruling out local councils doing that.

The Government has adopted the Royal Commission’s recommendations for the Auckland council of one unitary authority and one plan, and this first-stage bill was passed under urgency in May.

The current series of meetings is being held to understand what the people of Auckland want in the makeup of the Auckland council and local boards supporting it.

The Government has proposed a structure for the Auckland Council with 12 councillors elected from wards and eight elected at large, supported by up to 30 local boards.

It is asking the public to send submissions for the second bill to go through a select committee by September.

A further and final bill is to be introduced into Parliament later this year before the local body elections in 2010.

By Pippa Brown ⋅ May 28, 2009 ⋅

http://www.tewahanui.info/wordpress2/?p=1717

Cannabus gets a hit on Auckland's Queen Street

2009-10-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

Pippa Brown meets two staunch cannabis campaigners who say they have been victimised.

http://www.tewahanui.info/wordpress2/?p=1549

Fiji digs its heels in and refuses to be bullied by Pacific neighbours

2009-10-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

Fiji supporters say Fiji is doing well and New Zealand and Australia are threatened and deliberately acting to keep Fiji subservient in an effort to sabotage Bainimarama’s ideals. Pippa Brown looks at support for Fiji's regime and how New Zealand and Australia's stance is altering power in the region.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/05/europe-cancels-sugar-grant-fiji-regime.html

Fiji facing increasing isolation

2009-10-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Fiji's military regime tightens its grip after being suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum and continues to head into a political and economic hole. Pippa Brown looks at Fiji's increasing isolation.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/05/fiji-regime-tightens-grip-plans-own.html

Polyfest 2009

2009-10-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

Pippa Brown explores the Pacific's biggest Polynesian festival in Auckland.

http://pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com/2009/03/healthy-eating-message-in-for-next.html