Magic...2 New Zealand, Permiculture Trail.

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Unfortunatly we couldnt make the Demo as we were heading to New Zealand on the 26th Feb. On arrival in Auckland we wished we had planned ahead, one thing im never that good at, aware that Cat only had a month to go, we put all our dollars into a hire van, reluctantly at first, but not really having the time to invesigate buying one, and possibilities/consequences of break down, but ultimatly its been bliss. Cat was very on the case in organising getting in contact with everyone who was on the Permiculture Nw Zealand website, and with huge response we planned our route around the North island and a little of the South although time was the ultimatum. Who needs travel guides or Lonely Planets eh? Im writing this now at the end of our time together, and we both feel like top banannas. Eating Organic fresh meals, cruising with nature, and meeting/conecting with people, and of course reciving healing from the sun, sea, and stars! We' ve had 2 nights out of 28 where alcohols been involved, and I ve (almost) not smoked, Hooray!

And so to the Permiculture Trail. This has really been a great insight gathering differnt opinions, and ways of approaching sustainable living, especially interesting for those who over the years have considered living together and getting land together. First up we headed North from Auckland visiting Lynne Hindle and Reinhold Huber, a British and German couple that lived in Otamatea Eco-village, they had a stunning house with a living roof, i.e. grass was growing on top of the roof, a bit like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings, sorry bout the obvious comparison. What did become appartent though, and as we later discussed with Brian Weston on his own house, was that scale and size of ideas and projects. They had found that maybe if they had not built such a big house they would ultimatly of had more disposable income, and although spacious and impressive, by the time the bedrooms for the children had finished completion, their children had grown considersbly and left the home to take their own lives paths. So start small and build out. Their eco-village, like a similar set up down the road, had seperate plots, and zones that they shared too.
So you bought your plot, with certain commitments to it, drawn up I presume in a constitution with certain obligations, e.g. Growing food, and outer zones say forest management, that were a joint effort. One couple who were looking for someone to buy their plot, had lived on the grounds of where Dawsons Farm was, for a few years and realised that actually the kind of co-operative living that was involved was not their way of life, and wanted to move on. This can be an important factor, to have the freedom to move, unlike in a co-operative where you have no financial part, and so when moving although you may have put a lot of work into the upkeep and love of the project, essentially you have nothing if you leave, no capital, or security. Although with that as John Dawson pointed out, (John and Ruth Dawson, both from the UK, now building their home at Dawsons Farm, and giving a guided tour of the Eco-Village - Poly Income) it can attract those with the money, possibly from a middle class background, who like the idea, but the graft and work involved, doesn't suit their work life style, i.e.they may not have enough time/energy to commit to working the land. Possibly what is being experienced at Landmatters, Devon, in some way?
The Koanga Institute also exists in the same place as Dawsons Farm, and was born out of 20 yrs of collecting heritage fruit trees, vegtables and flowers by Kay Baxter, and others , in association with the Koanga Gardens Trust. It reminded me of Seedy Sunday, although I didnt go along, but was aware of its existence, and how important it is to gather our own heritage of seeds. As much of the Koanga Gardens Trust's work was in response to the fact that over the last 100 years, much of the genetic diversity in food plants all over the world, has disappeared as a result of the industrialisation of our food production. Seed saving is one aspect of the broader need to address our 'human ecology'. Addressing other current Areas of Focus were investigating nutritional and health benefits of selected plants, and Developing Educational programmes for Practical skills in sustainable Living. John for example offered a course on how to make your own laythe and shave horse, which you would make and take home ready to use, i.e. to make furniture and cups out of wood. Such an institution was not on the other eco-village, and I thought it important to have, as it involves the rest of the community. It has a notice board, and the tree nursery and vegtables can be sold, all other types of income. An outside individual ran the health food shop there. For example if we had an Eco-village in Portugal for instance, we could make our own projects, potions skill workshops etc within a shop context that involved the rest of the community. Also maybe a backpackers or Woofers like so many of these places had established too...
Heading now to the East coast we met an enlightened man, Alan Willoughby, who had previously taught science and had been a gardener, but when a rock fell out of the sky and landed on his back, he turned his energies to healing. Like some healers who come across healing from their own needs and find a technique that has been benefical to them, Alan discovered Brandon Brays and her book 'the Journey', and did a course on 'Theata' Healing, which I think is possibly on similar lines as Kinesiology, as he did a small muscle test on us both. What was also interseting was Alan's experience with chemical sprays within the gardening industry. He was effected extremly by them. From Melothine he experienced memory loss, and had no reflexes, when one time he and his wife were parked at a campsite next to a farm using these sprays, he got very sick. www.lovelighthealing.co.nz The Willoughbys house was more along the design of urban permiculture, they had just slighly more space than 33 Middleton Rise, but grew lots of different veg, the house more spacious, with room for vines growing up the side of the house, but you could see the potential for nature.
10 miles down the track in Omokoroa were David and Pauline Bailey, another couple from the UK, although Pauline lived with a previous partner in Nw Zealand for 16 yrs before returning to England where she hooked up with David after a fair few years, and kids later, for him to discover the delights of Nw Zealand compared to Crawley. As Pauline put it in her e mail..'David sees permaculture as 'normality' its what he grew up with - being in the retired age bracket he dates before sprays etc.' Unlike a lot of homes, David purposly put his zone 1, and 2 for vegatable growing towards the back of their acre, of course if you had more light you would probably do that anyway, but he said that it was good excersise to have to walk to get what you needed daily. A lot of their land was left for wildlife, like Middleton Rise, and they had turned their kids old swim pool into a pond for the fish. Fruit was abundant from their trees, but Im not sure whether they preserved it. Their main direction was art based. Looking at Zone 0, Looking at Art and Health and Art Therapy, with Rudolf Steiner based courses. Which has just reminded me of an exhibition in Melbourne.
Before we came to Hepburn, Australia I went to see an exhibiton at the gallery in federation square. Joseph Beuys was presenting his ideas for free democratic socialism along with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, as in Steiner schooling. It was essentially about the 'Intuition Box', and called Intuition, Inspiration and Imagination. '"Intuition, like Inspiration and Imagination are the human qualities and the intangiable forces essential to creative thought, emotion and action. Human beings today must approach an age when the secrets of the universe are revealed through Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition." Shared ideals for the transformation of Human conciousness and Society. Yes, Yes Idealistic I know.. but we did live in a time, an ancient time where knowledge was passed down through stories and dreams, not text books and internet, and theres no literal going back to that, now, a combinatiuon and benefit of all.

Cruising it all the way down to Wellington, contemplating whether it was worth it for a brief week, but most definatly was, we took the ferry to Picton, driving across the top of the S.Island through Nelson, for a small gathering the Nelson Festival, run by locals, it was small but entertaining, with a great band from Chilie. Not finding too much going on we headed to Golden Bay, what a turn that turned out to be, all 350 of them, at least in Spain the turns round mountains seem to be a bit more spread out and subtle. Its commenly known, for travel sickness, and I wondered why cars were pulling up when we'd stopped for a brew, and someone getting out and projectiling their breakfast ingreidients near to the sign that said take photos here of picturesque views.

The Tui Community, best known for their balms, sold worldwide, well at least I think I ve seen them in UK health food shops, were a productive centre, running courses in Permiculture too, with individuals living together also, and taking woofers to help maintin their land. Established over 20 yrs ago, we stayed to help Robina move her office to another location. Her dwelling was not unlike a Yurt but built with a celtic designed roof, of octangular walls made with mud and straw, and an outside shower to soak up the nights atmosphere, where the stars were phenomanal. The depth of the universe presented as a backdrop, idelically. Will definatly be returning here for a in depth experience at a later date.
Its not all about what you see however, meeting up with Brian Weston, as mentioned previously, was a conversion of lunchtime conversation on many a topic. He offered advice on building his home, and how now that he had, was thinking of moving to a straw bail block, community, and what that would entail. Once again, it was about seperate land entitlements. He told of one community that had got planning permission to build as a farm, (sorry my notes are a bit scketchy so I may not get all the facts right, but hopefully the general gist of it will be helpful) together, but as time went by, and children had grown up, and home education was no longer what some wanted, and for whatever reasoning, they had decided that they wanted to go seperae ways, but had got permission to build as a 'community' and as it was no longer going towards the way they had invisaged, wanted to seperate the land. But as that wasn't the agreement when building what they portrayed, the 'law' was that if the land was seperated then they would have to take the buildings down, so it was a bit of a catch 22, to pardon a phrase. Having children within the community, and then deciding that they wanted to go to state school had other consequences too, other children at school had the latest, whatever.. toys, playstation etc.. and then as parents they wanted more money to give their children what they wanted, so got regular jobs which then in turn effected communal duties, which effected the balance of the 'community'. Things to think about anyway..
He talked of his return to Canada and meeting up with friends, who were building bigger and better houses, and as Brian pointed out when he stayed, they were never there, they were always at work, working harder to pay of a bigger morgage, the kids were at school or after school activities, and although they had palaces they had no time actually live in them. Which led onto the concept of Ecology of the Self, (there is a guy in the UK that has written a book about this, but I dont have the name) Status Anxiety, When he asked his friends why they were doing it they replyed because its the thing to do, everyones doing it, Hmmm familiar we know. An overabundance of wealth, not taking what we need, distrubing a balance somewhere? People can find solutions out of necesscity, after the War we were growing our own veggies in our garden, another film we gotta watch, The Power of Community, How Cuba survived the sanctions from the Americans, when oil was taken away from their immediacy.

An ideology, however, is created and people are born into it. Entrapment of communities can lead to poverty. An example of the church, Christianity, becoming a vicor had its entitlements and securities, still today, was said, to become a vicor you gained many privalges, and a safe retirment, well looked after, but if you leave the service, its poverty, how many people need a preacher of the lord in their daily lives? Some eye know do, as Nancy told me about when she was working in the Cariabean, the church was very important for peoples social structure, Gospel, its so uplifting to the wellbeing of communities. Praise be!!. But in a pagan or other religious/spiritual movement? Who knows..

...Knowing your Needs, Access to the city, even though your living in a rural commuity, may be important, family, friends, cinema, pub, library, acces to the outside world.. Brian lived in Takaka, in Golden Bay, and it had a main rd with all these necessaties, and found it important to be in contact with them. As far as building goes.. Retro-fitting, working with whats already there, like breize block townships that have been created, around the coasts of spain and portugal for examlpe. It could be a common trend to re-establish eco enviroments by knocking down established dwellings, in order to attain a more ecological pursuit, but actually take up more energy, just to be 'trendy' is that the right word, or the right path? Maybe we need to look at what we've got and find solutions within them, instead of starting from scratch. Just attain energy from the sun, with pannels and work out sustainable solutions with enviroments that have already been built, whether we like the look of them or not.
Another thing to be aware of is the time and energy we put into projects, and what the outcome is in the long run, financial retirement is something I've never really considered, stupidly, or taken for granted, but who will be there for the older generation as we slip slide away. Eye know in Portugal, as the younger generations are more excited by the offerings of city life, whether in Europe or Brazil, the old time pastures are running dry of youth and exubriance, that kept old time values and consistency. Community practice is becommig non-existent and who is there to maintain the land?

Crossing the ferry bridge once again, we make our way up to the west coast of the North Island, towards Taranaki, but not without a stop, and a blag, well we sort of spell cast a way into Womad, to have some upliffiting musical pleasure at the festival. Seeing some wicked gigs. Well aware of the wrist band entrapment, and the fact that we'd eaten all the cookies previosly made in a backpackers by another blag, we'd wandered into to, gosh that didnt last, but well the way forward!
We drifted in pretending like we were suppose to be there (thanks be spirit Lorna) went un-noticed. Carrying a suitcase and other bits with the intention of doing a workshop.. It was a inspiring day. Listening to the bhuddist monks chant, they were brothers of the 130 that had just been shot by the chinese who tried to protest for the attrocities in tibet, you may have recieved an e mail lately, signed a petition, or heard on the news whats been going down. From what was read in an international paper and from what I gather. Tibetans that have been in excile for over 40 yrs in Dharamasla, where we travelled in 2003, and wanted to cross back to the path of Tibet, but again have been suffering from the Chinese forces. Shit!! When will we ever resolve any equalibrium!

So onto Taranaki Enviroment Centre.. back up the west coast now, Val and Graham dedicated their home to an Enviromental Trust, conserving energy and education to all. Government funding helped promote their concepts of sustainable landscape desidn models, using appropriate technologies and communication. Education being the primary source of achieving a sustainable society. With that we were directed to Taranaki High School, where Warrick, is the head of Geography and the main dude for directing ecological achievement and sustainability, showed us their progression, in realising what energy is attainabvle and needed within a school environment. They had just cut the ribbon for wind powered energy, and showed us the ways where they had begun to make their school educationally aware of energy. The 'Cent-o-Meter' (a market in its own right) provides an established amount of energy used by giving a reading of cost, yes, everything that is turned on and off in a high school, and atributing its powers. Solar panels put out 1.2 kilo watts of energy, it costs $20,000 nto install these solar panels and they have a life span of 30 yrs. Work out the calculations....Project managing comes from outside enviromental managment. Wind turbine produces 2 kilo watts, and its an american commercial turbine, my keypad is running dry as we speek.. Inglewood High School, embrased by a mountain of power and hope, lets hope we can all stustaine these futures?

And so like the first K trip I ever had it was all about the intercontactednes of evrythihg! Everything is everything We are all god! We are all One, and everything has its place, interconnected, whether we call it good or evil, its possitive and negative, and we need pain and difference to exist. If it wasnt for worms and locusts and other creatures that break down compost or dark substances where would we be without the benefits of reaping a good furtile harvest, have I got that right? Yes permiculture is the all encompasing.

Anyway there you are, so far.. I ve had time to ramble on about things, that we talk about freely, but just gathered some thoughts into words.. I feel a bit Bill Bryson'y, playing it 'safe' so to speek, there really isn't any crusading moments, but a few times when we have felt unease, or the people nxt to us had a brick through their window, like in a car park in Nelson, or another van had their entire contents stolen, or when we were getting eyed-up (after the German couple we picked up, Matao, who has been hitch-hiking a lot told us of a Maori Gang, the Mungo Mob who have a vendeta against tourists) but decided to leave camping nxt to a espery. As a woman alone from now on I will be playing it 'safe', heard too many stories not too.... Off to get some work now, spent my allowance on the van, but worth it, and found out yesterday that apparently you can pick vehicles up for free at the airport, lots of people dont manage to sell theirs and leave them there... .... .... Beep Beep!! Then up to Keri, Keri, for the start of the fruit picking season.

Love U all, and more so than ever, a very treazured family of friendz, sending you hope and sustainable love for the coming time ahead, big kisses, and misses you'z loadz, but , know'z, even in desperate times you will remindz me of where eye want to be and the people'z who'z eye'z that see is the people who'z heartz rest within me. x x x x x

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Photos

Kauri Forest
Kauri Tree, thousands of years old

Koanga Institute
Tree Nursery

Ferry Ride
Ferry from wellington to Picton

Trash Palace
Like Magpie in Brighton but bigger

Got Grahames no...
..and am considering building a hut on a trailer, and painting signs using paint from Trash Palace, re-cycling of course!

Getting to WoMaD
Cat with a box of trinckets.

African Rhythms from France
Can't remember the bands name, sorry.

Bhuddist Monks
over 100 of their fellow brothers had been shot.

Micheal Lawleys place, Inglewood
With examples of wind, solar and Hydro, from stream to damn to water wheel.