Feeling that perhaps I am one of those people he criticises as ‘people who in the one breath chant “more jobs, more jobs” and then in the next breath say “but don’t do that, or that, or that”, I thought I would ask Mr Joyce a few questions about why he and the National Government are saying ‘we won’t’ to a prosperous and sustainable Aotearoa.

Mr Joyce criticises those who say ‘you can’t explore for that there’. In actual fact, those of us who are deeply concerned about the Government’s risky ‘drill it, mine it’ agenda for our country are not saying ‘you can’t’ without providing alternatives that will both keep our valuable clean green image intact, and provide a more  sustainable economic path for Aotearoa.

As the Greens have been pointing out for a while, if we were to secure just 1 per cent of the global renewable energy market in the next five years, we’d create a $5.8 billion industry with 60,000 more green jobs. Short term risky exploration ventures will not create a long term stable economy for New Zealand. And with the Government boasting in its recent briefing to incoming Minister of Economic Development that we have one of the lowest royalty rates in the world, how can we take their claims of the economic benefits to New Zealand seriously?

So Mr Joyce, why won’t you and your Government commit to a modern and sustainably prosperous economic plan for Aotearoa, when the opportunities to do so are so viable?

Mr Joyce criticises those who say ‘you can’t build that there’. I wonder if he is referring to the vast expansion of new motorways planned which he himself presided over while Transport Minister? In the recent briefing to the incoming Minister of Transport, data revealed a transport budget blowout of $ 1 billion is expected as oil prices remain high. Is this smart economic planning? As Julie Anne Genter, fellow Green party MP and transport spokesperson said in a blog last week ‘As oil prices rise, people turn to buses, trains, walking and cycling, but this Government is planning to blow the budget on uneconomic motorways’

So Mr Joyce, why won’t you and your Government invest in sustainable transport options for Aotearoa giving Kiwis real choices which will be better for our economy and contribute to healthier lifestyles and a cleaner environment?

As it’s a large part of the Minister’s economic plan, he is also no doubt referring to those of us who criticise asset sales as the ‘you can’ts’. As my colleague Russel Norman revealed on Wednesday, the Government is planning to sell off assets which are earning four times more than the cost of capital tied up in them, some of which, according to the Prime Minister himself, have returned 18.5% shareholder profit over the last five years. Why won’t the Government implement smart economic decisions like a temporary earthquake levy for Christchurch, or a capital gains tax which would unleash capital to be invested in innovative productive Kiwi businesses?

So I ask My Joyce, rather than focusing on the ‘can’ts’ why won’t you and your Government focus on real solutions like renewable energy, green-tech, or smart transport that would deliver for Kiwis.

There weren’t as many people this year. Some were feisty but unlike the Rugby Sevens, there were not multiple arrests. No one was drunk or rude to no purpose, and there was a level of debate on many political issues which I am yet to hear in Parliament.

For me the most inspiring part of Waitangi this year was a roopu reporting back to the people about their work on constitutional transformation. This roopu consists of some of the most dedicated, experienced and wise leaders of the tino rangatiratanga movement in Aotearoa.

The first speaker Huirangi Waikerepuru, a kaumatua from Taranaki, is a beloved taonga for iwi katoa. He was also the wood work teacher at my high school and we had no idea then of his mana and knowledge. He spoke about the deeper foundations of Maori tikanga and kawa that’s essential for any discussion of Te Tiriti-based transformation.

Professor Makere Mutu spoke about Te Hakaputanga o Nu Tireni and Te Tiriti o Waitangi to set the scene for the constitutional discussion. She brought alive the wisdom of her tipuna in asserting their requirements for the relationships with the manuhiri.

Moana Jackson spoke with his classical eloquence, precision and power about the meaning of lore/law and constitutions and the plan to extend the kawa of the marae to a kawa for the nation through flaxroots korero on questions about “how should we be governed?”. The challenge for Pakeha and tauiwi katoa is what grassroots parallel-process are we capable of running

Mereana Pitman made us laugh but also brought home to us the jewels and gems that come from asking people in the hapu and marae what kind of governance arrangements they believe would benefit themselves and also Aotearoa.

Annette Sykes, whose analysis is of legendary sharpness, brought the focus onto the need to properly resource the process of dialogue with flaxroots people who don’t get to stay in flash hotels.

Veronica Tawhai who is a younger academic/activist inspired me when she spoke about the work on a Waitangi claim about loss of political decision making which was rejected as an issue the Waitangi Tribunal could usefully address.

I was inspired by the oil and mining protestors, the work of Mike Smith and the calm resolute aura of Tame Iti who faces down the court in the next two weeks for supposed “criminal gang” activity.

I was left with a challenge – how will Tangata Te Tiriti respond? How will we contribute to these issues in right relationship with tangata whenua? Te Tiriti belongs to all of us and as Kingi Taurua said, “not to celebrate or to commemorate but to honour”.

The Fund’s stake in Hong Kong-based property development company Sun Hung Kai is the tenth biggest investment the Fund’s made in an international company, according to their December performance report.

Is China the next big property bubble on the brink of collapse?

The Chinese Government has spent much of its massive export revenues on building brand new cities. Trouble is, not many Chinese people can afford the prices of new apartments and some of the cities have become ghost cities — their emptiness visible on Google Earth.

If you find the satellite images interesting, this SBS Dateline report (Australian TV) takes you there on the ground and leaves you wondering how all this building activity could possibly end well.

Russel

It’s a laudable goal to reduce our expensive dependence on foreign oil but it would be a lot smarter to invest in alternatives like better public transport, renewable electricity and sustainable alternative fuels.

Even if New Zealand is the ‘Texas of the South’, it is unlikely to benefit New Zealand. New Zealand sells itself cheaply with the forth lowest royalty rates in the world and gives subsidies and tax breaks to foreign oil companies. So there will be hardly any royalties, hardly any taxes and hardly any jobs for Kiwis, and the profits will flow offshore. We won’t pay any less for petrol at the pump if we produced more than we consumed because we are still unlikely to process it here or pay less than the international market price.

We know Kiwis face 100% of the environmental risks for only 5% of the value of the oil. The only way to massively ramp up oil production is to drill in hostile, risky environments in deep-water like the Great South Basin or the Raukumara Basin, more than 1000m down. This brings its own risks as we saw only too graphically in the Gulf of Mexico. Our clean, green brand is too valuable to put at risk from a catastrophic oil spill.

The Rena demonstrated we do not have the capacity to adequately deal with even a moderate spill let alone a deep-sea well blow-out. The tax-payer has already forked-out $25 million in costs associated with the Rena and our oil drilling insurance rules don’t even demand oil drilling companies have insurance to cover the full costs of a spill.

At a time when globally, renewable energy is surpassing fossil fuels and other governments, businesses and militaries are planning to reduce their dependence on oil, our Government isn’t even planning to start planning. But they are planning to increase it by borrowing billions to pour on uneconomic motorways.

If oil is the problem, more of the same isn’t the answer. As the International Energy Agency’s Chief Economist Fatih Birol says, ‘we should leave oil before oil leaves us’.

The report projects New Zealand’s future energy supply, demand, prices and greenhouse gas emissions but the major challenges identified in it are at odds with the Governments  ‘drill it, mine’  fossil-fuel-focused Energy Strategy.

The report acknowledges oil prices will be up, greenhouse gas emissions from energy will be up a staggering 40-50% on 1990 levels by 2030 and transport will continue to be oil dependant. This is a huge economic and environmental threat. It beggars belief that the Government continues to borrow billions to pour on uneconomic motorways when the report itself says ‘Historical travel data indicates that personal road travel is already near saturation, with little additional per capita travel likely.’ This scare money could be better spent preparing us for oil and carbon constrained world.

New Zealand’s dependence on imported oil is a huge strategic worry and should be the subject of an urgent inquiry. However unlike many governments, militaries and businesses that are planning to reduce their dependence on oil our Government won’t even plan to start planning. We have so many options in New Zealand from energy efficiency, 90%+ renewable electricity production, better public transport, walking and cycling to increase resiliency, reduce emissions and benefit the economy.

At the household level the report also says people will continue to struggle with energy bills because the price of electricity will remain higher than inflation for the next 18 years.

There is some good news in the report including promising renewable electricity production and New Zealand’s energy intensity is forecast to improve 21 per cent by 2030 however many of the challenges forecast in the report will just worsen given the Government’s Energy Strategy.

The Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill proposes to set up an environmental management regime for certain activities in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone − the area of sea, seabed and subsoil from 12 to 200 nautical miles offshore − and the continental shelf beyond that. The activities covered by the Bill include seabed mining, some aspects of petroleum activities, and energy generation carbon capture and storage. The Green Party welcomes greater regulation of activities in this zone, however we have serious concerns with the Bill at present and will work constructively with the Government to try and improve the legislation.

It’s vitally important the public has a say on this bill, which I fear sets up a framework to allow controversial deep-sea oil drilling in New Zealand waters, which risks a disaster similar to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. You can make an online submission to help people send in a submission advocating for protection of our ocean.

The Government has sold New Zealand cheaply to oil drillers with a $25.4 million seismic survey subsidy, the forth lowest royalty rates in the world, and now legislation with no environmental bottom lines. Oil drillers will benefit from this legislation while the public and environment faces all the risks from a catastrophic oil spill.

Send an electronic submission here

Last week Bulgaria became the second European country to ban fracking, joining a growing list of states and regions worldwide to introduce moratoriums and bans on fracking, including NSW, Quebec, parts of USA, and France. It’s no wonder: the evidence of the hazardous effects of fracking on both environmental and human health continues to mount up. Along with serious groundwater contamination and air pollution, growing evidence suggests that fracking does indeed cause earthquakes, despite industry claims to the contrary. This is of course particularly disturbing considering the earthquake prone regions of Hawke’s Bay and Canterbury where fracking could occur.

Considering these potentially disastrous impacts, the Green Party supports the call for an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, but calls for an immediate moratorium to be put in place until such time as the investigation can prove that fracking is safe to both human and environmental health.

Fracking has now been taking place in New Zealand since 1993, so we’d also like to know why Labour let this practice occur in the first place, while they were in Government. Considering Labour’s concerns, they should commit to backing the call for an immediate moratorium, the only way we can safeguard our rights to clean water and air and a safe environment. 

Download our petition for an immediate moratorium on fracking here!

Yesterday I took apart my bike and crammed it into the small rental car of a friend attending the festival. We drove back to Dunedin airport, where incredibly helpful people gave us materials to pack up the bike. Upon arrival in Wellington, I unpacked it, put it back together (with the assistance of friends I ran into in the baggage claim), and cycled back around the bays. I was slightly surprised and very proud that it worked properly!  A half hour bike ride now seems impossibly short.

The festival itself was a great success. Sunday was a community open day in the town of Mataura, where I (and hopefully quite a few locals) learned a great deal. The star of the weekend was a fifth generation Queensland farmer named Sid Plant, who has direct experience of a mine moving in and destroying a farming community. His community of 64 families has dwindled to 11, as the noise, dust, and other negative impacts of the mine have driven people to sell off and move out. He said the land would take at least a million years to return to its pre-mined state. His story was poignant, and actually brought tears to my eyes as he played a song written about the sad fate of his town Acland.

We are up against something big. The powerful corporate interests that stand to make a lot of money from selling fossil fuels, especially as liquid fuels and fertiliser become more expensive, have money and influence on their side. Local and central government tend to be optimistic and enthusiastic about the potential to increase growth, and reluctant or unable to challenge the proposals. The public are busy trying to make ends meet and raise their families. They usually just want to avoid conflict, and would like to trust in the professional competence of those proposing the mine and/or those charged with regulating activities. Given the financial challenges facing many families, survival of their nearest and dearest is paramount, and they may not feel they have the luxury of protecting an abstract entity called The Environment.

For decades the argument has been that there is a trade-off between prosperity and environmental protection. It was right there in the answers to the poll on the Southland Times website yesterday. It essentially asked: Do you agree with the protestors that coal mining will be bad for the environment, or do you think we should go ahead because it will make us rich? When it is posed as this kind of dichotomy, it is easy for people to believe the Government’s rhetoric about a ‘balanced’ approach — just a little more environmental degradation for a little more economic growth won’t hurt us.

The green paradigm shift is the recognition that we don’t have to trade off our health and well-being for a little more economic growth. All the additional fossil fuels we burn from now on will only make it harder for us to transition to an economy that is not dependent on fossil fuels, and will worsen climate change. We have the opportunity to do things differently, and in a way that benefits us all.

It may not be good for mining companies, who have a mindless and ethic-free imperative to return a profit by doing the same old thing. But companies are not people. The people working for mining companies can do something different, and possibly much more enjoyable. We need government and regulation to step in and create the incentive for new activities that won’t result in catastrophic climate change, that won’t threaten our essential farmland, and that will build up (rather than destroy) our communities.

We must start with education and outreach, listening and learning. The more people involved in the conversation, the more robust our collective decisions about the future of our economy will be. As someone said at a closing meeting of the festival, a tiny flame as been kindled in the community of Mataura. I look forward to watching it grow.

This is how the story begins.

The Internet really did go on strike with as many as 7000 websites going black (including the Greens) and Google receiving 4.5 million signatures on its online petition on one day demonstrating the power of the Internet community. I think it’s the first time the Internet has mobilised to such a degree to protect its free and open nature and did so, successfully. Almost immediately in the Congress, Representative Lamar Smith, the lead SOPA sponsor, killed his SOPA bill and in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a full vote on PIPA. 1-0 to the Internet.

Whilst it was a victory it’s still too early to see if it will be enduring.

Obviously the Copyright war (or is that a battle in the war for general-purpose computing?) continues and SOPA or PIPA could be resurrected; we could see further moves through the legal system like with Megaupload; or the US’s push could be internationalised through the likes of the Trans Pacific Partnership. I think the values enshrined in Skynet, PIPA and SOPA will continue to be promoted because of corporate vested interests and political collusion. This copyright debate along with general Internet policy is I believe at the forefront of this Century’s political debate and is vitally important to our democracy, freedoms and access to information.

All in all, SOPA and PIPA are victories for the Internet but the momentum will need to continue and grow because like the Hydra, further anti-Internet policies will continue sprouting. Still, take your victories when you can and keep campaigning.

Gareth with some books currently set to enter the public domain but could be affected by the TPP.

New Zealand’s readers and copyright laws could be the losers from US pressure on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

According to a leaked draft of the proposed intellectual property chapter, the TPP would require countries (such as Canada, Japan and New Zealand) that meet the international copyright term (standard of life of the author plus 50 years) to add an additional 20 years to the term of protection.

It’s just one of numerous facets of the TPP Kiwis should be concerned about.

The extension in the term of copyright would mean no new works would enter the public domain in New Zealand till the 2030s including books by James K. Baxter, Dame Ngaio Marsh, the novel Came a Hot Friday and what’s considered New Zealand’s first gay novel.

Extending the term of copyright would mean Kiwi readers miss out on freely accessing, adapting and quoting at length Kiwi classics until the 2030s not benefiting the authors (who would have died some seventy years prior) but benefitting mostly big media businesses. Given the potential to make those works more readily accessible through new tools like e-readers and digital publishing this would have a negative impact on access to New Zealand culture and history.

Michael Geist points out the extension would also impact a huge number of international authors including Robert Frost, Aldous Huxley, CS Lewis, TS Eliot, John Steinbeck, JRR Tolkein, and Ayn Rand.

New Zealand authors which should enter the public domain after 2013, and which would have an additional 20 years added on under the leaked draft of the TPP include:

• The works of James Courage (d. 1963), including his novels The Young Have Secrets (1954) and A Way of Love (1959) which is considered New Zealand’s first gay novel. These will currently enter the public domain in 2013. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2033.
• The works of Nelle Scanlan (d. 1968), most well-known for the Pencarrow tetralogy: Pencarrow (1932), Tides of Youth (1933), Winds of Heaven (1934), and Kelly Pencarrow (1939). These will currently enter the public domain in 2018. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2038.
• We Will Not Cease (1939), by Archibald Baxter (d. 1970). Will currently enter the public domain in 2020. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2040.
• The works of James K. Baxter (d. 1972), including his first poetry collection Beyond the Palisade (1944) and his plays including Jack Winters Dream and The Band Rotunda. (A complete list of works can be located here: http://www.nzlf.auckland.ac.nz/author/?a_id=8 ). These will currently enter the public domain in 2022. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2042.
• The works of Ronald Hugh Morrieson (d. 1972). Two of his novels, The Scarecrow (1963) and Came a Hot Friday (1964) were later made into movies. These will currently enter the public domain in 2022. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2042.
• Falter Tom and the Water Boy (1957) by Maurice Duggan (d. 1974). This book won the Esther Glen Medal for best children’s book of the year. (A complete list of works by Duggan can be located here: http://www.nzlf.auckland.ac.nz/author/?a_id=36 ). Will currently enter the public domain in 2024. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2044.
• The works of Alfred Hamish Reed (d. 1975), who was the author of approximately 44 books, including The Story of New Zealand (1945), The Gumdigger: the story of Kauri Gum (1948), and From North Cape to Bluff (1961). These will currently enter the public domain in 2025. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2045.
• The works of Alexander Wyclif Reed (d. 1979), who was the author of more than 200 books, including Myths and Legends of Maoriland (1946), which won the Esther Glen Medal for best children’s book of the year, Reeds’ Concise Māori Dictionary (1948), A Dictionary of Māori Place Names (1961), and A Treasury of Māori Folklore (1963). These will currently enter the public domain in 2029. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2049.
• The works of Denis Glover (d. 1980), who is most well known for his poem ‘The Magpies’. These will currently enter the public domain in 2030. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2050.
• The works of Dame Ngaio Marsh (d. 1982), the author of numerous books, monographs and short fiction, but who is most well-known for her 32 detective novels, including A Man Lay Dead (1934), Surfeit of Lampreys (1941), and Clutch of Constables (1968). These will currently enter the public domain in 2032. Under the leaked draft, would not enter the public domain until 2052.

A bit anti-climactic, isn’t it?

I woke early this morning, and headed for the hilly route west along the Clinton-Mataura highway. It was a great 50km ride on reasonably still and chilly morning. I got to the festival just in time for morning tea.

I’ll post an epilogue with some reflections on the journey and the festival after it has ended. So far it’s been a day of very productive and interesting conversations, delicious nourishing (and unquestionably ethical food), and some great live music. I’m very keen to see what the community open day tomorrow will yield.

View the first post in this series

It was exhausting then, though I didn’t have much weight on my bike and hadn’t spent the previous week cycling five to eight hours a day.

Oh, and I was probably fitter, too.

Eight years later, I thought if there were enough hours in the day, I could cycle the 110+km to Gore today.

I might have pulled it off, as I did leave Waihola at 7:20am. Arriving in Milton less than an hour later, I passed a cyclist with the same bike as mine, heading in the other direction. He stopped to say hello. He was cycling to Dunedin from Balclutha like it was no big thing. Clearly a regular journey for him. He gave me some good advice about routes, and I left with renewed hope about making it to Gore tonight.

Sometime around 10:30am the weather intervened. You can tell there’s a strong headwind when you have to pedal hard to go downhill. Between hills and headwinds, my average speed fell from 18 to less than 10km an hour, not including breaks.

On the bright side, the Clutha countryside is gorgeous, and the trucks became much less frequent as the day went on. I probably had the energy to cycle for another two to three hours. But with the strong headwinds, it would have taken me AT LEAST four more hours to get to Gore.

It was just after 6pm when I rolled into Clinton at barely more than a crawl. I was relieved to find a pub/motel with vacancies. It was actually being outdoors in the high winds that was most intolerable, even more than cycling at a painfully slow speed.

For most of human history, nature had a much greater say over what we did and when we did it. We slept when it was dark, and worked when it was light. We ate fruit and vegetables that were in season. We did less in the winter and more in spring, summer and autumn. When there were extreme weather events, we took shelter and waited it out, and quite often suffered.

The more predictable cycles of the days and the seasons are still embedded in our physical and cultural reality, such as our holidays, even if we have forgotten their seasonal significance (especially in the southern hemisphere). The industrial revolution led to advances in technology that have allowed us to extend our working hours and ignore the natural cycles — but our bodies can’t. Studies have shown, for example, that people who work nights suffer from a number of health problems.

We haven’t mastered the unpredictable side of nature either, though we keep going as long as possible despite horrific weather. In fact, one of the objections to the practicality of walking and cycling is that it doesn’t work in bad weather. We need to drive to work because some days it rains a lot. But wouldn’t it be easier to adjust our schedules to account for the conditions outdoors, rather than use high energy transport systems just to be able to travel at a certain time every day?

Are the activities we currently undertake really so important that we need to work well into the night, or go out in horrendous weather, if it means we will jeopardise our health and safety? Analogously, is growing our fossil fuel based economy so important that we must jeopardise our stable climate?

As we face the many challenges of sustainability, it may be that our economy needs to take more account of nature, rather than just the human clock and roman calendar.

I can’t change the wind, so I’m content with my decision to wait it out tonight, and at least get a good night’s sleep before tackling the last 50km. I’ll still make it to Mataura tomorrow, perhaps a few hours later than I originally planned.

Next post: Day 8 — Made it!

I left beautiful Karitane this morning, after an incredible breakfast that included gluten free pancakes made by my exceedingly generous hosts. The morning was cool and overcast, perfect conditions for cycling, and still very beautiful. The ocean was a still blue grey mirror reflecting the sky, with hints of light coming in through on the horizon under the layer of cloud.

The Coast Road had a lot more ups and downs than I expected. It was perfect for interesting cycling, but I was running late to meet fellow cyclists at the top of Mt Cargill. I note that when you’re not pressed for time, cycling is nearly always enjoyable as long as you travel at a good sustainable pace. Many people find it difficult because they try to travel faster than is comfortable for them. I did that for a while and then resigned myself to being a bit late, and started enjoying the ride.

The journey up Mt Cargill took me just under 90 minutes, during which I saw about three cars and one heavily-laden German cycle tourist who was pushing his bike. More stunning nature, lots of endorphins, how could I not feel fantastic when I reached the top? A cyclist and Green Party member had come up (and part way down) the hill to meet me, which made the last few climbs even easier.

In less than 20 minutes we were down the other side in Dunedin, checking out the bike lanes on North Road with fellow cycle advocate, Dr Hank Weiss, who researches injury prevention and rides a well kitted-out electric bike, with room for a passenger or cargo on the back.

We went through town and met up briefly with Metiria, and then spontaneously joined Hank for an afternoon presentation/workshop on an innovative road safety curriculum being developed for school kids by teachers and the NZTA. It was heartening to meet the committed and talented people working in these areas, in all different roles. I’ve no doubt that this work is a small but important step in changing the transport culture we have in NZ.

Unfortunately, I do believe that culture follows infrastructure to a great degree, and that as long as we continue developing infrastructure that is designed to increase the speed and flow of vehicles, innovative educational intervention will be unlikely to have a huge impact.

We see examples of the misguided and unintended consequences of traffic engineering principles all around us. Ever find it hard to keep to the speed limit on the motorway or a wide empty arterial? Roads are deliberately designed to have sight lines and take high speeds to be ‘safer’. But because they make you feel comfortable travelling at a higher speed, subconsciously you will tend to speed up.

Increasing the speed and flow of vehicles is also the quickest way to discourage people from walking or cycling. It feels unsafe, it can be very unpleasant, and it usually creates environments that are long and boring. Have you noticed that you can walk 20 minutes down a street full of people and shops, like Lambton Quay, and not even notice? Whereas walking along a suburban arterial, bordered by car parks, strip malls, surrounded by noisy cars and trucks, where you’re the only person walking feels like you’ve been crossing a desert for hours after about 10 minutes?

The psychological reaction to different urban environments is very real. Jan Gehl reports on some of the research in this area in books like Life Between the Buildings. This impact of urban form influences our choices about how we travel, and where we want to be. Dunedin could do a lot better by prioritising people in the town centre and environs. There would be economic benefits for the city and for shop keepers, as well as a reduced road toll.

I stayed too long at the workshop, and the weather turned for a while. A strong westerly wind was blowing and it was starting to rain, and it was after 4pm. Looking at my options for getting out of town, I succumbed to safety and time concerns and got a ride to the end of the motorway.

Good thing I did, it was nearly 2 hours straight into the westerly wind, along the beautiful, empty side roads like Henley Rd, to Waihola. Slow going, but the sun came back and I was happy to be away from the big trucks on the highway, and just paced myself.

Tomorrow (Friday) is my biggest challenge day. Well over 100km to Gore, and strong headwinds are forecast. If the winds are too strong, the distance may be too ambitious for one day. I’ll do my best, though!

Next post: Day 7 — Serenity to accept that I cannot change

The plan was to cycle from Oamaru to the little village of Waikouaiti, where I was to stay in the only pub/hotel available. I heard about Beach Road, a coastal route out of Oamaru, from a Green Party member who lives near Hampden, who had contacted me after reading the blog and offered to ride part way with me today. I enthusiastically accepted, and we made a tentative plan to meet somewhere on the coastal route.

Beach Road is the perfect cycle route. Rolling hills, gorgeous expansive views of pristine beaches, and hardly a car in sight. It was a dream. I was quite tempted to go for a swim in the shimmering crystal blue sea, but I was already behind schedule. So I pushed forward as quickly as possible. When I met up with my cycling companion, he had been chatting with a group of 6 Russians who are cycle touring the entire ring of fire, and have been in NZ since early December.

It is a pleasure to be able to cycle and converse at the same time. You don’t notice the uphill effort as much, you can share your awe at the magnificent scenery with someone else. It’s usually just nice to have company,  just as it is nice to share a car with others for long journeys. Funny, it’s taken for granted that cars take up at least twice the width of a cyclist all the time, even when they’ve only got one person in them. Yet often those in cars seem outraged that two cyclists should ride abreast and converse as they are travelling together…. We discussed many things, including possible routes for my next two days, as I was getting nervous about being able to arrive in Mataura in time for Saturday.

Leaving the coastal route at Wainakarua, there is literally no alternative (not even a steep, up-hill, out of the way one) to SH1 until Moeraki. And this stretch is where the shoulder of SH1 becomes much more narrow, and significantly bumpier. It would have been terrifying but for the company to distract me, although it did get much more difficult to converse.

We stopped in Hampden for lunch, as that was the turn off for my cycling companion. (The fish and kumara chips in Hampden are about the freshest and most delicious I’ve had. Highly recommended as a stop if you’re on the road.) Sitting outside eating our freshly caught lunch, we chanced to meet a woman from Karitane (just past Waikouaiti), who is quite involved in a number of community and sustainability initiatives.

“You must meet her, I’ll introduce you,” said my cycling companion. And so he did. She and her daughter were coming back from a workshop on food security that had been held in Oamaru this morning. We got to talking, and she proposed that I stay at hers tonight.

I had been contemplating canceling my booking and trying to make it further along today, anyway, and when she proposed that she could ring a number of people involved in the East Otago Walking-Cycling Network to see of they wanted to come over for a chat over coffee and cake, I couldn’t refuse.

After lunch, I headed off alone towards Palmerston with Kanye West’s “Stronger” as my motivating soundtrack, steeling myself for the grueling hills ahead, aiming to be in Karitane by 6pm. There was a slight complication, as I was probably going to have to pay for the booked accommodation anyway, but I figured I’d sort that out when I went through Waikouaiti.

About 9km out from Palmerston, I stopped for a water break at a beachside rest area, the last point before the State Highway turns inland. I started heading up the hill, slowly overtaking a truck (that had previously overtaken me) which was pulled over on the side of the road. The driver, a classic kiwi truckie in his early 60s, struck up a conversation with me as I passed.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but he offered me a ride (anywhere I wanted on the way to Invercargill) and though I initially declined, I impulsively accepted. I’d gone just over 50km and had about another 30 to my destination. I thought, this is a great opportunity to see what it’s like to be inside a big truck, and chat with a truckie about the issues he faces, and save a bit of time and energy so I can make the next two huge days and not miss part of the festival. So we strapped my bike on the bed of the truck, between two giant rain tanks, and I hopped on in.

My observations were as follows. It is damn comfortable to be up high, gliding along in a truck. You get excellent visibility of what’s in front of you. We passed 3 cycle tourists going the other direction. You have NO IDEA at all what it’s like for the small slow moving objects you pass. It’s easy to see how drivers, even if they give wide berth as this driver does, could become quite cavalier about overtaking bikes at close proximity, at high speeds. They’re quite insulated.

We had a great chat about transport, truck driving, and the demand for goods around the south island, and I heard a lot about his family and life story. But it all happened quickly, because we were through Palmerston and to Waikouaiti in no time. Maybe 15 minutes and we were where I was planning to be in 3 hours. And it was so easy and comfortable. This could get addictive.

Just as I was starting to feel guilty about all those kilometers I hadn’t cycled, things started to work out. I popped into the motel to see if I could cancel for the night, only to find they were in the midst of trying to arrange a last minute hotel in Palmerston for a long staying guest because they had double booked. They were in the process of booting out some poor gold miner for me, but he’d been out of contact up a mine shaft all day. I got there just in time, so the hotel owner could cancel the arrangements and we were all happier, with the gold miner none the wiser.

Arriving in Karitane at about 3:30, I was able to do laundry and visit with my exceedingly generous hosts, who had arranged an impromptu cycle advocates meeting and even baked a chocolate cake since I last saw them in Hampden. I watched the child poverty documentary that has been the centre of a serious political maelstrom (more on that from me later) this week, and I ate about twice as much as every one else of a delicious home cooked dinner: fish, rice, veggies and salad. What a miracle.

At 7pm, a number of locals heavily involved in the East Otago walking-cycling network started coming by, some with home baked desserts. We had a fantastic korero about their projects and aspirations, about transport policy and advocacy, and we even got a surprise visit from Dundedin City Councillor Jinty MacTavish, who is from nearby. At least one of the people was heading to the Keep the Coal in the Hole festival this weekend as well, and she was able to provide me with alternative route advice for my  last 2.5 epic days.

This is how we can and must develop the solutions to the challenges we face. With community. Sharing information, ideas, food, rides, passion. I feel so lucky to be a part of it, and to receive such kindness and generosity from strangers.

Tomorrow I plan to meet Metiria at the top of Mount Cargill around 10:30am, for a ride into Dunedin with public health expert Hank Weiss, and hopefully some local cycle advocates.

Next post: Day 6 – just 110km or so to go

You’ll notice Frogblog has a black colour theme today too. I’ve blogged about why Kiwis should be concerned about the proposed laws over at The Standard.

On January 18 the likes of Google, Wikipedia, and The Creative Freedom Foundation will be either blacking out their sites or posting protest messages to their websites as part of an international campaign. The campaign has already had some success with Congress just yesterday deciding to postpone a vote on SOPA which some interpret as ‘indefinite shelving’ but it still remains and PIPA is still live in the Senate.

It’s a big deal. Imagine a small Kiwi online business blocked from Google searches, running online advertising or even processing VISA transactions or even losing their domain name because of a US copyright allegation that they can’t afford to challenge in a US court.

Like Skynet, this law will be easily circumvented by those in the ‘know’ and won’t even solve the problem. As research from Germany shows, increasing availability of digital content demonstrates one can combat internet piracy without huge costs, stifling innovation and infringing upon basic rights.

A very effective social media and networking campaign regarding the Food Bill has elevated concerns about bureaucracy intruding unnecessarily into the domestic food supply. Unfortunately some information circulated was incorrect, such as the Food Bill being put through these holidays, or that seed saving was to be outlawed.  The Food Safety Minister Kate Wilkinson has very clearly stated that seed saving and plant propagation will not be included in the Food Bill, following amendments during the Parliamentary process probably in February-March. However the social media campaign has been useful in exploring where the Food Bill may still need correction or improvement.

As currently drafted, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) and the Food Safety Minister are left significant power to make amendments by way of regulation once the Food Bill is enacted through legislation. Swapping of home garden produce with neighbours and friends, and direct sales from horticultural producers to consumers, are meant to be exempt from the need for food safety plans, under the proposed legislation. However the Minister is empowered by the Food Bill to later effectively change anything by way of regulation, including the exemption to swap food. It is difficult to find anything relating to food that the Minister would not be able to change.

This needs remedying, and blanket exemptions to preserve New Zealand’s culture of gardening, food preserving and community sharing must be drafted in such a way that any significant future changes must go through the full Parliamentary process. New Zealanders should be given every encouragement to feed themselves and their communities, not be constrained unnecessarily.

Except for direct grower to consumer sales of horticultural produce, for even the smaller growers or pickle producers to avoid food safety verification and registration costs, most operators will need to apply to the discretion of the Minister through MAF or a delegated local council.

School fairs, churches, and community fundraisers could have sausage sizzle fundraisers with just food handler guidance (a best practice food safety pamphlet and no checking), yet a small grower wanting to sell some surplus plums or cabbages to the corner dairy has to enter the bureaucratic jungle: Register at a cost, apply for an exemption, or wait and hope that MAF and the Minister decide to make an exemption after the Food Bill is through, but no promises.

It would appear that the only ‘charitable’ groups not able to run sausage sizzles or food stalls under food handler guidance, would be political parties/supporters, strong advocacy groups, and direct action groups such as Greenpeace. They would have to pay registration and undergo food safety plan verification for their sins.

Food safety is strongly covered under the existing Food Act, but has been poorly enforced, with evidence of food borne illness mostly reported as coming from restaurants, cafes, takeaways, caterers, and delis, not the fresh fruit and vege growers whose produce can easily be washed, or the cheese maker who knows their art.

Food borne illness needs better research to identify its causes more accurately, and food handlers need good education and penalties to deter poor practice, but this need not be at the expense of local, diverse food production. Small growers and processors need to be encouraged to rebuild the culture of local artisan food production, building food security and local skills.

Genetic modification, international joint food standards, free trade agreements and New Zealand food sovereignty, the level of force allowed by food safety officers, their immunity from prosecution, and the powers of the Minister, are all issues that need revisiting in the draft of the Food Bill currently before Parliament.

Amendments to the Food Bill could improve it significantly, ensuring New Zealand food sovereignty, confidence for growers and producers alike, encouraging food production at the local level and putting the compliance costs where they belong – on the large agribusiness and food processors that manifest the greater food safety risks.

I am looking forward to meeting with the Minister to discuss the process from here. I hope she will consider supporting a fresh round of submissions on the Bill. Public awareness and concern about the Bill has grown since the first round of submissions, and many people have expressed interest in submitting their views on the Bill.

More posts on the Food Bill

Mojo And Steffan lead Green response to Food Bill – Mojo Mathers, 21 Dec 2011

Food Bill update from Sue Kedgley – Sue Kedgley, 13 September 2011

There’s something I want to say to all of you. It’s a little personal.

It’s not your fault.

It’s not your fault that it’s difficult, inconvenient and expensive to take the bus or train most of the time. It’s not your fault that it’s difficult and frightening to walk, cycle or send your kids to school on their own.

It’s not your fault that the goods you buy or sell are mostly moved by truck. And you can’t change the transport system on your own through your consumer choices.

But you CAN tell the Government that you want a smarter transport policy. One that will make it easier for you (or others) to spend less money on cars and petrol. One that will stimulate economic development in our town centres. One that will reduce the road toll, and reduce our collective carbon emissions. One that will make it possible to travel between some cities on a train, or even a bike, if you choose.

We can do this, and the Government can SAVE money. And you don’t have to stop driving if that’s the best option for you. (Though you may have pay a little more directly for parking and fuel emissions, but you’ll find it easier to find a park and you’ll get stuck in fewer traffic jams).

That’s my message, just wanted to make sure it was coming through clearly…

Today was a fantastic day. I cycled the 80-some km from Timaru to Oamaru with the wind at my back. The highway signs informed me it is called “The Strawberry Trail”. I stopped for an excellent lunch at a cafe that’s just over halfway to Oamaru, at the turn-off to Waimate. They even had gluten free pancakes and organic museli! But I opted for a salmon frittata.

I passed a few fellow travelers on loaded touring bikes, both going the opposite way. Liz, from San Francisco, has been cycling all over the South Island for the past 5 weeks, and this is her last week before heading home. She’s loved her trip, but finds the trucks overtake uncomfortably closely and the shoulder of the road is significantly bumpier than the road itself.

Shortly before arriving in Oamaru, I saw the typical road signs that had been informing me just about every kilometer how far it was to Oamaru and Timaru, but something was different. These signs had the distance to the South Pole and the Equator — and I was just over halfway. The 45th parallel. Pretty sweet. It’s the sort if subtle thing one might miss if not on a bicycle.

Tonight I cycled into the heart of old Oamaru and watched the little blue penguins come in from their day at sea. Unbelievably cute. The town has a well preserved and very charming historic quarter, but typically the main street is mainly oriented to cars and car parking, and development stretches out thin along the state highway. Still, there’s a bike lane the whole way and it’s well lit. It’s got potential.

The cycling seems to be getting easier (knock on wood), though everyone I meet warns me about the big hills into Dunedin, and I am starting to worry about the 75km I have planned for Thursday. I may yet have to revise the itinerary down a bit.

Tomorrow, I leave the highway for a while to cycle by the sea, and then I head up into the hills. Eek…!

Next post: Day 5 — Serendipity and Community

“Oh, but you may just want to have a lie in after all that,” she smiled.

“I’ve got 5 more days of cycling ahead of me,” I insisted, full of good intentions to hit the road early.

In fact, I slept in until about 830 and then made breakfast and packed. I didn’t leave until closer to 930, and then I only cycled about 1km to the cycling gear store, where I proceeded to go on a shopping spree.

Cycling gloves? Check. Merino top? Check. Padded bicycle shorts? Oh yes. As much as I adore my Brooks leather saddle, to make it then next 460km I will need shorts that feel like they have a built-in adult diaper. (Never fear, normal-looking shorts cover up the padded Lycra portion).

So I embarked on the day’s 80km journey slightly after 11am, but very happy with my purchases, which should suffice as my long-cycle-trip uniform for years to come.

Yesterday I mentioned that I had a big choice to make today: would I cycle a longer and much slower route to avoid potential loss of life and limb, or go straight to Timaru on SH1?

I chose the latter. When cycling for transport, you want to get where you’re going, just like anyone traveling by any other mode. Yes the journey can be enjoyable, but I’ve got a deadline of Mataura by Saturday midday, and adding additional kilometers seems impossible at this point.

The trade-off of safety and comfort for directness happens in the city too.  People traveling by bike and on foot are often instructed by council transport planners to take more circuitous routes to avoid traffic. It’s ironic because when you’re traveling under your own steam, a few extra kilometers is a lot more of an ask than when you’re in a car. Yet it is usually those on foot or bicycles that are asked to mount the over-bridge, cross three times, or go downhill to the off-road path, only to climb uphill at the end of it.

Commuting to the city centre from St Luke’s in Auckland, I found the fastest way to cycle was New North Road to Ian McKinnon Dr, a weird semi-motorway route frequented by vehicles travelling well over 100km an hour (and usually even unwilling to change lanes to overtake a bicycle, though the middle lane was inevitably empty.)

Perhaps the years of being overtaken at half a metre by speeding buses and trucks in Auckland have desensitised me. I found today’s ride quite enjoyable, despite the noise and immanent threat of the passing trucks. (Sorry the mysterious iPad is not allowing me to upload pictures to the blog, but you can see some if you follow me on Facebook.) I arrived in sunny Timaru around 530pm, surprised to encounter some small hills, and had plenty of time to walk to the supermarket and make a healthy dinner.

We shouldn’t have to choose between directness and safety. It is entirely possible to build infrastructure that welcomes people on bicycles and on foot, and doesn’t make them travel twice as far. In fact, building our towns and cities so they are welcoming to people (as opposed to funneling vehicles through as quickly as possible) will cost us less in many ways. It’s a perfectly understandable mistake of traffic engineering that so many of our towns and cities are impossible or terrifying to navigate without a car.  It’s a mistake we can undo relatively easily by adopting different traffic engineering standards, changing some of our planning rules, and redirecting money towards walking and cycling infrastructure, which is much more cost effective than infrastructure for motor vehicles. However, our political and business leaders haven’t quite grasped this opportunity yet. I’m hoping I can use the next few years to get that message out.

But for now, I’ve got to focus on the remaining 345km (not all of it flat!) to Mataura. Tomorrow I’m definitely going to be up and on the road by 7am…

Next Post: Day 4 — The strawberry trail into Otago (after a slightly emo pep talk)

I’ve been calling on the Government to send an offshore patrol vessel for a while now to monitor the whale hunt, to ensure the safety of all vessels down there and to ‘bear witness’ to this environmental crime but the Government has consistently refused to act.

Sending a vessel isn’t about a sending a ‘hostile’ message but it is about showing New Zealanders care, like when Norman Kirk first sent a frigate to Mururoa Atoll to bear witness and to protest to French nuclear testing. Let’s not forget, the fact is the Japanese Government is whaling in a whale sanctuary despite the international moratorium (under the guise of ‘scientific whaling,’ which is being challenged at the International Court of Justice). These mammals deserve our protection and international laws should be upheld. This season we’ve seen the Japanese Government pour extra subsidies into whaling despite the significant economic loss it makes and escalating tensions by sending Japanese security forces aboard the ships.

One way this could be achieved legislatively is to amend section 5 of the Defence Act 1990 which is the principal legislation governing defence matters and the purposes for which armed forces can be “raised and maintained. It’s arguable looking at the current purposes that a vessel should be sent anyway:

• the defence of New Zealand, and of any area for the defence of which New Zealand is responsible under any Act
• the protection of the interests of New Zealand, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere
• the contribution of forces under collective security treaties, agreements, or arrangements
• the contribution of forces to, or for any of the purposes of, the United Nations, or in association with other organisations or States and in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations
• the provision of assistance to the civil power either in New Zealand or elsewhere in time of emergency
• the  provision of any public service.

The New Zealand Defence Force currently conducts surveillance patrols of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the Southern Ocean and the New Zealand Defence Force Annual Report 2011 states these patrols may involve surveillance of “whale fleets” but I’d like to see Kiwis down there monitoring the hunt every time the Japanese are whaling.

On another note, another interesting prospective angle to halt whaling in the Southern Ocean was raised by Dr Chris McGrath in NZ Lawyer for New Zealand to exercise its rights under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to claim an EEZ adjacent to the Ross Dependency; prohibiting whaling in its EEZ under our current Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978; and excluding Japanese whaling vessels from its waters.

However Joanna Mossop, in a response to McGrath’s article argues “Because Japan does not recognise New Zealand’s sovereignty over the Ross Dependency, it considers the Ross Sea to be high seas…If New Zealand attempted to arrest a Japanese whaling vessel operating in the Ross Sea, Japan would consider this to be a breach of international law….Any defence New Zealand undertook would inevitably involve arguing that it has sovereignty over the Ross Dependency, which would reopen the can of worms that was temporarily shut by Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty.”

I don’t think McGrath’s proposal is the way to go but by sending a peaceful vessel, exerting more diplomatic pressure, using our cultural connections like Sister Cities, supporting Australia’s ICJ case, strengthening shipping regulations in the Southern Ocean and promoting whale watching (which earns a lot more than whaling) as an alternative could help stop Japan’s whaling.

A recent Department of Conservation report by Dr Louise Chilvers found at the current levels of by-catch the Auckland Island NZ sea lion population would be “functionally extinct by 2035.” That’s gone forever – in our life time! Another recent Otago University report identified squid fishing as the most likely cause of sea lion population decline on the Auckland Islands. Yet, in a major departure from past policy, the Government in their consultation document is proposing to remove entirely the sea lion by-catch limit for the squid fishery in this area!

These are amazing animals that deserve our protection not bad regulations that push them closer to extinction.