Officially open

Newsletter from the wilderness

I’m in the wilderness for the next two days. Should Russia or the National Party be roiled by civil war, this plucky little newsletter will not be interpreting the ramifications until Thursday.

However I have set up despatches for your mailbox. Today, photos from the opening of the Wharepapa Enviro Haven.

The project’s originator, Hazel Nash, stands with Mike Elkington (Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Toa Rangatira) who led the opening ceremony.

The beautiful artwork you see is the work of Grant Palliser. The inside ring bears Hazel’s whakapapa, from the arrival of her forbears to Nelson - cheated by the New Zealand company and taken in by mana whenua when a storm all but wiped them out - on to her young years in the hill country of Rangiwahia, schooling and teaching at Feilding Agricultural High School, on to the land and people of Lower Moutere, across seas, into the thinnest air and highest peaks, and back again, all threaded together by the supplejack she would swing on as a child in the bush. There’s plenty more to learn, should you make your way to Lower Moutere to see it.

Many people came to see it opened, this place that so many have helped to make.

Hazel thanked the many for their generosity, and explained the purpose of this place: to foster and support action on climate change and sustainability and conservation. A blank slate right now, but ready to go.

Does this look like a really good place to come do such things?

You bet it does.