Covering 10 square kilometers along the top of the Maungaharuru Range, just north of Te Pohue, Harapaki is New Zealand’s second-largest windfarm. At roughly 1,100 meters above sea level, it is also the country’s highest.
It was fully commissioned by Meridian in July 2024 on time and within budget. In its first full week of operation Harapaki exceeded 170MW of generation several times and set a new Meridian record, with a daily mean of 156.6MW produced.
One thing that makes Harapaki special is its wind turbines – they’re Siemens direct-drive Typhoon-class turbines with no gearbox between the blades and the generator, making them more efficient and reliable than other turbines.
“Typhoon class turbines were originally designed for offshore wind farms and require less maintenance. This model of turbine is available only in New Zealand and Japan” says Chris More, Meridian Energy’s Head of Renewable Construction and Harapaki project overseer.
The Harapaki Wind Farm can produce a maximum of 176 megawatts of renewable energy, which is enough to power over 70,000 homes – roughly the equivalent of every household in Hawke’s Bay.
Harapaki will not, of course, be a power producer for our region exclusively.
Its location is adjacent to Transpower’s national grid lines that run between Wairaki, near Taupō, and Redcliffe, on the outskirts of Taradale in Napier. This means it can provide much needed power supply resilience to the North Island and beyond.
As anyone who had to wait for just one of the wind turbine blades to pass while they were being transported by road from the Port of Napier to the Harapaki site will know, these turbines are HUGE!
The towers alone are 85 meters high, and the diameter of the blades’ rotation is 120m. From ground to vertical blade tip, they stand 145 meters high – it’s no wonder you can see them from as far away as Napier!
Shortly after it was commissioned, Meridian’s Lachlan Forsyth (formerly of the legendary Campbell Live show) invited me up to view the wind farm first-hand. To see these 41 giant wind turbines up-close on site and stand underneath one of them while it slowly spun made even my 6’8” tall frame feel tiny.
By the People, For the People
Construction of the Harapaki Wind Farm involved a million “man-hours” of work, with around 2,500 people inducted onto the site during the project, roughly half of those being workers from Hawke’s Bay. The on-site security who greets you when you arrive on site are Te Pohue locals.
When Cyclone Gabrielle hit the region in February 2023, Meridian used the resources available on site and through their company’s networks to assist locals. That included flying in much-needed supplies and redeploying the site’s earthmoving equipment to help with clearing parts of State Highway 5 that had been blocked or washed out by the storm.
Meridian aims to assist locals further with its “Power Up Fund” which provides financial support to community groups in areas where they generate power. It allows community groups to apply for grant funding that can go towards things like community swimming pools, firefighting equipment, tree-planting and other local initiatives. “Harapaki shows we have the capability to deliver. We’ve got a world-class renewable construction team backed by a great group of contractors. What they’ve achieved in the face of COVID-19 and multiple weather events is truly outstanding,” says Guy Waipara, Meridian’s General Manager Development.
We here in Hawke’s Bay are SUPPOSED to be very parochial – Hastings vs Napier and never the twain shall meet, etc.
The truth is in recent years rather than being disparate regional towns, Napier and Hastings and Havelock North (calling “Havvers” a “Suburb of Hastings”, while technically correct might get you run out of town) have all essentially socially merged to be one big urban base. It doesn’t take more than half an hour to get from one side to the other – no different (possibly quicker?) than going from Mount Eden or Newmarket to Ponsonby in Auckland and with different facilities in each city commuting between the metropoli has become as common as going from Taradale to Tamatea.
The distance and differences, while smaller than before, are still interesting, giving us unique experiences without having to go too far afield.
We arrived at our glamping retreat on a chilly Friday evening and with gas fire and air conditioning going dozed off looking at the lights of Hastings and Peka Peka in the distance.
The next morning, we received two platters which are among the options the retreat provides – First, breakfast!
Bagels, fruit, muesli, bread, pancakes and smoked salmon for a healthy and fortifying start to the day.
Not long after, our picnic lunch arrived – Containing rolls, slices, cheeses, salad and pate!
I ducked into Havelock North village’s shops to get some of our daughter’s favorite sushi from Sushi Ten (a regular destination when it was previously in Taradale), and naturally had to stop in at Wardini Books.
Stepping off main arterial route that is Te Mata Road it doesn’t take long to not feel like you’re still in suburbia, with lots of flora and native birds like Tūī and Pīwakawaka swooping and singing in the trees, all the while with the gentle sound of the Karituwhenua Stream running through the middle.
Walking up one side of the stream to the top of the track and back on the other side took a leisurely 45 minutes to an hour, after which we went for a quick peek at the “Wooly Coos” – highland cattle that live in front of Te Mata Estate Winery.
We headed back into the village for a quick, early dinner at Mary’s.
We started with a Mojito and non-alcohol “NOjito” mocktail while our meals were being prepared. One thing I have done on these staycations is try things I have never or wouldn’t usually have.
For mains I had Beef Short Rib Croquettes with Harissa Mayo and Roasted Vegetable Salad, Whipped Feta & Pomegranate Molasses Dressing, while Mrs. in Frame had Pan Seared Fish Fillets, Pickled Vegetable Escabeche and Saffron Mayonnaise.
Everything was delicious!
Our last morning in Havelock North dawned with a stunning foggy outlook across the Heretaunga Plains.
Looking towards Peka Peka reminded me of looking across Hawke Bay from Hardinge Road in Ahuriri, Napier, to West Shore, with a foggy sea reaching out to the ranges.
From our accommodation in the Te Mata foothills we caught the briefest of glimpses of foggy coverage all the way out to actual Hawke Bay as we headed into town for a breakfast coffee at Workroom and pastries from Wright & Co.
Fog covers the Heretaunga Plains looking south-west to Peka Paka
We thoroughly enjoyed our second local staycation this year and would absolutely recommend visiting our Hawke’s Bay neighbor, Havelock North, and staying at the spectacular Enchanted Retreat whether you’re a local looking for a short break or visiting our awesome region!
With so much going on globally, it’s been easy to get overwhelmed. It’s simultaneously been very easy to get bored from the same old, same old locally.
We haven’t been in the position to jet off overseas to a tropical island beach, or some massive, heaving metropolis, but we ARE very fortunate to live in one of the most popular tourist destinations in New Zealand.
So, we stayed there – TWICE!
In late January we had a family night at Te Pania Hotel on Napier’s Marine Parade.
Miss InFrame wanted to stay somewhere that had room service (cheers, YouTube..), and Napier’s Scenic Circle Hotel had cheap nights going, so we spent Friday night / Saturday morning looking out over Hawke Bay.
We played “tourist”, going to Wardini Bookshop, and Mrs. InFrame bought a new handbag from Beja Flor.
We had a flash dinner at Te Pania’s restaurant, The Curve, before going across the road to Ocean Spa for an evening dip in their heated pools.
We woke the next morning to the stunning summer sun rising over Hawke Bay.
We did, indeed, get room service for breakfast, and ate with cricket on the television and Marine Parade glowing in the morning light outside our window
It was a great little break away, while still only being a few kilometers from home!
Inspired by our hotel stay, Mrs. InFrame had been looking for somewhere to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, which is coming up later this year a little early, because of other plans closer to the date.
Part tent, part Frank Lloyd Wright-esque glasshouse, the retreat was very flash, with smart home technology meaning fire, blinds, light and other features were merely a tablet press away!
The night we arrived it was absolutely heaving with rain, but we were still warm and dry in the opulent surroundings.
Only a few minutes from the middle of Havelock North, The Enchanted Retreat is set in amongst trees, overlooking a valley with Paki Paki, and the ranges to the west in the distance.
The rain had worn itself out by the morning and after a quick dip in the hot tub we ventured into Havelock North Village to get some breakfast from Ya Bon Table to go with the juices we had gotten from Hapi in Napier the day before.
After retreating back to the.. erm.. Retreat for a few hours to read, and catch up on Star Wars Andor episodes, we headed for Te Mata Peak to go for a walk amongst the redwoods.
(It really is fortunate that my phone camera takes panoramic photos horizontally AND vertically…)
Yet again only a few minutes from the middle of suburban Havelock North it really felt like you were in the middle of a wonderfully natural nowhere.
Back to nearby civilisation we went for a light, early dinner at Japanese Restaurant & Cocktail Bar Piku.
Before retiring, once again, to the hot tub to watch the sun set over the ranges.
It was a fantastic couple of nights, yet again so close to home, but also feeling far away.
If you’re looking at visiting my home region (or locals considering having a similar staycation) I can highly recommend these places!
I’ve long said the only thing I wanted to be in life was as good a father as you were – You set such a high standard by just being you – Kind, caring, loving, supportive.
I ask my daughter if I’m a good dad and she says I’m the best, so I must be doing something right. And I just do those same little things, too – Be supportive, loving, help out.
There has been a lot of that over the years:
Taking her Kiwi Cricket team throughout primary school – Not because I wanted her to play cricket – She wanted to play it because I do.
Always going to her sports/gymnastics/dancing/aerials practices and performances.
Going on school outings and camps.
I’ve (humorously) convinced her that there is a “Parenting Rule Book” (‘Rule One, Line one, Page one: “You MUST embarrass your child at every opportunity”!’), but we all know there is no such thing. It’s always been almost purely seat-of-your-pants stuff, hasn’t it?
Growing up sometimes a safe, happy, loving home is all you need. I was very fortunate that mine was.
I still wish you were here to lend a hand, give advice from when I was her age, or just tell me I’m doing OK.
Because as you get older it seems like you’re constantly told you’re wrong (even when you aren’t), but so seldomly told you’re doing well.
Feeling guilty that you have a secure job that is slowly driving you mad when others are losing their income source is rather brain-busting.
But it has had advantages – My work doesn’t care about developing me, so I’ve taken every bit of leave I can to help my daughter develop and experience new things.
The absolute best parts of last year were being one of the parents that accompanied her year group’s camp to Wellington for a week, and helping out when her class went sailing on Ahuriri Estuary.
Such brilliant kids!
I just hope we can provide them with the future they deserve, not the imminent apocalypse our current crop of global leaders appear hell-bent on driving us towards just to benefit their own financial enrichment.
I hope she’s happy wherever you are if that is the case.
This year will be my 20th wedding anniversary.
You two made it to 37, but we had a 13-year head start by comparison.
Like parenting I wonder how we do it sometimes. A few of our fellow school year’s parents have parted ways since primary school started.
Similarly, we don’t make anywhere as much as other families, yet still somehow manage to live comfortably on a single income like our family did growing up when others I know are earning far more individually and are on two incomes yet still seem to struggle.
I sometimes wonder if we are doing something right or wrong.
Admittedly, unlike us, most of them have more than one child, and I guess the extra costs and things like childcare must be taking a lot out of that income.
You never really know what others are going through, eh?
Do you hear me when I talk to you? I do it almost every day.
Asking your opinion, guessing what you’d say in similar situations, apologizing when I stuff something up.
I spent about 80% of my time quietly muttering “Sorry, Dad” while clearing out the garage and your shed of all the will-be-handy-some-day stuff you had collected over the decades when I was getting our old home ready for sale.
In the end there was a couple hundred dollars’ (and kilos) worth of metal, brass, nuts and bolts, old nails, copper pipe, wire and electrical bits and bobs across the various sheds and back yard that I took to the metal recyclers.
There was a lot of heavy physical lifting, and a lot of emotional weight – So many memories in those sheds.
I kept a lot of your hand tools, and those little plastic drawer sets full of new, unused nails, screws, rivets, etc.
I figure they will be handy someday…
I even repurposed some of the recycled native wood you had lying around into frames for some of the other gems I discovered.
It felt like a very “Dad” thing to do.
Speaking of making things you’ll be pleased to know your skilled woodworking genes that lay dormant for most of my life have finally kicked into gear!
The sheds are all gone now. And so are the back yard’s old features – The rotary washing line, the ancient lemon tree, the camelia you successfully moved from one side of the yard to the other. The tree outside your shed you would work in the shade of (I’ve kept bits of that for various modeling projects, so its memory lives on).
My wife alternates each year between the traditional and the New Zealand version, otherwise known as “A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree”.
This year was the Kiwi Christmas Deliciousness Edition.
The dishes usually have a direct correlation to the songs (Five Big Fat Pigs = Pork/Ham/Bacon), others use a fair chunk of artistic license as, if we stuck COMPLETELY to the original “Twelve Days” song’s days’ feathered features, we’d be swimming in poultry with French Hens, Swans a Swimming, Geese a Laying etc. etc. otherwise.
And while the fast-food chain Colonel Harland Sanders’ founded predates even McDonalds in New Zealand, so it holds a special place in our nation’s stomachs, I don’t think a “12 Days of KFC” would be dieticianaly advisable.
I’ll do my best to explain the pairing concepts as we go.
So sit back and prepare to adore what my true love made over the Twelve Days of Kiwi Christmas Deliciousness 2024
A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree
Broccoli & Anchovy Pasta with Blueberry Smoothies
Pukeko, otherwise known as the “Australasian Swamp Hen”, are blueberry-colored birds that live in or near creeks and wetlands. where they can feed on tiny fish (like anchovies). The penne pasta looks like Ponga logs, with the broccoli representing the ferny plume of the Ponga tree.
Two Kumara
Baked Kumara with Mole Sauce
Kumara are a sweet potato. For this dish we baked kumara, filled if with vegetables and chocolate mole sauce, which can represent the dirt or mud kumara are dug out of.
This is where the inspiration for this dish lies – Black Cake (like the feathers), with the cream and sprinkles representing the plume and blue-green hues,
Four Huhu Grubs
Prawn Mousse Filled Pasta Shells
Huhu grubs are a creepy crawly larva-like delicacy usually served at most “Wild Food” festivals. They are renowned for their gooey-squishiness when you bite into them.
The ribbed pasta shells resemble Huhu grubs, with the Prawn Mousse and Marinara Sauce giving them their squishy centre.
Five Big Fat Pigs!
Battenburg Cake
The pink outside of the plump Battenburg Cake represents portly pigs. The rich, sweet, chocolate cake that makes part of the cake began its life as a “muddy” mix, which pigs like to wallow in.
We think these mushroom balls look like Poi, E(h)?
(We only had enough spaghetti for my wife’s dish, so I had these smaller penne rings)
Seven Eels a-Swimming
Sushi
The Longfin Eel are native to New Zealand. and can be found in lots of muddy waterways – even the creek that runs past our house.
The Māori name for eel is “Tuna”, which is why Mrs. Frame had tuna sushi.
I had Katsu Chicken sushi. pictured above) with its nori seaweed wrapping looking like an eel wrapped around lettuce looking like waterway greenery.
Eight Plants of Puha and Nine Sacks of Pipis
Citrus Lymph Flush and Seafood Pizza
Puha is a leafy, green, wild vegetable that usually grows in or near waterways, so a detox drink made of verdant fruit and veges matches the liquid and color categories.
Pipis are bivalve mollusks like cockles. We kept the aquatic theme with seafood pizza.
Ten Juicy Fish Heads
Crab Stick Dogs
Despite the name, Crabsticks are usually made out of fish. Deep fried in batter they become very juicy. With some coleslaw salad and sauce the dogs got even juicier!
The addition of half a scoop of chips was just a given.
We have made these pastry-wrapped sausages several times before, usually around Halloween and called them “Mummy Dogs”, as, like piupiu, we cut the pastry into long strips, which we wrap around leg-like sausages.
We hope you’ve been inspired to try some of these, or your own version next Christmas.
From the Napier in Frame family to yours, we hope you had a Merry Kiwi 2024 Christmas and will have a safe and happy 2025 New Year!
My clearest memory of the original trilogy was seeing a “behind the scenes” documentary on TV one weekend showing how they did the special effects for Return of the Jedi and in particular the Endor speeder-bike chase.
Here I was – young and impressionable, watching how the most awesome movies ever made were created using what they called “models”, but to all intents and purposes for a six-year-old were TOYS!!!
I have a plan – I’m going to recreate my favorite movie memory!
With the modelling skills I’ve acquired over the years fizzing at the bung I set off on recreating a suitable diorama!
I order two Speeder Bikes and Scout Troopers. In an utter fluke I come across Endor Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia on sale at Farmers in Hastings. I can’t afford to get them there and then, but when I go back a few weeks later they are still there, so I buy them.
I got a clear acrylic case from The Warehouse to keep everything contained, tidy and dust-free. I print out an Endor-esque forest background onto an A4 sticker sheet and adhered it to the inside of the back wall of the display case.
I sprayed the base with a can of my modeling Tamiya Olive Drab spray paint that I used for the 1/72 Memphis Belle this year to make it look forest-ish at the very least
I had used off-cuts of this tree for previous model scenes over the years, so it also keeps my old back yard alive not just in my memory.
After test-placing the speeder bikes I glued them (and the figures in places too) to make sure they stood still and didn’t fall over when the case was closed..
I added the “trees” and some logs. These would help hide the clear plastic stands that the Speeder Bikes “fly” on. I noted there appeared to be a path of some kind on the background pic, so incorporated that into the corner of the base.
Now it was just a matter of adding the groundcover and lichen bushes to cover the base and any errant gaps in the scenery that popped up.
With the glue dried, ground cover, figures and Speeder Bikes secured I put the clear acrylic case on, literally encapsulating the scene.
Job done!
While I’m not expecting job offers from Lucasfilm, or Disney for my creative effort any time soon, I was still really pleased with the result – It recreated what I saw 40+ years ago and doing so allowed me to “play” with the coolest toys from the coolest movies ever again!
I’ve had an Airfix 1/72 scale B-17G in my unbuilt model stash for some time, having bought it from the Napier model shop Platform One just before it closed down. But when I came across a cheap kitset of the B-17F Memphis Belle I had to get it.
(As a result, there were likely Memphis Belle bits in the B-17G and vice-versa…)._
I started with the Memphis Belle:
Giving the interior and exterior a liberal first / final coat to make later construction stages easier I went with “Olive Drab” top and one of my many “Sea Gray” Tamiya can sprays underneath.
Despite several fiddly, tiny interior parts, I was able to complete the cockpit and navigator/bombardier nose sections without issue or any lost bits.
I even “kitbashed” some cockpit oxygen tanks by cutting sprue pieces into short lengths and painting them yellow (above, left, just behind the pilots’ seats.)
Most remarkably, when I fitted and glued the two halves of the fuselage together (with all the bits and pieces, turning turrets, and interior details, there were few to no issues!
All glued together, painted and decaled the ‘Belle looked stunning!
You could even see the oxy’ tanks in the interior!
Up next was the B-17G.
The difference between the older Memphis Belle’s B-17F, and the B-17G was the newer G had a “chin turret” – A pair of co-axial 50 caliber machine guns remotely controlled by the plane’s Bombardier mounted under their big, conical aiming window at the front of the aircraft, under its “chin”.
I didn’t want to make these two big planes looking the same and, like the P51 Mustang the B17 really was blank canvas for paint schemes, variances and “nose art”.
Different groups, squadrons and units had different color combinations to help identify their own aircraft in the gigantic formations of bombers that flew over occupied Europe during the war.
The combination I picked actually came from a screenshot of the flight simulator “DCS”, with Gloss Aluminum fuselage, Matt Yellow tail and wingtips, Matt Red engine cowlings, and Olive Drab anti-glare nose top and in-board engine (so as to not blind the pilots from looking at bright, shiny aluminum.)
Once all the bits were put together, painted and decaled the B-17G looked absolutely stunning in its glossy metal finish
With the recent experience of building the Belle, (and already having painted/constructed most of the parts) this build went together even faster and easier.
These kits were a childhood dream, and a pleasure to build.
The only problem was finding somewhere big enough to display them…
(The smell from the dozens of full-gloss printed pages was guaranteed to keep your sinuses clear for months, or get you addicted to the smell of model glue and/or paint…)
One of the earliest, coolest dioramas I can remember was a WW2 German Volkswagen Schwimmwagen amphibious jeep fording a river.
I never had the skill to recreate the scene myself as a young one. But the more modeling I did and the different methods I had started trying recently gave me the confidence to try it out.
I bought a 1:35 Tamiya Schwimmwagen and Italeri Willy’s Jeep from my regular Napier model store, Cool Toys, and got to work
This was going to be a bit of a higgledy-piggledy process, because there were going to be a few changes that I wanted to make, so I painted and glued together what I could initially without causing too much hassle down the line.
To make the Schwimmwagen look like it was…erm.. “schwimming” I either needed a lot of resin (which I didn’t have) to make a deep river or cheat a little by making the wheels a bit shallower.
Fortunately the Jeep kit also came with a trailer I had no intent on building, but the spare two wheels (olive green, on top of the original sandy-colored Tamiya wheels, above) would certainly come in useful.
Rivet-counting model prototype purists may cringe, but I was working on the theory that very little of the wheels would be visible above “water-level”, so it didn’t matter so much.
To make the Schwimmwagen sit flush with the base I was doing to pour the river into I had to do a bit of “kit-bashing”. This involved a hacksaw.
With the kitset put together, painted and decaled it looked pretty great!
I painted most of the parts on their sprues and started with the chassis and suspension. With very few issues, aside from a couple of fit issues the kit came together quickly and easily.
As part of the diorama, I intended the Jeep to have its hood up, possibly with a figure working on the engine, so I made a point of painting the engine, and detailing the engine bay a bit too.
With the kits completed I moved onto the base.
For my diorama I intended a purloined German Schwimmwagen to be cruising past a Jeep on a wharf with engine issues.
I sealed and painted the “water” area, and prepared the “piled” wharf base.
I got to use the remaining half of the resin I bought to make the sea for my “Spit in the Sea” diorama two years ago which had, very thankfully not gone off or hardened in the meantime, mixing the resin together and pouring it into the “lake” section.
The amount of resin I had filled the “lake” perfectly, right up to the level I wanted (this had required a bit of mathematics to figure out).
I left it for a couple days to harden properly.
To give the Schwimmwagen a “wake” to give the impression it is motoring along I used gel medium (also from the “Spit in the Sea” diorama) to make some waves.
To make the wharf I cut dowel down into sections to make the front of the wharf and added some lichen “weeds” (neither of which are particularly visible, like the Schwimmwagen’s trailer wheels, but I know they are there…)
I layered popsicle sticks as bearers, then cut and placed more popsicle sticks at right angles to make the wharf’s planks.
It was fortunately far less fiddly than I feared.
I did a (VERY) basic paint job on the figures (the next skill I need to work), on and added a few bits of greenery just to break up the otherwise rather sparse wharf.
It was really cool to recreate a dream diorama from my childhood, and the more models I make and more experienced and confident I get, the cooler the models become!
“Regional journalists employed by New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME), owner of the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB, as well as a raft of regional and community mastheads, have released a statement seeking support from their local communities as they face potential job losses.”
As part of these cuts ALL HB Today’s Visual Journalist (“photographer” to us old-schoolers) positions are to be axed.
While many in media say that a journalist with a smartphone can’t compete with the quality of industry-grade digital picture and video cameras, that’s looks EXACTLY like what NZME expect their Hawke’s Bay Today journalists to do from now on.
Oh, and cover a region that ranges from Dannevirke in the south, to Mahia in the north, and has a population of around 180,000.
Six full time-equivalent journalists are enough to cover that entire region.
RIGHT?!
“The changes will ensure those newsrooms have the appropriate resourcing to produce the right mix of high-quality content that better connects with our print subscribers and local communities, while continuing to serve our digital audiences,” NZME editor in chief Murray Kirkness.
Cutting an award-winning newsroom’s staff BY HALF “will ensure those newsrooms have the appropriate resourcing“?
What utter bullshit.
New Shub
Failing to Read the (News)Room
“A key feature of (NZME’s) restructure is the creation of a “hub”, from which news directors and editors will oversee multiple regions at once” Stuff reports.
Sadly this is nothing new for New Zealand’s regional news outlets.
Hawke’s Bay Today itself was formed when Hawke’s Bay’s two newspapers (Napier’s “Daily Telegraph” and Hastings’ “Herald Tribune”) were merged into one in 1999 by NZME’s corporate predecessor APN. It added a section of Tararua District news when the Dannevirke News was also osmosed into the masthead in 2005.
Advertising income dropping? Cut newsrooms! Readership dropping? Cut newsrooms! Shareholders not making enough profits? Cut newsrooms! Online presence failing against entrenched main centre competition? Halve award-winning regional newsroom!
As regional newsrooms were cut to the bone the amount of news they could produce obviously dropped as a result.
As the amount of local news regional newsrooms produced dropped, less and less locals read and advertised in their once thriving, informative regional papers, as due to their corporate masters’ machinations and poor business decisions they lost relevance to the locals.
One of the most startling examples of this in Hawke’s Bay Today was a few years ago, under a previous editor, where there was almost as much in-house NZME advertising padding out space in the daily newspaper’s pages as there was local news content!
There were also “Editorials” and opinion columns galore from NZME’s regionally irrelevant Auckland radio talkback hosts taking up valuable column inches where local news, issues and opinions used to take forefront, too.
NZME can’t even be bothered getting humans to write relevant, topical opinion pieces that get reproduced online and across the country on their regional mastheads!?
NZME then wails that “Facebook has taken our audience (read “profits”) away!”, and cuts regional newsroom staff numbers EVEN FURTHER to try and make up for money lost because of their own big city executive idiocy!
At the same time Newshub had devastated the employment opportunities of New Zealand journalists, competitor and media mainstay for generations, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) did what you would expect absolutely no logical competitor to do and ALSO cut staff numbers as well as long-running, popular AND PROFITABLE shows Fair Go and Sunday.
With all this devastation across the media landscape it might have made it a bit hard to hear the additional regional media losses NZME proposed because, as we’re aware, “regional New Zealand doesn’t matter”, apparently..
And that’s something that none of the coverage of the “twee little café incident” mentioned: An international award-winning paper, that overcame a major natural disaster to get the news out to the people who needed it was having their newsroom staff numbers cut in half.
This isn’t a failure of regional journalism.
It’s the failure of NZME.
This was never an issue of “no one reads newspapers / watches the 6pm news anymore”.
The news in newspapers, websites, apps, radio, and television ALL comes from newsrooms like Hawke’s Bay Today’s.
One evening RTR Countdown plays the new music video of a song that will quickly gain regular radio airtime. It’s by an African American woman named Tracy Chapman who has short, spiky dreadlocks and it’s called “Fast Car”.
“You got a fast car I want a ticket to anywhere Maybe we make a deal Maybe together we can get somewhere Any place is better Starting from zero got nothing to lose Maybe we’ll make something Me, myself, I got nothing to prove“
While Napier is my entire existence in 1988, I realize it is merely a small part of a much bigger planet, but It’s a good starting point. At ten years old my life and the world lie ahead of me.
That’s 10-11 year old me in yellow, middle row, second from the left.
“Fast Car” will continue to develop and deepen each time I hear it over the coming years. Every time I hear it there will be different meaning in it for me.
1993-95
“You got a fast car I got a plan to get us outta here I been working at the convenience store Managed to save just a little bit of money Won’t have to drive too far Just ‘cross the border and into the city You and I can both get jobs And finally see what it means to be living”
Some time in 1994 I bought my first “Fast Car” – A ’69 (nice!) Ford Anglia, which my Dad helped me paint and get in good running order. The Anglia enabled me to “cross the border” between Napier and Hastings – the Tutaekuri and Ngaruroro river bridges. Owning a car is also a really big step on the way to “adulthood”.
My first car, Circa 1994
Chorus
“So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk City lights lay out before us And your arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder And I-I had a feeling that I belonged I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone”
OK, my first car was nowhere near “fast”, I didn’t go very far, and I sure as hell never drove drunk, but owning a car did provide mobility – A highly intoxicating drug for any teenager.
Driving back to Napier from Hastings at night the city’s lights are gorgeous – all the house and street lights on Napier Hill (Mataruahou) look like a sparkling, multi-jeweled crown.
While I wouldn’t so much as hold hands with a girl until 1998 (not for lack of trying!), so snuggling-and-driving was out of the question, I DID feel like I belonged at home with my family.
We were a small unit, but we were tight, and we loved each other.
I was a panelist on RNZ’s “The Panel” six times between 2018 & 2019. The briefest of National Radio exposure
1996-1998
“See, my old man’s got a problem He live with the bottle, that’s the way it is He says his body’s too old for working His body’s too young to look like his My mama went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give I said somebody’s got to take care of him So I quit school and that’s what I did“
While my Dad wasn’t a drinker and Mum never left us, Dad did have a heart attack around 1997. As I’ve written about before, my parents had me quite late in life and Dad was nearing retirement age not long after I finished school. Not long after the heart attack he ended up taking early retirement. His work and hobbies had always been quite physical and taxing, so it wasn’t too surprising.
We still managed to live happily, never struggling financially despite Dad’s solo income or pension being far less than I would end up earning later in life.
Rather than going to university like so many of my schoolmates, I ended up working back in the same supermarket I had my first job in. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t want to spend three years of my life and $30-50,000 on a student loan to STILL not know, so working on the checkout and stacking shelves provided a regular, albeit reasonably small, income and kept me closer to my parents who I was now starting to worry about.
(The line about quitting school to look after a sick relative also reminds me of Toby Morris’ exquisite cartoon “On a Plate” that (very rightly) never fails to anger me.)
I worked at the supermarket during the day, went home, had dinner and travelled out to the station around 11pm to be on air from midnight until 6am. It was physically and mentally draining. Management decisions hardly helped.
At first we were allowed to talk between every few songs, like normal radio announcers. But a few months in we were told we were only allowed to play music. It defeated the purpose of being a “radio announcer“.
Aside from manually queuing up and playing the preset lists of songs on stacks of the station’s compact discs (things were far from digital in 1995/6) we also had menial tasks like doing the dishes and vacuuming the station offices. You got pretty good at being able to do certain tasks in the three and a half minutes it took for most songs to play, then get back into the studio in time to seamlessly start the next song. I didn’t mind doing the cleaning, as it was the sort of things the youngest/newest staff members just did when they started jobs, and it helped pass the long dark hours.
But after being silenced on air us midnight-till-dawners just became some sort of “manual automation”. Taking off secondary tax it soon didn’t even pay enough to get to Hastings and back every weekend, either.
Not long after I left midway through 1996 the graveyard shift was digitally automated/simulcast and what had been the entry point for regional broadcasters for years ceased to exist.
My dream radio career had lasted six months.
“You got a fast car Is it fast enough so we can fly away? We gotta make a decision Leave tonight or live and die this way”
2001-2004
“You got a fast car We go cruising, entertain ourselves You still ain’t got a job And I work in the market as a checkout girl I know things will get better You’ll find work and I’ll get promoted We’ll move out of the shelter Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs”
I got a job at Dymocks Booksellers in Napier in 2000. I met my future wife while working there in 2001. She ended up working there part time, too, and would go on to work in the book trade much longer than I did.
Our boss, Jeff, was very good and managed to organize it so we had our “weekends” (usually Wednesday and Thursday from memory) together. We had a fair bit of disposable income and planned to get a flat together at some stage in the near future.
In 2023 the store was bought by new owners, who interviewed us all and asked what our plans / goals were. I said after three years I’d like to move up and become some sort of manager eventually.
The new owners fired all the incumbent staff and took on new employees when they took over.
My wife got immediately head-hunted by a bookshop down the road. She would go back to working at Dymocks until its closure under even newer owners who took over after the owners who fired us failed.
I got a job as an Assistant Manager (the shop had only two staff including myself) at a video game store in the CBD a month after the bookshop let us go. This was “Big Money” in 2023: $10 per hour!
While still living at our respective homes the double income allowed us to regularly go out to the movies, have coffee and dessert on long Hawke’s Bay evenings and go for aimless drives.
We even found a flat with very good landlords who charged below market rates that allowed us to move in together in my childhood suburb of Tamatea!
There’s just something special about sunsets over Tamatea, as the big, golden orb dips below the Poraiti hills..
2004-2023
“You got a fast car I got a job that pays all our bills You stay out drinking late at the bar See more of your friends than you do of your kids I’d always hoped for better Thought maybe together you and me’d find it I got no plans, I ain’t going nowhere Take your fast car and keep on driving”
In 2004 I was finally able to leave low-paying retail after a decade when I got a job in the same company (and office) as my (now fiancée’s) father and our income more than doubled.
I was only supposed to be for a year to cover maternity leave, but the lady who held my position previously decided not to return and I would remain in the job for the next 20 years – a massive change from what had been a natural three-year cycle in different retail jobs.
It meant job security and stability during some very unstable times in my life.
Between 2004 and 2023 my life was a rollercoaster of:
Got married. We honeymooned in Melbourne – our last trip overseas to date.
Not to mention all the interior and exterior crises of regular life, coming to grips with parenthood, and still trying to figure out how to be an adult.
I’ll certainly never be a “deadbeat dad” and have tried to be as involved as I can in our daughter’s life – Going on school trips, coaching her cricket team, doing all I can to ensure she knows she matters, is loved and can do her best.
I’ve sacrificed time, money, and opportunities for my family’s security, but that’s just what you do as a Dad. Right?
Sadly, security is no panacea for the feeling of stagnation when your own life and career goals fail to materialize after years and years of trying to effect change for yourself.
Despite two decades of loyal service and dedication to my job, doing odd hours and going above and beyond, often working solo and still meeting work targets, I still haven’t risen from the position I inherited 20 years ago.
Being unsuccessful in both internal promotions and finding a new career closer to what I actually want to do started to ulcerate some time ago.
Seeing people like Ke Huy Quan and Brendan Fraser win Academy Awards in 2023 showed that good guys with dreams can still get there in middle age, despite decades of feeling redundant or inadequate.
In 2023 Tracy Chapman became the first Black woman to have written a country music number one. She also becomes the first Black woman to win a Country Music Association award for “Fast Car”, 35 years after the song was first released, when Luke Combs’ cover of her song won “Song of the Year”.
2024
“You got a fast car Is it fast enough so you can fly away? You gotta make a decision Leave tonight or live and die this way”
Throughout “Fast Car” there is a beat that ticks away like an old analogue clock, and a plinky-plonky acoustic guitar riff that repeats over and over and sounds like water dripping constantly, endlessly.
I can’t and won’t leave my family, as my daughter is the best thing I have. But I can’t keep going without catching a break.
There is a stage where the line “live and die this way” stops being a way of life and becomes an imminent threat.
The snare and high-hat tick away like a clock. The plinky-plonky acoustic guitar riff repeats over and over, like water dripping constantly, endlessly.
