Tourism in our bay (Western link blog Dec 2011 )

Being in the local restaurant business we get to know the locals and hear the chat and what’s on people’s minds.  Over the past months of course all we heard was rugby rugby, rugby, (including the minority who came to the restaurant to get away from the rugby) 

A hot topic was lack of participation by the Tauranga City Council and the financial cost and downturn the World Cup had bought to our area.  There was sheer disappointment at Tauranga’s lack of atmosphere downtown. But would the Tauranga people have got up and left their flat screens and headed down to a city party, where it would have been hard to concentrate on those very important games?  It’s all speculation and conjecture now anyway.

The enthusiasm about how much the World Cup would do for Tauranga turned out to be just spin.  Was it that we didn’t get into gear again and promote to the travellers of the world what Tauranga has to offer, or was it that it was never going to be big for Tauranga because the Rugby World Cup was only about where the games were played.  People seemed to tire of it, and couldn’t wait for it to be over.  It was a long time where it seemed life went on hold, yet we still wanted Ritchie winning it for us all and holding the cup up high.

Such a proud country though and New Zealand got in behind their Men and they won! Congratulations to everyone who waved their flag for the All Blacks in some small or major way. It was a national effort.

New Zealand hosted the cup well in the end but the earlier critics and over the transport for the opening did make us all nervous. 

What price did holding the cup in New Zealand have on our local economy?  That depends on who one talks to.

Many people in business in Tauranga say it hurt local business but it did put New Zealand on the world stage for a solid time. In the future if our tourism heads do it right we will get many more tourists here. 

Then along comes the unwanted news about Rena.   She also put us on the world stage, and as sad and awful as it maybe, there will hopefully be some positive results come out of this.  Maybe people will want to come and see the beautiful coastline that has been beamed around the world.  Maybe some clever entrepreneur will run trips out to the reef bringing tourists here, who knows?  As long as red tape and political interference doesn’t get in the way we could win out of this huge loss.

The Rena news was horrific to all the local people. Messages of sympathy came from friends and family from around the rest of NZ and the world, on peoples social media accounts, emails etc. Stories of how each individual were being affected were everywhere. The community are still sharing the latest Rena news over coffee or dinner and passing in the street and there is huge relief that the crisis is now basically under control, as we head into the next faze of getting the containers off.

It was and is amazing how our local people came together to clean up -  such a painstaking job but dedicated people, so generous with their time and so passionate about getting things back to normal. We saw true kiwi ‘can do’ attitudes when it was needed. We heard of a holiday maker from Wellington joined the Matua group for a day to help clean up the Matua coastline, which is a fine example of how New Zealanders respect and love this country and this area. There are so many very decent people in the Tauranga community.  Most live here for the beauty and lifestyle that they want to enjoy and live with everyday.

The election is so close yet it seems to be passing by with little discussion, it’s almost an anti climax around here in Cherrywood.  The Matua community group hosted a candidates meeting without the local Member of Parliament and National candidate present.  Some say “He had other commitments” others say   ‘He will get in so he doesn’t need to worry’ or “He was arrogant” I doubt if it will make much difference to the outcome on voting day. The days of packed halls to hear candidates seem to be few and far between as the media bring the campaigning into the privacy of our own home and now that the New Zealand First leader isn’t based or standing in Tauranga very few election stories are being beamed from here.

Some vote for candidates based on a lot of spin or in some cases, how wavy and glossy a candidates hair is. As long as our local Member of Parliament, who ever that will be, becomes the Minister of Tourism, I will be happy.(Written prior to the elections)

Damn you Rena

Damn you Rena – By SE

The cargo ship RENA hit our reef
Tauranga has now a pouring of grief
The oil has spilt and covered our shores
due to an idiot breaking marine laws

Why why why is money such a sin
because it make people think pretty dim
The ship was in a rush to get to port
More bucks, was what the captain thought

Local people suffering disbelief and shock
and sitting and waiting around the clock
for action to happen to lessen the stress
not much happening except a hell of a mess

People are stressed, helpless and crying
our clean and beautiful environment dying
Our economy hurt by the rugby world cup 
but we are strong and will clean this mess up

People of Tauranga with spirit so bold
we will see some action real soon unfold
the beaches will be cleaned by amazing troops 
until now it’s been hui, with a pack of goots

The signs say it all ' less hui more doey'
the stuff on the beach is black and gooey
Our people are not scared to get in the muck
and will simply take action and clean it up.

Go forth beautiful people with heart and care
get on your gloves and cleaning up gear
our community will fix this working together
no matter how much we face bad weather

People here have so much to be proud
in the summer the beauty brings a hug crowd.
we will get back to our pre Rena days
because we work together in all sorts of ways.

Get out Rena we don’t want to here
for our beaches and wildlife you didn’t care
away to the dump yard we want to send
you and your lifespan has come to an end.

The ships on the reef and I am treasuring moments.

Yesterday was my elderst daughters birthday and the busy day past with little thought of her special day.  She was 37. This morning I woke (at feed time) with a special message in my head for her.

I love you Rachael as much today as I did the first time I saw you on 10 October 1974.

37 years ago today at 5am I woke up from an awful anesthetic to see for the second time my wee baby girl.  I had seen her in a very groggy state 5 hours before when I got a wee cuddle before the drugs took me back into the cruel world of forced sleep.  At midnight she was 3hours old  andI was woken by doctors and nurses to meet her..... and there she was in her Daddys arms.   A perfect human being who was so beautiful the memory still makes me cry at the joy.  She was born by Cesarean section (general anesthetic- jeepers we have come a long way in medicine in those 37 years)

I was 17 1/2 with this little doll. So young but so happy and capable. NO WORDS can describe the love and devotion I had instinctively for her, even at a dreadful drug induced moment.  I am sure every mother feels the same - I dont think I am unique although I knew she was the most perfect baby in the whole wide world.

I wanted so badly to see my Mum but in those days she wasn't allowed to visit until 2pm that afternoon.  It was a long wait from 5am!  Ian wasn't allowed to visit us  until 2pm either - how bizarre they were then!  I guess we knew we had these rules and we just worked with them. The  good part , if there is a bright side to not seeing your husband and Mum, was we had so much attention by nurses, I felt as if there were dozens of them always attending to us both. They made me feel as though they loved our baby the most out of all the babies in the ward. haha. They were such loving caring people and the ward "Sister"was a very special and loving woman "Sister Grant" :-)... such a memory!

The baby was kept in the nursery and bought out at feed times and between feeds I slept those blessed drugs off.  Mum, Nanna Mae (my grandmother)  and and Ian arrived at 2pm with flowers, presents and real joy at the safe arrival of our wee darling.  I have never wanted to see anyone as much as I wanted to see those three that day. They were allowed to see the baby through the glass window at 2.30pm when the bell was rung and the babies in the nursery were all paraded for the visitors.  I wasn't allowed to walk at that stage because of the cesarean, so I can only imagine how their first look at this wee treasure was for them. That night Ian visited me and I saw different man. He was so emotional and loving to us both - its a stolen moment but one we both share and will as long as we live. I had  never felt closer to anyone than I did to Ian that night. He was adoring of us both.  He wanted to see his Mum ( we were both babies he was only 20)  so after visiting he drove from Wanganui to Palmerston North to see them. I can imagine that having to leave us and go home alone was too tough.

Ian bought his Mum to see me at 2pm the next day and I remember him saying how he just wanted to get back to Wanganui to see his girls.  We were two very young people, in love, and now parents to the worlds most beautiful baby. Rachael Suzanne Baker.

Georgia Pearl Baker - Trebilco (born 27 July 2000) Mini Me

Suzie Eatwell - Toi Flat 1960

Suzie and Georgia 14 February 2003

Georgia was taken from me at 6 years of age.  BUT  the moments we shared and the love we had is true and real and belonged to nobody but the two of us. Sing from the bottom of your heart and I will hear you. I love you trillions too.

On her first path of 50 years.

She walked many winding gravel roads, tramped the beautiful but mighty forests, travelled along desserts, climbed mountains, swam in powerful oceans, cycled up hill and down dale, walked beautiful wild beaches, played in the sand, picked flowers, laughed till she cried, talked all day long, sung out loud, danced the night away, gave all she could give and in sadness and pain cried till the tears dried up.With mighty gusto she struggled through all the treks she chose to take but seemingly in her stride. 


There was the dark of the night, and the blistering hot sun, the relaxation and fun all in one. There was food on the table and warmth in the cold. Every second rolled into a minute, into a hour, into a week, into a month, into a year, into a lifetime.


In her second path of fifty years (heading towards 100) She stood up – looked back and saw she needed to now fly free over the mountains, view the world through her own eyes. She can walk the beaches, sing out loud, dance through the day, walk, tramp, swim and play. She has done the study now needs to get to work and put all she has learnt into making her life a gold nugget. A time of revision of what she has learnt. Today is her time of life for understanding and inner freedom.


It’s time 

• to cry at sorrow, at love and beauty with tears that endlessly flow. 
• for living the dream.She can now live again like the child within, fun and happy, kind and giving, protective and nurturing and as mischievous as can be.
• for her to shelter from the blistering sun and the bitter cold.
• in life she has the power to truly love, from within, love all she has, love all she had and forgive all the things she learnt hard lessons from. 
• when she can love those who she felt hurt her and who she may have hurt. 
•  to step back from the abusers and keep a careful watch for the tricksters with the sweet tasting candy.  The candy that led to abuse.  
• to stay away from the abusers as they are not and never were trustworthy or honest.

A childhood is short in time but the memories transform as if it were long. It takes a long trek to return to the beginning of the little girl’s path. On the trek the little girl never grows old she just learns and continues to find truth in her inner soul and care not of the opinions of others but of the depth and goodness of her own character.

My Grandfathers Diaries

My Grandfather wrote a diary when at the first world war and now many of us get so much from them.  They mean something to each of us who read them.  They will have different meaning to each individual who reads them and they will have an affect on each one of us in  different ways.  Last night I watched the  TV One, Sunday programme and saw a war diary returned from NZ to Italy to a man aged 96.  That little book, his written words became a big story throughout NZ and for the town the man lived in in Italy.  Such a beautiful story!  Its beautiful partly because it is history .  That lovely mans history.  We never want to live in the past we always want to look for bright futures but living with history, like my grandfathers war diaries are a part of our personal and our countryman's  history.  We must cherish it as part of our place on earth.  Sadly too many have left this world without sharing their history through their eyes.

No one knows what they will feel

No one ever knows what they will feel when they loose a sibling.  Today I lost one of mine.  But you never loose  the memories of the life you shared.  You always have the good times with you as long as you live.  Its a good time to reflect on those good times and good memories as they are who you were together.  They dont have the influence or the opinion of anyone but the time the two of you had. No one can take away what you had in those years as young innocent kids. Blind mans bluff was the scary dark and little did we know then that life was full of scary dark but also full of beautiful sun shine.  On the rainy days and in the thunderstorms we still had the legacy and the test of life to participate in.  When we have life together we have opportunity, when their is death we have memories that are always alive and we see the legacy's that has been left behind.  RIP John.

Oh those power companies

The Cherrywood Shopping Center (Tauranga) pre-planned  power shut down has been and gone but where will the corporate giant strike next?

What planet are these guys on? Shutting down a shopping centre all day in this day and age is mindboggling. Most people agree that electrical power maintenance work has to be done.  No right minded person would think differently. 

However gone are the days where business closes on a Friday and reopens on a Monday – allowing such maintenance to be carried out - that’s simply historic.

Powerco is a lines company and they deliver the power throughout the region for the retailers, such as Trustpower, Mercury, Genesis etc. who sell it to us. In Tauranga Powerco are the only delivery company.  They have the monopoly so can be bullies and do what they want.  They are not NZ owned and in reality have no care in the world about us - the little people – well, little as they see us.

Powerco told shop owners they would rather take complaints than spend the money on consultation or provide generators - an interesting business culture indeed.

So what was the process taken to inform the businesses in Cherrywood that they would have no power on Sunday 21 August 201,  to run their businesses?  The process consisted of letters from the retailers, sent out with no coordination, stating power would be off on 21 August 2011.  End of story.

In a commercial world it is reasonable to expect consultation, negotiation followed by consistent and coordinated, notification.   But no, none of this happened. Is that reasonable?   As the shops all use the different retail suppliers such as Trustpower, Mercury, Genesis, there was no consistent coordination or notification to the group of shops.  Each company did its own notification, at different times.   In fact the Cherrywood restaurant was the last to find out officially 13 days before the shutdown was to take place.  The restaurant specialises in group functions and can take bookings months in advance so this was an issue..

It was only by chance that the restaurant was made aware of the shutdown, because of the local shop owners chatting amongst themselves – they had already had their notices from Trustpower and Mercury but Genesis, who the restaurant uses, were behind the eight ball on their notices.  The Restaurant had a booking for fifty people on 21 August 2011, so when staff learned of the shutdown on Friday 5 August it caused consternation.

The maintenance Powerco were planning could not safely be done at night and it had to be done during the day.  Powerco should have arranged an alternative supply (i.e. a generator) or consulted with the affected businesses to determine the most suitable time for all parties.  Powerco would have been planning the maintenance for months, these things just don’t happen overnight.

Well the critics said the restaurant should stop complaining and get on with it and just get generator.  But the critics do not understand the logistics and safety requirement of that. Getting a generator for the whole complex was the most practical and safest way (to meet OSH requirements) for  the restaurant to connect to generated power.   It’s a vastly different exercise to get a small generator to connect to lights and small appliances than it is to connect cool rooms, refrigerators, freezers and ovens. Getting a sufficient generator to provide the restaurant could have also supplied all the shopping block.  Supplying the restaurant and including the shopping block requires professional expertise, so who better than to provide the generator but the power companies.

Its hard economic times and small businesses can ill afford a shutdown for a day.  Even in the good times, how do we allow a big overseas company to operate, running roughshod over the small businesses?  There was no consultation and when we spoke to them they refused to consider any alternatives.  Other Lines Companies provide generators in such circumstances so what’s up with Powerco?

The Minister of Energy’s office, The Member of Parliament for Tauranga, Hon Simon Bridges,  His Worship the  Mayor, Stuart Crosby, The CEO of the Chamber of Commerce Max Mason and the Bay of Plenty Times editor, Scott Inglis, agreed with us. They all wrote or spoke to Powerco, but Powerco wouldn’t budge and then they got personal – that showed they were rattled but not enough to do anything positive about it.

The exposure had some affect though as on Powerco’s website they say ....“Think of us as the delivery people transporting the energy for the retailer consistently and efficiently to ensure that you can count on having the energy you need all day, everyday” and they quickly updated their webpage adding a disclaimer.   Imagine a small business, in the PC world we live in, advertising a product or service and not providing it – some big official department would be on it like a ton of bricks.  Come on Ministry of Consumers Affairs why have you not challenged these giants?

At Powerco there is no customer service as they don’t consider us to be customers.  They say their customers are the retailers ie.  Trustpower, Mercury, Genesis etc. In general the retailers say it is Powerco’s responsibility because they own the lines and undertake the maintenance. In reality no one is accountable to the customer/consumer.

After the shutdown and the article in the Bay of Plenty Times, Trustpower contacted us and said they thought Powerco’s actions were onerous and in the future they would consider providing a generator- and not all of the shops in the block are Trustpower customers.  GOOD ON YOU Trustpower that is customer service.

A fine wine named after SWAGGER Russian Jack

Russian Jack the Man and the fine wine 

I remember very well as a child growing up on our farm in Kimbolton,  the many visits from a swagger nicknamed ‘Russian Jack.’  His real name was Barrett Crumen and is believed to be from Russia or Croatia.

We were always excited when we passed by Russian Jack in the car, walking along the country roads,  as we knew we would see him in the next few days.  He didn't speak much and he had dough plugged in his ears and  he could not hear.  But he always had a lovely smile and kinds gestures and showed how he appreciated Mums kindness when she gave him food for his pack. He always returned!

His memory lives on in NZ with many memorial tributes to him including the divine Martinborough, Pinot Noir, Russian Jack.

Russian Jack walked mostly through the roads of Manawatu and Wairarapa. It is reported that Russian Jack died in September 1968 on the roadside at Ponatahi, between Martinborough and Carterton.  I remember this being in the 'Dominion' and I still remember feeling sad at the time.  

Russian Jack was part of our lives and now he lives on with us,  as we serve in our Restaurant,  the beautiful wine named after him.

RIP our dear Swagger - you left us with memories of intrigue.

http://www.thesortingtable.com/uploadedFiles%5CWEB___FS__0436_YDOx2.pdf

A good google "Russian Jack"

Blogging is new to me!

Today I think I have mastered the blogging thing.  Its new age to me and a bit of a mission to get things up and running - I have had a few attempts. While I learn to blog I am sure I will make some silly mistakes but it will be what turns me into a blogger convert. I hope to do a blog each day of each memory so my blog is really my diary of a life time.... onwards and upwards......

Snoozies view

All through life I was known to many in my family as Snoozie. So here is Snoozies view.  A new blog.  As a dear friend told me on the weekend,  we are a product of our  childhood and the experiences make us who we are.  I am on my journey down the other side from the uphill climb to 50. Having learnt so much and being happy with the way I see life, when I finally get to the bottom of the hill and end up in the valley I will sip on honeysuckle and pick buttercups.

Memories and experience influence each moment in my day, either through my subconscious or in my planned and spontaneous life.  The hurt I have suffered, from skinned knees to the loss of loved ones have made me who I am. I hope  to record wee stories often of  memories, of my life, through my eyes.

For all those who have been a part of my life have been and are my teachers.  The teachers from the fleeting people passing by, the old man in the diary picking my threepenny bag of lollies, to my parents and their parents before them,  I owe so much.  I owe for the learning and all the things they gave me while they were on their own journeys along side me. Their love, their kindness and their influence will never go unappreciated or unacknowledged in my heart.

I owe the universe so much for what it has sent me and for the paths it has led me down , but most of all I owe myself some time to recall the memories and record them as my history. This time may help me work through some pain and rejoice in the fun, happiness and laughter that I have had so much of.

I welcome followers who may enjoy life 'through my eyes' .  These blogs are dedicated to  someone I would give my life for.  If my recall on my history gives  small pleasures  to anyone reading them my history 'through my eyes'  will have been worth every moment spent.