During a long drive to Auckland recently this story came to me in the form of a prolonged 'fantasy'. I feel it is a more interesting way of re-introducing 'sustainability' into the Vision process than yet another long list of bullet points or items. "Looking Back" is a utopian dream written to inspire discussion rather than as any kind of model or blueprint.
©2007 Wally Hicks
Kohukohu: Heart of a thriving North Hokianga
A model Sustainable Local Economy
Looking Back
by Wally Hicks
A model Sustainable Local Economy
Looking Back
by Wally Hicks
"Burning Bright before the Fiery Storm
Sing it now while you still
Have a Song"
- Grace Slick, "Fast Buck Freddie"
Things progressed rather more rapidly than anyone expected. By 2011 Ngareta's decision to rebuild the entire block of shops destroyed in 1967 had paid off handsomely with 5 of the 6 already occupied.
Kohukohu & Environs, rapidly becoming known as 'Motukohu', had an established bakery making bread, buns, cakes and pies daily. The butchery processed home kills for families as well as for sale to the public plus increasing volumes of wild game from the burgeoning hunting industry.
Tom employed 2 staff. Warren had a journeyman, two subsidized apprentices and a shop assistant who later became the familiar Salesperson/Ambassador. The other 3 spaces were let to Community Trust's 'New & Used' (4 staff) The i-Site & Furniture Showroom (3) and the professional rooms housing an Accountant & Lawyer. It must have been about this time that Pete decided to open his Harbour Hire Centre?
Kohukohu's revitalized, fully computerized Postal Delivery Centre & KiwiBank branch made a huge difference to life here and Community Ventures were already servicing much local infrastructure from their Herald Building office.
Warren Tom, the baker (a 'newcomer') and Nga were making extensive use of Matt's motor-assisted Tidal Barge to ferry goods down to Motukaraka, Motuti, Panguru and Rangi Point and up to Te Karae and Mangataipa to the places - mostly marae - which had entered into the then new Freezer Agreement. Families could store and collect their goods for a nominal charge. The first Cable Ferry was under construction from Kohukohu across to Ivydale. It wouldn't be long before Horeke unofficially joined the Motukohu community.
I think it was around then or maybe early 2012 (I wish I'd kept a diary) that the restored Ngai Tupoto/Motukaraka Co-Op Dairy Plant re-opened. It rapidly assumed the nickname which, after years of struggling to shake it, they finally named some of their cheese products - 'Ngai Motu'. The Co-op produced milk and cream immediately and both standard and gourmet cheeses shortly thereafter. Of course this meant reactivating the Cream Launch service (except for one nearby farm who pumped milk to the works directly using their methanol powered pump). The Historic Vessel Agreement, as we all know, has proved to be as much a tourist attraction as it is a milk, mail and goods delivery service. 'Ngai Motu' still send those really excellent gourmet cheeses like 'Kumarahou' and 'Rakau Smoked' down to Auckland on the Sailer today ... but I'm getting ahead of myself already.
By the time 'Ngai Motu' had been operating for a year - employing 8 permanent and numerous seasonal staff - between them the Wallath Mill at Motukaraka Junction and the MBB Mill at Panguru were processing vastly more wood than was being shipped out of North Hokianga. You could get most of what you needed to renovate or build a house from the Guette's Timber Yards at Rangiora. Boy, what a job they had convincing the old FNDC to allow a commercial venture down there! After all, what did Rangiora stand to gain from it? A brand new historic looking wharf, deep water anchorage, the all-tide swimming 'pen', a place for 3 or 4 Rangiora residents to work full-time and a sandy beach no less!
I want to go back to the Freezer agreement though. That seemingly unimportant little consensus decision had huge ramifications. It caste the die for the Fuel Agreement to follow in 2015 - an otherwise pretty terrible year for the world - and put the 'Motu', Motukohu that is, miles ahead of anywhere in terms of Future Plan Strategies. As with Dr Smith's free medical system we 'Hoki's' created the model for others to follow.
The Fuel Agreement was the biggy. A whole raft of plans, strategies, ventures and other agreements had to come together with amazing synchronicity. There was The Mixed Cropping Protocol, the oil presses and filter works, the meth/ethanol plants, the Diesel Only Agreement and, in no small part, the assistance of central government. Looking back it's a testament to the people of North Hokianga that we pulled it off. Imagine everyone agreeing to own only diesel vehicles under 2.5 litres by 2013, much less obtain them!? Imagine all those livestock farmers and tree croppers and a few horticulturalists all agreeing to grow all three!? The protocol also specified that Bio-Fuel Crops would not be grown at the expense of food crops, which was the really important bit. I guess maybe the writing was on the wall by then? All the dairy farms had converted to methanol already ... I mean who wouldn't when you have such a ready source of supply!? And, of course, I think the enviro-economic practicality of the Mixed Totora Forest was becoming self-evident.
And so on November 5th 2015 - Guy Fawkes and Parihaka Day - fully 5 years before it happened anywhere else in the world - Motukohu cut its ties with the petroleum industry. We stood alone, our people firmly grounded in the knowledge that they had all agreed on a basic ration of 20 litres of VOEBDM (VegeOil-Enthanol-BioDiesel Mix) per vehicle/person or vehicle/family per week - with some exceptions for the fewer people still working outside the area - and what's more, we'd agreed that the Motukohu Community Association could not only facilitate production and car-pooling but also police the rationing!
Of course rationing itself encouraged and spawned car-pooling on a hitherto unknown scale; along with the purchase of several community mini-or-maxi-buses (which the government was coming to the party on by that time).
Whanau/Communities could now pool their quota of fuel to optimize its travel potential. It took a bit of getting used to, I can tell you, but really, looking back, the whole thing worked a treat! Several communities got together and re-apportioned their entire quota using their own needs-assessment criteria. That was awe inspiring!
The FA also coincided with a general nationwide increase in public transport. Even back then with more buses running very few people thought of driving to Auckland and what with the re-introduction of the (twice) weekly Steamer service to Onehunga in 2017 who could resist a trip over the bar on the 'Lloydd Hokianga' with its new generation ultra-efficient diesel turbines and 'Chandlerie Seafood Restaurant'.
The unexpected offshoot of all this, as we are now all too aware, was a steady improvement in the condition of our harbour. This became measureable in 2016. Who would have thought that all this 'activity' would actually heal the environment? The improved viability of small scale commercial fishing no doubt contributed, as did the government - to their eternal credit - in supporting the fish nursery, fish fertilizer, water plants, mixed cropping and flax growing ventures; along with a raft of clean-up operations.
Mind you, it all went hand-in-hand with so many other developments on a local, district, regional and national scale. It's difficult to put it all in exact chronological order. So many ingredients. I guess the basis of it all from our North Hokianga point-of-view can be summed up by that great Kiwi anogram 'DIY'. Everyone already collected their own rainwater anyhow, it was really just a matter of extending the idea of household self-sufficiency much further, especially into energy and food production/consumption, sewerage disposal and road maintenance; and then extending the idea outwards - like an organic garden - into the neighbourhood, the surrounding area, the district, the region, the nation and perhaps the planet.
Count among the most important central government measures, in no small part influenced by our lead, the Sustainable Local Economy Development Act - which could have been just the old 'Regional Development' revived all over again - and the Universal Living Allowance. The former made possible business ventures (the word 'business' hardly applies nowadays) and even more complete local provision of infrastructure services, the latter mostly community/iwi social and environmental initiatives.
Regional/District milestones ... well, there's only one really isn't there? The 2016 decision to absorb FNDC into NRC which became purely an overall monitor for the reinstated County Councils and 'new' Community Boards. [Awa Whitu?]/Seven Rivers County Council had come into being semi-legally in 2013 and by 2017 there were Community Boards at Mitimiti, Rangi Point, Panguru, Pawarenga, Broadwood, Mangamuka Bridge, Motuihe (where the junction was becoming a real settlement due to the major expansion of quarrying), Kohukohu, Motukaraka/Te Hua Hua and Motuti. Ti Tio and Horeke ceded from Okaihau in 2018 to join the much more independent (and geographically appropriate) Seven Rivers.
The decision to base SRCC offices in Broadwood was hotly contested for a time until the significance of Pawarenga's ability to grow both food and fuel crops became apparent. With devolution of most services to Community Board offices to save County staff travel the SRCC Office debate has more-or-less resolved itself. So much communication can be done electronically nowadays. Kohurangi (Kohukohu/Rangiora) Community Board is arguably the most progressive in New Zealand if not the world.
In the same way that it eventually became apparent to the business world that 'centralisation' was an almost entirely aberrant behaviour bought about by cheap oil and the motor car age (1945 - 2008), the government responded in kind by further backing Household Self-Sufficiency. By 2012 Motukohu's energy requirements had fallen by nearly 40%.
After the Fuel Agreement in 2015 and with increased local production of electricity they were just 38% of the 2008 level. The government finally saw the sense in tidal electricity generation at the Narrows in 2026 by which time one local had been doing it illegally for 18 years. In 2035 the completed and completely invisible plant was handed over to Seven Rivers.
Motukohu's and indeed the entire Hokianga's external energy consumption compared with 2008 levels dropped to zero with the throw of a single very large switch. In fact we found ourselves in credit; the excess being used to service the project's debt. 'Narrows Tidal' (as it has come to be known) employed an average of 101 persons full-time for 6 years ... but I jump ahead again.
Market forces also played their part in Motukohu's overall success. In hindsight, of course, we easily recognise that the entire populace driving in individual/family vehicles to centralized supermarkets is nothing short of well organized insanity; like commuting to work on the motorway it more-or-less defies reason.
Notwithstanding the argument that the human race had to go through this 'stage' in order to develop the technologies to allow it to de-centralise again, simple economics largely played the part of 'communal psychologist' to this short lived bout of mass mental illness. If you can take 100 people's food to them in one truck for $20 or take 100 people to their food in 100 or 50 or even 30 cars at $15 each which will you ultimately choose? As with employment the government chose in favour of lessening the inflationary pressures brought on by massive fuel bills.
Mind you, it all went hand-in-hand with so many other developments on a local, district, regional and national scale. It's difficult to put it all in exact chronological order. So many ingredients. I guess the basis of it all from our North Hokianga point-of-view can be summed up by that great Kiwi anogram 'DIY'.
Everyone already collected their own rainwater anyhow, it was really just a matter of extending the idea of household self-sufficiency much further, especially into energy and food production/consumption, sewerage disposal and road maintenance; and then extending the idea outwards - like an organic garden - into the neighbourhood, the surrounding area, the district, the region, the nation and perhaps the planet.
Count among the most important central government measures, in no small part influenced by our lead, the Sustainable Local Economy Development Act - which could have been just the old 'Regional Development' revived all over again - and the Universal Living Allowance. The former made possible business ventures (the word 'business' hardly applies nowadays) and even more complete local provision of infrastructure services, the latter mostly community/iwi social and environmental initiatives.
Regional/District milestones ... well, there's only one really isn't there? The 2016 decision to absorb FNDC into NRC which became purely an overall monitor for the reinstated County Councils and 'new' Community Boards. [Awa Whitu?]/Seven Rivers County Council had come into being semi-legally in 2013 and by 2017 there were Community Boards at Mitimiti, Rangi Point, Panguru, Pawarenga, Broadwood, Mangamuka Bridge, Motuihe (where the junction was becoming a real settlement due to the major expansion of quarrying), Kohukohu, Motukaraka/Te Hua Hua and Motuti. Ti Tio and Horeke ceded from Okaihau in 2018 to join the much more independent (and geographically appropriate) Seven Rivers.
The decision to base SRCC offices in Broadwood was hotly contested for a time until the significance of Pawarenga's ability to grow both food and fuel crops became apparent. With devolution of most services to Community Board offices to save County staff travel the SRCC Office debate has more-or-less resolved itself. So much communication can be done electronically nowadays. Kohurangi (Kohukohu/Rangiora) Community Board is arguably the most progressive in New Zealand if not the world.
In the same way that it eventually became apparent to the business world that 'centralisation' was an almost entirely aberrant behaviour bought about by cheap oil and the motor car age (1945 - 2008), the government responded in kind by further backing Household Self-Sufficiency. By 2012 Motukohu's energy requirements had fallen by nearly 40%. After the Fuel Agreement in 2015 and with increased local production of electricity they were just 38% of the 2008 level.
The government finally saw the sense in tidal electricity generation at the Narrows in 2026 by which time one local had been doing it illegally for 18 years. In 2035 the completed and completely invisible plant was handed over to Seven Rivers. Motukohu's and indeed the entire Hokianga's external energy consumption compared with 2008 levels dropped to zero with the throw of a single very large switch. In fact we found ourselves in credit; the excess being used to service the project's debt. 'Narrows Tidal' (as it has come to be known) employed an average of 101 persons full-time for 6 years ... but I jump ahead again.
Market forces also played their part in Motukohu's overall success. In hindsight, of course, we easily recognise that the entire populace driving in individual/family vehicles to centralized supermarkets is nothing short of well organized insanity; like commuting to work on the motorway it more-or-less defies reason. Notwithstanding the argument that the human race had to go through this 'stage' in order to develop the technologies to allow it to de-centralise again, simple economics largely played the part of 'communal psychologist' to this short lived bout of mass mental illness. If you can take 100 people's food to them in one truck for $20 or take 100 people to their food in 100 or 50 or even 30 cars at $15 each which will you ultimately choose? As with employment the government chose in favour of lessening the inflationary pressures brought on by massive fuel bills.
As we now know, supermarkets tended to become district wholesale food distribution centres; general stores being the local retail outlets servicing smaller neighbourhood storage/distributors like the marae (with all their freezers), some community halls and even some schools.
Trucks and vans, the ferries then the Steamer and later the Sailer supplied centres like Kohukohu and Opononi with those goods we needed brought in from outside, of which there were [and are] many: Wheat, medical supplies and the few remaining plastic goods being prime examples. Barges, ferries, launches and rowboats by water along with bulk or community vehicles including an increasing number of rubber-tyred horse-drawn drays by land radiate goods further out into the hinterland. Horeke Hotel has for many years made a tourist attraction of their daily horse-and-dray trip down to Ivydale to collect goods off the cable ferry, stopping at Mangungu Mission on the way home.
The roads, less used but nonetheless important, are maintained by yet another 'Motukohu' innovation. The County Council/Property Owner Maintenance of Roads Agreement, a real mouthful that one. This has led to a surprising degree of self-maintenance by property owners of a designated stretch of road outside their place and an even greater degree of partnership activity between them and the County. The easily taken decision to repair using concrete has led to a gradual and longer lasting improvement of many stretches of carriageway.
Large projects such as major slips and major rehabilitations are referred to Seven Rivers County Council and their works depot in Broadwood. It can be supposed that if roads continue to be needed our concrete ones - for they will eventually become that due to the ready availability of materials at Motuihe, Paponga Junction (Blakeney's) and Otangaroa - shall be among the best in the land.
I've forgotten tourism, I hear you say. Well, that is because, as many of us know, it barely rates a mention. Just read almost any history book. Pick any epoch, era or time in human history. Truly, take the stone age, the bronze age, iron, steel, oil or nuclear. I'll name just two: 'Fatal Frontiers' A new New Zealand history of the 1830's - the age of sail - and 'Black Prince' the biography of radical union leader Fintan Patrick Walsh, 1890s - 1960s, the transitional age of steam/diesel/gasoline/nuclear - but it doesn't matter, read '1421', '1000', '421' or '4210 BC' and you will find the same thing: The human race is extraordinarily mobile! Why we ever contemplated that people might actually stop travelling I shall never know.
Over the years people largely stopped travelling by aeroplane that's all: And to a greater-or-lesser degree stopped being pure 'tourists'. Community Ventures idea of 'Work Exchanges' proved so popular the organization based in the Old Herald Building eventually became the global headquarters of a chain of WETA (Work Exchange Travel Advancement) franchises in 82 countries! Sea travel became the norm again and with the introduction of polycarb Sailers in 2013 the 'travel' industry, epitomised by the Reasoned Traveller, was back on its feet again after what amounted to only a partial downturn; hardly the predicted slump by any stretch of the imagination. But even before our Steamer and well before our own Sailer 'Rua Kai Hoki' began to ply the Onehunga - Kaipara - Hokianga run it became evident that Motukohu's visitor frequency was only going to increase as we stamped our mark on world Eco-Social developments. More on this later.
As we now know, supermarkets tended to become district wholesale food distribution centres; general stores being the local retail outlets servicing smaller neighbourhood storage/distributors like the marae (with all their freezers), some community halls and even some schools.
Trucks and vans, the ferries then the Steamer and later the Sailer supplied centres like Kohukohu and Opononi with those goods we needed brought in from outside, of which there were [and are] many: Wheat, medical supplies and the few remaining plastic goods being prime examples. Barges, ferries, launches and rowboats by water along with bulk or community vehicles including an increasing number of rubber-tyred horse-drawn drays by land radiate goods further out into the hinterland. Horeke Hotel has for many years made a tourist attraction of their daily horse-and-dray trip down to Ivydale to collect goods off the cable ferry, stopping at Mangungu Mission on the way home.
The roads, less used but nonetheless important, are maintained by yet another 'Motukohu' innovation. The County Council/Property Owner Maintenance of Roads Agreement, a real mouthful that one. This has led to a surprising degree of self-maintenance by property owners of a designated stretch of road outside their place and an even greater degree of partnership activity between them and the County. The easily taken decision to repair using concrete has led to a gradual and longer lasting improvement of many stretches of carriageway.
Large projects such as major slips and major rehabilitations are referred to Seven Rivers County Council and their works depot in Broadwood. It can be supposed that if roads continue to be needed our concrete ones - for they will eventually become that due to the ready availability of materials at Motuihe, Paponga Junction (Blakeney's) and Otangaroa - shall be among the best in the land.
I've forgotten tourism, I hear you say. Well, that is because, as many of us know, it barely rates a mention. Just read almost any history book. Pick any epoch, era or time in human history. Truly, take the stone age, the bronze age, iron, steel, oil or nuclear. I'll name just two: 'Fatal Frontiers' A new New Zealand history of the 1830's - the age of sail - and 'Black Prince' the biography of radical union leader Fintan Patrick Walsh, 1890s - 1960s, the transitional age of steam/diesel/gasoline/nuclear - but it doesn't matter, read '1421', '1000', '421' or '4210 BC' and you will find the same thing: The human race is extraordinarily mobile! Why we ever contemplated that people might actually stop travelling I shall never know.
Over the years people largely stopped travelling by aeroplane that's all: And to a greater-or-lesser degree stopped being pure 'tourists'. Community Ventures idea of 'Work Exchanges' proved so popular the organization based in the Old Herald Building eventually became the global headquarters of a chain of WETA (Work Exchange Travel Advancement) franchises in 82 countries! Sea travel became the norm again and with the introduction of polycarb Sailers in 2013 the 'travel' industry, epitomised by the Reasoned Traveller, was back on its feet again after what amounted to only a partial downturn; hardly the predicted slump by any stretch of the imagination. But even before our Steamer and well before our own Sailer 'Rua Kai Hoki' began to ply the Onehunga - Kaipara - Hokianga run it became evident that Motukohu's visitor frequency was only going to increase as we stamped our mark on world Eco-Social developments. More on this later.
I've saved the best until (nearly) last: Learning - formerly called Education. What, you may ask, has happened to the 'centralized' school? Well, believe it or not, the VOEBDM fueled school buses still pick up youngsters around the area and convey them to Kohukohu where nowadays they can also get Secondary Learning. With the village and hinterland population having just surpassed its pre-WW1 peak the school roll this year is 169 enrolled with a further 93
Homeschool Ancillary Pupils (Happys) making up the total roll of Kohukohu Learning Centre.
Tertiary Education is based at Northtec Rawene but the Kohukohu Old School satelitte campus, long home to North Hokianga's Arts & Crafts course, is flourishing to such an extent that two more historic school buildings have been moved onto the site to house Agri-Hort, Health, Enviro-Tech, Performance, ESL and all the others. Town Hall usage is such that a full-time Caretaker/Ambassador is employed there.
Almost every business, trust, incorporated society or organization has its 'Ambassador' nowadays. This wonderful Community Trust employment creation scheme started way back in 2012 as a means of subsidizing workers into the dairy factory, butchers shop, the shipping HQ, flax fibre works, museum and all the other 'Croft' ventures which were rapidly becoming Eco-Tourism attractions in their own right. The Ambassadors are stake-workers, often salespeople, whose primary other responsibility is to guide or facilitate visitors in their understanding of that project's and of Te Motukohu's kaupapa, which might be summed up in the word 'Iwi'? Or perhaps in the words "Kotahi tatau mo tenei Ao: Tangata Whenua: He putaki e te toanga he ki te maura: Turangawaewae" or "We are one with all Creation: People of the Land: Everything that lives has Purpose: Here is our Place To Stand"?
Well, it's almost time to enjoy a Toku Coffee with a Kennally cigarette, fine-artisan products both, straighten the Hariti harakeke mats on my floor and go out into the garden. I bought a tree or two from Waiora Nurseries the other day. That young fella, what's his name ... Glynne(?) ... was kind enough to give me a lift up there on his way to work at Blakeney's - and I'm busting to try out my new Davie Crooks spade handle ... if I can lift it.
So, as that great date in my personal life, the Easter/Anzac Day conjunction of 2038 approaches, I ask you to take a moment to consider how far we have come? And wasn't the New Age New Deal Compact a truly excellent idea?
That wonderful agreement we all made way back in 2010 that "quality of life can more than compensate for purely financial gain provided a reasonable and agreed standard of living is maintained". I reckon we've more than maintained it. In some ways, I sometimes think, we've really only greatly enhanced what we were already doing, beginning to do or contemplating doing anyway.
I think I'll wander down to the Town Hall for the DVC movie on Wednesday night. Or shall I go Friday or Saturday? They might be showing "The Dreams We Dream"* again?
Ka kite ano, Wally Hicks.
It is good for man to try all changes of progress and corruption,
Powers, peace and anguish:
Not to go down the dinosaur's way
Until all his capacities have been explored
And it is good for him to know
That his needs in nature
Are no more changed in fact
In ten thousand years
Than the beaks of eagles
The Beach Boys, from "Holland" 1968.