Lisa Knight

Yay – I’m heading  North to the Kaipara for Christmas. I’ll be taking the hams as I have done  for some years now – Black Rock  from Nosh.

Note to self: Don’t drink too much red wine  on Xmas Eve, you have to glaze the ham in the morning.

Wonder what the kai moana will be: lobster,  scallops, kina, pipis, mussels, snapper.

Yum – real Kiwi food.

Hopefully Uncle and Aunty will be able to  go to Tinopai and pick oysters. I could go too  if I had the time and  we could pick pupu – for old time’s sake.

I love going down to the beach. To touch the earth and  feel the spirit of the sea. To taste its elixir and feel its breath’s tender touch.

My soul’s delight.

My ancestral right.

But it’s changed. Over-farming, over-development and government neglect.

And more changes lie ahead.

The Kaipara – the largest  enclosed harbour in New Zealand and one of the largest natural habours in the world.  The rich mudflats and mangroves, ugly at low tide but a vital food source, feeds fish and birdlife  near and afar.

The almighty harbour  inhales and  guides  majestic shark, dolphin and seal on their travels through the heads to the Tasman Sea.  Past mussel beds, mullet and snapper schools and shipwrecks – only the brave will know

Home  to 98%  of  New Zealand’s  baby snapper fish, the Kaipara  proudly swallows her maternal pain. Silently.

Not like the 200 marine turbines  planned for  the harbour entrance  to make power to meet the country’s never-ending  consumption.

The local people cry for the Kaipara. Regardless of race, we stand united – but with little power. The  Kaipara is not just our mother – it feeds us all.

Aue, I’m not hungry now.

• Crest Energy, the company planning the installation of the turbines says on its website that the Environment Court’s December 2009 interim decision indicates a possible positive recommendation for the project. It adds that this is subject to some additional fact-finding and the preparation of a draft environmental monitoring plan. ‘The next big step is to lodge the additional information with the Court in August 2010’.  
• In a petition to the Prime Minister, objectors point out that the total marine installation will be located within a 325 hectare area of the harbour (803 acres) and stands 24 metres (79 feet) above the seabed. They say that if   approved the project will, for safety reasons, result in an exclusion zone – prohibiting fishing, diving and anchoring within and around the installation.  They say the scale and magnitude of the Crest project is unprecedented in the world, and call on the Prime Minister and other senior ministers to stop the project.