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Week 4: A smorgasbord of local hot-spots guaranteed to inspire! Part 2

An inspiring four week harvest of visionary people and projects achieving the seemingly impossible within 100 miles of my Coromandel home.

6. Paradise, lost in the suburbs of Whitianga

Hiding in the suburbs of Whitianga is a place that makes me feel dreamy every time I think about it. It’s a place completely devoted to relaxation, nourishment and beauty and it’s 100% natural.

From the moment you pass through the punga lined gates it’s like entering another world. And once you have absorbed the beauty of the reception and restaurant housed in the lovingly restored Mercury Bay old school and managed to enter further, you will realise that you have arrived in paradise.

All around are landscaped adobe hot spring pools with a distinctive pacific, volcanic flavour surrounded by native bush, waterfalls, hidden caves, giant amethyst crystals, native birds and waiters floating about ready to tend to your every need.

The Lost Spring in Whitianga is the result of Alan Hopping’s dedication to fulfill a dream over 22 years and a perfect place to unwind and rejuvenate. Not only is it incredibly beautiful but the waters that feed the pool have special healing powers and are feed by an ancient geothermal spring onsite kept clean by a natural volcanic rock filtration system so the whole site is chemical free. Alan began creating the Lost Spring in 1988 from nothing after being inspired by local legends of a hot spring in the area. It took 3 separate attempts to drill a well and 18 years of landscaping and planting by hand to complete every loving detail, right down to head rests and lounging seats being built into the walls of the pools for even greater
comfort and bliss.

And every minute of hard work is worth it. I will never forget my first experience there. I walking in feeling stiff, tired and a little grumpy and left feeling so loved and nourished I was blissed out for days. This is a very special place and definitely not one to be missed!

7: The school project that’s changing a school, community and reaching out

Not far down the coast a whole new generation of inspiring leaders are thriving at Tairua School. This year the school’s year 7 and 8 classes took on a project that completely transformed their perspective of the world and place in it, leading to some amazing results within own their community and another thousands of miles away.

In Term 2 they began the Global Citizen School’s project designed to develop global citizenship and social responsibility, set up by one of my favourite kiwi initiated international humanitarian organisations, Surf Aid.

They were so inspired by what they learnt that they developed a global citizen charter for their school, had an amazing art exhibition, began coming to school early to help clean and participate and set up weekly visits to the local rest home to grow veges and help support the residents.

As the clearly proud principal Brendan Finn observed, a massive shift occurred in the culture of the students. It has now become the norm to look for ways to help without expectation of something in return and it’s the students themselves who are the leading force behind it all.

But the most amazing project to date that has come out of the course, was the student lead ‘Paddle for Humanity’ event, held in Tairua harbour on November 27th. After a devastating 7.7 earthquake and tsunami hit the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia (an area where Surf Aid are very active) killing over 400 people on October 25th, the students decided to hold an event to raise money for the Mentawai communities.

They were so passionate that they got their own whole community involved and managed to get sponsorship from local businesses as well as Billabong and NZ Post. The day was a huge success. Around 200 surfboards, kayaks and lilo’s turned up for a 1.5km paddle around the harbour, raising $2800 for the communities of Mentawai. How awesome!

I am always humbled by young people’s natural sense of justice and willingness to give to others and this project just shows what they can achieve when given the right tools and how much us adults have to learn from them. I am looking forward to seeing what other phenomenal things these inspiring young people get up to.

8: Kiwi babies hatching in the hills!

While the pupils of Mercury Bay School are quietly changing the world, the students of Coromandel Area School are saving something closer to home. Right now thanks to their efforts the hills behind Coromandel Town are scattered with nests of fluffy wee baby kiwi snuggled under their mum’s in a deep daytime sleep. Students aged 9 to 11 along with local volunteers and Community Max workers, have been working since March to make 120 traps
to put through 1000 hectares of bush behind Coromandel Town. Their project links up with 3 other kiwi predator controlled areas along the peninsula from Cape Collville at the very top right down to Coromandel Town, covering 30 000 acres of bush which collectively make up the largest pest controlled area for kiwi in mainland Aotearoa.

Nationwide baby kiwi have a 6% chance of surviving if they are unfortunate enough to be born in areas without any pest control but kiwi lucky enough to be born in this happy kiwi friendly zone have an amazing 80% chance of survival, so it really is the place to be.

I love going to sleep at night knowing that these sweet wee things are just waking up and about to go off exploring with their mum’s for some night time delicacies and the few occasions when I have heard their shrill calls ringing out have been pure magic.

9. NZ’s 2010 best tourist theme park that loves the environment!

In the hills right near where the kiwi babies are starting out their lives, up Coromandel’s 309 road famous for its stunning native bush, giant centuries old Siamese kauri and the friendliest cutest pigs I have ever met, is NZ’s Travel Voters Award’s 2010 number one theme park, The Waterworks. The Waterworks began as a hobby and passion for Chris Ogilvie and his potter wife Kay in 1989, and today host over 70 interactive quirky water powered attractions, 70% of which are constructed from recycled materials.

There is a water powered music box, an electric generator powered by 12 dessert spoons, water and a washing machine, flying bikes, water cannons all set up for a battle, a human sized hamster wheel, 30 free range chickens who provide eggs for the yummy cafe, sculptures everywhere and a large pregnant kune kune pig; all set amongst exquisite native bush and a beautiful river complete with a swimming hole. It’s a place where kiwi ingenuity and cheekiness reign, bringing out the playfulness in its visitors, the oldest of which was 86 and she even had a go on the flying fox!

But what is really cool about this theme park is its loving attitude towards the environment, which current owners Jeff and Tatti have remained committed to. All the hot water on site is heated with solar energy, the attractions are powered by water fed from the nearby creek requiring no electricity, all the wood used is sourced from a sustainable forest in Colville 35km away, the organic waste the park creates is used to make compost and all the wastewater is filtered and recycled to feed the vege garden, very cool.

This is a theme park that makes use of the past to show us a way forward for the future.

10. My home, where mud rules

I am going to complete this series in the place it all began, my home. I live in an adobe clay /mud house created by by the wonderful builder, potter and generally mischievous cheeky Henery Mackeson over 5 years, that is like living in a work of art.

Our walls and garden are filled with sculptures, handmade tiles, arches and giant mosaics while the windows and french doors opening out to garden and tambourelli court have beautiful stained glass scenes of Coromandel beaches and pohutukawa all over them. This is an interactive house where nature and all her curves and the imagination are celebrated. There is even a story written on the floor of the kitchen cupboard!

Adobe houses love the environment, they are built with clay, sand, cement and old newspapers shaped in moulds to make walls or sun dried to form bricks that stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Henry loves to use recycled materials too, so our walls are filled with funky patterns of milk and wine bottles and even mini skylights made from glass microwave dishes!

Thanks to Henry there are touches of mud love all over this town, from the adobe floors around my friend’s pottery kilns, the use of adobe in the seriously scrumptious Organic Driving Creek Café, several other adobe inspired houses built after ours, and the beautiful composting toilet
at the top of the Driving Creek Railway!

While Henry and his beautiful wife Rachel are resting the Bay of Islands after sailing through the Pacific Island’s over winter in their boat, I get to share their amazing house with my two wonderful flatmates Valentina, the exquisite German organic baker and chef and Mark, our green fingered fishing and gardening guru along with Tara, the always ready for a cuddle Burmese cat.

When I’m not typing away at my wee laptop, training to be a restorative justice facilitator, at work coordinating a child and mental health team for iwi based organisation Te Korowai, spinning my alpaca wool, or running off to a nearby beach or waterfall, this is where I am.
Loving that I have found a way to leave the city and get back to the roots of life, learning how to live off and with the land. It’s a wholesome, self sufficient life where adventure is found in the bush, rivers and waterfalls that abound the area, and beautiful evenings with friends, a bonfire,
a beach and the sea filled with phosphorescence, just waiting for a midnight swim.

One final 100 Mile Harvest reflection

Writing this series has shown me how many amazing things are happening every day, everywhere in every town. When you start consciously looking for goodness you will find it everywhere, it really is true that whatever you focus your attention on is exactly what you will get.

We can choose to focus on all the problems in life or we can choose to support those who are working hard to provide innovative solutions to them, it is completely up to us. What will you choose?

Tags: Community, green business, green design