It was also a reminder of how an urban community in the middle of a massive city can still be sustainable. Grey Lynn works really hard to keep pushing eco-friendly practices. As well as being community-minded and running work shops based out of their community centre, the suburb really supports local initiatives.

Locals have community gardens, food co-ops, shared work spaces and also are strongly involved in the ooooby movement – out of our own back yard. In case you aren’t familiar with the concept, ooooby works to promote vege gardens and people growing and trading their own produce – something which can be very successful and important to living a balanced life in the city, visit www.ooooby.org to find out more.

Another neat project is the tumeke cycle space – which is actively trying to change how people think about biking in the city – which can seem rather daunting at times. The group is trying to make biking, and learning the skills to safely use bikes in urban environments, accessible to all people. This is something which is really important, especially given the media climate at the moment which while highlighting the real dangers of biking, also serves to suggest that perhaps getting out and peddling could not be such a good thing. It is fantastic to see grass roots projects working to counter this perception, visit http://www.tumekecyclespace.org.nz/ to find out more.

The suburb also has a very well run transition town movement, and often holds get togethers in relation to this -check out their website if you are interested in knowing more about whats going on in the area www.greylynn2030.co.nz

Again, another week in Auckland is another reminder that this big, crazy, scary, sometimes overwhelming city has so many sweet things happening. One of the cool things about living in such a sprawl, is that each little corner always has something good going on – its just a matter of finding it, and Grey Lynn is a perfect example of this.

Image from: http://artweekauckland.co.nz/

I live really close to Eden Park. The good thing about that is, well, it’s just a really awesome place to live. The not so good is that it can get pretty rowdy when games are on.

Over the weekend while the rugby league was on a new transport system was tried out as a dummy run for the rugby world cup next year. I was a bit worried about this because my parents were coming to stay. They were a little stressed about getting to and from my house because you literally weren’t allowed to drive down my road unless you had the correct orange stickers.

Anyway, I am pleased to say the night went stress free and there were no problems.   Gone were rowdy cars and crowds that normally plague my quiet street. The transport was managed really effectively with buses, trains and walking encouraged.

Big ups to Auckland transport authorities for actually managing to pull off a successful night which could be the blueprint for dealing with traffic next year.

If this is anything to go by, the rugby world cup will hopefully be an example of how transport can be sustainably managed amongst the urban sprawl of Auckland. There are lots of issues with transport in New Zealand’s biggest city and due to the city’s spread out nature, they aren’t easy to fix.

So it is fantastic to see that despite all the hype and other issues surrounding the Rugby World Cup, there are some initiatives in place that have positive effects on the city and how transport is going to be managed amongst the chaos.

The other sweet thing going on around the city of sails at the moment is art. Auckland art week is about to get underway,so if you have a chance, make sure you check out some of the exhibitions scattered around the place.

In particular, I recommend going to the Aotea Quarter in the CBD and having a looksie at the Earth from Above exhibit, which features beautiful photographs taken in some of the most amazing locations around the world. The collection aims to highlight some of the social and environmental issues facing our planet, and does so in a refreshing way.

Also, if you live out South, do go and visit the new Mangere Art Centre – Nga Tohu o Uenuku. This building is amazing and has some of the freshest and funkiest art works around. Definately worth a visit, and made even better by the fact you can pick up posters of artworks by students from Manukau School of Visual Arts, all for free.
Awesome!

www.artweek.co.nz
www.manukau.govt.nz/arts

From the land of the stay up all night, study hard, party hard, stress a lot, live a lot,(eat a lot!!) student I’m back. And pleased to be reporting Auckland was stunning over the long weekend [last weekend, which was Labour Weekend here in New Zealand - Ed.].

It’s been a real beauty, sun everywhere, back yard barbeques calling, and people lazing in the luxury of an extra day off work. Well personally, it wasn’t an extra day off work, but an extra day before I started my new job as a fresh young graduate.

Last week I completed my bachelor of communications. Which is really exciting as it means I will have more time to bring you the good news from around Tamaki Makaurau, now that I am not spending every waking hour in some way stressing about the next assignment due in. There is anticipation in the air!

Along with the excitement I feel about starting my new job and being qualified, I also am feeling hugely enthused by an awesome project I stumbled across not long ago. Recently, there’s been a lot in our papers and across the word discussing the role of diversity in our day to day lives.

The Paul Henry saga has brought to the surface the need to rethink our attitudes towards race relations in New Zealand – something which is particularly relevant to Auckland – a cultural melting pot. I will touch more on this in a bit. However, while all of this has been going on, bubbling away in the background has been another important issue.

The ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ bill has just been overthrown in America. Effectively this means if you are gay you can now serve openly in the US forces. An apparent privilege which hasn’t been afforded to the GLBT community of the States up until this point. In New Zealand, this right to serve despite your sexual orientation is a given and rightly so.

So spurred on by this movement and a spike in suicides among gay teenagers in the States, the ‘It get’s better project’ has formed over the past few weeks. The project is a collaboration of youtube videos where people can freely tell their stories about diversity of sexuality. It is an inspiring and influential project that really is very touching, important, and sends a strong and positive message of hope.

I would like to tell you my story. Firstly, as corny as it sounds, I would like to pay homage to Auckland. Inspired in part by the ‘it get’s better project, I have just finished my final university assignment researching and writing a 2000 word article about New Zealander’s attitudes towards the GLBT community. The one thing which has really stood out to me during the process of writing this story is just how accepting Auckland is as a place to live and be.

People can say what they like about New Zealand’s largest city but JAFA’s aren’t really that bad. Across the board it is clear – Auckland is a city which doesn’t care about what sexuality you identify as. There is a place for everyone here and that’s one thing I really respect about the city of sails.

I have made a youtube video to contribute to the project, and you can check out my story here. To me, this project is an example of the good in people, and it really is inspiring and humbling to see people across the world contribute to something which is going to help so many others. I urge you to check out the project www.itgetsbetter.org and just take a moment to think about what kind of country you want New Zealand to be.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hopefully, once my article is modified and through the university system I will be able to provide you with a more comprehensive and entertaining account of the subject. On that note – stay tuned to Happyzine as I will now be providing you regular updates of awesome things happening in Auckland as well as hopefully a few articles I have coming up, including one on a group of youth who are taking on the world and our politicians, one fern frond at a time.

And speaking of Auckland, there are always great things going on in this city, but in particular I would like to draw your attention to a few specific events; the Manukau Festival of Arts which is currently going on. If you are in the neighbourhood or can get out to South Auckland then I highly suggest check out the amazing talent coming out of this area www.mfa.org.nz

Also, if you are wanting to get out in the fresh air and enjoy this beautiful weather, the Auckland marathon is on this weekend. It is too late to join up, but there’s nothing like the feeling of support and a good crowd to cheer you on, if you are particapating. Also, 11 people have enlisted to run the marathon in support of Oxfam and its initiatives such as the ‘race for peace’, which supports locals of Papua New Guinea and many other awesome projects. If you would like to find out more, or donate to these athletes, go to this site.

Finally -going back to the Paul Henry saga. For the Indian-New Zealand community there has never been a more crucial time to reinforce just what it means to be of Indian decent, living in Aotearoa. So it is a perfect coincidence that this week sees the annual Diwali Festival of Lights come in to full swing.

If you are in the CBD this weekend, do check out the festivities taking place at Aotea Square for Diwali. If you don’t know much about Indian culture, go and see what makes the celebrations so important, and learn what it means to be a kiwi, but with your history belonging another corner of the world. It is important for us all to recognise the different waka and reasons which have brought all people to New Zealand.

Diwali is a celebration of the triumph of light over darkness and never has there been a more important time to acknowledge this in all aspects of diversity. No matter your skin colour, culture or sexual orientation, at the end of the day we are all people and it is our combined efforts which make this nation what it is.

He aha te mea nui? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.

Ask me, what is the greatest thing? The people, the people, the people.

Aucklander Robyn Simcock is renovating her garage. As is, it is slightly sunken into the ground so that the roof is only a metre above the pavement.  She has pumice, wild flowers, succulents and New Zealand natives ready for the renovation. She wants the garage to look nice, because it can be seen from the street.  However, these plants and rocks aren’t for landscaping the garden around it. They are part of the renovation. Ms Simcock is creating a living, growing, roof.  Robyn Simcock, who works at Land Care Research New Zealand, has one of the first living roofs in New Zealand.

Her green roof, as it’s called, is made up of a mixture of media. It has a base layer which provides the solid roof, a soil layer, and a ‘mat’ of plants –mainly sedums, which are mosses.

“I had to make sure the Auckland City Council understood exactly what I meant,” she says of the process involved in getting resource consent to build her green roof.  At first they thought it was landscaping, she says, but after a few hard line phone calls, she managed to tick all necessary boxes and got permission to build one on her suburban home.

Her experience of having the green roof installed led her to join University of Auckland researcher Dr Elizabeth Fassman and Auckland Regional Council in a joint project looking into the potential uses and application of green roofs in New Zealand.  After a four year study, involving a roof being installed on top of the engineering department at the University of Auckland, their research is almost complete.  Amid the droughts and torrential rain Auckland experiences, the research has proven that green roofs can effectively reduce storm water runoff by up to 75 percent. It also has the potential to reduce the urban heat island created by concrete roofs in the city.

The initial focus for the project was to find New Zealand plants that could potentially be used for green roofs on commercial buildings. However, along the way they discovered more interest in residential roofs with aesthetic value and the potential for growing vege gardens.

“At first it doesn’t look nice,” says Dr Fassman.

But their use is catching on, and they are becoming more and more popular. However, the roofs are still expensive to use, and according to the researchers of green roofs, there  is a public perception that they could be leaky.  Dr Fassman and Ms Simcock all agree, in order for the technology to be successfully used in New Zealand there now needs to be policy towards their use, adapted at a government level.

Haydon Easton, the storm water advisor from Auckland Regional Council, who also helped out with research, says policy is still a long way off.
“It’s a growing industry that’s still in its infancy,” he says. Mr Easton’s view is that education about the roofs needs to come next, before anything else progresses.

Many local councils do have guidelines for people and businesses wanting to install a green roof.  North Shore City Council has incentives for use, and Waitakere City Council currently has a green roof.  But it is unsure what will happen once the council changes in November.  Deputy Mayor of Waitakere City Council, Penny Hulse, says that although there are current guidelines for green roofs in place, they may be lost among the transition to a super city council.

“My concern at the moment is that no one has bothered to talk about sustainability for the super city.”

Ms Hulse believes that green roofs are an example of new technology that could benefit the city overall, but is one of many sustainability issues that is being forgotten amid the confusing transition to become Auckland Council.  Local government policy analyst Larry Mitchell also agrees.

“It’s one of the many question marks surrounding the super city. How strongly will advocacy for air, soil and water issues be?” says Mr Mitchell.

He believes the answer lies in how Auckland Regional Council, which deals with environmental issues, is “folded into the new super city”.

Lucky for Robyn Simcock, the outcome of the elections won’t affect her bid to get a green roof.  Says Simcock:

“At first you’ve got to get the technical standards up to scratch, demonstrate that the roofs can be affectively used, and then you have to demand that they’re used.

“You just have to do it,” she says, likening the process to that of changing the earthquake regulations and standards for buildings.

“It’s just so that I know where it is,” she added, her voice booming out to the crowd, strong and convincing.  Michele Leggott is at the Auckland City Library to launch a thousand poems for Matariki, in line with national poetry day.  Her voice resonates as she punches her arm in the air yelling sweet praises about poetry. You would never guess she is legally blind.

Not that it matters, when she speaks, you don’t need to see – all you need is to listen.  In 2009, Michelle helped launched the poetry project, an initiative to get communities around Auckland more involved with creative writing.  Last year the project was centred on the North Shore, and celebrated a thousand poems for Matariki, with school groups and locals encouraged to display poster poems around the community.

This year she has “widened the scope” and spread the word to Otahuhu, with five schools from the area being involved in the project, as well as five from the North Shore.  Last friday was the culmination of the project, with readings by poets of all ages, people from all wakes of life, celebrating a thousand poems for Matariki, 2010.

As Michelle stood on stage, she spoke passionately about how important poetry is, and you couldn’t help but feel moved. Here is this woman who doesn’t need to see, who you don’t need make eye contact with, to know that what she speaks of is important for communities.  The passion of telling stories and empowering children to open up through words is something that is so important in New Zealand.

In a country where talking about feelings is often kept to a minimal, it is refreshing to see a project underway that encourages positive, creative communication.  The strength of words is something that also reaches across cultures and ages, and has the power to connect people in a way that is often under-estimated.

As well as Michelle, several other poets spoke throughout the night. Each read of things close to the heart; of a fathers death, the love of a new child, the state of affairs in New Zealand.  However, there was one poem in particular that stood out. Selina Tusitala Marsh, the Otahuhu co-
ordinator for the poetry project, spoke with such conviction that you couldn’t help but feel carried away with her words.  She read a poem about a girl called Matariki, who seemed a typical teenager, putting up barriers about sharing her thoughts with a teacher.  The poem recorded Selina’s experience helping Matariki, about how she slowly managed to coax truth’s out of the reluctant teenager. She ended by telling how Matariki came into her name, amid gasps from audience members – “that was the best”, I heard people whisper.

All the poems that night were so beautiful. I urge you to go online and have a look at the poetry project http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/poetry-project/projects-matariki-2010.asp to see just some of the many insightful pieces written by youth in Tamaki Makau Rau.
It is people like Michelle and Selina, and initiatives like the poetry project, that are helping to build positive communities and inspire people.

Writers Bio: Hanna Spijksma

Hanna is a final year journalism student, studying in Auckland. She is interested in intercultural-communication, Maori and environmental issues,travel, hospitality, and breaking stereotypes. In her downtime, Hannah enjoys spending sunny afternoons drinking coffee, reading the paper and listening to Anika Moa and all the other talented musicians New Zealand pulls out of its hat. She is also aiming to/trying to train to run a half marathon, which isn’t going so well – but the theory is that exercises gives you endorphines, endorphins make you happy, and happy people are, well, happy. Chocolate also has endorphines, but it doesn’t help the half-marathon efforts.

Having sat two exams during the day, tried to move house that evening, and somewhat failed on the realisation that my car was broken and couldn’t be moved out of the drive way, I was not in the best of moods.

Resigned to a long bus ride home, I sat at the bus stop sulking.

Lost in my own head and just wanting to get home, my stream of consciousness was awoken by flashing lights and screeching tyres pulling into the bus bay. Not too impressed by this, I wondered what on earth could have warranted a police vehicle showing up. Surely I hadn’t done anything wrong?

That’s when I met Graeme.

It turns out it wasn’t a police vehicle – quite the opposite in fact. The light’s stopped flashing and I realised that it was actually a beat up little repairman’s truck. An older man got out and whistling some upbeat tune, walked towards me.

“Did you write that?” He joked, in reference to the graffiti on the bus shelter behind where I was sitting.

Great, just what I needed. Someone talking to me. I dismissed Graeme in an instant. He was old, wearing scraggly clothes, and a cleaner. No need for us to make pleasant chat. But he continued. And the more Graeme spoke, the more my evening improved.

“I thought I’d clean this shelter tonight, because I’ve got two exams tomorrow and I want to get a good night’s sleep,” he tells me.

‘What!!?’ I’m thinking. Crazy cool.

Turns out, Graeme had worked hard all his life in the public health sector, and recently decided he was going to go to university to study social services. He cleaned full-time, servicing all the bus-stop shelters around Auckland, because it was a job that allowed him to maintain his extra-mural study and work flexible hours.

He then proceeded to tell me that he wasn’t worried about his exams, because he had an A+ average. But he still wanted to be on top of his game. Graeme, the bus-stop cleaner, was the top social-services student in New Zealand. In his second year of uni, he had so far beat the 800 or so pupils studying the same field – most of who would be at least half his age. He had also inspired his 23-year-old daughter to study.

“If dad can do it, I can do it,” he tells me she said. His daughter now works in a bank and studies part-time, inspired by the life and positivity of her father, no doubt.

An old man turned academic, what a story and what inspiration, I thought. In the space of five minutes my mood had changed dramatically. I got onto the bus with a smile of my face, thinking ‘I don’t think I’ll ever forget this man’s name’. I left Graeme water blasting the graffiti off the bus stop, probably still chatting away to whoever else turned up, all the bit better and happier for our chance encounter.

The moral of the story is, without trying to sound too cheesy, that there’s always something good going on and always encouraging news and stories to be found.

This blog will focus on finding positive stories from around Tamaki Makau Rau that are all about moving us forward. It will be a weekly commentary, highlighting people, places, projects and events that encourage, promote and empower people in Aotearoa.

To kick off, I want to leave you with the following updates. There will be more news to come next week, but for starters, here’s a taste of what’s going on in Auckland.

Tumeke Cycle Space

Auckland Fruit Tree Project

Maori Language Week:

Yesterday I received an invitation for Maori language week. Via facebook. The message was simple and started by Auckland students: Show your support for Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori by posting your status updates in Maori this week.

Whoever would have thought that facebook would become such a phenomena and platform for social change. And it really can have impact – take the Save National Radio, friken awesome! Also, facebook proved successful in launching the campaign against mining on conservation land, which as we all know has been rather successful.

Sometimes the smallest gestures can have the biggest impact, and as facebook has such a wide reach – promoting te wiki by this means, is a TUMEKE!! idea. There are lots of other grass roots things going on this week to celebrate te reo Maori, so check out what your local community is doing and get involved.

Have a fantastic week!

Kia ora.

Writers Bio: Hanna Spijksma

Hanna is a final year journalism student, studying in Auckland. She is interested in intercultural-communication, Maori and environmental issues,travel, hospitality, and breaking stereotypes. In her downtime, Hannah enjoys spending sunny afternoons drinking coffee, reading the paper and listening to Anika Moa and all the other talented musicians New Zealand pulls out of its hat. She is also aiming to/trying to train to run a half marathon, which isn’t going so well – but the theory is that exercises gives you endorphines, endorphins make you happy, and happy people are, well, happy. Chocolate also has endorphines, but it doesn’t help the half-marathon efforts.