DIARY OF A GARDENER: TICKLING THE WATERMELONS

I learnt the most fascinating thing yesterday. I learnt that you and me, humans can assist watermelon plants breed, get pregnant, become fertile, pollinate – whatever the term is in garden lingo. My best friends Brother Brent and his wonderful partner Michelle showed me how by using the male flower to tickle the female stem or bulb can fertilise the plant. So my friends regularly give their plant a helping hand if the female bulbs look a bit barren. Watermelons self-fertilise, with the female flower being pollinated equally well by pollen from a male flower on the same or a different plant. They’re not strictly hermaphrodite though and unlike worms which are, watermelons need the wind, bees, birds or loving human guardians to transfer the pollen along the same plant or across to a neighbouring one. So I found this titbit of knowledge fascinating because it was so rudimentary in a cycle-of-life, universal inter-connected co-existence kind of way. I suppose the smallness of the deed – the tickling of a bulb to produce substanance to feed not just a small family of four but an extended whanau and friends totalling over 100 (a large well producing plant can bear over 20 watermelons), that’s humanity at grassroots level.

My two friends Brother Brent and Michelle, they’re clever people. They live in Mt Albert the same suburb as me and my little family. That’s not why they’re clever; they’re smart because they can grow food in a tyre. The couple reckon it retains heat especially when the temperature drops and I suppose it’ll be a great deflector of frost in winter almost as good as a glasshouse. They have full, healthy kamokamo and tomatoes packed into that broken truck tyre. As soon as I saw it, it brought back memories of my neighbours the Meads in Galbraith Street. They had blue, green, yellow swans made out of discarded car and truck tyres. The Meads planted flowers; pansies, carnations and daffodil bulbs inside the hollowed-out middle. I always thought them ugly. But a tyre with food in it, now that’s a much more attractive sight, practical, principled, purposeful.
I won’t be as ambitious for my garden as Brother Brent and Michelle are with theirs. I can’t be because I’m starting over again after a ten year hiatus. I have to relearn things, how to grow what to grow when to grow. It’s a whole new relearning. But more than that I’m older and the back isn’t as strong as it used to be and what used to take me an hour seems to take me a day. It was good to visit my friend’s garden. Wonderful to watch Michelle tickle the watermelon bulb, discuss the merits of discarded rubber tyres and to spend time and share food with wonderful people.

DIARY OF AN URBAN GARDENER

Today I decided to go meet the neighbours and take a look at their gardens. My little family and I are new to the neighbourhood and I thought it would be a great way to meet people. So my little 2 year old and I toddled up the road to find ourselves a vegetable garden or two to examine, photograph and hopefully meet the owners. I didn’t need to go far. Almost directly across the road, I saw a family sitting on the doorstep watching an elderly gentleman tending a large relatively newly planted vegetable garden. Up the path we went. It turned out that Falakiko Kaitapu, his wife Sita and family are from Ha’apai in Tonga. They have been in New Zealand for about 10 years. Ha’apai is actually a group of coral islands - 62 in all. 45 are uninhabited and almost all are low coral islands with vibrant reefs and kilometres of deserted coconut tree framed white beaches. Your classic South Seas paradise postcard picture, it’s stunning. I grew up in Tonga and know Ha’apai. So when I heard that the Kaitapu family came from that group of Islands I thought what a huge social and cultural sacrifice they’ve made to be here in Aotearoa New Zealand.

There’s just over 50,000 Tongans in New Zealand but in terms of Tongan immigrants, the Kaitapu family at 10years are new comers to the country. Tongans have been voyaging to Aotearoa for more than 100 years, but it wasn’t really until the 1950’s and 60’s that significant numbers started arriving. The notorious ‘dawn raids’ of the 1970’s saw the rise of the Polynesian Panthers and Tongan urban leader Will Illolahia. Today Will and his Waiata Trust are behind the Owairaka Community Garden initiative. Will established the garden to bring warring teen gangs together. In January 2002, two Somali youths were charged with murdering a 21-year-old Tongan, Elikena Inia, in a night of brawls between Somalis and Pacific Islanders in near-by McGehan Close. The garden is still being maintained by Will, Waiata Trust and local youth. I’m not surprised Will chose a garden as the mediary for peace. Nor am I surprised that Mr Kaitapu has such a magnificent vegetable garden. All Tongans back in the Islands have a family plantation. So both Will and Mr Kaitapu are working with and on, what they know.

The main staple of a Pacific Island vegetable garden is taro. Mr Kaitapu’s garden is no exception. He also has banana trees and something I haven’t seen in a domestic garden since I was in Tonga and that’s peanuts. Looking forward to seeing how they nut out! There were also tomatoes, silver beet and cabbages. His garden is on an incline, ideally placed to maximise all day sun. What amazed me was that Mr Kaitapu didn’t use any fertiliser. None at all. All he does is tend to the plants himself weeding and turning the soil daily and over a period of hours. A real labour of love.

Meanwhile back in my humble garden. I cleared a few centre-metres of leaves and turned the soil, but came to a crashing halt when a rat the size of a cat scuttled past me. I didn’t scream hysterically but rather used a string of profanity, that would make Mike King proud! I know where the rat’s come from. There’s a creek that runs along the back of the houses on our side of the street. Its part of the Oakley Creek, Maori know it as Auaunga Awa. So I’m going to have to lay bait or something. I won’t set a trap that means I’ll have to manually remove it or them if there’s more than one. There’s no humane way to get rid of varmints. But if you do have any other suggestions on extermination methods, other than baiting and trapping, I’d gladly welcome them.

DIARY OF AN URBAN GARDENER

I’ve cleared another metre of ground, making way for my urban vegetable garden. It’s slow going for me. Whereas some gardeners would have cleared the same space in the wink of an eye – unfortunately I’m a cm-x-cm kind of girl. Lucky for me the garden’s relatively clear of weeds, thanks to the heavy leaf cover on the ground. It’s been a well maintained garden over all. This is a new home for me and my little family. We’re living in a three bedroom ex-state house. The house itself has good solid bones, nothing leaky about it except for the taps that don’t twist all the way to off. Unlike other state homes in our street our yard isn’t quite your ¼ acre section (it’s more like an 1/8th), but compared to the homes we’ve owned in Grey Lynn this property feels almost farm-like in its proportions.

When I was a kid growing up in Galbraith Street which is just around the corner from where we live now, it was a true ¼ acre section. My parents bought the state house from the Government using the Family Benefit as a deposit. That was 1960’s Auckland and we were the only Maori family in the street. In fact the closest Maori family to us were the Webbs, cousins of ours from up North. They lived in Potter Ave two streets over. The Webbs and us were part of the Labour Government’s ‘pepper-potting policy’. This is where Maori families were sprinkled around Pakeha neighbourhoods to encourage assimilation into Pakeha society. I suppose we could count ourselves lucky to have been allowed to ‘pepper-the-pot’, because twenty years earlier (the late 1940s) Maori were excluded from mainstream state housing, on the grounds that their presence would 'lower the tone' of state housing communities. At that time there was state assistance for Maori housing in rural areas but it came in the form of loans. The monies were used to replace dilapidated housing. The replacement buildings were smaller and less sophisticated than the state-sponsored Pakeha housing.

Anyway I digress.

It was the size of the sections I wanted to talk about or rather what was on the sections. I can’t find any policy similar to that of Canberra Australia requiring residents to have set number of trees and shrubs on their properties. But back yard Kiwi state houses of that era, all without exception grew the same trees – feijoa, plum, apple, peach, lemon and a loquat. A mini orchard. Galbraith Street still has one of two original plum trees and the feijoa tree. Both are over 50 years old now and still fruiting strongly. Alas the apple, peach and loquat succumbed to my brother’s over exuberance with an axe, 40 years ago. Many of the state homes in my street today have very mature fruit trees, apples, plums, lemons and loquats mainly. You can tell they must have been planted over half a century ago because of the moss covered bark, the gnarled leaves or the general skeletal frames reminiscent of our own frail elderly. As well as fruit trees, state houses from the 40’s to 70’s also had the most magnificent vegetable gardens. It was no surprise to see 10 metre rows of silver beat stand knee and thigh high beside shoulder tapping tomato plants and head topping corn stalks. Potato plants were abundant along with cabbages, beans, peas and beetroot. Lettuces weren’t at all popular, well not in our neighbourhood anyway.
My section won’t be the ‘long rows akin of old’. Instead I think I’ll have boxed sections, it’ll be much more manageable for me. But I better get going otherwise I’ll still be talking about it this time next year.

DIARY OF A GARDENER

I’ve succumbed to a trend weaving its way around inner city urban homesteads – gardening! Not just the flower bed type of gardening but the organic vegetable ecologically biodiversity friendly planet saving, get down with papatuanuku roots- type of gardening.

The thing about city folk and gardening is that there’s a tendency for the urban-dwellers to think they’ve reinvented it into an art form. Of course there’s beauty in the aesthetics, there’s colour texture, form and style, no doubt about it. Go to any townie-farmers’ market like Grey Lynn and that’s where you hear them, chattering on about organic match this, companion mix that, death to pesticides, life to anything with the first three letters E.C.O or B.I.O. They’re a funny bunch these city mulches, fervently spreading their organic wisdom over a sprawling metropolis trying to lessen the impact of urban erosion. They’re well meaning if a little naïve. They’re really easy to spot. They’re the ones in tight black gym leggings, clean manicured nails, designer gardening tools bought from Republic, and oh, they don’t grow enough produce of their own to sell and they can’t bake. Instead they peruse the stalls, picking up herbs, feijoa wine organic of course, choko butter organic of course and they talk meaningfully about micro-greens when really they mean broccoli. The city-mulchers, pop free-range eggs into Trelise Cooper biodegradable hessian shopping bags before zooming off in their gas guzzling SUV’s, to have double shot lattes with BFF at upmarket SPQR in Ponsonby. Yes indeed these are the city-mulches, the ones who slum it for an hour on Sunday mornings in Grey Lynn and convince themselves they’re eco-friendly environmentalists. Well I’ve joined them, minus the gym leggings, manicured nails, SUV and designer gardening tools.

When I say I’ve joined them, I mean I’ve taken to turning over patches of soil in my backyard to get it ready for herbs. I’m really partial to lettuces of all types so they’re a must have. Tomato seeds and punnets are in plentiful supply at all big red sheds, garden centres and markets. While silver beet is compulsory, it’s so easy to grow it’s almost a weed. At this very early planning phase of my gardening career like the city mulches I won’t be producing enough to sell.

In fact those that do peddle their product at farmers’ markets like Grey Lynn are true earth people. Farmers’ markets are for locals who sell to locals. The idea is, by keeping it close to home reduces transport costs and therefore carbon footprints. It’s also about community spirit, sharing ideas on how to grow healthy sustainable environments in an urban setting. And it’s all about good nutritious kai. If you can spot a city-mulcher, then it’s just as easy to spy a peddler. They look like their produce - organic. They have dirty-tuffty hair, leathery skin and whether male or female they’re always slim. I have never seen an over weight organic produce supplier. They also look like they’d rather hug a tree than a human. Since I’m making wild generalisations they would be Green Party voters and Labour would be as far right as they could possibly stretch. So just to reiterate, I’m not a peddler and I don’t think in all honesty I will ever be one. But who knows?


So why the sudden urge to garden? I’ve been meaning to create a vegetable garden for some time now. But time and place has been against me, until now. Now I have the time and I have a very manageable north-east facing backyard that gets all day sun. I’m not a complete stranger to gardening. I’ve maintained a few plots in my earlier years before my television production company consumed my energy. In fact I produced a bumper crop from a Balmoral Auckland backyard that I could very well have proudly taken to market. The plot backed on to our neighbour’s vegetable garden. I’ve long forgotten the blokes name but we’d meet up at least a couple of times a week, he was a scientist at Mt Albert’s DSIR. I never met his wife, he said he had one and he always talked about her but in the two years we gardened together she never appeared. Strange.

My pride and joy were the tomatoes which were to die for. They were grown from cuttings given to me by my wonderful Australian friends Bluey and Barbara-Ann Nowell. They were a solid reliable red, juicy like oranges and not too salty or acidic to the taste buds. My apple cucumbers and beetroot were revered by the flatmates. Joanne Marsh our resident chef made sumptuous salads with my crop. The plant I nurtured with love and affection was the parsley. I fell in love with its bitter-sweet fragrance. When I bruised it between my fingers the scent permeated the air and lingered for minutes. Its tickling texture invited constant stroking and when I ate it I became addicted. Of course it was only that one parsley plant from Balmoral that I was obsessed with. Perhaps because it was the first of its type I’d planted. Maybe I was transferring some kind of sexual release onto the poor plant; I was single back then, although a cucumber would have been a better fetish. When the flat broke up, I didn’t think to pull up the plants or take cuttings with me. I returned to the Balmoral house months later with trowel and bucket in hand to take cuttings of the tomato plants and to retrieve my beloved parsley. Alas, my heart sank. The whole plot had been levelled and in its place a shiny new garage. I was also surprised to see the neighbours plot looking neglected and forlorn. Life of a vegetable plant is indeed a short one.

So now I’m in Mt Albert with my little family ready to plant anew. Times have changed; organic is the name of the game. So I’m looking forward to learning new things and trying new produce.

If anyone has any hints for me on how to do it better, bigger and earth friendlier, I’d welcome the feedback.

DIARY OF A CAMPAIGNER: DAY SIX: IT'S ALL CHINESE TO ME!

DAY SIX:
Thursday 25 August 2010
It is 21 days until the ballot papers start arriving in the letter boxes and 44 days until ‘D’ day decision day on 09th October.

Another big day meeting the locals. The Owairaka team: Cameron Morris, Sarah Turner and Councillor Chris Fletcher we all spent over an hour with the folk at the Sandringham Community Centre Markets. We were also joined by some of our colleagues from over the hill Puketapapa, Feleti Key and Ram Rai. Its great having these two men with us they’re both Rangatira within their communities and you can feel the mana they have when we walk amongst their iwi. I met a Ngati Porou whanaunga Rob and Helena Crown sister of good mate Armund. I also met up with Mrs Pryor, I went to Mt Roskill Grammar with her son Jeff – he was a ballroom dancer, he was nice.

From there we went back up to the Mt Albert shopping centre. The freakiest thing happened. One of our Maori tuahine/sister and her pepi/baby were thrown out of a car by the boyfriend. Feleti and Chris picked her up off the rori/road and a member of the public took her for a cuppa tea. I’m mentioning this because it’s not an everyday occurrence - really it’s not and because when we caught up with the Sister again, we offered her a ride, help, money but she declined all. I looked at her and you know what whanau…..I thought….ahh the Sister’s going back there! I looked at her pepi she must be about 3 years old, gave Mama and pepi a cuddle, my phone number and I walked away. I pray I won’t regret not calling the police.

We had really interesting korero/chat with a couple of locals. One local wanted to know if there was a law against full signage in a language other than English. She doesn’t know what the vendors are peddling because she doesn’t understand the signage. Being tangatahwhenua of course I champion any language/reo. I have no issue with people speaking in their mother-tongue in front of me. I have never considered signage-not-in-English a hindrance to me shopping at particular stores. If I want to know what’s in a shop I go in and have a look. If I want to know what a product is I ask. I’ve never prescribed to the adage ‘…when in Rome…’ So when people talk about non-English signage and laws against it…you know where they’re heading. Citizens and Ratepayers is about diversity – unity in diversity. It’s about embracing the multicultural makeup that is this great City of Auckland. It’s this rich tapestry of ethnicity that also gives communities their identity. It’s not to say we forget our heritage and what it is built on. But Maori know more than anyone that time passes and new communities evolve. Futures are built on the new and ever changing landscapes of peoples. Strong local boards must support Business Associations to form healthy robust memberships amongst store owners. The Boards need to get in behind and assist networking initiatives so that owners are aware of the concerns of customers, even assisting with marketing to multi-ethnic clients if required. Most of all Local Boards have a responsibility to stay with the Associations through the tough times and find tangible solutions to weather storms.

The other interesting encounter we had was with a gentleman who didn’t want to engage but what he did say was ‘talk is cheap…I don’t care about what’s written on paper, it’s what you do that counts’. Which of course is all very true. It’s typical on hustings for campaigners to trot out the rhetoric. It sounds all very lofty and nice when you trot out the ‘messages’ but at the end of the day what does it mean for everyday people at home. Citizens and Ratepayers are pragmatic and practical. We are solution and outcomes oriented. We listen to the concerns of the community and act accordingly.

For a first timer like myself, I come to the Local Board with a can do attitude because I do not know what can’t be done. I will look at policy and find the solutions to achieve results because I won’t be bogged down in bureaucratic dogma. I don’t think that’s being idealistic or naïve, it’s just commonsense.

DIARY OF A CAMPAIGNER: DAY FIVE: SCARED STIFF SHOP KEEPERS

DAY FIVE:
Wednesday 24 August 2010
It is 22 days until the ballot papers start arriving in the letter boxes and 45 days until ‘D’ day decision day on 09th October.

I started the day with Councillors Chris Fletcher, Paul Goldsmith and fellow C&R Colleagues from Eden-Roskill - talking with Committee members of Eden Rugby Club Gribblehirst Park on Sandringham Rd. The Club is an old one opened in 1922. The area had been originally owned by a Mr Gribble and Mr Hirst and was given by them to the local council in the 1920s. During the late 20s the swamp was reclaimed and turned into a sports field and naturally enough named Gribblehirst Park. In 1930 it became the home ground of the Eden Rugby Football Club

Eden Rugby Club like many other community facilities is hamstrung by bureaucracy. They’ve been awaiting Auckland City Council signoff to develop the clubrooms in readiness for next year’s World Cup Rugby. But because Auckland’s been in transition sign off has been delayed. Hopefully Councillor Paul Goldsmith can champion their cause before the old Council is dismantled. It's facilities like this that bind and connect communities – it’s what Citizens and Ratepayers are all about. Eden Rugby have had generations of families through its doors – it has helped define the areas identity, contributed positive role models and it continues to build strong young athletes.

My next stop was at the Mt Albert Shopping Centre. I only had time to Shop knock one side, but it was an eye opener. Two nights ago Grant Gillard was confronted by an intruder in his Chemist at 4am. At 6am 43 year old unemployed Bruce Alan Jones was dead.

I expected the Mt Albert Shops to be in some sort of lock-down. I expected keepers and shoppers alike to be talking about the incident, I thought there would be a buzz on the street, but there wasn’t. Not one shop I entered knew any details other than what they had read in the paper or saw on television. But while they could not give me details of that incident – 90% of them recounted for me problems they have faced personally with theft, intimidation, drunk and disorderly behaviour. The majority of Owners and Managers I met are Chinese, new New Zealanders. When some spoke of their frustration with intimidators it occurred to me that they feel powerless to do anything about their situation. A shop owner named Brian told me he would have on average a burglary a month. He has even been held up at knife point. Inspite of this Police have stopped attending to his call outs. Brian says Police reckon they’ll come if he’s in ‘more serious danger’. Another boutique owner says she regularly has drunks outside her shop door. She says it’s difficult to catch the local Police Constable and in fact come weekends it’s the Avondale Police that come to their aid. This community could do with the assistance of the Maori Wardens. They patrol the streets both night and day. Their mere presence pounding the pavements in slow measured steps has a calming influence on disorderly – the Wardens' age alone commands mana and therefore deference.

From the 20 or so shops I visited only one store-person could tell me about the Mt Albert Business Association. This is a concern to me. Citizen and Ratepayers is about developing small businesses and this is something I am personally campaigning on. I will work hard with the Business Associations to strengthen their networks and connectivity and increase their membership. This camaraderie encourages confidence in members – knowing that they have support and advice when they need it fosters productivity.

I asked a couple of shop owners what their major concerns were. Linda who runs a Health Store, wanted to extend the parking time for customers. Currently it’s 30 minutes for both sides of the street. Linda doesn’t think it’s long enough, given that some of her customers can spend up to 45 minutes in her store. There is a public carpark at the eastern end of the shopping centre but it’s poorly lit even during the day and given the area has issues with drunks and riff raff, it’s not a safe place for single women shoppers to park. I’m campaigning for safer parking, better lighting and cleaner streets. These are the basic requirements of shopping centres. Mt Albert deserves this.

I also took a walk around the back of the shops to the train station. I can see that the place is a haven for undesirables. They weren’t there today – moved further up the track line thanks to the Police presence following the Gillard Chemist incident. But the evidence that the aimless and reckless spend a considerable amount of time there is abundant. Sleeping-rough paraphernalia in corners and the tagging is rife. Whose responsibility is it to clean up the mess is an argument between three organisations. ARTA, Kiwirail and the Council. All three have agreed to clean up the mess but it wasn’t apparent today, in fact a Council hui 28 July to further discuss the issue hasn’t resulted in any tangible results for the community.

We need to push back on off-licences and enforce drinking bans in public places we need to reclaim these streets for honest shoppers and hard working business owners. This coming election we need to make this great city of ours succeed by empowering every community to do well. These are the values I champion. With Citizens and Ratepayers we support small business and connected communities, we value safety of individuals and their property. VOTE C&R for Owairaka-Mt Albert.

DIARY OF A CAMPAIGNER: TRAGEDY IN THE HOOD

DAY FOUR:
Tuesday 24 August 2010
It is 23 days until the ballot papers start arriving in the letter boxes and 46 days until ‘D’ day decision day on 09th October.

Today was a mix of campaign planning and working day job projects. In the morning I met with my very good school friend Andrew Couper at Dizengoff Ponsonby. He’s one of my political sounding boards, a libertarian, conservative, and pragmatist. He was clever at high school, he hasn’t changed.

I intended to Shop knock at Mt Albert Shopping centre but tragically Gillard’s Chemist was robbed last night with fatal consequences for 43 year old unemployed man Alan Jones. Tragic situation for all involved. The neighbouring shop owners are now feeling vulnerable and intimidated. Local Councils should be there for these hard working business owners at this time, but more importantly Local Councils should be there for the community before tragedy strikes.
I’ll go to the Mt Albert Shops apopo.

DIARY OF A CAMPAIGNER: TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

DAY THREE:
Monday 23 August 2010
It is 24 days until the ballot papers start arriving in the letter boxes and 47 days until ‘D’ day decision day on 09th October.

For those of us with day jobs, campaigning and making sure you complete that important work that pays the bills is a juggling act. Today was a day off so I could go to Wellington to complete other projects. Having said it was a day off, I managed to write a blog about the National Government's Booze Policy. I'm personally campaigning on Booze ban and Cap on Liquor Outlets so it's great that I'm in sync with central policy.

I'm looking forward to catching up with the Councillors and my C&R team-mates this wee.

DIARY OF A CAMPAIGNER: DAY TWO

DAY TWO:
Sunday 22 August 2010
It is 25 days until the ballot papers start arriving in the letter boxes and 48 days until ‘D’ day decision day on 09th October.

A really important part of my campaigning strategy took place yesterday which I forgot to mention. My big sister Rosina and a friend of hers dropped off over 500 flyers to mailboxes in the Sandringham district for me. Rosina has been working tirelessly for me over the last few weeks, sourcing printers, caterers, selling fund raising tickets for me. My good friend Donald Hollingsworth has also been a great support, designing my flyers, my invitations giving me moral support. Every campaigner needs a good crew behind them.

I divided the Owairaka Ward up into 4 grids. My flyers get dropped off in 500 batch lots at a time. I’ll then follow up and door knock at those addresses within 72 hours of drop off. Ambitious I think for a first timer. It’s time consuming obviously but I’m keeping on schedule. Rosina dropped off on the eastern side of Sandringham from Mt Albert Rd to Reimers Ave just before Eden Park.

This grid is made up of both privately owned homes, state houses and numerous blocks of flats. We have both older established families who have lived in the area over 40 years to aspirational couples starting off on the property ladder to new immigrant New Zealanders. In fact Statistics New Zealand reckons Albert, Eden Roskill of which Sandringham is a part; is made up of mainly European residents with the Asian population making up 31% of the population. Maori are only 6% while our Pasifika cousins make up 10% of the community. Albert Eden Roskill is also relatively youthful the median age is 33.

I remember when we were little we were the only Maori family in Galbraith Street. Our cousins the Ratapu whanau lived in O’Donnell Ave. The Ratahi and Hunia whanau lived in Potter Ave and my best friend Cheryl Waipouri lived in Sheppard Avenue. But now like then this side of Sandringham - Maori remain the minority.

Rosina found whanau in Lambeth, Calgary and Halesowen as well as Oxton, Mars, Jason and Patterson Streets. I intend to go mihi these whanau, talk to them find out that, they are registered to vote hopefully and convince them to vote for me and my C&R colleagues. These streets are a mix of private dwellings and state housing. The area is in contrast to where we door knocked yesterday but just as important to C&R and to me personally as this is where our whanau whanui are.

Citizen and Ratepayers promote affordable rates for home owners and keeping those rates within the rate of inflation. Affordable housing is for me a central government issue and should be an area that’s paid for with our taxes not rates. A good strong local council will know the difference between local and central government issues.

Sunday I did a solo meet and greet at the Sandringham Shopping Centre. I grew up there. Me and my brother and sisters went to the Mayfair Picture theatre, Uncle Bill was the proprietor. Years later multiplexes forced Uncle Bill to ditch his F – Sound of Music and G – John Wayne rated movies in favour of XXX rated adult only fare. It wasn’t long before he sold out completely. The theatre is now a Church.

At the corner of Sandringham and Kitchener St where Ashley Goodwin’s Ray White Realty is, is the epi-centre of Auckland City, in terms of navigational compass bearing points. It was thought that from that corner a traveller could head out in any direction and it would take exactly the same time to reach the four corners of Auckland.

When I was small, the shops were owned by Pakeha. Now the strip is referred to as the ‘Spicy Mile’ because of the number of Asian restaurants and vendors. I don’t know what the Asians think of this – I must ask them?

I introduced myself to all the store owners open that day, almost 50 in total. Some told me of issues affecting them, mainly around safe parking. Raj from Gate of India Restaurant has been in Sandringham for 8 years. He’s at the Southern end and thinks the crossing should be between Haverstock and Harwood to stop cars speeding around the bend and screeching to a halt at the crossing outside Viola Cafe. I think it makes a lot of sense and I’m wondering why this common sense approach to a potentially fatal issue hasn’t been addressed.

Later in the day I met up with Cameron and Sarah on Summit Drive. We door knocked starting from the Mountain top and down to Mt Albert Road. From the responses we got it was abundantly clear we were in C&R territory. From the responses it was also very clear that the residents appreciated us introducing ourselves. I think it’s really important not to take supporters for granted that they’ll always be there for you. Their continued support deserves our attention and I was pleased to represent C&R. Chris Fletcher joined us in the campaign camper van which lent further credibility to our visit.

Following the Summit Rd door knock we cruised the streets in the campaign van doing the mega-phone ‘preaching-the-message’ thing. Feleti Key from the Puketapapa ward drove us round the Pt Chevalier streets and into Waterview.

Waterview is an interesting area. It’s been under the spotlight lately with residents complaining about SH20. The motorway is a mix of surface and tunnel and plans to use this area to link the North Western with the Southern motorway has been on the drawing board since 1977. The actual configuration however was a recent decision.

In pre-colonial times this area was used by Ngati Whatua and referred to as Te Whau and the creek Auaunga. Ngati Whatua Chief Apihai Te Kauwau apparently gave Govenor Hobson 11,000 acres of this area.

Today Waterview is like a forgotten town. There’s a high density state housing pocket, around Saxon, Waterbank, Daventry and Herdman. A block of shops on Waterbank is closed down except for a laundromat. Their nearest township is Pt Chevalier.

As a small business owner I want to find a way to get businesses back into those closed down blocks. They would need to be sustainable businesses and not volatile ventures prone to risk during harsh economic times. They could be retail stores or commercial businesses. Businesses of any type would generate buzz and activity and this area is in desperate need.

We’re going back to Waterview next Sunday to hold a mobile clinic there. We’ll encourage the locals to come out and korero with us.

As for cruising the streets ‘preaching-the-message’, via mega-phone in a camper van malarkey? Sarah, Cameron Chris and I all took turns. Interestingly as soon as I got a hold of the mega-phone I started yelling. Like they couldn’t hear me out side of the van. On a couple of occasions Chris Fletcher had to prize the mega-phone out of my hands, ooh!

IS BLUE THE NEW BROWN?

I took part in the National Party's Candidates' College a couple of weekends ago and ended up on MARAE TV1. I thoroughly enjoyed the College and being on telly. Central Government is a medium term goal for me and my whanau. Running for a Local Board position in Owairaka in the Albert-Eden-Roskill Ward is an immediate priority. I have a small dedicated hard working term; my sister Rosina is my volunteer co-ordinator and fundraiser and Donald Hollingsworth is in charge of Marketing while Julie Stirling is a magnificent help with my websites.

It's really important for any campaign to have a great team around you and because I work in the media - marketing and publicity comes quite naturally to me. Doing the actual mahi though that's another issue. The technical nuances involved and the speed in which things change and upgrade sometimes boggle me. So having Donald and Julie on board is not only useful but saves costs. Janice Mulligan the best Editor in town will be working her magic over my promo-vids when they've been shot. Having the skill of experts is unbeatable.

It's the fundraising that pays for much of the campaigning and if you've got a switched on money-raiser it can pay for all campaigning costs. My Sister Rosina has the widest most eclectic contacts' list I've ever seen. Which is pretty high praise given that the might of a Journalist (old timers anyway) is in the thickness of their contacts' book/e-diary/notebook/ipad! I'm impressed by my Sister's ability to wheel and deal.

The biggest support though has to come from home and the whanau. My Nadine our two boys Kiamana, Te Ua and our little Te Arawa Princess Manawa, give me moral and spiritual support and endless hugs and kisses. All Politicians be they at local or central level say home is the most important place. All too often however, the needs of the people, means families sacrefice time and attention with their loved one so the latter can get on and deal with real and pressing issues affecting others who are by and large strangers. Talking through the impact of political life on all members of the whanau can help prepare everyone.

I hope all Aucklanders assert their right to vote, particularly at this time of great and historical change and amalgamation into a new Auckland-Tamakimakaurau. I have enjoyed the selection process with 'C and R: Citizens and Ratepayers'. I'm looking forward to the campaigning proper - it's really exciting. It is all about the journey and it's all about the destination.

If you are in the Albert-Eden-Roskill Ward vote CandR. If you are in Owairaka subdivision vote Claudette Hauiti Local Board.