Back in New Zealand

We arrived home just over two weeks ago. Aside from the jetlag it felt very disorienting to be suddenly thrust into the middle of New Zealand winter and such a peaceful, quiet environment. There was some reminder of the main purpose of our journey with heavy rain and flooding in Northland, and then last week the same here in Hawke’s Bay. The heavy rain here came after a severe drought period that developed while we were away.

Despite these weather events it is very hard to not start feeling the comfort, slower pace of life, and distance from everything here in New Zealand. I feel such a deep sense of urgency as a result of the places we’ve been and the people we’ve met and talked to over the last 5 months. The challenge is to maintain this. We all need to be waking up to the reality of what is unfolding in our world.

I gave a talk at very short notice at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council last week. As a result of this I am now giving two talks on the 6 August, as a special speaker in a speaker series organised by the Sustaining Hawke’s Bay Trust. Late last week I was in the Bay of Plenty region to reignite work I am doing with the Regional Council there (see www.envbop.govt.nz). On 7 August I am flying to Wellington to meet with Ministry for the Environment staff and also have 30 minutes with the Hon. David Parker, the government minister responsible for climate change. All of this is helping keep me on edge and focused.

My view is that New Zealand is in a position where it can provide some real leadership, through our individual and collective actions. But we need to focus our resources much more on empowering communities in shaping and enacting positive visions for their future. Two key needs stand out from our travels through Asia and Europe. The need for more trees and the need for us to develop a greater sensibility to nature.

Like many Asian and some European nations we have problems in New Zealand associated with deforestation and increasingly intensive use of land that is drought and/or flood prone. More erratic weather and more frequent weather extremes are compounding these problems. We need very smart planning and design for the future. There are success stories for us to learn from.

Meanwhile I’ve sent my film camera to Auckland to hopefully resolve the problems that I had after the lens unit was replaced in Florence. Once I get it back I’ll be borrowing another camera and creating backup tapes of all my master tapes. Then I can sit here and starting working through everything that we’ve filmed. I need to transcribe the interviews and start shaping the story that is there. I’ve decided that I want to tell my own story, in my words with my voice. I just need a little support, from someone who has directing/editing skills, who has access to an editing suite and who is happy to work with me. Anyone out there?

Our last night in London, farewell to Lena!

From floods in England to floods in New Zealand.

Back to nature, at Ocean Beach where local developers want to create a residential development. This is costing local ratepayers a small fortune to work through planning processes. There are some good people working on this, but why are we focusing so much energy on a beautiful beach that ought to be kept free of development when we have much bigger issues in front of us. Please can we step back and look at the bigger picture for the future and protect beautiful places where we can walk and enjoy nature.

Two weeks back home and finally a sunny day and a beautiful sunset in a stunningly clear atmosphere. Something that we take so much for granted here in New Zealand.

Final Post From London

Bags are mostly packed and we're ready for the long journey home to New Zealand, aside from Lena of course. It's been an amazing 5 months. One of our Thai friends, risakorn, reassured me back in February when I was looking a bit worried ... "Don't worry Gavin, if you do good things, good things will happen for you". He was right. So many good things have happened.

Lena is currently on her way home from her job here in London. Once she is here we're going out to the local pub for our final meal together as a family until Lena returns to NZ at the end of October. We're all looking forward to being home. There are plenty of challenges ahead for all of us, but also many possibilities and opportunities. I've had two meetings this week with film people. The first helped me clarify what I don't want to do, which is to give my ideas and contacts away and simply be used as a consultant. The second strongly affirmed what I am doing out of myself and to keep working in that way. It was very heartening to have this said to me today. Thank you to Charlotte for being so affirmative and supportive.

It seems ironic that we'll be in mid-air when the Live Earth concert is happening tomorrow. I contacted them via their website from Europe and offered to help, I was even willing to delay my flight home. We have gathered such powerful images and voices and I was willing to share some of these. Unfortunately I've heard nothing. These things develop their own lives and we keep on doing good things in our own lives.

Out travels are almost over, but keep watching. I'll be posting updates once we're home. I don't know who has followed this site other than family and friends. I hope it has drawn in a few other people. If that is the case then please let me know who you are and share your thoughts. You can post comments here, or go to www.earthlimited.org for a contact email address.

A Thank You Email From Gavin

Dear Everyone!!

Late last year my family and I made a decision ... my older sister and I had sold our Mum's small house in New Zealand. We had a choice, either pay off the mortgage on our own home or travel and document grassroots perspectives on climate change. Of course you all know what we chose to do.

It took a huge effort to organise our journey, but we could never have done it without all of you. In various ways you all helped us along the way. I want to especially mention Khun Tuenjai and her amazing network of people in Thailand. You organised such a busy itinerary for us to start our journey, but it was such a rich experience and we met so many warm, generous people in your country... too many to name here. After Thailand we were on our own a lot more and it was very hard work at times to meet and film people and places. But we managed. Viet Nam was hard, but we have some very good friends there who did their very best to help us. Our brief stay in India was greatly helped by Andy in New Delhi.

Nepal was both challenging and inspiring ... for Lena, Ali and I it was truly a highlight to walk with Karma Lama for 19 days and to cross Thorong La Pass (5400 metres). I greatly enjoyed meeting Ngamindra and his colleagues in Kathmandu and I sincerely hope we can find a way to work with and support you. A special thankyou to Chandra for being there when we all had food poisoning! Everything in Egypt came together at the last minute, but again we met such warm, hospitable people who did their best to help us. Thankyou to Angela and Selim, and to Prof Zakharia for compelling me to go out to the Western Desert where we again met some wonderful people at Bahariya Oasis ... thankyou Ahmed and Corien.

In Italy I have to thank Marco and his small team and I sincerely hope we can keep working together and find ways to work with all of these other wonderful people we have met. And who would have imagined the connection with Katharina and Alfredo in a beautiful valley in Umbria ... a place we went to because the accommodation was a good deal and it looked nice! In Milan, thankyou to Iva and Paolo for having us in your home. We experienced the same warmth again with the Galli family in Lugano. Our time in France was too short, but thanks to Remy for having a bit of time to meet and talk... and to Jean-Pierre and Claire in the south of France (whose email address I don't have) for your wonderful work.

We've come to the end of our journey now. On Saturday, 7 July, Karen, Ali, Emma (who many of you never met but maybe you will one day) and I leave London for New Zealand. Lena is staying on here until late October and has already started a job here in London. For me the last week or so has been a time to rest and reflect. I have a lot to do when I get home, not least of which is to start earning some money again!! I still don't know yet how I'm going to produce a documentary out of all that we've done. But it will happen somehow. Meanwhile I am working on ways to strengthen the connection that I have made with many of you and hopefully to find ways to develop interconections between some of you and others in your respective countries. Already many of you are interconnected through our blog page ... if you haven't looked recently, take a look at http://earthlimited.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately I'm not able to communicate to many of the real grassroots people we met ... farmers, village leaders and others ... Thankyou to those of you who helped me meet all of these people.

A special mention goes to my cousin, Michael, who has done such a wonderful job with the blog page. And to my big sister Jill for buying me such a great hat!.... and to everyone else who I haven't mentioned by name!!

Very warm regards from me and on behalf of my family Gavin, Karen, Lena, Emma, Alice.

Alice's Renaissance study

It wasn't planned but it happened that we arrived in Florence a few days before Alice's class began a 3-week study of the Rennaisance. Their focus was Florence, the Duomo, and the work and art of the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo and others. We were very fortunate, through my colleagues at the University of Florence, to get reservations for visits to the Uffizi and Acadamia Galleries. The latter was built specifically to house Michaelangelo's 'David'. So we had one very full day going to these two galleries and climbing to the top of the Duomo dome. Alice was totally absorbed, awake to it's significance to her education and also very aware that she was in a living classroom while her classmates back in New Zealand were studying what she was experiencing and seeing. This was a very exciting time for her class teacher, Johnny, who was able to bring the subject to life much more by sharing some of what Alice was seeing and experiencing. These photos capture some of this.

Following our intensive cultural day we also managed a trip to Pisa to see the tower and then, on our way back to Florence, visiting the small village of Vinci. The home of Leonardo (his name literally means 'Leonardo from Vinci'. There is a small museum there with models of many of his designs. It was a real privilege to share all of this with Alice. Later in our journey through Switzerland and France we came across other places of relevance ... the old city of Basel has Renaissance period buildings, Chenonceaux in the Loire Valley is a wonderful example of French Renaissance architecture, landscape design and with period furniture inside, and at Le Louvre of course we saw a number of da Vinci's paintings including his most famous, Mona Lisa.

Alice's Renaissance slide show

Lugano to London slideshow