Into the Wilderness

It's being sold as young adult fiction, but there's no reason why this stunning dystopian novel can't be devoured also by - er - old adults.

I've just started doing children's and YA book reviews every 8 weeks for Your Weekend in the DomPost - yippee. And one of the many pleasures so far has been reading this book by Wellington author Mandy Hager (yep, sister of Nicky Hager). It's the sequel to her award winning The Crossing - although you don't necessarily need to read them in order.

Publishers and booksellers are saying that in these globally worrying times they're doing a roaring trade in dystopian fiction. I have this horrible feeling that we'll see a slew of  mediocre dystopias hitting the market to cynically capitalise on this trend.

But perhaps it's all right as long as there is also still beautiful, thought-provoking and moving work around like Hager's!

I won't say any more until the next reviews are out.

This is unspeakably awesome

 Have you seen it?

http://www.breathingearth.net/

Wow.

Online bartering systems - giving them a whirl and reporting my findings!

My mother-in-law has a huge and prolific fig tree in her backyard, and a couple of weeks ago, she kindly suggested that I come and gather some before the birds got them, and see what I could do with them.

The tree is tall and a lot of the good fruit is at the top, so we tried various methods to get to the bounty, including standing on stools, bending branches towards us with broomsticks, and sending up small children. Eventually we got about a third of the fruits we coveted - about 2 kg of ripe figs, and 1.5 kg of green ones.

 I decided to see if I could sell or swap the figs, using various online bartering systems. I tried out:
* The MyGarden Trader
* The Wellington swap group on Oooby (out of our own back yards)
and
* The global Community Exchange System's Wellington network - a community currency system that's very well set up, once you get your head around the site navigation.


On the first day ...
For the first day I got no bites - except for a woman in Walthamstow, England who had logged into the Community Exchange System, and, without realising, hit a button that allowed her to see people's offerings from all over the world instead of just locally.

She asked if I would be willing to drop the figs off to her, as she had just broken her arm, and she invited me to a gardening group at the house of some people called Rob and Liz in Walthamstow village ... Well, frankly I would have LOVED to, but it was just a little too far to travel ...


But the next day ...
Hurray! I got another offer from the Community Exchange System (CES) - and this time it was from Wellington, NZ - someone wanting all the green figs. I looked up this woman's CES profile (hi Lillian!) and found that by happy chance one of her own offerings was clothing repairs.

Of course, when you use the CES, there's no need to do a direct swap. You sell your offerings to anyone on the system using whatever the unit of currency is in your area (in Wellington it's WITS), and you buy from anyone you like using the same currency. It's just like money. (And 1 WIT = 1 dollar.)

However, it seemed convenient that Lillian was offering clothing repairs when I had two skirts in desperate need of work. (I am a reluctant and very bad sewer.) For one thing, I could drop my skirts to her at the same time as the figs.

So that's what we did. I earned 10 WITS by selling her the figs, and I paid her 15 WITS for my skirt repairs, which I am very happy with.


Balancing the community exchange books
I am now in the red on the Community Exchange system, but that's okay.

Generally people in the system are encouraged to stay within 100 currency units of zero. That is, you can be up to 100 WITS in credit, or up to 100 WITS in debt, and there is no problem. Overall everything still stays in balance within the system, and it allows everyone involved some leeway to buy and sell at the times that work for them.

I'm quite excited about the possibilities of the WITS system in Wellington, and I hope it grows. The bigger it gets, and the more people become involved, the better and more useful it will be for everyone.



Back to the figs
I still had the ripe ones left, and they were getting riper and riper. I had no more offers from anywhere, so I decided to cook them myself. I made fig ice-cream, which was delicious!

If you've never had fig icecream, I can only say that in my opinion figs are one of the loveliest fruits for making frozen desserts from - with an incredible creamy mouthfeel.

 But I digress.

Wouldn't you know it, just after I had used all the figs I got TWO offers on them from the MyGarden Trader - offering variously to exchange cash, home-made preserves, freerange eggs, and home-harvested honey.

I've corresponded with one of the people who made an offer, and he is interested in more figs if I manage to get out to my mother-in-law's to pick them. So there are some possibilities there ...


And what of Oooby?
I know it sounds like, of the three systems I tried, the Oooby Wellington group was no help in my fig swap, but in fact it was, because I think it was the announcement I made there which sent Lillian over to the Community Exchange System to buy her figs using WITS.

So all in all, I would say all these trading systems are working nicely, and may they all continue to flourish and grow!

Race relations: two women's optimism

I'm going to leave this topic alone for a while after this. But I wanted to post one more time on it and link to transcripts of talks by two brilliant women - one Maori, one Pakeha - both blunt, provocative, and cautiously optimistic.

Each talks about the ongoing problems inherent in this country's race relations, and then proposes the beginnings of a way forward.

Professor Ani Mikaere gave this lecture in 2004.

Dr Avril Bell gave this talk in 2007.

I found both transcripts hugely helpful to read all the way through - both for the work on the Puke Ariki War exhibition, and for my own personal reasons.

I don't quite know where to go with all this stuff now, but one of the main messages of the exhibition is intended to be 'keep listening, thinking, talking and debating'. That, at least, can be done.

War and the Otaki Womens' Community Club

Madz pointed out in comments on the last post that the settler government in the 19th century used legislation, backed up by military force, to take land from Maori. Important point!

So I wanted to write a bit more about that - because it's one way to see the colonisation of this country as part of a bigger picture that continues today - and affects everyone in different ways. (Including the Otaki Women's Community Club).

Why talk about it?
Sometimes in conversations I had while working on the Taranaki War exhibition, I heard people say words to the effect that as Maori their issue was - at its heart - not with individual Pakeha but with the juggernaut that is the Western system and way of government.

Another thing that was brought up often was the usefulness of finding common ground between Maori and Pakeha to help promote conversation and the understanding.

Well, I reckon that this idea of battling with legislative authority is one way of finding some common ground.

Back to the nineteenth century ...
So the British moved into this land that was governed by Maori law and custom. Once here, they set up their own authorities and wrote legislation (both here and in Britain) giving themselves their own permission to - bit by bit - take control of this land.

Perhaps the most infamous duo of laws is the 1863 Suppression of Rebellion Act and the 1863 NZ Settlement Act.

In combination, these laws assumed that Maori defending their land from illegal sales and military occupation were ‘in rebellion’ and could be punished - and that the punishment would be 'confiscation' (i.e. seizure) of their land.

Over a million acres of land were seized from Taranaki region Maori in this way, and a lot more around other parts of the country - although I don't know figures.

Law upon law
Over the decades the government put a further cocktail of laws into place that ensured Maori were pushed off and had no access to the vast majority of their own land. There are way too many to detail here. Maybe I'll list some in another post.

I'll just add that when bits of law didn't work with the government's goals, it either -

a) ignored them (e.g. from what I understand, the 1852 NZ Constitution Act says that some parts of New Zealand would remain ’Maori districts’, continuing to operate under Maori law and custom. This didn't happen.)

or

b) wrote new laws to close the loopholes. (E.g. the 1894 Native Land (Validation of Titles) Act Amendment Act simply and sweepingly declared many previous illegal purchases of Māori land to be legal. It's been nicknamed the ‘1894 Validation of Invalid Land Sales Act’!)

Government and business
Western governments have a long history of being entwined in myriad ways with powerful business interests, and certainly this was happening during the New Zealand colonisation period.

British land dealers and others were keen to get their hands on New Zealand land and resources, and were pressuring the government to ensure they could. (It worked.)

So this is where the common ground comes in.

I suspect that most people in New Zealand have, or will, at least once or twice in their life feel that their independence, self-reliance, and/or wellbeing is being thwarted by a law or regulation that seems to operate in favour of larger businesses/operators and discriminate against individuals, communities, or small businesses who are hurting no one, but just trying to get by or do their own thing.

Which brings me - at last - to the Otaki Womens' Community Club! This is the most recent example of that that I know of.

It's easy to feel that when you are hit with some kind of restriction like this, which seems to make no good sense, that it's an anomaly.

But there are people in New Zealand (and elsewhere) constantly bumping up against these kinds of crazy rules in many spheres - health, education, art, economy, and more. You don't always think about these rules too much until you actually come up against them, but they're a systemic problem.

And I think it is a big part of what colonisation was and is (with colonisation of course being on a vastly larger scale ...)

Trying to sum up ...
Legislation has always been a vital implement in the government/big-business toolbox. And it's this government/large-business pairing that colonised New Zealand and continues to strike at ordinary people's self-reliance in many ways both big and small.

I'm not for a minute saying that all individuals enforcing such legislation are thinking, 'Harrharr! I'm a tool of the state and I'm going to crush these pesky independents!!' (Although some of them might be ... who knows?)

I'm just saying that the western government system is and has always been very well set up to make sure large business interests are protected in an ongoing way, and the less powerful may get forced out, or tossed aside along the way.

Colonisation was/is a very extreme, far-reaching and horrific case of that. And now the process goes on, with most of us subject to it one small way or another. (I would argue that the economic crisis/recession has been another very large example of it .... but that's definitely another post ...)

Right, family wants me off the computer, so I guess that's the end of my rant!

Declaration of Indigenous Rights

It's in the news - NZ is signing up to it at last. It will be interesting to see what the ramifications are. You can read it online here.

Sandra has encouraged me to give my thoughts on the big picture relationship between industrialisation/capitalism and colonisation, and I feel a bit daunted, but the starting point is: Everything the majority of people who live here today take for granted is built on the colonisation and dispossession of the first people here.

As Pakeha we only live here today, and live the lifestyles we do, because our forebears flooded into the country and took it over, using military might and, above all, sheer force of numbers to push the existing people here off their land.

Then lots of our forbears got richer than they ever could have done back in their own countries. They got rich because they now had plenty of cheap land to use that they had pushed other people off.

And if we feel that was all in the past (all of 150 years ago or so), we could remind ourselves that lots of us are still prospering, relatively speaking, living on that land that was taken.

At the same time, many of those who were alienated from their land have not been prospering - partly because without land they didn't have the means. Their community economies as well as their self-reliance were taken.

I suggested to someone at Puke Ariki that for some Maori it has been like a 150-year recession/depression. He agreed.

That's my first point. I'll add to it over the next few weeks, point by point, and maybe with a bit of luck it will hang together semi-coherently by the end of it!

Sometimes you have to read the scary stuff

This BBC article on methane already seeping from the Arctic is more than a little alarming. Especially given the way that the general pattern with climate research updates seems to be - every few months - 'actually it's worse/happening faster than we thought'.

There's more commentary on the new methane escape findings here.

I hate thinking about this stuff. It makes my heart start pounding painfully if I linger on it, or think too deeply about it. So I kind of half-think about it; let it sink in just enough to remind myself that this is important, but not enough that I start having a panic attack in front of the computer.

But lately I've been thinking I'm not thinking about it enough. And I'm not taking enough action. And I've been feeling frustrated that other people aren't thinking about it - the people who reckon that it's okay for NZ to have a conditional 10-20% emissions target because we're just a small nation in the global scheme of things.

(By that logic - every town across every LARGE nation in the world could also say, it doesn't matter if OUR town acts, because we are just one small place and our actions won't make a difference. It's an artificial, illogical, and dangerous way to break it down - to think just in terms of big and small nations.)

I'm trying to spend a bit of time when I can on Transition Towns. (The personal is political.) I've joined Sign On, and I've taken very small actions.

But none of it feels enough. (Although I think joining Sign On, although a small thing, is really important - it's the most co-ordinated and effective public climate action campaign in NZ - and 'signing on' to that campaign is a particularly effective use of your name.)

What else? What else can be done?

Eyes wide open!

Yay for local mother Jo Campbell! She couldn't get along to the big Eyes Wide Open emissions target protest in town (because she was on Playcentre duty) ... so she organised a small protest for parents and children just outside her Playcentre instead.

I was away, but the rest of my family went along, and apparently it was great.

You can see the video here. (If you want to spot my loved ones, just look for the pink bomber jacket!)

Why I love the NZ children's literature community

http://quietworldproject.blogspot.com/

Energy independence, food independence ... book independence?

No, I don't need another blog in my life - but I did so want to do this one.

After many weeks of picking other people's brains, and mulling it all over, I've set up the Quiet World project for booklovers.

I'm hoping to update it every Sunday.

And my next post here really will be about sugar beets!

And a good Jim Salinger story link ...

This Nature article seems to lay out the situation quite well I think.

Curiouser and curiouser ...

Jim Salinger's sacking

There are many murmurings on the Wellington grapevine about managers on powertrips ... It seems to me right now that this may be the most likely reason for JS's sacking. (Although I remain open to changing my mind.)

Nonetheless, it's a very bad look for NIWA management politically. Given the current political context, they are going to have a hard job quelling talk of similarities between 'our Jim's' predicament and that of the other outspoken Jim in the United States.

The reasons for the sacking aside, perhaps an important question to ask at the moment is - will the net result of Jim Salinger's sacking be to reduce the quality or quantity of information on climate change that the general public receives?

If it does, then in some ways it doesn't matter
whether that's what the people who sacked him intended or not.

Perturbed

This morning's news worried me.

First of all there's the sacking of climate expert Jim Salinger from crown research institute, NIWA. There's also another article about it here.

At a time when the new National government is doing away with all sorts of projects (and positions) that relate to environmental stewardship, this looks kinda bad.

I hope someone gets to the bottom of this.

Oh, and then there's the swine flu outbreak. What's really bugging me at this stage is the quality of a lot of NZ reporting on the subject. If you just skim-read the articles on Stuff this morning, you could be forgiven for thinking that we actually already have confirmed cases of the H1N1 strain of swine flu here in NZ - which of course we don't. (Although a few days will tell.)

Stuff even ran a headline on their front page screaming 'Swine Flu is Here!' - and the ensuing article was hopelessly disorganised, making little distinction between flu, swine flu, and the specific strain of swine flu that's causing concern at the moment - H1N1.

I noticed when I looked at Stuff an hour later that the headline had at least been changed to something like 'Swine Flu Fears Grow'.

The outbreak of a new and lethal strain of flu is obviously not to be taken lightly, but I hope the reporting gets more accurate and organised soon.

Independence Days Challenge

Right, I'm going to start doing this. (Nikki has been doing it already for quite a while.)

It's a challenge set by Sharon Astyk to spur people on to make greater positive progress towards preparedness for economic difficulties and peak oil issues.

So, my goal is each day to do at least one thing that fits into one of these categories:

* Plant Something
* Harvest Something
* Preserve Something
* Store Something
* Manage Reserves
* Cook Something New
* Prep Something
* Reduce Waste
* Learn a New Skill
* Work on Community Food Security
* Regenerate What Is Lost

An explanation of each of the categories is here. (I like 'Prep Something' - it's a good catch all for anything that doesn't fit into any other category!)

Who else is doing this challenge? Would love to hear from other NZers doing it.

Powershop replies ...

Oh well, that was nice. Ari Sargent from Powershop replied to my conspiratorial speculations about their new company.

I think he's on a mission to win over the public, one conspiracy theorist at a time. (It's kinda working ... I'm a sucker for personal attention!)

Well, 'they shall be known by their deeds' and all that. I'll wait and see how Powershop turns out ...

Think about the implications ...

I've joined the Internet Blackout - protesting against the new law 'Section 92A' that would allow an individual's internet to be disconnected based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial.

This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken, and has been somewhat snuck through to date.

There's also a protest on Parliament steps at midday today.

Coffee and the crisis

The two reasons I've just started home-roasting coffee are:

1. It's way easier on my wallet - even taking into account electricity use.

2. Green beans keep a lot longer than roasted beans. (I've read that if stored well, green beans can keep for 2-4 years with little loss of quality.) I'm keen to start storing coffee in case imported supplies become unreliable. Given how long they keep, it makes a lot more sense to store the beans at the green stage.

Of course I could solve all the issues in one fell swoop by giving up coffee, but I'm not quite ready for that!

I used this website's instructions to get started.

I buy green beans - Ethiopian Yirgacheffe - from People's Coffee.




I roast them in our little old electric popcorn maker.

The first time I did it, it took eight minutes.

Now I've got it up to nine.


Dan, one of the lovely People's Coffee barristas, says the ideal amount of time (for a dark roast I think) is about 16 minutes. If you roast too fast it doesn't taste as good.


Apparently electric popcorn makers can sometimes roast coffee much, MUCH too fast, but Dan seemed to think that 8 or 9 minutes was pretty respectable for one of these appliances.

A few notes:
I was relieved to find that the smoke produced during the process wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

As the beans heat and puff up, they crackle and pop a bit. I put a bowl under the popcorn maker just like I do for popcorn, and during the roasting, when any beans come flying out and land in the bowl, I quickly drop them back into the popcorn maker.

The husks that fly off have to be cleaned up afterwards, but it's really not that bad.

I'd like to try roasting beans in our cast iron frying pan. That way I could do it over the woodburner in winter and avoid electricity use. I think I'd get a more uneven result, but I might be able to control the overall speed of the roast better.
Ultimately I'd love a proper stove-top popcorn maker to use.

I've just found out that Sharon and her family roast their own beans too - have been doing it for ages. Hopefully I can pick up some tips and ideas from her.

The economics of urban foraging

I'm doing a show-and-tell about foraging for the next Wellington WAPF meeting. Then a few weeks later I'm going to lead weed walks during a Farm Day at our CSA.

Both organisations are keen to focus on the 'free food' aspect of foraging. And yet - I'm not sure if many of us in urban areas could manage to save more than a few dollars a week out of our food budget by foraging. (Although of course in tough times, even a few dollars are vital.)

Maybe even more to the point, I'm thinking that if lots of people in urban areas started foraging for any economically significant quantity of food, then supplies would rapidly deplete.

Still - I do think there are important economic benefits to foraging. The main one is that it keeps you out of other more expensive and consumerist mischief.

Although foraging is a bit of free food, it's better than that. It's a free hobby. It's as solitary or as social as you want to make it. It's educational. It gets you out of the house. It's family friendly. It can be challenging, or meditatively relaxing, or both.

Such endlessly absorbing free activities are in short supply in the city, and frankly I think it helps me save more out of my entertainment budget than anything else.

NZ books for children and teens

For the summer '08 issue of Booknotes (the NZ Book Council's journal) I filled in for their regular children's book reviewer, who was on leave.

A few of the books I reviewed had themes relating to self reliance and the environment, so I thought I'd 'reprint' those ones here.

PICTURE BOOKS

The Stuck There Forever Boat
Gillian Torckler; illustrated by Bruce Potter
(Picture Puffin, $17.95)

The book’s September release date could not be more appropriate. As I write, a group of small island states are calling on the UN Security Council to address climate change as a threat to international peace and security.

Set on an unnamed island based on those in the Tuvalu group, The Stuck There Forever Boat presents the effects of rising sea levels on small island communities in a clear and personal way.

I was disconcerted at first by the author’s notes at the end of the book pointing out that, for the sake of the story, she had sped up the time-course of events. But then again, I thought, arthouse movies get away with this kind of thing frequently, and what with the narrative’s mythic feel and Bruce Potter’s dream-like photo-realist illustrations fading into black around the text, the book is somewhat filmic.

While its subject is not an easy one for children, The Stuck There Forever Boat manages to end on a hopeful note by focusing firmly on the successful evacuation of the main characters from their island. That will be enough for some readers for now. However, for those who are ready to pursue the issues further, the book serves as a good starting point.


INTERMEDIATE FICTION

Tales from the Swamp
Kingi McKinnon
(Scholastic, $16.99)

McKinnon’s short story collection begins and ends with tales that contain supernatural elements, but sandwiched in between are depictions of everyday life that explore the nuanced and sometimes downright confusing relationships that can exist within families and groups of friends.

The characters banter, bully, scold, and care for each other deeply. Lucid and unflinching, McKinnon dives straight into the murky areas of relationships, avoiding obvious judgment, keeping a sense of humour, and giving the reader plenty of room to decide for him or herself what to think of each situation.

Fascinating in a different way are the depictions of rural life and food gathering – raiding an overgrown watermelon patch, hunting for wild eggs, shooting ducks, and torching for eels.

Reading these stories, it’s hard not to feel sadness at the untimely loss of McKinnon’s voice from New Zealand writing.



NON-FICTION

How to make a Piupiu
Leilani Rickard
(Raupo, $30.00)

With interest in traditional arts and crafts increasing, this book will be a valuable resource for many.

Instructions don’t get much clearer than Rickard’s. They are laid out in just the order you need them; the numerous photographs illuminate exactly what you want them to; and Rickard’s years of experience as a teacher are evident in the way her text anticipates questions and swiftly answers them.

A nice touch is the Gallery at the end of the book showcasing piupiu in both modern and traditional styles. In fact I would have enjoyed a few more pages of this.


How to Eat a Huhu Grub, plus a truckload of other mad, cool & dangerous ideas for Kiwis who like doing stuff
Nick & Conrad Turzynski
(Random House, $35.00)

In his introduction, Nick Turzynski describes this as ‘a book for kids who like doing stuff and for adults who like to do stuff with them.’

He goes on to suggest that if children really are becoming the screen-addicted couch potatoes that we often complain they are, perhaps it’s because we are no longer getting out there and showing them how to do exciting physical and practical things. Without wanting to go too deeply into my own parental failings, I suspect there is at least some truth in this.

Turzynski’s attitude may be epitomised in the chapter entitled, ‘The Dying Skill of Knifemanship’: ‘[My father] bought knives for my brothers and me, showing us how to use them safely …We kept them razor sharp and were always aware how dangerous they could be. In all the years we had knives we suffered a multitude of cuts and abrasions, but not one from a knife.’

The message: don’t shield children from dangers, but don’t leave them to their own devices either; work with them and show them how to negotiate those dangers.

Promoted as a New Zealand version of The Dangerous Book For Boys, it’s much less gendered, but is written in a similar lively style and has the same format – practical activities interspersed with lessons about nature and history.

For most activities all you’ll need by way of instruction is the book. There are a few, however, (such as making medicinal treatments from native plants) where most would want to hunt out some extra info before putting any suggestions into practice. And does the book really tell you how to eat a huhu grub? Absolutely. My son was rummaging hopefully amongst old logs for nearly an hour. Had he found any we would certainly have had a different dinner that night.


SENIOR FICTION

Scorched Bone
Chronicles of Stone
Vincent Ford
(Scholastic, $19.99)

This well researched novel, the first in a trilogy, takes place in the Americas over 10,000 years ago. It follows the journey of twin brother and sister Trei and Souk, along with their friend Crien, to try and help their tribe survive through lean times.

From the very first page, where young hunter Trei stalks a fawn suckling from its mother, Ford pulls the reader into a raw world where humans are keenly aware of their own animal natures and their dependence on the rest of the natural world.

The first few pages set up themes that are developed throughout the book – survival, nourishment, family bonds, and death. Ford doesn’t shy away from gore. Some of it may be upsetting, but it never feels gratuitous.

Ford’s elegant, spare prose rarely falters, and his third person narrative shifts frequently and seamlessly between the perspectives of the two main protagonists and that of a third invisible observer. In this way he skillfully maintains control of the story’s emotional impact.

The book is embellished with descriptions of hunting, gathering, and food storage techniques, adding another layer of interest. While I would place this book in the young adult category, I’m sure it will also appeal to intermediate students.


Juno of Taris
Fleur Beale
(Random House, $18.99)

In this futuristic page-turner, Beale continues the exploration of mind-control that she began with I am not Esther, and poses some big questions. For example, in certain situations, is there a place for mind-control?

The people of Taris live on a Pacific island within a protective bubble that shields them from the environmental and political threats plaguing the rest of Earth.

Every aspect of their lives is controlled by tradition and/or authorities, but central character Juno is not born to conform.

In the first few chapters, Beale leads us to believe this will be a classic ‘chosen one’ story, following Juno as she pursues her destiny. However, as the book progresses, Beale subverts this expectation. Free will elbows out destiny, and Juno’s friends reveal themselves to be more than side-kicks, and take on roles that are just as important as Juno’s in changing the order of things on Taris.

Of all the ideas the story offers, it is this one I personally find most engaging – that saviours and pre-ordained destinies are wishful thinking. Change is brought about by groups of people who take control of their own destinies.

However, the book offers plenty more ideas than that for readers to sink their teeth into.

Transition Towners in World Sweet World

Also in the latest issue of World Sweet World is an article I wrote about the Transition Towns (TT) movement in New Zealand. It contains micro-interviews with a small selection of TT members from around the country.

Most of them have their own personal websites and blogs:

James Samuel - NZ's national TT co-ordinator - lives on Waiheke Island. His blog is Yesterday's Future.

Deirdre Kent is an amazing woman and a long-time sustainability activist with particular expertise in alternative currencies. Her blog, which focuses on her book Healthy Money Healthy Planet, is Local Currencies.

Hirini Reedy is a compelling voice and has his website here.

Kazel Cass is a young mum who co-ordinates the Opotiki TT group. She makes use of the blog facility on the national TT website here.

Rimu Atkinson co-ordinates my local TT group (Wellington South). When I'm out I often see him whizzing past on his electric scooter. His TT blog is here. He also has another blog which I don't think you will understand a word of unless you are a computer geek. :)

Nikki is a member of TT in Kapiti, and I'm always linking to her blog for many and varied reasons. :) But here she is again - at A Satisfying Journey Towards Simplicity.