27 April - 2 May 2017: Christchurch city days

Weedons NZMCA @ Rolleston

Here we re-discovered the facilities at the fast-developing area of Rolleston - including the wonderful dog-park, which has loads of grassed spaces, a stream, agility jumps, trees and toilets. Just superb! 

If only Cambridge had a dog-park like this one at Rolleston!

We met friends in the city for a delicious Indian meal, met friends for dog walks, visited the Air Force Museum....Whilst there, J had to do a bit of work at Rotorua - which meant a short flight from the local airport for an overnight away. But Dizzy was quite happy to sit and let the world go by on the campsite whilst I caught up with some writing and research...




The wardens keeping the camp site tidy whilst Dizzy looks on from her dog's bed ...(with memory-foam mattress no less)!

one of the decals at the museum

I was quite impressed by the Air Force museum - which was FREE! It had a large amount of special exhibits - some of which were European in nature and familiar to us from other museums back home. We saw what looked like the largest collection of Merlin engines ever! (J was so excited)! LOL! This was in a 'behind the scenes' private tour with a veteran. We saw the beautifully restored Iriquois helicopter - widely known as Huey - which had many years to complete.

There was also a PoW exhibition, which reminded me of the story that I wanted to pick-up about the connection between my Grandfather, Cyril Hamersma and Kiwi John Borrie.

Cyril Hamersma's illustration used on the cover of Borrie's book

My Grandfather was a PoW in WW2 at Stalag VIIIb who - probably because of his nurse expertise - connected with GP John Borrie - who later went on to become a Professor at Otago University, an expert in heart surgery. Borrie's book is a tragic account of life as a PoW, trying constantly to fight against the depressing conditions and the symptoms of disease in the cramp, unhygienic conditions.

Maybe the original of this watercolour still exists somewhere in the world? The leads I've followed-up so far have reached dead-ends. 

One of the exhibitions at the museum - showing the value of dog ownership during WW2

It was interesting to be shown the history of 'top dressing' history of NZ aircraft -which talked a lot about fertilizers - but for obvious reasons doesn't include the most significant aspect of aerial distribution by helicopter - poison. One fact I have since learned, the similar to 1080 - 1081 compound poison that was originally patented as an insecticide, was made a factory in Smarden, Kent (UK) and was used aerially in liquid form over the arable crops in the UK - until, of course, they realised just how lethal this substance was when it leaked out of the factory. It was banned in the UK after that. But nearly 60 years later, can you believe NZ are still using something similar that is even more toxic, still from the air and still having lethal consequences over and over again...


Other investigations around the Christchurch area - outside the depressing building-site of the Earthquake-hit city (that I've written about earlier), included a day-trip around the Banks Peninsular.

Again (am I cursed or something?) I later discovered this area forms a part of DoC's fantasy proposal for their delusional Predator Free New Zealand. You can read the  - quite frankly laughable - 'scoping study' for it here. It clearly shows the experts struggling to explain just how impossible this PFNZ fantasy really is - the way to keep any potential threats to PFNZ out of a potentially fenced area is literally to have airport-style security gates - and how would they check every vehicle? The practical reasons why PFNZ simply cannot ever become a reality are laid out for all to see in these kinds of documents. Common sense must surely prevail?

Banks Peninsular is a fabulous old site of a volcano -  like my new town of Pirongia - which you can guess even from a map of the area. The Akatoa harbour is an old French Settlement, reminiscent of Russell in Northland in its quaint streets with pavement cafes.

And PFNZ think they can evacuate this area so they can aerial-bomb this whole peninsular with 1080 poison and Brodifacoum ? Think again. There are some things that are well -beyond the realms of reality and social acceptability - even in NZ. And the people of Nelson are currently fighting this very battle as I write. Please help support the cause here, which is totally supported by volunteers and donations. Its a Human Rights Act issue to be allowed to have access to your home and water without poisons.