Mahurangi magazine

Finally Afloat: Two years of persistence paid off in 2022 when Mahurangi Action was finally permitted to purchase the surplus-to-council-operations aluminium landing barge that had previously serviced Mahurangi Peninsula parkland from Sullivans Bay. Renamed J Barry Ferguson  for its principal benefactor, the craft will initially be deployed in trials aimed to prove the practicality of, and demand for, access to Te Muri via Waiwera and Wenderholm. image Maree Owston-Doyle

Mahurangi Action annual report delayed successive marvellous year

2022 annual report

secretary Cimino Cole

For the second year running, Mahurangi Action is holding its by-email annual general meeting seriously suboptimally late. This time last year, part of the delay could fairly be attributed to the on-going covid-19 pandemic. The principal cause, however, was the absolute timetable decreed for the 10-year regional parks management plan review. In the event, the resultant Regional Parks Management Plan 2022 couldn’t conceivably have had a greater impact on the medium-term actions of the 48-year-old organisation.

This time around, the failure to hold the annual general meeting by the end of last year was a combination of a 24/6 “day job” getting in the way, and new, demanding reporting requirements—Mahurangi Action Incorporated having successfully achieved charitable status. Mahurangi Action’s second successive marvellous year reported, belatedly:

Annual report contents

1	Performance report – striving to retain charitable thoughts
2	Regional parks management plan coastal-path name changer
3	Pūhoi Wenzlick cousins and members reunion
4	J Barry Ferguson debut
5	Mahurangi Action – next year and the next 50 years
6	One comprehensively cancelled Mahurangi Regatta
7	Incumbent committee members
8	Agenda for deferred 2022 annual general meeting
9	Invitation and warning to new members
10	Minutes of 2022 annual general meeting [work in progress]
11	Mahurangi Action milestones

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Dutifully Reported: As befitting, and required of, a charitable incorporated society, Mahurangi Action now provides performance reports—such performance reporting representing a not negligible fraction of said society’s dutiful performance. Page 1 of 5 pages. report Mahurangi Action Incorporated

1 Performance report – striving to retain charitable thoughts

Having once lost its incorporated status, Mahurangi Action has no desire to again start from scratch, particularly having achieved charitable status. Charitable registration is no walk in the park, nor is retaining that registration, with its quite specific reporting requirements—a smarter secretary may contrive to have the one report simultaneously address the needs of members and the two required by the authorities. For those who with the stomach for it, Mahurangi Action Performance Report 2022 is the document submitted in addition to the not inconsiderable online form-filling involved—or pay the, arguably value-for-money, surcharge.

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2 Regional parks management plan coastal-path name changer

Truth-be-told, the regional parks management plan process had already changed the Mahurangi Coastal Path’s name, from Mahurangi Coastal TrailMahurangi Coastal Trail Trust and Matakana Coast Trails Trust, for those who revel in speaking and writing in insider acronyms. The game changer, however, was as then unrevealed: Te Muri Crossing being deferred until after the development of a main arrival area near the Hungry Creek Road entrance to the park that includes:

1. An automatic entry gate
2. Parking for multiple modes of transport, including consideration of ev charging facilities and bike storage
3. Visitor information and Wifi access (if possible)
4. Public toilets and water supply
5. Potential parking for horse floats and certified self-contained vehicles.

That any policy writer could imagine such a patently private-light-vehicle-traffic-generating arrival centre—at the terminus of an essentially new, eight-figure road construction folly through famously challenging terrain—could form part of a rational response by Auckland Council to the climate emergency, defies comprehension.

The possibly greater travesty is that such a road would destroy the current little-used rural road’s utter suitability as the missing terrestrial Te Araroathe national walkway link, between Pūhoi and Te Muri. Te Araroa—the national walkway—epitomises what New Zealand’s visitor industry must become, if tourism to and within the most carbon-heavy destination on the planet is to stand a snowball’s chance of redeeming itself. Simultaneously, the ill-conceived two-laning project would be eviscerate the obvious potential to the local economy of the proposed Wenderholm – Te Muri – Pūhoi loop path. All this, and miss the opportunity to have one regional park, of 28, showcase how public transport access can be made seriously attractive, for peanuts. The only redeeming aspect is that, the brakes having been put on the previously council-prioritised Te Muri Crossing, Mahurangi Action can pick up from where it was in 2015, and get people using the Mahurangi Coastal Path—from the logical, Waiwera/ Wenderholm end.

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Page 2 and Note to Self: J Barry Ferguson Fund possibly in wrong column! Page 2 of 5 pages. report Mahurangi Action Incorporated

3 Pūhoi Wenzlick cousins and members reunion

When one of the 2022 Pūhoi Wenzlick Cousins Reunion organisers asked if the J Barry Ferguson  might be able to ferry some of their number to Te Muri, Mahurangi Action could not have conjured up a more appropriate occasion on which to begin trialling the Mahurangi Coastal Path. Not even the proviso that persons participating would first need to become Mahurangi Action members was found to be off-putting—helped, it can only be imagined, by the cheap-as-chips subscription rates.$10 for individuals, $20 for couples and families

In the event, an unsettled weather forecast resulted in the organisers cancelling that part of their Pūhoi reunion—and summer began as it earnestly meant to continue. The most recent date scheduled to begin trials with the J Barry Ferguson  across the Pūhoi Estuary was doubly thwarted—firstly, weather for the Friday chosen was unfavourable, then the failure of the tilt motor of one of the vessel’s twin outboards prevented that engine being raised. The Pūhoi-Wenzlick-cousin members of Mahurangi Action might yet get to be the first to trial the crossing.

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4 J Barry Ferguson debut

Almost miraculously, the J Barry Ferguson  debuted on the 92nd birthday of her namesake—the last picnickable day before Cyclone Gabrielle struck. The Mahurangi River birthday excursion was only possible thanks to the Quayside Boatyard at the Wilson Cement Works generously accommodating a short-notice request for safe-haven—the forecast indicating that wind strength and wave action would make retrieval at Mahurangi West problematic by the next tide the vessel could be readied for, the following day.

A previous debut of sorts occurred ahead of the Regional Parks Management Plan 2022 hearings. On that occasion, the mission was to drone-film the Mahurangi Harbour leg of the Mahurangi Coastal Path, for the benefit of the hearing panellists. During the stupefying omnibus processes such as those hearings were part of, it is generally impossible to gauge how much is being comprehended. However, having the Mahurangi Coastal Path mentioned by name seven timesthe path mentioned by name twice—once as “trail”—and the Mahurangi Coastal Path Trust, five times is certainly unprecedented:

Support in principle the development of the Mahurangi coastal path, noting that responsibility for investigating the proposal sits with the parties promoting the path.

Indubitably, without the services of the J Barry Ferguson , that investigation would be dead in water. The case for the coastal path’s primacy in providing access to Te Muri, meantime, appears yet to be won.

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Tears to a Blind Accountant’s Eyes: It might bring tears to a blind accountant’s eyes, but page 5, for most mortals and members, may possibly be more illuminating. Page 3 of 5 pages. report Mahurangi Action Incorporated

5 Mahurangi Action – next year and the next 50 years

If it helps get the Mahurangi Coastal Path over the line, pushing the boat out in 2024 for Mahurangi Action’s half century of activism would be more than fully justified. Collectively, however, the conservation organisations of the 1960/70s, and since, have been found wanting in tackling the  existential challenge of the fossil-fuel era, at scale.

Only one climate-emergency project—associate professor of earth sciences Dr Earl Bardsley’s Lake Onslow pumped hydroasininely government-named: NZ Battery Project storage concept—is of a scale to make other than a blind bit of difference. Every useful decarbonisation and adaptation measure demands energy. Swapping fossil-fuel-powered private light vehicles for hybrids or plug-ins won’t reverse the relentless growth of total emissions, much less perceptively reduce concentrations of persistent anthropogenic greenhouse gases. For that, the bulk of metropolitan private light vehicles must be replaced by grid-powered public transport. But with a gullible media parroting outrage at its possible $15.7 billion cost, and the National Party opportunistically taking a shamelessly partisan approach, New Zealand’s one potential climate-hero project is at risk of being sacrificed on the altar of zombie-neoliberalism.

Auckland International Airport Limited, meantime, plans to splash a quarter of the provisional Lake Onslow pumped-hydro project cost, on merging and automation of its domestic and international terminals, enticing people to do more of what they should be doing very much more judiciouslyJet judiciously! Jettison the duty free!—for starters…. Lake Onslow may appear preposterously pricey, but only to generations brainwashed by neoliberalism—the government spent more than four times the amount in just 2022, much of it in scattergun desperation to stimulate business as usual. New Zealand’s heroically constructed hydroelectric power generation infrastructure—until a government prostrated itself to process Cape York Peninsula aluminastrictly bauxite when it leaves Cape York Peninsula for refining as alumina elsewhere in Australia—was building the energy backbone of a country that could have acted emphatically to electrify public transport, ports, and airports,the on-ground operations of, not the batshit-crazy battery-powered passenger aircraft boondoggle not to mention fully grid-electrified busways, railways, and truckways.

Be that as it may, miniscule Mahurangi Action Incorporated may make a meaningful difference, by helping to make access to an ample, 1000-hectareincluding Scandretts. Otherwise, regional parkland excluding Scotts Landing Department of Conservation pseudo regional parkland, 883 hectares, deliciously contiguousconsidering intervening rivers, streams, and the Mahurangi Harbour to be connecting rather than dividing, and the was the Martins Bay Holiday Park to be integrated slice of this regional-parkland heaven on Earth, via public transport and the Mahurangi Coastal Path equitable—just by joining the bleedin’ obvious dots.

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6 One comprehensively cancelled Mahurangi Regatta

As reported in the previous annual report, the 2021 Mahurangi Regatta was arguably the biggest and best ever. Although covid-challenging, the changes effected had resulted in a significantly better use of the Scotts Landing prize-giving-and-dance-site, with the marquee facing the harbour. Ahead of the 2022 regatta, with New Zealand’s covid-19 elimination policy on the rocks and vaccinations worse than plateauing, the shoreside events were cancelled—in the event, in time for the more virulent Omicron variant. While the stampede to reopen borders made a mockery of it, sacrificing the Mahurangi Regatta shoreside events during the year that saw a 10% surge in New Zealand deaths was an extremely easy decision to make.

Cry Me a River: Page 4 is also hard work, but the fifth and final page might at last begin to look familiar. Page 4 of 5 pages. report Mahurangi Action Incorporated

Forecasts for fierce winds ahead of, during, and following Auckland Anniversary weekend saw the shoreside events cancelled by lunchtime, on the Monday. By Thursday afternoon the regatta was cancelled in its entirety, and on Friday 27 January, New Zealand’s metropolis found itself drowning in a deadly atmospheric rivermouth.

Traffic management plan à La Niña The 2021 Mahurangi Regatta was the first for which a professional traffic management plan had been produced. With the shoreside events cancelled in 2022, neither free regatta shuttlebuses nor traffic management was deployed, nor of course was either required in 2023, following cancellation of the entire event. Prior to that cancellation, two 11-seater buses had been booked from Leabourn Passenger Services—one was to be volunteer-driven, the other by a paid driver. Traffic management was to principally consist of comprehensive coning to deter parking on both sides of the road. The third-only-recorded triple-dip La Niña, meantime, had rendered the paddock-parking land unusably boggy. This is just one of the downsides of private-light-vehicle dependency, and further reason to begin implementing fourth-tier targeted services, on both sides of the harbour.

Mahurangi Regatta sponsorship Having enjoyed the best sponsorship a Mahurangi Regatta organiser could have dreamt of, for the full three-by-three-year period that Teak Construction offered it, Mahurangi Action, from 2024 onward, now needs a new sponsor or sponsors. Teak Construction had signalled that a change would be needed, as the structure of the company had evolved. What is highly unlikely is that another sponsor will phone—out of the blue, as Teak Construction did—offering to annually provide $5000 cash and at least as much in kind, and  to do a great deal of the organising involved.

Officers and commodores meeting With a second successful officers-and-commodores meeting held, in 2021—again hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Teak Construction—it was as well that the one scheduled for July 2022 was cancelled, given that this year’s Auckland Anniversary weekend regattas were atmospheric-river-mouthedno, it is not a used term. Used here to differentiate the atmospheric river’s effective point of discharge., comprehensively. While, with disruption heaped upon disruption, Monday 3 July 2023 might be too soon to call another meeting, the new committee should at the very least communicate with visiting yacht and boating club officers and commodores, well ahead of the 27 January 2024 Mahurangi Regatta.

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7 Incumbent, nominated, and yet-to-be nominated committee members

The following are the 2021–2022 incumbents:

Finally Something Vaguely More Familiar: The fifth and final page of the performance reporting required of small and uncomplicated registered charitable organisations. Page 5 of 5 pages. report Mahurangi Action Incorporated

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8 Agenda for deferred 2022 annual general meeting

Kia ora – welcome to the by-email, deferred, 2022 annual general meeting of Mahurangi Action Incorporated.

Apologies No apologies received to date…

Minutes of 2021 annual general meeting As belatedly appended to the 2021 annual report are yet to be approved by those who participated via email 20 April – 6 May, 2022.

Matters arising from the minutes Most matters arising from the minutes should already be included in the items following. If not, members are urged to alert the secretary.

Annual report The annual report—of which this agenda is part—is yet to be notified.

Annual statement of accounts To avoid duplication—having adopted the reporting format required of registered charitable organisations—the 2022 Mahurangi Regatta financial reporting is combined with Mahurangi Action’s 2022 performance report.

Election of office bearers Incumbent committee members are listed in the annual report above, of which, to date, five have been renominated:

Meanwhile, magnificently, there are also two  new nominations to hand:

Regional Parks for the People: Carrying up-to 90 passengers—dependent upon how many are seated—Solaris’ 12-metre, in-motion-charging Trollino buses, are routinely supplied capable of running 20 km at a time off grid. If the hourly bus service to Waiwera ran straight to Wenderholm first, picnicking could be prioritised over parking, equitably. Meantime, the metropolis of Makaurau has a simple challenge: Understand why intelligently governed European cities are buying in-motion-chargingdouble-source—grid and traction-battery powered trolleybuses—such as Solaris Trollinos—by the hundred, or blow the opportunity of rapidly replacing Auckland’s 1000 diesel buses by purchasing purely battery-powered vehicles—way to spend more money on batteries than buses. image Solaris

Ari Robertson I have been affiliated with Mahurangi River and Harbour virtually all of my life after my father Martin and uncle Conrad established a boatyard here in the early 1980s. It was also from my early childhood that I remember frequenting the Mahurangi Regatta, firstly with the onshore activities and then later participating in the sailboat races.

I have spent much of my adult life living and working in Southeast Asia at the internationally renowned boat manufacturing plant Grand Banks Yachts. Living there, as well as travelling to many other places within Asia, I began to see how, without proper regard for human waste and rubbish, waterways are rendered polluted and lifeless.

Upon my return to Aotearoa, our side of the family has taken over the stewardship of the boatyard that Neil Dixon established at the old Wilson Cement Works. We have named it Quayside Boatyard, in reference to the quay that Nathaniel Wilson had constructed for scows to dock whilst at his cement works. Our aim is to bring the facility up to a twenty-first-century standard in terms of capability and presentation, as well as environmentally.

I am hugely passionate about this body of water and its surrounds and would like to be involved in continuing the long maritime history of the Mahurangi.

Mahurangi Regatta 2024 Planning for the 2024 Mahurangi Regatta will proceed in the now-reasonable expectation that future variants of covid-19 will not render it unacceptable to encourage large gatherings, recreating or socialising at close quarters, and that a less energetic tropical cyclone season will pose fewer challenges. Mahurangi Action does, nevertheless, need to explore means of incentivising a greater dispersal of picnicking sites, which, regardless of the trajectory of the pandemic, will help avoid overcrowding generally, as the Mahurangi Regatta inexorably grows in popularity—despite its better-not-bigger mantra.

Again, regardless of whether the shoreside events can be sensibly held, work could be progressed on a traffic management plan for Scotts Landing. Teak Construction, meantime, has concluded a magnificent nine-year sponsorship of the Mahurangi Regatta. A high priority, therefore, is to attract a replacement principal sponsor, or sponsors.

Sign-Up, Sign-Up: With something concrete to offer card-carrying members, Mahurangi Action has begun rebuilding its subscription base, which peaked at more than 300 at the time it published Jade River: A History of the Mahurangi. While prospective members are welcome to use this form, a simple email should suffice. form Mahurangi Action Incorporated

Mahurangi Coastal Path and supporters Mahurangi Action’s principal legacy—rivalled only by its revival of the Mahurangi Regatta, and the publication of Jade River: A History of the Mahurangi—is likely to be the Mahurangi Coastal Path. The immediate mission of Mahurangi Action remains to introduce as many people as possible to the coastal path, and to sign up as many of those up as possible, as subscribing supporters.

The J Barry Ferguson Scoping of the implications of Mahurangi Action as the certificated maritime transport operator of a 4.9-metre in-survey aluminium landing barge is progressing with, as of 26 March, naval architects Clever Fox Projects swamped-stability approval to increase the number of people that craft can be certified to carry, from six—under its, current, workboat certification—to 10. Once bench seating is provided to allow all 10 to be seated, trialling of a simulated ferrying operation by the J Barry Ferguson  can proceed.

Mahurangi Action – the 50th milestone and the next 50 years Last year’s annual report suggested:

Ending its first 50 years by helping put the Mahurangi Coastal Path under the feet of future generations is grand on one level, but has taken far too long—a Mahurangi metaphor for how humanity has left itself no more time in which to drag its feet, in the beyond-urgent need to tread far more lightly on the Earth and its atmosphere.

Preparing a suitably bold, proposed mission and strategic plan for the next 50 years, whereby the organisation epitomises action by doing, on its own account and in collaboration with others, should, arguably, be undertaken and launched, at the 50th celebrations.

Mahurangi Action would be entirely entitled to throw itself a rip-snorter of a fiftieth, if it wasn’t for the fact that when it revived the Mahurangi Regatta Prize-Giving Dance, in 2004, it has, effectively, surreptitiously supplied itself a splendiferous birthday party ever since.

Membership and subscriptions Once decisions have been regarding the operation of the J Barry Ferguson , and, potentially, an operation plan developed, the annual subscription fee may need to be reviewed.

General business By-email annual general meeting attendees are invited to raise items of general business.

Meeting close – next annual general meeting While it may be overly-optimistic, it is to be hoped that the next annual general meeting—target date: Sunday 12 November 2023—will be held in Scott Homestead, with attendees from Mahurangi West travelling across the harbour by barge, as in the balmy days of the late 20th century, but aboard the landing barge J Barry Ferguson .

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9 Invitation and warning to prospective new members

Existing Mahurangi Action members and Mahurangi Magazine readers are warmly urged to extend the invitation to others to become members by participating in this by-email annual general meeting. Subscription fees are a mere $10 for individuals and $20 for couples and families.

Prospective members, however, should be aware that if their purpose of seeking membership is confidently anticipated to be vexatious, their application will not necessarily be accepted. Mahurangi Action’s purpose is to:

1. To take actions to enhance, protect and restore the environment of the Mahurangi for the benefit and enjoyment of the general community;
2. Do anything necessary or helpful to the above purposes.

In the context of Mahurangi’s regional parkland, and the Mahurangi Coastal Path, this means for the benefit and enjoyment of the general community of the region, not just that of the few local residents who resent “their” Te Muri being shared by the people of the region, young and old, for whoma small prize will be awarded to the reader who can point this functioning subeditor to a foolproof who/whom app! it was purchased.

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10 Minutes of 2022 annual general meeting

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11 Mahurangi Action milestones mark some significant achievements