TRANSCENDING BOUNDARIES………….

(Photos below from TRM library)

Last Saturday the Waitahanui hapu organised a community clean up of the beach, main highway, access roads, river and all over the place and it was a neat event to be part of.

Plenty of adults and kids chipped in followed by a sausage sizzle. I ended up on a track up the river dealing to some freedom dumping with 2 other blokes and a pile of kids.

I’ll call one of the other blokes Mr G and lets just say it’s my understanding he knows a bit about the Black Power people.

The other fella introduced himself as Warwick and when we asked him what he did he said he was in the Police. Mr G and I looked at each other and we didn’t recognise him so we asked “Are you a new Sargeant or something?

Turns out Warwick is Warwick Morehu, the new Taupo Police District Commander!! So here we were, me a 56 year old honky, a bloke from Black Power and the Police Commander working away doing a horrible job picking up rubbish to look after the Waitahanui River valley and doing it with respect for each other.

In that environment no one was better than anyone else, we were equals. It’s not the 1st time I have been in situations like that, if you ever get a chance to be involved in something like that grab it. Then you will realise how powerful kaitiakitanga/conservation can be at TRANSCENDING BOUNDARIES and building relationships between diverse groups.

Cheers to Mr G and Warwick, was fun hanging out with you blokes.

(SWMBO thinks Dave should stand for Taupo Mayor…  He would waltz in…)

Photos below of the Waitahanui River as anglers like to remember it…

But scroll down to see what it would have turned into if it was not for local heroes like Didymo Dave…

Below was some of the rubbish dumped next to the Totara Pool – photos taken May 2013 – rubbish since removed.