Gill and Peter Bacchus are masters of their craft, Biodynamics, and I was lucky enough to spend a bit of time chatting with them after their recent workshop, held in Cromwell, New Zealand. These two are well-educated and switched on to life. They’re also in tune with the how important our relationship is with the planets, stars, earth, and the food we put into our bodies. Gill is the author of “Love Your Veges” [ed: “Veggies” for you Yanks] and Peter has authored “Biodynamic Pasture Management”. with the subtitle Balancing Fertility, Life and Energy.
YOUR FOOD SUPPLY #32: The Dynamic Duo Note: (This video series started 13 years ago, while listening to the audio version of the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, when Amanda and I were driving across the U.S. and were seeing the effects of industrial farming in real time while listening to the book.Here’s that first entry Your Food Supply #1To see the whole series, click on the category “Your Food Supply” in the category section of this blog on the right of your screen.
What struck me was, not only how informed Gill and Peter were when giving their workshop and interview, but how passionate they are about “the parts related to the whole” (physically, spiritually, with the plant kingdom, and universe) , and how we are all interconnected. I also appreciated Peter’s awareness of the bigger picture when it comes to globalist and government overreach. He’s clued in.
Gill has a long practical experience of organic vegetable and herb growing, and learning to choose a vegetable-based diet to manage health issues. She has helped children create school gardens, grow and cook vegetables and helped create community gardens. Gill has a masters in science in Soil Science and Human Nutrition and is also the author of Food Full of Life. Peter was raised on a biodynamic dairy farm and later worked as a medicinal herb grower, developing large-scale composting business. He consults widely and has held leadership position in biodynamic farming organizations. The two live near Thames on the north island of New Zealand. They can be reached at p.bacchus@farmside.com.nz and gillbacchus@gmail.com Although they do have a web domain, their website isn’t up and running at the moment, however here’s Gill’s Facebook page.
This year’s workshop was held at Valda Muller’s Organic New Zealand Nuts walnut farm where Valda guided the workshop participants on a walk-around of her property, which is virtually all biodynamic. The workshop was created and managed by Su Hoskins, who is also has an amazing grasp of organic and biodynamic farming, who we’ll interview soon. Sue recently hosted the two-day workshop where the first day was near Wanaka, and the second at Valda’s in Cromwell. You can learn more about Sue on her Facebook page.
If you get a chance, read their books, and if you’re in New Zealand, by all means, attend one of their, and Sue’s workshops.
David Trood, a world-class photographer was shut down during lockdown. All his work was based on taking flights worldwide. He was forced to rethink his life, and his role in relation to the mother earth. Here is a trailer to his story.
David Trood is a prize-winning travel and commercial photographer who pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling with his passionate narrative of people and nature.
He is a Hasselblad Master, and for almost three decades David has successfully completed thousands of editorial, corporate, and commercial assignments in over 40 countries.
David was born in Queensland and is now based in Australia and Denmark. He is a valued contributer at Getty Images and takes on freelance still and video assignments all over the world.
You can find out a bit more about David’s work on his YouTube channel here and at his website
I love it when spirit nudges us. Our family does an evening reading at our dinner table every night before eating. Without looking at the bookshelf behind me last night, I pulled a random book off the shelf. Then I opened to a random page, then I looked at a random quote.
It’s one of my favorite quotes: “Believe me my young friend, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that is half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” Kenneth Grahame.
This quote arrives just when we’ve put our Lake Wanaka Yacht Charters business “on pause” due to New Zealand border closures. The lack of tourists is “forcing us to live our dreams” and as we consider and possibly prepare to use the yachts in more of an educational role, for experiential adventures on Lake Wanaka. This is my first love anyway. As every passenger that’s gone out on the lake with me attests, they got more than they bargained for, regarding an experiential sailing experience. Once they get out there, my job, and mission, is to light up their eyes and soul by helping them connect to the wind, the water, the place and themselves, and of course have fun.
Here at Mountain Spirit NZ, we’ve been hooked on the “AirBnB drug” prior to our Covid lockdown, and now we’re advertising for domestic visitors to stay with us with a purpose in mind, whether to just have a digital detox, record some music in our piano studio, or take some yin yoga classes with Amanda in the yurt. We’re stepping out into our own possibilities.
The trick to being fulfilled and successful, (however you personally define success), is stepping out of the way, allowing the Universe/Spirit/God to help out, and importantly, look for those reminder signs when they pop up and recognise them as such, then of course, take action.
I just attended a powerful presentation yesterday here in Wanaka, New Zealand, by Lake Wanaka Tourism They’re our local tourism association. As you can imagine, like many of us in tourism here in New Zealand, they’ve been in on a path or re-inventing themselves. They’ve been working on a new branding program. I’ll write more on that in later in a separate post, as it deserves more time. But I have to mention here, about the power of timing, being at the right place at the right time, taking action when a crisis/opportunity presents itself and listening to spirit. Lake Wanaka Tourism is taking the bold steps to create a wonderful vision of post-covid “tourism” for operators, the land, community and visitors alike.
Here’s just a snapshot of some of the Lake Wanaka tenets going forward: The Vision: “Our aspiration is for the visitor industry to enrich this place, as well as the lives of the local community both now and into the future. To create mutual value for Whanau/whanui (which includes our families , our community, our visitors), and our whenua (our place and natural resources) and our economy.
“Values: Guardianship for our people, our place and our plant; Inclusive and respectful; Living with a sense of balance; bold and free thinking.”
There are plans being put into place with a whole re-adjustment of what it means to be in tourism here in Wanaka, and fortunately, the leadership and staff at Lake Wanaka Tourism are taking on the challenge with heart and purpose. The future looks bright because there’s a proactive approach. I look forward to sharing more about LWT’s and the community’s plans going forward in future posts. I would say LWT is following their spirit course.
Back to the reading about messing about on boats. I can’t wait for the next sign to come down the road, and hit me with a spiritual 2×4. But for now, I thought I’d share this little nudge from Spirit.
Our micro hydro intake with the first layer of cement anchoring in place. Notice the newly installed anchor points for the next layer of anchoring material. This intake still has no water passing over the stream bed yet, which makes it easy to work in the stream bed. Otherwise one would have to divert the water while pouring cement. We’ll just have to wait on Mother Nature. This is 60 meters above the the turbine back at our house, and we’re about 600 meters away, so it’s quite a bit of pipe to lay down.We have also use masonry bolts and chain to anchor the cement better into the stream bed. The chain runs through the hardened cement, leading to the bolts which are place on the large rocks in the stream bed. Hopefully that will keep the intake in place for years to come. @purenewzealand#newzealand#wanaka#mountainspirit
The Powerspout micro-hydro in action last spring during its initial trial run, when we had a running stream. During Lockdown, it was Conner’s and my job to build a more permanent footing and structure for this gizmo, and to secure the intake. More on that later…stay tuned. We’ll show you images and text of this hydro system, called the Powerspout, how we set it up, how the company configured the system to our water flow and drop, (called head) and how it works now that we’ve got water flowing in our stream. It’s the perfect dovetail to our solar. Tons of sun in the summer and tons of water in the stream in the winters.
A very long trench through glacial moraine deposits! Arggh. But for a good cause! Our Micro hydro electrical feed to the house.
One of our first projects during lockdown: We were able to pick up an excavator before the restrictions took place, Here is a very long electrical trench from the new micro-hydro unit to the house which now needed to be filled in. With the help of the excavator and our “Woofrs” (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), Jess and Conner, from the states. the backfill went well. Since this picture was taken, we’ve had the hydro system running for 4 weeks now, and it sure is rewarding! It’s the perfect dovetail to our solar panels which crank in the summer months. Since there’s a lack of sun during our winter months, the secure feeling that we’re generating electricity from the stream is a wonderful feeling. It cost a bit to get it running, but as they say, “It can be complicated living simply” Ah, not really, but there is some planning involved. It’s more than just flipping a switch and paying an electrical bill. I don’t miss the latter though! More on the hydro system in later posts.
I grew up in tourism. My parents started a ski lodge, Dexter’s Inn, in the 1940’s in Sunapee, New Hampshire. I’ve been in and out of tourism over the years, and in different shades of it, from ski instruction, to experiential education, high-altitude mountain guiding, a guide on the Inka Trail to Machu Pichu, back in the days when you didn’t see a lot of people, and no permits required (referring to the Inka Trail only).
We now own Lake Wanaka Yacht Charters and Mountain Spirit NZ in the Southern Lakes District of New Zealand. So we’re officially back in the industry. However the industry seems uber-industrial.
Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” So when is enough, enough? And what do we do now?
Here are some rumblings about our, small, but very fast-growing communities, Wanaka and Queenstown, New Zealand.
First an article from CNN: in which Queenstown is listed, among other areas in the world, as a trouble spot, with over 3 million visitors per year…
Destination trouble: Can overtourism be stopped in its tracks? (CNN) — We first hear about these places when we’re kids. Famous destinations full of wondrous architecture, spectacular scenery or ancient mysteries that fire our imaginations and fill us with yearning.
We dream, we grow, we save up all our money and one day we finally get to visit — only to discover, read more…
Next, our local Wanaka Stakeholder Group’s Protect Wanaka Facebook page, a firebrand in its own right (and I mean that as a compliment), weighs in: “Queenstown has been named in CNN Travel’s global list of locations that are currently plagued by ‘Overtourism’, read more…
The Wanaka Sun The Disadvantages of Tourism By Allison McLean (journalist@thewanakasun.co.nz)
“Tourism is noted as New Zealand’s top export earner and the cornerstone of its economy. It sustains and grows local communities and reportedly employs one in seven New Zealanders, according to Tourism New Zealand. Many locals consider this sword to be double edged, noting the accumulated waste, erosion of land and consumption of fossil fuels from tourism that put the country’s land and greatest asset at risk. read more…
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Just as shifting our paradigm on how our family uses plastics during Plastic Free July, we’re in the process of shifting how we think of tourism, and how we contribute to the problem or clean up the mess. Whether as suppliers or tourists, we all need a re-think. A saying I heard the other day made me chuckle, and again was a paradigm shifter:
“I’m not stuck in traffic, I am traffic”
Responsible tourism is the future, not simply the bottom line. Here’s New Zealand’s webpage on the subject, as well as another great page on NZ Sustainable Tourism Tourism Industry Aotearoa, TIA’s page. And acompany, Responsible Travel has had some new global initiatives. Lake Wanaka Tourism has published a sustainable tourism page.
Unfortunately I see Wanaka and Queenstown going the way of Park City, Vail, or other towns in the Alps, that just got too big, and now deal with smog, traffic and overgrowth, but that’s another subject, I suppose. Although we, too, are new here, one redeeming attribute is we’ve always tried to live a small footprint, including buying existing houses rather than building anew, living off the grid when possible etc. .
Tell me what you think. Respectful comments welcome.
Check out our new video which gives you an overview of what we’re up to, our goals and dreams to make Mountain Spirit a place where people can connect to nature, themselves and each other. The video was done by “The Master” *Ashley Leung. Ash did the ground work, all editing and production. Keep the good work Ash! Randall did the aerial footage, and Ash made magic with it.
*We feel very fortunate to have Ashley, his wife Autumn and their new daughter as family friends. We miss them them and look forward to their return to New Zealand.
Half a Million Hectares, Sold From Stuff.co.nz
New Zealanders have paid $65m to get rid of some of our most treasured landscapes, through an obscure process critics have described as a vast wave of privatization. Wealthy foreigners are snapping up valuable land once owned by the public, who in some cases paid to dispose of it. As gated estates and manicured golf courses spread through our wild places, Charlie Mitchell investigates for Stuff.co.nz: Who owns the high country? Read more here…
Not far from the site of a new development for the very wealthy, golf course included. Here’s a shot prior to all that.
Editor’s Note: A bit of disclosure – My wife is South African, and I’m a Yank, and we bought an existing house and small bit of land in Hawea. So I’m guilty by association only in that I’m American. I believe in living lightly. We have an off-the-grid home and retreat centre, with gravity fed water and a small house. The scale and rate at which foreigners are snapping up New Zealand’s high country is appalling, and appears to be changing the very values of the country, by gentrification.
Wildlife Bridge Overpass – Giving animals a leg up on the auto traffic
Where’s the merge lane and who has right of way when the only traffic are animals such as tigers, wallabies, possums or kangaroos? I suppose whoever is highest on the food chain gets to go first across these overpasses with no roads, and only trees and grasses.
Someone posted the aerial image at right this evening. At first glance it looked like the same bridge under which I passed two years ago on the east coast highway heading north from Sydney, Australia. I dug in my files, and found the snapshot of the bridge and include it here.
I was so taken aback by the site of the strange overpass, which looked like a neglected highway department lapse in maintenance, that I stopped the car and took a picture. At the time, I didn’t know what it was, and after some discussion with my wife, decided it must a wildlife corridor.
Wildlife Overpass – East Coast Australia
It’s good to see there are others. The Facebook image didn’t have a caption indicating where it was, but looks like it could be another location in Australia. Anyway, “Good on ya” for building this you Aussies! Anybody got an idea how many of these wildlife overpasses there are, and who’s the traffic cop?
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