Posts Tagged ‘Hawea’

Where to Begin, At the Beginning I Guess

07/07/2023

By Randall Richards
As I’ve written before, all my posted content mysteriously vanished, not only from this Telegram channel the day I left the Parliament protest grounds, but alsomy phone died, and was not able to take a charge, plus all the images were somehow encrypted. The only way to retrieve the data and videos (from many hours of recording interviews and capturing images) of the protest was, to turn the phone back on, which didn’t work. I say the NZ Government did this because, it happened to quite a few other people’s phones who witnessed and recorded uncomfortable truths, both in Wellington, and Melbourne. Also, there was a motive. And it makes reasonable sense that “remote data wiping” is a thing. Not to mention, the government’s intelligence office was right around the corner from the protest grounds. I eventually did get my data, images and vids back, thanks to a whizkid at Fix-it Wanaka. So if you’re ever in the same situation, go see Chris.
Anyway, let’s get back on horse and get this content back up where it belongs, on my outlets.

I’m just going through the early content again, which has been censored. And of course, seeing Alistair Harding’s documentary, We Came Here for Freedom, brings up emotions from being locked out. Maybe re-posting my content is a journey, so that we don’t forget the trauma we faced as a community of un-vaxxed, and a reminder that this can, and most certainly could, happen again.

We often say, “Thank you Covid” for bringing us together. I once heard a great description: When the vaccine came along, the community members, both locally and worldwide were like stalks of corn in a field. The vaccinated seemed to wither in some ways, and not stand as tall. Moreover, those of us who took a stand, seemed to stand taller, straighter, and then we looked around and said, “Oh, there you are!” and a community of awakened came into being, of all walks of life from all over the world.

Here are few shots of the early days, before the NZ convoy that took us New Zealand’s capital for the protest against mandates. I’ve got a story to tell, so pull up a chair for a front row seat. They’ll be plenty of videos and images to come.

A sign preventing entry for the “unwashed” at the local library
Singing my song, “Voices”, inspired by not only Voices for Freedom but the events of our rough-shod group being locked out of our reserved venue for very first VFF meeting. The restaurant is called Urban Grind (sorry no hyperlink) in Wanaka, and I haven’t been back since. Jared Stephan is with me on guitar. See the video of this song in a later post.
Looking back, the ridiculousness of situation, of actually being prevented from entering our own Wanaka town library is both comedic and tragic. Looking at this image, I still can’t believe it happened. We protested more than once at the entrance. See more on this in a later post.

Want a haircut? Sorry, You’ll have to figure yourself out. What? Here, Gerry Pyves, who was later the coordinator for Wanaka Voices for Freedom, is seen here, getting a haircut at one of our first Freedom Markets at Leanne Harding’s Camphill Coffee. Funny enough, as if future-proofing the community, Lone Wolf Hair just joined the compound at Leeane’s with his little barbershop trailer.

Stay tuned for tons more content, and I hope you enjoy the journey.

Randall’s bio’s at www.mtnspirit.nz/msm
Also check out VoiceMedia.nz

The Monolith That Watches Over Us

08/12/2020


The Power of Place
Just about now, (the Solstice, the longest day of the year, Dec 21st, at least here in the southern hemisphere), a 50-metre high monolith rises high in the valley above us, here at Mountain Spirit. It shows itself in the evening sunset shadows.
The Maori called this valley, Kahu, the Place of the Hawk. The summit, below which the monolith stands, is called Grandview because the first whites to gaze on the Upper Clutha Basin called it such a “grand view”. They came over the mountain and looked down on what is now Hawea and Wanaka, and were impressed with the valley and towering mountains to the west and south.
My son and I take occasional excursions near the monolith and I once walked up to its base, sniffing around for some potential rockclimbing sites. The monolith looked like a death wish, crumbly rock on all sides, but who knows, someone may try it someday. It just won’t be me. Besides, it should be left well enough alone.

The rock has different faces depicted in the rock, depending on whether you’re looking at it from the summit, to the side or below as in the images here.

I can imagine the Maori who lived in this valley, called this a power spot, similar to Bell Rock and other hot spots in Sedona, Mt. Shasta in California, and of course “Los Apus”, or, in English – The Mountain Spirits in Peru like Ausangate and Huascaran.

It feels like the energy in this valley is intense. Former owners (caretakers, actually) of this property, had their own challenges and there might be something to what indigenous peoples would say say: “The energy there was too intense to be living there all the time” as was said about Sedona.
It seems the massive stone watches over us througout the year, but this time of year, it really shows itself. I wonder if anything is written about this rock in any of the local historical writings. I’ll look into it and get back to you.
Meanwhile I thought you’d enjoy seeing some of the images just taken tonight.

Lockdown/Slowdown Post #9: Drying Berries!

06/08/2020

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Rosehips and Hawthorne berries dry in the autumn sun. Pick before a frost and dry the rosehips berries, then use a food processor to break them up to make a tea very high in vitamin C. You have to watch out when picking rosehips as they have little stickers on them that can stick you! Use gloves and pick as many as you can. When making the tea, just steep and filter after grinding, then add a bit of honey.
#purenewzealand #newzealand #wanaka #lovewanak #mountainspirit

Lockdown/Slowdown Post #7: Micro Hydro

05/08/2020

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.

 

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Turning Down the Family Business

26/01/2019

Decisions on the Life Path
Felix is from Bavaria. He had a choice to make – Follow in his father’s footsteps, or follow his heart. Learn what he and his fiance decided to do!

 

New Zealand Singer Loving Life on the Road in N. America

08/09/2013

By Lucy Ibbotson
Otago Daily Times

Van Riel On Tour in Bodie California

Van Riel in Bodie California

Lake Hawea, New Zealand singer-songwriter Anna van Riel, between gigs on her sustainable house concert tour across North America, plays with daughter Matilda (2) in Bodie, a ghost town in California.

Two-thirds of the way through her sustainable musical road-trip across Canada and the United States, Lake Hawea, NZ singer-songwriter Anna van Riel says the 15 months spent planning and fundraising for the experience has all been worth it.

”I’m still pinching myself,” Ms van Riel told the Otago Daily Times in an email from Colorado.
”I can’t believe we did it. That we’re here. It’s been so much cooler than I anticipated.”

Accompanied by husband Locky Urquhart and their daughter Matilda (2), Ms van Riel has spent the past two months travelling from British Columbia, through Washington State, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado, performing quirky concerts in private homes, farmers markets, trailer parks and other venues.

This week, the trio have been camping at Read the rest of this story at Otago Daily Times…
lucy.ibbotson@odt.co.nz