Remarkables National Park Queenstown NZ

Posted 1st of July 2017 to the Mountain Scene Newspaper Queenstown NZ

It seems time for the some rethinking of the way our public lands are managed in high pressure places such as the Queenstown region.
The call to make a new National Park out of the Remarkables Range and also use the Public Works act to  as a tool to preserve Iconic Landscapes
for the good of all is on the surface an easy solution, but be mindful that National Parks in NZ are a political football as far as funding goes and the
general public are not really encouraged to use them as originally intended when they first where designed.

It is standard practice for the Government not to plough profits back into parks that earn them.  Certainly at the moment the Department of Conservation
ground staff are too few with too many jobs to cover and their Minister has directed them mainly onto biodiversity and not tourism.

Perhaps a more progressive Government might rule in the future and give DOC managers a bonus incentive  but don’t hold your breath for that day.
Meanwhile as long as biodiversity is the number one objective there is no concrete way of measuring any value or even progress for that matter.

In the USA some special places get National Monument status and are preserved for historical & aesthetic reasons and Tourism.

Probably something to think of now that our traditional landowners are clearly under huge pressure from huge overseas & Auckland funded developments.  

Invercargill Hauroko Water Pipeline Revisited

Posted 25th April 2017 to the Southland Express Newspaper Invercargill NZ

In the news it seems Haast is going to put in a water export pipeline.

But what happened to Tim Shadbolt’s Hauroko Pipeline to Bluff ?  Did Southland miss the boat pun on this.

At least Southland has a PORT to service boats .

Smart money in the USA is looking at fresh water as the next Crude oil, hard on the heals of a report that
lead is tainting most of America’s civic water supplies.

Forget boats, our forward planners are all to busy going round and round the mountain looking for pushbikes :-)

Queenstown NZ Tree Fort Solutions

Posted 6th May 2017 to the Mountain Scene Newspaper Queenstown NZ

Great story Last Month about turning water bound willow trees in the lake into tree forts! I recall playing on those trees as a boy while exploring in my old canvas kayak.

Perhaps it could be a new form of artistic expression harking back to New Zealand childhoods of old.

Of course with the lack of affordable beds for the Ski industry workers in the Wakatipu Basin  builder Glen Raymond’s tree hut concept might be
A great left field solution as land is now far two too expensive to build on for our humble hospitality workers .  

Dunedin's Seacliff Museum of Transport NZ

Posted 6th Jun 2017 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ

Dear ODT
I was just doing a bit of housekeeping on local history on the internet..
I have to ask What was the Story with the Dunedin Museum of Transport and Technology at Seacliff?

I had a brush with that story in 1994 and wonder what happened to the Collection afterwards and how it all started
To begin with.

It was sad it failed but was a windfall to other collections in the region.
So what has become of the old Seacliff site today ?
It looks like someone could crank up a page on social media for this particular corner of our local
transport history.
 

Google Streetview Pilgrimage NZ

Posted 15th Jun 2017 to the Christchurch Press News Paper NZ

 

As a local guide on Google I am confounded as to the delay in getting our scenic back roads on streetview..
For example we got the Routeburn Track on now but not the road to it up the Dart Valley nor the Skippers Canyon Road or the Wilmot Pass Road in Fiordland
To mention a few. There are a load of Shorter Walking Trails that could do with a short section of streetview or photo spheres as they have missed out.

The Popular Lord of the Rings locations could do with some attention as they are nearly always ambient places.

Perhaps Tourism NZ might pitch in for some data collection as us volunteers can only do so much to keep the machine oiled..

Queenstown NZ - Social Media Trends

Posted 27th June 2017 to the Advocate South Newspaper Winton / Te Anau

Hot Topic:
It is interesting to study populations by their online Community, Southland I think generally has a helpful healthy bunch of Facebook moderators who
can handle community discussions..

Queenstown is interesting though as they only had one community site and it was like the lord of the files in there, ask a simple question and you get some
Intelligent conversation but also slings and arrows by what appears to be spoilt kids armed with i-phones and curse words.
Post anything they find controversial in that town and they all go up like a tinder box.

Sad to think that nice people don’t actually like to visit Queenstown like they use too.  Perhaps they checked out the online community!
It WAS a well loved place full of history and charm, Today nobody can afford to live there except for outsiders with bags of cash and trust fund kids
With little or no feeling of community or history.

Perhaps some Southland Facebook moderator might want to go in and fix this but It would be a hard road indeed. 

the Future of Freedom Camping NZ

Posted 24th June 2017 to the Southland Times Newspaper Invercargill NZ

An Invercargill Man lamented in Wednesdays edition of this paper that Freedom Camping was once a New Zealanders rite and Camping grounds are far too expensive now.

Yes back in the day Kiwis could pull off the road any old where and set up camp without breaking any rules but mostly they stayed in basic budget campgrounds set aside for them.
However the Campgrounds Associations kind of broke this deal when the split into referral groups to cash in on the boom of overseas visitors, not only did they have to increase prices to
Afford the huge joining fees but they had to upgrade their facilities a great expense, then the Property Market in resorts went crazy and the rates shot up accordingly and workers then became harder to get.

Travel agents overseas discovered that selling Campervan Holidays was way more lucrative than cumbersome Motel based itineraries and would even lie about accommodation availability in New Zealand .

As the Airlines dump more and more shoestring travelers on this finite industry camps could also raise their rates without any kickback for all but the most destitute visitors..  
Unfortunately governments are slow to respond to new problems and things are a tad out of control and the poor old rate / tax payer are having to foot the bill for this mess.

In Manapouri at least we try to stick to the pubic service campground idea but times and habits have changed and now people expect something for nothing especially those who have money to burn.
For all this it is still a short unreliable season for the private sector. Lament all you like but it’s only going to get worse the way things are going. Our rest areas & beaches will be festooned with toilet paper unless we act.

Aaron Nicholson                                                                                                          Published 28th Jun 2016 

Dunedin NZ Tourism Windfall 2017

Posted June 15th 2017 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ

With the Government wanting to push for better tourism facilities in NZ after a bumper year of profits into the billions
perhaps it is time to go over some hidden gems from the 1990s that where once brought to public attention and need to make a comeback?

Special Heritage Streets Like High Street should be a thing, The Mornington Cable Car... goes without saying... Cargill’s Castle feature & Clifftop Cycleway, a must.
Tunnel Beach Elevator sounds do-able,  Re-naturalizing the Harbour Shoreline, yes please.

Dunedin has an amazing setting and history that are either overlooked by the people that manage them or they are not keep on being too attractive lest they face becoming another Queenstown or Auckland.

Growth seem to come like it or not. The only thing to do is try and embrace the positives unlike some cities there is a lot of space to expand especially to the North, It might have to be a second city though as Dunedin itself is getting tight these days.

If they plan to look South... A shoreline Cycleway from Blackhead to Brighton would be a public asset too  Perhaps the Quarry guys can shape the last remains of Blackhead into a Tower from Lord of the Rings while they are at it...

TVNZ What Next Latta & Campbell U.B.I

Posted 16th June 2017 to the Dominion Post Newspaper Wellington NZ

Thanks John Campbell and Nigel Latta for using TV to engage political Discussion Their “Whats next 2037” series echos the 2002 “What if 2050” about our future
One thing is Clear New Zealander want to be flexible and use thinking to be prepared for future problems and the need to shift away from corporate gangster style politics
And more towards social responsibility.

One tool mentioned has been the replacement of the kack-handed cumbersome disheartening benefit system to a Universal Basic income for people who struggle with our free market burdens.

I might add our State might want to get back to being our Insurance Broker and not so much a drill sergeant.

I asked Tim Shadbolt if Invercargill might Morph its Zero Fees learning Idea into a UBI trial run as someone brave has to take the first step but I think he has enough on his plate at the moment.

One thing Nigel and John didn’t ask is where are our Brave Leaders, our Supermen & Women... Paying our tax should be a celebration as we should feel like it is spent well to make us all comfortable happy
and secure. If the face of America’s war on the week, poor, voiceless and disempowered... In a Globalist World staunch Leaders are what we need most to keep us all safe.  And there are few Bernie Sanders’s left!

Clinton - Gore Highway in 2017

Posted May 17th 2017 to the Otago Daily Times Newspaper Dunedin NZ

Dear ODT opinion:
Back in the day I suggested in this publication the concept of the Presidential Highway between Clinton and Gore to mark the Visit of President Bill Clinton to a Meeting here in Otago
But now it might be time to revisit the Waipahi presidential memorial and put up a new Electoral College memorial to the Lost Presidents Al Gore and Hillary Clinton which is more relevant
Today some “interp” panels  on the legacy they never had, perhaps reflect also on the tally of deaths and wars of this century that might never have happened had cooler heads prevailed.
Just a thought.

The Doomsday Tweet Trump '17

Posted 8th June 2017 to the New York Times Newspaper

From a Top political lecturer in New Zealand:

Donald Trump has a mortal weakness, that is his weak mind if you ask it the wrong question it will crash like a cheap worn out operating system

And there is one question he can not answer but will be compelled to.... Is overpopulation a Problem ? and how would you deal with it.

If this Question was delivered on twitter it would be a dooms day tweet one way or another for Donald J T

Really stupid people do not understand the Climate Change and Overpopulation have the same mother and there is only one way to fix the problem
Without being pure evil.

We should all be compelled to ask Trump even if we fear the answer or the reaction

It seems The New York Times has got that job...

Good luck and my your God be with you.