DAVE DOBBYN'S 'THIS TOWN' # Look how long it's taken you # to arrive in this town. # From the dawn into the dark, # I will hold you deep in my heart. # Look how long it's taken you to arrive in this town. # Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2013 RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC The craft group started because a group of women decided that it would be quite nice to have a place to meet ` a community place. So we had knitting, needle-felting, lace-making,... oh, embroidery ` just everything you could possibly imagine. And I suppose it took about six months for it to become more than about six people, and now there's, sort of, easily 30 that turn up on Tuesday mornings, five years later. Oh, look at this. I've always believed that a community is an important place. I grew up in NZ in the 1950s. Women were at home with their children. Women had women's groups. I can remember Mum being in Plunket Mothers, and they had concerts and did all sorts of things, and there was a lot of friendships made in those times. But now, as our communities have changed, there are no places easily available for women to meet ` or anybody. It doesn't have to be women. So one of the ideas behind the craft group was to be a special place for people to make friendships. I have a mother who says, 'You have to use your imagination,' so we were always making things. Everybody wants to adopt her. It's funny. They just tell me, 'Oh, your mother is so gorgeous,' and this has been all through my life. And she's all` We called her Mary the Fairy, because she's` she just does whatever she wants to do. (SIGHS) We deserve it. (SIGHS) We deserve it. Absolutely. (LAUGHS) Cheers. She's always early for the bus. She'll be there, she says, 10 minutes early, but she's always about an hour early. And when Mum and Dad used to go anywhere, she would be packed two weeks before they were due to go. So it didn't surprise me at all that she'd decided to get a coffin, because, you know, she always liked being prepared. My dad was a gravedigger, and he had made his own coffin, and Mum decided that she was going to get one too. So, we went to the funeral director, and there was one last of the line that he decided he could sell. So we brought it home on the top of the Morris Minor. And then I had this wonderful coffin to paint, and I thoroughly enjoyed deciding what I'll paint. And I thought, 'Perhaps I could do a self-portrait.' My son used to sing,... (SINGS) 'Please release me. Let me go.' And he had a beautiful voice, and I never forgot it. I thought, 'That's a great tune.' And then I wanted to thank my family for having me, and so I've put 'thank you' on it. I'd like to be remembered as a kind person who did my best to look after my family and friends and wasn't too much of a pain in the neck. She's always said to us, 'The world's your oyster. You know, just go out there and crack it.' We've always been encouraged to do whatever we've wanted to do. This is just Mary. She's just unique. REFLECTIVE GUITAR MUSIC Allan and I have worked together now for 21 years in our business. Uh, we seem to get on OK. I stay out in the shed, and he stays in the house. I do all the casting; a lot of the model designing and making all the moulds; and a lot of the administration side of the business; and Allan does everything else. Yeah, that's` Yep, that'd be right. I do everything else. Allan is very good at his painting and making sure that what he's doing is` is very accurate. Uh, we get a lot of comments from collectors about the quality of the painting and the` and the finished product of things. Obviously, they don't see all the work that goes in beforehand of making all the moulds and models and stuff. It's the end product that they see. So Allan gets a lot of accolades from collectors overseas. This has been pretty much the only job I've ever done, apart from after-school lawn mowing. And, uh, I did have a bit of a stint helping out a friend in her cafe, waiting on tables, which is one of the most unsuitable jobs I could probably... (LAUGHS) ever have had. I'm a fairly quiet kind of a person. I do spend a lot of time on my own, watching paint dry, so I do, I guess, enjoy my own company. When Allan and I were kids ` and we both were very much into collecting toy soldiers and recreating battles on the lounge floor ` our poor father used to have to come in after work and, like, edge his way around to a chair to sit down and... (LAUGHS) read the newspaper, cos it was all covered in soldiers. So Allan and I have always gotten on very well from when we were children. Well, when I first got my first lot of toy soldiers at the age of 4, then you noticed me. BOTH CHUCKLE Most people who buy our toy soldiers are men, although, um, with now more women getting into the military, there is women who do collect them. Uh, there's different types of collectors. There's collectors who'll buy up a whole campaign, uh, and actually have that just set up in a display case. Then there's other people who'll just buy nothing but people riding horses. So there's a whole variety of different collectors. I'd like to think that people do appreciate the amount of work that go into our toy soldiers ` not just the painting side of it, but all the processes right from start to finish. And, uh, hopefully for those who have bought them, because they do have some sort of meaning for them, um, yeah, come to treasure them for` for years. When I was a child, I always had toy soldiers to play with. And then I thought, 'This would be a way to save money ` is to actually make my own.' Uh, so I made attempts of making wooden ones, uh, which didn't work out too well, but it was still a learning curve, and I also made plaster Paris moulds and did drop-casting using all my father's, um, lead. Some Americans contacted us about six or eight months later to actually have a go at making their toy soldiers, and we thought, 'Why not? We know how to do it, and we'll have a go at making toy soldiers ourselves as a business.' MILITARY DRUMMING Making a display like the Gallipoli one is actually quite satisfying, because it's the only opportunity we have of getting all the figures out and so-called 'playing' with them. And I think, when you see children who actually do see something like that, you'd like to think that they're then getting the idea that maybe, um, they'll go and read books about it and learn about the history and so forth. Which is the great thing about doing all these toy soldiers ` is people actually getting interested in it and learning the history. Some of our most popular figures are the ones that actually have animals in them, like a NZer from the Imperial Camel Corps riding his camel. The moa-hunter set is always very popular. Uh, the set with Caesar the Anzac dog is` has been a very popular one, and then anything with, um, Maori warriors in it is very popular as well. Uh, that's obviously because tourists buy them as souvenirs to take back home. We export our toy soldiers all over the world. We sell Roman soldiers to Rome. We've sold French soldiers to` to France. Of course, we've sent stuff to Australia and Canada and the UK. Uh, they've gone all over the world. And we have people that keep coming back and` and buying more figures to actually add to the ranges that they've got or actually moving into new ranges that they want to collect. RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC What we like to do here in Martinborough is be creative. It's a really good source of creativity. The energy here is fantastic. I like to have a go at a lot of different creative things, whether it's, um, oil painting or carving wood or stone or glass. I always find it interesting to be doing something sort of different. I was a counsellor for 25 years, and I use all of those skills to really help people live more passionately and on purpose. And, um, also I paint and, uh, I help Greg with, uh, the design work. Greg is the most prolific artist I've ever met in my entire life, and also he's really soft and compassionate, and he's hot. I met Greg at a personal growth workshop nearly 25 years ago, and I looked at him, and I thought, 'Oh my God, that's such a handsome artist.' (LAUGHS) He was just so lovely, and I had lots and lots of people who wanted to be in my group, and they were told to go away, and he went to kind of, you know, go off, and I grabbed the leg of his jeans, and I said, 'You're not going anywhere.' I knew I was gonna be with Leanne forever when, on one particular occasion, I was kind of snuggled up in front of her on the floor, and someone was talking and stuff, and then I remember that she was kind of, like, getting really close and sniffing the back of my hair, and I was like, 'Oh man, what's she doing?' And I smelt his hair, and this big voice in the sky said really clearly, 'This is the one.' 'Animals have been a big part of our life,...' Buzzy! '...and it was really when we got Buzzy the sheep, when he was just a little baby sheep of one day old 'that something really changed in us, and it was like having children. It was beautiful.' And then one day, it was Greg's birthday, and he said, 'More than anything in the whole world, I just want a pet pig for my birthday.' And I was, like, 'Oh my gosh.' And then every night, uh, he would get on Trade Me, and he'd try to find the most beautiful pig there was. The pig that I chose happened to be in Hamilton. It was, like, 'How are we going to get a pig that's in Hamilton?' So we did some research and found the Petbus, and, um, we waited in Featherston at a petrol station, like a secret rendezvous point, to pick up this pig. So the woman pulled up in the Petbus, and the door opened, and out she walked with this cutest little, wee, tiny black and white pig. And we were just like,... (GASPS) 'It's our new baby!' This spotty little beauty called Giggles was there, and that was it. The first day we brought Giggles home, she was in need of a bath, so Leanne put her into a plastic bowl in the bathroom, and we gave her a really good wash. And of course, she was all tiny and fragile, so she had to sleep in the bedroom with us, so that's probably where some bad habits started to creep in. We both decided it was time, maybe, that she got more independent and had her own house outside. So it wasn't gonna be any normal house; it had to be quite flash. So I lined it all with plywood, and it's got Pink Batts in it and corrugated iron and stuff like that, and put it in place outside, and, um,... Giggles just went straight back in the house and never really went in her own house. She's got it too good inside. One of the things that isn't true about pigs is that they like to be dirty. If she has the opportunity, she will be the cleanest pig in the world. She doesn't actually even really like mud that much. Giggles means a lot to us, and we learn a lot from her, as far as just being able to step away from everyday things and ta` going for a walk with her on the` around the grove or with the sheep. It is good fun. Getting away on holiday is a little bit of an impossibility, and it's really difficult to get someone to come and stay in a house where a pig sleeps in the kitchen, and it's quite a big ask, really. They called us one day, saying, 'Oh, our house-sitter cancelled at the last minute. Can you please babysit our pig?' And of course we said, 'Yes, bring her over.' Our pigs are muddy and dusty. They're outdoor pigs, and they're real rough-and-tumble, and Giggles was on the top of this trailer, looking down at them ` and her coat is just gleaming, perfectly clean, because she gets baths regularly, and they give her an olive-oil rub. And she looked down at our pigs, and she was horrified. She just went, 'Oh my God. What is this? 'There's, like, pigs in the paddock.' Eventually, we got her off the trailer, into the paddock, but she wanted nothing to do with our pigs. I would go in the paddock, and she would immediately run over to me because she was so used to human company. And as soon as I left the paddock, she would squeal and squeal as if saying, 'You can't leave me here with these` these pigs!' So the next day, we spent half the day lumbering her big pig palace on to the trailer and taking that up to their` to their farm, and, um, she stayed in that for the rest of the week and didn't let any of those other pigs in there at all. She was, like, 'This is my palace, and you can just go away.' I was living in Wellington with my partner, CJ ` we've been together now 20 years ` and he came home one day and said, 'Let's move to Martinborough.' And I said, 'You're crazy. It's in the middle of nowhere. We can't live in the country.' And, uh, he just insisted. He said, 'Oh, it's beautiful. You have to see it.' And finally I relented, and I said, 'OK, OK. I will go look at this property, but that's it. And I promise I will not like it.' And, uh, he said, 'OK, OK.' So we got in the car, and we came out for a day trip. Then I remember walking up on to the front deck and looking out across the property, and I could see the hills in the distance that were just dotted with sheep, and there was a row of macrocarpas that were just tall and beautiful, and just in front of that was the most amazing olive grove I'd ever seen. And it was a sunny day, and the sun was just hitting the silver undersides of the olive leaves. I` I said, 'It's pretty, but, no, no.' And CJ said, 'You have to see the olive grove up close.' So we walked down, crossed the little footbridge, and walking up to the olive grove gate, I remember being overwhelmed with a sense of peace. WISTFUL MUSIC And for me, it was the olive grove that` that made me say yes. I'd never lived in the country before. I didn't know how to cook. I'd never had a garden. And 20 acres of land ` I mean, I had no idea what to do. And, uh, I love... You know, I love art-house cinema and plays and museums, and you don't have that in the country. The country ` my idea of it at first was just, 'It would be so boring.' We lease the paddocks to someone who runs cattle and sheep, which is great, because I'm learning a lot from her about, um, how she takes care of the sheep, and, um, we have to, obviously, take care of the pigs ` they're ours ` and I take care of the chooks. Um, and it's just` It's nice to have that sort of grounding thing ` that you know you have to take care of these things because they rely on you. And I want to make sure that they're comfortable and safe, and, uh, I'm learning a lot about how to take care of animals. I love living in big cities. I love the energy and the excitement of all those people. But I've never lived in a place before where I've felt so connected to the people around me, um, because of course, in a big city, you don't need your neighbours, you know? You don't rely on them. Here, there's a lot of work, and we need to help each other. Um, I rely on my neighbours for knowledge, and I try to give back, help any time I can. And that mutual dependence that happens in the country creates a network of people that are connected. And that's the thing I think I never had in the city that I didn't realise I was missing. RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC We bought this land in Martinborough at the end of the '90s. It was really Peter's passion. He always wanted to grow grapes and make wine. And he's always had this dream, and I, kind of, went along with it. It's a fabulous lifestyle, but it's hard work, and... Yeah, I probably came here with Peter. I have to say, it wasn't my passion, but I love it anyway. It's good. It's grown on me. There is nothing better than sitting on the deck with a glass of pinot gris and looking at the grapes that produced it. You were happy with the harvest? You were happy with the harvest? Yeah, very happy, We had a great summer, so that's really helped the wines. Lovely aromatics. I'm from Mataura, in Southland, and that's where I grew up and went to school. And my father was a grocer, and our shop was in the main road going south, and it's still there today. My mother spent her time bringing up six children. I'm number five of six children. That was a lot of work, I think, and we didn't have all the mod cons we've got today. So that was her role ` being the homemaker. My father was a bit of a drinker, and so she had all that to cope with as well, so her life wasn't easy. And there were times I can remember that` that she didn't cope well, and she'd go away and stay with her, um, cousins. And so, when I was about 10 years old, my mother decided that she would start going to church. And I always tell the story that she was in the garden, um, and she heard the church bells ringing and decided she had to go to church and so came and washed her hands and went to church. But, actually, her life just turned around, and there were ups and downs of that for us. Um, the good part of that was that the home became a much more secure place. We kind of knew then that our mother would always be there for us. She changed in` in` within herself. When I was a little girl, my family tell me that I always said I was going to be a missionary. Funnily enough, I don't really remember saying that, but obviously I did say that. But I always had this inkling that I would like to be working in the church. And you know how you get these ideas that maybe that's where you're heading, and then people started to say it to me. Like, 'Have you ever thought of being ordained?' And so I felt that I was really needed to follow that through and see if that was, um, what I was called to be. CONGREGATION SINGS As a woman of the cloth, people do expect you to somehow be a bit, um, holy. I don't see myself as a holy person. And I'll go somewhere, and perhaps I'll be talking to someone, and I'll say, 'I'm the vicar,' and they'll say, 'You're not!' And I always think, 'Well, is that a good thing or not?' After supper, he took the cup. When he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, 'Drink this, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant.' ... of Jesus Christ. Food for the journey. 'I think we're meant to be with other people. It's how we are. And so community is just everything. 'It means that, um, we look out for the common good. That used to be something we were good at doing.' And then something you can say about that` every one of those people, that's a nice thing to say. Can it be anyone? Can it be anyone? It could be anybody. You could have anybody in there. 'It's about generosity and hospitality, only taking what you need, sharing, 'making sure that everybody gets a fair go.' Put it on the other end. Put it on the other end. Yep, OK. Oh, best soup out. Look at that. A couple of years ago, we thought there was a need in the community for a breakfast club ` for kids going to school to come and have breakfast. And, um, we went and talked to the school. So the breakfast club is held in the church hall, but the school and the church do it together. And so, to begin with, it was for children that would normally come to school without breakfast. But as we've gone along, we've realised that there were other children whose parents had early-morning meetings in Wellington. And cos the doors open at 7.30, they would have breakfast, and we would make sure they get to school. But also other children came who, um, parents struggled to get them to eat breakfast, but the magic of breakfast club means that you come, and you are there with other children, and it doesn't seem such a chore, eating breakfast, when you're with your friends. And actually, the truth is the toast tastes better. The homework club began because of the breakfast club. So, you're gonna be doing some reading in a minute with Vicki, all right? They're just bright little kids. And, you know, part of all this is to make sure that they do the best they can and be educated. So we decided that it would be a good idea, because they would have then access to computers, cos not everybody has a computer in their home, but there is an expectation that they do have. What's that word, Winnie? The. And so we` we got the children doing their homework, but then we found that, um, there were other people coming in from the community to help, and they had other skills. That was really fantastic. It's just, like, sort of, bite-size lessons ` you know, 10-minute, 15-minute lessons ` with any of the kids at homework club that want to come, and I really love it. How many of those in one of those? Those ones are long, and those are shorter. Those ones are long, and those are shorter. Yeah, yeah. So two of those equal four of those, OK? So two of those equal four of those, OK? Yep. 'It's fine to` to do some volunteer stuff. You know, I help with the school choir, 'and I started the little choir that I've got.' And I help at homework club, and I play at the old people's home quite a lot, actually. So all that stuff just feels good to me ` to be doing that. I'm 60, but I kind of think I'm just a bit immature, you know? Because I don't really want to look like what used to be my impression of 60-year-olds, you know? I don't think I'm trying to look, you know, younger than I am. I just think, 'Why do you have to stop wearing bright colours or doing funny stuff to your hair 'because you're a certain chronological age?' You know? I didn't have a happy childhood at all, but you don't know that when you're growing up. No, we had a miserable childhood, actually. My mother was a very odd person, and my parents were completely mismatched. You know, and my mother was, um` She was a bit of a snob, really, but she was very creative. She loved art and music. You know, singing was a big thing for her. But she used to get really, really, really irritated with my father, because he smoked and drank ` two things that she couldn't stand, you know. My earliest memory of enjoying music was playing the piano as a way of getting away from all the crap that was happening at home. You know, I just` I always had a really good excuse, and I'd just go into my little piano room and` and play, and it would shut everything out. I took up the cello when I was at high school. I thought that was a nice instrument, you know? And then it was the 70s, and I discovered feminism, and I just sort of thought, 'What a sissy little instrument,' you know? (CHUCKLES) It's just` It's so small and, you know, so girly and... So I` I thought, 'Ooh, double bass. That's really neat. You know, it's big. Where are the women playing the bass?' And there weren't very many. And I thought, 'What a cool instrument.' And I loved the sound of it. (PLAYS PENSIVE MELODY) So, after I'd only been playing, maybe, a year on the bass, I applied for the NZ Symphony Orchestra trainee scheme, which they had then, um, and I got in, you know, because there weren't many bass players around. And then a year later I got into the big orchestra. In the orchestra, you kind of get into the zone, you know, like sportspersons do and all that stuff, I suppose. You're intensely focused for the time that you're there, cos when you're not playing, you're counting. And it kind of transcends with your body, and you forget if you've got a sore foot and stuff. You just forget all that stuff. It's just, 'Focus, focus', because you just really want to do it right. Community means trying to help people actually as much as I can ` sort of, give back. I mean, that's` I suppose it sounds a bit corny, but I just put a little ad in the local paper and said, you know, 'Does anybody want to come to choir?' And I got absolutely loads of people keen, and they were all sorts of people. It gives me absolutely huge, great pleasure to introduce Tony Backhouse and his wife, Marianne Backhouse. Um, Tony is the world authority on gospel music and how to sing it, and so it's pretty amazing that he's here in little old Martinborough. ALL: # Nothing on this train to lose # and everything to gain. # and everything to gain. # One more time! 'I just, uh, want our choir to be exposed 'to some really good vocal workshops 'for their development as singers in a choir ` to just be exposed to some really good choral direction. 'And that got people pretty inspired.' ALL: # ...to gain. # BLUESY GUITAR I first came to Featherston in 1964 to work at the dairy factory. Featherston was a really thriving town then. Every shop was occupied, and there were small businesses ` you know, probably three or four grocery shops. We had jewellers and men's outfits, lady's shops and all sorts of things here then. When I was a kid, I think just about every house had a piano, and my sister was a very good pianist. And, um, they tried to teach me for a while, but... (CHUCKLES) I wasn't much good at it. But, um, I first started to get keen on the guitar when I heard Tex Morton. # Oh, I'm so sorry for you # as you rough it in here, # cash in your pocket and sipping your beer. # 'Oh, you don't understand. It's tough now,' he says. # 'Not like it was in your good old days.' Oh ho ho! # Tex came to town. He used to have a little show, a roadshow, with all sorts of variety acts in it, which he did mostly himself, you know. He could hypnotise, he could sing and play the guitar, and he could shoot guns and all sorts of things, but when he played the guitar, I, sort of, thought, 'Gee, that's the instrument for me.' So that's when I bought one with my first lot of wages and started off. We had a little group ` my sister and a couple of friends. We called it Bushland Jackaroos. I was hopeless when I first started. I` I had no idea. Was just a matter of watching other people play, and I got a lesson book ` something I've still got down here ` and, um, just followed the books... through. But otherwise, I'm just an ear player. I met John in The Royal. I was a barman, and he used to come in for a beer, and, uh, we found we both had this liking for playing the guitar. Cos he came in a couple of times and just had a sing-song, and, um, yeah, we got together, cos he found that I could... (CHUCKLES) fill in the gaps for him. Eric plays the clever bits. I` I just make the noise at the back and sing, but Eric does all the smart stuff, you know. Mm, good. (CHUCKLES) Smart stuff. First of the day. We generally practised at my place, didn't we, John? On a Sunday morning. Every Sunday morning, we'd have a practice, try and get a new tune off, if we can. Otherwise, just go through the old ones and try and get them` well, try and... (CHUCKLES) remember them. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, and have a beer while we're doing it, of course. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, and have a beer while we're doing it, of course. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. BOTH PLAY BLUESY CHORDS Now, hang on, I haven't got me beer in the right place. No, well, that's essential. You've gotta` You've gotta be able to reach it, haven't you? He's a great rhythm player, and he keeps the time up for me so that I can't go off, and if I do go wrong, it's my own fault. It's not his. And he's a good singer. Well, I wouldn't go that far. Well, I wouldn't go that far. BOTH CHUCKLE # Delia cursed Tony. # 'Twas on a Saturday night. # She cursed him such a wicked curse # he swore he'd take her life. # Delia gone. # One more round ` Delia gone. # 'We started playing together in 1982. We had a Friday night gig down at the Ferry Hotel, 'and somewhere along the line, we used to play a song called Honky Tonk Heroes, 'which was a Waylon Jennings hit, and we thought the words of that song applied to us, 'so hence we called ourselves The Honky Tonk Heroes.' What are the lines, John? (CHUCKLES) 'The lovable losers, no-account boozers and honky-tonk heroes like us.' (CHUCKLES) # Got to drinking from an old tin cup. # Poor Delia's lying 6ft under # doing her level best to get up. # But Delia gone. # One more round ` Delia gone. # Let's hear it again, yeah. (PLAYS FOLKY REFRAIN) John did buy a couple of T-shirts once with 'Honky Tonk Heroes' written on them, but I` I don't like T-shirts, myself. (CHUCKLES) I thanked him very much but never wore it. # One more round ` Delia gone. # When I hear something, I like to take a note of it. There was one the other day that I wouldn't mind trying out, as I could probably get it on YouTube, I would say. # The jury men found him guilty. # He began to roll his eyes. # Music makes me happy ` really happy ` especially if we're playing well and things knit up. And just having a beer with mates. Don't ask for too much. (CHUCKLES) We'll keep playing as long as we enjoy it, yeah. We'll keep playing as long as we enjoy it, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. # Delia gone. # One more round ` Delia gone. # CROWD CHEERS, WHISTLES Thank you. Thank you very much. RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC MUSIC CONTINUES I was born in England, actually, not too far from Heathrow Airport, and so I grew up around the London area and, uh, emigrated to, uh, NZ, uh, in my 20s. My interest in the night sky started with my Mum taking me to see a movie with me and my sister which absolutely terrified us. It was called Invaders From Mars, and I can remember coming home and looking up, uh ` and we had this beautiful starry night ` and I'm thinking, 'Out there must be Mars, somewhere', and wondering if there were really Martians out there. Astronomy was always my hobby. When I started doing lectures at Carter Observatory in Wellington ` the national observatory ` and they kept asking me to do more things ` so in the end, I said, 'Look, you're gonna have to employ me, because it's taking me away from my contract work.' We came to the Wairarapa simply because it was an hour and a quarter's drive from Wellington, and suddenly you're out underneath these pristine night skies ` beautiful views of the Milky Way. And so the purpose was to find a plot of land, uh, which we could put an observatory. And that's what actually came first. The first thing we built down here was an observatory. I used to run a course called 'Legends and Mysteries of the Night Sky' when I was living in Wellington, and we found that people were absolutely fascinated with pyramids and stone circles, so we said, 'Well, if we ever have the opportunity, one day we should build one of these objects.' And that opportunity did come up from the Royal Society. The Royal Society had a fund of money which were for projects which would involve ordinary members of the public in knowledge and learning, and we put forward the idea of Stonehenge as a learning tool, and they thought it was a great idea. But when we put our building application in to the council, of course, they didn't have stone circles or stone henges on their books, and the only thing they could see it would fit into was a garden ornament, and of course, you do not need a building permission for a garden ornament. So I guess we've probably got the biggest garden ornament in NZ. Then suddenly we were underway in building the Stonehenge, but it wasn't actually` wasn't as difficult as you imagine, because the very idea fascinated people. Um, we had working bees, and people came as far away as Hastings and Napier every weekend to come down here and work on the stone circle. Altogether, I guess there must have been about 150 different members of the Phoenix Astronomical Society who were involved in building it, but there was a group of people who were here every weekend, uh, irrespective` rain or shine ` would be out there working. And when we were getting near the end of the project, people started to worry. 'What are we gonna do with our weekends?' People said, 'Can't we build a pyramid or something?' And I said, 'Well, maybe one day we will.' A lot of people thought we were building a replica of what's on Salisbury Plain, but in fact, that was never our intention. Because if you actually want your stone circle to work, then it has to be designed for your specific spot on the Earth. And this will apply to any stone circle around the world. You can in fact build one anywhere, but they have to be designed for your specific spot on the Earth ` your latitude, your longitude and your topography. OK, folks, I wanna just start off by talking about this entranceway here. You find these dead straight rows into all these great ancient sites. They're either called a causeway or an avenue. Once you get down here, you can see how these pillars and lintels form windows with the horizon. Now, before anybody asks why aren't the pillars the same distance apart? Well, the reason is that we` Well, there would be if we were just doing this for the sun and the moon. But because we're also doing Polynesian star law, we had to make sure an important star wasn't gonna rise or set directly behind a stone. We get all manner of people coming out here from different religions. We get Christians, Muslims, Pagans ` you name them ` they all come out here. We respect everyone's beliefs. They're coming out here to learn. But each of those groups, in some way or another, finds an attachment there ` some link back into their past. And it is a link, of course, that links us all together ` all of humankind. And for those who come out and visit Stonehenge, they'll suddenly find how many of our stories are linked into Maoridom and the ancient stories of Maori. So Maori also, when they come out here, suddenly find there's this link with Stonehenge to their past as well. One of the questions people have often asked me is do I think there's intelligent life out there? Well, our sun is a star, and there's more stars in the known universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world, and orbiting around those stars are planets. There are more worlds than we can possibly count out there. To think that we're alone, I would think, is inconceivable. And I think that's the important thing ` is people walk away from this place, and they've learnt something about their history, about our culture, and they've also learnt a little bit of astronomy and some science as well. And not only that, but they say to us, 'We'll have to come back again,' and that's the best compliment we can have. REFLECTIVE GUITAR MUSIC I'm a laid-back person who just loves living in the animal channel. I am soft for them, and it's everything to me. I'm` I'm all about animals. REFLECTIVE GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES (SNORTS) (SNORTS) Up we go. My mother has always said that, you know, I care more for animals than people, and so I'm just one of those people that it's... Yeah, ever since I can remember as a child, um, it was definitely something that was the top of my list for me. I don't know how people actually live without animals around them. You can't go anywhere. 'I saw an advertisement in the Wellington newspaper for a diploma in veterinary nursing,' and I thought, 'Oh my God, I really want to apply for that.' And so I did it. It was a two-year part-time diploma, and so that's when it really came to me that, yeah` that I really really want to give that a go. And I` I loved every second of it, and I absolutely loved vet nursing. I feel that it's the most worthwhile thing that` that I've ever done. Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh. Good boy. Aw. In my early 30s, I said to my husband, 'I really want a donkey for my 40th birthday.' And him being him said, 'Yes, of course, dear.' And... it was amazing, because we moved to the Wairarapa, um, shortly after that, and within two weeks of being up here, I got` I found my first donkey, and it just all happened so quickly, like it was meant to be. And my life changed after that. I mean, they really did cast a spell on me. Perhaps it's a... (SIGHS) a desire to help the downtrodden. Perhaps there's the` there's a humility to them, the... I don't know what it is. As humans, we each have ` can have, if you're open to it ` a connection with some other thing which somehow helps you in life. Once you realise that you have a connection with a species, it's not just about the individual. You feel empathetic towards every other donkey. I came across three that needed rescuing locally, and people aside from me can see that they're misunderstood. They've got to be one of the most misunderstood little creatures in the world. They're very staunch, very stoic, and people accuse them of being stubborn, and of course, they're not. Um, they're` But what they are is called a camouflage animal, as opposed to a flight animal. If you're a horse and you've got a problem, you run away. If you're a donkey and you've got a problem, you stand still and you hide. So you can see how the problem escalates, and it's just a real shame, because it's a misunderstanding in responses. People would come and visit them and think ` with the potential possibility to rehome ` and then I would find they would run away, because I think they knew that these might be people that they're gonna be rehomed again. So I said, 'Look, not again.' I think their little hearts are breaking, and I think, like children, they can shut down. So, um, I just can't do it. I can't rehome them. And that's why we've got` we've collected so many. People say, 'Well, what use is a donkey?' Well, what use is anything, if you look at it like that? Thank you. A donkey, if kept on their own, is a) likely to be very very noisy, um, also often very very sad. 'They just form strong bonds with each other and the humans that they form a bond for. 'I started with a single donkey, because I didn't know any different at the time, 'and I spent all day with her ` I was in a position where I could do that ` 'and she was still very very sad. And so three months later we got her a companion.' Good girl. BLUESY GUITAR My husband and I don't wanna live anywhere else. You almost feel like you've gone back, you know, 20, 30 years in time. When we first moved here, people would still say, 'Oh, pay for it next week,' or 'pay for it in a month,' or 'send in an account.' They assumed you weren't going anywhere, and it was just a lovely stepping back in time, you know, perhaps to the 60s or 50s or something ` little things like that which actually add so much to your quality of life and your peace of mind. And it's still here. It's still in the Wairarapa. When people are ignorant about pigs, and they say to me, am I gonna eat her? Or, you know, 'She's gonna taste great at Christmas,' I just say to them, 'Would you eat your dog?' A lot of people think I am like the Vicar of Dibley, um, and that's good. I think she's fantastic, cos she's very down to earth and centred on community. Maybe some day something could come up that would tempt me away from this place,