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. # Copyright Able 2015 BIRDS SING Aviation runs through the family. My dad was a pilot, so flying seemed like a natural thing to do. I've flown in probably eight or nine different countries, but this is one of the loveliest spots I've flown. Motueka ticked all the boxes for us. We met at a skydiving festival in Seville. I was just walking through the hangar on the way to the aeroplane, and I saw this very attractive-looking Irish bird and thought, 'Gosh, she looks pretty good.' (LAUGHS) And it took a few nights and I ran into her in the pub later on, and we, uh, shared stories, and the rest is history. I always wanted my very own pilot. As a skydiver, that's pretty important. (CHUCKLES) Chris' family are more into flying, and my family are more into jumping out of the aircraft. Mum and Dad both skydived. They met skydiving back in the '70s. It's a bit of an unusual sport ` not so for me because I grew up around it; you know, it really was like tennis or football in my house. You do get some jitters before you skydive, but you've got to be confident in your gear, take a deep breath and step into the blue. If ever I'm feeling stressed from work or anything else, I come down here, stick your knees in the breeze, and it's a really good stress relief. I have coming up on 900 jumps. I like to throw myself out of aeroplanes as much as I possibly can. When I met Chris, I was working as a solicitor in a big law firm. When I saw how he loved his work so much and just really enjoyed his life as a result, it absolutely inspired me to make a change within my own life. I asked myself, 'What makes me the most happy?' and at that time it was my dogs. My love of dogs stretches back to long before I was even practising law. Always had dogs when I was growing up. If a neighbour had a litter of puppies, I was always around there playing with the puppies and trying to find them homes, so it's always been a really special place in my heart. My heart is really with little dogs. They have everything that big dogs have, but just in a small package. They eat less, they poo less,... (LAUGHS) and they're very clever. Rosie, she's about 3 years old and she came from the pound. I rescued her from there. From the moment we get up to the moment I go to bed, she's tagging along. Good girl. Well done. She gets to come to work with me. I run a walking service, and I take five or six dogs at a time out. The service generally is for people working long hours in an office, just like I used to do, and they can still have the joy of having a dog while somebody else takes over the exercise. Galway! Hiya! You excited? We going walking? I don't miss my legal career, except when I'm talking to the bank manager. The bank manager prefers when you're a lawyer as opposed to a dog trainer. (CHUCKLES) I don't miss having to wear a stuffy suit and walk into a stuffy office every day. I could be out walking my groups all morning, and then when Rosie and I get home in the afternoon, that's what we do again. It's certainly my happy place when I'm either walking on the beach with Rosie or falling through the sky at about 10,000ft. My two happy places. I do private training and behaviour work, as well as my work with the Nelson Ark. What the Ark does is they use dog training as a form of therapy for young people. Working with animals is actually very healing, and anybody who has animals in their own lives can support that. The unconditional love and the healing that animals can do is really well documented. And that's, kind of, I guess the principles of the Ark. We take young people who we would say need some help to address issues in their lives. They're responsible for retraining a dog, and the dog is then put up for adoption. We try and take dogs mostly through the dog pound. Pairing them with a dog who really needs their support so that they both benefit from it. It's about relationships. That's... That's our difference. Giving our young people a future, as well as the dogs that we work with. My story, sort of, began with the Ark when I was 14 and I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. I had isolated myself completely from the world. I'd left school. So for about two years I didn't really leave the house unless it was for a doctor visit, which had to be planned a couple of weeks in advance so that I could prepare myself. I always explain anxiety as feeling nervous, but you times it by a thousand. It's overwhelming. I ran into Karen one day, and she told me about this programme. She knew I had a passion for animals before this, and that was what was keeping me going, and so she invited me along. The first day, driving down there, I remember saying to my mum, 'I don't want to do this. Let's go home. I'll go back to bed.' Karen told me that, you know, I was gonna make a difference in this doggy's life. And my whole attitude changed when I met him and heard his story. Dillon's a staffie cross. He was found in Tapawera. He was abandoned. He was found in the forest. Dillon had been out there with no food source for we don't know how long. When he went to a foster home, he tried to jump out windows. He did not want to be in human contact at all. He didn't trust anyone. When I first met him, he wouldn't come out of the corner. He stayed in this little concrete corner where he was tied up, and I couldn't get him out. He was terrified of what the world was gonna do. What he was feeling, I was feeling. There was something there that just made us click. It was a really big change for me. It got me out of bed because I knew that Dillon would be waiting there, and I knew that if I wasn't there, there'd be no young person for Dillon. Just built a relationship with him. It was a slow process. I remember the day that we heard this barking. And I'd never heard Dillon bark, so I never knew what noise he made. And next thing he's running around the field with this biggest smile on his face. And I remember just about bursting into tears because he was a real dog. It was, like, the first time in that whole time we'd seen this real dog come out of Dillon, this happy, excited animal that I'd never met before. It was almost like a weight off my shoulder as well that if you can see Dillon come through it in this amount of time ` I think it was only eight weeks ` he was a completely different animal, and I was a completely different person. He taught me so much, you know. If I can make a difference in his life, where else can I make a difference? So it inspired me to do a lot of things and to branch out. I returned to school. It was hard to get in the front gate, and it was hard to put my uniform on. But I've now been teaching` I'm a qualified teacher now, been teaching for a year in a full-time position. I'm absolutely loving it. So Dillon has a very happy life. I got to be part of adopting him out. I'm friends with his owner, and I knew straight away that they hit it off. And Dillon was so comfortable with her that it was just perfect. I've had a few catch-ups with him, and it's been a grieving process to say goodbye to Dillon and say 'see you later', but I've learnt how to do that. It's always very emotional to see him and to see his big smile. I really don't know where I'd be without Dillon ` if I'd still be here. Cos I came from a very very dark place to a world of possibilities. It's just so much brighter and happier. ELECTRIC GUITAR RIFF The hops, to me, is a fantastic plant. I can't see myself growing anything else, really. And the hops that we grow here, you can't grow them anywhere else in the world. Generally, the people who are on hop farms have been brought up on hops farms. But Mum and Dad never pushed us to do anything we didn't want to do. My twin brother, he decided to be a pharmacist; I decided to be a farmer, so... (CHUCKLES) I spent several years travelling backwards and forth overseas, and I used to come back here to help out with the harvest. It came time when I thought, 'I'll just stay a bit longer and stick at it.' I would struggle doing a desk job. For me, my office is a tractor driving through the hops. Your mind wanders. So a lot of decisions are made on the tractor, whether they be farming or life or photography. Through my travelling through Africa and America, I got into wildlife photography. Wildlife photography for me now is a huge passion. I'll be out in the hops and I'll be driving along, and I'll be thinking of my next trip or adventure, what animals I'm gonna see, what photos I'd like to take of them. I've always been interested in photography. My first camera, I remember buying when I was back in, sort of, third or fourth form. I'd taken Mum and Dad into the shop ` it was a second-hand camera, second-hand Nikon ` and I said, 'I really want to get that camera, Dad.' He said, 'No, no. You've got a wee way to go yet.' And anyway, I saved all of my pocket money and saved and saved and saved. I went back and bought it. And I never ever showed them for about six months that I'd bought this camera. (CHUCKLES) From then on, I enjoyed taking photos for the school magazine and things like that. My better photos, they all have a story. For me, they're personal stories. I wait for that shot. If I can take the photo right, someone can see that story through the photo, whether it's following a jaguar in the Pantanal that's just attempted to kill a caiman or something like that, or else being charged by an elephant, and then to take his photo, um, nearly with something running down my leg. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. The adventures you have taking them is just as much a story as the photo you take. Last year I was lucky enough to have three of my photos shortlisted for the World Wildlife Photographer of the Year. It's nice to know that, you know, the professionals think you're on the right page as well, but the recognition for me is, in the end, if I'm happy and my friends are happy and the people who see them. That's what I go for. You know, you've just got to get out and try different things. I think I'm a hard worker. We work some very long hours here. I like going to remote areas. It means I'm away, I can't do anything; I'm over in a different part of the world. I don't take my phone with me. Too many people get caught up in the drone of life. 'Work hard, have fun, reward yourself,' is what it comes down to, I think. GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC Well, we're funists, so we set out to be happy. The biggest stress in our life was me going off to work each day. I was working as a gardener. So we decided we'd do something at home together. Yeah. so we came up and bought a property up here to make a cafe. It's not a dress rehearsal, so you want to have the best possible life you can. Mm. And as the lead McGillicuddy says, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing humorously. So we did. That's the rationale, yeah. In 1981, we first met. We met through my then boyfriend. Yep. Then I ended up buying his motorbike, and Judy came as pillion. So Judy was my first girlfriend. First and only, yep. So I don't know about heartache,... (LAUGHS) breaking up, any of that stuff. Don't ask me; I've no experience, so... The jester is the symbol of the McGillicuddys. The court jester was the person in the court who could tell the king how it was without fear of getting his head chopped off. As long as he did it humorously. As long as he did it humorously. So that has been our underlying philosophy. And just that whole funism that McGillicuddy espoused, I mean, it was absurdist politics, but made sense to me. I've stood for Parliament I think six times and for mayor locally because I want the world to be my way. I think the best I've done is I got 10% in a mayoral election, which by McGillicuddy standards is phenomenal. Phenomenal. You got your money back. Yeah. I'm the only McGillicuddy to ever have got my deposit back. The first year when we opened our business was really tough. I remember our neighbour saying, 'If you succeed, I'll eat my hat.' You know, it was pre the cafe culture, really. And he came over a few years later and he said, 'I've come to eat my hat,' cos it had worked. Strange little thing in the middle of nowhere, really, when we started. Doesn't matter if you don't know it all. If you want it done, do it. Do it. It was just a little wee old cottage here at the time and some tumbled-down sheds, and we've spent the last 18 years building. Being able to practice your hobby, which, I guess, is design and architecture, have this opportunity to build all these buildings, has been fantastic and fun. One of the rationales from the McGillicuddys was the 500-year plan ` to have a house that would last 500 years using recycled timber. The main structure was part of the old Nelson wharf. We made the earth bricks and rammed the earth ourselves. One of my design criterias, I have to be able to swing a cat. So if you stand up and swing,... (CHUCKLES) holding on to a cat's tail, you're not going to hit your` Cos I'm quite a tall person. Not that he's ever done that. No, I haven't, but a piece of string with a ball on the end. (CHUCKLES) No cats were harmed in the building of this house. (CHUCKLES) I suppose the most unusual one is our giant boot. Bed and breakfast. Size 318 giant's boot, and it's a really efficient little cottage. One of our original plans when we moved here was to build a windmill, because we'd lived in Holland. We had plans that we'd brought from Holland with us and things, and there's no wind. There's no wind. (CHUCKLES) We didn't do it. No, we stuck with a boot. Yeah. All our buildings seem to have names. The Wiggly Wobbly, that's the treasure. And we were deep in the McGillicuddy thing at that time, and it was a political experiment to build a house for less than $1000, built from here. You know, it's a very human-sized and liveable space. Some people say it's like being in the belly of a whale, with the ribs. The manuka sticks are from the old tobacco kilns, and it's the earth from the ground here. It's not quite big enough to swing a cat, but if you did it horizontally, you'd be all right. (CHUCKLES) Yeah, for a couple, perfectly adequate. You're only limited by your imagination. If you can think of it, you can do it. We wanted to have somewhere where we could say, 'We come from here.' I can't imagine living anywhere else now. No. I never look at the real estate pages. Not having to think, 'I should paint the walls beige because that'd be good for resale.' The whole creation is our creation. It's how I like it, and if I don't like it like that, we change it. Or we don't like it like that, not I. (LAUGHS) If Judy doesn't like it, it gets changed, is what I should say. BOTH LAUGH For years we really did struggle. We weren't measuring our wealth by money. We were still measuring it` Even then, when we were poor, we were measuring it by our happiness. We've got to a really lovely place in our life and our relationship, and I can't see it doing anything but just getting better. 6 Upper Moutere, it's a real community. Lots of little businesses ` winemakers, olive growers and artists, sculptors. They have a passion about what they do. They're unique. And I think once you're here, it's quite a hard place to leave. Yeah, it's just a nice place to be. A lot of my work comes from what's around me. NZ natives, pohutukawas, shells, flora and fauna. I'm passionate about colour. Colour's really important to me. Red's my favourite colour. But then, I like orange and I like green. Pretty much like all colours. I'm quite a positive person. I like fun. Biking ` that's one of my favourite things. Frocks On Bikes was a national organisation. A small group of us got together and decided that we'd like to start a Frocks On Bikes thing in Nelson. And it's friends that like to put on frocks and shoes, and we all get dressed up and go for little local rides. It's all about getting dressed and going on your bike for a picnic rather than trying to get to the top of a hill. Yeah, no, it's a different kind of biking. It's fun. The colour, as well, is good. It's the frocks too. I like quite vintage-y things. Yeah. I'm probably a bit of a girly girl. Happiness is, for me, ooh, having a good pair of shoes on. (LAUGHS) I don't really know where my love of shoes has come from, but about 20 years ago I bought a pair of shoes, and I couldn't wear them because I had to keep looking at them. I think of them more as three-dimensional little pieces of art, in a way, of some kind. So I guess I started collecting shoes. I tried to count the other day, and I think it was about 130 pairs. I've always liked shoes. I used to try shoes on at my grandmother's. My favourite ones are probably my Melissas, which are recycled rubber shoes from Brazil that smell like bubblegum. A friend of mine, Sue, said, 'You've got such a fetish about shoes. Why don't you make shoes?' (LAUGHS) So I gave it a go and made some shoes. I've been making them ever since. When I started making clay shoes, that's when I met a whole lot of other ladies that liked shoes as well. They like the clay shoes, and then they talk about their shoes that they have, all their different shoes. How they store them and where they put them. So to me it feels... it's good. There's all these other women out there, as well, like me. ACOUSTIC GUITAR MUSIC I was brought up on this farm, spent my whole childhood, and I think I always intended right from a young person to make it my home for my lifetime. My whole life is going to be on this place. I'm the fifth generation of children and grandchildren now, to make seven, so that's pretty special. Pretty special for us. Horses have been a big part of the property right from the beginning. My dad, when he turned 15, his job was the teamster. Did all the ploughing. All the, sort of, agricultural work was done with horses, so a big part of their life. I have to say my generation wasn't very used to horses. My wife and I did not know how to ride, and I was in my early 30s before we learnt to ride. Like a bit of a scratch, don't you? Like a bit of a scratch. (SNORTS) Billy, um` Got Billy as a 3-year-old. He was going to be a potential trek horse. A local family sourced him for me and told me where he was in the property, and said he'd stand out cos he was a nice colour. He stood out, all right. When we got there, he was in the neighbour's vegetable garden eating their silver beet. And, uh` But he was a nice-looking young horse. He's a Clyde-y cross. He turned out to be pretty sensible. And rode him every day for the early part of his life. We built a relationship. We just go exploring. Sadly, he had a terrible accident when he was 4, and he got tangled in a fence really badly. Just about took his life. And he had about a year recovering from that. So whilst I couldn't ride him for that period, I was pretty constantly attending to him, dressing him. Three of his legs were badly cut. He had a wound on his hip and on his side. His lungs were affected a little bit as well, cos he'd been upside down for quite a period of time. Just spending that time with him, him and I were very close. And then he gradually got strong again. And now he's been my main horse for the last 10 years, yeah. Am I a good rider? Uh, no. (CHUCKLES) I'm a farmer that can ride or, you know, can get the job done. I do have lessons. I am having lessons. Had one this morning. I think my horse is a bit brighter than I am. I think that's the trouble. Actually, riding has opened up some wonderful experiences for me. We've also got involved in the Richmond rodeo. Myself and a good friend do the arena clearing. It's our job to get the bulls out of the arena after they've bucked off the poor old cowboy. Come for entertainment, there's no doubt about that, and we give it to them. Very few of those cowboys stay on. When you face that bull, you can tell straight away whether he's angry and gonna charge, and it's about 50/50. I've made a little deal with Billy that I'll do my very best not to let him get hit by a bull, and I think he trusts me there. I think if I know him at all, he actually really does enjoy his day out there. We do a lot of training for it. He gives it his best. Great day. COMMENTATOR: He's holding on. Over he goes. SCATTERED APPLAUSE But he's all right. He's up. Well done. BRASS BAND MUSIC PLAYS GENERAL CHATTER, LAUGHTER On square, girls? Yeah, pretty good. > ALL CHUCKLE (BLOWS WHISTLE) Once a week, every Friday, 10 o'clock we practise. I'm Bev Clementson. I am the coach of the Motueka Veteranettes. Have been for 19 years. I used to march when I was young, in the 1950s. Marching was very strong then. And other things got in the way, and marching fizzled out, actually. Nobody wanted to do it. And then leisure marching's come in strong. All those girls have started up in later years. We've got some over-80s, and every one of them is well into their 70s. But we do what we can. I enjoy the fellowship of the girls and the fun we have. It's lovely. (TURNS OFF MUSIC) Well done. When I was a teenager, our coach was a man called Bill Skipper. He was in the navy. And we dressed ourselves as sailors ` sailor hats, all white. It was a great thing to get into. I marched for the Riwaka Rivals, cos I was a Riwaka girl. And I did that when I was about 17 right up until 19, 20. I thought, 'Well, why not now? Get into it now?' I'd never done anything like that. And I always thought the girls looked good, and I always thought, 'I wish I could do something like that.' So I was late getting into it, but I love it. When I started, I couldn't do it. Was always shutting my eyes. I didn't know where I was going. (LAUGHS) I wasn't even walking straight. It was dreadful. But you practised really hard, and you did a lot of extra practice at home. Yes, and I do practice at home. Yes, I do. I push the garage door out a bit. (CHUCKLES) I worked on it and worked on it. Bev said, 'Oh, you've done well, Betty, practising at home,' and I said, 'Yes, I've got the bruises to prove it too.' Listen to the music when you're doing your bits and pieces. It seems to slow down a little bit. Can you hear me, Betty? You can do better there, all right? She's got the patience of a saint. We often tell her that. She's great. By the centre. Quick, march. One, two, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Betty, where are you? Right, we'll go back again. 'But no, Bev's very forgiving.' Watch your line. Look at your line. Right, start again. The take-off wasn't particularly good. Well, she's like us, she wants us to do our best. We don't want to disgrace ourselves. ...four, five, six, seven, eight. What happened there? Right, the salute was better. Much better. You don't want to be marching, like, just straight up and down. I lie in bed and think of all sorts of ways I can move them around the field. I had them doing the goose-step once. (CHUCKLES) We weren't very happy with that. No, they didn't like that much, so we can't do that sort of thing. We could have done that 10 years ago, but it's a bit harder now. That's right. That's right. Well, there's always Fieldays everywhere. Each year there's a South Island Fieldays. And occasionally, we go up the North Island. We've been up there a couple of times. Got the badges to show where we've been. We have a great time, don't you think? Yeah, I think so. What goes on tour stays on tour. BOTH LAUGH The theme is V. A big blue pill with Viagra written on it? ALL LAUGH The best thing I ever did, joining the team. I wish I had got into it earlier, because I would have got a heap of friends out of it. Here I am 10 years later, and I was 68 when I started. It's quite a commitment, where you think, 'Maybe this year I might give it away.' But I think we're such a tight-knit little family, it would be a hard thing to step away from, I think. And what else would we do with our Friday mornings? Sometimes if we're having a break from marching, we go for coffees anyway. That's right. Keep in touch. And that's good. Team, halt. Think they did it perfectly. Absolutely perfectly. Thank you. Thank you. You don't tell us that very often. LAUGHTER 9 I was born and bred in Motueka. I've invested a lot of years in terms of making sure we have the best rec centre in the country. Sports are this magic tool. So if there's some young people that, um, need some help, you can embrace them within a group of people that are engaged in sport. They have to rely on the person next to them, they have to listen to instructions from the people that are taking the activities ` and they do. We introduced our children at a young age to the sport of roller skating and roller hockey, and they love it, absolutely love it. Finn, you join Bib's team. Do you want to be on there with your brother? My daughter, Tegan, she looks after roller hockey now in Motueka. So she's got about 20, 25 young people aged between 5 and 12. It's a great game. It's a great, skilled game. INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS There's an opportunity, I suppose, for lots of people to influence how children grow up. My mum passed away at a really early age. I've got about five community mums that have been there all the way through. Each one of those had an input to how I turned out. It takes a village to raise a child. There's a chance for any young person to take a different direction, if there's not a community's support round there. There's rewards in participation. There's rewards in having fun and just giving stuff a go. COUNTRY-STYLE GUITAR Way back in 1981, the district council were faced with a bit of a dilemma over what to do with the dilapidated state of the Motueka saltwater baths the way it was. It had deteriorated to the stage where the council reckoned it was dangerous. There had been a lot of concrete break off and there was a lot of reinforcing steel sticking up, which isn't a good thing for a public pool. It was very run-down. Nobody was doing anything, and that's when Nigel and I became involved. And the pool as you see it is very much as we, uh, built it. Nigel was the engineer for it. That's how we became friends, as well. Yeah. You've covered it pretty well there, Bob. Yeah. In Motueka, there's a really good network of volunteers, people around here who take an interest. It's one of the reasons to live here. We call it paradise. It was very much Bob and his knowledge of local contractors. Bob here is involved in all sorts of things and always has been. The district is very lucky to have him. (CHUCKLES) Careful, Nigel. BOTH CHUCKLE Yeah. Everything worked beautifully. A local concrete supplier gave us all the concrete, and a local engineer gave us a crane. The entire pool was concreted all free of charge. It wasn't a job that got done in a month; it was a genuine two years' work. It's not like a project on land. The tide quite often beat us. One episode there, we lost the boxing, didn't we, Nigel? Yeah. It floated off in the tide. All these sort of things. Sometimes it wasn't very easy. They thought that pool was on its last legs, and here we are today, business as usual. There's so many things in the community now which people say, 'Bowl it and let's build a new one.' It's got a patina and a history, and that is a reason to save it. I generally try and have the pool open by Guy Fawkes. If that pool isn't open by then, my phone starts ringing, and the old ladies want to know why isn't the pool open. 'Get down there and do it.' Yeah, it's good. Without Nigel, we couldn't have done it. I'm sure you would have, Bob. You've found a way to do everything else around here. I can't think of anything you haven't been able to do. It's nice to do something and get an achievement from it. It's there, it's never going to go away. You know, there can be hundreds of people use that pool every day, and that's where the kids like to be. Looking over the rail today, I looked at Nigel and thought, 'Yeah, we made this happen,' you know? SPLASH! SEAGULLS CALL RELAXED GUITAR MUSIC We were born in Germany, and we moved to NZ when we were nearly 7. Our family travelled lots, and on one of these travels, Mum and Dad discovered NZ. We grew up in paradise. We really did. We have always been active. We would spend every break` ...playing bush tiggy, which meant you weren't allowed to touch the ground. You had to be on a tree and... ...swinging off ropes. Set up massive ropes courses everywhere. And we've always been monkeys ` running, climbing, jumping on each other and balancing. We've always loved being physical. It's just in our blood, I think. We don't know where it started. Probably in mummy's tummy. TINKLING HARP MUSIC Our parents always said to us until the age of 3�, 4 we would hit each other, scratch each other, pull each other's hair. And ever since age 4, we've been best friends. We've always been very creative. Performing was always so much fun. Building the props and making the costumes. We always thought it was more like a hobby. Mum reminded us that there was a circus school in NZ, so we looked that up and applied for that. We got accepted, and no turning back. And that's, kind of, when we first started the circus school. It was like, 'Yep, this is what we're meant to do.' There was no even thinking about it. We were just there and... ...it felt really, you know, like we were in the right place. That was definitely... ...an inspiration. BOTH: Yeah. Growing up travelling lots, it's always been in our blood and still in our blood. Choosing to live in a house truck just feels so natural. Justin, Jola's partner, made amazing designs for a castle truck. He showed me this picture with turrets on the back, and I was like, 'Wow, this is amazing, Justin. 'We have to build this.' We did, and it looks pretty much like the design. (CHUCKLES) I always dreamed of living in a castle. I was trying to avoid building a spaceship, so I went into the past instead of into the future. Everything folds and moves around. It's definitely small, but we don't mind. And it all still works. People love it. I mean, they're totally a joy to see it. I always call it a tiny cabin but a big truck. (CHUCKLES) We love to travel, and I guess that's one of the reasons why we chose the job we do, as well. We performed in Nelson a lot and felt very welcome. I remember going, 'You know, this is a place I can imagine myself living one day,' and it came true. (LAUGHS) Riverside Community has been running 75 years. Being twins, we've always loved being around other people. Living communally so close by with other like-minded people, people that you want to interact with and get together with to have dinner and play games. Yeah, supportive place for children. There's a lot of other families that have kids here, and been a beautiful place for our little boys to grow bigger. Both our children were born here too. We dreamed of having kids together, definitely. We talked about it, but never thought that it was gonna be this close. We always say that they planned it. Two and a half weeks. Very close. Manu was, I think, born one day after Piko's due date,... (CHUCKLES) so they're definitely twin cousins. I always knew I would love being a mum, but it's even more amazing than I expected, yeah. Lots of people say it's hard work. It's worth every minute. They're going through a phase at the moment where they love biting and pulling hair, but I think that'll pass. I think they will be best mates. Yep, definitely. They love each other. Growing up as twins, we've always loved being together. We understand each other a lot and know what we're thinking about and doing... ...without having to say much. Yeah. We used to get a lot of comments from friends, 'Man, do you guys ever fight?' Like, 'You always get on.' Nothing that's ever stayed. We've always liked different men. That helps, I think. We love it ` working together. It's so much fun. We've always liked the flow of symmetry and working with the fact that we're similar looking,... ...and often we play with the twin theme, I guess. Just came really naturally to put duo acts together rather than work on solo acts. It's pleasing to the eye. And we don't see it, as such, but we feel it ` you know, it's that unity. The wrong move can be a mistake, but luckily that doesn't happen very often. The fact that we know each other so well, you don't have to build up trust; it's already there, it's been there our whole lives. (CHUCKLES) We just really trust in each other, and a lot of what we do involves that. We're, in the end, putting our lives at risk. Jola's fun, creative, gentle, playful... So many things I could describe. I don't know how I would describe Nele. BOTH LAUGH Go on, try. She's... amazing, everything you could wish for. We've always been there for each other and always had each other, ever since we can remember. Can't remember it any different. Yep. We love each other. We're best friends. 5 LYRICAL PIANO MUSIC First started playing piano when I was about 2 years old. There was an old honky-tonk piano in the basement at my parents' place. Apparently, I would disappear for hours, and I'd say I was finding the notes that liked each other. Kinda think that's still pretty much what I do, actually. (PLAYS LILTING TUNE) Playing somewhere like this is where the inspiration comes from. The birdlife will gather around. And nature around us is a form of music that we maybe don't really tune into very much or understand very well, but certainly they react when I bring the piano out. It's really fun. There was a period in my, sort of, mid-teens where I entered into a realm of, sort of, more competitive piano playing and recitals and competitions and things, and I stopped enjoying it at that point. Started playing the didgeridoo... (CHUCKLES) and I started playing hand drums and mbiras and little ethnic instruments. I stopped playing the piano for 15 years, probably. I came to this region touring with a band that I was drumming for. So it was music that brought me here first. And like a lot of people that visit this place, I just, sort of, fell in love with it. And I'd made some friends here, and I kept coming back year after year. I'd met an amazing woman, and we were getting along really really well. From the very first time we met, we talked about sailing off to the islands. That was her dream, and it was the first conversation that we had. She was planning adventures, and always this aura of excitement around everything that she did. Maliah was an incredible person, and she was only in my life for such a short time. But in the time that we were together, she taught me so much about living, and living really well. She died in a climbing accident when we were climbing together. It completely shattered my whole world view and everything I thought I knew about anything. Um, yeah, it completely cracked me open. Um, but, you know, we carry on. Mm. LILTING PIANO MUSIC CONTINUES That was one of the, you know, hard times in life that really just pushed me into a whole new chapter of my own life, which eventually lead me to trying to make a living out of music and quit the day job. I started playing the piano again. I came across this forlorn old piano in the Motueka dump out in the rain, suffering terribly. But, you know, straight away I knew that it was saveable. Most of the keys worked. And, yeah, sort of started a self-imposed piano tuning and restoration apprenticeship. Yeah, those two strokes of fate have totally shaped my life since then. Maliah would never settle for second best. Part of what I'm doing is just trying to be more like her and give what I can to the world that's the most uniquely me. And I've never really looked back, actually. My van is an old Bedford CF. The piano just fits inside. There's something about the ambitiousness of actually, like, travelling with a piano. It's not the easiest instrument to move around, obviously. The bottom line is there's really not much that I love doing more than playing music ` whether I'm playing publicly in the streets or by the lake or... Some of the places I've brought the piano out, it's the last thing you'd expect to see there, you know? There's something I love about the freedom of busking and the fact that it feels to me more like it's something that's given for nothing. If you can win over the crowd that haven't paid money for a ticket ` they're just on their way to work or they're just picking up the kids after school or whatever ` if you can connect with that person, there's something more real and sincere in the connection. It's just a very beautiful, honest way of offering what you've got to share. It's just very affirming that this is actually, you know, the best thing for me to be doing. We're all on borrowed time. When you start to consider the fact that, you know, that this might be your last day on the planet, it inspires us to just really try and live fully, and that's really what I try to do. For quite a number of years, probably like lots of people, I just, sort of, playfully nurtured the dream of sailing to the islands. The sailboat seemed like the next step. I decided I wanted to get my own boat to live on. I've got no idea what my life would be like now if I'd made different decisions. Losing Maliah is such a potent kind of a life lesson. There's definitely a leap of faith involved there, you know? But I've managed to find a way to make a living out of doing something that I really genuinely enjoy. The world is really what we make of it. RHYTHMIC DRUMMING Luminate festival, yeah, I've been involved with for many years, providing drums and drumming. Drumming, all you have is rhythm, and everybody can jump in on that. Just sorta takes its own form and direction. It's like being on a roller coaster or something ` you sort of know where you're going to go, but you sort of don't, and you enjoy the ride. JOLA: People from all over the world come to the festival, and it's just such a nice vibe. It's really wonderful. NELE: And it's family friendly. We're not the only ones with kids here. So many other acrobats. And for us it's great ` we just get to play. Putting on the make-up is like a meditation before the show. Kind of zone in, and we usually don't talk a lot. Unfortunately, it's a little bit drizzly, so it might be a bit slippery. Should all work out twintastically. It's the beauty of performing at a festival ` there's... ...festival spirit even when it rains. It's just a wonderful opportunity to share the art of what we do and spread the joy of performing and just... ...inspire. WHIMSICAL MUSIC We love the fact that we're similar and we work with each other. It's part of us now. We don't need to be actively performing until we're 80. We probably could. We'll see when the time comes. (CHUCKLES) DAVE DOBBYN'S 'THIS TOWN' Everybody asks that ` 'Ooh, do you get out in your short skirt?' Mind you, some of us have got not a bad leg. Rosie gets on well with other dogs, except if they try to take her tennis ball. She's not too keen on that. I've only been in the pool once. People who do the most down there do the least swimming. Here in Nelson we have annual shoe sales as well, so that's always handy. (CHUCKLES) Steve has a lot of really good opinions. (LAUGHS) And Judy's beautiful.