SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Driving the Awanui Straight recently, several of the roadside signs stood out, not just for their eye-catching clarity and colours, but for their unintended ironies and for the losses they represent.  

The first that caught my eye is a sign which, unlike its hapless subject, is still actually “on the job.”  

All irony aside, the fall from grace of Mike Sabin, former MP for Northland, is sad.  I don’t know the circumstances that led to his going on ‘gardening leave’ in December, and then resigning from Parliament and politics last week.  But I do know he has family and friends who love him and will be hurting for him.  I wish all the parties involved better days, and hope this sign of their times will soon disappear.

“Kaitaia Airport: Daily Flights – Monday to Sunday,” is another such sign.  But it’s one I hope will not disappear in April, along with the daily service it advertises that’s currently provided by Air New Zealand. 

If another aviation company doesn’t replace Air New Zealand that will be a grief.  But to me it’s just as grievous that we’ve already lost the fantastic service and smiling faces of the Air New Zealand managers at the airport, “aunty” Susan and Serge.  They always went above and beyond to make sure we caught our flights, found our lost items (keys and cell phones being my specialty), and had a friendly face to both send us off and welcome us home.  I wish them well in their new posting to Kerikeri airport, and hope for better days for our airport.

Are there any positive signs of gains, rather than losses, along the Awanui Straight or elsewhere ‘i te Norta’?  Absolutely. 

The Kai-Ora Honey sign is one which evokes a lot of spin-offs and connections into other positive signs of the times.  Initially it caught my eye for the fact that it’s also the name of a little Ngai Takoto girl I once taught Sunday School here in Kaitaia.  She is now a successful wife and mother, as well as the co-owner of Waitakere Funeral Services, along with her Te Rarawa husband. 

Back to Kai-Ora Honey.  The growing manuka honey industry in the north has seen the status of ‘ti-tree’ go from being good for little but felling and firewood, to being the source of many revenue-generating products for the region.  Kai-Ora Honey and the Manakai extraction factory in Awanui are evidence of that, and the fact that they too are owned and run by local Maori entrepreneurs are great signs of the times.

A final example of another such sign is something I’ve observed in recent years.  Of all the many businesses in the region, those that support and partner Maori are doing better nationally and internationally than those who putdown and oppose us.  And a large part of their success is attributable to the fact that their leaders have read, understood and embraced the signs of the times.