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Rev Dr Richard Waugh QSM was our speaker in December.

Richard Waugh delivered a very informative and entertaining talk to us on “Pioneering Domestic Airlines that changed New Zealand and Auckland.”

Richard provided an overview of domestic airline development within New Zealand including interesting photos of early aircraft and where they flew. It was fascinating to learn that the earliest airline started on the West Coast, followed by the East Coast, both the more remote parts of the country where air travel would provide most benefit.

With specialist training and interest in New Zealand history, and especially transport related, Richard has authored or co-authored 16 books, many on aviation topics. His latest book, ‘Classic Jaguars in New Zealand’ is his first motoring book. He continues in local voluntary leadership as founding chairman of the Auckland Brit & Euro Classic Car Show at Pakuranga’s Lloyd Elsmore Park, and as chairman of the Howick & Districts 175th anniversary community work this year of 2022. 

Richard had several of his books for sale which several members were pleased to purchase.

Dr Gavin Ellis was our speaker in November,

Gavin Ellis holds a PhD in political studies.He is a media consultant and researcher. A former editor-in-chief of the New Zealand Herald, he has a background in journalism and communications that spans more than half a century. His editorship of the Herald coincided with a period of major redevelopment of the broadsheet weekday newspaper, the launch of the Weekend Herald, and the creation of the newspapers’ Internet presence. A strong advocate of freedom of speech, he was chairman of the New Zealand Media Freedom Committee and was recipient of the British Commonwealth Astor Press Freedom Award in 2005. He was created an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to journalism. He has been a university lecturer in politics and media studies and a regular commentator on radio. As a consultant, he has advised on significant developments in media in New Zealand. He is the author of Trust Ownership and the Future of News: Media Moguls and White Knights (London, Palgrave) and Complacent Nation (Wellington, Bridget Williams Books).

Gavin Ellis gave a very lively presentation drawn from his research on important aspects of the trial of the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque attacks:

The care taken by the NZ media ensured that the focus following the attack was almost entirely on the victims and their plight. Keeping attention on them and what they suffered, their communities and the bravery of certain citizens, ensured that the perpetrator had no platform for his white supremacist and racist views and messages. Nor was the spotlight ever on him. The media, Government, and Justice focus was to thwart his purpose to become ‘somebody’ through this extreme crime.

Gavin described the careful and detailed lengths to which the Justice system went to ensure that the focus remained on the victims. That they could tell their stories and be heard. This emphasis was vindicated in the increase in numbers who felt confident to come forward to have their stories heard at the sentencing hearing. Over 100 such stories were told, after Brendon Tarrant pleaded guilty to all the charges of murder and attempted murder that he faced. His face was pixillated when published in the NZ media.

In contrast the Australian media (Tarrant was an Australian) published his photo on the front page and featured his story rather than the focus taken in New Zealand.

Gavin Ellis presentation was riveting, very well researched and well received by the U3A members

At our October meeting, Mike McRoberts delivered a very interesting and inspiring talk on his decades as a journalist and of his experiences in some of the world’s hotspots.

Mike started his career as a cadet in Radio NZ at the age of 17 years in 1984. From the 1985 Springbok Tour through to the events in the USA of 11 September 2001 and how that event changed the world, Mike has been in the thick of presenting and reporting on major local and international events.

His international reporting from war zones included Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which he talked about in detail. We gained a sense of how he operated in the field – how he focussed his reporting on things that his audience could relate to so as to establish the connection that all good stories have with their audience.

A major aim of his reporting from war zones is to shine a light on what is happening on the ground so as to bring pressure to end conflicts.

Mike has won numerous journalism awards.

Brett Murray was our September 2022 speaker.

Brett gave an interesting account of his eco-tourism trip to Siberia, to see Siberian Tigers. Brett and his son Andrew and two others spent 14 days learning about Siberian tigers as they traversed their territories in a remote Siberian Forest, a 4 1/2 hour 4-wheel drive from Khabarovsk the major city in northern Siberia. Each day, guided by a world-renowned Siberian tiger scientist, Alexander Batalov, the four tourists set camera traps and each night viewed the findings.

The Siberian tigers all have their own route, which they traverse continually taking 8-10 days to do a full circuit. They are very elusive and stay out of sight of humans. They are also very large, with an explosive speed which they use for catching deer and bear prey. The tigers have a 13 ft reach up trees, which they scratch as part of marking their territory.

The eco-tourist group were hosted by 11 Russians in a camp in the forest, and also visited a local indigenous village, where the women and children put on a dance performance for them. They also visited a tiger rehabilitation camp, where they saw a tiger which had received surgery after a fight with another tiger. The Siberian tigers have been rescued from near extinction. Only 40 tigers remained when efforts to save them got under way. There are now 380, thanks largely to the efforts of Alexander Batalov, the tiger scientist who guided Brett and his eco-tour.

Brett’s talk sparked many questions from the fascinated audience.

David Smith gave an excellent photographic presentation of his time in Antarctica. David spent two summers during the eighties as a PHD student, studying aspects of the geology at Cape Bird. He had restored his early photographs and presented a comprehensive picture of the geography of Scott Base and its surroundings. Encounters with the Antarctic wildlife – Adele and Emperor penguins, seals, and skuas and their interactions were interesting features of his slides. A fascinating and very able presentation that members thoroughly enjoyed.

David has had an interesting and multifaceted career before taking up photography as a retirement hobby in 2013. He has a natural aptitude for this and is a Fellow of the Photographic Society of New Zealand and an accredited judge at local, national and international photographic events.

Professor Mick Clout spoke at our meeting on 11 July.  He is Professor of Conservation Ecology at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. He is a long-standing member of the Kakapo Recovery Group and chaired it from 1995 to 2021. 

Mick Clout took us on a journey of the rescue from extinction of the kakapo. Thought to be extinct, a small population of kakapo were discovered in Fiordland in 1947. Studies of the Fiordland kakapo population in the 1990s found they had been ravaged by stoats which had killed all females and young. Only an aging group of around 50 males remained. Fortunately another population of kakapo including females was discovered on Rakiura (Stewart Is). Kakapo breed usually only once every 3-4 years, coinciding with a rimu mast season. A captive breeding programme was established. Alongside this, careful monitoring and supplementary feeding of the wild population enabled their numbers to grow to currently around 250. Establishment of kakapo populations on possum and stoat-free islands including Codfish and Little Barrier islands has further strengthened their survival chances.

Professor Clout has also carried out considerable research into invasive predators.  He is one of those spearheading efforts to make New Zealand predator free by 2040. 

Bruce Pilbrow, CEO of the Spirit of Adventure Trust, gave a lively talk about the work of the Trust. We will all have seen the tall ships owned by the trust on the Waitemata Harbour and in the Hauraki Gulf. Bruce outlined the history of the Trust, with pictures of the original Spirit of Adventure sailing ship and its current replacement, the black Spirit of New Zealand.

The aim of the Trust is ‘to empower you New Zealanders to reach their full potential’. A diverse range of 40 16-18 years olds embark for a 10-day trip on the sailing ship. Each crew of young people is drawn from all over the country, all from different schools and from all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. They are nominated by schools, Trusts, Rotary clubs and other groups, many of whom provide scholarships for the $3500 fees for each participant. The young poeple learn to sail the ship, to come together as a team, to trust themselves and others, and in the process build confidence, relationship skills, bond and grow through the experience.

It was impressive to see a picture the Spirit of New Zealand with all the whole crew of 40 young people up in the riggings, hanging out high above the ship and the water.

As well the Trust brings three areas of focus to their work. Daily the crew impart environmental values, through such actions as stopping to pick up any floating rubbish and cleaning all the beaches they stop at. The next focus is on diversity, reflected in the wide range of young people that participate, as well as in ;the permanent crew and volunteers who support this work. Mental health is the third focus. The ship and the sea are stressful environments, so special attention is paid to see that participants are coping well and are being well supported in this lifetime adventure.

Thank you Bruce, for the wonderful talk and the inspiring work of the Spirit of Adventure Trust.

Rich Easton, CEO of The Neurological Foundation and Taylor Stevenson, one of the researchers funded by the Foundation gave us an outstanding presentation on 9 May 2022.

Rich started the presentation by outlining the activities of The Foundation.  It is funded by donations from the public.  There is no funding from the Government.

He spoke about the things we can do as individuals to keep our brains healthy in a general way – regular exercise, care with alcohol, avoiding tobacco, a good balanced diet, doing puzzles and socialising.

A large number of research projects are supported: the Foundation is a very active participant in this.

The Foundation funds a Chair of Clinical Neurology and the work around stroke and stroke recovery.  If a person suffering a stroke reaches a specialist hospital within an hour endovascular clot retrieval from the affected cerebral artery can be achievable with a good clinical outcome.  Most, but not the more remote, parts of New Zealand are accessible within this time by helicopter.  The hospitals involved are Auckland,  Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch. 

Another fascinating project is the Human Brain Bank.  In 1994 the Neurological Foundation granted the university funds to purchase a minus 80 degree chest freezer, which became the cornerstone of the only human brain bank in New Zealand.

Since then, with funding from the Neurological Foundation, the human brain bank has grown to encompass several staff and multiple freezers with one of the most valuable and extensive collections of human brain tissue in the world. The brain tissue stored in the bank’s freezers provide vital clues in the study of neurological conditions and is a fundamental resource for the researchers working towards managing, treating and curing these conditions.

Taylor Stevenson is a post-doc researcher funded by the Foundation.  His particular interest is Parkinson’s disease (PD) and he uses tissue from the Human Brain Bank to pursue his research.  He described the pathological clumping of certain proteins in PD and how this spreads from cell to cell. This research focuses on non-neuronal cell types in the human brain, particularly those involved in the blood vessel network. His experiments investigate how non-neuronal cells cope with the pathological protein in Parkinson’s disease and specialises in early detection of Parkinson’s disease in the olfactory bulb, one of the first areas of the brain to be affected in cases of Parkinson’s disease.  PD is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease and affects approximately 11,000 people in New Zealand – and growing.  Taylor’s presentation was well illustrated.

The session concluded with a  lively question and answer session.

We were left with the impression that there is a great deal more to learn of the work and activities of the Foundation and indeed Rich offered speak to us again.  It is clear our members would very much appreciate this.

Stephen Hoadley is our speaker at our general meeting on 11 April.  He will talk to via Zoom.  His topic is “Putin’s War”.  He is a highly regarded speaker.  He is an associate professor at the University of Auckland whose current research includes

·       Foreign and security policies of New Zealand, Asia, the United States, Europe and Middle East,

·       Politics and Trade

·       International human rights institutions.

Within the broad field of International Relations, Stephen Hoadley works primarily in the sub-discipline of Foreign Policy Analysis. It entails exploration of why particular governments pursue particular foreign policies, considering not only international opportunities and threats but also the domestic institutions and political influences that shape policies. He treats foreign policies as encompassing not only diplomacy, security, and trade but also aid, cultural exchange, and advocacy of arms control, human rights and environmental protection.

Chris Pilone is our March speaker. He has asked that we poll members for topics of a sporting nature which they would like him to address.

He is an experienced coach of tri-athletes. He has coached four New Zealand Olympians (Hamish Carter, Nathan Richmond, Kris Gemmell, 2012 and Ryan Sissons.) He coached Hamish Carter to Olympic gold in 2004. He also coached Nikki Hamblin, one of NZ’s best middle-distance athletes.

He is a former distance runner with a 2.16hrs marathon PB. His best for 10km is 29.32min and for 5km, 14.07min. During the mid-1980s he trained with the likes of John Walker, Dick Quax and Peter Pfitzinger.

Chris has been a professional coach since 1997. As well as being a successful triathlon coach, he is also a very successful running coach. Of men he has coached a 2.12hr marathon runner, a 13.32min 5km runner and a 3.38min 1500m runner. Of women he has coached a 4.05min 1500m runner and a 1.59min 800m runner. At longer distances a 32.41min 10km runner and a 73.08min half-marathon runner.

He is now a keen cyclist and recreational fisherman. Chris is an excellent raconteur and can talk knowledgably about nearly every aspect of sport: e.g. elite training camps, stories of NZ international athletic success, drug testing, recognising potential in young athletes, differences in training needs of male and female athletes, and many more.

Please let John Malcolmson know what topics you would most like Chris to address. Contact John: email JohnGMalc@gmail.com or Tel 021 499581 or 09 535 8919.