Thank you everybody who have participated in the autumn Peace TreeWalk who ran across Motueka River in May 2008.
We gathered at Riwaka Resourgence, the Source of Riwaka River, the Mouth of Takaka Hill, the magic spot itself. Around our first fire were representatives of Aotearoa, Australia, Belgium, Czech republic, England, Hawaii, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Sweden. The music played that night was spontaneous, tribal, melodic, brilliant. The soup was waiting till morning.
Next day, on Sunday, we walked through the beautiful valley along the Riwaka River to Brooklyn Reserve. Pushing recycled prams and carts as they still do the job. Loaded with trees, tents, sleeping bags, food and other essential gear for one week camping. Huge thanks to Hone and Jessica and specially to their horse Banny who was pulling loaded cart all the way to Mountain Valley School at bottom of Graham Valley. That was the destination of the whole TreeWalk. That was where we started on the first TreeWalk in Aotearoa in spring 2006. Closing the circle. That is what we like. Circles. Plant trees in circles. Play music in circle. Get the kids together holding hands and sing some songs. In circles of course. So we did at the first school, Brooklyn School, on Monday morning.
TreeWalk had 18 people on board. A couple of photos for local paper and off we went to Riwaka. Lunch at ATET, admiring their nursery and than delicate visit at Montessori Horizon Preschool. Riwaka School refused visit of Peace TreeWalk without given reason. We reached Motueka just on time. MOTU Idea was our last visit and we had less than half an hour before their home time. And so we introduced ourselves and played some tunes as we did everywhere else. With sunset we got to Ian's, our camp for the night. Very cold night. Frosty night. The tents looked like igloos. Got up early because there were lots of places to visit on Tuesday. And sun was shining as we were visiting Motueka Hospital, Greenwood Kindergarten, Motueka South, Motueka High, Parklands, "atet in mot" and playing music in front of museum. Many thanks to Motueka people and Museum staff for letting us use the public area for our brief street art performance. Night at Rachel and Andrew's, soup by Mexican Rastaman, rice by Galanjah, crumble with feijoa. Next day in town again. Rudolf Steiner School, St. Peter's Channel, Rudolf Steiner Kindergarten, Laura Ingram Kindergarten, Woodlands Resthome. And than the special moment of the day. Powhiri at Te Awhina Marae, welcoming. For all of us, this was a very strong and powerful experience, beautiful connecting with people of Aotearoa. TreeWalk must go on. Last stop of the day, Motu Weka Neighbourhood Centres. Who put it on other end of town? TreeWalk had that day up to 30 people on board. Representatives of Canada, Germany and Poland joined the TreeWalk in last couple days. Number of members of other countries increased. We are one planet, one people, one family. Sharing food, heat of the fire, music and love. That is what it was about. Living as one big family.
The Big Walking Tree with full pot of porridge was playing drum to wake us up. It was Thursday morning. We left the Motueka town on another beautiful day walking towards Whenua Iti Outdoor Persuits Centre. But first we stopped at Lower Moutere School. Kids still remembered us from two years back. Thanks to brother Matua and his family for joining us. What a beautiful place, Whenua Iti Outdoor Persuits Centre. Thank you for the retreat. That day was nice and cruisy and we all well deserved it. John Glasgow is a great man with a big knowledge and we loved to listen to his stories. Hope he will join us next time. We planted some more native trees and came back to Riverside Community, to our longtime supporter. Its hospitality was generous and unforgettable. We didn't play much music that night but the talking circle was fruitfull and the longest. The tree of that seed will know. Thanks to Riverside Community for being.
There was only one more school to visit. A little bit far, about four hours walking, Ngatimoti School. We were back on road, in the country with colorful trees along the way. It was about twenty of us. And the man from Africa. Representatives of all the world continents participated in this years Peace TreeWalk. Representatives of the whole Planet stood in front of the kids at the last school of the walk singing songs and presenting their vision for the planet. One big garden. Paradise. Last time we handed white Peace ribbons to kids and asked them to tie them to a favourite tree with wish for World Peace. Twenty-one trees were planted as an island in the sea of grass to make the area bit more attractive.
We were camping at Mike's and hot pizza oven was awaiting us. It was a long day and we were tired. It felt almost like an end of TreeWalk but there was still one day to go. To get to Graham Valley to Mountain Valley School. We had whole Saturday to get there and so we took it easy and left Ngatimoti in the middle of the day. Swing bridge was swinging under wheels of our tired prams as we were getting closer to our destination while Rowan had been keeping fire to give us some smoke signals of welcoming. Hone's cart decided to stop as its front wheel broke into pieces straight after entering the school. TreeWalk was finished. We had still a few trees to plant and we did that on Sunday morning. Treewalk was then anchoring its energy at Hot Mama's Reggae Afternoon presented by DJ Galanjah and at the following dinner at Alan's place. There talking circle took place again to discuss all ideas and feedbacks.
And so we know that next time we will walk longer. Possibly even further. We will spend more time with the kids as we were too much in a hurry this time. And we will plant more trees. We will plant them with the kids.
TreeWalk will also start collecting seedlings and will establish small nurseries to have plenty of trees for next TreeWalk. However TreeWalk would like to thank to Tim from Titoki Nursery for his work and support with supplying us with rare species harder to grow. Keep you eyes and ears open for 'seedlings collecting mission'. We have also some new ideas for fundraising of the next TreeWalk.
Treewalk would like to encourage anybody with interest in trees to join us and contribute to our tree knowledge. We realize that we need to educate ourselves as well.
