In Lynley Dodd’s book Schnitzel Von Krumm’s Basketwork, sausage dog, Schnitzel von Krumm, is outraged when his family decides to replace his worn out, beaten up old basket. The new bed doesn’t look right, feel right – or smell right! Something must be done…

It is the way I feel about Waiheke. Every day I leave my Onetangi home, and wander down my gravel path to my car that I can’t get up to the house. The car is covered in pigeon poo because I can’t have a garage. I drive down unformed roads without footpaths or streetlights, to a free carpark in the mud miles from the ferry. I share a ferry with countless others, have a coffee, laugh and tell lots of lies, and about 90 minutes after leaving home,  I arrive at work.

And at the end of the day I just can’t wait to get back. There is something infectious about this island. It gets under your skin, it’s not perfect, but just like Snitzel von Krums old basket, it matters not a bit.

This island fits right, it smells right, it looks right. Its not about curb and channel, its not about wheelie bins or street lights. It’s about the very essence, the wairua, the spirit. It;s about Waiheke.

To the councillors who live in that smelly inhospitable city who have no idea what living in a community is, until you have tried this old smelly basket for size, and have lived here a couple of winters, you can keep your big ideas to yourselves. (and you can keep your wheelie bins and Mt Visy too)

The Cynic