Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

The Hellenic Sea coal ship

At 1600 hours today we cast off our mooring lines and sailed the Rainbow Warrior across Lyttelton harbour into a position alongside the Hellenic Sea. With anchors at our stern and bow we will set ourselves in place to block it from leaving port.

A few days ago the Hellenic Sea arrived in Lyttelton and docked near the Rainbow Warrior. This thing is almost 250 meters long and makes the Warrior look like a sailing dinghy.

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The Galley on the Rainbow Warrior

I arrived in Lyttelton two days ago and it’s taken me that long to get a berth on board. There’s been a gaggle of volunteers here, helping with open days and generally getting a bit of ship time, but things have quietened down a little now so I’m on!

I arrived in time to help give Babu the cook a night off by cooking dinner for the crew and remaining volunteers.

Three of us mucked in and fashioned a passable meal for 25. Babu doesn’t give up his duties lightly though. Over the course of our rather messy culinary adventure he made several appearances to stand watch at the door, offer advice, fetch ingredients and smile knowingly.

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I spotted an interesting ‘the way we were‘ piece of historical trivia in the paper here in Lyttelton this morning.

In 1982 the Lyttelton Borough Council was second only to Christchurch in what would be a series of NZ towns, cities and boroughs that would declare themselves nuclear free. This caused quite a stir at the time and because Lyttelton is a major port the move had special significance in the eventual ban on nuclear ships entering NZ ports that remains in place to this day.

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People aboard the Rainbow Warrior in Lytellton (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Despite tight security at Port Lyttelton the open days here have been excellent. We’ve had about 1000 people through the ship. Everyone has been extremely patient as we jumped through the hoops and negotiated the red tape of International Ship and Port Facilities Security Code security regulations.

Here’s some photos:

Don’t be a nerd - save a third (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Jo talking to visitors (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Don’t be a nerd - save a third (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Open day in Lyttelton (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Photo competition winning Piwauwau by Suzi Phillips (Some rights reserved)

The ‘Climate and I’ photo competition drew some great entries — and we have a winner - or in fact - two.

The winning photographer is Suzi Phillips from Auckland who sent us the fantastic image of a Piwauwau (Rock Wren). Our photographic panel picked Suzi’s photograph because it was a great photo but also because it gives simple but powerful reminder of how man made climate change effects the great web of life in unexpected ways.

The piwauwau is a rare and ancient, tailless bird species found only in the South Island mountain ranges. It has recently been added to the list of globally threatened birds. It could very well become extinct as the warming climate lets predators, like rats, live in higher altitudes. (There’s more info on the Forest & Bird website). Read more »

Alex, Deckhand (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Alex is a deckhand onboard. He’s British. Very British. In fact he sounds suspiciously like one of the Famous Five. Alex likes classical music, the colour scarlet and welcoming people on board the ship during open days.

“I like people who are enthusiastic and interested.” Working for Greenpeace was always an aspiration. ” I used to work in the UK as project manager for Cafe; Direct, one of the world’s biggest fair trade brands. And I had always pictured myself getting married and having children. When this didn’t happen by the time I was 30, I suddenly felt quite free and let it all go and went to sea. ”

After working on private yachts for a while, he found a way to mix sailing with some of the issue-based campaigning he’d been doing before. “Greenpeace was perfect for this.” Read more »

Waveney Warth (left) who has pledged to not create any household waste for a year, with Campbell Live reporter Natasha Utting, at Green Drinks on the Rainbow Warrior (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

It’s a tough life working on a Greenpeace ship. Sometimes we have to have parties, for which we’re donated lots of yummy organic food (thank you Pure Fresh), for which the sun is usually shining and to which a whole lot of lovely people come. This occasion is otherwise known as Green Drinks. We hosted our first one in Auckland and we held the second last night in Lyttelton. Green drinks is an international movement where people working either explicitly or vaguely in the environmental movement get together. A Green Drinks group in Christchurch (which has been up an running since about October last year) helped coordinate last night’s instalment.

Once again, Lyttelton put on a brochure evening. And even better, we had lured a couple of local musicians (The Eastern) down to the ship to perform, so banter was backdropped by the sound of banjos, guitars and harmonicas.
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Enjoying a school visit to the Warrior (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

A busy day on the good ship RW yesterday. First a visit by the children of Nova Montessori school – about 30 of them filled the bridge deck with chat and little hands straining for the sky with questions. Campaigner Susannah was in charge. She had, at one point, been talking about cows burping and farting and how this contributes to greenhouse gas pollution. She then started talking about things we can do in our own lives to reduce emissions. There were the usual suggestions like get out of your car, switch off the lights, and then this one kid put his hand up and said “Don’t eat baked beans”!”Brilliant!” replied Susannah, and noted it down for our next factsheet. Read more »

A Lyttelton vista (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Following ongoing negotiations with the Lyttelton port authorities, there has been a small but significant improvement in plans for our public open days.

The key change is that there is now no need to RSVP. All those planning a visit, read on: Read more »

Meet Babu - Cook aboard the Rainbow Warrior (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

It’s one thing to chef on terra firma. It’s quite another to chef on a rocking, moving ship; especially when you’ve got environmental campaigners and activists planning planet-saving antics over lunch! But that’s what chef Babu Pallai loves about working on the Rainbow Warrior. “I’ve only been with Greenpeace for four months, but it’s a different world. The people who come onboard are always friendly, and they care about nature and a peaceful future.” Read more »