Greenpeace New Zealand Weblog

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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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 »

The Esperanza and the Rainbow Warrior (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

Ahh Lyttelton, town of seething port, rolling hills and the heady Wunderbar. And temporary home to two Greenpeace ships. It doesn’t happen often, and it’s quite a sight to behold in little old New Zealand. The Esperanza (which was down in the Southern Ocean over the summer chasing the Japanese whalers) and the Rainbow Warrior are now stern-to-bow at Jetty 3, Port Lyttleton. There are many other big ships in here too and i have to say the Rainbow Warrior looks a little like a bath toy in comparison. The Esperanza has been here for a few weeks in dry dock and is due to leave for oceans work in the Pacific on Thursday.

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Sir David Merritt the poet of Lyttelton (C) GREENPEACE / Sharomov

We had some interesting encounters at the Port of Lyttelton last night. Soon after we arrived we had Tim Barnett (Labour MP for Christchurch Central), Brendan Burns (Labour’s candidate for Christchurch Central this election), Nicky Wagner (National MP and candidate for Christchurch Central) on board for dinner with the rest of the crew. We tucked into many of the magnificent array of tasty delights that Babu whips up every night, and made a massive dent into the gigantic punch bowl of tiramisu that Tim’s partner kindly made for us (we’ll now be eating both pumpkin AND tiramisu at every meal).

Over dinner we chatted about the ship and her crew. We also waded into a discussion about climate change and the need for a 30% by 2020 emission reduction target and policies to tackle emissions from the agriculture sector. It was great to have them on board with open ears. And they seemed pretty stoked to be here, even taking photos with Dave, our wooden dolphin, at the bow. Read more »