I may be wrong but . . . .

It’s been nearly a year since we moved from Christchurch to Motueka and it feels like a good time for a progress report, not as a “what we’ve done here” diary but rather what things I’ve learnt.

Also we’ve recently enjoyed a great community festival, the Motueka Festival of Lights, celebrating mid-winter and lifting the spirits of the locals. For those not familiar with this event, have a look here for reports and photos.

If my blog is new to you, you may also want to have a look at earlier articles (for example, this one) about what a community like Motueka means to me philosophically.

My experience here (matched pretty much by that of my wife) shows that most of my expectations have been met and opinions confirmed, but some new things have been learnt – mainly about the strengths and limitations of living in a community the size of Motueka (population 7,500 to 14,000, depending on where you draw the line around it) and a city the size of Christchurch (pop. 400,000 and growing fast).

Other lessons learnt (and still being learnt) are about what it can be like to live in a “sustainable” and “resilient” community that may well be able to withstand the 21^st century onslaught of global financial instability, peak oil and climate change.

For a start, I’ve learnt that having fewer choices makes it easier to actually do things. In Christchurch on any day there is a choice of entertainment experiences, so much so that, given almost all involved getting in the car and looking for car parks, we rarely went to any of them. (Especially on the cold winter nights in those parts.) In Motueka good concerts and other entertainments are held quite often, sometimes involving visiting performers but more often using home-grown talent, mostly of excellent quality. And guess what – we actually go to see most of them, mostly within walking distance.

We reside only 5 walking minutes from the main shopping precinct so we use the car far less often than we used to in suburban Christchurch. In winter we drive sometimes when in summer we would have walked or cycled, and we go to Nelson for family and occasional extra shopping or medical excursions, but we realise that if petrol supplies dried up for a month or three our lives would not be disrupted too much.

When we chose Motueka to live, part of the reason was that we didn’t want to be in a smaller village community where everyone knew each other and their activities. Going to that from a city would have been one leap too far. But as hoped, we’ve found the size of Motueka is just right. Almost all the things important for a busy and happy life are located within walking distance, covering a broad range of needs. But it’s big enough for us to know that we will still be meeting new people for many years to come.

We have found that for some locals, even Motueka is too large, and they seem stuck in their own little sub-communities or clubs with little interest in wider community events or activities. Many of the older ones told us that, despite plenty of publicity, they weren’t really aware the Festival of Lights was coming and didn’t really care anyway – they were more interested in their next club meeting and trip away. I guess that happens in communities of all sizes, especially among the well entrenched.

While here I’ve become aware of the Transition Towns (TT) concept. Motueka has a TT group of its own, which is purposeful and active but struggles for traction. I’m quite convinced that the TT concept – basically a green, low-energy, localised economy – is the best for the future, but it’s so hard to go “cold turkey” and switch from a consumption and growth-driven society en masse. I’m confident, however, that Motueka is better placed than many NZ towns to work toward that goal over the coming decade or two, and to weather crises that will devastate larger cities.

I do recognise that the depth and breadth of one’s involvement in a community depends largely on how much time you have, and therefore on your age and family or business responsibilities. I am now edging into the ‘oldies’ category and do have more time on my hands to ponder concepts like ‘community’. It’s easy for parents of young families to become totally occupied in just parenting and have little time to think about wider community issues. But in the parenting process they are also making a big, long-term contribution to the community by raising and teaching the next generation to appreciate their place in it.

And they do. I’ve talked with a few of our teenaged residents who are aware of the positives of the Motueka community and who appreciate what it offers. They commonly talk of leaving to look for the more varied and exciting opportunities in the cities or overseas, but they also say that they can easily see themselves returning to raise families here. We should welcome their adventurous nature because many of them return with vigour and ideas that benefit us all in the long run. And the more welcoming and engaging we make our community to them now, the more likely they are to return.

Even if most teenagers and young parents don’t get involved in wider community projects, most parents nevertheless play a role and make their contribution by helping out at preschool groups, school activities, and sports and other clubs that their kids join. Since arriving here, I’ve been impressed by the sheer number of community groups offering services, support and companionship to people of all demographics.

And finally, the clearest difference I see between community living in a small/medium town and a city. In a community like Motueka, if something needs doing you talk with others like yourself and, if there’s a way, organise amongst yourselves to get it done – yourselves. Whereas in a city your first thought is to find out whose job it is to do that thing – who’s paid to do it – and agitate to get them to do it.