The Spirit of Karekare

Tim Roberts reviews this sublime book – a must for any adventurer in mind, body or spirit. You'll be hooked on the stories and lavish photos. It's the perfect lifestyle book and you will feel much better for reading it

Many of us have something deep and powerful trapped inside that is bursting to get out. If freed, this something threatens to sweep your life clean of the clutter and desperation and reorder many of your ways of living, thinking, feeling and being.

Please be aware that this gorgeous, wild and passionate book might just unleash this within you and there is every chance that your life will become different, larger and more adventurous after reading it.

This book is about a love affair, a relationship, but not with a person. This love is with a fragment of paradise that goes by the name of Karekare Beach and also with its surrounding coastal community.

But, like every archetype, this version of paradise has a dark shadow. It is not just beautiful, inviting and huge; it also has the potential to be dangerous to unsuspecting swimmers.

This is a place where nature's potential for violence is
just below the surface. Karekare is truly awesome in the old-fashioned sense in that it combines inspiration with a potential for dread, at least to the reckless swimmer or paddler.

I had the privilege of going to Karekare Beach on Auckland's untamed west coast in Aotearoa, New Zealand, in 2004. My life has been mesmerised by that encounter ever since.

You may have seen this beach in Jane Campion's 1993
film, The Piano, or in a host of films or adverts since. Apparently, Conde Nast described Karekare as one of the top-ten beaches in the world.

Karekare has a wild and soulful magnetism that attracts film-makers and discerning visitors and captures those free spirits who choose to make her their home.

Rolling Thunder points to a fundamental truth about humans – we long for the energy of nature and the bosom of community. In Karekare, you have both in abundance.

You drive an hour out of central Auckland, through the forestclad Waitakere Ranges and along sinewy roads. As you park and walk to the beach, much of its majesty is hidden from your eyes but your ears are filled by the ocean's primeval pulse as it resonates within your DNA.

The waves pound the vast expanse of the black-sand shore as though the Almighty's percussion section was wading through the surf. Then you cross a creek, climb a small mound and your mind crashes!

One of Earth's most precious places is looking deeply within you. You freeze, but just for a second as you try to take in the grace of this place. Then you move forward into the wide horizon but it's too late because your life has already changed. Karekare has just been introduced to you.

Many beaches are too small in spirit to meet the power of the ocean on an equal footing. Karekare is different. With its rugged hills, confident cliffs and the verdant forest, it is a place to explore, linger and compare other places to.

Not only is this book a coffee-table masterpiece, it is a sensual tour de force with the potential to become a cult classic and for some, like me, it is also part of the right of passage to a healthier state of mind.

A wise man once said that only half-a-dozen books change our lives – Rolling Thunder is one of my half-dozen.

The author of Rolling Thunder , Bob Harvey, is in many
ways as enigmatic as the beach. He founded one of New Zealand's largest advertising firms and is now the Mayor for Waitakere City and it is through his shaking and moving that this city is the pioneer of the eco-city concept.

I guess that one of the reasons behind his drive to protect the planet is that Karekare has got into his soul the way its sand will get into your shoes.

Bob has a connection with Karekare that stretches back over decades. He has been an active member of the life-saving patrols for many years. Bob has created a work of art with this book. Indeed, it won the prestigious Montana Award.

The pictures are sumptuous and the writing magnetic. Several themes emerge and not just the grandeur of nature, although this is the life force of the book and is reflected in the stories of the residents and histories that Bob includes.

We are given a glimpse into the past of this community with many old sepia and black-andwhite photographs. Then there are the pages of art – and what amazing art it is. It brings the reading experience to life.

Bob interviews several fascinating local characters including artists, an architect and, my personal favourite, a Chi Kung practitioner and healer named Te Ao Hou, who performs standing meditation within the breath of a waterfall that wouldn't look out of place in Zen paintings.

I only wish I had such scenery for my own Chi Kung
sessions. Te Ao Hou is also a surfer and he says that at Karekare he is abundantly charged with energy.

There is a riveting section on the history of surfing at this extraordinary place. Did you know that Maori practised three forms of surfing in New Zealand? One with a board, one without a board and one with a canoe called a Kopapa.

When I read this extract to my eldest daughter she thought I meant that Maori used to surf standing up without surfboards. She looked amazed and said:“Wow, typical New Zealanders; good at every adventure sport!”

This sublime book is a must for any adventurer in mind, body or spirit. Even if you never intend to go to New Zealand you will be hooked on the different stories and lavish photos. It is the perfect lifestyle book and you'll feel much better for reading it.

As I live in the UK, it also inspires me to get to know my own coastal communities and maybe to experience the hidden beauty and passion of our beaches. I think it's all about wavelengths.

Just as a police siren is the same wavelength as a child crying to get attention so Rolling Thunder is on the same wavelength as your spirit. Please enjoy it.

And now a personal request – if you choose to go to Karekare please revere the place. Take good care of it and those you meet. Remember that Karekare will be watching you!

Rolling Thunder author Bob Harvey says: “Karekare is not for those who prefer safe landscapes. There's an overwhelming sense of place here. The moment you arrive, you know this is a special place. You either like it instantly or you're out of here fast, never to return.

“At the carpark, you can hear the booming surf. It comes at you like rolling thunder, echoing off the valley walls and pushing into your ears. The great, gnarled face of the Watchman keens the sound and sends it hurling towards you as you jump the creek before heading towards the beach.

“Do this at night and the beach amplifies pure sound,
picking up bass chords from the collision of waves against Paratahi Island and sampling the shoreline
surf action on the way in.”

Further information

If you want to read more about Mayor Bob Harvey, who is a role model to any who seek to do good, visit his website www.waitakere.govt.nz/Mayor/index.asp

If you are a police officer working in partnership with local elected members, they may be interested in adapting the ecocity movement to their own wards.

Rolling Thunder: The Spirit of Karekare is by Bob Harvey, Exisle Publishing Ltd, www.exisle.co.nz

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