I well remember in 2003 my disbelief when I first heard talk of building a lodge up on Cape Kidnappers. Surely this would never happen on such a precious site! Iconic Cape Kidnappers, the fishhook of Maui, home of the world famous gannets, geological wonder - they must be joking. Then suddenly - blink and you miss it, it was December - hearings were taking place. Funny how December is a really popular time to make decisions. Suddenly there is a flurry of desperate e-mails to friends and letters to the editor, emergency pleas to councillors, and then we await the decision.

I took my place in the Council Chamber to hear what would happen. I couldn’t stay away. Earlier that year I had made my first submission to the Council about another bright idea - The Warehouse on Nelson Park. They thought that was OK. I was scared. The Chamber was full and we listened intently. Councillors opposing the lodge were loudly applauded, other councillors were nervous. Some just didn’t seem to understand. They had made two trips to the Cape - what else had gone on behind the scenes?

Then the vote - four in favour, three against. Stunned disbelief. What are we going to do now? Aren’t the gannets at Cape Kidnappers on the logo of the Hastings District Council for goodness sake! I quickly grabbed my pen and paper and took down all the names and numbers of those who supported keeping the Cape intact. We must appeal this decision. I met Rod Heaps too. He shared my belief, plus his family had lived there for generations, taken tours to the gannets there and treasured them.

Little did he know then of his future career as a politician and ironically, while presenting our case against the Council in October 2004, was also elected a Hastings District Councillor, effectively taking himself to court! We had our list of names and decided to have a meeting quickly before Christmas 2003. We contacted all those interested, as well as the public.

And thus began the process that would dominate our lives for all of 2004, as well as giving us our proverbial "15 minutes of fame". The Cape Kidnappers Protection Society - Te Matau A Maui was born. For us this meant dozens of meetings, hundreds of hours, endless letters, e-mails, phone calls - getting on first name terms with the media and no doubt severely testing the patience of our families, until finally the Environment Court overturned that decision late in 2004. We were up for the challenge.

Our group had several distinctive hallmarks that stand out to me. One, we always started and finished with a karakia, or prayer, offered by each of our members in turn. Somehow that seemed to help us get through all those tricky decisions and robust discussions. Another thing was that our members were quite simply the most diverse group of people with whom I have ever been involved. We came from Te Awanga, Haumoana, Bay View, Napier, Havelock North, Hastings and Flaxmere. We were both Maori and pakeha, grandparents and the newly pregnant, landowners and tenants, on both sides of the digital divide.

But first things first - we decided on our aim. All we wanted was for the lodge to be sited elsewhere on Julian Robertson’s 2,000-hectare property, not on the target site, which had been given an Outstanding Natural Feature designation by the local Council. Contrary to popular rumour, we were never against the lodge development as such, or against the developer. In fact we were very keen to meet with him, explain our position, and perhaps find a solution that was mutually acceptable, and thus avoid the costly and time consuming business of going to court. Good idea. We wrote to Julian, arranged a meeting and on January 20, 2004, nine of us got together for a congenial discussion. Alas to no avail. Mr Robertson was not willing to compromise his favourite site and in the meantime there was another appeal lodged from Charles Gordon, so he would have to go to court anyway. But we tried and it was certainly important to me that we talk to the guy.

I should point out here that in opposing the target site we were in very good company. Appearing at the Council hearing were the NZ Historic Places Trust, the NZ Archaeological Association, and Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, as well as the local kaumatua, Hawea Moananui, who is a direct descendant of the paramount chief of the area and a descendant of the first European landowner.

Conspicuous by their absence was the local Department of Conservation (DOC) who held the responsibility for the gannet colony yet made no formal submission either for or against. It puzzled us that the ornithologist who had advised them was on the payroll of the developers, apparently contradicting the very advice he had given, warning against close development in the DOC Cape management plan.

Also disappointing was the fact that the land itself had never been put on the open market but was privately sold very shortly before a new Overseas Investment Commission (OIC) regulation requiring land to be put on the open market. It would have been highly desirable for DOC to acquire more land adjacent to the reserve to accommodate the gannet population which had outgrown the DOC border, as well as to make all of the pathway up to the plateau colony a public walkway.

It must be pointed out that Robertson had been very canny in his strategy for this development. He had befriended Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, who he would phone at weekends if necessary, and Ross Bramwell, Chair of the Regional Council, both of whom wrote to the OIC in February 2002 supporting his application to buy land. DOC was on his side, as were several local leaders of the iwi, plus the local newspaper Hawke’s Bay Today. Nice work. What he had not counted on was the strength of the opposition, or just how widespread it was. But just in case, he hired famous Auckland lawyers Russell McVeagh to run his court case.

In the meantime our group was heartened to learn that there was an Environmental Legal Aid fund set up by the Ministry for the Environment to financially help groups such as ourselves. It looked as though we fitted well into the criteria given and we were hopeful, confident even. However it was slightly tricky. While our group had been set up to appeal the decision, we had learned that we were not able to appeal on our own behalf as we were not an original submitter to the hearing. We had to do it as a Section 274 (of the Resource Management Act) party - i.e. an interested party - under the auspices of official appellant Rod Heaps, from Gannet Beach Adventures, or Peter Nee Harland, who was taking his own case on behalf of disaffected Maori.

Thus we had a symbiotic relationship where the appeal was filed under Rod’s name, and our group worked to support the appeal by fundraising and public awareness, as well as apply for the legal aid. You can imagine our shock and anger when we discovered that Russell McVeagh had intervened in our application for aid, suggesting that our Society was really just a convenient front for Rod’s business interests. Before we had the chance to correct this lie, our application was turned down flat. Now we appealed for a review of that decision, clarifying the facts for the panel, which relented slightly and gave us almost $5,000 for our landscape architect. To us this was a clear case of breach of natural justice - the gloves were off.

Of course this little hiccup just strengthened our resolve and made us work harder to get support, which I think in the end was undesirable for our opposition. We ran a very successful fundraising trek to the gannets and garnered national support through the media. Now this was a case that people would be aware of throughout the country. In the meantime Robertson had another blow - his engineer had apparently forgotten to get consent to build the 12 bridges on the multi-million dollar road up to the golf course, and he was also being taken to the Environment Court by the Regional Council. However no bother, the engineer was given a little fine, Robertson was absolved of responsibility and the bridges were given retrospective consent by the Hawkes Bay Regional Council.

The essence of the case was whether the effects of the lodge on the environment were more than minor, and whether by effect related to just the visible aspect, or a more "holistic" approach. First of all Julian Robertson’s people and the Council put their side for six days and then it was the turn of Charles Gordon, Peter Nee Harland and ourselves. The essence of Peter’s argument was that Maori consultation was a sham, and that most local marae connected to the area hadn’t even been told about the lodge proposal, let alone voted on it, despite assurances from the taiwhenua* leaders. Charles Gordon‘s expert witnesses further developed the arguments and the three pronged attack proved to be very successful as well as a riveting courtroom drama, complete with tensions mounting through tricky cross examining from all parties. * Taiwhenua – local iwi authority group. Ed.

At the end of eight days in court, Judge Craig Thompson and the two Environment Commissioners spent two days at the Cape itself, on the land and water, and with the beauty of the area only to beguile them, were faced with making their own decision. We could do no more. December 1^st loomed a beautiful quiet day in a busy month. Suddenly the phone rang- it was Rod and the words I will never forget – "Liz, I’ve got some news for you. WE WON, we won, we won, we won, we won, we won, we won!". I danced around the house and shouted with delight. It was 10 o’clock, just enough time to ring the media and make that’s day’s paper deadline, as well as the midday news - but unfortunately before the opposition had received their new by mail. The rest as they say, is history. We all savoured the precious wine of victory, all the more sweet because we knew how David felt against Goliath. So many people were happy for us, right around the country. It has given new heart to a lot of tired people, and I hope has emphasised the importance of speaking up.

Finally, I want to say that I got involved with this issue because I care. I care passionately about the environment and want to leave it in a better state for the next generation, motivated by my own children and future grandchildren. I can’t look them in the eye one day and say "look what has happened to our land - I remember when…." and know that I did nothing. Becoming involved has been a good cure for naivety. It is so easy to rely on our duly elected local body politicians to protect our assets and our environment, without realising that they often have other conflicting interests to contend with, such as developers, which they often support. And of course democracy can only function properly when individuals within it take the time to participate in policy making. We can’t just sit back and let it happen. And we need to teach our children about this. In the meantime Cape Kidnappers is pristine still and we have been given a timely wake-up call which just means that, sadly, nothing can be taken for granted anymore.