More information
Episode 1
Bio Fuels.
Most people don't know any diesel engine can run 100 %
biofuel with no changes to the vehicle required.
Ester Fuels started two years ago. Founders Andre and James
built the plant themselves in 85 days using recycled materials.
Their focus is on the functional not pretty. The facility is
totally sustainable.
They get water from the neighbour and collect rainwater for
firefighting and put nothing back into waterways.
Ester Fuels use cooking oil and fats from restaurants and hotels
through out Auckland, Hamilton, Whakatane, Raglan, North shore and
right down to the army base in Waiuru. They prefer to look
for oils that are either waste or no good to anyone.
Episode 3
WWOOF stands for willing workers on organic farms. It is a
world wide community that promotes awareness of ecological farming
practices by providing volunteers with the opportunity to live and
learn on organic properties. WWOOF is an enjoyable, educational and
safe way to explore and get to know the people in a
country.
Volunteers pay a fee to become a member of WWOOF and then through the organization can access opportunities to work on farms in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Ghana, Hawaii, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, The Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom and United States
Find out more at http://wwoof.co.nz
Radar's WWOOFing yurt stay was at Okuti which also has paid
accommodation options for non WWOOFers. Check out
www.okuti.co.nz.
Episode 4
Schnapp Dragon
Terry Knight .. experimental distiller
Terry runs a small distillery and makes a number of honey based citrus liqueurs, honey based whiskey and brandy.
He prefers to distill it into spirit and age it in barrels. He's
created a place based on the European villages where every little
village has its own distillery and it's all based on using local
produce. That's why honey and citrus features a lot - it' s
available locally in abundance.
He has a commercial kitchen for turning leftovers to jams,
chutneys.
Terry built and started the Awarao lodge in the Abel Tasman. It
was like one of the first eco-lodges. He also created half an acre
of garden to support it and was doing 500 meals a day out from
it.
Part of idea behind what Terry's doing now was about the waste ..
the waste of fruit in Takaka is phenomenal. The economics are not
great for transporting produce out of the region. One
example is Tangelos - 80 tonnes drops to the ground in the Nelson
area, mostly going to waste. Terry snaps them up to make his
liquors.
Terry also knows a guy with 2,000 pear trees who has left his
orchard and gone to Aussie to make a
living. His orchard is just too far out of a major city.
Terry's philosophy is grow it local, process it local and
consume it local. His motto .. There's no fear in our food
it's local.
Episode 6
MICHAEL LAWLEY .. ECO-INNOVATIONS ..
From Michael's point of view the Smart Drive is probably the
most successful manufactured/ engineered item ever made in New
Zealand. It's been made in NZ for about 17 years
now.
All the parts Michael uses in systems are recycled or
secondhand.
How did he get started? About 7 or 8 years ago he was helping
someone out and went down to the tip looking for a Gentle Annie.
What he found was a Smart Drive. He sussed that they
were very useful but didn't want to manufacture something requiring
he spend the rest of his life rummaging round
tips.
A few weeks later a magazine arrived and there was an article
about Fisher and Paykel recycling. He called George and asked
him what he did with all the Smart Drives. He said he sold them by
the tonne. So Michael and George did a deal and Michael started
work on his hydro turbine.
Michael and his family have lived off grid for 15 years. They
have probably one of the biggest systems in the
country. They power themselves entirely from hydro in
winter time. In summer they power themselves entirely from
sunshine. In between it's a mix of both.
This technology is very interesting in remote places ie Africa or
Antartica where it's used to generate small amounts of power for
laptops. Michael supplied a Smart Drive to Africa to a surgeon who
sometimes needed to work at night. Kids power the bike providing
the surgeon with enough light to work by. They also supplied 20
smart drives to a Danish theatre group who wanted the
audience to generate the power for the theatre group's electricity
and light during the performance.
Episode 7
If you want to follow Shawn and Henry's mission to the USA in July
to race for international soapbox glory, follow them with the help
of Waitakere City Rotary at
www.soapboxderby.co.nz
