day six - 02.01.05

Handing out nuke free stickers at Tahuna

OMMUNAL SLEEPING is drastically underrated, particularly when member(s) of your group are struck with an affliction that closes their airways resulting in endless snoring. Whatever the others say, I slept well!

Nelson provided us with a spectacular night. Cool, clear and crisp – quite different to what we’ve been used to thus far! Although small and compact, the heritage look of the city's CBD left many of us impressed. Their cinema's not bad either, and we can all thoroughly recommend Team America: World Police. Matt Stone and Trey Parker have outdone themselves, creating a masterpiece of pseudo-musical proportions. Their most well known creation, South Park, shone through with many subtle references back to characters (Cartman as Kim Jong Il etc). They also massacred other films and political figures ("You're breaking my balls Hans [Blix]. I told you, I don’t have any WMD's").

	Tony hands a pack to a young Nelsonian

Come morning we traversed Nelson’s CBD handing out youth oriented 'passports' produced by the city council and our own Nuclear Free stickers. Both were received well by locals and tourists alike. Labour was instrumental in establishing our nuclear free stance in the 1980's, and clearly New Zealanders now consider the policy very much a part of our country's identity. We're proud to be ambassadors for this message of peace in Nelson: the peace city. At about midday it occurred to us that many young 'Nelsonians' might well be enjoying each other's company (oh, and the sun) at Tahuna beach... with some shopping done, we loaded FKII and headed for the golden sands and turquoise water.

Johnathon, Di and Tony in Nelson

Tahuna lived up to its reputation as one of New Zealand's best beaches. Scorching sun meant our "cool" nuke-free message was well received; many a sticker was handed out with promises of affixing it to the Cortina. Dragging ourselves away from the sun and sea was hard, but the hitchhikers we helped to Havelock made up for it.

David and James had become stale, and as we had designated Knoxy a lycra-free zone they were made to bike from 50kms north of Kaikoura to the Canterbury Underwater Diving Club (which isn't actually underwater). They made the jaunt in an hour and a half or so just in time for dinner (rumour has it a benevolent truckie helped!). We often make reference to David and James' cycling exploits because the original "Clarions" were cyclists who crossed the English countryside spreading the message of democratic socialism. We thought it was important to stay true to the spirit of those original pioneers.

	Fun in the sun - finally!

A fantastic dinner (complete with an alcoholic chocolate mousse) was prepared for us by Nick, Tony's partner. The man's an absolute ace in the kitchen. With our stomachs full and energy levels high again, we're feeling confident about assisting with the recycling effort in Kaikoura tomorrow (one of our community projects) before heading off to Christchurch. We're over halfway through and still going strong!! - ROB

day five - 01.01.05

Brendon Burns coordinates beach cleanup

APPY NEW YEAR! This morning we awoke from what must have been our shortest sleep so far after celebrating the end of 2006 with cheap Indian food and bad dancing. As usual the majority of us chose to fight reality as we slept through our alarms. Without Jacinda cracking her whip it was surprising we made it to the ferry terminal at all! Awaiting us were our new additions to the tour... Bus driver Gavin and his two dogs, trusty dashboard companions. Gav proved his reversing prowess early on on the Arahura. Things bode well.

	Nouveau derilicte: Donald, James & Jac

The three hour ferry ride gave us a chance to catch a little more sleep, devour a few lukewarm pies, and watch as the rain set in over the mainland. Thankfully the ferry crossing was still and flat, just what was required for those that were feeling a little fragile after a long night. From the looks of the sky we were about to partake of what we have all come to know and love over the past few days: community service in the rain. Rubbish bags as coats were the order of the day and modeled competently by all members. James and Jacinda cut particularly striking figures as you'll be able to see from the photo.

Brendon's campaign caravan

We were greeted in Picton by Brendon Burns, the Labour candidate for Kaikoura. A big thanks to him for organising the beach cleanup project and for the coffee to warm ourselves afterwards. We ate and drank at Le Cafe - fifteen coffees at once must never be an easy ask but they did fantastically - thanks to the great staff. Just as an aside, if the local papers report that a bunch of young people were out doing PD work on New Year's day, that was us! All the locals seemed to keep their distance while we combed the beaches... evidently they thought that only people under court order would be crazy enough to pick up rubbish from the beach on such an awful day.

	Gav steps up to fill the big shoes

The afternoon saw us back on Knoxy for a curly drive to the not-so-sunny Nelson where our carefully pre-planned accommodation for the night had been flooded out. Fortunately the lovely people from Whakatu Marae stepped in to save the day. I never would have thought that anyone would be so willing to take in ten random soaked youths. Thank you Whakatu Marae. - DI

day four - 31.12.04

Painting at Vincent's Art Workshop

T WAS AN EARLY START at Kate's house with most people waking at about 7am. Through the moans and groans the group's spirits were lifted by the smell of organic bacon frying in the kitchen. Kate was clearly aiming to follow the most lavish dinner of our trip with the most lavish breakfast. She's going to be a hard act to follow. After packing our gear Robert heralded us from the buss with a "final boarding call" over the PA and we were shortly all aboard the Fort Knox II bound for Wellington. Spirits were so high that fifteen minutes down the road an emergency return trip to grab Di's wallet caused nothing but amusement.

We had a quick stop in Levin to grab a snapshot outside Darren Hughes' office and have a chat with the friendly Otaki locals. Upon arrival in Wellington we jumped off the bus, left our luggage at the fabulous YHA (thanks Holly), to meet the Wellington Central MP, Marian Hobbs, for lunch at Wholly Bagel. The friendly staff coped admirably with our ever-changing orders and were amazingly tolerant of our frequent furniture rearrangements.

	Murray. Legend. Enough said.

After lunch we headed across the road to Vincent's Art Workshop. Vincent's is a place with a truly open door policy - while well used by people with mental health issues, everyone is welcome - anyone who's feeling creative can go to make some art. We spent about three hours at the centre where we painted an exhibition space wall, cleaned up a little, and got a feel for what its like working in such a creative environment, and one overflowing with personality and talent. Thanks to Glen, Gus, Sam, Theo and the others for their hospitality and enthusiasm!

Group shot, Dazza's office, Levin

From Vincent's we took our banner down to Cuba St Mall and continued to have it filled with messages from young people. The variety of messages never ceases to amaze. "I love Tuis" was our pick of the day by one of our younger contributors.

Dinner was at Masala where we were joined by Tim Barnett, the MP for Christchurch Central. Tim couldn't stay long, it's not a well known fact but he's quite the Scribe and P Money fan. Following dinner we hit the streets with five large bags filled with condoms to distribute to New Year's party goers in the city. By this time we were as cheerful as those on the streets and found ourselves in Civic Square counting down to the New Year. This was followed by the unavoidable dancing and singing to 80s hits [video to be posted shortly if I can smuggle out a copy - ed].

Today marks the end of an era. Murray, our trusty bus driver leaves us tonight. A heartfelt thanks to Muz who showed spirit and spunk in taming the beast of the Bedford. Legend has it she's cracked many a driver. Not Muzza. Thanks too to Mrs Muzza (Kim) for releasing him for service, we couldn't have got this far without him. Cheers from us all! - JOHNATHON

day three - 30.12.04

James hard at work slashing foliage

ESPITE, OR PERHAPS BECAUSE, there were nine of us sharing one bunk room we managed to get on the road by 7:30am, leaving Taupo after an injection of stagnant coffee from an un-named cafe (or petrol station/cafe (yeah ok, it was Cafe Zip)). Those of us that argued for a longer sleep-in were proved wrong as appalling weather meant that the trip to Wanganui took a mammoth five and a half hours.

The fair lady Knox proved her worth, battling through torrential rain the whole way and hanging on to her left-hand windscreen wiper by the barest of margins. After a stop in Rawahei, Connor's improvisation with a spanner - leant by a friendly local mechanic - said windscreen wiper even performed its intended function, much to our long-suffering driver's delight!

	Drenched, cold, and still they smile...

Our service activity in Wanganui, once we had finally arrived, was to help the Royal Forest & Bird Society in their want to build a predator fence around the remnants of lowland rainforest at Bushy Park Reserve.

We began with an informative tour of the historic homestead before our guide took us to the surrounds of the forest. There our task was to clear as much vegetation as possible from the track running between the fence and the forest.

Di, Orinoko, and Great Uncle Bulgaria

Fortunately, in addition to secateurs and saw, the guides provided an array of raincoats and ponchos for the Young Labour activists who, in their sunny optimism, were woefully unprepared for the tropical downpour. As well as clearing forest, we were treated to the sight of New Zealand's largest Rata tree and some rare North Island robbins.

The remainder of Jacinda's brownies eased our soaked trip to our accommodation for the night where the lovely Kate, of Vic Uni Labour, welcomed us to her parents' comfortable farmhouse. We were greeted at the gate by two friendly wombles which, as it happened, turned out to be eight week old border collie puppies. They had never heard of Wimbledon Common and had little environmental advice to share with the group - the only disappointment of the day.

We are now happily recuperating after a delicious roast and up to the strenuous task of labeling hundreds of condoms with "Stay safe with Labour" and "Don't get screwed by National" to hand over to young New Year's revelers tomorrow night in Wellington. - KATE

day two - 29.12.04

Group photo - Morrinsville mural

ITH THE HOMELY LUXURIES of the Ardern residence behind us, we faced day two of Clarion '05 with some trepidation. Morrinsville gave us clear weather for the obligatory group photograph in front of a local landmark; that being a faded, but still proud, town mural. With Matamata (or "Hobbiton") calling, we set off, keeping our eyes ever on the darkening sky above.

	The banner unfurled at The Mount

So far the atmosphere on the bus has been great complimented by the fact that the bus (the Fort Knox II) has yet to let us down mechanically; all down to the expertise of our driver, and professional raconteur, "Muzza". Knoxy sails through tight corners and cuts up hills, each time proving our skepticism entirely unfounded and seemingly begging us for more.

Matamata enjoyed our company for an hour; time spent stickering and meeting the locals. So far our reception has been nothing but warm, even from those who don't necessarily support our Party.

Michael (squatting) imitates a hobbit

The consensus thus far has been that it's great to see young Kiwis talking about the future direction of our country. This impression was reinforced at Mt Maunganui - our second stop of day two.

With an acoustic guitar ticking over in the background and jaffas to entice the weary, our banner was quickly brimming with positive messages. "Keep it clean and green" clearly resonates as much with younger people as with older generations. Our nuclear free stickers were snapped up and stuck to skateboard decks, bikes and clothing.

We've also found ourselves employing the ballistic PA system that Knoxy's fitted with. We passed holiday salutations to Tony Ryall on our way through Te Puke, to the amusement of diners at a nearby cafe, and serenaded Rotorua with dulcet ramblings.

Now that we're in Taupo with a long haul to Wanganui in supposedly suspect weather ahead tomorrow, we know our tour has the support of those we're met so far. Bring on day three! - ROB

day one - 28.12.04

O WHOSE IDEA WAS IT to start this thing going at 7:30am? Our main motivation for getting up this morning was the thought of the giant feast Judith Tizard was preparing for us! After spending an hour sticking giant Labour signs to out 1974 Bedford bus (which despite appearances is totally roadworthy) we headed off to Judith's for corn fritters, chocolate eclairs, glazed ham, and fruit - 5 plus a day!

	Bullrush with the kids at Dingwell Trust

Our first community project for the tour was at Dingwell Trust, a foster home for kids. We spent a couple of hours there playing games with the children. Needless to say, we were all regretting having overindulged in chocolate eclairs after ten minutes of bullrush.

The egg throwing/catching game seemed to be the most popular, but we all remain deeply suspicious that Kate, the game 'planner' for the day, won with an egg that was dropped at least five times and even remained whole after being thrown against a tree. Game officials are still investigating... :)

Signing the banner in Hamilton

After a swim and a barbeque (where Jacinda found out the hard way that you should never barbeque in your togs) the kids waved us off to Huntly. This is where the Clarion bit comes (cause we know you're all wondering what that's about). The Clarion cycle club was started in the 1890s by a bunch of guys in Birmingham who thought it would be a good idea to "combine the joys of cycling" with spreading the socialist message around the English countryside. Thus, in the Clarion tradition we figured that at least one of us should get on a bike.

David dutifully took on the job and rode from Huntly to Morrinsville, meeting us in Hamilton in between. This was our first chance to lay out our banner and collect a few thoughts from the youth of Hamilton. We set up by a fountain (we were after all in the fountain city) and stayed an hour or so before heading on to Morrinsville. We know you're thinking "why Morrinsville?". Let's just say we go where the free accommodation takes us!

And there it is... the end of day one, Auckland to Morrinsville - an epic beginning! - JAC

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