On Wednesday I went to the opening performance of “Fallout” playing at the Basement theatre.

It’s a play about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by French government agents, 30 years ago this July. But it’s equally a story about NZ and its people. It was really brilliant. It made me laugh, cry, remember and be glad that Bronwyn Elsmore had written and Jennifer Ward-Lealand had produced a play that did the story justice.

I always feel nervous about how people will tell that story. For me it’s a little too personal to get any really solid distance, but this time I was really glad that my feelings about it matched lots of the younger people from Greenpeace who went – some for whom this really is history. They loved it too.

There are only four actors in the cast and over the hour they becom... Read more >

Yesterday, the calm of our peaceful flotilla was broken. In 24 hours we’ve gone from a collection of yachts enjoying the company of whales, sharks, dolphins along with a lot of other spectacular Tasman wildlife, to living in the shadow of Anadarko’s monstrous drill ship the Noble Bob Douglas.

As the sun rose this morning over this beautiful section of the Pacific, the scene was dominated by the ugly sight of ‘Bob’. Just to give the size of this behemoth some context, Ros on the Baltazar described it’s approach yesterday like this: "Even while it was several miles away we could hear the roaring of Bob's engine room fans & see black smoke pluming" - you can imagine what it’s like floating here less than 500m from it!

We’re not only out here to protect this unique environment, we’re also h...

Out on the Tasman it is still, sunny and calm. The water has been so flat lately that, ironically, it’s technically known as "oily seas" because there’s a sheen over the water. Take note of this though because it’s the only time you’ll ever see me happy with oily seas!

The SV Tiama awaits the Noble Bob Douglas at the deep sea drill-site about 110NM West of Raglan

This morning as we all sat on Vega having cups of tea and eating chocolate biscuits a very large right whale breached and wandered through the middle of the boats. It stopped the conversation in its tracks as we all stood open-mouthed, pointing.

This is also a very popular area for sharks (with their fins on) which has put a few people off swimming but did not dampen Barclay Armstrong’s standup paddling spirit as he took...

We’re very close to the site where Texan oil giant Anadarko want to drill, around 110 nautical miles off the west coast of New Zealand. November’s warming sun in our eyes, the stinging salt water on our faces and the whiff of sun cream in our noses say that summer’s on the way.

But today I can pretty much only think of the cold cells in St Petersburg that hold our friends. The Arctic 30 have been imprisoned by the Russian authorities for nearly two months now. And today we heard that the prosecutor is asking for a further three months while they carry on their investigations.

The authorities have already taken two months to investigate an imaginary crime in which the so-called perpetrators sent out a news release explaining exactly what they were doing, and then released detailed video ...

I am setting sail with the Oil Free Seas flotilla. We’re heading towards the site where the now infamous Texan oil giant Anadarko will attempt to drill. It’s about 110 nautical miles to the west of Raglan, and around one and a half kilometres under the ocean. A blow-out here could see oil belched into seas, and slop onto our beaches. Even Anadarko’s own information on the disastrous effects of an oil spill shows this. But both they, and their ‘yes-men’ in the National Government, have refused to release this to the people of Aotearoa.

I should be clear here: both the oil industry and the government are hiding the possible effects of an oil spill from the people of New Zealand.

Our children want fresh surf to splash and fish in. But this is not the only reason I am sailing. They also wan... Read more >