Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay

About the Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay

The Tibetan Freedom Torch is a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the Tibetan people for freedom and justice, and of the commitment of people around the world to helping achieve this goal.
The Freedom Torch will be carrying a message of truth and resistance through more than 50 cities between March 10th and August 8th, at which point it will reach the border of occupied Tibet on the day that the Olympics begin in Beijing.
The Olympic torch should embody the ideals of peace and harmony for all, but this year, the Chinese government is trying to use the Olympic torch relay to cover up its brutal occupation of Tibet and abysmal human rights record in China and abroad. At the same time, the International Olympic Committee has rejected Tibetan representation at the Olympics.
The alternative Tibetan Freedom Torch relay gives voice to the true ideals of Tibetans and the dreams of all people of conscience: dreams of freedom, justice, and human rights for all. The flame of Tibetan freedom will burn in all our hearts until Tibetans are once again free to determine their future in their own land.

"Light the Passion, Share the Dream, Freedom and Justice for Tibet”

tashidelek.co.nz

This week the Freedom torch arrived in New Zealand from Mexico. On Monday (a very wet and windy Monday!) the torch came through Nelson. I had hoped to get some great shots but unfortunately conditions were bad due to the ghastly weather. Still the run went ahead and despite the awful day there was still a good turnout and a lot of support :)

The torch leaves NZ next week bound for Taiwan.

We saw a Kakapo!!!!

I have to admit that up until this weekend I did not have a clue what a Kakapo was, and for the benefit of anybody else as ignorant as me I'll tell you.

The Kakapo is a bird, but it is not like any bird you have ever seen, it is so amazing, it just looks like some made up mythical creature. The Kakapo only lives in New Zealand and long ago they could be found all over the country. For millions of years NZ was only inhabited by bird and reptiles so the Kakapo did not learn the defense mechanisms to escape or combat mammalian predators. The arrival of Polynesian peoples thousands of years ago, of Europeans in the 1800's, and ultimately the pets and livestock they brought with them resulted in the massive decline of Kakapo populations from hundreds of thousands to a mere handful of birds.

Back in the 1970s the Kakapo was believed to be extinct, then some were discovered living on remote islands off the shore of NZ. These islands are the only place in the world where the Kakapo has no predators and can live safely.

Thanks to the Kakapo recovery programme there are now 91 Kakapos alive and thriving.

Back in April seven chicks hatched on one of the islands, these were transferred to a sanctuary here in Nelson to ensure their survival. Sadly one of the chicks died but the remaining six thrived. Now at 10 weeks old they are about to be taken back to their island. Last weekend the sanctuary had a big open day so everyone could go and say goodbye to them. The girls really wanted to go, so we took them up on Sunday. Honestly nothing could have prepared us for the sight of them, they have to be one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. If you could imagine a cross between an owl and a parrot, the size of a rooster with zero coordination you'd be somewhere near! They were truly beautiful and I feel so privileged to have actually seen them up close - And guess what? I didn't take my camera :(

The Kakapo is so rare that all of the 91 living birds have names, check them out here, and this is a link to the Kakapo Recovery Programme, it is a really interesting site, go have a look.

A Bad Month

Crikey it's been ages since I posted on here.
Last month has been really crap, I think the stress of the past six months finally caught up with us. Up till now we have been pretty much working on auto pilot and really just getting on with what had to be done to set up the business, house etc.

The new international website was finally launched a few weeks ago and I think it was only then that we realized the enormity of what we have taken on. After thirteen years of trading in the UK we have a database of over 12,000 customers, we get by on repeat orders and word of mouth recommendations. In terms of promotion we don't have to do very much at all.
When we first saw the new database set to zero it was just so scary! and it really hit home that we were in a country where nobody has a clue who we are or what we do. It is like going right back to square one, and it is sobering. We have no guarantees that we can make this work.
This month has been a round of see-sawing emotions, one day we are elated by the challenge of doing something new, then the next day we are worrying about what will happen if we can't pull this off. Ultimately we always seem to come back to the old cliche that 'you'll never know if you don't just go for it.'

It is going to be a long up hill struggle and certainly the biggest challenge that we have ever faced. I am having real problems coping with the lack of technology! New Zealand is a good ten years behind the UK when it comes to Internet usage, we were aware of that but I don't think we realised how much it was going to affect us. Dial up Internet is still very common here, broadband is taking off but finding an ISP who could provide the monthly bandwidth that we use has been very difficult. We have also had to resort to hosting the website on our UK server because there is just nobody in this country who can host a site that is the size of ours. It is things like this that you just don't anticipate that makes the whole thing more complicated than it should be.

Overall though, we are still mostly optimistic and looking forward to the challenge of taking on this New World.