While in Dunedin we caught up with some of the folk trying to protect Happy Valley savehappyvalley.org.nz from the threat of Solid Energy’s proposed coal mine in the area. Actually, we’ve met groups of people all over the country that are doing their little bit in this growing campaign.

When talking with them about the campaign it is quickly evident that there some interesting parallels between the issues we are involved with.

Happy Valley is located in the Upper Waimangaroa river basin, not far from Westport. It’s a wild and pristine place, full of beautiful red tussock wetlands and pygmy pines and is home to great spotted kiwi, rare and protected snails and a range of endemic species.

A coal mine there would destroy these native habitats, threaten the kiwi and snails, and pollute the local ecosystems. And of course when burnt, the coal (the dirtiest of all fossil fuels), will add massively to NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the growing problems of global climate change.

Sound familiar? Just like bottom trawling and the deep sea, we’re talking about the totally needless destruction of wild habitats and the life that exists in it in the relentless pursuit of short sighted gain.

And as with campaign to protect the deep sea, hopefully once people start to hear about what is going on and start standing up to say ‘no, that’s not ok’ we’ll see commonsense prevail and action taken to prevent the coal mine going ahead.

So from us here on the road, good luck to everyone involved in the campaign. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about in months to come.

Meanwhile, we had a great time in Dunedin, with some more searching conversations and meeting people really motivated to do what they could to encourage the Government to support the UN moratorium.

For us now its across to and then up the West Coast to Westport as our trip begins to wind its way back home.