October 14

My prayers got answered today and it was by far the best weather since ive been here. No clouds, no wind, just sun and blue skies… wonderful. I decided to make the best of the day and help Geoff out on the beach. We made new signs to be placed on the sand dunes for the upcoming summer season. Signs all pretty much say the same thing aka “Get off the dunes, use the designated pathways stupid” Now they don’t actually say that but its what they try to get across to people. We placed them in South Piha which seems to have the worst erosion problems as well as the most visitors. We will see this weekend how well these actually deter people from walking all over the dunes

On the way back home I stopped at Blairs on the Beach it was the first time it is open and Thomas is working there for extra money. I got the chance to talk to Mr. Adrian Blair himself! Apparently he is not a kiwi but from Britain, and he even lived in NY for a while too. He lives in NZ for the summer and then back to Britain for another summer, he and his wife simply get enough money working in similar places to fly themselves out back and forth living in the summers and enjoying the views. Now Blairs as its name implies is the closest place to get food on the beach and is at a prime location and definetly without a doubt gets the most visitors out of any store in Piha during the summer. It seems to be a logical place to ask about the dependence of tourism to his store. He relies on it completely for here as well as in Britain, if it wasn’t for tourism he would be out of both jobs and have no way to make a living. Before I continue I asked him about contributing to the community as it’s a big part of my study and he seems to be leaning more towards the tourism end rather then ecotourism. He tells me that he sponsors local surfers, has local events, uses only local foods for his store… (side note: Blairs was rated as having #1 best fries in NZ, so far I agree with it) he also does community projects which benefits the environment as well as getting his sponsored surfers recognition in local papers and magazines. So he does give back to the community a bit even if he does have a bit of a monopoly on the fast food type business, haha. For his own purposes he tells me that he does make a decent amount of money for selling burgers and fries, his overhead is pretty low, him & his wife, and one or two employees. He says its not really about the money to him, he does fine business and all but he enjoys the community and the surfing. He seems to truly be a person who enjoys every bit of his life which is great for him but he also likes to share it with others.