oil on canvas, NZ$5,500

 “We don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone”. The fight to save the point (Te Raekaihau Point on Wellington’s South Coast) came down to values. Monetary values, a desire by Council and corporate interests to generate income from the wild coast or the values of wildness to the human spirit. As Wendell Berry said “we need wild places that impact on us - not the other way round”. Fortunately the passion and hard work of the community meant the wild coast remains wild and the rockpools are free; you don’t have to “pay a dollar and a half just to see ‘em”.