Cool School
Kia ora koutou,
It is now over 7 months since Laurence and I finished our winter odyssey on Christchurch’s Sumner Beach.
Spring bounced away, summer shone and the last leaves of autumn are falling here in Bundanoon, as a wintry blast hits.
The big news is that 27 April saw the opening of the Climate Resilient Shipping Container Classroom pilot project in Vanuatu that Alpine Odyssey Aotearoa fundraised for, thanks to the generosity of many of you. It was a great day, some details below.
Some fundraising has continued since we finished the journey, including some lovely ladies in Melbourne, believing it was high time I got a haircut while in town, donating $2500 if I would. I would, I could, I did!
Also some news on the film of our journey and more.
We’re looking forward to a snowy winter on both sides of the Tasman. As a little winter enticement here is a short video produced from our journey for the six Selwyn skifields west of Christchurch.
Climate Smart Classroom opens at Suango village, Vanuatu
27 April was the culmination of so much hard work and generosity by so many - the incredible team on the ground at Save the Children Vanuatu, CMA CGM who donated the 4 containers, Save the Children Australia, Save the Children NZ and the Government of Vanuatu. And of course the generosity of so many who donated through Alpine Odyssey Aotearoa.
Whilst it was good to be on the stage at the opening with the Hon Jotham Napat, the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, and other key players, as well as Ambassadors and High Commissioners, it was seeing the joy in the faces of the kids (and teachers) as they took their seats in the classroom, in a fan cooled, solar powered space, logging into the provided satellite internet. A far cry from the tent that had been their classroom space for well over a year.
I have to say when I visited the site three days before, I doubted things would be ready in time. A week of near torrential rain had slowed progress, but a weekend of non-stop work had everything ready.
“Every child deserves a classroom that is as strong and hopeful as they are. Climate resilient schools are essential to help avoid disruptions to childrens’ learning when crises strike. When we build classrooms that can withstand a changing climate, we are not just protecting buildings, we are protecting a generation’s right to learn and to feel safe. In Vanuatu, we must continue to find ways to help our children on their education journey even during times of disaster.”
Relvie Matariki, Save the Children Vanuatu Country Director
You may recall that the idea of this first classroom is as a pilot project from which much will be learned, to then scale the project up across Vanuatu and made available to other South Pacific nations, nations on the frontline of climate change. As well as being hopefully much more resilient to the ever-increasing power of cyclones and storm surges, as well as earthquakes, the container classrooms are much quicker and cheaper to construct than the usual Vanuatu school building.
You can listen to Relvie and I discussing the project here.
The Film & The Funding
There’s a load of work happening with the Alpine Odyssey Aotearoa film, a film that will not only celebrate our winter journey through spectacular NZ, and the challenges it brought, but will celebrate bike, snow and mountain life. It will also twist and turn into Laurence’s accident and recovery, through the journey and landscape, with the positive message, seen through the lens of Vanuatu in particular, that the accident of climate change can still be recovered from if we really go all out as Laurence did.
We want the film to be essentially positive - a fabulous journey through a stunning country, the always amazing human kindness, the messaging - using great footage and a woven narrative to entertain.
To this end we have a great Director on board in Hayden Griffith and an Impact Producer to help focus some of the messages, all working toward completion of the film in late 2026.
Not representative of the actual film, but with some nice footage, you can view a reel here.
We’re busily raising production funds for the film that will come from commercial partners, possible grants, and donors. If you are interested in supporting the film then please do reach out to me at huw@huwkingston.com.
From Laurence
The question is always “what’s next?”. However, my answer is often not “what’s next?”, but “what’s been?”. I always find that coming into winter is more a time for reflection. The Māori whakatauki, ‘Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua’: ‘I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past’, speaks to the influence of past experiences and turns on its head the idea of “looking forward” to something. Now whilst biking backwards is a skill unknown to me, reflecting on lessons learned, friendships made and carbon burnt, is possibly a more user friendly experience. And sets us up for reflecting on ‘Mo tātou, ā, mō kā uri ā muri ake nei’: ‘For us, and, for future generations’. How much complexity do I need in my life, and what can I leave behind? For me, quiet time with the family, and seeing the Vanuatu classroom project come to fruition, have me sitting with my cup running over, just in time for the end of the lunar year, and possibly, maybe, could be, hopefully, a cracking good ski season.
The Printed Word
For those who prefer to sit down with a coffee or a glass of something, along with the printed word, a few articles from AOA are out or will soon be. These include in Issue 16 of the global The Bikepacking Journal, the June-July issue of Australia’s Great Walks magazine and the winter edition of New Zealand’s 1964-Mountain Culture. You can read the articles here »
Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail – The Multiplier Effect
Friend and Bundanoon local Angus Rea bid highest for the Adventure South NZ cycling holiday, an auction as part of our fundraising. He decided to book on an Alps 2 Ocean ride for early April. As word got around Bundanoon and elsewhere, soon there were a couple of others joining the fun, then a couple of others, then a couple more. Ultimately 9 joined the tour and much fun was had riding from Twizel to Oamaru, a great outcome for Adventure South too.
A Final Word
When in Vanuatu I interviewed Haruka Shing. Haruka, 17, is a NextGen Ambassador, a Save the Children programme supporting young people to build skills in leadership, communications, media engagement and climate advocacy, while providing safe platforms for them to influence decision‑makers at local, national and international levels.
At the end of the interview I asked Haruka for any final comment. She pondered for a while, then:
“Young people doing things inspires me, young people who are using their voice, who are speaking up against inequity. Young people need to remember their voice matters, even if it seems the world isn’t listening. Our future is in jeopardy and we have the right to speak up about it.”
