I’ve never been a big fan of pies. I know that sounds like sacrilege for a Kiwi bloke (especially one who lives in a rural area where pies are considered haute cuisine) but it’s just my personal taste. I’ll admit that a sausage roll I quite like from time to time but a pie wouldn’t be my snack of choice.
Despite the fact that they’re not my favourite, I ate a fantastic pie just the other day. The savoury in question was a product of the awesome Kell’s kitchen, a veritable institution in North Canterbury where I live. Kell’s Kitchen has been serving hungry travellers on State Highway 1 just south of Amberley for going on a decade.
The reason for my pie eating, and the cogitating it kicked off, was one related to emergency services. Over the weekend and into this week, the area I live in had a large emergency services turnout. As readers will probably know, a significant forest fire occurred, one which threatened a number of houses and communities. Our sleepy little town, normally a quiet community, had dozens of firefighters, tankers, fire engines, police cars and helicopters, all present to try and control said fire.
I’m not going to comment about the incident itself – emergency services are doing what emergency services do: they’re hard at work trying to achieve an outcome, getting hot and dirty and having lots of banter while working incredibly hard. As a firefighter who has spent the last three days involved with the response, I’m not so keen on accolades about that – we’re just doing what we do. No, even more impressive, in my mind, than what the responders are doing was the response from the community.
Every time we have a long-duration event such as this one I am struck by just how appreciative the local community is and how they show that appreciation. Yesterday morning the 50 or so personnel present enjoyed a fantastic breakfast organised by local residents under the auspices of the Glenmark Lions Club. I don’t think anyone involved was under retirement age but there they were frying bacon and eggs and fuelling us for the day ahead.
But it’s the small businesses and what they do that most impressed me. Being in business is really tough. Even when times are good the stresses of taxes, staff, finding enough customers and the minutiae of running a business are really tricky. And when times are tough, as they undoubtedly are now, those stresses balloon.
So the fact that businesses like Kell’s kitchen, and her neighbours up the road, Bunco’s cafe, stepped right in and bought boxes of sandwiches, muffins and, yes, pies for the hungry responders is just awesome. At a time when it would be totally understandable were they to focus inwards and give all their attention to ensuring the success of their own organisations, they instead took the time and resource to think about some firefighters working 10 kilometres up the road.
There is plenty of talk about the rural/urban divide in this country. Much of that is created by the lack of awareness about how the other half live. But in those simple pies, we saw the essence of what makes rural New Zealand such an awesome place. People chipping in and doing their bit.
The Glenmark Lion’s Club, those septuagenarian cookers of breakfasts is a great example. Every year one of their members donates the use of a paddock and the club plants pumpkin plants. The bounty of those plants then gets sold to fundraise for community initiatives. From the goodness of the land comes produce that will make life better for those who live from and on the land.
Many of those same septuagenarian members will also be able to be seen one evening this week at the local Residents Association meeting where they will discuss new footpaths and streetlights for our little community and the maintenance required for our local hall. More voluntary input from people for the common good.
We worry a lot these days about the breakdown of society. Social discord is indeed something to be concerned about and there is certainly a worrying fracturing of modern society. But as I sated myself on a hearty mince pie just the other day, it occurred to me that if we cast our eyes to quiet little rural settlements like Waipara, we might just find that things aren’t so bad.
