Jon and I are on the ground in Sydney Australia and making great progress–but we’ve just come from a magical week in New Zealand and wanted to send out a salute to all our friends there, and thanks for their great organizing.
We covered the country south to north (which down here in the southern hemisphere means cold to warm–hard for an American to remember sometimes). And everywhere we went, big crowds understood what we were up to, and immediately started planning for Oct. 24. From beautiful mountainous Wanaka to coastal Dunedin (where they’re going to put 350 surfers out in the water!) to Christchurch and Wellington and Raglan and Hamilton and Waiheke and Waitakere and downtown Auckland, our NZ crew led by Aaron Packard was signing up actions left and right. We had huge support from big groups–Oxfam, Greenpeace–and from small community groups (the potluck at Whaingaroa was epic!) and from the amazing youth movement that stretches across both islands. Aaron’s mates Jinty and Carl and so many others are making 350.org.nz the local organizing hub for action planning–we have no doubt that they will have truly epic results.
Which is awfully important, because New Zealand is where the sun will rise first on October 24. Some Maori friends are hoping to make sure that the dawn will find suitable ceremonies underway on the high mountain peaks. Whatever happens, we’re certain New Zealand will be one of the great peaks of our big day of action. So many thanks to all!