My Visit to the Freedom Village at the Beehive in Wellington

My main purpose for this trip was to look at the camp and talk to the long-timers, the admin staff and draw my own conclusions. I also intended to volunteer my time and help in any capacity needed.

I drove, Friday 25 February, from Tauranga to Lower Hutt, settled in my accommodation and then took the train to arrive around 18:00 at Wellington Station.

I walked to and through the camp to get the layout. After walking through the entire camp and the other streets for over an hour I dropped by the ‘admin’ tent for a chat but it had closed at 17:00.

I spent all of Saturday from 08:30 – 19:00 on the site offering to volunteer (several times during the day) at various places (3 x food places, coffee shop, building team) but they had all the volunteers they needed.

To sum up my Saturday at the camp in one word: INTENSE

Lots of people, residents and weekend visitors and lots of noise. It felt like a festival atmosphere.

• It was much bigger than I expected. It’s like a big village. Every usable space on the Beehive’s grounds is covered with tents. All basic services are available, food, water, coffee, First Aid and medical, homeopathy, entertainment for children and adults and a laundry service, all staffed by volunteers. Despite there appearing to be no centralised leadership I have to say that on the whole the camp is well laid out and functions well.

• People I met and talked to were friendly and eager to talk with me. The focus definitely is: Down with the mandates! Also, when something needed to be done there was no shortage of volunteers. Volunteering is really something in the Kiwi spirit! They really appreciate the material and financial support they receive from people from all over New Zealand.

• There is a police presence at all perimeter entrances to the camp though none inside. About 12 – 15 police are between the front of the Beehive and the campers. Campers and visitors can freely come and go without any interference. Police behaviour is courteous and very professional although somewhat aloof. I didn’t notice any threatening police behaviour.

• Graffiti is only with coloured chalk and a good rain will wash it away. The campers are keeping the area reasonably clean. I noticed volunteers going about throughout the day emptying trash cans and removing full garbage bags.

• There is camp (volunteer) security at every entrance to the Beehive grounds and some security volunteers are mixed with and continuously moving through the crowd of people. I didn’t notice any ‘bad’ incidents. There was no sign of any ‘far right’ influence, just normal everyday people

• The campers are definitely digging in: they have planted small vegetable patches; on Saturday they were planting vege seedlings on the north slope between rose bushes.

• Saturday morning there was a hiccup with emptying the portaloos. Supposedly police denied entry of the ‘sucker’ truck to the north side loos but eventually it did happen. Nobody seemed to stress about it.

• Food and drink (no alcohol) is served for free. There are 3 food serving places serving hundreds of meals. What I ate at all 3 was tasty. All food and drink is donated.

• Camp activities: There is entertainment for kids, a play centre, a mother-child care tent, a trampoline and a movie evening. For adults there are various musical presentations. Haircuts are offered for a donation and I took the opportunity to get one. There is a stage for public speaking. I only listened to one person who happened to be the guy who was attacked by a police officer. I was moved that in his talk he thanked the police for being polite and professional and said that because of one negative incident we shouldn’t accuse all.

• People and organisations on site (the ones I noticed): As a rough guess I’d say that well over 50% of the campers are of Maori descent. The Hare Krishnas have a good presence, first of all with one food tent then offering meditation and yoga. Christians (I don’t know and I didn’t ask which denomination) had musical entertainment during the morning and 3 book tables with free books & DVDs. I felt disappointed as they didn’t take an open stand but used this as an opportunity for ‘witnessing’. Voices for Freedom were present. Midwives and nurses had a tent. Health NZ had displays with stories of persons hurt by the COVID jabs. Perusing those displays I can understand why our prime minister, the chief medical advisor, government ministers and all other MPs refuse to meet with the camp dwellers.

• Both on Saturday and Sunday morning came an announcement from loudspeakers at the Beehive that the campers are ‘trespassing’. A lot of campers replied to that announcement with repeated shouts of “Freedom!” Once again this Government signals intent but completely lacks action, same as with 100,000 houses, a billion trees, poverty reduction and light rail. All this makes the Government look like incompetent fools. Funnily enough: they bring it on themselves.

• Summary: I may not agree with the lifestyle choices of the majority of the long term stayers but they have my support and respect for standing up for freedom and not just for a day. They seem determined to hang in until all COVID related legislation, starting with the mandates, are removed.

As an immigrant I say it from my heart: I love living in New Zealand, and the main reason for it is the people!