Far gone in the Far North

I moved to Kerikeri in the Far North in 2019 after the death of my disabled daughter. The reality of life up here is a sea of poverty stretched out across a land in which tiny islands of wealth and privilege thrive.
Living in the Far North, you see up close the damage drugs inflict on communities — grandparents suddenly finding themselves raising grandchildren, the poverty-stricken living alongside the wealthy, and a people struggling to maintain their culture on the land.
Tourists don’t hear about the crushing lack of resources and crumbling infrastructure in the North: SH1 through the Mangamuka Gorge that suffered 16 critical slips in 2022, requiring 747 enabling piles and 317 anchors to make it roadworthy again. Hopefully, it’ll reopen at the end of this year — that’s if there’s no more torrential rain. That same highway through the Brynderwyns — our lifeline to the rest of the country —seems to be closed more than it’s open lately. Potholes tear cars apart and loose metal roads wind through the most stunning landscapes.
Northland is a place where communities and families are torn apart by the latest influx of meth, the use of which is now estimated to be the highest in the country. Our customs team of five individuals are not only tasked with overseeing arrivals into the country by sea, they’re responsible for guarding more than 3,000 km of coastline and 1.25 million hectares of land against the increasing importation of  illicit drugs that plague the area.
Our under-resourced police force at times might only have three officers to protect the area from Whangārei to the Cape. Power prices are among the highest in the country. Then there’s the beautiful Hokianga where the crystal blue waters meet towering, golden sand dunes. It’s a place where, if your house catches fire, you may as well stand back and let it burn because no fire department will make it in time.
I’m told by Jonny Wilkinson, CEO of Tiaho Trust (which supports and empowers people with disabilities), that nationwide, 24% of the population carry a disability, whereas in the North, that figure rises to 29%. Here, caregivers for people with disabilities must travel to Auckland for diagnoses and there is a two-year waitlist for respite . . . pretty tough when you’re locked out of the workforce by a dearth of employment opportunities and benefits are so meagre. He tells me there are those in wheelchairs whose loved ones have no choice but to wheel them outside and wash them down with a bucket and sponge because there’s no bathroom access.
And yet there’s so much to love here.
I’ve had the joy of meeting Mike Butler down in Moerewa. It’s a small town that’s suffered many an economic downturn and is coined ‘Mo-town’ by the locals. I met Mike at a Community Patrol meeting. Of Irish/Māori whakapapa, he’s the chair of a collection of marae around the Kawakawa area. He works tirelessly bringing communities together and working on tikanga-based initiatives. The last time I saw him, he was up to his neck in the mass planting of indigenous species more suited to the heavy rains that flood the area. Mike’s generosity knows no bounds. He walked me through a marae, describing every aspect of the building, the tikanga, and the significance of the old tōtara tree in the grounds of the wharenui where conflicts are taken to be resolved.
As a writer, I’ve found my tribe up here. I’ve met the most wonderful writers and artists, including Lauren Roche who penned the beautiful Mila and the Bone Man, Mike Botur whose horror fiction is too gruesome even for me, and K.V. Martins who accosted me once in a carpark — one hour and a coffee later we were besties. Writing can be so isolating, but the advice and support we offer each other is priceless.
The Far North offers a brilliant and colourful palette from which I drew my latest crime novel, Better Left Dead. Both feature Detective Inspector Nyree Bradshaw. I began writing and publishing my bestselling thrillers on Amazon in the 2010s when someone told me no one reads Kiwi authors.
Better Left Dead by Catherine Lea (Bateman Books, $37) is available in bookstores nationwide.  Set in the Far North, it’s about a police investigation into the death of a hoarder and a recluse who was garrotted with a piece of wire.