We survived the Bullet !

A year and a half ride. 35 Issues under our belt. Something both Giulio and I never truly expected to do. Or did we ?

Let’s back track a bit. Set the stage.

During covid, having only recently arrived on the island (Great Barrier Island/Aotea), we observed the local community newspaper the 'Barrier Bulletin' from afar —wholeheartedly wishing for it to provide some sort of comforting truth for panicked minds surrounding us.

The kind of truth we were feverishly day and night uncovering at the time…

We did actually contemplate for a moment to print our own...to share another side of the story for the island to hear...but the idea perplexed our brains a little too much so we poured our views into facebook and here instead.

The Barrier Bulletin however did show us signs of courage —having been in publication since 1972, there was a well versed written history to prove right over wrong. In many cases or topics —it was very clear the path of egoic mistakes amongst personalities or through interactions with nature —to the amount of government influence, coercion or simply ramrading of ideas coated in dollar bills.

The heated debates, letters from residents and printing of the like, proved there was some truth available for reckoning.

One clear point in case, was the relentless poisoning of the island.

Being designated with an intention to become a ‘pest free island’ in the Hauraki Gulf (an area filled with several islands off the coast of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland) Great Barrier Island had become encased in the Predator Free 2050 campaign —an ridiculously ambitious project announced in 2016 to eradicate all rats, stoats and possums from the face of New Zealand.

The atrocities committed through this authorised attitude of kill to ‘save the birds’ could fill an entirel court library —and has been going on long since the early 1950s when the ‘Wildlife Act’ was introduced.

Just to shine a spotlight here —1080 (scientifically known as sodium fluoroacetate) —one of the most toxic substances known to man, has been spread by ground and aerially across our lands prolifically since the late 1950s to kill what are deemed to be ‘pests’. This toxin has fed into our entire eco system, poisoning our drinking waters, rivers, fresh water fish and crustaceans, deer, wild pigs, fish, trees (kauri ‘dieback’ being a suspicious contender) and many other flora and fauna —including us (miscarriages and related deaths are a plenty if one chooses to dig). And we use 80% of the world’s supply.

Great Barrier Island has not (apparently) been poisoned by this toxin, however it has been laced with a close related cousin per se —Brodifacoum, a perhaps even more incideous toxin as it has a long half life and kills the living creature slowly as it bleeds to death (1080 is faster, however extremely painful as the cells deplete of energy).

Shockingly, unbeknownst to many I imagine, Brodifacoum is available to purchase over the counter in the local shop here via the rat poison products. I discovered this for myself in my initial foray into how to deal with mice and rats in the house —after reading the ingredients on the back of the packet when I returned home I didn’t know what to do with the product except encase it in a plastic bag and put it in the back of the cupboard. Peanut butter and a trap was my next step —which worked some of the time.

Cats were the most efficient method in the end, as we discovered. With 1-2 rats’ remains a night at times being laid to rest on our morning carpets. But cats are also now designated an island ‘pest’ to be eradicated.

And this poison point is a pain point for many of the 1200 permanent residents on the island…at least half if not more..

So, I hope this illustrates a picture of life in New Zealand and on our island —when I now go on to the story of us buying the island newspaper the ‘Barrier Bulletin’ —when it came up as an opportunity in October of 2023.

An opportunity so in the flow for us —as passionate purveyors and writers of truth and reality as we see it. And a little part time income to keep us from the streets shall we say :)

We jumped into the business of publishing it with fervour and fun, crafting it around community values and creativity —as opposed to a somewhat propaganda mouthpiece for Auckland Council and the New Zealand Government as it sadly had become. This is no criticism towards the previous owner, as he had persevered passionately for 20+ years, and at 84 years of age, he was done.

Thankfully he chose us as the new custodians of sharing island information, being that he despised the poison point and communist approach of Auckland Council —as much as we did. The ‘super city’ of Auckland had been designated managers of the island (previously it functioned pretty autonomously under another area) for the past 15 years, paving the dirt roads and offering regular handouts to residents in the form of ‘grants’ for *projects* that they agreed to.

If we only knew the battle ground in which we were entering..

Almost immediately (within two months) a new publication appeared, coming out on alternate Thursdays to us — enter the ‘Aotea Advocate’. We noted the pun.

Undercutting our advertising prices and gradually mirroring much of our new uplifting content such as sections on Gardening (interviewing local gardeners), Ocean Vibes (surfing, fishing, diving, beach), Health & Well Being (planting many seeds of alternative options —and in the end Covid jab side effects of residents) and Entertainment (music and art) —but the Advocate had more of an emphasis on how amazingly well the island was doing with their pet poison projects and the like.

We poured our heart and soul into the Barrier Bulletin every two weeks, including all of the sections above, news articles, local resident contributions of quizzes, poems, letters, articles and the reliable references of tides, ferry timetables, what’s on section (what a schlep to do!), gardening moon calendar, sidereal astrology, word finds, memes —then all of the council-related information. Gathering photos of events and advertising copy….invoicing…the list went on.

But what a learning curve ! We learned how to use publishing software InDesign and how to publish something - in print and digital - for REAL !

Some of the projects didn’t like that we now charged for their advertorials. Too bad for them —they now had their Advocate of course ;)

What we uncovered however, throughout our merry go round journey of 1.5yrs was a large amount of corruption, money laundering and conflicts of interest —which we have not shared publicly before, and do not plan to. Who wants to poke the beast these days ?

Our intent was far more in alignment with our values —create the new world around you, by focusing on that which you want to see and live !

And we had praise ! —people stopping us on the street to say thank you, lovely emails.

Thank goodness for that.

We also had the nasty vibes..and silence !

Thank goodness for that ! What a way to build our resilience :)

And then when we finally decided to close the chapter, we had our biggest gift !

A challenge so unexpected, unprecedented, and wild.

We announced (after months of trying to sell) we were going to hold a competition to ‘Give-away the Bulletin’. What a debacle.

Without going into the details (Giulio has written an essay on it which he may publish), who would have thought giving away a viable part time business would be met with such pain ?

A nutshell of losing a friend, being falsely accused and defamed publicly —still to this day —for giving away a HUGE gift ?

Thankfully the Barrier Bulletin has now met its rightfully gifted owner and she is well on her way to publishing it once again (after a two month break).

And the irony —the Aotea Advocate is closing its doors !!! Hilarious.. they did lose the battle in the end.

I want to take this moment to say thank you from both Giulio and I to everyone who shared, cared and devoted their time and energy making the Bulletin GREAT again (haha).

And our friends who stood by us all the way through. We love you and we will miss you !

We feel happy and truly proud of ourselves for even attempting to do it. A fortnightly mission for nearly a year and a half and we survived --the Bullet is officially Out !

We are beyond excited to start our new chapter now on Ibiza, dive into our musical endeavors in all sorts of magical ways and take all we’ve learned in the last 5 years back home to where we feel most us again.

Here’s to 2025 being the biggest year of transformation the world has seen —in the bestest way possible for us all.

Kudos to all those who run community newspapers --it's truly a task !

x Simone (and Giulio!)

If you're interested to read all of the back copies of the Barrier Bulletin that we published you can find and download them here : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-hDufcoyXXsVvsR5o9lbpxDGJ_TvBi46?usp=sharing

..our first photo with our little smiling faces when we took over the Bulletin in November 2023