Tauranga 2025 AGM
Listening to all the feedback, we can proudly say that the 40th Biennial Conference and AGM was a resounding success.
The range of speakers was diverse but all with a common theme of looking after the land and its plants and the people will be well.
Robert McGowan is a Rongoā Herblist and he spoke as the after dinner speaker on Thursday evening before the AGM. He particularly talked about caring for the land.
Muriel Christonai is a vibrational healer, scared musician and founder of the Deva-Diva Essences range. Her work invites reconnection with Nature’s consciousness through sound, mindful awareness and essence medicine. This recent article on The Conversation seemed rather relevant: https://theconversation.com/women-folk-healers-were-branded-as-witches-but-their-treatments-may-have-been-medically-sound-266406
Carolyn Eichler calls herself a Prepper Kiwi and spoke about The Survival List – 100 Wild Things that she created after the first Covid lock down when she realised (because of her background from working in a pharmacy) that if our prescription medicine supply dries up then we will need to know which plants we have will supply us with medicine and food. https://www.facebook.com/PrepperKiwi/
Dr Sandra Clair is a medical herbalist and her focus ‘What’s in a Name’? By looking at the names of plants, you find the effects are often encoded into them. She explored both the traditional and modern scientific research giving lots of delightful examples.
Rixt Botello is also a medical herbalist and her talk was called “A little does can influence the future of our herbal friends”. Her core belief is what matters most is the love from all ‘life’, to preserve for the future generations, not solely humans, but rather our green herbal friends, as without them we are nil.
A series of workshops to choose from completed Friday afternoon’s activities and this was followed by the Anniversary dinner in the evening.
Saturday was the mystery bus tour and two busloads took off to visit five different sites. We visited a very productive garden on a 400 sqm site, a very huge 500 year old Pohutukawa tree, a commercial herb nursery called Nudo Herbs, and Websters Teas before heading to the Te Puna Quarry for lunch. We then had time to explore this amazing local project and where the Tauranga Herb Society have a herbal garden to care for.
AGM
The AGM was held after dinner on Thursday evening. As many of the current executive were standing down there was a need for new people to come forward. So it was with much relief that six people put their hands up to do just that. The positions are yet to be allocated and will be announced as soon as they have been finalised. All the reports can be found under Conference 2025, in the members only section of this website.
Our current president, Karina who was standing down from her role was made a life member, for all her contributions to the HFNZ, especially during the last eight years as President. The presentation was made at the 40th Anniversary Dinner.
In short, the 2025 Conference reminded us why our herb community thrives on shared knowledge, genuine passion, and a deep respect for the land.
Big thanks to Helen, the Tauranga Herb Society, and every speaker and participant who helped make “Living with Herbs”a memorable experience.
