Hone Pene transformed from addict to community gardener with Te Whānau o Waipareira.

Hone Pene has found peace with his sobriety through creating a lush, sustainable West Auckland Community Garden, with the support of Te o Waipareira pilot programme Ngā Tini Whetū.
Hone was born and raised in Morrinsville alongside his 13 other siblings of which he is the seventh and oldest son. Now at 66 he is retired and living with one of his younger brothers, Graham, in Te Atatū North, spending his days planting, digging and maintaining an impressive neighbourhood garden.

It started eight years ago. Hone aspired to have a community vegetable garden but as his whare was too small, he approached the pastor at the Te Atatū Baptist Church who welcomed the initiative and allocated some space for Hone behind the building.

“It’s all part of my recovery as I am a recovering alcoholic and addict. I’ve been in the programme for eight years and it’s part of my service, it’s really cool”.

It’s this commitment that has seen the garden go from two patches of grass, to now covering the whole rear of the Church and winding alongside the footpath by the carpark.

“Every time I have a spare moment, Graham and I are down here working. We use heat-treated pallets that were donated to make the raised gardens. It all takes time and effort which my brother and I don’t mind because we are committed to keeping this kaupapa going. Sometimes we have people from the Drugs Court and Church parishioners who volunteer their time. I love it. I always need to be here to water the babies.”

Hone is incredibly grateful to Te Whānau o Waipareira and their pilot programme, Ngā Tini Whetū.
“Without their support and assistance we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing today. We are feeding the whānau, the community, the mama’s and the pepi”.

Ngā Tini Whetū pilot lead, Peter Ruka, has known Hone for over two years and is impressed by his humility and talent.
“Matua Hone is a huge gift to our community. His knowledge of the māra is amazing especially native, flora and fauna plants. He backs it up with the whakapapa of the plant, how it arrived into that area as well as its history of that from the migration period. A lot of our korero initially was based on how the Waka-nations came across on the flight of the kuaka and they brought kumara and taro with them. From these invaluable history stories he and I formed this strong relationship that I really appreciate”.

The gardens are lush with vegetables like broccoli, silverbeet, cabbages and lettuces which are used by the church in food packs that are delivered to members of the community, alternatively they are welcome themselves.

Hone has four children and six mokopuna. He was married but addiction brought that to an untimely end. The last time Hone slipped he was absent with his addiction for twelve years. Everything he had started to disappear, his structure, his children, his relationship and he was close to going to prison.

“At that time all I was focused on was me and where I was going to get my next fix from. My life had become unmanageable. I lost everything. I lost the love of my life, the mother of my children. I lost my children and it nearly cost me my life. I realised that I had to get to that first step and admit that I had a problem. I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. So I rang my younger brother, Graham, who had been in the programme and clean for 30 years. He said if I was serious, then I needed to do 30 meetings in 30 days, and if I managed that, then to call him. So I did and it was the best thing I ever did.”
Hone attends a minimum of five meetings a week. It’s a place where he feels welcome and supported with likeminded people, all former addicts, who regularly share their experiences. What advice would Hone offer to someone who had not yet come to terms with the fact they have an addiction?

“Here’s my phone number, give me a call when you hit the wall, because there is a solution. And when they call, I will take them to a meeting. I can’t do their recovery for them. The insanity of their addiction has to be so bad they have to lose everything, trust me I get it, I’ve been there. The difference between the person I am now, and the person I was then is huge. I can’t even relate to who I was back then. I’m ashamed when I think back to how I was and what my priorities were”.
The funding through Te Whānau o Waipareira helps with petrol for his truck, organic garden mix soil which he grows himself, the hothouse materials plus construction and maintenance of all the plants and garden beds.

“Ngā Tini Whetū has given the tautoko and funding to be able to expand what we are doing here and we want to do more. I have had inquiries from Kaipara Harbour about doing a community garden there. There is a housing unit in Point Chevalier for those in recovery and they believe a garden would help support them and their whānau which I agree with”.
And the motivation for Hone to keep going comes in two words.

“My recovery.”