I arrived at Christiania in the morning before the crowds and had a really good look around, and met Josephine a mother with a baby who’s own mother was one of the original hippies that sqautted the abandoned army barracks and land in 1971, and set up an alternative community. All the cute dwellings look handmade and I wanted to know if there were any compliance issues, and apparently in the last 15 years they have got pretty serious about it, but all the existing structures are legal. About 900 people live there and it’s all about freedom of the individual and communty resonsibility. I saw the dealers on Pusher Street with their hash and grass for sale. I went into the smokey Woodstock Bar, and had breakfast at a cafe listening to music by Kiwi band Dragon. Then the police strode in and the dealers barked like dogs to warn each others and quickly dismantled their displays and slipped away. It’s illegal to sell hash and weed but as Josephine said, the only people who buy it now are from outside the community. It’s good to see the hippie values of community living and sharing of resources is still relevant in 2019. Perhaps an alternative community area in Auckland would be a good place for people that don’t really fit into the one on offer in exploitive-property-value-obsessed Auckland. Here’s an idea, close the container port, move it to Tauranga or Northland and use the land for social housing – just let people get creative and build communities there. No, I didn’t buy anything dodgy in Christiania – just a lovely tote bag with the Christiania logo.
