Sustainable adventure seeking in New Zealand.

As inspiring a retreat as Release is, perhaps more rousing is the story of how it came to be. Two friends, travelers both of them, were searching the globe for “a life less ordinary” when they came upon Wanaka in New Zealand, an ideal locale for creating a contemporary and sustainable luxury getaway. The friends were of the whale shark diving in Honduras, running with marauding orangutans in Sumatra and backcountry skiing in Colorado ilk. As such, and in true Kiwi fashion, Release caters especially to the adventure-seeking traveler.

Release was designed with privacy and seclusion in mind, although, here the stunning views trump all. The main building sits at the rear of the property playing second fiddle to the beautiful symphony that is Lake Wanaka and the mountains of the Mt. Aspiring National Park.

Every room has a view and the entire retreat also serves as an art gallery featuring interior and exterior work from some of New Zealand’s finest contemporary artists. The furniture and accoutrements are also exclusively from New Zealand companies.

“The vision was to create a sustainable retreat, to last a lifetime,” the founders explain. As such, the retreat features passive solar design reducing the need for heating, energy efficient appliances, storm water catchment, grey water irrigation systems, wool insulation and native gardens.

The owners of Release are also involved with a local tree regeneration program.

Amenities include 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, heated outside spa and home automation (meaning you set the lighting and music scene, be it for dining or ambience).

Ah yes, adventure. Wanaka is located near the Southern Alps and offers boundless opportunities for heli-skiing, motorcycle touring, fly-fishing, water skiing, and more. When you’re done, indulge in hiring the personal chef or wine maker for the night, just because.

Rates range from NZ$1250.00 to $1500.00 per night for up to 6 guests

Places & Spaces is a travel guide that will inspire you to carve out a vacation on your calendar. All of the gorgeous locations and accommodations in our guide share our concern for the environment. From tent glamping to lavish built environments, fair warning, you’ll feel compelled to pack your suitcase.

The privacy watchdogs have been barking hard this season. In case you’ve been off-the-grid, here’s the controversy from the world of social media that preceded one perhaps even larger about DNA research…

This week, Facebook automatically gave its users’ personal information to sites like Yelp and Pandora. Now, you and your FB friends can see each others’ bitchiest restaurant reviews, and worst, one-hit-wonder indulgences whether or not you ever intended to reveal these to one another.

Last month, Google raised privacy concerns when it automatically revealed its email users’ closest contacts to the Gmail public, through the launch of its Google Buzz product. Google Buzz was supposed to have taken over Digg, Twitter, and everything else social media by now but hasn’t, quite partly due to public backlash.

Now, imagine it’s not your social map, preferred menu or your pop cultural sensibilities being scrutinized and seen by the public. This time, it’s your actual hereditary material! We’re talking public, deoxyribonucleic acid blues.

One Native American tribe, the Havasupai, sued and won their legal battle against researchers from the University of Arizona who were using their DNA to run tests for things the tribe never authorized.

According to several legal news sites, the Havasupai initially donated DNA samples agreeing to a project that was supposed to focus on their tribe’s high incidence of diabetes. But the samples kept getting tested. Other matters, besides diabetes vulnerability, became a question subject to the scientists’ inquiries including the tribe’s supposed geographical origins, and their collective mental health.

The environmental implications regarding how a specimen gets used are as staggering as the ethical and legal ones.

Fishing rigs in Japan, for example, may state and are authorized to fish for whales in order to study whale population changes and marine health, or to hunt whales within a quota. But they sometimes sell the whales they “accidentally” catch, or catch for “scientific study,” as whale meat on the black market.

Should they be allowed to re-sell the grand creatures they kill for food if the intent was scientific study? Isn’t it wasting them, not to eat them if they’ve already been hunted?

Or does a scientific and accidental allowance create a black market and culinary demand, as well as disrespect for endangered species?

Finally, if you gave your DNA up for one study, why not the other?

Use the links and resources below to get informed, and talk to us about how much intent matters when it comes to science and knowledge gains for the greater public. Comment below or holler on Twitter @ecosalon.

Basic Reading:

- “The geneticist responsible for the research has said that she had obtained permission for wider-ranging genetic studies. Acknowledging a desire to ‘remedy…wrong that was done,” the university’s Board of Regents agreed to pay $700,000 to 41 of the tribe’s members, return the blood samples and provide other forms of assistance to the [tribe]. Legal experts said [the settlement] was significant because it implied that the rights of research subjects can be violated when they are not fully informed about how their DNA might be used.” – Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA, a New York Times news feature

- A Discover magazine blog post asking what will happen to DNA samples that were gathered before the idea of consent was formalized in regards to DNA research, now that this case was won.

- “The vast majority of the world’s countries are against the killing of endangered animals in but Japan issues itself a “scientific whaling” permit using a loophole in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) bylaws to continue commercial whaling. Every year since the moratorium they escalate the “takes” or kills in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary to include more and more protected and endangered animals.” – A HuffingtonPost blog entry by Louie Psihoyos

Further Resources:

A privacy-focused blog that takes a strong side with the Havasupai tribe

Researchers’ perspectives on the matter of consent and DNA samples, via Swiss DNA Bank

Clashes between environmentalists and the whaling industry continue in New Zealand, a news feature at the New Zealand Herald

Image: micahb37

This is the latest installment of EcoMeme, a column featuring eco news, tech and trends by EcoSalon writer and columnist Lora Kolodny.

Wine bottles littering the classroom floor: not an image most parents and teachers would want to hear about, but at a little school in New Zealand not only are they encouraging it, they are also supplying the wine bottles.

But not to worry. The wine bottles are empty and will be put to good use as part of the Hukanui Primary School eco-classroom The Living Room project. It’s the first student-designed and managed classroom project of its kind in New Zealand.

The empty wine bottles are going to be used as an insulating layer under part of the classroom’s concrete floor. But before they are placed between layers of sand and covered with concrete, the wine bottles are going to be turned into time capsules. Past and present students have been decorating and filing many of the 1,500 bottles with messages not only about what life is like at Hukanui School circa 2009 but also with environmental tips for people in the future.

This is just one of the many steps that the students of Hukanui Primary School have been working on since 2004. Find out more about their  eco-classroom project by checking out their website and watching this video they put together to highlight their achievements so far.

Image: Kris

Got the winter blues?  Feeling a little cold?  Need some sunshine in your life?

Perhaps you need to take a virtual trip to New Zealand. Cause it’s summertime in New Zealand and the living is easy, especially when you have a copy of the latest edition of Organic Explorer New Zealand. Printed on sustainably sourced paper using vegetable inks, it’s the ultimate guidebook for anyone who wants to travel green in New Zealand. Full of information about eco-friendly places to eat, stay and explore, Organic Explorer New Zealand has opened up a whole new world of places for me to visit next time I’m traveling around. It’s even highlighted a few places I never knew about in my own backyard.

Written by Leonie Johnson (who used to be with NZ Organic magazine) and Tony Ward, this beautifully illustrated guidebook takes you on a journey from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island, detailing over 500 places to eat, sleep and play the organic way. New Zealand’s clean, green image has always been a drawing card for travelers. But now, thanks to Leonie and Tony, discovering what’s truly green about New Zealand has just become a whole lot easier.

Order a copy of the latest edition now and if you’re intrigued. I’d offer you mine, but it’s already a looking a little frayed from overuse.

(Or, just click onto their website instead. It’s a comprehensive searchable database providing all the information in the book and more. But be careful, you might just find yourself itching to hop on the next plane to New Zealand.)