Activist and tourism operator Bianca Ranson (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whaingaroa) is Forest & Bird’s Hauraki Gulf campaigner. A Waiheke Island resident, Ranson is also deputy chair of the Waiheke Local Board.
You spent your early years on Waiheke. How did life there shape you?
Waiheke gave me my love of the ocean, nature and community. I also saw people from all walks of life living together peacefully, whether they were artists, musicians or hippies, and most of them were passionate about conservation. We didn’t have a car back then, so we used to walk everywhere. That really connected me to my surroundings, to the environment. So, from an early age, I understood my community wasn’t just the people I shared the island with, it was all living beings.
