‘We see it in our town every day:’ Inside the ongoing battle against meth use in Northland

A few of the whai ora ("people seeking health") and staff at Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub, from left, Ngatama, Te Whetu, Toa, Rhonda Zielinski, Wayne Cresswell and Dee Kopa. Photo / RNZ

By Peter de Graaf - RNZ

Wayne Cresswell hit rock bottom three years ago.

After decades of drug use he was locked up in Christchurch Men’s Prison, his wife was on home detention at the other end of the country, and their five children were in Oranga Tamariki care.

When Cresswell was eventually released, he caught a flight to Northland and walked in the door of Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub in Kaikohe, asking for help.

Fast-forward to 2025 and he is employed at the hub as a peer support worker, back with his wife and kids and clean for 19 months.

“I am living proof that change is possible,” he said.

Cresswell said he had used methamphetamine and other drugs for 26 years before turning his life around at the hub.

He started taking to drug to “suppress my feelings, to escape reality, to numb feelings that I didn’t want to deal with”.

“I believe if you can deal with a person’s trauma and treat their trauma, then you can limit their addiction, because addiction stems from trauma.”

Cresswell said no two journeys to healing were the same.

“My job here is just walking alongside people, supporting them, giving them hope and inspiration. For myself, I just took myself out of my old environment. That was a big thing for me to get clean.”

Methamphetamine was incredibly easy to get, Cresswell said.

“Even just going down to the money machine to get my wages out, I’ve been approached by people asking if I’ve been wanting to score it.

“And I’m just like, ‘No, that’s not my story now’.”

Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub founder and manager Rhonda Zielinski. Photo / RNZ

Cresswell was far from being the only success story to come out of Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub, a decades-long passion project of registered nurse Rhonda Zielinski.

Zielinski said the meth crisis was nothing new in the area.

What had propelled it back into the headlines was a call by Ngāpuhi chairman Mane Tahere for more police in Kaikohe, and wastewater test results showing meth us tripled in Northland last year.

What had changed, however, was that it had become more “in your face”, with people now openly using meth on the streets.

“We see it in our town every day. You see people walking around fried, and it’s not just in our town.

“I was in Auckland a little while ago, and you just see the telltale signs - people walking around, they’re unwell, they’re gaunt, they’re chewing their face off, the hands are twitching, they’re talking to themselves.

“You just see it everywhere. It’s tragic.”

Zielinski said hiring more police or sending users to jail would not solve the problem.

“We need to treat the trauma that normally is the reason for the addiction, and then the addiction is normally the reason for the criminality.

“So, instead of paying for more police to be here, you’re better to actually put more money and more capacity into bespoke local community services that are actually working. Because what we do works. We actually change people.”

A broken lightbulb in a public toilet in Kaikohe is a telltale sign of meth use. Glass bulbs are sometimes used as improvised pipes for inhaling the drug. Photo/ RNZ

Routines were strict at the hub for tāngata whai ora, which could be translated as ‘people seeking health’.

Each day started in the gym at 5.30am; that was followed by kapa haka, counselling programmes, and reconnecting to a language and culture many had lost.

There was also work experience with, for example, tāngata whai ora taking part in the award-winning Māori tourism business Taiamai Tours, which gave cruise ship passengers an experience of paddling a waka.

Experience had taught her what worked for recovering addicts.

“Kapa haka works for them. Gym works for them. Hard-out physical activity works for them.

“Reconnecting with their kids and their families works for them. Kai works for them. Giving service and mowing people’s lawns. All these things work for our whai ora.”

Zielinski said the benefits were enormous - for every person rescued from addiction, an entire extended family was saved.

Sometimes when one person joined, others in the same whānau saw the changes and wanted to sign up too.

She currently had four brothers at the hub, several of whom were high-ranking gang members, who all wanted to turn their lives around.

Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub occupies a corner on Kaikohe's main street. Photo / RNZ

Despite that, Zielinski said keeping the doors open, let alone meeting the immense need in Kaikohe, was not easy.

There were regulatory hurdles to leap - the hub’s on-site accommodation was closed down abruptly by the Far North District Council in 2023 over fire safety concerns - and she didn’t even know if it would be funded after next month.

What was needed was certainty, and more funding so the hub could scale up and meet more of the town’s immense need.

“We just need the capacity. I’ve only got a small team - five clinical staff, two counsellors and three peer support. Man, I could double that, easily.”

Among her latest intake was Troy, a 22-year-old fresh out of jail for violent offending, fuelled by drugs and alcohol.

He was one month into a six-month programme.

“Within that month I’ve done more than I have in my lifespan, you know. Like more improvement,” Troy said.

“I’m just highly grateful for this place. It’s taken me a lot to realise some of the things I have potential for, and the things that are actually worth doing, instead of resorting to drugs and alcohol.”

Cresswell said some of the men referred to Whakaoranga Recovery Hub initially just wanted to tick a box and get out of jail.

“But then something happens while they’re here. Being a kaupapa Māori service, we offer awhi, manaaki, tikanga, tino rangatiratanga and other values that help uplift them, and bring them forward into the light from the darkness.”