It helps to know why one starts a journey. I hope this introduction helps you to know me better and understand why I care so much for water.

I left New Zealand when I was four years old to live in the Canadian Prairies and Rocky Mountains. It wasn't until l was a young man that I stood on the southern edge of the world, in awe, gaping across the English Channel. I had never seen such boundlessness where I could not see land in the distance.

Some years later I returned to the place of my birth.

I awoke the first morning in Davenport, then a small scattering of cottages, and I walked to the harbour's edge. Hard to explain, but it felt like home. I'm sure you have experienced something similar. Without thinking I performed a simple rite, dipping my arms into the cold Auckland harbour, letting the wet water drip down and wash on me as I raised my hands to the early sun.

I know it is very strange, but it felt right, like I belonged, and it seemed natural that I should bond again in this spot so close to where I was born, with the water, the land and the air. This feeling of connectedness impressed on me my place in the universe.

Growing in the Canadian Rockies the cycle of water is something to behold. From glaciers, snow caps and thunderclouds, water crashes down carved canyons and valleys. There is beauty in the violence of cascades, and the fragility of alpine dew drops. Living in colours and clouds.

More than 70% of the earth is water. Very little of it is fresh and fit for human drinking. 97% is in the oceans. The remaining percentage is shared below and on the surface. How much is fit for drinking? By 2025 half the world's population will be threatened by water vulnerability. By 2030 in some developing regions water demand will exceed supply by 50%.

I never forget looking into some beautiful lakes in Canada. So pristine, yet so dead. Not a fish, not a plant. Acid rain had claimed almost every scintilla of life that had thrived there. You see it but you don't believe it. You don't want to believe it.

I have not lived one day without water. There is more water in me than anything else.

It is beauty to behold..

And so begins my passion to remind us all how precious water is. We should never take it for granted, but show respect for it's sustenance and mysterious beauty.