21 July 2023 Rangitoto Observer

AI deployed to track declining tree cover

Artificial intelligence technology is being used in a pioneering trial to assess treecanopy coverage in the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board area.

Auckland Council’s Urban Ngahere (Forest) unit hopes using AI to more precisely interpret aerial photography will improve its understanding of tree distribution on both

public and private land in the board area.

Earlier surveys have put tree coverage at 16 per cent, below the average for urban boards of 18 per cent and well shy of the ambitious city-wide target of 30 per cent.

Howell Davies, senior adviser for urban forests, told board members at a workshop last week that the Auckland-first trial would

provide a picture of changes since the last survey work comparing 2013 and 2016-18.

The area’s tree-canopy coverage on private land – which was just over half of the area’s total coverage – fell by 1.15ha over that period.

Subsequent housing intensification was To page 2

Milford netballer ready for game’s biggest stage

Takapuna, Milford, Castor Bay, Forrest Hill and Sunnynook

Shooting star... Marie Hansen began playing netball at Milford Primary School. Now she is kitted out in a red dress to play for Tonga at the Netball World Cup, which starts this month. Story, page 9.

Takapuna gives all in big rugby finals... p12-13

Botched earthworks leave school fields unuseable... p5

Actor shares tips with Westlake casts... p20

Tall timber missing in local canopy-cover surveys

accelerating the loss, particularly in some neighbourhoods, he said.

“Future development… would pose a significant threat to urban ngahere, especially tall trees, leading to long-lasting environmental impacts and loss of tree canopy cover.”

Davies said tree planting on public parks and roads had helped contribute to a small amount of total canopy coverage growth in some suburbs.

Work using AI had begun to measure changes in tree canopy cover between 2017 and 2023, he said.

The case study using this new technique would be reported back to the board in October, he said. More data would be taken in 2024. The area was the first in Auckland to be assessed with the new technology, he said.

Use of drones for photography will be compared with the former use of lidar (light detection and ranging), using laser technology. A recommendation will be made to council next year on whether to adopt the AI method more widely.

Davies said Devonport-Takapuna was chosen for the trial because it was in the middle range for tree coverage across the city.

Asked if the results would capture tree loss caused by this year’s summer floods and slips, Davies said the aerial photography for the survey had unfortunately been done shortly before the major weather events.

Local board members noted there had been significant loss of coastal trees, including those damaged by storms and removed later.

Davies highlighted the absence of significant large trees in the area. Devonport-Takapuna was among less than half of Auckland’s boards without trees above 30m tall. But it had a growing number in the 3-5m range.

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Davies outlined to the board the regional Urban Ngahere Strategy adopted in 2019, aimed at adapting to climate change and making the city more liveable.

Canopy coverage over 30 per cent was common in European cities, he said.

Board chair Toni van Tonder said the value the public placed on trees was not as high as it might be, but generational attitudes were shifting. However, “trees take time as does behaviour shift”.

• Cartoon and youth view, page 6.

Snapshot in time

Tree-cover statistics broken down for the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board area (shown in the map above) come from council surveys taken in 2013 and 2016-2018. New results are expected later this year.

• Westlake and Takapuna west have the lowest tree coverage, followed by Forrest Hill west, Milford west, and Belmont, Milford central, Bayswater and Hauraki.

• Takapuna south, Devonport, Cheltenham, Narrow Neck and Takapuna north have the highest coverage.

• Tree coverage fell fastest in Castor Bay –from 25 per cent to 23 per cent.

• Public-park tree coverage increased from 24 per cent to 27 per cent.

• Tree coverage along roads increased from 11 per cent to 13 per cent.

• Kaipatiki has 30 per cent tree-canopy coverage, partly due to its steeper, less easily developed terrain.

Local brass bastion shines at national champs

Trophies are crowding the shelves at the Takapuna band rooms of North Shore Brass, after a bumper haul at the national Brass Band Championships.

In its centennial year, the group took 70 musicians to Dunedin for three days of competition, returning last week with nine trophies, including one for a Sunnynook child prodigy on trumpet.

“One of our proudest moments was young Celine Wu, aged only eight, winning the Under 15 solo event for New Zealand,” said band president Owen Melhuish.

“The very next evening Matt Donaldson was crowned the New Zealand Junior Champion of Champions, playing sublimely on bass trombone.”

At just 15, Westlake Boys High School student and Wairau Valley resident Matt is one of the youngest musicians to have won the title.

The prized trophy has been in the band rooms since 2019, with Liam Wright having won it three times.

Celine’s skill on the cornet at the Devonport Anzac Day ceremony drew previous public attention to her preternatural talent, gaining her an MP’s award.

The Sunnynook Primary School pupil, who featured in the Observer’s Anzac Day coverage, is the youngest member of North Shore Brass, to which her mother also belongs. She has been playing with it for just over a year.

Melhuish said the organisation’s other junior and senior players did well in solo and ensemble events over three days of competition, with many placings.

Junior trophy winners were: Emily Sullivan, flugelhorn; Jenny Howe, cornet; and Harry Parker for both soprano cornet and slow melody.

The newly promoted North Shore Brass Academy Band performed admirably in the

National recognition... Celine Wu (left) and Matt Donaldson with trophies they won at the brass-band champs in Dunedin. Below: Celine playing The Last Post in Devonport on Anzac Day

highly contested C grade, stepping up with a band comprising many students to win the sacred item (hymn tune), for which it took home the Ron Fenton Memorial Trophy.

It also claimed third place overall in the grade.

Meanwhile, in the event’s world-standard A-grade competition the North Shore Brass champion band of Auckland performed with merit under its director of music, Harmen Vanhoorne.

It placed a close second to reigning champions Wellington Brass, with its bass and tubas awarded the Jack McDonnell Memorial Trophy as best section.

“The wealth of silverware flown home is a real achievement for the band as a whole and a testament to all our members’ individual hard work and dedication,” Melhuish said.

Youth hub and tag-football group seek lease of former bowls site

Two applicants are being considered by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board to lease the former Takapuna Social Bowling Club site.

The lease was vacated by the bowling club in February 2022 and the buildings on the site passed on to Auckland Council.

Shore Junction and New Zealand Tag Football Incorporated both applied for a 10-year lease with a right to renew for a further 10 years.

Shore Junction is the youth hub that holds the building lease for the former Takapuna RSA building adjacent to the former bowls site.

It hosts a range of recreational and educational facilities and activities, with the goal of achieving better outcomes for young people.

It plans to expand its operations by using the green space for youth-led events such as Music in Parks and to construct a 3x3 basketball court, among other uses.

New Zealand Tag Football’s objective is to grow the sport of tag football in New Zealand.

It intends to invest in building renovations, including the installation of a kitchen, bathroom and new artificial turf while also planning to host four tag events on the site annually.

While the board is considering both options, Shore Junction’s synergies with the lease site made it a “natural choice” , said chair Toni van Tonder.

Auckland Council community lease specialist Tai Stirling raised a concern that “the longer it remains vacant it could potentially be prone to vandalism”.

Member Gavin Busch questioned if the musical events Shore Junction is proposing might disturb nearby Hospice residents.

Deputy chair Terence Harpur said Shore Junction had a track record of work with young people in the community.

Some board members questioned if the size of the green space was large enough to host tag football games.

Stirling clarified that it would be used for a development programme and games would be played elsewhere.

Busch asked if New Zealand Tag Football could present its plans for the site at a future meeting so the board could get a clearer idea of its intentions.

Van Tonder agreed, saying the organisation might not have known it could lobby the board.

Council staff will report to the local board at the August business meeting where it will give its decision on a preferred lease holder.

Tell us what’s important, Devonport-Takapuna

Our local board has come up with a three-year plan outlining the key initiatives we want to focus on.

Now we need your help to check if we’ve got it right.

Submissions must be received by 4pm Monday 14 August.

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Ramraiders strike again

A Takapuna business has been ramraided for the second time in less than three months. A vehicle was used to force entry to Lake Rd vape store My Blitz around 1am on Saturday 15 July. Offenders stole items before fleeing the scene in a second vehicle, which police found abandoned soon after. The store was also ramraided on 4 May.

Phone fumble

A phone left in a ceiling cavity caused the brief adjournment of a DevonportTakapuna Local Board meeting in Takapuna last week. Workers who had earlier replaced ceiling tiles damaged by a leak sheepishly returned to the meeting room with their ladders when one realised he had left his mobile behind.

Park supporters sign up

A petition to save the military fortifications at Kennedy Park in Castor Bay has now topped 1500 signatures. Decisions on whether and how much to fund maintenance work on the World War II era tunnels and a dilapidated barracks building rest with the DevonportTakapuna Local Board. A demolition option, put forward by council staff, is off the table, due to heritage protections.

Chair says council would own library if it built in square

Council would own – not lease or rent – any combined community services and library hub if this was sited on the Takapuna town square, says Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair, Toni van Tonder.

In response to an Observer story last issue – about an alternative local board plan to build another level on the current library for a hub there – van Tonder said it was wrong to say the more costly square option would be housed on floors of a privately-owned building.

“A community hub on the square would be owned outright by council, not rented or leased from a developer,” she told the paper.

The current board’s discussions about a hub have been in confidential workshops, meaning the public and the paper have not had access.

Eke Panuku proposed sitting the hub in three lower levels of a mixed-used development, including residential apartments, to the previous local board.

The issue is particularly relevant now, with the board seeking public feedback via its Local Board Plan consultation on the idea of levying a targeted rate to help pay for more modern community facilities.

I t ’s your place. Your voice.

Earthworks debacle deprives school of playing fields

Wairau Intermediate School students have been deprived of playing fields for six years due to a botched transfer of soil from nearby Sunnynook Park.

Dirt and clay excavated from the park to turn it into a “dry pond” that floods during heavy rainfall was moved to the school fields in 2017 to elevate and level them, with the aim of solving drainage issues.

This was seen as a “win-win situation” by Auckland Council’s Healthy Waters.

But the fields have been unuseable ever since, due to the clay subsiding and cracking.

School principal Yolanda East said students had as a result had to do sports activities at Sunnynook Park. For athletics days they travelled to Millennium Stadium in Mairangi Bay, which cost the school both time and money.

The school has also missed out on potential income, as sports teams showing interest in hiring the fields changed their minds as soon as they saw them, East said.

“You look across the road to Sunnynook Park and they’ve got this beautiful flat park and then you look at what we’ve got and you think, ‘Oh, okay.’ ”

The school has also been hampered in growing its roll, given that quality on-site

Win-lose... Sunnynook Park is now a ‘dry pond’, with a muchimproved surface for sport, while Wairau Intermediate’s fields are muddy and cracked

facilities were attractive to parents, she said.

Contractors who mow the grounds have had equipment break due to cracks in the surface, and the school has had to pay more for mowing as the elevation meant more specialised equipment was required.

Auckland Council agreed in January to undertake remedial works, which are

expected to start next month. A new swale drain, cesspits and new drainage pipes will be installed.

Contractors will also resurface the fields and reseed the grass.

It was agreed that the school would not accept a handover of the fields unless it was fully satisfied with the quality of the works, which are expected to start next month and be finished by February 2024, weather and other factors permitting.

East said the works have been “a long time coming”, and she remains wary about whether the problems will necessarily be solved.

“The plans are good, they’re robust, but I guess in my mind I just keep thinking that it is just a big pile of clay, and clay just keeps moving.”

Healthy Waters head of design and delivery Chris Stumbles said the remedial works were delayed because of multiple severe weather events this year and needed to be completed in summer, as they required a long stretch of good weather.

He said that even before the soil was transferred to the school grounds, a lack of drainage and underlying clay meant the fields were usable only for a few months of the year.

Field of dramas... Wairau Intermediate School principal Yolanda East on the school’s unuseable playing fields, which were raised to a higher level with earth and clay moved from Sunnynook Park

Unclear who decides on tricky planting

Frustrated Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members want clearer lines of authority spelled out over tree placement and community views.

A key example cited in recent debate was council arborists placing a puriri tree in the middle of a green space in Henderson Park beside Lake Pupuke.

Milford and Takapuna residents groups opposed the tree placement, after parks volunteer Michelle Morrison pointed out it would intrude on an open area and impede the opportunity to watch races on the lake.

Board members asked council officials who had the final say, and were told that was unclear and that the aim was for consensus.

Bodyline by Guy Body

Youth advocate takes chance to speak up for trees

A teenager attending a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board workshop took the chance to ask an Auckland Council officer about tree policies, specifically what could be done to combat people removing trees illegally.

Takapuna Grammar School student Tate Agnew, a member of the Younite youth board for the local-board area, was told it was a compliance issue, although council preferred to educate people if it could.

Tate, one of three Younite members sitting in on the recent workshop, was keen to see more promotion of tree-planting efforts.

Accompanying her to the meeting in the school holidays were Westlake Girls High students Tina Kim and Adrianna Tobin.

The trio also took a keen interest in the discussion about use of land adjoining Shore Junction, the area’s youth hub (story, page 4).

The group receives a small amount of board funding to encourage it to canvas and offer a youth voice on matters such as the Local Board Plan.

youth board

It also runs events aimed at its age group, including this month a slam poetry night and an arts exhibition, both held at Lake House Arts in Takapuna.

Next-generation voices... Younite

members (from left) Tina Kim, Tate Agnew and Adrianna Tobin at a recent local-board workshop

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Shore shooter delighted to don red for World Cup

North Habour netballer

Marie Hansen is set to compete on the sport’s biggest stage. She tells Janetta Mackay about her netball journey.

Milford local Marie Hansen is off to play at the Netball World Cup in South Africa, turning out for surprise-package Tonga, which has qualified for the first time.

The 25-year-old Netball North Harbour representative, who was named as the Harbour competition’s club player of the year in 2022, said it felt surreal to be going to the cup, which begins on 28 July.

“It’s such a huge honour and privilege to get to play a part in putting our little country out there on the world stage, while being able to represent my family and give a little something back to them also,” she says.

The reliable shooter’s talent was first identified at Westlake Girls High School, where she was in the top team.

She says her sports-minded family have always been big supporters of her netball, with her parents first enrolling her to play when she was an eight-year-old at Milford Primary School.

Hansen, who flew out to Cape Town on Wednesday, is excited to rejoin her Tongan Tala teammates, including former Silver Ferns goal shoot Cathrine Tuivaiti and former Australian Diamonds goal defender Mo’onia Gerrard.

The older stars bring invaluable top-level international experience, but even without them the playing group drawn from New Zealand, Australia and Tonga has shown it is capable of causing some upsets.

Playing alongside Tuivaiti is a career highlight to date, she says.

“I can’t believe it. These are women I always admired growing up... so I’m stoked to be in the same environment as them. There’s so much knowledge and experience I can learn from them.”

Tonga now sits at number seven in the world rankings, just behind Malawi – who they beat in the final of the Pacific Aus Series in Queensland in April – with South Africa and the big four nations of Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and England ranked ahead.

To qualify for the World Cup a year ago, Tonga finished ahead of Pacific rivals Fiji, who are also in the cup line-up of the world’s top 16 nations. Former participants Samoa missed out.

Hansen has been in the team since 2019. Its New Zealand-based coach, Jaqua PoriMakea-Simpson, who is general manager of Netball Taranaki, says she has been a constant on the court since.

“Marie has an impressive ability to connect with her unit on the court, is uncompromising

in her role and her experience in our attacking unit will be very valuable under pressure.”

It has been a challenge bringing together players from nine cities, but the coach says Tonga’s ranking means they enter the competition with confidence to compete with the best.

Support is strong from the Tongan community near and far.

“There is a sea of red wherever we go, and they aren’t necessarily netball lovers, but they love Tonga and the people that represent it.”

Hansen is equally upbeat, saying the team has gelled well. A training camp was held last month, and she has been working on strength and conditioning programmes alone, while also fitting in club games and her work as a coordinator for her supportive employer, Intellihub, a smart-meter provider.

She debuted for Tonga at a South Pacific Games. Older brother Onelani Pongi was also there, playing for Tonga’s Sevens team.

One of seven siblings to Tonga-born parents, Hansen says her two sisters also play netball and her three younger brothers all grew up playing rugby for Takapuna Rugby Club.

For six years from her late teens, Hansen played for Shore Rovers, the biggest club at Netball North Harbour, before switching for two years to Harbour Force, coached by former Silver Ferns player and coach Yvonne

Shore shot... Milford-raised Marie Hansen (left and above) is off to the Netball World Cup. Here she is seen in action for Tonga at the PacificAus Series in Australia in April, which the team won for a third time.

PHOTOS: BARRY ALSOP

Willering, where team-mates included Silver Fern Sulu Fitzpatrick.

Hansen helped North Harbour win the national open title last year.

This year she is playing in the Auckland competition with Huskies, a new club of old hands, including former Silver Fern defender Temalisi Fakahokotau.

Hansen was also a training partner for the Comets, in the Synergy League national competition below ANZ level, which she would love to progress to. She has previously played a season in Synergy’s predecessor, the Beko League.

She puts the appeal of being a shooter down to enjoying the physicality of being in the goal circle. “The most challenging thing is the pressure that can come with finishing the job and scoring the goals.”

Her family will be watching the cup games from home, while her partner will be in Cape Town.

Asked about wearing red instead of aspiring to the black dress, New Zealand-born Hansen modestly says she never thought she would realistically make it, so the Ferns did not factor in her dreams.

“There’s a huge sense of pride and joy that comes with putting on that red dress and seeing how much it means to my loved ones,” she says. Cup qualification was an absolute bonus.

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War memorial just first stage of garden project

A vision 15 years in the making will be revealed next week at New Zealand’s first public Korean Garden, in Takapuna.

The official unveiling of a war memorial amid landscaped planting on Barrys Point Reserve will mark stage one of an ambitious project to create a place of contemplation for all to enjoy.

To mark the occasion, officials and veterans representatives from South Korea and New Zealand will gather on 25 July, to recognise the determination and achievements of a group of North Shore’s Korean residents to create the garden.

Korean Garden Trust spokesman Ken Lee told the Observer it was fitting the initial focus was on the war memorial, given 2023 was the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice.

“The trust particularly put the Korean War veterans memorial park in stage one of the Korean Garden, since those war veterans are getting aged.”

He consulted some in the design and says: “It is such an honour that I could do something for their noble effort.”

Construction work began in January. In time, the project will occupy a site of 15,000 sqm, complete with a pavilion, rotunda, bridge and sculpture garden, but for now it centres on the memorial amid trees and flowers. When these bloom, they will do so in a yin and yang pattern in the red, white and blue colours of the Korean flag.

The main carved memorial was donated by the county of Gapyeoung, scene of a battle involving New Zealanders. Another rock, sourced from Great Barrier Island, is included in the design.

Gapyeoung’s Mayor will attend the unveiling, with Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown also invited, along with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Korean consulate, member of Parliament Melissa Lee, and local board members past and present.

Architect Lee, who finished his highschool studies at Rosmini College in 2000, has been involved in the trust since its founding in 2008, initially as a technical adviser. He is now its designer and was the contractor for stage one.

“It is a great, successful symbol of a harmony between locals and immigrants of North Shore since the site has been provided by the city as a gesture of appreciation for the voluntary cleaning work of Korean immigrants,” Lee says.

The initial idea for a garden dates back well before the trust’s founding, to a group of Koreans who voluntarily weeded around Lake Pupuke. Core trust members all have strong North Shore connections, and most still live in the area. They include chair Young Hwan Oh, members Edward Lee, Stephanie Cho, Ki Won Cho, former chair Ben Lee and former treasurer Andy An.

The project won early backing from the former North Shore City Council. Later, the project, with its agreed site, gained $144,200 funding from the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, with $75,000 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Future spending on it and maintenance is now the trust’s responsibility. Lee says

he is optimistic that now stage one can be seen, sponsors who have already expressed interest will follow through to support the next stages.

Access to the memorial is gained from across the road behind the golf driving range. The site has views towards both the city and Rosmini College.

Lest we forget... Korean Garden Trust spokesman Ken Lee beside the memorial being unveiled next week at Barrys Point Reserve

Finals footy draws the crowds

In a year of rebuilding, Takapuna Rugby Club sides made both the premier and premier reserve finals, but lost both to long-time rivals North Shore. Rob Drent reports.

Takapuna premiers threw everything at North Shore in the North Harbour championship rugby final last Saturday, taking an early lead and trailing only 6-3 at halftime.

In front of a crowd of over 2000 at Shore’s Vauxhall Rd home ground, Takapuna had the better of its more experienced opponents for

most of the first half, but Shore’s pack gradually gained dominance to set a platform for its 26-10 win, capping the club’s 150-year celebrations.

Behind a winning pack, Shore first five Oscar Koller controlled the second half with pinpoint line kicking, and also scored two tries.

Takapuna was hoping to send off coach of

five years, Aaron Katipa, with a win. But his young side, missing many key players, had already done him proud by making the final, defeating Massey in the semi-final, 35-31. Young players being introduced to senior football included 18-year-old Tristyn Cook, who scored a try in the final.

Intense derby… classy Takapuna first-five Jack Heighton (left) organises the attack, while Tika Lelenga puts a fend on Shore’s Cam Howell (right) in the premier final against North Shore PHOTOS: ROB DRENT

In support… Baylee Katipa and Lotu Inisi (with ball) and on the sideline, Moli Inisi and Meleane Hafoka

Takapuna premier reserves narrowly lose final

Takapuna’s premier reserves rugby side had North Shore on the ropes for the final 15 minutes of its North Harbour championship final at Onewa Domain last Saturday, but failed to convert its field position into points, losing 22-15.

Shore jumped to a 17-3 lead, but a try to Atunaisa Hafoka just before

halftime put Takapuna back in the match at 17-8. After the break, Shore fullback Cameron Dalzell scored a smart try for a 22-8 lead, but Takapuna hit back with a strong try to Maloni Moata’ane, converted by David Halufia at the 25-minute mark.

Shore hung in with desperate defence to take the reserve-grade title.

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Local Board funding decisions not taken lightly

For the last seven months, the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board has been planning its work programme with the understanding a 61 per cent cut to its locally driven initiatives budget was forthcoming.

This budget is only $1.35 million and is all the board has available to respond to community need for those living in Devonport, Bayswater, Belmont, Hauraki, Takapuna, Milford, Forrest Hill, Castor Bay and Sunnynook. We’ve worked alongside our funded partners throughout, and they have all worked to fortify their organisations, knowing since last December that cuts were coming.

Working on such a reduced budget, the board had to take a long, hard look at what it had historically funded and how it could still deliver on the social, cultural, economic and environmental outcomes it’s required to by law, in a more cost-effective way.

After the January floods we learned a few things about community; and this was amplified in public consultation on the budget. First, we learned how critical our Community Houses are; veritable beacons of light when times are rough. When houses flooded in Sunnynook and people were in need, they went to their Community House to find support and help with recovery. When the community is strong and connected, they

Hospice service open to all

For the first time since 2019, Harbour Hospice is holding a remembrance service. And for the first time it is inviting the wider community, not just those with family members who have had end-of-life care at the hospice.

The service will be back at St George’s Presbyterian Church in Takapuna on Sunday 23 July at 2pm.

“It is my hope that this inclusive Remembrance Service can provide an opportunity to reflect, remember, and celebrate the lives of those we have loved and those we have cared for, as well as honouring the good work of Harbour Hospice,” says a spiritual carer for the organisation, Susan Crozier.

Anyone from the North Shore who would like to remember a loved one is welcome to attend.

Hospice said it was mindful of those who lost someone during the Covid restrictions and were not able to have a proper funeral for their loved one, and those who were not able to attend an important funeral.

People will be invited to place a photograph of their loved one on the altar or light a candle in remembrance. Afternoon tea provided by Harbour Hospice will follow the service.

will be more resilient in times of crises. The board agrees it’s time we strengthen the spaces where communities gather.

Our local-board area has a population of approximately 60,000, 44 per cent of whom are migrants. One-third (roughly) live on the Devonport Peninsula, while the other twothirds are in Takapuna North. There’s a heck of a lot of people we haven’t been reaching, and we haven’t always distributed our community development funding equitably.

Keeping that in mind, the local board community development strategy has pivoted. Instead of a top-down, event-led approach, we’ve created two community outreach roles that sit in the Sunnynook Community Centre and Devonport Community House . These community activators will be out there, on the ground, agile in supporting neighbourhood-level connections, and responding to need as it emerges.

For instance, if a residents association wants to build their reach, or a migrant group needs support navigating the council grants programme, our activators will support them. We’re talking neighbourhood barbecues, welcome packs for new housing developments, supporting youth-led activities – grassroots community development. We’re excited about this shift and can’t wait to see what good things come of it.

We recognise that this change means the withdrawal of funding from our two community trusts – Devonport Peninsula Trust and the Takapuna North Community Trust. We respect and acknowledge the years of service and the contribution they have made to building community across the area.

With the change in community-development direction and in light of the reduced funding to the local board and ongoing funding constraints, funding the full operation of two charitable trusts is no longer something the board can do. We know this will be a blow to many, but we have faith that the two trusts can pivot their operations to continue to contribute to community. We give thanks to their governance boards and their staff, and acknowledge their commitment to community.

Change is difficult, we know this. This particular change was not made lightly, but it has been made for the right reasons. The approach is not only financially more sustainable, but it is also a move into best-practice community development. What we’ll get out of it are stronger and more-resilient neighbourhoods across the whole local-board area, and stronger Community Houses that are there to serve us all.

Toni van Tonder, chair Devonport-Takapuna Local Board

Trust defunding a risky strategy

I am shocked and mystified by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board’s decision to completely defund both the Devonport Peninsula Trust and the Takapuna North Community Trust (which covers from Takapuna to Sunnynook).

The two trusts have had a relationship with council spanning decades, delivering a myriad of successful community programmes serving everyone from babies to the elderly, and across every social, economic, and cultural demographic. They provide significant bang for a pretty modest buck.

The city’s financial woes have been well publicised – so some cuts were expected.

What was not expected was the local board would strip all funding from the two community trusts, and instead use it to set up two new ‘community activator’ roles – a sole person based in Sunnynook, and a sole person based in Devonport.

The trusts are a safe pair of hands. They have experienced, skilled, and knowledgeable staff; dedicated volunteer boards of trustees; comprehensive resources; and unparalleled local knowledge, community goodwill, and networks.

The complete defunding means they will not be able to deliver their many community programmes and events, and jeopardises

their very existence. And once they are gone, it will take years to rebuild them and regain the capacity they have.

It seems to me that replacing the trusts with two untried and untested sole charge positions, and expecting them to be able to deliver the same level of community outcomes, is a very risky strategy.

In listening to the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board’s public workshop on 4 July, there was no clear explanation of their rationale. A myriad of questions remain unanswered, including:

What ‘problem’ is the board trying to solve, if any? What, if anything, will be different, better, or more cost-effective about the new roles? What programmes or outcomes will the new roles deliver? Why has the local board not given the two trusts the opportunity to deliver whatever the board’s new expectations are?

The proposal is a seismic change to the delivery of community programmes in our area – without clear or compelling explanation, and with no evidence offered to assure us that it will succeed.

I believe the public – and the two trusts – deserve better than this.

Ruth Jackson, former DevonportTakapuna Local Board chair

Lakefront access pushed for Greenways Plan

Better public access around Lake Pupuke is being sought by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board as it looks to link up more green spaces across its area.

“It’s locked because we continue to allow it to be locked,” board chair Toni van Tonder said of sections of the lake foreshore, during a board workshop on the Devonport-Takapuna Greenways Plan.

Boggy ground conditions and nesting bird season were reasons the walkway east from Sylvan Park in Milford to Henderson Park was closed at times, but greater resolve along with improved tracks would allow for greater use and could do more to protect wildlife, she said.

Council staff have been asked to provide a clearer picture of why and when the lake foreshore is closed.

“This is public space adjacent to our magnificent crater lake,” van Tonder said.

The building of the Patuone Reserve boardwalk, linking areas of Takapuna, showed what could be done in a sensitive ecological area, she added.

Lake Pupuke cannot be circumnavigated, but is accessible from parks and reserves in both Milford and Takapuna, with more connecting sections and path upgrades envisaged along the foreshore. Residents have previously raised concerns about this prospect.

Auckland Council parks and places specialist John McKellar told board members a walking link from Henderson Park through

to The Promenade in Takapuna was a longterm possibility through subdivision, when esplanade reserve acquisition was triggered. He also pointed to track improvements from Quarry Lake to North Shore Hospital.

McKellar said he thought residents’ fears the council might turn the route into a “cycleway motorway” were unfounded, given a flat on-road cycleway connection from Takapuna to Milford was part of transport planning.

But she added that cycling should not be precluded from the latest Greenways Plan.

She said any upgraded lake path was most likely to be used by walkers and runners.

The Greenways Plan needed to be an aspirational document that did not preclude cycling around the lake, adding: “Public input will come.”

Board member George Wood warned of a “huge amount of contestability from residents”.

McKellar’s update to the board also identified gaps in the greenways network from Sunnynook through to Campbells Bay, from Forrest Hill to Castor Bay and from Westlake to Milford.

Links to the Northern Pathway were up in the air with harbour-crossing decisions pending, he said, but further local linkages from Barrys Pt Rd and at Smales Farm were possible.

The best-known greenway in the board area is on the Devonport peninsula, running from Hauraki and Belmont through O’Neill’s

Pt Cemetery in Bayswater. Hopes of heading north from Hauraki via Francis St by a bridge across to Esmonde Rd have fizzled due to the lack of funds from Auckland Transport.

The board has since asked AT to transfer board funds set aside for this to a Milford boardwalk project.

McKellar said improved “wayfinding” signage was an easy way to let people know about existing routes. They generally connect parks and are a mix of off-road and on-road routes.

Deputy chair Terence Harpur called for some quick wins in council thinking on what it could realistically deliver with cost constraints in the next few years.

He suggested replacing grass paths with gravel rather than holding out for costlier concrete at places such as Kennedy Park.

Member Gavin Busch said a good app would encourage use of greenways.

McKellar said the council’s walks website information needed improving.

Van Tonder said providing information for locals and tourists at a time when people were searching for cost-effective activities was something worthwhile for the council to do. “Free, outdoorsy and healthy” was a winning offer, she said.

The board asked McKellar to return later in the year, once connectivity options became clearer, and for council staff to nominate some low-cost options they could proceed with.

Emergency-response groups left hanging over funds

Groups seeking funding to support their work on community-led emergency response plans will have to wait to learn what help they might get.

Auckland Emergency Management (AEM), which was widely criticised for its initial response to January’s floods, is expected to report back to local boards by the end of September on how it plans to help.

The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, which in its last term put $30,000 towards local efforts to draw up plans, has been asked by groups involved what its future intentions are. “We can’t even buy a marker pen,” one community member told the Observer.

Board senior adviser Maureen Buchanan said more information was expected from AEM this quarter. Work would be funded regionally, not through the board.

Trish Deans, secretary of the Devonport emergency group, which has completed a plan for the peninsula from Belmont south, said AEM, which was a team of only 35 people, was unlikely to be in a position to offer much assistance to local boards any time soon. In her view, the board needed to step up to give the groups more certainty.

Deans said the original $30,000 had been spent, under the auspices of Takapuna-based Auckland North Community and Development (Ancad).

Members of an emergency planning group set-up for Hauraki-Takapuna want to hear more from council about AEM’s plans before doing more work of their own, in case AEM’s plans render their efforts out of scope. The Takapuna Residents Association also wants clarity about this.

Green fingers... At a working bee at Lake House Arts in Takapuna last week, garden coordinator Malcolm Idoine (centre) had help from other volunteers, including (from left) pottery-class tutor Susan Brown and class members Dot Woollacott, Mira Mautner and Nicki Everett, with five-year-old Finn Lee joining in. Colourful plants including allyson and rainbow beets were added to the centre’s front and back gardens to make them look “a bit loved and cared for”.

Thousands expected to soak up Winter Lights

Takapuna Winter Lights is set to return to brighten up the town centre from Thursday to Sunday next weekend, 27-30 July.

A new feature of the crowd-pulling event, which features art installations, live music and performances each evening, is the projected story of the journey of early Maori

The augmented-reality piece has overlaid imagery of warrior runners from different iwi traversing the ridgelines to scout the way to be first to the beach to claim it for

Other state-of-the-art displays masterminded by internationally acclaimed lighting designer Angus Muir, who also helped illuminate the central city for Matariki, will

Winter Lights – part of the longer Elemental AKL festival celebrating the best arts, eats and beats of Tamaki Makaurau – centres on Hurstmere Rd and Hurstmere

Green from 5pm to 10pm.

This is its fifth year, with the supporting Takapuna Beach Business Association (TBBA) predicting up to 45,000 people will attend.

TBBA chief executive Terence Harpur says the unique social atmosphere of the free festival is best enjoyed once darkness falls.

businesses and food trucks will sell food, and warm drinks will also be on offer.

Move. He and Muir have collaborated on Queenstown’s big lights festival and others overseas.

cultural event is designed to be multi-sen sory and has added elements to surprise this year.

Grammar School will showcase their music and dance skills on Friday and Saturday,

on the hour, from 6pm to 8pm, at the 38 Hurstmere Rd entrance to Waiwharariki Anzac Square.

Projected and animated displays of art work from Takapuna Primary School pupils and Campbells Bay Early Learning Centre will again feature.

on Takapuna Beach is a new ticketed event. Stories and Takapuna Boating Club, it takes in the history of local places, while sharing te ao Māori world view of the environment.

from 6pm to 6.45pm and again from 7pm to 7.45pm. It tells the pūrākau (stories of ori gin) of the land underfoot through a headset. other events on in Takapuna over the same dates, including theatre, music and a wine tasting.

• See winterlights.nz for details.

WHAT’S ON @ Takapuna Library

We Read Auckland 2023: Author Talk Rising, Falling, Rising

Tuesday 8 August, 6pm-8pm, Level 1

Join authors Josie Shapiro (Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts) and Tessa Duder (The Sparrow, Alex: The Quartet) in conversation with author and Olympian Angela Walker (Ideals Are Like Stars: The Dame Yvette Williams Story). Hear their korero on coming-of-age stories, competing against others and yourself, and how lives can be broken and rebuilt stronger than before.

Tickets available via Eventbrite: https://tinyurl.com/vzk22vzp

Always wanted to learn embroidery?

The North Shore Embroiderers Guild will be hosting open sessions at Takapuna Library from 1pm to 3pm on the last Sunday of each month. This is your opportunity to meet them, see what they do in meetings and look at their current projects.

Fall prevention workshop

Tuesday 22nd August 10.30am

Falling over doesn’t have to be part of the ageing process. The good news is that many falls are preventable and having good strength and balance is the key to staying on your feet. Join our free fall prevention workshop run by Harbour Sport community strength and balance trainer Lou Bartlett to ensure that you keep your independence.

Actor recycles Shakespeare tips

Actor Peter Feeney says the students he has coached for the combined Westlake Boys and Girls High Schools production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It are benefiting from his own mentoring by a renowned expert on delivering the bard’s works.

Years ago, Feeney was encouraged by the late Cicely Berry, voice director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), to take a physical approach to acting rehearsals. It’s a technique he used in a recent all-day workshop with the large student cast, focusing particularly on encouraging its understudies.

Like the principals, they will all have a turn in the spotlight during the comedy’s run, which starts next week.

All the understudies will step up for one night, and have to be ready for more performances if required, as is more likely in the Covid era.

Feeney, a familiar face on New Zealand and Australian screens, is a Castor Bay father of three. His two eldest children – Arlo, aged 16, who attends Westlake Boys, and Frankie, 14, who is at Westlake Girls – are in the production. Its director, Mary-Jean Milburn, who is head of senior literature and a drama teacher at Westlake Girls, asked him to help out.

With a long-established sideline in running acting workshops, Feeney was ideally suited to the role.

And he knows from his own experience in getting started in acting as a young adult 30 years ago that understudies particularly appreciate some attention. “They’re the people who can get neglected.”

From his RSC mentor – who tutored the esteemed company’s classically trained actors and also took drama classes to prisons and low-decile schools as part of its arts funding agreement – Feeney learned that breaking down barriers with action aided comprehension and was a greater “leveller” than just reading scripts..

“They’re owning it with their bodies and it starts to give the words an energy they need.”

As to any difficulties working with his lively teenaged children, Feeney says the respect they have for “MJ” [Milburn] made it easy.

The duo, and younger sibling Tilly, 10, are well used to working with their father. Each has a part in a drama series, Blind Bitter Happiness, he developed during lockdown and is marketing overseas. It is to be screened by RNZ online next month.

In As You Like It, Arlo plays the lead role of Orlando. Frankie is understudy for the smaller role of Phoebe and an ensemble player.

The play was the first Feeney himself appeared in, as Orlando’s friend Oliver, in

a University of Auckland production after returning from a few years overseas.

By then he had a politics degree and had done graduate study in Russia, but contracted the acting bug.

Feeney was in several children’s TV series, including Secret Agent Men and The Cul de Sac, but he says he is most remembered for the comedy-horror film Black Sheep, which came out in 2006.

“People do recognise me vaguely,” he says, “but I don’t think it will last.”

Alongside writing, he continues to act and direct regularly, appearing in the last few years on The Brokenwood Mysteries and having stints on popular Australian series such as Playing for Keeps.

All the Feeney children are keen on pursuing the profession, perhaps more so than their parents, with both Peter and wife Nicola, a magazine art director, apt to suggest other more secure occupations.

“We spend most of the time trying to distract them with other career choices, but they do have agents,” Feeney admits.

It was from hanging around on sets with their father when childcare fell through, and being nabbed for a magazine photo shoot by mum when she was desperate, that they first got drafted into work.

“They might get it out of their system,” he laughs.

But even last week during a family holiday on the Gold Coast, he was happy to give Arlo some tips on his part, including how to interpret some of Shakespeare’s writing. “When you have to get up and say it, it’s challenging.”

For her part, Milburn says Shakespeare’s universality means his work continues to endure, but as a Shakespeare specialist she aims to make it approachable in the classroom and on stage.

“Not only does a project like As You Like It challenge our young performers and encourage creativity, a sense of humour, and resilience, it also speaks, in a really modern way, to their concerns,” she says.

Heroine Rosalind is quick-witted, cheeky, and madly in love with Orlando, she says. But Rosalind is also anxious as to whether he is trustworthy, wanting to know if his affections are more than surface level and that he won’t run off when things get difficult.

Orlando is also a young person trying to find his place in the world, she says. “He wants room to grow and is challenging the boundaries set by his guardian and brother, Oliver.”

Aside from emphasising these relevant themes, Milburn has set the play in the 1960s

“There is just everything they need to know as professional actors... it’s the best training”

for school casts – including two very familiar faces

Acting up... Ahead of appearing in the annual Westlakes Shakespeare production, Arlo (left) and sister Frankie took school-holiday time out with dad and acting coach Peter Feeney on a break in Queensland to help it appeal more to modern audiences: Think a Woodstock-inspired forest, full of vibrant colours and sounds.

In all, As You Like It involves nearly 80 students from both schools, including a cast of 17 males and 22 females. Most were auditioned late last year, with some students who were new to the schools added early this year, before rehearsals got under way in earnest.

A combined crew of 40 is handling tech, props, makeup and costumes, and coaching choreography.

Milburn describes the production as “the perfect tonic for this grey and wet winter”. The play ends in a jubilant dance medley, which the cast enjoyed putting together.

UK choreographer Darren Royston who has worked with big names in the West End, gave tips to the student team on a recent New Zealand visit.

He is a friend of Westlake Boys head of drama Nick Brown, who also got him to help with the combined schools’ other big production this year, the musical Into the

Woods, which has a different cast and was being staged this week.

Feeney says the standard and scale of big school productions like these are the perfect introduction for anyone wanting to go on to a performing arts careers or just stretch themselves. “There is just everything they need to know as professional actors... it’s the best training.”

• As You Like It, 25-29 July at Westlake Girls High School Events Centre. Book at iticket.co.nz

Bridging cultures... This carved doorpiece is colourfully painted in a traditional Korean style known as dancheong, in a North Shore collaboration between carver

Cultures collide in artistic collaboration

A new art exhibition that blends Maori and Korean styles is on at Shore City in Takapuna, timed to coincide with Matariki season.

North Shore artists Chloe Jeong and master carver Natanahira Pona have combined their respective talents to bring together the Harmony in Culture show, which involves five other artists as well as their own joint and individual works.

Jeong has painted Pona’s whakairo carvings in dancheong, combining the two traditional styles. Dancheong is a colourful Korean way of painting significant wooden buildings with symbolic decorations.

Pona, who works and tutors from Lake House Arts, is a driving force in local Matariki celebrations.

The pair met at the Lake House, where Jeong acts as a Korean ambassador for the centre. Through the centre and the Korean Arts and Culture organisation she has tapped into a creative-communities scheme to mount the show, which she describes as a “unique collaboration” exploring the connection of cultures.

It is being held at Shore City’s ground floor Watershed Gallery.

The Observer spoke with Jeong and fellow painter Dal Kim while both were hanging their works ahead of the exhibition opening last weekend.

Kim, who moved to New Zealand as a teenager in 1994, said he was pleased to join this exhibition as it had helped him represent his identity artistically.

Having trained as an architect at the University of Auckland, Kim now works in the social welfare sector.

His eye for composition is evident in a twilight sky over Auckland city and a view of Rangitoto.

As well as the landscapes, which meld Korean patterns and colours into local settings, he has reinterpreted portraits of Māori.

“It all puts the pieces together,” he says of his developing art practice and exploring where he came from. “I was moulded into a person of two different cultures.”

Jeong, who trained in China in classical painting and also attended Elam Arts School after moving to New Zealand in 2018, said Matariki and New Zealand’s bicultural emphasis provided a chance to broaden

harmony and understanding.

Celebrating New Year, a reverence for the natural world and looking to the stars are something the cultures have in common, she says.

“We are all under one sky,” says Kim. • Harmony in Culture is on display until 28 July at the Watershed Gallery in Shore City, Takapuna.

Natanahira Pona and painter Chloe Jeong

Wishing well... Chloe Jeong used pattern to define the sides of a well

Beach blossoms... Dal Kim’s painting frames Rangitoto from Takapuna Beach

Join the jury for Agatha Christie thriller

On the 10th consecutive year of mid-winter mysteries at the PumpHouse, some audience members will be getting a different view.

Shoreside Theatre’s staging of Agatha Christie’s courtroom drama Witness for the Prosecution opened yesterday, and will run until 30 July.

The production includes a ‘jury box’ on the raised stage, which 12 members of the audience can book to sit in and watch the play while immersed in the action.

One lucky jury member will be selected to give the final verdict, although they have to follow the script.

Theatre manager James Bell said the jury box was a great opportunity to watch a play a different way.

The idea arose when the set was being built and seats shifted. The crew realised they had removed enough seats to relocate them on stage for a jury.

The play follows protagonist Leonard Vole, who is accused of the murder of a wealthy widow.

He fights to escape the hangman’s noose, while shocking revelations keep the audience guessing as to whether he or someone else did it.

Panels tell tale of Matariki

Panels displaying the story of Matariki are on display at Lake House Arts centre until 27 July. They were made by pupils from primary schools across the Devonport peninsula, following carved designs and painting them. The centre also hosted lantern-making and a twilight market for the Matariki public holiday.

Witness For The Prosecution

by Agatha Christie

20-30 JULY

Celebrating 10 years of mid-winter mystery!

Rangitoto College

3-5 AUGUST

or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic

PH: 489 8360

PUMPHOUSE.CO.NZ

Bell said the combination of Christie’s signature whodunnit style and a courtroom drama made the play stand out among the acclaimed writer’s works. “It’s Agatha Christie providing her twists, turns and unusual characters to the courtroom drama.”

The story the play is based on was first published in 1925 in a magazine. A film ver-

sion, starring Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power, was made in 1957 and a television mini-series as recently as 2016.

For the period costumes, the company has hired authentic robes to foster the “suspension of disbelief”, Bell said.

• Witness for the Prosecution , until 30 July, tickets, $22-$40, through pumphouse.co.nz

Lead lineup... Christie cast members (from left) Samantha Ellwood, Stephen Ellis and Max Easey

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