2 June 2023 Devonport Flagstaff

June 2, 2023

Funding for Lake Rd upgrade in doubt... p2

Poet Kevin Ireland remembered ... p14-15

Interview: Defences historical trust chair John Hyde... p22

Skatepark likely to move to Narrow Neck

Woodall Park looks like being the long-term home of a new skatepark for the Devonport peninsula.

An exact location, near the public tennis and basketball courts off Wairoa Rd, is yet to be fixed, and plans for the skatepark will have to go through public consultation and consent

processes. Noise concerns, boggy ground, and gaining the buy-in of passionate local skaters are also seen as hurdles.

But the site has better visibility than the current bowl at Ngataringa Park, which some parents have regarded as too isolated.

A shift to Woodall Park would mean the

new skatepark could be part of a sports hub, as promoted by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board and top basketballer Tom Abercrombie. Public toilets have also been suggested adjoining the Devonport Squash Club. The patched-up Ngataringa Park bowl sits

To page 4

Ballgirls cut a dash for Ladies Day

In the pink... North Shore Rugby Club ballgirls Taylor Travers, Saoirse Harrington and Micah McClintock (all 11) donned some colourful accessories to mark the club’s Ladies Day and Breast Cancer Cure fundraiser last Saturday. Shore vs Massey premier match report, page 5.

Doubts loom over Lake Rd improvements

The long-planned Lake Rd-Esmonde Rd upgrade is mired in uncertainty, with Auckland Transport (AT) admitting it has “no plan B” if funding fails to come through.

Waka Kotahi, the national transport agency, has asked AT to shore up its case for the work, before releasing government funding for it.

A multi-year budget of $48 million, set in 2018, must also be updated to take in price rises.

AT project manager Andrew Mein last month told the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board that AT was keen to get on with detailed design work so construction could start promptly when approved.

Decisions on the funding of $7.3 million set aside for this year and another $10.6 million next year should be known by August, he said.

Work was being done to update a business case AT’s board had signed off last year, on which Waka Kotahi had wanted more detail. This included data on transit-lane usage and vehicle emissions.

Nearly $2.4 million has already been spent on planning the project since 2017.

Local board chair Toni van Tonder said the board and the community wanted the project back on track. “We don’t want it deferred – it will be three or four years down the track any-

way before we see anything [built].”

Waka Kotahi funding for an associated cycleway on Bayswater Ave was lost recently. Mein said despite this, AT still hoped to deliver the cycle lane before the main work on Lake Rd, but was looking at ways to keep the wider budget in check.

For Bayswater, this could be done by trimming costs, such as speed humps on adjoining side roads. Van Tonder noted strong support from schools for the cycleway.

She also noted construction work on Lake Rd depended on funding being put into the Regional Land Transport Plan, to be set in October next year.

Upgrading Lake Rd had been discussed for 30 years, she said. Since a corridor-management plan was drawn up for it in 2015, delays and uncertainty had plagued the whole project. The public was tired of the subject and the board felt it had been left in the dark.

“It erodes confidence in Auckland Transport and Auckland Council and they [the public] think we are all full of hot air,” she said.

Deputy chair Terence Harpur said Lake Rd congestion was terrible and “we need to just get on with it”.

Mein reminded the board the project aimed to improve traffic flow along the existing corridor and safety for all road users, rather than specifically solve vehicle congestion. AT was not paying for road widening, land acquisition or undergrounding powerlines.

Member Gavin Busch said: “If there’s going

to be no tangible benefit for the residents on the peninsula, why do it at all?”

Doing it once and doing it right, would be better, he said.

Member George Wood said getting buses flowing and improving the Lake Rd intersection with Bardia St and Winscombe Rd would be worth focusing on. “If you could get some improvements there, people would start to think some things are happening.”

Van Tonder said prioritising buses over carshare would be her preference to help de-clog the road.

On Esmonde Rd, the plan is to implement a T2 transit lane to link with the motorway. Board members wanted to know how this would mesh with pending decisions on a second harbour connection and the Amaia apartments development. Mein said conversations with Waka Kotahi were continuing.

Van Tonder said the board wanted to be better kept in the loop – it was late to learn of the loss of funding for the cycle lane. The board was last updated by AT officials in person in October, since when it has been calling for more information.

The board agreed to write a letter to Waka Kotahi restating its support for the work, and has given the same message to Auckland Council. Asked what AT had in mind if the project fell out of the Regional Land Transport Plan’s staged budget, Mein said there was no fallback option. The focus was on pushing the case for the Lake Rd upgrade.

Rangitoto Observer recognised, Flagstaff in finals

The Rangitoto Observer, sister paper of the Flagstaff, has been judged runner-up Best Community Newspaper in New Zealand.

The award was made at the Community Newspaper Association's conference last month for issues published in 2022. In the national Voyager Awards last weekend, the Flagstaff was a finalist in two com-

munity news categories: best newspaper and managing editor Rob Drent best reporter. The Observer, launched in 2019 and covering Takapuna, Milford, Castor Bay, Forrest Hill and Sunnynook, was cited for "far-reaching news stories"

It was paper the judge said: “I would very much like to sit down with and devour while having my morning cup of coffee.”

Devonport Publishing Ltd First Floor, 9 Wynyard St

Telephone: 09 445 0060

Email: sales@devonportflagstaff.co.nz

news@devonportflagstaff.co.nz

Website: www.devonportflagstaff.co.nz

NZ COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER AWARDS

Best Community Involvement: 2021, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2005

Best Special Project/Supplement: 2016, 2020

VOYAGER/CANON MEDIA AWARDS

Community Reporter of the Year: Winner 2018

Community Newspaper of the Year: Finalist 2017

MANAGING EDITOR: Rob Drent

PUBLISHER: Peter Wilson

CHIEF REPORTER: Janetta Mackay

REPORTER: Lochlan Lineham

DESIGN: Brendon De Suza

COPY EDITOR: Jo Hammer

ADVERTISING DEADLINE:

Sushi gang on a roll ahead of water polo worlds

New Zealand water polo player Bernadette Doyle jokes that with so many Devonport peninsula players in her North Harbour national-league side, they refer to themselves as the “Asahi gang”.

But a busy water polo schedule means hanging out at their local sushi bar isn’t that common for the teammates, some of whom only recently returned from US college scholarships or playing overseas.

Doyle, aged 22, and fellow New Zealand team member Katie McKenty, 27, are back from stints in Greece.

They have reunited at Harbour with fellow local and 2022 national player, goalkeeper Bridget Layburn, a recent University of Hawaii graduate.

The trio’s return has bolstered the unbeaten Harbour Hammerheads side, which includes two other Devonport players – Alice Steele and Doyle’s teenage sister Gabrielle.

After the national league wraps up midmonth, the three overseas players will be on a plane to compete at the World Cup finals in Long Beach, California, followed by the World Aquatics Championships in Japan.

Competition will be stiff, says McKenty, but “we’re closing the gap”. Doyle says the experience of playing professionally overseas and training together at home is ideal preparation.

The ultimate test will be if the team can make it to the Olympics next year. A three-test series against the higher-ranked Australia side for the Oceania spot could decide that as early as August. The tests will be played at the National Aquatic Centre in Albany.

Doyle says it is a step-by-step process for the players, focusing on the world events first.

“The progress our team has made in the last few years in phenomenal,” says McKenty. Playing top-eight sides at worlds will be tough, but really good for development, she adds.

Doyle adds: “It will be a really good test to see where we are at – we never get to play these teams.”

She means the likes of Spain, the Netherlands and the US. Italy and Greece are others they will play who, while tough, were “sides we’re going to want to beat”.

The women played for different teams in Greece’s top-tier club competition. Although not particularly well paid, their stints afforded a chance to gain experience while also seeing more of the world.

McKenty took time out from her job as a geotech engineer in Takapuna and Doyle worked around studies to get there for six months. Both are looking at options to return to Europe, where a number of countries have competitive leagues.

In 2017, at just 16, Doyle was the youngest person to be selected to the New Zealand senior side.

One of five high-achieving siblings, Doyle was an all-rounder who attended Westlake Girls High School, before spending three years at

St Cuthbert’s on a sports scholarship gained for netball, athletics and swimming. Being at school over the Harbour Bridge made it hard to keep up with swimming on the North Shore and surf-lifesaving at Orewa, so she ended up focusing more on water polo.

At age 17, she headed to the University of Hawaii on a scholarship, returning to New Zealand during Covid and completing a degree here in fine arts.

McKenty made her national senior debut in 2018, having come up through water polo’s age-group programmes.

She got her start playing flippa ball at Vauxhall School, continuing at Takapuna Grammar School and in Harbour sides. She went to Hartwick College in New York State, then returned home to study for a masters degree at the University of Auckland.

Like Doyle, she is keen to keep her future playing options open.

Making a splash... New Zealand water polo representatives and Devonport residents Bernadette Doyle (left) and Katie McKenty

Noise likely an issue for proposed new skatepark site

From page 1

on an unstable former dump site. Options for its replacement have been under investigation by Auckland Council staff.

Recent drainage work at a cost of $250,000 means it can continue to operate for several more years, but the council’s landfill team say major works on the site are neither appropriate nor likely to win planning consent.

Reporting to a workshop of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board last week, council project manager Xavier Cho said 19 peninsula parks had been considered as a location for the skatepark.

Most were too small, lacked complementary activities or facilities or weren’t central enough, leaving just two options: keeping the skatepark at Ngataringa, but further south, closer to the busy vehicle entrance at 27B Lake Rd; or relocating to Woodall Park.

Both sites were in one-in-100-year coastal flooding areas and climate-change impacts would need to be considered, Cho reported. As former closed landfill areas, soil would also require contamination checks.

Board members agreed Woodall Park was the better choice, but raised questions about potential flooding issues.

The council’s northern operations manager, Sarah Jones, said prior to January’s floods, council facilities could be built on flood plains with a suitable plan, as was the case in many parks, but: “Criteria may now be greater and design may have to withstand a 100-year flood every couple of years.”

Board chair Toni van Tonder and member Gavin Busch acknowledged noise was an issue nearby residents would raise. Council staff were asked to look at siting the bowl on the golf course side of the courts, rather than the street side, which is only around 20 metres from homes on Wairoa Rd. Van Tonder

Weekends in Devonport just got a whole lot easier

The Devonport Flagstaff is this week launching a new What’s On This Weekend in Devonport column online.

Got a spare hour or two on Saturday and wondering what’s happening? Are the North Shore Rugby premiers playing at Vauxhall Rd this Saturday or when are the North Shore United firsts at Allen Hill?

We are curating all the options in one place so you don’t have to visit multiple websites or facebook pages.

The column will contain a list of times, dates and locations for sports events, bands, gallery exhibitions, cinema times, general happenings and open home times.

The list will be updated each Friday. Go to devonportflagstaff.co.nz to sign up for our weekly newsletter.

expected concern about “undesirables” hanging around, “noting, of course, that those people are probably our own children”.

She advocated a multi-use area for a wide range of ages. Tennis court renewals are in the works programme and she has previously supported having an extra basketball court. Busch said cricket nets there needed attention.

Busch asked if Ngataringa Park might be a suitable site for a dog park, to provide another amenity residents had asked about.

Jones said a service assessment had established that fencing in the green space was not an option, because foundations could not be laid into ground, but that providing some dog-agility elements might be possible.

Deputy board chair Terence Harpur asked

if in the event of a skatepark being built at Woodall Park, the Ngataringa bowl could be kept for advanced skaters.

Jones cautioned that with the existing facility bound to crack and sink further over time, the budget for eventually removing it could skyrocket.

“We need to take the skaters and the wider community with us,” she said.

Formal approval to move the skatepark would be needed from the local board at a mid-year meeting.

Community consultation this year would be followed by detailed design and consenting, with work on-site from late 2024.

Money is available for the project, with $846,000 set aside last year by the former board.

Tennis courts eyed for pickleball

Pickleball enthusiasts in Devonport are lobbying for a place to play locally.

Auckland Council staff say they will look at marking lines for the fast-growing sport on community tennis courts at Woodall Park. But there is no promise of early action, due to budget constraints. Board chair Toni van Tonder raised the idea at a workshop discussion of whether the area could be used for a skatepark. The courts are due for attention, with one having subsided.

“We’ve got a group of pickleboarders who are desperate to have somewhere to play in Devonport and don’t want to drive to Albany,” said Van Tonder. “Can we put some paint down?”

The council’s northern operations manager Sarah Jones said there was

no money available for this currently, but she would “get it priced up”. Draft budgets were to be finalised in June, Jones said.

Pickleball is a cross between tennis, badminton and table tennis. It is typically played indoors or on a tennis half-court. Originating in the United States, it is suitable for players of all ages, requiring them to cover less ground than in traditional tennis.

Its recent rise in popularity has outstripped provision of courts, which can be double-marked to share with other racquet sports.

Van Tonder said she had been approached by locals and was keen to see what could be done to cater for them on council facilities.

On the move… one option put to a local board workshop on where a new skate park might go at Woodall Park

Shore still unbeaten but loses top hooker to injury

North Shore posted a solid 17-7 win over Massey at home at Vauxhall Rd in a top-of-the-table North Harbour rugby clash last weekend. But victory came at the cost of serious injury to first-choice hooker Lochie McNair.

McNair was caught in the bottom of a maul and sustained what appeared to be a broken ankle in the first minute of last Saturday’s match.

He had to be carried from the field and was taken to hospital by his family.

A star player for Takapuna Grammar in its championship-winning side in 2018, he returned to Shore this season after a stint in Canterbury. The converted flanker has been in great form in the first half of the season, during which Shore has been unbeaten in eight games.

Shore had a fight on its hands against Massey.

It dominated the first half but could only manage a try to flanker Hone Haerewa (converted by Oscar Koller) and a further Koller penalty for a 10-0 lead.

Shore should have had at least double that, as Massey rarely got out of their own half. Koller hit the post with one penalty and Haerewa had the ball knocked out of his grasp as he was driven over the line for a second try.

The second half was a mirror image of the first, with Massey camped in Shore’s half for long periods. Only some desperate Shore defence stopped the floodgates opening. After 50 minutes, Massey scored a converted try and, while down 10-7, was dominating.

Shore didn’t panic, however, and looked the fitter side going into the last 15 minutes.

It moved the ball to the outsides, stretching the Massey defence. The strategy paid dividends when the home side broke through in a classy interpassing movement between backs and forwards, penetrating deep into Massey’s half. Massey stole the ball in a tackle but Shore flanker Donald Coleman was quickly over the top to grab it back.

Quick passing saw Koller in the clear for a try under the posts.

He converted and Shore was up 17-7. Massey kicked a penalty with two minutes to go to make the score 17-10, giving it a remote chance of snatching a draw, but Shore shut them out.

It was Ladies Day at the Shore club, raising money for Breast Cancer Cure, which was marked by the premier men’s side wearing pink socks.

The North Shore premier women’s side played the curtainraiser on Vauxhall number 1, thrashing Silverdale 39-0, with its pack dominating and second-five Holly Williams featuring in some slashing breaks.

See more pictures online at www.devonport flagstaff.co.nz

Try time… First five-eighth Oscar Koller scores for North Shore against Massey and women’s premier player Holly Williams dots down against Silverdale

Unlucky… Shore hooker Lochie McNair is helped from the field after being injured in an early maul. Below: Donald Coleman on the burst

Swim club told to look for alternative to Navy pool

The Devonport Swim Club’s use of the Navy pool has been ruled out until at least the end of 2023 – and maybe for good.

The club’s licence to use the pool was suspended during the Covid-affected years of 2020-2022.

However, the suspension continued while the defence force conducted a safety and security review.

The safety component of the review has been completed and “revised controls are in place or being trialled,” Navy base commander Julie Simpkins said in a letter to the swim club.

A security-procedure review of Devonport Naval Base is set to be complete by the end of 2023, but Simpkins is encouraging the club to look at using another pool.

“In terms of speeding up any process for a community-use pool, the swim club is encouraged to engage with other entities on the peninsula who are actively looking to create community pools already, such as Takapuna Grammar School, to see how they may be able to assist in looking for a future-focused community-pool solution.”

“Using a pool outside a secure military-base fence line will provide a more sustainable option as it will not be subject to constraints and challenges of security and Defence regulations,” she said.

While she realised the club had benefited from an arrangement with the Navy for a long period, most of that time had been “in a different security environment”, Simpkins stated.

The club, which had its AGM last week, has set up a working party to continue lobbying the Navy over use of the pool.

Devonport Swim Club president Tom King said it hadn’t given up hope of returning to the pool and that the working group would put a “what do you require and how do we do it?” letter to the Navy.

Access to the pool had split the club, with one faction believing the Navy should open up the pool to the community virtually as of right, while another felt it was the Navy’s prerogative to manage the pool as it saw fit and that entry issues could be worked through, King said.

Other defence facilities ran pools which

Sounds like that’s it?

The Reserve Bank statement last week was pretty emphatic in its view that the latest 25-basis points Official Cash Rate hike to 5.5% was the peak of this tightening cycle... given current circumstances. This was welcome relief for the markets as many bank economists felt further hikes were in store. It makes good sense to sit back a bit now and let the tighter monetary conditions do their work.

So if this is the peak in inflation and OCR hikes, the property market and borrowers/investors will feel more confident about their investment decisions and we could now be seeing the lows of property values. This despite more pain to come for many borrowers coming off fixed rates although we have not seen a lot of distressed selling at this stage, and it may be offset by the 65,000 net-immigration gain over the last year. Reach out to us if anyone is looking at loan restructures, rate refixes or new borrowing – we can invariably help out.

were open to the community, King said.

The use of other pools on the Shore was not a valid option due to Lake Rd traffic.

Talk of Takapuna Grammar opening up its pool to the community had been circulating for more than 10 years, he added.

Currently, the club effectively had no members, as it had no home pool, and local kids were missing out on swim training, King said.

While the club officially is in conciliatory mode, some members are dismayed at the ongoing ban.

One member cited the great relationship the club previously had with the Navy as an excellent example of how a community/ Defence shared-facility arrangement could work.

Others felt the Navy was happy to accept discounted use of Devonport sports clubs, such as the Waitemata golf club and the squash club, and that public use of the pool was a way to reciprocrate that generosity.

The swim club was formed in 1995.

Prior to Covid, it had around 180 members.

St Leo’s wins regatta

The St Leo’s School team (pictured) won the annual Waterwise regatta, raced off Narrow Neck recently by (from left) Nicolas Busch, May Upton, Madison Atkinson and James Farrell. Vauxhall School came second and Devonport School placed third.

The finance, the numbers, they all stacked up & compared very favourably.

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By Rob Drent

Kevin Ireland (pictured at right in 1998, with dog Sydney) is being remembered for his poetry and other writing.

I’ll never forget his voice. In 40 years as a reporter, I’ve interviewed hundreds of people and listened to many speakers, but few could tell a story like Kevin. And his voice was key to the delivery. Warm and slightly gravelly, his intonation struck the same chord as his hearty laugh, creating a very human connection, whether he was speaking one-on-one or to an audience: a born orator and raconteur.

The launch of a Frank Sargeson exhibition at Takapuna Library a few years ago could have been a dry affair. But not with Kevin (and his good mate Graeme Lay) holding the MC’s microphone. A few memories, stories and tales sprinkled with the Ireland magic dust, and a fun night was had by all.

As the tributes flowed following his recent death, many nuggets highlighting Ireland’s generosity emerged. He was good to me and the Flagstaff as well. For many years he judged our short-story competition – a job that I knew became more taxing as the years went by and

he wanted to concentrate on his own writing.

He purchased my partner’s house in Everest St and, for a couple of years, would drop into our office every few weeks with wrongly addressed mail. It was no trouble for Kevin, who enjoyed a chat and a joke and any gossip I had, especially about council foibles and botch-ups.

Humour and humanity ran throughout his work. I’m no fisherman, but laughed out loud at some of his anecdotes in his monograph Gone Fishing. His first memoir Under the Bridge and Over the Moon is sure to be read in years to come as a classic of North Shore life in the 50s and 60s. Kevin is no longer around, but I’ve got the second and third volumes of his memoir still to enjoy. And no doubt there will be a laugh or two within Obituary, page 14

YOUR PROPERTY MY PRIORITY

Having grown up in Devonport, Blair brings unique market knowledge to his clients, and his enthusiasm when representing their property is contagious. He offers high-level skills in planning, creating, and executing successful marketing campaigns. Blair works across all classes of residential real estate on the North Shore, from Devonport to Milford.

The $51 million funding for Lake Rd improvements is in jeopardy. Well, at one stage it was up to $51 million. Now that figure has dropped back to $48 million, it seems. But provision needs to made for inflation.

Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi can’t seem to agree on final designs; and there’s no guarantee it will go ahead at all –after more than 10 years of to-ing and fro-ing on the project. (Actually, a Lake Rd upgrade has been talked about it in council circles for close to 30 years.)

The public has got every right to be totally bored with the subject. The whole intent of the Lake Rd upgrade has changed over the years, too. Initially it was more along the lines of “let’s fix Lake Rd” – i.e., get more cars and buses moving along it, more efficiently. Now, safety, speed reductions and lessening emissions are all part of the mix.

Some Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members – Gavin Busch and George Wood in particular – seem to be questioning whether the upgrade is a good use of public funds.

For the last few years, I’ve said the same thing. Let’s do Lake Rd properly – underground the power lines, have a footpath on one side only, make room for a tram line or light-rail spur to link up with rail that the government says is coming to Takapuna. It’s the only way to get cars off the road and move towards a real 21st-century public-transport focused city.

For solutions, not promises - let's chat.

The end result (above): a nice job, perfectly in keeping with the feel of Windsor Reserve and the surrounds of ‘Old Albert’, Devonport’s historic Moreton Bay fig tree.

The Auckland Council-created row about this new path outside Devonport Library was totally unnecessary, however.

To recap: a furore broke out when contractors began digging beneath the tree. It emerged a concrete path was planned and council had failed to inform Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members or residents.

Emergency meetings ensued and council changed the path to a shell-based aggregate similar and in keeping with that used along the Devonport foreshore.

All the fuss was totally avoidable if council staff had run the design past local board members in the first place.

It’s the type of issue that highlights the inefficiency of a big bureaucracy like Auckland Council.

Blair Monk blair.monk@bayleys.co.nz

Girls just wanna... play their football together

North Shore United has launched its first all-girls beginners teams.

Four teams of seven- and eight-year-olds have been established this season in an effort to make football more engaging and enjoyable for girls.

The teams are part of the club programme ‘First Kicks’ at Allen Hill Stadium on Saturday mornings, when around 40 of the 180odd players involved are girls.

Five-a-side teams play two 25-minute games on a pitch around an eighth of the size of a regular football field.

“The whole premise behind First Kicks is wanting kids to have as many touches of the ball as possible and have as much fun as possible,” said programme head convenor Simon Ansley.

In previous years, some girls weren’t getting as involved in the mixed teams, he said.

After receiving requests from parents for all-girls teams and attracting enough girls to join the club, this was the perfect time to “give it a go”.

Ansley said he hoped the introduction of the teams will not only help attract more girls to play football, but also retain those already playing.

Creating an enjoyable environment will hopefully keep girls playing as they get older, Ansley said.

The club already has girls teams in the over-nine junior and youth ranks, which compete against other clubs.

The convenor of the First Kicks girls competition, Alice Berryman, told the Flagstaff the budding football stars are enjoying every minute on the pitch.

The club is seeking more seven- and eight-year-old girls to join the teams so that numbers are sufficient to cover absences throughout the season, said Berryman.

Ansley said with the Women’s Football World Cup coming to New Zealand later this year, this is the perfect time for clubs to encourage more girls to take up the sport.

“Now is the time to do it and promote girls’ and women’s football in New Zealand.”

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Kicking on... ‘Aston Villa’ teammates (from left) Elva Curren, Olivia Lancaster, Harriet Upton and Cece Richardson are among those enjoying playing in North Shore United’s new all-female junior sides

Kevin Ireland – writer and raconteur

Kevin Ireland, writer, raconteur and one of New Zealand’s and Devonport’s best-loved literary characters, has died aged 89.

Kevin Ireland was born Kevin Jowsey in July 1933 (he later changed his name to Ireland – inspired by a street sign in New Lynn).

After his parents divorced when he was nine years old, he moved from Takapuna to Cambridge to live with his aunt and grandfather.

A neighbour who arrived with a large collection of books started him on his literary journey.

Ireland later returned to live with his father in Takapuna and attended Takapuna Grammar School.

His family life of the 1940s and 1950s, described in his memoir Under the Bridge and Over the Moon, was a mixture of love and violence. He told of beatings received from his “hard man” father, but on the next page he outlined moments of undying love for his father, who used to wake the young boy up with a cup of tea at 4am before they set off fishing.

“Of course there was love – and deep and compassionate love at that – though often it was delivered to us in parcels in between the violence and wrapped up in sentiment,” Ireland told the Flagstaff in an interview with the paper in 1998.

Ireland always felt outside the conformist confines of New Zealand society, and chose a life of writing poetry and fiction.

He worked as a proofreader at the New Zealand Herald in the 1950s, and for more than 20 years was a sub-editor, on The Times in London in the 1960s and 1970s and on the New Zealand Listener in the 1980s. But Ireland told the Flagstaff he regarded these jobs as “boltholes” that allowed him the mental space to write at nights and at weekends.

He came under the guidance of Frank Sargeson, a writer who nurtured a generation of New Zealand’s literati. He followed Janet Frame and Maurice Duggan, who were graduates of Sargeson’s army-style hut on Esmonde Rd, Takapuna.

Ireland underwent a pressure-cooker course of sitting in the hut with paper, pencil and typewriter, getting through a set quota of work. It worked: he published more than 25 collections of poetry; short-story collection Sleeping with the Angels (1995); and six novels: Blowing my Top (1996), The Man Who Never Lived (1997), The Craymore Affair (2000), Getting Away With It (2004), The Jigsaw Chronicles (2008), and Daisy Chains (2010). He also wrote three memoirs: Under the Bridge and Over the Moon (1998), Backwards to Forwards: A memoir. (2002) and A Month at the Back of My Brain: A Third Memoir (2022).

In 1992, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to literature; in 2000, was made a Doctor of Literature by Massey University, and in 2004,

he received a $60,000 Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement.

A keen angler – often going to fish in the South Island with fellow poet Brian Turner – Ireland published a non-fiction book, How to Catch a Fish, in 2005. It was followed by an extended essay On Getting Old, also in 2005.

Ireland was well known in Devonport and often seen walking to and from the ferry, with his walking stick and, for years, his terrier Sydney.

He was a long-time cricket fan and sponsor of the North Shore Cricket Club, and for close to 10 years judged the annual Flagstaff short-story competition. He often participated in book launches and other literary events at Devonport Library

On the wider North Shore, Ireland was a member of the trust that looked after the Frank Sargeson House on Esmonde Rd: he and great friend and fellow writer Graeme Lay became known as the “sons of Sargeson.”

Active to the end, Ireland had been planning to attend a discussion with CK Stead and Steve Braunias at Devonport Library on 30 May, featuring his memoir A Month at the Back of My Brain.

He is survived by wife Janet, children Bill and Sam, and grandchildren Jack, Matilda, Stanley and Annie.

An ode to social members

For the social members of the North Shore Cricket Club by Kevin Ireland

The social member is the man with his mind half on the game and the other on parking his behind on a stool in the best spot at the bar, as he keeps one eye on the TV and the other on his jar, while supplying an expert commentary on the cricket, with splendid tips on the proper upkeep of the wicket, and at the same time offering free coaching on ping-pong, poker, golf, rugby, water polo, and mah-jongg, with lessons on controlling the dog the wife and the bank manager, and the advice on the true meaning of life...

Luckily he doesn’t have to think about a declaration, hat-trick or a century –he’s only there for conversation, relaxation and a pint. It boils down to this in the end: having something to joke about and a dollar to spend.

In love with literature… Kevin Ireland entertains the audience at the opening of a Three Faces of Frank exhibition at Takapuna Library in 2019

PHOTOS: FROM THE DEVONPORT FLAGSTAFF AND RANGITOTO OBSERVER

Remembering an old mate

Fellow author and Devonport local Graeme Lay pens a tribute to his friend

I knew him for 38 years and we were friends and colleagues throughout that time.

Kevin was primarily a poet, I am a prose writer, and we both loved literature. He had grown up in Vauxhall and Takapuna, so it was natural that after living overseas for many years, he returned to Devonport to live. He lived first in a cottage in Anne St, then in Domain St and finally in Everest Street.

We were both trustees of the Frank Sargeson Trust for many years, both of us having had the great writer Sargeson as a mentor and inspiration. We were also founding members of the Auckland Writers Festival committee and served on the legal advisory committee of the New Zealand Society of Authors. We called it the Portnoy’s Committee, since it dealt with writers’ complaints.

We both followed sport too, mainly cricket and rugby.

He was a loyal member of the North Shore Cricket Club, a dedicated member of the Devonport Wine Club and a staunch supporter of the Devonport RSA.

Meetings of PEN, the writers organisation, and the Portnoy’s Committee took Kev and I into town regularly. The Portnoy’s meetings were held at the wonderful Mai Thai restaurant, in Victoria St, now sadly, like Kevin, no longer with us.

We always travelled to town on the ferry, and it was the return voyages with Kev that I remember most vividly. Firstly, on the Kestrel, later on the Kea.

We always had plenty of wine at the PEN and Portnoy’s meetings, then more on the ferry on the way back to Devonport.

Kevin’s capacity for wine was formidable.

Once we returned on a Friday night crossing and took up seats on the Kestrel’s lower deck. The excellent jazz band, a group of elderly musicians who always took requests, was playing. Kevin suggested Stranger on the Shore, and the band launched into the Acker Bilk classic.

This called for more wine, and we had some, while the venerable old Kestrel rumbled on across the harbour.

More music, more wine. Then I looked at the time: 10.30pm. I looked out the porthole behind us. “Hey, that’s not Devonport,” Kev said, “it’s Auckland”. Yes, we had gone back and forwards so often we had forgotten to disembark.

Still laughing, we eventually got off at our home port.

Kevin was a dog lover, and while living at Anne St he owned a female fox terrier called Daisy. Again, after a well-lubricated ferry ride, we walked over to Anne St, but Kevin had to be assisted up his driveway.

As I manhandled him as best I could, Daisy the dog shot out of the cottage and attacked me as an intruder. I was furious, but Kevin just patted the snarling Daisy. “Good girl,” he said. Kevin’s address at 8 Domain St once led to confusion. Number 8 in Devonport’s Victoria Rd kept receiving couriered correspondence and deliveries for ‘Kevin Ireland’. It got to the point where a business at 8 Victoria Rd contacted Kevin. “We’ve got a heap of mail for you, Mr Ireland, delivered here.”

“But why?” asked Kevin, puzzled. “I live at Domain St.” Then the penny dropped. The couriers, for most of whom English was a second language, thought Kevin’s address was “8 Der Main Street” and delivered accordingly.

Laughter, that was Kevin’s salient characteristic. When he was present, so was laughter. He was the wittiest, most original man I ever knew. Now that he has left us, the world is a much less amusing place.

A glass always half full… Kevin Ireland (right, 87) shares a joke with fellow poet Peter Bland (86) at the 2020 Devonport Library launch of Shape of the Heart, his 26th collection of poetry

In a writer’s den… mates Graeme Lay and Kevin Ireland (right) inside Frank Sargeson’s house on Esmonde Rd

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Ex-army man steps up to defend heritage

John Hyde, who knows plenty about guns from his career in the army, tells Helen Vause about leading the trust that looks after historical coastal fortifications.

Walkers on Maungauika over the late summer may have noticed a handful of greyhaired chaps clustered around the famed disappearing gun on the south side of the maunga, lovingly and patiently sanding and painting the huge old landmark.

One of those retired men wielding a paintbrush, sometimes working alone, was John Hyde, chair of the Auckland Coastal Defences Historical Trust (ACDHT).

The mighty13-ton Armstrong gun is now a gleaming army green, with a $3000 coat of long-lasting paint that should keep the much-admired artillery piece looking good for at least the next 20 years.

With a proud pat to the new paintwork, 76-year-old Hyde grins and calls it “the best gun in Auckland”.

It’s one of just five of its kind left in the world, with three of them in New Zealand.

When there was a rare firing of this monster in 2017, for a documentary series, the bone-shaking aftershock was felt far and wide.

Hyde leads a team of fewer than 10 men, most of whom have an interest in military history, who comprise the active membership of the trust, which was formed in 2009.

Its purpose is to assist the Department of Conservation, Auckland Council and the

Aimed at preservation... John Hyde says there is plenty of scope to enhance and expand public access to the historic fortifications on Maungauika and Takarunga, and at Fort Takapuna

Tūpuna Maunga Authority with the maintenance and preservation of the fortifications at Maungauika, Takarunga and Fort Takapuna as sites of significant public interest – and international visitor destinations.

The trust members also run guided tours at the three locations, sharing their extensive knowledge.

It’s a fitting retirement interest for Hyde, who spent a couple of decades in the army before turning to the business world.

He reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the time he left the service at 40.

In his later years, he was in charge of the Ordnance Corps, the people whose job it is to run matters related to stores and materials, and the logistics that go with that.

The moving of artillery was part of the job of the Ordnance team. So Hyde was a natural candidate to be shoulder-tapped for the formation of the city’s coastal defence trust.

His interest in the army goes back to his teenage school years in Palmerston North and, in part, to the arrival of television.

Unsure of what he’d be doing when he left school, he decided that all the new television sets being bought across New Zealand would provide lots of work one day for anyone who could fix them.

He had no luck securing an apprenticeship in electronics, but it occurred to him the army might offer the chance to learn the sort of skills that interested him. And it did, right from his start as a 16-year-old cadet.

In the army, Hyde completed the exams he needed to open doors to higher education. And as he moved on from his first role in signals into other divisions, climbing through the ranks, he acquired the kind of importing and purchasing skills others

honed in the business world.

He learnt about systems, people management and leadership. He jokes that because he had a loud voice, he found himself giving orders.

While the army gave him an education and put him in charge of logistics and operations for land forces, he had an eye on civvy street, and potential business opportunities kept crossing his path, and his mind.

In the early days of computers, he took the chance to market software packages to accountants, for example.

He laughs to look back at the early days or working around the clock, exploring business ideas that could put him on the path to another career.

“But I was still in the army and I wasn’t getting enough sleep.”

Leaving the army, he was raring to try his luck in the business world of the 1980s.

He tells his story with a pile of business cards. They show an investment and management career in printing and publishing, with a stint as a consultant before he hit retirement age.

Hyde and his wife, Ruth, live in Clifton Rd, Hauraki.

Nearly 15 years ago, he took up the invitation to help take care of the historic fortifications on the North Shore.

The feared foreign attackers never arrived to test the defences built at various times since 1870.

The threat these days lies in the toll taken by the passing of years.

Hyde and others want to ensure sufficient funds are available for maintenance and restoration.

“We are the ginger group,” he says.

The three locations all offer scope for upgrading and much more public access to historic emplacements and tunnels.

In a large underground workshop on North Head, trust members are working on the restoration of pieces – including another cannon – that will eventually go on public display.

And there is scope for considerable enhancement of the existing fixed displays around the forts, says Hyde.

“It would be possible to recreate some scenes showing more about what it was once like on North Head.”

He is confident other big guns could be found to add to the North Shore sites.

The ACDHT has a concession to run fascinating guided walking tours, which can extend to as long as three hours for visits to all three locations.

Wandering through the tunnels in the maunga or overlooking the coastline, the knowledgable guides have many stories to tell, their presentations based on a mix of research and anecdote.

Just getting the massive guns onto the maunga was an accomplishment.

One week in 1885, four 64-pounder muzzle-loading guns were hauled onto the terrace on the northern face of Takarunga.

Railway lines were put in to slowly pull each of them up from Victoria Rd, but at the top one got away on the work party, hurtling back down, down the hill and into the main street. Miraculously, no one was hurt as it sped past.

“We believe it carried on down right into the water,” Hyde says with a grin.

In 1898, Takarunga also got a big ‘disappearing gun’.

It used a charge of 110lbs of gunpowder and it’s easy to believe that residents complained the only time it was fired: many local windows were cracked by the shock of the mighty blast.

Teen grills author about new book

Devonport author Tessa Duder was quizzed by Takapuna Grammar School student Sofia Drew at the launch of Duder’s latest novel, The Sparrow, at Devonport Library last weekend. Around 70 people squeezed into a space on the library’s ground floor to hear about the book, which has as its main character a teenager present at the founding of colonial Auckland.

Sofia, who was the country’s top scholar in English after taking the scholarship exam when in Year 12 last year, was invited to interview Duder because the book is pitched as a young adult (YA) title. Sofia and Duder agreed, however, that the category also appealed to many adult readers. Duder believed this was due to YA novels generally having a linear narrative, compared with literary fiction, which often departed from this convention, not always in a way that readers enjoyed.

To write The Sparrow, Duder drew on her research for an earlier non-fiction book about Sarah Mathew, the wife of colonial administrator Felton Mathew.

Sofia asked Duder about her choice of fiction to tell the story. When grounded in sound research, Duder said this proved an ideal way of bringing history to life.

Her main character witnesses early European exchanges with Māori and Auckland’s first regatta, which included a waka race. The suitability of yacht-racing in summer, rather than on 18 September, when the first race was held in 1840, was one reason Auckland Anniversary Day was shifted to 27 January. This aspect of the book will be further discussed at a talk Duder is giving at the Devonport Yacht Club on 22 June. The event at the library was organised by the Devonport Library Associates, which presented Duder and Sofia with flowers.

Trap-line coverage grows, but more rat-attack needed

Restoring Takarunga Hauraki’s (RTH) rattrap lines have expanded to cover an estimated 30 per cent of the Devonport peninsula from Narrow Neck south, with some zones having 75 per cent coverage.

The high-density areas include Takarunga, Maungauika, Cheltenham Beach and the Ngau Te Ringaringa Eco-Corridor reaching from Fort Takapuna to Ngataringa Park.

Other open spaces, such as Mt Cambria Reserve, Vauxhall Reserve and Devonport Domain, are also well covered.

But pest activity has surged across the peninsula this year due to a wet summer, which caused an “explosion” in food sources and cover vegetation, said RTH pest-free field coordinator Nigel Hopkins.

He said there were still opportunities across the peninsula for volunteers to get involved, whether it’s providing back-up on an existing line or starting a new one.

“There’s lots of ground still left to cover,” he said.

“It’s going to take a collective effort from the whole community to get us to levels that will give native species the opportunity needed to flourish once again.”

One example of the group’s trapping success was the recently established Handley Ave line.

A rat was discovered by a Handley Ave resident on her property on 4 May. Her social-media post, which alerted RTH, raised suspicions that rats were nesting in the vacant former pensioner-flats site, next to her property.

The developer of the site volunteered to host a trapline, which was installed on 5 May.

Volunteer trapper Felicity Sotheran will be maintaining the line, on which two rats have been caught so far.

Question time... Sofia Drew (left) interviewed author Tessa Duder about her new novel, The Sparrow

Breast cancer awareness around Devonport

wanted for the goods. Ray told the Flagstaff raising money for breast cancer was important to them, as their staff are mostly female and they’ve seen how it can affect women and their families.

Pink power… (from left to right) Mike Lloyd, Nancy Nasef and Krystal Manderson; and Ruth Combes, were among 20 people who attended a Pink Ribbon fundraising breakfast held at Lily cafe

Francisca Alevanlli (left) and Stephanie Ray from Clean for Good were outside the company’s Clarence St premises selling home-baked goods to raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation last Friday. Alevanlli and Ray, who baked the cakes and cupcakes the previous night, asked passers-by to pay as much as they

Breakfast fundraiser clocks up 15 years

A Pink Ribbon breakfast held at Correlli’s cafe raised $1669 for the Breast Cancer Foundation. Organised by breast-cancer survivor Lynda Betts, it marked the Devonport event’s 15th year.

For the cause... (clockwise from right) Lynda Natasha Pretorius (left), Carolyn Alpers and Emma Pretorius (7 months); Joan Barton (left) and Pam Bell; Andree Sabourin (left) and Sally Bussey; and Tracey Topp (left) and Helen Michell

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Is the Devonport community losing its mojo? Have we lost our community spirit along with the new development and Covid aftermath?

The Calliope Sea Scouts have being trying for almost three years to raise $100,000 to repair the roof of the ‘Ship’ in the heritage harbourside building on King Edward Pde.

Their Givealittle page running for nearly two years has received only $13,516 towards that target.

A major fundraising sausage sizzle on the first day of America’s Cup racing in 2021 failed because, despite extensive promotion and closing of streets, nobody came.

Living in Torpedo Bay, all closed down in expectation of massive crowds, I went down to the village to see what was going on and became aware of their plight.

My two-sausage purchase was a major event for them.

That year was the centenary of their founding in 1921, which lined up with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS) hosting the

Raised

Devonport village deserves more than just reduced-speed signs. Bob Jenner’s letter (Flagstaff, 5 May) suggests that the new 30km/h speed limit is enough and that the proposed raised pedestrian crossings are a waste of money.

Sadly, the grim crash-and-serious-injury statistics from across Auckland show that lower speed-limit signs don’t work on their own. Traffic-calming, like raised crossings, is needed to alert drivers to reduce speeds and pay attention. Raised crossings are proven to be cost-effective and to reduce deaths and injuries to people walking and cycling.

America’s Cup 150th anniversary. Recognising the synergy, I tried to get the Scouts a slot in the television coverage – wealthy old-timers supporting young newbies in the yachting world. The RNZYS were supportive but it did not come to pass. My selling skills are abysmal.

The irony of the multimillion-dollar super yachts streaming by, champagne corks popping, while the Scouts sold sausages was rather poignant. The real irony was that if they were aware of the situation, the funds would have appeared in a flash.

Then the Scouts’ boat ramp was seriously damaged in a storm. Simon Gundry – a true Devonport hero (already providing major voluntary support for a Rotary project building a bike track at Woodall Park for local kids) –and mates stabilised the ramp, and along with Barbara Cuthbert, another major community contributor, stepped up to help the Scouts get the whole project completed.

A recent update advises that they are hopeful a Lotteries grant will come through to get

Even in Devonport, these people are most at risk of being injured in crashes: 25 per cent of recent crashes involved people walking and cycling, and they accounted for 73 per cent of the casualties.

As a cycling advocate, I am a member of the community consultation group that has been working with AT since 2021 on its traffic-calming plans for Devonport village. The group also had representation from the walking community and the Devonport Business Association.

Auckland Transport’s project team has been very thorough and responsive to our feedback, while also consulting the wider community

the roof done. But that may not happen, and funding is required for the ramp to be ready for the summer.

It is difficult for small community groups to connect with potential financial contributors. Our commercial community and the major developers such as Ryman, Ngati Whatua, Simon Herbert, Kainga Ora, and KBS Construction need to be aware of the part they can play in supporting our smaller community groups and activities. The big players looking after the little ones.

I believe this is an awareness problem, not a structural one – Simon and Barbara prove that.

Many of us have been in the Scouts or Guides in our youth. So, we should all support these young people, and Simon and Barbara, and contribute right now to the get the job done.

Their SOS – Save Our Ship Givealittle account closes shortly. Make sure it is topped up.

Keep our Devonport mojo alive. It needs to happen.

Bill Rayner

via letterbox drops, online videos and locally advertised publicity.

I am looking forward to the installation of the raised crossing beside the Victoria Theatre, as I use it frequently and have experienced numerous near misses, as cars travel downhill and fail to notice or stop for me and other people, including frail pedestrians and children.

With this, together with the raised crossing by Calliope Rd, I’m hoping drivers will sit up and slow down, as the stretch of road between these two crossings has a poor safety record, causing harmful injuries.

Barb Cuthbert

Think village road changes are ugly: How about a dyke?

Once again, the Devonport community has persuaded Auckland Transport to defer climate action and prioritise the convenience of drivers over the safety of vulnerable road users (‘Key part of road-safety plan “on hold”’, Flagstaff, 19 May).

Change is coming whether we like it or not – the question is how and when we respond.

Do we start now, and gradually transition to a lower-carbon lifestyle, where we shop and live more locally, drive less, catch public transport more and ride or walk for short journeys; or do we pretend climate change isn’t happening, and spend billions later on adaptation?

If you think a traffic refuge on Victoria Rd is too expensive and ugly, how do you feel about a dyke between North Head and Okahu Bay to protect downtown from inundation?

Auckland Council is already budgeting to spend billions on new stormwater infrastructure and supporting managed retreat. This is just the beginning. In a climate crisis, the cost of inaction is like debt with compounding interest. You would think businesspeople would understand this.

Chris Werry

Local board trials ‘less intimidating’ informal community meetings

A new kind of community forum drew fresh faces to meet Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members last week.

Held at the Devonport Community House, away from the formality of the board offices in Takapuna, the informal session attracted around 30 people for kai and korero.

“It’s less intimidating to come to than to a meeting,” said board chair Toni van Tonder. “It was a successful first hit.”

The Community Conversations evening is one of two to be trialled this year. The other will be held later in the year in the north of the board area, probably at Shore Junction in Takapuna.

Good conversations were had, van Tonder said. Some residents came along out of curiosity, others with specific questions.

Several businesspeople grilled her about

planned traffic changes on Victoria Rd. However, cycling representatives who attended were keen to see the safety work continue, she said.

Along with regular attendees of community consultations, other residents attended, as did two representatives of Younite, the youth group that gives input to the board.

Another informal session was held recently in Sunnynook seeking input into the Local Board Plan, which is being updated and will later go through formal public consultation.

It attracted a number of the suburb’s Asian residents. “We’re trying to find people we don’t normally hear from,” van Tonder said.

The idea was to build relationships, so people felt more confident about approaching their elected representatives and dealing with the council.

AT to look into Bayswater flood worries

Auckland Transport (AT) says it will check out a raised table on Bayswater Ave, which residents say contributed to the flooding of their properties.

“In terms of the dam effect of leaves, we can look at that,” AT project manager Andrew Mein said. He was responding to Devonport-Takapuna Local Board member Gavin Busch at a

Busch also queried whether side streets off Bayswater Ave needed as many raised tables as proposed in upgrade plans. Mein said the tables were being reviewed in efforts to trim costs. Busch also warned of strong resistance from residents if the Bayswater Ave cycle-lane project went ahead. Board chair Toni van Tonder took a contrary view, saying the project had

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‘COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS’

I attended this meeting, held Tuesday 23 May at the Community House. All members of the Local Board and Councillor Chris Darby attended, with key staff. It was well attended, with a generous pot-luck dinner. Full credit to the local board team for their willlingness to provide this opportunity to meet and discuss local issues over a shared meal, and well done to the House team.

SPONSORSHIP

We are happy to announce that Alex Grant, of EasyPC, is now sponsoring the Trust. Alex has carried out our IT support over the last two years, and we fully recommend him to you for your IT needs. You can access him through our website, or directly at www.easypc.co.nz

REMINDER

Go to www.dpt.nz to see and register for the Trust’s own and others’ events. You can also submit an event you are setting up for the community. If you have questions about this, email abby@dpt.nz.

COMING UP

MIDWINTER DIP - June 25th at 11:30 am at Windsor Reserve Beach.

MATARIKI - go to www.dpt.nz to view and register.

HO –TOKE/WINTER PLAY - starting 6 June at 9:30 am at Bayswater School hall - running til 24 October. There is no charge.

DEVONPORT SENIOR FORUM

Meets at Devonport Library at 1:30 pm on the last Thursday of the month. The group held its May meeting in the library at William Sanders Village, followed by a tour of the complex - which is very impressive. The southern views from the south side apartments are magnificent. When complete, the complex will house 500 residents.

ARE YOU READY FOR AN EMERGENCY EVENT?

Go to our website for the Emergency Support Guidelines we have posted there. Belmont Baptist Church on the corner of Lake and Westwell and He Manu Hopukia Marae in Bayswater Avenue have both now agreed to be Hub locations if the need arises.

shorejobs

Catch of the day

Kahawai City!

Boy oh boy, there are a lot of this hard -ighting fish in our harbour at the moment. It seems everywhere you go, and I mean everywhere, there are just schools and schools them. They are also great for the table – as long as you look after them properly. Be sure to bleed them as soon as they come onboard and keep them on ice…. yummo!

The kahawai are chasing the schools of bait fish still, and yes, there are tons of snapper underneath. Its been mostly small-sized pannies, but every now and then you’ll pick up a decent fish. Small-sized soft baits and casting lures will nail both of these fish, so it can be very productive. The bait-and-berley crew have been doing well also. There is nothing like a getting up on a crisp winter morning, finding a spot with current and throwing the berley pot over, deploying some big chunks of fresh kahawai baits (that you caught) and holding on.

Rakino, The Noises and the western side of Browns Island have all been producing fish in the bigger range, with a couple of reports of guys getting busted off by some big moochers. Further afield, the mussel farms in the Firth of Thames have been fishing well with the addition of a few John Dory also being caught. Please be respectful of the mussel boats if they are harvesting. For all you work-up chasers that don’t like getting your boat dirty, the gannets are doing their thing north of Tiri in about 47m. Reports of whales, dolphins and good-size snapper have just started coming in, so if it’s calm it’s probably worth a look. Don’t forget your binoculars – a must-have to spot work-ups.

Let’s all wish for some more settled weather. Come in and see us; we love talking fishing and continue to build our range of quality fishing gear. Trev and I are off next week to the Far North for five days so we’re looking forward to that…

Cheers

Another member of the local “Martin Mafia” with an 83cm (1.1kg) Snapper. It was released to fight another day, well done Ryan Martin!

Takapuna Grammar

Coats for Kids Another

The TGS Peer Service Team is heavily involved in the notion of giving back and serving the wider community. As a team, we try to focus on the five ways of well-being. This term, these initiatives included connecting and giving to the community. Earlier in the year, we got in contact with the Bald Angels Charitable Trust (an ongoing partner of the TGS Peer Service Team) about Coats for Kids. Each year, Bald Angels run the ‘Keep Our Kids Warm’ campaign and from this project came this school initiative. From Auckland to Northland, the aim is to collect as many warm jackets and coats as possible to forward to the Bald Angels partners.

This partnership was a great way for the students to give back and connect with the wider community. By donating winter essentials to

Huge

Success

those who may not be as privileged, TGS students were able to help keep kids warm this upcoming winter. The school had an amazing collection of coats donated this year and on behalf of the Peer Service Team, we are proud of and thankful for such a wonderful turnout. The Peer Service Team is greatly appreciative to all those who donated and connected with such an important cause!

Year 11 Geographers Explore Tarawera

In May, 92 Year 11 Geographers headed off to Rotorua to experience and better understand the volcanic environment of Tarawera. Despite some challenging conditions while we were away, students were able to complete most activities that took them from one end of the eruption chain to the other. Groups headed up Mt Tarawera in 4WDs, before hiking to the top of Ruawahia summit where the eruption started at 12:30am on 10 June, 1886. A highlight of this

activity was the scree run to the bottom of the crater. Their next activity took them to the Buried Village, which showed the implications of volcanic processes for the people of Te Wairoa. Lastly, we headed to Waimangu Valley, which is full of geothermal features formed during the Tarawera eruption. Overall, the rain did not dampen the spirits of our budding Geographers and they returned to Auckland with a newfound appreciation for Ruaumoko’s fury.

TGS Enviro Club Cleaning Up Our Beach

After such a long period of wind and rain, it was great to have a break in the weather so that our group of TGS enviro-warriors could get out and give our local St Leonard’s Beach a clean-up. The school’s Environmental

Group spent a Friday afternoon collecting rubbish from the beach. After all the easterly wind blowing debris ashore along with all the rain washing it into the sea, there was a lot to collect. It was great to see so many

Boot Camp for Choirs

During 19-21 May, our four choirs attended their annual Choir Camp: a weekend of improvement, hard work and fun. The choirs – Leonessa, TGS Chorale, Sultans of Sing, and the Taka Crooners – spent the weekend enhancing their repertoire and preparing for the Big Sing Regional Competition in June.

In addition to refining their

Tu - Tangata Doing the Mahi

Last term, Tu - Tangata visited Te Taua Moana Marae. Our Wa - nanga consisted of a day of learning about the marae and also included aspects of how the marae worked. We had a guest speaker, James Ormsby (Artist of artwork inside Hine Moana), who taught us about the carvings inside the marae and the meanings behind all the designs included. Our day also consisted of helping in the kitchen, getting to know the new year 9’s, by an interactive game of Kl - -o-Rahi, practicing our waiata, learning the first part of a new haka, and karakia, collection and weaving of harakeke. We concluded the day by performing our own po - whiri to family and friends, then serving them kai and entertaining them with our performance bracket. Overall, the wananga was a great success and the students and staff of Tu - Tangata would like to thank everyone that supported us and helped make this day happen.

Junior Social Lights Up Te Poho

skills, Choir Camp is also a brilliant opportunity for choristers to form new friendships and grow closer into a tightly knit community.

Last year was a very successful one for the choirs, with TGS Chorale earning a Tu-i Award at the Big Sing Upper North Island Cadenza, and Leonessa winning gold for the first time in its history at the Big Sing Finale – as

students eager to do their bit in making our local environment rubbish-free.

well as the Hutt City Cup for best performance of a New Zealand piece.

This year’s choristers look forward to continuing the legacy of Takapuna Grammar School’s choral excellence.

The first Junior Social for 2023 went ahead last month with over 150 students attending, and was the biggest one to date. This event was a fun night for all year 9 and 10 students who attended, with food supplied and spot prizes being handed out throughout the entire night. The night was hosted by the prefect committees (Junior & Events), and all prefects attended to join in on the fun with the juniors. This was an awesome event and we hope to reach top numbers again for the next social, which will happen later in the year in Term 3.

Environmental group becomes charitable trust

Restoring Takarunga Hauraki (RTH) began operating as a charitable trust from 1 June, a change the group hopes will allow it to expand its operations.

RTH community coordinator Lance Cablk said the organisation was becoming too large to be under the umbrella of the Devonport Peninsula Trust.

Evolving into a trust was a natural step.

“It allows us to continue to collaborate

with all the community work that goes on,” Cablk said.

Anne McMillan and Gordon Brodie will remain as co-chairs.

RTH wants to attract young people and mana whenua to join the board to give a more diverse perspective.

The organisation remains “very grass roots” Cablk said. Operating more independently would allow it to “streamline”

Peninsula misses out on bike hub as facility heads to Forrest Hill

Devonport has lost out to Forrest Hill as the location for a community bike hub.

Auckland Council officials have favoured Greville Reserve over Lake Rd’s Dacre Park as a facility for offering basic bike repairs, education and events, saying it will target a larger demographic.

The northern location offered a concrete slab, with no need for site changes, while opting for Dacre Park would have meant some car-parking being lost to accommodate the hub near the Claystore.

Multiple leases applied at Dacre Park, which lacked good public visibility, they added.

The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board accepted the decision, but hoped more hubs could be set up.

The hub operator will be EcoMatters Environment Trust, a West Auckland-based group.

Devonport Peninsula Trust had offered to run the Dacre Park facility.

The hub will open this year.

Kings Store corner gets paving upgrade

Work to re-pave Kings Store Reserve should be finished this month.

The pocket park on the corner of Lake Rd and Old Lake Rd, which is used as a pedestrian resting place and a cut-through to the 814 route bus stop, has had long-standing issues with uneven surfaces.

The council’s northern operations manager, Sarah Jones, told the Flagstaff the project would cost $70,000.

“We are renewing the planter boxes and

pavers because of root intrusion causing trip hazards and other damage.”

A central planter box had been replaced and the middle one against Old Lake Rd repaired.

Garden beds are being extended, to improve tree-root health, and replanted. The walkway is being resurfaced with asphalt, and the seating and pergola refurbished.

The work is progressing well around weather interruptions.

operations and fundraising, he said.

With the new structure, the trust board would be better able to steer and oversee its various teams handling different environmental initiatives, such as working towards a pest-free peninsula, climate action and eco-corridor restoration projects.

RTH will also aim to assist other environmental and community groups with projects around the wider North Shore area.

Steps to nowhere up for repair

Steps at the Devonport ferry terminal, left suspended above the beach (pictured above) due to the scouring of sand in recent weather events, are on a roster for repair. Auckland Transport said a “job” had been logged for the steps but could not give a date when work would be undertaken.

20 years ago from the Flagstaff files

• The struggling Devonport Arts Festival has been thrown a lifeline from Rotary – a grant of $10,000.

• Devonport Primary pupils walk to the top of Takarunga to mark the 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary’s historic climb of Mt Everest.

• Vauxhall School pupils sculpt a 50-metre tyrannosaurus rex at Narrow Neck beach

• Huckleberry Farms’ organic-foods shop in Clarence St closes down.

• Oyster Blue on Calliope Rd closes, with its owners blaming continued problems with obtaining a liquor licence.

• Gabrielle Meigeville-Little and Jerry Yelich-O’Connor of Vauxhall School placed first in a Save Our Cinema poster competition.

• Takapuna Grammar principal Paul Daley leaves after 10 years to become principal of a Catholic school in Howick.

• Devonport’s historic Moreton Bay fig tree is thought to be under attack by insects.

• Devonport residents are interviewed by a radio station in Devon, England.

• Mabel Pollock, who single-handedly developed Polly’s Park alongside Ngataringa Bay, is interviewed by TVNZ.

• North Shore Rugby Club hooker James Hinchco injures his neck in a scrum collapse.

• Vandals attack the dragon-seat sculpture at Ngataringa Park.

• A cotttage in Cheltenham is on the market for $569,000.

• Paul Snow-Hansen (12) is off to the World Optimist Championships.

• Wakatere Boating Club’s Grant Bourke and Luke Yarnton place second in the Sunburst Nationals.

• Basketballer Chanel Pompallier is the Flagstaff interview subject.

Scope for more ‘greenway’ links on peninsula

Greenways for pedestrians and cyclists across the Devonport peninsula could easily be extended, the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board has been told.

Receiving an update of the Devonport-Takapuna Greenways Plan, developed in 2015, board members agreed that linking existing routes would enhance the network.

They also backed more “wayfinding” signage and an app showing greenways.

Auckland Council parks specialist John McKellar, who presented the update last week, said a starting point would be to enhance the council’s own walks website.

“Devonport peninsula needs more presence,” he said.

“We’ve identified the routes, people just don’t know where they are,” observed board senior adviser Maureen Buchanan.

Board chair Toni van Tonder said providing information for locals and tourists at a time when people were searching for cost-effective activities was worthwhile. “Free, outdoorsy and healthy” was a winning offer, she said.

McKellar told board members that their area was well advanced in greenways provision compared with some parts of Auckland, but his update showed opportunities to further connect routes for people’s recreational enjoyment and to take them off busier roads.

Some routes are for pedestrians only, others feature cycle paths as well. They generally connect parks and are a mix of offand on-road routes, sometimes dovetailing with public transport.

The best-known greenway on the peninsula runs roughly parallel to Lake Rd, from Hauraki to O’Neill’s Pt Cemetery in Bayswater, and beyond.

Hopes of heading north from Hauraki via Francis St by bridge across to Esmonde Rd have fizzled out due to lack of funds, depriving local residents of a connection

onto the Northern Pathway as it extends alongside the motorway.

Greenways also presented ecological opportunities, McKellar said.

By taking people into areas such as the Patuone Reserve in Takapuna, where a public boardwalk has been completed, there were more opportunities to connect with nature.

On the peninsula, existing eco-corridors could be signposted, such as from Ngataringa Park and Mary Barrett Glade (aka Polly’s Park) down Seabreeze Rd past the Waitemata Golf Course to Narrow Neck Beach.

The old Wakakura housing block, which was identified as a future greenway in the 2015 plan, had been deleted as it was now the Ryman Retirement Village, McKellar said.

Valuable new west-east connections could be made from Stanley Bay to Takarun-

ga and across to Cheltenham Beach. If the Stanley Bay ferry was functioning it could be even more of a drawcard, he said.

Belmont connections were also identified. From George Gair Lookout off Winscombe St, a public connection might be established to St Leonards Rd, across the rear of the Takapuna Grammar School grounds.

Deputy board chair Terence Harpur backed the development of a shortlist of “easy wins”, including in the northern part of the board’s territory.

Gravel paths rather than concrete walkways could be considered to deliver some routes more cheaply, said Harpur. More ambitious ideas might require gaining access to esplanade reserves.

Board chair Toni van Tonder wanted McKellar to come back to the board once key transport decisions, including the choice of a new harbour connections, had been taken.

Putting down routes... An Auckland Council map showing existing greenways (blue lines) and on-road links (orange lines), along with proposed connections (dotted lines)

Major

Extra

Narrow Neck muso graduates

Depot Te Whare Toi

DEPOT Artspace

SOUTH-VERSED 23

3 - 28 June

SOUTH-VERSED is a celebration of creativity and resilience of South Auckland contemporary art scenes, featuring ten incredibly talented artists living in or closely connected to the region. This exhibition captures their distinct experiences and perspectives of South Auckland’s communities.

Mimicry 3 - 27 June

Our streetfront gallery hosts sculptural and photographic works by Dayle Palfreyman and Nicholas Males for their exhibition “Mimicry”.

Don’t miss out and be sure to visit our gallery spaces before the month ends!

DEPOT Sound

Judging is underway for our North Shore Schools Songwriting Competition, keep an eye on our socials for winners announcements. Our recording studios remain open for bookings, so visit depot.org.nz/sound to secure your session today!

DEPOT Futures

If you or someone you know is a creative looking to develop their professional career, head over to depot.org.nz/futures to explore our two creative careers programmes!

Mā te wā, Amy Saunders General Manager, DEPOT amy.saunders@depot.org.nz

Kolarski – in his bedroom, where he recorded until getting his chance in a studio

A local musician has transitioned from his bedroom to the studio with the recent release of his new single.

October Sewn, whose real name is Kristiyan Kolarski, told the Flagstaff Too Close For Comfort sticks to the dark subject matter he favours but introduces a pop sound not previously heard in his work.

“It tells a story about this guy who’s in and out of taking substances, and he’s at the point of no return.”

Kolarski said he likes to amplify his personal experiences to an extreme in his music, creating a character rather than sticking closely to his feelings and thoughts.

He began making music two years ago, but the new single is his first to have been profes-

sionally produced. Last year, the 21-year-old former Takapuna Grammar School student attended a nine-week music course at Crescendo Studios in Avondale, where he met producer David Atai. The producer then approached Kolarski with an opportunity to apply for a $5000 grant from Warner Music.

Kolarski won the grant and chose to put the money towards making a professionally produced song and music video.

He has since received further support in the form of studio time funded by NZ on Air.

“The whole goal with this is, I do want to take the step further in this artist-slash-songwriting direction,” he said.

“The only reason why I’ve been producing my own stuff is because I haven’t been able to find someone to produce that sort of stuff for me. And now I have.”

He said it was strange going from making music alone in his bedroom to singing in front of a group of producers.

“I don’t sing in front of people, I keep that to my room. Before singing in front of Dave, I wouldn’t record any kind of song, unless there was absolutely no one in the house.”

Atai’s mentorship helped him adjust to the change of scenery, and he said without the team at Crescendo making the step up “wouldn’t be possible”.

The positive online reception to the song has “blown every expectation out of the water”, Kolarski said.

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BALL SEASON IS UPON US

Beautiful floral corsages, buttonholes and hairpieces available for pre-order now. 63 Victoria Rd, Devonport 09 445 8350 devonportflowers.co.nz

Looking ahead, the Narrow Neck resident is planning to release two more singles, one continuing his newfound pop sound and one going back to a darker, melancholic tone.

Too Close For Comfort is now streaming on all platforms. The video is on YouTube.

Homegrown... ‘October Sewn’ – also known as Kristiyan

On screen... Narrow Neck resident Kristiyan Kolarski as he appears in a video for his single Too Close For

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