Half of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board have been swept from their seats, with voters delivering a mandate for change to the now dominant A Fresh Approach ticket.
Its leader and returning board member, Toni van Tonder, was the second highest pollling candidate and is set to chair the six-person board. She brings in three new
faces with her: Terence Harpur, Melissa Powell and Peter Allen.
Veteran politician George Wood topped the poll, recognising both his high-profile and a city-wide swing to centre-right candi dates. This saw Gavin Busch elected in sixth place, joining Wood under the Community and Residents banner, with its third candi
date, Mike Single, close behind.
Heart of the Shore, with board chair Ruth Jackson, were dumped after a tetchy term.
Van Tonder said she wanted a more collab orative approach around the board table this term and had reached out to Wood, despite their having some policy differences.
Zealand
Concerns Takapuna Beach is looking bereft of its usual golden sands have been acknowl edged by Auckland Council, which says its monitoring shows levels are at a 25-year low.
“We understand that the La Niña weather pattern has had a noticeable impact on Taka puna Beach and that locals are concerned,” the council’s area operations manager, Sarah Jones, told the Observer.
With many more rocks exposed at low tide than is usual, some residents have suggested to the Observer that sand might need to be trucked in for summer or could possibly be raked down from accumulations above the high-tide mark against property retaining walls.
This is not supported by the council. Jones said significant volumes of sand would be needed to raise the lower foreshore levels
effectively. Some sand had likely moved off shore during winter storms, not washed up the beach. “Lowering the upper-beach sand levels would also reduce the buffer to any summer storm events.”
This, combined with the depleted lower foreshore levels, could exacerbate the risk of storm-related damage to assets and property.
Jones said the council undertook six-month ly profiles at Takapuna. “The most recent sur vey, completed on 31 August 2022, confirms that sand levels of the lower beach area are currently at their lowest over the entire moni toring data set, which extends back 25 years.”
Upper beach sand levels were also relatively high, she said. “The survey also shows a minor steepening trend of the beach profile over the monitoring period.”
Asked about discoloration of the water near
the tide line that has been observed in recent months, Jones said this was due to exposure of the underlying sediments.
Residents, including long-term local Mar ion O’Kane, have noted the appearance of mud mid-way along the beach. Remnants of a petrified forest have also been more exposed.
Jones has previously said that the cyclical nature of beach patterns means sand at some stage is likely to be washed back inshore.
A Hillcrest couple who regularly visit Takapuna beach, Marcia and Paulo Gottgtroy, said they had noticed how much the sand had piled up and the exposed rocks. “The beach isn’t going to be so enjoyable,” Marcia said. “If you want to walk on it, you need shoes.”
Rocks to the north were now very noticeable at low tide. “We’ve never seen it like this, with rocks and clay,” Paulo said.
Takapuna residents looking to vote in the annual Taste of Takapuna Awards will need to keep their wits about them to keep up with comings and goings in the trade locally.
Several outlets have closed in recent months, including popular Mexico restau rant and Zomer cafe. Mexico says it wants to come back in a new location.
Little & Friday cafe is returning to the North Shore soon, setting up beneath the Bruce Mason Centre. The opening date was not set, said a spokesman for the business. It originally baked from Eversleigh St, Belmont, but consolidated to Newmarket during Covid. It has a Ponsonby Rd cafe too.
Another sweet treat is an ice-cream brand said to be eyeing the old Ragazzi cafe site.
Mamak Malaysian eatery has been sold and will reopen soon in Asian fusion-style.
Large concrete blocks were installed in front of Michael Hill Jeweller in Takapuna after the latest ram-raid on the store last week.
And the day after a vehicle was used to crash through a roller door into the Hurstmere Rd store – the fourth raid on the premises since June – the company announced it was installing heightened security measures across its New Zealand branches. These include fog cannons and alarm screamers, personal alarms for staff and the use of a DNA tracking spray to assist in identifying criminals.
The temporary concrete blocks, incongruous amid the street’s pricey new streetscape, are to deter further offending pending the installation of bollards. Council approval was granted for bollards after it earlier said no, a Michael Hill staff member told the Observer outside the glass-strewn premises, the morning of the ram-raid. The concrete blocks were trucked in the next day.
The company did not respond to queries about when the bollards would be installed and whether the store would remain on the site.
Police said a group of offenders entered the store after the door was breached shortly after 2am on 5 October. They fled in the vehicle, later found abandoned nearby.
“Police are working to establish what the offenders have stolen,” a spokesperson said.
The Observer understands the ram-riders, who smashed glass cabinets in the front of the store, also entered the rear of the premises and attempted to open a safe. After previous raids, staff have been clearing cabinets and locking items away overnight.
“People feel for the staff and are frustrated and disappointed it keeps happening again,” said Takapuna Beach Business Association chief executive Terence Harpur. He acknowl edged that Michael Hill might look to relocate its store, either outside the area or to a less high-profile location, perhaps inside the mall. “We would hate to see them go.”
In a statement, the Michael Hill chair, Rob Fyfe, said: “The frequency of these increasing ly brazen attacks is reaching a level where we will see some businesses forced to permanently close stores.”
Fyfe, who visited the store after the raid, said it was deeply concerning retail precincts across New Zealand were regularly facing such crimes. “In attacking our stores, thieves not only rob us of our products, but they rob our staff and customers of the right to feel safe,” he said.
The store remained close for the rest of the week, reopening last Monday 10 October. North Shore MP Simon Watts said he was shocked the store had been targeted again. He said the bureaucracy of gaining consents for
bollards needed to be cut through and crime cracked down on.
Previous ram-raids on the store were on 24 August, when nothing was taken, and on 5 August, when five offenders made off with an unknown number of items.
In a brazen daylight aggravated robbery on 15 June, two offenders wielding iron bars jumped from a car stopped in the roadway. Goods were taken from smashed glass cabinets.
A 17-year-old is facing charges in connection with that filmed incident and another aggravat ed robbery at nearby Fifth Avenue jewellers on 20 April. ASB Bank down the road was robbed on 18 March.
Other Michael Hill branches have been tar geted by both robberies and ram-raids this year, including the outlet in Albany Mall, which was hit the week before the latest Takapuna ramraid. Others in the CBD, Westgate, Pukekohe, Botany, St Lukes, Henderson and Newmarket have all been targeted, along with stores in Hamilton and Masterton.
The company’s chief executive, Daniel Bracken, said he was appalled by the spate of crimes, many committed by young people.
“More work needs to be done to understand the underlying societal issue here and look to ways of moving them away from offending.”
Counselling was being offered for those caught up in incidents, including the public.
Harpur said crime in Takapuna was generally down, including for shoplifting, anti-social behaviour and graffiti.
• Anyone with tips about the raid is asked to contact Police on 105 or call Crime Stoppers.
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Wood identified areas he was confident the teams could work on, such as determining the future of Takapuna community assets, and others, such as Lake Rd, which he hoped would be discussed further.
Voting in Devonport-Takapuna was above the city-wide turnout of 35 per cent of 1,142,237 million eligible voters. Lo cally, nearly 42.8 per cent of 43,567 voters returned their ballots. This was up more than two per cent on the 2019 local turnout. The national turnout was under 40 per cent.
TERENCE HARPUR
GAVIN BUSCH
PETER ALLEN MELISSA POWELL GEORGE WOOD TONI VAN TONDER
Questioning the Lake Rd design and speaking out on crime were, he believed, reasons, he had topped the poll. Van Tonder put A Fresh Approach’s strongest overall vote to its people being positive and con nected to their communities, from Sunny nook to Devonport. Both gave a shout-out to their unelected candidates: Single ( polled 7th for C&R) and Zane Catterall (9th AFA).
Asked about the allocation of board roles, van Tonder said she wanted to get together with all those elected, rather than presume anything at this stage. Each person brought professional skills to the table, with Wood also having vast council experience.
“I hope we can settle on what’s best for the community and for the board.”
The new board had the first of a series of briefings with Auckland Council staff this week. It will formalise appointments, in cluding chair and deputy, at its first monthly business meeting to be held mid-November.
Wood said it was a shame the majority of people did not vote. “The whole community is really dependent on local government.”
Outgoing Jackson and long-serving Jan O’Connor, who fell from second-highest polling candidate last term, did not respond to a request to talk about the results by dead line. But Heart of the Shore’s top-polling candidate, Trish Deans (8th), told the paper she had already been asked to help with community issues and would stay involved.
“I just feel we did an honest job and no regrets – we have to do things for the whole community, not just part of it,” Deans said.
Hard work had been done on submssions on intensfication and the Bayswater marina, she said. The future of Takapuna library was a live issue. On its website, the team posted it was naturally disappointed and and thanked backers “lifting us up in a long and bruising campaign”.
It added: “This isn’t goodbye.”
North Shore’s two re-elected Auckland councillors, Richard Hills and Chris Darby, face job auditions with the new Mayor.
As chairs of council committees, Hills (environment and climate change) and Darby (planning) may yet fall victim to Mayor Wayne Brown’s promised shake-up as he meets councillors on the composition of what is a more divided governing body.
over the last three years. He said he would pay back voters for their support by con tinuing to work hard for the North Shore.
Hills said he had offered the Mayor his support to help the city. He hoped to continue his efforts around water quality, environment, public transport.
Darby said public transport, plagued by staff shortages, would be a focus.
RICHARD HILLS CHRIS DARBYTop-polling Hills noted his vote had grown since 2019 which he put down to campaigning positively and being available
Third-placed council candidate Danielle Grant was re-elected to the Kaipatiki Local Board, after a highly visible campaign.
It was a surprisingly clear-cut result that clean-bowled one team, and elevated another, says Janetta Mackay
We had a bit of an office sweep on the local board election results and no one called it. Yes, there was clearly a mood for change, but even among candidates standing, few were confident of securing victory.
For years now, the local board has been di vided, but this term simmering issues flared more into the public domain. Good work done by consensus was lost in the wash, as predictable policy disagreements morphed into “line in the sand” intransigence.
Two issues stand out as capturing the public’s attention. Heart of the Shore’s silly shilly-shallying about the siting by Panuku of temporary toilets in Potters Park, Takapu na – which are still not there – drew wide spread ridicule. The awarding of a lease for storage to Devonport Museum on a section of the domain that North Shore cricket and rugby thought they had wholly secured to provide more sports facilities, particularly for women, drew the ire of the clubs. They then told their memberships about it.
But the bigger paralysis has been around issues – such as the future of Takapuna com munity assets – which do have to be decided, not just resisted or relitigated, as has been a pattern with too many matters, including the in-progress Takapuna town square develop ment. Yes, Panuku and Auckland Transport decision-making does need scrutiny and local boards rights do need to be upheld, but this is better done by a persuasive board that comes across as credible not just crabby.
Whether the new board proves to be ca pable of this, time will tell, but Heart of the Shore lost the room and ultimately the vote. Committed community representatives go with it. Now it’s time for others to step up.
Wayne Brown, Fix Auckland 180,173
Efeso Collins, Independent 122,420 Craig Lord, Independent 24,707
*Twenty more candidates each returned under 10,000 votes (ranging from 460 votes to 8689).
AUCKLAND COUNCIL – NORTH SHORE (two councillors elected from 7 standing)
Richard Hills, A Positive Voice for the Shore 19,055 Chris Darby, For the Shore 16,912 Danielle Grant, Community and Residents North Shore (C&R) 14,408 George Wood, C&R 11,872 Tony Bunting, Independent 4329 Raymond Tan 3828 Adrian Tyler 3230
Informal votes 54 Blank votes 1167
*Final results, adding special votes, were to be declared this Friday 14 October, after our deadline. Details will be on Auckland Council’s website. These numbers account for about 97 per cent of votes cast, so little change is expected.
DEVONPORT-TAKAPUNA LOCAL BOARD (six members elected from 20 standing)
George Wood, C&R 7460
Toni van Tonder, A Fresh Approach 7333
Terence Harpur, A Fresh Approach 6554
Melissa Powell, A Fresh Approach 6142
Peter Allen, A Fresh Approach 5975
Gavin Busch, C&R 5974
Mike Single, C&R 5579
Trish Deans, Heart of the Shore 5405 Zane Catterall, A Fresh Approach 5115
Jan O’Connor, Heart of the Shore 4886 John Maidment, Heart of the Shore 4845
Ruth Jackson, Heart of the Shore 4485
Bridget Thrussell, Heart of the Shore 3214
Kevin Brett, SOS – Save our Shore 3117 Tony Bunting, Independent 2938 Kurt Keiller, SOS – Save Our Shore 1569
Sam Welsh, SOS – Save Our Shore 1272 Michele McGregor, Independent 1268 Cherie Keiller, SOS – Save Our Shore 1245 Kent Tregonning, Independent 927
Informal votes 39 Blank votes 1465
A puriri tree planted in the middle of Hen derson Park is a case of the wrong tree in the wrong place, says park guardian and neighbour Michelle Morrison.
She wants Auckland Council to move the recent planting, so it doesn’t grow to obscure the view of races on Lake Pupuke or prevent children from flying kites. “Little children need places to play if we’re not going to offer them backyards,” said the volunteer co-ordinator of the Friends of Henderson Park.
As someone who spends her free time helping clear pest plants from the park and along the lakeside, Morrison is a fan of native trees, but she said the planting of a large-tree specimen in the location made no sense.
She is also concerned about other planting eating into Takapuna and Milford’s limited open-space areas, such as in one of the few flattish western areas of Killarney Park and at Sylvan Park in Milford. “We’re very poorly served for places to sit and play.”
Other residents share her opinion. Gordon Lamont wants the new Sylvan Park trees re moved from a grassy area used for marquees and administration during rowing regattas, while Barbara Ashwin said of the Henderson Park tree: “It makes you wonder how much thought went into it.”
Council arborists, who have goals of planting more trees on public land, disagree. And Pupuke Birdsong Project co-ordinator Tabitha Becroft – who supports Morrison’s volunteer work – said: “The big picture is the city needs more of them to combat warming temperatures and more concrete.”
Housing intensification underlined the importance of both trees and open green space. “The city needs more trees.”
Morrison said consultation is lacking be tween the council and the Devonport-Taka puna Local Board and residents. “If they’re going to engage local volunteer groups in the area it would be good to say, ‘Hey, we’ve
got this in mind.’”
The women agree that tree vandalism – with residents chopping down, pruning, or poisoning trees that they don’t like – is a problem.
At Henderson Park, a pohutukawa stump is all that remains of a tree someone took exception to. In Brian Byrnes Reserve in Milford, trees planted by volunteers have been trimmed back.
Becroft said vandalism increased the need for planting. “More trees are being vandal ised than we can keep up with.”
Morrison is yet to hear back from the council on her request that the Henderson Park puriri be moved. It was initially planted further up the park and more to the east, but
was moved when council staff realised it was above planned stormwater work below the car park.
Morrison, a long-time resident, said the park is well-endowed with native trees, including another puriri.
While she has lost some of her own view over the years, she said: “I have to think at least the bird life is happy.”
But she is upset that the park might lose one of its best public lake outlooks. “You have to plant sensibly. The members of the public are the losers in this,” she said.
“People used to drive up with their flasks and enjoy the view. This used to be the best place to view the races, the yachting, the rowing, the dragon boating.”
The felling of a large pohutukawa tree on a development site in Takapuna has upset several local residents. But Ryman says it had no choice but to remove the tree on the edge of land it owns in Ander Pl adjoining the old fire station site, where it is building a retirement village overlooking Lake Pupuke.
Residents contacted the Observer about the tree-felling on Tuesday last week.
A spokesman for Ryman, David King, said the company’s preference had been to retain the tree but that it was removed on the advice of an arborist. “We investigated transplanting it but the advice was that it would not survive because of its size and the way it had grown.”
The tree had been deteriorating for some time and was in a spot with underground services beneath it which were affecting its roots, King
said. The services on the property needed upgrading, with new underground power lines, so the tree was unfortunately in the wrong spot.
It would be replaced with three new po hutukawa, he said.
“We’re sorry to have had to remove the tree, but it was unavoidable in this instance.”.
The site has an approved planting plan as part of Ryman’s consent from Auckland Council. As part of the plan, it must preserve three large palm trees on the property.
The village will have 89 apartments in its five-storey main block, with work under way and expected to be finished in 2024.
The council recently recommended permis sion be granted for Ryman to add a requested new three-storey care-facility extension to the west.
Spring has sprung at the Forrest Hill Com munity Garden, where a get-together to celebrate the season will include a seedling sale, sausage sizzle and fun and games for the kids.
The eight-month-old garden’s first Spring Festival is on this Sunday, 16 October, from 2-3pm at Seine Reserve.
Volunteers will be on hand to show inter ested members of the community how they have turned a rear section of the reserve into a thriving garden – and to encourage participation.
Home gardeners will be able to stock up on seedlings, including heirloom tomatoes and other vegetables, in time to plant for summer harvesting.
Money raised will go towards the garden’s activities, says the garden-trust co-ordinator Phoebe Atkinson.
With a 4000-litre water tank and a shed built on-site with support from the Devon port-Takapuna Local Board, the garden has
come a long way since it began with site levelling and mulching and the building of two raised wooden beds in February.
Bed numbers will soon rise from eight to 10, and there are longer-term plans for a potting shed and glasshouse.
Each Sunday, a regular core of around 10 locals drawn from a larger pool turns out to work the soil and reap the benefits of what they grow. Fresh planting keeps up a turnover of salad greens and herbs. “We do a harvest and whoever is here we share,” says Atkinson.
Business support has also been a boon to the garden, including that from Kings Plant Barn, which is adding to its ongoing support by sponsoring prizes for the festival.
New World Milford’s new owner spon sored the latest garden bed. He was ap proached by garden organisers after he expressed in an Observer piece his wish to be involved in the local community.
A new outreach Atkinson is keen to get
under way later in the year is to set up a compost bin near an entrance to the re serve, where locals can deposit their food scraps, rather than dump them in rubbish collections. The scraps would be turned into compost for the garden.
This will be done in conjunction with Compost Collective, a council-supported group which encourages and teaches people about composting.
A number of volunteers have been at tracted through curiosity and a desire to learn more about gardening, but many have stayed for the sense of community. Ages range widely, from families with children to young flatmates and retired people.
Three women who have been involved with the garden since its early days are Erica Elderhorst, from Milford, and Forrest Hill’s Amy Johnstone and Victoria Chammanee. “I come back for the people and the love of the garden,” says Chammanee.
“It’s such a zen space,” Johnstone adds.
Lower speed limits for Taka puna town centre are among those recently approved by the Auckland Transport (AT) board.
The lowering from 50km/h to 30km/h will be rolled out between December this year and March next year. It also covers Devonport town centre and roads leading to schools around parts of Belmont, Narrow Neck and Stanley Point.
The reductions are part of the third stage of AT’s Safe Speeds programme which covers more than 1600 roads across the region, or 19 per cent of AT’s network. The moves were consulted on between February and April.
Earlier Safe Speeds stages started with school zones, including around Sunnynook Primary and Hauraki Primary.
AT says the programme is saving lives and preventing injuries. Its executive general manager of safety, Stacey van der Putten, says evidence shows speed is a factor in 70 per cent of injury crashes in New Zealand. Where the programme was first introduced in the Auckland region in mid-2020, fa talities had reduced 30 per cent over the following two-year period.
Deaths recorded on AT’s rural roads near ly halved, with serious injuries down by a quarter. “Safe speeds are one of the most
simple and effective things, as a community, that we can do to prevent serious injuries and save lives,” said van der Putten.
Takapuna roads to get lower limits (along full length of road, unless otherwise spec ified) are: Alison Ave, Burns Ave (between Northcroft St and 30m south of Byron Ave), Byron Ave (between Burns Ave and the western end of Byron Ave and between Lake Rd and Burns Ave), Earnoch and Sanders Aves, Anzac St (between Hurstmere Rd and 30m southwest of Auburn St), Auburn, Collins and Como Sts, Huron St (between Auburn St and the western end of Huron St), Killarney St (be tween Hurstmere Rd and 60m southwest of The Promenade), Lomond St (between Au burn St and 30m southwest of Auburn St), Northcroft St (between Auburn St and the western end of Northcroft St, and between Lake Rd and Auburn St), Blomfield Spa and Club Lane, The Promenade (beween 50m northwest of Killarney St and the eastern end of The Promenade), The Strand and The Terrace, Campbell and Gibbons Rds, Hurstmere Rd (between 50m north of Ear noch Ave and Lake Rd), Lake Rd (between Anzac St and 35m south of Blomfield Spa).
Separate town centre safety improve ments are in the consultation phase.
The Sunnynook September Marathon proved a happy mix of achievement and staged exercise for more than 100 commit ted community members. Five participants managed the 42km in just one week, with others whittling away at the distance over the month-long run of the event.
One local in the over 65 category clocked nearly 103km, said an organiser, Soriya Em from the Community Association. “This event brings people together... and is of siginficant value to the community, Em said.
More than 120 people registered, with others joining in unofficially, matching interest shown when the marathon was held for the first time during lockdown, proving a drawcard when it kept families on the move in a socially distanced way.
This year the community was able to come together Spring in Suynnynook, an event, at the community centre which also doubled as a prize-giving on Sunday 2 October. Family entertainment was provided by the Circa bility circus trust and the Takapuna North Community Trust.
Reasons people gave for participating were keeping active, socialising and enjoy ing the park. Feedback included enjoying the challenge and hoping to keep up the exercise. “Seeing the spring blossoms and buds on the way to places I’d never been,” was another reason.
We are fed up with Eke Panuku which, hav ing removed most of the car parks in Hurst mere Rd and being in the process of taking over all the central car park that has served Takapuna businesses for over 50 years, now plan to remove parks from Northcroft and Huron Sts.
Adding insult to injury, they removed free left turns at the Lake Rd/Hurstmere Rd inter section, resulting in significant traffic delays.
A number of good retail shops in Takapuna have closed, unable to cope with the disrup tion, lack of car parks, plus Covid.
Give us a break!
Milford residents should watch out – the free left turn at the top of Milford Rd into Kitchener Rd may be under threat.
Tony and Rachel LewisKathy Dennett (Letters, 30 September) makes an excellent point asking local commercial premises to display their street numbers. I went into a shop on Queen St in the city recently to find out their number so I could get my bearings. They didn’t know what it was.
Roger Hall
The future of a massive site in Forrest Hill could soon be decided.
The 5344 sqm property at 1 Forrest Hill and 4 Nile Rd – currently occupied by Kings Plant Barn – is for sale by deadline private treaty which closed on 12 October.
The majority of the site is zoned Business Mixed Used under the Auckland Unitary Plan, while the balance is zoned Residential Mixed Housing Urban. Depending on what is proposed, heights of up to four storeys would be allowed.
Kings Plant Barn’s lease runs until April 2025. But a 12-month demolition clause is available to the purchaser, making vacant pos session available from April 2024.
Kings Plant Barn has concentrated its retail operations on its nearby Porana Rd store, athough it is using the Forrest Hill site of 30 years as a distribution centre.
Next door to the site, Atlas Concrete is planning to build a new head office, warehouse and trade retail building on its Wairau Rd site. Corner site... The property at the base of Forrest Hill Rd occupied by Kings Plant Barn is ripe for development. It neighbours Atlas Concrete (to the right)
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Takapuna Cricket Club premiers go into the 2022-23 season as defending Auckland one-day and T20 champions – and looking for a strong showing in the prestigious twoday competition which returns after being abandoned last season due to Covid.
The premiers season starts on 22 October with a succession of three two-day matches, followed by one-day and T20 fixtures in November and December.
Coach Neil Fletcher said the side had been training well and had a good mix of youth and experience.
Youth comes in the form of Westlake Boys quick bowler Samrath Singh, who has already been selected for the Auckland un
der-19 team and New Zealand development squad. Experience is provided by the return of South African batsman Mike Schlanders, who played for Takapuna a couple of years ago, scoring a double century in one match.
He went back to South Africa to visit an ailing relative and got trapped there due to the shortage of places in the Covid quaran tine system.
Takapuna has also picked up Otago pace bowler Ryan Whelan.
“We’ve got a pretty good pace attack,” Fletcher said. “It’s what you need in the twoday game – you need to bowl out teams.”
Top performers from the 2021-22 season not available in 2022-23 include Fanie De
Villiers, who is not playing this year; Ryan Quinn, who has transferred to North Shore; and Max O’Dowd, now at Hibiscus Coast.
Takapuna players Danru Ferns, Robbie O’Donnell, Will O’Donnell, Ross Ter Braak and Quinn Sunde have all been selected for the Auckland Aces team.
This meant their appearances in club cricket would be limited, Fletcher said.
“They’ve all been great value to the club though, coming to trainings and offering help and support to the team.”
• Takapuna play Eden Roskill in its open ing match of the Hedley Howarth two-day competition, with play starting at 11am at Onewa Domain on 22 and 29 October.
Star Westlake Boys High lock Tristyn Cook (pictured on the charge at left) has been selected in the New Zealand secondary school’s team.
His inclusion comes after Westlake’s first XV placed third in the national Top Four competition, after a shock win in the Auckland region final over Kelston Boys.
Westlake forwards coach Rob Mildenhall said the school and the team were delighted with Tristyn’s selection.
“Tristyn is a great kid who has worked hard… he was our captain and best player,” Mildenhall said.
His inclusion in the NZ secondary schools side comes after three years in the school first XV.
Tristyn was a good source of line-out ball, in addition to being a top ball runner and tackler,
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Mildenhall said. “As a coach you couldn’t ask for a better team player.”
After two years of Covid it was great that players like Tristyn had the opportunity to play at a higher level, Mildenhall said.
This week Tristyn was at a team camp in Hamilton, in preparation for NZ secondary school matches with Australia and Fiji.
His father Andrew said the family was very proud of his selection onto what was “a very short list” of the best school rugby players in the country. He had trained hard at school to reach the elite level, with a couple of years of rowing setting a base for his work ethic, Andrew said.
Cook was the only Westlake player in the national side, with five in the Blues under-18 squad.
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If a property is more than 30 years old and has the original wiring, it is likely to need updating. At least in part, to meet current electrical standards, including replacing the old fuse box with a modern switchboard.
Old and faulty wiring can cause the entire electrical system to trip frequently or blow fuses or, at worst, spark a potentially lethal house fire or electrical shock.
If you are considering purchasing an older property, check the wiring is safe before buying. An electrician can tell you what work is required to bring it up to current standards with estimates of the cost which you can take into account when making an offer. Even modern homes can have problems, for example, shoddy DIY electrical work.
Rewiring is an opportunity to not only improve safety but also modern convenience to add more switches and plugs for kitchen appliances, home computers, and televisions. If you are selling an older property, a recent rewire can boost its appeal to buyers.
If you are planning a major renovation project, it is likely you will need to rewire all or part of your property. Electri cal installations must comply with the Electrical Workers Registration Board and Building Regulations of New Zea land. If you are extending your home or converting the ga rage or attic, all the new wiring will need to conform to the latest electrical regulations and the existing installation be updated to safely carry the extra load.
Did you also know that according to current electrical standards, modern switchboards come with RCD protection protection from electrical shock. An RCD or a residual current device is a life saving device that is designed to prevent you from getting a fatal electric shock by shutting down the system when a change in the electrical current is detected. RCDs offer a level of personal protection that or dinary fuses and circuit breakers cannot provide.
team from Lake Road Electrical
to www.lakeroadelectrical. co.nz
2204
Devonport’s Depot Artspace is hosting an exhibition of landscapes by Guo Zhiming, a noted painter of traditional Chinese land scapes who moved to New Zealand in 2003.
Gallery curator Nina Dyer said Guo was recognised in China as a master innovator in the field, but language had been a barrier to his engagement in the New Zealand arts scene.
“Mr Guo’s serene and generous energy is infectious, and he is delighted to be sharing his practice with local audiences,” Dyer said.
Entitled The Sun and the Wind Is Beautiful, the show is expected to elicit a lot of interest in the Chinese community and gives the wider public a chance to see Guo’s complex water colours and ink drawings.
The gallery made contact with a Manda rin-speaking local to help with translation to allow Guo to share with its staff the meaning behind a 12-metre scroll. It is included in the exhibition with explanatory detail.
The scroll took many years of work and includes hundreds of intricate figures showing aspects of village life, including people spin ning silk, cooking and swimming.
The watercolours are made with Guo’s sig nature finger-painting techniques, creating fluid abstractions from which traditional landscape scenes emerge.
This merging of an unconventional method to deliver Chinese painting composition is what earned the artist his status in China, where a
Landscapes by Chinese artist Guo Zhiming (above) are on show at the Depot Artspace
60-year retrospective of his work was held at the Nanhui Museum in Shanghai in 2019.
His work is widely held in museums and galleries in his home country.
By looking to the abstract art of the West, particularly the Action Painting genre popu larised in mid-century America, Guo’s body of work uses methods including spraying,
coating, washing, shaking and dragging to achieve a desired effect on his canvases.
Guo was born in Shanghai in 1942 and has been painting since the 1960s.
He is honorary chairman of the New Zea land Chinese Culture and Art Centre which is based in Takapuna, and involved in other Chinese arts groups.
Two senior students at Carmel College, Zoe Kohlberger and Jillian Aquino, have been recognised with Pat Hanly Creativity Awards.
The awards are given annually to second ary-school students across Auckland.
Zoe, who is in Year 12 and aims to go to art school, created a diptych of a female subject exploring emotional reaction.
The two strongly coloured acrylic paint ings, created from photo references, show the sampling of a metaphorical meringue.
Zoe is influenced by Japanese horror imagery, with its combination of soft faces and sharp strokes.
She finds art a way of exploring emotions. “Art makes people better,” she says.
The school’s head of art, Diane Miller, said the two were nominated for their talent, and ability to do extra work independently.
The school encouraged students to extend beyond the curriculum, she said.
Both girls are working towards their endof-year portfolios.
They were hosted at a prize-giving at Auckland Art Gallery last month, along with students from 46 other schools.
Other recipients included Sam Higgs and Joseph Pettigrew from Westlake Boys High School, and Aisha Avers and Raahi Gossage Krishnan from Takapuna Grammar School.
Zoe said she used the voucher that came with the award to buy more red ink.
She is a prolific artist, and already has an international outlet for her works: “I usually send them to my grandparents in Canada.”
A composition by Westlake Boys High School arts captain William Squire has been lauded as “a stunning piece of choral writing”.
The high praise came from leading New Zealand composer Anthony Ritchie, after William’s ‘Flames’ was performed for the first time at the Big Sing Finale in Christchurch last term.
It was named the best composition at the national event, which is staged by the Choral Federation.
William, aged 17, wrote the piece for a mixed-voice choir, with words by Hunter Haynes, Westlake’s deputy head boy.
The piece was sung by Choralation, the joint choir of Westlake Boys and Girls High Schools, which also won a gold medal at the Big Sing Finale, which features the top 24 secondary schools in the country, selected from regional festivals.
Year 13 student William, who has loved music all his life, developed his skills in com position for different ensembles throughout high school.
“I like to have a powerful source of inspira tion to develop musical ideas about.”
‘Flames’ was a response to the 2019-20 Australian wildfires. “I asked my friend Hunter Haynes if he could write a poem about the event to set to music, and after he sent me the text I was enthralled by the devastating words.”
William said he wanted to create a sombre
piece, and he thought combining Hunter’s text with the a cappella mixed choir arrangement allowed for this.
Choralation rehearsed for the premiere performance of the piece for several months. “I was able to provide the singers with an elec tronic realisation of the work. I’m very grateful to the choir for the hours spent in rehearsals.”
William not only had the wider work but his own choir part to worry about at the premiere. “For most of the piece I was focused on getting the job done… after all, I better sing my part correctly since I wrote it!
“But I recall feeling rather overwhelmed come the last few pages and noticing my pages in front of me shaking a little bit.”
It was a humbling moment to experience the silence at the end of the piece, he said, followed by applause when he was honoured to receive the award.
While he does not intend to make music his career, William is keen to continue singing and playing. “Music is a passion of mine that isn’t going away soon.”
He learned piano and violin from age five and took up what is his main instrument, the French horn, in Year 7. He has also performed widely and recorded, both solo and in choirs.
No plans have been made for a local per formance of ‘Flames’ yet, but William is keen for this to happen.
The Big Sing performance of it is available to view on YouTube.
The sell-out success of North Shore play wright Kathryn Burnett’s Campervan at the PumpHouse in Takapuna is prompting its producers to consider a further run of performances.
After Covid delays, the Tadpole Produc tions play finally had its world premiere season last month, with a top cast, including
Lisa Chappell and Andrew Grainger.
An extended season at the PumpHouse was not possible, due to other bookings. But a Tadpole spokesperson said another season or taking the play on a regional tour were being considered.
One issue would be again securing the busy cast and leading director Simon Prast.
Burnett, a well-known writer for stage and screen who grew up on the North Shore, last year shared the Best Script Award (drama) at the Television Awards for her tele-feature
The Tender Trap Chappell was also Shore-raised, while Grainger and fellow cast member Greg John son both live in East Coast Bays.
Milford’s Matthew Kereama (pictured) is relishing the opportunity to cut his professional theatrical teeth as a director on the innovative retelling of a classic movie, North by Northwest
The former Rosmini College pupil is currently re hearsing a stage adaptation of the suspenseful big-screen story, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1959.
As Auckland Theatre Company’s assistant and resi dent director, Kereama is working with the Kiwi-born, Australian-resident duo who turned the spy thriller into an action-packed play. Carolyn Burns adapted the story in 2015 and Simon Phillips directed it, first in Melbourne, then internationally.
The first New Zealand season opens this month. The couple then head off, leaving the ATC crew and Kereama in charge. “My job is to assist in the process, and when they leave to maintain it over the next three to four weeks,” he says.
For Kereama, aged 24, the opportunity to step up is one that nicely ties together his past experience and his future ambitions.
At school he was steered into singing lessons – with the same tutor who taught Sole Mio member Moses Mackay, who was a senior student at Rosmini when Kereama arrived from St Joseph’s, Takapuna.
At the University of Auckland, Kereama gained a Bachelor of Music in classical performance. He also helped Rosmini’s Academy of Performing Arts stage musical and theatre shows, including some productions involving other North Shore schools. Directing’s collab orative side grew to appeal more to him than performing. “Directing is a place I feel quite at home,” he says. This led him to theatre as a vocation – although long-term he fancies directing opera.
Kereama went through ATC’s youth programmes in his teens and is now co-leader of its youth company, for those aged between 16 and 25. He says getting the assistant-director post with the main company this year and the resident-director role for North by Northwest was a
For film fans looking for something short and interesting, the chance to dip into a range of genres is a feature of an upcoming festival. A selection of short films from this year’s Show Me Shorts Film Festival is being screened at The Vic, Devonport this week, and at Monterey cinema, Takapuna from 16 October.
great opportunity. So too working with Phillips. “Being a young creative who wants to keep directing, I listen to every word from Simon.” The established ATC compa ny members had also been very encouraging.
The play includes the return of screen star Antonia Prebble to the stage for the first time in nine years. “She’s so down to earth and humble,” says Kereama.
When Prebble last trod the boards it was also for ATC, in its 2013 production of The Glass Menagerie. She plays the part in North by Northwest in which Hitchcock cast Eva Marie Saint. Opposite the blonde actor in the 1959 movie was Cary Grant, whose character is being played in Auckland by Ryan O’Kane.
Along with a twisting plot, the North by Northwest movie featured a number of memorable scenes, including one where its lead male character dodges a crop-duster and another at Mt Rushmore. Kereama says the stage production is also visually arresting – a veritable ballet of movement.
“How Simon Phillips has designed it to move to the stage is absolutely amazing.” The movie’s title sequence is highlighted.
The carefully calibrated and highly physical action is a challenge for the production’s 12 actors. From a directing point of view, the play has a number of technical transitions, a musical score and sets to work around.
Kereama enjoys the collaboration of theatre and when he wants to switch off he runs, either by road to Devonport or along the North Shore beaches he grew up on. “It’s a nice kind of way to meditate on the day,” he says.
Kereama says anyone who has seen the North by Northwest movie previously might like to watch it as a refresher before seeing the play. “If you’ve never heard of it, come see the play and enjoy its energy and then maybe see the movie after.”
• North by Northwest runs at Auckland Theatre Company from 25 October to 19 November.
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