14 April 2023 Rangitoto Observer

Takapuna street rethink still costing $2 million

It is back to basics on Northcroft St, Takapuna, where much mocked street-enhancement plans have been considerably curtailed – but the reduced works have the same budget.

Eke Panuku expects to spend $2 million of ratepayer money across both Northcroft St and Huron St. Works will start on Northcroft

St in July and run until March next year. Huron St changes will be delayed, to better tie in with council stormwater work needed there.

Because the Northcroft St changes do not shift stormwater infrastructure or the camber of the road, disruption during construction

should be minimised. Footpath replacement work has been reduced in the plan, one proposed raised speed table will be removed along with less seating and fewer street trees. By building on-road planter bays for trees, with carparking between these and guttering

To page 2

Golden moment as Lake lasses dunk cox

There she goes... Westlake Girls High School’s under-15 rowing four throw cox Tessa Guthrie into Lake Karapiro in the traditional victory dunking after winning gold at the Maadi Cup. Story, page 8.

Wood walks out over local board secrecy... p6

Forrest Hill student new Indian idol... p3

Flower power brightens Takapuna street... p15

Anzac parade back

Takapuna’s Anzac Day parade is back this year, after a scaled-down ceremony was held in 2022 due to Covid concerns. Those wanting to march should assemble at 8.30am on Tuesday 25 April at Sanders Ave to parade along Lake Rd to the war memorial on The Strand for a 9am service. Road closings apply from 7am to noon. The PumpHouse Theatre in Killarney Park is holding a commemoration at 4pm, called All for Peace. It features North Shore Brass playing marches, toe-tapping and reflective music, with a solo by cornet player and national junior champion of champions Liam Wright. The 90-minute performance is unticketed, with koha taken at the door.

Get down and dirty

Locals are being asked if they are “tough enough” to join a flood clean-up working bee organised for the Wairau Estuary by the Milford Residents Association and Pupuke Birdsong Project. Volunteers who reckon they have the right stuff to pull rubbish from the mangroves are wanted, with less strenuous tasks also available to those who can come along in gloves and boots, on Saturday 22 April at 11am. Register at info@milford.org.

Milford’s partying past

Milford historian Debbie Dunsford will give a talk about the area’s past titled ‘When Milford was an entertainment mecca: from mini golf to Ye Olde Pirate Shippe’. The co-chair of the Milford Residents Association will speak on Friday 21 April, 10am, at the Senior Citizens Hall. Entry for non-members is by gold coin donation.

Less work, same budget in Takapuna street redesign

From page 1

remaining next to the existing footpaths, the carriageway from Auburn St to Lake Rd is effectively being narrowed to slow vehicles without the road needing to be rebuilt.

Asked by the Observer why the revised plans still carried the same budget, a spokesperson for the council’s property arm said this was because costs of construction and materials had risen since the budget was set.

“We feel that we are now only doing the work that is critical to creating a safe street,” the spokesperson said. This was in line with feedback received from public consultation last year that “people didn’t want to see improvements to the street aesthetically.”

More parking – 24 spaces and a loading bay, will be retained, up from 18 spaces proposed in the consultation. This drew 141 submitters, with a number saying much of the work was unnecessary in what was a thoroughfare and a wind tunnel.

A proposed raised pedestrian crossing outside the Sentinel plaza will be built, but a raised table further west will not. Just six major street trees are left in the plan, with a few more smaller trees to be added once locations are decided as work progresses.

The project, launched two years ago, included $400,000 from Waka Kotahi, the natonal transport agency. This was spent to trial various “Innovating Streets” measures.

Feedback on Auckland Council’s 2023/24 draft budget is well up on usual response rates, with 1599 submissions received from the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board area.

City-wide, a record 34,922 people and groups replied to the Have Your Say process, with a late rush before the cut-off date

But its candy-striped planter pots, painted sections of road, chicanes and a gazebo offering no shelter did not win over the public, leading to the first of several redesigns.

The finalised design was presented to Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members for feedback late last month. Eke Panuku’s priority location director, Kate Cumberpatch, said the aim was to make the town centre approach safer and more attractive.

Board chair Toni van Tonder said she was pleased to see Eke Panuku being responsive to feedback. With more apartments being built, more people would use the central streets. It would be good if efforts were made to tie in their look with Hurstmere Rd, which had proved a design success, including in avoiding flooding, she said.

Cumberpatch gave no commitment to matching materials to those used on Hurstmere Rd’s footpaths, saying, however, that she would talk to Auckland Transport.

Other questions from board members included how well guttering and stormwater would perform with the tree bays and any leaf litter. The board was told they allowed for water flow and that pohutukawa were being looked at for planning, to tie in with the Lake Rd corner and the beach.

Deputy chair Terence Harpur called for the bumpy Lake Rd pavement between Northcroft and Huron Sts to be upgraded to better connect the whole area.

in late March. The response was more than three times as many submissions as in 2022.

Council staff will now collate the feedback which will go to local boards in May to help members decide how to allocate reduced funding to support local activities. DTLB has $810,00 less discretionary spend.

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Bus blues banished by Forrest Hill girl’s song success

Forrest Hill 13-year-old Avishi Jain has won a hotly contested radio talent show – the youngest competitor to do so.

The Year 9 Westlake Girls High School student and her mother, Suchita, had to catch four different buses after school to reach Radio Tarana’s studios in Eden Tce by 6 pm to compete in rounds of its Idol competition.

But the effort was worth it when judges, listeners and supporters, including schoolmates, helped vote Avishi to victory.

The win comes with a $1000 cash prize and the chance to perform at events Radio Tarana hosts for its 57,900 weekly listeners, drawn from the Indian community. The station began in the 1990s and Tarana Idol was launched 14 years ago.

Avishi, who is in Westlake’s music academy which includes music theory classes, guitar classes, performances and other music related assessments, was delighted to win the radio quest ahead of adult competitors.

While she has always had a passion for singing it was her mother who entered her to help push her “out of her shell”.

After a nervous start performing live on air, Avishi gained confidence from the positive feedback of the contest’s three judges.

“On my first day I was really scared but the judges were really nice and supportive, which made me feel better,” she said.

The competition ran over 10 days (Monday to Friday) with new challenges thrown at the contestants each session, such as singing songs from the 1970s, taking a male role if

On air idol... Avishi Jain sang her way to success in a radio contest

female, or vice versa, and having to adapt their song choice. Avishi worked hard to prepare, staying up until 11pm practising.

“My parents and family motivated me through it. Sometimes I wanted to give up but they supported me and kept me going.” Her mother says: “She kept practising and practising and also kept taking on more challenging songs.”

Avishi comes from a musical family and studied classical music in New Delhi for three years before her family moved to New Zealand in 2019.

While she says Idol will be her last radio quest, she hopes to sing live again and release her own music online. Her prize money is going into a fund for university study, with a degree in music or animation in mind.

Data trawl shows North Shore commuters short-changed

The top two most frequently cancelled bus services in Auckland are the 845 which travels between Milford and Takapuna, past schools and North Shore Hospital, and the 856 through Castor Bay to Milford.

A data survey by RNZ also showed the sixth-worst service was the 907 from

Campbells Bay through Sunnynook, with all three routes having more than a third of their services cancelled in February.

Of the city’s 20 worst services, 16 are in the north, RNZ found, with Ritchies, the main operator for these, citing staff shortages and sickness for most cancellations.

The detail follows a recent public meeting called by North Shore MP Simon Watts and his National Party colleague for East Coast Bays, Erica Stanford, which heard from frustrated commuters and from parents concerned about the difficulty children were having in getting to school on time.

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Permanent pipe fix needed to safeguard Castor Bay

Swimming was declared off limits at Castor Bay Beach heading into the Easter break, although without signage some beachgoers were unaware of the warning.

The beach was placed under a black flag alert for 48 hours on the Safeswim website last week after a temporary overland pipe failed. This was installed to contain wastewater flows and bypass where a public pipe on Braemar Rd was damaged in a landslide caused by flooding in January.

A Watercare spokesperson explained: “This temporary set-up failed and caused an overflow, which prompted the black flag on Safeswim.”

After Watercare crews fixed the overflow issue late on Thursday the black flag warning was kept in place until Good Friday afternoon to guard against any residual contamination, the spokesperson said. Water-quality testing had indicated a low level of ammonia close to the pipe break.

The alert was then changed to a red flag, which still means avoid swimming. After getting a green all clear on Saturday on Monday it was briefly back up to red after rain.

Watercare said the bypass set-up was being inspected daily by contractors to guard against further system failures.

On Tuesday morning a black flag “no swim” warning was in place on the Safeswim website for the Wairau Outlet and Milford Beach.

CAB still providing grassroots help related to floods

Citizens Advice Bureau in Takapuna has been helping those impacted by floods at a time when its own future is up in the air.

Tenancy problems and questions make up the bulk of an 11 per cent increase in inquiries since summer’s extreme weather events.

CAB branch manager Alison Munro said tenancy and accommodation issues were ongoing for people displaced from damaged rental properties. In the wake of the floods, those in unliveable homes were advised they were able to give their landlord two days’ notice and claim refunds for rent paid in advance.

Initial calls to CAB, when its staff were working remotely, included where to find emergency shelters and how to donate goods.

One man who had not eaten in four days in the wake of the 27 January flood was connected with a food parcel provider. Another needed help accessing emergency shelter during Cyclone Gabrielle in mid-February.

Munro said the increase in demand during a time of need showed why the organisation should continue to be funded. It faces losing $2 million across its 32 Auckland-wide branches under council’s slashed draft budget for 2023/24.

Defunding a valuable service that already

ran on a lean model did not add up, she said.

“Managers are poorly paid, it’s not minimum but it’s not much better and everyone else works for free. We run on the smell of an oily rag, we really do.”

Munro said it was “devastating” to think about the cuts as she doesn’t know who

will fill the gap. “Who takes the call from the man looking for the shelter if we’re not around? I don’t know.”

Along with other groups facing funding cuts, the CAB called on supporters to petition against them. The council will finalise its budget after considering feedback.

Ready to help… Citizens Advice Bureau volunteers (from left) Peter Hassell and Lyn McAllister with Takapuna branch manager Alison Munro at Devonport Library during CAB awareness week

Wood shuns board’s secret meeting stance

Veteran politician George Wood walked out of a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board meeting last week, angered that two workshops were being held as confidential sessions rather than open public meetings.

The workshops – discussing council-arm Auckland Emergency Management (AEM) and its flood response and operations and a later briefing on local board services – continued with the media and public excluded.

Wood later told the Observer he was not happy that important topics were being dealt with in secret at the behest of council staff. New board members were being pressured and he said: “I for one, wasn’t going to sit there and be a stoolie [stool pigeon] with Terence [Harpur] in the chair.”

Board chair Toni van Tonder, who participated in the meeting by Zoom because she was at home unwell, said she was satisfied the workshops were correctly taken into private session under provisions of the Local Government Official Information and

Meetings Act (LGOIMA). Staff advice on doing this was sound, she said.

Wood could make his own choices, but she added “he missed an important debrief”.

Reasons cited under LGOIMA for making the meetings confidential were to maintain effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank exchange of opinion and to protect persons involved, including staff, from improper pressure or harassment.

“I’m not interested in staff being publicly vilified,” van Tonder said. The AEM session had been tense, with strong views expressed, she said.

During the term of the last board, both van Tonder and Wood opposed open workshops. After they and four new board members were elected in October (three on a ticket with van Tonder), van Tonder surprised by retaining the open workshops reinstated by former board chair Ruth Jackson in 2021, saying she had come round to the idea.

Jackson on her Heart of the Shore plat-

form has publicly questioned why the new board has returned to some closed sessions.

Wood told the Observer that given this board had opted for open workshops his view was “If they’re going to do it one way do it, or do it the other way, but be fair and consistent, rather than have reasons that don’t stack up.”

Van Tonder said some on the board favoured closed workshops. She was trying to keep them open as much as possible for public information flow, but the reality was, as one of the city’s few boards that had open workshops, council staff were wary about coming along to them.

A session such as the one on AEM would not have happened if it were open and the likes of financial discussions that were not finalised but impacted groups needed to be initially handled in confidence, she said.

The Observer attends most open board meetings and will continue to track the use of LGOIMA to declare them off limits.

Better planning would be a fine thing

I wish to refer to the article printed in the March 31 issue of the Rangitoto Observer [about accessiblity issues at Milford Beach Reserve]. I concur with everything written and would like to add that it is also ablebodied children and young people using the park who are disadvantaged because of Auckland Council’s incompetent design and maintenance.

A number of years ago a basketball court and hoop were built in the reserve. It was hugely popular, but every time it rained the court filled with water and because there was no drainage included, the court filled with water and couldn’t be used for days (and in winter sometimes for weeks).

The average home owner/gardener would be able to tell the council that a simple sump

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hole filled with gravel and a grate on top would do the job admirably but apparently not the council contractors.

I approached the project manager who controlled the building of the changing sheds and asked if, as they were onsite for weeks, this small job could be included but no such luck.

I wrote to the business association which provided a broom, but this only lasted a couple of days and was removed.

The incompetence is mind-blowing. Time and again residents are heard saying: “Well good luck complaining... what’s the point?”

To request action seems impossible and simply leaves ratepayers disheartened and apathetic.

Susan Thomas

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Junior rowers show the way ahead for Westlake Girls

The future is looking bright for Westlake Girls rowing after its Under-15 coxed four took home a national title at the Maadi Cup.

The crew of Talia Chatfield, Charlotte Mawston, Maeve Lockett, Sacha van der Net and Tessa Guthrie (cox), beat Sacred Heart Girls College by five seconds to claim victory on Lake Karapiro, in rowing’s national secondary schools’ annual championship.

Charlotte and Sacha were also part of the U18 novice coxed four that placed second in the A final.

Westlake’s rowing coach, Ella Campbell,

told the Observer that although winning the senior events is the main goal, it was great to see up-and-coming rowers excelling. A squad of 35 girls headed to the event.

“If we can keep going in this direction it’ll be an exciting next few years.”

Next year the girls would aim to further develop their potential.

“Going into their second year of rowing we’ll look at mixing them in with senior crews because that’s how they get better and develop their skills.”

The main focus is training and development, but spots on the senior boats could be

up for grabs if the juniors are fast enough.

“At the end of the day the quickest girls get on the boat so we’ll have to see.”

The spirit of the Westlake girls crews stood out for Campbell at the regatta.

All the Maadi competitors were cheering on their team mates racing on the water.

“It’s really good to see the kids feed off the school culture and get behind each other,” Campbell said.

Two other crews made A finals with the U18 coxed four coming fifth and the U18 coxed eight coming seventh in that pinnacle race. The school also made four B finals.

Rosmini fires warning shot to competition with 3x3 win

Rosmini College has made a statement ahead of the main school basketball season, with its 3x3 team winning at nationals in a nailbiting final.

Rosmini had to fight its way back into the game against Hamilton’s St John’s College after going down by five points early on. The lead later went back and forth multiple times, until a bucket from Rosmini’s Zion Anderson tied the short version of the game 14-14 sending it to overtime.

After opening the scoring in extra time, Rosmini did not look back, with tournament MVPAnderson netting the winner, in a 16-14 comeback.

Coach Matt Lacey said the pre-season 3x3 tournament gives a vital chance for senior and junior players to learn the team’s system and polish skills for the 5x5 season. Its consistency, pace and physicality forced players to be “relentless in transition from offence to defence”, further developing that aspect of their game.

Rosmini, which last year won the Auckland secondary schools competition and made the national final, has lost four of its starting five players. But the 3x3 win has given it hope for 2023. Lacey said the Auckland competition was “by far and away” the most competitive in the country, having produced 12 of the last 20 national champions. With half a dozen schools having consistently strong basketball programmes, easy matches were scarce. The Auckland competition tips off on 5 May.

Potential plus… Coach Ella Campbell and rowers (from left to right) Charlotte Mawston, Sacha van der Net, Tessa Guthrie (cox), Talia Chatfield and Maeve Lockett with the U15 coxed four trophy

National champions… Clinching the 3x3 basketball trophy are (from left) Chris Wyllie, Zion Anderson, Josh Wyllie and Harlan Roudon Photo: Roshan Uelese

Two golds for Westlake Boys at Maadi Cup

Five Westlake Boys rowers won double gold medals at the prestigious Maadi Cup national secondary schools regatta.

Josh Morris, Adam Leece, Sam Bird, Donovan Pivac and Cole Hampson-Tindale (cox) topped the podium in both the U15 coxed four and as members of the U15 coxed eight crew. Others in the eights were Toby Cleghorn, George Langley, Josh McGill and Coby Kerr.

Westlake’s U18 coxed eight came third in the Maadi Cup race while the U17 and U18 coxed fours also claimed bronzes in their A finals at the event raced on Lake Karapiro.

The school made nine other A finals and nine B finals with two wins in B finals.

The results saw Westlake Boys place third on points among boys’ schools and fifth overall nationally.

Westlake’s rowing coach, Jo Shotter, told the Observer rowers showed grit across all age groups. “We definitely have strength in our junior programme, for sure.”

Shotter said how the annual event would pan out always had an air of mystery.

“We knew we were doing well [during the season against North Island competition], but you never know until Maadi because that’s when you meet the South Island [teams].”

Shotter isn’t planning to push the U15 winners too hard, saying rowing “is not a one-year game but a four-year journey”. Until spring, she plans to “take a back seat”, encouraging the squad to take up winter sports and enjoy themselves.

Her highlight of the regatta was seeing so many crews in A finals, and the boys learning that “you can have fun and be rewarded for it”. The main goal of the Westlake programme, says Shotter, nodding to a philosophy of the All Blacks, is to “build champions and champion young men”, meaning the school want its rowers to become better people as well as rowers.

Westlake had a total of 23 crews at the regatta which was held last month, the week before the end of Term 1. It recorded its best results in 10 years.

Gold No. 1... Co-coach Mark Clemo with (from left) U15 coxed four crew Josh Morris and Adam Leece (with trophy), Sam Bird, Donovan Pivac and cox Cole Hampson-Tindale with co-coach Hannah Kennedy

Gold No. 2... Coach Hannah Kennedy the U15 eight crew (from left): Sam Bird, Josh Morris, Cole Hampson-Tindale (cox), Toby Cleghorn, George Langley, Donovan Pivac, Josh McGill, Coby Kerr, Adam Leece and coach Mark Clemo at Lake Karapiro

Emotional victory… Westlake’s winning U15 crew show their delight after powering over the finish line

Open day at community garden a change for fun and upskilling

Forrest Hill’s community gardeners are getting together this weekend to mark Eco Fest month – showcasing their activities and providing tips and advice for residents. The Grow Forrest Hill group, which has transformed the rear of Seine Reserve, is running an open day this Sunday 16 April, from 2pm to 4pm. A major focus is providing information on composting to emphasise Eco Fest’s wider sustainability theme.

“It’s a great opportunity for locals who have heard about the garden and been meaning to check it out to come down and see what we’re up to,” says Grow Forrest Hill founder Phoebe Atkinson.

As well as advice being available from the Carbon Cycle Company – whose compost bins are sited at the garden and available as a community composting hub – gardeners will be able to mix and mingle with other green-fingered folk.

Falling in the school holidays, the event is child-friendly, at a time when people may be looking for activities close to home, such as trying seed sowing. Atkinson says giant bubbles will be blown, and a sausage sizzle and free icecreams will be available – with compostable wrappers.

Community-grown seedlings will also be available for koha.

Recent developments at the garden include the installation of a new glass house and winter-vegetable crop planting. Over winter gardeners will plant out its borders with native plants and fruit trees following a plan designed by Milford landscape architects Sola.

Up to 20 volunteers turn out on Sundays for weekly working bees from 2pm to 4pm. New volunteers of all ages, with or without experience, are always welcome. Sessions end with afternoon tea.

“It’s so great in this present cultural moment, with so much angst and uncertainty, to have a place to show up each week where everybody knows your name and you can make a tangible and positive difference for the community,” says Atkinson.

The garden’s next project is to fundraise for a teaching space to run workshops around sustainable gardening.

The Grow Forrest Hill garden has recently been nominated for the community garden of the year category of Organic New Zealand’s annual awards. The winner, decided by public vote, will be announced in May.

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Lettuce eat... Keen gardeners of all ages help at Grow Forrest Hill

Late GP’s plea leads to quilt delivery – ‘with love’

A group of keen quilters has crafted 20 quilts for Harbour Hospice North Shore in a project suggested by popular GP Heidi MacRae when she was under end-of-life care.

The keepsake quilts were presented at hospice’s Takapuna facility last month by MacRae’s mother, Christine Miller, and four other members of the sewing group she belongs to.

Each quilt took many hours to complete and all were “made with love”, said Miller, who was making her first visit back to the hospice since her daughter’s death in November last year.

The MedPlus Hauraki GP – who campaigned for New Zealanders to be provided with better access to cancer treatment and for donations to Harbour Hospice – had learned from nurses that quilt donations had dropped away during Covid and during major redevelopment at the Shea Tce site.

“And Heidi just said to me, ‘Mum, make it happen,’ ” Miller recalled.

Miller took the idea to a fellow member of Sew ‘n’ Sews, a group of quilting enthusiasts that meets monthly at a community centre in Paremoremo.

The word went out on email and other members responded, bringing in partly completed quilts and working on them or combining their handiwork.

“And there will be more to come,” Miller says.

The quilts will be given to patients in the hospice’s inpatient unit and to others being cared for at home by its multidisciplinary North Shore community team.

On the back edge of each quilt, Miller has carefully penned the words: “Made with love by the Sew ‘n’ Sews for Harbour Hospice”.

Miller said MacRae’s family had appreciated being able to visit Heidi at any time from the family home in Stanley Point.

The mother of three children, aged 23, 20 and 15, was also welcome to have her dog Perrita with her at hospice.

MacRae was housed in the inpatient unit before her death. It was completed before the rest of a $20 million upgrade that this year added more facilities for patients, whanau and staff to cope with rising demand for its services due to population growth.

Hospice said it was very grateful for the

quilts, which were blessed by its volunteer services manager, Vicki Parker, at a ceremony when they were handed over.

“The nurses really enjoy getting to know their patients and choosing a quilt for them that best matches their personality,” Parker said.

“They are treasured by those who receive them and become very important to the family after their loved one has died,” she added.

Milford / Takapuna Tides

Common thread... Sew ‘n’ Sews (from left) Diana Bennett, Lynne Johnson, Christine Miller and Christine Brockes, with other quilting group members Gail Kean and Rowan Stephens absent

Blooming lovely new use of Takapuna vacant lot

The challenging growing conditions at Takapuna’s temporary community garden are being put to inspiring use – showcasing vivid photographs of flowers.

Eight works by Auckland photographer Kadri Elcoat are on display at the Huron St site, next to the Toka Puia car park. Garden champion Andrew McKenzie says they are in better bloom than some of the planter boxes he and a small group of volunteers tend.

“There’s not enough sunshine [with the tall buildings beside] and it’s a bit windy,” he says of the council-owned site. “But it’s just a temporary place for the garden. We’re talking to the local board about other spots.”

The exhibition is a way of extending the use of the gap-filler garden and it has been put on in conjunction with Eke Panuku,the council’s property management arm,

“I’m so excited to brighten up this public space with these gorgeous flower portraits, which are a whopping 1.2m wide, so you feel you can almost fall into the image space itself,” says Elcoat.

The lawyer-turned-artist spent around 10 years in Australia before returning home during the Covid epidemic. She has drawn the works on show in Takapuna from a larger collection called Fever folio which was part of a portfolio for photography studies in Melbourne. Later she exhibited portraits in Sydney.

The still-life images of a variety of flowers feature Hilo powder to create atmosphere and movement in the shots, which are taken using a timer. This is the powder used in

Happening on Huron... A once-barren space in Takapuna that is now home to a community garden also has a new photographic exhibition

Indian festivals and colour runs. Elcoat says: “I’m obsessed with the stuff.” It makes the results of set-up shots unpredictable.

The photographic prints are mounted on recycled material similar to that used for billboards, so should weather well for some months. They will form part of the Auckland Festival of Photography programme, with that event on in June.

McKenzie said the aim was to continue to make the space available for up-and-coming artists. A container might be used for a more sheltered display.

He is working with Eke Panuku to facilitate more activations at the site.

The Takapuna North Community Trust also had ideas, including hopscotch markings to encourage children’s play, he said.

As with the garden, the other activities aim to turn what had been a dead zone into a useful little urban pocket on the walk from the public carpark to the town centre, McKenzie said. Longer-term, a more productive gardening site in central Takapuna is hoped for, with access to land on Auburn Reserve a possibility. Auckland Council is currently reviewing use of the reserve, hoping to create a welcoming public space.

• Find the Fev’?”er folio photographs at 14 Huron St, Takapuna.

Floral explosion... Photographer Kadri Elcoat with one of her inventive works, an engineered still life

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Mafia Mamma (TBA) 101min

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AIR (M) 112min

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (PG) 92min

Allelujah (M) 99min

Argonuts (G) 95min

Dungeons & Dragons:

Honour Among Thieves (M) 134min

The Portable Door (PG) 116min

Avatar: The Way of Water 2D (M) 193min Rerelease 20

Evil Dead Rise (R16) 97min

Huda’s Salon (M) 91min

Dave Walker’s Acoustic Lounge (Live Show) 21

Polite Society (TBA) 103min

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The Battle of the River Plate (TBA) 117min

Powder pink... This image of a hydrangea bloom is named Lucille, with the artist (opposite page) finding distinct personalities in each flower she photographs

WHAT’S

ON @ Takapuna Library

Digital Senior Hubs

Digital Seniors Hubs are social learning spaces for seniors run by volunteer coaches providing free one-on-one coaching and support using your own device in a positive, fun and social environment. Learn how to get online to connect with friends and whanau, send photos, pay bills, do online shopping, manage emails, use your smartphone and much more!

Drop-in on Saturdays from 10am-12pm or for more information contact Fiona Colbert (Digital Seniors Community Manager) on 0800 373 646 or email fiona.colbert@digitalseniors.co.nz

Eco Warriors: School Holidays at Takapuna Library

JOIN US FOR SOME HOLIDAY FUN!

Beach Clean Wed 19th April, 10am Meet at the library to get equipment before heading down to the beach to make it look beautiful!

Pupuke Birdsong Thurs 20th April, 2-4pm

Come and meet your local eco-warriors! Pupuke Birdsong Project protects our local taonga: our birds, trees and parks. Join them and discover how they find the evil konihi/predators and save our birds.

Clothes Swap

Saturday 15th April, 10am to 2pm

Swap the clothes and toys your kids outgrew for preloved styles that feel fresh! Donate your preloved clothing for ages 0-12 at either Devonport or Takapuna Library, then join us at the Takapuna War Memorial Hall for the swap event!

Check online for more exciting events

021 490 480

MILFORD

63-65 MILFORD ROAD

Prime Freehold Beachfront Opportunity

This is a unique offering with the option to buy one or both properties. A refreshed character beach house on a freehold land holding of 389sqm (approx) is truly unique and special. Gorgeous views over to Rangitoto and the Hauraki Gulf with Milford beach being front and centre stage. The adjacent section at 63 Milford Road is on its own 300sqm (approx) freehold title, is basked in sun and has a wide road frontage.

premium.co.nz/80399

VIEW | PLEASE CALL FOR A VIEWING TIME

EOU | 20 APRIL 2023 AT 4 PM

UNLESS SOLD PRIOR

ROBERT MILNE 022 011 2494

RICHARD MILNE 021 770 611 | TAKAPUNA 916 6000

MILFORD

1/41 EAST COAST ROAD

Family First | Central Milford Icon Renovated

Beautifully renovated, immaculately presented and located enviously close to Milford Beach and Village, this home has it all. With 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and 4 living areas this property has brought so much fun to the current owners. With amazing views and a separate guest apartment downstairs this home offers a multitude of family situations where everyone can have their own space.

premium.co.nz/80390

VIEW | PLEASE CALL FOR A VIEWING TIME

PRICE | BY NEGOTIATION

JELENA FREEMAN 021 65 65 63

GERRY PETRIE 021 92 3352 | TAKAPUNA 916 6000

TAKAPUNA

7 SANDERS AVENUE

Coastal Entertainers Residence | Full Site

Set on a 870sqm (approx) sunny freehold site boasts a simply stunning home. Multiple relaxation zones provides tranquillity offering open plan living areas, hi spec’d designer kitchen, stunning courtyard, outdoor wood fire and immaculately landscaped gardens. 4 bedrooms plus study (or 5 bedrooms), 2 bathrooms, guest toilet and a double garage.

premium.co.nz/80269

VIEW | PLEASE CALL FOR A VIEWING TIME

PRICE | BY NEGOTIATION

ROBERT MILNE 022 011 2494

RICHARD MILNE 021 770 611 | TAKAPUNA 916 6000

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