Mahurangi Matters _Issue 454_8 May 2023

Women can do P24-30

region’s Junior

farmers best

Mahurangi College students

Mary Innes (left) and Tessa Berger are off to Timaru in July after winning the Northern Junior FMG Young Farmer of the Year title last month. They will go up against other regional finalists, aged 13 to 18 years, from around NZ at the Grand Final where their farming skills will be put to the test. They will compete across seven disciplines or modules, with a mix of theory and practical tasks, based on the food and fibre sector. However, the exact tasks won’t be revealed until the day.

continued page 2

Epic landfill case closes after 10 months

DOME VALLEY LANDFILL

Probably the most complex case the Environment Court has ever had to deal with – that was the view of Judge Jeff Smith on April 28, as appeals against the granting of resource consent for a giant regional landfill in the Dome finally drew to a close.

The case took 13 solid weeks of submissions, evidence and cross-examination spread over more than 10 months by the six groups

fighting the decision – Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua, Forest & Bird, Department of Conservation, Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust (NMST), Fight the Tip, Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei/Te Uri o Hau – and applicants Waste Management NZ (WM) and consenting authority Auckland Council.

Over that time, there were several lengthy adjournments, two site visits, behind the scenes negotiations and unexpected developments, not least when NMST

did a deal with Waste Management and switched sides in January.

Judge Smith said at the close of the case that the amount of material that he, Judge Melinda Dickey and Commissioners Ruth Bartlett, Glenys Payne and Kevin Prime now had to wade through meant that he could not estimate when they might reach a decision.

“This is what’s called a complex case before the court and there can be no timescale given for the delivery of a decision – it’s as

simple as that,” he said. “This is probably the most complex case the court has had.” Smith said the “hundred-odd” issues they had to be considered were going to require a huge amount of time, which WM’s closing submissions had only added to –while most parties’ summaries amounted to around 25 pages or so, WM counsel Bal Matheson’s weighed in at a hefty 90 pages.

“Unfortunately, your submissions have raised as many issues as they’ve closed,

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Junior farmers

from page 1

Both Tessa and Mary are from wellestablished farming families in the Kaipara Hills.

They say they enjoyed the regional final where they were put through their paces in modules including fencing, on-farm risk management, forestry, wool grading and soil testing.

“It was fun and the overall atmosphere of the day was awesome,” Tessa says.

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“The Face Off round – buzzers with quiz questions – for the top five teams was very competitive, but very cool. Te Radar was the host and he made it very funny. Everyone involved in the day had done an awesome job of making sure the event ran well.”

The girls prepared for the competition by improving their general agricultural knowledge through a combination of research, talking with their parents and going out on the farm. Then a week prior to the competition, they were sent a Tips and Tricks sheet.

“We studied hard over that week and put time into learning and practicing fencing, in particular,” Tessa says.

“We have definitely realised that one of our weaknesses is the Face Off round so we are going to prepare for the grand final by memorising lots of general facts.

“We’re also going to simulate the buzzer round to get happy preforming under pressure.

“At the regional final, we met Tim Dangen who was 2022’s Young Farmer of the Year. He was very supportive and is sending us study resources, and he will also take us for a practical day later this month.”

In the grand final, Tessa and Mary will be one of 28 teams competing for the title of FMG Junior Young Farmer of the Year 2023 Champions. They will face five challenges – an exam, modules, a farmlet, a speech and the top five teams will do a Face Off quiz.

A total of 142 teams registered for regional finals across the country, and the top two teams from each will compete in Timaru.

Growth powers investment

Residents between Matakana and Leigh are being promised “fewer and shorter outages” when a new substation, being built on Leigh Road, is turned on in August.

Known as the Big Omaha substation, it will have a capacity of 12 megawatts, which is the equivalent electricity demand of roughly 6000 homes on a winter’s evening. Vector says it took into account several factors when choosing the site for the new substation.

This included the fact that the Warkworth area is a key development zone for more homes in the near future and existing customers in this area were experiencing outages following weather incidents.

“This part of the network is one we

have been focusing on for some time,” a spokesperson says.

“Additional major investments are planned in the next five years including new substations at Sandspit and Warkworth south, and the installation of cables between Wellsford and Warkworth, currently under construction.

“In the longer term, the plan is to establish a substation at Mahurangi, to the north of Warkworth, and upgrade the high voltage supply.”

Vector says the new substation on Leigh Road is a continuation of a significant network investment for the area to meet the growing customer demand and maintain reliability as the area continues to develop.

Primary school site opposed

A Ministry of Education decision to site a new primary school in Woodcocks Road in Warkworth is being challenged by One Mahurangi.

Co-chair Dave Stott told a Warkworth Liaison Group meeting last week that the idea of building a primary school on a busy road, next to a one-way bridge, was nonsensical. However, his real concern was the distance students would have to travel.

“Warkworth Primary will be expanded to accommodate the growth that will result from the Stubbs Farm development,” he said.

“There’s expected to be 2000 to 2500

new homes on the north-eastern side of Warkworth so this would be the logical place to put the school.”

One Mahurangi has identified a suitable site and is writing “a strongly worded letter” to the Minister of Education and the Ministry’s chief executive, which it hopes will be co-signed by local MPs Chris Penk and Marja Lubeck.

Stott said of the three ministry planners who had identified the Woodcocks Road site, none had visited Warkworth. “We’re inviting the Education Minister to Warkworth to properly understand our needs.”

The new substation on Leigh Road is expected to operating by August.

Watercare denies raw sewage claim in Mahurangi River

A farming family on the Mahurangi River is disgusted by what they believe is sewage waste washing up on a beach that runs alongside their farm, and Watercare’s attitude to their concerns.

They believe the pollution may have originated from wastewater infrastructure in Warkworth, which was overwhelmed during the anniversary weekend storms earlier this year.

However, Watercare has denied this claim.

The Lawries, who have farmed on Ridge Road at Scotts Landing for four generations, first noticed the waste in early February and took a photo of a long line of what they believed was toilet paper, floating just off the beach and coming down the river with the tide.

In subsequent days, the paper washed up on the beach and became entangled in overhanging tree branches.

“When the sun came out, the stench was absolutely terrible,” family spokesperson Geoff Bagnall says. “It reeked.”

The issue was reported to Watercare and two representatives visited the property and allegedly took samples.

“When they were here, they said they thought it was probably coming from the boats moored further down the river!

It’s not coming from that direction – it’s coming down the river and washing into our little bay,” Bagnall says.

Shortly after being down on the beach cutting firewood and generally clearing up after the storm, Bagnall became extremely unwell and was diagnosed with a campylobacter infection.

He believes his illness was linked to the waste on the beach.

“It knocked me hard out and I lost six kilos in a week.”

Finally, after hearing nothing from Watercare for weeks, Bagnall contacted them again late last month. They apologised for the delay in responding and reported that, in their opinion, there were “no known issues”.

Bagnall said the Watercare representative also added, “It would be weird for toilet paper to make it that distance”.

In response to enquiries from Mahurangi Matters for the results of the water quality tests, a Watercare spokesperson said, “Our

team visited the beach at Scott’s Landing in February and confirmed it was not related to any of our infrastructure, so did not take any water quality samples.”

Bagnall, who was on the beach at the time, says this is not true.

“They definitely took samples in what looked like a two-litre milk bottle.”

Watercare says, “It might have looked like we took samples, but we didn’t.”

It maintains that it does not have wastewater pipes in this area so could not be the source of the pollution and the officers would have been able to tell this by visiting the beach [without the need for testing].

“On that side of the peninsula, our wastewater network ends at Kia Kaha Drive, about eight kilometres away from Scott’s Landing.”

Watercare forwarded the complaint to Auckland Council’s Healthy Waters, who directed their enquiries to the Scotts Landing toilet block several kilometres away, where they found the facility operating as normal.

Asked where they thought the contamination may have come from,

Healthy Waters said it could have come from a variety of sources.

“Council will carry out further monitoring and sampling over the next two weeks.” Bagnall says the family hasn’t risked floundering or swimming since the toilet paper turned up.

“It’s just not a healthy environment down there anymore.”

Vegetation along the beach is covered in the decaying substance.

Geoff Bagnall, with what he believes is decomposing toilet paper, which washed up on a beach beside the Lawrie farm.

WM and Council lawyers: No reason not to consent

Waste Management NZ’s lawyer, Bal Matheson, dismissed most of the appellants’ objections and concerns, stating that many presented low, negligible or even no risk at all.

During his day-long, 90-page closing submissions, he insisted that although fears of the landfill failing and causing environmental damage downstream might be understandable, it would not happen. “The risk of catastrophic failure of the landfill such that it would decimate the Hoteo Awa and the Kaipara Moana is so remote and negligible that it must be put on one side,” he said.

He said this was because there were no unqualified fault lines within more than 70 kilometres of the site and the engineering of the landfill valley would deal with any sub-surface anomalies that might be found.

“The perceived concern that there will be a reservoir of leachate of 20 million cubic metres or something that will flow down the Hoteo and into the Kaipara – that will not happen. It cannot happen. It’s not a ‘low risk’, it’s not a risk.”

Matheson added there was no chance of “some Fox River scenario”, due to stormwater drains around the landfill being designed to capture rainfall from a one-in-1000 year event and convey it safely around the waste site without coming into

Epic landfill case

from page 1

so they have to be addressed, but there is nothing we can do,” he said. “I have other cases, as do the rest of the court – we will just have to deal with it as quickly as we can.”

He added that part of that depended on whether the court could reach a common view on all or some of the key issues, as they looked back over the lengthy, and sometimes delayed, case.

“I’m not saying we won’t progress as quickly as we can, but it will be very much affected by us examining many of the issues you and other parties have raised, and looking back at the transcript,” Smith said.

“We warned you right at the beginning, when you asked for your first adjournment – we’ve lost a clear grip on what’s gone on so we now need to go back and see what was actually said, rather than relying on our memories.”

Judge Dickey agreed, saying the issues raised during the hearing were many and of some complexity, before formally reserving judgement and adjourning the hearing.

She added that the court appreciated the collegial and courteous way in which all parties had behaved throughout.

contact with it.

“This is not a one-in-100, it’s one-in-1000. It’s not a typo,” he said.

He said technical evidence showed the likelihood of leachate escaping through the landfill liner and contaminating either surface or groundwater was so remote that it could also effectively be put to one side, and extensive site monitoring would all be shown on a digital dashboard accessible by the community and mana whenua.

“It is very important to emphasise this will not be a situation where water is flowing over the waste and down into the Hoteo Awa – that will not occur during operations. And then, in the after-care period, the landfill will be capped and all leachate will be collected until we are satisfied that it doesn’t represent a cultural or ecological risk, and if that takes 40 years, it takes 40 years.”

With regard to the loss of 15km of streams, Matheson said Forest & Bird and DOC should not just focus on the short-term impacts of reclamation, but the long-term positive effects. He said that what could occur on the site, in terms of such things as pest management and planting, was “really exciting”.

“Given that the Wayby wetland south, around which the pest fence will go, was one of Auckland’s largest remaining natural wetlands, the suggestion that doing the pest fence, replanting it in natives and

Waste Management lawyer Bal Matheson.

protecting it in perpetuity, is a Gold Class standard of safeguarding the life support and capacity of that ecosystem,” he said. “There simply is no better way to do that.” Matheson also said that WM was committed to take up to 50,000 tonnes of old waste from old unlined dumps in the Kaipara.

He added that with regard to consulting mana whenua, WM admitted that it could have done things better and it would do things differently if it had a second chance. However, he said that since 2018, when the

Overseas Investment Office approved the Wayby land purchase, WM’s consultation with the community and mana whenua had been best practice.

And on the issue of site selection and how it was carried out, Matheson said the law did not require WM to prove that the Wayby Valley site was the best site.

“If there was a better site, it would be reasonably safe to assume they would have found it,” he said.

Auckland Council lawyer Diana Hartley told the court that nowhere in the Unitary Plan was there a policy that there should be no new landfills, and they were not prohibited, just non-complying.

“The applicant is entitled to apply for resource consent and have the application judged on its merits,” she said. “Council is entitled to call evidence and justify consent. This does not somehow result in an abuse of process.”

Hartley also maintained that where the plan stated that adverse effects from new landfills should be avoided, it related only to discharges from new landfills and not anything else.

She said Council did not accept that support for the landfill application was contrary to its Waste Management and Minimisation Policy, since that was an aspirational goal and recognised that landfills would still be needed in the short or mid-term at least.

Foster flies solo to fight landfill in court

One local tip opponent had the distinction of being not only the only individual to give evidence and cross-examine witnesses, he was also the only party not represented by a lawyer.

Bill Foster, who lives at Leigh, is best known as the chair of the Northern Action Group, or NAG, originally formed to oppose Rodney’s inclusion into the Auckland Supercity, although in this case, he was appearing for himself.

He attended the court as a Section 274 party – that is, someone who had already made a submission in previous hearings – which meant he had the option of presenting a submission, producing evidence and crossexamining witnesses if he chose.

In his closing submissions, Foster noted that he had no formal legal training and expressed his gratitude to the court for its consideration and understanding of this, as well as for the case being conducted online, which made attendance a lot easier for him and others.

Despite his professed lack of training, Foster demonstrated extensive knowledge of the Auckland Unitary Plan, the Resource

Management Act, the Waste Minimisation Act and other key laws and regulations concerning landfills and waste disposal. He said that as adverse effects of the proposal were more than minor, they therefore should be avoided if practicable, and practicable alternatives had been identified.

He also said there was no urgent need for a new regional landfill and the status quo was a valid, practicable alternative that would do far less harm.

“Necessity is claimed by the applicant, but has not been shown. A new regional landfill is not currently needed for Auckland, and may never be needed,” Foster told the court.

“As Commissioner Tepania said in her dissenting opinion [in the independent hearing judgement], ‘I was not persuaded by the evidence of the applicant that that facility needs to be a landfill and that that landfill needs to be in this particular location and at the proposed scale, extent and form proposed by the applicant’.

“Evidence [from WM] has shown that there is no urgent need to provide additional capacity. There is sufficient time for Auckland Council to review and plan

Having submitted at some length on various legal definitions and applications pertaining to the case, Foster said it was neither logical nor environmentally or ethically sound for the proposal to be consented.

Leigh resident Bill Foster gave a lay person’s perspective on the landfill proposal.

for waste disposal in the region and the consideration of alternatives in its statutory planning.”

DOME VALLEY LANDFILL

Wrong place, wrong process

DOME VALLEY LANDFILL

The wrong place, the wrong process, excessive risk and adverse effects – although voiced in a myriad of different ways, these were the key reasons consistently submitted by those appealing for the landfill not to go ahead.

Whether it was Fight the Tip, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua, Forest & Bird, the Department of Conservation, or Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei/Te Uri o Hau, the same points kept being made in their lawyers’ closing submissions, whether in relation to the environment, iwi, community or resource management itself.

Andrew Braggins, acting for Fight the Tip, stated simply that there was no need for a new landfill, despite WM’s claims to the contrary.

“Waste Management NZ needs a replacement for its Redvale landfill,” he said. “There is no evidence that the people of Auckland need such a replacement now, there is no evidence of any material adverse effects arising if one is not consented. The Court does not have a gun to its head.” However, even if there was, he said Wayby’s susceptibility to heavy rainfall and land instability meant it was the wrong place for a landfill, as Auckland Council’s own policies stated.

“Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP) policy requires cleanfills, managed fills and landfills to be sited, and where appropriate, designed and constructed, to avoid the risk of land instability,” he said.

Braggins reminded the court of the extensive slips that had occurred recently after three successive heavy rain events and the evidence of local residents, who regularly find tomos, or sinkholes, appearing in the area.

He said WM’s extensive schedule of mitigation, off-setting and compensation, including the recent agreement with the Ngāti Mānuhiri Settlement Trust, were not benefits, but “symptomatic of a project with extensive economic benefit for the applicant, but which was fundamentally misconceived from the beginning”.

Unsurprisingly, the director general of the Department of Conservation and Forest & Bird’s representatives highlighted the loss of streams, animals and plants if the landfill was developed. These losses include some 15km of streams, up to 2000 Hochstetter’s frogs and one tonne of macro-invertebrates, as well as inanga, smelt, kokopu, freshwater crayfish and mussels, and shortfin and longfin eels.

Forest & Bird lawyer May Downing said the stream reclamation would result in a direct loss of these species, which were mahinga kai [traditional food and natural resources for Maori and where they were obtained].

“

The court cannot have confidence the proposal meets the direction to avoid significant adverse effects on mana whenua values, including mahinga kai,” she said. Downing said ecological field surveys were only carried out at Wayby and not on other short-listed sites – had they been, a site with less environmental impact may have been found.

She also pointed out that fauna relocation sites had not been identified and there was no requirement for a survey to determine if pest fish would be present when they were identified.

Both Forest & Bird and DOC stressed that the Auckland Unitary Plan stated that to avoid significant adverse effects on the environment from cleanfill, managed fills and landfills, their establishment in, on or next to a lake, river, stream or wetland should be avoided.

Downing said the site had a large number of streams, contained significant ecological areas and was next to a large outstanding natural landscape area.

“We submit the policy direction in the Auckland Unitary Plan with respect to landfills and freshwater is clear – a landfill may be provided for, but within ecological limits. Here, those limits are not met,” she said.

Ruby Haazen, lawyer for Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei and Te Uri o Hau, said the application was for a landfill of a size and scale that was inappropriate and, again, the wrong site had been selected.

She was critical of the lack of mana whenua consultation by WM, reminding the court that none had been carried out before the purchase of the proposed site.

“Waste Management made a choice not to engage with Maori who can ‘be difficult’, but did manage to engage with pakeha owners, demonstrating a preference for engagement with one group of affected parties and not another,” she said.

Haazen said the site selection was commercially driven and opportunistic, and was a breach of tikanga (Maori customary practices).

That view was echoed by Rob Enwright, counsel for Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua, who said it was “deeply offensive” to locate a dump upstream of the Hoteo headwaters that passed the Puatahi Marae.

“The wrong site has been chosen by the wrong process,” he said.

“Waste Management should have engaged with tangata whenu parties before making a final decision on site selection.”

He said while Ngāti Mānuhiri, who stood to gain significantly from its deal with WM, would be no worse off if consent was declined, Ngāti Whātua would be significantly adversely affected if consent was granted.

the presence of dust mite allergens.

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Mini Pizza

Quiches

2 large tortilla wraps

4 eggs chopped vegetables (optional)

6 slices salami

3 cherry tomatoes, halved, plus extra to serve handful basil leaves vegetable sticks, to serve Heat oven to 180C or 160C fan. Using a 12cm cutter cut circles from the large tortilla wraps – you should get 6. Brush the pan with a little melted butter and a basting brush. Use the circles to line 6 holes of a muffin tin, pushing them into the holes to make Beat the eggs and pour into the tortilla cases (you can add some chopped vegetables too, if you like). Top each case with a slice of salami and 1/2 a cherry tomato. Bake for 15 mins until the egg has set. Top with a few basil leaves, if you like, and serve with extra tomatoes and vegetable

Greenpeace opposes Kaipara waste solution

A decision by Kaipara District Council to investigate waste-to-energy options as an alternative to landfills has raised the ire of environmental group Greenpeace.

Council decided late last month to investigate options for the establishment of a waste-to-energy plant in conjunction with the councils of Auckland, Whangarei and Far North, Northland Inc, Te Uri o Hau and industry operators.

“We don’t want to leave a legacy of landfills or leachate going into groundwater for generations to come,” deputy mayor Jonathan Larsen says.

“We want to kickstart the conversation with our partners and see what options might be available.”

However, Greenpeace Aotearoa says wasteto-energy options could lock Kaipara into a disastrous deal that will be costly to ratepayers and have negative impacts on people’s health and the climate.

Plastics campaigner Juressa Lee says wasteto-energy poses serious threats to public health and the environment.

“Councils should be supporting waste minimisation and moving toward a circular economy,” she says.

“Cr Larsen wants a modern solution to rubbish and waste disposal, but the only real solution is to make less of it. We don’t need to go searching for techno fixes. We need to shift from a throwaway and singleuse culture, and start supporting systems of refill, reuse and repair.

“We’re in a plastic pollution crisis and it is time to turn the tap off. Putting faith in false solutions risks leaving that tap on and fuelling both the plastic pollution crisis and the climate crisis.

“Cr Larsen says he does not want a legacy of landfills and leachate, but the legacy of incineration around the globe is no less bleak. Similar plants elsewhere have been shown to be more polluting than coal, emitting dioxins, mercury, lead, nitrogen oxide and more.

“We need those who are in positions

There are divided opinions on the benefits of waste-to-energy plants, which have emerged following Kaipara’s decision to investigate their viability.

of power and decision-making to act responsibly, supporting a circular economy for the health of the people, the planet and future generations.”

Rates and council debt

A

into

The most popular topic for Aucklanders who commented on Auckland Council’s proposed Annual Budget 2023/24, was rates and debt. Individual responses made up more than 90 per cent of feedback on this topic, and while the largest number of these responses (25 per cent) supported the proposed rates and debt package, individuals were more likely to choose greater use of debt over higher rate increases. On council’s shares in the airport, more than half of all individual submissions supported selling at least some of council’s 18.09 per cent shareholding, while a minority supported selling all of the shares. Elected members will now consider the feedback, along with updated budget information, in a series of briefings and workshops. The final budget will be adopted on June 29.

Board bridles at further speed feedback

Rodney Local Board members expressed frustration at having to provide further feedback on the latest speed change proposals for Auckland at their monthly meeting on April 19.

The Katoa, Ka Ora Speed Management Plan 2024-2027 asked members to provide views on five different developmental approaches for the plan, which was in addition to formal feedback already provided last year and followed on from a workshop in March.

Members were asked to select one out of three statements for each approach, two of which required consistency across all local board areas and three that would allow a tailored approach for each local board.

Chair Brent Bailey said it wasn’t a great report in his view.

“It’s like they’re asking us the same question again and again, as if they’re trying to get us to say something different. I’m a bit

disappointed in it,” he said. “Why is it somewhat haphazard when you could have a consistent approach across all of Rodney?”

As an example, Bailey questioned why rural children were treated differently than urban kids outside schools, since urban schools had fixed 30km/h limits while for rural schools, it was more variable.

He said it should be easy for drivers to tell the speed limit just by where they were driving, such as 30km/h outside a school or 110km/h on a divided highway. “What we want is them to stop mucking about and deliver speed reductions across the whole of Rodney,” he said.

Members voted to reiterate their views on supporting the review of speed limits in locations including:

1. Schools, requesting a maximum speed limit of 60 km/h outside all Rodney schools with a lower variable speed limit

of 30 km/h during pick-up and drop-off times;

2. Town centres;

3. Unsealed and non-exit roads, ensuring all road users are considered when deciding appropriate speed limits;

4. Sealed rural roads, requesting consistent speed limits between main and feeder roads, ensuring all road users are considered when deciding appropriate speed limits and ensuring that unitary plan zoning is considered when analysing appropriate speed limits;

5. New development areas, including intersections surrounding new Rodney urban areas.

Board members Geoff Upson and Tim Holdgate abstained from voting.

The Katoa, Ka Ora Speed Management Plan 2024-2027 for Auckland is expected to go out for public consultation mid-year.

Les Miller & Jackie Woolerton - Webster Malcolm Law

report on preliminary investigations

the viability of a waste-to-energy plant are due to be presented to a Kaipara council workshop next month.

Rodney’s dangerous roads

By Laura Kvigstad, Auckland Council reporter. Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.

Rodney has scored the unenviable distinction of being the Local Board with the most deaths and serious injuries on its roads over the past year.

At a Transport and Infrastructure committee on April 20, Auckland Transport (AT) reported that half of all deaths and serious injuries (DSI) in Auckland had occurred in just six local board areas.

In total, there were 648 DSIs – 601 serious injuries and 47 deaths.

Rodney had the highest number of DSIs –89, making up 14 per cent of Auckland’s total. This was followed by Franklin, Howick, Manurewa, Otara-Papatoetoe and Henderson-Massey.

The committee was told that speed remains the leading factor in Auckland road crashes, with speed being a factor in more than half the accidents recorded.

Cr Julie Fairey said some nuance around where crashes were occurring would be helpful in understanding the issue.

“A bit of context around the geographic area and population would be helpful,” Fairey said. Rodney Councillor Cr Greg Sayers agreed.

“We have got quite a large unsealed roading network in Rodney, as well as our sealed networks, and I am just curious if we are able to get a breakdown on where these DSIs occurred,” Sayers said.

Sayers suggested it would be useful for local boards and local councillors of areas with unsealed road networks to know where the accidents were occurring.

Cr Richard Hills wanted to know whose responsibility it was to push back against the number of deaths on Auckland’s roads.

“A total of 47 families never see their loved ones again, 601 people’s lives changed potentially forever and that is just in one year,” Hills said.

“I do hear a lot of push-back on things like safety speeds and pedestrian crossings but, in my ward, the schools are all fighting over who gets the next one [crossing].”

AT’s acting chair Wayne Donnelly said the board took the responsibility of transport safety very seriously.

“One of the reasons for bringing all this data together is to be able to have good conversations with local boards. Sometimes it’s not just one answer or one technological solution,” Donnelly said.

“We won’t knowingly let a dangerous situation continue.”

Refinancing: What you need to know before you sign on the dotted line

By Courtney Clarke, & Patrick Steuart, WRMK Lawyers

With interest rates showing no signs of falling, many people are considering refinancing their property. This guide will help you navigate the refinancing process.

Break fees – Break fees are charged by your current lender if you pay off your loan before the agreedupon term is up. When considering refinancing, make sure you ask your bank for an estimate of your repayment figure, including any break fees involved This will help you weigh up whether or not to refinance, and avoid any surprises down the line.

Amount to borrow – Next, work out how much you need to repay so you know how much you need to borrow. Keep in mind that when you refinance, you will usually be required to repay all existing lending with your current bank, not just your home loans. This often includes credit cards, overdrafts, and revolving credit facilities that also need to be repaid at the same time.

ball rolling with discharging your existing mortgage and reviewing loan documentation from the new bank when it arrives.

Security – Be sure to find out what security the bank needs as well. If the lending involves a company or trust, guarantees may be required which have additional legal requirements. In some cases, independent legal advice may be necessary.

Guarantees – Let your lawyer know if there are any existing guarantees to be released, as these aren’t necessarily released when you change banks unless specifically requested.

Call for care around disposal fields

Council staff are reminding the public to take care around wastewater disposal fields on public land, after damaged lines were discovered by workers in a remote parkland area near Warkworth Showgrounds. Wastewater disposal fields are part of a localised septic system, used in isolated areas that are not connected to a larger centralised treatment plant. These systems are used to treat wastewater from public toilets in many parks. Disposal fields are signposted and distribute only treated wastewater from public facilities. While wastewater is treated before it is dispersed, there are still potential health risks if coming into contact with the wastewater. In addition, damage to the lines can be costly to repair and can increase risk of erosion if leaks from damaged lines are not detected promptly. Photo, Auckland Council.

Cash contribution

– When considering which bank to go with, think beyond the interest rates they can offer you. Negotiating a cash contribution can often help to cover break fees and legal costs, but note that the cash contribution is often paid to you some time after settlement (usually 5-10 working days). You’ll need to ensure you have borrowed a sufficient amount to cover all repayment costs.

Lawyer involvement – It is important to get your lawyer involved in the refinancing process early on. This will ensure that they can work with your timeframe and can get the

Insurance – Finally, insurance is another important factor to keep in mind. The new bank’s interest needs to be noted on your insurance policy, and this can hold up settlement if not done in time. Your new bank will need to see a certificate of currency of insurance noting their interest as mortgagee before they advance funds.

Keep in mind that the loan application process can take some time, rates will need to be negotiated and loan documents must be prepared by the bank and sent to your lawyer. You’ll need to review them with your lawyer, sign them, and have them sent back to the bank for processing before settlement can take place. Starting the process early and discussing the timeframes with the bank/broker and your lawyer can help you avoid any delays.

If you need assistance with refinancing your property, our friendly team of experienced local lawyers are happy to help.

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In brief

School consent

Snells Beach residents, concerned at a plan to establish a Montessori school on the site of the former Bayside Café, at Snells Beach, want Auckland Council to make the resource consent fully or at least partially notifiable. The Warkworth Liaison Group was told at its meeting last week that the consent application would be processed as non-notifiable, which would exclude general public input. The school needs both Auckland Council and the Ministry of Education consent before it can proceed. It is understood the consent will be for a school of 25 students and three staff.

Young filmmakers

Students aged between nine and 18 years are being encouraged to enter a Te Tai Tokerau short film contest based on the theme of Climate Action. The films can be five to seven minutes long and need to show how people in Te Tai Taokerau, which stretches from Wellsford to Cape Reinga, are working to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The films will be judged in two age groups – nine to 13 years and 14 to 18 years. The prize is $1000 and entries close on July 8.

Info: filmcontest@northland climatechange.org

Volunteer week

National Volunteer Week, June 18 to 24, will be marked with a celebration at the Matakana Hall on Saturday June 24. The event will be an opportunity to meet the not-for-profit groups and charities working in the Rodney area who are looking for new members. There will be groups from across the rohe who all do amazing work in the community including The Forest Bridge Trust and several other local conservation groups. The day will run from 10am-1pm.

WeSay

Complexities cloud the basic facts

DOME VALLEY LANDFILL guidelines at all levels of local and national government, many of which completely fail to relate to each other.

It is four-and-a-half years now since men in suits from Waste Management NZ (WM) cold-called Dome Valley residents with the bombshell news that the global corporate was planning to build a giant regional landfill on their doorstep. And it is more than 10 months since six organisations took their appeal, against Auckland Council’s decision to grant WM resource consent, to the Environment Court. Since the case began, literally thousands of pages of evidence, reports, notes, maps and memoranda have been filed for the two judges and three commissioners to consider. When the hearing was finally adjourned on April 28, Judge Jeff Smith said it was probably the most complex case the court had ever dealt with.

Watching from the sidelines for much of the proceedings, we can only agree. The legislation and regulation surrounding the issue of planning for waste disposal is labyrinthine, involving a rat’s nest of different laws, statutes, acts, plans and

Council considers Māori wards or status quo

Aucklanders will be asked for their views later this year on the question of whether or not to introduce Māori seats on Auckland Council. The Government is currently working through the Local Government Electoral Legislation Bill, which passed its second reading last month. The bill would see the removal of a set number of councillors on council and make it easier to establish Māori wards.

Two models are being explored – the Parliamentary model and the Royal Commission’ model. The Parliamentary model calculates the total number of Māori seats based on the number of voters on the

Māori electoral roll versus the number of ward councillors. For Auckland this would mean one or two Māori seats.

Council’s governance services manager Rose Leonard said the consultation document would need to explain council’s governance model, which includes the Independent Māori Statutory Board (IMSB).

Cr Mike Lee said under the old Auckland Regional Council, mana whenua had indicated a strong preference for the IMSB over a ‘one person, one vote’ approach. Consultation is expected to happen no later than August 1 this year.

Long days have been spent by parties on all sides drilling down into the legal minutiae of various acts or plans, and what their intent might or might not have been, the precise definition of such words as municipal, infrastructure or landfill itself, or the difference between offset, compensation and mitigation when discussing the inevitable extensive loss of native wildlife.

The court has been dragged deeper and deeper into this morass of legislative nomenclature as time has gone on; even as a part-time observer – or one of many lay witnesses – it’s been exhausting, bewildering and at times overwhelming. Now the case is finished, the over-arching impression that remains is that perhaps the devil really is in the detail. Because the deeper you get into trying to understand the nuance of everything that needs to be considered and addressed, the easier it is to forget what are to us at least, two very basic facts.

First and foremost, the proposed site is

seriously the last place anyone with even an ounce of common sense would choose to dump hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubbish into. It is far too wet, far too steep and far too unstable, and presents an unconscionable risk to the Hoteo and Kaipara catchments.

Secondly, the danger and inconvenience of hundreds of trucks a day crawling up and down the hill from Sheepworld, laden with rubbish and with no way now of getting past them, hardly seems to have been considered. However, it would doubtless be frustratingly front-of-mind for the thousands of motorists who attempt to drive through the Dome each day. We can only hope that the judges and commissioners remember the heartfelt voices and long experience of the many local people who have put their heart and soul into fighting the folly of this application, and take note of their firsthand knowledge of this remote, floodprone and slip-ridden land.

The Dome and Wayby Valleys are not just the wrong place for a landfill – they’re one of the worst sites we could imagine.

Rodney road safety campaigner Geoff Upson shared these signs on Facebook giving them the coveted Sign of the Week Award.

Viewpoint

Marja Lubeck, Rodney-based MP marja.lubeck@parliament.govt.nz

More action to tackle climate change

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us all and recent extreme weather events that affected us in Kaipara ki Mahurangi, as well as across New Zealand, have emphasised the importance of taking action now. The damage to our local infrastructure is obvious to us all as Minister Michael Wood observed during his recent visit to Tapora and Kaipara Flats. Meeting the climate challenge has always been a priority for our Government and we’ve taken a range of steps to reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions – from passing the landmark Zero Carbon Act to investing in low-carbon technology, and it’s making a real difference. The most recent data, released earlier this month, shows that the country’s emissions are starting to decline. While it’s encouraging to see that our actions are paying off, we need to keep going.

If New Zealand is to meet our climate goals we need meaningful action to increase renewable energy, such as wind and solar generation. That’s why we’re making changes to Resource Management Act decision-making to expand New Zealand’s renewable electricity infrastructure more rapidly, by cutting red tape.

As we prepare for the future, we also need to back Kiwi businesses to run on, and

make products with, renewable sources of energy. Moving away from fossil fuels is good for our environment and helps local businesses maintain their competitive advantage in a world that’s increasingly demanding higher levels of sustainability in the products they buy.

We know that businesses have a lot of competing pressures right now. That’s why our Government has stepped up to help businesses move away from fossil fuels and slash emissions faster.

We recently announced the next round of funding support for businesses across New Zealand. This latest round of projects will reduce carbon emissions by 38,354 tonnes each year, which is equal to taking 14,200 cars off the road – that’s more than the total number of cars in Wanaka. So far, we’ve cofunded 66 major industrial decarbonisation projects in total. The funding included $5 million for Southern Paprika last year that would reduce its carbon emissions by around 16,000 tonnes per year. The 66 major decarbonisation projects are anticipated to reduce carbon emissions by 391,017 tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking approximately 144,700 cars off the road – more than all the petrol vehicles in Hamilton.

Falls ford closure not supported

A Forest & Bird proposal for a new urban park, which includes closing the Falls Road ford in Warkworth, has not found favour with Heritage Mahurangi.

The proposal was discussed at the heritage group’s monthly meeting last month where concern was raised about the closure of the ford, which is understood to have been built in the 1930s.

Chair Dave Parker said there was general agreement that the ford needed better management, but closing it altogether was not the best option.

“It’s an important link in our roading history,” he says.

“What is really needed is proper signage, which bans all commercial traffic and advises cars to proceed with caution. It’s a very scenic spot and lovely to drive through.”

Earlier this year, Forest & Bird volunteer Roger Williams told the Rodney Local Board that there was an opportunity to link two existing reserves with several pieces of Department of Conservation land in and around Falls and Woodcocks Roads, and the left branch of the Mahurangi River. He said the one-way bridge on Woodcocks Road, near the junction with Falls Road, needed replacing, so it made sense to relocate the road to the south and keep the bridge for walking and cycling through a new urban park.

He also said the Falls Road river crossing should be closed to traffic completely, not only because it was in the heart of the reserve area, but because of the danger it posed to traffic and the fact that there was a safer alternative route.

Read more columns online at www.localmatters.co.nz

Local board supports the Wastewater Network Strategy

Water is never far from the news. Now Rodney Local Board is being asked to provide feedback on Watercare’s Wastewater Network Strategy.

Board chair Brent Bailey says the strategy is a critical part of Watercare’s 35-year Network Discharge Consent with Auckland Council, and details how the organisation plans to deal with overflows and improve the public wastewater network.

“The strategy is reviewed every six years and outlines reports on network condition, performance, and proposed improvements, and as part of Watercare’s consent conditions, it has to consult with various groups, including local boards.”

He says few people appreciate how vast Watercare’s network is, the network made up of 8000 kilometres of pipes and more than 500 pump stations that move sewage from homes, businesses, and industrial sites to treatment plants.

“Something like 410 million litres of wastewater gets treated every day in the city’s treatment plants,” Bailey says.

Proposed works to improve the network are broken out into board areas, with Rodney plans divided further into: Wellsford, Omaha, Warkworth, Snells Beach/Algies Bay, Helensville and Kumeu/Huapai/Riverhead.

Bailey says the overall strategy focuses on unintended overflows – where wastewater spills out from gully traps, manholes, engineered overflow points or pump stations, and flows into public or private property, waterways, and the sea.

“Overflows mostly occur because of blockages, lack of capacity, cracks and leaks in pipes, power outages, or broken parts.”

Watercare says some catchments within Rodney require more work to reduce overflows than others. “

It largely depends on how they are performing now, and how much they are expected to grow,” Bailey says. “When work is prioritised, it takes several things into consideration, such as asset condition, risk to public and ecological values, short-term needs, costs and the opportunity for joint projects.”

Watercare says the Warkworth catchment has been classified as medium priority because of the number of overflows and the network’s age.

Potential work identified for Warkworth includes projects to deal with growth, including new sewers and pump stations in the next decade to take flow to the Snells Bay treatment works, to remove overflows at Elizabeth St and reduce them at Palmer St. That project will see the Warkworth treatment plant decommissioned. Other significant projects include the Warkworth to Snells pipeline, including upgrading sewers at Snells Beach, and the outfall, and building a pump station at Warkworth. It’s projected that work will need to be done before the end of 2026, and at a cost of around $400 million.

Bailey says it’s perfectly natural that people don’t think too much about wastewater.

“We turn on a tap and fresh water, we flush and take the plug out of the sink and the wastewater magically goes away.

“Except that it isn’t magic. It takes a lot of effort, planning, time and money to ensure that happens, which makes it critical we give considered feedback that can help Watercare make quality decisions.”

Rodney Local Board office opens in Warkworth

The new facility, at 3 Elizabeth Street, features office space for the local board and staff, and a dedicated local board meeting room.

Matanga Richard Nahi spoke the whakawatea blessing making the new space ready for the local board and preparing it for them to work together and deliver good outcomes for the Rodney community.

Chair Brent Bailey says finally the office is physically located in the local board area as recommended by the Local Government Commission in 2018.

The new board room will cater for the monthly local board business meetings which are open to the public.

Elected members meeting in the new board room.

2023 Wastewater Network Strategy

The underground wet well is part of the wastewater pump station being built at Lucy Moore Memorial Park.

Rodney Local Board members. First row: Michelle Carmichael, Mark Dennis, Geoff Upson, Louise Johnston (Deputy Chair). Second row: Tim Holdgate, Colin Smith, Brent Bailey (Chair), Ivan Wagstaff and Guy Wishart.

local folk

Sandspit resident John Anderson can look back on an exhilarating 60 years in business which began as a 22-year-old arriving in London with just £25 in his pocket. Here he founded Contiki Holidays, which became a worldwide travel company phenomenon. Eighteen years later, he returned home with his wife and four children, built two resort hotels and helped establish the Ellerslie Flower Show. He recently retired as a motivational speaker on the international speaking circuit and took some time out to talk to Allan Barber about his tumultuous and exciting journey …

I was born in Wellington, attended Scots College where I narrowly achieved School Certificate. I had planned to be a horticulturist, but had a strong desire to see the world before settling down in a career. A friend gave me a share market tip, which I took up by using my savings and my punt came off. After selling the shares I had enough money to start my travels. Telling my mother I would be gone for a year, I set off alone for Europe in 1962 via the Far East, visiting 17 countries in seven weeks. I arrived in London with the ambition to travel round Europe, but realised I didn’t have enough money, so started thinking about how I could do it. I believed it was possible if I could get a group of other young people for a tour, camping and cooking our own meals to save on costs.

I prepared a 12-week itinerary visiting 15 countries and a budget for 12 people. To arrive at a cost per head, I took the total cost and divided by 11 giving me a free ride as the driver and tour leader. I found a 12 seater Commer minibus and put up a notice advertising the trip in the Overseas Visitors Club in Earls Court, where Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans used to gather. Within 24 hours I had my first confirmed, paid up traveller, and enough money to pay a deposit on the bus. Within 10 days I had filled all 11 places on the trip. However, with more people wanting to book, I decided on my return that I would take a second trip. I soon had this full, too. Now I could pay for the minibus outright and Contiki Holidays was born.

Initially, I named the tours Tiki Tours, but had to change this as it was already registered to the NZ Government Tourist Bureau. So, to retain tiki, I added con as I was running tours of the Continent. Thus, the international brand Contiki was created. Few New Zealanders can claim to have created a truly international brand name, which has now been established for over 60 years.

My first tour was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind. I had been to France briefly, but had never driven on the ‘wrong’ side of the road with an overloaded minibus and a group of young people I was responsible for. The group was so grateful to be on the Continent on an organised trip, albeit with a tour leader of dubious experience and ability. We made it back to London on the scheduled date after only a few minor mishaps, having had some wonderful experiences together, just like a family. I felt an extraordinary sense of achievement, as well as a sense of relief. I had delivered what I had promised. Within three days I was welcoming my next tour group practising tent erection in Hyde Park.

Soon it was time to expand. I bought another minibus

the same way as the first and convinced a friend from Wellington to fly over and follow me around in the second year. Soon after I stopped leading the tours myself. Based in London, I started to build a good team of young people, all with different strengths to take the company to another level. Over the next 10 years, we expanded the minibus fleet to 38. What we achieved was mind-boggling!

I met my wife Ali when she took one of our holidays. We were married in Christchurch in 1969 and continued to live in London through the 1970s. The business was growing, too – we made the move out of minibuses into coaches. In 1974, we struck up a relationship with a Dutch coach operator who understood our needs and leased us Mercedes Benz coaches which were comfortable and reliable, as well as allowing us to use our own drivers. We had the buses painted yellow with Contiki branding, which turned them into moving advertising billboards. Over the following years we took many calculated risks as the business grew with an ever increasing number of copycat competitors. We tested and introduced pre-erected tent villages at the campsites. We introduced special stopovers such as a chateau in France, a villa in Italy and even a 58-berth schooner in Greece.

In 1980, Ali and I decided to return to New Zealand with our young family and I set about starting tour operations in New Zealand, Australia and America. In addition, the company built two 150 room resort hotels, one in Queenstown and the other in the Whitsunday Islands off the Queensland coast. In 1989, Contiki had grown into a genuinely international company. However, with the share market crash in 1987, the value of resorts plummeted forcing me to sell the company. The Travel Corporation, a large multinational tour operator which also had offices in the same markets, bought the Contiki tour operation. Having started with 22 passengers in 1962, Contiki has recently taken its four millionth passenger and operates a fleet of several hundred coaches worldwide. Subsequently, the hotels were also sold.

In the early 90s I was a member of Auckland Rotary Club which was looking for a unique fundraiser, so I suggested holding a flower show based on the same lines as the Chelsea Flower Show. I spent 10 days in London studying the Chelsea operating model, came back and put together a two year business plan and, in 1994, the first Ellerslie Flower Show was held. I became the inaugural chief executive to set it all up. The first person I employed to help run it was well-known local resident Liz Morrow, the first manager of Eden Gardens. I handed over the role after the first year as I had other business priorities. From a

standing start, 100,000 people came through the gates for the first show.

By the 2000s, Ali and I were living in Blenheim and one day I was asked to give a speech to the members of the Marlborough Club. A member of the audience asked me if I would be willing to speak at a Sheep and Beef Conference in Napier for which I would be paid a fee with all expenses covered. At that event somebody from Celebrity Speakers heard me and invited me to address the Mainland Cheese conference in Dunedin. After several more speeches which received a great reaction, I contacted another speaking agency in Sydney, which commissioned me to address a Coca Cola Conference.

Over 12 years, I gave an average of 60 speeches a year mainly in Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, and as far afield as Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand. In 2010, I wrote and published a book on the Contiki story, entitled ‘Only Two Seats Left’, now available as an eBook. Then in the 2012 New Year’s honours list I became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to tourism. By 2020, when Covid arrived, it was time to retire from the speaking circuit and Ali and I now live quietly at our home in Brick Bay where we moved 12 years ago to be closer to our children and eight grandchildren.

John Anderson MNZM

The first (top) and second tours.

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Four of Harry’s five children were at the unveiling of the seat in their father’s honour. From left, Donna, Sina, Wayne and Sharon.

Seat honours Sandspit storyteller

One of Sandspit’s much beloved old seadogs was given a final farewell when a seat on Sandspit Wharf was unveiled in his honour on April 28.

Harry Verney died from cancer in October 2021. However, due to covid restrictions at that time, the funeral service was limited to 10.

The farewell in Sandspit gave friends and family, from near and far, a chance to say goodbye publicly to a man who was remembered as a gentleman, a great mate and someone who could “talk a person’s ear off”.

Family friend Mark Illingworth said the seat was entirely appropriate as he could imagine Harry sitting there telling his stories, which were as good, if not better,

than anything Harry’s old friend Barry Crump could come up with.

Harry was born in Patea and grew-up in Taranaki where he did an engineering apprenticeship. He built the 50-foot steel hulled catamaran Frae in his backyard before moving north and starting a charter boat business out of Sandspit.

“After two weeks here, he was like part of the furniture,” Illingworth said.

Harry’s fish finding skills were said to be legendary with all his favourite spots noted in ‘the book’.

His daughter Donna said that during one of her last conversations with her father, he had made a point of telling her to make sure ‘the book’ went in his coffin.

When Harry sold the Frae, he bought the barge Tardis and started Rodney Mooring Maintenance, which made him a familiar face all over the Hauraki Gulf.

The seat was organised by former Sandspit harbourmaster Graeme Kearney and built by Dale Collins, from Lees Boatyard. The timber was salvaged from the wharf that Harry and other volunteers helped build in the 1980s.

Daughter Sina Verney said the family was overwhelmed by the gesture. “It would have made Dad so happy,” she said.

Harry’s ashes were spread at sea and in his favourite hunting spot in bush in Wanganui.

Harry Verney

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Tributes paid at Anzac services

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Pets Vets Corner

Pet of the Month

Carter

Twelve-year-old Carter had started to slow down on his walks and seemed to be getting a bit of a belly. Anyone could have put his signs down to aging but his diligent owner knew that something was severely amiss when he stopped eating his food and lost his usual enthusiasm for his daily walk. He was brought to Warkworth vets where the vet noted his gums were very pale and his abdomen was stretched - alerting her to something very bad going on!

Some bloodwork and x-rays were done and confirmed the vet’s suspicions that Carter had a mass in his abdomen, which was starting to leak blood. As he was severely anemic and needed surgery to remove the mass, Carter had to receive a blood transfusion, which was collected from a brave blood donor dog.

Once Carter was stabilised, he had a surgery to remove the mass which was a splenic tumor - weighing in at a whopping 4kg!! Carter bounced back after his surgery and is back trotting about with his owner and enjoying his life again now that his stitches are out and his pesky cone is off! Carter and many dogs like Carter are reliant on blood donor dogs. If you have a young, male dog over 25kg, of a calm disposition, please consider chatting to the team at Warkworth vets to see if he is suitable to add to our blood donor list!

Vets: Jon Makin BVSc, Danny Cash BVSc and Associates

WARKWORTH VETS VETERINARY HOSPITAL COAST 2 COAST VETS

Phone

Communities throughout Mahurangi and south Kaipara came together in record numbers on Anzac Day to honour the service and sacrifice of New Zealanders in times of war and conflict.

It was noted that this year marked a number of noteworthy anniversaries across wars of the past century. Sixty years ago, on Anzac Day 1963, New Zealand’s civilian surgical team arrived to assist casualties in the Vietnam War. They were the first New Zealanders to arrive and the last to leave.

July 27 will mark the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice in the Korean War – a conflict sometimes described as the ‘forgotten war’, despite the significant contribution New Zealanders made on Royal New Zealand navy frigates and in Kayforce,

the last expeditionary force of its kind. And, 80 years ago, New Zealanders took part in three key battles in the Pacific – at Guadalcanal, Vella Lavella and at Mono, in the Solomon Islands. They were among thousands of New Zealanders who served in the Pacific War.

This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the North Africa campaign – the longest and most important land campaign fought by New Zealanders in World War II. Three New Zealanders were awarded the Victoria Cross for their actions in North Africa – Charles Upham, Keith Elliott and Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, the first Māori soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross while serving with New Zealand forces.

Warkworth photos, Anna Thoroughgood.

Ngāti Manuhiri

Ringi Brown, Kaumatua www.ngatimanuhiri.iwi.nz

Returning taonga species

Ten kiwi were translocated to Tamahunga in March, an operation undertaken together with our friends from the Tamahunga Trappers and the Forest Bridge Trust. Countless hours by all involved over the past several years created a suitable habitat for kiwi to survive and thrive on the maunga and it is something we would like to see happen more in the future, in other areas in the rohe of Ngāti Manuhiri. A translocation is the movement of something from one place to another. In this instance, kiwi, but over the years we have translocated many taonga species such as korimako (bellbird), pāteke (brown teal), tūturiwhatu (NZ dotterel), tīeke (saddleback), takahē, hīhī (sitchbird), wētāpunga (giant wētā) and many others for various reasons. Providing all goes well with these birds, 30 more kiwi will be released over the next two years, to build a strong founding population. The kiwi will be closely monitored by electronic tracking to ensure they thrive in their new environment.

Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust has the aspiration of creating a green corridor or pristine habitat for all taonga species to thrive, which is only achievable through environmental restoration, robust pest management and several groupings of people coming together and working as one.

Korero from the Forest Bridge Trust “The Forest Bridge Trust was privileged to have a number of our staff participate in the release of kiwi onto Tamahunga. In the years leading up to the big day, the trust’s predator team has supported Tamahunga Trappers in their ongoing quest to control pests on the maunga. The Forest Bridge Trust built on that work by extending

a 6000 hectare buffer zone of traps out into the landscape beyond the core release site. The Forest Bridge focus is to rid the landscape of the mustelid threat so that kiwi and other vulnerable native species can be returned to areas where they have previously thrived.

“Our operations manager, Matu Booth says that often, the work has the feeling of a never-ending task but on these occasions, when a taonga species is welcomed back into their forest, we are all touched by the moment. And we celebrate together.

Northpower matches growth

Work has started on a 15-megawatt substation within the Mangawhai Central development area to help meet population growth.

Northpower chief executive Andrew McLeod says the new substation will increase supply capacity and reliability in the area.

“It is a material investment for Northpower, and one of a number of staged investments being made to support ongoing growth and development in the area,” McLeod says.

“In completing projects of this type, it is important that Northpower work closely with local hapu to appropriately acknowledge the history of the site, and the changing nature of its use.

“Te Uri O Hau have been guiding us through this process at Mangawhai and have been extremely generous with their time, advice and support.”

The new substation will initially support 1500 homes and businesses with capacity for future growth.

It has been designed to fit in with the surroundings, consisting of a modern tilt slab building to house all the electrical equipment.

We acknowledge the generosity of Ngāti Manuhiri, the amazing work of the Tamahunga Trappers, and the unsung contribution of all the landowners and sponsors who we work with for creating this moment of celebration.”

Thank you

A big thank you to everyone involved along the journey. There is still a lot of work to do but if we work together, we can achieve great things.

He rau ringa e oti ai Many hands make light work

McLeod says that from the outside, the substation will look modern and fresh with landscaping designed to blend into the surrounding development.

The substation will be completed early next year.

Kaipara awards

Kaipara District Council is calling for nominations for its annual Citizen Awards and Environmental Awards. Nomination forms and criteria can be found on the council website at kaipara. govt.nz Nominations close on May 31.

Kaumatua Ringi Brown was on hand to help re-introduce kiwi to Mount Tamahunga.

Behind the scenes look at motorsport

Motorsport enthusiasts will be given a look behind the scenes of the NTT Indycar Series, when a documentary airs later this year on SkyTV.

The film called Kiwis – Born to Fly has been produced by the Perspective Group, founded by Omaha-based film maker David Turner.

The documentary traces the footsteps of many New Zealanders involved with the greater NTT Indycar Series and its supporting classes, with production scheduled in both New Zealand and the United States.

There will be interviews with kiwi drivers including Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Armstrong, Hunter McElrea and Jacob Douglas.

Turner says the aim is to uncover and showcase the many New Zealanders who make up the larger part of the series in various roles behind-the-scenes, as well as the drivers. “The documentary will highlight the

talented New Zealanders involved in world motorsport, both in and out of the car,” he says.

“The NTT Indycar Series and its feeder classes represent some of the toughest and most demanding racing in all motorsport.

“There are many incredible stories along with personal moments that the documentary will highlight and just what a powerhouse nation New Zealand is in the sport globally.

“I’m delighted to be able to bring this story to life, as it’s been a passion of mine for years.”

Turner is a former Television NZ senior motorsport producer, and has been involved in many sporting broadcasts from the America’s Cup to the Olympics.

For the past 14 years he has been on the Board of Trustees for the Motorsport NZ Elite Academy and Scholarship Trust, which, to date, has assisted the development of more than 160 young athletes in the sport.

Documentary producer David Turner at the Indy 500 last year.

Kumeu teacher wins Labour candidacy

Current Rodney Local Board member Guy Wishart has been selected as the Labour candidate for Kaipara ki Mahurangi, currently held by National’s Chris Penk. Wishart and his wife Michelle are both teachers, although he has a horticultural science degree and has managed orchards and consulted to growers in the past. He says he believes strongly in social justice and equity.

“A society where families are struggling to stay financially afloat is not one we should tolerate or aspire to,” he says.

“In an electorate like Kaipara ki Mahurangi, there is a wide range of socio-economic levels, from the very wealthy to families who can’t pay their rent, and it is essential that everyone is looked after equitably.”

Wishart grew up in Tauranga, and lived in London, Thailand and India before settling in Kumeu. He is currently the Kumeu Community Action chair and the Kumeu-Huapai Lions Club president. He has also been a member of North West Country, which is the area’s business association, and was the deputy chair of Kumeu Arts for seven years.

He is an award winning singer-songwriter, who is an APRA Silver Scroll recipient and he won Folk Album of the Year at the New Zealand Music Awards in 2017. He and Michelle established Kumeu Live, a notfor-profit music venue for live music.

He has been actively involved in the establishment of an emergency plan for the Kumeu-Huapai area and is spearheading the development of a flood alert system for the north-west. His family was adversely affected by recent extreme weather events, which resulted in their home being flooded twice in 18 months.

Emissions target challenges Auckland Transport

By Laura Kvigstad, Auckland Council reporter. Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.

Auckland Transport is coming to grips with the reality of trying to cut its budget, while also trying to retain its ambitious emissions reduction target.

At the Transport and Infrastructure committee on April 20, councillors were concerned that the Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway (TERP) was taking a back seat at Auckland Transport (AT).

AT’s acting chair Wayne Donnelly said the TERP was still alive, but AT had paused to make sure they were doing things right. Donnelly said Auckland’s targets were significantly ahead of government targets for transport emissions reductions.

“That can be a little bit of a problem and I would actually like the council’s permission to align with the government [targets],” he said.

However, Cr Richard Hills was concerned by any suggestion to pull back Auckland’s target.

“The building of resilience to extreme weather events is a critical issue for our community and New Zealand as a whole.

“We also need to ensure that schools, roads, reserves and public transport are delivered at the front end of new developments, not years after when the original infrastructure is bursting at the seams and residents are at the end of their ability to cope.”

Nine candidates contested the Kaipara ki Mahurangi seat in 2020. Penk won 20,402 votes 44%), followed by Labour candidate Marja Lubeck who received 15,967 votes (35%). Lubeck, who has served two terms as a list MP, announced late last year that she would not contest this year’s election, which will be held on October 14.

The Kaipara ki Mahurangi electorate extends from the Kaipara Harbour in the west to Mahurangi in the east. Communities in the electorate include Kumeū, Warkworth, Wellsford, Snells Beach, Helensville, Waimauku, Huapai, Riverhead and Muriwai Beach.

The TERP sets a target of reducing Auckland’s transport emissions by 64 per cent by 2030, against a 2016 baseline. Concurrently, Mayor Wayne Brown wants AT to find $25 million in savings as a part of the 2023/2024 annual budget.

In his first appearance at a committee meeting, AT’s new chief executive Dean Kimpton said there was a desire to get back-to-basics.

“I recognise the tension between backto-basics and adopting a long-term view,” Kimpton said.

“Whatever we do now has to be designed to make the boat go faster in that strategic direction.”

Cr Angela Dalton wanted to see the TERP used to inform all Auckland Transport policy.

“You talked about making the boat go faster. The wake does not make the boat go faster and for some of us, the wake is the basics,” Dalton said.

“I want assurance that [the TERP] is going to be used as the formal direction.”

Kimpton said the TERP was a strong foundation for moving forward but AT would need to come back to council with an implementation plan

“That is one of the areas I am focused on, but I don’t think we yet fully understand what we need to do to achieve those targets.”

“The whole point of the stretched target is because the government’s target relies on us, as a big city, to do far more to pick up the slack,” Hills said. “The whole point of us having stronger targets than the government is because that’s how the maths works.”

Donnelly said the board was aware and board members had repeatedly reminded each other that AT endorsed the TERP. “Can I just ask that you cut us a little bit of slack here? We have had an election result that has prompted a fundamental review how the organisation does its work,” Donnelly said.

He said that AT was being asked to reduce costs, while trying to be future focused, and with a new chief executive officer at the helm.

“Once we get through the more mechanical shifts to get on budget, we very definitely are going to address how to do things differently so it does not increase emissions and actually reduces emissions.”

The emissions target was adopted by both Auckland Council and AT in August last year. It is based on less dependence on cars, and more emphasis on walking, cycling and public transport; better uptake of electric vehicles; and the need to avoid and shorten trips wherever possible.

The Botanic is the Hibiscus Coast’s newest, resort-style retirement village, designed to offer a great lifestyle surrounded by nature and world class facilities.

Guy Wishart will go up against Chris Penk in the General Election in October.

Nectar Café

People with special dietary needs will welcome the opening of Nectar Café, in the Morris & James complex, in Matakana, which has placed a special emphasis on providing vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free food.

But owners Tahnee and Satya Goddard say they also have a tasty range of cabinet food to cater for people without allergies as well. They say their own experience of trying to find food for themselves and their two eldest children, who are gluten intolerant, prompted them to think carefully about their menu.

“Before buying the café, we ran a catering business in Auckland for three years,” Tahnee says. “It made us realise how many people have special dietary needs, and how little choice they often have when eating out.” Fresh is another word that often crops up when Tahnee and Satya talk about their

new menu. Everything is made on the premises including the bread and much of what they use is organic.

Satya, who trained as a chef in Australia, says he is applying for a liquor licence with the idea of opening on two evenings a week for dinner. He says the café will also be available for functions and he will be providing an off-site catering service as well.

“We’re still settling in, setting up systems and hiring staff,” Tahnee says. “One thing we are keen to let people know is that a lot of our food lends itself to takeaway. In winter, this will include hot food options such as soups and curries.”

While the café will be their main focus, Tahnee is also a cosmetic and fine line tattooist, and is currently outfitting a room beside the café which she plans to open as a tattoo parlour later this month.

The couple say they are very happy to be joining the Morris & James family.

Central’s Tips

May 2023

The fruit and vegetable garden

• Worms don’t tolerate cold in winter – place an old rug or piece of carpet over the top of the worm farm to insulate them

• As the weather cools planting seedlings rather than trying to germinate seed is more successful. Plant brightly coloured chard, cabbages, sprouting broccoli and cauliflower. Successive plantings (a month apart) allow a good supply of the vegetable crops that have become so expensive of late

• Strawberry plants are coming: prepare strawberry beds in the garden or pots with plenty of Garden Mix, sheep pellets and keep pea straw handy. If the garden soil has a lot of clay, gypsum will help break it down

• Calendulas (winter marigolds) flower in the cool weather and add colour to the vegetable garden. The edible flowers look yummy in winter salads

• Winter stocks, casseroles and soups can be flavoured with herbs that take you through the cold season – hardy bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and sage are great to harvest in winter

• Olive trees that have been stripped of olives (by the keen gardener or the wily birds) should be given a dressing of garden lime before winte

The rest of the garden

• Houseplants – time to reduce the amount of water that you give indoor plants. Most won’t need fertilising until September. Keep the leaves free of dust to maintain health

• Tidy up dying foliage and flowers from dahlias, geraniums, hostas and other summer flowering perennials. Place small white marker sticks with the plant name in weatherproof ink beside the crowns of plants that die down completely, so they are not disturbed over winter

• Get hardy annuals in for colourful winter flowers. Polyanthus, poppies, primulas and cyclamen are all good to plant now

• Loving the autumn colour on deciduous trees? Be sure to rake dead leaves off the lawn to allow light to penetrate, otherwise the lawn will die off

• Housework for NZ plants – remove spent leaves and old flower stalks from flaxes; rake dead grass out of native grasses to rejuvenate them, apply snail bait to renga renga lilies

• Remove the coarse, older leaves of winter flowering hellebores (winter roses). This helps bring light to the crowns where the buds are forming and gives a better display during their peak winter flowering period

Here at Nectar Café at Morris & James Pottery we’re passionate about quality, organic whole foods and drinks and make a wide variety of delicious gluten, dairy, refined sugar-free and egg-free food options from scratch in our kitchen.

We simply love fresh local organic produce and offer a range of cabinet food, salads and buffet hot food that you can enjoy in tranquil surroundings.

Liquor license is coming soon!

We look forward to serving you!

Satya 021 184 9688

Nectarcatering@hotmail.com

48 Tongue Farm Road, Matakana

Growing food for winter harvesting?

Our Garden Mix is filled with fertilisers and quality compost to ensure your plants get off to a great start. Plus it’s weed free. See your local Central Landscapes team for planting advice.

Tahnee and Satya Goddard

Fish removal shows signs of success

An Auckland Council biosecurity officer has described efforts to rid Lake Tomarata of pest fish as ‘a race against time’.

Last month, Council, with assistance from the University of Waikato, made a second sweep of the lake pulling in nearly 300 fish. Senior freshwater biosecurity advisor Belinda Studholme says Tomarata is the fastest declining lake in the Auckland region.

“We hope that by removing the pest fish, the lake will have a chance to recover,” she says.

“Unlike the nearby Slipper and Spectacle lakes, which are dominated by algae, there is still time to save Lake Tomarata.”

The pest fish are causing a decline in water quality and threatening native biodiversity, including unique submerged native plants, kākahi (freshwater mussels) and the threatened black mudfish, which live in the surrounding wetland.

Council first netted the lake in August last year, catching 800 fish over eight nights. Last month, the team netted over four nights catching 202 Rudd and 79 tench. The process involves putting out a line of gill nets every 50 metres across the entire lake. The nets are three metres deep and are allowed to sink until they touch the bottom of the lake, which is about five metres deep.

“Tench are the trickiest to catch because they can hang out in the wetland area where we can’t net. We’re really pleased with the results from last month though, as it appears we are reducing the biomass of fish.

“We’ll return in August and go through the process again, and then it will be a matter of doing the netting annually to keep on top of it.”

The fishing is unlikely to eradicate these pests, but the council is hopeful it will control fish to a level that will decrease pressure on native species. The native plants and kākahi will be monitored to assess their recovery.

Studholme says the rudd have completely

devegetated the lake bed of native submerged plants. The reduction in rudd will reduce the pressure on the native charophytes, which are the native submerged plants.

“The submerged native plant communities are integral to the health of the lake, they create underwater meadows that bind the sediment to the lake bed and prevent mud

and nutrients from being resuspended into the water column making the water turbid and causing algal blooms.”

The project is being funded by Auckland’s natural environment targeted rate, and the pest fish removed from the lake are being composted at Te Arai Organic.

“Dropping the fish off was a very smelly job,” Studholme concluded.

The biosecurity team spent four nights removing the fish from lake Tomarata, and will return in August to do it all again.

Help keep the lake clean

While Lake Tomarata is threatened by pest fish, it has so far remained free of invasive pest weeds. Biosecurity officer Belinda Studholme says that for this to continue, boat and watercraft owners must play their part by keeping their equipment, including trailers, clean. Moving boats between the sea and the lake is not a threat, but if boats have been in the Waikato or Bay of Plenty, then boat owners need to be vigilant.

Historical comedy celebrates Albertlanders anniversary

A husband who is in too quick a mind to replace a dying wife forms the basis of a historical comedy that will be presented by the Wellsford Drama Club later this month.

Keep to Thy First Wife is set in the 1880s and is being staged as part of this year’s Albertland celebrations, from May 26 to 28. It is the first time the club and the Albertland District Museum have collaborated.

The one-act play is directed by Carolynne Andrew and features five characters –the husband Herbert played by Alan Bainsbridge, wife Matilda played by Kirstyn King-Turner, the postman played by Zac Skelling, Hannah played by Ella Brunton and neighbour Charity played by Diane Greenwood.

The story starts with Herbert worrying about how he will cope with six kids and a farm to run, if his sick wife passes away. He gets the brilliant idea to get a mail order bride from Auckland who

turns up unexpectedly while the wife is still very much alive.

Andrew says it is a fun play that should appeal to the whole family.

As well as the play, there will be a variety concert in the first half before interval featuring a choir, some of the Wellsford’s Got Talent finalists and others.

The play will be on stage at the Wellsford Community Centre, with two evening performances on Friday and Saturday May 26 and 27, and a matinee on Sunday May 28. Tickets cost $20 and are available from Hammer Hardware in Wellsford or at the door.

Meanwhile, the drama club will host a directors’ workshop at their clubrooms, at the community centre, on July 8. It will be run by Don Goudge, from Auckland, and is open to any aspiring directors or anyone who wants to improve their directing skills.

Info: wellsforddrama@gmail.com or phone 09 423 8614

Band members and local music teachers Moana

Lyndon and Jackie Niccolls are providing tuition.

Bike boat seeks funding

By Laura Kvigstad, Auckland Council reporter. Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.

The Matakana based business Hauraki Express is seeking support from government and Auckland Council to transport cyclists across Auckland’s waterways using purpose-built ferries.

At a Transport and Infrastructure committee meeting on April 20, Hauraki Express presented its vision to transport 1800 cyclists around Auckland daily.

Sales and service manager George Bourke said the ferries would be made with recyclable aluminium, be powered with electrical outboards and have capacity for 24 cyclists.

Budding brass players sought for scholarship

Warkworth Big Band is offering primary school students the chance to learn to play a brass instrument for free with a new oneyear scholarship.

Thanks to funding from Pub Charity and an individual sponsor, there are seven spots up for grabs to learn saxophone, trumpet or trombone.

Band manager Aaron Rodgers says this first round of scholarships will be based at Warkworth School and is aimed at students in Years 4 to 6.

Would-be young brass players were given a taste of what they might do when

Warkworth Big Band and reggae funksters

The Dirty Happys transformed a school assembly into a 45-minute concert just before the Easter holidays.

Rodgers said the show was intended to inspire students and give them a taste of what was possible with brass instruments.

“They loved it, the kids were just so into it,” he said. “We ramped them up a bit and played all our funky rock numbers that they could identify with.

“They could see trumpets and saxes played in a different environment than they’re used to seeing, playing funk, rock, reggae and dub music to show them these instruments are not just for a brass band playing on Anzac Day.”

Each scholarship includes free instrument rental and weekly lessons for a year, plus affiliate membership of Warkworth Big Band and ad hoc coaching and mentoring from band members.

Tuition is being provided by itinerant music teachers and big band members, Moana Lyndon and Jackie Niccolls.

Pub Charity has funded tuition for six scholarships, the band and donors are supplying most of the instruments, and friend of the band ‘Old Mike’ Read has donated an alto sax and a year’s tuition fees in memory of his late wife for the Myra Read scholarship.

Rodgers says the band has developed the scheme to help those who can’t afford private music lessons at primary school level and to encourage them to start playing

instruments earlier.

“These instruments are all subsidised at high school, but we believe kids should be getting into playing music earlier, ideally from Years 4 and 5 onwards,” he said.

“We’re offering the scholarships to interest and encourage kids who can’t afford these instruments and lessons. It’s not a longterm sausage factory to get musicians for the band, it’s just to get them into music and kick-start the process.

“This is such a cool town for music, there’s so much going on, but we’ve got to get the schools and younger people into it.”

Rodgers said it was hoped to expand the scholarship scheme beyond Warkworth in future, and added that anyone who didn’t attend the town’s primary school but was keen on the scheme was welcome to get in touch. The band would also like to hear from anyone who may have instruments to donate.

Info: Email Aaron Rodgers at warkworthbigband@gmail.com

“Our concept is to use existing infrastructure operating between boat ramps, wharves and jetties where possible, with the goal of connecting cycle lanes,” Bourke said.

“The goal is to get people across the harbour as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

He said they were planning to service Waiheke, as well with primary pick up points being Bayswater, Birkenhead, Stanley Bay, West Haven, Hobsonville and Half Moon Bay.

Cr Wayne Walker asked when the company might be able to begin operations.

“How quickly could you put this in place given that there is a very quick turnaround, and you can build the boats yourselves?”

Walker asked.

Hauraki Express general manager Stuart Thomas said Legacy Boats in Whakatāne would be able to have the first of six boats finished by midway through next year. The company is asking council and the government for $2.65 million over four years to support the operation, with $750,000 sought in the 2024/25 year. Auckland Transport and Waka Kotahi have been asked to report back to the committee on the proposal.

For a full range of family medical care, including A&M services in an integrated system 24 hours a day, across our region, including public holidays

Homebuilders

Jazz Bishop, Family Support Worker

People-pleasing and boundary setting

I am a self-confessed people pleaser. This means I tend to always put others first. I struggle to say ‘no’ to people and find myself going above and beyond for others, even at my own expense. Our culture encourages us (particularly women) to be selfless. We learn to always put other people’s needs and feelings first and wonder why we are always on the edge of burnout. So how do we protect our time and energy? One way is by setting and maintaining boundaries. Boundaries are limits we can set for ourselves or others, which make us feel safe and valued. How do we know when we may need to put in a boundary? Ask yourself – how does this make me feel? How important is this to me? How negatively is this impacting on my life or the relationship with the person?

When we let something slide that makes us uncomfortable or frustrated, resentment can build. By voicing how we feel and what we need, we give others an opportunity to know us better and honour our needs.

In The Book of Boundaries, Melissa Urban categorises boundaries into three levels –green, yellow and red. Green is the gentlest, we are assuming the person wasn’t aware of our preference and kind, gentle language is used. For example, you may have a friend or family member who often pops over unannounced, while sometimes this is okay, it often throws off your routine. A green boundary may simply sound like, ‘I

love that you live close, and we get to see each other so regularly, is it cool though if you start texting me before you come over. Life has gotten so busy lately and it would really help me out’. Now, hopefully, that person respects your new boundary and life goes on.

If they come by unannounced again, a yellow boundary may sound a bit firmer.

‘Oh hey, please don’t forget to text me before you come over, so I can let you know if I am free or not. Today I happen to be free, but I really need a heads up in the future’. If they continue to show up without texting after you have been clear, a red boundary may be needed. You can include how you will respond if they continue to ignore your boundary by saying, ‘I’ve asked you a few times now to text and check if I’m available before coming over, I won’t be answering the door next time you come by unannounced’.

This is just one small example, but boundaries can be beneficial in all areas of life. Many people will be receptive and understanding of your boundaries. For boundary newbies, particularly us people-pleasers, the thought of putting in boundaries may sound daunting, but your peace and wellbeing is worth it.

If you would like to support implementing boundaries in your life our family support workers here at Homebuilders are equipped to give you tools and support around this.

Sharing the palliative care journey

Hospice Awareness Week will be marked from May 15 to 21, with Harbour Hospice asking its community to support Open Doors, and empower patients to live well until they die.

The Open Doors programme was created so that people can benefit from hospice’s care much earlier in their journey.

Every second Tuesday, Tui House in Warkworth becomes a hive of excitement and activity as patients, carers and volunteers get together. The programme includes a presentation from a Harbour Hospice team member or community guest speaker. Then it’s time for a discussion and the sharing of experiences before enjoying a meal, prepared by Harbour Hospice’s kitchen team.

Harbour hospice chief executive Jan

Nichols says that too often people miss out on this life-changing programme.

“The need for support programmes like Open Doors is becoming more urgent because people are living longer and experiencing more complex palliative care needs,” she says.

“The programme is more than music, a chat and a meal. It prepares people for what lies ahead and encourages them to live well until they die.”

Harbour Hospice is currently caring for close to 400 patients every day, and demand for palliative care across the region is expected to increase by 50 per cent in the next 14 years.

To support hospice locally, donate to Harbour Hospice’s Appeal at harbourhospice.org.nz/donate/appeal

crew officer

As a little girl attending preschool and then primary school in Leigh, Michelle Maclean was only too aware of the job that emergency services did in the community. “We had the fire station next door and the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter landing on our playing field,” she says. “I used to press my nose up to the wire fence and think how exciting it all was. I used to think, “yeah, that’s what I want to do”.”

By 16, Michelle had joined the Leigh Volunteer Fire Service where, at the time, her step-father Steve Paddison was the fire chief. Doing first response in the fire service only whetted her appetite to learn more.

“I knew that if I wanted to really help people, then I had to do some medical training. Even back then, I knew my ultimate goal was to join the rescue helicopter service.”

After finishing school at Mahurangi College, Michelle did a three year paramedic degree at AUT. During this time, she was given the opportunity to do a two week placement in Cape Town, South Africa. After finishing her course, she took up an invitation to return to Cape Town and did a further two months there.

She then spent three years as a medic in the NZ Air Force followed by a year with the Hamilton-based Waikato rescue chopper service where she had the dual role of paramedic and crewman. One of the skills she learned in this position was how to operate the winch.

“Most of our patient recoveries using the winch in the Waikato were over land,”

who

in Leigh,

Michelle says. “These were often people who were lost in the bush and had set off a beacon and perhaps they were injured and couldn’t walk out.

“Normally we’d winch a medic in to make an assessment and then winch the patient and the medic out again.”

Since moving to Auckland, where she became the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter’s first female air crew officer, she has found herself involved in a lot more water rescues – winching people out of the water, off boats and jet skis.

The Auckland helicopter crews are based at Ardmore and work 12-hour shifts, on a four day on/four day off roster. This gives

Michelle ample time for the many interests she has outside of work including hockey, snowboarding, playing guitar, riding motorbikes, fishing, spending time with friends and family, being at the beach and getting out into nature.

“What I love about my job is being able to help people on what is possibly the worse day of their life. Often, the specialist care that we provide so they can make it to hospital is the difference between life and death.

“I also love the opportunity to work with paid staff and volunteers across all the emergency services from St John and coastguard to the fire service, police, Land Search & Rescue,

and the Department of Conservation. “Long term, I just want to keep learning and honing my skills. I also think it’s important for rescue organisations to build networks and relationships nationally and internationally so we can share and improve our rescue effectiveness.”

Michelle adds that responding to a call in the Leigh area is always a little bittersweet. “I still know a lot of people in Leigh and no-one wants to respond to an emergency for someone they know. But on the other hand, I am glad we are able to get to Auckland’s more remote communities faster, which gives the patient the best chance of getting the care they need.”

Taste of Brick Bay

Michelle Maclean, 31,

grew-up

became the Auckland Westpac Rescue Helicopter’s first female air crew officer last November.

Leigh childhood inspires rescue chopper’s first female

women can do feature

Different perspectives on

When a baby arrives home, life for their mother is never quite the same again. While it is a joyful and exciting time, it can also be overwhelming and exhausting. This is particularly the case if mothers don’t have the support of an extended family.

For more than a century, new mothers in Aotearoa have had the Plunket service to help them navigate the early weeks and months of motherhood, but what about mothers in other countries?

Mahurangi Matters asked four local women, who were born in other countries – Kiribati, Argentina, Norway and the Netherlands – to tell us something about child raising in their country of birth. We thank them for taking the time to share these memories with us …

Nadia Costa

I grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I have a younger brother. I migrated to NZ in 2011, originally for a one-year OE but I fell in love with the country and decided to make NZ my home. I now have a fiveyear-old son whose name is Zahir.

My mother was a stay-at-home mum for most of my childhood. Back then, mums were the heart of the home – busy with everything from planning meals to helping with homework and so much more. Not too different from now, except now most mums work outside the home as well.

My mum taught me many things, but budgeting skills were top of the list. She also taught me kindness and patience, although the latter is a skill I am yet to

truly master. She taught me that everyone deserves a chance, and that no-one knows better what’s best for you and your family than yourself. On a more practical note, my Mum taught me to make stews, colourful popcorn and iron shirts.

I am the confident, driven, compassionate woman I am today because she led by example. I had the courage to venture to the other side of the world because I knew she would always be my haven to go back to if things didn’t work out. Her best advice was to always follow my dreams.

My parenting is highly influenced by my mother’s tenderness and care.

I admire my mother for her strength and drive. I am so honoured to be her daughter.

continued page 26

Nadia Costa with her mother in Argentina.

Anna Scott

I grew up on the outskirts of Oslo in Norway, where we had a big garden with lots of fruit trees, and there were lots of other kids to play with in the street. I was the oldest of three; with a younger brother and a younger sister.

I met and married a Kiwi shearer who was

working in Norway, and after six years he wanted to go home as his own mother was unwell, so we moved here in 1994. We have four children who were all born in Norway. The youngest was only three months old when we came to New Zealand.

What was your mother’s role in the family?

My mother was a stay-at-home mother, so she was basically responsible for all housework. She never enjoyed housework that much, but she wanted to bring up her kids herself, not sending us to childcare, which was the norm in those days. When my youngest sister started school my mother went to university to become a teacher.  How was child raising/motherhood different in Norway?

When I grew up it was getting more common for women to work outside the home, and today it would be very hard to find a Norwegian mother who doesn’t work outside the home. In Norway today

poster on my wall that said: “I don’t know what I’m seeking, and I don’t expect to find anything definite. The important thing for me is to keep moving”. I have one son Max, who is 21.

What was your mother’s role in the family?

She was a fulltime housewife and mother. How was child raising/motherhood different in your country of birth?

you get a year of maternity leave (which is shared between the parents) but after that most kids will be going to childcare while the parents are working full time. Today, it is the norm that both parents share everything that needs to be done at home, including caring for the children. How has your mother shaped the way you have raised your children?

To a great degree. The values she tried to give us are the same that I have been trying to give my own kids. But I have been giving my kids a bit more freedom than I got myself. My mother was quite strict, especially with me being the oldest. She used to tell me I had to be a good example for my younger siblings, which I hated. I made sure I never said that to my oldest! What skills did you learn from your mother? We all had to take part in the weekly house cleaning, and when my mother started her studies, we also learned some basic

his white horse, dropping presents through the chimney. Both my parents had known tough times during World War II which would have played a significant part in their growing up. They knew hunger. We always felt loved, safe and well cared for, perhaps my parents made extra efforts to ensure our childhood was more carefree than theirs had been.

What skills did you learn from your mother?

cooking. But what I most appreciate of what she taught me was to trust God and ask for His guidance in every situation. My mother has a very strong and downto-earth faith which I am very grateful that she managed to pass on to us children. She also taught me to love books. She read a lot for us, and she actually taught me to read when I was four years old. From then on, I have always had a book on the go! What was the best advice your mother gave you?

To marry a man that you have enough in common with so that you still have things to talk about after 50 years together! And for the parents never to disagree about “home rules” in front of the children.

I am very grateful for the upbringing I had. I had a mother who saw it as her most important role in life to care for and teach her children, and she has been my number one role model in bringing up my own children. Thank you Mother, I love you!

difference you can make with kindness. What was the best advice your mother gave you?

Don’t smoke and only drink red wine. I’m joking. My mum taught me to believe in myself no matter what anybody else said. Because of what I learned from her, I know life isn’t a competition, it’s a journey. To be the best you can be.

“On my wedding day 25 years ago and earlier this year in front of the city Tiel, when mum turned 80.”

Marja Lubeck

I was born in Tiel, in the Netherlands, the eldest of four children and I arrived in New Zealand in 1989, aged 24. My desire to come here was fuelled by my curiosity about life on the other side of the world, a country with the reputation of being clean, green and nuclear free. In my teens, I had a

Growing up in the seventies and eighties, the traditional family structure was still most common with the mother home fulltime to do the housework and childcare, while the father worked a paid job. As kids we biked to school and came home to eat lunch. The family would always sit down together at the table for dinner. At birthdays we would start the day standing on a chair with everyone singing happy birthday. Balloons and decorations would be put up all through the house. December was wintertime so we didn’t have Christmas at the beach, but would play outside in the snow. We didn’t have presents for Christmas but celebrated on December 5 when Sinterklaas arrived on

My mother was always there for us. When we came home for lunch, she would have the sandwiches on the table. She would always cook a nutritious dinner, making sure we ate healthy. We never had to help out with cooking or dishes; I remember my mum telling me she wanted her children to be able to be kids, to have time to play, do their homework. My mum had to leave school at 15 (despite being super smart) to get a job and help the family make a living as times after the war were tough. She wanted us to be able to do what she wasn’t able to. I learned unconditional love from my mum. The importance of being a family, to be thoughtful and care for others, and the

Heron’s

How has your mother shaped the way you have been a mother?

I wanted my son to grow up feeling loved, safe and carefree. Knowing that he had a safe home with parents who would do anything to make sure he was happy. To grow into a caring, compassionate person who thinks of others, respects their feelings and wants to make a positive difference. The importance of family time, and family traditions, creating memories to last a lifetime. My mum started out as my mother but ended up being my friend. She is a beautiful, caring person and I love spending time with her. I see so much of her in me and it makes me proud.

Karibwe Tekanene

I grew up in a small island called Washington Island/Teeraina. It is a coral atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, part of the northern line islands, which belong to Kiribati. There are six of us in the family –five girls and one brother – and I am the oldest. I moved to NZ to join my ex-fiancé in 2016. I have two beautiful girls – Sophia is six years old and Grace is four years old. They are the centre of my world and I love being their mother.

What was your mother’s role in the family?

My mother did a lot for me and my siblings. She cooked yummy food, created a clean home, provided clean clothing and she would always make sure that me and my siblings felt supported and loved. She was the rock of our family.

How was child raising/motherhood different in Kiribati?

Motherhood in Kiribati is very different compared to New Zealand. It definitely not easy but it is very simple. After a woman gives birth, she is not allowed to expose herself to heat or go out under the sun as it will affect her breast milk

Where I grew up, there was no bed time for kids but children were expected to be quiet and always respect their elders. There

was no such thing as sleep training because mothers and children shared the same bed. It would be very unusual for a baby to be sleeping alone. What skills did you learn from your mother?

My mom is a good cook and a good dancer so I was lucky enough to have her dancing skills.

What was the best advice your mother gave you?

It is never too late to go after what you want in life.

How has your mother shaped the way you have raised your children?

I have truly realised just how much my mother has shaped me into who I am today. She made many sacrifices. She showed true selflessness and courage, and always encouraged me to be who I wanted to be. She would always go above and beyond to make me, my siblings and everyone around her feel special. My mom had a really big influence on how I raised my children. Even though I don’t have her anymore, as she passed away 10 years ago, I treasure the wisdom she shared with me and I cherish the memories we had together. Now that I’m a mom, I have learned that motherhood is hard and it can be messy, but the important thing is that I show up for my children, no matter what. And this is a trait that I got from my mom and I’m always grateful to her for that. I know how lucky I was to have been raised by a loving, caring and strong mom.

If you are a mama/parent and you are going through a tough time don’t be afraid to ask for help and support from all those around you. It is okay to ask for help. I just want to wish all the mothers out there the happiest Mother’s Day and “whatever you are up to this coming Mother’s Day, I hope it’s a good one”.

Above, Karibwe’s mother in Kiribati and, right, Karibwe with her daughters, Sophia and Grace.

Shoe Boutique Flames Barbers

Achange of ownership at Imelda’s Shoe Boutique in Warkworth has come with a promise from the new owner, Lorraine Thompson, that the shop’s core values will be maintained, along with some fresh ideas and new inventory.

Lorraine, who has worked at Imelda’s for a number of years already, says she is excited to take on this new venture.

“I’ve always loved shoes and fashion, and I love helping women find the right shoe that fits well and suits them,” she says.

“Job satisfaction for me is seeing a customer leaving the store feeling good about their purchase.”

Lorraine describes Imelda’s shoes as “stylish, comfortable and fashionable”. Some of her more popular brands include Rieker, Josef Seibel, Bresley, Alfie and Evie,

and she recently added Minx including the Minx lace sockets. The store also stocks shoe care products, handbags and wallets, and slippers.

“Imelda’s has been a staple in the retail community of Warkworth for many years and has provided high quality footwear and accessories to customers of all ages.”

Former owner Carolyn Thompson will continue to work at the shop part-time.

“We want to make sure that Imelda’s stays competitive and continues to be a destination for shoe lovers,” Lorraine says.

Prior to joining Imelda’s, Lorraine ran the commercial cleaning company Quality Clean in Warkworth. During two-and-ahalf years living in Sydney, she worked at Peter Sheppard Shoes.

Mother and daughter barbers, Deborah Bellis and Kayla Olsen, are combining their skills and experience in a new shop called Flames Barbers, under Storage & More, in Hamatana Road, Snells Beach. Deborah says she is proud her daughter is following in her footsteps, but not surprised.

“She’s been watching me cut hair for most of her life,” Deborah says. “When she was old enough, she used to sweep the floor and then she started tending the counter and making appointments.”

After leaving school, Kayla did a nine month course with the Cut Above Academy in Auckland. She then spent three months training with the same barber who taught her mother in Lancaster, in the United Kingdom.

“The haircut a man will get from a barber

is quite different from the one he would get from a hairdresser,” Kayla says. “Barbers are trained to get the sharp edges that men like and know how to work specifically with short hair. Clippers and razors are our tools of trade.

“I just love the fact that a man can completely change his look after 15 to 20 minutes in a barber’s chair.”

Prior to training as a barber, Deborah worked in aged care and then spent 13 years working with children with special needs.

“This background has always been an asset and we make a point of going the extra mile to make sure all our clients feel comfortable and relaxed. This can mean turning the lights and music off for an autistic child or providing extra distractions to keep a Downs Syndrome child happy while he is in the chair.”

Mother and daughter team, Kayla Olsen and Deborah Bellis.

Lorraine Thompson

Mahu Pelvic Physiotherapy Jane Crook Homeopath

Aphysio with expert training in an area that people don’t generally like to talk about has opened a clinic at the Mahurangi Health Collective in Warkworth.

Rebekah Davidson runs Mahu Pelvic Physiotherapy, which, as its name suggests, focuses on the muscles below the tummy and between the hips, including the bladder, bowel and reproductive areas. She says healthy pelvic floor muscles are vital for good health and problems with them are often the cause of a range of symptoms, from better known issues such as incontinence through to being a source of back pain.

The good news is that treatment is often swift and simple, which Rebekah says makes her job very rewarding.

“With pelvic physio I often see people once

and it’s enough to give them major changes in their life,” she says.

Things she can help with include issues arising from pregnancy and birth, bladder and bowel control, lumbar pain, postprostate surgery, caesarean or hysterectomy scars, prolapses, painful sex, menopause muscle changes and heavy lifting injuries.

“People are often very self-conscious when they arrive, but we can help with a range of guided exercises,” she says.

A consultation will usually entail a brief internal examination, as well external checking of the affected area, but Rebekah says it’s all quick and straightforward.

“It’s not like a gynaecological exam, there’s no speculum. People are amazed how stress-free it is,” she says.

“These are issues we don’t talk about, but things can be done and we’re here to help.”

Hawkes Bay homeopath Jane Crook is the latest practitioner to join the team at Warkworth Natural Therapies, after recently moving north to live off-grid at Ariki Estate on Kaipara Harbour. She had a practice in Napier for more than a decade after four years of training. Her interest in what homeopathy could achieve was first piqued when she saw what it did for herself and her three children.

“When my children were young, they were constantly ill with ear infections, coughs and colds, tonsillitis, things like that, and I used to get strep throat all the time,” she says. “As soon as we found a homeopath, it all cleared up and we never went back to a doctor.”

The basis of homeopathy is that the body is able to heal itself using tiny amounts

of a natural substance that matches the problem, such as rhus tox, made from poison ivy, curing a rash. There are more than 4000 different homeopathic remedies obtained from a wide range of plants, animals and minerals.

“The fundamental principle is treating like with like, and finding something in nature that matches our symptoms,” Jane says. “People know about arnica, but there are so many layers to it. It’s totally holistic, we’re not just treating physical symptoms, but treating people individually so we can target healing more effectively without doing more harm.

“It’s about building on your own immune system and finding what will trigger a response for your own body to heal itself.”

We must turn to nature itself, to the observations of the body in health and disease to learn the truth. Hippocrates

HOMEOPATHY

Homeopathy will:

• Address the root cause/s of your problem

• Treat holistically, physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually

Can be used to treat toxicity, acute ailments and long-term chronic disease

We can treat both men and women for:

Stress and urge urinary incontinence

Pre and post-natal pelvic health cares

Pelvic organ prolapse symptoms

Returning to sport

Post prostate surgery recovery

Back and pelvic pain

Available treatments: internal examinations, exercise programs, personal/ individualised advice, dry needling, soft tissue mobilisation/massage ...

Complements and can safely be used alongside conventional medicine or other therapies

Empowers you to trust your own innate body to heal itself

021 215 8967

info@mahupelvicphysio.co.nz

Mahurangi Health Collective, 1/18 Neville Street, Warkworth Mahupelvicphysio.co.nz

Please txt Jane Crook on 027 233 3343 or call Warkworth Natural Therapies on 09 425 9045, Wednesdays & Thursdays 12 Brown Road, SH1, Warkworth

I offer a free 15 minute phone consultation to see if Homeopathy is right for you.

Our mission is to empower our clients to take control of their pelvic health by providing a remarkable physiotherapy service and supporting the action takers on their journey to better quality of life.

Jane Crook

Rebekah Davidson

AUTUMN SALE

Ballerina pirouettes to Melbourne

Warkworth ballerina Brooke McMahon is making her mark as one of New Zealand’s most promising dancers.

The 11-year-old, who is in Year 7 at Mahurangi College, has won a place in the Australian Ballet School International Training Programme (ITP).

Entry to the coveted programme is by audition, with hundreds of dancers from around Australia and overseas auditioning every year.

Brooke has been dancing under the guidance of Carla Talbot, at the Talbot Dance Academy in Warkworth, since she was three years old.

Talbot says the ITP programme will give Brooke much wider exposure so is an important step in her career as a dancer.

“It is an outstanding achievement for a local dancer and, as far as I know, she may be the first dancer in Warkworth to have achieved this,” Talbot says.

“It recognises her hard work, focus and dedication.”

The ITP means Brooke will fly to Melbourne two or three times a year for specialist training at the Australian Ballet School.

This will sit alongside her position in the elite New Zealand School of Dance Scholars Programme, based in Wellington. Hundreds of dancers audition every year for a only a handful of places on the programme.

Meanwhile, McMahon has been dancing up a storm at competitions up and down the country.

She made the quarter finals (junior) of the biennial Alana Haines Australasian Awards in Wellington over Easter, where she competed against more than 140 other dancers in her group.

Just prior to Easter, she won the Junior Variation Award and the 10&U12 Scholarship (overall highest points) and was runner-up in the intermediate ballet championships at the Waihi Performing Arts Competition, the 10&U12 Scholarship (overall highest points) at Bays School of Dance Competition and was a finalist in the Ballet Academy Awards in her section in February.

She is also part of the Ballet Academy Auckland Elite Programme and the Dance Masters International Intensive Training Programme, and has just completed the Auckland Academy Vocational Exam Seminar and was awarded the Excellence Award for the intermediate foundation group.

Young Warkworth ballerina Brooke McMahon

by Ken Leech presents

Renaissance to the romantic

The Warkworth-based Kowhai Singers, under the baton of newly-appointed musical director Ken Leech, will showcase a performance of Vivaldi’s much-loved and joyful Gloria at the Warkworth Town Hall on Sunday May 21, at 4 pm. The programme will also include wellknown works by Byrd, Tallis, Bach, Mendelsohn, Schubert and Faure.

Leech joined the choir at the start of this year, replacing previous director Amy Cottingham, who returned to the United States during covid, and Susan Hayday, who took over in the interim last year. He has extensive experience over many years with choral ensembles, as a singer, conductor and composer of choral music, and he recently moved north from central Auckland to Waitoki.

Improv comedy returns

Renown organist John Wells will be the accompanist for the Vivaldi while the choir is delighted to have the support of accomplished soprano Gina Sanders and alto Jessica Wells. The guest artists will also perform solos.

A choir spokesperson says this carefully chosen mix of renaissance, baroque and romantic music, with a theme of spiritual praise and celebration, will appeal to all those familiar with the choral repertoire, as well as people who just enjoy beautiful music.

The concert is part of Warkworth’s 170th Anniversary Programme for 2023. Tickets are $25 and are available from Briar Rose Florists in Warkworth, choir members, or at the door (cash only).

Info: m_rjones@xtra.co.nz

The Warkworth Squash Club will hold another Improv Comedy Night at the club in Shoesmith Street on Saturday June 17. The evening will feature The Improv Bandits, who are former World Improv Champions and have been performing for 22 years. Organisers say tickets are limited to 120 so buy early to avoid disappointment. The cost is $25 per person. Contact Kaye Jackson on 021 135 7574 or squashykaye@icloud.com The show will start at 7.30pm.

AND CLASSICAL WORKS BY BACH, BYRD, FAURE, MENDELSSOHN, MOZART, PURCELL, SCHUBERT, TALLIS featuring John Wells, Organist with Soloists

Gina Sanders & Jessica Wells

WARKWORTH TOWN HALL

SUNDAY, 21ST MAY AT 4PM

TICKETS $25.00

BRIAR ROSE FLORISTS, CHOIR MEMBERS, OR AT THE DOOR

THE SMOKO ROOM. OPEN THURSDAY TO MONDAY

We are now open 5 days a week - Thursday to Monday from 12pm until late (closed Tuesdays & Wednesdays).

Book for Mother’s Day!

All bookings play our lucky dip with dozens of roses and merch to be won. Email smokoroom@sawmillbrewery.co.nz to book.

Happiest of Hours

Monday, Thursday & Friday from 3pm to 6pm.

Sawmill beer $8 / Te Kano wine $8

BYO Wine Monday

Every Monday from 5.30pm. No corkage fee.

Live Music - every 3rd Friday of the month

Friday 19 May from 4.30pm - Lou Perkins

Brewery + Smoko Room | 1004 Leigh Rd, Matakana |

Gardening

Andrew Steens

Mixed feelings on

flax

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with flax. On the one hand, I appreciate their ornamental value, their tenacious growth habits, their usefulness in traditional craftwork and their indispensability for native wildlife. On the other hand, they can get quite messy in the garden and their leaves are an absolute nightmare to mow around. New Zealand flax are endemic strapleafed, evergreen perennials that have been cultivated since Māori arrived for fibre, food, fabrics and weaving. Early European settlers gave it the common name of New Zealand flax, due to the similarity of the fibres produced to European flax, an entirely different plant species. There are two species – Phormium tenax, the coastal flax, Māori name harakeke, has long strap leaves in shades of green, bronze and maroon. The orange-red flowers are held on a tall stalk above the foliage and the seed pods are upright. Phormium cookianum (also known as P. colensoi), the mountain flax or wharariki, is a smaller plant which has greenish-yellow flowers held horizontally on an arching flower stalk with the seed pods drooping down. Many different forms of these two species were selected over the centuries by Māori to provide different plant characteristics for each of the end uses.

In modern times, many colourful cultivars and hybrids of these two species have been created including:

• Alison Blackman, a compact variety with dark green leaves streaked with lemon and a narrow orange edge.

• Apricot Queen, with pale yellow leaves

with green margins that tinge apricot in autumn;

• Cream Delight, with wide arching leaves with a cream-yellow stripe and green margins edged with red;

• Dark Delight, with beautifully arched dark reddish-brown leaves;

• Dazzler’ striped with deep maroon/ purple and scarlet.

Flax are relatively tolerant to temperature extremes and a range of light conditions, they are quite drought resistant and will grow in most well-drained soils but prefer soils high in organic matter and acid to neutral soils. Although they will happily grow in low fertility soils, they grow best when fed occasionally with a fertiliser which is relatively high in phosphorus. They love a layer of mulch over the root system such as compost, well-rotted manure or composted pine bark.

Phormium can be divided every few years. The young plants, called “pups” or sometimes kiekie, should have several roots before being divided. Cut the foliage back to a fan about one-third of the original leaf length as the pups are separated. Planting, transplanting and dividing should be done in spring before the main leaf flush starts, and this is a good time to rogue out reverted plants (where the variegation has been lost). And, finally, to keep these from making the garden look messy, or the leaves from destroying the lawnmower, plant flax near the mid border or even at the back of the border, rather than at the front. In winter, use a serrated knife or handsaw to remove the older leaves to keep the clump tidy.

Butterflies not only bring beauty to a garden, but play an integral role in NZ’s biodiversity. Pictured is the copper butterfly (Lycaena salustius).

Native butterfly campaign takes flight

The Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust is campaigning to raise $15,000 to fund DNA research into identifying copper butterflies and understanding their habitats. Ninety-three percent of New Zealand’s native butterflies and moths are unique to Aotearoa.

“If we lose them, they can’t be replaced,” MBNZT’s biodiversity advisor Brian Patrick says.

“The family of copper butterflies is a great example. They are native to NZ whereas the monarch and cabbage white butterflies are not.

“Some native butterflies are already teetering on the edge of extinction. There’s a tiny purple copper butterfly, which now exists only in one coastal carpark in the South Island. It needs our protection –

but firstly it needs to be identified!”

Butterflies are important as pollinators and as food for birds.

“Sadly, successive governments have invested too little in research and taxonomy, the naming of species,” says Angela MoonJones, who is spearheading a campaign to save New Zealand’s butterflies.

“We are far behind most other countries of the world.

“We have a chance to change this, but we need the support of caring New Zealanders now to save our precious butterflies. We are so grateful that we have some wonderful sponsors already helping our cause.”

To support the campaign, go to https:// givealittle.co.nz/cause/save-ourbutterflies

The Forest Bridge Trust

Nikki Morgan, Marketing and Comms www.theforestbridgetrust.org.nz

Stoat monitoring

Wildlife monitoring cameras, also known as trail cameras, are increasingly being used by The Forest Bridge Trust (TFBT) as a tool to study and monitor mustelids (stoats, ferrets and weasels). The trust’s ecology and biodiversity advisor Virginia Moreno recently deployed 116 lured trail cameras across the rohe to learn more about the impact stoats are having on the ecosystem, and determine the effects that predator control and trapping efforts have had on stoat populations. Trapping catch data is measured on the TrapNZ App which gives us the number of stoats removed. We are now looking at measuring the abundance of stoats that have survived trapping. Stoats were introduced in the late 19th century to help reduce the rabbit population. They quickly established themselves as a significant predator of many native bird species, bats, lizards and invertebrates.

Stoats are clever and cunning creatures. They hunt day and night, moving quickly checking every burrow and hollow they come across, and will kill more than they need to eat. Ground-dwelling birds such as young kiwi, dotterel/tūturiwhatu and black-fronted terns/tarapiroe are easy targets. Stoats are particularly effective predators because they can kill kiwi chicks that weigh four or five times more than themselves. Birds that nest in tree hollows such as kākā and kākāriki are also vulnerable. According to Save the Kiwi, stoats are the main reason why 95% of kiwi hatched in the wild die before they reach breeding age.

To date, TFBT has mustelid control measures over 28,000 hectares, which is halfway to our goal of 54,000 hectares by June 2025. We had a great response from the community when we started to seek out landowners who might be happy to have trail cameras on their properties. Many property owners were already trapping on their land and are regularly recording their catch data via the TrapNZ App. We know from this data that for the last quarter of last year (Oct-Dec), 68 stoats were caught in the rohe.

Over the last month, we have been collecting data to obtain a cameratrap index (for example the number of stoats detected per camera per day) and occupancy (the percentage of cameras with stoat detections).

A total of 74 cameras are within mustelidtrapped areas and 42 in non-trapped areas, which will allow us to look at differences in relative abundance and occupancy between treatment and non-treatment areas. Cameras in non-trapped areas will provide baseline data so we can make comparisons after traps are introduced.

The results of the stoat monitoring project will better inform us of the effectiveness of our trapping efforts and whether we need to adapt trapping methods. It’s a long, ongoing battle but eventually, we hope that more and more people in the community will enjoy the benefits of fewer predators in the landscape and increased backyard bird song.

Info: www.theforestbridgetrust.org.nz

Shells and weather challenge wastewater contractors

More than 100,000 cubic metres of dirt has been shifted as work continues on the Warkworth to Snells Beach wastewater transfer pipeline project.

Watercare project manager Dirk Du Plessis says that due to the extreme weather at the start of the year, the work has been carried out in an intensified timeframe.

He says this was possible due to an impressive 90 tonne excavator.

“The launch pad at drive site two is now complete with a piling platform and a level stage for the separation plant,” Du Plessis says. “We are currently installing perimeter drainage and stabilising the headwall batter to prepare for the winter season.”

Meanwhile, environmental control work was temporarily stopped when some scattered shells were discovered.

“We immediately referred to the Accidental Discovery Protocol, contacted Ngāti Manuhiri and the project archaeologist who came out to the site and confirmed the shells were a previously unrecorded midden.

“The design of the sediment retention

pond was subsequently amended and work re-commenced under the supervision and recommendations of the archaeologist and Heritage NZ.”

Du Plessis says the massive rain event at the end of January caused damage to the sediment ponds, which required some inventive remediation design to stabilise the batters of the ponds.

“We installed one-ton bags of gravel inside the ponds which allowed for the design capacity without increasing the footprint or encroaching on the identified archaeological zones.”

Meanwhile, contractors McConnell Dowell are now a year-and-a-half into the construction of the Warkworth pump station in Lucy Moore Park.

The circular emergency storage tank has been sunk to a depth of eight metres, alongside the previously sunk wet well/dry well. The project’s success in building adjacent underground structures using the caisson sinking method is a big accomplishment for the project team, and for McConnell Dowell, as it is a national first.

With the external casings for the wet well/ dry well and emergency tank in place, the next step was the internal fitouts which included three internal wall concrete pours. This was done in March. Attention is now on the civil works to

excavate the deep pipe connections between the pump station and the emergency tank. In an effort to reduce waste, leftover concrete is being poured into formwork boxes made up on site to produce multiuse concrete anchor blocks.

The methodology being employed on the Lucy Moore project is a national first.

At Drive Site One, the trestle bridge and access off the main road were installed in December.

Books

Tracey Lawton

Second Chances by Hayley Holt

We’ve all seen Hayley Holt on our television screens over the years – Dancing With The Stars, Treasure Island, Shock Treatment, Crowd Goes Wild, TVNZ Breakfast, and currently TVNZ News Sports. In her early forties, she’s packed in a lot of living. At the age of seven, she started ballroom and Latin dancing and then got seriously into snowboarding. Holt seemed outgoing and confident but her reality was that she was introverted and alcohol became the key to her fitting in. The loss of her first baby has been widely reported but in this memoir she is so open and raw about that devastating loss, the love she has found with her partner Josh, and the support from her family and close friends. This was an easy read and it was interesting to learn about the person behind the famous face.

Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah

Efe and Sam are both of Ghanaian descent and meet in London in the 1990s. They remain friends, reconnect years later and marry. But the perfect love story has a glitch. Sam is working hard as a lawyer, his extended family live in London, he wants to stay in London and start a family. Efe has always said she doesn’t want children and she is an artist who is still close to her sister and parents back in Ghana. And so the story starts with the marriage breakdown and then we go right back in time and work our way forward to the marriage crisis. It’s a beautiful story that is told with much love and empathy, and gives us a glimpse of the difficulties of living in different cultures while trying to stay true to your roots.

Celebrating music

Warkworth Library is looking for musicians to perform at the library during NZ Music Month this month. If you play an instrument, sing or are in a band, they would love to hear from you. Pop into the library or email katherine.mitchell@aucklandcouncil. govt.nz. Meanwhile, a song writing workshop with Andy Hamilton and the Dirt Road Orchestra will be held at the Masonic Hall on May 20, at 11am.

Splash Backs Mirrors • Cat Doors Windscreen Replacement and Chip Repair We will match or better any competitors quotes! 0800 334 122 info@locksmart.co.nz www.locksmart.co.nz

Tables to order Chairs • Swingseats Benches • Umbrellas

M

1 STOP SHOP FOR RURAL MOWING

Peter 021 912 805 tickidiboo@orcon.net.nz Local and Reliable

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Local and Reliable

Phone Peter 021 912 805

• Retaining Walls/Decks • Fences • Paving/Concreting

• Planting • 1.7 tonne digger and operator hire

Ph Jeff - 021 368 552 | warkworthlandscaping@gmail.com

www.warkworthlandscaping.co.nz

SUPPLYING QUALITY HOUSEHOLD WATER IN THE LOCAL AREA FOR OVER 37 YEARS

0800 747 928 or 027 556 6111 425 8454 www.rhodesforroads.co.nz

Classifieds

PUBLIC NOTICES

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WATER

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31 Woodcocks Rd, Warkworth

Shop hours

Mon - Fri 8am-5pm Sat 9am-12pm

May 18th, 1pm, Betty Paxton Rooms, Snells Beach Community

WELLSFORD PLUS AGM

DVDS & VIDEOS

6.30pm, Tuesday 30th May 2023, Wellsford Community Centre. Open to all current Members, come and have your say.

DVD

VIDEOS TRANSFERRED to DVD/hard drive. Phone or txt Tetotara Video 021 777 385

HAIR & NAILS MOBILE HAIR & NAILS

Working around the greater Warkworth Region. Offering hairdressing, manicure and pedicure services, in your home. Call Rebecca 021 0825 8242

HOME & MAINTENANCE

Blue Skies Cleaning

Window Cleaning, Soft Bio House Wash, Gutter Clean, All Exterior Cleaning, Water Blasting, Roof Treatment, Local Professional service.

Ph Pat 022-646-5849

COLLINS ELECTRONICS HAVE YOU LOST PRIME? Or need your Freeview box tuned for the new channels? TV repairs, microwave oven repairs, Freeview installations.

Ph Paul 09 422 0500 or 027 29 222 04

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11 YEARS + TO DELIVER THE MAHURANGI MATTERS NEWSPAPERS

Mahurangi Matters is a fortnightly paper. Deliverers needed for runs in the Snells Beach, Warkworth, Wellsford and Mangawhai areas. Contact phone Tanya Milford by txt or email 021 066 0838, tanyamilford@hotmail.com www.reach.nz/walker-signup

CHURCH NOTICES

CATHOLIC CHURCH

WINDOW CLEANING/ HOUSEWASH/GUTTER CLEANING Local professional service. Ph Pat 022-646-5849.

www.holyname.org.nz

Holy Mass Timetable:

WARKWORTH Holy Name Church, 6 Alnwick Street Saturday Vigil: 6.00pm Sunday: 10.30am

Phone 425 8545 PUHOI

SS. Peter & Paul Church Sunday: 8.30am

5 Pulham Road, Warkworth

Phone 425 8861 www.mahu.org.nz

Sunday Services 9am & 10.35am

The deadline for classified advertising for our May 22, 2023 paper is May 17. Send classified advertising enquiries to design@localmatters.co.nz

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If it’s local, let us know!

Mahurangi Matters 425 9068

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Young farmers compete

Kaipara Young Farmers secretary Zarnie Ferguson, from Kaukapakapa, moved up one place this year to finish third in the Northern FMG Young Farmer of the Year regional final held at Kaikohe last month. The winner for the third time was Lisa Kendall, from Franklin, who will compete in Timaru at what will be her last attempt, having finished second and third for the last two years.

The regional finals were held over two days in an attempt to streamline the process with the top eight qualifiers from Friday’s district final going through to the next stage on the Saturday. Three Kaipara representatives – Jamie Hodges, Daniel Richards and Zarnie – made it through to the regional final.

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Zarnie went into the weekend with one goal – to finish one place better than the year before – so having achieved that, she is now firing on all cylinders to get into the grand final next year.

“It’s a unique combination of competition and education, and in my experience at least, it’s highly addictive,” she says. She also surprised herself with the discovery she enjoys ultrasound scanning sheep which “for a dairy and beef girl was a bit of a shock”.

The weather over the two days wasn’t the best, but she says she had to work at such a pace that there was no time to put her wet weather gear on and didn’t even notice the rain until after she had finished.

Supreme winner opens farm gate

The winners of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA) regional supreme title (Northland) Andrew and Vicky Booth will host a field day at their farm in Maungakahia on May 17.

A BFEA spokesperson says the potential impacts of climate change on Northland dairy farms and long-term business resilience are a firm focus of the Booth family farming operation. Topics covered during the day will include pest control and biodiversity, including the retiring of large areas of land, and the ongoing management and protection of these areas.

with lunch included. RSVP by May 12 to Ellie Ball at northland@bfea.org.nz or phone 021 117 5324

Visitors are asked to ensure all vehicles and footwear are clean to comply with biosecurity requirements.

Visitors will also be able to see constructed wetlands on the property and how the farm is being adapted to climate change, including biological emissions numbers, diversification of pasture species and longterm business resilience.

The field day will run from 10am to 1pm,

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Zarnie Ferguson says the Young Farmers competition becomes addictive.

Algies Bay wind puts student sailors’ skills to the test

The Secondary Schools Team Racing National Championships were raced off Algies Bay last month.

The annual event is organised in conjunction with the Sandspit Yacht Club and this year, around 200 students competed, representing 28 schools.

After a delayed start, resulting in three days of intense and very breezy racing for the teams, Westlake Boys High School took the line honours.

They had an impressive 15/18 wins over the course of the championships – chased all the way to the finish by Rangitoto College who also had 15/18 wins.

The regatta was decided on two head-tohead races between the two teams, which Westlake broke ahead winning both races. In third place, not far behind, was the team

from Auckland Grammar with 12 wins.

The team from Kristin School won the silver fleet, with an impressive flawless round in round robin Number 2 to take them to 14/16 wins for the regatta.

The bronze fleet was won by Nelson College for Girls, again on tiebreak where they broke ahead of local rivals Nelson College, after winning one race apiece. It was only the Nelson Girls’ lower average points that claimed them the medals.

The Women’s National Championship was taken out with a great performance from the Westlake Girls team.

As the championship winners, Westlake has been granted New Zealand representative team status, as recognised by Yachting New Zealand.

Business House Pool

The Business House Pool competition at the Warkworth RSA got underway this week. Organisers are hoping to have enough players to form one new Division B team and are inviting new players to get in touch. If you, or anyone you know, would like to play but don’t have a team then contact Dave Ollason on 027 754 9961 and he will find you a team.

Junior football

The 2023 football season kicked off on April 29. Warkworth is reminding parents and players that the club is run entirely by volunteers. Without people putting their hand up to help, the club would not exist and the players would not have any opportunity to play for their local area. If anyone would like to help – financially through sponsorship or by volunteering to coach or manage a team, please get in touch with admin@warkworthfc.org

Netball

The Warkworth Netball Club advises that winter netball starts for Years 5-8 on May 13 and Years 1-4 on May 20. Although registrations have closed, anyone who wants to play should contact the club at warkworthnetballclub@gmail.com The club is also looking for committee members. The club is affiliated to Rodney and is part of the Netball Northern Zone. Collegiate and seniors play at the Rodney Netball Centre at Wellsford Centennial Park on a Friday night from 6pm. Juniors on Saturday mornings from 8.45am.

Multi-sport

The Mahurangi Sport and Recreation Board will hold its annual general meeting at the Bayleys office, corner Mill Lane and Queen Street, on Monday June 12, starting at 7.30pm. All welcome. The board is especially keen to recruit new members to the committee to help deliver the new multisport centre at Warkworth Showgrounds. Enquiries and info: email mahusport@gmail.com or phone Graham Buchs on 027 840 7592.

Golf coaching

Mangawhai Golf Club will hold junior coaching sessions on May 21, June 11 and June 25. Casual sessions are $25. Info: mike@mangawhaigolf.co.nz

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Only one day of racing took place with full sails on. Photos, Piers Barney

History

Sentinel rock and the groyne

The history of the Mangawhai River and breakwater is only recorded from our early European settler days. We don’t have stories from local Maori as they were virtually decimated in the battle of Te Ikaa-Ranganui in 1825.

Known as the ‘black death’, drownings were not uncommon in the settlement’s early days and the Mangawhai River took many lives. Often the drownings were because a ship or boat had foundered on rocks near the entrance to the harbour. From the 1860s, residents and shipping personnel tried to convince the Provincial Government to finance the creation of a breakwater between Sentinel Rock and the quarry area. They were initially told that the government would finance half of the costs. However, negotiations carried on for many years with little progress and only intermittent attempts to remedy the dangerous harbour entrance. At one time, 40 men were sent up from the Waikato area, being recent arrivals in New Zealand. However, it seems that whoever sent them didn’t check their skills or qualifications. One came from the honourable career of lacemaking. It would have been interesting

to know how he got on with the work of carting soil and dumping it in the channel. A contractor was finally found who had some degree of knowledge. But a disaster occurred when three of his hired workers were killed in a rock fall at the nearby quarry, where stone was being taken to fill the channel. The men were Alexander Duncan, Lawrence McWatt and William Craig. They died instantly on Monday August 13, 1866, and all three are buried in the St Michael and All Angels Church cemetery, in Hakaru.

More than £2000 had been wasted on the project by 1876, when a new contractor arranged with local and retired army men from the 58th Regiment to do the work of filling in the channel. These men had also spent several years as boat and ship builders at the McInnes/McKenzie shipyard, on the Mangawhai River, which gave them a great knowledge of the waters around the harbour and its entrance.

When completed in the late 1870s, the breakwater served watermen and fishermen alike for more than 100 years. The groyne was topped up again during the Big Dig in February 1991.

Bev Ross, Mangawhai Museum www.mangawhai-museum.org.nz

This photo above was part of a collection from Gretchen Elizabeth Cotter (nee Williams) known as Bibby. Mangawhai Museum

8 Enduring Power of Attorney/Residential care transition, Warkworth Library, 10.30am-12 noon. Presented by Paddy Sullivan, Age Concern Rodney.

8 Matakana Community Meeting, Matakana Hall, 7pm – what does community resilience look like? All welcome

11 Warkworth Hockey Club agm, ITSS Engineering, 24 Morrison Dv, 6pm. All welcome

12-14 Cats, Warkworth Town Hall, presented by Glass Ceiling Arts Collection. Tickets: www.glassceilingartscollective.com

15 Low Vision Support Group, Summerset Falls Village, Warkworth, 1.30pm. All welcome. Info: enquiries@mcdonaldadams.co.nz

15-21 Hospice Awareness Week (see story p23)

18 Menz Shed Warkworth annual general meeting, Mahurangi East Community Centre, 1pm

18 Pink Ribbon brunch, Warkworth Town Hall, 10am-1pm

18 Forest & Bird Warkworth Area Branch meeting, with a talk by Lawrence White from Butterfly Creek: ‘Everything you didn’t know about giant weta’, 7.30 pm.  Note: New venue – Meeting room RSA, Warkworth. All welcome.

19 Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Thinking, a talk by Professor Michael Witbrock, School of Computer Science, Auckland University; to be held at Besouls Funeral Home, Gumfield Drive, Warkworth, 2pm. This talk is organised by Warkworth U3A, but members of the public are welcome. Free

19 Quiz Night, fundraiser for Warkworth Primary School junior campus. Tickets available from the school – $40 singles, table of six $220. Doors open a 7pm for 7.30pm start.

20 Wedding Dresses through the Decades, Whangaparaoa College, 3pm. Fundraiser for Harbour Hospice

20 Song writing workshop, old Masonic Hall Baxter Street Warkworth, form 11am (see brief p35)

21 Puhoi Sports Club annual general meeting, 2pm

21 Kowhai Singers present Vivaldi’s Gloria, Warkworth Town Hall, 4pm (see story p31)

22 Support for Seniors, Warkworth Library, 10.30am-12 noon. Presented by Paddy Sullivan, Age Concern Rodney.

26-28 Wellsford Drama Club presents Keep to Thy First Wife, Wellsford Community Centre, 7pm (Friday and Saturday) and 2pm matinee on Sunday. Tickets $20 at the door (see story p21)

27&28 Albertland Celebrations, Albertland Heritage Museum. Info: https://albertlandmuseum.co.nz/

28 Fabric Rescue Market, Matakana Community Hall, 10am-2pm. Sale of unwanted fabric and craft/sewing items for koha. Info: Julie Tuck on 027 570 8151 or email fabricrescuemk@gmail.com

28 Stephen de Pledge presented by Warkworth Music, Warkworth Town Hall, 4-6pm

29 Life without a car, Age Concern Rodney Health Promotion, Warkworth Library, 10.30am-midday

30 Wellsford Plus annual general meeting, Wellsford Community Centre, 6.30pm. All current members welcome.

4 Tawharanui Planting Day, 9am-1pm. Meet at the Woolshed; tools, gloves and lunch provided

7 Warkworth Liaison Group meeting, downstairs meeting room at Warkworth RSA, Mill Lane, 7pm. Guest speakers from Vector

17 Improv Comedy Night, Warkworth Squash Club, Shoesmith Street, 7.30pm. Tickets $25 per person. Contact Kaye Jackson on 021 135 7574 or squashykaye@icloud.com

19 Low Vision Support Group, Summerset Falls Village, Warkworth, 1.30pm. All welcome. Info: enquiries@mcdonaldadams.co.nz

WARKWORTH TOWN HALL

Warkworth Town Hall has been a centre of community life for Warkworth, Kaipara and the Matakana Coast for over 100years. The recently renovated hall and facilities are available for everyone in the Mahurangi community to hire. In the entranceway to the Warkworth Hall stands an octagonal memorial to the members of our local community who fought in the Great Wars. It lists the towns and villages in our community whose men and women 'signed up', were all farewelled and some welcomed home - at Warkworth Town Hall. 100 years on, the residents and families of these same communities have contributed to the restoration of this important local building, through their rates and donations.

Saturday 27th May, 10am-2pm next to Warkworth Butchery

Tuesday 6th June, 5.30 - 8pm

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Jackman challenge Surf club juniors take up

The inaugural Jackman Junior event was held on April 23, which saw around 20 talented athletes under 16 years old compete in kneeboarding and paddleboarding along the length of the Mangawhai estuary

Echoing the senior Jackman Classic, which is a 12-km open ocean paddle, the event is named in honour of David Jackman. Jackman made history by being the first surfer to ride Sydney’s infamous Queenscliff Bombora in 15-foot surf on a longboard in 1961. He relocated to NZ around 1963 where he lived at Muriwai Beach until he died in 2014.

In 2009, the then Surf Lifesaving Northern Region Lifesaving manager Tony Baker

and Mangawhai Heads Volunteer Surf Lifesaving lifeguard Dean Storey decided to create an event that would honour Jackman’s prowess as an all-round waterman.

This year Don Baxter created the new Jackman Junior to promote the water skills of the younger surf sportspersons based in Mangawhai.

The event kicked off from the Mangawhai Tavern with the competitors displaying impressive skill and technique as they navigated their boards along the sixkilometre course towards the beach.

Baker says the competition was friendly and fun, with every participant giving it

their all, spurred on by their eager parents and whanau.

“The skill level on display was impressive, with all the riders showing remarkable talent and promise,” he said.

“The Jackman Junior was a wonderful opportunity for young athletes to come together, have fun, support and learn from each other.

“This fabulous new event is a great boost at the end of a challenging season for the close-knit Mangawhai Heads Surf Life Saving Club community.

“Congratulations to everyone involved, Don Baxter and to the Mangawhai Heads Volunteer Surf Life Saving Club for

organising such a magnificent event. “We look forward to seeing the event grow in the years to come.”

Results:

Jack Farmer (44:40) 1, Sienna Purcell (45:30) 2, Emma Lay (46:300 3, Q Veer (47:30) 4, Konrad Dixon (53:47) 5, Inez Fulton (55:10) 6, Faith Paul (56:10) 7, Lara Lay (56:20) 8, Ethan Purcell (56:30) 9, Bekker Pienaar (59:59) 10, Crush Hutchings (1:00:10) 11, Ane Pinenaar (1:03:20) 12, Oliver Hardy (1:04:00) 13, Brydee Dixon (1:04:10) 14, Evie and Amemila (1:07:10) 15, Alastair Wheatley (1:07:20) 16, Kade Meagher (1:12:05) 17, Connor Thompson (1:12:06) 18.

The inaugural Junior Jackman at Mangawhai brought out some good performances by the younger surf club members. Photos, Mangawhai Heads Volunteer Surf Lifesaving Club.