Sculpture gives voice to the wind

The latest architectural folly at the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, unveiled this month, represents the imagination of four graduates from the School of Architecture at Victoria University in Wellington.

The imposing Te Reo o te Hau (Voice of the Kōkōhau) was inspired by Mangatāwhiri, the wind that sweeps across the bay at nearby Omaha.

It was built using 989 recycled kwila shingles and dedicated to the power and mystery of the wind.

This year’s judging panel was chaired by architect Pip Cheshire.

“This folly superbly fulfils the challenges laid down by Brick Bay,” he says. “It has a strong idea founded on the cultural history of the site, a complex logistical exercise involving a team strung out over the lower half of the country and a do-or-die goal of harnessing the wind.

“The folly project challenges teams to take their glossy competition renders and work through the big issues of supply, structural integrity and cost control – a process that invariably ends in the minutiae of counting screws and metres of rope before the graft of fabrication and assembly. All of that can amount to little unless the end result stirs our imagination.

“As mentors, we were worried about the detail that would allow the timber ‘feathers’ to move and clatter in the wind. The fact that the team has achieved this and brought the folly to life is a testimony to their creativity, persistence and hard work.

It is a fine piece.”

Te Reo o te Hau is the eighth folly winner since the competition started in 2016 and it will be on site at Brick Bay for two years before being dismantled.

It can be viewed as part of the sculpture trail walk, which features more than 60 artworks.

A spokesperson says that the folly provides visitors with the opportunity to stand under the cloak of the folly and, on a windy day, surround themselves with the voice of the wind, “tuning in to the kōrero it has with its surroundings”.

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Veterans take to the sky

Veterans from four RSAs including Warkworth were treated to flights from North Shore Aero Club in Dairy Flat to Whenuapai on Sunday, May 14. They were accompanied by 10 members of North Shore Club’s Young Eagles. At Whenuapai, the 25 veterans were hosted by members of the Aviation Sports Club for lunch, then flew back to Dairy Flat via a route that gave scenic views of Auckland Harbour and the city. The majority of the veterans were from Warkworth and Birkenhead, along with some from Devonport and East Coat Bays. This is the fifth year the North Shore Club has hosted RSA veterans and Club Captain Rodger Coleclough is already planning next year’s event.

Groups seek volunteers

The Forest Bridge Trust is hosting a Volunteer Open Day at the Matakana Hall on Saturday, June 24, from 10am to 1pm. The event is being held to celebrate National Volunteer Week (June 18-24). Trust spokesperson Nikki Morgan says hopes people will take the opportunity to meet organisations, charities and not-forprofit groups from across Rodney who are looking for volunteers to lend a hand.

“Volunteering a few hours is a great way to give back to the community, achieve something collectively, meet new people, learn new skills, or lend your expertise to a worthy cause,” she says. There will be an activity table for children, and a chance to have a chat over a cuppa. The theme of the this year’s national event is Time to Shine – He wā pīataata.

Nicole Wilson, Registered nutritionist www.nutritionkitchen.co.nz

Chewing the fat

As with most things in nutrition, context is really important and it’s certainly not about foods or nutrients being good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. And this is very much the case when it comes to fat. We often hear talk about healthy or unhealthy fats, but it isn’t that simple. What we do know is that diets high in saturated fats are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and heart disease. We also know that butter is high in saturated fat, so does that mean we should exclude it from our diet?

The short answer is – no.

However, as I mentioned at the start – it’s all about context, and how your intake of saturated fat fits within your whole dietary patten. Do you cover your vegetables in spoonfuls of butter or coat them in a rich cheesy sauce, and eat lots of fatty meats and calorie-dense packaged foods? Or, do you like some butter on your toast in the morning or on your corn cob in summer, but most of time your diet is full of fresh fruits, vegetables, complex carbs, lean protein, nuts and seeds? If your diet looks more like the second option, then it probably isn’t a big deal. However, if it’s more like the first option, then we maybe need to be concerned about your saturated fat intake.

You may be wondering why saturated fat is such a concern when it comes to heart health. It’s not a direct effect, as is often the case with dietary effects (and why context is important). High saturated fat leads to an increase in LDL cholesterol – the bad cholesterol – and this, in turn, increases the chance of arteries becoming blocked or damaged, which leads to an increased risk of stroke and heart disease. What we want, when it comes to cholesterol, is more of the HDL cholesterol – the good one – and less LDL, and dietary changes can help with that. Mostly by swapping the saturated fats for unsaturated fats; though, sometimes you may need medication to help keep the LDL level down.

A simple way to tell the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats is how they are at room temperature. Saturated fats such as butter and coconut oil are solid at room temperature, whereas unsaturated fats such as olive and canola oils are liquid. Here are four simple ways to swap saturated fats for unsaturated:

• Swap out the butter for margarine

• Use avocado, hummus, nut or seed butters on sandwiches instead of butter

• Cook with olive, canola or sunflower oil (no, canola oil isn’t as bad as you may have heard on Tik Tok)

• Dress your vegetables with a squeeze of lemon juice and a grind of pepper, or leave them naked

If you sometimes have buttery vegetables, or the odd fatty takeaway, enjoy it rather than stressing about the effect of one single meal. Just remember the context and that it is your dietary pattern as a whole that counts.

Dark and pale brews win Top 30 slots

Two very different styles of beer from local breweries have made it into the annual New World Beer & Cider Awards Top 30 winning brews.

8 Wired Brewing’s dark beer Baltic Smoke Porter and McLeod’s Paradise Pale Ale both made the grade at the competition, where they were up against 700 contenders from around New Zealand and the rest of the world.

Warkworth-based 8 Wired were also highly commended for their Cucumber Hippy and Wild Feijoa sour beers.

The Top 30 was decided by an independent panel of 29 expert judges, who tasted all the entries ‘blind’ – without knowing which brew was which – over two days. Beers and ciders ranged from boutique small-batch craft examples to global brands, with more than a dozen different categories, including the burgeoning non-alcoholic sector.

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