The Hobson June 2017

june 2017

the return of parnell's master chefs local news, views & informed opinions

Escape to Queenstown this winter.

Providing you with the largest selection of premium holiday homes, villas and apartments in Queenstown. queenstownluxuryrentals.com +64 3 450 0489 nz.luxuryrentals@sothebysrealty.com Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Browns Real Estate Limited (licensed under the REAA 2008) MREINZ.

INSPIRED EUROPEAN TRENDS

Be inspired by the latest European trends in bathroom and kitchen, designed by Philippe Starck, Sieger Design, Matteo Thun and Arne Jacobsen. Our unique collection has everything you need to create your personal sanctuary.

Choose your dream bathroom fittings from the new Metrix Design Collection catalogue out now. Call into the showroom in Parnell for your copy. “Don’t think bathroom, think lifestyle”

www.metrix.co.nz 155 The Strand, Parnell, Auckland T: 09 379 7399 E: info@metrix.co.nz

DURAVIT | DORNBRACHT | VOLA | KALDEWEI | PAINI | INDA | VALSIR | ALMAR | GLASS DESIGN | MARBLO | ALAPE

C O L L E C T I O N

The June Issue, No. 39 6

34

the editor’s letter

the living

8

Auckland’s newest apartment developments are designed to become a lifestyle choice for residents

the columnists

38

10

the magpie

the village

The Magpie fluffs her feathers for school ball season

Whitebait back in Hobson Bay? It’s possible says one local; enterprising students, a neighbourhood artist in Venice, civic and local board news, and more

40 the pretty Ball-prep and on-the-night beauty

20

41

the reps Words from our men in the House, local MPs Paul Goldsmith and David Seymour

22

the sound Andrew Dickens listens to the final songs of the late, great, Graham Brazier

the plan

42

Hamish Firth finds much to admire in the renewal of the Civic Administration Building

the cinema This month’s new releases, selected by Caitlin McKenna

23

43 the bookmark

the investment Warren Couillault reads the messages in the market’s implied volatility

Gail Woodward picks new releases from indie authors and publishers

28

45 the appetite

the suburbanist Muji, Japanese masters of minimalist living, release a hut.

Tommy Honey takes its measure

Eat My Lunch shares recipes as they celebrate two successful years of social enterprise; plus, we visit Parnell’s newest restaurant, Gerome

29

47 the district diary

the second act Sandy Burgham looks gift horses in the mouth

What’s happening in the neighbourhood this June

30

48

the play

the cryptic

Entertaining TV chefs Peter Hudson and David Halls were stars in the 70s and 80s, and larger than life Parnell residents too. A return season of Hudson & Halls Live! celebrates their story

Our puzzle, by Māyā. Hint: some of the answers are local

Hudson & Halls Live!

Step back into the 80s, and the on-set antics of Peter Hudson and David Halls, New Zealand’s original, and wittiest, master chefs. Courtesy of Silo Theatre, we have tickets to give away to Hudson & Halls Live!, starring Todd Emerson and Chris Parker, at the Q Theatre.

To win one of two double tickets email business@thehobson.co.nz with “Hudson & Halls” in the subject line by 5pm, Friday June 16. Winners will be selected at random, and you must be able to use the tickets during the Auckland season, which is between June 27 and July 9.

the hobson 4

BEYOND THE PEAK OF PERFORMANCE.

The Ultimate Driving Machine

THE NEW LIFESTYLE EDITION BMW X3 xDRIVE28i.

It’s the perfect combination of luxury, style and raw power that earns the new Lifestyle Edition BMW X3 xDrive28i its place in the BMW X Range. Get the ultimate driving experience from $97,500.

Plus for a limited time, enjoy $10,500 worth of additional premium features for no extra cost.* With limited availability, now’s the time to book a test drive at Continental Cars BMW .

$10,500

WORTH OF ADDITIONAL FEATURES FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY*

• COMFORT ACCESS SYSTEM • PANORAMA GLASS SUNROOF • BLIND SPOT WARNING • LANE DEPARTURE WARNING 20" M Light Alloy Wheels

Panorama Glass Sunroof

Head-Up Display

• HEAD-UP DISPLAY • SPEED LIMIT INFO • APPROACH CONTROL WARNING

Continental Cars BMW 445 Lake Road, Takapuna, North Shore. (09) 488 2000. www.continentalcarsbmw.com *Price excludes on-road costs. Includes 5 year warrant/roadside assist and 3 years’ service inclusive. Offer based on BMW X3 xDrive28i Lifestyle Edition. Lifestyle edition includes $10,500 worth of additional feature specification. Limited stock available. Not to be combined with any other offers. For full car specification see www.bmw.co.nz

W

issue 39, june 2017 Editor & Publisher Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz Art Direction & Production Stephen Penny design@thehobson.co.nz Advertising Sales Rex Pearce rex@thevalueexchange.co.nz 021 883 891 Writers Kirsty Cameron, Tommy Honey, Penny Lewis, Chantelle Murray, Wayne Thompson, Justine Williams, Fiona Wilson Sub-editor Fiona Wilson

e just so happen to have published two retrospective covers over two issues, first May, with our lovely black and white photo to celebrate Mother’s Day; and now, the Kodachrome fabulousness of TV chefs and Parnell residents, Peter Hudson & David Halls, circa 1977. We’re not trying to become a history-focused publication (Parnell Heritage does that really well with their annual Journal), and there is much that looks forward in this issue.

The simple explanation is that when we came to select the best image for a cover, once again a retro photo was the one that called to us as being the perfect choice. Watch out for next month’s edition though, where we’re off on a completely different tangent! That’s one of the best parts of being a local magazine — we have a broad swathe of content that both reflects this community and celebrates it. And, of course, we always hope that if a topic is interesting to us, it’s also interesting to you.

A long-time resident of Parnell, and more recently, Remuera, Bob McMillan died in May, after a brief illness. He is remembered not only for his automotive businesses and interests, but also for his philanthropy and many acts of under-the-radar kindness. We send our sincere condolences to the McMillan family.

Social Media Editor Jenni Mortimer Columnists & Contributors This Issue Sandy Burgham, Pippa Coom, Warren Couillault, Hamish Firth, Paul Goldsmith, Tommy Honey, Mike Lee, Māyā, Caitlin McKenna, David Seymour, Desley Simpson, Gail Woodward

Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz 0275 326 424 Facebook: The Hobson magazine Instagram: TheHobson

Photographer Stephen Penny Cover TV celebrity chefs Peter Hudson, left, and David Halls on the cover of their Hudson & Halls Cookbook, copyright Paul Hamlyn Ltd, 1977 See “The Play”, page 30 THE HOBSON is published 10 times a year by The Hobson Limited, PO Box 37490 Parnell, Auckland 1151. www.thehobson.co.nz F: TheHobsonMagazine I: @TheHobson Ideas, suggestions, advertising inquiries welcome. editor@thehobson.co.nz THE HOBSON is Remuera, Parnell and Ōrākei’s community magazine. We deliver into letterboxes in these neighbourhoods, and copies are also at local libraries, cafes, and at businesses including the Vicky Ave and White Heron dairies, and Paper Plus Parnell. For more about us, visit www.thehobson.co.nz or TheHobsonMagazine on Facebook.

The content of THE HOBSON is copyright. Our words, our pictures.

Don’t steal, and don’t borrow without checking with us first. We aim for accuracy but cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies that do occur. The views of our contributors are their own and not necessarily those of THE HOBSON. We don’t favour unsolicited contributions but do welcome you getting in touch via editor@thehobson.co.nz to discuss ideas.

The Hobson Ltd is a member of the Magazine Publishers Association This publication uses environmentally responsible papers

Content manager Jenni joined us recently to manage our social media — please do follow us on Facebook and Instagram — shortly before she held a very social event of her own. Last month, Jenni married her sweetheart, James, at the stunning location of Kauri Bay Boomrock, in Clevedon.

Congratulations, Mr and Mrs Mortimer! Photo by Danelle Bohane

ICG Logo CMYK.pdf 1 05/08/2015 6:19:01 AM

Distribution by

CONSTRUCTION IS UNDERWAY ON THESE LUXURIOUS REMUERA RESIDENCES. LIVING DEFINED BY LIGHT Benefiting from a 2.9m stud height, with floor to ceiling windows, these light filled architecturally designed residences enjoy quality fixtures and finishes usually seen in stand-alone architecturally-designed homes. The living areas are spacious, and large entertainers kitchen’s include high spec Miele appliances and butler’s pantries. Contemporary and sophisticated living at a prestigious address, in the heart of double Grammar Zone and an easy walk to Newmarket makes this Remuera’s most significant residential development in over a decade.

ONLY 9 RESIDENCES REMAIN THE MARK, TWO BEDROOM APARTMENTS FROM $1,881,000.

THE MAC,THREE BEDROOM APARTMENTS FROM $2,046,000.

VISIT OUR DISPLAY SUITE AT 1A MACMURRAY RD, REMUERA THURSDAY 5.00pm - 6.00pm | SAT/SUN 9.30am - 11.30am OR CALL FOR A PRIVATE APPOINTMENT Trent Quinton Karen Spires

021 894 070 027 273 8220

trent.quinton@bayleys.co.nz karen.spires@bayleys.co.nz

C O M P L E T I O N E A R L Y 2 018 10STMARKS.CO.NZ

Bayleys Real Estate Ltd, Remuera Licensed under the REAA 2008

The Columnists

Left to right from top row:

Sandy Burgham (The Second Act) is a brand strategist and an executive coach with a special interest in midlife change and transformational behaviours. She runs a central Auckland practice. www.playclc.com Precious Clark (The Kaitiaki) is a professional director who sits on several boards, and a young leader of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. A law graduate, she lives in Ōrākei. Her next column will appear in the July-August issue.

Remuera resident Warren Couillault (The Investment) is an executive director and the major shareholder of Hobson Wealth Partners (formerly Macquarie Private Wealth NZ), a private wealth advisory group.

He is a shareholder and director of Generate Investment Management Ltd; and manager of a registered Kiwisaver scheme.

Andrew Dickens (The Sound) is the host of Andrew Dickens’ Sunday Cafe on Sunday morning, from 9am, on Newstalk ZB. He is also the music reviewer on Jack Tame’s Saturday morning show on Newstalk ZB. He grew up in Remuera.

Hamish Firth (The Plan) lives and works in Parnell and is principal of the Mt Hobson Group, a specialist urban planning consultancy. www.mthobsonproperties.co.nz Urban design critic Tommy Honey (The Suburbanist) is a former architect. The Remuera resident is a regular guest on RNZ National, discussing the built environment.

Caitlin McKenna (The Cinema) of Remuera is passionate about the cinema — she majored in film, sociology and marketing for her conjoint BCom/BA. She works in film.

Judi Paape (The Teacher) is a parent, grandparent and highly-experienced teacher and junior school principal.

A Parnell resident, her column appears bi-monthly.

Justine Williams (The Magpie, The Pretty) is an interiors stylist, writer and fashion editor. The Remuera resident has been the editor of Simply You and Simply You Living.

Gail Woodward (The Bookmark) of Meadowbank is the senior book buyer for Paper Plus Newmarket.

She belongs to, and advises on selections for, a number of book clubs.

the hobson 8

“At Auckland Obstetric Centre we understand that pregnancy and childbirth is the most important time of your life and that you and baby should have the highest standard of care.”

– Jane Patten, Clinic Manager

Auckland Obstetric Centre is a unique practice in Parnell made up of six leading specialist obstetricians and support staff. Together we have many years of experience and feel privileged to be able to share in the care of women during their pregnancy.

To find out more about how we can care for you and your baby call our team on 09 3671200 or visit our website www.obstetrics.co.nz.

Lynda Batcheler | Astrid Budden | Eva Hochstein | Katherine McKenzie | Kirstie Peake | Martin Sowter

the village

Anton Lush and daughter Erika tend to their salt marsh test plantings on Hobson Bay

Town & Around A SALT MARSH DREAM Anton Lush can’t wait for the day when THE HOBSON reports shoals of whitebait are swimming their way up the clear streams beside Hobson Bay’s reserves.

Working towards that newsworthy return of a fish not recorded locally for 75 years, the advocate for a turnaround in the ecology of the bay is testing a key weapon: eight varieties of salt marsh plants.

He grows them in boxes set into a small shell bank which he has formed on the edge of Hobson Bay, across Shore Rd from the Martyn Wilson Field, near Palmers.

In a dry spell, he can be seen, bucket in hand, sloshing water over his beloved infant plants — an “extra wash”, he calls it.

So far, they are thriving and he hopes they will show there are viable and attractive companion plants for the bay’s existing fields of mangroves.

A geotechnical engineer and Remuera local who grew up enjoying adventures in Hobson Bay, Lush started the salt marsh ecosystem trial with the help of a $5240 community project grant from the Ōrākei Local Board.

It is a compensatory gesture to the bay’s ecology, because the Board plans to remove some of the expanding field of mangroves within Hobson Bay. Lush points to a picture of a restored salt marsh at the Tawharanui Regional Park, near Matakana, with a carpet formed by an array of vibrantly coloured rushes, succulents, daisies, herbs and sedges. It is a nursery for fish, and a breeding and feeding area for birds.

“This says it all,” he says. “It’s a healthy estuary of silt, sand and mud and birds and fish. It’s how things can happen, if people talk together.”

He says the spread of mangroves inside the railway embankment in Hobson Bay and their smothering of little beaches, is boosted by the build-up of mud resulting from stormwater runoff and weaker tidal flushing. But they can only advance so far, to a water depth where they are not submerged all day. This leaves an opening for salt water marsh plants to share the bay, with a little help. Lush believes they once thrived in Martyn Wilson Field and Portland Rd reserve, before urbanisation brought the mud.

The rugged plants need a gravelly sub-base and oxygen and given such conditions, will grow a long way into the bay, with different varieties doing best according to their tolerance of varying amounts of salt and fresh water, and exposure to the air.

This results in a transition of varieties — and colours, textures and shapes — from beyond the mangrove line towards the native shrubs and trees on dry land.

This would require forming little sand banks, which would look like coral atolls at high tide, wide enough to host vegetation

the hobson 10

and birds. If the present trial is successful, it could lead to a further bid for approval to form such a bank, perhaps with concrete rubble from a demolition site or crushed mussel shell from a factory waste pile, topped with coarse, gritty sand and finer sand.

A later stage, suggests Anton Lush, could create a Martyn Wilson Field marsh — a vegetated place in clean fresh water where inanga [one of the native fish species that make up a shoal of whitebait] like to lay their eggs. “It would be quite exciting if you have a whitebait run. And when you get a godwit flying in to the marsh . . . I last saw them 30 years ago below Tohunga Crescent.” Ōrākei Local Board member Kit Parkinson says he wholeheartedly supported the plant testing by Lush, and believes it will show that recreating a salt marsh on the foreshore is feasible and desirable. “We are treading lightly but I think it’s the right thing to do,” he says. “It makes you feel good to think how nice it will look like in 10 years.” Any further stages to create small islands would require separate Board approval and resource consent.

Parkinson says half of the younger mangroves in most areas of the bay would be removed next summer. Fellow board member Troy Churton says the board chose a degree of mangrove removal after considering a lot of advice. “My recollection was that removing some of the mangroves would enable better flushing and diversity in this area.” — Wayne Thompson p For information on salt marsh plants see wetlandtrust.org.nz

WALKWAY BOGGED AGAIN Residents’ and visitors’ frustration with rough and muddy footing on the Parnell coastal section of the Hobson Bay Walkway has hit a new low this winter.

The path and track, part of which floods up to knee-depth at high tides, was left in a parlous state by two major cliff slips and several small ones after recent storms.

A slip on the cliff-face near Elam St sprawled over part of the unpaved shoreline walkway between Tohunga Cres and the wooden boardwalk leading to Bloodworth Park. Though Council cleared fallen tree branches and tonnes of clay off the track, it soon turned into a boggy obstacle for track users to pick their way through, balancing on loose bricks.

A detour from via the public access steps which link Elam St and the walkway is unavailable. The wooden stairway was closed three years ago, the sign saying it was “under repair” long-since disappearing.

Adding to the challenges of the many users, Council has closed the tidal track which skirts the bottom of the cliff from the Awatea Reserve and properties on Crescent Rd and St Stephens Ave, ending at an impasse before Pt Resolution, near the Parnell Baths.

In response to inquiries from Waitematā Local Board chair Pippa Coom, Council representatives says the autumn storms left it trying to deal with a hundred substantial slips across Auckland.

“Staff have been working diligently to ensure that each of these are addressed as quickly as possible,” Council said in a statement. “Staff have been on site and the area is now closed while we investigate remedial actions to resolve the slip and allow safe access.”

The northern section’s poor condition is blamed on significant

the village

slips on the cliff-face which have wrecked retaining walls and blocked the track, and erosion from the sea has left uneven and slippery surfaces.

In 2015, Waitematā Local Board adopted a plan to build either a boardwalk around the base of the cliff to link with the Pt Resolution footbridge, or a series of stairs and platforms scaling the cliff-face to Pt Resolution reserve.

However, Pippa Coom says investigations show that the staircase would be hugely expensive and difficult to construct.

“We’ve asked officers to look at other options for ‘completing’ the walkway, for example, better signage about where to exit the walkway to access Pt Resolution.”

Officers say the northern connection project is not in the budget programme but is being considered in new development with the walkway and at Pt Resolution.

As for reopening the Elam St steps down to the shore, Coom says officers explained it has taken a long time because the steps are on private land, and the Council needs to provide for and protect the public interest in its investment decisions.

“Council is working on a way forward to renew the steps on public land, and endeavours to commence works next financial year.” — Wayne Thompson p

NOTHING WET ABOUT ENTERPRISING STUDENTS An enterprising group of Saint Kentigern College students have turned “a boring chore” into a cash-for-good operation.

WaterWorks, the idea of Year 13 student William Reynolds (pictured on the left) and his friend Jackson Cleave (right), Year 12, sends trained students to your place to wash your car. The money raised goes to supporting the children’s charity, KidsCan. “By paying us to do something you find annoying, we save you time,” says Reynolds. “You have peace of mind in our guarantee that it will be quality. And you help us help kids in need.”

Reynolds and Cleave first met on the school bus. “We both love sport and music, but our big passion is for business and doing something good with it on a big scale.” After research and the development of a business plan, fellow student and friend Aiden Bhei was brought in for his web design skills, and

WaterWorks bubbled to life.

They also know they’re off to a better start in life than many Kiwi kids. “We realise our extraordinary luck being born into families that can afford to send us to an institution like Saint Kentigern College, and how different it is for the 295,000 Kiwi kids living below the poverty line,” says Reynolds.

“Our goal this year is to make profits worth over $20,000 to donate to KidsCan. When we reach that goal, we will have been able to provide a rain coat, pair of shoes and socks and [school] food for the entire year, to over 100 children.”

WaterWorks is part of the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme, a business competition for Y12 and 13 students.

WaterWorks operates in Parnell and Remuera and around the eastern suburbs, with more areas being added as students are trained up (110 students attended WaterWorks training during the recent school holidays). All the car owner needs to provide is a water source, and preferably a hose. All bookings are done online: visit www.waterworks.space or Facebook: Waterworks NZ Car Clean p

POST PLAN SUSPENSE Local residents’ concerns about future development of the former Queen Victoria School for Maori Girls site in the heart of Parnell remain strong, more than a year after they challenged a bid to upzone the site to allow building up to six storeys.

The 2ha site is on Glanville Tce, bordered by Papahia St.

Customers are at the heart of everything we do We go the extra mile to ensure our customers are happy.

We also target the right buyer – not just the first buyer working hard to get the best result every time.

We care about what our clients think and experience and are committed to delivering the best possible real estate experience.

Phone Libby today in confidence if you are considering your next move or are wanting to know about values in your neighbourhood.

Trust Credibility Professionalism = Results

Libby Greenwood M: 021 937 470 E: libby.greenwood@bayleys.co.nz

Bayleys Real Estate Limited, Licensed under the REA Act 2008

Special pricing on selected Cavalier Bremworth Solution Dyed Nylon Carpets valid until end June 2017

John Kasper Carpets 122 Upland Road Remuera 09 524 6140 Artisan Collective 31a Normanby Road Mt Eden 09 302 2499

the village

Initially, the Anglican Church-related trust administering the site applied to use the Unitary Plan hearings process to upzone to a Mixed Housing Urban classification. However, the Independent Hearings Panel recommended a less intensive Mixed Housing Suburban zone, which allows up to two storeys and a softer profile to the surrounding area of single houses.

The St Stephen’s and Queen Victoria Schools’ Trust Board declined to comment on its next move as a result of the hearing.

Comment was forthcoming, however, on a further issue for residents arising from the Unitary Plan process — the application by Masfen Holdings to upzone land at 69 and 79 St Georges Bay Rd for future buildings. The site is currently home to the La Cigale markets and other businesses. Masfen director Rolf Masfen told THE HOBSON: “There are no immediate plans to redevelop. We are a long-term investor and are working away at improving the offering to make it more appealing to the local community.”

This includes “tidying up” the corner at No 79, with a new health hub, to be joined by two more tenants. Additionally, the New Zealand Opera has moved its creative and administration teams to 69E St Georges Bay Rd. — Wayne Thompson p

VENICE IN THE FRAME The Venice Art Biennale has opened, with artist Lisa Reihana’s multi-media work, Emissaries, New Zealand’s official selection for showing at the festival. The biannual event attracts half a million visitors over five months. Other Kiwi artists are also in attendance, and one of them is a familiar face to many locals.

Kāryn Taylor supports her art practice with work at framing gallery Frame by Frame, 27 Remuera Rd. Twice a finalist in the Wallace Art Awards, Taylor thought her Biennale application was a longshot after her Auckland gallery, Sanderson Contemporary, nominated her work for inclusion into an exhibition with the theme of “Time, Space, Existence”.

“I felt both shocked and excited that they had actually accepted me. That was followed by panic at the prospect of pulling together quite a lot of funding to make it a reality,” says Taylor, pictured in Venice, with part of her installation. “Luckily

the Jan Warburton Trust was excited to back me, along with Sanderson Contemporary selling fundraiser works with no commission, and some private backers.”

Taylor’s work on show in Venice, Field Notations, attempts to “structure space with new geometries. I’m interested in how geometric objects might describe reality”. The installation is of three structures, consisting of leaning rods of wood, bent PVC, painted lines and projections of light, that slowly move and change in shape. The multi-dimensional structures change perspective as the viewer walks around them.

“I’d say it was a way of thinking about our physical experience from the point of quantum physics,” says Taylor.

The Biennale is Taylor’s first visit to Italy. “I’ve found Venice to be such a visual feast . . . the Biennale seems to consume the city, with so much happening in relation to it – everywhere you turn there’s another exhibition to see. It will require some stamina to get around it all!”

Taylor will be returning to Auckland and her work at Frame

by Frame, after a post-Venice trip to Athens, where she is part of the Art Athina Contemporary Art Fair.

Kāryn Taylor is represented by Sanderson Contemporary, Osborne Lane, Newmarket. sanderson.co.nz p

Meet Angus, a local and the face of Rawhiti Estate.

Our information office is at 10 Rangitoto Ave for the latest updates on the village.

Call Angus on 09 522 7001 for an appt and he’ll put the kettle on.

Free information pack at www.rawhitiestate.co.nz The Hobson Third Advert - April 17.indd 1

4/04/17 9:54 am

the future of your local area

Local boards across the region are developing their local board plans for 2017, which set out the projects and outcomes they are proposing to focus on over the next three years.

Waitematā and Ōrākei local boards want to hear your views on their draft plans.

Have your say by 4pm on Friday 30 June For more information and to provide feedback visit shapeauckland.co.nz or your local public library, service centre or local board office from 22 May.

It’s easy to get involved and have your say.

Just go online to shapeauckland.co.nz to read the draft plans and provide your feedback by 30 June 2017.

You can also find details of local meetings where you can have your say in person on shapeauckland.co.nz.

PRO2005_TH

Help shape

ōrĀkei local board

COLIN DAVIS

T

he Ōrākei Local Board recently approved its strategic Local Board Plan to go out for community consultation this month. This draft, aspirational Plan, outlines how the Board will direct its resources, activities and advocacy for the next three years. It proposes five “outcomes”, based on previous feedback and ideas from our communities: local parks and open spaces; community facilities and public places; moving around our area; the natural environment; and a thriving economy. There are initiatives for each out-come within the Plan.

Over the last six years, residents’ feedback has been very clear about the outcomes and priorities for the Ōrākei Local Board area. These were incorporated in the two previous three-year plans and the Board has been able to achieve the majority. Our intention is to refresh the Plan, building on the work of the last six years and delivering further benefits for all our communities.

We want to do what we can to improve our area, while knowing that resources aren’t limitless. This means making the most of what we already have and working with others. The draft Plan has greater emphasis than ever on involving community groups and individuals in delivering programmes and initiatives. We are interested in forging partnerships with external agencies to deliver new capital projects which will benefit our communities, at less cost to ratepayers.

For the last six years there has been huge impetus in upgrading our sports parks; we now have some of the best playing fields and facilities in Auckland. These upgrades will continue, as well as improvements to some of our smaller open spaces. We also propose to shift our focus to further enhancing our natural environment. We will continue to support environmental and interest groups.

Volunteers are central to eradicating pests and weeds, restoring streamside banks and enhancing natural areas; streams and coastal areas are important to the amenity of an area and ecology that people value and enjoy.

At the same time we intend to complete some major projects. Some of the key initiatives will involve investigations and developing plans. It is important to note however, that funding for projects by Council’s Governing Body is not a foregone conclusion. To deliver a successful Plan, we need to focus our limited resources on what matters most to our communities and what we can influence. Given that “community” is at the heart of everything the Board does, it is important the Plan reflects our communities’ priorities and preferences. There will be various ways in which residents will have the opportunity to provide feedback, including three “Have Your Say” events during June, where residents will be able to give feedback in person.

We would like to know whether you share our vision for the area and welcome your views and ideas.

— Colin Davis, chair, Ōrākei Local Board

RAINS AT HEDGEROW

New styles for 2017 in store now

09 524 0843

PAUL GOLDSMITH

NATIONAL LIST MP BASED IN EPSOM A

107 Great South Road, Greenlane PO Box 26 153 Epsom, Auckland 1344

P

09 524 4930

E

paul.goldsmith@parliament.govt.nz

W

www.paulgoldsmith.co.nz facebook.com/PaulGoldsmithNZ

Funded by Parliamentary Service and authorised by Paul Goldsmith 107 Great South Rd Auckland

waitematĀ local board

Information sessions and Have Your Say events: Come along to find out more about local board plans, ask questions and give feedback: • Central City Library – Wednesday 31 May, 10am-noon • Grey Lynn Library – Thursday 8 June, 10am – noon • Leys Institute Library – Thursday 22 June, 10am - noon The more formal Have Your Say events include opportunities to present to the board. Thursday 1 June, 6-8pm, Waitematā Local Board office, 52 Swanson St, and Wednesday 7 June, 6-8pm, Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Rd We look forward to hearing from you.

We Could Save You Thousands Looking for a fairer price from a full service real estate professional?

1.95%

after $390,000

SO LD LD SO

SO LD

2.95% to $390,000 + gst & admin

LD

T

he much anticipated opening of Parnell Train Station in March signalled the beginning of a significant transformation in the Waipapa valley, which has been many decades in the making. As train services increase we can look forward to improved connections to the Auckland Museum, The Domain, and Parnell Village; a Board-funded path from the station through to Carlaw Park; the old Parnell tunnel opened up as a greenways connection through to Newmarket; the establishment of a heritage and tourist precinct in the refurbished train station building, and the ongoing regeneration of Waipapa Stream by volunteers and Council.

The station area development and vision for the valley as a whole, is an example of the kind of projects that the Waitematā Local Board looks to include in our three year plan. All local boards finalise a plan to set local priorities and determine what initiatives are funded, they then seek public input to ensure the plans reflect community aspirations. A public consultation process on draft plans began late last month, and ends June 30.

The draft Waitematā Local Board Plan 2017 presents a vision for the next three years and a series of projects that, with community support, we would like to progress in order to enhance our area. For example, over the next three years in the Hobson area, we propose to continue our care for Waipapa Stream and extend that onto Newmarket Stream, another waterway in need of ecological restoration.

We will be looking to ensure there is budget to implement The Domain Masterplan including improved pathways; empower the community to support community-led initiatives such as “Tomorrow Parnell” and work with Auckland Transport, Council and developers, to better integrate new developments with streetscape upgrades, such as the area around lower St Georges Bay Rd. There are a variety of ways to have your say on the draft Waitematā Local Board Plan; online, in person, by post, by email, via social media or at an event. A summary document and feedback form will be delivered to every household.

Experienced licensed agent and territory owner Karen Moore talks property matters for Mike Pero Real Estate.

SO

PIPPA COOM

Property Talk

Outstanding service and stunning results don’t have to cost the earth when you use Mike Pero’s – Team Moore. Local knowledge, skilled marketing prowess and sophisticated selling systems are why the Mike Pero brand is one of the fastest growing in the country. Talk to Team Moore or call in and see us at 279 Remuera Road, you will love the results!

Thinking of selling? Contact Karen at Team Moore for a no obligation in-depth market review & value appraisal.

Karen Moore – Licensed Agent & Territory Owner

Mike Pero Annual Awards 2016 1st - Team Marketing Campaign Remuera

If you a in the v the Mik

Mike Pero R

All opinions expressed by Karen Moore in this article are solely Karen’s opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Mike Pero Real Estate. You should consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser.

team.moore@mikepero.com • 027 279 5983 279 Remuera Road • 09 524 4393 www.remuera.mikepero.com facebook.com/sellmoorehouses

— Pippa Coom, chair, Waitematā Local Board www.facebook.com/waitemata Mike Pero Real Estate Ltd Licensed REAA (2008)

the councillors

DESLEY SIMPSON

T

hank you to all those who submitted on Auckland Council’s Annual Plan. It’s important for elected members to listen to their communities and then advocate, vote and do their very best to deliver on that feedback. The Annual Plan is a legislative process that Auckland Council must consult on. It has two main components. We request feedback from residents and ratepayers on the regional mayoral initiatives for the year, and secondly, on whether local boards have their key priorities and advocacy in line with community views.

Every household was sent a copy of the Plan submission form in the March edition of Our Auckland. In addition to this, Auckland Council facilitated 70 events around the region, where Aucklanders could “have their say”. The Ōrākei ward is fortunate to have a residents’ association representing each of its 10 suburbs, and I asked each association if they wished me to speak to their members on the key regional proposals, and I took up the invitations to do so.

This year, we consulted on more than just the level of rates — we also asked for your views on the relative level of business rates, paying for tourism promotion, housing infrastructure and paying Auckland Council staff a living wage. So, what were the results, and were the views within the Ōrākei ward shared by those living in other parts of Auckland?

Rates increase Respondents had five options: that the 2.5% increase was about right; that Council should do more/have a higher increase; do less/have a lower increase; not sure; other 54% of Ōrākei submitters thought that a 2.5% rates increase was the right level. 18% thought the rates should be raised by 3.5%.

Those that thought it should be higher preferred that additional funds be spent on transport. 27% thought the rates should be raised by no more than 2%.

Regionally, 56% supported a 2.5% rates increase. 16% supported higher rates, again with transport being the focus for extra spending.

Rating stability There were three options to answer: Agree; Disagree; Not Sure 72% thought that business and residential ratepayers should have the same increase. Regionally, 65% supported business and residential ratepayers having the same increase.

Paying for tourism promotion Three options: Agree; Disagree; Not Sure 72% thought we should raise a targeted rate on the accommodation sector to pay for tourism promotion. Regionally, 65% supported the proposal.

Paying for housing infrastructure Three options: Agree; Disagree; Not Sure 75% agreed with the initiative for housing developments to include a targeted rate to pay for infrastructure costs incurred by that development. Regionally, 66% agreed with the initiative.

Living wage Submitters had three options: Agree; Disagree; Not Sure 61% of Ōrākei submitters agreed that Auckland Council should pay a living wage to its employees. Regionally, 71% supported the implementation of a living wage policy.

Of course, there is still much work to be done before the Annual Budget can finally be adopted, so the next few weeks are packed with meetings for Councillors and the Mayor before final decision making on June 29. Whilst my personal view does not always match the feedback, I did stand on an election platform of listening to locals. The results speak for themselves, and those who took the time to give feedback, should, in my opinion, be given the respect of being listened to.

On another matter, the Tamaki Drive-Ngapipi Rd safety improvement project has a revised start to mid-year (no actual date yet). The first task will involve the widening of the seawall.

Desley Simpson is the Councillor for Auckland representing the Ōrākei ward. desley.simpson@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

FABRIC OF ONEHUNGA FABRIC of ONEHUNGA is a new pocket neighbourhood where considered apartment living meets shared green spaces in one of Auckland’s oldest and most loved urban villages.

VISIT OUR FULL TWO BEDROOM DISPLAY APARTMENT Open 7 Days 11AM—3PM 11 Spring Street, Onehunga 0800 258 358 fabricofonehunga.co.nz

1 BEDROOM, 1 BATHROOM FROM $575,000 2 BEDROOMS, 1 BATHROOM FROM $690,000 2 BEDROOMS, 2 BATHROOMS FROM $735,000 (Apartment prices include carparking)

MIKE LEE

H

istorian Barbara Tuchman’s acclaimed The March of Folly – From Troy to Vietnam, published in 1985, was about “the pervasive presence, through the ages, of failure, mismanagement, and delusion in government — contrary to its own self-interest”.

I think about Tuchman’s book whenever the question of rail to Auckland Airport comes up. There could no clearer example of Tuchman’s thesis than the boards of Auckland Transport (AT) and the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), and now, Mayor Phil Goff, marching in lockstep to rule out the possibility of trains to the airport. And, it’s not just words. Over the Christmas holidays, AT demolished Onehunga’s Nielson St overbridge, rebuilding the road at ground level, thereby physically blocking the rail corridor to the airport.

Deliberately sabotaging the rail corridor to Auckland International Airport is one of the most irresponsible acts I have witnessed during my time in local government.

Auckland International Airport is of critical economic importance to Auckland and to New Zealand – the gateway to the country. Despite hundreds of millions spent on road construction, congestion on the route to the city is already back to where it was 10 years ago, chronic at peak times, periodically at gridlock. With airport passenger movements currently at 17 million per year, and predicted to increase to 20 million by 2020 and 40 million in 2044, this congestion can only get worse.

In September 2011, in a process initiated by the former Auckland Regional Council, a multi-agency study involved Auckland Council, AT, NZTA, KiwiRail and Auckland International Airport Ltd, with consultants GHD. After examining the options of a busway, light rail (trams) and heavy rail (electric trains), it was concluded that a heavy rail loop to the airport from Onehunga (10km) and Puhinui (6.8km) would be the “most economically efficient” solution — providing a fast,

single-seat journey from the airport to downtown Auckland (including CRL stations), and all points on the Auckland rail network, and ultimately, Hamilton. After consultation, in 2012 this became a commitment in Council’s Auckland Plan: “route protect a dedicated rail connection in the first decade (20112020); construct in the second decade (2021-2030)”.

Despite this, in June 2016, AT and NZTA decided to exclude trains from consideration; reducing the choice to buses (preferred by the government) and trams (preferred by AT and Phil Goff). Not surprisingly, having got trains out of the way, the government has decided trams can wait until 2047. In the meantime, airport travellers will have to make do with buses.

In suggesting the airport’s growing transport problems can be solved with more buses, the government and AT bureaucrats have apparently forgotten their own Centre City Future Access Study of 2012, the modelling in which revealed that inner Auckland streets will be so congested with buses by 2021 that average road speeds will be down to 7kph. Now they are proposing to add platoons of airport buses to the city in 2024.

What confidence can Aucklanders have in these peoples’ advice?

Melbourne is one major Australian city that does not yet have airport rail but it does have the most extensive light rail system in the world. Unlike Auckland however, the Victorian government is not planning on light rail for Melbourne Airport, but heavy rail. This on the grounds that trains provide a faster, more predictable journey-time, and carry a lot more people and luggage than street-running trams.

Barbara Tuchman gave some rules on how policy decisions qualify as a “March of Folly”. First, the policy must be contrary to self-interest [check]; secondly, a feasible alternative policy must be available [check]; and finally, the policy must be that of a group (not an individual/mad ruler) [check].

The feasible alternative option of connecting the airport by rail to the electrified main trunk line at Puhinui, 6.8 km away, must be carried out urgently before that option too is sabotaged.

Mike Lee is the Councillor for Auckland representing the Waitematā and Gulf ward

FREE COSMETIC CONSULTATION until May 31st 2017

Dr Maron Clague - BDS Otago

Our services include: • • • • •

Dr John McCabe - BDS Otago Dr Carin Burger - BDS Your Auckland Dentists for General, Cosmetic and Family Dentistry

SAME DAY EMERGENCY TREATMENT

Smile enhancement Tooth whitening Invisalign Dental hygiene General Dentistry

Contact our team at 09 524 8834, or email info@onehealthdental.co.nz Address: 122 Remuera Road, Remuera Free parking, lift access and cafe

OPEN 6 DAYS A WEEK

WWW.ONEHEALTHDENTAL.CO.NZ

the reps

DAVID SEYMOUR

PAUL GOLDSMITH

F

or a host of reasons successive governments in New Zealand, over the decades, have under-invested in infrastructure – roads, other forms of transport, schools, pipes etc. And, after a long period of strong growth, particularly in Auckland, we’re all feeling the effects of it.

Major road and rail projects take years, and in the building of them, they make congestion worse, as we’re seeing currently on the trip to the airport, in the CBD and on the Southern Motorway.

This National government has, from the start, been an infrastructure government. We’ve invested heavily to catch up. In our area we’ve seen the Victoria Park Tunnel, the Newmarket viaduct replacement, the Waterview Tunnel which is almost completed, as well as the electrification of trains, and building projects at just about every school.

In the 2017 Budget we’re lifting our investment to an entirely new level, announcing $11 billion of new capital infrastructure to be allocated over the next four Budgets.

This new investment will extend our run-rate significantly, and includes new investment in the justice and defence sectors. It represents the biggest addition to our capital stock in decades. It will hasten projects such as the East-West Link, which will better connect Auckland’s eastern suburbs with the airport.

To put the new $11 billion investment into context, the net new capital allocated in the last four Budgets was $4.8 billion, of which $4.1 billion was funded through the proceeds of the mixed ownership model programme (selling 49 per cent of some state-owned electricity companies).

In Budget 2016, we were forecasting just $3.6 billion in new capital spend between Budget 2017 and Budget 2020, compared to $11 billion now. And that $11 billion is on top of investments already planned, such as our share of the CBD rail loop.

These are colossal figures. We can only do this because we have the government’s day-to-day spending under control, in surplus, with a plan to reduce debt as a percentage of GDP. Good management of the government’s books gives us options.

We want to leverage that $11 billion further, with greater use of public-private partnerships, and joint ventures between central and local government and private investors.

As a country we are now growing a bit like south-east Queensland or Sydney, when in the past we grew in fits and starts. That’s great because we used to send our kids to Queensland and Sydney to work, and now they come back here.

We just need to invest in the infrastructure required to maintain that growth. Budget 2017 will show we are committed to doing just that.

Paul Goldsmith holds three ministerial portfolios, including Tertiary Education, and Science and Innovation.

He is a list MP based in Epsom.

I

’m privileged to represent not just the Epsom electorate, but also a political party that can take a principled stand on issues that affect Epsom residents – such as tax.

ACT believes that government money is your money. You earned it, after all. So when the Government takes more than it needs, it should give that surplus back.

Over the next four years the Government will have surpluses totalling 15 or $20 billion. The opposition parties want to spend this money. National may tinker with tax brackets, but their track record shows they’ll also spend most of the surplus.

Already, taxpayers have been forced to fund golf contests, yacht races, research into the Southland accent, and countless subsidies to some of our biggest companies.

So tax cuts are not a priority for National. The only time they’ve delivered tax cuts was when the Government included a strong ACT. ACT is, unfortunately, New Zealand’s only low-tax party.

With more MPs, ACT will make the Government fund significant personal and company tax cuts, using a combination of expected surpluses and cuts to wasteful spending.

Our policy is to cut tax rates at all income levels, with the biggest cuts going to the people who are currently taxed the hardest. We’ll cut the bottom two rates of 10.5 per cent and 17.5 per cent to 10 per cent and 15 per cent. For income over $48,000 and over $70,000, which is currently taxed at 30 and 33 per cent, we’ll cut both rates down to 25 per cent.

In other words, we’ll scrap the top tax bracket, ensure no-one pays more than 25 per cent, and give tax cuts to lower-earners too.

Someone on an average salary (around $60,000) would keep an extra $1500 of their money per year. Someone earning $100,000 would save $4400. Ultimately, this is more money in the pockets of Kiwis to invest in businesses, their families, their communities, and themselves.

Once we’ve cut income taxes, we’ll also set the brackets to automatically adjust for inflation, meaning inflation doesn’t keep pushing earners up into higher brackets.

ACT will also cut the tax rate for companies, from 28 per cent down to 25 per cent (the same as our top personal tax rate). Reducing the tax burden on companies will enable them to grow, take on new staff, and pay higher wages.

Plus, it’s a far fairer way of supporting business than the expensive grants and subsidies National currently hands out to politically trendy firms. ACT would achieve all of these tax cuts without touching core services like education, health, police, or justice.

And we don’t need to become a major party to make this happen. With just a handful of MPs, we could offer National a majority in Parliament. In exchange for offering this majority, we will expect serious wins for the taxpayer.

So bring on the election.

David Seymour is the MP for Epsom.

Stunningly curated outdoor furniture from Italy, Belgium, Indonesia, France and the Philippines, available for local and national delivery. Everything arrives fully assembled.

SunbrellaÂŽ cushions are free with the purchase of our deep seating pieces as shown.

Mykonos White Collection ÂŽ

Sunbrella Cushions Included In Price As Shown

www.designwarehouse.co.nz

09 377 7710

137/147 The Strand, Parnell/Auckland

Toll Free - 0800 111 112

sales@designwarehouse.co.nz

Wholesalers Open Direct To The Public Daily 9:30 - 4:30

the plan

Hail the CAB!

A

daptive reuse” is fancy planning-speak for the reuse of My consultancy has been lucky enough to have been tasked with an old site or building for a purpose other than which securing the necessary resource consents. We are very pleased that it was built or designed for. And that is exactly what is we have now got Stage One approved, and that the Council have happening to the Civic Administration Building, the former home been fantastic to work with through what is a delicate, and at times of Auckland City Council, beside Aotea Square at 1 Greys Ave. It challenging, process. Having to retain the old but bring in the new is being transformed from offices to a mixed use development requires a mindset that allows for debate and discussion, with the encompassing residential, retail and food, a new hotel and offices. amalgam of ideas finding the best result. In short, meetings aplenty.

Developers often get criticised for swinging the sledgehammer Stage One directly addresses the restoration, alteration and and demolishing what many see as “heritage” buildings. As conversion of the CAB to a residential building. It is great to planners, we enjoy the challenge when a client tells us they want finally get to this point after significant and comprehensive preto keep and work with existing, application discussions with often dilapidated, buildings.

Council, Heritage NZ and the The old Council building on Auckland Urban Design Panel.

Greys Ave is synonymous with The level of consultation “city hall”, a place to pay your and conversation that goes on rates, parking tickets and to around the development of watch the wheels of bureaucracy this notable building is so great turn at various speeds. It is also because of its rich history. Some synonymous with modernist of the construction methods architecture, and as such has were so technically advanced a level of heritage protection that Donner and the structural afforded by both the present-day engineer, Vern Coleman, Council and Heritage NZ. After went to North America and construction was completed on Europe to research buildings this building in 1966, the Civic and construction sites using Administration Building— the the proposed methods. Steel CAB — was New Zealand’s first had to be imported, welders skyscraper. It was designed were specifically trained, and by a Hungarian immigrant, Donner himself ground down Tibor Donner, Chief Architect old whiskey bottles to add to the of Auckland City Council from decorative aggregate. The CAB is 1946 to 1967 (Donner was also truly a testament to early New responsible for modernist icons Zealand modernism. the Parnell Baths and the city’s Robin Skinner, senior lecturer Ellen Melville Hall). Donner’s for the School of Architecture CAB used the most innovative at Victoria University, has said building techniques of its time. of the CAB that “the desire I can recall as a young planner for modernism did not spring going up to Level 17, where the from a desire for a better world; Council cafeteria was laid out in rather, it represents a desire to all its glory. One could have tea belong to a better world”.

The CAB under construction in 1965; and the proposed Civic Quarter, with the hotel by the pot and a Sally Lunn on In more recent times, the CAB and commercial spaces designed by Jasmax. Images courtesy Buildmedia and Jasmax the side. Coffee was instant, with came to be disliked by some. scalding hot water on tap. And The somewhat totalitarian and there was the smoking section, separated from the rest by a low repetitive facades could be considered dull, and its lonely location picket fence. Everything happened in slow motion and there were in the back of Aotea Square didn’t inspire many to go near it. staff for Africa. The good old days!

It’s possible since the announcement of its redevelopment that Love and Co, being John and Josie Love, local residents of the CAB has found a soft spot in many hearts — perhaps this is to Remuera, won the tender to purchase the iconic CAB and the do with the development and restoration being funded privately (it 5000m2 surrounding land parcel in September 2016. Since then, won’t cost any ratepayer money). they have lived and breathed the planning for the redevelopment, This project is no small undertaking, with three new buildings and the proposed plans are spectacular. Both of them have a alongside Donner’s tower — the precinct is expected to be passion for development, heritage and interior design. They have completed in 2020. Next time you’re in Aotea Square, go and worked closely with multiple departments of Council and Heritage have a look at the plan model located on the ground floor, right NZ to ensure that the overall concept will not only enliven its part beside where you use to pay your rates. This will be an iconic of town, but bring a wide range of uses, and ultimately people, to a development upon completion. — Hamish Firth building which has been vacant for more than 18 months since the See Robin Skinner’s guide to Tibor Donner’s public buildings on Council moved out. architecture-archive.auckland.ac.nz

the hobson 22

the investment

The Negative Investment View

Y

ou’ll often hear, or read about, “volatility” or “implied volatility”. Implied volatility is a well-followed measure of expected price change for a security, or a group of securities. Although there are very specific technical means for calculating the metric, I simplify it in my mind and think of implied volatility as the amount of risk, or potential movement in the price of a security or securities, that investors expect to occur over the contemplated time period. Periods of bullishness, or positive outlook, are typically categorised by low implied volatility. Periods of negative outlook — bearish periods — tend to have elevated levels of implied volatility.

Since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and especially over the past three years, implied volatility has been very low overall, and there have been only short-lived periods of increased volatility (e.g. Grexit speculation). This persistent low implied volatility indicates to me that markets generally believe the risks of a significant downturn in equities and bond markets is low, maybe even non-existent. This of course does not mean that the actual risks investors face are low, just that markets are pricing-in, through investor behaviour, a low-risk outlook. And low-risk typically means high prices.

Currently, implied volatility (as measured by the VIX index) is really, really low, at a level that has only been experienced once in every 500 days (on average) since 1990, and is well below its longterm average. Reasons for this, I think, are understandable and include: very low interest rates led by the US Federal Reserve’s accommodative and expansionary monetary policies, quantative easing etc. Two trillion dollars of share buybacks undertaken by 94 per cent of S&P500 companies since 2012 — wow! A flocking mindset, as the abovementioned, historically-low fixed interest rates have driven investors to take on more risk, and hunt for return/yield.

So these factors, coupled with low but stable economic growth, have temporarily gorged investors’ desire for economic stability and, in turn, lifted market confidence. But we must consider that these nice times might be something of a temporary mirage and that the outlook might not necessarily be one of beer and skittles.

Contemplate the following current factors that the market and commentators seem to broadly ignore, and that are in contrast to the optimism implied by the record low levels of implied volatility. There’s a lot of debt around — the total amount of US debt, including government, personal and corporate, is over $60 trillion (greater than three times US GDP) and interest rates are currently super low. With so much debt around, the marginal benefit of lower interest rates is close to nil as balance sheets, be they personal, corporate or government, are becoming stretched, so there’s declining capacity for more.

There’s also low productivity in Western economies, which stymies economic growth which, although positive, is already low overall. US real economic growth is projected to be sub-2 per cent for the foreseeable future (in spite of Trump-onomics). And there’s also Brexit, Eurexit and growing worldwide nationalist movements against globalisation. China’s growth story is coming to an end as her rising labour costs, surge in debt and associated financial instability is rapidly undermining the economy’s effectiveness and global position.

It’s all starting to sound a bit too negative for me, as one could be convinced from all this, maybe, that the prolonged monetary expansion of the global central banks might have put investors into something of a complacent daze. When the totality of the situation begins to more fully reveal itself, investors might find that the happy outlook implied by the rosy volatility metrics and the real world are somewhat different. But I hope not.

Interesting facts: Apple’s market capitalisation is at an alltime high of US$766 billion and may be on the way to the US$1 trillion I predicted (a little early) a few years ago. It has over US$250 billion in cash reserves, which separated out, would be the 12th largest company in the US. This amount of cash is more than all the international reserves held by the Bank of England, and enough to buy any company listed in the UK. It could buy Facebook, Motorola, IBM, Disney, Coca-Cola, General Electric or the Bank of America. It could buy both Tesla and General Motors and still have a cool US$150 billion left over. Think about it.

— Warren Couillault

Simply Matching Pe

www.remuerareale

Proving to be the best way to

If you are serious about selling your home ... for the with the least disruption to your life ... then you sh Terry King 021 484 332 terry.king@remueraregister.co.nz

Telephone: 0

Remuera Real Estate Register

eople with Property

estateregister.co.nz

o buy and sell local property

e best possible price ... in the shortest possible time ... hould talk to the Kings of Remuera real estate NOW! Diana King 021 613 884 diana.king@remueraregister.co.nz

09 520 6624

Limited licensed REAA 2008

the hobson + remuera live life local

A New Brew The Basras decided to buy a café, and fell in love with the first one they saw

S

ukh and Aji Basra are keen foodies, but didn’t have commercial hospitality experience before they bought Remuera Local Café Bistro. But, as Sukh says, support from staff and customers has made for a happy transition.

You bought the Local in February. How has it been?

Challenging! Running it with limited hospitality knowledge has certainly been very interesting but facing challenges keeps you going, and thinking. We were also blessed to purchase a business with loyal customers, and great staff.

Staff who we are already calling part of our family!

Have you made any changes since you took over?

No. We don’t believe we need to make any big changes, but there’s always room for minor improvements. Aji does like a professional appearance – possibly to do with the fact he’s in uniform all day — so we’ve incorporated name badges.

Are you both working in the café?

Lately Aji has been managing two jobs – he is a NZ Police constable – but we have almost finalised our roles here. I’ll be here at the Local fulltime, and Aji will continue with his police job, as well as doing the café admin.

How long has Aji been in the police force?

For 11 years now. He’s a people person, and loves to help them. He never brings his work home, but I know how difficult his job is. We see it on the news almost daily, some of the stuff they deal with. I fully support him, and love that he’s a policeman. He protects us all.

Why did you want to own a restaurant/café?

To meet new people and learn about food, the environment,

the industry as a whole — mind you, our house is actually like a small restaurant, as we often have family and friends over for dinner. Also, Aji’s father set up and operated a large Indian restaurant. That inspired us too.

Do you both cook?

Yes, and for a policeman and busy man in the community, Aji cooks a fair bit and loves it. He recently bought a tandoor oven and likes to make lamb kebabs, chicken and prawns.

So how did you end up owning Remuera Local?

We wanted to buy a central café/restaurant, and Aji went and checked out the Local and immediately called me to say “this is it”. He just loved the whole atmosphere; the place has a very welcoming feel. And as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be ours. It was meant to be.

What may your staff be surprised to know about you?

I’m a cultural women’s manager for the biggest Indian sports and cultural club in New Zealand, Saanjh. The club promotes the Indian culture to kids, focussing mainly on ones born here in NZ. We teach them through dance; it’s fun and keeps them fit and active. It’s open to non-Indians, so if anyone wants to learn Punjabi dancing, come see me!

SPECIAL READER OFFER FOR JUNE COME IN DURING JUNE, MENTION THIS STORY AND ENTER YOUR NAME IN THE DRAW FOR A $100 VOUCHER TO SPEND AT REMUERA LOCAL CAFE BISTRO

Barista with a smile – Sukh Basra in her Remuera Local Café Bistro, 371 Remuera Rd. To read more about theses local businesses, see www.remuera.org.nz the hobson 26

live life local

The Bright Lights Old friends are new faces at Remuera’s Lighthouse

S

cott McGregor (left) and Simon Lloyd (on right) met in their student days, playing rugby. Now, they’re a team off the field too at Lighthouse Remuera, which they opened in September. Scott is one of the business owners and also runs the company’s North Shore operation, while Simon manages Remuera.

There was a lighting store on this site — did you take over?

Simon: We did take over another lighting shop with the same name, but we have since completely renovated and we are implementing a completely new business model. We were very fortunate that staff Peter, Em and Kerri stayed on to become part of our new team.

Tell us about some of the changes you’ve made.

Scott: We have redesigned the floor and opened it up to be a friendly, inviting space to better allow us to build relationships with both our walk-in customers, and our business clients.

The concept room is also a huge new addition.

Are you both involved with creating lighting concepts?

Simon: Yes.Working as a team on the consultancy process enhances the level of service we provide. We encourage our team to explore their own levels of creativity so we can offer a more diverse range of options — we’ve learnt a lot from them since opening, and we continue to do so every day.

Excuse the pun, but what are the highlights and lowlights that come with running this type of business?

Scott: When someone has a build going on, or is renovating, they are full of enthusiasm. We should be sharing that emotion, and there is something wrong if we don’t; we

should all be getting goosebumps for getting it right!

Simon: There are no real lowlights — it’s not really “selling” when you completely believe in your products and service.

Scott: Our challenge is to always be on the same page as our customers. But that’s also the fun part!

Simon, you’re from Maungaturoto and Scott, you hail from Kaikoura. How did you meet and end up running a business together?

Scott: We met at the University of Canterbury. We were originally rugby mates, which developed into friendship.

Simon: We’ve had a lot of business conversations over time and we always hoped we would get the opportunity to work together. It’s all very transparent between us, we have a good business relationship and friendship.

Do either of you still play rugby?

Scott: These days we have more of an armchair appreciation.

What may people be surprised to know about you?

Simon: I was a singer in an old-school indie rock band! I’m also conversational in Japanese.

Scott: And I lived in Asia for six and a half years, working as an international school PE teacher and sports coach.

SPECIAL READER OFFER FOR JUNE MENTION THIS ARTICLE FOR A NO-OBLIGATION CONSULTATION WITH ONE OF LIGHTHOUSE'S SPECIALISTS FOR YOUR PROJECT, NEW BUILD OR RENOVATION. PLUS, A PACKAGE DEAL ON YOUR LIGHTING NEEDS.

Scott McGregor and Simon Lloyd in their Lighthouse showroom, 1 St Vincent Ave. Photos by Vanita Andrews, interviews by Fiona Wilson the hobson 27

the suburbanist

Feel the Serenity

that “flooring or rugs can be laid anywhere to suit your taste" – although any rug small enough to give you options about where to lay it would be a tablemat.

It could be the perfect space or place for meditation, if not in itself a meditation on space and place. It seeks to be of this moment, now, and also enduring for all time.

It may or may not come with a cat, that may or may not once have belonged to Mr Schrödinger, and which may or may not, be alive. Trust the Japanese to manifest quantum mechanics in a self-reflexive architectural structure, that is at once practical and impractical and all the while aesthetically pleasing.

Like all things with a simple intent, it may evolve into something completely different and, potentially, the opposite of what it set out to do. It may yet develop into a kind of status symbol of the wealthy, for the clutter-free life: a display of how much you can afford to spend on a space that has nothing.

Hang on, didn’t Seinfeld do that in their final episode?

— Tommy Honey

the hobson 28

Images courtesy of Muji

M

inimalist Japanese brand Muji, known for its obsession with design, beauty and exquisite stationery, will release its design for a compact 9m2 prefabricated house later this year. Known as the Muji Hut, it will be available only in Japan and will cost ¥3,000,000 – about NZ $30,000. It is intended to be somewhere between a permanent residence and a holiday home. Given that it has no services at all – no kitchen, toilet or any kind of running water – in reality, it sits between a holiday home and a tent. There’s nothing permanent about it except perhaps the concrete slab it is designed to sit on, in an apparent contradiction of intent: without services it is by definition transient, temporary, requiring other buildings or places to service it; yet the slab anchors it to the ground restricting the freedom of movement or thought that it so intensely and minimally advocates for.

In its pursuit of a reductive minimalism of living, almost nothing is left except an empty space; to sleep, perchance to dream . . . There’ll be no abluting here, no cooking, no eating; no mess nor evidence of the messiness of being human. But then, to be Muji is to be absent of mess. Like their brand, this hut is free of clutter. The Japanese excel in both this kind of austere minimalism and their preaching to the rest of us about it – have you Marie Kondo’ed your house yet?

The hut – house, shed, cabin – is, of course, gorgeous. It has a single 9m2 space (slightly smaller than your child’s bedroom) opening through glass sliding doors to a covered veranda of 3m2 (slightly bigger than your toilet). There’s a small window on the rear wall for light and ventilation.

Over all this is a simple mono-pitched roof. The exterior is clad in wood, charred black, using the Japanese technique called shou sugi ban, which extends the life of the timber, and makes it more resistant to fire, insects and decay. The interior walls are lined with untreated Japanese cypress and the floor is concrete – to aid in the ascetic, monk-like feel perhaps? The website says

the second act

Present Company

M

y nearest and dearest have been under strict instructions not to buy me “things” for birthday and Christmas gifts. I have been divesting myself of possessions, and generally decluttering, for nearly two years now, and I don’t need replacement products. A recent birthday was an amusing case study on how well they have complied to requests.

I don’t need anything, which is absolutely true, but that doesn’t mean of course that they should pass on my birthday altogether.

I dropped hints that I like consumables and experiences — edibles, drinkables, burnables, watchables — how hard could it be?

Friends got it down pat – wine, wine with bubbles in it, posh chocolate, books with feminist themes – preferably all to be consumed at once.

The kids also passed muster. The 16-year-old boy wrote an eloquent card about my strong points as a mother/person (a nice change), before presenting a very well-articulated case as to why no actual present would be forthcoming. (Something to do with money from his part-time job being for his own needs. Hmmm).

Anyway, there were no spelling mistakes in the card. The 21-yearold daughter drew a beautiful picture of a Taurean bull, and then inside the card, offered her services as a housekeeper and assistant when I’m “overwhelmed”. She knows me too well.

Interestingly, she offered these services to be capped at a total of six times, and trust me, she’ll be counting. I’ve already cashed in one, and she saved me an hour and a half of pfaffing about, which was invaluable, so she gets a thumbs up.

My middle sister, the master gift giver, made an art form out of my hints, and presented me with a hamper of delicious treats, spanning every meal of the day. I quickly designated this “my food”, and pardon the immaturity, but have hidden some from the family. There’s little worse than wanting your special muesli than to find the packet open but empty on the shelf.

But my big sister refuses to get with the programme, and tried to pre-sell a gift on the basis that “you’re going to love it”.

“Oh no”, I groaned ungraciously — “I bet it’s brown or green (her preferred colour palette) and probably wood (her favoured material)”. She admitted that deep down she knew I wouldn’t want it, but she wanted to convince me to want it and love it, because she does. She is known in the family for wanting to share her love of certain items so much, she will buy things in twos so she can give one away, therefore reinforcing her own joy. Ironically, one of those gifts last year was a book about decluttering. But this year’s Japanese tray — brown, wooden — with rope handles will have to be given to someone else. Try the middle sister I said, who overheard, and responded, “No thanks, I don’t want it either”.

But possibly the gift the made me most uneasy was my husband’s. Because I’ve lectured him on not spending money and not buying me stuff, he used his highly-creative imagination and created fur underwear out of rabbits that he had shot, and cured. I thought it was a joke, until he told me he’d made a bikini top too, but the dog ate it (true story, she passed black, furry gooey stuff for days). Hence it was with some trepidation that I opened a second gift from him. A massage voucher! Great! But when I grabbed my reading glasses, I realised it was a couple’s massage. Okaaaaay. Then in the fine print – it’s at a place where we can apparently stay the night too (I hope my kids aren’t reading this).

The reactions of my partnered, same-age girlfriends were interesting and ran along the lines of “Oh god, no”, “Just tell him you want to go alone, with a good book”, “I bet it’s a tantric sex place, you poor thing”. My single friends were more in the “Wow, that’s so sweet” and “Good on you, you’ve still got it,” camp. I really could write a thesis on this!

As it turned out, the best present was the day itself. Breakfast with my bestie, lunch with my husband — no rabbit fur involved — and dinner with our little family of four. You can’t tie happiness up with a bow, but just being with the people I love most felt like the only gift you need. — Sandy Burgham

Serving Auckland families for over 100 years. Helping you celebrate life your way.

Gather, Remember, Celebrate 582 Remuera Road. Remuera. Auckland 1050 (09) 520 3119 | staff@sibuns.co.nz www.sibuns.co.nz SB_971/A

the hobson 29

the tale

Dishes of the Day As the acclaimed Hudson & Halls Live! returns to the stage this month, Penny Lewis talks to the show’s co-creator and star about the Parnell duo, while on the following page, local restaurateur Tony Astle recalls his friendship with the TV cooks

T

he hilarious, witty and warm Hudson & Halls Live! returns to Auckland for a second season later this month, starring Westside actor Todd Emerson as Peter Hudson, and improv comedian Chris Parker as David Halls. The show is set in a 1980s TV studio, as the duo cook and perform for a “mid-winter Christmas special”.

The late Peter Hudson and David Halls were voted New Zealand’s “Entertainers of the Year” in 1981, feted for their successful television cooking show, Hudson & Halls, which was more about entertaining banter than fine cuisine. On-screen and in real life, the pair were outrageous and flamboyant, and loved attention and recognition.

They got their big break on afternoon talk show Speakeasy in 1975, which led to their own show, Hudson & Halls, which eventually screened in primetime, on Friday nights. The duo enjoyed a wave of success, including a radio show, until 1986, when TVNZ pulled the plug on their show, saying the format had become tired, despite its ongoing popularity with viewers.

Hudson and Halls’ long-time friend Tony Astle, owner and executive chef of Parnell’s Antoine’s restaurant, says the pair would have loved the fact their story is on stage in 2017.

“They would love it. It would be ‘we’ve made it’ and ‘we f**king showed them’ and the pinnacle of their lives. Because they were treated so badly here, they would have loved this whole thing,” Astle says, noting that “they did have quite an interesting vocabulary.”

It was love at first sight for Peter Hudson and David Halls when they met in 1962, according to the 2001 documentary, Hudson and Halls: A Love Story. Halls, then 26, had emigrated from Epping in the UK and was working in Auckland as a shoe designer. Hudson, 32, was on holiday from his hometown of Melbourne. The two quickly became inseparable and started living and working together in Auckland. In the early 1970s they lived in a villa with an extensive garden and pool at 103 Brighton Rd, Parnell, and owned a women’s shoe shop, Julius Garfinckel, in the then-glamorous Strand Arcade, as well as an icecream parlour, Quaggs.

Todd Emerson, 33, wrote Hudson & Halls Live! with his husband, Kip Chapman, 36, who also directs the play. Emerson says unlike Hudson and Halls’ famously tempestuous working relationship, collaborating with Chapman is “definitely smoother sailing. We work together really well”. The play features just three characters, Hudson, Halls and a fictional TV studio floor manager, Ngaire Watkins, who’ll be played this season by Anya Tate-Manning.

Emerson and Chapman came up with the concept for Hudson & Halls Live! after chatting to actress Rima Te Wiata at a party. Emerson says he and Chapman had heard of Hudson & Halls and were aware of who they were. “But neither of us had watched an episode as they were just before our time, really.”

After being axed by TVNZ, Hudson and Halls opened a seafood restaurant in Herne Bay. “Rima worked for them there and her mother was great friends with them,” Emerson says.

Todd Emerson, inset, and top, in character as Peter Hudson with Chris Parker as David Halls. Opposite, Peter (in glasses) and David in the 1980s. All images courtesy of Silo Theatre the hobson 30

The encounter with Te Wiata got the ball rolling for a theatrical work to pay homage to the TV pioneers. “They had started to become a little bit forgotten, but now that 80s nostalgia is so big, it seems like the perfect time,” Emerson says.

Surprisingly, although they were on television for 11 years, only one episode of Hudson & Halls survives in the archives (it can be seen on nzonscreen.com, as can the documentary) and there is no footage of them in their private life. Emerson and Chapman watched what was available, spoke to people who knew them, including Astle, and to author Joanne Drayton, whose book, Hudson and Halls: Inseparable, will be published by Otago University Press next year.

Hudson and Halls mostly ad-libbed their shows, but the play works to a script, although some improvisation is needed as Emerson and Parker really do cook on stage.

“When you’re working with food anything can happen. If something gets dropped on the floor, you work around it, you can’t ignore it.” All the food in the show is made with recipes from the Hudson & Halls Cookbook, first published in 1977 (pictured overleaf).

Emerson and Chapman practised cooking the dishes in their Avondale home with Chris Parker before starting rehearsals. The food tasted “pretty bad”. “Cuisine in New Zealand was a very different place then,” says Emerson.

But Hudson and Halls’ recipes still have long-time fans. Emerson recalls an audience member from their first Auckland season, in November and December 2015.

“We use a turkey recipe,” recalls Emerson. “A woman came to the show. She was about 90-years-old and said she has cooked that turkey every Christmas for the last 30 years and it’s perfect.”

Last season, all ages came to see the show and Emerson expects the same will happen this time around. Like the lady

with the turkey, there are older people who remember the celebrity cooks very well. Another generation remembers watching the show as kids, on a Friday night. And yet another generation comes because it’s a Silo Theatre production — the return season off the back of a national tour marks Silo’s 20th anniversary. “People love coming to see a farce and love a comedy,” says Emerson. “It really is a show for everyone.”

Emerson gets recognised from his role as Bilkey in Westside and as the face of a Youi ad campaign. But the most times he’s been stopped in the street was during the debut season of Hudson & Halls Live! “People want to share their memories with you. They say, ‘I loved Hudson and Halls’ and ‘I remember watching them’ and ‘I used to cook this’ or ‘my cousin knew them’.”

Without giving too much away, Emerson says Hudson and Halls gets a mention in the next Westside series.

He theorises the characters in Westside would enjoy watching the show, “but Bilkey would have known them, and gone along to their dinner parties.”

Tragically, the real-life story doesn’t have a happy ending. Hudson and Halls died 14 months apart. They had left NZ and had some success with a BBC TV series.

They were living in London when Hudson succumbed to prostate cancer in 1992, aged 61. A distraught Halls, who changed his name by deed poll to Hudson-Halls after Peter’s death, took his own life in their London flat in November 1993. He was clutching a photo of his beloved Pete.

Emerson says it’s extraordinary what Hudson and Halls achieved, how middle New Zealand loved them at a time when it wasn’t even legal to be gay.

“I don’t think everyone who watched them knew they were a couple. But they were watching a truly authentic couple on television.”

the hobson 31

the tale

Tony Astle was a personal friend of Hudson and Halls.

He spoke to Penny Lewis about his memories of them.

R

estaurateur Tony Astle’s eyes glisten when he remembers the last time he saw his old friends, Peter Hudson and David Halls. “When Peter got prostate cancer, they were beside themselves.”

After Hudson’s death, Halls visited Auckland from his home in London and called in to see Tony and Beth Astle at their restaurant, Antoine’s on Parnell Rd. Astle says they knew it would be the last time they would see him. “He came in and he was an absolute mess. He told us he had kept [Peter’s] pills. It was big cuddles at the door, then he went back [to London] and three days later, he was gone.”

“You couldn’t do anything about it. He just said he couldn’t live without him. That’s when you knew how much they loved each other. He’d lost so much weight and just looked old. He had no spark in his eyes. He was just going through the motions and saying goodbye to people.

“There was nowhere for him to go. I don’t think he had a choice.

They were one. You’ll never see anything like them again. It would have happened the other way around, too.”

Astle helped Hudson & Halls Live! co-writers Todd Emerson and Kip Chapman with their research.

They offered him tickets to the show several times, but he didn’t go. “It just felt too raw,” he says, remembering his friends. “I’ve had a lot of very close friends die, but that was a hard one.”

A 23-year-old Astle first met Hudson and Halls in his restaurant about a year after it opened, in 1973. They would dine regularly with their friend and agent, Suzie Kitt. “They used to come three nights a week and Suzie paid for most of it. They wanted to be seen out and about and in those days, we were the place to be seen.

“They practically lived at this restaurant. It was safe for them as it was a closed club. They had very influential friends, some of our best customers, and they were all Parnell and Remuera people, and that’s what they liked about Parnell.”

Hudson and Halls also had international celebrity friends, including Elton John, who used to stay with them at their Brighton Rd home, and dine at Antoine’s. One memorable night, Antoine’s hosted Elton John, George Benson and Rod Stewart.

As well as being funny, the duo could be obnoxious, even before their TV fame.

“The waiters hated them,” recalls Astle. “If they didn’t like something they’d send it back. I remember saying to them ‘you poncy pricks, when you can cook, tell me about it’.

“Peter and David and I used to sit here until six in the morning. Everyone used to smoke in those days and we’d have cognac. I like alcohol and they loved alcohol.” Hudson and Halls ordered a case of brandy and a case of rum for home every week,

not to mention the cognac and wine they also enjoyed.

Astle remembers one night when the men came in late and had to sit at a table at the top of the stairs. “They were pretty rotten. One stood up, pushed his chair back and fell straight into a good customer. He was eating oyster soup and his whole head went into it. Peter blamed him for sitting there.”

If they were in a mood, they took it out on everyone else.

Because they were so volatile, they would come in for dinner separately if they’d had a fight. “One would come in and would complain about the other and the other one would be in two days later and do the same thing.”

One night Peter even tried to run David down in the couple’s Bentley, which had to be pulled out of a ditch on Kepa Rd. “They fought all the time and it was almost physical. If it was a husband and wife, it would be abuse, but they both did it. It wasn’t one picking on the other.”

The Astles would head to Hudson and Halls’ home on Sundays for parties. “The food was pretty average. They loved martinis and were entertainers even at home. To go there for dinner was fantastic. When I used to go, I would take the main course as it was just easier. They would be so pissed they would forget to cook.

They had a lot of daytime parties with cocktails and a whole salmon.

It wouldn’t be dinner, it would be ambulance at the end of the night.”

Hudson and Halls had very close friends, but also a huge circle of acquaintances, people who invited them over for dinner all the time.

“It was very vogueish to know them and they were good fun.

After TV, then they had friends who weren’t friends, you know what people can be like. People liked having them at their dinner parties for the shock value.”

Astle says Hudson and Halls were ground-breakers. “They could sound vicious, but they didn’t actually mean it. They were very generous, kind people. They had that outer crust of being up themselves, but they weren’t up themselves at all, they were very vulnerable and soft people,” Astle says.

“They had to be ‘out there’ because the public image was very important to them. People wanted drama. Every time they were here they would put on shows for people. They would swear and get louder and louder, and more camp.”

Although the Astles didn’t see the first season of Hudson & Halls Live!, Tony knows people who did, and loved it. He would be ready to see the show now, he says, but unfortunately, this year’s run coincides with their annual holiday, when Antoines shuts for a month. For now, the Astles are happy just to remember Peter and David with much fondness.

Hudson & Halls Live! is at the Q Theatre, 305 Queen St, from June 27 to July 9. For more information, visit silotheatre.co.nz To win a double pass to the show, see page 4

the hobson 32

Advertisement

Behind every

successful

woman is HERSELF

- Cathy Roselli, local Ray White real estate salesperson

If your child looked up at you and asked ‘what does success mean?’ what would you say? Is it how much money you make? Your job title? Or is it the difference you make and the people you help? The way any parent answers that question can set the tone for the way that child will see the world and their own achievements.

We asked local Ray White real estate salesperson Cathy Roselli how she defines success after nearly three decades at the top of her game.

Born into a small ‘not on the map’ South Island West Coast community, Cathy says the way she was raised is to thank for the tireless work ethic and integrity she’s known for today.

“My parents were very giving and community-focused. They taught my brothers and sisters and I to be mindful of who we are and not to measure success by how much money you make.

That can often feel at odds with today’s world and nowhere is that more apparent than amongst real estate sales people.

“Our success often appears to be defined by the value of the properties we’ve sold. You’ll often here ‘I’ve sold $30 million worth of property in six months’ or whatever other metric deemed the yard stick by which to measure performance.”

Naturally, it begs the question: why did a woman who started out as a teacher, then transition into share broking before settling on real estate?

“There are salespeople I know around the country who are routinely some of the best performers. But because they’re not selling properties in the upper echelons of the market their financial totals aren’t as high as others. Does that make them less successful?”

Speak to any of the clients Cathy’s helped to buy or sell a home and they’ll confirm she’s not about the transaction, she’s about the relationship. Cathy’s sold houses of all shapes and sizes from townhouses to mansions, earning her the title of ‘the people’s real estate woman of choice’.

“For me, naturally the end result is imperative. But I think it’s important to make it a good experience for buyer and seller along the way.”

“That’s a real focus for us at Ray White and that comes from our chairman Brian White who’s been able to grow his grandfather’s business while maintaining the family values it was built upon. He’s never lost sight of what’s important or that sense of community.”

If you’ve enjoyed hearing from Cathy over the last 12 months in The Hobson, make sure you sign up for her newsletter at www.cathyroselli.com or follow her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter by using the handle @CathyRoselli.

“I love helping people through times of change and helping them to reach their goals.”

“It wouldn’t be hard to follow that old pattern of behaviour and advertise the financial value behind what I’ve achieved but is a monetary sum how you judge a sales person’s performance?

021 750 454, cathy.roselli@raywhite.com www.cathyroselli.com

the living

The New Neighbourhoods Aucklanders have never had so many options for swapping brick and tiles for high-rises.

Architect-turned-urban commentator (and THE HOBSON’s The Suburbanist columnist) Tommy Honey looks at how developers are responding to the way we want to live now

A

partments, as a housing option, have long been the poor, pokey cousin of that shared dream (read: entitlement) of a three-bedroom house sitting sometimes gracefully, more usually awkwardly, on a quarter-acre section. Open the Herald on almost any day and read about the 23-year-old couple who want this dream, want it cheap and want it now. Apartments are for investors, renters and international students; in short, other people, not us. They’re small, they leak, the walls are thin, you hear everything your neighbours say and do, but will never speak to them nor get to know them. I mean, why would you go there?

The corollary question for developers is, why build them?

Surely a developer would be better off building 100 stand-alone houses 60km away from the CBD? Let the young have their dream home and a nightmare commute!

In the face of what might seem like insurmountable negative perceptions, some developers persist in the apartment model. However, recognising these perceptions, they are changing the model and shifting the ground. In a previous property cycle, small was, if not beautiful, then at least profitable. Aesthetics was a framed print in the lobby and the lobby was the full extent of the building’s community. Most were owned by investors renting out to students – neither party caring about the longevity of their engagement nor the community they were part of.

Developers now realise that building community and selling longevity is a more viable option. Doing so attracts a greater proportion of owner-occupiers who care about where they live and are proud of their building, its design and what it has to offer. The apartment market is no longer a race to the bottom but an aspiration to the top. People – often referred to as ‘the market’ – are looking for a great location, security, quality outdoor space, a way to engage with their local community and a chance to build their own. They are looking for new ways to retire that keep the decisions and power in their own hands, not those of a multinational retirement village company. For developers, the smart money lies in understanding these desires and meeting them.

Fabric of Onehunga is a large-scale apartment development on a 1.3-hectare site spanning a full block, 600m from Onehunga

town centre. The developers, Tim and Andrew Lamont, have done several other apartment developments around the city, and are interested in regenerative projects and quality infill in established suburbs. In Onehunga, they have taken a previously commercial site and are building 240 apartments in five fourstorey buildings, over two stages. They see this development as being part of the ‘fabric’ of Onehunga and are committed to a development that embraces the strongly loyal local identity, rather than ignores it. They are creating, in their words, a ‘pocket neighbourhood’ with low fences, an open environment and intensive landscaping.

Buildings cover 45 per cent of the site with the remaining area as communal gardens with landscaped ‘fingers’ threading their way between the buildings.

There is a freedom of space that the large site allows and it contributes to a fine balance of privacy and openness. The apartment blocks have glazed central atria with a semi-industrial feel reflecting the origins of the site, and allowing the apartments to have natural light from two sides. The apartments are designed so that all bedrooms have natural light and are 2.55m high, giving a generous feeling of space.

The scale of the project means that it will be a significant presence in Onehunga once completed, but its impact is mitigated by the modest scale of the buildings and their grouping around outdoor space.

With its proximity to rail transport, the airport and the growing town centre of Onehunga, it will likely prove to be a desirable alternative to living in the CBD. If, however, living in the middle of town is what you are after, and quality is equally important, then The International might appeal. This is an ultra-high quality refit of the Fonterra building at the northern end of Princes St, in arguably one of the best locations in central Auckland, with elevated views over the harbour and easy access to the University, the city and the waterfront. The city is your backyard.

The robust 1990 building has been stripped back and will be rebuilt with a diagrid exoskeleton that takes much of the structural load, allowing more freedom with developing the interior of the building. Gary Groves, the developer, is creating a high-end exclusive development that is the “antithesis of the shoebox”, providing an international class community,

Pictured, opposite page from top: St Marks, Kensington Park, Fabric of Onehunga. This page, and overleaf, The International the hobson 35

the living

as he says, that is “not replicated elsewhere in the southern hemisphere”. The finishes and quality of build are intended to reflect this, and the entire ground floor is given to a high level of amenity for the apartment owners, including a cafe and bar, a private wine cellar, heated pool, private cinema and a library.

There will be 24-hour live-in management of the building, and a concierge service that puts the development closer to a hotel than what we have come to expect from an apartment building.

Groves’ ambition is to set new standards in amenity and quality.

He is also attuned to the market likely to afford this level of quality, who might be downsizing from a 4 to 5-bedroom home on a large section. They are accustomed to having space to live and space for their things – neither of which are usually available in most apartment developments. At The International, the apartments are bigger than a standard house. Two-bedroom apartments start at 165m2, three-bedroom ones are a minimum of 212m2 and the subpenthouses range from 250-320m2. All have an interior height of a minimum of 3m.

Just up from Newmarket in the enclave of medical specialists that makes up much of this stretch of Remuera Rd, is a development called St Marks. The brainchild of breast surgeon John Harman, the doctor-developer is committed to a complex with a strong sense of community. The three apartment buildings that make up the scheme are protected from the nearby motorway flyover by an office building that will be home to Harman’s medical practice and other tenants. The 5-6 storey apartment blocks are grouped to create outdoor spaces, open to the public. The development is pet-friendly and a dog washing and watering station will be provided for all to use, public included. Harman’s aim is to take the owners out into the community and to bring the community into the building. There will be a café/deli and a restaurant at ground level providing sustenance for the residents, and also the wider world of workers in the area.

The development works for those who have cars – you can be on the motorway in two minutes – and for those who don’t – Newmarket and the rail station are a few minutes’ walk away.

Like The International, there will be a 24-hour concierge service, but unlike it, no gym or pool.

Harman, himself a long-time apartment dweller, prefers to provide amenity that brings the outside community in – restaurants, open space – than things that keep the residents in – gyms and pools etc. The buyers are largely owner-occupiers and most of them are coming from within a five-kilometre radius; locals who know and love the area.

The 58 apartments are generous in size, with 2.9m internal height and balconies that are large enough to effectively be outdoor rooms, fully enclosable to make them useful in all

weathers and all seasons. There is a mixed profile of buyers with some younger urbanites that don’t want to commute long distances, to empty nesters seeking to live efficiently and to release some equity, often from a large house that they find themselves rattling around in. St Marks is a chance to live centrally but not be in the hurly-burly of the CBD. For those looking to escape the city entirely, Kensington Park is a large-scale development of apartment blocks in the seaside settlement of Orewa.

While it is an all-age community, its residents are predominantly older. For this market there are often few options other than retirement villages, where you don’t own your house, but simply have a license to occupy (and no capital gain on resale). At Kensington Park, the apartments are owned freehold and each block has its own body corporate. There is a residents’ association for all the owners and the developers, Southpark, are also involved in providing amenities.

They are adamant that this is not a retirement village – there are no hospital care facilities – and prefer to talk about it being a gated community without gates. The roading layout is designed to discourage through traffic, and there is considerable investment in extensive shared gardens, including allotments where you can grow your own vegetables.

Community is built through shared interests and events, some across the whole development such as Easter and Melbourne Cup celebrations, and the Christmas party; others are more localised, like the genealogy group or the travel club. The common denominator, it seems, is food and wine.

Residents are coming from larger houses, and many make the move here earlier than they may have done if they were going to a retirement village. Consequently the population tends to be more active, fitter and engaged, says Southpark.

These four developments recognise that contemporary apartments must respond to the market and that people are looking for a great location, high quality and a sense of community. If you’re done with mowing lawns and caring for a garden then The International might be for you. If you want a garden but don’t want to tend it, look to Fabric of Onehunga or St Marks; if your green thumb lingers, try Kensington Park. If you can’t give up mowing the lawn, then perhaps an apartment is not for you.

We often think that developers care little for community and are out to make a profit at any expense. But they built this city and we rely on them to do it well. Those that aren’t visionary are out of business. Like it or not, they have their fingers on the pulse of the fast-flowing arteries of our population growth, and when good developments occur and new models emerge, we must pay attention. These four developments deserve ours now.

the hobson 36

the hobson + villa education trust

Teachers, Mentors, Friends Remuera’s Mt Hobson Middle School offers students – and their families – an innovative education In the heart of Remuera lies an extraordinary school, offering Year 7 to 10 students a highly personalised approach to their middle school education.

M

t Hobson Middle School has always been committed to ensuring that education truly works for each and every one of its students.

The boutique-style middle school on Remuera Rd has a maximum roll of 48 and keeps class sizes small (no more than 12).

It provides every student with an individualised learning plan and has a unique day structure. Expert educators work with students on both the national curriculum and the school’s Integrated Project Based Curriculum. In addition, this year the school has employed Feuerstein practitioner Amanda Smith, a professional learning coach and mentor with more than 30 years teaching experience, to further improve quantity and quality.

For students who already possess highly developed ability, Amanda ensures the tasks they are set are challenging, keeping them engaged, excited about learning, and moving forward. For those with a learning difficulty or requiring development in specific areas, Amanda works to ensure progress is made and a sound understanding is grasped, using Feuerstein and other recognised specialised learning programmes and interventions.

“This programme is an amazing tool for teachers,” says Amanda, of Fueurstein. “It involves providing a range of increasingly complex tasks and working closely with the children to analyse a problem and to solve it systematically. The programme allows for the focus to be directed on verbal, mathematical, logical and even emotional skills, all depending on the need of the learner.

My role is to guide the students to develop strategies for problem solving and encourage them to transfer this knowledge to the rest of their lives.” The programme is only available at a handful of New Zealand schools.

Mt Hobson Middle School is a private school for children of all abilities and learning styles, housed in a villa in Remuera, managed

by Villa Education Trust (which also operates South Auckland Middle School and Middle School West Auckland). The registered charity uses a unique Integrated Project Based Curriculum, to ensure learning is current, relevant and engaging. The school has a strong academic focus with an arts and activity based afternoon programme, including sports, music, art, and community service and learning. It aims to keep its fees competitive to ensure those needing such a personal approach can access its services.

Having completed a full term at the school, Amanda said: “It is awesome to find a learning environment where students are encouraged to learn and to be independent. At Mt Hobson, the classroom extends into the community and vice versa, enabling learning to be in context and where students have a caring, supportive environment to enable them to do their best. It is a delight to have such small numbers so no child can slip through the gaps and the staff know every child.”

Mt Hobson Middle School is holding an Open Day on Wednesday June 14, 10am-12.30pm. Join us to view the school, speak to the teaching and support staff and meet the students. If the day or time doesn’t suit please contact Tamzin, on 09 523 1241, at the school office to arrange an alternative date.

the hobson 37

the magpie

Just Dance!

The Magpie swoops in to select finery for ladies and gents this ball season

1

2 4

5

1. This Ingrid Starnes July Dress strikes the balance between classic beauty and splash of boho. Wear it with a pale slip, or a dark shade for contrast. It’s be a dress to keep for ever, and will transport you back to the night you first wore it. $596 at Ingrid Starnes, Teed St, or ingridstarnes. com 2. Dress, shoes, jewellery, bag . . . make it a keeper with the Mr Boxette Crocotile by Deadly Ponies.

This croc-embossed leather bag transitions from day to night with a detachable chain. $475 from Deadly Ponies, in store and at deadlyponies.com

3. One thing is for certain, Storm’s Rock Star Beaded Dress, $299, will have heads turning. This edgy number nails two current trends – the choker and the bell sleeve – for ultimate style points. Plus, bead detailing on the sleeves gives the dress a true rock chick vibe. Available at Storm, Teed St, or at stormonline.com 4. Flower Ball Thread Earrings from Karen Walker Jewellery are the perfect dangling length to add the x-factor to your ball look. Feminine and beautiful, they’re available in silver for $209 and gold, $1089, at Karen Walker stores or karenwalker.com 5. As Carrie Bradshaw would say, hello lover! These Dali Heels in Gold by Karen Walker are the last word in glam. Get ready for the ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ my friends! $375, at Karen Walker stores, and online at karenwalker.com 6. Get your Harvey Specter on in the navy Dalton Texture Jacket ($549.99) and Dalton Texture Trouser ($249.99) from Barkers. Not only does the colour make the suit one to admire, but the luxury fabric of merino wool gives the garments a rich texture. It’s also proudly anti-static, wrinkle-resistant and breathable. Pictured with the Harlech Dot Tie ($69.99) and Tribeca Poplin Dress Shirt ($99.99) At Barkers stores and at barkersonline.co.nz

3

the hobson 38

6 7

8

7. Camellia Pins from WORLD are a stylish addition to your evening look. Pin them to a dress, add to an up-do. Pretty, oh so pretty! $55, from WORLD, Kent St or Britomart, worldbrand.co.nz.

8. The shape of the Staple + Cloth Velvet Salon Dress will make you the class of the party. It’s tailored just right to flatter, and its velvety texture scores trend points too.

And shuck the wrap this has sleeves. $309, from Staple + Cloth, 124 Ponsonby Rd 9. Working Style’s Blue and Grey Dogstooth Pocket Square, $99, is the finishing touch for a suit. Eye-catching but not flashy, it’s an elegant accessory that should be in every gent’s wardrobe.

There’s a selection to work with every suit, from Working Style, 52 Parnell Rd, and at workingstyle.co.nz 10. Get your groove on with these snazzy Barkers Blanchard Leather Brogues.

Crafted in Italian leather, with good care these shoes will last decades. The perforated details add that little bit of extra swing, too. $169.99 from Barkers stores or at barkersonline.co.nz 11. Not a traditional sort of guy? Barkers Parisian Denim Bow, $39.99, puts a wonderfully modern spin on the classic bow tie. From Barkers, both in store or online at barkersonline.co.nz 12. Flowers After Hours creates stunning wrist corsages (and matching buttonholes, $25 ) each ball season. This year, orchids are gathered onto sparkling diamanté bands, or ready to wrap with trailing black or white ribbons. Presented in a matching gift box, $50. Order at Flowers After Hours, 523 Parnell Rd, or flowersafterhours.co.nz

9

12 10 11

the hobson 39

the pretty

Having a Ball

Essie’s Luxe collection brings the party to your nails. In glitzy metallics, the colours give you a range of goeswith-your-dress options.

Our favourite? Glow Your Own Way. At pharmacies, $22.99

Chantelle Murray finds perfect accompaniments to the senior school social season

Work a luscious lip with L’Oréal Paris Infallible Sexy Balm ($19.99).

This product acts like a balme, but is pigment-rich too.

Choose Sheer for everyday wear, and Bold for your special night out. Available at Farmers

Bobbi Brown Smokey Eye Mascara is the secret weapon to nailing a dark eye look. Pigmented with kohl to create ultra-dark, long lashes in a flash, it has been formulated to combat flaking, smudging, sweat and the humidity of the dance floor. $62 at Bobbi Brown counters Giorgio Armani’s Acqua di Gio Essenza is a new incarnation of the much-loved 1996 men’s fragrance. The eau de parfum has an aquatic, fresh feel to it, but heartier notes of cedar, pepper and sage make it unique.

A sophisticated choice for a special occasion.

At Smith and Caughey’s, $171 for 75ml

Don’t let a little zit throw you. Keep Dermalogica Clear Start Breakout Clearing Overnight Treatment ($15) on the shelf to deal to random pimples. Salicylic acid works to unclog the skin, and cucumber and liquorice combat redness. Dab it on at night and by day, feel ready to face anything. From Dermalogica stockists or dermalogica.co.nz

Bvlgari’s Aqva Pour Homme Atlantiqve captures the vigour of the Atlantic Ocean but it’s right at home here in the Pacific too. Fresh top notes of bergamot and lemon are balanced by woody tones of patchouli and sandalwood, making this a perfect spritz for the younger gentleman. At Smith and Caughey’s, $109.90 for 50ml Rather than risk uneven application with spray tan to the face, try the James Read Overnight Tan Sleep Mask. Apply before bedtime and the mask will go to work, slowly building up a soft tan. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley has praised this product — we’re not saying you’ll wake up looking like her — but do give it a trial run before B-Day. It’s $49 at Mecca Cosmetica, or meccabeauty.co.nz

Need a last-minute touch-up to a ball mani or pedi? Keep L’Oréal Paris Colour Riche Le Vernis A L’Huile nail polishes to hand. The wide flexi-brush allows for precise application, and is a gem at quick touch ups. In 20 different colours, $10.99, from L’Oréal nail product stockists

Work up to glowing skin with some pre-ball applications of the new L’Oréal Paris Pure Clay Mask, $19.99. The potent charcoal and clay cleanses, soothes and calms skin.

From Farmers The limited edition NARS Laguna Body Tint ($71) will give your skin a subtle golden glow. Infused with Mono de Tahiti scent, you’ll look and feel as if you’ve just come back from a lovely holiday in the tropics. Available at Mecca Cosmetica, or meccabeauty.co.nz Even if you’ve opted for a no-tan look, Bobbi Brown’s Bronzing Powder will lift any make-up style. You will be left with a pretty, warm glow with just a few sweeps of this lightweight product.

Available in eight different shades to work with skin tones, $72 at Bobbi Brown counters

the hobson 40

the sound

Well Played, Sir

W

here to start with Graham Brazier? Well, today let’s start at the end.

Graham, our louche, leather-clad master of words and music, the lead singer of Hello Sailor, the purveyor of first editions and rarities from his family bookstore in Dominion Rd, died in 2015. His big, generous heart broke and stopped at the age of 63.

He was the siren of summers’ past. Our lizard king, our Jim Morrison from the Doors, who, as legend has it, once asked him to take Morrison’s place after that singer’s untimely death.

I first paid attention to him in a live-to-air Radio Hauraki Buck-a-Head concert broadcast from the now long-gone His Majesty’s Theatre in Queen Street.

They played the hits from the first album, and then the new songs they had rustled up in their abortive attempt to take the States. I was intrigued by “Son of Sam,” a song about an American serial killer. I guffawed at the clumsiness of “Disco is Dead”. I remember thinking these guys were unhinged, but they had some good tunes.

The first time I met Graham was not auspicious. For an interview at Radio B, I told him to his face that he was everything wrong with rock n ’roll — more interested in his own pomp than telling truths. He guffawed right back at me and told me I’d grow up one day. Thankfully, even though I reminded him of it, he never remembered the snotty, righteous, 19-year-old punk that I was.

The next time I met him was in the late 80s. I was at Radio Hauraki. “Blue Lady” was a staple gold playlist song. They'd just conjured up Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion, a high-budget album financed through the creative use of tax breaks. I told him he was a chancer, and was taking the piss re-recording old songs like “Billy Bold”.

He laughed again, and said the songs deserved it and being a chancer is a fine profession indeed.

In the 90s, I bumped into him one Saturday afternoon in Grey Lynn Park. He’d been watching club league, I was walking a baby in a pram. Graham could have been a premier grade league player, but rock n’roll stole his heart. He reeked of beer.

He slurred but he waxed lyrical about the game he’d seen. Sport as poetry. It was mesmerising. He said he had irons in the fire. I thought, he’s on the road to down and out.

In 2012, I interviewed Graham and his good mate, the now also late Dave McArtney, on their reunion tour. He was reserved on the recollections of the drugs and craziness but came alive when

the talk returned to music.

Then the last time I interviewed him was in Brazier’s bookstore on Dominion Rd, months before his death. We both sat on wooden beer crates and talked about going back into a studio, and running the store left to him after his Mum passed away.

It was a disjointed chat as friend after mate after acquaintance came in, some bringing six-packs of beers, which we happily necked. He was chunkier than I’d ever seen him but again, lovely company. He launched into Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and showed me his most valuable books.

I treasure that day as I never saw him again. I did grow up and appreciate his wordsmithery and songs more than ever.

The boy from country rock who invented Ponsonby reggae in a house called Mandrax Mansion.

His was a complex, intellectual, bohemian and excessive life, well lived. Stories to match and he had the skills to tell them.

And now we have his last album. Called Left Turn at Midnite, he recorded it over the last years of his life with Alan Jansson, the producer most widely known for producing OMC’s “How Bizarre”. Alan never touched it for a year after Graham’s death because he was so wracked with grief, but was brought back to it with the deadline of what would have been Graham’s 65th birthday.

It’s poignant, a voice from beyond the grave, and the voice is assured, the production crisp, his clever couplets in abundance. A few songs are stand outs. “Seven Sets of Traffic Lights” is a pop song that sings to us all as we drive across town to visit our sweethearts. But it’s the wistful songs that look to the past that are most affecting. “Autumn” carries the heaviness of growing old in a way that is not maudlin.

It’s the cold hard realities for us all, with the romance of a master observer. “Round the Bend” is a showstopper. Written for his old friend McArtney, it’s tender and muscular — “Come around Friend, tell me what’s waiting, round the bend”. My regret is that I’ll never see him sing that one.

The hype around this album is that it is his best ever. It’s not.

For me that honour still lies with Inside Out, his first solo album, that gave us not only “Billy Bold” but also “No Mystery” and “Six Piece Chamber”.

But as a reminder of what a charming, dangerous, kind and intelligent force of nature Graham was, it’s essential. Well played, well lived. Give my love to Dave. You did good my son.

— Andrew Dickens

The “intelligent force of nature”, Graham Brazier. Image courtesy of Universal Music the hobson 41

the cinema

The June Screen ADULT LIFE SKILLS

unexpectedly for a rising star in the Russian military.

Director Rachel Tunnard. Starring Jodie Whittaker, Lorraine Ashbourne, Eileen Davies, Rachael Deering Anna’s nearly 30, but she’s a little short on life skills. Since a bereavement, she’s retreated to living in her mother’s shed, spending her days either on the couch, or making videos starring her thumbs.

Friends and romance cross her path, wit and comedy ensues.

Starring Broadchurch’s Whittaker as the hapless Anna, this light but thoughtful, quirky Brit drama, won a Best Female Director award for Tunnard at the Tribeca Film Festival.

MY COUSIN RACHEL Director Roger Michell. Starring Rachel Weisz, Sam Claflin, Iain Glen A period piece based on the Daphne du Maurier novel of 1951, this is a taut mystery-romance with a topnotch cast (as was the 1952 version with Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton). Philip (Claflin) believes Rachel (Weisz) was behind the death of his beloved, wealthy guardian, Ambrose. When Rachel reappears, he seeks to expose the truth, but his resolve wanes when he too falls for Rachel, who may be playing him . . .

THE SHACK Director Stuart Hazeldine. Starring Sam Worthington, Aviv Alush, Tim McGraw, Rhada Mitchell, Octavia Spencer After suffering through an abusive childhood, Mack (Worthington) is determined not to become the monster his father was. Now happily married to Nan, with three children of their own, Mack’s life is obliterated when his youngest child disappears during a camping trip, the presumed victim of a serial killer. What follows for Mack is an exploration of personal faith, hope and grief, as a mysterious trinity of strangers attempt to guide Mack through the process, and help him come to terms with his new existence.

CHURCHILL

DESPITE THE FALLING SNOW Director Shamim Sarif. Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Charles Dance, Oliver JacksonCohen, Sam Reid, Antje Traue Sarif directs the film version of her own novel, a Cold War spy thriller. When Soviet Katya (Ferguson) loses her parents during the Stalinist repression, her allegiance to her mother country changes. She turns to spying for the Americans, but there’s another twist when Katya falls

Advance Screening Wednesday 28 June. Arrival 6:00pm for 6:15pm film start.

Tickets: $24.50* each and include a glass of wine & goodie bag.

Book online: www.rialto.co.nz Violence & offensive language

*Plus, $1.20 online booking fee.

Director Jonathan Teplitzky. Starring Brian Cox, James Purefoy, Miranda Richardson, John Slattery In June 1944, the Allied forces find themselves on a precipice, as triumph over the enemy is no certainty.

British PM Churchill (Cox) is butting heads with US military leaders over D-Day plans, much of his view shaped by the horrors of WWI, and the long fight of WWII. This historic drama draws on Churchill’s transformation, again the strong leader whose calling for solidarity and commitment captured the minds and will of a nation. — Caitlin McKenna All titles are scheduled to release at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket in June

the bookmark

Independently Minded Let's support these writers who are living their dream and telling their stories in prose and verse, and salute the publishers who are helping them.

THE OLD BITCHES' BOARDING SCHOOL Penny Macdonald (self-published) The author, a former diplomat, turns her observations of human nature and memories of her cantankerous grandmother’s battles with apathy and nepotism, into a rollicking novel of friendships, loyalty and scheming, set amid the over-priced Auckland property market.

A DROP IN THE OCEAN Jenni Ogden (She Writes Press) Neuroscientist Ogden turns her understanding of human psychology into fiction. When Anna Ferguson, a dedicated researcher into Huntington’s disease has her confidence shattered, she retreats to Turtle Island, on the Great Barrier Reef. Described by one reviewer as an “endearing and enduring” reading experience, this novel won a gold medal at the most recent Independent Publisher Book Awards, for the Australasian category.

MULGAN Noel Shepherd (Steele Roberts) On Anzac Day 1945, John Mulgan — Kiwi soldier, journalist, author — took his own life in a Cairo hotel bedroom. In this short, cogent, novella, Shepherd brings to life the last two years of the Man Alone writer and Military Cross recipient’s heroic war, and tragic end.

A SMALL BLUE THING Julie Hanify (Submarine) Subtitled “life on the spectrum”, this memoir bursts with energy, and the creativity of its author. The reader is drawn into the world of those whose gifts and behaviour are not what we expect. It lead me to look anew at my own life.

TALK OF TREASURE Jane Carswell (Submarine) A fascinating memoir of how to be a writer — or more simply, how to be. It’s also a possibly provocative account of the

transformation between the private interior world of reading, and the noisy exterior world of publication.

FIVE STRINGS Apirana Taylor (Anahera Press) A poignant and humorous love story between Mack, a larger-than-life street philosopher, and Puti, a former gang member, looking for something more than scraping by on the fringes of society.

HOOPLA A series from Makaro Press Space prevents me from showing more than two of these delightful and beautifully produced poetry books. HOOPLA’s aim is to entice people to buy and read poetry.

They’re published annually, in a set of three. Two of the current offerings include Wolf, by Elizabeth Morton, and Family History, by Johanna Emeney.

— Gail Woodward

the appetite

A Social Meal

T

he innovative food-to-schools program, Eat My Lunch, turns two years old on June 8. Since its launch, Eat My Lunch has delivered more than 800,000 lunches — half of them to paying customers in workplaces, who in turn have funded the other 400,000 lunches delivered free to hungry kids in 46 low decile schools in Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington.

The founders, marketers Lisa King and Iaan Buchanan, and their friend, chef/restauranteur Michael Meredith, founded the socially-driven enterprise out of King’s Mt Eden kitchen before its rapid growth drove them out of home and into commercial premises.

“Our mission at Eat My Lunch is to make sure no kids go hungry in New Zealand,” says King.

Student lunches feature a healthy sandwich, fruit and snacks, while the paid client lunches are from a menu that changes weekly. Currently, there are 20 schools on a waitlist for the lunch service.

To celebrate Eat My Lunch’s second anniversary, King and Meredith share two of their favourite recipes with THE HOBSON. So, go ahead, make your lunch, and share the love too by visiting eatmylunch.co.nz to fund a nutritious meal for a hungry child.

RARE ROAST LAMB AND ISRAELI COUSCOUS SALAD Serves 4 – 6 250g lamb rump or loin 350g Israeli/pearl couscous 60ml orange juice 90ml extra virgin olive oil 150g raisins 75ml balsamic vinegar 150g cauliflower 125g red onion 150g sundried tomatoes, finely sliced 10g mint 50g baby spinach 75g feta, crumbled 50g slivered almonds Salt & pepper Preheat oven to 220°C. Season the lamb well with salt and pepper, and roast to medium rare, this should take no longer than 20

minutes. Rest, cool and set aside.

When cool enough, slice into thin slices.

Cook the Israeli couscous as per packet instructions and when still warm, add the orange juice and olive oil. Set aside and leave to cool.

Transfer into a bowl big enough to mix the salad.

In a small container, place the raisins and balsamic vinegar. The vinegar will soften the raisins and rehydrate them as you are preparing the salad.

Cut the cauliflower into bite-sized florets, season with salt, pepper and olive oil and roast in the hot oven for 10-15 mins until golden. Cool and set aside.

Finely slice the red onion, season and roast on a high heat for 10 mins, but check after five minutes, as it can stick quickly. When the onions are soft and caramelised, set aside

Eat My Lunch co-founders Lisa King and Michael Meredith, in their Auckland kitchen HQ the hobson 45

the appetite

the new place

Gerome

and allow to cool. Finely chop the sundried tomatoes. Remove the stalks from the mint and finely chop.

When the couscous is cool enough, add the roasted cauliflower and caramelised onion, followed by the sundried tomato, mint and the raisin/balsamic mixture. Gently mix together, then garnish with the baby spinach, crumbled feta, almonds and slices of the roast lamb. The olive oil, orange juice and balsamic vinegar in this salad take the place of a dressing.

Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy on its own, or as part of a Mediterranean feast.

CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD Serves 4 For the salad 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts 250g baguette or ciabatta, sliced handful of rosemary leaves, finely chopped 90ml olive oil salt & pepper 4 slices pancetta 250g of mixed cos, romaine lettuce and radicchio 200g cherry tomatoes 4 eggs For the dressing 6 anchovy fillets, finely chopped 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced 1 ½ cups grated parmesan, plus shavings to finish salad

2 tablespoons natural unsweetened yogurt or crème fraiche 180ml olive oil 4 tablespoons lemon juice salt & pepper to taste Preheat oven to 200°C and line baking trays with baking paper.

Sprinkle chicken and sliced bread (separately) with rosemary, olive oil and salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

Place on separate trays and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the bread is crispy and golden. Once done, remove from oven and place pancetta in oven for 10 minutes until crispy.

Slice chicken, and roughly chop pancetta.

While chicken and bread is cooking, place eggs in a pot with cold water.

Bring to boil and then simmer for 5-6 minutes for medium-boiled eggs.

Remove from heat and set aside to cool before peeling and cutting in half.

For the dressing, place all ingredients in medium bowl and whisk until combined.

To assemble, toss chicken, bread, lettuce leaves and cherry tomatoes together. Top with pancetta and eggs, and finish with extra shavings of parmesan. Dress just before serving.

For more about Lisa King and Eat My Lunch, see our story in the October 2016 issue, available on our Facebook page: The Hobson Magazine. the hobson 46

I

t’s been a long time between drinks at the Parnell restaurant site that was the popular Iguacu, and is now reborn as Gerome. In the years between the former closing and Gerome opening in May, the space has been rebuilt, and makes better use of the building’s upper floor, where there’s the main dining area and a sheltered terrace, with views to the Museum.

Gerome’s menu is inspired by Greece, and celebrates NZ’s produce and seasons, so changes regularly. Our waiter advised the dishes were designed to share, which was helpful, but didn’t come close to describing the heartiness/ generosity of the portions.

Our party of three — two ominvores and a vegetarian — selected two from the “smaller” plates on the menu, and two “larger”. The first small plate delivered, flame-grilled piper with parsley mayonnaise, is reason alone to visit. It was our favourite dish of the evening. Small plate two, charred broccoli with skordalia, preserved lemon and sheep’s quark, saw the presenting of a head of broccoli. It was delicious, but “small” it wasn’t, and even for broccoli lovers, it was a lot of broc. The larger plates chosen were spit-roasted pork (“pig” on the menu) with fragrant, seasonal quince and olives; and burnt eggplant with tahini, which would be a second reason to return.

To start this Hellenic festival of food, we shared buttermilk pita with taramasalata and a tangy carrot tzatziki; had chips on the side (one menu oversight, no leafy salad) and to end, one serve of loukoumades (Greek doughnuts) with Nutella and coffee ice-cream. That really wasn’t necessary after what we had just consumed, but we had been invited to sample Gerome’s fare, so we did.

We were guests of Gerome, but if we were paying, our tab came to $191, and also included two aperitifs, a soft drink, Antipodes water and two glasses of wine. It seemed not unreasonable for a meal that could have easily fed a fourth person. — Kirsty Cameron Gerome, 269 Parnell Rd. 09 373 3883 Reservations available online at gerome.nz

the district diary

June 2017 June marks Matariki 2017. The new moon that follows the rising of the Matariki stars (a cluster within the constellation of Taurus, also known as Pleiades) signals the start of the Māori New Year.

Matariki festival events will be held across Auckland from June 10 onwards. Visit matarikifestival.org.nz for a full line-up Get involved in Local Board plans. See shapeauckland.co.nz to give feedback and see dates for Ōrākei and Waitematā ward forums. Plus, the Auckland Festival of Photography is on from June 1-24. See photographyfestival. org.nz

from 11am-3pm, to June 25. Arthaus, 228 Orakei Rd 9-10 NZ’s largest wine tasting event is back.

Winetopia takes you on a viticultural journey, tasting and buying the wares from 60 wineries between Northland and Central Otago. Shed 10, Queens Wharf, CBD. No minors, tickets from $25, iticket. co.nz, three sessions available

11 Honouring those who work for peace, the NZ Nuclear Free Zone 30th Anniversary will have music, the formation of a giant human peace symbol and plaque unveiling. The Domain, 12-2pm, free Celebrate the restoration of the St Mary’s-In-Holy Trinity organ at the St Mary’s organ recital series. Holy Trinity Cathedral, 3-4.30pm, iticket.co.nz 14 Open day at Mt Hobson Middle School, 10am12.30pm, 131 Remuera Rd. For information, call 523 1241

1 The Opera Factory presents a new series of morning concerts scheduled for the first Thursday of every month, 11am-12pm. Door sales $20 or book at admin@operafactory. com. St Mark’s Anglican Church, 95 Remuera Rd

17 Game on: the annual Grammar vs King’s College 1st XV rugby match is today at Grammar, 2.30pm kick-off Ōrākei Market – gourmet, artisan, vintage, fresh. Every second Saturday from 9am, Orakei Community Centre, 156 Kepa Rd

3 Parnell Farmers’ Market, every Saturday from 8am-12pm.

Think fresh, think local, think delicious produce. In the carpark at the Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Rd

24 Free rose pruning demonstration by the Auckland Rose Society, 1.303.30pm, Parnell Rose Gardens

5 Three cheers for HM (who was 91 on April 21) — it’s the Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday

25 Lend a hand at the Waiata Reserve community planting day. Help the Ōrākei Local Board to get rid of invasive Image from Transformation 1 and 2 by Cathy Carter, on show at Arthaus weeds and replant the stream Orakei Bay Village this month 7 banks with native species.

Gather your amis and head to Wear gumboots or closed-toe La Cigale for the Alliance Francaise Quiz 10 shoes, bring a spade and gloves. Kids Night – The Music Edition. A great night 24 hours in the life of the city: it’s the must come with an adult, free sausage of fun with prizes to be won. Quiz tickets Nikon Auckland Photo Day. Capture an sizzle afterwards. 18 Waiata Ave, 1-3pm $5, 2-course meal from $40, 8-11pm, 69 St image that reflects your Auckland: for the Georges Bay Rd details and entrant categories, including 30 groups and kids, see photographyfestival.

The SENZ Expo is NZ’s premier 9 org.nz scrapbooking, card-making and Arthaus at Orakei Bay Village officially papercraft event. Demos, displays, launches Open Waters tonight, 5pm, For a good laugh (and some clean, competitions, shopping, classes over three an exhibition of new works by artists suitable-for-everyone comedy) head days. Ellerslie Event Centre, www.senz. including Cathy Carter, Cao Xun, Alex along to St Cuthbert’s Auditorium for The co.nz for times and tickets Plumb, Victor Sarah and Trish Campbell.

Laughter Show with Amit Tandon. 7.30A satellite show of the Auckland 9.30pm, ticketbazaar.co.nz or 636 6306 Photography Festival, it’s open daily the hobson 47

the cryptic by mĀyĀ

ACROSS 1 Heron’s remorse initially rejected (5) 4 Where boiled beef and carrots might have been put before my old man (5,4) 9 Burning desire to portray borders of European republic (9) 10 Robin’s popular around the same time as her (5) 11 Nothing left? Fine (3,5) 12 Influence, for example, in personal transport (6) 14 As well Alison hasn’t got in (4) 16 Alien devours spacemen ordered to watch mechanism (10) 19 Henry edges away from Nightmare on Elm Street, withdrawing bookings (10) 20 Caesar’s off day’s endless, one thought (4) 22 First one was Adam West bound in middle

of dungeon, disclosing true identity (6) 23 See 25 Down 26 Stick to the Boss (5) 27 Relief from a pain in the backside? (9) 28 Ex-groom really disheartened to get work raising livestock (9) 29 See 22 Down DOWN 1 Promenade diamonds aboard abandoned seaplane (9) 2 Rustic Russians head to mountains (5) 3 Surely not Catwoman having regular triste with Robin? (3-3) 4 Two guys supply linen (10) 5 Picture cards match! (4) 6 Robin, the Archer’s victim, looked ridiculous (8)

7 What’s the point of a bolt? (9) 8 Initially, Laurel and Hardy sounded sweet (5) 13 Warning: Joker meeting heads of Arkham Asylum to hand over third letter (10) 15 Screen half of Rove and leading item from Seinfeld - after 8, events with cast treats (9) 17 Type of fat passed over, to put it another way (9) 18 Design musical piece for flatworms (8) 21 Pole cut into poisonous fish with strange starter: mould! (6) 22/29 across Part of Auckland where you’d find Arctic Monkey with horse (5,5) 24 Rings nightclub (5) 25/23 across Bats and round balls where players perform (4,8)

Set by Māyā. Answers will appear in our next issue (July/August 2017). Can't wait, or need help? Visit https://thehobsoncrossword.wordpress.com/

MAY CRYPTIC CROSSWORD ANSWERS Across: 1/9 Auckland writer, 10 Castellan, 11 Kidman, 12 Agincourt, 18 Feelers, 19 Idahoan, 20 Asp, 22/16/13 Carol Ann Duffy, 26 Colquhoun, 27 Coyote, 28 Moratoria, 29 Rankin, 30 Festival.

Down: 2 Urangi, 3 Kiting, 4 Abloom, 5 Dead run, 6 Braindead, 7 Stems from, 8 Orkneyan, 14 Betraying, 15 Neolithic, 16 Asa, 17 Nip, 18 Face card, 21 Show-off, 23 Equals, 24 Whoopi, 25 Auriga.

the hobson 48

g

ET into the GROOVE

ARTUSI CUCINA

1-415 REMUERA RD, VILLAGE GREEN, REMUERA

START YOUR WEEKEND WITH DJs

NATHAN HAINES & JAIMIE WEBSTER HAINES artusicucina.co.nz nathanhaines.com

ON ROTATION EVERY FRIDAY FROM 6PM

24 York Street, Parnell, Auckland 24 York is a very classy high end boutique development with timeless European design to be built in a prime pocket of the rapidly changing Parnell area.

Using the best products available including steel joinery, hardwood floors and stone cladding to the exterior the six exclusive residences are destined to set new levels of excellence in apartment living.

The generous spaces and advanced technology make these offerings a must to consider if you are looking for the ultimate urban environment.

2 Bedrooms from $2,195,000, 3 Bedrooms from $2,795,000 and 4 Bedrooms from $5,500,000.

nzsothebysrealty.com

nzsothebysrealty.com/NZE10717

Ross Hawkins M +64 274 720 577 ross.hawkins@sothebysrealty.com Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Browns Real Estate Limited (licensed under the REAA 2008) MREINZ.