The Hobson Magazine October 2019

october 2019

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The October Issue, No. 62 8

29

36

the editor’s letter

the plan

the end of the line

Hamish Firth holds out some hope for the reset of KiwiBuild

The railway carriage that was once part of an infamous Parnell bar is still a hospitable spot

10 the columnists

13 the village The Erebus Memorial planned for Parnell concerns, remembering the contribution of artist-teacher-cleric the Rev Dr John Kinder 200 years on, muddy walks, some memories from our retiring local board chairs, and more

22, 23 the councillors Despatches from Ōrākei ward councillor Desley Simpson, and a Hobson sign-off from the Waitematā ward’s Mike Lee

26 the politicians MPs David Seymour and Paul Goldsmith share their updates

28 the investment To avoid a liquidity trap, the Government needs to get a move on infrastructure investment, says Warren Couillault

30

40

the teacher There’s good life lessons in failure sometimes — if only parents would see it the same way, writes Judi Paape

31

the heritage Historian Joanna Boileau uncovers the charitable, and architectural, past of a soon-to-go local building

the second act

42

We all have the narratives we carry forward as part of our life story. But what if they’re holding you back, asks Sandy Burgham?

the magpie It’s Father’s Day on Sunday September 1, and the Magpie has made a hot list for daddies cool

32

44

the sound

the district diary

Andrew Dickens asks where are the top gongs for our popular music exponents?

What’s going on in October

46 the cryptic

32

Our puzzle, by Māyā

the suburbanist “On yer bike” — Tommy Honey’s very early life as a telegram boy for the Post Office sees him lament what the oncecentral institution has become

33 the candidate We talk to Waitematā coucillor Mike Lee on the eve of the election about what comes next

Yes, even Mahé needs a navigator.

J U S T N O T O N T H E W AT E R

GUIDING, GROWING, AND P R O T E C T I N G YO U R W E A LT H

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issue 62, october 2019 Editor & Publisher Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz Art Direction & Production Stephen Penny design@thehobson.co.nz News Editor Mary Fitzgerald maryfitzgerald.thehobson@gmail.com Writers This Issue Dr Joanna Boileau, Kirsty Cameron, Mary Fitzgerald, Justine Williams Sub-editor Dawn Adams Columnists Sandy Burgham, Warren Couillault, Andrew Dickens, Hamish Firth, Paul Goldsmith, Tommy Honey, Mike Lee, Māyā, Judi Paape, David Seymour, Desley Simpson

s this issue of The Hobson debuts, postal ballots will also be arriving for the local elections. Hats off to those who nominate for local boards. Reporting on local activities, I think we can be fair judges of the work put in, and much of it is fantastic efforts by people who truly care about their community, and are prepared to give up their own time for the greater good. If you don’t vote, you’re missing the opportunity to participate in the decisions that directly affect our neighbourhoods. Our September issue featured questions and answers with most of the candidates standing for local boards, so have a look at that to see if it helps clarify your thinking on what boxes to tick. (It’s also available online at issuu.com/TheHobson.)

In this edition we also say good-bye to our regular contributor, councillor Mike Lee. With the redrawing of the Waitematā ward to balance out the population surge in the CBD, Parnell is now part of the Ōrākei council ward, so our Parnell (and Grafton and Newmarket) readers will no longer be represented by the councillor for Waitematā and Gulf. Confusingly, Parnell stays as part of the Waitematā Local Board. Anyway, Mike Lee appears twice in this issue, his final column on page 26, and further on, an interview with him to mark his departure from this side of the city (page 33).

Locally, the closure of the Remuera post office has been a mostlysore talking point around the town. I don’t know about you, but every time I needed to use its services, it was pleasantly busy, often with a fair few people queuing. Why Remuera got the chop remains known only to NZ Post but it’s part of its national shrinking retail footprint. It got Tommy Honey thinking about the central role the local post office used to play in the community, and his proud, if poorly-paid, part in it. Don’t miss his bittersweet take, on page 32.

Photographers Stephen Penny Cover Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa, photographed

by John Kinder in 1863. Reproduced by permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-019840; F. See the story about the Kinder bicentenary, page 18.

THE HOBSON is published 10 times a year by The Hobson Limited, PO Box 37490 Parnell, Auckland 1151. www.thehobson.co.nz F: The Hobson Magazine I: @The Hobson 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, see The Hobson Magazine 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.

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

The Hobson welcomes letters to the editor. This arrived in our inbox from Gael Baldock, who is an independent candidate for the Waitematā Local Board.

Beware Parnell and Newmarket, dangerous cycleways are heading your way. Cycleways could be well designed and safe, but Auckland Transport is choosing first of all to build cycleways in the worst locations —our main arterial roads instead of the quietest, shortest, flattest roads and through parks, where it would be the safest and most pleasant for cyclists to travel.

The Karangahape Rd cycleway hasn’t considered the 25 per cent of the population with mobility issues. The design places parking on the outside of an island, requiring people to have to navigate a curb either side of the cycleway to get to the footpath.

The design reduces K Rd to a single lane, in the main access way for ambulances to Auckland Hospital’s A&E, leaving cars nowhere to go to get out of the way. Listen to the people, the retailers and users of K Rd. Postpone the works contract. Set it out in moveable road furniture and road marking, and trial it for a year before digging up the road and cutting down trees.

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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 Remuera resident Warren Couillault (The Investment) is an executive director and the major shareholder of Hobson Wealth Partners, a private wealth advisory group. He is also a manager of a registered KiwiSaver scheme.

Andrew Dickens (The Sound) is the host of the afternoon show on Newstalk ZB. For 13 years he was the breakfast host on Classic Hits. 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 Mary Fitzgerald is The Hobson’s News Editor. A Mainlander who transplanted to Remuera 15 years ago, she is passionate about hearing and telling our stories.

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.

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

A Parnell resident, her column appears bi-monthly.

Contributing writer Wayne Thompson is a former The New Zealand Herald journalist, covering Auckland news. He has been a resident of Parnell for 34 years.

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

the hobson 10

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Town & Around

Artist renders of the winning design for the National Erebus Memorial, to be constructed in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, Parnell.

Inset, the design will feature names of the deceased; steel snowflakes will be presented to the families.

A CRITICAL RECEPTION The announcement, and then the revelation of the winning design, of the National Erebus Memorial continues to concern Parnell residents about its size and siting in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, adjacent to the Parnell Rose Gardens. Residents have become increasingly vocal, citing concerns over consultation, the loss of more grass, and potential for damage to the roots of an adjacent pōhutukawa. Recently, a flyer was letterboxed to Parnell homes, asking residents to “Save our Taonga” and protect the 170-year old pōhutukawa close to the monument site.

“Our concerns are that the scale of the memorial overwhelms the natural landscape, relaxation and chidren playing oriented nature of the park,” says Parnell Community Committee chair Luke Niue, who’s been fielding calls from locals about the monument. (The PCC did not circulate the flyer).

“The design incorporates a new path, in front of an existing path, as an integral component and therefore the footprint of the memorial covers the entire northern grassed area of the park, in front of the giant pōhutukawa where picnickers often have collected. We remain very disappointed with the scale of what will be built, and construction impact.”

Niue has met with representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage (MCH), who are leading the national memorial project, which will honour the 257 people who lost their lives in the 1979 tragedy. The ministry has said the work will not be scaled back, but it will consider mitigation options to reduce the impact of the new pathway. “It’s a significant impediment to the summer enjoyment of this part of our iconic public reserve,” says Niue.

Niue says locals have been shut out of the process that has seen the memorial get to this point, where he understands contracts to start the build have been signed. “It’s clear the local board has chosen not to involve groups such as ours and merely rubber-

stamped all that has come out of Wellington. Ditto Mayor Goff.”

Expected to be unveiled next year, the winning design, ‘Te Paerangi Ataata – Sky Song’ by Studio Pacific Architecture was selected from six concept designs submitted to MCH. Te Paeeangi Ataata comprises a high-walled walkway extending out from the slope towards Judges Bay and is eight metres at its highest point. It is expected to be unveiled next May. The cost is estimated at $3 million and is funded, along with future maintenance, by MCH. Ian Maxwell, Auckland Council director of community and customer services, says council started working with the MCH last year to identify a site that would be appropriate and suitable for the siting of the memorial. “The site needed to meet a range of criteria including accessibility, could host both formal and informal events and was compatible with use of adjacent space.”

He says the Waitematā Local Board in principle approved the memorial siting, subject to the design blending with the natural environment and protecting view shafts, maintaining ‘open space values’ and accommodating current use of the park, while also increasing usage. Maxwell says that while there wasn’t public consultation, MCH worked closely with the local board, and has also met with representatives of Parnell Heritage, the PCC and individuals. An application from MCH for landowner approval — it’s council-owned and is not being ‘sold’ in any way to the Crown as some residents have feared — is currently being processed along with a resource consent application.

“The project planning has been thorough, particularly with regard to protecting all heritage and landscape values, including trees, of the site and these will continue to be considered as MCH works towards detailed design.”

For their part, Waitematā Local Board chair Pippa Coom says

the hobson 13

the village

the board is currently waiting on advice on the details “that will hopefully take into account the community concerns that have been raised to date with the MCH. The board has considered the memorial in the context of it being a national monument of nationwide significance commemorating one of NZs worst tragedies.

We feel it’s an honour for a Parnell park to host this significant memorial. The chosen design has met all the criteria that was set by the local board, including that the memorial is consistent with the heritage and manu whenua values of the park.”

Locals should have been consulted, maintains long-time Parnell resident Anne Tattersfield. “Although MCH has said to us on two occasions that there is no going back on the approved site and design, I am unhappy accepting their plan without consultation,” she says. “The size and scale of the memorial is absolutely out of kilter with the site. And the excavation and the path-works mean it is not possible to put in the foundations and not damage the tree roots of the pōhutukawa in that area.”

Ian Maxwell says there is no risk to the pōhutukawa tree at the edge of the memorial site, and that council has been at pains to protect the trees. “Protection of heritage trees in the vicinity of the memorial has been of paramount consideration throughout the design process. The memorial plans have been reviewed by an independent arborist as well as council’s arborist.”

Parnell historian Rendell McIntosh says that while he was initially opposed to the monument’s siting, “the more I thought about it, the more I realised it is a fitting location.” McIntosh likes the proximity to Teal Park, on Ports of Auckland land on Tamaki Dr, where Air New Zealand had its origins, with its flying boats. “You can still see the marker poles in the harbour which crew taking off and landing in the flying boats used as guidance, before radar.”

McIntosh also points to other memorials in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, such as the Korean War memorial and Dutch fighters. What does concern him is that there does not appear to be an overall strategy or management plan for the park. “Over the years items and plants have just been added without any appropriate long-term planning.”

While discussions are ongoing about pathways to and from the Erebus monument, it won’t be going anywhere else. Council’s Ian Maxwell says that no other sites are being considered for the memorial because it has been designed specifically for Dove-Myer

Robinson Park and “the design works to enhance, rather than detract from, the amenity and landscape values.”

— Mary Fitzgerald p

AND IT'S GOODNIGHT FROM ME Another local government term is coming to a close with this month’s local body elections. Both Waitematā Local Board Chair Pippa Coom and Ōrākei Local Board Chair Kit Parkinson are not standing for local board election — Coom is putting her hand up for council — which will mean new chairs in the next three-year term. Ōrākei Local Board Chair Kit Parkinson has been with the board for nine years, three as a member and then deputy chair in 2012, and chair from May 2018, taking over from Colin Davis halfway through the term. The independent director is also standing as a candidate for the Auckland District Health Board. He plans to continue to be involved in some of the community initiatives already started in Ōrākei, and will be part of an initiative cleaning up the Hauraki Gulf.

To his achievements while in office, Parkinson says he has enjoyed the environmental enhancement aspect of chairing the board. “We live in one of the consistently most desirable areas of Auckland. I love our harbour, our maunga and the amazing biodiversity on our doorstep. Enhancing and protecting the ecology and biodiversity in the area is something I want to see future governors keep focus on.”

Some of the key board projects still in development that will be managed by the new board include the Glen Innes to Tamaki Dr Shared Pathway, the Hobson Bay walkway, artificial hockey pitches at Colin Maiden Park, Okahu Bay restoration, a new community centre for Stonefields, the Meadowbank Community Centre redevelopment, and the mooted redevelopment of Remuera’s Clonbern Rd carpark.

“I’ve learnt that disseminating power into the community wherever possible is vital,” says Parkinson. “Passionate people get more done far quicker than large organisations. When you give people the tools and support to get stuck in, the whole community benefits. Our community is wonderful, we have so many skilled, knowledgeable and passionate people here. Auckland Council

Parnell Deserves a VOICE! For the last 9 years, there has not been a Parnell resident on the Board. This has been to our detriment! When elected I will be the strong voice for Parnell to Make things Work and Get things Done!

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the hobson 14

needs to find ways of enabling them to use their skills to help improve Auckland, a city I’m proud to call home.”

The speed at which council moves and the cost of achieving desired outcomes have been what Parkinson says have challenged him most in his role. “The speed at which Auckland Council can achieve project completion takes far too long, even for simple projects. We need to clear away bureaucracy and enable public works to proceed quickly in parks and reserves and council-owned property.”

As Parkinson prepares to step down, he reflects that decisionmaking has been a key lesson. “My current favourite quote is one from Winston Churchill who once said “You have enemies? Good.

That means you’ve stood up for something sometime in your life”.

In my chair role the context of this quote is that sometimes you have to make decisions that are best for the community, and not just a small group of people.”

Across town, Pippa Coom has been on the Waitematā Local Board for nine years and served as chair since 2016, after two terms as deputy to Shale Chambers (who is also stepping down at the election). She is standing as City Vision’s candidate as the next councillor for the Waitematā and Gulf ward, which pits her against the incumbent, Mike Lee, who is running as an independent (see Lee’s column on page 24). Coom’s background is corporate law and her community involvement goes back to her school days at Auckland Girls’ Grammar, where she was a founding member of the then-Auckland City Youth Council.

Auckland is a great place, she says, “because of its diversity of activities and places within easy reach from free events, amazing places to eat, cultural institutions, to bush walks, stunning beaches and the Gulf islands.”

Coom reflects on what she has learned at the helm. “These key lessons are important to me because I keep them in mind when approaching every issue or decision. I’ve learned that building relationships and trust across the community takes time. I always try to listen first and come to every issue and new challenge from a position of humility and curiosity. Another learning is that everyone approaches an issue with a different perspective or world view – the trick is to try to understand what that is. I have learned to acknowledge every constituent who gets in touch whatever the issue and to close the loop.“ Like Parkinson, she’s come to realise that decision-making

EST 1980

the village

YOU GO, RI GIRLS

Congratulations to the Remuera Intermediate girls’ futsal (indoor, five-a-side football) team, who finished in the top four at the national AIMS intermediate schools games at Mount Maunganui last month. The combined Year 7 and 8 team included members of the Y7 team which won the Auckland central zone competition.

The girls organised their own sponsorship to cover their trip costs, team hoodies, accommodation and entry fees — key supporters were Harveys Real Estate Papatoetoe, Hup Soccer Skills, Deep Biotech, Westferry Property Services, The Hobson and Jack Lum’s, who gave the girls enough fruit and vegetables to last the week.

Pictured at AIMS from left to right, Nina Brown, Christelle McGuire, Mollie Drumm, Nina Taylor, Kaizea Miller, Putri Ardana, Augustine Malcolm, Anika Todd. p doesn’t always make everyone happy. “Another key lesson I’ve taken on board is that leadership sometimes requires making tough decisions for the collective wellbeing of the community rather than listening to the nosiest people in the room.”

Coom says that the achievements in the last term have been a collective effort from the board. “I’m most proud of the achievements where I’ve played a part in making things happen, through knowing how to navigate council processes and determined advocacy. Unlocking funding for new paths and car parks in the Domain, helping to secure a $5 million Auckland Council contribution to the City Mission’s HomeGround Housing and Social Services Project, and delivering the Parnell Plan in partnership with the community are all things I am proud to have to been a part of.”

Projects underway but unfinished “will be for the incoming chair to lead these, including the refurbishment of the Plunket building in Heard Park, the Waipapa Valley Greenway connecting Newmarket to Parnell via the old Parnell train tunnel, and the upgrade [the Parnell side of] the Hobson Bay walkway.

Echoing Parkinson, she also notes that the biggest challenge in the chair is the pace at which council works. “It can be very slow to respond sometimes. It is a big challenge trying to push along projects for timely delivery to meet community expectations.”

Overall, Coom says, “It has been a huge privilege to represent the city centre and central suburbs of Auckland and to have been on a local board for nine years that has built a reputation for being effective, approachable and brave. There is always something interesting happening and a new challenge. I’ve been fortunate to have met awesome, passionate people over this time and to have been part of many exciting events, activities and projects.”

— Mary Fitzgerald p

AND MORE GREAT GIRLS

Baradene student Ella Farrugia, right, with a new friend in Timor-Leste.

A group of 12 Baradene College students went off-grid recently as the first participants in the school’s social science faculty’s Global Perspective Programme, held over 11 days in Timor-Leste. The Year 12 and 13 students left their phones and digital devices behind in Auckland to be able to fully engage with the aim of the visit, to create a meaningful, mutually beneficial community partnership.

Led by the Australia-based social enterprise organisation, Destination Dreaming, the journey saw Baradene begin what is planned to be a long-term relationship with CTID Canossian College in Baucau. Guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development

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Goals, Baradene social science head of faculty Brent Coutts says the UN’s goal 17 was the specific focus — ‘to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development’.

“The fundamental core of good partnerships is the ability to bring together individuals from different backgrounds in ways that can together achieve co-operation and collaboration, and make an impact on each other’s lives,” says Coutts. “This is where the magic happens.”

As well as working together in the classroom on specific projects, the two groups of students shared a cultural night, sharing songs and dance.

“The love and friendships I formed with the women at CTID, as well as my learning about Timorese culture and their way of living, has made me more grateful for the things I have and also given me a new perspective,” says Baradene student Francesa Holdcroft of her experience. “It’s helped me see my own life through new eyes.

“I saw and appreciated how close we came to the girls, the connections we formed in only six days, due to the genuine human connection that is lost when a society is always on their phone.” p

ONE BIG, BOGGY MESS That’s what some residents are calling the upgraded Ōrākei Basin pathway, particularly the part running along the grassy area at the foot of the cliff from the boat ramp to the Auckland Water Ski Club.

The path redevelopment was officially opened by the Ōrākei Local Board in June, and while the board is pleased with the work, the Remuera Residents Association (RRA) is not. “We raised concerns last August, during a Remuera Residents’ public meeting, about the proposed design,” says RRA representative Lynley Olsen, who lives near the basin and was been involved for many years in its management as a community representative. “As part of a resolution, we requested the local board suspend the project, reopen consultation, and redesign the pathway.”

Olsen says the new path was installed without adequate consultation with residents and that the problems predicted last year have come to fruition. A main concern is that the grass alongside the path does not drain, and is causing boggy conditions.

A loss of reserve space will also have an impact on recreation events, like waka ama competitions, which are held at the basin over summer.

But board chair Kit Parkinson says since the work has been completed, he has had “reports of pleasure with the outcome from constituents”.

“The local board listened to the issues raised by Lynley via the RRA and had engineers confirm and change some parts of the design – one example is an issue raised at the time of too many bridges, so we resolved this, and there are very few timber bridges in the final produced path.

“We have other reserves in the ward that have ponds on them with the current influx of rain, but this reserve and engineered solution is working satisfactorily.”

The board is planning for a public celebration open day to mark the work. — Mary Fitzgerald p

HANDS UP FOR THE TRUST? The Parnell Trust is one of Auckland’s largest providers of community programmes on behalf of council, programmes for children and early childhood care. Outside of the many classes and activities run within the Parnell Community Centre at the Jubilee Building, there is also the popular, weekly Parnell Farmers’ Market, and the childcare centres at Gladstone Park and Glanville Tce. The trust will hold its 2019 AGM at 6.15pm on Tuesday October 22 at the Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Rd, and all are welcome to attend. RSVPs would be appreciated for catering: contact danielle@ parnell.org.nz.

The trust’s board is made up of eight volunteer trustees connected with the ‘community of interest’ the trust serves. With several members coming to the end of their terms (a maximum of three x three years), the trust is keen to hear from people who may be interested in joining the board. There’s a few key competencies that are needed to keep the wheels running smoothly in the next term and beyond. For more information, contact Parnell Trust chief executive, Lyn Fox: lyn@parnell.org.nz p

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the village

Above, Kinder, seated centre (and right, in later years), was the first headmaster of Auckland's Church of England Grammar School, which was erected in 1856 near the corner of Ayr St and Parnell Rd, then called Manukau Rd. The school eventually closed in 1893 and the building was demolished in 1927.

CELEBRATING KINDER Parnell’s Kinder House Society is marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of artist, teacher and cleric John Kinder with a series of events and exhibitions to mark his legacy.

The society is partnering with St John’s Theological College and with the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki for several special exhibitIons — Reverend Dr Kinder was principal of the former, and as an accomplished artist and photographer, has work held in the collections of the latter.

David Seymour MP for Epsom

(and Mt Eden, Newmarket, Parnell and Remuera) To contact me for an appointment please call 09 522 7464 or email mpepsom@parliament.govt.nz

Epsom Electorate Office Level 2, 27 Gillies Avenue, Newmarket Promoted by David Seymour, MP for Epsom, 27 Gillies Avenue, Newmarket

the hobson 20

Left, the stone 'Headmaster's House' designed by Frederick Thatcher is now known as Kinder House. Below, noted iwi leader and King movement proponent Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa (Ngati Haua) photographed by his close friend John Kinder in January 1863. Kinder and his wife, Celia, stayed with Tamihana on their honeymoon. Kinder's photo was used on the cover of the London Illustrated News not long after.

Images courtesy Kinder House.

Born in London on September 17, 1819, Kinder was a keen artist from an early age. After studying maths, classics and theology at Cambridge, he graduated with an MA and became an Anglican priest. NZ’s Anglican bishop, George Augustus Selwyn, offered him the position of headmaster of the newly-established Church of England Grammar School in Auckland and in July 1855, he sailed for New Zealand.

Kinder, his mother and sister, lived in the stone Gothic Revival headmaster’s house, now known as Kinder House, at 2 Ayr St, Parnell — the grammar school was over the road. As well as continuing painting and drawing, Kinder developed his skills in the relatively new art of photography, mostly of landscapes and architecture, though his portraits were also remarkable.

Bicentenary events have included the release of limited edition of stamps featuring Kinder’s portrait by Gottfried Lindauer, which is in the collection of St John’s College. His artworks, monographs and related emphemera are also on display on the mezzanine on the Auckland Art Gallery.

For more information about the bicentenary, see Kinder House on Facebook: kinder.org or email info@kinder.org.nz.

Kinder House, 2 Ayr St, Parnell, is open Wednesday-Sundays, midday to 3pm. p

Caleb Probine, Alumni Cambridge Award Winner, 2018 > Top in NZ: A-Levels > Top in NZ: Chemistry > High Achievement: Mathematics

Guided tours every Wednesday 9.30am the hobson 21

the councillors

Mike Lee

I

am standing again for council – as an independent for Waitematā and Gulf. It won’t be easy. This time I am up against challengers from the political machines of the left (City Vision) and the right (C&R). But regardless of how I fare, sadly this will be my last column as your Waitematā councillor.

The decision to radically change the ward boundaries of Waitematā and Gulf was made last year by the mayor and council, supported by the Waitematā Local Board, despite an overwhelming number — 88 per cent — of public submissions against. Readers may recall this was also against my advice, based on my independent research, which found the changes to be unnecessary and based on a misreading of the legislation and its intent, especially around communities of interest. But from this election, Parnell, Newmarket and Grafton will be in the Ōrākei ward, yet confusingly, still within the Waitematā Local Board area.

Anyway, it has been an honour and a pleasure to represent these communities. My wife Jenny and I lived in Parnell for several years and we loved it. Newmarket was great too. Late last year, planning to retire, we moved back to Waiheke.

However I have since been prevailed upon to stand one more time for council by members of the public who believe my experience is needed in these testing times. This is a strange election, held in an atmosphere of growing unease at the way the Super City is going. I was to hear this first-hand at a meeting in August at the Jubilee Building, organised by Epsom MP David Seymour, who thoughtfully gave me the opportunity to say farewell to the local people, some of them former neighbours.

But I heard from the audience and David himself fears that council finances are being seriously mismanaged and ordinary ratepayers’ rights are being over-ridden by an all-powerful council/ CCO bureaucracy, with mayor Phil Goff and too many councillors and local board members going along with it all.

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As for the mayoralty contest, while there is widespread disenchantment with Phil Goff, I didn’t find much enthusiasm for his challenger John Tamihere either. Tamihere’s candidacy hasn’t been helped by his bizarre pronouncements about the harbour bridge and selling Ports of Auckland and Watercare.

Towards the end of the Parnell meeting a woman who runs a business on High St, announced that she was fed up with Goff. “I don’t like John Tamihere or his track record – but I intend to vote for John Tamihere,” she said. There was momentary silence in the room as we all reflected on this.

It seems this sort of discussion is taking place all over Auckland.

In a recent series of opinion pieces in the NZ Herald, senior writer John Roughan deplored the loss of Auckland’s local government, putting much of the blame on the corporate model given to the Super City at its creation. Roughan observed that this model and the sheer size of the council has made genuine local government in Auckland a thing of the past. Roughan evidently draws not much comfort from either mayoral candidate and instead proposed another solution: Auckland councillors stepping up to take more responsibility in the governing of Auckland.

“So how can we change it?” he wrote. “There might yet be time for enough candidates to get together and promise that if elected they will take control of their agenda. They need to declare they will not spend most of their days in the council chamber wading through windy reports of no particular consequence. They will organise themselves into smaller committees, call for reports on things they want to know, meet once a week and spend more of their time with constituents. They will assign themselves a portfolio and get alongside staff . . . reporting results to the council.

I hoped Phil Goff might do something like this. I thought he’d be appalled to find he’d become mayor of a staff-driven organisation . . . Next year the Super City will be 10. National, having set it up, should admit its mistake and put a review in its platform for next year’s election . . . ” I completely agree. What happens next is in the hands of voters, who have a chance to send a message about what they think about what is happening to their city. They may just follow the realpolitik of the businesswoman from High St. But from me, your councillor since 2010 — a kiss and a wave and it’s goodbye.

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

Desley Simpson

I

write this as my first term as your Ōrākei ward councillor draws to a close. As I look back over the almost three years, it’s been both a privilege and a challenge to serve you around the Town Hall table.

I’ll start with the good news. This term we started a new valuefor -money programme which has now realised $270 million of efficiencies (if you read my election flyer I’ve said $260m, but post-printing it’s increased). I know many of you think Auckland Council wastes money and I’m not denying that, but we have set up a programme that goes further than the legislative requirements set by the former government, and are tangibly delivering efficiencies.

On top of that, we have increased our savings targets from that of last term’s council. In fact, our Long-Term Plan funding has a savings increase of $41m more than the last council, for the same period. All against a background of record investment, catching up on historical under-investment in infrastructure, debt constraints and financial pressure from population growth.

Keeping our green space while intensification occurs is also important. This term we have bought/developed 67 new parks (one in our Ōrākei ward), invested strongly in improving water quality and delivered many environmental initiatives.

Keeping the control in the council-controlled organisations (CCOs) has been a challenge. I was the only councillor to put up 10 resolutions to keep Auckland Transport more accountable to the people they serve, including requiring them to report on congestion, which currently costs residents and business approximately $1 billion each year in lost productivity. I have moved a resolution to review how we can make CCOs work better with their political ‘masters’ – that will be a key piece of work and it’s developing now.

Locally, for the first time we have approved funding towards the Ōrākei Local Board’s priority project, local links to the shared path

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through the Pourewa Valley. We have had regional investment into our ward for pest plant and animal eradication — we are now pretty much possum free. We have new sportsfields at College Rifles, Shore Rd Reserve and Colin Maiden Park which gives us a huge overall increase in playable times.

As a councillor, I have also been able to approve increased local transport funding so the local board can deliver projects to make it safer and easier to get around, funded improvements to Tamaki Dr, increased the water quality of our beaches and waterways, and have approved building a new recycling centre for our central area, to name but a few examples.

But there is still a lot of ‘not so good news’ when it comes to Auckland Council, and a lot of it is core council business which needs to be done better. I’m sure like me, you are well aware of it.

Nothing can be done without the support of others and key to this is our mayor. There is much debate about our mayoral candidates — some say we don’t have much of a choice and the front-runners are as bad as each other.

I’ve obviously only experienced working with one of them.

Mayor Goff has always listened to my point of view. He’s supported me on delivering the value-for-money programme, increasing savings targets, improving Auckland Transport’s behaviour (he seconded all my resolutions and called them out when they didn’t front at the huge St Heliers public meeting). He also helped me keep 200 public carparks at the Clonbern Rd carpark site — 10 per cent more than what’s there now — for any future development.

After allowing me to sit down with his staff to explain the negative impacts of the freedom camping process and report, he supported me and made the unusual move of writing his own paper against staff recommendations, backing our community and achieving the best outcome for our ward, and for Auckland.

After five ‘meet the candidates’ events for councillors and local board candidates, and two mayoral debates in our ward, it will be up to you to decide on one mayor, one ward councillor and seven grassroots local board members.

Please exercise your democratic right and vote. Auckland’s future is in your hands.

Desley Simpson is the Councillor for Auckland representing the Ōrākei ward

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the politicians

Paul Goldsmith

David Seymour

O

I

Paul Goldsmith is a National list MP based in Epsom

David Seymour is the MP for Epsom

ut and about, one of the more frequent comments I hear is: “C’mon, money’s cheap. We should be investing big time in infrastructure”. Most people in Auckland can see that high levels of congestion and ageing infrastructure are holding back the city’s productivity and increasing the cost of doing business.

Meantime, sitting in traffic reduces our quality of life, as do creaky wastewater and stormwater systems that foul our beaches.

The previous National Government significantly ramped up investment – think of the Waterview Tunnel, the City Rail Loop now under construction, the electrification of the trains and the roll out of Ultra-Fast Broadband. But we should be turning up the dial.

We’ll make progress if we do three things: 1. Develop a long-term infrastructure pipeline that doesn’t chop and change all the time. 2.

Focus on reducing the cost structure of infrastructure provision in New Zealand, so we can get more for our money. 3. Innovate with funding mechanisms, so we’re relying less on Crown and council balance sheets.

On the first, sadly, we’re going backwards, particularly in transport. The Labour/NZ First/Greens Government’s major action has been to cancel or postpone a dozen major transport projects — several of which were ready to go — and replace them with projects that are not ready to go, and won’t be for some time to come.

We would be progressing work on the East West Link, on Mill Rd (a main route south of Auckland), the next slice of the motorway north, from Wellsford to Warkworth; as well as some critical public transport jobs, such as a third rail line in Auckland to allow freight to move without disrupting commuter trains. Instead of those road projects (and many others) the government favours a slow tram down Dominion Rd, which is yet to have any detailed design work or go through procurement or consenting processes.

So over the next couple of years there will be less investment in infrastructure. Budget 2019 showed over $3 billion has been shaved off projected infrastructure spending since predictions made just six months earlier. This has been driven by ideology – a point blank refusal to build new roads. Phil Twyford, the Transport Minister, believes the country has “overinvested” in roads and his associate, Julie-Ann Genter, talks of not giving in to “car fascists”.

Ideological lurching links to the second point; reducing the cost structure of infrastructure provision. One of the best ways to get more bangs for our bucks is to have a clear, long-term pipeline that can attract global players to compete and encourage all players to invest in skills and machinery. The lack of infrastructure projects in the pipeline will lead to much of our construction capabilities moving to Australia. Reform of the RMA and reassessment of some of the other regulations that are adding huge costs to projects is, of course, also critical. If the current government presents sensible suggestions we will support them.

As for innovation in funding, the previous National Government made some progress with PPPs (public private partnerships), SPVs (special purpose vehicles). We want to go further here.

As a country, we’ve been too conservative in the past. We’ll be open to funding innovation where it gets quality long-lasting infrastructure built more quickly. It’s time to lift our aspirations in infrastructure so we can get on with things.

t’s the economy, stupid. Bill Clinton’s famous line brought him to power in 1992. George Bush Sr had seemed unbeatable in the wake of Operation Desert Storm. Declining economic confidence took Bush from a peak approval rating of 89 per cent down to 29 per cent, in only eighteen months.

Something similar could be happening here. Not only are the polls moving, but economic security is becoming an issue for the first time in years. I’ve heard more and more people voice concern about what happens next. I believe it’s time to return to serious economic policy discussion. It’s always been unfair how the economy affects political fortunes, when so much of it is beyond the short-term control of politicians. Governments of all stripes have taken undue credit and unfair blame at different times.

The previous government claimed sound economic management, but anybody can sail downwind. If you start with a financial crisis, chances are there will be a recovery. It also helped that from 2008, terms of trade rose faster than almost any other developed country.

While calamitous, having to rebuild a major city gave licence for the government to borrow. At one point, in 2011, the government ran a deficit equal to an eye-watering nine per cent of GDP. Billions of dollars from the global reinsurance industry didn’t hurt either.

Simultaneously, immigration policy fueled enormous growth in aggregate economic growth, even if per capita growth was decidedly less impressive.That’s not to take away from the previous government’s economic management, I was part of it. But a healthy dose of realism about the decade following the GFC is a good entrée to thinking about where we are now.

The current government inherited what now looks like the tail end of the longest economic growth cycle since WWII. That’s likely to hurt them no matter what they do. But it shouldn’t absolve them from blame for a series of disastrous economic policy decisions.

It’s almost as though they are trying to find out how much of a beating an economy can take before it recedes. Whatever you may think of banning oil and gas exploration, doing it without consultation or even a proper cabinet process sent heads shaking globally. Ditto the ban on foreign home buyers. The threat of a capital gains tax. Relentless minimum wage increases not only affect workers on or close to the minimum wage, but set off a ripple effect.

The government’s economic policy seems difficult to fathom until you read this sentence: “If a country has been growing economically for 30 years, yet large numbers of its citizens haven’t felt the benefit, is it really moving forward?” That was the Prime Minister in Melbourne earlier this year. Nobody is opposed to shared prosperity, but the ‘if’ at the beginning of the sentence is too casual. There’s no law saying the economy must grow. A government that neglects growth to achieve equity will leave the country with neither, and global headwinds will be all the harder to navigate if it continues.

Economic headwinds could become political tailwinds for the opposition, as they were for Clinton. But, if there is a new government after next year’s election, it won’t have the luxury of sailing downwind economically. Debates about what government owns, how it regulates, and the quality and scope of its spending with the attendant impost on taxpayers, will have to be had. Not easy questions, but we should be preparing ourselves to have them.

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the investment

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LICENSED AGENT REA 2008

s we all know, interest rates are very, very low all around the world and in many instances – particularly in Euroland – interest rates are actually negative. As I wrote last month, I never thought I’d see the NZ Official Cash Rate at 1.0 per cent in my lifetime. I just saw a two year fixed mortgage rate offered

by Westpac at 3.59 per cent. At Hobson Wealth, we were recently swamped with client demand for a corporate bond issue with a seven-year term and an annual coupon of just over 3 per cent.

Wow! Interest rates are low in Europe, Australia and NZ because there is no inflation and economic activity is either weak, very weak, stagnant or declining depending on the geography or country. More importantly though — and the point of this article — is business and consumer outlooks and confidence levels, which are unequivocally, broadly and consistently weak, negative and pessimistic (apart from the US which is performing well, seemingly out of sync with everywhere else). And that negative outlook is a worry for governments and central bankers alike.

The central bankers will be concerned about what is known as a liquidity trap. A liquidity trap is when monetary policy becomes ineffective because of very low interest rates and consumers preferring to essentially sit on cash, rather than spend at the shops or invest in higher-yielding investments. Under normal conditions, ie when interest rates are not as low as they are today and confidence levels are buoyant, an increase in money supply and/or a fall in interest rates, would typically cause an increase in spending, consumption and investment and higher bond prices.

In economic parlance, when the rate of interest is very low, the demand curve for money (or the liquidity preference curve) becomes completely elastic. Essentially, interest rates have fallen enough and any further declines are not stimulatory. And when this occurs the warning lights for the central bankers which had been slowly flashing amber suddenly start glowing a very bright red! If central bankers cannot stimulate the economy by cutting interest rates and/or increasing the money supply, what can they do? They’re trying to pump up activity to avoid recession and depression, and if low interest rates aren’t working, what then?

Because for sure, we all want to avoid recessions and depressions.

There are a number of ways to help an economy come out of a liquidity trap scenario. None of these may work at all or in isolation, but may help induce the necessary confidence in consumers to start spending/investing again instead of saving.

Perversely, the central bank could raise interest rates, which may lead people to invest more of their money, rather than hoard it.

Engineer (somehow) a big drop in prices. When this happens, people just can't help themselves from spending money. The lure of lower prices becomes too attractive, and savings are used to take advantage of those low prices.

And here’s the big one about which I have previously written — increasing government spending. When the government does this, it implies that the government is committed and confident in the economy. This approach also fuels job growth, spending and investment. I can think of a few infrastructure projects we desperately need that would enable this approach: motorways, bridges, train tracks, a new port, etc, etc.

So, the key takeaways are as follows: interest rates are low and may either stay low for a while or go even lower. Why? Weak economic activity and low confidence levels which might become a downward death spiral of weak activity and . . . recession. Lower and lower interest rates – negative in some cases – might not be enough to stimulate activity and we might therefore be in a classic liquidity trap. Red warning light. Government, please borrow and invest/spend! — Warren Couillault

the plan

The KiwiBuild Reset

T

hankfully the government has abandoned the unachievable house build target that was becoming a millstone around its neck. KiwiBuild 2.0 is born.

Even though the government promised it would slash immigration numbers, we are still importing circa 50,000 people per year, who need about 17,000 houses. We can hardly keep up with that demand let alone the now broken promise of 100,000 new homes over 10 years from the government.

The reason given for dropping the target was that it was “overly ambitious”. The number wasn’t the ambitious part of the exercise. What was ambitious was to pluck a figure out of thin air and hope it would all just happen and then blame everyone when it failed.

Commonsense prevailed and housing minister Mr Twyford, or as I, in my childish way call him, Mr Twitford, was given the boot and now we get a new housing minister, Dr Megan Woods.

KiwiBuild 2.0 has aspiration, plus measures to encourage construction and ownership, and importantly, opportunities to gravitate from renting to ownership, including shared-ownership schemes. It will build more homes where evidence shows they’re needed, widen the $10,000 deposit assistance scheme to include friends and family, reduce to five per cent the deposit required for a government-backed mortgage, and reduce the amount developers receive for triggering the government underwrite, rather than selling to KiwiBuild buyers.

The government has finally acknowledged that the shortage in suitable housing won’t be solved overnight, however, they should have come to this conclusion sooner. The target of 100,000 houses over 10 years has led to houses being built in places where there was little first homebuyer demand.

I suspect the government (your taxes) will prop up losses for homes purchased, built and not sold in Te Kauwhata, parts of Canterbury, and in Wanaka. All of these houses were underwritten, which also is changing so that developers are incentivised to sell to KiwiBuild first homebuyers instead of triggering the underwrite, which may be at a lower level.

As you may be aware, another layer of paper-shuffling fog has been established — the urban development authority, Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities. Again this is duplication. Changes to the Resource Management Act to provide clear direction on the amount, and requirement to have land ready to provide housing, would have been much simpler. However, something has to keep the paper-shufflers employed.

The idea for a government-backed mortgage to five per cent, and changing policy settings so that family and friends can each use their $10,000 first home grant and their KiwiSaver accounts to buy their first home together has merit. But you need to fix the supply side or you get house inflation, and that is the last thing a soon-to-be first homebuyer needs.

The key message that needs to be made is that having land available and infrastructure in place is one of the biggest drags on getting a house built. You can have all the will in the word and be blessed with a new ministry, but if there are no connections to flush the dunny or anywhere for the stormwater to go, then it is all wasted. The idea of providing a leg-up through rent-to-buy and lower deposits is very positive but the supply side — ready-tobuild sections — should be a higher priority. There should be more land ready to go than is needed so you do not create crippling land-price inflation, and prevent buyers being able to live in a warm, dry house.

But one step forward is better than Mr Twitford telling us “everything is awesome”. — Hamish Firth

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the teacher

Learning from Failing

A

fter a few minutes of contemplation, you may be able to recall an occasion when you understood how important being able to learn to deal with failure has been throughout your life. We all face it at some stage, it’s inevitable.

Learning how to deal with it is pretty important particularly for our young students, because failure speaks directly to their ego.

Of course, there are many different scenarios where we can experience failure, some knocking us around a bit more than others. I am referring to how students deal with failure, especially in an ‘at school’ content. However, I bravely mention here that more often than not, it is a parent who perhaps needs to accept the failure!

As a student it really is important to learn to be able to manage those times when failure strikes. The feeling of failure ‘sucks’ but it is how we manage to pull ourselves out of it, and through it, that is the important issue.

I recently read an excellent article on this subject which said, “It’s easy to glorify failure when you are successful but that doesn’t always motivate people with a crippling fear of failure”. So true, however there are some students who are highly motivated by others’ failure-to-success stories. We all know of highly successful people who have weathered failure on a large scale, not once but several times, as in the case of Walt Disney. J K Rowling was rejected by 12 publishing houses before Harry Potter became a massive success for her. What mental attributes do these people possess to carry on after experiencing failure upon failure?

While we read of all these failures followed by huge successes, it doesn’t necessarily motivate those for whom the fear of failure is crippling.

The fear of failure is a very real thing for many, not only students. We can often perceive success as perfection, which can cause real anxiety that can be debilitating. Being involved in schools for many years, I have observed over latter years a huge increase in students suffering from anxiety, too many leading to depression. Giving students the freedom and permission to fail and to learn from this is often a very successful lesson. Learning to understand failure, and how to perceive it as something

positive, is a much better insight into how to deal with it. A better understanding of anything we do is always helpful in removing fear and anxiety.

Accepting criticism, often interpreted as failure, can be a challenge for most of us but if it is constructive and delivered sensitively then students can grow from the experience. Being anxious is not only a problem with older students facing assignment deadlines or exams. As sad as it may sound, there are often little students as young as five who become highly anxious at school when there are high expectations placed upon them, often by parents! Why is this pressure put on children so young to perform to such a high level and how will this affect them as they grow up? There is a plethora of excellent advice and much research being done, for parents and schools, around too much pressure being placed on students and the detrimental results it is creating for them. We all listen to news items espousing the rise in people suffering depression and/or another mental health disorder. I wonder why?

Can I please put in a word of support for our young students, to parents who put high expectations on their children, to be careful as this can have serious effects on their wellbeing throughout their school years.

Children develop in very different ways, stages and ages, each one in their own unique way. Today’s world has its own set of really authentic reasons as to why children become anxious and the fear of failure adds to this. As parents we need to know that in this world today students struggle with far more than academics, even as young as a five-year-old.

Learning how to accept failure as early as possible can avert those uncomfortable anxious feelings that can often grow into health problems later in life. Students need to know they simply can’t be the ‘best’ at everything, however they can be the best they can be and learn to celebrate and enjoy other’s successes as well as their own. This is the message our young students need to be receiving from all those who hold their future wellbeing in their hands as they journey through school, into a world where the pace of uncertainty and change is unprecedented. — Judi Paape

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the hobson 30

the second act

Telling Ourselves Stories

W

e all like a good story, it’s hardwired into us. Professor Yuval Noah Harari suggests in his book, Sapiens, that the reason homo sapien shot to the top of the food chain was not just our ability to create stories, but to believe in them. Our narratives, shared and personal, are a big part of our identity.

There’s some fascinating reading about narratives — stories — and national identity. American author George Packer postulates that there are currently four competing narrative identities influencing thinking in the US. The ‘libertarian’ framework, with a catch-cry of freedom, cherished by the GOP and celebrating the dynamism of the free market, sits alongside its more progressive cousin, ‘Globalised America’, also called ‘Cosmopolitan America’. That’s the story dominant in Silicon Valley, where it’s breezily assumed that an open and connected world is always better. Then there is the story of ‘Multicultural America’, which sees Americans as members of sub-groups whose status is largely determined by the sins of the past and present, which prohibits the creation of one overall identity. Packer’s fourth group is the narrative of ‘America First’, which courts exclusion rather than inclusion.

Here in NZ, there appears to be a few national narratives going on — think of the ‘we are a young country’ and the ‘100% Pure NZ’ stories. Alongside these I still hear the last vestiges of the ‘egalitarian NZ’ trope, which seems to be morphing into a ‘we do bi-culturalism well’ frame. Each storyline is fraught with inaccuracy and is dependent on the lens you’re looking through.

But it is the domination of any one particular narrative that is the most concerning. A dominant story can easily move from the fiction to non-fiction section of the figurative bookshelf, shutting out diversity of viewpoints.

And personally, we’re no different. While our own narratives provide a stable vantage point from which we develop identity — to help us navigate the world and create values and rituals to share with like-minded groups — the anchoring of a particular view we have about ourselves can be highly problematic if it becomes dangerously fixed as fact.

In my day job, my collaborators and I are particularly interested in personal reinvention as a core part of leadership development.

S TAT E

of

In our courses, participants write what we call their ‘first act narrative’ in all its dramatic glory. Because memories are infused with emotion, the stories of our lives are embellished with heroes, villains, dungeons and dragons. But because our brains filter out the excessive detail, the plotlines tend to become very simplistic.

Sometimes we ask participants to name their stories. Titles like ‘Beating the Odds’, ‘Rags to Riches’ or indeed ‘Riches to Rags’ is a way of healthily detaching and looking objectively at our assumptive stories and how they’ve grown over the years. By that, I mean that we make our first act narrative into a mini-series worth watching. We make events mean something and it’s the meaningmaking of these stories — which, let’s remember, were constructed out of the drama of our own imaginations — that give a clue as to why so many people feel stuck. I think of a personal story infused with meaning as sort of a director’s cut of a movie. The ego wants the world to know a very specific expression of the story. While things happen to us all, small or significant, it is the meaning we make of them that becomes the roadmap that tends to dictate what path to take, and from there, how we must live.

Think perhaps of a family incident from your first act — childhood, teen, young adult — and how you and your siblings have totally different takes on how it played out. That points to ‘meaning’ as you perceive it actually being a changeable notion.

In our workshops, we become increasingly interested in what detail and sub-plots are left on the editing room floor of those personal, ‘director’s cut’ narratives. We are also interested in how invested the individual is in telling the same version of a life story over and over again, often as an excuse for not moving ahead.

When someone in a coaching session answers a question with a precursor of, “Well, to be really honest”. . . my ears prick up. It shows that there is a deeper level of being, underneath the current pattern. Perhaps the person is becoming a little more aware that they have been simply sticking to a script that they wrote. The idea of becoming self-authored may be an emerging possibility, which is hugely exciting as that is how we can all aim to live happily, if not ever after, sorting fact from fiction and become at peace with our stories, and how they have shaped us. — Sandy Burgham

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the hobson 31

the sound

the suburbanist

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

To Sir, With Thanks

T

he UK’s Royal Mail has revealed that Sir Elton John is now on stamps. How fabulous. Not the first time the Royal Mail celebrated a rock star. Back in 2017 they released David Bowie stamps in a gloriously bonkers way. The stamps were attached to a helium balloon which rose until the balloon popped and the stamps came tumbling down — a homage to Bowie’s film role in The Man Who Fell To Earth.

For Elton, two sets have been printed, one featuring album covers, the other live performances. Of course it comes as part of the multi-year party that is Elton’s farewell tour. Not only are there the shows which arrive on our shores this summer, but there’s also the film Rocketman.

(Rocketman is wonderful, Taron Egerton is stunning. The whole thing knocks Bohemian Rhapsody for six).

We had some fun with the Elton stamps on air, wondering what they would taste of. (Strawberries). We also wondered about the reaction of Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Rod Stewart. Particularly Paul, who must be wondering what on earth he’s got to do to get that ‘stamp’ of approval.

This also raised conversation about how the UK has honoured its pop and rock stars, and how New Zealand hasn’t. We have knights and dames from music. Proper music, you know. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa of course.Dame Malvina Major. But the only knighthood from the pop world was Sir Howard Morrison, but that also recognised his contribution to Rotorua. Often a third act is required to get the biggest gongs — Sir Elton with his AIDS foundation, Sir John Kirwan with his mental health campaigns.

But why do we not have more from the popular music world? You never know if the artists have turned down the invitation, but why don’t we have a Sir Neil Finn or his brother Sir Tim? For 20 years, whenever I’ve interviewed Dave Dobbyn I’ve called him Sir Dave of Dobbyn for a laugh. But why not knight him? After all he’s written our unofficial national anthems, “Loyal” and “Welcome Home”.

I have two further nominations for rock ’n’ roll knighthoods. Firstly, arise Sir Michael Chunn. The bassist from Split Enz and Citizen Band has an extensive third act. He looked after artists’ rights as head of APRA, and has been honoured twice for his work on mental health. His most recent work at the Play It Strange music trust has been amazing.

But if I was to choose one person who has been hugely influential in NZ music and yet has never been appropriately acknowledged, I’d name Ian Magan. Magan, as everyone called him, died in August, just after his 80th birthday.

Magan started at the NZBC in Whanganui but when he heard about some pirate radio nutters in Auckland, he quit his job and volunteered.

He became one of the great voices. He brought rock ’n’roll radio to our shores. After Radio Hauraki went legal he became the programme director and he was brilliant. Then he left radio and started bringing shows to New Zealand. He had started at Hauraki with buck-a-head gigs at His Majesty’s, which is where he met Split Enz, who he managed for a decade. Then he went on to manage Crowded House.

He did the first big show at Western Springs — Creedence Clearwater Revival. With Gray Bartlett he formed Pacific Entertainment and brought the biggest shows to the country, creating the infrastructure and logistics needed for the big gigs.

Ian Magan — the most honest and above-board guy in the business, and a hard worker until the day he died. Promoting, mentoring and supporting musicians. He pioneered radio. He pioneered live music. His funeral was amazing, the church packed. Radio people. Music people.

Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Brent Eccles, Tina Cross. Annie Crummer and Debbie Harwood sang “Hallelujah”. Geoff Sewell sang “How Great Thou Art”. Gray Bartlett near tears. I asked Magan’s daughter Tracy if he had ever been offered an honour, or turned one down. He hadn’t.

I looked in all the big media, expecting pages of tributes. There weren’t. He was a big personality but a quiet hero who never blew his own trumpet. So if I could, I would say “Arise Sir Ian Magan” in a heartbeat. — Andrew Dickens

T

he Remuera post shop is closing. Perhaps the beginning of the end was when the word shop replaced office, and the postmaster became a shopkeeper. Or we can blame the internet, the rise of email, the decline of letter-writing, couriers, Amazon – in short, change, of any description.

My first after-school job was as a paperboy, loading a stack of Evening Posts onto my bike before riding a mile to get to my route. I was in Standard 4 and the job I wanted – the one all the paperboys coveted – was that of telegram delivery boy. There was only one and you had to be 12 years old and in Form 2.

There was no interview; the job was passed down and I had to lobby Lindsay Horlor, the incumbent, to anoint me.

At 3.10pm every day, rain or shine, I would arrive at the Paremata Post Office and start work. I would change the metal date stamp with tweezers to set the time of the post to 3.30pm, frank letters and sort them. Then I would be off on my bike to collect the mail from the three post boxes in the area, including the one on Seaview Rd inside of which, was a wooden door inscribed with the names of all those who had gone before me.

Back at the post office I would process the mail, wrap each sorted pile in rubber bands and put them in a burlap mail sack, bind it with a paper tag and seal it with a metal clip using a giant metal tool. I loaded the sack on the carrier of my bike and rode to the Paremata railway station to meet the 4.05 to Wellington, heaving the sack into the guard’s van. From there I would deliver what telegrams had come through, dreading the ones for Tirowhanga Rd, 2km uphill on my single-geared bike (what would now be called a ‘fixie’ but was for my parents a ‘cheapie’).

Flying down the hill with the wind in my hair, I would return to the post office for more telegrams; often to the address I’d just left, particularly if they were condolence messages. Sam Hunt was living at Bottle Creek and didn’t have a phone so people would send him telegrams to get his attention. Which meant for me, going to Seaview Rd and following a track past several houses down to the beach to find him. Or at low tide, I would ditch my bike by the kindergarten and take a shortcut along the beach.

Work finished at 5.10pm unless some late telegrams came in and I had to go back out again, back up the hill. On Saturday mornings I worked from 9am until midday processing more mail, taking it to the train and delivering more telegrams. A special weekend task was to go to the three public telephone boxes and, with a special key and another arcane metal device, remove the metal strongboxes full of two-cent pieces, replacing them with empty ones.

For this work I earned $3.60 per fortnight, more than double the wages of a paperboy. But I gained far more from being part of the post office, understanding that it was a central part of the community and that the stern Mr Witt, the postmaster, was held in such high esteem for the status of his role, if not his manner.

Times change and institutions must respond. The mistake of postal services globally was to perceive themselves as retailers. There is no margin in needlessly complex customer transactions that result in such low-value sales; these days any business that depends on queues is already in trouble.

If instead, post offices had asserted themselves as the centres of their communities they might have remained essential, and we wouldn’t be witnessing the slow inexorable slide of a once proud institution into a subset of a stationer. — Tommy Honey

the campaigner

Leaving Our Side of Town In this edition of The Hobson, we farewell Mike Lee, councillor for the Waitematā and Gulf ward, as regular contributor to our pages. With ward boundary changes, Parnell, Newmarket and Grafton have been lopped off Waitematā, and are now part of the Ōrākei ward. But Lee doesn’t plan to go too far away — he’s decided to stand again, driving projects that he believes are good for his beloved Auckland. He spoke to Kirsty Cameron about his political past, present and future

the hobson 33

the campaigner

T

he plan, as Mike Lee saw it, was some weeding of the coastal cliffs near his Waiheke Is home, getting penguin nesting boxes ready, more time with the grandchildren, and lots of research and work for his next book. Retirement, after 27 years in public service, was looking very fulfilling. With wife Jenny, they left the isthmus to live on Waiheke permanently, with the expectation that Lee would not contest this month’s local body election, exiting after two terms on the Super City council as the councillor for the Waitematā and Gulf ward.

But then, people kept saying, “Mike, you’ve got to run”. People in the street, on the ferry. Community and committee people, people telling him the city needs him, the long-experienced civic hand, the man with the most institutional knowledge around the Auckland Council table of the how, why and what was budgeted for or promised to ratepayers before the Super City consumed seven city and district councils, and Lee’s former remit, the Auckland Regional Council (ARC).

Election 2019 has echoes of Election 2016 for Lee, who is 70.

It was rumoured then that Lee would retire from politics, and his seat would be inherited by the City Vision-backed chair of the Waitematā Local Board, Shale Chambers. But then media personality Bill Ralston stuck his head up from Franklin Rd and nominated as an independent. Fearing the well-known Ralston would defeat Chambers, Lee was asked to stand again, on the City Vision ticket. He beat Ralston in the ballot by 1083 votes and was returned as the councillor for Waitematā and Gulf.

This time, it’s Lee who is the independent, putting himself in direct competition with City Vision’s candidate for council, Pippa Coom, chair of the Waitematā Local Board (Chambers took the deputy role after 2016 and will himself retire at this election).

If he is returned, what will his priorities be? “It would be to finish off the work that we started in the Auckland Regional Council,” he says over a cup of tea around the corner from council’s budget-blowing Albert St headquarters (a move he vehemently objected to). “And that would be, first of all,“ he continues, “to finish the Wynyard development, especially the Headland Park which had been put on the back burner and almost forgotten.

“I would like to see the Wynyard Quarter connected to the city centre by light rail or tramline. In terms of expanding, I would like to see the CRL that we started finished with at least some control over the budget, which doesn’t seem to be there quite now. And finished sooner than 2024 or not drag on and not blow out any further because it’s absolutely essential. And as soon as that is done, there should be an extension of the rail network to Auckland International Airport.

“I’d like to see the Regional Parks Service, the network that was built up by generations of regional politicians, promoted once again. It once was almost like the spoiled child of the local government. It was everything for parks and now it’s very much a Cinderella. In fact, they put out a document today about the council, how well they’ve done with parks and it’s quite revealing — there's no mention of regional parks in it. [The document] is sort of a value proposition how good they’ve done on all the rest of it, and fair enough — ‘how dare people say we haven’t done anything about parks. We've done so much!’ But there’s actually no reference at all to regional parks.”

Sandra Coney, who served on ARC with Lee, would not be surprised by Lee’s wish-list. “He was an enormous supporter of regional parks . . . I regret that some other purchases we had lined up were not pursued by Auckland Council. Mike has good instincts for the right decisions.” Coney credits Lee’s ability to caucus with all parties. “[ARC] was very collegial, which is why I think we got a lot done. He is a true Aucklander, fighting for

what’s best for Auckland, first and foremost.”

Wellington-born, Lee initially joined the merchant navy before moving to Auckland to study science. Auckland was the dream land of his mother’s stories — Eileen Lee moved to Wellington when she married his seafaring father, Ted. “When we grew up, she would tell us stories of Auckland. There might be a howling southerly gale in Wellington in February, and she would say that in Auckland, ‘people would be sitting under the pōhutukawa now, having picnics’.”

At 21, Lee made the move north with his first wife, Sandra, and their infant son. Auckland was everything he hoped for and he began studies for his masters degree in science — majoring in conservation-related subjects — heading back to sea on breaks.

Lee was working on a pipe-laying barge when his great, and very much-missed friend, the late journalist Bruce Jesson, messaged him to say the then-Auckland Regional Authority member for central Auckland had resigned. Would Lee stand in the byelection on the Alliance ticket? Jesson had taken the ARA seat for Panmure in 1991 for the newly-formed Alliance, the left-wing party headed by former Labour minister Jim Anderton.

“So at that stage, the strands of my life sort of merged.” Lee was elected to the ARA — it would become the Auckland Regional Council — in 1992, after campaigning on two issues: stopping the dumping of dredgings off the Noises onto a well-known snapper spawning ground, and not selling the Ports of Auckland, which was on the brink of being sold by council. His political career began, and he was later elected chair of ARC in 2004. Over the decades, much of what Lee became particularly passionate about was aligned with his conservation interests.

“I think there are 26 regional parks and I’ve been involved with the acquisition, that I counted. of about one-third of them since 1993 or’94. So I’m proud of that. I’m proud that I was involved in positions which rescued wildland Auckland from the brink of extinction, and then went on to create a modern electric commuter rail service that people take for granted nowadays, but it was not easy to achieve.”

Nothing, whether you’re a first-termer or chair of a large and well-financed authority as the ARA/ARC was — it was funded by a separate rate to all of Auckland’s city and borough council residents — comes without lobbying. Lee’s walked many tracks in the carpet of the Beehive, appealing for backing for Auckland projects. Rail brought him to Wellington again and again.

“I remember going to Parliament during the Clark government with a delegation of mayors making a pitch for electrification.

[Finance minister] Michael Cullen singled me out, saying, ‘Well, not only do I doubt that electrification is viable, but I actually doubt that rail works in Auckland simply because rail in Auckland goes where people don’t live’. I said, ‘Well, excuse me Minister, but the Auckland rail network is the same size as the Wellington network approximately, and we have four times the population’.

“In the end, Michael Cullen went on to do the right thing and approve the electrification of Auckland’s rail and upgrading or doubletracking the western line, so I have to give him credit for that, and then I had to start all over again with electrification. It was approved at the very last minute by the Labour government.

And then, when [Key government transport minister] Steven Joyce came in, he said, ‘hang on, hang on, we’re not too sure if this makes sense’ . . . So he took another 18 months going over it, and he agreed in the end. I had quite a lot of battles with Steven Joyce. But I always had respect for him — he’s a very bright guy.” (Extra points are perhaps awarded by Lee to Joyce, who recently spoke on encouraging infrastructure by the government in this low-interest period, citing as an example one of Lee’s championed projects, the rail link to Auckland Airport.)

the hobson 34

Left, as ARC chair of Regional Parks, opening the Arataki Visitor Centre in 1994.

Far left, from top: on the waterfront, 1989; surveying Crusoe Is in 1996 as part of his MSc; with ARC deputy chair Michael Barnett in February 2009, announcing the plan to buy Queens Wharf from Ports of Auckland and open it to the public. Previous page, Lee photographed in Federal St last month, by Kirsty Cameron. Other photos courtesy Mike Lee.

He is less enthusiastic about current transport minister Phil Tywford and Auckland mayor Phil Goff’s scheme to run light rail — trams — up Dominion Rd. “I do worry about this government. I think their intentions are good, they have a lot of youthful energy. They have talent balanced with experience, and the previous government had been in for a long time. But I fear if they carry on the way they're carrying on they're going to lose office.”

“I don't like to personalise it, but the policies of Phil Twyford have not been helpful. For instance, Phil Twyford’s light rail ideas came really from Phil Goff. Phil Goff never dreamed them up — he got them from Auckland Transport.

And so it’s a case of the tail wagging the dog.”

Lee’s Town Hall battles with Goff have been well reported.

Lee withdrew from chairing the Strategic Procurement Committee after just six months, dispirited and disappointed by what he found to be a culture resistant to questioning.

“Things like rubbish contracts were considered confidential, and they would go up around about the same figure, like 20 per cent in a period of about 1.5 per cent inflation. I would push back and say, well, ‘this is not good enough’. But it didn’t result in the answers he wanted.

“It’s a minor one compared to the rubbish example, but take the Auckland libraries. The biggest library in the southern hemisphere, and it doesn’t buy its own books. It’s outsourced to a private company and they buy the books, even though you’ve got highly qualified librarians skilled in this field. I think the contract was $9 million for three years, something like that, and I was very sceptical about this.”

But drilling for the ‘why’ got Lee the response that the contractors were “wonderful people to work with. We get on so well and we've got a great partnership”. He shakes his head. “I said the partnership is a commercial one and you need to retain a little bit of distance, because it may be in our interest to not outsource or to procure another contractor who’s more competitive. They don’t understand.

They’re meant to be looking after our money, but they don’t see that.”

And now he’s on the outer with City Vision, running against their candidate, Pippa Coom.

“I’m not within the [left] fold at all, but mainly because I've taken these stands. But I’m not on any ego trip at all,” he says of his candidacy. “I just think that I have had a vision for Auckland and these people, for some reason, are stuffing it all up. And I think that the vision that I had was based on broad buy-in right across the community.

“People have just come in,” he says. “Phil Goff parachuted in and other people have sort of come into power without any respect of all the work that went on 20 years ago to come up with a comprehensive public transport strategy. And it’s, excuse the pun, but it’s gone off the rails. And this government needs to be a little bit more sensitive about Auckland. This government didn’t win Auckland at the last election and it has to work a wee bit harder on Auckland.”

All things considered, who’s going to get his vote for the mayoralty? Phil Goff or John Tamihere? Probably neither, says Lee, somewhat resignedly.

“Phil Goff and the mayor’s office and bureaucracy and the CCOs are all talking to themselves and saying what a wonderful job, brilliant job they’ve done and are doing, and how popular they are. They don’t seem to understand how angry people are, and frustrated.”

When Lee first came into local politics, the Alliance’s slogan was ‘We won’t sell out’. Almost three decades later, it still works for him.

“We’re kind of through the looking glass in the 21st century really.

But my policy still is that we won’t sell out.”

the hobson 35

the end of the line

Rolling to a Stop From the main trunk line, to a Parnell bar and then the gulf — New Zealand Rail Carriage 1017 has had quite the journey. By Kirsty Cameron photographs courtesy john fay

A

piece of Parnell’s more modern history today sits in a garden on Waiheke Is. The 1908 railway carriage is now a much-loved addition to the Waiheke home of John Fay, better known on this side of the city as the operator of Newmarket’s Olympic Pool.

Along with many other main trunk line carriages of its vintage, No. 1017 — built as a 50’ (15m) first class smoking compartment — was declared surplus to requirements

by NZ Rail in the early 1970s. The carriages were put up for tender. Buyers included ad man Bob (now Sir Bob) Harvey, and Kerridge-Odeon owner, Sir Robert Kerridge.

Harvey parked his carriage within the lobby of his Parnell agency, McHarman Ayer. Kerridge moved his into the bar of his hotel, the White Heron. Once the epi-centre of sophisticated cool in Auckland, the White Heron was a modernist complex with sweeping views at the end of St Stephens Ave, Parnell. Opened in 1965, it hosted stars including Billy Joel, Elton John, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Spike Milligan and Dame Kiri. Friday afternoons around the pool were in today’s parlance, epic. Kerridge sold the hotel in 1975. By the later-80s the White Heron had passed through various incarnations, was rundown and the land it sat on, its most valuable asset. Kerridge sold the property to developer John Williams, whose wife, former Olympic swimmer Monique Rodahl, Fay knew.

“I asked Monique to ask John what was the deal with the carriage,” recalls Fay. “The answer came back that both [heritage rail body] Glenbrook and MOTAT wanted it, but they needed it delivered.

“My parents used to live in St Stephens Ave, and sometimes I used to wander up for a drink at the bar with the old man. We’d occasionally park ourselves in that carriage. So for me it had a connection. I also used to go to Wellington on the train, when I was at boarding school.” q

the hobson 36

Opposite page, the once-glamorous White Heron had become derelict before it was demolished in favour of an apartment complex. Two cranes were required to take the carriage from its first-floor position — history does not record how Sir Robert Kerridge got it in there in the first place.

This page, Carriage 1017 in the hotel; being extracted from the White Heron — "actually quite a delicate proceedure . . . with a little bit of persuasion and good dogmanning and crane driving", noted Fay in the album he made of the carriage's progress. Sharing a barge with houses, from Half Moon Bay to Kennedy Pt on Waiheke.

the hobson 37

the heritage

Fay called Williams and was told that if he could get the carriage out of the building, he was welcome to it. Fay in turn called in house movers, who shook their heads. But then the foreman pulled Fay aside and said he reckoned he could get it sorted as a private job.

One demolished wall, two cranes, storage at Henderson, a barge to Waiheke and $6000 later, Fay had his carriage, decked and tidied up, and in his garden.

“It’s one of the better deals I’ve done,” he says.

“People love it. The kids have grown up with it, it’s hosted some great parties. I just love its history, and the use it has now.”

After a period in storage, the carriage reached its resting place at Fay's Waiheke home, where renovation work began and decks were added. "To the rescue comes Rick Owen, ex-British Army, rail enthusiast and top worker," Fay wrote in a caption of the photo at right.

the hobson 38

Painted, polished and wired for sound, the carriage now includes an ensuite and has been a teen sleepout as well as a popular entertaining spot for the family.

John Fay would like to restore if further, stripping it back to its native timber linings.

Another ex-NZR carriage was bought by adman Sir Bob Harvey, posing in the 1912 carriage, No 1220A, above, in 1970. He had bought it by tender from NZR that year for $78. "It's literally cost a fortune since," he later said. Refurbished and first installed at MacHarman's Nelson St office as a meeting room, it cost $4000 to relocate it to the agency's new offices in Parnell, where it became a waiting area in the lobby, left.

the hobson 39

the heritage

A History of Good Works A brick building tucked away in Churton St, Parnell, played an important part in the lives of many Aucklanders, as historian and Parnell Heritage executive member Dr Joanna Boileau writes

T

he long, two-storeyed neo-Georgian style building at 2 Churton St, Parnell, has served most recently as a backpackers’ hostel, but before that, it had deep historical connections with the Salvation Army.

Sited on the brow of a steep ridge with wonderful views to the Waitematā, the original, wooden building on the site was purchased by the Salvation Army from a Mr Withy in 1895. The Army had been established as a major provider of social services in New Zealand since the 1880s, holding its first meeting, in gold rush Dunedin, in 1883. During the Army’s first years in the country, it opened three ‘rescue homes’ for prostitutes, homeless girls and unmarried mothers, and two ‘prison-gate’ homes for discharged prisoners. It also operated children’s homes for orphans and youngsters taken into care.

With the purchase of the Churton St property, the Sallies were able to open their second rescue home in Auckland.

The 24-room house, known as ‘Ruth Lodge’ provided accommodation for 30 women and young girls. In August 1901, soon after the official opening of Ruth Lodge, there were 20 residents. Mr J T Julian, chair of the Harbour Board and an Auckland city councillor, toured Ruth Lodge in 1903. It was described in contemporary press reports as ‘splendidly kept’ and ‘a very well built and somewhat nobly proportioned building’. The ‘home-like character of the place and the many little comforts, the air of discipline, the cleanliness of the rooms, and manifest methodical and regular management’ were also recorded.

By 1916 the house became known as an industrial home for women, implying that the residents were taught useful skills. Advertisements in the New Zealand Herald in 1910 had sought laundry and cleaning work for Ruth Lodge residents.

However well-built it was, fire swept through the lodge in 1927. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties but the

wooden building was destroyed. To replace it, the Army turned to Wellington-based architects Gray Young, Morton and Young. The practice was well-established, and was ultimately responsible for many buildings regarded as notable today — university hostels Knox College in Dunedin and Weir House in Wellington, Wellington’s landmark Wellesley Club building, Scots College and the Wellington and Christchurch railway stations amongst others. Oamaru-born William Gray Young had won the competition to design Knox when he was only 21 and he would become an influential proponent of neo-Georgian architecture in NZ, influenced by his love for the work of British architect Edwin Lutyens. (Not all of Gray Young’s work had neo-Georgian notes: he was involved in designing the prototypes of state houses with the government architect in the later 1930s.)

For Churton St, the practice designed a two-storey brick building. The kitchen and living rooms were on the ground floor, and dormitories, staff bedrooms and bathrooms were on the upper, street-level storey. A simple rectangular form, it demonstrated classic features of Gray Young’s preferred style, such as regularly placed windows along a long façade, roundheaded brickwork at the entrance. The street façade today remains largely unchanged.

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The new building cost £6887, much of it covered by legacies, and was open again in 1928. The Salvation Army continued to run it as a women’s home until 1951, when it became the Eventide Home for elderly men for a further 20 years. The men were transferred to Epsom Lodge in 1971, and in keeping with changing social times, in 1972 Churton St became part of the Army’s nationwide ‘Bridge’ programme to treat drug and alcohol addiction. Renamed the Parnell Clinic, it was opened by the mayor, Sir Dove-Myer Robinson, a Sallies band playing in the street as part of the opening ceremonies. By 1980, almost 700 people annually had passed through the Parnell Clinic.

In 1988, the Army sold the building to the Youth Hostel Association and it became a budget travellers’ hostel, selling again in 2000 to private backpacker operators.

Gray Young’s building has both architectural and social significance not just for the hundreds of women and men who found shelter and support within its walls for more than eight decades, or for the Salvation Army officers who worked there, but also as part of the Parnell community. The surrounding buildings in Churton St, like many other streets in Parnell, are comprised of a mix of residential buildings

with a variety of ages and styles, ranging from Victorian to modern. One of the key points made in Parnell Heritage’s submission to Auckland Council’s Draft Unitary Plan in May 2013 was that it is important to maintain a diversity of residential housing in Parnell and to maintain the suburb’s rich built heritage, which includes some of the earliest residential buildings in Auckland.

But it is not to be for 2 Churton St. In 2014, Parnell Heritage lobbied council to have the building scheduled for its notable architectural and social value, but our bid failed.

The building is to be demolished in the near future to make way for a boutique apartment block.

Sources consulted for this article include the NZ Herald and Salvation Army archives, Fight the Good Fight: The Story of the Salvation Army in New Zealand 1883 to 1983 by Cyril Bradwell (Reed Wellington), The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, teara.govt.nz, Looking at the Architecture of New Zealand by Terence Hodgson (Grantham House) and New Zealand Architecture: From Polynesian Beginnings to 1990

by Peter Shaw (Hodder & Stoughton).

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the magpie

What's Cooking?

Don’t wing it in the kitchen — follow the Magpie to the latest and handiest things you can’t cook without

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1. Of course Microplane has a ‘master series’, but we have to agree that these elegantly designed graters crafted in American walnut and stainless steel certainly are indeed masterful. Available in fine, ribbon, coarse and extra-coarse blades. One of each please. $89.95 each, from millyskitchen.co.nz 2. The Cuisinart 4 Slice Motorised Toaster does everything bar spread the peanut butter, pretty much. The motorised control lowers, and then gently lifts, your bread to and from the extra-wide slots, while LCD displays and countdown timers let you know your toast’s progress. There’s one-side bagel toasting and many other bells and whistles too (like an alert signal). $299, from thehomestoreonline.co.nz 3. The Kitchen Aid Artisan KSM150 Stand Mixer is the holy grail of domestic mixers.

Made to perform and built to last, it’s the one to beat (boom, tish!) The ‘planetary’ mixing action allows the beater to spiral to 67 different points within the bowl.

And the attachments! It’s really the Swiss Army knife of kitchen appliances. $844, from harveynorman.co.nz 4, 10. It’s a melting pot of deliciousness from those epicurians at Sabato. Tartuflange Black Truffle Salt, $20.50 (goes with pretty much everything that comes out of the Magpie’s kitchen) while fruity, mellow and rich Forum Chardonnay Vinegar, $40.90, from Penedès, northern Spain, deserves to be in your pantry. Giusti Balsamic Glaze, $19.90 is a thick, tangy squeeze of deliciousness over strawberries (and many other things), and a good splash or three of Italian Colonna Lemon Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil, $33.90, will make seafood, vegetables and salads sing con brio!

All from Sabato, 57 Normanby Rd, or sabato.co.nz

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5. NZ woodworker Courtney Petley’s beautifully crafted, hand-made wooden implements are things of joy to give, receive and use. Her Long Salad Servers are made from recycled rimu, and finished with beeswax. $220, simonjamesdesign.com 6. In a pickle because impromptu guests have shown up? A jar of the US’s finest, McClure’s Whole Garlic and Dill Pickles, in the cupboard will provide the perfect bar snack or platter addition. $19.95, from Father Rabbit Orakei Bay Village, or fatherrabbit.com 7. Why shriek “dinner’s ready” when an elegant tinkle of the Skultuna Ring My Bell hits a less strident note? Swedish designer Olof Kolte has designed the oak and brass dinner bell as a modern version of the classic 19th century school bell, but it looks very now. $168, simonjamesdesign.com 8. Crafted from sustainable bamboo and sporting a replaceable sisal fibre head, the Yeseco Dish Brush will nail the dishes in a planet-friendly way, and bring some zen charm to the kitchen. $16 from Father Rabbit Orakei Bay Village, or fatherrabbit.com 9. Brasserie-style In Bed 100 per cent linen teatowels have a high drying and absorption capacity, and are particularly good for glasswear. $45 each from everyday-needs.com 11. These wonderful Damascus kitchen knives are now available with carefullyselected Mediterranean olive wood handles. Handled with care and hand-washed, they’re designed to last a lifetime. Boker paring knife, $260.76, from houseofknives.co.nz 12. We will never tire of the classic good looks and epic cooking skills of Le Creuset enamel and cast iron casseroles. Slightly bigger handles, tighter fitting lids and heat resistant knobs are just a few of the more recent tweaks to this classic. Whether you’re cooking on the newest induction hob or in the heritage Shacklock at the bach, Le Creuset is your friend for life. Signature oval casserole in kale, $700, from smithandcaugheys.co.nz 13. This rugged, machine-washable Canvas Grilling Apron is your best defence against the fallout of oily spatters. But wait, there’s more! There’s three pockets — one for your phone — plus a towel loop. Very pro. Around $62 plus shipping from williams-sonoma.com

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the district diary

October 2019 1 Ahoy families! All hands on deck to sample 19th century naval food and learn how to behave in His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Auckland Museum’s Night at the Museum also includes access to the new exhibition ‘Voyage to Aotearoa: Tupaia and the Endeavour’. Door sales only but get in quick as these events sell out, aucklandmuseum.com for times and other dates 2 Think you know a lot of stuff? Grab a friend or make a team and get to Brothers Beer’s weekly quiz night at BB Orakei Bay Village.

Bar tabs and spot prizes, and a good laugh too. Bookings essential, manager.orakei@ brothersbeer.co.nz or (09) 974 3380 5 With the theme of ‘Journeys’ the Auckland Heritage Festival starts today, to October 28.

See heritagefestival.co.nz for the wide variety of talking, walking, viewing programme of local and city-wide events 6 As well as a huge range of dolls, clothing and accessories, the Auckland Collectable Doll and Toy Fair also has models and toys, vintage board games, soft toys, doll houses and miniatures. Free, 10am-3pm, Alexandra Park Raceway, Greenlane West 8 Last day to post your voting papers for the local elections. You can still put them in a ballot box though, until noon, October 12.

Check aucklandcouncil.govt.nz for ballot box locations 9-13 Renowned for its high energy performances, the Selwyn Community Arts Theatre will be performing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind; a story of mistaken identity, hope and dreams for a better future. A fab soundtrack including Boyzone, Bonnie Tyler, Meatloaf and more will have the whole family dancing in their seats. Selwyn Theatre, Kohimarama Rd, iticket.co.nz 10 During the Auckland Heritage Festival kids visiting Highwic can bake on the coal range, putting together the type of picnic Victorian families would have had, or make paper boats to recreate the journeys of people who voyaged across the seas to NZ. The Sail Away activity is free, baking on the range is $5, accompanying adults $10. See highwic.co.nz for session times At the last of Parnell Trust’s Sustainable Living Workshops for the year, learn how to maximise your space for fruit trees and veges,

with a focus on organic and semi-organic ways to produce edibles. Alongside Parnell Farmers’ Market, Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Rd, 9.30-11.30am, free 12-20 Artweek Auckland launches today across the isthmus. Local events include an open day at Te Tuhi Studios in the heritage building at Parnell Train Station on October 19, and exploring the art of the Parnell precinct by foot or e-bike. See artweekauckland.co.nz for the full programme 14 Holidays are over! Term 4 starts for most schools today 15 Gentle exercise, good company and green space, the perfect recipe for mums with prams. Join the Buggy Friendly Walking Group for a 2.5km walk around the Domain.

Free, meet at 11am, Parnell Community Centre, Jubilee Building entrance, 545 Parnell Rd Tonight local community service provider the Parnell Trust holds its AGM, all welcome.

5pm, in the Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Rd 19 Vintage cars, dances, food and drink, clothing, and workshops for makeup and hair, The Very Vintage Day Out celebrates vintage,

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retro and rockabilly fun! ASB Showgrounds, 217 Greenlane West, 10am-5pm, tickets from eventfinda.co.nz The Unicorn Foundation, which raises awareness of neuroendocrine cancers, holds their annual Craft Beer and Bites fundraiser this year at the Orakei Bay function centre. All your favourite craft beers and ciders, as well as entertainment, silent and live auctions. 231 Orakei Rd, 6.30-11pm, events.humanitix.co.nz for tickets 27 Join Cornwall Park’s Heritage Team for a guided bike tour of the park’s historic areas.

BYO bike and helmet, free, register at info@cornwallpark.co.nz 28 Labour Day 31 Hallowe’en will see posses of little ghouls and scary things in the neighbourhood and Remuera is celebrating too. Take the kids to the trick & treat hunt and costume parade, 3.30-5.30pm, gather at the BNZ carpark For the big people, there’s The Sickening Ball 2019, with the Season 11 stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race. A dancing, twirling, sequinned extravaganza. ASB Theatre - Aotea Centre, 7pm, ticketmaster.co.nz

the kiosk

An Inspired Education Moving on - Business Card.pdf

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4/02/19

11:10 AM

BOOK A SCHOOL TOUR C

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Thinking of moving to a retirement village, or just downsizing?

Moving On can assist with all things moving, from decluttering, to sorting, organising and unpacking.

Call Katie Fitzpatrick

0800 000 484

A DV ER TI SE H ER E

Join Remuera Heritage and help us recognise, appreciate, preserve and share our local heritage.

Advertising your business or service in The Kiosk couldn’t be easier.

Supply your details, high resolution logo and/or picture file if you have one, and we’ll put your ad together for you.

Contact: business@thehobson.co.nz

Members enjoy opportunities to visit heritage sites and buildings, hear guest speakers and attend a variety of heritage related events.

TECHNICAL CONCIERGE SERVICES Priority Apple Tech Support • Fast Reliable Secure WIFI • Technical Advisory Services Ph: 020 4 5POINT info@5point8.nz

An award-winning travel consultancy, we specialise in tailoring individual cruise and travel packages 8A CLEVELAND RD, PARNELL 0800 266 869 www.bonvoyage.co.nz

CLIA - CRUISE AGENCY OF THE YEAR NZ - 2017

remueraheritage.org.nz

Come and join the team — get fit, stay fit for life.

Adult (masters) morning swim squads, for ages 21-91 in mixed and women’s squads at the Olympic pool.

Whether you’re training for an event, want to get fit or stay fit, Rick and the team welcome you.

Come for the swimming, stay for the camaraderie! www.rickwells.co.nz @RickWellsSport

Affiliated training partner

the cryptic by mĀyĀ

A PERIMETRIC JIGSAW! The edge letters, from top left, clockwise, form the answer to: "You're doing OK, cook 26. Cook rolls - c'est la vie!

(5,3,3,3,6,8)". The other answers should be fitted in, jigsaw fashion, where they will go (the numbers are for reference only).

Set by Māyā. Answers will appear in our next issue, November 2019.

Can’t wait, or need help? Visit https://thehobsoncrossword.wordpress.com

1. Fabric made by a company in the Pacific region of the US? (6) 2. Deranged ungulate cut around a policeman (3,3) 3. Half - or more, they say? (4) 4. Thin 9s brought about wipeout (4) 5. Phil's swimming in the water - could get a neck injury (8) 6. Fan of headless horse (4) 7. When one has a continent (4) 8. Blunt copper rivet ends (4) 9. Grand grease churn (4) 10. Finish dear fish in pit (8) 11. Insect returns, to circle and dance (5) 12. Between which one may read? (6) 13. Broadcast fake news about sodium and potassium hydroxide (4) 14. Aggravate (but not in that order) when scentable (6) 15. A conductor feeling the heat? (7,7) 16. Straighten curly heads with our comb (5)

17. Conspiring to play rugby? (2,6) 18. Reasonable god creating a vegetable (4) 19. TA manoeuvring hanky out (5,3) 20. Metamorphic rocks are, to some extent, beyond understanding (6) 21. Giving lead or money with one eye closed? (7,3,4) 22. Whale opener, one cooked in a clay oven (8) 23. Socratic method acting to create puzzle (8) 24. Many almost mull and tipple (8) 25. Birds left home to oversleep loudly (6) 26. PC expert, detective, hurry! (6) 27. Not the same, the alternative is outside (5) 28. Secret societies may handle ice or hot coal (5) 29. Hesitation in time for gag (6) 30. He shoots a small bird (8)

SEPTEMBER CRYPTIC CROSSWORD ANSWERS ACROSS: 1 Freetown, 5 Avocet, 9 Trommels, 10 Accrue, 11 Missiles, 12 Cooeed, 14 Emulsifier, 18 Maiden name, 22 At home, 23 Interred, 24 Inlaid, 25 Bile duct, 26 Eleven, 27 Separate DOWN: 1 Fatima, 2 Eloise, 3 Tamsin, 4 Wilhelmina, 6 Victoria, 7 Cordelia, 8 Theodora, 13 Clementine, 15 Emmaline, 16 Michelle, 17 Germaine, 19 Helena, 20 Ursula, 21 Odette.

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LOGAN OUTDOOR WICKER COLLECTION (NATURAL)

GAZZONI RELAXING CHAIR & NOSH SIDE TABLE

GIGI OTTOMANS

JAK CAFE TABLE

WESTCHESTER CHAIR

BRADFORD TABLE & NATALIE DINING CHAIRS

AMALFI COLLECTION

NORDIC RELAXING CHAIR & OTTOMAN

New products have arrived for Summer 2020!

Stunningly curated outdoor furniture from Italy, Belgium, Indonesia, France, and the Philippines. Visit our showroom in Parnell to see the many styles of high quality outdoor furniture. Sunbrella® cushions are free with the purchase of our deep seating pieces as shown on site.

Everything is fully assembled, in stock, and available to take home today.

At Design Warehouse, you owe it to yourself to compare. Prices. Design. Quality. Instant Availability. Full Assembly. You will be so pleased you did.

www.designwarehouse.co.nz / 0800 111 112 / 137 - 147 The Strand, Parnell, Auckland / Open Daily 9:30 to 5:30

39 PORTLAND ROAD, REMUERA nzsothebysrealty.com /NZE11107

GRAND FAMILY ESTATE This substantial Remuera residence occupies a prime position on the northern slopes of Remuera in close proximity to Kings School. The property delivers the ultimate in family living in the heart of Auckland’s top suburb.

Complete with five bedrooms and multiple living areas overlooking the inner harbour and the Hauraki Gulf islands the house receives all day sun. The landscaped grounds together with large flat lawn areas, swimming pool, water feature and subtropical garden which has matured over the years, give a sense of escape and refuge from the busy city.

With so many special qualities you must come and experience this stunning family estate. Phone for a private viewing.

DEADLINE SALE: Closes 4:00 p.m. Thursday 17 October 2019 (unless sold prior)

Ross Hawkins National Top Performing Licensee 2013 - 2019

M +64 27 472 0577 ross.hawkins@nzsir.com nzsothebysrealty.com Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Browns Real Estate Limited (licensed under the REAA 2008) MREINZ.