Ana Apatu: Polo delivers positive experience

Ana Apatu

The Birchleigh polo club Flaxmere boys graduate with their equine certificate NZQA level two.

We hold their graduation at Te Aranga Marae. One of the boy's mother Charlene speaks and thanks Richard Kettle for exposing her boys to such a positive experience and sport. She thanks him for opening up his home and involving these boys with other families and experience.

Charlene laughs when she describes her friends' reaction to her boys playing "polo". We support Richard Kettles submission to Hastings District Council annual plan. Richard proposes to set up the Birchleigh polo club at the Chatham Road Flaxmere grounds - right on Flaxmere's back door step. Where the old polo grounds used to be located.

This provides a fantastic opportunity to expose Flaxmere families to polo and also provide an opportunity to have more young people take up this sport. We discuss these possibilities and the potential to have a Flaxmere College Polo Team.

For those of you that may not have seen the Hoiho programme episode four on Maori TV, this show provides a great insight into the boys' natural horse riding talents. It's a cracker.

Our Te Aranga community garden has been busy. Our auditor Nagajara heads back to his home Bengaluru (Bangalor) Southern India which is experiencing a heat wave. He tells us a temperature of 46C awaits him. Before he leaves we take Nagajara to an Indian restaurant Namaskar in Havelock North. We are pleased he is pleased with the meal. Incidentally Namaskar has just won a local hospitality award and is delicious.

In Nagarjara's final summation of the Fair for Life audit he particularly mentioned how impressed he was with the amount of children involved with our Te Aranga Community garden and Gardens in Schools programs. We take Nagajara to Peterhead Primary school in Flaxmere where the children approach Gary our head gardener - obviously well-liked by the children, the children are so enthusiastic. This same week we had early child centres visit the garden and at the end of the week we have Iona Woodford and Lindisfarne Colleges and Twyford School attend our garden for a day.

Our Jarmie army is rolled out and PJ's are delivered to a primary school. Sarah Tawhai of Flaxmere employed by Plunket part time emails me with the following: "The two class rooms we spoke to the kids who didn't have any pyjamas were so excited to know that there's people out there who are willing to give them some."

But the end of the week does not end well for me. I feel as if I have lost one of my best friends. Someone I had in my home who kept me company while eating or preparing dinner. Reliable, there every week day in the evening, an intimate friend I felt I knew so well. His stories would often make me laugh and sometimes make me cry. He had a great talent for exposing stories of everyday lives of people living in New Zealand. Many stories were heartfelt - orthodontic work on children with buck teeth, The Christchurch earthquake survivors, the Novapay debacle, etc. Living on my own, at home in the evening, I found comfort with this half hour background discussion. I can't imagine life without him. I am going to miss my friend John Campbell.

Is it a symptom of middle New Zealand and what the masses watch that has forced the end of his show or is it that he exposed issues that made middle NZ uncomfortable? Whatever the reason, I will miss John and his team. And like many others that lose something dear to them, I am in a stage of denial. I will most likely still watch TV3 news and hopefully watch the 7 o'clock slot to see what is replacing Campbell live. I will try to keep an open mind. Unfortunately I have a sinking feeling I am about to be bitterly disappointed and realise that I have really lost that good friend I enjoyed so much for good.

-Ana Apatu is chief executive of the U-Turn Trust, based at Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere.