Superyacht Adix is owned by Spanish billionaire Jamie Botin. Photo / DykstraNaval Architects
One of the world's largest superyachts has been visiting the Bay of Islands. She is the three-masted, 64-metre schooner Adix and like many a vivacious lady, she has attracted some men in her life who haven't exactly enhanced her reputation.
Her current owner is Spanish billionaire Jamie Botin, who was sentenced to three years in jail in February this year and fined $157.6 million for using the yacht in an attempt to smuggle a Picasso painting out of Spain.
The painting, Head of a Young Woman, had an estimated value of $49.62m. A 2015 high court ruling had declared the painting was a "national treasure" and it could not be removed from Spain. That same year Botin's son Alfonso took Adix to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica.
Working from a tipoff, French customs officials boarded the yacht in Calvi, found the painting packaged up and seized it. Prosecutors subsequently alleged Botin intended to take the painting to Switzerland to sell. It was taken to the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid where it remains.
The fines and the loss of the painting will make a dent in his considerable fortune but not literally break the bank. Botin is the largest shareholder of the Spanish bank, Bankinter S.A.
His great-grandfather founded Spain's largest bank, Santander, and his grandfather, father and brother Emilio have all been presidents of the bank.
Since the sentence is under appeal, however, the 83-year-old Botin has yet to lose his freedom.
Adix was at one time owned by another convicted fraudster. In 1984 she was bought by the Australian industrialist, Alan Bond, who famously bankrolled his country's successful challenge for the America's Cup in 1983.
She had been built in Mallorca in 1984 and christened Jessica by her original Argentine owner. Bond bought her a few years later and changed her name to the rather more crass XXXX, which is a brand of beer he owned in Queensland at the time.
Botin bought her in 1990 and changed her name to the current and more elegant appellation.
In 1997 Bond was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to using his controlling interest in Bell Resources to deceptively siphon off A$1.2 billion ($1.265b) into the coffers of Bond Corporation.
He served four years in various Western Australian jails and died in 2015 from complications following heart surgery.
Over the years the gaff-rigged topsail schooner has had four or five major refits, the latest one took six months and was completed in Brisbane in April. New Zealand companies have also had a hand in sprucing her up.
Nalder Sails of Nelson and Lidgard Sails of Auckland supplied 13 working and off-wind sails in 2015 and in the following years Southern Spars and Future Fibres fitted new carbon fibre masts and rigging.
Far North District Council is about to trial three litter collection baskets placed over three stormwater drains in a bid to reduce rubbish entering the waterways and ocean.
The EnviroPod LittaTraps will be in drains near the Kerikeri Skate Park, in the Williams Road carpark in Paihia and in Hawke Dr, Haruru Falls. The trial is a collaboration between FNDC, Northland Regional Council and NorthTec.
The LittaTrap is a patented catch basket that sits inside the stormwater drain and prevents trash and other rubbish being carried by stormwater from entering the drain network and then going on to the sea.
EnviroPod is a standalone company that was formed in 1996 and is part of the Stormwater 360 Group. The LittaTrap is the brainchild of Greg Yeoman and Mike Hannah and the second-generation EnviroPod won the Sustainability and Clean Tech category at the 2016 New Zealand Innovation Awards.
The company now sells more LittaTraps overseas than in New Zealand.
The traps trialled in the Far North will be regularly cleared and a NorthTec research team will analyse and record the litter collected. If the experience of Kitchener, a Canadian city in southeastern Ontario, is anything to go by the traps will be declared a necessity.
In a three-month trial between June and August 2019, a LittaTrap was placed next to a frequently used bus stop with a high number of food outlets and retail shops in the vicinity.
The unit captured 433 "gross pollutants", mainly plastic food wrappers, paper receipts, polystyrene and chewing gum. A total of 238 cigarettes were also captured.
Research has shown chemicals released from the cigarettes emit enough toxins to kill more than 50 per cent of the fish exposed to those toxins within 96 hours.
The City of Kitchener extrapolated the three-month findings out over a year and concluded that 1299 pollutants could be deposited in the trap. Given there are 12,361 catch basins within the city, it potentially meant that up to 16 million gross pollutants could have made their way to the city's Grand River.
The Russell Kororāreka Community Wharf Kaitiaki Trust is hoping to raise $25,000 before Christmas to help fund two new carvings to be placed on the wharf.
The commissioned carvings are by Tony Makiha from Mystix Studio in Paihia whose iwi affiliation is Te Mahurehure from the Hokianga.
The carvings are a wahāroa (gateway) and a wero (outer guard). They will be installed in two phases, the first being the wero due for completion by the end of March 2021 with the wahāroa due to be completed later in the year.
The trust is currently putting together funding applications to complete the project to help towards the $100,000 total cost of the carvings. Wharf trustee Riki Kinnaird said there had been an ambition over many years that Māori representation would be "proudly visible" in Russell.
"The hope has been held keenly by Kororāreka Marae and supported by the former Russell Wharf Trust.
"During the consultation process for the transfer of ownership of the Russell wharf and the future upgrade plans, the concept of including a bicultural element was raised during public meetings and received strong public support in principle."
He said it was now time to put the plan in place to see the project come to completion.
Also on the "to do" list for the trust is an upgrade and repair of the seaward end of the wharf's boat ramp plus some erosion protection.
A recent application by the trust to the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) fulfilled all the criteria but the funding "pot" was depleted so the money wasn't forthcoming. The trust will consider applying again next year.
The Russell hospitality community has provided the prizes for the raffle, which includes two nights for two couples at the award-winning Donkey Bay Inn, two nights for two couples at the historic Duke of Marlborough Hotel and two nights for one couple at Omata Estate. Wine is included in all prizes, tickets are $100 each.
Tickets are limited to 250 in total and will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact riki@theduke.co.nz or pikorua@mailasail.com. The raffle will be drawn on December 15 and all ticket-holders will be notified.
The Kerikeri Quilters group have continued a tradition of raising funds for a worthy cause – over and above presenting their quilts to a deserving charity.
At a recent pre-Christmas lunch the group presented Vanessa Fruze from the Northern Emergency Services Trust (NEST) with a cheque for $800 to go towards maintaining what's more colloquially known as the Northland Rescue Helicopter.
The group was originally formed in 1981 and meets monthly. The membership totals 45. Each year the group makes a donation to a nominated cause and during the year the women work on community quilts, which in the past have been donated to Women's Refuge, Riding for the Disabled and Bald Angels.
Coming up with fundraising ideas can be fraught but Russell Museum trustees, Caroline Pyne and Sue Western, decided to rely on the post, literally. They initiated a "dress up the letterbox" competition and the community responded.
"The old post office was on the land where Haratu Marae now stands next to the museum and we wanted to celebrate the history of the postal service in Kororāreka," said Sue Western.
All mailboxes had to be currently functional and there were three entry categories – the Spirit of Russell and the Most Creative categories were judged by Kirsten Hoffstetter. The other award was the People's Choice, which could only be voted for at the museum.
The winners of the Spirit of Russell category were Dame Jenny and Burton Shipley, who started their "climbing bear mailbox" during lockdown and continued adding bears when lockdown was lifted.
The winner of the Most Creative category was Alex Beaumont from Okiato, who made the letterbox for his mother during lockdown and called it Lantern Fish. His mother visited the museum for the first time to register her interest in helping and will now include the museum as part of her school holiday programme for children.
In what turned out to be a very tight, down-to-the-wire decision, the People's Choice award was won by Warren Clendon from Rawhiti with his "Stickman" letterbox.
The museum plans to make the letterbox competition an annual event.
Saturday December 12, HOT - The Village Arts Summer Show, Village Arts Gallery, opening at 11am, Kohukohu. The show runs until February 13, 2021.
Sunday December 13, Paihia Tennis Club Open Fun Day, (Weather date December 20), from 10am to 2pm or longer if necessary. Open to residents of Paihia and the surrounding towns of the Bay of Islands, both young and old. No registration required, just turn up on the day. For those trying tennis for the first time, a limited number of racquets can be supplied by the club on the day. There will be a full range of age-appropriate spot prizes donated by local organisations.
Wednesday December 23, Carols@Pompallier – Pompallier House, 6pm, Russell waterfront. Bring a picnic tea. Gold coin donation will go to Hospice Mid-Northland. Hosted by the Combined Churches with guest musicians Myles Frunkum and Steve Southworth.
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One person died at the scene of a vehicle crash at Horeke, on Saturday morning.