Rotarians built the public barbecues at Kerikeri Basin, and now the Kerikeri club's new website gives non-members the chance to suggest other projects or volunteer their services. Photo / Supplied
Rotarians built the public barbecues at Kerikeri Basin, and now the Kerikeri club's new website gives non-members the chance to suggest other projects or volunteer their services. Photo / Supplied
The reinvention of Te Tii School, on the Purerua Peninsula north of Kerikeri, is being marked this Saturday with a Spring Festival.
The school, now named the Bay of Islands International Academy, has made a dramatic comeback from a roll of just eight children and the threat of imminent closure a few years ago. Almost 100 pupils now attend.
Festival committee member Vanessa Owen said the school was now ready to show off.
"It's amazing what this school has done in bridging the diverse communities of Purerua. The festival is a chance to show the wider community what that's all about."
CATCH HIM: Troy Kingi will be performing at the Bay Academy's Spring Festival this Saturday. PHOTO/PETER DE GRAAF
Troy Kingi, Bootleg, Micah van der Touw, Taumatua Funk and a kapa haka group will provide entertainment. Other attractions will include an auction, raffles, spit roasts, hangi, seafood, home baking, games, second-hand goods, art workshops and horse rides.
The Good Principals' fishing competition, a major fundraiser for Te Tii school until the mid-1990s, has also been revived. In its heyday it drew more than 100 entrants.
Matt Watson, of ITM Fishing Show fame, has helped to design a sustainable competition and will be present at the prize-giving.
The fishing contest runs from dawn to 3pm, the festival from 3-9pm. The academy is on Purerua Rd opposite the Te Tii turn-off. For more information, search for "Bay Academy spring festival" on Facebook.
Kerikeri Rotary Club has launched a new website to outline its work, encourage new members and create new ways for people to get involved without having to become members.
The new website, www.kerikerirotaryclub.org, also allows anyone to suggest community projects the club can involved with, or volunteer their own services for Rotary initiatives.
President Bruce Mathieson said the club was pulling out the stops to engage with the local community.
"Rather than dream up random community projects on our own, we thought it would be good to seek suggestions from the community," he said.
"And because we suspect there are quite a few people out there who would like to become involved in community projects but don't want to become formally involved with Rotary, we're making it easy for them to do so."
At 36, Mr Mathieson is Kerikeri Rotary's youngest president. Installed in June, he promised a year of change with a focus on local projects. The club is one of the most active and healthy in the region, but he wants more professionals and parents of young families to join the ranks.
For that to happen the club would need to evolve and adapt.
"We're looking at a heap of new membership options from introducing couples' membership through to adding breakfast or lunch gatherings to our existing meetings format."
TVNZ's Good Morning presenter Jeanette Thomas will be visiting Opua School this Friday to talk orangutans.
Teacher Karen Young and Room 4 have been learning about palm oil and the companies that destroy vast areas of rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra, the orangutan's habitat. They got involved with the Orangutan Project, a charity which helps orphaned, injured and homeless apes. It raises money by asking people to "adopt" an orangutan.
The pupils raised $2006 with a mufti day, pancakes, a cake stall and a raffle. It was enough for every pupil in Room 4 to adopt an orangutan each with money left over for rooms 1, 2, 3 and 5 to adopt one per class.
Ms Thomas, who has been to Sumatra to see the devastation first hand, was so impressed with the school's fundraising efforts she and her daughter, Charlotte, will visit from 11.30am on Friday to talk about their journey, show photos and answer questions.
Dance debut
A dance production that has been in the making for more than 10 years will debut in Kerikeri on Friday.
Called Echo, the show brings together more than 100 performers in a contemporary version of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull as seen through the eyes of dance teacher Liz Russell.
"It's an original production about Northland's environmental issues. We want to show people that there's an alternative lifestyle and way of being available," she said.
The production incorporates original choreography, songs, art and poetry, plus an original haka composed by choreographer Tanemahuta Grey.
Performances are on Friday and Saturday with bookings through the Turner Centre. Tickets start from $10.
Bazaar success
Riverview School's pirate-themed bazaar on September 14 raised $30,000 for new student furniture and equipment, part of the Kerikeri school's drive to create a "modern learning environment".
Seven-year-old Taylor Le Comte gets up speed while Kerikeri police officer Rhys Dempster clocks her on the radar. Photo / Peter de Graaf
As well as Zorb racing, bungy trampolines, a food hall and second-hand stalls, the bazaar offered a chance to soak one of the Far North's top cops - Senior Sergeant Chris McLellan bravely volunteered to be the first in the dunking machine - and to get clocked by police radar while running the length of the school cricket pitch.
The top speed measured was 25km/h, not quite enough for a ticket.
Trivia fundraiser
The Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust is holding a trivia night on Saturday to kick-start its fundraising campaign for a new railway station complex in Opua.
The trust is working to restore and reopen the historic railway line from Kawakawa to Opua and recently overcame its single biggest hurdle when it won a grant of more than $500,000 to rebuild the aptly named Longbridge at Taumarere. The next big project is to build a railway station at Colenso's Triangle, near Opua.
Tickets for the trivia evening, at the Scenic Hotel in Paihia cost $20 from Paihia Pharmacy, Paper Plus Kerikeri or Kawakawa's Trainspotter Bookshop. Plans for the new station will be revealed on the night.
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