Children at Mirira School in rural Kenya with thousands of dollars worth of stationery gifted by two Far North teens. PHOTO / SUPPLIED
Children at Mirira School in rural Kenya with thousands of dollars worth of stationery gifted by two Far North teens. PHOTO / SUPPLIED
A weekly round-up of news snippets, events and oddities from the Bay of Islands and around the Mid North
Schoolchildren in rural Kenya have received about $2500 worth of stationery thanks to two Far North teens.
Springbank School Year 11 students Jessica Prak-Khan (Kawakawa) and Ally Standing (Taipa) organised the delivery to Mirira School, about 80km from Nairobi, after learning about living conditions in the east African country.
The 15-year-olds won the Northland Young Enterprise Awards last year for their student company Ecovado, which produces boutique soap from a byproduct of the avocado oil manufacturing process.
Their raw material was sourced from Kenya, where Kerikeri company Olivado makes much of its oil.
After learning about life in rural Kenya the girls contacted the school in Mirira village, where many of Olivado's workers live, to find out what they could do to help.
Using their company profits and the proceeds of a fundraising campaign, the pair stuffed 50 backpacks with exercise books, pens, coloured pencils, felts, rulers and other items.
Olivado transported the backpacks to Kenya and the factory manager delivered them personally to the school, to make sure they ended up in the right hands. The gifts arrived to great excitement just inn time for the start of the Kenyan school year.
Jessica said the average Kenya family lived on about $2 a day so even basic school equipment was often unaffordable.
This year's Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival boasts an extra strong line-up with three veterans of New Zealand's music scene on the bill: Suzanne Prentice, Eddie Low and Brendan Dugan.
They will be joined by 50 other bands and solo artists playing eight venues in Paihia, Russell and Haruru Falls on May 8-10.
Suzanne Prentice is headlining the upcoming Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival. PHOTO / Duncan Brown
Rising stars to look out for include singer Saelyn Guyton, originally from Invercargill but now living in Kerikeri, and Cameron Luxton of Canterbury, who has been touring internationally since he was 12. He is the stepson of Lynda Topp of Topp Twins fame.
Both have won the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards, Saelyn in 2010 and Cameron in 2014.
Three-day entry badges cost $50; day passes are $30. Go to www.country-rock.co.nz for more information.
Cat lovers protest
A group set up to feed a stray cat colony in Paihia is planning a protest later this month against council plans to catch and rehome the remaining cats.
The cat colony has become an extremely contentious issue in the Bay of Islands town. On one hand, the Paihia Cat Protection group (PCP) has set up a feeding station, with council permission, on School Rd and wants the remaining cats to live out their lives where they are.
On the other side conservation groups like Bay Bush Action, which is trying to restore native birdlife in the nearby Opua Forest, want the cats removed, saying they pose a risk to wildlife such as the rare NZ dotterel.
The council believes only a few strays remain. It wants to catch them and find homes for them via the Bay of Islands SPCA.
PCP spokesman Klaus Kurz said the group had collected close to 1000 signatures calling on the council to let the cats stay. The group is also planning a protest at Paihia's Village Green starting at 1pm on May 23. It was originally scheduled for May 16 but has been postponed by a week.
Guest speakers would discuss cats and ecology and flyers would be distributed to the public. Mr Klaus said he expected a counter-demonstration and possibly even a "violent confrontation".
Community boards gather
More than 160 people representing 65 community boards around New Zealand are expected at a major conference in the Bay of Islands next week.
The New Zealand Community Boards Conference 2015 is being held at the Copthorne Hotel in Waitangi on May 14-16.
Local speakers are Mayor John Carter, Deputy Mayor Tania McInnes and Maori tourism leader Hone Mihaka. Other speakers will discuss broadband rollout, case studies from Thames/Coromandel, creating youth-friendly towns, inspiring change, and the difference between local boards and community boards. Former radio announcer Pete Gentil of Kerikeri will be the MC.
The conference is expected to boost the Bay's economy and give Paihia residents a chance to showcase changes they have made in their town.
The Far North District Council has three community boards designed to give people in the Te Hiku, Bay of Islands-Whangaroa and Kaikohe-Hokianga wards a greater say in council decisions. Whangarei and Kaipara districts do not have community boards.
Opua's big clean-up
A major clean-up is underway on the weed-infested bank between Opua School and the bottom of Franklin St.
Far North Holdings hired Kaitaia-based CBEC to remove invasive plants such as gorse, pampas grass and wattle, and hopefully find a historic walking path and house sites.
Volunteers from the community group Love Opua are lending a hand in the clean-up, which was due to start on May 4 and take about three days.
Community awards open
It seems like Focus Paihia won the Trustpower National Community Awards just five minutes ago, but already the next round of nominations are open for the Far North awards.
Run in partnership with the Far North District Council, the awards were set up to recognise volunteer groups for their contributions to the community. The categories are heritage and environment, health and wellbeing, arts and culture, sport and leisure, and education and child/youth development.
Entry forms are available from council service centres, online at www.Trustpower.co.nz/communityawards, or from Jess Somerville on 0800 87 11 11. Entries close on June 5.
Far North winners have twice gone on to win the nationals. The current national champion is Focus Paihia; a few years earlier the supreme award was won by the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway Trust. Last year 63 Far North groups were nominated.
A week of community events in the Whangaroa area marking the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings was made possible by a $7000 grant from the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board.
The grant allowed the Whangaroa Armed Services Commemorations 2015 group to host a formal dinner for descendants of Whangaroa's war dead along with current and former defence personnel, plus a whanau day to encourage families to remember the contribution of the armed services.
Chairman Terry Greening said the board was delighted to get behind the commemorations, which had involved an extraordinary amount of work by the Whangaroa community.
The board also granted $2500 to the R Tucker Thompson Trust to help organise celebrations for the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's arrival in New Zealand and $1950 to the Kaeo Rugby Club for a line-marking machine and paint.
The board considers grant applications at each of its six-weekly meetings. The next meeting is on May 6. Applications need to be received at least 10 days in advance. Go to http://www.fndc.govt.nz/services/community for details of how to apply.
Do you have news or an upcoming event you'd like to see in this column? Send it, including your full contact details, to baynews@northernadvocate.co.nz.
