Piper Grant, at 15-year-old singer-songwriter from Haruru Falls who is making her first appearance at the Bay of Islands Country Fock Festival. Photo/Supplied
Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival
It's on again this year. In fact, the Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival has been on for the past 33 years with the exception of 2020 when lockdown forced a cancellation.
Promoter Shirley May said Covid had affected her with a mild dose of the virus but she "jumped for joy" when she heard New Zealand was going back to orange under the traffic light system. She had taken a punt that it would do so, and it had worked out.
The 42 acts will perform at six venues in Paihia and Russell. None are from overseas because of border restrictions although Shirley says she has already booked five overseas acts for the festival next year.
Headlining this year's festival are the usual suspects - Suzanne Prentice, Eddie Low, Jodi Vaughan, Gray Bartlett and Brendan Dugan – but Shirley is encouraging the "newbies" as well.
New to the festival this year is Piper Grant, 15, a singer-songwriter from Haruru Falls in the Bay of Islands. She was raised in Queensland and New Zealand and recently returned from five months on the Sunshine Coast.
She released her fourth single, I Don't Talk to No One, in February, which featured on the Play It Strange Lion Foundation Album.
An unusual entry is an all-girls bluegrass band called Hot Diggity. They formed in 2014 but all five members of the band are veteran musicians having played for years with numerous other bands in a variety of styles. This year they will introduce their new fiddle player, Louise Evans.
There are soloists, duos, trios, foursomes, groups, bands and impersonators (Dolly Parton and John Denver) in the extensive line-up performing over three days of the weekend.
Bay of Islands Country Rock Festival, May 13, 14, 15.
boimusicfestivals.com
Russell Landcare Trust Marks 20 Years
In 1998 two couples and a lone male had each been carrying out predator control in their own patches on the Russell Peninsula and they discovered their uniting interest in protecting the remnant kiwi population.
Laurence Gordon, together with Lindsay Alexander and Helen Ough Dealy and Dianna and Bob Frater formed an ad hoc group of like-minded citizens and called themselves Russell Kiwi Group. They realised that more predator control was needed for their efforts to have a worthwhile effect.
Private large area landowners were encouraged to start their own predator control and an electrified fence at the neck of the peninsula marked the boundary for concentrating efforts within the zone.
In 2002 a public meeting was held to gauge resident's interest in forming the Russell Landcare Trust and eight trustees stepped up with the trust deed registered on September 28.
There were a number of tasks to undertake and the translocation of weka was the first project. Next was weeding and planting at Long Beach which included dune protection. This was followed by weeding and planting on Constitution Hill, the stream margin at Wellington St, DOC land at Kororāreka and Hirst Reserve, Pipiroa Bay and the Pompallier hillside.
The installation of nesting boxes for kiwi and little blue penguin have provided safe havens for the birds and are well used. The trust uses contract trappers to control predators.
In the ensuing 20 years many projects have been successfully completed working alongside Living Waters Trust and BOI Walkways Trust and the priorities for trustees and members remains unchanged from the original objectives.
Historical map pinpoints position of French ships.
Grainger Brown is a Heritage Northland volunteer. He is also a specialist in charting and navigation and he has combined those two skills to accurately record the position of a French explorer who was in the region in 1772.
Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and his ships, the Mascarin and the Marquis de Castries, were in the Bay of Islands for five weeks from May 4, 1772. The timing of the map's completion couldn't be better according to Heritage New Zealand Northland manager, Bill Edwards, who said it was a significant moment in New Zealand's history.
"The map enables us to pinpoint with a high degree of accuracy the location of Marion du Fresne and his men while they were here, whether they were on the two ships, or at the temporary hospital that was set up for scurvy victims on Moturua Island or the camp where kauri logs were being felled for use as spars."
Grainger's latest historical chart is a sequel to a similar map he developed recording the position of James Cook and his ship Endeavour which he developed for the 250th anniversary of Cook's arrival in New Zealand.
Bill Edwards said New Zealand naturalist, politician and historian, Mike Lee, shared the map with a couple of contacts who were former senior officers in the French Navy.
"They confirmed the accuracy of the map and expressed their delight that this work has been done which is a real reflection on the quality of Grainger's work."
In the many interactions with Māori the French unwittingly give offence in violating tapu by fishing in a bay where bones were scraped before being laid to rest. They unknowingly allowed themselves to be used by one iwi to diminish the status of another.
In mid-June, Māori killed du Fresne and 24 of his crew. In reprisal, the French killed up to 250 Māori, burned several villages and destroyed waka. Bill believes there has been under-representation of the French side in the telling of our history.
He said the anniversary of Marion du Fresne's arrival represents an opportunity to begin to look at this little-understood part of our history.
Success for swimmers
Fresh from winning an ocean swimming event, a Kerikeri teen has recorded a series of personal bests and three top 10 finishes in the New Zealand Age Group Swimming Championships.
Kaia Derbyshire, of Northwave Swimming Club, was one of seven Northland swimmers to qualify for the Wellington event on April 19-25. Swimming in the 13-year-old girls' finals she placed 4th in New Zealand in the 200m backstroke, 6th in 100m backstroke and 6th in 50m breaststroke.
Former Kerikeri High student Emilia Finer, now competing in the 17-18-year-old girls' division, landed a big haul of medals with 2nd place in 1500m freestyle, 2nd in 800m freestyle, 3rd in 200m freestyle, 4th in 400m freestyle, 5th in 200m fly and 7th in 400m individual medley.
Also competing were Lukas Bayer, 15, of Bay of Islands Swimming Club; Ry Luff, 15, and Hans Haufe, 14, of Northwave; and TeMana Atutolu, 14, and Tasmin Hodson, 15, of Whangārei Swimming Club.
TeMana made it through to an extraordinary eight finals with his top result a silver in the 50m freestyle.
On April 2 Kaia finished first in her age group in the 1.25km Around Long Island race at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Open Water Championships in Mt Maunganui.
The latest news bites from around the region.