Recruits in the Youth Life Skills Services Academy programme line up for instruction at Te Haumi Beach near Paihia.
Crawling up a steep hill with a loaded pack on your back is not everyone's idea of advancement but 70 Year 13 kids in two groups did just that in the Far North recently.
They were part of the Youth Life Skills Services Academy programme, a branch of the NZ Defence Force run in conjunction with secondary schools throughout New Zealand.
The year-long programme is designed to motivate students to stay with education through experiencing military routines and discipline and is coupled to NCEA. Many students apply and some, particularly those with special needs or considered at risk, are encouraged to participate.
Wendy Rowe, the Youth Life Skills Platoon sergeant, said the course enables students to develop a sense of identity, language and culture.
"A lot of kids are looking for direction and the programme teaches students to set goals in relation to their education, wellbeing, and future pathways in tertiary education, vocational training and employment."
A two-week induction course is held at Whenuapai Base each year for North Island participants followed by a leadership course, an advanced leadership course, a coast-to-coast trek and other outdoor-based activities.
This year, for the second time, the NZDF Northern Region Services Academy Adventure Challenge was held in the Far North. Participants were divided into groups of 10 with one military instructor for each group.
They spent five nights and four days on the outdoor challenge. Starting point was at Mangungu Mission House in Horeke and the finishing line was at Haruru Falls near Paihia. The run and cycle included the Pou Herenga Tai Twin Coast Cycle Trail cycle trail and is considered mentally and physically tough.
Most day-trippers on the trail would travel down the 1.6km switchback hill in the Utakura Valley, but the academy students slugged up the hill in a crawl with fully loaded backpacks. Over the four days they navigated the trail in relays, switching between bikes and running.
The last leg took them from Kawakawa to Paihia using the cycle trail and the walking track from Opua before finally climbing into a kayak for a sea trip from Paihia to Te Haumi Beach for skills training. They learned bush craft and how to set up camp along the way.
Base camps were at the Kaikohe A&P Showgrounds, the Waimate North Showgrounds, the Kawakawa rugby club and the Bay of Islands Holiday Park on Puketona Rd.
The cultural segment of the course included a visit to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and one of the highlights, and considerably less strenuous than other parts, was a trip on the steam train on the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway.
In the past month, Far North constituents have been handed two diametrically opposed decisions on the same subject from two different local authorities.
In late October the Northland Regional Council voted to include Māori constituent seats on council. Seven of the eight councillors present voted for them.
In early November the Far North District Council voted not to include Māori constituent seats. The motion was tied five votes to five and so was lost.
Constituent and ratepayers were not officially canvassed before the vote, although councillors were free to conduct their own surveys.
Marty Robinson and Joce Yeoman, the NRC councillors who represent the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa ward, said they did not explicitly contact constituents to gauge opinion. However Justin Blaikie, the NRC deputy chairman who represents Hokianga-Kaikohe, said he consulted widely.
"This decision should have been made by the community at large as councillors were under considerable pressure from iwi leaders and Te Tai Tokerau Māori and Council Working Party representatives to support Māori seats," he said.
"We were also told by staff there was no point in holding a poll to enable the community to make the decision as the outcome would be the same as all previous polls."
He quipped he should have asked the staff for the Lotto ticket numbers "given they can predict the outcome of a poll".
Of the nine FNDC councillors contacted to ask if they had canvassed constituents before the vote, seven replied. Five said they had discussions with constituents or family and friends ranging from "casual" to "fairly informal".
John Vujcich (Kaikohe-Hokianga ward) said he spoke "face-to-face with 20 to 30 people". Kelly Stratford (Bay of Islands-Whangaroa) said she consulted widely with Māori.
"I attended marae meeting and had their support and we had the iwi leaders speak to us and encourage us to adopt Māori wards.
"Since the last poll initiated by Far North District Council in 2015, council was to develop a Te Tiriti o Waitangi strategy as a foundation for building trust, good faith and to increase its partnerships and collaboration with Māori. Five years on, this has not happened," she said.
In consulting with Pākehā, she said, "I do cuppa with councillors around the rohe."
Māori seats will become part of the 2022 regional council elections. Electors will not be polled beforehand.
A poll on Māori seats in the Far North will be included in voting papers during October 2022 elections.
Skateboarding will be included in the Tokyo Olympics for the first time next year and has resulted in a regrowth of the sport.
Although New Zealand will not be sending a team to Tokyo, the competitiveness of the country's top skateboarders hasn't lessened. Many of them will be in Kerikeri on November 21.
Riders from Wanaka, Christchurch, Wellington, Mt Maunganui and Auckland will join Northlanders for the two-hour event labelled Vert Jam.
Vert (short for vertical) means riding a skateboard on a ramp or other incline to perform skateboarding tricks. Riders spend as much time in the air as they do on the ramp.
The Kerikeri event, now in its third year, was founded by Dave Crabb who skated professionally in the US for around nine years.
The variety of divisions in the Vert Jam includes under-16, over-40s and a category for girls.
Anyone keen on entering can register before noon on February 21 and spectators are welcome. Contact: Dave Crabb 021 804 4889, Victoria Crabb 021 405 034 or 09 405 0075.
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Photos: Vert Jam skate contest in Kerikeri
HMNZS Otago made its first port of call for six months at Opua during the weekend. The Protector-class offshore patrol vessel was spending three days at rest in the Bay of Islands before heading north for two weeks of training exercises.
Otago operates throughout New Zealand's 200-mile Exclusive Zone, the Southern Ocean and the Pacific. It does a range of roles including patrolling, surveillance, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance and sea training for the navy.
It has a full complement of 42 personnel under the command of Lieutenant Commander Ben Martin, RNZN. The ship left Opua on Monday morning.
After the hardships generated by last summer's drought, which was followed by the pandemic lockdown, the small rural communities of Towai and Maromaku decided to launch a local market to help revitalise the local economy.
Organiser Kerry Gelmi said the aim was to get the whole community involved.
"We felt confident this was a way to re-energise Towai and create a sense of connection and community. It is a unique, quirky market, much like Towai itself."
Examples of that idiosyncratic nature aren't hard to find.
FNDC mayor John Carter opened the market last Sunday by cutting not the traditional ribbon with a pair of scissors, but by sawing through baling twine.
Stallholder Russell Carter (no relation) exhibited his wooden bowls made from cut-offs from the timber he uses for making coffins. His was just one of 18 stallholders who set up for the first day of trading.
Gelmi said the success of the first market was "amazing" to the extent some of the stalls completely sold out.
"We had locals of course and so many people came in groups from out of town, from Whangārei, Kawakawa and Moerewa, Kerikeri, and there were several people from Auckland who had driven up especially like Tim Johnson who is the chief executive of Gravity Internet who had never been to a small rural market before and was fascinated by the cows looking through the windows at the proceedings."
The market project is part of a community plan initially developed by the Towai and Maromaku communities in 2019 with support from the Far North District Council's Community Development Team.
The Towai Makers' Market will be held monthly, every second Sunday, from 2pm to 6pm at the Towai Hall, 32 Towai Rd, Towai.
As well as local craft stalls, food and drinks are available and, on request, certain types of in-ground caskets.
The event organisers are keen for more stallholders to participate. All expressions of interest can be made to Kerry Gelmi (022 467 1881).
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One person died at the scene of a vehicle crash at Horeke, on Saturday morning.