Andrew and Wendy Porter are celebrating 20 years of owning the Four Square Store in Russell.
When Andrew and Wendy Porter first bought what was known as the “back” Four Square in Russell, they wondered whether they’d last a week. Now they are celebrating 20 years in the same store.
Much has changed in that time. The number of staff they employ is one example. In the “old” shop they had six on the staff. Now there are 18, not including themselves.
The retail space they had available when they first took over was 120sq m, there was little storage space and they didn’t have a loading bay. One of the major differences between then and now was transport availability.
The trucks delivering goods refused to come to Russell in 2003, so the Porters had to get in their own van, collect the goods from Ōpua and then unpack it themselves. The Anchor truck wouldn’t come across on the vehicle ferry, but that changed when Foodstuffs gave the company a private contract and Anchor was “advised” by HQ to deliver.
“Getting fresh produce from a truck that wasn’t refrigerated was a little dodgy,” says Wendy. “Now we get the Foodstuffs truck four times a week.”
In 2019, they totally refurbished the original store, added rooms, painted floors, ceiling, walls and shelving. In fact, they were the first North Island Four Square to install chiller doors leading into the cold room.
They closed the shop for six months to achieve the makeover, and six months after opening they were restricted because of Covid, but at least they could still trade and it meant having more than four times the retail space.
Today they have solar power and, although they have considerably increased the retail space, the power bill is about the same as it was in the old store. There are two other major factors that have changed the way they operate.
One is scanning. Back when they were first in business, they would have to manually and daily change the special prices on goods. Now it’s all digital. The other factor is compliance, and Andrew says there is a lot more regulation today.
“Now you have to get someone to check everything once a month, and in the old days we didn’t even have a fire alarm!”
The Porters now have more time off than they used to, and have taken up mountain bike riding at Waitangi.
There was no shortage of entries in the Russell Gardening Club show, which this year was celebrating its 75th jubilee.
There were so many prizes on offer over copious sections that if it had not been for the proliferation of entries, just about everyone who entered could theoretically have won something.
In total there were 108 categories within the show including floral arrangements, cut flowers, trees, shrubs and climbers, roses, vegetables, fruit, pot plants, home-style preserves, baking, and crafts.
Since 1974, there has been a strong emphasis on involving the local children with their art, their baking and their vegetable creations. One of the most creative creations in the vegetable section came from Kim, who won first prize with her banana dolphins, which were were “floating on a sea of blueberries”.
A little girl called Skippy won a prize in the flower, vegetable, and baking sections, and received all her prizes from Trish Macintosh, deputy president of the club. Trish also won first prize for her bottlebrush.
Most of the entrants said the roses were not at their best having succumbed to rain damage the previous week, and Raewyn Hanlon won first prize in that section.
Fuchsias are known for their hardy nature and they grow best in direct sunlight. The first prize was in a section that was hotly contested and was won by Denise Ellis.
In the craft section, one winner had carved a walking stick from privet branches, but it was the creation by Dan Wilson that captured the most comment. He incorporated a real spider’s web onto a plate on top of a carved wooden platter, for which he got third prize.
Russell Gardening Club began in 1948 when Elsie Lindauer, the wife of the local headmaster, convened the first meeting. It has grown into a vibrant, well-attended club that meets monthly, and with a show that can now boast literally hundreds of entries.
The R.Tucker Thompson Sail Training Trust, which operates from Ōpua wharf, has won an award in the Northland Business Excellence Awards, which were held early in November.
The trust was the recipient of the EMA Recognition of Social Impact Not-For-Profit Award.
The R.Tucker Thompson is a tall ship that takes Northland’s young on life-changing seven-day voyages. During summer it operates daily sailing trips, and profits from the tourism activities are used to fund the youth development voyages.
The judges said the R.Tucker Thompson Sail Training Trust’s thorough, professional entry demonstrated an “excellent response to changing circumstances and market drivers, led and empowered by a new CEO”.
The CEO, Jo Lynch, said the trust was privileged to do the special work it does, and the outcomes for youth had been formally measured by the University of Otago.
For 46 years, the Northland Business Excellence Awards, run by the Northland Chamber of Commerce, have offered Te Tai Tōkerau businesses the opportunity to measure, recognise, and honour business excellence.
Independent judges assess business performance in leadership, business planning, staff, health and safety, customer and market strategy, as well as evaluation of financial and business processes.
The R.Tucker Thompson Trust has also retained a Qualmark Gold Sustainable Tourism Business Award. The gold award recognises the best sustainable businesses in New Zealand, with the delivery of exceptional customer experiences.
In March 2020, the Bay of Islands Airport Rescue Fire Service became the first new industrial fire brigade in New Zealand in 40 years when it held its first large-scale exercise.
Because of Covid shutdowns, a second large-scale exercise couldn’t occur for a couple of years. It was held last week at the Bay of Islands Airport and about 75 people were involved.
Volunteer actors from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe, alongside emergency services, took part in a simulated aircraft incident scenario as part of the Airport Emergency Plan (AEP) exercise.
The drill ran for nearly two hours and featured four fire appliances, two ambulances and four police cars, testing the airport’s inter-agency response to a real-life emergency. As the owner and operator of the airport, Far North Holdings Ltd (FNHL) is responsible for running the biannual exercise.
FNHL airports manager Dan Alexander said safety was important and he was pleased with the outcome.
“The exercise went really well and proved we have a robust emergency response in place and adequate resourcing available,” he said.
The incident scene was split into two sections, with one section imitating the front section of an aircraft that contained the fuel tanks, with passengers (played by the students) careening into the fire training ground, fully engulfed in fire. This sector consisted of a shipping container with internal seats and a steel-tray fuel fire close by.
For section two, the tail end of the aircraft was simulated by a minivan containing the “injured” passengers and was beside of the runway, with spot fires between it and the main fuselage.
Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Kaikohe Year 9 students Atarangi Harris and Te Arahi Nelson-Rogers were two of several students playing the injured passengers.
Both students played “status two” injury passengers, with Harris having a broken leg and chest pain, and Nelson-Rogers with severe facial burns and organ failure. They said the experience had been exciting and unlike anything they’d tried before.
“We had to yell out ‘help’ and tell people what injuries we had and it was pretty cool when the emergency services turned up,” Nelson-Rogers said.
The next biennial emergency exercise will be in 2025.
The latest news bites from around the region.