Jack Kemp (left) and Dr Bill Guthrie who together have mapped Northland's World War II defence positions for an exhibition at Kiwi North.
Heritage stalwart calls it a day.
Grainger Brown of Kerikeri has been a foundation member of Heritage Northland since its inception in 2014 and has retired after seven years.
Prior to that he served as a member of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust Northland Branch Committee since around 1998 and has worked with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Northland office staff a number of projects over the years.
He and his wife Hazel travelled hundreds of kilometres around Northland and recorded the GPS location of 275 registered historic places. It was invaluable as a set of definitive data for Heritage New Zealand and Far North District Council's district plans.
His expertise in navigation also saw him produce a map linking the journal entries of Captain James Cook's first voyage to New Zealand which gave a precise nautical location for the Endeavour replica when the ship was in the Bay of Islands for the 250th anniversary of Cook's journey.
Grainger learned celestial navigation on a Greek cargo ship in 1957 and had a refresher course from ornithologist and researcher, and another Kerikeri resident, Gerry Clark, who had his boat, the Totorore, moored in the Kerikeri inlet.
He immigrated to New Zealand in 1961 and spent four years herd testing in Taranaki followed by some time in South America, before returning to the UK to marry Hazel. He again felt the pull of New Zealand after a six month stint at the improbably named Scottish Potato Marketing Board.
According to Heritage New Zealand Northland's manager, Bill Edwards, it's Grainger's unusual blend of pragmatism, intellectual curiosity and technical aptitude in an extraordinary range of areas that has been such a boon.
"Grainger's support of heritage over the years can't be overstated. Together with Hazel, they have contributed significantly to many different aspects of Northland's heritage," he says.
Researching Northland's war defences
Kerikeri resident Jack Kemp and Parapara resident Dr Bill Guthrie have uncovered the full scope of Northland's extensive World War II defence network, producing the first overall picture of those defences since the war years.
Their research has helped form the basis of Kiwi North's Tora! Tora! New Zealand! Exhibition which runs until February 28 and marks the culmination of three years' work.
"I was asked by Bill Edwards of Heritage New Zealand in Northland to research World War II camps of the north back in 2018 and was under the impression there were only a few camps. It turned out there were over 100 camps and other different military facilities," says Jack.
"To many people what happened between 1941 and 1942 in the north is a forgotten piece of history and very little evidence of the defence network can be seen today. But there are still stories coming in from people and it's good that there is a place where they can write them at the exhibition."
Highlights for Jack have included working with co-researcher Bill Guthrie, who wrote up much of the research for the exhibition, and Kiwi North curator Georgia Kerby who Jack says has done an excellent job including presentation of the artifacts.
The exhibition is important in telling Northland's World War II story according to Guthrie.
"From my perspective as an American living in New Zealand, in the case of the Japanese invasion threat, it's almost as if the whole nation decided to forget. Without the story of Northland during World War II, however, the war at home makes no sense.
"Although professional historians and the boy-veterans of the Home Guard knew or remembered what had occurred, that story was lost to the rest of us. This exhibition really addresses that."
Guthrie said Jack captured many veterans as the last opportunity for interviews and a particular highlight of the exhibition is the personal recollections that featured prominently in the interpretation.
Merv Pinny's latest track celebrates lockdown drinking.
It's as good an excuse as any to produce a song.
Kerikeri farmer turned rock musician Merv Pinny has dedicated his latest single with a light-hearted look at the excesses of drinking while in lockdown.
Noticing how quickly supermarkets were running out of wine and seeing all the empties piling up in bins around town, he felt inspired to write about the effect lockdown has on drinking habits.
"Night after night of drinking too much white and too much red, there really is no escaping the dreaded hangover and sleep deprivation to come," he said.
Multiple cups of coffee followed and some helpful drinking advice from a friend. His happy track is entitled Too Much White, Too Much Red which has his soulful vocals matched to a funky groove and a raunchy sax solo.
For the track he has collaborated with multi-Grammy award-winning engineers Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone. It's available on Spotify, Apple Music and iTunes.
He has a new album set for release in January. Merv recognised the importance of being positive in lockdown so he started writing new material in the hope it will invoke change for the better.
The album, Dark to Light, celebrates the journey of an artist who has evolved his music over the years in keeping with the times. www.mervpinny.com
Plastic recycling options extended
Plastic recycling will be expanded from December 1 at all Far North District Council's refuse transfer stations and community recycling centres.
They will accept number 5 plastics (grocery packaging) and coloured number 2 plastics (cleaning products and cosmetic containers). Commercial operators, Waste Management and Northland Waste will also expand the range of plastics they accept.
This is due to changes in the international plastics market, as well as work being undertaken by the Ministry for the Environment, which has applied subsidies to increase recycling infrastructure in New Zealand.
It has also made progress phasing out some plastics, such as PVC (#3) that contain chlorine and release dangerous dioxins and polystyrene (#6) that can leach into foods and are difficult to recycle.
Rock Hoppers Snapper Fishing Competition 2021
The annual Rock Hoppers Fishing Tournament, promoted by the Russell Swordfish Club, took place in November. Entrants were slightly down over last year thanks to Aucklanders being unavailable and the tournament is what is states – fishing from the rocks.
It runs continuously from 7.30pm on a Friday night through to 10am on Sunday morning and the convenors were able this year to offer a range of prizes to the value of $4500.
Once spots were reached along the Russell coastline it didn't take long before action started but reports from others were that fishing was otherwise slow. Theories being developed that the once-in-800 year-eclipse on Friday night was the cause, with a few anglers taking notes to avoid a repeat of the same in 800 years' time.
The overall heaviest snapper category was won by Bevan Johnson with a 19.84lb (8.99kg) fish. He won $900 in prizes including a custom-made land-based game rod. Bevan's fishing buddy Gary Cook came second with a 13.7lb fish and won $400 in cash and prizes and third place was Tamiti Clifford who landed a 13lb catch.
In the kids' category the winner was Will Roberts with a 4.96lb catch. He won a $100 voucher and he was followed by his sister Isla Roberts who weighed in a 1.54lb snapper.
The ladies section was keenly contested. The winner was Dayna Rose, who landed 2.9lb snapper and won vouchers, second place was Kristy Lawson with a 1.87lb fish and special mention goes to Zoe Roberts who came in third.
Over the course of the competition 29 snapper were weighed, down from 43 the previous year. The average weight snapper for the competition was 5.344lb, down from 7.48lb last year.
The Hard Luck prizes were won by Mark Turney, who got a shag on the rocks, Ian Wilson who not only did not catch any snapper but left his net on the rocks and Kristy Lawton who spent all night and day on the rocks with no success only to leave her spot and have Rob Lang arrive and catch a 12lb fish 20 minutes later in the same place.
I visited Budapest last in the 1980s when it was under communist rule.