Sage Restaurant, 7 kms from Russell, combining with The Landing for dinner and lunch in October.
Hospitality establishments join forces
Paroa Bay winery and Sage restaurant, both at Paroa Bay near Russell, and The Landing on the Purerua Peninsula, are joining forces this month.
Sage Restaurant is hosting key personalities from each destination. Courses will be prepared by Sage and The Landing chefs and paired with signature wines from the two vineyards.
On Friday, October 18, there will be a six-course dinner with wine pairing from both vineyards.
Then on Saturday there is a sharing style lunch featuring courses from the dinner and a wine pairing from the vineyards.
The chefs are the appropriately-named Matthew Cook from The Landing and Dan Fraser, Sage’s executive chef.
Cook worked in Auckland, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur before returning to New Zealand. He introduced worm farming and composting to the kitchen garden and increased the use of foraged native foods.
Fraser is executive chef of the Lindis Group, which includes the Sage restaurant, Paroa Bay Winery and Mt Isthmus, near Wānakā. He has worked in numerous up-market establishments across Australasia.
In Northland, he worked at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, Charlotte’s Kitchen and Eagles Nest before joining the Lindis Group.
The winemakers are also collaborating. The Landing’s winemaker and viticulturist Ben Byrne and Paroa Bay’s winemaker Paul Goodege are combining to offer dinner and lunch guests the chance to pair wines with the meals.
At Paroa Bay Winery the relatively small plantings began in 2006 and to this day youthfulness still dominates. They say their winemaking processes “listen to the land”.
Ben Byrne is Northland born and bred and joined The Landing in 2019 after working in Australia and California. They declare their wines are “warmed by Northland’s long summers, dried by the sea breeze and nurtured in ancient clay and sandstone soils.”
Edmonds Ruins Open Day
An event celebrating the people and stories associated with Edmonds Ruins will take place on the Sunday of Labour Weekend, October 27, from 11am to 4pm.
Edmonds Ruins is about a 15-minute drive from Kerikeri. The mortared stone house was built by John Edmonds and his sons between about 1840 and 1858, after his employment with the Church Missionary Society in Kerikeri had been terminated.
After the house burned down about 1885, descendants continued to live on the property until the 1950s.
Locals, including members of Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga, are invited to come along and enjoy a guided tour of the ruins of what is likely New Zealand’s oldest stone house.
Bring a picnic and enjoy learning more about the future plans for this important heritage site, which is cared for by Heritage NZ’s Northland team. Some kai will also be available for purchase onsite.
“This year has been an exciting one for Edmonds Ruins,” says Heritage NZ Northland manager, Bill Edwards.
“The main stone wall facing onto the entrance carpark was repaired by stonemason Ian McDiamard a couple of months ago. The grounds surrounding Edmonds Ruins are also looking fantastic thanks to the hard work of Edmonds descendant and volunteer Kerry Revell, who has carried out a huge amount of maintenance.”
An orchard of heritage fruit trees, propagated from original stock that was planted by the Edmonds family, has also been planted on the original orchard site.
“We’re looking forward to sharing updates on all of these developments and more at our event and encourage all to attend,” Edwards said.
Entry is free.
Parking is available close to the Ruins. No campervans or trucks are permitted due to the narrow entrance to the site. Parking will also be available on the main road for larger vehicles.
Art in the community
Community members from the Bay of Islands-Whangaroa are set to collaborate on a community art project to create an enormous textile collage banner that represents a portrait of the community.
Award-winning Far North artists Marita Hewitt and Terese HR Lane are curating the “This is us here now/Anei Mātou” collaborative community art project.
They’re calling for artists, weavers, carvers, crafters, creators, teachers and hobbyists to combine to create a lively fabric and paper mash-up of the found, treasured and repurposed, telling the story of “who we are, here and now.”
Hewitt and Lane will be holding free public workshops throughout October and November at the Turner Centre in Kerikeri, online and at community halls in Russell, Kaeo and Kawakawa. Participants can also create their works at home and drop them off at the Turner Centre to be included in the banner.
“The banner will encompass varied creative cultural and crafted techniques including knitting, crochet, weaving, shashiko, patchwork, applique, macrame, collage and everything in between.
“Individual contributions can be any size, there are no rules, we want people to play and experiment, learn and explore through making together,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt and Lane will collate all of the contributions into “an enormous, wonderful conglomeration of a banner” and the community will share kai and kōrero at the opening event at the Turner Centre on December 9.
The project aims to use art to bring diverse community members together.
“By creating a unifying portrait of our community we hope to promote whānaungatānga, working together, and tūrangawaewae, belonging,” Lane said.
This is Us Here Now will also raise awareness about textile waste. More than 220,000 tonnes of clothes and textiles are thrown out in New Zealand each year. All contributions to the banner must use degradable materials, so the banner can be composted when it reaches the end of its life.
For more information: www.turnercentre.co.nz
Community groups benefit from funding
Last month seven Far North community groups were granted funding from a share of more than $27,000 from the Bay of Islands - Whangaroa Community Board.
The Graham Dingle Foundation was granted $5,000 towards the Nga Ara Whetu programme being delivered to 146 rangatahi (the young) at Bay of Islands College in 2025.
Its aim is to strengthen the self-identity, community connections and life skills of rangatahi to support their future directions.
Foster Hope Charitable Trust was granted $2000 towards a style evening with Stacey Beatson. Foster Hope supplies backpacks for children transitioning into care, often at short notice. They are holding a fundraising evening on Friday at Liddington Gardens, Waipapa.
Other community groups to receive funding for events were Hidden Pocket Production with $5680 going towards the costs of the musical Flock.
Business Bay of Islands received $5000 for the 2024 Paihia Christmas Parade which has the reputation of being one of the more spectacular parades in Northland.
Four-thousand dollars went to The Centre for the This is Us Here now community art project.
Te Kura o Hato Hohepa te Kāmura received $3,750 for the Whangaroa Arts Festival 2024 and $2000 went to Piri Wiremu Mokeno Games 2024 for equipment hire.
The next Bay of Islands - Whangaroa Community Board meeting will be held on October 24 at The Turner Centre. It can be watched live on the council’s Facebook and YouTube pages from 10am.
The latest news bites from around the region.