Contestants await their turn during a previous dog show in Kerikeri. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Dog's day out in Kerikeri
The Bay of Islands Canine Association is holding a fun day for dogs and their owners at Kerikeri Domain this Saturday.
The event will feature competitions such as dog fancy dress, dog and owner lookalike, egg and spoon race, best red/black/multicoloured dog, waggiest tail, shortest/longest legs, and best trick.
Entry is $10 per pooch for any number of competitions. Registrations open at 9am with judging from 10am.
The organisers will also hold agility, rally-o, and canine good citizen demonstrations.
All dogs must be registered and have a current vaccination certificate.
It's a new event but it's expected to be similar to the Mutley Dog Day at the Domain as an SPCA fundraiser until about 2014.
Santa comes to Paihia, Kaeo
This weekend it's Paihia's and Kaeo's turn to get a visit from the big guy in red.
Paihia's famously creative Christmas parade starts at 5.30pm this Friday with a Songs of Christmas theme.
As always floats will gather on Kings Rd before making their way along the waterfront and looping back via Bay View and Selwyn Rd to Williams Rd, where the winners will be announced, Mike the Magician will blow up his novelty balloons, and Santa will distribute any leftover sweets in a lolly scramble.
Prizes will be awarded for best floats in community and business divisions.
On Saturday Santa will have a sleep-in before the Kaeo parade starts at noon at the northern end of town. Prizes will be awarded for best fancy dress and best decorated bikes and trikes.
The parade will end at the Whangaroa College grounds with a Christmas festival featuring food and market stalls, live music, bouncy castles, an obstacle course and ferris wheel. Santa will stick around for photos with the kids.
Entertainment will be provided by covers band Fat32, ladies' ukulele group The Hangi Stones, and local band The Swamp Rockers.
Bring back bottle deposits
If you are as old as the author you will remember paying deposits on bottles. You might also remember Boy Scout bottle drives, massive fundraising efforts in which scouts went door-to-door collecting empties.
Well, if a group called The Kiwi Bottle Drive gets its way, those days could be back.
As part of a national day of action, volunteers were out on the streets of Kerikeri, Kaikohe and Paihia last Tuesday, offering passersby 20 cents for their empty plastic bottles.
They also gathered signatures for a petition urging the Government to introduce a cash-for-trash bottle deposit scheme to help prevent plastic pollution.
Kerikeri organiser Barbara Belger, of Plastic-Free Kerikeri, said a bottle deposit scheme was key to changing how people thought about waste.
"If drink bottles and cans have value they won't end up in the ocean or littering our communities. With a bottle deposit scheme we'll get onshore recycling and provide green jobs for Kiwis, plus it means great fundraising opportunities for kids. This is a solution which protects the planet and makes our lives better too," Belger said.
National co-ordinator Rowan Brooks the nationwide day-of-action was a fun way to drum up awareness.
"There's huge support for this campaign already among Kiwis who either fondly remember collecting bottles for pocket money as kids, or have been impressed by the effectiveness of schemes they've seen on holidays in places like Germany," he said.
The Kaikohe event was run by Kiwi Bottle Drive founder Warren Snow. The petition was presented to Parliament yesterday.
What's your carbon footprint?
A project aiming to create New Zealand's first carbon-neutral town and help reduce climate change has been launched in Kerikeri.
About 60 people attended the November 22 launch of the Carbon Neutral Kerikeri project, which offers households easily understood advice and tools to measure their household's net carbon emissions, and to reduce those emissions over time.
Trustee Inge Bremer said reducing use of fuel and energy, minimising waste and choosing food responsibly all helped reduce a household's emissions, with the bonus of saving money.
"Some will choose to invest in low carbon technologies like electric vehicles and solar panels, but there are also plenty of low-cost or no-cost solutions," she said.
The Carbon Neutral NZ Trust, the umbrella organisation for the Kerikeri project, has developed an easy-to-use carbon calculator at www.carbonneutraltrust.org.nz.
People at the meeting were encouraged to use the calculator to work out their household's current carbon profile and set a reduction target of 10 per cent per year.
Trustee Rolf Mueller-Glodde explained the calculator had been designed specifically for New Zealand conditions.
"We hope young people will become involved in the project together with their parents, who control the bills. It is after all the next generation's future we are hoping to protect."
Nanogirl's coming
Nanogirl is bringing her Out of this World! live science show to the Turner Centre this Sunday.
Assisted by her trusty lab assistant Boris and CLAIR (Constantly Learning Artificial Intelligence Repository), she promises to "bring science and engineering to life in the coolest ways possible" in a show which features rockets, explosions and a live tornado.
The shows are at 3pm and 7pm; go to www.turnercentre.co.nz for ticket information.
Swim win
The Bay of Islands Swimming Club A relay team triumphed at the November 25 Spring Carnival in Whangārei, taking home the relay trophy which has been won by the Whangārei Swimming Club for the past three years.
A rule of the relay is that combined ages of each eight-member relay team have to add up to less than 100 years. The Bay's Archie White, 17, Kori Brown, 15, Emilia Finer, 14, Florence Venner, 12, Ariella Ripohau, 12, Mia Le Roux, 11, Seth Venner, 10, and Layla Bell, 8, added up to 99.
They saw off six other teams, storming home in a time of 4.20.70 with Whangarei C touching the wall in second place 24 seconds later.
Kawakawa parade winners
The winner in the community category of last Saturday's Kawakawa Christmas parade was Bay of Islands Animal Rescue with a group of canine elves and Santas. Second place went to A&E with a steampunk/railway-themed entry featuring sisters Agatha, 6, and Emily Green, 5; while third prize went to the Kawakawa Roping Club, whose riders held up the train in a Great Lolly Robbery.
The fabulously costumed staff of Ngāti Hine FM won the business division with the Kawakawa Fire Brigade second (they were late turning up for the community division but sister judges Willow-Jean Prime and Season-Mary Downs said they were in the business of saving lives so could enter the business division instead).
The school division was won by Kawakawa Primary School with the Hippy home-based preschool education programme second and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Kawakawa third.
Christmas fayre
A "Christmas fayre" in the St James Church hall, near the Stone Store, this Sunday will offer raffles, home baking, bric-a-brac, books and hand-made gifts, along with a Christmas cafe for a cuppa. The fair will run from 2.30pm-4.30pm.
Another win for DDF
Kerikeri-based DDF Dance has again won a swag of awards, this time at the November 24 Battle in the Bay dance competition in Hastings.
Six students travelled to Hawke's Bay where they entered seven divisions, qualified for the finals in four, and brought home three awards.
Shaylah Harris, 11, won the solo junior division for the second year in a row while Peyton Baker, 10, came second and Solomon Dickey, 11, fourth.
Shaylah and Alexis King, 10, came first in the cell division, also for the second year running, while the full crew made it to the finals and placed fifth equal.
Tutor Alannah Curtis said the kids did an outstanding job competing without her for the first time. Shaylah led the group and did hair and makeup for all six members. The other dancers were Peyton Baker, Alecia Campbell and Madison Campbell.
Conservation festival
A new conservation-themed festival is being held on Paihia Village Green on Saturday, December 15.
Organised by Stella Schmid of Papatūānuku Earth Mother Tours, the event aims to celebrate the area's kaitiaki (guardians) of the environment while giving them a chance to network with other conservation groups.
Attractions will include wild pig on the spit, ''possages'' (possum sausages), community group stalls, trapping workshops and guest speakers. Call Stella on 022 128 5831 to find out about having a stall.
Family night at Bunnings
Bunnings Kerikeri is holding a free Christmas family night at the Fairway Dr store from 5.30pm tomorrow with arts and crafts, games, DIY gift workshops and light refreshments. Santa will also put in an appearance.
Artcraft show
Don't forget the Kerikeri Artcraft Society is holding an exhibition and sale at the Masonic Hall in the town centre starting tomorrow.
All work will be for sale and is made by the society's enthusiastic amateur painters and potters. The show hours are 9.30am-4.30pm on December 6-8, and 9.30am-2pm on December 9. The hall is on Masonic Lane, off Cobham Rd behind the ASB Bank. Free entry.
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