Masterlock Comanche at the Ōpua Wharf earlier this week. Photo / Sandy Myhre
One of the world’s most glamorous ocean-going yachts, and one considered the most technically advanced of the 100-footers, rested up recently at the Ōpua Wharf for a week.
Comanche has taken monohull line honours in the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour event, the Gold Coast race and the Brisbane to Hamilton Island event, breaking the record in the process, among other many prominent races and events.
She is currently owned by Australian businessmen Matt Allen and James Mayo, who christened her MasterLock Comanche. They opened their account with the yacht by winning line honours and the overall prize in the Tollage Islands Race last October and the Cabbage Tress Island event in December.
They made some “minor mods” to the “aircraft carrier” and added new sails but had to retire from the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race in 2024 due to mainsail damage.
Allen is well-known as the latest of three sailors to win the Rolex Sydney-Hobart race three times. He was elected to the Australian Olympic Committee and in 2021 was elected as vice-president. He has worked as an investment banker with UBS and was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to sailing.
Mayo is an accomplished sailor who won the 1999 and 2024 Etchells Worlds, among other notable races. He is a director of Mayo Hardware, established by Cecil E. Mayo in 1928 and the business continues to be owned and operated by the third-generation Mayo family, of which James Mayo is one.
Historically, the business commenced with a relationship with MasterLock, hence the renaming of Comanche.
According to the UK newspaper the Daily Mail, the multi-millionaire owned Australia’s most expensive apartment. He sold the four-bedroom penthouse overlooking Bondi Beach for a record (in 2021) A$20.50 million ($22m).
He applied for a restraining order against his neighbours, claiming hot tea was poured on him and his dog from a fifth-floor balcony. When he sold the penthouse, he moved to an A$36m mansion overlooking Sydney Harbour in Point Piper.
Comanche has had various owners and a few name changes in her time. The original owners (in 2014) were Jim Clark, an American entrepreneur, and his Australian wife Kristy Hinze.
Comanche was sold to Australians Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant in 2017 and renamed LDV Comanche before being sold to a Russian group with which she broke the 2022 Translantic Race record.
She was rebadged Andoo Comanche for the 2022 and 2023 Rolex Sydney-Hobart, taking line honours in 2022 and in 2023 losing to LawConnect by 51s in a thrilling finish, then she was sold again to Mayo and Allen.
MasterLock Comanche left the Ōpua Wharf three days ago bound for Sydney with 12 crew on board. For sailing events, she normally carries a crew of 18.
A bumper summer harvest from New Zealand’s oldest continuously cultivated garden and orchard is adding freshness and flavour to the offerings sold at the Honey House Cafe.
Fruit and vegetables grown on-site at the Kerikeri Mission Station – a Tohu Whenua (significant heritage site) cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – are being turned into jams, relishes, salads, cakes and desserts.
“For over 200 years, the garden and orchard at the Kerikeri Mission Station have been producing fresh food and before the arrival of the missionaries, Māori cultivated this land for centuries,” says Kerikeri Mission Station property lead Liz Bigwood.
“This rich heritage of food cultivation continues today.”
Produce grown in the Kerikeri Mission Station garden includes grapes, apples, quinces, rhubarb and Waiporoporo potatoes, to name only a few.
Bigwood acknowledges the creativity and dedication of her team, including gardener Paula Cotterill and the manager of the Honey House, Ali Sutton, who endeavour to incorporate freshly grown produce into the menu whenever possible.
“The fruit and vegetables that we use are often heritage varieties that trace their lineage back to crops planted by people who have lived here over the past two centuries,” she says.
The heritage apples alone include such varieties as Peasgood Nonsuch, Royal Gala, Golden Delicious and Braeburns. And, appropriately enough, people looking to establish their own heritage stock can buy Kōanga Nursery heritage seeds at the Stone Store.
“Not all the food that the Honey House sells is grown and produced here, though we like to incorporate produce from our garden and orchard as much as possible, depending on what’s in season,” says Bigwood.
“Many of our dishes are enhanced by our fresh produce. Added touches like using freshly grown sorrel with our quiches, for example, enhance the quality of our food offerings.”
The team are currently making quince jam to accompany the ploughman’s lunches that will go on sale in May. It’s a favourite seasonal dish that commemorates mission founder, the Reverend John Butler, using the plough for the first time in New Zealand at the Kerikeri Mission Station in 1820.
The Honey House is now available on Uber Eats for morning tea snacks and lunches.
On the corner of Waimate North Rd and State Highway 10, there are cows on the electricity boxes.
Not literally, of course, but in graphic, artistic form. They were painted by Kerikeri artist Erika Pearce and commissioned by Chorus as part of the company’s nationwide beautification initiative, which aims to add art in places that are often a target for taggers.
Pearce says she wanted to do something that was fun and a little bit cheeky.
“Chorus put a call out every year for artists and I wanted to do something that would appeal to the farming community ... [there] are a lot of hardworking farmers in the Far North,” she said.
“You only get a quick glimpse of them as you drive past so I thought they would make those who are passing by smile.
The reaction, she said, has been “wonderfully positive” and she has had people shout coffees while she was painting as well as lots of friendly toots and waves from people driving by.
“I’ve even had people stop me at the shops to say they loved them and I’m super grateful for the positive feedback, particularly online.
“I’m really happy to be able to contribute some happiness and positivity to our great little community.”
Pearce’s work can be seen in Paihia in the Flying Fish beach mural and on Masonic Lane in Kerikeri, Plant Zone and Mitre 10 in Waipapa but she has painted murals big and small from the Far North to the Bluff.
Her murals and artwork can be found internationally in Japan, the United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Australia, Thailand, Fiji, Indonesia and in the private homes of collectors around the world.
She attended Auckland University of Technology after high school and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Design, majoring in illustration.
After completing university work experience at Rocket Signs, she was invited to join the design team permanently. In 2012, she started her own freelance business and went out on her own fulltime. She held her successful first art exhibition at Sitka the following month.
Pearce hasn’t finished yet. She has two more power boxes to paint and asks people to keep an eye out for her and say hello if you see her at work.
The events aim to get locals involved in arts, heritage and culture in Whangārei.