Waitangi Mountain Bike Park is to host a team relay event in December called Mahi Tahi. Photo / North Base
Waitangi Mountain Bike Park to hold relay race
The first-ever event to be held at the Waitangi Mountain Bike Park will take place on December 10, 2022.
Christened the 'Waitangi Mahi Tahi Eight-Hour Team Relay' race, the event has been made possible through funding from Northland Inc and Far North District Council. Organising the event are Unforgettable Fun and Paihia Mountain Bikes.
Georgie Martin, marketing manager for Paihia Mountain Bikes, said it's an opportunity to showcase what the park has to offer and an opportunity to bring visitors to the region.
The Mahi Tahi event is aimed at all fitness levels, and for everyone from families to groups of co-workers and corporate teams. For more info go to https://ridewaitangi.nz.
Children bring colour and a buzz to retirement village
Three home-schooled children visited Kerikeri Retirement Village recently, and brought with them stories of how bumblebees help make their dahlia farm a success.
Milly (11), Gracie-Mae (10), and Lexi (7) were at The Village with their mum, Jennifer Ives, and baby brother Barnaby to present a box of dahlia tubers to The Village's head gardener, Debbie Condron.
They amused residents with their stories of why bumblebees are such great dahlia pollinators. They explained that bumblebees use their "smelly feet" to mark which flowers they have already visited, how they are only 40 minutes away from starvation, and how they work 50 times harder than regular honey bees.
The girls then followed their stories with a quiz to check to see if the audience had been listening.
The three girls help their mother run their pick-your-own Green Footed Kiwi dahlia business. They help customers pick the flowers and collect them in buckets. Come summer, Lexi will help to serve high teas for the first time.
Village activities co-ordinator, Karen Hawtin, said the residents love the day-trip to the dahlia farm.
"It's a superb small business in the mid-north, and the residents relish the girls' enthusiasm for all things nature-based," she said.
Springbank School returns to the market
Springbank School's popular Market Day returns on Sunday, September 18, with a wide range of items created by students from preschool up to Year 13.
This year's fair, an annual event giving the students a chance to put their business skills to the test, will run from 11am-2pm on the school grounds at 78 Waimate North Rd, Kerikeri.
Products designed and made by students will include custom-made T-shirts, skincare products, driftwood succulents, Christmas decorations, bamboo pot plant holders, jewellery and more.
Food ranging from South African pancakes and churros to dumplings and burgers will also be available.
Instead of paying tax on their takings, all students have to donate a minimum 25 per cent of their profit to a charity of their choice.
Last year's Market Day had to be cancelled due to Covid, but students with products already made spent a Sunday at the Old Packhouse Market instead.
Divas and Diamonds performing in Kerikeri
Glyn Tucker and Barbie Davidson have got together to bring what they describe as a "dazzling show" to the Turner Centre in Kerikeri.
Glyn had been studying aspects of jazz guitar and by chance he discovered he could sing Neil Diamond songs, so he ended up with a Neil Diamond tribute show.
He was the singer-songwriter in The Gremlins, and had a smash hit "The Coming Generation" in the late 1960s. He then founded Mandrill Recording Studio in 1975 where hundreds of Kiwi recordings were produced, including the likes of Citizen Band, Mockers, Dave Dobbyn and Shona Laing.
Barbie was known as New Zealand's "Queen of Versatile". She emerged from 1970's NZ television shows to become an exponent of country, pop, and jazz. She won the prestigious Ricky May Jazz Award in Brisbane, then toured NZ with international stars Kenny Rogers and Gene Pitney, among others.
Barbie lived in Kerikeri for some years. She suffered a couple of medical events which threatened to put her out of music permanently, but she and Glyn discovered that each of them were beginning to re-emerge from exile and were entertaining independently.
She was putting together her new show, which was to feature pop divas such as Cilla Black, Sandy Shaw, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark and Shirley Bassey.
They decided to put the two shows together and added Barbra Streisand to the mix, which allows Barbie to quick-change into her spectacular gowns and costumes.
Divas and Diamonds 9th October 2022, Turner Centre, 3pm. www.turnercentre.co.nz
International Archaeology conference coming to the Bay
An international conference specialising in historical archaeology is being held at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell from September 26 – 30.
For ASHA conference members (Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology), it will be the first time they have been able to get together in person since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It's particularly appropriate the conference location of choice is Russell/Kororāreka.
According to conference organiser Katharine Watson, the theme of this year's conference is "the archaeology of interaction". The Bay of Islands is a site of significant interaction since the beginning of human settlement of the area, which began with the early Māori interaction with the environment and between different iwi.
"In the 18th century, it was also the location of early Māori interaction with Europeans, including Captain James Cook and Marion du Fresne, and the conference is particularly timely given that this year is the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Marion du Fresne in this part of the country," she said.
In the early 19th century, Kororāreka/Russell became the site of ongoing interaction between Māori and Pākehā, as people from all over the world converged there to take advantage of new trading and commercial opportunities.
"One of these was ex-convict Johnny Johnston, who established Johnny Johnston's Grog Shop in 1827, though he quickly changed the name to the Duke of Marlborough and was granted the country's first liquor license.
"The original building was burnt down during the sacking of Kororāreka in 1845, but the name stuck, and although the current building dates back to 1932, the Duke of Marlborough is still trading," says Katharine.
Conference attendees will take an historic cruise around the Bay of Islands. Guides on-board will include the conference keynote speaker, Dame Anne Salmond, kaumatua Matutaera Clendon, and Heritage New Zealand Northland manager, Bill Edwards.
There is no need for people to be alone or hungry on Christmas Day with two free events.