Sam Godsiff Johnstone from Paihia. The young teen is walking part of the Te Araroa Trail for charity.
If there are easier ways to enjoy a school break than to walk 100km over five days in aid of a worthy cause, 13-year-old Sam Godsiff Johnstone from Paihia did not consider them.
The territory chosen for his lengthy walk forms part of the Te Araroa Trail linking Cape Reinga to Bluff.
On the first day he starts from Ahipara at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach and walks 13km of the West Coast Rd. Days two and three cover 47km from Hukatere Rd to the (local) Bluff. Day four is 23km to Te Paki Stream and finally it's a 23km hike to the finish at Cape Reinga.
Sam is a pupil at Dilworth School in Auckland and as a Year 9 student has spent most of the year at the rural campus in Mangatawhiri. The boys follow a curriculum that includes academic work, outdoors learning, cabin sharing and self-responsibility.
"Every year the campus is involved in a service project for the community and we have to decide on something that interests or inspires us to take action," he said.
"We call this Trail – Transdisciplinary, Real world, Adventurous, Inquiry Learning – and I have chosen the Te Araroa Trail because I love the area and it has great significance for Māori and Aotearoa."
His walk will benefit Gumboot Friday, which is the youth and community-focused support group designed to provide free mental health counselling for kids in need. It is run by Mike King's I Am Hope charity.
Sam emailed Mike King asking if he could come to dinner at the Dilworth School rural campus, and he did.
"He came with his mate, Dallas, and did an awesome talk, which was really funny but it was also very meaningful," said Sam.
From there his mother, Steph Godsiff, and the former principal of Russell School, William Fuller, both became involved. They work together on the Bay of Islands Walking Weekends event.
Fuller helped plan the walk and is providing a motor home for the hikers.
Godsiff will accompany her son. She declares she is very unfit and contemplated using her e-bike for the trip but decided in the interest of meaningful motherhood that she will "tough out" the walk, which starts on Saturday, August 22.
The Oromahoe Kindergarten is hosting a doll-making workshop at the end of August.
The tutor is well-known Auckland weaver and artisan, Nina Hamill, who specialises in Steiner-inspired play equipment and materials that support learning for children. She is a regular visitor to Oromahoe and according to kindergarten teacher, Christiane Reigger, her workshops attract a strong response.
"Waldorf Dolls are hard to get unless you go online and are expensive because of the time they can take to produce so we wanted to give the community the opportunity to make them here in the Bay of Islands," said Reigger.
"They are made from natural fibres, often out of clothing a child may have worn, and there are no plastic parts, which is the complete opposite to Barbie dolls often given to little girls."
The workshop and doll-making day is not specifically a fundraiser for the kindergarten but more of a chance to learn to handcraft toys.
Participants will have the option to make rabbit or cat dolls or a larger doll and all can be taken home at the end of the workshop. Nina Hamill will bring some of her own doll creations which will be available for purchase.
The workshop is on Saturday, August 29 starting at 10am. Participants are asked to bring a plate for a shared lunch.
Bookings are essential before August 21. Contact Oromahoe Kindergarten (09) 405 9336 info@oromahoekindergarten.co.nz .
Russell's traditional Birdman Festival, held every July since 1986, attracts a considerable crowd to the small historic town. This year, however, the festival was cancelled because of Covid-19 lockdown.
To replace it, The Birdman Charitable Trust is branching out. In September they will host a Gatsby Casino Night at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel. Dress is formal and selfies can be taken from a Gatsby photo booth inside.
Gambling is legal and includes the usual casino opportunities plus 5x5 horse races courtesy of Bay of Islands Rotary Club.
Proceeds from the night will go towards the second event initiated by the trust, the Russell Regatta, to be held in October.
Trustee Pania Sigley said the regatta will be community-focused and will include various small ship races.
The Bay of Islands arts community is enjoying public support again after the lockdown hiatus of many months.
The first production of Kerikeri Theatre Company's winter season (Black Comedy) was a sell-out this month. The next production is Harold Pinter's The Lover on for three nights from August 27 and early booking is recommended.
The Lover is a one-act play and, as the title suggests, depicts a marital affair. Dialogue contrasts bourgeois domesticity with sexual yearning and in typical Pinter fashion it's an ironic comedy and a nervy drama. Taking the lead roles are Grant Williams and Trudie Smith.
Kerikeri's Stage Door Theatre Company is launching a master class in acting called Creating a Character.
The six-week course will be held at the Turner Centre and tutored by Wendy Irvine, who has extensive experience in New Zealand and overseas.
She has a diploma in drama from the UK and Trinity College qualifications in speech and drama.
Places are limited. The course, which starts on August 23, is open to people aged 16-plus and costs $120.
Applicants are invited to send an expression of interest to wendyntw@icloud.com with their name, address, phone number, age, any previous experience and why they are interested in the course.
Northland's future entrepreneurs will be doing their best to woo the public this Saturday as they compete in the annual Young Enterprise Scheme Trade Fair in Kerikeri.
More than 60 teams from 21 high schools, from Kaitaia to Bream Bay, will take part in the fair from 8.30am-1pm at the Old Packhouse Market on Kerikeri Rd.
Students who join the programme have to create a real business, come up with a new product or service, and end the year with a real-life profit or loss.
The trade fair is their first chance to showcase their products to the public and hopefully ring up some sales.
Coordinator Gary Larkan said prizes would be awarded for best stall and customer choice with the latter based on public votes.
Every visitor who bought something from a student business on Saturday would be in the running for one of two $250 New World vouchers.
This year's entries would include a business making gumboots with Māori designs, the return of a Kaitaia business building underwater drones for boat hull biosecurity inspections, and teams from Kaikohe's Teen Parent Unit making pamper packs and well-being kits for new mums.
The overall winners of YES 2020 will be announced in October.
- Peter de Graaf
• Email Sandy Myhre at mywordmedia@yahoo.com if you have any news you'd like to see in Bay News.
There is no need for people to be alone or hungry on Christmas Day with two free events.