The five Far North Latin dancers who helped set a world dance record in Cuba are Patricia Scott (left), Johnny Ploke, Leona Burrell, Mercedes Gonzalez and Gustavo Hernandez. Photo / Supplied
Davis descendants to descend on Paihia
The direct descendants of Richard Davis, including the Matthews and Puckey families, are holding a family reunion in the Bay of Islands in August.
Richard Davis arrived in Paihia in 1824 as one of the first Church Missionary Society ministers. He moved to Waimate shortly after along with George Clarke, James Hamlin and William Yates and their families.
They had to first build a cart road from Kerikeri and three bridges, the largest of which was over the Waitangi River. They built a chapel, various farm buildings and three large mission houses. Charles Darwin visited in 1835 for morning tea and wrote:
“At length we reached Waimate, after having passed over so many miles of an uninhabited useless country, the sudden appearance of an English farmhouse and its well-dressed fields, placed there as if by an enchanter’s wand, was exceedingly pleasing.”
The church was named St John the Evangelist and the services held included local Māori, and by December 1842 there were 1000 in the congregation.
Richard Davis had carried an acorn from his farm in Dorset, England, that he planted first at Paihia and then moved it to Waimate. He was reportedly so protective of the tree, he covered it with wet blankets in preference to saving his own household goods from a fire, and there’s a family story that suggests he stood with an umbrella over the tree during heavy rain.
It was the oldest oak tree in New Zealand until it eventually succumbed in 2018, at the grand old age of 194. The staff at the mission house are having some of the remaining wood made into small items to be sold at the reunion.
Davis lived in Waimate for most of his life, apart from a short stint at Kaikohe where he started the mission there. He brought up 10 children and lived in the mission house in his later years when he had been ordained.
The reunion starts on August 15, which marks the 200th anniversary since Richard and Mary Davis arrived in Paihia. Other activities include a tour of the mission house at Waimate with a service at the church, a visit to Waitangi Treaty Grounds, and a visit to the Kohewhata Marae at Kaikohe hosted by the Wihongi Family.
Rotary distributes clothing
The Bay of Islands Rotary Club has been busy collecting used clothing for redistribution in Tonga.
The club recently sent over 50 bags of clothing on various yachts heading that way, so the cargo is now somewhere in the Pacific. The Rotary Club of Nuku’alofa will help with the distribution.
Whenever clothing has been sent over, it has been gratefully received by villagers who have little money to buy new clothes.
The St John Op Shop in Russell donated most of the clothes. It had a clear-out of summer clothing and donated that to Rotary. This clothing was supplemented by the Russell shop FIXation, which repurposes used clothing for resale. They also had a clean-out of summer clothing, which they donated to the cause.
The Bay of Islands (BOI) Rotary Club donated clothing last year to Vanuatu after the island experienced two devastating cyclones. The severe cyclones were called Judy and Kevin and made landfall within 48 hours of each other in March. They were the second and third severe tropical cyclones of the season.
The BOI Rotary Club is involved in other international projects such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, and helps to provide disaster relief in the Pacific by assisting Shelterbox, an international disaster relief charity specialising in aiding families displaced by conflict and disaster.
Local Latino dancers help with world record
Five Far North Latin dancers went to Cuba at the beginning of the month to help create two world records.
The records broken were for the highest number of people (2946) dancing synchronised rueda da dasino, and the highest number of people (142) dancing ruedas simultaneously.
The biggest concentration of dancers was in Cuba’s capital, Havana, but there were synchronized ruedas in Pinar del Rio and Matanzas (both in Cuba), Santiago in Chile, and in Trinidad. Cubans have difficulty travelling out of the country, so the event and the observers had to be organised nationwide and internationally.
The Far North dancers participating were Patricia Scott, of Paihia, Gustavo Hernandez, Mercedes Gonalez and Johnny Ploke, of Ōpua, and Leona Burrell, of Kerikeri.
Gustavo Hernandez said Patricia and Johnny were initially anxious their level wouldn’t be up to performing there, “but with their determination and desire we all made it and our group was accepted in the world record”.
During their stay in Cuba they learned a lot more about dance from the best instructors in the nation.
“Cuba has a cultural mix of African, Caribbean, Latino and from the USA influence of the 1950s, so it has made it the perfect storm for dance,” he said.
“We participated in the International Cuban Dance Festival for a whole week of lessons and cultural dance tours and night parties.”
He also said they witnessed the hard life of Cubans, but despite that they had the energy and passion to celebrate dance.
He and Mercedes Gonalez (both born in Spain) teach Latin dance in Ōpua and Kerikeri, Johnny Ploke is American-born but now lives in Ōpua, and Leona Burrell was born and raised in the Far North and leads a dance group called Northland Latin Groove.
New CEO for sailing trust
Following on from the legacy left by the former chief executive Jo Lynch, of the R. Tucker Thompson Sailing Trust, Catherine Langford, of Paihia, has been appointed the new CEO.
Catherine’s background is in communications across a range of sectors including government, not-for-profit groups, tourism and the environment. Her most recent role was engagement practitioner for the Ministry for the Environment, and before this she worked for the Far North District Council.
Catherine has a history of volunteering in the environment and youth arenas and is a trustee of Bay Bush Action, a pest control group in Ōpua.
“It’s a privilege to join this crew and help the ship continue to support our youth to learn for life through the sea,” she said.
She enjoys sailing with her partner, Pete, and son, Oak, on their boat Undine, a gaff-rigged 1887 Northland cargo cutter.
The trust has a focus on education and employment through its partnership programme. It trains graduates and Northland youth to gain their Maritime NZ deckhand certification and supports them into employment in the marine industry.
The trust also operates a youth development programme based in the Bay of Islands. The primary purpose is focused on rangatahi from Te Tai Tōkerau. Annually, it takes 250 rangatahi (youth) aged 14-18 on seven-day voyages on the tall gaff-rigged schooner, which is based in Ōpua.
The organisation is funded by surplus from tourism activity, generous patrons, grants, donations and sponsorship.
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