The popular Christmas Carols @ Pompallier in Russell is set to return after a three-year hiatus. Photo/Sandy Myhre
Two business associations merge
Business Paihia and the Russell Business Association have agreed to merge as one entity and held their first meeting last Tuesday.
The Bay of Islands Business Association will be the new umbrella under which the two former independent bodies will operate.
There will be a strategic planning meeting in the next couple of weeks and, in the meantime, there is some work still being done in the background.
It means the two committees will become one expanded executive committee. There are currently nine members of the executive committee on Business Paihia. Charles Parker is the chair and there are two administrators.
Added to the committee from Russell to form the new executive committee of the Bay of Islands Business Association are Lesley Lucas, Leigh Robertson, Fiona Mohr, Rachel Thwaites, Anne-Marie Kemp-Scott and Stuart Howard.
Business Paihia represents an incorporation of businesses from Paihia, Waitangi, Opua and Haruru Falls. It organises and sponsors the annual Christmas Parade and supplies ambassadors to welcome cruise ship passengers to Waitangi wharf.
It raised sufficient funds to put on a fireworks display last New Year’s Eve and is close to doing the same thing for this year.
Russell Business Association used to sponsor the popular Oyster Festival and has in recent years sponsored the Bay of Islands Walking Weekend, the Waka Ama long-distance nationals at Waitangi and the Beach to Bay swim. The former chair was Janet Planet of South Sea Art, who died earlier this year.
A spokesperson for the Russell group said joining with Business Paihia would mean a more professional and co-ordinated approach to events.
“Russell has a very transient population with the ‘swallows’ who come and go so it’s hard to get a constant committee presence.
“Business Paihia is well structured, and it means we can work together to hold events and to promote the region.”
Carols return to Pompallier House
For the first time since the Covid pandemic began, the popular carols on the front lawn of Pompallier House in Russell will return.
Pompallier Mission and New Zealand’s oldest church, Christ Church in Russell, will join forces with other organisations to present the Christmas Carols @ Pompallier concert.
Local groups and soloists will perform traditional festive favourites as well as modern Christmas songs as part of the show, which is a joined event organised by Christ Church, the Oasis Baptist Church and volunteers from the Kororāreka community.
This year, for the first time, there will be a “Best Dressed Elf or Angel” award for those who wish to celebrate the season wholeheartedly.
Admission to Christmas Carols @ Pompallier is free, though in the spirit of the season, the hat will be passed around for gold coin donations to raise money for Hospice Mid North. The alternative wet-weather venue is Christ Church in Russell.
The concert will begin at 6pm on Saturday, December 23. The gates will open at 5.30pm.
When a snake becomes a skate
When Barbara Beaver posted a photo on Facebook of a “fishy” skeleton she had found near Te Haumi Beach, and which she left on the flat near the toilets, she little realised she’d get so much feedback.
At last count there were 98 comments and that’s likely to have grown. As tends to happen with Facebook and other social media platforms, there was a fair proportion of facile remarks.
Someone said it was a branch, two people suggested it was a creature from Aliens or, indeed, an alien. One person went further and said it looked like what Sigourney Weaver was up against in Alien.
One person thought it was a Halloween decoration, while another said her son said it was a hose. Simon Upperton, Kerikeri’s real estate agent to the stars, amusingly said it was a “whipper schnapper”, while Gerard Albert and others suggested it was a vacuum cleaner – more specifically, an Electrolux that had been in the water for a while.
Another person said it was a human centipede, still another said it was an animal jigsaw, maybe a North Island long-tail seahorse, while Lane Ayr, Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Community Board deputy chair, said it was dead. Several people opted for it being a stingray and they were getting close but still no cigar.
Four people correctly identified it as the cartilaginous skeletal remains of a skate. One said they were nicknamed “Sea Dragon”.
According to Wikipedia, the New Zealand smooth skate (Dipturus innominatus) is a skate of the genus Dipturus, found around New Zealand at depths between 15 and 1300 metres.
Smooth skates are the largest known skates in the world and can weigh up to 70kg at maturity. Their length has been reported up to 2.4 metres.
Smooth skates are commonly mistaken for rough skates but are larger in size and lighter in colour. They are found in the coastal waters of the North, South and Stewart Islands and are also found in the Snares Islands shelf and Chatham Rise.
So the mystery has been solved. From snake to skate and everything in between.
Blooming marvellous – Vallota lily makes a rare appearance
A floral blast from the past has made its presence felt after years of lying dormant in the garden of Kemp House and the Stone Store, two of New Zealand’s oldest buildings.
Staff at the Kerikeri Mission Station couldn’t believe it when they spotted a flowering Vallota lily that hadn’t been seen in bloom for at least nine years.
The sudden blooming of a flower under the pink camellia tree behind the Stone Store left everyone stunned, according to property lead Liz Bigwood.
“Helen Baker, our longest-standing volunteer who is very familiar with the garden, is the person who spotted the lily and it is a bit of a mystery,” she says.
“Paula Cotterill, our gardener, can’t recall the plant flowering in the past and we have no idea why it should have chosen to flower now after years of keeping such a low profile in our garden.”
Although there is no recent recollection of the Vallota – also known as a Scarborough lily – a quick search of the history books revealed roots possibly going back to as early as the 19th century.
“We suspect that much of the garden originates with Sophia Kemp, who worked hard to establish the flower garden in particular,” says Liz.
“Sophia, who died in 1914, was known for growing flowers for use in the Sunday services at St James Church, a short walk up the hill.”
Her daughters, Charlotte and Gertrude, continued to manage what Sophia established and carried on the tradition of supplying flowers for church.
“An article on the garden written three months after the death of Gertrude Kemp in 1951 reveals a little more information,” says Liz.
“The article talks about the love Gertrude and her sister Charlotte, who lived in Kemp House at the time, had for their family garden, which included fruit trees and a wonderful variety of flowers including roses, gladioli, rhododendrons and of course vallota.”
The lilies can be red, orange, yellow or occasionally pink or white, and thrive in warm, sheltered, frost-free spots. Typically they grow to a height of about 60cm.
“We understand that they tend to flower in late summer or early autumn, which just adds to the mystery of our lily flowering in late spring and early summer,” says Liz.
The latest news bites from around the region.