Ngati Rehia's Kipa Munro says Te Ahurea will help instil pride in his people. It gets a mention in the New York Times 52 Places to Visit in 2022 list. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Ngati Rehia's Kipa Munro says Te Ahurea will help instil pride in his people. It gets a mention in the New York Times 52 Places to Visit in 2022 list. Photo / Peter de Graaf
World famous in New York
Kaitāia may have won the most beautiful small town in the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards, but Northland is world famous in New York.
It was the only region in New Zealand that made it to the New York Times list of 52 Places toVisit for a Changed World in 2022.
Northland came in at No.39, behind Marrakesh in Morocco and ahead of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Chioggia in Italy was No.1 (it's near Venice in case you were wondering) and placed 52 was the Daintree Rainforest in Australia, on the northeast coast of Queensland in case you were wondering about that, too.
The citation that accompanied the New York Times Northland entry specifically mentions the Far North with Ngawha Springs and Te Ahurea, formerly Rewa's Village, opposite the Stone Store in Kerikeri. Also rating an explicit reference was Tu Tika Tours based in Whangārei and Tahi Eco Retreat, which is in Pataua on the Tutukaka Coast.
"Endless cultural lessons await travelers" (sic) it says. "At the newly redeveloped Ngawha Springs where the people of Ngāpuhi came to replenish their wairua or spirit, visitors can soak in dozens of mineral-rich geothermal pools to alleviate pain and repair common ailments."
The writer is Daniel Scheffler. His website says he "flies somewhere every single week of the year". However, Tahi Eco Retreat couldn't find any reference to him having stayed there and Tu Tika Tours said he didn't take a tour.
He says he has been coming to New Zealand regularly since 2000 but it was not possible during lockdown. Instead, he Zoomed Tourism New Zealand "for some of the details I had not seen since my last visit". Nonetheless, he had a reasonable grasp of the places he had on the list and with the macron in the right place on the Māori words. He couldn't, though, spell indigenous.
"Also reopening is the cultural and education center (sic) Te Ahurea which includes an interactive pā or settlement site highlighting the history and traditions of the Hongi, Rewa and Tāreha Māori Indigeneous (sic) peoples."
He has written the annual 52 Places to Go column for the New York Times since 2016 and has a podcast on iHeart Radio called Everywhere.
The new 160m- long wharf at Rangi Point on the northern part of the Hokianga Harbour recently completed by Far North District Council and Far North Holdings Limited.
Hokianga wharves officially opened
The Far North District Council has completed the upgrades to three Hokianga Harbour wharves – at Motutī 10km west of Rawene, Te Karaka where Dame Whina Cooper was born in the northern part of the Hokianga, and at Māngungu where the Mission House was the venue for the second and largest signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on February 12, 1840.
They have also built a new 160m-long wharf at Rangi Point on the northern part of the Hokianga Harbour.
Last week, a planned boat trip that was to have taken guests to the wharves had to be cancelled due to rough weather. Guest included Northland MP Willow-Jean Prime, Shane Jones and community leaders Kevin Robinson (Motutī), George Bryers (Rangi Point), Harry Smart (Māngungu) and David Mules (Te Karaka).
Instead, they gathered at The Heads, Ōmāpere (formerly the Copthorne Hotel). Far North District Council CEO Shaun Clarke paid tribute to Chris Galbraith and Aimee Page from Far North Holdings Limited for managing the projects.
Ka mutu tēnei ki hea? Where will this end, acrylic on canvas by Karen Browne, is one of the artworks featured in an exhibition at Village Arts, Kohukohu.
An art exhibition being held at Village Arts, Kohukohu, is a tangible response to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Curator Heiwari Himiona Johnson said the goal is to show that despite everything, art is flourishing and artists have been creating new and exciting works worth having conversations about.
"There has been a notable shift in communication, in our language. The ubiquity of words or phrases like 'social distancing' and 'unprecedented times' must meet the needs of the moment," she said.
"Given that the pandemic has been only one major issue of the past couple of years. The struggles that we've all endured throughout this Covid-19 era will have lasting effects on all of us and artists are no exception.
"Our hope for a post-pandemic world is that humankind will experience and emphasise more thoughtfulness and kindness towards ourselves, each other and the planet."
She said while a rise in creativity is likely to impress on art for some time, there is a certain craving to see more art in person since the effects of an artwork online are never quite the same.
Called Te Kupenga.Net, it's a contemporary response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition opened on February 19 and runs to March 19, and features works from artists from Hokianga, Kaikohe and Kerikeri.
An aerial shot of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, winner of the EMA Best Not For Profit Award in the 2021 Northland Business Excellence Awards.
Waitangi win excellence award
The 2021 Northland Business Excellence Awards presentation was postponed last year due to Covid restrictions. Now, with the Omicron outbreak, North Chamber made the difficult decision to cancel the smaller award winners' trophy presentation in person that was scheduled for Friday, February 18.
Instead, the category winners will have a trophy presentation, with photographer, and the photograph will be shared on the Business Excellence Awards webpage.
The Waitangi Treaty Grounds won the EMA Best Not For Profit Award and was a finalist in two other categories – Excellence in Business – Large Business Award and the Digital Transformation Award.
The judges commented that Waitangi Treaty Grounds "has kept innovating and pivoted its marketing to a primarily local audience to ensure continuity for the business and staff".
An exhibition at Waitangi featuring Bruce Connew's 79 photographs of memorials and gravestones of our country's colonial wars.
As if to prove the point, Waitangi has curated a new exhibition that features 79 pictures by New Zealand photographer Bruce Connew that address the casualties of colonisation. The exhibition is being toured by Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery.
Connew spent several years roaming memorials and gravestones of Aotearoa's colonial wars. The wars took place across decades of the 19th century with ramifications into the 20th century and beyond. They have been documented in a book by Connew.
A snapshot of the book has been adapted into the exhibition, which includes He Mōteatea The Lament, and essay The Sandfly Nips, The Conversation Continues by Rangihīroa Panoho.
Waitangi Treaty Grounds curatorial manager Caitlin Timmer-Arends said the exhibition supports one of the Waitangi National Trust's key objectives - to be a hub for ongoing discourse about our nationhood.
