Bay News: Battling it out on the dance floor

The winners of the 2021 Battle of the Ballroom, from left, Steve White with winners Niki Platt and Paul Young and Siran Young. The 2023 Battle of the Ballroom is on September 8 and 9.

The Battle of the Ballroom is back. Eight couples have been in training for 11 weeks and all are vying to be crowned King and Queen of the Ballroom.

It’s all in aid of Hospice MidNorth which is hoping to sell 750 tickets for the two nights of the glitzy affair. Belinda Watkins, chief executive of Hospice Mid-North, said they are hoping to raise $60,000 from the event, enough to buy a van to transport the medical equipment to patients at home.

“Without this equipment, beds, commodes, air mattresses, we could not look after our patients at home. Our current van was purchased in 2015 and is getting a bit old and unreliable.”

The Ministry of Health, Te Whatu Ora, provides the hospice with 45 per cent of the funding needed. The Hospice MidNorth budget is $1.3 million to provide free specialist 24/7 palliative care services to the community. The shortfall has to be found through events like Battle of the Ballroom and from the Hospice shops.

The contestants in the 2021 Battle of the Ballroom in aid of Hospice MidNorth celebrate before the final deliberations.

For this year’s event 16 locals have been paired together into eight couples. They have accepted the challenge, put their fear aside, dusted off the tuxedo and drycleaned the ballgown. Most of them are newly met and they have been given one dance to learn in 12 weeks.

The event is hosted by local personality and presenter Rick Palmer, together with a judging panel that includes past winners of the Battle of the Ballroom and other well-known local figures.

As well as the two-nights ticket there are tickets at $150 for general admission for Friday night and $200 VIP tickets.

The event is being held at the Turner Centre on Friday, September 8 and Saturday, September 9.

Social Climbing at Black Box Theatre

Kerikeri Theatre Company is producing and performing the Roger Hall play Social Climbers in September.

Hall is New Zealand’s best-known dramatist. His early scripts were for television but in 1976 he wrote his first stage play, the enormously popular Glide Time which became a sellout hit.

It gave rise to a radio show, a one-off television adaptation and the popular 1980s television series Gliding On. A sequel play and television series, both called Market Forces, was set in the restructured public service environment of New Zealand post-Rogernomics era.

Since then Hall has written and co-written a great many plays, series, talks, children’s books, written for radio, television and stage in a full and vibrant career.

Some of the cast of Black Box Theatre’s Social Climbers, forced to spend three days together in a tramping hut. Photo/Keshama Jane

He wrote Social Climbers in 1995. It is a comedy about a group of women teachers plus one reluctantly accompanying daughter who embark on a weekend of bushwalking in the mountains to get away from it all.

They are forced to spend three days and nights together in a tramping hut thanks to torrential rains and a washed-out bridge. For two days everything is chummy, sort of like a high school camp but from the third day onwards, all is not well.

Two of the cast of Roger Hall’s play Social Climbers, in a rain-soaked hut, encountering truth, consequences and unexpected revelations. Photo/ Keshama Jane

Throughout their time together they encounter truth, consequences and unexpected revelations.

The Social Climbers Black Box Theatre production is directed by Jane Massey and with a local cast supported by Kerikeri Theatre Company’s stage crew.

Thursday, September 14, Friday, September 15, Saturday,September 16, 7pm. Black Box Theatre, 17 Sammaree Place, Kerikeri. https://www.blackboxtheatre.co.nz/social-climbers-2023/

Urgent repairs to Okiato boat ramp

An urgent upgrade to the boat ramp on the Okiato side of the well-used Ōpua to Okiato car ferry got under way on Monday, August 28.

Tens of thousands of vehicles utilise Northland Ferries each month with a car ferry crossing every 15 minutes. The existing old ramp had begun to erode underneath and needed replacing to solidify the foundation.

Far North Holdings Limited (FNHL) Maritime general manager Chris Galbraith said the ramp required urgent infrastructure repairs to ensure it maintained community connectivity with minimal disruption.

The works will not impact the day-to-day operations of the ferry. The project will take place over four weeks and as part of the upgrade, will require specialist commercial divers to work under water each night between 10.30pm and 5am.

The Okiato boat ramp for the Bay of Islands car ferry has begun to erode underneath and is undergoing urgent repairs. Photo/Sandy Myhre

A five-man dive team will undertake the repairs, rebuilding various sections of the concrete ramp foundation using steel, concrete and geocloth. Underwater hydraulic drills and various hand tools will also be used.

A Commercial Dive Specialist spokesperson said while there were always challenges with this type of work, the team had plenty of experience to draw on.

“The in-water visibility is limited at this location, a couple of hundred millimetres at best, which means the divers will need to sometimes work by feel.

“Working through the night also brings logistical challenges with our supply partners needing to bring in materials at the required times overnight via road,” he said.

BOI - Whangaroa Community Board member Jane Hindle said the emergency services have been fully briefed and there’s a plan for community support involving additional night shift coverage.

Far North Holdings Limited (FNHL) which owns the ramp is investing $400,000 to provide the much-needed repair work.