Merv Pinny will be performing with Gerry Paul from the T-Bone Band Photo/Supplied
A generous gesture to Mid-North Hospice
The brazen theft of petrol from one of the clinic’s cars parked at Hospice Mid-Northland in January meant the car was out of action until it could be fixed.
Thieves drilled a hole in the fuel tank and drained petrol from it.
The on-call nurse had to resort to using another vehicle to visit a dying patient and the organisation’s chief executive, Belinda Watkins, said the cost of repairs would be “massive”.
“It just goes to show how one callous act can have a major impact on our service,” she said.
Hospice Mid Northland has subsequently been contacted by a number of people who have helped the police identify the alleged thief and one man has paid the insurance excess bill and has paid for a new tank of petrol.
Watkins said they hope to have the car back on the road soon and with a new fuel tank.
In the meantime, the fundraising golf tournament for Mid North Hospice kicks off on Friday, March 3 at the Bay of Islands Golf Club in Kerikeri. Play is Ambrose style with teams of six and the cost is $60 per person or $360 per team.
Italian Festival postponed
The Little Italian Festival which was to have been held in Russell on February 18 at Hone’s Garden Restaurant had to be postponed.
Organiser Chris Albrecht said because of the weather and because of the condition of the roads, with some roads were closed, logistical issues occurred.
“None of the food, drinks and merchandise could arrive on time and some of our market stall holders couldn’t get to Russell from Auckland. So, unfortunately, we had to delay.”
A new date will be posted on social media and is likely to be the end of April.
Researching possible forge site in Bay of Islands
A dive trip 14 years ago introduced Jack Kemp to a forge site at Luncheon Cove in Fiordland. He is a Heritage New Zealand volunteer and is researching a possible early French forge site in the Bay of Islands.
In 2022 he moved to Blacksmith’s Bay just out of Kerikeri. It was where repairs were carried out on the HMS Osprey by Royal Navy sailors using a portable forge possibly some time between 1844 and 1846.
After catching up with archaeologists Bill Edwards and James Robinson in the Kerikeri office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, he heard they had found what they suspected was the site of a possible metal work repair forge on Moturua Island built by early French explorers. They suggested Kemp take a look.
“The feature on Moturua Island looked very similar to the Cook site in Fiordland which was a hole in the ground with a ditch leading from it down to a stream. Using a metal detector we found many metal targets, most likely being scale from when they were striking metal with a hammer,” he says.
The blacksmiths in question would have been sailors with French mariner Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne during his disastrous sojourn in the Bay of Islands in 1772. Du Fresne had brought his two ships the Mascarin and the Marquis de Castries into the Bay for repairs, and for his scurvy-riven crew to recuperate.
Although things had started well with Māori in the Bay, a series of missteps on the part of the French resulted in Du Fresne and a number of his men being killed and French retribution resulted in the deaths of over 200 Māori.
Kemp was keen to test his theory about the suspected Moturua Island forge, and with a bit of guidance from James Robinson and Bill Edwards, undertook some experimental archaeology.
“I built a similar pit forge, which operates above a simple hole in the ground, and did some tests. Though instead of a set of bellows – which the sailors would have used – I rigged up a mechanical blower in the base of the hole to generate the heat required in the forge to soften metal.
“Bending the metal on an anvil wasn’t a problem – even with low carbon metal – and I was able to make a few fish hooks,” he says.
Kemp’s experiment is a perfect example of how archaeological theories can be ‘ground truthed’ by subjecting them to a good dose of reality, in this case 1500 degrees of heat. Jack’s theory came through the fire unscathed according to James Robinson.
From Dark to Light, pink elephants and too much white
Kerikeri musician Merv Pinny and his band will be performing at the Turner Centre on March 18.
The show has been labelled Dark to Light, original rock show and features an eclectic range of songs he has written influenced by war, refugees, mass shooting, love on the internet and pink elephants.
“I started the Dark to Light journey about six years ago and the first video went viral and made number one on some of the US radio stations.
“I also released material about gun violence and the LP made it to number six on the college radio charts in the United States.”
He wrote a song called Pink Elephants about make believe on the internet, a punk song that went to number one on the South African iTunes charts.
The inspiration for one song entitled Too Much White, Too Much Red came from the streets of Kerikeri.
“I found myself feeling guilty about the amount of recycled wine bottles I was putting on the side of the road during lockdown and then I realised every house had just as many bottles as I did,” he says.
He has even written a song on New Zealand rail to help Northland get a rail link north.
For the Kerikeri show he will be joined by Gerry Paul, Turner Centre manager and a songwriter and session performer in his own right. His band, T-Bone, has just won the Best Folk Album in the Music 101 RNZ awards for their debut album Good ‘n Greasy.
They were the first Tūi recipients for 2023. The album went to number two on the New Zealand album charts when it was released in June 2022.
Some of the song will be supported by video footage from Pinny’s own YouTube channel. There is, he says, “Something for everyone, rock, funk, blues and a little bit of country.”
All proceeds from this event will go to the Red Cross New Zealand Disaster Fund.
Judge: 'How can you take that money and deceive people who are so desperate?'