Big spend-up boosts coffers

Dearna Earby, Morgan Tunstall, Eylish Rolton and Siobhan Meagher all from Whangarei, got money for Christmas and decided a good place to invest it was the Boxing Day sales in Whangarei.

While many people flocked to Northland's beaches over the weekend, many brave souls also tackled the region's shops in the annual Boxing Day sales.

Figures on the sales were not available at edition time yesterday, but if the lead-up to Christmas was anything to go by - where Eftpos and credit card transactions were up more than 10 per cent on the previous year - it's expected to have been a big spend-up.

Chantelle, Brett and Rachel Ballentyne came up from Mangawhai to make the most of Whangarei's Boxing Day sales on Saturday.

Northern Advocate photographer Tania Whyte hit the shopping centres on Saturday to see what was on offer and to capture these pictures.