Living this far north means having to travel to Auckland occasionally and if you don't have rellies or friends to stay with there's a scramble to find somewhere to sleep and eat.

A young woman who admits she is scared of chooks is now running a free range chicken farm that's home to hundreds and hundreds of the little twittering critters.

A couple of years ago the Kaeo Post Office building on the little town's main street was spruced up. Out of those celebrations has come a book written by local author Fiona Craig.

As the Mad Butcher is to meat and Michael Hill is to jewellery, Mike Pero is the high profile and literal front face of the companies he started.

A Bay of Islands College student is having a year to remember after recently being named the New Zealand U16 AFL Player of the Year and selected to captain the NZ U16 team.

The children of Mission Place Kindergarten are getting a head start in the basics of rugby, netball, football and bat-and-ball styled games.

Three weapons believed to have been gifted by the Ngapuhi chief Hongi Hika to missionary James Kemp were last week unveiled in a new display befitting their significance.

World of their own

Do as you're told

Police are investigating the aggravated robbery of a bakery in Kaitaia's main street early on Sunday morning.

In winning a sudden-death showdown in dramatic come-from-behind fashion, Northland College has earned the right to represent the province.

SO there he was, The Offsider, watching as a rotten apple nearly spoiled the bunch.......

It's far from a secret society, but much of the work that has been done by the Kaitaia Rotary Club over the past six decades has probably gone unremarked upon by most of the town's citizens.

Tamariki first

Shelley Sullivan is back home in Kaitaia, and back in front of her class at Pamapuria School, but still bubbling with the excitement of her latest foray to Uganda, her first in five years.

A new policing team, charged with nipping crime in the bud, has scored some impressive results.

Police are once again urging motorists to be particularly vigilant over the dark, wet winter months, and calling on farmers to ensure their fences are secure after three crashes in the Far North in 24 hours.

HELL FOR LEATHER

One wolf too many

Leave them alone

Two key hapu have come out against a proposal for a marine reserve in the Bay of Islands.

Police and the Fire Service agreed on Sunday that the fire that destroyed a residential garage in Bonnett Road, Kaitaia bore all the hallmarks of arson.

No one was quite sure what to expect from the inaugural Far North Pacifica Beats competition, staged at Kerikeri's Turner Centre on Friday night.

The 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil kicked off to massive fanfare last Friday (NZ time) and already the event has delivered some exciting results and upsets.

RUGBY LEAGUE

Twenty-six schools were represented at Te Tai Tokerau regional Nga Manu Korero speech competition, hosted by Te Rangi Aniwaniwa Kura last week, and as always the standard was impressive.

Smoke and mirrors

Laurie Austen is not your average conservationist, but he is passionate about saving one of the Far North's most prized delicacies from extinction.

One of the less surprising results of this year's Reader's Digest list of most trusted professions was that doctors ranked highly once again.

A Doubtless Bay man who was already in custody over alleged sex offences against young girls has denied 17 new charges.