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Once were fish

The two home teams kept their unbeaten record at Waipap in local darts last Wednesday after hosting Awanui and Mussel Rock, with Betty Masters notable for putting in a good performance for Awanui taking out two games.

Kaitaia pensioner Clyde Korach has had a "gutsful" of burglars, and he doesn't have much more regard for the police.

The Ministry of Education is investigating the legality of a board of trustees election at a Far North school where the roll has plummeted by more than half.

The efforts of a dedicated group of skaters who had driven all the way from Kaitaia to take part in the Hoki Sk8 2014 competition last month helped convince organisers not to pull the plug on the event because of rain.

Inquiry needed

Kaitaia vet nurse Donna Badorek will be having a week off in October, but while she'll be bound for the tropics she won't be lying on a beach drinking pina coladas.

Kaitaia's Pirates Rugby Football Club has had some ups and downs over the last 60 years and more, but the good times seem a long time ago as the club battles an on-going spate of vandalism.

Northland Coroner Brandt Shortland has welcomed a series of recommendations from Surf Life Saving New Zealand at the inquest into the death of 40-year-old Auckland man Ieremia Denis Galuvao at Ahipara in January 2010.

Colin Dale strolls into the room in the Far North District Council offices looking far more like everyone's grandfather than the council's newly-appointed acting chief executive officer.

Kerikeri has more lawyers per capita than all but three other places in New Zealand. Who knew?

Willowbrook Farm

Is this a sign of being very afraid?

Mangonui seniors

At the time of this edition going to print, a number of Northland's top sheepdogs and their handlers were getting their North Island Championship campaigns under way in Taumaranui.

Five years' work went into the proposal to establish two marine reserves in the Bay of Islands and now Fish Forever, Bay of Islands Maritime Park Inc., wants the community to decide if it has got it right.

The Environment Court reserved their decision of an appeal against the Ministry of Education's notice of requirement to designate land on Koutu Point Road as the site of a new school.

Something wonderful

Or fishless forever?

Kaitaia farmer Victor Rakich admits it. His farming instincts are on the wane. And it's all thanks to his 18-year-old granddaughter Chanelle Cooper.

Nominations for the inaugural Pride of New Zealand Awards, to celebrate New Zealanders who make the most positive, uplifting and inspiring contributions to their community, are now open.

Sack them

Seven Kaitaia College students represented a Kaitaia gym when they competed at Teen Gauntlet Crossfit Competition in Auckland on April 12 with the following achieved.

So there he was, The Offsider, feeling winter start to creep across the Far North in near nonchalant fashion.

The horrific, doomed campaign at Gallipoli did more than forge a bond between the New Zealanders and Australians who fought, were wounded and died there.