Far North news briefs: Edible garden tour; SH10 work and lifejacket recall

Edible gardens are the feature of the 4th Northland Edible Garden Trail, which starts tomorrow.

Edible gardens

The 4th Northland Edible Garden Trail will run over 10 days from February 7 to 16. This year’s trail will feature over 40 edible gardens throughout Northland that will be open for the public to meet the gardeners, have a chat, and be inspired to grow fruit and vegetables in a sustainable way. The trail includes small urban gardens, community gardens, rural lifestyle blocks, commercial growers and farms.

Admission is $3 per garden and children are free. There will also be workshops and presentations, including a talk at Kawakawa Library by Yotam and Niva Kay from Pākaraka Permaculture near Thames. The Abundant Garden and Kitchen will cover off Niva and Yotam’s growing journey and their preserving and fermentation tips. Visit here for more information.

SH10 work

Motorists are advised to plan ahead for upcoming chipsealing work on State Highway 10 between Mangonui and Taipa, starting February 13. Work will be carried out at night over seven nights, with stop/go traffic management in place. Temporary speed limits and traffic management will remain in place the following day to guide traffic over the new seal and help to embed it successfully.

Travel delays during these works are expected to be 5-10 minutes. Chipsealing helps ensure a smooth, skid-resistant surface, free of potholes and slippery sections to reduce the risk of crashes and help keep everyone travelling on our roads safe.

Fire callouts

Fire crews attended two unrelated emergencies within about 20 minutes of each other on Puketona Rd, at Hururu near Kerikeri, on Sunday.

The first was a single vehicle crash just after 12.30pm.

The car involved hit a power pole, bringing down lines and causing a small grass fire about 2m x 10m, a Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokesman said.

No one was hurt; the vehicle’s occupants were able to get themselves out, the spokesman said.

About 12.50pm Fire and Emergency crews were called to put out a ceiling fire in a house. A crew from Kerikeri spent about 15 minutes extinguishing the 10m x 8m blaze, the spokesman said.

Lifejacket recall

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and Maritime New Zealand are calling for people to double-check their lifejackets this summer. This is due to a fault found in an inflator mechanism which may result in jackets not inflating as expected.

The Halkey-Roberts mechanism is installed in the Hutchwilco Classic 170N Manual Inflatable Lifejacket and Hutchwilco Super Comfort 170N Manual Inflatable Lifejacket which are manufactured from June 2021 to May 2022. There are more than 21,000 affected units throughout New Zealand. Recall notices for both the lifejackets and mechanism have been published here.