Interview: Money man turned poet Greg Hall... p12-13
Navy ‘will probably need to spend more’ on $4 million church
The former St Augustine’s Church in Calliope Rd, bought by the Defence Force last year for $4.295 million, will likely need extra money spent on earthquake strengthening, according to documents released under the Official Information Act.
The previous owners – Lesley Harris and Wayne Kelly – had preliminary plans drawn
up for potential earthquake strengthening but had not done the work, a valuation prepared for the Defence Force said.
“The former church building of double brick wall construction with an unknown seismic rating... may be an area of concern for some potential purchasers,” the report by JLL valuers says. The market value at 20
All lit up for Matariki
March 2025 was $4,250,000.
The 774 sqm property at 95A Calliope Rd – which included the church and church hall, both of which had been converted into homes – was bought by the Defence Force in June 2025.
When the property was first placed on the
To page 9
Lights, actions... Vauxhall School’s kapa haka group perform on the summit of Takarunga after the Matariki hikoi up the maunga. Story, pictures pages 2-3.
MATARIKI EVENTS
Free Plants For Your Garden
Collect your free native plant from Ngaute-ringaringa Community Nursery. Until 30 June.Tuesday 1pm-4pm, Thursday 2pm-4pm, Sunday: 10am-12pm. Dacre Park, 27a Lake Rd, Devonport Matariki Star Trail Competition
Hunt for nine stars across nine stores in the village. Collect a star map from the library and return it with your name, answers and contacts. Until 8 July.
Midwinter Swim
Windsor Reserve, Sunday 21 June at 11am.
Community Planting Day
Planting, followed by lunch of soup and bread. Jutland Reserve (meet between 21 and 22 Marsden St, Hauraki) Saturday 21 June, 11am-1pm. More info at rth.org. nz/events.
Matariki Festival
Bayswater School, Saturday 27 June, 4pm.
The Sandman Performance by Marcus Winter. At the Rose Centre, Wednesday 2 July, 6:30pm. Tickets $20
Celebrating the season: Children
a
Devonport Publishing Ltd First Floor, 9 Wynyard St
Best Community Involvement: 2021, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2005
Best Sports Reporter: 2024, 2016
Best Lifestyle/Feature Writer: 2024, 2023 VOYAGER/CANON MEDIA AWARDS
Community Reporter of the Year: Winner 2018
Community Newspaper of the Year: Finalist 2017
MANAGING EDITOR: Rob Drent
ADVERTISING: Candice Izzard
DESIGN: Brendon De Suza
ISSUE: July 3
ADVERTISING DEADLINE: June 26
Authorised by Hon Simon Watts, Parliament Buildings, Wgtn.
Working on
tapestry... Blair Hale and mum Juliette Harris. Below: The crowd gathers on the summit of Takarunga.
get creative before crowd climbs the mountain
More than 200 people walked from Whare Toi at the base of Takarunga to its summit last Saturday evening as part of a Matariki hikoi.
Kapa haka groups from Belmont, Devonport and Vauxhall schools performed at the summit.
Dozens of children took part in an earlier Matariki event at the Devonport Community House, making lanterns and tapestry and learning about native plants and planting.
Seasonal activity... (clockwise from right) JoJo (left) and Eily Stewart hard at work on a Matariki lantern; face-painting artist Kayla Cumiskey; Valentina Tokarski (left) with facepainter Fernanda Santoro
Devonport 2 Seabreeze Road
Beachside cottage with history and possibility
You can hear the waves lapping on the shore at Narrow Neck Beach and, with Wakatere Boating Club and Waitemata Golf Club across the road, there’s a relaxed way of life waiting for you here. This much-admired heritage cottage sits on a 1027sqm elevated site. Re-piled, re-roofed, and insulated, with central heating/cooling that promises peace of mind and year-round comfort. A light-filled living room has windows on three sides, all day sun, and a view of Rangitoto Island. Tucked away behind the picturesque main home, a separate self-contained dwelling has potential to be enhanced and an opportunity to accommodate extended family, teenagers, or generate an income. Make it yours today!
bayleys.co.nz/1470840
bayleys.co.nz
1,027sqm 3 2
Auction (unless sold prior) 2pm, Wed 1 Jul 2026
Bayleys House, 30 Gaunt Street, Auckland
Central
View Sat/Sun 1-1.30pm or by appointment
Helen Michell 021 210 3228
Champions! BIS footballers win Auckland regional title
Belmont Intermediate School last week won the Auckland boys’ football champs for the first time.
They beat Mt Eden’s Auckland Normal Intermediate School 1-0 in the final.
Striker Frank Cockayne told the Flagstaff tension was building with three minutes to play when he received the ball in the box with only the goalkeeper to beat. He dribbled around the keeper before slotting the winner.
On finals day BIS played four round-robin matches, winning two and drawing two to
make the semi-final. Each match was twenty minutes.
Winners from nine Auckland regions competed in the finals. BIS had won the North Harbour championships contested by 17 teams.
The win should give the boys confidence in their pursuit of further football success.
Midfielder Finn Gibson said he wanted to go “as high as I can”, maybe even to professional level.
All but two of the BIS team play for North
Shore United’s grade 13 team. They train twice a week for the club and once at school.
Their win means BIS will be one of the teams to beat at the Aims championships in September, which feature intermediate teams from across the North Island.
BIS head of sports Josh Simpson was delighted with the boys’ performance and the level of support from parents and wellwishers.
The team celebrated afterwards with a trip to McDonald’s.
Victorious... Belmont Intermediate’s winning footballers: Front (from left) – Henry Collier, Harry Cockayne, Luke Harbour, Elliot Chandler, Sam Prentice, Beau Casey, Fletcher Ansley. Back – Josh Simpson (coach), Frank Cockayne, James Maddigan, Josh De Koh, Harvey Proud, Finn Gibson, Jackson Buckle, Stephen Gibson (coach).
Listening, Enabling & Preserving Stories
Listening, Enabling & Preserving
Everyone has a story worth telling. Bricolage is a new Devonport creative studio, founded by Mark von Roy, that helps capture them — through film, audio, print and digital archiving — before they slip away.
Everyone has a story worth telling. Bricolage is a new Devonport creative studio, founded by Mark von Roy, that helps capture them — through film, audio, print and digital archiving — before they slip away.
There’s a particular kind of attention Mark brings to a conversation. He leans in. He asks follow-up questions. He prods, gently, for the detail beneath. “I love listening to people talk about their passions,” he says, “and prodding for more detail to understand the full context.”
There’s a particular kind of attention Mark brings to a conversation. He leans in. He asks follow-up questions. He prods, gently, for the detail beneath. “I love listening to people talk about their passions,” he says, “and prodding for more detail to understand the full context.”
For the past decade that instinct took Mark around the world. He worked as a journalist, director, filmer, producer and editor-in-chief, documenting the exploits of elite athletes. Exciting stuff, but over time he realised a deeper purpose was missing from the work.
When his father was diagnosed with cancer, something shifted in Mark. A quieter urgency set in, less about deadlines and more about time. He needed to capture his father’s life and his family’s heritage in general. The craft, the passions, the small details.
For the past decade that instinct took Mark around the world. He worked as a journalist, director, filmer, producer and editor-in-chief, documenting the exploits of elite athletes. Exciting stuff, but over time he realised a deeper purpose was missing from the work. When his father was diagnosed with cancer, something shifted in Mark. A quieter urgency set in, less about deadlines and more about time. He needed to capture his father’s life and his family’s heritage in general. The craft, the passions, the small details.
“I think it is really important to preserve stories, thoughts and ideas for future generations,” he says. “In this fast-paced world, media and stories are often treated as disposable. But actually, they are the glue that holds our sense of identity together.” Bricolage grew from that realisation.
“I think it is really important to preserve stories, thoughts and ideas for future generations,” he says. “In this fast-paced world, media and stories are often treated as disposable. But actually, they are the glue that holds our sense of identity together.” Bricolage grew from that realisation.
Mark has recently moved back to Devonport with his young family after almost 20 years away, and has set up his one-person-studio at home, with hopes for future growth into a dedicated space. A bricolage is something assembled from what’s already at hand, built with care into something new and whole. The idea is to take what someone has already lived and make it permanent. Make something intangible, a little more tangible and accessible.
Mark has recently moved back to Devonport with his young family after almost 20 years away, and has set up his one-person-studio at home, with hopes for future growth into a dedicated space. A bricolage is something assembled from what’s already at hand, built with care into something new and whole. The idea is to take what someone has already lived and make it permanent. Make something intangible, a little more tangible and accessible.
The studio works across four disciplines.
The studio works across four disciplines.
Cinematic film brings documentary-grade production to private stories: considered cinematography, real interviews, archival material, a proper film. Oral history captures a voice with broadcast-quality audio, shaped into something a grandchild can sit down and listen to decades from now. Print takes what already exists, photographs, journals, essays, recipes, artwork, and turns it into a book. Digital Archive builds a secure, beautifully designed private website where a family’s history lives in one place. The range is intentional. “The services are broad because different stories and people require different mediums,” Mark says. “A project doesn’t need to be a personal or family history. It could be digitising and reprinting an important recipe book, or creating an homage film about Mt Victoria. For example, before starting Bricolage I made a music video for cricket legend Glenn Turner, which was quite abstract, but also really amazing.” Every project starts with a conversation. Mark listens and prods occasionally. Nothing
Cinematic film brings documentary-grade production to private stories: considered cinematography, real interviews, archival material, a proper film. Oral history captures a voice with broadcast-quality audio, shaped into something a grandchild can sit down and listen to decades from now. Print takes what already exists, photographs, journals, essays, recipes, artwork, and turns it into a book. Digital Archive builds a secure, beautifully designed private website where a family’s history lives in one place. The range is intentional. “The services are broad because different stories and people require different mediums,” Mark says. “A project doesn’t need to be a personal or family history. It could be digitising and reprinting an important recipe book, or creating an homage film about Mt Victoria. For example, before starting Bricolage I made a music video for cricket legend Glenn Turner, which was quite abstract, but also really amazing.” Every project starts with a conversation. Mark listens and prods occasionally. Nothing
is recorded until there’s a good sense of what the story is and how it wants to be told. He’s particular about this. “The experience of capturing these stories should be just as valuable as the end product,” he says. That philosophy shapes how he works. Clients aren’t handed a form and a brief. They’re guided through a process that’s designed to feel good, because for most people, talking about what matters most to them should feel good. The final piece, whatever form it takes, should feel genuinely like a reflection of the person or thing it’s about.
is recorded until there’s a good sense of what the story is and how it wants to be told. He’s particular about this. “The experience of capturing these stories should be just as valuable as the end product,” he says. That philosophy shapes how he works. Clients aren’t handed a form and a brief. They’re guided through a process that’s designed to feel good, because for most people, talking about what matters most to them should feel good. The final piece, whatever form it takes, should feel genuinely like a reflection of the person or thing it’s about.
Mark is open about the fact that Bricolage is new. He’s building it carefully, one project at a time. He brings a decade of telling other people’s stories at the highest level, applied now to the stories closest to home.
Mark is open about the fact that Bricolage is new. He’s building it carefully, one project at a time. He brings a decade of telling other people’s stories at the highest level, applied now to the stories closest to home.
He’s based right here in Devonport. If you have a story you’d like to preserve, he’s ready to listen.
He’s based right here in Devonport. If you have a story you’d like to preserve, he’s ready to listen.
Work on new ferry berthing structure starts this year
Construction of a new Pier 2 berthing structure at Devonport Wharf is expected to begin late this year.
The upgrade – at a cost previously estimated at up to $10 million – will mean the berth can operate at all tides for all vessels and allow full disability access, says an Auckland Transport resource consent lodged with Auckland Council.
The new structure will allow Pier 2 to be used while future works are done on Pier 1 – which is currently the gateway for the Devonport-downtown ferry service.
“The proposal will have substantial positive effects for Auckland’s ferry network from the improved operation of the
Devonport Ferry Terminal, which is of high strategic importance as a key transport hub,” the resource consent application said.
The upgrade would “improve the longterm resilience of the ferry terminal, enabling continued operating via Pier 2 while Pier 1 is close for future upgrades or other reasons.”
Construction work is expected to be completed by late 2027.
The works include:
• Construction of a new concrete vestibule structure to connect the ferry terminal building to a gangway. The vestibule will have a roof and be enclosed with glazing.
• Installation of a new prefabricated alumin-
ium gangway to connect the vestibule to the boarding platform.
• A new hydraulic boarding platform system which incorporates automated tidal adjustment. Plant and equipment associated with this system will be on the roof of the adjacent ferry terminal building and connected to a tower platform via a walkway.
• Installation of 24 new piles to support the vestibule and boarding platform, provide fendering systems, and enable mooring.
• Modifications to the existing ferry terminal building, including new automatic opening doors and glazing.
• Integration of lighting, CCTV, and AT Hop facilities into the new structure.
Former flanker hangs up stick
Former flanker hangs up stick
Keith used to sit in the car while his wife did the shopping. Not because he was lazy. But because walking through a supermarket had become an ordeal he’d rather avoid.
“I’d let her go in while I waited,” the 72-year-old recalls. “It was easier than the thought of holding everyone up.”
For a man who’d spent his younger years charging into rucks as a flanker, the irony wasn’t lost on him. His knees had given everything to the game and now they were sending him the bill.
“The tackles catch up to you in the end,” Keith says.
The decline had been gradual. First came the knee supports. Then the walking stick. Before long, he’d mapped out which routes avoided stairs.
His wife still did the things they’d planned to do together in retirement but Keith had to watch from the car park.
The worst part wasn’t the physical limitation. It was becoming someone he didn’t recognise.
Then a friend mentioned Koru FX. Made in New Zealand with natural ingredients.
“I thought, here we go, one of those toogood-to-be-true things. But I figured I’d give it a go.”
What surprised Keith was that something felt different. The edge had come off.
“The old stick’s hanging in the hallway now,” Keith says. “I’m not worrying that I will need it anymore.”
These days, Keith and his wife do aqua aerobics together. It’s not rugby. But it’s something they can do as a couple.
“When you’ve lost that independence, getting it back is everything.”
Pier pressure... 24 new piles will be sunk into the harbour floor for a new berthing structure, pictured in an artist’s impression, on the southern side of the Devonport ferry terminal
Devonport 2/32 Albert Road
Motivated vendors. One clear instruction - sell.
Live the Devonport lifestyle. Village, beaches and beyond.
Seldom do we see properties in this price range on this street. Ready to call home as is, but with scope to add value and reap the rewards. This well-loved cedar home sits tucked into one of Devonport's most cherished streets. Three bedrooms, family bathroom, laundry with added toilet, enclosed balcony and internal access garage. Easy-care north-facing gardens and sun throughout the day complete the picture. Motivated by their move into Ryman, the vendors are ready to sell. Sale sought on or before auction day.
bayleys.co.nz/1470839
3 1 1 1
Auction (unless sold prior) 1.30pm, Thu 2 Jul 2026
33 King Edward Parade, Devonport View Sat 11.30am-12pm & Sun 11.30am-12pm Natasha Pretorius 021 204 8384 Ian Cunliffe 027 227 9322
PechaKucha funds shared
After last month’s sold-out “Our Devonport” PechaKucha nights at The Vic, Devonport Library Associates has made donations to the Victoria Theatre Trust ($1756.25), the Ngataringa Organic Garden Society ($1000), Devonport Community House ($500), Restore Takarunga Hauraki ($500) and the Devonport Flagstaff ($200).
Stationers to close Valentines Stationers at Hauraki Corner will close on 30 June. Its agreement to supply NZ Post services has expired.
Fifth op shop opening in village
Harbour Hospice is opening a second opportunity shop in Victoria Rd.
The new store is at 83 Victoria Rd, across from the existing Harbour Hospice shop at 36 Victoria Rd. It was previously the offices of the Bayleys Devonport real estate agency and more recently a pop-up art gallery.
It will open in August and operate seven days a week, selling items including fashion, accessories, jewellery and children’s clothing. The fit-out was due to begin this week.
The current shop will sell homeware, brica-brac, books and small pieces of furniture. It will open five days a week, Wednesday to Sunday.
Tess McGregor, the existing shop’s retail
manager, will oversee the running of both stores, with the support of extra volunteers. North Harbour Hospice retail services manager Maria Baird said: “The current shop has a highly engaged following of regulars and locals, and we’ll be able to give them even more, as well as extend our reach in the community and raise additional funding for patient and family and whānau services.”
The new store takes the number of op shops in Devonport to five: two Harbour Hospice outlets, the SPCA shop on the corner of Clarence and Victoria Rds, the Salvation Army store on Queens Pde and the Anglican Community Shop in the Arcade on Wynyard St.
Church could be Navy offices, barracks, creche or chapel
market in 2017 by the Anglican Church, the Defence Force position “was that there was no need to purchase”, according to internal minutes.
However the government’s commitment to consolidate Navy operations in Devonport meant more land would be needed for development.
The 95A Calliope Rd property could be used for offices, naval accommodation,
a childcare centre or as the main church/ chapel for the Devonport base, the Defence minutes said.
However, a change from residential use would require both buildings to be assessed for seismic compliance.
The property also offered the Navy a “continguous footprint” along Calliope Rd.
The purchase held “reputational risks” for Defence, the minutes said. “NZDF is in a position of extreme financial hardship with cost savings efforts well underway
rewa rd i n g wo rk , w i t h g o o d co m p a ny, i n b ea u t i f u l g a rd e n s –fo l l owe d by m o rn i n g tea i n o u r S u m m e r H o u s e ove rl o o ki n g t h e s t u n n i n g H a u ra ki G u l f ( p i c t u re d )
S o m e o f o u r wo n d e r f u l vo l u n te
(including property disposals) and a focus on prudent spending.”
The reasons for purchase “will not necessarily translate to a public forum, and NZDF if intending to purchase should expect a negative media viewpoint, and public and political scrutiny”.
Large sections of the minutes leading up to the decision to purchase have been redacted for privacy and defence operational reasons. • An Auckland Council May 2024 capital valuation for the property was $4,175,000.
From page 1
Hands up for a colourful football fundraiser
Hundreds of North Shore United AFC supporters left their mark last Saturday as colourful handprints were collected for a feature wall outside the clubrooms. The Helping Hands wall is a fundraiser commemorating the football club’s 140th year.
Apartments available now
William Sanders Village is a thriving retirement community offering a lifestyle that makes it easy to stay active and connected with like-minded people.
We have two bedroom apartments available now, priced from $825,000. All apartments offer spacious open plan living, with contemporary kitchens and bathrooms, and your own patio or balcony.
Don’t miss out, call Scott on 445 0909 for more details.
7 Ngataringa Road, Devonport ryman.co.nz
Press paws... Even Romeo, the dog of sponsor Emma Lynskey from Bayleys, contributed a print. Right: Herbie Allen (left) and Colette Disher at right prepare to contribute their palm prints.
Football club’s proud heritage showcased at last
One hundred and forty years in the making, three years to put together – a new History and Heritage room has opened at North Shore United Football Club.
An old storage room has been transformed into a home for the archives of the oldest football club in New Zealand.
“A lot of the club history was in boxes and cupboards,” said life member Andy Gore. Photos and other memorabilia of the club, which was formed in 1886, were scattered around the club walls,
Now one wall of the heritage room features a photographic history, including shots of founding member Charles Dacre. Season summaries and club records are stored in a cupboard below.
The club started as Devonport Football Club, playing its first competition matches in 1887. It changed its name to North Shore AFC in 1894, and became North Shore United in 1934, when it amalgamated with the Belmont Club.
Another wall is dedicated to the Chatham Cup, with photos of the club’s six wins in the competition – from the first, in 1926, to the most recent, in 1986.
Programmes and team lists are archived, as are club histories, including 90 Seasons by Brian Bond, published in 1976.
The club hopes to add to the collections as new material is found. Two weeks ago 1986
Chatham Cup team member Alan Parkin donated his winner’s medal.
The collection also features historic photos of the Allen Hill Stadium and Dacre Park area, including one showing a flood in 1963
Laura Tait, a popular and beloved artist known for her floral compositions, is back in Devonport at the TIME CAPSULE GALLERY (30 Victoria Road, Devonport, Auckland)
After her highly successful and warmly received exhibition in October, she will be presenting new masterpieces between June 22 and July 4.
The exhibition opens on Monday, June 22 at 6pm, and we look forward to welcoming everyone interested in her lovely art, flowers and a good atmosphere!
Of course, with the usual high-quality hospitality, refreshments, snacks and small gifts.
and the former gasworks tower next door to the football ground.
The club is keen to archive any North Shore United memorabilia residents might be willing to donate.
Curating history... North Shore United life members Brian Shandley (left) and Andy Gore , who worked on the club’s new heritage room
Poetry and PechaKucha follow life in finance
Greg Hall, world famous in Devonport after co-hosting the ‘Our Devonport’ PechaKucha presentations, publishes his first poetry collection this month. He spoke to Rob Drent about the interests he developed alongside a career in banking.
Man of various talents… Greg Hall in front of Small Study – One a painting by Elizabeth Rees which features on the cover of his poetry collection Through Closed Eyes
The music wouldn’t stop playing as MC Greg Hall attempted to introduce the second of the PechaKucha presenters at the Vic last month.
A cool, calm and collected Hall persisted, but the music droned on.
It was discovered that the sound wouldn’t stop until the ice cream queue was dealt to. The success of the sell-out shows caused the precisely timed nights of quickfire presentations to start late.
Despite the obstacles, the “Our Devonport” nights had a successful second year after similar sell-outs in 2025.
They are very much the baby of Devon-
port Library Associates members Hall and Kerry Chamberlain, following the Associates event Triumph and Disaster, which featured a panel. Mates at the Devonport Croquet Club, Kerry asked Greg if he’d heard of the PechaKucha format – presenters talking for 20 seconds on each of 20 slides. So the planning for Our Devonport 2025 began.
It’s likely it will be back in 2027, again under the duo’s guidance. “It’s something Kerry and I started and if it was to carry on we would want to do it together,” Hall says.
Hall moved to Devonport in 1999, but has lived on the North Shore most of his life.
He was born in 1951 in Oamaru, where
his family had a long family history, with both his father and grandfather teaching at Waitaki Boys’ High School.
His family relocated to Devonport in 1953, when Hall’s father, Doug, rejoined the Navy, with which he served in World War II.
Hall started school at Bayswater Primary in 1956, near where the family lived in Navy housing, before buying a home at Castor Bay. Hall attended Campbells Bay School, Murrays Bay Intermediate and Westlake Boys High School, where he was a prefect in 1968. He recalls John Lethaby and Billy Holland, still living in Devonport, as Westlake contemporaries.
Hall enrolled in maths and economics courses at the University of Auckland, but coming from a “highly disciplined high school” he found the freedom of university life difficult to reconcile with academic achievement.
He dropped out after three years “after spending too much time drinking coffee, playing pool and protesting the All Black tour to South Africa in 1970 and Vietnam war.”
With conscription operating, Hall registered as a conscientious objector, which was slightly incongruous when his father was a Navy commander.
His parents were “easy going”, however, and his father was accommodating of his
independent views. “All he said was ‘well my boy, I hope you do not have to be called’.”
Hall studied accountancy at night school and gained chartered accountant qualifications. In 1980, with his then wife Julie and two young daughters Katherine and Megan, Hall relocated to Honiara in the Solomon Islands for two years as an accountant for a trading company. His son Tim, now an officer in the RNZN like his grandfather, was born in Honiara.
“Navy service skipped a generation.”
The family returned to New Zealand in 1983, living in Torbay, Forrest Hill and Mairangi Bay as Hall progressed through a 28-year career in banking and finance, including stints with Marac, the State Bank of Australia, Bank of New Zealand and Westpac. He was the personal banking manager for key clients such as Mainfreight, Freightways, Foodstuffs, Restaurant Brands and the like. “It was good fun back in those days,” says Hall. He worked alongside such big players on acquisition strategies and debt financing.
What was perhaps uncommon about Hall was that outside the financial world he had a parallel intellectual life, including a longheld interest in WWI that grew after becoming aware of his own family’s involvement in that conflict. “I read everything I could about the First World War,” as well as poetry and literature.
He still has a small sweets tin originally given to soldiers who served in France by Princess Mary. It was the property of his great-uncle Forester Kent, who was killed in the war. The family heirloom was passed on to Hall by his grandmother.
In 1999 Hall made the first of many visits to the battlefields of WWI, including those in Gallipoli, Belgium and France. He was sceptical of the grandeur of the Western Front memorials.
“I became unsettled by the pomp and religiosity of the messages... they were so
far from the reality of war.” Nine million soldiers were killed, including 18,000 New Zealanders.
Hall started writing his own poetry in an effort to come to terms with the conflict.
In 2010, aged 60, he opted out of the corporate world to become a self-employed financial advisor. It gave him more time to research and write.
In 2014 he started working on his own novel of World War I, the fictional story of three young men from Oamaru who were caught up in the conflict. Good Sons was published in 2017.
Hall was also a director of the Passchendaele Society for five years and was part of a team which included fellow Devonport residents Chris Mullane and Ian McKenzie to establish a New Zealand memorial and garden at the memorial museum in the village of Zonnebeke, Belgium. Another Devonport resident, sculptor Helen Pollock, has a permanent exhibition there.
In 1999 Hall moved to Devonport and met Carolyn Morgan, who had started Paradox Books a few years previously, and went on to operate the business for 16 years.
The couple bought a house in Vauxhall Rd in 2003 and these days divide their time between Devonport and a small property in Puna in the Bay of Plenty, which they bought in 2019. They enjoy the semi-rural lifestyle and visit as much as they can.
Otherwise their time is spent enjoying their four grandchildren, ranging in age from 9 to 22, riding their bikes with Devonport friends, playing croquet and “loving everything that living in Devonport offers”.
Hall is treasurer of the North Shore Croquet Club and has held the same role at Devonport Library Associates since 2019, being roped in by Paul Beachman, a former teacher at Westlake.
“He said ‘Greg I have a job for you’, and I said, ‘yes sir’.”
Hall has written 90,000 words of a sequel
CUSTOM KITCHENS, BATHROOMS, AND CABINETRY TO FIT YOUR VISION
to Good Sons but “got sick of it and needed to put it aside”.
Wanting to get something out, the 75-yearold put together a collection of poems, including one on how he met Morgan. Two feature Takarunga – one of Hall’s favourite places for a walk, and Dinko Martinovich, one of the characters he met on the maunga.
Two late Devonport personalities also feature: Danny Ryan, who for many years ran the record and CD shop on Victoria Rd; and leading New Zealand poet Kevin Ireland, who died in 2023, and who inspired Hall’s poem Through Closed Eyes, for which his collection is named.
Visiting Ireland in his last weeks, “Kevin had his eyes closed for much of the time, although he still joined in conversations, still had his sense of humour and could still ‘see’ quite clearly.
“I managed to read the poem to him on his death bed.”
Hall says that in keeping with Ireland’s generous nature, “He thought it was marvellous”.
• Through Closed Eyes by Greg Hall will be launched at Devonport Library on 24 June at 6pm.
The Woman at Paradox Books
The woman at Paradox Books eyes with a paradise look, eyes like the cover of a book, make you pick it up, make you want to look.
The woman at Paradox Books, the one with the paradise looks, who wrote her, I wonder? What mysteries lie within her? I want to turn her pages, the woman at Paradox Books.
Beautifully crafted cabinetry designed for comfort, style, and timeless appeal
Neo Design specialises in premium kitchens, bathrooms, and bespoke cabinetry, delivering expert craftsmanship, precision, and flawless finishes. Experience custom designs, superior workmanship, and a commitment to excellence—guaranteed. Call us for a free consultation
Man overboard: The passengers who made a splash
David Verran of Devonport Museum revisits some of the times rescues were required – and lifebuoys likely deployed – on the Devonport ferry route.
The Devonport Steam Ferry Company carried passengers between Devonport and the city for over 100 years.
Lifebuoys such as those shown above were standard equipment for when ferry passengers went overboard, either intentionally or unintentionally, or when a passenger’s leap between wharf and ferry was unsuccessful.
On 10 May 1947, records show passengers on the 10pm sailing of the Peregrine ferry from Devonport to downtown heard cries for help and “man overboard”.
Lifebuoys were thrown out, a searchlight used to pinpoint the man, along with someone else who had jumped in to save him, and a dinghy lowered to save them both.
A lifebuoy may or may not have been used on 21 June 1949, when a man took off his coat before jumping overboard from the Devonport-to-downtown ferry and swam to shore fully clothed.
He was trying to avoid a police constable who had followed him onboard, but was later arrested after he arrived on dry land.
On 24 February 1956, a lifebuoy may well have been used when another man fell from the Devonport vehicular ferry.
He later claimed that he had climbed on
the rail to eat his fish and chips, and then found himself in the water.
On 27 February 1967, following some bad behaviour by a group on the downtown-to-Devonport ferry, an 18-year-old was egged on by his mates to take a midnight swim.
He was brought back on board another
ferry, possibly with the assistance of a lifebuoy.
On 1 August 1971, a passenger evidently changed his mind when the ferry was pulling away from Devonport and tried to leap back to the wharf. He missed and needed rescuing, again likely with the assistance of a Devonport Steam Ferry Company lifebuoy.
New electric ferry will soon serve on Devonport run
Auckland’s first electric-hybrid ferry will start regularly plying the Devonport route this month.
The Waitematā 1 vessel has been extensively trialled, but an exact start date was yet to be confirmed as the Flagstaff went to press.
A second electric-hybrid ferry is set to arrive in Auckland in the second half of the year.
Owned by Auckland Transport (AT) and operated by Fullers360, the electric-hybrid ferries are aimed at reducing emissions.
The new ferry has USB ports for those who need to work on their commute, fold-up luggage compartments and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Fullers360 CEO Mike Horne said, “Fullers360 testing shows this ferry can deliver energy costs around 70-75 per cent lower than an equivalent diesel vessel when operating electrically.
On the Devonport route, with charging
infrastructure in place, replacing an equivalent diesel ferry with an electric-hybrid could cut diesel use by 790,000 litres a year and reduce CO2-emissions by 2500 tonnes annually, says Horne.
The propulsion system is similar to a plug-in hybrid car, using onboard batteries for short-to-medium journeys supported by an internal diesel generator for longer trips and resilience.
The first fast ferry charger installed at Half Moon Bay is being used to test and commission each new ferry as they arrive. Additional charging under construction at the downtown ferry terminal will be completed over the next year.
The ferries will initially run as hybrids, switching to electric as the new charging comes online. As Devonport is a short and direct route, charging is required only at the downtown end. With two electric-hybrid ferries, the service can be 100% electric under normal conditions.
• The two electric-hybrid ferries were designed by Incat Crowther and built by Q-West boatbuilders in Whanganui. They have HamiltonJet propulsion.
• Length: 32 metres
• Capacity: 300 passengers
• Crew: 3
• Covered storage for up to 28 bikes
• Construction: marine-grade aluminium
• Speeds: 28 knots (service), 36 knots (maximum)
• Cost: $20 million per vessel, funded by Auckland Council (49 per cent), with support from the Climate Action targeted rate, and the New Zealand Transport Authority (51 per cent)
• The ferries will be operated by Fullers360
Frustrated residents again plead for tree removal
A 15-year-long local residents’ campaign to remove hazardous trees in Anne St remains tied up in council bureaucracy.
The two mallet flower trees were planted by the North Shore Council around 30 years ago.
They have become increasingly problematic as they grew and shed leaves, blocking drains in a flood prone area, undermining footpaths and causing falls as debris turned into slip hazards.
A dozen Anne St residents last week descended on the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, once again calling for action.
Local Board manager Trina Thompson said a tree removal was going through the resource consent process.
It would be up to an independent commis-
sioner to decide if it would be non-notified or notified for public submissions. A notified hearing would cost around $120,000.
Resident Craig Mark told the board he was shocked the trees had yet to be removed, after guarantees of action by the previous local board.
In addition to other problems they were a health and safety issue.
Mark had assisted an 82-year-old Queens Pde woman who had fallen as she was taking home her supermarket shopping via Anne St.
Resident Peter McNabb said a council aborist clearly did not want the trees to be removed and called into question the fairness of the council process.
The trees were now affecting power lines,
with residents losing broadband access.
Another resident, Judy McGregor, said the trees made wheelchair access impossible. She said they should be removed as an identified public hazard – which did not need a resource consent.
Anne St residents were not anti-tree. Appropriate native replacement trees were sought.
McGregor had three times been part of deputations to the board “in good faith”, she said. Residents had been “good citizens, in vain”.
Someone was bound to poison the trees if nothing was done by council.
Board member Terence Harpur said the ongoing issue must be “incredibly frustrating” for residents.
Arborists’ application to remove trees notes ‘losses’ involved
Auckland Council arborists continue to argue the Anne St trees can be retained, but have reluctantly lodged a resource consent application to remove them as directed by the DevonportTakapuna Local Board.
After the residents’ deputation, a resource consent application by Auckland Council, lodged on 5 June, was made public. “Alternatives to tree removal were considered, including ongoing retention and maintenance, crowning and thinning,” says David Stejskal, council’s urban forest, arboriculture and ecology manager.
However the council had to follow the board’s resolution of 20
May 2025 “of removal with mitigation planting to address amenity and canopy loss”.
“Overall the application is for restricted discretionary activity,” the request said.
“The proposal acknowledges that removal will result in a significant and permanent loss of canopy cover, amenity, and ecological values in the local context.
“While mitigation planting is proposed, the extent of replacement does not fully offset these effects,” Stejskal said.
No mention is made of any of the hazards and problems created by the trees and identified by residents.
Dedicated Lake Rd improvements team coming soon
A new Auckland Transport team to work on improvements to the problematic Lake Rd traffic route will operate from next month.
Daniel Newcombe, AT Transport Investment Manager Central Area, said an Auckland Network Optimisation team working on
a programme of low-cost solutions for Lake Rd was currently focused on improving the Belmont intersection but from July would begin a review of the long-term Lake Rd Improvements project begun several years ago.
The team for this had yet to be established,
Election blues?
Seems the property/mortgage market remains pretty soft and is now probably suffering from pre-election blues, along with the global issues and a cost living constraint (I refuse to use the word “crisis” as it’s not a perilous situation or a war, it’s just a reality to cope with). Anyway, with a looming election people tend to defer investment decisions depending on policies around CGT, wealth and other taxes?
It was interesting to hear recent comments from former politicians decrying the current MMP system which has allowed FAR too much say to the minority parties rather than the centre left/right getting on with things that are actually pretty stable, as opposed to ideologues and narrow interests.
Mortgage rates have risk to the upside from current levels @5% depending on inflation data and whether the RBNZ can look through the petrol, rates and insurance etc rises which are pretty much immune to interest rates! Call us for any financing requirements. We can invariably help.
but would take into account recent changes in travel patterns as well as the results of the current project.
“Once the team is set up, they will set out an engagement process, including with the local board,” Newcombe said.
Devonport
Devonport 09 445 2010
Devonport 09 445 2010
Major sponsor for the North Shore Cricket Club
2/7 HANLON CRESCENT
2/7 HANLON CRESCENT
2/7 HANLON CRESCENT
TENDER
TENDER
Beach-vibing all day long?
Beach-vibing all day long?
Beach-vibing all day long?
Grab your towel and walk to Narrow Neck Beach. Super cool beach-style living. A must-view!
Grab your towel and walk to Narrow Neck Beach. Super cool beach-style living. A must-view!
2:00pm 24 Jun 2026 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
2:00pm 24 Jun 2026 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
VIEWING
Grab your towel and walk to Narrow Neck Beach. Super cool beach-style living. A must-view!
barfoot.co.nz/934871
barfoot.co.nz/934871
2/94 JUTLAND ROAD
2/94 JUTLAND ROAD
2/94 JUTLAND ROAD
TENDER
TENDER
2:00pm 24 Jun 2026 at 39
Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
VIEWING Sat/Sun 12.00-12.30pm
Sat/Sun 12.00-12.30pm
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
barfoot.co.nz/934871
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
VIEWING Sat/Sun 12.00-12.30pm
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681 TENDER
1C/105 VICTORIA ROAD
1C/105 VICTORIA ROAD
Opportunities like this are few and far between. Loacated in the heart of the village and with a left and heated swimming pool!
Opportunities like this are few and far between. Loacated in the heart of the village and with a left and heated swimming pool!
$1,995,000
$1,995,000
VIEWING
$1,995,000
Large architect designed home built in 1991 with a block & insulclad exterior, great views. Just 1 min to Hauraki primary school & reserve at your doorstep.
Large architect designed home built in 1991 with a block & insulclad exterior, great views. Just 1 min to Hauraki primary school & reserve at your doorstep.
Large architect designed home built in 1991 with a block & insulclad exterior, great views. Just 1 min to Hauraki primary school & reserve at your doorstep.
barfoot.co.nz/935176
barfoot.co.nz/935176
2:00pm 23 Jun 2026 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
2:00pm 23 Jun 2026 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
2:00pm 23 Jun 2026 at Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
VIEWING Sat/Sun 2:00-2:30pm
VIEWING Sat/Sun 2:00-2:30pm
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
barfoot.co.nz/935176
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
VIEWING Sat/Sun 2:00-2:30pm
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452 TENDER
2/45 VAUXHALL ROAD
2/45 VAUXHALL ROAD
2/45 VAUXHALL ROAD
$775,000
$775,000
Opportunities like this are few and far between. Loacated in the heart of the village and with a left and heated swimming pool!
barfoot.co.nz/933351
barfoot.co.nz/933351
VIEWING Phone For Viewing Times
VIEWING
Phone For Viewing Times
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
barfoot.co.nz/933351
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681 FOR SALE
Phone For Viewing Times
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Minutes walk to Cheltenham Beach and with a electric door garage, the price just doesn't sense, Best buy in Devonport. Smart buying!
Minutes walk to Cheltenham Beach and with a electric door garage, the price just doesn't sense, Best buy in Devonport. Smart buying!
Minutes walk to Cheltenham Beach and with an electric door garage, the price just doesn’t make sense, Best buy in Devonport. Smart buying!
barfoot.co.nz/931782
barfoot.co.nz/931782
VIEWING Sat/Sun 1:00-1:30pm
VIEWING Sat/Sun 1:00-1:30pm
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Minutes walk to Cheltenham Beach and with a electric door garage, the price just doesn't sense, Best buy in Devonport. Smart buying!
barfoot.co.nz/931782
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681 FOR SALE
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452 Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
The Arcade, Devonport 6-5/15 Victoria Road, Auckland, NZ 0627
Facebook: Wonder Thai Massage Tel: 022 499 8832
Saturday 9-5pm, 10-5pm)
45 Victoria Rd, Devonport (Monday - Saturday 9-5pm, Sunday 10-5pm)
Arcade Day Spa is a place where beauty, comfort, knowledge and personalised attention combine to create an exceptional and rejuvenating experience.
Phone 021 0616 868
The Arcade, Shop 10 5-15 Victoria Rd, Devonport
Let’s preserve the best of our lucky suburb by the sea
Why Devonport a joyful place to live in: Judy McGregor made the case as a participant in a recent programme of ‘Our Devonport’ PechaKucha presentations.
Many of us here have Devonport family ties. My grandfather, Captain “Skip” Keane (second from left in the photograph at right) was Land Commodore of the Devonport Naval Base during the Second World War. He was a ship’s surveyor and ran a navigation school at a time when the compass not computers ruled the waves.
Skip sailed from the port of Geelong in Victoria, Australia, on the stately wooden hulled barque, the Rona. Imagine being a 13-year-old cabin boy rounding North Head under canvas and sailing into Auckland Harbour. He never revealed whether he had run away to sea or had parental approval.
My mother, Frances Horne, swam at Torpedo Bay, Matai Rd or Narrow Neck, depending on the wind, every day that she could. On her 90th birthday she drank bubbles at the Calliope Sea Scout Hall. Frances was a gardener, a tramper, a reader and an inveterate Devonport volunteer.
As well as family, two other factors make Devonport home. They are a sense of place and its remarkable people. The sense of place comes from a peninsula geography surrounded by sea. The endless motion of tidal rhythms physically defines the land on which we live.
We have six exquisite beaches. Cheltenham may be the jewel in the crown, perfectly bookended by North Head and facing the conical symmetry of Rangitoto. Home to the length-of-the-beach swimmers, wind surfers, paddleboarders, family picnics and dog walkers who mostly pick up behind them, don’t you?
It’s challenged for best beach status by Narrow Neck’s all-tide swimming and the serene arc of Torpedo Bay. Then there are the dawn brigades who swear by Duders Beach and Devonport Beach. Boisterous teenagers practise manu bombing at Stanley Point wharf. There are also several secret coves.
But our blue-green aquamarine seascape is a fragile paradise. Climate change, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, now bottom trawling, plastic and crappy sewage all curdle our sense of identity with the beautiful harbour. As well as plastic lighters in the photo, there are two condoms in that lot.
Water quality matters. For heart transplant survivor, Nic Russell, it’s a matter of life or death. She’s a flamboyant Cheltenham Beach character. Nic swims all year round on the incoming tide for her exercise. As a heart transplantee, she cannot risk swimming in a public pool.
Nic says cold-water swimming is her thing. “I love the smell of the sea, the sound of the sea and just being enveloped by it. You feel weightless in the water. When you are swimming you are in the moment. You
don’t think about your problems. It reminds me that life is precious.”
Safeswim’s water-quality app, a predictive model, tells us whether it is safe to swim or not. On too many days it shows that Cheltenham is black coded, which means wastewater overflow, or red coded, indicating a high risk of contamination. Nic then can’t risk swimming. None of us should.
Devonport’s seascape is glorified by the magnificent tree canopy. Trees that we know well, like Old Albert, the Moreton Bay fig planted by the library in 1893. With it’s astonishing aerial roots, Old Albert has defied some near death experiences but remains triumphant.
Who can resist the annual waterfront pōhutukawa parade? The life-affirming scarlet filaments are nature’s triumph of colour. If it is early, the crimson exhibition signifies lingering, hot summers. The pōhutukawa is a Māori sacred tree. It is also a Devonport emblem.
Nearly 11,000 native plants and trees have been planted on the peninsula recently. This has helped to restore ecosystems and recharge bird life. In the spring, the Taiwanese cherry trees in Church Street are a cackling, chortling, chuckling cacophony of tui.
Science tells us that trees talk to each other. They have an astonishing underground communication system running through fungal networks. Underground arboreal gossiping. These networks are a metaphor for the social connections that bind the Devonport community in unique ways.
We live in Anne St, in a 142-year-old wooden cottage with only a metre of separation between neighbours on either side. This physical proximity is matched by a special social closeness between residents. There’s an old fashioned sense of neighbourliness as we used to know it.
Oldies in the street in their 70s, 80s and 90s, are kept young in spirit by intergenerational socialisation. We marvel at the youngest in Anne St, Goldie. She has recently graduated from crawling to walking with concentrated focus. Her world wonderment is an infectious tonic.
Fragile paradise... (from top) Duders Beach and the scourge of pollution. Below: swimmer Nic Russell, and Charlie of Anne St
Brother Charlie, our own resident Banksie, delights neighbours and cruise ship tourists alike with futuristic crayon drawings on the pavement. He’s clever and sociable. The photo shows Charlie exchanging his Gran’s guava jelly for our surplus persimmons.
If Benjamin the all-seeing library cat could speak he would say the overall Devonport personality is feisty, independent, quirky, intelligent and community minded. The fancy-dress cat presides over a lucky suburb.
But Benjamin may also warn us about community apathy and complacency.
Those living in Devonport are the guardians of its peninsula character. We’re generous neighbours, and the treescape is doing well. Shamefully, the seascape is steadily deteriorating. But people power can insist that water infrastructure and climate change are political priorities.
Devonport IS a joyous place to live. The only place we want to live. We have an enduring duty to each other to look after our place and its people, especially our children. Let’s preserve the best of our lucky suburb.
I leave you with a question: whose MP is Minister of Climate Change?
By Rob Drent
The fact that the new electric ferries have no bar or food servery will raise some eyebrows. It seems the boat designers have deemed the short ride between Devonport and the city as
New extended hours at
Montessori Preschool
Belmont
We’re excited to share our new opening hours: 8:00am - 5:30pm, offering more flexibility for busy families. At Montessori Preschool - Belmont, we provide high-quality Montessori education for children aged 2-6 years, supporting independence, confidence, and a love of learning in a beautiful, nurturing environment.
not really long enough for a beverage or snack, which is probably correct. And passengers would probably prefer Fullers staff to focus more on safety rather than serving.
I recall the days when the Kestrel plied the route, filling in for the Kea and providing a Friday- and Saturday-night service – for many years complete with a jazz band.
The 20-minute trip on the Kestrel was an ideal time for a wine or a beer, a wind-down for commuters or pleasant introduction to Devonport for tourists.
The Kestrel was an expensive boat to maintain and run but its removal from the route (and later demise and sinking) remains a tourism calamity.
It may be something of a quiet revolution, but the sound of music is spreading around Devonport. Friday open-mic nights are booked out at Harmony Hall, jazz and blues concerts are being held at the Stone Oven, Tainui Tuesdays play regularly at the Devonport Yacht Club, the Patriot and Kestrel have regular music, the Vic theatre has open-mic nights and the Bunker, as always, has its regular Monday club nights as well as gigs.
The musical offerings have gradually been building since the Covid period killed off live performances.
Chris Priestley, the maitre d’ at Stone Oven, who has organised gigs there and at Harmony Hall and decades ago co-founded music cafe Java Jive in Ponsonby, reckons Devonport has come back to life, where Ponsonby – once a hotbed of live music – has fallen behind.
Keep the music coming, I say.
Some locals will be disappointed that another opportunity shop is planned for Victoria Rd.
But the new Hospice outlet in the former Bayleys real-estate office, over the road from the existing Hospice shop, is something of a back to the future use for the space. Longterm residents will remember that 30 years ago the Devonport Antique Centre occupied the premises.
That business closed, along with many other antique and second-hand shops, when people started buying goods via online sites – Trade Me, in particular.
These days, op shops seem to be dealing in many of the same kinds of items.
A relocatable promotional “Devonport” sign is scheduled to be launched this year.
The sign has been under development since March 2025, after the Devonport Business Association received a $20,000 Devonport-Takapuna Local Board grant for marketing.
At that time, the DBA hoped to have the sign built and ready for events within a few months.
DBA manager Tabitha Coleman told the Flagstaff that the sign’s development was
Wakatere yachties head overseas
A fleet of Wakatere Boating Club juniors are heading overseas to compete in the next month:
• Noah Petersen, Opti Worlds, Tangier, Morocco 18-28 June
• Zephyr Lane, Opti Europeans, Gdynia, Poland 24-31 July
• Tessa Clinton , 470 Junior Worlds, Gdynia, Poland 1-17 July
• Will Mason, 470 Junior Worlds, Gdynia, Poland 1-17 July
• Nelsen Meacham, 29er Worlds, Kiel, Germany 2-9 July
• Josh Tuck, IQ Jnr & Youth Worlds, La Ballena Alegre, Spain 3-10 July
• Finn Davies, IQ Jnr & Youth Worlds, La Ballena Alegre, Spain 3-10 July
tied to the DBA’s new destination marketing identity for Devonport, which was being finalised for an August launch.
“This identity work has been a huge project spanning several months, so the sign has been intentionally timed to follow that process once the new look is live,” Coleman said. The sign would bring the new destination marketing identity to life.
Potential sign locations around Devonport have been assessed to ensure that the sign will fit safely.
Board member
rejects blessing
George Wood is refusing to recognise a karakia at the start of Devonport-Takapuna Local Board meetings.
Board chair Trish Deans read the karakia last week, but member Wood said he would not take part as it had never been formally introduced as board procedure.
Deans said a karakia welcome was “common practice across all local boards”. Wood said he wanted his opposition recorded.
Peninsula Capital paid $2.6 million for a home and dance studio at 14 Wynyard St which was recently added to its Devonport portfolio, property records show.
Telling hospice patients’ stories
Lives often go undocumented, with remarkable stories never told. So, a free service offered by Harbour Hospice – writing patients’ life stories – is one that Devonport local Lynnette Hurley feels fortunate to be a part of.
Hurley, who previously worked as a copywriter, is part of a team of volunteers who write hospice patients’ life stories. This month she’ll be recognised for 10 years’ service at Hospice’s Long Service Awards, although she says the honour is all hers.
“People think that they’re ordinary, but nobody’s ever ordinary,” she says. “When recording, I’ll say, ‘Let’s start with something stand-out. And they’ll say something that really takes you by surprise like, ‘Oh, well, there was the time I met the Queen’.
“Even when they don’t have a story about meeting royalty, they’ll have something, because everybody has a story and their own way of looking at the world and their own way of living.”
Life stories are recorded over six one-hour sessions and written “as you go”. In 10 years, Hurley has recorded the life stories of many, including three who attended the Queen’s coronation in 1953. “And they each had a slightly different experience, so I have a real image in my mind of this event that’s much more than you’d see on film.”
One of her most moving experiences was seeing a family reconnect. “The person who was unwell was really quite low, and when we started putting together her story her family would come in and read it as it was going along. They’d say, ‘We didn’t know this’, and then they’d sit and talk with her, and have long chats about all these things. There was a lot of lightness around that. It opened the way for the family to talk about all these wonderful things.”
Hurley has written the stories of people who’ve sailed around the world, contributed a huge amount to their community or been proud of their children. “One of the loveliest ones I wrote was a cookbook, and it was for someone who didn’t want to write about their life, but loved cooking. So, we put together
some recipes and then with each recipe we included a message about the person who gave them the recipe, or who they cooked it for, and that was just lovely.
“You often walk around in your daily life, making assumptions about people based on what you see. But when you talk to them and find out all kinds of things that make them who they are today, it’s absolutely fascinating. So it’s a real privilege to do these stories.”
Before Hurley starts each one, she asks, ‘who is the story for?’, and she makes sure patients understand they can edit their words if they change their mind about something they’ve revealed.
A life story doesn’t have to start at the beginning, Hurley says, and it doesn’t have
Financial Adviser
•
to cover an entire lifetime.
“For me this is my way of caring for people, because I think everybody who works for or volunteers for hospice is a caring person. Writing these stories is a way of doing something for people that often they thought they’d get round to, but never did. Or that they hadn’t thought about doing, but they have something to say.
“I walk in as a stranger and get to share in the most important stories there are.”
• Harbour Hospice cares for people in the Hibiscus Coast, North Shore, and Warkworth/ Wellsford communities who are dying. Its palliative care services are free, thanks to the support of its community. To find out about volunteering, email volunteer@harbourhospice.org.nz
Garden Design Devonport
Landscape Design Devonport
Whether you are planning a garden refresh or a full renovation, let us work with you to define your vision so that you can proceed with a plan.
0
Call Steve on 021 345 694
steve@naturalgardens.co.nz
The write stuff... Lynnette Hurley, with dog Ralph, has documented the lives of hospice patients over 10 years
Legwork for others helps earn King’s Birthday honour
When it comes to advocating for seniors, Devonport’s Bill Rayner has put in some hard yards.
Recently recognised with a King’s Service Medal for his service to seniors and contribution to heritage, Rayner met with the Flagstaff to reflect on the 25 years and more he has spent speaking up for older people, along with his support for other causes.
One intense period of his involvement came with the transition of Auckland Council social housing villages for seniors to a new partnership with Selwyn Trust.
When Haumaru Housing was established to manage the villages, Rayner was part of a small team that visited 30 villages over 18 months, updating tenants and encouraging them to form residents’ committees to help navigate the changes.
“It was quite a major and the council was hugely appreciative of our help. They only had a small team to manage the process and without our assistance, it would have been a monumental task for them.”
Using his previous experience in corporate mergers, he also got involved in the Haumaru negotiations, helping convince council to retain land for social housing.
Rayner was president of North Shore Grey Power for 14 years and remains vice president. He notes that the retention of social housing by Kainga Ora and council remains a key issue for the group.
Along with the kind of legwork he put in on the housing issue, Rayner knows the importance of asking the right question at the right time. When Auckland Transport (AT) introduced the SuperGold HOP Card for senior travel, seniors had a limited time to get the card and register it, in order to use the service, he recalls.
Few locations were available for obtaining cards. At a meeting held by then North Shore MP Maggie Barry close to the card registration deadline, Rayner stood up and asked for a show of hands: how many people had registered their cards? Only around 5% of people had done so.
“AT went into a bit of a panic after I approached them about the situation”, says Rayner, who spent the next three weeks working closely with the organisation to help it boost resources to cope.
From the beginnings of the Auckland super city in 2010, Rayner got involved in the new body’s senior advisory and heritage advisory panels.
A close relationship was developed with the first mayor, Len Brown.
Grey Power and Age Concern together organised quarterly meetings with the mayor, different groups attending hour-anda-half sessions which Rayner would chair.
He says the meetings at the town hall proved very effective. They continued
through Brown’s two terms, and with the following mayor Phil Goff.
The meetings continue with current deputy mayor Desley Simpson, but have been reduced in time and in the numbers taking part.
In the early days of the heritage advisory panel, Grey Power, with the Devonport Heritage group, was able to raise awareness of heritage issues on the North Shore.
Auckland’s Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) continues to be an important part of Rayner’s heritage journey.
He has been involved for 25 years, though has disagreed with more recent changes in the organisation’s direction towards being more of what he calls a science centre and theme park rather than focusing on heritage.
It has also gone from being volunteer-run to a professional museum with 140 staff.
“Attendance hasn’t gone up though,” he says. In 2024, MOTAT ranked 54th in a list of the world’s 100 most boring attractions.
And it costs council $20 million a year, notes Rayner.
He has made many submissions to council and local boards on behalf of Grey Power, highlighting heritage issues.
“Grey Power is very supportive of heritage as it’s part of our lives now,” Rayner chuckles.
He feels it is critical that MOTAT survives and is concerned about the loss of collections such as motor vehicles and of the community connections it can serve.
Rayner feels the way forward is for Auckland’s museums to work together
much more collaboratively – something he has recently proposed to them.
Grey Power is also working to reinstate connections with organisations such as vintage car clubs.
Rayner has served on the Ngāti Kahungunu Asset Holding Company board and the iwi board.
The 85-year-old’s ancestry connects him to the Wynyard family of early Devonport and Auckland, which has British royalty connections going back to the 1500s.
Many were military people who served the royal family over the centuries, which for Rayner makes the receipt of his KSM all the more apt.
Talk of the Wynyard family segues to the North Shore Rugby Club, which Rayner says was virtually started by the Wynyards. He points out that the club emblem is the same as the Wynyard family crest, though Shore’s “goat” was originally an antelope.
The club has a tribute to the Wynyards on display in its clubrooms.
The family also had strong links to rugby league on the Shore and wider afield.
Rayner’s grandfather, Bill Wynyard, and great-uncle Dick Wynyard, were members of New Zealand’s first rugby league team in 1908, the “All Golds”.
The team travelled to play in northern England, where league had broken away from rugby union to establish the game. They were away for a year, funded by the gate takings. The tour was also fundamental to establishing league in Australia.
Rayner says that league basically started in Devonport at that time and there was a “dust up” with rugby over the use of the Devonport Domain.
Rayner also served on the board of the NZ Rugby League museum now established at Mt Smart.
The many North Shore organisations Rayner has been involved in include the North Shore Flying Club, the Rangitoto College Board and the origins of what is now the Millennium Centre.
Saving the Takapuna camping ground was among the many issues he has embraced.
“The North Shore has a dynamic about it,” he says, adding that he puts his passion for involvement in community down to his “curious mind”.
He also reflects on the era of service clubs, such as Rotary, where members would “just get things done” – as they did with the pump track at Woodall Park, completed on a modest budget.
“It is sad that groups like these are dwindling” he says.
With his ever-curious mind at work, Rayner is currently refining an idea for a local community trust fund, with details to be revealed in due course.
Heritage fan... Bill Rayner holding a photo of the 1908 “All Golds” which his grandfather and great uncle were both members of
Full school assembly to recognise student peer and sports leaders
A rare full-school assembly brought together Takapuna Grammar School students from Years 9 to 13 to celebrate leadership and achievement across the school.
The outdoor gathering of more than 2000 students recognised peer support leaders, premier sports captains, performing arts achievers and the school’s national titlewinning boys’ volleyball team.
Deputy Principal Nick Kingston said it was important to formally acknowledge the 172 peer support leaders who play a key role in helping new students settle into school life.
“These students make a real difference in supporting younger peers as they transition into a new environment,” he said.
Captains and vice-captains of the school’s premier sports teams were also recognised, not just for their ability, but for their leadership.
“They are more than talented athletes – they set standards, build culture, represent the school with pride, and support their teammates on and off the field, court, and water.”
The assembly also formally recognised the premier boys’ volleyball team following their recent Kohitere Shield win at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Championship –an achievement described as one of the school’s greatest
Student-led Taka Day a golden success
TGS students turned out in blue and yellow for the school’s annual Taka Day, a student-led celebration of school pride organised by the Prefect Events Committee.
The wet sponge throwing competition proved to be one of the day’s biggest drawcards. Head Prefects Cami Crowther, Holly Shipkov, Nathan Fry, and George Gaskin (pictured) took their places as targets and were quickly drenched as students lined up for a chance to land a hit.
A classic guess-the-lollies jar kept a steady stream of hopeful entrants throughout the day, while a TGS-themed backdrop offered students a spot to take photos with friends and mark the occasion.
The entire event was planned and delivered by students, who aimed to create a fun, inclusive way for the school community to come together and celebrate.
successes.
Successes in performing arts were also acknowledged during the assembly.
The event also served as a trial of the outdoor space, as the school explores ways to improve areas to accommodate more whole-school gatherings in the future.
Masquerade magic at Junior Semi-Formal a sellout success
The recent Junior Semi-Formal was a standout success, with a record 250 tickets sold.
With a masquerade theme setting the tone for the evening, students arrived dressed to impress.
Two DJs kept the dance floor busy with dance circles and conga lines forming throughout the evening. Awards were given for King and Queen, Best Dressed, Life of the Party, and Best Dance Moves.
sporting
Five ways local voices have helped make a difference to Devonport-Takapuna
The parks you use, the upgrades you’ve noticed and the local projects happening in your neighbourhood – many of these started with your Local Board Plan.
Over the past three years, local boards have used community feedback to invest in things that matter to their communities – from facilities and events to environmental projects and support for local groups.
Check out five Devonport-Takapuna Local Board outcomes that have sprung to life thanks to these plans!
From improving local connections and recreation spaces to supporting environmental initiatives, arts and community facilities, these projects show how the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board’s priorities are helping shape the area.
1. Patuone Reserve Walkway Upgrade
The Patuone Reserve Walkway Upgrade has enhanced an important walking and cycling connection between Esmonde Road and central Takapuna. The upgraded pathway provides a safer and more accessible route through the reserve, improving connections between neighbourhoods and local destinations while creating a popular space for recreation and active travel.
Have your say
CONTACT US: aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
2.Parks, playgrounds and places to play
The local board continues to invest in neighbourhood parks and recreation spaces across Devonport-Takapuna. Improvements at places such as Melrose Reserve and Takapuna playground have helped create more welcoming and accessible spaces for children and families to enjoy. Alongside playground upgrades, the board continues to support improvements to parks, sports fields and open spaces that encourage recreation, wellbeing and community connection for people of all ages.
3. Environmental restoration
The local board supports community groups and volunteers who are helping protect and restore Devonport-Takapuna’s natural environment. Organisations such as Pupuke Birdsong Project and Restoring Takarunga Hauraki work alongside residents, schools and community groups on activities including native planting, pest control, water quality monitoring and habitat restoration. The board also supports restoration efforts around places such as the Wairau
Estuary and Lake Pupuke, helping improve biodiversity and the health of local waterways for future generations.
4. Supporting arts and creativity
The local board supports a range of organisations and facilities that help creativity thrive in the community. Venues such as The PumpHouse Theatre, Depot Artspace and Lake House Arts Centre provide opportunities for local artists, performers and audiences to connect, create and share their work. From exhibitions and workshops to theatre productions and community events, these spaces play an important role in making arts and culture accessible to residents while supporting a vibrant local creative sector.
5. Investing in community spaces
Community facilities play an important role in bringing people together. The local board supports valued local venues and community spaces such as Rose Centre and Shore Junction, which provide places for community activities, youth programmes, events and local connections throughout the year. Alongside other community facilities across the area, these spaces help foster connection, wellbeing and a strong sense of belonging.
These are just some of the ways local investment is making a difference. We want to hear from you between 23 June and 23 July as your feedback helps shape what comes next for Devonport-Takapuna. Visit akhaveyoursay.nz/localboardplans.
FOLLOW US: Facebook.com/devonporttakapuna
Winger steps up with seven tries in first two games
Feathered friend... Stephen contemplates the pedestrian crossing in Clarence St
New Zealand under-20s winger JD Van der Westhuizen has made a scorching start to his senior rugby career, scoring seven tries in his first two games for the North Shore Rugby Club premiers. He scored twice on debut against Takapuna on 6 June and claimed another five in a 78-21 victory over Northcote last week.
Shore play Mahurangi away this weekend and look certain to go into the finals undefeated in 2026.
Takapuna has been the only real test so far this season, though even that 39-31 Shore victory at Vauxhall Rd flattered the visitors.
Shore was up 39-10 with 20 minutes to play, when they started substituting key players. Shore also played the last 10 minutes with two players in the sin bin.
All four top Shore sides played and beat their neighbours and arch-rivals that Saturday, The premier 2s won 27-12, the under-21s 24-5 and the under-85s 25-9.
Shore premiers have won the North Harbour championship for the last three years and are favourites again. The premiers playoffs start on 27 June.
Top prospect… JD Van der Westhuizen scythes through the Takapuna defence to score on 6 June
Village corner gets a gull station
Devonport seems to have found another animal to follow in the celebrity pawprints of the late library cat Benjamin, Bruno the wandering dog and Snowplough the Depot moggie.
“Stephen the seagull” is a juvenile southern black-backed gull who has recently made the disused fish fountain at the corner of Clarence and Wynyard Sts into his regular haunt. Stephen entertains and annoys the locals in about equal measure. Unfazed by the close proximity of humans, he busks for food and
regularly poses for photographs. He’s been seen “surfing” on top of moving cars.
The daily mess he generates doesn’t impress the team at Devonport Hammer Hardware, however.
Local shorebird enthusiast and conservationist Philip Moll says the southern blackbacked gull takes three years to mature to its adult black and white plumage.
And he says they are known for their intelligence and tenacity around human food sources.
• New builds and renovations
• Rewires
• Home network cabling
• Wall-mount TVs
• Home theatre
LocaL to Devonport
Call Peter Cairns for your free quotation
Phone 021 858 243 or 445 4675
email allsafe.electrical@xtra.co.nz
John Bisset LtD
Painting & Decorating Specialists
Serving Auckland for over 35 years Master Painter of the Year 2017
Interior and Exterior – New and existing, roofs, fences, decks and balustrading, wallpaper stripping, paint stripping, gib stopping, pressure cleaning. Accredited Lead-based Removal Specialists.
Certifying Plumber, Gasfitter and Drainlayer Call Matt
Landscaping Devonport
Garden design and construction
Whether you are planning a garden refresh or a full renovation, we can help with all the planning, construction and planting. Including decks, retaining, pergolas, paving and fencing. Everything outdoors! Call Steve on 021 345 694 www.naturalgardens.co.nz
20 years ago from the Flagstaff files
• Illuminated signs at the new Subway outlet on Victoria Rd are removed after North Shore City Council rules they were erected without necessary consents.
• Pensioners Marcus Coverdale and Bob Pope launch speakers’ corner at the Devonport Library seminar room. Coverdale won a double whisky bet over attendance. Pope predicted 200, Coverdale 12. Ten people turned up.
• Devonport features prominently in glossy pop culture magazine Pavement, with TGS student and model Katie Braadvedt on the cover of one issue and Finn Andrews and other Veils members Liam Gerrard and Sophia Burn in the next.
• Ferry services from Devonport to Waiheke are cancelled due to extreme weather.
• An agreement in principle is signed for Ngāti Whātua to buy $80 million of defence land in Devonport.
• Artist Robyn Gibson returns to Devonport and places works in the Green exhibition at the Depot opened by Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos.
• The popular Devonport midwinter swim seeks a new organiser.
• Teddy the cocker spaniel with a heart condition is taken by owner Cathy Evans to his favourite park – Mt Cambria
Reserve – in a stroller.
• Emma Boyd and Emily Miller-Sharma win Zonta awards in the industrial design and fashion categories.
• Architect Jack Manning receives an Institute of Architects Supreme Award and is the Flagstaff interview subject.
• Historian Rod Cornelius profiles Pentlands, the Devonport maternity hospital in Buchanan St which closed in the early 1970s.
• In a series on Devonport tradespeople, locksmith Scotty Richardson is interviewed.
• The Flagstaff sponsors an advert offering the services of tagbuster Willy (Trevor) Williams.
• Ben Gilmore wins the Flagstaff short story competition judged by Kevin Ireland with “Ninety Miles Up the Beach”. Eightyear-old Jack Mackenzie of Belmont won the junior section with “Jack O – the Story That Never Ends”.
• Simon Gundry, in his 50s, dominates a TGS Old Boys vs First XV match, even muscling over for a try.
• Ngataringa Tennis Club investigates safety options after a two-year-old samoyed owned by the Grierson-Ryrie family dies after touching a live electric fence around the tennis courts.
Before you pay for another month of storage or hassle with auctions, let us handle it.
We Buy Complete Contents: Outright lump-sum payments.
Specialist Buyers: Vintage jewellery, sterling silver, antiques, and electronics. Total Exit Solution: 100% cleared and swept clean within 48 hours. Local & Licensed: Respectful, professional service for Auckland families. Call for a free, confidential assessment. 021 08 77 48
Flat. Devonport. 1 Brm furnished or unfurnished. Garden setting, clean, sunny, spacious. $395, one or two persons (discount for one) 027 5453060 (text) or call 445 3060.
and click on ‘Become a supporter’ at the top of the page.
WHAT’S ON @ Devonport Library
Tēnā Koutou Katoa
Matariki has begun and the library is simply sparkling with stories, songs and stars including the special stars on our Matariki Remembrance Tree for your loved ones.
A PLACE TO STAND
Sunday 21st June, 2pm-4pm
Dr Clare Ward launches her amazing memoir of 30 years as a rural doctor in the Hokianga and reflects on being Pākehā in a predominately Māori world.
MATARIKI STORYTIME
Sunday July 5th, 10am-11am
Koka B will read a starry story and we will dance to the Matariki Macarena. At 11am, Kōrero and Kemu, games in easy Te Reo. Fun for all ages and cultures.
TE WANANGA O AOTEAROA
Monday July 6th, 12noon-2pm
Information on their Māori language and culture courses. Answers and aroha right here folks.
SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAMME
July 7th-18th
2 weeks of crafty fun. You could weave a Fish, decorate a Tote, make a Felt Crown, fashion a Keychain, create a Frog or invent a Suncatcher. First in, first served for these tamariki activities.
TEDDYBEAR PICNIC
July 15th, 10am-11am
Teddies and tamariki decorating cookies together. Bookings essential.
BABY BAROQUE CONCERT
July 18th
9:30am-10:30am or 11am–12noon
Join NZ Barok Orchestra to hear the story of Ruby May and Tāmati, told through beautiful baroque music! A happy musical hour for 0-6 year olds. Bookings essential. Plus.. Snuggly pyjama donations (if you can) till June 30th and remember Digital Seniors, CAB and the JP in every Monday. More magical Matariki days to come. Ma Te Wa!
Former teacher finds creativity
Long-time Devonport resident and artist Bronwyn Menhinick is inspired by gardens, including her own.
That’s reflected in the title of an exhibition of her artwork opening at Satellite2 gallery on 13 June – My Garden My World
Her own garden is at its best in the spring and summer, but she observes gardens wherever she goes.
A favourite is the Wintergarden in the Auckland Domain.
“I’m just taken by the colours, that’s the
first thing that grabs me, then I look at the form.”
The 19 works in My Garden My World are a mix of works on paper, including charcoal drawings, and standard canvas blocks in a range of sizes.
After teaching art to children for many years, life changes led Menhinick to a move into full-time self-employment as an artist.
While teaching was a great experience, she credits stopping teaching with helping free up her creative processes.
flowing, with botanic inspiration close at hand
“Teaching can drain your energy and when you stop, you have an opening to really devote some time into pursuing your own development in art.”
Although Menhinick has some of her representational works on display, she has moved away from this type of painting more recently, and is now enjoying practising a more free-form style.
“It excites me because it’s freeing not having to work in such fine detail, and using bigger brushes means I can be more expressive”.
A comment Menhinick heard at a recent art meeting sums it up for her: “experimentation without expectation”.
As well as botanical art, Menhinick gravitates towards water scenes.
She puts this down to her daily walks along the Devonport waterfront with her husband and dog, plus a lifetime of boating.
“I can’t help focusing on water and I love the shift in colour and light you get on different days.”
The painting in the front window at Satellite2 has special significance for her. It’s based on a photograph a friend took looking straight into the front of Menhinick’s house, through her garden.
When the garden is flourishing, passersby stop to admire its beauty and chat.
“Gardening brings me joy and when I step back to see what I’ve created, I experience the same kind of euphoria I felt when I was a keen long-distance runner”, she says.
She hopes the main thing that visitors to My Garden My World take away is a feeling of cheerfulness and joy.
• Bronwyn Menhinick’s My Garden My World at Satellite2 gallery, 61 Victoria Rd, Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 2pm and by appointment, until 30 June.
Blossoming... Bronwyn Menhinick has enjoyed taking a free-form approach
Devonport 31A Stanley Point Road, Stanley Point
Exceptional waterfront living on a grand scale
Positioned on an extraordinary 2,914sqm waterfront site, this large and beautifully renovated residence offers a turnkey opportunity with a lifestyle seldom found so close to the city. Enjoy the benefits of a meticulous, high-quality transformation, where sophisticated contemporary design blends effortlessly with generous family living and entertaining. This home captures spectacular sea views from every room. Wide, sun-soaked and established gardens with fruit trees create an idyllic, park-like setting reminiscent of a country estate. It is a sanctuary where children can roam freely, gardeners can indulge their passion, and families can truly connect with the outdoors. Private from the street, this exceptional property is close to schools, village, beaches, and the city ferry. bayleys.co.nz/1451923
