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Takapuna, Milford, Castor Bay, Forrest Hill and Sunnynook VERED FORTNIGHTLY AN INDEPENDENT VOICE Issue 1 – 15 March 2019
Issue 1782019 – October TNIGHTLY DELIVERED FORTNIGHTLY AN2019 INDEPENDENT VOICE AN INDEPENDENT VOICE Issue 1 – 15 March Issue2,1 2026 – 15 March
VERED FORTNIGHTLY
Issue 1 – 15 March 2019
Rosmini Aims Games winners... p3
AN INDEPENDENT VOICE
Man hospitalised after Castor Bay cliff fall... p8
Local board fairer funding options up in air... p9
leash dog reportedly knocking over an elderly person on the Black Rock walkway. During the patrol, five dog owners were warned after their dogs were found off -leash on the walkway, and two leads were provided to dog owners who did not have a lead with them. Officers said this particular patrol had more emphasis on education than enforcement. “Animal Management encourages all dog
owners to understand and comply with the relevant bylaws. These rules are in place to help ensure that beaches, walkways and other public spaces can be enjoyed safely and respectfully by everyone.” In the winter months (March through to November) dogs must be on-lead on the Milford and Takapuna beaches between 10am To page 2
Dog control crackdown on Takapuna Beach
Six dog control officers patrolled from Milford Beach through to Takapuna Beach last Friday, including Black Rock walkway. The patrol followed calls for increased visibility and patrols in the area, after complaints about local dog owners failing to adhere to bylaws. Animal Management team leader Shaun Murray said one complaint referred to an off-
Colourful fountain fundraiser
T-shirt palette… Takapuna Primary students Maia Villenua, Yenu Silva and Zahayvah McGowan at the school’s colour run. Story, more photos, pages 6-7.
The Rangitoto Observer Page 2
October 2, 2026
Officers hand out warnings
From page 1
and 2pm, and under control off-leash outside of these times. In summer months (December, January and February), dogs are not allowed on the beach between 10am and 5pm. They can be on the beach under control off-leash outside of these hours. Across all seasons, dogs must be on-lead on all walkways, including the Black Rock Walkway, at all times. They must also be on-leash on some nearby reserves, and Animal Management recommends dog walkers check they are compliant with the rules listed on signs in the area. Animal Management officers recommended dog owners check the bylaws of the beaches where they are walking their dogs, as many areas have different rules. North Shore Ward, councillor John Gillon attended the patrol, and said he had forwarded several complaints from the public to Animal On Patrol… Councillor John Gillon (centre) with Animal Management Officers Management. Jacques Keulder (left) and Dee Stafford.
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 3
Rosmini aims high – and wins
Medal winners… at left gymnasts Mason Lynn and Maxim Liddle. And at right trampolinist Matty MacCartney More than a quarter of Rosmini intermediate-age students attended AIMS Games, securing a range of titles for the school. First overall in gymnastics was awarded to Maxim Liddle, with Mason Lynn taking third overall. Matty MacCartney came first overall in trampolining. The canoe racing mixed relay saw Harry Lloyd, Archer Wilson and a third teammate
from another school claim second place. Rosmini's hockey team came third out of 21 teams, and their water polo team was second out of 25 teams. The school also performed well in the tennis doubles (third division) with Zac Kelly and Will Foster taking first place, and Flynn Dufty and Mac Stanton coming in second.
Rosmini Intermediate operations and events head Paul Hodgkinson said the 95 students showed incredible participation and school spirit. “Weeks of dedication saw teams training as early as 7am leading up to the event.” He said the support of the Rosmini school community was an important part of its AIMS sucesses.
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 4
October 2, 2026
October 2, 2026
The Rangitoto Observer Page 5
Primary students call for more board action on environment Two year six students from Milford School gave a presentation on protecting endangered animals to the Devonport-Takapuna Board, brought along a petition, and asked for more traps to be added around the local board area. The presentation was part of an exhibition created for a school project. Lucy Weaver and Bianca Tuffley presented the board with the 45-signature petition asking for further board action to protect the environment. Gold Reserve, Ngataringa Park and Reserve and at Lake Pupuke were places where the students requested additional pest traps. Board member Gavin Busch said groups like Pupuke Birdsong and Grow Forrest Hill already worked in the areas listed. But he added: "It's good that you're showing some interest today. The environment is important." Bianca and Lucy said if they couldn't help the endangered animals overseas, they could do something about the endangered native birds in Aotearoa. The project consisted of building a website, designing posters and preparing a presentation for the local board. Both girls had seen parents speak at public meetings, and Lucy said she thought it went well. "I don't think I would've done anything differently.” Immediately following the workshop, the girls took the board's advice to put up three posters in the Takapuna Library.
Environmentally aware… Bianca Tuffley (left) and Lucy Weaver
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 6
October 2, 2026
Takapuna Primary colour run will have a thirst-quenching result A colour run was the final fundraising event in Takapuna Primary School’s campaign for new water fountains, bringing the school to its fundraising goal of $20,000. The colour run included an obstacle course with a splattering of paint, as students took turns by year group throughout the day. The school’s old water fountains needed upgrading, and the fundraiser was organised by Takapuna Primary’s School Community Group. Classes who raised the most money were in to win spot prizes, such as a school pool party or lunch with Principal Devika Tagg. Colour for fountains… This page, Narjis Janna and Indi Gray (at right); and the course below. Page 7: Top left, Mila Edwards, Imogen Buckman and Isabel Ho; at right Mia Nguyen; Eden Fyfe and at bottom, Hudson Sladen, Lucas Rogers, Anzac Sandrey, Bella Asghari, Jonna Thaler and Yuvi Silva (background)
1088: Narjis Janna and Indi Gray
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 7
1070: Mila Edwards, Imogen Buckman and Isabel Ho Advertisement ADVERTISEMENT
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 8
October 2, 2026
One man hospitalised after Castor Bay cliff fall A fall from a Castor Bay cliff face resulted in an early-morning callout for emergency services, with one person taken to hospital in serious condition. Police, ambulance and fire services were notified about two men at the bottom of a cliff at 5am on Thursday 24 September. Takapuna Fire Station senior station officer Greg Booker said the high-angle rescue team was called in from the city. “Police and ambulance were on site when we arrived, but they hadn’t located the
people yet.” He said someone spotted the men, and emergency services were able to reach them from around the side of the beach. “One had fallen, I’m not sure of the distance, and the other had clambered down to give him some assistance.” He said the man who fell possibly had a broken hip. The second man was uninjured. As for the cause of the event, Booker said it was “probably what you can imagine”. “I think there was some alcohol involved,
and a disagreement.” The Observer understands the men had been drinking for a while at a spot on the cliff before the fall. Booker said the pair started a “small campfire” that was quickly put out by police and firefighters. He said although the fire was quickly dealt with, residents should be aware that it was prohibited to light fires in public reserves. A police spokesperson said enquiries into the incident were ongoing.
New Taka coach has international pedigree North Harbour players Paul Fenney (pictured), who played more than 100 games for Takapuna, 66 games for North Harbour and coached two championship winning teams, has been named at Takapuna’s premiers coach for 2027. He started playing junior rugby for Takapuna in 1970 and had a successful rugby career, highlighted by six seasons as the North Harbour fullback. After coaching North Harbour B, sevens and colts sides became a full-time coach in 2002. He worked overseas, including spells in Kenya, Japan, France, Fiji and South Africa, and in New Zealand with the Auckland Blues, Waikato Chiefs, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay unions. In recent seasons he was the director of rugby for Takapuna. Takapuna premiers made the semifinals of the North Harbour championship in 2026.
make NZ teams Two North Harbour rugby players have been selected for New Zealand age-group teams. Westlake Boys centre Matt Fleming made the NZ Secondary Schools team and former Westlake boys player Solomone Tuitupou, a flanker, who now plays for Takapuna was named in the New Zealand under-18 Barbarians side. Both played together at Westlake in 2025, with Fleming continuing to star in 2026. The sides played a variety of matches in late September and early October.
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October 2, 2026
The Rangitoto Observer Page 9
Boards reject fairer funding: ball in council’s court
The proposed changes to local board “Fairer Funding” are up in the air after all 21 local boards across Auckland have rejected the suggested new model. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said in a letter last week to all the local board chairs, “[Council’s] view is that further staff effort redesigning the funding model would be pointless unless local boards are prepared to support changes and confront the tradeoffs involved.” He said the recommendations did not need to proceed if the “majority” of local boards opposed them. “Your collective
position is clear.” He noted increasing the overall local board funding envelope was “not a credible funding position”, and told chairs the council should not make unsustainable funding commitments with the upcoming rates cap proposed by central government. “Retaining the current model has consequences. It means retaining its shortcomings as well as its benefits. It cannot mean retaining the model while also asking for a larger funding pool, a broader range of allocation factors, additional top-ups and a guarantee that no board will be worse off.”
Local funding-cut numbers ‘feel like a smokescreen’ Council officials are under fire for seeming to obscure the negative effect of a new “fairer funding” model on the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board area. “It feels like the finance department is trying to put a smokescreen over the true impact on the local board,” board member Terence Harpur said at an extraordinary board meeting earlier this month. Auckland Council’s proposed model, under which the board budget would be cut by up to $1.5 million, has been vehemently opposed by board members. The board has asked that another formula be investigated, with the amount paid in local rates given a weighting of at least 25 per cent. At the meeting the board was presented with a table outlining an alternative “net impact” on each board, showing Devonport-Takapuna would lose $800,000 rather than the previously estimated $1.5 million. However board lead financial advisor Sugenthy Thomson said the $800,000 did not factor in the current local work programme. She had based her loss figure of $1.5 million on this year’s budget, and added that
she knew more about how the board operates than the council’s finance department. Harpur said the figures not lining up made the situation unclear. Board member George Wood agreed. “We are supposed to make decisions based on facts. It seems like the facts are moving.” In feedback, the board told council that the proposed budget cut would have a “significant, and unacceptable impact on our community”. It said longstanding community organisations would be at risk of losing funding including: • The PumpHouse Theatre •The Lake House Arts Centre • ANCAD • Sunnynook Community Centre It would also potentially mean the board would be unable to support existing environmental groups such as Pupuke Birdsong Project and Grow Forrest Hill, or business groups such as the Takapuna Beach Business Association. The board asked that if the fairer funding proposal went ahead, the transition should be funded by council, rather than by cuts to local boards.
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He said council staff, instead of reviewing the proposal, should help local boards “manage within their funding envelopes”, so the boards could “improve value for money” and “identify realistic revenue opportunities”. Financial pressures on boards would continue. “The answer is not another review. The answer is for local boards to make the decisions required to live within the funding they have.” The council was voting on sections of the proposal as the Observer went to press on Tuesday.
Community groups at risk Reducing funding to North Shore community groups would destroy established local infrastructure and years of investment, says an open letter to Auckland Council after a group hui last week. The North Shore arts and community partners at the hui – The Depot, Devonport Community House, Lake House Arts, North Shore Brass, The PumpHouse Theatre, and The Rose Centre – “express our deep concern about the proposed new local board funding model, which could result in a reduction of up to 83% in Devonport– Takapuna Local Board discretionary funding,” the letter said. “A reduction of this scale...would put at risk established community infrastructure, reduce accessible local services and programmes” and undermine organisations that Auckland Council has invested in over many years, the letter said. The group asked Auckland Council to protect the Devonport–Takapuna Local Board’s ability to fund essential local community services and maintain secure foundational funding for established arts and community groups.
The Rangitoto Observer Page 10
October 2, 2026
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 11
$20,000 in community grants for Takapuna events Takapuna was the big winner in the latest rounds of local body community grants, with a quarter of the allocation going to events at the town centre. The 2027 Takapuna Beach Cup waka ama festival, the 2027 Takapuna Latin Fiesta, the TBBA’s community Easter event and the 2027 New Year Cultural Carnival were granted $5000 each. Grants were allocated to 24 community groups by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board (DTLB), with more than $80,000 going to community groups, clubs and events. Allocations were made as part of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Grant Round One for 2026/2027. The board has a total of $295,523 to allocate over the financial year across two rounds, with round two applications opening in early 2027. A total of $81,589 was allocated in round one. Twenty applications were declined, many due to missed questions, failing to provide sufficient evidence of costs or failing to demonstrate community benefits. Feedback would be given to the declined organisations so they could reapply. Board member Terence Harpur declared a conflict of interest for decisions regarding certain applications, due to his role as CEO
of the Takapuna Beach Business Association. He stepped out of the room for the funding decisions on applications for events in Takapuna. Other funding allocations include: • $1000 to the UpsideDowns Education Trust for a 12-month speech and language therapy programme. • $7500 to waka ama club Pineula towards the purchase of an outrigger canoe. • $2000 to Devonport Folk Music Club towards a free community folk concert. • $2168 to Show Me Shorts Film Festival Trust for the Show Me Shorts festival screenings at The Vic and Takapuna Beachside Cinemas. • $1500 to Wilson Home Trust for its Christmas Grotto event. • $1500 to Pupuke Birdsong Project for the 2027 Discover Pupukemoana event. • $6000 to Grow Forrest Hill towards the community activation of flood-affected Nile Rd properties. • $500 to Paul Cornish towards the promotion of the JETS fun run, including running bibs and promotional materials. • $2500 to Ngataringa Tennis Club towards purchase and installation of a 9kW heat pump. • $6085 to Harbour Sport for the Shore
to Shore fun run. • $3952.50 to the Devonport Business Association for the production, installation and removal of Christmas pole banners in Devonport village. • $4400 to Youth Arts New Zealand towards Rangatahi Pop-Up Stage performances. • $1200 to Touch North Harbour towards a Becroft intermediate touch module. • $3000 to Plunket towards relining the walls and ceilings at the Devonport Plunket hub. • $1236 to Shore Junction for three Summer Sounds youth concerts. • $1950 to the Pacific Culture and Arts Development Association for a Chinese community art exhibition. • $1000 to Rainbow Youth Incorporated towards delivery of 26 Queer4Shore peer support group sessions. • $5500 to the Te Toi Aro Charitable Trust for the Toitū te Taiao, Toitū ngā Ahurea Culture Night in 2027. • $2775 to the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust towards the Discover Takapuna Reef event. • $5822.50 to Milford Cruising Club towards a community sailing regatta for more than 1000 people.
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Arts / Entertainment Pages
October 2, 2026
North Shore connections abound in Where Beauty Hides Eighty percent of new movie Where Beauty Hides was filmed in the Devonport-Takapuna area, Locations included So French Cafe in Devonport and a North Shore clifftop home which filmmaker Tremaine Leaso describes as a mansion – a star in its own right. “[The house] was incredibly cinematic and gave the film a sense of scale and luxury that we simply couldn’t manufacture ourselves.” Leaso says seeing his romantic feature film, released in cinemas is his biggest personal triumph so far. Leaso has written more than 24 feature screenplays but Where Beauty Hides is the first to be produced as a feature film. “I’ve been making films for over ten years, much of that alongside my producing partner, Dan Brown.” The film is about a former TV anchor (played by Adele Pascoe) who tracks down a reclusive romance novelist (played by Michael Hallows) hiding a facial deformity. As she uncovers his past, their growing closeness forces him to face the possibility of intimacy after years in isolation. Hallows - who has also starred in Tinā, Go Girls and Legend of the Seeker – grew up in Takapuna and recently appeared in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at The Rose Centre, Belmont. Leaso has drawn inspiration from movies
Shore Beauty…the mansion where much of the film was shot made during the “Golden Age of Holly- that perhaps isn’t being catered to as much wood” and the style of filmmaker Alfred by mainstream cinema anymore.” Hitchcock, who mastered suspense and Where Beauty Hides has been selected for visual storytelling. “With Where Beauty the New Zealand Asia Pacific Film Festival Hides, I wanted to take some of that classi- this year, and the film is being submitted to cal filmmaking sensibility and put it into a other 2027 festivals. contemporary story,” Leaso said. The audience reaction is the aspect of Through early test screenings of the his film Leaso is most proud of. “There film, a connection with older audiences, is something incredibly rewarding about particularly women aged 65-plus, became standing outside a cinema and watching apparent. “Once we realised this, we leaned people walk out feeling that they’ve had a right into it and engaged with retirement genuine theatrical experience and got their villages, community and social groups,” money’s worth. said Leaso. “We deliberately made some• Where Beauty Hides is showing at the thing quite classical and romantic, and I Bridgeway Cinema in Northcote, with think we’ve stumbled upon an audience possible screenings at The Vic Devonport.
Sam Collins for North Shore
Get in touch sam.collins@labour.org.nz @samcollinsnz
Authorised by Rob Salmond, 2 Gilmer Terrace, Wellington.
October 2, 2026
Arts / Entertainment Pages
The Rangitoto Observer Page 15
A platform for art
Exhibiting at the Depot are Ed Fuller and Susannah Bridges
Seven craftspeople are exhibiting their works at the Depot including porcelain, furniture, sculpture and contemporary craft. Platform 26 opens on 10 October and the Rangitoto Observer spoke with two of the makers with local connections: Susannah Bridges and Ed Fuller. Devonport was Bridge’s first home after moving to New Zealand from the UK as a child. In later years, her father returned to live in Devonport, creating a long association with the area for her. Working as a fulltime designer/maker, Bridges was originally interested in jewellery design when she discovered during her studies that ceramics could be used in a way she previously hadn’t considered. “I realised it could be translucent, modern and minimalist,” Bridges said. She has continued to work with ceramics throughout much of her career, with a focus on porcelain lighting. Fuller, a longtime Milford resident, said he isn’t trying to make a living from his object making. He has a day job creating fitouts for commercial tradeshows, which he said is ultimately someone else’s object. Most of his own object designs are furniture-based and he said the design is determined first through a process of “doodling”. “I decide on the medium to work with later and like the idea of commandeering an object. “I use lots of flat materials like timber and enjoy the physics of working out the angles and style required to support the form I’m making,” he said. Both Bridges and Fuller feel that furniture and object design is understated and said that to an extent good design will often go unnoticed – “if it’s unnoticed, it means it works.” However when those objects are showcased in a gallery, they become a focus. • Platform 26: Making Matters opens at Depot on 10 October, 2pm-4pm and continues until 21 November. It will include two other events: Meet the Makers on 5 November, where visitors can chat directly with the makers about their process, followed by a floor talk ‘Why we Make’ on 21 November .
www.takapunamovies.co.nz Facebook and Instagram @takapunabeachsidecinema
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SHOWING NOW Coyote vs Acme (PG) 103min Digger (R13) 129min An Evening with Victor Hugo (M) 90min Heart of the Beast (M) 102min Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom (G) 80min Forgotten Island (PG) 109min Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie (G) 89min Resident Evil (R16) 94min The Rivals of Amziah King (M) 130min Practical Magic 2 (M) 130min
SPECIAL EVENTS & NEW RELEASES Now Hear This - James Nokise Live Show Tad and the Magic Lamp (PG) Big Girls Don’t Cry (R16) Show Me Shorts Film Festival KinoFest 2026 - German Film Festival
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For more info on films & events go to thevic.co.nz
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The Rangitoto Observer Page 16
October 2, 2026
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