Threats, thefts spur shopkeepers’ plea for help
Threatening behaviour, thefts, vandalism and tagging at a block of Forrest Hill shops have prompted business owners to call for more police and council action.
They believe residents of a nearby halfway house are responsible for some of the antisocial behaviour around the Raines
Ave shops, and have called for the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board to support a push for a greater police response.
The residents of the halfway house in Forrest Hill Rd are believed to include parolees recently released from prison.
Delish cupcake store owner Dean Deish To page 3
Nitin Parshottam, who has run the Raines Ave Foodmarket for 28 years, said there was an escalating crisis in the neighbourhood. Staff were fearful and residents were fed up, he said at the board’s monthly meeting last week.
Indian night strikes right notes
Flying fingers... Westlake Girls High School Year 10 student Sachkeerat Kaur plays the sitar at a recent Indian Night at the school, which attracted a crowd of around 500. This week, a Korean Night celebration is being held at Westlake Boys High School. More pictures, pages 10-11.
PICTURE:
Pedestrian crossing coming for busy Takapuna street this year
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A flat pedestrian crossing with a refuge island will be provided across busy Auburn St in Takapuna at a cost of $120,000.
The crossing will be just south of Como St, which has a main entry and exit for the Takapuna mall car park, and will enhance pedestrian access to Auburn Reserve and the Patuone walkway.
A crossing of some kind has been proposed for three years as part of truncated town safety plans.
Auckland Transport (AT) originally suggested a costly raised crossing, then backed away from the idea. It recently surprised the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board with another proposal to add separated cycle lanes leading into the crossing, as a different way of slowing traffic for safety.
The board told AT at a recent workshop
it was not keen on the idea of cycle lanes, fearing they would cause more traffic and cycle-safety problems at a spot where traffic turning from Anzac St had to merge. This month, AT returned with the scaled-back plans for a narrower crossing without the cycle lanes.
“We love this,” Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair Mel Powell said of the latest, cheaper plan.
The board supported the project, partly because the road is used by children walking to Takapuna Primary School, and to connect the town centre to the developing residential area to the west.
The project will now go out for public consultation.
AT wants to finalise design and build the crossing before Christmas.
Planting plan for tree-depleted areas
Tree coverage on the western sides of Takapuna, Westlake and Forrest Hill is in line to be boosted by Auckland Council planting on public land.
The areas have the lowest coverage of all the suburbs of the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board area, between 13 and 14 per cent.
The council’s principal adviser for Urban Ngahere, Howell Davies, told a board workshop this month that an ongoing canopy decline related mostly to intensification allowed under the Auckland Unitary Plan.
Aerial photography showed that large trees were disappearing fastest, leading to a council push for planting on public land. It wants to reach 30 per cent coverage across the region, pointing to environmental benefits.
Concrete-heavy areas like the city and Wairau Valley experienced higher temperatures than those with more trees.
The combined DTLB area canopy cover-
age sits at 16.4 per cent, compared with the neighbouring Kaipatiki Local Board area at 30.3 per cent.
The entire northern half of the board area – which stretches from Takapuna to Sunnynook – is depleted compared with southernmost areas, where Cheltenham and Devonport top the DTLB table with 23 per cent coverage. The figures also show Milford West and Belmont are below average coverage, each with 15 per cent.
For the board area, Davies recommended a starter budget of $10,000 for planting and maintenance in the most depleted areas. Board members backed this, but wanted to be consulted on specimens chosen and placement, having previously fielded community concerns about planting on open park space.
Davies said target areas around the motorway made sense. Other areas to be looked at included around Barrys Pt Rd reserve land.
Authorised by Hon Simon Watts, Parliament Buildings, Wgtn.
Residents leaving due to antisocial activity – Wood
From page 1
said parolees were not going to be rehabilitated without supervision. The neighbouring liquor store was the victim of frequent grab-and-run thefts, he said.
“In the past we had many more community constables.”
Speaking in support of the call for a crackdown and more localised policing, board member George Wood, a former North Shore police commander, said the halfway house was “a dive; it’s a real doss house. People are moving out of the area because they can’t stand it any more.”
Parshottam urged council to take action “to ensure safety of the community”.
Board chair Mel Powell said it was awful the men felt unsafe.
She acknowledged their concern over a lack of community policing.
A Sunnynook-based constable was removed several years ago, with community constables instead being based in Browns Bay. “We hear you,” she said.
The board agreed to advocate for store owners to police, but Powell noted it was up to the government to increase police numbers.
“It’s a real nightmare for [the business owners],” said Wood.
“They’ve had these guys around there committing quite serious misdemeanours.”
Approached about the issues raised at the board meeting, police said their community team had been in regular contact with the Raines Ave shop owners in relation to their concerns over antisocial behaviour.
One person had been trespassed from a business after a complaint.
On 8 May, a search warrant was executed at a nearby property in relation to a trespass incident.
A person was arrested and charged with wilful trespass and wilful damage.
Police said no further complaints or calls had been received from the shops since then.
Parshottam – who was the victim of a ram raid and an aggravated robbery when he was punched in the face in 2021, plus another robbery last year – said outside the meeting he worried about lack of accountability. “Some people don’t want work – it’s a handout system in this country.”
It saddened him to see a good workingclass neighbourhood being disrupted.
Residents visiting the block of shops
might face people congregating outside asking for smokes or money. “Customers don’t like being hassled outside the shops.” His wife, Nikita, told of a man asking for credit and, on being turned down, upending a large lolly stand on his way out.
Nitin said shoplifting and antisocial behaviour was happening on a daily basis. In recent weeks he had painted over fresh graffiti at the rear of the shops on three occasions. The area was also being used for rubbish dumping.
“It’s a cycle that goes on and on,” said Parshottam. “We need [police] in Sunnynook, not Browns Bay.”
Raines Ave shops in Forrest Hill, where business owners
Briefs
Centre sale delayed
Plans to sell the Mary Thomas Centre community building in Gibbons Rd, Takapuna, are on hold, says Auckland Council property arm Eke Panuku. “Until the market improves we will not be looking to take the Mary Thomas Centre to market,” a spokesperson told the Observer. Selling the run-down building was approved in a split decision by a divided previous Devonport-Takapuna Local Board. The current board hopes to put money from its sale towards a remodelling of the Takapuna Library on the Strand into a combined community hub and library.
Nanam up for awards
Nanam restaurant and bar in Takapuna has two finalist nods in the Lion Hospitality New Zealand Awards. Co-owner and chef Jess Granada is one of six finalists in contention for a Future Leader Award. The Hurstmere Rd venue is also in the running for Best Local. Winners will be named at a Wellington function on 10 June.
Lights on again
Winter Lights returns to Takapuna over four evenings from Thursday 24 July to Sunday 27 July. Around 50,000 attended the event last year, and an even bigger spectacle is promised this year. The free family-friendly event is organised by local Dan Move, who works with light artist Angus Muir to create installations across Hurstmere Green, Hurstmere Rd, Potters Park and Waiwharariki Anzac Square. Terence Harpur, chief executive of event backer the Takapuna Beach Business Association, says Winter Lights “brings people together to celebrate creativity and connection”.
Tavern-licence seekers rule out karaoke and late-night bottle binning
Operators of the Milford Motel venue have made a series of concessions aimed at appeasing noise fears among residents in a bid to secure a licensing switch from restaurant to tavern status.
In closing submissions before the Auckland District Licensing Committee in Takapuna this month, counsel for BCR Hospitality, John Young, said changes in the manner of trade were not planned. The venue would continue to operate with similar hours and in a family-friendly manner, without karaoke or live bands.
He presented a revised noise management plan – including more sound monitoring, time limits for emptying bottles into bins outside and speaker positioning – when the hearing resumed, having the previous month taken submissions from 11 of 32 objectors.
Young maintained none had been able to bring the applicant’s suitability into question and without objections from police or liquor inspectors, the licence should be granted.
Co-operator Billy Vasdev also responded to questions from the hearing panel, saying the change to a tavern licence was largely to clear up uncertainties. This related to how the two kinds of licence were interpreted by authorities around food offerings. Milford Motel wants to offer a reduced menu later in the evening for cost reasons, but Young said it was not aiming to change into a late-night venue for partying or drinking or to become a sports-style pub. “The applicant does not intend for there to be standing bar service, other than for patrons waiting for a table.”
He noted some of the objectors to the licence being renewed if switched to a tavern category, had said they liked the current style of operations and enjoyed frequenting the premises.
The panel also noted this, but said sub-
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mitters had raised concerns that operations might change over time, or if the venue was sold. “That’s the crux,” said panel chair Marguerite Delbet.
Young said a temporary licence would be needed by any new operator and it could be revoked or have its status and conditions changed if authorities were not happy with a new operation. He reiterated his client’s willingness to make changes to satisfy concerns and fresh undertakings to work with the community. “Mr Vasdev demonstrated that he is open and willing to engage with neighbours and make improvements to the operation of premises where necessary.”
Delbet questioned a liquor licensing inspector, Bryce Law, about why an earlier objection to the change of licence had been lifted. He said he was the fourth inspector on the job since the venue opened in 2022 and that interpretations around matters such as what constituted a restricted menu could vary. Law noted the applicant’s undertakings restricting live events and for noise monitoring and said when he visited three times it had closed earlier than permitted hours. But on a summer visit “you certainly hear the hubbub that the objectors talked about,” he added.
Milford Residents Association co-chair Debbie Dunsford asked his view on the suitability of the venue’s semi-enclosed outdoor seating area, should it be sold. “Then we’re stuck with a tavern licence in a building without proper walls,” she said.
Law agreed that what looked like a temporary structure might be problematic in future. “I can’t see it holding in a great deal of noise.” But he noted an undertaking that patrons would be moved inside from 10pm. He said he had only seen the venue operating as a restaurant.
The committee reserved its decision.
Public urges speed over flood prevention plans
Two public meetings on Wairau catchment flood-recovery plans delivered a clear message last week – get on with the job as quickly as possible.
At Eventfinda Stadium, a public meeting of around 200 people may not have agreed on the best way to mitigate future flood risk, but after an Auckland Council update, speaker after speaker called from the floor for safeguarding of lives, livelihoods, homes and businesses.
They wanted action to spare the area any repeat of the devastating 2023 floods and the scares of subsequent weather events, including surface flooding on Easter Friday.
“Can it be fast-tracked?”, asked North Harbour Basketball CEO John Hunt. “Council and government should want to avoid another $2 billion event.”
Eventfinda Stadium chair Brian Blake said North Shore sporting facilities used by thousands would struggle to survive another major flood, because they would become uninsurable.
This included basketball and gymnastics, which are based at the stadium, and nearby centres for netball, badminton and tennis. The venues would cost the ratepayers millions of dollars to replace or relocate and affect many thousands of users, he said.
North Shore ward councillor Richard Hills agreed the insurance scenario was scary. “The situation is replicated in thousands of homes and businesses in this area as well.”
The future of the Takapuna Golf Course – in line to become a detention pond to slow water flowing through Milford to the sea – divided opinion.
Applause from the audience showed many backed the course operators’ plans to see if golf could remain on AF Thomas Park on a lowered course, rather than being
turned into wetland.
But some questioned the wisdom of trying to accommodate this. “As a business and building owner I see the stress on the people all around me – why golf?” said a woman whose flooded building backs onto a waterway next to Eventfinda Stadium. Another business owner told of soaring insurance costs. “To lose this facility here [Eventfinda Stadium] would be horrendous for this community – far worse than the golf course in my opinion,” he said.
Several residents asked about the risk of midges and mosquitoes from the wetland and others raised the cost to council of its maintenance, compared with the lease and rates revenue returned by golf.
Hills said use of AF Thomas Park to retain water was the “number one place that makes the most difference”.
The feasability of golf remaining was being assessed, with decisions due soon.
He started to say: “If we just went in there with the bulldozers tomorrow...” but was interrupted by a business owner saying: “That would be great.”
Healthy Waters spokesman Tom Mansell earlier outlined the council’s Stage 1 Wairau plans, allowing for AF Thomas Park to soak up 220 Olympic swimming pools of water. He said this would reduce risk to 260 homes and protect access to North Shore Hospital among other secondary objectives.
Work to date included more checks on stormwater hot spots and catchpits, and dredging a waterway at Brian Byrnes Reserve in Milford.
Next year, desilting was planned for ponds in Link Dr and potentially Croftfield Lane. The bridge in Woodbridge Lane, Milford, would be removed.
Funding for Stage 2 design work for blue-green local networks was in place, but
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By the numbers
Latest Auckland Council figures on the flood-buyout scheme show:
• 141 homes in Milford have been assessed as Category 3 – considered to place residents at intolerable risk to life in case of another major event – qualifying property owners to participate in the scheme.
• In the wider Wairau catchment, including Sunnynook and Totara Vale, 163 homes met the Category 3 threshold.
• 84 property buyout agreements have been entered into in Milford.
• 65 deals have been settled.
• Nine bought-out homes have been removed from Milford sections.
• Six more removals are under way, with a block of units next up. Others will be done in clusters where possible.
council would need to provide for physical works in future budgets.
Stage 3, which would deliver more benefits to the commercial area, was “potentially decades away”.
Around 40 people attended the Milford Residents Association annual meeting the evening before, when Hills acknowledged concerns about security and maintenance of empty or bought-out homes and said patrols were operating. “It’s a grey area for houses that are empty but council hasn’t taken ownership of yet.”
He said local representatives were pushing for work in the area to be prioritised. “It’s important we keep reminding the rest of Auckland how bad it was here,” Hills said.
New Kiwi surprises husband in ceremony ambush
A Takapuna citizenship ceremony this month had a surprise finale when the official handing out certificates realised his own wife had decided to become a fully-fledged Kiwi.
Devonport-Takapuna Local Board deputy chair Terence Harpur was ready to present the 500th and final certificate of the evening when his wife, Dr Felicity Williamson Harpur, stepped onto the stage.
“It was an absolute and complete surprise, I had no idea – she totally got me,” Harpur told the Observer.
Williamson Harpur, a medical officer of health, has held permanent resident status in New Zealand for 25 years.
Her husband said he had urged her to take up New Zealand citizenship previously, but was not aware she had the process underway. “Everyone knew except me.”
The North Shore’s local boards take turns hosting the three or four local citizenship ceremonies held each year, so Williamson Harpur ensured she could attend a DTLB-hosted event on 19 May.
Harpur’s local board colleagues and event organisers were in on the surprise, arranging for her to slip into the Westlake Girls High School event centre unnoticed and be the last on stage.
She wore a tailored vintage muumuu, in recognition of having grown up in Hawaii, and a lei on her head that she wore when the
couple married..
People from 52 countries – ranging from Argentina to Zimbabwe – were welcomed to the event with a powhiri, waitata and kapa haka. Some, like Williamson Harpur, wore
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their native country’s national or ethnic costume.
Harpur told the Observer people from the Philippines, India and China were strongly represented among the new citizens, as were those from South Africa and the United Kingdom.
It is a path he too once followed, when his family emigrated from South Africa when he was aged 10. Three years later, he attended a citizenship ceremony at the Bruce Mason Centre.
He drew on this experience when speaking at the Westlake ceremony, saying he understood the sacrifice and the journey families attending had been on.
Harpur said his wife – whose Scottish and Australian parents worked in the United States for many years – had drawn on her Hawaiian upbringing to surprise him before. After secretly taking lessons, she performed a hula at their wedding in February last year.
In her job with the public health service, Williamson Harpur has recently been leading public health efforts to ward off a measles outbreak. The couple met on a night out eating ramen.
After the citizenship ceremony they had a quiet finish to the evening, with a babysitter having to be relieved.
“We celebrated with ice-cream, being a Monday night,” Harpur said.
Briefs
Pool turns 50
Takapuna Pool and Leisure Centre celebrated its 50th anniversary this week. Among those marking the occasion on Monday was Clive Sligo, who was engineer for the pool project. Around 50 people attended, including current and former staff. Pool and gym use and swim class bookings are on the rise.
Tokki closing
Highly regarded Korean restaurant Tokki, in Milford, is closing next month. The restaurant owned by chef Jason Kim, who also owns Gochu in Commercial Bay, will have its final service on 21 June. After three years on Kitchener Rd, he says the departure is “not out of loss but to make space for new beginnings”.
Lights given nod
Traffic lights rather than a roundabout will be installed at the intersection of Sunset Rd and Sycamore Rd, says Auckland Transport (AT). The work is expected to be done by the end of the year. A merge lane will be provided for cars turning right out of Ramp Rd approaching the intersection. Work is due to start soon on a planned footpath upgrade on the corner of Sunnynook Rd and Becroft Dr.
Main prize:
• Return flights for two with Qantas
• 3 nights at Breeze Mooloolaba
• 2 nights at Senses Noosa North Shore
• 2 nights at Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat
• 7 days Avis Car Hire
• Epic Ocean Adventures – spot dolphins on a stunning kayak tour
• Saltwater Eco Tours cultural and culinary experience
• Australia Zoo full-day pass
Extra prizes:
• 3x $500 Shore City Shopping Sprees
• 5x one night stays at The Spencer Hotel
• Your choice of Persol sunglasses or optical frames from Mortimer Hirst
Simply spend $20 in one transaction in any participating Takapuna business to receive an entry code, then enter online at www.ilovetakapuna.co.nz or in person at Shore City Shopping Centre. Ts and Cs apply. For more information, visit: ilovetakapuna.co.nz
Milford Tennis Club 2025 senior championships
Milford Tennis Club held its 2025 Club Championships last month.
Winners were:
Men’s Singles, Chan Min; Women’s Singles, Mala Krzanic; Men’s Doubles, Chan Min/Nehal Naidoo; Women’s Doubles, Libby Batley/ Kara Morrison; Mixed Doubles, Sion Wiggin/ Sadheera Weerapperuma; Club Spirit Award, Gaye Williams; Men’s Social Singles, Andy Kwak; Women’s Social Singles, Toni Jones; Men’s Social Doubles Arash Farjood/Ant Ford. Ladies Day president Creina Millett was made a Life Member. She has had 40 years with the club.
Women’s doubles winners and runners-up… (from left) Suzanne Jackson, Kara Morrison, Toni Jones and Libby Batley
Men’s doubles winners… Chan Min (who was also singles champion) and Nehal Naidoo
Women’s Singles Champion… Mala Krzanic (right) with runner-up Sadheera Weerapperuma
Becroft Park Tennis Club senior championships
The Becroft Park Tennis Club Senior Championships were held from 10-17 May.
Winners were:
Men’s Singles, Jasper Melencion; Women’s Singles, Sue Lee; Men’s Doubles, Raymund Melencion and Ned Tubac; Women’s Doubles, Imelda Venturina and Kristel Venturina; Mixed Doubles, Raymund Melencion and Imelda Venturina
Champions… (below, from left) Men’s singles winner Jasper Melencion, men’s doubles winners Raymund Melencion and Ned Tubac, and women’s doubles winners Imelda and Kristel Venturina
Lightweight rugby rep revels in donning black jersey
New Zealand under-85kg rugby rep Jackson Ephraims was so proud to represent his country, the Australian-born halfback had a silver fern tattooed on his forearm to commemorate the team’s historic tour to Sri Lanka.
“I’m 100 per cent Kiwi now,” said Ephraims (25) speaking to the Observer after playing in both test matches against an unrestricted-weight Sri Lankan side, which New Zealand won 51-10 on 4 May and 32-6 six days later.
Ephraims is back with his Takapuna Bombers under-85kg side in the North Harbour competition, with renewed enthusiasm for rugby and stoked by the prospect that a tour to Sri Lanka for the New Zealand weight-restricted side could become an annual event.
“Just amazing,” was how Ephraims described the experience of playing for his country, pulling on the black jersey and learning and performing the haka.
He played 50 minutes in the opening game but had to come off with a shoulder injury.
He was passed fit for the second game and played a full 80 minutes.
“I didn’t score any tries but I had a few try assists in both games.”
Making the trip even more special was the knowledge that his grandfather, Conrad, played rugby in and for Sri Lanka when it was known as Ceylon, representing the country against a touring Australian under-21 side in the 1950s.
One of the great tour surprises for Conrad’s grandson was how much the Sri Lankans love rugby. “I saw more All Blacks jerseys there than you would see in New Zealand at an All Blacks game.”
The team were treated like celebrities. “When we arrived in Sri Lanka, we were greeted by about 20 media people... it was the closest most of us would come to the feeling of being professional athletes,” Ephraims said.
His journey to New Zealand representation began when he moved from Australia to the North Shore with his family and started playing for the Marist rugby club aged 6.
“I always loved rugby and the All Blacks,” he says.
He played through the grades at Westlake Boys High School, making the first XV in 2017. He made the North Harbour under18s, then joined Takapuna Rugby Club, where he played three years in the under-21 side and then “a bit for the premiers”.
His interest waned and he stopped playing until his father, Darren, who was coaching Takapuna’s under-85kg team, “pestered and pestered” him to join the side.
Ephraims fell in love with the sport again: the speed and style of play in the under-85kg grade and its culture appealed.
With a playing weight of around 7475kgs, Ephraims has always been lucky to have no need for the “weight shedding” bigger players have to endure to make the under-85 kg mark.
The Bombers started winning North Harbour championships, with Ephraims gaining selection to the North Harbour under-85s team (2022-24) and then a New Zealand Barbarians side for two sucessive years – a paper rep team that didn’t play a match.
When former All Black coach Sir Graham Henry set up a national cup for under-85 kg teams in 2023, the Takapuna Bombers were beaten in the final by Christchurch Old Boys.
With a New Zealand overseas tour planned by Henry in the offing, Ephraims was in with a good chance of making the team.
But he missed most of the 2024 season when he was based in Singapore for his work as a senior investment advisor with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
“I was in danger of missing out through absence.”
However, he got back to New Zealand in time to play for North Harbour in an end-
of-season tournament against Auckland, Counties and Waikato. His form was good enough to gain selection in the 28-strong squad to Sri Lanka, which toured with a support staff of around seven.
Preparation for the tour was a fairly quick-fire three days, with team sessions mixed in with haka practice and motivational talks from Henry and former All Black great Keven Mealamu.
When the side scattered back to their homes around the country, Zoom sessions were held on attacking and defensive patterns.
But nothing could prepare the side for playing in temperatures in the high 20s and early 30s degrees Celsius.
On arrival, the side began training at the same time it would be playing to adapt to the conditions. Along with the interest in Sri Lanka, Ephraims was amazed how much interest the tour generated in New Zealand for rugby fans as well as the general public, friends and work colleagues.
And he’s keen on making the team again.
“Once you’ve had a taste of representing your country you want to experience it over again.”
Kiwi pride... Jackson Ephraims (clockwise from top left) showing off the silver fern he had tattooed on his forearm to commemorate the New Zealand under-85kg rugby team’s historic tour; playing for the national side against Sri Lanka this month; and in training
Students stage Indian spectacular for crowd of 500
Students from the Westlake Girls and Boys High Schools put on a joyous and colourful cultural show for around 500 family and friends at an Indian Night, hosted by WGHS on 14 May.
The second annual event included energetic Bollywood numbers, soulful singing, performances by musicians, fashion, and traditional dances from across India.
The crowd cheered throughout, with dramatic lighting adding atmosphere to the occasion.
Pre-show mixing and mingling occurred at food stations and stalls set up by local businesses.
Staff praised the big part played by the student leaders in staging the events. They were: Ishita Vadrevu, Dhruvi Patel and Tanushri Dev from WGHS and Alaiz Kassibawi and Ishaan Chandra from WBHS.
Indian Night is one of a number of different cultural nights held each year.
Smiles and saris... Performers included (from left) Year 12 student Yashica Lal, Shreya Kshatriya (Year 10); Mahi Gadhvi (Year 13) who also acted as an MC; and former student Henna Kshatriya, who graduated last year.
Big sister... Year 13 student Sri Charukonda with younger family members; and (right) Westlake Boys High School’s Ray Dutt performing with Ashlee Wang from Westlake Girls.
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Worlds collide as roots veteran and choir join forces
Takapuna music producer and composer Marshall Smith is looking forward to getting out of his sound studio to bring some fusion sounds to local audiences.
As a member of Jubilation choir, he is part of an upcoming collaboration with the godfather of the New Zealand reggae scene, Tigilau Ness. At the PumpHouse theatre next week, the a capella choir will depart from its usually unaccompanied status for a second half when it is joined on stage by Ness on guitar and vocals. Smith promises: “You could not not enjoy it – it has such life.”
Along with warm touches of Pasifika reggae, he says to expect beautiful hymnlike pieces. “We’ve brought the gospel and soul flavour to his work.”
Ness, a first-generation New Zealand-born Niuean and father of hip-hop rap artist Che Fu, has a long pedigree of writing and playing music and being a social justice activist. His band, Unity Pacific, has been together for more than 20 years. In 2016, its album BlackBirder Dread won Best Roots
Album at the Aotearoa NZ Music Awards.
The 70-year-old says he is looking forward to working with the “wonderfully gifted” choir. For his part, Smith says of Ness: “He’s a fantastic musician and wonderful performer.”
The PumpHouse is poignantly familiar to Smith, who worked on about a dozen productions for Tim Bray Children’s Theatre there. From knowing Bray, he got involved with doing the music, score and special effects for various shows created by the director, who has closed his company due to ill health.
Smith fitted shows for Bray around an already busy schedule working on music for film, television and games through his The Sound Room business, operating from his home studio in Takapuna. He found the fun of doing children’s theatre a welcome change of pace.
He joined Jubilation several years ago when he realised he was missing the performance side of music. Choir member and well-known entertainer Jackie Clarke
twisted his arm to join up.
He enjoys the camaraderie and says the choir, which has been going for 25 years, is keen to stretch itself and connect to new audiences. It also does corporate work and is sometimes called on to perform at funerals.
Although Jubilation rehearses in Ponsonby, it performs four or five times a year in venues across the city.
Smith draws on a background singing in the choir at Westlake Boys High School when growing up in Castor Bay and then gigging in bands in the early 2000s.
A career in sound was a natural development. “I fumbled my way into behindthe-scenes production,” he says. A diverse mix of work has included soundtracks for television shows. Work on commercials and voice-overs rounds out his portfolio.
For the PumpHouse show he is particularly looking forward to opening up his vocal cords on a personal favourite, Paul Simon’s Loves Me Like a Rock • Jubilation choir with Tigilau Ness, 8 June, 6.30pm, the PumpHouse, Takapuna.
Collab at the PumpHouse... producer, composer and Jubilation choir member Marshall Smith (left) and Tigilau Ness
Photographer’s material world produces places
Chris Melville says when people see his ‘landscape’ photography they often try to place it geographically.
“Some people say ‘I can see Takapuna’... or ‘that’s definitely the South Island’.”
His abstract shots are actually taken on the floor of his North Shore home.
The moody images which seem to show sea, sky and land are created by passing his camera – set on a slow shutter speed – over fabric draped on the ground.
“It’s a bizarre thing. People say why?”, Melville says to the Observer with a laugh, ahead of the opening of his exhibition, Material World, at the Lake House arts centre tomorrow, Saturday 31 May, as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.
He explains the process as a gradual progression of his creative interests, which also include music and design. “I always loved art from an early age,” he says.
Melville grew up in Hamilton in a family where cameras were commonplace, including vintage models with old bellows.
He remembers doing school projects on photography and swotting up on various painters.
New Zealand expressionist great Colin McCahon became his “go to” artist, with his minimalist abstraction and use of text in his paintings particularly appealing.
Following family advice, Melville focused on finding ways of making his interest pay, so he studied product design. This led to design work for superyachts and mobile phones, and helping create an early version of a fourwheeled mobility scooter for the elderly while working for Fisher & Paykel.
These days, the 52-year-old’s day job is as a graphic designer for real-estate company Harcourts, where he enjoys creating national campaigns.
Another of his talents is musical, which led to him hopping on stage for a spot of singing during a recent Harcourts conference in Christchurch.
Being able to combine his passions is a joy, but exhibiting only came into the frame a few years ago, when he was accepted to show his works at Art in the Park – held annually at Eden Park – in 2023.
Encouragingly, participating in the arts extravaganza resulted in sales.
“I photographed wires hanging down, from the side, and wiggled the camera to get an interesting effect,” he explains.
He has since moved on from working with wires, to experimenting with photographing fabric.
Having noticed that people responded well to watery colours, such as aquamarine and Tiffany blue, he drew on his love of McCahon to connect colour with form.
“I wanted to make it more realistic and wanted to explore landscapes.”
When Melville works with fabric as the
sculptural foundation for his “landscapes”, he is never quite sure how things will turn out.
But he says he gets a feel from the colours, such as sandy beach or wave or sky shades, lending themselves to certain outcomes.
“I lie the fabric on the ground and set it [the camera] to a one-third of a second and swing it from left to right and assess what I’ve created.”
From that initial view, he might make adjustments to the camera settings “until I get the outcome I want”.
At Art in the Park, where he will show for a third time in September, Melville dis-
played photographs of his process alongside his finished prints, so viewers could gain an insight into his practice. He may do this at the Lake House as well. “It’s that extra level of understanding. People go, ‘Wow, that’s something altogether different’.”
Photoshopping does not play a major part in what he depicts, but he does use it to clean up the images. At such slow shutter speeds, dust particles are revealed which can be removed for the final image.
The fabrics he favours for his pass-over photography are sometimes drawn from a dip into his family’s wardrobes.
Creating landscapes... Chris Melville works at home (right) photographing fabric to create striking images such as the examples above and below
that feel real
“My business shirts are great skies; my son’s jeans, with the deep denim also.”
Dresses come into play too. “Organza is really light and ethereal – there are different ways of photographing to make it more transparent or opaque.”
Cottons come in handy for landforms and ribbons make good wave forms.
Melville says he has more to explore using fabric, but it won’t define his future photography “I always want to move it to another point.”
In a less abstract vein and drawing on his other interests, he says: “I love photographing musicians because I’m a singer, I’m around musicians all the time.”
He has had band shots published in the New Zealand Herald.
These days he has a regular Saturday night singing spot at Sky City Casino’s Flare bar and was part of a funky covers outfit, Grand Central Band, that played at the Ponsonby bar of the same name.
A special performance came about when a fellow musician asked Melville to join him playing with Neil Finn. Melville thought it unlikely the famous singer would show, but instead he experienced a memorable set with Finn at the Coatesville Market.
To top that, he has also played Santa to a much bigger audience at Christmas in the Park.
• Chris Melville’s Material World exhibition, 31 May until 19 June, at the Becroft Gallery, Lake House arts centre, 37 Fred Thomas Dr, Takapuna
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