Quake strengthening changes good news for Claystore
An estimated $750,000 saving in earthquake strengthening costs has markedly increased the viability of upgrading the heritage Claystore workshop.
Options to refurbish the building have been knocked around at Auckland Council for more than a decade and at one stage included a lift and expensive earth-
quake strengthening works on the building and its wall abutting Abbotsford Lane.
But the lowering of earthquake-risk levels on many structures in the government’s new National Building Standards meant some expensive work was no longer required, said Claystore trustee and treasurer Martin Ford. Council had around $1 million budgeted for the upgrade.
The latest updates and options for the building are expected go before Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members at a workshop on 12 May.
If given board sign-off, Claystore members hoped work would start this financial year, Ford said.
Lest we forget: Prems wear the poppy
Anzac pride… North Shore Rugby Club premiers captain Donald Coleman, wearing a special commemorative jersey, leads his side onto the field with junior Harper Crause on 25 April. Story, more pictures pages 22-23.
Damaged Stanley Point boat ramp ‘should go’
The removal of a 70-year-old boat ramp at Blair Park on Stanley Point is being recommended by Auckland Council.
The ramp – closed since 2023 due to storm damage – was “underutilised for dinghies” before the damage and served a limited catchment, according to an officer assessment put to a Devonport-Takapuna Local Board workshop this week.
“Staff recommend the removal of the ramp and reinstatement of the coastal edge, as it is the most cost-effective option to permanently remove the health and safety risks, noting that alternative access is available from Secret Cove ramp,” the report said.
The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board had allocated $582,804 for the renewal of the ramp and nearby pathways.
Rare peninsula mortgagee sales a sign of the struggling economy
Tough economic times are biting in Devonport, with two local properties on the market in mortgagee sales – a comparative rarity for the peninsula.
A clifftop home at 116A Vauxhall Rd is on Barfoot & Thompson’s books to be sold by mortgagee tender on 14 May 2026.
The home of around 230sqm is on a 792sqm site.
Barfoot’s agent for the property, Philip Davis, said he could not comment on any reason for the sale.
A title search has the property owned by A Better Tomorrow Trustee Ltd, a trust holding company.
A commercial property at 161 Lake Rd for sale by mortgagee auction on 20 May is also on the market through Barfoot & Thompson.
The property has been the long-time home of Lake Rd Dentists, whose tenancy will continue.
A title search shows it is owned by Stillwater Properties Ltd, whose director is Junru Zhang.
Mortgagee sales... the properties for sale at Vauxhall Rd (top) and Lake Rd in Belmont
Hon Simon Watts
The pathways and retaining structures were upgraded in January this year, for just under $100,000.
Auckland Council has been losing its appetite to retain dinghy ramps in Devonport in recent years.
In 2021 it decided not to repair a dinghy ramp alongside lockers on Queens Pde near the Devonport Navy Base.
E-hoons run riot on golf course
A group of teens tearing about the Waitematā Golf Club course causing damage on electric dirt bikes have prompted the club to notify police.
“It’s a community concern,” said club manager Jamie Palmer. The boys, who seemed to be aged around 12 to 15, had also been seen riding dangerously on Lake Rd, weaving through traffic and doing wheelies.
Palmer said the boys were on the golf course in the middle of the day last weekend; when approached their language was “not what you’d expect of kids”.
The course was shared space, used by golfers, but also by plenty of walkers. Palmer said there was a safety risk to others, but also to the riders themselves.
He said some club members had thought the boys were wearing balaclavas, but it was more likely helmets that obscured their faces. However, one rider had been recognised and contact made with his school, Takapuna Grammar.
In an incident around 10 days earlier, the club had seven flags removed from greens, along with displaced rakes and tee boxes. Palmer said he was not sure if this vandalism was connected with the more recent damage.
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Talented TGS trio win national football honours
Three Takapuna Grammar School girls’ first XI footballers have been picked for New Zealand age group teams.
Team captain and central midfielder Jess Ellis and goalkeeper Lilian Carey have just been picked for a national under-16s development tour to Melbourne in July, while Orla Chambers, who plays in the midfield or as a striker, was in the New Zealand under-18 development side that played in Thailand last month.
Jess and Orla are Year 12s, and Lilian a Year 11 newcomer to the TGS premier side.
Coach George Blake said having three girls from one side selected for national honours showed the strength of the school programme under director of football Ryan Ward.
“We’ve got a really strong group and this highlights that.”
TGS is the only school with more than one player selected for the under-16s tour.
The three girls all play for different club sides as well as for TGS in the Auckland premier schools’ competition, where the team has started the season with two wins.
Last season, it placed fifth, qualifying for nationals, but the players hope to progress this year.
“This year is going to be a good year,” says Jess.
“Previously we’ve been quite a young team and we can aim higher.”
Jess, from Hauraki, and Orla, who lives in Devonport, have been in the TGS top team together in previous years. Lilian, who had to miss a season after breaking a jaw during a game, has focused until this year on club play for West Coast Rangers.
Orla suits up for Northern Rovers and Jess for Western Springs, with both having had some play for their club’s top women’s sides.
Orla valued highly her experience with the national side in Thailand. “It was pretty nerve-racking at first, not knowing anyone,” she says. “But it was a great opportunity to grow independence and confidence.”
Blake says the players’ age-group selection is exciting for them and other players, giving an example of what is possible.
“I think they’ve definitely got the potential to develop. Whether they kick on to represent New Zealand at another level or
not, they’re still very talented.”
TGS has three junior girls’ teams and five senior sides, two of them social.
Blake, a geography teacher and dean, has coached since arriving at the school two years ago. He says it has a strong football culture. Leading Auckland rivals are Mt Albert Grammar and Baradene College, with fellow North Shore schools Westlake Girls High School and Rangitoto College among other challengers.
Net result... Takapuna Grammar School footballers (from left) Lilian Carey, Orla Chambers and Jess Ellis have all made national sides for overseas tours
Perfect conditions as 160 contest North Head Classic
The Round North Head Classic swim last Saturday attracted 160 entrants, including 21 freedom swimmers and eight juniors.
The race started from Windsor Reserve at 8am, in near-perfect conditions.
“The slight chop and light south-easterly onshore breeze meant that the full benefit of the current didn’t arrive until swimmers rounded the head, when they were slingshotted around to Cheltenham’s Bath St Reserve,” said organiser Chris St Cartmail of the Devonport Swim Club.
• Freedom swimmers complete the course naked, but deposit togs in a boat at the race start and collect them at the end to wear as they cross the finish line.
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First home... Round North Head winners Amelia-Rose Searle (left) and Chris Moors. Dave Liversidge (left) was first “freedom” swimmer across the line.
Lest We Forget: TGS remembers its fallen
Anzac Day at Takapuna Grammar School is always a powerful reminder of the men and women who left New Zealand for war - and those who never returned. Eighty-six former students died in the Second World War. Their names are etched into the school’s Memorial Window.
Students represented the school at the Takapuna and Devonport services, with head prefects reading and laying wreaths, before the school hosted a well-attended Dusk Service.
Each year, two TGS stories are told. This time it was Pilot Officer Ian Lowrie Gray and Acting Lieutenant Stewart Edward Foot. Foot, a Takapuna local and First XV player, was killed aged 25 while directing mortar fire during the Battle of Crete, later Mentioned in
Despatches for gallantry. Gray, a gifted scholar, prefect and sportsman, died at 21 when his RAF aircraft failed to return from the North Sea.
Head boy Nathan Fry represented the school at all three events and spoke at the Takapuna service.
Nathan wore the medals of his great-grandfather William “Bill” Thurston, a Royal New Zealand Navy gunner aboard HMS Achilles during WWII and the Battle of the River Plate. After the war, Thurston married Phyllis Anderson, whose parents and brother were caretakers at Takapuna Grammar. Bill is pictured to the left in this photo with family on the field in front of Takapuna Grammar School in the late 1940s.
Shared values: The TGS Way in action
Values are key at Takapuna Grammar School, shaping how people learn, lead and work together. Known as The TGS Way, these values were the focus of recent on-site work with Dr Richard Young.
Dr Young, a performance leadership specialist who has worked across 11 Olympic Games, has been partnering with the school throughout the year. His research on medallists and non-medallists highlights the importance of “lived values” – what people consistently do, rather than what they say.
The TGS Way is grounded in three core values: Whanaungatanga (building respectful relationships), Manaakitanga (looking after each other), and Kotahitanga (succeeding together). These sit alongside approaches to learning that emphasise confidence, curiosity and commitment.
During his time in school, Dr Young worked with leaders and staff to reflect on how these core values look in everyday school life. And how they can be encouraged.
The work supports Takapuna Grammar School’s commitment to a positive, inclusive culture where everyone belongs and succeeds together.
Dr Richard Young (centre) has been mentoring staff at TGS
Standout local athletes tracking well at US colleges
Two Devonport peninsula locals, Sascha Letica and Thomas Cowan, are setting New Zealand athletics records on the other side of the world, running for their US college teams.
Nineteen-year-old Letica, from Bayswater, broke the New Zealand under-20 5000m record, running for the University of Connecticut last month. The former Takapuna Grammar School student, who is nearing the end of her first year on an athletics scholarship, clocked 15:48.21, shaving around 2 seconds from a record set nine years ago. She also knocked a whopping 19s off her personal best, competing at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
Her father Jared Letica told the Flagstaff that Sascha was loving her time on the track programme. The freshman, she is focusing on building her competition experience, with a big outdoors meeting looming this month. The next target will be doing well at the NCAA East Regional Qualifier for nationals in June.
As a schoolgirl, Sascha medalled in national 1500m and 3000m races and was in the New Zealand team for the World Schools’ Cross Country Championship in Kenya in 2024 and an Auckland schools champ.
Stateside... Sascha Letica and Thomas Cowan in action for their respective US universities
Her college focus on 5000m track events dovetails well with running cross-country over 6km in the northern winter season. But Letica has also run a personal best for 1500m.
She is due home in June-July for her summer break from track events and communications studies.
Her father, who coached her as a schoolgirl, says the 5000m target
she set before leaving has already been beaten by seven seconds. “She’s gone and outperformed her dream goal already.”
Thomas Cowan, 20, from Devonport, runs for Boston University. He hopes to transfer some standout indoor form early this year to outdoor tracks in the northern summer and has already clocked up an early college circuit win.
He equalled a national indoor record over 800m of 1:46.53 in February, gaining a late call-up to the New Zealand team to compete at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Poland in March. “It was a learning experience for him,” says dad Nick Cowan, himself a former national runner.
That record has since been overtaken by 0.09s by another Kiwi runner in the States, James Harding, who is two years older.
Cowan also held the New Zealand U20 800m outdoors record until teen sensation Sam Ruthe claimed it in December.
The former Westlake Boys High School student, in his second year on a scholarship, broke a Boston indoor record that stood for 29 years in February and was named one of the college team’s three captains. He previously captained the New Zealand team at the World U20 champs in Peru.
A further accolade this year was being named Boston’s overall male sports sophomore athlete of the year.
His father says Thomas is enjoying his finance studies course and likely won’t be home again until Christmas, but he is always asking for local news, having once also been a Devonport Flagstaff delivery boy.
Still going strong at 64
Still going strong at 64
At 64, Gerry has no plans to slow down. As a warehouse manager, his days involve constant movement: walking kilometres across concrete floors, checking stock, directing his team.
“I’ve been doing this work for decades,” Gerry says. “Standing still isn’t part of the job description.”
But lately, his shoulder had been making itself known. A persistent ache that followed him through his shifts. His knees, too, had started grumbling.
“You notice it more as you get older,” he admits. “That end-of-day feeling where everything’s had enough.”
Then one morning, an article in the local paper caught his attention. It featured Koru FX, a natural cream made in New Zealand.
“I’m not usually one for trying new things. But something about it being natural appealed to me.”
He picked up a bottle that weekend and applied it to his shoulder before his Monday shift.
“By smoko, I realised I wasn’t thinking about my shoulder,” he recalls. “Usually it’s there in the background. But I was just focused on work.”
Now Koru FX has become part of Gerry’s routine. Mornings before work, his shoulder. After long shifts, his knees.
For Gerry, staying active isn’t just about work, it’s about identity.
“Some blokes my age are winding down,” he says. “But I’m not ready for that. I like that the young ones still come to me when there’s a problem to solve.”
“It’s become like my work boots, just part of getting ready for the day. Why slow down if you don’t have to?”
Legally Blonde – Takapuna Grammar’s 2026 musical – plays at the Bruce Mason Theatre this week.
The Flagstaff’s contributing photographer, Kathryn Nobbs, went along to the dress rehearsal on Monday night.
Above: Nia Lo (playing Brook Wyndham) using her fitness skills in the women’s prison scene.
At right: Joao Diaz Martin (playing Emmett Richmond) and Milla RodriquesBirch (playing Elle Woods).
Facing page: at the top, the cast at the finale; below, the Legally Blonde dancers.
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Fresh Choice coming to Hauraki
Staff at the Hauraki Corner Woolworths being rebranded as a Fresh Choice store expect to hear about the future of their jobs this week.
The supermarket employs 39 people, many local, of whom 12 are full-time, 23 part-time and four casual.
Staff have been told that as part of the change they would need to apply for roles with the new owner-operator.
An organiser for Workers First Union, Nick Mayne, said it had 18 members at the supermarket, most of whom wanted to stay at the store or be redeployed within the Woolworths group.
Several staff told the Flagstaff they were hopeful their jobs would be retained to provide continuity for customers. The new owner, Sanjesh Chauhan, visited the store last week. Staff have been told he will outline plans this Tuesday.
Mayne said the Fresh Choice model operated with fewer staff than Woolworths stores. The union would work with members on maintaining pay and conditions in new roles.
Chauhan intends closing the store for a week from 14 June, reopening as the North Shore’s first Fresh Choice on 23 June. He is promising an expanded produce department, better flow, a service deli and in-house butchery, a broader grocery range
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and more artisan bakery items. The North Shore resident has operated Fresh Choice in Titirangi for 10 years and will retain this. The brand’s expansion nationally includes conversions of some SuperValue stores.
Other changes pending at the Hauraki Corner shopping strip:
• The closing date of the New Zealand Post agency at Valentines Stationers has been confirmed as 19 June, despite locals submitting in a bid to overturn the decision. Owner of 10 years Andy Cai said he was heartened by the outpouring of public support to retain the agency, but his was not among the 10 of 142 urban partner agencies that NZ Post backtracked on axing.
NZ Post said it had no current plans to move the Hauraki Corner post box. Post’s general manager consumer, Sarah Sandoval, said decisions had been made across the network in the face of changing postal needs.
The closest alternative agency to Hauraki was at Paper Plus in Takapuna, 1.1km away.
• Fresh Market Hauraki is being sold as a going concern, with the owner relocating after marrying. The franchise, which has stores in Devonport and Belmont, has been in Hauraki for around five years.
• The former Hammer Hardware store remains vacant, but all other premises are occupied.
Hikoi look at maunga’s Māori history Cyclist injured on Lake Rd
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority TMA) wants to better engage the community with te ao Māori history of Takarunga and Maungauika.
The outreach began this week when Devonport-Takapuna Local Board members were invited on a hikoi of the maunga with an iwi expert.
A second visit will include key community members, as the TMA looks to build understanding.
Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair Trish Deans welcomed the invitation and the opportunity to strengthen the relationship.
She said the board recognised the upgrading work the TMA was doing on the local maunga as being of benefit to the whole community and looked forward to learning more about the maunga.
Auckland Council manager of co-governance communications Challen Wilson told the Flagstaff the TMA was working with tour operators, including Devonport Tours, to provide authentic information to share with visitors.
It had also developed a deepening relationship with environmental group Restoring Takarunga Hauraki, which runs pest trap lines on both maunga. And it was working with Devonport leaseholders, such as Depot Artspace, which has the Whare Toi space on Takarunga, and with the nearby
Michael King Writers’ Centre.
Dialogue had been established with local Māori leaders, including co-operation around events, such as Matariki.
The statutory authority, which has an equal number of council and mana whenua representatives from across Tāmaki Makaurau, has been tasked since 2014 with safeguarding the city’s 14 ancestral maunga.
The outcomes have ranged from protests in Mt Albert at the removal of exotic trees, to the creation of community and event spaces, including a hangi pit in Māngere.
In Devonport, Wilson said upgrades were progressing on Takarunga, with the renewal of the old tennis courts area, where basketball, seating and toilets were being added.
She hoped a community celebration could be held late this year to mark the area’s opening, which follows work completed on the tihi (summit) last year.
The TMA was constrained by the resources it had available and the need to ensure internal agreement among its members on its priorities and activities, but Wilson said it wanted everyone to value the maunga.
In Devonport, the guardianship included the maunga’s significant colonial and military histories.
Deans noted the TMA’s less visible annual work at Maungauika, where it maintains former military tunnels.
A cyclist was taken to hospital after an incident involving a vehicle on Lake Rd, Belmont last Wednesday, 29 April.
Hato Hone St John were called at 6.04am and sent one ambulance to the scene.
“Our ambulance staff treated one patient and transported them to North Shore Hospital in a moderate condition,” a spokesperson said.
Former TGS rider takes on Giro d’Italia
Cycling fans should keep an eye out this week for Takapuna Grammar School product Josh Kench suiting up for his French team in the Giro d’Italia.
The 25-year-old professional cyclist is riding for Groupama-FDJ United this year, his third professional road cycling outfit in six years, after years of schoolboy success. He is a starting cyclist for the well-rated French team in the Italian event which begins on 8 March, one of the top three events on the cycling calendar.
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Tackle govt on ‘scorched-earth’ tree policy – local board
General tree-protection measures should be reintroduced on private property, says the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board, which wants Auckland Council to lobby central government on the issue.
Deputy board chair Scott Macarthur said the loss of large canopy and significant trees was a big ecological and amenity issue. In the board area, council’s own plan had noted trees covering 1.95ha had been lost.
A big problem was blanket clearing of sections. “At the moment, it’s a scorched-earth policy – it’s everything goes,” Macarthur said in urging action at the board’s April meeting.
He moved that the board address council on the issue; that council canvass opinion from other local boards; that, if action was supported, it push government for a reversal of the axing of general tree protection; and for North Shore MP Simon Watts to also be lobbied on the issue.
The board voted, 4-2, in favour of the measures, with members Gavin Busch and George Wood in opposition, saying private property rights should prevail.
Busch said: “There’s so many issues with inappropriate trees on people’s private properties.” People needed to be able to deal with problems on their properties.
Wood said past wider tree protection had been “a goldmine for legal people and arborists”.
He was not hearing from the community that a reversal was wanted. “It won’t go anywhere and I’m certain the National Party aren’t going to go anywhere with this.”
Member Terence Harpur said he supported the board advocating over its concerns. “I think Auckland Council should be making its own decisions on trees – not being pushed by central government on matters that clearly don’t work – like intensification.”
‘Christmas’ comes early for some
Unseasonable blooming of pōhutukawa or rātā has surprised some Devonport peninsula residents.
“In 85 years, I’ve never ever seen them flower twice,” said Narrow Neck retiree Bob Cates, who alerted the Flagstaff after spotting these blooms in Abbotsford Tce (pictured above) when out and about recently.
If anything, he has noticed the “Christmas flowers” he enjoys at the beach close to his home have tended to flower earlier in recent years.
Typically, pōhutukawa experience their peak bloom from mid-November,
leading into Christmas. In Auckland, first flowerings can occur in October. Further down the North Island, they can last in flower into January.
Nursery-supplies company Daltons says the classic pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa ) can experience a second, smaller bloom or sporadic flowering well into autumn, but this is not typical behaviour. Unusual seasonal weather, including warmer temperatures and more rainfall, can be a trigger.
Several related species, such as Tahitian or dwarf pōhutukawa, have more extended flowering.
A graveyard mystery: ceramic poppies disappear
The removal of dozens of ceramic poppies from graves at O’Neill’s Point Cemetery in Bayswater is a mystery that has distressed relatives and the Remembrance Army, which installed them.
“It’s disturbing that someone would go to the length of doing this,” said North Shore ward councillor John Gillon.
Alerted by an upset community member to their disappearance from the restored graves of service personnel, Gillon followed up with council staff and was told there was “no indication that council staff, contractors or volunteer groups were involved in the removal of the ceramic poppies”.
Ruth Jackson, a former Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair, said her sister noticed two poppies (like the one at left) missing from the grave of forebears who died in World War I, during a visit to family graves she made on 20 April. “We were pretty upset and disappointed.”
Jackson visited the cemetery herself after attending the Devonport Anzac Day parade and noticed many more poppies had been removed from other graves. “If not council, then who and why?” she said.
The poppies had no scrap metal or recyclable value, so it was baffling why they were taken. “We may never know,” she said.
When the Flagstaff visited the cemetery, it seemed only one ceramic poppy remained of those put up by the Remembrance Army and its volunteers around five years ago. A number of paper poppies were still on some graves following Anzac Day. Jackson said her family members’ graves had not been damaged, but this was a risk when the glued-on poppies were removed.
She intends to contact the Remembrance Army, which is disappointed at the removals, to arrange replacement poppies for her family members.
She has suggested people may wish to donate to the group to ensure other graves can be restored.
Flower power to the fore in Rose Centre exhibition
A group of local art enthusiasts this month exhibits at the Rose Centre their mostly floral paintings, created at regular sessions at the Belmont community venue. The Belmont Art Group formed in August last year and has six watercolourists so far.
“I started it because I wanted to volunteer in my community,” says Katja Bigalk, who has a background teaching watercolour painting. The longtime Belmont resident contacted some local former pupils who were keen on the idea. As well as the companionship and encouragement of working together fortnightly, they have the bonus of having her on hand to offer tips and hints.
In tandem with the group’s first exhibition Meet in May, which opened last week, interested community members are invited to attend one of the group’s sessions being held every Wednesday this month between noon and 2pm. As well as meeting the artists, visitors can try their hand at a watercolour themselves.
“It’s open to everyone,” says Bigalk. The group will return to fortnightly sessions in June. These are free, but a gold-coin koha is collected for the venue. To inquire, call Katja on 022 6727110.
Art ensemble... Four of the Belmont Art Group’s exhibitors at the Rose Centre are (from left) Karin Howden from Narrow Neck, Sue Cowan from Bayswater, group founder Katja Bigalk and Janet Hunter, both from Belmont
By Rob Drent By Rob Drent
In a well-run Anzac Day commemoration service in Devonport there was an awkward political moment. Wreath-layers from the National Party (sitting MP and cabinet minister Simon Watts) and Labour (North Shore candidate Sam Collins) were called up to lay wreaths at the same time. Both moved forward at the same time, looking uncertain and momentarily uncomfortable. They eventually laid wreaths at different parts of the “untidy soldier” memorial.
I was slightly uncomfortable with the Labour candidate being allowed to lay a wreath as part of the official schedule of events. Traditionally, the local MP has laid a wreath but I can’t recall the honour ever being extended to other political parties. If Labour is allowed to lay a wreath, why not New Zealand First, ACT or the Greens?
Turning the Anzac Day service into a political parade is not something anyone would want.
Rebecca Nelson singing with the Navy band has often been a highlight of the service, but she was missing this year. All was revealed when I tuned in to watch the Crusaders-Waratahs Anzac Day clash in Christchurch’s new stadium. She sang the Australian anthem at the match. Luckily there was other local talent on hand in Devonport that day. Belmont Intermediate’s Top Notes choir, conducted by the school’s head of music Helene Piper, were in fine voice, as was Milla Rodrigues-Birch from Takapuna Grammar School.
I ran into my old rugby mate at the North Shore-Kumeu match at Vauxhall Rd. He was the one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, noting he was only going to local derbies between Takapuna and North Shore, and finals footie, given many of Shore’s matches are almost cricket scores these days. Turns out he has revised his views: there he was on a sunny Saturday with Corona in hand, watching Shore beat Kumeu 72-12.
He now says we are witnessing one of the golden eras of Shore rugby, with a premier side that is one of the best in New
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Zealand. He reckons fans should get down to the ground to watch as many matches as possible. I couldn’t disagree after watching the Anzac Day match, with the likes of Donald Coleman, Hunter Rice and James Fiebig in full flight.
Local resident Braam Water (pictured), who died late last month aged 94, was a great example of someone making a voluntary contribution in the community until late in life.
A member of the Claystore workshop for more than 30 years, he was highly regarded for his engineering and electronics skills and remained active until quite recently, running a stall at the organisation’s Great Tool Bazaar. RIP Braam.
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Simple Lake Rd lane change would ease Belmont jams
There is an easy fix for the two northbound Lake Rd lanes leading up to the Belmont lights and the consequent traffic jam caused by merging back into one lane after the lights.
Change the left-hand lane into a left turn only. The result will be a single lane leading up to the Belmont lights, which then continues through the lights. This will immediately relieve the traffic jam because it prevents traffic from the two lanes trying to merge across the intersection, forcing a constraint on the other side. The result will be a smoother, continuous traffic flow.
This also has knock-on benefits. It will allow better merging for the hundreds of cars joining Lake Rd from Bayswater Ave,
Draconianism should ‘move on’
In response to Jenny Renouf’s letter (“Don’t compare Holy Trinity with Destiny”, 24 April): For some in our community, “moving on” is not a choice. As an inclusive and loving Devonport, we should suggest that such draconianism is what should be moving on.
Janet Paul
Editor’s note: We have also received anonymous letters supporting Holy Trinity vicar Chris Murphy and attacking his critics. We do not print unsigned letters.
Soulsprite
due to the over-development across the peninsula. And it drops the ludicrous option of taking out parking spots at Belmont shops, which are heavily utilised by the local community and beyond accessing their services.
As a cyclist, my favourite option would be to simply extend the marker poles at the end of Roberts Ave up to Belmont lights. This left-hand lane can then be changed to be the missing cycle-lane link that can connect to the other side of the lights. Benefits would be the same as above; the northbound traffic will still be uninterrupted, but I know that one won’t wash.
Peter Baillie
Reckless rider highlights hazard
There is a problem: shared footpaths/ pavements. In particular Victoria Rd, west side between Calliope Rd and St Leo’s School, where the cycle/scooter side is often broken by trees, signposts, rubbish bins, etc.
Recently a mature man on his scooter narrowly missed me on the pedestrian side, riding between me and another person, also on the pedestrian side,
travelling in the opposite direction. A crash would have had the potential of finishing off my walking days.
Education?
A warning device?
Any ideas?
I feel a discussion is needed in the community. People do not always walk in a straight line.
Jacquie Sharpe
has been part of this village for Thirteen years! That's a lot of early mornings, a lot of first classes, and a lot of locals who've become friends along the way!
Come and see the new studio!
Our building on Victoria Road has stood here for over a century. The new space brings out the original brick, generous ceilings and exposed beams. A calm, no mirrors, no ego local sanctuary.
Soulsprite
59 Victoria Road connect@soulsprite.co.nz 022 043 0850
This year we've added something new. If you haven't heard of HYROX yet, think of it as longevity focused functional workout stations. We've brought it to Devonport with a version that suits our community. A 30-minute Foundations class for anyone curious, and a 45 miniute Performance session for those feeling more competitive. You don't need to be an athlete. You just need to be willing to start.
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Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
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Phone For Viewing Times
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Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
A charming cottage-style home. Something truly special, you're sure to fall in love, be quick to view, don't miss out.
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TENDER 2:00pm 12 May 2026 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
VIEWING Sat/Sun 2.00-2.30pm
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
40B NORWOOD ROAD
If you’re looking for perfection, this is it! Enjoy the benefit of our vendor’s hard work — there’s nothing to do, just move in!
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$2,399.000
VIEWING Saturday 1:00 to 1:30pm
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681 FOR SALE
Prestigious Norwood Avenue, close to the Marina and priced to sell! Move in and enjoy— nothing to do. See you at our open home!
barfoot.co.nz/929931
VIEWING Sunday 12.00-12.30pm
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452 FOR
2:00pm 12 May 2026 at 39
Come along & view this charming, delightful Art Deco–inspired stucco home, situated on a freehold site, just minutes Narrow Neck beach!
Come along & view this charming, delightful Art Deco–inspired stucco home, situated on a freehold site, just minutes to Narrow Neck beach!
barfoot.co.nz/930470
Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior)
VIEWING Sat/Sun 1:00 - 1:30pm
2:00pm 12 May 2026 at 39 Victoria Road, Devonport (unless sold prior) VIEWING Sat/Sun 1:00 - 1:30pm
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
barfoot.co.nz/930470
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
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Charming character home offers families a Stanley lifestyle with all day sun a wide sea vista, set amongst quality homes. amazing opportunity.
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By negotiation VIEWING Sunday 12:00 - 12:30pm
Cathy Fiebig 021 383 149 Ron Sadler 021 613 546
1.00-1.30am
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
barfoot.co.nz/929545
Tracey Lawrence 021 1720 681
Trish Fitzgerald 021 952 452
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- 330m² Modern Villa - Chefs Kitchen with Scullery
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Phone me to organise your private viewing.
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Innes Asher has
When Innes Asher was early in her paediatrics career in the late 70s, she seized on a summer posting in Ruatoki in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
She was tasked with surveying health in the area, making her way back to her digs in the Whakatāne nurses’ home each night.
She was also the acting paediatrician for the area and for the first time in her life came into close contact with many Māori families in Tūhoe settlements at the edge of the Urewera.
“I found myself amongst a community where te reo was often spoken,” she recalls. “I found myself in awe of these people and their families. They were good people and the children were living good, healthy outdoor lifestyles and eating well. What a community I found there, and back then I couldn’t even say ‘Kia ora’ myself.”
She says her first sustained contact with the Māori world was a happy time, and pivotal in her early career. At the time she could not foresee how the picture would change for some Māori children.
Fast forward 20 years, and she encountered the soaring statistics for health issues that brought many more children into hospitals, including the children’s hospital she was attached to in Auckland.
“We observed the onset of a sustained increase in preventable admissions to hospital for pneumonia, bronchiectasis, serious skin infections and rheumatic fever; all disproportionately high among Māori and Pacific children.”
When she worked in a children’s hospital in Montreal, Canada in the 1980s, cases of rheumatic fever – about one every 3 years – would bring medical staff flocking to observe the rare patient.
Back in Auckland, the incidence was half a dozen a year and climbing. “I remember looking at a beautiful 12-year-old lying in bed with rheumatic fever and thinking of
to Helen Vause.
myself at that age, full of good health. And I thought why should her childhood be any different from mine was in this country?
“I knew something terrible was happening in our communities. I had to know what it was.”
And so it hit her. She was face to face with child poverty and was outraged at how this could be happening in New Zealand. And she still is.
Talking to the Flagstaff at home in Devonport, gathering her thoughts on her role in battling child poverty, she focuses on squeezing three decades of advocacy for children into a tight six-minute presentation for an upcoming PechaKucha event in Devonport. Oh, how she wants people to
hear how things got so bad for a section of children in New Zealand.
Asher is adamant that the good fortune of a privileged life helped put her in the position she achieved in paediatrics, that she was born and raised in an environment where success and wellbeing were relatively easy for her to attain.
An inaugural student at the Auckland Medical School when it opened in 1968, she rose to become head of the University of Auckland’s Department of Paediatrics, Child and Youth Health.
Stepping down from that role in 2016 after 13 years, she was appointed to the government’s welfare expert advisory group in 2018 and until 2022 was the chair of the
Still lobbying... Innes Asher at her desk at home in Narrow Neck
child poverty and still busting out the tin whistle
Global Asthma Network executive group. She received an award for services to paediatrics in the 2003 New Year Honours and has received a number of other professional awards. In 2018, the New Zealand Medical Association honoured her in recognition of her work to raise awareness of poverty as a key cause of acute and chronic ill-health among children.
For all the tireless work by Asher and others in advocacy, the child poverty picture in this country is still very grim. Fighting for change is the passion that still drives her at 75. “This government has abandoned lifting children out of poverty.”
When she first confronted child poverty and its direct correlation with the wellbeing of some children in the 1990s, she also realised that no one in her professional world seemed to be talking about it. “The fact of the matter is that we were all living and working in our silos and that’s still the case.
“I had not made the connection myself until it was staring me in the face that government policy changes had led to this situation. Our rate of preventable diseases in children is far higher than in other OECD countries. The roots of these diseases we are seeing more and more of in children lie in poverty, unhealthy housing and limited access to basic health care.”
When Asher took the step of joining the Child Poverty Action Group in 1998, she already had a formidable workload. But she says she felt compelled to learn more about what adversely affected the children who were presenting in increasing numbers with preventable disease.
She identified the benefit cuts and employment and housing policies that had created the shift in wellbeing. Horrified, she wanted to learn more and to add her voice to those campaigning for the policy changes
they believed would stem the rising tide of preventable illnesses.
She says she learned then that evidencebased advocacy is vital to change the opinions of the public and policy makers. But that policies still might not change and that she had signed up for a long game. She also found herself in unfamiliar territory working with an action group who talked to politicians, media and public gatherings.
While she was confident talking in her own professional circles where there was a
“Our rate of preventable diseases in children is far higher than in other OECD countries. The roots... lie in poverty, unhealthy housing and limited access to basic health care.”
shared understanding, learning how to get the message across with a very vocal action group felt more challenging. “I really had to find my courage at that time.”
Working with media was new to her but she realised her professional status added weight to the argument she was determined to be a part of putting forward.
She learned how to come up with factbased soundbites and compelling case studies and how to spell out policy solutions.
She learned to face the television cameras and put her case. The focus was that very high rates of preventable admissions among children are due to respiratory illnesses caused by environmental and economic factors. She’s said more than once over the decades: “If the government takes no action when it knows something bad is happening to children – that’s state child neglect.”
Asher says she has found working with others in advocacy can be energising and fun and that for her it helps maintain hope. It’s been a huge commitment alongside a full professional life but somehow she’s also found the time and energy for a whole other life in Devonport.
She came here more than 40 years ago with her then husband Nigel Champion to foster another passion – their shared loved of folk music. The Bunker, home to the folk community for decades, was a key attraction.
Asher had grown up with folk clubs, as her parents were founding members of the Titirangi club. She has acoustic guitars in one corner of her living room and takes no persuading to break into a tune on a tin whistle. It’s a moment of levity and one of the sort she’s well-known for among local folk music friends – when the serious side of Asher takes a break and she bursts into song. She and Nigel had two sons, Harry and Robert, and theirs was a musical household. The marriage ended after 20 years; Nigel passed away late last year.
When she stands up for her PechaKucha presentations at the Vic on 27 and 28 May, the serious side of Innes Asher will be to the fore – the tireless advocate for action on child poverty, the paediatrician and professor who spoke out for what she believed in. And she is not done yet. “We just have to keep going and going on this.”
Young and old gather with music and tributes
Youth play their part... Milla Rodrigues-Birch from Takapuna Grammar School sang with the Belmont Intermediate School choir, Top Notes (below), and led the singing of the Australian and New Zealand national anthems. Top right: Sophie Hunter and Aria West from St Leo’s Catholic School prepare to lay a wreath.
at moving Anzac Day parade and service
Wreath laying… (clockwise from above) Devonport-Takapuna Local Board member Gavin Busch
and North Shore councillor John Gillon; Lachie Smith and Isla Macdonald from Vauxhall School; North
MP
Michael Moughan, Devonport Business Association chair. Below: The Navy Pipes and Drums during the
More than 1000 people attended the Anzac Day service in Devonport led by Devonport RSA vice-president Ron Turner. Ella Buckle and Freddie Casey from Devonport Primary gave the reading and offered a prayer of thanksgiving respectively. Anzac Hallelujah was performed by Belmont Intermediate’s Top Notes choir with Takapuna Grammar vocalist Milla Rodrigues-Birch, conducted by Helene Piper. Milla also led the singing of the Australian and New Zealand national anthems. A Navy recruit recited an Anzac poem, an address was read by Navy commander Richard Walker, and the Anzac Dedication read by RSA youth ambassador Jayda-Belle Stirling. Young bugler Celine Wu of the North Shore Brass band played the Last Post and Rouse
(left)
Shore
Simon Watts;
parade.
Anzac Day
Special rugby jumpers mark Anzac Day at Shore
Specially designed Anzac jerseys were worn by North Shore Rugby Club’s four senior teams who played at the club’s Vauxhall grounds on 25 April.
The club had 100 jerseys made, of which 88 were worn by players on Anzac Day.
Some players bought their commemorative jerseys, with the club selling the rest.
“I could have produced another 100 given the demand,” said club manager Callum McNair. “I imagine we will do something [similar] again as it was certainly popular.” The Navy supported the project and was involved in the design.
Before to the premiers match against Kumeu, the sides lined up to honour the fallen. Local architect and bugler Ken Davis played the Last Post and several minutes’ silence was observed.
The bonanza of rugby was well supported, with the sidelines and stand full. All four Shore teams won on the day: the premiers beat Kumeu 71-12, the premier 2 side beat Kumeu 113-0; the under-21s beat Silverdale 40-8 and the under-85 kg team beat Kumeu 42-0.
North Shore premiers are unbeaten in four matches this season after a 55-19 victory over East Coast Bays last weekend. They play Northcote at home this Saturday 9 May at 2.45 pm.
Five-fer! Skipper gets on a roll
Shore captain Donald Coleman scored five tries against Kumeu – equalling a club record.
Another loose forward, Matt Luamanu, scored five tries in a premiers match around a decade ago.
Coleman, playing at number eight, was subbed shortly after halftime and may well have scored more if kept on.
Last weekend against East Coast Bays, he maintained his rich vein of form, scoring another three tries.
Rising prop crosses Harbour Bridge
Top North Shore prop Sam Davies has left the club’s premier side to take up a contract with the Auckland NPC team.
“It was massive decision – I had a long think about it, but for my future it’s best I have a crack in Auckland,” Davies said.
As part of the deal he had to play for an Auckland club, so signed with Grammar Tech, playing his first game in late April.
Davies (23) was in Shore’s North Harbour championship-winning teams in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons and was also a beaten finalist in 2022.
He played 20 games for North Harbour,
earning his blazer last year, and was offered a contract with the union this season.
But Davies felt the Auckland club scene offered better competition against bigger props and a “much more physical set piece”.
Davies has also been playing for the Auckland Blues A side this season and said playing for Auckland offered a better pathway into the Blues super rugby team.
He had played for North Shore since age five and felt the “door would always be open” for a return to Shore and North Harbour.
He wished Shore all the best for the 2026 season. “They are always strong.”
We will remember them… Ken Davis plays the Last Post at the special Anzac Day rugby afternoon at Vauxhall Rd
That’s one… Donald Coleman bulldozes through Kumeu defenders to score the first of five tries
Sam Davies with mum Tracy and Cam Howell after winning the 2024 championship
Mark of respect… North Shore premiers and juniors line up to honour the fallen. Below: Winger Rory Taylor goes in early against Kumeu.
Americanised TGS stars in blockbuster horror
Takapuna Grammar School underwent a dramatic transformation during the recent school holidays, reimagined as a 1970s American high school for the blockbuster Evil Dead horror series.
Scenes for Evil Dead: Wrath were shot at the school over two nights last month.
The Stars and Stripes replaced the New Zealand flag, classic American vehicles rolled up the driveway, and a professional film crew worked after dark using the near-century-old main TGS block.
The location was chosen by Andries Mentz, a location scout and manager for Auckland-based production company EDW Limited. He said the school’s carefully maintained architecture was central to the decision.
“We wanted a school that would fit the look of an American high school in the 1970s,” Mentz said. “The school has been exceptionally well restored and kept very close to its original heritage. That is pretty hard to find.”
There were also personal connections for some of the crew to Takapuna Grammar School.
Executive producer Sarah Spurway is a former Takapuna Grammar student, having attended the school in the 1990s. Other crew members also had family connections to the school.
The production worked closely with Auckland Council’s Screen Auckland team and Auckland Transport to manage filming and road operations. Mentz said consultation with the immediate community was a priority, with the locations department working with neighbours to minimise disruption.
The building and grounds were treated with care throughout the process.
One of the film’s biggest highlights for
Action stations... Crew at work on an Evil Dead set at Takapuna Grammar School recently
the school itself was an invitation for media studies students and their teacher, Sam Lilly, to spend time on set, getting a rare, close-up look at a large-scale feature film in action.
It was a first glimpse for some students into the machinery behind movies they study in class, Lilly said.
“Our kaitiaki for the day was Summer Vaha’akolo, the location assistant for the Takapuna Grammar set,” he said.
“She was incredibly generous with her time, showing us how everything works –from costumes and make-up to feeding the crew and protecting the building itself.”
The students watched as a scene was filmed over multiple takes, from the call of “Quiet on set” to the final “Cut”, witnessing the precision and coordination required to capture just a few seconds of screen time.
Vaha’akolo even held up her monitor so
students could see how the footage would eventually look on screen.
What exactly was filmed remains under wraps, with non-disclosure agreements firmly in place, but the school says scenes filmed on site were not horror scenes or likely to be otherwise unsettling.
After filming wrapped, Vaha’akolo hosted a question-and-answer session, tracing her own journey from high school in New Zealand to working as a location assistant on a major international franchise.
Lilly said this was a great insight for students considering careers in screen and media.
“Dreams of working in film suddenly felt a little closer, and a little more achievable.”
Evil Dead: Wrath, written and directed by Francis Galluppi, is scheduled to be released in cinemas in 2028.
Brady’s bunch of wins takes silver over the ditch
Bayswater athlete Connor Brady placed second in the under-18 decathlon event at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Brisbane last month.
The Takapuna Grammar School Year 13 student won four of 10 events in the gruelling competition and set a personal best (PB) for total points.
His wins were in the 100m, 400m (PB), shot put and discus (PB); with a second place in the 110m hurdles and a third in long jump (PB). In his other events (javelin, 1500m, pole vault and high jump) he recorded top 10 places.
Despite the achievement, Connor said he wasn’t happy with how he went overall. “I made some key mistakes, particularly in events like the pole vault, which cost me valuable points.
“That said, I was pleased that I was able to stay composed and keep competing across both days, and still hold my position against a strong field.”
When he steps into the under-20 grade next season, Brady says his decathlon focus will be on learning from experience and tightening up on any weaker areas to deliver a more complete performance.
“I know I’ve got a higher level in me and the goal now is to deliver that consistently and start pushing towards stronger totals and international competition.”
Brady won the New Zealand U18 decathlon title this year and will next compete in that age group at the Oceania Athletics Championship, in Darwin from 18-23 May,. Although his ambitions are to advance as a decathlete, he has won medals in individual events in recent seasons. At the Oceania champs he will compete in shot put, discus, javelin and hurdles, because the event does not include junior decathlon.
Jessica Lathwood, a fellow Takapuna Grammar School student who like Brady represents the Takapuna Athletics Club, will be in Darwin too, competing in the U18 triple jump and 100m hurdles.
Jessica’s older sister, Samantha, will compete in the senior 200m. She has recently returned from a trip to Botswana for the World Relay Championships, as a travelling squad member, there for back-up of the New Zealand team in case of injury.
Rounding out representatives from the Takapuna club at the Oceania champs in the 157-strong New Zealand team will be Olym pian shot putter Jacko Gill from Devonport and para athlete Sionnan Murphy, who con tests senior shot put and discus categories.
• Another Takapuna club member who shone at the Australian junior champs was Sina Maria Su’a, 14, from Northcote, who claimed double golds in both the U16 and U18 shot put and discus. TGS student Romey Jewell and Devonport U20 athlete Emily Cowan also ran at the champs.
Power play... Shot put was one of four events Connor Brady won during the under-18 decathlon at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Brisbane last month
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• Electronic and mechanical lock installations
•
John Bisset LtD
for 46 years. John Hancox Ph 446 0372, 027 211 0571.
• The planned new Bayswater ferry terminal has been put on hold due to a lack of funds.
• Local boy Liam Holiday (5) is attacked by a lion cub at a Rotorua theme park but was unharmed.
• Students Alice Jackson and Alison Tubby are photographed selling poppies in Victoria Rd.
• The national long-distance outrigger champs are held at Narrow Neck.
• An anonymous benefactor donates a projector to the Victoria Theatre.
• Oscar the cat, the former Vic Theatre moggy, displaced when the theatre closed, returns after its reopening.
• Buying the Devonport Wharf and a swimming and sports complex for the peninsula are marked as priorities in the Devonport Community Board’s North Shore City annual plan submission.
• Traffic lights south of Devonport Fire Station are proposed as part of the new cycleway on Lake Rd between Devonport and Takapuna.
• The costs of lighting and touch-up landscaping on Memorial Drive are investigated.
• Artists Yvonne Lambert and Julia Scott hold a joint exhibition, Solid Space, at an apartment on Wynyard St.
• Claims in a story in the New Zealand
Herald that a 200-apartment development was planned for Devonport Wharf are dismissed as “highly unlikely” by Devonport Community Board members.
• Brothers Ryan, Ben and Sam Barker take the field for North Shore rugby premiers against Kumeu, covering all three loose forward positions.
• The North Shore premiers lose to traditional rivals Takapuna 16-10 at Vauxhall Rd. Pictured in the Flagstaff about to tackle Luke Doddrell is Jon “JL” Elrick (who is still playing premier rugby in 2026).
• Charmaine Braatvedt, the first ordained woman minister at Holy Trinity Church, is the Flagstaff interview subject.
More traps planned after live stoat seen in park
A stoat sighting has been reported in Ngataringa Park since the discovery early last month of a squashed specimen on the road near Narrow Neck Beach.
Environmental group Restoring Takarunga Hauraki said after publicity about the first find, it had been contacted by a member of the public who said they had seen a stoat in the park 10 days later, on 18 April.
“This is a big cause of concern and could point towards a larger population in this area than originally thought,” said RTH pest lead Catherine Fairbairn.
RTH is looking to put cameras in key locations and will set more stoat-specific traps around the peninsula.
Fairbairn asks that if people see a stoat they report this, with a time, date, location
and if possible a photo.
The group is also interested in sightings of weasels, another mustelid pest species.
Stoats have a black-tipped bushy tail, whereas weasels are a little smaller and don’t have the dark tail tip. Both species feast on eggs, birds and invertebrates.
• Sightings can be reported to catherine@ rth.org.nz
As we continue celebrating our 30th anniversary with a range of world-class events, we were thrilled to mark NZ Music Month with a wonderful evening featuring the New Zealand String Quartet and DEPOT Sound Schools Songwriting Competition winners Sienna Fitzgerald and Emily Cuff
DEPOT 3 Vic | 3 Victoria Road
Material World by Chris Melville is now open until 31 May Using fabric, light and movement, these works transform everyday materials into atmospheric, landscape-like imagery that invite stillness and reflection
DEPOT Artspace | 28 Clarence Street
Our biggest exhibition of the year opens later this month, bringing together 28 contemporary figurative and portrait artists in a dynamic collective show Guest co-curated by Karlalise Hortsmans and Tracey Coakley, it explores portraiture as a diverse, evolving form
From playful storytelling to reflections on identity and community, every work offers something unique, with plenty to engage visitors of all ages
Join us for the opening on Saturday 16 May, 2–4pm, with an artist panel at 3pm
In the DEPOT Lounge, Integration by Louise Mair is now open until 2 June. This layered exhibition reflects on belonging, transition and the landscapes we carry within us
If you ’ re working on a creative sound project, DEPOT Sound offers a professional, welcoming recording space for musicians, podcasters and storytellers of all levels
We look forward to welcoming you soon
Ngā mihi nui, Amy Saunders
Director | Kaiwhakahaere, DEPOT amy saunders@depot org nz
Young actor’s ancestry fits the bill for
For Devonport director Paul Roukchan, staging Once on Chunuk Bair is a way of ensuring World War I history is brought to later generations. And for Gen Z cast member Jordan Wallace-Leef, the play has turned out to have a direct connection to his own family.
The Company Theatre production of the 1982 play by Maurice Shadbolt opens at the Rose Centre this Saturday. It brings together a cast of 12 actors, and although 22-year-old Wallace-Leef is one of the least experienced, he inhabits his role of Otaki George with authenticity.
“He needed more brown people,” Wallace-Leef jokes of being sounded out by Roukchan, who knew him from his first role in another community theatre production. “I mentioned I had a decently famous family member who was in the Maori (Pioneer) Battalion.”
It turned out Wallace-Leef’s decorated great-great-great-uncle was not just a subject of quiet whanau pride, but the actual inspiration for the play’s fictional character. Roukchan says making this connection has added an extra dimension, with Wallace-Leef stepping up beyond his years in his portrayal.
“He carries mana from his family and culture and he wants to make them proud.”
The story of Harding Waipuke Leaf (Te
Rarawa) was told in a 2022 documentary, The Shark of War – Kia a Mate a Ururoa. His descendant – who attributes the difference in spelling of their surnames to a family anecdote about a miscreant forebear jumping ship and adjusting his identity –says he heard about his renowned relative growing up.
He knew of war chants passed down and that Harding returned home to Northland after World War I with a Scottish bride, only to enlist again in World War II, aged 49, and die in Crete.
Discovering more has added to Wallace-Leef’s determination to do justice to the part. “A lot of the time when I think about how I’d behave, I think about my poppa – he looks like Harding.”
The Auckland War Memorial Museum’s online cenotaph notes that Harding’s battle cry – “Fight like the ururoa, fight to the death” – rang out during the August 1915 attack on Chunuk Bair, just over a month after the Māori contingent landed at Gallipoli. It says the battle cry most likely informed part of Shadbolt’s characterisation of Otaki George. Harding, who signed up in his mid-twenties, served for more than four years in WWI and was awarded the Military Cross in 1918.
Wallace-Leef says he feels the weight of
taking the part. “There’s a large amount of responsibility to be not as jokey as is in my nature.” He says the play is a story of brotherhood in the face of adversity. “They’re fighting someone else’s war and there’s lessons to be learned.” His hope is that the audience will feel the story as much as he has.
Roukchan says the Otaki George character is just one of several strong roles in the play, including a colonel played by North Shore actor Karl Buckley. In another coincidence for Roukchan – who has directed 15 plays and works in film and television – Buckley directed him in Once on Chunuk Bair at Mairangi Players 22 years ago, when he was still a schoolboy at Westlake Boys High School. This is his directorial debut at Company. Wallace-Leef, who got into acting only after moving to Auckland as a young adult, wants to deepen his theatre experience. To date, he has mainly picked up bit parts in film and television; including an aspiring actor’s obligatory appearance on Shortland Street, when he was a naked extra high on magic mushrooms, and as a stand-in during filming of a The Predator movie. “I’m definitely keen on pushing on,” he says. “This one has got more dialogue.”
• Once on Chunuk Bair at the Rose Centre, 9-23 May, including some matinees. Tickets $15 to $30 at iticket.co.nz
package... Director
SHOWING NOW
Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard & Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) (E) 114min
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition (M 105min
The Sheep Detectives (PG) 109min
The Devil Wears Prada 2 (M) 119min
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley (M) 107min
Sgt. Haane (M) 88min
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Hamilton Gardens (G) 76min
Exit 8 (M) 94min
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (E) 112min
Michael (M) 127min SPECIAL EVENTS & NEW RELEASES
Nelson & Susan Elliott
Bonus
Paul Roukchan (left) says Jordan Wallace-Leef’s family connection to the Gallipoli story has added an extra dimension to Company Theatre’s production of Once on Chunuk Bair
PICTURE: KATHRYN NOBBS
From Gospel Hall to Grand Design
One of Devonport’s most unique and extraordinary homes, this landmark village property has piqued the interest of locals for decades. Located on the corner of High Street, it was crafted in 1898 then later used as a Gospel Hall for the Open Brethren Church and has since been masterfully and meticulously transformed into a three storey, modern family masterpiece with a subtle nod to its past. In this village full of villas, the heritage elegance, character and soul here are on another level. The beautifully proportioned 425sqm residence has only had a handful of custodians since it was sold into private hands in the ‘70s, and it’s always been snapped up swiftly. With elevated views out to Mt Victoria, its north-facing position also soaks up the sun.
