Otaki Mail july

ŌTAKI MAIL

PO Box 109 Otaki

otakimail@xtra.co.nz

www.otakimail.co.nz

06 364 5500

July 2018

Shining the Starlight on Matariki

Foxx and Filly P10

BY MARGARET ANDREWS The advent of Matariki, the Maori New Year was celebrated at Nga Purapura with a family day of celebration, a day of art, music entertainment and a wahi tapu bus tour around significant and historical sites around the wider Ōtaki area.

Inside the main hall were tables of goodies to buy from artworks and handcrafts to some foods made with native plants and leaves. There were information tables including enrolments for the New Zealand Maori Electoral Roll, the launch of the Maori 2017/18 maramataka - calendar, as well as a woodworking space and display of goods made by the Kapiti Workworkers Guild. There was Starlab planetary “room”, and you could see tattoo artists at Making your own porotiti - spinner was very popular, especially with the children. The porotiti, a musical instrument, is a flat oval wooden disc with two holes drilled in the centre which have string threaded through them.

People decorated the disc using natural paints – powdered limestone, clays and kokowai, which is a special clay. The paint brushes were horoweka/lance-

Fire Brigade centenary P13

Rubbish P14

work along with a variety of entertainment and interest speakers.

Outside were a variety of food stalls – promoting healthy foods.

Zeal youth organisation coffee cart was on site too, this is used as a barista training centre young people and their music hub, set up in a portable container, was open for people to try out their own musical “sounds”.

The Kori Kaumatua group gave a very energetic exhibition of several of the exercise and dance numbers from the hour long class.

This exercise class is designed for

wood leaves. Once completed, the disc is spun tightening the string and then it makes sound patterns as it unwinds.

KCDC’s Te Whakaminenga O Kapiti organised the event, with a request for non-perishable foods for foodbanks and organisations helping people around the Kapiti district. It was a successful day for all involved and those visiting throughout the day.

over 60’s men and women, most members are in their 70’s and 80’s with the eldest 94.

Caleb Royal from the Te Wananga o Raukawa Te Puna - Environment and Restoration department, spoke on the work they were doing restoring, refurbishing and monitoring waterways, and also working with river care throughout the Wellington region.

“We have noted the increase in the numbers of banded kokupa in an area which has been planted. His Children making porotiti – a Maori musical instrument: paint a design onto the disc using horoweka/lancewood leaves for paintbrushes and paint from powdered message: no planting - no fish. limestone and clays, with a string looped through the holes and then spun.

RiverStone, your truly environmentally friendly café.

Horowhenua expressway P17

USE YOUR OWN TAKEAWAY CUP and receive 20c OFF THE PRICE, plus, RiverStone Café will DONATE A FURTHER 10c to the Friends of the Ōtaki River.

STATE HIGHWAY 1, NEXT TO KATHMANDU

RiverStone Café and the Friends of the Ōtaki River – PERFECT TOGETHER – it just makes common sense!

Open 7 days 6am till late afternoon, including public holidays • NO SURCHARGE • Fairtrade organic coffee RiverStone Café open from 6.30pm, or RiverStone Coffee Cart, from 6am.

06 364-6742 • riverstonecafe.co.nz

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Feel at home with Enliven With Enliven you’ll enjoy companionship, fun and vibrant surroundings; whilst we support your daily living through our retirement, rest home and dementia care services.

Reevedon Home and Village 37 Salisbury Street, Levin

Levin Home for War Veterans Corner Prouse & Matai Streets, Levin

Retirement living | Rest home Respite | Day programme

Rest home | Hospital | Respite Dementia care | Health recovery

Bowls, bingo, baking... there is always something going on at Reevedon Home and Village. Residents love its central location, homely environment, close-knit community, and varied social calendar.

This unique and social home recognises those who have fought for freedom and cared for our country.

Residents enjoy the vibrant and engaging atmosphere, friendly staff and spacious home and grounds.

Some things make for happier, healthier living, no matter what your age or ability. At Enliven we work with you to achieve the things that are important to you.

Contact us to find out more or to arrange a tour.

Visit: www.enlivencentral.org.nz | Free phone: 0508 36 54 83

Enliven home brings out Debbie’s social side Debbie Rolfe says volunteering at Levin community.”

Home for War Veterans has turned her into a Manager Jenny Hodgen says activities like social butterfly.

Coffee Club are an important way the home “I’m usually a pretty shy person who doesn’t puts into practice its elder-centred Enliven like being around a lot of people, but coming philosophy. here has just brought me out of my shell so “Our philosophy is about ensuring elders much—when I go out to other places now, I have as many opportunities as possible to can’t get over how outgoing I am!” enjoy fun, companionship and meaningful activity.

Debbie started helping at the home’s weekly Coffee Club in early 2017 when her mother “Apart from Coffee Club, residents here also Rose moved in to the home. like taking part in arts and crafts, quizzes, indoor bowls, themed parties and sight-seeIt wasn’t long before she started connecting ing tours. with her mother’s new friends.

“Each and every resident is unique, so we “The things the residents there have told do our very best to make sure there’s someme about what they’ve done in their lives, thing here for everyone.” they’re just incredible.

Levin Home for War Veterans offers rest “Half of them have been overseas and so home, hospital and dementia care, as well many have done interesting things for work, as respite and health recovery care. To learn but you would never know it unless you more visit www.enlivencentral.org.nz or call heard it at Coffee Club.

06 366 0052.

“I know everyone so well now, whenever I come over, I’ll go around and say hello to all the residents.

It’s almost like I’ve moved in here!” she says.

At Coffee Club, residents sample all kinds of flavoured coffees and home-baked sweet treats while volunteers help stimulate conversations on a range of topics.

“I like it here [at Coffee Club] because I like people, and there are some very interesting people you can talk to here,” says Debbie’s mother and Coffee Club regular, Rose Holland.

“I’ve always liked socialising but I’m quite a quiet person Levin Home for War Veterans volunteer Debbie Rolfe with by nature, so when I’m here I her mother, resident Rose Holland. The pair are pictured enjoy the sense of being part of a here sharing a coffee at the home’s weekly Coffee Club

SECOND TIME AROUND?

BY SUSIE MILLS

Mary and John are both 72 years old. They met 5 years ago, and both had previously been married and were widowed when they met.

Both have grown up children. Mary’s daughter Sally lives nearby and is very supportive of both Mary and John. Sally’s young children call John “Grandad”.

John and Mary married three years ago, and they bought a house together with a small mortgage. They each have $50,000 in term deposits, a KiwiSaver account and they jointly own a campervan worth $80,000.

They both want to leave something to their children when they die, but all the children own their own homes, so they aren’t too worried if they spend most of their savings before they have both passed on.

So, what are the potential problems here?

If the house is “jointly” owned, when one of them dies, the other will own the house in their own name. Mary and John have decided that this is ok as they each have identical wills giving each other’s children a share in the house when they have both gone.

Sadly, John died after 6 months of illness during which Mary cared for him day and night. Sally was there as often as possible, making meals and taking him to hospital appointments.

Days after his death John’s sons arrived at

the house and removed all his furniture, the trailer, his tools, the boat, the TV, the fridge and his personal belongings. They then wrongly used his bank card and transferred his personal funds to their own account.

They are stunned when they find out that Mary now owns all of the house and that they may miss out on that part of their “inheritance”.

To make things worse, Mary has arranged the funeral and therefore is liable to pay for it all. The cash has gone out of John’s account and so she must pay for it herself.

The sons demand a cremation, but Mary has organised a burial. They argue over what is to go on the headstone and where he is to be laid to rest.

The Will is read out and he has given all his cash assets to Sally, as she had been so kind to him, and he has given his KiwiSaver to Mary to help her pay off the mortgage, pay for his funeral and buy a new car.

Inevitably the sons never talk to Mary again. There is bad will all around and

PLANTING MORNING – ŌTAKI RIVER

9.30am Wednesday 11th July Join PP2O Expressway Team & Ōtaki Surf Club planting 1000 trees along Chrystall’s Walkway.

About 1.5 hours Holes pre-dug, morning tea provided.

Trevor Wylie, Secretary 06 364 8918 or 027 6648918 Mary goes off and makes a new will removing John’s sons almost completely.

So, what is the learning in all of this?

We can’t change the future, but we can make up-to-date wills, understand the effect of joint ownership of property and, if pos-

sible, let families know where they stand before the inevitable happens. Every family is different and what suits John and Mary may not suit you.

Locate your will and bring it into Susie Mills for a free 20 minute review of it to make sure it works for you.

Get the support of MILLS professional SUSIE advice with easy access locations

LAWYER Susie Mills and Fleur Hobson new office

SUSIE MILLS LAW

“Ask for Susie usie Mills ‘by name’...”

SUSIE MILLS LAW

Wills, estates, and powers of attorney

282 Mill Road (opposite Farmlands)

Waikanae – 5 Aputa Place, Countdown carpark Otaki – 65 Main St, previously McLarens Law 04 293 3735 | 06 364 7190

06 364 7190 office@susiemills.com | www.susiemills.com

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:3

Editorial Mycoplasma Boris has now been discovered in the Wellington region so it is high time that the Kapiti Coast prepare for it potentially coming to our own backyard.

The discovery in the Wairarapa dairy herd (and two others are being tested) really does put the threat of the disease on the doorstep of our community.

As the spread of the disease has now reached from the bottom of the South Island right up to the top of the North Island, 27 herds have been culled to date.

It is estimated that every month around 140,000 cows are moved around New Zealand - hence the reach, and even the speed of the spread of the disease since it was first identified in New Zealand in late 2015.

Our own rural community, and our town community that it supports, have much to fear from the impact M.Bovis would have on our local farming businesses; their livelihoods, our reputation, families’ mental health from the stress of dealing with the culling of herds, and the short and long term financial hardship.

And that is in part the human cost, at the heart of the issue is animal welfare.

The disease can be ‘hidden’ in an animal, undetectable, and only when it ‘presents’ the signs is when it is bringing great suffering to the animals.

Since to Enliven’s ReevedonasHome The animals are,moving in effect, silent spreaders those stock units are moved Levin in undetected, 2016, Jeanie and Huntunwittingly says she’s passing on the disease. around theincountry, never been without a friendly ear or helping None of ushand. wantPictured to see ahere paddock of diseased, (left) with Registereddistressed and obviously Nurse Dianne Bergonia. dying bobby calves or cows.

And while this disease is found in many other countries, still no vaccination has been able to have been developed.

The Government decision last month to commit $886 million for a phased eradication shows the seriousness of the issue and scale of the efforts needed to work on a remedy.

In amongst the recent attention to the escalating problem, it has been identified that despite the 140,000 stock movements per month, and despite there being a requirement to register these movements onto a database, there has never been any audit process monitoring and checking the database.

This is surely the gaping hole in our supposedly modern farming practices.

So while the vast majority of farmers will be doing the responsible and professional practice of registering their stock movements, as in any system where there is a hole to be found, there will be those who ‘milk’ the system sadly to the great detriment of animal welfare and farming in New Zealand.

It is surely an urgent matter to improve mis-managed and lax processes.

The Ōtaki Mail applauds the government's courage in attempting eradication of the disease. Now it's down to us all to cooperate.

www.otakimail.co.nz The Ōtaki Mail is online You can read us on your phone, tablet or computer

What’s ON

• Ōtaki Women’s Institute meetings held 3rd Wed. of the month at 1pm Gertrude Atmore room • Ōtaki Community Expo, Sat 22 Sept 10am-2pm. Book a site by emailing otakicommunityexpo@gmail.com or contact Carol Ward 364 7732.

• Te Horo o Kaimanga. Sunday Roast Vegan Buffet. Winemakers Daughter, State Highway. Sun 15 July 12pm visit www.vegn.nz. Bookings essential.

• Amicus Club, 9 July, 10 am Speaker Di Buchan – ‘Sun, Sea Sustenance; the story of the Ōtaki Children’s Health Camp.

• Ōtaki Historical Society Public Meeting and AGM Rotary Hall. Aotaki St. 7 August 7.30 pm.Speaker Brent Bythell Ōtaki Fire Brigade. 100 years of service • Matariki at Mahara – School Hols Programmes: Weaving 11 July 10.30 & 1.30: Eco Art 12 July 11.30: Lantern Making 18 July 10.30 & 1.30 Kōrero Tueke 19 July 11am

• Ōtaki Indoor Bowls 7pm Thursdays. 06 9279015 for details • Maoriland Hub Events.

• Full details and tickets at the Hub or on line. at iticket.co.nz • Matariki Ball July 7. 7.30 • Matariki July 3. 6pm • Kai Rou. Exhibition July 19 • Superheroes July 13 6pm Kōrero of environmental issues and resilience • No 8 Wire workshops July 21 – 22 on environmental responsiviness • Living the Change July 21 4.30 Film on Global Challenges • Fantail July 22 4.30 film • Artscape Youth Art Competition and exhibition. 8 July–5 August (see below) • Ōtaki Women’s Club Market Sundays on SH1 opposite New World • sKids Winter Holiday Programmes/ Hadfield Hall - Te Rauparaha St book www.skids.co.nz or Sonia 06 364 8852

Email your 'Whats On' events to us at otakimail@xtra.co.nz by the 20th of the month for inclusion in the next Ōtaki Mail

Thumbs up

• • • • • • •

Matariki Police for doing their best to keep our neighbourhoods safe The recently published earthquake guide Shortest Day has passed A 100 years of our Ōtaki Fire-fighters The Paris Agreement and doing our bit for climate change Our farmers fighting the threat of M Bovis and this government taking action

Thumbs down PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS, OUR LOCAL BUSINESSES The Ōtaki Mail is your free community newspaper paid for by its advertisers.

Without their support, there would be no Ōtaki Mail.

ARTSCAPE

YOUTH ART COMPETITION July 8TH – August 5th

This year Artscape is holding its Bi-annual art competition for all primary and high school students resident from Manakau to Te Horo. This competition includes any piece of art and craft that you would like us to display.

Guest judges: Penny Gaylor and Claire Gurunathan Prizes: $100 first prize 14-18 years $80 first prize 10-13 years $50 first prize 5-9 years Some gift prizes also awarded for other places.

The Old Courthouse, Centennial Park 239 Main Highway Ōtaki Hours Wednesday to Sunday 10am-4pm Entries required by July 1st Prize giving Sunday July 25th 3pm

• • •

Winter The warming Southern Ocean and the accelerating melt of the Antarctic Ice Cap M Bovis and the former government which did nothing

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Elevate Ōtaki - what's it all about?

Southern Neighbourhood Meetings

Locals interested in the building of our expressway can check progress at NZTA Southern Neighbourhood Meetings at Te Horo School. Held every 6-8 weeks, this is the place to find information, ask questions and express concerns. At the time of writing the next date had yet to be confirmed, but check out NZTA website, in PP2O newsletter and local press for details.

Scottish Country Dance

The popular Ceilidh (music, calling, dancing) returns to Te Horo Hall on Saturday, 11 July, from 6.30 onwards. Local band Mishnish will provide the traditional music (you don’t need to know the steps – a caller will walk you through the dance).

This is a BYO evening, a fundraising event to replace Te Horo Hall’s kitchen and flooring (tickets $20.00 each).

Guests are welcome to dress in their best tartan (and bring a plate for the buffet).

Drinks and Nibbles

Your community hall may have worn flooring but there’s a roaring fire (aka heat pump) to take the chill away. Join a bunch of friendly locals on Friday, 6 July 5.30 pm at the monthly BYO evening (bring a plate of finger food to share and something to drink).

Winter fitness

It’s harder in the winter months to keep slim and trim but Zumba Gold, Wednesday, 9.30 am at Te Horo Hall will work the magic. Join Zumba instructor, Rebecca, for an hour of exercise and laughter ($6.00).

Te Horo Country Market

A reminder your local community market is taking a well-earned break over the winter months, and restarting with their Spring Market on Sunday, 2 September.

This will be followed by The Great Te Horo Trash and Treasure Sale on Sunday, 21 October (Labour weekend), a fundraiser for the replacing of the Te Horo Hall kitchen and flooring. Spokesperson, Barbara Chatters, said unwanted saleable items were needed for the sale.

“We would love Te Horo residents to go through cupboards, drawers, lofts, and garages for unwanted treasures to donate.”

For further information contact Barbara 021 0362 064 (details will follow regarding dropping off of your items).

Several years ago, the Ōtaki Community Who is on Elevate Otaki ? board seized the opportunity offered by the Councillor James Cootes (Chair) proposed expressway, demanding that the Councillor Angela Buswell town recieve some assistance to mitigate the effects that the expressway might bring.

Christine Papps (Ōtaki Community Board) KCDC and NZTA were convinced, and Hanna Wagner-Nicholls (destination marseed funding of $300,000 established. keting) Ōtaki was the only town in Kapiti to receive Ian Carson (Ōtaki Promotions Group) this funding. Expressions of interest were Heather Hutchings (Kāpiti Chamber of sought, and a group of ten volunteers (see Commerce) box) christened themselves Elevate Ōtaki.

Joshua Housiaux (project engineer/mgr) Their vision: To Elevate Ōtaki as a destinaLibby Hakaraia (Māoriland Film Festival) tion, a place to experience, to belong and to have fun: to grow, to live and to play.

Sam Pritchard (industrial/commercial retail) Their mission: To enable a thriving, bustling enhanced community, building business conMark Rudings (business start-up specialist) fidence and advocating for our community.

Resisting the temptation to spend the monFrom the SWOT analysis, they believed ey on consultants, the group have yet to spend anything, except a lot of brainpower. the town's strengths were: Lifestyle: Ōtaki is Unique James Cootes says that they've worked Established Retail,Education, Industry closely with Fletchers and NZTA to ensure Culture and Spirit that Ōtaki has decent gateways at either end of town. The intent is that travellers on Community feel: Warm, Inviting,Outdoors Holiday mode atmosphere the expressway will be enticed to stop and Public awareness good & bad sample Ōtaki's delights. While still in neStrong organisation gotiation, he's optimistic as to the outcome.

Price Point, Location "Signs and flax won't cut it, we need two Iwi & Hapu Relationships big bold gateways that entice and attract Two Town Centres, Māoriland people to visit".

Strong cultural links and experiences He is aware that there is a need for Elevate Open; not built up Ōtaki to communicate better, and says that Branding of entrepreneurial skills a website or portal is under consideration Communication network Also underway is an Investment Brochure Locality Between mountains and sea to 'sell' the town to potential businesses.

Good people leading the charge Elevate Ōtaki is up and running, it wants to Collective credibility ensure that Ōtaki is promoted and recogCapacity for innovation and creativity nised. They see their influence carrying on Community cohesion during and after the expressway's construcPeople, Relatively unknown tion. If they are going to succeed, they need Economic growth potential to "take the town with them".

Expressway brings opportunities First, they need to communicate what their plans are, and not keep the community in the dark.

Weaknesses: Lack of infrastructure, low socio-economic area, transport, employment, cultural barriers, separation between Māori & Pakeha

RiverStone sets the standard

BY BRENT HAVIS RiverStone Café continues to set the standard as a business that’s part of the community and supports the community.

Since it was established by Jeanine Cornelius and Brent Havis 5½ years ago, the café has provided sponsorships, vouchers, cash prizes, food items and other financial support to a big number of community focused organisations – as well as deserving young individuals who need help to get to a major sporting event or to further their education.

Organisations include the Ōtaki Promotions Group (Jeanine is a committee member), the Ōtaki Kite Festival, the Ōtaki Community Expo, Friends of the Ōtaki River, Ōtaki Community Patrol, Rahui Sports Club, the Food Bank, and schools such as Ōtaki College, Ōtaki Primary, Waitohu, Te Horo, St Peter Chanel and Montessori.

“We recognise we’re a business that relies on local support, so we want to give some of that support back to the community,” Jeanine says. “We love having local families come in for a coffee and a bite to eat, and

we enjoy being able to help where we can.”

RiverStone is also continually looking at how it can introduce more sustainable processes and practices. As an environmentally aware café it already has certified organic Fairtrade coffee, organic milk, locally produced free-range eggs and an organic drinks range.

Its takeaway packaging is biodegradable and recyclable, and the café encourages customers to bring their own coffee cup by taking 20c off the price of a coffee, plus a further 10c goes to FOTOR.

Editorial note: this is part of an occasional column where we invite one of our loyal advertisers to talk about themselves.

COBB COURT - sections for sale These sections present a fresh and timely opportunity to purchase good sized sections in the favoured plateau area of Ōtaki. Join the select few to build in the quality development with every amenity. (power, water, sewerage, fibre & gas) 5 sections available 554m2 to 823m2 priced at 'Offers around $235,000' Roading and services to be started September/October with titles late 2018.

238 Main Highway Otaki 06 364 8350 GBR Realty Ltd licensed REAA 2008

350

icensed REAA 2008

Derek Kelly Grant Robertson 021 0832 6460 derek@fnotaki.co.nz

quiries

Lifestyle or Residential, whether you are buying, selling or renting, you will always be treated as our top priority.

Highway

350

ensed REAA 2008

quiries

Highway

Grant Robertson Grant660 Robertson 021 113 grant @fnotaki.co.nz

Otaki First National is the real estate specialist for Otaki, Te Horo, Manakau and surrounds.

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:5

EXPRESS CONNECT

Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway

Kia ora

This month we focus on the new local roads we’re building to keep people and freight moving around the district before we build the expressway.

Old Hautere Link Road, the first of these roads to get underway, will

July 2018

connect the western end of Old Hautere to Ōtaki Gorge Road. More details are provided below as well as on our e-newsletter at www.nzta.govt.nz/pp2o

We’d like to thank our anonymous supporter for

A surprise and rewarding community nomination for our bilingual signage has seen the project team, along with our translation partners Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rito, make it through to the finals of the 2018 Māori Television Matariki Awards.

competition!

taking the time to put our name forward and will update you next month on how we go against the If you need any further information please call us on 0800 PP2Ō INFO or email pp2o@nzta.govt.nz Andy Goldie, Project Manager

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

RAILWAY REALIGNMENT

To build the new expressway we need to move approximately 1.3km of railway track. The section we’re moving starts at the northern end of the Ōtaki Railway Station and extends north past County Road to the outskirts of the town.

The track moves to the west, taking out a sharp bend past County Road and creates the space we need to build the expressway.

As part of the works we’re also upgrading and extending the Ōtaki Railway Station platform. The historic station will remain exactly where it is and does not need to be moved. The platform extension work is due to begin in July and will be completed in stages.

The staged process makes sure we minimise impacts on parking and train commuters but means things will change several times over the next couple of months. Please take extra care in this area and pay attention to all temporary traffic management signs.

More details are provided on our NEW RAIL TRACK LOCATION website www.nzta.govt.nz/pp2o STAGE 1

STAGE 2 STAGE 4 STAGE 3

North Zone (north of the Ōtaki River to Taylors Road) Earthworks and construction continue for the abutments for Bridges 2 and 3 (north-west of the roundabout on Mill Road). Work is now taking place on all three abutments which we’re preparing to place bridge beams on over the coming months. The abutments will support two new bridges spanning the realigned railway and expressway.

The western footpath on SH1 in this area has been closed and pedestrians diverted via the rail underpass or via County Road. To keep pedestrians safe on County Road a temporary footpath has been created and vehicle traffic reduced to one-way southbound. This diversion will remain in place for the next eight months.

From early July, Ōtaki Railway Station platform extension works will commence.

The staged programme will take around two months to complete. Please slow down around all works and allow a little extra time for your journey.

South Zone (south of the Ōtaki River to Peka Peka) Construction of the new Ōtaki River Bridge is underway on the south bank with new bridge columns and crossheads starting to appear out of the river bed.

Over the coming months we’ll complete the columns and crossheads on the south side of the river. The public river walkway on the north bank will remain open during construction but at times may need to be diverted. Access to the south bank is restricted around our works. For everyone’s safety please observe all site signage and stay out of work sites.

We’ve also started work on the new local roads that form part of this project.

This month we’ll finish stripping topsoil between Old Hautere Road and Ōtaki Gorge Road and start work on the pavements. We’ll build the local roads first to make sure we keep people moving around the district.

South of Mary Crest we’ll continue working on service relocations (gas, power, telecommunications and water).

AWARDS NOMINATION The PP2Ō team, along with our translation partners Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rito, have made it to the finals of the 2018 Māori Television Matariki Awards – and it’s due to you, the Kāpiti community. Thanks!

An anonymous member of the public entered our names after we and Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Rito got together to put bilingual signs around the project site. The annual Matariki awards recognise and celebrate Māori achievement across a range of disciplines. We are one of three finalists in the Te Ururangi Award for Education category.

The Awards ceremony takes place at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on Saturday July 14 and will be broadcast live on Māori Television.

Contact us at 0800 7726 4636 or pp2o@nzta.govt.nz Check www.nzta.govt.nz/pp2o and subscribe to our e-newsletter

Expressway

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

He Taonga Tuku Iho Tahi ki a Maru is a new publication of Te Tākupu, produced for the benefit of hapū and iwi and the wider community, launched on 15 June at the campus. The book contains edited interviews carried out between 2003 and 2010 as part of an oral history project to record the experiences and reflections about water, fishing and tikanga of 13 Ngāti Raukawa descendants, many of whom grew up in Otaki, or very close by. The interviewees were Miki Rikihana, Joanna Hoana Selby, George Whatanui Kereama, John Brown, Amo Clark, Pita Richardson, Reimana Blackmore, George Gray, Iwikātea Nicholson, Gary Wehipeihana, Mickey Carkeek, Pat Seymour Tima and Jack Rikihana. Sadly, over the period of time from gathering the kōrero a number of the contributors are no longer with us. However we can take comfort in knowing that their knowledge and experience has not been lost but has been passed on to others through this book.

The title of the book can be translated as Return the first catch to Maru, Maru being the atua of wai māori such as lakes, streams and rivers. It ties in nicely with comments in the book about tikanga around conservation: “you give the first back to Tangaroa”’ “I opened up the net and let the first catch go because that’s what the old people always did”.

The book concentrates in the main on the gathering and cooking of kai resources but it also includes recollections of the use of water for wellbeing and healing, in tandem with karakia.

While tuna features widely throughout the book, reference is made to a rich variety of fish species and related food resources that include crawlies (freshwater crayfish), stargazers, flounder, kākahi, kōura, carp, toheroa, tohemanga, herrings, whitebait, kahawai, snapper, gurnard, crab, frost The Wānanga has always received assistance from other fish, karengo, pipi, mussels, pāua, kina, tuangi, tītiko and iwi and organisations in our development. In this instance, pūpū. we acknowledge Aneta Hinemihi Rāwiri of Whanganui and Ngā Puhi who selected and edited the interviews. She There are themes running through the book which are part has produced a fantastic piece of work of great value to the of almost every conversation. There are expressions of respective whānau featured, to the hapū and iwi of Ngāti sadness, anger and joy.

Raukawa, to the ART Confederation and to the nation. We Sadness is expressed about the former abundance of kai also thank the JR McKenzie Trust for their support. that has been depleted over time through drainage for farmland, rearrangement of the natural course of streams and rivers and increased rural and urban development. “When Copies of the publication are available at no cost through I was growing up, there was an abundance of fish that tetakupusales@twor-otaki.ac.nz. came up the Ōtaki River, especially kahawai … As a child I used to go whitebaiting and I couldn’t even carry my tin Visit us at 144 Tasman Road, Ōtaki back it was so full. But that’s all gone now.” “You could Call us on 0800 WANANGA or throw out a land line off Ōtaki Beach and get snapper. You could go to the Ōtaki River and catch a big kahawai. It Email us at tetomonga@twor-ōtaki.ac.nz was easy to get a feed because everything was so plentiful.

I feel privileged to have lived that, but I also feel sad to think we’ll never see it again. I’ll never see huge shoals of whitebait coming up the river again.”

Many of the interviewees conveyed anger about commercial fishing and pollution of waterways.

“I’m dead against commercial eel fishing. They take everything out of the stream, even the small ones and all the breeding stock. It’s all about the mighty dollar. Everyone is so greedy for the dollar that they turn their eyes away from the truth.” “Everything started going to pieces around the 1960s and 1970s.

The Council chopped down all the trees and used big draglines that disturbed the creek bed as it had been for hundreds of years. Then they discharged sewerage into it.”

But there is also joy of childhood memories - having grown up surrounded by whānau, being guided by parents, aunts, uncles and elders. “Everybody would share kai and help each other. We would light a fire on the bank to cook and heat water. It was a lot of fun.” Joy was also expressed at being able to provide for others. “For my brothers and I, as children, our life revolved around getting kai for other people. It’s Mickey Carkeek, Jack Rikihana, Carol McDonald, Mary what our father and uncles did, so that was our life Wehipeihana, Gary Wehipeihana Jnr, Pat Seymour Tima and too … They were great times”.

George Gray pictured at the launch

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:7

Continuing success for young Ōtaki filmmakers

BY WHARE AKUHATA Two Ōtaki schools, Te Kura-a-iwi o Whakatupuranga Rua Mano and Ōtaki homeschoolers recently made it into the finals of the Roxy5 Short Film Competition.

Philly Metekingi, Maisy Kingsford-Brown, ko Oriwa Hakaraia made up the team from Whakatupuranga Rua Mano. Their entry titled Kia Ora and the greeting was one of the elements to be used in the film.

Director Philly Metekingi said the film was about a young girl who keeps seeing a koroua but fails to appreciate his wealth of wisdom. She finds out only after his death.

The film was made in memory of Ōtaki kaumatua Uncle Rowdy Akuhata. Ōtaki homeschoolers were the other finalists in the junior section for their film Prank Wars. The film was about sibling rivalry and together with friends engage in

pranking each other.

Thirty-nine schools from the greater Wellington region competed with ten teams making it through to the final. Roxy5 is an annual short film competition for school students years 7-13. Students are challenged to create their own short film incorporating three essential elements unique to each year. This year the elements were a piece of string, the words kia ora and a star. The programme prizes included Best Film - Senior (years 9-13) and Best Film - Junior (years 7-8). Neither of the two teams gained any of the major prizes but the judges complimented both teams and said the competition was very close.

The successful teams were invited to an award ceremony where the prize winners were announced. The red carpet event was held at The Roxy Cinema in Miramar, Wellington.

Poipoia te kākano, kia puāwai stars Maisy Kingsford-Brown, Director, Philly Metekingi, and editor Oriwa Hakaraia.

Also last month promising movie maker Philly was invited to the Wairoa Film Festival where her short film Inanga was shown.

Friends Brave the Cold to Plant

BY MARGARET ANDREWS The Friends of the Ōtaki River held one of the last planting days for the season last Sunday, with 1,000 native trees, shrubs, flax and grasses planted along the Chrystalls Walkway next to the arboretum. Ōtaki’s Concrete Doctors, sponsored $5,000 for the plants.

Peter and Ann Marie Housiaux and several of their employees arrived at the planting armed with gumboots, shovels and spades to help plant.

“Peter and Ann Marie, this is just another example of their contribution to the community.” FOTOR secretary Trevor Wylie said.

Thirty to 40 people turned out on the cold, damp morning to help with the planting, their task eased, thanks to the guys at the Ōtaki River Greater Wellington Regional Council depot, who dig all the holes with their mechanical digger prior to the planting. All the plants were laid out at the holes and a fertilizer tablet dropped into each hole ready for the plants, so the day’s workers only had to drop each plant in and fill the hole. Still it’s not the pleasantest task on a cold and drizzly morning.

The final planting day for this year will Brrrr...Peter and Ann Marie Hosiaux be on Wednesday July 11 at 9.30am, braved the cold and damp to plant along Chrystalls Walkway. This section is dedicated to Fletchers, contractors for the Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway and also to Ōtaki Surf Club.

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The successful short films can be seen online at the Roxy5 website: Kia ora, https://vimeo.com/270565038, Prank Wars, https://vimeo.com/270540153

Page:8

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Live well, get well, stay well

Ōtaki’s Health and Wellbeing Plan.

Ōtaki Community

Health Centre 186 Mill Road, Otaki

Ōtaki Women’s Health Centre

MidCentral DHB

Yoga – Tues nights & Thurs mornings

District Nurse Wound Clinic The MenzShed The Hearing Company Skintech Kapiti

Sexual Health Clinics Cervical Screening Clinics Counselling Total Mobility Agent Health Information

Ann-Marie Stapp – Social Work Practitioner Narcotics Anonymous

By Ann Chapman

Alcohol & Other Drugs Service Child, Adolescent & Family Mental Health Service (CAFS) Adult Mental Health Service

Rooms available for rent, long or short term For information on services phone Janet or Michelle on 364 6367

MidCentral Health has been working with the various communities within its district over the last months working on locality health plans for each distinct area. In Ōtaki the following areas have been identified as being of primary importance. There are four community priority areas: 1. Access to Healthcare Easy access to healthcare when people need it 2. Mental Health and Addiction Improved Mental Health and Addiction support in the community.

3. Better Communication and Connection A district with quality communications and connections between health services, people, families/ whānau and our community.

4. Healthy Living A well community where everyone is supported to have quality living and healthy and active lives The Health and Wellbeing Plan is a collective approach, where health personnel and its partners have committed to work together to improve health outcomes for our community.

So what will this mean for Ōtaki residents?

The Plan has a series of actions outlining what health and its partners will do over the next five years.

Some of these actions have already started. MidCentral looks forward to working with our community to create better health outcomes for Ōtaki.

For a copy of the Plan, visit www.midcentraldhb.govt.nz/engage or email planning4health@midcentraldhb.govt.nz

STRESSED OUT? Free counselling is available For Parents/Caregivers with children 0 to 17 Years.

Otaki Women's Health Centre is offering free counselling Tuesdays by appointment.

06 364 63067 Anyone affected by cancer, whether they are the patient or support person is welcome to contact our new coordinator, Amber Marshall who extends an invitation to the Ōtaki Community to have a monthly support group meeting.

Amber.Marshall@cancercd.org.nz ph 06 367 8065 fax 06 367 8057 mob 027 542 0066

Cancer Society shop 112 Winchester Street, Levin Mon-Fri 9am-3pm

Keeping Kids Warm this Winter A recent study showed that temperature can change your airways which will in turn stop effective immune responses against any lurking bugs. Hence the reason why we seem to get more colds, sniffles and sneezes in winter. The lining in the nose and the airways are the main target for those pesky bugs which so readily attack our kids when they’re cold.

Keeping kids warm in winter is important and darned hard to do especially as many of our homes are not adequately insulated and many of our families are finding it hard to heat their homes. The best temperature for homes with babies, kids and old people is between 18-21degrees.

While you can keep kids wells dressed and warm with activities during the day it is often more difficult at night when the temperature drops to freezing level as it has over the last week. Dress warmly and if you can, heat the room. Put a jumper on or another blanket on the bed. But even if you’re snug in bed and the room temperature is low that can put stress on the airways causing tightening of the bronchus and that wheezy sound.

There are other ways to warm your house. Block up unused chimneys and try and stop draughts around doors and windows. Uses anything you have. It’s better to keep draughts out than worry about how the place looks. Up to 20% of heating can be lost through draughts. Keep windows shut at night and curtains closed once the sun goes down.

The Ministry of Social development has ideas of how you can survive winter.

There tips are here:

1.Heating the room

Keep your child’s room at a comfortable temperature. Options for heating bedrooms include panel heaters, which provide a background warmth for a low cost, oil

heaters, and electric heaters. Remember to follow all safety precautions with heaters and choose ones with a thermostat.

2. Nightwear

For tots, sleeping bag-type nightwear is a blessing. They’re extremely practical for night-time feeds and changing and are impossible to ‘kick off’. Use merino if you can. For older kids, onesies are great, they avoid the need for socks which go missing in the middle of the night.

3. Bedding layers

Just as we put on layers of clothing on cold days, it is also recommended to layer bedding. This is particularly helpful on those nights when the NZ weather can’t really make up its mind. Lay a blanket across the bottom of the kids’ beds. Polar fleece sheets are worth the investment as are woollen underlays are good at regulating temperatures.

4. Keep the cold out

Installing thermal curtains on windows and external doors will help to keep the cold out and weather-stripping any gaps will stop draughts. Insulation can also make a huge difference to the room’s temperature.

5. Take the chill off

A hot water bottle popped under the covers before bedtime can help take the chill off. Just remember not to leave it in the bed, use a cover, and be careful when filling and emptying.

Electric blankets are very efficient at heating the bed. Read all safety information before use and do not use a blanket that is damaged. Turn it on about half an hour before bed and turn it off before the child gets in bed.

What you Need to Know about Manage My Health Ōtaki Medical Centre has launched an online portal for its patients. A patient portal is a secure online website that gives patients convenient, 24-hour access to personal health information from a computer or mobile phone that is connected to the Internet.

Patients receive a secure username and password and then are able to view their health information and interact with the general practice team. Patient portals can save time, is a convenient way to communicate with your general practice team and it helps patients to be in control of their own health and care. Ōtaki Medical Centre’s patient portal enables patients to view their medications and lab results, request prescription refills and schedule non-urgent appointments. Patients can also securely message the clinical team, although in some cases there may be a small charge for this activity.

The Ōtaki Medical Centre team encourages all patients over the age of 16-years to get in touch to signup for the portal.

There is no charge for setting up the portal and patients only need to provide an email address and proof of identity to sign up. For more information contact Ōtaki Medical Centre on 364 8555 or visit their website at www.otakimedical.co.nz/health-care-online

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:9

Penny’s Piece The Long Term Plan process was challenging, to be polite, but am pleased with a couple of wins I managed to get across the line for Ōtaki. It’s all very well for people to present their wish lists (as many do), but as I’ve said many times, politics is the art of persuasion.

One request that I managed to persuade colleagues on was that the GWRC has introduced a new policy for the targeted rate for public transport, with a special lower rate for Ōtaki. Because the new policy makes quite a big change for some ratepayers, the new policy will be progressively introduced over the next 6 years.

Once it is fully operational, houses in Ōtaki (and the Wairarapa) will have a differential of 0.5, which is half the differential applied

James' Jottings

It's been a busy few weeks as we saw the adoption of our Long Term Plan with an average rates increase of 4.8% I appreciate for some that the decision will be disappointing after taking the time to submit and object on various grounds. Rural farmers particularly put some strong points across and as a result we asked staff for more information, comparisons, spreadsheets showing impacts and also using different models. Our biggest challenge was the large increases in valuations and how that impacted on properties rates.

At the end of the day the challenge for me as your Ward Councillor was that under the proposed rating system 95% of Ōtaki residents would have a smaller increase than they

Chris' Chat I’m swimming from Ōtaki to Paekakariki and back. I’m doing this at the same time as a group of other people are walking through water to achieve the same target. We’re not actually swimming or walking along the beach, we’re doing the distance in the Ōtaki Pool as part of a challenge.

About 6.30am once or twice a week I swim 50 to 60 lengths of the pool. I’m asthmatic.

Swimming is good for my breathing and I always find I feel so virtuous when I come home and tell my partner how far I’ve swum while he’s been snoring in bed!

The challenge is to do the 57km return journey in 15 weeks. I figure I do about 1.98km per swimming session so it should take me about 29 visits to the pool which should be just under 15 weeks.. I don’t know if there is any sort of reward for achieving the target apart from the

to residential properties in the rest of the region (=1). It means that a $300,000 house in Otaki (or Wairarapa) will pay half the rates for public transport that a $300,000 house in the rest of the region will pay, once the new policy has been fully introduced.

Business properties will have a differential of 1.4 – so a Business property valued at $1.5 million will pay 1.4 times the rates of a house that has the same value. Properties in the Wellington city CBD will have a differential of 7, so they will pay 7 times the rates of a house in Whitby that has the same value.

Thanks to the volunteers in the Waitohu Stream and Dune Restoration group who hosted me recently and KCDC’s Ōtaki councillor James Cootes.

A good chance to partake in a little planting, amble around the dunes to see their restoration work, along the way noting the damage from careless people who don’t have a clue

about the mighty efforts of these volunteers, hear about their educating of local Kura students, and of course some superb home-baking while we chew over how we ensure their good work continues.

Another recent delight was being guest speaker to the Ōtaki Cubs group. What an awesome group of vibrant young ones who are learning so much about their community, and how to help people in all sorts of ways.

They asked me to speak about goals. A favourite topic of mine. And having been a Girl Guide I shared with them how the Guide activities set me up with setting goals.

In my time I gained a lot of Guide badges, eventually achieving the honour of Chief Commissioner’s Girl Guide. I even managed to take along a photo of the ceremony, my original 40 year old Girl Guide Manual, and even my camp blanket (which had been my Dad’s army blanket).

would have had under the previous rating system. We had heard from some of those in the 5% but unfortunately, and not surprisingly, we don’t get submissions from those (the 95%) who had a lower than the average rates increase. So, for those of you in the 5%, I’m sorry but please know it certainly wasn’t that I didn’t listen.

You then hear that Council voted to “subsidise” Air Chatham’s to provide an air service out of the Kapiti Airport. I appreciate many may disagree about the discussions being “behind closed doors” (publicly excluded) and subsidising a private business. There are good reasons why the meeting is publicly excluded.

The decision was to enable the Chief Executive to negotiate. Anyone that has bought a house or something significant would appreciate that it would not be ideal if the satisfaction of knowing you’ve done it.

It’s all about setting ourselves targets and working to achieve them.

Your Ōtaki Community Board team is working to achieve a number of targets over the next few years.

We’re working with Fletchers and the PP2Ō team to produce the best outcomes possible for Ōtaki from the Expressway. Part of the challenge is to keep our focus on the big picture and avoid getting bogged down in the details.

What we call the Shared Pathway, running alongside the Expressway, will be a great asset when it’s finished but it’s very much an addition to the original plan. We’re lucky to have been able to negotiate successfully to have it. The original design was just a strip running alongside the existing State Highway.

It would have met no one’s needs. The greatly enhanced version being planned now will largely meet the needs of all groups but com-

Penny Gaylor

Greater Wellington Regional Council penny.gaylor@gw.govt.nz 027 664 8869

parties you were going to negotiate with knew what you were able to offer? On the second point for a number of reasons it is vital to the district that we retained the airport and its service. Our contribution isn’t for an ongoing subsidy of an unprofitable service. We knew from Air NZ that the service was profitable… that’s NOT why they pulled out. It is to support Air Chatham’s through the setup phase that in the early stages may run at a loss as many customers would have already booked tickets for the next 6 months or so. The deal will hopefully be at no additional cost to the ratepayer and if successful will provide a vital service for our residents and have a positive impact on our local economy. As they say onwards and upwards!!

Hei konā rā

promises must still be made. We’re working on those.

What’s called the Gateway Project involves the design, production and installation of sculptures and signage sited and aimed at encouraging expressway users to exit the Expressway and visit Ōtaki. We want the heavy traffic to bypass our town but we still want to encourage visitors.

The exact position of the signage points is still being finalised. We’re working on that.

At the same time there’s a group of business people and people with an eye to the commercial and development future of Ōtaki, working on a range of ideas and options. It’s called Elevate Ōtaki and its aim is to ensure there are reasons for people to want to live, work in and visit Ōtaki once the Expressway is finished.

Your Community Board is involved with that.

Our target is to ensure Ōtaki remains the “centre of the universe” and one of the best little towns to live in and visit. We’re working on it.

James Cootes Ōtaki’s KCDC Councillor james.cootes@kapiticoast.govt.nz 0274 572 346

Chris Papps Ōtaki Community Board Chair christine.papps@kapiticoast.govt.nz 027 201 6435

Pizzas and Burgers at Reds Café Open all week for breakfast and lunch Dine in pizza or burger with tuatara tap beer $25 Thursday and Sunday Friday and Saturday à la carte dining Monday-Wednesday 9am-11am coffee & scone with jam and cream $7 Takeaway gourmet pizzas and burgers $18 2 4 1 Pizzas Thursday or Sunday All pizzas and burgers are available gluten free, please ask the wait staff

amazing customer service, fabulous coffee and beautiful food 5 Arthur Street Ōtaki Bookings (06) 364 8722

Page:10

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

FOCUS ON — Foxx and Filly Local mother Jaki Bickerton and daughter Natalie Paroli are women of many talents.

Their most recent success was in Wellington, winning the Home and Interiors design award.

Trading as Foxx & Filly Home Staging & Interior Design, they have developed a successful business presenting houses for sale.

It all began with Jaki's restoration of original condition 1950-60’s houses. Her first project was a house they bought in Ōtaki's Lemon Street. This involved a 'makeover': new kitchen, bathroom, sanding & polishing native timber floors, total repaint, new carpets, drapes and then presentation of the house ready for sale.

In the past 4 years, they've bought six houses in Wellington & Kapiti, applied their magic, and then 'staged' them for sale.

Estate Agents have been impressed with their skills at property renovation and presentation, encouraging them to 'do it again'.

Jaki's intuitive creative eye and Natalie's formal design skills have resulted in their Foxx & Filly business. They see themselves as designers, 'adding icing to the cake' by way of creating modern, harmonious spaces. This involves choice of colour schemes and furnishings, through to placement of accessories, to make a home look the best it possibly can. Clients come from the lower North Island.

By Lloyd Chapman 5,000 visitors, and featured a designer competition for the Best Room. Foxx & Filly won with their Hamptons-inspired design, winning prizes to the value of $50,000.

Judged by the public, their winning room design echoed casual, relaxed beach living with a sophisticated coastal feel. “Our trademark as designers is our ability to create a ‘feel’ that our clients relate to. The example of this is when a person walks into a property and it feels like a home, they feel comfortable and happy.” says Jaki.

See them at www.foxxandfilly.co.nz If Home Staging isn't enough, the women have more strings to their bows, For the

Foxx & Filly's winning entry in the Wellington Home & Interiors Best Room Design competition

Encouraged by their initial success, they developed their skills with several more properties, to the point where they can buy a house that is essentially a sound but tired 'shell' and as Project Managers, contracting out the 'big' work, having it ready for sale in 8-12 weeks.

Two years ago, Home Staging was relatively unheard of. Today, Jaki says there are upwards of eight groups in the Wellington region offering creative Home Staging services.

The 2018 Home & Interiors show in Wellington earlier this month attracted over

American-bred Arabian stallions, to produce athletic horses that suit their interest in endurance events. (Arabians, unlike thoroughbreds are commonly bred by artificial insemination, so they can chose the sire's genetics from the world gene pool) Natalie and Jaki compete in endurance events all over the country, their last race a 160km ride in Kuratau in January. Challenging for the horses and riders, but they both love it. Morrocco Arabian horses are widely sought after. Jaki says that they regularly sell sport horses to the Middle East.

Their third activity is canine. They breed Border Collies with correct type, conformation and great temperaments. Their stud dog Harley is 6 1/2 years old and they have several breeding bitches of various colours.

Their foundation stock have come from a long line of Champions bred by some of the top kennels in New Zealand and Australia.

They've been breeding Collies for sixteen years and have a loyal clientele. They breed for colour, and have a constant waiting list for puppies. Pedigree pups like these can fetch over $1,000. Natalie says they're brilliant-natured animals, and delight in rounding up the chooks and sheep. See their website www.kincardinebordercollies.com

photo credit: Home & Interiors

past 20 years Jaki and husband Greg have owned and operated their Ōtaki horse stud, Morrocco Arabians, which specialises in the breeding, growing, training and riding of purebred Arabian horses. With four broodmares, they use predominantly Natalie and Jaki with the latest litter

153 Main Highway, Ōtaki Opposite New World Supermarket Monday – Friday 9am – 2pm or by appointment

(06) 364 6123 0800 367 467

www.inprogroup.co.nz With the closure of the Ōtaki ANZ Branch this month, Inpro Group want to remind you that they are here for all your mortgage and insurance advice.

Inpro Group is located adjacent to the New World Supermarket on the Main Highway Ōtaki.

The company is headed by Rex Duckett who has lived locally for 28 years and been successful in business for almost 30 years. Rex is an award winning Managing Adviser. Inpro Group is proud to have been named as finalist in the 2017 Electra Business awards for

Excellence in business.

Inpro Group has two Associate Insurance Advisers and two Associate Mortgage Advisers.

It also has five office staff all of which are friendly, knowledgeable and ready to help new and existing clients.

• First home buyer mortgages • Debt Consolidation • Mortgage refinancing • Investment Property lending • All Insurance covers • Local knowledge/local people • Honest & Friendly • Free Services There is no need to go out of town for any mortgage or insurance advice.

You just need to call into the office or telephone 0800 367 467 to arrange a meeting with one of their Advisers.

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:11

Voter apathy in Electra election

St John Horowhenua

Enhancing health and wellbeing From the Area Committee for Horowhenua and Ōtaki The work of St John is largely based on the goodwill of many volunteers who selflessly give their time to make a positive difference to our communities.

This is National Volunteer Week and I take this opportunity to publicly thank all our volunteers who are instrumental in helping provide our services and community programmes locally.

This includes our volunteer ambulance officers, event first aiders, Caring Callers, St John Youth leaders, and the volunteers in our op shops in Levin and Ōtaki .

Also relying entirely on volunteers is our Health Shuttle service that transports people to medical and health-related appointments locally and in Palmerston North - and then brings them home again. With two shuttles operating, the door-to-door service is run on a donation-only basis.

We certainly appreciate the significant efforts by volunteer Health Shuttle Service team leader Jen Hutchings. Jen is not only one of the drivers, but also keeps the service running by taking client bookings, scheduling pick-ups and rostering volunteer drivers and support crew members. Well done all.

Yours in St John, Clinton Grimstone, St John Horowhenua chairperson

Volunteers are the key to the Health Shuttle!

The local St John Health Shuttle service’s key to success is its valued volunteers, who also happen to be a friendly bunch with great camaraderie.

Two of the 24 current volunteers are Pat Futter and Philip Sue, both of Ōtaki.

Philip, a retired market gardener, has been a Shuttle driver for nearly five years.

“It’s been an ideal time to contribute back to the community where I’ve lived for so many years. I enjoy driving and the social connection with other volunteers is great. We’re all different, but we’re all volunteers and get on really well,” he said.

“It’s very rewarding, simply being able to help people get to their appointments.

And, personally, it makes me feel good, when I’m helping other people.”

BY TOM FREWEN Kapiti’s deputy mayor, Janet Holborow, has added a seat on the Electra Trust to her portfolio of civic duties.

Elected to the Kapiti Coast District Council (KCDC) 10 years ago, Ms Holborow (48) represents the Paekākāriki/Raumati ward.

With two teenagers still at home, she has a Masters in Composition and First Class Honours degree in performance cello, playing and teaching music in between commitments in an increasingly crowded meetings schedule.

“I believe that public interest and input into trusts like Electra enable them to make smart decisions that suit their local communities,” she says.

“I think there are exciting opportunities to build on the solid reputation and diligence of Electra as an organisation and would like to support that, while bringing a local community lens.”

Ms Holborow was one of two successful candidates elected to the board in the election on Friday 15 June. The other was Ray Latham, a board member for the past 18 years, who won a sixth term with 5,792 votes. Ms Holborow received 3,857 votes, an improvement on her first, unsuccessful bid for a board seat last year when her 3,581 votes were topped by 3,731 for former Horowhenua District mayor, Brendan Duffy.

The Electra Trust represents the households and businesses in Kapiti and Horowhenua that are connected to the local lines company, Electra Limited. Ownership of the company entitles its customers to an annual sales discount on their power bills. The sales discount, paid in March to Electra’s customers connected to its lines at the end of January, is calculated according to the amount of electricity consumed. For the average household it works out as a saving equal to an average monthly power bill.

Electra is one of 22 lines companies which are owned or partly owned by their customers.

Anyone with an account with Electra, private residential or commercial business, can stand for election to the Trust for a three-year term. Every year two of the longest-serving trustees must, on a rotating basis, either retire or stand for re-election.

This year it was the turn of Ray Latham, who was re-elected, and Chris Turver, retiring after 18 years on the trust. His earlier retirement after 10 years as the board’s chairman triggered an election last year in which he was replaced in the chair by Sharon Crosbie. The six-member trust now comprises Ms Crosbie, Lindsay Burnell of Ohau, former Electra chief executive John Yeoman, Ray Latham, Brendan Duffy and Janet Holborow.

As well as their oversight of the distribution of any surpluses earned by the company in the form of the annual sales discount to the 44,593 households and businesses in Kapiti and Horowhenua that are also its customers, trustees are also responsible for the appointment of directors of Electra Ltd. Their most recent appointment was Ōtaki resident, Mike Underhill.

The slow but steady decline in numbers participating the annual elections of trustees to the Electra Trust has not been halted by the advent of electronic voting although email is now the preferred option over the conventional postal ballot.

Elections to the Electra Trust have been run since 2007 by electionz.com, an independent Christchurch company. In this year’s election of two trustees, only 7,188 (16.62%) of the 43,254 eligible electors voted, down on last year’s poll when 8,207 (19.54%) of 42,010 households and businesses that took part and on the previous year’s 8,635 voters (20.63%) of a total of 41,859.

While the company can take credit for increasing its customer base, the slow but steady decline in numbers participating in the elections to the trust has not been halted by the advent of electronic voting.

Since online voting became an option in 2016, the percentage of voters choosing email over the postal ballot has risen from 40.3% to 52.5% in 2017 and 53.07% this year. Overall, though, the gradual decline in voter participation is confirmed in the results of the past 11 years:

2007

2010

2013

2016

2018

Above: the decline in voting: 30% in 2007 to 16% in 2018

Far from being cast down by the fact that only a sixth of eligible voters now exercise their right to elect trustees, their chair, Sharon Crosbie, looks on the bright side.

“People are more likely to vote when they think something is wrong,” she said. “Not voting is not necessarily the result of apathy but a sign that people are reasonably happy with things as they are and see no need for change.

“In terms of democracy we have an additional safeguard in annual elections with the potential for voters to change two of the six trustees.”

Pat, a former nurse and MedLab phlebotomist, has been a non-driving support crew member for eight months and also enjoys “giving back”, plus the socialness.

“Both of my jobs were very people-orientated - like the Health Shuttle, and the service is a good way to keep helping people in our community.”

For St John Health Shuttle bookings or to learn more about volunteering options, please contact Jen on 06 368 6369 or otakishuttle@gmail.com More: www.stjohn.org.nz/What-we-do/Community-programmes/Health-Shuttles

www.stjohn.org.nz 0800 ST JOHN (0800 785 646) Roger Booth and Sir John Trimmer with Why Dance, which we'll be reviewing next month

Page:12

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

All about rubbish

BY BELINDA MCLEAN What a load of rubbish!, a mid-June forum at Ōtaki College organized by Transition Town Ōtaki (TTO), fielded six speakers, each with six minutes to give their angle on the contentious topic of waste disposal in Ōtaki and beyond.

The aim was “to connect, educate and hear from key people,” said chairperson Jamie Bull. “But it’s not just a talk-fest. Out of this we hope to get together a group who will work on the issues and help Ōtaki find a better way forward.”

Kapiti has a purely user-pays waste disposal and recycling service, said Glen O’Connor, Kapiti Coast District Council’s (KCDC) solid waste services manager.

“KCDC pulled out of providing a service in 2012, because other providers could offer a more cost-effective service,” said O’Connor. This followed the council’s adoption of the Solid Waste by-law of 2010. “The council runs a license system for contractors, who have various obligations, such as working within certain hours and providing a reasonable service, but we have limited control over what these providers choose to deliver.”

May 4 saw the end of the yellow plastic rubbish bag, which gave flexibility and a cheaper service to those who minimized their waste. Four companies currently offer competing bin and recycling services, all requiring a weekly payment. Two are kiwi-owned, Levin-based Lucy’s Bins and Low Cost Bins. Envirowaste and Waste Management, which jointly own related company Midwest Disposals, are owned by CKI, a Hong Kong-based global infrastructure company.

The changing needs of the community, as well as special needs of the elderly and other groups will be considered in the Solid Waste by-law review next year.

The Council offers two types of annual waste reduction grants, funded out of a government waste minimization levy. One is for community projects, one for new technologies and seed funding.

Levin-based Lucy Montgomery has been in the business for seven years, running her company Lucy’s Bins for the last four. She provides 1,000 wheelie bins plus a recycling service around the Kapiti, Horowhenua and Manawatu districts. She spoke of the realities of being in business and struggling to make a profit in the face of competition and rising costs.

“There’s a whole list of expenses to be covered. We are obligated to collect recycling at no charge, but the costs are the same for both recycling and rubbish,” she said.

KCDC Ōtaki councillor James Cootes, also a café and bakery owner, has a business interest in improved eco-packaging for food products, as well as community interests in waste management and reduction. He circulated a photo of a bag of rubbish a resident found illegally dumped by a council bin, which Cootes took home and dissected. “By my analysis there was $616.86 worth of products in that bag, a month’s worth of rubbish at the most, yet no willingness to dispose of it responsibly.

Over 80% of the contents didn’t need to go to the landfill,” he said.

Despite the many objections to the ending of the yellow bag service, Cootes said most (95%) of people were satisfied overall with the current service arrangement and three quarters of the 4,000 bag users had gone over to bins. While he felt that those at the meeting probably did not represent the majority view, nevertheless the council wants to work on solutions to reduce waste to land-fill and to care for the environment.

Deirdre Kent, founder of TTO and now active in Low Carbon Kapiti, said Kapiti’s waste management record was similar to other councils. “Two thirds of what we send to landfill could be either recycled or composted and this is common. Our waste per capita rose 33% between 2011 and 2015.”

Tauranga City Council, which has been out of kerbside collection for 20 years, has recently taken waste collection back inhouse.

They did so after finding their waste was not reducing with user pays. The last straw was when a contractor stopped collecting glass.

The escalating costs still have to be covered somehow—bags are not the solution, and rates rises are unpopular. “With improved technology a card system is possible for use with bins, so that low users are not penalized. This would be on a ‘pay as you throw’ basis”, she said.

Pyrolysis could be part of the answer to the rubbish problem, said Leigh Ramsey, chairperson of Energise Ōtaki and managing director of Blended Fuels NZ and Nufuels. Pyrolysis involves heating organic material such as waste rubber and plastic in the absence of oxygen to “crack” the materials and provide fuel or other products.

“Plastic is 100% derived from oil. The aim is to get the oil back, as it is a valuable resource” said Ramsey, who has a plant under construction at Foxton working on both products. He is optimistic that the amount of research going on both here and worldwide will produce solutions. Ōtaki’s Maoriland Film Festival provided a case study in waste management for Maoriland Hub event manager Moko Morris.

Morris followed the Para Kore model, designed to support marae to reduce waste.

“We asked people to bring their own reuseables (cups, plates, cutlery, bags). We went to the different venues and asked them what they do, then we produced information sheets to go on bins,” she said. Waste bins were picked up daily and sorted. With composting and recycling, overall 240kg of waste was diverted from the land-fill.

Morris noted the high proportion of non-recycleable coffee cups in the waste stream. The festival was a great opportunity for data collection, prompting Morris to emphasize the need for education so that consumers would mend their ways.

The small Waikato town of Raglan is the star and possible role model for a community-owned and run waste and recycling system. “It’s easy to focus on the bad stuff, but there is good stuff happening,” said Matthew Luxon, who spoke of the work of Xtreme Zero Waste, Raglan, which is part of a NZ-wide network of community enterprises working towards zero waste www.zerowaste.co.nz ).

While previous speakers had mentioned problems with recycling because of economies of scale, Raglan with just under 3,000 permanent residents is smaller than Ōtaki (nearly 6,000). At the town’s recycling centre, green waste is collected for compost and 78% of other waste dropped off is recycled, rehomed and restored.

“Wanaka and Waiuku in south Auckland are following the same model, all part of the network of 45 such ‘passionate groups of locals with supportive councils,’ working towards zero waste,” said Luxon.

The need for consumer education was reinforced in the vigorous discussion that fol-

lowed. Also important is the need to charge realistic costs for waste disposal—New Zealand charges are minimal compared to countries like Denmark and too many of us believe that rubbish dumping should be free.

Several speakers pointed out that much of the rubbish that goes into the trucks or the transfer station shouldn’t be there, but should be recycled or composted. Lucy Montgomery, who checks and removes non-compliant items like tyres from the waste stream, said that about 90% of her customers either put out contaminated recycling, or don’t do it at all.

Central government needs to set the agenda, said other speakers. Compulsory container deposit schemes and clear guidelines on hazardous waste, for example, will only work if set up nationally. Though there are rules about the “nasties” that shouldn’t go in to the land-fill, councils do little monitoring.

The Hokio land-fill, where most of Ōtaki’s rubbish goes, was described by Horowhenua local, Rachael Selby as “a non-compliant mega-dump and a nightmare waiting to happen”. Owned by the Horowhenua District Council, the site is operated by Envirowaste, who pay the council based on the amount of waste dumped at the site— incentivising both parties to maximize rubbish rather than reduce it.

“A new government has brought a welcome shift, and appears to be taking environmental concerns more seriously than the previous one.” said Leigh Ramsey. But the country and the rest of the world is now being swamped with plastic waste that used to go to China and has to work out how to deal with the mountains of plastic we previously shipped there. “Now we need the government to reflect the true cost of rubbish in landfill fees, which would make efforts like my companies’ economic.” he said.

Matthew Luxon sees the challenge of China as an opportunity and a chance for communities to find councils more receptive and willing to back their initiatives.

Ōtaki Lake planting A landmark first planting of natives on the southern bank of the Ōtaki Lake took place on Wednesday 30 May. Despite the rain earlier in the week a sunny day showed up to provide an idyllic setting for planters.

Over 120 people attended the day, including 45 staff from Greater Wellington Regional Council's Flood Protection Department, Friends of the Ōtaki River volunteers, GBC Winstones Staff, Peter Housiaux from Concrete Doctors & the Canoe Polo Club, Grant Irving from The Greenery Nursery, and Denise Hapeta on behalf of Waka Ama. The 2000 natives were planted, staked, weed matted and mulched on the edge of the Lake, with all hands to the deck and the planting completed at an amazing pace.

Plant species included Manuka, Kanuka, Pittosporum, sourced through Grant Irving from The Greenery.

The emerging Ōtaki Lake is being devel-

oped on an old land-based gravel extraction site and this first planting is the beginning of a rehabilitation project for the lake.

Councillor Penny Gaylor says GWRC has now committed to leading the preparation of a management plan to provide the overview for the long term use of the Lake.

“The process for this management plan is just being thought through now,” said Penny. “There is great potential for this Lake, as a local facility we are already seeing regular use by sports and recreation clubs.”

“We need to consider how this works for the longer term, and what potential it may even have as a regional facility.

“As the photos of the planting day show, the setting of the Lake is so picturesque, it’s exciting to think that we are on the cusp of enabling more people in our community the opportunity to enjoy it.”

Over 120 people turned out to plant the new lake shore

Mayoress and daughter mucked in

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:13

Ōtaki Fire Brigade centenary

BY MARGARET ANDREWS

With one hundred years’ service, 232 members and numerous changes in uniforms, fire trucks and equipment over the years, the Ōtaki Volunteer Fire Brigade had plenty to celebrate at their centennial celebrations during Queen’s Birthday Weekend.

The day long festivities began Saturday morning with a display of fire trucks over the years, from Ōtaki’s 1926 Model T Ford to the latest 2018 Iveco EC1022 truck, which was en route to the Waiatarua brigade – so new its equipment hadn’t been fitted out, and all the storage sections were empty. Several Ōtaki trucks came out of storage for the display, including the Model T, in service until 1940, when the 1940 Ford V8 came into in service until 1979, and their current truck, the 2009 Inveco EC 1225 arrived and is still in service. One vintage fire truck, the 1931 Austin 7 with its wooden ladder and open top was popular with the crowd who took time to wander around all the fire trucks on display. The Austin belonged to the Longbridge Brigade in Hawkes Bay. And probably the most curious had to be the 1912 Hand hose cart which the Ōtaki fire-fighters pushed and pulled around the district from 1923-26.

The display proved very popular with everyone.

During the morning 150 people had already attended the Brigade’s display at the Ōtaki Museum. By midday with a final count for the day a record number 193 visitors, had been through the exhibition when the doors closed at 2pm.

The evening was time for over 100 members past and present with their partners and dignitaries, to attend the centennial dinner at the Ōtaki Memorial Hall.

National Commander Paul McGill presents Ian King with a 100 year commemorative plaque

Following a sumptuous two course meal, the formalities of the evening and the only formal part of the day’s celebrations, were the speeches, award presentations and cutting of the centennial cake. This splendid cake, a replica of the second fire station, was made by James Cootes and cut by Annie Reichenbach, member 189. She was the first female fire fighter in the Ōtaki brigade, joining in 1994. She was accompanied by and Graham Fox (118) 1956 and they jointly cut the cake for everyone to enjoy.

Longbridge Fire Brigade’s 1931 Austin 7 drew a lot of admiration at the centennial parade.

Annie Reichenbach, first female fire fighter in Ōtaki and former firefighter Graham Fox cut the centennial cake, a replica of the second fire station

Chief Fire Officer, Ian King thanked all for attending, noting among the invited guests were Paul McGill, Fire & Emergency NZ National Commander Urban services and Bruce Stubbs Manager of the FENZ Region 3 and United Fire Brigade Association president Joe Manihera, “… it’s the first time the Commander and President had attended a function togethe in Ōtaki.”

He also acknowledged Te Horo Rural Fire Brigade member Merv Sutton attending the celebrations instead of his own 71st birthday, Doug Garrity the brigade’s barman for 42 years and thanked the Philipp Family Foundation for the funds to publish the book the History of the Ōtaki Volunteer Fire Brigade.

“The Ōtaki Fire Brigade began with 22 members.” Paul McGill said. “During their first year they had one call out, now it is over 200 per year. Fire fighters in a community like this can be relied upon at any

Ōtaki Fire Board’s 1940 Ford V8 used from 1940 to 1979

time of day or night.

The Ōtaki Brigade plays a vital part in NZ brigades. It is a very successful brigade and is highly commended for its achievements.”

He presented an100 year commemorative plaque to Mr King.

Bruce Stubbs followed thanking all the members who have kept the brigade operating over the last 100 years and the years to come. He also acknowledged the families and friends who support the members and disrupted meals and happenings.

“A strong team needs strong leaders, you have a great leader,” he said. He presented the Brigade with a 100 year plaque from

Ōtaki Volunteer Fire Brigade’s members who received service awards during the evening from Bruce Stubbs, FENZ Urban Regional Manager with Ian King Chief Fire Officer, Joe Manihera the UFBA president (second left) Brigade award recipients, and fourth from right Ōtaki Member Parliament Nathan Guy, Kapiti Coast Mayor K Gurunathan, and FENZ National Commander Paul McGill.

the FENZ Region 3.

Kapiti Mayor K Gurunathan and Ōtaki Member of Parliament Nathan Guy both acknowledged the firefighters and their families and for their support through the year, Mayor Guru noting many had travelled a long way to attend “… welcome back to the Motherland,” he said.

With construction of the Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway almost halfway, Mr Guy hoped the new road would cut the number of callouts the brigade attended, many of which are road crashes. “I salute you all and congratulate you,” he said.

“There are a number of milestones we acknowledge over the years of service, certificates to five year silver medal to 25 year gold star,” Joe Manihera, UFBA president said. “It’s important to recognise that service and we must recognise the families and the intrusion of the alarm callouts.” He came up from Invercargill for the celebrations.

The delicious two course dinner was prepared and served by the Ōtaki Waka Hoe Trust members as a fundraiser for the upcoming World Waka Ama Championships in Tahiti.

Page:14

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Gardening with Flower garden One of the Winter joys at Watson’s Garden Ltd, is the arrival of our new season Fruit trees. We have a great selection to choose from!

Hardy and suitable for varied Kapiti conditions is the Leptospermum.

Our range include Leptospermum wiri Shelley, smothered in deep pink flowers, it’s a wonderful addition to native or formal settings.

A staple favourite at Watson’s Garden Ltd is our wide and colourful range of bedding plants. You’ll find Pansy, Lobelia, Alyssum, Poppy, Primula and Antirrhinum. Glorious Winter colour!

Gift Vouchers, giftware, garden and pest products & pots are available year round.

Monday - Saturday 9am - 5pm Closed Sundays & public holidays

17 Bell Street Ōtaki (06) 364 8758 www.watsonsgarden.co.nz

Beauty in the Depth of Winter Magnificent Proteas with

their amazing flowers Require good drainage, lots of sun, acid soil.

Hardy to light frosts, withstand drought. Good for coastal gardens and floral work. Good selection to choose from

Leucadendrons

Colourful winter flowering shrubs. Good for coastal situations.

Lovely red and yellow varieties available.

Strawberries and Raspberries

for Christmas Delight Plant now to enjoy in spring and summer Locally-supplied commercial varieties.

TE HORO GARDEN CENTRE Main Highway & Te Horo Beach Rd TE HORO ph 364 2142

we have some treasures for you.....

Garden tasks for July

Apply mulch around trees and shrubs to suppress weeds, improve soil structure and keep plant roots warm.

Plant new trees and shrubs – it’s a good time to select japonica camellias while they’re in full bloom – and add generous quantities of compost to your planting hole.

Feed spring bulbs in your garden with a side dressing of bulb fertiliser.

Now’s the time to cut back overgrown, untidy perennials like lavender, canna lilies, New season’s roses begin to arrive in garden stores this month – a great time to pick a favourite for your garden – and existing roses (except those old-fashioned varieties that flower only once a year in spring or early summer) will need their annual prune – July is the prime time for rose pruning. Ensure your cutting tools are sharp and clean and cut out any dead, diseased or damaged branches.

For some instant winter colour plant out seedlings of pansies, stock, cineraria and dianthus, and protect with Quash (safe around kids and animals).

Sow seeds of delphinium, primula, larkspur, salvia, snapdragon and wallflower in seed trays for a touch of spring colour.

Fruit and vegetable garden

Now is the time to plant strawberries – getting them in early will not only produce more fruit but you’ll also get fruit earlier. It’s also a good idea to add a clean layer of pea straw mulch around plants to deter pests and

to keep berries off the dirt. Allow five plants per person to ensure enough fruit for all at harvest time.

Plant new season’s fruit trees – apples, pears, plums, peaches, apricots and nectarines and citrus – use a long-term fertiliser when planting.

Continue pruning existing deciduous fruit trees (except plums, which are pruned in dry weather to prevent disease). Remove dead or unhealthy branches to let more sun into your tree.

Plant garlic, elephant garlic and shallot bulbs along with asparagus crowns. For best results plant your bulbs and crowns in well-draining soil rich in organic matter.

Sow seeds of old favourites such as cabbage, broccoli, silverbeet, onions and spinach in seed trays and leave in a warm spot. Transplant to the garden in around six weeks when approximately 4cm high.

Plant out seedlings of artichoke, cauliflower, lettuce, onions, potatoes, rhubarb, silverbeet and cabbage directly into your garden. Using protective cloches (plastic tunnel or dome) will allow you to plant earlier and encourage vigorous growth.

Lawns

Winter lawns need little care, and virtually no mowing (summer-growing lawns such as kikuyu and couch grass slow down in autumn, and almost stop growing altogether in winter.)

Second thoughts

Turn compost heaps regularly to encourage compost to break down quickly. Cover with old carpet or sacks to keep warmth in.

Hellebores – the roses of winter Winter rose is one of the many names given to plants in the Helleborus group. They’re also called Christmas roses, Lenten roses (both names reflecting their northern hemisphere flowering time) or simply hellebores.

Hellebores flower from mid to late winter, and often through to early spring. The open, cup-shaped flowers, which look a little like single roses (hence the name), brighten gloomy days with their nodding heads of cream through rose, deepest maroon and almost black – those with pale green flowers have a special, ethereal beauty. The species have been widely hybridised but they all provide interest at a time when flowers can be scarce.

Give your hellebores free-draining soil rich in organic matter – this is like their homeland in Eastern European deciduous forests and meadows, where leaf mould creates lots of humus, and tree roots competing for moisture provide built-in drainage. The shade-tolerant plants are ideal for use as ground cover under trees, but like any other hardy plant, they’ll perform much better if given good care.

Hellebores enjoy sweet (limed) soils rather than acidic ones, however as long as the pH is relatively neutral you can grow these plants with acid soil loving shrubs, such as rhododendrons.

Water well after planting – don’t let new plants dry out, however once they’re settled in, plants will only need occasional supplementary watering.

Pea straw makes good mulch – a good application in spring will keep plants moist and cool during the hot summer months. The pea straw and leaf nutrients should provide sufficient nutrients, but you can top-dress lightly with Nitrophoska Blue. Dolomite or

garden lime is also beneficial.

Hellebores are very resilient and disease-control is not usually an issue. New growth can sometimes suffer from aphids. Check on flowers and under leaves as these appear. Squashing these with your fingers is the best defence – leave the rest to natural predators.

Helleborus niger is one of the earliest to flower, and some amazing hybrids, such as H. ‘White Magic,’ have been bred from it. Evergreen ‘White Magic,’ commonly known as the ‘Christmas Rose,’ has large, pure white flowers with a green eye – the flowers turn pink as they age.

Most of us are familiar with the widely-grown H. orientalis hybrids – these frost-hardy plants are the mainstay of many winter and spring gardens.

H. ‘Winter Joy Bouquet’ has glorious deep coloured flowers, and H. ‘Moonshine’ produces flowers that stand up, often reaching a height of 60cm.

One of my favourites is H.x steinii ‘Clifton,’ which has lime-green flowers, blushed a pink-maroon on the back. The long-lived blooms emerge from red stems, and the leathery-green leaves are veined with silver.

The green-flowered H.foetidus is an under-rated plant, much maligned due to its unattractive odour. I’ve never noticed anything unpleasant around mine – the smell occurs only when the leaves are crushed. It’s a great landscaping plant, and tolerates a wider range of sites than most hellebores.

H. foetidus ‘Wester Flisk’ is a good one to try – it has red stems and bellshaped, light green flowers with a distinct maroon edge.

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:15

the Ōtaki Mail

BY VIVIENNE BAILEY viv.bailey@xtra.co.nz

Focus on growing grapes

Winter, when grape vines are dormant, is an ideal time to plant this member of the Vitaceae family, but wait until the risk of frost is over.

Properly sited and cared for, the vine will produce multiple bunches of juicy fruit in late summer or autumn, and the fresh, green leaves also create great summer shade before turning a gorgeous golden colour in autumn. They give a truly Mediterranean effect when grown over a pergola, balcony or deck, with the added benefit of letting in the winter sun once all the leaves are lost.

Grapes like hot, dry summers and cool winters – choose a site with full sun and good air movement – a north or northwest facing one is ideal, with welldrained, light-textured soil.

They are not nutrient hungry – don’t overdo fertilisers, especially high nitrogen ones or your vine will tend to grow leaves at the expense of fruit.

Mulch vines with generous amounts of compost once or twice a year and keep the base weed-free. They also enjoy a regular light liming – you can add bone dust or crushed shells when planting as an alternative source of calcium.

Vines need strong support – they will reach a height of 1-3m and a spread of 3m or more if unchecked. Make sure whatever support you use is in place before your grape is planted, because young growth is easily broken if left unsupported.

They also need pruning more than any other fruiting species – irregular or poor crops are produced if the vine is not pruned and trained.

There are two different forms of pruning, both undertaken annually when

vines are dormant in winter.

Spur pruning is excellent for training vines over pergolas and fences. The first winter after planting select the strongest and longest stem for the main stem, and remove all others. Train two shoots along your support to form the side arms of the T (called a cordon). Each year cut all growth off the T-shaped vine except for a few two-bud stubs, each 30cm apart along the arms.

The following winter cut out the cane produced by the top bud and cut the bottom cane down to a two-bud stub again.

With the second method, cane pruning, two canes are left on each side and trained along a support. Each year remove all growth, but leave 2-4 canes of 12 buds length on each side – also leave a few two-bud stubs to provide next year’s canes.

Most established grapes survive and fruit well without regular watering, but in a drought you’ll need to provide sufficient water to prevent the vine becoming stressed.

Be prepared to share your crops with birds, who love grapes, or cover ripening bunches with a net.

Popular proven varieties include my old garden favourite, ‘Albany Surprise,’ a disease-resistant, heavy cropper with black, aromatic fruit which ripens from March to April, the heirloom green-gold grape ‘Niagra,’ which produces large clusters of sweet, juicy fruit with a mild flavour in February/March, ‘Italia,’ a golden-yellow grape with a musky flavour, ripening March to April, and ‘Bishop Pompalier,’ a disease-resistant, large, black grape with a sweet flavour.

Talisman Nursery Specialists in Native Plants

The shortest day has come and gone but there is still lots of moisture in the soil, and therefore now is a great time to plant.

The sooner they are in the ground the more established they will be by the time summer arrives.

Talisman Nursery has lots of species that will tolerate coastal conditions, are useful for attracting birds into your garden or could be used to create a lovely lizard garden.

If you need any advice or assistance with your garden design and plant selection pop in for a chat with Stephen at Talisman Please note our new opening hours Friday and Saturday 10am 4pm; or by appointment.

135 Ringawhati Road, Otaki

OPEN 10am - 4pm Fri & Sat or by appointment ph: 06-364-5893 021 0246 4474 www.talismanplants.weebly.com

Clematis - Queen of climbers Sometimes known as leather vine, traveller’s joy or virgin’s bower, clematis is a truly great all-rounder, and can provide a range of stunning effects in your garden.

The extensive group of plants includes more than 250 species, both evergreen and deciduous, including our native spring-flowering Clematis paniculata, with its creamy clouds of single, white, star-shaped blooms.

Clematis come in an amazing array of colours, ranging from pure white to deep burgundy-red and purple, and if you choose carefully it’s possible to have a display of flowers from August through to May. You can use clematis to cover unsightly fences, to trail over trellis and pergolas, sprawl over archways or to keep company with roses and perennials – they’re also great for planting at the base of trees. Growing over a trellis or fence helps to eliminate mildew by allowing good air circulation, but avoid locations that are too breezy – the result is tangled, damaged vines.

Like most climbers clematis like to keep their feet cool, while their heads bask in sunshine. Plant in good soil enriched with blood and bone, compost or well-rotted manure, and keep roots cool by placing a large stone at the base of plant.

Before planting give your plant a soak in a bucket of water, then gently tease out roots if they’re pot-bound.

Bury the plant deep, 10-15cm deeper than it was in the planter-bag. This protects against clematis wilt, a fungal disease that attacks the stem. If you bury the plant it gives it a second chance if clematis wilt strikes by enabling it to send up new stems.

Pruning is important, and how you approach the task depends on the group of clematis you have.

The first group consists of late flowering types, which flower in summer and autumn on new growth produced that season. If you don’t prune, they continue to grow in spring from where they’ve flowered the previous year, leading plants to become bare at the base, with flowers only at top.

To prune this group, which includes ‘Duchess of Albany,’ ‘Jackmanii,’ and ‘Ville de Lyon’, cut back entire plant to just above the lowest pair of strong buds during mid to late winter.

The second group covers early-flowering types, such as Clematis alpine, Clematis macropetala and Clematis montana. These vigorous vines flower in late spring, some continuing into early summer, and produce flowers on short stems from growth produced previous summer.

For the first year procedure is similar to the first group.

But once a framework is established, prune back any stems that have produced flowers to within a few centimetres of the main structure of plant.

The third group includes the spectacular large-flowering hybrids that flower from late spring to mid summer on stems formed the previous year. These require careful attention if they are to perform well. Cut back new plants in late winter to the lowest pair of strong buds, and between late spring and early summer train growths up your support. The following winter cut back all main growths by half, to a strong pair of buds.

During summer train your young vine to establish a basic framework, and immediately after flowering cut back

Clematis paniculata

mature shoots by a quarter to a third, until they are within 30cm of base. Guide and tie any new basal shoots that develop from the cut stems.

Most of all, remember when selecting clematis to note which type you’re buying so you know its pruning requirements.

Clematis Montana Elizabeth Tig

Page:16

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Ōtaki Update June 2018

Core elements of long term plan adopted After considering feedback from the community, last week the Council agreed on the core components of the 20-year plan for Kāpiti.

These decisions will mean an average rates increase of 4.8% across the District for 2018/19 – although increases will vary for individual properties. The full long term plan is due to be adopted on 28 June.

Register your canine companions

Ōtaki artists awarded Creative NZ grants

In-home waste and rubbish advice

Keep an eye on your letterbox this week because Marley’s coming your way.

Ōtaki creatives recently received funding from the Creative Communities Scheme.

He wants to remind you that this year’s dog registration kicks off 1 July. New this year, we’re launching an easier way to register your canine online.

Ōtaki Pottery Club received funding to run clay workshops for young people, while Hohepa Quentin Te Aroha Thompson will create a collection of art murals (including whakatauki) in Ōtaki to raise visibility of Māori and Pakeha language and imagery.

And a theatrical event will see a new Renee play celebrating 125 years of Women’s Suffrage. To apply for the next round of grants, visit kapiticoast.govt.nz/creativecommunities.

Do you need a hand figuring out your best options when it comes to waste minimisation and rubbish disposal?

But hurry - registrations close 31 July, then we’re switching gears and starting our dog control bylaw and policy consultation. Woof!

Funded by central government’s waste levy, we’ve now got an advisor on board who offers free, in-person advice to help you work through your options and try to find a solution that suits you. This service is available for everyone, but will particularly suit those who find the recycling and rubbish disposal options restrictive or tough due to accessibility, illness or cost issues.

Give us a call on 0800 486 486 to book a face -to-face appointment.

kapiticoast.govt.nz

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:17

O2NL rumbles on - or does it?

BY TOM FREWEN Some 500 property owners between Ōtaki and Levin have to wait at least another three months for the Labour-led coalition government to decide whether the proposed four-lane expressway will go ahead.

Owners of properties along nine potential routes for the O2NL expressway project have received letters from the government’s transport agency (NZTA) informing them that the whole project was being “re-evaluated”. They had been expecting NZTA’s decision — promised for mid-June — on its preferred route for the expressway.

Their expectation that years of uncertainty — the latest phase of planning improvements or replacement of SH1 north of Ōtaki began in 2011 — were coming to end was reinforced by the timing of NZTA’s monthly board meeting on Friday 15 June. But the day before the meeting, NZTA’s director of regional relationships, Emma Speight, was reported by Stuff as saying the Ōtaki to Levin project needed "re-evaluation" to better align with the new Labour-led Government's transport policy.

"Once it has been re-evaluated, it will be reconsidered," she said.

The decision to “re-evaluate” the O2NL expressway project had actually been made back in April. Doubts about the project’s future were raised by the government’s release of its Policy Statement on Land Transport on Tuesday 3 April. A new emphasis on safety and public transport prompted speculation that funding for new roads would be diverted to building projects such as light rail in Auckland.

Labour’s Transport Minister, Phil Twyford, responded to National Party predictions that O2NL, ranked a low six out of eight major new roading projects, was doomed. He told the NZ Herald on Friday 13 April that nothing had changed with the progress of the Ōtaki to North of Levin (O2NL) expressway. It was in the planning phase, exactly as it was before the recently released draft

Government Policy Statement (GPS) on land transport.

"Once route selection is finalised, there will be public consultation, then it will be up to the NZTA board to make the final selection,” he said.

But two weeks later, NZTA topped its fast-growing mountain of planning documents with a new 189-page tome called the “Draft Transport Agency Investment Proposal 2018-19”. It notes: “The SH1 Otaki to North of Levin improvement project is currently scoped to focus on reducing travel times. The corridor is an area of significant safety concern, and we are committed to improved safety outcomes in this corridor.

The improvement project for this corridor will be re-evaluated to better align with the Government’s new priorities, with a particular focus on improving safety.”

The decision to “re-evaluate” the O2NL remains buried for another fortnight at the bottom of page 100 of the NZTA’s draft investment proposal, only surfacing on Thursday 14 June when Ms Speight’s statements are reported by Stuff in some editions of its newspapers and on its website. Official confirmation follows a week later with a “Project Update” on Thursday 21 June, promising “a further update once the project has been re-evaluated. This is expected to be in two to three months.”

In a separate statement, supplied to the Mail in response to questions aimed at learning how the promised announcement of a preferred route was sidelined by the decision to “re-evaluate” the whole project, Ms Speight said: “We published the draft TAIP on our website and provided a statement to the media who contacted us.”

That would have been Stuff reporters, presumably checking on the expected announcement of a preferred route, obliquely acknowledged later in the statement.

“During public engagement earlier this year on the shortlisted corridor options, the NZ Transport Agency’s programme indicated a

preferred corridor would be announced in mid-2018. However, we also made it clear the next steps for the project would take into account the GPS (Government Policy Statement) on Land Transport which had not been announced at the time.”

The Government Policy Statement is set to be published by Sunday 30 June. The NZTA’s planners expect to take two or three months to “align” their projects to the big picture policy set by the Labour and Green transport ministers. If the O2NL expressway survives, a decision on a preferred route could be expected in October. More likely, though, if the 02NL project does go ahead, further public consultation on the route should ensure that a final decision will be pushed well into next year.

“We acknowledge that the current lack of certainty is a cause of concern and frustration for many communities and people affected by the project,” says Ms Speight.

“Concern and frustration” doesn’t even begin to cover the reaction of the Horowhenua District Council to the delayed decision on a route and the long-awaited Levin by-pass.

Transport spokesman, Cr Bernie Wanden, said the council and residents had put a huge amount of work into the consultation process involved in the choice of route.

“We are now in a holding pattern and we have deep sympathy for the property owners whose lives are stalled.

“Most people accept the need for the expressway and now we are going backwards.

The existing SH1 is not fit for purpose in terms of safety or volume of traffic.

Mr Wanden said the delay was limiting the council’s ability to plan for the future while the region was in a growth phase with record numbers of residential building consent applications.

In Manakau, Judy Webby, spokesperson said she was appalled at the delay to the announcement of a preferred route.

“At the NZTA pop-up shop and public consultation meetings the overwhelming feedback from the public was the wish for a route to be announced and the torment

of not knowing if their property would be affected to stop.

“NZTA representatives repeatedly stated that a proposed route would be selected at the NZTA meeting of Friday 15 June and announced in July. “The second round of consultation over the shortlisted options was postponed from November 2017 to February 2018 because of the change of Government. Since then we have been assured in media statements by Minister of Transport Phil Twyford and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern that the O2NL project would continue. So this most recent postponement is a great disappointment.”

The delay prevented Manakau’s residents from planning ahead, either as individual property owners or as a village, she said.

“NZTA’s option S6 indicates that 106 dwellings along that 14.7km section would be affected, but the short section between North and South Manakau roads which includes a wide fertile valley, contains 100 properties, with six houses currently under construction.

“As the valley is a natural sound-shell, all these properties would be affected greatly by the proposed route with only the directly affected having the option of compensation from NZTA. “No matter which southern option was chosen, a large proportion of the population of Manakau would be displaced, but likely to want to stay in the area. Horowhenua District Council recognised this and identified areas of subdivisable land west of the existing SH1 and each side of Waikawa Beach Road, retaining access to the village amenities such as the school.

“We thought that the next community discussion Manakau would be having would be what nature this sub-division might be, maybe an Eco Village?

“But now we are just back to waiting for a proposed route to be announced, we can only hope that the next NZTA project update is not of yet another postponement,” Mrs Webby said.

Property Brokers can be found from Waikato to North Otago

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Page:18

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Ever thought of playing Petanque?

BY CAROLYN GRAHAM Recently the French rugby team was seen playing petanque on a street in Auckland.

And petanque is played right here in Ōtaki.

The Ōtaki Petanque Club was formed in 2003 when the Bowling Club made a decision to develop another sport at their venue in Waerenga Rd. A keen group of people then developed the playing areas known as pistes.

So what is petanque? The game originated in southern France at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a team sport and is played with one, two or three players in each team. Each player uses metal boules (balls) which weigh about 680gms and easily fit into the palm of your hand.

A game consists of a number of ends.

The “coch” (or jack) is thrown up the piste and each team then tries to get as many

Rotary honours Carl Lutz at changeover

boules as possible close to the coch.

The team with the closest boule wins the end and scores one point for each of its boules that is closer to the coch than other team's closest boule. Games are usually limited to 50 minutes and always finish when one team has got 13 points.

The Ōtaki club meets every Wednesday and Sunday at 1.15pm, and Friday at 2pm.

There are friendly and competitive games.

Petanque has a strong following in the Wellington region with many interclub features.

The players usually retire to the clubhouse for refreshments at the end of play.

You are welcome to come and watch and try your hand at the game. There are a lot of experts, including NZ team members, in the club to help develop your play.

Ōtaki Rotary Club recently enjoyed their annual Changeover Dinner, when President Derek Chisholm handed over the Chain of Office to incoming President Warren Irving.

A significant event also took place when Carl Lutz was presented by newly installed Club President Warren with a Sapphire Pin to go with the Paul Harris Fellowship he already had. This was in recognition of his outstanding and continuing service to Rotary and the Ōtaki community over 50 years.

District Governor Mitch Brown also presented Carl with a citation letter from incoming Rotary International President Ian Riseley, commending him for his 50 years in Rotary. Carl is still a Outgoing President Derek Chisholm pinning badge of very active member of the Club, office to Warren Irving participating in all activities.

President Warren Irving, Carl Lutz and District Governor Mitchell Brown

what better relaxation than an afternoon on the piste in Waerenga Road?

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Eddie’s also the current president of the Professionals Group and to cap it off he’s the Chair for Rotary, Kapiti. He’s never far from Otaki’s Main Highway office, dropping in to help with advice and support for the Otaki agents as they work to give the very best in service and results for their vendors, purchasers and investors.

Sarah Lange 022 3177613 sarah@dwre.co.nz Sarah is working hard to find land for development in Otaki.

She has been inspired by her results with Millhaven Place and is keen to repeat that success.

Jenny Rogers 021 244 9796 jenny@dwre.co.nz Jenny has had good results with selling investment property this month. As well as sales she is always keen to expand her management portfolio. If you have a rental property and are interested in a property manager extraordinaire then give her a call.

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:19

Hospice veteran volunteers

BY MARGARET ANDREWS Three of Ōtaki’s Arohanui Hospice Shop volunteers have been with them since day one. All three are in their late 80’s and have turned up for their duty days, almost without fail for five years.

Velda Harrison 89, was working her last day when the Ōtaki Mail called. She and Margaret White 85, were enjoying a special morning tea put on by the Ōtaki team to mark their long service. Sadly the third and oldest member, Eve Durrant had to miss the day, being on enforced rest after a fall, but she will be back in time for their fifth birthday celebrations in July.

Velda has been travelling down from Levin for most of that time but she’s finding the return drive getting more difficult. After a bit of “digging” Velda admitted to doing 20 years of volunteering with various organisations in Ōtaki and the last five years in Levin.

“I think 89 is time to give up,” she said “It’s a lovely place

to work. Every day is different and the staff care for their volunteers.”

Both Margaret and Velda are backroom girls, working out in the store rooms checking and pricing goods, Margaret in the preloved clothing room and Velda in the small household goods section.

“Everything is priced reasonably and it’s in good condition,” Margaret said. Ōtaki co-manager Aroha Cook spoke highly of all their volunteers, but has a special ‘soft spot’ for their octogenarians, “They’re so precious, they’re team players and we’re lucky to have them. Velda is often here before me in the mornings. They’re fantastic and I’ve loved working with them. I’ve worked with them for five years.” she said.

“We’re happy whanau here. There’s lots of love here.”

Aroha has been at the branch for since it opened. She began as a volunteer, later becoming a casual reliever and manager the following year.

KĀPITI COAST DISTRICT COUNCIL MEETINGS IN JULY 2018 Thursday

5 July

Public Forum

9.30 am

Thursday

5 July

10.00 am

Tuesday

17 July

Thursday

19 July

Thursday

26 July

Operations and Finance Committee Te Whakaminenga o Kāpiti Audit and Risk Committee Public Forum

Thursday

26 July

Tuesday

31 July

Tuesday

31 July

10.00 am 10.00 am 9.30 am

Strategy and Policy 10.00 am Committee Ōtaki Community 7.00 pm Board Paraparaumu-Raumati 7.00 pm Community Board

Council Chambers Ground Floor, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu Council Chambers Ground Floor, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu Council Chambers Ground Floor, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu Council Chambers Ground Floor, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu Council Chambers Ground Floor, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu Council Chambers Ground Floor, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu Gertrude Atmore Supper Room, Memorial Hall, Main Street, Ōtaki Otaihanga Boating Club, Otaihanga Road, Otaihanga

Attendance at Meetings (1)Cancellation - Meetings are sometimes cancelled for a variety of reasons.

To confirm whether a meeting is on, please ring the Democracy Services Manager on (04) 296 4700 or toll free on 0800 486 486.

(2)Venue – Please note that all meetings will be held in the Council Chambers, Civic Administration Building, 175 Rimu Road, Paraparaumu, unless otherwise specified.

Two of Arohanui Hospice Shop’s longest serving volunteers, Velda Harrison, left and Margaret White take time out to try out a sofa for comfort. Both have been helping out at the Op Shop since it opened five years ago.

Te Kura WRM and Transpower planting

(3)Public Forum – a 25-minute session will be held before every Council and major committee meeting (9.30 am – 9.55 am) in which you can speak on any topic. Bookings are essential. Please book ahead with the Democracy Services Advisor – online booking form can be found on website.

(4)Public Speaking Time – Under Council’s Standing Orders (Appendix I) a period will be provided after the start of each meeting for Public Speaking Time to allow for oral submissions relating to agenda items, and at the end of meeting for other items not on the agenda.

If you wish to address the Council or its Committees during Public Speaking Time please book ahead with the Democracy Services Advisor and you will be given an approximate timeslot. People who book ahead for Public Speaking will be given precedence over those who do not.

5)Live-streaming: Council and Standing Committee meetings are live-streamed.

(6)Agendas are available two days before the meeting at: • Our website www.kapiticoast.govt.nz; • Council’s Libraries and Service Centres.

Wayne Maxwell Chief Executive

PB 60601 Paraparaumu | Ph 04 296 4700 | Fx 04 296 4830 | www.kapiticoast.govt.nz

Old School Beauty & Electrolysis At The Old School House 174 Waerenga Road • Facials

On Wednesday 13 June fifteen staff from Transpower NZ, twenty one Intermediate students from Te Kura-A-Iwi O Whakatupuranga Rua Mano (Te Kura WRM) plus four support team, joined Friends of the Ōtaki River to plant 1,000 trees along Chrystall’s Walkway.

It was a great community effort and Max Lutz, Chairman of FOTOR, said it was great to have Te Kura involved and once again to have the support from Transpower, who th

not only funded the project, but provided an enthusiastic planting and mulching team.

Peter Scott of Transpower said the project fitted their community funding criteria perfectly, involving the students and environmental enhancement plus providing an excellent opportunity for the their team to engage in a very worthwhile project.

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Page:20

ĹŒtaki Mail — July 2018

Compostable Mulch Film Te Horo organic grower offers alternative to petroleum-based film Sean Moffat has been growing vegetables at Te Horo's Common property for twenty years.

On 16 acres he grows winter vegetables that suit the nature of Common Property's heavy loaml: Leeks, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Silver beet, Cavolo nero, Kale.

Potatoes, he noted wryly grew brilliantly here, but were impossible to harvest mechanically in our wet Winter. Plant in Summer, pick in Winter seems to be the catch-cry of Te Horo's organic growers.

Sean Moffat amidst by Kapiti Organic's winter lettuces

Organic growing imposes many constraints, notably weed control. When you can't use chemicals, mulching is the alternative. You'll have noticed rows upon rows of berries & vegies planted in black plastic mulch stretching into the distance: every strawberry grower is a heavy user of black plastic, whether they are organic growers or not. A typical Horowhenua strawberry farm might have 20-40km of black plastic, which after harvest has to be picked up and disposed of.

Disposal is becoming a problem: in Holland plastic is now banned, and in NZ, disposing in landfills is increasingly expensive and environmentally hard to justify. Just as our oceans are becoming threatened by plastic that doesn't biodegrade, our landfills are under threat.

Sean and wife Kimberley, a qualified naturopath have established Moonlight Organics, to import Compostable Mulch Film made from GMO-free corn starch that composts along with residual plant material. This film is all the rage in Europe, and Sean has taken the initiative to supply the New Zealand market.

Cost-wise it's slightly more expensive than conventional film, but when you factor in zero disposal costs, because the film breaks down via the natural microbiology of the soil, it's a no-brainer.

Sean's Compostable Mulch Film comes in 900mm and 1200mm wide rolls with a 3-6 month compostable period, and Tree mats with a two year compostable period.

Other sizes and options are on their website, www.mulchfilm.co.nz

Sean Moffat with a Compostable Mulch Film tree mat

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:21

Oldilocks and the three bins A Tissue, a Tissue, We All Fall Down.

BY HOWIE C. THINGS My neighbour Oldilocks takes pride in his three kerbside bins. He’s finally learnt which articles to place in which bin, and which bins to put out for collection on which days.

His three bins also take pride in their status and their important task in helping to save the environment.They respect the role that each performs, and regard themselves as a team, in which Oldilocks of course, is included. (His inclusion was accepted by the bins because of his usefulness in transporting them to and from the kerbside. And a common problem with wind.) However, a strong sea breeze was not the cause of upset on this occasion. “Have you seen them, Howie? Have you seen them?” cried my greatly perturbed neighbour, the moment I responded to the frantic knocking on my door. “Seen who?” I puzzled.

Oldie looked ready to pull out his hair, (if there had been sufficient remaining.)

“Look at the way they’ve been treated!

And just after the cost of collection has gone up!” Ah... the bins. I went outside to look. No sea breeze, but it looked like a hurricane had gone through.

All along the street – bins dumped on the roadside – bins dumped on their backsides - bins dumped with lids gaping open, susceptible to sudden rainfall.

I could understand Oldie’s concern. “We pay for this service!” he murmured bleakly.

“Those bins on the roadside could also create a traffic hazard. We should go out and bring them all in,” I said, putting a sympathetic arm around his drooping shoulders.

Oldie, being oldish, needed help raising one of the bins from its prone position.

“Someone should say something about all this! It’s rough,” he muttered, shaking his head.

“Rough is the right word for it,” I agreed.

“Somebody will.”

Time is flying and it’s only four weeks until Mamma Mia opens. The cast know their songs and moves, the musicians are working hard too, and thanks to the hard work and efforts of our workshop Thursday guys the set is amazing – I’ve had a sneak preview!

Graham the musical director, hasn’t quite lost his hair!! And the wardrobe seamstresses have just about completed all the costumes required, so the dazzling costumes of the 1970’s and ‘80’s will add colour and glamour to the stage.

Another wow – 800 tickets to the show were sold between June 1st and 20th!!

This is certainly a record for our shows, the big musicals maybe 100 or so over the first couple of weeks, admittedly this is the first time we’ve opened bookings so early and with an early bird discount!

Auditions for the end of year musical revue, songs of the ‘80’s will be held mid-late August for show at the end of November.

Sadly the directors of the suffragette play have had to pull the plug as they were unable to cast with the number who auditioned. They were very short of 20-30’s men and women. This is a disappointment for playwrite Renee and the production team.

Margaret

Trevor Hunter’s Fish BBQ Bake As a keen fisherman Trevor often catches more than one meal’s worth off the Otaki Beach, so here is his recipe which is ideal for fish that has been frozen.

Winter at the MenzShed

BY ANNEMARIE VERBEEK With winter setting in we are again enjoying the fire in our cosy “office”, fueled with local olive tree prunings collected by members. A vintage arc welder has been donated and is being renovated for Shed use. Eric and Russell H, our “Toy Boys”, have been busy making child size wooden wheelbarrows. Other's are working on a new timber storage area at the shed.

Various requests for help in the community keep coming in and are acted on, occaisionally referred elsewhere, as is seen fit.

A wife's perspective from Bronya Clare.

On the first of July 2010 my husband Valdis Plato and I moved from Sydney to our Ōtaki Beach cottage. As retirees I thought 'Now what do we do?' We both felt somewhat in limbo. Apart from some cooking, Valdis mostly spent his days reading the newspaper and on his computer. To meet more locals we eventually joined Ōtaki Probus, and after our first year Valdis took on the role of vice president. Yet he was still feeling unfulfilled and felt he needed to be occupied with something more.

We knew about Menshed from Australia, so with backing from the Probus Committee Bronya Clare with one of her paintings at Valdis explored options, visiting the Kapiti Artscape.

Shed in Waikanae who were very helpful.

Next, with me as secretary/PA, we put an The hunt for suitable premises led us to the article in the Ōtaki Mail, asking for anyone unused nurses home at the old community interested in forming a Menzshed in Ōtaki hospital, where the Shed operates from to meet at our home. today. Now Valdis had a sense of purOn a Saturday afternoon about 40 men pose, a role he loved, and particularly, new turned up, including Peter Blackler (Waifriendships. As a wife I was very happy kanae Menzshed chair) and colleagues. So about this. Involvement with establishing it was a big Yes! for an Ōtaki Menzshed. our Shed was also really helpful for me Valdis was appointed founding chair, and settling here, giving me an "in" to the Ōtaki we had respective office holders too. Great community, friends, and a sense of belongstart! ing. I am truly grateful for our Menzshed.

4 fish fillets 3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs (or Panko crumbs) 2 Tbsp vinegar Salt and pepper 1 tsp sugar 4 Tbsp melted butter 2 Tbsp Worcester sauce 2 Tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp dry mustard Paprika to garnish dish Grease a casserole dish, and sprinkle the surface with half of the breadcrumbs/panko.

Place fish fillets on top of the breadcrumbs.

Mix remaining ingredients with melted butter, and pour over fish.

Sprinkle with remaining breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle with paprika.

Bake uncovered at 200° C for 15–20 minutes.

The fish pictured is Snapper, caught by Trevor in his boat out from Otaki Beach, served with his homemade Tuscan seasoned wedges and salad.

Trevor’s tips Shed member Ski with a project.

right: Russel's daughters, test drive the latest Menzshed wheelbarrow

Don’t overcook your fish — just like steak, once you remove from the heat it keeps cooking a little longer.

When fishing on a boat always wear a life jacket and carry a flare.

Page:22

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Media Muse Nicky Hager is not a journalist except when he is. Newspaper columnists such as the Herald’s John Roughan and the Dominion Post’s Karl du Fresne do not accept that Hager is a journalist like them. But they welcome the news that the Police were wrong to raid his home as a victory for journalistic privilege.

They say that he is, at best, an author — not bound to be impartial and objective like a journalist engaged in a noble search for the Truth, ha ha ha. At worst, say his critics, he is a political activist bent on perverting the natural course of politics and democracy, ha ha ha.

I need to reveal at this point that I have nothing but contempt for Roughan, du Fresne and their pro-establishment colleagues. At the same time, I judge Hager to be the outstanding journalist of his generation. No-one since Bruce Jesson has done more to expose the warp and weft of New Zealand politics over the past 60 years.

When impugning his motives, critics who detect a leftwing bias overlook the fact that his book, Seeds of Distrust: The Story of a GE Cover-Up, published just before the 2002 general election, only failed to derail the campaign of Labour leader, Helen Clark, for a second term because it lacked solid evidence to back its claim of her involvement as prime minister in concealing the accidental release of some genetically-modified corn plants.

His next book, The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception, published in 2006 exposing the innards of National’s campaign under Don Brash to win the next election in 2005 , was much more soundly based. It relied on written documents and emails as did Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment, which was published prior to the 2014 general election and led to a police raid on Hager’s Mt Victoria home on Thursday 2 October 2014.

by Manakau’s Tom Frewen Arriving at the house at 7.40am, five police officers and a staff member from the Police Electronic Crime Laboratory began a 10hour search for clues that would identify “Rawshark”, believed to be a computer hacker, who they suspected of being Hager’s main source for Dirty Politics.

Although Hager was out of town, undoubtedly a factor in the timing of the raid, his daughter was home. She was allowed to dress under the supervision of a female police officer. Her room and belongings were searched along with the rest of the house. The cops eventually departed that evening with two computers, one laptop, four mobile phones and a charger, a sim card, an ipod, a dictaphone, a camera, two memory cards, a hard drive, more than 100 compact discs and more than 100 pages of documents. None of it revealed the identity of “Rawshark”.

Over a year later, on Thursday 17 December 2015, the High Court determined that the police search had been unlawful. Justice Denis Clifford ruled that the way police went about obtaining their search warrant failed to take account of his right as a journalist to protect his sources. Admitting many more flaws in their investigation of the investigative journalist, including unlawfully obtaining his private information and getting into his bank accounts, the police formally apologised to him on Tuesday 12 June this year and gave him a “substantial” sum of money which he said would buy a car but not a house.

The exact amount is confidential, as is usual with settlements of this type. The general public has an interest in knowing the figure, as it is their money that the police are using to pay for their blundering. But any leaks about the size of the settlement will have to come from the police. Hager knows how to keep a secret.

It is interesting that the country’s leading

investigative journalist attracts so much attention from the police and requires high court judges and the Privacy Commissioner to clarify and defend his actions. The reason, as for many things that happen in this small country, is political. There are two tribes, National and Labour, and they are constantly at war.

Their border skirmish over Hager’s two books, The Hollow Men and Dirty Politics, ended well for their author. There isn’t a lot of money in books, certainly well short of the annual salaries and bonuses that senior journalists and their managers in mainstream media believe are their just desserts.

However large the amount of the police settlement of Hager’s damages claim, it will be some compensation after years of living hand-to-mouth on royalties from book sales. But the fact that he earned his income as an investigative journalist from writing books is interesting in itself.

In a society that increasingly takes its daily news and current affairs from commercial television, the most superficial but nevertheless the most powerful medium with its national audience, there are some critically important stories that can only be told in books. The detail and complexity of their subject put them well outside the scope of mainstream media’s celebrity-based soundbites. But their broad message emerges in the publicity surrounding their launch and is further propelled by the follow-up interviews in television and radio studios into the osmotic process that informs public opinion and conventional wisdom and, eventually, finds it way into the history books.

It is this process that mainstream journalists employ to smear the reputations of public figures they don’t like. Hunting as a pack, as they always do, the journalists in the Parliamentary Press Gallery — sadly misnamed because the last thing they do is report on Parliament — vie to find new ways of insulting and denigrating deputy prime minister and New Zealand First party leader, Winston Peters.

Their sweetly sentimental and cloying reports of the preparations for birth of the prime minister’s baby invariably carried ominous warnings about the dangers ahead when her leadership role was taken up by

her deputy. Headline after headline predicted a turbulent six weeks ahead while Jacinda Adern took maternity leave.

The stability of the government was also threatened, according some deluded commentators, by Peters’ pursuit of $450,000 in damages for the leaking of information from within the National administration about overpayment of his national superannuation.

In this case, journalists had none of the qualms about the source and nature of the leaked information, despite the obvious political motive behind it.

Not for the first time, experienced journalists eagerly seized the leaked information in the hope of a scoop that would send heads a’rolling and burnish their own reputations.

“The mother of all scandals” tweeted former Herald managing editor Tim Murphy, previewing the story about the overpayments that was about to break on TV3.

It would indeed have been a scandal if Peters had deliberately claimed more than his entitlement. But it was a mistake and I think I know how it happened. Like me and many people our age, Peters hates filling out forms. He left that to a clerk who, too embarrassed to ask if he and his partner, Jan Trotman, were co-habitating and ticked the wrong box.

Although Peters is taking the same path as Hager, suing for damages and an admission of wrong-doing, he is subjected to abuse and ridicule. In one issue of The Listener, his legal action was described as a “gratuitous grenade at the Government he props up”, “ill-advised”, “the most cynical of sabre-rattling”, “a headline-feeding irritant” (The Editorial): “ridiculous” (Jane Clifton); “rambunctiously Winston” (Bill Ralston).

The leaking of his private pension information during an election campaign was seen as just “a dirty trick” according to The Listener.

A dirty trick it certainly was. But that’s all the more reason for journalists to exercise care in their use of the leaked information.

One thing you can say for sure about Nicky Hager, he protects his sources. Not only will your secret be safe with him but also you can be assured that he will put it to good use in his next book.

Rail commuters beware

NZTA are working on the Ōtaki Station Platform extension from July and will be completed in two stages. The staged process minimises the impact on parking and train commuters but means things will change several times over the coming months. Please take extra care in this area and pay attention to all temporary traffic management signs.

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:23

Ōtaki College News June 2018

www.otakicollege.school.nz

From the Principal 75th Otaki Scholar to Arrive in NZ

On July 17th, Cameron Stephen, the 81st Otaki Scholar, arrives in Wellington to mark the beginning of the milestone celebrations as the 75th Scholar to arrive in New Zealand (the 1939-1945 Scholars were unable to travel due to the Second World War). Cameron will be accompanied by Dr Walter Stephen, a member of the Robert Gordon’s College Board of Governors (no relation to Cameron).

To mark the event a great deal of planning and preparation has gone into the Otaki/ Sander Scholar Exhibition which will be held in the Otaki Museum and is entitled The Otaki Scholar and Otaki - A Legacy of World War One. The exhibition will open on 19th July and will then be followed by a pōwhiri at Raukawa Marae which will not only welcome Cameron and Walter into New Zealand but also mark the opening of the Kāpiti Youth Leadership Forum. This Forum will be made up of Year 12 students who have been selected from schools that the original 1937 Otaki Scholar, William Anderson, visited, as well as more recent schools that have a link to the Otaki Scholar and local schools from Kāpiti. The programme, which runs from 19th-21st July, includes presentations that focus on building leadership from speakers including Her Excellency The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy, Governor General, Te Waari Carkeek, Captain Corina Bruce and Midshipman Brittany Glanfield from the NZ Navy and Sir Anand Satyanand, former Governor General.

During their stay at Raukawa Marae the students attending the forum will travel to Government House and also spend time at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park where they will lay wreaths and also visit the Great War Exhibition.

On completion of the forum the Otaki Scholar will commence a busy programme which will include a number of activities around Ōtaki and an overnight stay on Kāpiti Island.

This will be a fitting way for Cameron to commence his busy schedule that will take him to many of the schools visited by the first Otaki Scholar and we know that this will certainly be a highlight of his time here.

Supporting our students to be the best that they can be NZ Navy Leadership Programme

As a result of the strong relationship that the College now has with the NZ Navy, we have been exceedingly lucky to have a two day leadership course being conducted in the College by New Zealand Naval staff focussing on Year 12s who have shown leadership potential. These students have also been joined by four Year 12 students from Kāpiti College. During the two days the students looked at the concept of “Before I lead others I must first lead myself”. This focuses on the development of resilience, understanding, self-control, the setting of personal goals and the use of self-reflection. This is another opportunity for our young people to build their own personal capabilities and capacity in leadership.

Year 11 Mentoring

Te Runanga o Raukawa have enabled Te Aniwa Nelson (former student) to return to Ōtaki College in her role as a social worker to work closely with Year 11 students to help build their ability to achieve NCEA Level 1 in 2018. Te Aniwa will be focussing on working with students to look at effective decision-making, breaking down barriers to learning and effective solutions to allow students to get the best out of their learning.

Nelson Block Renovation

Work is almost completed on the Nelson Block renovation and will be potentially opened by week two of Term Three. This will be a stunning facility for our students and marks the beginning of a number of projects which will create much better environments for our young people to learn in. We do have a number of events that we are looking at that will allow our school community to come in and experience this new library and learning space.

On completion of this project our attention will then turn to the development of the Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) Hub and our new Learning Support Area. Once completed, we will then see a return to Nelson Block to devel-

Supporting Global Bees PENNY KERR-HISLOP In the words of local beekeeper Gary Milne “there is not much doing with bees at this time of year” yet I see him out everyday trundling back and forth on his property with stacks of hive boxes. The whole length of our country road on a still day is often shrouded in a smelly smoke emanating from his paraffin dipper and mingling with the frosty cold air and is reminiscent of the industrial revolution in parts of northern England.

He works hard, grinding away to get all his gear cleaned and ready for spring. In addition to the waxing and painting, he now brands each hive with his registration number to hopefully make them easier to identify in case of theft. Recently he has branched out into painting the boxes with different, brighter colours. His latest choice is a bright pink “for the mating nucs”. He has always tended to be curmudgeonly about “fancy coloured hives”, but he now professes a wish to emulate liquorice allsorts in his colour range. “Just to make the day more interesting and to cheer the bees up”.

Why do the bees need cheering up?

I suspect it’s more the beekeepers who need a boost these days in the face of environmental change, new

predatory insect species, theft, changes in beekeeping ethics and the constant threat of disease resistance, biosecurity breaches and the overshadowing anxiety of colony collapse disorder.

At the recent Ōtaki Buzz Club meeting, Professor Phil Lester from the School of Biological Sciences, at Victoria University, talked to the club about the current evidence on the threats neonicotinoids present to bees in particular and insects in general.

It was an assessment based on a huge study carried out in Europe in 2017 in response to colony collapse disorder and the loss of hive and bee numbers being reported.

The image below shows the degree of nicotinoids present in honey worldwide.

The results of the study were interesting and somewhat surprising. The results showed that these poisons alone are not as

op the driveway entrance area and also the refurbishment of the administration block which will include a new roof to address water tightness issues. As always, we will keep you posted on future developments but I would like to thank staff, students and parents for their perseverance under difficult conditions while major building has been going on.

Staffing Appointments

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Sean O’Leary, who has secured the long term relieving position in English and Integrated Studies. I would also like to acknowledge the departure of Lisa Grant, who has been with us for the last four years working in the PE, Health and Outdoor Education department. Lisa has returned to the South Island and is taking up a position at Timaru Girls College.

Kent Pollard will take up the position of Teacher in Charge of Outdoor Education as Lisa’s replacement. Kent has been working at Mana College but is a local resident of Ōtaki. He has a passion for outdoor education and a strong background in surfing and ocean swimming. We are certain that Kent will build on students’ opportunities to participate in quality outdoor education experiences.

In closing I would like to acknowledge the retirement of Ruth Holland at the end of Term Two as Curriculum Leader of Social Sciences. Ruth has been a long serving staff member with a stunning teaching career. She is remembered fondly by her students for her ability to bring history alive and for having high expectations around her students’ achievement. We thank Ruth immensely for putting off her retirement until a replacement could be found and now wish her all the very best for a well-earned break from the rigours of the classroom.

Maria Perreau will be taking up Ruth’s position at the commencement of Term Three and is in the process of now relocating from Auckland to commence a new stage in her career in Ōtaki.

Ngā Manu Kōrero Regional Competition – Te Whanganui ā Tara ki Ōtaki – article by Whaea Maharata Nikora-Davis, Curriculum Leader Te Reo Māori This year we had two competitors enter the 2018 Manu Kōrero competition which was held at Takapuwāhia Marae, Te Tahi Bay. I was honoured to be able to assist and support our speakers.

Year 13 student, Iritana Bennett, entered the Pei Te Hurinui Jones section, the Senior Māori section, and Athalia Gage, also year 13, entered the Korimako, Senior English section. Iritana’s topic was “Tōku ao Māori, ka tata ngaro nei, and Athalia’s was “The best project I will ever work on is me.”

Athalia Gage at Ngā Manu Kōrero

Both Iritana and Athalia spoke exceptionally well and represented Ōtaki College with pride. Athalia was placed 1st in the Korimako - Senior English section, competing against fifteen other colleges.

Ka mau kē te wehi. She has now qualified to compete at the National Manu Kōrero competition which is being held in Gisborne from the 18th - 20th September 2018. We wish her all the best at Nationals.

Situation Vacant Ōtaki College

International Students Homestay Manager Part time position.

15 hours per week with flexible hours. responsible for colony collapse disorder and widespread bee death as commonly The role involves providing all aspects of believed. Please contact me via the Ōtaki support for our International students while Mail if you would like access to the study they are living with local families, plus and I will refer your request on. supporting the host families.

For a job description and application form email Howard Manins, Director of International Education at oset@otakicollege.

Professor Lester went on to discuss school.nz the main causes of hive death in New Zealand.

These are his findings: “Leading causes of colony losses What kills bees in NZ include queen problems, suspected varroa and related complications, suspected starvation, and wasps.

Losses to natural disasters, robbing by other bees, American Foulbrood, suspected diseases, accidents, theft/vandalism, and Argentine ants. “ With a list like this, I’m with Gary. We need to brighten up our days with hopeful sunny liquorice allsort hive colours! (pic right) Many thanks to Professor Phil Lester for sharing his PowerPoint slide show with me for this article!

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Ōtaki’s History From the Otaki Mail, Monday 25 June 1928 W McBETH (Late Moffatt and Sons) I hereby give notice that I have taken over the well known butchery business of Messrs Moffatt and Sons and intend to keep only the best of beef, mutton, pork, veal etc. All orders will be promptly attended to.

with McBeth’s Butchery and drove stock over the Akatarawas and through Ōtaki – not on what is now the highway, but along Dunstan and County Roads. John had many amusing anecdotes about the early days, which were very much appreciated by the audience.

ŌTAKI MUSEUM

The popular exhibition celebrating the centenary of the Ōtaki Fire Brigade will close on 30 June, so if you have not seen it, don’t delay. The next exhibition will be open from 20 July 2018. This will be about the Otaki Scholar. In 1937 the first Otaki Scholar came to New Zealand from Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen. The

award in connection with this, the Otaki Shield, commemorates the bravery of Captain Archibald Bisset Smith, VC, who went down with his ship, the Otaki II¸in the First World War. He had attended Robert Gordon’s College.

The Ōtaki Museum is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 10 am – 2 pm, and is at 49 Main Street, Ōtaki.

W McBeth Main Street, Otaki (Opposite Post Office)

ŌTAKI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The enjoyable talk by John Taylor was about growing up in Tainui, near the marae. His father was a drover, with several dogs and three horses. The Taylor family comprised six children, and all cooking and heating then was done with a wood range. Firewood was cut 365 days a year by the children. The family had chickens and a house cow milked by hand, and Mrs Taylor made her own butter. Whitebait, eels and toheroas supplemented the family diet. Friday nights were movie nights and the children walked home – however brumbies, which could not be seen in the dark, were a common hazard. Sports clubs were a popular activity on Wednesday evenings and many children had jobs in market gardens. John’s father had a contract

This photo of McBeth’s shop on the corner of Main Street and Rangiuru Road was taken in the 1940s

Ōtaki’s Citizen's Advice Bureau funding declined The 20 year funding support of the Ōtaki CAB by the Kapiti Coast District Council is ending with the CAB being cut from the list of community groups KCDC supports.

“We’ve been in Ōtaki for over 38 years and it would be devastating for our vulnerable community if we were unable to continue our service,” says CAB Ōtaki Chair Judith Bell. “There are no other organisations in Ōtaki where people can got to get the advice and assistance we are able to provide.”

Having lost the crucial $12,000 annual funding, the Ōtaki CAB has submitted, in a last ditch hope, to KCDC’s long term plan so that they can continue providing

assistance “to all vulnerable members of our community”, says Judith.

“To achieve this, a viable and active CAB is critical, therefore we request that the long term plan includes specific funding for CAB Ōtaki of $12,000 per annum for the next 3 years.

“We would also ask that a special case be made for specific non contestable Council funding for the foreseeable future for CAB Ōtaki.

“This is vital for the continuation of CAB in Ōtaki. Our financial needs are low compared with other NGO's, with rent being the

major component of our annual expenses.

We don't have any paid staff.”

“It is no secret that Ōtaki is a very low socio economic community, with Maori comprising 28% of the population. The main issues we deal with are unemployment, the homeless, mental health issues and the elderly. With more and more services leaving Ōtaki our continuation is vital.

“Our older clients in particular benefit from help writing letters, filling in forms, and other secretarial help at no cost to them.

These clients do not know how to use computers and some don't even own one.

“We also deal with matters closely aligned with KCDC services such as fencing, trees and neighbourhood disputes,” says Judith.

In the past year we dealt with 1,414 enquiries. Ōtaki CAB has 28 volunteers, which they estimate equates to nearly 4500 volunteer hours annually.

We note that Wellington City Council and KCDC both declined to support their CABs. Was this a coincidence, we wondered? Wellington has since relented. We hope to report that KCDC will also recognise the need to support our CAB.

Challenging a Will It can be devastating and unfair to be left out of a Will.

Every person making a Will has moral duties to those left behind to properly provide for them. If they fail to properly provide for you as their spouse, partner, child or grandchild then the Court, in some circumstances, may make provision for you from the estate. If you were promised something in return for work done you may also be able to make a claim.

Trying to be fair in how your estate is to be divided among the people who survive you, could save them from the stress and cost of someone challenging your Will when you’re gone. It’s also important that your Will is properly signed, witnessed and kept up-to-date.

Challenging a will

If you feel you’ve been short-changed by the Will and are thinking of contesting it be aware that doing so can cost you a lot of time and money.

You might want to consider an alternative to going to court, which is to seek Mediation with the Will’s other beneficiaries. With the help of an independent mediator you may all be able to agree on a solution which suits everyone, avoiding the expense of going to court.

To challenge a Will you will need to go through either the High Court or the Family Court - depending on what grounds you are making the challenge - and you or your lawyer will generally need to file your claim within 12 months of the grant of probate (unless your challenge is on the grounds of validity, in which case you need to file before probate is granted).

Once you notify the court that you intend to challenge a

Will, the executor or trustee (the person responsible for distribution the deceased’s estate according to the will) must not distribute any of the estate except to pay debts, expenses and funeral costs.

Grounds for challenging a will

A Will can be challenged on the following grounds: • That it is invalid - For example, you might be able to prove to the court that the will wasn’t properly witnessed or that the deceased wasn’t of sound mind when they signed the Will. If the Will is determined to be invalid, either an earlier will can be reinstated, or the estate will be distributed under the rules of intestacy.

• That the deceased had a moral duty to provide for you For example, if you fell out with one of your parents and were subsequently left out of their Will, you could make a case that they had a moral duty to provide for you and that by leaving you out of their Will they have breached that duty.

• That as the spouse of the deceased you are entitled to claim a division of relationship property -This means that if your spouse, civil union partner or de facto partner (of at least three years, or less if you have a child together) dies, you can choose to claim half of the property rather than accept whatever has been bequeathed to you in their Will (or, if there is no Will, what you would inherit under the rules of intestacy).

• That the deceased had promised to leave something in return for something you did for them, but had not updated their will accordingly.

Te Pou Whakawhirinaki o Ōtaki Our advice is free and confidential. We have the information to help you with your problems, or can point you in the right direction. call / email or see us

Monday to Friday 9am – 3pm 65a Main Street, Ōtaki Village

We are next to the swing park by the Memorial Hall

tel 06 364 8664 or 0800 367 222

Email otaki@cab.org.nz web www.cab.org.nz • • • •

Legal & Employment Issues Benefit Entitlements Housing & tenancy issues Neighborhood & other issues

• • • •

Health, Human Rights Personal Problems Transport issues Consumer Rights

Free 20-minute Solicitor's Appointment JP available every Thursday from 1.30-2.30pm Foodbank donations — drop in Rooms available for hire at reasonable rates CAB can help you with more information, advice and referral where appropriate, so visit us, or call/email us and allow us to help you. Appointment is not required.

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:25

Kia ora from the Ōtaki Public Library – Te Wharepukapuka o Ōtaki

Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns and One Intact Glass Ceiling

by Amy Chozick For a decade, New York Times journalist Amy Chozick chronicled Hillary Clinton’s pursuit of the presidency. Chozick’s frontrow seat, initially covering Clinton’s imploding 2008 campaign, and then her assignment to “The Hillary Beat” ahead of the 2016 election, took her to 48 states and set off a nearly ten-years-long journey in which the formative years of her twenties and thirties became intrinsically intertwined to Clinton’s presidential ambitions.

Chozick’s candour and clear-eyed perspective—from her seat on the Hillary bus and reporting from inside the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters, to her run-ins with Donald J. Trump and her globetrotting with Bill Clinton— provide fresh intrigue and insights. This is the real story of what happened, with the kind of inside details that repeatedly surprise and enlighten.

Iris Apfel - Accidental Icon: Musings of a Geriatric Starlet

Anatomy of a Scandal

The Aviator

by Sarah Vaughan

by Eugene Vodolazkin

A unique and lavishly illustrated collection of musings, anecdotes, and observations on all matters of life and style, infused with the singular candour, wit, and exuberance of the globally revered ninety-six-year-old fashion icon whose work has been celebrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and by countless fans worldwide.

A woman who transcends time and trends, Iris Apfel is a true original, one of the most dynamic personalities in the worlds of fashion, textiles, and interior design. As the cofounder with her husband, Carl Apfel, of Old World Weavers, an international textile manufacturing company that specialized in reproducing antique fabrics, her prestigious clientele has included Greta Garbo, Estee Lauder, Montgomery Clift, and Joan Rivers.

She also acted as a restoration consultant and replicated fabric for the White House over nine presidential administrations. Iris’s travels worldwide and a passion for flea markets of all sorts inspired her work and fueled her passion for collecting fashion and accessories.

An incisive and suspenseful novel about a scandal among Britain’s privileged elite and the women caught up in its wake. Sophie’s husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart. Kate is the lawyer hired to prosecute the case: an experienced professional who knows that the law is all about winning the argument. And yet Kate seeks the truth at all times. She is certain James is guilty and is determined he will pay for his crimes. Who is right about James? Sophie or Kate? And is either of them informed by anything more than instinct and personal experience? Despite her privileged upbringing, Sophie is well aware that her beautiful life is not inviolable.

She has known it since she and James were first lovers, at Oxford, and she witnessed how easily pleasure could tip into tragedy.

From award-winning author Eugene Vodolazkin comes this poignant story of memory, love and loss spanning twentiethcentury Russia. A man wakes up in a hospital bed, with no idea who he is or how he came to be there. The only information the doctor shares with him is his name: Innokenty Petrovich Platonov. As memories slowly resurface, Innokenty begins to build a vivid picture of his former life as a young man in Russia in the early twentieth century, living through the turbulence of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Soon, only one question remains: how can he remember the start of the twentieth century, when the pills by his bedside were made in 1999?

Reminiscent of the great works of twentiethcentury Russian literature, with nods to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Bulgakov's The White Guard, The Aviator cements Vodolazkin's position as the rising star of Russia's literary scene.

Have you thought about your pet in civil emergency or if you had to leave your house in a hurry?

Like the adverts on TV and everywhere else say, to have an EMERGENCY KIT ready for those extreme events.

We need to give thought to our pets in the same situation.

Get a pet survival kit together now, this will ensure you and your pets are prepared in an emergency.

The kit should include: • A Carry box, cage, lead or rope, for transporting your pet (as appropriate for your specific pet) Easily accessible, (not stuck at the back of the garage under numerous boxes) • Collar and large name tag with an information tag including the pets name, owners name and address with telephone number • Your Vaccination, registration records, microchip details and photographs for

each of your pets, (ideally have this information saved online as well) • Suitable blanket or bedding • Bottled water and water bowls • Their normal food (if possible) and treats • Plastic bags and doggie doo bags, • Gloves and something to clean up if they should make a mess due to nervousness or stress.

• Any medicines your pet is on or needs • A first-aid kit for animals • A list of pet-friendly safe houses (friends/family) or safe shelters (kennels, catteries, pet-friendly hotels).

Try and stay calm during a storm, as your pets may become agitated if they notice that you are nervous. Reward calm behaviour with small treats.

Enquire about Microchipping and Registering your pet on the New Zealand

Companion Animal Register, so can be easily identified and returned quickly to you, should you be separated.

Also check your vaccination records for each pet to see if not out of date or if in doubt, phone us (06 364 6941) and we can check your records as to if they are due.

And if you are in the clinic or passing, call in and check out our range of collars, leads, bowls, cages, treats, food and beds available.

If you have any further questions, please call in or phone our friendly nurses at Ōtaki Vets.

Ōtaki Vets

269 Mill Road 364 6941 364 7089

contact@otakivets.co.nz www.otakivets.com Come and meet our friendly team

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Handy folk to know Health Womens Health 364 6367 AA 0800 229 6757 Arthritis 364 6883 Ambulance Shuttle 368 6369 Cancer Support 06 367 8065 Stroke 364 5213 Plunket 364 7261 Community Citizens Advice 364 8664 Budgeting 364 6579 Foodbank 364 0051 Menzshed 364 8303 Community Club 364 8754 Timebank 362 6313 Birthright 364 5558 Cobwebs 021 160 2710 Community Patrol 027 230 8836 Amicus (Probus) 364 6464 Pottery 364 8053 Mainly Music 364 7099 Genealogy 364 7263 Bridge 364 7771 Museum 364 6886 Historical 364 6543 Let’s Sing 364 8731 Ōtaki Players 364 6491 RSA 364 6221 Rotary 06 927 9010 Lions 364 8871 Environment FOTOR 364 8918 Transition Towns 364 5573 Waitohu Stream Care 364 0641 Energise Ōtaki 364 6140 Older People Age Concern 0800 243 266 Kids Scouting 364 8949 Toy Library 364 3411 Marriage celebrants Colleen Logue 027 688 6098 Penny Gaylor 027 664 8869 The lists above are built from information supplied by the Ōtaki Women’s Health group, from their September 2015 Community Services Directory.

If you have any updates or corrections, please advise us.

Auto Bowler Motors 364 6474 Central Auto Services 368 2037 Otaki Collision Repairs 364 7495 Montgomery M. Bodies 364 5681 SRS Auto Engineering 364 3322 Paul Branch 364 6111 Computers TechMan 022 315 7018 Concrete Work Bevan Concrete 0800 427522 Rasmac Contractors 0274 443 041 Koastal Kerb 027 554 0003 Estate Agents First National 364 8350 Harcourts 364 5284 Professionals 364 7720 Tall Poppies 0274 792 772 Funeral Directors Harvey Bowler 368 2954 I.C. Mark Ltd 368 8108 Kapiti Coast Funeral 04 298 5168 Waikanae Funeral 04 293 6844 Insurance Inpro 364 6123 Nurseries 100&1 364 7084 Talisman 364 5893 Te Horo Garden Centre 364 2142 Watsons Garden Centre 364 8758 Kapiti Coast District Council General Inquiries 364 9301 Toll Free 0800 486 486 Ōtaki Library 364 9317 Ōtaki Swimming Pool 64 5542 Lawyer Susie Mills Law 364 7190 Simco Lawyers 364 7285 Locksmith Ōtaki Locksmith 021 073 5955 Mowers Mower & Engineering 364 5411 Plumbing About Plumbing 364 5586 Henderson Plumbing 364 5252 Ryan Plumbing &Gas 027 243 6451 Rest Homes Ocean View 364 7399 Enliven 0508 365483 Roofer Ryan Roofing 027 243 6451 Taxi Ōtaki Shuttles 364 6001 Vets Ōtaki Animal Health 364 7089 Windows Window & Door Repairs 364 8886

Window & Door Repairs

I fix all Doors, Windows & Conservatories

Locks * Rollers Handles * Stays Glass * Leaks Draughts * Seals

SAVE $$$$

Call Mike Watson Free 0800 620 720 or Otaki 364 8886

For all Kerbing, Paving, Floors, Drives, Paths and Concrete Work FREE QUOTES Phone Nathan Howell 027 554 0003

Find me at: www.windowseal.co.nz Or like at: facebook.com/windowseal

BIRTHRIGHT OP SHOP 23 Matene Street, Otaki Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm Saturday 10am – 1pm

Good/Used clothing for sale

Baby clothing $1 Children’s clothing $2 Adult clothing $4 (or as priced)

Adult shoes $3 – $5 Lots of bric-a-brac from $1 Assortment of antiques for sale

Cobwebs Op-Shop Main Street Tuesday - Friday 10 - 4pm

We are always looking for volunteers to help in our shop — please see the Shop Manager for an application form.

Saturday 10 - 1pm Please share your giveaways with us.

Every dollar goes back into the Otaki Community

ŌTAKI LOCKSMITH RANCHSLIDER & KEYS cut WINDOW REPAIRS

RANCHSLIDER: Wheels & Locks - TRACKS REPAIRED

WINDOW: Hinges replaced & new catches fitted KEYS: cut LOCKS: repaired or new locks fitted

Phone Sam Whitt NOW

021 073 5955

Specialised repair No Travel Charge BOWLER MOTORS

cnr ARTHUR & DUNSTAN Streets

364 6474 / 364 7171 www.bowlermotors.co.nz

• • • • • • •

Your trusted local crash repair specialist using the latest up-to-date equipment and technology • PPG Water Borne Paint System • (Environmentally Friendly) • Spray Booth • 3D Measuring System • Chassis Straightening Machine • Inverter Spot Welder • Crash Repairs • Rust Repairs • Plastic Welding • Free Courtesy Cars • All Insurance/Broker Work

It's your vehicle, you can tell your insurer who you want to use – Keep it local, call us today

Simon Taylor: Owner/Manager 3 Arthur St, Otaki Ph 06 36 47495

otakicr@gmail.com

www.otakicollisionrepairs.co.nz

• • • • • •

WOF Inspections Vehicle Servicing All Makes & Models Tyres Puncture Repairs Farm & Fleet Tyre Service Wheel Alignment All Mechanical Repairs Towing & Salvage Vehicle Recovery Accident Attendance AA Roadservice AA Batteries

Need Tyres?

See Royce or Holly for the sharpest deal - we will beat any cash price in town No Deposit, 6 months interest-free finance some conditions apply: see instore for details

Last month's lucky winner : Roger Thorpe 268 Mill Road Ōtaki

Ōtaki Mail — July 2018 Page:27

Ōtaki Churches welcome you

Otaki Shuttle Service 06 364 6001

Seven Day a week service up until midnight Set Tarriff charges of $10 + $5 per passenger between Otaki beach & plateau • Further afield trips negotiable • Airport & bus connections EFTPOS available in vehicle

Make a booking online at www.otakishuttle.co.nz

ANGLICAN Rev Ian Campbell

Plumbing Gasfitting • Wetbacks • Residental • Commercial • Woodburners • Solar Hot Water Systems

Roofing • New and re-roofing • Longrun coloursteel • P.V.C & Coloursteel Spouting • Repairs and Maintenance • Flashing Fabrication • Sheetmetal Work 0272 436 451 06 362 6595 Manakau

Tel: 364 7099 Ōtaki All Saints Te Rauparaha St 8am & 10.30 am Te Horo St Margarets School Rd 9am Manakau St Andrews 1st Sunday, Cafe Church, 9.30am 2nd & 4th Sundays, Eucharist 9am Ōtaki Rangiatea Church Services 37 Te Rauparaha St Sunday Eucharist: 9am Church viewing hours, school terms:

Mon–Fri 9.30am–1.30pm tel office: 364 6838 email: rangiatea.church@xtra.co.nz

Shannon Turongo Church, Poutu Marae Shannon/Foxton Highway 3rd Sunday 11.30am Levin Ngatokowaru Marae Hokio Beach Road 4th Sunday 11am

CATHOLIC Ōtaki

Hartley Electrical Contracting Ltd

Kuku

St Mary’s “Pukekaraka” 4 Convent Road Weekend Mass Sunday Mass 9.30am, 5pm St Stephens 1st Sunday 8am

Acts Churches The HUB Tel: 364 6911 157 Tasman Rd, Otaki 10.15 am Family service 10.15 am Big Wednesday Baptist Tel: 364 8540 Cnr Te Manuao Road/SH1 10am service Presbyterian Rev. Peter L. Jackson Tel: 364 6346 249 Mill Rd, Otaki Worship: 11am Cafe Church: 2nd Sunday 10.45am

Otaki General Electrical Contractors

For all your Electrical Requirements

CENTRAL AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES MAIN ROAD SOUTH, LEVIN

K.S. McFadyen & I.J. Buckley Ltd

FULL DIESEL REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE

All C.O.F. Work Transport & General Engineering Tel: 06/368 2037 or 06/368 1591 (24hrs)

Domestic Commercial Industrial Farm Mobile: 021

418

751

INCORPORATING WAIKANAE MEMORIALS AND KAITAWA CREMATORIUM

364 2070 After hours: 06 Email : hartleyelect@gmail.com

Covering the Kapiti Coast – Otaki, Waikanae, Paraparaumu and Paekakariki.

04 293 6844

(24 HOUR AVAILABILITY AND SERVICE)

17-21 Parata Street | PO Box 300 | Waikanae 5250 info@waikanaefuneralhome.co.nz | www.kapitifunerals.co.nz Locally owned & operated funeral home.

John, Merryn, Andrew, Graham, Diane & Rodney

We provide a 24 hour service, we do have standard office hours but sometimes you need us immediately.

Our four funeral directors are professionally qualified and live locally in this region, Graham is from Otaki.

We have purpose built facilities, our own chapel, lounges and a crematorium, located at the cemetery.

We will provide the funeral you want, we’re not here to tell you what to do, We’re here to help you with all details and make sure your loved one has the perfect send off. If it’s possible, we will try and provide it.

9-11

Phone: 0274 443 041 or 0274 401 738

• Earthmoving / Aggregate • Drainage Site Works / Section Clearing • Drive Ways Excavation / Tarseal / Hot Mix • Top Soil / Farm Roads

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Ōtaki Mail — July 2018

Ōtaki boy off to world snooker champs in China Next Coffee and Chat – Tuesday 3 July between 10 – 11.30 at our office 61 Main Street, Ōtaki.

Please feel welcome to come and join us.

Office open every Tuesday morning 9 – 11.30 or by appointment.

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ANZ helping Ōtaki achieve their netball goals this netball season The ANZ Premiership is back for a second season and ANZ is asking what Ōtaki netballer fans and supporters need to achieve their netball aspirations.

ANZ knows the time, the effort and determination that’s required to get to the top is immense, but no one achieves on their own, it’s the support that can make the difference in achieving your goals.

To celebrate the start of the ANZ Premiership season ANZ is calling for applications for assistance that will help Otaki netball fans achieve their netball aspirations.

The support is not limited to kit, it could be anything big, small

BY LLOYD CHAPMAN or off-the-wall. In the past ANZ support has spanned high perforBlane Watson, of year eleven at Ōtaki College is off to mance netball gear, expert coaching, court and club makeovers, to the World Amateur Snooker championships in China. dream experiences. In 2017 one lucky young player was granted Blane started playing snooker at the age of ten, helped by the opportunity to be the mini-manager of an ANZ Premiership the fact that his father Don has a full-size snooker table at team for a day as a reminder to continue working hard and not give work. "Dad's pretty good" said Blane. up on your netball dreams. And a long serving coach was surprised by stars of ANZ Premiership and awarded a trip to watch the SilBlane practices snooker 30 hours a week. In my day this ver Ferns play in Australia, as a thank you for her commitment and was reckoned as a 'sign of a mis-spent youth', but if he inspiration she has provided to her teams over the years. acquits himself well in China, he'll be lauded by all.

Last year the Ōtaki Women’s Social Team applied and was awardWhat are his chances? Pretty slight, I fear. Snooker is ed high performance training equipment, balls, bibs, drink bottles one of the most-watched television sports in China. Over and bags. They were also awarded tickets to watch the Central 60 million people play snooker, and it's been predicted Pulse at an ANZ Premiership match to get some tips from the that in ten years, half of the world's top snooker profesprofessionals. sionals will be Chinese. So whether a schoolboy from Ōtaki has a chance in the under-18 World champs is a Over the past five years ANZ has supported teams, clubs, schools pretty remote dream. and players all over New Zealand to the value of nearly $500,000.

Blane has yet to achieve the magic 147 break, pinnacle of Sue McGregor, ANZ Head of Sponsorship, said, “We are proud to all snooker player's dreams, but to see him potting at the support netball at every level, from grassroots right up to the elite RSA, it won't be too long.

ANZ Premiership and Silver Ferns. We know sometimes all you need is just that little bit of extra help to achieve your goals, so we I asked Blane whether he'd like to be a professional RSA President Pat Kenny presents Blane with a cheque are committed to helping as many netball fans as we can.” snooker player. "Nah", he said, " I enjoy hunting, and when I leave school, I'd like to join the Army and become for $500 Ōtaki netball clubs, teams, players and fans can tell ANZ what an Armourer".

Disclosure: The writer once played the World Snooker they need to help achieve their netball goals at anzcourtside.co.nz Ōtaki wishes Blane well on his snooker journey...

Champion Alex Higgins. Higgins won.

Ōtaki College Chess & Board Games club on a wet Friday

(above)

Year 7 & 8 Rugby team (left) Left to right; Quinn (Captain), Caleb, Louis, JC, Nikau, Isireli, Shikora, Kaahurere, Lucas, Blake - meet the Ōtaki College Year 7 & 8 Rugby 7’s Team who took on other Kapiti Coast schools at the recent annual tournament at Kena Kena Park. Ōtaki College were the defending champions, and this year’s squad did us proud again reaching the final.

Opponents Raumati Beach School won the final 4-2. Well done team Ōtaki Mail - a community newspaper produced monthly by Ann, Lloyd & Penny, from 176 Waerenga Road, Ōtaki. Printed by Beacon Print, Hastings.

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