Plenty 01 2016

Plenty

James Rolleston talks acting and Ōpōtiki, Greg Malcolm talks to Lonnie Berg, Harlem Shine talks about things that wash up - and away - at Ōhope, Plenty gets a word in edgeways with Bread Asylum, and Anne Thorp tells it like it is.

culture :: media :: art :: food

FR E E M A GA Z IN E

ISSUE 01 plenty.co.nz

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14 22 Plenty Magazine is published by Plenty Limited.

Copyright 2016 by Plenty Limited.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the prior consent of

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the publisher. Plenty accepts no responsibility for the return or usage of unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

Opinions expressed in Plenty Magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of Plenty Limited.

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ISSUE 01 FEATURE ARTICLES

Boy to Man

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He found fame in Boy and starred opposite Cliff Curtis in The Dark Horse; now James Rolleston talks to Plenty about acting, building and Ōpōtiki.

Back in the EBOP

More than just a bike park they make electricity there now too.

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Anne Thorp talks about her culinary beginnings in Whakatāne and shares a hapuku and roast pumpkin recipe that’s worth writing home about.

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A little bit of Paris

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Two intrepid locals and a Frenchman are breathing new life into the ancient art of hand made sourdough. In Manawahe, naturally.

Local musician Greg Malcolm survived Christchurch earthquakes and Berlin squats to bring klezmer melodies and surf music to Ōhope.

Onepū Rising

Māori Queen of Cuisine

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World Famous and from the Bay No. 1 in a regular series on stuff we do really, really well.

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Shine On

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Plenty meets the man behind the iconic beach carvings that appear – and also sometimes disappear – on New Zealand’s Most Loved Beach.

When Sparks Fly

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A real life, actually true - no seriously - story of making it kinda big via the internet from a Whakatāne café: meet Magnus Macdonald.

Time Gentlemen Please

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Hamish Pettengell of the Whakatāne Museum and Research Centre takes a look back at two grand old Whakatāne dames and ponders the future of a Kiwi institution.

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Wildside Adventures

Take a guided New Zealand adventure with an authentic Kiwiana experience. Wildside Adventures offer affordable, small group guided Eco-Tours and trips in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Welcome to Wildside Adventures, an Eastern Bay boutique ecotourism company run by local guides, Amy and her daughter Emily. This knowledgeable team specialises in guided walking and snorkeling expeditions into the great outdoors, with halfday to multiday trips and accommodation available. Situated

by New Zealand’s Best Loved Beach, they’ll share their way of life, while showing you the “Wildside” of New Zealand.

Let a PADI Divemaster and marine biologist show you the real underwater world, from getting up close and personal with marine life such as crayfish, stingrays and schools of kingfish, to sampling indigenous edible seaweeds and seafoods.

This mother and daughter team have also created a variety of half to two-day walks to explore the beauty of the untouched wilds, and along the way you can learn about edible and medicinal native plants and may even see kiwi, blue mountain ducks (whio), glow-worms or wild deer.

Packages can be tailored to suit all needs, with helicopter and jet boat transport for overnight trips on request. Hunting options and team building packages are available.

Wildside Adventures is DOC and Worksafe approved.

Visit www.wildsideadventures.co.nz Freephone 0800 945 374 info@wildsideadventures.co.nz

Tours from

$29

culture :: media :: art :: food

Plenty of sunshine, a beautiful landscape, and great people; a lifestyle second to none, a rich culture, and an attitude that no one else in New Zealand can touch; we have it all in the Bay of Plenty.

In fact the only thing missing from our piece of paradise was a great way to celebrate this and tell the neighbours up the road about all the good stuff we have going on here.

So we decided to change that, with a new perspective and a new take on everything that the Bay of Plenty has to offer, and we’re calling it Plenty. In this issue we are talking to artists, artisans, actors, bakers and craftsmen and we are telling some great stories, meeting some awesome people, and showing off some true talent. We have a fantastic team of writers, photographers, designers and editors helping us tell your stories, and we’d like to thank everyone for helping us make this what it is.

So welcome to Plenty. We have lots more stories to tell of people, places and things you want to know about this place we call home.

Find out more online at plenty.co.nz Or get in touch direct at info@plenty.co.nz

ANDY TAYLOR editor@plenty.co.nz FRAN CACACE sales@plenty.co.nz SARAH TRAVERS design@plenty.co.nz

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INTERVIEW BY KAY BOREHAM PHOTOS BY ANDY TAYLOR

BOY TO MAN 06

It’s hard to believe that it is only four years since the line “Kia ora, my name is Boy and welcome to my interesting world” propelled the twinkling eyes and cheeky grin of James Rolleston into film-goers’ consciousness.

Now, after cementing his credentials alongside Cliff Curtis in The Dark Horse, he is starring in The Rehearsal, an adaptation of the debut novel by award-winning Kiwi author Eleanor Catton. Plenty had a quick catch-up with James while he was on set in Auckland.

PLENTY You were very young when you were thrown into the limelight; probably not fully understanding the career you were undertaking; do you see acting as your future now that you’ve seen more of the industry and what comes with it?

JR Yes I definitely do see acting as being my career pathway. ‘Boy’ back in 2009 was my first role so it was interesting for me because it opened me up to so many different sides of film and television and to be 11 years old and get a front row seat and watch every one play their different roles on the film set, whether it be the cameraman, or the catering crew, or watching how the lighting crew operated the lighting gear, I thought was amazing and to see how everything slowly comes into place to create a film alongside a bunch of people who you gain a very close relationship with, was something I really enjoyed and thought to myself ‘I’d love to do this again’. But the idea of taking acting up as a full-time career never really sunk in for me. It wasn’t until I was being approached for other roles that I thought to myself ‘maybe this could be a something I could possibly take up full time’.

PLENTY Still keen on the building trade as a backup plan?

JR Building will always be one of my interests and something I enjoy to do, but until I find enough time to do a building apprenticeship, I think I’ll stick to the cameras.

PLENTY What parts of the world has film taken you to?

JR ‘Boy’ featured at The Sundance Film Festival, which is held in Park City, Utah (USA) so I was lucky enough to head over for that and also it featured at The Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin (Germany) so I was given the opportunity to attend that too. ‘The Dark Horse’ screened at the Toronto Film Festival (Canada) and also in LA so I was also lucky enough to attend both screenings. ‘The Dead Lands’ also screened at the Toronto Film Festival, which I attended. Early in 2014 I did a short film in Perth called ‘Man’.

James Rolleston, left, back home in the Bay of Plenty where it all began.

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PLENTY How did you find working on ‘The Rehearsal’.

JR I found ‘The Rehearsal’ a massive challenge for me but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I was pushed to the limits and out of my comfort zone many times but I think that made me realise what I’m capable of doing, which is definitely a good thing.

PLENTY You star alongside acclaimed country singer Marlon Williams in his first acting role; who sings better, you or Marlon?

JR When I’m in the shower I can hit some good notes but I’ll have to give Marlon this one.

PLENTY You can take the boy out of Ōpōtiki but can you take Ōpōtiki out of the boy? What I mean is - I guess you carry Ōpōtiki and everything that entails - whakapapa, tupuna, with you wherever you are in the world?

JR For sure, anywhere I go or any achievements I’ve made over the years - awards or featuring in another film or advertisement - I always remember where I come from and I never forget to give thanks to the people close to me such as my family, friends and everyone who has supported me and helped me get to where I am today and continue to do so. Growing up in Ōpōtiki I believe has shaped me into the person I am, alongside the people I have around me. Ōpōtiki is somewhere I’ll always come back to visit and spend time with family and friends.

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PLENTY What do you miss about the Eastern Bay when you’re away?

JR I miss the chill vibes back home whenever I’m out and about. I miss the untouched beaches and the bush scenery.

PLENTY What’s the best part of acting?

JR I really enjoy meeting people and gaining close friendships. Acting has taken me to places around the world that I had never thought I’d get the opportunity to go and see, so travelling is a huge part of why I love acting. I also enjoy watching a project come together and then after a year or so seeing the finished product and showing it to the rest of the world. I can’t think of any major downsides about acting.

Visit their stunning new show kitchens 28 McAlister Street, WhakatÄ ne

Māori Queen of Cuisine Anne Thorp is a celebrated chef with her own hit television show and a sold-out book to match, but she would be the first to admit that her upbringing never hinted that her life would be spent crafting fine cuisine in some of the country’s best kitchens; there were no exotic imported ingredients in her family home in Whakatāne, and no celebrity chefs on the telly.

INTERVIEW BY ANDY TAYLOR

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Hapuku, Roast Pumpkin & Oven Baked Ginger It’s lovely to have access to fish such as fresh hapuku, and herbs and leaves all year round - it may be cold outside but at the dinner table, it can still feel like summer!

Serves 2 2 x 250g Hapuku fillets

1/4 cup each of rice bran oil and olive oil

Salad Items: • Rocket • Watercress • Mint • Cucumber

Salt & pepper to taste

Lemon to garnish

350 - 400 grams of pumpkin, sliced 75 grams of fresh ginger, finely diced 1 orange

Put the diced ginger into a ramekin and cover with olive oil, arrange the pumpkin slices on a baking dish. Roast pumpkin and ginger at 180 degrees celsius until the pumpkin is soft or until everything is caramelized to your liking.

Remove from oven, spoon the ginger over the pumpkin slices, squeeze the orange over everything then season to taste.

Pan sear the hapuku fillets in the rice bran oil / olive oil blend. Remember not to overcook, check with a fork to see when they start to flake through and then they’re done.

Arrange the greens into a salad, plate everything up, garnish with lemon and a sprinkling of extra virgin olive oil and serve!

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“My parents cooked typical Māori kai,” she says from her current home and business base in Auckland. “The quintessential boil up was the mainstay, but we also ate crayfish bodies, kina, snapper frames and fish heads, and gathered pipi from Ohiwa every Sunday. We only ate chicken on Christmas and New Years, and occasionally for birthdays; chicken was a delicacy in those days.”

Nevertheless, at the tender age of nine Anne returned one day from school and declared that forthwith she would be taking over the cooking duties for the household of ten (plus all the aunts, uncles and others who came to stay); it was the beginning of a culinary journey she remains on to this day, and she is clear that it was one woman inspired her to start that journey.

“Mrs Betty Cuthbert, the Home Economics teacher at Apanui Primary School taught me how to cook. I made a fruit sponge in class and it was the most delectable kai I’d ever eaten. From there on I knew what I wanted to do. Betty is now 93, but just recently I called her and said, ‘I’m picking you up, we are going on an adventure,’ and I took her with me to do a Master Class at the NZMA! We had another lovely, special time together as we have had many over the years.

Anne Thorp’s journey has included stints at Auckland’s trendy SPQR restaurant, Harbourside, as NZ’s Food Ambassador to the P&O Cruise Line, and as host to numerous visiting celebrities, as well as her aforementioned TV and publishing career and her work as a prominent supporter of the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. Her most recent focus is perhaps the one that is the dearest to her heart and arguably what has brought her to where she is now. Manaakitanga is usually translated as hosting or hospitality, but only Anne Thorp can express her particular definition. “Manaakitanga is the highest quality culinary hospitality that enhances the mana of others who experience cuisine made with aroha.”

Just like Anne Thorp, New Zealand cuisine has gone on an equally interesting journey. Anyone of a not-socertain age will well remember when dining out meant a choice between porterhouse and ham steak or fish and chips - preceded by an oh-sosophisticated prawn cocktail covered in that distinctive pink dressing.

“IT’S A BEAUTIFUL TIME TO BE COOKING AND EATING IN AOTEAROA, THERE ARE SO MANY EXCITING DISHES TO CREATE AND FLAVOURS TO EXPERIENCE.”

“We are a lot more health conscious these days,” Anne says. “We have more information on what’s good and what’s not. In spite of my mother’s love of butter, dripping, bread and cream cakes, we had very few takeaways when I was growing up and instead

we had kaimoana and a quarter acre section with fruit trees, spuds, kumara, kamokamo, beans, tomatoes and pumpkin. But food products have changed, and there’s a lot of crap on the shelves today, so it’s important to sieve through the rubbish and avoid it like the plague.”

One of the most appealing aspects of Anne’s approach to eating is its simplicity; there are few exotic and expensive items in her recipes (she generally uses ingredients that are commonplace in the NZ diet), and none of those annoying rarities that have to be bought at specialty stores, used once and then exiled to the back of the cupboard until they are thrown out years later. “My motto for years has always been to use only the freshest and the best and to cook it simply. If you have the best produce in the land then you don’t need to muck around, you just need to cook it well and season it properly. We are in a love affair with celebrating the best produce of whenua and moana (land and sea) while acknowledging the flavours of Asia-Pacific fusion cuisine and other cultures from old and new immigrants. It’s a beautiful time to be cooking and eating in Aotearoa, there are so many exciting dishes to create and flavours to experience.”

“To create tasty and nutritious kai is a fun and meaningful passion of mine, and also the Ngāti Awa people I descend from. We love it.

It weaves us together in community.

We’re Whakatāne’s most longstanding community of foodies, and it’s an honour for me to be in this cooking club. Kia ora.”

WIN! Plenty has a signed copy of Anne Thorp’s sold-out classic Kai Moana and we’re giving it away to one of our readers.

To be in to win, just drop us a line at win@plenty.co.nz and tell us why you’d like to have it on your book shelf. Telling us why you love our magazine probably wouldn’t hurt either.

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SHIN E O N Something in the water

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY ANDY TAYLOR

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ANY people fall in love with Ōhope Beach. Harlem Shine, on a three-day visit from Auckland, took one look and said one word: “Heaven”.

It wasn’t the emerald water or pristine sand, it was the endless driftwood. “I came down for a three day holiday,” he says, “took one look at all that wood, went back to Auckland, loaded up my tools, and was back here three days later. That was five years ago, and I’m still working with that wood even now.”

Some of that wood is 200 hundred years old. And, thanks to Harlem, it has gone from being battered flotsam headed for a watery grave to iconic beach art, attracting visitors from Europe and America, and raising admiration and surprisingly - sometimes ire amongst locals. His works are hand-carved insitu with nothing but a tomahawk and chisels, and despite the fact that they weigh up to two tonnes, 13 of them have been stolen, or as Harlem says, “grown legs and got up and walked away”. “Yeah, I suppose it is a kind of compliment,” he says, “but . . . well . . .”

Harlem’s intro to carving came, like many Kiwis, in a school woodwork class, but apart from that he is self taught; and even after 20 years as a carver he is constantly self-effacing about his work. “There are so many good carvers around here, so many,” he says. “Just really inspirational guys, doing great work, work that inspires me to be a part of that tradition and help keep that tradition alive.”

All of Harlem’s work starts on the beach. “I see these pieces of wood down there. They come and go, they move along the beach, and you get to know them, you get to know all their different sides. And I start the carving with a tomahawk – a lot of people use chainsaws but I just like the tomahawk, it brings you closer, you get to know all the knots and rotten stuff.”

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“I actually bought a chainsaw about three years ago,” he says with genuine enthusiasm, before his voice trails off. “But it’s still in the box. I never really learnt to use it and I guess I never will. The tomahawk and the chisels get you closer . . . and they sound better; it’s a sound that seems to attract people. It’s amazing how many people come over to see what’s going on when I am down on the beach chopping away.”

“With many of my larger carvings, I’m unable to move them by hand. There’s been many times I’ve waited for a high tide and then secured them with a truck tie-down, then I can float the wood and haul it along the water close to the shore line to where I want to carve it. Sometimes this can be late at night and when it’s just me in the darkness with this mighty chunk of totara or pohutukawa, with only the moon for light, it really is quite something. Takes it out of my back but tangaroa helps me along and there’s a huge sense of strength and connection that comes from that kind of physical labour. Just working for the wood because I know it’s the right piece. There’s also been times when my friend Dave Marshall helps me haul pieces around Ōhope with his tractor. It’s a huge help seeing as I don’t have a vehicle. That’s how the carving opposite Mason Place got it’s name. The Marshall. Marshall Law. Yeah, because of good guy’s like that who love and support my work.”

His work hasn’t always attracted the right kind of attention however. In addition to being stolen, some carvings have been burnt or defaced, but Harlem addresses this the understatement of someone who has spent hours, days, weeks and months on a beach behind a chisel. “You can’t change how people react to art,” he says. “And I can’t change how people react to my work.

The vandalism, well, that just is what it is.”

One of the strangest reactions was by a group on beachgoers who took it on themselves to embed one of his carvings in the sand. Previously, Harlem had carved the pieces where they lay on the beach and left them horizontal, prey to the tides and shifting sands of Ōhope. The first thing he knew about one of them being erected totem-style on the beach was when someone knocked on his door and told him about it. “I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I later met one of the guys who’d done it and they said they just thought it should be standing. So they dug it in and placed a mauri stone and said a karakia; and that was the first one to be stood up.”

Since then, a lot more have been stood up, with more upright works scattered along the beach and others beginning to find their way onto private property and into collections. “I kind of think of them as family,” Harlem says, “not in a weird way, but my boys are up in Auckland so if I feel lonely I like to go down to my ‘other sons’ on the beach. People always want there to be a story behind these things, and there you are, that’s mine.”

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In recent months Harlem’s work has also moved off the beach and into the art gallery. In October and November 2015 his work appeared in conjunction with David Marven at Te Kōputu a te whanga a Toi - the Whakatāne Library and Exhibition Centre - and has also recently featured at Mataatua, Te Manuka Tutahi. “It is just really great to see my work in a completely different setting and for a completely different set of people to be seeing it,” he says.

You can expect to being more of Harlem’s work in galleries, but in the meantime Ōhope Beach is still the best place to see it in its natural setting, bleached by the sun, blasted by the wind, and tugged at by the tides.

“Some massive pieces on the beach have been buried or taken by the tide,” says Harlem. “But Tangaroa eventually spits them back up. It may take a day, a week or a year, but it will happen.”

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GREG MALCOLM

BACK EBOP

IN THE

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“There’s a crazy guy over at Ohope, he’s got lots of stories. You’ll like him and he’ll give you wine.”

of emailing back and forth we arranged a date and time to meet, but the day before the interview I had an attack of conscientiousness and thought perhaps I should do a little research on this guy.

INTERVIEW BY LONNIE BERG PHOTOS BY ANDY TAYLOR

A Google search and a quick check of the links Greg sent me revealed a lot of intimidating words like “idiosyncratic,” “avant garde”, “experimental,” and “eclectic,” as well as the names of musicians of whom I’d never heard, together with repeated and puzzling references to one of New Zealand’s most salacious murder trials. All of which got me thinking this might be above both my pay-grade (nil, for the record) and intellect (middle-brow).

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HAT WAS the full extent of my brief to interview Greg Malcolm for Plenty. It sounded like something I could do with my hands tied and wrapped around a wine glass. Plus, like nearly everyone else in New Zealand I’d never heard of Greg Malcolm so I didn’t fuss. After a few days

Big mistake.

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A

RRIVING AT HIS WEST END HOME I’m relieved to be welcomed by a fairly standard looking man with a beaming green gaze and a wide, only slightly wicked smile. Greg leads me upstairs and introduces me to his two young sons and partner Jenny Ward, who whispers that she’s lost her voice. They’ve all been sick.

Outside on the deck, Jenny does indeed bring us wine and Greg asks what the angle for this interview is. It’s a homecoming story I tell him. Greg and Jenny are part of a growing ‘reverse diaspora’ back to Whakatāne and the Bay of Plenty; successful, talented people returning to where they grew up to raise their own children, to live the Bay lifestyle and do what they do.

But here’s the thing; what Greg does doesn’t really get done in New Zealand or any place else for that matter, outside seriously cool capitals like Berlin and New York. He’s a one-off, a piece of work, a creative genius, a musical prophet that - to paraphrase Jesus – is honoured everywhere except in his own land.

So much of Greg’s work is beyond the ken of, as John Key would say, ornery Nu Zilanners. He’s been described as a one man orchestra for his performances simultaneously playing three guitars with his hands and feet along with, and I mean this literally, bells and whistles. Oh, and a baguette.

But let’s start at the beginning.

LET’S START INSTEAD WITH GREG’S ASSOCIATION WITH THE AFOREMENTIONED SALACIOUS MURDER TRIAL.

Greg grew up in Whakatāne and in his teens started playing in Velvet Underground inspired rock bands… Nah. Let’s start instead with Greg’s association with the aforementioned salacious murder trial.

Peter Plumley-Walker was, to quote the online urban dictionary, “the infamously-moustached (sic) cricket umpire

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who died during a bondage and discipline session in 1989.

His panicking mistress dumped his bound body into the raging Huka Falls, introducing sexually naïve New Zealand to the word ‘Dominatrix’”.

In response to the media’s sensational hyperbole on the case - it dominated (no pun intended, but believe me there were plenty of them at the time) headlines for months - Greg released the CD Trust Only This Face, which contained The Ballad of Peter Plumley-Walker.

The drama began when a Sunday Star Times journalist posing as a music journo rang Malcolm to do an article on the CD. He then rang Christian Democratic leader Grahame Lee and played The Ballad of Peter Plumley-Walker to him falsely claiming that the song had Arts Council funding.

Cue predictable outrage.

Greg was accused of, tut-tut, bad taste for a piece which was intended to highlight, as he put it in a later interview “the sensational and dubious nature of the New Zealand news media. I was interviewed and crucified on talkback radio (including by the beloved Kim Hill) and even in Parliament”.

Greg then in turn manufactured his own story based on actual events in the same way journalists created a story on him: stating that public persecution forced him and Jenny to flee New Zealand.

And so back to Berlin for a period of growth in the “hotbed of improvised new music and radical social ideas” and where Greg became an uncooperative member of a musical collective. Which meant he lived just two flights of stairs above the club and was at every show he could make it to.

And because his costs were so very low he could play music

all day long. Or, as he says “It was cheap space and I had an audience.” An exceptional freedom for a musician of any stripe.

Fast forward to 2012 and Greg and Jenny and their two sons are back in New Zealand. Jenny was offered a job as a teacher at the Ōhope Beach School where she was asked by the Department of Conservation to write a song about the Kiwi mascot Derek. So Jenny wrote and Greg arranged a recording of Bird Song, a collection of conservation songs with the Ōhope Beach School Choir, an open choir consisting of children aged five to 10 years.

If you haven’t heard it, go out and buy a copy now, it’s a delight.

But what, exactly, is a musician of Greg’s caliber doing in Ōhope? An appropriate rugby analogy might be, say, Dan Carter, completely unknown and living in a small town in Mississippi.

Don’t get me wrong. He still plays music. Greg’s current, albeit irregular band is called Surfing USSR and they set klezmer melodies to surf music.

Klezmer, in case you didn’t know, and I’m guessing you don’t, is the traditional music of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. It was made famous in the “Everybody be cool – this is a robbery!” scene in Pulp Fiction.

Greg picks up a guitar and plays me the piece. I recognise it instantly. I love how he describes it: “the music just falls under your fingers.”

But is it OK for him to be here, back in his home town and to be so unknown?

His response is sanguine.

“People like what they like, but I’m driven by what drives me.”

Turns out, there is a crazy guy out at Ōhope. He had lots of stories. I liked him and he gave me wine.

“PEOPLE LIKE WHAT THEY LIKE, BUT I’M DRIVEN BY WHAT DRIVES ME.”

A little bit of Paris in Manawahe 22

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Asylum inmates Maurice Lees and Laurent Eudes

Ancient art revived at ‘Bread Asylum’ INTERVIEW BY KAY BOREHAM PHOTOS BY ANDY TAYLOR

The ‘ting’ of an antique cash drawer signals another happy customer at a very special Whakatāne Sunday Market stall.

Tucking a sourdough loaf under one arm and juggling two baguettes, she announces: “I’m off to weaving . . . taking some of this as a koha”.

“The regulars don’t just buy one,” laughs Maurice Lees, an environmental and chemical engineer, marketing maestro and food guru, who together with wife Helen has created Bread Asylum, a business reviving the traditional techniques of producing sourdough.

But Bread Asylum is far more than a boulangerie (French bakehouse); it’s a vehicle for two remarkable collectors to combine shared passions. Take the cash drawer for example, a bespoke piece, re-purposed; part of a creative thread drawn from West Sussex, via Paris to Pokerekere Road, Manawahe.

It was driving in West Sussex, returning from yet another treasure hunt, that Helen came up with Bread Asylum as the name of the venture the couple planned to set up when they returned to their Manawahe property after four years living in the UK. “It was really catchy and a great fit with the idea we had of creating a haven where we could make a living - Helen could create art and we could do something to strengthen our community,” Maurice explains. In fact, the crazy hours and sometimes manic frenzy of baking day may seem closer to a more traditional association with the word asylum.

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The Parisian strand of this story belongs to

Laurent Eudes, a Frenchman from Normandy who became an integral part of Maurice’s dream.

As Maurice puts it: “I can understand the science of the beautiful symbiotic yeast and bacteria relationship that is natural fermentation. I’ve done an advanced bakery course at the UK School of Artisan Foods – I can learn the recipes, but Laurent has the “feel” that you can only get from 30 years of handling dough.”

Born in Mont Saint-Michel, Laurent completed a threeyear apprenticeship as a baker and pastry chef before working in Paris and London and then coming to New Zealand in 1992 to work at the then Regent Hotel in Auckland. The lure of the Bay of Plenty led him to Tauranga and a chance meeting with Maurice, where they bonded over the latter’s wood-fired oven. The dream of an artisan bakehouse was born.

The ‘germ of the idea’ developed further during Maurice and Helen’s UK odyssey; by night the pair were working with a NZ-based draughtsman on plans for the bakehouse and scouring the countryside for collectables in every bit of time off from their roles as housekeeper and gardener in a stately home. (There were also portents of the early morning starts required in the bread-making business, with the pair getting up long before dawn to travel to the car boot sales and auction rooms which resulted in a container-load of treasures.)

Finds included a c.1890 Parisian front door; 150-yearold arched windows from an English hotel; vintage light fittings; a French butler’s sink, and many other fixtures that have been incorporated into the bakehouse, creating a truly timeless piece of architecture.

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Laurent lent his expertise to Bread Asylum in its start-up months, helping with the technical aspects of the bakehouse layout, developing recipes, perfecting the crucial sourdough starter and each week handrolling 120 kilograms of dough to produce breads of unequalled quality.

Laurent was excited to be reviving a ‘dying art’ in Manawahe. “When I started working in Paris, there were 1200 bakeries; one on every corner – now there are about 80.”

It’s not just the tradition that appeals to Laurent and Maurice; they are both advocates of the health benefits of Awakaponga wild sour dough. “The slow fermentation not only gives the bread its unique taste and crust, but Mother Nature also makes it more easily digestible and basically, a healthy food.”

Today, a team of helpers - Kendra, Michy and The Headmaster - assist Maurice.

Bread Asylum remains probably the only North Island bakery to use the traditional method of hand rolling and shaping each individual loaf and slow fermentation in a process that takes 36 hours from mixing, kneading, shaping, resting and proving, through to the final 3am Thursday bake.

With the expanded team has come new product development, including a fusion of Italian-style bread and rewena – like an Italian love song sung in Te Reo. Initially, those lucky enough to live in proximity of the bakehouse were treated to a regular Bread Asylum delivery, but as distribution channels have grown,

most people now get their weekly taste from the Whakatāne Sunday Market and the Ōhope Market (fortnightly in summer). Bread Asylum ‘limited editions’ can also be sampled at Fisherman’s Wharf Café at Port Ōhope, where proprietor Tom Maguire became an early supporter of the local sourdough renaissance. The excellence of the product has also been recognised by the exclusive Treetops Lodge near Rotorua.

Now that the Bread Asylum is running like a well oliveoiled machine, Helen, the creative force behind the original Tarnished Frocks and Divas concept, has time to devote to her other sanctuary project – creating a museum of curiosities.

Helen’s inimitable talent will transform the spoils of a lifetime’s collecting, augmented by myriad UK-sourced treasures, into a series of themed rooms within her former studio – yet another reason, in time, to seek asylum in Manawahe.

A rose between . . .

Laurent, Helen and Maurice

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INTERVIEW BY ANDY TAYLOR PHOTOS BY SARAH TRAVERS

W

E’VE ALL THOUGHT ABOUT IT: quit the day job and start your own business; work for yourself, say goodbye to the boss; get out of that stuffy office and manage your empire via mobile phone and laptop from the comfy seats of your favourite café. Yes, we’ve all thought about it.

When

Magnus Macdonald actually did it. After working in a variety of jobs - from futures trader to oil rig deckhand in his native Scotland and then in IT after becoming a Kiwi, he started Cogent Industries, a company specialising in EDC or Every Day Carry items like carabiners, tweezers and pens, all made from titanium. Now the Whakatāne based company regularly oversees projects based on the global Kickstarter crowdfunding phenomenon that operates in the neighbourhood of $100,000 – and yes, Magnus does manage the empire from the comfy seats of his favourite café. You’ve probably seen him.

SPARKS

26

Fly

It all began with recent advances in printing technology. “I was obsessed with 3D printing,” Macdonald says. “I saw people crowdfunding them and then I discovered Kickstarter and realised the business model of coming up with an idea and being funded to implement it could work for me. And I’d always been fascinated with tools and mechanical things, so that seemed the perfect match.

Looking back, I could have chosen board games, as they are proving really, really popular, but I had no interest in board games. Or any artistic ability!”

After initially trying to source manufacturers overseas, Macdonald now has all his original designs made right here in New Zealand. “The hard part is achieving a high quality surface finish, which is something that sets my products apart from the others, and though manufacturing overseas was very cheap, the quality just didn’t come up to scratch, and they also just didn’t react quickly enough for my projects.” And with a major component of his business being Kickstarter projects that usually turn around every three months, the ability to progress projects quickly is vital.

“People don’t want to wait; when they see something that they want, it is important to get it into production and into your customers’ hands as quickly as possible.”

Macdonald didn’t exactly aim high from the beginning. “Initially the plan was just make something that worked! So the vision didn’t stretch too far at first and it wasn’t until I started meeting machinists and people started getting interested that it snowballed.” Getting that interest behind a business – new or established – is a major challenge, and he has recently enlisted Instagram as his latest weapon of choice, as well as launching a Youtube channel.

“There are various hashtags that identify with my kind of products – “EDC” or “Titanium” – so I started promoting my prototype products via those. It took four months to get to 600 followers, but less than two months to hit 1400 – but you have to have a good product; marketing

is a huge part of the business, but marketing can’t carry a bad product for long.”

Currently, 99% of Cogent’s business comes from overseas, with 60% of sales originating in the United States, 20% in Europe and the remainder from countries like Japan, China and Singapore. Many of his sales are from repeat customers, and Macdonald believes a large part of that is due to the effort he puts in to building a relationship with his customers. “I want to make a connection with customers, so that it is not just a transaction,” he says. “I am continuously telling my customers what I stand for and what I’m trying to achieve with my designs.

When customers buy from me it’s more than just a transaction – there is a significant amount of values and philosophy involved too.”

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“PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO WAIT; WHEN THEY SEE SOMETHING THAT THEY WANT, IT IS IMPORTANT TO GET IT INTO PRODUCTION AND INTO YOUR CUSTOMERS’ HANDS AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.”

O

F COURSE IT HAS NOT ALL BEEN PLAIN SAILING. For Macdonald, the biggest hurdle has been – in the words of Split Enz - the tyranny of distance. “A major part of doing this kind of business in New Zealand is that everything has to be imported and exported, and that means dealing with shipping companies, customs, and exchange rates. Shipping alone can be a major hassle, and sometimes I think there must be a better way.”

So would he be tempted to relocate the business and say goodbye to the Eastern Bay of Plenty? “I live in New Zealand and particularly in the Eastern Bay because of my six-year-old son – and that is working out great, so now that the business has really taken off I have no need to move anywhere. Its all here.”

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“Who Else Wants A Titanium Bottle-Opener For FREE?” (Yes, REALLY! And Here’s How I Am Able To Do This...)

You're probably wondering why I'm giving away a titanium bottle opener, right? Well I'll tell you...

I'm a designer and maker of various high-end titanium products such as pens and tweezers. And I've been do this for almost two years now (right here in the BOP!).

Okay, here it is... when your titanium bottle opener arrives in your letterbox and you rip open the packaging, there is a good chance you're so blown-away by the quality and craftsmanship that you head over to my website and buy more of my other products.

Experience has proven to me that once I get a new customer, they are so blown-away by the quality of my products and the personal service they receive... they are typically with me for a long time!

That's really as complicated as my "business model" gets. I lose money by giving you one of my handfinished, high-end titanium bottle openers for FREE. And, hopefully, you buy from me in the future. Simple.

And that's why I want to give YOU one of my high-end, hand-finished titanium bottle-openers for FREE.

One last thing...

What's the catch?

I ask that you help toward the cost of me mailing your bottle opener to you (just a few dollars).

To grab your FREE, high-end titanium bottle opener go to this web address right now:

www.CogentIndustries.com/plenty Sincerely, Magnus P.S. These are strictly limited so I cannot guarantee you’ll get one …when they’re gone, they are gone!

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Everything under the sun Native ConnectionNZ

We don’t just think Whakatāne is a great place to live, we also think it is a great place to do business, and to prove it we are highlighting three new businesses that have shunned the congestion and high costs of the main centres to call Whakatāne home.

NATIVConnectioNZ A passion for their Ngāti Awa heritage and a desire to create jobs for local rangatahi is the driving force behind NATIVConnectioNZ: a boutique cultural tourism operation founded by Whakatāne cousins William Stewart, Briton Williams and Mita Manuel in 2011.

Having overcome the normal challenges associated with a start-up enterprise in its fledgling phase, NATIVConnectioNZ has grown steadily to now host over 650 visitors a season, the majority of which are internationals. Managing Director William Stewart says while the numbers are still relatively small, it is “very satisfying” to think they have already been able to create employment within five years of operation.

“Right from the start, our main aspiration was to create jobs for our young people,” says Mr Stewart, “we see so many of our whanau forced to move out of the area to find work, and we wanted to start something that would perhaps, one day, be able to provide jobs for them, so that if they wanted to stay here in Whakatāne, they would be able to.”

“We’re now almost five years in, and we are so far able to employ seven casual staff over the busy summer tourism season. We’d obviously like to grow that into full-time employment and, while we are not quite there yet, we seem to be heading in the right direction.“ Mr Stewart says that the NATIVConnectioNZ model is somewhat different to the ‘haka and hangi’ type experiences that are traditional hallmarks of the Māori tourism sector.

“We don’t do performance; we don’t do theatre.

Central to all of our experiences is the opportunity to experience Māori culture on a personal level through the sharing of our stories, our traditions, our cuisine and our manaakitanga: the important responsibility we have to ensure our visitors receive the ultimate in hospitality.”

William Stewart shares tribal traditions at Kāputerangi pā

Find out more about NATIVConnectioNZ www.nativ.co.nz

Tom and Kathy at the Whakatāne Heads

TACO TACO

After working in hospitality in Australia for some time, Eastern bay locals Tom Johnson and Kathy Potter decided there was nowhere like home to start their own business. “It had always been a dream of ours to work for ourselves,” says Kathy, “all our families were here and we wanted to return, so it was an obvious choice.”

restaurant, and we also wanted to do something a bit different; we really believe in our product, so it doesn’t matter whether it is coming to the customer from a truck or a restaurant.”

Currently located at the Whakatāne Heads Thursday to Sunday evenings they will be reconsidering their options once daylight saving ends. “We’re open to suggestions,” says Tom, “we can do private functions, weddings, birthdays, and sports events - that’s the beauty of being mobile.”

Although they may be moving around the District, they won’t be leaving it any time soon. “This is one of the best spots in the world,” says Tom. “Sometimes we just have to get out more to appreciate what we have here in our own back yard.”

Having both worked in a Mexican restaurant on the Gold Coast, they decided on a Taco business, and having seen the successful market culture in Australia they decided to take it mobile. “We didn’t really have the capital or opportunity to set up a traditional

whakatane.com

You can find Tom and Kathy on Facebook at TacoTaco.nz

Ottoloom Anna Williams, Director of Ottoloom

The inspiration for Ottoloom came from far beyond the Eastern Bay, and far beyond New Zealand. The hand woven Turkish towels first caught the eye of Director Anna Williams in 2010, but starting a family meant the idea was banked until 2012 when she recognised growing demand for the product and decided to start importing a range directly from the weavers. But while most producers had switched to factory production, Williams was adamant that she wanted traditional, hand-loomed towels and after a visit to southern Turkey she struck a deal with the only producers still using wooden shuttle looms to produce these certified organic and sustainable products.

Ottoloom now imports and distributes a range of Turkish and Japanese products throughout the country and via www.ottoloom.co.nz from their base in Ohope. An Auckland showroom also sells on Ottoloom’s behalf. “Our best selling products are still the thin, flat woven organic towels. They are practical, hard wearing and stylish at the same time.

However, our new Japanese range is also proving popular as people look for something unique and beautiful that performs well.’

Ottoloom products can be found online at ottoloom.co.nz or locally at Whitegold.

We would like to hear about your new business!

CONTACT:

And despite solid growth in just three years of business, Anna has no plans to take Ottoloom out of the Bay. “I have a shared showroom in Auckland and I do spend time there, but I don’t need to be located there. As a wholesaler and online retailer I can be based anywhere, and from a business perspective there are actually a lot of cost benefits of being here rather than in a big city.”

Discover a

Priceless Lifestyle

Live, work and invest in the Whakatāne District Take the opportunity to live your dream

Roslyn.Mortimer@whakatane.govt.nz or call 07 306 0585 or on 027 702 4205 whakatane.com whakatane.govt.nz

Onepū Rising

I

T’S BEEN A LONG LOVE AFFAIR, spanning over 30 years, but Bill Clark is keen to share the object of his affections with the wider public.

The outdoors advocate, environmental enthusiast, keen tramper and gifted raconteur is, along with scores of dedicated volunteers, determined to reveal the spectacular hidden treasures of the Onepū area.

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Bill Clarke next to the Karaponga penstock.

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IS PASSION TO ‘SHARE THE LOVE’ was sparked back in his days on Council when the vision of the area was, in his opinion, ‘particularly Whakatāne-centric’ and many beauty spots and wonderful places around the region were neglected.

Bill helped form a staged strategy to beautify and open up Onepū including wetlands, mountainbike and walking tracks, as well as an arboretum, which is a tree zoo (but you knew that). The Mangaone Stream, which was literally a rubbish dump, now has over 600 plants tenderly planted and cared for by the local Lions’ Clubs, and it’s a lovely little beauty spot and well worth a stroll around.

ONE OF BILL’S VISIONS FOR THE AREA, AND HE’S GOT LOTS, IS TO CREATE A BIRD-SONG BUSH WALK WHERE PEOPLE LISTEN TO THE KIWI IN WHAKATĀNE AT NIGHT AND THEN CARRY ON THEIR JOURNEY AT DAYBREAK TO HEAR THE KŌKAKO.

The Tumurau wetland, meanwhile, is the largest Category A remnant wetland in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. One hundred and forty-three hectares, privately owned but with a conservation covenant, the area, as well as being home to a number of rare native species, is special in that it provides the perfect stopping-off point for the world’s migratory birds. The Australasian bittern, brown teal, fernbird, and white heron all rely on New Zealand’s remnant wetland areas such as Tumurau.

Bill, who has a caretaking role in the wetland, says the biggest risk for any wetland is that dries up; which is exactly what nearly happened. “We had a slight mechanical ****up when a log jammed the weir. Accidently drained the bugger and turned it into a mudflat. Still,” he says, smiling suddenly “there was a bright side to it when eight Royal Spoonbills turned up.”

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The falls are located off the main Karaponga Reserve Track, starting at Symond Road, off Braemar Road.

But the jewel in the crown, for Bill Clark, is the Karaponga Reserve, owned by the Whakatāne District Council and according to Bill home to three major attractions: “The old power station and hydro dam, an absolutely magnificent waterfall, plus it’s one of the closest access points to the Manawahe Kōkako population”. Kōkako are the celebrity singers of the native New Zealand songbirds and a close relative of the famous but alas extinct Huia. One of Bill’s visions for the area, and he’s got lots, is to create a bird-song bush walk where people listen to the Kiwi in Whakatāne at night and then carry on their journey at daybreak to hear the Kōkako.

For now Bill’s group is being helped by the local Corrections Department work gangs which are cutting a track to the old power generation plant and then up to the waterfall. Bill says the new path follows an easier grade so that walkers of all levels will be able to go and see this magnificent piece of natural beauty that’s right here in our own backyard, and also marvel at the hard yakka the men who built the old hydro scheme must have put in back in 1922. Bill’s vision includes the installation of interpretive panels along the way telling the history of the site and pointing out important fauna and flora. And while he’s hoping the walkway will be finished this year it’s been a far from straightforward journey.

“The local Guests of the Justice Department seem to get things done a lot sooner than the bureaucracy,” he says.” “Maybe they should reverse roles!”

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K

ARAPONGA RESERVE is a strange starting point for the story of electrification in the Eastern Bay. Eerily quiet and largely secluded, in summer the watercourse that was to provide the power is barely a stream, and the dense bush around it seems completely untouched.

And yet it was here that the District’s first hydroelectric scheme went into operation in 1922.

Owned and operated by the Whakatāne Borough Council, it employed a 32h.p. pelton wheel turbine and 22 miles of transmission cable to supply Whakatāne with electricity. By 1924 it had 300 customers and five years later another wheel was added and the dam feeding it was raised by 15 inches to help increase output.

The Karaponga upper dam in the 1920s and today.

By the early 1930s however, the first signs of an ongoing issue began to appear; the pumice-rich soil was leaching fine particles into the water, and these played havoc with the internal workings of the hydroelectric machinery. By 1936 the generator had become so worn that an overhaul was needed, but demand was increasing to such a degree that it was decided to switch to the national grid instead of investing further in the small power scheme; in 1938, Karaponga once again fell silent.

It remained silent for nearly sixty years, when Lanark Developments from Australia decided to step in and try their hand. Though little remained of the old powerhouse, the dam had been built to last and was in good condition despite the 1987 Edgecumbe earthquake and the ravages of time.

Lanark put in a new and extended 930m penstock and a new turbine/generator and ran the scheme until they too found the notorious “fines” of the Karaponga taking their toll. In 2010 Karaponga again shut down.

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The lease on Karaponga was then picked up by a company called Renewable Power in 2008, but it was when local man James Berryman stepped in 2011 that the plant came back to life.

Berryman has replaced the penstock and is in the process of upgrading the turbine and generator, but admits that the issues with the water quality are – and probably always will be – a challenge.

Nevertheless, nearly 100 years since it all began, power is once again flowing from Karaponga, with the scheme supplying an Auckland-based power company that retails it throughout the country.

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World famous - and from the Bay INTERVIEW BY LONNIE BERG PHOTOS BY ANDY TAYLOR

Moutohora Olive Oil have been in production for only five years, but that hasn’t stopped them from winning acclaim, appreciation and international awards. Getting gold from the Thornton dunes hasn’t been easy, but their growing success is a prime example of how you get to be world famous and from the Bay.

H

APPINESS IS WANTING WHAT YOU HAVE.

Meandering through their Thornton olive grove and vegetable gardens on the sunny afternoon following this interview, my hostess Wil Kruithoed points proudly to a bed of plants I don’t recognise.

“That’s yucon” “Oh,” says I, none the wiser, “What do you do with it?”

Her husband Gerrit stops short and fixes me with a look that could peel paint.

“You eat it.”

The interview had been punctuated by similar looks and curt replies but I know now, or hope I do, that Gerrit is in fact very, very dry and, moreover, genuinely puzzled even after all these years in New Zealand by our habit of the conversational question.

But for all that, his economy of language reflects the archetypal Kiwi bloke, a man who says exactly what needs to be said and no more. For all the rest he lets his work do the talking.

And talk about work! The success of the award-winning Moutohora Estate olive oil is testament to the sheer tenacity and hard bloody yakka of the towering Dutchman.

The Kruithoeds settled in New Zealand in 1984 and until their move here in 1997 Gerrit had been a bee keeper on what Wil calls an Old MacDonald’s type farm in Te Kuiti where they tried their hand at a “bit of everything”.

But they yearned to live beside the sea and recalling coming to live in the Bay of Plenty the couple are disarmingly frank about what they didn’t know back in the day.

“We stood on this hill and said, ‘Wow, this is where we want to build a house,’” says Wil. “We didn’t even look at the existing vineyard or the little old house already here”.

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Gerrit and Wil Kruithoed of Moutohora Estate.

“I’VE BEEN TOLD THAT IF THE OLIVES CAN SEE THE SEA THEN THEY TASTE BETTER,”

They made an offer on the land but it was refused. Undeterred, they went back and repeated the same offer (never let it be said that a Dutchman will pay more than he has to). This time it was accepted and they found themselves the new owners of a five and a half hectare property complete with a vineyard that hadn’t been worked for a year.

That got him thinking.

Knowing nothing about wine, other than that it was enjoyable to drink, they employed a wine maker and entered the viticulture business.

But it was not an auspicious start; their first summer was blighted by a terrible El Nino and they could only watch as half the vines withered and died under the merciless drought.

In the early 2000s there were a number of olive growers in the region and, keen to learn from the best, they brought over an Australian expert for a workshop at the local Thornton Hall. The first thing he told them was that olives will grow anywhere - except in sand.

Eventually, after struggling on for several years with a vineyard that consistently failed to thrive, their entry into olive production was accidental. It began with a shelter belt made up of alternating cedar and olive trees; the cedar were dwarfing the olives and when Gerrit removed them, the olives, exposed to full sun for the first time in years, rewarded him with a prodigious growth spurt.

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Thus, after attending a course in Gisborne, Gerrit starting planting olives; two hundred and fifty trees the first year and another hundred every year after that. The grove now boasts around 900 carefully pruned and individually monitored trees.

Naturally Gerrit and Wil, on a coastal property and believing in the power of their own labour more than in the words of experts, took little notice. However they did replace the type of olives they were growing from Barnea, a popular tree grown in Blenheim and native of Israel, with Italian olives like Frantoio and other varieties with great flavour and, importantly, known to thrive in coastal regions.

“I’ve been told that if the olives can see the sea then they taste better,” says Gerrit. Their trees also benefit from year round seaweed fertiliser containing 60-plus minerals and trace minerals.

So much for the expert.

Their first pressing in Te Puna, from an olive press modified for avocados, was disappointing. Despite working flat-out from seven in the morning to nine at night the pressing produced a meagre 8% yield; clearly they needed to rethink the production process.

These days the olives are commercially pressed in Wellsford.

Harvest is an annual event from mid-April to the end of May when the WWOOFers (young international visitors who work for free in exchange for board and learning about the orchard) and friends and neighbours come together to harvest the fruit.

Luckily for the workers the 900 trees aren’t hand-picked. Rather the hard little fruit are shaken from the trees by a machine which grips the branch and gives it a good rattle – a giant vibrator if you will - and caught in nets placed under the tree. The olives are pressed within 24 hours of being harvested, which means an ungodly start and a long drive to get them to Wellsford by 8am. But as we have established, Gerrit has a work ethic to match that of Boxer, the enormous and powerful cart horse in George Orwell’s Animal Farm whose answer to any problem was “I will work harder!”

Now that Wil has retired from a long career in nursing she’s on the land

every day and she too is working harder than ever alongside her husband to keep producing the best possible olive oil, as well as an array of other organic produce. But, lest I’ve painted a picture of relentless toil with few rewards let me disabuse you. The Kruithoeds, at home in their beautiful Mediterranean style villa sited on the very hill upon which they first stood and looked out over the Pacific, radiate a contentment and happiness with their lives which is increasingly rare these days.

Asked what’s behind this zen-like peace despite a work load that would faze many a lesser mortal, Wil replies that retirement is akin to waiting for death, while happiness, on the other hand, is simply wanting what you already have.

And from that we may deduce that Wil and Gerrit dearly want what they already have.

Moutohora Estate olive oil is available from local markets, The Fresh Market, and Michelle’s Health and Nutrition, Soul Organics and Julians Berry Farm.

Find them online at: facebook.com/moutohoraestate

Harvest time at Moutoura Estate.

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Time Gentlemen Please

The Strand and WhakatÄ ne Hotel in the 1960s; the fountain - loved by some, loathed by others - was removed in 1987.

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Hamish Pettengell of the Whakatāne Museum and Research Centre takes a look back at two grand old Whakatāne dames and ponders the future of a Kiwi institution.

T

HE PHRASE ‘The End of an Era’ is often overused, but it is surely applicable to the recent closure of the Commercial Hotel in Whakatāne. More accurately called the New Commercial Hotel, the well-known - and much-loved - building was actually the second watering hole to grace the current location, and the appearance of the original structure was not exactly the considered process we equate with hotel construction today.

It all began in 1893, when a Mr E L Smith, eager to capitalize on the wealth of a growing Whakatāne, was granted a hotel license in March with the proviso that his establishment be in operation

by June of the same year. With no time to spare, Mr Smith acquired a hotel in Waiorongomai on the Coromandel goldfields - where the gold was running out and the pubs were going cheap - and had it dismantled and put aboard a scow bound for Whakatāne. The whole venture nearly came to a watery end when the scow became grounded on the Whakatāne bar, but luck was with the publican and the jigsaw puzzle made it ashore and reassembly began.

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A

S WITH MOST BUILDING PROJECTS, then as now, it was soon behind schedule and Mr Smith stood to lose his license if he didn’t complete his end of the bargain. Not to be stopped, he erected just the doorframe and door, complete with nameplate and sign, and declared himself open for business. The liquor licensee must have been a man of excellent humour, as he quietly ignored the fact that the rest of the ‘Hotel’ was a pile of lumber and turned a blind eye.

Once completed, the original building served the town well and passed through several owners, one of whom – William ‘Billy’ Regan – died there together with seven of his staff and guests in the 1918 influenza, and it was also common folklore that Te Kooti was a regular drinker there in the later years of his life.

In 1939, the old Hotel was demolished and the new Commercial Hotel, designed by Gisborne firm Birr and Mirfield, rose in its place. Very much a product of its times, the hotel incorporated features of the Spanish Mission style in it’s Art Deco façade, including curved balconies and pan tiled roof edges, and had a U-shaped floor plan to maximize light and air flow to the second-floor rooms. Gone was the flatfronted utilitarianism of the timber building, replaced instead by continental flourishes and a confidence that clearly showed the prosperity and conviction that the region and the era were experiencing. It spoke not of flash-in-the-pan gold fields, but wool, beef, butter and a bright future filled with beer.

A similar statement can be seen in the Whakatāne Hotel. It too replaced a workman-like wooden structure in 1939 (at a cost of 30,000 pounds) with a bold, solid assertion that the Hotel - and the town - were here to stay. There had been licensed premises on that site since the 1870s, and

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to read it’s roster of owners is akin to scanning a Whakatāne Street map: the names Merritt, Simpkins, and McAlister all feature on the deed at some point, with George Simpkins even presenting the pub to his daughter Eliza as a wedding present around 1880.

The Whakatāne Hotel fancied itself as a cut above it’s rival, ‘going electric’ in 1922 (see our related article on Karaponga) with ‘remarkable incandescent bulbs’, and proudly advertising that it had a ferry connection across the river, though passengers actually found themselves conveyed across by what contemporary photos clearly show was simply a row boat.

THE LIQUOR LICENSEE MUST HAVE BEEN A MAN OF EXCELLENT HUMOUR, AS HE QUIETLY IGNORED THE FACT THAT THE REST OF THE ‘HOTEL’ WAS A PILE OF LUMBER AND TURNED A BLIND EYE.

The Whakatāne Hotel and the New Commercial Hotel enjoyed a long and (usually) friendly rivalry.

‘The Whaka’, as it was commonly known, scored a considerable coup when it played host to the cast and crew of the 1954 film The Seekers, the first colour feature made in New Zealand, which was shot on location in Whakatāne. A hint of sexual abandon and big screen scandal rippled down The Strand when one of the stars - Laya Raki an ‘exotic’ actress of ‘mysterious island origins’ - took to spending her evenings draped on the window sill of an upper floor room while smoking cigarettes. So many of Whakatāne’s young men took to spending their evenings draped on the bonnets of cars in the street below that a nearby cobbler opened after hours so as to give them an excuse to be there. The cobbler promptly made a tidy sum from unnecessary shoe and boot repairs, and Laya Raki turned out to be one Brunhilde Marie Alma Herta Jörns from Hamburg, Germany, but she stayed in character throughout her visit and in the days before Google no one appears to have been any the wiser.

Each Hotel attracted it loyal regulars, but there were also plenty who preferred to float between both. In the early 1970s the Commercial expanded into the

recently vacated neo-classical BNZ building that had been its neighbour for many years, and this corner location became ‘The Comm’ that most people came to know. The 50s, 60s and 70s were a time when much of New Zealand society embraced the pub as an integral part of the community; it was a focal point for social and business interaction, a port in any storm, and a provider of accommodation for what was a remarkably transient population of workers, travelling salesmen, visitors, tourists and migrants.

Service and social clubs met there, royalty stayed there, all good gossip began and ended there, and people met, courted, and celebrated marriage there.

And, it was also home to one of the notorious episodes in New Zealand drinking history: The Six o’clock Swill. The early closing hours of pubs had been a First World War expedient (to increase the efficiency of the workforce) that lived on until 1967, and in its waning years it had become less of a constraint to intoxication and more of a personal challenge. As soon as the work day was done, speed was of the essence, and Kiwis flocked to the pubs to imbibe as much as they could before the bar staff, wary of the legal requirement to stop pouring at 6pm, called ‘Time Gentlemen, Please’.

It is hard to imagine today, and as Graeme Hutchins notes in his book Your Shout, ‘Non-participants in the swill often wondered what it was all about . . . .

The swill remained one of the great unspoken events of life in New Zealand. It was there for all to see, but we weren’t supposed to notice.’

B

Y THE TURN OF THE CENTURY THINGS HAD CHANGED, and the smoke filled pub where patrons stood six deep at the bar had gone. Tougher drink-driving laws and changing social tastes meant Kiwis were spending their leisure time – and their money – elsewhere, and in Whakatāne the great Hotel rivalry ended with the Whakatāne Hotel being the last one standing.

Despite our changing culture, the Whakatāne Hotel’s future seems rosy, with the new owners embracing the dinning and accommodation aspects of the business, ironically in a move that harks back to the very origins of the small town pub. Perhaps our changing legislative climate is more of a threat. Greg Robison, part owner of the Hotel, notes, ‘The Whakatāne Hotel is a wonderful piece of early NZ architecture and a continuing symbol of the remaining strength of rural communities. We would like to continue to develop the Hotel, but this is challenging in the current political environment where seismic issues prevail over heritage, even though these older buildings are far more robust than their modern equivalents.’

Annabel Bridge, Property Manager at Bay of Plenty Regional Council, which is the current owner of the Commercial Hotel, says that some earthquake strengthening was done to the building in 2004. ‘We have not had a full IEP done on the building since then, as we believe the strengthening work done at that time brought the building above the ‘earthquake prone’ threshold. So, the seismic requirements do not make the hotel uneconomic to open and Council is undergoing a region-wide property review at the moment. Options for the future of the Commercial Hotel are being explored as part of the review, and Council is likely to make a decision on this in the first quarter of 2016.’

In the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, building requirements have changed dramatically and this is an issue facing not just Whakatāne, but small town New Zealand in general. These heritage buildings are not just bricks and mortar, they are part of the collective memory of our communities, and the building blocks of our national identity. The issue is that we are running out of time in deciding whether we want them to remain as integral parts of our local landscape or vanish forever. In the case of the Commercial, hopefully it will remain a monument to Whakatāne’s rich past for future generations and the good people of the Coromandel won’t try and buy it back any time soon.