Life style 6 january 2017

21 August, 2015

THE WEEKEND

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life+style The Weekend Sun 21 August, 2015 6 January, 2017

Delectable delights A sweet – or savoury – treat

If you’ve been out in the garden, you deserve a break. If you’ve taken your dog for a walk or cycled around the Brookfield boardwalk, it’s easy to pop in for a well-earned delicacy.

If you’re wanting to show your appreciation to mum, dad, or someone special, why not take them out for a stylish experience? Alternatively, you may belong to a coffee group, a walking group, or doing real estate caravans. Why not pop in for a breather?

The Burnt Fig café is a treat in Brookfield’s The Ridge Plaza, and owner Shelley Archibald says she strives for flair.

“This is your place, we really want you to feel at home.”

With eye-catching décor in shades of grey and cheerful yellow, The Burnt Fig offers more than just an aesthetically-pleasing environment. With excellent coffee and a range of treats from the menu or the cabinet, Shelley says their food adds something different to the café scene.

“We cook each dish from scratch. You can’t get it fresher than that!

“A lot of people are tired of the same-old, sameold. Our thing is a fresh vibe; we put a new spin into some traditional recipes.

“Additionally, we have vegetarian and gluten-free options available, and a reduced presence of white sugar. We know what’s in everything we make, which is important to a lot of people these days.”

The Burnt Fig team go the extra mile for their customers and their food.

The Burnt Fig’s chef and baker Angela Lawes has more than 50 years’ experience and by the way is gluten-free herself.

“She absolutely knows what she’s doing,” says Shelley.

The staff work hard to bring their best to the front of the house. From regulars to summer staff, The Burnt Fig has a diverse range of experience, ethnicities and skill.

Mitsuyo Sakata – the main barista – has previous restaurant experience and crafts wonderful coffee according to their customers.

“Customers love our team, we get compliments daily about our service, our food and our coffee.”

Their food gets wonderful feedback daily on presentation and taste, and Shelley says they work hard to give their customers the best.

“How we present our food shows we really care, and we cater for a wide range of needs.”

Aside from the food, The Burnt Fig is a “cool, funky place just to hang out”.

“We try to accommodate for everyone in the family with cushions and rugs, including the dog with treats and a water bowl.

“And if you’re a little late or a little early we try to accommodate for that, too.”

If you’re looking for a café with a twist, easy parking, a friendly vibe and great food and drinks, The Burnt Fig is the place to go.

If you’re hosting your own intimate soiree at home, you don’t have to compromise on quality.

The Burnt Fig offers a catering service – and they go the extra mile to provide personalised touches.

They create and serve finger food nibbles for easy eating with a punchy taste.

“If you’re entertaining at home and you want something a bit special, and very very tailored to suit your home décor and need some special touches, then that’s what we do well,” says Shelley.

“The catering is something that your guests will remember. They will be impressed.”

So treat yourself – to a spectacular coffee, a meal out, or a sweet indulgence.

“We have pretty much everything to make you feel really comfortable,” says Shelley.

“Because it’s all about the experience.”

Photos: Bruce Barnard

Life is all about treating yourself and those you care about.

Cayla-Fay Saunders

Shelley Archibald

Summer barista Michelle Anner mans the espresso machine.

6 January, 2017

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The hobby of honey Stung by an interest in bees Wayne Apiti throws out apiary terminology and jargon like a seasoned pro, but although he’s been involved with bees for five years, he’s new to the apiary game.

“People were keeping hives on the family property, after signing Dad to a deal where they paid him in honey. Then a friend of ours said: ‘Hey, the old man’s getting ripped off. Those people get paid to put the hives onto your property’.”

Wayne looked into it, and contacted such people.

Wayne’s Dad, at first, wasn’t keen on the new arrangement, until Wayne pointed out that for what they were prepared to pay, his Dad could buy a whole lot of honey.

However, every time they signed a new contract, there was a little bit of a change. “The money became less and less, because, apparently, we had too much kanuka and rewarewa.”

Wayne did keep signing contracts, and says, tongue in cheek, it was money for jam. “Then I started thinking, maybe there’s my retirement fund.”

After he’d had been thinking about it for years, wife Marg announced: “There’s a bee course starting – do it”.

Marg and Wayne had been working on the farm recently, and took a lease on the property from Wayne’s Dad. With the land secured, it was time to seriously look at the bees.

A mate told Wayne there was a bee club, and he could check out one of their meetings for a gold coin donation and a plate. “There are a lot of hobbyists.

They meet up, talk about their hives, maybe a problem they’re having and how to fix it.

“And once you get into it, you find you really have to know what you’re doing.”

Wayne heads up to TECT Park twice a month, where the Taratahi’s New Zealand Certificate in Apiculture course is based. It runs from August to May, covering the annual bee honey cycle.

“I’m looking at it as a hobby for starters, to see how it goes.”

Part of the course involves visiting hives, and keeping records, particularly around plant collections, and that’s ignited a previously unknown passion in Wayne.

“I was always – trees, wood, fire, burn. Now I’m learning about what trees bees need, and what’s not good for them, like kowhai trees, which make them a bit do-lally.”

Although honey is often viewed as liquid gold, due to its skyrocketing price, it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.

“It’s a lot of work, and the honey flow only runs for two or three months.”

Since the start of the course, Wayne has been stung a total of – zero times. “I’ve got the gear, but women, they love me,” he jokes, referring to the female worker bees. “They’re not aggressive by nature, and I’ve had them land on me.”

Wayne advises any keen hobbyists to do a course first. For more information, visit: http://www. taratahi.ac.nz/programmes/new-zealand-certificatein-apiculture Karolyn Timarkos

Wayne Apiti

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6 January, 2017 life+style The Weekend Sun 21 August, 2015

Restoring a little lady Photos: Chris Callinan

Simone and her darling Olive When Simone Anderson is pitching caravan awnings for the hordes of Bay of Plenty holidaymakers in the hot sun this festive season she’ll be thinking of the moment she finally gets to unwind with her beloved Olive. For the first time!

“When I have supplied everyone else in New Zealand with holidays this summer – because that’s what I do. I go and put the awnings up for everybody that comes and stays in our caravans at the Mount.”

“When that starts to calm down late-January to early-February I’m going to slip on over with Olive and have a holiday of my own at the Mount.”

Simone Anderson and Olive

“Because even though I work there a lot of the time I still think the Mount is the most gorgeous spot for a holiday,” says Simone.

And as much as she loves the Mount, it seems Simone loves Olive more. You see Olive is an 18 foot, olive green and cream 1962 Oxford Deluxe caravan.

“Olive. She’s a darling. Actually, she’s my baby,” says Simone, who has done a few caravan restorations before, but nothing to this extent.

“My husband John owns BOP Caravan Rentals Ltd – so I have a pretty good supply of interesting caravans to pick from.

“But Olive was one that just grabbed me and I thought: ‘Oh, she’s just gorgeous’,” says Simone, who now has Olive proudly sitting on her Welcome Bay lawn.

“When caravan number 102 came back from being rented, the occupier had used the cupboard containing the Murphy bed s a grow room for his marijuana plant, set up with grow lights; the works.

“So I gutted her out and then started to rebuild her, and I was quite amazed with how all her bits were still all there. She’s a bit of a darling.”

But Simone has a huge supply of caravans to pick from, so why Olive?

“Probably the fact her interior structure was still reasonably sound. And she just had lovely curves.

“I love her exterior lines and her curved interior walls with chrome trim, quite a cool ‘retro’ look.”

“We painted the outside of Olive – and we got

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6 January, 20172015 21 August,

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“Little Olive. She’s a character. Actually, she’s my baby,” says Simone, who has done a few caravan restorations before. But nothing on this scale

a bit creative and put some lace features in certain areas.

“A lot of people ask how we got the lace effect but it’s our little secret, it’s not a sticker.” Adele Henderson, my company painter, and I work well together and come up with some pretty cool stuff. It’s a lot of trial and error though. And Adele came up with her name ‘Olive’,” says Simone.

Olive’s interior has had a lot more work done. “We stripped her right back to nothing and found some nice matai flooring hidden under her shoddy old lino. So we’ve polished this up for the flooring.

“I had to repair the ceiling which had been leaking and had damaged some of the walls. I took all of the trims off and Adele has spray-painted car paint on all of the built-in furniture, which incorporates the curved walls and gives it a different texture from the walls. This looks really cool,” says Simone.

“And we’ve brought the cream colour onto the inside walls as well. And the lace-work onto the inside – but in a slightly different genre.”

Olive has two double beds, with her own separate little kitchen, but no shower or toilet facilities.

“I’m working on the kitchen at the moment – I’ve got a retractable tap that I can pass out the kitchen window and use as a shower to rinse sand off you if you’ve been on the beach.

“So that will be my outdoor shower,” says Simone.

And she’s using an old tea trolley table because “I don’t know what happened to the original table”.

Soon, when Simone’s job of providing others with

summer holidays in caravans finishes, Simone and her family, with Olive will go on a sabbatical of their own.

“Olive is going to be my holiday home – when we head from Welcome Bay to Mount Maunganui,” laughs Simone.

So a small road trip then? “That’s the one,” says Simone, who gave Olive a good old wash before her Merle Foster photo shoot with The Weekend Sun.

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January,2015 2017 life+style The Weekend Sun 216 August,

Building lifeskills The therapy of Lego Calais Janes was the engineer, Tyrone Te Pohe was the supplier, and Megan Clews was the builder.

Kerie Richardson with Tameta Kino (age 6)

From an outside perspective, this scene looks like three children and an adult playing with Lego. But it’s so much more than that.

These three children sat with special needs teacher and Lego therapist Kerie Richardson, strategically playing their roles and building a Lego creation together.

And Kerie is proud of her little Lego club and how far they’ve come in the nine weeks she’s been working with them.

“In the beginning it was anarchy, but in the last few weeks we’ve seen them really bloom with their communication skills and their describing words,” says Kerie.

“We’re noticing that the communication skills they’re learning in here are going back into the classroom, which is the whole aim for them.

“That is what I love to see, not the fact that they’re doing it here in a small setting. It’s the fact that they’re remembering those skills and they’re

building on them and they can go forwards.”

Praise for these children gushes from Kerie. She can’t contain it.

Before these sessions with Kerie, the children all had communication and concentration struggles, now they are chatty and have better manners than most adults.

“They take it back into the classroom,” says Kerie. “But they also take it into the community. When they’re out they’re able to cope with stressful situations like supermarkets and waiting and to be able to communicate if they want something.”

Kerie says Lego teaches them skills such as communication, patience with others and problem solving to tackle everyday experiences.

“I did a masters in special needs and autism and my focus was Lego therapy, because I was just blown away by the results it gets.”

After Kerie did her masters, with a focus on Lego therapy, she started her teaching journey in woodwork – with a bunch of raucous male students.

That’s where she first got the idea to introduce Lego into the classroom.

“You couldn’t do a big build every time, and they didn’t want to do paperwork. So I put my head together

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6 January, 2017 21 August, 2015

“Kerie says Lego teaches them skills such as communication, patience with others and problem solving to tackle everyday experiences”

over a few things and I brought Lego in.”

She says it was an instant success with the adolescent boys, who would arrive at class eager for Lego time.

“I had the most beautiful class in the end.”

“It just goes to show it’s not just for autistic kids.

It’s for all types of kids – kids that don’t want to learn, those that have all types of problems. You just have to adapt it slightly.”

And for Kerie, Lego therapy is all about “the wee bairns [children]”.

She says it hasn’t always been easy, and there are days and children that are more difficult than others.

But at the end of the day there’s one thing that gets her through – the kids themselves.

Kerie sees these children for who they are underneath it all, regardless of how trying they may be at times.

“We’ve got one lad, very big,” she says. A lad with severe behavioural struggles who had given Kerie trouble in the past.

“But even he took to Lego. I got him to the point where we’d sit there, and he’d look at me and he’d smile and we’d potter along and he loved it.”

“But you see their personality, underneath it all you see who they are. If I was in his situation I can’t even start to imagine how frustrating it is. He hasn’t got his voice, he can’t tell you what’s wrong –he’s got no control over his world.

“But he’ll look at you sometimes and he’ll just give you the most gorgeous smile and you know he sees you, you know he’s smiling for a reason, and that’s just the most beautiful thing.

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“That just gets you through anything. That moment of communication, where he’s actually chosen to engage with you, and things like that. It’s hard, it’s damn hard, but it’s not his fault. At the end of the day he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

On the difficult days, Kerie employs a strategy to help her remember what Lego therapy is all about.

“I think I always just put myself in their shoes and think: ‘How would I feel?’ And that way you get through an awful lot and then you do get to see them for who they are and not what they’re condition is.

“Because at the end of the day they’re beautiful human beings who deserve every right that everybody else has. You just have to get them as far as they can go so that they’re happy.

“I just want them to have recognition for what they’ve done. I’m so proud of them.” Cayla_Fay Saunders

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life+style The Weekend Sun 21 August, 2015

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