Life + Style 11 December 2015

21 August, 2015

life+style The Weekend Sun 1

INTO THE BLUE see page 2

THE WEEKEND

Featuring Health & Beauty | Christmas Gifts Ideas | Natural Health | Food

2

11August, December, life+style The Weekend Sun 21 20152015

Buying into deep blue bliss New showroom splashes summer from the door

Nestled in the green Kaimai hills is a dazzling deep blue saltwater pool that fills the Coster family’s life outdoors with sun-soaked, liquid-filled, refreshing relaxation after a hard day’s farmwork.

Kerry and Peter Coster looked to install a pool two years ago and chose PoolPac, who sell the Australian award-winning range of above-ground pools Classic Pools throughout New Zealand.

“We approached owners Anita and Kevin Horan and they were by far the most helpful out of everybody,” says Kerry.

Today she has a 10m by 5.5m warm saltwater pool, surrounded by timber decking, resting beside her home – for son Ben, 14, and daughter Jessica, 13, and their friends to slip into every afternoon.

“PoolPac gave me quotes straight away and answered all of my questions – and when we did go ahead with it, the pool was here before we were even ready.”

The Horan’s business, PoolPac, is the NZ distributors of Classic Pools, judged best above-ground pool in Australia by the Swimming Pool and Spa Association for nine years running.

And Anita points out that while Classic Pools are a full DIY product, PoolPac offer professional installation. “Classic Pools are referred to as above ground pools but can be installed in-ground.”

The Costers chose to install their pool – and Kerry says the support from the Horans was impressive.

“To start with we thought ‘Oh my god this is going to be a big job’ but once we worked through it, it was actually quite easy and PoolPac has heaps of resources online to help.”

Anita and Kevin have sold Classic Pools online through TradeMe and their website for five years and shifted to Papamoa following the Christchurch earthquakes.

At their new Mount Maunganui showroom on Newton St, they have a Classic Pool set up, showing its materials and construction.

Anita says a pool, which starts at about $5000, can – with decking, paving and landscaping – become an attractive garden asset while delivering hours of summer fun.

The Classic Pool range includes the Extreme saltwater pool, their most technologically advanced.

The Majestic is a stylish functional saltwater compatible pool that can be installed above, partially or completely in-ground.

Classic’s Signature and Regal are reliable freshwater

pools suited to most backyards. “You don’t need much space, our smallest pools are 4.8m x 3.6m and 5.2m x 3m,” says Anita. Liners come in blue hues and a pebbled sand effect.

But she stresses if you want a pool for summer you need to be planning in advance due to site preparation, a permit prior to the two-three week delivery time and four to five days for professional installation.

“Maybe a bit longer if you do it yourself,” she smiles.

PoolPac deliver the full pool kit on a pallet to your home from where it is easy to convey components to the pool site.

“Pump, filtration and cleaning equipment are part of the package. We also supply chemicals and do free water testing.”

PoolPac even offer a pool valet service to

take the chore out of cleaning – and now they’ve added spas to their range.

They sell SpaO, a compact circular Canadian spa which can be rolled through most gates. For something a bit more sophisticated – massage nodules galore – Anita and Kevin travelled to China to seek out the most effi-cient reliable producers.

The enticing results are on show at PoolPac. “If it’s time you discovered the real possibility of a pool for endless summers of family fun, it’s time you visited PoolPac.” Kerry agrees, saying Ben and Jessica love their pool and would find life difficult without it.

“They are in it all of the time – Pete and I, we jump in after being out on the farm to cool off.”

Merle Foster

11 December, 2015 21 August, 2015

Frosting and freight forwarding A man of many layers Vaughan Arthur is a man with many layers.

For work, he coordinates nationwide line-haul transport and freight forwarding – for leisure, he bakes cakes and ices them.

He used to construct roofs, now he builds sweet deserts.

Vaughan makes novelty cakes, featuring the Minions, Peppa Pig, Barbie, Batman, and Spiderman.

He’s Cakeboy. It sounds like a superhero name – and it is in some way. Except Vaughan doesn’t come to the rescue of damsels in distress, unless they’re in need of a birthday cake.

“I don’t have a commercial kitchen or anything, I just do it for friends and family and donations. I made a cake for the Special Care Baby Unit at Tauranga Hospital at the start of the year.”

Because he bakes at home in the family kitchen, Vaughan doesn’t charge for his cakes. “Most people will give me money to reimburse my time. But I just enjoy doing it.”

A former roofer now running PBT Transport in Mount Maunganui, Vaughan’s ‘secret ingredient’ is baking cakes.

The challenge rose while watching bakers battle buttercream fondant and ganache about a year-and-a-half ago.

“I was sitting down watching some telly, I think it was called ‘Amazing Wedding Cakes’, and I thought it looked interesting. I’d never thought about that sort of thing in my life before, but I thought I’d give it a go,” says Vaughan.

“So I went down to the supermarket and bought a packet cake and made that – well that was a disaster. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.”

He was trying to make a bed out of cake. “I don’t know why, probably because it was a nice square shape. It was just like a practice one, it was pretty rough.

“But I didn’t want to give up so I asked my wife how to bake, how to do the basics like whisk the eggs instead of beating them, and temperatures on the oven. I didn’t have a clue.”

Vaughan began baking and decorating more cakes, then friends and family started requesting his frosted creations for birthdays and other special occasions.

“I’m still learning. If something’s difficult I’ll have a look in the cookbooks. I’ve got the three or four flavours down, chocolate, banana, carrot, which most people want.

“The chocolate’s real nice. It’s made with oil not butter. It keeps it moist and lasts a long time; it’s beautiful though.”

Vaughan hopes one day he’ll make cakes as spectacular as the ones on ‘Amazing Wedding Cakes’. “I want to get into the big cakes you know, three of four tiers. That’s my goal.

“I’m probably doing about two or three a month maybe. I’d like it to be more, but it’s time consuming.” He’s got to fit making frosting into freight forwarding.

A man who bakes? There’s definitely some banter thrown around by the fellas at work. “They laughed at me to start with because I’m working with truckies and I go to the gym most mornings too. Then they started seeing my cakes and they’re all pretty encouraging.

“They admit they can’t bake. After they have a giggle, they pat me on the back and say ‘Well done’. I don’t mind people having a laugh, it’s good fun.”

From overalls to apron, what has Vaughan learned? “I suppose if you put your mind to something, you can do it, even if it’s something so random as cake decorating.” Zoe Hunter

life+style The Weekend Sun 3

4

11August, December, life+style The Weekend Sun 21 20152015

Havaianas Minions Jandals and Freestyle Shark Leash Watch Available at Momentum Surf & Streetwear, Papamoa Plaza

Stunning leather bags in black and blue, modeled on the famous Hermes Birkin bag and Floral Bouquet from the Serenade Beverley Hill Collection. Available at Memories Shoes, Bethlehem Town Centre.

Christmas Gift Ideas It’s the time for giving and Life + Style has been on the hunt for some funky, creative gift ideas to fill this year’s stockings. Here, we showcase a range of quality gifts from local retailers so get out there and shop local this Christmas!

Shop at X.lab for Xmas gifts with the X factor.

Red Square, Tauranga.

Adorable teddies, collectable dolls, girls’ shoulder bags.

Available in the CBD at Indelible, Devonport Rd, Tauranga.

MENTUM O M OMENTUM M SURFWEAR

STREETWEAR

SURFWEAR

STREETWEAR

like us facebook

Shop in store: 277 Maunganui Road

Interiors & Gifts

Or online: fluxboutique.co.nz

11 December, 21 August, 2015

Fun-loving canister range, with hand-lettered design from here in NZ. Similar candle range also available at Flux Boutique, Maunganui Ro.

Adriatic collection dinner set and New Zealand made “Happy Hens,” just two of the options for that perfect Christmas gift. Available at Paradise @ The Mount.

HOME FRAGRANCE COLLECTION

life+style The Weekend Sun 5

A taste of the huge range of keepsakes, treasures and fabulosities available at Tres Chic on Grey St.

Christmas is easy with Evolve’s range of bracelets and beads. Start a new collection or add to an existing one. Also pictured, Evolve’s Family Tree Locket & Koru Heart Locket.

Available at Artisan Jewellers.

6

December, life+style The Weekend Sun 2111August, 2015 2015

Worker bee The insects toiling for humanity

The kanuka honey bees are busy about their business in the Katikati sun.

Two hundred beats of those little wings a second – that’s the buzz. Between 50 and 100 flowers visited each outing and just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey to show for a lifetime’s work.

It’s the only food produced by an insect that’s eaten by man, but it’s the bees ability to nurture, rather than nourish, that has Dr Shaun Holt’s clinical interest.

“I am an ideas man. I am a medical researcher” – and his idea is we should be smearing honey on our skin as well as our brown bread.

Dr Holt is himself busy as a bee over a trim flat white and laptop in his “coffice”, a Bethlehem café, as he ponders bee business: How he can heal the world with honey?

It’s all local expertise – the bees in Katikati, the medical researcher in Bethlehem, the GPs in Tauranga and manufacturers in Tauriko.

“I believe honey and bee venom have remarkable properties,” he says.

That’s no newsflash. Manuka honey is legendary for its healing properties, specifically burns, ulcers and infections.

“But if you look at how this Katikati kanuka honey compares to the best pharmaceutical prescription drugs on the market then it seems to be better.”

Especially now for 90 per cent of spotty teenagers staring into a mirror at a full face breakout. There is

hope in honey, a kanuka honey formulation called Honevo.

“I am not surprised,” says Dr Holt. “Acne is caused by bacteria and we know kanuka honey is anti-bacterial.”

The recently released results of a large clinical trial on acne would indicate participants had a reduction in the severity of their acne, fewer acne lesions and an improvement in their quality of life.

The 135 people that took part in the 12-week study all washed with anti-bacterial soap twice a day and half applied the honey formulation twice daily.

Twice as many had improvement in their acne after using Honevo than those who didn’t. They reported improvements in their acne after two weeks use of Honevo, with further improvements during the following six to 10 weeks.

Are the bees doing what modern medicine is struggling to achieve?

There is still robust scientific research to do on the honey formulation. But the results with acne are just building on the positive outcomes for sufferers of rosacea. For up to 10 per cent of adults it’s a chronic facial disease characterised by redness, papules, pustules, swelling and thickened skin.

“Rosacea doesn’t kill you,” says Dr Holt.

“But it’s notorious for being hard to treat.”

Antibiotic drugs and creams are normally prescribed, but while they control rosacea, they don’t cure it. That’s when Shaun called on the bees to do their magic.

-- II n n tt e e rr ii o o rr ss o o ff D D ii ss tt ii n n cc tt ii o on n --

11 21 December, 2015 August, 2015

life+style The Weekend Sun 7

“It can cost billions to develop a drug, but the bees have done it for a fraction of that”

“It can cost billions to develop a drug, but the bees have done it for a fraction of that.”

All honey types have the basic naturally occurring sugar and water, but each vary in their anti-inflammation and anti-bacterial powers.

“We tried the kanuka honey in small pilot studies of 10 to 15 people on various conditions, including eczema, psoriasis and nappy rash.” It didn’t work as well as expected.

But Dr Holt was watching and listening. “People on the internet were saying they’d used kanaka on their rosacea and it seemed to have worked.”

It went to clinical trial with 137 sufferers applying honey masks twice a day for 30 minutes. One-third reported a significant improvement and for 13 per cent the rosacea disappeared.

To understand why the honey works we need to understand what causes rosacea.

“Only last year we learned about the mechanism of rosacea.

It’s tiny mites living deep in the skin and we know the honey kills all bacteria, including those most resistant to the strongest antibiotics. The sugar in the honey sucks the water from the bug.”

But the discovery doesn’t lend itself to DIY because the honey has to be sterilised in a two-stage process.

“Regular honey is full of impurities such as bits of dead bees, hive and bacteria. It’s okay if you eat it because stomach acids will destroy the nasty bits. But if you put it on your skin you will almost certainly get a bad reaction.”

Another problem with honey is it crystallises by winter and runs by summer – so it runs off your face. “We have a formula with glycerine, which has made it less sticky, nicer

and temperature stable.”

There were 500 orders for the clinical honey called Honevo in just one week, mainly from the US and UK. “Having the best product available for a common medical condition is a nice achievement,” says Dr Holt.

Shaun has just started a year-long kanuka honey trial on 950 cold sores sufferers. It’s the second largest trial ever for a cold sore product and will compare Honevo with the

market leader Zovirax.

It follows he would also start a small honey trial for genital herpes and blepharitis or eyelash infections. Then next year more honey studies and a lot of bee venom studies for arthritis, acne and psoriasis.

It has been said that without the bees the world would end.

The bees and Dr Holt certainly have work to do.

Hunter Wells

a strong

PRODUCT OF NEW ZEALAND

s n i a g r d ba

n e r Yea

F F O % 0 5 0 3 MAKE NO PAYMENTS AND PAY NO INTEREST

UNTIL JANUARY 2017 WITH Q CARD.*

LARGESTLARGEST

INDEPENDENTINDEPENDENT BEDDING GROUP BEDDING GROUP

TAURANGA

Cameron Central shopping centre, 13th ave next to Furnish NEW ZEALAND’S (07) 579 9074 LARGEST INDEPENDENT

MOUNT MAUNGANUI

5 Owens Place (opp Harvey Norman) (07) 572 1836

BEDDING GROUP *Offer valid to 3rd January 2016 or while stocks last. Excludes Everyday Dream Prices and clearance stock. Q Card and GE Finance lending criteria, fees, terms and conditions apply.

WAIHI

(across from Mitre 10 in Waihi) PROU D TO BE LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED (07) 863 8787 PROU D TO BE LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED

s1548kwBedsRUs

NEW ZEALAND’SNEW ZEALAND’S