Life + Style 27 October 2017

21 August, 2015

life+style The Weekend Sun 1

The spice of life Page 2

THE WEEKEND

Kazel Cass

Real Cowboy

Heather Anne Atkins

Brew buddies

Art lovers map

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life+style The Weekend Sun 21 2015 27August, October, 2017

The authentic feel Great spices with great memories

Sometimes it isn’t about the food, it’s about the experience. The smells, the sights, the laughter and the memories.

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“Indian aromas, chatter, music and smells fill the senses from the moment you walk through the door.”

Photos: Nikki South

With Great Spice in Bureta, it’s about all of the above and more.

Great Spice is all about the ‘great’ – great interior, great food, great table service and, of course, great spice.

But it’s better than great – it’s superb!

The delicious made-from-scratch cuisine may very well be the reason why Great Spice Tandoori Indian Restaurant does so well and is expanding throughout Tauranga.

And if Bureta is a bit far away from home, there are two other great locations – Omanu and Papamoa – where you can get the fantastic dine-in experience or the convenience of take-away or free delivery within the area.

With an authentic feel, the interior is classy and transports the diner to a whole new world. Indian aromas, chatter, music and smells fill the senses from the moment you walk through the door.

Walking into the restaurant, the nose is filled with the smell of fantastic spices wafting from the kitchen as well as traditional Indian incense, and it makes for a beautiful combination.

And the food is incredible. Great Spice’s authentic tasting dishes all come in

generous portion sizes at very reasonable prices, whether you’re ordering a takeaway or treating yourself to a dine-in experience.

Impeccably presented, fantastic smelling and delivered to your table with a smile, the food is a true culinary delight.

Restaurant owner and chef Bishnu has plenty of experience in the Indian restaurant and dining experience game, and it’s evident thanks to the professional and classy restaurants he manages throughout Tauranga.

His curries are authentic and have large, tender portions of meat in them, along with creamy curry and fluffy white basmati rice. Each dish is a delight to look at and a delicacy to eat.

The cheese and garlic naan bread is filled with gooey cheese and the sharp taste of fresh garlic, and you are given large slices of the Indian bread side – more than enough to clean up your curry bowl when you’ve finished your rice.

Everything is perfectly presented, with astounding attention to detail, right down to the generous sprinkling of slivered almonds on top of the lamb korma.

Perhaps the hardest part of ordering from Great Spice is choosing which items from their expansive menu to try, or waiting for your order while the smell of it cooking teases you from the kitchen.

But it’s worth the tease, and the meal lives up to the delicious smell.

And just when you think it can’t get any better, the dessert menu reminds you of exactly why you have that dessert stomach.

The mango kulfi is the perfect way to finish your meal – a cool, sweet dessert that cleanses the palette and settles the meal.

And Great Spice is now offering the chance to experience their cuisine with your work colleagues, friends or family.

The restaurants are offering to host Christmas parties, and these bookings receive a special price.

Bishnu

Up to four people can dine in at this gorgeous restaurant for $40 per person, including the choice of one of three different mains, one of four different starters, a naan bread, and a beer or wine.

Six or more guests can dine in for $40, including the choice of one of three different mains, one of four different starters, a naan bread, and a beer or wine and a dessert.

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A fantastic Indian curry experience is waiting for you.

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A choice of: 3 Different Mains 4 Entrees/Starters + Naan Bread + Wine/Beer + Dessert

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27 October, 2017

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Kazel Cass I was keen to get a bit more ‘green’ - take more responsibility for my plastics, cans and bottles, aspire to greater self-sufficiency and find out more about worm farming.

Not that I wanted to have a worm farm, but I had this hazy notion that it was a stepping-off point into the world of organic gardening.

I drove up to Woodstock in the Lower Kaimai to chat with Kazel Cass. She has a degree in horticulture, a post-grad diploma in teaching and consults with avocado growers who want to transition to a more sustainable growing model.

She is a respected, knowledgeable permaculture practitioner in the Bay of Plenty. Food forests, agriculture, aquaculture, horticulture, bees, chickens and gumboots – I knew she’d sort out my preconceptions.

“What we’re wanting to start is a seed library,” says Kazel. “The idea is you have a collection of seeds and you borrow them, grow them and then return the seeds to the library.”

I was immediately abuzz with the social side of this. Connecting people through a shared interest in seeds. Brilliant!

“What we’ve done so far is have pop-up seed swaps.

“We put messages on Facebook saying ‘hey, we’re going to have a seed swap at this cafe’, and people have rocked up with their seeds.”

She tells me how the seed library in Nelson uses the public library as their seed exchange point. A seed library maintains its collections through donations from members, and can preserve agricultural biodiversity by focusing on rare, local and heirloom seed varieties.

“A seed swap initiative has also got under way in Whakatane. We’re going to be coordinating with them and maybe doing some swapping with them.”

The Whakatane group have bought the rights to show the movie ‘Seed – The Untold Story’, which Kazel and Tui Mincher, who is helping set up the seed library, plan to screen in Tauranga.

Papamoa’s Rock community garden has already contributed seeds which are kept in wage slip envelopes. Stored in boxes, Kazel plans to keep them in an old fridge once the library increases.

Near the fridge is Kazel’s latest gizmo – a rootwave electrothermal weeder.

It zaps weeds with zero chemicals.

“I’d heard of steam weeders,” says Kazel.

“Then I read an article by Dr Charles Merfield, New Zealand’s leading weed scientist.

“He wrote that the root wave machine was better than steam weeders, so I called him to see if he stood by that. Then I contacted the developers in the UK and now I’m a distributor.”

Operated using a petrol generator, the thermal weed zapper is manoeuvrable, organic,

Photos: Bruce Barnard

Seed libraries and weed zappers

sustainable and effective.

Currently it’s being trialled by Full Circle Arboriculture.

“We see this as a really positive tool that council could add to their weed control management processes especially in areas where children play,” says Kazel. “It’s also really good for edges, pathways and invasive weeds Technology, science and social groups. Weeds and zappers. And my new love – seed libraries.

Rosalie Liddle Crawford

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27August, October, 2017 life+style The Weekend Sun 21 2015

Real Cowboy Kiwi comedy western at Historic Village I met Phill Palmer at one of the Bay of Plenty Film monthly network meetings.

Over from Te Aroha, he was keen to connect with local film makers and due to start his next film Real Cowboy – a kiwi comedy western. I caught up with him at the Tauranga Historic Village where he was in the middle of filming.

He’d grown a set of whiskers since I saw him last.

“It’s my little baby,” says Phill, “a film I wrote a couple of years ago. After some unfortunate events in our lives I said to myself ‘how long are you going to live for Phill?’ So I decided to go ahead and make it.”

He enlisted some acting friends and crew

Phill Palmer

Jenny Walker

that he knew.

“This has been in pre-production for five months.

I’ve been putting together props, costumes, make-up and weaponry. I even wrangled a cactus.

“I went and cut it down myself.”

“The scenes and set people have been phenomenal, we couldn’t have been happier.

“We’ve even had an armourer on set firing blanks and it’s been absolutely amazing.”

The story is loosely based on a young farm hand called Jimmy Wilson, who daydreams about becoming a western hero. By chance, he stumbles upon Blade O’Sullivan, an old retired gun slinger.

When he realises who Blade is he begs him to teach him the ‘western ways’. The entertainment is in seeing what they get up to through the training.

“There’s no American accents or references to the American wild west. It’s kiwi wild west,” explains Phill, who plays the part of Blade O’Sullivan.

He’s also writer, producer and props person.

“It’s a short film, almost a mini-featurette. There’s enough that we could turn it into a feature if we wanted to.”

Most of it has been filmed at the Tauranga Historic Village. “We filmed the desert scenes at the Manawaru sand fields in Te Aroha,” says Phill.

“We had a massive Indian tepee tent, cacti, an Alaskan malamute dog and horses. The rest of it is being filmed at the village.”

With a total of four weekends at the Village and one in Te Aroha, I was on set on day three, with two more weekends to go. There are a lot of

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“This has been in pre-production for five months.

I’ve been putting together props, costumes, make up and weaponry.

I even wrangled a cactus - I went and cut it down myself”

advantages for filming a western in the Village.

Bay Costume Hire, located there, is supplying the costumes. The church is a refuge for the nun and priest. The saloon bar scenes, street scenes and undertaker scenes all benefit from the turn of the century-looking village.

Laurene Bonsor is in charge of continuity. She takes before and after photos.

“I have to look for modern items, take down the posters in the window, and make sure it’s all put back correctly afterwards,” says Laurene. “I check for fire extinguishers, make sure no coffee cups are in the background and no actors wearing wristwatches or holding mobile phones.”

One of the extras is Rachael Annear from Tauranga.

“A friend messaged me asking if I’d like to be involved,” says Rachael, “so I said ‘yes’. No audition was needed, I just emailed Phill, told him I was keen, and now I’m a nun!”

Six Beck family members are also extras. From Te Puke, they are only required for one day.

David Blok from Thames plays the undertaker, and John Turner from the Waikato plays the priest.

“Phill and I have done some theatre together and he called me,” says John, also known as JT. “He’s done a few short films, and this is the latest one.

“I look after the children when the shootout starts.”

The extras start at 10am, and the actors earlier at 7.30am. “They’ll wrap about 5-6pm for us extras,” says JT. “I’m lucky I’m just a one-day wonder, then I head back to Hamilton.”

The executive producer, Chris Lambert, reckons

Rachael Annear

The Beck family

he’s never experienced anything like what’s been happening with the Real Cowboy.

“It feels like the whole of Tauranga is behind this!” exclaims Chris. “The big machinery Phill had in Te Aroha – unbelievable! And the community spirit!

“This place is amazing.

“In Auckland it’s so different.”

Chris has made short films, and two features.

“There’s an awesome team on board,” says Phill, “including Kevin Luck as director, and Jacqui Gilbert as co-producer and first AD.” The film has been sponsored by Creative Waikato, The Lion Foundation, Iceberg, UI Revolution, Attic Attire, Bay Costume Hire and Handforged Knives to name a few.

“I’ve been overwhelmed with the response of people in Tauranga, Te Aroha and Auckland,” says Phill.

“And people from Rotorua, Putaruru, Taupo and outlying small towns have helped and given us financial help.”

Phill plans to have a couple of screenings for principal cast and crew, sponsors and extras before sending the film to NZ and overseas film festivals.

“Everyone can see the project come together collectively and be proud of what they have been a part of.” Rosalie Liddle Crawford

IALffer SPEcC tory O

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October, 2017 life+style The Weekend Sun 2127August, 2015

Heather Anne Atkins The power of recovering through art After coming out of brain tumour surgery, artist Heather Anne Atkins was told that she might be permanently blind.

But it was through this hardship Heather picked up a paint brush began to make art.

A pottery artist since the 1980s, Heather has had many highs and lows in her life which have shaped the way she now produces art.

“I had a brain tumour in 1996,” she says, “and it was after that, when I got home from hospital and saw all the flowers surrounding me, that I asked my husband to get me some paints. I’ve been painting up a storm ever since.

“This particular tumour was behind my left eye and the surgeons said they would be looking after me my whole life. But I’ve been very lucky.”

Her latest exhibition ‘New Horizon’ features little pottery houses as well as abstract paintings that reflect New Zealand’s culture.

“I’m trying to encourage people to go for their goals and try new things. That’s what ‘New Horizon’ is all about, but people often look at my work and get different messages from it.”

Her favourite replica houses to create are 1800s and 1900s bungalows and pines cottages, because they have so much character and aren’t just straight lines.

The tiny houses are around 20cm x 14cm

and are created from photographs – houses that she has seen or made up in her mind.

“A house usually takes me a couple of days to build out of clay,” she explains, “and I use slab work to do that. If I haven’t finished them in one day I’ll cover them in plastic and go back to finish them off.”

She says creating the old houses can be quite fiddly, but the end results are worth it.

“I’ve been commissioned to do some modern houses, but really they don’t come up as nice as the older ones because they’re not completely straight. With an older house that doesn’t matter.

“For many years I wanted to be an architect, so now I’m making houses out of clay.”

During Heather’s time as an artist she says one of the moments that sticks out the most is when she created a unique New Zealandinspired ceramic piece that was presented to Diana, the late Princess of Wales, by the Governor General, Sir David Beattie.

“It was the Member of Parliament David Butcher who suggested I do it and I thought ‘well if he thinks so, I should do it’.”

She says Princess Diana sent her a letter back thanking her for the beautiful white cottage house.

“It was a huge honour – I still have the letter sitting in my studio.”

To see Heather’s unique art, visit The Art Lounge at 32 Devonport Road, on opening night on October 27 from 5.307.30pm, or October 28-November 23 from 11am-4pm.

EXCELLENCE IN DERMATOLOGY

Heather Anne Atkins

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Brew Buddies Funk Estate & Mount Brewing Co join forces

Funk Estate, which began in Wellington around five years ago, has established a New Zealand-wide market and is now exporting to Japan and Australia.

The trio of enthusiastic beer makers behind the brand are Jordan Evison, who is CEO and takes care of the business side, Shigeo Takagi, who manages production, and Dylan Shearer, who is responsible for product development, sales and logistics.

Having starting off contract brewing, they decided to purchase a brewery, relocating to Auckland in 2015. Some 18 months later, they began looking at different options around moving or linking up with another company, which is when Funk Estate director Jordan Evison chatted with old family friend Glenn Meikle - managing director of Mount Brewing Co. “We came down and pitched the idea to Glenn,” says Dylan. “He had a smaller brewery. We can do two-and-a-half thousand litres a day. Glenn had a great site and a good bar, and we had the equipment.

“So we could offer him the opportunity to scale up significantly, plus the use of our canning machine.

Teaming up made a lot of sense.”

Photos: Bruce Barnard

A canny synergy has come about through the new business collaboration between Mount Brewing Company and Funk Estate.

Joining forces to form the production company Brew Buddies, both beer brands are now produced at the Newton Street site in Mount Maunganui.

Mount Brewing Co supply kegs nationwide.

They also own Rising Tide and the Super Liquor store located at the front of their building.

“We were looking at getting into cans and that’s one of the reasons why we’ve joined up with Funk Estate and created Brew Buddies,” says Glenn.

“We had an old brewery and needed to upgrade.

“Funk Estate had a new brewery and were looking to move as their lease was up.

“So they came here and we are now equal shares in the brewery. It’s all about savings.”

The advantages of cans is that the weight for shipping is reduced, there’s no exposure to light and it’s more sustainable.

It all makes a lot of sense for both companies.

As well as the new brewery going in to the Rising

Tide brewpub location, a larger chiller has been installed.

Patrons of the Rising Tide can enjoy a quiet drink while watching the brewers at work five days a week. The process is fascinating, with the grain cracked and mashed, then into the

Tom Ball (head brewer of Mount Brewing Co.) Michael Bradford (brewer at Mount Brewing Co.), Shigeo Takagi (Funk Estate), and Dylan Shearer (Funk Estate).

kettle where hops are added.

After that it’s in to fermenting tanks for two weeks followed by transferring to bright tanks where it’s filtered and carbonated, then bottled, canned or kegged. Increased efficiency and savings through a great collaboration.

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life+style The Weekend Sun 2127August, 2015 October, 2017 Pete Morris and Murray Clode with the Art Lovers’ Walk map

Tauranga Art Lovers A new map Pete Morris was climbing Mauao one day last summer when he met Dr James Su, a visiting cruise ship passenger. The doctor was admiring the view but was also keen to see Tauranga’s art.

Photo: Bruce Barnard

“His question to me was ‘where are the art galleries?’” says Pete.

“So I drew him a very hasty map. After I met the American doctor, I thought about how if an art walk became a popular pastime for visitors, then that would be really good for local artists.”

This chance meeting led to Pete, who runs Te Kiteroa Gallery, and Murray Clode of Macandmor Art Space spending time at Easter going for a walk themselves to find all the art-related locations.

“I was carrying around all this info in my head,” says Pete.

“He knew the locations, the history, who did it,” says Murray. “I knew I could assemble all that information and put it together into something we can print. So that’s the two roles in this collaboration.”

Their new art lovers’ map includes locations to drive and walk to, and highlights street art, public art, pottery and sculpture locations; art organisations, galleries and studios; and the location of Maori art that could be of particular interest to tourists.

“It’s so much more than just a map. For example, you can go to the website of the artist and read up about their art,” says Pete.

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I decided to visit some of the more than 70 listed locations. The map has a list of 25 locations to walk to in downtown Tauranga, 27 to walk to at Mount Maunganui, and another 26 locations to drive to around suburban Tauranga.

I started at Macandmor Art Space in the Goddards Centre. Murray saw the space was available in 2016 and felt it was a great opportunity to showcase the quality of local artists’ work. The gallery is full of a variety of work in all mediums, all for sale.

Looking at the art has resulted in attending new exhibition launches, meeting people and talking with the artists themselves.

Within easy walking distance of this Tauranga CBD location are the Owen Dippie series of larger-thanlife murals that grace the inner streets of the city centre. The four murals that make up the series were commissioned in 2013 by Priority One. The largest, a recreation of Bottecelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’, is 27 metres high on the Harrington House building in Harington St. The other three are the three-metrehigh portrayal of Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ on the Kale Print Building in Cameron Rd, ‘The Madonna’ on the Elizabeth St car parking building and ‘The Creation of Adam’ on Elizabeth St. A year earlier, Owen Dippie brought to life Charles Goldie’s ‘Ina Te Papatahi’, on a wall in Masonic Park.

At the inaugural Street Art Festival, organised by Jah and Lovie Smith, and held in Tauranga in December 2015, 16 murals from 18 artists brought Mount Maunganui alive with colour, under the theme ‘Land and Sea’. Charles and Janine Williams painted

27 October, 2017

“Their new art lovers’ map includes locations to drive and walk to, and highlights street art, public art, pottery and sculpture locations; art organisations, galleries and studios”

‘Rise of the Guardians’ on a Mount Maunganui wall. This mural of a spotted shag within a whare design – tukutuku panels – acknowledged the Rena disaster and its impact on the local birdlife. The Rena disaster was also referenced in Peter Cramond’s penguin sculpture ‘The Sea’s That Way’, located opposite Mount Drury on Marine Parade.

It’s not all murals though. Also on the art lovers’ map is the Te Awanui waka, carved by Tuti Tukaokao from a 300-year-old kauri tree in 1973 after a request by the city to the Maori Cultural and Promotional Committee. It sits on the corner of The Strand and McLean St, on nearly the exact site that waka would come ashore below the old Bonded store which now houses Sun Media.

Te Awanui is the original name of Tauranga harbour.

This link through art to our local history is a satisfying one, whether it’s to the recent past with the Rena disaster, or to a 100 or more years previously.

However art for art’s sake, which can have a variety of meanings, can also be happily dug out of Pete and Murray’s Tauranga’s Art Lovers’ map.

At the award-winning The Incubator in 17th Ave, resident artists explore concepts and thoughts, translating them into two or three-dimensional visual explorations.

“To create ideas and associations between the objects is as much the responsibility of the artist as the viewer,” says The Incubator director and artist Simone Anderson.

The wonder of this, is that art is never ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, it’s an expression. It may reference personal history, or local history, or it may not. It may connect us through the eyes of the artist to the land and sea around us, or it may transport us into an imaginary place or awaken a feeling or idea.

Instead of stumbling across a piece of local art, pick up the Art Lovers’ map first, and use it to see, connect, understand and absorb the art around us.

The free art maps can be obtained from Information Centres and art galleries at the Mount and in Tauranga.

Rosalie Liddle Crawford

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October, 2017 life+style The Weekend Sun 2127August, 2015

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27 October, 2017

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life+style The Weekend Sun 21 August, 2015