Life + Style 29 March 2018

29 March, 2018

Eye for style Page 2

THE WEEKEND

Jassi Singh

Mana Hira Davis

Fashion

Crafty Gatherer

Beyond Us

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Kitchens with character Create a BespOak look at an affordable price

The kitchen is at the heart of every home, but modern designs often lack one crucial feature – soul.

Glossy, white MDF kitchens have dominated the interior design landscape for years, but a new trend towards natural products has seen a resurgence in the popularity of timber.

The timing couldn’t be better for Bay of Plenty residents who have an eye for style.

Oak furniture specialist, BespOak NZ, has just launched its own kitchen cabinetry range which promises to re-define the way kitchens look, are planned, bought and installed in New Zealand.

“People are going back to the natural warmth, quality and durability of timber,” says BespOak NZ owner Chris Joblin. “These kitchens have character. No two pieces ever look identical, so each kitchen has its own unique fingerprint.

“Timber is also timeless and suits both classic and contemporary styles.”

Four stunning kitchens are now on display at BespOak’s Mount Maunganui showroom in Owens Place. Paired with different benchtops, tiles, handles and colour schemes, it’s easy to see how versatile oak kitchens can be – from chic, modern designs to more traditional looks.

And the best part is that a solid oak kitchen is now entirely affordable.

The four superb kitchen cabinet configurations on show each cost about $15,000 and do not compromise on quality.

“At the moment you’ve got high-end cabinet makers who can craft from solid wood but are creating pieces which are super-expensive.

“Or at the bottom end you’ve got more affordable flat-pack kitchens but you often have to compromise on quality.

“What there hasn’t been in the market until now is a high-quality, ready-made timber kitchen that competes price-wise with a midrange MDF option,” Chris says.

BespOak’s new kitchen range boasts 30 different pieces (including pantries, wall units, under-bench cabinets, cupboards and drawer units) all of which can be freestanding or fitted underneath a benchtop of your choice.

Each piece is expertly handcrafted using traditional joinery techniques and European white oak sourced from sustainable plantations.

All the finishing touches are available,

including solid 45mm floating oak shelves, wine racks, cutlery drawer inserts, trays, and chopping boards which can be cleverly built into your overall design.

“We are 100 per cent flexible. We can cater for DIYers through to full installation. Because our kitchens are manufactured in modules, it’s very simple. You just place them together, fix in place, then put a benchtop on. Done.”

Chris says it’s not unusual for people to wait six months to have their kitchen designed, made and installed. But BespOak kitchen cabinets are available from the company’s local warehouse stock. Once the design is finalised on BespOak’s in-house planning software, cabinets can be delivered to customers within days. A benchtop template is then measured once the kitchen cabinets are installed and the top is normally completed within 14 days.

BespOak is the UK’s number one supplier of solid oak furniture and Chris’ family-owned business is the sole New Zealand distributor.

Chris collaborated with the UK team to design the new kitchen range and expects it will be hugely popular.

“Oak has been synonymous with quality furniture throughout the ages.

“The Vikings built their long boats out of it because it’s incredibly durable. It’s a hard wood, very dense, and the biggest thing is the beautiful variation in natural colour and grain.”

BespOak kitchens also feature soft-close drawers with Austrian Blum hardware and handles from Germany’s Hafele.

The company can also offer a package of Belling kitchen appliances from the UK at very competitive prices.

“We also offer a 15-year cabinet warranty and great after-sales service on all our kitchens.”

Jassi Singh Cricket, KiwiCaps and India Tauranga’s Jassi Singh, 15, has spent one third of his life playing cricket. He is also one of 16 young New Zealand cricketers heading to India in April.

Former Black Cap Jacob Oram is taking the group of cricketers, aged 15-20, to India for a development cricket tour from April 15 – 28.

Known as the KiwiCaps, the tour team will experience specialist coaching sessions, matches on prominent Indian cricket grounds, playing experience in spin-friendly conditions, visits to academies operated by former Indian greats such as Dilip Vengsarkar, and interaction with other past Indian players such as Madan Lal. And, of course, there will be plenty of sightseeing opportunities at some of India’s iconic tourist attractions.

Jassi, a student at Tauranga Boys’ College is looking forward to this exciting cricket opportunity.

He is the only member of the group joining the KiwiCaps from the Bay of Plenty.

“I put my name down for this development tour,” says Jassi, who has been playing cricket for about five years since first playing at Otumoetai Intermediate.

life+style The Weekend Sun 3 Photos: Nikki South

29 March, 2018

“We’ll be led by a former Black Cap and go experience the different playing conditions in India.”

The KiwiCaps will visit Mumbai and Delhi during the two-week trip. Each student has paid their own way, including the cost of attending a March weekend training camp in Palmerston North.

During the New Zealand v England game at the Bay Oval in early March, Jassi met some of the Black Caps, including one of his cricket heroes, Kane Williamson.

Former New Zealand international cricketer Jacob Oram has played all forms of the game for 10 years. A left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler, he is a veteran of 229 internationals. The all-rounder has coached many of New Zealand’s elite female cricketers since retiring as a player, and has recently signed on as the White Ferns bowling coach until midway through 2019.

Also focusing on being an all-rounder, Jassi is looking forward to the KiwiCaps trip.

“I’d like to go as far as I can with cricket,” says Jassi. “Going to India with the team gives me different conditions to play in, helps me get better, and gives me more experience in certain aspects of cricket which can come handy when playing back in New Zealand.”

Rosalie Liddle Crawford

“I’d like to go as far as I can with cricket”

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Mana Hira Davis That time I was in an alien zombie movie Writer and producer Mana Hira Davis asked me to come and be an alien zombie in his Guardian of the Stones, so of course I had to say yes.

Mana Hira Davis

George Hennah and Augie Davis

Most mornings I do zombie rather well for the first couple of hours of the day, so I figured acting the part should be fairly straightforward.

My early morning wake-up call was around 4.30am, and I headed out to Te Puna where Jared Meehan had donated the use of his farm. Actors, a stunt team and crew gathered in the early dawn ready for a full day of shooting a high drama/battle scene.

Guardian of the Stones is a concept for funding shoot. First-time feature directors these days need to not only to write a spec script, but provide a proofof-concept to get their project up and running.

Simply stated, a proof-of-concept is a scene from your feature film script, fashioned into a short.

Its purpose is to provide an example of the writing, directing and cinematography that will go into the feature, as well as demonstrate the film’s viability.

Mana is well-known as a top NZ stuntman, best known for his work in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and, more recently, Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok. He is transitioning from stuntman to actor with recent acting roles in Ghost in the Shell and Aquaman.

In Guardian of the Stones he plays the lead character Mac. The actors and stunt team are aliens who have taken over the townspeople of Te Puna, and the alien leader has captured Mac’s love interest, using her for bait to prompt a battle for power stones.

I asked Mana how he’d come up with the storyline idea.

“I was writing it while working in Australia on Aquaman,” says Mana. “Being away from home and family is so hard, and I’m always having to go out of Tauranga for work.

“I moved here four years ago because I love it and love living here. I started writing as part of a way to stop having to travel away for work.”

Mana grew up as part of an artistic family in Wellington. His first film job was working on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

“When I left college, I studied drama and acting for a year-and-a-half at Wellington Performing Arts School. But I kind of lost interest and moved on thinking I didn’t want to do acting or be a part of the industry. I didn’t have a solid direction.”

His grandmother, Eleanor Ginn, was a trained actress who studied acting in London at the Royal Academy of Arts. Towards the end of the war, she met Mana’s grandfather - a Kiwi who brought her back to New Zealand.

“Her international acting dreams were put on hold as she became a mother, but she also founded the Titahi Bay Little Theatre Company,” says Mana.

“It’s one of her passions and is still going today in Porirua.”

Looking for direction, he decided to study youth work. He had already enrolled on a three-year social service degree when a friend talked him into auditioning for The Lord of the Rings.

“They did this broad audition looking for extras and stunt guys through the rugby and martial arts

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Actors John Warren and Phill Mulligan waiting until their scene will be filmed

Mana Hira Davis

“We could employ people, train them up and build an industry here.”

For the one-day shoot on the Te Puna farm, stunt professionals came from Auckland as well as the Bay to take care of most of the action.

As it is a conceptual film for funding there was no budget, and everyone contributed their time and expertise.

As well as Mana, the key people involved were director, Augi Davis, director of photography George Hennah, assistant director Annie Lawler, stunt coordinator Thomas Kiwi, soundman Alf Rose, advisor Anton Steel, art/unit Jannine Bishop, costumes Marilyn Collins-Smith, and casting Tanya Horo. Jared Meehan was the head rigger and owner of the location.

Mana is planning to run courses for stunts and performing, build a base of skilled people and raise awareness about it as a potential career path.

Rosalie Liddle Crawford

Mana Hira Davis with stunt woman Briana Hair Photos: Rosalie Liddle Crawford

clubs. My friend auditioned, got in and told me about it.

“There was another audition coming up so I decided to try out for it. This was in the November, and I was ready to start studying in February. He said the work was only for six weeks, so it meant I could start my course with some money in my pocket.

“We shot for a couple of weeks, and they asked if I’d like to come back, so I did.”

That was around 18 years ago, when he was 25.

He now has a strong focus and vision to create a series that can be filmed here in the Bay of Plenty.

“I never did get to do my social work course,” says Mana, “but now I’m meeting a lot of younger people who can see a potential future in this form of the arts - in stunts, acting and writing.

“That’s one thing that’s started to drive me with the Guardian of the Stones project in the Bay of Plenty.

“If there’s a television series based here that’s running every year, that would be the ultimate.

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The Crafty Gatherer Chicken tractors, bees and the T-Bar From re-purposing beer crates, to keeping snuggly in winter with salt bags, Marco and Tess Partridge are living an adventure of simplicity and sustainability that they once only hoped to do.

Tahl Partridge, 4, Jai Partridge, 2, Tess Partridge and Marco Partridge

They call themselves the Crafty Gatherer, gathering people, ideas, plants, and solutions for minimising waste.

The couple, along with Marco’s father Don, their two boys (Tahl, 4, and Jai, 2) and another child on the way, are living a life tucked away in the Papamoa Hills. Overlooking a stunning view of the coast, the family moved on to the 12-acre property about three years ago.

“It’s really ideal,” says Marco. “We were looking for four years but it was the size we wanted and away from town, and the land is great, not too hilly.”

The property, which they bought with Don, has two springs, meaning they can pump the water up into the gardens they’ve developed around the house.

“We had a permablitz up here, when all the trees were planted,” says Tess. “It’s an orchard now, but one day it will be more of a food forest as the plantings come up.”

A permablitz involves a group of people meeting up for the day to create or develop a community or household edible, wildlife-friendly garden, according to a permaculture design. Permablitz Bay of Plenty, which Tess is a member of, networks a community of gardeners who enthusiastically support people establishing edible gardens.

The orchard runs down part of a hill and has peaches, nectarines, plums, pears, apples, elderberry, berries,

herbs, thyme, sage, comfrey, strawberries and flowers.

Marco and Tess have also introduced nitrogenfixing trees such as sea buckthorn, kakabeak, tagasaste and kowhai. Some trees have the rare ability to use atmospheric nitrogen for their own purpose and add it to the soil through their nodule root formation.

Nearby is the trailer surrounded by chickens.

“We call it the chicken tractor,” says Marco.

“It’s their house on wheels. We get the tractor, lock the chickens up at night, tow it, and every three days we move them around to where the cows have been.

“They scratch in the cow poo and spread it around, fertilising the ground and eating the pupae.”

It’s basic and takes time but as they say, all good things do.

“We’ve been gathering ideas from our journeys of travelling and how other people lived on the land,” says Marco, explaining how they started Crafty Gatherer.

“We did a lot of Wwoofing overseas,” says Tess.

WWOOF – World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms – provides volunteers with hands-on educational and cultural experiences, and learning about what is involved to grow produce and animals organically while living with local families and joining in the daily farming and family activities.

“So a lot of our basis came from that,” says Marco.

“And then we lived at Koanga Institute in Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay.” Marco completed an Appropriate Technology internship at the institute which is the home of New Zealand’s largest heritage food plant collection.

“From that we got a few more ideas and that’s how Crafty Gatherer started,” says Marco. “We saw the need to help people live more simply.”

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“We’ve been gathering ideas from our journeys of travelling and how other people lived on the land”

with the babies while Marco worked in town,” says Tess. “And then we ‘switcherooed’ a bit so Marco is at home with Crafty Gatherer, and I work part-time downtown.”

With baby number three due in July, the couple are hoping they’ll both be able to be home, making an income and driving Crafty Gatherer forward.

“Making more of a community out of it as well,” says Tess. “We want to help people see that living this way is enjoyable. Being more connected with the land, our natural surroundings and our food. Our aim is to grow all our own food, create less waste and live off the land Rosalie Liddle Crawford as much as possible.”

Photos: Bruce Barnard

A builder by trade, Marco also focuses on developing garden and home products that would assist people to enjoy a lifestyle of living off the land.

There are two kinds of wooden clothes racks – the wall hung and pulley system. Also seed-raising trays, and seed-saving screens.

“The seed-saving screens clean your seed so when you’re saving your seed you can separate the seed and the chaff really easily with different size meshes,” says Marco.

There’s also triangle planting spaces, which Marco says means less weeding and more production than the inline planting spaces.

Their main seller is Marco’s garden forks, which are sold worldwide. The T-Bar fork, known as the Forksta, is a design they came up with to incorporate their larger heavy duty broadfork into an everyday fork.

“The broad fork has been around since the 1800s,” says Marco, “but there was nothing like the T-Bar one.

“It has the functionality of the broad fork but is a much lighter, everyday garden fork.”

In the corner of the back garden are Marco’s wooden top bar beehives.

“It mimics the natural way that bees live,” says Marco. “It’s a Kenyan style top bar beehive.”

The bees are a natural addition to the garden which has potatoes, kumara, watermelon, pumpkin, corn, strawberries, comfrey and carrots. The asparagus is now in its second year.

“When it all dies back we’ll cut it all down and then it will sprout again,” says Tess. “With asparagus it takes three years before you can take a crop off it. We planted it from seed and it can last for up to 20 years.”

“When we started Crafty Gatherer I was at home

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“We have a lot of people that believe in loving the community in really tangible ways”

Beyond Us Loving the community in a tangible way I first heard about Curate in 2009 when past Tauranga City councillor and musical director Bob Addison was looking for a location to put on a Jacques Brel musical.

Katie and Joel Milgate

Back then Curate was called Mosaic, a church meeting in a large commercial building in Newton Road, Mount Maunganui.

“Go check them out Rosalie. Good people. Great location. Good sound,” said Bob. Sadly, he died shortly afterwards and we never did stage the show.

But I went along on a Sunday afternoon about 5pm and stood in the carpark watching people pour in through the door, mostly in beachwear and jandals.

Some waved and said hello, so I joined them, was warmly greeted, and found myself at the back of a large auditorium perched on a bar stool, holding a cappuccino. The music was amazing, the people were friendly, the preaching was stimulating. I went home and told anyone who listened: “that was amazing”.

One thing that captured me was the community view the church has. My first experience of this was Easter in the Park, where hot cross buns, a sausage sizzle, bacon and egg sandwiches, fruit, entertainment and bouncy castles were provided free.

This spirit of generosity permeates all areas of the church and is encapsulated by a programme senior pastor Katie Milgate helped initiate called ‘Beyond Us’.

“We have a lot of people that believe in loving the community in really tangible ways,” says Katie.

“We don’t believe in just giving a hand out, but

going above and beyond. So it’s not just meeting physical needs, it’s about showing a caring heart and that we believe in them.

“Beyond Us is simply about going beyond ourselves. Anything we do in Beyond Us is not to benefit us in the church, but to benefit those in our wider community or globally.”

The idea for Beyond Us Saturday came from Hillsong in Australia.

“They call it Citycare, with teams that go out every fortnight. It’s the same group of people going into the same street and meeting any needs they can.

“Over the years, they’ve found that, as they’ve built relationships, crime, domestic violence and drug use dropped significantly in that street.

“The police invited them to go into other areas because they knew that where the church went, social problems started to diminish.

“We saw that and thought: ‘let’s do it!’ We just go around one by one painting fences, doing gardens, doing up houses. There was a family that were expecting their fourth child.

“They had a really small house, so we managed to connect them with Habitat for Humanity and they have a home being built for them.

“My favourite part about a body of people is that what you do as any individual is great, but when a whole lot of individuals come together you can achieve so much more,” says Katie.

Another project the church is involved in is providing community meals at Arataki and Merivale.

The Arataki meal started by Jake McLean is a partnership with C3 Church and held weekly.

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“Beyond Us is simply about going beyond ourselves. Anything we do in Beyond Us is not to benefit us in the church, but to benefit those in our wider community or globally”

‘The Gift of Groceries’

Katie Milgate with Jaynie and Donovan Deeble and their baby Daisy and son Joel

Beyond Us meals. There’s always a freezer full of meals, ready for anyone in the church to take to someone in need.”

Katie estimates there are about 300 people that help with the Beyond Us projects.

“What I love about the bigger projects like ‘Warm up our Streets’ and ‘A Gift of Groceries’ is that we have a whole lot of people asking if they can come and help. Even if they don’t come along to Curate, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to connect people who want to help serve the community.”

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“It’s been going for so long now that it’s just like a family dinner,” says Katie. “The community meal in Merivale has been incredible too. It’s sparked neighbourly relationships. Neighbours were saying they hadn’t talked with each other in years, even though they lived down the road from each other.”

Volunteers peel vegetables during the day for a steam hangi so the meal is ready when everyone comes together.

“We had 100 come along in the first week and now there’s so many people we place invitations in mailboxes so if someone receives one they know it’s their street’s turn. It’s been really cool to see great relationships form.”

The ‘Warm Up the Streets’ project that Curate ran with Brent and Juanita McConnell from Stony Creek resulted in two and a half thousand packs of winter clothes being distributed during the 2017 winter. It was originally started by Brent and Juanita the previous winter when they saw children without warm clothes.

Supporting other organisations is part of the kaupapa and underlying ethos.

“One of the things we’ve always wanted to do is support organisations that are already doing a great job. So with our project ‘The Gift of Groceries’, we provided bags of groceries to 27 organisations last year to give to families in their care.”

Curate has provided 1000 bags of groceries each year for the past three years.

“We expanded it in 2017 where they received a box of produce as well as a bag of food,” says Katie.

“We have an incredible team that cook all the

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