Te Puke News

Squad goals S

At 17, Taylor Kingi is one of the youngest members of the 2025 Bay of Plenty Volcanix squad. She was announced as part of the squad last week.

Speaking to Te Puke News, Kingi said she is realistic about her chances of game time

in this year ’ s Farah Palmer Cup She said her main goal for the season was to learn Kingi started playing rugby at an early age and up to Under-13 level, she was playing in mixed teams.

“I played Under-16 for Bay [of Plenty]

then last year Under-18s for Bay – it was my first year of doing that and then this year I started playing for Rangataua and everything just picked up from there.”

Kingi was in class at Te Puke High School when she got the call about being named in

the Volcanix Sqaud “I was very excited, but I was also nervous because I’ve not really been part of that environment before.”

She’s thinks if she gets any opportunities this season, they’re likely to be off the bench

Te Puke NEWS

Services showcase safety at Te Puke

Many Te Puke

residents are armed with more information on how to keep safe –even though the hope is they don’t need it

Last Saturday’s Neighbourhood Supportorganised Sirens and Service Koha Ice Cream day brought a range of emergency services, providers and stall holder together to provide a one-stop shop for the community to find out what there is available to keep them safe

Among them were Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade, St John

Ambulance, Maketū Coastguard, COLAB, Community Patrols NZ, SPCA, People First NZ, Land Search and rescue and Family Works

There was advice on emergency preparedness, on handling tools safely and home security

The event was the last of five held across the Western Bay of Plenty organised by Rebecca Larsen

She said while the hope was the services were never needed, the event gave families and individuals the chance to find out what help was out there

“Highlighting those services is key to creating and building those stronger and more wellsupported communities ”

She said each of the events had a different character and brought in organisations local to each community

“It’s also about bringing those organisations together as well so they can connect with each other and connect with the community These are the people who are the real heart of the community”

The events also helped build in support for organisations Te Puke Neighbourhood Support

co-ordinator Colleen Pye said the event left her with a huge high

“I was thrilled I loved the feedback of the people who came and visited, I loved the feedback of the people who exhibited and the people with stalls. The co-operation was just fantastic ”

Te Puke Scouts held a fundraising sausage sizzle that sold out and raised $400 Larsen said she estimated between 200 and 300 people attended the event, and she hoped funding can be found to offer a similar expo in the future

Stuart Whitaker

Te Puke volunteer firefighters chat to visitors to the event. Photos / Supplied

Te Puke Scouts held a fundraising sausage sizzle as part of the Sirens & Services event.

Te Puke teen m makes Ba of Plenty Volcannix squad

Taylor Kingi is realistic about her chances of game time in this year ’ s Farah Palmer Cup

At 17, the Te Puke High School student is one of the youngest members of the Bay of Plenty Volcanix squad announced last week

She said her main goal for the season was to learn.

The first five-eighth said her running game still needs developing. “That’s probably going to be one of my focuses, being in the Volcanix squad, playing what’s in front of me, looking up, seeing,” she said A young start

Kingi was “eight or nine” when she started playing at the Eastern Districts club in Paengaroa.

“All my mates when I was younger were playing. I was playing netball at the time and I wanted to try something new, so I started playing for ED.”

Up to Under-13 level, she was playing in mixed teams

“But for quite a few years I was the only girl on the team and I didn’t like that too much ” She was unfortunate in

missing out on the AIMS Games as both years she was eligible, the games were cancelled due to the pandemic

Her first “ proper girls’ team ” was when she was a Year 8 student at Te Puke

Intermediate School and she was part of the Te Puke team that played in the first girls’ Tai Mitchell tournament in 2021, which was held in Te Puke.

“It was cool to be part of that ”

From there she went on to play high school rugby for Te Puke in Years 9 and 10.

Preferred position

Kingi began playing on the wing but moved to halfback before settling into the first five-eighth position.

“I was mainly put there because of my pass – then I started developing in one position and it became my preferred position.

“I played Under-16 for Bay [of Plenty] then last year Under-18s for Bay – it was my first year of doing that and then this year I started playing for Rangataua and everything just picked up from there.”

Her first open-age games were for the reformed Te Puke

Spports women ’ s team last seaason, when she said she was neervous but not intimidated by plaaying against older women

Game development

The move to Rangataua was reccommended by her Under18 8 coach as a way to step up a l level – and it worked, with the club winning this season ’ s Baaywide Women’s title

She said playing with the experienced Rangataua team meembers has helped her deevelop her game

“There’s lots of experience in the backs and I went there to learn from them and grow my y game, and I think they’ve heelped me a lot ”

Fullback Sapphire Tapsell has beeen particularly inspiring, as has coach Kiki Tahere and Bay of f Plenty Rugby boaard chairman Scott Kahle (father of Volcanix player Grace Kahle).

Taylor Kingi in action for Baywide premier team Rangataua.

Now she wants to make it as far as she can in rugby

“[Kiki] has kept pushing me to get out of my comfort zone and start trying things ” When she started playing, Kingi said it was really “just for fun”

“Then I started to get into Bay teams, Under-16, Under-18, and there were pathways that I started to see open up ”

“My goals arre to learn off more experienced players and grow my game and I think with the players in the team, that will definitely help progress there ” Squad selection

Kingi was in class when coach Ryan Setefano called to let her know she was in the squad but called him back as soon as she could She had attended wider squad trainings earlier in the year but said it was still a shock to be named

The Vanuatu flag is proudly flying at Western Bay of Plenty District Council’s Barkes Corner offices this week, to mark Vanuatu Bislama Language Week.

This year is the first time that Bislama, the national language of Vanuatu, has been included in the 2025 Pacific Language Weeks series, after qualifying for government recognition and funding from the Ministry for Pacific Peoples

Ritchie Aru, vice president for Ni-Vanuatu Bay of Plenty Association presented Western Bay Mayor James Denyer with the flag at a small ceremony on Monday

“I was very excited, but I was also nervous because I’ve not really been part of that environment before ” She’s realistic about her chances of playing and thinks if she gets any opportunities, they are likely to be off the bench

“I’m only just starting – I don’t know how much game time I’ll get but I’m just excited to learn from the players around – that will be cool this year ”

Te Puke’s Santo Taumata and Georgia Broughton are also in the 2025 Volcanix squad

Joseph Toara, who is national chair of the Vanuatu Bislama Language Week working party, said the flag raising was a very special moment

“I would see all the other Pacific Island flags flying and hoped one day the Vanuatu flag would be up there flying too, ” said Toara, who works at the council as an IT support and systems administrator Bislama was a creole language spoken across Vanuatu’s 80-plus islands, bridging more than 100 local dialects, and is known for its expressive simplicity and warmth

After a series of events during the week across the Western BOP, this Saturday, August 2, an official closing ceremony and party will be held at Te Puke War Memorial Hall, Jellicoe St from 5pm

Ni-Vanuatu BoP Association vice president Ritchie Aru, Ni-Vanuatu BoP Association vice secretary Kristy Aru, Enzo Aru, 5, Ali Aru, 7, and Vanuatu Bislama Language Week Working Group chairman Joseph Toara

Photo /Western Bay of Plenty District Council

Stuart Whitaker

A mission to transform Te Puke with plants

In just three years, Te Puke’s Steve Fawcett has learned more about edible plants than most of us will know in a lifetime. He admits he might have become a little obsessed His love of plants, especially tropical plants, comes from his early life in Papua New Guinea

But he only started growing them seriously relatively recently

He and wife Tracey previously lived in Pāpāmoa and were introduced to Owen Takuira-Ngaropo, founder of The Rock community garden in Pāpāmoa “What I saw was a great idea and the community coming together and using land that wasn ’ t being used, council waste area, and that food was going back into the community – so that really inspired us, ” Fawcett said

Moving to Te Puke and forming the Vector Group Charitable Trust, the couple became involved in a variety of mostly youthfocused projects, although getting support felt like a

constant battle.

The trust also offered soilfilled kiwifruit bins, provided by Eastpack, to families

“We were helping with kai resilience, food resilience, turning up and creating a little vege gardens so families could grow their own veges and that sort of stuff. When Covid, hit we kind of did that even more and we were mowing lawns, doing property maintenance, helping people who were in need.”

Life

events

A couple of significant life events, including separation and the loss of a friend to cancer, had made Fawcett realised he needed a focus

“So, I thought I’ll just start doing some tropicals ” That grew into a new initiative, The Happy Scion Project, which was quickly renamed Troppo, a source of a wide variety of plants, information and encouragement that also supports food forest creation

“We thought it was quite catchy – but the name was too long and people kept asking what Scion was and by

the time we’d explained it people had kind of lost what we were focusing on ”

Troppo is now a significant source of funding for the charitable trust.

“We’ve set Troppo up under the Vector Group so any income that comes in [goes to the trust] Also it’s more integrated with the community and we ’ ve got a little nursery here and have helped set up different food forest in the area – we ’ ve been quite generous in that department ”

Now the focus of Vector has expanded into rooms offering short-term emergency accommodation and making self-contained vans available at low cost and on a low repayment schedule, “things like that, community based things and events ”

Community events

As well as Troppo’s online sales, Fawcett takes plants to sell at events such as Plant Fest, other big plants and local events including Pukehina Surf ‘ n ’ Sand Autorama. “We go along and we are a little bit different We sell a few

things like frangipani and things like that which generates income for our trust, Vector Group, so about 85% [of income] is generated by ourselves with about 15-20% coming from funding So, we are a little bit different to other organisation in that we are sustainable and we don’t rely on funding so much ” Fawcett is also part of a local food forest group “There’s a Facebook group and a bunch of us who have food forests who basically have tours at each other’s places You get to see what they’ve done, what you like and what you don’t like and everybody comes together to share Being located at a house in town, available outdoor space is limited, and Fawcett is searching for

extra land “I’ve run out of land here and there’s way too many plants ” Plant varieties

Among those plants are more than 35 banana varieties, some edible, some ornamental

“One of my biggest issues is the bananas, they multiply They grow well in the area but you need space when you divide them ” The fruiting variety produce multiple crops and Steve took some along to a Flavours of Plenty event in Te Puke earlier this year where they were given away and used to make sorbets

Other food goes to pataka kai, rather than being sold, but many plants are sold

Stuart Whitaker

Stephen Fawcett at his potting table. Photo / Stuart Whitaker

Maketū’s Shane Beech ready for council bid

Maketū’s Shane Beech

feels he has served his apprenticeship and is now ready – albeit belatedly –to step up

Beech spent four terms on the Maketū Community Board, three as its chairman, before stepping down in 2022 and declaring his intention to stand for a seat on the Western Bay of Plenty District Council in that year ’ s Local Body Elections

However, health issues forced his hand and he had to withdraw – but only after ballot papers had been printed

While he had made public his intention to withdraw, he still received 1688 votes, which would have been enough to give him a seat on the district council.

Blown away

He said at the time that support had “blown him away ” . He also declared his intention to stand again in 2025, and, true to his word, he was the first to submit his nomination for the ward when nominations opened on July 4

“It was just unfortunate that health took me out of the game. I’m hopefully back on

track with that and I want to get back, give it 110% and see what I can do to help the district,” he said.

Community passion

Beech was confident that health-wise he was in as good a shape as he can be and he wanted to use his experience for the benefit of the district

“It’s in my blood, it’s something I’m passionate about and I’m going to put my name back in the ring Healthwise I feel as well as I could possibly be.”

A man well-known for his community spirit and volunteer work as well as being the owner of Maketū Beachside Café and Restaurant and Maketū Beach Holiday Park, Beech had to cut down his involvement in other roles after his health scare.

“It’s been a bit of a blessing I’ve sold one of my businesses [the café and restaurant] recently, which has freed up a lot of my time, and I stepped back a bit from the fire brigade – now I’m their secretary treasurer Coastguard, I’m still fully involved with and enjoying the role “But it’s given me time to reflect, time to heal, to get back into a better frame of mind and it’s given me

Shane Beech was a member o Maketu Community Board for 12 years before stepping down in 2022.

time and energy to put my hand back into the politics side ”

Apprenticeship

Beech said he felt his time on the community board was an apprenticeship

There are no specific areas he was looking to influence

“It’s probably a bit of everything – I’m not coming in with any agenda, I’m open to all sorts of things that are happening and

are possibly going to happen –everything from rates to resource consent, to compliance, helping small businesses, infrastructure and spending ” He said the support he received at the last election gave him optimism this time around “It shows there’s a lot of people that are behind me, and I feel almost obliged to put my name in again I appreciate those people and hopefully I‘ll get a lot more to

back me and put me in ”

While there were four vacancies in the Maketū -Te Puke ward at the 2022 election, a representation review has resulted in that being cut to three for 2025 Nominations close today and at the time of going to press, only two people had put their names forward - Beech and Laura Rae. Voting takes place between September 9 and October 11.

Stuart Whitaker

Photo / Alex Cairns

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HOME SELLERS GUIDE

Your home, the market and your circumstances will all determine which method is best.

There are four main methods of selling a home in New Zealand: negotiation, auction, tender and deadline sale Your real estate agent will help you choose the best option

Auctions are a popular way to sell property in New Zealand But they’re not the only option You need to understand how the different sales methods work in order to choose the best for your property. It’s one of the first steps to selling your home

Common methods of sale in New Zealand

• Auctions: Auctions pit buyers against each other in a competitive environment and can result in a quick sale

• Negotiation: Negotiation opens the sale up to buyers who have conditions such as finance or a building report who can’t bid at auction

• Tenders and deadline sales: Tenders and deadline sales are more private and encourage buyers to make their best offer first because they usually only have one chance to get the price right 1 Auction - pros and cons

Auctions pit buyers against each other They bid the price up until they pass the reserve price and one wins. Auctions are one of the most popular methods of sale in New Zealand because they often result in a quick, unconditional (cash) sale Sellers and agents like auctions because they create a sense of urgency,

and buyers sometimes pay more than they might have without the competition of other bidders Winning bidders are committed to purchase the property If the auction doesn’t exceed the reserve price, the auctioneer will negotiate with the highest bidder

Watch out for:

• The home may not sell at auction if there is only one bidder, or the reserve price is too high.

• First-home buyers are often locked out because banks require conditions such as getting registered valuations on the property

• It can be more difficult to get the price you want, if buyers are aware of the price the property has passed in at

• If the reserve is too low, you may sell too cheaply

Your real estate agent will advise you as to which method of sale is best for your property Photo / Getty Images

When the hammer comes down at an auction the property is sold Photo / Fiona Goodall

2 Sale by negotiation - pros and cons

With a negotiated sale, buyers make offers via the real estate agent You counter-offer until a price is agreed. Properties can be offered for sale with or without a fixed price Some negotiated sales start with “offers over” a certain figure. It’s quite common to turn to negotiation and put a price on the property after it fails to sell by other sales methods

Watch out for:

• It can be hard to pick the right price to market the property at

• If the asking price is too high, buyers may not come forward

• With no fixed auction or tender date, the sale can get drawn out

• Buyers are not subject to the same urgency as an auction

• When prices are listed, buyers may

assume the house failed to sell by other methods, encouraging them to make low offers

3 Tender - pros and cons

With a tender, buyers are invited to submit formal written offers before a deadline and provide a 10% deposit, which is refunded to unsuccessful bidders The property can be listed “for sale by tender unless sold prior”, meaning the seller can accept offers early The seller has five working days after the tender closes to choose which offer, if any, they want to accept. The vendor can choose to negotiate with the buyer whose offer is accepted, should the buyer agree Tenders have specific sale and purchase terms set out in the ADLS/REINZ Sale & Purchase by Tender agreement

Watch out for:

• If buyers are unaware of what the competition is prepared to pay, they may offer lower prices than at auction

• Some buyers may be put off because they have to pay a 10% deposit with no guarantee of winning

• If the property doesn’t sell at tender you could end up in a long negotiation process

• Buyers may miss the tender date

4 Deadline sale - pros and cons

A deadline sale (AKA “deadline treaty” or “private treaty” ) is half way between a negotiated sale and a tender The property is marketed without an advertised price and buyers submit confidential offers by a fixed date The seller chooses between the offers, but is not obliged to accept them Unlike tenders, you can accept an offer and sell prior to the deadline date. This is a good option where the price is uncertain A key advantage of a deadline sale is you don’t have to stick to all the terms and conditions of a tender Watch out for:

• Buyers are not subject to the same degree of urgency as in an auction.

• The sale process is often longer than an auction

5. Other sales methods

• Multi-offer process Where there is more than one offer on a property by negotiation, a “multi-offer” sale takes place This encourages buyers to make their best offer The vendor can choose an offer based on price, conditions or other factors, or to negotiate further Real estate agents are required by law to treat all buyers fairly Find out more about multi-offer sales here Find out more about the best time to sell your house

• Mortgagee sales. If homeowners default on their mortgage payments the bank will eventually sell the property to recover the money it is owed Buyers sometimes get a bargain with mortgagee sales But there are risks that the former owner will damage the property or remove fixtures and fittings including bathrooms and kitchens

6 Sole agency or multi-agency?

Most properties in New Zealand are sold by one real estate company exclusively (AKA “sole agency”) If you choose to have the property sold by multiple agencies (“multi-agency” or “general agency agreement”) you sign agreements with more than one. The advantage of sole agency sales is that agents say they work harder, knowing only they can sell the property On the other hand, a multi-agency sale puts your property in front of more buyers in theory and the agencies may compete against each other for the sale. If a sole agency agreement expires and you sign with other agencies it’s important to review both agreements carefully If you sell to a buyer who was introduced by the first agency you may have to pay double commission Find out more about multi agency sales.

Your real estate agent will advise you as to which method of sale is best for your property Photo / Getty Images

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