The Hobson July-August 2019

july/august 2019

parnell plans p great south hospitality p good neighbours local news, views & informed opinions

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The July/August Issue, No. 60

8

32

54

the editor’s letter

the plan

the suburbanist

Hamish Firth introduces us to his Parnell neighbour, John Tetteroo, and his inventive solution to rubbish entering our waterways

It’s flatting, but not as you know it.

Tommy Honey on the new world of shared living

the village

41 the providores

the sound

The changing landscape of historic Anglican Parnell, Remuera’s beleaguered carpark gets a lifeline, good sorts help clean up Hobson Bay, local board news and more; plus, the Parnell Plan gives direction for the suburb’s coming decades

In our special feature, Mary Fitzgerald goes south to meet Remuera and Parnell families now settled in Central Otago; plus, meet closer-to-home locals doing great things in the food business

32

the magpie

10 the columnists

13

MPs David Seymour and Paul Goldsmith share their updates

34, 35

52

the councillors

the teacher

Despatches from the desks of Ōrākei ward councillor Desley Simpson, and the Waitematā ward’s Mike Lee

Judi Paape is warmed by what she hears when diversity is discussed in the classroom

36

53

the investment Where are the economy’s drivers in the Wellbeing Budget, asks Warren Couillault

When love comes to town: indefatigable concert-goer Andrew Dickens is lining up for U2

56 the district diary What’s going on in July and August

50 Hue can come in from the cold to a welcoming nest, says our wise and stylish bird

the politicians

55

the second act Does career fufilment lie in childhood aspirations? Sandy Burgham was dubious . . . the hobson 6

58 the cryptic Our puzzle, by Māyā

Our ever-changing city — the CBD skyline c.1970s, viewed from the Fred Ambler Lookout, Gladstone Rd, Parnell. The tower in the centre is the Hotel InterContinental ("The Big I"), now the Pullman.

Postcard from the collection of Parnell historian Rendell McIntosh.

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issue 60, july/august 2019 Editor & Publisher Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz Art Direction & Production Stephen Penny design@thehobson.co.nz News Editor Mary Fitzgerald maryfitzgerald.thehobson@gmail.com Writers This Issue Kirsty Cameron, Gretchen Carroll, Mary Fitzgerald, Wayne Thompson, Justine Williams Sub-editor Dawn Adams Columnists Sandy Burgham, Warren Couillault, Andrew Dickens, Hamish Firth, Paul Goldsmith, Tommy Honey, Mike Lee, Māyā, Judi Paape, David Seymour, Desley Simpson Photographers Danvers Devereux, Mary Fitzgerald, Stephen Penny Cover An aerial view of Parnell, taken in June 2019.

Photography by Up&Up and Incredible Images

F

or this, our midwinter issue, we have some ‘peak Hobson’ content in our pages, beginning with Wayne Thompson’s look at the changing landscape of Anglican Parnell, which starts on page 12.

Our columnists are their usual, thoughtful and insightful selves.

Mike Lee, who is pretty much the walking memory bank of Auckland’s modern civic history, offers an impassioned defence of the Civic Administration Building and the folly, as he calls it, of it being marked redundant to council’s needs. Mike also took the photo of Mayor Robbie’s statue, expressing what could well be the late leader’s thoughts on the current situation with the CAB (see page 34).

Hamish Firth (page 38) finds a chat to his neighbour produces interesting information. We do love a good neighbourhood yarn, and this absolutely fulfils our editorial brief of being either about, or of interest to, our community.

Further on, Mary Fitzgerald returned to her spiritual home of Central Otago for a chat with some Hobson-area locals who’ve gone south for new adventures. And back in town, we meet the names behind some growing food businesses.

It’s not all a bed of daffodils (see the early bloomers on Ōhinerau Mt Hobson, page 17) around here. The Clonbern Rd carpark continues to be a problem and while the word “redevelopment” is now spoken (see page 23), it will be some time coming. Meantime, the Remuera Business Association and the Ōrākei Local Board continue to try and find ways to alleviate the parking squeeze, which is impacting on retailers. Even if it means having to be a bit picky in your timing to the supermarket carpark or parking on the other streets and walking to your destination, it’s so important we keep supporting our neighbourhood retail and service businesses. Also in this issue, you’ll read more about the good works of two eminent local Rotarians, and the lovely faces behind Briarwood, one of the new stores to Remuera village (page 28).

Enjoy all that’s in this issue. We’ll be back in letterboxes August 24/25 with our September issue. Please do give us your feedback, either by emailing me, or joining the conversations on our Facebook page: The Hobson Magazine.

THE HOBSON is published 10 times a year by The Hobson Limited, PO Box 37490 Parnell, Auckland 1151. www.thehobson.co.nz F: The Hobson Magazine I: @The Hobson

Kirsty Cameron editor@thehobson.co.nz 0275 326 424 Facebook: The Hobson Magazine Instagram: TheHobson

Ideas, suggestions, advertising inquiries welcome. editor@thehobson.co.nz

THE HOBSON is Remuera, Parnell and Ōrākei’s community magazine. We deliver into letterboxes in these neighbourhoods, and copies are also at local libraries, cafes, and at businesses including the Vicky Ave and White Heron dairies, and Paper Plus Parnell. For more about us, see The Hobson Magazine on Facebook.

The content of THE HOBSON is copyright. Our words, our pictures.

Don’t steal, and don’t borrow without checking with us first.

We aim for accuracy but cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies that do occur. The views of our contributors are their own and not necessarily those of THE HOBSON. We don’t favour unsolicited contributions but do welcome you getting in touch via editor@thehobson.co.nz to discuss ideas.

The Hobson Ltd is a member of the Magazine Publishers Association This publication uses environmentally responsible papers.

To protect against Auckland’s weather, home delivered copies are bagged in food-grade film, which can be recycled in ‘soft plastics’ bins.

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Auckland Obstetric Centre is a unique practice in Parnell made up of seven leading specialist obstetricians and support staff. Together we have many years of experience and feel privileged to be able to share in the care of women during their pregnancy.

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The Columnists

Left to right from top row: Sandy Burgham (The Second Act) is a brand strategist and an executive coach with a special interest in midlife change and transformational behaviours. She runs a central Auckland practice. www.playclc.com Remuera resident Warren Couillault (The Investment) is an executive director and the major shareholder of Hobson Wealth Partners, a private wealth advisory group. He is a shareholder and director of Generate Investment Management Ltd; and manager of a registered KiwiSaver scheme.

Andrew Dickens (The Sound) is the host of the afternoon show on Newstalk ZB. For 13 years he was the breakfast host on Classic Hits. He grew up in Remuera.

Hamish Firth (The Plan) lives and works in Parnell and is principal of the Mt Hobson Group, a specialist urban planning consultancy. www.mthobsonproperties.co.nz Mary Fitzgerald is The Hobson’s News Editor. A Mainlander who transplanted to Remuera 15 years ago, she is passionate about hearing and telling our stories.

Urban design critic Tommy Honey (The Suburbanist) is a former architect. The Remuera resident is a regular guest on RNZ National, discussing the built environment.

Judi Paape (The Teacher) is a parent, grandparent and highly-experienced teacher and junior school principal.

A Parnell resident, her column appears bi-monthly.

Contributing writer Wayne Thompson is a former The New Zealand Herald journalist, covering Auckland news. He has been a resident of Parnell for 34 years.

Contributing editor Justine Williams is an interiors stylist, writer and fashion editor. The Remuera resident has been the editor of Simply You and Simply You Living.

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the village

Town & Around ANGLICAN PARNELL’S CHANGING FACE Following the demolition of two prominent old Parnell houses owned by the Anglican church, Wayne Thompson looks at other church properties and their current scheduled status. On the following pages, aerial images mark the changes around the Cathedral precinct The reputation of Parnell as a storehouse of colonial Anglican heritage was dented by the sudden clearances of two houses from sites next to Holy Trinity Cathedral in May. More could follow on the Parnell ridge as the church strives to draw more income from its landholdings.

Reaction to The Hobson’s June issue and online reporting of the fast ‘n’ furious demolition of the oldest survivor of the original line up of grand old wooden houses flanking the future cathedral site, as well as a pre-1900 former deanery relocated there, showed heritage is valued by many Auckland residents.

There was also concern about the subsequent felling of fulsome oak trees on the corner of the site, which contributed to the streetscape. Like the oaks, the houses at 9 St Stephens Ave (built 1898-1902) and 1a Brighton Rd (the late 19th century Old Deanery) were demolished without a requirement for resource consent and public consultation, because they did not have heritage protection.

Neither has the only house left on the cathedral site, the present deanery at 8 Cathedral Pl, which was built in 1908. St Mary’s Church has the highest historic heritage protection on the site but the rest is zoned Terrace House and Apartment Building (THAB).

The clearances are part of a continual change in the Church’s Parnell ridge holdings since they were bought by Bishop George Selwyn at auction in 1843. Five of the 13 buildings owned by the Anglican General Trust Board, as trustee for the church, on or near the Parnell Rd ridge are identified as heritage buildings in the Auckland Council Unitary Plan.

During the UP’s formation, the trust board fought to protect its options to develop not only the potential residential land within the 2.2784ha cathedral precinct, but also its mixture of properties on the other side of St Stephens Ave nearer to the town centre.

In 2014, the trust submitted to the UP’s Independent Hearings Panel: “Within Auckland, there is a limited amount of examples where a landholding of this amount, and within the same area, is held in single ownership. Therefore, the landholdings present a unique opportunity for development and use to be undertaken in a coordinated, staged and comprehensive manner. The properties are significant spiritual and physical resources for the local community.

The ongoing maintenance and preservation of many of these assets is fundamental to enabling their continued contribution to social wellbeing and the sense of community they engender for the residents of Auckland. In addition, without the ability to generate sufficient funding through opportunities for the future use and development of some of these landholdings, the sustainability of these assets, and the service and contribution to the community they provide is threatened”.

In the operative Unitary Plan, the trust’s 1 St Georges Bay Rd, (built in 1910, with Category 2 heritage listing) and 3 St Georges Bay Rd (c.1914 wooden two-storey house formerly used as a medical practice and now Ubertec) are in the Business Town Centre zone, along with 400 Parnell Rd (c.1914, the Parnell City Lodge on the

Commercial properties owned by the Anglican General Trust Board, from top: 3 St Georges Bay Rd; 400 Parnell Rd; 4 St Stephens Ave

corner 1000m² site) and 4 St Stephens Ave (c. 1911-14, a villa now occupied by the Forme Day Spa). The trust held a resource consent to demolish the Forme villa and, as a result of the new zone, is permitted to demolish 400 Parnell Rd and 3 St Georges Bay Rd to foundation (slab) level. Council’s central consents office says no resource consent is required for the removal of the buildings as they

the hobson 12

are located in the Business-Town Centre zone and have no heritage protection. The THAB zoning applies to the Parnell ridge properties outside the town centre, permits a range of commercial uses and defines the actual part of the property that has heritage protection.

Affected Anglican properties are 6-10 St Stephens (which includes the 1867 Bishops House, and the Selwyn Library, which has a Category 1 heritage listing).

The trust also has the THAB zone applied to 14-16 St Stephens Ave (Neligan House, built 1910, Category 1). Heritage protection does not extend to 6B Corunna Ave to the rear of Neligan House, nor to the modernist apartment block at 16-18 St Stephens Ave. Across the road, the THAB zone applies to No 17 (the stone Old Deanery building, Category 1).

The THAB zone allows up to five to seven-storey new buildings and a variety of uses of an existing heritage building, including community facilities, offices, education and healthcare.

Development aimed at getting more revenue can work in favour of heritage, says Rendell McIntosh, a founder and patron of Parnell Heritage. “There are good examples where owners/developers have committed to the cost of restoring and earthquake strengthening to ensure a property does become economically viable, and also continue to retain the architectural heritage, or the look of an area,” says McIntosh. “The Heards building, plus the old Parnell library, now privately owned on the corner of St Georges Bay Rd and Parnell Rd, are examples in Parnell. There are numerous others in Dunedin and Napier.”

Anglican properties also include the former Queen Victoria School for Māori Girls site in Glanville Tce, Parnell, on behalf of the St Stephen’s and Queen Victoria Schools Trust. The board had planned to request THAB zoning (from ‘school’ zoning) for the 2ha property during the Unitary Plan hearings but a strong submission from locals saw it request Mixed Housing Urban. It was ultimately designated the less intensive Mixed Housing Suburban, which local residents had lobbied for. The Queen Vic site includes a scheduled Category B heritage building. The trust’s property managers, Trust Management, have not publicised any further plans for development.

Urban planning consultant (and The Hobson columnist) Hamish Firth says the buildings cleared from the cathedral precinct (9 St Stephens and 1a Brighton) could provide a development site of around 2000m². He notes that there are 17 protected trees around

the cathedral and that all new buildings in the THAB zone need resource consent. “However, assuming you did something that was ‘nice’ and there were no traffic or infrastructure issues then you could build on, say, 1000m2 of the site at 50 per cent site coverage and to five levels. You could look to do accommodation at all levels – residential or retirement.”

As to the number of units, Firth suggests something similar to the Jervois & Lawrence apartment development in Herne Bay, designed by Colin Leuschke. It has five levels and 28 apartments, and in Firth’s view, is the type of development that would probably fit on the Parnell site “quite well”.

Regarding the four sites across the avenue in the town centre zone, he notes there is now an 18m height limit and that 1 St Georges Rd has a historic reference, and No 3 has a scheduled Norfolk pine. The adjoining sites on the corner, 400 Parnell Rd and 4 St Stephens Ave, could feasibly take similar development to the Herne Bay example.

Bishop Ross Bay, who is a member of the General Trust Board, told The Hobson that there are no plans in place yet for the future of those sites. However, he was certain that once decisions had been made, they would be communicated at the appropriate time. The Dean of Holy Trinity, The Very Rev Anne Mills, says the site of the demolished houses below the cathedral is being prepared for the ground to be leased or sold for development. The proceeds from realising the value of the site will set up an endowment fund for the maintenance of the cathedral’s grounds and buildings, which cost more than $300,000 a year. In addition, there is a planned (costly) replacement of the roof on St Mary’s Church.

The Parnell Community Committee says the church should have prewarned that two large oak trees were part of the demolition plan. “We are all aware of the contribution to city amenity that the cathedral and its parklike grounds makes to Auckland,” says PCC chair, Luke Niue. “However, there seems to be a lack of environmental regard on its other landholdings where it is allowing character buildings and heritage sites like the Queen Victoria School to decay so that ultimately a higher return land use activity can establish. It’s clear to many that their end game is to realise some capital on their valuable real estate.

“Let’s hope the Church and whoever is building on these properties have the wider interest of Auckland firmly at the front of their mind in the redevelopment of the corner site.” p

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the hobson 13

the village

In the c.1960 image above, the cathedral is under construction and St Mary’s is on its original site (image courtesy Auckland Anglican Diocesan Archives, AADA S8, c.1960, Rae Monteith).

The second photo, opposite, was taken on June 11 of this year (image by Up&Up and Incredible Images).

THEN, AND NOW From ploughed field and tennis court to Victorian villas and a mix of architectural styles to give a lofty space for worship and community, Parnell’s landmark Holy Trinity Cathedral is the result of a continual process of building, demolition, relocation and renewal over 150 years.

A key to gauging the scale of changes to tree cover and property on the Anglican ridge with the beautiful views of the Waitematā Harbour is this early 1960s aerial photo, taken from the west when the brick part of the cathedral was being built.

Across Parnell Rd, at centre, is St Mary’s Church, which served as the Auckland Diocese’s pro-cathedral from 1887 until the cathedral was built. St Mary’s replaced an 1860s version, designed

by Frederick Thatcher, which was pulled down because it was too small for a growing congregation. Other buildings in the picture, with red roofs, are parish halls. The house at the bottom right of St Mary’s was moved downhill to 1a Brighton Rd after St Mary’s was moved to complement the cathedral in 1982. Known as the ‘former deanery’, the house was demolished in May this year after some years as a friary.

On the former site of St Mary’s, towards the intersection of Birdwood Crescent and Parnell Rd, several buildings made way for a 1970s three-storey office and residential block built by the Anglican General Trust Board. A grassed reserve lined with oak trees where St Mary’s had been was sold for town house developments in the late 1990s, following a housing subdivision running down towards the railway line called St Mary’s Close. Across Parnell Rd, a wooden

house seems to sprawl against the southern end of the cathedral construction site. This was later removed and in the space now is the glass Selwyn Chapel and a side yard where the present deanery is screened by mature trees. The 1970s mixed use building on the Birdwood Cres corner was itself demolished early this century to make way for the more luxurious Trinity Apartments.

On the Parnell Rd side of the 1960s cathedral construction site is the tennis and croquet club and on the cathedral’s St Stephens Ave corner is a two-storey house and garage and curved stone wall. This is one of the big houses which were built along the cathedral’s St Stephens Ave and Brighton Rd sides at the turn of the 20th century.

In the Auckland Libraries heritage archive is an 1899 auctioneer’s advertisement showing the church’s plan to get an income from 60-year leases on 21 residential sections running from the corner of St Stephens Ave down to, and including, Brighton Rd. Some of them are on the northern side of Cathedral Pl, which were joined by a 1990s subdivision below the cathedral. The advertisement shows a site reserved for a cathedral and the tennis and croquet lawns. Today, only the stone wall on the corner of Parnell Rd and St Stephens Ave remains from the three big houses that occupied the site now covered by the forecourt and office of the cathedral. The last two-storey building was demolished as a derelict in May after service as a family home, the Norman Spencer Anglican Halls of Residence for university students, and later, church offices under the name of St Stephens House.

A 1969 photo shows a big car park covering the former house sites near the Parnell town corner and the tennis court fronting Parnell Rd also went, though work to complete the red brick part

the hobson 14

of the cathedral was forced to stop in 1970, giving rise to the idea of moving the wooden neo-gothic St Mary’s alongside and, much later, building the gull wing nave and its welcoming forecourt.

Diocesan historian Peter Lineham says the area at the top of St Stephens Ave was delightful and the houses quaint. But demolition of them was “the logical consequence” of building a glamorous significant cathedral on the space set aside for it by Bishop Selwyn.

It was not in the long term plan that the houses could remain, Lineham says, and it would have been expensive to do them up and a challenge to have them put to use. — Wayne Thompson p

LOCAL BITES

One of the oaks on the corner of St Stephens and Brighton roads under removal on May 24, 10 days after the houses were demolished.

Community good sorts have been honoured in ceremonies organised by the Waitematā and Ōrākei local boards. Waitematā’s biannual Good Citizens’ Awards were celebrated at the Town Hall. The winners were: children and young people: Luca ScottSmith, Neia Hinton, Teresa Lee; individuals: Nick Loosley, Rev Dr Lynne Frith, Liam Dargaville, David Lei Wang, Ruth Busch, Sandra Jenkins, Anne Malcolm, Brigitte Sistig, Edyta Plowman, Rohan MacMahon; community groups: I Got Your Backpack, Asian Family Services, UN Youth NZ; long service to the community: David Haigh, John Hill, Gerry Hill, David McGregor, Penny Sefuiva. An event at St Chad’s by the Ōrākei Local Board gave Community Volunteer Awards across several categories. The winners were: John Lawrence, environmental enhancement and sustainability; Kaye Hatton, community and social wellbeing; June Renwick, Deanna Tamaariki, arts, culture and heritage; Murray Wells, local centre and business area enhancement; Debbie Edwards, Simon Hilton, sports, fitness and leisure.

the hobson 15

the village

Several Parnell-specific projects flagged by the Waitematā Local Board in its 2017 board plan will be actioned in the coming year as part of its annual budget 2019/20. Local highlights include this year’s Parnell Festival of Roses (November), which attracted around 9000 people last year. Funding for the ongoing restoration of the Waipapa Stream will continue, as will the board’s co-operative work with the Ōrākei board on community-driven cleaning up of the Newmarket Stream. The board will also review a concept plan for the refurbishing of Parnell Rd’s concrete playground, Heard Park, and an upgrade of the adjacent Plunket rooms. The land for Heard Park was donated to the city in 1953 by the Heard family, owners of the then-Parnell-based Heards Confectionery. The board will also fund four new pathways at the Domain, including a pathway from Parnell Train Station that will provide better access to the Domain for people attending events.

The walkway upgrade that has been underway since the beginning of the year on the south side of the Ōrākei Basin is now complete. The new pathway was formally opened with a small ceremony by the Ōrākei Local Board, along with invited representatives of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. A kōwhai tree was planted to mark the occasion (pictured, opposite page). The wider path now runs from the carpark to the Auckland Water Ski Club, and has in-built overland flow paths to clear boggy areas

during the winter, as planned. More unexpected for regular users of the path is a large mound of soil (pictured above) rising out of the flat, grassed area. It was left behind by contractors and may stay as a new landscape feature, with the local board literally passing on a decision. Local resident Roy Champtaloup investigated after being told by a worker that the soil mound wasn’t going anywhere, which was confirmed by Auckland Council. “It’s an outrage that a contractor who is managing the project can persuade the local board that he can leave this eyesore mound there and not finish the job properly,” says Champtaloup. “It should have been spread and levelled on the existing grass. It still should be. There was never a plan that was discussed with ratepayers to leave or create a mound of dirt on

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

that beautiful open flat grass area next to the water.” Ōrākei board chair Kit Parkinson says the contractor did approach the board suggesting the soil be left and made into a landscape feature. “The board was comfortable with this, that it would be a good idea to have an elevated place to sit looking out to the basin. It will sit there for the winter months as the soil is too wet to shift. It will be up to the new board members once elected in to decide if it stays or goes.”

As we approach the winter months the question is - is it a good time to sell? If the web traffic around our listings is anything to go by, yes there is huge buyer interest in the wings. Will you get a good price? Depending on what your property is, where it’s located and how it’s presented, yes. Things around the residential market in the area’s we serve are not nearly as bad as the media headlines portray. We’re busy!

Danvers Devereux

The north-facing slope of Ōhinerau-Mt Hobson has been covered with early-blooming spring flowers after the Tūpuna Maunga Authority planted new bulbs in later summer. Daffodils have been a feature of the grassy slope since 1948, when members of the Remuera Garden Club organised a mass planting in honour of local WWII servicemen who had played on the mountain as boys. “We do in-fill planting of new daffodil bulbs now and then, which replaces old bulbs and helps ensure a good spread when they bloom,” says the Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s Mike George.

“It’s great to see them taking off. We have also added signage encouraging people not to pick them.”

The budget was noticeable in its absence of anything around tax, property or how we might stimulate the economy. In short, there’s no reason to not get on with your life. Particularly if you’re a first home buyer or investor – now’s your time.

In short every situation is different.

If you’re wondering what a property is worth please give me a call at any time.

Philip Oldham M 021 921 031 philip.oldham@uprealestate.co.nz

LICENSED AGENT REA 2008

the village

These are the top 10 foods Kiwis throw out every year:*

Members of the Waitematā Local Board and locals dug in for World Arbor Day in mid-June with a planting bee at Newmarket Park.

“A small but dedicated group braved wild weather to work with Council’s contractors and arborist to plant 16 specimen trees,” reports board chair Pippa Coom (above). “Each tree has been counted towards the Mayor’s one million trees project and logged in a database for aftercare.”

The Ōrākei Local Board is completing the Little Rangitoto Reserve upgrade — the one with the 98 new bollards, at a cost of $569.37 each (as pointed out by reader Malcom Clark in our May issue).

Work was due to be finished at the end of June.

Kupe South Playground is the latest in a network of play areas throughout the Ōrākei Local Board area to be upgraded. A small neighbourhood reserve off Kepa Rd and Kupe St, the upgrade includes an extended walkway, and new fixed pieces of fitness equipment suitable for all ages. — reporting by Mary Fitzgerald p

Tonnes National Cost

1. Bread

15,174

$62,589,440

2. Leftovers

12,901

$140,374,320

3. Oranges & mandarins

6302

$20,516,361

4. Apples

5117

$14,818,152

5. Bananas

4844

$12,933,883

6. Potatoes

4767

$8,323,120

7. Poultry

4083

$50,279,800

8. Rice

4076

$2,675,883

9. Lettuce

3754

$13,225,023

10. Beef

3208

$45,825,926

*Food waste statistics sourced from lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz

WASTE NOT, GIVE BACK Kiwis jettison a food mountain every day — slightly sad lettuce, an ugly tomato, the last slices of a loaf, but food retailers Farro and T&G Global have decided to make good with what others may toss. The two businesses are donating NZ-raised meat and fresh vegetables to the Waste-Not Kitchen charity, which is turning the goodness into nourishing soups.

Yes, even Mahé needs a navigator.

J U S T N O T O N T H E W AT E R

GUIDING, GROWING, AND P R O T E C T I N G YO U R W E A LT H

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an answer to surplus retail meat going to landfill. “If we have gone to the effort to produce meat, let’s ensure it is all used and used wisely,” says Draper.

The sisters have developed the recipes based on their own family favourites. The soups sell at $9.99 for a serves-two pottle made from fully recyclable materials, and are available in the freezer at Farro stores. p

THE CLEAN UP CREW

And for every pot of soup purchased, the charity will donate one to families at Auckland Women’s Refuge, or to kids participating in the I Have A Dream education mentoring programme. The soups come in four flavoursome blends, including roast chicken and Morrocan lamb.

Waste-Not Kitchen is the brainwave of Farro co-founder Janene Draper and her sister, Leysa Ross (pictured opposite top in the Waste-Not kitchen, Ross on right). “We want to eliminate food waste, feed those in need in our community and have a positive impact on our planet,” says Ross. “These are tasty soups for people to enjoy but with the added benefit of feeding those in need and helping reducing food waste.”

Every year, Kiwis send 157,389 tonnes of food to landfill that could have been eaten. Globally, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted annually. One of the drivers to create Waste-Not Kitchen was to find

A sunny Sunday in June saw 130 volunteers take to the water and shorelines of Hobson Bay, Ōrākei Basin and adjacent waterways to take part in the Outboard Boating Club and Sea Cleaners coastal clean-up event. A hefty 12,000 litres of rubbish was retrieved in less than three hours, including mounds of plastic items, tyres, road cones, chairs and that ubiquitous clean-up find, the supermarket trolley.

OBC Commodore Bill Berry said the project was part of the club’s ongoing effort to lead by example in helping protect and restore Hobson Bay, which forms an integral part of the Hauraki Gulf. “The sheer volume of rubbish collected in such a short time graphically illustrates the scope of the problem and the need to take ongoing action,” Berry says. “As a result of what we achieved on the day we intend making this an annual event.”

Lending a hand was local councillor Desley Simpson, who brought her three-year-old grandson along to help. Simpson says while the treasure hunting on the waterline was fun, she was disgusted with the amount of rubbish found. “It’s important to teach the next generation the value of keeping our waterways clean and so I hope even more children will be involved in this essential community event in future years.”

the hobson 19

1 - 31 JULY

ENJOY EXCEPTIONAL CUISINE, ALLURING LIGHT INSTALLATIONS AND POP-UP PERFORMANCES TO KEEP YOUR JULY INSPIRED AND DELICIOUS. Ten of Parnell’s much-loved eateries have created heart-warming ‘Elemental AKLinspired’ meals specifically for the month of July. Earth, Air, Fire and Water all play a part in the inspiration and creation of these ‘Elements of Parnell’ dishes, designed specifically for you to enjoy.

2.

1.

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5.

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1. 46 & York - Quintessential Winter Warm Up – Beef Short Ribs and Root Vegetables $28

6.

2. Barulho - Smoked Duck and Kūmara Croquettes $14 3. Cibo - Magical Rose Rumbillion Cocktail $19

Pavlova

$21,

4. Fang - Fang’s Winter Special Menu Elemental Menu from $14- $21 5. Gerome - Lamb 2 Ways $35 6. Han - Maewoon tang (Spicy fish soup) with

10.

Enoki mushrooms $16 7. Oh Calcutta - Hariyali Mint & Mustard Chicken Tikka $14.50 8. Red Wall 1939 - Braised OxTail flambe with gourmet Morchella Prawn and homemade crispy sea salt slice $44 9. Simon & Lee - Warm Winter Salad $19 10. Woodpecker Hill - Woodpecker Steamed baskets of Joy $46 & Oasis Dream Creaming Soda Jug $28, Glass $12

7.

9.

Elements of Parnell is proud to be part of “Elemental AKL”, Auckand’s first winter festival, this July.

The festival will centre on themes of lighting up the region and showcasing Auckland’s food and beverage offering, and because Parnell is one

To make sure you don’t miss out, make a booking at one of these hospo favorites. See you in Parnell for this magical month of food, light and mystique! of Auckland’s top spots for hospitality, there will of course, be a whole lot going on!

parnell.net.nz/elements-ofparnell-july-2019/ for more info.

Elemental AKL presented by

the village

Top, Desley Simpson, with Sandy and Peter Dawson, holds a retrieved tyre; David Purvis, OBC commodore Bill Berry, Kit Parkinson and David Wong.

Hayden Smith, head of Sea Cleaners, said the need to clean up coastal areas was a continual battle as rubbish is constantly collecting as a result of various polluting factors including storms, illegal dumping and careless littering. “As a consequence everything finds its way into our rivers, streams, creeks and eventually into the sea.”

The clean up was celebrated with a barbecue for volunteers, with prizes awarded courtesy of event sponsors, who included Orakei Bay Village’s Farro, Brothers Beer, Bird on a Wire, Espresso Workshop and A&C Homestore. p

IT’S ELEMENTAL, DEAR PARNELL Over July, immersive light installations, exceptional cuisine and pop-up performances will take place in Parnell. Heard Park on Parnell Rd will showcase three awe-inspiring light sculptures by HYBYCOZO, an international collaborative art project, exploring geometry, mathematics and patterns. The ‘Elements of Parnell’ events are part of the wider Auckland winter festival.

Each Friday evening, (Fri July 5, 12, 19, 26) between 6-6:45pm the light installations will be enhanced with an element-themed performance created by Lara Liew, the choreographer behind the ever-popular Wet Hot Beauties water ballet, and creative works at the Splore Festival and Art in the Dark.

The HYBYCOZO installation will feature ‘traveller’ characters engaged in dance rituals dedicated to the four classical elements, earth, air, fire and water, each performance focusing on one of the elements. The performances are whimsical and gently interactive with public being invited to participate on a range of levels, from simply viewing to creating standing circles or placing stones.

For the full programme of Parnell events and participating restaurants offering Elemental dishes, see parnell.net.nz p

the village

Eminent locals, child health advocates Roy Austin, left, and Prof Bob Elliott, at Elliott’s Remuera home.

THE CHILDREN’S CHAMPIONS Two Remuera Rotarians have been honoured for their dedication to Cure Kids with legacy awards named for them, and have also been bestowed the Paul Harris Fellowship, Rotary’s highest award for public service.

Bob Elliott and Roy Austin’s decades of voluntary work for Cure Kids, the child health research charity, has had a major impact on child health in NZ. Paediatrician Professor Elliott has led research into child health for many years.

Now retired and in his 80s, the Remuera resident continues to serve on the Cure Kids board.

Roy Austin has a background in accountancy, venture capitalism and investment. Like his good friend Bob, the Kohi resident is retired but still active in voluntary work. He stepped down as chair of Cure Kids last year, having served on the board for 25 years.

“Roy’s done a fantastic job building Cure Kids into a leading New Zealand funder,” says Bob Elliott. “The success of Cure Kids lies in his stewardship over the years.”

Since its launch in 1971 as the Child Health Research Foundation, Cure Kids has grown to be the second-largest funder of child health research, behind the government. And now, in recognition of the men’s service, Cure Kids has established two new funds. The Roy Austin

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Repatriation Fellowship has been created to repatriate an outstanding medical or health researcher to further their work in New Zealand. The inaugural fellowship will be awarded in December.

“The issue is once they leave, they don’t return, as New Zealand can’t match the opportunities, so this will help,” says Austin.

Wanting research into paediatric conditions was how Cure Kids came into being. “Initially New Zealand was a barren [research] landscape, so Cure Kids got going to fund paediatric research,” says Elliott. “The opportunities are here now, but we need to bring back the people.”

Cure Kids was established by Elliott and fellow paediatrician Dr Ron Caughey, with Rotary its launch funding partner. In the years since, Cure Kids has invested more than $40 million in child health research, working in partnership with universities and medical schools. With its golden jubilee just two years away, Cure Kids has also announced the Elliott-Caughey 50th Anniversary Fund. Rheumatic fever is one of the areas this fund will research — we have one of the highest rates in the world. And it’s a disease of poverty which we shouldn’t have, says Elliott. “We can’t wave a wand to make poverty disappear, but we can help alleviate it.”

As they look forward to celebrating Cure Kids’ 50th, the men also reflect on their long journey together with both the charity and as active Rotarians. “We’ve worked closely together over the years,” says Elliott. “It’s been a big benefit to have different backgrounds.”

— Gretchen Carroll p

NEW LIFELINE FOR CLONBERN CARPARK Auckland Transport has announced it’s handing Remuera’s Clonbern Rd carpark over to Auckland Council’s property and development arm, Panuku, for future upgrading of the site.

The transfer to Panuku comes with the condition that any development includes 200 car parks, 20 more than are currently offered at the two-level site. The upper

deck of the carpark was closed by AT in March, with the loss of 72 car spaces.

Safety reasons were cited as the reason for the closure, after heavy vehicles continued to use the structure despite signage warning of weight restrictions. Ōrākei ward councillor Desley Simpson says that while AT’s announcement is progress, it doesn’t represent immediate change. Panuku has advised that it will draft a development strategy on the carpark as a priority. “This doesn’t help Remuera retail today,” says Simpson.“Essentially at this point it’s a change of landlord, but there will be no immediate changes. The good news is that whatever happens, there will be a minimum of 200 parking spaces, more than what there is now.”

The annoucement came after a mid-June meeting chaired by Ōrākei Local Board chair Kit Parkinson, at which AT met with representatives of Panuku, the Remuera Business Association (RBA), Remuera New World owner/ operator Adrian Barkla, Foodstuffs (which leases some of the lower level parking for New World customers), OLB member Colin Davis, and Simpson.

A Panuku spokesperson told The Hobson that once the development strategy is drafted, it will go first to the Ōrākei Local Board and the Panuku board for approval. The RBA has passed to Panuku its request that it take over the management of the top deck. The RBA says engineering reports gave it the green light structurally, and had approached AT with an offer to pay for security guards to direct away heavy vehicles, and place a barrier restricting

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the hobson 23

the village

after-hours access. AT turned down the request, saying it could not legally ‘contract out’ health and safety risk.

The RBA says the closure has had a significant impact on retail turnover, and has organised a petition calling for its reopening, which has garnered more than 5300 signatures.

A 2014 engineers’ report from that year found the carpark in ‘very poor condition’ with potential collapse possible, leading AT to impose the weight restriction, with signage directing vehicles 2000kg or heavier to park elsewhere. Last year, water infiltration to the lower deck triggered more engineering assessments, with the top deck closed in November, reopening shortly before Christmas with security guards directing heavy vehicles to the lower carpark.

In briefing notes, AT says that over January, 49 vehicles weighing more than 2000kg, including 22 more than 2500kg, were noted by enforcement officers parked on the top deck, and in the first weeks of February, 56 were observed. For some context, SUVs such as an Audi Q7 weighs around 2200kg, a BMX X5 approximately 2400kg, a Range Rover around 2100kg and a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado around 2000kg. — Mary Fitzgerald p

MERCY CALL FOR HANDS Mercy Hospice opened its latest charity shop in Remuera in late June, and is calling for volunteers to staff it. The new shop, beside Life Pharmacy at 320 Remuera Rd, sells pre-loved household items, clothing and bric-a-brac to raise funds for the charity’s work, which supports more than 1200 patients and their families annually.

Volunteers receive training and support. If you’re interested, contact volunteer co-ordinator Nix Johnson on (09) 376 7567 or email njohnson@mh.org.nz p

JP SERVICES With the gradual shutting down of community-based services out of 4 Victoria Ave, the local Justice of the Peace desks are now located around the neighbourhood as follows: MONDAYS Parnell Community Centre, 545 Parnell Rd, 12-2pm TUESDAYS Remuera Library, 429 Remuera Rd. 10am-midday WEDNESDAYS Parnell Community Centre, 545 Parnell Rd, 12-2pm FRIDAYS St Chad’s Community Centre, 33 St Johns Rd, 10am-midday Remuera Library, 429 Remuera Rd. 12-2pm Note that JPs are not available on public holidays p

Next School Holidays, send your kids to Parnell Trust for

Winter Fun Choose from two exciting activities every day including….

Dinosaur Day Birkenhead Rock Wall Marshmallow Madness Sensory Maze and Arcade Pikelet Party Gymtastic Acrobatics All Tied Up Flippin’ Fun LEGO EV3 Challenge … and lots more fun!

Action-packed holiday programmes at Parnell and Epsom.

Drop kids off as early as 7.30am and pick up as late as 6pm for no extra charge.

Enrol online

www.parnell.org.nz/shp

Sign up!

Enrich your life!

Term 3 programme starts from 22 July Languages, Bridge, creative arts and crafts, English as a second language, Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi, Scrabble, Mah Jong, dance, Ukulele, social activities ... and much more

THE MISSING LINK The Ōrākei Local Board has started community consultation for the long-awaited Wilson’s Beach-to-Shore Rd Reserve walkway. Local residents were invited to information sessions late last month to share their views about the proposal, that once built, will complete the walkway connection around the cliffs of Burwood Cres, linking the Shore Rd Reserve and Wilson’s Beach at the end of Victoria Ave. The Hobson Bay coastal walkway is a network of paths and boardwalks that follow the shoreline between Orakei Rd (at Orakei Bay Village), through the Shore Rd Reserve to Pt Resolution, Parnell.

It includes paths and coastal boardwalks, mostly on the Ōrākei Local Board side of the equation — once off the Shore Rd fields, it becomes the remit of the Waitematā Local Board, where erosion and tree fall have made the route to Pt Resolution chaotic and haphazard. The Waitematā board has flagged the route for attention,

Enrol online

www.parnell.org.nz/classes

the village

and is currently replacing the steps (pictured, top right) linking Elam St to the pathway, which have been closed for five years. A slip two years ago which forced the closure of steps down from Logan Tce is also being addressed, while Auckland Council staff are working on a geo-technical assessment of the area.

The proposed new boardwalk will provide a safe route for pedestrians from Wilson’s Beach to the playing fields on Shore Rd and beyond. “The route being put forward balances the need to avoid rockfall hazards and the need to provide a low visual impact on neighbouring properties,” says Ōrākei Local Board chair, Kit Parkinson.

As part of the plan, Wilson’s Beach will be extended to the west with more sand and a basalt groyne to protect against erosion, and as part of the access to the new path. The boardwalk design will be 550 metres long, and three metres wide. It is proposed as a piled timber structure with a raised section over Portland Creek.

There will shortly be more information about on the proposal online at Auckland Council. See aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say and if you want to provide feedback use the online form ‘Hobson Bay Walkway Design’, which will be available from July 1. The Ōrākei board will hold further public consultation meetings, keep an eye on their Facebook page for updates.

— Mary Fitzgerald p

DS_Newspaper_170619_V3.indd 1

Wilsons Beach to Shore Road Reserve Walkway Connection – Proposed Boardwalk Layout

17/06/19 3:19 PM

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the village

What you need to know about . . .

Fashion brand Briarwood has opened in Remuera, in a light, fresh space at 401 Remuera Rd. To welcome them to the neighbourhood, we asked Ange Marshall (left) and Jayne Thomson to tell us about their business.

Tell us the Briarwood story.

Ange: I started the business on a dream really, back in 1993 making handbags in our garage. Fast-forward 26 years and many rollercoaster rides later, my long-time colleague and friend Jayne bought into the business – this was a completely natural progression for both of us.

Why did you decide to open a store in Remuera?

Jayne: We had been looking for the perfect site in Remuera since closing our Newmarket store a year and half ago. We loved the feeling of a village environment and everyone knowing each other, it always seemed warm and inviting.

Ange: We’re well supported throughout the country by our loyal wholesale customers, so this is a nice addition, a great way to showcase the full Briarwood range.

Have the locals been welcoming?

Jayne: Extremely welcoming, we feel like we have been here for years already!

Have you found where to get the best coffee and lunch?

Ange: My coffee’s from Browns café because the lovely barista, Tim, already knows what I have and my name!

Jayne: Browns do the best chicken club sandwiches I have ever tried.

Who is the Briarwood customer?

Ange: She’s a woman who wants to look and feel good. She cares about style but doesn’t want to overcomplicate it. She likes classic but with a twist. She can be any age or stage, there are no boundaries with Briarwood.

Jayne: She’s someone who loves looking fab in natural fibres that flatter all shapes and sizes.

Briarwood was famous for shoes, but you’ve decided not to make them anymore.

Why not?

Ange: Well for a start you can’t really make shoes in New Zealand anymore – there is no infrastructure left to support it. We took the manufacture offshore but felt we couldn’t do what we wanted — we were always having to compromise on design or quality and minimums. We decided if we couldn’t do it 100 per cent how we wanted, we wouldn’t do it at all.

Jayne: There are a lot of shoe retailers around now who have the most amazing selection. It became very hard to cater to everyone and for shoes to work well, I think you need a big selection.

Will you keep making bags?

Ange: Always. Briarwood started with bags and we have built up an extremely loyal following over the years. Customers know and trust our quality.

What fashion lines are you offering?

Ange: As well as the classics, we always offer a fashion element to our bags by way of colour. Mustard and emerald hues are selling well for us in both bags and clothing. As well as this we also have felted NZ wool slippers in bright colours that our customers are loving. And our 100 per cent wool scarves are to die for!

buy one, then come back to get another in a different colour. It’s one of my absolute favourite things to wear.

Outside of work, what will we find you doing?

Ange: I’m lucky to have been able to make a vocation out of my avocation, so some might say I’m always working. Jayne and I both enjoy travelling, and finding inspiration for Briarwood. I work out on my cross-trainer and running around after our two teenage daughters takes up the 25th and 26th hour of each day. It’s busy!!

Jayne: If I’m not in the shop, I’m on the road travelling the country seeing our lovely stockists. Or you might see me running, I love to run, and also just chilling at home. p

Where do you get your design inspiration?

Ange: Everywhere, but mainly from the beautiful fabrics we hunt out — oh the things we can do with them!

What’s a popular design this season?

Jayne: Our Loretta coat, which I’m wearing today, is a great shape with three-quarter sleeves and big lapels, it comes to the knee.

We made it in four different fabrics this winter. We’ve had quite a few customers the hobson 28

briarwood.co.nz

the hobson + st cuthbert’s college

A Warm Welcome A happy and positive experience at primary school lays down essential lifelong foundations.

At St Cuthbert’s Junior School, we embrace the responsibility and privilege of helping your daughter develop through these precious, formative years from the age of five. We are delighted to introduce our new Head of Junior School, Kerry Oldman, who brings a wealth of experience and vision to this role.

K

erry grew up in New Zealand and started her teaching career in Hamilton. She knew instantly that education and having the privilege of being able to shape young minds was where she saw her future.

A move to London 18 years ago saw Kerry gain leadership experience in some of the UK’s leading independent schools. She has worked at some of London’s top prep schools, most recently as the Assistant Head of The Study Prep in Wimbledon. Kerry also taught at Thomas’s London Day Schools for eight years, and at Eaton House Preparatory in Belgravia.

“Childhood is a time of joy, wonder, imagination and fun,” says Kerry, who started at St Cuthbert’s Junior School at the beginning of Term Two. “We see our girls making the most wonderful discoveries about themselves and their world, every day. I believe that every child has unique talents and it is our duty, as educators, to assist in enabling the girls in whatever their strength may be, to

experiment and experience the joy of what it feels like to truly find their ‘element’.

“My personal interest and passion for teaching is the mental wellbeing of every child. It is the experiences they have early in life, that, in essence, dictate how they are

“Kerry brings a wealth of deep experience from the independent education sector,” says St Cuthbert’s Principal Justine Mahon.

“She is a warm and caring person, who has a strong understanding of the importance of the wrap-around approach we have in our St Cuthbert’s Junior School.”

Kerry is particularly passionate that children should have experiences both in and outside the classroom, feeling the freedom to take risks in their learning, which is an important part of preparing girls to be confident and well-rounded young women. Come and enjoy a personal tour with a member of our Admissions team and see the wonderful work Kerry and her team are doing.

going to learn. We cannot begin to effectively teach a child when they are not emotionally equipped to learn. Throughout my career I have seen the difference that positive mental health in children makes to the effectiveness of teaching.”

To book a personal tour or for more information, please contact our Admissions team at admissions@stcuthberts.school.nz or phone 09 520 8472.

Visit stcuthberts.school.nz to learn about St Cuthbert’s and download our prospectus.

Amazing role models

the hobson + the parnell plan

Celebrating Auckland’s First Suburb The Parnell Plan The Parnell Plan has been launched, a guide map providing direction and action for the next 30 years to ensure Parnell continues to be a fantastic place to live, work, play and do business. It presents both local government and community vision for the area, key objectives, strategies and a set of actions to achieve the objectives.

Graphic impression of potential future Faraday St during evening activation (indicative only, scource: Jasmax).

“This long-awaited plan provides guidance for enhancing the connectivity within the precinct while embarking on future transformative projects” Cheryl Adamson, General Manager, Parnell Business Association

T

he development of the Parnell Plan was sponsored by the Waitematā Local Board in collaboration with a working group of key community stakeholders over a series of workshops and meetings held in Parnell last year. This is in addition to input, meetings and workshops with relevant staff from Auckland Council and council-controlled organisations. The Parnell Plan Working Group included representatives from the following local groups and organisations — the Parnell Business Association, Parnell Community Committee, Parnell Trust, Parnell District School, Parnell Heritage, The Auckland War Memorial Museum, Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Blind Foundation. Local youth representatives and mana whenua were also involved in the process.

A consultation document was prepared and approved by the local board in May 2018, for the purpose of community engagement which took place in June.

The feedback received was analysed and key themes identified. This in turn informed the development of a final implementation strategy and plan that outlines immediate, and short to long-term actions. Some are funded, most are currently unfunded or aspirational, requiring further investigation or waiting to be prioritised in order to happen.

“This plan however provides the impetus for the council and the community to join together to achieve longer-term transformational changes and projects in and for Parnell,” says Pippa Coom, chair, Waitematā Local Board. the hobson 30

Above: Graphic impression of potential future Heard Park and Parnell Road; right: graphic impression of potential future Waipapa Greenway at the disused railway tunnel (indicative only, scource: Jasmax).

The five key objectives in the Parnell Plan are:

•

Promote Parnell as an innovative and creative place to work, live, visit and do business Enhance connectivity and accessibility within Parnell and with its neighbouring places Enable the community to use and enjoy its great places and spaces Value, protect and enhance Parnell’s natural environment Respect, recognise and protect Parnell’s historic and cultural heritage and character.

• • • •

Key action areas have been identified.

These are priority locations where investment in mainly physical and environmental improvements can achieve transformational change. They focus directly on achieving the vision and objectives for Parnell: Make Parnell Station a key gateway to Parnell and the Domain With its heritage station building, Parnell Station is important to the area. Ensuring effective and attractive connections to and from the train station are critical for both Parnell and for enhancing accessibility to the Domain.

Realise the Waipapa Greenway This green valley between Parnell and the Domain offers a great opportunity to create walking and cycling pathways next to the rail line, utilising the potential of a disused 320 metre historic rail tunnel

in order to re-establish better access between Parnell and the Domain.

Reinforce the core of Parnell town centre as the heart of Parnell Full of character, the town centre requires revitalisation to encourage greater use, and to further establish Heard Park and its surrounds as a key community place.

Parnell Rd should be managed and improved to ensure that Parnell centre is people-friendly, safe, and integrates different transport modes well with the streetscape and amenity improvements that reflect the Parnell identity.

Revitalise the St Georges Bay Rd warehouses area Once a busy warehouse area for the port, the northern end of St Georges Bay Rd has great historic and architectural character, and is transforming in a bustling creative business precinct.

Improving the function and design of the street environment will help create high amenity and more people-friendly spaces. the hobson 31

“Eight years ago the Parnell Community Committee created a community-driven plan called Tomorrow Parnell. Along with later strategic work by Parnell Business Association, we provided the foundation for developing a Council-supported plan through a community-led planning approach. We trust you will enjoy reading about the future opportunities for Parnell and be reminded that we live, work and play in a very special part of Auckland” Luke Niue, Chair, Parnell Community Committee

the politicians

Paul Goldsmith

A

David Seymour

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s National’s Transport spokesperson I’ve been experimenting with different modes of transport. Parliamentary life means frequent trips in and out of the city from my home in Remuera, or my office near the Market Rd shops.

The 75 bus that goes down Remuera Rd into town is pretty good.

Very nice new double-deckers. Most of the time it takes two to three times longer than driving, but at peak hour the bus lanes make it a reasonable option. I was introduced to the late night service by accident. At the end of a black tie event recently at the University of Auckland, I asked a friend who lives down the road if I could catch a ride home with him and his wife. He said, sure, but I should tell you we’re catching the bus.

My preferred option for a meeting in town at peak hour is to Uber to the Ōrākei Train Station and catch the train into Britomart. This works very well most of the time, so long as a freight train isn’t holding everything up. Building a third rail line through central Auckland would be a priority for us – so that we can cope with both public transport demands and freight.

Cycling isn’t a realistic option in a suit. I rode a motorbike to university every day for six years and learnt that there is scarcely a single day in Auckland when you could be absolutely sure you wouldn’t be drenched on your way home, if not on the way in.

When I was writing books I’d frequently cycle into the public library, but I must say I never looked forward to grinding my way up Wakefield St to get home. Auckland’s brutal hills and rain mean that cycling, with the best will in the world, will only be a minority commuter option. Lime scooters, on the other hand, seem a real option for the ‘last mile’. If I’m trying to get home from a meeting on the western side of the city at a busy time, rather than try to battle the chaos of Albert St or Quay St, I’ll scoot down to the waterfront and along to the bottom of Gladstone Rd. This is fun and quick (don’t tell Christine Fletcher), but the suspension isn’t great — after a few cobblestones and ribbed pavements, I wind up with a thumping headache. The scooters have been fairly controversial. Riders do need to be respectful of other people on the pavement. My view is that we shouldn’t rush to judgment because there are a few hoons. Give it time to settle down.

It is, of course, important as our city grows that we have plenty of good options to get around. The more we can encourage those who have options not to drive on their own, the more efficiently we can use our road network. But in our enthusiasm we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that for the vast majority of trips, for the vast majority of people, the car still works best – it takes you exactly where you want to go, quickly, keeps you dry, can carry your stuff and your kids. That’s why in a growing city we need to keep investing in roads, so that we don’t grind to a halt. The Waterview Tunnel, for example, has made a colossal difference. There’s plenty more to do.

The Labour/Green’s highly ideological approach to transport has led it to cancel or postpone all the next major road projects for the city, in favour of a hugely expensive light rail project. This is a recipe for chaos, and infuriating given all the extra taxes imposed. When we get the chance, we’ll return with urgency to a more pragmatic and balanced approach to transport investment.

he Epsom electorate has sent an ACT MP to Parliament in five of the eight elections since the party’s creation in 1996.

People sometimes ask me, what happens next? I want to answer that question against the background of a relaunched and resurgent ACT Party.

Every Epsom voter I’ve met wants a diligent local MP. I like to think that, if nothing else, I’ve stood up for this electorate and its values in difficult times, helped individuals and families who’ve faced particular challenges with government and its departments, and made myself approachable to the community. I even raised $70,000 for local charity Kidsline during nine weeks of rather unexpected longevity in a televised dance competition.

That’s the basis on which I intend to ask for your vote when the Prime Minister calls an election next year. I love being the MP for Epsom and I’m proud to work hard advocating for locals. At the same time as serving the Epsom electorate, I also serve as the leader of the ACT Party. You may have heard recently that ACT is relaunching and making a new beginning.

That is true. All parties go through cycles. Not so long ago it was difficult to imagine Labour could ever govern again. Some even predicted its total demise. Today they are the most popular party in the political polls. Prior to the John Key era, National found itself in the same position.

Over the past few years, ACT has been slowly rebuilding its membership and its capability, culminating in June’s event where ACT was relaunched with the tagline ‘For Freedom’. Beneath that umbrella are a series of positions that I believe would make New Zealand a better place. What follows is an inexhaustive list.

Freedom to earn means lower, flatter taxes. Successive governments have gradually turned the dial in favour of more taxes and more transfers. ACT believes it is time to recognise that we are a nation of pioneers and turn that dial back towards a balance more befitting of an aspirational, achieving society. The way to get wealthier should not be to vote for more government transfers, but to work, save and invest.

Freedom to learn means more control over your child’s entitlement to state education funding, including the right to take it to an independent school if you choose. Too many people pay twice for independent schools. They pay their taxes, but leave their share of education funding on the table and pay again for education. Yet more people cannot afford to consider an independent school at all, they should be able to use their share of state education funding.

Freedom to speak means the freedom to hold our views and express them as thinking and valuing individuals. I have to say it’s one of the last freedoms I thought we’d be defending at this point in history, but it appears to be under some threat from a government inspired by others around the world who wish to sanction what you can say.

Freedom to be means respecting people of every creed, race, gender or sexuality. I believe it is important to take people as we find them and treat each other well. That is a value of the Epsom electorate and one that I’m proud to promote as ACT Leader too. The full manifesto is available on ACT’s website. We can and must get a better standard of government in Wellington.

Paul Goldsmith is a National list MP based in Epsom

David Seymour is the MP for Epsom the hobson 32

the hobson + vision personal training parnell

Bringing Vision to Parnell Vision Personal Training has opened a studio in Parnell, in the heart of the precinct. The Hobson caught up with co-owner and manager Tomas Coleman to talk about the Vision Personal Training Parnell difference A lot of people want to lose weight and tone up, and they’ll start eating more healthily, but it is entirely possible to eat a healthy diet and stay the same weight or even gain weight. Eating for fat loss requires each individual, based on their body type and activity level, to eat balanced percentages of macro-nutrients for their own body. We calculate that as part of setting you up for long-term success.

Who’s the team behind Vision Personal Training Parnell?

The gym is owned by myself and Dean Williams. I’m a local, Dean’s an Aussie with huge respect in the health and fitness industry. He’s won awards such as Australian National Personal Trainer of the Year, and was NSW Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2014. Dean’s competed in marathons and half-Ironmans, bodybuilding and strongman competitions. He’s currently training for the Auckland Half Marathon. He is passionate about helping people improve their quality of life through simplifying healthy eating; and making exercise as time efficient as possible.

I’ve been a personal trainer for five years. I’ve represented New Zealand in powerlifting three times. I love working with clients at our Ponsonby and now Parnell studios, whether it’s toning up, weight loss or muscle gain that’s the goal.

I like to set people up for long-term success, rather than short, quick fixes. Also here in Parnell we have personal trainers Zion Bayron, who brings his impactful energy to group training sessions, and Conrad Heath.

Conrad plays rugby for Northcote and was in the development squad for the Chiefs.

He’s easy to spot in the studio, being the really tall guy.

Why is personal training the emphasis, as opposed to say classes?

Classes are great and can definitely help you to relieve stress, feel energised and set you up for the day. Here at Vision we have group training sessions that do just that and

make you feel part of our community. We do focus primarily on personal training as it’s through one-on-one sessions that trainers are able to provide you with full support to get you, and keep you, on track.

But really, aren’t all gyms the same?

Crazy loud music, sweaty dudes dripping on the machines . . .

Everyone has their own taste in music, and we try to have ours suited to you! We offer a studio environment, rather than a gym. It’s friendly and without the masses of people and sweat on machines — we pride ourselves on keeping the place spotless!

Can you work out at your own pace?

We do have training options to suit all ability levels, goals and even adjust to how you are feeling day to day. We will keep you accountable to your health and fitness goals, remind you of them and help out in any way we can to get the best results for you.

Tell us about some of your inspiring stories.

We’ve worked with people to take control back from dangerous and bad habits that were leading to lifestyle diseases. And we’ve had clients who couldn’t walk up a flight a stairs without huffing and puffing — they’re now doing half-marathons and Ironman events! Everyone has their own individual journey and goals and pace they can work at. We cater to all.

As part of joining, you offer a nutrition session. Why would someone need that if they’re already eating well? the hobson 33

What does a new member get when they sign up?

It’s a full package designed to get you started on a successful, personal, fitness journey.

There’s an initial free consultation for body type analysis, exercise recommendations and a plan. We then have a goal session, to work on long-term and short-term goals, and processes to follow to make sure you get to those benchmarks. The nutrition session sets up an eating plan that is simple to follow, making sure you understand how to use food to your advantage. And there’s personal, one-on-one training sessions in our safe, friendly environment where your goals are focused, where you are pushed hard if you need to be, to get you achieving the results you want.

SPECIAL OFFER: Exclusively for readers of The Hobson, mention this article and receive 30% off your first three months of training.

Call Tom on 021 101 8512 or email tom.colemanvisionpt@gmail.com for more information or just for a chat.

Vision Personal Training Parnell is located upstairs at 135 Parnell Rd, with carparking at the rear.

Facilities include changerooms and lockers, state-of-the-art Matrix equipment. Enjoy group training, running and walking squads.

Open Monday-Friday 5.30am-8pm, Saturday 7am-2pm. www.visionpt.com.au/studios/parnell

the councillors

Mike Lee Mike Lee

A

uckland Council’s fire sale of the Civic Administration Building (CAB) — 22 levels, 14,000m2 of office space and 5300m2 of land in the heart of the Auckland CBD — for $3 million, with a less than $100,000 deposit and the balance upon sale of apartments, has got to be the worst deal in the history of Auckland local government.

Built as Auckland’s first modernist skyscraper in 1966, the CAB was carefully located near the Town Hall and Bledisloe House, on land acquired by the far-sighted former Auckland City Council to form a civic square. As Aotea Square, it was opened by mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson in 1979 and completed with the opening of the Aotea Centre by mayor Dame Cath Tizard in 1990. At that time, the former City Council extracted all the asbestos that was accessible and practical to extract from the CAB. Regular air testing for fibre asbestos confirmed that the building was ‘safe for normal occupation by council staff’.

Even before the Super City had been formally established in November 2010, I was informed that the new entity’s incoming leading bureaucrats intended to buy the ASB Bank tower at 135 Albert St for their new headquarters. A year later, a slim majority of councillors were persuaded to go along with buying the 29-storey ASB tower. Six months later in mid-2012 it was purchased for $104m. But evidently so eager were the council officers to get themselves into the new building, only cursory due diligence was undertaken. A council manager later claimed (quite ironically) that this normal commercial procedure was thought ‘too costly’. Compounding this mistake, council managers waived the building warranty. This proved to be a very expensive blunder indeed.

Too late it was discovered that ‘degradation’ in the building was far worse than anticipated. So after spending $24.5m on a plush interior fit out, at least another $30m had to be found in order to rectify major faults, especially replacing the granite cladding thought likely to fall off into the streets below. While repair work began late in 2015, more than three-and-a-half years later it still drags on. Unbelievably, it’s taken about the same time for council to repair the building as the ASB Bank took to have it built (1987-91) and it’s not over. The final cost of all this, if past performance is anything to go by, will be considerably higher than the $30m budgeted for.

No doubt we will be hearing more about the Albert St tower, but I would like to return to the Civic Administration Building.

In 2014, after the move en masse to Albert St, what had been Auckland’s thriving centre of civic action from the time of Mayor Robbie became a forlorn urban wasteland; the only activity paper and leaves blowing about the deserted forecourt.

The CAB’s 18 floors, fit-for-purpose, comfortable indeed, have sat empty for five years during the biggest property boom in Auckland history. Meanwhile, council countrolled organisations (CCOs) and the Independent Māori Statutory Board have been paying millions of dollars annually renting private offices, mainly on the waterfront.

Late in December 2016, as part of the CAB’s protracted sale process, the council’s property CCO, Panuku, signed a ‘development agreement’ with property developer Civic Lane

Ltd, to turn the CAB into apartments, with a boutique hotel and ‘cultural building’, and an obligation to renew the heritage façade.

However, evidently due to the lack of market appetite for buying apartments off-the-plan, by May this year no final deal had been signed. But then, after becoming aware of the notice of motion by myself and councillor John Watson, Panuku signed a purchase and sale agreement (Panuku executives claim this was a coincidence), and a couple of weeks later, so did the developer.

This costly financial disaster for ratepayers could have been avoided if Auckland Council had simply retained the building for its original purpose, offices, rather than spending $13m per year of ratepayers money renting flash offices elsewhere. Mayor Goff has gone along with it. Even worse, he’s tried to justify what must be the worst property deal in Auckland’s history, calling the CAB “a lemon” and claiming that the building is “riddled with asbestos”. As one property expert said to me, even if the building “was made of solid asbestos”, the $3m price, including half a hectare of CBD land, would still be a scandal.

Mike Lee is the Councillor for Auckland representing the Waitematā and Gulf ward

the hobson 34

Desley Simpson

W

ith the winter weather upon us, it’s only natural to turn our attention to flooding mitigation. The good news is that we have budget for Council staff to work with residents’ groups along Tamaki Dr to help select options to reduce the effects of both king tides and bad weather. This is particularly important in Kohimarama and the causeway outside the Outboard Boating Club.

The bad news is that the Portland Rd flooding work has been delayed, as staff still look at detailed designs for raising the bottom of Portland Rd beside Waitaramoa Reserve. What we can all do to help is check roadside gutters for leaf build-up, especially by catchpits. If you can’t clear this yourself, please call Council on (09) 301 0101 and register an urgent clear.

Talking about budget, council has signed off its last budget before the upcoming election. This has an average of 2.5 per cent rates rise for the year beginning July 1. To put this rates increase into perspective: this year Hamilton had a 9.7 per cent rise, Dunedin 7.8 per cent, Tauranga 5.8 per cent, Christchurch 5.72 per cent and Wellington 3.8 per cent.

As you will be aware, we asked Aucklanders what they thought of several new initiatives in the budget. Interestingly, the response from our Ōrākei ward matched the Auckland regional responses.

My election promise in 2016 was to vote as per the feedback from you, the residents and ratepayers of the ward. Democracy must work. In my opinion, if you’re not willing to follow the direction from that feedback, why ask in the first place? I have not veered from that position this whole electoral term. My vote around the budget decision was no different. Whilst this is not the view of all councillors, it’s certainly mine. Ōrākei respondents voiced their support for money to go towards addressing homelessness and for a new rates remission for religious

properties. They voiced their opposition to proposed increases to the waste management targeted rate, and an increase in consenting fees. Many of those who responded expressed their anger at how the consent process currently works (slowly and inefficiently was a common response) and were worried that increases to already expensive consenting costs would disincentivise building. On top of this was the concern that ever-climbing resource and building consent fees could further worsen home affordability across Auckland by driving up the cost of construction. It’s an area staff have been directed to improve with haste.

I also voted to keep a strong focus on being more efficient and meeting our savings targets. By leveraging the council group’s size to drive down procurement costs and consolidate suppliers, we have recently slashed our annual utilities bill by $5.3 million. That’s on top of another strong annual budget operational saving target of $23m. In fact, the Super City, for all its new population growth and record levels of investment, is now staggeringly operating on $270m less per annum than it did prior to amalgamation. But trust me, we can still do better.

Coming up soon are some decisions that will be both controversial and important for us. The new freedom camping bylaw is one. I’m not on the regulatory committee and my only vote to date has been to take this out for consultation. However, the draft bylaw currently proposes that many of our parks and potentially every residential street in Auckland could be opened up for freedom camping.

This is a huge concern for me (and I’d think for you too). I am also told that the hearings panel have not always followed community feedback which rejected certain parks and areas within this ward for freedom camping. The vote by the mayor and all councillors on this will be crucial.

Finally, I have decided to put my hand up and stand again for the position of Auckland councillor representing the Ōrākei ward in the forthcoming October elections. With the boundary changes now bringing in Parnell, Newmarket, and Grafton into the ward, I officially made this public last month. I hope to have your support, and welcome any feedback you have on how Council can improve.

Desley Simpson is the Councillor for Auckland representing the Ōrākei ward

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the hobson 35

the investment

The Wellbeing Budget

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f you believe the current economic commentary in New Zealand, then the general consensus is that we are in the midst of an economy in something of a slowdown phase. An example is from the statistics of the latest ANZ Business Outlook Survey, showing that residential construction intentions had plummeted a substantial 27 per cent. Imagine that: in a country with a supposed chronic housing shortage with a government committing to build 100,000 homes over 10 years (and now failing horribly), the momentum and impetus to build new homes to meet all this demand is actually declining. A fall in intended residential investment of that magnitude is suggesting the potential to knock a full percentage point off GDP growth.

And that’s real money!

When we look at other countries, their governments have been prepared to commit to large quantities of fiscal stimulus — spending programmes — in an attempt to boost economic activity and growth, quantitative easing or legislated growth for want of a better term. Note this is not taxing and transferring which is the default approach of our Labour-led coalition government, but essentially borrowing and building things. The theory is the government steps in to support the economy as it slows which hopefully fends off the potential for a recession. However, in New Zealand’s context, don’t rely on the current government to stimulate for growth as our economic growth rate slows.

Amidst the ‘wellbeing’ budget, the finance minister announced that the government would look to reduce net public debt to 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2022, and to maintain the ratio within the 15-25 per cent range beyond. These ‘new’ levels and ranges are essentially the status quo, and hardly represent moving the dial in terms of government spending and stimulus.

The government has acknowledged the ‘gap’ in large scale infrastructure in NZ, but has done little other than announce a regional infrastructure budget with no clarity on what it is going to execute and how any plans are going to be implemented.

The government openly admits, and in this case I agree, that government lacks the resources and skills to deliver such projects and there is a need to partner with the private sector. The question then is, why doesn’t the government make use of its balance sheet at a time when funding/borrowing costs are cheap and involve offshore counterparts in a competitive process for infrastructure build?

This approach would not only create jobs and support growth, but also help deliver long-life legacy infrastructure assets: think a new harbour crossing in Auckland, decent freeways to Whangarei, and extended rail link to Northport (I will resist the temptation to discuss Ports of Auckland), HOUSING and perhaps even a decent, dependable source of electricity, to name a few.

There is no doubt that the current government has inherited a sound balance sheet but there appears to be a real reluctance to use it. The recent announcement of the targeted debt range seems, at least on the surface, prudent but certainly uninspiring and hardly growth-oriented. In fact, it left me feeling that it is highly unlikely much will happen before the next election cycle, and to my mind this represents an opportunity missed.

A lot has been written about the Reserve Bank and the role it plays in managing the economy through the next stage of the economic cycle. My fear is that the RBNZ is going to be forced to act by way of even lower interest rates as the government’s fiscal response to the continued slowdown will continue to be slow, with a chance of being non-existent.

— Warren Couillault

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the plan

Nice Work, Neighbour

I

live next door to a man not given to much excitement.

He is a long-time Parnell resident and a senior civil engineer with more than 40 years experience. He talks stormwater and drains, and huffs and puffs when Council does not empty the stormwater catchpits that hug the curbs of our urban roads.

However, John Tetteroo ME, MEngNZ, CPEng, IntPE has had cause for excitement in the last few months as an invention of his comes to life. Every year thousands of tonnes of rubbish and sediment flows from the roads into our stormwater system and then out into the streams, and ultimately into the sea. If you look at Hobson Bay today, and then see pictures of it 50 years ago, you can see the effects that stormwater sediment and rubbish has had. It is highly degraded and the build up of mangroves is a direct result of sediment runoff from urban development.

The stormwater pond at Martyn Wilson Reserve, on the corner of Shore and Orakei roads is doing its job in that is collects a lot of the sediment and rubbish before it can escape into Hobson Bay. However, the cost to empty the heavily polluted sediment from the pond to keep it in working order is eye-wateringly high.

While he may not say much, John has an active mind and a while back he had a lightbulb moment — an idea to reduce the contaminants and sediment reaching our waterways from stormwater runoff from our roads. The result was the TetraTrap, which he worked with specialist wastewater engineers GHD to design. The TetraTrap is a stainless steel device that can be easily retrofitted to roadside catchpits to form a simple but effective barrier which allows water, but not rubbish, to pass through. They can also be fitted with a fine mesh bag to collect sediments. TetraTraps provide at-source treatment within road stormwater catchpits and are easy to remove for cleaning. They have been considered an ‘easy win’ for Auckland Transport in its goal to reduce contaminants and pollutants entering our waterways.

Parnell engineer John Tetteroo and his TetraTrap, which fixes vertically into catchpits to make a barrier for rubbish entering the waterways. Left, a TetraTrap in situ, showing the muck collected.

John is also proud to tell me that they have no moving parts, have a 30-year design life and are 100 per cent recyclable. Auckland Transport is working with John and his team at GHD to expand the rollout of TetraTraps into Takapuna and Milford, with a specific aim to cut down on the pollutants entering these popular beaches. To date, 3000 TetraTraps have been installed throughout the Auckland urban region and over the next decade, the implementation programme looks to install another 7500. With the road network being a primary source of stormwater runoff and hence pollution, the more ‘at source’ barriers that can be installed to reduce rubbish and pollutants entering the stormwater network and ultimately our streams, rivers and the sea the better.

Furthermore, John and his team are developing a prioritisation matrix to determine the most critical interception points for each catchment. The matrix considers the proximity of catchpits to sensitive receiving environments such as harbours, beaches and other waterways to determine where the next set of TetraTraps will be installed. The large catchment around Orakei Rd is currently being looked at to reduce the pollutants either entering the harbour or silting up the stormwater ponds So, if you see a well-dressed man with that look of 40 years-experience peering into stormwater catchpits, give him a toot as he is doing his bit to keep our waterways clean and free of plastic, rubbish and other contaminants. And if you want catchpits installed in your area, start emailing your local board representative.

You never know, a shiny, stainless steel TetraTrap may make its way to your street.

— Hamish Firth the hobson 38

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the hobson + farro

Make a Meal of Winter Winter cooking warms homes and hearts. Delicious slow-cooked cuts of meat tempt with notes of aromatic spices and the bite of tangy vegetables; it’s the season for pasta bakes and desserts by the fire, and of course, a glass of NZ pinot to warm the soul.

Enjoy winter eating with some of our Farro favourites.

Our New Secret Ingredient We’re excited to welcome Alexandra’s Rose Harissa paste to the shelves at Farro. A favourite in Ottolenghi’s pantry, this spicy harissa enhanced with rose petals can be used as a marinade, in soups or stews or as a fragrant, spicy dip. Or try Rose Harissa mayo — combine good quality mayonnaise with Alexandra’s Rose Harissa paste and finely chopped preserved lemon. Delicious alongside salt and pepper squid or with grilled fish. $14.99

Bring back the Pasta Bake Pasta bakes are the most ’grammable dishes of the season, made with large pasta shells, stuffed full of delicious fillings. Try pumpkin, ricotta and silverbeet baked in a rich tomato sauce.

La Molisana Conchiglioni Italian-made, large pasta shells are perfect for stuffing. $5.99/500g

Fennely Enough One of our absolute favourite vegetables at the moment is fennel. We just can’t get over the soft, buttery, subtle aniseed taste and texture of fennel when roasted and caramelised – it’s melt-inthe-mouth delicious. For an indulgent winter side, make a fennel gratin baked with cream and topped with parmesan – rich and oh, so satisfying. Find the recipe at farro.co.nz

Take it Slow Beef shin, or osso bucco, is the cut of the season. It’s rich in connective tissue that breaks down to meltingly tender mouthfuls through slow-cooking.

Osso buco is used in the eponymous North Italian stew topped with green olive gremolata. It’s also great in casseroles or pie fillings. Beef shin, red wine and mushroom pie, anyone?

Decadent Desserts It doesn’t get more comfort food than this! Farro Sticky Date Pud with Toffee Sauce is made fresh in the Farro Kitchen in Ōrākei.

This pud is the perfect finish to any evening. $11.99

Perfect Match Reds are our go-to wines for matching with winter slow cooking. We have new to store the Hunting Lodge Expressions Pinot Noir which boasts rich plum and dark cherry tones, a savoury note and a sophisticated, silkiness that pairs beautifully with rich dishes. $23.99

For more Farro winter feasting inspiration pick up a copy of our Winter Eating Guide in store now.

Or visit one of our six Auckland food stores today. Farro.co.nz

Mt Wellington | Orakei Bay Village | Epsom | Grey Lynn | Mt Eden | Constellation Drive the hobson 40

the providores

Going for Gold

For two once-local couples, a desire for new challenges just a little out of town lead them to buy hospitality businesses in the old goldmining towns of spectacularly scenic Central Otago. Mary Fitzgerald called in to Pitches store in Ophir and to Olivers in Clyde to meet the transplanted Auckanders. Back home, we also meet the local makers behind two burgeoning food brands.

Central Otago, with its dramatic alpine scenery and roads less travelled, is a world away from the bolting rush and traffic woes of suburban Auckland life. The district calls Aucklanders in the winter to the ski fields, and yearround, to the walking and cycle trails throughout the district. ‘Central’ as it is called by the locals, is defined by the distinct change of seasons, as well as warm and welcoming locals, factors that make living in Central so attactive to the Hurds and the Ritchies. central photographs by mary fitzgerald, auckland portraits by stephen penny

the hobson 41

the providores

The Hurds Pitches Store, Ophir, Manuherikia Valley In 2009 Aucklanders Colleen and David Hurd moved to Central, to own, renovate and run Pitches Store. Located in the small historic town of Ophir, Pitches Store has old bones. A Category 2 New Zealand Historic Places Trust building, it’s been restored by the Hurds to its goldmining era appearance, and in 2012, the Hurds opened a restaurant and eight room accommodation wing.

Ophir is an 1800s gold mining settlement — gold was discovered in 1863 there when the town was known as Blacks. Gold saw Ophir grow to include a school, police station, post office and hospital, But when the gold rush slowed, the township went into decline. What’s left behind are historic buildings and charm. And with the Central Otago Rail Trail close by, Ophir is growing again, supported by tourism.

The shift for the Hurds began in 2005 when they were looking for a change from Auckland. “Auckland was great, it was good to us and we raised our kids there,” says Colleen Hurd. “Once the children were older though, we were ready for something else. We were in Central for a family occasion and we thought we would love to buy a bit of dirt here. We thought if we didn’t do it then we’d never do it.”

Their first stake in the Ophir ground was 20 acres down by the Ophir bridge, where they built a home. “We were here in the summer of 2005 when we had bought the land, and saw that Pitches Store was for sale. It was derilect, and was going to need a lot of work.”

Pitches — pronounced Pitch-eez — Store was built in 1870 for John Pitches, who offered groceries and a butchery. Over the years it was altered significantly, and had many uses, including as a service station.

The Hurds had an affinity with older buildings after living in villas in the hobson 42

Colleen Hurd outside Pitches Store, built and named in the gold rush for local providore John Pitches. Above, Colleen and David inside their café. www.pitches-store.co.nz

Remuera and Parnell. “We thought it would be a shame to just let this opportunity to buy the building go – to just let it fall down.”

They could also see opportunity coming down the cycle trail towards Ophir. “In Auckland David knew guys who’d done the rail trail. They were saying they’d want to do it again but they’d want a good bed, good shower and good food. So when we saw this building we thought offering good accommodation and food on the trail would work well. And it’s all laid on here for our guests after a long day on their bikes.”

Colleen runs the day-to-day of Pitches, while David commutes, maintaining his Auckland law practice and living in Parnell during the week, returning to Central each weekend.

“We have this life of coming and going but it works for us.

David is here for weekends then back to Parnell for work. But really this place is his place, his mother grew up in Chatto Creek up the road from here. We found out after we had bought this building his aunt was the grand-daughter of the man who built Pitches Store. It’s nice to have a family link.”

And while modern day Ophir might be small, with a permanent population of 50, Colleen says there’s always plenty going on and plenty to do. “The greatest joy living in Ophir is the people, the people living here and our customers. I’ve met so many people – the regulars – and the people I will only ever meet once as they tour through. The people who’ve moved into this area have interesting jobs and lifestyles – there is an eclectic mix. Lots of things happen in the community, it is very inclusive, though I’m very busy here at Pitches so I don’t get to take part as much as I would like.”

The seasons also contribute to the Hurd’s happiness under the great southern skies. “The seasons are fabulous, there is just something so special about the change of seasons,” says Colleen. “You know when it is winter here, and every season is so different, so special.”

The Ritchies Olivers, Clyde, Central Otago A scenic 25-minute drive from Ophir is another historic mining town, Clyde. The start, or the end, of the Central Otago Rail Trail for many cyclists, it’s flourishing year-round with travellers and car-touring-scenic-day-trippers, many of them drawn to the little town on the banks of the Clutha River due to the efforts of former Remuera residents, David and Andy Ritchie.

The Ritchies have travelled and lived extensively overseas, and had been settled in Remuera for nine years when a ski holiday in 2010 ended up with them purchasing the historic Clyde property, Olivers.

“We took a day off skiing for a drive,” David recounts. “On our way through Clyde we stopped in at a cafe. Olivers just sort of happened for us – we were ready for something new, a new project, and there was a ‘For Sale’ sign there on the Olivers fence — the person in the cafe said to go have a look. So we walked through a few of the buildings.”

“We were so excited,” says Andy. “David wasn’t saying anything but I could see he was thinking it was pretty fantastic.”

“It had great bones, but was pretty run down,” says David.

“These are lovely old buildings with great history and stories which is really important in the hospitality industry, and that is the potential we saw.”

That great history is indeed deep. A Category 1 Historic Places Trust building, Olivers is one of Otago’s most significant heritage buildings. Built for merchant Benjamin Naylor in 1869, it was originally named Victoria Store, provisioning the gold miners who flooded into the region. In 1977, famed chef Fleur Sullivan opened the lauded Olivers Restaurant, later adding lodge

the hobson 43

the providores

accommodation in the homestead on the same property. After she sold the business it passed through several owners before the Ritchies took it on.

The Ritchies first step was to renovate and reopen the accommodation, which took a year, followed by the re-establishment of a restaurant.

Today, the Olivers complex includes its fine dining restaurant, the neighbouring Victoria Store Brewery, and the Merchant of Clyde cafe.

The Ritchie’s investment in the township has attracted other businesses to Clyde, including a cinema, and new retail.

David says that in the beginning, the biggest challenge for him was the idea of isolation. “For me it was the toughest thing in my mind, [being] miles away from things, the worry that no-one would come through, that we’d arrived in Clyde into a small community that we were not part of.

“But almost from day one it wasn’t an issue.

Locals came knocking on our door to introduce themselves. They’d talk to us about their history with the buildings, and fill us in on all sorts of local things. We were made to feel welcome – people here are wonderful, and are willing to give up their time and now we feel engaged and part of life here.”

The Ritchies arrival into Clyde was well timed.

The Central Otago Rail Trail, with its flow of cycle tourists and a new source of Central Otago tourism had been open for 10 years and was growing in popularity when the refurbished Olivers opened. In 2017-18 the rail trail was used by 14,400 cyclists, the great majority sleeping, eating and drinking with local providers along the four-to-five-day journey.

“Cycling is a very significant draw for tourism in this area,” says David. “For Clyde and all the way along the trail, a lot of the towns and villages depend upon it for their tourism. These people come for the changing landscapes and the four distinct seasons – these make Central an attractive place to visit.”

With Olivers operating as they envisioned, David and Andy have not as yet downed tools. Across the road from Olivers is the double-storeyed Dunstan Hotel, built in 1904. In recent times it also had a ‘For Sale’ sign attached. Not any more. The Ritchies plan to have it reopened by Christmas, offering 10 luxury ensuited rooms, bringing another historic building and even more of Clyde back to life.

Previous page, mainstreet Clyde. Above, Andy, David and Sky Ritchie outside their home in the Olivers’ complex, left, the street frontage of the 1869 schist store. www.oliverscentralotago.co.nz

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the providores

Tracey Melville-Smith at home with a sampling of her Remarkable Chocolate Co range

the hobson 46

A Remarkably Good Idea From a kitchen-table discussion, a flourishing chocolate business was born

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n the development phases of her business, Tracey Melville-Smith’s friends and family are no doubt very pleased she chose to make chocolate, as opposed to being the guinea pigs on, say runs of fish oil tablets, or hair removal creams. There’s no shortage of willing tasters for whatever new flavour alchemy Tracey cooks up in her home kitchen. For every bag, block or s’more from The Remarkable Chocolate Co found on retail shelves, the journey starts with trial, error and tastings at Tracey’s Epsom home.

Tracey grew up around food. Her father was in the restaurant business, and she has early memories of putting on a pinny and helping a family friend with her baking. From St Cuthbert’s, Tracey went to university, worked in banking and accounting, all the while enjoying cooking, baking and being creative in the kitchen. But corporate life became less appealing with three young children, now aged 17, 15 and 11.

“I was looking for something we could do ourselves, using the skills we had, that we could create something,” she says of conversations with her husband, Mark McCutcheon, and friends. That ‘something’ kept circling back to being food-related. And so The Remarkable Chocolate Co was cooked up.

The name references both the product — “We really wanted to make something that’s remarkable” — and the efforts Tracey has put into making every step of the process remarkably ‘good’. “The business and the product had to fit with my personal values.

I have to be able to sleep at night!”

For Tracey, that means sourcing ingredients from sustainable, ethical suppliers. The company’s organic chocolate is certified Fair Trade, single origin from Peru. The dark chocolate for the 180g blocks is 70 per cent cacao from one of the world’s leading Belgian chocolate houses. “It’s the champagne,” she laughs. There’s also ‘remarkable’ efforts put into the packaging — every step of the way is considered and tested against the ‘remarkable’ metric.

The flavours on shelf are the culmination of experimentation and product testing on friends before Tracey hired a commercial kitchen and produced the first batches for sale at the Parnell and Hobsonville Point farmers’ markets.

The results from the wider public were affirming, so the next step was to find an established food manufacturing plant that could produce for her, and start making commercial quantities. Four years later, Remarkable Chocolate is stocked

by Farro, selected New Worlds and a range of speciality food stores across the country, and has collected seven medals in the NZ Chocolate Awards, a prize for the packaging and this year, a silver medal at the competitive and prestigious Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards.

With the business growing, Tracey is hands-on, knee-deep, thinking, dreaming, tasting chocolate seven days a week.

She does the instore tasting sessions, sources the ingredients, oversees the production schedule. And keeps coming up with new tastes to trial. Surprises have been how tricky it was to get the ginger element perfect in the Ginger and Salted Caramel creation — “I thought it would work with crystallised ginger but it was terrible. There’s so much to work out. How much? How strong? What type of ginger? Do you use ginger oil or essence? You make hundreds and hundreds of bars of chocolate in the process.”

The taste jury is still out on mint flavourings. Tracey is personally a fan, but it’s polarising for other palates.

Peanuts are also tricky: their natural oils can cause a chocolate bar to soften.

After several attempts, Tracey threw in her spatula on that one, passing on the not-quite-there bars to a restaurant who creatively used them as part of a dessert for a charity dinner.

“It’s important that we innovate. Our bark is innovative — it’s thin and elegant and perfect as part of platters or for just a smaller bite.

We’re doing scorched almonds — Ceres organic almonds in our organic dark chocolate, a different scorched almond to what you may be used to. Like the bark, no-one else is doing s’mores. Our kids love them, friends love making them so I thought, let’s do them.” A US campfire staple, s’mores are biscuits sandwiched with chocolate and marshmallows, toasted together. For the biscuit part, Tracey partnered with another smaller local producer, Kea Cookies, using their gluten-free biscuits — the product didn’t start as having to be gluten-free, but it evolved to being the best choice. And with everything Remarkable, for Tracey it comes down to what sits well with her values. So if the right cookies from the right partner were gluten-free, why not?

“We’re doing the right thing when no-one is looking,” she says of the pillars of the her business. “Maybe that makes the business slower to grow, but I don’t want it ever to be an ‘at all costs’.” — Kirsty Cameron remarkablechocolate.com I: TheRemarkableChocolateCo

the hobson 47

the providores

That Inner Glo Remuera’s Mike and Chantel Priddy have the secret sauce to staying well this winter (and year round)

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reenleaf Organics, or GLO, is very much a Priddy family affair. The company, which produces vege-packed smoothies, immunity shots and caffeine-free drinks was started in 2015 by Sarah Priddy, well known around Parnell and Remuera for her eponymous nail and beauty salon. With a baby, Sarah found growing GLO a bit too much of a juggle, so she called on her brother, Mike, and sister-inlaw, Chantel, for help.

Mike and Chantel were living in Sydney with their own young children, and keen for a change in direction that would bring them home. Chantel had her own beauty business, while Mike was in hospitality, albeit quite different to GLO. “I was working in pubs, living a completely different lifestyle to now,” Mike says. “It’s been a more than welcome change, particularly with a family.”

Mike and Chantel moved home to Remuera, initially creating GLO’s organic blends from a Kingsland café. To grow the business they’ve closed the café and become wholesalers, taking on a site in St Johns where they can produce the GLO range as well as chia jam and more recently, switchel, a fermented, prebiotic drink based on apple cider vinegar. GLO’s switchel is non-carbonated unlike others on the market, contains maple sugar to steer away from stevia, and isn’t pasteurised.

Mike says kombucha has paved the way in the health drinks market, and people now understand about the health benefits of fermented drinks. “We have an eye to what’s happening overseas,” says Mike, “and switchel is particularly big in the US and Canada.” The refreshment has been met with praise, with a silver medal in the 2019 NZ Food Producers Awards’ Drink Category, and was the 2018 Inspire+ New Zealand Artisan Awards’ Non-Alcoholic Winner.

“People are aware they can’t keep going on a frozen pizza and Coke lifestyle,” says Mike.“They’re becoming more selfaware and do what they can. It is competitive in this realm, but choice is good. People want healthier options.”

Importantly for the business, GLO’s been able to be stocked in supermarkets with switchel, as it has a longer shelf life of up to six months. Locally, it’s available at New World Remuera and Lunn Ave, and Huckleberry Glen Innes.

Smoothies are only available direct to customer because they need to be enjoyed within a matter of days once bottled, so GLO delivers these to home-based customers, and recently introduced a subscription option, taking away the hassle of remembering to order a delivery. They want to keep the products convenient and approachable, says Mike. “It needs to be something people can easily slide into their daily routine.”

The next step will be the five immunity shot flavours going into supermarkets. These can be used straight, as a mix into drinks, or in salad dressings.

All of the products are made onsite in St Johns, and the Priddy’s never stop thinking about what they could be doing next.

“We do research on certain ingredients in regards to their health benefits and think about what will pair well together, often discussing and reading before we go to sleep. When we had the café in Kingsland this was also a great testing ground to experiment and get customer feedback,” says Chantel. “We spend about a day per week working on new products. We love testing flavour profiles and sometimes we hit a winner.

“As our main focus is always being organic, we tend to work backwards from what we can source organically, and locally grown is always a great starting point. Organic options are an important part of the food industry. It’s the way the world is going.” In line with that, the packaging across the GLO product line has sustainability in mind, with glass bottles for the drinks and compostable packaging coming soon for the brews. And recently, the Priddys decided that a portion of sales across all the products will go to the Mental Health Foundation, an organisation that’s close to their hearts.

“We want to help bring awareness to the Foundation, and mental health touches everyone in some shape or form,” says Chantel.

So with winter upon us, what are their tips for staying well? Mike says stick to your routines of drinking water and regular exercise; smoothies are great for children as you can sneak in healthy ingredients; and include prebiotics in your diet, as gut health can be compromised over winter. — Gretchen Carroll www.greenleaforganics.co.nz I: greenleaforganics

the hobson 48

Glo-ing places: Mike and Chantel Priddy in their St Johns’ plant

the hobson 49

the magpie

Wrap Me Up The Magpie beats a retreat to a home of soothing scents and calming hues

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1. Putting on a happy face in midwinter can require help. The Magpie relies on her Too Faced Natural Lust Eyeshadow Palette for her game face. $94, Mecca Cosmetica. meccabeauty.co.nz 2. Summon up a warmer climate with a spritz of Chloé Nomade. This delightfully light fragrance with notes of sweet lychee and freesia will put you in mind of an escape to the sun. $125/50ml eau de toilette, from Farmers and Smith and Caughey’s stores 3. Netflix and chill — or just eat chocolate — in a luxurious Bianca Lorenne velvet housecoat. Perfectly designed for unwinding and looking fabulous doing it. $169 from Hedgerow, 371 Remuera Rd, hedgerow.co.nz

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4. The Magpie never tires of lighting up her life with Cire Trudon candles.

These perennial pleasers now come in soft shades of deliciousness, in both original and new scents. Aaaah. $169, from worldbrand.co.nz 5. Citta is always on-trend with interior embellishments to make your nest more homely. This season is no different with these sumptuous bed coverings and cushions, priced from $49.90. cittadesign.com 6. Keeping active in the winter months is made easier when your athleisure kit is hot new pieces from Lorna Jane. Sammy sports bra, $67.99, New Amy full length tights both in dark copper, $104.99, from lornajane.nz 7. Spritz this Aēsop Cythera Aromatique Room Spray and enjoy a lingering, warming veil of geranium, with hints of incense, myrrh and woody patchouli. $73, from aesop.com/nz 8. The late American style maven Lee Radziwill knew some beautiful homes. “I always begin a room with the rug; it is literally the foundation of the space,” she once said. “I then go to the furniture.” This Oxidised in Sunlight foundation piece is hand-knotted bamboo and silk. 2.6m x 3m, $6800 at Artisan, 31a Normanby Rd or artisancollective.co.nz 9. Billy McQueen, a 1st class honours MFA grad from Elam, consciously manipulates his works as a way to investigate traditional painting techniques and the materials employed. Academic, oil and gesso on canvas, 400 x 400mm, $1200 From NKB Gallery. nkbgallery.co.nz 10. The statement earring has made a very welcome return. We love these rose gold-plated Lucy Folk Roman Deity earrings, $565, exclusively from Maman, 2a Clonbern Rd, Remuera. maman.co.nz

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the teacher

Joyously Diverse

M

any of our schools recently celebrated a week of ‘Love and Diversity’. Where else across our communities in New Zealand, would you find diversity in every aspect of its meaning, than in a school community?

I was privileged to be in a school for that week and was blown away by the students’ understanding and tolerance of what ‘love and diversity’ means to them in this day and age.

The world is a very different place since I was at school and when I reflect on some of the things I was told — and by adults — it shames and horrifies me. The recent Christchurch mosque attacks have changed New Zealand forever. Unfortunately, we have been forced to understand that we are living in and sharing our beautiful country with the behaviours of the rest of the world. However, the way our country has responded to this has been no less than exceptional, leading from the front and setting an excellent example of strength and courage to indicate that we will not be altered by this heinous act of cowardice. The role-modelling from our Prime Minister has to be a shining example of excellent leadership, one all our children, and us as adults, can learn from. She showed and displayed ‘love’ in a hugely diverse situation.

The theme of ‘Love and Diversity’ certainly gave thought and conversation to a lot of issues we face in today’s rapidly changing world. The understanding

students have of living in a diverse world is eye opening, and the sophisticated way in which they use their voice is to be applauded. I am a great admirer of our young students and applaud their courage to stand up for what is right, beginning at a very early age.

For too long so many of us who are labeled baby boomers, have taken so much for granted and turned a blind eye to many of the issues that will affect our young people in the future. It’s time for us all to be breaking old habits and to be thinking about taking more responsibility for our personal actions and practices so that we can leave the planet in good health for all who follow us.

These thoughts lead me back to the brave way in which many of our students are speaking out about their feelings and thoughts on many diverse issues facing them, leading the way for future change.

They are not afraid to fail in the process, but more to learn from these failures.

That’s truly what being brave is all about.

However, there are a couple of other ingredients to being brave, and that is having self-confidence and passion.

New Zealand is now a linguistically and culturally diverse nation and our students need to acquire knowledge, skills and attitudes that will equip them for life in a multi-cultural world. Teaching cultural diversity in schools involves helping students to understand and respect diverse viewpoints, values, customs and languages.

While many people think of race when talking about diversity, there are numerous aspects that actually play into diversity, especially in the classroom setting. Religion, gender, economic background and even learning styles are all notable factors, and it is crucial to remember each one when promoting diversity in schools. It is becoming clear that diversity among students in education can directly impact their performance. Recent studies show that students work better in a diverse environment, enabling them to concentrate and push themselves further when there are people of other backgrounds working alongside them.

This can promote creativity, as well as a better education, as those with differing viewpoints are able to collaborate to create solutions.

Teaching diversity and including it in daily life at school, and supporting this at home, prepares our children to be global citizens by exposing them to people from all the different cultures and social groups. With the rapid growth of globalisation it is really important for students to be able to work with diverse groups, and to have a real understanding of how this can enhance everyone’s potential to be successful.

Watch any programme on TV or walk down the street and you will see that no matter what ethnicity we claim, we are all in this life together. Let’s make the most of it. — Judi Paape

Councillor Desley Simpson To learn more about what’s happening around the Town Hall table, please join my newsletter at: desley.co.nz/newsletter Or join me on Facebook: desley.co.nz/facebook

I’m always available to discuss the issues that matter to you.

P: 021 971 786

E: Desley.Simpson@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

This ad has been personally funded by Cr Desley Simpson and is at no cost to ratepayers.

the hobson 52

the second act

When I Grew Up

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ne of the biggest questions people pose at midlife is, “what do I really want to be doing with my life?” On a recent trip to the UK I did a short course on career development, which explored the idea that a fulfilling career should be a grown-up version of who you were, and what you loved doing, as a child. For instance, David Attenborough was a deep and thoughtful little boy who was in awe of the natural world around him. Despite feeling perfectly fulfilled in my work and life, I played along to test out the theory. But what was I like as a child? My memory is biased and sketchy; I just remember liking being silly and making my friends laugh.

So I leant on the memory of one of my oldest and dearest friends, whom I was staying with. We met when we were both 11.

As we reflected on our naïve, tween selves, she shared a memory that I had long forgotten, but must have been very formative as it all came back in clear detail. I was, as per usual, acting the goat in class, but this time it really triggered the teacher, an alpha male who had taught both of my well-behaved older sisters. My friend and I both remembered that he exploded at me over something, which shocked me, her and the whole class into silence. She remembers praying that I would apologise, as he kept demanding. But I didn’t. I was frozen and she, he and the rest of the class misread my silence as defiance and courage, when in fact it was shock. I was made to pack up my desk and “leave the class permanently”. I did so silently, in deep shame and horror. I didn’t cry; not because I was stoic, but because I was so traumatised.

I remember leaving the classroom and wandering around the school sensing that I didn’t belong anywhere, and everyone else did. He found me later and brought me to the cloakroom to talk it over. But he did all the talking. He told me he knew I was sorry.

But I wasn’t sorry; I hadn’t got that far in my thinking, I was still processing what it felt like being publicly belittled by someone who had all the power. This was before the days of “I don’t feel this is a safe environment,” when as children we toughed it out and built resilience. He had a large foreboding stature, and was very overweight. After not getting any response from me, by way

S TAT E

of

of reconciliation he embraced me and pushed my face into his belly. I remember thinking two things, aside from sensing the rough texture of his polyester shirt. Firstly, “He is so squishy I could disappear into his stomach” and then the 1970s, 11-year-old version of “I think this is probably highly inappropriate”. I was reinstated into the class and never bothered mentioning it to my parents because we didn’t do that sort of thing back then.

A recidivist prankster, a similar episode occurred five years later, in a French class with another intimidating male teacher.

Once again, he had taught my brilliant all-rounder sister before being landed with me, irreverent and immature.

In my defence, it wasn’t that I was interested in challenging authority; I was just deeply invested in entertaining my friends.

So it was unfortunate that when I wrote in a calligraphic way ‘Quelle un grand wanker’ on my folder, he saw it and took it very personally. Once again, public humiliation and banishment followed. As I was wondering why these old guys kept losing it with someone so much younger, when clearly they should be above all that, he found me, did all the talking, and I was reinstated, none the wiser. If this happened today, a parent would complain that their child’s right to an education was not being honoured, but back then, parents were largely disinterested in such minutiae.

So what has this got to do with my career today? Interestingly, a lot of my work looks at system dynamics, including gender, diversity and power differentials in the workplace. We uncover why people are triggered by particular behaviour in others, and look at better ways to communicate in conflict. So after all, there was a link to my current career and who I was as a youngster.

If you are pondering the age-old question of career fulfillment, I encourage you to spend time thinking not about your adult years but your childhood and adolescence — what were the things you loved doing, and what would the adult version of that look like? What are those random memories that stick for some reason? What were the repeated patterns? How might they show up today? How we work with that knowledge is a topic I’ll address another time. — Sandy Burgham

G RACE

F A M I LY D I R E C T E D F U N E R A L S

Funerals can take place at a variety of venues. Bell House at Howick Historical Village is one of our favourites – we have had funerals there for people who loved the gardens, have been volunteers, or were devotees of the café.

Another is Tamaki Yacht Club. Many people who live in the Bays are yachties, have had family celebrations there or enjoyed a connection with the water, which makes it a perfect place for their final farewell. We recently held a funeral at Eden Park for a long-time rugby referee. It was magical, and appropriate.

Our personalised approach ensures each family are treated with warmth, compassion and empathy.

09 527 0366 0800 764 327 www.stateofgracefunerals.co.nz

the hobson 53

the suburbanist

Flats with Benefits

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he latest trend in the spaces where we work is shared workspaces. Places where entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups and small businesses can rent space by the day, week, month or longer without the hassle of a long-term commitment to rent, power and the other costs of maintaining an office space. They started in the vortex that is Silicon Valley to service the needs of technology start-up subculture communities.

Their growth can partly be attributed to WeWork, a New York company that got its start in 2010 when Adam Neumann, a fastfailing entrepreneur, and Miguel McKelvey, an architect, shared office space. They persuaded their landlord to try an experiment where they took over an empty space in one of his buildings, divided it up into semi-communal offices and rented them out.

It worked, they found a market and built a business where they applied their lease/renovate/sublet model, initially to office floors and then to entire buildings. Their design approach was more boutique hotel than traditional office, and its feature was the transient nature of their spaces for rent. You signed up for as long as you wanted and weren’t locked into a lease. WeWork, the company, uses their buying power to get good deals on leasing buildings and they own almost no real estate themselves.

There are now 466,000 ‘members’ of WeWork operating out of 485 locations in more than 100 cities in 28 countries. In 2014 its annual revenue was US$75 million; by 2018 it was $1.8 billion. They have 12,000 employees, are the largest tenant in Manhattan and the second largest in London, after the British government.

Somehow, it is not enough. They have rebranded to become We Company, with three divisions: WeWork, WeLive and WeGrow, with the stratospheric ambition to ‘elevate the world’s consciousness’.

Hmmmmm . . . ?

When Neumann and his wife Rebekah couldn’t find a school they liked for their five children, they started their own. WeGrow is a ‘conscious, entrepreneurial school committed to unleashing every child’s superpowers’. Again, hmmmmm . . . ?

WeLive may be their best idea yet, but only because of the success some of their imitators are having. It has not been the success for We Company that they might have imagined because their

commercial model hasn’t translated easily to residential buildings.

It hasn’t been easy to find whole buildings, or even single floors of apartments, that they can lease and sublet. Where people might be OK about working in a shared open plan working arrangement, they are not so comfortable eating and sleeping this way.

San Francisco company Bungalow embodies a trend that’s spreading rapidly across pricey cities in the Bay Area and beyond: co-living, in which unrelated people share spaces and split costs.

Their model is simple: they rent existing houses, usually wellappointed, guaranteeing the landlord a long hassle-free lease and then find people to rent individual rooms. Hmmmm . . . ‘flatting’, I hear you think. Bungalow goes beyond this by doing background checks on prospective tenants and then baking in a range of services to their rent. They furnish the houses from beds to TVs, right down to the kitchen equipment and crockery, provide high speed WiFi and regular cleaners. Others in this space include Common, which also provides soap, towels and laundry supplies; the London-based Collective, which pays all utility bills, gym membership and throws in co-working spaces and cultural events.

Perfect for the helicopter-parented millennial.

But a behemoth is coming to San Jose in the tech-ticking heart of Silicon Valley, where Starcity is building an 18-storey, 800-unit ‘dorm for adults’. Purpose-built with communal groups on each floor, renters get a 12-20m2 bedroom (if you were allowed a cat, just enough room to swing it), shared bathrooms and kitchen living areas, where you bond with your roommates. All for between US$650-$1100 per week. Expensive? Perhaps not for the highearning employees of the tech economy and still less than many cities pay to house the homeless.

The future of housing may lie somewhere within these models and there is clearly a need in large cities where the supply of housing is limited. The uptake in smaller cities or places where there is no housing pressure remains to be seen. What may come out of it is a new way of renting housing that is more flexible and oriented around the needs of the tenants and not the landlords.

Such an overhaul is overdue, not just in the realms of the rich, but everywhere. — Tommy Honey

David Seymour MP for Epsom

(and Mt Eden, Newmarket, Parnell and Remuera) To contact me for an appointment please call 09 522 7464 or email mpepsom@parliament.govt.nz

Epsom Electorate Office Level 2, 27 Gillies Avenue, Newmarket Promoted by David Seymour, MP for Epsom, 27 Gillies Avenue, Newmarket

the hobson 54

the sound

Nothing Compares to U2

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f you haven’t heard, U2 are coming to town.

Nine years after they brought their giant claw to Mt Smart Stadium, the band is coming back with a stadium tour that celebrates the release of The Joshua Tree 32 years ago, in 1987. The critically acclaimed, mega-selling album that many consider their best work, and one of the greatest albums of all time. The band will take a leaf out of Bruce Springsteen’s book and perform the entire album, in order.

The news sent me back to the album, caused me to reassess it and my response to it, which now as a 50-something may be completely different to that of a 20-something.

So it’s 1987. U2 were four albums in on their path to world domination. First there was Boy, followed by October and War. Bono felt they were in danger of becoming a shrill stadium rock band, so the studio was embraced for The Unforgettable Fire. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois were employed to add atmosphere. It worked and the band also had a bona fide hit with “Pride”, a tribute to Martin Luther King and an unashamed play for liberal heroism and America.

For The Joshua Tree they wanted to take the best of the ambient and the best of the rock and make an Irish/ Americana album with social and political overtones. And not shrill. Bono has told Jim Kerr from Simple Minds that the band wanted to make their own New Gold Dream, the atmospheric album that broke Simple Minds in the States.

Initially it was going to be called The Two Americas, but that was abandoned as it was too prescriptive. What I realise now is how much of the album looks at dualities. Rich versus poor. First world versus third. America v Ireland. “With or Without You”. When I was younger I thought it just had great tunes. Now I know it had higher aspirations.

When it was finished, the band decided that “Where the Streets Have No Name” would be first track, and “Mothers of the Disappeared” would be last. In 1987 the Rolling Stone review said that there were no obvious hit singles. Ooops. Can we call that doing a Makhlouf these days?

From “Where the Streets Have No Name”, straight into “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, a song famously described by The Edge as “Eye Of The Tiger” played by a reggae band. Then into the wonder of “With Or Without You.” Such a

brooding song. Not pop, not rock, but something else. Three killer tracks from the get-go. But what I love the most about this album happens from here.

The epic that is “Bullet the Blue Sky”. Is it too much to compare it to Picasso’s Guernica? A picture of a civil war and the violence, tragedy and brutal beauty of it.

Plus The Edge using his guitar to emulate fighter planes, much as Jimi Hendrix did a generation before. Then “Running to Stand Still”. The quietest, saddest song about heroin addiction.

Flip to the B side. “Red Hill Mining Town” — echoes of Midnight Oil, echoes of Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up”. The stories of broken miners and their lost jobs. With a stomping beat and swagger. “Trip Through Your Wires” opens with a drum and harmonica, it’s straight out of a barn dance with moonshine jugs, and yet urban. A respectful and watchful song, not a bad imitation. “Exit”. The song about a serial killer obsessed with religion. All the way behind it you hear the song of night crickets. A little played, and under-appreciated masterpiece.

“Mothers of the Disappeared”. I used to hate this song about the missing from Pinochet’s Chilean dictatorship, but also about America’s involvement in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

I found Bono’s humanitarian grandstanding just slightly disingenuous, partly because he discovered the plight of Central and South America by touring it and making millions.

But stop and listen today — it is an aching song.

I’m not even going to talk about “One Tree Hill”, which is so personal to New Zealand and rarely performed other than here. I think it’s too personal for the band, it’s certainly personal to us. When U2 were last here the song was dedicated to the Pike River miners, and when they performed it I cried.

The Joshua Tree is a hell of a piece of work, and they worked at it. It defined and made the band and its legacy became stultifying. Bono famously described the next album, Achtung Baby, as “the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree”.

As a 50-something I appreciate it more now than I did as a younger man. And the performance of it will be something else. — Andrew Dickens

the hobson 55

the district diary

July/August 2019 JULY 1 View the stars from the waters of the Waitematā under the guidance of navigation and wayfinding expert Hoturoa Kerr, with Matariki on the Move: Tirotiro Whetū. Board the waka hourua at Ōrākei Marina, 12 Tamaki Dr. Bookings essential, tickets from eventbrite. co.nz. Ages 10 plus (kids 10-14 must have a supervising adult with them) Citywide, the inaugural Elemental AKL winter festival gets underway today, with more than 60 free and ticketed events covering arts, food and culture, until July 31. See aucklandnz. com for details. Locally, the Elements of Parnell programme brings lights and dance to Heard Park on Friday evenings (free) with participating restaurants offering special dishes based on the four elements, water, fire, earth and air. See parnell.net.nz for details 2 Dragfest 2019 is busting at the seams, and so are the fabulous ladies of the drag stage serving up the 90-minute spectacular! Joined by RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars winners, the show will be opened by Auckland’s finest, including our local fave and The Hobson July/August 2018 cover star, Buckwheat. Logan Campbell Centre, 217 Greenlane West, 8.30pm, all ages, tickets from eventbrite.com.au 4-5 Rich in te reo Māori and culture, the bilingual Matariki Glow Show’s 50+ glow-in-the-dark puppets tell the story about the Matariki stars as they prepare for Te Tau Hou, the Māori New Year. Raye Freedman Arts Centre, at EGGS. See iticket.com for tickets and show times 5 Last day of Term 2 for most schools 8 The Parnell Trust’s school holiday programmes for 5-to-14-year-olds are voted cool by the kids, and parents like them too

CURTAIN CALL

(drop-off from 7.30am, pickup by 6pm).

Onsite activities and offsite adventures, there’s two base locations and programmes for different ages and stages. See parnell.org. nz/shp for info and enrolment details

illumination and interactive installation.

Free, Albert Park, 5pm-late, turamafestival.co.nz for schedule of events 27 ACG Parnell College welcomes you today for a campus tour across its co-ed junior, middle and senior schools. 9.30am-1.30pm, see parnellcollege.acgedu.com

The Pop-up Globe’s Winter Festival brings the magic of Shakespeare to life for young people with The Children’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. The perfect intro to Shakespeare for kids aged 5-12, shows run at The Shakespeare Gardens, Ellerslie Racecourse, until July 20.

Tickets from eventfinda.co.nz

AUGUST 3 Every Saturday from 8am-12pm, rain or shine, you can stock up on seasonal edibles at the Parnell Farmers’ Market. Behind the Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Rd

10-14 Just in time for the school hols, the Pop-Up Fun Park at ASB Showgrounds kicks off its Indoor Winter Carnival with inflatables, carnival rides, sideshow games and more, 10am-4pm, door sales only.

All ages, 217 Greenlane West

7 Enjoy a tour and hearing about the new senior school opportunities for girls at St Cuthbert’s College Year 7-13 open day. 9am-11am, info and registration at stcuthberts.school.nz

13 London’s calling — local composer Kirsten Strom has been accepted for a Masters with the prestigious Royal Academy of Music, and all proceeds from this, her final farewell concert, will go towards her living costs while studying in London. St Lukes Church, 130 Remuera Rd, 7.30-8.45pm. Tickets $23, from eventfinda.co.nz

16-18 The one-stop-shop that is The Baby Show is back. Big brands, advice, entertainment, showonly specials. Fri and Sun 9am-4pm, Sat 9am5pm. ASB Showgrounds, 217 Greenlane West, tickets at gate or babyshow.co.nz

22 Term 3 starts for local primaries, Grammar, EGGS

21 Learn about what a King’s School education offers boys at the open day, from 9am.

See kings.school.nz

25-28 Whether you love to cook or simply just love to eat, the Auckland Food Show is where it’s at this weekend. Over 300 exhibitors, lots of show-only deals, and of course food, glorious food! ASB Showgrounds, 217 Greenlane West, 10am-5pm, foodshow.co.nz

25 A huge array of vintage clothes, furs, handbags, accessories, shoes and more at the Auckland Vintage Textile Fair, Alexandra Park Raceway, Greenlane West, 10am-4pm, tickets at door 26 For the ultimate in relaxation, try Yoga Under the Sea, held at Kelly Tarlton’s. All proceeds to Eat Less Plastic and the SEA LIFE Trust. Bring your own yoga mat, bookings essential. 5.307pm, tickets at eventfinda.co.nz

26-28 The Tūrama Festival — a playground for the curious, an immersive art experience; where stories are told through artworks, performance, sculpture, imaginative

2,500 curtains needed for homes this winter!

The Parnell Rotary Club is helping Habitat for Humanity to put curtains into homes that have no curtains and need the extra warmth.

What we need Curtains

Curtain Fabric

Time

The curtains need to be in reasonably good condition.

To be made into curtains at the curtain bank.

If you are a keen sewer, volunteer your time to help Habitat for Humanity repurpose the curtains.

How you can help Contact Avis Nelson avisnelson@xtra.co.nz or 021 289 7893

the kiosk

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Thinking of moving to a retirement village, or just downsizing?

Moving On can assist with all things moving, from decluttering, to sorting, organising and unpacking.

Call Katie Fitzpatrick

0800 000 484

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Come and join the team — get fit, stay fit for life.

Adult (masters) morning swim squads, for ages 21-91 in mixed and women’s squads at the Olympic pool.

Whether you’re training for an event, want to get fit or stay fit, Rick and the team welcome you.

Come for the swimming, stay for the camaraderie! www.rickwells.co.nz @RickWellsSport

Affiliated training partner

the cryptic by mĀyĀ

Set by Māyā. Answers will appear in our next issue (September 2019). Can’t wait, or need help? Visit https://thehobsoncrossword.wordpress.com ACROSS 7 Band popular with young and old? (3,5) 8 Directions given to Alfred, an actor, to make dessert (8) 11 Might research facility almost make Number 4? (6) 12 Fragrance of timelessness, in retrospect (5) 13 Concerned with military takeover? Get paid back (6) 14 Appeals when Kanoa’s heartless (4) 15 Two Dames with the highest marginal populist victories? (4,5) 17 Furs floating on the waves? (4) 18 Paternal Stone gathers no . . .(6) 20 . . . porridge, which is heartless after the first (that is, after George the First) (5) 22 ‘old grudge against a bower?

(6) 24 He’d hire needles (but no drugs) to make traditional Austrian garments (7)

25 Push out alumnus Stein, barger! (7) 29 Beastly drink, perhaps? (6) 30/26 Herbert G. Gaunt failing kid who wants to be cooler (5,8) 31 How unpleasant is this suburb? (6) 32 Upper class fool in charge of military matters in ‘Dr Who’ (4) 34 Bill Short or May outside Number 10 (9) 37 Tell stories like a pirate? (4) 38 Take away from Ted Round cow chews it over (6) 40 Final part of ‘The Prisoner’ follows Village heads having a crack at Number 6 (5) 41 Not safe to swallow this introduction? (4-2) 42 Our Man in Grenada is greedy (8) 43 New York district with a flower spanner for sale to the credulous (8)

DOWN 1 Demands kinky sex act (6) 2 Roper’s row? (4) 3 Peters falls for actress (6) 4 A skirt with altered DNA for Number 3 (6) 5 Where the 7 down for ringers is? (4) 6 Spice Girls finally released Number 12 (6) 7 Sailors sing about boxes for 11, 34 or 40 across, or 4, 6, 9, 10, 19, 21, 28, 33 or 41 down (4,4) 9 Number 11 - the age of which should hold water (8) 10 “Number 9 Dream” - essential, uncut, needing no introduction, remastered (7) 15 Article with heads of religious institute claiming to be both human and divine (9) 16 Huntin’ around, uses head to get echinoderm (3,6) 19 Number 1 tenses of be mingle (5)

20 20 across gang regularly in prison (5) 21 Number 7 building closed in Wellington after lines removed (5) 23 Form drops? Have sex with partners! (5) 26 See 30 Across 27 Lair watchers, they say, prefer to avoid unpleasant truth (7) 28 Number 1 by Prince “Fabulous birds ascend to Number 8” (8) 33 Almost put faith in gold, or vice versa, for Number 2 (6) 35 Using e-cigarette? Put half back on the footpath (6) 36 Smells like egg’s sour inside (6) 37 How often 7 downs recur - a day early, to some extent (6) 39 Drive in a US city, nearly (4) 41 Number 5 is a condensed type of battery (4)

JUNE CRYPTIC CROSSWORD ANSWERS ACROSS: 1 Steam up, 5 Alcyone, 9 Cluster, 10 Lettuce, 11 Unpersons, 12 Waita, 13 Blacksmith, 16 Lone, 19 Triphammer, 22 Spica, 23 Black hole, 25 Eagerly, 26 Ukulele, 27 Simpson, 28 Unseats DOWN: 1 Succumb, 2 Equip, 3 Matariki, 4 Performer, 5 Atlas, 6 Cat-owl, 7 Oculiform, 8 Elevate, 14 Acacia gum, 15 Tupu-a-nuku, 17 Walkouts, 18 Sisters, 20 Reelers, 21 Taurus, 23 Bryan, 24/18A Opera star

Supplying luxury outdoor furniture to architects, designers, landscapers, hotels, resorts, and private residences in New Zealand for over 25 years.

Everything has been carefully curated from Italy, Belgium, France, Indonesia, and the Philippines.

Reclaimed Teak Trestle Table & Olivia Wicker Dining Chairs

Brentwood Relaxing

Concrete Pots & Planters

African Teak Coffee Tables

Westside Sofa

Havana A-Grade Teak Club Chairs & Sofa

Studio Cyprus Relaxing

Alix & Concrete Dining

Concrete Fire Pit

All products are in stock, fully assembled, and available for nationwide delivery.

SunbrellaÂŽ cushions with QuickDryÂŽ Foam are free with deep seating purchases as shown on our website.

137 - 147 The Strand, Parnell, Auckland / Open Daily from 9:30 until 4:30 / 09 377 7710 / 0800 111 112 sales@designwarehouse.co.nz / commercial@designwarehouse.co.nz / www.designwarehouse.co.nz

502/6 Heather Street, Parnell 2

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Perfectly located right in Parnell village, this quality apartment epitomises easy living. Your designer kitchen featuring oak and marble bench-tops and open plan living area lead onto a generous north facing outdoor terrace for stunning sunset entertaining.

Set Sale Date closes 4:00pm, 26th June 2019 (unless sold prior).

VIEW: nzsothebysrealty.com/NZE11063

G9/30 York Street, Parnell 2

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Be impressed by this outstanding remodelled two bedroom apartment on a prime cliff top terrace overlooking the harbour entrance and Ports of Auckland.

The double height living space with wide board oak flooring opens onto a large flat lawn area and delivers easy indoor/outdoor living to your own private playground.

TENDER: Closes 4pm, 26th June 2019 295 Parnell Road, Parnell, Auckland (unless sold prior by private treaty).

VIEW: nzsothebysrealty.com/NZE11061

National Top Performing Licensee 2013 - 2019 Specialising in high end homes and apartments in the Hobson area Ross Hawkins M +64 274 720 577 | ross.hawkins@nzsir.com Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Browns Real Estate Limited (licensed under the REAA 2008) MREINZ.