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News
WEDNESDAY 25 February 2015
NEWS in brief
SCHOOL FIESTA: Mahana School is holding its Twilight Food and Music Fiesta at the school grounds on Saturday March 7 from 3pm to 7pm. The fiesta will feature homemade food, drinks and live music from Taylor Pumphrey, Georgia Chapple, Mitchell Neal, Kieran O’Connor from Oh Blok and Medicine Woman. There will also be a silent auction, raffles and entertainment for the children. Entry is a gold coin. The school will be signposted from Dominion Rd. CHILDREN’S DAY: The Tasman District Council is helping to celebrate Children’s Day this Sunday when it will hold its Choice Children’s Day at Conifer Park at Rabbit Island from 2pm to 4pm. There will be free activities for the whole family including bouncy castles, balloon twisting, face painting, pony cart rides, a cookie decoration workshop, colouring-in competition and treasure hunt. The Get Moving Family Fun Ride team will be setting up bike courses and there will be a bike mechanic available to give bikes a quick check over for roadworthiness. insurance sPecialist
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Phone 545 8928 Mobile 027 447 7275 email peter.ogilvie@plus4.co.nz www.plus4.co.nz
Peter Ogilvie
Funding idea for cycle trail The Nelson-Tasman Cycle Trails Trust will this Thursday ask the Tasman District Council to accept a funding proposal that will allow work to start on the construction of Tasman’s Great Taste Trail between Wakefield and Spooner’s Tunnel. The trust has indicated it can
provide a combination of cash and inkind payments to council that would meet council’s requirements of matching funds for the $300,000 it has allocated for the trail in this year’s budget. Council will only spend the $300,000 if it receives matching funds from either
central government or another third party. The value of this matching fund is yet to be confirmed by the trust although it wants council to agree to the proposal in principle so it can proceed with finalising the funds and in-kind payments.
Orcas back in our district
Golden Bay Kayak’s Tony Bateup and Lisa Savage had a whale of time when they went out for a paddle off Pohara Beach last Wednesday, enjoying a close encounter with a pod of around “20 or 30” Orca. Tony says Lisa sighted the Orca at Taupo Point and they swam alongside their surf skis as they headed towards Tata Beach. Although Tony says he has paddled with Orca before, he has never seen so many or got so close as the Orca cruised alongside, swimming in the surf ski’s bow wake. “It was hard to tell exact numbers because they were coming up all over the place but there had to be at least 20 or 30,” Tony says. “They came around and stayed for ages too - they’d disappear and you’d think
Golden Bay Kayak’s Tony Bateup has a close encounter with Orca offshore from Pohara. Photo: Tom Cooper. they had gone, and then they would come up again. “One of them swam right alongside the surf ski and rolled on its side and eyeballed me. There were two really big guys - I reckon one of them had a dorsal that was five feet high.” Department of Conservation ranger, Mike Ogle, says seeing a pod of orca this large is quite significant, as generally pods in the area
contain around six whales. He says the orca feed off the stingrays and an increase in stingrays is likely the cause for the high number of orca sightings this time of year. “They seem to come through, hang around for a while and move on.” He encourages people to enjoy the mammals and be amazed, but advises that there are some regulations around marine mammals.
This is mainly due to boat noise irritating the animals. Vessels are not permitted within 50m of a marine mammal, and if there are more than three vessels you must stay 300m away. Swimming is not permitted within 100m. “Obviously it can’t be helped if they just pop up right beside a boat, but people should not follow or harass the animals.” Mark says there are only 150200 whales in New Zealand so Tony and Lisa could have seen a good ten per cent of them. The photos of Tony and Lisa and the Orca were taken from Pohara Beachfront Motel by Tom Cooper, while a rather shaky video filmed by Tom on his cell phone can be viewed on www. waimeaweekly.co.nz
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family entertainment
Owen River Party
Friday 6 and Saturday 7 March Owen River Domain Games and competitions Raffles
(proceeds to Child Cancer Research)
LIVE MUSIC from A.M.O.S. on Saturday Night!
$20 entry Food available on site from Shellz Kitchen Free tent sites BEWARE - Wasp Country, please take precautions