A fundraiser for Ukraine:

The owners of Riverside Homestead Waitangi, Chris Whareringa Swannell and Michael Hooper, are staging a concert for Ukraine at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell.

Proceeds from the fundraiser will
benefit the Kiwi organisation ReliefAid and the Save The Children fund.

Members of the Jade String Quartet will be performing. James Yoo (cello), a teacher of cello and chamber music at the University of Auckland, Liu-Yi Retallick (violin), currently Associate Concertmaster with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Robert Ashworth (viola), Principal Viola for Auckland Philharmonia, and Miranda Adams (violin), Assistant Concertmaster of Auckland Philharmonia, all get together as a quartet for special recitals.

There is a serendipitous connection between Chris, Michael and the quartet. The Homestead owners have been sponsors of the Auckland Philharmonia for 27 years.

The Ukraine Ambassador to New Zealand is addressing the gathering by video. Likewise the founder of ReliefAid from within Ukraine. There are silent auction items from The Duke, Explore Group, Riverside Homestead Waitangi, and paintings of Ukrainian women.

The programme features music from Ukrainian composer Sergei Prokofiev. Those in attendance will recognise the Romeo and Juliet theme, and there are also selected pieces from New Zealand composers.

For tickets contact Chris and Michael (09 402 5432).

The professor and author as orator:

Alison Jones is a professor at Te Puna Wānanga, School of Māori Indigenous Education at the University of Auckland.

As part of the Matariki celebrations she was invited by the Kororāreka Marae Committee to speak about her book, Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds. She co-authored it with long-time friend and collaborator, Professor Kuni Kaa Jenkins.

It traces the first encounters Māori had with paper and writing, and won the Ockham Award for illustrated non-fiction in 2018.

Fittingly, her talk was in the Pompallier Mission House printery, built in 1842, where Church texts were first translated from Latin to te reo Māori then printed and bound.

She brought with her framed reproductions of original documents, most of which date between 1814 and 1826. They are examples of very early Māori engagement with Pākeha.

Her book elucidates the first quarter of the 19th century, which was a time of intense rivalry for Māori in the Bay of Islands. Rangatira (chiefs) and their companions travelled abroad to Australia, and even as far as England, to study European society and to form political alliances with European leaders.

She spoke of the first relationships between Māori and Europeans in the earliest schools in New Zealand, such as the one at Rangihoua Pā and at Oihi Mission Station at the southern end of the Purerua Peninsula, on the north-west shore of the Bay of Islands.

The exhibition was made possible with support from the Marsden Fund and Ngā Pae o to Māramatanga and the University of Auckland.

Lorelle McNaughton performs for Aroha Music Society:

Lorelle McNaughton is a specialist in Spanish piano music who has performed extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia and Europe. She recently appeared performing as a special guest at the Oceania Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, playing Michael Parekowhai’s carved grand piano.

She also recently put on a recital at the Turner Centre as part of the Aroha Music Society’s concert series. Bruce Carlsson, on behalf of the Aroha Music Society, said of the occasion that Spain presents its own sense of passions and emotions.

“They are depicted through their own innate styles of ornamentation, rhythms and idioms that give Spanish music its undeniable flair and style, and Lorelle’s performance offered a well-chosen and grouped variety of works to showcase the best of Spanish piano.”

She presented a chronological programme which began with a selection from Baroque
composer Padre Antonio Soler and finished with a piece by Enrique Granados, 12 Spanish Dances.

The second half was Isaac Albeniz’ grand masterpiece Iberia, which Lorelle presented in two parts with an interval in-between.

It has been said of the composer, a virtuoso pianist himself, that he almost destroyed his manuscript because he despaired of ever finding anyone able to actually perform it – such is the complexity of the piece.

Bruce Carlsson said the wide leaps, stretched chords, crossing hands and interlocked fingers sometimes playing complex cross-rhythms between the piano keys offer clues as to why.

“It was spellbinding to watch and hear someone who was up to the task of delivering this magnificent yet seldom-performed work,” he said.

The Lorelle McNaughton recital was a result of collaboration between Chamber Music NZ and the Kerikeri International Piano Competition Trust.

Paihia Ōpua walkway upgrade:

In February, the Far North District Council had hoped to begin work to replace a busy section of coastal walking track between Ōpua and Paihia that was closed just before Christmas.

Access to a wooden boardwalk and bridge, located south of Te Haumi Beach near the entrance to the Paihia Top 10 Holiday Park off State Highway 10, was blocked by the Council after an engineer’s report confirmed piles supporting the structure had been seriously weakened by rot and marine worms. The report warned that the bridge could collapse under further weight.

That section of track takes walkers across a tidal inlet and through a grove of mangroves. While it is relatively short, there are no safe alternative routes that bypass the boardwalk, effectively cutting pedestrian access between Ōpua and Te Haumi.

Although the work has been delayed, now a walkway specialist firm, Frame Group Limited, has been engaged to provide designs and approvals for the new structure. It is anticipated that a contract for the construction will be awarded early in July and work will commence on 1st August. Construction is expected to take six weeks.

After work on the new boardwalk and bridge is completed, improvements to other parts of the Ōpua-Paihia track will commence.

These are expected to continue through 2022 and 2023, and will include track realignments, new handrails, boardwalks and steps.

Improvements will be programmed to minimise disruption to events, such as next year’s Kiwi Walk & Run.