The very popular Birdman Festival in Russell is set to fly again after a three-year hiatus because of Covid-19 restrictions and a degree of volunteer fatigue.

Organiser Pania Sigley said this year’s event will be
comparatively low-key and is aimed at bringing the community together. She was one of the original organisers of the festival when it started in 2007.

“After a couple of beers between a couple of locals and the idea was to have some fun in winter to generate some business during the quietest time of the year. It blossomed and went from convincing a few local characters to jump off the wharf to a week-long festival.”

Birdman developed over 11 years into a fond tradition. It became a highlight of the Northland winter calendar with at least 20 entrants jumping off the wharf and up to 5000 spectators lining the beachfront as witnesses.

Many spectators attended the peripheral events that accompanied the festival. Those side events will continue this year – the Under 10s Beach Dig, the Spaghetti Eating Competition and “maybe” a Friday night drag race will be included.

A new event will be the World’s Slowest Bike Race open to all ages from 7-year-olds to 97-year-olds. Placing a foot on the ground means elimination. Five heats of five cyclists will determine the finals to find the inaugural winner.

Pania Sigley said they are hopeful of at least 10 entries for the jump from the wharf.

“It’s being held on the 8th of July so we should be able to welcome a few families into town because it’s the second week of the school holidays,” she said.

For expressions of interest for the cycle race contact: lake2c@xtra.co.nz To jump from the wharf: russellbirdman.co.nz/about/

Auctioneers in the making

Kerikeri High School Year 13 student and head boy Joe Howells is rapidly making a name for himself as a would-be auctioneer and in other local and regional speech and debating competitions.

He won the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) sponsored Bay of Islands auctioneering competition last year and was pipped at the post at the nationals, narrowly beaten by a student from Diocesan School for Girls.

Howells has qualified for this year’s auction event. Head girl Ella Parker also qualified for the competition as has the head boy of Springbank School, Jalenka Clarke.

Last year Howells entered the Race Unity speech competition held in Whangārei and was first equal with Takaimaania Ngati-Henare, a Year 12 student from Huanui College in Whangārei.

He was also part of the team along with Nicolas Powell from Kerikeri High School and Giverny Miedema from Huanui College that won the Northland Debating Team competition.

Students from Kerikeri High School have won nine out of the past 10 years of the Bay of Islands auctioneering competition. This year there were 26 students from Years 11, 12 and 13 who underwent training for the event.

Ross Paterson from Barfoots Kerikeri said they whittled the field down to 10 auctioneers.

“The winner and the placed students will then head to the national competition which will be held in June in Auckland,” he said.

Little Free Library honours librarian

Kāeo Library is a unique rural library located in the listed historic Post Office building in the heart of the town. It doubles as the Council Service.

The library is spread through a number of rooms and has a range of fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and DVDs. Customers can also access free Wi-Fi and public internet.

The old postmaster office can be used as a meeting room and photocopying and scanning services are also available.

Library staff recently installed a custom-made “little free library” and accompanying bench seat which was unveiled last week in honour of Sabine Weber-Beard who passed away of motor neurone disease in July last year.

Weber-Beard was a passionate advocate for library services both locally and internationally. She devoted 20 years of service to Far North libraries and continued her advocacy work until shortly before her passing.

The little free library box, next to Weber-Beard’s memorial seat which is next to the Kāeo Library, operates on a goodwill system of free book lending. Once readers have finished their book, they can swap it for another one. There are no time limits or tracking systems for the books.

A spokesperson for the library said it is a tribute to someone whose love for reading, for the Kāeo community and for making books easily available was well known.

The library will be monitored and stocked with ‘reading gems’ by Weber-Beard’s library colleagues.

The little free library box and memorial bench were built by volunteers from the Kerikeri Men’s Shed and are free for all to enjoy, as Weber-Beard would have wanted.

Kerikeri RSE workers involved in education programme

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade New Zealand (MFAT) through its aid programme runs a free education and development programme for Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers in New Zealand.

The programme is called Vakameasina which means “treasures we carry together”. It started in 2011 and the idea was to teach basic skills and English but it has grown to teaching life skills amongst other elements.

It supports both RSE workers and employers with foundation courses for living and working in New Zealand. The larger outcomes of the programme are aimed towards participants leading development opportunities in their home countries.

In Northland, a group of women from Vanuatu graduated from the programme recently and at the ceremony’s conclusion the team’s in-house band performed.

The women were employed by Kainui Cool and Pack, a family-owned horticultural business that picks and packs kiwifruit and citrus for a number of orchards in Kerikeri. Owners are Alan and Helen Thompson.

Their tutor was Angela Norman from Fruition Horticulture that provides consultancy, education, technical services and research for the horticulture industry throughout New Zealand.

The accommodation providers for the women from Vanuatu were Dave and Victoria Howells from Hone Heke Backpackers Limited in Kerikeri.

The Northland Regional Co-ordinator for the RSE Worker Training Programme, Melanie Chandler-Winters, said she is delighted Vakameasina is back in Northland which will support individuals to pursue their own learning so they can develop goals to be applied in their homeland.