From oldies to newbies

The Bay of Islands Sailing Week, which began on Wednesday, January 25 and runs through until Friday, January 27, attracts one of the largest entries of any regatta in New Zealand
and is the biggest multi-day keelboat regatta in the country.

Over 100 boats are entered. Crews range from the old stalwarts who have competed in every event in the regatta’s 20-year history to the rookies, who will line up against the more experienced hands.

It’s tough to break into the competition, especially for women and the young, who tend to be under-represented on crews. According to Helen Horrocks, media liaison for the regatta, this situation is particularly prevalent in Northland, where the pool of racing yachts with spaces for new crew members is much smaller than in Auckland.

But for this year’s event, there’s a team of relatively new sailors who all got the chance to fast-track their learning thanks to the Whangarei Cruising Club.

“The team on Rum Jungle, which is a modified Elliott 6.5 metre trailer-sailer, is an all-female crew of four, most of whom have just a couple of years’ keelboat sailing under their belts,” she said.

Scott Gavin, an executive member at the Whangarei Cruising Club, said the idea of getting more women involved in racing came about following a surge of interest from women in the trailer yacht sailing series at the club, and at a time when they were running out of available crew positions among the existing race fleet.

Propagating a link to our oldest places

When Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Hokianga property lead Alex Bell took 30 heritage peach trees to the recent Bay of Islands A&P Show, he wasn’t sure how things would go.

As it happened, visitors to the show purchased all 30 of the plants, propagated from the historic orchard at Kerikeri’s Edmonds Ruins, within a few hours of the gates opening.

The 30 saplings are the first fruits of a Covid project that saw Alex – a keen gardner but not a trained horticulturist – source a variety of seeds and cuttings from different HNZPT properties in Northland.

“Over the last two years, we have been building up a little nursery at Te Waimate Mission to help grow that interest.

“It lets us propagate cuttings and seeds for our own sites to keep the gardens stocked with plants, and there’s a room for propagating interesting things we find along the way,” he said, adding that heritage gardens can be a little strange.

“In some ways, they’re a weird part of our site. The houses are frozen in time, but the gardens keep on growing. The big trees that grace Te Waimate today, for example, didn’t exist in the same way if you were to pick a time like the 1830s,” says Alex.

“There was a period in the 1840s where the missionaries thought the site at Te Waimate was too barren, and so they started a small native tree nursery to help repopulate the property.”

Although the site at Te Waimate is anything but barren today, Alex has revived that tradition of having a small nursery on-site to provide trees with heritage roots to the area and, in the process, some botanic continuity.

Return of the swallows

Anthony Olsen has been playing the organ at Christ Church in Russell for the past five weeks.

Nothing particularly singular about that, except he and his wife, Gaye, represent the advance guard of “swallows” returning to these shores. They are so called because they, and others like them, come each year to the Bay of Islands to rest up over our summer, which is in their northern winter.

Covid and lockdown, however, has put paid to their annual return. There are an estimated 300 swallows who boost Russell’s population of 762 (according to the 2018 Census), but they haven’t been able to return for nearly three years.

“Your Government wouldn’t allow us in,” says Anthony. He has owned a house in Russell since 2005 and couldn’t use it for those three years, but Jersey, on the Channel Islands where he lives, had its own lockdown period as well. From March 2020, restrictions were in place until the end of May 2020, when most were lifted. But New Zealand’s borders remained closed.

All that is behind the swallows now, and they can travel. The Olsens arrived on December 18, 2022. They are here until January 31, 2023, mostly staying in Russell but also doing some touring around the North Island.

Back in Jersey, Anthony is a Lieutenant Bailiff for the Royal Court of Jersey – essentially a judge. He was awarded the MBE for services to the judiciary from Queen Elizabeth II last year.

In his spare time, he goes motor racing. He has a McLaren 600 LT for the “straight” circuits and a Toyota GR Yaris for the “twistier” circuits on Jersey.

The organ playing is another interest, and he is something of a J.S. Bach specialist. He played Bach at the end of each church service, to a round of appreciative applause.

Art for a cause

Kerikeri artist Valerie Hunton has left her personal art collection for the benefit of the Cancer Society of Auckland and Northland. The exhibition and sale of a selection of the works opens at the Turner Centre on Friday, January 27 and will remain open weekdays until February 16.

Hunton was born in Auckland. She trained as an artist at the Elam School of Fine Arts, and travelled the Pacific with her physician husband Rex before returning to live in Kerikeri.

“On returning to New Zealand, it was like I had made the journey almost as the Māori did, from the far north of the Pacific to the south,” she said.

“The Pacific experience made me feel and appreciate New Zealand as my birthplace, as my place.”

She is unapologetic in her use of colour and her work is energetic. The exhibition consists of Women’s Strip Paintings, The Dance of Life – a variety of images and forms, Wai-o-Tapu weavings, Banners of Colour, etchings on tapa cloth, pandanus, ribbon, metal work and acrylic, Earth Sea and Sky, Tulip Painting and Globes, The Light Series, a collection of small bright canvases, and Seasons, depicting her husband’s love of gardening.

Both Valerie and her husband were diagnosed, and successfully treated, with two different types of cancer over the years. It was the experience of staying at the Domain Lodge that prompted her to donate the proceeds of her artwork.

Her daughter, Ingrid, said they both spent many weeks away from home and loved the experience.

“They felt they were in five-star accommodation with a generous suite and upmarket facilities. They loved having the option of private space or communal gatherings in the kitchen and dining areas where they were pumped up with the sharing of stories and pantry resources. It was not a medical necessity, but a holiday,” she said.

The Exuberance Exhibition catalogue is available online, and purchases can be made by calling the Turner Centre Box Office on +64 9 407 0260 or emailing marketing@turnercentre.co.nz.

Paihia families digging the beach

Rotary Bay of Islands organised the Paihia Beach Dig. It was well-attended, with families enjoying the beach games and the children hunting for lolly sticks hidden in the sand in order to win a prize. The funds raised were put back into community projects. A sandcastle competition will be held on Saturday, January 28.