New Zealanders will soon be able to enjoy more summer days.
The Government has decided to extend daylight saving another three weeks, to a 27-week period.
Clocks will go forward an hour a week earlier than usual -- on the last Sunday in September -- and will go back an hour on the first Sunday of April, instead of the third Sunday in March.
The Department of Internal Affairs would work with computer companies and industries updating operating systems to incorporate the time changes before the start of daylight saving.
"For New Zealand this year, summer will start one week early, will finish weeks later and I think it's up to the weatherman to determine how good it is," Mr Barker said.
Daylight saving will start at 2am on September 30 and end at 3am on April 6, 2008.
NZ Herald 300407
Monday, 30 April 2007
Sunday, 29 April 2007
Ohakune - Carrot Country
Ohakune is the town at the southern gateway to the Tongariro National Park World Heritage Site. It is known as the aprés ski capital of the North Island, the Carrot Capital of New Zealand, a forestry centre, a farming centre, and home to around 1400 people. It is a pleasant country town in summer - attractive as a base for numerous outdoor activities - and a lively snow sports centre in winter.
It has been settled since around the 1600's, first by the Ngati Rangi (Sky People) and Ngati Uenuku (Rainbow People) sub-tribes. Later, railway surveyors arrived looking for a way through the Central North Island. Once the area was opened up, sawmillers arrived, Chinese market gardeners and then farmers.
It has been settled since around the 1600's, first by the Ngati Rangi (Sky People) and Ngati Uenuku (Rainbow People) sub-tribes. Later, railway surveyors arrived looking for a way through the Central North Island. Once the area was opened up, sawmillers arrived, Chinese market gardeners and then farmers.
In the 1950's and 60's, the can-do spirit of the Ohakune people came to the fore as they built the Ohakune Mountain Road, providing access to the southern slopes of Mt Ruapehu. This spirit continued later with the efforts to attract a commercial operator of the ski fields of Turoa.
Through its history, Ohakune has attracted all kinds of people willing to work hard to create a 'new world' and this has led to a vibrant, diverse people in a town that provides the opportunity for a wide variety of experiences for visitors too.
Through its history, Ohakune has attracted all kinds of people willing to work hard to create a 'new world' and this has led to a vibrant, diverse people in a town that provides the opportunity for a wide variety of experiences for visitors too.
Saturday, 28 April 2007
Some Quotes About New Zealand
When George Bernard Shaw visited New Zealand a reporter asked him his impression of the place and, after a pause, Shaw is said to have replied: "Altogether too many sheep" ....... George Bernard Shaw 1934
The United States invented the space shuttle, the atomic bomb and Disneyland. We have 35 times more land than New Zealand, 80 times the population, 144 times the gross national product and 220 times as many people in jail. Many of our big cities have more kilometres of freeway than all of New Zealand, our 10 biggest metropolises each have more people than all of New Zealand, and metropolitan Detroit has more cars on the road than all of New Zealand. So how come a superpower of 270 million got routed in the America's Cup, the world's most technically oriented yacht race, by a country of 3.5 million that outproduces us only in sheep manure?" ....... Eric Sharp 1995
The United States invented the space shuttle, the atomic bomb and Disneyland. We have 35 times more land than New Zealand, 80 times the population, 144 times the gross national product and 220 times as many people in jail. Many of our big cities have more kilometres of freeway than all of New Zealand, our 10 biggest metropolises each have more people than all of New Zealand, and metropolitan Detroit has more cars on the road than all of New Zealand. So how come a superpower of 270 million got routed in the America's Cup, the world's most technically oriented yacht race, by a country of 3.5 million that outproduces us only in sheep manure?" ....... Eric Sharp 1995
Badges On Show
Its been a while since I was a Brownie - but how I remember working for the badges. Great stuff young lady.
World undies record?
28 April 2007 A new world record for putting on underpants may have been set in Auckland today. University student Alastair Galpin had been aiming to crack the current record of 19 pairs in one minute. He is now awaiting confirmation that he managed to put on 20 pairs of underpants in 59 seconds during his record attempt in Point Chevalier.That official recognition could take a few weeks to come through. Alastair says he is now very tired and is looking forward to resting - as well as not seeing another pair of undies for a while.
Bigger population the real key to lure of Australia
5 :00AM Saturday April 28, 2007 By John Roughan
My son is moving to Australia today. He might make his life there. Whenever that thought has choked me this week I've tried to estimate how many New Zealanders have known the wrench.
It is one that confuses the emotions. We are pleased for the venturous of course, proud that they have the courage to go alone to a bigger place and grateful that this country has been a launch pad for a highly portable career. But it is no easier to see them go.
When it comes to their departure, you realise it is no reflection on New Zealand. For years, people whose economic views I generally share have been citing the flight of our children as a reason to resume economic reform. They have not made much headway with the argument, and no wonder.
Young people may say they are going for higher incomes or opportunities unavailable here but they go cheerfully. Not all have the sentimental ties to New Zealand that made me certain I would return. My son is the sort of guy who goes places without looking back.
It is natural for those of us left behind to compare the places that lure them with the one we hope they will continue to call home. It is Melbourne that has hooked one of mine.
That city does have some qualities Auckland lacks. Many more people obviously. Better sports stadiums. More big events. A pleasant central city grid where motorways and heavy rail stop at the edges and trams rattle along the streets within.
I keep arguing against these things for Auckland, not because I dislike the idea of light rail running up Queen St, past the universities and the hospital to Newmarket, but because I don't believe Auckland's population would make it economic.
More people is the key. Sydney and Melbourne look and feel like other cities in the world, Auckland is a country town.
How odd to hear the Mayor of Auckland lament immigration this week. He was commenting on two new studies of our crazy housing market and wanted the Government to do something about that fact that too many people want to live here. Save us.
With the average house price now about six times the average wage, I was beginning to worry about the mortgage my son would have to carry if he wanted to get his first home. He will find that easier in Australia.
Australia welcomes immigrants and probably would not blame them for a housing market distorted by taxation. But then it taxes capital gains more evenly so productive investments can compete for household savings.
Nobody wants to talk about our glaring deficiency, not even the authors of the latest studies of the Auckland house market. They noted that the affordability crisis was a result of rocketing land values which they blamed on a number of things, not least the efforts of Auckland councils to resist urban sprawl.
They found a shortage of land zoned for new housing on the city edge and reported two theories for that. Developers blame the councils' attempts to strangle urban expansion, councils say land has been approved for subdivision but is being kept undeveloped by speculative trading.
Whatever the reason, Auckland's "regional growth strategy" has been more successful at resisting sprawl than in its efforts to accommodate the rising population with higher density development within.
Civic planners are constantly fighting the clear preference of New Zealanders for their own plot of land and personal transport. Planners like compact cities built around public transport, something like Melbourne.
But Melbourne also sprawls and has motorways, and some of them are tolled. Australians prefer cars as much as we do but their cities have the population to support urban railways, Auckland does not.
I would love to have at least twice as many people here. We could double New Zealand's population growth rate and still keep plenty of pristine places for ourselves and the tourist industry. But most New Zealanders seem not to believe it. An empty environment is more precious to most than the business opportunities and urban pleasures that a bigger population would bring.
That is our principle difference from Australia. It is good to have its cities nearby, comforting to have the security of the Anzac heritage and helpful to have our economies integrated to such a degree that John Key contemplates a joint currency.
But heaven forbid. Adoption of their dollar would leave us so susceptible to Australian economic management it would make more sense to join the federation and have a vote.
I doubt it will ever come to that, but blood is thicker than the water between us. Tonight I will be able to attest to that.
My son is moving to Australia today. He might make his life there. Whenever that thought has choked me this week I've tried to estimate how many New Zealanders have known the wrench.
It is one that confuses the emotions. We are pleased for the venturous of course, proud that they have the courage to go alone to a bigger place and grateful that this country has been a launch pad for a highly portable career. But it is no easier to see them go.
When it comes to their departure, you realise it is no reflection on New Zealand. For years, people whose economic views I generally share have been citing the flight of our children as a reason to resume economic reform. They have not made much headway with the argument, and no wonder.
Young people may say they are going for higher incomes or opportunities unavailable here but they go cheerfully. Not all have the sentimental ties to New Zealand that made me certain I would return. My son is the sort of guy who goes places without looking back.
It is natural for those of us left behind to compare the places that lure them with the one we hope they will continue to call home. It is Melbourne that has hooked one of mine.
That city does have some qualities Auckland lacks. Many more people obviously. Better sports stadiums. More big events. A pleasant central city grid where motorways and heavy rail stop at the edges and trams rattle along the streets within.
I keep arguing against these things for Auckland, not because I dislike the idea of light rail running up Queen St, past the universities and the hospital to Newmarket, but because I don't believe Auckland's population would make it economic.
More people is the key. Sydney and Melbourne look and feel like other cities in the world, Auckland is a country town.
How odd to hear the Mayor of Auckland lament immigration this week. He was commenting on two new studies of our crazy housing market and wanted the Government to do something about that fact that too many people want to live here. Save us.
With the average house price now about six times the average wage, I was beginning to worry about the mortgage my son would have to carry if he wanted to get his first home. He will find that easier in Australia.
Australia welcomes immigrants and probably would not blame them for a housing market distorted by taxation. But then it taxes capital gains more evenly so productive investments can compete for household savings.
Nobody wants to talk about our glaring deficiency, not even the authors of the latest studies of the Auckland house market. They noted that the affordability crisis was a result of rocketing land values which they blamed on a number of things, not least the efforts of Auckland councils to resist urban sprawl.
They found a shortage of land zoned for new housing on the city edge and reported two theories for that. Developers blame the councils' attempts to strangle urban expansion, councils say land has been approved for subdivision but is being kept undeveloped by speculative trading.
Whatever the reason, Auckland's "regional growth strategy" has been more successful at resisting sprawl than in its efforts to accommodate the rising population with higher density development within.
Civic planners are constantly fighting the clear preference of New Zealanders for their own plot of land and personal transport. Planners like compact cities built around public transport, something like Melbourne.
But Melbourne also sprawls and has motorways, and some of them are tolled. Australians prefer cars as much as we do but their cities have the population to support urban railways, Auckland does not.
I would love to have at least twice as many people here. We could double New Zealand's population growth rate and still keep plenty of pristine places for ourselves and the tourist industry. But most New Zealanders seem not to believe it. An empty environment is more precious to most than the business opportunities and urban pleasures that a bigger population would bring.
That is our principle difference from Australia. It is good to have its cities nearby, comforting to have the security of the Anzac heritage and helpful to have our economies integrated to such a degree that John Key contemplates a joint currency.
But heaven forbid. Adoption of their dollar would leave us so susceptible to Australian economic management it would make more sense to join the federation and have a vote.
I doubt it will ever come to that, but blood is thicker than the water between us. Tonight I will be able to attest to that.
Friday, 27 April 2007
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
Thousands remember on 92nd Anzac day
It is 92 years since New Zealand troops landed at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli but judging by the thousands who took to the streets today Anzac Day will not be forgotten any time soon.
In Auckland, as an estimated 15-20,000 gathered at the Cenotaph in Auckland Domain, there was a poignant reminder of a war veteran who passed away at last year's dawn service.
"She'll be right mate," were the emotive words spoken a year ago today after Sydney John McGuire who died as he paid homage at last year's dawn service at Auckland's Domain.
This year, the words again echoed around the Domain as Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard reminded a record turnout of about 20,000 people the words summarised exactly what the Anzac spirit "stands for and means to all of us".
He said in 1915 at Gallipoli Kiwi troops on the far side of the world faced a bloody, bitter and hopeless fight.
Young men left their families and the only country they had known to fight a war on the other side of the world.
" Our young men, as records show, showed exceptional discipline and courage in forbidding terrain and in the most primitive of conditions – conditions unimaginable today."
Mr Hubbard said for a small country with a population of only one million the casualties were catastrophic.
A few minutes earlier just after 6am the crowd stood in silence and darkness for a full minute.
For the first time in several years the 2007 service was not marred by rain and cold conditions as war veterans marched on to the Court of Honour in front of the museum.
In one of the minor glitches of the service the flypast by an Air Force Seasprite helicopter attached to the navy began a few moments early, drowning out part of the Ross Falconer's benediction as it roared low overhead.
In Wellington, thousands packed the area in front of the Cenotaph as about 150 veterans and their families led the dawn parade the short distance along Lambton Quay.
Former Secretary of Defence Graham Fortune said New Zealanders and Australians needed to remember their joint heritage built over two world wars.
He said a shared standard of behaviour had been forged in the World War 1 at Gallipoli and the countries should not go so far in creating their own identities as to forget their shared history.
"When we're faced with injustice, we would as a people do what was right despite any resistance," he said.
"We and Australia have always worked together in war and peace. We must continue to do so."
Two people were arrested in Wellington and charged with offensive behaviour and obstruction after a horn was sounded and a New Zealand flag burned, disrupting proceedings.
Internationally renowned Christchurch singer Hayley Westenra sang the national anthem before a pipe band led the marchers off towards Pipitea Marae.
In Christchurch, RSA president John Suttie estimated 8000 turned up on a clear day in The Square for the dawn service.
Among those were a large number of veterans from Vietnam, Malaya and later conflicts, as well as good turnout of World War 2 veterans.
Mr Suttie said they did not march, as they were getting older, but the RSA had a strong membership in Christchurch, including upwards of 1000 World War 2 veterans.
Mr Suttie, who served overseas in southeast Asia, said it had been good to see scouts, guides and brownies all laying wreathes.
In Featherston, near the site of a former army training camp and prisoner of war camp, RSA president Ray Weighell said 250 had marched in the parade and over 1000 had lined the streets on a perfect Wairarapa day.
Mr Weighell, who served with the British airforce in Suez and Cyprus in 1956 and 1957, said the club had 27 World War 2 veterans, the oldest of whom was Bert Alloway, at 87.
Other club veterans had served in Korea, Vietnam, East Timor and Afghanistan.
Mr Weighell could "only guess" as to what was behind the increasing number of young people.
"Somebody's telling them, and they're coming out and it's wonderful to see them all here because obviously the older chaps who returned from the second world war, there's not that many of them left now and those that are left are a bit long in the tooth now so it's nice to see that there are youngsters willing to carry it on."
In Dunedin, police said a large number turned out in fine but crisp conditions for the dawn parade at the Cenotaph in Queen's Gardens.
In Temuka, RSA members braved some wet weather for the dawn parade before heading for a service at the Cenotaph in nearby Winchester.
Later today at the National War Memorial in Wellington and speaking at his first Anzac Day service as Governor-General, Anand Satyanand chose to make his greeting in English, Maori, Cook Island, Niuean, Tokelauan and sign language.
Mr Satyanand, speaking at the 75th anniversary of the dedication of the memorial, remembered both those who served and died for New Zealand in overseas conflicts as well as those now serving overseas.
"Their professionalism, dedication and personal sacrifice are something of which all New Zealanders can be properly proud
"Peace operations and attendant peacekeepers are essential if the world is not to stumble into the conflicts of the past."
NZPA Wednesday, 25 April 2007
In Auckland, as an estimated 15-20,000 gathered at the Cenotaph in Auckland Domain, there was a poignant reminder of a war veteran who passed away at last year's dawn service.
"She'll be right mate," were the emotive words spoken a year ago today after Sydney John McGuire who died as he paid homage at last year's dawn service at Auckland's Domain.
This year, the words again echoed around the Domain as Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard reminded a record turnout of about 20,000 people the words summarised exactly what the Anzac spirit "stands for and means to all of us".
He said in 1915 at Gallipoli Kiwi troops on the far side of the world faced a bloody, bitter and hopeless fight.
Young men left their families and the only country they had known to fight a war on the other side of the world.
" Our young men, as records show, showed exceptional discipline and courage in forbidding terrain and in the most primitive of conditions – conditions unimaginable today."
Mr Hubbard said for a small country with a population of only one million the casualties were catastrophic.
A few minutes earlier just after 6am the crowd stood in silence and darkness for a full minute.
For the first time in several years the 2007 service was not marred by rain and cold conditions as war veterans marched on to the Court of Honour in front of the museum.
In one of the minor glitches of the service the flypast by an Air Force Seasprite helicopter attached to the navy began a few moments early, drowning out part of the Ross Falconer's benediction as it roared low overhead.
In Wellington, thousands packed the area in front of the Cenotaph as about 150 veterans and their families led the dawn parade the short distance along Lambton Quay.
Former Secretary of Defence Graham Fortune said New Zealanders and Australians needed to remember their joint heritage built over two world wars.
He said a shared standard of behaviour had been forged in the World War 1 at Gallipoli and the countries should not go so far in creating their own identities as to forget their shared history.
"When we're faced with injustice, we would as a people do what was right despite any resistance," he said.
"We and Australia have always worked together in war and peace. We must continue to do so."
Two people were arrested in Wellington and charged with offensive behaviour and obstruction after a horn was sounded and a New Zealand flag burned, disrupting proceedings.
Internationally renowned Christchurch singer Hayley Westenra sang the national anthem before a pipe band led the marchers off towards Pipitea Marae.
In Christchurch, RSA president John Suttie estimated 8000 turned up on a clear day in The Square for the dawn service.
Among those were a large number of veterans from Vietnam, Malaya and later conflicts, as well as good turnout of World War 2 veterans.
Mr Suttie said they did not march, as they were getting older, but the RSA had a strong membership in Christchurch, including upwards of 1000 World War 2 veterans.
Mr Suttie, who served overseas in southeast Asia, said it had been good to see scouts, guides and brownies all laying wreathes.
In Featherston, near the site of a former army training camp and prisoner of war camp, RSA president Ray Weighell said 250 had marched in the parade and over 1000 had lined the streets on a perfect Wairarapa day.
Mr Weighell, who served with the British airforce in Suez and Cyprus in 1956 and 1957, said the club had 27 World War 2 veterans, the oldest of whom was Bert Alloway, at 87.
Other club veterans had served in Korea, Vietnam, East Timor and Afghanistan.
Mr Weighell could "only guess" as to what was behind the increasing number of young people.
"Somebody's telling them, and they're coming out and it's wonderful to see them all here because obviously the older chaps who returned from the second world war, there's not that many of them left now and those that are left are a bit long in the tooth now so it's nice to see that there are youngsters willing to carry it on."
In Dunedin, police said a large number turned out in fine but crisp conditions for the dawn parade at the Cenotaph in Queen's Gardens.
In Temuka, RSA members braved some wet weather for the dawn parade before heading for a service at the Cenotaph in nearby Winchester.
Later today at the National War Memorial in Wellington and speaking at his first Anzac Day service as Governor-General, Anand Satyanand chose to make his greeting in English, Maori, Cook Island, Niuean, Tokelauan and sign language.
Mr Satyanand, speaking at the 75th anniversary of the dedication of the memorial, remembered both those who served and died for New Zealand in overseas conflicts as well as those now serving overseas.
"Their professionalism, dedication and personal sacrifice are something of which all New Zealanders can be properly proud
"Peace operations and attendant peacekeepers are essential if the world is not to stumble into the conflicts of the past."
NZPA Wednesday, 25 April 2007
ANZAC DAY 2007
So I wasn't the only one up early this morning. Cars were already on the motorway heading into the city. A couple of boats - off for a spot of fishing.
Cars streaming into the Domain. Lights on, closely following each other around. Nowhere to park - you fools. I'm walking down the road following the foot traffic.
But hullo - you can park on the fields - on top of the cricket pitch - why don't you?
Then it's the diagonal walk up the hill towards the cenotaph. Voices in the dark - " Are you alright Mum?"
Wow - even more people. They must have got there super early. No programmes to be seen. Oh well, I guess I can't sing the hymns then. Poppies for sale - better get one, as they don't sell them outside the CBD.
Young voices - speaking in hushed tones "Why can't we see the show?"
The lights are bright - spot lights for the camera crew. Maori TV is there. Other than that, you can't see a thing - only the backs of the people. You can hear - but you can't see. A soltary drummer in the distance.
A reporter interviews kids from a family. The inevitable question: "Why are you here today?" And the children speak very clearly and precisely. No faltering in their explanation to the tape recorder. They have a box with war medals - they are here for their grandfather.
As the people gather there is an expectance in the air. Friends chattering. There is a turn out from a school - students looking proud in their uniforms.
Then it begins - Chris Mullane, veteran, speaks. Its 92 years since the ANZACs landed in Galippoli - 68th year of Dawn Parades at the Auckland Cenotaph.
The marching feet of the weterans can be heard - their commander calling " Open Company" - giving directions. There is a hush in the air.
"Abide with Me" - There, I knew I had forgotten the words!
The Last Post sounds - the flags are lowered. The lights go out and theres a minutes silence - as we remember them.
Cars streaming into the Domain. Lights on, closely following each other around. Nowhere to park - you fools. I'm walking down the road following the foot traffic.
But hullo - you can park on the fields - on top of the cricket pitch - why don't you?
Then it's the diagonal walk up the hill towards the cenotaph. Voices in the dark - " Are you alright Mum?"
Wow - even more people. They must have got there super early. No programmes to be seen. Oh well, I guess I can't sing the hymns then. Poppies for sale - better get one, as they don't sell them outside the CBD.
Young voices - speaking in hushed tones "Why can't we see the show?"
The lights are bright - spot lights for the camera crew. Maori TV is there. Other than that, you can't see a thing - only the backs of the people. You can hear - but you can't see. A soltary drummer in the distance.
A reporter interviews kids from a family. The inevitable question: "Why are you here today?" And the children speak very clearly and precisely. No faltering in their explanation to the tape recorder. They have a box with war medals - they are here for their grandfather.
As the people gather there is an expectance in the air. Friends chattering. There is a turn out from a school - students looking proud in their uniforms.
Then it begins - Chris Mullane, veteran, speaks. Its 92 years since the ANZACs landed in Galippoli - 68th year of Dawn Parades at the Auckland Cenotaph.
The marching feet of the weterans can be heard - their commander calling " Open Company" - giving directions. There is a hush in the air.
"Abide with Me" - There, I knew I had forgotten the words!
The Last Post sounds - the flags are lowered. The lights go out and theres a minutes silence - as we remember them.
Monday, 23 April 2007
Reunited: the Anzac and his family
Manawatu Standard Monday, 23 April 2007
MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard
CROSSING THE DIVIDE: Kaithi Craig with some the richly decorated letters she receives from her long-lost uncle Tom. The Palmerston North woman was reunited with her uncle when she spotted him at the opening of the NZ War Memorial in Hyde Park in London.
Fate can beat all odds, writes Mervyn Dykes, in this story of a miracle in Hyde Park.
Imagine spending years looking for a lost uncle and godfather, then, quite by chance, sitting down close to him in Hyde Park, London. What are the odds? If you saw it in a movie, wouldn't you say, "That's stretching coincidence too far".
But even though she could only see the old soldier's back and his head in half-profile, Kathi Craig's memories arced across a gap of 50 years and her heart began to race.
"It was almost like my mother tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'That's him'," she says from her home in Palmerston North.
She and husband Malcolm Hopwood had gone to London for the opening of the New Zealand War Memorial in Hyde Park. At the ceremony they were seated in row V in the middle of 300 guests and behind them was a barricade holding back about 2000 "standing guests".
"The weather was terribly cold and bleak and we had to be seated two hours in advance," she says, with a shiver. "But I was looking forward to seeing the Queen and being in the presence of the other royals.
"Suddenly I had the most amazing feeling that someone I knew was seated nearby. It was unbelievable. My heart was pounding. I looked across to the right, and slightly in front on row U there was someone who reminded me of my family."
She couldn't get a clear look at the old soldier, but at the same time did not want to take her eyes off him.
"He was a very old gentleman with a breast full of medals. I could not see his face, but there was another man sitting with him who was using a camera.
"I said to Malcolm, 'I think that's Uncle Tom.'
"He said, 'Darling, that is impossible. Think of the odds. You don't really think that among all these thousands of people you can see your Uncle Tom?' "
Oh yes, she did.
"Perhaps I should go over."
"Don't."
"But I have nothing to lose."
"Just wait a while."
Ms Craig waited, but her eyes were boring into the back of the old soldier's head so intently, she was surprised he didn't turn.
At the same time, memories were unspooling. She recalled how as a little girl the Craig family's raucous door bell sounded in the wee hours one night just after World War II.
"That bell was so loud I used to be scared of it," she says. "People didn't have much contact in those days and we didn't have a telephone. Anyway, we all woke up and I can remember Dad going to the door and then one of my sisters screaming. 'It's Uncle Tom! It's Uncle Tom!' "
In spite of the hour, his arrival was the signal for a huge party. Thomas Francis Beel was home from the war. Ms Craig remembers at one stage doing a highland fling on the kitchen table.
Alas, Uncle Tom did not stay around for long. Only five years later, he and his homesick English bride returned to England and he passed out of Ms Craig's life, though she did hear years later that his wife had died.
Fast-forward to 2006 and there was Ms Craig, fixated on an old soldier one row in front of her.
Her husband was all logic and reason. The man couldn't be a Kiwi because he was sitting with English veterans and the visiting New Zealand returned servicemen were all in a block up front.
The ceremony began and a Maori concert party began its welcome for the Queen. Ms Craig saw the man lean forward slightly and wipe tears from his eyes. That did it.
"I'm going to see Uncle Tom now!"
But she couldn't. Guests had been told to stay in their seats during the ceremony – and there were security marksmen with rifles on surrounding rooftops.
Wait, Malcolm had said, so wait she did. But as the programme ended and everyone stood for God Save the Queen, Ms Craig saw a paua kiwi flash on the man's lapel. She could not hold back any longer and pushed her way to him.
"Are you my Uncle Tom?"
"Are you my niece Kathleen?" he replied.
"We both cried and hugged. It was amazing."
An angry woman objected to the unseemly behaviour. "The Queen!" she hissed.
"The Queen can wait. This is my uncle and I've not seen him for 50 years," said Kathi.
The woman softened.
"You dear man," she said. "You fought for our country." She gave Tom a kiss and posed for a photograph with him.
After the ceremony, Kathi visited Uncle Tom in Guildford, Surrey, and the years seemed to roll away. It was like being a child again.
Ms Craig learned that Tom's story was as Anzac as they come. He served in Greece, Crete and Egypt. He was wounded counter- attacking an airfield in Crete and evacuated to Alexandria Hospital in Egypt. At one stage, he and his brother Bill were missing in action.
He was captured at Tobruk, Libya, and shipped to a POW camp in Italy, but escaped and spent three months on the run before being recaptured.
This time he was sent to a labour camp in Poland where he worked as a coalminer before again escaping. This time he got out of Poland and made his way across Germany to meet the advancing American troops.
A month before meeting Kathi, Tom caught up with his nephew, Dunedin businessman William Cockerill. Now Kathi and William plan to be part of his 90th birthday celebrations in March, 2008. After all, he is Ms Craig's sole surviving relative from his generation.
Since returning home they have exchanged letters regularly. His come with envelopes decorated so much with images and messages that there is barely room for the address.
"I love you and miss you, says one."
But as endearing as this may be, it is but a pale shadow of the heart-to-heart communications that are still being made.
"It is so wonderful to know that he is there and that he loves me."
MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard
CROSSING THE DIVIDE: Kaithi Craig with some the richly decorated letters she receives from her long-lost uncle Tom. The Palmerston North woman was reunited with her uncle when she spotted him at the opening of the NZ War Memorial in Hyde Park in London.
Fate can beat all odds, writes Mervyn Dykes, in this story of a miracle in Hyde Park.
Imagine spending years looking for a lost uncle and godfather, then, quite by chance, sitting down close to him in Hyde Park, London. What are the odds? If you saw it in a movie, wouldn't you say, "That's stretching coincidence too far".
But even though she could only see the old soldier's back and his head in half-profile, Kathi Craig's memories arced across a gap of 50 years and her heart began to race.
"It was almost like my mother tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'That's him'," she says from her home in Palmerston North.
She and husband Malcolm Hopwood had gone to London for the opening of the New Zealand War Memorial in Hyde Park. At the ceremony they were seated in row V in the middle of 300 guests and behind them was a barricade holding back about 2000 "standing guests".
"The weather was terribly cold and bleak and we had to be seated two hours in advance," she says, with a shiver. "But I was looking forward to seeing the Queen and being in the presence of the other royals.
"Suddenly I had the most amazing feeling that someone I knew was seated nearby. It was unbelievable. My heart was pounding. I looked across to the right, and slightly in front on row U there was someone who reminded me of my family."
She couldn't get a clear look at the old soldier, but at the same time did not want to take her eyes off him.
"He was a very old gentleman with a breast full of medals. I could not see his face, but there was another man sitting with him who was using a camera.
"I said to Malcolm, 'I think that's Uncle Tom.'
"He said, 'Darling, that is impossible. Think of the odds. You don't really think that among all these thousands of people you can see your Uncle Tom?' "
Oh yes, she did.
"Perhaps I should go over."
"Don't."
"But I have nothing to lose."
"Just wait a while."
Ms Craig waited, but her eyes were boring into the back of the old soldier's head so intently, she was surprised he didn't turn.
At the same time, memories were unspooling. She recalled how as a little girl the Craig family's raucous door bell sounded in the wee hours one night just after World War II.
"That bell was so loud I used to be scared of it," she says. "People didn't have much contact in those days and we didn't have a telephone. Anyway, we all woke up and I can remember Dad going to the door and then one of my sisters screaming. 'It's Uncle Tom! It's Uncle Tom!' "
In spite of the hour, his arrival was the signal for a huge party. Thomas Francis Beel was home from the war. Ms Craig remembers at one stage doing a highland fling on the kitchen table.
Alas, Uncle Tom did not stay around for long. Only five years later, he and his homesick English bride returned to England and he passed out of Ms Craig's life, though she did hear years later that his wife had died.
Fast-forward to 2006 and there was Ms Craig, fixated on an old soldier one row in front of her.
Her husband was all logic and reason. The man couldn't be a Kiwi because he was sitting with English veterans and the visiting New Zealand returned servicemen were all in a block up front.
The ceremony began and a Maori concert party began its welcome for the Queen. Ms Craig saw the man lean forward slightly and wipe tears from his eyes. That did it.
"I'm going to see Uncle Tom now!"
But she couldn't. Guests had been told to stay in their seats during the ceremony – and there were security marksmen with rifles on surrounding rooftops.
Wait, Malcolm had said, so wait she did. But as the programme ended and everyone stood for God Save the Queen, Ms Craig saw a paua kiwi flash on the man's lapel. She could not hold back any longer and pushed her way to him.
"Are you my Uncle Tom?"
"Are you my niece Kathleen?" he replied.
"We both cried and hugged. It was amazing."
An angry woman objected to the unseemly behaviour. "The Queen!" she hissed.
"The Queen can wait. This is my uncle and I've not seen him for 50 years," said Kathi.
The woman softened.
"You dear man," she said. "You fought for our country." She gave Tom a kiss and posed for a photograph with him.
After the ceremony, Kathi visited Uncle Tom in Guildford, Surrey, and the years seemed to roll away. It was like being a child again.
Ms Craig learned that Tom's story was as Anzac as they come. He served in Greece, Crete and Egypt. He was wounded counter- attacking an airfield in Crete and evacuated to Alexandria Hospital in Egypt. At one stage, he and his brother Bill were missing in action.
He was captured at Tobruk, Libya, and shipped to a POW camp in Italy, but escaped and spent three months on the run before being recaptured.
This time he was sent to a labour camp in Poland where he worked as a coalminer before again escaping. This time he got out of Poland and made his way across Germany to meet the advancing American troops.
A month before meeting Kathi, Tom caught up with his nephew, Dunedin businessman William Cockerill. Now Kathi and William plan to be part of his 90th birthday celebrations in March, 2008. After all, he is Ms Craig's sole surviving relative from his generation.
Since returning home they have exchanged letters regularly. His come with envelopes decorated so much with images and messages that there is barely room for the address.
"I love you and miss you, says one."
But as endearing as this may be, it is but a pale shadow of the heart-to-heart communications that are still being made.
"It is so wonderful to know that he is there and that he loves me."
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Auckland man plans to set underpants record
1:00PM Sunday April 22, 2007
Try timing yourself next time you pull on your underpants.
We promise you will not be the only one.
Alastair Galpin plans to set a world record this month for being the fastest man to pull on his undies.
He will attempt the very important manoeuvre at Point Chevalier's Old Homestead in Auckland on April 28.
Mr Galpin will also be stretching elastic bands over his face and smashing eggs with his head.
He will be competing for a shot at the World Record Cup organised by the World Record Registry of official world records.
- NEWSTALK ZB
Try timing yourself next time you pull on your underpants.
We promise you will not be the only one.
Alastair Galpin plans to set a world record this month for being the fastest man to pull on his undies.
He will attempt the very important manoeuvre at Point Chevalier's Old Homestead in Auckland on April 28.
Mr Galpin will also be stretching elastic bands over his face and smashing eggs with his head.
He will be competing for a shot at the World Record Cup organised by the World Record Registry of official world records.
- NEWSTALK ZB
Veteran Maori film-maker and actor Don Selwyn dies
45PM Friday April 13, 2007
Don Selwyn in 2005.
Veteran Maori actor and film-maker Don Selwyn died today in North Shore Hospital after a long illness.
Selwyn, who began his long career on stage in a pink tutu, was widely recognised and honoured for his creative talents.
He was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust -- inspiring others with his vision that it would lead to greater opportunities for Maori performers.
He became a leading proponent of Maori drama, performed in both Maori and English, and a prime mover in encouraging respect for Maori viewpoints and culture in mainstream New Zealand film and television drama.
Eighteen months ago when he was presented with the Creative New Zealand Maori Arts Board's award for his "outstanding contribution to the development of Maori arts", CNZ chairwoman Elizabeth Ellis noted his wide scope of participation.
She praised his direct contribution as an actor, producer and director in stage, television and film and his "tireless work" training and mentoring young Maori in the industry.
In 1984 Selwyn began a film and television training course for Maori and Pacific Islanders and in 1992 jointly formed He Taonga Films to create opportunities for course graduates and to provide outlets for Maori drama writers.
Among many films from this company, Selwyn produced and directed Don't Go Past With Your Nose in the Air, winner of the "best foreign short" at the New York Festival in 1992.
Selwyn also made the Merchant of Venice, the first Maori language feature film with English subtitles. It was released in February 2001.
Ms Ellis praised the film as a "major achievement".
Selwyn had staged it as a play in Auckland a decade earlier and determined then to turn it into a film.
Selwyn, of Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri descent, grew up in Taumarunui, and became a schoolteacher.
He had his first taste of acting as a result of a dare when he attended a rehearsal of A Midsummer Night's Dream with an actor friend.
He'd go to the rehearsal if his friend would go to Selwyn's rugby practice.
The actor playing Oberon was taken ill and director Nola Miller asked Selwyn to step in.
He took to the stage in a pink tutu with butterfly wings as the King of the Fairies to later good-natured ribbing from his rugby mates.
Selwyn, however, was hooked. He toured with Miller's Shakespeare company, playing Caesar, Antony, Othello and Shylock and broadened his repertoire with musicals (Porgy and Bess), film (Sleeping Dogs) and television (Mortimer's Patch, Marlin Bay, The Governor and Pukemanu).
Selwyn was honoured with an ONZM in 1999, an honorary performing arts degree from Unitec the same year, and an honorary degree from Massey University in 2002.
At the 2003 New Zealand film awards ceremony was given a lifetime achievement award for his "influential work" in film, television and theatre.
The Arts Foundation of New Zealand said it was saddened by his death. Selwyn had been selected as a recipient of the foundation's Icon awards this year.
- NZPA
Don Selwyn in 2005.
Veteran Maori actor and film-maker Don Selwyn died today in North Shore Hospital after a long illness.
Selwyn, who began his long career on stage in a pink tutu, was widely recognised and honoured for his creative talents.
He was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust -- inspiring others with his vision that it would lead to greater opportunities for Maori performers.
He became a leading proponent of Maori drama, performed in both Maori and English, and a prime mover in encouraging respect for Maori viewpoints and culture in mainstream New Zealand film and television drama.
Eighteen months ago when he was presented with the Creative New Zealand Maori Arts Board's award for his "outstanding contribution to the development of Maori arts", CNZ chairwoman Elizabeth Ellis noted his wide scope of participation.
She praised his direct contribution as an actor, producer and director in stage, television and film and his "tireless work" training and mentoring young Maori in the industry.
In 1984 Selwyn began a film and television training course for Maori and Pacific Islanders and in 1992 jointly formed He Taonga Films to create opportunities for course graduates and to provide outlets for Maori drama writers.
Among many films from this company, Selwyn produced and directed Don't Go Past With Your Nose in the Air, winner of the "best foreign short" at the New York Festival in 1992.
Selwyn also made the Merchant of Venice, the first Maori language feature film with English subtitles. It was released in February 2001.
Ms Ellis praised the film as a "major achievement".
Selwyn had staged it as a play in Auckland a decade earlier and determined then to turn it into a film.
Selwyn, of Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri descent, grew up in Taumarunui, and became a schoolteacher.
He had his first taste of acting as a result of a dare when he attended a rehearsal of A Midsummer Night's Dream with an actor friend.
He'd go to the rehearsal if his friend would go to Selwyn's rugby practice.
The actor playing Oberon was taken ill and director Nola Miller asked Selwyn to step in.
He took to the stage in a pink tutu with butterfly wings as the King of the Fairies to later good-natured ribbing from his rugby mates.
Selwyn, however, was hooked. He toured with Miller's Shakespeare company, playing Caesar, Antony, Othello and Shylock and broadened his repertoire with musicals (Porgy and Bess), film (Sleeping Dogs) and television (Mortimer's Patch, Marlin Bay, The Governor and Pukemanu).
Selwyn was honoured with an ONZM in 1999, an honorary performing arts degree from Unitec the same year, and an honorary degree from Massey University in 2002.
At the 2003 New Zealand film awards ceremony was given a lifetime achievement award for his "influential work" in film, television and theatre.
The Arts Foundation of New Zealand said it was saddened by his death. Selwyn had been selected as a recipient of the foundation's Icon awards this year.
- NZPA
Staunch troops not forgotten
5:00AM Saturday April 21, 2007By Catherine Masters
Sandra Coney is not one to give up searching.
Ninety-three years ago a group of tough kauri bushmen came out of the forest at Piha and went to war. A third of them never came home.
Over time their lives faded into little more than names on a plaque at Lion Rock. Now even the names have faded and can barely be read.
But the men who cut down the kauri have not been forgotten. Each Anzac Day a service is held for the men of the State Sawmill in Piha who were so quick to sign up for war in 1914, and for those who fought in World War II.
On Wednesday, people will gather at 2pm at the Piha RSA and march down to the beach and across the black sands to lay wreaths.
The Last Post will echo across the valley and the men who came out of the forest will be remembered. This year is no different except that now - thanks to one woman's painstaking research - a lot more is known about the bushmen.
At the service will be Sandra Coney, former campaigning journalist and now chairwoman of the Auckland Regional Council's Parks Committee.
Coney's family has a long association with Piha. In between council duties she has pursued an enduring passion to find out as much as she can about Piha's history, especially about the men from the sawmill.
She visits graves, trawls through archives, tracks down descendants, and has spent a small fortune on birth, death and marriage documents. In four years she has found out a lot. She would dearly love to know more.
Coney is not sure of the exactly when she became so intrigued, or in her words "obsessed", by the names on the plaque.
There are the names of 49 men - all now dead. But at least one bushman who went to war was not listed. Jack O'Donnell was shot in the head at Gallipoli before he had fired a shot.
His brother's name is there. Bill was killed in France. There could be others not listed, says Coney. And some who were listed as dead were not killed.
Coney wondered, "Who were these men?" She started asking around. No one knew.
The men left their mark on the landscape before they went to war. Nearly all the giant trees were cut down. After the war those who had worked at the sawmill scattered to the winds.
The mill had opened in 1910 when there was nothing at Piha. It was one of the last to be set up because it was so hard in that area to get the timber out. Coney reckons the men loved the forest and the birds, except perhaps the tui, which mimicked the bullock bells.
But when war was declared in August 1914, half the mill's workforce went to war, many among the first to step up. They were among the backbone of the first troops to go to Gallipoli. By the end of the war the mill was winding down and closed in 1921. Without jobs at Piha, many of the World War I survivors went to Mamaku to work the forests there. Everyone left. Piha was empty once more.
While researching, Coney became intrigued by the industry the men worked in. Milling was huge in New Zealand's pioneering history but as the kauri disappeared the industry vanished.
Coney has found all sorts of stories. Originally, there were 48 names on the plaque. J.E. Shine's name was added later. Jack Shine was a real character, Coney says.
The family story goes that Shine either had an interest in the mill manager's daughter, or that he had jilted her.
"But whatever, the mill manager said Jack Shine's name is not going on the plaque so it didn't go on the plaque and he [Shine] agitated for years, apparently."
Eventually, he got his way.
Coney cannot say exactly how many men died. Among the names of those listed as killed, she has discovered that three were not killed, and some listed as injured did die.
Neil Matheson was a survivor who ended up on the dead list."He used to say to his mates, 'If you want to see a dead man walking go and see that roll of honour at Lion Rock 'cause it's got me down as dead".
Matheson's explanation was that he had swapped the regimental number worn around his neck with that of another man."He certainly came home scarred, emotionally scarred, but certainly not dead and got married and had four daughters and led a long life."
Coney is moved and humbled by what she is finding out. Many of the bushmen came from early settler families. Life was a struggle.
Some were the children of men from the British Army who had been brought to New Zealand in case war broke out with Maori. In return they were promised of a little land and a pension.
The land was not particularly productive so many of the sons became bushmen.
Coney has found that most of the bushmen were not loners. The Piha men were part of big social groups who formed friendships for life, who moved around together, and whose families intermarried.
One of the men on the plaque is Bob Gibbons, who had a reputation for being the best bush contractor in the land. Gibbons was in his 50s and too old to enlist, so he "lied dreadfully" about his age and signed up.
What began as a relatively small project has become a huge genealogy task that provided Coney with plenty of excitement - such as the time she was at the library and found a photograph of Freddie Backholm, from Finland, who jumped ship and ended up at Piha.
She had found out that Backholm had not married and had no children and Coney feared she would not be able to discover much about him. But among miscellaneous photographs at the library, labelled as groups of bushmen, there he was.
"I just wanted to grab somebody in the reading room and say 'I've found Freddie Backholm'."
Since then she has found out more about him than some of the others. Backholm became great mates with Ebenezer Gibbons, a master dam-builder, and stayed with the Gibbons family for the rest of his life, living out his days on Bob Gibbons' land in Weymouth where he used to cook pipi for his cats, and come home a little tiddly on pension day. She has also found out he had a married "woman friend".
One of the saddest stories is that of the O'Donnell family. Jack and Bill, who were killed while at war, were the sons of Catherine O'Donnell, a nurse. Along with the two boys her daughter's husband was killed and another son lost a leg.
In 1924, Catherine O'Donnell went on a quest to visit Jack's grave in Gallipoli. She was the first mother to go.
How she afforded the trip, Coney does not know. They were a family of very modest means but Catherine O'Donnell was determined. She set off in the boat and got to Britain, where authorities tried to deter her. "And she says, 'No, I'm going to see my son Jack's grave."
She carried on to Turkey, where the Turks said, "What are you doing here?" There was a language barrier, Catherine O'Donnell couldn't make herself understood and she was told she was not allowed off the boat.
"So she went downstairs. She'd brought all the way with her a wreath for Jack's grave and she kneeled in her cabin and prayed they would understand what she wanted. Then she brought the wreath upstairs and just showed it, and they understood."
Catherine O'Donnell made it to Jack's grave and laid her wreath. Written on a photo of her leaning against her son's cross are the words: "Dear Jack's resting place, Plugge's Plateau, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, visited 29th July, 1924."
Coney thinks she has at least another four years, perhaps a lifetime, of research before she knows enough. She had thought she would write half a page on each of the men. Now she plans a book.
Roll call for more details
Sandra Coney needs help finding out more about the Kauri bushmen from the Piha sawmill who went to World War I.
She asks anyone who knows about the following to contact her by email.
Daniel Mitchell. Came from Puipuhi to Piha, died of wounds in 1917.
James Seal. Son of a bootmaker who lived in Commercial Rd, Grey Lynn. Killed in action in Belgium in 1917.
Arthur Warren. Mother was Fanny Gundry from Opotiki. Related by marriage to the Mitchells. Recorded as dying, but in fact lived.
Jim Hastie. From a Mt Albert family. In later life worked as a butcher in New Lynn.
Stanley Reece. After the war, worked as a drainlayer in Onehunga.
Ned Storey. Born in Huia, died in Hamilton in 1963.
Hugh Norman and John Onslow Wheeler, sons of a master mariner.
J. Stitchbury. Coney believes the spelling on the plaque is wrong. The only person of this name who died in World War I was Nicholas Colin. Could be J. Stuchbery, bushman, whose father was at Paparoa.
J. Allen. Listed as having died.
And:
William Condell
Stanley Elder
E. Constable
H. Belcher
V. Bowdler
A. Smith
Sandra Coney is not one to give up searching.
Ninety-three years ago a group of tough kauri bushmen came out of the forest at Piha and went to war. A third of them never came home.
Over time their lives faded into little more than names on a plaque at Lion Rock. Now even the names have faded and can barely be read.
But the men who cut down the kauri have not been forgotten. Each Anzac Day a service is held for the men of the State Sawmill in Piha who were so quick to sign up for war in 1914, and for those who fought in World War II.
On Wednesday, people will gather at 2pm at the Piha RSA and march down to the beach and across the black sands to lay wreaths.
The Last Post will echo across the valley and the men who came out of the forest will be remembered. This year is no different except that now - thanks to one woman's painstaking research - a lot more is known about the bushmen.
At the service will be Sandra Coney, former campaigning journalist and now chairwoman of the Auckland Regional Council's Parks Committee.
Coney's family has a long association with Piha. In between council duties she has pursued an enduring passion to find out as much as she can about Piha's history, especially about the men from the sawmill.
She visits graves, trawls through archives, tracks down descendants, and has spent a small fortune on birth, death and marriage documents. In four years she has found out a lot. She would dearly love to know more.
Coney is not sure of the exactly when she became so intrigued, or in her words "obsessed", by the names on the plaque.
There are the names of 49 men - all now dead. But at least one bushman who went to war was not listed. Jack O'Donnell was shot in the head at Gallipoli before he had fired a shot.
His brother's name is there. Bill was killed in France. There could be others not listed, says Coney. And some who were listed as dead were not killed.
Coney wondered, "Who were these men?" She started asking around. No one knew.
The men left their mark on the landscape before they went to war. Nearly all the giant trees were cut down. After the war those who had worked at the sawmill scattered to the winds.
The mill had opened in 1910 when there was nothing at Piha. It was one of the last to be set up because it was so hard in that area to get the timber out. Coney reckons the men loved the forest and the birds, except perhaps the tui, which mimicked the bullock bells.
But when war was declared in August 1914, half the mill's workforce went to war, many among the first to step up. They were among the backbone of the first troops to go to Gallipoli. By the end of the war the mill was winding down and closed in 1921. Without jobs at Piha, many of the World War I survivors went to Mamaku to work the forests there. Everyone left. Piha was empty once more.
While researching, Coney became intrigued by the industry the men worked in. Milling was huge in New Zealand's pioneering history but as the kauri disappeared the industry vanished.
Coney has found all sorts of stories. Originally, there were 48 names on the plaque. J.E. Shine's name was added later. Jack Shine was a real character, Coney says.
The family story goes that Shine either had an interest in the mill manager's daughter, or that he had jilted her.
"But whatever, the mill manager said Jack Shine's name is not going on the plaque so it didn't go on the plaque and he [Shine] agitated for years, apparently."
Eventually, he got his way.
Coney cannot say exactly how many men died. Among the names of those listed as killed, she has discovered that three were not killed, and some listed as injured did die.
Neil Matheson was a survivor who ended up on the dead list."He used to say to his mates, 'If you want to see a dead man walking go and see that roll of honour at Lion Rock 'cause it's got me down as dead".
Matheson's explanation was that he had swapped the regimental number worn around his neck with that of another man."He certainly came home scarred, emotionally scarred, but certainly not dead and got married and had four daughters and led a long life."
Coney is moved and humbled by what she is finding out. Many of the bushmen came from early settler families. Life was a struggle.
Some were the children of men from the British Army who had been brought to New Zealand in case war broke out with Maori. In return they were promised of a little land and a pension.
The land was not particularly productive so many of the sons became bushmen.
Coney has found that most of the bushmen were not loners. The Piha men were part of big social groups who formed friendships for life, who moved around together, and whose families intermarried.
One of the men on the plaque is Bob Gibbons, who had a reputation for being the best bush contractor in the land. Gibbons was in his 50s and too old to enlist, so he "lied dreadfully" about his age and signed up.
What began as a relatively small project has become a huge genealogy task that provided Coney with plenty of excitement - such as the time she was at the library and found a photograph of Freddie Backholm, from Finland, who jumped ship and ended up at Piha.
She had found out that Backholm had not married and had no children and Coney feared she would not be able to discover much about him. But among miscellaneous photographs at the library, labelled as groups of bushmen, there he was.
"I just wanted to grab somebody in the reading room and say 'I've found Freddie Backholm'."
Since then she has found out more about him than some of the others. Backholm became great mates with Ebenezer Gibbons, a master dam-builder, and stayed with the Gibbons family for the rest of his life, living out his days on Bob Gibbons' land in Weymouth where he used to cook pipi for his cats, and come home a little tiddly on pension day. She has also found out he had a married "woman friend".
One of the saddest stories is that of the O'Donnell family. Jack and Bill, who were killed while at war, were the sons of Catherine O'Donnell, a nurse. Along with the two boys her daughter's husband was killed and another son lost a leg.
In 1924, Catherine O'Donnell went on a quest to visit Jack's grave in Gallipoli. She was the first mother to go.
How she afforded the trip, Coney does not know. They were a family of very modest means but Catherine O'Donnell was determined. She set off in the boat and got to Britain, where authorities tried to deter her. "And she says, 'No, I'm going to see my son Jack's grave."
She carried on to Turkey, where the Turks said, "What are you doing here?" There was a language barrier, Catherine O'Donnell couldn't make herself understood and she was told she was not allowed off the boat.
"So she went downstairs. She'd brought all the way with her a wreath for Jack's grave and she kneeled in her cabin and prayed they would understand what she wanted. Then she brought the wreath upstairs and just showed it, and they understood."
Catherine O'Donnell made it to Jack's grave and laid her wreath. Written on a photo of her leaning against her son's cross are the words: "Dear Jack's resting place, Plugge's Plateau, Dardanelles, Gallipoli, visited 29th July, 1924."
Coney thinks she has at least another four years, perhaps a lifetime, of research before she knows enough. She had thought she would write half a page on each of the men. Now she plans a book.
Roll call for more details
Sandra Coney needs help finding out more about the Kauri bushmen from the Piha sawmill who went to World War I.
She asks anyone who knows about the following to contact her by email.
Daniel Mitchell. Came from Puipuhi to Piha, died of wounds in 1917.
James Seal. Son of a bootmaker who lived in Commercial Rd, Grey Lynn. Killed in action in Belgium in 1917.
Arthur Warren. Mother was Fanny Gundry from Opotiki. Related by marriage to the Mitchells. Recorded as dying, but in fact lived.
Jim Hastie. From a Mt Albert family. In later life worked as a butcher in New Lynn.
Stanley Reece. After the war, worked as a drainlayer in Onehunga.
Ned Storey. Born in Huia, died in Hamilton in 1963.
Hugh Norman and John Onslow Wheeler, sons of a master mariner.
J. Stitchbury. Coney believes the spelling on the plaque is wrong. The only person of this name who died in World War I was Nicholas Colin. Could be J. Stuchbery, bushman, whose father was at Paparoa.
J. Allen. Listed as having died.
And:
William Condell
Stanley Elder
E. Constable
H. Belcher
V. Bowdler
A. Smith
Saturday, 21 April 2007
Spacifix are a group of young New Zealanders writing and performing original music that is simply "world fresh". Full of colour, energy and theatre, these young entertainers defy comparison.
Their debut album has been well received and reviews have been strong.Stephen Small's review in The NZ Musicians Magazine says " Every so often a band comes along that alters our perception of what our music sounds like. Spacifix work through reggae and ska with aplomb and much humour, but their combination of rock elements with rap is perhaps indicative of a new sound in New Zealand music"...
100% New Zealand Music
Members
Tau Manukia - Lead singer/songwriterRudy Matamu - Bass guitarIsi Filisione - SingerVita Manukia - Rap & BVsWilly Manukia - SingerMetui Finau - RapTonga Vaea - Keys/Trumpet/BVs
Their debut album has been well received and reviews have been strong.Stephen Small's review in The NZ Musicians Magazine says " Every so often a band comes along that alters our perception of what our music sounds like. Spacifix work through reggae and ska with aplomb and much humour, but their combination of rock elements with rap is perhaps indicative of a new sound in New Zealand music"...
100% New Zealand Music
Members
Tau Manukia - Lead singer/songwriterRudy Matamu - Bass guitarIsi Filisione - SingerVita Manukia - Rap & BVsWilly Manukia - SingerMetui Finau - RapTonga Vaea - Keys/Trumpet/BVs
Spacifix - Sunshine Day - New Zealand's Most Exciting and Vibrant Band
HOME
Los Angeles brings 2 Telly Awards for Spacifix!
Spacifix's debut music video,"Sunshine Day" has won first place in the music video category in the 27th Annual Telly Awards held in Los Angeles, beating entries from throughout the World.
Spacifix also picked up a runners-up Telly in the non-broadcast section for a live performance of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," filmed at Auckland's Maidment Theatre last year.
"Spacifix is attracting an audience in New Zealand and these awards indicate that they also appeal to a broader international taste, including the hard-to-please US market."
The director of the video, Ondrej Havas, said that the success of the video was the result of the hard work, skill and goodwill of all the people involved. "We shot the production mainly on the Auckland waterfront and harbour locations but we only had enough budget to feed the crew. On behalf of Spacifix we want to especially thank all those who contributed their time for free"
How would you explain Roller Derby?
Pirate CITY ROLLERS - Stacey Roper.. How would you explain Roller Derby? Chicks in
mini skirts on roller skates beating each other up. Sort of like bull rush.
What are the requirements to take part? A reasonable ability to skate, cross-overs, stopping,
jumping, hip checks, shoulder barges. Not for the faint hearted. Can get rough and intense. We can teach most of the techniques but it helps if you come with a basic ability to skate.
Do you think Roller Derby as a sport will take off in NZ? I think there are a lot of women who would rather not go to a gym and instead do something gnarly and fun. I’ve played a lot of team sports and this has been the most social and extreme fun. It's an indoor sport at this stage and can be played outside in car-parks, but the indoor aspect makes it more inviting when it rains all winter.
How did Pirate City Rollers come about? Dale Rio came to New Zealand from the USA
and was a member of the LA Derby Dolls league. She couldn’t bear not to skate while
being away from home so long. She asked a few friends if they’d be interested in starting
a league here. Those friends asked their friends and soon about 16 of us got together for
the first practice. The more women that hear about it the more join. The name was voted
on and given an alternative to the City Of Sails theme.
How many members do you have? We have grown to about 40 girls, some are stayers
and some are just feeling it out. We are still growing every month.
How do you recruit new members? We drop flyers at gigs and everywhere we can
think of. We make posters and plaster them around town and every month we have a
recruitment night at a pub on K-Rd. This is to meet and explain what Roller Derby is and
convince who ever shows up to come to training on the following Monday and we pester
our friends to join.
Are you looking for sponsors? We need sponsors for sure. One day we hope to skate
on a banked track like most of the leagues in the States. We need money for uniforms,
skates, protective gear, medical equipment, rink hire and travel to the US in 2007 to skate
against the best.
mini skirts on roller skates beating each other up. Sort of like bull rush.
What are the requirements to take part? A reasonable ability to skate, cross-overs, stopping,
jumping, hip checks, shoulder barges. Not for the faint hearted. Can get rough and intense. We can teach most of the techniques but it helps if you come with a basic ability to skate.
Do you think Roller Derby as a sport will take off in NZ? I think there are a lot of women who would rather not go to a gym and instead do something gnarly and fun. I’ve played a lot of team sports and this has been the most social and extreme fun. It's an indoor sport at this stage and can be played outside in car-parks, but the indoor aspect makes it more inviting when it rains all winter.
How did Pirate City Rollers come about? Dale Rio came to New Zealand from the USA
and was a member of the LA Derby Dolls league. She couldn’t bear not to skate while
being away from home so long. She asked a few friends if they’d be interested in starting
a league here. Those friends asked their friends and soon about 16 of us got together for
the first practice. The more women that hear about it the more join. The name was voted
on and given an alternative to the City Of Sails theme.
How many members do you have? We have grown to about 40 girls, some are stayers
and some are just feeling it out. We are still growing every month.
How do you recruit new members? We drop flyers at gigs and everywhere we can
think of. We make posters and plaster them around town and every month we have a
recruitment night at a pub on K-Rd. This is to meet and explain what Roller Derby is and
convince who ever shows up to come to training on the following Monday and we pester
our friends to join.
Are you looking for sponsors? We need sponsors for sure. One day we hope to skate
on a banked track like most of the leagues in the States. We need money for uniforms,
skates, protective gear, medical equipment, rink hire and travel to the US in 2007 to skate
against the best.
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Aussies launch meat pie pizza
One small step for man. One giant leap for the meat pie.
You could almost hear the gasps of horror this week as the humble Aussie meat pie received its biggest makeover yet.
Pizza company Dominos proudly trumpeted their culinary triumph, launching it nationwide amid much fanfare and mailbox-drops. Wait for it. . . the Meat Pie Pizza.
They'd flirted with the idea with previous creations the Meatball Monster and the Meatosaurus. But nothing like this.
Dominos chief executive Don Meij unveiled the real thing – a pizza with a savoury mince topping with onions, tomatoes, peas, cheese, shortcrust pastry and, the crowning glory: a swirl of tomato sauce.
"The evolution of the humble Aussie meat pie has taken a monumental leap in history, with the union of Australia's two biggest pre-game footy food rivals – meat pie and pizza," Mr Meij said.
"The meat pie is sacred to all Australians. And now Aussie sports fans can watch the footy from the comfort of their own home and have a Dominos Meat Pie Pizza delivered straight to their door."
The company are claiming "an Australian first". No one has emerged to argue the point.
And it wasn't just a flash of inspiration from a bored teenager on a late night shift.
Dominos chief marketing officer Allan Collins said the new pizza was the result of three months of research and development as they looked for a distinctly Australian taste.
Mr Collins said Dominos had committed an estimated $A3 million ($NZ3.42 million) to the pizza launch.
"It's the next evolution of not only meat pie, but the pizza industry as a whole," he said.
At this stage it seems the taste sensation will be restricted to Australia. There was no word on any plans to expand the brainchild to the company's New Zealand stores
By MARK GEENTY - NZPA Thursday, 5 April 2007
You could almost hear the gasps of horror this week as the humble Aussie meat pie received its biggest makeover yet.
Pizza company Dominos proudly trumpeted their culinary triumph, launching it nationwide amid much fanfare and mailbox-drops. Wait for it. . . the Meat Pie Pizza.
They'd flirted with the idea with previous creations the Meatball Monster and the Meatosaurus. But nothing like this.
Dominos chief executive Don Meij unveiled the real thing – a pizza with a savoury mince topping with onions, tomatoes, peas, cheese, shortcrust pastry and, the crowning glory: a swirl of tomato sauce.
"The evolution of the humble Aussie meat pie has taken a monumental leap in history, with the union of Australia's two biggest pre-game footy food rivals – meat pie and pizza," Mr Meij said.
"The meat pie is sacred to all Australians. And now Aussie sports fans can watch the footy from the comfort of their own home and have a Dominos Meat Pie Pizza delivered straight to their door."
The company are claiming "an Australian first". No one has emerged to argue the point.
And it wasn't just a flash of inspiration from a bored teenager on a late night shift.
Dominos chief marketing officer Allan Collins said the new pizza was the result of three months of research and development as they looked for a distinctly Australian taste.
Mr Collins said Dominos had committed an estimated $A3 million ($NZ3.42 million) to the pizza launch.
"It's the next evolution of not only meat pie, but the pizza industry as a whole," he said.
At this stage it seems the taste sensation will be restricted to Australia. There was no word on any plans to expand the brainchild to the company's New Zealand stores
By MARK GEENTY - NZPA Thursday, 5 April 2007
Speight's pub to give Kiwis overseas a taste of home
The Southern Man is about to broaden his horizons. Or at least his pub is.
Lion Nathan said a $300,000 Speight's Ale House will be freighted to London on a 70m-long chartered container ship in July.
The journey will take an estimated 70 days, with the ship going via Samoa, Panama, the Bahamas and New York on its way to London, the Otago Daily Times reported today.
Lion Nathan representative Jessica Venning-Bryan said the concept was conceived after the company received a letter from an expatriate New Zealander working in London.
"Not only have I traded in the fresh air, open spaces and the sunshine of home for a dirty old office job, but I've also had to forgo the sheer joy of a cold Speight's after a hard day's work," Tim Ellingham, 27, formerly of Dannevirke, wrote.
Speight's approached Mr Ellingham's best mate, James Livingston, of Wellington, asking him whether he would like to provide his friend with a few beers – in a Speight's pub. Mr Livingston, a Recreation New Zealand project manager, said he did not hesitate when he was asked to jump on board, and his mates in London were excited.
"They think it's great that I'm coming over. But they think it's even better I'm bringing a pub with me."
The pub, unveiled in Dunedin yesterday, was built by Christchurch company Three Bald Men, which builds all Speight's Ale Houses.
Speight's is looking for three crew members to join Mr Livingston on the journey, and the bar will be open from 6pm to 8pm every day of the voyage.
The pub, which leaves Dunedin on July 24, will be temporarily moored on a barge in the upper Thames, before a permanent home is found
NZPA Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Lion Nathan said a $300,000 Speight's Ale House will be freighted to London on a 70m-long chartered container ship in July.
The journey will take an estimated 70 days, with the ship going via Samoa, Panama, the Bahamas and New York on its way to London, the Otago Daily Times reported today.
Lion Nathan representative Jessica Venning-Bryan said the concept was conceived after the company received a letter from an expatriate New Zealander working in London.
"Not only have I traded in the fresh air, open spaces and the sunshine of home for a dirty old office job, but I've also had to forgo the sheer joy of a cold Speight's after a hard day's work," Tim Ellingham, 27, formerly of Dannevirke, wrote.
Speight's approached Mr Ellingham's best mate, James Livingston, of Wellington, asking him whether he would like to provide his friend with a few beers – in a Speight's pub. Mr Livingston, a Recreation New Zealand project manager, said he did not hesitate when he was asked to jump on board, and his mates in London were excited.
"They think it's great that I'm coming over. But they think it's even better I'm bringing a pub with me."
The pub, unveiled in Dunedin yesterday, was built by Christchurch company Three Bald Men, which builds all Speight's Ale Houses.
Speight's is looking for three crew members to join Mr Livingston on the journey, and the bar will be open from 6pm to 8pm every day of the voyage.
The pub, which leaves Dunedin on July 24, will be temporarily moored on a barge in the upper Thames, before a permanent home is found
NZPA Tuesday, 17 April 2007
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Elderflower melting moments
:00AM Thursday April 12, 2007By Amanda Laird
Elderflower melting moments.
Makes 12
200g soft butter3/4 cup icing sugar1 cup plain flour1 cup cornflour1/2 tsp baking powder
ICING
2 tsp soft butter1 tsp Monin elderflower syrup1 cup icing sugarBoiling water
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Cream butter and icing sugar until pale. Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder and mix into the creamed mixture.
2. Roll dough into small balls and place on a greased oven tray. Press gently with the tines of a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until slightly golden.
3. Mix the butter with the syrup. Sift the icing sugar and add to the butter mixture with enough water to make a smooth paste. Spread onto half the biscuits, then top with remaining biscuits.
Elderflower melting moments.
Makes 12
200g soft butter3/4 cup icing sugar1 cup plain flour1 cup cornflour1/2 tsp baking powder
ICING
2 tsp soft butter1 tsp Monin elderflower syrup1 cup icing sugarBoiling water
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Cream butter and icing sugar until pale. Sift flour, cornflour and baking powder and mix into the creamed mixture.
2. Roll dough into small balls and place on a greased oven tray. Press gently with the tines of a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until slightly golden.
3. Mix the butter with the syrup. Sift the icing sugar and add to the butter mixture with enough water to make a smooth paste. Spread onto half the biscuits, then top with remaining biscuits.
Friday, 13 April 2007
What's on this weekend
SATURDAY APRIL 14
ROCK/POP
Samuel Flynn Scott, Lawrence Arabia - Schooner Tavern, Quay StBlindside - Kings Arms, NewtonAmarillo - Birkenhead RSACorporate Voice Experience - Nuffield St Brewbar, NewmarketAZ1 - Kentish Hotel, WaiukuRoger Skinner and the Motivation - Howick RSAJohn McGough - Avondale RSALazyboyz - Bluestone Bar Durham LaneContagious - Cock and Bull, BotanyBlack Salt - Cock and Bull, EllerslieHalo - Cock and Bull, LynfieldSqueeze - Cock and Bull, HamiltonKick - Cock and Bull, NewmarketBlue Collar Band - The Occidental, Vulcan Lane, 10pmNick Hohepa and Ed Gaiger - The Patriot Bar, 14 Victoria Rd, DevonportIsla Grant - SkyCity Theatre, Hobson St, 8pmPower Trip - Dog's Bollix, NewtonLondon Bar Trio (Barry/Webster/Dennison) - London Bar, Wellesley St
ROCK/POP
Samuel Flynn Scott, Lawrence Arabia - Schooner Tavern, Quay StBlindside - Kings Arms, NewtonAmarillo - Birkenhead RSACorporate Voice Experience - Nuffield St Brewbar, NewmarketAZ1 - Kentish Hotel, WaiukuRoger Skinner and the Motivation - Howick RSAJohn McGough - Avondale RSALazyboyz - Bluestone Bar Durham LaneContagious - Cock and Bull, BotanyBlack Salt - Cock and Bull, EllerslieHalo - Cock and Bull, LynfieldSqueeze - Cock and Bull, HamiltonKick - Cock and Bull, NewmarketBlue Collar Band - The Occidental, Vulcan Lane, 10pmNick Hohepa and Ed Gaiger - The Patriot Bar, 14 Victoria Rd, DevonportIsla Grant - SkyCity Theatre, Hobson St, 8pmPower Trip - Dog's Bollix, NewtonLondon Bar Trio (Barry/Webster/Dennison) - London Bar, Wellesley St
Super 14
Friday April 13
Hurricanes 37 beat Cheetahs 15
Saturday April 14
Chiefs v Force
Highlanders v Crusaders
Blues v Sharks
Waratahs v Reds
Sunday April 15
Bulls v Stormers
Brumbies v BYE
Lions v BYE
Thursday, 12 April 2007
Nutmeg & Apple Cake with Macadamia Topping
The flavours in this cake are subtle and delicious. The macadamia topping adds some nice crunch and I love using the freshly roasted nuts from Cathedral Cove farm on the Coromandel Peninsula.A late-harvest Riesling will match this beautifully.
Ingredients375g plain flour 200g brown sugar 175g sugar 1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg 1 teaspoon salt 150g butter, melted and cooled 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 cup buttermilk 2 eggs lightly beaten 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces 1 cup roasted macadamias, chopped 1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and butter a 24cm cake tin.
Place the sifted flour, the sugars, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre, pour in the butter and stir until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Set aside 3 tablespoons of the mixture for the topping.
Add the baking powder, buttermilk and eggs then beat with an electric beater for a minute until smooth. Fold in the chopped apple.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin, scatter the reserved crumb mixture, the nuts and the sugar/cinnamon mixture over the top. Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched lightly and it has shrunk from the sides of the tin.
Transfer to a wire rack and cool. Serve in wedges with yoghurt or creme fraiche.
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Old Faithful Cheese PlatterIt's impossible to go wrong with cheese and in today's complicated world of limitless choice I'm a big fan of the single cheese approach.
A big wedge of blue cheese with some fresh or dried pear slices, a dollop of quince paste and some crackers/crostini looks fabulous.
If you want a bit more variety - offering a few cheeses with different textures is a good approach such as a tangy blue, a creamy gooey brie or camembert and a harder cheddar or aged gouda.
Wine Match: A lighter style Pinot Noir (for blue cheese), or a medium style Riesling
Big-hitting women on a roll
The American phenomenon of women's full-contact roller-derby promises some big hits when the Pirate City Rollers league has its first bout in New Zealand.The Skateland Rollersports Rink in Panmure will host the clash between the Blackheart Bruisers clash and Dead Wreckoning on Saturday.
Dead Wreckoning captain Stacey `Pieces of Hate' Roper says it will be unlike anything seen here before.
"Chicks in short skirts and fishnet stockings on roller skates beating each other up," she says.
Roller-derby is an all-action sport with barging, weaving and spectacular falls, all at breakneck speed.
Two teams of eight skaters circle the rink in a bunch, each team jostling to block the other team's `jammer' from getting past and taking the win.
"It's a rush to get through the pack or block a jammer," says Ms Roper.
A skateboarder for many years, she took a little cajoling to pull the skates on but once on the rink she says "it's just like being 12 again".
Her boarding background has prepared her for the inevitable falls.
Bruisers captain Johanne `Josafiend' Anderson says she does it for the thrill of skating.
"When you're out there you're so focused on getting through the other eight people that nothing else matters," she says.
"If you're going to fall, you've got to fall forwards on to your knee pads and wrist guards."
Common injuries include broken tailbones, ripped triceps, broken wrists and plenty of bruises.
"Everyone's had injuries, you've just got to handle them," says Ms Roper.
The Pirate City Rollers wants to recruit two more teams for the league and has a recruitment night at the Thirsty Dog Tavern in Karangahape Rd every first Thursday of the month.
Practices are at the Skateland Rollersports Rink in Mountain Rd, Panmure, on Mondays and Wednesdays at 8.30pm.
For more information and to find out how to join, email: pc–rollers@yahoo.com
By JUSTIN HEHEHAN - East And Bays Courier Wednesday, 21 March 2007
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