May 2020

Immensely talented local portrait artist Logan Moffat is undaunted by the postponement of his exhibition ‘The Mind is the Portrait’ due to the COVID-19 outbreak. He sees it merely as a reason to continue working on his portraits and to evolve what he knows as consciousness painting. A former student at ACG Strathallan, a graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, with a BFA Honours, Moffat is also the youngest winner ever of the Adam Portraiture…

The impact of COVID-19 on our economy is yet to be seen in its entirety and may not be for some time. Fortunately for Franklin and Papakura areas, the sense of community is strong, and I believe it won’t be long before many businesses are back in full swing and it is up to all of us in the community to support them. The expected move to Level 2, hopefully mid-May will see many more businesses open and with sensible shopping, we can all do…

The name “Autobahn” is synonymous in Europe with long, fast open stretches of motorway and cafes that specialise in serving healthy, sustainable, and delicious food to everyone. Thanks to Erich and Margaret Dornauer, a local couple with a European background, this same recipe for success can also be found right here in two locations close to Pukekohe / Papakura townships. The couple started the first Autobahn Cafe in August 1994. Located within…

Let’s not put too fine a point on it: for the past five weeks we’ve been living in the middle of a crisis of unknown magnitude. It’s been a time of unprecedented change and for many it will have been an intense period of worry and anxiety. But however much lockdown might have separated us, it has also brought us together as families and communities united in fighting a common threat. It has been heart-warming to witness the commitment our…

When John and Liz van Winden moved into the large, purpose built New Zealand Home Loans building in Manukau Road earlier in February of this year, they would never have dreamed that by the end of the following month, that new office would be shut due to nationwide lockdown, as the result of a global COVID-19 pandemic and that everyone on the office would be working from home. “It’s somewhat surreal, and hard to imagine for any New Zealander…

The Papakura Business Association is committed to helping businesses in Papakura open under Levels 3 and Level 2 of the COVID-19 lockdown. Most businesses in Papakura are open in some way or other, and you can support your local favourite retailer, café, trade, professional service or health or Beauty service by going to www.papakura.co.nz and searching for them. \#EatLocal in Papakura, #ShopLocal in Papakura, and #LivePapakura!

In the traditions of Ngāti Tūwharetoa of Taupō, Ngāti Hotu were an aboriginal people living in that area at a time when the people of Tūwharetoa i te Aupōuri came to live in the lands claimed by their ancestor Tia. It was thought the original people took the name Ngāti Hotu to be spared from being destroyed by the Tainui and Te Arawa peoples. One story among the Tainui people says that Kupe found these islands inhabited by a short,…

Sixty years later, an underwater research group has discovered U-196 partially submerged, stern down, in the sand and apparently not fully flooded in 15 meters of water. It is surmised that U-196 refuelled from the German convoy raider ‘Orion’, somewhere near Palau, before the German surrender brought inevitable internment, then headed south as the Japanese navy was preparing for a general withdrawal to the home islands. Approaching New Zealand…

This year, between October and December, a replica of the Endeavour will sail around New Zealand to commemorate a significant event in Aotearoa New Zealand’s history: Captain James Cook’s first visit to New Zealand. While not the first European to visit New Zealand shores, Cook was the first to explore and chart both north and south islands, compiling ‘the first cartographic map’ of the country’s coastline and cataloguing the ‘unique animal and…

The Government’s state of emergency has created a dangerous political vacuum. Decisions that profoundly affect everyone’s lives are being undertaken in an autocratic fashion without any attempt at democratic involvement. Even the typically reserved Law Society has raised concerns about the lack of transparency and consultation associated with the lockdown: “As far as possible, there should be an ongoing attempt to replicate the normal policy…

Perhaps it is dangerous to write about such a fast-moving situation as the Covid-19 pandemic when what I write may not be published for 10 days or more, but at time of writing my strong impression is that the public believe that the Government has done a remarkably good job of suppressing, perhaps even eliminating, the spread of Covid-19 in New Zealand, and that they deserve warm applause. I believe the public has been conned. To begin with,…

I had a crappy day the other day, quite literally. The macerator pump for our toilet and greywater system chose Saturday morning to put itself into Coronavirus lockdown, so I spent the day lying on my belly in a two-and-a-half-footby-Very-Long tunnel under the building, headlight torch on, up to my elbows in the stuff that toilet macerator pumps deal with. I felt like one of my Welsh coal mining ancestors, and, having grown up with septic…

It’s safe to assume most New Zealanders understood this as meaning we have the potential for the virus to be gone, out of here, see you later, because elimination generally implies “the complete removal or destruction of something”. Also, the Covid-19 website says: “Our goal is to eliminate Covid-19 from New Zealand, so that we can live and work free from this disease.” However, during Monday’s announcement about the move to alert level three,…

Since January, I have been following international coverage and debate about Covid-19 closely. Looking back over almost three months now, what seems extraordinary is how flat footed the international response has been. An exception to that has been that of the much-maligned World Health Organisation (WHO), which from the outset has endeavoured to provide information and advice as soon as it could. That is not easy in contexts where not all…

ANZAC day 2020 will be a vastly different day to years previous, but still bears little resemblance to the horrors that young Sergeant James Stanton experienced during the First World War. Thanks to a canny series of events, we know a little about what he endured by the contents of his diary, written in the trenches and in the safekeeping of local man Mr Phil Gibbs for many years. “My mother was given the diary by a lady next door neighbour …

He was one of the most respected writers and poets of the Beat generation alongside his friends, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac. He was unconventional and championed for gay rights at a time when homosexuality acts were criminal in every state and embodied counter culture thinking too with his views on drugs, hostility to bureaucracy and economic materialism. Allen Ginsberg left his mark in the world with his unusual formatted poetry and…