Kinsa Hays
Auckland Editions
September 2022
Whangarei’s Extraordinary Hundertwasser Art Centre
Imagine a public loo as a tourist destination! Yet the Hundertwasser-designed toilets in Kawakawa draw 250,000 visitors annually. Obviously, they must be something special, and when I was in Whangarei last year, I spotted an unmistakeable Hundertwasser creation going up behind walls. In February 2022, the unique Hundertwasser Art Centre was opened by a group of the main supporters of the project.
August 2022
Turning Challenges into Opportunities
An array of goods was temptingly displayed in front of him; lavender products, olive oils and tasters, olives in bottles, culinary herbs preserved in jars, skeins of alpaca wool. Each one, I learned later, represented a win over an obstacle in life. He had a modest manner, a pleasant smile and was easy to chat to. When he said he’d previously been a CEO of a kiwifruit packhouse, I wanted to know more about his journey before becoming a stall holder at the Tauranga Farmer’s Market.
August 2022
The First Family Bach
In 1950 my family acquired a beach section on Whangaparaoa peninsula with a safe beach and a very small bach on it, for holidays. Dad bought it at an auction for one thousand pounds, a large sum in those days. Mum said he had to have a sit-down and a whisky afterwards.
To us kids, me, my younger brother Bill and little sister Mary, it seemed to take ages to get there. It began with the drive from Mt Albert to the car ferry terminal in downtown Auckland.
July 2022
The Famous Tauranga Farmer’s Market
Don’t forget to take the milk bottle,” said my housemate Jenny Argante that Saturday morning. When we go, alone or together, to Tauranga’s Farmer’s Market we get the bottle filled again with creamy, delicious milk. Nothing in supermarkets can beat its rich, fresh taste.
The market is held every Saturday from 7.45am to 12 noon in the Tauranga Primary School grounds.
July 2022
Taking Fun Seriously
Chatting to Simone van Kan after church with a cuppa, I was intrigued by her story of being a humanitarian adventurer, journeying to Sarajevo to bring entertainment to children in war-torn Bosnia in the 1990s.
Simone was first enticed by her boyfriend to do something special en route home to New Zealand.
June 2022
Because She Had No Choice
Marissa took her two eldest children out of school because she had no choice. She couldn't afford the fees. She couldn't afford the rent of their small shack either since her husband abandoned her. Her greatest fear was that they'd be evicted, even greater than hunger.Four small pouches of rice, curry powder, salt and a few tea leaves were all she had in the house.
MAY 2022
Seafaring Days
In this delightful Indian summer, I like to sit outside with a cuppa, lean back and reminisce about the exciting things I've done. I feel particularly grateful for my sailing experiences. My first husband Fred was a keen sailor, a yachtie. We had some frightening and dangerous adventures leavened by some delightful encounters. New Zealand is a boatie's dream, but we mainly sailed from Auckland up the east coast as far as Whangaroa and across to Coromandel.
MAY 2022
Backyards Streams – Friend or Foe?
Who could guess where following Pokemon might get you? My granddaughter Zara and I walked down the road to the blockhouse Bay Public Reserve. Zara played Pokemon on my phone and wherever a Pokemon was to be caught, we followed it. This is how I found myself at the offices of the Whau River Catchment Trust, wondering what that entity was and why here.
APRIL 2022
A Sweet Mystery
My friend Jenny and I recently had lunch in the Med cafe in Tauranga. Written on a wall menu was a neenish tart milkshake option, Chocolate and vanilla flavoured. Piqued by the word and while waiting for our nachos, I google it on my phone. It revealed a highly entertaining story of lies, half-truths and revenge.
APRIL 2022
The Chicken Dance
In the days of a house on a quarter acre section, many families kept chooks to supplement the family food budget. Breakfast was kitchen scraps mixed with mash and warm water, wheat in the afternoon. Organic chicken and eggs were the norm. Children had t he job of feeding the chookies and collecting eggs before and after school.
MARCH 2022
Biodiversity in Decline
The Australasian Brown Bittern/Matuku in t he heron family once used to be common throughout New Zealand, it's booms echoing over the raupo/bulrush swamps in spring. Now this top wetland predator has joioned the list of critically endangered birds, along with the kakapo. When a bird species is secretive, not one many people know exists or experts know much about, then its plight is a serious problem.
MARCH 2022
The Burt Munro Challenge
When motorcyclists travel from one end of the country to another at the same time, what draws them to Invercargill? The legacy of Burt Munro and his racing bike provide a challenge to blokes and their beloved bikes, the adventure of the ride, the burst of speen on a country backroad straight. The first ten days of February is when you pack up your bike, round up you mates, and head south.
FEBRUARY 2022
Plum Crazy
In our garden is a plum tree with wide spreading branches offering generous shade. A tree whose delicious fruit ripens at exactly the wrong time of year as far as I'm concerned - the end of December when I'm with family from Christmas Eve to early in the New Year. When I moved here two years ago, it was my first encounter with a true Christmas plum tree. I imagine it was planted when the couple who bui;t the house in the mid-1960s had a young family. to have a tree producing such bounty at that time of year would have seemed like another Christmas gift.
FEBRUARY 2022
$19 Million Comeback for Conservation
The Bay of Plenty Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust was recently awarded a taonga of $19 to be spent over the next four years. Now, I've lived in Katikati, the towering skyline of the Kaimais defining home, written poetry on the moods of the range and painted the crepuscular rays of the setting sun finger-pointing between the jagged peaks. I'm a volunteer with a conservation group working to deter predators such as rats and possums. Naturally, I had to find out what was going on.
DECEMBER 2021
A Teacher in the Paddock – Really?
From managing a cleaning business to driving trucks, Kevin Powell with his wife Jane, now runs an educational social enterprise where schools bring children to them. Jane had been based in the Mediterranean for ten years, working on superyachts. The Spanish lifestyle felt so right that when she returned to New Zealand, she was determined not to accept the everyday that we're accustomed to.
DECEMBER 2021
Life on a Strange Island
When you meet someone with charisma, who bubbles with happiness, is culturally different and in charge of an umu for a group lunch, it's likely you want to get to know them better. I did, anyway. When I talked with Beverley Vokia-Scarlett later on, what I heard was a love story: for her man, her children and her family back home on her island - Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands.
NOVEMBER 2021
THE JOY OF ART
For those who draw and paint in the Bay of Plenty, October's an exciting time. In the first week, the Taurangs Society of Artists held the second of their twice-yearly exhibitions, offering the challenge of the Supreme Award.
Who will win it?
NOVEMBER 2021
THE MELTING POT OF PONSONBY
Ponsonby Road, also known as The Strip, is lined with a delectable mix of shops, cafes and restaurants and populated with an equally interesting mix of people, all giving the Strip an exciting vibe. I walked 4 km along both sides, wishing my budget was bigger (maybe it’s time to ask for a raise) until my feet were sore. Refreshed by a designer sandwich in the newly-opened Fat Belly Deli, I decided to drive to the Catholic area of St Mary’s Bay, bordered on one side by New Street.
OCTOBER 2021
PONSONBY - AN URBAN VILLAGE
Like all villages, there’s a sense of connectedness between individuals, making Ponsonby a community of people who care enough to get out and create their own solutions for the problems of the time. Cultural differences are accepted and valued, and sharing becomes the norm. Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and, to a lesser extent, St Mary’s Bay have been and still are a crucible for social change.
AUGUST 2021
EYES RIGHT
Though everyone said cataract surgery was a painless, simple procedure, I remained dubious. What if something went wrong? I put a high value on my eyesight, cloudy though it was. I’m no stranger to operations, with so many metal plates screwed to bones to hold me together that I do occasionally set off alarms at airports. But though I might be Bionic Woman, I still didn’t fancy any doctor, however highly skilled, messing around with my eyes.
JULY 2021
JUNE 2021
MAY 2021
LOCAL CRUISING - IT'S GOOD FOR THE SOUL
APRIL 2021
EXPLORING AUCKLAND - PARNELL : A PLACE FOR PEOPLE
APRIL 2021
MARCH 2021
FEBRUARY 2021
DECEMBER 2020
QUALITY TIME WITH YOUR MOKOPUNA ON A CHEAP BUDGET
NOVEMBER 2020
OCTOBER 2020
