Campaign finance reform
Without which bought-and-paid-for government swamps democracy
Raising plants in open-ground beds
Raising plants open-ground can seem counterintuitive. It is easy to imagine that the best start in life a plant can have is to be lovingly raised in a pot in a nursery, and then carefully planted. But for foresters, raising plants in pots is downright potty…
Mahurangi helping Taupō, Taupō helping Mahurangi
In February 2007, a $81.5 million fund was established to protect Lake Taupō. The strategy was to head off the sort of degradation that Rotorua has been fighting at enormous expense for three decades, and will probably be fighting for at least…
Sediment as a resource – another way to skin the cat
It took some longer than it did others. At the community discussion of the Mahurangi Action Plan on 10 September, Warkworth resident Jefferson Chapple challenged the gathering to think of sediment as a resource. Some believed they…
Action plan discussion back at the Old Masonic
It will be just one month shy of four years. The last public Mahurangi Action Plan discussion, with Auckland Regional Council involvement, took place on October 2004—and also at the Old Masonic Hall. There was an intervening gathering, in February 2005, but with no...
Arthur Dunn 1939–2008, a modest obituary
I was not relishing the phone call; I was acutely aware that all I had to offer was my newfound enthusiasm for an alternative method of raising indigenous plants, whereas Arthur Dunn was the singular local…
Planting at Sandspit Road Sunday afternoon at Shelley’s
This Sunday it is Shelley Trotter’s turn to receive some help with her massive riparian retirement programme. It’s the second of two Mahurangi Action Plan community planting days, the first was at Mike Edwards’ property, immediately downstream from Hepburn Creek. The...
Draft action plan stocktake review preview
Friday’s breakfast will preview the Auckland Regional Council’s draft review of the Mahurangi Action Plan. This is set to be the best attended breakfast since the 11 July discussion of Settlements of the Future. Mahurangi Action Plan project leader Kim…
It can be done; it has been done
It made little impact at Friday’s breakfast. But that was hardly surprising, given the privilege of being the first residents to preview a provocative video that proposes Rodney takes a leaf out of the Lake District’s book and determinedly protect the beauty of the...
Open-ground indigenous plant trials another string
Dr David Bergin is well underway laying out the second and third open-ground trial sites, at Silverdale, using another mile of string and three of his adult and late-teens children. The site beside Sandspit Road is textbook—imminently accessible and…
Friday breakfast brainstorming topic: Settlements of the future
The suggestion came from Rodney District Council’s urban designer, Andrew Trevelyan: It might be good at some stage to have a round table discussion with the team over a breakfast—topic being, ‘What will our future settlements look like?’ Of course have a very clear...
Open-ground open day that was a milestone
Milestone has become a somewhat devalued word. The open-ground open day at Taupō on Saturday was one of the stages that are termed milestones in the project’s contract with the Sustainable Farming Fund. Some of the milestones are rather…
Warkworth town-centre upgrade submission
The proposed upgrade is a prime opportunity to develop the potential of one of Warkworth’s unique strategic assets—the Mahurangi River—with a cornerstone development at Wharf Street to form the heart of a new riverfront boutique retail precinct…
Their way and the highway bypass
It’s all on for the riverside town. The proposed town centre upgrade and now a proposed district plan change. The council’s explanation is that the proposed plan change comes out of Warkworth’s structure plan and would “maintain the present boutique…
Sitting member to attend small beer breakfast
The convener thought it was only fair to say, when Lockwood Smith’s electorate agent phoned, that the forum was small beer indeed. And that it would be entirely understood if the member of parliament’s priorities precluded his attending the weekly…
Planting day at Sullivans Bay – Think national, act local
Regional councillor Christine Rose said to the writer on her arrival, “I couldn’t resist your email!” …notifying ‘Mahurangi and friends’ of the planting. Neighbouring Mitapronounced: me-tuh Bay is the councillor’s favourite family holiday campsite. With the recent attacks by the district council…
Brainstorming breakfast gets to meet David Hay
The topics discussed at the Mahurangi brainstorming breakfasts are many and varied: governance of the region; restoration of indigenous forest; indigenous forestry; reduction of sediment generation; and the opportunities for Warkworth…
Planting badly eroded hillside behind Sullivans campground
Come and help us plant trees! We are replanting the badly eroded hillside behind the Sullivans Bay campground. In exchange for your help, we will provide a barbecue lunch and hot drinks, hundreds of grateful trees and our thanks. Get to know what’s happening…
Meeting to form Transition Town Warkworth
No doubt you are aware of climate change. Maybe you have heard of peak oil. But what can you do? Peak oil and climate change will drastically change the way we live. Food, transport and energy costs are predicted to soar. Weather patterns…
Open-ground open day at Taupō Native Plant Nursery
Taupō is a long way from the Mahurangi. So why, the reader may wonder, this interest in the Taupō Native Plant Nursery. The full story is elsewhere, but briefly, it has everything to do with the elevated sediment accumulation rate in the…
Mahurangi Action submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance
PDF as lodged Introduction Submission in Brief Submission Detail Background of Submitter Introduction embraces this opportunity to discuss the needs of the...
Success after three decades bleatin’ into submission
The locals’ vehicle-free concept blew the regional council’s plans for a road bridge across Te Muri out of the estuary. It was 1986 and test drilling in the bed of the estuary had rudely reminded locals that the splendid isolation Te Muri enjoyed was about to…
Can get bitter or get learning
’s submission to the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance could be its one opportunity to have its say on the subject. Or not. It all depends on what the government does with the...
Aucklanders in need of well-developed models
It seems difficult to credit it now. When the editor’s family moved to Waiwera, in 1959, the local council offices were in Greys Avenue, Auckland. Coming from Te Kūiti, which had its own council offices, this seemed bizarre. But much that is taken for granted about...
Demonstration of support, and demonstration of force
Sunday afternoon saw another tremendous turnout at the Mahurangi West Hall, this time to support a Pūhoi-based initiative. The very worthy recipient of Mahurangi West hospitality and generosity was the Pūhoi Volunteer Rural Fire Force. Like rural volunteer rural fire...
Preventing climate confusion raining
Regular readers will be aware that my goal of a new page published every day has gone up in CO2. The reason is that I have an additional job, as a subeditor for Fairfax Media. Taking up a new job at 61 years has proved to be both exhilarating and exhausting. Some…
Warkworth riverside dinner could have been regatta
A number of times the Mahurangi Regatta has had to be cancelled. On one occasion, controversially, it was the weather before the regatta, rather than on the day, that caused the cancellation of the shoreside regatta—the unprecedentedly rain-soaked regional park...
Shoreside regatta director honoured – What time’s the tide?
Even in 1977, it was inescapable. Having revived the regatta, after it had lapsed for three decades, found it had a tiger by the tail—an event that insisted upon being held...
Mahurangi action plan yes we can
”We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.” I’d been struggling with how to simply and succinctly explain what the Mahurangi Magazine and the…
Support for dance ensures survival of the revival
An email from the Weiti Boating Club nicely summarised the sea change: Weiti Boating Club is racing to Mahurangi tonight and we plan to have our club barbecue and prize-giving ashore on Saturday evening at Scotts Landing, as we have done…
Bring a picnic to the regatta, and to the prize-giving and dance…
Recreating the traditional picnic regatta, was the vision. When revived the Mahurangi Regatta, in 1977, the elders were adamant it was to be a traditional picnic regatta, where the...
Times to launch and retrieve small boats at Sullivans
Mahurangi Regatta Saturday 26 January Launching 9.00–11.00 am Retrieval 3.30–4.30 pm High tide 10.54 am 1.29 m Except at the regatta, boat launching from trailers at Sullivans is not permitted. Most appreciate that that is the case, and in two senses of the...
2008 Mahurangi Regatta programme
Event date 26 January 2008 High tide 10:54 (1.29 m) Beach events Friends of the Mahurangi Sailing events Mahurangi Cruising Club Mahurangi Regatta Generally* held at Sullivans Bay *In the event of a strong easterly forecast, at Scotts Landing 9.00 Entries (for sailing...
Barring a tropical low, all settled for Sullivans
A week away from the Mahurangi Regatta, the venue looks set to stay at Sullivans Bay. With the wind rising this morning and 35 knots and heavy rain forecast to peak tomorrow night, it is somewhat reassuring to see that MetVUW’s charts for 26 January, regatta...
What time’s the tide on Saturday 24 January 2060?
Speculative and unhelpful. These are the words the Honourable Peter Salmon QC used when chastising the New Zealand Herald for its front page announcing Auckland is to become a super city with a London-style mayor with executive powers. In May 2008, at the Royal...
Perennial regatta press gang
Updated 20 January, with gratitude In truth, most who toil at the Mahurangi Regatta are regulars in the spirit of Clive Dunn’s Dad’s Army character: ‘I should like to be the one that volunteers, Suh!’ But the difference between it being a breeze or a bother, for those...
Wastewater plant upgrade not exactly nothing
Many reading A Muddy Brown Colour would have suspected, of course, that Rodney District Council was in fact doing something about its notoriously leaky old sewerage system. Most, however, would be astonished to learn the half of the council’s short, medium and...
Council checked stormwater outflows
Letter I read A Muddy Brown Colour today and share the concern expressed about farm and urban pollution that flows into the Mahurangi. I also thought however, that it is worth pointing out one factual error (it might be useful if confronting the council etc.), which...
Warkworth wastewater treatment peak flow upgrade update
Veolia Systems has won the contract to supply a peak flow treatment system, which will be installed and commissioned before December 2008, as required by the new resource consent. Also associated with the upgrade will be a Timbertank (ex Tindall’s Bay reservoir),...
Beyond the action plan rules of engagement
Updated 10 January 2008 The Mahurangi Action Plan has officially entered a new and crucial phase— one in which even the name may change. At a meeting of its environmental management committee, on 11 December, the Auckland Regional Council endorsed the engagement...
Kid’s eco-camps continue wholesome tradition
The two ‘eco-camps’ planned this month for 8–13-year-olds as part of the Mahurangi Action Plan activities continue a worthy tradition of summer camps in the harbour. The Schoolhouse Bay property, which Rex Fairburn found for Mahurangi Action founder…
Regional governance inquiry in the hands of Aucklanders
Mahurangi residents need to categorise themselves as Aucklanders. That’s if the Mahurangi wishes to be heard by the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. Either that or Auckland regioners—ghastly language, which the Mahurangi Magazine is reluctant to encourage. The...
New Year’s resolution
I was asked about my New Year’s resolution. Momentarily feeling a pang of remorse, I had to admit that I hadn’t thought about the matter. I hope I didn’t give my neighbour the impression I considered New Year’s resolutions, or particularly her resolution, cliché. I...
Jane Gifford supporter gold medallist
Reconstruction of the Jane Gifford received a big boost this week. With the undertaking by Ti Point Vineyard to provide long-term sponsorship, the Jane Gifford Trust will receive a bounty from every bottle of wine the aclaimed vineyard sells. At current volumes, this...
Development design guide – urban myth and the Mahurangi
Urban is an anathema to most folk associated with the Mahurangi. So what, you may ask, has Rodney District Council’s draft urban design guide got to do with the Mahurangi catchment? Surely, if it applies to anything north of the city of Auckland, it could only, at a...
Mahurangi riverside dinner the quintessential Warkworth event
Event date: Saturday 23 February 2008 Few of those attending last February’s dinner beside the Mahurangi River could have escaped the realisation that Warkworth had finally acquired its obvious natural annual event. Dave Parker, now a Rodney District councillor, had...
Wellingtonian is doing Mahurangi proud
For far more than 150 years, the Mahurangi Regatta has been the Mahurangi community’s singular annual event. The after-match functions must have taken many forms, but by the 1940s they had migrated from Scotts Landing to Waiwera’s Gaiety Hall…
Christmas rush averted with reprieve for Mont’s trees
Before any decision is made regarding the trees marked for removal, near the boat ramp at Ōpahi, a plan will be prepared and discussed by the community. Rodney District Council’s Parks and Coastal operations manager, Chris Burgess, has advised Friends of the Mahurangi...
Ōpahi four for the chop, or the battle for Mont’s trees
Some twelve years ago, when he was enjoying much better health, Professor Sir Graham (Mont) Liggins motivated local residents to plant pōhutukawa and tōtara near the beach at the end of Ōpahi Bay Road, on the road reserve. The area, with its now well established...
Of olive oil and inflatable sheep all trebly grand
Friday night saw another brilliant pre-Christmas bash at the Mahurangi West Hall. In recent years there have been some absolute Christmas crackers: The year Dermot Kelly demonstrated he was still the master of the sing-along guitar, in spite loss of a fingering...
Mangroves Thirty-Square-Metre Loophole
Friends of the Mahurangi’s submission was lodged today on the proposed changes to the Auckland regional coastal plan regarding mangrove management. The submission strongly supports the need for Plan Change 4: Mangrove Management, and generally supports the detail of...
Proposed Scotts Landing wharf would reduce traffic
Scotts Landing’s new wharf has proved to be wonderfully successful. As local oyster farmers, our frequent use of the landing means that we get to see just how well it works—from kids fishing through to loading provisions and crew aboard local yachts, and simply as a...
Low impact design that’s got to (be) smart
In a perfect world, economic drivers would be indistinguishable from environmental drivers. Readers of the Mahurangi Magazine will no doubt range from climate-change sceptics, all the way through to those in the we’re-already-dog-tucker…
Everything well in hand in Taupō
Nursery manager Philip Smith has got everything well in hand. My assistant Michael and I called in briefly last Monday at Taupō Native Plant Nursery, on way to a week working on a Wellington project. All the seed supplied from Mahurangi, from…
As radical as the constitution voter-owned elections
Jefferson’s words thrill radical youth eternal: ‘That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is in the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles…
In smart democracy ties not needed
With the third excruciating reversal of fortunes, Wayne Walker is once again a Rodney District councillor. On election night Walker was provisionally ahead of running mate, runner up Colin MacGillivray, by four votes. However, the position changed…
Preferential voting following the right fork
First-time visitors often overshoot the turnoff into Ngārewa Drive. It is not because the road to the Mahurangi Regional Park, west, Ngārewa Drive, is poorly sign-posted. There are now three major elements to the signposting: A diagram of the…
What’s to fix with mixed-member proportional
The member of Parliament’s ‘What’s to fix with mmp’ wasn’t rhetorical. Consequently, the editor was somewhat taken aback. It was a sharp reminder that opinion on mixed member proportional is, mixed. That it is either a huge improvement on…
Case for coastal collaboration above and beyond
My suggestion for the group’s name was Mahurangi Environmental Defence Society. When we were establishing Friends of the Mahurangi, in 1974, the Environmental Defence Society was the organisation I most wanted ours to emulate. That name didn’t get traction and nor did...
Walk down to a stream, see crystal-clear water
Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress My name is Lottie Thompson. I’m eleven years old and I live in the Mahurangi Catchment. I’m here to represent my district, Rodney. We are here to share what we do to help our area. My passions are horses and the environment. When...
I thought it was naturally a muddy brown colour
Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress My name is Rebekah Liebezeit. I am 13 years old and I live in the Mahurangi area, one hour north of Auckland. I am also part of the group called the Stream Rescue Team. This group of about fifteen students concentrates on...
Child of the Mahurangi states forests need buffer zones
Forum South-East Asian Survey Congress My name is Tegan Illingworth. I am nine years old and I live in Warkworth, which is north of Auckland and Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand. I am here to share information about Waicare. One reason I am in Waicare is I...
Children of the Mahurangi thank their sponsors
As we prepare to depart this evening, a huge thank you to the councils, individuals, community organisations, and companies (listed below) who have contributed financially toward the costs of sending the children to Christchurch to present to the South-East Asian...
Mangrove native for a mere nineteen million years
I find it difficult to understand just why I so adore mangroves. I only came into close contact with them in my early teens, when my family moved to Waiwera from just south of the 38th parallel—about the southern limit of mangrove habitat. My respect for them was...
The good news on good-news carbon
Tuesday’s Rodney Times carried an article that had Friends of the Mahurangi executive member Mike Neil highly encouraged: ‘Some good news on carbon, at last!’ Had I seen it? No, but I needed little excuse to put off completing some long-overdue administration chores...
Research up the river
New Zealand River Recreation Use Survey As oyster farmers, a huge perk of the job was having craft at the ready that were also perfect for recreation. Visitors to the family at Mahurangi West only had to pass an innocent remark about how beautiful the harbour looked...
Conspiracy theories also opiate at local level
She writes refreshingly rationally. Titled Conspiracy as the Opium of the People, columnist Tracey Barnett warns: We’re fostering a world where the truth can be picked out of a hat. Arabs, Jews or Americans themselves felled the Twin Towers, depending on whether you...
Harry Bunn was indeed a wonderful man
What a great photograph of Jaap! Jaap’s reference to Harry at the end of his is Harry Bunn, former director of the biggest division at Forest Research Institute for many years up to his retirement in the mid-1980s. Harry, who died a couple of years ago…
Preferential voting better representation of results
Trawling through the results of the 2007 local body elections where single transferable voting was used, I was somewhat discouraged by the various representations of the data involved. Some results were simply listed as Elected and Not Elected. Others…
Thank you the fabulously appreciated four hundred and eighty-five
Membership of Mahurangi Action once reached 330. That was on the back of the launch of Jade River : A History of the Mahurangi. Since then it has slipped back to around half that figure, where it has been, more or less, for much of the group’s existence. The...
Distinctly dispiriting campaign climate
I last stood for council 33 years ago. A candidate for the Hibiscus Coast District Community Council, I came, I was want to say, dangerously close to being elected. Not dangerous in the sense that I was too young, more that I was never comfortable with the adversarial...
High-impact cartoon could spark low-impact design revolution
Earlier yesterday, quite coincidentally, I tried to call Ross Kinnaird, to sound him out about a new personal project—the trifling matter of fixing MMP. I haven’t spoken to Ross for some time; the last was at Georg Kohlap’s funeral. We might have had a serious session...
Plucked from obscurity and patted on back
Goodness me, what a pleasant surprise. I thought I had already disappeared into history, not even making it to footnote status, and then you came along! Thank you so much for plucking me from obscurity and giving me a pat on the…
Mandatory marquee discussion begins with a few beers on Friday
A discussion over the planned scale of use of the Mahurangi West Hall is underway. The discussion is mandatory, a requirement of the Resource Management Act. Many rile against the act, but the common sense embodied in it is often lost sight of—specifically, the...
28–29 September River Magic
Yesterday, the curtain went up on the Magic River, a show that uses dance, drama and puppets to tell the story of our local rivers. Follow the adventures of the raindrops as they journey down the Mahurangi River in the company of Tree Guardian and Lily. Meet the...
Friends sponsor children to River Magic theatre
Today and tomorrow, local theatre company Magic Earth Theatre is holding four performances of its unique River Magic. This promises to be a delight, and it is totally dedicated the restoration of the Mahurangi. Deniece Gannaway, the vision, producer and director...
By kayak back to the crystal clear waters of home
The first light of pre-dawn appears, but we’ve been up for a while; sleep elusive. Whether its excitement, adrenaline or ‘pre-journey’ nerves, who knows. Maybe it’s the realisation that my dream to kayak from my old home, Auckland, to the home now of my father and...
Notes for the nursery at Taupō
We assume that the polythene planter bag and Hillsons Rootrainer stock is going to be raised as per standard practice at Taupō. Taupō Native Plant Nursery’s way of doing things is probably little different from any other container nursery, so…
Open-ground indigenous plants all go at Taupō
Sunday, Dr David Bergin and his assistant, his eldest son Michael, stopped at Mahurangi West on their way back from Northland. David and Michael had spent the previous week thinning and pruning naturally-regenerating stands of tōtara on…
Some capping and trading but an electric redemption
This piece was going to be titled: Too Little, Too Slowly—Pray it’s Not Too Late. But then it would have been doing the Labour government’s announcement on climate action a huge disservice. And it wouldn’t be doing any better than the New…
Migration and social transformation in the contemporary Pacific
Massey University Professorial Lecture Series Professor Cluny Macpherson Albany Thursday 20th September 7.00–9.00 pm Change in Pacific societies has been occurring continuously since humans settled and began to move around in the region thousands of years ago....
Today we meet Ms Morresey at Ransom Wines
The editor is looking forward to it. A gathering with prospects for more human and meaningful exchanges—after two ‘meet the candidates’ meetings, with several more to come. Purposeful, positive, discussion one-on-one or in small groups in…
That sublime feeling: My work here is done
I just had to call Shane Hartley. Fortunately for Shane he was on the phone, so I had to contain my excitement and write an email. Others hadn’t been quite so lucky that afternoon and quite a lot of phone time was spent reporting an historic breakthrough: The...
Getting handle on potential conflicts
As one who encouraged you to stand for Rodney District Council, it seemed to me that the best reason for having you elected was to have a committed advocate for the harbour and its catchment in that body. As a councillor, I believed you could…
Heading off a conflict of interest
My first action was to seek advice. I was considering standing for Rodney District Council, and sought the counsel of Graham Nielson who was my supervisor when I was employed by the council to computer-model Helensville’s water reticulation—the good old days when the...
stv-voters spared the horrors of how
Five friends meet up to see a movie. Screening is a romance, a horror, a comedy and an arthouse film. The friends hold a verbal ballot, agreeing to go with the highest-polling choice. Horror of horrors, the horror gets two votes, the rest one…
Preference preferable to dual-candidacy confusion
Safety in numbers. Unlike Wellington City and seven other local bodies, Rodney District Council and the rest of the herd have clung to first-past-the-post. The council, when rejecting preference voting prior to the 2004 election, denied the…
Award-winning presenters warm up at strategy and policy meeting
The students’ Stream Rescue Team can be seen in action at Rodney District Council’s strategy and policy meeting this Thursday at 9 am. Representatives of the Stream Rescue Team, made up of 10–13-year-old students from the Warkworth Homeschool Group and Warkworth...
After decades of inaction, action plan for clean up
New Mahurangi Action Plan project leader, Kim Morresey, has helped set up a meeting of stakeholders determined to end the impasse over derelict oyster farms. Responsibility for governance of marine farming now rests with Auckland Regional Council. The transfer of...
Possibly no witch to hunt
I can only imagine that friends of the Mahurangi will be feeling a range of emotions regarding the large quantity of diesel entering the river. The diesel was noticed downstream by Warkworth residents on Wednesday morning and reported to the Auckland Regional Council....
Cannon Fodder
Living a long life doesn’t necessarily result in wisdom, but in the case of my stepfather-in-law I have no doubt at all that it has. Norfolk-born, John Wright was sent to Sydney in 1941 to help, initially as its chief chemist, establish Cable Makers Australia—part of...
Plants for trials to be raised in Taupō
The Sustainable Farming Fund is laudably flexible. Recipients of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s fund are urged to speak up if, partway into a project, better outcomes can potentially be achieved by re-jigging the plan. The pilot open-ground…
Atmospheric cost of printed telephone numbers
Updated 30 July 2011 The Sunday papers had arrived. As had the staggering bulk of the new Sydney telephone directories. The editor’s host lamented the bulk of the papers, and the contrasting lack of content: They’re all conjecture—I’m sure they print them on Tuesday....
Laying keel of online history of the Mahurangi
Robert Thexton, descendant of Mahurangi shipwrights, spent his childhood holidays at the beach at Scotts Landing. In common with many Aucklanders, the Mahurangi Harbour is Rob Thexton’s favourite place. When buying a copy of Jade River: A History of the…
Children of the Mahurangi Stream Rescue Team
Richard Bromley Gillian Irons Ira Seitzer A group of about forty 9–13-year-old primary school children from the Warkworth Home School group and Warkworth Primary School have been involved for the past three years with the Auckland Regional Council’s Mahurangi Action...
Invitation to come meet Ms Morresey
We were discussing the curious characteristics of committees. I mentioned, to the new Mahurangi Action Plan project leader, that the last ‘formal’ Friends of the Mahurangi meeting was a year ago, and at Ransom Wines. And then felt it necessary to quickly explain that...
Prince-amongst-men Hutch Mick Rick and Bernie
When the editor asked his neighbour, legendary earthmoving contractor Mick Berger, about creating a marquee site at the Mahurangi West Hall, he also asked him who might be approached to do the engineering design. Hutch. Hutch? Is that his name? Yeah…
Scott descendant laying the keel
It is an eternity since the inevitable was accepted. That ‘the Mahurangi’ would need a website. But watching the various efforts, back in the dawning of the internet, it was concluded: Better perhaps have no web presence, than a site typical of the…
A great harbour worth saving
L e t t e r Jim Dollimore, Biomarine Limited Since [13 July] we have had another storm!—I will have to close the factory for at least a week and send the staff on holiday. However the oyster farm and oyster culling staff will be around and it is a good opportunity for...
Jim’s ill wind
The concept is consummate. With a severe storm approaching, faced with the likelihood of the harbour being closed for up to five days, and the prospect of having to lay off four or five workers until harvesting recommenced, Jim Dollimore emailed the editor suggesting...
Induction emphasises derelict marine farm opportunity
She was fresh home from a sailing holiday in Tonga. But Kim Morresey was only too happy to be back on the water, and as a seafood enthusiast, couldn’t be happier that it was aboard a Mahurangi oyster barge. Sadly, oysters were not on the menu, the…