May 2014

News

Energise Otaki Website Launched

The Energise Otaki website is up and running. A voluntary effort coordinated by Miriam Richardson and Gael Ferguson has given the town a focal point...

MenzShed Update » May 2014

The outside of the shed is painted, filled, windows puttied up and barge boards replaced where the rot was too much to fill ... the old girl is ready for quite a lot more years for us sheddies to enjoy. The inside is nearly finished with a race on to get it ready for the official opening and blessing on June 17.

Gardening

Garden tasks for June 2014

Flower garden: Plant lily bulbs or divide existing ones. Dig up bulbs and divide bulb scales - plant in seed-raising mix. ... Orchard ... Vegetables ... Lawns

Pretty as a pansy

Cheerful, fragile-looking pansies are one of the toughest performers for chilly winter gardens — and who can resist falling for that pretty, velvety face — whether plain, patterned, smudged or be-whiskered? They come in more colours than the rainbow — ruby red and regal purple, azure blue and glowing gold, apricot and rusty brown, snowy white and even black.

Thumbs up, Thumbs down

Thumbs up

  • R-ThumbsupTe Huinga Selby-Ricket for Kapiti Sportswoman of the year.
  • Talisman Nursery for plants and planting outside the Birthright House.
  • The good samaratin who found and returned the BMW keys at Otaki Beach.

Thumbs down

  • R-ThumbsdownTe Horo Beach, for the loss of your identity and character, with the closing of Kirsty’s bus.
  • People who drive vehicles on the beach without regard for other beach users.

Taking Ōtaki's Pulse

Don’t Be Powerless – Not Sure? Ask Us

If you’ve got money worries, getting your power disconnected because you couldn’t afford to pay the bill might be the last straw – especially...

Farmers need to know it’s okay to ask for help

Dairy farmers need to know they can ask for help to deal with stress and depression, says Lisa, a Waikato share milker. Lisa’s husband Hamish did an interview with mental health advocate Sir John Kirwan that featured in a recent campaign by the Government’s Health Promotion Agency.

History

Otaki’s History: From the Otaki Mail, May 7, 1924

ACCIDENT IN MAIN STREET CAR CRASHED INTO POST A large motor-car, driven by a young man named Willis, ran foul of a verandah post at...

Otaki Museum: Rotary’s fifty years in Otaki

The exhibition celebrating Rotary’s fifty years in Otaki has only another month to run, so if you haven’t seen it, be sure you do...

Life

Library book reviews

A Burnable Book, Bruce Holsinger — The School Inspector Calls, Gervase Phinn — Forty Days Without Shadow, Olivier Truc — The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins, Irvine Welsh

Don’t Be Powerless – Not Sure? Ask Us

If you’ve got money worries, getting your power disconnected because you couldn’t afford to pay the bill might be the last straw – especially...

Business, industry & farming

Entyre brings jobs to Ōtaki

More than 50 jobs could be created in Ōtaki when the Entyre rubber recycling plant gets fully into production, converting a sizeable chunk of New Zealand’s waste tyres into products such as mats for dairy farms.

Energise Otaki Website Launched

The Energise Otaki website is up and running. A voluntary effort coordinated by Miriam Richardson and Gael Ferguson has given the town a focal point...

Sports, arts, music & entertainment

The Civic Chat

Why go to live theatre? Someone said “it's like why have live actual sex when you can watch it on film. Or why go to a concert when you can buy a CD? People go to the theatre to suspend their belief... and give in to the world of LIVE entertainment. There is an energy that is given off from people performing on stage.

New patron for Mahara Gallery

Gillian, Lady Deane recently accepted an invitation to become the patron of Waikanae’s Mahara Gallery, a move which has come at a pivotal time for the district’s art gallery, currently immersed in fund raising to redevelop facilities.

KCDC Update

Rubbish dumping unacceptable

Community Board Chair James Cootes is urging Ōtaki people to take a more responsible attitude to the dumping of rubbish – and Council to take strong action against those who litter the town’s beaches.

Council’s next round of contestable waste reduction grant funding opens later...

Funding is awarded under the Waste Levy Grants process and from the Waste Levy Fund. This does not come from rates. The levy money...

Entyre brings jobs to Ōtaki

More than 50 jobs could be created in Ōtaki when the Entyre rubber recycling plant gets fully into production, converting a sizeable chunk of New Zealand’s waste tyres into products such as mats for dairy farms.

Environment

Rubbish dumping unacceptable

Community Board Chair James Cootes is urging Ōtaki people to take a more responsible attitude to the dumping of rubbish – and Council to take strong action against those who litter the town’s beaches.

Friends of the Otaki River Plant More Natives

With the planting season on us, the Friends of the Otaki River held their first public planting day, the Pub Charity Family Planting, above Chrystalls Bend recently. About 30 people turned out and made short work of imbedding the 1000 trees, shrubs and grasses in the prepared holes.