Blomfield’s first cartoon for press publication centres around the long-running transport debate.
Today we publish the first cartoon from Blomfield (Darren Blomfield), a cartoonist for more than 30 years and now part of the Times Newspapers team. Born in west Auckland and living his life out west with a background in graphic design and print.
A new generation of illustrator from a long line of Blomfield artists, Darren brings a style very similar to his great great uncle William Blomfield (cartoonist for the Observer, in Wellington from 1870s – 1920s) JC Blomfield (cartoonist for the Auckland Star in the 1920s).
He continues the legacy like his Grandfather Val Blomfield, father Colin Blomfield, and sister Sharon Blomfield, who are also known New Zealand artists.
Charles Blomfield, the famous landscape artist from the 1860s, is also related.
Cartooning at corporate events functions, he is becoming known nationally in this unique medium and lost art in which he is seeking to continue the Blomfield tradition.
His goal is to aspire to such legends as Emmerson and Bromhead in becoming a household name in cartooning and give a Blomfield perspective on current affairs and news.
“I hope my illustrations are three things: engaging, emotive, entertaining,” he said.
Howick Primary School is the latest to be targeted in a series of bomb threats that has been happening throughout the country.
Police were called to the school in Willoughby Ave at about 12.30pm today after it received a call similar to those made around the country yesterday including Dunedin, Wellington and Napier.
Principal Leyette Callister said she could not reveal much apart from police responded quickly and everything was back to normal at the school.
“No children were in danger at any point,” she said.
Inspector Jared Pirrett of Counties Manukau East Police said the threat was defused and “everyone was safe and sound”.
“The school did well and went through the normal exercise plan. Police responded as normal practice and cleared the school ground and followed normal procedures around this sort of threat.”
Mr Pirrett said while local police attended the scene, police around the country also received a handful of similar calls.
“We’re conducting an investigation to find out who’s responsible for causing stress to teachers, parents and children.”
Glendowie School in Auckland, Kerikeri High School and Kaitaia Intermediate School in Northland reportedly received threats also.
A police statement said the calls were of an automated nature and that initial enquiries indicated that they originated overseas, even though they may display a New Zealand number.
Similar incidents have occurred overseas in the United States and more recently, Australia.
So far, no actual threat to any school has been established.
However, until any actual threat can be ruled out, police are taking the calls seriously and assessing the appropriate response at each school.
IT HAS been five weeks since he resigned, but it’s difficult for Ken McKay, the former
SAYING THANKS: Catholic Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn will conduct a thanksgiving mass for Ken McKay, above, who has resigned after serving as principal of Our Lady Star of the Sea School for 15 years. Photo supplied.
principal of Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Howick, to get a break.
It’s obvious that he’s left a deep imprint on the minds of the students and staff, as he gets lots of hugs the minute he steps into the school for an interview with the Times.
“This is the first day I’ve come to school on a working day after I resigned and it’s hard to let go,” he admits, trying to come to terms with starting a new life.
“It’s more difficult since I had to resign due to ill health and it wasn’t a natural retirement,” says the 61-year-old, radiating warmth as he interacts with pupils and the faculty.
Having been a principal for the past 34 years, Mr McKay believes the most important part of the job is to build trust and confidence.
“One of the things I learnt in the third year of being a principal is that you leave your professional at school and personal at home.
“It’s the hardest thing to do.
“If you want to build trust, you cannot discuss the problems of a child, teacher or parent with anyone,” he says.
“It’s only when you carry it on your shoulders that you can build loyalty with the staff.
“While a principal’s job is a lonely one, because of the many decisions and judgements you have the responsibility for making on your own, I’ve had the privilege of being supported by loyal leadership teams and school governance.
“It’s also filled with so many beautiful relationships with everyone.
“The key to the role of a principal is that everyone should feel valued,” says the highly regarded educator, who first sat in the hot seat of a principal at the age of 27.
The schools Mr McKay’s been at the helm of prior to taking over at Our Lady Star of the Sea are St Mary’s Catholic School, Otorohanga; St Joseph’s, Pukekohe; and St Francis Xavier, Whangarei.
It was while he was principal of St Joseph’s that he first introduced a four-term year in 1990.
His vision became a nationwide concept in 1993.
He also introduced a portfolio system instead of a report card way before it became popular in other schools.
The common denominator in his career has been the creation of successful communities, wherever he went.
“If you are able to talk with kiddies and mum and dad on a first name basis, you build a good rapport with them,” says Mr McKay.
Apart from the parents, he’s always welcomed the parish community to have one-to-one sessions with children who need help with reading.
“It’s like spending time with grandparents and learning good values.”
All the communities he has built are coming together to bid farewell at a special thanksgiving mass led by Catholic Bishop of Auckland Patrick Dunn and other priests he’s worked with, tomorrow at 1pm in the school hall.
About 700 people are expected to attend the ceremony, after which there will be a big afternoon tea.
Members of the Ministry of Education and Education Review Office will also be present to honour the former principal known for enriching lives while serving the school for 15 years.
“I’m humbled that the bishop is going to conduct the mass,” says Mr McKay.
“The Catholic system has given me a career and I hope I’ve been able to do justice and touch people’s lives, adding value to them.”
A MAN who lived in the historic Guy Homestead in Ti Rakau Drive for the first five years of his life was visibly overcome as he took in progress on the ambitious renovation project of his old home.
Principals of the Piccolo Park Family Learning Centre, from left, centre manager Rukshana Kapadia, Riaz Daud and Narisa Daud, are looking forward to opening the historic Guy Homestead’s doors early next year. Times photo Wayne Martin.
“It gets you inside after all these years,” Graham Guy said.
“I congratulate you all for what you have done to make it what it is – thank you.”
Mr Guy was a special guest at a function last Friday, hosted on the homestead site by its new owners JP Singh and his business partner Kuljet Singh.
The event was organised to acknowledge the people who had contributed to the project and to share the restoration journey which has reached its halfway point.
Mr Guy lived in the homestead from 1923-1928 after his father bought half of the original farm originally purchased by his grandfather in 1899.
He still lives on a section of his dad’s half which was sold for development, including Huntington Park, in 1994.
Last January, JP Singh and Kuljet Singh paid close to the $3.5 million asking price for the burnt-out homestead.
They launched a plan to return it to its heritage roots and turn the property into a childcare centre, including two new barn-like structures currently under construction.
It’s hoped that by next January the patter of little feet will once again echo around the homestead, which is being converted to accommodate 20 children under the age of two.
Apart from a sleeping room which will be closed off by a door, the rest of the house is open plan, featuring wall openings rather than doors so the children have flowing access to the facilities.
The balance of 100 older children will share the new structures that are designed to retain the homestead’s rural past and will encompass tactile activities, such as growing organic veggies.
Architect Matthew Davy says so far the project has been a “textbook” operation.
“It’s nice to put the doubts to rest and show that it can be done.
“With the right attitude anything is possible. JP is the visionary while we are the tools.”
As much of the original Guy Homestead structure as possible has been saved.
French doors, some of the veranda posts and about 70 per cent of the original rough sawn timber weatherboards, which have been stripped and repainted, have been retained.
Where retaining is not possible, replicas have been custom-made.
The two brick chimneys were painstakingly manually removed, bricks polished and waxed and returned to the original chimney shape on the roof.
Architraves, cornices and skirtings are being restored to the original style.
Corrugated iron with a deeper trough typical of old villas was specially ordered for the scallop-shape veranda.
Scalloped rafters were recreated and waves of scallops, running under the roof and wall join, add a feature unique to villas of the time.
Some of the charred and smoke-damaged internal timber has been retained.
“We are keeping as much of the original fabric of the house as we can, even if some of it won’t be seen,” Mr Davy says.
Reflecting on progress so far, JP Singh says: “We always expect challenges on these developments, but everyone has been open-minded and taken advice.”
One of the scarier moments, he says, was watching the homestead poised on the back of a truck being shifted eight metres to the north-west.
“The house had been burned and was not that strong, so it was braced.
“But it was a windy day. Yes, it was scary.
“But the most challenging moment was after the demolition work [the rear lean-two was beyond repair] was done and we asked, ‘where do we start to put it together?’”
JP Singh’s wife Normita believes the homestead has come a long way from its original state, reflecting prolonged neglect and lack of interest in it.
“Rest assured the legacy will endure for many more generations,” she says.
Her message is shared by Rukshana Kapadia and Riaz and Narisa Daud of the Piccolo Park Family Learning Centre, who are looking forward to opening the childcare centre early next year.
“It will be so nice to have the little ones here,” Ms Kapadia says.
CAMPAIGNER: Howick builder Nick Neben, outside the Guy Homestead in Ti Rakau Drive a year ago, wants greater protection of heritage buildings owned by foreign property investors. Times file photo Wayne Martin.
A HOWICK resident who publicly campaigned to have Guy Homestead restored is calling for changes to legislation involving foreign ownership of heritage homes.
Nick Neben, one of several people instrumental in saving the 116-year-old heritage home in Huntington Park, believes foreign investors should not be allowed to purchase registered New Zealand historic buildings without conditions.
“Overseas investors aren’t likely to share the same values or recognise the cultural significance of these buildings,” he says.
“I mean, why would anyone overseas want to buy an historic home?”
The Smith and Sons builder says a great number of such homes just sit there, remain empty and get neglected.
He believes most foreign owners want to demolish and rebuild or redevelop.
“We’re a young country in the grand scheme of things and I don’t think we have enough experience and expertise to protect our heritage effectively.”
Up until its recent sale, Guy Homestead was largely neglected by its former Hong Kong-based owners and vulnerable to a spate of vandalism.
After a suspicious fire in December 2012, the home was in real danger of being demolished.
“It was kind of sinister, really,” says Mr Neben.
He believes the Guy Homestead case warrants the Auckland Council to set up a forum or committee to explore options that ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“There needs to be some sort of legislation changes to minimise the loss of our heritage.”
While the council’s heritage manager Noel Reardon agrees there is room for tweaking the law, he thinks the foreign ownership comments are “a sweeping generalisation”.
“We get just as many issues with New Zealand owners, so to say it’s an investor issue, I don’t agree with.
“Sure there were challenges with Guy Homestead and the overseas owners made it a lot more difficult, but what was really difficult was that we had no teeth to do anything.”
Mr Reardon says it’s more a criticism of the law.
“If you had proper legislation that enabled councils to require maintenance of historical heritage buildings then it doesn’t really matter who owns them.”
He says the real issue is that it’s difficult to require owners of heritage buildings to maintain them.
“We have no means to force them to carry out maintenance if they don’t want to.
“And equally, you can’t make someone do something they cannot afford to do.”
NZ Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand) advisor John O’Hare says scheduling a historical house is often used as a tool to incorporate it into a council district plan.
The district plan is the primary mechanism by which places are protected.
However, Mr Reardon says: “The previous legacy council [Manukau] thought it had protected Guy Homestead by the legal encumbrances on the title, and in reality those encumbrances were not very effective.”
At least now for the iconic Guy Homestead there is a happy ending.
“We’ve had Guy Homestead on our radar for a while now, and by the sounds of things, the new owner JP Singh is looking forward to turning the Guy Homestead into a day care centre, which will have an appropriate functional use, which for us is a really good outcome.”
Mr O’Hare says the best way to maintain a heritage building is to keep it “alive and ticking”.
“It keeps the building well maintained, but it also keeps it relevant, loved and used by the community.”
Mr Reardon agrees, saying: “The whole issue of heritage buildings is real emotive and what some people’s heritage is, for another, a development opportunity.
Ready to bring Guy Homestead back to life, from left, JP Singh (owner), Smeet Girish (project manager), Kuljet Singh (director), Rukshana Kapadia (Piccolo Park Family Learning Centre manager), Matthew Davy (Dave Pearson Architects), and Riaz Daud (Piccolo Park Family Learning Centre). Times photo Marianne Kelly.
A COUNTRY-inspired rustic theme providing urban children with tactile activities, such as growing their own organic veggies, will be the aim of the operators of a new child care centre planned for the historic Guy Homestead.
The prominent Ti Rakau Drive property has been sold to business partners JP and Kuljet Singh.
They’ve signed an agreement with Riaz Daud and his family to establish Piccolo Park Family Learning Centre, using the restored homestead and new barn-like structures, which will swing in an elbow at the rear of the section.
Mr Daud and his sister Rukshana Kapadia, who will be the centre manager, operate the Piccolo Park Child Care Centre at Sylvia Park catering for 70 children.
The Singhs, with a number of child care centre developments including Piccolo under their belt, could see the concept was a good fit with potential use for the Guy Homestead property, and they were impressed with the way the Syliva Park centre was run.
JP Singh says while working on plans for Ti Rakau Drive, “we shared our plans with them [Daud family] and before we knew it they had signed up”.
Mr Daud says: “We live here – in Howick and Flat Bush – so we are local. It didn’t take us long to take to JP’s approach.”
Ms Kapadia says: “I had been thinking about that building and its suitability for children for a long time and when we got the proposal I was so excited.”
Mr Daud says the theme is country inspired, in keeping with the homestead’s farming heritage.
“We want the children to experience activity, such as planted patches and an organic veggie garden. We will have farming implements and tools from yesteryear to retain the historical link.”
The new building will be eco-friendly, naturally ventilated with glazed louvre windows and solar panels will be installed for energy.
JP Singh says: “We’re taking the children back, exposing them to agriculture and farming, but also to modern sustainable living concepts, encouraging judicious use of resources, for example careful water conservation.
“But they will also be able to make use of modern technology such as computers and iPads.
“It will be unique. Guy Homestead will be blended with an eco-friendly building. We will be respecting cultures and heritage, old and new.”
Project architect Matthew Davy says development of the child care centre involves restoration of the homestead, including a separate space for the under-twos with facilities such as sleeping accommodation and milk stations.
“We went with picking up 75 per cent of the existing building. The back lean-to which was badly burned had no structural integrity.
“We’re proposing to link the house with a new barn-like structure providing 420 square metres additional space,” says Mr Davy.
“We believe this is the best use and solution to the presence the homestead has now and in the future.
“We’re restoring it with all the historical elements, for example we’ll rebuild the chimneys making them earthquake proof.
“Internal walls will be retained but with openings in them to adapt for the building’s new use.
“We’re not trying to replicate the old with the new and don’t want to detract from the scale of the homestead.
“The two barns with an elbow link will help us to achieve the 420 sq m in a scale appropriate to the homestead.
“Yes, we’ve lost the back section and the roof and ceiling of the back two rooms.
“Apart from that the building is structurally sound. It looks worse than it is. We’ve seen a lot worse. The Abbeville Estate redevelopment [next to Auckland Airport] was.”
Mr Davy says the key challenge for the project team was the rules that prevented the sale and purchase of the homestead.
“It has been controversial for a long time and we [Dave Pearson Architects] had known about it for a long time.
“When JP phoned, I said ‘I know the site’. We had written reports for the council and warned that it was an arson hit.
The old lady of the landscape, 116-year-old Guy Homestead, has new owners who want to give it a new lease of life, with the fresh breath of preschoolers. MARIANNE KELLY meets the new owners.
An artist impression shows barn-style buildings, left, are planned to complement a rejuvenated farmhouse, taking cues from the property’s rural past. Image supplied.
FOR the past 15 years, JP Singh has regularly driven past the historic Guy Homestead in Ti Rakau Drive and pondered about ways of returning it to its heritage roots.
He and his business partner Kuljet Singh are now going to turn a dream into reality with restoration of the burnt-out homestead and its conversion to a child care centre.
They have paid close to the $3.5 million asking price for the property and hopes are high that in 12-15 months children will enter the doors of the Piccolo Park Family Learning Centre. Preliminary work on the building started this week.
Under a newly-established name, Ti Ranga Aotearoa Group of Companies, the Singhs have multiple interests, including developing child care centres and hospitality projects.
They became aware of the homestead in 2003 when they built and, for the first few years, operated the Xtreme Entertainment Centre on the corner of Ti Rakau Drive and Botany Road.
“I remember seeing the real estate sign on the fence in perpetuity, and when circumstances allowed I chose to gather the courage to have a chat with my bank to speak to them about the implications,” says JP Singh.
“We were faced with the challenges of dealing with an overseas vendor who had lost a bit of interest in restoration.
“The vendor had fixed demands, but the Auckland Council was looking outside the square, refreshingly so.”
The concept of converting the property into a child care centre was not far from the minds of council officials, who had been given the go-ahead by councillors and the Howick Local Board to put an offer in for the homestead.
They, like real estate agent Lawrence Wong, who had been marketing the property for the best part of 10 years, were hamstrung by the NZ Historic Places Trust and former Manukau City Council covenants.
They protected the homestead from being removed from the site and required restoration projects to retain its architectural style.
Another covenant restricted the land, zoned residential, from being subdivided.
Historically, JP Singh says: “There was bad blood and an element of mistrust about the way the encumbrances were written.
“Then with the fire gutting the building and the presence of the encumbrances, the vendor felt there was a bone of contention.
“We didn’t go down that path. We decided to take the encumbrances in spirit, embrace the limitations and run with it.
“We could have opted for one-and-a-half times the space for the child care centre.
“But the option to carry on with the legacy of the homestead prompted us to scale the model back to 120 children, when it could have been up to 180.
“That was the turning point and then we could go forward.”
The result was a deal between developer and council that the land at the back of the property could be subdivided, but the homestead must be restored.
Council heritage manager Noel Reardon says when the Auckland Council was established it found Guy Homestead on a list of privately-owned heritage buildings deemed to be at risk.
“It was a case of demolition by neglect. We have a number like this around the city and this one was exacerbated by the fire, although it looked worse than it really was.
“But we were trying to deal with it under a regulatory framework which was frustrating.
“We found the mechanisms on the title were inadequate and we were dealing with an overseas owner.
“There was a lot of public interest and I was getting weekly calls from people asking about what progress was happening.”
When JP Singh approached the council, it was considering purchasing the property. But the offer had to be cost-neutral, so it was considering uses for the site similar to the Singhs.
“When we discussed the homestead with Mr Singh we found he not only valued the heritage and had a proven track record, but also a similar idea to that the council had chosen. We were extremely happy,” says Mr Reardon.
The council, he says, found the encumbrance about maintenance of the homestead was unenforceable. But preventing subdivision was enforceable. So, through the resource consent process, it was able to tweak the system.
“The subdivision issue was the lever that we believed could be addressed.”
The upshot is the establishment of two base lots of 2000 square metres and 1800 sq m at the rear of the property, now on the market for subdividing.
The resource consent also allows the new owners to shift the homestead 8m to the north-west, maintaining the central vista, but allowing for a barn-like swing of building behind the homestead.
“The problem was that regulatory mechanisms are black and white, while on the ground nothing is,” Mr Reardon says.
“That led to the negotiations and we’re happy about the flexibility. The homestead is a landmark and it had to be visible from the road, restored and reused.”
• Known also as Saidia House, Guy Homestead was built in 1898.
It was originally part of a 210-acre farm and over the years was subdivided into smaller property parcels.
The former Manukau City Council bought it and 0.9 hectares in the early 1980s to allow for the extension of Ti Rakau Drive.
The council sold the property in 1997 and private owner, Hong Kong-based Twin Oaks Ltd, settled on the property sale with the Singhs on January 13.
There are some who are passionate about gardening and some who are no strangers to fruit. This week, SANDRA (Sandy) JOHNSON from McGregor’s offers us the best of both worlds, as she explains.
Passionfruit is one of my favourite fruits but they can be quite expensive. However, armed with a few tips and a little perseverance, Kiwi gardeners can enjoy the fruits of their labour without digging too deep into their wallets.
When, where and how to plant
The most popular varieties of passionfruit amongst home gardener is the black passionfruit (Passiflora edulis).
The best time to plant new vines is from October through until January because, once the danger of frosts has passed, they will have time to establish themselves before winter. These plants are usually available in garden centres during this time.
Passionfruit are subtropical fruit that grow readily in warm parts of the garden. They like lots of sun but will tolerate some shade during the day.
Free-draining soil is essential, heavy, water-logged soils like clay are not suitable as the roots will become water-logged in winter, causing rot to set in.
While an established vine will withstand some frost, they won’t survive successive severe frosts, nor do they like long cold winters. So, consider planting new vines against a wall or fence, to provide reflected heat, protection from frosty winds and support at the same time.
Because passionfruit vines are heavy croppers, they require a lot of food so, when planting, prepare the soil by digging in plenty of compost and add a good couple of handfuls of blood and bone around the root zone.
Care
During the year, additional fertilising is necessary; passionfruit require plenty of food, so don’t be stingy! Any prepared citrus fertiliser will do the trick, with one application in August and another during the middle of summer.
Watering the vines during the drier months is important otherwise fruit will often shrivel on the vine.
Mulching will also benefit the plant, not only by adding nutrients to the soil and suppressing weeds, but it by keeping the root run cool and moist in summer. When applying the mulch, be sure to keep it away from the vine stem as this will cause the bark to rot.
To train the vines, choose 4-5 strong laterals – the primary stems from which the secondary fruiting arms grow. These main laterals need to be trained upwards through the trellis or support wires.
Although some gardeners choose not to prune passionfruit vines, because fruit is only borne on new season growth, pruning can increase production. Without pruning, the vine can become a dense, tangled mass of shoots – many of which will be non-fruiting – and more likely to harbour pest and diseases.
Pruning should be conducted after harvest. First, remove any dead, diseased or spindly growth, then cut back the main laterals by one third to encourage the growth of new shoots.
Pest and Diseases
As with any plant, the first line of defence against pests and diseases is providing healthy growing conditions.
However, because passionfruit are susceptible to a few problems, they will require some spraying to stay in top shape.
Pest/Disease
When to spray
Suggested product
Brown spot, mealy bug, passion vine hopper
November-March, every four weeks
McGregors Copper Oxychloride and Pyrethrum
Grease spot
Through winter at monthly intervals
McGregors Copper Oxychloride
Because pyrethrum is harmful to bees, spray in the early evening when they have gone home. Also, be sure to spray the undersides of leaves where bugs like to hide and lay eggs.
Harvest
Fruit is usually produced approximately 15 months to two years after planting and from February through to September each year thereafter.
The vines don’t last forever, reaching peak production within roughly five years they will then begin to decline. Therefore, it pays to plant a replacement vine a few years after the first, to ensure an ongoing supply of this luscious fruit.
Contributed by Sandra Johnson from Team McGregor’s.
Kikuyu is a grass species which prompts strong reactions, both positive and negative with many people happy to ‘kik-yu’ out the door for suggesting it has its merits!
But, during this long, dry season it is easy to see its positive attributes, especially in sandy areas.
That’s because any green patches seen are likely to be kikuyu (pennisetum clandestinum), which can make do with only light rain and summer dew to grow.
And, following Yates’ release of a new kikuyu-based lawn seed mix, which is proving particularly useful for coastal sections, many Kiwis are starting to believe their grass really can be greener.
A plant which has all the attributes of a rampant weed, clearly kikuyu, in the right place, and with the right management, can be extremely useful.
The use of kikuyu, for lawns, recreation areas, parks and sports fields has become increasingly important and, as with pasture, there are management techniques which turn this potential plant pest into a practical, hard-wearing surface.
Staying green through summer with minimal irrigation required and under-sown with ryegrass to keep a vigorous surface through winter, 40%o of the recreational areas in greater Auckland are now kikuyu-based.
Native to the African countries of Burundi, Zaire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, kikuyu is named for the Kikuyu (Gikuyu) people of Kenya.
It was introduced to New Zealand from Zimbabwe by the Department of Agriculture in the early 1920s. Trials were conducted at Albany and Purewa where growth was so impressive cuttings were distributed throughout the northern North Island.
Establishing easily from stolon cuttings, it also spreads via rhizomes and seeds. Cattle spread kikuyu, as their dung can be full of viable seed, which germinates rapidly.
As a pasture species, kikuyu proved to be a mixed blessing with one person from the early 1960s, summing up the negative aspects with these words:
“Almost everyone in Northland hates kikuyu – farmers, because it has poor feed value and crowds out better pasture species; orchardists, because it can climb up and partially smother trees; gardeners, because it can invade lawns and gardens. Being a drought-resistant perennial, it is hard to eradicate. Fast-growing in summer but mostly winter-dormant, it can cause severe feed shortages in spring.”
However, 1960s research on established best-practice routines has allowed Northland farmers to utilise kikuyu as a productive pasture species for drystock and dairying.
The main management tools are:
Intensive subdivision
Mowing surplus growth especially in the autumn
Optimum fertiliser programmes
Under-sowing with clovers and winter growing (rye) grasses.
The Northland-based Kikuyu Action Group is still researching and disseminating information to farmers.
On the positive benefits of kikuyu it has been said that, “kikuyu is an exceptionally good coloniser of raw sand country, which is liable to dry out in summer. Established kikuyu increases the moisture retained in the top layer of sand, assisting the survival of clovers.”
Many of our larger coastal farms graze beef cattle extensively and there are some productive dairy farms with kikuyu as the ‘backbone’ of their grass production
It is recommended that kikuyu lawns should be established between November and March, with a minimum temperature of 15degrees C required for germination and growth, so there’s still time to sow, thanks to this year’s Indian summer.
A BLAZE at an historic homestead has left its owners and civic officials working out how the property, protected by two covenants, can still be classified as a heritage building.
The iconic Guy Homestead in Ti Rakau Drive in Botany was severely damaged by fire last Saturday night. Times photo Wayne Martin
Police are appealing to the public for information about who may have started a fire inside the 114-year-old Guy Homestead in Botany last Saturday evening.
South-East Auckland firefighters extinguished the blaze at the Ti Rakau Drive property, reported to emergency services at 7.35pm.
Counties Manukau fire risk management officer Phil Faidley is investigating the fire he believes was deliberately lit.
“The fire spread quickly through the building’s interior,” he told the Times. “The building’s southern half is totally damaged. The walls are still standing, but that’s testament to it being a good strong building.”
Mr Faidley says witnesses told police they saw people in a motor vehicle in the area before the fire broke out.
The Guy Homestead blaze follows a series of arsons started at schools and in public places in East Auckland since July.
Mr Faidley says it’s unlikely, but not impossible, the fire that gutted Guy Homestead is linked to the earlier arsons.
Known also as Saidia House, Guy Homestead was built in 1898. It was originally part of a 210-acre farm and over the years was subdivided into smaller properties.
The former Manukau City Council bought it and 0.9 hectares in the early 1980s to allow for the extension of Ti Rakau Drive.
The council sold the property in 1997 and it’s owned by Twin Oaks Ltd, which has directors based in Hong Kong.
Guy Homestead has been repeatedly vandalised in recent months with walls covered in graffiti and the front door kicked in.
It has an Historic Places Trust covenant protecting it from being removed from the site and requiring restoration projects to retain its architectural style.
Another covenant restricts the land, zoned residential, from being subdivided.
Real estate agent Lawrence Wong, of Century 21 (Colin Boyer Realty), has had the Guy Homestead property listed for sale for eight years, but says buyers drop out when they discover the covenants.
Its owners are now wondering what will happen to the building.
“The Historic Places Trust has a big hand in the whole thing,” says Mr Wong. “I’ve been asked whether it will be easier to sell. There are two covenants on the title, but who would want to protect it now?
“I also categorically deny the owners had anything to do with the fire. We are into preserving things, not wrecking them.”
Auckland Council heritage manager Noel Reardon says staff deemed Guy Homestead safe when inspecting it two weeks ago.
“That’s not the case anymore. We will assess the safety issues.”
A council team will work out whether the building can be restored.
“We were making plans to restore the building. We were going to approach the owner about purchasing the site,” says Mr Reardon.
“There were other private interests involved and it was our preference they undertook the work. A council purchase was a backstop.
“I was confident the issue would be resolved shortly after Christmas. We were making progress and the Howick Local Board was supportive.”
Howick builder Nick Neben has been campaigning to save Guy Homestead. He says it’s a tragedy one of the area’s last standing heritage buildings has been damaged.
“I feel gutted all our efforts over the past months to save Guy Homestead have gone up in smoke,” says Mr Neben.
“It was destined to happen, as the place was left unsecured and people were using it as a doss house.
“On November 29, I pleaded with Auckland Council to take urgent action to secure the homestead.”
Auckland architect Chris Tate talked with Mr Neben and the council about relocating the house to land he owns near Ngatea, on the Hauraki Plains.
Mr Tate says: “It’s unbelievable to have this happen to such a beautiful building. I’m devastated.
“I always thought what a cool place it was and I was horrified when we looked inside.
“We would have lovingly restored it. We were happy to work with the Historic Places Trust to open it up to the public.”
Mr Tate is seeking house-moving advice about whether the front part of the building is structurally sound enough to move.
WITNESSES SOUGHT
POLICE have released to the Times descriptions of a person and motor vehicle seen near Guy Homestead at the time it was damaged by fire.
Detective James Ralph, of Counties Manukau East Police’s criminal investigation branch, says witnesses reported seeing in Botany Downs a male Caucasian aged in his late teens, of medium build and about 170 centimetres tall.
The man was wearing a yellow and purple basketball-style singlet, and was seen in the area between 7-8pm on December 1.
Police also want to hear from anyone who saw an older model white or light grey motor vehicle, the back of which is described as being “square edge” in shape.
The vehicle’s registration number plate may have contained the letters T and Q and the number 9.
People who saw the Caucasian male or the motor vehicle can phone Mr Ralph on 250-3005, email james.ralph@police.govt.nz, or phone Crimestoppers on 0800-555-111.
AT ONLY 13 years of age, Kirsten Dodgen is already a world champion.
The Elim Christian College student is a member of Hip Hop International junior division world champion crew Bubblegum.
TOP GIRL: Kirsten Dodgen with her medal for winning the junior division of the Hip Hop International world championships. Times photo Wayne Martin.
Teams from 40 countries descended on Las Vegas last month for the 10th anniversary of the event.
Bubblegum were joined by varsity team Sorority and megacrew The Royal Family as first-place getters in their divisions. All of the crews rehearse at The Palace Studio and are led by choreographer Parris Goebel.
Kirsten, who lives in East Tamaki, has been trained in a number of dance styles but hip hop is where her heart is.
“Hip hop is my passion,” says the Year 9 student. “I can’t stop dancing, it’s like I go into a different world.”
Bubblegum is made up of eight boys and girls aged 10 to 13. Kirsten had wanted to join the crew since it placed fifth at last year’s event.
To improve on that result, the dancers train for six hours each Saturday which was then ramped up to daily sessions leading into the championships.
“It all paid off on the stage,” Kirsten says. “We earned the highest ever junior score and one of the highest scores on the night – 8.37 out of 10.”
The group performed one song in which they mixed four different styles – whacking, locking, popping and new jack.
“Whacking is movements with your arms while keeping your posture straight,” Kirsten says. “Popping is more precise and making sure your moves are on point.”
The trip was Kirsten’s second to the world champs. She placed sixth in 2008 with De Ja Vu before linking with Goebel and The Palace last year.
“Parris is one of the top people in hip hop in the world,” she says. “When I first joined, it was scary because I didn’t know what her expectations would be.”
The taskmaster’s gruelling training regime worked wonders as the team won each preliminary round by a big margin, including a defeat of last year’s winners from Japan.
“It was mind-blowing,” says Kirsten. “When we won, the other crews and some of the judges were saying, ‘you’re so good, I can’t believe you come from a small country like New Zealand’.”
THIRTY years after taking a long fight to vindicate the air crew who flew the DC10 in the
FAMILY’S BATTLE: Retired Air New Zealand captain Gordon Vette with his wife Charmaine and son Mark. Times photo Wayne Martin.
tragic Erebus crash, Gordon Vette is adamant he would do it all again.
Former Air New Zealand Captain Vette, of Eastern Beach, is now 76. Six years ago he suffered a stroke which has left him unable to speak, although he is fully cognitive.
Asked by the Times about his decision to help Justice Peter Mahon in the commission of inquiry set up to re-investigate the crash, his wife Charmaine says: “He would do the same today, even knowing that it would cost him his job and other friends in the company.”
What about his decision to resign from Air NZ in the face of political pressure? “He had no choice,” she says.
Mr Vette’s son Mark says: “Dad’s career was sacrificed.
“He had eight to 10 years to run and those were the years that you accrue the benefits for future retirement.
“It was a big decision but the story had to be told and he decided he had to stand up and face the music.
“It was a terribly trying time for everyone. Dad was at the peak of his career.”
Mr Vette’s research revealed the phenomenon of white-out, which can cause pilots to fly into an obstacle in apparently clear visibility. White-out occurs when the sun is filtered through cloud and reflects light from the snow making it impossible to distinguish ground from air.
However, the accident report – which was released in 1980 and was compiled by New Zealand’s chief inspector of air accidents Ron Chippindale – concluded that pilot error was the principal cause of the accident.
Gordon Vette
Reluctance from Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and the airline’s top management to accept evidence of organisational management error led to another resignation. Judge Mahon resigned from the bench and died in 1986.
Judge Mahon said the state-owned airline was primarily to blame for changing the flight plan without telling the crew.
The omission resulted in the aircraft flying towards Mr Erebus instead of heading down McMurdo Sound.
His statement, that the airline had intentionally misled the inquiry through “an orchestrated litany of lies”, has gone down in the annals of New Zealand aviation history.
The DC10’s captain Jim Collins was trained by Mr Vette.
“Dad considered him an impeccable pilot,” Mark says.
“That’s what alerted him that there may be a problem, and he was concerned that if it could happen to Jim Collins, it could happen to any of them.
“A lot of people were critical that dad was just standing up for his friend but he knew how impeccable Jim was.”
In a television interview in 1983, Mr Vette said: “Media started to indicate in the coverage that Collins [the captain] had taken the crew screaming and kicking down through cloud until they smashed into the hill.
“That was the generally held impression early in the progress of the inquiry. It was not dispelled by the company or the department.
“They were dismissing Collins’ lifetime of professional practice out of hand.
“He was one of the most cautious pilots in the world.
“I indicated to the company I was pursuing a line of inquiry along the aspects of the visual
Gordon Vette: ready for flight.
illusory effect.
“I had no support for my views. When I took a stand at the commission, it was apparent I was being treated as being disloyal to the company.”
Mr Vette joined Air NZ – then Tasman Empire Airways (TEAL) – in 1948 as an engineering apprentice, starting his flying training at the Auckland Aero Club at the same time.
He graduated from engineering school in 1953 and accepted a short-service commission in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a flying instructor.
He rejoined Air NZ in 1958 as a first officer on the DC6, and also obtained his airline transport pilot and flight navigator licences.
He became a check and training captain on the DC10 in 1972 and was then appointed to flight instructor. By late 1979 he was one of the most senior captains at Air NZ.
On November 28 1979, Mr Vette was in Honolulu about to operate a service to Los Angeles when the news of the crash into Mt Erebus reached him.
Once the shock was over he became disturbed at the speed with which the investigation seemed to be moving toward “pilot error”, based on the conclusion the aircraft must have been flying in cloud at low level in order to have hit a mountain.
Such an act, Mr Vette believed, would have required an “unlikely level of simultaneous incompetence on behalf of all the crew members”.
Mark brought his skills as an animal behaviourist into play to help his father study the psychological aspects of the accident.
The crusade resulted in the “human factor” becoming an entrenched part of aviation language, and Mr Vette was instrumental in seeing that ground-proximity warning systems were developed.
In a TV interview in 1984, Judge Mahon said Mr Vette succeeded to an unprecedented degree in helping to make a similar sort of accident less likely to happen again.
“When he gave evidence at the inquiry he produced written material which demonstrated this ‘flat-light’ phenomenon,” Judge Mahon said.
“He produced from overseas a man acknowledged as a world expert in the field who confirmed the existence of this illusion.
“This in turn set me on the track of overseas inquiries which I made in the US, Canada and England from top-class experts.
“They all confirmed what I had been told at the inquiry through Vette’s efforts.
“Finally I went to Antarctica and there the thesis was again confirmed, especially when I was taken for a flight myself in white-out conditions and saw with my own eyes the flat terrain of ice and snow stretching forth for more than 40 miles when right in front of us there was a snow ridge several hundred feet high.
“An overseas expert in jet training and jet operations has said that this [Royal Commission] report has made the world a safer place to fly in.
“Well, if that is so, that is due to the persistence of Gordon Vette and the evidence he produced which directed me and counsel of the commission on to the right path.”
Kikuyu is a grass species which prompts strong reactions, both positive and negative with many people happy to ‘kik-yu’ out the door for suggesting it has its merits!
