Dargaville - Heart of the Kauri Coast! - Dargaville.BIZ

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need. The local coordinator in Dargaville is Joseph Prakash, phone (09) 439 6958 or 027 733 7408. Call Joseph to arrange a time to drop off all your unwanted goods at 8 McKay Crescent to help our Pacific Island neighbours in their time of need. Please note that Joseph and Maria have young children so call between 9.00 am and 4.00pm if possible. Anyone who has some spare time can also contact Joseph and help with sorting the donated goods before they are shipped. Dargaville Vintage Machinery Club Needs A Hand! The Dargaville Vintage Machinery Club is hoping to get the roof on their new display area on the weekend of January 30th and 31st. If you are able to help with this, please phone: (09) 439 5495 or e-mail: lynmer@xtra.co.nz. There will be a BBQ & Drinks afterwards! This Week In New Zealand – Some News Items That Caught Our Eye! President Obama This week has seen the inauguration of President Barack Obama as the 44 th President of the United States of America. This is certainly a historic occasion with America electing its first African American president. Watching the ceremony on TV and listening to his powerful inauguration address, we are lead to hope that a new era in American politics is about to unfold for the benefit of the entire world. History will be the best judge that of course. Vodafone You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. Wayne Gretzky Apparently Vodafone recently told a customer that he must have “accidentally” made a call to his wife and she must have “accidentally” answered the call. He picked up his wife from work at 16.30 and the call was apparently made at 16.27 so they were sitting beside each other when a calll was made for 91min 19sec call costing $80.36. Several times he contacted Vodafone but “the system was down” (how often do you get that response from Vodaphone) - so they couldn’t help, but they assured him that their billing system does not make mistakes. It is worth noting that if you ring 7777 instead of 777 you will also be charged for a call to customer service, but of course the Vodafone system doesn’t make mistakes. Computers are always correct! Yellow Tree House Have you seen that ad for the Yellow Tree House on TV? Go to the website and guess what. There does not appear to be any information on where the restaurant actually is, how you get there, or how you get in touch. And people spend money on Yellow Pages advertising? Capital Blackout Baffles Transpower? Transpower officials cannot guarantee a power cut that paralysed most of central Wellington during the morning rush hour on Wednesday 21 January won’t happen again, and apparently don’t know what caused it. That is scary. “Once upon a time” we had people employed by the power companies who knew the network and were able to diagnose and repair faults. Now of course in our “contractor/ consultant” age we only have people who can do a little bit and nothing else. If this is the state of our electricity network, surely it is time for the new Government to take a hard look at what is going on and why power prices keep rising. We don’t seem to be getting value for money do we? Perhaps we should even consider bringing back the old “apprenticeship’ scheme which was submerged by “academia” many years ago as universities and polytechnics fought to outdo each other for funding. Another example of “if it aint broke don’t fix it? Coast Along With Brent on Sunday. 3 - 6pm on Today FM 106.7
Discovering Our Region Pouto Peninsular Much of Pouto - over 600 ha - is covered by sand dunes, which are one of the largest unmodified dune systems in New Zealand. Many of the dunes rise over 100 m above sea level, and the highest reaches 214 m. There are also both permanent and temporary wetlands, and more than 20 freshwater lakes and swamps. The interior is planted in exotic forests. Several threatened plants, birds, invertebrates and a freshwater fish are found on the peninsula. Shipwrecks There have been 113 recorded shipwrecks on the coast of Pouto (with unofficial estimates going as high as 150), because the low-lying peninsula makes the north head of the Kaipara Harbour treacherous, and there are a lack of landmarks on the peninsula from which to take bearings. Tradition recounts that Rongomai, the captain of the waka Māhuhu, drowned when his canoe capsised near the entrance to Kaipara Harbour in the early days of Māori settlement of New Zealand. The first shipwreck in recorded history was of the Aurora, a 550-ton barque, in 1840,and the most recent was the yacht Aosky in 1994. History He who opens a school door, closes a prison. Victor Hugo Māori habitation of Pouto goes back to ancient times and in recent years relics have been found of a civilisation thought to pre-date Māori settlement of the area. In the late 17th century, or early 18th, Ngāti Whātua occupied the Pouto Peninsula as part of their move southwards. In 1820, during the Musket Wars, Ngā Puhi laid siege to Ngāti Whātua’s Tauhara pa near Pouto, but were unable to capture it. A truce was agreed, to be cemented by the marriage of a Ngā Puhi chief to the daughter of a Ngāti Whātua chief. During the festivities, Ngā Puhi and their allies suddenly turned on their hosts and massacred them. In 1874, a customs house and pilot station were built at Pouto. A signal mast was erected in the sandhills at North Head in 1876, 5-6 miles west of the station. The following year, a telegraph system was set up between the two. A lighthouse was built at North Head in 1884. The customs office was shifted to Te Kopura in 1903. The lighthouse was automated in 1947, and closed in the mid 1950s. The structure still exists and was renovated in 1982-84. Gum-diggers operated on the peninsula from the 1870s and lasting into the 1930s, although kauri trees no longer grew there. Dairy farming was established in the early 20th century. Sand from Pouto was used to build dams in the Waitakere Ranges, and was also barged around the Kaipara Harbour. The southern part of the peninsula was slow to be developed, with the road only reaching to Taingaehe in 1930, and extending another 35 km to Pouto itself in 1931. Until then, contact with the rest of the world was by steamer. The road wasn’t metalled until the 1940s. Today the road remains unsealed from the Kelly’s Bay turn off so care needs to be taken when travelling along it. There are no shops after Te Kopuru so make sure you take plenty of food and drink with you when you go there. Don’t drive onto the beach at Pouto unless you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle and also ensure that you check out the tide times before leaving. The tide comes in quite quickly and many unwary explorers have been caught out on the rising tide! Swing With Stuart Every Other Saturday. 2 - 4 pm on Today FM 106.7
Page 1: Volume 2 No 03 This newsletter is b
Page 5 and 6: In any contest between power and pa
Page 7 and 8: Asian Beef Kebabs Serves 4-6 Too ea
Page 9 and 10: Love doesn’t make the world go ro
Page 11 and 12: For Our Visitors THE WOODTURNERS KA
Page 13: Clubs and Organisations Air Trainin

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