Grey Power March 2017

NZ GREYPOWER MAGAZINE » MARCH 2017 43
"I come to the concerts feeling 81, I leave
feeling 21 again!"
Nev from Kapiti had to say about Operatunity, a unique
Kiwi company going from strength-to-strength.
Having just celebrated its 15th anniversary
Operatunity is a company
with a difference.
Its aim is simply to make life a bit better
for people through music.
They achieve this by performing more
than 200 concerts a year in 24 centres
across New Zealand as part of their Daytime
Concert series, and escorting 15 or
more domestic and international trips
for seniors, all with an emphasis on music.
If you love rugby and want to travel
to see the All Blacks tests you will link
in with fellow rugby fans and you might
even have an All Black or ex All Black escort
the tour.
Much like an All Blacks tour, Operatunity
Travel has its own specialty:
music with singers and artists as your
3 Tenors highlight at Port
Douglas Music Festival.
escorts and fellow music lovers as your
travel companions.
The musical offerings of the various
trips attract both patrons with extensive
music knowledge, and those who simply
enjoy great performances.
In addition to the musical highlights
of the trips the company always manages
to seek out jaw-dropping accommodation,
no matter where they’re staying.
Their Ireland trip was fully booked
three weeks after it was announced.
Fiddler Marian Burns and singers
Karl Perigo and Alex Milligan travel
across Ireland staying at some incredible
5 star hotels, including a castle dating
back to 1228.
Highlights of their sold out 29 day
Opera Tour to Italy include Placido Domingo
in a gala concert in the Verona
Arena, La Traviata in Venice and Madame
Butterfly in Florence where they’ll
be staying at a 13th Century Gothic residence,
Hotel Pierre.
Limited spaces remain for their three
week trip through rural France where
they’ll stay in fabulous hotels like The
Cité de Carcassonne Hotel situated in
the heart of a medieval fortress, and
watch Rigoletto performed by Paris Opera
Bastille, Faust, a concert in Notre
Dame, and finishing up the trip with a
night at the Moulin Rouge.
‘We have travelled overseas on many
trips with several different companies
and we both felt we have never been on
a better organised tour where we were
so thoughtfully cared for, or on a tour
where we had such a variety of fun activities’
– Pat after a recent trip to the
Tranz Alpine train trip then concerts on the West Coast.
Fiords.
Operatunity Travel started quite organically
when regular Daytime-Concert-goers
urged directors Susan Boland
and John Cameron to consider putting
on a trip to Melbourne to see some
shows since they were ‘good at organising,
and people always have so much fun
at the concerts’.
Sue and John planned their first trip
to Melbourne booking 20 tickets for The
Lion King in advance and hoping they’d
have enough people to sit in those seats.
They ended up taking 80 people to
Melbourne on that first trip and since
then, the team has escorted numerous
trips as far afield as Russia, Scandinavia,
Vietnam, Galapagos Island, Africa,
Ireland, England, Canada, The USA, and
many places in between.
Many of the Operatunity trips have
sold out for the first half of the year but
a couple worth mentioning for later in
2017 include:
3 Tenors Port Douglas Music Festival
Norfolk Island Music Festival.
Be wowed in Wellington including the
Wearable Arts and concerts
Winter Wonderland including the
Tranz Alpine train and the West Coast
with concerts.
For more information about upcoming
travel and concerts in 2017 call toll
free: 0508 886 489 or take a look online
www.operatunity.co.nz
Don't forget the daytime concerts
also, including Glenn Miller and the Andrews
Sisters, touring nationally in April
and May.
As Majorie from Palmerston North
says "Operatunity is champagne for the
soul!"
ADVOCACY REPORT
From page 41
welfare-mj-interactive-v2.zip and EPA
property:
http://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/
about-msd-and-our-work/publicationsresources/epa/epa-property-5-interactivemj.zip)
The aim of re-drafting the forms etc.
is to make the drawing up of an enduring
power of attorney for welfare and property
a much simpler procedure with a set
of rules that covers how an EPA is drafted,
what information it must contain as
well as any specific instructions the donor
wishes to include.
When implemented the changes will
also make the powers an attorney has in
managing both welfare and property very
clear.
We were informed of the need to ensure
that there are two property attorneys,
working jointly so that an individual
attorney cannot sell the property for
personal gain. The donor has the power
to state who must be consulted before any
actions take place and it will be important
that the drafting solicitor makes very
clear at the time an EPA is being drafted.
(Background notes provided by Roy Reid)
MSD informed that the revised forms
are still in the drafting stage – they aim
to provide a useful tool to protect people-
Grey Power (represented by R. Reid) is
reasonably happy with the draft – MSD
asked “does Grey Power think a register
of EPAs is required- we certainly do want
a register. Cost of setting up EPAs can be
a problem and EPAs and advanced care
plans work together
MEETINGS REGARDING AN ALL-PARTY
ACCORD ON SUPERANNUATION.
There seems to be agreement amongst
some commentators that citizens require
certainty that the universal pension will
be there when they reach the state pension
age – so an all-party accord would
be instrumental in building public confidence.
Therefore, the lobby team asked
Hon. P. Dunne and the Hon M. Barry
“would there be some fundamentals that
they could agree on to form an accord?”
P. Dunne would enter an accord based
on the premise that the scheme must remain
universal and he favours United
Futures flexi-super scheme where early
retirees receive 2/3rds of the government
super for the remainder of their life-time
M. Barry said an accord was possible if
other parties came up to National’s level
9. MEETING WITH BARRY COATES
(NZ GREEN PARTY SENIOR CITIZENS
SPOKESPERSON AND METERIA TUREI
(THE NZ GREEN PARTY CO-LEADER)
Barry is new Green Party Senior Citizens
spokesperson therefore Grey Power
was pleased to make his acquaintance
and have a general conversation on subjects
of interest to both parties.
The areas discussed included:
- health – the Greens are up-dating their
mental health policy
- commercial – Barry informed that because
he also holds the Green’s commercial
portfolio he is thinking about
whether regulations could be strengthened
to ensure that the percentage of
people, especially older people, who
are ‘being ripped off by tradespeople is
reduced
- superannuation – consideration is being
given to using superannuation as
the foundation for universal basic income
policy.
- transport – Barry believes too much
public money is spent on roads and
that rail should be utilised
- TPP – Grey Power’s policy coincides
with Barry’s thinking and he pointed
out that we should also take cognizance
of the Trade & Services Agreement
which is problematic; similar to
TPP
- SuperGold card = universal off-peak
travel for older people and as an ID
card was mentioned – Barry undertook
to look at this
- Meteria spoke to Grey Power about
housing – she had similar concerns
to Grey Power’s, the increase, or likely
increase in the number of older people
not owning their homes when they retire.
Her ideas were similar to Labour’s –
building code to reflect the needs of children
and older people, (the right kinds of
housing for the right people) the requirement
to increase the housing stock – to be
driven by the state – life-mark standards
should be part of the building costs and all
new houses should use new technology.
She also mentioned the problem of the
price of ‘licence to occupy’ houses against
what people can actually sell their properties
for.
10. MEETING WITH KATHRYN MALONEY
(SENIOR POLICY AND RESEARCH
ANALYST) AGED CARE ASSOCIATION.
Kathryn informed Grey Power that a
Minister for Health and Ageing, based on
the Australian model, would be desirable
and should be tied to aged care funding.
Grey Power pointed out that aged care
funding is not ring-fenced for district
health boards.
Aged Care Assn. considers that a new
model for the aged care contract is required.
If you have comments, stories or other
information regarding any material in this
report please contact
Jan Pentecost (editor)
c/o Grey Power NZ Federation
PO Box 2721719
Papakura 2244 or jan.pentecost@
gmail.com
Disclaimer: Although every effort has
been made to provide accurate information
in this report the authors takes no responsibility
for unintended inaccuracies