I didn’t know throwing frisbees  was a serious sport. I even used to joke that I might become a frisbeetarian - someone who adheres to the belief that when you die, your spirit floats up and gets stuck  on the roof. Somehow, though,...

A passion for children’s literature is all that’s required to attend the upcoming annual Bookrapt (Bay of Plenty Children’s Literature Association) seminar in July. Bookrapt - a group of writers, artists, schoolteachers, librarians,...

Driving from Tauranga towards Whakatane, I was on the lookout for a marae at Otamarakau. The inaugural Te Ata BOP Film forum was being held there. I’d been told it was after the Pukehina turn-off and before the Pikowai straights. Google Maps...

Country meetings are enjoyable places  for first time encounters. I met the delightful Maureen Binns one night at a Paengaroa Community Association meeting. She and husband Colin cultivate truffles -  a rare delicacy that I’d previously...

Sue Matthews, the chair of Paengaroa Community Association, believes it will be nearly ten years before children in the Paengaroa area can play at their  own skatepark. “It might be their baby brothers and sisters that benefit from it,”...

Oceanside Chiropractic has been serving the Papamoa and wider community for the last thirteen years. At the beginning of 2017, Dr Phil Bailey became the owner and says he has made a lot of changes to the treatment approach since then. “One of...

I was writing one afternoon on my balcony when an incoming email from Betty J. Kurzfeld took over my screen. Grateful for a break, I popped around to see her.   She’d written: “Rosalie, I am trying to get a local group together to...

Recently, I spent part of a day with three Hollywood movie scouts while they were on a famil of the Bay of Plenty. Lori Balton, Dow Griffith and Kent Matsuoka - all highly-qualified and respected international locations professionals - were being shown...

Margaret Green and Jan Ward are putting out a request for more people to join the  Te Puke Community Patrol (CPNZ Te Puke), formerly known as Te Puke Night Owls. “If you can spare an hour or two every two months,” says Margaret, “please...

I phoned Lorraine Browne one evening while she was getting ready to go out to a dance class. “May I call in and see you tomorrow morning?” I asked.   She has a painting studio tucked away in the corner of her Katikati garden. At the...