They’re called the ‘book end generations’ ­­– toddlers and the elderly – and they frequently never meet.   But at Bethlehem Views retirement home in Tauranga, the older and younger generations meet once a...

  “A great host and a great boss,” reads the hand-written note of gratitude from Vlad – a Ukrainian on a New Zealand kiwifruit picking experience.   “You created an awesome place for people to work and live together....

Last week The Weekend Sun shone the spotlight on three of our long-established theatres, each with their own fixed abode.   This week we look at some of the area’s newer theatre groups, who are making use of other locations around the city...

  It wasn’t just the wind, it was the waves, and they came down hard. After Tacloban had been hit by Typhoon Haiyan, Julie McGowan was one of many who helped rebuild the community.   “I was thrown into this major disaster zone...

Peti Tuanau, 6, calls her Nana Gaye. To 65-year-old Rose Theobald she is simply Gaye. To both she is a teacher of an artistic dance form of which age is no barrier to participating.   Katikati’s Gaye Hemsley has been teaching ballet since...

  It’s more than having fun and climbing up a wall. And it’s certainly more than mere child’s play.   They scale the wall akin to a superhero, clinging on for dear life by the tips of their fingers, and they’re racing...

If you’re any good at charades or Pictionary, it might be a good idea to brush up on these skills before heading off on an overseas holiday. In Portugal, for example, only about 30 per cent of the population can speak and understand English. My...

  I may be lacking in laugh lines and life experiences, but for one night I got to experience what it was like being the ripe old age of 50.   The Red Hat Society is an international group for women created to connect like-minded women,...

  It was a high tea in a hair dressing salon – a hair dressing academy to be precise. There were tiny cakes, cucumber sandwiches and lashings of pink.   Pink in the hair, pink in the clothes, pink on the tables. Even the handrails...

  A Tauranga high school has reacted swiftly and unequivocally to unconfirmed reports of students harvesting suspicious mushrooms on the banks of a gully bordering the premises.   “We will do what we have to,” Otumoetai College...

  Hot rods and steampunk make for a heady mix and it’s all coming to Tauranga this weekend for the Bay Rodders annual Winterblast.   The event gets underway in Mount Maunganui tonight with a meet and greet in the clubrooms followed...

  She’s an orphan – unloved, abandoned. Given name Caldina, family name Toyota. Age – indeterminate – born Nagoya sometime between 1992 and 2007 when production ended.   But she does have a number – CKY579. About...

“Kiwifruit picking – why on earth would you?” A seasoned picker and pruner slamming the industry which has employed him for 35 years. And which, for the first time in 14 years, officially declared a seasonal labour shortage. “I...

Most international travelers return home inspired by encounters, experiences, people, food, music and adventures. Not Geoff Brann. “We’ve travelled extensively, and every time we return home we think, ‘yeah! We must plant more trees’.”...

When Noel Kelly’s garage doors open up, he’s open for business. For more than 10 years, Noel has said he is going to retire, but he still keeps working. Described as the “pillar of Hawea Street”, Noel, soon to be 94, has provided...

They were once considered the realm of hippies, liberals and vegetarians, but the modern-day food co-op is simply about people looking for good, wholesome food at the right price. Natashia Lucas set up the Tauranga Community Co-op 18 months ago after...

For most of us, wearing is a wig usually involves dressing up in something whacky and having fun. But for Kiwi kids living with cancer there often isn’t much fun to be had. Wig Wednesday on June 20 is the Child Cancer Foundation’s annual...

Volunteering with Alzheimer’s Tauranga/WBOP was a natural fit for Bruce Inglis. Bruce’s father had passed away with Alzheimer’s and he wanted to make a difference to someone else’s journey. “Volunteering has given me...

They’re giving thanks all around the world to a bloke called Karl Landsteiner this week, because heaven knows how many millions of lives he has saved. He won the Nobel prize, his image is on an Austrian banknote, there are bronze busts and they...

It’s not just about being a champion or a winner. “It’s about giving things a shot,” says Alexia Skipper-Jones, Youth Advocate for Parafed BOP, “and about being supported to take that shot. “It’s about being...

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure – or a clever student’s fashion design. Envirohub’s Sustainable Art Challenge attracted 70 entries this year, including 11 short films and 59 ‘Trash to Fash’ entries. The...

Theatre. It’s one of humanity’s oldest forms of artistic expression, likely on par with cave paintings and sharing stories around a flickering fire. And despite the prevalence of superhero films and ‘binge-worthy’ Netflix series...

Not only are our houses and cars getting smarter, our rubbish bins are too. Tauranga City Council installed 10 ‘smart technology’ waste and recycling bin stations in Mount Maunganui in December as part of the national ‘Litter Less...

Glitz and glamour - the roaring 20s are in town and, in a nutshell, it’s all about letting loose and having fun. The Grateful Gatsby Gala event at Mills Reef Winery will see hordes of people dressed up in their best flappers and tux in support...

The next Harbour City Lions book fair, the 2019 incarnation, starts from scratch, right here, right now. “So bring out your books,” says Lion and book fair organiser, Christine Currie. After vandals and the homeless drove them from the...

It wasn’t going to be a protest. “More a demonstration of support for a cause,” says Galadriel Forrest. “A visual petition.” A visual petition, she says, about skirts versus pants, of human rights, the right to choose...

Tauranga City Council is to take over residential kerbside rubbish collections and recycling services from 2021. The decision is supported in the Long Term Plan submissions process and aligns with council’s strategic goal of minimising the rubbish...

A good dump of snow during May should make for fantastic early season skiing at Whakapapa, says Ruapehu Alpine Lifts The ski season officially opened last weekend on the Whakapapa ski area of Mount Ruapehu, with a record-breaking 3400 people taking...

Tauranga Intermediate pupil Christian Stark is hoping to take home a prize in the Innovation Awards with his invention which takes the messy work out of peeling kiwifruit. The 12-year-old’s father, David Stark, had been peeling the fruit the...