Paul and Gillian Willis started out in Hamilton, where Paul began his electrical apprenticeship in 1980. The middle 80’s saw Paul and Gillian move to Auckland, but after five years it was time for a change. So in 1991 they made the move to Whitianga. “I used to holiday in Whitianga as a child,” said Paul. “My parents had a bach here and also owned a building on the corner of Lee and Albert Streets where a café called Upper Crust was in.

We were looking at opportunities to get out of Auckland and when we heard Upper Crust was on the market, we took the plunge, so from wiring homes, commercial buildings and factories, I started making coffee.”Somewhat into their ownership of the café, Paul’s parents decided to demolish the Upper Crust building and build three new shops in its place.

This was done in two stages - first a small shop on Lee Street was completed, where Envy Hair and Beauty is now, and Upper Crust moved into it, serving takeaways. Once stage two was completed, the café moved into the corner shop where Tides Café is now. In a way, things came full circle as Paul, a third generation electrician, ended up wiring the new shops with his father.

In the nine years Paul and Gillian owned Upper Crust, Paul always kept a hand in his trade, working alongside his father when time permitted and helping out friends and family. When it was time to sell the café, Paul accepted an offer from local electrician, Chris Brown to join him. When Chris decided to hang up his tools late last year, Paul was ready to take the business over. He rebranded it from CB Electrical to Willis Electrical and handed Gillian all responsibility for the paperwork. So, what has changed since Paul and Gillian arrived in Mercury Bay more than 20 years ago?

“There has been lots of change, particularly the growth in both the housing and business sector,” said Paul. The development of Whitianga Waterways would probably be the most significant change of all. We no longer have a quiet winter season. Believe it or not, winters are now really busy compared to what they were. It’s great. Good for business and good for people’s confidence. “Gillian and I had opportunities to live and work elsewhere when we sold Upper Crust and again when Chris decided to retire, but Mercury Bay is home. This is where we want to be and I can see myself helping people and businesses with their electrical needs for many years to come.”

Marion Manson (pictured) has been appointed as the new administrator of the Mercury Bay Art Escape. Chairman of the Mercury Bay Art Escape Trust, Stuart Christie said they’ve had a very good response when they advertised the position with some excellent candidates applying.

Marion is a textile artist and has a professional background in the development, management and curation of art exhibitions in galleries and other venues, including Hamilton’s ArtsPost Galleries and Shop. She’s been a part-time resident of Cooks Beach for more than 13 years and is already known to a number of Mercury Bay artists.
Marion will split her time between Mercury Bay and Hamilton. She’ll be employed by the Art Escape Trust on a part-time basis, as was the case with Charlotte Giblin, her predecessor. Marion’s focus will be the annual Open Studio Tour of the Art Escape, the Arts and Craft Fair to be held in Whitianga in August, the Trust’s scholarships, the development of artists and fundraising.

Stuart said that Marion’s transition into her role should be complete in about a month. The administrator position became available when Charlotte decided to pursue her own career as artist in Mercury Bay.

According to Malcolm Brown, chairman of the Whitianga Lions’ Project Committee, as at Sunday, 20 April the Mercury Bay X-ray machine fund stood at $167,000. Included in that amount is $546.90 raised by Alastair and Harriette Brickell of Stargazers Astronomy Tours during the lunar eclipse of 15 April. Members of the public were invited to witness the eclipse with Alastair and Harriette from their observatory in exchange for a donation to the X-ray machine. Despite the cloudy weather, 30 or so people turned up at the observatory and were later rewarded with glimpses of the eclipsed moon.

Not included in the amount of the X-ray machine fund is the more than $6,000 raised by the Mercury Bay Lionesses at their Quilt and Craft Show that was held during Easter weekend. Around half of the money was raised through a variety of raffles, won by (as the winners’ names appeared on their raffle tickets) Robin J, Ann McDonald, Cecily Woodbury, Karen Paget, Megan Fox, Mary Jackson, May Walker, D Knutsen, Andrea Skipper and Murray.

Pictured are some of the Lionesses at the Quilt and Craft Show with the members of the Lions’ Project Committee and Graham Bell, part time Whitianga local and presenter of Police Ten 7 (in the check shirt), who drew the raffle winners.

On Tuesday last week Andy and Ruth Pettit handed over the keys of their iconic Colenso Café to Gary and Judy Inglis, the new owners, and it was business as usual. Gary and Judy are no strangers on the Mercury Bay hospitality scene, having owned Smitty’s Sports Bar and Grill in Whitianga for many years. How come then have they sold Smitty’s and bought something similar? “The two businesses are actually quite different,” answered Judy. “We wanted to get away from the Smitty’s hours, especially the
long nights. We didn’t have Smitty’s on the market for long before it sold. We were somewhat taken by surprise and really didn’t have an idea what we were going to do next.

We certainly didn’t plan to retire. “Friends told us about Colenso. We immediately thought it could work. It’s a very good business and it’s well run. It’s the sort of business we could just walk into and continue as if nothing really happened. The hours are better and there’s an opportunity for our daughter, who’s working as a chef on a super yacht at the moment, to join us later this year.”

And the extra pair of hands in the kitchen really is one of only two things that will be different. The other is a new back-office system, one Gary and Judy are more familiar with. Other than that, it’s the same good food, the same range of artworks and gifts and still local ownership. It’s really just history continuing.

With the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge and their son, Prince George visiting New Zealand the past few weeks, the question inevitably was asked, “Was there someone in Mercury Bay who met one, or all, of the royals?” And the answer is yes. Anna Geard, a counsellor who until recently worked at Rainbow Place and now living in Whitianga, met Kate, the Duchess, in Hamilton on 12 April.

Rainbow Place is the children’s service of Hospice Waikato in Hamilton. It’s a centre providing support for children with a life limiting or life threatening illness and children experiencing grief and loss through the serious illness or death of a loved one. “Kate is the patron of children’s hospices in the United Kingdom,” said Anna. “She wanted to visit a similar children’s service in New Zealand and take some ideas with her back home. Rainbow Place was fortunate to be chosen as the children’s service for her to visit in New Zealand.

“Over the past two years I have been working with a boy whom has experienced a sudden and traumatic bereavement. Part of what I did with him was sand-play therapy.  It’s a form of therapy that is used in counselling to help a person process and express thoughts and feelings that are difficult to put into words. As Kate was keen to hear experiences from those we work with themselves, my colleagues and I felt he had something special to share with Kate. I asked him if he would be open to doing this with my support and he was. On the day, I introduced him to her and he shared a piece of work he had done in the sand tray around his journey through grief, the ups and downs from the very beginning until now.

Kate was very interested in and sensitive to what he had to say. She came across genuine and down to earth. She was just fantastic. “Kate met with some other children and young people as well in the centre’s art therapy, play therapy and teen spaces and then it was time for an amazing Mad Hatters tea party. Many of the Rainbow place kids and their families were there. That was something I will remember forever. The families have been through so much. Kate spent time talking to everyone and really listening to their stories. The children and their families had a fantastic and memorable time.”

So, what brings Anna to Whitianga? “I had an opportunity last year to reassess what I want from life. I’ve been working as a counsellor in high-end agency work for the past eight years and I decided I needed a lifestyle change. I wanted to live by the ocean in a smaller community. I have family here in Whitianga and have spent a lot of time in this area as a child and especially over the past three years. This is where I want to be at this time in my life. I would like to get a counselling practice off the ground, working with all ages, especially children and youth and their families as this is my area of expertise. And I would love to teach lots of yoga, for adults and kids, that’s something I’m passionate about.”

Probing about her passion for yoga, Anna revealed that she’s previously taught yoga at studios in Auckland and Hamilton and at a kindergarten, to kids aged three to five. “They loved it,” she said. She has also had lots of sports teams, including Chiefs rugby players, in her yoga classes, “And they loved it too.”

That’s it then, meet Anna Geard - new Whitianga resident, counsellor and yoga teacher. And someone who had the privilege to meet Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the mother of George, the future King of England.

The Targa Rally will be returning to Mercury Bay on 16 and 17 May. This year is the 20th anniversary of the first Targa event in New Zealand and to celebrate it, two rallies will be held, Targa New Zealand in the South Island and Targa North Island. The North island event is a combination of two previous Targa events, Targa Bambina and Targa Rotorua. Mercury Bay used to be a regular feature on the Targa Bambina Rally.

The Targa North Island will depart Auckland on Friday, 16 May and will bring some spectacular racing during two special stages to the wider Mercury Bay area. Special Stage 7 will cover a distance of 10.54km on State Highway 25 across the Whangapoua Hill on 16 May. The stage will start
at 3:35pm at the Coromandel Town side of the hill and will finish at Te Rerenga. The road will be closed from 2:30pm to 5:30pm.

Special Stage 8 is something everyone involved in the Targa Rally has been waiting for. The stage, also on State Highway 25, will take place on Saturday 17 May from Whenuakite to Tairua across the Tairua Hill, a distance of 12.17km. It’s the first time this road will form part of the Targa Rally and is, according to many of the participants in the event, one of the most challenging tarmac roads in New Zealand. Many of them have dreamed of it one day being a Targa stage. The road will be closed from 6:45am to 10:00am, with the first cars setting off at 8:00am.

Rally director, Peter Martin said about the Tairua Hill special stage, “This is a real coup for us and a vindication both of our systems and the work we have put in with local residents, Council and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). The key has been to minimise the disruption and after monitoring our [last three] events here, NZTA has agreed to the closure this year.” According to the rally organisers, the best viewing of both stages will be had by simply walking into the special stage areas from both ends. Whitianga will host the rally’s overnight stop on 16 May. Competitors’ cars will be serviced at the Mercury Bay Multi-Sport Park in Whitianga upon their arrival in town, whereafter they will be parked overnight at the Lee Street car park.

Participants in the Targa Tour, a non-competitive “tag-along” event for owners of late model exotic or older classic cars, will arrive at the Lee Street car park from 4:30pm for a charity car wash. They will be joined by the rally competitors as soon as the servicing of their cars at the Multi-Sport Park are finished. Members of the public are welcome to check out the cars and talk to competitors both at the Multi-Sport Park and the Lee Street car park. A third special stage of the rally on the Coromandel will be held at Whiritoa later on Saturday, 17 May. The rally will finish in Rotorua on
Sunday, 18 May.
 

Looking through the Mercury Bay RSA display of wartime memorabilia - and realising war isn’t just a story, it’s about real people who served, and in some instances died, for us to enjoy the freedoms we have today.

With ANZAC Day approaching, I took some time to look through the Mercury Bay RSA display of wartime memorabilia at the Mercury Bay Club in Whitianga. There are all kinds of things to look at, most of it donated or loaned by members or past members of the RSA. No doubt, it was a moving experience.

There are the medals earned by Flight Lieutenant CAR Simpson during World War One. And the pay book of JA Work. The book was issued to him on 28 June 1916. He was 24 years old. It contained instructions on how to make a will. There’s a rock from Gallipoli. And a newspaper clipping about the New Zealand National Memorial at Chunuk Bair, one of the three high points in the Gallipoli area.

There’s also, as expected, a print with the words of “In Flanders Fields.” I had to pause to read this most famous of wartime poems, written by Canadian John McRae on 3 May 1915 while at the battlefront at Ypres in the Belgium province of West Flanders -

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

From World War Two I saw a Russian fur cap and a “tar boosh,” which is similar to an Egyptian fez, from Turkey. I saw, somewhat unexpectedly, an ode to Lili Marlene, a famous German love song, written by a member of the British Eighth Army. There are many local names who served - Harsant, Bruce, Tucker, Simpson to name a few. There’s also a shell dressing and a first field dressing. And a menu from De Paris Cocktail Bar and Restaurant in Valetta, the capital of Malta, selling spaghetti, fried pork chops, fish fillets and breaded veal. There’s a report on the monetary cost of the war, staggering numbers - even in today’s terms. Britain spent £30 billion, Germany £67,500 billion, America more than £85 billion.

There are a few things from the war in Vietnam too. I saw an armour guard and tank helmet and local Rae Lelande’s uniform. She passed away in 2008.

I had a look at some dates. In 1976 the RSA presented a plaque to the Mercury Bay Club on the opening of their new club rooms. On it the inscription, “May friendship strengthen and good fellowship prevail.” I saw that it’s generally accepted that World War Two started in 1939 and ended in 1945. The Vietnam War started in 1956 and ended in 1975. I also saw that World War One started in 1914 and ended in 1918. I had a second look - and then realised this year is 100 years since the start of World War One.

I took a deep breath and went home. The RSA display hit close to home. I realised that war isn’t just a story. It’s about real people who served, and in some instances died, for all of us to enjoy the freedoms we have today. I thought about the words of local optometrist, Brett Howes’s song out the First Battle of Passchendaele in West Flanders during World War One -

So enjoy your lives and freedom, for you are truly blessed.
But remember our sacrifice, so our souls at peace can rest.
They fought, some died - I will remember them. Yes, I will remember them.

The Mercury Bay RSA has ten surviving members who served during World War Two - Alan Clague (Patron of the RSA), Mike Jacobson, Jim Greenaway, Roy Hart, Mick Williams, Bill Dunn, Harry Simpson, Alf Simpson, Val White and Derek Boardman.

The Mercury Bay RSA will hold a Dawn Service on ANZAC Day, 25 April at 6:00am at Soldiers Memorial Park, Whitianga. A Dawn Parade will assemble at the Mercury Bay Club at 5:45am.Breakfast will after the Dawn Service be served at the Mercury Bay Club at a cost of $11.00. The Mercury Bay Museum teamed up with the RSA to put up a special war display in the main room of the Mercury Bay Club for the duration of ANZAC Day.

Some of the display will be moved to the Mercury Bay Museum after ANZAC Day. Parades and Services will also be held on ANZAC Day in Tairua - at the Ex-Servicemen Cemetery at 6:00am, in Pauanui - at the Surf Club (the Sports and Recreation Club when raining) at 6:00am and the Sports and Recreation Club at 11:00am and in Matarangi - at the Volunteer Fire Brigade at 11:00am.

On 31 March 2014 The International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands banned Japan’s scientific whaling program in Antarctica. Anti-whaling activists, Whale Warrior and regular visitor to the Coromandel, Pete Bethune and Laurens De Groot were at The Hague to witness the historic ruling.

The verdict, Bethune said, brutally killed off Japan’s claims of scientific research and in doing so, has ended whaling in Antarctica - bringing to a close the conservation war fought on many fronts since 1987. “It was an epic day, history was made and I’m really happy to have played a part.”

Bethune and De Groot nearly lost their lives in 2010 when the Sea Shepherd protest boat, the Ady Gil was run over by a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters. After the incident, Bethune boarded the Japanese vessel at night from a jet ski - launching himself into the darkness towards the ship’s massive stern.

His plan, to arrest the ship’s captain to attract media attention to Japan’s illegal whaling activities, landed him in a Japanese jail. International media followed the controversial ramming incident and Bethune’s ensuing court case.

The public was riled and the topic was discussed on talk back radio, in newspapers, forums and on social networking sites around the world.

“Greenpeace for many years was alone in battling the Japanese in Antarctica. More recently it was Sea Shepherd that took up the baton and their relentless games of hide and seek and then follow the leader with Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean helped keep whaling in the public consciousness,” Bethune said. 

Australia’s Peter Garret, ex lead singer of Midnight Oil and Minister for the Environment (2007-2010) proposed the unprecedented step of legal action against Japan.

Cajoled by Senator Bob Brown and the Greens, the Australian government backed Garrett’s proposal and four years later in The Hague, the case Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v Japan: New Zealand intervening) was won.

Japan has since cancelled its 2014 - 2015 Antarctic whale hunt.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) recognizes four types of whaling - commercial, aboriginal subsistence, whaling under “objection,” and Article 8, “scientific” whaling. It was the latter type of whaling that Japan was claiming to have been carrying out in Antarctica.

The court ruled that Japan’s scientific whaling in Antarctica did not comply with the IWC definition of scientific permit whaling, was in contravention of the IWC moratorium on commercial whaling and factory ship whaling and was in contravention of the IWC Southern Ocean Sanctuary.

Japan could not demonstrate the actual quota it allocated itself was appropriate for the science it claimed it was carrying out. The Court criticised Japan for not investigating appropriately whether non-lethal methods of study could replace the need to kill whales and noted that after 16 years of killing whales in Antarctica, Japan had only published two peer-reviewed articles.

Bethune said he felt “awfully satisfied” with the verdict. “In many ways we all share in this victory. Individuals, teams, NGOs, media, governments - all have played key roles in ending something most of us knew to be wrong. It is also a lesson to us all that we can affect change.  If the world can stop whaling in Antarctica - well there is no telling what else we are also capable of doing.”