Coromind

They say a journey takes a thousand steps … ours took about 1000 years!!!

And so our journey has now been laid out in a new exhibition installed at the Mercury Bay Museum in Whitianga, named ‘Shaping Te Whanganui o Hei – People, Place & Time’.

It has been a labour of love for the museum team. We started in October last year with a discussion about creating a timeline and a space on the main floor of the Museum for our people to be more visible and help tell our local stories…

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Hi, I’m Noah Greenfield but my friends call me Greeny. I’m 13 years old and I live in Cooks Beach. I love sports, particularly surfing, football and table tennis. This year I’m playing for the Junior Boys Mercury Bay Football Club team, now that I’m at Mercury Bay Area School. Last year, my Whenuakite team lost 6-0 to a Tairua team, but by the end of the season, we won 1-0. I also won the Most Valuable Player trophy that year. I go surfing at Hot Water Beach as much as I can – I love being in the water, talking to friends, splashing around and catching waves.

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I look at pregnancy as nine months of mental and physical exercise in preparation for birth, similar to how the frequent toilet visits throughout the night seem like preparation for the frequent waking and feeding once baby is earthside. It’s all hard work and every woman or seahorse dad (Google it) has a different journey in pregnancy and birth. My first pregnancy with Rawiri seemed like a breeze compared to my second with Wiremu where I had much stronger symptoms, yet my first birth was much more physically and emotionally taxing…

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The first time I left NZ was in 1973, off on the required OE, bound for Southeast Asia. Boy, was I excited. During the flight I sat next to an effeminate guy. We chatted away and before touching down in Bali I woke up and realised my sleeping head had been resting on his shoulder. I apologised profusely but he was very nice and patted me on the leg and suggested I go and stay with him in a flash resort at Nusa Dua. I politely lied to him that I already had accommodation booked at Kuta Beach, and thanked him for his kind offer, despite the fact I was sure he had ulterior motives. Tip number 1: have some plausible stories ready for unforeseen situations.

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Most of us are cautious when dealing with glass, but this is a versatile material, offering various possibilities for artistic and functional creations. Sandra and Mark Hosking, the owners of Sunflower Glass Studio NZ, know that well. Their creative space in Whitianga is not just a place to experiment and create but also a tribute to their late daughter, Jess, whose legacy is beautifully interwoven into every piece of glass art they create.

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I have always wondered what the first musical instrument would have been? Presumably, the human vocal chords – chanting, singing or wailing around a fire pit would have been the first notes, and then some sort of drum or percussion instrument would have followed suit like beating a stick on a log or shaking a gourd full of seeds. But would we consider them to be musical instruments? 

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When Tairua local Will Fransen fell off his boat in January while fishing beyond the Aldermen Islands, he drifted over 55 km in the currents in little over 24 hours. Incredibly, he was found alive.

If the currents and tides can carry a human this far, imagine the distance a small fragment of invasive seaweed like Caulerpa can spread on the same currents…

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Proud to be Local is our inspirational feature, highlighting homegrown Coromandel Peninsula folks doing wonderful things out in the world.

In this edition: Ron Morgan

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I want to start with why optimal health is crucial for enhancing the quality of our lives. Our well-being + health fundamentally shape our daily experiences, which is why the saying "If you don’t have your health, you have nothing" resonates so deeply. While it's possible to be surrounded by loving and supportive people even when unwell, enjoying life becomes significantly more challenging without good health.

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It’s a moment in history that we have all simultaneously dreamed of and dreaded. A moment that may very well shake the core beliefs of every person, not just in the Coromandel Peninsula, but every coastal town in the whole world. This indeed may be the moment that nomads, couples and even families decide to never bother visiting the beach again. It is at this very moment that we announce that the search is indeed over. For all of us. As local Coromandel primary school student Bella Ride has found the most perfect, most singularly spectacular sea shell in existence.

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