April 2020

It’s hard to believe the events that have transpired in the last few weeks, but happen they have and as we enter another week in our bubbles, our daily routines are very much different than they were a few weeks ago. We go out for ‘essential supplies’, exercise in a local space keeping 2m from the nearest walker, check in with the official COVID-19 information available daily on the news, connect to our friends and neighbours using a…

When John and Liz van Winden moved into the large, purpose built New Zealand Home Loans building in Manukau Road earlier in February of this year, they would never have dreamed that by the end of the following month, that new office would be shut due to nationwide lockdown, as the result of a global COVID-19 pandemic and that everyone on the office would be working from home. “It’s somewhat surreal, and hard to imagine for any New Zealander…

A terrific read that touches more of us than we would care to admit. This coming of age story is set in the small towns of Warkworth and Pukekoke and has a warm familiar touch, as does the subject matter. This novel asks the question – ‘When you hate your body. How can you love yourself or anyone else?’ Research shows that over 40% of woman are consumed by this question but few overcome the shame to acknowledge or explore their irrational…

New Zealand has grown to be a multi-cultural nation and encompasses a wide range of groups and beliefs. But as of the 2018 census, statistics show almost half of our population doesn’t identify with any religion. As churches all over the country celebrate somewhat differently this Good Friday and Easter Sunday, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, elocal looks at the history of Christianity in New Zealand and whether it is…

If you have been suffering from migraines on a regular basis, then you should know how bad this can affect your life quality because the pain is usually bad enough to stop you from doing anything although the pain killer able to reduce the intensity of the pain but you probably still feel some heaviness in your head, blurry mind and feeling very tired all the time. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treats migraine headaches effectively.…

On their way from England to settle in New Zealand in 1875, my grandparents William and Maria Bliss broke their journey at Hobart, Tasmania, where my father Albert Edward Bliss was born. He was named after the husband of Queen Victoria. The family, which later grew to two sons and three daughters, later settled in Woodville, New Zealand, where grandfather was the original town cobbler. My dad left primary school early and matured early as an…

“Dad was 68 when he married Mum. She was a herd tester he met on the farm – she was 28. He had been married before but his first wife died and they had no children. He was born in 1886 in Wiltshire, one of a family of 14, leaving school at 10 to make wagon wheels. He later went to Sydney where he had a cousin in the Irish Guards who used to guard convicts. Dad worked in the Outback, droving and as a groom in stables in Portland, Victoria so…

The general feeling of the time was that it would all be over by Christmas. For four long years the people of Papakura waited for that end and when it came on Armistice Day 11th November 1918, the final tally of the roll of the dead for Papakura and Karaka stood at 32. It was billed as The Great War and it was said it would never happen again as the walking wounded and survivors made their way home. For those whose sons had not returned,…

Every now and then you hear about a story that totally captivates you… that takes you away and leaves a lump in your throat. This is a story of enduring love, tragedy, broken families, separation, war…. It sounds as if it Shakespearean, but I can tell you no it’s not. This is a true story and it’s about a couple who I admire greatly, my Mother and Father. They have now both passed away but their story lives on. The story starts in 1938 in pre…

The men of Franklin’s Home Guard had a busy war, as the country prepared the best it could to defend itself. From all walks of life, people rallied to the call, leaving farms, market gardens and businesses to take part in training and the laying of traps to slow any advancing invader. The service began in August of 1940 and when Japan entered the war, joining the Home Guard became compulsory for men not already in the armed forces and those…

Feeding those on active service was vital during the war and by 1944 one of four vegetable dehydration factories nationwide was in full production in Manukau Road, Pukekohe. The factory was in constant operation, processing produce from extensive market gardens that were planted on farms all over the district for the war effort, including on part of Pukekohe Golf Club. A large Department of Agriculture garden was set up at Patumahoe – the…

Officially, Kepa Kepa of Mercer is almost 90 years old, but the Maori Battalion veteran could be much older. When he was born, there were no birth certificates for Maori. Kepa speaks mainly in Maori and his memories of the war years are sketchy, but several key memories tell a vivid story of ferocious close quarters fighting and comradeship, of valour and loss, of the dedication and initiative that has made the Maori Battalion legendary. Of his…

While local men donned uniforms and trained in the Home Guard, women too were marching. The Women’s War Service Auxiliary drilled in the hall on the corner of Edinburgh and Harris Streets once a week and were instructed on how to handle and fire a gun. They marched with the Home Guard around Pukekohe and took a major role in organising the social events held for the troops stationed in the district. Barbara Massey (nee Bish) was a hairdresser…

Pukekohe local Shane Snijder has a whale of a tale to tell. When Shane’s dad joined the Dutch Navy during World War II, he never expected that he would live through the Battle of the Java Sea, a Japanese prisoner of war camp and the atomic bombing at Nagasaki. But it never broke him, and after seeing the very worst of the world, he rebuilt his ruined life in the best place in the world: New Zealand. Nicolaas Johannes Snijder was born in 1924,…

In June 1914, when a rebellious student shot a member of the Austrian royal family on the other side of the world, most people in New Zealand would barely have heard of Serbia, the scene of the assassination. Even less would New Zealanders have imagined that within weeks their young men would be volunteering in droves to lay down their lives for king and country as a result of this act. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the…

Project Face Shield NZ is an online community of over 200 NZ based 3D Printer owners who through the Covid19 Lockdown, started to see unprecedented demand from front line agencies for Personal Protection Equipment, (PPE equipment) including Face Shields. Would be we have enough proper medical PPE shields for everyone? & are there any supply issues for the main health organisations? They felt there would be value in having a Plan B ready for NZ,…

As a 10 year old, standing with several hundred other airforce kids and servicemen among the hangar line, I watched one of the best emergency landings witnessed at Ohakea for many a year. For the young Vulcan crew it was to be the landing of their careers. The first inkling anyone at Ohakea had of the unfolding emergency was the air-sea rescue alert sometime around midday. Two Devon aircraft hastily took to the air and headed out to sea, near…

There’s only one show in town right now, and it’s a chart-topper. I’m actually somewhat loath to launch into coronavirus, given that it’s such a rapidly-moving piece of theatre and I’m writing this a week ahead of publication; but regardless of how the spread of the world’s newest and most popular disease unfolds over the next fortnight, there are truths interwoven through the entire subject that won’t be going away. Firstly, it’s actually…

Waikaretu in 1920 was the back of beyond – an isolated place with a single, often impassable, unmetalled road to connect it with the outside world, no power, no telephone and no school. It was a long way from the high society of Sydney, the Paris fashion houses and a finishing school in Belgium. But this was where Clyde Aston brought his new bride Gladys – to a tiny cottage that had been the Mission House. Gladys and Clyde would raise six sons…

It’s hard to believe that when I signed off my article for the March edition of Elocal, on 11 February, I didn’t mention the words ‘pandemic’, ‘coronavirus’, or ‘Covid-19’. In the four or five weeks since, the media – and I mean all the media – have talked about almost nothing else. What I write now, for publication at the beginning of April, could also be totally blind-sided by events over the next two weeks. At the moment, it appears as if…

With the Corona Virus pandemic sweeping the world it was only a matter of time before New Zealand would be affected. Since the first confirmed case in New Zealand we have had constant media thrashing on the subject and as the world has started shutting down country by country the media hype has heightened. Is it hype or is it precaution? Is it a virus or is it politics? There are so many points of view about it all – it’s a case of taking the…

He was recognized for his method of spontaneous prose covering topics from catholic spirituality, drugs, poverty and travel and best known for his novel, On The Road, he was a pioneer of the Beat Generation movement alongside Allan Ginsberg and William Burroughs. A former football star turned literary iconoclast and poet, Jack Kerouac. Born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac on March 12th, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, the third child to French…

I am not a Prepper; although I have, unfortunately, seen firsthand the devastation an epidemic can cause, I have never resorted to prepare for what seemed inconceivable. Duly ignoring the advice from friends and colleagues on the front-line. And it’s this advice I have been thinking about, because to be honest, it seems to me that the most basic and effective thing we can do to give ourselves and those around us a fighting chance with something…