If you’re a regular visitor of the Masterton Farmers’ Market, the Martinborough Country Market, or if you ever eat out in local restaurants, you’ll have encountered Splashzone, Richard and Jean Kibblewhite’s fresh fish. Anne Taylor spent a day on the water, finding out how it gets from the sea to the table.
Martinborough Village Camping gains a 4-Star Qualmark Grade
Following a rigorous onsite assessment, Martinborough Village Camping has been awarded New Zealand tourism’s official mark of quality; a 4 star Qualmark grade in the Holiday Park Category. A joint venture between Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Automobile Association, Qualmark is the way the tourism industry directs travellers to quality assured products and services.
Explore fabulous Springtime Wairarapa with Tranzit Coachlines’ new ‘Wairarapa Garden Gourmet Escape’. The tour has been designed for the enjoyment of gardeners and non-gardeners combining visits to two stunning private gardens, a pub lunch and wine tasting.
Giving ‘dropping in for a bite’ a whole new meaning, Heli-lunching at Wharekauhau is a luxurious and memorable experience. Heading off for lunch by helicopter sounds improbably glamorous – the kind of thing you’d do if you were a model, movie star or maybe Donald Trump. It’s slightly surreal then for me to be sitting in a helicopter on Queen’s Wharf waiting for lift off to Wharekauhau Lodge. Not to mention a little nerve-wracking.
BAFTA judge, producer and writer of multiple hit BBC television series, Martinborough’s Raymond Thompson of Tirohana Estate could not have been more welcoming and relaxed when Simon Burt met him recently in the family vineyard café. Instead of creating popular TV series “Howards’ Way”, Thompson could really have turned his own life into a series. Born in Redditch Worcestershire, to a self-taught engineer from Birmingham and an illiterate Scottish gypsy, the itinerant family scraped a living of sorts from jobbing work and by making and selling craft items such as perfume.
Recently launched from headquarters in rural Carterton is Cookware Essentials, an online store selling all manner of, well, cookware essentials! The brainchild of Pamela Tindall and Jan Little, Cookware Essentials is a kitchen shop with a difference – it’s open 24 hours a day seven days a week and serves both New Zealand and Australia. “We’re catering for those keen cooks who are perhaps living away from the main shopping centres or who simply prefer to shop online to save time and money”, explains Pamela.
An international feel-good event will take the stage in Featherston this month, when the world-famous Japanese Chor-Farmer give a concert as part of their 16th Concert Tour of New Zealand. The male voice choir’s biennial goodwill visits to Australia and New Zealand started in 1977. This will be their fourth visit to Featherston, where they will be hosted by the Featherston Heritage Museum committee. Many personal friendships have developed over the years of home hosting.
At vintage, Martinborough becomes a melting pot of nationalities as young oenophiles from all over the world arrive to work the vines. They’re here not only to pick up new techniques, but also to get a feel for the culture and passion of our winemakers, who they say stand out from the crowd overseas.
Di Lusk loves peonies. So much so, that when she and husband Dean were organising their wedding there was no question that it would have to be in December, so she could have the frost-loving, old-fashioned blooms as her flowers.
On Friday 24th October, 6.30pm at the Michael Fowler Centre, The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra will present a spectacular season finale, with Music Director Pietari Inkinen and Bass-Baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is delighted to be providing a coach to this concert from the Wairarapa, and it’s hoped the coach will prove popular enough to become a regular service for all NZSO Friday night concerts.
A bright and breezy American has settled in Martinborough, taking on a ground-breaking role in caring for the community. There’s a fair chance someone’s a Wairarapa local if they’re wearing Red Bands. But the quintessential kiwi gumboot looks a little surprising on petite and immaculate Nancy Williams. This fifty-something American has just made a life-changing career shift and fitting in with the locals is no big deal.
Award-winning Greytown writer David Murphy has a broad range of life experiences to draw upon. Having done some research about David and his book, ‘The Life and Death of Laura Friday and of Pavarotti, Her Parrot’, I went to interview him anticipating an entertaining afternoon, and I was not disappointed.
Designer, painter, writer and champion of the Matarawa rail service - Rhondda Greig is a living treasure. Meeting Wairarapa artist and writer Rhondda Greig in person it’s no surprise that she’s full of colour and as neat as a pin - her work is the same. Also with hardly a stick out of place is the mid-19th century Matarawa cottage Rhondda shares with her husband, journalist, archivist and former ‘Fair Go’ presenter Hugo Manson.
Greytown’s Moise and Andrea Cerson are reaping the rewards of their hard work, and rediscovering the joys of family and free time. There’s a story in France about a woman heading out one morning to get her daily baguette – with messy hair and scruffy tracksuit bottoms. Her appalled husband stops her on the doorstep: “But what will the BAKER think?!’ Telling me this story is Andrea, wife and business partner of Greytown’s own French baker Moise Cerson – a stylish couple unlikely ever to find themselves in this situation.
On a quiet street in Greytown, with very little ceremony or fanfare, artist Liz Bondy is steadily continuing the work she has been doing for the past twenty years. Liz began her career in the late 1950s, studying fine arts at Ilam in Christchurch. Artists Rudy Gopas and Russell Clark were two of her more notable teachers.
Wairarapa-based sculptor and teacher Roger Thompson may work from an old shed in Greytown but his art sits on the world stage. In minus five degrees celsius, with a chainsaw and chisels at hand, Roger Thompson gets to work on his icy canvas.
A long held dream has come to fruition somewhat unexpectedly for Lorraine Hall-Morison. Sometimes a change in personal circumstance can trigger a chain of unexpected events. In the case of Masterton’s Lorraine Hall-Morison, a marriage breakdown provided the catalyst in establishing her own clothing label.
Sue Wright is a lady who knows and speaks her mind. The dynamic owner of Greytown’s Mondo has a pronounced streak of rebelliousness, which has turned out to be a great asset in her business. “I’m not easily intimidated,” says the petite bundle of energy, who is a stalwart supporter of the Greytown business community.
Whether you are a contemporary classicist or a funky individualist, it’s all about you, say Wendy Turton and Rebecca Meads of Greytown’s Affinity. Affinity now has a light, bright Mainstreet space devoted to interior design, with ample room to view the wide range of samples, and designer pieces. And most importantly, get excited about your project!
Tray upon tray of mung beans, snow pea shoots and alfalfa are growing in Jeremy Howden’s ‘sprout house’ at his 50-acre certified organic farm southeast of Masterton. Is there any more endearing vegetable than the sprout? Not only do they look cute, with their tender stalks and down-turned heads, each gamely supporting a single drop of water, but they also happen to be packed with vitamins, minerals, proteins, antioxidants and enzymes.
Delivering music, laughter, inspiration, elation and tears, Wairarapa’s acclaimed celebration of the art of storytelling is on again. Named after the region (Wairarapa translates as “glistening or flashing water”), the festival attracts storytellers - or ‘tellers’ to those in the know - from far and wide. Along with regular locals such as Gaye Sutton and Liz “Dreamweaver” Miller (who, with Joy Tutty created the first festival in 1992), this year’s entertainers are from the U.S. and Australia as well as from all over Aotearoa.
Arrow FM is, literally, the voice of the Wairarapa. The broadcasters of this Masterton radio station are volunteers, taking their chunk of airtime and making it their own. People become radio broadcasters on Arrow FM 92.7, Wairarapa’s community access radio station, for all sorts of different reasons.
Feeling the need for some creative freedom? This remarkable Masterton art studio is providing just that. “You’re such a good writer, you should be a florist,” I was told by one of the artists at King Street Artworks. Lofty ambition that a florist, while it would be great to be a florist, I reckon I have pretty much the perfect job. I’m a tutor at King Street. Been here since it opened eleven years ago, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Well… apart from writing the perfect novel, making squillions of dollars and retiring to Waiheke Island. We’d have such jolly parties, I’m sure Jack Nicholson would bring the saveloys and sauce; Tom Cruise could come if he promised to sit on the sofa like a big boy and not double dip his chips into the dip.
Diversity is the name of the game for Eketahuna’s Biddy and Colin Fraser-Davies. I’m a devoted foodie from way back, and I thought a visit to a maker of fine traditional-style cheeses would be my idea of heaven entirely. So in search of Biddy Fraser-Davies I journeyed across the Wairarapa to Eketahuna. But I discovered Biddy and her husband Colin offer much more than just cheese. As a child Biddy had read Elizabeth Gouge’s epic novel Green Dolphin Country, and was inspired to leave Britain and come to New Zealand. Initially the pair lived on the Kapiti Coast, but then made the decision to move to Eketahuna, to their little farm CwmGlyn, 9km south of the town.
Designers Tracey Owen and Greg Morgan are proof that a brother and sister can work superbly together. The designers are at the helm of a team of 15 skilled craftspeople at Prestige Joinery, which has been operating in Wairarapa and Wellington since 1993. “The kitchens and joinery we create are individually designed and constructed to each customer’s requirements and budget,” says Tracey. “Our joinery, including specialty doors, windows and staircases, is custom made for each project.”
Brackenridge Country Retreat in Martinborough have added yet another string to their bow, with the completion of their $1 million Spa development.
“We wanted to provide a secluded and welcoming environment where people can exercise and be pampered at the same time,” says Brackenridge Managing Director Cathie Morison. “We’re thrilled to be able to offer these world-class facilities to residents of Martinborough and the Wairarapa, as well as to those visitors who come to share the magic of our region.”
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