Trust hopes for Māori centre fundingThe Hihiaua Cultural Centre Trust, which has been working towards a Māori cultural centre for Whangarei, is hoping to hear this week if the council has agreed to a grant to launch it. The trust has been planning for years to build a complex on the Hihiaua peninsula, just east of the Town Basin Marina. It has asked the council for seeding funding of $500,000. Trust chair Richard Drake said the master carver Te Warihi Hetaraka had been working and teaching in an old shed on the site, and the initial grant would give the carvers a proper home. Read more here.
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Māori tiki and Taranaki whanau inspires Chinese artistLiving nearly 11,000 kilometres from home, Simon Rangiwahia was overwhelmed to find tiki-inspired art hanging in a Guangzhou gallery. With a population of more than eight million, the streets of the Chinese city of Guangzhou inhales its residents in a flurry of anonymity. Barely a fleck in the crowd, residents fight their way through the bustling streets, individually invisible and largely irrelevant to each other. Three years ago, Hawera man Simon Rangiwahia left New Zealand and the Māori culture that defined him to become just one of the millions living in the sprawling Chinese city, located northwest of Hong Kong. Read more here.
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Cut-price fares loom as new China airline ramps up flightsChina Eastern will start year-round Auckland to Shanghai services at the end of September with return fares starting at under $600. The airline will fly four times a week from September 26 in competition to Air New Zealand which flies daily on the route. China Eastern's service
will add an extra 100,000 seats per year on the Auckland-Shanghai route, providing a boost for New Zealand's second biggest tourist market. Read more here.
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Twelve Questions: Rewi Spraggon1. You've been a leading promoter of Matariki over the years. Did you expect it to get this big? Ten years ago I said, "One day The Warehouse will have a Matariki sale," and sure enough they do. But that's cool because it's a celebration, right? And now the kids know what Matariki is. I think the Maori New Year should be our national holiday. It's the celebration in June that's relevant to Aotearoa. Me
and Bob Harvey have been pushing this since the 1990s at Waitakere City Council. I'm always busy at this time of year. I do traditional carving, music, storytelling, food and medicines, so people come to me to share that knowledge. Read more here.
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Casting Off The Last TabooThis column was originally published in Inside Tourism, 1 July 2015.
To see a movie on the big screen is around $16, give or a take a few dollars. It’s a price that many of us are willing to pay to escape real life for a while as we lose ourselves in a world of dinosaurs, superheroes and Hollywood’s hottest for a couple of hours. Yet some of us think that a $16 levy will be the end of us, seriously! Rather than rehashing what many have already said, including the proposal coming out of the blue, it’s time for a grown up discussion about the place of levies in tourism.
Read more here.
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How Successful People Make Smart DecisionsOur days are filled with a constant stream of decisions. A study from Columbia University found that we’re bogged down by a good 70 decisions a day. Some decisions are minor, like what to eat, which route to drive to work, or in what order to tackle tasks. Others are more difficult, like deciding between two job offers, whether to move to a new city for someone you love, or whether to cut a toxic person
out of your life. With so many decisions taking up each day, learning to prioritize them and make them effectively is essential to your success and happiness. Read more here.
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Wellington funding available nowThe Wellington Amenities Fund has been set up to support eligible entities of regional significance with day-to-day operational expenses and new innovative projects that will achieve identified priorities for the region. The fund is focused on arts, cultural and environmental attractions and events to support and add to the attractiveness and vitality of the Wellington region.
Read more here.
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Holiday planning in Wellington made easyGone are the days of hours spent planning holiday outings. Now it's as easy as a few clicks. Positively Wellington Tourism's new experience planner matches availability, price range and interests with all that Wellington has to offer. It allows users to create wish-lists and full-day itineraries with just a few questions about price, place and the kind of experience wanted. Parents will let out a sigh of relief, but the tool will also be good for tourism. Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks said it would make Wellington easier for visitors to navigate. Read more here.
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Historic Māori language papers digitisedMāori language newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th century have now been digitalised and are available to the public on line. More than 120,000 pages have been taken from 18 separate Niupepa Māori [Māori periodicals] published between 1842 and 1913. The papers
were produced by the government, churches and by both Māori and Pakeha and have been described as a hidden gem of this country's historical archive. Read more here.
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