mysite blog

Sunny Stoke breaks record

Thu, 02 May 2013 21:00:00 +1200

It is Stoke's day in the sun with the announcement that April 2012 was the suburb's sunniest on record, while the wider region basked in temperatures almost a degree above average. A startling 247.6 hours of bright sunshine was recorded in Stoke, narrowly eclipsing by two full hours the previous record set during April 2005, John Mathieson of the Nelson Weather Service said. "April was generally very pleasant for Stoke and surrounds with dry, mild and sunny conditions experienced," he said.

The news is yet another accolade for the Nelson suburb, after it was confirmed as New Zealand's favourite place in 2010. A series of slow-moving anticyclones dominated New Zealand's air space, blocking the usual westerly weather typical for the month. Mr Mathieson said that as a consequence, rain was hard to find with just two days of light rainfall before a brief "heavy belt'" of rain last Thursday morning. The unexpected deluge of 59mm between 4am and 8am caused localised flooding in Nelson.

The monthly rainfall of 58.2mm was 72 per cent of the average 81.3mm, while sunshine hours were an "astounding'' 130 per cent of the average 190 hours. "Apart from this sole moment of moderately dramatic weather, conditions on the whole were quite stable and pleasant. The April mean temperature was half a degree above the usual average at 13.6 degrees Celsius,'' said Mr Mathieson who analyses local weather on behalf of the Nelson City Council and National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).

Daytime temperatures were almost a full degree above average with a mean of 18.9 degrees Celsius, while night time temperatures were equal to the average at 8.3 degrees. "There were no frosts, hail or thunder episodes whatever during the month."

April Rainfalls:
Brooklyn, 90.7mm; Mahana, 87.5mm; Gowan Valley, 82.5mm; east Richmond, 60.4mm; eastern Stoke, 65.2mm; north Stoke, 58.2mm; Nelson city, 76.9mm.

Snapper have moved into Golden and Tasman Bays

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 20:48:00 +1300

Snapper have moved into Golden and Tasman Bays, all of the Marlborough Sounds, and even around the back of Rabbit Island. Pannies predominate, but there are some up to 8kg. The best fishing is at dusk. Albacore tuna are moving into Tasman Bay and should be around for the next couple of months. Kingfish are being taken off the Boulder Bank and spat farms off Kaiteriteri.

Dave Fishburn reports steady groper fishing in the outer Queen Charlotte Sounds, with fish averaging 15kg. The occasional pannie snapper is turning up, but tarakihi are scarce. Temperatures are unusually warm in Cook Strait - 19°C.

In the inner Queen Charlotte Sound are pannie snapper, with the occasional big fish up to 7kg. Cod are great - except for the slot rule, with fishers reporting having to return numerous 40cm-plus fish. Due to bright, cloudless days, early morning or dusk are best.

Kenepuru Sound has been patchy for snapper - good one day, blank the next, with gurnard taking up some of the slack. The flats off Raetihi have fished well at change of light.

The east coast off Clarence has nice groper averaging 12kg, reports Wade Lindstrom of Clarence Charters. Cod are good and trumpeter a bonus.

Kahawai fishing at the Wairau Bar and Diversion has been variable, but on better days big, strong kahawai of 2.5kg and over have been taken. Salmon have been caught at the bar and up-river, including several fish of 4-8kg from around the Renwick Bridge.

The Wairau has taken a while to clear after a slip in a Waihopai Valley tributary. Cicadas are in full swing and an ideal pattern to use now the river is at last running clear. While reports from several anglers indicate sparse trout numbers, there are some quality fish, the odd one being into 'double figures'.

The Motueka River has been steady. Trout are challenging, but a size 14 Pheasant Tail nymph is a good choice. The Riwaka and the Pelorus are shadows of the past, with forestry plantings depleting flows. A brighter note was two anglers getting two big browns of 3.5kg each in the Daltons Bridge area.

Hunting & Fishing in Blenheim has changed location to a new, bigger, brighter store on Main Street in Blenheim.

Ninth Nelson Car Show Biggest Yet

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:37:00 +1300

The ninth annual Nelson Car Show is moving to a new venue next month and it looks like being the biggest show ever. This year the show runs from February 15 to 17 and is being held at Tahuna Beach Holiday Park. There is also a burn-out competition and car boot market which will be held separately on February 9.

Steve Steele, who is one of an eight-person committee organising the show, said it was the ninth year it had been held and it had got bigger every year. "Last year we had between 300 and 400 cars at the show and about 5500 people attended."

Activities for the main show start with a mystery car run leaving the Speights Ale House at 10.30am on Friday, February 15. Also on February 15 there will be a "super cruz" which anyone with a show car is invited to join. Motorists will leave the Speights Ale House at 6.30pm and head to Stoke, Richmond and back through Nelson to Atawhai Drive before returning to the Speights Ale House, largely on back roads. A drive-in movie will follow.

The car show proper runs from 10am till 4pm on Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17, at the Parkers Rd end of Tahuna Beach Holiday Park. Trophies will be awarded on Sunday afternoon for the people's choice car of the show as well as for the best car in various categories such as best American, best British and European, top Aussie and top painted panel. There are also prizes on offer which will be drawn from people's programme numbers around Sunday lunchtime. Prizes include a car, a 51-inch Samsung television and a mountainbike.

There will be a large marquee on site this year. Rockabilly band Krazy Katz will be performing on both days. There will be plenty of children's entertainment with everything from a kids' bike and scooter decoration competition to Titanic slides and merry-go-rounds.

Steve said the organising committee was not affiliated to any particular club and they were certainly not putting on the show to make money for themselves. "Nelson has the highest percentage of classic cars - which is cars that are at least 40 years old - per head of population in the country. "But there is not a lot for motorsport or car enthusiasts in Nelson and there's no race track here so we are trying to do what we can by putting something back into Nelson."

Steve said buying a car was one of the most important things people do in their lifetime so it was not surprising many people were passionate about them. Fellow committee member Rik Thomas agreed. "They are not just cars, they are part of the family," he said.

Steve said any profit they make from the show goes back into the community. Last year they were able to make donations to the Nelson Ark, a Nelson schools motocross event, the Motueka Regional Ambulance and Kartsport.

He said the committee put hundreds of hours of work into organising the show each year but it was something they were passionate about. However, the support for the show they had received from Nelson businesses had been "quite outstanding", he said.

It will be a busy time for the committee members as they will stay on site for the 72 hours of the show to act as additional security. Entry is still $5 and free for those 12 years and under, which is the same price it was when it started. "It's important to us that it remains affordable for families," Steve said.

Warriors play at Forsyth Barr Stadium

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 08:36:00 +1300

NRL football comes to Dunedin for the first time with the Vodafone Warriors taking on NRMA Broncos in a trial match.

It will be the final pre-season hit-out for the teams as they eye the start of their 2013 NRL campaign. The last trial is traditionally used by coaches to field their strongest available line-ups in the final tune-up before the season proper.

Payouts for quake feed into house price rise

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:46:00 +1300

The top of the south property market saw the biggest rise nationally in prices last month. Nelson and Marlborough recorded the largest lift in prices from November to December, an 8.3 per cent increase. This saw the median price across the region rise by $27,000 to $352,000, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (Reinz).

In the year to December, the median price rose 14 per cent in Nelson and 5 per cent in Richmond but fell 19 per cent in Motueka. Reinz Nelson Marlborough spokesman Paul Hedwig said there was a bit more insurance money filtering through from Christchurch, with mid-range buyers from $320,000 to $420,000.

All regions recorded falls in sales in December compared to November, because of a short trading month, but Nelson and Marlborough had the second-lowest fall, 11.2 per cent. However, the number of sales compared to December last year was up from 73 to 82 in Nelson, from 21 to 28 in Richmond, and from 16 to 19 in Motueka. Mr Hedwig described the market as still trundling along, saying it lacked volume.

QV's residential property index shows a 2.2 per cent annual rise to December for Nelson, reaching $388,712. The latest data from Reinz shows that the national median house price reached a new record of $389,000 in December, up almost 10 per cent from the previous year.

Last year, 74,000 houses were sold - a 21 per cent rise from 2011, and the highest annual total since 2007.

Institute chief executive Helen O'Sullivan said the Auckland and Canterbury-Westland regions were the key drivers last year, accounting for more than half the country's real estate activity.

"The strength of these two regions is starting to spill over into other parts of the country, with Central Otago Lakes and Wellington both seeing more invigorated markets, particularly in terms of sales volumes."

Sales by auction went through the roof in 2012, growing 87 per cent in Auckland and by one-third across the rest of the country.

Ms O'Sullivan said the trend was evidence of the ongoing tightness in some parts of the market, where demand was increasing but supply remained constrained.

While the national median house price increased by $5750 in December, prices in Auckland eased by almost the same amount. However, the median Auckland price of $535,000 was still up more than 10 per cent from December 2011.

Canterbury-Westland's median house price rose 1.7 per cent compared with November, reaching a new record of $351,000.

Wellington was subdued at 0.6 per cent growth, though the capital's median house price has grown 5.3 per cent year-on-year.
Ad Feedback

Across the whole country, the total value of residential sales was $2.73 billion in December, compared with $2.32b in December 2011. The total value of residential sales was $33.95b last year.

HOW MUCH?

Median property price Nov 2012 Dec 2012 Nelson city $335,000 $359,000 Richmond $418,000 $432,000 Motueka $317,000 $294,500 – Reinz

New SubsiteBlogEntry

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 15:53:00 +1300

The worldwide touring sensation, Nitro Circus Live, will take Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin by storm on 25 January 2013. Featuring dirt bikes, base jumping and stunts - this is a show not to be missed!!!

Lessons learned from the big flood

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:58:00 +1300

A year ago, hundreds of people across the Nelson region were forced from their homes as the worst flooding in a generation brought down slips, sending torrents of water and mud across farms and subdivisions, closing roads and stretching emergency services, local body staff and contractors. When the bill was totted up across the councils, the Earthquake Commission and insurance companies, it came to well over $50 million. BILL MOORE looks at what has been learned.

Tasman District Council recovery manager Adrian Humphries says last December’s rain dumped so much water on small catchments, it was like trying to empty a bath into a teacup.

In contrast to other downpours in the region – more like emptying a bath into a swimming pool, Mr Humphries says – an enormous amount of rainfall was deposited close to the coast.

That is the explanation for small streams like the one at Ligar Bay bursting their banks, with awful consequences for homeowners on the floodplain, and for at least 1600 slips across the region as the coastal hills were saturated beyond their tolerance.

The result was a huge challenge for the Nelson city and Tasman district councils, their contractors, emergency services and Civil Defence – and in their own estimation, they rose to it.

‘‘It was very intense, and I think the people coped with it very, very well,’’ Mr Humphries says. ‘‘We’ve never activated the recovery phase on a regional basis before – I think in the circumstances, we did extremely well,’’ echoes the Nelson council’s initial recovery manager, Michael Schruer.

There was a strong need for Civil Defence help in the first days, and Nelson Tasman Emergency Management public information manager Angela Ricker says the Government and the community were ‘‘equally complimentary’’ of the training and capability of the Nelson Tasman Civil Defence team.

This does not suggest that all the groups and agencies got everything right all the time, and none are claiming to have done so. They are as aware as anyone of the frustrations faced by some residents, both at the time of the floods and in the 12 months since as they grapple with the often blurry interface between councils, insurers and EQC.

Like the residents of the hardest-hit areas, on the eastern side of Golden Bay and in pockets of Nelson from Cable Bay to Tahunanui, they had to scramble to cope as the scale of the disaster unfolded.
Ad Feedback

Many of them, and the contractors whose efforts have received little public recognition, worked virtually around the clock for days, then faced more long days leading up to and through the Christmas-New Year period.

They have all seen upset people firsthand. The councils have copped complaints about delays and frustrations around who takes responsibility for what.

The importance of better rain radar for Golden Bay has been underlined, and there has been a fresh focus on things like the potential risk posed by forestry slash, and the fragility of the Separation Point granite, which caused so many problems in Golden Bay.

They are still dealing with those issues. The Tasman council is working with MetService, trying to improve radar coverage to give more warning of downpours, and it will soon be looking at a coincidental but timely report on forestry practices.

GNS Science has completed a comprehensive report on Golden Bay’s vulnerability to floods and what might be done about it.

The Nelson council has reviewed its procedures, and Civil Defence has refined its regional alert system, and is looking forward to the resource and time savings that will come from a planned regional emergency operations centre.

At this time last year, though, it was the hard grind of helping affected residents and getting the fractured infrastructure functioning again that was the preoccupation.
Many areas were untouched, and Tasman council communications manager Chris Choat recalls the weirdness of taking a coffee break in Richmond and seeing people happily going about their Christmas shopping, oblivious to the pressures council workers were under as they grappled with problems in Golden Bay and other parts of the district.

Mr Humphries, who was on the ground as emergency manager in Golden Bay for the first phase of the recovery and has since been managing the district-wide recovery works, says the biggest lesson has been the importance of good communication – honest, open, fair and frequent.

One of the council’s successes was setting up an email chain letter to keep people informed. It ended up with 500 to 600 names. The council also held a series of public meetings and produced regular newsletters.

Mr Humphries says the rumour mill is a killer. ‘‘There was a lot of misinformation out there, so I said, ‘Let’s get the facts out’.’’ In some cases, this meant explaining that the council couldn’t provide direct help, but could guide people on where to get it.

‘‘It wasn’t the fact that the council would turn up on a big white charger with 15 diggers behind it,’’ Mr Humphries says. ‘‘It’s saying, ‘Well, no, actually, you’re going to have to deal with this, but you can get rid of the stuff for free here, somebody will be here at this time to help you’ and all that – just communicating with people and being empathetic.’’

In the beginning, the biggest challenge was getting people safely out of their houses, and trying to get them back in as quickly as possible.

The ravaged Totaranui Rd was a special problem because of the importance of the campground to the Golden Bay economy, ‘‘but the biggest concern is the safety of life and public health’’.

‘‘We had to rebuild sewerage systems and water systems. We had to put additional water capacity in and move silt and debris away from people’s properties so they could get on with their lives.’’

There is still a long list of projects to be done, largely around improving stormwater and drainage systems, upgrading bridges and culverts, and some big repairs to the road over Wainui Hill. The council has 8000 photographs to sort and file.

There’s also the GNS Science report, just received and distributed to affected people and soon to be made public, which will help to determine future building and development in Golden Bay.

‘‘It’s basically going to tell us how frequently we can expect this sort of thing to happen, what intensity, and give us some indications of how they think we can control it,’’ Mr Humphries says.

He thinks that the council’s multidiscipline recovery team has been a success, but another lesson is that it would be better for all the team members to work out of the same office.

He also says the ‘‘big book of how you do recovery in New Zealand’’ is pitched at too high a level, and needs to include practical suggestions on things like dealing with people who will not take no for an answer, and how to best manage ‘‘certain members of staff’’ and get the right information to councillors.

Mr Humphries says the most recent Tapawera and Aorere floods were significant, but last year’s disaster was on a larger scale, causing the biggest civil defence emergency the district has seen.

‘‘I think we did pretty well, but we could do better. Anybody who says any different is being a little bit unrealistic.’’

He says one of the real pluses to come from the flood was that Tasman and Nelson worked so well together to jointly face an event ‘‘nobody was geared up for’’.

Mr Schruer agrees. ‘‘It was just fantastic, especially in light of all the amalgamation discussions that were on the go at the time, which could have been a distraction. I saw a level of professionalism there that I was quite amazed by.’’

He too emphasises the importance of ‘‘open, honest, transparent communication’’ with affected people, something that has been reinforced by the experience of the team working on Christchurch earthquake recovery.

‘‘Even if you’ve got nothing to report, just keeping them in the loop. The absence of communication is when things spiral out of control.’’

With a regional recovery plan operating for the first time, ‘‘it was a case of stopping, thinking clearly, not trying to rush things too much, but understanding there wasn’t time to sit around either. You had to make the best decision you could at the time and then go with it’’.

It worked better than expected, Mr Schruer says.

‘‘In the debrief at the end, we found a lot of areas for improvement – the biggest learning really was the communication thing. There’s always going to be people that complain because they didn’t get what they needed to know, and it’s just learning from that and improving each time.’’

Both councils and Civil Defence are updating their emergency and recovery planning to take into account what they have learned.

Mr Schruer says what is coming out of that is a recovery plan ‘‘that will have a touch of reality to it, what actually does and doesn’t work, and things you have to set up ready to go – templates, checklists, action plans with things that we might not have thought of before. In general, we would be far better prepared’’.

His abiding memories of those first days are of long hours and dealing with people whose lives had been thrown into disarray.

‘‘Some were difficult to deal with and some were so co-operative, and you remember those who were out to help, and the understanding so many people had of what you were facing.’’

Mr Choat takes a similar view.
‘‘We are more prepared,’’ he says. ‘‘This was an extreme event. It’s one in 500 years. The only other place that’s seen more rain in 24 hours is Fiordland.’’

The flood not only reinforced the importance of reviewing systems and strengthened the council’s relationship with residents, it also gave the affected communities the true picture of what they might come up against again.

‘‘They were prepared beforehand, but now they know what real preparation is.’’

And the workers? ‘‘A sizeable chunk of the staff haven’t had a Christmas in two years, because of the Aorere flood and then this,’’ Mr Choat says. ‘‘We’re looking forward to a disaster-free Christmas.’’

Spate of whale stranding continues

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:55:00 +1300

The stranding of a baby sei whale in the Motupipi estuary is the fourth species of whale to be beached in Golden Bay in past seven weeks. After to getting a phone call on Sunday telling him of the live whale in the estuary, Department of Conservation Golden Bay programme manager for biodiversity Hans Stoffregen was surprised to find it was a sei whale. "Apparently there are few sightings of sei whales," he said.

It is a baleen whale, and the third largest after the blue whale and fin whale. The sei whale grows up to 16 metres, and the beached baby was five metres long. "It was really beautiful," said Mr Stoffregen.

However, because it was a baby whale, it was euthanased, he said. "With juveniles, if they lose their mother basically they're doomed," he said. They were dependent on their mother. "Refloating them would be sending them to certain death."

The whale was kept alive for about two hours while iwi representatives were notified and the decision made to euthanase it, he said. It comes after a pod of 31 beached pilot whales at the bases of Farewell Spit were also euthanased at the end of last week.

The others that have stranded were three pigmy right whales - two died and one was refloated - and two hector dolphins which died and have been sent to Massey University for autopsy.

"It's busy for us and diverse to have four different species in the last seven weeks," said Mr Stoffregen.

Blokarting South Island Champs

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 10:47:00 +1300

The Blokarting South Island Championships will be held in Nelson, 9-11 November at the Vortex Blokart Track (behind the A&P Showgrounds) in Richmond. This is an event not to be missed with plenty of action for spectators and competitors! Make sure you book your car hire from Pegasus Rental Cars Nelson, especially stationwagons and vans as these classes are booking out quickly! There will be a BBQ and social event with a long distance race planned for Rabbit Island on Sunday 11th November.

Burlesque Craze sweeps Nelson

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:42:00 +1300

What is it about the new burlesque craze that's proving so popular with the women of Nelson? Naomi Arnold shimmies along to find out. ‘I'm a really shy person," Cheyenne says. This from the woman who's just spent the last half hour in the small, hot studio practising shimmying to the low purr of Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme. But that's what burlesque can do to a girl.

On Tuesday night, two women joined their teacher Jasmine Turner in the studio, tucked into a semi-industrial area of Nelson near a sandwich shop, a costume shop, a chainsaw and lawnmower outlet, and a defunct escort agency. The small room is the headquarters for 28-year-old Ms Turner, Nelson's longest-running burlesque performer. She's the brains and eyelashes behind Lilly La Rouge, a bedazzled vanguard of a neo-burlesque renaissance in Nelson. There's a picture of Johnny Depp stuck to the wall of the studio. He's there for inspiration. No-one pouts like Johnny.

Ms Turner has liquid brown eyes and a practised, confident strut. Her proteges today are 17-year-old Cheyenne: husky-voiced, green doe eyes, flawless skin; and 28-year-old Wendy: glossy black mohawk and friendly, even features. Both are in the last of their four-week class, and both will go on to Ms Turner's intermediate class.

Last night she held her studio's grand opening, with the carpark gussied up and some of her more advanced students performing. On January 5, she'll hold the inaugural Starlets of Nelson competition - for which registrations open on Monday.

But right now she's concentrating on getting these two women to shine. "A cane and a hat is a really nice combo on stage," she says, bringing out a fedora and showing the girls how to hold it in one hand and flick it on to their heads with a theatrical flourish. "Think of Michael Jackson; he used one to great effect," she says, running it along her body. "Just have a little play and see what the hat makes you feel like doing."

"Question," Cheyenne, a bartender, says, "Can you use bottles as props?" "You can use anything," Ms Turner says. "Anything." She shows them how to pull feather boas along their shoulders. "No, no no," she says, wagging a finger and chastising an imaginary audience. She demonstrates flinging up an arm and letting the boa float down, a classic move.

"It looks quite lovely," Ms Turner says, watching the red boa fall, reflected in the wall of mirrors. "Bit itchy though," Cheyenne says.

They go through the Pink Panther routine. Wendy's first, and Ms Turner coaches her through the slinky opening bars. "Walk. Walk. Walk, walk, walk, and dowwwwn to the floor - and up." Remember: if you muck it up, just strike a pose or shimmy.

Business is growing for Ms Turner; in November she'll be running four beginners' classes a week, as well as her intermediate and advanced classes for those who've come through the first. Workshop topics include Costuming and Removal, Pasties/Tassle Twirling, and character development. Students will learn how to perform, awkward at first in front of the mirrors, before slowly gaining confidence. They'll learn how to walk, pose, laugh with the audience; how to bunch up a feather boa, hold it over their bottoms, and peek over their shoulders as they let the boa drop. Some are there to perform on stage; some just want to feel confident and sexy; others want a few tricks to take home to their husbands. On warm nights they'll brush past the studio's white lace curtain and practise their moves in the car park, the surrounding concrete yards quiet behind chain-link fences.

Modern burlesque, a spinoff of the movement that has been around since the late 19th century, but reached its heights of popularity in the first part of the 20th century. An international burlesque revival was pinpointed as early as the mid-1990s, and then later, with the release of the film Moulin Rouge. These days, it has a knowing, ironic edge. It has as many definitions as performers, but it combines the glamour of old Hollywood with a coquettish femininity, theatre, satire, a dash of '90s girl power, and the modern love-your-body movement.

It is stripping's smarter, funnier, university-educated older sister; much more tease than strip. Ms Turner is firm on that. There's no nakedness on stage, but pasties, tassels, and carefully placed props cover the illegal bits. "You do get newbie girls who get up there and want to go through the motions and get their boobs out," Ms Turner says. "You're like: ‘Actually it's not all about that. Maybe you want to go work in a strip club for a while and come back'."

Ms Turner has danced since she could walk, adores old movies and her grandmother's starlet books, and has a background in theatre, so moving into this world was a natural step.

"I've got a real passion for the really rich history of burlesque, so I make sure the girls who are performing know why they're up there and what came before them," she says. "You want to tell a story, you don't just want to be a stripper. I teach them historic moves, how to move their body to music. Facial expression is a big one. Strutting, poise, how to hold yourself, how to be comic, and a theatrical edge."

Red-lipped, raven-haired, milky-skinned American beauty Dita Von Teese is probably the most recognisable burlesque queen in the mainstream, and Ms Turner loved her at the beginning "as most girls do". "But then you realise there's a whole crazy world of other burlesque performers out there that aren't just Dita Von Teese."

In New Zealand they include the stars who come out to play at the Miss Burlesque New Zealand competition, which started in April 2010 with seven contestants. This year there were nine, and next year they'll also put on a Mr Burlesque New Zealand. Contestants are judged on costumes, musicality, and their personality on stage. Past winners include Willow Noir and Busty LaBelle.

Founder, Wellington's Catherine Prescott, says the nationwide movement took off when a television programme covered the first pageant.

"Before that it was smaller shows, it wasn't out there." After it aired, burlesque teachers nationwide reported their class numbers had doubled, and it has slowly grown from there. Her home city has "lapped it up". "The small towns are harder," she says. "I guess people feel more self-conscious."

Burlesque has filled an entertainment gap and the New Zealand stripping scene can't really compete, she says. "Strip clubs these days are relatively quite boring compared to, gosh, my heyday of 15 years ago where the girls did shows," she says. "These days people like the cheeky side where, yes, there is striptease, but it's quite tasteful down to pasties and panties. It doesn't go too far with the full nudity."

Not that there's anything wrong with nudity, she adds. But 70 per cent of her audience is female.

Ms Turner's a fan of the underground Wellington scene too, of which she first became aware in 2007. She brought it to Nelson in 2008, when she was working at the legendary but now-lost Phat Club. Co-owners Dave White and Selena Coombes asked her to do a burlesque show, so she recruited a few friends and they became The Diamond Dolls. It went so well that their original one-off show spawned four more over two years. The run came to a natural end when Ms Turner and others fell pregnant or moved away.

But one day, Ms Turner checked the former Diamond Dolls' email account, finding screeds of messages from people asking if there were any more shows happening, or inviting them to perform at events and parties. Her baby boy, Jai, was eight weeks old when she did her first solo burlesque gig at a birthday party.

Word spread and there are now regular shows at Liquid Bar, Bar Berlin, and The Playhouse Cafe, and she estimates there are about 10 performers in Nelson now. It's an eclectic scene, embracing drag queens and kings, a few cabaret singers, and "a girl who does hula hoops". She's held BurlyQ Crafternoons where the women make their own props, sewing a few cheap feather boas together to make one big luscious one, sewing sequins and rows of beads on to their bras, and applying glitter to teetering heels. She bedazzles her own garments, gets corsets and bustles custom-made, or buys them on TradeMe or United States websites.

She keeps her expensive steel-boned corsets at home. "If anything happened to them I'd cry."

She prefers the term ‘mentor' over teacher. "It's not salsa dancing; there's not specific moves you can teach. It's more about mentoring the girls in what's appropriate and what's not." She likes to work with the woman's talents: individuality rules, and in the intermediate class she starts teaching them to develop a character. She doesn't mind the competition; she's backing away from performing herself now, enjoying the chance to teach new talent. "I can't be doing it all the time," she says. "What keeps the scene alive is more fresh stuff coming through."

One former student, Nelson's Mz Verona Vega, is into belly dancing, so has made her own Bellyesque show. Cheyenne, for example, is into rockabilly - think vampy pin-up, edgy 1950s, Elvis. Wendy's started to develop a character she'd already conceived of through some alternative modelling jobs. (Ms Turner advises that if you can't think of a character name, just go by New York School of Burlesque headmistress Jo "Boobs" Weldon's suggestion: think of a flower and a French cheese, and put them together.) Stoke's Vixen Delicious, 21, has come from a contemporary dance background in Christchurch. She heard there was a scene developing in Nelson, and dived right in. Her most recent show was September's musical/theatre/burlesque show Alice in Wanderlust at The Playhouse. She was the caterpillar.

"It's fun, empowering, it makes you feel amazing," she says. "It's just like the best feeling in the world."

But how do Nelson audiences respond? "Really mixed," she says. "You get people come along who've watched [2010 Cher musical] Burlesque and they think that's what it's like. It's not. Other people have no idea what to expect and think ‘That sounds a bit interesting', and they go along and have a look. Then there's quite a number of people who come along to all our shows." Burlesque groupies? "Yeah. It's quite weird." She says she answers more to ‘Vixen' than she does to her real name now.

Yet she thinks it's still an underground movement, despite its growing visibility. "I think a lot of people still don't understand exactly what it's about, and a lot of people who, as soon as you say the word ‘burlesque', think ‘stripper'. It's not like that."

On the other hand, she believes more people are opening up to the concept and finding it all good clean fun, with the audience connecting with the sensuous character on stage in a way that's become old-fashioned these days. As our culture has become more desensitised to sex, more used to seeing perfect, smooth, flawless bodies, physically removed on screens, there's something very human and immediate about burlesque.

"They're giving it a go and realising it's quite fun and entertaining, and there's quite a lot of audience interaction; they enjoy that. It's smaller numbers, smaller spaces, and you really don't miss out on anything."

Part of that audience engagement is old-fashioned storytelling. Ms Turner says she completely changes when she dresses up as her alter ego, Lilly La Rouge. "In burlesque, developing a character really helps you on stage," she says. "You're not yourself; I get Lilly's dress on, her hair done, her makeup on, and then once I'm at the venue I tell people to please refer to me as Lilly. When people call out ‘Hey Jasmine!' I'm like," - she puts on sweet, breathy voice - "Who's Jasmine?"

A character might be an amplified version of yourself, she says, "doing all the things you wouldn't do".

Indeed, Lilly has changed as Ms Turner has. "She started off as a total 1950s bombshell man-eater, and her tagline was ‘Lock up your husbands'. I guess it reflects what's going on in your life. Now that I've got a partner and a child Lilly's got a little bit darker in ways." Ms Turner loves old vampire movies ("Not Twilight"), and the most erotic thing she's done on stage lately was a fake-blood smeared vampire routine - biting, blindfolds, the whole bit. Lilly La Rouge is a character that she can shrug on and off as easily as her feather boa.

But for the women who take the classes, it's often not about performance at all; just feeling confident. Cheyenne says that although she's shy, burlesque suits her style. "It goes with the rest of me, so I thought it would be a really nice way to put it out there," she says. Many participants are older, and come along fearing that the classes are populated by 18-year-old nymphs wearing "not much", Ms Turner says. Not so. Her oldest student she estimates to be about 50. A few women come in wanting something to spice up their marriages. "I love that they can do that, it's really nice."

Above all, she wants them to relax and enjoy exploring their sensuality. "They're at a time in their life where they just want to make themselves feel good, feel a bit sexy, and have a laugh," Ms Turner says. "I am all about laughter and laughing at yourself. At the end of it they go: ‘That made me feel really, really good'.

"They see me, and I'm not old, but I'm not young. I'm a mum. I'm not a little girl, I've got curves and bumps and all sorts of things."

Sonia Townshend, 43, tried out Ms Turner's beginners' class in June, learning to shake her own hips to the Pink Panther theme. She's not planning to advance, but now she's got some new dance moves to break out at the next party.

"What else do you do in Nelson in the middle of winter?" she says. "TV's a bit boring so I thought I'd go out and move my body. I had no idea what it was about." Turned out she loved it. "There's no inhibitions, you can just give it a go in front of the mirror, and no-one's looking at you. "It's more than just dancing; it's the glances, and the way that you look over your shoulder, the way you take off your gloves," she says. "Adds some spice to your life in Nelson."

Rental Cars for Cruise Passengers, New Zealand

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:33:00 +1300

The days are getting longer and warmer and already we’ve had a visit from the Radiance of the Seas, marking the start of the popular summer cruise ship season to New Zealand.

Increasingly, cruise passengers are showing themselves around our cities in a rental car. While many cruise passengers are happy to stroll around a port city on their own, or to be shown the sights on a local sightseeing tour, taking a rental car is an economical and fun compromise.

Once a cruise ship has berthed, in most of our port cities Pegasus Rental Cars will deliver a car shipside. Pegasus staff really know their region, and are quick to offer useful advice about where to go and what to see. Then the cruise passengers are free to tour where they like, and to meet some of the locals.

Our smaller cars are all you need for two or four people to use. Quite often, cruise passengers get a party together to share the cost of a rental car, and take a ‘people mover’ to drive. We also have 12-seater Minibuses for hire. Sat Nav equipment (GPS) is also popular with cruise folk as an efficient way of getting to the points they want to visit.

Pegasus Rental Cars is located in each of the ports that cruise passengers will call into. These are (north to south) the Bay of Islands, Auckland, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington, Picton, Akaroa (near Christchurch) and Port Chalmers in Dunedin. Ships that will be regular visitors to New Zealand ports this year include the Dawn Princess, Sea Princess and Sun Princess, the Pacific Pearl and Pacific Dawn, as well as others from further afield such as the Oosterdam, the Crystal Symphony and the magnificent Carnival Spirit.

New Zealand will also be graced by visits from Cunard’s liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2., as well as the glamorous Queen Victoria.

Watch this blog! We will post ideas and thoughts specifically for cruise passengers coming to New Zealand this summer.

Festival team gets cracking

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:31:00 +1300

It’s all go at Founders Heritage Park this week as the technical crew for the Nelson Arts Festival gets the place ready for showtime. The festival, which opens this Friday, boasts performances by artists from as far afield as Canada, Korea, Chad, Australia and Germany, along with a host of talented Kiwis, and runs until October 28. The technical team of 20 has been hard at work turning the Energy Centre at Founders Heritage Park into the 350-seat TSB Bank Mainstage where many of the programme’s biggest acts will perform.

These include folk outfit Le Vent Du Nord from Quebec, virtuoso singers H’Sao, the darkly entertaining Mikelangelo and Black Sea Gentlemen along with Trinity Roots, Electric Wire Hustle Family and Tahuna Breaks.

The park’s Granary is also being transformed into the Granary Festival Cafe, which will be home to a line-up of contemporary music, forums and writers’ talks.

In keeping with this year’s carnival theme, the ticket office at Founders will be in a bright red vintage caravan on loan from Wellington’s Cuba St Carnival. The caravan will be flanked by gorgeous life-size showgirls painted by Golden Bay artist Dean Raybould. Mr Raybould has also painted three large panels depicting carnival characters including a muscle man named Mongo the Strongo, a bikini-clad bearded woman named Bridget Beardy and a tiny boy with huge hair. There is also a monkey, an organ grinder and a very fat fellow named The Blob. The fun bit is the old-school way people can stick their heads through holes in the pictures where the characters’ faces should be.

The carnival-themed features also include giant masks in the Granary Festival Cafe, an old Newmans bus packed with mannequins, 20 LED lighting bricks that change colour, a house of mirrors and 200 metres of yellow bunting.

Technical director Antony Hodgson told The Leader this year’s festival will feature the best lighting yet thanks to input from lighting professionals Enfys Bellamy and Ben Clegg who are from Britain, but live in Golden Bay. Mr Hodgson said thanks to them the festival was getting twice as much lighting as it had budgeted for. “It’s going to be quite spectacular,” he said.

Mr Hodgson said the first member of the team to start working on the park began two weeks ago and the full crew got cracking on Monday. “We’ve been making really good progress,” he said.

For more information visit nelsonartsfestival.co.nz

Richmond drives leap in housing prices

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:31:00 +1200

Nelson Marlborough house prices showed the highest lift nationally between July and August at 9.6 per cent, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand. The national median house price rose just 2.5 per cent or $9000 to $370,000 from July, while in the top of the south the 9.6 per cent lift saw the median price rise from $301,000 to $330,00. Reinz Nelson Marlborough spokesman Paul Hedwig said the region was seeing continual gradual growth.

Richmond saw a big jump from August last year with the median price soaring $75,000 to $407,500 from 16 sales. Nelson city had a more modest increase of $11,500 to $325,500 from 80 sales, while in Motueka the rise was $2500 to $345,000 from 23 sales.

Mr Hedwig said the prices were slowly creeping up but the number of houses for sale had been limited as sellers held on hoping for a spring flush. While people were hesitant wondering what was going to happen economically in Europe and the United States, he believed it would get to the point where they would decide just to get on with life. Most of the sales were from local change, he said.

Reinz chief executive Helen O'Sullivan said home buyers in Auckland were increasingly driving the New Zealand real estate market. “Normally at this time of year we see a dip in sales volumes; this year, apart from the weather, winter was cancelled in Auckland. "Across the rest of the country while we are continuing to see rising sales volumes, prices continue to reflect the general caution around the economic outlook.”

Auckland experienced the highest lift in median prices compared with August 2011 - an increase of 11.6 per cent to $505, 500. Canterbury/Westland's prices rose 6.2 per cent to $345,00 and Wellington 5.2 per cent to $384,000.

In Christchurch city, strong demand, a lack of listings and a shortage of houses are combining to create a sellers' market and push up prices. The Real Estate Institute said the city's median (mid-point) house price last month was a record $371,600. Institute director Tony McPherson said the city's housing market had seen a year of rapid sales growth. Prices were continuing to rise partly because of the "persistent shortage" of homes on the market in Christchurch and in towns such as Rangiora, McPherson said.

All regions recorded lifts in sales volume compared with August 2011. Northland led at just under 31 per cent, followed by Auckland (25.6 per cent) and Taranaki (22.2 per cent).

Seven regions experienced an increases in sales between July and August including Central Otago Lakes (25 per cent), Southland (11.2 per cent), and Nelson/Marlborough (8.9 per cent).

Taranaki's house sales fell 14 per cent fall between July and August, while Manawatu/Wanganui fell 8.2 per cent and Wellington 2.8 per cent.

Nelson Marlborough prices showed the highest lift between July and August at 9.6 per cent, followed by Taranaki ( 7.3 per cent) and Southland (5.9 per cent).

The national median ‘days to sell' improved by three days between July and August, from 38 to 35 days, with the number of days to sell also improving by four days compared with August 2011. Over the past ten years the median days to sell for the month of August has averaged 36 days across New Zealand.

Auckland recorded the shortest days to sell at 30 days, followed by Canterbury/Westland with 33 and Otago with 37 days. Northland recorded the longest number of days to sell at 76 days, followed by Taranaki and Central Otago Lakes with 58 days.

There were 1,110 dwellings sold by auction in August representing 18.4 per cent of all sales, up from 588 sales in August 2011 representing 11.3 per cent of all sales.

Coastal Link Underway

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:27:00 +1200

The new coastal link from Nelson to Mapua will be one of the most scenic cycle rides in the entire country according to project manager Stuart Hughes. Three separate contractors have been announced to begin work on completing the Nelson to Mapua segment of the Nelson-Tasman Great Taste Cycle Trail by Christmas.

The current work will occur between Richmond and Mapua with a purpose built suspension bridge to be constructed across the Waimea River in the coming months. Access to the bridge will come from Lower Queen St. This particular segment of the trail will not be open to the public until after an official opening ceremony.

A temporary bypass route will go across Queen St for a couple months due to a “no construction” period in the resource consent while bird nesting occurs.

When the link is finished, it will create a looped track between Nelson City and Mapua. The timing of its completion should fall just before summer, which Stuart says will be a key time for the trail to draw tourists. “We should have that done for when the masses are here. It’s going to be tremendous.”

Forsyth Barr Stadium to host All Blacks vs Sprinkboks game - The Investec Rugby Championship

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:47:00 +1200

Forsyth Barr Stadium is the place to be on the 15th of September as the All Blacks take on South Africa as part of the Investec Rugby Championship.

Previously called the Tri Nations, from 2012 the tournament now includes Argentina, to make it a four way contest between the New Zealand All Blacks, the Australian Wallabies, the South African Springboks and the Argentinian Pumas.

Due to sponsorship, the tournament will be known as the Investec Rugby Championship in New Zealand, the Castle Rugby Championship in South Africa, the Castrol Edge Championship in Australia, and the Personal Rugby Championship in Argentina.

Each team plays the other three twice on a home and away basis, with the first game on the 18th of August and the last on the 6th of October, a total of 12 games.

The tournament commences after the completion of the Super Rugby competition because players from SANZAR countries are involved in both competitions.

Games played between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies also determine the winner of the Bledisloe Cup.

Kick off is at 7.35pm.

Blessing of the Nelson Fishing Fleet Sat July 21

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:24:00 +1200

The twelfth Blessing of Nelson’s Fishing Fleet is scheduled for Saturday July 21, paying its annual tribute to those who have lost their lives at sea, along with the blessing of boats prior to the hoki season. There will be the usual fireworks on Friday night (July 20), with viewing from the waterfront and the port hills. Flares and fireworks will be set off from 7pm, with the firework display boosted by support from Port Nelson Ltd.

On Saturday at 1pm Bishop Richard Ellena, Reverend Jeff Cotton, Father David Gruscol and Archdeacon Andy Joseph will take the blessing service, with fishing boats lined up in front of the Seafarers’ Memorial on Wakefield Quay.

Music will be provided by the Nelson Male Voice Choir, Nelson Christian Academy Choir,lone piper Perry Smith and the Nelson City Brass Band. Pigeons will be released at the end of the service.

Seafarers Memorial Trust spokesman Mike Smith says the Blessing of the Fleet has stood the test of time and is a very special commemoration by the Seafarers Memorial Trust.

“The sea and fishing are such an integral part of our community, with 26 percent of the workforce involved in one way or another with this industry,” Mike says. “The blessing is a unique occasion to appreciate the true cost of fish - fishermen are lost at sea, often without being found, and this event is an occasion where next of kin and the wider community can remember them.”

With the help of the Rotary Club of Nelson, the trust will be offering scallop and fish picnic lunches and there will be an auction of the Catch of the Day.

The Blessing of the Fleet is a free community event, however the public will beasked to make a donation to the Seafarers’ Memorial Trust to be used in community projects.

If Saturday is wet the Blessing of the Fleet will be held on Sunday 22 July. Postponement will be broadcast on Radio Nelson stations (Newstalk, Classic Hits etc.)

Pegasus releases their Winter Prize Promotion

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:12:00 +1200

Are you fed up with the New Zealand winter? Would you like a break somewhere warm and tropical? Then read on for details on Pegasus Rental Cars winter prize promotion!

Rent a car from Pegasus Rental Cars in July, August or September 2012 and go in the draw to win a 7 day trip to Fiji for 2 people!

The prize consists of 6 nights accommodation in an Ocean View room at Mana Island Resort and Spa Fiji, along with daily breakfast and flights with Air Pacific.

Hire must be 7 days or longer to qualify. You will be automatically entered into our prize draw when you rent a car with Pegasus Rental Cars during those months. The prize will be drawn by Pegasus National Support Office and the winner must be in New Zealand to pickup their prize.

Scott Dixon Hires With Pegasus Rental Cars

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:59:00 +1200

What does one say or even think when one discovers that Scott Dixon has just booked a car with you?

Scott Dixon is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated race car drivers. He is up there with Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme and Chris Amon. He is currently in second place in the 2012 IndyCar Championship, behind Australian Will Power (and yes, that is his name!). Just a couple of weeks ago he missed by one taking the trophy for perhaps the most legendary Indy car race of any season, the Indianapolis 500. But he made up for it the following week by winning the Detroit Grand Prix and, as Detroit really is the home of the automobile, surely that is a more prestigious win than the Indy 500?

Today, at the Texas 550, he crashed out after leading most of the 173 laps. This was his first DNF (did not finish) since 2010.

Knowing Pegasus rental Cars prized reputation for reliability, the thought occurred to us when he booked this morning that Scott Dixon had finally come over to Pegasus to be assured of no more DNFs in the IndyCar series. But what car should we give him? Even our All Black Subaru Forester Turbo treat car might seem like a underpowered forklift to the fast paced Dixon! Maybe if we invest in some wide slicks for one of our Daihatsu Sirion sub-compacts we’ll be able to fox him?

Clearly there was no choice but to ring Mr Dixon! This was my unique opportunity to share the podium with him.

Alas, all he wants is a Toyota station wagon. Why? It seems we have the wrong Scott Dixon – this Scott Dixon is a tiler from Auckland, who has a job here in Wellington for a week or two. Whilst he wants to work at a high speed rate, it won’t be THAT fast!

Tasman Band Tour - Golden Bay

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:57:00 +1200

The Tasman Band Tour is set to return to the region, with three all ages music gigs scheduled to take place in Richmond, Motueka and Golden Bay on consecutive weekends in June.

Back again to headline the tour are Nelson punk rock outfit ‘Recommended by your Mom’, who were part of the original TBT in 2010. They have since gone on to release multiple singles and sign a record deal to send their music global. They will be supported by the all female pop rock group ‘The Black Spots’ from Golden Bay High School, mosh metal band ‘Buried In Blood’ from Motueka High School, young rockers ‘Fire Without Permit’ from Waimea and Nelson Colleges, and ‘Black Water’ from Nelson.

The Tasman Band Tour is a free community event and are smoke, alcohol, drug and trouble free.

Kaiteriteri Mid-Winter Mountainbike Breakout

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:49:00 +1200

NELSON MOUNTAINBIKE CLUB in conjunction with KAITERITERI MOUNTAINBIKE PARK present the 6 HOUR MID WINTER BREAK-OUT, Kaiteriteri MTB Park, Sunday 17th June 2012. Ride solo or in a team of 2, 3 or 4 people (1 person per team on the course at a time). The course uses the beginner tracks in the park so anyone with basic mountain biking skills can enjoy being part of the challenge.

EVENT START: 10am, 3.45pm cut-off time for starting last lap.
BRING: team tent, BBQ (optional), warm clothing.

WARM TENT, WARM FOOD, GOOD COFFEE, GREAT COMPANY all there for you!
SPOT PRIZES throughout the day.
ENTRIES CLOSE 10th June (no on the day entries).
AGE LIMIT: 13 years minimum age (or 11 years if rding in a team with a parent).

PAYMENT by direct credit to a/c 11-7400-0912342-11. Please put your team name and "6 Hour" as references or post cheque to Nelson MTB Club c/- printing.com, 6 McGlashen Ave, Richmond 7020. Your entry will not be processed until full payment has been received. Please ONLY ONE payment per team.