Bright Wings

Santa flies in

Reindeer being unavailable, Santa visits his Greytown, Wairarapa, customers by plane for an RSA Christmas Party held in the 1960s.

Santa is Barney Rhodes and the plane is a Taylorcraft BC12.

Greytown celebrates 120th Arbor Day

 

 

Greytown celebrated the 120th anniversary of the first Arbor Day in New Zealand, held in Greytown in 1890, on Saturday, 3 July 2010.

Bright future for old Greytown building

A bright future is in store for the old Bouzaid and Ballaben factory in Greytown, with new owners considering remodelling the building as a theatre, supermarket, a market and individual shops.

Masterton builder Dave Borman and businessman John Heginbotham are shareholders in the Totara Estate Ltd partnership which has bought the building. 

Dave Borman transformed Kuripuni from a boring, rundown suburban shopping centre into a stylish village centre, with interesting shops and galleries.

The partners are looking for ideas from Greytown people as to how the complex should be developed.

Bouzaid and Ballaben closed in May 2009 as a result of Lane Walker Rudkin going into receivership, with 61 staff losing their jobs.

Greytown Arts Festival

The Greytown Arts Festival, to be held over Wellington Anniversary Weekend (23- 25 January 2010) has an interesting line-up.

Musical highlights include the Wellington Ukulele Orchestra, chamber music in St Luke's from the Amazon Trio  and an American Blues Night.

Visual arts include Made in Greytown - an exhibition by Greytown artists working across a variety of mediums, an Art and Garden Tour, a postcard exhibition and competition, a Digital Art Competion for Greytown school students, Lego Building Competition, Graffiti Knitting, and Flowers in Shops.

From 4-13 December, Wairarapa residents can purchase tickets to the Ukelele Orchestra from the Wairarapa Visitor Centres in Masterton and Martinborough, and the Greytown Library.  After that date tickets will also be available from www.undertheradar.co.nz

The festival is also on Facebook

A walk through Greytown Memorial Park

Designed by Alfred Buxton, Greytown Memorial Park is one of the loveliest parks in the Wairarapa.

Here the roadway meanders through the bush - one of the few remaining fragments of lowland forest in the Wairarapa - to a beautiful, sheltered camping ground amongst the trees. Small, but perfectly formed.

Ancient sign outside the swimming baths

Extensive plantings of native trees and shrubs by an enthusiastic and dedicated band of Greytown residents over the years has helped make this area a welcome and interesting retreat in the height of a Wairarapa summer.

One hundred and seventeen lime trees border the cricket ground at the western end of the park. These were planted in 1922 to commemorate the 117 local men who died in the First World War.

Goodbye Bouzaid and Ballaben

There must have been some damp eyes at the Bouzaid and Ballaben clearance auction in Greytown. The sale attracted a crowd of 200 people, including many former employees.

Sale of the machinery and fittings closes the final chapter in the demise of this excellent business, caught up in the liquidation of Lane Walker Rudkin.

I hope those capable employees have been able to find other work.

On a more positive note, the Times-Age also reports Greytown resident Paddy Marron is wanting to buy the building to set up a Paddy's Market

Tararua blog

Tararua District Library has an excellent blog, with all sorts of interesting stuff about books, libraries and current events. Excellent reading (the blog, that is).

This week is also Library Week 2009 and libraries all over the country are putting on special events.

The Wairarapa Library Service has a number of Library Week events on its website.  Sorry, I couldn't find any events on the Masterton Library site.

Greytown bookshop needs green light

I hope Richard Griffin is successful in his bid to lease the old Greytown library building to start an upmarket bookshop.

You don't have to look very hard to find bored-looking men in Greytown at the weekend. They stand resigned, staring vacantly into the middle distance, while their partners trawl various clothing and decor shops, looking for A Little Something.

A good bookshop might keep some of these blokes happily engrossed for an hour or two. Particularly if there were some comfy armchairs.

Think of the economic benefits. Women would be free to peruse each and every shop at leisure, secure in the knowledge that their man was happily reading. More discretionary - and indiscretionary - income would flow from Wellington to Greytown bank accounts.

The South Wairarapa needs a bookshop. Greytown people are great users of their library, and library users tend to be book buyers as well. It would be an excellent and appropriate use of the old library building.

Let's hope the South Wairarapa District Council agree at their meeting on Wednesday.

Bouzaid and Ballaben staff receive very little

Stuff reports that receivers for Lane Walker Rudkin (LWR) owe creditors $121 million and it is unlikely any money will be available for unsecured creditors.

Bouzaid and Ballaben (owned by LWR) workers in Pahiatua and Greytown received only 10 cents in the dollar redundancy and holiday pay.

Given that many of these workers had been with Bouzaid and Ballaben for many years and produced a high quality product, this is a very sad outcome for loyal service.  I hope these people have been able to find work in this difficult environment.

Happy birthday Wairarapa Libraries

It's eight years since the merger of the Carterton, Greytown, Featherston and Martinborough libraries into the Wairarapa Library Service. 

A real success story for Wairarapa local government, it pooled lending and back-office library resources spread over four rural towns. 

The Times-Age reports on eighth birthday celebrations.

Designer cauliflower

Purple-hearted cauliflower on display at Pinehaven Orchards, Greytown.

Fighting fund for Bouzaid and Ballaben staff

The Wairarapa Times-Age reports a fighting fund has been set up to help the former workers of Bouzaid and Ballaben in Greytown and Pahiatua. These workers were made redundant last week following the receivership of Lane Walker Rudkin.

Contributions can be made at any branch of the Bank of New Zealand:

• Account:  National Distribution Union Fighting Fund
• Account number:  02-0192-0491501-000  

Sunshine after the storm

Autumn

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,

With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,

Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,

And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!

Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,

Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand

Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,

Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!

Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended

So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;

Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;

Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;

And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,

Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves! 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

After gale force wind and rain Sunday was warm and sunny, although the norwester was still strong. Ideal for a walk.

The brilliant Wairarapa autumn colours, coupled with the softer light, makes for wonderful photography. And raking all those leaves keeps one fit.

Greytown Violin Showcase

Acclaimed violinist Ronald Woodcock, accompanied by Colleen Rae-Gerrard,  will be performing in Greytown as part of Ed and Juliet Cooke's Greytown Music Group 2009 series.

The programme includes works by Mozart, Berlioz, Villa-Lobos, Chevalier St Georges, Eugene Ysaye and Sarasate.

The concert is on Sunday, 31 May 2009, at 57 Wood Street, Greytown.

Full information is available on the Greytown Music Group Wiki