Russell police station received a tidy-up thanks to Kiwi lawn and garden company Crewcut. Photo / Ezra Serville
The grounds outside the Russell Police Station received a tidy-up led by lawn and garden company Crewcut on November 19.
The activity involved landscaping, shrub and hedge trimming, tree work, and laying new garden mulch to generally give the place a good spruce-up.
Crewcut Paihia Local Operator Bruce Marshall said the site has a "high profile and prominent standing in the community".
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The Kiwi company worked with several local suppliers; Northland Treeworks provided the bark, while Redwoods Garden Centre sponsored the plants.
"Upon completing the work, we wanted it to look fresh so that community members and tourists or visitors would find it pleasing to the eyes," Marshall said.
"We hope that this project encourages and inspires locals to give back to the people who are beneficial in providing a sense of security and keeping peace and order in the community."
Crewcut is a residential and commercial outdoor property maintenance company established in 1991. It has over 200 franchisees and 12 regional managers.
Kerikeri Theatre Company launched its intimate 50-seat "black box" community theatre recently with the opening of two plays - Dinner for One and Chook Chook - which ran from November 20 to 22.
The new theatre is at 17b Samarree Place in Kerikeri.
The space includes an intimate theatre for rehearsals and small-scale performances, a music room, a costume hire facility and reception, kitchen and cloakroom areas.
It is also the centre for Kerikeri Youth Theatre rehearsals and performances.
Budding young scientists are invited to join Auckland Museum staff and researchers as they descend on Waitangi on November 30 to examine changes in local species from 1769 to the present day.
The aim of the Tiaki Mauri Bioblitz is to record current flora, fauna and fungi and where possible compare them to what is known from the past.
The findings will be on display in a marquee at Wairoa Bay, Waitangi, from 9.30 to 2.30pm.
Wairoa Bay is on Bayly Rd opposite the Waitangi Mountain Bike Park entrance.
Entry is free.
Celebrate the Christmas season at the Kororipo Heritage Park by the Stone Store on December 13.
The LJ Hooker Christmas in the Park free community event will have all the trimmings including Christmas carols and local music, entertainment for the kids and even a visit from Santa.
Take a picnic, a rug and head to the grass patch in front of Kemp House from 6.30pm.
Bay of Islands Singers is bringing Choral Gems to the Turner Centre on December 1.
The choir's December concert starts at 2.30pm at the John Dalton Auditorium and includes three major choral works from three different periods of history plus a short organ concerto by Antonio Salieri.
Tickets are $30 for adults and $12 for students aged 18 and under. Tickets via Turner Centre box office or www.iticket.co.nz/events
Auckland Museum is packing its bags and heading north to Paihia for a long weekend as part of its Ata Hira: Museum on the Move programme.
From November 29 to December 1, the museum will set up a travelling exhibition about the Tahitian navigator Tupaia and the Endeavour in Paihia Memorial Hall on Williams Rd.
The pop-up museum will offer multiple perspectives of Tupaia's life in Tahiti, on board the Cook's ship and his arrival in Aotearoa.
Museum on the Move is visiting various Endeavour landing sites as part of the Tuia 250 commemorations.
Entry is free and exhibition hours are 10am to 4pm.
The Charlie Dawes Photo Exhibition will kick off with a powhiri at Village Arts Gallery in Kohukohu on November 30.
The powhiri, which starts at 11am, is part of the opening to acknowledge the photographer and the people in the photos as the community's taonga.
The Hokianga photos include family portraits and landscapes.
It is showing at Village Arts Gallery from November 30 to December 15, and No. 1 Parnell Gallery in Rawene until December 11.
Both galleries are open 10am-4pm seven days a week.
Ten thousand pairs of glasses will be soon be winging their way to the Pacific Islands thanks to the people of the Far North.
The second-hand glasses have been collected via Specsavers and the Lions' Recycle for Sight programme, which allows glasses and sunglasses to be re-used by people in need overseas.
Specsavers Kerikeri co-owner Simon Barradell said people bought new glasses in the store every day and no longer had a use for their old ones.
''Usually they've been well looked after and are still in perfect condition, but the prescription may be outdated. Our recycling programme allows them to donate their pre-loved specs to change someone else's life.''
The used specs are sent to Lions Recycle for Sight in Auckland, which checks, cleans and categorises the glasses. If they pass the quality tests, they are then distributed to people in need in the Pacific through partnering charities and humanitarian organisations.
Global studies had shown about 101 million people were visually impaired because they did not have access to glasses to correct simple vision problems.
That could lead to lost educational and employment opportunities with potential inter-generational effects.
Far North residents who want to support the programme can leave their used glasses and sunglasses in the collection box at Specsavers, on Kerikeri Rd near New World, or hand them to a team member. Go to www.specsavers.co.nz/specsavers-community-program for more information.
Northland earned rave reviews from some of Fleet Street's finest after Northland Inc hosted the journalists on a trip to the Bay of Islands.
The cricket writers, who were covering England's two warm-up matches, against a New Zealand XI and New Zealand A, at Whangārei's Cobham Oval this month, visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and took a boat trip to the Hole in the Rock.
Northland Inc's Destination Marketing Assistant Lisa Cunningham arranged the excursion in conjunction with Dean Wilson, the cricket correspondent of the Daily Mirror.
Other members of the press included cricket reporters from the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Sun and the BBC.
"It is all too rare to find a day off on tour where you're not either watching a match, watching training or working within the confines of your hotel room, so to have the opportunity to get out and see more of what New Zealand and Northland in particular has to offer was a real treat for us," Wilson said.
Northland Petfood is hosting a pre-Christmas fundraiser for Bay of Islands Animal Rescue on November 30.
There will be hampers and prizes available, with proceeds going to the charity that helps foster and rehome abandoned and neglected animals in the Bay of Islands, from 10am to 2pm at The Merchants of Kerikeri, 65 Cobham Rd.
For more information check out Facebook: www.facebook.com/events
Last week's Peta Mathias giveaway was hugely popular with entries flooding in from as far afield as One Tree Pt, Maunu and Whangaroa — but there could be only one winner, and that was Kerryn Rosetta of Kerikeri.
Kerryn has won a double pass to see chef and gourmet traveller at the Turner Centre on December 7, as she shares stories from her latest book Eat Your Heart Out and celebrates the connection between love and food.
• If you have an upcoming event or a snippet of news you'd like to share, email jenny.ling@nzme.co.nz along with your contact details.
One person has been taken into custody after the alleged assault.