One of the gardens on the Kerikeri Garden Safari stroll.
Now in its 38th year, the Rotary-organised Kerikeri Garden Safari kicks off on November 1 and 2 and its popularity is as strong as ever.
The Safari regularly attracts between 600 and 800 strollers, observers and dedicated gardeners keen to have a look over the other side of the fence.
This year there are 15 gardens on display, ranging from the small to the large and with edible gardens in between. To achieve the number of gardens on call, the Rotary Club president Robert Parkinson drives around door-knocking.
“We get turned down quite a bit for a variety of reasons but for those who participate, it’s generally well-accepted and a few friendships are made out of it,” Parkinson said.
The whole concept behind the Safari is fundraising. The proceeds are filtered back into the community and to various causes.
As an example, last year the club donated a shade house to Kerikeri High School, sponsored the dux awards, the speech competition and enjoyed a meal prepared by the hospitality students as part of their NCEA credits.
This year four Rotary clubs combined – Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, Waipapa and Kaikohe – to hold a fundraising dance, dinner and auction with 200 people attending. The event allowed them to donate $58,000 to the Northern Rescue Helicopter Service (Nest) to buy a much-needed ventilator.
A relatively small committee of just five people organised that. They also organise the Garden Safaris and work in with other charities in the region. There is always something to display at an event, whether that’s Hato Hone St John bringing along an ambulance and conducting blood pressure tests, a car display or an art exhibition.
Rotary Kerikeri takes significant interest in supporting youth. The Youth Exchange programme this year included two European girls, Sidonie Baudry and Aline Koch, who came to Kerikeri for a year from Switzerland and France.
The club has 29 members, some of whom are “getting along a bit” but results show they are punching above their collective weight.
A booklet is produced for the Safari which details the gardens on display and where they are located and gives advice on the protocols of garden-watching and walking. A Rotarian is on duty at each garden to provide answers to any question and the committee asks that you don’t bring any animals into the gardens and that you plan your Safari in advance. Tickets are $35 for two days. Visit gardensafari.co.nz for more information.
New Zealand’s oldest house will be taking a much-deserved break this summer.
Kemp House in Kerikeri will soon undergo a programme of work, including the replacement of its distinctive timber-shingled roof, which is at the end of its life.
Other roof repairs will include parts of the corrugated steel skillion roof and the roof on the front verandah. Conservators will also take the opportunity to strengthen the underlying roof structures as part of the project.
The two-storey building, which was built in 1821-22 by the Church Missionary Society for the Kerikeri Mission’s first overseer, Reverend John Butler, will be shrink-wrapped in protective white plastic to ensure the fragile building is water-tight and safe from potential hazards.
The project begins early next month with the removal of irreplaceable collection items, which will be taken from the house and relocated into secure storage before the scaffolding goes up and the house is encased within its plastic shield.
Although the house will be closed to visitors this summer, the Kerikeri Mission Station will be open for business as usual.
Kemp House won’t be completely hidden from view, however. An exhibition based in the Stone Store looking at Kemp House over the years will incorporate audio-visual interpretation, storytelling by guides and outstanding collection items.
Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga heritage assets manager northern, Boris Bogdanovic, said the exhibition will be available as a special tour experience for visitors.
Kemp House is expected to remain within its protective shield for most of the summer while work is undertaken in early 2026.
What do you get if you cross Indian classic music with jazz and mix it in with Western composition?
According to the press blurb, you get an “intercultural ensemble that weaves together a new repertoire”.
The musical ensemble is called Shades of Shakti but what does shakti mean? According to the Oxford Languages website under the heading for Hinduism, it means “the female principle of divine energy, especially when personified as the supreme deity”.
There is also a shakti mat in New Zealand that “works with your body through acupressure” and there is the Shakti Community Council, a non-profit organisation in New Zealand serving migrant and refugee women, children and youth of Asian, African and Middle Eastern origin.
Shades of Shakti gives us music with its various hues. They formed in 2018 for the Wellington Jazz Festival and since then have earned standing ovations across the country, including at the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts and the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival.
Their repertoire spans original works, traditional Indian ragas and iconic pieces from Ravi Shankar’s East Meets West and John McLaughlin’s Shakti – the album that first inspired the band’s name and vision.
It’s been said of the group that their performances are a “mesmerising dance of intricate melodies, propulsive rhythms and the deep musical connection shared between artists from different corners of the globe”.
Shades of Shakti offer a live experience that is as technically breathtaking as it is emotionally resonant – music without borders.
On the tabla is Basant Madhur. The tabla consists of a pair of hand drums widely used in North Indian classical music and other genres.
Other members of Shades of Shakti are Justin Firefly Clarke, a jazz guitarist and composer, the “genre-hopping” violinist Tristan Carter and Thomas Friggens on the (regular) drums. Visit turnercentre.co.nz for more. The concert takes place on Friday October 31 at 7.30pm.