More than 101 Dalmatians

Dalmatian music, dancing, songs and feasting brought the traditional flavours of Adriatic culture to Dargaville yesterday.
About 600 people enjoyed the show as three busloads of Auckland Dalmatian Cultural Society singers, dancers and musicians joined their Dargaville Dalmatian Social Club counterparts for a rousing performance in the Lighthouse Function Centre at Harding Park.
The whole place was buzzing, according to the Dargaville club's secretary, Lyn Curac.
Kolo dancers and tamburica players then took the entertainment out on to the lawn outside the Dargaville Museum while the big crowd tucked into 10 sheep cooked by the Aucklanders on spits over wood fires.
John Yelcich, of Ruawai, sang Dalmatian songs, young local songbird Caitlan Banicevich trilled popular tunes, and speeches were made by Labour MP Shane Jones, Kaipara Mayor Peter King and Nick Puharich, an expert on Dalmatian settlement in the Northern Wairoa district.
The museum was open, its gum-washing maching was going and the neighbouring Kaipara Vintage Machinery Club cranked up its exhibits to add to the yesteryear action.
Ms Curac said the occasion was the brainchild of brothers George and John Sutich, formerly of Dargaville but now living in Auckland.
They had arranged for the Auckland society to send along its performers, and brought a crew of cooks to take care of the sheep, which had been donated or bought locally.
The function centre kitchen was "looking like a bomb site" as the show wound down.
But Ms Curac - glowing with the event's success - said: "We might do it again some time."