Northland news in brief: Hundreds left without power; Free books on offer

Acoustic covers band White Chapel Jak (with Bonnie Hurunui, left, and Nathan Boston) stole the show at the last It! Bay of Islands Food and Wine Festival in 2019. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Hopes high for Bay's It! festival

After a series of Covid-related cancellations, Business Paihia is praying its popular It! Bay of Islands Food and Wine Festival will go ahead this year for the first time since 2019.
The event will take place on the Village Green on Saturday, October 1, with White Chapel Jak as the main act. The award-winning acoustic covers band stole the show when they played the last festival as a support act. It will be the festival's 11th year. Proceeds from previous events have supported the Waitangi Mountain Bike Park, the Weet-Bix TRYathlon and other local causes.

Wild weather cuts power

Yesterday's stormy conditions left hundreds of homes without power in the Far North. A weather-related fault in a transformer supplying the southern side of Whangaroa Harbour, roughly from Kāeo Bridge to Radar Hill, left almost 450 homes without power from 9.45am. Affected areas included Whangaroa township, Mahinepua, Tauranga Bay, Matangirau and Towai. Power was restored around noon. Around 11.45am another weather-related fault, this time on the Oruru feeder, knocked out power to 345 homes in the area around Peria and Oruru, inland from Doubtless Bay.
By noon the number of houses affected had been reduced to 60. Another outage, just after 2pm, affected 230 households at nearby Taupō Bay. Around the same time a large tree downed by the wind partly blocked State Highway 1 near Houhora.

Free books giveaway

Kaiwaka Library is giving away free books to community groups interested to sell them at their next fundraiser. The library is cleaning out its shelves to make space for new books. Those interested can contact Wendy Howard on 09 431 2539, 027 480 6275 or kaiwaka.library@gmail.com.