Plenty on offer at auction for hospice

Volunteers Kate Christiansen and Brian Johnson with a few of the artworks and collectibles for sale in a Hospice Mid Northland charity auction. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Everything from ceremonial daggers to antique china and giant-sized artworks will be up for grabs at a charity auction in Kerikeri this Friday.

Would-be buyers can check out the items in the Hospice Mid Northland art and collectibles auction in a preview at the former Poppies Bookshop in Kerikeri from 10am-3pm daily. The preview finishes at 1pm on Thursday.

Silent bids can be placed on 99 items with the 14 most prized artworks open to bids on the night only. Many of the top items, such as a finely carved model waka and a 2m-tall painting of a tui among kowhai flowers, were created by inmates at Ngawha Prison.

Also going under the hammer on the night will be a drawing by Carol Watts, a framed photo by Kerikeri's Dean Wright which won gold in the recent Iris Awards, and a photo from Russell GP Chris Reid's book Patient.

Extreme fisherman Matt Watson and Northland MP Winston Peters have pledged to donate items.

Fundraising manager Nikki Simmons said last year's auction raised just under $20,000. This time she was hoping for $25,000.

Most of the prisoners' paintings and carvings had been made for the auction. "They completely got it, as soon as I went in and talked to them. Everything has been made and given with compassion."

Ms Simmons said Hospice Mid Northland's shops at Kerikeri, Kaikohe and Kawakawa raised about $400,000 a year, but the organisation still had to find another $450,000 each year to pay for its services.

* The auction is at the Turner Centre, Kerikeri, from 6.30pm on October 16. Tickets are $25 from hospice shops, Harcourts or at the door; a glass of bubbles, nibbles and live music are included. The winning works by public vote in a children's art contest at Jetsom Artspace on Cobham Rd will also be sold on the night. Whangarei's North Haven Hospice is also holding an art auction, starting at 5pm this Thursday. The auction and preview are at Reyburn House.