Spending on pokies in the Far North has plunged by more than 10 per cent, more than three times the national decline.

Far North teacher Kelvin Davis will have another tilt at the Te Tai Tokerau seat for Labour in this year's general election.

The 2014 Snapper Bonanza got off to the best possible start with perfect conditions, a record number of snapper landed, and a fish big enough to win the contest outright in other years hooked in the first few hours.

Given some rarely composed sheep to work with, Northland's best sheepdogs went on the front foot in the Mangonui leg of the Northland sheepdog trials in Aurere.

The 90 Mile Beach Surfcasting Club's traditional lead-up to the Captain Morgan Snapper Bonanza, the Twilight Competition, proved more of test of endurance rather than fishing skills in the wake of the departing Tropical Cyclone Lusi.

Gail Gillespie will slip into well-earned retirement at the end of this month, after 26 years' service to Far North Hospice.

Turtles and Boeings

Spare us this farce

Customer service has long been touted as small-town businesses' best defence against big box stores, and nobody provides better service in Kaitaia than Shackleton's Amcal pharmacy.

Kalani Hansen may not have recorded the greatest results at any of the three events making up this year's Billabong Grom Series, but his freesurfing certainly caught the eye of several photographers.

64-year-old part time teacher qualified for the world championships in Brazil through another successful campaign at the national sprint championships on Lake Karapiro earlier this year.

Growing up at Awanui and getting a "hiding" from his brothers taught 17-year-old Rayner Johnson to take out his aggression on his school mates. But now this former bully is on a mission.

Best of care

The 10 pou that were ceremoniously unveiled at Ahipara on Sunday were much more than stakes in the ground, Eru Harawira said after blessing the first of the markers.

SPCA puppy Tigger (Hen-pecked but happy, Northland Age March 6) didn't spend long on the shelf.

Kerikeri youngster Billie Brown dreamed of owning a flash pair of running shoes, and worked hard to raise the money to achieve that. But now that she has the shoes, she wants to give them away.

Waipapa's Tom Marshall has been forced to reconsider his earlier stance of not travelling to contest the Christchurch leg of 2013/14 Cody's D1NZ national drifting championship.

The Far North XI were pretty much blown off Cobham Oval by their Whangarei Invitational counterparts in the fourth and final leg of the inaugural City vs Country 40/40 series.

Kaitaia (Mission Place) kindergarten teacher Gaylene West is about to lose the excuse that she will be washing her hair to avoid an unwelcome invitation.

Getting on Facebook is easy in Kaikohe. All you have to do is drive off from a service station without paying, although many other forms of crime will do it.

A large crowd gathered on the beach at Ahipara on Saturday to witness the returning of two green sea turtles to their natural environment, after months of expert rehabilitation.

Restrictions raised in hard-hit areas

The pool of women in New Zealand agriculture with leadership, governance and business skills is getting deeper thanks to a national initiative that recently completed its third year.

Not rocket science

The family of a Kawakawa teenager selected to represent New Zealand in touch in Australia later this year have been humbled by the show of support from the Bay of Islands community.

One of the major events on the Kerikeri Bowling Club's summer programme, the two-day men's triples tournament played recently was described by organisers as a huge success with 29 teams from Northland clubs involved.

The organisers of last month's anti-oil exploration Te Reinga Basin hikoi to Waitangi met last week with kaumatua, community members and representatives from Greenpeace, the Northland Forest and Bird Society, the Green and Mana parties.

It's her father, Pastor Graeme Baucke, who gets the credit for sowing the seed when she was a child, and the desire to help others far less advantaged than any New Zealander remains as strong now as ever.

The rift within Ngapuhi over the government accepting Tuhoronuku's mandate to negotiate the tribe's Treaty grievance settlement widened last week with Ngati Hine withdrawing from the Crown-endorsed process.

Award-winning actor Pete Smith has a great deal of sympathy for Pineaha Murray, the 73-year-old Te Hapua man who said he and his wife were being driven from their home