A traditional welcome to Kaitaia

Kaitaia's new District Court judge Philip Rzepecky and local barrister Wayne Cribb reminiscing over their surfing exploits. Photo / Peter Jackson

A newly-appointed District Court judge was welcomed to Kaitaia in the traditional local manner on Thursday, his first day in the Far North.

Philip Rzepecky was appointed to the Te Tai Tokerau Justice Service Area after being appointed to the bench in February. He will be based in Whangārei, but will effectively be a resident judge in Kaitaia and Kaikohe.

He was welcomed to Kaitaia by court staff, lawyers and other officers of the court before he began his first sitting, and was less formally received into the Far North fold with sausage rolls, quiche and coffee over the morning adjournment. And at least one of those who greeted him was a very familiar face.

Wayne Cribb said he and Judge Rzepecky had been friends and fellow Ahipara surfers for many years, "when he was just an Auckland lawyer," and the family had a holiday bach on Masters Access Rd.

And while their future relationship might largely be a professional one, Cribb hoped they might find themselves back out on the water at some point.

"I still have my boards," Judge Rzepecky said, but his knees weren't quite what they had once been.

Judge Rzepecky began his career as a law clerk with Gibson Sheet, in Lower Hutt, before moving to Napier as a staff solicitor with Langley Twigg, and then for Russell Fairbrother. Following a period in London in 1988/89 as in-house counsel with a maritime underwriting company, he returned to New Zealand in 1990, taking up a role as staff solicitor with Macalister Mazengarb, in Wellington.

He moved to Auckland in 1991, joining McElroy Milne, and was a partner in that firm until becoming a barrister in 2004, specialising in commercial litigation and insurance work.