Northland Age
  • Northland Age home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Rural
  • Opinion
  • Kaitaia weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northland Age

Youth centre dream dashed

By Peter Jackson
Northland Age·
2 Mar, 2020 07:34 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Whatever becomes of Kaitaia's old Pak'nSave supermarket, it does not seem destined to become a youth centre. Picture / Peter Jackson

Whatever becomes of Kaitaia's old Pak'nSave supermarket, it does not seem destined to become a youth centre. Picture / Peter Jackson

Kaitaia's He Whānau Mārama Trust has given up on its dream of turning the town's old Pak'nSave supermarket into a youth activity centre.

The project made national headlines was announced almost two years ago, after Foodstuffs sold the building for $2, the buyer offering to help develop it into a centre for the town's young people.

"The 'deal' was not a deal at all, and coming up to two years since we were approached, nothing has happened," trust secretary Micah Tawhara said.

"The dream has become a nightmare."

In 2018 the Shine on Kaitaia Project Team, formed by the trust, had been "sought out" by the owner of the building to help with planning its conversion into a Kaitaia Youth Activity Centre. Once completed it was to be managed by Shine on Kaitaia.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Although we weren't the ones who bought it, we were told the project would be community-led and developed for the community," Ms Tawhara said.

"We wanted to ensure that whatever was going to be built it had the right people in there with the best activities, opportunities and operating systems to make a lasting youth and community activity centre for Kaitaia and Te Hiku."

Shine on Kaitaia had consulted the community to establish what people wanted, as well as visiting youth and other training centres in cities, towns and marae around the North Island.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"All the people we met offered support and advice when we needed it," she said.

"We received hundreds of offers of support, not only from local tradespeople but from throughout the country. We were offered large donations and funding opportunities and support, we drafted plans, offered timelines. At every step our plans were blocked by the new owner of the building.

"We spent 22 months of our own volunteer time trying to keep the building secure, and making it less of an eyesore, as it was before. We were continuously told, however, that we couldn't do anything yet, that we were too impatient, and to just wait."

Now the project leaders had had enough of waiting, and believed the community had too.

"We have offered various resolutions, but the relationship has broken down, and we have decided to step away from our dream.

"During our research phase we were warned to be careful, and that we may be wasting our time, but we wanted a youth centre so much for our kids and our community that we had to try. The positive from this ordeal is that we have created an awesome, inclusive and collaborative plan of what the youth centre will need and look like."

The building's owner is currently believed to be in Europe.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northland Age

Northland Age

Kaitāia Airport's $5.4m upgrade progresses with regular iwi meetings

Northland Age

Kāinga Ora scraps 450 new Northland houses, deepening shortage

Northland Age

School lunch programme saves $130m, student satisfaction rises, Govt says


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northland Age

Kaitāia Airport's $5.4m upgrade progresses with regular iwi meetings
Northland Age

Kaitāia Airport's $5.4m upgrade progresses with regular iwi meetings

Ngāi Takoto will purchase Kaitāia Airport in line with their Treaty settlement provisions.

14 Jul 12:00 AM
Kāinga Ora scraps 450 new Northland houses, deepening shortage
Northland Age

Kāinga Ora scraps 450 new Northland houses, deepening shortage

11 Jul 05:00 PM
School lunch programme saves $130m, student satisfaction rises, Govt says
Northland Age

School lunch programme saves $130m, student satisfaction rises, Govt says

10 Jul 02:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northland Age e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to The Northland Age
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northland Age
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP