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

Curtains well opened in Masters Street

Northland Age
18 May, 2016 08:43 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

MANY HANDS: Another load of excess vegetation disappearing from Masters Street. PICTURES/SUPPLIED

MANY HANDS: Another load of excess vegetation disappearing from Masters Street. PICTURES/SUPPLIED

Kaitaia's Open the Curtains initiative has completed its first community working bee.

Residents of Masters Street (off Bonnetts Road) joined the OTC crew who arrived to help mow lawns, clear away rubbish and generally brighten up the street.

The day began a little quietly, with just three of the nine households getting into mowing one lawn, raking and piling up the grass, then moving on to the next house and then the next, but as the hot day wore on and energy levels drained others emerged with their wheelbarrows and whatever else they had to help.

While all that was going on OTC's Moana Erickson was under the MANA marquee, cooking fried bread and the seafood chowder provided by one resident. At lunchtime the workers gathered in the middle of the street for a feed and a catch up with neighbours.

OUT IT GOES: It only took an hour to fill the skip bin.
OUT IT GOES: It only took an hour to fill the skip bin.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I've been here nine years and hardly talked to my neighbours," one resident said.

"We're a good street, but we all just keep to ourselves. This event has been good, and helps me get to know who they are."

Another was delighted to finally have her metre-high lawn mowed.

"When I first moved in we had no mower and no money to hire one, so the lawn just got longer and longer. Now hopefully I can maintain it," she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Meanwhile a skip bin was filled within an hour, neighbours helping clear each other's rubbish then gathering under the marquee to converse and connect.

"It's not a big deal really," Moana said.

"I'd been round to everyone's houses, and it just seemed that with a little bit of help we could make people's life a little better. So I went to Northland Waste, who gave us a skip bin free, Kaitaia Hire stumped up the fuel for the mowers and weed-eater, I got our crew together with the locals and away we went."

"There's other stuff people want help with too, like poor lighting, broken footpaths, rats and leaking water mains, which directly affect the health and safety of the community," OTC community initiatives manager Jason Reti said.

"We're planning to do a walk around with Far North District Council CEO Colin Dale and some of his staff in the next couple of weeks to see how we can work together to get them fixed up too."

These were just little steps, Moana said, "but hopefully they'll lead to everyone talking with one another and working together to make Kaitaia a better place."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northland Age

Northland Age

'Public safety at risk': Guns, cannabis found in Kaitāia raid

Northland Age

Prisoners gain skills building homes for families in need

Northland Age

Far North news in brief: NRC weed workshops, 64 sika deer culled


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northland Age

'Public safety at risk': Guns, cannabis found in Kaitāia raid
Northland Age

'Public safety at risk': Guns, cannabis found in Kaitāia raid

Police found three .22 rifles, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle at a Kaitāia house.

16 Jul 10:53 PM
Prisoners gain skills building homes for families in need
Northland Age

Prisoners gain skills building homes for families in need

16 Jul 07:00 PM
Far North news in brief: NRC weed workshops, 64 sika deer culled
Northland Age

Far North news in brief: NRC weed workshops, 64 sika deer culled

16 Jul 04:00 PM


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