February 2013 newsletter

I hope you all enjoyed the summer break — Waikawa Beach was certainly the busiest I’ve seen it in the last few years. After a couple of days of heavy rain, which topped up the water tanks, we all enjoyed the heat and sunshine. Following are reports from the fun days run by WBRA.

Golf Update

Golfers enjoyed good weather for both tournaments. However a little disappointing only 13 individuals played the stableford event held at Otaki. This tournament has been the backbone of our summer calendar, being around almost as long as our association. The timing of the event and the AGM held afterwards definitely affected entries. Our community grows over New Year more so than Christmas. There were 28 entries for the Ambrose event held at Levin, which was also a little down on numbers. This tournament was first played in January 2000. Because of the team format, it’s a great opportunity to introduce kids, friends & the like to the sport. Our youngest entrant this year was 13, but we have had an 8 year old winner. Once again it was great fun day with the novice golfers. One player arrived with his old cracked clubs that were last aired 2 years ago in this event. Another used borrowed ladies clubs, then decided men’s left-handed clubs were what he needed. One of our tallest players had the shortest clubs. “If only?” “A good tradesman never blames his tools!” Prize giving, food & refreshments followed both events back at the beach. Congratulations & thank you to all participants who make these days successful.

Stableford Results

The overall winner of “the prized trophy” was Joe Liddle with 40 stablefords, (88 off the stick). Well done, Joe. I know Joe loves the trophy and will give it centre stage on his mantelpiece. Men’s runner-up was Max Flowers (37), followed by Brent Hayden (35). Ladies winner was Kay Flowers (36), from Eve Hayden (36) on count back, third Shirley Cohen (32). Joe & Kay won the longest drives. Cecily Archer & Max won closest the pins.

Ambrose Results

Four new names were engraved on the trophy this year, Glen Belsham, Michael Chesterfield, Barry Smith & David Blair with a score of 37. Two runner-ups on 39, Jim MacKenzie, Kane Stevenson, Reagan Belsham & Michael Haussman. Cecily Archer, Robyn Johnston, Jack Veltman & John Morris. Longest drives were Cecily Archer & Terry Brandon. (Boys you need to hit straight). Longest putts were Neville Hyde & David Blair. Closest tee shot was Neil Simpson

Boat Day

After a damp night and a cool early morning, and some uncertainty whether we would proceed, we did, and Boat day lived up to the usual rivalry and fierce competition. A couple of hundred people turned up, and many entered the races, ranging from boogie board races across the river (for littlies and not-so-littly kids).

One feature was a youngster who tried to foot-paddle an inflatable whale across the river, but unfortunately hew feet could barely reach the water, and she had to be kayak-pushed part-way across. Another was the young-teen (a member of the Worser Bay LifeSaving Club) who hand-paddled his surf-ski the full course against a flurry of other kayaks — and won! (In his first attempt, he came second).

An ad-hoc dinghy class was created for the 3 dinghies present. And we might have to separate the real-kayaks into a separate race from the sit-ons, to even things up a bit.

And as always the adult-mens and adult-women’s races were heated affairs, with a little argy-bargy and deliberate cut-offs, twenty or more competitors of all ages sprinted the full gauntlet.

I recall first entering a kayak race here at Waikawa back in probably 1980. Nothing much has changed, although obviously faces have come and gone. Names of the various winners fade quickly into folk-lore, but certainly over the two-and-a-half-or-so hours fun was certainly had by all, and I’m sure all will return next year.

Sports Day

The thing that surprises me most about Sports Day is that 5 minutes before it starts, there are maybe a dozen people present; and then, as soon as it starts, there are suddenly hundreds!

After the stinking hot weather over Christmas, we were quite lucky the weather was a little cooler for Sports Day.

The usual array of races took place, starting from the littliest of the littlies, up to the 100+kg men thundering down the short course.

Sprint races; three-legged races; egg-and-spoon races; wheelbarrow races; sack races (we gotta get some bigger sacks for the teens!); Leap Frog, including a new pop-up version, multi-player leap frog. Not sure how legit that one was, but maybe we gotta develop the theme a little and incorporate it.

To end the day, as is usual was a lolly scramble, which inevitably sees no-one going home empty handed. 4kg of Fruit Bursts to quote the film, gone in 60 seconds!

Sand Sculpture Day

This was another successful fun day, results are as follows: Individual sculpture —

Casper & Haunted Hogwarts
Koru, Kiwi & Ukelele
TheBridge

Group edifices —

Shark attack
WaikawaSunGod
Butterfly

Highly commended —

Whale
Telephone
Castle

A huge thank you once again for the Shepherd family for the generous donation of prizes for this event. Also to the judges — Ngaire Hunter and John Hewittson.

Orienteering event (report from the event organiser)

I wish to place on record our grateful thanks to the Waikawa Beach Community for enabling us to organise a successful World Cup and Oceania Middle Distance Championships.

We received a number of complimentary remarks about the picturesque venue, the challenging sand dune terrain for the athletes and the friendliness of the locals. The community support was much appreciated.

In appreciation we would like to make a donation to your association of $200 You may be interested in reading some of the favourable comments we received about the Carnival:

Many thanks for the update. From your report and all the media/comment I received, congratulations are clearly in order to you, David and the team for an outstanding event! Those are fantastic results and Lizzies result was the icing on top, clearly. Well done once again. Peter Cox, Manager Events & Facilities, Sport New Zealand

Judy and I would like to thank you all for a great orienteering carnival. We know only too well the time and effort that is required to run any orienteering event but the work involved for this carnival must have been massive. Judy & Dave Browning

When going abroad to a country far away, one is always curious on how things will work out. You made three great races in really exciting areas, which we always will look back at with great memories. You showed the World Cup can be organized in New Zealand, and we will be happy to come back in the future. Thank you for a great week. Lars Linstrom, Danish coach

Just want to say thanks to both of you and the rest of the team for the tremendous effort put into an enjoyable orienteering carnival. No doubt there were moments but as competitors we were unaware of any and just had fun. It was so good to take part in an event reasonably close to home and just turn up on the start line. Tricia & Wayne Aspin

It was a fantastic event to be amongst. I was very impressed with the organisation and professionalism of the whole event. The technology use was amazing! I was also thrilled when some very lovely people came and helped me set up and pack away.

Thanks very much for a great O Carnival.

First of all a big thanks for the competitions. I really enjoyed it, and I guess the whole Swedish team did the same… Marten Lang, editor Skoggssport

If you wish to see the orienteering map of the World Cup event a Pdf copy is available on our website oceani2013.co.nz Go to the maps page and then to World Cup Middle Distance race [on the left hand side of page, at the bottom]

The usual

We were pleased to note fewer fires on the beach this year and therefore less bottles and cans left lying around for other people to pick up. Great!

BUT the huge number of tyre tracks in the sand hills south of the river is very disappointing.

Rubbish

Recycling is not covered by rates. The purchase of official rubbish bags and hire of wheelie bins partly covers the cost of recycling. The contractors will not pick up recycling in anything other than official bins so please do not put out rubbish unless it is in an official bag or container.

If you do not have a recycling bin HDC contractors will deliver one to your property if you contact them by email or phone 06 366 0999 or enquiries@horowhenua.govt.nz

Annual General Meeting

A reasonable attendance considering the meeting was postponed because of bad weather. Peter Clarke and Maurice Turner retired from the committee and the following were elected for the next year John Hewitson, John Brown, Elaine White, Brent Hayden, Liz Duncan, Warwick Bainbridge, Julie Stichbury, Frank Averes, Lesley-Anne Walker.

Web Site

www.waikawabeach.org.nz is the web site of this Association. Beside regular news as supplied, it has links to the Waikawa Beach weather station which is well worth a visit also to the river quality monitoring site run by Horizons Regional Council.

Subscriptions

The subscriptions have remained at $25 per year — October to October. Many have already paid but if you have not paid this can be done on line to our bank 030667 0268929 00 but please include preferably your beach address and or name.

Contacts

We have a database of names and email addresses. If you receive this by post we could save a lot of time if, in future we can send it to you via the internet.

Julie Stichbury