Martinborough Heritage Trail guide launched

By Richard Rudman 

A guide to prominent buildings and locations that are part of Martinborough’s history and heritage is being launched this week. Produced by the Martinborough Museum, with financial support from Pain & Kershaw Ltd, the guide lists 39 key sites, with brief descriptions of them, and maps a route that can be taken to view each location. Although the guide focuses on the Square, the route extends down Jellicoe Street to the old Waihinga settlement and then back past Considine Park and along Kitchener Street. It’s a one-to-two hour walk.

The guide is available from the Martinborough Museum, which is located on the Square at the corner of Oxford Street, and from the i-site in the Waihinga Centre.

Further information: Chris Cassels Chair, Martinborough Museum Trust. Email martinboroughmuseum@gmail.com Mobile: 021 071 6064

Martinborough Golf Report

2022 Shoot out winners Biddy McLeod and Trevor Peterson.

By Kris Chamberlain

It has been an extremely busy time at the Club over the last month with a number of events happening.

Grumpies have been well attended with recent winners being Bob Schofield, Tony Taylor (twice), Malcolm Wood, Mariana McDermott and Seamus O’Sullivan.  Twos have been had by Andy Morison, Seamus O’Sullivan, Wayne Phelps (3), Tony Taylor, Ed Brown, Malcolm Wood (4), Paul Harris (4), Martin Napier (2), 

Thursday Club winners have been Arthur Warren, Vern Anton, Shane Hislop and Ju Allen.  Twos have gone to Troy Shaw, John Warner (2), Rick Thompson, Arthur Warren, Jason Shaw, Rob Lopez, Malcolm Bridge, Wayne Phelps and Rob Smith.

At the end of October we hosted Eketahuna Golf Club to compete for the Baarbraa Trophy which we have failed to win for the last couple of years.  It was a very close call with Eketahuna averaging 31.55 points and Martinborough 31.61 so the sheep has a new home for the year!

At the beginning of November we held our Club Championship Finals.  The winners were:  Mens Senior Troy Shaw, runner up Tony Russo, Mens Intermediate Seamus O’Sullivan, runner up George Kirk, Mens Junior Dayle Scrimshaw, runner up Trevor Petersen, Mens Vets Brian Russo, runner up Andy Morison.  Womens Silver Sandra Petersen, runner up Debbie Donaldson, Womens Bronze A Julie Weber, runner up Marie Scrimshaw, Womens Bronze B Karen Stephens, runner up Alison Tipler. … Continue Reading

Martinborough children try Storywalk

By Sylvia Arnold & Charlotte Harding

Going for a Storywalk® is now a fabulous and fun way to entertain little people in Martinborough.

With the walk fresh in the ground, 50 children from Martinborough School and Martinborough Kindy attended a guided walk through Considine Park as part of the recent Wairarapa Walking Festival. A perfect way to celebrate the Story Walk project coming to fruition. A collaboration of Wairarapa Library Service and the now disbanded Friends of Martinborough Library group who raised funds for children’s library projects. 

  The activity prompts mean that the children not only had the pleasure of hearing the story but honking, buzzing, waddling, moving fast or slow, zigzagging or walking backwards! 

Teachers who joined the walk are keen to revisit the StoryWalk® when it changes in December and integrate it into learning.

  We have opened with local story but with the festive season we are having a quick change to The Fairies’ Night Before Christmas, written by Sarina Dickson and illustrated by Sarah Greig. It is a lovely festive story about working together, with beautiful fairy-made decorations and the reds of Aotearoa’s Pohutukawa tree in the pictures. Thanks to the author and illustrator and HachetteNZ for permission to use the Story.

  In the new year Mr. Phelp’s Fish truck will return and be the perfect summer holiday read, and why not finish it off with some local fish and chips!

  The StoryWalk® will evolve and you can follow for updates at wls.org.nz

Maree’s musings – Happy days!

By Maree Roy

As the end of the year approaches, it seems we need to find excuses to celebrate. Like just last week [as I write this] when Monday turned up and Black Friday was still on the go! Traditionally, Black Friday marks the start of shopping madness, but it looks like consumers needed more time this year. Of course it may be a plot hatched by retail outlets to take over Cyber Monday, invented in 2005 to persuade people to shop online.

I’m not one for shopping, I confess, but I do enjoy the occasional shindig. This delightful word possibly stemmed from the Gaelic sinteag [to leap about] and is very apt for this month’s column. Rest assured, I don’t make a habit of leaping about, by the way, but Dunedin’s annual ‘Edinburgh Festival’ was worth a visit. Harking back to Dunedin’s extensive Scottish heritage, it’s traditionally celebrated around St Andrew’s Day, and the bigwigs in charge were fine with borrowing it.

So I took myself off to the Octagon where the impressive bronzed (though not from sunburn) statue of Robbie Burns, the traditional landing stage for the city’s screeching seagulls, watched benignly over the festivities. Tartan kilts abounded despite the ten degrees temperature. Yep, summer’s coming! Various contests included a race to finish a bowl of cold porridge, chucking the caber and hefting huge concrete balls onto barrels. There were bagpipes; an Ode to the Haggis. And singing and dancing, naturally. All good fun. … Continue Reading