The Martinborough Music Festival & Covid 19

It will come as no surprise to many that the Martinborough Music Festival (MMF) to be held from 25-27 September, 2020 has had to be cancelled. 

Two main events influenced the decision. Both to do with border control.

Firstly, Australia has tightened up its exit border controls considerably only allowing those whose journey can be considered essential to leave that country. Since four of our musicians were coming from Australia, their participation cannot be guaranteed.   … Continue Reading

WORLD FIRST FOR A NEW ZEALAND OLIVE GROVE

What does a Martinborough olive grove have in common with Ferrari, Chanel, Tiffani & Co., Audemars Piguet, S. T. Dupont, The Ritz-Carlton, Hilton and some of the best products and services in the world? 

They are all winners of the prestigious, annual Luxury Lifestyle Awards, based in New York.  The Awards cover 60 countries, more than 400 categories and 10,000 participants all over the world and are associated with some of the world’s top media outlets such as Vogue, Marie Claire and Forbes. … Continue Reading

Ambulance Intern graduate

A commitment to becoming better every day so that he can help his patients in more ways is what motivates Graduate Intern Hamish.

Late last year, Hamish was offered a position on the Graduate Internship programme at Wellington Free and has not looked back.

“I knew Wellington Free was a great organisation to work for so to now be part of such a high-calibre team is definitely an incentive to keep learning. There’s always a job that I find interesting or want to learn more about so I can do better next time; the learning never stops,” Hamish says.

Hamish is primarily based in the Wairarapa, he’s a familiar face across the region and is always there to lend a hand.

Book Review

Civilization 

I was fortunate to be loaned a considerable number of books to help me get through the shutdown. With so much reading time ahead I decide to start with a weighty tome and what a lucky choice that turned out to be. Niall Ferguson’s Civilization has just about everything a reader could wish for in a book. 

This is not a typical facts and figures history book, rather it reads like an exciting novel, which really brings history alive. 

Commencing with the ancient Chinese civilisation he moves through the next two thousand years explaining the reasons why and how the Chinese civilisation was by far the superior at the time but then overtaken by a clearly weaker one. A pattern which was repeated more that once in the ensuing years. Also while some moves to dominance are well defined by conquering forces more often the changes are over a long period with old and new civilisations overlapping.  … Continue Reading