Watch out Cobra Kai!  Local karate club takes out Champion Dojo Trophy

On Saturday 12 June, Wairarapa’s Okinawa Goju-ryu Karate (OGKWI) club competed against karate clubs from across the lower North Island to win the overall Kāpiti Karate Academy Championships.   

13 karate students from South Wairarapa travelled to Kāpiti to compete against students from 12 other karate clubs in kata (technique), kobudo (weapons), and kumite (sparring).  An overall Champion Dojo Trophy was up for grabs for the club with the most points per member at the end of the event.  OGKWI students received the most points per member as well as winning a whopping 17 medals (4 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze).   This meant the club took out the overall competition trophy. … Continue Reading

The Mid Week Tennis Girls

Every Thursday morning between 9.00am and mid-day the Martinborough girls are out on the local tennis court stretching the muscles and pounding the balls.  It is not a silent game as a bubble of chatter and gossip is exchanged between serves and sets. Occasionally the game even comes to a halt when a particularly juicy bit of information is exchanged. Nevertheless, competition is the name of the game.  Earnest expressions indicate that winning is still very much the goal.

Considering the age range of players vacillates from intermediate to senior the power of the ball being bandied about varies considerably within the limits of strength of the players.  When it is more difficult to hit the ball as vigorously as one would like, graft and cunning are useful skills to have. And some of these girls are experts. Believe me!!!  … Continue Reading

   South Wairarapa Tramping Club – Wellington’s Southern Walkway

Eight of us from the Wairarapa, plus 2 extras from Wellington, met in Oriental Bay, where we found convenient free car parks just before Carlton Gore Road.

We followed the bright pink Southern Walkway posts, keeping a careful eye out, as the walkway crosses other tracks and roads, and it is easy to find yourself inadvertently walking on a different track, or up someone’s garden path! It may only be a “walkway”, not a “tramping track”, but it begins with a climb up from sea level to the top of Mt Victoria, 196m, and continues along Town Belt ridge tops, up and down,  finally descending to Houghton Bay 10.6kms later, so it’s not “a walk in the park”! … Continue Reading

SOUTH WAIRARAPA REBUS CLUB

The guest speaker at our 28 May meeting was retired media personality Ian Johnstone who discussed a few of his experiences in NZBC, TV 1 and TVNZ during the last third of last century. Topics ranged from the political to documentaries, local and international, to Crimewatch. Ian was the first to interview Robert Muldoon on TV as the new Prime Minister in 1975 and moderated his last TV debate as PM with David Lange in the run up to the 1984 election.  … Continue Reading