Did you know

ACCORDING TO Cambridge PhD engineer, Dr Roger Harrison, the chance of winning Lotto is one in 3,838 380. Maybe better spend your money on a bar of chocolate.

THERE ARE 11,645 Foreign Trusts registered in New Zealand and NZ is mentioned 60,000 times in the recently released Panama Papers

‘EVERY MAN is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day: wisdom consist of not exceeding those limits’ – Elbert
Hubbard.

WORLD TRADE in bottled water now exceeds $U.S 107 billion, much of the water comes from New Zealand, generously donated to the bottling companies at no cost.

VANILLA is the second most expensive spice – after saffron. Due to a poor growing season in Tahiti vanilla is in very short supply and the price has double this year

AT ANY GIVEN time there were a million soldiers constructing The Great Wall of China. Even so construction took seventy five years.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY million dollars was spent on ice cream in NZ supermarkets last year – an increase of five million on the previous year. … Continue Reading

EVERY BUNCH A WINNER

When winemakers are smiling at this time of year, you know the grape harvest is going well. “We’ve had ideal weather, a typically golden Martinborough autumn and that means great grapes” is the consensus about the 2016 vintage.
It’s a typical Martinborough golden autumn, with calm sunny days and cool nights. The combination – diurnal range if you want to get technical – allows flavours to develop slowly and evenly, producing smooth depth of flavour.
The grapes love these conditions as much as the residents do.

Around November at fruit set time there was quite a bit of wind, and a late frost in some areas. Ata Rangi Business Manager Pete Monk said “we dropped quite a bit of fruit then, aiming for quality, and it has really paid off. The fruit ripened early so we picked earlier than usual, and it’s brilliant fruit. Every bunch a winner!” … Continue Reading

Food vs Supplements

“Should I get my nutrients from food or do I need supplement pills as well?”- Karen

We need a variety of nutrients each day to stay healthy, including calcium and vitamin D to protect our bones, folic acid to produce and maintain new cells, and vitamin A to preserve a healthy immune system and vision.
Yet the source of these nutrients is important. “Usually it is best to try to get these vitamins, minerals and nutrients from food as opposed to supplements,” Sarah Percy, Registered Dietitian says. Fruits, vegetables, fish, and other healthy foods contain nutrients, phytochemicals and other substances not found in a pill, which work together to keep us healthy.

We can’t get the same synergistic effect from a supplement, nor can some of these beneficial substances be replicated in a laboratory. While it can be tempting to take a supplement as an insurance policy, it is preferable to spend that time and money on ensuring our diets are nutritious and balanced. … Continue Reading

Former Featherston Resident Star of New Zealand School of Music Fundraising Concert.

“[I’m]looking forward to the concert – always nice to be singing on home turf” said Georgia Jamieson Emms who is the “Star” alluded to in the title of this article. It is an accolade bestowed on her by the Head of Classical Voice, Margaret Medlyn. A success story, Georgia graduated from the School with a Bachelor of Music with a First Class honours. This year she is studying for a Masters of Music.

In the interim, Georgia, a lyric soprano, made her Professional debut as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte with Opera Otago in 2008. She has also performed in opera, musical theatre and operetta productions around New Zealand and was a permanent contract singer with independent opera company, Opernloft in Hamburg Germany. … Continue Reading