EVENTS

Wellington Heritage Festival

WHEN: October 26 – November 17 

WHERE: * Wellington Region – 140 events

                * Wairarapa for 1st time – 11 events

HOW: “Crowd-sourced” local events

WHY: Honouring the Past, Inspiring the Future

Entry Price: Not stated.

Personal health record on-line access

WHAT: DORA (Digital On-Road Access) 

digital classroom bus

WHEN/WHERE: Tues 5 November 

Martinborough Health Centre (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Thurs 7 Nov:

Pirinoa Medical Centre (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)

Ruakok Quiz Night

WHEN: Friday 30 November 6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Ruakokopatuna Hall

WHAT: FUNd-raiser

BRING: food, drink, brains … Continue Reading

How Well Do We Know People in Our Community?

Thomas Röckinger, loving the small village lifestyle of Martinborough.

By Lyle Griffiths

Pforzheim in Southern Germany was where Thomas Röckinger lived with his family, the third of six children – five brothers and one sister.

Thomas attended kindergarten from the age of three until he began school at 6 years.

“What I most enjoyed about school was the practical subject which we had each year.

“The project would cover a 3 – 4 week period. Our first project was to build a house made of wood for a neighbouring playcentre. Parents, the teacher and the students were all involved. It was fun. We were doing something to help others and for a real purpose. The following year the class performed a play on stage.

“And then when I was 14 years, I and three other friends had an internship on a farm in Switzerland. When my mother dropped us off, she was very concerned because it looked like such a hippy establishment. The farming practices were old and traditional. The four of us slept in a barn. It was only 10 degrees and simply freezing but we survived.

“Other internships included a stint at a radio station and working with handicapped students, which I really enjoyed.

“Army training is compulsory in Germany, but you do have an option of either undertaking military training or doing alternative service in Germany or abroad.

“I elected to help in a home for special needs people in Massachusetts, USA for 12 months. I had to fund my own fare. Accommodation, food and a small amount of pocket money was provided.

“In 2012 I applied for a position at Martinborough Vineyard as a vintage cellar hand working in the winery. I had already spent a year training as a viticulturist. … Continue Reading

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Could ZERO growth be the answer?

So, Martinborough’s sewage woes continue, and have seriously clogged up the council’s, and town’s, plans for continued growth. Sewage and the matter contained therein does clog things up, true. 

Studies will “help the council decide the level of growth they wish to enable.” Karen Krogh goes further with this dire warning: “a town which cannot grow will inevitably decline.” 

It could well be true that one sign of possible decline in a town is a declining population, but is it equally true that a non-growing population must thereby mean a decline in its coping, its happiness or its wealth? 

What evidence is there for such a claim? Many successful small towns in rural Europe have not grown significantly in a hundred years. What is self-evidently true is this: Martinborough’s growth must be a major cause of the town’s inability to manage its waste – the population approximately doubling in fifty years, along with its ordure. And you might well think too that this extra population and their extra money all contributing to the rates should mean individual household rates declining. Yet rates here have rocketed astronomically. So down the toilet goes that fond imagining, along with the sewage.It seems to me at least that growing populations, far from being a supposed boon to a town, or country, bring considerable difficulties to communities which must then provide, within the ability of local landscape, for the basic human needs of this growing population. What are Wellington’s woes but a similar example? Though of course the present government is trying to cure this problem by making much of the town redundant and assuming the affected folk will just move along.The same growth fetish certainly applies to the entire country. Rates of growth of the New Zealand population over the past thirty years have averaged around 1.3% (at times over 2%); this average if continued means a doubling of the population within fifty-three years (the population has indeed doubled in the last sixty years).  … Continue Reading

THE STAR BOOK REVIEW

Version 1.0.0

By Brenda Channer – Martinborough Bookshop

“Costanza” by Rachel Blackmore

This is a debut novel of historical fiction based on the sketchy details known about a real woman living in mid 1600s Rome. This is not my usual choice of genre, but the book was recommended to me by its sales rep as a good book club choice. It sparked one of the best discussions our book club has had to date.

Costanza is young, maybe not even 20 at the opening of the book. Married, as yet childless and optimistic even though her life hasn’t been all easy. Her husband, Matteo is a sculptor, one of many working under the auspices of the maestro Lorenzo Bernini. 

The dime upon which the story turns is a chance meeting at a social gathering between Bernini and Costanza. He is a powerful man accustomed to having anything and anyone he wants, and he quickly decides he wants Costanza. She in turn is flattered and ultimately intoxicated by the combination of desire and proximity to power. So far it could be any historical romance, but wait, there’s more.

The author draws the reader deftly into Costanza’s affair detailing her social and economic rise that is only matched by her utter delusion of its permanence and trustworthiness. Power inequalities between classes, genders, families, violence and exploitation all slip into the room unseen until they slice Costanza’s life into shreds. 

The writing is so good that even when you feel the danger lurking it shocks and dismays the reader when it arrives and immediately demands that the question be asked, has anything changed in 500 years?

I am so pleased I stepped out of my reading comfort zone for this book – if historical romance is not your thing but you love a story with some substance that will leave you asking some big questions – then this is for you. 

Available at your local bookshop.