Real gear 'really cool'

Canvastown School has had an upgrade of their cricket gear after receiving $1500 worth of equipment, which brings a sense of realism to their test matches in the back paddock.

The gear, including helmets, bats, balls, gloves and shin pads, is a far cry from the plastic bats and wickets the school used.

Pupils wasted little time putting the gear to good use on Friday afternoon, setting up the wickets on a mowed strip in the school field and playing a quick game before school finished.

The equipment was part of $100,000 worth of grants from The National Bank and the National Cricket Club.

National Bank regional manager Nicky Strong said Canvastown was the only school in Marlborough to receive the grant.

Principal release teacher David Paterson said the pupils play cricket almost every day and have little test matches every so often.

The school's application only asked for a replacement of their plastic bats and wickets which were worn and the gear was great for "a little country school that didn't have a lot of resources".

The school was hoping to have a cricket match against Havelock School using the new equipment, he said.

Canvastown school pupil Jakeb Brown, 11, who plays for the Renwick Green fifth grade team, said the gear was "really cool" and would get more of his classmates interested in cricket.

The school had an old pair of shin pads, but this was the first time the school had proper gear, he said.

- The Marlborough Express

SIMON WONG

Last updated 16:07 12/03/2012

Last updated 11:30 09/03/2012

Richard and Michael Ponder are having an exhibition together in a pop up gallery in Blenheim. Part of the proceeds will go to Hospice.

Vacancies for fulltime childcare

Early childhood centres and home-based care providers in Marlborough say parents who want to enrol their under-2s in child care in Blenheim are not facing waiting lists to get their children into fulltime care.

Kindergartens and day care centres in Wellington are reporting waiting lists of more than a year. One child care centre said one mother asked to put her name on the list before her child had been born.

The situation has developed as mothers head back to work when children are younger.

Early childhood centres spoken to by the Express say their centres have vacancies for under-2s and believed more parents were using home-based childcare services such as Porse and Barnardos.

Blenheim's Little Footsteps co-owner Angela Fitzpatrick said Marlborough does not have the "big money-spinning jobs" which would draw women back into the workforce earlier.

Most parents would be better off with Working for Families support, she said.

Beavertown Preschool and Early Learning Centre owner Carolyn Gregg said the centre had vacancies for under-2s, however some parents did book months ahead for the maximum 15 spaces at the centre.

More parents were choosing home-based childcare and were waiting until their children were three years old to take advantage of the 20 hours of free early childhood education at centres, she said.

Porse Marlborough programme tutor and consultant Heather Stirling said the demand for home-based care was growing based on the number of providers in the region.

"If you go by the amount of home-based providers opening up, in July 2008 it was just Barnardos, then Porse came along and now there are five or six other home-based providers."

There were no waiting lists for their service because the company was recruiting home educators all the time, she said. The company had 31 educators in Marlborough which catered for about 90 families and more than 100 children.

Educators run their own home-based care business and charge their own hourly rates and work their own hours so they can cater for part-time or fulltime care. The business model meant parents could be flexible about when they have their children in care.

SIMON WONG

Last updated 07:57 09/03/2012

Exhibiting their works for a cause

Two artist brothers have rented space in central Blenheim to open a pop-up art gallery with some of the proceeds from the exhibition going to Hospice Marlborough.

Michael and Richard Ponder will open the temporary gallery on Market St, next to Biddy Kate's Irish Bar, on Tuesday night. The gallery will be open to the public until April 7.

About 35 original works and some limited edition prints from both artists will be on show at the exhibition.

Michael Ponder, who lives in the Waihopai Valley and has exhibited his work around the world, said he was "particularly happy" with the space and believed turning it into a gallery made good use of the empty buildings in town.

Among the items in the exhibition is his water-colour painting The Drover which was used as a wine label for Ponder Estate winery in 2000.

Michael Ponder, who is also a writer and grows grapes and olives, last exhibited his work in Marlborough about 25 years ago. He said this exhibit was "to remind people I still live here and want to show where we're at and what we're doing".

The money was going to the hospice because he admired the work the organisation did, he said.

Richard Ponder, who lives in Wellington and has a gallery in Eastbourne, said the brothers have shown their works together irregularly in the past 30 years. "This is certainly not a usual event."

When the self-taught artists began painting they had a similar style and still favoured the palette knife over a paintbrush, he said. Many of their works are oil on canvas.

Richard Ponder said he was more of a colourist. He painted in the style of Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock while his brother's work was more in the Japanese and Chinese style – "very simple, but very precise and beautiful".

SIMON WONG

Last updated 11:30 09/03/2012

Kiwi actor hails Pelorus shoot

Filming at Pelorus River was a highlight for a Kiwi actor playing a dwarf in Sir Peter Jackson's film The Hobbit.

Stephen Hunter, who plays the dwarf Bombur in The Hobbit, says in a behind-the-scenes production diary uploaded to YouTube that filming at Pelorus was one of the best days on set.

The 12 1/2-minute video, uploaded last week, follows director Sir Peter and his cast and crew filming at locations throughout New Zealand, including 10 days filming at Pelorus in December.

Since the video was uploaded it has received more than 12,500 views.

The filming in Marlborough involved the dwarfs floating down the river in barrels.

The video shows a large temporary platform built over the Pelorus River and men in wetsuits helping the actors into their barrels before they set off paddling down the river.

Sir Peter even expresses a bit of jealousy over what the actors got to do. "Looks like fun. I'd do it myself if I wasn't busy doing other things."

The end of the Pelorus shoot came to a dramatic end after police issued a severe-weather warning for the area, he said.

"I've never seen a crew pack up their gear so quickly. The very next day, everywhere we were standing – where our equipment was, our cameras, our actors, the director – was under floodwater."

Pelorus Bridge campground manager Nobby Neal said since filming finished several people had asked where it had taken place, but he did not expect an influx of people to the area until after the movies were released. The campground was closed for filming between December 6 and 16.

The two Hobbit films are being shot around New Zealand and the first, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, is set to be released in December.

No time for the whole video? Forward to 10.42 (minutes) to see the Pelorus Bridge portion

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/6542345/Kiwi-actor-hails-Pelorus-shoot

SIMON WONG

Last updated 07:17 08/03/2012

A little Irish flair for festival

Wellington band The Shenanigans will stray from their traditional North Island haunts to play at the Havelock Mussel Festival next weekend.

The four-piece Irish group have been together for about five years, but have known and performed with each other in various musical outfits – such is life in the music industry, according to the band's violinist Jane Boyers.

Their website markets the band as an outlaw gang reminiscent of the Wild West and most of their "safe houses" include bars in Wellington, Lower Hutt, Whanganui, Palmerston North and Porirua.

However, Boyers says it will be a "real treat" to head down south and play an open-air festival.

"Bars are bread and butter work and we've got good relationships with bar owners. But as soon as you get an opportunity to play an open air venue it's pretty hard to beat."

"You need both in a way – you'd probably get burnt out if you're doing five nights a week at an open air venue."

The band will arrive on Saturday morning, play the festival, then travel to the Nelson Suburban Club for a St Patrick's Day gig.

The Mussel Festival may be a perfect gig for Boyers, who is a lover of seafood.

"I would have fish and seafood if I could every day."

Their gigs tend to be energetic and happy, with songs guaranteed to get the crowd dancing, she said.

"These are serious times and people don't always want to hear serious music. We try to keep it lively and uplifting."

The four members, Boyers, Justin Reed, Maurice Phillips and Clinton Brown, draw on their different musical backgrounds to create a repertoire of songs spanning different genres from alternative country, Irish songs, pop and rock`n'roll.

The band may even throw in a sea shanty or two, Boyers quips.

Joining Shenanigans in entertaining the crowd will be well-known Kiwi performers Frankie Stevens, Shane Cortese, Jacki Clarke and Rikki Morris.

Tickets to the festival cost $25 for adults (15 years and over), $10 for children and free for under 5s. A Family Pass, which is two adults and two children, is $50. Tickets are $5 more at the gate.

Tickets are available from the Floorpride Civic Theatre in Blenheim, Havelock Information Centre, Blenheim New World, Take Note in Picton and the Blenheim and Picton i-Sites.

For more information about The Shenanigans visit shenanigans.net.nz/home.html.

- The Marlborough Express SIMON WONG

Last updated 13:11 08/03/2012

Teachers checked

The president of the Marlborough Principals Association says new teachers to Marlborough are checked rigorously before employment and many teachers employed in the region are already known to schools.

The comment follows the arrest of a convicted sex offender employed as a teacher for more than two years at a primary school and three weeks at a secondary school, both in Auckland.

President Andrew Macfarlane said Marlborough had a small network of schools and a close principals' association, so many teachers employed in the region were already known to them.

While this was a "significant advantage", they also relied heavily on the Teachers Council and the police vetting process when considering new employees.

News of the sex offender's arrest "sent a shiver up my spine".

"We, as a profession, look into who their [potential employees] referees are and how they can comment on that particular employee," he said.

The checks delve significantly into the person's background, especially if they were arriving from outside the area, he said. SIMON WONG

Last updated 11:30 01/03/2012