Signs of the Times

Portobello Community Incorporated are excited to be having the official opening of their new Portobello Heritage Trail on Saturday 14th October as part of the 2017 Dunedin Heritage Festival. The new traill consist of seven  interpretative signs giving the history of the main buildings in the township. The opening of the trail will start at the Portobello Jetty at 12.00pm and will be followed by afternoon tea at the Coronation Hall. Below is a sneak preview of the signs. Click on the image to view in a bigger format.

 

 

Peninsula Show 2015

The Peninsula Show is annual event that Peninsula people make a real effort to attend. It has everything from tough guys sweating it out on a course, talented kids performing, and of course cars, boats and a helicopter. This years show was held on a beautiful warm day with a good crowd enjoying the food stalls and entertainment. The committee did a great job of the organisation and this show will continue to get bigger and better. (Click on the pictures to see in full size view).

 

 

Te Rauone Tough

Meeting of the mindsWhen Peninsula people set their mind to something there’s no holding them back. They’re into everything boots and all, with a sleeves rolled up attitude. The Te Rauone Beach Coast Care group along with the Harington Point Community Society held a meeting on Labour day to update the community on the breakwater and dune re-nourishment project in their area. On a beautiful bright day over 80 people attended with a further 25 apologies. Such attendance confirmed that these people have worked tremendously hard to get the project off the ground. Fingers crossed that they’ll get this over the line with Port Otago and the Otago Regional Council.

Click here to see the Te Rauone Beach Coast Care Group’s webpage. 

Hawked and Hurled October 2015

Grabbing a bargain

Strong winds, torrential rain and the All Blacks playing France in the Rugby World Cup did not bode well for Hawk & Hurl on Sunday October 18th. However, the weather quickly improved and the All Blacks won handsomely, so the Hawk & Hurl brightened considerably. There was a brisk trade in donated and reused items, and a few people managed some real bargains. Once again the Portobello Community Incorporated team put in the effort helping people unload and salvaging scrap and other items from refuse.

It was great to have Michelle Ritchie in Portobello giving people on composting, bokashi and worm farms as a way to reduce material going to landfill. Another new group at the Hawk & Hurl was the Otago Peninsula Food Network who were running a seed swap event and giving people information about the group.

This was the first DCC Rural Skip Day that had a designated vegetation rubbish skip. There are substantial savings to locals in refuse fees in using this service, but we still need to get some information out there about how we can keep this material compostable and un-contaminated. Overall, we had a pretty successful day, look forward to seeing people at the next one in February.

Portobello Market Day

Coronation Hall Crowd

It was a crisp frosty start for the Portobello Market day on Sunday 12th of July, but the sun did its best to warm people up, and Portobello put on a great day. With over 900 visitors to the market stall holders were kept busy and there was plenty of goods for people to browse through. Once again balloon artist Pippity Pop and magician Jonathon Usher kept the crowds enthralled with their skills. With free Cadbury to give away chocolate visitors were kept happy with plenty of sweet treats. Overall, the 2015 market day was a great success and continues to grow as one of those “must do” events on the Dunedin calendar.

Portobello Anzac Day 2015

Raising the NZ flagIt was a fine warm autumn morning for the ANZAC Day service at the Otago Peninsula Museum at Portobello. The significance of ANZAC Day was given even more meaning with the 100th anniversary of the landings at Gallipoli, and a good crowd of local people and visitors attended. The service had a strong local flavour with Mrs Wilma Beck reading excerpts from her Great Uncle’s Gallipoli diary and pupils from Portobello School reading poems they had written to mark the day. In a final fitting tribute a totara was planted in the grounds as a living memorial to the ANZAC spirit. Once again many thanks to the hard-working volunteers from Portobello Community Incorporated and the Otago Peninsula Museum for their organisation and hard-work. (Click on pictures to view in full size).

ANZAC Day is not the glorification of war, but a reminder that lasting peace is a fragile gift, that as the guardians of ANZAC Day we must cherish and protect for the future. Today we live in uncertain times and we face an uncertain future driven by global events that threaten the security and peace that we have known and enjoyed for over 100 years. If we are to conquer that uncertainty we must draw strength from our ANZAC traditions and learn from their courage and commitment to a lasting legacy of peace. Because in 100 years of New Zealand service our servicemen and women have shown the world that the real and lasting victories are those of peace and not of war.

Lest we forget.

(Click on pictures to view in full size).