The Raglan Community Board met this week with a long presentation from Waikato Regional Council about an internal bus service where their expert appeared to say we were wasting our time wanting to have an internal bus service and should look at beefing up the weekend service to Hamilton. He was also suggesting an on demand service might be a good possibility despite a recent survey showing that would be unpopular in Raglan. Luckily the community board is going to meet with him soon to give some local input.
From the open forum there were complaints about the lack of a footpath on the steep parts of Stewart St where the only option for pedestrians is to walk on the road and maybe jump into the ditch if they have to make way for a car. There were also concerns about lack of progress on the erosion at Papahua and a brief talk about Fluoride in the water from Kane Titchener who did a full presentation to the public that evening at the Church Hall on Stewart St.
We also heard that the Wallis st playground is to be upgraded shortly and that John Hart’s former garage will be demolished in September.
In sporting news the Raglan Roosters football team are playing the second match of their group in the Scottish Cup – it’s supposed to be a knockout competition but they are currently in the middle of a league format that will move to quarterfinals in August. They will be playing Waldorf Salad at Papahua at 1pm on Sunday. Waldorf Salad being a team from the second division below the Roosters who are in the first Whaingaroa Whai rugby league team are away this weekend taking on Hauraki Tigers this week at Rest Hills Park in Glenview Hamilton And the final surf event of the season is happening this weekend at Manu Bay , The King and Queen of the points is the richest event of the year with the most points on offer for the season. Reigning King Billy Stairmand is competing overseas at the moment so last year’s runner Caleb Cutmore is looking to defend Raglan’s honour, although he’s far from alone with Luke Cederman and Kora Cooper who placed 3 rd and 4 th respectively in the 2022 edition of the event also making a return alongside Taylor Hutchison who currently leads the SNZ Surf Series Ratings. Tom Robinson, Navryn Malone, Tana Clapham, Luke Hughes and Luke Dymond will also make an appearance representing the Raglan community.
Current Queen of the points Ella Williams will be away so a new champion will be crowned in the female competition as well with a host of surfers around the country looking for the victory.
Conditions for the points this weekend aren’t great with easterlies set to dominate and pretty mediocre conditions in general.
Waikato Regional Council says the region’s catchments are extremely vulnerable ahead of the winter season. Regional Resilience Team Leader Rick Liefting says the game has changed with the ground in our area being so saturated that their usual prediction tools can’t do the job.
There was more rain than normal in the second half of last year and then two cyclones and the Auckland Anniversary Weekend event were dumped on top of that in the first half of this year. Some parts of the region still have a water surplus according to NIWA, who also describe the soil moisture across the region as being at “field capacity”.
This means smaller rainfall events than normal will cause flooding – a situation likely to be made worse with forecasts of above average rainfall through July.
As part of their preparation for a wet winter the council is encouraging the community to make use of their online service Flood Room Live . Responding to questioning about whether this was the new normal, Mr Liefting said: “The answer is we’re not sure” . But added that soil moisture was so dry this time last year, no one thought we’d be in this position this year. Climate change is starting to show with “extremes becoming more intense and frequent.” Councils Integrated Catchment Management Director Greg Ryan said “We could be in for an exceptional winter, so now is the time to plan ahead and be prepared.” In local sport the Raglan Roosters had a good victory on Saturday in Hamilton beating Ruakura FC 4-1 with striker Fraser celebrating his return to the side by scoring a hatrick and taking the match ball home.
The Whaingaroa Whai Rugby league team had a tough day losing 44 – 18 to Hauraki Tigers although they did get to play in front of a home crowd for only the second time during the league season.
And Billy Stairmand finally bowed out of the ISA world surfing games in El salvador in 16th place, being the best placed of the kiwi surfers and helping lift the New Zealand team to 13th on the leaderboard – a significant improvement on last year’s event where they finished 22nd.
The work on the Town2Surf shared cycleway/walkway is progressing along Wainui Road with work about to start on the section between Karekare Ave and Poihakena marae.
This section includes the path that the community fundraised for and created in the early 1990s. At that time Kate Hayward, one of the key organisers described it as a historical snapshot of Raglan’.
Fast forward 30 years, and the council is collaborating with Kate who has kept all the information and story of the walkway, including the names of those who contributed to the path’s creation. This information will be used for an information board that tells the story of the path, how it came about and who was involved. These will be placed strategically along the Town2Surf cycle/walkway and will be installed after the new footpath is completed.
More erosion has occurred on our beaches this week – this time it’s the stretch alongside the airport that has taken a hit with a dune restoration sign marking an area of recent work that has now been destroyed by waves action.
Coastcare, Waikato Regional Council and community members have been working hard to plant along the beaches to retain them but it’s possible the normal circulation of sand along the coast has been too strong. In an interview with Shaw Meade from eCoast on Raglan Community Radio, Shaw explained that the sand goes through multi decade cycles of erosion and infill and that we are in the erosion stage of the cycle at the moment – but with no prediction on when things might change.
In local sport the Whāingaroa Whai rugby league team is playing its second match at home on Saturday, 1pm at the rugby grounds. They’ll be playing the Hauraki Tigers and looking for their second victory of the league.
The Roosters football team is away this weekend playing Ruakura FC at 11am at Kahikatea Park and they too will be looking for their second victory, in the Waikato Football Sunday League.
The International Surfing Association has confirmed that Billy Stairmand has provisionally qualified for Paris 2024 as the highest placed male from the Oceania continent. Pending selection by the NZOC, this will be Stairmand’s second Olympics after being the first ever male surfer from New Zealand to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in Japan where he placed ninth.
Billy said he was “super stoked” to get the Olympic spot, but he’s still going at the World Surfing games, and having advanced to the top 12 he’s determined to bring back a World Surfing Games medal – although the news from overnight is that he came 4th in his heat for Round 5.
Fellow kiwi Saffi Vette has been knocked out of contention at the games but not before she also qualified for what will be her first olympics in 2024. And the kiwi team is currently sitting 11th on the table Phil McCabe will be speaking at Science Night Tonight at the Harbourview Hotel at 6pm about Seabed Mining and whether it should be banned. The government has announced a select committee inquiry despite 3 attempts to get EPA approval showing they can’t prove it’s a safe activity.
Meantime Raglan’s favourite corporation Trans Tasman Resources has been sent back to the beginning once again at the EPA after every court in the land agreed that the EPA screwed up when it approved their most recent seabed mining application.
Sad news in Raglan earlier this week Jo’s Takeaways announced they are having the week off.
The ever popular and cost effective Takeaways always closes for a short period each winter but will be opening again next wednesday 14th June.
The Raglan growers market is having its final session this Friday , 5pm at the Church Hall on Stewart St. The market was having a quiet run for its second year when the slip occurred on SH23 at which point they received a massive boost to their customer base which continued after the highway was reopened and has led to an extension of the market all the way into winter.
The 2023 edition of Whaingaroa Talent Factory has been announced for Saturday 8th July in the town hall. This will be the 3rd edition of the youth music showcase put on jointly by the Raglan Community House, Sound Splash and Raglan Community Radio. Rangatahi aged 13-18 have until June 25th to enter and will have the opportunity to work with professional musicians who will mentor them ahead of the all-ages event at the town hall.
Still with local music, Abstract Fish Lung, who performed at last Year’s Whaingaroa Talent Factory, played at the Waikato Rock Quest last weekend where they impressed enough to progress through to the regional finals – which will be held June 24th at the Clarence St Theatre in Hamilton. If you want to know more about their experience checkout the podcast on raglanradio.com.
Waikato Regional Council has released some data from their tide gauges showing that the recent storm on Saturday 20th May caused a dramatic rise in sea levels with the water being 1.3 metres above normal at its peak – fortunately this coincided with the low tide but it was still 0.8 metres higher than normal at high tide leading to coastal inundation around the rugby grounds, Papahua and Lorenzen Bay According to WRC this was the result of low atmospheric pressure which allows sea levels to rise and a strong westerly storm that pushed water up against the coast.
With another Coastcare working B at Ruapuke North this weekend, where 800 plants are due to be planted, we took the chance to ask Andrew Anderson from Waikato regional council about the erosion of the dunes at Papahua between the walkbridge and the boat ramp. He said planting would very likely resolve the issue and should be tried before something more dramatic like the installation of a groyne.
Andrew said the problem at Papahua was on their radar although it is also a district council issue as it’s located in a public park. For its part the district council has been promising to do some protective planting at Papahua for 5 years but for unknown reasons has yet to even start the project.
In local sport the Raglan Roosters are playing in Hamilton this weekend, taking on Ruakura FC at 1pm at Kahikatea Park, fans are hoping for another victory after the Roosters rediscovered their mojo last weekend when they beat the Jazz Raptors 5 goals to 2.
Meantime Whaingaroa Whai Rugby league team appear to have the weekend off after their first ever victory last weekend.
Raglan Art To Wear held a spectacular 20th Anniversary show on Saturday, 26 May, with a sold out Town Hall crowd.
Nikau Pinfold was the winner of the Supreme Award with an outfit composed entirely of Dreamview creamery bottle tops sewn together into a dress. The gold and black colours of the bottle tops were used to create a symmetrical; pattern with a large amount of patience required to finish the design.
The People’s Choice award went to The Pikake creation which included a magnificent peacock’s tale that folded out into a very large display. The outfit was made by a young team of Stella , Alliot , Ava & Zoe.
The Forest Flora section was won by Jo Tweedie, The Kaleidoscope section by Fernanda Santoro. And the Suitable section was also won by Nikau Pinfold.
Pikake also won the Supreme Children’s award. There were many other prizes handed out including top children’s model going to Clara Anahera, best performance to Bob Noble, Funniest creation to Benjo the Curious Cockatoo by Zavier Mathis & Cade Skerman and the best in the children’s section was The Tale of two feathers by June Hanson & Lola Atkin.
WEL Energy Trust has announced the candidates for it’s election next month and apart from the returning trust members we can’t tell you what any of them stand for yet as most of the nominees are collected into groups with purposfully vague names. We’ll bring you more information if and when it comes to hand.
Waikato District Council has begun work on the district’s Long Term Plan which sets out the priorities, plans and budget for the next 10 years. Council is currently conducting internal workshops and also asking communities for feedback about their aspirations for the district. You can comment on this by going to their website, clicking on Say it and choosing the Proposed Community Outcomes link.
Whaingaroa Environment Centre is looking for volunteer repairers to help with their new Repair Café. Opening in a few months Repair Cafes are free pop-up events where local people bring in their broken or damaged belongings and local volunteer experts do their best to repair them. If you’re keen to get involved, especially if you enjoy fixing things, they’d love to hear from you by either visiting the environment centre in the town hall or contacting them online.
In local sport the Whaingaroa Whai rugby league team went to Te Awamutu over the weekend and got the first official win of their existence beating the Firehawks 22-14. The Raglan Roosters football team also got their first win of the Sunday League season beating the Jazz Raptors at home by 5 goals to 2.
And that is the Raglan news for Tuesday 30th May 2023 Work continues on the Town2Surf Footpath with the Karekare Ave side almost completed and work set to begin on the opposite side of the road very soon. Council have indicated that the footpath’s planned completion is next month. A sign board that tells the story of the community tiles placed on the footpath near Karere Ave is also set to be placed to commemorate the history of the path.
The council has begun work on the district’s Long Term Plan . The LTP sets out the priorities, plans and budget for the next 10 years and the council will be asking communities for feedback about their aspirations for the district.
From 1 July 2023, WDC will be implementing a rate increase of 7 per cent. With the continuing uncertainties in the economy and the impacts of inflation, rising interest rates, and recovery costs for damage caused by recent weather events to local communities such as North Waikato and Port Waikato, Council have had to take the step to agree on a rates rise that is above the indicated rate of 3.5 per cent (as set out in Year 3 the current LTP.) In local sport, Whaingaroa Whai had their first win of the season in Taharoa against the Te Awamutu Firehawks with a final score of 22-14. A tough game with the Firehawks not making it an easy win finishing strong with a try.
The Raglan Roosters also won their home game on Sunday against the Jazz Raptors scoring 5-2 to take the win.
Raglan Art To Wear 2023 Full Results: Children section ; WING IT 1st – The Tale of two feathers by June Hanson & Lola Atkin 2nd – Aphrodite by Amelia Schnuriger 3rd – Rise Above & Burst through by Lucia Quilter & Zoe Highly commended -Goddess of Rainbows by Jaxon McLean Children’s SPOT prizes; Whanau collaboration – Ma te huruhuru ka rare te manu by Whaingaroa Childcare Funniest – Benjo the Curious Cockatoo by Zavier Mathis & Cade Skerman Best performance – Hot Wings by Sophie Mills & Annabelle Gaustad Section ; FLOREST FLORA 1st – Nesting by Jo Tweedie 2nd – Between the Sheets by Robyn Marquand 3rd – The Mycelium Maiden by Kristel and Ayla Lindfield Section ; KALEIDOSCOPE 1st – Let yourself Shine by Farnanda Santoro 2nd – Reflection & Refraction by Mackenzie Faust 3rd – Journey of a thousand Buttons by Susanne Glessen – Prinz Section ; SUITABLE 1st – Over the Top by Nikau Pinfold 2nd – Dapper in Plush by Ridley von Ridley 3rd – Monkey on my Back by Rebecca Norrish Spot prizes ; Whanau Collaboration – Kiwi Kaitiaki by C4 Class RAS Best Performance – Pooh Bear Goes to Coronation by Bob Noble Best Message – Kaleidoscope of Friendship by Audrey & Emma PEOPLE’S CHOICE – Pikake by Stella , Alliot , Ava & Zoe CREATIVE YOUTH – Flowering Forest Fairy by Bella Alexander TOP CHILDRENS MODEL – Clara Anahera TOP ADULT MODEL – Gia , in Meledrian Queen of Dryads , Guardian of the Forest SUPREME CHILDREN’S AWARD – PIKAKE by Stella , Alliot , Ava & Zoe SUPREME AWARD – OVER THE TOP by Nikau Pinfold https://raglanradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TownHallwaves.jpg