At our June 2023 monthly meeting, we were honoured to have Prof David Gerrard as our guest speaker. Prof Gerrard is not only a distinguished medical doctor and academic, but also a former Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimmer who has served in various roles for the NZ Olympic team. He Read more…
In his President’s Report for the June newsletter, Bill Mutch said that Richard Blakeborough from Independent Living Charitable Trust, who was the guest speaker at the May meeting, had an amazing number of products, knew his subject well, and even added some humour. The Whisper AI transcript of Richard Blakeborough’s Read more…
It is unusual for a coffee morning to be the standout article in the newsletter, but in this issue, the coffee morning at Selwyn Village takes centre stage. What was special about this coffee morning was that Kathy Fitchett and her team put on a free morning tea for our Read more…
Neil Castle despite being in his nineties, delivered another exuberant talk at the March 2023 meeting of the club, this one about his gold fossicking sojourns to the South Island. He brought along his homemade sluice box, his shovel modified with welds down the sides and vials containing gold flakes. Read more…
The guest speaker at the February 2023 meeting was Jude Walter from Brainfit World. After the meeting, Jude wrote on the Brainfit Facebook page, “Thank you for having me, Rebus West Auckland. It was great to share some of the latest exciting memory research with you all and provide simple Read more…
At the January 2023 meeting of the Club, Mensto De Roos showed members the film, “Roads to Roam.” It was made by the National Film Unit in 1967 and the director was Hugh McDonald. The film has been described as, “a characteristically quirky 14-minute account of what could have been Read more…
Dacre cottage is located on a historic reserve close to the water’s edge at Karepiro Bay. The story of how bricklayers, Ernie Mullaney and Neil Castle, rebuilt the cottage in 1984 is in this newsletter. The cottage was in a dilapidated condition and remote location. There was no power for Read more…
The December 2022 newsletter reports Alan Verry’s presentation at the November monthly meeting. Alan Verry was a long-serving President of the Railway Enthusiasts Society and Bill Mutch was his secretary. There is an item on the SeaLink ferry trip to Pepperjacks Restaurant at Pine Harbour. Once again, it was an Read more…
There are reports on the James Webb Space Telescope presentation by Dr Chris Benton from the Auckland Astronomical Society, a trip to Auckland Zoo held with Waitakere Combined Rebus, and a coffee morning at Esquires Café in Henderson, in the November 2022 newsletter. Ian Smith, who is in charge of Read more…
At the September monthly meeting, there were eleven visitors. They had come to hear James Duncan give the third of his three talks on Auckland’s tram system. James described how one man’s effort to save a tram resulted in the founding of the Old Time Transport Preservation League, and how Read more…