BATS Theatre back in business

BATS Theatre, situated near the city end of Oriental Parade, is beautifully back in business. It now has three performance spaces and shiny new backstage, dressing room, kitchen, Green Room and office facilities. The aptly named Pit Bar is now a spacious bar on the ground floor.

BATS is in the former Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes building at 1 Kent Terrace. The venue started in the 1930s as The Savage Club, a dance hall and venue for amateur theatre. From the 1940s—1975, Unity Theatre staged productions there.

It was administered by the BATS Incorporated Society from 1979—88. BATS is an acronym for the Bane and Austin Touring Society (named after Rodney Bane and David Austin, founding members). It produced school tours and shows but later administered the building as a venue for hire.

Over the years it gradually declined. But along came Simon Bennett and Simon Elson who negotiated a lease. They organised finance and materials, rebuilt the foyer and the auditorium and re-opened it as a professional venue in 1989.

Only a year later, fire broke out, damaging backstage, dressing rooms and the auditorium plus costumes and props for the current show. An electrical fault was thought to be the cause. A fund-raising concert was held in the St James Theatre, with celebrities like the Topp Twins, Paul Holmes, Lynn of Tawa, Gary McCormick, Kate Harcourt......Other theatre companies held benefit shows too. $22,000 was raised and BATS was reborn.

In 1999 BATS took over the lease of two small spaces either side of the foyer: an old fish'n'chippy became the office and what was Don's Car Insurance Office became the Pit Bar. BATS flourished until their landlords for 22 years — the Buffaloes — put the building on the market.

BATS staff and board were determined to have a long-term future by buying the building. But there was a limited timeframe and it didn't look as though they could secure the finance. At the eleventh hour, film makers Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh purchased the building with a long-term lease for BATS.

Earthquake strengthening and renovations were undertaken. On 22 November 2014, BATS reopened with, wonderfully rejuvenated acting, backstage, kitchen, Green Room and office areas; but also, thanks to the community, trusts and other donors, with updated technical equipment and furnishings.

JCD, Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

Swim Rafts Prove a Summer Hit

Oriental Bay's two new swimming rafts have had an incredible baptism in one of our best summers ever. They were launched last November by Mayor Celia Wade-Brown in the best way possible when she actually braved chilly Spring waters and swam out to one.

But the waters in the harbour thissummer have often been calm andinviting and swimmers have madethe best use of the rafts. They are moored some 50 metres from shore, between the fountain and Freyberg Beach. They replace the original ones donated by the Ilott family in 1985 — a connection recounted at the launch by Jane Aim, Oriental Bay Residents Association's life member.

Colin Blair, president of Oriental Bay Residents' Association, which initiated the rafts, paid tribute at the launch to Noel and Joanna Todd for their generous donation and also acknowledged the donation of Pub Charity, represented by Marcina Malcolm. He noted that members of the Oriental Bay Residents Association were all donors, as the association had contributed financially as well.

The Wellington City Council owns and maintains the rafts while the Wellington Regional Council (represented at the launch by John Tattersell) are responsible for mooring the rafts over summer and storage in winter. Colin Blair gave a special welcome at the launch to Mark Pulepule and the members of the Maranui Surf Lifesaving Club who provided a patrol on the beach for the event and during summer weekends.

Given the enthusiastic use of the rafts (especially when ten or so youngsters stand on one edge to see if it capsizes! It doesn't!) OBRA committee members are pleased they chose the expensive raft option rather than the cheaper aluminium raft.

Altogether a highly successful initiative that will give lots of pleasure for many years to come!

JCD, Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

Anzac Service at Point Jerningham

A moving Anzac service was held at the street memorial that stands in Carlton Gore Road between St Barnabas Church and Roseneath School on Saturday April 25.

The service began with the national anthem in Maori and English, followed by the famous Isaiah verse which concludes "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

The minister of St Barnabas, Stephen King, gave an address about keeping connections alive. Then poppies plus the

names of those on the memorial were laid during the reading of the Roll of Honour. Floral tributes on behalf of Roseneath School, St Barnabas Church and the Roseneath Residents Association were also laid.

John McCrae's verse In Flanders Field was read by Roger Wilson. Brendan Agnew played the Last Post and LtCol Mark Ogilvie read The Commemoration, before the Reveille sounded towards the end of the service. Nearly 100 people attended.

It is thought that Dr John McCrae (1872–1918) began the draft for In Flanders Fields on the evening of 2 May, 1915, in the second week of fighting during the battle of Ypres. It is believed that the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was the inspiration for the poem. The memorial is one of only two suburban-street memorials in Wellington. It was unveiled on 10 November, 1917 — the first permanent memorial in Wellington to those who died in World War I. It is inscribed with the names of Roseneath School old boys who died during the war. There is also a memorial board in St Barnabas Church to those who died in World War II.

The first Anzac service at the memorial was held five years ago. It has become a regular and popular event each year.

JCD, Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

Gardening in Window Boxes

With only window boxes to garden in, it's amazing how clever some Oriental Bay locals can be. From my third-storey apartment, I look down on a small space between the wall of a house and a boundary wall. It gets hardly any sun and could be a drab little area.

But it isn't. The eye is drawn immediately to a long window box crammed full of red and white petunias. They positively light the place up. On the boundary wall itself are semi-circular wall pots also spilling over with flowers. A dull little area has been turned into an inviting, colourful entranceway.

Anyone who's travelled in Europe has admired the window boxes in the cities — scarlet geraniums spring to mind, brightening up those narrow city streets, like torches. In Wellington we have the added challenge of the wind, so David from

California Home and Garden often suggests low plants that don't catch

the wind so much. Included in his list are the sun-lovers: dwarf calendula, dwarf chrysanthemum, geranium, lobelias, French marigolds, nemesia, pansy, pelargonium and petunia. These plants are not tall enough to catch the wind too much.

For shady positions he suggests alyssum, begonia, cineraria, ferns, forget-me-not, impatiens, ivy, lavender, native violets, primula and periwinkle. The herb rosemary doesn't mind the shade, falls attractively over the edge and provides pretty blue flowers as well as leaves to flavour lamb dishes.

Palmers' Handy Tips leaflet stresses using a premium tub or container mix as these contain water storage crystals, a wetting agent that spreads moisture to the roots, along with slow release fertilisers. Water crystals swell when water is added and act as a water reservoir. The crystals then shrink as the water is taken up by the plant and expand again when the plant is watered.

They advise against using garden soil or compost instead of potting mix in pots as compost generates heat as it breaks down and like soil, it compacts. This starves the plant of oxygen and fertiliser.

Their Tips stress that plants in containers dry out more quickly than plants in the garden. As the plant grows and the root ball becomes denser, it becomes harder for water to penetrate. Early morning or late afternoon is the best time for watering which should be daily in summer. Water thoroughly rather than giving several light sprinkles. Container plants still need watering after light rain.

Geraniums and pelargoniums, whether standard or ivy-leafed, are also favourites for Bill Ward (of Maggie's Garden Show fame). They flower for 10 months, he says, and colours can range from hot red, orange, and purple to softer hues of pink, white and lavender. He's particularly fond of petunias, perennial or annual.

Bill loves combinations of colours that contrast with each other. Yellow nasturtiums, coupled with upright blue rosemary, for instance. Or hot yellow/orange marigolds with the misty-blue flowers of ageratum; marigolds with blue or white lobelia; mixed nemesia or phlox with red, white or purple salvia; prostrate rosemary with the hardy bay (Laurus nobilis). He likes to use black mondo grass as a foil to colourful flowers or trailing plants like ivy.

When planting the solid types of window boxes, Bill suggests adding a layer of coarse gravel to the base which facilitates drainage and will protect the roots of your plants from being waterlogged.

If using open weave wrought iron types of window boxes you can choose to use individual pots. You may choose to line the window box with bird netting or chicken wire, adding dampened sphagnum moss to give a natural look, then add potting mix to around one third the depth before adding the plants.

Caption: scarlet and white petunias turn a drab little space into a delightful area.

JCD with help from David of California Home and Garden; Palmers How to Grow in Containers leaflet and Bill Ward's book on House Plants, Hanging Baskets and Window Boxes (Hyndman Publishing).

Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

The Luck of the Irish — in Oriental Bay

Gaelic football is the latest sport to be held on the beach of Oriental Bay, joining the various types of beach volleyball and beach football that we've seen for a few years now on the beach.

The Wellington and Hutt Valley Gaelic Club is the region's only Gaelic football and hurling club, so they value these once-a-year beach tournaments— usually the beginning of November — to introduce locals to this ancient sport.

Their president Trevor O'Halloran describes the event as a five-a-side, five-minute half, single sex, one-day beach blitz. Last November 12 teams made up of five players took part in the beach tournament.

He says that the club likes to promote the game to locals through the summer. "The separate pre-Christmas social league and post-Christmas more competitive nine-a-side tournaments bring together our 200+ members with an even mix of Irish/non-Irish; men/ladies; young/old; experienced/beginner players. By hosting these summer games the club grows and builds its core registered players steadily. Membership now sits at 80+".

A full New Zealand Gaelic Football national championship was held in March in Upper Hutt this year with teams from Auckland and Canterbury clubs attending. A total of 11 teams of 15 players took part over a two-day tournament in all four codes of Gaelic sports. In October Wellington will host the Australasian Gaelic Football Games.

One enthusiast I spoke to at the beach tournament, described Gaelic football as similar to Aussie Rules with a mix of football and rugby league. A player can only take four steps with the ball at any one time. The beach version has the usual vagaries of Wellington weather to cope with — four seasons in a day. On the beach there's an extra hazard when our famous wind whips up the sand to get in your eyes.

So sometimes they might need the help of a couple of lines from that famous Irish blessing:

May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face...

JCD, Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

Oriental Bay's Christmas Trees With 'Beards'

As you walk under the stately pohutukawa trees on Oriental Parade, do you wonder why one or two of the trees sprout great clumps of matted roots from their branches? Clumps that hang down like masses of coarse matting or, more fancifully, giants' beards?

These are aerial roots, also known as adventitious roots. (Adventitious has nothing to do with being daring. It suggests development in an unusual position, like a root growing down from a branch). They grow out of trunks and branches.

They often develop on pohutukawa growing on banks and rocky cliffs where they can search for crevices, pockets of soil and moisture to help keep the tree anchored and fed, though this isn't applicable to our trees in the Bay.

Wellington is not one of the natural growing areas of mainland pohutukawas — metrosideros excelsa is their formal name. Their natural growing range is north of a line stretching from New Plymouth to Gisborne.

Why do some pohutukawas produce these aerial roots and others don't? I went to the Ask-a-Scientist column in our daily newspaper.

Gerald Collett, an aborist with Geotree Limited, suggests that it might be a genetic variation (a survival adaptation) within the species. Or it might be due to hybridisation.

He points out that northern rata (metrosideros robusta, closely associated with pohutukawa) commonly germinates on another plant and sends roots down the host tree. Sometimes pohutukawa also establish in this way. The two species are known to hybridise.

"I have seen pohutukawa aerial roots descending from wounds on branches and trunks as if stimulated by the wound, " Gerald Collett says, "but this looks to me to be something different to the beards. I have seen pohutukawa stems entirely sheathed in webs of aerial roots. Again I think that this too is something different to the beards.

Nick Stott, a Heritage Arborist with the Auckland Council, considers that there is no 'evidence' that pohutukawa trees grow aerial roots for any reason in particular. But sometimes they appear to develop these roots in an attempt to bind themselves together, as the species is known for 'layering' characteristics where branches fall to ground level, still attached to the tree.

The roots may attempt to bind the tree together, or start the process for rerooting when the branch finally gets to the ground. In any case, the roots will continue to undertake work that roots do — optimising every situation and providing air and water to the tree.

JCD, Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

New Direction for Woman-Of-Many-Parts

The Taj Gallery and Patisserie that operated where Oriental Parade meets Kent Terrace will be remembered by many long-time residents. It was established by Cynthia Cass who ran it for five years.

An artist, gallery-owner, writer, farmer, cook and traveller, Cynthia's latest achievement is collating a book called We Three Go South, published by Phantom House. It is based on the 1890 diary and hilarious sketches done by Cynthia's great-aunt Ethel who, with her two sisters, visited the sub-Antarctic islands on the government steamship Hinemoa.

The exuberant sisters revelled in the adventure. Defying the sedate lifestyle expected of well-brought-up young ladies of the time, they hunted sea lions, climbed peaks, collected plants and generally had a whale of a time. It's a joy to read and to handle.

The building where the Taj Gallery and Patisserie operated were city toilets before Cynthia transformed it into something more gracious. It is now the Welsh Dragon Licensed Restaurant and Bar, said to be the only Welsh Bar in the Southern Hemisphere.

JCD, Bay View newsletter 65, May 2015

Seafront Wall is Rejuvenated

Watching children delightedly pointing to, or tracing with their fingers, the whales, dolphins, crabs, crayfish, sea anemones and waving seaweed depicted on our seafront wall is one of the pleasures of walking along the Bay. What was once a nothing grey wall at the city-end of the main beach is now a colourful mural of sea creatures found in Wellington Harbour. You feel a spring in the step, just passing it.

Ellen doing final touches

Ellen Coup who lives on the Kapiti Coast is one of the team who created the mural some ten years ago, commissioned by the Department of Conservation and Wellington City Council. So she was chosen to repair and rejuvenate it earlier this year, with help from Apo Matapelu who also took the photo of Ellen at work there.

The mural needed fresh-up treatment — filling of a few cracks, re-painting some of the cut-out plywood creatures and removal of the occasional graffiti. Also a plywood blue whale had gone missing from the mural. Found on the beach, the whale went into storage until being returned to Ellen for replacing on the wall.

She took 40 hours in midwinter to paint the original which won a Civic Trust award in 2005. The repair job only took about three weeks. It's a dream 'canvas' for this muralist who has more than a decade working in Wellington. Her works include the rata forest inside Café Rata, Zealandia wildlife sanctuary; the 'Living Cloak' of foliage on the retaining wall of The Terrace; a mural of kakabeak flowers on the WCC Granville Flats and 'Vegetation' on the wall of 1 Rintoul Street, Newtown. The Oriental Bay seawall remains one of her favourites though — it was easy to work on being low, and satisfactorily large and prominent.

Ellen holds a Diploma of Art and Craft Design from Whitireia and has studio space at Shelly Bay Air Force base. She wanted to be a painter when she first graduated and still enjoys painting. She got into murals through what she describes as "bloody-mindedness" and the great sense of accomplishment when an anonymous grey wall leaps into colourful life.

JCD, Bay View newsletter 64, November 2014

Max Patté

Max Patté who was described as a rare talent by Kathryn Ryan on the Nine to Noon program on August 12 is the sculptor responsible for Solace.

In a very short time Solace has become synonymous with Wellington.

“Wellingtonians love Solace so much, they add a jacket occasionally against the cold.”

Such is its popularity it is virtually impossible to buy a guide book or watch a promotional video of Wellington without the statue of Solace featuring.

The sculpture leaning North Westerly from the Wellington Waterfront can be seen to connect with both Wellington and our distant mythological past.

“Wellingtonians love Solace so much, they add a jacket occasionally against the cold.”

It does appear to be at one with both the elements and landscape. Certainly the Athfield designed Clyde Quay Apartments are now another interesting backdrop for Solace.

Already reacting to the elements the original copper colour is now becoming much darker.

This is not a singular piece; there is another Solace in the German city of Munich. This time situated high up on a city building.

Max Patté is the Head of Sculpture at Weta workshop. It is not surprising to find out he attended The Wimbledon Art School in London where he studied the traditional Renaissance style sculpture.

In 2008 he was made an Associate of British Sculpture.

He has had a number of private commissions in New Zealand, none more important than those majestic horses that stand in Michael Hill's Golf Course in Arrowtown. And then there is the work that Sir Ian McKellen has near Canary Wharf alongside a work by his idol Anthony Gormley. He also made a special joint sculpture of the infamous couple Charles Saatchi and Nigella.

Max also paints large works on canvas making use of iron dust incorporating the Renaissance artist's difficult technique of pin pricking which was used on their frescoes.

He has also been involved with many Award winning films including The Hobbit, Batman and he has also worked on designs for The Scottish Royal Ballet.

Jackie Pope, Bay View newsletter 64, November 2014

Gardening on Windy Balconies or Decks

Dwarf tulips perform well on windy balconies

Many residents of Oriental Bay have limited (and frequently windy) spaces to grow plants in — often balconies, decks or small patios. Green fingers can grow most things in most places, but for the rest of us, David from California Home and Garden gives some helpful tips.

Most apartment balconies have strong concrete floors, so weight is not a problem. Timber balconies however won't cope with the weight of big cement tubs so lightweight containers are preferable. Rectangular troughs along the edges of a balcony are good space-savers, or half-circle containers that sit flush to the wall. One plant doesn't necessarily need its own pot. Sizeable containers can accommodate more — a camellia might share a pot with an impatiens or a miniature rose with forget-me-nots.

Containers need more watering than plants grown in open ground, especially if awnings, guttering or another balcony overhead restricts the full benefit of rain. Small pots dry out quickly and don't have enough soil for good plant growth. So it's better to have fewer large containers instead of lots of small pots. A layer of mulch or pebbles will protect roots and keep soil cool.

Lettuce, strawberries, herbs and dwarf tomatoes are all suitable for container gardening and don't grow tall enough to be affected by wind. Sometimes attaching cucumbers, beans and other vine plants to a trellis against a balcony wall can extend your vegetable/fruit range.

Some plants need less water: agave attenuata and the succulents, like yuccas, flaxes (phormium), aspidistra or grass-like liriopes. On a sunny balcony dwarf bougainvillea, nandina domestica, gazania, amaranthus, annuals like petunia and lobelia, geraniums, dianthus and cactus can flourish.

For south-facing or shaded balconies, try camellia, impatiens, philodendrons, ivy, alyssum, aspidistra, arum lilies, some of the liriopes, the flax family especially purple Maori magic, ferns and hydrangeas. David's choices for the windiest balconies include lavender, rosemary, ivy, variegated euonymous and coprosma. These tough plants also tolerate salt spray.

Next issue we will list David's tips for window box gardening.

Bay View newsletter 64, November 2014