Wayne's World

....an enormous thank you to all who chose to vote for me and for all those who worked hard to get the message out there. Again, I thank you...

Wayne came to Kerikeri about 30 years ago. He was poor, then, and hasn't forgotten what that was like. He set up an engineering business...

Anyone who has applied to FNDC for permission to do anything up here recently will have noted a hardening attitude to information. The deman...

I am quite keen on light-hearted banter and criticism of privilege and power of organizations that sometimes take themselves too seriously. ...

I have not yet commented on any of the articles that surround me each week but last Thursday my fellow commentators covered fields in which ...

I have just had the great pleasure of a trip to Melbourne with some business mates and our wives to indulge in some fun and noise at the Mel...

I’m not even into local body politics yet but already the misquotations have started. In the last week I have been reported to be standing a...

The Far North is an unusual district, sprawling, as it does, across hundreds of kilometres and unlike most NZ provinces it is made up of man...

Kordia is a company that I lead that does a range of fun technical things like providing the delivery platform for most free to air radio an...

Any of you who have recently visited Taranaki, or the “Naki” as locals love to call it couldn’t help but have noticed the positive vibes run...

One of the surprise finds when I was sent down to Gisborne to fix their hospital was to discover that they have a single District Council do...

The Trust is pleased to announce that it is granting scholarships to 21 young Northlanders to contribute to the cost of their fees for train...

I had the recent privilege of chairing a hui on saving our surf breaks called by Surfing NZ and held on a Raglan marae. What’s that got to d...

I love spotting positive trends that lie below the horizon of most commentators and indeed the public at large. It is easy to join the rush ...

With all the rules and regulations, bureaucrats and other hangers-on these days there are times when any go-ahead person gets to feel that i...

Several months ago, my first column dealt with my efforts to get through and understand Volume 1 of the FNDC Far North Future Plan covering ...

I normally like to write about things up here as this is where I live, however many of you would have noted the media uproar last week when ...

Talk to any builder, new home-owner, engineer, architect or developer and see how they feel about the Resource Management Act. They don’t se...

It’s nice to write about positive go-ahead people. Takes your mind off the things that really hassle you, like opening 42 separate letters f...

So who is a local? Is it someone who lives in your village, community council, council area or Northland? How long before you become a local...

So who is a local? Is it someone who lives in your village, community council, council area or Northland? How long before you become a local...

A couple of weeks back I suggested in my Sunday Star Times business article that Reserve Bank governor Bollard should think about reducing o...

The Far North is well placed to benefit from a number of long run world-wide trends such as movement of people towards the equator seeking t...

I joined 150 other locals to listen to Opposition Leader John Key at the Community Centre last Friday and found it most interesting. I have ...

What a great weekend that was! Long overdue hot windless weather and clear skies just made for reminding us how lucky we are to live up here...

It’s easy to think that all roads in NZ are like the bumpy shockers that we endure, but they are not and there are some obvious reasons why ...

I’ve heard from several councillors that most of the delays and difficulties associated with rules, regulations, fees and slow responses are...

Last Wednesday, the 25th of October at 430pm an historic meeting took place at The Centre, that big opera house thing next to Master Plumber...

Earlier this year I was forced to cough up several thousand dollars to FNDC for parking and roading impacts of a completely code complying d...

I had the privilege of being one of the invited (and handsomely rewarded) speakers at a conference in Southland called by the combined counc...

Far North Holdings have received some well deserved criticism in recent weeks from a wide range of ratepayers, airport users, foreshore user...

It can be almost satisfying to see large organizations take little steps in a sensible direction when one has been prodding them in that dir...

I’ve just had a week doing important government research with my surfboard in Rarotonga, well actually we had a holiday to celebrate the fac...

Who would believe that the Far North has a film festival at all, let alone one held over a three week period, not just in one theatre but in...

Thanks largely to former presidential Al Gore reinventing himself as a movie narrator the whole world has suddenly become concerned about gl...

Every so often when a low tide takes place on the weekend, I wander around the foreshore under and beside our home in Mangonui and have a cl...

Much has been said about the need for relatively remote countries such as NZ and relatively remote areas within, such as the Far North needi...

Much has been made of the apparent increase of local body costs due to central government passing legislation requiring local government to ...

As a kid I really liked Guy Fawkes night. Dad and his mates would organise a bonfire and beers, Mum and her mates did the kai and all of us ...

Have you noticed how sometimes things completely off your radar suddenly crop up as a problem and you wonder how did that happen, or how did...

Welcome to the first of many columns. I’m transferring my attention from nationwide issues in the Sunday Star Times to Far North issues in t...

Welcome to 2007. As a hopeless optimist I feel that this year may well lead to increased prosperity for all Far North residents, but as a re...

As Chairman of Auckland District Health Board, I was recently approached by members of the Committee for Auckland, an organization that I kn...