Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 27 September 2023
Best voice forward
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Speedway season looms
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Community support after attempted robbery ANNE HARDIE Thavy Men is full of gratitude for the support she has received from the community following the attempted robbery by a masked man with a hammer at her Salisbury Store. Bunches of flowers were given to her in the days following the frightening intrusion last Monday and members of the community dropped in to voice their concerns and wish her well. By then, the shaking had stopped from the shock of seeing the masked man make demands from her son-in-law, Lucky, who was at the counter. Thavy was working at the back of the shop, packing bags of lollies, when she noticed the masked man on the screen that is linked to the cameras in the shop. “I saw this person who didn’t look like a nice person. I went in to carefully tell Lucky that he looked like a bad person,” she says. “Then the man pulled a hammer from his pocket to smash the till and he said, ‘give me the money, give me the money’. My son-in-law didn’t know what he was talking about and said, ‘pardon me?’” When the man first pulled the hammer from his pocket, Thavy says Lucky thought it was a gun. The masked man, who had a black hoodie covering his head and was also wearing sunglasses and a black mask, then tapped the hammer a couple of times in an aggressive manner on the top of the
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Dave Gilberd has worked four timbers into the ukelele. Photo: Jo Kent.
A ukelele inspired by values ANNE HARDIE Four native timbers steamed and shaped into a ukelele by Brightwater tinkerer Dave Gilberd are now a work of art at Tāwhiri Festivals and Experience. Dave is an engineer by trade but also a keen guitarist who
has a passion for making the instruments in his Goldbeard Guitars workshop in Brightwater. Usually, he is making guitars on commission, but when the former executive director of the Wellington-based festival Meg Williams asked him to make a ukelele from four
native timbers, it was a new challenge. Meg was moving to her new role as chief executive officer of WOW and the ukelele was her parting gift to the festival. She says the ukelele design was inspired by the values of Tāwhiri. The neck is
made of rimu and is the place on the ukelele you hold thoughtfully and that represents manaakitanga or care. Kahikatea makes up the sound board where tone is created and this represents the value of Tāne te wānanga
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