Te Puke News - 28 November 2025

Te Arahiora Farrell and Tracy Rampton, pictured, are the women behind Natural Mystic – a rural Paengaroa operation which is using the healing power of horses to engage teenagers disconnected from the

Te Puke

NEWS

Help give access to the written word

Books are the engines of learning. That’s the belief of Te Puke Paper Plus owner Stuart Gunn, who has come up with a way of helping those less fortunate have access to the written word

Anyone buying a book – or anything else for that matter – at his store will get it discounted if they donate it to a collection that will go to The Hub Te Puke.

“People select a book, it can be a cheap one, or whatever, and we give them a 25% discount, so that’s our profit gone, and then they put it in the [donation] box,” said Gunn.

Those donating will also go into a draw for a prize worth $150, he said. Primarily, Gunn is wanting people to select children’s books to be given as Christmas gifts.

The Hub Te Puke general manager Scott Nicholson welcomed the initiative. “It enables us to provide gifts for families to go out with our Christmas parcels,” said Nicholson.

“We often struggle in terms of gifts and things, so this is a great initiative in terms of just adding to that whole thing. Books are something that keep on giving, you can come back to them again and again.”

Nicholson said the prediction was there would be about 190 packages going to needy families during the week before Christmas.

He said those families were likely to be ones for which where money was tight and buying books was not high on the list of priorities.

Gunn said his love of books was what motivated him to look at a way to try and get more of them into homes. He also said he feels there is a need to have a way to help the community. “We put it on Facebook one afternoon and the following morning a lady came in asking: ‘How do I do this?’

“We explained and she said: ‘That’s great’, so people are looking for this and we are giving them a vehicle to do it.”

The final day to make a donation is

‘Z Nail Gang’ returns to Te Puke cinema

It was July 2014 when Te Puke’s Capital Theatre hosted the world premiere of locally-made movie, ‘The Z Nail Gang’.

Fast-forward 11 years and this weekend, the cinema will host two screenings of the movie

Pukehina husband-and-wife team

Anton Steel, who was the movie director, and Kylie DellaBarca Steel, who was producer, were behind the movie they described at the time as a feel-good action-comedy based around anti-mining protests in the Coromandel in the 1980s.

Shot in locations around the Bay of Plenty in February-March 2014, hundreds of Te Puke, Pukehina and Pongakawa people, businesses and community groups came together to volunteer time, money and effort to make the movie – and more than 300 saw it first at the world premiere

Eleven years later Anton said he had so many favourite memories of the film.

crew to people who opened up their homes to house the cast and crew ”

He described the world premiere in Te Puke in July 2014 as one of the most special nights of his life “[It was] a great way to show thanks to all those who helped realise this dream

“The Te Puke community showed so much support for our film ”

The premiere was on July 30, 2014 “I remember driving through Te Puke in November – over three months later –and our film was still being screened ”

‘The Z-Nail Gang’ helped launch multiple people into working in the industry and was a fantastic learning experience for many involved, said Steel

“It was a film about a community coming together made by a community coming together and it will be very special for it to provide another opportunity to bring the Te Puke community together for the screening at the Capitol,” he said.

More than 400

Steel said the Te Puke and Pukehina communities were amazingly supportive in getting the movie made “Over 400 people contributed time, talent and resources from Maketū Pies feeding the

“l learnt a lot making ‘The Z-Nail Gang’ that has flowed onto other directing projects like ‘Taking Back Our Beach’ [a documentary about the impact of the Rena grounding] and also in helping to grow the local industry by establishing Film Bay of Plenty

“My one major learning from ‘The Z-Nail Gang’ and ‘Taking Back Our Beach’ is that it is always difficult launching a project with a limited budget for publicity There was amazing local support for ‘Taking Back Our Beach’ for which we are very grateful.”

Reviving theatre

Showing the movie is just one element of a major project to bring the theatre back to life, not just as a cinema but as a destination under the Te Puke Kiwifruit Capital of the

World Heritage Hub banner

“I’m so happy that this screening can help launch a new chapter of life for the capital cinema – it is a fantastic building with a lot of history”

The cinema will continue to show movies with two showings of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ on December 7 and two showings of

‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ on December 14.

‘The Z-Nail Gang’ story is based on real life events and is set in a peaceful New Zealand coastal town. In the lee of their treasured mountain, Te Maunga, the residents move at a leisurely pace.

Local postman Ned passes the hours inventing musical sub-genres Resident cop Tipene spends more time fishing than crime-fighting The hardest decision for Dave is whether to make pottery or go surfing, leaving his ever-patient wife Mareeka to enjoy the serenity of their surroundings

But someone else has an eye on this

paradise and the serenity is shattered when Ned delivers a letter that will change their lives forever

At Capitol again

The film features leading Kiwi actors, including Erroll Shand playing Dave, Vanessa Rare as Aunty, Geoffrey Dolan as Sgt Smith, Tanya Horo playing Mareeka, Jim McLarty as Ted Bates and Paul Ballard as Ned Steel’s current project, which has just passed the post product stage, is ‘Kids Unplugged’

“We are currently working towards launching this web series on multiple national platforms in autumn 2026

“We hope that we can get nationwide-wide support and viewership for this series that champions kids choosing the wild over wifi

“When it comes to launching this exciting project, we are once again looking forward again to having its world premiere at the Te Puke Capitol Cinema ”

Craftyfun to behadbefore the Santaparade

As a prelude to Te Puke’s Christmas Float parade, Te Puke Library is offering a chance to get craftily creative

For the past six months the library has been hosting Saturday morning crafts for kids “What we are going to do is time our last one of the year to coincide with the Christmas parade and have a Christmas themed activity,” said Te Puke Library and Service Centre team leader Amanda-Jane McFadden

With the parade starting 11am on Saturday, December

6, the 9 30am start for the craft activity is just perfect and will give enough time to create a card or Christmas decoration, McFadden said

All materials will be provided and it will be a drop-in session “ so anyone can come in and make some crafts for Christmas tree and hang out in the library before the parade”

The session is aimed at three to seven or eight year olds; and children must be accompanied by a parent

The monthly craft sessions were successful and will be continued in 2026

Stuart Whitaker

Horses offer outlet for disengaged teens

The healing power of horses is behind a pilot programme aiming to engage teenagers who are disconnected from the education system

Natural Mystic is based in rural Paengaroa and has come about thanks to the marrying of the minds of two women with vastly different backgrounds.

Tracy Rampton has more than 26 years ’ experience of competing, being a horse instructor and taking riding lessons.

Te Arahiora Farrell has seven years of experience in mental health and youth justice, and a deep knowledge of mahi wairua (spiritual work) and rongoā Māori (traditional Māori medicine)

They met in January and together they started Natural Mystic at Rampton’s property They say their ideas revolve around reconnecting with nature, slowing down and unlearning to relearn using equine therapy and a holistic approach.

Rampton has spent a lifetime with horses “I moved here [to New Zealand] 29 years ago I’ve had a lot of experience training different people competitively in show jumping and eventing – and I wanted to change that role and be more hands-on with people that didn’t have the same opportunities ”

Only one

She said she had told many people about her ideas, but Farrell was “the only one who actually heard me and went: ‘I’m on-board with you’.” “It’s amazing what we have created together in the last three or four months.”

Natural Mystic hosts a women ’ s group and individual children with autism for equine experiences, but the main focus has been giving an outlet to teens who are not engaged by school.

They hosted eight students on a 12-week pilot programme, which was aimed at teens between the ages of 14 and 16 “They knew nothing about horses, had never even touched a horse, never mind sat on a horse,” said Rampton.

“They are learning as well as riding –learning the points of the horse, the saddle and then learning care of the land. We harrow and put back what we take from the soil and we ’ re aware of how we look after it, so they are learning all aspects. ” Farrell said while working with the horses

was a major element, mirimiri (traditional Maori healing) and rongoā practices that align with the seasons also shaped the activities and ensured kaupapa flows in harmony with nature and the natural rhythms of life.

“That also fits with Tracy’s lessons around energy transfer between us and the horses The horses react to the way we come into the space – if we are coming in overwhelmed, stressed, scared, Tracy shows us the behaviour of horses is a reflection of us ” Farrell said there are lessons that come from those energy transfers

The results

They both say they have been amazed by the results. “We’ve seen two students that came to us with very bad attendance with school – not going to school, wagging every day and the schools didn’t know what else,” said Farrell.

“They tried to engage them in other activities and that didn’t really didn’t last long – but they graduated with us with 100% attendance ”

Some of the boys had shown great leadership, the pair said. “They respect the boundaries and were taking criticism calmly compared to them first starting.

“They learned how to communicate their feelings instead of swearing, would have conversations about it and tell us in open forums that they were scared – and that’s huge for these boys ”

Farrell said she believed the programme

Roadside mowing:

I am committed to engaging with our community and want our council to be upfront and open about the issues that matter to you

I want to share the ‘why’ behind decisions and be straight about what we can and can ’ t do There will always be differences of opinion, but it’s important that the facts and trade-offs that underpin decisions are understood more widely than by just those around the council table

This is the first piece in what will be a regular column, so let’s start with something that has been a hot topic recently

We all value

I’ve heard you ’ re not happy with the changes to roadside mowing – I’m not happy about it either – so let’s unpick the issue and what’s happened in this space

Tidy berms and clear sightlines don’t just make roads safer – they show that our towns are cared for Keeping our streets tidy and safe is something we all value It reflects pride in where we live and makes our towns welcoming

To be clear, when we talk about roadside mowing, we mean the mowing of berms and medians along our roads – not reserves or parks A key reason for the recent reduction in mowing frequency was the New Zealand

had engaged students in a way they couldn’t be at school

“They are also learning do their journals, do their writing, do maths with us where in school they’d do anything they can [to not do] the work ”

Change in attitudes

Rampton said she noticed a big change in attitudes. “These were all kids who don’t know where they are going in life, where they want to go in life and I think what we

working out who they are as people through not just being treated as children.

“We’ve given them a bit of responsibility and they’ve stepped up to that responsibility as well as their learning new things every week for themselves and about themselves with the horses ”

“None of them wanted to go to school because of either bullying or peer pressure and we ’ ve got them thinking they can do things,” said Farrell.

The women want to run another programme but would also like to set up a two-year cadetship

“We want to show them there are avenues in life, not just milling around, getting into trouble – that they’ve got somewhere to go ” They admit there were times when the route to getting the pilot off the ground seemed to have many obstacles

Their own doing

“I came out of a fair few meetings and thought: ‘Okay, we need to regroup ’ , but I always knew it was going to happen,” said Rampton “And we just kept plugging on and it’s succeeded and the proof of the pudding’s in the kids when you see the difference ” Farrell said the programme had all been their own doing “We haven’t got any big funders or anything like that behind us backing us W h i t t th d b t t

have done is given them direction whether it’s back into school or wherever; they are up We are hoping to get there one day, but at moment it’s all off our own bats ”

we ’ ve heard you – change is

coming

r

Transport Agency significantly reducing the funding councils receive for local road maintenance, including vegetation control This created a funding shortfall that meant council couldn’t deliver the previous level of service

Specifically, the number of urban mows per year was reduced from 12 to six Our staff wanted to keep costs within budget, but I acknowledge this hasn’t met the standard you expect.

Before Christmas

Elected members have heard clearly from the community that you want better, so we ’ re moving fast to address this. Another mow will be scheduled before Christmas to improve the appearance of urban areas for the holiday and visitor season, including events like our Santa parades.

Before Christmas, councillors will review mowing levels and consider options for providing additional mows on top of the budgeted six for the rest of this financial year This could mean immediate changes, but any increase in mowing frequency would need to be funded – either by reallocating existing budgets or identifying new funding sources Councillors will weigh up these options and their implications carefully,

with a focus on what’s achievable and sustainable

In February, as part of the Annual Plan process, we’ll look at longer-term settings for mowing and other transportation services Any further agreed changes will take effect from July 1, 2026, when new rates are set This will be a broader conversation with the community about what level of service is wanted, and what that means for rates or trade-offs in other areas We’re committed to being open and listening to your views

Committed

While funding changes have created challenges, we ’ re committed to finding solutions This could include reviewing how our services are contracted – all options are on the table

I also want to clarify that mowing in our reserves has not changed Our teams are working to maintain the agreed service levels, but it’s always a challenge for contractors to keep up with the spring flush that comes with warm and wet conditions

Tidy towns and pride of place matter – I want people to feel proud of where they live, proud when visitors pass through or come to stay, and proud of Council for delivering the essentials well

*A NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) spokesperson responded: “The level of funding available through the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) for different activities is determined by the priorities set out in the Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS)

“With the GPS prioritising funding for road maintenance operations and for state highway pothole prevention, at a time when there is a finite amount of funding available and increasing demands on the roading network, councils and NZTA have changed the level of services provided for vegetation control on local roads as well as on state highways.

“As the road controlling authority for state highways, NZTA has also had to adopt a more focused and targeted approach to weed control, which means the frequency of our mowing operations has reduced from previous years. ”

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