Page 8 - Hamish Walker News Today

Mayor David Wright and Anne Thompson, 2020 Citizen of the Year, announced the winner. The ceremony’s MC was netballer and broadcaster Liz Ellis. The Ballina Shire resident offered a relaxed, funny and engaging style to the occasion, accompanied by special guest, Channel 9 sports reporter James Bracey. Barbara Swain was awarded the accolade for her 25-year work with the Ballina Mental Health Support Group, a charity she founded. Mrs Swain started up the group after her son Barry lost his batt...

SUPPLIED Hamish Walker of Harcourts Highland Real Estate, says that this resort-style development at Gibbston Valley is a once in a lifetime opportunity for anyone who wants to experience the best Central Otago has to offer. Construction is planned in 2021 for a luxury development in the Gibbston Valley just outside of Queenstown.   "This is once in a lifetime opportunity for anyone who wants to experience the best Central Otago has to offer. A first for the Gibbston Valley region, I see thi...

Last year’s winners of the Ballina Shire Australia Day Awards. Photo supplied. This year’s Australia Day celebrations for Ballina Shire will be held at Lennox Head Cultural Centre on Tuesday 26 January, starting at 9am. The 2021 event will include the citizenship ceremony, Australia Day awards, and performances by opera singer Katie Rutledge and 12-year-old singer/songwriter Lennox Broadley. Ballina Council say they are delighted to have James Bracey as special guest speaker this year, alo...

Housing development gets the go-ahead on former hotel site Want to read more? At the start of the pandemic in March we took the decision to make online access to our news free of charge by taking down our paywall. At a time where accurate information about Covid-19 was vital to our community, this was the right decision – even though it meant a drop in our income. In order to help safeguard the future of our journalism, the time has now come to reinstate our paywall, However,  rest assured t...

Top three columns of the year from Audrey Young.

Peter Wilson* Analysis - The year 2020 was the most challenging year any New Zealand government has faced. It was the year of Covid, the year of economic recession and the beginning of recovery. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern not only led the country through it, she won an unprecedented election victory at the end of it. When Ardern held her last post-Cabinet press conference of 2020 she recalled that when she held the first one she had spo...

1.       Covid-19 lockdown announcements and the 1pm briefings Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield Source: Getty On March 23, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the country we were "facing the potential for devastating impacts" as the Covid-19 pandemic swarmed the world. We had just 48 hours before the country was plunged into a strict lockdown for weeks. It was just the start of the tense 1pm briefings, where the country...

Homes in the Gibbston Valley resort were selling for between $1.35m and $4.5m plus GST. Real Estate Institute of New Zealand chief executive Bindi Norwell said the market was very buoyant. Queenstown Lakes District had seen significant growth, despite how exposed to tourism it was. Median house prices in the region grew 14.2 per cent year-on-year in November from $950,000 to $1.085m, she said. There had also been an increase in the volume of property sold, around 3 per cent year-on-year. su...

Claire Trevett: The lol-lights and comedy awards of 2020 23 Dec, 2020 04:00 PM 5 minutes to read OPINION: The hunt for the laughs in 2020 was particularly challenging. In politics, not much good happened to anyone other than Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Her re-election with a full majority in Parliament was the reward for having to contend with all the crap (there is no other word for it, sorry) 2020 unloaded on her desk. Even the PM admitted she would have been happy to tra...

"The man who sat next to him didnt even bat an eye." Photo credit: Boing Boing The World Health Organization names the virus COVID-19 - short for coronavirus disease 2019 - on February 11. By then over 43,000 people had been infected worldwide, and more than 1000 dead from the illness. Residents in low-lying areas of Gore, Wyndham, and Mataura in Southland had to be evacuated as flooding ravaged the area. Gore pictured from above. Photo cred...