Opteon scores contract
A new contractor will take over valuation services for Whangarei District Council from August 1 this year.
Opteon will handle all valuation queries and any maintenance valuations from that date and will undertake the district's triennial valuation next year.
The contract is for five years, with a three-year right of renewal. Opteon beat out an expression of interest from the former provider, Quotable Value.
Top student art
The touring Top Art exhibition, featuring a selection of NCEA Level 3 visual arts portfolios that achieved Excellence last year, will be coming to NorthTec's Geoff Wilson Gallery next month.
The annual exhibition provides inspiration to secondary school arts students covering the five available streams of study - design, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. The works will be on display in the NorthTec gallery from July 20 to 27.
The tour covers the whole country and is run by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). The portfolios on display can be viewed on the NZQA website or via a special NZQA Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/NZQATopArt.
More Mamma Mia
The production company behind the stage show Mamma Mia! playing in Whangarei has decided to add one more show to the season.
The performance, which Centre Events confirmed will be the only extra one, will be on the evening of Tuesday, July 4. It will be the last chance audiences have to buy tickets to the almost sold-out show which is due to close on July 8.
Tuai's life story told
The life of a prominent pre-Treaty Northland Maori man is the subject of new book.
Professor Alison Jones, of the University of Auckland, and Kuni Jenkins have written Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds.
Born about 1797, Tuai worked as a whaler in 1812 and in Australia in 1813 taught Thomas Kendall (who became the first New Zealand schoolteacher) to speak Maori. Tuai travelled to England where he visited factories, was a guest at high-society dinners, attended fashionable gatherings and sat for his portrait.
The authors will launch Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds at Kororareka Marae, Russell, on July 8.