Tauranga Culture!-The Tauranga Moana Song

I felt that if your reading a blog about a city, you should get to know some of the city's culture, right? Well that was when I got the brilliant idea to add a culture section entitled, "Tauranga Culture!" In our first part of this 'segment' we will look at the song every local Tauranga citizen(or every Tauranga Maori citizen) should know:

Tauranga Moana:
Tauranga Moana,
Mauao te Maunga,
Ngatiranginui,
Ngaiterangi e mihi nei e tau nei Rapua e ta e Puritia e hine,
a nga wawatanga,
a nga tipuna,
i roto i tenei ao hou Puritia kia mau,
kia mau Nga taonga mauri e

What Does it Mean?

The song talks about Tauranga, it's easily recognizable Mauao a.k.a Mt Maunganui, the local tribes and some other stuff that you don't need to know unless you want to. On the right hand side is Tauranga born singing sensation, Stan Walker singing Tauranga Moana!

See You Next Time!
Lofangas:
Twitter, Google+, E-Mail

Town of The Week-Katikati

Currently in the Western Bay of Plenty there is a dry period of news. Just like the NSW fires which were raging on and on. So we will have have to juice out all those juicy stories! All right! Let's get into this week's Town of the Week! Featuring Katikati!


Katikati is mostly known for it's murals which were originally painted in the 1990's. Katikati's population has been increasing at a modest pace after the murals were painted. Katikati looks set to be in 'boom' mode like Paengaroa but to a smaller degree. But nowadays, the current populaion trend is simple. People are leaving small towns to go to the big cities. Katikati seems to be defying according to the latest statistics. The stats say that there were 2916 citizens in 2001, 3579 in 2006 and 4059 people in 2013. Let's move on to Katkati's founding shall we?

Founding of Katikati

This photo seriously freaks me out!

In 1875, George Vesey Stewart brought a group of 238 settlers to what is now Katikati. He had decided on the location because of it's views and because it was close to Tauranga(Then a small village!). Over the next 44 years, George Vesey became the mayor of Katikati and held many other 'titles' till his death in 1920, aged 87. At least his descendants have a claim to fame.

What To Do?
Katikati's Haiku Pathway-The only Haiku pathway in the southern hemisphere and the only one outside of Japan. With thirty boulders and more planned, by the time you get there there may be fifty!
The Famous Murals-There are now 44! How amazing! So get off your bum and go to Katikati and check out the murals. Or if your lazy then Click Here.
Watchin The Whales!-Hop on a Jetty and cross your fingers and you might see a grthroup of Orca's swimming by. Besides who wouldn't want to be on a Jetty anyway?

That sums it up everyone! Keeping in mind more than half of our visitors are American, it's pretty likely no one is going to go to Katikati, unless this blog becomes an overnight success. But if you got this far, then thank you for reading. If something is wrong then why don't you message us in our new Guestbook!




Thanks,
Lofangas

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/taurangablog/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/app/basic/107203380618542978657/posts?cbp=phtsayrd5rp1&sview=25
E-Mail: lofangas@gmail.com

Tauranga Arts Festival a Success

After 10 days of non stop action, the Tauranga Arts Festival 2013 was a success! Exciting for Arts people but just disregarded by, um, other people. Unfortunately we couldn't give the any coverage, due to other more important posts.

The Tauranga Arts Festival is Tauranga's very own arts festival. The festival is held every 2 years, lasting 10 days with 40 events and shows. "There were 7000 people at the community day on Saturday and between our two venues of Baycourt and Crystal Palace, there were an extra 600 to 800 people through most nights." said Festival publicist and producer Claire Mabey. A new X Space venue at Baycourt Theatre also allowed more people through the doors, Miss Mabey said. Crystal Palace seated about 320 people, Baycourt about 500 and the X Space about 160.

The Tauranga Arts Festival received $25,000 from Tauranga City Council last year in annual support and $20,000 to help fund the popular Strand Exhibition community day.

In 2009, the festival ran at a loss despite high ticket sales. Mayor Stuart Crosby said such events had a high revenue risk, but that was why sponsorship and council support was essential. "A key issue for me between now and March is to sort out our whole events issue that we have in Tauranga and make sure the new council is more supportive, not necessarily throwing money at them, but support them across the board."



That leads us to the end of this post, comment what you think I should do next. Also remember to share if you like this post.

Thanks,
Lofangas-lofangas@gmail.com