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For more information on The Trusts, visit our website www.thetrusts.co.nzor email us at info@thetrusts.co.nz

New Lynn's visionary "Street in the Sky" to begin building soon at Merchant Quarter

The Trusts Art And Sculpture Awards is the top national arts event

Great Christmas gift ideas

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Merchant Quarter Mews is to be an open-air lane on the roof of the five storey car-park, with 18 double-storey and two single-storey maisonette apartments built on either side. It is literally a street in the sky: an entirely secure environment that takes the concept of a gated community “to new heights”.

The Mews will bring a novel new dimension to the debate about affordable housing in Auckland. It adds a stunning new vision to the already visionary concepts created by Waitakere City Council nearly two decades ago, which had seen that the end of the universal suburban house and garden was coming and new lifestyles were starting to beckon.

To the scorn of many, Waitakere Council foresaw an emerging demand across all generations, for apartment, terraced and similarly intensified housing in the suburbs. It was not the end of houses with gardens, but more choice was needed and apartments and terraces would be increasingly popular for a variety of reasons. They would also form the new generation of affordable housing types.

Waitakere had seen that intensification, plus fast and efficient public transport, would bring new population, new business and industry, and new investment to transform sleepy suburban shopping centres into vibrant town centres. Large numbers would live in apartments and seek to work and recreate locally. Car ownership would possibly decline because of the convenience of buses and trains.

A unique Street in the Sky" will soon begin to take shape above New Lynn, as developers Tasman Cook start work on the hugely imaginative Merchant Quarter Mews above the new carpark building.

In pursuit of this concept, council planners and companies like Infratil, had long considered the idea of a high rise apartment tower on Totara Avenue, but a stunning concept such as a “street in the sky” a la Merchant Quarter Mews, wasn’t on any official horizon. Once again the magic of New Lynn which gave us our first shopping mall, has led the way.

The Merchant Mews of 18,900 square metres, double-storey maisonettes (duplexes in modern parlance) plus two single-storey apartments, will be built alongside the ten storey, 110 apartment tower now half-built and 90% sold, above the other end of the carpark.

All the Mews’ duplexes are two bedroom/two bathroom, come complete with white-ware and prices are up to $499,000. They are selling off the plans now. Construction will possibly start before Christmas and both the Mews and the tower block are due for completion in June or July 2014.

Tasman Cook’s Vaughn Foster says that the company is able to achieve such rapid construction times through a combination of methodology and concentration of effort by builders, Kalmar Construction. “We can have up to 250 builders at peak times,” he says.

Vaughn says that 96 of the 110 tower apartments have been sold with buyers from across the spectrum of the community. All 96 apartments sold have gone to private buyers, about 15% of whom were older citizens looking to down-size; Vaughn reckons that there’s a lot more unfulfilled demand in the “grey” market yet. With apartments ranging from $246,000 (all sold) to about $450,000, there are also a good number of new home buyers. Most are buying-to-live but there are some investors, meaning that there will be apartments to rent.

Tasman Cook has previously concentrated on developing CBD hotels and serviced apartments, but are also commencing the new “Brickworks” development at that other visionary town centre in the making, Hobsonville Point.

New Lynn's visionary Street in the Sky" to begin building soon at Merchant Quarter

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Did South Canterbury farmer, Richard Pearse, fly before the Wrights? There is a lot of evidence to say that he did, in March 1903, and two West Auckland men are endeavouring to recreate history by recreating and flying Pearse’s aeroplane.

Seventy five year old Ivan Mudlovcich of Kelston has spent nearly a decade building an aircraft that he believes is very close to Pearse’s design. His faithful “wingman” for the last six years has been Glendene’s Wayne Johnson, a TV documentary maker.

Ivan has built both a plane that looks very like the Pearse plane, and an exact copy of the engine that Pearse designed, built and used. The two men can’t be sure if the aircraft is exact in every detail because no exact plans have ever come to light. Instead, Ivan has used the description in Pearse’s patent application and descriptions written by Pearse in letters and other documents.

Ivan has lovingly re-created the bamboo and fabric structure given strength from its bracing wires. According to Wayne, Ivan has total attention to detail and becomes so absorbed that at times, “I see him morphing into Pearse.” The resulting machine is now at Whenuapai airbase undergoing a slow and steady series of ground tests in preparation for the final test, the one that demonstrates that the plane does actually fly.

There are many who believe that Richard Pearse, the farmer and engineer from Waitohi in South Canterbury, not only invented the aeroplane as we know it today but flew it at least nine months before the Wright’s famous flight at Kittyhawk. Certainly the late George Bolt (a pioneer New Zealand aviator) interviewed and took affidavits from a number of eyewitnesses to Pearse’s flights. All say they saw Pearse flying and some say that some flights ended on top of hedges, which would mean that Pearse had got some distance into the air.

Nothing can be proved now about when he flew, but Pearse’s ideas were more sophisticated than those of the Wrights and it is distinctly possible that in 1903/04 he achieved at least as much as they did and possibly more. His first flights were “hops” but so was the Wright’s first flight. Equally importantly, if the Pearse plane did fly, it left the ground under its own power whereas the original Wright Flyer used a catapult to get airborne.

One thing is for sure, and that is we can safely claim that Pearse’s concept was so advanced that it invented the modern aeroplane and with some exceptions, it took the mainstream of aviation design another half century to catch-up.

The Pearse plane was a monoplane, with a “cockpit” for the pilot with his controls readily to hand, it had its engine at the front and a propeller that pulled the plane along (a tractor), a tricycle undercarriage (two wheels under the cockpit and a nose-wheel) and moveable surfaces known as ailerons, for control. This describes any modern aircraft from light planes to airliners.

The original Wright Flyer used the bi-plane layout of the man-carrying gliders that had been already been flown in America and Europe for some years. It had a skid instead of wheels, there was no cockpit (the pilot lay on the wing), the engine was behind the pilot and “pushed” and control was through warping the ends of the wings. By the 1930’s the only “Wright feature” still in common use, was bi-plane wings and by the 1950’s virtually all aircraft were modelled exactly on the fundamentals invented half a century earlier, by Richard Pearse.

By the time this magazine comes through letterboxes, two men from West Auckland, working out at Whenuapai, will be very close (hopefully) to proving that one of the outstanding inventions in the history of manned, powered flight was an “idea that would fly”. They may even have done it.

FOOTNOTE: To be fair to the Wrights it must be said that they went on to develop their “Flyer” into an aircraft that achieved sustained, powered and controlled flights over several hours and covering many kilometres. In that sense they were world beaters. They did not, however, develop the basic design of the original Flyer to any great extent and it was soon left behind by the march of progress.

History of flight being recreated in West Auckland

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The reconstruction of the New Zealand plane that might have flown before the Wright Brothers’ first flight, waiting final touches at Whenuapai.

Kelston’s Ivan Mudlovcich making adjustments to his

reconstruction of Richard Pearse’s 1903 plane.

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The Trusts Portage Ceramic Awards proved their national stature again this year with the top award being taken by the internationally known ceramic artist, Robert Rapson of Wellington, with his multi-piece installation, Himalaya Serves the World 1949 - Early 70s.The awards are organised by the Lopdell House Gallery.

The winning piece reflects on the era when New Zealand and the world were linked primarily by fleets of ocean liners, including P&O’s iconic Himalaya, which called often and brought thousands of immigrants to New Zealand, Australia, Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

The self taught ceramic artist has a tradition of celebrating the romance of earlier modes of transport that is lauded in North America. He also has ongoing exhibitions at Galerie Impaire in Paris, where his work regularly sells out.

“Himalaya” was selected by this year’s international judge, Amy Gogarty of Canada, who said that one of the “truly lovely aspects of the work” was the quality of the painted surface.

“Rapson combines efficient drawing, delicious scumbles and keenly observed detail with beautifully modeled plastic form. He reconfigures vivid childhood memories with imagination and wit, creating a vibrant tableau that invites engagement,” she said.

The $15,000 Award was presented to Mr Rapson on behalf of this at the awards opening at ‘The Silos’ in Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, where the 60 finalists were on public exhibition.

Growth in the awards was proved by the introduction of two international residencies. The first, at Denmark’s Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre was won by another Wellington artist, Richard Stratton, with The Bankers Dog and Hieronymus Bosch Memorial Invalids Cup.

The second residency at Medalta, Medicine Hat, Canada, was awarded to Levin artist, Melissa Ford for her entries, White Trash #10 and Time & Tide.

Three $2,000 Portage Merit Awards were also given out to: Canterbury’s Jane McCullah for Walking Within; Kim Henderson (also of Canterbury) for Trailing Skirt Tails 1 & 2, and Northland clay artist, Maria Hewitt took this year’s third merit award with Transaction (Broken Diptych). Each merit award winner received $2,000.

The 60 finalists were selected from more than 200 entries and vary in size from fingernail minute to multi-piece, metre-high installations and range in colour from porcelain white to eye-popping psychedelic.

The Portage Ceramic Awards were part of Art Week for the first time this year.

International judge Amy Gogarty MFA (Master of Fine Arts University of Calgary) is an independent researcher, writer and artist in Vancouver, Canada. From 1990 to 2006 she taught visual art history and theory and ceramics history at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. She has served on the board of the Potters Guild of British Columbia and continues to serve on the board of the North-West Ceramics Foundation in Vancouver.

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Top Honours to Wellington at The Trusts Portage Ceramic Awards

Himalaya Serves the World - Robert Rapson's winning entry in the 2013 The Trusts Portage Ceramic Awards

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Andrew Clifford is new Lopdell Gallery director

The Trusts Art and Sculpture Awards is the top national arts event

Lopdell House Gallery, West Auckland’s leading, regional, contemporary art gallery, has a new director.

After 10 years with the gallery, eight of them as director and seeing it successfully through its relocation to temporary premises while the new gallery is built in Titirangi, Lesley Smith has stepped down and been succeeded by Andrew Clifford, previously curator at The University of Auckland’s Gus Fisher Gallery.

Andrew is a renowned arts writer with contributions to leading journals throughout New Zealand and internationally, including Art New Zealand, Art & Australia and Hong Kong-based Art Asia Pacific and has developed exhibitions with important national and international artists.

“It’s an exciting time to join Lopdell House Gallery and the redeveloped facilities will allow the organisation to really spread its wings,” he says.

Lopdell House Society Chairperson, Marcus Williams, paid tribute to Lesley Smith who “leaves the organisation in great shape and has been instrumental in lobbying and fundraising for the improved facilities and extensions.”

The historic Lopdell House was home to the gallery from its inception in 1984 until last year when it was closed for earthquake strengthening. As part of the works, a new purpose-built gallery is being constructed at the western end. The gallery is scheduled to return to Titirangi mid next year.

The Trust Art and Sculpture Awards, the oldest and most prestigious art and sculpture event in New Zealand, ran its 2013 course at the Corban Estate Arts Centre in Henderson, during October, with around 400 entries from across the country, and more than 2,000 people coming to view the exhibition.

With a $4,000 top prize for the winning art piece and $2,000 for the top sculpture, the event, organised by Waitakere Central Community Arts Council and with The Trusts as principal sponsor, is the richest of its kind in the country, attracting both outstanding artists and judges – with independent curator Rob Garrett BFA, MA, judging the sculpture entries and Associate Professor Linda Tyler, director of Auckland University’s Centre for Art Studies, judging the art.

Well known Auckland artist Janette Cervin carried off the $4,000 Art Award with a remarkably detailed oil on board, entitled The Pianist. The work blends a pianist at an upright piano amid a riotous profusion of flowers and beside a waterfall and pool. Judge Tyler found the painting to be “technically excellent” and that close examination of the detail revealed “metaphoric meanings”.

Rob Garrett was no less generous with his praise of the winning sculpture by recently emerged artist Irena Admaska with her figure apparently reeling back in fear or horror, entitled Don’t Be Afraid.

Judge Garrett described it as an elegant marriage of expressive form, chosen material and expert technique carrying a “punch” that was only revealed at close quarters.

This painting also took the Looking West Award.

Second Prize in the Art Award was Blake Beckford’s acrylic on board Geometric 1.0 and third was Ruby Oakley’s mixed media Tag II. Ilsa Posmyk took the Still Life Merit Award, The Landscape Merit went to Barbara von Seida. Katie Theunissen received the Portrait Merit and Laura Marsh, the Abstract Merit. Suzaine Greenshields won the Our People Our Place Award and the Tertiary Award was won by Hope Gibbons.

In the sculpture section, the second prize was awarded to Irena Kennedy with Enrichment Activities and third prize went to Donna Turtle Sarton’s Our Daily Bread. John Paxie took the first Merit Award and Alexander Efimov, the second Merit Award.

As an added value for the artists, winners now keep their own works which as major award winners may now command a premium.

TTCF is a major funder of the event.

The Pianist by Janette Cervin

Andrew Clifford

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iconswestof the

Assid took that to heart, giving (so far) a cumulative total of 131 years to politics, and another 100 years to orchids and horticulture. He also served a variety of different community organisations for at least another 20 years. That doesn’t include the 30 years he had in the wine industry.

He and Miriam, his wife of 65 years, have been a team in all things. Miriam was Assid’s mayoress for 18 years. As she has said, “In those days you got two for the price of one”.

Assid has served West Auckland local politics for 51 of the last 57 years. First elected as a Henderson Borough Councillor in 1956, he served for three years. He returned in 1965, commencing 48 years of continuous service. He was Henderson Deputy Mayor for three years, Mayor for 15 and for the three years 1989 to 1992, was the first Mayor of Waitakere City. He served as a Waitakere City councillor from ’92 until 2010 and rounded out his council career with three years as deputy chairman of the Henderson Massey Local Board. In addition he continues to serve on the Waitakere Licensing Trust (of which he was a Vice president) having been first elected in 1995.

Nor was he just a local politician. he served the Auckland Regional Authority among other regional bodies and served politics nationally through eight years on the Local Bodies’ Association and other organisations with a national reach.

“I am proud that I was able to make a difference will beyond the boundaries of Henderson,” he said recently

Without doubt, the biggest achievement of his years in politics is the fact that Henderson, a tiny borough when Assid was first elected, is today classified as one of Auckland’s key regional centres.

However, perhaps his most immediately obvious achievement is the West Wave Aquatic Centre, built for

When 88 year old Assid Khaleel Corban OBE, JP, was asked recently why he had devoted so much of his life to public service, he replied that his grandfather, Assid Abraham Corban, the Lebanese founder of Corban's Wines, had told him that if you wished to live in a country you had to be prepared to put something back.

Assid Corban

Assid Corban and Janet Clews, Icons of the West, the West salutes you.

the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

In 1988, Assid leapt at the chance to secure a share of the regional fund created for the games and this, added to a local contribution, saw Henderson build what was then possibly the fastest Olympic pool in the world. In tribute, Prime Minister David Lange said at the opening, “these pools shall hereafter be known as the Assid Baths”.

He is proud of securing the land for the Henderson Bowls Centre that, in 1988, hosted the World Bowls Champions and this month hosted The Trusts New Zealand Bowls Open. The development of Auckland’s Regional Parks - including the Manukau Botanic Gardens - during his 17 years on the Auckland Regional Authority, six as chair of the Parks Committee, is another success he is proud of.

He was also, from 1978 to 1987, a Foundation Director and Executive Member of the QEII National Trust.

Alongside his political career, Assid and Miriam have developed a major orchid growing business. Assid has duly given more than 50 years service to the Orchid Society of New Zealand (of which he is a life member) and a similar service to the Auckland Horticultural Council.

He was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1988 and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Horticulture.

In his spare time (does this man sleep?) he has been very active in preserving Henderson’s history, particularly his family’s and the area’s winemaking heritage for which he has developed a niche museum - and has been a Trustee of the Corban Estate Arts and Cultural Trust since 2001.

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An historic gap has been left in the ranks of local body politicians. For the first time in 50 years, the names Assid Corban and Janet Clews will not appear among those serving a council governing West Auckland.

Both have been trailblazers. Both have been Mayors. Both have served many more years on other organisations, both remain Trustees of The Trusts and both are Icons of the West.

Dubbed "The Queen Mother" by Sir Bob Harvey, Janet Clews CNZM, QSO, JP has been a mayor and councillor in West Auckland, serving for 50 years, which is a West Auckland and possibly a New Zealand, record. She was also the first and so far only, woman to be a West Auckland mayor.

Janet Clews and her husband of 58 years (the late Ernie) were teachers by profession and she was a much loved teacher at Glen Eden Primary school. She is a stickler for proper English and at the councils she served she was, depending on point of view, either the “go-to-girl” if you wanted something properly proof-read, or the “grammar police”. It was not that she was unkind, far from it, but nothing escaped her eagle eye and nobody wanted to let themselves down.

Janet Clews managed for many years to combine a full-time teaching career, being mother to three sons, her political service and council reporting for a long gone newspaper. Indeed it was her reporting skills that brought her to the attention of then councillor, Dr. Harold Moody, later Mayor of Glen Eden. He convinced her to stand in 1963 when she became the first woman councillor in Glen Eden. At 30, she was also the youngest woman councillor in New Zealand, a record she held for several decades.

She became Glen Eden Mayor in 1983 serving until Glen Eden’s amalgamation into Waitakere City in 1989. She was a Waitakere City Councillor for the next 21 years and rounded out her extraordinary career in politics, with three years as deputy chairman of the Waitakere Ranges Local Board.

And no, that word “chairman” is not a mistake. Janet Clews was adamant that “chairman” was an office and not a gender; both men and women were chairmen and she was proudly chairman of Waitakere City Council’s Finance Committee (and other committees and boards).

In a parallel career, Janet was a founding Trustee of the Portage Licensing Trust, a position she continues to hold, and was for a time, its president. She remains a director of West Auckland Trust Services, the commercial company that runs the businesses owned by the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts.

Waitakere is an historic part of New Zealand and the Glen Eden Railway Station is one of its most historic structures, preserved a short distance from its original location, thanks to the Glen Eden Railway Station Trust of which Janet was a founder and remains chairman.

The station was gifted to Glen Eden during Janet’s mayoralty. So when Kiwi Rail tried to sell it for removal, she proved council ownership. Then a trust was established to restore the station on its current site in the heart of the township where it continues to serve the travelling public.

Waitakere City Council completely refurbished the historic Chapel of Faith–in-the-Oaks in 2010.

Janet Clews was made a QSO in 1989 for her community service and in 2011 became one of only 40 New Zealanders to be made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Janet Clews

Assid Corban and Janet Clews, Icons of the West, the West salutes you.

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Five new faces join Portage and Waitakere Licensing TrustsYou, the voting public, have elected five new members to the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts. They will join the re-elected Trustees who are the governors of The Trusts, the enterprise you own and which is accountable to you for the creation and management of a responsible alcohol environment in West Auckland, and especially one that seeks to protect our youth and the community from having a “liquor store on every corner”.

Greg Presland, Kathryn Davie and Graeme Ellison joined the Portage Trustees, replacing Derek Battersby QSM, JP, Rebecca Robertson and Lorraine Wilson QSM, JP. Meanwhile The Hon John Tamihere and Steve Tollestrup have joined the Waitakere Trustees, replacing Judy Lawley JP and Elizabeth Grimmer MNZM.

One re-elected Trustee resigned soon after the election.

The Trusts is in a state of transformation, creating bright, modern and industry-leading premises. There is still a long way to go and the 2013 - 2016 Trustees will help shape the future we're building.

The Trusts welcomes all these Trustees and sincerely thanks former Trustees for their contribution to helping make West Auckland the fantastic place that it is.

Ross Clow President

Janet Clews CNZM, QSO, JP

Catherine Farmer

Sandy Taylor JP

Greg PreslandAmi Chand Deputy President, JP

Kathryn DavieNeil Henderson

Linda Cooper JP, President

Assid Corban OBE, JP

Ross Dallow MNZM, QPM, NZSSM

(Erebus), JP

Warren Flaunty QSM, JP,

Deputy President

The Hon John Tamihere

Brian Neeson JP

Steve Tollestrup

THE PORTAGE LICENSING TRUST TRUSTEES ARE NOW:

THE WAITAKERE LICENSING TRUST TRUSTEES ARE NOW:

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As we wind down the year 2013 and (in a sporting) sense look forward to the dominant event next year, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, there is a very strong likelihood that the outstanding swimmer will be West Auckland’s Lauren Boyle.

In a blistering run of form, Lauren swept up medals in three different World Cup meetings in just over a month to establish herself as one of the swimmers to beat over 800 and 400 metres especially, and with an strong hint of greatness to come over 1500 metres.

Lauren first served notice that she’d put the disappointment of the London Olympics behind her, when she took the gold medal and broke two national records at the World Short Course Championships in Turkey last December. It was to be the beginning of an astonishing purple patch for the former Don Oliver Youth Sport Foundation scholarship winner.

The World Cup is held over a number of meets in different cities and during her spectacular run of success in July and August, Lauren beat world champions and re-wrote records as she stormed her way to two gold medals, two silvers and three bronzes at meets in Barcelona, Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and Berlin.

At Barcelona, Lauren took bronze over 400 metres, 800 metres and 1500 metres. To prove the scope of her astonishing form, she took the 1500 metres bronze in her first serious outing over

the distance, and lowered her own personal best time by an eye-watering 30 seconds.

A few days later, just 16/1000ths of a second stood between Lauren and a new world record when she won gold over 800 metres at Eindhoven. Her time of 8:01:22 smashed the World Cup record by three seconds and the Commonwealth record held by the current Olympic champion, Rebecca Addington, by seven seconds. She also took gold in the 400 metres, slashing her New Zealand record by five seconds while beating the current world champion Melanie Costa Schmid.

She followed up with silver medals over 400 metres and 800 metres at Berlin. In the 400 she led for 350 metres, pushing the eventual winner, Belmonte Garcia of Spain, to a new world record. Lauren herself was a tick outside the previous world time.

To make these results all the more remarkable, Lauren converted from sprint racing to distance late in her career, after American Olympic coach Teri McKeever took Lauren under her wing while she was studying for a business degree at Berkley University in California.

Late bloomer she may be, but she has served notice that there is more and better to come; on these performances and times, Lauren must be the hot favourite for gold medals at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games next year and if the form holds, a hot contender for Rio 2016.

Lauren Boyle, swimmer extraordinaire

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The days are getting longer and warmer and there is nothing better than sitting out on the back deck with your favourite wine savouring the moment. And now, if you want to make the most of the lazy afternoon, there is a range of wines that let you enjoy all the flavour but with less alcohol and calories – genius!Beer drinkers around the world have been enjoying the lighter alcohol and calorie phenomenon for years and it’s now time for them to move over as wine drinkers embrace the same and they are, in droves, to the tune of some eighty million wine drinkers around the globe. People are seeking out lighter wines in a bid to make better lifestyle choices.So how do winemakers work their magic to produce these flavoursome but friendly offerings? Well, they can be produced in two ways – either in the vineyard with careful tending to the vines and picking early or through reverse osmosis (basically spinning the alcohol out) which is done in the winery, or, a combination of both. Contrary to what some may believe, lighter alcohol wines are not simply standard wines ‘watered down’. Fortunately for us, winemakers and viticulturists across the globe are working hard to keep the flavour high while dialling back the other stuff. Of course many wine varietals, such as Moscato and Riesling for example, have long been made with higher sweetness levels and much lower alcohol. Today, we are seeing a broadened offering to drier

styles such as Sauvignon Blanc which due to its fantastic aromatics and flavours carries off a lighter offering like a dream. Some of New Zealand’s most trusted brands such as Kim Crawford’s ‘First Pick’ and Selaks Premium Selection ‘Breeze’ have lavished us with Lighter offerings for some time now and there seems to be no slowing of demand as happy consumers everywhere discover these great alternatives. A new player in the shelves this summer is Little Harvest which offers regionally based wines. Many wines that are lower in alcohol will have a lower calorie count too, but best to check the bottle as many, such as the Kim Crawford First Pick, have a nutrition panel on the back.It seems Lighter wines are here to stay and why not? A perfect addition for the lunch table or simply to enjoy with friends. Now you can have your wine and drink it too!

Source: Wine Intelligence article - Mainstream beckons for lower alcohol wines 25/7/2013

Take a walk on the ‘Lighter’ side of life

The Trusts proud to be a finalist in West Auckland Business AwardsBeing a finalist in two categories of the recent Westpac West Auckland Business Awards has rounded out a spectacular 18 months for The Trusts.

Western Gas Ltd was the big winner with three Awards: The Westpac Supreme Business Excellence Award, the UHY Haines Norton Best Medium Large Business Award and the Alloy Yachts Employer of Choice Award. The Riverhead (tavern) was the other multi-award winner. Its transformation into a destination was recognised with The Telecom Business Hub’s Best Emerging Business Award and the West Auckland Business Club and Rosebank Business Association’s Excellence in Strategy and Planning Award.

The other Awards went to: Magsons Hardware (North Western Toyota’s Excellence in Customer Management), Debtworks (Douglas Pharmaceuticals’ Excellence in Leadership), AllTech (NZ) Ltd (Unitec’s Excellence in Research and Development), Outdure (CanAm Group’s Excellence in Innovation), Thomas Civil & Environmental (The Pallet Company’s Excellence in Social Responsibility and Sustainability), World Moving and Storage (Babich Wines’ Excellence in Exporting) and Keola Homes (Corban Revell Lawyers’ Small Business of the Year).

The Trusts congratulates all the winners and was proud to be a finalist in the Excellence in Social Responsibility and the Employer of Choice categories. These add to last year’s Kenexa Best Workplaces Most Improved Large Business Award and this year’s Dale Carnegie Leadership Award. The Trusts also is a sponsor of the event (but not a category sponsor).

Showcasing the best of West Auckland business, the Awards highlight the large and ever growing breadth of top-class businesses in West Auckland. From an Awards that, 19 years ago, could be held in a restaurant, the big night now occupies virtually the whole main floor of The Trusts Arena with upwards of 500 guests and over 100 entrants.

Simon Wickham CHIEF EXECUTIVE