SCHOOL holidays always seems to mean a rash of new animated movie sequels. While this third outing of Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania franchise will have to play second fiddle to the second in Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles, in my preferences, it is still a fun hour and a half of holiday time with the […]

THIS property is one of only a few along Ohope Beach with its own beach access written into the title.

The very comfortable two-storey home has sea views and great outdoor living spaces.
It has three good-sized double bedrooms, as well as a large study, which could be used as a fourth bedroom if needed.

There are also two living rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs, and two bathrooms.

A private courtyard garden surrounds an in-ground swimming pool and spa area at the front of a generous-sized section.

There is also a large, fully-fenced private lawn area at the front, and a generous, partly-sheltered deck area on the beach side with built-in seating, perfect for summer barbecues.

There is loads of off-street parking in front of the internal access double garage, which is extra large to accommodate the bikes and toys you need for beach living.

The main open-plan living areas are downstairs with stacker doors opening to the deck.

Rimu flooring leads through to the modern, well-appointed kitchen, which overlooks the pool area, and to the rimu staircase.

A free-standing, flued, gas fireplace warms the lounge and the separate dining area.

Also downstairs is a large bedroom, the main bathroom with bath and shower and separate toilet. The study has its own outdoor access to the pool area.

Upstairs is a second living room and two more bedrooms, one of which is the master. This has an en suite bathroom and a walk-in wardrobe as well as its own heat pump.

The upstairs living area is a wonderful spot to relax, away from the main living areas. It has sea views and French doors leading to the upstairs balcony, which is enclosed on three sides and is sheltered from rain, making the perfect place to enjoy your morning cuppa.

Bi-fold windows opening to the hallway between the two bedrooms open up this whole level during the warmer months.

This warm, sunny home would be a wonderful place to raise a family in the heart of Ohope.

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Ohope Beach Realty

255 Pohutukawa Avenue, Ohope
Agent: Chris Stevens
Phone: 07 312 5005 or 027 218 2135
Price: $895,000
Open home: Sunday, 1pm-1.45pm

Edie Drama; Cert M,  contains offensive language; 1hr 42mins Starring: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Paul Brannigan, Amy Manson, Wendy Morgan and Rachael Keiller Director: Simon Hunter WHAT’S not to love about a spirited octogenarian shaking off 40 years of a miserable marriage to fulfill a lifelong dream? Lead actress Sheila Hancock is better known for […]

DWAYNE Johnson teams up with writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber again, after some success of their earlier movie, Central Intelligence.

With Skyscraper, however, they try to play it straight and, without the comedy injection of Kevin Hart, the results are a bit sub-par.

But if it is pure action you are after, you won’t find this film lacking. Taking the best bits from Towering Inferno and Die Hard and throwing in a few Spiderman moves, this film will probably satisfy most Johnson fans.

Former FBI hostage rescue teamleader Will Sawyer (Johnson) does at least 20 impossible things in the first 40 minutes – with a straight face – as he tries to rescue his family from a burning skyscraper.

The scene setting feels a little clunky in the first 15 minutes with a few boring bits as we learn how the super-safe, super high-tech building is set out and why Will and his family are there.

The setting is Hong Kong, where a billionaire tycoon (Chin Han) has just completed building the world’s tallest skyscraper. Will is called in as an independent security assessor to reasure the insurance firm underwriting the upper residential floors.

Bored yet? Don’t worry, it soon gets exciting as a hot-shot team of criminals infiltrate the tower setting it ablaze with Will’s family inside. They are after the McGuffin up in the billionaire’s fortified penthouse suite and need Will’s help to access it.

Neve Campbell, who I haven’t seen much of since the mid-1990s, pops up again, still looking fabulous, as Will’s wife, Sarah, who does her share of butt kicking.

Its all extremely derivative, but Johnson proves once again that he is a rock strong enough to support the shakiest of structures.

7/10

diane.mccarthy@whakatanebeacon.co.nz

An opportunity to build in an exclusive new neighbourhood that combines the benefits of urban and rural living.

IMAGINE building a new home in Whakatane’s latest development, just outside town, with its own playground, exercise and wetland areas, just a quick walk from The Hub shopping centre.

This is your opportunity to make it happen as early as the beginning of next year. The sealed roading, kerbing and footpaths are almost done and titles are expected before Christmas for stages one, two and three of the Shaw Road development.

Of the 27 sections originally offered there are eight available. Priced between $199,000 and $215,000, there are still some excellent options, including some corner sections and rear sections with individual accessways.

The sections range in size from 467 square metres to 628sqm.

The developer, PAG Enterprises is led by Barney Gray, who was behind the White Horse Drive subdivision in Mokorua.

This new development is on the site of the olive orchard that surrounded his previous home, which will remain part of the neighbourhood.

Situated just off State Highway 30, less than three kilometres from the Landing Road bridge, it is just down the road from The Hub and Julians Berry Farm.

Though it is difficult to visualise from the large pond that is currently visible at the entrance to the subdivision, the drainage from the properties is being developed into a wetland area similar to the one at the far end of White Horse Drive, which is a picturesque haven for birdlife.

Next to this is a proposed playground with areas for children of all ages as well as an adult exercise area, a half basketball court, a large, grass mound and timber seating. There will also be attractive walkways for people taking their daily jog or walk.

Sensible covenants will be in place to protect your investment and allow for the development of an attractive, semi-rural neighbourhood with all the benefits of urban living.

Of course, all the sections come fully serviced, including high speed broadband and telecommunications.

This is the first large-scale development to occur in Whakatane for 10 years and has been in the planning stages for the past 15 years.

Come and take a look at the open viewing day this weekend or call Chris Robson at Professionals for more details.

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Professionals

Shaw Road subdivision, Whakatane

Agent: Chris Robson

Phone: 07 307 0165 or 027 577 0029

Price: Sections from $199,000

Open for viewing: Saturday, 11am to 12pm

diane.mccarthy@whakatanebeacon.co.nz

WHAT: The Equalizer 2. Action; Cert R16, contains graphic violence, drug use and offensive language; 2hrs STARRING: Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Jonathan Scarfe, Orson Bean and Sakina Jaffrey DIRECTOR: Antoine Fuqua DENZEL Washington plays it cool, calm and collected as only he knows how, barely breaking a sweat as he […]

THIS four-bedroom home is only 18 months old and located in a very desirable and private lane.

Banksia Lane is a recently-developed cul-de-sac, just across the road from Whakatane Hospital, making it close to Kopeopeo and schools.

Few people know about it as, from the entrance on Stewart Street, it looks more like a wide driveway than a street.

On entering you feel as though you have discovered a community, rather than just a street.

This home is surrounded by other good quality homes mostly owned by retired people, making it feel very safe and secure.

It is built to all the latest specifications including full insulation and double glazing, and you can enjoy the peace of mind of knowing it still has eight years to run on the Master Builder’s warranty.

With four bedrooms, two bathrooms and spacious indoor and outdoor living areas, all on one level, this brick home is low maintenance and worry-free.

There is off-street parking for two cars in front of the internal access, double garage. A wide path leads to a sheltered front entrance.

This opens to a light and spacious open-plan kitchen, dining and living area. Sliding doors lead outside from both the living and dining areas to private, fully-fenced patio areas and cobblestone paths around the house.

The family cook can enjoy a modern kitchen that is beautifully laid out with white cabinetry, brushed stainless steel appliances and lots of light.

A good view of the street through the kitchen window allows you to know when visitors are arriving.

The home is decorated in neutral shades to allow for new owners to easily stamp their style onto the rooms with their favourite furniture and accessories.

The garden is also a blank canvas for anyone wanting a small project, though with plenty of easy-care plants and pebble gardens, there is little work that needs doing.

Heat pumps in the living area and the master bedroom make heating easy. The bedrooms are all good-sized doubles, with built-in cupboards.

The master bedroom has a walk-in wardrobe and en suite with both a bath and a shower.

The family bathroom has a shower and toilet that can be closed off from the vanity and hand-basin area – convenient for busy households.

The garden has open lawn and secure, fenced areas that are safe for young children to run around and for pets to play.

This home would suit a busy family wanting somewhere central, secure and low maintenance, or a retired couple wanting space for hobbies and for grandchildren and other visitors to come and stay.

Vendors are expecting interest over $635,000. Call Andy Stretton for a viewing, or pop along to the open home this weekend.

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Professionals

15 Banksia Lane, Whakatane
Agent: Andy Stretton
Phone: 027 2888254 or 07 307 0165
Set sale date: Wednesday, August 8
at 12.30pm
Open home: Sunday, 2.30pm-3pm

COUNTRY is not a music genre most New Zealanders would expect to hear if they walked into a music venue in Germany, but that is where one of Whakatane Country Music Club’s most well-known performers joined his first country music band.

Lutz Sauer says he rarely gets a surprised reaction when people see him dressed in his Stetson and toting a guitar around the Eastern Bay and hear his still-strong German accent. “I’m known by the people in the country music circles these days so they are used to me.”

The Whakatane Hospital anaesthesiologist is one of around 50 singers from around New Zealand who will perform at this weekend’s Eastern Bay Country Music Awards in Whakatane. He says he has been playing in country music bands since before he came to live in New Zealand.

He says country music actually has a steady niche following in his country of birth and there are even country music songs written in German.

“It became really big after the wall came down, then, of course, it levelled out after a while. People have said to me that I should perform some German songs, but nobody would understand what I was doing so I don’t see the point,” he says.

Lutz was born and raised in the German state of Thuringia, about 300 kilometres south of Berlin. It is an area historically associated with classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach and fell within the Soviet-controlled German Democratic Republic until reunification in 1990.

He says he started out in country music playing drums in a band while he was at medical school. “I always had a guitar but never really focused on it. I was a bit rusty and new when I picked it up again after I came to New Zealand. I knew about four chords.”

It was his work as an anaesthesiologist that brought him all the way to Whakatane from Germany. After six years in medical school, a two-year internship and five years specialist training he says he was headhunted by a guy from a recruitment agency he met at a medical conference in Hamburg.

He arrived in New Zealand in 2010 on a one-year contract and after five weeks at Tauranga Hospital under supervision – “to make sure I was okay,” he grins – he was sent to Whakatane and has been here since.

He lives in Ohope with his partner and the couple’s three rescue dogs, Jake, Rita and Ruby, and says this is home now. He says he was keen to continue with country music when he settled in New Zealand so, hearing about the Whakatane Country Music Club, he went along to one of their monthly club days and has been a member ever since.

He has been feature artist at the club days on several occasions, at both the Whakatane and Opotiki Twin Rivers Country Music Club’s monthly meetings as welling at other clubs around the Bay of Plenty. He is described by senior club members as “a young man with a huge country voice”.

He has entered into four sections of Saturday’s country music competition at the Liberty Centre and his song selection demonstrates his extensive country music vocabulary. For the male solo he will sing The River, a song written and recorded by American singer Garth Brooks, who he says is his country music idol.

In the country rock section he will play the Don Williams song Tulsa Time, although he says his rendition will be closer to the Eric Clapton version. He will also play John Michael Montgomery’s Sold in the western section and for the gospel section his will play Long Black Train by Josh Turner.

This is the fourth annual Eastern Bay Country Music Awards and he has competed every year it has been run. So far he has not won an award but hopes that this might be his year.

The competition begins at the Liberty Centre at 8am and winners and runners up will perform at an evening concert at 7pm. From those a winner and runner-up will be chosen from the junior, intermediate, senior and veteran sections to compete in the New Zealand

Entertainer of the Year Awards in Tauranga in October.

Convenor Antoinette Spencer says the public is welcome to attend both the day session and the evening concert. The concert is being compered by Grant Reha-Timoti. Reha-Timoti is from Taneatua though he now lives in Rotorua. “If we are lucky he will give us a song or two,” Antoinette says.

Singers are expected to travel from near and far and range in age from six years to veterans over 55. Entry is $5 for adults and $3 for children under 15 years for the daytime judging.

The evening concert starts at 7pm and entry costs $15 for adults and $5 for children under 15 years.

Rural lifestyle living makes this family-friendly home perfect for the growing family.

IF you are searching for a lifestyle property with lots of space for a big family you need look no further than this two-storey home in Onepu.

This large, family-friendly home comes with an easily manageable 2.14 hectare spread of flat, well-drained pasture.

The house is set back from the road and the property is surrounded on three sides by farmland.

The land is fenced off into three paddocks and a section around the house with sheltering trees.

The house comes with an internal access garage large enough for a fleet of cars. With remote-controlled single and double garage doors there is still plenty of space to park an extra car in between them.

This garage is attached to the house via a massive games room complete with bar and overhead pool table lighting. There is also an office at this end of the house and a handy guest toilet.

The living area opens up to a high, vaulted and beamed ceiling, heated by a free-standing fireplace.

Both the lounge and dining area open through ranchsliding doors to a north-facing deck and courtyard barbecue area with pizza oven.

The designer kitchen has a servery opening to the dining room and also has stacker sliding windows that open to a second servery in the barbecue area.

The master suite is also downstairs, and secluded along its own hallway. This is the perfect place to get away from the rest of the family.

The large bedroom has two sets of double wardrobes and the monster en suite bathroom has a double shower and free-standing bath.

Upstairs are three further bedrooms, two spacious doubles and a single off one of the doubles. This single could alternatively be used as a rumpus room or office. An upstairs bathroom has a bath with overhead shower and a closed off toilet space.

The property is on Braemar water supply, has solar hot water heating and there is good pressure for showers.

A heat-transfer system carries heat from the fireplace to all the bedrooms and there is also a heat pump in the games room.

In addition to all this, in a separate building is a sturdy steel-frame, high stud shed with two bays, one with a garage door and the other a workshop. This has a sleep-out attached and a covered area for farm machinery – or a campervan or boat. This shed is well set up for the fisherman of the family with a fish cleaning area and smoking cabinet.

The back yard has raised vegetable beds and a large garden shed with attached glasshouse.

Act quickly to take advantage of this unique property.

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EDGE Realty

2520 State Highway 30, Onepu

Agent: Andrew Broxholme

Phone: 07 308 0232 or 021 0876 6836

Price: $795,000 plus GST, if any

Open home: Sunday, 1.30pm to 2pm

WHAT: The Spy Who Dumped Me: Action comedy; Cert R16, contains strong violence, offensive language and nudity; 1hr 57mins STARRING: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Gillian Anderson, Kev Adams, Sam Heughan, Fred Melamed and Hasan Minhaj DIRECTOR: Susanna Fogel GOING along to a film with very low expectations can result in a surprisingly enjoyable experience. Despite the […]