Mahurangi events

Sat 15 Feb Mahu West Summer Fest

author Cimino
published 20250131  

Windy Two Weeks Out: With the famously stormy Southern Occean unseasonably dynamic, uncharacteristically continuing to call the shots deep into New Zealand’s summer, weather forecasting tool Windy has recently modelled a cyclone, and now a deep trough of low pressure as eventualities that might impact the Mahu West Summer Fest. With such dynamism in play, it clearly a good week too early to be judging if and when to erect the marquee—and which direction to face it. ticket portal Lil Regie

Saturday 15 February, weather-willing, will see the second-ever Mahu West Summer Fest unfold, on the green of the Mahurangi West Hall. The inaugural, 2024 event fully vindicated the organiser’s determination that the Mahurangi West and Pukapuka community needed such an event, but sorely tested his faith, with ticket sales, initially, excruciatingly sluggish.

Twelve months on, ticket sales are again slow, two weeks out from the mid-February fixture. This, however, is entirely to be expected—ticket buyers are traditionally tardy, oblivious of the trauma the organiser might be going through, those organising parties of attendees have their own challenges. One party of a dozen has  committed though, the Mahurangi Regatta crew, as a sort of pay-it-forward. When the regatta was first revived, in 1977, much legwork went into spreading the word, with posters printed and displayed in premises in Ōrewa, Pūhoi, Warkworth, Matakana, of course the Mahurangi Peninsula settlements of Snells-Algies and Martins bays. At that time, few knew of the existence of the venue of the good old-fashioned, leave-your-wallet-at-home picnic regatta—Sullivans Bay regional parkland—which meant road signs needed to be erected from the former State Highway 1, all the way the nondescript farm-gate access to the future parkland, 240 metres before today’s entrance.

Long since, the day has passed since the Mahurangi Regatta needed billboard advertising. In fact, to advertise now would risk destroying the special relationship with the regional parks management by overtaxing a park that is close to private-light-vehicle capacity any summer weekend that promises pleasant weather. Long-term, if the perennial shoreside events are to flourish, the imperative is to provide by-bus-and-by-boat park access. Similarly, other-than private light vehicle access will be key to the Mahu West Summer Fest realising its potential, with travel to the event by—in a, never mind perfect , halfways-rational world—bus, boat, and train in large gregarious groups, an integral part of a great experience. The Scotts Landing free regatta shuttlebus epitomises the phenomenon and deserves to become part of the summer-fest perfection.

Buy Early and Often: At less than half last year’s price, supporters have every encouragement to grab tickets for themselves, and for their friends and family, forthwith. Special ticket inquiries: Nick Carnachan: +64 21 778 892 ticket portal Lil Regie

As with the regatta, attendance at the Mahu West Summer Fest will always be strongly influenced by the weather. Above a certain wind-gust forecast, marquees cannot be responsibly erected. Those that were, for that fateful Kawau eventsee below , were destroyed. Meanwhile, believers in the summer-fest vision can best support the event by buying tickets early and often. At $30—less than half last year’s price—shouting friends to the event is far from ruinously extravagant, and fully refundable, should weather dictate.

Also, generally, but particularly if the low-pressure system forecast to be long gone by summer-fest Saturday drags its feet, and the marquee can’t go up until first thing that  morning, fresh volunteers for the marquee crew are always welcome: Phone Rob Fischer +64 21 179 1741

Vicissitudes of outdoor event organisation While outdoor events are always problematic meteorologically, and cancellation is always a possibility, in the 48 years the revived Mahurangi Regatta has been held—by way of local example—outright cancellations has been exceedingly rare: two; or perhaps three at most. Sailors of traditional boats, mind, such as the 1988 instigators of the Mahurangi Cup tend towards the bloody-minded, and tend to be determined to sail until something breaks.

Twin trends will likely see more circumspection and acceptance of weather-caused cancellations: gentrification and more, more-extreme weather events, such as the atmospheric-river-cancelled 2023 regatta. Inverse snobbery couldn’t keep the crème de la crème of the classic yachts of the metropolis away forever, and the a-and b-class now epitomise the visual, glory-of-sail magnificence of the Mahurangi Regatta. These craft can be grotesquely costly to repair, and their owners will make their own calls when weighing up the risk posed by any extreme weather forecast, over the Friday-to-Monday weekend.

As this summer’s Mahurangi Regatta again demonstrated, the weather bombs can be exceeding kind. That which destroyed the institution that was the Rotary International charity fundraiser at Kawau Island in 2003 saw the eleventh-hour cancellation of the Mahurangi Regatta. One day later and 40 kilometres south this  year, could have seen the Mangawhai tornado devastating Mahurangi. With the luck the Mahu West Summer Fest so richly deserves, by mid-February, Southern Ocean storms will cease to dominate New Zealand’s summer. The Mahurangi Harbour community-marquee crew, meantime, will be watching the likes of WeatherWatch and Windy, like bleed’n kāhute reo Māori: swamp-harrier, Circus approximans. Colloquially, hawk—hawks are at least of the same family, Accipitridae.

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