PaihiaNZ.com

The Paihia Summer Festival once again got sunshine and clear skies.  There was a great turn out of participants and spectators at the events and really positive feedback from all attending.  The festival is free and has many locals attending year after year, but it also has many tourists and visitors to the area attending each day.  Some families that are visiting for a week in the Bay of Islands will attend each day and all of them just think it is wonderful that Business Paihia organizes these events. 

Each year we try to introduce a new event, and this year we had “Flippa Ball” which was run by Sport Northland at Haruru Falls Resort pool, and what a lot of fun was had – as around 50 kids battled it out in the pool learning the game and also a whole lot of other water skills. 

The festival started this year with the Sandcastle Competition, Will and Mel from Classic Hits came up to judge as did local Wendy Hopkinson.  It was a hard choice as families, kids, backpackers and grandparents dug and created with great enthusiasm.  They could not decide an overall winner but 14 major prizes were handed out!  Through the week we had the Waitangi Treaty Grounds Mystery Trail, The Paihia Dive Fishing Competition which yielded numerous sprats and a pair of sunglasses.  Cellini’s Pavement Drawing where over 70 kids drew fantastic sketches which were judged by Frank Habicht, who has been judging this competition for the past 20 years! There was mural painting, wearable arts, kids dressed as rats and kiwi’s battling it out in Project Island Song activities, story telling, hip hop, old fashioned races, beach dig, Top Team games and the Bay Chronicle 1km Fun Run along Ti Beach.  All in all it was an action packed 8 days with lots of smiling faces!