Village piles on all the fun of the fayre
Throngs lap up myriad blasts from past
Atrip down memory lane was on the cards for all who walked through Greerton Village at the weekend. The Greerton Village Vintage, Retro and Steampunk Fayre was swinging and dancing at the Greerton Village school grounds on Saturday.
Stalls selling all things vintage, retro and steampunk sat alongside food vendors, a free giant slide for the kids and a mechanical bull for the big kids.
All throughout the village, you could hear the charming tunes from Cleverwood, playing favourites from the 60s to 80s.
Andria Goodliffe was fittingly dressed in a steampunk costume and selling assorted pieces to start people off in creating their own steampunk identity.
On Saturday, she dressed as “Inconsequential t’weather-girl”.
“I like doing historical periods, like Norse, Medieval and Victorian — as in New Zealand colonial 1890s — and then I saw some steampunk and thought that’s quite an interesting way to get a later time period silhouette into the clothing with a lot more fun.”
Having steampunk in the fayre’s official name made Goodliffe feel like she was an integral part of the atmosphere.
“Greerton is really good for having things going on. I’ve really enjoyed there is an event that has happened after a year of it going, ‘yes, no, to no it’s not going to happen’.”
The Tauranga Mini Owners Club lined the fayre grounds with all colours of the rainbow.
With the bonnets up, owners were happy to teach others about their beloved babies or even make the odd dream come true with a seat at the wheel.
David Couchman said there were a large number of members in the 15-year-old club, and people were happy to come over from as far afield as Te Kuiti to join in the fun.
“We are quite a social club, each month we organise a run but, in between, things like this come up and whoever can, heads along.
“There is a common interest, and it turns into a bit of a passion for these cars really.
“Some of them are still in their original colour while others have been repainted.
“The saying goes, ‘you can’t just have one’ — and sure enough everyone who has brought one has rescued another from the wreckers a few months later,” he said.
Greerton Village Community Association manager Sally Benning said it was a successful day, despite it having to be postponed due to Covid restrictions earlier in the month.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The mechanical bull was a bit of a hit, it was a bit slow to get going but it was something new for us.”
The fayre started in 2017 and this year was the fourth time it took place.
“I think it is something that is still really popular, steampunk seems to have gained in popularity, but there’s definitely still an appetite for that sort of thing.
“It’s reflected by the stallholders, who couldn’t say enough about the success and these are people who regularly go to shows or markets and so clearly it’s still something that’s in vogue.”
Auckland’s two recent lockdowns and the limitations of working from home have been blamed for a stalled residence visa queue.
The oldest applications date back to July 2019, and migrants tracking the skilled migrant (SMC) queue for applicants now treated as “non-priority” say it has only moved one day in four weeks.
There are fears among applicants — and those waiting to submit an expression of interest after the process was suspended last year — that the delays signal a slowdown ahead of a review announced by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi last month.
But Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said it was making “steady and regular” progress in the non-priority queue, which includes skilled workers who earn less than $106,080 a year or whose job does not need occupational registration.
It was on track to approve its target of between 50,000 and 60,000 residence applications in the 18 months to June, it said.
“INZ continues to regularly allocate non-priority applications for Skilled Migrant Category (SMC) resident visas,” an INZ spokesperson said.
“However, the two recent Covid-19 lockdowns of Auckland in the past month significantly disrupted normal business operations at INZ’S
Manukau office, which processes Skilled Migrant Category visa applications.
“INZ’S role is to process residence applications in line with the New Zealand Residence Programme [NZRP], which is set by the Government, and not in response to the number of residence applications received.”
Staff at Manukau were able to work from home during the lockdowns, he said, but paperbased application files could not be taken out of offices.
Applications in the priority queue were being allocated to a case officer within two weeks of an application being put in that queue, he added, but no information was given on how far the non-priority queue had moved last month.
“For the calendar year to date, 64 per cent of all Skilled Migrant Category [SMC] resident visa and Residence from Work visa applications allocated are from the nonpriority onshore queue,” said a spokesperson. “A total of 1304 files have been allocated for processing to date in 2021.”
A total of 11,785 onshore SMC applications (25,908 people) are waiting to be allocated a case officer, but that does not include the number of undecided offshore applications, which are not being processed under Covid19 restrictions. —RNZ