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Forty years ago, when Hastings was The Fruit Bowl of New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay’s undisputed king of commerce was Sir James Wattie, and he drove a silver Bentley between his stately home, Mangapapa, and the food processing factory that bore…
Mark Sweet02 October 2014
All over Hawke’s Bay, wherever we drive, hoardings of candidates in the local body elections pepper the roadsides. Some names and faces we know, others are new, and most have a byline. ‘Proven’, says a mayor standing for his fifth…
Mark Sweet09 September 2013
Just because they’re now legal, doesn’t mean Hawke’s Bay churches are ready to perform same-sex marriages. Mark Sweet talks to clergy. “All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer.” Robert Owen “Christians…
Mark Sweet08 July 2013
30,000 years ago our human forebears painted pictures of horses on the walls of caves, and the images clearly demonstrate a close relationship. For the cave painters, horses were as wild as they were, with horses having a speed advantage…
Mark Sweet10 May 2013
‘God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ Meetings of Narcotics Anonymous open and close with this prayer, which recognises that…
Mark Sweet04 March 2013
When in November 2012, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) reported that New Zealand’s fisheries were ‘in good shape’, many people with intimate knowledge of Hawke’s Bay fishing shook their heads in disbelief. “How would they know?” says Wayne Bicknell.…
Mark Sweet28 December 2012
“All forms of life on this earth have their periods of birth, infancy, youth, maturity, and finally decay.” Jim Clayton, Napier One of my grandfathers said he “wanted to die with his boots on.” And he did, while fixing his…
Mark Sweet07 November 2012
Once again, BayBuzz has asked our resident explorer of the alternative, Mark Sweet, to take us somewhere few of us generally go. Or in this case, maybe all of us … eventually. It’s a cold night. Frost is growing on…
Mark Sweet05 September 2012
A lake once covered the Ruataniwha Plains, and its name remembers the two, human-eating, taniwha who lived there. One day they fought over a boy who had fallen into the lake, and so fierce was their battle, their writhing tails…
Mark Sweet11 May 2012
