October 2025
To send an email to an Interest Group Leader select the group from the Interest group page and fill out the form. It will be forwarded to them .
See the Calendar for a full list of interest groups
BOOK GROUP
The November book is ‘First Steps – How Walking Upright Made Us Human’ by Jeremy De Silva. Funny, surprising, warm and compelling.
Ros
CYCLING GROUP
We have 2 organised rides each month, on the 3rd Monday and the last Friday.
We ride mainly on dedicated cycleways. Each ride has 2 start points to accommodate distance and speed preferences of the members. It seems to be working well. Most members have e-bikes.
New members are always welcome.
On Monday 20 October ten of us rode from the Evan Pass Rd car park out to Godley Head. It was a fine but windy morning with lovely views out over Sumner and Taylors Mistake. At the reserve we spent time reading the new DOC signage and checking out the coastal defence battery which is one of the top ten NZ coastal defence heritage sites. The Godley Battery consisted of three emplacements, constructed across the crest of the Godley Head, each with individual underground magazines. The gun emplacements feature murals by noted street artist Wongi Wilson, celebrating the men and women who served at the site.
On Friday 31 October the group rode from Swanns Rd to South Shore. There were 7 members in the group and a nice sunny day, but the southerly was hard work at times.
Mary
Family History
Last month members viewed and discussed progress made with research and presentations of their families’ histories. A beautifully drawn family tree, photographic records and even records from a WWII concentration camp were shown.
This month will be our last meeting for the year. It has been a year of interesting discoveries and many surprises.
If you would like further details of this group which meets on the afternoon of the third Tuesday of the month please contact either Carole or Julia
Garden Visit Group
This beautiful garden has taken 25yrs of the owner’s tender care and gardening expertise to sculpt in to an amazing experience with garden rooms, shady areas, something new at each turn and an assortment of plants. They willingly answered all questions and chatted with us for a while. The temperature did get up to 31degrees.
I could tell you more but perhaps you should go, each experience will be individual, and I think it well worth it.
In December we know everyone is busy rushing around, so we thought we should give you a chance to relax with friends.
So ON Tuesday December 2nd
AT Halswell Quarry
TIME 1pm
MEET near coffee cart.
Bring chairs, picnic blankets, poles for walking if you wish, sun hats and suntan lotion and come relax for an hour or two. Hopefully sitting in shaded area. Don’t forget your picnic too.
Coffee cart will be open and not only coffee but does muffins, toasties, burgers, cold drinks, shakes and ice-cream.
Look for the colourful umbrella.
Come earlier for a walk or stay for a stroll afterwards
History Group
We have completed the course ‘The Shaping of the Modern Mind’ which proved to be very interesting with much discussion and reflection. As this has given us a couple of months before the end of the year we decided on a short course for the month of November ’The Night Witches’, a profile of the women pilots and their role during World War 2 covering women from Russia, Germany, USA and England.
Ros
Photography Group
At our October meeting we looked at photographing the same objects in shade and sunlight comparing the different effects and results, taking photos of flowers plus we reviewed key aspects of composition in landscapes including the rule of thirds and utilizing leading lines.
Our November meeting, which will be the last for 2025, will be 10am on 21st November at 20A Victors Road, Hoon Hay.
Eric
Singing Group
The next session for the Singing Group is on 20 November at 1.30 pm in the usual room at Te Hāpua, the Halswell Library.
Please come with some songs you would like to sing during the session.
Also, there will be some discussion about how this group will run next year as this will be the last session for 2025.