The Bannockburn Art Show
A new beginning, 2026 sees this very popular Art Exhibition in its new home, the Bannockburn Hall. Dates are Saturday 17th October to Sunday 18th October 2026
Beyond the Horizon - A presentation of Adventure Writing
Saturday 17th October - Bannockburn Bowling Club - 9.00 am to 12.00 pm
Naomi Arnold is an award-winning freelance journalist who has contributed to most national publications. Her Te Araroa memoir Northbound was shortlisted for an Ockham NZ Book Award and Audiobook of the Year. Her other books include acclaimed astronomy history Southern Nights and conservation history Force of Nature.
Naomi Arnold spends nearly nine months walking the length of New Zealand on Te Araroa, fulfilling a 20-year dream. On her own, she traverses mountains, rivers, cities and plains from summer to spring, walking on through days of thick mud, blazing sun and lightning storms, and into cold, starlit nights. Along the way she encounters colourful locals and travellers who delight and inspire her.
Trained as a biologist Andrew Penniket has combined extensive knowledge of marine life with an artist’s eye, developing a reputation for capturing intimate, behaviour-driven sequences that reveal both the beauty and mystery of underwater life, from the midnight rambles of lobsters to the cooperative hunting of orca tribes. His images and films have been used widely to support marine protected areas and he is a staunch advocate for increased conservation in the sea.
After four decades of underwater filming I am recording some of my abundant memories and stories for other divers, students, fisher folk, adventurers, nature lovers and anyone interested in the sea. I relive adventures and trials - the dangers of cave diving and the pain of filming in subfreezing waters under the ice in Antarctica. And I reminisce about the beauty of fragile coral reefs in Fiordland and the joys of diving with jumping dolphins and courting whales.
In the early 1960s on their ramshackle Otago farm, Alan built a house-truck from a collection of old vehicles, Joan stocked it with home-tinned food, and the child raised money selling livestock. With the house-truck as cargo, the family then boarded a ship to Singapore, intent on travelling to Scotland overland.
The journey was a pilgrimage to their ancestral heartland on Skye, where they hoped to visit their clan chief, Dame Flora MacLeod. Alan also wanted to search out locals he had befriended in Italy during World War II.
Weaving material from interviews, diaries, letters and more, Alan and Joan’s granddaughter Hannah Bulloch summons five generations of voices to tell the tale of the MacLeods’ daring, lively and often quirky adventure.
