I am Christine Clement and am presently acting as the Interim Focus Te Puke Town Centre Manager.  I have been involved with Focus Te Puke since 1995 as a committee member, Chairperson, Focus Friend and past interim co-ordinator in 2006.   I am married to Barry and we have two children in their 20s and two very demanding and spoilt cats who we are allowed to grand-parent.   We have lived in Te Puke for the past 14 years and have both lived in small North Island, New Zealand towns for most of our lives.  I love the friendliness and neighbourliness of this district as well as the weather and the beaches.

In my past life I have worked at McDonalds (when it first opened in New Zealand), picked strawberries, as a courier driver and clerk in a customs agency and in a woodworking machinery importing agency head office, a gym in Kensington High Street (I was a cleaner), nannyed, worked in hotels, restaurants and kitchens, sold fire equipment, was a full time at home mother for ten years, a dairy farmer (managing to wrap about a kilometre of electric fence around the hay tedder), a travel agent and have written eight books on family and local history.  In 2007 I was the co-author of Te Puke - Nga Tangata me Nga Wahi - People and Places and am currently writing a book on the families of Te Puke who were here prior to 1913.

I have an interest in World War One Soldiers and New Zealand Disasters and Tragedies (amongst other interests) and have my own web site where I can go all out on these interests - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sooty/

I read avidly and belong to a small book group of other avid readers, am a collector of New Zealand books.

Lydia Wilkinson – Focus Te Puke Office Administrator

I am Lydia Wilkinson and have been the Focus Te Puke Administrator, working in a part-time role since March 2006. I am married to David and together we have 6 children aged between 8 & 24, also we have 2 young grandchildren. We have lived in Te Puke for the past 6 years and love the atmosphere of a small town.