Latest news with #Mayne
Herald Sun
22-07-2025
- Herald Sun
I took the Ultimate Moreton Bay Tour with Oceanview Helicopters
A hiker in a vivid blue shirt stands victorious atop Mount Tibrogargan, 364m above the plain, his triumph etched in every line of his stance. He's earned this moment through sheer grit and effort, while I, seated comfortably in the front of a Robinson R44 helicopter, am carried effortlessly into the skies for a half-day Ultimate Moreton Bay Tour with Oceanview Helicopters. It's as close as I'll get to the top of this Glass House Mountain, and I'm savouring this up-close look at the rugged, near vertical rock face of an ancient volcanic plug. Pilot Karl Mayne points out pine tree forests, pineapple and turf farms and macadamia groves as we fly smoothly from Caloundra airport towards the hinterland. Everyone has a window seat in this helicopter, and Bose noise-cancelling headsets make it easy to hear Mayne's informative commentary. Spectacular mountain views are just one of the highlights on a tour with Oceanview Helicopters. After a close encounter with Tibrogargan, we are off gliding over Beerburrum State Forest into the heart of Moreton Bay. The destination is Ocean View Estates in Mount Mee for a guided vineyard tour and wine tasting. This subtropical winery and restaurant is set on 40ha of grape vines. I spend the next hour tasting their wines. Wine tasting on the Ultimate Moreton Bay Tour with Oceanview Helicopters. Back in the air, the landscape gradually merges from rural to residential. Flying over big outer housing blocks, it's clear everyone has the dream of a backyard shed, and these are on the larger side. As suburbia progresses, the plots become all building and the houses almost touch eaves. There's a brief glimpse of a nearly car-free Bruce Highway – a rare sight indeed – and then the Caboolture River meets the sea. We cruise along the shallow shoreline of Beachmere, hoping to spot dolphins, dugongs, turtles, stingrays and sharks lounging in the clear water, but they're all having a day off except for the odd turtle. Stunning coastal vistas star during the scenic tour with Oceanview Helicopters. With its white sandy beaches, Bribie Island looks beautiful from the air. Myriad lagoons and native bushland blend into curving canals flanked by houses with jetties. The helicopter lands in a large open grassed area at Sandstone Point Hotel for lunch. The hotel capitalises on its 300m of Pumicestone Passage shoreline with an extensive menu of fresh local seafood. I'm immediately tucking into shucked oysters. When it's time to return to base, Mayne takes the helicopter over the northern tip of Bribie Island, sharing the sand patterns of Golden Beach and the clear blue waters of Caloundra. Sightseeing over Caloundra with Oceanview Helicopters. After skimming Moreton Bay's fierce and fragile patchwork from volcanic plugs to the curving coastline, I'm left in awe of the region's beauty, and the perspective only the skies can offer. The writer travelled as a guest of Oceanview Helicopters and stayed courtesy of Visit Sunshine Coast. A visit to the vines with Oceanview Helicopters. Where to stay on the Sunshine Coast Stay at the new Sunshine Coast hotspot Bokarina. Seanna Residences offers luxury apartments with easy access to elevated dining at Bocca Italian and Stoa Cafe. Finish with a French custard ice cream at Wallace & Wood. How to see Moreton Bay by helicopter Prices for the Ultimate Day Out in Moreton Bay tour for two people start from $1490, including a wine tasting. Lunch not included. Four-hour trip. Originally published as I took the Ultimate Moreton Bay Tour with Oceanview Helicopters
Boston Globe
11-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Tired of hair tantrums? This Boston mom has a fix.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Sign up for Parenting Unfiltered. Globe staff Advertisement #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Subscribe * indicates required E-mail * She tried to cut the boys' hair herself in the family bathtub while they watched 'Paw Patrol.' This went poorly. She took them to walk-in, kid-focused franchises that didn't offer appointments, which ended in overstimulation and tears. 'It was traumatic. One person frankly just held my son's head down and started cutting his hair. We were treated like: 'Get in; get out,'' she says. 'In some of these places, it was just too much. It was sensory overload.' Pi finally took the tots to her own elegant grown-up salon, which was the last straw. 'It was fall, and so there were these beautiful handblown glass pumpkins everywhere. They almost broke them. It was horrific,' she says. Advertisement Danni Pi launched Mayne after too many stressful salon visits with her sons. Handout Pi saw an opportunity, and she had the right experience: She's the former chief operating officer of Rowan, a franchise dedicated to safe, kid-friendly ear piercing, done by nurses. Why not create the same stress-free concept, but for kids' tresses? 'My theory is: Parents today want more thoughtful, experience-driven services for their kids,' she says. 'We always greet customers by saying, 'What are we celebrating today?' Because we believe a haircut is a celebration. It's a milestone.' At Mayne, every kid gets a ribbon if they get their hair styled, or they can get their hair sprayed their favorite (washable) color. A nursing-friendly waiting area is stocked with toys, and there's a separate reading nook where families — even those without appointments, who just want to check out the space — can drop in to browse. 'One customer came in and had just had her third boy, who was literally 3 weeks old. She said, 'This is my first outing, and this space made it possible.' She was feeding her baby on our reading nook steps, and her two boys were getting cuts, and she was just ecstatic. It made me so happy. People see the value in it,' Pi says. As for the cuts themselves? Pi frames the experience like a first dentist appointment: ease in, and go slow. 'So many kids feel scared when they approach the idea of a haircut, especially a first haircut. Look at what pediatric dentistry has done in the last couple of years. They've built a whole experience around: stop by for your first appointment; not too much happens. You build a trust with your dentist, and from there, you can take the next step. In some ways, I mirror the service and the experience to be like that. We never force a kid to get a haircut,' she says. Advertisement If a kid is scared, they can leave: no charge. Otherwise, kids arrive and play for a bit, at a drawing table, in a play tent, or with a sensory-friendly toy bin. 'One of the things that we find is super helpful for kids who are fussy or squirmy, especially those who don't like the feeling of hair on their back, is to give them toys where they can focus on the sensory effect in front of them. We have a basket of little fish and dragons, held in a cup. It's one way to calm them down,' she says. Stylists greet kids on their knees, at eye level. Each appointment is booked for 35 or so minutes, enough time for squirming and negotiations. 'We feel like we're in this as a partnership, and we're making an investment in you coming back. So let them play; let them use the space as a reading space. Let them get comfortable in the space or with our stylist, and so the next time they come, they're a little more likely to be able to get that cut,' Pi says. (She recommends first-timers visit on a weekday, when they're less busy.) As for the styles: Stylists are trained in curly hair and braids, as well as color extensions and tinsel, plus stickier stuff: chlorine removal and conditioning for swimmers, plus detangling. They're also open for makeover parties. Good hair stylists are hard to find. Ones who like kids? Even tougher. Advertisement 'I felt that hair cutting and training — that is actually easy. But I was looking for someone who wanted to engage with kids to build their self-confidence and self-expression. And I've got to say: I met a lot of highly talented people who just didn't have that,' she says. 'You can't train people for that desire.' At Rowan, she recruited at nursing schools. This time, she recruited at beauty schools, wading through about 200 applications until she settled on three stylists. As such, current hours are somewhat limited: They're open from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The salon is outfitted with stools where parents can sit next to their child; the stylist will show them each tool they plan to use before starting the process. 'If it's a water spray bottle, we will literally spray it on ourselves with the parents to show the kid: 'Hey, we know this is something you haven't seen before. This may be scary to you, but let me show you that there is nothing to be scared of,'' Pi says. Cuts are $45, geared to toddlers 9 months and up; subscriptions for a monthly cut are $30. Storytimes, hosted by stylists, are free. Storytime at Mayne. Handout 'We see it as a way to give the space back to the community a bit and to hopefully get kiddos to enjoy the space, to feel comfortable in the space, so when they're ready to get a haircut, we're already starting from step five instead of step one,' Pi says. Mayne, 24 Union Park St., Boston. 646-715-3194, Advertisement Kara Baskin can be reached at
IOL News
06-07-2025
- Sport
- IOL News
British Lions tours were more fun in the amateur days — ask the Irish rover who masterminded a jailbreak
The British and Irish Lions tour is under way in Australia and I came across a delightful recollection of the Queensland Reds' defeat of the mighty Lions of 1971, the team that went on to win a series in New Zealand. The anecdotes in the story highlight what a different sport it was in the amateur days and it is hard to argue that far more fun was had when the players were not playing too make a living. The Reds' game was the Lions' tour opener and they blamed their 15-11 loss on hangovers and jet lag. And they weren't lying. Their travel schedule was excruciating and when they got to their last stop before Australia, Hong Kong, they had a long night on the lash. Their London to Brisbane marathon was via Frankfurt, Tehran, Delhi and Hong Kong. 'I was on the field. I wouldn't say I was playing. All I wanted to do at half-time was lie down,' captain Willie John McBride said. On the Queensland side, one of the players, Jeff McLean, was pulling beers in his father's pub on the morning of the game before throwing his gear together to play on the wing. It was no easy thing getting into the ground for the Queensland players. 'There was such a traffic jam that the coppers stopped us at the gate at Ballymore and weren't going to let our car in,'' McLean said "(Reserve flanker) Jules Guerassimoff was with me and said to the policeman: 'Have you ever seen this many people riot? No, but you will, because we're the players'.'' Despite the sweetness of beating the star-studded Lions, Queensland captain Barry Honan was back teaching maths and physics at Marist College the next day. Honan said, 'They were the true amateur days. I was back at work the next day and got a bill from the Queensland Rugby Union a few weeks later for jerseys I'd swapped.' But my favourite stories from Lions tours are about the ultimate Irish rover, Blair 'Paddy 'Mayne, who got up to spectacular mischief in South Africa in 1938. In Durban, a bored Mayne contrived to have some fun. With his sidekick Bunners Travers, a coal miner from Wales, they dressed up as sailors and prowled the roughest pubs at the harbour, causing so many fights that the Natal Mercury carried a report about unrest in the harbour. Both made it back to their hotel intact and unnamed. In Johannesburg, Mayne noticed prison laborours erecting temporary stands at Ellis Park. He got chatting to a prisoner and was told the fellow had been jailed for stealing a loaf of bread. Mayne was appalled at the harshness of the sentence. That night, he and Travers snuck back to the compound at Ellis Park where the prisoners were sleeping with bolt cutters. A hole was cut in the fence and the prisoner freed and given a set of clothes. The fellow spent a few days on the run before being rearrested — a policeman had stopped him because he looked too well dressed. It was Cape Town that witnessed Mayne's tour de force. The Lions players were walking from their hotel to an official function, resplendent in white dinner suits, when Mayne spotted a group of men sitting outside a bar with rifles and lamps. Mayne, a skilled marksman, was curious and quietly peeled off from his group and joined them. It turned out these men were on their way to the outskirts of Cape Town for a nocturnal hunt. Mayne's roommate, George Cromey, read until 3am in his bed, waiting for Mayne to return. He had just given up and was dozing off when the door was flung off its hinges and a triumphant Mayne stood in the doorway and proclaimed: 'I have just shot a Springbok!' A highly alarmed Cromey switched on the light, and there was Mayne, his white suit streaked in red, with a four-legged Springbok draped over his shoulders. 'The boys have been complaining that the meat in South Africa is not as fresh as at home,' Mayne beamed. He then proceeded to captain Sam Walker's room and flung the animal at him, adding: 'Fresh meat for you, Sammy!' Unfortunately, one of the horns jabbed into Walker's thigh and he could not play for a few weeks. But how to dispose of the antelope? Mayne knew that the manager of the Springboks was staying in the same hotel. This fellow had a balcony outside his room and Mayne somehow climbed up to it with the bok and hung it over the railing with a note attached: 'A gift of fresh meat from the British Lions rugby team.' Mike Greenaway is the author of best-selling books The Fireside Springbok and Bok to Bok.
Otago Daily Times
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Otago Daily Times
NZer Mayne confirmed as Football Ferns coach through to 2027 World Cup
Michael Mayne has been confirmed as the Football Ferns' head coach through to the 2027 Women's World Cup, becoming their first New Zealand-born coach in more than 20 years. The 40-year-old has been in the role on an interim basis since former coach Jitka Klimkova quit last September due to an undisclosed employment matter, halfway through a six-year contract. Klimkova had earlier chosen to skip last year's Paris Olympics tournament, opening the door for Mayne, who oversaw three losses in a campaign dominated by the Canadian "drone-gate" scandal. In five other international friendlies in charge, Mayne has overseen one win, two draws and two defeats. The win was their most recent performance — a 1-0 victory away to Costa Rica in February. Mayne will take up his permanent post ahead of the team's two-match series against Venezuela in Spain next month. "To be head coach of your country is something I absolutely do not take lightly, and it is a proud moment for me and my family," he said. "There are a lot of people that have invested time and effort in me throughout my coaching career, and this is an acknowledgement to their belief and support they have given as well. "While in the role on an interim basis I've been really pleased with the work we have been able to start as a team, so it is a real privilege to be in a position to continue to drive that forward. "This is an exciting, talented, and motivated group of players, and we can move forward now with our plan, with a lot of new energy, and push ourselves to reach that next level and that starts immediately against Venezuela." Prior to his interim role, Mayne was assistant to Klimkova, including during the 2023 World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. He has held coaching roles with the New Zealand under-17 and under-20 women's teams, including for the historic bronze medal campaign at the under-17 Women's World Cup in 2018. He was among the first coaches in New Zealand to undertake the OFC Pro Licence, the globally recognised standard for elite-level coaching. New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell said Mayne was well-equipped to step into the role on a fulltime basis. "It speaks volumes for the football system in this country that Michael is someone who has come through the coaching pathway here and got to the top level of the game," Pragnell said. "He combines an understanding of the international game, high levels of integrity and strong standards and values, with deep knowledge of football in this country, and that is the perfect blend for us and how we want to develop as a team."
Scoop
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
Michael Mayne Named Football Ferns Coach
Michael Mayne has been confirmed as the Football Ferns' new head coach through to the 2027 Women's World Cup, becoming their first New Zealand-born coach in more than 20 years. The 40-year-old has been in the role on an interim basis since former coach Jitka Klimkova quit last September due to an undisclosed employment matter, halfway through a six-year contract. Klimkova had earlier chosen to skip last year's Paris Olympics tournament, opening the door for Mayne, who oversaw three losses in a campaign dominated by the Canadian "drone-gate" scandal. In five other international friendlies in charge, Mayne has overseen one win, two draws and two defeats. The win was their most recent performance - a 1-0 victory away to Costa Rica in February. Mayne will take up his permanent post ahead of the team's two-match series against Venezuela in Spain next month and said he was looking forward to the challenge. "To be head coach of your country is something I absolutely do not take lightly and it is a proud moment for me and my family," he said. "There are a lot of people that have invested time and effort in me throughout my coaching career, and this is an acknowledgement to their belief and support they have given as well. "While in the role on an interim basis I've been really pleased with the work we have been able to start as a team, so it is a real privilege to be in a position to continue to drive that forward. "This is an exciting, talented, and motivated group of players, and we can move forward now with our plan, with a lot of new energy, and push ourselves to reach that next level and that starts immediately against Venezuela." Prior to his interim role, Mayne was assistant to Klimkova, including during the 2023 World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. He has held coaching roles with the New Zealand under-17 and under-20 women's teams, including for the historic bronze medal campaign at the under-17 Women's World Cup in 2018. He was among the first coaches in New Zealand to undertake the OFC Pro Licence, the globally recognised standard for elite-level coaching. New Zealand Football chief executive Andrew Pragnell said Mayne was well-equipped to step into the role on a full-time basis. "It speaks volumes for the football system in this country that Michael is someone who has come through the coaching pathway here and got to the top level of the game," Pragnell said. "He combines an understanding of the international game, high levels of integrity and strong standards and values, with deep knowledge of football in this country, and that is the perfect blend for us and how we want to develop as a team."
