Hi everyone,

The event was held in April 2008 and the site is now in archive mode for you to enjoy. Hoping to do it all again in 2010. There is no event planned for 2009.

On the day there were hundreds of great photos taken of the performers by Jason Hailes of nfocus. Thanks to all for the brilliant support. The fundraising target was achieved and then some.

Here are just 9 which all expand to medium and large sizes. Still sorting through the others.

Note: Fixed Gallery feature by updating to Cleaner Gallery Plugin

Possibly due to underlying version changes the gallery feature stopped working correctly so we have recently updated the photo set on this page.  Apologies if you visited earlier and noticed the display gremlin before we did.

We had an absolute ball, and hope you did too. It would be great if you could give Westmere School your feedback – letting us know what was best for you and what you’d like to see more of.

You can use the comments form at the bottom of this section.

For example – did you make it to the back field or were you too captivated by the action on the main stage to move?

I’d heard about the hair braiding entrepreneurs and the nail bar proved a big hit but I totally missed the water bombs and the cream pie throwing. What would it have taken for you to get over there?

What did you think of the second stage? How did the kids manage activities and should it be a total kid zone or now that the event has grown should it be more professional?

Should Dancing With the Stars have been on the main stage or could we have done with more big acts on the second stage?

Did you place a bid or buy a raffle ticket? How could we give a greater profile to the raffle and Silent Auction? Are there any new money spinning ideas we could adopt from other similar events?

What did you think of the food? Did you see the way the kids munched into the fruit kebabs in pursuit of the marshmallows! Did we have enough food?

Could you get what you wanted? Could we have managed the drink any differently / better? A lot of people seemed to be imbibing in a safe environment where they could relax while the kids were entertained.

It seemed like there was different style for everyone there but my personal favourites were Steve Abel and The Bads. You also couldn’t deny the sheer star power of Jordan’s performance – brilliant!

And the dancing – was there enough room for you to kick up your heels?

I heard from a couple of outside visitors how they “had never seen anything like it before!”( in terms of scale, organisation and presentation.) The two people I’m talking about get to most of the kids events in Auckland and so that is high praise indeed.

Or the parent who took a look around during the finale and said they’d need to find a way to move to Westmere so their kids could enjoy such the a school.

What comments did you hear?

It seems there was so much on that everyone could do something completely different and still have a great time. There must be a dozens of stories out there.

Over to you for your thoughts, impressions, feedback and reviews. Just jot us down a few lines would to get the ball rolling, or longer if you feel inspired.

What did you see, hear or get excited about? What did you like the most? Maybe we need some more of those fruit kebabs to get the juices flowing

Note: to read or write comments click on the comments title

:)

The 2008 Little Day Out has been a great day. More great photos to come soon.

Thanks especially to the 150+ more than 200 parents, performers, teachers, kids, and other friends of the school who worked so hard behind the scenes to make it happen. Not forgetting the clean up on Sunday..

A fantastic start to the event.

Part of the welcome from the school.

Here is shot from the stage in the first 10 minutes with one of the school marimba bands.

The LDO is live now. Not too late to get a ticket. Must dash myself, Don McGlashan on now.

Steve Abel coming up 2pm, The Bads, Dave McArtney and Jordan Luck still to come on, and we still have 5 4 hrs to go. Time to logout and enjoy the music.

Here is a quick shot of high school band AD/BC by photographer Jason Hailes of nfocus. In this shot – Vocalist Moira Jones, Guitar: Miller Christensen-Yule, Drummer: Thomas Alexander and Bassist: Chris Tan.

They were great!! See you soon. Lots more great photos soon.

Update: Actually this shot misses 2 members who were there! and here they are. Keys: Adam Fuhr and Louis McGlashan.

The latest MetService forecast for the Little Day Out in Auckland today is 23 degrees, mainly fine with some cloud and northeasterly winds. No significant rain till late tonight or Sunday morning and then it clears for most.

There had been reports we might get a few showers, in which case event production manager Robbie Barclay says the show will still go on unless the weather makes things dangerous..

The volunteers are finishing the set-up at the school. The food is being made and delivered. So bring your sunscreen and look forward to a great day.

9 great performers / bands + Peter & Hayley+ Monty & Nerida off DWTS ! Programme is immediately below this update. Get your tickets now!!

Stay tuned to Classic Hits and this website for any late, late news.

Note: And to volunteers – it is not too late. Just a few more people would see everybody doing short shifts. We would be grateful at this stage if you would take the job you are given.

Also please remember to be security conscious on the day – read the tips in your school newsletter or on this website.

Westmere school is located on the corner of Larchwood St and Garnet Road in Westmere.

Here is a snapshot of the programme – download copy here

Hosted by Mike McRoberts

Starting at 12noon (gates open at 11:30am) here are the performances in order

• The Westmere School Choir
• Westmere Marimba Band
• AD/BC
• The Darlings
• Don McGlashan
• Steve Abel
• Peter Urlich auctions tickets to the final of Dancing with the Stars
• Dave McArtney’s Pink Flamingos
• The Bads
• John Bowring from Bayleys auctions vasectomy and Private Chef
• Jordan Luck Band

Not So Silent Auction
Some items will be auctioned live by Bayley’s auctioneer, John Bowring from the main stage. You can still download an auction list here.PDF format auction list

But make sure your silent bids are in on the fabulous items that have been kindly donated to the school. Silent bidding is situated under the Super Top, bidding closes at 5pm sharp.

Remember it’s all for the hall!

Huge thanks to all our sponsors here and here and helpers who volunteer to make this all possible. LDO 2008 Programme download copy here

Are you ready, are you steady, are you go? Hat, Shirt, and Jandals..

Tomorrow is the 3rd biennial Little Day Out festival so grab what you need and get down to Westmere school. Only 1 sleep to go now – here is last minute checklist:

1. Tickets
You will have already bought tickets for your family and friends at a discount right? …

C’mon, you can get them at the school office until Friday at $20, kids under 12 are free. 13yrs to 19yrs and senior citizens are $10. On the day it’s $25…

2. Cash.
Bring cash, HEAPS of it as we are not a bank. There will be a limited EFTPOS facility on the day and a coupon system for buying the tempting and delicious food and drink on hand. No one likes queues, so make it easy on yourself and raid the money jar for change in advance.

3. T-Shirt.
Go styleeeee, be there, wear the gear.

This is our big chance for Westmere school to grab the attention of the local community and have them engage in a debate about the hall.

We want people to come along and have their say, the more the merrier, so do your bit to promote the event.

4. All Weather Gear
Be prepared for the elements. Bring sun cream, jerseys, brollies and raincoats, who knows when the weather will change?

5. Possie
Rugs, cushions, deckchairs…Gates open 11.30. Come and grab a good spot early, but then you may want to move around and talk to your friends. Maybe grab a wee bit of space later for a lie down to digest the wonderful food and recover from all of those silent auction bids.

5. Voice
You can warm up your vocals in support of the School Choir, the first act on at noon. The Marimba Band follows and it’s all go from there. Remember the auction is “not-so-silent” – we expect loud involvement and hot competition at 2.45 for the Dancing with the Stars tickets and again at 4.45 for the vasectomy and private chef.

6. Dancing Shoes (Performers) – Mike McRoberts from TV3 will be the compere.
Bring these, or do your barefoot thing with:
The Bads,and The Darlings,
The Jordan Luck Band, and Dave McArtney’s Pink Flamingos
Don McGlashan and Steve Abel and friends.

Google the LDO website for links to sound or video files if you want to know more about individual performers. And especially don’t forget the legendary or, as well as high school band AD/BC performing their ‘Classic Rock for the New Curriculum’.

7. The Kids!
Oops, nearly forgot. There’s plenty of entertainment for all ages. Bring some gold coins.

For the littlies there’s a fairy grotto and the chance to sit in a real fire engine. Your children can cream pie or wet their teacher and Dad…you’re up for water bomb touch. Mum prepare for hair braiding, a face paint and the nails too….you will look loooooovely!

8. The Food
Need that one last reason to help you make up your mind? How about the latest food selection is from ka pai mussels, who provide bbq flamed wok mussels, prawns, scallops, in their shell, with sauces, garlic & sweet chilli, coconut cream curry with fresh coriander,

and much, much more, … along with hungarian bread, ice cream spiders, fruit kebabs, great salads and more.

And stay tuned for programme details or any other last minute updates like the Auction.

Monty Betham and Nerida Jantti are dancing up a storm for Plunket on ‘Dancing with the Stars’.

In last week’s show they were voted into the top 3 after dancing a fiery rumba. Tip: Click on the photo link of Monty at left if you want a much larger size photo!

Thanks to ‘TVNZ and Dancing With the Stars’ for the photos.

Monty and Nerida are very excited to be joining in the fun at Westmere School’s Little Day Out this saturday.

They will be dancing after Peter Urlich and Hayley Holt.

Monty’s chosen charity is Plunket and the money raised throughout the show will go towards helping Plunket to expand and grow their services in communities such as Family Centres, Parenting Education and Car Seat Rental schemes

Help Monty to help Plunket give children the best start in life.

Text Monty to 8981 or call 0900 89 814 to Vote for Monty!

Update: If you missed Monty and Nerida at the Little Day Out- watch this video as the Dancing With the Stars pair join Matt, Dayna and Vicki in the Studio! on Video HUBTV with Studio 2

If this is your first visit to the LDO website you may notice that the “home” page keeps changing. This is because the entire site is built using a blog based system. Here are 5 quick tips for getting around the site quickly now there are 30 “plus pages” live. Enjoy.

1. At present home is set to display the last 10″ posts” and a post here is a shorter news item or more detail for say the performers, media (video & sound files) , gallery (photos)

2. You may also just look at the performers related stories by clicking on that category. Sometimes a “post” is in more than one category.

3. The menu items at the top of the page mostly link to “fixed” web pages although some of them like the Auction page have changed quite often so that page should have been a post “category” but we have made it easier by noting the last edit date at the top of that page.

4. If you want to find things really quickly you can use the google this website form on the right hand sidebar of this page. You can check out the Gold sponsors there as well.

For example you can also see the last 15 “posts”on the sidebar like this

• LDO TV Ad in the news Wednesday Herald & Auckland City Harbour News stories
• LDO Radio Ads with Dave and Don There are 3 radio ads for LDO – featuring Dave McArtney, Don McGlashan and Jordan Luck
• LDO Tshirts for the Kids Tshirts – sorry orders all closed now!
• What is all the fundraising actually for? Most important – some background objectives and plans
• Kai Time at the Little Day Out Quick update on food items
• TV Ad for LDO by kidpower The famous TV ad on Triangle, online here elsewhere
• Latest Auction List – Download now The auction list has changed quite a lot check the auction page for the latest version – (poster link) also
• AD/BC – Classic Rock for the New Curriculum High School band AD/BC
• What a Line Up! Performers summary
• LDO on the radio (Jordan Luck) The first radio ad
• The Bads Brett Adams and Dianne Swann
• Do Good and Feel Great. Helpers needed. A newsletter
• Steve Abel Confirmed for LDO Performer background and media links for Steve
• Dave McArtneys Pink Flamingos Performer background and media links for Dave
• The Darlings Performer background and media links for Darlings – Jackie Clarke, Callie Blood, Wayne Bell

5. If you really want to keep up with the website – use the Entries RSS at the top right or the or read this note first * What is an RSS feed and why would I use one?

The quick answer is here or click the link for more detail then click on the orange icon.

“RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document (which is called a “feed” or “web feed” or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text.”

Sorry bout that last tip, but RSS is the way of the future, now and it is the easiest way for you to see the latest updates when they happen – like the next newsflash which will be in less than an hours time. (And many of you already use RSS which is great.)