A Tribute to Tairua Troubadours

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July 22, 2025

The Troubadours always succeed in entertaining people as well as bringing people together, all the while fundraising for the Tairua Community and events.

Gina Easton and Rowena Burkinshaw the hall cleaning comedians in The Four Seasons A Tairua Soap opera.

BY LILY PAULSEN

The Tairua Hall is humming with excitement and people as we take our designated seats. Lights dance around the room which can fit approximately one hundred seated. Those lights dim and voices fade – the show begins.

I remembered vividly being part of the show in 2024. I was in the cast of Once Upon A Time, but this year they had a completely different and fabulous treat awaiting us.

The show, The Four Seasons- A Tairua Soap Opera, was about friends reunited at a school reunion and agreeing to meet up each season at the Easter Country Club Hoedown, Fireman’s Winter ball, A Spring Wedding and the Surf Club Summer Beach Hop. In between each scene were the hall cleaning comedy duo of Gina Easton and Rowena Burkinshaw. brought us a hilariously funny soap opera – the days of our lives.

The show had everyone in fits of laughter and high spirits and by the halfway intermission, the crowd was beaming. Jennie Turner, the director and script writer for the Troubadours, is truly gifted. The cast of seventeen was wonderfully humorous and talented and as always, the crowd was able to relate to characters, be entertained, inspired and laugh until they could no longer hold in their liquid.

The show was very successful running form 19-18 June. The Troubadours always succeed in entertaining people as well as bringing people together, all the while fundraising for the Tairua Community and events. such as The Westpac Helicopter Trust.

Having run for over twenty-five years now, the community really appreciates this time of year knowing the Tairua Troubadours – a bunch of local members of the community, who are very talented, will get together to put on a great show for the wider community.

Thank you to Jennie Turner and Tairua’s fundraising

“We all win “

As a group the Tairua Troubadours have given back to the Tairua Pauanui communities over $236,000. Of that, $100,000 went to Coromandel Rescue Helicopter, and it’s only as a result of a community effort, from the cast and crew volunteering their time, to the audience buying the tickets. Of course, none of this could happen if it weren’t for Jennie Turner writing the shows.”

Ex journo/columnist and now playwright, Jennie said, “We all win because I like writing the shows; the cast love performing, the audience enjoys watching and the recipients of the monies appreciate the donations. Plus, it builds communities as everyone comes together.’ Jennie is a trustee for Coromandel Rescue and the Tairua Troubadours have been associated with them since 2012.

“We’re just a bunch of amateurs from a small town, who don’t take ourselves seriously,” says Jennie.

The Troubadours are a diverse group of people from a cross-section of the community, who come together for a couple of months, ranging in ages from 2 years to 82, constantly evolving as new people come and others go, although once a Troubadour – always a Troubadour.