An ocean of books at annual Rotary event

The children's section was very popular. Photos: Tracy Hardy.

Bookworms will be burrowing and wriggling their way through hundreds of thousands of paperbacks, hardbacks, tomes and more this Easter Weekend.

Opening today, the 30th annual Tauranga Rotary Club Easter Book Sale is back and open for perusing down at the Seeka Coolstore on Totara Street Mount Maunganui until Monday, April 17.

Rotarian and event organiser Ann Pritchard says a lot of hard work has gone into this year's sale, but seeing the massive crowd of people milling about with their noses in books makes it all worth it.

'I arrived at 7am and there were already people here waiting to go inside. Thank goodness that cyclone moved through.

'Over 30 years the sale's grown tremendously. The first ones were in a shop in town, then it moved to the racecourse and in those days they had to sort offsite and bring everything in.

'Can you imagine bringing in all this lot in a truck?” she says with a laugh. 'But for the last 15 years at least we've been based in a building like this.”

Volunteers have spent weeks sorting fiction books alphabetically under their authors, and non-fiction by their categories. There's also thousands of records, DVDs, Jigsaws puzzles, and some sheet music. There will also a silent tender for rare books which closes 12pm on Easter Monday.

Along with providing an awesome event for the community, the annual sale also raise funds for a number of organisations which the Lions work with.

Last year's sale saw money donated to Age Concern, Rangataua Sport and Rugby Club, Child Cancer, Waipuna Hospice, Te Awanui Trust, Starship Hospital, Papamoa Fire Brigade, SPCA, Food Bank, Men's Night Shelter Scholars Pro Musica, Omokoroa Skate Park, Gate Pa School-Bikes, Duffy Books, Greerton School-games, Katikati Primary School.

The 30th annual Tauranga Rotary Club Easter Book Sale is on at the Seeka Coolstore on Totara Street Mount Maunganui until Monday, April 17. Open daily from 9am-4.30pm. EFTPOS is available, no credit cards or cheques.

Parking is available on Kereiti Street by VTNZ – there is no parking available off Totara Street. Volunteers will be directing traffic to the parking and people to the Coolstore entrance.



Tamarah Hare and Anne Westerkov selling Anne's art.

Alf Rendall selling and signing his books.

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