Members and Visitors are welcome to all lectures (apart from December 2027 - which is members only) Visitors fee is $10.00 per person
From the start of 2027, Meetings will be held at the Raleigh Street Christian Centre, 24 -26 Raleigh Stret, Leamington , from 10am for 10.30 until 12.00 noon on the second Friday of each month.
The December 2026 meeting will be held at the Te Awa Lifecare Woolshed, 1866 Cambridge Road, Cambridge, from 10am for 10.30 until 12.00 noon on the second Tuesday of each month.
Tuesday November 10th, 2026 - Dame Fiona Kidman - Telling Stories NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE to RaleighStreet Christian Center 24-26 Raleigh Street - Visitors welcome
About me: Fiona Kidman is a novelist, short story writer, poet and memoirist. Her original occupation was as a librarian. In the early 1960s she began to write journalism , radio drama and, later, television drama, Her first novel ‘A Breed of Women’, published in 1979 caused controversy but she continued to write in the face of some opposition. Her 2018 novel This Mortal Boy won the Jann Medlicott Ockham New Zealand Book Award for Fiction. Her work is translated into several languages. She has been awarded a damehood for services to literature and is a Chevalier des Artes et Lettres by the French government, and has also been awarded the French Legion of Honour. Currently, she is a Patron of the Randell Cottage Writers Trust, also The Long Hall, The New Zealand Poetry Society, and of the Refugee and Migrants Trust.
My most recent book is The Midnight Plane: Selected and New Poems (pub. Otago University Press 2025)
Tuesday December 8th, 2026 - Vladimir Pacheco - My journey - venue Te Awa Woolshed - No capacity for visitors sorry
Vladimir spoke to U3A Cambridge in 2025 and by popular demand, he is returning to share more information about his journey and his life (a topic that he doesn't really talk about in public, but does in 1:1 conversations).
Vladimir Pacheco is currently Associate Professor at the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark. His current research interests include socio-economic impacts and governance of non-renewable resource extraction in the Arctic, Latin America and the South Pacific. Previous to this position Vladimir held senior roles in Australia with the Foundation for Development Cooperation, the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining and consulting firm WorleyParsons.
His latest publication is a chapter in a book titled “Ideology, Post-ideology and Anti-Ideology in Latin America” published by Bloomsbury Academic.
FRIDAY, February 12th, 2027 - Tania Linford - Beyond the Ears: How the Brain Makes Sense of Sound:
Venue - Raleigh Street Christian Centre - Visitors welcome
Tania Linford MNZAS, Bsc, Maud, PGDipCouns, Senior Clinical and Consultant Audiologist, specialising in tinnitus, hyperacusis and central auditory conditions.
In this interesting and informative presentation, we’ll explore the brain’s hearing system and how our brains process and interpret sound. We’ll begin with a brief overview of the auditory system, using some fun visual demonstrations to illustrate how auditory processing works in the brain.
We’ll then examine how hearing loss affects the brain, including how it compensates and adapts to changes in hearing, and the potential implications for cognitive health and other brain functions. We’ll also briefly look into traumatic brain injury, supported by case examples, and we’ll discuss tinnitus, sound sensitivity, and some of the less common conditions that can affect the brain’s processing of sound.
By the end of this presentation, you’ll have a better understanding of the fascinating relationship between hearing, the brain, and our overall cognitive health.
FRIDAY, March 12th, 2027 - Rob Harley - Life's most amazing people:
Venue - Raleigh Street Christian Centre - Visitors welcome
Rob Harley is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished television journalists and documentary makers and in his presentation he will take you to astonishing places and tell you about remarkably brave people, who have proved that dark times can be turned into courageous and resilient outcomes.
FRIDAY, April 9th, 2027 - Chris Finlayson - 30 years of MMP:
Venue - Raleigh Street Christian Centre - Visitors welcome
Chris Finlayson KC is proof of what MMP can do with a list seat. Across nearly fourteen years in Parliament, he never won an electorate outright, yet he served as Attorney-General, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and delivered almost sixty Treaty settlements, more than any minister before him.
He has seen the system from both sides, first suing the Crown as a barrister for Ngāi Tahu, then negotiating settlements from inside government. Thirty years after MMP began, he offers a plain-spoken, insider's account of what has worked, what hasn't, and what New Zealanders still get wrong about how their Parliament actually operates.