Good News: Stories that cheered us up for the week of 11-17 March

The healing power of cricket, a surfboard library and a Northland celebration of pride are just some of this week's feel-good stories, as seen on RNZ.

More Māori in tech jobs a 'massive opportunity'

AskNicely co-founder Aaron Ward, one of the few Māori working in the tech industry believes tangata whenua could help combat a pressing shortage of staff in Aotearoa. Despite Māori comprising 17 percent of the population, they make up only 4 percent of the technology workforce. Ward says at the heart of the technology business was looking for new ways to solve problems - and this explorer mindset is a perspective that Māori can easily bring to the industry.

Cornered Tigers and the healing game of cricket after the mosque attacks

Five years on from the Christchurch terror attacks, a group of survivors and family members have found a way forward together by forming a cricket team - the Christchurch Cornered Tigers Cricket Club. "Before that, we were playing for different teams, in different areas of Christchurch. A friend and cricket player said: 'Look, we need each other and we need to be strong... why don't we have our own team and let's play together, let's make it a family sport,'" says captain Yasir Amin.

'Every town in New Zealand deserves a surfboard library'

New Zealand's first surfboard library, the Goat Shed, is a non-profit run by volunteers in the seaside suburb of Sumner in Christchurch. It reshapes and fixes the boards so they are good as new. Surfers with any level of experience are then allowed to borrow the boards for free, as long as they are returned. Sustainability is also important to the team. "But the way we're doing it, we're actually building stronger surfboards, which hopefully any individual can use and we repair them as well," says co-founder Lucas Sampaio.

Elissa Mah has the need for speed

The 33-year-old Christchurch rider represented New Zealand at last month's World Downhill Skateboarding Championships in the Philippines, coming third in the elite women's class. The event, which saw more than 80 competitors, took place on a 2300-metre-long track which drops almost 300 metres. Riders reached speeds of more than 80 kilometres per hour on the course. Mah is a self described "late bloomer" when it comes to skateboarding. "I started really late. I grew up as a really non-sporty kid." Mah finds the sport exhilarating but also therapeutic.

Whangārei celebrates Pride with colourful parade

Whangārei was awash with rainbow flags, sequins and colour on Sunday as the city hosted its second Pride Parade and Gayla. Several hundred members of Northland's rainbow community and their allies marched in a vibrant procession. Banners held during the almost hour-long parade shared messages such as "Out and Proud", "Trans-form the World" and "Born this Way". Even police joined the festivities in a patrol car decorated with bold rainbow stripes. Cory Fernmoor, one of the organisers, said the parade and gayla would be back next year, "even bigger, better and gayer".

From woolshed to bed - two sisters spin their homeware dreams

After leaving life as a veterinarian and the corporate world, sisters Kate Cullwick and Prue Watson were looking for a new business venture to combine their talents and showcase the best of their family farm. They stumbled across the idea of selling linen and eventually ended up releasing an organic French flax linen and lambswool bedding range. Wool felt like a natural next step for the sisters who had fleeces on their doorstep begging to be made into bedding via Foxtrot Farm. They also use their platform to promote the work of Rural Women NZ and charities I AM HOME and Meat the Need.