Every journey starts with a single step, according to a Chinese proverb.
The Tauranga Harbour City Lions Club’s annual journey – its signature book sale fundraiser at Tauranga Racecourse – started about three months ago with a single piece of a jigsaw puzzle. And a few bargain reads, very cheap, quality, used books.
Right now the Lions are cranking up for their 13th annual book sale, which will feature tens of thousands of books – fiction and non-fiction – and puzzles and jigsaws.
So they’re appealing to us, to clear out our garages, attics and cluttered bookshelves to provide product for the sale.
Contributions can be dropped off at Gull on Hewletts Rd, Wet & Forget at Bay Central on Chapel St, Woolworths at Bethlehem Town Centre, Caltex on Girven Rd, Z Energy on Eleventh Ave, Bunnings on Cameron Rd and Tony’s Tyres on Rakiraki Way in Tauriko. No magazines nor encyclopedias, thank you.
The number 271 is vaguely interesting because it’s the 58th prime number.
However, 271 is causing high excitement for the Lions and dissectologists, or jigsaw aficionados.
That’s the number of puzzles in just one valuable stash unearthed by the club this year.
A total of 271 jigsaws? Hobby, passion or obsession? Because it’s one person’s contribution to the Lions’ book fair. “A bequest of sorts,” Lioness Christine Currie said. “A woman passed away in Cambridge and we were gifted her collection.”
To give it context, the Lions last year had 900 jigsaw puzzles for sale at their annual November book fair at Tauranga Racecourse. It caused a buying frenzy when the sale began.
Now, as the club processes contributions for this year’s sale, it’s already one-third of the way towards that target.
“But we can never have too many puzzles,” Currie said. “It takes several months to collect them all, then they fly out the door in just a few hours at the sale. And we can never have too many books.”
A book you no longer need may be someone else’s treasure.
It’s also exciting for the Cancer Society, which is the sole beneficiary of this year’s book fair. If 2025 was any guide, the fair raised about $70,000. All proceeds this year will go the society’s new $30 million, 40-room cancer patient lodge near Tauranga Hospital. So a book donated to, or bought at the sale, could be a small investment in your future wellbeing.
A 1000-piece puzzle can take five to 12 hours to complete, a 2000-piece puzzle, days rather than hours. Complicate the process with something called a Wasgij where the puzzle is not the image on the box. You have to imagine what the characters on the box are looking at or experiencing. It’s a brainteaser puzzle with almost zero visual clues. And puzzlers love Wasgij.
Because puzzles have become such a popular aspect of the sale, the Lions might give them a separate venue at the fair.
The first day of the sale takes on Black Friday shopping madness, with crowds armed with shopping lists bursting through the doors. “Mayhem,” Lions volunteer Oliver Adams said. “Calm and respect would be nice,” he said. “If you can’t find a $4 book that may make you $100 when resold, find a good read and relax.”
The Tauranga Harbour City Lions Club’s 2026 book and puzzle sale will be at the Tauranga Racecourse from November 6 to 8.