Last month, The Matakana App celebrated its first birthday. We thought it was finally time to introduce our readers to the team behind the screen, starting off with app creator and director, Fraser Falconer.

I've lived right here on the Matakana Coast pretty much my whole life, all 21 years of it. It's home to me, it's where I grew up, went to school and has taught me everything I know. I spent a few years traveling around, but I haven’t found another place like it. 

While growing up in the area, I have seen it change a lot, and change for the better. Both my parents, Garth and Linda, were heavily involved in planning and designing the area to help make it what it is today. However, I felt it wasn't developed enough in the digital space. There wasn't one place where you could easily access everything from news to jobs, events and traffic. There were huge delays between things happening and people finding out about them, so I decided to take the plunge and launch an app that would fix all that, and help promote the area and local businesses in the process. 

My role in the Matakana App involves a lot of admin, from updating everything on the app and its social media accounts, to heading sales. It takes a lot of time keeping everything up to date but it's worth it. I can't take credit for everything; we have a great editorial team who produce all our daily news content. 

In the first year, the community's response to the app has been amazing! Recently the app reached 18th in the download charts for News and Entertainment apps in NZ. Both the local community and local businesses have got right behind it, which I honestly didn't expect to happen so quickly. 

We have many new projects currently in works to further develop the platform. We will continue to grow our editorial team, so we can produce more content and news each day. We also have a new desktop app on the horizon that will allow users to access everything from their laptop and from google searches. We are really only just getting started! 

One question we get a lot is: Why is it called 'The Matakana App' when it covers the Puhoi to Pakiri region?

We don't have the population to have different apps for each town, so it needed to cover multiple towns. There is a huge debate within the towns on what the name for the region is, some call it the 'Sheltered Coast' others the 'Kowhai Coast', 'Mahurangi' or the 'Matakana Coast'. Matakana is at the heart of the region and it just seemed to fit the app the best, but the app is just as much a Warkworth app or a Leigh app as it is a Matakana app.

After I've finished my work on the app for the day, I'm straight to the beach. I'm a very keen surfer and love the outdoors. I'm also into the music scene and organise music events and festivals; I am not exactly the type to sit still. 

I would like to thank everyone who has downloaded, used and shared the app. We have some exciting projects for the future so stay tuned!