Tunnel Beach #Dunedin #NZ

S I T E ● E X A M

█ drone footage…. watch in HD

T.Doan Published on Jan 15, 2017
Tunnel Beach – Dunedin NZ
A visit to Tunnel Beach in Dunedin NZ in Jan-17

Aerialpixel Published on Mar 17, 2016
Aerial, Tunnel beach, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, DJI Phantom 3 4k stunning view
We have been on a cruise through New Zealand and Australia and could shoot this wonderful stunning aerial footage of the tunnel beach in Dunedin.

Sam’s Playground Published on Jan 8, 2015
Tunnel Beach Drone Flight
Best watched 1080p. Tunnel Beach offers spectacular coast line scenery a short drive from Dunedin city. On the walk down the rolling green farm land and ocean views are rewarding (back up is a little harder). A hand mined tunnel leads to a private cove (Tunnel Beach) which is best accessed around low tide. Flight views taken with a TBS Discovery Pro drone | GoPro 3+ | Skyzone FPV goggles.

Exploring New Zealand Published on Nov 11, 2014
Dronie: Tunnel Beach, Dunedin – New Zealand in 4K
Tunnel Beach is located two kilometres south of Dunedin. The walkway is an easy one hour return walk – although there’s a bit of a climb involved on the way back to the car park. During spring the walkway is closed because of lambing. In the 1870s the tunnel was carved through a rock promontory to allow access to a secluded and sheltered beach the cliffs. The best time to go is around low tide. Filmed with DJI Phantom 2 & GoPro Hero 4 Black in 4K @ 30fps (Ultra HD).

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█ ground access…. by standard video camera or GoPro

Alexey Abramovsky Published on Nov 21, 2016
Tunnel beach, Dunedin, New Zealand [at high tide]

SpotNFlo Published on Feb 17, 2016
Tunnel Beach Dunedin (4K)
The only way onto this secluded little beach near Dunedin is down a tunnel stairway carved out of the rock cliff that surrounds it….. Not for the faint hearted, the walk back up from the Beach is a good fitness test.

█████ [next video essential FUN viewing …….or why dogs deserve continuing access to our local beaches – stuff off Dunedin City Council with your proposed Reserves and Beaches Bylaw 2017]

Kate Davidson Published on Dec 19, 2015
Tunnel Beach – Dunedin, New Zealand
1st video editing effort with my new GoPro!

Yehad Rabba Published on Mar 17, 2015
Tunnel Beach , Dunedin – New Zealand
Fantastica y paradisiaca playa.. lo mas increible es como se llega a ella!

Azani Talhah Published on Dec 14, 2014
Tunnel Beach Dunedin : Miyas’ Queenstown Adventure!

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Related Posts and Comments:
18.3.17 DCC Proposed Reserves and Beaches Bylaw : Real-deal submission
8.2.17 Hands Off Enjoyment of OUR Beaches #DCC
3.4.16 Cargill’s Castle Trust : Let’s re-establish clifftop walking track to Tunnel Beach
9.1.15 Yurts for Tunnel Beach *names [commercial activity proposed]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

POLITICS of Place —New Year glums (read glue and screws)

IS DUNEDIN weighed down by local body politics?

How do citizens separate governance from management?

How do ratepayers and residents separate truth from something else, from someone else?

Finding value in plain speaking, will the place be any better? Will the same players get knuckled, while others with over generous salaries and stipends commit more strongly to the unrelenting string of make-work schemes.

As they ignore basic infrastructure.
For a heightened slavishness to global politics.

Then, early this morning Diane said: “When will you drag us all back to politics, Elizabeth?”

Good question. Thinking about the HOWS and WHYS.
And the WHAT WOULD HAPPENS.

We will get there.
[a construct] Octagon picnic table

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With others, I received an email from an esteemed and powerful colleague in the United States. It focused my mind. The afternoon email was one of a series of calls and messages proceeding across the holiday break (as committed Canterbury people fortify, lobby and fundraise – lawyers and QCs amongst them) within the all-out campaign to fully restore Christchurch Cathedral.

The man-writer was responding to letters to The Press published today (28 December), each decrying any moves to restore the Cathedral but meanwhile expressing strong desire to resuscitate the heart of the City.

It’s understood the Press editor has been hard to win over on restoration for some years although chinks in that armour did appear after cathedral campaigners BOUGHT space to balance and convey the other side of the Anglican hierarchy’s argument to demolish Serious cultural heritage.

Right now, Christchurch is my favourite POLITICAL City in New Zealand. There is a force for intelligence, compassion, honest endeavour without fear, free speech (multiple voices joined in hardship), and far more than simple zeal for Justice there is public and private leadership in a Place recovering from the political aftermath of a damnable naturally occurring tragedy. Throughout, Christchurch people have got ‘more like themselves’ to cope, to battle —to try for the Egalitarian in the face of disgusting bureaucracies and god-awful top down disparages.

Dunedin faces something else – THAT (nameless but real) is the reason for the What if? Dunedin website. Letting it out, spilling, building confidence to challenge what is handed down as fact.

For the strong and interested, there is no acceptance of stray conduct at PUBLIC MEETINGS caught by privately-owned television for the PUBLIC RECORD. There will be no silencing of what is in PUBLIC DOMAIN. Information existing in PUBLIC DOMAIN, put there by local bodies as their official reports and media releases should not be stopped. Information requested by the public and released by local bodies under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) should be freely disseminated. No picnic.

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And now, the substance of that email:

All;

It is with profound regret that I note the United States does not have a monopoly on short-sighted, narrow minded, culturally blind idiots. We have so many of them it’s easy to assume we have them all. I guess there are Rednecks and Bogans everywhere.

Fear not…neither does the US have a monopoly on brave, stalwart, far-sighted stewards of our common Heritage who are willing and able to stand strong and see this important work through to completion. You are an inspiration to me and people around the world.

Have faith…stand strong and fear not.

Christchurch Cathedral [tfttphotography.wordpress.com]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Related Posts and Comments:
23.12.15 Christ Church Cathedral: practical news from govt mediator Miriam Dean QC [read report via link provided]
14.7.12 Rival newspaper on historic heritage #cathedral
2.3.12 Christ Church, Cathedral Square

*Images: (from top) gemplers.com – octagon-shaped stop; signaturedoor.com – venting octagon animation; pagetutor.com – octagon layout calculator; weiduoliyaylc.net – octagon picnic table woodworking plans step-01; ana-white.com – octagon picnic table

Slovenia and the EU (NZ similarities?)

Received from Douglas Field
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 at 7:30 a.m.

Douglas Field Published on Oct 28, 2015
mass migration in Europe Slovenia
Mass Migration in Slovenia – people on their way to Merkel’s Germany. Comment in the UK Daily Telegraph questions the sense of the EU policy of ‘open border’ and the consequences.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Law Courts | ODT editorial

The Dunedin courthouse is one of the city’s finest historic buildings, and part of a heritage cluster impossible to match anywhere in this country.

We await an “unequivocal commitment” from the Government to return court services to their Dunedin home.

### ODT Online Tue, 22 Sep 2015
Editorial: ‘Nonsense’ courthouse costs
OPINION Really? Would earthquake strengthening of Dunedin’s courthouse really cost more than $15million as officials claim? Or is this another example where supposed post-earthquake costs are used as an excuse? Or can the Government simply not design and commission building work for reasonable prices? There is probably a bit of both.
Read more

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Dunedin structural engineer Stephen Macknight called the Government’s $15million strengthening figure “absolutely ridiculous”.

Director of Dunedin construction company Lund South, Russell Lund, said his experience suggested the $15million figure was “just not even credible”.

### ODT Online Sat, 19 Sep 2015
$15m bill for court rejected
By Craig Borley
Dunedin engineers and construction experts have rubbished the Government’s claims the city’s historic courthouse needs earthquake strengthening work worth more than $15 million. […] Lou Robinson, director of Hadley Robinson Engineering, said he knew the courthouse intimately after being involved in the 2002 work on the complex. He estimated an “upper limit on strengthening of perhaps $3 million”.
Read more

█ Website:
http://www.saveourcourthouse.nz

█ Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/SaveOurCourthouse

█ Petition to Justice Minister Amy Adams:
http://bit.ly/1FlZIWy (via Avaaz platform)

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Related Posts and Comments:
7.9.15 Public petition to save Courthouse for courts use
11.7.15 Dunedin Law Courts “an incredible historic building” –Minister
14.5.15 Russell Lund on Ministry closure of Dunedin Law Courts
14.5.15 Justice at Dunedin
2.5.15 Ministry serves INJUSTICE for Dunedin Courthouse #HistoricHeritage

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Post and image (2015) by Elizabeth Kerr

Tom McLean on works by Peter Nicholls #sculpture

Late last year Dr Thomas (Tom) McLean (pictured) published an article on some recent works of New Zealand sculptor Peter Nicholls. Dr McLean, a senior lecturer, teaches English at the University of Otago, but also writes on art for the US blogsite The Migrationist. Peter Nicholls suggested I would be interested in the article, and yesterday Dr McLean forwarded the link. The writing is briefly sampled in the hope you’ll pleasure in reading and sharing the full article.

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The Migrationist: A collaborative international migration blog
Culture & Integration, Personal Stories
Immigrant Woods
December 13, 2013 · by Tom McLean · in Culture & Integration, Personal Stories

My mate Pete and I had just left our Saturday morning coffee gathering when we noticed a tremble of dark feathers in the street. A female blackbird (which in fact is brown) was not doing well. Unable to fly, she had struggled through the grass and stumbled down the curb into the road. I picked her up and placed her under a tree; but this only saved her from cars or bikes. So what to do? Abandoning her to nature seemed logical but heartless. I found a cardboard box, and Pete got his car. Continues/. . .
Art helps us think beyond life’s cardboard box, and as I reflected on my blackbird encounter, the work of Peter Nicholls came to mind. Nicholls’s large sculptures are found in every major New Zealand collection. Bringing together disparate materials, his works are all about movement and encounters: set firmly in place, they encourage the participant (not simply a viewer) to make a journey. One must walk beside or pass through his large works to fully engage with them. His 2008 retrospective at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery was appropriately titled Journeywork, and it included long, stream-like sculptures in wood and metal that seem to flow along the floor. While his works show fine craftsmanship, they are not illusionary; they do not hide the effort that went into them. Nor do they suggest a simple return to nature: those elongated works might suggest a highway as much as a bloodstream or river. Even his most photographed work, Tomo (2005, Connells Bay Sculpture Park), is complex: is it the visualisation of a forest’s lifeblood, or a human imposition on nature? A sinewy marriage of art and nature, or a Formula 1 racetrack through an idyllic landscape?
Read the full article

Tomo 2005 (detail), Connells Bay Sculpture Park. Image: Peter Nicholls

█ The Migrationist is an international, collaborative academic/professional blog designed to promote public discourse informed by academics and professionals who focus on issues surrounding migration, refugees, and human trafficking. The blog is intended as a medium for intelligent discourse on migration issues. The intent is to bring this discussion out of academia and into an accessible forum for anyone who is interested in migration. The Migrationist posts weekly.
The blog was founded in September 2012 by co-editors Amy Grenier and Lali Foster, former M.A. Migration Studies students at University of Sussex in Brighton, United Kingdom. They currently have regular contributors from all over the world and are always looking for regular and guest contributors.

█ Tom McLean’s latest post at The Immigrationist:
The Artist as Global Citizen: Cai Guo-Qiang in Brisbane January 10, 2014
In the mid 1990s I taught English in Xiamen, a coastal city in southern China. Xiamen (also known as Amoy) has a lovely subtropical climate, and today it’s a favourite holiday spot among the Chinese. But from 1842 to the Second World War, it was a treaty port. After the First Opium War, the British took over Hong Kong and forced China to allow foreign consulates to be built… Cont/

More about Tom McLean

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Peter Nicholls was born in Wanganui, educated at the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts, Auckland Teachers’ College, Elam School of Fine Arts, and gained a Masters in Sculpture at the University of Wisconsin at Superior, USA. His sculptures from the 1970s and 1980s are noted for their amalgam of figural, landscape and architectural abstraction, and energized dynamics in large timber works. It was tectonic and universal rather than site specific. From 1990 it became laterally configured, river hugging and site/place specific, often interrogating historic impositions of order on primal land. Nicholls has numerous large-scale works in private and public collections internationally. http://www.peternicholls.co.nz/

Otago Sculpture Trust

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: odt.co.nz – Peter Nicholls (portrait detail)

Dunedin cycleways: Calvin Oaten greeted by DCC silence

Received.
Tuesday, December 03, 2013 4:38 PM

Subject: Fwd: Transport Strategy

Calvin Oaten notes:
As you can see I copied [the below] to most. So far, the only response has been Cr Lee Vandervis. He agrees. [Chief executive] Sue Bidrose hasn’t come back with so much as a “rubbish” or “interesting”.
The rest, well I am wondering if this new crop are going to be any better than the last. You would think I would get shot out of the water by at least Cr Richard Thomson, but nothing. All I want is to open up the debate.
Looks like it is just too hard for them to think about the issue. Get elected, get the remuneration sorted and then back to sleep. “El Duce”, of course, wishes I was on another planet.

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—— Forwarded Message
From: Calvin Oaten
Date: 1 December 2013 11:33:36 AM NZDT
To: Dave Cull
Cc: Hilary Calvert, Jinty McTavish, Lee Vandervis, John Bezett, Kate Wilson, Chris Staynes, Mike Lord, Aaron Hawkins, Neville Peat, Doug Hall, Andrew Noone, David Benson-Pope, Sue Bidrose, Richard Thomson
Subject: Fwd: Transport Strategy

Hello Dave,
I have been reading the article Sharing the Road by Shane Gilchrist in Saturday’s ODT, and was particularly interested in your comments. You point out the reason why council began this process in the first place: “It’s about safety on Dunedin’s one-way system.” “Council, in collaboration with the NZTA, is both resolved and obligated to make our one-way street system safer. That’s what we asked NZTA to do after the last death. Let’s be clear: It is the NZTA’s responsibility to make state highways safer.” A very laudable position, but is the seeming solution necessarily the right one?

To me it is a philosophical question: If it is purely about safety and preservation of life then surely cyclists on the one-way would be wrong. History has proven that. If it is about ‘freedom of choice’ then it would be a matter for responsible persons or parents to weigh up the situation then opt for a choice, it being on their own heads. Either way, nothing would need to be done to alter the status quo. I would have no problem with that.

Then there is the matter of alternatives.

Santa Parade, Dunedin (1 Dec 2013)

Updated post 5.11.14 at 2:26 p.m.

Sun, 1 Dec 2013
Perfect weather – the event went ahead as planned. The parade started at 3pm at the former BP service station, corner Regent Rd and George St, and travelled to the Octagon where free live music was provided for the crowd.

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### ODT Online Mon, 2 Dec 2013
Santa parade crowd-pleaser
By Shawn McAvinue
The 78 floats ranged from a jaw-flapping dragon to referee-jumping roller-skaters and a giant albatross that bellowed Cliff Richard’s song Summer Holiday to mark the official start of the festive season. Dunedin Santa Parade Trust chairman Dean Driver said the parade was ”sensational”.
Read more + Slideshow* [Captions with names of festival participants]

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Post and images by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin cycleways: Calvin Oaten’s alternative route

Text received. Sunday, 17 November 2013 11:06 a.m.
The comment also appears at ODT Online (link supplied). -Eds

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Some lateral thinking required?
Submitted by Calvin Oaten on Sat, 16/11/2013 – 3:03pm.
In all this discussion on the merits or otherwise of catering specifically for cyclists to have safe means of traversing central Dunedin, it seems that it is the safety which is being lost sight of. Surely, in a survey of recent cyclist fatalities in Dunedin, they have by far and away happened on the SH1 one ways. So why on earth do the authorities insist on staying on those routes? Is there no alternatives?

Let’s look at this. The main trip of concern is from Normanby to the Oval. Start at Normanby on North Rd (not an arterial way) travel to the Gardens, then along Gt King St to the Gardens side gate and onto the cycle/footpath, already existing, to Duke St, down to Castle or Leith Sts. Along to Dundas St and down to Forth St. Along Forth St to St Andrew St. Along Anzac Ave to the Railway Station. Along the station forecourt then onto railway land and proceed behind the Settlers museum and Chinese Garden, across Rattray St and along behind the Box Retail area to Andersons Bay Rd.

Problems? Negotiations would be needed to obtain an easement through the railway land and a lane constructed to suit. Advantages: No fatalities on SH1, No parking to be forfeited. No alteration to the landscaping. Face it, all those mature trees along both route are very efficient ‘carbon sinks’ and one would expect cyclists to appreciate the value of those. From this route it would not take too much planning to tie it in with the N W Harbour to Port Chalmers trail, again obviating needing to go onto SH1 or 88. It also connects nicely with the University complex. A cycle park could be established in the Station vicinity, with a short walk to the CBD.

Win win I would think. Disadvantages: Frankly I can’t think of any, but I am sure there will be.

[ends]

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Add this:

Anonymous
Submitted on 2013/11/17 at 6:04 pm

Normanby to Gardens on existing cycleway, check.
Through Botanic Gardens on new cyclepath – DCC initiative.
Exit at Leith St, connect to new cyclepath through University – Otago Uni initiative.
Exit at Albany St, proceed to Anzac Ave on existing cycle lane.
Connect through Railway Station to existing cycle lane.
Arrive adjacent to Oval in mint condition.

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NZTA/DCC Dunedin Separated Cycle Lane Proposal

█ Public consultation on two preferred cycle lane options ends at 5pm on Friday, 6 December.

To access an online survey form or for more information on the separated cycle lane options, visit http://www.nzta.govt.nz/dunedincyclesafe, or email your comments to dunedinshcyclelanes @ nzta.govt.nz. Alternatively, ring 03 477 4000 for an information pack, or post your comments to:

Cycle Lane Feedback, C/o NZ Transport Agency, PO Box 5245, Moray Place, Dunedin 9058

People are welcome to attend the remaining drop-in sessions:
● Held. [12 noon – 2pm, Thursday 14 November, Wall Street Mall]
● 3pm – 6pm, Tuesday 19 November, Otago Settlers Museum
● 12 noon – 2pm, Wednesday 20 November, The Link (University of Otago)

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Related Posts and Comments:
17.11.13 Cull and MacTavish… “Have you fixed the debt crisis?”
14.11.13 Cycle lane explosions and puncture kits (SPOKES grenades launch)
8.11.13 Dunedin Separated Cycle Lane Proposal [how to make a submission]
5.11.12 DCC, NZTA: Cycle lanes controversy
19.10.13 Cycle lobby games and media tilts
24.9.13 Mediocrity and lack of critical awareness at DCC [council reports]
8.7.13 Bloody $tupid cycleways and Cull’s electioneering . . . [route maps]
28.3.13 DCC DAP 2013/14: Portobello Harington Point Road Improvements
26.2.13 DCC binge spending alert: Proposed South Dunedin cycle network
22.2.13 DCC: Council meeting agenda and reports for 25 February 2013
31.1.13 Who? 2010 electioneering
21.11.12 Safe cycling -Cr Fliss Butcher

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Not just in America !!!

Link from Martin Legge.

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### marketoracle.co.uk Oct 28, 2013 – 09:37 AM GMT
Politics / Social Issues
America’s Culture of Ignorance
By James Quinn

“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.” –Thomas Edison

The kabuki theatre that passes for governance in Washington D.C. reveals the profound level of ignorance shrouding this Empire of Debt in its prolonged death throes. Ignorance of facts; ignorance of math; ignorance of history; ignorance of reality; and ignorance of how ignorant we’ve become as a nation, have set us up for an epic fall. It’s almost as if we relish wallowing in our ignorance like a fat lazy sow in a mud hole. The lords of the manor are able to retain their power, control and huge ill-gotten riches because the government educated serfs are too ignorant to recognize the self-evident contradictions in the propaganda they are inundated with by state controlled media on a daily basis.

“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession – their ignorance.” –Hendrik Willem van Loon

The levels of ignorance are multi-dimensional and diverse, crossing all educational, income, and professional ranks. The stench of ignorance has settled like Chinese toxic smog over our country, as various constituents have chosen comforting ignorance over disconcerting knowledge. The highly educated members, who constitute the ruling class in this country, purposefully ignore facts and truth because the retention and enhancement of their wealth and power are dependent upon them not understanding what they clearly have the knowledge to understand. The underclass wallow in their ignorance as their life choices, absence of concern for marriage or parenting, lack of interest in educating themselves, and hiding behind the cross of victimhood and blaming others for their own failings. Everyone is born ignorant and the path to awareness and knowledge is found in reading books. Rich and poor alike are free to read and educate themselves. The government, union teachers, and a village are not necessary to attain knowledge. It requires hard work and clinging to your willful ignorance to remain stupid.

The youth of the country consume themselves in techno-narcissistic triviality, barely looking up from their iGadgets long enough to make eye contact with other human beings. The toxic combination of government delivered public education, dumbed down socially engineered curriculum, taught by uninspired intellectually average union controlled teachers, to distracted, unmotivated, latchkey kids, has produced a generation of young people ignorant about history, basic mathematical concepts, and the ability or interest to read and write. They have been taught to feel rather than think critically. They have been programmed to believe rather than question and explore. Slogans and memes have replaced knowledge and understanding. They have been lured into inescapable student loan debt serfdom by the very same government that is handing them a $200 trillion entitlement bill and an economy built upon low paying service jobs that don’t require a college education, because the most highly educated members of society realized that outsourcing the higher paying production jobs to slave labour factories in Asia was great for the bottom line, their stock options and bonus pools.

Instead of being outraged and lashing out against this injustice, the medicated, daycare reared youth passively lose themselves in the inconsequentiality and shallowness of social media, reality TV, and the internet, while living in their parents’ basement. They have chosen the ignorance inflicted upon their brains by thousands of hours spent twittering, texting, facebooking, seeking out adorable cat videos on the internet, viewing racist rap singer imbeciles rent out sports stadiums to propose to vacuous big breasted sluts on reality cable TV shows, and sitting zombie-like for days with a controller in hand blowing up cities, killing whores, and murdering policemen using their new PS4 on their 65 inch HDTV, rather than gaining a true understanding of the world by reading Steinbeck, Huxley, and Orwell. Technology has reduced our ability to think and increased our ignorance.

“During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.” –Bernard M. Baruch

The youth have one thing going for them. They are still young and can awaken from their self-imposed stupor of ignorance. There are over 80 million millenials between the ages of 8 and 30 years old who need to start questioning the paradigm they are inheriting and critically examining the mendacious actions of their elders. The future of the country is in their hands, so I hope they put down those iGadgets and open their eyes before it is too late. We need many more patriots like Edward Snowden and far fewer twerking sluts like Miley Cyrus if we are to overcome the smog of apathy and ignorance blanketing our once sentient nation.

The ignorance of youth can be chalked up to inexperience, lack of wisdom, and immaturity. There is no excuse for the epic level of ignorance displayed by older generations over the last thirty years. Boomers and Generation X have charted the course of this ship of state for decades. Ship of fools is a more fitting description, as they have stimulated the entitlement mentality that has overwhelmed the fiscal resources of the country. Our welfare/warfare empire, built upon a Himalayan mountain of debt, enabled by a central bank owned by Wall Street, and perpetuated by swarms of corrupt bought off spineless politicians, is the ultimate testament to the seemingly limitless level of ignorance engulfing our civilization. The entitlement mindset permeates our culture from the richest to the poorest. Mega-corporations use their undue influence (bribes disguised as campaign contributions) to elect pliable candidates to office, hire lobbyists to write the laws and tax regulations governing their industries, and collude with the bankers and other titans of industry to harvest maximum profits from the increasingly barren fields of a formerly thriving land of milk and honey. By unleashing a torrent of unbridled greed, ransacking the countryside, and burning down the villages, the ruling class has planted the seeds of their own destruction.
Read more

● James Quinn is a senior director of strategic planning for a major university. James has held financial positions with a retailer, homebuilder and university in his 22-year career. Those positions included treasurer, controller, and head of strategic planning. He is married with three boys and is writing these articles because he cares about their future. He earned a BS in accounting from Drexel University and an MBA from Villanova University. He is a certified public accountant and a certified cash manager.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Community halls of small-town New Zealand

Michele Frey and Sara Newman
Photographs John Maillard and John O’Malley

November 2012
RRP $45
Paperback, 260pp, 235 x 235mm Full Colour
ISBN 978-1-927145-37-1

Canterbury University Press
http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/saturday_night.shtml

Yeah, it’s great being out with the jokers
When the jokers are sparking and bright,
And its great giving cheek to the sheilas
Down the hall on a Saturday night …
Peter Cape, 1958

On a Saturday Night is a warm and colourful celebration of the strength and spirit of small towns all around New Zealand. From Whakapara in the north to Mossburn in the South, community halls have been the focal point of small towns for as long as the towns have been on the map.

These halls have hosted school classrooms, general elections, stag parties, birthday parties, film screenings, Rabbiters’ Balls, flag euchre evenings, farewells and welcome-home parties for servicemen from both world wars, memorial events for those who did not return, farm auctions, clearing sales, weddings, Christmas parties, Civil Defence teams, mayoral celebrations, church services …

Some halls have been demolished and rebuilt over the decades, other have been lovingly restored several times and are still going strong. Some halls have been transported on the backs of trucks to new locations as towns have grown and changed. Fires and floods have taken their toll in more than a few cases.

Michele Frey and Sara Newman visited these halls with photographers John Maillard (North Island) and John O’Malley (South Island) to talk to the locals and try to capture the essence of what each hall has meant – and means – to its community. In these stories and pictures they have recorded an aspect of New Zealand’s unique culture that seems to be passing into history.

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Michele Frey is a Strategic Planner (Natural Environment and Recreation) for Opus International Consultants Ltd in Napier. She has always had a strong affinity with the notion of community, and seized eagerly upon the idea of producing a book on small-town halls, with the opportunity it offered to gain insights into the dynamics of small New Zealand communities. Along the way she developed some lifelong friendships. This is Michele’s third book for Canterbury University Press.

Sara Newman grew up in a small town and knew all about the importance of community halls. She has had articles published in magazines in New Zealand and abroad, including Takahe and New Zealand Memories. While a member of the South Island Writers’ Group she won the Ngaio Marsh Trophy for fiction in 2009. Her work is included in several anthologies and her family history Living Between the Lines has been read on National Radio. She loved visiting the halls and meeting the people involved with them.

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### radionz.co.nz Friday 26 October 2012
Country Life
with Carol Stiles, Susan Murray, Cosmo Kentish-Barnes & Duncan Smith
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/20121026

21:18 On a Saturday Night
Sara Newman talks about a new book she has co-written with Michelle Frey about the community halls of small town New Zealand. (10′08″)
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

New Zealand Architects: Pete Bossley, and Ian and Clare Athfield

### radionz.co.nz Monday 18 June 2012
Nine To Noon with Kathryn Ryan
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon

Feature Guest – Pete Bossley
Auckland-based architect Pete Bossley last month won the NZ Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for 2012. The Director of Bossley Architects is best known for his designs for Te Papa, the Voyager Maritime Museum and the McCahon Artist Retreat in Auckland. (34′00″)
Gallery: Architecture by Pete Bossley
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

10:40 Book Review – Athfield Architects
Written by Julia Gatley, published by Auckland University Press. Reviewed by Jeremy Hansen. (5′27″)
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
http://www.homenewzealand.blogspot.co.nz/

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### radionz.co.nz Saturday 23 June 2012
Saturday Morning with Kim Hill
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday

10:05 Playing Favourites with Ian and Clare Athfield
Ian and Claire Athfield have been running one of New Zealand’s most celebrated architectural practices for over four decades, and their work is celebrated in a new book and gallery exhibition. (40′57″)
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Note: *Radio New Zealand misspells Clare Athfield’s first name as ‘Claire’; the error is repeated in their Urls for the item.

Where to share ideas for Christchurch and Canterbury

Rebuilding Christchurch | one brick, one word, one city:
http://rebuildingchristchurch.wordpress.com/ (James Dann) launched in September 2010.

Rebuild Christchurch Ideas Lounge | One Brick At A Time:
http://rebuildchristchurch.co.nz/rebuild-christchurch-ideas-lounge (Deon Swiggs) launched 4 September 2010.

Before After http://www.beforeafter.co.nz/ (New Zealand Institute of Architects) a discussion series launched along with an exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery (12 February – 20 March) – this closed early due to the 22 February earthquake. Explores the built environment and seeks to engage the public in identifying opportunities to create a better and more liveable region after the Canterbury Earthquake.

Urban Design Forum | Members Only Discussion Board
http://www.urbandesignforum.org.nz/
Urban design needs to be at the core of the re-building of Christchurch. While at the scale of the city, urban design ideas are likely to shape larger interventions, it is the site-by-site process of rebuilding where urban design principles could have their most lasting impact on the quality of the city that will emerge from the rebuilding process, particularly the quality of its streets, public spaces and neighbourhoods.

Other Links:
Canterbury Heritage http://canterburyheritage.blogspot.com/
Christchurch Modern http://www.christchurchmodern.co.nz/

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Hotel tower: developer “flashpoints” and the elusive mix of activities

### nzherald.co.nz 5:30 AM Saturday Oct 2, 2010
Is Auckland’s ‘urban village’ ideal straying off course?
By Geoff Cumming
How you see the restoration of a collection of century-old buildings on Auckland’s downtown waterfront is a matter of perspective. From one angle, the Britomart heritage precinct is the best thing to happen on the waterfront in a generation or three – cocking a snook at property hard-heads who argued that the 18 largely derelict buildings were beyond a bankable future. From another, it is a public-private partnership where the balance appears to be tilting towards the developer; where the promised “people-friendly” benefits of this urban revitalisation are crumbling.
The immediate flashpoint is the private plan change allowing the developers to build a high rise luxury hotel on the sailors’ home/Schooner Tavern site on Quay St. That decision has split architectural and urban design critics, some maintaining that new high rise can be successfully blended with low-rise heritage buildings. If so, it will be a first for Auckland.
Read more
(link via Richard Walls)

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### http://www.stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 02/10/2010
Demolition likely of four heritage sites
By Glenn Conway – The Press
The fate of six earthquake-damaged Christchurch heritage buildings will be decided by city councillors on Monday, with staff saying four are too expensive to repair.

Those under threat include Manchester Courts in Manchester St, the former Nurse Maude Association building in Madras St and two Sydenham retail properties in Colombo St.

Two others – the Ohinetahi property of architect Sir Miles Warren at Governors Bay and a former shoe-polish factory in Ferry Rd – have been recommended for full or partial restoration.

Detailed reports and heritage assessments on all six buildings will be debated at an extraordinary meeting of the council starting at 9.30am on Monday. It is expected to be the final meeting of the current council, with local body elections next Saturday.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Urban migration… don’t say decay

@restorm Urban restoration is the best solution to urban decay. http://bit.ly/chIzyc

Urban Restoration
The direct solution of urban decay is urban restoration. Others call it urban renewal. This does not only cover the restoration of structures of trade and commerce but also the ecological interconnectedness of an urban place to its people.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr