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Rural round-up

homepaddock — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 03:18:02 +0000

First product off the line at Fonterra Darfield:

The first bags of whole milk powder have rolled off the production line at Fonterra’s new $200 million manufacturing site near Darfield in Canterbury and are bound for South East Asia, China and the Middle East.

Brent Taylor, our Director of Operations – NZ Milk, says it was smooth running for the new plant, which produced 40 metric tonnes of product in its first full day of operations.

“It has taken less than two years to bring the project together and it is a significant achievement for us and good news for Canterbury and the wider Christchurch rebuild, he says. . .

Tree Harvesting Invention Named New Zealand Winner of the James Dyson Award :

A tree harvesting device has won the New Zealand leg of the twelfth annual James Dyson Award, a product design competition.

Current harvesting methods require return visits to a forest, causing soil erosion and damage to surrounding trees. Nick Ross, an industrial design graduate from Massey University, has devised a solution that cuts trees right from ground level, and feeds them straight into the machine. An extraction process is then engaged to return needles back to the soil for nutrients, while the branches gathered in a separate container can be re-used as an alternative energy fuel. . .

Meanwhile in the asylum - Offsetting Behaviour:

I like to think of New Zealand as being the Outside of the Asylum.

Outside of the Asylum, farmers are free to sell their produce.

Today’s news from inside the asylum: hosting a 10 year old’s birthday party and selling a bit of farm produce at the event
hosted on your farm gets you thousands of dollars in fines. . .

Gibbston Valley Winery celebrates two special ‘birthdays’

A Central Otago winery celebrating its 25th commercial grape harvest with a black tie dinner next month will also mark a milestone of a different kind.

The Gibbston Valley Winery anniversary dinner event on September 1 will kick start the award-winning winery’s support of national charity Cure Kids, with all proceeds from the night’s auctions going to the charity.

In keeping with that support, the dinner will also celebrate the remarkable story of Cure Kids ambassador and Queenstown resident Sophie Newbold, who celebrates her 18th birthday on September 14. . .

Boot camp to inspire development of New Zealand Inc – Allan Barber:

This week a high powered Boot Camp, attended by a group of key New Zealand agribusiness executives, will take place at Stanford University, California, with facilitation by Professor of Marketing Baba Shiv whose research expertise is in neuroeconomics.

The Boot Camp is the brainchild of Keith Cooper from Silver Fern Farms and John Brakenridge, Chief Executive of NZ Merino, who visited Stanford to discover new ideas on how to market Silere lamb from the two companies’ JV established last year with assistance from the Primary Growth Partnership fund. . .

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Day 9: The Inland Scenic Route

Wot Blog by Kristin Repsher — Thu, 03 May 2012 00:42:14 +0000

When I reached Geraldine on my drive back to Christchurch, I was struck by the change from a few days before. When I saw the town on my way to Tekapo, it was through a dull drizzle that reminded me very much of England. The town was still pretty, but the weather very much inspired me to stay inside. This day was the complete opposite — I wanted to get out of my car and wander past the old buildings, tasting various goodies from shops as I went. However, this wasn’t to be because I had a flight to catch, so I continued on through the town.

On the other side of town, I was presented with a choice — do I take State Highway 1 back to Christchurch, or do I take the Inland Scenic Route? After a bit of poking around on my GPS (which refused to actually find a GPS signal), I found that the scenic route was 30km longer in distance but supposedly only 9 minutes longer in time. Both routes would get me into Christchurch with plenty of time for my flight, so I was sold. The Inland Scenic Route it was.

What a great choice that was! It was great driving; there were very few cars going in either direction, and I only encountered one campervan that I needed to pass (who kindly pulled over before I had to overtake). The speed limit was the same as the highway and the only real slowdown I hit was a patch of roadworks that stretched for a few kilometers. Otherwise, the main slowdowns came from me stopping on the side of the road to take photos (which I had to limit so I didn’t end up being late).

I made two really interesting stops along the way. The first was before the turnoffs for Mount Hutt Village and Methven, and I stopped because I thought it would be a good opportunity to take photos of the mountains with some orange and red trees in front of them. I thought the campervan in front of me was stopping for the same reason, but it turned out that they’d spotted something that I hadn’t: a couple deer. These weren’t just any deer either — they were deer with some of the most impressive antlers I’ve seen in a long time. One had at least seven points!

My other stop was at Rakaia Gorge, where the waters of the Rakaia River flow underneath the Rakaia Gorge Bridge. As I drove downhill towards the bridge, there was a turnoff where I could stand and watch the river stretching before me. It reminded me very much of Hokitika Gorge on the West Coast in that it had a pearly baby blue colour that just doesn’t seem natural. It also had a very different appearance to most other rivers in Canterbury (and even from its own appearance further downstream) because it wasn’t braided — that is, running in very narrow streams across a vast area of rocky riverbed.

I tried to make a few other stops around Rakaia Gorge in search of a perfect viewpoint of the river, its bridge, and the mountains behind. My stop in a small carpark just after crossing the bridge was successful, and it gave me an amazing up-close view. I even saw the Discovery Jet, a jetboat ride that takes you through the gorge itself. My other stop, in the carpark for Discovery Jet where I hoped to get a view from river-level, was not so successful because the carpark was full of water. I was worried about taking my little car through it, so I turned around and continued towards Christchurch.

Soon, I found myself back in the outskirts of the city, filling up my car with petrol and preparing to return it before flying home. I was happy though, because by taking the Inland Scenic Route, I’d made the most of my last day in this beautiful country.

The Inland Scenic Route runs from Christchurch to Geraldine via Mount Hutt Village. From Christchurch, take SH73 to Darfield and then SH77 towards Mount Hutt. From Geraldine, take SH79 north and then turn left onto Geraldine-Arundel Drive, following the signs for the Inland Scenic Route.

News on White Zone repairs, CCC insurance, Annual Plan, Building Design #eqnz #chch

Sue Wells — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 07:06:54 +0000

There’s something funny going on with the seasons. I still have roses in bloom in my garden. The lemons have turned bright yellow with the first frosts. There are sol d’ors and earlicheer in the planter boxes, and most oddly, the daphne is out a full two months early.

Its fragrance always spoke to me of spring and the end of winter. I have it in our lounge now as winter starts. The last time I smelt it was the week of September 4th. One of the casualties of the Darfield earthquake was an enormous vase of daphne in the hallway which ended up on the floor. Like so many other things at the moment, the fragrance of daphne triggers little pictures in my head, little memories which I suspect may never fully leave me.

Running helps. I’ve been slack lately and it shows in my lack of blogging. The more I run, the easier it is to write. Running, like writing, is sensitive to the pressures of light and time. All last week I went to work in the dark, came home in the dark, and the chance for exercise was almost nil. Over the weekend I gritted my teeth and Pepper and I launched an infantry assault on the Victoria Park dog park. Uphill hurts at the time. Downhill hurts the next day. We ran again. And the following day. And the day after that. Snuck in runs before work and between meetings. We both needed it.

Work-wise, it’s one of the weeks from hell. They’re relatively common – every couple of months you get phases where meetings are so frequent and so long that reading and preparation for them can eat into sleep time if you let them.

There is so much happening all over the city too that I could be at meetings every second of every day, and it would be very easy to drown under the weight of everybody’s individual circumstances. There is so much hurt and heartbreak at the moment, so many stresses and unanswered questions that some days the sun just never seems to shine.

This is a time of change, and challenge, and choices. For the residents in the suburbs designated “red zone”, the choices that the government has provided will start to open up a new reality to them in the next little while. Some will stay, some will go. Some have left already. The offer is too generous, not generous enough – there is much to debate and no right or wrong answers. Often there seem to be no answers at all.

When will the tremors stop? When can we rebuild? On Monday, Fletcher Building’s CEO Johnathan Ling is reported by the Herald as saying

“We prefer to fix things once and do it properly and be done with it but while the aftershocks continue, and continue to do more damage, it’s very difficult to really get going.” … “Every time you start to rebuild something and we have an aftershock, it has got to be inspected again and evaluated to see if there are cracks in foundations and all those sorts of things. The last thing anyone wants to do is rebuild twice or three, or four or five times. I think the reality is that the rebuild in proper won’t really start until the aftershocks really cease.”

(Source NZ Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10734757 )

Last week, before the coloured zone announcements I had dealings with a family who live on the hills. They had all their EQC assessments in hand, had been visited by their insurer’s loss adjuster, and were all systems go waiting for repairs – only to be told they weren’t going to happen. I rang their insurer. Wasn’t satisfied with the response. Went higher up the food chain and got similar messages about “on hold until aftershocks stop/cease/diminish”. Those varied throughout the phone call. I’m completely unclear about what insurance companies are waiting for in order to start repairs – although perhaps a little more reassured today with this latest piece from EQC.

EQC Update – White Zone Information, Port Hills
June 29EQC response in the Port Hills
*            EQC is continuing to repair dwellings in the Port Hills where work has already begun
*            It has a team of 20 dealing with landslip issues
*            Another team is doing full assessment on severely damaged properties
*            EQC is not starting new repair work on houses and is waiting for information from Tonkin and Taylor about land stability, which is expected in the next 10 days
*            Once the Tonkin and Taylor work is completed than EQC can determine what new repair work can occur
*            The land issues in the Port Hills are different from other parts of Christchurch.   The major issue is the danger of rock fall on to houses
*            The 5.7 magnitude and 6.3 magnitude earthquakes on 13 June 2011 caused further land damage in the Port Hills area (including Lyttelton). This requires rapid mapping so EQC can triage appropriate areas and deal with urgent claims appropriately
*            Rapid mapping involves geotechnical engineers physically observing land damage and recording it on maps of the area. It gives an overall picture of area-wide land damage and identifies properties that require urgent attention. It will be followed by individual property assessments for properties with EQC claims.
*         Christchurch City Council teams are also continuing to work in these areas assessing lifelines and life safety issues from rock falls and loose rocks. The information gathered by these teams will also inform the assessments made by Tonkin & Taylor for EQC, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and the Government.
*           Tonkin and Taylor has advised EQC its land assessments in the Port Hills are about 70 per cent completeMeanwhile, the Royal Society of New Zealand and IPENZ (I’m a major fan of that organisation – I think I’m their token arts grad fanbase) have released a brilliant, easy read publication on building design in the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes. You can download it here: http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/2011/06/29/earthquake-engineering-information-paper/That’s not the report of the Royal Commission into the collapse of CTV and PGC – that’s yet to happen. There is more information too on the Department of Building and Housing’s website if you’re really keen – codes changed as of May 19 this year. http://www.dbh.govt.nz/earthquake-reconstruction-guidanceWhether they will change again after June 13 is anybody’s guess. That nasty little earthquake changed the city for a lot of people. Whether it’s changed perspectives permanently or temporarily remains to be seen. Another of the things that is hanging over us at the moment is the lack of reinsurance we are able to access as a community. This, today, from our Mayor Bob Parker.

” Tomorrow is D-day for the Council as we continue to try to secure insurance for the city’s $4.7 billion assets, which includes our underground pipes as well as facilities.

If the Council fails to get insurance cover by Thursday then our assets are uninsured – and that’s a very serious situation, particularly given the times we are in when there is always the possibility of further aftershocks.

Our predicament is because the Local Government-owned Civic Assurance will not take on the risk of insuring the assets of the Council and the Waimakariri District Council past Thursday. It in turn can not get the reinsurance it needs to protect itself. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that the Canterbury earthquake could cost about $15 billion which would make it one of the most expensive quakes for global insurers. Recent earthquakes in Japan and Haiti and floods in Australia, Pakistan and China have also hit insurers hard.

Council staff are looking at all possible avenues to get reinsurance, including talking to the Government. Even if we can secure reinsurance, it is very unlikely it will be at the same price and coverage as before the earthquake. And there is possibility we could have to self insure and rely on the strength of our balance sheet and the support of central government

We received a glimmer of hope for a solution on Monday when the Finance Minister Bill English announced that if our roads and sewers were damaged in another aftershock, then they would still get fixed. In Mr English’s view the question was where the balance of costs fell between ratepayers and taxpayers.

While that is some comfort, the ideal would be for us to secure insurance.

The Council is intent on absorbing as much of the extra cost of the earthquakes as possible, but it is inevitable that ballooning insurance costs would be passed onto our ratepayers. Our situation also raises yet another question about insurance cover in our region.

I’ve been out and about at community meetings organised by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority this week and insurance cover has been one of the most frequently raised issues. Homeowners are concerned that even though their homes are in the red zones, if insurance companies deem that their house can be repaired then the reimbursement they are being offered is the cost of those repairs. Individual property owners will be taking this up with their insurers, just as we as a Council are also try to get the best possible insurance outcome for our ratepayers.”

That nasty little insurance issue is one of the things yet to vex us as we go through our Annual Plan process. As I write we are at the end of day 1 of 2 of the most unusual process I’ve ever seen. If you can wade through a few pages of the agenda, I’d commend it to you. Our staff have put a huge amount of work into it and so have the submitters who wrote in, and the community boards who came and spoke to it in person. http://www1.ccc.govt.nz/council/proceedings/2011/june/cnclcover29-30th/clause8annualplanreport.pdf

What I would say to you is do not take it as gospel. We all know the thing we are most certain of is we don’t know what we don’t know. Rather than our nice polite three yearly major budget process followed by polite annual tidy ups, we are likely to see major revisions every year (perhaps more frequently) for the foreseeable future.

Add to that our continued work on the Central City Plan, all the regular business of council, the CEO review process, the occasional interview and a bit of filming and the reason for my dismal lack of blogging perhaps becomes apparent.

Let’s be clear. This may sound like a litany of woes – it’s not meant to be. I’ve taken to heart the Stockdale paradox. Accept the world in which you live. Acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead. Identify what success looks like. Find ways to overcome the obstacles. And understand that this is not a sprint.

I’ve said all the way along this event is more like a marathon. Community Board Chair and all around great guy Chris Mene said something even better today. “It’s an Iron Man,” he said, and gave me one of his great big hugs. I needed one at work today – no complaints about the ones at home, I hasten to add!

We’ll all be getting hugs tomorrow – the last day of June 2011 is a massive day. Not only is it The Alasdair Thompson Women’s Monthly Day Off (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113836228705799\) – it is Hug a Cantab Day. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111058408985608

If you’re a Cantab by residence, by birth, by association, by your passion or compassion or your generous donation – then feel free to put your little red and black paw up baby and tell your world it would be a much better place with a pair of arms wrapped around it.

Ka kite my friends – stay warm.

Region misses out on bus services

jhumm — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 23:29:12 +0000

With all the events of recent months it has been easy for some news items to pass by unnoticed. One of these was the decision by Redbus to discontinue its Amberley commuter bus service. Of course, this was a trial service in the first place so the decision made was to not turn it into a permanent service and the trial simply came to an end. This is a shame, though probably not surprising given that Redbus probably has more worries right now, and that the service was their own initiative without any backing from Metro/Environment Canterbury (ECan). With this in mind it is wonderful to see that their Darfield service is still going strong, although I note that the extra shopping service has been discontinued.

It does seem rather peculiar that although public transport is administered by a regional wide authority such as ECan there are no commuter services that link the other major urban areas of Canterbury (Timaru and Ashburton) to Christchurch, nor much support for services to sizable settlements such as Amberley. You would think that this would be one of the distinct advantages of having ECan run public transport!

Until the late 1950′s Christchurch had a number of country rail services but any bus service replacements, if there were any at all, seem to have disappeared long ago. This isn’t to say I think we should have bus services to everywhere and anywhere on the Canterbury Plains, but there are distinct transport problems between some well sized towns and Christchurch. Places like Oxford and Amberley might be better served by shuttle services that connect with the Northern Star in Rangiora and Kaiapoi respectively. The fact that there are no well-timed Metro services between Ashburton and Christchurch still surprises me, and a Timaru service wouldn’t be in the realms of impossibility. Amazingly, any services such as these could all be integrated with the Metrocard fare system, which you would think would have been a strong reason to introduce them years ago. As I said given the way public transport is administered in Canterbury it is amazing its strengths have never been played to.

There are probably more important things to worry about right now, but it is something I have felt is pretty important in the grand scheme of things. Better connectivity across the Canterbury region is important, and the fact we have some great tools to do it (a central authority, the Metrocard) is something we should take advantage of yesterday.

Darfield Roman Catholic cemetery listing updated

hleggatt — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:38:39 +0000

It won’t be long before the Roman Catholic cemetery belonging to St Joseph’s Church will

St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church - Darfield

hleggatt — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 05:35:37 +0000

On a geo-caching trip today I happened to pass by St Joseph’s Roman Catholic church in Darfiel

New chapter for Darfield Library

lincolnlib — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:24:28 +0000

The old Darfield Library/Service Centre closed it’s doors on Wed, 16th February, the final cus

Photography has begun at Kimberley Cemetery

hleggatt — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 10:38:04 +0000

A very Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope you all find what you are looking for – whethe

Express yourself

thinkingshift — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 02:00:15 +0000

No, I’m not blogging about the Madonna song but a cafe in Darfield, South Island NZ – about 25 mins away from us in Oxford. We had to go to Ashburton and, as we went through Darfield, I spotted a quaint looking cafe. So we decided to have lunch there after we’d finished in Ashburton.

I must say that the people in Ashburton are extremely friendly. I stopped off at the Family History Group because I thought (erroneously as it turns out) that my grandmother had been born in Ashburton. A wonderful older lady, Alice, rummaged through historical records and found the birthplace was Ashhurst not Ashburton. We’ve now struck up an email chat and she is helping me research my great-grandparents who came from the Channel Islands to New Zealand in the 1870s. We’ve also uncovered a well-known Edwardian novelist – could be my great-grand uncle but need to confirm.

Back to the cafe. I’m pretty sure it’s called Express Yourself. I forgot to check the name but I’ve looked it up on Google. We went in to find a full house and had to wait for a few minutes before getting a table. I ordered a dish called a Wedge and it is served with chicken, bacon or ham – I chose bacon. A lightly tossed salad of carrot, lettuce, beetroot and onion accompanied it, drizzled with a wonderful balsamic vinegar. So tasty was this Wedge, I was halfway through it before – smack to the forehead - I took a photo. I followed this with a white chocolate latte on Trim as they say in NZ (as opposed to skim milk as we say in Oz) and a gluten-free lemon slice. The food was excellent.

The cafe itself is rustic with upstairs devoted to a gift shop, which has some intriguing items. Around the walls of the cafe was assorted Kiwiana available for purchase. I’ll certainly be going back to this cafe – the coffee alone is worth the trip.

Quite a rustic looking cafe with assorted items for purchase scattered around the cafe.

The cafe was packed on a Wednesday afternoon around 1.30pm.

This dish is called a Wedge - basically focaccia bread with bacon and fresh salad. Served with a delish Balsamic dressing.

White choc latte with a tangy lemon slice.

Something to hang on the wall - Kiwi phrases. Whilst I agree Sweet As is pure NZ, I'm going to say She'll be Right is pure Oz.

If you click on this photo, you'll see the word Jandals. Apparently, this refers to Japanese sandals aka thongs in Australia.

Since the Christchurch earthquake, these T-shirts have become hugely popular.

Changes to Darfield service

jhumm — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 04:54:47 +0000

Not huge news but it is something of a pet interest of mine!

The Darfield bus service, operated by Redbus, is having a Saturday service introduced, leaving Darfield at 10am and returning from the City at 3pm. This seems to replace the previous shoppers service.

I am really interested in this service, primarily because it might lead to future bus services to places such as Amberley, Oxford etc. It’s great to see Redbus continue to commit to Darfield.

Local Holiday Program

David Sampson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 07:23:53 +0000

At Darfield, the town near our house, they normally have a 5 day holiday program once a year, in the

Darfield Earthquake

Nathaniel — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:42:19 +0000

AKA: Christchurch earthquake

On Saturday 4 September 2010 at 4:36 am, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake rocked Canterbury. It was centred near Darfield (about 40 km west of Christchurch) and had a depth of only 10 km.

It is estimated that it will cost New Zealand up to $4 billion dollars to recover from, but thankfully no was was killed in the quake.

I thought I would put together some links that relate to the earthquake. I’m not going to go into great detail with what is in each of the links, but if you’re looking for current earthquake resources, this could be useful to you. It is by no means an extensive list, but it’s a start.

Images:
There is a group on flickr called “Christchurch Quake”.

Twitter:
If you want to follow tweets #eqnz; #christchurchquake

Youtube:
Here are a stack of youtube clips

Latest news:
Stuff
NZ Herald
GNS Science

Recent Quakes:
Geonet

Other resources:
Suzie Vesper (@suzievesper) has put together a wiki with links and resources about the earthquake. She is also organising educational skype interviews (if you’re quick). earthquake-shakeup

Christchurch quake map – shows the earthquake and the MANY aftershocks (over 270 by this stage).

Feel free to add any other resources as comments.

Canterbury earthquake 2010

Matthew — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 02:02:01 +0000

When the earthquake hit, my mother was staying the night. The power went out and I lay in bed, trying to get back to sleep. The cat was agitated, and I stroked her head and she purred: she knew she wasn’t normally allowed in the bedroom, and it was good. I wondered how many people start work early on Saturdays, and gradually realised all the car driving by were evacuating. I really didn’t think it was bad enough to evacuate, or even to get up. At six or so, my mother and I had a nice breakfast of muesli, pineapple, yoghurt, and coffee — water from the garden well heated over a gas tramping stove.

The worst New Zealand earthquake since 1931 had a selective impact. The inside of a disaster is surprisingly normal. I have power, water, broadband internet. I didn’t break a glass. Life is normal for me, apart from the aftershocks, boiling the water. But I took my bicycle out for a look around yesterday and found that Bexley, the suburb on the lower Avon River, has had extensive road damage and flooding. There is sticky blue mud everywhere, piled at the sides of roads. It took me awhile to understand where it had all come from: straight out of the ground in cracks and holes like volcanic vents. The roads and bridges will take months to repair. Many chimneys are gone. Churches and heritage buildings are damaged, Famous local brick facades are gone, folded outward like a turning page. Many Christchurch cars crumpled under collapsed walls committed their last acts: flashing hazard lights in the dawn and running their batteries flat.

I picked a printer up off a shattered glass plate of my sister’s. It was a strange collision. Did the plate fall or the printer? Or did they both meet at floor level? A glass vase lying on the floor next to it was unbroken. Cups had wedged themselves against the door of her china cabinet, booby-trapping it, ready to crash. Here was a problem I could solve. I cracked the door open a sliver, repositioning the cups with a bread knife, pleased with myself as if Christchurch was saved.

My mother spent hours working with the frightened and confused at the Burnside High School shelter. Many of them simply needed someone to talk to. My skills weren’t needed. So I gathered with others on Facebook to joke and laugh and drink and share photos.

I visited Avonside on Sunday. The suburb is drowning in mud, and seems to have had a disagreement about whether or not to slide into the river. I saw a footbridge twisted like licorice, and deep, banded cracks in Avon Park. Flesher Avenue has formed into hummocks, collapsed, and filled knee deep in mud. I found a buried car. Many people were out walking, and everybody was talking to everybody. Some boys on bicycles asked me why everybody was taking photographs and I explained that they would never see this again.

Woolston is a working-class suburb with many brick buildings. These have been selectively dismantled. Homebush, the country estate of the Deans family, a founding family of Christchurch, has exploded. Bexley is being evacuated. I heard the sirens and helicopters today. Whole streets are being demolished, or not –I don’t know what is true. Once we are allowed into the inner city, we will see what else we have lost. Demolition has already begun there.

I wonder how this disaster-with-no-lives-lost will affect the people of Christchurch. This shock movement along a fault we didn’t know existed. Will it change the way we see the world? Will we value what we have more? Will be become cocky and arrogant? Will we become more self-reliant? Will we be the same as before?

Aftershocks continue, buildings are still falling down. The ground beneath our feet has risen up.

My photographs:

Extra Darfield bus service

jhumm — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:44:44 +0000

Its good news for Red Bus’ new Darfield service, with the introduction of a new friday shopper service from 16 July. The new service will leave Darfield on fridays at 10am and return from Christchurch at 3pm.

While this is a small event in the grand scheme of things, I do think it is interesting to keep a watch of as it could serve as an example of how to successfully meet the public transport needs of the plethora of semi-rural lifestyle blocks that ring Christchurch (it’s also been a very quiet week, and I have been too busy to get into an in-depth topic!).

It’s good to see some experimentation going on with this service, and with rising petrol prices, taxes and so on it could be more important than we think. I hope this bodes well for the service.

Darfield Bus Service Operating

jhumm — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:26:58 +0000

Darfield’s new bus service began on Monday morning, and according to the Selwyn Times, was used by ten locals on its first run. There are high hopes that support will increase for the service, and once again the prospect of people driving to Darfield to catch the bus was mentioned.

Interestingly, it looks like a tour-coach type bus is being used for the service.

Darfield Bus Service

jhumm — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:45:37 +0000

Red Bus is to trial a Darfield bus service starting from May 31. This appears to be a Red Bus driven initiative rather than a Metro one and is in response to requests from the Darfield community who approached Red Bus themselves. The trial is for three months and will be reviewed in August.

Fares will be $7.50 for adults and $5.00 for children each way. The service will depart from the Darfield railway station at 7.15 am and will stop at Kirwee, West Melton, Yaldhurst & Riccarton before arriving at the Exchange. The return service will depart the Exchange at 5.30 pm. Fares will be half price for the first two weeks as a special introductory offer. It is interesting to see that some hope is expressed that people further afield might park and ride (supposedly those living on lifestyle blocks).

I previously outlined the likelihood of bus services to Darfield & other towns, so it is good to see more progress on this. Remember that Metro has a Governors Bay service in the pipeline and has proposed an Oxford service as part of its Northern Star service review. Good to see Red Bus take the initiative here, I really hope for it to succeed as it could set a positive precedent. I look forward to following progress on this closely.

Aeotearoa Adventures May 2009

delaine2511 — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:59:00 +0000

We hadn’t been back to New Zealand for two years and so there were lots of memorable moments on this holiday. Lots of people to see, places to go and fun to be had.

Enertainment Plus

The girls were singing ABBA and dancing around the kitchen with Nanna while Aunty T prepared dinner which was very funny but I guess you had to be there.

Flight Delight

The look on Miss L’s face was priceless when she looked out the window of the plane and saw the wing expand as the plane prepared to land. She got very excited and yelled out to me “Look Mummy the wing is getting bigger – Yay!!”

Smile for the Camera

Nana let the girls take photos with her camera and they turned out to be excellent photos. It is great that camera’s are incredibly user friendly these days. Not that they always were that simple.

When we visited a friend her Mum had a selection of very old cameras on display. She showed the girls that you hold the camera about waist level and look down into a little window to see how the photo looks which was contrary to how the girls wanted to use the camera.

Nanas Lawn

The second day we arrived in Auckland was lovely and sunny and it was wonderful to watch the girls kicking a ball on Nana’s beautiful lawn. This was special because it is something I have photos of them doing as toddlers.

Pukekos at the Lake

Swamp Hens are called ‘Pukeko’ in maori and they are a lovely looking bird with their red beaks and blue feathers. The girls were delighted to see them at Western Springs Lake as they have story books that feature a Pukeko called Percy.

Swinging on the Walnut Tree

When we returned to Chrichurch it was really cool (after all the travel in the car) to stretch our legs outside and the girls were swinging on the tyre-swing under the old walnut tree. Jason and I were picking the walnuts off the ground and eating them.

Stopping by my old school and home

It was really cool to visit Darfield and show the girls the little town that was once my home. I’m not sure how impressed they were to visit my primary school but having said that, as soon as they saw the school playground they wanted to play. Miss E wanted to include a photo of my old house in her project book so I think she understood the significance it had for me. It really brought back some happy moments of long ago.

Off to the Snowy Mountain

It wasn’t actually part of the plan, but when we saw the snow on the southern alps shortly after arriving in Darfield, we all wanted to go to see the snowy mountains – aka Arthurs Pass! So we headed off the following day and it was rather like being on Dora the explorer adventure which included taking photos and singing songs all the way.