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    • The Year Ahead
      • In all probability, this year is going to be a bit of a quieter year than previous years, especially on the Design and Construction front. Auckland has been in a constructional doldrum for the last 18 months or so, while Wellington has been curiously bouyant, but realistically, this is not a state that is going to continue. Although there are no real reasons for our economy to crash screaming to t
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • architecture
      • blogs

    • The Year Ahead
      • In all probability, this year is going to be a bit of a quieter year than previous years, especially on the Design and Construction front. Auckland has been in a constructional doldrum for the last 18 months or so, while Wellington has been curiously bouyant, but realistically, this is not a state that is going to continue. Although there are no real reasons for our economy to crash screaming to t
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • architecture
      • blogs

    • Cinephilia: Opening This Week
      • If you are at all interested in the future of cinema technology, the energetic retelling of dark age Norse legends or theme park rides then Beowulf 3D is the thing for you this weekend. The 3D version only screens at Readings and I understand from Roadshow, the distributor, that only two cinemas in New Zealand are equipped to screen it: Readings at Courtenay Central and Hoyts Sylvia Park in Auckland.
      • Tagged as:
      • cinema

    • Island Bay's Creative Talent - Two More Stunning Examples
      • Jordan is a typical multi-facetted, multi-tasking Gemini from Canada. Immaculately qualified, with degrees from Queen’s University at Kingston and Windsor University, Ontario and a PhD from the University of Auckland, she has held a number of high level public service research and management posts in the transport and housing sectors here in Wellington. She is also one of Island Bay’s irrepressible entrepreneurs, embracing innovation and constant personal reinvention.
      • Accepted from Keith Johnson posts
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      • island-bay

        • Island Bay, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)


    • Mike Grace's Cook Strait Crossing Attempt
      • Wellington Senior Men's rower Mike Grace, along with Star rower Ben Dunsheath, set out on 15 March on their first attempt to cross Cook Strait in an ocean-going rowing boat. The forecast was for a great day - 2-5 knot northerly winds and a light sea swell. However, after about half way through the trip (taking an hour and 45 mins) the wind was up to 20 knots, and Mike and Ben were forced to pull out. The attempt has not lowered the spirits of the pair, and they plan on having another crack at the crossing as soon as Wellington's weather co-operates.
      • Tagged as:
      • rowing

        • The Boatshed, Odlins Plaza, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Blaze Squad Announced For ‘Do Or Die’ Round Against Hearts
      • The Wellington Blaze squad to play in the third round of the Women’s Domestic Competition against the Auckland Hearts at the Basin Reserve, from January 2 to 4 is: Sophie Devine (captain) Rachel Priest (vice-captain) Rebecca Burns Whetu Charteris Rosemary Cockle Dee Doughty Allex Evans Emma Fulbrook Melie Kerr Suzie McDonald Jess McFadyen Liz Perry Eimear Richardson   Co-Coaches: Mark Borthwick and Ivan Tissera   Notables: The matches can be followed on live scoring; cricketwellington.co.nz
      • Accepted from Cricket Wellington
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      • cricket

    • Firebirds Named For Last Game Of 2015 Super Smash
      •     The Mighty Ape Wellington Firebirds squad to play in their tenth and last game of the Georgie Pie Super Smash against the Mondiale Auckland Aces at Eden Park on Sunday December 6th is: Michael Papps (captain) Brent Arnel Tom Blundell Alecz Day Dane Hutchinson Iain McPeake Stephen Murdoch Ollie Newton Michael Pollard Luke Ronchi Matt Taylor Anurag Verma Luke Woodcock Notables: The match starts at 3:10pm and can be followed on Sky Sports
      • Accepted from Cricket Wellington
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • cricket

    • These are the fixtures of your neighbourhood
      • One of the things about living in a great city like Wellington is that there are a hell of a lot of things to take for granted. I mention this because while listening to Don McGlashan in Civic Square the other day he mentioned that Auckland doesn't really have any civic art. I'm not sure that's entirely true... But, in the spirit of parochial one-upmanship I thought I'd bring you some of Wellington's oft-overlooked art and sculpture.
      • Tagged as:
      • sculpture
      • civic-square

        • Te Ngākau Civic Square, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • A city with a vision? AKL x WLG
      • Wellington’s got a lot of bustle and noise (Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Spatial Plan – new subdivisions – convention centre – library) but where’s the coherent vision? Hey Auckland – can we learn some things? The Wellington Urbanerds invited some insightful Aucklanders to talk about the Auckland City Centre Masterplan (CCMP) because it’s getting a lot of positive interest in nerdy circles nationwide, and we thought “Wellington needs one of those to galvanise our progress!” But it turns out that the CCMP is not the cause of Auckland’s progress – it’s a milestone marker of a bigger evolution in Tāmaki.  Auckland City Centre’s chief urban designer George Weeks was insightful, visually engaging and occasionally very funny. Auckland city centre’s chief transport designer Daniel Newcombe injected insights that were pithy and thought-provoking. All up it’s worth watching the video – details at the bottom. But this post has some of the big insights for Wellington that we took away.  Hat tip to Charles Dawson for invaluable note taking. A galvanising vision, with a strong whakapapa  What makes the CCMP unusual as an official planning document, Weeks told us, is that it’s not “a planner’s plan” – 2,000 pages of vision down to prescriptive requirements. Instead it’s “the brochure for the city centre”. He told us that “with the 2012 CCMP, we thought it was better to have a 200 page document that 10,000 people see, or at least have skimmed, than a 2,000 page document that 100 people read in detail. We have used this approach to shape the 2020 CCMP.” It has had a major refresh in the last 8 years and the 2020 version is quite something. Galvanising vision  Weeks took us through how the updated CCMP works: how it delivers on the Auckland Plan’s promise of life in Auckland, through the city centre’s form and function. It’s worth laying these out because while we definitely have bits of the formula, there’s some powerful elements we’re missing.   Experience of being there The Auckland Plan (essentially the Tāmaki-Makaurau 30-year plan) sets out ten Outcomes for the city – effectively the promise of life experience that you should get, being in Auckland. The whole super-city is supposed to fulfil these promises, and the city centre’s no exception. In the CCMP, the ten citywide Outcomes or life promises are intertwined with eight place-specific Transformational Moves. The latter are the major initiatives to change the physical environment of the city centre so it can deliver those outcomes – the good Auckland experiences – for anyone who’s there.  A lot of this has come into the 2020 CCMP thanks to Access for Everyone (A4E), the city centre’s transport programme done to support the CCMP refresh process (more on A4E later). Street forms and place shapes… So the 2020 CCMP has street explainers that show – conceptually but with a lot of verisimilitude – the components of the streets and buildings, the overall shape of the whole public realm that’s needed for the city centre to give people that great experience.  a generic “transit street” explainer – from the CCMP These explainers are conceptual, but are tied enough to specific places, that everyone can see the trajectory of how their specific bit of the city will be changing, but crucially they can see a really solid why. …because This means “X street, and its environment, should have Y shape and form because…”. We saw, for example, that one of the biggest streets in the Learning Quarter, Symonds Street, will be a transit street for all these reasons: Symonds St, for example, needs to become a transit street not because of some abstracted notion of “sorting out the transport” but because it is at the heart of Auckland’s city centre universities, and “transit street” is the form for Symonds Street that will let it best serve people in the Learning Quarter with the good experience the Auckland Plan promises. Weeks flicked through a few examples of how the CCMP is signalling change to the built environment of Tāmaki’s city centre (which is pretty interesting – have a play here, the 2020 version is fully digital!) Our impression of all this was that the CCMP, thanks to the Auckland Plan and Access For Everyone (the transport dimension), has pretty well integrated two things that any self-respecting city needs to integrate. This is the roles of movement (transport) and place or exchange (destination activity) in any given area of the city centre. And Auckland manages to integrate these with a nice clear Why and Because for each set of changes. [Hold on, is that anything special? We know about this stuff… This tight integration – of form to function, place with movement, built form to people’s lived experience – seems pretty elementary for self-respecting cities. And you’d be forgiven for assuming Wellington has that integration in place. Indeed, things like the street concepts in Auckland’s 2020 (refreshed) CCMP don’t look too dissimilar to what LGWM put out for the Golden Mile. And the material coming out from LGWM and the Central City elements of the Spatial Plan and Wellington 2040 use a lot of the right words. Golden Mile concept from LGWM But in listening to Weeks’ presentation, we realised just how explicit and unequivocal the CCMP and A4E are about the why, the because for the physical city changes they describe, anchored home to that lived experience promised in the Auckland Plan. And the locked-in coupling between the place / destination train and the movement / transport train so they’re pulling each part of the city in the same direction towards that better experience for all Aucklanders. This coupling is something we’re muddling around in Wellington. We’re hedging our bets on saying explicitly what lived experiences we want to prioritise and privilege in our city centre. This means the transport planning and place planning are making (at best) vague bows in each other’s direction, with lots of hedging our bets about whether and how we’re prioritising “drive-through” vs “go-to” in our city centre. OK back to the presentation…] Galvanising and enabling Weeks told us that in the CCMP, when you combine the Auckland Plan’s Outcomes and the CCMP’s Transformational Moves, the product is the city centre “Opportunities”. Opportunities are projects, quite specific things, and there are quite a few listed. click on the image to have a play in the CCMP Opportunities But they’re not a set of business-case investments that clamp tunnel-vision onto ambition. They seemed to be as much illustrating the kinds of projects that would make the city centre better at giving people that great experience of Auckland living. As Weeks emphasised: “anyone can come up with an Opportunity”. (We imagine the galvanising could run like this… Hello, I’m a developer looking at buying or developing neighbouring Building X and Building Y, I can see the direction of profitable change and unprofitable change that I could make to that property, given the trajectory of change in its environment.  And I can make up a project that creates a much better laneway space between them, plus better delivery access, better stormwater handling, and augmented residential-plus-commercial uses… This bundle of investments will make me money, and enhance really well that little corner of the city – so public investment and other private are likelier to come join me… ) CCMP’s generic laneways explainer (click to expand) Lesson for Wellington: let the vision be the vision, get other activity making it reality A big lesson for Wellington, Weeks said, was to “be clear about what different plans are to do. The City Centre Masterplan sets the vision, which allows many actors to work out how to deliver its different facets, or to develop their own ideas too.” The CCMP is only the green-circled bits in this picture. CCMP: a strong whakapapa The CCMP’s technical pedigree is strong – it makes good application of internationally-accepted principles of urban physics and urban dynamics. But – as Weeks put it – if the CCMP can “see further, it’s because [it is] standing on the shoulders of giants”. Complementing the CCMP’s technical pedigree is its collective human ancestry: the people, organisations, and relationships that have coalesced around it, the support that it’s known and seen to have, and the mana that this contributes to its strong legitimacy and mandate today.  From the presentation a few points stood out on each of these… The technical pedigree of the CCMP  Weeks and Newcombe gave us a whistle-stop tour of the set of transport and urban planning documents of which the 2020 CCMP is the progeny. Auckland Unitary Plan – The supercity’s first joined up District Plan, the “rulebook” for implementing the Auckland Plan. Forced much more collaboration in planning, for everything. City Centre Future Access Study – NZTA, Ministry of Transport, Auckland Council, Treasury, Auckland Transport found the City Rail Link would blitz all other 46 options for getting people to and from the city centre. The City Rail Link (CRL) –  an underground railway link turning the city centre heavy rail terminus into a through-station, building 4 new underground stations. Doubles the number of Aucklanders with 30min access to city centre. After years of arguing, finally underway once tax was to pay 50% (thanks ATAP). Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) (2016-17, updated 2018) Auckland-region-wide (not just one bit) merit-based priority list of all the big-ticket transport projects, costed and agreed by all funders and deliverers.  Crucially: first acknowledgement by central government that Auckland couldn’t road-build its way out of its traffic problems Business Case for Walking – first quantification of the value of city centre walking to Auckland’s economy, done in 2017. [Hey “walkable capital”, where’s ours?] The creation of documents always sounds more coherent in retrospect, but Weeks and Newcombe emphasised that it’s not been a nice clean sequential progress.  Key principles of urban physics (like the role of people walking) have only been given oxygen relatively late in the sequence. The need to get tax funding to co-fund megaprojects has meant a lot of back-and-forth raruraru with central government, and between the various bits of Auckland’s council family.  And some great documents – like the Business Case for Walking mentioned above – have no official legal weight: a decision-making body can completely ignore them if it wants.  But we heard that the various documents have meant that amongst the bureaucracy and other government power-holders, there’s been an accumulation of key principles of good urban physics, akin to accumulation of organic matter. Sometimes it’s just leaves falling, but sometimes there’s a large trunk. These accumulations in the establishment’s hivemind make it much harder to go back and relitigate, as there’s been some crystallisation in the thinking. (Though, of course, as Newcombe noted, that doesn’t stop people trying!)   Access for Everyone – the complementary transport element of the City Centre Masterplan which was developed as part of the CCMP refresh – is a great example. In traditionally car-mad Auckland, the entire Auckland Council voted unanimously to begin A4E trials “enabling a decisive mode shift away from private vehicles, to make better use of finite city centre space and improve the quality of the environment.” Wow. Access For Everyone’s car-free Queen Street / Horotiu Valley with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods around. And no more driving through the city centre! The human side of CCMP’s whakapapa We heard that a major benefit of the sequence of documents was the relationships and conversations that a document creates a pretext to have.   There’s been a lot of investment in behind-the-scenes engagement, with big stakeholders in the city. This has paid off in an unusual level of big players’ trust and buy-in to the vision and the big moves to get there. From large developers, through Heart of the City (the inner city Business Improvement District), through the AA, NZTA, to the City Centre Residents’ Group  (fun fact: 40,000 people live in Auckland’s city centre alone). This good stakeholder engagement bears fruit: it enabled councillors to support the 2020 CCMP relatively easily, despite it having relatively little engagement from the wider public (a few hundred submissions compared with the Unitary Plan’s ~10,000). It’s not a coincidence that Precinct Properties has seen fit to drop a billion (with a B) dollars of its shareholders’ money into the Commercial Bay development – Weeks observed that it’s on the strength of the new trust and joined-up thinking developed through the CCMP process.  Daniel Newcombe spoke from experience about the collaboration that had eventually started to come, once “you can get people to stop introducing competing plans” and come together. Sometimes this requires biding your time, working by osmosis, and finding the sensible individuals in an organisation on whom to work, and building coalitions that chip away at antipathetic organisations. Getting people to issue formal letters of support on behalf of their organisations can be extremely powerful, he said. Iwi influence  We heard that one major improvement of the 2020 refreshed CCMP over the 2012 original is the inclusion of Māori outcomes. For the refresh, the ADO worked closely in partnership with Auckland’s Mana Whenua Kaitiaki Forum to develop a Māori outcomes plan. This work shaped Transformational Move 1: Māori Outcomes, with proposals for a papa kōkiri at the waterfront and a whare tāpere at Aotea Square.  The 2020 CCMP manifests the Auckland Plan’s Māori Identity and Wellbeing outcome and Te Aranga Māori Design Principles via Outcome 1: Tāmaki Makaurau – Our place in the world. It sets out the big interventions and systemic changes to bring mana whenua presence, Māori identity and life into the city centre and waterfront.  There are some big-ticket, high-visibility things and pervasive, interwoven ones. To our (Pākehā) ears this sounded pretty great…  Attack of the roadcones! Plans are essential, but how do you get them going, especially when there’s so many large, cumbersome players with inertia?  Weeks had peppered the presentation with cool before-and-after shots of some iconic Auckland changes, including Te Ara i Whiti / the (pink) LightPath, and localised street improvements like our favourite, O’Connell Street (below). O’Connell Street. oh.yes.melbourne We know (though the webinar didn’t go in depth here) that much of Auckland city centre’s evolution that you and I can see today was driven by the Auckland Design Office, with Auckland Transport and Auckland Council partners. Their projects opened people’s eyes to how good street change could be done, and that actually the good “urban physics” did apply in Auckland too. And they gave Auckland council family a chance to practice delivering street change together, and figure out how it can be done without anyone losing an eye.  They did it with a combination of a figurehead / champion / lightning rod / air cover for the ground troops (AKA Ludo-Campbell-Reid) plus a ninja team of designers, engagers and doers, doing on-the-ground projects that brought to life the good practice of urban design.    Projects like Fort Street, O’Connell Street, Fort Lane, and Jean Batten Place showed that – contrary to received wisdom – replacement of on-street car parking with high-quality streetscape was good for business. Collaboration with Auckland Transport led to the creation of a pop-up cycleway along Quay Street (well before the Innovating Streets for People pilots) which is now being incorporated into a permanent street redesign that will finish this year.  It’s not been an easy road: by now, ten pilots of the street changes for Access for Everyone were supposed to be underway, following that unanimous Council vote, but just one (High Street) has been. And the ADO has now been disbanded, allegedly due to their irritating conservative parts of the establishment with cost-cutting as a pretext.  But there’s momentum now…  Auckland’s changing, and has lessons for us  Throughout the session the Zoom chat pane had been running hot with questions and comments from the “floor” (aka the online audience). Weeks and Newcombe took questions from the pane and from the Urbanerds presenters, and a few highlights stood out including lessons for Pōneke… Lesson for Wellington: get partners on the same transport page Weeks’ and Newcombe’s first lesson was to get a multi agency agreement on transport together. It can’t just be the city council or regional council. It has to have central government buy-in; they can’t be pulling in the other direction from the city or region with their ambitions for the city’s transport. Updated ATAP, with all the partners This consensus shifts the conversation from “Do we need that good stuff replacing the bad stuff?” to “When do we need it?”. You have to keep the focus at that “when” level, not allowing relitigation of the fundamental principle of urban physics that you’ve achieved consensus on. We wonder: is this LGWM? Is it shifting our conversation? Is NZTA pulling in the same direction as the city, as the regional council?   Lesson for Wellington: generate the brochure, together A second big lesson is that you have to have the vision, the brochure, the clear picture of the good life that your city wants to give everyone who’s in the city centre, whatever they’re doing there. This has to be the rationale for any the physical changes that you entertain or consider. The Auckland Plan’s 8 outcomes – promises of the experience of life in Auckland, that the CCMP too must deliver This “brochure” must be developed hand in glove with the actors we want to be supporting it, building on any public mandate you already have but not driven by the wider public. This conversation with the big players should not feel like it’s led by any one player (developers, or transport-planners, or inner-city-residents, or businesses – nor even, we wonder, council?). What it must be is very good quality engagement that builds a strong trust and instils a foundation layer of commitment to (or at least grudging acknowledgement of) solid urban physics, and the trajectory of change needed throughout the city.    Lesson for Wellington: CBDs are doomed Listener Sally asked whether a focus on a city centre had been overtaken by COVID and its boost to working from home, and localism, especially in Wellington where there’s such a large commuter population. Weeks’ answer put it in much more professional terms, but the message came through clearly: if your city centre is mostly a Central Business District, where “business” is the dominant activity, it’s doomed. Monocultures always make a system vulnerable to shocks, in agriculture, horticulture and in cities If it’s a central city, with a hundred or a thousand different reasons for people of all different walks of life to be there, then it’ll be fine – it’ll change and adapt, but the power of people wanting to be there is the lifeblood of a city. “The death of the city has been predicted since the invention of the city, in the Bronze Age” Weeks observed – “and if you’ve got an actual city, it won’t happen.” We wonder… how much of Wellington’s central city is a dead zone by 6.30pm? How much are we reinvigorating and diversifying the reasons to be there?   Lesson for Wellington: lock all good plans to something with teeth Weeks emphasised that the power of these plans comes from linking area plans and other non-statutory plans to ones with statutory power.  So despite being a non-statutory document, the City Centre Masterplan carries weight because they mapped its outcomes tightly against the Auckland Plan (the statutory 30-year plan for the whole city) and councillors have voted overwhelmingly in favour of it. diagram showing how the CCMP is making good on the Auckland Plan’s promises, in the city centre We definitely don’t yet have the vision and its trust, nor the solid hook between statutory and non-statutory … but we have some elements of the recipe.    We wonder… how much of the CCMP-style whakapapa do we have, if not the actual document?  Could we build these levels of trust and vision together?  Some Wellington City Council planning and design gurus attended the session and helpfully fielded some questions about where Wellington was at. Our one-liner summary was: it’s not going to hell in a handcart, but it’s definitely all up in the air. Smart engagement from Urbanerds listeners and Talk Wellington readers is really needed. We’ll pick up “so what for us?” in the next post. Here’s the video: link, passcode SUa&tOC5 Meantime… where have you seen signs of a clear vision of good Wellington city life, for everyone?
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      • draft-spatial-plan
      • supercity
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      • island-bay-cycle-way
      • covid-19
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      • convention-centre
      • lets-get-wellington-moving

    • A Very Fine Affair
      • Today I had the pleasure of triumphantly depositing $1700 in the Oxfam Coffee Break bank account! This money was raised at the formal dinner, A Fine Affair, by the amazing group of timebankers, volunteers, sponsors and guests, who worked, donated and consumed delicious fairtrade food and drink. The day started bright and early for our star chef, Tania Sawicki Mead, along with a dedicated team of kitchen hands including Nolan Hodgeson, Karly Christ, Kate Wilson and Renee Rushton. A crisp selection of fresh food donated by Commonsense Organics and The Organic Connection was unpacked and the preparation began. The Newtown Community Centre Theatre was transformed into a beautiful, fine-dining restaurant setting lit with fairy lights and candles and decorated with fair-trade coffee sacks.
      • Accepted from Fair Trade City Wellington news
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      • newtown

        • Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Real-time Bus Information
      • I'm a big fan of real-time bus information - electronic signs that use GPS technology to tell you precisely when the next bus is coming, rather than having to rely on the theoretical arrival time of the printed timetable. These have been up and running in Auckland for a few years now, and when I was living there it made catching a bus just that much easier. So it's exciting to see that the Greater Wellington regional council are in the process of planning a real time bus info system.
      • Tagged as:
      • transport

    • Another Pro-Rail Brown Mayor
      • Lost in the Auckland north with all the attention to the Len Brown win is the fact Wellington may have a very pro-public transport Greenie mayor within days. The Greens’ Celia Wade-Brown is only 40 votes away from winning with 960 specials to be counted. Celia Wade-Brown, like her northern namesake, Len Brown, campaigned on a transport policy -and being a Greenie, it was all about choices such as walking and cycling. But central to her campaign was a promise of light rail for the capital.
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      • Tagged as:
      • elections-2010
      • light-rail

    • Notebook: Willis Street
      • Not everything on Willis Street is as lively and appealing. Near the intersection with Lambton Quay, a retailer is still being sought for a big empty space on the ground floor of the black tower which used to be the Bank of New Zealand before it moved to Auckland. “A world of possibilities,” says a hopeful sign in the window. And south of Unity, on the corner of Grey Street, there’s another empty shop. (It used to sell surf wear.) Reminders that there’s a recession, even if it isn’t being talked about much.
      • Accepted from Wellington Scoop features
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • media

        • Willis Street, Wellington Central, Wellington, Wellington Region, 6011, New Zealand


    • Handle the Jandal 2009
      • The category winners for the 2009 Handle the Jandal DIY Music Video Awards are: Producer’s name, Band Song Best Use of Exploitative Tactics to Promote A Band: Judah Finnigan and Ben Forman: Highlife,Berserk Best Editing: Joe Fish: James Duncan, A Obvious Best Cinematography: Kimberley Brown: Electric Wire Hustle, Perception Best Concept: Lisa Dunn: Parallel Dance Ensemble, Weight Watchers Best Animation: Preston McNeill: Isaac Aesili, With You In My Bed Rising Star 2009: Greg Pawsey: Cougar Cougar Cougar, Satans Blues And the Golden Jandal for the peoples’ favourites: First: Lisa Dunn for Parallel Dance Ensemble’s Weight Watchers. Second: Mike Gray for El Schlong’s The Baddies Are Coming Third: Judah Finnigan and Ben Forman for Highlife’s Berserk Posted in Arts and Music, News and Events, Peoples and Society Tagged: cultures, music, new zealand, wellington
      • Tagged as:
      • film-and-video
      • video

    • Record store day 2024 at slow boat!!!
      • Slow Boat is again thrilled to share with you our plans for Record Store Day 2024!! After the success of last year’s event, we have again agreed to co-ordinate with our dear neighbours at 173 Cuba Street, the venerable Flying Nun Records, so that there won’t be any clashes for our respective instore performances, which we are thrilled to announce thus; Flying Nun; 1pm – Living Clipboards – featuring Marineville’s Mark Williams, along with Ghost Club’s Denise Roughan and Jim Abbot – their “All Over Tawa” album is released on the day! Slow Boat; 2pm – Bleeding Star – fresh from the previous weekend’s Otisfest event at San Fran, the excellent Poneke/ Wellington indie guitar band will present their songs in a stripped back, largely acoustic fashion. Flying Nun; 3pm – Cruelly – grungy, punky, shoegazy? Who can say – what it is is life affirming, melodic noise from this young Wellington band – come check it out! Slow Boat; 4pm – Erny Belle (duo) - after the success of her superb second album (on the Flying Nun label), the Tamaki Makaurau/ Auckland based singer songwriter will perform in a duo setting – can’t wait!! We will also be opening at the earlier time of 9am (to give the eager beaver/ early bird RSD queuers an hour less to wait!), and will be bringing you an array of limited RSD vinyl exclusives for your delectation – you know the drill; no holds, no reserves - first in, best fed!! Thoroughly looking forward to what has become a real highlight of the record shop calendar, and to a day where we celebrate vinyl, music, and the culture of the independent record store!! See you all here!!! Xx Team Slow Boat X Team Flying Nun xX
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      • tawa

        • Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Firebirds Named For ‘Do Or Die’ Clash With Aces
      •     The Mighty Ape Wellington Firebirds squad to play in their seventh game of the Georgie Pie Super Smash against the Mondiale Auckland Aces at the Basin Reserve on Sunday, November 29 is: Michael Papps (Captain) Brent Arnel Tom Blundell Craig Cachopa Jade Dernbach Dane Hutchinson Stephen Murdoch Jeetan Patel Michael Pollard Matt Taylor Anurag Verma Luke Woodcock Notables: The match starts at 1pm and is live on Sky Sport and Radio Sport Tickets available online here.  All online purchases go in the draw to win a Ford Fiesta Trend Manual Match Day proudly sponsored by Proactive
      • Accepted from Cricket Wellington
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • cricket

    • Announcing the Verb Writers Resident 2020
      •   <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > We are thrilled to be offering a new writers residency in Wellington thanks to our partners Katherine Mansfield House & Garden and Park Hotel. We had a lot of applications from across Aotearoa for our first residency experience. It was a real privilege to read through so many incredible applications and gain new insights into what writers are working on and why residencies are so important.We are delighted to announce that our inaugural resident is Auckland writer Himali McInnes. Himali’s application was exceptional and we look forward to welcoming Himali to Wellington later in 2020. About Himali: Himali McInnes is a family doctor who works in a busy Auckland practice and in the prison system. She enjoys writing short stories, essays, articles, flash fiction and mediocre poetry. She has been published locally and internationally, and has either won or been short-listed in several writing competitions. She is an NZSA Mentorship recipient for 2020. Himali is also a maker of messes - through gardening, beekeeping, cooking and chicken farming. She is humbled and so grateful to be a Verb Wellington Residency recipient, as she loves Wellington (best op shops ever) and is very much looking forward to time spent writing at the Katherine Mansfield House & Garden. Read Himali’s brilliant review of Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other on The Spinoff here.
      • Accepted from Verb Wellington feed by tonytw1
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • books
      • community-groups

    • Take 5!! #7
      • Greetings, all - thrilled to share with you today another episode of Take 5 - this time, from NZ's fave Canadian expat, and undisputed Queen of country fried soul and r'n'b, the very magnificent Ms Tami Neilson! 5 tracks that have been getting her through the lockdown blues - enjoy!!(You can also watch Tami's spectacular performance from late last year at Auckland' s Civic Theatre in its entirety here - featuring special guests Delaney Davidson and Monday's Take Five-r, Nadia Reid!!)  1- Allison Russell "All Of The Women"2- Amythyst Kiah "Black Myself"3- Robert Plant & Alison Krauss "Can't Let Go" 4- Dolly Parton "Smoky Mountain Memories" 5- Fiona Apple "Relay"
      • Accepted from Slow Boat Records feed 2022 by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • theatre

        • Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • A Place for Local Making
      • A Place for Local Making is a co-creative hub for open-source making, where artists Xin Cheng (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) and Adam Ben-Dror (Te Awakairangi Lower Hutt) will welcome anyone to join them in an exploration of resourcefulness. Aiming to inspire imaginative and caring ways of making and living, A Place for Local Making invites inquisitive collaborators to bring in surplus materials and electronics, and to play, make and think with the materials, transforming them into useful or enjoyable things. Wishing to celebrate the local community of maker-carer-user-hackers, they also welcome anyone who makes, repairs and repurposes to share and showcase their invaluable creations.
      • Submitted by tonytw1
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • art
      • singing

        • Courtenay Central (Abandoned), Courage Lane, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Watch Bare - Now at Downstage Theatre
      • "Once again the combination of great performances and dazzling writing makes for a thoroughly entertaining, gentle satire of 'our people today' that clearly stands the test of time. Go."Mary Anne Bourke (Theatreview) on BARE Love, sex, family, friendship, youth and bad movies at multiplexes - listen to our people talk!Directed by award-winning director Oliver Driver Toa Fraser's classic New Zealand comedy BARE is an hilarious matrix of urban poetry. Armed with the voice of the street, two actors riff on body image, films, takeaway food, graffiti and English literature. Downstage is proud to present this limited season (13 performances only!) of this new production of BARE that premiered at Silo Theatre in Auckland last year.
      • Tagged as:
      • theatre

        • Hannah Playhouse, 12, Cambridge Terrace, Mount Victoria, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • REVIEW: Blunt Dog: Bullet Train to Dunedin
      • In addition to playing an Eyegum Wednesday at San Fran, Blunt Dog spent the weekend recording their upcoming album at the Massey University studio. The album, titled Bullet Train To Dunedin, promises a warm and unpolished sound reminiscent of old home recordings. This album marks a significant departure from their first album, How is a Dog So Honest?. The new tracks, primarily derived from guitarist and vocalist Dom’s demos, are both harder and softer, expanding on the range of their earlier work. The album concept originated from drummer Logan’s whimsical idea of a Japanese bullet train travelling from Britomart station in Auckland to Dunedin, described by the band as “a moment of genius and a passage of jest.”
      • Accepted from Salient 2024 by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • dogs
      • music
      • reviews

        • San Francisco Bath House, Swan Lane, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Metropol-itan ?
      • Hot on the heels of the Barrio development comes another development of inner-city apartments (first blogged on WellUrban). This one is designed by Archaus - the most prolific architects in Wellington. The site has had a couple of schemes proposed for it previously: one by Abri Architects of Auckland which was shot down in flames pretty quickly, and the other, curvy one that never really saw the light of day except for a feature in the Wellurban blog. This one may be around a little longer. The site, is a highly sought after corner close to Cuba St, right on the edge of Ghuznee St and Leeds St. Looking at architects drawings it seems to be about 14 stories tall.
      • Tagged as:
      • architecture
      • cuba-street

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Icon get no satisfaction
      • It has been announced by the Wellington City Council, that following on from the demise of the proposal for a Hilton Hotel, there will be an ideas competition for the end of the Outer T on Queens Wharf: currently home to an old tin shed, as I’m sure you all know. The Hilton-to-be, as you will recall, was vanquished by the continued badgering of the combined forces of Waterfront Watch and the Civic Trust (go Grey Power!), and no one much seems to have mourned its passing (blogged by Philip back in March). The Hilton’s Auckland architects have left town with their tails between their legs, probably destined never to want to return. While details for the competition for the replacement building have not been clarified yet, there’s one thing for sure: there’s going to be a call for it to be Iconic.
      • Tagged as:
      • hilton
      • waterfront

    • Henry Russell Walden (1934-2013)
      • Russell died last week. His funeral is tomorrow (Tues 30th, 3pm Old St Pauls). He was born in Timaru, studied architecture at the University of Auckland, and was awarded the first MArch in New Zealand in 1964 with his thesis: “New Zealand Anglican church architecture, 1814-1963″ – all nine volumes of it. Another first he achieved was gaining a New Zealand Post-Graduate Scholarship in Architecture. The next year he headed to Birmingham to PhD study and private practice, returning in 1978 as a Reader in Architectural History at VUW, having completed his PhD (1975) and edited the MIT Press publication: The Open Hand: Essays on Le Corbusier (1977), an early collection of essays on Le Corbusier in English. http://www.futunatrust.org.nz/wp-content/header-images/windows.jpg Russell is renowned for his passionate relationship to Futuna Chapel – the subject of his Voices of Silence (1987) – as bicultural architecture.
      • Accepted from Architecture Centre news
      • Tagged as:
      • futuna-chapel
      • obituaries

        • Futuna Chapel, Futuna Close, Karori, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • RSD Drop 2!!
      • After a couple of false starts(!!), and with the dropping of the nationwide covid alert levels, Slow Boat is thrilled to finally be able to bring you some form of celebration – the second of three 2020 RSD drops, this Saturday, the 26th September, featuring a nifty, stripped-back instore performance from Auckland indie rock up-and-comers Daffodils, ahead of their show at Meow later that evening, celebrating the release of their excellent “Boys” EP on vinyl, which will be for sale instore!On top of this, you can expect a smattering of limited RSD vinyl and some mighty good cheer as we celebrate independent record stores, music and togetherness!! We would ask that you are super considerate of each other, and give each other space – we will be limiting the number of people instore at any given time, and the band will be performing at around 2.30pm – can’t WAIT to see all your smiling faces!!See you all here!! XX
      • Accepted from Slowboat posts by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • covid-19

        • Slow Boat Records, Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Orchestra Wellington presents PITA AND THE WOLF A family...
      • Orchestra Wellington presents PITA AND THE WOLF A family concert for all ages Sunday 27 July Wellington Opera House 3pm   Prokofiev – Peter and the Wolf Goss – Tane and the Kiwi Kubik – Gerald McBoing-Boing   Marc Taddei, conductor Dave Fane & Aroha White, presenters with special guest, Bret McKenzie Three classic stories take to the stage in a family concert filled with laughter and magic, presented by David Fane, Aroha White and Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie. Who remembers listening to Saturday morning radio stories? Composer Thomas Goss does! Inspired by Alwyn Owen’s tale, How the Kiwi Lost his Wings, Goss created a delightful musical story, Tane and the Kiwi. Its perky and indomitable little hero has delighted New Zealand audiences for over a decade. Aroha White lends her voice to the birds of New Zealand that star in this story. Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf is a popular favourite that needs no introduction – except this time, the orchestra gives Prokofiev’s classic a Pasifika twist. Adapted by David Armstrong, Peter turns into Pita, thanks to David Fane of Bro’town and Outrageous Fortune fame. Bret McKenzie leads the laughter in a musical adaptation of Dr Seuss’ humorous children’s tale, Gerald McBoing-Boing. Gerald can’t speak words; he just goes “boing boing” instead. Watch Flight of the Conchords’ Bret Mckenzie ham it up in front of the orchestra! Tickets from Ticketek 0800 842 538 Service fee will apply $16.50 – $26.50. Children under two – free!
      • Accepted from Orchestra Wellington posts
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • music

    • Thalia Zedek (USA) and Ned Collette (AUS) | Vogelmorn Upstairs
      • STRANGE NEWS & HOME ALONE MUSIC PRESENT THALIA ZEDEK & NED COLLETTE NEW ZEALAND TOUR - JUNE 2025 Wednesday 18 June - Auckland Unitarian Church, Auckland Thursday 19 June - Vogelmorn Upstairs, Wellington Friday 20 June (Ned Collette only) - Lyttelton Coffee Co, Lyttelton “For those that don’t know, Zedek has been one of the most compelling players and singers of the last quarter-century of American music” - The Quietus “...Collette turns folk music into something uncanny and gorgeous” - Aquarium Drunkard Auckland’s Strange News Touring have teamed up with Wellington record label and collective Home Alone Music to announce two very special shows this June featuring two incredible artists, Thalia Zedek and Ned Collette. A true icon of alternative music, Thalia Zedek has been part of some of underground independent music’s fiercest and finest moments, including Live Skull and Uzi in the 1980s, and noisy 90s indie favourites Come. Since then, Thalia has become a mainstay on legendary Chicago label Thrill Jockey (Trans Am, Rose City Band) with her brilliant Thalia Zedek Band output. As her label tells it, “Her ability to deliver raw emotions through her vivid stories of loss and hope, strife and triumph is unmatched”. New album The Boat Outside Your Window arrives next month, with new singles Tsunami and Naming Names suggesting this record is set to turn heads and destroy worlds. Zedek has never shied away from mining some seriously desperate emotional terrain - Pitchfork While these days he calls Berlin home, Ned Collette is both an Aussie lad and card-carrying Kiwi. Ned’s early years were spent playing experimental music in the underground venues of Wellington and Melbourne, before he headed off into the wild yonder to seek fame and fortune, or at least some amazing adventures. Seven albums in, his latest record Our Other History features hometown pals Leah Senior, Jim White (Dirty Three), Chris Abrahams (The Necks), and more. “...as rewarding a listening experience as I’ve come across in recent times” – Will Oldham on Ned Collette’s album Our Other History This marks the first time Thalia will have ever graced our shores, and it’s a very overdue return visit for Ned. These shows will be absolutely unmissable, so best not miss them, eh? NOTE: South Island Ned-heads will get their fix too, with Ned Collette performing solo at Lyttelton Coffee Co on June 20! Tickets at UTR
      • Accepted from Vogelmorn Events - Vogelmorn Community by feedreader
      • Automatically tagged as:
      • brooklyn
      • community-groups

        • Vogelmorn Bowling Club, Mornington Road, Brooklyn, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Anthropology
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Anthropology – The science dealing with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind. Artists Bio V is a multi disciplinary creative, specialising in digital and large scale surrealist imagery.     Published in VICE in 2018, her work largely discusses the construction of identity and how society impacts that.  Often touching on subjects around mental health and the connectedness of human beings.    Her works seeks to act as an anthropological study of humankind through imagery.   "Art has an amazing ability to convey a message across cultures, race, social economic groups... it speaks without words and unites like nothing else can"    V has worked with the New Zealand Police and other organisations such as Woman's Refuge, presenting on education around Mental Health Awareness and Family Harm Reduction.    The last year has seen her speak at Pecha Kucha, whilst also working with multiple councils painting murals and teaching a course at Hastings Girls High School.  She was a featured artist in the Auckland Festival of Photography, painted the festival circuit, and has showcased her work nationally at places such as Tairawhiti Museum in Gisborne. 
      • Accepted from Black Coffee exhibitions by feedreader
      • Tagged as:
      • art

        • Black coffee, Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6021, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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      • Star Boating Club is a rowing club for all ages and abilities. At School level - Wellington College, Wellington Girls College and Queen Margaret College are based with the club. At Tertiary level - Massey University Wellington is currently based with the club, although Victoria University also has members that row at Star. The club has an adult membership ranging from novice to masters.
      • Tagged as:
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      • New Zealand’s only botanic garden dedicated solely to native plants, and one hundred hectares of ancient and regenerating forest, all of it just a few kilometres from Wellington’s CBD. Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush is designated a six-star Garden of International Significance by the New Zealand’s Gardens Trust of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture.
      • Submitted by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • conservation

        • Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


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