Matching Newsitems

• • Orienteering – Week 1 Results

    • 27 Jul 2020
    • College Sport Wellington
    • It was good to see lots of people out having a go at orienteering today.
    • Accepted from College Sport news HTTPS 64 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
    • orienteering
  
  

• • December strava.com challenge result

    • 30 Dec 2019
    • Kapiti Cycling Club
    • A pretty conclusive winner, since Mike Proudfoot took out the KOM on all three segments.  
    • Accepted from Kapiti Cycling Club news 2020 64 months ago by feedreader
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • kapiti
    • cycling
  
  
• • 

    UHCF Senior Prizegiving – Award Winners 2025

    • 24 Sep 2025
    • Upper Hutt City Football
    • What a fantastic night as our senior teams came together to celebrate the 2025 season.
    • Accepted from Upper Hutt City Football feed 3 months ago by feedreader
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • soccer
    • upper-hutt
  
  
• • 

    Fringe Festival: Ground

    • 26 Nov 2024
    • Circa Theatre
    • Ground Ground follows three families that deal with maintaining a seaside house, holding on to...
    • Accepted from Cira shows 2021 13 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
    • fringe-festival

    Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  
• • 

    All The Things I Wish I Could Be

    • 26 Nov 2024
    • Circa Theatre
    • Created by Tom Knowles and Jeff Parsnips A classic, kiwi kids comedy singalong! “An interactive...
    • Accepted from Cira shows 2021 13 months ago by feedreader
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • theatre

    Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • Non-uniform Day

    • 8 Oct 2020
    • Wellington Girls' College
    • Friday 16 October is a non-uniform day – Pink Shirt Day to support anti bullying.
    • Accepted from WGC HTTP 62 months ago by feedreader
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • secondary
    • thorndon

    Wellington Girls' College, Pipitea Street, Pipitea, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • 26 October 2020

    • 30 Oct 2020
    • Brooklyn Smallbore Rifle Club
    • Congratulations to Erin Little on winning the A Grade champion of champions match with 196.
    • Accepted from Brooklyn Smallbore Rifle Club 2020 61 months ago by feedreader
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • brooklyn
    • shooting
    • wcn-hosted

    Royal Tiger Range, Russell Terrace, Berhampore, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6242, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  
• • 

    Photographs - Charles Edwards

    • 3 Dec 2022
    • Black Coffee
    • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > "Long is the way and hard, that leads out of hell up to light" These photographic works are an interpretation of, and were taken and produced, during a 400 day journey of sobriety after a lifetime addiction to alcohol. The images are a visual commentary on my personal labouring in the darkness, the damage it caused, and the journey to a lighter and brighter future of sobriety. Expressed through light and shadow. Hand printed in the darkroom, from 35mm and 120 roll film black and white negative, onto fiber based art paper and then selenium toned for warmth and archival permanence. Charles Edwards worked in the screen industry playing with cameras. This led to playing with still cameras. Then the often obsessional and inevitable segues this passion has to playing in the darkroom. And has been freezing photons with film - since 1997. Currently working as a full time Dad by day and a photographic darkroom artist by night.
    • Accepted from Black Coffee exhibitions 35 months ago by feedreader
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • cafes
    • newtown
    • exhibitions

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

• • July Update from DCM - together we can end homelessness

    • 28 Jul 2021
    • Downtown Community Ministry
    • 96 July Update from DCM - together we can end homelessness p{ margin:10px 0; padding:0; } table{ border-collapse:collapse; } h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6{ display:block; margin:0; padding:0; } img,a img{ border:0; height:auto; outline:none; text-decoration:none; } body,#bodyTable,#bodyCell{ height:100%; margin:0; padding:0; width:100%; } .mcnPreviewText{ display:none !important; } #outlook a{ padding:0; } img{ -ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic; } table{ mso-table-lspace:0pt; mso-table-rspace:0pt; } .ReadMsgBody{ width:100%; } .ExternalClass{ width:100%; } p,a,li,td,blockquote{ mso-line-height-rule:exactly; } a[href^=tel],a[href^=sms]{ color:inherit; cursor:default; text-decoration:none; } p,a,li,td,body,table,blockquote{ -ms-text-size-adjust:100%; -webkit-text-size-adjust:100%; } .ExternalClass,.ExternalClass p,.ExternalClass td,.ExternalClass div,.ExternalClass span,.ExternalClass font{ line-height:100%; } a[x-apple-data-detectors]{ color:inherit !important; text-decoration:none !important; font-size:inherit !important; 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} } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentColumn{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnImageCardLeftImageContent,.mcnImageCardRightImageContent{ padding-right:18px !important; padding-bottom:0 !important; padding-left:18px !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcpreview-image-uploader{ display:none !important; width:100% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h1{ font-size:30px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h2{ font-size:26px !important; line-height:125% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h3{ font-size:20px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ h4{ font-size:18px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent,.mcnBoxedTextContentContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .headerContainer .mcnTextContent,.headerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .bodyContainer .mcnTextContent,.bodyContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .footerContainer .mcnTextContent,.footerContainer .mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; } } "DCM helped me get into a house, and they are helping me to stay in the house." Happy Matariki This month we have been celebrating Matariki, the Māori New Year, at DCM. This is a time to reflect on the past, celebrate the present and plan for the future. We came together for our Matariki Seasonal Kai, an opportunity for kaimahi to connect with taumai* during the cold days of winter, and to enjoy a very special hangi. Taumai wrote some beautiful reflections in a book that we gifted to the Tristram whānau, who make this meal possible. Smurf shared his poem: You may remember Smurf from our recent film clip; he first connected with DCM when he was rough sleeping in 2014. He has seen a dentist, audiologist and physiotherapist at DCM, regularly attended Te Hāpai and worked with Te Aro Health around his health needs. In 2020 he was housed by our Aro Mai Housing First team. We're very proud of the progress he has made on his journey to wellbeing. As he himself reflects, "DCM helped me get into a house, and they are helping me to stay in the house. I don't think I would have got healthy if I wasn't housed." <!-- --> How can New Zealand solve its social housing crisis? DCM Director Stephen Turnock with Associate Minister of Housing Marama Davidson This month DCM featured in an article in the UK newspaper, the Guardian, about homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand: “Once a world leader in social housing, New Zealand now faces what the UN has called a “human rights crisis”. Although the government is pouring money in, the waitlist for social housing has ballooned to 23,000 – triple that of three years ago – and there are more than 4,000 children living in motels. The government has repeatedly said it is rectifying a problem it inherited from the former National government, which saw the sell-off of state housing and underinvestment in social housing. The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, told local media in January the government would leave “no stone unturned” to fix the problem. But groups working to end homelessness say despite those good intentions it could be years before those at the sharp end of the crisis are permanently housed. DCM, a Wellington organisation that helps rough sleepers find housing, has had a rise in the number of people with highly complex needs seeking its services, its outreach manager Natalia Cleland says. Often they are people who have come up against barriers trying to access state-run social housing. Nearly $1m a day is being paid in grants to more than 8,000 people requiring emergency accommodation. Motels are often used to house people for short periods and have been widely criticised as being unsafe and unsanitary. That money would be better spent on permanent housing, Cleland says. “It’s a tricky thing for the government to hold, because on the one hand we don’t want people sleeping rough or living in cars. For them to be inside and have a bathroom and power they can turn on is better than those scenarios. But the money being spent on that could be spent on permanent housing.” The housing crisis is affecting people “across the continuum”, DCM’s director Stephen Turnock says, adding that those who are chronically homeless struggle the most to get a home. The government of New Zealand has poured money into building social housing but the pace has so far been slow. It is a complex and nebulous problem that could take years to solve, Turnock says, and the crucial fix is more housing supply across the board: “[The government’s] vision is bold enough but the ability to pull all the necessary levers in unison is a very difficult task.” He puts the slow pace of new builds down to high construction costs, complicated and restrictive land and housing regulation, a shortfall in construction workers and skyrocketing prices for existing properties. DCM has permanently housed 82 chronically homeless people in Wellington using the Housing First model – which prioritises finding permanent homes for the homeless before addressing other needs such as drug counselling – but has 120 on its waiting list and there are no houses available. DCM finds most of its Housing First properties through the private market, rather than through the government’s housing agency Kainga Ora, and increasingly finds it is competing with Kainga Ora and other housing providers to rent homes. “We are all in the same sandpit together, and the sandpit is not big enough,” Turnock says." Would you like to know more about how you can provide a home for people who are experiencing homelessness? Do you have friends, contacts or networks who would like to be part of this? Stephen would love to hear from you, and to speak more with you about this. You can contact him at director@dcm.org.nz <!-- --> Now I can finally smile It has also been great to see a story about the DCM Dental Service in this month’s OnMas magazine. Dentist Frances Ruddiman reflects on her experience of volunteering at DCM. “The changes that taumai undergo are incredible,” Frances says. “A lot of them haven’t seen a dentist in a long time, so naturally they’re nervous and sometimes worried about being judged. But we’re as welcoming and inclusive as we can be. We want to make sure they know that we see them as a person and will treat them as a person who is valuable and who deserves to have their needs met.” Living in constant pain can take over people’s lives and make it hard to focus on anything else. “When you’re in pain and stressed and worried about what’s causing it, that’s always there in the background. Once we get people out of pain, their spirits seem to be lifted. Often they do need more work, but they’re so much more confident and happy to come back.” “I’ve had patients tell me that now they can finally smile. I had someone tell me, ‘I’m going to a housing interview this afternoon, and I’m so happy that I can walk in and smile with them’,” says Frances." We encourage you to read the full story here, and to share it with any dentists or dental assistants you know. <!-- --> How can I help? We first met Peter just before last year's lock-down, when he connected with our Outreach team. He had been rough sleeping for many months, and DCM kaimahi helped get him on the social housing register. Lock-down brought rapid changes, and Peter found himself in emergency housing. Since then he has been working closely with the Aro Mai Housing First team and he is now stably housed in his own whare. “DCM has helped me more than I could ever have imagined. I have a roof over my head and am extremely grateful. I have my life back.” Peter needs a vacuum cleaner so he can keep his whare clean. Do you have one you could donate?  If so, please get in touch with Matt. *We call the people we work with taumai, meaning to settle. This reflects the journey we set out on together – to become settled, stable and well.   Support DCM! Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi With your basket and my basket, the people will thrive <!-- --> Copyright © 2021 DCM. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: DCMPO Box 6133Marion SqWellington, Wellington 6011 New ZealandAdd us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.
    • Accepted from DCM alerts archive 52 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
    • matariki
  
  
• • 

    Spector - Inspired Specticle

    • 23 Jul 2012
    • Circa Theatre
    • Don't miss this "Superb Spector - Inspired Spectacle" Only one more week! The BeatGirls are bringing the beat back to Circa with a sensational look at the magic and mad life of musical producer Phil Spector! Reviews have been glowing for the show and with only ONE MORE WEEK left in the season, we hope to see you at Circa Theatre soon for a swinging good time!  THEATREVIEW - Virginia Kennard “Spector is an impressive range of some 21 well-known hits that showcase the incredible vocal range and talents of the BeatGirls: Andrea Sanders, Caroline McLaughlin and Kali Kopae.” “The arrival on-stage of honorary BeatGirl Jason Chasland ups the energy levels, the BeatGirls demonstrating their prowess as back-up dancers during ‘Pretty Little Angel Eyes' then sublimely pulling back focus with ‘Spanish Harlem', ‘That Loving Feeling', ‘Don't Worry Baby' and ‘I Can Hear Music'. Jason is easily a limelight-stealer with his spectacular charisma and universe-filling voice, not least with Ray Charles' ‘What I'd Say' in which The Beatgirls' choreography is well-crafted and Jason's superb waddling physicality a crowd favourite.” “Overall: a superb Spector-inspired spectacle.”  THE DOMINION POST - Ewen Coleman “ . . . although it is a factual biography of his life in reasonably chronological order, the humorous and almost irreverent way it is told, with many delightfully animated gestures supplementing the dialogue, makes the telling of the Spector story engaging and very entertaining.” “If the music of the 60's was what you grew up with, then this show is a great nostalgic trip. For those who didn't, go and see it anyway and experience one of our greatest musical eras.”  LUMIERE - Michael Boyes “The Beatgirls (Sanders, Caroline McLaughlin, Kali Kopae) excel in every particular; voices are crisp and clear, and can grow and diminish in intensity with ease. Even more impressive is each member’s capacity to perform lead and back-up vocals, to the credit of their skill, professionalism and dedication.” “I would be greatly at fault not to mention the brilliant Jason Chasland, who for the duration of the show has been dubbed an honorary Beatgirl. A voice of remarkable scale and breadth, any attempt at description seems more infomercial than observation; he croons a lullaby one moment and discharges a power ballad the next. His impersonations are hilarious for their accuracy and comic timing, whilst his natural stage persona is staggeringly confident.” “This is a good night out, quite frankly. Quirky, fun, upbeat. So if you feel like a sing-a-long, or maybe just have a hankering for nostalgia, pop along and enjoy the ride.”  KIWIBLOG - David Farrar “I saw the Beat Girls for the first time in 2010. They were great. So how do you beat the Beat Girls? Simple – you add in Jason (Jay) Chasland. Chasland was a rock and roll star. At first glance you might think he is an unlikely star being not very tall and slightly chubby. But my God he was a great performer. He sang and crooned the songs marvelously, and had a real charisma and presence about him. His Ray Charles parody was side sidesplittingly funny. Chasland alone would be worth going to see.” “The performance is effectively a recital of the life of Phil Spector – from his early genius success through to his conviction for murder. In between numbers, they tell you about his various groups and songs. He may have been a demented misogynistic bastard, but he was a hell of a talented one.” “It was a great night’s entertainment and I just can’t imagine anyone not enjoying the performance, unless they have been genetically modified in some way.”
    • Accepted from drama* on the waterfront posts 161 months ago
    • Automatically tagged as:
    • theatre
    • waterfront

    Circa Theatre, Taranaki Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6011, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  
• • 

    How Did I Get Hear? #17 - Alan Gregg on Ed Cake's "Downtown Puff"

    • 6 May 2025
    • Slow Boat Records
    • Behold the Golden Man! Some time in the mid-1990s I was sitting on a sofa in Auckland watching a Saturday morning kids’ TV show called What Now? A band came on and played a song which featured the lyric “If I go to hospital / Will you administer my pill?” I had no idea who they were, but the song was brilliant, and one of the band members appeared to have springs attached to the soles of his shoes. A few weeks later I met two members of that band, Edmund McWilliams and Geoff Maddock, at a Supergroove show at Auckland University. We talked about our shared enthusiasm for the music of Jonathan Richman, and they gave me a cassette(!) of some songs they were working on. When I got home and played the cassette it was a revelation. It contained intensely melodic songs with absurd lyrics and unusual arrangements. I felt like I’d stumbled upon some kind of secret treasure. They were pop songs, but not like anything I’d heard before. The songs on that cassette later turned into the eponymous Bressa Creeting Cake album (Flying Nun Records 1997), which is still spoken of in reverential tones in certain circles. The three piece Bressa Creeting Cake band, with Joel Wilton on drums, came on tour around New Zealand with The Mutton Birds (who I played bass with), and it felt like a privilege to watch them play these amazing songs to baffled audiences each night. By that time Edmund McWilliams was becoming better known under the moniker Edmund Cake. In 1999 Edmund and I played together in Bic Runga’s band, when she supported Paul Kelly on a tour of Australia. On that trip I saw first hand how Ed’s approach was not like other musicians I knew. At one show Bic’s band was invited to join Paul Kelly and his band onstage for their encore, and during the song Ed played Paul Kelly’s acoustic guitar with such intensity that his hand bled all over the body of the guitar. At soundcheck the next day Paul Kelly’s unimpressed guitar technician greeted Ed with the guitar and a cleaning cloth. Ed set to work making it spotless, and we weren’t invited onstage for the encore again. Bressa Creeting Cake split up around that time, and Geoff Maddock formed the band Goldenhorse, which went on to become hugely popular in New Zealand. All of this is a very longwinded way of getting to the point that after the demise of Bressa Creeting Cake, Edmund Cake made a solo album called Downtown Puff (Lil’ Chief Records 2004), which I consider to be a masterpiece. Around the time Bressa Creeting Cake ended, an A&R man from the Dreamworks record label in LA came to visit Ed in New Zealand and gave him an advance to make some demos. Ed recorded three songs and sent them to the label. After not hearing from the A&R guy for a while, Ed called him in LA to ask what he thought of the songs. He replied that they were “Quite great”. Dreamworks did not sign Edmund Cake to the label in the end, but they did sign a little-known artist named Nelly Furtado. In the meantime, Tim Finn had become a supporter of Ed’s music and lent him some recording equipment for a studio Ed had assembled in a building in Gore Street in Auckland. Neil Finn had also become a fan and gave Ed time to complete Downtown Puff in his own studio. Edmund Cake is an unusually talented songwriter. He has a gift for composing melodies and chord changes which are both surprising and breathtakingly beautiful. He’s also able to write lyrics which can be funny and strangely affecting at the same time. And he doesn’t sound like anyone else. On Downtown Puff Ed played most of the instruments, and he engineered and produced the songs himself. It’s an album that constantly treads the line between the sublime and the ridiculous, and sometimes does both at the same time. "You’re Watching Me” and “Beautiful Sleep” are ballads as melodic and effortless as any I can think of. The song "Gunga" sounds like Captain Beefheart jamming with Devo on the set of Sesame Street. “My Son the Harpist” tells the story, over an Omnichord drum beat, of a young harp player who meets a tragic end. Ed was improvising the lyrics the first time he ever recorded the vocal on that song and he never changed them. As a result, there are some spontaneous words in that song that you won’t find in any dictionary. The song “Oh Baby Bear” is the catchiest song you’ll ever hear about the Auckland Public Transport system. Ed sings “She’s got a cuppa tea and sandwich, she’s feeling fine / She just crossed the Pukapuka line,” all delivered in a fair dinkum Kiwi accent. Perhaps Downtown Puff’ s master stroke is the track “Golden Man”, which sounds a bit like a 1970s psychedelic folk band singing a gospel song. The poetic lyrics, swooping melodies and Ed’s trademark falsetto vocals all contribute to the song’s eerie beauty. “He commands the cats to claw / He commands the boats to shore / He commands the gulls to fly / He commands the crops to die”. Sometimes Edmund’s music can evoke the genius of Brian Wilson in the way he can take really unusual chord changes and make them seem completely natural in a pop song. But this music doesn’t sound like Brian Wilson. Ed often adopts different character voices for the songs. One moment he’s singing in a sweet falsetto, and in the next he’s growling like Tom Waits. Each song has a distinct vocal identity, almost reminiscent of the way Prince used completely different voices for some of his songs. But this music sounds nothing like Prince. Sometimes I wonder why the Downtown Puff album isn’t better known than it is. It certainly has some devoted fans, but I can’t help thinking more people would like it if they knew about it. For me it’s the work of a visionary musical artist, and it's a collection of songs that contains just the right balance of beauty, mystery, playfulness and outrageously good tunes. It’s also worth mentioning that Edmund Cake released another album under the name Pie Warmer a few years later called The Fearsome Feeling (2009 Lil’Chief Records), which is every bit as great as Downtown Puff. Alan Gregg last year released a superb album under the name Polite Company, entitled "Please Go Wild" - first single "Circulation" is here, we have copies on LP and CD, and his website is here
    • Accepted from Slow Boat Records feed 2022 7 months ago by feedreader
    • Tagged as:
    • wilton
    • cats

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

• • REBLOG Croaking Cassandra: Further thoughts on the airport Part 1

    • 9 Dec 2015
    • Guardians of the Bays
    • Shortly after the release of the cost-benefit analysis of the proposed Wellington airport runway extension, prepared by Sapere for Wellington International Airport Limited (WIAL) I wrote a post in which I posed the question “If they build it, what if no one comes?” Since that post, I’ve been to one of the open day/public consultation meetings, have read and thought about the documents more thoroughly, and have read various pieces written by others, including the new one by Ian Harrison that I linked to yesterday.  I have also had some engagement with Sapere and WIAL, which has helped to sharpen my sense of what the issues really are. The cost-benefit analysis is not a business case document.  It has been prepared in support of a resource consent application.  What I hadn’t known when I wrote earlier (and was advised of by Sapere) is that  under the RMA the applicants will need to be able to demonstrate national benefits to get permission to fill in some more of Lyall Bay, to extend the runway. I’m sure that the cost-benefit analysis is not serving as a business case for Infratil, the major shareholder in WIAL.  But since this project is generally accepted to be viable only if there is significant public funding, and any such funding can only be defended if there would be material net public benefits , the Sapere cost-benefit analysis is by default serving as something of a business case at present.  If the numbers don’t stack up, neither the Wellington region councils nor central government should be putting any money into the project (beyond WIAL’s resources, and of course Wellington City Council is a 34 per cent shareholder in WIAL). In this post, I will offer a few thoughts on the plausibility of the assumed increase in international passenger traffic to/from New Zealand as a result of the extension. Extending the runway at Wellington airport could materially reduce the cost of some forms of international travel in and out of Wellington. If long-haul flights were offered,  lower costs could result by reducing the time taken (eg. by eliminating the one hour flight to Auckland and the stopover time in Auckland, it might reduce the total time for a trip to Singapore (and onward points) by perhaps 2.5 hours).  For those travelling anyway, those gains could be material –  time has an opportunity cost.  In addition, by allowing long-haul aircraft to fly into Wellington, the direct cost of international airfares in and out of Wellington could also be expected to fall –  quite materially, if the numbers Sapere quotes are correct.  Those gains apply not just to long haul routes themselves –  a Wellington-Singapore direct fare should be materially cheaper than the current options via Auckland, Christchurch or Sydney –  but also to trans-Tasman flights, as the longer runway would also facilitate used of wide-bodied aircraft on trans-Tasman routes (as for examples, the Emirates flights between Christchurch and Australia). Of course, simply building the runway extension does not bring about any of these savings.  They depend on airlines finding it profitable to run additional services.  And although international air travel has increased enormously to and from New Zealand in recent decades, provincial New Zealand is littered with the dreams of local authorities (airport owners) with aspirations to have an international airport.  New Zealand has plenty of attractive places, but one main international airport. Wellington, of course, has a significant business market, and business travel is typically much more profitable for airlines than leisure travel. And unlike the predominantly leisure travel into Christchurch, the Wellington business travel probably isn’t very seasonal.  So the idea the long haul flights into Wellington could be viable isn’t self-evidently absurd.  But, on the other hand, the economic cost of making such flights technically feasible – lengthening the runway –  is far higher than in many other places.  At $1m a metre, it is considerably more costly than putting some asphalt on some more grassy fields in Christchurch.  Wellington isn’t a natural place for a long-haul international airport. The WIAL proposal uses modelling by international consultants to estimate likely growth in traffic and passenger numbers with and without the extension.  There are some questions about the baseline forecast, including for example around the potential future impact of climate change mitigation policies.  But my main interest is the difference between these two –  the increase in traffic that would result from the runway extension itself. It is hard to pick one’s way through all the numbers, but the bottom line appears to be that the cost-benefit analysis is done on the basis that by 2060 there will be an additional 400000 foreign international passengers per annum arriving in Wellington, and an additional 200000 New Zealand international departures per annum through Wellington[1].  Many of these are people who would otherwise have travelled via Auckland or Christchurch, so that the net gain in international travel numbers to New Zealand is around 200000, with an additional 100000 or so New Zealanders travelling abroad.    Many of the gains are forecast to occur early in the period.  Thus, by 2035, the analysis assumes an annual net gain to New Zealand of around 125000 international visitors (relative to the no-extension baseline). How plausible is this?    The various reports highlight the phenomenon of “market stimulation” –  putting on new air services tends to stimulate total passenger numbers.  That shouldn’t be surprising.  Not only do point-to-point services lower the cost of visiting a particular place, but marketing expenditure raises awareness of the destinations concerned. On the other hand, one can’t just take for granted that such market stimulation will render long haul flights into and out of Wellington viable.  After all, there are plenty of cities around the world with few or no long haul flights.  Closer to home, Rotorua is an attractive tourist destination and can’t sustain direct flights even to Sydney. What of Wellington?  The modelling exercise involves lowering the cost of foreigners visiting Wellington –  to some extent artificially, because the costs of providing the longer runway are not passed back in additional charges to those using long haul flights –  but not the cost of them visiting New Zealand (since Auckland and Christchurch fares would stay largely unchanged).   Any long-haul flights into Wellington will almost certainly be from cities that already have flights to Auckland (and possibly to Christchurch).  Is it really plausible that an additional 200000 people per annum (or even 125000 by 2035) will visit New Zealand simply because they can fly direct to Wellington, or (in respect of trans-Tasman traffic) fly into Wellington more cheaply than previously? Perhaps I’m excessively negative on Wellington.    I reckon it is a nice place for a weekend, but not a destination that many long haul leisure travellers would choose.  What is there to do after the first two days?  And there is little or nothing else in the rest of the bottom of the North Island.   So it is plausible that lower fares resulting from additional competition would attract more weekend visitors from Australia. But no one is going to come for a weekend in Wellington all the way from China or Los Angeles.  And since the principal attractions of New Zealand are either in the upper North Island or the South Island, how many  more people are likely to come to New Zealand just because they can choose Wellington as the gateway for their New Zealand holiday? And what of New Zealanders travelling abroad?  Since the costs of Wellingtonians (and others in the nearby areas) getting to desirable destinations abroad would be cheaper if there were direct flights from Wellington, it is credible that the total number of New Zealand overseas travellers would increase.  In fact, whereas the modelling suggests twice as many new foreign visitors as new New Zealand international travellers (and in total there are twice as many international visitors to New Zealand as travelling New Zealanders), in this case I wonder if the putative new  routes would not be more attractive to New Zealanders than to foreigners?  One can illustrate the point with a deliberately absurd example: put on long haul international flights to Palmerston North, and they would be quite attractive to people in Manawatu (much easier/cheaper to get to desirable places like New York or London) but not very attractive at all to foreigners (for whom Manawatu has few attractions). But even if wide-bodied aircraft flights from Wellington did make overseas travel more attractive to New Zealanders, is the effect really large enough to be equivalent to one more trip every year for every 10 people in Wellington and its hinterland?  And would the effect still be remotely that large if passengers (users) had to cover the cost of providing the longer runway (which should really be the default option)? Reasonable people can differ on these issues. In my discussions, a lot seems to turn on just how attractive people think Wellington is.  I’m pretty sceptical that long haul tourists will ever come to New Zealand to see cities.  Perhaps if one is thinking of visiting New Zealand cities, Wellington is more attractive than our other cities, but even if so Wellington still has the feel of being a logical gateway to nowhere much.  It isn’t an obvious starting point for a “whole of New Zealand” trip, or a North Island one (given that most of the attractions are further north), or a South Island one.   So I’m left (a) sceptical that the net addition to visitor numbers to New Zealand will be as large as the analysis assumes even if the users don’t bear the costs, and (b) suspecting that the boost to the demand for New Zealanders to travel abroad might be greater than the boost to the demand for foreigners to visit New Zealand. On that latter point, the experts point out that they assume that the new long haul services will be provided by foreign airlines, and that the evidence of recent new air services to New Zealand provided  by foreign airlines is that they disproportionately boost the number of foreigners travelling.  I have no reason to doubt the numbers, but I still wonder if the same result would apply to routes into Wellington.  New flights into Auckland are often the first direct flights offered into New Zealand (as a whole) from that city or country.   My impression is that “New Zealand” is the destination marketed to long haul passengers.  But direct flights to/from Wellington do more to open up the world (more cheaply) to Wellingtonians than they do to open New Zealand to foreigners.   And if so, would the foreign airlines be keen to offer the Wellington services at all? This post has been about the sort of increased passenger numbers that might be expected if the runway was extended.  In some sense, that should be largely an issue for WIAL.  If they can extend their capacity and attract sufficient users at a price that covers the cost of capital of WIAL and its shareholders, the rest of us might not care much (I’m not much bothered about environmental issues, although my family enjoys the waves at Lyall Bay beach).    But the cost-benefit analysis being used to lure ratepayers and taxpayers into funding much of the proposed expansion suggests that there are very large economic benefits to New Zealand which cannot be captured directly by airlines or airports.  I think they are wrong, and my next post will explain why. [1] From tables 5.11 and 5.12 in the InterVISTAS report.
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    Lyall Bay, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • Attendance at school (part 2)

    • 22 May 2012
    • Amesbury Drive School Blog
    • Legal requirements: Did you know?Did you know that the Education Act 1989 says that all children enrolled at a school must attend school whenever that school is open?Did you know that the Board of Trustees is required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that students do attend school whenever it is open?Did you know that every parent of a child who is not at school without a good reason, commits an offence and can be convicted and fined?Did you know that just because parents have provided an explanation to the school for their child’s absence, that does not mean it is a justified absence? The principal is required to make decisions about whether an absence is really justified.What are good reasons for a student being absent?• Illness (a medical certificate should be provided if child is away longer than a week)• Bereavement• Medical appointments• Class tripsMany schools do not consider family trips or holidays or even overseas trips as good reasons for being absent from school. You should discuss such trips with the school principal prior to going. Attendance procedures next....
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• • Dear Oliver – Peter Wells

    • 13 Mar 2018
    • Randell Cottage Writers Trust
    • New release from Peter Wells, Randell Cottage writer-in-residence 2002 New release from Peter Wells, Randell Cottage writer-in-residence 2002 Peter Wells Photo by Liz Marsh Peter Wells, who in 2002 was the Randell Cottage’s first writer in residence, has just released his latest work: Dear Oliver, a family history, prompted by his discovery of a trove of family letters amongst his elderly mother’s effects.The find provided an entrée into writing a story that is uniquely his family’s but also very typical of other families whose ancestors emigrated from Britain during the nineteeenth century. “The journey of my ancestors from Britain to New Zealand could be said to be the ur-journey of so many Pākehā New Zealanders. We are overfamiliar with its shape – poverty in the homeland, struggle across the seas, the hard impact on landing. Scrabbling around for a way to survive. Gradually, some success as adaptation takes over, accompanied by a loss of memory about origins as the present obscures a now-distant past. Even the act of looking back – the search for genealogical origins – is a Pākehā cliché. Why do it?” Massey University Press $39.99  
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    Randell Cottage, 14, St Mary Street, Wellington Central, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6140, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  

• • Thursday night at the Forum

    • 21 Jun 2007
    • Save Crossways campaign
    • Last night the community gathered at a public forum organised by the Mt Victoria Residents Association to listen to invited speakers and discuss how to proceed with saving Crossways. We also took the opportunity to thank the Councillors, council officers and the St Andrews church for all their hard work to hammer out a compromise that will allow the community the time to fund-raise. The meeting passed a resolution that a joint committee be formed between the Save Crossways group and the Residents Association, which will be tasked with gathering nominations for a Crossways community trust, and reporting back to the community within three weeks. We'll post the full text of the resolution as soon as we can, and some details on how you can nominate people to the Trust.
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• • Zinefest Saturday

    • 19 Nov 2009
    • The Wellingtonista
    • Zinefest is approaching fast! It's this Saturday November 21st from noon till 5pm at Mighty Mighty, home to other such great events as the Annual Wellingtonista Awards &nbsp; &nbsp; So if spending a day surrounded by Zines, browsing the Stonkingly awesome Wellington City Libraries Zine collection or taking a workshop,&nbsp; tuning into a talk or panel discussion sounds like you, well you know where to go. &nbsp; &nbsp; There will be a zine swap box which is a great way to get new zines that you have never seen before! And of course at&nbsp; some point during the day&nbsp; the trophy for the Zine-of-the-Fest&nbsp; will be handed out. and you can pick up exclusive Zinefest Schwag including Wellington Zinefest T Shirts 2009 edition &nbsp;
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• • 

    Kennett Brothers inducted into Mountain Bike Hall of Fame

    • 4 Aug 2018
    • Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park
    • The legendary Kennett Bro's have taken their rightful place in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame! Their list of achievements covers everything from being a pioneer of the sport in NZ, competing on the world stage, publishing, thinking up and organizing events (the Karapoti Classic and Tour Aotearoa ring bell?!) and, of course, being the driving force behind the establishment of Makara Peak and its development over the 20 years since. From the get go, they have mixed mountain biking with a strong conservation ethos which now a common theme throughout NZ. They are a modest bunch - but the "Three Brothers" track name is a tip of the hat in their direction. That is the most they have let us do. Here is the write up: https://mmbhof.org/kennett_brothers/ Awesome work Paul, Simon and Jonathan!
    • Accepted from Makara peak latest news 80 months ago by feedreader
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    Makara Peak Summit Viewing Deck, Ridgeline, Karori West, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6012, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)
  
  
• • 

    Review: Lipstick

    • 26 May 2024
    • Salient
    • How do I even begin to describe this band? I’ve been dying to write about Lipstick since I saw them for the first time at Valhalla in April. Without a doubt, Lipstick has become my favorite band to see live, and I’ve been hooked since that very first show. Since their debut as a band at the end of March, they’ve become a prominent presence in the gig scene—and for good reason.
    • Accepted from Salient 2024 18 months ago by tonytw1
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• • 

    Mixed bag in Round 5

    • 8 May 2023
    • Wellington Saints
    • The Wellington Saints have wrapped up their Round 5 fixtures with a mixed bag of results, losing to the Canterbury Rams before bouncing back with a win over the Southland Sharks. The team's first game on Friday night saw them face a determined Canterbury side, who took control early and never looked back. Despite the Saints' best efforts, they were unable to claw back the deficit, eventually falling 102-88 to the Rams.
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• • Does Harbour Quays suck?

    • 11 Jul 2006
    • WellUrban
    • I must admit I was a little wary of the opposing campaign, since it seems to be driven by a group of property developers and commercial landlords worried that cheap competition might undercut the soaring office rents that they're currently enjoying. But last Thursday's "open letter to the city of Wellington" was also signed by retailers, restaurateurs and three of Wellington's most prominent architects, so clearly there's a broader base to the opposition.
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• • Car-o drive

    • 18 Dec 2006
    • WellUrban
    • As I said I would, I took a walk along the bypass on Saturday. I was too late to see the protests, but some of the protestors were still there chalking slogans on the pavements, and there a certain tension remained in the air.There's a lot of things I don't like about the bypass, but the thing that struck me the most about it on the weekend is that it just doesn't look like Wellington.
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• • 

    White Out

    • 10 Feb 2007
    • Land Rovers Football Club
    • With the final Grand Final line up yet to be named, the availability of star defender come goal scorer Ben White is in doubt. "Apparently Ben is going up north for a while" said Land Rovers Manager Steve Hall "he's decided that Whangarei might be a good spot to spend a few days". Hall said obviously White would be missed but negotiations were still underway to ensure that White starts in the final line up.
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• • Wellington City Council sets rates for 2007/08-Another election year

    • 22 Mar 2007
    • Bryan Pepperell - Back To The Future
    • This is a Council on the run from its own policies and is about to have cardiac arrest. The Deputy Mayor, with his handful of votes that got him elected to Council, senses that CPR might be needed to a Council that is in its death throes now gasping for life with the possibility of an eight percent rate increase to the residents and a two percent increase to the commercial sector.
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• • The Mighty Booth

    • 12 Nov 2008
    • The Wellingtonista
    • After every election there are geographical analyses of voting patterns, inevitably followed by suggestions that certain regions should secede and form their own country. Such analyses are often at electorate level, but there's a lot of fine detail below that, and a cell of socialist insurgents might live just around the corner from an enclave of conservative curmudgeons. So I made the following map of Wellington voting tendencies at a booth-by-booth level.
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• • The Forest Grows

    • 6 Feb 2008
    • Eye of the Fish
    • In the wake of the Athfield waterfront win, a new seed is set to sprout up in the inner city. Taking root in the Willis New World Metro, this new tower is the latest in a string of green buildings that have been proposed or built. Aiming to achieve a five star Green rating, it seems to tick all the standard boxes: efficient air conditioning and circulation, double skinned glazing and sensor-operated lighting.
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• • Lee bags NZ age record at Junior Pan Pacs

    • 8 Jan 2009
    • Swimming Wellington
    • Samantha Lee (16, Capital) secured a NZ age group record in the Womens 200m Butterfly at the Junior Pan Pacs meet in Guam last night. Swimming in the “B” final, Lee swam 2mins 17.89 secs, beating the previous record by 0.40 secs. Also competing on the first night of finals was Gareth Kean (17, Capital) who set a new SW age group record in the heats of the Mens 100m Backstroke with a t
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• • Cinephilia: Opening This Week

    • 19 Feb 2009
    • The Wellingtonista
    • With most Wellington screens growning under the weight of Oscar-bait, only Readings (and Sky City Queensgate if you are so inclined) is opening anything new this week. My Bloody Valentine 3D was well attended at sneak previews last week but sadly isn't much of a film. It's a remake of a beloved horror of the same early-80s (same vintage as last week's Friday the 13th). Apart from the title th
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• • Gone Fishing

    • 19 Dec 2008
    • Eye of the Fish
    • 2008: nearly over. Lots of construction, lots of commentary. 2009: likely to be lots less of one, and who knows about the other. Thank you all for your input, your comments, your information, and your interest. Its been a blast, but its time for a break for a bit from the people behind the Maximus logon (note: one of the following images may be more true to life than the other). Hopefully Phil
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• • Relay win highlight of final night at Jnr Pan Pacs

    • 11 Jan 2009
    • Swimming Wellington
    • Wellington swimmers contributed to a rare relay win against Australia and a number of finals appearances on the last night of finals at the Junior Pan Pacs in Guam tonight. Gareth Kean (Capital, 17) lead out the New Zealand team in the backstroke leg of the 400m medley relay with a new SW age group record time of 56.27secs, helping the NZ team to hold out the fast finishing Australian team by 0.09
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• • On the Buses

    • 10 Jan 2009
    • Eye of the Fish
    • While I&#8217;ve been quite impressed by the new trolley buses in Wellington, one gleaming in its paua-shell colour-scheme as it slides silently through the city, I still have a hankering for a double-decker, which are fairly common throughout England, and of which we seem to have one roaming solo in the streets of Wellington. It is of course a RouteMaster, the most famous of all the London Trans
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