Overheard on Voelas Road (Click to see options for using this image)
Spotted overhead on Ticehurst Terrace, Lyttelton.
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If you want to hear a recording of a New Zealand kingfisher, head here:
http://www.kuaka.co.nz/birdcalls
Tūranga is the best thing about the post-earthquake Christchurch city rebuild (Click to see options for using the image)
I love libraries. They are the original community-sharing resource, but even if you never borrow anything, they are great spaces to be in. The new library in the middle of Christchurch, Tūranga, is incredible. It is a beautifully designed space, with lots of different areas depending on what you want to do in the library. There are quieter areas as well as areas for kids to play around in or for people to collaborate in.
The children’s area on the first floor of Tūranga library
There are a couple of cafes, a computer lab and a room for making music. As well as books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs and CDs there are also games, puzzles and interactive displays. And there are incredible views over a city that is changing before our eyes.
Looking south from Christchurch Central Library over the cathedral towards the Port Hills
https://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/turanga/turanga-floor-by-floor/
The earthquake has also meant a rebuild of many suburban libraries like the one in Lincoln.
Lincoln library
Some libraries weren’t destroyed in the earthquake. One of my favourites, New Brighton library, is one of them.
Unfortunately, the ugly Lyttelton library is another.
But let’s make it all year!
This week is Bullying-Free NZ Week. The theme is 'whakanuia tōu āhua ake! celebrating being us' and culminates with the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand Pink Shirt Day this Friday 17 May. Schools and whanau can find lots of resources to support our kids at www.bullyingfree.nz
— hat tip to The Worry Bug Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheWorryBug
It seems that bullying is a big problem in New Zealand and not just in schools:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/112627263/our-workplace-bullying-shame
I was bullied as a child and I’ve never forgotten how lousy that felt. It is what inspired me to write FAB Club.
FAB Club is available on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Fishpond, Whitcoulls, Booktopia, Barnes & Noble and in all good book shops and libraries.
I really enjoyed drawing panel 3 of this cartoon. Poor Oscar...
And here are some more cartoons I’ve drawn about invasive species (we have quite a few in New Zealand, but so far I haven’t featured possums and stoats in the strip).
New Zealand South Island Robin: Click to see options for using the image
The South Island Robin is one of my favourite birds. You don't see it very often in Lyttelton, because there are too many predators (cats, dogs, rats and stoats) and not enough bush to hide in. I have seen them quite often when out tramping in native forest, but it was a delight to encounter one at my friend’s place on the West Coast.
We now have a bike rack for Gertie, so headed over to North Beach, Brighton to do the Avon Trail, which follows the River Avon through the Red Zone and into the city.
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I was a bit jealous of the paddleboarders
Click to see the interactive map on the Christchurch City Council website
We still don’t know what is happening to the Red Zone. It has been 8 years since the earthquakes and the only sign of the demolished houses now is the exotic shrubs and the disappearing driveways.
This is part of the “munted” Medway bridge that was twisted in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake
Christchurch has become a much better place to cycle post-earthquake and the city is really starting to come alive again as the last of the big buildings are being demolished and rebuilt.
It took us about an hour and a quarter to cycle into the city. We were going to get the bus back out, but we enjoyed the ride so much we cycled back along the river instead.