Reasons to Be Cheerful - Avenues of Trees

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I've lived in many places in the world that have a garden moniker. I went to university in the Garden of England (Kent). I spent a year and a half living in New Jersey, the garden state. Now I'm living in Lyttelton, which is a part of the city of Christchurch, which calls itself a garden city. Part of the reason for this is the wonderful Hagley Park in the centre of town. It has paths that are flanked by trees which look wonderful at this time of year.

What would be great is if Christchurch would plant more trees in avenues of roads. Trees do an amazing job of soaking up pollution and controlling temperatures. When I lived in Melbourne in Australia I was in a suburb that had lots of plane trees. The temperature in Elwood was about 5° cooler than the neighbouring suburb suburb of St Kilda, due to those trees. Trees are amazing.

Reasons to Be Cheerful - You Can Take a Bike on the Bus With Metro Christchurch

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We took our car to Turners to be auctioned this Thursday. Hopefully it will sell and I’ll be using my bike and the bus a lot more.

Reasons to Be Cheerful - Al Fresco Dining

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It’s a relief when the sun comes out. November has been the wettest month I can remember for a while and the garden has been suffering.

New Zealand Diary and a Reason to Be Cheerful: Drinking in Dunedin

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Last month we spent a weekend in Dunedin. The weather was terrible and maybe it is because of the often terrible weather that Dunedin has a lot of excellent places to drink . We ducked in and out of some great cafes and bars (Morning Magpie, Mazagran, The Standard Kitchen, Good Good, Starfish, Pequeño, Albar and we would have liked to go to the Inch bar). There's even a guy (Brendan Seal) who is making wine in the city itself at a place called Urbn Vino.

There are several breweries in town. There is the long-established Speights brewery and you can take a tour if you like. We drink plenty of the stuff in Lyttelton, but didn’t want to spend the time on a tour. I thought the best thing was the springwater that was available on tap outside (for a voluntary donation). We also visited the New New New brewery (it's quite new) and the Emersons brewery.

If you like to drink coffee, wine, beer, or something stronger, you can guarantee you'll find your kind of place in Dunedin. Just don’t expect the weather to be any good.