Living in New Zealand: Emergency Services are Largely Voluntary
Click to see options for using the image
In 1870 fire destroyed Lyttleton's main street. It started in the Queen’s Hotel (which later became London Street restaurant, which had to be demolished after the earthquake, as happened to many of the historic timber buildings that had been rebuilt in brick to resist fire). Residents had to demolish buildings to stop the fire spreading as there was no firefighting service in the isolated town. There is now, and a siren sounds to call the volunteers when they are needed. I really don't like that sound.
The Order of St John (or St John's) is the ambulance service for most of New Zealand. It is voluntary, in the way that having an emergency health event isn't.
Living in New Zealand: The British Hotel, Lyttelton
Click to see options for using the image
The British Hotel has a colourful history and I bet I don't know the half of it. Currently it is a great little bar, popular with locals, serving a small menu of good food.
But the fire is rubbish.
Living in New Zealand: Super, Lyttelton
A mish-mash of a building on Norwich Quay in Lyttelton (Click to see options for using the image)
Near the head of Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupo, lies the small settlement of Governors Bay. We use to walk our dogs down by the shoreline and I loved walking to the end of the ridiculously long jetty. But that was a long time ago and the jetty has seen better days. It was falling into disrepair even before the earthquake of 2011, but that finished it off.
New Zealand Garden Diary: Feeding the Right Kind of Birds
There are a lot of birds in our garden, but very few species come to the bird table, unlike in the UK. I mostly see sparrows (non-native), silvereyes (native), chaffinches (non-native), greenfinches (non-native) and starlings (non-native). The starlings are real bullies, scaring every other bird away and demolishing fat balls in a matter of hours. So it was a relief when the Sausage Shed stall woman (who sells the fat balls) gave me a method of putting the starlings off.
A way to keep starlings away from the bird seed and fat balls and let waxeyes/silvereyes fight amongst themselves (Click to see options for using the image)
