While the shape of this city is a curse for transportation planners, it is a blessing for anyone who even just occasionally wants to get outside, because the city’s edges are close by and full of opportunity. We don’t all take advantage of this though. There’s lots of good and bad reasons why people don’t, […]
Last week Zealandia published a glorious little photo-essay An Enchantment of Fungi, alerting us to the fact that after a long dry summer, the recent rains have brought forth a rich crop of fungal fruiting bodies. I went for a walk there last Friday and found plenty of variety amid the damp forest, especially on the Valley View and […]
Up the back of Newtown — past the hospital, past New Zealand’s first branch library, past the community display-window where the Conscientious Objectors’ memorials absent from Pukeahu Park quietly underscore ANZAC celebrations — runs a narrow path marking the spine of Tangi-te-Keo (later Mt Victoria). Māori knew the spine of Tangi-te-Keo as Te Ranga-a-Hiwi, the Ridge of […]
The deepest cave system in the Southern Hemisphere is in the Nelson hinterland. How do we know this? Because Kieran Mckay went in and explored it. One of Red Bull’s Explorers of the Century, he’ll be speaking about his experiences and introducing a film about his cave explorations on Saturday evening at Onslow College. “The […]
The New Zealand Fringe Festival is coming at you with their 25th year of exciting, frightening, amazing, and puzzling works. As well as local artists there are 39 out-of-town acts bringing their stuff to Wellington. Prices are mostly under the $25 mark but the smart choice is to buy an Addict card. It’s only $15 […]
Today is World Homeless Day, when we often find ourselves asking, what can I do to help those in my own city who are experiencing homelessness? One practical way you can help is by giving or encouraging people to give to DCM Wellington – Each year DCM works with over 800 people in Wellington. – […]
Okay, let’s get the puns out of the way. While it is never inappropriate to spank your monkey in public, and only Peter Gabriel can shock the monkey, at Wellington Zoo you can, however, touch some monkeys. Sort of. Well, the touching part is correct, but technically the Black-and-White Ruffed Lemurs aren’t actually primates, they’re a […]
Take a break from watching polls and start watching birds with The Great Kererū Count. Forest & Bird have teamed up with local company Thundermaps to create an easy way for all of us to track these magnificent yet near-threatened native pigeons, using the Thundermaps smartphone apps or web application. Kererū are vital to the health of our […]
We’ve already previewed the LUX festival, but now we’re a bit over halfway through and the weather’s looking kind, it’s worth reminding you to See. It. Now. You have until Sunday. We had a wander around last night, and the atmosphere was (appropriately) electric. Quite apart from the installations themselves, the experience of being around so […]
[See all Notional Significance posts] Another bend; another ending. I cross into Tawa, which was a separate borough until 1989, when in the words of a former Mayor it was “just tacked on” to Wellington. Topographically, and perhaps in sentiment, it still leans more towards Porirua than to Lambton Harbour. But as the old track […]