Lake Tekapo village: Above SH8, close to Aorangi Cres, were 2 housing developments behind Lake Tekapo School - Mt John Village, named after Mt John Station & The Cairns, complete with golf course, lake & Alpine views. Both developments had new infrastructure & housing. During the years Leah worked at Lake Tekapo, new houses were continually being built.
As both developments were close to farmlands, there were several farm tracks to be walked or jogged over golden hilltop grasslands.
Off Aorangi Cres, Andrew Don Dr left Mt John Village housing & became a gravel road going down to Tekapo River. Shortly along the gravel road, after going though a farm gate, I followed a farm track up to the top of the hill. The farm track, sidled past a pine forest which stopped erosion above Tekapo River, went past a radio mast & continued on the other side of the hill to Canal Rd going to Tekapo A power station.
My favourite circular walk was to turn right at the top of the hill by another farm gate, after admiring Alpine views of course & follow The Cairns golf course fencing towards Mt John & SH8.
In the E, I saw Mt Edward, Mt Maude, Tekapo Saddle, Mt Dobson, Two Thumbs Range, Mt Ardmore, Mt Richmond. In the NE, Roundhill ski resort beckoned above Lake Tekapo. In the N, Two Thumbs Range curved W to The Thumbs peaks & beyond to Mt Chevalier. Closer Mt John obscured N views of Mt Erebus, Mt Sibbald & Mt Mistake.
In the W, Ben Ohau Range dominated with peaks from S to N - Mt Stafford, Ben Ohau, Backbone Peak, Mackenzie Peak, The Razorback, Dun Fiunary, Glentanner Peak, Mt Sealy, Mt Sefton. Thereafter, Braemar Dome & Mt Stevenson obscured Mt Cook & associated peaks. We had to drive along SH8 towards Lake Pukaki & Twizel for those views.
Below the peaks smaller westwards ranges could be seen: Old Mans Range, with Tekapo Military Camp below & Mary Range above Lake Pukaki.
Going downhill beyond The Cairns golf course, a reservoir on the left, the farm track turned left towards the airport, SH8 & Godley Peaks Rd turnoff to Mt John. A right turn & the airport track took me above SH8 back to Lake Tekapo village. Along the way I enjoyed views from 3 Lions benches above SH8. The circular walk around The Cairns golf course took about 1 hour.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Lake Tekapo Tourist Trap & Rental Trap.
Twenty years ago, while doing my Look See Decide, LSD trip around NZ, I parked my 850 cc Suzuki rental car in a Lake Tekapo car park & freedom camped there. I never thought I'd live in Lake Tekapo village. Nowadays there were all sorts of prohibition signs around Lake Tekapo banning freedom campers & telling tourists where they must dispose off their rubbish. Locals wanted tourist dollars but not their crap. TV news recently featured German freedom campers squatting & crapping in a Christchurch red zone house. Even CERA bureaucrats tut-tutted.
As Lake Tekapo has approx 1.8 million tourists passing through every year, it's a tourist trap, gateway to arid Mackenzie Country plateau & Alpine lake magnificence in the Mackenzie basin.
Leah got a teaching job at Lake Tekapo School. The headmistress told her that after the lethal, Christchurch 22.02.11 quake, school roll doubled overnight from 20 to 40. So we were tourists (or latter-day, quake displaced persons escaping post quake Christchurch, crap living conditions) in the tourist trap, as well as locals living & working in the rental trap.
Lake Tekapo was an expensive tourist trap & rental trap with a low standard of living for wage slaves. Population 320, so small we even got a free Post Office box, as there was no residential postal service in Lake Tekapo village. Besides tourist cafes, bars & shops there wasn't much else in Lake Tekapo village, no ANZ bank, no public library. There was a Four Square supermarket selling expensive wares at tourist prices. The nearest doctor was at Fairlie, the nearest dentist at Geraldine.
During the years we lived in Mackenzie Country, we used Fairlie Community Library & drove to Geraldine or Timaru to do banking & shopping. Our new GP was at Fairlie, our new dentist at Geraldine. We spent more time in our car than we ever did in Christchurch. That included trips to Ashburton & Christchurch for business & to visit our sons.
When I wandered Lake Tekapo I saw many closed, ghost houses / holiday homes, post boxless, which stopped junk mail. Most houses in Lake Tekapo were private holiday homes, closed for most of the year. Some houses were commercial holidays homes, like the one we rented at Aorangi Cres, $200 / night. (Or $400 / week). Work out how much dosh that brings in annually for one commercial holiday home. And it was one of the cheaper ones, an old, 3 bed room Public Works house, built about 60 years ago for workers constructing hydro-electric dams & canals in the Mackenzie - Waitaki basins. Fortunately Leah's boss paid our weekly rent for a while, until we found suitable accommodation. But where?
Some furnished holiday homes were rented for $400 - $500 / night. That's ridiculously unaffordable for people wanting to live & work at Take Tekapo. In contrast I recently saw a Fairlie Accessible advert where a 3 bed room, unfurnished house, rented for $175 / week, on Fairlie outskirts. That was affordable. But Fairlie was 43 kms from Lake Tekapo, with a commute to work up Burkes Pass.
$400 / week rent for a small, 3 bed room house with garage was exorbitant, similar in price to Christchurch post quake rentals, where greedy landlords were coining it, due to low supply & high demand for rentals after quake damages. Luke's girlfriend's South New Brighton 3 bed room rental was damaged in the quakes & finished off in a recent storm when the roof blew off. She was sharing the rental with 2 girlfriends. Now she was back to living with her parents while battling to find another rental.
Some landlord greed: When we asked our Christchurch landlady if our empty Burnside rental could be used to accommodate Luke & friends after their rental roof blew off, she only permitted Luke & girlfriend to stay, not other friends in dire need of accommodation. We didn't bother, as our landlady's reasoning was she preferred middle aged tenants like us, rather than youngsters who'd wreck her rental with parties. She tarred all youngsters with the same brush.
Luke's girlfriend confirmed Christchurch landlord greed in her quest for another rental. Some landlords were so greedy they either didn't want pets, or wanted her to pay weekly rent for her collie dog, or a $1000 bond for her dog.
Luke & Jake were recently booted out of their Ashgrove Tce rental house, as the landlord wanted to fix the house after EQC pay out & thereafter he would live in the house. Jake moved to stay with a friend at Sumner, far from his Garland St work. Luke found a $400 / week rental in Berwick St to share rent with his girlfriend & 2 other friends. It was expensive, but par for the course in overpriced NZ.
PM Key's recent opining on rentals, when expounding on unemployed youngsters each being given $3000 by WINZ to go off the dole & move to Christchurch to help with the rebuild for 3 months (despite rental pressures on youngsters already renting in Christchurch, like my sons) was that youngsters just off the dole, or workers like my sons, could stay with family or friends. What a load of a crap!
Other Lake Tekapo tourist trap establishments are local cafes & restaurants, some flats on top of restaurants. Of course there was tourist accommodation at Peppers Bluewater Resort (800 plus rooms) The Godley Hotel & several B & Bs, backpackers, homestays, motels & resorts dotted around town. There was also the local YHA & Lake Tekapo camp site, so like Mackenzie rabbits, Lake Tekapo was riddled with tourists.
Recently a concrete path was completed beside Lake Tekapo for campers to stroll to Lake Tekapo village. A camper van effluent & fresh water site was also revamped for camper vans to debouch crap beside SH8, overlooking Lake Tekapo, with NO FREEDOM CAMPING signs on pines. Lake Tekapo was bordered by camper van effluent, as there was another effluent site along SH8, at the E end of town.
As our small Lake Tekapo rental (house 97.5 square metres, single garage 18 square metres) was furnished, we were still renting our 3 b.r. house at Burnside, Christchurch, for our furniture storage. (House 103 square metres, double garage 48 square metres). Over the last months I'd driven several return trips to Christchurch, fetching & carrying possessions, which were now muddled with our Lake Tekapo rental mod cons.
When we asked our Lake Tekapo landlord if he could move his furniture out, so we could relocate our furniture from Christchurch, he refused, as he'd have to store. Thus we'd have to store our furniture in Christchurch, unless we found unfurnished accommodation in Lake Tekapo. Our Lake Tekapo rental was part renovated, but the kitchen was awful, with rickety table & cupboard shelves covered in plastic, hiding decades of grime. There were 9 beds in the small, 3 bed room house, including 2 double beds & 2 double bunks, enough for 11 bodies a pop. The house was in fact an overpriced hostel, rather than a rental house for a family. So we had no space for our furniture. Our rental was across the road from backpacker establishments, so our landlord wanted it several ways - big spending backpackers, or workers crammed into 11 beds, hostel style, or long term tenants like us, without possessions. We were seen by locals as glorified backpackers to be fleeced.
Meanwhile there were several private, closed, holiday homes, close to our rental. Across Tekapo River, on a recent walk along Murray Pl, I counted over 20 private, closed holiday homes - more closed homes than inhabited homes. And that was just one short street in Lake Tekapo. Ditto parallel Scott St.
The sooner Lake Tekapo sorted out decent, affordable accommodation for people like us who wanted to live, work & settle in Lake Tekapo the better. Otherwise Lake Tekapo would always be a tourist & rental trap, riddled with 1000s of daily tourists, just passing through. Leaving their crap of course.
The ironic convergence of Lake Tekapo tourist trap & rental trap was seen in the following Peppers Resort advert found on a community notice board, March 2014:
ACCOMMODATION NEEDED - DESPERATELY
We have a number of hard working staff desperately requiring medium to long term accommodation options in Lake Tekapo, or surrounding townships.
If you are looking for long term, secure and trustworthy tenants - look no further. Single occupant, shared options - whatever you may have will greatly assist.
Please contact General manager ... @ Peppers Bluewater Resort ...
The biggest tourist accommodation resort at Lake Tekapo didn't even have decent accommodation for its own staff. What a farce, employers expecting excellent staff, but not providing accommodation, nor employer excellence.
We looked at a 3 bed room, rental, pig sty, about 1 km from Leah's school - overgrown "garden," rickety carport, cracked concrete decking, dirty, smelly kitchen, old carpets, dirty bedding, rickety furniture, asbestos backed fireplace. Upstairs bedrooms were a dirty firetrap, the house an old, A frame prefab. The greedy landlord wanted $350 - $400 / week, a tourist trap / rental trap, touting good money for a rickety slum house. He wanted long term tenants while he built another house in the front garden. Tenants in that crap rental paid for the rebuild.
Another furnished, 3 b.r. house, further from Leah's school: an immaculate rats' nest with tidy garden, rent $400 / week. A flat was on top. Snags: Gas cooker, a fire hazard; no fireplace; shared double garage, electricity, washing machine, clothes line & water heating. I foresaw endless disputes with other tenants, as we would pay 60% of the electrical bill while they only paid 40% no matter how little electricity we used & how much they used.
A filthy, 3 b.r. house we saw in Aorangi Cres was another pig sty. The landlady stored stuff in the garage, stopping tenants' use of the garage. The small house was converted to a 2 b.r. house, the original lounge became a bedroom. Walls of 2 of the original bedrooms were demolished to make an open-plan lounge, cum dining room & kitchen. A fireplace with corrugated iron backing dominated the lounge & the kitchen had a gas stove. Stove & fireplace together caused miasma. I inspected the house barefoot & felt gunk underfoot. The house had inadequate cupboard space. $285 / week rental was a rip off, our health would decline in that sty.
Near the school, Leah's boss rented a wooden, 2 bed room house, sans garage, $350 / week. One teacher lived on a nearby farm. Another commuted daily from Twizel.
Before Easter weekend I wandered 18 Lake Tekapo streets & "posted" RENTAL HOUSE WANTED notices at 72 closed houses. Not one of those houses had a letter box, so the reader could imagine how I "posted". There were many more closed houses, but I thought that was enough to test the ghost rental market. We got only 2 vague responses. Our search so far revealed only high priced, low quality rentals. Our house search continued...
As there was no decent accommodation for us at Lake Tekapo, by the end of June we settled for a 2 bedroom rental in Fairlie, a village in a lower Alpine valley, 43 kms from Lake Tekapo. Rent was $200 per week for an old flax mill cottage in Talbot Rd in the middle of Fairlie golf course. Fairlie people were friendlier than Lake Tekapo inmates. Snag: Leah had a long daily commute to & from Lake Tekapo.
Within a couple of weeks Leah organized a lift with a Richies bus driver who did the Lake Tekapo - Fairlie school bus run. The bus fare was cheaper than my driving Leah from Fairlie to Lake Tekapo daily. It also saved me winter driving on Burkes Pass. (Nevertheless, I got used to driving Burkes Pass during snow storms). Richies had a bus depot on Allandale Rd & several school / tourist bus drivers working for Richies lived at Fairlie & nearby Kimbell & Albury.
Had to laugh at a Tekapo Community Development report in the 5 November Fairlie Accessible:
"The lack of rental accommodation in Lake Tekapo affects the ability of businesses to function, for families to have a reasonable standard of living & for the community to grow. This is not a new issue..."
So greedy Lake Tekapo businesses milked the tourist dollar, but didn't provide affordable rentals, or free accommodation in remote Lake Tekapo, for their employees. If Lake Tekapo businesses didn't pull finger, to continue business, they'd either have to provide decent accommodation for workers, or accept that migrant workers would live in Fairlie & elsewhere & bus to work daily like Leah. If the latter became Lake Tekapo norm then Lake Tekapo employers should supply accommodation & travel allowances for employees.
In SA during the 1980s, when Leah & I worked at De Beers remote Kleinzee & Koffiefontein mines, De Beers provided free housing for all employees - family homes, single quarter flats & hostels, plus food for singles & free relocation, electricity & telephone for all employees. At Koffiefontein & other De Beers mines we had the option of buying our De Beers house instead of free accommodation. That gave De Beers a stable work force. De Beers also provided free bus & aeroplane services for employees & families. Senior management had free company cars & had the option of buying them cheaply after several years' service.
Coda 10.09.15. After living in Mackenzie Country for nearly 2 years at Lake Tekapo then Fairlie, I concluded that the district gave us a high cost of living with a low standard of living, as rentals were crap & there were high commuting costs for Leah to & from Lake Tekapo & high shopping / business commuting costs to Geraldine, Timaru, Ashburton, or Christchurch. We often killed two birds with one stone, e.g. including medical / dental consultations, or visiting our sons, with shopping, banking & Leah's lecturing trips to other centres. Despite the high costs of isolated, Mackenzie Country living, Leah received no isolation allowance, nor commuting allowance, in fact no job perks at all, just a salary.
A Fairlie rental ad seen on Lake Tekapo community notice board:
1 single bedroom, $140 / wk
Free Wi Fi, TV, electricity.
A rip off. There were many slumlords & greedy businesses in Mackenzie Country, eager to cash in on passing tourists, but offering crap accommodation for workers, if accommodation was offered at all. Workers usually had to find scarce, expensive, rentals themselves. No wonder workers on average lasted only 3 months at Lake Tekapo.
Oct 2016: A Lake Tekapo rental ad seen on lake Tekapo community notice board: Single room, WIFI & electricity, couple preferred, $300 - 320 / week. Slumlord rip off!
Content Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Million dollar homes on the rise at Lake Tekapo (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Tekapos Big Bang moment: why a sleepy village is taking off (The Press / Stuff Co).
As Lake Tekapo has approx 1.8 million tourists passing through every year, it's a tourist trap, gateway to arid Mackenzie Country plateau & Alpine lake magnificence in the Mackenzie basin.
Leah got a teaching job at Lake Tekapo School. The headmistress told her that after the lethal, Christchurch 22.02.11 quake, school roll doubled overnight from 20 to 40. So we were tourists (or latter-day, quake displaced persons escaping post quake Christchurch, crap living conditions) in the tourist trap, as well as locals living & working in the rental trap.
Lake Tekapo was an expensive tourist trap & rental trap with a low standard of living for wage slaves. Population 320, so small we even got a free Post Office box, as there was no residential postal service in Lake Tekapo village. Besides tourist cafes, bars & shops there wasn't much else in Lake Tekapo village, no ANZ bank, no public library. There was a Four Square supermarket selling expensive wares at tourist prices. The nearest doctor was at Fairlie, the nearest dentist at Geraldine.
During the years we lived in Mackenzie Country, we used Fairlie Community Library & drove to Geraldine or Timaru to do banking & shopping. Our new GP was at Fairlie, our new dentist at Geraldine. We spent more time in our car than we ever did in Christchurch. That included trips to Ashburton & Christchurch for business & to visit our sons.
When I wandered Lake Tekapo I saw many closed, ghost houses / holiday homes, post boxless, which stopped junk mail. Most houses in Lake Tekapo were private holiday homes, closed for most of the year. Some houses were commercial holidays homes, like the one we rented at Aorangi Cres, $200 / night. (Or $400 / week). Work out how much dosh that brings in annually for one commercial holiday home. And it was one of the cheaper ones, an old, 3 bed room Public Works house, built about 60 years ago for workers constructing hydro-electric dams & canals in the Mackenzie - Waitaki basins. Fortunately Leah's boss paid our weekly rent for a while, until we found suitable accommodation. But where?
Some furnished holiday homes were rented for $400 - $500 / night. That's ridiculously unaffordable for people wanting to live & work at Take Tekapo. In contrast I recently saw a Fairlie Accessible advert where a 3 bed room, unfurnished house, rented for $175 / week, on Fairlie outskirts. That was affordable. But Fairlie was 43 kms from Lake Tekapo, with a commute to work up Burkes Pass.
$400 / week rent for a small, 3 bed room house with garage was exorbitant, similar in price to Christchurch post quake rentals, where greedy landlords were coining it, due to low supply & high demand for rentals after quake damages. Luke's girlfriend's South New Brighton 3 bed room rental was damaged in the quakes & finished off in a recent storm when the roof blew off. She was sharing the rental with 2 girlfriends. Now she was back to living with her parents while battling to find another rental.
Some landlord greed: When we asked our Christchurch landlady if our empty Burnside rental could be used to accommodate Luke & friends after their rental roof blew off, she only permitted Luke & girlfriend to stay, not other friends in dire need of accommodation. We didn't bother, as our landlady's reasoning was she preferred middle aged tenants like us, rather than youngsters who'd wreck her rental with parties. She tarred all youngsters with the same brush.
Luke's girlfriend confirmed Christchurch landlord greed in her quest for another rental. Some landlords were so greedy they either didn't want pets, or wanted her to pay weekly rent for her collie dog, or a $1000 bond for her dog.
Luke & Jake were recently booted out of their Ashgrove Tce rental house, as the landlord wanted to fix the house after EQC pay out & thereafter he would live in the house. Jake moved to stay with a friend at Sumner, far from his Garland St work. Luke found a $400 / week rental in Berwick St to share rent with his girlfriend & 2 other friends. It was expensive, but par for the course in overpriced NZ.
PM Key's recent opining on rentals, when expounding on unemployed youngsters each being given $3000 by WINZ to go off the dole & move to Christchurch to help with the rebuild for 3 months (despite rental pressures on youngsters already renting in Christchurch, like my sons) was that youngsters just off the dole, or workers like my sons, could stay with family or friends. What a load of a crap!
Other Lake Tekapo tourist trap establishments are local cafes & restaurants, some flats on top of restaurants. Of course there was tourist accommodation at Peppers Bluewater Resort (800 plus rooms) The Godley Hotel & several B & Bs, backpackers, homestays, motels & resorts dotted around town. There was also the local YHA & Lake Tekapo camp site, so like Mackenzie rabbits, Lake Tekapo was riddled with tourists.
Recently a concrete path was completed beside Lake Tekapo for campers to stroll to Lake Tekapo village. A camper van effluent & fresh water site was also revamped for camper vans to debouch crap beside SH8, overlooking Lake Tekapo, with NO FREEDOM CAMPING signs on pines. Lake Tekapo was bordered by camper van effluent, as there was another effluent site along SH8, at the E end of town.
As our small Lake Tekapo rental (house 97.5 square metres, single garage 18 square metres) was furnished, we were still renting our 3 b.r. house at Burnside, Christchurch, for our furniture storage. (House 103 square metres, double garage 48 square metres). Over the last months I'd driven several return trips to Christchurch, fetching & carrying possessions, which were now muddled with our Lake Tekapo rental mod cons.
When we asked our Lake Tekapo landlord if he could move his furniture out, so we could relocate our furniture from Christchurch, he refused, as he'd have to store. Thus we'd have to store our furniture in Christchurch, unless we found unfurnished accommodation in Lake Tekapo. Our Lake Tekapo rental was part renovated, but the kitchen was awful, with rickety table & cupboard shelves covered in plastic, hiding decades of grime. There were 9 beds in the small, 3 bed room house, including 2 double beds & 2 double bunks, enough for 11 bodies a pop. The house was in fact an overpriced hostel, rather than a rental house for a family. So we had no space for our furniture. Our rental was across the road from backpacker establishments, so our landlord wanted it several ways - big spending backpackers, or workers crammed into 11 beds, hostel style, or long term tenants like us, without possessions. We were seen by locals as glorified backpackers to be fleeced.
Meanwhile there were several private, closed, holiday homes, close to our rental. Across Tekapo River, on a recent walk along Murray Pl, I counted over 20 private, closed holiday homes - more closed homes than inhabited homes. And that was just one short street in Lake Tekapo. Ditto parallel Scott St.
The sooner Lake Tekapo sorted out decent, affordable accommodation for people like us who wanted to live, work & settle in Lake Tekapo the better. Otherwise Lake Tekapo would always be a tourist & rental trap, riddled with 1000s of daily tourists, just passing through. Leaving their crap of course.
The ironic convergence of Lake Tekapo tourist trap & rental trap was seen in the following Peppers Resort advert found on a community notice board, March 2014:
ACCOMMODATION NEEDED - DESPERATELY
We have a number of hard working staff desperately requiring medium to long term accommodation options in Lake Tekapo, or surrounding townships.
If you are looking for long term, secure and trustworthy tenants - look no further. Single occupant, shared options - whatever you may have will greatly assist.
Please contact General manager ... @ Peppers Bluewater Resort ...
The biggest tourist accommodation resort at Lake Tekapo didn't even have decent accommodation for its own staff. What a farce, employers expecting excellent staff, but not providing accommodation, nor employer excellence.
We looked at a 3 bed room, rental, pig sty, about 1 km from Leah's school - overgrown "garden," rickety carport, cracked concrete decking, dirty, smelly kitchen, old carpets, dirty bedding, rickety furniture, asbestos backed fireplace. Upstairs bedrooms were a dirty firetrap, the house an old, A frame prefab. The greedy landlord wanted $350 - $400 / week, a tourist trap / rental trap, touting good money for a rickety slum house. He wanted long term tenants while he built another house in the front garden. Tenants in that crap rental paid for the rebuild.
Another furnished, 3 b.r. house, further from Leah's school: an immaculate rats' nest with tidy garden, rent $400 / week. A flat was on top. Snags: Gas cooker, a fire hazard; no fireplace; shared double garage, electricity, washing machine, clothes line & water heating. I foresaw endless disputes with other tenants, as we would pay 60% of the electrical bill while they only paid 40% no matter how little electricity we used & how much they used.
A filthy, 3 b.r. house we saw in Aorangi Cres was another pig sty. The landlady stored stuff in the garage, stopping tenants' use of the garage. The small house was converted to a 2 b.r. house, the original lounge became a bedroom. Walls of 2 of the original bedrooms were demolished to make an open-plan lounge, cum dining room & kitchen. A fireplace with corrugated iron backing dominated the lounge & the kitchen had a gas stove. Stove & fireplace together caused miasma. I inspected the house barefoot & felt gunk underfoot. The house had inadequate cupboard space. $285 / week rental was a rip off, our health would decline in that sty.
Near the school, Leah's boss rented a wooden, 2 bed room house, sans garage, $350 / week. One teacher lived on a nearby farm. Another commuted daily from Twizel.
Before Easter weekend I wandered 18 Lake Tekapo streets & "posted" RENTAL HOUSE WANTED notices at 72 closed houses. Not one of those houses had a letter box, so the reader could imagine how I "posted". There were many more closed houses, but I thought that was enough to test the ghost rental market. We got only 2 vague responses. Our search so far revealed only high priced, low quality rentals. Our house search continued...
As there was no decent accommodation for us at Lake Tekapo, by the end of June we settled for a 2 bedroom rental in Fairlie, a village in a lower Alpine valley, 43 kms from Lake Tekapo. Rent was $200 per week for an old flax mill cottage in Talbot Rd in the middle of Fairlie golf course. Fairlie people were friendlier than Lake Tekapo inmates. Snag: Leah had a long daily commute to & from Lake Tekapo.
Within a couple of weeks Leah organized a lift with a Richies bus driver who did the Lake Tekapo - Fairlie school bus run. The bus fare was cheaper than my driving Leah from Fairlie to Lake Tekapo daily. It also saved me winter driving on Burkes Pass. (Nevertheless, I got used to driving Burkes Pass during snow storms). Richies had a bus depot on Allandale Rd & several school / tourist bus drivers working for Richies lived at Fairlie & nearby Kimbell & Albury.
Had to laugh at a Tekapo Community Development report in the 5 November Fairlie Accessible:
"The lack of rental accommodation in Lake Tekapo affects the ability of businesses to function, for families to have a reasonable standard of living & for the community to grow. This is not a new issue..."
So greedy Lake Tekapo businesses milked the tourist dollar, but didn't provide affordable rentals, or free accommodation in remote Lake Tekapo, for their employees. If Lake Tekapo businesses didn't pull finger, to continue business, they'd either have to provide decent accommodation for workers, or accept that migrant workers would live in Fairlie & elsewhere & bus to work daily like Leah. If the latter became Lake Tekapo norm then Lake Tekapo employers should supply accommodation & travel allowances for employees.
In SA during the 1980s, when Leah & I worked at De Beers remote Kleinzee & Koffiefontein mines, De Beers provided free housing for all employees - family homes, single quarter flats & hostels, plus food for singles & free relocation, electricity & telephone for all employees. At Koffiefontein & other De Beers mines we had the option of buying our De Beers house instead of free accommodation. That gave De Beers a stable work force. De Beers also provided free bus & aeroplane services for employees & families. Senior management had free company cars & had the option of buying them cheaply after several years' service.
Coda 10.09.15. After living in Mackenzie Country for nearly 2 years at Lake Tekapo then Fairlie, I concluded that the district gave us a high cost of living with a low standard of living, as rentals were crap & there were high commuting costs for Leah to & from Lake Tekapo & high shopping / business commuting costs to Geraldine, Timaru, Ashburton, or Christchurch. We often killed two birds with one stone, e.g. including medical / dental consultations, or visiting our sons, with shopping, banking & Leah's lecturing trips to other centres. Despite the high costs of isolated, Mackenzie Country living, Leah received no isolation allowance, nor commuting allowance, in fact no job perks at all, just a salary.
A Fairlie rental ad seen on Lake Tekapo community notice board:
1 single bedroom, $140 / wk
Free Wi Fi, TV, electricity.
A rip off. There were many slumlords & greedy businesses in Mackenzie Country, eager to cash in on passing tourists, but offering crap accommodation for workers, if accommodation was offered at all. Workers usually had to find scarce, expensive, rentals themselves. No wonder workers on average lasted only 3 months at Lake Tekapo.
Oct 2016: A Lake Tekapo rental ad seen on lake Tekapo community notice board: Single room, WIFI & electricity, couple preferred, $300 - 320 / week. Slumlord rip off!
Content Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Million dollar homes on the rise at Lake Tekapo (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Tekapos Big Bang moment: why a sleepy village is taking off (The Press / Stuff Co).
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Cowans Hill Walkway, Lake Tekapo
Map ref: BY17 983234. Two summit, Cowans Hill Walkway is a circular walk 6-8 km return, depending on one's start & end points & detours. At the time of writing, confusing DOC signs were at the bottom & some way up Cowans Hill alongside SH8. In places DOC marker poles were obscured by pines.
Much of Lake Tekapo village is built on the lower slopes of Cowans Hill overlooking Lake Tekapo & Southern Alps. Cowans Hill is terminal moraine of the ancient Godley Glacier. The terminal moraine continues across Tekapo River to an unnamed hill on which The Cairns golf course is built.
One can start / end Cowans Hill walk at Lake Tekapo dam control gates by SH8, opposite Pioneer Rd turnoff to Church of the Good Shepherd. A DOC sign by a concrete path shows the way past housing above Tekapo River. That route will give a quick return walk through pine forest to Cowans Hill 793 m summit, about 1 hour's duration.
Alternatively for a longer circular walk through Lake Tekapo village, Cowans Hill tussock grassland & pine forest, one can wander along SH8 past housing & stockyards to the lakeside track beyond another Pioneer Rd turnoff to Pines Beach tracks in Lake Tekapo Regional Park.
Given the confusing signage for Cowans Hill Walkway it seemed that Mackenzie District Council, DOC & NZ Transport Authority were at loggerheads as to which organization was responsible for Cowans Hill tracks.
The most logical way around the base of Cowans Hill was along SH8, but NZ Transport Authority didn't provide pavements or footpaths beside SH8 for walkers / MTBs to use. The dam road / SH8 across Lake Tekapo outlet & Tekapo River was a dangerous bottleneck for vehicles, pedestrians & MTBs, as it was narrow & only had one footpath.
SH8 on the road to Fairlie, beyond Pioneer Rd turnoff, one joins a lakeside walking track marked by green & yellow DOC poles going to Lake Tekapo Regional Park. Across SH8 are stockyards by a Lake Tekapo lookout & tourist car park, with Lochinver Run development behind, going up Cowans Hill to the cemetery road & beyond to pine forest tracks going up to Cowans Hill 793 m summit.
Opting not to wander up SH8, if one follows the lakeside track, walkers are forced by means of locked gates & fences to enter the Regional Park forest where one crosses stiles by Lilybank Rd & detours through pine forest around a forester's house beside SH8. Above the forester's house one crosses SH8 by another stile to reach a closed-to-vehicles track going up Cowans Hill beside SH8. The track leads to a closed car park lookout & beyond to a heap of sand blocking traffic beside SH8, by Oregon pines & birches.
Near the top of Cowans Hill, beside SH8 one passes through a farm gate by a DOC sign marked LAKE TEKAPO WALKWAY. Cowans Hill is mentioned as an afterthought. After crossing a metal stile one enters tussock grassland overlooking a private observatory, Lake Tekapo & Alps.
In tussock grassland, above Lochinver Run, the 360 degree lake & Alpine views are worth the hassles of confusing DOC & Regional Park signs. Following the DOC marked, shared use track for walkers & MTBs, Cowans Hill hilltops, 783 m & 793 m are a lesson in how forestry & logging can destroy pristine Alpine grasslands & wetlands. From the 783 m grassland summit a Lions bench gives 360 degree views over Mackenzie Country. The grasslands are windy, so all-weather, hoody gear is necessary.
Pinus radiata pines are planted in the grassland & wetlands on top of Cowans Hill. The 783 m summit has new pine plantings, the 793 m summit has mature, logged pine forest. The pines may stop soil erosion, but will dry out the tarns on top. Some of the tarns are already dried out. A black swan pair & ducks swam a half filled tarn.
Having survived 3 years of Christchurch quakes, 2010-2013, it would be interesting to see the effects of big quakes on Lake Tekapo village, between topside tarns & wetland drainage on Cowans Hill & Lake Tekapo below. Given the close proximity to Alpine ranges & faults, like Coal River Fault below Richmond Range, I expected disastrous shaking & liquefaction. Hopefully expensive developments like Lochinver Run, Mt John Village & The Cairns have quake resilient housing?
Following the shared MTB / walker track going up to the pine forest on the 793 m summit, one crosses a metal stile into the pine forest. A PINDONE sign on a pine warns about rabbit poisoning - useless as Lake Tekapo village & forests are riddled with rabbits & rabbit warrens. So much for farmers boasting about secretly introducing calcivirus into Mackenzie Country during 1997. All that did was kill some rabbits with rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) & toughen up surviving rabbits' immune systems, giving offspring rabbits immunity to rabbit poisons.
Beside a pine forest fence, a farm track in the grassland goes down to a locked gate above Lochinver Run development.
From radio & TV transmitters at the 793 m summit, one has views of Lake Tekapo village sewage farm & refuse dump. Following Tekapo River down stream view, after an S bend, one sees Tekapo A power station.
E of Lake Tekapo one sees Alpine peaks rising from S to N: Mt Edward, Mt Maude, Tekapo Saddle, Mt Dobson, Mt Hay, Mt Ardmore, Richmond Range, Round Hill & ski field, Two Thumbs Range, Braun-Ewart Peak, Mt Hope, Stag Saddle, Beuzenberg, Mt Toby, Captains Peak, Mt Gerald.
N of Lake Tekapo, E of Godley River, one sees The Thumbs, Mt Electra, Mt Chevalier, Mt Ross, Mt Ajax, Razor Back, Mt Erebus, Mt Sibbald.
W of Lake Tekapo one sees Mt John, Braemar Dome, Mt Stevenson, Hall Range including Haszard Peak & Mistake Peak & Gammack Range obscuring the view of Mt Cook & associated peaks.
Further W, Cowans Hill gives grand views of Mt Stafford, Barrier Range, W of Twizel & Ben Ohau Range - Backbone Peak, Mackenzies Peak, The Razorback, Kaimakamaka Peaks, Dun Fiunary, Glentanner Peak & other peaks going to Mt Sealy & Mt Sefton.
Doing a S detour from the top of Cowans Hill pine forest, one follows a forest track to the end of the pine forest & passes through a farm gate, where a stock track follows a cliff top path above Tekapo River. Vegetable sheep, Raoulia australis, on rocks indicate harsh Alpine winds sweeping up the cliff top. Many rabbit warrens showed rabbit pollution & solid mats of hawkweed, Hieracium, showed plant pollution. Rabbits didn't chomp hawkweed. I saw some rabbit carcasses, successful poisonings, but also saw rabbits hopping about, immune to Pindone. Beyond the clifftop, a farm track went down to Tekapo River by Tekapo A power station.
The way down from the pine forest summit offers various forestry tracks, a couple with DOC marker poles. The shared use MTB / walker track goes through a logged out section of forest, about 200 m x 1000 m, full of pine branch windrows, thistles, wooly mulleins, briar roses, sparse grass, new pine plantings, testament to wetland & tussock grassland destruction by foresters. The pines also obscured Lake Tekapo & Alpine views. All that pines offered was firewood, wind shelter & erosion salvage. Erosion was caused by pioneers' stock overgrazing.
The shared use track passes behind housing above Tekapo River back to the concrete path at SH8 by the Lake Tekapo dam control gates, a DOC sign there too.
Cowans Hill Walkway takes about 2 hours walking time return, or more, depending on detours.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Much of Lake Tekapo village is built on the lower slopes of Cowans Hill overlooking Lake Tekapo & Southern Alps. Cowans Hill is terminal moraine of the ancient Godley Glacier. The terminal moraine continues across Tekapo River to an unnamed hill on which The Cairns golf course is built.
One can start / end Cowans Hill walk at Lake Tekapo dam control gates by SH8, opposite Pioneer Rd turnoff to Church of the Good Shepherd. A DOC sign by a concrete path shows the way past housing above Tekapo River. That route will give a quick return walk through pine forest to Cowans Hill 793 m summit, about 1 hour's duration.
Alternatively for a longer circular walk through Lake Tekapo village, Cowans Hill tussock grassland & pine forest, one can wander along SH8 past housing & stockyards to the lakeside track beyond another Pioneer Rd turnoff to Pines Beach tracks in Lake Tekapo Regional Park.
Given the confusing signage for Cowans Hill Walkway it seemed that Mackenzie District Council, DOC & NZ Transport Authority were at loggerheads as to which organization was responsible for Cowans Hill tracks.
The most logical way around the base of Cowans Hill was along SH8, but NZ Transport Authority didn't provide pavements or footpaths beside SH8 for walkers / MTBs to use. The dam road / SH8 across Lake Tekapo outlet & Tekapo River was a dangerous bottleneck for vehicles, pedestrians & MTBs, as it was narrow & only had one footpath.
SH8 on the road to Fairlie, beyond Pioneer Rd turnoff, one joins a lakeside walking track marked by green & yellow DOC poles going to Lake Tekapo Regional Park. Across SH8 are stockyards by a Lake Tekapo lookout & tourist car park, with Lochinver Run development behind, going up Cowans Hill to the cemetery road & beyond to pine forest tracks going up to Cowans Hill 793 m summit.
Opting not to wander up SH8, if one follows the lakeside track, walkers are forced by means of locked gates & fences to enter the Regional Park forest where one crosses stiles by Lilybank Rd & detours through pine forest around a forester's house beside SH8. Above the forester's house one crosses SH8 by another stile to reach a closed-to-vehicles track going up Cowans Hill beside SH8. The track leads to a closed car park lookout & beyond to a heap of sand blocking traffic beside SH8, by Oregon pines & birches.
Near the top of Cowans Hill, beside SH8 one passes through a farm gate by a DOC sign marked LAKE TEKAPO WALKWAY. Cowans Hill is mentioned as an afterthought. After crossing a metal stile one enters tussock grassland overlooking a private observatory, Lake Tekapo & Alps.
In tussock grassland, above Lochinver Run, the 360 degree lake & Alpine views are worth the hassles of confusing DOC & Regional Park signs. Following the DOC marked, shared use track for walkers & MTBs, Cowans Hill hilltops, 783 m & 793 m are a lesson in how forestry & logging can destroy pristine Alpine grasslands & wetlands. From the 783 m grassland summit a Lions bench gives 360 degree views over Mackenzie Country. The grasslands are windy, so all-weather, hoody gear is necessary.
Pinus radiata pines are planted in the grassland & wetlands on top of Cowans Hill. The 783 m summit has new pine plantings, the 793 m summit has mature, logged pine forest. The pines may stop soil erosion, but will dry out the tarns on top. Some of the tarns are already dried out. A black swan pair & ducks swam a half filled tarn.
Having survived 3 years of Christchurch quakes, 2010-2013, it would be interesting to see the effects of big quakes on Lake Tekapo village, between topside tarns & wetland drainage on Cowans Hill & Lake Tekapo below. Given the close proximity to Alpine ranges & faults, like Coal River Fault below Richmond Range, I expected disastrous shaking & liquefaction. Hopefully expensive developments like Lochinver Run, Mt John Village & The Cairns have quake resilient housing?
Following the shared MTB / walker track going up to the pine forest on the 793 m summit, one crosses a metal stile into the pine forest. A PINDONE sign on a pine warns about rabbit poisoning - useless as Lake Tekapo village & forests are riddled with rabbits & rabbit warrens. So much for farmers boasting about secretly introducing calcivirus into Mackenzie Country during 1997. All that did was kill some rabbits with rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) & toughen up surviving rabbits' immune systems, giving offspring rabbits immunity to rabbit poisons.
Beside a pine forest fence, a farm track in the grassland goes down to a locked gate above Lochinver Run development.
From radio & TV transmitters at the 793 m summit, one has views of Lake Tekapo village sewage farm & refuse dump. Following Tekapo River down stream view, after an S bend, one sees Tekapo A power station.
E of Lake Tekapo one sees Alpine peaks rising from S to N: Mt Edward, Mt Maude, Tekapo Saddle, Mt Dobson, Mt Hay, Mt Ardmore, Richmond Range, Round Hill & ski field, Two Thumbs Range, Braun-Ewart Peak, Mt Hope, Stag Saddle, Beuzenberg, Mt Toby, Captains Peak, Mt Gerald.
N of Lake Tekapo, E of Godley River, one sees The Thumbs, Mt Electra, Mt Chevalier, Mt Ross, Mt Ajax, Razor Back, Mt Erebus, Mt Sibbald.
W of Lake Tekapo one sees Mt John, Braemar Dome, Mt Stevenson, Hall Range including Haszard Peak & Mistake Peak & Gammack Range obscuring the view of Mt Cook & associated peaks.
Further W, Cowans Hill gives grand views of Mt Stafford, Barrier Range, W of Twizel & Ben Ohau Range - Backbone Peak, Mackenzies Peak, The Razorback, Kaimakamaka Peaks, Dun Fiunary, Glentanner Peak & other peaks going to Mt Sealy & Mt Sefton.
Doing a S detour from the top of Cowans Hill pine forest, one follows a forest track to the end of the pine forest & passes through a farm gate, where a stock track follows a cliff top path above Tekapo River. Vegetable sheep, Raoulia australis, on rocks indicate harsh Alpine winds sweeping up the cliff top. Many rabbit warrens showed rabbit pollution & solid mats of hawkweed, Hieracium, showed plant pollution. Rabbits didn't chomp hawkweed. I saw some rabbit carcasses, successful poisonings, but also saw rabbits hopping about, immune to Pindone. Beyond the clifftop, a farm track went down to Tekapo River by Tekapo A power station.
The way down from the pine forest summit offers various forestry tracks, a couple with DOC marker poles. The shared use MTB / walker track goes through a logged out section of forest, about 200 m x 1000 m, full of pine branch windrows, thistles, wooly mulleins, briar roses, sparse grass, new pine plantings, testament to wetland & tussock grassland destruction by foresters. The pines also obscured Lake Tekapo & Alpine views. All that pines offered was firewood, wind shelter & erosion salvage. Erosion was caused by pioneers' stock overgrazing.
The shared use track passes behind housing above Tekapo River back to the concrete path at SH8 by the Lake Tekapo dam control gates, a DOC sign there too.
Cowans Hill Walkway takes about 2 hours walking time return, or more, depending on detours.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Mt John Walkway, Lake Tekapo
Thurs 13.02.14. Map ref: BY17 966267. Balmoral Station: On the S side of Mt John, 1 031 m, overlooking Lake Tekapo, from Tekapo Spa car park, I wandered up Mt John's zigzag path through larch forest, sprinkled with pines. The climb was 311 vertical metres on the DOC maintained path. The climb began beside spa pools, renowned for the world's biggest inflatable hydro slide. Mt John Walkway was popular with tourists & locals.
On my way up, through larch gaps, I had glimpses of Mackenzie Country, in the N Mackenzie Basin & S Waitaki Basin, gouged out by glaciers & surrounded by Southern Alpine ranges. Beyond the treeline, the path emerged W of the S Summit, a rocky bluff.
Beyond the treeline views: E - Mt Edward ridges, Mt Burgess 1 430 m beyond. SE - Rollesby Range, Dalgety Range, Hakataramea Pass, Grampian Range, Kirkliston Range, Otago Ranges. Far S - Benmore Range & a glimpse of Lake Benmore, NZ's biggest man made lake. Close S below Mt John, Tekapo River & Tekapo Canal going S beyond Lake Tekapo village, SH8 going past Tekapo Airport & Tekapo Military Camp below Old Man Range. Further S, Mary Range with a SW glimpse of Lake Pukaki.
The basins were dry, desert like, with windblown grass & treeless, except for farm shelter belts. W - Alpine views toward Mt Sefton 3 151 m. SW - Ben Ohau Range above Twizel. From S to N, some Ben Ohau peaks: Mackenzies Peak 2 200 m, The Razorback 2 392 m, Kaimakamaka Peaks 2 431 m, Dun Fiunary 2 500 m, Glentanner Peak 2 551 m...
On top of Mt John, 60 wooden steps led to a circular summit path, carpark, 5 observatory domes & Astro Cafe with spectacular views. Summit boards gave information. The observatories were run by Canterbury University. Our Christchurch neighbour studied astronomy at Canterbury University & hoped to star gaze on Mt John summit. Until 1983 the observatory nearest the S summit was a USA spy observatory, checking passing satellites during the Cold War.
Due to Lake Tekapo's clear skies, although Mt John was touted as a star gazers' paradise, it wasn't a conservation hot spot, due to exotic larches, thistles, briar roses & rabbit pollution. Rabbit dung & rabbit holes riddled Mt John. I spotted a small, green, vegetable sheep, Raoulia australis, covering a stone near one of the observatories. Other Alpine flora seen: coral broom, mat broom, geraniums, Wahlenbergias, red tussock, spear grass, porcupine bushes, matagouri bushes. Like the rest of Mackenzie Country, Mt John was riddled with hawkweed, Hieracium, Pilosella. As 1 000s of tourists invaded Mt John summit annually, I doubted local flora had any chance of flourishing. For the sick, lame & lazy, a tarred road went up Mt John on the NW slope, about 8 km distance from Lake Tekapo / Lake Pukaki SH8. (Since 2016, tourists had to pay a fee to drive up Mt John to the carpark on top).
Farmers had completely altered Mackenzie Country vegetation. There was still beige tussocklands, but the only greenery was exotic shelterbelts, cultivated crops & grass seeded paddocks for stock, like sheep, cattle & red deer. Wilding pines were a big problem in Mackenzie Country. Never mind log trucks tailgating on narrow, dangerous roads.
E, from Mt John's Astro Cafe, I saw Lake Tekapo town on Lake Tekapo S shore. Beyond: Mt Edward 1 916 m, Mt Maud 1 797 m, Tekapo Saddle 1 387 m, Mt Dobson 2 095 m, Mt Ardmore 1 989 m, Mt Hay 1 174 m. Wee McGregor 1 146 m was hidden by Mt Hay. All those mts were on Mt Hay Station overlooking Motuariki Island in the middle of Lake Tekapo.
High country stations were huge. Further NE along Lake Tekapo shore: Richmond Station (Round Hill ski field below Mt Richmond) & Mt Gerald Station, signified by shelter belts. At the end of Lilybank Rd, Macaulay River had to be forded to access Lilybank Station below Mt Erebus 2 311 m.
NE - Lilybank Rd went to Round Hill ski field 1 588 m, below Mt Richmond 2 163 m. NE of Lake Tekapo, Mt Gerald 1 551 m was dwarfed by higher peaks of the Two Thumbs Range.
NW of Mt John, Lake Alexandrina & Lake McGregor shimmered, with Lake Tekapo in the E. W of Lake Alexandrina loured Braemar Dome, Mt Stevenson 2 330 m, Mt Joseph 1 682 m, Gammack Range & Hall Range, incl Mt Haszard 2 213 m & Mistake Peak 1 921 m at the NW end of Lake Tekapo. Glenmore Station & Godley Peaks Station were below those peaks. W beyond one of Mt John's observatory domes, a glimpse of Aoraki Mt Cook summit 3 754 m.
N of Lake Tekapo: Mt Erebus 2 311 m, Mt Sibbald 2 811 m, Razor Back 1 570 m, Mt Chevalier 2 404 m, Mt Ross 2 366 m, Mt Ajax 2 319 m, Mt Electra 2 447 m, The Thumbs 2 546 m, Captains Peak 2 371 m, Mt Toby 2 222 m, Beuzenberg Peak 2 070 m, Stag saddle 1 925 m, Mt Hope 2 086 m, Braun Ewart Peak 2 086 m & Two Thumb Range with many unnamed peaks in the N & NE.
Walk time from Tekapo Spa carpark through the larch forest to Mt John summit: about 1 hour. An optional return through exposed tussock land to Tekapo Spa carpark via N slopes & Lake Tekapo shore: about 2 hours. Beware gnats, smelly horse dung & the elements. All weather gear needed, as Alpine weather changes quickly from benign to harsh.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Hawkweed, Hieracium, Pilosella (Agpest).
On my way up, through larch gaps, I had glimpses of Mackenzie Country, in the N Mackenzie Basin & S Waitaki Basin, gouged out by glaciers & surrounded by Southern Alpine ranges. Beyond the treeline, the path emerged W of the S Summit, a rocky bluff.
Beyond the treeline views: E - Mt Edward ridges, Mt Burgess 1 430 m beyond. SE - Rollesby Range, Dalgety Range, Hakataramea Pass, Grampian Range, Kirkliston Range, Otago Ranges. Far S - Benmore Range & a glimpse of Lake Benmore, NZ's biggest man made lake. Close S below Mt John, Tekapo River & Tekapo Canal going S beyond Lake Tekapo village, SH8 going past Tekapo Airport & Tekapo Military Camp below Old Man Range. Further S, Mary Range with a SW glimpse of Lake Pukaki.
The basins were dry, desert like, with windblown grass & treeless, except for farm shelter belts. W - Alpine views toward Mt Sefton 3 151 m. SW - Ben Ohau Range above Twizel. From S to N, some Ben Ohau peaks: Mackenzies Peak 2 200 m, The Razorback 2 392 m, Kaimakamaka Peaks 2 431 m, Dun Fiunary 2 500 m, Glentanner Peak 2 551 m...
On top of Mt John, 60 wooden steps led to a circular summit path, carpark, 5 observatory domes & Astro Cafe with spectacular views. Summit boards gave information. The observatories were run by Canterbury University. Our Christchurch neighbour studied astronomy at Canterbury University & hoped to star gaze on Mt John summit. Until 1983 the observatory nearest the S summit was a USA spy observatory, checking passing satellites during the Cold War.
Due to Lake Tekapo's clear skies, although Mt John was touted as a star gazers' paradise, it wasn't a conservation hot spot, due to exotic larches, thistles, briar roses & rabbit pollution. Rabbit dung & rabbit holes riddled Mt John. I spotted a small, green, vegetable sheep, Raoulia australis, covering a stone near one of the observatories. Other Alpine flora seen: coral broom, mat broom, geraniums, Wahlenbergias, red tussock, spear grass, porcupine bushes, matagouri bushes. Like the rest of Mackenzie Country, Mt John was riddled with hawkweed, Hieracium, Pilosella. As 1 000s of tourists invaded Mt John summit annually, I doubted local flora had any chance of flourishing. For the sick, lame & lazy, a tarred road went up Mt John on the NW slope, about 8 km distance from Lake Tekapo / Lake Pukaki SH8. (Since 2016, tourists had to pay a fee to drive up Mt John to the carpark on top).
Farmers had completely altered Mackenzie Country vegetation. There was still beige tussocklands, but the only greenery was exotic shelterbelts, cultivated crops & grass seeded paddocks for stock, like sheep, cattle & red deer. Wilding pines were a big problem in Mackenzie Country. Never mind log trucks tailgating on narrow, dangerous roads.
E, from Mt John's Astro Cafe, I saw Lake Tekapo town on Lake Tekapo S shore. Beyond: Mt Edward 1 916 m, Mt Maud 1 797 m, Tekapo Saddle 1 387 m, Mt Dobson 2 095 m, Mt Ardmore 1 989 m, Mt Hay 1 174 m. Wee McGregor 1 146 m was hidden by Mt Hay. All those mts were on Mt Hay Station overlooking Motuariki Island in the middle of Lake Tekapo.
High country stations were huge. Further NE along Lake Tekapo shore: Richmond Station (Round Hill ski field below Mt Richmond) & Mt Gerald Station, signified by shelter belts. At the end of Lilybank Rd, Macaulay River had to be forded to access Lilybank Station below Mt Erebus 2 311 m.
NE - Lilybank Rd went to Round Hill ski field 1 588 m, below Mt Richmond 2 163 m. NE of Lake Tekapo, Mt Gerald 1 551 m was dwarfed by higher peaks of the Two Thumbs Range.
NW of Mt John, Lake Alexandrina & Lake McGregor shimmered, with Lake Tekapo in the E. W of Lake Alexandrina loured Braemar Dome, Mt Stevenson 2 330 m, Mt Joseph 1 682 m, Gammack Range & Hall Range, incl Mt Haszard 2 213 m & Mistake Peak 1 921 m at the NW end of Lake Tekapo. Glenmore Station & Godley Peaks Station were below those peaks. W beyond one of Mt John's observatory domes, a glimpse of Aoraki Mt Cook summit 3 754 m.
N of Lake Tekapo: Mt Erebus 2 311 m, Mt Sibbald 2 811 m, Razor Back 1 570 m, Mt Chevalier 2 404 m, Mt Ross 2 366 m, Mt Ajax 2 319 m, Mt Electra 2 447 m, The Thumbs 2 546 m, Captains Peak 2 371 m, Mt Toby 2 222 m, Beuzenberg Peak 2 070 m, Stag saddle 1 925 m, Mt Hope 2 086 m, Braun Ewart Peak 2 086 m & Two Thumb Range with many unnamed peaks in the N & NE.
Walk time from Tekapo Spa carpark through the larch forest to Mt John summit: about 1 hour. An optional return through exposed tussock land to Tekapo Spa carpark via N slopes & Lake Tekapo shore: about 2 hours. Beware gnats, smelly horse dung & the elements. All weather gear needed, as Alpine weather changes quickly from benign to harsh.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Hawkweed, Hieracium, Pilosella (Agpest).
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
NZ Nanny State Spying, Integrity Intervention Centre
Tues 28.01.14. George Orwell would've liked NZ with its Integrity Intervention Centre. Kiwis regarded integrity as honesty in relation to not stealing, not its real meaning, the quality of having strong moral principles (Concise Oxford English Dictionary.)
There were many Kiwi thieves for the Ministry of Social Development to actually have a department called the Integrity Intervention Centre. A couple of days after arriving back in Christchurch after visiting her mom at her 80th birthday celebrations in Durban, a trip paid for by Leah's older brother, Leah received the following form letter from NZ's Ministry of Social Development:
Travelling Overseas and Your Payments from the Ministry of Social Development
We are writing to you about your recent travel out of New Zealand and your payments from the Ministry of Social Development
Leah's teacher salary was so low we received a weekly accommodation supplement from WINZ, dole dept part of the Ministry, to help pay our house rent. Although a highly qualified teacher, with teaching experience in SA, UK & NZ, Leah's NZ private school salary was insufficient to pay the bills. Thus she had to do part time work, like extra lessons & lecturing teachers, over & above her full time teaching job.
We [nannies] regularly compare our records with information received from other government agencies to make sure the information we [nannies] have is up-to-date and correct. [i.e. Nanny State spying on its own citizens]. A recent check of your file [WINZ dole file. We had to sign a declaration to the effect that we allowed WINZ to check with other govt depts, or we wouldn't get dole rental supplements.] has shown the details held by the New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) and by us are not the same. [Leah didn't tell WINZ she was going to SA for her mom's 80th birthday party]. We [nannies] want to make sure you are getting the right amount of money, [Yeah right!] so we [nannies] need to confirm these details. [Never mind that I'd stayed in NZ in our Christchurch rental house all the time that Leah was in SA. Our rent still had to be paid despite Leah going on an overseas holiday. She thoroughly deserved that holiday after receiving crap wages & salaries in NZ's low wage economy for 19 years].
Customs records indicate that you left New Zealand on 18/12/2013 by Flight Number NZ883. [Welcome to Orwellian NZ].
Fascist nannies were such brilliant, programmed spies, they never supplied Leah's return flight date nor number, which their Fact Sheet below informed they must.
We [nannies] have updated your file with the above information.
What happens next:
If this information is wrong:
You can: [Bold print, colons & underlining].
Either
Call the Integrity Intervention Centre on this free phone number ... option 3 between 8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday with the exception of Wednesday when the hours are 9:30am to 5:00pm. [Why were nannies in the Integrity Intervention Centre so incompetent that they couldn't call us instead of posting a snotty form letter? WINZ regularly posted 1000s of gormless form letters to clients without any thought involved by WINZ ineptocrats.] We [nannies] need to hear from you within 10 working days from the date of this letter. When you call please tell us your client number ... This will help us give you a better service [Yeah right. WINZ service was a load of crap!]
Or
Fill in the form at the end of this letter and send it back to us by:
Mail: ... Fax: ... Email: ...
Leah filled in the form, posted it to WINZ & phoned WINZ. Nanny Cheryl informed Leah that as Leah had been out of NZ for more than a month at least a weeks' accommodation supplement would not be paid by WINZ to Leah. My accommodation supplement would be paid as usual. So Leah was punished by WINZ for not telling WINZ about her going to her mom's birthday party in SA.
If this information is right:
There is no need to contact us unless you have a query about this letter. If we haven't heard from you within 10 working days of this letter we will review your payments based on the information [spying] we [nannies] have.
A Fact Sheet, which has details about information matching, [spying] your rights and obligations, the actions we [nannies] may take regarding your payments, and what happens when we ask you for more information is attached to this letter. Please read it carefully.
If you need help, please call us. If your situation changes in any way let us know. [Er? What situation?] It might make a difference to the money you get. You can call us free, on the numbers listed at the end of the attached Fact Sheet.
Thank you for your co-operation.
During SA's fascist apartheid, there was a Ministry of Co-operation and Development which forced non white, non citizens to do what they were told!
Yours sincerely [Ha!]
Tania Linton
Service Manager
Integrity Intervention Centre
This sort of insulting letter was concocted by Wellington Baby Boomer nannies, who'd had free tertiary education paid for by NZ Welfare State. There was no such benevolence in present Nanny State NZ. The letter was designed to snare tertiary students & graduates, after signing up for incredibly expensive tertiary educations paid for by student loans & student allowances, then fleeing NZ to work overseas, as they couldn't possibly pay off their student loans in NZ's present Nanny State, low wage economy.
After I arrived in NZ, in 1996 I did one semester's post grad study at Lincoln Uni, before I dropped out. I already had over 10 year's tertiary education, 2 degrees, 2 diplomas, paid for by myself in SA, which NZIS & NZQA happily accepted when I applied for our NZ residence visas 20 years ago, as NZ got all my education, work experience, chattels, family & SA money, free. It took 10 years to pay back my NZ student loan, with interest.
Jake & Luke, although now working, both have expensive NZ student loans to pay back. Jake has worked in the hospitality industry full time for 8 years. His wages are so low, no way can he pay back his student loan yet. Ditto Luke, 2 years in the joinery industry. Snag: Provided they stayed working in NZ they needn't pay interest on their student loans. The moment they went overseas to escape NZ's low wage economy, their student loan time bombs started ticking at exorbitant interest rates. They would be harassed by WINZ, StudyLink, Customs, Integrity Intervention Centre nannies & anonymous spies should they leave and / or return to NZ without coughing up. Those Baby Boomer spies & harassers would've had free tertiary education.
There were 1000s of NZ tertiary students & graduates working in NZ & overseas in the same Student Loan bind as Jake & Luke.
NZ Nanny State, Integrity Intervention Centre provided the following Fact Sheet, a hotchpotch of nanny drivel from various Acts to justify NZ fascist state spying on its citizens:
The letter attached to this Fact Sheet has been sent to you by the Ministry of Social Development. This Fact Sheet sets out important details about information matching [spying] your rights and obligations. It also tells you about any action we [nannies] may take regarding your payments and what happens when we [nannies] ask you for more information. Please read it carefully.
Information Matching [spying] and the Privacy Act 1993
The Ministry of Social Development manages pay outs from Work and Income, StudyLink and Senior Services. We regularly compare information [spy] about our clients with information we receive from other government agencies under relevant legislation. These are formally called authorised information matching programmes, [spying] and the Privacy Commissioner oversees these programmes under the Privacy Act. [Condones spying].
The aim of these [spying] programmes is to make sure our clients are getting the right amounts of money [and to do what you're told by a fascist state]. We [nannies] compare information we hold about you with information about you that we [nannies] receive from the New Zealand Customs Service. [Spying]. This information matching [spying] programme is being done under the Customs and Excise Act 1996. [Spying].
If we detected a problem with your file [an 80th birthday party for a SA granny] as part of an information matching [spying] programme, we must, under section 103 of the Privacy Act tell you. [Jawohl!] We [nannies] must also tell you of the actions that may be taken as a result of the problem [80th birthday party] being detected from the [spy] programme. The Privacy Act calls these actions "adverse actions." [Raus! Detention without trial].
Review of Payments and Adverse Actions
When a person's circumstances change [overseas birthday party] the Ministry of Social Development is able to review his or her rate of benefit, Student Allowance, Student Loan or other financial support [dole]. For payments and services you receive from Work and Income the review is carried out under section 81 of the Social Security Act 1964. We can also look [spy] into the payments and services you receive from StudyLink under section 307(4) of the Education Act 1989.
The Ministry of Social Development can take any or the following [indecent] actions:
* Ask for more information. If you do not provide that information within a specified period of time, under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964 we can require any other person or organisation to provide information [snitching] we might need for the review of your Work and Income payments and services, [?] and under 307(5) of the Education Act 1989, we can ask any other person or organisation, to provide any information [snitching] we [nannies] might need when we [nannies] look into the payments and services you receive from StudyLink. [Snitching for inflame nannies].
* In some cases your benefit, Student Allowance, Student Loan or other financial support may be suspended, declined or stopped [thenceforth to live as a streetie in fascist utopia]. We can also decline future applications for Student Allowance and Student Loan if, without reasonable cause, you do not provide any information that we [nannies] request from you [for intellectual suicide].
* If you have been overpaid and owe a debt to us, it must be paid back. We are able to recover this debt because we consider no error was made in establishing this debt. [My WINZ experience over several years: WINZ was farcical, as WINZ regularly made overpayment errors, then blamed beneficiaries for those errors, as this Fact Sheet did.] You will be given all the details of the debt and will have to arrange repayments. This money can be taken out of a benefit or other financial support you are currently getting.
* If [IF] you owe money to us and you have acted illegally there may be legal action taken against you, or there may be a penalty amount added to your debt.
Moral 1: Don't take out a Student Allowance, a Student Loan, a rental accommodation supplement then go to granny parties overseas.
Moral 2: Nannies who posted form letters boasting about their spying, alleging a crime & threatening immoral Acts, legal actions & penalties, without checking & obtaining full information from so-called clients, were retards.
Nannies went nuts:
If you disagree with this decision, you can ask for a review. [Farcical, like CERA's zoning reviews]. We [nannies] must receive your request for review within three months of this letter. You can download a form from the Ministry's website (...) or write to us by letter, email or fax. If you can't do this within three months, please talk to us. [?] If you have a good reason for the delay, your review may still be considered.
Under section 22 of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Act 2011, clients receiving New Zealand Superannuation are entitled to receive payments for the first 26 weeks of any absence from New Zealand providing that they return within 30 weeks. If they do not return within this timeframe, subject to certain exceptions, they would not be entitled to New Zealand Superannuation and a debt would be established from the day after leaving New Zealand. If they returned after the 26th week and before the 30th week a debt would be set up for the intervening period.
Nannies forced codgers, wanting to retire to the warm Australian E coast, to endure ghetto NZ. Alternatively codgers had to dodge in & out of NZ every 6 months to renew state pensions. Farcical. Meanwhile PM Key regularly moaned about Kiwis who lived & worked in Oz, who didn't get Oz state benefits, like Oz dole & Oz medical benefits, which NZ provided for Oz citizen in NZ.
Collection of Personal Information
When we [nannies] write to you because of an information matching [spying] programme, we ask you to call us and tell us why we should not take further action on your payments. [Why don't spying nannies call their alleged criminals?] In some cases we [nannies] ask you to send us more information.
Clients Receiving Payments and Services from Work and Income and StudyLink
If you receive payments and services from Work and Income and we [nannies] ask you for more information, we [nannies] are making a preliminary request in terms of the Code of Conduct (the Code) for obtaining information under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964. The request meets the terms of the Code for Obtaining Information under Section 11 of the Social Security Act. [Spying].
Delete Social & one had all the fascist iniquities of apartheid SA, with nannies using various Acts to harass, sometimes torture, sometimes murder. With all the nanny spying, justified by various Acts, NZ was on the slippery slope to becoming the skunk of the world as Mandela put it.
If you receive payments and services from StudyLink and we ask you for more information we are simply requesting that you provide that information. [Torturers simply do that too].
The personal information we are collecting from you is for the purpose of reviewing and determining your past and present benefit, Student Allowance, Student Loan or other financial support, and to stop any overpayment before a debt is created. [WINZ cockups!] The intended recipients of the information you provide are authorised individuals working for the Ministry of Social Development. [Spies]. Collection of the information is not required by law. It is voluntary. [Bullshit! Why didn't nannies underline & bold print this information]
If you are able to provide us with the information requested, we [nannies] will give you a reasonable time to do so. [After threatening legal action & penalties]. If you do not give us the information requested, we [nannies] will either review your payments and services received from Work and Income and StudyLink, based on the [dubious] information we [nannies] already have or require relevant third parties to supply the information to us.
For example, we can require any other person or organisation, under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964, to provide any information [snitching] we [nannies] might need for the review of your Work and Income payments and services or we [nannies] can ask any other person or organisation, under section 307(5) of the Education Act 1989 to provide any information we [nannies] might need when we look into the payments and services you receive from StudyLink.
The information will be held by the Ministry of Social Development, and you can ask to see it. You can also ask us to correct it [after WINZ cockups].
If you consider that our preliminary request for information breaches the Code, you may have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. A copy of the Code can be obtained by telephoning the Ministry on ... or by accessing the Ministry's website at ...
If you have any questions, please call:
Integrity Intervention Centre ...
Work and Income ...
StudyLink ...
If NZ employers paid higher salaries & wages, all the above crap would be void.
Wed 29.01.14. I walked from London St to Burnside about 10 kms, mainly residential suburbs. There were many demolition sites & busy commercial zones like Bealey Ave & Merivale, but also many inhabited houses in need of repairs or rebuilds. Three years post quakes, that was an indictment of slack EQC, slack Fletchers & slack insurers, like slack Southern Response. The named entities were NZ govt entities. SCIRT so-called repaired roads were still crap, full of potholes, bumps, excavations, detours & contractors' graffiti on pavements. SCIRT was a NZ National govt / Council entity.
Thurs 30.01.14. The Press reported finance minister English recommending that employers pay employees more as the economy was improving. So long as NZ National govt didn't have to cough up of course. It was election year, so politicians were boasting how they'd spend taxpayers' money. Parliament was discussing paid parental leave increasing from 14 weeks to 26 weeks. Labour leader Cunliffe wanted parents of infants to be paid nappy & feed dosh. That would encourage bigger families & more bludgers on the Domestic Purposes Benefit. And more "work" for WINZ nannies the biggest dole bludgers of all. Without all those bludgers WINZ nannies would be unemployed.
PM Key last week touted more pay for excellent school principals sent to poorly performing schools & more pay for excellent teachers. My experience with teacher, merit performance pay in SA was that there was never enough dosh to pay excellence & it wasn't easy to judge teacher excellence, as every class was different. Most principals were arts grads & hadn't a clue about the teaching needs, expectations & work conditions of science & biology teachers like myself.
Fri 31.01.14. On a trip up to Lake Tekapo I picked up a local rag The Fairlie Accessible from Fairlie. If readers think I'm bonkers in my satire of NZ Nannie State & snitching / dobbing in, here's an article by Fairlie's nannie cop from the Heartland of the South Island:
Police Notebook
Hello again and I hope the New Year is treating you all well. The weather has not really co-operated during this summer season so far, but will probably come right when the kids go back to school.
A couple of weeks ago a much loved cat was shot and wounded with a slug gun around Regent St area. I would like to hear from anyone that has information on this matter or knowledge of who owns a slug gun in this local area. [Snitchers welcome.]
Last week there was a nasty nose to tail crash between a car and a farm ute on Clayton Rd that could have turned out a lot worse if seat belts were not worn. No lasting injuries were received, but the vehicles were extensively damaged. Two sheep dogs got thrown out and later recovered in Fairlie a bit shaken up.
I had reports [snitching] of young kids driving tractors or motorbikes on public roads without any adults around. This type of practice is clearly inappropriate due to the obvious legal issues, [er illegal] but the possible dangers are even scarier. Youngsters unsupervised around machinery and vehicles are a recipe for disaster and we as adults have a responsibility to keep them safe.
Thanks to all good honest people out there who are still handing in found property. If you have lost anything then the police station would be a good place to start. [Years ago when I reported Jake's lost SA passport at Papanui cop shop, a fat lady cop called a grey haired, paunchy cop, who objected to my loud deaf voice & basically told me to bugger off & report at Central Police station!] If you have found any property, then that should be handed into the police also. The old myth of "Finders keepers losers weepers" does not apply. It is the same as stealing if you do not return found property to the owner or police. [Who "steals" the property if cops never find the original owner?]
The druggies will be out and about tending their crops over the summer period so be on the alert and report [snitch] suspicious behaviour or activity. You can remain anonymous if you like.
It may be a good time to remind people again to check the expiry date on their firearms licences. Ten years can slip by [Ho hum, Heartland NZ] and before you know it you are paying an extra $113 to re-apply and unwillingly committing a criminal offence of being in possession of firearms without a licence. [Since when were renewal fees not extortion?] If you have moved address you will also need to contact police in writing of your new address within a month or you are inadvertently committing another criminal offence.
Have you got a licence? Nanny State, Police State NZ.
Until next time be careful out there!
... Fairlie Police
Leah & I received almost identical form letters, dated 03.02.14, where nanny Rachel Lock, National Manager, Integrity Intervention Centre, posted us each a repeat Fact Sheet from The Ministry of Social Development telling us that the ministry was cutting Leah's accommodation supplement of $27.50 for one week, with the crunch sentence: In most cases a client travelling out of New Zealand cannot receive payments from us.
Thurs 06.02.14. The Press reported that the WINZ bldg on Winston Ave, Papanui, had been sold. Like so many other govt & Council bldgs, the bldg was briefly closed post 22.02.11 quake for safety inspections. I wondered where all the Ministry of Social Development & WINZ nannies would go when their $680 000+ p.a. rents expired? Weekly, I parked next to that gruesome WINZ bldg when I banked at nearby ANZ bank. The white pancake style bldg had toxic WINZ memories for me. The WINZ open-plan office had one-way glass windows, a beefy, security goon at the glass door & myriads of overhead CCTV cams to protect nannies from fearsome dole bludgers, er clients.
I recalled a white nanny some years ago at Winston Ave WINZ seriously lecturing me about Labour's "Jobs Jolt," then months later an Indian nanny sanctimoniously telling Leah & I that as we were older beneficiaries we would be "treated differently" from others. We were both 50 somethings then. In other words, WINZ would stop bitching me to getta job! Any job, like envelope stuffing (true, I had that force fed me by a Sydenham WINZ nanny & her Oz eunuch boss Manning) so long as I didn't disgrace their "job seeker" books anymore. The white WINZ bldg at Winston Ave was as gruesome as the blue, tilt slab, Sydenham WINZ bldg on Colombo St. The latter would be demolished post quakes.
Another nanny narrative: Riccarton WINZ's Heather McKellow sent us WINZ form letters for years & other WINZ busy-work bumf purporting to help me getta job. I was sent on several ineffectual interviews by WINZ at various organizations purporting to help job seekers find jobs, a waste of my time, as interviewers just went thru the motions so they could claim funding from WINZ. One grey haired eunuch even nodded off in his Hereford St office while "interviewing" me.
On one occasion Council & WINZ cooperated to get job seekers like myself off the dole. I was interviewed by councillor Helen Broughton, purporting to be a personnel boffin, in McKellow's Riccarton WINZ office. When nanny Broughton asked why my medical information (deafness) wasn't on my CV, I knew nanny Broughton hadn't a clue. I was sent to St Thomas of Canterbury College, Hornby, for an interview, for a photocopier / typist job, support for lazy teachers & secretaries, in a nannie's filthy photocopier room.
As the school, Council & WINZ would all contribute to my paltry $11/hour pay, when I asked the principal who my actual employer was, he didn't know. McKellow & Broughton also expected me as a parent to break the law by making Luke, 12 years old then, a latch-key kid while I did the job. When I refused that stupid set up, we got hysterical phone calls from nanny McKellow trying to organize another meeting between nannies & me, even at our rental home. Like the above Integrity Intervention Centre nannies, they docked our dole for a week, without any explanation why they wanted me to break the law.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See English backs boost in wages (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Fund sells Papanui landmark for 6.7m (The Press / Stuff Co).
There were many Kiwi thieves for the Ministry of Social Development to actually have a department called the Integrity Intervention Centre. A couple of days after arriving back in Christchurch after visiting her mom at her 80th birthday celebrations in Durban, a trip paid for by Leah's older brother, Leah received the following form letter from NZ's Ministry of Social Development:
Travelling Overseas and Your Payments from the Ministry of Social Development
We are writing to you about your recent travel out of New Zealand and your payments from the Ministry of Social Development
Leah's teacher salary was so low we received a weekly accommodation supplement from WINZ, dole dept part of the Ministry, to help pay our house rent. Although a highly qualified teacher, with teaching experience in SA, UK & NZ, Leah's NZ private school salary was insufficient to pay the bills. Thus she had to do part time work, like extra lessons & lecturing teachers, over & above her full time teaching job.
We [nannies] regularly compare our records with information received from other government agencies to make sure the information we [nannies] have is up-to-date and correct. [i.e. Nanny State spying on its own citizens]. A recent check of your file [WINZ dole file. We had to sign a declaration to the effect that we allowed WINZ to check with other govt depts, or we wouldn't get dole rental supplements.] has shown the details held by the New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) and by us are not the same. [Leah didn't tell WINZ she was going to SA for her mom's 80th birthday party]. We [nannies] want to make sure you are getting the right amount of money, [Yeah right!] so we [nannies] need to confirm these details. [Never mind that I'd stayed in NZ in our Christchurch rental house all the time that Leah was in SA. Our rent still had to be paid despite Leah going on an overseas holiday. She thoroughly deserved that holiday after receiving crap wages & salaries in NZ's low wage economy for 19 years].
Customs records indicate that you left New Zealand on 18/12/2013 by Flight Number NZ883. [Welcome to Orwellian NZ].
Fascist nannies were such brilliant, programmed spies, they never supplied Leah's return flight date nor number, which their Fact Sheet below informed they must.
We [nannies] have updated your file with the above information.
What happens next:
If this information is wrong:
You can: [Bold print, colons & underlining].
Either
Call the Integrity Intervention Centre on this free phone number ... option 3 between 8:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday with the exception of Wednesday when the hours are 9:30am to 5:00pm. [Why were nannies in the Integrity Intervention Centre so incompetent that they couldn't call us instead of posting a snotty form letter? WINZ regularly posted 1000s of gormless form letters to clients without any thought involved by WINZ ineptocrats.] We [nannies] need to hear from you within 10 working days from the date of this letter. When you call please tell us your client number ... This will help us give you a better service [Yeah right. WINZ service was a load of crap!]
Or
Fill in the form at the end of this letter and send it back to us by:
Mail: ... Fax: ... Email: ...
Leah filled in the form, posted it to WINZ & phoned WINZ. Nanny Cheryl informed Leah that as Leah had been out of NZ for more than a month at least a weeks' accommodation supplement would not be paid by WINZ to Leah. My accommodation supplement would be paid as usual. So Leah was punished by WINZ for not telling WINZ about her going to her mom's birthday party in SA.
If this information is right:
There is no need to contact us unless you have a query about this letter. If we haven't heard from you within 10 working days of this letter we will review your payments based on the information [spying] we [nannies] have.
A Fact Sheet, which has details about information matching, [spying] your rights and obligations, the actions we [nannies] may take regarding your payments, and what happens when we ask you for more information is attached to this letter. Please read it carefully.
If you need help, please call us. If your situation changes in any way let us know. [Er? What situation?] It might make a difference to the money you get. You can call us free, on the numbers listed at the end of the attached Fact Sheet.
Thank you for your co-operation.
During SA's fascist apartheid, there was a Ministry of Co-operation and Development which forced non white, non citizens to do what they were told!
Yours sincerely [Ha!]
Tania Linton
Service Manager
Integrity Intervention Centre
This sort of insulting letter was concocted by Wellington Baby Boomer nannies, who'd had free tertiary education paid for by NZ Welfare State. There was no such benevolence in present Nanny State NZ. The letter was designed to snare tertiary students & graduates, after signing up for incredibly expensive tertiary educations paid for by student loans & student allowances, then fleeing NZ to work overseas, as they couldn't possibly pay off their student loans in NZ's present Nanny State, low wage economy.
After I arrived in NZ, in 1996 I did one semester's post grad study at Lincoln Uni, before I dropped out. I already had over 10 year's tertiary education, 2 degrees, 2 diplomas, paid for by myself in SA, which NZIS & NZQA happily accepted when I applied for our NZ residence visas 20 years ago, as NZ got all my education, work experience, chattels, family & SA money, free. It took 10 years to pay back my NZ student loan, with interest.
Jake & Luke, although now working, both have expensive NZ student loans to pay back. Jake has worked in the hospitality industry full time for 8 years. His wages are so low, no way can he pay back his student loan yet. Ditto Luke, 2 years in the joinery industry. Snag: Provided they stayed working in NZ they needn't pay interest on their student loans. The moment they went overseas to escape NZ's low wage economy, their student loan time bombs started ticking at exorbitant interest rates. They would be harassed by WINZ, StudyLink, Customs, Integrity Intervention Centre nannies & anonymous spies should they leave and / or return to NZ without coughing up. Those Baby Boomer spies & harassers would've had free tertiary education.
There were 1000s of NZ tertiary students & graduates working in NZ & overseas in the same Student Loan bind as Jake & Luke.
NZ Nanny State, Integrity Intervention Centre provided the following Fact Sheet, a hotchpotch of nanny drivel from various Acts to justify NZ fascist state spying on its citizens:
The letter attached to this Fact Sheet has been sent to you by the Ministry of Social Development. This Fact Sheet sets out important details about information matching [spying] your rights and obligations. It also tells you about any action we [nannies] may take regarding your payments and what happens when we [nannies] ask you for more information. Please read it carefully.
Information Matching [spying] and the Privacy Act 1993
The Ministry of Social Development manages pay outs from Work and Income, StudyLink and Senior Services. We regularly compare information [spy] about our clients with information we receive from other government agencies under relevant legislation. These are formally called authorised information matching programmes, [spying] and the Privacy Commissioner oversees these programmes under the Privacy Act. [Condones spying].
The aim of these [spying] programmes is to make sure our clients are getting the right amounts of money [and to do what you're told by a fascist state]. We [nannies] compare information we hold about you with information about you that we [nannies] receive from the New Zealand Customs Service. [Spying]. This information matching [spying] programme is being done under the Customs and Excise Act 1996. [Spying].
If we detected a problem with your file [an 80th birthday party for a SA granny] as part of an information matching [spying] programme, we must, under section 103 of the Privacy Act tell you. [Jawohl!] We [nannies] must also tell you of the actions that may be taken as a result of the problem [80th birthday party] being detected from the [spy] programme. The Privacy Act calls these actions "adverse actions." [Raus! Detention without trial].
Review of Payments and Adverse Actions
When a person's circumstances change [overseas birthday party] the Ministry of Social Development is able to review his or her rate of benefit, Student Allowance, Student Loan or other financial support [dole]. For payments and services you receive from Work and Income the review is carried out under section 81 of the Social Security Act 1964. We can also look [spy] into the payments and services you receive from StudyLink under section 307(4) of the Education Act 1989.
The Ministry of Social Development can take any or the following [indecent] actions:
* Ask for more information. If you do not provide that information within a specified period of time, under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964 we can require any other person or organisation to provide information [snitching] we might need for the review of your Work and Income payments and services, [?] and under 307(5) of the Education Act 1989, we can ask any other person or organisation, to provide any information [snitching] we [nannies] might need when we [nannies] look into the payments and services you receive from StudyLink. [Snitching for inflame nannies].
* In some cases your benefit, Student Allowance, Student Loan or other financial support may be suspended, declined or stopped [thenceforth to live as a streetie in fascist utopia]. We can also decline future applications for Student Allowance and Student Loan if, without reasonable cause, you do not provide any information that we [nannies] request from you [for intellectual suicide].
* If you have been overpaid and owe a debt to us, it must be paid back. We are able to recover this debt because we consider no error was made in establishing this debt. [My WINZ experience over several years: WINZ was farcical, as WINZ regularly made overpayment errors, then blamed beneficiaries for those errors, as this Fact Sheet did.] You will be given all the details of the debt and will have to arrange repayments. This money can be taken out of a benefit or other financial support you are currently getting.
* If [IF] you owe money to us and you have acted illegally there may be legal action taken against you, or there may be a penalty amount added to your debt.
Moral 1: Don't take out a Student Allowance, a Student Loan, a rental accommodation supplement then go to granny parties overseas.
Moral 2: Nannies who posted form letters boasting about their spying, alleging a crime & threatening immoral Acts, legal actions & penalties, without checking & obtaining full information from so-called clients, were retards.
Nannies went nuts:
If you disagree with this decision, you can ask for a review. [Farcical, like CERA's zoning reviews]. We [nannies] must receive your request for review within three months of this letter. You can download a form from the Ministry's website (...) or write to us by letter, email or fax. If you can't do this within three months, please talk to us. [?] If you have a good reason for the delay, your review may still be considered.
Under section 22 of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Act 2011, clients receiving New Zealand Superannuation are entitled to receive payments for the first 26 weeks of any absence from New Zealand providing that they return within 30 weeks. If they do not return within this timeframe, subject to certain exceptions, they would not be entitled to New Zealand Superannuation and a debt would be established from the day after leaving New Zealand. If they returned after the 26th week and before the 30th week a debt would be set up for the intervening period.
Nannies forced codgers, wanting to retire to the warm Australian E coast, to endure ghetto NZ. Alternatively codgers had to dodge in & out of NZ every 6 months to renew state pensions. Farcical. Meanwhile PM Key regularly moaned about Kiwis who lived & worked in Oz, who didn't get Oz state benefits, like Oz dole & Oz medical benefits, which NZ provided for Oz citizen in NZ.
Collection of Personal Information
When we [nannies] write to you because of an information matching [spying] programme, we ask you to call us and tell us why we should not take further action on your payments. [Why don't spying nannies call their alleged criminals?] In some cases we [nannies] ask you to send us more information.
Clients Receiving Payments and Services from Work and Income and StudyLink
If you receive payments and services from Work and Income and we [nannies] ask you for more information, we [nannies] are making a preliminary request in terms of the Code of Conduct (the Code) for obtaining information under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964. The request meets the terms of the Code for Obtaining Information under Section 11 of the Social Security Act. [Spying].
Delete Social & one had all the fascist iniquities of apartheid SA, with nannies using various Acts to harass, sometimes torture, sometimes murder. With all the nanny spying, justified by various Acts, NZ was on the slippery slope to becoming the skunk of the world as Mandela put it.
If you receive payments and services from StudyLink and we ask you for more information we are simply requesting that you provide that information. [Torturers simply do that too].
The personal information we are collecting from you is for the purpose of reviewing and determining your past and present benefit, Student Allowance, Student Loan or other financial support, and to stop any overpayment before a debt is created. [WINZ cockups!] The intended recipients of the information you provide are authorised individuals working for the Ministry of Social Development. [Spies]. Collection of the information is not required by law. It is voluntary. [Bullshit! Why didn't nannies underline & bold print this information]
If you are able to provide us with the information requested, we [nannies] will give you a reasonable time to do so. [After threatening legal action & penalties]. If you do not give us the information requested, we [nannies] will either review your payments and services received from Work and Income and StudyLink, based on the [dubious] information we [nannies] already have or require relevant third parties to supply the information to us.
For example, we can require any other person or organisation, under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964, to provide any information [snitching] we [nannies] might need for the review of your Work and Income payments and services or we [nannies] can ask any other person or organisation, under section 307(5) of the Education Act 1989 to provide any information we [nannies] might need when we look into the payments and services you receive from StudyLink.
The information will be held by the Ministry of Social Development, and you can ask to see it. You can also ask us to correct it [after WINZ cockups].
If you consider that our preliminary request for information breaches the Code, you may have the right to complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. A copy of the Code can be obtained by telephoning the Ministry on ... or by accessing the Ministry's website at ...
If you have any questions, please call:
Integrity Intervention Centre ...
Work and Income ...
StudyLink ...
If NZ employers paid higher salaries & wages, all the above crap would be void.
Wed 29.01.14. I walked from London St to Burnside about 10 kms, mainly residential suburbs. There were many demolition sites & busy commercial zones like Bealey Ave & Merivale, but also many inhabited houses in need of repairs or rebuilds. Three years post quakes, that was an indictment of slack EQC, slack Fletchers & slack insurers, like slack Southern Response. The named entities were NZ govt entities. SCIRT so-called repaired roads were still crap, full of potholes, bumps, excavations, detours & contractors' graffiti on pavements. SCIRT was a NZ National govt / Council entity.
Thurs 30.01.14. The Press reported finance minister English recommending that employers pay employees more as the economy was improving. So long as NZ National govt didn't have to cough up of course. It was election year, so politicians were boasting how they'd spend taxpayers' money. Parliament was discussing paid parental leave increasing from 14 weeks to 26 weeks. Labour leader Cunliffe wanted parents of infants to be paid nappy & feed dosh. That would encourage bigger families & more bludgers on the Domestic Purposes Benefit. And more "work" for WINZ nannies the biggest dole bludgers of all. Without all those bludgers WINZ nannies would be unemployed.
PM Key last week touted more pay for excellent school principals sent to poorly performing schools & more pay for excellent teachers. My experience with teacher, merit performance pay in SA was that there was never enough dosh to pay excellence & it wasn't easy to judge teacher excellence, as every class was different. Most principals were arts grads & hadn't a clue about the teaching needs, expectations & work conditions of science & biology teachers like myself.
Fri 31.01.14. On a trip up to Lake Tekapo I picked up a local rag The Fairlie Accessible from Fairlie. If readers think I'm bonkers in my satire of NZ Nannie State & snitching / dobbing in, here's an article by Fairlie's nannie cop from the Heartland of the South Island:
Police Notebook
Hello again and I hope the New Year is treating you all well. The weather has not really co-operated during this summer season so far, but will probably come right when the kids go back to school.
A couple of weeks ago a much loved cat was shot and wounded with a slug gun around Regent St area. I would like to hear from anyone that has information on this matter or knowledge of who owns a slug gun in this local area. [Snitchers welcome.]
Last week there was a nasty nose to tail crash between a car and a farm ute on Clayton Rd that could have turned out a lot worse if seat belts were not worn. No lasting injuries were received, but the vehicles were extensively damaged. Two sheep dogs got thrown out and later recovered in Fairlie a bit shaken up.
I had reports [snitching] of young kids driving tractors or motorbikes on public roads without any adults around. This type of practice is clearly inappropriate due to the obvious legal issues, [er illegal] but the possible dangers are even scarier. Youngsters unsupervised around machinery and vehicles are a recipe for disaster and we as adults have a responsibility to keep them safe.
Thanks to all good honest people out there who are still handing in found property. If you have lost anything then the police station would be a good place to start. [Years ago when I reported Jake's lost SA passport at Papanui cop shop, a fat lady cop called a grey haired, paunchy cop, who objected to my loud deaf voice & basically told me to bugger off & report at Central Police station!] If you have found any property, then that should be handed into the police also. The old myth of "Finders keepers losers weepers" does not apply. It is the same as stealing if you do not return found property to the owner or police. [Who "steals" the property if cops never find the original owner?]
The druggies will be out and about tending their crops over the summer period so be on the alert and report [snitch] suspicious behaviour or activity. You can remain anonymous if you like.
It may be a good time to remind people again to check the expiry date on their firearms licences. Ten years can slip by [Ho hum, Heartland NZ] and before you know it you are paying an extra $113 to re-apply and unwillingly committing a criminal offence of being in possession of firearms without a licence. [Since when were renewal fees not extortion?] If you have moved address you will also need to contact police in writing of your new address within a month or you are inadvertently committing another criminal offence.
Have you got a licence? Nanny State, Police State NZ.
Until next time be careful out there!
... Fairlie Police
Leah & I received almost identical form letters, dated 03.02.14, where nanny Rachel Lock, National Manager, Integrity Intervention Centre, posted us each a repeat Fact Sheet from The Ministry of Social Development telling us that the ministry was cutting Leah's accommodation supplement of $27.50 for one week, with the crunch sentence: In most cases a client travelling out of New Zealand cannot receive payments from us.
Thurs 06.02.14. The Press reported that the WINZ bldg on Winston Ave, Papanui, had been sold. Like so many other govt & Council bldgs, the bldg was briefly closed post 22.02.11 quake for safety inspections. I wondered where all the Ministry of Social Development & WINZ nannies would go when their $680 000+ p.a. rents expired? Weekly, I parked next to that gruesome WINZ bldg when I banked at nearby ANZ bank. The white pancake style bldg had toxic WINZ memories for me. The WINZ open-plan office had one-way glass windows, a beefy, security goon at the glass door & myriads of overhead CCTV cams to protect nannies from fearsome dole bludgers, er clients.
I recalled a white nanny some years ago at Winston Ave WINZ seriously lecturing me about Labour's "Jobs Jolt," then months later an Indian nanny sanctimoniously telling Leah & I that as we were older beneficiaries we would be "treated differently" from others. We were both 50 somethings then. In other words, WINZ would stop bitching me to getta job! Any job, like envelope stuffing (true, I had that force fed me by a Sydenham WINZ nanny & her Oz eunuch boss Manning) so long as I didn't disgrace their "job seeker" books anymore. The white WINZ bldg at Winston Ave was as gruesome as the blue, tilt slab, Sydenham WINZ bldg on Colombo St. The latter would be demolished post quakes.
Another nanny narrative: Riccarton WINZ's Heather McKellow sent us WINZ form letters for years & other WINZ busy-work bumf purporting to help me getta job. I was sent on several ineffectual interviews by WINZ at various organizations purporting to help job seekers find jobs, a waste of my time, as interviewers just went thru the motions so they could claim funding from WINZ. One grey haired eunuch even nodded off in his Hereford St office while "interviewing" me.
On one occasion Council & WINZ cooperated to get job seekers like myself off the dole. I was interviewed by councillor Helen Broughton, purporting to be a personnel boffin, in McKellow's Riccarton WINZ office. When nanny Broughton asked why my medical information (deafness) wasn't on my CV, I knew nanny Broughton hadn't a clue. I was sent to St Thomas of Canterbury College, Hornby, for an interview, for a photocopier / typist job, support for lazy teachers & secretaries, in a nannie's filthy photocopier room.
As the school, Council & WINZ would all contribute to my paltry $11/hour pay, when I asked the principal who my actual employer was, he didn't know. McKellow & Broughton also expected me as a parent to break the law by making Luke, 12 years old then, a latch-key kid while I did the job. When I refused that stupid set up, we got hysterical phone calls from nanny McKellow trying to organize another meeting between nannies & me, even at our rental home. Like the above Integrity Intervention Centre nannies, they docked our dole for a week, without any explanation why they wanted me to break the law.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See English backs boost in wages (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Fund sells Papanui landmark for 6.7m (The Press / Stuff Co).
Monday, January 20, 2014
Christchurch Ineptocracy
Quake Ineptocracy focus. Tuesday 21.01.14. My SA brother-in-law emailed me a pic found on eBay: a T shirt with Ineptocracy & definition printed on the T shirt:
Ineptocracy
- (in-ep-toc-ra-cy) -
A system of government where the
least capable to lead are elected by
the least capable of producing, and
where the members of society least
likely to sustain themselves or suc-
ceed, are rewarded with goods and
services paid for by the confiscated
wealth of a diminishing number of
producers
My email response:
We're experiencing Ineptocracy in Christchurch since quakes. Ineptocracy rules Canterbury: NZ National government appointed commissioners in Environment Canterbury enable stock farmers to pollute pristine Canterbury waters. There are deep sea oil concessions around NZ too.
Inept CERA, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority: a post-quake National government department with CERA ineptocrats vs Council ineptocrats. There are squabbles about post-quake land-zonings, demolitions, CERA takings, rebuilds & new-builds. Mayor Parker resigned with some of his ineptocrat councillors booted out, or not seeking re-election. New mayor Dalziel & councillors were elected. Town Clerk Marryatt resigned, his building consents department, a fiasco. A new Town Clerk is pending...
Presently the NZ National government appointed manager in Council is sorting out the consents department mess & other inept Council departments.
Brownlee, ex woodwork teacher is CERA minister; Sutton, ex Orion electricity boss is CERA's appointed CEO; Isaacs, ex Timaru Town Clerk & accountant was CERA's appointed Demolition boss. He's now appointed as the CBD Rebuild boss of the Christchurch Central Development Unit. (CCDU). Demolition boss to Rebuild boss!
Eighteen months ago, CERA ineptocrats produced a CBD Blueprint for grand buildings like a Convention Centre, a Rugby Stadium & various Precincts like Health, Sports, Innovation, Performing Arts, Kids' Playground, Bus Interchange, Justice & Emergency Services & Frame parkland, but forgot to Blueprint affordable housing, shops & schools. So far, three years post-quakes, no foundations are laid for any CERA Blueprint buildings!
Why did CERA deal with Council to share costs of most Blueprint anchor projects, when CERA knew that town clerk Marryatt had under-insured Council assets & wanted to use unknown quake-insurance settlements for Council assets to fund shared Blueprint anchor project costs? Should Council have insufficient funds for CERA's Blueprint anchor projects, it was rich that CERA then wanted Council to sell Council's revenue producing assets, like Christchurch Airport & Lyttelton Port to fund CERA's Blueprint anchor projects! Borrowing on Council assets was more sensible than selling the family silver. Once ratepayers' assets were gone they were gone forever.
Parata, the inept Minister of Education closed & merged several Christchurch schools. Thus communities lost staff & school facilities from closed & merged schools causing parents & kids to travel further to other schools with increased costs: travel & new uniforms.
Inept Brownlee was minister of inept EQC. EQC ineptocrats caused suffering for thousands of claimants over the last three years with slow settlements. Insurers just followed suit causing more angst for claimants.
Monday 27.01.14. Brownlee demanded Council showed transparency in its finances regarding insurance payouts on ruined assets & Council asset shares (The Press 25.01.14) but Brownlee's EQC & CERA showed no transparency in their finances. Brownlee asked for commercially sensitive information to cajole Council & ratepayers to pay for CERA's Blueprint projects.
Friday 31.01.14. CERA's media release boasted about 7 349 red-zone properties, 98% of which CERA eligible property owners had accepted CERA's offers. CERA waffled about the 2013 census showing many property owners of damaged properties had relocated within 4km distance from their damaged properties. That was misleading, as tenants like son Jake, post 22 February 2011 Quake had also moved across town, Jake from a Waltham damaged house-rental to a St Albans damaged garage-rental, then post-winter to a Geraldine St apartment-rental closer to the CBD.
CERA hadn't stated the number of new houses being built in Christchurch to replace CERA's 7 349 red-zone houses. So far, too few, hence the housing-crisis where our sons would soon pay exorbitant rents with three other tenants for an old two-storey house at Ashgrove Tce . It was overcrowding to enrich a landlord! Given NZ's low-wage-economy, not one of those young adults could afford to pay the full house-rent on their own. Due to low-wages, it was impossible for them to save for ownership of their own housing, as they were busy paying a Baby Boomer's rental-house mortgage. Given NZ housing & land unaffordability, our sons were locked out of home ownership, no matter how hard they worked for low-pay. Baby Boomers had lots to answer for, as they'd bought cheaper houses long before inflation would strike our sons.
Since quakes, we'd seen Christchurch degrade into a more dangerous place. Demolition-dust & road excavation-dust were daily hazards. Tagging had increased, a sign of the degradation. Months ago, I'd encountered hoodlums stealing beer from an abandoned CBD property in broad daylight. Not a cop in sight. Recently, a Black Caps cricketer Ryder was mugged near Jake's Brewers Arms work at Papanui Rd. The pub was also robbed before Xmas.
Garlands Rd: Sunday night, The Brewery by The Tannery at Jake's new work had experienced an attempted robbery by two hoodlums using sawn-off shotguns. A patron was assaulted with a gun butt. No money was stolen, as the pub boss schmoozed the thieves. Monday morning when I dropped Jake off at work a police-tape-cordon stopped workplace entry. Jake said he & his workmates waited a long time before they could start work.
Deans Ave: Five years later, 15.03.19, a terrorist shooter would kill 51 Muslims at Friday prayers at Al Noor Mosque & Linwood Ave Mosque. Only after that massacre would NZ gun laws change making it hard to own automatic firearms.
Leah returned from SA last week after visiting family & friends in KwaZulu-Natal & Eastern Cape. She said many Christchurch roads were like Third World SA roads. So much for minister Brownlee's recovery: Garden City to Demolition City, so far. Barbadoes St was just one of hundreds of broken street poorly repaired by SCIRT.
Wednesday 05.02.14. The Press pic: Housing minister Smith was flanked by CERA minister Brownlee. Headline: "Plan unveiled for 'affordable' 500k housing." Smith planned to build 275 so-called affordable houses for 350k-500k each, between Halswell & Wigram, near the new motorway. We knew the area well, we'd lived in Halswell for years. If Smith though those new houses were affordable he was delusional. If Brownlee though those 275 new houses would solve the housing-crisis he was delusional, as there weren't enough houses built to cover loss of red-zoned houses & loss of ruined houses awaiting rebuild after slow insurer settlements. Smith & Brownlee condoned the housing-shortage by maintaining low-supply & high prices during an election year.
How could my sons' low-wages in hospitality & joinery enable them to save house deposits on so-called affordable housing after they'd paid their bills, including expensive rents?
Baby Boomers Smith & Brownlee were beneficiaries of properties bought cheaply by their parents. A report by Michael Bassett & Luke Malpass: "Priced Out. How NZ lost its housing affordability:"
From 1951 WW2 returned servicemen tenants could buy state housing cheaply.
From 1954 new houses could be build with a cheap 3% loan from State Advances / Housing Corporation.
From 1958 new houses could be built by capitalizing Family Benefits & adding that to the 3% cheap loans from State Advances / Housing Corporation.
Thus WW2 vets, Korean War vets, Vietnam War vets & Baby Boomers got cheap housing subsidised by NZ government. Nowadays all those post WW2 houses, cheaply bought, could be sold at inflated prices. Presently their children are forced to suffer their greed when buying old or new housing in an inflated housing market. Never mind inflated building costs due to construction supplier monopolies & real-estate agents' commissions adding to housing inflation.
Why didn't Brownlee & Smith make schemes to help our children's futures? So far our children were a Jilted Generation, as authors Ed Howker & Shiv Malik described in their book: "Jilted generations how Britain has bankrupted its youth." Brownlee & Smith jilted our children's futures with expensive housing & student loans.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Coda:
2026. Both our sons together with their girlfriends had bought small properties with expensive mortgages in Christchurch, one a single bedroom, pre-quakes apartment in Northlands, the other an old wooden house with leaky plumbing in Cracroft.
See Christchurch homes severely unaffordable (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Work kicks off on justice precinct (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Plan for Triangle Centre Shelved (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Arrests over armed bar robberies (The Press / Stuff Co).
See No tenants left for the CBD (The Press / Stuff Co).
See CERA's recovery milestone reached today with final flat land red zone settlements, 31 January 2014.
See Plans unveiled for "affordable" 500k homes (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Quake claimants take the cash (The Press / Stuff Co).
Forget smooth perfect roads city told (The Press / Stuff Co).
Ineptocracy
- (in-ep-toc-ra-cy) -
A system of government where the
least capable to lead are elected by
the least capable of producing, and
where the members of society least
likely to sustain themselves or suc-
ceed, are rewarded with goods and
services paid for by the confiscated
wealth of a diminishing number of
producers
My email response:
We're experiencing Ineptocracy in Christchurch since quakes. Ineptocracy rules Canterbury: NZ National government appointed commissioners in Environment Canterbury enable stock farmers to pollute pristine Canterbury waters. There are deep sea oil concessions around NZ too.
Inept CERA, Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority: a post-quake National government department with CERA ineptocrats vs Council ineptocrats. There are squabbles about post-quake land-zonings, demolitions, CERA takings, rebuilds & new-builds. Mayor Parker resigned with some of his ineptocrat councillors booted out, or not seeking re-election. New mayor Dalziel & councillors were elected. Town Clerk Marryatt resigned, his building consents department, a fiasco. A new Town Clerk is pending...
Presently the NZ National government appointed manager in Council is sorting out the consents department mess & other inept Council departments.
Brownlee, ex woodwork teacher is CERA minister; Sutton, ex Orion electricity boss is CERA's appointed CEO; Isaacs, ex Timaru Town Clerk & accountant was CERA's appointed Demolition boss. He's now appointed as the CBD Rebuild boss of the Christchurch Central Development Unit. (CCDU). Demolition boss to Rebuild boss!
Eighteen months ago, CERA ineptocrats produced a CBD Blueprint for grand buildings like a Convention Centre, a Rugby Stadium & various Precincts like Health, Sports, Innovation, Performing Arts, Kids' Playground, Bus Interchange, Justice & Emergency Services & Frame parkland, but forgot to Blueprint affordable housing, shops & schools. So far, three years post-quakes, no foundations are laid for any CERA Blueprint buildings!
Why did CERA deal with Council to share costs of most Blueprint anchor projects, when CERA knew that town clerk Marryatt had under-insured Council assets & wanted to use unknown quake-insurance settlements for Council assets to fund shared Blueprint anchor project costs? Should Council have insufficient funds for CERA's Blueprint anchor projects, it was rich that CERA then wanted Council to sell Council's revenue producing assets, like Christchurch Airport & Lyttelton Port to fund CERA's Blueprint anchor projects! Borrowing on Council assets was more sensible than selling the family silver. Once ratepayers' assets were gone they were gone forever.
Parata, the inept Minister of Education closed & merged several Christchurch schools. Thus communities lost staff & school facilities from closed & merged schools causing parents & kids to travel further to other schools with increased costs: travel & new uniforms.
Inept Brownlee was minister of inept EQC. EQC ineptocrats caused suffering for thousands of claimants over the last three years with slow settlements. Insurers just followed suit causing more angst for claimants.
Monday 27.01.14. Brownlee demanded Council showed transparency in its finances regarding insurance payouts on ruined assets & Council asset shares (The Press 25.01.14) but Brownlee's EQC & CERA showed no transparency in their finances. Brownlee asked for commercially sensitive information to cajole Council & ratepayers to pay for CERA's Blueprint projects.
Friday 31.01.14. CERA's media release boasted about 7 349 red-zone properties, 98% of which CERA eligible property owners had accepted CERA's offers. CERA waffled about the 2013 census showing many property owners of damaged properties had relocated within 4km distance from their damaged properties. That was misleading, as tenants like son Jake, post 22 February 2011 Quake had also moved across town, Jake from a Waltham damaged house-rental to a St Albans damaged garage-rental, then post-winter to a Geraldine St apartment-rental closer to the CBD.
CERA hadn't stated the number of new houses being built in Christchurch to replace CERA's 7 349 red-zone houses. So far, too few, hence the housing-crisis where our sons would soon pay exorbitant rents with three other tenants for an old two-storey house at Ashgrove Tce . It was overcrowding to enrich a landlord! Given NZ's low-wage-economy, not one of those young adults could afford to pay the full house-rent on their own. Due to low-wages, it was impossible for them to save for ownership of their own housing, as they were busy paying a Baby Boomer's rental-house mortgage. Given NZ housing & land unaffordability, our sons were locked out of home ownership, no matter how hard they worked for low-pay. Baby Boomers had lots to answer for, as they'd bought cheaper houses long before inflation would strike our sons.
Since quakes, we'd seen Christchurch degrade into a more dangerous place. Demolition-dust & road excavation-dust were daily hazards. Tagging had increased, a sign of the degradation. Months ago, I'd encountered hoodlums stealing beer from an abandoned CBD property in broad daylight. Not a cop in sight. Recently, a Black Caps cricketer Ryder was mugged near Jake's Brewers Arms work at Papanui Rd. The pub was also robbed before Xmas.
Garlands Rd: Sunday night, The Brewery by The Tannery at Jake's new work had experienced an attempted robbery by two hoodlums using sawn-off shotguns. A patron was assaulted with a gun butt. No money was stolen, as the pub boss schmoozed the thieves. Monday morning when I dropped Jake off at work a police-tape-cordon stopped workplace entry. Jake said he & his workmates waited a long time before they could start work.
Deans Ave: Five years later, 15.03.19, a terrorist shooter would kill 51 Muslims at Friday prayers at Al Noor Mosque & Linwood Ave Mosque. Only after that massacre would NZ gun laws change making it hard to own automatic firearms.
Leah returned from SA last week after visiting family & friends in KwaZulu-Natal & Eastern Cape. She said many Christchurch roads were like Third World SA roads. So much for minister Brownlee's recovery: Garden City to Demolition City, so far. Barbadoes St was just one of hundreds of broken street poorly repaired by SCIRT.
Wednesday 05.02.14. The Press pic: Housing minister Smith was flanked by CERA minister Brownlee. Headline: "Plan unveiled for 'affordable' 500k housing." Smith planned to build 275 so-called affordable houses for 350k-500k each, between Halswell & Wigram, near the new motorway. We knew the area well, we'd lived in Halswell for years. If Smith though those new houses were affordable he was delusional. If Brownlee though those 275 new houses would solve the housing-crisis he was delusional, as there weren't enough houses built to cover loss of red-zoned houses & loss of ruined houses awaiting rebuild after slow insurer settlements. Smith & Brownlee condoned the housing-shortage by maintaining low-supply & high prices during an election year.
How could my sons' low-wages in hospitality & joinery enable them to save house deposits on so-called affordable housing after they'd paid their bills, including expensive rents?
Baby Boomers Smith & Brownlee were beneficiaries of properties bought cheaply by their parents. A report by Michael Bassett & Luke Malpass: "Priced Out. How NZ lost its housing affordability:"
From 1951 WW2 returned servicemen tenants could buy state housing cheaply.
From 1954 new houses could be build with a cheap 3% loan from State Advances / Housing Corporation.
From 1958 new houses could be built by capitalizing Family Benefits & adding that to the 3% cheap loans from State Advances / Housing Corporation.
Thus WW2 vets, Korean War vets, Vietnam War vets & Baby Boomers got cheap housing subsidised by NZ government. Nowadays all those post WW2 houses, cheaply bought, could be sold at inflated prices. Presently their children are forced to suffer their greed when buying old or new housing in an inflated housing market. Never mind inflated building costs due to construction supplier monopolies & real-estate agents' commissions adding to housing inflation.
Why didn't Brownlee & Smith make schemes to help our children's futures? So far our children were a Jilted Generation, as authors Ed Howker & Shiv Malik described in their book: "Jilted generations how Britain has bankrupted its youth." Brownlee & Smith jilted our children's futures with expensive housing & student loans.
Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Coda:
2026. Both our sons together with their girlfriends had bought small properties with expensive mortgages in Christchurch, one a single bedroom, pre-quakes apartment in Northlands, the other an old wooden house with leaky plumbing in Cracroft.
See Christchurch homes severely unaffordable (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Work kicks off on justice precinct (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Plan for Triangle Centre Shelved (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Arrests over armed bar robberies (The Press / Stuff Co).
See No tenants left for the CBD (The Press / Stuff Co).
See CERA's recovery milestone reached today with final flat land red zone settlements, 31 January 2014.
See Plans unveiled for "affordable" 500k homes (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Quake claimants take the cash (The Press / Stuff Co).
Forget smooth perfect roads city told (The Press / Stuff Co).
Sunday, December 15, 2013
CCDU's Core-CBD: Ruins, Demolitions, Slow Rebuild
CCDU's Core CBD focus. Sunday 15.12.13. 4.28pm, M3.5 quake, 9km depth, 5km southeast of Christchurch (GeoNet). It shook our lounge sofa while I relaxed after my Christchurch CBD trek. More than three years post 4 September 2010 Quake we still experienced aftershocks.
A hot summer afternoon. CERA & Council were slack about public safety: Although many SMF-cordons were around CBD-ruins, some cordon-fences were downed by wind, vandals or thieves. Who knows? But the CBD was a demolition-mess, dust everywhere.
I wanted to see sections of Lichfield St & Hereford St which were recently opened by CERA & which I hadn't trekked since the 22 February 2011 Quake. I'd driven Lichfield St section a few times, past the part-demolished, old bus exchange.
Manchester St: I parked by St Lukes Anglican church's demolition-site to do a circular trek in CCDU's core-CBD. Many buildings were demolished by CERA in its core-CBD. Commerce spluttered in Restart Cashel Mall. Tourists & locals wandered Cathedral Sq & New Regent St. Despite CCDU's Blueprint 17 months ago, I saw little development so far in its core-CBD.
Some new buildings I saw rising from demolition-sites:
-Forte Health: a steel & glass private hospital run by doctors with shares in the building, Kilmore St.
-Awly Building (opened 2016): Multi-storey offices along Durham St Nth between Armagh St & Gloucester St, opposite the moth-balled Provincial Council building. I counted five construction cranes & three pile-drivers there. (See below).
-Multi-storey Deloitte offices, Gloucester St / Cambridge Tce: On completion it would sport wavy glass, exterior walls.
-The Terrace: foundations were laid for four new buildings, two lanes & a court along The Strip's demolition-sites, Oxford Tce. The Terrace development would splutter along for years. In September 2016, it would still be unfinished. Developer Gough would run out of money & bum funds from Council, only opening The Terrace in 2018. Thus ratepayers funded Gough's private development!
-Stranges building: a steel & glass triangular edifice, Manchester St / Lichfield St / High St.
To date, there were no other new-builds in CBD streets I trekked, an indictment of CERA & CCDU. Over the last 17 months there was big-talk by CERA / CCDU about all the Blueprint wonders to be built in the CBD, like a 35 000 seater, roofed Stadium; Convention Centre / Te Pae; Bus Interchange; Metro Sports Facility; Performing Arts Precinct; houses & parkland, North Frame & East Frame; Margaret Mahy Family Playground, the North Frame on Centennial Pool's demolition-site; Justice & Emergency Services Precinct; Innovation Precinct; Health Precinct... Excepting EPIC Innovation Precinct, no foundations were laid for any other Blueprint project / precinct yet. Never mind land not yet taken by CCDU for Blueprint schemes by CERA. All those CBD areas were either demolition-sites covered in weeds, or shingle, or ruins since the 22 February 2011 Quake.
CERA's / CCDU's slowness encouraged kitsch like atManchester St / Cambridge Tce near Manchester St Bridge: a tree wrapped in orange tape which attracted passersby to the demolition-site for over a year.
Kilmore St / Manchester St: on three corners there were demolition-sites. St Lukes Anglican Church demolition-site was vacant for over a year, a brick-maze in one corner was based on Chartres Cathedral maze. Red poppies bloomed by the maze. 2019. The church demolition-site was still vacant & weedy. No rebuild. Next door: an abandoned two-storey boarded rectory. 2021. I saw Majendie's 185 Empty Chairs Memorial on St Lukes demolition-site.
15.12.13. Poppies, post quake, brick maze, St Lukes demolition site, Kilmore St / Manchester St
15.12.13. St Lukes history info board, wooden belfry, St Lukes demo site, Manchester St
On the diagonally opposite corner, I saw grass grown by CERA last year on demolition-sites. Those sites were now weedy all the way to the PGC demolition-site where 18 people died in the 22 February 2011 Quake. Southeast, I saw demolition-sites & empty streets to repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel & Christ Church Cathedral ruin which was obscured by repaired / reopened Novotel & multi-storey Camelot Hotel ruin which awaited demolition for the Central Library / Turanga rebuild.
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Kilmore St / Manchester St S view: abandoned bldgs, post quake, repaired / reopened hotels in CCDU's core CBD: Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel left, Novotel right
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce, PGC demolition site S view, copper dome on Avon River bank, post demolition of Retour Restaurant. Abandoned bldgs, repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel beyond, CCDU's core CBD. 2020-21. Edmonds Band Rotunda would be repaired, copper dome on top
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce, PGC demolition site S view, back of restored Isaac Theatre Royal left, repaired / reopened Novotel behind, abandoned Christ Church Cathedral middle, abandoned Camelot Hotel right awaited demolition for Central Library / Turanga rebuild, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Orange digger. Kilmore St SW view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs: Ernst & Young left awaited demolition, Victoria Square apartments right awaited demolition for the Convention Centre / Te Pae, CCDU's core CBD
West along Kilmore St: I trekked past abandoned Ernst & Young awaiting demolition. Southwest, a distance across demolition-sites, I saw multi-storey Forsyth Barr awaiting resurrection as Crowne Plaza Hotel & abandoned multi-storey Victoria Square apartments, awaiting demolition for CERA's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae. I trekked past new-build Forte Health to abandoned Town Hall awaiting repairs. Beyond Town Hall, I saw abandoned Fino Cafe & apartments, quake survivors.
15.12.13. Kilmore St SW view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs: Ernst & Young left awaited demolition. Forsyth Barr middle awaited conversion to Crowne Plaza Hotel. Victoria Square apartments right awaited demolition for CCDU's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Kilmore St W view, Town Hall awaited repairs left, Forte Health new build right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Forte Health new build, Kilmore St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Kilmore St / Colombo St crossing, W view, Town Hall left awaited repairs, abandoned Fino apartments middle right would survive the quakes. Venuti restaurant new build right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Venuti restaurant new build, Colombo St, CCDU's core CBD
Kilmore St / Cambridge Tce / Colombo St: Colombo St Bridge was SMF-cordoned & closed for repairs. Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel loomed. A top banner:
MERRY XMAS
FOR SALE
AS IS WHERE IS
Although Forsyth Barr one of CBD's tallest buildings which had survived the quakes & CERA demolitions, owners wanted to sell. It would survive across Colombo St, opposite CERA's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae.
15.12.13. ROAD CLOSED. Orange-plastic-road-cones. Orange-plastic-road-barrier. Steel mesh fence cordon. Closed for repairs, Colombo St Bridge S view, CCDU's core CBD: Repaired / reopened Novotel left. For Sale, Forsyth Barr middle awaited conversion to Crowne Plaza Hotel. Abandoned Christ Church Cathedral right
July 2015. A Crowne Plaza Hotel banner would hang atop Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel. Overseas owners hoped CCDU's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae would give them hotel trade. But Te Pae would only be built, 2018-21.
Colombo St: New-build Venuti restaurant was open for business. It had demolition-site neighbours.
Town Hall farce: Green adverts on a cordon-fence touted Town Hall & the nearby CCDU Blueprinted Performing Arts Precinct. Over the last year there was debate by the old Council & a new Council whether to restore Town Hall or not, as opposed to a new Performing Arts Precinct nearby, bordered by Colombo St, Armagh St & Gloucester St. May 2015. A new Council would confirm the old Council's wish to restore Town Hall, costing $137.5m.
The green advert:
CHRISTCHURCH TOWN HALL
AND WIDER PERFORMING ARTS PRECINCT
15.12.13. Christchurch Town Hall awaited repairs, Kilmore St, CCDU's core CBD
Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel loomed over CCDU's Blueprint Performing Arts Precinct in Forsyth Barr's fall-zone. During the 22 February 2011 Quake, concrete stairs had collapsed in Forsyth Barr. Office workers saved themselves by lowering themselves from windows using rope. You wouldn't catch me entering or attending any nearby theatre, new or not, like restored Isaac Theatre Royal or new-build Court Theatre.
Across Kilmore St, beyond the old Convention Centre's demolition-site, I saw Peterborough Street Library where Leah & I'd endured five potent quakes during the 23 December 2011, Xmas Quake Swarm. We fled! CCDU wished to build the Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae on Central Library's demolition-site & other demolition-sites & across Gloucester St to Cathedral Sq. Like old & new buildings around Cathedral Sq, the Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae would dwarf Christ Church Cathedral ruin.
Any big hotel (several reopened in the CBD) had convention / conference rooms which could compete with CCDU's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae. 2018-19, while Te Pae was being built, Leah would attend literacy teacher conferences at Rydges Hotel, Latimer Sq where she'd flop out of bed straight into conference rooms.
2021. Plans would be made for a hotel, offices, shops & apartments to be built on the old Convention Centre's demolition-site between Kilmore St & Peterborough St.
15.12.13. Kilmore St N view, old Convention Centre demolition site, post quakes, Central Library, Peterborough St, CCDU's core CBD
At the old Convention Centre's demolition-site, a lamp-pole board:
CITY CARE
CHRISTCHURCH
TOWN HALL
EVACUATION
MUSTER
POINT
15.12.13. Evacuation sign, old Convention Centre demolition site, Kilmore St, CCDU's core CBD
A waste of money, as no one had used the Town Hall since quakes.
15.12.13. Abandoned Fino Cafe, Kilmore St, CCDU's core CBD. Fino Cafe & apartments would survive the quakes
Kilmore St / Durham St Nth: Next to abandoned Town Hall, the old Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition-site was a mess stuffed with Gap Filler temporary junk: Pallet Pavilion; The Arcades, a series of wooden arches; Gap Filler huts; a garishly painted shipping-container; a red double-decker tourist bus. Devoid of tourists, that red-bus would pass me twice during my trek that day. THERE WERE STILL rubbernecker trips in THE red-zone-CBD during CERA's CBD occupation. When would CERA / CCDU rebuild the CBD properly?
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon, shipping containers. Gap Filler temporary projects on Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site, Kilmore St / Durham St Nth. Beyond, Court House left. Abandoned Spicers right, CCDU's core CBD. Spicers would be demolished, 2014, replaced by lawyers offices, Tavendale and Partners
15.12.13. The Arcades temporary project, Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site, Kilmore St / Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD. Abandoned Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel beyond, a bit of Pallet Pavilion right
15.12.13. Red tourist bus, Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site, Kilmore St / Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD. Town Hall behind awaited repairs
15.12.13. Pallet Pavilion temporary project, Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site, Kilmore St / Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD. Court House beyond
15.12.13. Kilmore St / Durham St Nth: Salvation Army demolition site view, abandoned / For Sale, Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel left. Abandoned Victoria Square apartments middle, awaited demolition for CCDU's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae. Court House right, Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Kilmore St / Durham St Nth: Steel mesh fence cordon. Salvation Army demolition site view, The Arcades, Crown Plaza Hotel demolition site. Beyond, abandoned Town Hall awaited repairs, CCDU's core CBD
Christchurch red-zones had degenerated into a hotchpotch of tawdry survivor buildings, demolition-sites & ruins. A taggers' paradise.
Unlike CCDU's core-CBD, Victoria Sq opposite the Pallet Pavilion bustled with reopened businesses & two multi-storey new-builds, steel & glass boxes, like Industrial Park buildings I'd seen at Sir William Pickering Dr near Christchurch Airport.
15.12.13. Crowne Plaza Hotel demolition site, N view, Victoria St new builds
Durham St Nth: I trekked past the Salvation Army demolition-site and the Court House survivor which in 2022 would be occupied by Huadu International Management Group. Further along, the Methodist Church demolition-site showed no respect for the three people killed there in the 22 February 2011 Quake. It was now a Council carpark with Espresso trailer catering for Court House denizens across the road. 2019. The new Durham St Methodist Church would be built on the church's demolition-site with a truncated tower similar to the shortened tower of the new All Soul's Anglican Church built on St Mary's Anglican Church demolition-site, Church Ln / Papanui Rd.
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Carpark, Espresso trailer, Methodist Church demolition site, where 3 people died in the 22.02.11 quake, Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD. The church would be rebuilt on site
Armagh St to Gloucester St crossings: Landsborough House / URS House & Amuri Courts demolition-sites were SMF-cordoned. I saw five five cranes & two pile-drivers again, Sunday sentinels for the new multi-storey, steel & glass office block, Awly Building. Across the road, moth-balled Provincial Council awaited restoration, SMF-cordoned. September 2019. Durham St Nth / Armagh St: the Quake City display, after a stay in Cashel Mall found a new home in a new multi-storey rebuild.
15.12.13. Office complex, new build, Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Deloitte offices, new build, Gloucester St / Cambridge Tce, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Provincial Council, closed for restoration, Durham St Nth, CCDU's core CBD. Abandoned Rydges Hotel beyond
Armagh St Bridge: ROAD CLOSED due to a SMF-cordon across Armagh St near abandoned Victoria Square apartments & CCDU's delays in purchase of land & demolitions & the new-build of its Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae. CERA & CCDU were good at big-talk & demolitions & delays & taking & demolishing of 1 000s of red-zone homes & CBD Frame properties for the Crown. But three years post-quakes, due to CERA / CCDU delays there was little business happening in CERA's core-CBD, there was little rebuild & next to no new-builds.
15.12.13. ROAD CLOSED. Steel mesh fence cordon. Armagh St Bridge closed, due to abandoned high rises beyond: Victoria Square apartments, awaited demolition. Forsyth Barr For Sale / awaited repairs, CCDU's core CBD
Cambridge Tce / Gloucester St: I saw the beginnings of Deloitte offices construction, another multi-storey. On a nearby building, I saw a yellow-mural & enigmatic black-lettering:
E
STE
PEOPLE
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce view, mural on tilt slab wall, Deloitte offices new build. CCDU's core CBD
Gloucester St Bridge: Closed for repairs. That blocked customers for recently restored New Regent St. CCDU's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae would occupy Central Library's demolition-site & some of Gloucester St, thusforever blocking through-flow of Gloucester St traffic.
Gloucester St: On an abandoned wall I saw a blue-mural below Government Life ruin awaiting demolition, Cathedral Sq.
15.12.1.3 Steel mesh fence cordon. Cambridge Tce view, closed for repairs Gloucester St Bridge, SE view, Cathedral Sq bldgs: Repaired / reopened Novotel left; abandoned Government Life middle, awaited demolition, with blue mural below; abandoned Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Cambridge Tce view, closed for repairs Gloucester St Bridge, NE view, abandoned bldgs in CCDU's core CBD: Victoria Square apartments left, awaited demolition; Forsyth Barr For Sale middle; Central Library awaited demolition for CCDU's Blueprint Convention Centre / Te Pae
Cambridge Tce: I saw Edwardian dressed punters on Avon River. They'd punted that stretch for months. Beyond stood Central Police multi-storey, Cambridge Tce / Hereford Tce, which would be imploded, 31.05.15. Central Police would move to a temporary site, St Asaph St / Antigua St awaiting the 2018 opening of CERA's Blueprint Justice & Emergency Services building. Ngai Tahu would build West End multi-storey carpark on old Central Police site & also open a new office block on adjacent King Edward Barracks site, 2017.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Cambridge Tce upstream view, Avon River punters near Worcester St Bridge, CCDU's core CBD
Worcester St Bridge: Open for pedestrians going to Cathedral Sq ruins & demolition-sites & desolation. Edwardian trams trundled over too.
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Worcester St Bridge / Cambridge Tce view, abandoned Central Police, repaired Council bldg, CCDU's core CBD. Central Police would be imploded 31.05.15. Ngai Tahu's multi-storey West End carpark would open on site, 2017
15.12.13. Tram crossing Cambridge Tce by Worcester St Bridge, CCDU's core CBD. Central Police behind would be imploded 31.05.15. Ngai Tahu's multi-storey West End carpark would open on site, 2017
15.12.13. Worcester St Bridge, E view, Cathedral Sq: Steel propped Our City left, abandoned Rydges Hotel beyond left, abandoned Christ Church Cathedral middle, abandoned Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel middle right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Worcester St Bridge, W view, Cambridge Tce crossing, Worcester Blvd, CCDU's core CBD. HSBC Tower left, abandoned Harley right. 2022. Harley bldg would still be abandoned, a boarded, tagged eyesore, asbestos polluted
I trekked beside Avon River to Hereford St Bridge. Along the way, east across Clarendon Tower's demolition-site, I saw Christ Church Cathedral ruin behind cordon-fencing, awaiting Heritage-hailers' saving the Cathedral via court cases galore vs Anglican diocese wanting to demolish. The Cathedral's cordon-fence was black with kitsch floral-designs. 2020. Black-fencing was still there. On the west side before the Cathedral stood a Maori whare filled with plants.
2021. The floral whare & cop kiosk were gone, demolished. Christ Church Cathedral ruin was still kitsch-fenced due to slow reinstatement, moot for the next decade.
2022. Christ Church Cathedral, the west north & south cordon-fences were covered with hundreds of white-square, advert-boards touting Ullrich Aluminium. A Mt Gerald Station farmer who would head-hunt Leah as a lake Tekapo School teacher was a director of Ullrich Aluminium. The WW Memorial (covered in aluminium scaffolding & white-plastic) would be moved further west enabling reinstatement machinery to operate. A cordon-board:
The Citizens' War Memorial
is on the move
Following careful deconstruction
and repair work, the Memorial
will be reinstated on public land
in Cathedral Square. Christchurch
City Council will then continue to
care for it on behalf of the citizens
of Christchurch
Together, the Dean and Chapter
of Christ Church Cathedral, and
Church Property Trustees are
very pleased to gift the Memorial
to the city and to support
the Council in its repair and
relocation.
The project to relocate the Citizens'
War Memorial has been made possible
thanks to funding and support from:...
2023. I still saw Ullrich Aluminium adverts on cordon-fence surrounding Christ Church Cathedral reinstatement. I saw pics of grinning faces saving the Cathedral. I saw a history timeline on the Cathedral cordon-fence which stated how the Cathedral was being saved, but omitted mentioning recent sqabbles between Anglican diocese & Heritage-hailers.
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce view, Cathedral Sq: Clarendon Tower demolition site in foreground. Abandoned Rydges Hotel shops & multi-storey carpark left. Abandoned Government Life left awaited demolition. Repaired / reopened Novotel, Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel middle. Abandoned Christ Church Cathedral right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Oxford Tce view, Hereford St Bridge, E view, reopened Ibis Hotel middle left, part demolished BNZ beyond, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD. 2019. Spark multi-storey would be built on BNZ demo site
15.12.13. Oxford Tce, N view, Our City awaited restoration left, CCDU's core CBD. 2021. Our City restoration would begin
Hereford St Bridge: I had an eastern view to Restart Cashel Mall's shipping-container shops on several demolition-sites. I saw abandoned, wooden, green Shands Emporium, Hereford St, close to Restart Cashel Mall shipping-containers. The Press on Xmas Day would report that a local "nutter" would spend $250 000 to relocate Shands Emporium, a heritage building, to Redcliffs & restore it.
June 2015. Shands Emporium would be relocated to Manchester St, next to broken Trinity Church, while post-quake rebuild, Westende House across the road was demolished for Manchester St widening. 2019. Michael Mayell, Cookie Time owner would want to turn Shands Emporium & Trinity Church into a Cannabis Institute, Whakamana. That idea fizzled. (See Coda below).
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St Bridge, SE view, Oxford Tce demolition sites. Relocating Shands Emporium beyond by Restart Cashel Mall, CCDU's core CBD
Oxford Tce from Hereford St to Lichfield St crossings: Either demolition-sites or abandoned shops like Mad Cow. Along Oxford Tce, The Terrace development along Avon River bank already had foundations laid behind cordon-fencing. Info-boards on cordon- fencing described The Terrace concept for passersby. Bridge of Remembrance was being repaired.
2014. Mad Cow would be demolished for relocated Restart Cashel Mall shipping-container-shops. Those container-shops had been moved so that BNZ Centre could be built further down Cashel Mall opposite Ballantynes.
2019. On Colombo St, Pagoda Court would be demolished for Kathmandu opening. Demolition-sites, Lichfield St / Oxford Tce where Mad Cow & shipping-container-shops once stood would become the Riverside Market: several cafes, restaurants, fresh fish shop.
15.12.13. The Terrace new build, Oxford Tce, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. The Terrace foundations, Oxford Tce, Restart Cashel Mall beyond, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Bridge of Remembrance repairs, Oxford Tce, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Oxford Tce, E view, Restart Cashel Mall, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Demolition site carpark, Restart Cashel Mall, Oxford Tce, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Abandoned Mad Cow, awaited demolition, Oxford Tce, CCDU's core CBD. Riverside Market would be built on site
15.12.13. Abandoned bldg, Oxford Tce / Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD
Private sector, commercial development in post-quake Christchurch was much quicker than slow commercial development in CCDU's core-CBD. Private sector Victoria St, Riccarton Rd & Moorhouse Ave hummed with new developments while CCDU's core-CBD was stagnant.
Lichfield St: I trekked east past Omega Rental Cars, past a demolition-site carpark going to Restart Cashel Mall, past an empty carpark- garage, past flower-tubs near the busy temporary Bus Exchange, past post-quake Ballantynes Fashion Atrium, past abandoned Rohits Indian restaurant. Rohits Indian Restaurant would be demolished for Hoyts EntX, opened 2018.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Omega Rental Cars, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Lichfield St, N view, demolition site carpark for Restart Cashel Mall, Hereford St beyond, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned carpark, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD. The carpark would be revamped next to new Riverside Market. Another multi-storey carpark would be built further E along Lichfield St
15.12.13. Flower tubs, Temporary Bus Exchange, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. BUS ACCESS ONLY. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Lichfield St, Temporary Bus Exchange view, Ballantynes Fashion Atrium new build, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Lichfield St, E view, abandoned bldgs, incl Rohits Indian restaurant right, CCDU's core CBD, Rohits Indian Restaurant would be demolished for Hoyts EntX, opened 2018
Lichfield St / Colombo St crossing: Full of orange-plastic-road-cones, steel-mesh-fence-cordons & a trench down the middle of Colombo St towards the airbridge at The Crossing by Cashel Mall. Airbridge sides: covered with pics of a blue sky with white clouds.
One corner of Lichfield St crossing was a weedy demolition-site. Ruins were on the other three corners, like R & R Sport & The Frontrunner: broken window & a series of silvery, plastic mannequins "running" beside inner-walls of the shop. The Frontrunner would be demolished for the Bus Interchange, opened 2018.
I saw street art: Council's painted geometric patterns & painted flowers on Colombo St & Gloucester St giving colour to demolition-sites & attracting citizens back to the CBD. During quake years, we'd seen two life-sized, bronze bull statues on two grand pianos on a Madras St demolition-site & two giant silver gnomes guarding the closed-for-repairs Art Gallery, Worcester Blvd. We saw new murals, graffiti & footpath-graffiti by contractors all over town. We saw container-art covering shipping-containers below cliffs on the road to Sumner.
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones. Steel mesh fence cordon. Colombo St / Lichfield St, N view, post quake Colombo St repair, demolition site, abandoned bldgs. Kitsch road markings on pedestrian crossing, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Colombo St / Lichfield St crossing, post quake N view, Colombo St repair, sky art on airbridge at The Crossing. Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel behind awaited repairs, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Colombo St / Lichfield St crossing, post quake S view, Colombo St repairs, abandoned bldgs, CCDU's core CBD. Frontrunner left would be demolished for the new Bus Interchange, opened 2018. Bldgs right would be demolished for Hoyts EntX, opened 2018.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned R & R Sport, The Frontrunner, Colombo St / Lichfield St crossing, CCDU's core CBD. The Frontrunner would be demolished for the New Bus Interchange, opened 2018. R & R Sport would be demolished for Hoyts EntX, opened 2018
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange digger. Colombo St / Lichfield St crossing view, abandoned The Frontrunner, CCDU's core CBD. The Frontrunner would be demolished for the new Bus Interchange, opened 2018
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Colombo St / Lichfield St crossing, W view, Colombo St repairs, abandoned bldgs lining Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD. R & R Sport left would be demolished for Hoyts EntX, opened 2018
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Quake demolition site, abandoned, old, bus exchange, Colombo St / Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD. The area would be part of The Crossing new build
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Lichfield St / Colombo St crossing, E view, Lichfield St, abandoned bldgs lining Lichfield St. Abandoned, old bus exchange left, CCDU's core CBD, would be part of The Crossing new build
Lichfield St east to Manchester St: the pre-quakes, bus exchange ruin was part-demolished, a dusty mess: gaping holes in walls, twisted rebars awaiting final-demolition. The area close to Colombo St would become part of The Crossing new-build. Beyond, I saw Lincoln House ruin surrounded by demolition-sites.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Part demolished bus exchange, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD. The demo site would become The Crossing new build
Lichfield St: Looking northwards across demolition-sites & empty cordoned streets, I saw across Cashel St to Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition-site which would become Grand Central Building, a multi-storey office building. Beyond, I saw a trio of ruins: multi-storey Malvern House; an apartment block; multi-storey Broadlands House on desolate Hereford St. (Those three ruins would for years be a taggers' & vagrants' paradise). Behind them I saw the back of Government Departmental Buildings, now reopened as Heritage Hotel. Next door, I saw abandoned multi-storey Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel. Behind Heritage Hotel, I saw repaired / reopened Novotel. North-eastwards I saw repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel looming above the lot.
15.12.13. Lichfield St N view, demolition gap by part demolished bus exchange left. Back sides of abandoned bldgs beyond, around Cathedral Sq. Only Novotel & Heritage Hotel middle left & Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel right beyond were repaired & reopened, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Lichfield St demolition site N view, Hereford St, bldgs around Cathedral Sq: part demolished BNZ left, abandoned Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel middle, repaired, reopened Novotel & Heritage Hotel right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Lichfield St demolition site, NE view, abandoned Hereford St bldgs: Malvern House middle left, apartments middle, Broadlands House & Mancinis Cafe middle right. Repaired Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind left, abandoned Design & Arts College behind right, CCDU's core CBD. Rubble heap, Grand Chancellor Hotel demolition site would become Grand Central Building. Cars parked on Westpac demolition site
15.12.13. Orange, plastic road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned bldgs, Lichfield St. Part demolished bus exchange left, Lincoln House right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. New build, Stranges office block, Lichfield St / High St / Manchester St, CCDU's S Frame
Lichfield St: Looking southwards across a CERES demolition-site & SMF-cordons, I saw a yellow CERES crane surrounded by irrigators spraying water, laying dust. There was no explanatory board nor DANGER signs on the cordon-fence! Was I breathing in asbestos dust? Beyond the sprayers, I saw the backside of Tuam St multi-storey Council ruin covered in a wall of white-plastic. During quake- years, I'd seen several multi-storeys covered in white-plastic. Tuam St multi-storey Council ruin awaited demolition for the new Bus Interchange.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Lichfield St view, back of abandoned Council bldg covered in white plastic, CCDU's core CBD. The Council bldg would be demolished for the new Bus Interchange
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Part demolished bldg & abandoned bldg propped by stacked shipping containers, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Stranges new build & stacked shipping containers propping a facade, Lichfield St. Red tourist bus searching for tourists, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. USAR / TF graffiti, abandoned bldg, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned bldg, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD
Next to the white-plastic-wrapped Council ruin, I saw a part-demolished brick building. Next door I saw the facade of another brick building, propped by a six layer wall of shipping-containers. That area of still forbidden CBD around Sol Sq ghost had four more buildings in the vicinity with old, brick-facades propped by stacked shipping-containers: one facade on Manchester St; Odeon Theatre facade propped by containers on Tuam St; another facade propped on High St; another facade propped on Manchester St / Bedford Row. Heritage-hailers wanted to save Majestic Theatre ruin, Lichfield St / Manchester St & Council ruin, Tuam St. Both ruins would be demolished for the new East Frame / Rauora Park & the new Bus Interchange respectively.
Lichfield St / High St / Manchester St: new Stranges steel-glass building, similar to new Forte Health on Kilmore St were the only two recent rebuilds I saw in CERA's core-CBD. Both glass-facaded buildings. CERA minister Brownlee desired post-quake Christchurch to be the "Sports Capital of NZ." After thousands of house-demolitions, Brownlee wished to flood Avon River's residential red-zones, making a rowers' paradise!br />
15.12.13. Orange, plastic road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Lichfield St / Manchester St / High St, W view, abandoned bldgs, Stranges new build, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Lichfield St / Manchester St, S view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs towards Sol Sq, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Manchester St, SW view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs by Sol Sq, CCDU's core CBD. Odeon Theatre facade propped by stacked shipping containers left, Tuam St, CCDU's S Frame
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St, S view, demolition sites, facades propped by stacked shipping containers, CCDU's S Frame & abandoned bldgs by Sol Sq, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Faux pissoir for ads. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St / High St, E view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs, facade propped by stacked shipping containers, High St, CCDU's S Frame. Old PO / Alice in Videoland behind, junk art on roof, Tuam St / High St
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange, plastic bollards. Manchester St / Lichfield St / High St, E view, part demolished Poplar Ln, CCDU's S Frame. The bldg would survive the quakes as Dux Central
15.12.13. Quake tilted lamp pole. Quake outdated, Council info board. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange, plastic bollards. Manchester St / High St, N view, abandoned Manchester St bldgs: Te Wanaga o Aotearoa left would survive the quakes as revamped The Art Muse Hotel in CCDU's core CBD. Majestic Theatre right awaited demolition for CCDU's E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange, plastic bollards. Abandoned, cordoned Majestic Theatre, awaited demolition, Manchester St / Lichfield St, CCDU's E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordons. Stranges new build, Manchester St / Lichfield St / High St, CCDU's core CBD. Orange Nucleus sculpture right would survive the quakes
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St, W view, High St, restored Bonnington House abandoned bldgs, incl WINZ, CCDU's core CBD
Manchester St: Was still fucked by CCDU, cleaving the west side into core-CBD &the east side into Blueprint E Frame. I trekked north past cordoned Bedford Way demolition-sites & ruins which would be demolished for East Frame / Rauora Park. I trekked past all of Manchester Street's ravaged demolition-sites & ruins like Majestic Theatre awaiting demolition for Rauora Park. I trekked past CCDU's core-CBD: abandoned multi-storey, Te Wananga o Aotearoa (awaiting restoration as The Art Muse Hotel) near the orange Nucleus sculpture; multi-storey Holiday Inn's demolition-site; Kensington House ghost awaiting restoration; abandoned multi-storey All Seasons Hotel (Break Free) behind. I trekked past fallen SMF-cordons near Te Wananga o Aotearoa & Kensington House. I trekked past ubiquitous orange-plastic-bollards & OPRC-cordons.
15.12.13. Orange, plastic bollards, steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned bldgs, Manchester St, incl Majestic Theatre right, awaiting demolition, 2014, for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Facade propped by stacked shipping containers, Manchester St / Bedford Row. The bldg would be demolished, 2014, for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordoned Manchester St / Bedford Row junction, E view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs, for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park. Abandoned IR bldg middle would survive the quakes
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange, plastic, road fence. Stacked shipping container cordon. Manchester St, SE view, abandoned bldgs between Bedford Row & Lichfield St. Abandoned Majestic Theatre behind. The bldgs would be demolished, 2014, for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Yellow stickered, USAR / TF graffitied, abandoned Te Wananga o Aotearoa, Manchester St / High St, CCDU's core CBD. The building would be restored as The Art Muse Hotel
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St, SW view, demolition sites, like Holiday Inn, Cashel St, & CCDU's core CBD abandoned bldgs
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St, NW view, CCDU's core CBD demolition sites & abandoned bldgs, like All Seasons Hotel middle. Repaired, reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind right. All Seasons would be renamed Break Free, which would stand next to Grand Central Building on Hotel Grand Chancellor demo site
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St view across demolition sites & Cashel St to abandoned bldgs, like WINZ middle, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Kensington House, side wall stripped off by quake, Manchester St, CCDU's core CBD. Kensington House would be restored. All Seasons (Break Free) behind left would also survive the quakes
15.12.13. USAR / TF graffitied, yellow stickered, Kensington House, Manchester St, CCDU's core CBD. Kensington House would be restored
Manchester St eastern view: East Frame buildings awaited CCDU's taking & road-widening like Shooters ruin, Manchester Courts demolition-site & abandoned Oaks Smartstay Apartments, Cashel St. CCDU's Blueprint East Frame demolition-land had some revived buildings: Alice in Videoland, Tuam St; CI Cafe, High St; Les Mills Gym, Cashel St & Calendar Girls, Hereford St. Calendar Girls would be demolished, then relocated to Victoria St opposite the Casino.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange, plastic, road fence. Manchester St NE view, Cashel St abandoned bldgs: Shooters left, Oaks Smartstay Apartments right. Shooters & adjacent bldgs would be demolished, 2014, for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St NE view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs along Cashel St. Oaks Homestay Apartments left. 2014. The bldgs would be demolished for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Shooters, Manchester St. Oaks Smartstay Apartments behind. 2014. The bldgs would be demolished for the CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Orange, plastic bollards. Abandoned bldgs, Manchester St. 2014. Bldgs would be demolished for CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park
Manchester St Eastern view: I saw SMF-cordoned demolition-sites all the way east along Lichfield St, past ruined High St & demolished Poplar Ln to Madras St & beyond to Turners & Growers site where CERA had Blueprinted a 35 000 seater stadium.
Latimer Sq: the Anglican diocese had erected its transitional Cardboard Cathedral, Jap architect Shigeru Ban, on its St Johns demolition-site just outside CCDU's Blueprint East Frame, close to its Blueprint stadium site.
Manchester St / Hereford St crossing: I detoured west to see demolition-sites & ruins I hadn't viewed closeup since the 22 February 2011 Quake. I saw demolition-sites on three corners, including abandoned Bradley Nuttal House & abandoned Torrens House on the northeast corner. Both buildings would be demolished for CCDU's East Frame / Rauora Park.
15.12.13. Demolition sites, incl Bradley Nuttal House, Torrens House, NE Manchester St / Hereford St, NZ CCDU's E Frame / Rauora Park
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. SE Manchester St / Hereford St, E view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs, CCDU's Blueprint E Frame. Temp reopened Calendar Girls left. A bit of Cardboard Cathedral beyond
Hereford St: I saw demolition-sites on both street-sides lined by ghosts. I looked south across Hotel Grand Chancellor's demolition-site to wasteland Cashel St & High St to Stranges steel-glass rebuild & restored Bonnington House & ghosts like WINZ & beyond to the part-demolished Bus Exchange, Lichfield St & the white-plastic-wrapped Council ghost, Tuam St. Another demolition-site: I saw a parked yellow-digger next to an almost-demolished building near two yellow-skips. Demolition-rubble was either crushed on-site for rebuild-foundations, or stored in skips for trucking to Burwood dump, Bottle Lake Forest Park.
15.12.13. Hereford St view, Hotel Grand Chancellor, demolition site S view across wasteland Cashel St & High St to restored Bonnington House middle left & abandoned bldgs, CCDU's core CBD. Abandoned All Seasons Hotel left would be renamed Break Free. Most of this demo site would become Grand Central Building
15.12.13. Hereford St view, Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition site, Stranges steel & glass rebuild left, restored Bonnington House, High St right, CCDU's core CBD. Grand Central Building would be built on the demo site
15.12.13. Hereford St view, Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition site, restored Bonnington House left, abandoned WINZ middle, more abandoned bldgs, High St, CCDU's core CBD. Grand Central Building would be built on the demo site
15.12.13. Hereford St & Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition site, S view across wasteland Cashel St, High St & Lichfield St demolition sites & abandoned bldgs to abandoned Tuam St Council bldg, covered in white plastic, middle. Part demolished, old bus exchange right, Lichfield St, CCDU's core CBD. The old Council bldg would be demolished for the new Bus Interchange. Demo site in this pic would become Grand Central Building
15.12.13. Hereford St, SE view across Hotel Grand Chancellor demolition site to abandoned All Seasons Hotel / Break Free left, High St rebuild & restored bldgs, CCDU's core CBD. Most of the demo site would become Grand Central Building
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Yellow, high reach digger. Demolition in progress, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Hereford St, SW view across demolition sites to High St & Cashel St abandoned bldgs, CCDU's core CBD
Hereford St: Northwards, I snapped SMF-cordoned, abandoned Chinese Restaurant & Bistro. I snapped SMF-cordoned Hereford Chambers / Mancini's, steel & concrete-block propped, black-plastic flapping in the wind at roof height. Across a SMF-cordoned lane, I saw three ruins propped together: abandoned Broadlands House; abandoned apartments with powder-blue outer-walls; abandoned Malvern House, all with broken windows. Further along Hereford St, I saw a big demolition-site; detached excavator-buckets; demolition-rubble; a parked yellow-digger. The view was similar to what I'd seen from Lichfield St. I saw ruined Christ Church Cathedral's apse between reopened Heritage Hotel & abandoned Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel.
2015. The Chinese Restaurant would resurrect as Mexico Restaurant, Hereford St / Manchester St.
2022. Ruined Malvern House & the ruined apartments & ruined Broadlands House & ruined Hereford Chambers / Mancini's would still be eyesores, Hereford St.
15.12.13. ROAD CLOSED. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned bldgs, CCDU's core CBD, Manchester St / Hereford St. Repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind. 2015. Cnr Chinese Restaurant would become Mexico Restaurant
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Chinese Restaurant & Bistro, Manchester St / Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD. 2015. Chinese Restaurant would become Mexico Restaurant
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St N view, demolition site, abandoned bldgs: Hereford Chambers / Mancini's left, Design & Art College behind, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St NW view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs, CCDU's core CBD: Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel left, Malvern House & apartments middle, Broadlands House right
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St NW view, demolition sites, abandoned bldgs, CCDU's core CBD: Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel left; Malvern House, apartments & Broadlands House middle; Hereford Chambers / Mancini's right
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Hereford Chambers / Mancini's, 167 Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Broadlands House left; abandoned, concrete & steel propped Hereford Chambers / Mancini's right, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Broadlands House entrance, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned apartments entrance, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Malvern House entrance, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Quake trashed office, Malvern House, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St N view, demolition site, abandoned Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel & Christ Church Cathedral apse left, repaired / reopened Heritage Hotel right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St N view, demolition site, abandoned Millennium Hotel / Distinction Hotel left, repaired / reopened Novotel middle, repaired / reopened Heritage Hotel right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Hereford St NE view, demolition site, repaired / reopened Heritage Hotel left, repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind, abandoned Malvern House & apartments right, CCDU's core CBD
Hereford St: Although Avonmore Tertiary College was opened months ago, it was dusty & bordered by demolition-sites & ruins, a SMF-cordon across the street. How could they do business obstructed by all that CBD cordon-fencing? (August 2018. Avonmore College would go into voluntary liquidation. September 2019, I saw a FOR LEASE sign in the window). That was the challenge of any business reopening in CCDU's core- CBD: surrounded by dust, demolition-sites, ruins & thumping machines. Some examples of early business reopenings in CCDU's core-CBD: Avonmore College; Restart Cashel Mall's temporary shipping-container shops; Ibis Hotel; Novotel; Rendezvous Hotel / Pacific Tower; Heritage Hotel; New Regent St shops; The Press rebuild; Cathedral Junction shops.
September 2019. While Tertiary Avonmore College expired across Hereford St during 2018-19, Spark multi-storey new-build would progress. A slow build, as Spark was built on BNZ's demolition-site, notorious for asbestos-pollution. Meanwhile across Cathedral Sq, on Worcester St by Rydges Hotel's ghost-shops I saw DANGER ASBESTOS DUST HAZARD on yellow-plastic-tape on a SMF-cordon. How many 1000s of citizens had wandered past that asbestos-hazard before the hazard-tape was hung?
There were also shops beyond CCDU's core-CBD, mostly in CCDU's Blueprint East Frame. They struggled to do business surrounded by demolition- wastelands & ruins, like Westende House (which would be CERA demolished for Manchester St widening); Calendar Girls (which would relocate close to Christchurch Casino); Les Mills Gym; Alice in Videoland; C1 Cafe; NG Gallery. The only only busy organization I saw: Anglican Cardboard Cathedral by Latimer Sq, on CCDU's Blueprint East Frame fringe.
While I trekked Hereford St looking at asbestos-polluted, part-demolished BNZ bank at Colombo St crossing, three women wandered by, one pushing a pram. Infant asbestosis or silicosis?
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. W view Hereford St: Reopened Avonmore Tertiary College left, part demolished BNZ middle right, reopened Ibis Hotel beyond, CCDU's core CBD. BNZ demo site would become Spark multi-storey
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Reopened Avonmore Tertiary College, Hereford St, CCDU's core CBD. Aug 2018. Avonmore College would go into voluntary liquidation
Manchester St: I trekked back to my car past vast roadside demolition-sites. At Worcester St crossing, on the southwest corner I saw SMF-cordoned, boarded, steel-braced, abandoned Trinity Church / Octagon Restaurant. That "church" was damaged ever since the 4 September 2010 Quake.
15.12.13. Manchester St W view, abandoned Chinese Restaurant & Bistro left, abandoned Hereford Chambers / Mancini's middle, CCDU's core CBD. 2015. Chinese Restaurant would become Mexico Restaurant
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St SW view, abandoned bldgs: Hereford Chambers / Mancini's left, apartments middle, Malvern House right, CCDU's core CBD. 2022. Those bldgs would still be abandoned eyesores
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Abandoned Design & Arts College left, abandoned Trinity Church / Octagon Restaurant right, repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind, Manchester St, CCDU's core CBD. Shands Emporium would be relocated next to Trinity Church
15.12.13. Boarded, steel braced, abandoned Trinity Church / Octagon Restaurant, Manchester St, CCDU's core CBD
Across the road, I saw Westende House new-build, the scene of collapsed Westende Jeweller, Ground Zero in the 4 September 2010 Quake. As new Westende House was built before CERA's regime, CERA / CCDU would demolish brand-new Westende House for CERA's Manchester St widening & Blueprint East Frame / Rauora Park. Rebuilt Westende House would be demolished in July 2015!
15.12.13. Westende House new build, Ground Zero 04.09.10 Darfield Quake, where Westende Jeweller once stood, Manchester St / Worcester St, CCDU's Blueprint E Frame / Rauora Park. July 2015, Westende House would be demolished by CERA for Manchester St widening
Manchester St: Both sides between Worcester St & Gloucester St crossings, I saw dusty demolition-sites some going to Latimer Sq. Cathedral Junction: recently opened, slow trading, big CJ logo high on the concrete-wall, Manchester St side. Months before, at the bottom of the CJ wall, a street artist had splashed orange paint. 2019. That orange "art" would still pollute that concrete-wall.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St NW view, kitsch, orange mural on repaired / reopened Cathedral Junction wall. Repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind, CCDU's core CBD
I detoured west up Gloucester St to revamped New Regent St where Asian tourists happy-snapped. I saw the Wizard's parked, red VW Beetle. It was two fronts of two VW Beetles welded together. It had two steering-wheels, two bonnets & four doors signifying the Wizard's addled mind & crazy Christchurch.
15.12.13. Gloucester St NW view, stacked shipping containers supported Isaac Theatre Royal restoration left, repaired / reopened New Regent St middle, Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel behind, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Repaired / reopened Cathedral Junction, Gloucester St, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. The Wizard's red, VW Beetle parked on repaired / reopened New Regent St, CCDU's core CBD
On a neighbouring demolition-site, on a wall I saw a mural with a Lorca poem tribute to a quake-killed Spaniard. People from many lands died in the 22 February 2011 Quake. On that dusty demolition-site, locals flogged table-wares. I saw a nearby Bike-fixing shack, closed.
15.12.13. Gloucester St demolition site behind New Regent St: Rotary tyre / weed pot; mini golf; wares for sale; bike repair hut; mural with Lorca poem, CCDU's core CBD
Manchester St / Gloucester St: More street art, I saw a dark mural of Christ Church Cathedral, The Wizard in black garb flailing his arms on a dark & stormy night, a lady in black garb on the right corner. Artists were recently encouraged to cover demolition-walls with street art to cover tilt-slab, concrete-walls, new blots in the CBD.
15.12.13. Kitsch mural right, Gloucester St demolition site, abandoned Sampan House left, repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel middle, CCDU's core CBD. Sampan House would survive the quakes
15.12.13. Empty tourist bus, kitsch road markings, Gloucester St. Repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel behind, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon sign. "Cleaned" demolition site, Manchester St / Gloucester St, CCDU's core CBD
Council's street art: Flowers painted on CBD footpaths; green-stripes painted on Colombo St & Gloucester St roadsides; planter-tubs & metal flower-tubs on roadsides.
Rotary had placed orange-painted-tyres as flower-pots on demolition-sites: Weedy.
Greening the Rubble organization had tarted demolition-sites with pot-plants: dusty, weedy, junky mess.
Manchester St / Gloucester St: On a dirty demolition-site, a SMF-cordon sign:
THIS SITE WAS
CLEANED
PLANT GANG
15.12.13. Manchester St Bridge view, quake broken, Avon River bank wall, demolished Retour Restaurant dome, abandoned Ernst & Young behind, CCDU's core CBD. 2015. Ernst & Young would be demolished. 2020-21. Edmonds Band Rotunda would be restored, copper dome on top
Manchester St Bridge view: Cambridge Tce, Retour Restaurant's copper-dome which stood on Avon River bank for months. (By 2015 that copper-dome was wrapped in white-plastic. 2019. That plastic-wrapped-dome would still be there. 2020-21. Edmonds Band Rotunda would be fully restored with the copper-dome on top). Beyond, I saw abandoned Ernst & Young awaiting demolition.
15.12.13. Steel mesh fence cordon. Manchester St W view, demolition sites, abandoned Ernst & Young left, awaited demolition, Forte Health new build right, CCDU's core CBD
Cambridge Tce: I trekked on dry grass by PGC demolition-site. I looked south across Avon River at the CBD's post-quake skyline. There were few high-rises left: restored Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel; The Press, a glassy new-build; restored Novotel; Forsyth Barr / Crowne Plaza Hotel. Christ Church Cathedral ruin rotting below Novotel. From all viewpoints on my circular walk around CCDUs' core-CBD, Christ Church Cathedral ruin looked insignificant. Despite demolitions of some surrounding buildings, Christ Church Cathedral was dwarfed by modern buildings.
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce S view: 18 people died when PGC collapsed in the 22.02.11 quake. CCDU's core CBD & post quake skyline: Repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel left, The Press rebuild middle left, repaired / reopened Novotel middle right, abandoned Christ Church Cathedral right
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce: PGC demolition site S view, repaired / reopened Pacific Tower / Rendezvous Hotel left, repaired / reopened New Regent St middle, The Press rebuild right, CCDU's core CBD
15.12.13. Cambridge Tce: PGC demolition site S view, repaired / reopened New Regent St left, The Press rebuild middle left, repaired / reopened Novotel middle right, abandoned Christ Church Cathedral right, CCDU's core CBD
*Trekked Kilmore St, Durham St Nth, Cambridge Tce, Oxford Tce, Lichfield St, Manchester St, Hereford St. 232 images.
Although I would blog more quake-posts, I would stop snapping ruins, as over the last three years I'd blogged 20 600 pics & would spend the next decade editing & revising quake-posts.
Coda:
January 2014. Footpath-graffiti, spray-painted by contractors sorting infrastructure: many lines, arrows, numbers (many with decimal points) words & letters, including W, H2O, PWR, PW, P, POD, LV, 11KV, S, SW, T/C, Telecom, TC, ENTER, END. Common symbol was a circle with a line through it. Others were white, right-angles forming a rectangle, or yellow, parallel, dotted lines signifying areas of asphalt to be cut.
Recently, I'd trekked a section of Glandovey Rd between Idris Rd traffic-circle & Memorial Ave. Footpaths & roadsides were full of contractor-symbols beside Ditch Witch drills, concrete-cutters, mini-diggers & many workmen wearing orange-Hi-Vis-vests. I'd counted eight spray-painted symbol-colours signifying different underground pipes, cables & areas to be excavated: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink & white, while dodging OPRC-cordons & footpath threat-signs ordering me to use the footpath on the other side of the road!
One morning, contractors closed both footpaths, barricaded by OPRC-cordons & threat-signs. When I crossed the road, looking at the Traffic Management bloke, he shook his hard-hatted head, exasperated by contractors & traffic around him. By the next day, he'd sorted out pedestrian-safety & OPRC-cordons, one footpath safe for pedestrians, the other banned. Glandovey Rd wasn't the only graffiti-polluted, contractor-clogged road I trekked.
Lettering was inconsistent depending on which contractor did what job. In addition to some of the above spray-painted lines, numbers, colours, words & letters, on Garreg Rd & Ilam Rd, I saw E/E with associated direction triangle, SWE, G, XS. Also TELSTRA on London St; GAS on Bealey Ave; CHORUS FIBRE, JOINT, B, each circled on Papanui Rd & Harewood Rd. I saw DROP, WASTE WATER, WASTE H20 on Greers Rd... That sort of graffiti was found all over Christchurch where road & footpath excavations progressed.
Many SCIRT & Council excavations had warning-boards about worker-safety behind cordons: Slow Down, 30 km/h speed-limit... but few warnings about driver, cyclist & pedestrian safety.
10.01.14. 3.33pm, M4.2 quake, 9km depth, 20km west of Christchurch (GeoNet). That quake arse-kicked me: jiggled my pc monitor while I edited & thumped my chair!
Greers Rd work, SCIRT / City Care, 16.01.14 letter:
WORKS NOTICE - NIGHT WORK
We are working on the video inspection (CCTV) of the wastewater and / or storm water pipes in your area. This inspection is to determine the extent of repairs required to the pipes as a result of the earthquakes.
We expect to be in your area from the 16th January to 20th January 2014.
Some of this inspection work needs to be carried out at night. There may be noise from the pipe cleaning trucks and flashing lights associated with this work.
We appreciate this work may cause some disturbance to you. We apologize for this and request your patience while we undertake this essential work.
This work is being undertaken by PipeWorks with the work being managed by a City Care representative... Please contact... if you have any questions in relation to these works.
Thank you,
City Care CCTV
"Disturbance" was CERA understatement, as citizens who had such inspections complained about back-blasts of explosive shit in their toilets & bathrooms during inspections. SCIRT / CERA took its time three years post 22 February 2011 Quake, as plumbers had recommended such inspections post 4 September 2010 Quake.
Armagh St: 2016. The Piano, Centre for Music & Arts would open on a bit of the Performing Arts Precinct, which would stay a shingled mess for years, hemmed in by The Piano, New Library / Turanga, new Convention Centre / Te Pae & revamped Crowne Plaza Hotel (old Forsyth Barr). Only in 2023-24 would the Court Theatre be built.
September 2019. While Leah attended a literacy conference at Rydges Hotel, Latimer Sq, I trekked the CBD for three days checking slow rebuilds. Manchester St, a Shands Emporium wall-plaque:
SHAND'S
circa 1860
RE-OPENED 22nd SEPTEMBER 2017
Moved from its original site at 88 Hereford St, Shand's has been
extensively repaired, strengthened and restored.
It is the oldest commercial building in the central city.
As a result of the 22 February 2011 earthquake Shand's was extensively
damaged. It was rescued in 2015 by the Christchurch Heritage Trust.
Heritage New Zealand, Category 1 listing. Christchurch City Council Group 1 listing.
Trustees...
A notice on Shand's front door read:
WHAKAMANA: NZ's Cannabis Institute
fok a mana:
To restore the mana of/or in one word whakamana is Maori for empowerment.
For the past 80 years Cannabis has been at the forefront of of the failed war on drugs -
prohibition propaganda politics and big business have convinced billions of people that this
beautiful plant is evil.
The NZ Institute for cannabis education research and development, WHAKAMANA has been
established to right that wrong and to help bring cannabis back to once more hold its rightful
position as one of humanities [sic] greatest natural resources.
Whakamana Museum Limited is seeking to raise $2 million to establish a cannabis centre of
excellence in 2 of Christchurch's oldest (150yrs+) most historic, and iconic buildings; the Trinity
Church (Trinity) and Shands Emporium (Hemporium) on the corner of Worcester and Manchester Street in the heart of the CBD...
Please join us at www.cannabisinstitute.ac.nz where you can sign up for our newsletter and hop on this waka.
WHAKAMANA
The Cannabis Institute idea soon fizzled.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
See Mural poem honours quake victim (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Arts infusion adds SPARK (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Restart retailers in dark on leases (The Press / Stuff Co).
See $217m metro sport facility launched (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Artist resurrects red zone houses (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Opportunity springs from disaster (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Charming nutter saves Shands Emporium (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Rebirth built on loyalty to home (The Press / Stuff Co).
See Business reflects on Canty in 2013 (The Press / Stuff Co).
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