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36 days ago

Noel

The Team from Humans of Christchurch Ōtautahi

“I took to bikes from a very young age, I got into Penny Farthing riding when I was 12. There were Penny Farthing races happening in Oamaru and I asked a guy if I could have a go on one. Half an hour later, I won my first race, and six months later, I built my first Penny Farthing from scratch. I’ve built about 56 Penny Farthings in my time, there are bikes of mine all over the world.

I'm the type that has a bike for every kind of cycling. There are project bikes, I always tend to have projects on the go. I work as much as possible with recycled materials, so I'll have all these projects going, but they may be completely still until such a resource is available. I grew up in a household with a workshop. We strapped a chainsaw to a Raleigh 20 and ripped around the neighborhood, so I was very familiar with motorized bikes.

I love e-bikes as a great form of transport. I can get out to places that would literally be out of my range on a normal bike, I just don't have quite the same steam as I used to. And e-bikes make even the hills flat, I love the freedom I have.

After the earthquakes there was a major issue with bike theft. At one point, we were losing over 200 bikes a week in Christchurch. I started the stolen bikes group on Facebook with the mission of trying to combat it, that's been going solidly for the last 10 years.

Back then, bikes were maybe two grands worth that were getting pinched. Nowadays you've got bikes that are worth more than cars so it's become even more critical that groups like mine exist. I'd love it if we didn't need to exist, but unfortunately, we do. We’re getting multiple bikes back, empowering people, teaching people how to secure their bikes. We're actually making a difference.

We have a zero tolerance for people asking for money, no one's allowed to accept rewards at all. If people insist on giving rewards, we say, give it to charity. It's cyclists helping cyclists, that’s how it should be. I like the fact that Christchurch is one of those cities that if you break down on the side road, another cyclist will stop for you. Christchurch really is a bike city.”

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More messages from your neighbours
8 hours ago

Poll: Is your nearest emergency department up to scratch?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Concerns have been raised about Nelson Hospital with complaints of lack of staffing and excessive wait times. Do you have confidence in your local emergency department?

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Is your nearest emergency department up to scratch?
  • 35.3% Yes, it serves us well
    35.3% Complete
  • 63.8% No, I have concerns
    63.8% Complete
  • 0.8% Other - I'll share below
    0.8% Complete
614 votes
17 hours ago

🤔 I Bet You Can’t Solve This One… Prove Me Wrong! 😏

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

Give this puzzle a whirl, can you figure it out?

Do you think you know the answer? Simply 'Like' this post if you know the answer and the big reveal will be posted in the comments at 2pm on the day!

Want to stop seeing these in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.

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4 days ago

Anna and Adam

The Team from Humans of Christchurch Ōtautahi

"I went to Australia in 2010 with the intention of being there six months. I got offered a full time job as an assistant winemaker, so I decided to stay. Our winery wasn't set up for processing our whites, we did it at a contract facility which was Adam's work and I met Adam there.
I always wanted to one day have my own brand. We came up with a concept while we were in Australia, it was a little side project. Each variety has its own native bird. That was one priority; to have a really distinctive label.

We moved back to New Zealand in 2020.

We were looking around Christchurch and I stumbled on Riverside Market. We approached them about putting in a cellar door. We did a pop up in September 2020 that did really well, so we decided to give it a shot. My dad is a retired builder, and all the bar tops came off an oak tree that got cut down on my neighbours property growing up.
I grew up between Christchurch and North Canterbury, I love the lifestyle here, I'm not a big city girl. I’ve always been a runner. I run because I love it and plan adventures around it for the challenge. We love hiking and take our dog Pippin as well.

Adam loves his golf…."

- Anna

"I do like playing golf. If I'm managing my time well, I’ll play a couple of times a week.

I went to Adelaide University, Anna went to Lincoln. Once I finally got into the industry and got a job with people that had some belief in me, I got more and more passionate about it.

Wine making is something we are very comfortable with. We are very much aligned with our wine making styles. The name comes from us having fun making the wines. With a lot of pretentiousness around wine, we wanted to steer away from that. so we came up with ‘Mischief’ over a few wines whilst holidaying in Arrowtown.

We're just coming up to vintage, So another year of making new wines. Between February and May, don't try and book us in for anything. It's just not gonna happen. At the end of that period, you wonder why you do it, but once you get into it, you look forward to it each year.

I've only ever seen Christchurch after the earthquakes. Being part of the community at Riverside we’ve watched the city rejuvenate. it's a really vibrant place to be, there's a strong heartbeat in the City.”

- Adam

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