Back in the big smoke today from my trip down to The Mount, and I thought it’d be fitting to fill you all in on where I stayed! It was a cute little place on Maunganui Road called Atlas Suites & Apartments, a mere 5 minutes walk from everything, and I really mean 5 minutes. That was actually one of the coolest parts about Mt Maunganui, everything’s so close! The beach, restaurants, cafes, shops, the main residential area, hotels and

Ahh, Prego. How you slumped from a potentially spectacular rating to one of disappointment. Why, you ask? Well, to cut a long story short, a waitress spilt a dish all over my back. That’s right, a waitress decided she could squeeze through the gap between my wheelchair and the wall carrying two dishes. She couldn’t. So the risotto went all over my back, inside my bag, and all over my wheelchair! Now I have rice-sodden clothes, a risotto-smelling man-bag, and

I like Britomart. It’s very accessible, very modern, and very METAL. And I don’t even mean that in a hardcore rock kinda way, I mean that in the spirit of modern architecture, everything in the new transport hub is made mostly of steel. Which is fine if you’re not a fan of warm, earthy tones or pretty artwork, and really into cold, impersonable atmospheres. You’ll fit in quite snugly. I, however, happen to be a fan of injecting life and

Last week I flicked an email off to the people at NZ’s newest airline, Pacific Blue, letting them know of the fantastic feedback submitted by one of our blog readers. They had this to say: Dear Red, Thank you for taking the time to email us with the fantastic compliments you came across on the internet. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delayed reply. A major system outage has meant that all emails from last week were not received

Wow! That’s what I thought when I stumbled across Henderson’s brand new transport centre and council buildings the other day. I’m not often in West Auckland so I thought I might as well take some snaps. To check out the pictures now, click through to go the gallery section! Anyway as you can see from the picture on the left, (click on it to get a larger version) the new Waitakere City Council buildings are very United Nations-esque, with all

This fantastic review was submitted by John, who is a tetraplegic and uses a manual wheelchair. A recent return trip from Auckland to Wellington proved to be a pleasant trouble-free experience. The booking (which must be done by telephone at internet discount rates) was well handled and a wide range of questions were covered to save any misunderstandings on the day. (I saw an article by a blind person complaining that he couldnt book on the internet and that it

This review was originally published in the Cerebral Palsy Society‘s Review publication, and Ross Flood (author) has kindly given me permission to post it up here. Cheers Floody! The Pumphouse Theatre, which is situated in Killarney Park, Takapuna, would definitely not win any wheelchair accessibility awards, but despite its obvious faults it does have a certain old fashion charm. Put it this way, if you are a wheelchair user and have an adventurous streak the Pumphouse theatre and its surrounds,

Finally, someone gets it right! It’s official: I’ve found the most accessible public toilets in central Auckland, possibly even the world. Hmmm perhaps not the world, apparently in parts of Asia they have these ones where water sprays your bum when you’re done, and I think that’d be just spiffy. However, in lieu of public arse-sprays, here’s the rundown of one of the many Westfield shopping centres scattered across NZ, this one located in the sunny suburb of St Lukes.

Walkingisoverrated.com forum user dieseldave has given me a headsup about a nice motel on the outskirts of Auckland called the

And thus begins my feature on accessible accommodation throughout Auckland City. Firstly, I take a look around the modern SkyCity Hotel, situated within Auckland’s iconic Skytower. The first thing I noticed about the SkyCity Hotel, which sponsors the NZ Special Olympics team, is how well thought-out every element appears to be; nothing seems to be an afterthought. Everything from the well-positioned card-swipe machines in the lifts right through to the sink with enough room underneath it to slide a wheelchair,