Should we paint mobility parks blue? Apparently it deters those who shouldn’t be parking there… What do you think? Research undertaken by the disability support service found that 55 per cent of people using mobility parking spaces with the existing yellow markings were doing so illegally. After being painted blue with yellow markings, the misuse dropped to 51 per cent after three months and 42 per cent after six months, according to Research NZ, which monitored the parks. During the

As mentioned a couple of days ago, Snowplanet are officially launching their adaptive snowsports programme tomorrow, with the admirable aim of increasing the participation of disabled people in the many varieties of snowsports available. Stuff.co.nz reports: The programme, an effort among Snowplanet, Disabled Snowsports New Zealand and local disability service organisations, gives disabled people the chance to experience snowsports at an easily accessible facility all year. “Snowsports are one of the few sports that people with all degrees of disability

Rather than kids pinching lollies from the local dairy, these days it’s wheelchairs which seem to be the hot item, given the number disappearing from Waikato Hospital on a regular basis. The Waikato Times is reporting that around $25,000 is put aside to replace wheelchairs every few years, and unfortunately it’s down to more than gradual wear and tear. Wheelchairs have been found at a local skate park, in the Hamilton river, and even being used by locals to deliver

It seems like a compulsory part of any visit to Wellington: a trip to our national museum. Te Papa, which translates as ‘The Father’, is an amazing place, and is also home to one of the greatest collections of New Zealand heritage, including John Britten’s infamous Daytona-winning motorbike, replicas of the Treaty of Waitangi, and full-scale models of fascinating animals such as the now-extinct moa. I visited recently during their ‘Whales / Tohora’ exhibition, which was a fascinating look at

How cool is this? Snowplanet is launching a snowsport coaching programme designed specifically for those with physical, sensory, and cognitive impairments! Snowplanet say they’re launching these coaching sessions to “ensure there is no limit to enjoying the freedom of skiing and boarding with your family and friends”. In case you’re not familiar with Snowplanet, Auckland’s indoor ‘snowdome’, I thoroughly recommend you check out their website for more information. Specialist adaptive equipment is available from their rental department and a team

Really interesting post over at the Capabilities Blog, where the spotlight is on the recently-completed Riverton viewing platform, which has in fact just been awarded “Highly Commended” at the Carter Holt Harvey Timber Design Awards 2007. The catch is, it doesn’t comply with the access provisions of the building code, and in fact the wheelchair ramp doesn’t even go all the way to the top of the platform! They [Southland District Council] argue that they granted a building consent with

Welcome back everyone, I hope your festive season was full of silly times and fun people, I know mine was! I thought I’d start 2008′s blogging adventure off with a bit of surprising and positive news, especially if you’re someone who frequents Eden Park. It was with a slight hint of reluctance that I attended the Boxing Day ODI between NZ and Bangladesh, and not because of the questionable opposition, but because the placement of the wheelchair seating at Eden

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