Thanks to Honor for submitting this piece, have any of you had a similar experience? Let us know in the comments below! – Red I visited Hunter’s Plaza the other day with two friends who rely on wheelchairs to get around, and because I (to put it bluntly) don’t, they recommended I borrow one from the Mall, otherwise I would spend the entire visit unable to keep up with them – these are two very fast-moving ladies. Now, I have

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.

In town the other day for my review of the SkyCity Hotel (coming soon!) I decided to scope out Auckland’s ever-teeming Queen St and see how the massive upgrade works were affecting wheelchair users. Whilst the results of the work are impressive (see picture left), several aspects left a lot to be desired. To take a look at what I found, check out the photos over at the gallery section and leave your comments below!

You’d better believe it. Curtis Palmer, pictured left in his sporting days but now one of the Attitude TV presenters, has written in his blog about the delight he experienced when he found that EVA Air‘s aeroplane had an accessible toilet onboard! He was on his way to Shanghai to watch several of NZ’s top athletes compete in the recent international wheelchair and amputee games, and gives EVA the big thumbs up for being innovators in the world of accessibility.

In an interesting but disappointing saga being reported over at the Tiaho Trust website, a plan to designate disabled parking spots 10 metres from the entrance to Whangarei’s new Aquatic Centre has failed to eventuate. Instead, the council have placed the closest disabled parking spot at a distance of 6 times that given, over 60m away from the complex’s entrance. This absurd distance is made even more incomprehensible by the fact that members of the Disabled Sector Reference Group met

In the first of what I hope will be many contributions to this site, Ron takes a look at the accessibility around his current stomping ground, Grey Lynn. The Grey Lynn Library: Situated on Great North Rd, the Library has ample parking with one mobility car park and a ramp accessing the library. Very tight manoeuvering inside the library, but staff are very friendly and helpful. Sad to relate the library has no public toilets whatsoever. By and large, the

This awesome review was sent to me by Rachel! Being the movie addict that I am I decided I needed to help Red out a bit and do a review of Hoyts in Riccarton and when better to do this but a long weekend! So this theatre is about a 10min walk from work and that’s good because for me it means one less taxi! Access up to the first floor is good, and no doubt aided by being in

In part two of today’s look-at-this-neat-disability-focussed-website series, NZ On Wheels have posted a great writeup about Wellington’s beautiful botanical gardens and its level of accessibility for wheelchair users. Check out the excerpt below: The lower section is nice and flat, with good, sealed tracks and the cafe – get to this part of the botanical gardens from the Tinakori Rd entrance. The rest of the gardens gets pretty steep, and we mean steeeeeep. You will definitely need a hand with

Following on from this story regarding Wellington’s brand new Liberty Swing for wheelchair users, our friends over at the Tiaho Trust have posted a new story on Northland’s similar acquisition! It’s situated in the Town Basin playground, and again operates through a refundable deposit-for-a-key system. To read more, or to check out the neat video of what it all looks like, check out tiaho.org.nz.

Hey all, apologies for the lack of updates over the long weekend, I hope you all enjoyed your holiday! Now, I hate to start the new week off on a negative note so I’m just gonna put it out there: I hate using Auckland’s public transport system. Only around half the buses are wheelchair accessible. Of those, half again have drivers who don’t know – and are willing to argue with you – about whether they have a ramp onboard