I was eating brunch at a cafe this morning, and about 10 minutes after I’d settled in, another wheelchair user came through the door. “Huh!”, I thought, noting the relative rarity of this situation. Still, cool.

As we left, the other wheelchair user left the cafe right behind me. As she wheeled away, my Uncle remarked, “It’s wheelchair central out here!”. Now, make what you will of that comment, but it just hit me how strange it was that two wheelchairs in one location was notable, even remarkable. If “wheelchair central” is defined by two wheelchairs, I wonder what you’d call 3 or more? A stampede?!

I guess my point is, it would be nice if 2011 was a year where seeing more than one wheelchair in one place became a regular occurrence, or at least not as noteworthy.

Did you know – at Rhythm & Vines 2010, I was the only wheelchair user there? The only one. Out of 25,000 people. Come on team – let’s get out there and prove we exist!

After gushing about how fantastic the disabled toilet at Starbucks in Ponsonby is, I feel it’s time for a degree of clarification. Because after careful analysis of my most oft-frequented Starbucks, next to Aotea Square on Queen Street, I’ve decided that as wheelchair-friendly as the Ponsonby Road store is, the Queen Street one certainly brings things down a notch. Previously a Planet Hollywood outlet, and this is the reason for its bizarrely futuristic architecture, I like this Starbucks because a)

You’d think it was a fairly easy concept to grasp, that wheelchair users might want to, oh I dunno, fit into the disabled bathroom provided for them, so it kinda defeats the purpose when places decide their new accessible bathroom would look great as a storage room. Perhaps it is the size, that puts them off? The sudden realisation that gosh, this is so much larger than our regular toilet, perhaps we can do something with all the extra space..

The folks in Ponsonby Road’s Starbucks know me quite well these days. Not because I’m buying oodles of their sugar-laden cocktails, but because I’m a regular consumer of their fantastic disabled bathroom. Why would I go to Starbucks just to use their bathroom, you ask? Well, it’s because I love Cezanne, which is directly across the road. Only problem is, the place itself is about as accessible as soft sandy beaches. Bless them, they are still hanging on to the

It’s true, I said it: I’m in love with a cafe. Anywhere that succeeds in being funky and arty, without the generally associated pretentiousness, as well as serving great coffee and eggs benedict, whilst being wheelchair-friendly, earns the big tick in my book. ‘Roasted’, as it is affectionately known, is situated in the heart of the Kingsland shops; 487 New North Road, to be exact. It’s a cute little orange place with tables and chairs outside, directly opposite the hulking