Bay Harbour: September 20, 2017

PAGE 18 Wednesday September 20 2017
BAY HARBOUR
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Your Local Views
Planned approach to replanting
As National
Party MP
Nuk Korako
writes, Te
Tapuwai o
Rakau Trust
will leave
a legacy
for future
generations
It is three days until the election.
This will be a busy three days
as my team and I take our last
chance of getting our message
out there – that only National
can continue the strong growth
in the economy that allows us
to improve public services and
support our most vulnerable
New Zealanders into better
lives.
Many people like having multiple
MPs serving the Port Hills
electorate, so we are making sure
they know that the best way to
keep an MP in both Government
and opposition is to give
their electorate vote to me, Nuk
Korako.
But today I want to talk about
something local, and very close
to my heart. That is the replanting
of the Port Hills.
After the fires earlier this year,
what became really apparent
to me was that there are many
groups doing an awesome job of
HELP: Replanting efforts on the Port Hills need to be
co-ordinated.
providing trees and getting volunteers
to replant the damaged
areas of our hills.
But to date there hasn’t been
a structured approach to ensure
that we replant the Port Hills
in a way that meets cultural
and ecological best practice.
So I have been working with a
group of like-minded and very
passionate people to establish
a trust that can assist with cocoordinating
planned cultural
and ecological reforestation
programs.
That work came to fruition
earlier this month, with the
launch of Te Tapuwae o Rakau
Trust (The Tree Footprints
Trust.) The trust was launched
with the symbolic planting
of a tree at the Christchurch
Adventure Park, and is now
working with already established
organisations, Ngai Tahu and
landowners to plan the first
planting.
I believe that this co-ordinated
approach by the trust, to engage
with all groups, can only enhance
the great work done by all.
We have the opportunity to
leave a legacy of replanted and
new native forests that match the
ecological and cultural footprint
of the Port Hills, and encourage
our native plants and wildlife to
flourish.
Akaroa go from film
sets to the stage
• By Georgia O’Connor-Harding
FROM DESIGNING costumes
to fit Orlando Bloom to helping
create blockbuster film sets –
Akaroa’s John Harding and
Lesley Burkes-Harding know
how to transform a show into a
full visual experience.
Audiences at the
Isaac Theatre Royal
have been seeing an
endless stream of
costumes embedded
Lesley
Burkes-
Harding
John
Harding
with sequins and
neo-Gothic style
sets designed by the
Akaroa couple in
Showbiz Christchurch’s
latest production
of Sister Act.
Hundreds of costumes
were designed
by Burkes-Harding
for the show, while
her husband created
the set which has
toured all over the country.
Between them, they have 65
years of experience working in
television, consortium productions
and major films including
Avatar, King Kong and The Lord
of the Rings.
While working on The Hobbit,
Burkes-Harding designed
the costumes for Bloom in his
role as the elf Legolas.
Like most of the productions
the couple have worked on, the
design for Sister Act has been a
large undertaking.
“It is always a big job . . . there
are many hundreds of sequin
fabrics that I bought for that
show,” Burkes-Harding said.
She said in theatre, costumes
need to be sturdy and well
designed to suit the different
people who wear them.
It is similar for Harding, who
said every set he designs needs
to be “elastic” to adapt to each
venue on which it is staged.
“One of the first things was
solving how to do multiple scene
changes, so I came up with the
idea of a double conveyor belt,”
he said.
Other key elements in the set
include the use of LED lighting
to recreate the “exquisite” quality
of the stained-glass church
windows, and a narthex that he
found in a recycling yard near
Rangiora, which came from
church rubble after the February
22, 2011, earthquake.
•The show ends on
Saturday
Expect night-time traffic delays at the Lyttelton Tunnel
If you are driving at night through the Lyttelton Tunnel,
expect occasional delays from later this month through
until December 2018.
For a few nights each month, just one traffic lane in the tunnel will be open and on
occasions both traffic lanes will need to be closed.
These traffic lane closures are required as work begins on a $28.7 million fire
protection upgrade inside the Lyttelton Tunnel, to increase the safety and
resilience of this essential freight route for both Christchurch and Canterbury.
A project of this scale and complexity makes some traffic lane closures inside the
tunnel unavoidable. They are needed so hundreds of water nozzles that are an
integral part of the fire protection upgrade can be installed in the tunnel ceiling.
To minimise disruptions for tunnel users, the work will be done at night when
traffic flows are lightest.
HOW TO PLAN FOR THESE DELAYS
• A three-monthly calendar for all planned night-time single lane closures
and full closures will be available at nzta.govt.nz/projects/lyttelton-tunnel/
• Lane closure details will be displayed on electronic message boards at the
tunnel at least two days before they happen.
• Closures are planned to the best of the project team’s ability, but may be
subject to change.
• Allow extra time for tunnel travel on these dates.
• Emergency access through the tunnel will still be provided during all
traffic lane closures.
• Most full tunnel traffic lane closures will be from March 2018.
• Real-time traffic information for the Lyttelton Tunnel area can be found
at www.tfc.govt.nz
For more information about the Lyttelton Tunnel fire protection upgrade, go to www.nzta.govt.nz/projects/lyttelton-tunnel/
Find up-to-date information on road conditions, delays and closures at www.nzta.govt.nz/traffic and on the Transport Agency’s
official Twitter and Facebook pages www.nzta.govt.nz/contact-us/connect-with-us/.
For traffic and travel information, you can also call 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49) to speak to the call centre team.