Pegasus Post: August 17, 2023

Thursday August 17 2023 5
New model
to care for
parks
• From page 1
“Parks, gardens and reserves
are so important to everyone
in Christchurch and Banks
Peninsula. They’re part of our
identity. By making this shift, our
parks will be getting top quality,
tailored maintenance,” committee
chair Cr Sam MacDonald said.
“The council was facing an
increase in operational costs
which would have had an impact
on rates so to get this moved inhouse
where we can be flexible,
have locally dedicated people
maintaining local parks and
avoid spending more ratepayer
money is a real win. Keeping costs
under control and staying within
existing operational budgets was a
big factor in the decision.”
Said city council head of
parks Andrew Rutledge: “The
new in-house model will be an
extension of the way the Botanic
Gardens, Ngā Puna Wai, Hagley
Park, regional parks, our garden
and heritage sites and parks
on the Akaroa Harbour side of
Banks Peninsula are currently
maintained.
“The number of council staff in
each team will be determined by
the size and scale of the assets in
each ward and we’ll be working
through this over the next nine
months to make sure we’re ready
to hit the ground running
in 2024.”
Air Force, police beckon
for Blue Light awardees
TWO CATHOLIC Cathedral
College students are considering
careers in either the Air Force
or police after collecting two of
the top awards at Blue Light’s life
skills programme.
Mjade Tusa, 16, from Woolston
won the peers’ choice award.
“It means a lot to me to be
trusted and respected by my
peers. These were people that I
had grown to trust and respect,”
he said.
Freddy Carter,
15, (left) from the
central city won the
overall excellence
award.
“I was very
humbled by the
decision the staff
made and it was a
great honour to be selected for
this award,” he said.
Both of them faced challenges
such as a high wire course,
mountain biking, along with
leaderless tasks, drills, teamwork
challenges, a bomb disarming
challenge and physical activities
through the programme that was
held at Burnham Military Camp.
Mjade said once they knew
each other they could meet their
challenges and obstacles.
“This enabled us all to pitch in
together and show our chemistry.
We did this towards the end (of
the camp) and it was an example
of how well we had gelled
together”.
Freddy said the toughest
challenge for him was working
with new people and getting
through the challenges.
“The bomb challenge was the
hardest for us as we did not have
group synergy yet. This was
tricky, but the challenge enabled
us to learn how to improve and
work as a team.”
Both of them agreed that
people should take part in the
programme as it gives them
another perspective on career
BRIGHT
FUTURE:
Inspector
Peter
Cooper
awards
Mjade
Tusa with
the peers’
choice
award.
choices as well as a chance to
make new friends.
Blue Light South Island coordinator
Nicola Paterson who
was at the camp said Freddy won
the award due to his maturity.
“Freddy was awarded the
overall excellence award through
demonstrating the qualities of
maturity, respect, intuition and
through building individual and
group mana.
“Mjade was awarded the peers’
choice award through his efforts
to foster a team environment,
encouragement and respectful
communication with fellow team
members.”
Learning
curve
• From page 1
“I’ve learnt a lot, I didn’t realise
how different being a player to
being a ref is. I’ve learnt more
about rugby league now than I
ever have.
“I’ve got a lot better – when
I first started I was all over the
place, a bit confused. But because
of the knowledge I’ve got now, I’m
more on point.”
While it’s early days in
Ngahuru’s refereeing career, she
harbours some lofty goals – but
hanging up the playing boots is
not on the cards anytime soon.
“My goal is to one day ref a New
Zealand game,” she said.
“My daughter has just made
New Zealand (age-group) this
year, so it inspires me to keep
doing what I’m doing, for her.
“I love rugby league so much
and I think I’ve got a few more
years in me to be backing down
from playing.”
CRL director of football Jamie
Lester praised Ngahuru’s attitude
and commitment to building her
refereeing skill set.
“It’s awesome to see, Nella is
leading the way in the female
refereeing stakes in Canterbury.
“It was great having a female
referee role model for the 18s girls
games and there was some really
good feedback from the coaches
about her progression over the
three games,” he said.
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