News from the Valley

During this hands-on workshop, you will discover the joy of creating quilts. The idea of the project is a reference to gender equality and the feminist movement as a form of resistance against gender discrimination in society. The Quilt Project will integrate math and art to create your own block to share your views on gender inequality. The Quilt Project is aiming to create the large-scale block quilt with panels created with an applique of math basic symbols such as (not equal sign, inequality sign, and power sign etc.) Each panel will illustrate the inequitable status of women in …

The infamous Crush the Cargill kicked off Saturday 12th December at 10am with 86 humans and 7 doggos embarking on the trail with 24 hours to get as many laps under their belts as possible. For those who aren’t familiar Crush the Cargill is a 24 hour race that sees participants running, or walking, up and down the mountain as many times as they can. Mount Cargill, also known as Kapukataumahaka, is a volcanic outcrop and has an elevation of 680m, A singular lap of this race is 8.5km, starting at Bethunes Gully and stretching to the summit and …

Recognised through-out the world as the toughest, highest, longest 24-hr race since Pheidippides did not exist, since Adam wasn’t a boy, and since bread was sliced. The 24-hour fundraising race sees participants running, or walking, as many times as they can to the summit of Mount Cargill and back down again. The races’ inception came about by a group of running buddies contemplating crazy challenges for themselves over beers. The annual Crush the Cargill event is all set to commence at 10am on the 12th of December. Crush the Cargill and The Valley Project are about getting people together …

Weed Bash Success! The Weed Bash was full of celebration last month when various Weed Warrior crews and Community Gardeners removed about 15 woolsacks of weeds from community spaces and backyards! The target weed for the Weed Bash - Banana Passionfruit Vine (Passiflora tripartita) was the top of the list for removal - a highly invasive weed, with many plants removed from backyards. Banana Passionfruit Vine is a climber, climbing onto trees, eventually smothering them. Keep on look out for a plant with three lobed leaves, pink, tubular hanging flowers when flowering and banana-shaped fruit that ripen from …

How about taking a ramble for the holidays? With the days becoming longer and warmer, I feel the pull of exploring the outdoors becoming much stronger. With the school holidays and warm spring weather, I find myself with some spare time to spend outside. Chingford Park up North Road offers plenty of opportunity to satisfy my craving for the outdoors. Lindsay Creek, running through the heart of Chingford Park and the Valley itself is particularly alluring as the sight and sound of the water flowing across the river-bed has a calming effect. The creek is also home to many …

Meg and Simon are community members within the Lindsay Creek Catchment who have been working towards enhancing wildlife in their backyards and community spaces by managing mammalian predators and weedy plant species respectively. Have a read of their stories below and find out ways you can be involved! RIP Stumpy Sorry, but your nightly feasts on my kōwhai, silverbeet and cabbage seedlings had to stop. If we hadn't got an infra-red camera, you and your friends probably would have chomped through my entire vege garden by now and would be waiting hungrily for the tasty new leaves and birds’ …

Keen to learn more about our curious kākā? Read below about Scott Forrest's research into the movements of kākā outside the Orokonui Ecosanctuary fence and the project, kei hea ngā kākā (Where are the kākā) lead by Taylor Davies-Colley! Operation Kākā Repopulation As part of my Master’s research at the University of Otago, I will be tracking the movements of a subset of the Orokonui kākā population. Our wonderful ecosanctuary at Orokonui is great at keeping mammals out, but not so good at keeping kākā in! So to provide the best support for them on the outside, we …

Does the idea of sharing your backyard with more native wildlife excite you? By working together as one big “Backyard Ecosanctuary” and a Lindsay Creek team of 14,000 community members, this idea is now becoming a reality. The “Backyard Ecosanctuaries” programme is an initiative by the Open Valley Urban Ecosanctuary (VUE) project to encourage positive outcomes for native wildlife in backyards and community spaces through actions based in citizen science and education. We have several focus areas for 2020, driven by passions grown within the community. Primarily, we are focusing on habitat enhancement through planting and weeding and mammalian …

Exciting things are brewing at ADJØ. Scheduled alongside the University of Otago’s O-week, ADJØ organised their first ever ‘Activities Week’, a week filled with creative workshops, community dinners, live music, and a pop up thrift store, as a taster for what’s to come. Events at ADJØ are designed to encourage community bonding and creativity in a relaxed atmosphere, appealing to those who may normally feel uncomfortable in a conventional gallery space. They recently applied for an on-license with the DCC, which if granted, will allow them to sell alcohol on the premises. They hope to help change the mind …

Crush the Cargill 24-hour Challenge is back with a Woodstock theme as trail runners get the pleasure of running up and down Mt Cargill as many times as possible in a 24-hour period. Last year over $4000 was raised to help fund CreekFest, and this is our focus again this year. It’s easy to see the connection between Crush the Cargill and the Valley Project –— both are about getting people together and reconnecting with our wider environment. This year is also the 50th anniversary of the ground-breaking Woodstock music festival that symbolized a communal desire for love, peace …

The Community Classroom has been busy taking an interesting and diverse range of enquiries from people interested in teaching classes for the inaugural Dunedin Summer School at the beginning of next year. Coordinator Melissa Pronk is putting out the final call for people interested in running a session, class or workshop. Registrations need to be in by Tuesday 5 November for the class to be listed in printed marketing materials. Register here. Registrations can still be taken after this date but will only be marketed online on social media. Community education for everyone The idea of the Summer School …

Since the Dundas St bridge closure, many valley residents will have done a few more trips up Lovelock Avenue recently. The road curves – with a few hairpins – up through native bush, before levelling off over speed bumps near the stylish propagation building and offering glimpses of daffodils, dog walkers, rugby games and maybe some lawn bowlers. These views would have been different if a 2008 proposal to realign Lovelock Ave to have it run parallel to the cemetery had eventuated. The bowls green was scheduled to be a carpark. This stirred the Opoho community into action, and …