CBD by Miranda Spary
Sounds like EVERYONE is furious about the Quarter Billion Dollar FOUR YEAR traffic “development” (“disgrace” or “disaster” would be more appropriate). Is it too late to tell the government we’d rather have the cash for useful things? I was just on the bus today for the first time in yonks - rather grumpy as I’d forgotten my bus pass and also had zero cash. Luckily the bus driver was not just intelligent, but very kind and let this silly old bat get on for free. I wanted to kiss him, but wasn’t sure if that’s appropriate in these woke times. It was well over half full on a rainy Wednesday and a very cheerful, chatty busload. Would it be cheaper to make the buses free and more frequent to encourage more people to use it, and dare I say, NOT use their cars so much?
Three cheers for Josh Romero’s excellent exhibition of his very fine ink works of the nearby mountains. Not only were his creations lovely, but there was a veritable forest of SOLD dots on them. I bumped into lots of my favourite people I hadn’t seen in yonks like Peta Carey and Grace Cooper and met loads of people I’d only heard of like Stu from Peace in 10000 Hands - what a great project! He’s already raised so much money to promote peace throughout the world and he’s had great support from big important somebodies to quiet little nobodies.
Quiet little nobodies are the ones who make the difference though, and don’t think your voice doesn’t count - please go to letstalk.qldc,govt.nz and look up the Queenstown Lakes District Creativity and Culture Strategy (yes, I know we all think they don’t listen to us, but we have to keep trying!!) about what you want to see on the arts and culture front. If noone replies, they’ll just say nobody is interested in arts and culture.
A propos of culture, remember the big LatinKiwi Fest is on all day on 27 April at the Queenstown Memorial Centre - it is SO much fun and it’s free and there’s food from loads of the 85 nationalities that live in the Wakatipu. If you’re keen to volunteer to help, do contact latinfest.volunteers@gmail.com - they’ll love you for it. Helping your community gives you all sorts of warm fuzzies that will keep you cosy even on the coldest day.
And if you’re lucky enough to be a woman, you get to join Impact100. Although it’s only for women (how sexist and fabulous!!) men are allowed to sponsor women, and lots of very generous men do exactly that - they pay the $1000 and nominate their favourite woman (some even have favourite WOMEN!!) to be part of this excellent organisation. It’s been going for five years in the Wakatipu and I think over $700,000 has been given to community projects here. If you haven’t already joined, be quick as registration closes at the end of April. It’s terrific fun and requires only as much involvement as you choose. Look it up online if you don’t know how it works - it’s a fantastic way to get to know lots of really interesting, generous and fun women, and you learn so much about the needs of our wonderful community.
letstalk.qldc.govt.nz
