Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

« Older Entries

Are you ready for the plane to crash?

Monday, June 17th, 2013

I was sent a thoughtful u-tube clip about the man sitting in seat 1D when the plane landed in the Hudson River. He described the three things that went through his mind. Then that evening I turned on tv and there was a clip on the survivors of the awful plane crash in South America and the impact it had on their lives and attitude to living. Two plane crash stories in one day!

Ric Elias spoke about how in those few minutes everything changes in an instance. He thought about all the people he cared about, the people he had hurt whom he wished he could fix it with. He explained he now collects bad wines. If you are there and there is wine it gets drunk – no more saving anything. He explained there is a new urgency in his life.

Two: he explained that he thought about the time he wasted on things that didn’t matter with people who did matter. As a result he focuses on eliminating negative energy. He focuses on being happy not being right.

Three: He noticed that dying wasn’t scary but that he was incredibly sad to be facing death. That he loved his life and his biggest regret was that he might not get to see his kids grow up.

How many parents have had that thought? Recently a leading businessman said he would give away all his millions for ten more minutes with his children.

Being someone who enjoys making connections, I thought hmm that is curious, two plane crash stories coming to my attention today. That made me think  ’am I ready for my plane crash?’  As I went to sleep I thought to myself that it probably isn’t a bad approach to living.  Sure helps one focus on what matters.  Sure helps one think about what comes out of your mouth and whether it is what you want your last words to be! Sure helps you  stop what you are doing to cook bacon when  your 21 year old son  comes down at 9.30 am  and says can you cook me breakfast even though you are busy writing an article!

‘What really matters’ would be a great bumper sticker to help us all focus on now.

 

<iframe src=”http://embed.ted.com/talks/ric_elias.html” width=”560″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

http://www.ted.com/talks/ric_elias.html

 

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Auckland Festival adds vitality and life

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Phew its Day 18, the final day of the Auckland Arts Festival, our sixth festival and wow, what gems Carla van Zon has created for us. The finale was a family day in Aotea Square where children painted prayer flags to add to Tiffany Singh’s amazing artwork, watched the funniest clown, listened to music and practiced the ‘thriller haka’ ready for the flash mob!  Carla is pictured below with Victoria Carter, of Cityhop and also Chair of the Arts Festival and the star of One Man Two Guvnor’s, Owain Arthur.

Carla Van Zon, Owain Arthur and Victoria Carter

It began with a big bang, with Groupe F, the French Troupe and their ‘breathe of the volcano’ a stunning visual light and fireworks spectacular with images of Auckland using the museum as a back drop. We’ve had co-productions with ATC, APO, so many local artists as well as impressive international theatre companies.

We’ve been stirred as Kila Kokonut Krew told their story of living in the 70′s with The Factory, Hui,a moving story of the challenge of defying Maori tradition, we’ve sung along at Everything is Ka Pai, even the Governor General looked like he had a ball.

I’m hugely proud of this Festival and what the team have achieved. Festivals don’t spring into life, they take a lot of hard work, enormous co-oriundation and orgnisations, something our team is pretty experienced at. They make the job of running this HUGE event easy!

Thank you to the writer in the Central Leader ‘Off Pat’ who wrote, ” we are so fortunate to have creative inspired citizens who’re prepared both to organise these Festivals and donate their time and money to make them happen. We all know that Wellington – based governments starve Auckland – our biggest population centre – of money for cultural activities, and the success of the Festival is a real tribute to the public spiritedness of generous citizens, inspired and dedicated organisers, both paid and unpaid, who’ve made the Festival happen.

Now we have the challenge of persuading Auckland Council and others that it is time for Auckland to go annual. Brian Rudman of the NZ Herald  wrote a great piece on how Auckland could and should fund it. While Wayne Thompson outlined some of the reasons it makes sense. We’ll let you know what happens. And now Victoria can focus back on her othr job! Encouraging people to drive less and share more!

Oh and in case you wondered Auckland Festival use Cityhop!

Victoria with Patron Sir James Wallace after the exquisite War Requiem with the APO, Youth Choir, Voice NZ Chamber Choir and soloists.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Drive less or car share, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Auckland Arts Festival full of treats

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

The Auckland Arts Festival launched last night in a room full of celebrities, Councillors, artists, musicians, the Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage. Carla van Zon announced a programme packed with interest, from Groupe F the French pyrotechnics who have designed a show especially for Auckland, ‘The Breathe of the Volcano’ to ‘The Factory’ a produced work for the Festival with Kila Kokonut Krew, ‘we’ve got the cows and we’ve got the bees but is NZ really the land of milk and honey?’

A charming puppet show, The Man Who Planted Trees, a story about a man who transforms the countryside one acorn at a time will enchant.

A Rhinoceros in Love  performed on a flooded stage by the National Theatre of China will transport you to the life of a 20 year old in Beijing, checking out Facebook profiles to see if you have a job, how much money you have, to determine possible dating partners!

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart from the National Theatre of Scotland is a story of an uptight academic who is tempted by the Devil while holed up in a bar when a blizzard sets in!

Love music, then check our Every thing is Ka Pai, an evening of whakapapa and home grown sounds. Revitalised renditions by The Yoots, Annie Crummer, even John Rowles and of course, there will definately be  Ten Guitars sung. Pictured below is Annie Crummer and Victoria Carter, chair of the Festival at the launch.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Cityhop thanks go to..

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Cityhop has a number of business partners who provide car parks to it. We and our members can’t thank them enough for recognising carshare works! And we thought more people should know about their forward thinking.

Many of the people who have donated a car park to us also use car share. So who are these thoughtful organisations? Maybe you might like to see if your company is interested in having its own carshare car on site? We are always looking for new locations. Give us a call on 374 5081

 First up, Isthmus whose car park is in Sale St. Gavin Lister, a director of Isthmus decided to give up his own private park for car share so he and his team as well as members of the public can carshare instead of owning their own car. Isthmus is  a  New Zealand-based design practice with an international profile in executing award-winning landscape architecture, urban design and landscape planning.

 Massey University was next. Their SHORE and Whariki units which are based at Massey University House at 90 Symonds St  house a team of twenty to thirty social science researchers who use car share to move about. We think this university shows that they really are at the leading edge of learning and new ways of doing things!

Wilson Parking have provided our Garret St car park and soon this will be another Wellington location nearby. This is an important park for Cityhop because this and the previous Customs Street car park are open air and very visible. One of the challenges for carshare in New Zealand is that we are usually in car parks. People who use buses trains or walk don’t see us and don’t know there is an alternative to car ownership. So being on-street or in an open air car park and sitting practically on the pavement is important visibility for us. Thank you Wilson Parking.

Last month, Cooper & Co who are responsible for the new attractive developments at Britomart and the rejuvenation of the Britomart area have got behind car share with a car park in their new car park.

And of course, Auckland Transport has recently given cityhop 10 onstreet car park spaces.

Thank you supporters.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Drive less or car share, Transport, Uncategorized | Comments Off

More public art please

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

I’ve just visited Chicago which must be a city with the most amazing public art collection. With over 700 works of art, including a huge Picasso, downtown Chicago streets are like walking through a sculpture gallery! Before you hit the streets, I highly recommend an Architectural River Cruise. it gives the City context as well as explaining the history of so many of the beautiful buildings.

The Picasso is hugely impressive, unnamed, I saw it after visiting the Art Institute, and one can imagine it is a rendition of a woman’s face, an animal, the shape and form immediately recognisable as Picasso. The City said they would pay for it but once completed, Picasso gifted it to Chicago.

The Picasso sculpture

Then there is a Chagall, a Henry Moore and many other names I didn’t know but admired their work.  The more recent public sculpture is in Millennium Park.

Cloudgate, or the ‘Bean’ as it is more often called, is inspired by liquid mercury the mirror finish encourages lots of photographs. Cloudgate is made of 168 plates of stainless steel, it’s the world’s largest outdoor sculpture installation and is by British artist Anish Kapoor.

Nearby the Crown Fountain, is an amazing installation  of two 50 foot high glass brick towers with lights, sound, changing images and a random spurt of water. The shallow water path between the two fountains was full of children and adults cooling their heels!

Wow, what a creative city with great leadership can achieve.

Posted in Environment, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Living your life now

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Cityhop usually writes about eco friendly ideas, car share and the like. We love sharing new ideas.  Sharing ideas is what TED is all about too.

We thought this recent clip was worth sharing with lots of people. Makes a lot of sense, don’t listen to us,

Ric Elias had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York in January 2009. What went through his mind as the doomed plane went down..

click here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

One man’s rubbish is a child’s pleasure!

Saturday, April 30th, 2011
 
Before you throw out your magazines, cardboard or other so called rubbish, think about whether your local kindergarten or childcare centre could use them. 
  
Victoria Carter, a director of Kidicorp and co-founder of Cityhop, took some Webbs auction catalogues recently to Edukids Manukau. She thought the motorbike pictures would enthral some little boy.
 
But the catalogue has not been cut up though. It has become  a treasured book amongst the boys . When she visited recently she noticed a little boy sitting under a tree quietly relishing all the pictures of cars and bikes . She  called Webbs General Manager, Neil Campbell and asked him if he had anymore.
 
Webbs are now sending a pile of catalogues to the centre to share amongst other centres to support literacy and learning. What a great way to recycle and see rubbish that might go out for paper recycling being given a new lease of life!
Thank you Webbs.
 
 Victoria says her years of being involved with the kindergarten association made her appreciate that one man’s rubbish is another child’s treasure! She regularly brings what some might consider ‘rubbish’ to childcare centres for the children to turn into something.
 
The most recently example of this was when she had a new printer delivered for her office. Inside the box were some amazing corrugated cardboard shapes to protect the printer. Before throwing into the paper recycling bin she thought, ‘hmm, I bet children could make something amazing out of this.’
 
And yes, Edukids Manukau children made a city that had suffered an earthquake.  The earthquake has filled so many television screens that many teachers have used the subject as a learning story to help children process and understand what happened.  In this centre  the up and down, uneven corrugated shapes were painted by the children and figures and objects placed around and on it to create a city that has had an earthquake.  Children then talked about what to do if there was an earthquake. 
 
How exciting to see rubbish turned into such a learning.
 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Reuse and recycle, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Auckland Festival hotting up

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Auckland Arts Festival is only 3 weeks away. Smoke & Mirrors, the Sydney sell-out show with 3 time Helpmann award winner iOTA  is rapidly filling but there is a lot more on offer. See the Festival website for more information, follow on facebook for special news.

Havoc in the Garden Lennie James and Massive Company  Fresh, exciting theatre from Massive Company and UK playwright Lennie James (The Sons of Charlie Paora).  A compelling story of love, rage, secrets and family.

The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church Daniel Kitson   Award-winning comedian and storyteller, Kitson presents a critically acclaimed comic monologue about a man whose suicide has been twenty years in the planning – inspired comedy.

Ihimaera Charlotte Yates Productions.  A unique concert of Kiwi music: King Kapisi, SJD, Teremoana Rapley plus nine top recording artists perform songs with lyrics by literary icon Witi Ihimaera

Gregory Maqoma – Beautiful Me (FranceDanse)  Leading African dancer Gregory Maqoma fuses contemporary choreography with Afro-fusion, Indian kathak and Michael Jackson in a vibrant performance to live music.  Extraordinary, life-affirming dance.

Handel with Care Lautten Compagney. World renowned Baroque Ensemble, Lautten Compagney, present an exquisite evening of works by Handel and Purcell, performed on period instruments.  A delightful and spirited concert.

Jack DeJohnette: Jack Johnson – Soundtrack to a Legend Jazz legend Jack DeJohnette and band perform live to a one-night-only screening of the Oscar-nominated boxing documentary.  A brilliant re-versioning of Miles Davis’ original score.

The Manganiyar Seduction Roysten Abel (pictured above)  Over 40 musicians from the deserts of India perform a dazzling concert of world music that has thrilled sell-out audiences from New York to Sydney.

Martha Wainwright The beguiling Canadian singer-songwriter makes a long-awaited New Zealand visit, performing songs from Edith Piaf, her family, and her own repertoire.  A one-night-only, Auckland exclusive.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Idling capacity and untapped value

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

You have probably realised, Cityhop co-founder Victoria Carter is a big fan of TED! TED is a website  with amazing thinkers and researchers sharing information.

Today while researching more on car share and how to encourage more people that car share works, I found an article on Treehugger and a TED clip by Rachel Botsman on how Collaborative consumerism will change the world.

It’s a fascinating clip on how what’s mine could be yours too.

“The rise of lending libraries, swapping sites, and product as a service systems over the last 5 years or so has been impressive. We’ve seen an upswing in everything from clothing swap parties to local rental communities, to big services like Zipcar (a car share service a lot bigger than cityhop!)  for getting around without having to own a car.

Cityhop has blogged about other sharing services- rooms in local people’s homes instead  of  hotel rooms.

Rachel’s Ted piece is about so much more than  sharing. Collaborative sharing is usually associated with things like car share - where traditionally individual items require a  ’mindset change.’  For example, “car sharing where users think twice about whether they need to drive and thereby reduce their miles travelled by an approximated 45%.”

But collaborative sharing has such greater opportunities.

Says Rachel,”All around us, we are surrounded by stuff that has what I call ‘idling capacity’, the untapped value of unused or underused assets. There are different kinds of idling capacity. Products that are underutilized (e.g. the average car that sits parked for 23 hours a day); products that fulfill a temporary need (e.g. baby goods and clothes): or those that diminish in appeal and value after usage (e.g. a movie or a book). At the heart of Collaborative Consumption is how we can use the latest technologies to redistribute ‘idling capacity’ and maximize usage.”

Posted in Reuse and recycle, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Congrats Go Get Aussie car share

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

Cityhop’s Aussie partner, Go Get, has just announced it has hit 10,000 members. Congratulations.

  

Go Get started in 2003 with 12 members and 3 cars and today they are close to 500 cars. That means 4266 fewer cars  on Aussie roads – that is a huge contributor to reducing congestion on busy roads. With 12 million cars on Australian roads it might only a drop in the ocean, but what a great start.

 
 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

« Older Entries