Nicky Carter, General Counsel with the Carter Group, shared her experiences over the last four years with the development of “The Crossing” project in the Christchurch city centre.

 

Following the decimation of the city centre by the quakes which resulted in a blank canvas, planning for the complex has been underway in order to help influence what shape the area takes. 

 

The silver lining, explained Nicky, was that this provided the Carter Group with the opportunity to redesign and reinvest in the city centre.  This required a lot of faith which was also well demonstrated by Ballantynes and others in the early days.

 

Nicky especially appreciated the support that a number of local businesses showed by being willing to take up leases when the area was in its very early stages of development.

 

The Crossing consists of three buildings titled A, B & C with a total area larger than the Sydney Opera House.  Construction started in 2015 which included positioning 800 16-metre piles in order to properly set the foundations.

 

“We retained many of the original features”, said Nicky, “but had to include additional strengthening and the restoration of some key aspects which was costly. “

 

“A real plus was gaining the huge global H&M Company but it wasn’t without its challenges” explained Nicky, which included having to initially attract them in the first place and then later deal with an issue regarding the position of a structural beam. 

 

Luckily this was solved within a week and, while it was touch and go leading up to the opening, the target date of Sept 9^th was successfully met.  Nicky shared that they still have a way to go to attract additional retailers but things are looking good. 

 

With respect to additional development, Nicky is hopeful that issues including the Cathedral and a Sports Centre will be resolved in the near future followed by the building of a larger stadium in order to create further growth in the city.  She sees this as a way to help ensure Christchurch stays on the map for hosting major events in the coming years.

 

Nicky also shared that she feels it is a good thing to have a more compact and focussed CBD compared to what was sometimes a quite muddled area that evolved over a number of years.

 

In reflecting on the multiple challenges involved in this project, Nicky shared with a laugh: “I am not sure if I will do this again.” 

 

We suspect, however, that her demonstrated perseverance and talent in making a significant contribution to the success of this major project may well result in her receiving additional offers to help as the central city rebuild continues.

 

 

This Sunday 20^th May our past caterer, Deborah Gill from Ambrosia Catering, has offered to open up her Historic home in Doyleston and take us on a tour of her wonderfully restored home.

Lunch will be provided and costs will follow. Please indicate your availability by emailing COURTNEY@xtra.co.nz before Wednesday night please. Time and maps will follow.

Twenty One women met at President Lois’s house on Saturday morning for a Pink Ribbon breakfast to raise funds for Breast Cancer.

We also snuck in 3 of our Rotary men, Tony Tizzard, Keith Mitchell and Nick Courtney, who cooked our breakfast in style wearing pink and white aprons and pink bow ties. Whoever said Rotarians are a dull lot would have been very surprised. Rotarians do know how to have a lot of FUN !!

You couldn’t mistake the house as it was bedecked with pink balloons inside and out. Noisy chatter emanated from the open kitchen window as you walked up the path livening up the neighbourhood on a quiet Saturday morning.

It was a lovely way to begin the weekend and we thank Lois and the team for all the work that went on behind the scenes to make this yet another one of our successful gatherings.

We managed to raise over $ 400. What an easy way to raise funds while enjoying ourselves.

As a result more women will benefit from research and support from the Cancer Society.

 

Last night Nick, Liz, Arie and Janice, from Membership and Public Image committees, asked those members who have been in Papanui Rotary for 5 years and under to join them for a pizza and plonk evening. We also invited the Friends of our club to come too which added yet another dimension to the discussions.

We wanted to find out what they see as the way forward for them personally and to share their insights as to what has worked for them and where we can do better to make their experiences more positive.

It was a really good session where some new ideas came to light, some areas for improvement discussed and some great positive moments were shared. These will be taken to the Board this Tuesday and will come out in the next Club Chat for all members to read.

Thank you to those 20 people who gave up their time once again on a busy Rotary weekend.

Mandi, our latest prospective transferring member, joined us too and added some good comments from her old Rotary club which were very interesting.

As Philippa commented “ it is essential that we constantly keep testing the temperature of the members so that everyone feels valued”. I couldn’t have put it better myself !

Papanui Rotary is in good heart with such committed people who all want to add to our growing membership and experience of Rotary.

 

 

Come and join us on the weekend of Friday 8^th, Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th of June, which is the weekend after Queens Birthday, for a great social and working bee at the Hanmer Forest Trust Camp.

Accommodation at the camp is free as long as you come and lend a hand. The tasks are not hard work and many hands make light of it all. 

On the Friday night our membership team would like your support to assist in a Rotary Papanui Satellite exploratory social function. This is to be held in the township with a similar format to our membership evening in March.

Put these dates in your calendar now !                  

Further details will follow soon.

 

ROMAC – Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children

I hope a number of you saw the great promotion Rotary got from TV One News last Tuesday night. It featured Rotarian Murray Pearce speaking about ROMAC and baby Rosalia.

I had the privilege of meeting them earlier in the year when they came to Christchurch for Rosalia’s first operation when she was 6 weeks old. She was born with a large growth on the side of her head covering where her eye should be. An eye socket hadn’t developed so they removed the growth and grafted bone to form the beginnings of a socket. This has been very successful and now Rosalia is back for her second operation to form more socket to take a glass eye.

Ronald McDonald have been wonderful as they support overseas families, such as this, to stay and be supported throughout this time. Murray Pearce is the South Island Coordinator for families with children going through the ROMAC programme and has done a superb job of looking after them.

ROMAC is totally funded by donations and has a group of Doctors and professionals throughout New Zealand who give their time free to perform life changing operations.

 

Go our Rotary District - 9970 Facebook page to see the article and the video from TV ONE

 

Here is a list of the committe4s and if anyone wishes to change please contact Jenny Haworth

Tel: 3854754 or Email: jihaworth@xtra.co.nz

 

Administration

Director: Keith Mitchell

Associate: John Allen

Members: Ken McNee, John Milne, Gordon Shields, Tony Tizzard

 

Director: Deryn Tregurtha

Associate: Philippa McQueen

Members; Doug Archbold, Shona Dodds, Geoff Haworth, Grant McFadden, Ron Sedgley, Ross Dickie

 

Director: Verdi van Beek

Associate: Stuart Batty

Members: Symon Dynes, Richard Hamilton, Euan Hilson, Rob Nicholl

 

 

 

Joint Directors: Angela Lumb and Janice Geerlofs

Members: Donna Cherry, Wayne Lyons, Jennifer O’Leary,

 

Joint Directors: Nick Courtney and Arie Geerlofs

Membership: Charles Barltrop, Gary Denhard, Lois Flanagan, Jim Hudson, Grant Paice, Max Wright, Larry Skiba

 

Directors: Denis McMurtrie

Deputy: Tony Taylor

Members: Alan Bond, Jonny Murnane, Rob Thomson, John Stringer

 

Director: Liz Courtney

Deputy: Cheryl Colley

Members; Evan Thomson, Jane Dickie, Jenny George

 

Gary Denhard, Jonny Murnane, Gordon Shields, Tony Tizzard

 

 

 

Rob Nicholl (in charge)

Doug Archbold

Jennifer O’Leary

Jonny Murnane

Ari Geerlofs

Rob Thomson

At the April Board Meeting it was agreed to formalise the position of “Club Calendar Manager” a position which Tony Tizzard, the Club’s Secretary has been doing informally very successfully for some time now. Tony has agreed to carry on in this position a job he has very ably undertaken up until now. Thank you Tony for continuing in this position, it is much appreciated. This is a co-ordination role and is responsible for being the “one point of truth” regarding the current status of the calendar.

Any member who wishes to have an item put in the calendar needs to discuss it with the Director of the relevant Club Committee who will work with Tony to have the item included in the Club Calendar. The Club Calendar is easily accessed on the Club’s website. It is important that the calendar is managed in this way to ensure that the people who need to know and have influence of how the Club’s future programme is going to be made up, i.e. the President, Directors and Programme Manager etc know about all calendar entries being made. Tony will communicate any requests for inclusion in the Clubs Calendar to the people who need to know, and programme such requests around other events in the calendar.

John Allen

Administration Director, Past President (2016/17)