Nelson's Hybrid Homes has created the top sustainable house in the country as recognised at the annual Registered Master Builders House of the Year Awards. The awards ceremony held on Saturday honoured house building in various categories.
Hybrid Homes, which has been building since 2006, won the award for the top sustainable home. "It's great" said managing director Jamie Harrington, "Sustainability is our core focus, not only design but also building sustainability is what we believe in, it's what we strive to achieve for every client."
The company’s showhome in Atawhai, which doubles as Harrington’s family home, was a true showcase, he said.
The home produces power, collects rain water, recycles grey water and uses sustainable materials throughout.
It also uses a thermally broken building system that further enhances the passive solar design to allow for comfort all year around. Energy and water efficient appliances, lighting, and bathroom ware all add to the minimal use of the resources.
It has ‘‘off the grid’’ capability and is built with not toxic materials.
(The Nelson Mail, Tuesday, November 17, 2015)
Fringed Hill Gondola Would Be Highest Lift In Country, Taking Passengers Up 610m.
The proposed Fringed Hill Gondola and mountainbike park will be in place in less than five years if the group behind the project can raise $100,000, the Nelson Cycle Life Society spokesperson says.
Jo Rainey said the funds were needed to appoint a project manager to engage with the community, landowners and investors, to extend the feasibility study to include a business plan for investment, and to seek further project and investment funding.
That would be done in part through an application to the Government’s Tourism Growth Partnership funding.
Rainey said installation of the gondola, which would be the highest lift in the country taking passengers to the summit 800 metres above sea level, would start in 2017 if everything went to plan.
It would have a 610-metre vertical lift, be 1.6km long, and take about six minutes to reach the top.
A restaurant and cafe were also planned for the site so visitors could take in the view out over Tasman Bay, Rainey said.
The cafe-restaurant would give 270 degree views from Mt Owen to D’Urville Island.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, November 18, 2015)
Upper Moutere’s Icon Gallery and Sculpture Park is expanding into Nelson with a second outlet on Achilles Ave in Wakatu Square.
Icon owner Neville Parker is hard at work this week painting his new space and sorting out new windows, awnings, custom lighting, plinths, and a freshly polished hardwood floor.
The Parker Gallery will be ready for a gala opening in late November or early December, and will be a sale space with an eclectic mix of paintings, sculpture, pottery, and other art objects. The Icon Gallery stays in Moutere as headquarters.
(The Nelson Mail, Wednesday, November 18, 2015)
House prices across the Nelson region have reached new record highs with demand from investors and first home buyers outstripping supply, new figures show.
The latest Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) statistics for the Nelson/Marlborough region show the median house price rose $29,000 compared with October 2014 to reach a new record Median Price Volume Sold.
Prices rose 33 per cent in Motueka jumping from $367,500 to $419,500. The median price rose 9 per cent in Richmond and 4 per cent in Nelson.
Sales volume across the region compared with October last year also rose 21 per cent, with sales rising 70 per cent in Richmond, 30 per cent in Nelson and 24 per cent in Motueka.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, November 20, 2015)
The trust planning a Nelson fisheries museum and marine education centre has widened its net to include more potential sites than the Plant & Food Research building on Wakefield Quay.
It is also looking at vacant land beside the Nelson Marina on Akersten St for a potential greenfield build, and at other vacant buildings around Port Nelson. Nelson MP Nick Smith unveiled the plan at his election campaign launch last year, saying using the old powerhouse was the ‘‘right idea, right time and right place’’.
Plant & Food Research still has its offices in the Nelson City Council-owned building, which extends over the sea and is known for the large ‘‘Aotearoa’’ mural on its northern wall. It has begun relocating to the port’s Maitai reclamation and will be gone next year. Although the building, which once housed a coal-fired power station that supplied the city’s electricity, would cost an estimated $140,000-$300,000 to meet the required earthquake safety standard, the council has also identified a ‘‘one-off maintenance’’ cost of $2.4 million. This is because the foundations have been attacked by salt water, corroding the reinforcing steel and causing the concrete to sprawl.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, November 20, 2015)
Those wondering what the inside of the Nelson School of Music looks like will have a chance to tour of the historic building in a series of ‘‘hard-hat tours’’ exploring the iconic building.
‘This is the final chance for a behind the scenes look at the old school of music as it was built in 1901,’’ said event organiser Bob Bickerton. ‘‘We want to show people some of the real interesting hideaways that they don’t see.’’
There were some really interesting and spooky parts of the school to be explored on the tour, including the back stage, the infamous ‘‘Harry Potter’’ room, and a ‘‘scary encounter’’ inside the organ.
Bickerton said there were plenty of stories that would be told on the tour that have been passed down over the years. The Nelson School of Music has been closed for the past 18 months since the building was deemed earthquakeprone. A fundraising campaign was launched in June with the ambitious target of raising $1.4 million.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, November 20, 2015)
The protection of a 124-hectare block of forested karst landscape adjoining Abel Tasman National Park will help to save a rare snail and an at-risk shrub, associate conservation minister Nicky Wagner says.
Wagner has announced that the Nature Heritage Fund will spend $235,000 buying ‘‘Lindsay’s Block’’, which borders the western flank of the park on two sides.
‘‘It will become an integral part of the district’s protected forest system,’’ she said.
The block, 10 kilometres southeast of Takaka, is one of the district’s few intact examples of original forest on karst landscape.
(The Nelson Mail, Friday, November 20, 2015)
Nelson City Council has approved an extra $700,000 to be spent on Rutherford Park as part of an upgrade tied in with the reopening of the Trafalgar Centre and the rebuild of the centre’s northern extension.
The extra money is going towards making roading, carparking and landscaping safer and more aesthetically pleasing in the park.
The spend approved at Thursday’s full council meeting brings the total budget for the roading and parking project at the park up to $3 million. In September, the council voted to undertake the work in conjunction with the reopening of the Trafalgar Centre.
The centre’s main building is due to be reopened by the end of March, but the new northern extension will not be finished until June. The Rutherford Park project is due to be finished in March.
In July the council voted to demolish the northern extension, which included the Victory Room, and in October it approved a concept for the new building. The budget for the new building is $4,155,000.
(The Nelson Mail, Saturday, November 21, 2015)
Confusion is the beginning of wisdom
Socrates