Department of Conservation's unsung hero
And replacing the loo paper is a mammoth job nationwide, with DOC revealing around 15-and-a-half kilometres of paper was ordered over the last year - that's long enough to stretch the length of the country nearly ten times.
Ranger Daryl Sweeney answers other people's calls of nature, but he thinks it's about time people answered their own.
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Couple's church restoration gets historic places nod
Michael Simpson working on the exterior of the Kakanui Church in Otago, which has now been granted a Category 1 heritage listing. Photo: Supplied/ Michael Simpson & Anna Miles A Waitaki couple's six-year passion project to restore a landmark building has paid off, with the former Kakanui Church granted a top-tier heritage listing. The 155-year old Gothic-style building in Otago was one of two surviving Presbyterian timber churches in New Zealand designed by prominent Scottish architect Robert Arthur Lawson. Heritage New Zealand this month recognised it as a Category 1 historic place with "special or outstanding historical or cultural significance." Michael Simpson said it had descended into "pretty bad shape" by the time he and his wife Anna Miles bought it in 2019. "The parish church had battled for a few years because they had too many buildings and not enough money to do it up ... there was just a lot of deferred maintenance and like a lot of old buildings, it was hard to keep up with," he said. "We thought, well, we can give it a crack. As sad as it looks ... I like doing up old wooden buildings. It didn't look too scary to me. It scared off a lot of other people. It probably should have really." A Christmas carols event held in the Kakanui Church last year. Photo: Supplied/ Michael Simpson & Anna Miles Simpson said they had worked to restore it "with no time frame", starting with repairing rotten wood in the sub-floor, and restoring the windows. They gave the inside a fresh coat of paint, and more recently the couple turned their focus to the exterior, where they were stripping, refitting and painting the weatherboards. "We're loving how it's starting to look," Simpson said. Photo: Supplied/ Michael Simpson & Anna Miles The couple were also renovating two outbuildings - the Workers' Hut and Sunday School. Simpson said locals had taken a keen interest in the project. "The community was so happy that we were trying to save it. It's been amazing. We never sort of expected that," he said. "We have the doors open when we're down there and anyone that wants to come in and have a look ... can do that. It's just been really nice to share it." A fresh coat of paint on one side of the Kakanui Church, during the restoration. Photo: Supplied/ Michael Simpson & Anna Miles Once the building was weather-tight and stable, Simpson said they had hosted a wedding, market days and gigs in the church. They hoped to keep using it as a community hub. "It's just such a thrill having life in the building and seeing people enjoy it," Simpson said. Heritage New Zealand heritage assessment advisor Alison Breese described the church as having "outstanding aesthetic, architectural and historic significance." "It's been a pleasure seeing the love and hard mahi the owners have put into it," she said. Simpson said the restoration wasn't yet complete, but he and Miles were thrilled to have the building formally acknowledged and protected. "All we wanted to do, with our airy fairy plans, was restore the building as well as [possibly] to give it a life after us. This justifies that feeling, and just adds another sort of string to the bow, recognising it's worth saving," he said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
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$25,000 spent making Wellington bridge more comfortable for dogs
Teddy, a dog. Photo: SHANON STEVENS / SUPPLIED Paw-friendly panels have been added to a new water pipe bridge in Wellington, making it more comfortable for dogs to walk across. Greater Wellington Regional Council completed a new water pipe bridge in the Kaitoke Regional Park late last year. Nick Leggett, chair of Wellington Water - which manages water pipe bridges for the council - said the bridge formed part of a popular walkway loop, and the park was visited by 350,000 people last year. He said the bridge combined "a critical piece of infrastructure with something that people can use and enjoy". But feedback from the community found the bridge walkway's grate design was both uncomfortable and offputting to dogs, who disliked being able to see below and needed more grip. "The feedback was really positive, but it's just that point where you've got [50] percent of the water supply for the Wellington region coming under this bridge but you've also got 350,000 people who use that park, and it's important that both are catered for. "But we can combine critical infrastructure with critical walking infrastructure." Cr Ros Connelly and her dog Cuba, and Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett with his dog Teddy. Photo: SHANON STEVENS / SUPPLIED Work began in 2022 to replace the existing pipe bridge due to age, leaks and a lack of seismic loading resilience. Leggett said the total budget for the bridge was $41 million and the panels cost $25,000. "Within that wider budget that's pretty small, but it is still significant - and it's significant for the people [who] will get the benefit of walking across the bridge with their dogs." Leggett and his dog Teddy, a black Cavoodle, tested the bridge on Friday, along with Greater Wellington regional councillor Ros Connelly and her dog, Cuba. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
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What's the cheapest way to heat your home?
The cost of heating your home makes up about a third of what you pay for power each month. Photo: 123RF If you're spending your evenings in front of a heater, you might be keeping a wary eye on your power bill. The cost of heating your home makes up about a third of what you pay for power each month. But what's the cheapest way to do it? Here's an overview of how the various options compare. They can have a high upfront cost, but Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority lead adviser on energy efficient appliances Gareth Gretton said heat pumps were "by far and away" the most efficient form of heating. Depending on how much you're charged for electricity, it might cost you about 25 cents to 35c an hour to run your heat pump, for every kilowatt hour (kWh) of heat produced. A 6kw heat pump would cost $1.50 if you're paying 25c per kWh. Consumer estimates that a very large heat pump might cost $1000 a year but a small one could be less than $200. But they will deliver much more heat for that cost than a standard electric heater of the same size. "I think most people know now they're really magic at transforming electricity into heat. They take heat from outdoors and effectively put it indoors, they sort of upgrade the heat that exists outdoors, even when it's below 0°C, and turn it into useful, comfortable heat indoors," Gretton said. He said, for every unit of electricity that a heat pump used, it would give three or four units of heat. "There's literally nothing else that can provide that efficiency other than a heat pump." He said New Zealand was unusual in that its houses tended to be relatively badly insulated. "Heat pumps do get a little bit less efficient when you have colder temperatures outside but it's not a huge problem because in New Zealand what we end up doing is quite a lot of heating when it's not cold outside by international standards … say 5°C to 10. Heat pumps are really efficient in that sort of temperature range." Consumer recommends running a heat pump no higher than 21°C and turning the fan up rather than the temperature if you want to heat a room quickly. Healthy Homes standards don't require landlords to install a heat pump in rental properties, although many have. They are only required to provide a fixed, safe and efficient heating source for the main living room. Whether it's better to leave your heat pump on all the time or turn it off when it's not needed is a subject of debate. Some people argue it costs more to warm up a room than if it was kept at temperature all day. But James le Page, who has looked into the issue for Consumer, said turning it off made more sense. "For the few people who have a house that is super airtight - so with no gaps around doors and windows, insulation above building code requirements, double glazing, thermal drapes and a ventilation system - they might be able to leave their heat pump on all day every day," he said. "But for most of us in New Zealand, if we leave it on, we'll be wasting a lot of energy on heat that will continuously leak out, as our heat pump works hard to maintain the set temperature." In general, electric heaters all cost the same to run, for the amount of heat they produce. "Any form of resistance electric heating - what I mean by that is where you pass electricity through a plug-in heater and what it's doing is the device is resisting the flow of electricity - will transform electricity into heat with a ratio of one to one," Gretton said. "There's ultimately no difference in the electricity to heat conversion efficiency of any type of electric resistance heater, they're all the same." But he said they could vary in effectiveness. Radiant heat could be good for a large area or a room with high ceilings, for example. "If you're within the range of the heater, you're kind of feeling that heat and you can be a little bit more comfortable at a slightly lower air temperature. It's a bit like the campfire effect. If you're outside and it's pretty cold but you're near a campfire which is tremendously hot then you feel that heat." Consumer said portable fan heaters were good option in small or occasionally used rooms, such as offices or bedrooms, even though they were relatively expensive to run. "But, with a maximum heat output of 2400W, they don't have the power to tackle anything beyond very small living areas." A 2kW heater running for five hours a day would typically cost about $2.50 a day while a 1200kW radiant heater with three bars could cost $1.50. In general, electric heaters all cost the same to run, for the amount of heat they produce. Photo: 123RF You might use a dehumidifier to take the moisture out of a room, but it could also increase the temperature by a few degrees, which might be sufficient if it's a room you're only going to sleep in. "You can sort of regard a dehumidifier as being a plug-in electric heater with the advantage that it will also make your house drier," Gretton said. "It's a bit of a win-win because all the electricity that goes into your dehumidifier will actually be helping to heat your house. They're a good thing in that sense." A compressor dehumidifier, which is the most common type in New Zealand, costs about 5c an hour to run. Gretton said gas heating was not an effective option. He said people should steer well clear of unflued gas hearers anyway, because they made a house damp and emitted gases such as nitrogen oxide. "There's an absolute mountain of good reasons why unflued gas heaters are a bad idea. With flued gas heaters, there's no direct health impact but you do have a bit of an efficiency loss so you're not going to be getting one unit of heat for every unit of gas you're burning." Gretton said wood burners tended to be less efficient than gas heaters. "It's quite tricky to burn wood both cleanly and efficiently. There's a trade-off between making wood burners efficient and making them clean burning in the sense of lower particulate emissions. "I think a lot of people assume that wood burners are really cost effective to run, but it really depends on how much you're paying for firewood. Now, for those people that do have free firewood, that's obviously pretty hard to compete with in terms of cost to run because it's basically zero other than the amount of time you'll spend cutting and chopping wood. "But if you're buying firewood, then it's not particularly cost effective, although it does vary around the country." He said, at a rough average national rate, it was still usually more expensive than a heat pump. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
