New Zealand Theme Park Planned for China

A New Zealand theme park is planned for China and is expected to be completed at the end of this year. A group of Chinese developers are in the country to discuss their idea. They are working with the Awataha community whom are doing the traditional carvings for them. This has generated employment for the community as their is a lot of work that needs to be done. Carvings that take a few years to do are being completed and shipped over in a few months, therefore 100+ jobs have been created.
The park is called "The New Zealand Gardens" that is set on a 25km square site. It has rock climbing, a gondala and luge which is similar to the one in Rotorua. Visitors will experience New Zealands agriculture with a vineyard, a kiwifruit orchard, dairy farm and a golf course with accomodation.
Eric Korewha a master carver from Awataha says "Its a great opportunity for the rest of the world to know about our culture".

I found this news interesting because it is something different. People around the world get to experience our culture without having to fly all the way to New Zealand. The one thing that makes me wonder is will this encourage or discourage people from coming to New Zealand because if people experience it in China why would they want to fly all the way here. However, we shall find out when the park opens later this year. I think its a great project as long as our tourist numbers do not drop.

Project Twin Streams

Project Twin Steams is a project that is being done by Waitakere City which is located in West Auckland. The purpose of the project is to restore 56km of the stream by revegetating, cleaning it up and looking after it as it has been deteriating over the last few years.The project started in 2003 and it is a continous project. Waitakere City Council is closely working with the communities that surround the streams by educating them and getting them involved in things like planting days. Students from the West Auckland schools are also getting involved and many geography teachers are using it as a project base so students can learn about the importance of streams and how they play an important role in our environment.
Below is a link to the Project Twin Stream website where all the information is easily layed out.

http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/abtcit/ne/twinstreams.asp#whatis

Waterview Project Bridges Studies

This article from the New Zealand Herald I found interesting as it is concerned with the new waterview project which they are building a new motorway. It is concerned with whether they should build a cycle/walkway for cyclists and pedestrians.
Follow the link below to find out a bit more information about the projetct.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/news/print.cfm?objectid=10645442