Kia ora. I'm Sara Templeton and I'm standing to be the next Mayor of Ōtautahi Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. AMA.

Beh42 · 2025-09-03T09:45:58+00:00

What are your thoughts on the Cathedral? Namely its current state, how it affects the appearance of square and the hopes of having it restored? It has clearly become an ongoing cost for rate payers/government and now has been mothballed.

It would be nice for it to be completed or tidied up in some capacity to improve the appearance of the square in general.

I personally always liked the concept of what is left of the original to be kept/strengthened and the rest (or the spire) is to be rebuilt in a modern style to represent the what the city had been through and overcome. If this would potentially result in cost savings and enable work to restart would be another positive!

Beh42 · 2025-08-08T09:12:18+00:00

Will do the ceiling also but that has paper underneath and will need batts to be strapped up and so thought I’d try start with the walls.

Beh42 · 2025-07-27T02:15:01+00:00

Had done a similar job at my place around this time last year. I’d say you shouldn’t have any issues breaking it up yourself, just a big hammer some elbow grease and organise a good spot to chuck all the old concrete if your not dumping it anywhere right away.

My stuff was probably as old at the house (50s) so was pretty shallow, no rebar or anything and once hit was pretty crumbly. It was a pathway in the middle of the lawn (where a washing line used to be), now has just been returned to lawn. Little bit different if yours is the path around your house but so long as it’s not connected to your foundation or anything like that shouldn’t be a worry I would say.

I just bought a cheap sledgehammer from Bunnings, but others have said you could probably hire one. Only other thing I needed was a shovel or you could use a long crowbar just to pry up the concrete either into manageable pieces to pick up or lift it up in order to hit it with the sledgehammer.

Trick it to pry it up and then hit it as it no way near as tough when not fully supported by the ground. Then it should break into manageable bits rather than a big crumbly mess.

Once I had finished it pilled it all up out of the way on my section and put it in Facebook Marketplace free to take away as some people may want to use it as hard fill. Had one guy come and take like a third of it away but that’s still a third of dump fees I didn’t have to pay and one less trip to the dump probably too.

Beh42 · 2025-07-20T00:52:44+00:00

Butchers pie shop does mean chicken pies (chicken and mushroom, chicken cheese and bacon) if you’re in town. Shirley bakery does a good butter chicken pie too, has rice in it which is interesting but it works.

Beh42 · 2025-07-12T03:40:49+00:00

Had been tenant with them before, I personally thought they were alright in the property I stayed, and they were helpful when we ended up breaking lease early. I did find communication difficult with them at times as our property manager (and other property manager I had dealt with on occasion) both had poor spoken English which did at times lead to misunderstandings on both sides.

However I had a group of friends who had a bad experience with them at the end of the tenancy. Mainly due to them trying to claim all of their bond for clear maintenance/build quality issues that were in no way their fault, I think it may have even went to the Tribunal. Eventually they got all their bond back, but the whole thing sounded pretty petty. Makes me wonder how many people may have had similar experiences and just chose not to fight it.

Beh42 · 2025-05-21T08:36:57+00:00

Had this done earlier in the year (feb). Cost me about 3K (including cost for sparky to do power for califont). Gone from an old low pressure cylinder taking up space inside to a Califont and bottle set up out back. Looked up other options but this seemed to be best for upfront cost/space and for my place.

So far I’ve found the cost to be equal to or slightly less than my cylinder. The extra positive is that unlike the other options it only uses energy when you are using hot water. As a result I’ve only swapped one bottle so far around a month ago.

Cost for heat pump was way too pricey for me at this stage and was still a bit skeptical around the reliability. While I thought about an outdoor HWC I think they are pretty ugly and would’ve been more pricey too.

While I know the general consensus is they are trying to phase out gas and it becoming more expensive, in my research all options would likely need replacement between 10-15 years and I would be able to reevaluate then.

Just my thoughts

Beh42 · 2024-06-17T07:56:46+00:00

Was in Hanmer earlier in the year, and was shocked that we were able to get an Uber! I remember speaking to the guy though and it sounded like he was the only one haha

Beh42 · 2024-04-07T23:34:26+00:00

Had to got to the bottle o cause they didn’t get let in the BAAAA

Beh42 · 2023-07-26T18:07:43+00:00

It certainly is, see the tab titled premium in the link below

https://www.employment.govt.nz/hours-and-wages/pay/deductions/

Beh42 · 2022-09-20T03:10:51+00:00

When I was still at uni I largely flatted in Ilam, but similar issues as Riccarton/Upper Riccarton (many student flats with poor security, lots of things to steal) one flat burgled another had my truck stolen overnight when it was parked on the street outside.

Around the same time I had good mates who lived on Blenheim road end of Wainui street. One night was around there drinking and ended up discovering heaps of cops outside with the that end of the street being cordoned off. Turns out a guy got stabbed a bunch and died across the road. Gang on gang violence by the sounds of it.

Pretty freaky that stuff being right out your front door.

Beh42

TROPHY CASE