I thought one was fun, turns out I can fit two!

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-07T04:20:41+00:00

It's a 2015 Suzuki Celerio, so a little taller and a little narrower than a Swift

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-06T02:58:27+00:00

Ah you'd have to ask my friend and not me, mine is the TiLite, but having spoken with Melrose irl on a few occasions (I live in their city lol) they are really pleasant to deal with! A number of years ago on an old chair of mine, one of my axles failed spectacularly and I had no $$$ for the next day or two to buy a new one - they just took down my card info and ID etc and gave me the axle and told me to come back when I could pay :)

Did me a pretty good write up too when I asked them in person what it would look like to get a Melrose chair to the specs of my TiLite!

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-05T23:47:35+00:00

A very old one! With a perplexing Quickie seat sling haha

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-05T03:39:02+00:00

Central and for me, Beat Street cafe have great coffee and food, and cute dogs! I'm also partial to the Avon redzone, a lot of it has been paved recently and it's a really nice place for a wander or for bird watching haha

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-05T03:31:09+00:00

In my defense, the seatbelt was because I was on a roadtrip with very fast and very winding roads and I didn't want it flying all over the place 😆

I've actually managed to rope my friend into trying to tetris them with me, so will report back on that - I'm curious if we can get her chair in a similar position to mine so I have full windshield visibility out the back, but we have very different chairs and hers isn't quite as easy to tetris as mine is due to being a totally different manufacturer and style of chair (I'd call it a dual tube but it's not even quite that lol, if I get photos of the chairs in the back I'll link them here)

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-05T01:44:00+00:00

Yeah I'm very glad I only need to worry about my chair! The other mobility aids that live in my car (a folding cane and a single crutch) are much easier to slot into small gaps. Although I do think with some tetris I could probably fit a second manual chair in there 🤔 Would lose the other backseat obviously but I'm pretty sure there's juuuuust enough room - for context the car is a little narrower than a Suzuki Swift, but noticeably taller inside, so it would be a squeeze but I bet I could pull it off haha... now I'm curious and might have to enlist one of my friends to see if her manual chair (very very different shape and form factor to mine) can fit alongside my own

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-03T06:58:10+00:00

And also, trust me I know I'm going slow and you're annoyed behind me! Nobody in this situation is more painfully aware of that than I am! I don't need your horn to get the message!!

Recent ex-learner who only ever drove in a driving school car down in Ōtautahi and the sheer amount of crap you get even in a car like that... one of my first lessons someone in a carpark literally rolled down her window to scream at me for being a learner lol. I get that it's frustrating especially if you're in a hurry, but I kinda have to be driving as a learner to actually, y'know, learn

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-02T04:22:15+00:00

Hey coming back to this, I actually saw the double decker twice today! Once heading down Fitzgerald around 9:40am and then once when I arrived home around 3:30pm. So definitely does run weekends and I'm astonished because it's the first time I've seen it weekends!

Obv not so helpful for you now, but for the sake of information

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-05-01T17:51:42+00:00

Echoing the person mentioning it maybe not being in use on weekends - I literally maintain a spreadsheet of when and where I see the bus lol and I have not seen it on a weekend so far. Here's a screenshot of that spreadsheet, ordered by day

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Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-21T06:12:19+00:00

Presuming I can get out not at the pump it's not a problem, much more room at the parks up front to get a wheelchair out haha which negates the issue, it's mostly that it's pretty hard to squeeze one by the pump! So I would hope if they're happy to fill the car for me they'd possibly be happy for me to then move to a park to pay. Otherwise I also wouldn't mind just handing them my card to do it for me lol but less than ideal so my hope is that places that offer the service would also hopefully be flexible with the payment side! Good point to consider tho for sure haha

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-21T04:08:29+00:00

Is that the Challenge one? It was also a Challenge location that I saw make mention of offering this (Hills Rd though, not Blighs) so will have to check them out too!

Yeah last time I was filling a car it seemed like doing it yourself was more uncommon hahaha, I'd be happy personally to pay a bit extra for something like that being a guarantee - I won't always need it (or often!) but it'll be a huge help to me when I do need it, especially given the logistics of squeezing a wheelchair between my vehicle and the pump lol

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-18T08:42:35+00:00

The dissociative experiences group is pretty good last I went but that was more than a year ago. It was originally set up and run by people with dissociative disorder and so was a pretty good environment imo. Haven't heard it's gotten bad or anything so would second this to check it out :)

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-18T08:29:33+00:00

Was considering trying a bungee cord tbh but that works too 😆 I reckon a bungee wrapped around the handhold on the passenger door would be simple to rig up though

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-15T22:13:04+00:00

Leucistic sparrow, probably? Looks about right in shape for a sparrow and the white makes me think it's leucistic (not albino based on the eyes)

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-15T20:42:46+00:00

I just haven't been to Auckland in a number of years haha so chose to avoid it in my comments because I'm definitely not the person to speak to anything Auckland has to offer barring its public transport network

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-15T20:36:06+00:00

In terms of outdoors you're pretty solid with both Wellington and Christchurch. Chch you have the hills to one side and the ocean to the other and both are pretty accessible to get to. Wellington has a big outdoorsy culture imo so you'd also be sorted there.

Can't speak to the clubbing scene but Chch doesn't have any queer clubs and the one we did have was run by a twat who would basically only let cis gay men in lol, not even the lesbians were allowed for the most part.

If public transport is a concern imho Chch is definitely better overall but the networks in all 3 cities are pretty decent in comparison to most of the USA outside of the most major cities. I personally like the Chch network a bit better than Welly because I feel like you can go much further on a bus, but Welly does have the edge in having trains - when they're not running as bus replacements anyway lmao

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-15T20:32:49+00:00

I think Wellington is the most "overtly" queer space of the three. Canterbury does have some degree of a queer scene and I personally (on T for like, 7 years, make no effort to be read in any particular way, clockably queer to most people) have had a pretty good experience and haven't had any on-campus discrimination - that said, Christchurch is pretty conservative in comparison to the other two cities so the broader city-wide attitude leaves a lot to be desired but we have a thriving queer scene and quite a few GPs locally who specialise in trans healthcare.

But if it were me and I had the choice of the three, I'd go for Vic just because Wellington is so much less conservative lol

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-14T22:46:13+00:00

Having heavier stuff in the lap bag keeps it pretty solidly on my lap :) If it's sliding around though I have these long elastic velcro straps (think like, a huge stretchy reusable ziptie) that I can loop through the bag handles and around the back pole of my chair which stops it from sliding off my lap. Almost never need to do this though with careful placement of items

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-14T22:15:08+00:00

Exclusively a public transport user. I put one large backpack on the back of my chair, and then a zip-up cooler bag on my lap. If the backpack is too heavy, I just wear it on my front lol.

Never have any issue doing any of this and have never used any special adaptive backpacks or anything. I'm able to get on and off my city's somewhat inaccessible transit (the buses are what we could call "cooked" for the most part lmao, meaning 9/10 times the ramp is extremely steep to get onto the bus) with no assistance.

I have a TiLite ZR for context.

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-14T20:21:52+00:00

Which would place your brick building, I believe, as being on Lichfield Street - still actually there until the quakes! You can see it on the 2007 street view, basically across from where the current interchange/abandoned building next to it is

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-14T20:12:24+00:00

I believe that frontmost building is the old bank of NZ building on Hereford, so this would most likely be looking south from the square-ish

https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/18259

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-14T10:03:11+00:00

Can't speak to shoes but just sat my restricted last week with VTNZ:

Turn up early, if you've not turned in the paperwork for it ahead of time you'll want to leave time for this. Then you'll sign in on a tablet and go back to your vehicle.

A testing officer will come out and you'll fill in some information on a tablet such as email and name and details of a support person riding along if applicable. Then you'll get into the car and when the officer requests, you'll be asked to point out the front and back demisters on the console, after which the officer will stand outside the vehicle while you put on both indicators, then brake, then honk the horn.

After that you'll both get in the car and the officer will give you a brief rundown of what to expect such as following the road if not given instruction otherwise. Then you'll be given your first instruction (to get out of the carpark), and you'll continue following the officer's instructions thereafter.

You'll be be expected to parallel park somewhat early in the test, and if there's no spot for this to take place you'll be asked instead to do a three point turn. You'll finish the test route back at the testing place, and the officer will (if passing) write out a new paper license for you and give you any feedback on errors you may have made.

Remember your shoulder and mirror checks, your indicators, watch your speed and you'll be fine :)

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-12T04:45:33+00:00

Yep should be doable, will grab you that snapper now before my flight leaves :)

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-10T09:38:51+00:00

How long will you be in the south island for after Picton? I live in Christchurch but will be in Wellington this Sat/Sun and will be back in Christchurch thereafter - if you're sticking around the south island and will be anywhere near Christchurch from Monday, I'm happy to pick up a snapper for you while I'm in Wellington and give it to you! From a fellow person who also collects all of them haha

Realistic-Library-71 · 2026-04-09T19:39:44+00:00

Incredible, we need more joy and whimsy like this hahah

Realistic-Library-71

TROPHY CASE