Jonathon

“I’ve been growing my hair as long as I can remember, I do usually have hair cuts in the front.  But the back of it hasn’t been cut for years. It’s been well maintained  and long. Very long. Currently longest in my family apart from my mum. Just because why not? It keeps my ears […]

George

“I came here in 2020, post first lockdown and got a plot here with Mary Croft. We turned the grass over and planted a few beds of carrots and cauliflower in the middle of winter.   We were both quite concerned about where we are we gonna get our food post the COVID crisis. I […]

Deborah

“I’ve been doing genealogy. I’m just an amateur but fanatical. I’m a member of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists and the local Canterbury Society. I’ve been doing other people’s trees for them, just for fun. I just love it. It’s so intriguing and to find these bits of history that I’m connected to is […]

Mary

“I had my daughter when I was a teen. When my daughter was nine months old, my Dad said “it’s time you do something for yourself”. A lady was selling her Baby Shop, so went home to Dad and said “how about this?” We organised it all, I worked nine till three, I made items […]

Yvette

“I wanted to restore something old. I mean, I know that place is not the ritz, but it’s such a cute wee character house. And you know, such a wee tank.I was in it when the earthquakes happened – there was like nothing wrong with it.  Plus, I just don’t like brand new stuff or […]

Nur Farhanah (Hana)

“When I came here, I experienced discrimination. I accepted it at first because I’d already experienced discrimination in Singapore as an indigenous Malay. I thought that it’s okay because I’m a foreigner here in New Zealand. But when I left NZ for two years, I came back older and a bit wiser. I was like, […]

Nicky

“It started with alcohol when I was 14. I guess I had a lot of 14-year-old issues and I was so shy. I was just lost. I met some older guys in town and one day they took me to the pub and I just thought, ‘oh, my God, I’ve come home’, something in me […]

Hannah

“Dancing has been a part of my life since I was little. That is the story of my life – I was a dancer before I could walk. I sung before I could talk, you know? And singing is just every day.  I loved dancing as a little girl, but there wasn’t a lot of […]

Kotte

“I think a lot of my struggles came from my own experiences, which are a direct link to my upbringing. But I refuse to run away from hardship and challenges, mainly when I’ve done nothing wrong. I have this thing where from suffering, I think I create the most beautiful things. So I’m grateful for […]

Duncan W

“I started fishing as a little kid. When I was about six or seven, we moved to a farm. And within about three or four miles of the farm was a lake, and they stocked it with bass, so we were just fishing there every chance we got. Then a friend of mine when I […]