A school leader says the Ministry of Education of wasted millions of taxpayer dollars over years of earthquake repairs, and was obstructive and misleading.
The building budget at Christchurch Girls High School has blown out by 50 percent to $40 million and it's not finished, even after five years of work.
Mike Lay, who was chair of the board of trustees for most of those years, until 2018, says the ministry botched the job then targeted him when he tried to hold it accountable.
He told Phil Pennington about the school's struggle to get the school re-built properly.
Artist and landscape architect Bridget Allen wouldn't have known how appropriate the name of her gardening business was to be when she set it up, out of Ilam art school and working at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.
The name Regenerative Gardening Maintenance was prophetic given her city and its landscape was about to start regenerating.
The 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes saw not only buildings turned to rubble, large tracts of land, including an area around Ōtākaro Avon River the size of two New York Central Parks, started to turn from suburbia back to nature. The red zone has been turning green ever since.
In the wake of tragedy artists and gardeners came together to innovate and create new public spaces, with an eye on sustainability and community connection. Allen cofounded New Brighton sewing charity Stitch-o-Mat and retrained as a landscape architect.
Since 2023 she has been the director of The Green Lab, which began after the quakes as Greening the Rubble, creating urban green spaces and events for connection, while also working with residents to make their own backyards more sustainable.
Ever busy with working and planting bees, workshops to build habitats for plants and nature, and consultations to help people make their backyards more sustainable, on August 16 Bridget is running with The Green Lab Birds of Brighton printmaking workshops. It's at the Make Station in New Brighton Mall at 11am and 1pm. No experience is needed.
She joined Culture 101's Mark Amery.
More than four years after the February 2011 earthquake devastated Christchurch's city centre, the rebuild in and around the iconic Cathedral Square has stalled.
Jane Bowron is a newspaper columnist who lived in the red zone at the time of the earthquake.
New research suggests about half the Christchurch businesses which left the central city after the Canterbury earthquakes are unlikely to return.
Three years on from the earthquakes of 2011, Census data now confirms massive changes to the face and shape of Christchurch.
Rob Clark was on the sixth floor of his office building when the quake struck, and got stuck in gridlock leaving the CBD.
The airport was closed to passenger services yesterday following the earthquake. We're joined by the airport's chief executive, Jim Boult.
The chairman of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Commission, Murray Sherwin, joins us for the morning in our Wellington studio.
Big businesses are getting the thumbs up for the way they've looked after their workers after the Christchurch earthquake.
Parish priest of St Anne's Woolston, Christchurch, and Administrator of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament which was partially destroyed during the February earthquake.
The Chief Coroner says the remains of 12 victims of the Christchurch earthquake may never be identified.
Businesses struggling after the Canterbury earthquake are vowing to keep up the pressure on the Government for more assistance.
A Christchurch arts event that took one of the biggest hits in the September earthquake last year, was the annual Body Festival.
The mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker, has admitted the city council's handling of the September 2010 earthquake was not good enough.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister, Gerry Brownlee, says he's nearing the end of his tether with the Christchurch City Council.
The annual arrival of the godwits in Christchurch has been marked, despite the city's cathedral being out of action following February's earthquake.
The Government is flying more than thirty counsellors into Christchurch, to help people feeling the strain of the earthquake's aftermath.
The Government's response to the Canterbury earthquake, and the South Canterbury Finance bail-out and republicanism.
The Christchurch Casino reopened its doors last night for the first time since the February 22nd earthquake.
The first part of the Royal Commission's report into the Canterbury earthquakes has been released - and includes 70 recommendations.
In Christchurch, 75 police officers from across the country remain on the beat, bolstering the local contingent following February's earthquake.
The Earthquake Recovery Minister and the Insurance Council both deny that insurance companies pressured the Government to relax building guidelines in Canterbury.
The Christchurch City Council and the Earthquake Commission are devising a wholesale solution to the city's flood protection.
Sir Richard Hadlee is seeking public support to fund the final 1.6 million dollars needed to open an indoor training facility that will bear his name in Christchurch's Hagley Park. The multipurpose venue will cost close to 5 million to construct. It will be the first indoor cricket training facility in the city since the earthquakes, and Sir Richard hopes that it will be open in 100 days time - for the start of next year's women's cricket World Cup. Hadlee, who was diagnosed with Colorectal cancer in 2018, told Felicity Reid it's a project that he's proud to be involved in. And he's also got a few thoughts on how the Black Caps will fare in India when the first Test starts tomorrow.
Nine to Noon continues to look at who's in the running to head up our biggest cities after local elections in October, with a focus today on the 11 candidates vying to be mayor of Christchurch. Three-term mayor Lianne Dalziel announced last July she'd be stepping down as mayor, having overseen nearly a decade's worth of the city's rebuild following the devastating earthquakes. The two major contenders for the role are Burwood city councillor Phil Mauger and former Canterbury District Health Board chief executive David Meates. Other contenders include the city's Wizard, a coffee boss, pro-gun pastor and a candidate who's stood in every election since 1971. For more, Kathryn is joined by David Williams, the South Island correspondent for Newsroom.co.nz.
Topics - Eight days on from the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 161 people in Christchurch, officials have announced that the rescue effort will now transition to a recovery operation. Dunedin shares the nation's sorrow for Christchurch - but the ODT reports today that it could also benefit from an influx of workers and businesses relocating from the Garden City. Some Christchurch landlords have been labelled opportunistic vultures for ramping up rents for homeless businesses trying to find temporary office space.
In the years that have followed the devastating Christchurch earthquake, there have been many stories of the struggles people have faced.
Tonight we bring you the tale of the little school in Christchurch's east that took on Wellington's big decision makers and won.
Redcliffs School finally reopened last year, after spending the best part of a decade battling for its survival.
Our reporter Nick Truebridge and cameraman Nate McKinnon caught up with Redcliffs' principal Rose McInerney to reflect on a tumultuous last 10 years.
Some of Christchurch's earthquake damaged red-zone land is another step closer to having some long term decisions made about its future. Today the Minister of Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Megan Woods, formally handed over ownership of 70 hectares of land to the Christchurch City Council. The land gifted to the council is in the coastal suburbs of Southshore, South Brighton and Brooklands, where residents have been waiting almost a decade to find out what the future holds for their area. Rachel Graham reports
Money is being put ahead of lives according the husband of a woman who died when the CTV building pancaked in the Christchurch earthquake. The government is moving to a new risk based approach to earthquake strengthening, saying it will save building owners more than $8.2 billion across New Zealand. Under the rules a building like the CTV building would not automatically be deemed earhquake prone. Professor Mann Alkaisi who's wife died in that building, spoke to Lisa Owen.
