Sensory delights offer wintry highlight
Photo: Nina Tapu
The Illuminate Light and Sound Experience show lit up Queens Park in Invercargill despite the cold and rain last night.
Photo: Nina Tapu
Hundreds of Southlanders braved the wintry conditions to experience the popular light show, which included flamingoes, a spaceman and a dragon.
Photo: Nina Tapu
Illuminate will run its Invercargill show until June 15.
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Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Sensory delights offer wintry highlight
Photo: Nina Tapu The Illuminate Light and Sound Experience show lit up Queens Park in Invercargill despite the cold and rain last night. Photo: Nina Tapu Hundreds of Southlanders braved the wintry conditions to experience the popular light show, which included flamingoes, a spaceman and a dragon. Photo: Nina Tapu Illuminate will run its Invercargill show until June 15.
Otago Daily Times
19-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Matariki event cancelled; trust cites competition from light show
An installation at the Illuminate Light and Sound Experience show in Christchurch last year. PHOTOS: MARCUS STENTON A large community Matariki event at Stadium Southland has been cancelled, its backers saying it is too much of a risk to go ahead as a competing show is taking place a few days beforehand. The Tūturu Charitable Trust announced yesterday it had reluctantly decided its Matariki festival would not take place next month. It had been scheduled to be on June 20 and 21. The trust said in a social media post a newly scheduled light show in Invercargill was set to run across the two weekends before the trust's Matariki event. "Sadly, the scale, timing and ticketed nature of that event makes it too challenging for us to continue without confidence in strong community turnout." The trust said it was an incredibly difficult decision to make and one it had not taken lightly. About 8000 people attended the first day of the inaugural festival last year and the trust had been looking forward to the event this year. But it would not now happen. A bullfrog was part of the Illuminate Light and Sound Experience. Illuminate Light and Sound Experience has chosen Invercargill to begin its South Island tour and will showcase hundreds of light and sound installations at Queens Park from early June. Failing to get approval from the Dunedin City Council led to the decision to choose Invercargill instead, Illuminate Light and Sound Experience creative director and co-owner Philip Anderson said. The Illuminate show would be at Queens Park, starting on June 6 and going through to June 15. The company said the decision to go to Invercargill was also motivated by a desire to stage the show in centres often left off shows' tour itineraries. The show is also going to Nelson, Timaru and Christchurch. The trust said it was sorry to let down all the schools, vendors, artists and groups who had already started preparing for the cancelled event. — APL
Otago Daily Times
06-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Call to practise good burning habits over winter
Southlanders are being asked to work together to ensure the air is cleaner for everyone this winter by practising good burning habits. Environment Southland air and terrestrial science team leader Dr Nick Talbot said in a statement winter was when Southland experienced its poorest air quality, particularly in the urban areas of Invercargill and Gore. "Home heating is one area where people can make the biggest difference to our air quality," he said. "Not only does burning wet wood create a large amount of smoke, it gives off much less warmth than dry wood." Dr Talbot attributed the sharp decline in exceedances in 2019 and since 2021 to people changing the way they used their burners. "The decrease of PM10 exceedances in the Invercargill airshed in 2019 and since 2021 is due to several factors, one of those being the change in burning behaviour, with people using more dry wood and less banking of fireplaces, resulting in the overall emissions of air pollutants dropping." He also believed phasing out older burners alongside cleaner forms of home heating being installed contributed to the decrease. Air Quality Collective director Ian Longley said weather also affected the readings. "Air quality emission trends are always difficult to see ... because air quality is also very sensitive to changes in the weather. Two thousand and nineteen was a good year for air quality weather-wise (windier and/or not as cold) and 2020 was a bad year (calmer/colder)." But where the readings had shown an increase in the latter data, he suspected some of the initial changes had not been sustained over the longer period. Environment Southland's winter air quality monitoring season runs from May 1 to August 31. The regional air plan includes rules to help improve air quality in the Invercargill and Gore airsheds. Open fires are now prohibited and non-compliant burners are being progressively phased out. For those outside the airsheds, consented fireplaces of any kind may still be used, as long as they are not used with prohibited fuels such as rubbish and treated wood. Outdoor burning is prohibited within the Invercargill and Gore airsheds. Those outside the airsheds can continue to burn but must adhere to a number of rules, including not burning prohibited items such as baleage wrap and treated timber. "During the damp, shorter days of winter, outdoor fires tend to produce more smoke, which can be a nuisance to your neighbours. Elevated smoke levels increase the risk of hazardous particulates accumulating, leading to potential health impacts and the possibility of exceeding air quality standards," Dr Talbot said. Environment Southland operates a Good Wood-approved suppliers' scheme, in which firewood retailers voluntarily agree to supply wood at the recommended moisture level of less than 25%. - Toni McDonald
