ParkMate?
I noticed that the parking area between Winston’s Ave and Harewood Rd is not longer a Wilsons Park. The Pay n Display machine has gone and there’s new signage for ParkMate. Ooo! Must be free parking....sounds too good to be true!
Did a check on-line and sure enough, there’s a fish-hook. ParkMate has a app for Android and iPhones, you just have to sign up and it’s all go, very convenient. Find the car park on the map, or select the park you are in, enter your rego number and tap “START YOUR PARKING”. You’ll get a reminder every hour & when you return just tap “STOP YOUR PARKING”. That’s it, a deduction will be made from your Credit Card. No carrying around buckets of coins or waving your card at a machine and having to go back to the car to put the slip on the dashboard.
Only one other tiny fish-hook. At the bottom of App Store’s description of the app is a one-liner “ParkMate is a division of Wilson Parking New Zealand Ltd. A rose by any other name would prick as deep.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Have you got New Zealand's best shed? Show us and win!
Once again, Resene and NZ Gardener are on the hunt for New Zealand’s best shed! Send in the photos and the stories behind your man caves, she sheds, clever upcycled spaces, potty potting sheds and colourful chicken coops. The Resene Shed of the Year 2026 winner receives $1000 Resene ColorShop voucher, a $908 large Vegepod Starter Pack and a one-year subscription to NZ Gardener. To enter, tell us in writing (no more than 500 words) why your garden shed is New Zealand’s best, and send up to five high-quality photos by email to mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz. Entries close February 23, 2026.
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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