Women: you can totally nail trades
If you like working with your hands, don’t let outdated stereotypes put you off a rewarding career in trades. Women enjoy just as much success and job satisfaction as their male colleagues and sometimes leave the guys in their wake.
A great example is Pasifika student Tepora Rokotavo who did a pre-trade course in electrical studies with us at Ara Institute of Canterbury. Tepora achieved 93% in her final exams – an outstanding result – and is now on her way to becoming a qualified electrician. We love helping female students into trades careers.
If this sounds like your kind of thing, explore your options here.
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!
☔️ Where’d the summer go?
It’s the talk of the town (and every coffee queue): the Canterbury "summer" has felt a bit wet this year! We’ve definitely had our fair share of grey skies and raincoats lately 🌧️ In fact, the Post reports that Christchurch experienced almost double our usual!
While the forecast is looking bright for this weekend (fingers crossed!), we aren't out of the woods ... there are a few more cold fronts lining up before winter hits.
We want to hear from you: What are your go-to rainy-day activities? Whether you’re a local legend at the indoor courts or a professional movie-marathoner, share your secrets with us!
Drop your favourite rainy-day tips or photos in the comments below! 👇
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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