Providing opportunities to realise the potential in ourselves and others

Enabling Good Lives Living My Good Life Rights Not Risks

Wait??? It’s Febuary 2025 already??

Kia ora whanau, Yes its been a long time since I got behind the keyboard and wrote something for you all. It hasn’t been the lack of wanting to write, 2024 was a bit of a whirlwind to say the least. Since my last post I have been somewhat busy, between a new job that …

Antnz on February 12, 2025
Assistance Dogs NZ Trust Enabling Good Lives Living My Good Life Rights Not Risks

Ruapehu playtime, 4Paws Half-Marathon & the downhill run to the election

. June 7 and 8 saw a group of 26 disabled people aged 18 – 35 with a wide diversity of access needs head to Ruapehu. I love working with the MidCentral Enabling Good Lives Young Adults And Youth (YAAY) for many, their first time being in the snow. It once again reminded me that so many people don’t get to experience the outdoor places of New Zealand, not necessarily because of an impairment, but because although the outdoors exists for “free”, accessing it is not always so easy.

Antnz on November 24, 2023
Enabling Good Lives Rights Not Risks

Roberston’s vote-grabbing spending cuts perpetuate systems that enable abuse towards disabled people and their families.

I know you were expecting a blog about taking a group of young people up to Whakapapa, but, in the week leading up to the house rising Grant Roberston pulled a stunt, that once again shows that disabled people, 25% of the population are not worth putting the money and effort into. I don’t usually …

Antnz on September 4, 2023
Enabling Good Lives Life on Life's Terms Living My Good Life

Conference Shenanigans

The end of May rolled around way too quickly. I felt like I finished my 10km in pretty good shape, but my body decided that I had pushed it and picked up a cold. I’d spent a lot of time trialling nutrition, hydration and recovery methods, before, during and after training. My legs and muscles …

Antnz on August 7, 2023

An interesting end to last week

Antnz on January 22, 2018

An interesting end to the week last week…

I’ve been keeping a pretty low profile this week as I’m still getting my health sorted out.

I did however have an appointment on Friday to meet with our electorate MP, Iain Lees-Galloway to have a bit of a chat about tertiary level education for students with impairments. I was supporting a friend as she met with his PA last week to address an issue my friend was having, I got a little cheeky and asked for some time with Iain.

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Hello 2018!

Antnz on January 15, 2018

Happy New Year!

First blog of the year, it’s going to be a bit of a wrap up of 2017 and some thoughts looking towards 2018. I’ll try and keep it brief but there’s a lot I did during 2017!

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Trip Album: Alice Nash Memorial Heritage Lodge

Antnz on December 19, 2017

Alice Nash Memorial Heritage Lodge: Ruahine Forest Park
14 & 15 December 2017
 

I’ve been travelling so much lately for the Enabling Good Lives work that I was well overdue for an outdoors trip. Needed some time out but also didn’t want to push myself “too” much, so I headed for Alice Nash Memorial Heritage Lodge in the Ruahine Forest Park. A great trip out by myself.
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I’ve kept pretty quiet this week

Antnz on November 26, 2017

I took a bit of time out this week.
I’ve had a reasonably quiet week this week, apart from a trip to Wellington for the 2nd “Networking” Working Group meeting on Wednesday for the system transformation. For me the travel went relatively smoothly with AirNZ, apart from being entered into the system as a visually impaired person with a golden retriever. I know I wrote “Black Labrador” on the form, I have the original! This just further demonstrated that there is a big disconnect between “Special Assistance” and the ground crew.

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It’s been a bit of an interesting week!

Antnz on November 19, 2017

Hold on for the ride because this is a long one!
I spent Monday and most of Tuesday doing housework and prepping to head to Wellington on Tuesday afternoon for the first of the “Networking” meeting for the System Transformation on Wednesday.

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Enabling Good Lives Regional meetings

Antnz on November 10, 2017

Progress is happening.
We shot home Tuesday morning from Lake Taupo as I had the Disabled Person’s Core Group meeting to attend. Not only that but I also had the opportunity to meet Valeria, who I sent a Search & Rescue team after in the Far North a few weeks ago. Although I got the “Lost Party has been located safe and well” response from SAR it was good to see her and give her a hug. It was also good to hear her side of the story of what had unfolded that day. It was a pleasure to meet her and get to know Valeria a little.

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I love seeing people bitten by the climbing bug.

Antnz on November 8, 2017

It was time to hit the walls.
We had a great group turn up.
I haven’t done a lot of climbing since the Paraclimbing competition at the end of August so it was well and truly time to hit a wall. With the Enabling Good Lives work I’m involved in it could be easy to lose sight of what really drives me; climbing. On Saturday I was invited by Waikato Climbing Club and Parafed Waikato to help out with an adaptive climbing session hosted at Extreme Edge & Climbzone Hamilton. Thank you to David from Parafed Waikato, Sylvia from Extreme Edge Hamilton, Doug and and the club members from the Waikato Climbing Club that came along to haul ropes.

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I had to stop for a few days

Antnz on November 1, 2017

I took a few days out.
It’s been almost 2 weeks since my last blog, I had a bit of a health blip and needed to stop and actually rest for a few days.
This week started with the 4th meeting of the Safeguarding Working Group. Being part of this group has been really intense. I came onto the group to ensure that the disability community wasn’t “over safeguarded”, due to wanting to protect people from harm considering perceived risks. I totally agree, acknowledge and understand the need to protect people and particularly those in a “vulnerable person’s” (Crimes Act definition of Vulnerable person) position, but I had concerns that in order to protect people, regulation and/or policy would be restricting others choice to participate in “risky” activities. “Risk” is different for everyone and each persons individual circumstances must be considered.

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