South New Brighton Park Working session
2026-01-17 14:00 - 16:00 (Pacific/Auckland) | Bridge Street entrance to the park
Volunteers will do tasks like planting, weeding, pruning, mulching tasks to enhance this estuarine edge.
Tools, gloves and hot drink provided.
Saturday, 17th January – 2 – 4pm. Meet by the picnic table on Bridge Street.
Next time, we meet at the Jetty carpark. Estuary end of Beatty Street. Past the playground and drive to the edge of the estuary.
No need to book. All welcome.
Wear closed shoes and weather appropriate clothing.

McCormacks Bay Restoration Working Session
2026-01-18 14:00 - 16:00
Can you spare a few hours to assist a group of local residents to restore and enhance this stunning little Bay.
Tools and hot drink provided
No need to book. Look out for cars parked along McCormack’s Bay Road as that is where we will planting, weeding, mulching or pruning.

Charlesworth Wetland Working Sessions
2026-01-25 15:00 - 17:00
20 ha of restoration from farm paddock to ecological functional coastal wetland.
Since 2005 some 140.000 native plants have been placed by volunteers and supervised by a CCC park ranger.
This many plants needs continued weeding, pruning, mulching and always more plants to add.
Volunteers meet EVEY SUNDAY AFTERNOON between 3 and 5pm. Extra pairs of hands always welcomed.
Meet at the carpark off Charlesworth Street.
Tools and gloves, good company plus refreshments provided. No need to book, just turn up when you have a spare few hours.

Annual 'Farewell to the Godwits' Ceremony 2026
2026-02-28 13:00 - 15:00
Annual Farewell to the godwits ceremony
to “Wish the Godwits a safe return to their breeding grounds in Alaska”
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Southshore Spit Reserve (at the very end of Rockinghorse Road)
1pm FREE BBQ sausages, music, info stalls
1.30pm Welcome, followed by guided short walk to view the birds up close
Suitable all ages but please leave the dog at home.

Estuary Fest 2026
2026-03-14 10:00 - 14:00 | South New Brighton Community Centre, Beatty Street, Christchurch
Join us for the annual celebration of the wonderful Ihutai Estuary ecosytems.

Charlesworth Reserve Community Planting Event
2026-05-03 10:00 - 12:00
Sunday, 3rd May 2026
10am till 12 noon
Charlesworth Street Reserve, situated on Charlesworth Street (off Ferry Road).
Bring along family, friends and a spade.
Members of the public are warmly invited to join us planting at Charlesworth Reserve to establish native trees and shrubs supplied by Trees for Canterbury and supported by the Christchurch City Council Regional Parks Team.
Charlesworth Reserve covers 20 ha and has been developed over the last 19 years as a restoration of key estuary-edge ecosystems including a tidal lagoon, salt-meadow, salt-marsh and coastal bush. Following on from the initial installation of culverts to allow tidal flows to enter the reserve and coverage of the site with a mix of planted and self-regenerated indigenous vegetation zones, the next phase has begun which includes the new cycleway, new bridges and additional walking tracks, installation of new way-finding and plant ID signage, habitat diversification, and an up-scaled predator control programme aimed at making the reserve a safe receiving area for reintroductions of locally extinct butterflies, insects, lizards and birds.

For further information regarding this event or for photo requests:
Steve Bush Trees for Canterbury Ph 9821028 or 027 2973829 info@treesforcanterbury.org.nz

The 'Mother of all Clean ups' Christchurch New Zealand
2026-05-09 10:00 - 12:00
Saturday morning. 9th of May 2026 at 10am till 12 noon we can all give our mothers’ day gift to Mother Nature by cleaning her waterways.
60 Community groups plus a number of schools are participating this year and have been allocated a stretch of our rivers, estuary, local park, harbour and beach to collect discarded rubbish.
We are inviting members of the public to assist the teams who are cleaning up our beach and Naval Point in Lyttelton
Can you help out the Brighton team? Meet at 0945 in front of the New Brighton Library to receive gloves, a rubbish bag and instructions before a pleasure walk along the beach to look for littered items before they are washed out to sea where they become potential killing machines to our bird and marine wildlife.
OR
Can you help the Lyttelton team? Meet at 10am at Naval Point in Lyttelton to receive gloves, a rubbish bag and instructions before walking around this area to collect discarded rubbish.
No need to book. Suitable all ages. Together we WILL make a huge difference.
