Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 1 March 2023
Tasman quarry bridges the gap A new, removable, 30m long bridge has been placed over the Waimea River to allow dump trucks to cross the river to access the new Challies Island quarry. Fulton Hogan’s Nelson Quarries team has positioned the specially-built bridge as one of several innovations to minimise the environmental impacts of the Challies Island quarry, and create better environmental outcomes. The bridge was built by Taylors Contracting and chief executive Charlie Taylor says he is proud of the team’s work. “The bridge has been an interesting technical project for our team and a significant investment for our business,” Charlie says. The new bridge allows 80 tonne (laden) rigid dump trucks to cross the river from the 22ha Challies Island site on the west bank, to the Appleby processing plant 1km downstream on the other bank. It can be removed in 48 hours if a major flood is predicted. Fulton Hogan divisional manager of quarries, James Blacklaws, says the bridge means no vehicle will come into contact with river water, one of the terms of the three-months-a year Tasman District Council extraction consent. This eliminates sediment discharge and allows continuous, unimpeded fish passage. ‘We have three months a year when we can access the resource, and any day we can’t is a day we never get back. It really exercises the mind
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LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED
John Phillips and the students at St Paul’s School created their own TikTok video to go with his viral song Bad Hair Day. Photo: Jo Kent.
Going viral at St Paul’s School JO KENT A music teacher from St Paul’s School in Richmond has become an overnight social media sensation after a kids’ song he wrote 20 years ago went viral on TikTok. John Phillips has been teaching for 34 years and writing children’s songs for over two decades, so when he heard his track Bad Hair Day was doing the rounds online, he saw an opportunity to involve the entire school and create their own TikTok clip. “My daughter was the one
who originally told me Bad Hair Day was trending and the videos of my song now have over 27 million views. “There are people all over the world lip syncing and dancing to it, so I thought we should make our own TikTok video. “I wrote the song, so it’s a good way of connecting the dots back to the composer as well as showing the world what we do in assemblies in New Zealand.” So, last week, the whole school of just over 300 students gathered in the hall
wearing brightly-coloured wigs and neon glasses. “Everyone stepped up to play their part. Teaching is that whole game of trying to enthuse and encourage and bring the best out of kids, and music is such a powerful tool to do that.” The 19-second video was uploaded last week and led John to appear on TVNZ’s Breakfast News and radio stations around the world. “Back when I wrote the song all those years ago, online music streaming didn’t even exist, so it’s opened my eyes
to a whole new way of sharing my work. “I’ve just started to upload my five albums on Spotify and YouTube, but it’s a work in progress.” John started writing songs for assemblies in the early 2000s and Bad Hair Day was accepted on to the government-funded Kiwi Kidsongs compilation CD and distributed free to schools across the country. “I wrote Bad Hair Day in no time at all after my son
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