Designer turns author in lockdown
Hawera Aquatic Centre – no hydroslide at level 2. Open 10am7pm tomorrow and Friday, and normal hours resume on Monday, as will aqua aerobics. Learn to Swim will resume May
25.
TSB Hub – limited programmes operating. Hawera Administration Building will be open.
Taranaki Regional Council: Council offices reopen to the public from today. The Council’s programmes and activities, most of which had already resumed under level 3, will continue. Citylink, Connector and Southlink bus services are running, with schedule changes available on their website.
Pukeiti, Tu¯ pare and Hollard Gardens remain open, to groups of not more than 10 people. Any organised public events at these venues will be limited to 100 people, to be attended by separate groups of not more than 10 people each. Council meetings continue to be online in the meantime, due to the numbers involved.
Taranaki Civil Defence said all boat ramps will reopen today.
Although an Oakura designer’s livelihood came to a stop because of coronavirus, her creativity didn’t.
During lockdown, Bridgette Wilson created a children’s e-book called Together Apart.
The book is about 5-year-old Robbie, who discovers love, laughter and learning are the greatest gifts after his world gets turned upside down because of Covid-19.
‘‘The story highlights how, with a bit of imagination and a lot of love and support, children may learn and grow in times of adversity,’’ Wilson said.
Wilson is the former brand manager for Fifa and continues to do work for sports organisations, with her main client being an ice hockey federation in Switzerland. When Switzerland went into lockdown in March all of her work stopped suddenly, so to stay occupied she began creating things on her iPad.
‘‘It was a way to continue to be creative and just sort of creating a routine for myself,’’ she said.
‘‘I’d just sit down with my iPad and sketch things out and eventually a few ideas turned into a sequence of ideas and I just thought this could be a cool kids’ book.’’
Her 5-year-old son, whose name was given to the book’s main character, also inspired her. ‘‘One day he said, ‘Is coronavirus from the crows?’ I thought that was hilarious, so I put it into the book, and then we make a scarecrow to scare the ‘crow-nah’ virus away.’’
She never expected to spend her lockdown creating a children’s book, as it was something she hadn’t done before.
‘‘I thought ‘I kind of want to put this out there’, but for me it’s not really important to make money off of it.’’
Instead, the proceeds from the $5 e-book, which took her a little more than three weeks to complete, are going to the Taranaki’s Women’s Refuge.
‘‘It’s certainly a difficult time for charities and I feel now more than ever there are women and children around Taranaki who are in need of help.’’
The e-book is available online as EPub or PDF and can be bought from https://payhip.com/ togetherapart.