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Ōtākaro Orchard
Haere mai e hoa mā! Welcome to the official starting spot!
Wow, peeps! This spot along Cambridge Terrace is the first (west-most) landmark of the Avon Ōtākaro River Corridor trail!
Take time to wander this developing oasis by the Ōtakaro Avon River, in the heart of your city.
Incorporating hand-fashioned mud bricks, the Ōtākaro Orchard Information Centre and Café is designed as a learning hub: a place where you humans can grow both food and environmental awareness.
I looooove the building. Do you notice the roof? It’s green. No, not painted green, it’s planted and has the ability to store stormwater. It’s New Zealand’s first commercial blue-green roof. What an inconspicuous, comfy place for me to meet up with my pīwakawaka friends and whānau!
Ōtākaro Orchard is a project of Edible Canterbury, a network of like-minded organisations committed to promoting food resilience. The ethos is to ensure continuity of food supply (despite disruptions such as earthquakes!) and to make food accessible for everyone (human, that is!, Although they also promote soil health and nature).
The orchard has always formed part of their rebuild vision for the inner city.
Edible Canterbury also leases nearby private land for an urban farm. The nearly one-acre area lies between Cambridge Terrace and Peterborough Street. The hub and urban farm work closely together.
All that talk of food has made me hungry. Time for a snack of insects. A biscuit, perhaps, for you?
Then it’s off along the river to Margaret Mahy Family Playground. What shall we do first: the swings or slide??