South Canterbury Eco Centre

07/10/2026

Join us at the beach tomorrow! A shout out to Enviro NZ who is going to cover the cost to dispose the rubbish we pick up!! Thank you!

We will also be Citizen Scientists and look for interesting creatures to upload to iNaturalist. If you want to participate download iNaturalist and create an account before you come.

Full details are on our website https://scecocentre.org.nz/events/beach-clean-inaturalist-3/

07/10/2026

We enjoyed a visit from Chipmunks Timaru After School & Holiday Programme. We had a really mixed 2 hour session with waste games, secondhand scavenger hunt at the Crows Nest Timaru, stormwater with a Saltwater Creek visit and a native bird quiz with Predator Free Timaru.

Thanks for bringing such a great group of kids!

07/10/2026

Oohs, ahhhs and plenty of laughter summed up last night’s Eco Talk, where Paul Sagar shared 50 years of visiting the NZ Subantarctic Islands!

This guy is an absolute local legend! Paul has been part of the history of these remote islands, spending decades recording, researching and supporting the incredible birds that call them home.

Did you know New Zealand is considered the sea bird capital of the world!!

We heard some wonderful feedback afterwards:

🐧 “The best talk I have been to.”

🐧 “We came from Oamaru to hear this and we are pleased we did.”

Thank you so much, Paul, for sharing your beautiful photos, and the fascinating stories behind them. And thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make it such a wonderful evening.

Just ONE more Eco Talk to go for 2026!
🌿 Garden Escapes with Gary Foster — Tuesday 3rd November

06/10/2026

Timaru Repair Café is back this Sunday!

Have something that’s broken, torn, worn out or just in need of a little TLC? Bring it along to our Timaru Repair Café and see if our wonderful volunteers can give it a new lease of life.

And if you’ve got a sewing job you’ve been putting off… bring it! We’ve got some plenty of sewing hands joining us this month.

📅 Sunday 11 October
⏰ 10am–12pm
📍 South Canterbury Eco Centre

Our Repair Café is a relaxed, friendly morning where you can bring along an item, have a cuppa and chat with our volunteers while they work with you to see if it can be repaired.

💚Free to attend. Koha welcome if you’d like to contribute towards the cost of running this monthly event.

Bring it along rather than throwing it out. ♻️ Special thanks to our volunteers!

Please share with your friends and community. 🥰

05/10/2026

It’s a busy week at the Eco Centre!

Not only do we have 10 days of bookings in a row, but either we or the Eco Centre have events happening every day for the rest of the week! There’s plenty happening - what takes your interest?

🦜 7pm tonight – Eco Talk: NZ Subantarctic Island Birds
Join us for a fascinating talk with Paul Sagar about the incredible birds of New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands. Pre-book for $5pp via our website, or flick us an email and pay cash tonight.

🌏 Multicultural Aoraki Family Fun Days – Fairlie & Caroline Bay
Corrie and Briony are joining Multicultural Aoraki and many other community agencies for the final two epic family fun days! They love getting out and connecting with the community at these events — "There is a real vibe!” Come and say hi.

🏖️ Beach Clean-up & Citizen Science
Everyone is welcome to join us at the beach for some rubbish collecting and citizen science. And the best news? Enviro NZ is sponsoring the disposal of the rubbish we find! Huge thanks to them for supporting this mahi. Find all the details on our website.

🎨 TAAH -The tea and art house Exhibition
TAAH is hiring the Eco Centre for their art exhibition. Welcome to them! Pop in and check out their amazing exhibition of local artists!

🔧 Sunday – Timaru Repair Café
Our monthly Repair Café is back this Sunday! A huge thank you to our amazing volunteers who give their time and skills to help keep things in use. Check out our available repairs and see if we can fix something for you.

📅 Find all the details about our events on our website. For the other events mentioned, check out the pages of the event hosts for more information.

https://scecocentre.org.nz/events/

Have an epic last week of the school holidays!

29/09/2026

Get to know NZ's Subantarctic Islands Birds

What’s it like to count birds on some of New Zealand’s most remote islands?

Join us for an evening with local birder Paul Sagar, who will share stories from his trips to the Snares, Auckland, Campbell and Antipodes Islands.

These wild and remote islands are home to an incredible diversity of seabirds and rare endemic species - including albatrosses, petrels and penguins. Some are found nowhere else in the world.

📅 Tuesday 6th October
🕖 7pm start
☕ Supper to finish
💲 $5 per person — cash or online
🎟️ Please pre-book

Your $5 cover charge helps with the cost of supper and supports our Eco Talk programme. You can pre-book through our website, or let us know you're coming and pay cash on the night.

We’d love to see you there!🐦🌊

At South Canterbury Eco Centre we are running events every month

25/09/2026

Space Invaders - Garden Escapes! Flowering Currant – Ribes sanguineum

👉Listed by DOC as one of the more environmentally threatening w**d species in New Zealand

😕 Large deciduous bush growing up to 2.5m tall and wide
😕 Native to western North America
😕 Introduced into New Zealand as an ornamental garden plant in the late 1800’s and became naturalized by the early 1900’s
😕 The plant has rough feeling hairy green leaves with 3 to 5 lobes with impressed leaf veins on upper surfaces
😕 Pink to red flowers are produced in racemes of up to 15 smaller florets during Spring and are followed later in the season by oval dark purple black fruits
😕 A hardy and long-lived species tolerant of a wide range of soils and conditions including open bush areas, forestry plantations, and dry rocky or disturbed sites
😕 Berries are spread by birds, and the plants also sucker and sprout from the roots
😕 Readily competes with native vegetation and can form dense thickets excluding all other growth
😕 Best controlled by hand pulling small plants or cutting and stump treating larger plants
😕 Good control of the spread often involves finding the larger plants that are the source of the infestation
😕Listed by DOC as one of the more environmentally threatening w**d species in New Zealand

For further information on control talk to Environment Canterbury biosecurity/biodiversity personal or go to www.w**dbusters.org.nz
Email info@w**dbusters.org.nz

We are also hosting Gary Foster at our November Eco Talk - https://scecocentre.org.nz/events/eco-talk-garden-escapes-18/

Thank you to the team at Space Invaders for this guest post.

**dbusters

24/09/2026

Join Sheryl and the Timaru District Libraries Super Stash Swap today until 1pm. We love this Secondhand September idea and so do the visitors.

Talk to Sheryl about their Mend & Sew group and using the libraries sewing machines.

24/09/2026

NZ Subantarctic Island Birds for our next Eco Talk. Sign up to our newsletter so you don't miss a thing! - https://mailchi.mp/scecocentre/nz-subantarctic-island-birds

22/09/2026

September Repair Cafe

This month we welcomed Paddy repairing technology and Katherine repairing Kenwood Cake Mixers. It was great to have some new skills join the team.

A huge thank you to all our volunteers - Monica, Nigel, Leysa, Kevin, Ivan, Nelska, Anne, Raewyn, Sara, John, Dave, Steve, Tim, Paddy and Katherine.

Together, we achieved:
🔧 15 amazing helpers
⏰ 32 volunteer hours
👋 26 visitors
🛠️ 22 items brought in for repair
♻️ Only 2 reached the end of their life

Keep an eye out the week of Sunday 11th October to see what skills are available next month.

Supported by Repair Cafe Aotearoa NZ