Riverlution

29/10/2026

Frocktober came to Riverlution today, and the garden has never looked so well dressed. 🌸

Florals, polka dots, a bit of sequins. Swishing skirts through the main garden while Beca' s group knelt in the beds with our volunteers, tucking in annuals one by one. By lunchtime the paths had a fresh coat of mulch and a few frocks had a fresh coat of dirt. Nobody minded.

Inside the Hub, another crew was bottling liquid gold: our olive oil, poured bottle by bottle. Grassy, peppery, and pressed just down the road. It doesn’t get much more local than that.

In the greenhouse, more hands were planting out the new season’s veges, so summer kai is on its way. Lunch was a big bowl of fresh salad greens from the garden, and cake, of course. 🍰

The Riverlution Café team served up every coffee in their frocks too. ☕

Ngā mihi nui to Beca’s group for giving us a whole day, and to everyone who turned up in their brightest. You made the mahi feel like a party.

A big thank you to Rachel from We are Richmond for capturing these perfect moments. 📸

We love you, community. 💚

🫒 Want a bottle of that liquid gold? It’s $25 at the Riverlution Farmers Market on Saturday. Get in quick; it won’t last.

29/10/2026

A neighbourhood view opened Placemaking Aotearoa’s afternoon in Ōtautahi.

At Placemaking in a Built City, delivered by for Placemaking Aotearoa at Academy on 15 October, the event began with short “State of the City” videos, each from someone working on a different part of the city: creativity, access to space, rangatahi, and whenua and place. LiVS asked Riverlution to add the neighbourhood perspective.

Our café cultivatorJesse made the video, drawing on what he sees every day at Riverlution Café and the Richmond Community Garden in Richmond.

Riverlution works with more than 30 partner groups, and most of what changes on site starts with them: a group proposing a project, volunteers turning up to build it, neighbours using it. Events like this one bring that local work into conversation with people shaping the wider city, which is where it can grow.

Thank you to Elisha Blogg and M Grace-Stent at LiVS for the invitation and for coordinating the video series, and to Jesse for representing Riverlution.

27/10/2026

Kia ora koutou,

Big congratulations to Repair Cafe Aotearoa NZ on opening Repair Co-lab in Kingsland. It’s a permanent repair space with Auckland Council backing, and it has workstations set up for shoe repair, sewing and electrical repair.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/regions_local-democracy-reporting/2186550/new-zealand-s-first-repair-hub-opens-in-auckland

It got us wondering how good it would be to have one here in Ōtautahi.

Picture a place you could walk into on a weekday with a wobbly chair, a torn jacket or a toaster that’s stopped working. You’d fix it alongside someone who knows how, and walk out with the skills to do it yourself next time.

Ōtautahi already has the people for it. Volunteer fixers at Repair Revolution, our own Repair Café and repair events across the city have been keeping things out of landfill for years. A permanent space would give that mahi a home.

So we’d love to hear from you. What would you bring in to be fixed? What would you want to learn to fix yourself? Tell us in the comments.

In the meantime, our next Repair Café is on Tuesday, November 17th. Bring your broken bits along.

Ōtautahi Repair Revolution Riverlution
Event link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DLf7MpY9H/

Aucklanders will have one more way to save money and reduce waste with the opening of New Zealand's first repair hub.

27/10/2026

Riverlution Café ☕

Every coffee you buy at Riverlution Café helps the whole site grow. Café profits go straight back into projects around the eco park, and we’d love your help deciding where they go next.

💬 Kōrero mai | Tell us how we’re doing
How was your flat white? Did you find your way to the food forest? Anything you’d love to see? Your feedback on the café and the wider site helps shape what we do next.
👉 Share your thoughts: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJxO1cw5gxOZbQWNfU3mEs_aPo9JZYaTb_zIeT0KoyRkpghw/viewform

🌱 What should we grow next?
Vote for the project you’d most like your coffee money to support. You’ll find the options on the form and on the QR poster at the café counter.
👉 Vote here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffFiZSDjsBNC6SrpZvLmLttxG54zMUl_Ci7whrHc_XpijD2Q/viewform

Ngā mihi for being part of the Riverlution whānau. Every vote and every comment helps us look after this place together.

See you soon for a brew or a scoop ☕🍦

25/10/2026

🎪 Thank you for coming to Spring Fair!
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us on Saturday 17 October. Whether you fixed something at Repair Café, picked up seedlings, or just came for kai and kōrero, you made the day.

🎥 Ngā mihi, Hi Above!
Thank you to Hi Above for creating this beautiful video of the day. It captures the people, the energy, and the land so well.
👉 Watch it here:https: https://youtu.be/Z-ZlLedXS1U?si=C7yOGjvkj3T3AGCZ

💬 How did we do?
Tell us what worked and what we could do better next time. It only takes a few minutes and helps shape next year’s fair.
👉 https://docs.google.com/.../1XvvLIgbb3eJS76GjvhD.../viewform

Richmond Spring Fair was jointly run by the following organisations...

22/10/2026

Come and make something that lasts 🎨

We’re teaming up with Living Arts Connection Group to create mosaic benches that will stay at Riverlution for good. Everyone is welcome to add a piece, and you don’t need any experience.

🧩 Community Mosaic Project
Sundays 15, 22 & 29 November, and 6 December
11am to 2pm
Drop in for one session or all four. Stay for three hours or just pop by. No RSVP needed.

✨ Mosaic Taster Workshop
Sunday 8 November, 11am to 2pm
$5, and you take your piece home.
Registration essential: email [email protected] or text your name and contact details to 027 328 2726.

The taster workshop is optional. You can come straight to the project sessions.

These benches will be part of the eco park for years to come, made by the people who use it. We’d love you to be one of them. 💚

📍 Gallery Shed, Riverlution Eco Park, Richmond

A big thank you to team for letting us use the Gallery Shed for these sessions. 🙏

14/10/2026

Eco Educate ♻️♻️♻️

13/10/2026

🌸 Spring Fair 2026 is almost here! 🌸

Winter's done, so come shake it off with us on Saturday 17 October, 10am–2pm. Our Spring Fair is back for its 8th year, filling the whole stretch from Avebury House (9 Eveleyn Couzins Ave) down to Richmond Community Garden (46A Vogel Street). Bring your walking shoes!

There'll be so many not-for-profit stalls showcasing their mahi and so many local vendors to support. Ocean Ember Sauna is bringing a mobile sauna 🔥, Spokes is bringing back the bike valet, and the WEA will be on hand to get you enrolled to vote.

For the tamariki, there are games and sack races behind the pool, plus face painting, the Shirley Library Van and the Stormwater Superheroes down in the playground.

🎨 Up at Avebury House, Heritage Festival joins the party with a history exhibit, Devonshire Tea and the Vintage Market. 🫖

🌍 It's also International Repair Day, so our Repair Café is running all day at the Riverlution Eco Hub. Bring along that thing you've been meaning to fix and sit down with one of our volunteer fixers to work on it together. Every repair keeps something out of landfill. 🔧

We're super grateful to World Stanmore for sponsoring the sausage sizzle on the day, so come hungry, grab a $3 sausage and say thanks to the team. 🌭💚

💚 A huge thank you to everyone making it happen: We Are Richmond, Avebury House, Riverlution Parkrun, Eastern Community Sport, Rotary Club of Christchurch Sunrise, Canterbury Neighbourhood Support, Christchurch City Council and the CCC Graffiti Team, Supergrans Ōtautahi, Kitty Haven, Plant Based Treaty, NTRAĀ Charitable Trust, Creative Junk, Ocean Ember Sauna, The White Room, Rainbow Ride (Biketober), Delta Community Trust, Recreate, WEA, Consumer NZ, Ōtākaro Orchard.

🛍️ And come support our local vendors: Bee Awesome, Sour, Birchfield Greens, Dutch Cheese, Foraging Corner, Tomato Boy, The Chocolatier, Alfa Pets and Little Brown Egg, plus the car boot sale. And there's much more on the other side around the paddling pool and Avebury House! 🏡

🎶 Plus entertainment all day, with live music to keep the good vibes going.

Event link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Pz364fkkx/

Kai, music, good company and a great day out. We'd love to see you there!

07/10/2026

🌸 Spring Fair 2026 — Saturday 17 October 🌸

Richmond Community Garden, We Are Richmond and Avebury House are joining forces for our annual Spring Fair, a full day of community, creativity and connection across the site!

What's on:
🛍️ Vintage Market at Avebury
🏛️ Heritage exhibition
🚗 Car boot sale & bric-a-brac
🌿 Local vendors, seedlings and sustainable living activities
🔧 Repair Revolution (more below!)
💧 Mud kitchen & kids' play area by the playground
💃 Live dance performances
☕ Coffee and ice cream from the Riverlution Café
Spring Fair link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1D8cDjy6cs/

Local organisations will be on hand throughout the day sharing their mahi and ways to get involved.

It's time to revolt against throw-away culture! As part of the Fair, we're running a full Repair Revolution, a day of hands-on repair, creativity and community. Bring your broken bits and pieces (plus any parts you need) along to:

🧵 Our hand-sewing station at the front of the Hub, for mending clothes and textiles
🛠️ Our Repair Stations inside the Riverlution Eco Hub — torn clothes, stuck zippers, furniture, lamps, electronics, ceramics, toys, shoes, jewellery, knives and more

Let's reclaim the things we own and take pride in looking after them.

Got a car boot's worth of treasures? Book your spot: [email protected]
Keen to busk? We'd love to have you — get in touch to arrange a slot.

Spring Fair Repair Link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DL4qHSViH/

Mark the date — see you there! 🌱

07/10/2026

We've had beautiful blooms all around the café this month. It's a lovely spot to sit with a coffee and soak up the spring sunshine.

There's also a new way to linger: a checkers table made from upcycled plastic, kindly donated by . Grab a friend, pull up a seat and settle in for a game.

The tamariki had plenty to do over the school holidays. Shirley Library joined us for a picnic and storytelling, and Wild Wanderers turned the mud kitchen into a sensory play space. We've also added hay bale seating around the site, so there are more places to stop and enjoy the garden.

You may have seen Reggie at the farmers market. She's now joined our café team, and she's brought her wonderful aprons with her. Welcome to the team, Reggie.

Keep an eye out for some new faces this summer too. We hope to help more young people get their first jobs here at the café.

Even as the weather warms up, our classic cheese toasties on Bellbird sourdough are a firm favourite. If you haven't tried one yet, give it a go. They're good fuel for bikers, walkers and explorers. And here's something you might not know: thanks to , we have a well-equipped toolbox for cyclists who need a quick adjustment or minor repair on the go.

We're excited about what's to come this spring, and it's definitely ice cream weather now. See you soon for a brew or a scoop ☕🍦