Source: Auckland Council
With Auckland back in Alert Level 3, we would like to remind Aucklanders of the wide range of Auckland Council’s free services and activities they can enjoy and explore together at home or close to home.
Here is a quick guide for some of Auckland Council’s free services and activities:
Learn and explore with our libraries together at home
Available online anytime, anywhere, Auckland Libraries offers film streaming, online courses and the latest collections of ebooks, eaudio books and emagazines all for free.
Choose from thousands of eBooks, browse curated book lists, listen to your favourite eBook, learn a new language, browse more than 800 magazine titles, stream films, explore Auckland’s heritage and much more.
Find out more on the Auckland Libraries website.
Learn from home with Auckland Libraries
Find out how to access the library online
Haven’t got a library membership yet? Sign up online today – it’s free, quick and easy and gives you instant access to Auckland Libraries online.
Stay active together at home and in our local parks
Keeping active is an essential part of looking after our physical and mental wellbeing – perhaps even more so during COVID-19.
And even though we may be restricted in where we can go and how we can exercise, there are still lots of ways we can get our bodies moving.
Staying at home doesn’t have to mean cutting back on your exercise. On the Auckland Council Pools and Leisure Facebook page, we’ll be posting regular videos with home workouts for you and your whānau.
Keeping it local and exercising in our neighbourhood is a good way to look after ourselves while keeping our whānau and our community safe.
With over 4000 parks and more than 250 paths to explore, there’s something within walking distance of home wherever you are in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Check out the links below:
Reduce your waste together at home and save
Even during COVID-19, you can help the environment, learn new skills at home, and learn to save money and food.
If food waste were a country, it would be the third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases. Each year, Aucklanders put about 100,000 tonnes of food waste into their rubbish bins. Diverting food from landfill is one of the single biggest climate change interventions an individual can make.
Make a small change, try composting
If you’re considering composting in the future, right now is a great time to learn about the different methods and prepare your household for the change. You can chat with the facilitators or watch videos on Facebook.
Make a small change, meal planning
Kiwi families might be finding themselves with odd ingredients or trying to stretch the time between trips to the grocery store during COVID-19.
Auckland Council has teamed up with Love Food Hate Waste to provide these practical steps to help save money and reduce food waste.
The Easy Choice cookbook is full of recipes that will please the whole family on any budget, and the latest Autumn edition uses a great mix of long-life ingredients – perfect for all those tins and dried foods in the cupboard.
Explore and enjoy our Auckland art galleries, museums and zoo together at home
Auckland’s most treasured destinations for learning and exploration, such as Motat, Auckland museum and our zoo, have had to close their doors to the public to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
But all of these places have plenty of intrepid activities to discover online.
Auckland War Memorial Museum
While the doors of Auckland Museum are closed, you can still experience some of your favourite parts of Tāmaki Paenga Hira from home.
Watch how volcanoes are made, make an exotic bird come alive in a puzzle or see some never seen before photos of Sir Edmund Hillary and his expeditions.
Visit the museum website
MOTAT collections
MOTAT has an impressive online collection of more than 300,000 items telling stories of technology, innovation, transport and social history in New Zealand.
The collection can be accessed online for free.
NZ Maritime Museum
Sign up to the Maritime Museum’s free kids club and receive a quarterly activity pack in the post, plus kids sail for free on their birthdays! Join the club and download activities here.
Auckland Zoo
Auckland Zoo is bringing the animals to you with regular stories, interactive activities and learning resources for families at home.
Visit aucklandzoo.co.nz for more information, or take a look at the links below:
