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Reflection time

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Southend Business Group | Promoting a vibrant High Street

South End Business Group are reminiscing about a bit of Christmas late night shopping on High Street.

On December 1st we are kicking off the festive season with our version of Lower Hutt’s late night shopping. “A Very Hutt Christmas”.

“A Very Hutt Christmas” will return the magic of late night shopping with many of your favourite shops and cafes, and a sprinkle of market stalls and food trucks to create a nostalgic and retro late night shopping experience. Featuring a live music stage, busker trail and a special kids area to relax and enjoy a treat or two between shops.

Located all along the South End of High street, there will be pop-ups of entertainment to entice a leisurely stroll around the city centre enjoying the sights, sounds and smells. Christmas on High Street will be in full swing from decorated retail windows, street art trees on the footpath and Christmas jingles abound.

Entering the 2degrees Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards 2022

Nominations are now open. They will be a celebration of the businesses across the Greater Wellington region. With nine categories to choose from there is a place for all organisations to participate. The categories include: ...

Book and attend the Awards

The awards will be a time for you and your business to celebrate your efforts, your team, their drive and determination, and equally their contribution to jobs, the economy and our communities. It will also be a great way for you to celebrate your business with your customers.

The Riverlink Project team are wanting all people who work in the Lower Hutt CBD to complete a travel survey so they can understand how everyone gets to work each morning (and home again at the end of the day). This information is required to plan for the optimum mitigation of the disruption to travel patterns during the period of construction for the project.

We are asking all business owners/managers to download and print the attached poster then place it in a staff area, and to encourage all staff to use the QR code to access and complete the survey.  There are spot prizes of vouchers to CBD cafes for people completing the online survey.

The summer Soundbites series of music entertainment in Andrews Ave from 12 - 2pm and Dowse Square from 4:30 - 7pm continues.  Today, a small crowd was entertained by Andrew London on guitar and Neil Billington on harmonica.

They played a wide range of folk, country, jazz, blues, and even some bluegrass tunes with vocals from both Andrew and Neil. Anyone who knows Andrew could not help but enjoy the entertainment provided over the lunch break.

If you missed their show or the later session in the early evening, then you can catch other musicians on Fridays for the next few weeks at either Andrews Ave or Dowse Square.  Come out and enjoy the summer in the Southend. 

The winning businesses in the Light Up The Hutt 2021 challenge were announced this morning.  There were a record 27 entries in the challenge this year, with some really great Christmas windows on display.

A small judging panel organised by the Southend Business Group reviewed each of the windows both during the day and the night. The three top windows were considered to be:

  • NZ Uniforms - for vibrant colour both during the day and when lit at night (see attached image)
  • Unichem - for the fantastic night display of a golden waterfall ant the giant wrapped gifts floating in a twinkling sea
  • Visique - for the striking white display both during the day and at night

It is not tool late to take a trip round the Southend and wider Hutt CBD to view the Christmas windows on display, and possible pop into one of the shops for some last minute purchases.

Have you seen the two giant Christmas trees hidden in the scaffolding attached to the CML building on Laings Road?  This building is currently undergoing renovations for earthquake strengthening and conversion to apartments. John Feast, who is doing this development. arranged for his contractors to attach coloured lights to the scaffolding inside the protective windbreak cloth in the shape of a giant three story high Christmas tree. There are two of them, one on the corner with High Street, and the other above the Roadhouse Bar and Grill at the other end of Laings Road.  While these cannot be seen during the day, they are quite stunning at night and make this construction site look very festive. Thank you John for doing this for the Southend.

Re-Tree celebrates creativity and sustainability in our city with a pop-up exhibition of Christmas trees designed and created by locals. All trees will be displayed in a public exhibition in a vacant store front to create a gallery of trees in December. The exhibition is part of Southend Business Group’s Christmas on High Christmas celebration for the City Centre. 

A street art inspired Christmas tree trail on the footpath in 2021 will feature twenty trees on the streets, extending further north on High Street than for Christmas 2020. Christmas on High offers people to meander at their own pace and time enjoying the work of local artists. These trees will be installed throughout the Central City for all to enjoy for the month of December.