WesleyCare Residents Board Bus for Ōtautahi Outing

On arrival at St Martins, the group of eight octogenarians, some supported by walkers and others in wheelchairs, and their supporters alighted for a visit to the local supermarket and to the adjoining café before returning to their Papanui rest home in time for lunch.

It was the inaugural Orbiter outing for WesleyCare residents in the rest home, hospital and palliative care unit. Over coming weeks every resident will be given the opportunity to participate in the across-town-outing.

Conceived and coordinated by the Wesleycare activities coordinator team, plans for the ‘maiden Orbiter voyage’ were first discussed late last year. WesleyCare manager Donna Coxshall was receptive to the concept, as were the residents and their families. Covid disrupted regular outings and there was a collective enthusiasm for a chance to participate in a fun, well supported, off site outing available to everyone.   All residents have been assigned to a group, and over the next ten weeks, each of those groups will gather at the bus stop adjacent to the main entrance and get onboard a bus that passes every 10 minutes.

Groups range from in size from two to eight people; friends are teamed together and mobility and fragility issues carefully considered in determining the group numbers.  Prior to the outing, each participant is given a laminated run sheet, confirming the date of the excursion and the names of each person in the group. The run sheets are a memento and reminder of the day out for resident’s and for visiting whanau.

WesleyCare operate a van for village residents who live independently onsite, and the rest home residents however the van is not suited to all mobility requirements of those living in the rest home, hence the public bus service offers an alternative for outings. An added bonus is that Gold Card holders are entitled to free public transport on the Christchurch Metro bus service during off-peak hours.

The residents reported back that they enjoyed doing something different. "Enjoyable morning tea, lovely staff accompanied us". "Good to see the changes since the earth quakes". "Great fun, nice to be out with friends". "It was great to be able to purchase my own fruit from the supermarket. Love to do it again but go somewhere different".