Whittakers Abroad

Sunday, 7 May 2006

A busy fortnight

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been incredibly busy over the last couple of weeks. The highlights of the last fortnight have been last weekend's stay at a marae and today's 'Round the Bridges' race.

Noho Marae

Noho marae means 'marae stay' in the Maori language. It was my first ever visit to a marae and I was quite nervous beforehand, but I needn't have worried, as I had a great time. I took a disposable camera with me, but frustratingly it didn't work, so I've not got any photos to post.

After taking part in the powhiri (formal greeting ceremony) and eating a meal together, the main event of Friday evening was the mihimihi, where every person stood up in turn and introduced themselves by giving their whakapapa (genealogy) in the Maori language. Some people (like me) simply listed their grandparents, then their parents and finally introduced themselves and said where they were from. Others gave a much longer and more detailed family tree. There must have been over eighty people in the room, and it took nearly three hours for everyone to introduce themselves, but it was a really good comprehension exercise and I amazed myself by not 'switching off' at all. Apart from the hosts and our university tutors, everyone else was a beginner, and it was great the way everyone supported the person who was speaking, especially anyone who was struggling , either with the language or with nerves from speaking in public.

On Saturday morning we learned about the history of the village, which was founded as a Christian community shortly after the First World War by a man called T.W. Ratana. Here's a link if you'd like to find out a little bit about him.

weaving flax ('borrowed' image)

After lunch we had a flax weaving workshop where we were taught how to make a simple bracelet. This was my favourite activity. I found it very relaxing.

I wish we'd looked this good!

Finally we learned a Maori song and dance about fishing for seafood which we then performed at the farewell ceremony at the end of the afternoon. In the time we had, I think I could either have learned the tune, or the words, or the dance, but trying to learn all three was a real challenge!

Round the Bridges River Run

This annual charity fundraiser is in its 29th year, and offers a choice of two courses - one 7.9 km long and the other 4.7 km. As I only started running in February I thought it safest to train for the shorter distance. At one point I thought I wouldn't make the race at all. I developed a very sore throat on Thursday night and spent most of Friday in bed, feeling really rough. I thought I'd got a throat infection and assumed I wouldn't be well enough to race today. Fortunately, it turned out it was just a cold, and by this morning I felt fine.

As you can imagine, I was thrilled to be well enough to race after I'd thought I wasn't going to be able to, and I was even more delighted to get round in 28 minutes; three minutes faster than when I ran the course in training two weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed the race and I'm keen to run a proper 5k at the earliest opportunity.

about two thirds of the way round

I did it!

Hopefully the frantic pace of our lives will slow down just a little now, so I get a bit more time for posting to the blog!

Helen

Wednesday, 26 April 2006

One year in

Today is the first anniversary of our arrival in New Zealand. As always whenever you look back, it all seems so long ago. The UK is a distant memory, in fact even living in Auckland seems a bit hazy!

We've achieved most of our goals in the last 12 months in terms of settling in, getting jobs and buying a house and it's been a pretty hectic and stressful period at times. It's only recently we've felt like the whole immigration process has been completed and we've started to feel more settled. This emigrating lark is harder than it looks! It's a pretty expensive thing to do - we've deliberately not kept track of what we've spent but it's in the tens of thousands of pounds. The majority of the stress comes from the uncertainty of the process - will the house sell? Will we get residency? Will I get a job? Can we find somewhere to live? etc. Since February 2005 we've moved 6 times! That on its own is a bit too much like hard work. However, unlike other immigrants we've heard of, we've had no regrets or 'down' times - it's been a very positive thing and I think we've cleared all the associated hurdles now.

We'd never been to New Zealand before, so moving here was a gamble but it's not disappointed us. NZ lives up to the hype and is a lovely country to live in. The lack of crowds, the stunning landscape, the friendly, upbeat people and the sunshine all mean we have to pinch ourselves to make sure we aren't dreaming.

Our next major goals are :

Helen to finish her book (coming along nicely at the moment) and find a publisher;
To buy a plot of land somewhere and get a house built;
To tour South Island;
To visit some of the South Pacific Islands & Australia

If we manage 2 out of those in the next 12 months we'll be doing OK.

Now we just need to figure out an appropriate way to celebrate - I think it may involve alcohol and chocolate!

Tuesday, 25 April 2006

Anzac Day

Today is Anzac Day - a public holiday, and the closest thing New Zealand has to a national day. It's a bit like Remembrance Sunday and St. George's Day rolled into one. Iain's got the day off work, so we were planning on going out somewhere, but it's been tipping it down solidly since 6 am, and it looks as if the rain's settled in for the day.

Here's a piece giving the background to Anzac day, taken from the official Anzac Day site (the footnotes are mine).

On 25 April 1915, eight months into the First World War, Anzac* soldiers landed on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula**. They and other Allied troops were there as part of a plan to open the Dardanelles Strait so that the Allies could threaten Constantinople (now Istanbul), capital of Germany's ally the Ottoman Empire. This, it was hoped, would force a Turkish surrender.

But the Allies encountered unexpectedly strong resistance from the Turks. Both sides suffered enormous loss of life and after nine months the Allies abandoned the campaign and withdrew their surviving troops. A total of 130,000 Allied and Turkish soldiers had died. Nearly 3000 of them were New Zealanders.

The anniversary of the landings has been commemorated in New Zealand since 1916 and Anzac Day has been a public holiday since 1921. On this day New Zealanders acknowledge the sacrifice of all those who have died in warfare, and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.

* Australia and New Zealand Air Corps
** in what is now Turkey

After the Gallipoli campaign, the 'soldiers' biscuits' that mothers used to send their sons in the army were renamed 'Anzac biscuits'. Because they don't contain any eggs they keep for several months if kept in an airtight container. You can buy commercially produced Anzac biscuits here and they're delicious. They're certainly much more appetising than the 'hardtack' biscuits the UK army and navy used to get. I tried one once on a school history visit, and it tasted like sawdust.

As you can't buy Anzac biscuits in the UK here's a recipe in case you fancy trying them.

Anzac biscuits

125g flour
1 cup coconut
100g butter
1/2 teaspoon Bicarb of Soda

150g sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiling water

1. Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats.

2. Melt butter and golden syrup.

3. Dissolve Bicarb Soda in boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup.

3. Make a well in the centre of the flour, stir in the liquid.

4. Place spoonfuls on a greased tray.

5. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

P.S. A 'cup' is a measure of volume and is approximately 235 ml.

Helen

Sunday, 23 April 2006

Random wibblings

a fruit tree in our garden

Until a couple of weeks ago we had no idea what this tree was. We didn't even know whether its fruit was edible. So we asked around, and someone from one of the emigration forums told us that it's a tamarillo and yes, you can eat the fruit. When they're ripe they turn bright red, so this week, as soon as one of the fruits looked ripe enough, I tasted it. Tamarillos have the nickname 'tree tomatoes' and while their skin is red and they're full of soft pips, that's where the similarities end. They taste very bitter and unpleasant, so I think we'll be giving them away in a shoe box at the end of the drive. Our forum friends gave us a link to a website with lots of tamarillo recipes, but I can't see how any of the recipes will make the tamarillos more appetising (unless of course you substituted the tamarillos for another fruit entirely).

Since taking up running in February I've been in training for the Round the Bridges Fun Run, and with only two weeks to go before the race, I decided to run the actual course for the first time this morning. The course is 4.7 km (2.9 miles) and it took me 31 mintues to complete it. That's an average speed of only 9 km/h or 5.7 mph! Still, eleven weeks ago I couldn't even run for one minute without getting out of breath, so I'm still pretty pleased with what I've managed to achieve. The organisers have taken the bizarre decision to start the walkers and pram-pushers first, thus creating a potential bottleneck for the runners when they catch up with the pedestrians. At the speed at which I run I'm unlikely to be overtaking anybody, so getting caught up in the crowd shouldn't be a problem for me!

Iain has joined the local Community Patrol. It's a voluntary organisation which works with the police to make the town a safer place. The patrol has an unmarked car in which pairs of volunteers patrol the streets at night, alerting the police if they see anything suspicious. The police often ask the them to keep an eye on specific trouble spots. The patrols work on a rota basis, with each volunteer going out on an average of two nights a month. Iain went out on his first patrol last night, from 9 pm to midnight, and it sounds like he had a pretty interesting time. I'll let him describe it for himself because accounts are so much better when they're written from direct experience (and also because I was half asleep when he got back home last night and I can't remember what he told me!)

Next weekend, as part of the Maori language course Te Ara Reo Maori, I'm off on a Noho Marae - a 24 hour stay at a marae (Maori meeting house). Iain's not going, as he's dropped out of the course. It reminded him too much of being at work, and a three hour session once a week plus a couple of hours' homework is a pretty hefty time commitment, which he wasn't prepared to make. I'm keeping going with it, at least for the time being, because I'm enjoying it. The marae stay is bad timing, as it coincides with a yoga workshop I really wanted to go to. It also coincides with Pookie and Mo's 'big op', but I'm sure Iain will manage to cope with two groggy kittens for twenty-four hours. They'll probably cause a lot less trouble than they normally do!

Helen

Sunday, 16 April 2006

A few piccies

Our blog entries have been a bit short on pictures lately, so here are some photos we've taken over the weekend.

U.C.I. (unidentified crawling insect)

We found this insect crawling around on the firewood that's drying out on the porch of the sleepout. It's about five centimetres long. Does anyone know what it is?

Iain chilling on the patio yesterday

my 'office'

The last three photos could be the first pictures in another occasional series entitled 'Our House'. The room I use as my office is a small lean-to extension built onto the side of the bedroom. It's got lots of windows which means it's lovely and bright, but consequently it gets very hot in summer, and I'm expecting it'll get chilly in winter, especially as it's completely uninsulated. As you can see, it overlooks the washing line. We don't have a tumble dryer because there isn't room for one in the kitchen, and there's nowhere else to put one. Getting the washing dry on rainy days can be a bit of a challenge. We've not decorated in here yet, and we're a bit short on ideas. Please let us know if you've got any suggestions for a good office scheme.

Friday, 14 April 2006

Mutant bushes prompt climate research

We were eating our lunch on the patio today when Iain mentioned how much he thought the shrubs we planted have grown since we planted the borders.

I thought it would be interesting to take a photo so that we could find out exactly how much they'd grown. The results surprised us.

Less than eight weeks separate the two pictures below.

The weird stick-with-leaves on the left was already in the border but had been choked by an overgrown lavender bush. Since we've exposed it to the light it's absolutely exploded, and it's started flowering, too. We have no idea what it is.

But the rampant growth prize has to go to the purple number on the right. It's one we planted ourselves, but we've lost its label so we don't know what it is either. It's earned itself the nickname Audrey II.*

mid February

mid April

We think the rapid rate of plant growth here is probably due to the combination of nutrient-rich volcanic soil, generous rainfall and lots of sunshine.

This thought got me looking up average weather data for here and the UK. I found the following statistics and found them interesting enough to share. I chose Birmingham because it was the nearest city to Burton on Trent (where we used to live) for which I could find data.

	Birmingham UK	Wanganui NZ
Average annual rainfall (mm)	764	870
Average annual sunshine (hours)	1260	2051
Ave. max. temp. (Summer)	20	22
Ave. max. temp. (Winter)	5	14

As you can see from this data, the climate here is warmer, with a milder winter. It's also much sunnier, yet at the same time, significantly wetter. This may seem like a contradiction at first, but we get very few dry, overcast days here. It's either sunny or tipping it down - sometimes both at the same time. Iain and I have a standing joke that a mac and a pair of sunglasses are both essential every time you set foot outside, whatever the time of year. No wonder the plants love it!

Wanganui is one of the drier places in NZ. The highest daily rainfall ever recorded was in Hokitika on the West coast of South Island, which once got 682mm............. IN ONE DAY!!! Where we used to live, in Titirangi, the average annual rainfall is about twice what it is in Wanganui. (As Phil & Sally can testify!)

*Come on, you must have seen 'The Little Shop of Horrors'.

Wednesday, 12 April 2006

Just checking up...

...on the hit counter.

Blimey, we've had 22 hits in 24 hours! That's far more hits than I thought we'd get. This blog isn't public - in other words, it's not on the Blogger.com listings, so it's effectively 'ex-directory'. That means 22 of our family, friends and acquaintances have read our blog since yesterday.

If I'm going to be totally honest I have to admit that Iain and I have accounted for about six of those hits. So that means 16 people we know have visited the blog since yesterday lunchtime. Either that, or one very forgetful person has visited it sixteen times. Yes, I think that's the more likely explanation. ;-)

Tuesday, 11 April 2006

Got a hit counter

We're getting so few comments on the blog that I've been getting a bit despondent of late, so I tracked down and installed a hit counter today. Hopefully having a hit counter will reassure us that at least some of our friends and family are checking up on us from time to time and haven't forgotten about us entirely.

Installing the counter was a bit complicated, and there's a screw left over that doesn't seem to fit anywhere. I'll just throw it in the bin. Hopefully it doesn't do anything important. ;-)

Monday, 10 April 2006

In need of a title

Forgive me, Blogger Father, for I have sinned. It's been over a week since my last post. We haven't been flattened by an earthquake or invaded by hordes of giant spiders. We've just been very busy.

Last Sunday night we met up with Ian, a friend of ours from the UK, and his fiancee Carol. They're planning to emigrate to New Zealand in twelve months' time and were over here for a two-week fact-finding tour. Ian spent a big chunk of his childhood in New Zealand, in the nearby Taranki area, so for him emigrating will probably feel like coming home. He and Carol met during a tour of New Zealand a few years back, which is another reason why New Zealand is close to their hearts. Wanganui is currently on their shortlist of possible places to live when they get here, so they came to have a look at the town and check out what's on offer in the local estate agents. It was great to see Ian again (and to meet Carol for the first time) and we had a very convivial evening. I'm hoping that, wherever they end up living when they get here, we can make a habit out of meeting up.

Iain has had a really hectic week at work. One of the childcare tutors has left, so as well as taking his usual Teacher Aide lectures he is having to teach some of the early childhood modules. Those of you who know Iain will no doubt be rolling around on the floor laughing by now. The stress has got to him so much that he's had to buy himself an X-Box 360 to compensate. He was very good about it, though. He waited until I'd given him a permission slip first. The terms of the agreement stipluate a major revamp of my yoga room, so I'm on the lookout for a TV, a DVD player, a storage cabinet, a friendly floor restorer (the room has the original floorboards and apart from an inexplicable coat of green paint they're in good repair), wall coverings and an 'ethnic' looking blind for the window. The great thing about it is, we both think we've got the better end of the deal!

I had some exciting news the other day. I've had one of my poems accepted for publication in 'Poetry Monthly' magazine. Many thanks to my friend Caroline from the writers' forum for a) cajoling me into submitting it somewhere and b) actually doing the submitting for me. I'm 'stoked', as they say here.

Pookie has earned herself a new nickname this week. Like all good pussycats, our two bring anything they've caught into the house for our approval. During the last week Pookie has started bringing home litter, which we think she's probably been collecting from the 'reserve' (area of common land) on the hill above our house. Tonight I heard a loud meowing from outside the kitchen door, and saw a pair of paws scrabbling at the cat flap, but no cat followed. It turned out Pookie was trying to force her way through the cat flap carrying a McDonalds paper bag in her mouth. I'm now calling her 'Womble'. (Apologies to Roy.)

On Friday night we went out for a meal with Dave and Judith who are originally from the UK but now live in Wanganui. We met them via one of the emigration forums that Iain posts to. Dave had very generously dropped off some firewood for us earlier in the week, taken from a tree on his land that came down in a storm a month or so back. During our evening out Dave revealed that he used to ride for Cradley Heath Speedway in the 1970s, which impressed Iain immensely, as he used to be a big speedway fan as a teenager, following the Stoke Potters. The thing that impressed me most about the evening was the ice cream I had for dessert. It was the best ice cream I've ever eaten. Even better than the gelati I scoffed by the bucketful while we were in Italy. I have to find out who the restaurant's supplier is, and I have to do it soon. I think I'm already addicted after just one hit.

Saturday, 1 April 2006

Skiving off

We set ourselves the task of blitzing another bit of the garden today, but it was such a lovely day, we skived off half way through the afternoon and went 'beach hunting'.
We found a great place called Turakina Beach just a few kilometres down the road.

It's fairly typical of the beaches in this part of New Zealand. The approach to the beach is through grass-covered sand dunes, the upper part of the beach is a crazy jumble of driftwood, and the sand is made from black volcanic rock.

We thought you might enjoy looking at a few of the photos we took.

where does it all come from?!

enjoying the warm autumn sunshine

getting chilly - time to make our way home

Friday, 31 March 2006

Stubbies in action

Great news, I've just found a link to an advert that features stubby shorts.

http://coc13060s1.puccini.2day.com/movies/stubbies.mpg

Enjoy.

Sunday, 26 March 2006

Kiwi Quirks No. 2: Shorts

What is it with New Zealanders and shorts?

The Jackson effect
Before we came to New Zealand we thought the fact that Peter Jackson wore shorts while shooting scenes halfway up a snow-covered mountain for 'The Lord of The Rings' was a sign of eccentricity. However, we now know better. Instead of marking him out as an eccentric, this behaviour merely confirms that the esteemed film director is just like every other New Zealand male. A true Kiwi Bloke wears shorts all year round, (even if there's a wind chill factor of minus twenty) and for every occasion, no matter how formal. He'll even pop on a pair of 'dress shorts' for his own wedding.

fig. 1: Peter Jackson - not so eccentric after all

Big boys
In the UK only boys under the age of seven ever wear shorts to school, and most boys nowadays wear long trousers as soon as they enter reception class at the age of five. The first time I saw a group of sixth-form lads wearing shorts as part of their uniform I felt terribly embarrassed for them. If they had been in the UK I would probably have told them to stay off the streets to avoid getting beaten up.

fig. 2: painfully emasculated

Beach wear
Figure 3 shows a pair of board shorts, or boardies, so called because they're worn by surfers. (In New Zealand they're probably worn by snowboarders too.) Boardies are de rigeur on the high street. Iain's even got a couple of pairs and he's never been near a surf board in his life.

fig. 3: a pair of boardies

Eurgh!
And finally we come to figure 4, a pair of very short shorts, known affectionately as stubbies. In Europe, shorts this short were last seen at the 1970 World Cup, but over here they're still kicking around. I had hoped to find a photo of a pair of stubbies being worn by a typical owner - a red-faced bloke in his fifties, with excessively hairy legs, large gut hanging out over the waistband, and the back seam splitting under enormous strain. It's probably just as well I didn't.

fig. 4 a pair of stubbies

Wednesday, 22 March 2006

Remember, folks, you heard it here first

I just had to pass on this bit of gossip that Iain told me this morning. Allegedly (note the use of the 'Have I Got News For You' anti-lawyer adverb) New Zealand has just had its first death from bird flu.

The story goes that a man who returned recently from Asia has died in New Zealand from symptoms which would appear to have been caused by HN51 (or whatever it's called - you'd think they could have come up with a snappier name for it). Apparently, a post mortem is currently under way and the authorities are awaiting confirmation before making an official announcement.

I haven't yet decided whether I believe the rumour or not. It could well be true, as this is exactly the sort of way in which bird flu is most likely to reach NZ, but it could just as easily be an internet 'prank' perpetrated by some bored teenager in order to spread panic among Kiwis. If it's the latter, then they don't understand the Kiwi character very well - I've never met a more unflappable bunch of people.

Anyway, maybe it was a coincidence, and maybe it wasn't, but this morning in the post we received a government leaflet entitled 'Getting Ready for a Flu Pandemic'. It advises people to have a written plan of action in case anyone in the family should become ill, and to build up an emergency supplies kit. *insert shocked smiley here*

Over the next couple of days I shall be watching the evening news with interest.

Helen

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

My, haven't they grown?

Our little mogs are getting bigger by the day, but unfortunately, no more sensible. Pookie still spends a significant amount of time trying to eat her own tail, and Mo regularly gives herself a headache by attempting to fling herself through a locked cat flap.

Here are a couple of recent photos.

Pookie

Sunday, 19 March 2006

Incy Wincy comes to tea

Last night we were sitting watching telly when I noticed a spider scurrying along on the sitting room carpet. "Ooh," I said, "Is that a white tail?" I put a glass over it and went to look up white tail spiders on the internet. We got a positive ID pretty rapidly. It was a white tail, all right. So Iain did his best pest control officer impression and duly dispatched it.

The spider wasn't very big - only about two centimetres across, but it looked really mean. White tails originated in Australia and have been known in the North Island for over a hundred years.

A white tail doesn't build a web to catch its prey; instead it actively hunts other spiders. Its main method of hunting is to enter the web of its intended victim and mimic the struggles of a trapped insect. This tricks the resident spider into investigating the disturbance and so instead of gaining a meal, it becomes one when the white tail strikes.

White tails' bites are venomous, and they can and do bite humans. Typical symptoms of a white tail bite include pain and swelling at the bite site. The bite can develop into a small ulcerous wound that heals inside a week. In some instances, victims report flu-like symptoms.

There have also been reports in the media of people who have been bitten by white tails going on to develop more serious infections such as 'necrotising arachnidism', a severe form of skin ulceration, but these reports are generally unsubstantiated and it is not always confirmed that the bite was definitely made by a white tail. All the same, I'll try to steer clear of the little eight-legged darlings in future.

I was interested to note that The Australian Museum Online's factsheet on white tails mentions that

White-tailed Spiders around your house can be controlled by ... clearing away the webs of the house spiders upon which they feed.

Up until now I've been leaving alone any spiders' webs I find, as they help to keep the number of insects down (we have a real problem with flies here) but this morning I went round with the long-handled duster and got rid of all the cobwebs.

I must admit feeling some alarm when I read the following from the University of Southern Queensland's 'Find a Spider' guide:

They are most likely to roam at night and can drop down from the ceiling onto beds.

Sunday, 12 March 2006

Miscellaneous ramblings

It's been a bit of an uneventful week, really.

As Iain spent quite a bit of time chopping wood last weekend, and it was also a bit chilly, we tried out our log burner for the first time last Sunday night. We were impressed with the amount of heat it gave off, but somewhat alarmed by the large amount of wood we managed to burn through in only a few hours. We've put in an order for a couple of trailer loads of firewood, so hopefully we'll have enough to last the winter. Also on Sunday night was the strongest gale we've experienced since we arrived in New Zealand. It was a real humdinger, and I became so worried about what might happen if the huge tree on the slope above the bedroom were to lose a branch or two during the night, we dragged the mattress into the sitting room and spent the night there.

We went for our first proper Maori lesson on Tuesday night, and the three hours whizzed past. It was good fun, and we learned lots (or 'heaps' as they say here.)

On Wednesday we won the quiz night at Rosie O'Grady's for the first time. This was only because we joined forces with another team, who were seriously short of members. Fortunately, our various areas of expertise* complemented each other. We won a fifty dollar bar tab, so we'll have to go again this week - what a blow! ;-)

We didn't get a very good night's sleep on Friday because we were woken repeatedly between about 1 am and 8 am by a series of five earthquakes. They weren't as strong as the one we had a few weeks ago, but they were much nearer, with their epicentres all in the same place - out in the Tasman Sea about 30 kilometres southwest of Wanganui.

So far we've had a very lazy weekend, apart from our run this morning. In an effort to get fitter, we started on the Runner's World beginners' running schedule last month, and tomorrow is the start of Week 6 - run for twelve minutes, walk for two minutes, run for twelve minutes. We've managed to keep to the schedule so far, which is great. This is yet another case of different skills complementing each other. I find the running itself a bit of a challenge, so Iain is able to support me in that department, whereas Iain finds getting out of bed in the first place the biggest hurdle to overcome, so I help him with that! If we manage to survive Week 8 (run for 30 minutes continuously) I'm going to enter the 'Round The Bridges' fun run in May. It'll be just the incentive I need to work on my speed. At the moment I'm being overtaken by old ladies on zimmer frames.

*or areas of ignorance

Sunday, 5 March 2006

I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK.....

There's been a bit of a cold snap for the last few days, so I thought I'd better get my axe out and chop up some firewood - just in case. Naturally I had to put on my lumberjack shirt as well, just to get into the spirit of the thing.

A study in Zen and the Art of Woodchopping

I dress in women's clothing and hang around in bars...

Sadly the forecast says it's going to warm up, so I may not get the chance to do the caveman "Ug, fire" routine just yet.

Wednesday, 1 March 2006

Taking the first step on a long journey

On Tuesday night Iain and I enrolled at Te Wananga O Aotearoa (the University of New Zealand) to start learning the Maori language. The course we are doing is called Te Ara Reo Maori (The Pathway to the Maori Language). It's an evening course, with one three-hour lesson every Tuesday night. By the end of the course, in two years' time, we should have a reasonable knowledge of the Maori language and also be familiar with some of the most important aspects of Maori culture.

Before I went along I assumed that the people on the course would all be Pakeha (New Zealanders of European descent) or immigrants (like us). I was quite shocked when I saw that over fifty percent of the students looked as if they might be of Maori descent. I'd just assumed that all Maori would speak their own language. Apparently this is far from the case. As recently as the 1980s Te Reo Maori was a dying language. It wasn't taught in schools and was only spoken by a small percentage of the Maori population. It's only in the last twenty years that Maori culture and language have made a resurgence. Te Reo Maori is now recognised as an official language of New Zealand (alongside English) and Maori language and culture are taught in schools.

Te Wananga O Aoteroa (the institution we're studying with)

Te Ara Reo Maori (the course we're doing)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Yesterday Iain and I took some photos of Kowhai Park, a really cool children's playground which is just a five minute walk away. It's so good it almost makes us wish we had children so we could have an excuse to visit it all the time. Now that's a scary thought to have, even if only fleetingly.
Click on the link below to see a slide show.
Photos of Kowhai Park

Sunday, 26 February 2006

UB40 concert

Last night we went to New Plymouth to see UB40 in concert. They are on their Who You Fighting For World Tour and are also celebrating their 25th anniversary. Bloody hell, that makes me feel old! The concert was at the Bowl of Brooklands, which is an open-air venue in a city-centre park. The stage is in the middle of a lake, and the spectators sit on the ground in a grass-covered amphitheatre.

The Bowl of Brooklands during the day...

...and at night (This isn't the UB40 concert. They had a much better light show.)

We got there early and managed to bag a great spot. We didn't take our camera as the tickets said it was possible that cameras may not be allowed, and we didn't want to risk having ours confiscated or having to leave it in an unattended car for five hours. As soon as we sat down it started raining, and we thought, Uh-oh, here we go, but fortunately it was just the first in a series of light showers, which fizzled out before the concert began.

UB40's support band were a local guitar and drums trio whose name sounded like Loo Zips Free but almost certainly wasn't. They weren't bad at all. I'd say their style was funk/jazz inspired pop, but then I know nothing about these things and it might just as easily have been plain-song inspired hip-hop. They've got an album out in New Zealand at the moment, the name of which I didn't even manage to mishear, so I'll have to keep a look out for it. It'll be a miracle if I find it.

Although the concert started at 8pm, UB40 themselves didn't come on stage until quarter past nine, but they were well worth the wait. They played a good mix of songs from last twenty-five years, including lots of their best-known hits - Cherry oh Baby, Red, Red Wine, Rat in Mi Kitchen, I Can't Help Falling in Love, Don't Let it Pass You By, and they ended their encore with One in Ten (what else?)

Even though there were 'no standing' signs everywhere, everyone stood up when UB40 started their set - you can't listen to Reggae sitting down, can you? And like everyone else, I spent the entire hour-and-a-half dancing (or jiggling about in an uncoordinated fashion in my case). We had an absolutely brilliant time, and would recommend the gig to anyone. The tour finishes in the UK in June. For information on venues and dates, visit the UB40 official website here.

Thursday, 23 February 2006

More garden photos

We've been spending a couple of hours every day gardening, and we're really pleased with what we've managed to achieve so far.

Here are some photos showing the transformation of bed number 3 in the patio area.

before (90% weeds)

during

after

The only problem is, every time we tidy up a bed, the beds nearby look even worse. Next on our list is the bed next to the sleep-out (which you can just make out on the third photo above.)

The unusual edging material is driftwood which we collected from the beach this morning. It was blowing a force eight gale and we got thoroughly sandblasted, but it was worth the effort. It looks much more interesting than any bought edging material, with the added advantage of being free.

Sunday, 19 February 2006

Before and after garden shots

We've completed the renovation of two of the beds in our patio area, so we thought we'd post up some before and after photos.

The 'before' photos only give a very rough idea of what the beds looked like before we started working on them. I forgot to take any 'before' photos this weekend, so we had to dig out some old pictures taken in early December.

If you can imagine each 'before' border after nearly three months of neglect, you'll have some idea of how straggly, overgrown and weed-ridden they were.

Bed 1 before

and after

Bed 2 before

and after

As we're reluctant gardeners, we've tried to make the borders as low maintenance as possible, so we've put down black matting and bark to suppress the weeds and the plants we've bought are all hardy, evergreen perennials. The stick-like things in bed 1 are a few of the old plants which we've left in (a lavender, a rosemary and a shrub we haven't identified yet). They were all very straggly, so we've pruned them hard. If they survive we'll keep them, and if they die we'll take them out. It's kill or cure.

If the weather remains fine we're planning on doing some more garden renovation during the next week, so we'll post some more pics. If anyone has any gardening advice or tips, we'd love to hear them, because we know absolutely nothing about gardening and are stumbling around in the dark at the moment.

Right, I'm off now to have a big sit down and a nice cup of tea.

Saturday, 18 February 2006

Today we have been mainly...

...gardening. We realise this may come as something of a shock to those of you who know us well. Let me explain.

Up until yesterday we'd done absolutely nothing to the garden since we moved in (apart from mow the grass). As the previous owners moved out about a month before we moved in, this means the garden has been neglected for over three months. Everything was getting so overgrown the house was in danger of being swamped under foliage like some Mayan ruin.

This weekend we're tackling the patio area which is the main outdoor living space. We'll post some 'before and after' piccies tomorrow, but just to whet your appetite, here's a rare photo of Iain in action.

Iain gets all horticultural

Thursday, 16 February 2006

Thanks to Carin...

... I am no longer showercapless.

A cheeky little green and yellow satiny number arrived in the post earlier in the week.

Here I am, modelling the shower cap and practising my poses ready for when the acting agency calls.

The 'James Dean'

The 'Barbara Windsor'

Thanks, Carin. :-)

Shake, rattle and roll

I can't quite believe that we've lived in 'The Shaky Isles' for ten months without experiencing an earthquake, but last night we broke our duck.

I was woken just after one o'clock by a low rumbling sound and wondered, quite calmly, whether it was an earthquake coming. This thought popped into my head because neighbours of ours told us just a few weeks ago that you can always hear an earthquake before you feel it. Sure enough, several seconds later the house started to shake from side to side. It felt like a gentler version of the earthquake simulator we went on in the Te Papa museum in Wellington. The shocks only lasted about two seconds, but were big enough to wake Iain, which is saying something ;-).

I was interested to find out whether the earthquake was a minor, local event, or whether we'd been on the outer limits of a bigger quake. I made a mental note to try to find the earthquake on the national earthquake site when I got up this morning.

It didn't take long to find details of the quake. It registered 5.9 on the Richter Scale which sounds pretty big to me (but then I'm no seismologist) and the epicentre was out in the middle of the Cook Strait, the stretch of sea separating North Island from South Island. I wouldn't like to have been sailing on the midnight ferry last night!

Click below to read
details about this morning's earthquake.

Friday, 10 February 2006

Our Whanganui River Trip

Last Saturday morning we drove for an hour and a half, most of the way on gravel roads, to get to the town of Pipiriki, where our river tour started. I call it a town because that's how it was described in the brochure, but really it's more like a village. In fact, thinking about it, it isn't big enough to deserve the name village, consisting as it does of just half a dozen houses and a public toilet block. So let's call it a settlement.

From the boat ramp at Pipiriki we rode in a jet boat up river for about an hour. Our guide, who was the owner of the tour company, stopped at a few places of interest along the way, including an area of river underneath an arcing rock cliff called the amphitheatre because the acoustics are so good there. In the 19th century when paddle steamers plied the river, the local Maori used to put on shows at the top of the cliff for the visiting tourists.

At another point our guide showed us metal rings driven into the rock a few feet above the water line. These rings used to hold lengths of rope. At points where the river was particularly shallow, paddlesteamers would often run aground, so these ropes were installed so that they could attach to them and be hauled over the shallow bits.

After about an hour on the jet boat we arrived at Mangapurua landing and from there it was a forty minute walk through the bush (native forest) to the famous (in New Zealand) Bridge to Nowhere.

not the Bridge to Nowhere ~ must be the bridge to somewhere

This photo shows Iain walking across a hanging footbridge on the way to the Bridge to Nowhere. Our guide told us that the bridge had only been completed just before Christmas. The previous footbridge had been washed away by floods the previous season.

The Mangapurua valley was first opened up to farmers between the world wars. About thirty farming families lived there by the mid 1930s when the bridge was built as part of the new road linking the Whanganui River with the town of Raetihi to the north. By the time the bridge was finished eighteen months later, only a handful of families remained. The road was never finished. The reason? Poor farming conditions in the valley combined with a sudden decrease in river traffic when the 'river road' was opened in 1934. This was the first road to connect Wanganui to the interior of the North Island. Before that everything came on the river.

The Bridge to Nowhere

We ate our packed lunch on The Bridge to Nowhere and then set off back to the landing. Our guide took us several kilometres back down the river in the jet boat, and dropped us off at a rock and driftwood strewn beach where there were a couple of canoes.

Helen

Action Helen paddles furiously

It's a really isolated bit of the world up river - there is no road access or even walking access to vast sections above Pipiriki. One of NZ's 'Great Walks' is a five day wilderness canoe trip down the Whanganui and it really is pretty wild up there.

Why are you smiling? Haven't you seen Deliverance?

Having been abandoned somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we thought we'd better start paddling back. Open Canoes, I have decided, have the potential to wreck marriages. "Paddle left! No right!! Where are you going?" etc etc. Eventually we sort of got the hang of it, and managed to proceed in a zig-zaggy way down river. I'm sure you're only supposed to tack against the wind when you're in a sailing boat! There were a few small rapids along the way, which were lots of fun for us 'newbies' and we managed to get back to Pipiriki in one piece without being molested by any banjo playing hillbillies.

Taking a well earned rest from canoeing sideways down the river

Overall we had lots of fun and are contemplating buying our own canoes (not open ones!) to do a bit more splashing about in the river. The five day trip sounds like a lot of fun.

Iain

Wednesday, 8 February 2006

A poem

I'd like to share a poem I've written, inspired by our river trip on Saturday. We'll be collecting the photos later on today, so we should be posting our trip report this evening or tomorrow morning.

On the Whanganui River

I grasp the moment
the way I grasp this paddle
as lightly as I can,
knuckles still white.

The weight of time
is my ballast -
the ghost of a seal hunter
cutting through ice water.

No glacier melt here.
The river gorge is a leaking boat
letting in sunlight
to leave me soaking hot.
Even the river is sweating.
It smells of damp earth
and newly-minted oxygen.

On the stony sandbank
an installation of
driftwood sculptures
lies artfully abandoned.

Among the tree ferns
and rata vines
cicadas complain incessantly
about the heat.

A harrier hawk rises like a hymn
at the note of my paddle
and then is gone.

Helen Whittaker

Sunday, 5 February 2006

Phew!...

...we made it back in one piece after our jet/canoe trip along the Whanganui River yesterday. Unfortunately we can't post any photos yet. We didn't dare take our digital SLR, in case we dropped it in the river, so we bought a cheapo disposable camera and took some snaps with that. The camera processing place in town doesn't open again for a couple of days, as it's a holiday weekend here, so we'll have to take the camera in on Tuesday, wait a couple of days for the film to be processed (or maybe succumb to impatience and pay extra for their 1 hour service) and then scan the prints into the computer before we can post any photos to the blog. We'll post our 'trip report' with the photos.