Christmas is coming!

It's that time of year again and Wanganui, New Zealand is gearing up for Christmas!


Carols by Candlelight was held at Virginia Lake again this year - loads of people for a very poor musical performance. The brass band raced through the carols 'hell for leather' where some of the carols had verses omitted altogether. It seemed as though 'we'll get through this gig as quickly as possible - move on to Santa's visit, lollies for the kids and we can all go home, put our feet up in front of the telly and have a cold beer'. Remarkable that folks don't seem to know any of the traditional Carols anymore - all the 'We wish you a Merry Christmas' and 'Snoopy's Christmas' type of numbers, some folks sing, but for the most part it all appears to be a bit of a yawn.
Enough said about that.


ACK New Zealand has branches all over NZ now - the 'Kerssangdiens' was held at Levin this year - combined music teams from Wanganui and Wellington provided the music for the good turn out of ex-South Africans. Jo and author up front doing our thing! It's very reassuring for the really 'new and fresh off the boat' folks to enjoy a Carol Service like this one. Home from home if you will.


We have made some really fine kiwi friends here in Wanganui and made home made Buttermilk rusk prezzies for them - 'n karringmelk beskuit sal hom wat verbeel om so mooi te kan vertoon!'
Once again, the virtues of the two dollar shops come to the fore in the cellophane and ribbons and bows - 'cheap as chips' and making the parcels look so festive and special!


Ulysses Motor Cycle club in conjunction with the Wanganui Classic Motorcycle club put on a Christmas toy ride for charity and although we cannot compete with the thousands of bikes seen at these events elsewhere in the world, the sentiment is no less heartfelt and the toys no less appreciated by the children who receive them.

It was good being part of a large group of bikes riding sedately behind a guy in a Santa suit through the streets of Wanganui, before heading out onto the open road for a circular route and stopoff for a good pub lunch - how fortunate we are!
And so glad that we know that one more child will have a new, very soft and cuddly bear for Christmas this year.
Dis al!

Dress up!

We celebrated Junès fortieth birthday at the Holiday park over the weekend. The theme for the evening was 'P' and most everyone got into the spirit of it all and dressed up for the occasion.
Priest, prostitute, pirates, photograher, pink, pumpkin, painters, playboy bunny, pimp ,papparazzi, punk rocker, pastry chef, palastinian etc and even a pair of 'plants of paradise'!



Had this particular pirate not been the husband of the birthday girl, he would have surely won one of the prizes for his efforts!

A Palestinian - complete with two dollar

shop shades!

The whole costume loaned especially for the occasion and earning it's place amongst the winning 'p' outfits!

Alna and Nelda - usually appearing on this blog as sophisticated professional ladies and part of 'le girls', got into the swing of the 'p' theme as pumpkin and pink.

Pukeko

Bruce and Anna live almost literally on the beach at Kai Iwi and are presently renovating their home - for them, they could just pick up a couple of old empty paint cans and come on over at the end of the days' work!

Although Junè won't actually hit the big four-oh until just after Christmas, we think she had a marvellous birthday bash!

In spite of the inevitable 'prophets of doom' who predicted that no party with combination guests - South Africans AND Kiwis, could work, this particular one did!

Dis al!

Pike River mine tragedy

It has been a very difficult time for the people of New Zealand with the horrifying realization that the 29 miners in the Pike River mine, are not going to be heroically rescued. After the whole world cheered the eventual rescue of the miners in Chile, everyone here was desperately hoping for a similar ending to this horrible situation.

This picture was published of The Beehive - the New Zealand 'head office' and where, as you can see, flags flew at half mast for the miners - mostly from New Zealand, but also from Australia, the UK and South Africa.

Similarly, at the rememberance service held at the racecourse in Greymouth, the flags flew at half mast as a sign of respect.

Messages from all over the world were received and some of the most notable, read out at the service - Her Majesty and

The Pope only two of the literally thousands received.

The service was attended by about 3,000 people and was broadcast live on television.

Hearing that one of the lads lost was only 17 years old and that it had been his first day underground was truly heartbreaking and is all the more real to us since it's a year ago this week that we lost Estan, who was also just 17.

Now, it's a question of whether all the efforts to extinguish the raging fire in the mine will be successful so that the teams of guys can get in and retrieve the bodies so that their families can close the chapter and try to move on with their lives.

Projects and Paddlers

If you remember, our pianos stood on the wharf in Auckland for three months after our container had been cleared - something about ivory importation concerns I believe - in any event, the wood that came from South Africa (and which we have to assume was thoroughly treated for bugs of every description) has been lurking around our backyard for a year after we de-crated the pianos. Being ecologically minded folks, we have been pondering as to what to do with the aforementioned wood and came up with this project. The 'pattern' was on the Internet (under amateur woodworking projects) and so we adjusted where necessary and spent a weekend in the garage making this easel.

This green machine shaved off all the mould and damp and grunge, leaving us with these planks to sand down and smooth. Not much you can do about the huge nail holes except to agree that they add enormous amounts of character to the finished item.

The basic frame - done!

The cordless little screwdriver came in really handy - note the obvious 'crate-nail holes' in the frame!

We have to admit that perhaps this is not the most aesthetically perfect easel you ever did see - and pine is not our most perfect wood to work with, since it 'clogs up all the machines' - but we had such fun with the project!

And here we have a fully functional, adjustable, home-made, from fully imported wood, aesthetically acceptable, bragging-rights-for-both-of-us, easel!

Arline, pictured here on the right, is our sparkling-brand-new-minister imported especially from South Africa. She and her husband Lukas have been here just on a month now and are in the beginning stages of settling in and getting accustomed to all things kiwi - with an African flavour for much of the time! June is measuring up fabric for table mats to paint - the first attempt at a new hobby for her!

MWH (for those of you who haven't been able to keep up - the consulting engineering firm Jo works for) entered this year's 'executive challenge' on the Whanganui river. 'Our' boys pictured here in their spiffy YELLOW and blue shirts (giving their boat the subtitle of 'The Banana Boat') - have spent a good few hours on the river over the past couple of months, rowing their hearts out.

The chappy on the far left of the picture is Simon Charles - yup, you guessed it, the other ex-South African in the office and although, to all intents and purposes he's English speaking, it is useful at times to be able to make an observation or have an 'alternative opinion' in Afrikaans! Everyone knows that whatever language you conduct your life in, sometimes the 'Moedertaal' says things a whole lot better!

The approach to the start of the race. Note that the rowers are not all boys - yay the ladies!

And so, after winning their heat fairly comfortably the MWH team went on to win this year's executive challenge by a huge margin - beating teams from other local businesses as well as an incredibly strong team of exceptionally large people who rowed for 'The department of Corrections'.

We were so chuffed with them and had yelled so loudly from the banks of the river that you would have thunk we dun sumthink to make'em win!

Dis al!

Hobbits, strikes and labour weekend

One of the most spectacular events in the recent history of New Zealand has been the fact that the blockbuster "The Hobbit" was filmed here. The past few weeks has seen everyone who is anyone (the Prime Minister included) dropping everything except the proverbial ball, to try to ensure that the sequel happens here too. At the moment, Warner Brothers have sent a contingent of big wigs over and there are meetings being held behind closed doors and convoys of luxury vehicles being spotted by media and reported on ad nauseum - all in the interests of keeping the lowly kiwis informed as to whether they are going to be filming here or taking the next film 'elsewhere' - wherever that might mean. All we can fathom is that Australia is in the thick of things and the average kiwi is 'seriously unhappy' about that. It was reported that someone in the States said that the New Zealanders who appeared in the first film as extras, were 'Mexicans with mobile phones' which is not the sort of thing that one should say if you want to 'win friends and influence people'. Evidently these extras were 'willing to work for next to nothing' - which may well have been the case but is nobody's business but their own and I should think a huge plus for the chappies who had to pay them. Why this fact should immediately label them as 'unsophisticated and uneducated' is a mystery to me. Having only the scantiest of facts at my disposal, I can only have my opinion!

The secondary schools' teachers are once again on strike - rolling strikes they are calling them - the problem is that the government is not willing (not able they say) to entertain the idea of a four percent pay hike across the board, offering only just under two. Apparently, according to the spokespersons 'what know' - teachers have had four percent raises EVERY year for the past more than a couple of years and are earning 'pretty well'. The teachers 'spokespersons what know' are saying that facts are being misrepresented and nobody is earning anything like what they are said to be earning 'on paper'. Whatever the case might be, a couple of my music students are feeling a little pressurised with absentee teachers and therefore no school days happening just before the year end examinations.
At least the 'Labour Weekend' happens to celebrate the fact that in 1890, workers across New Zealand went on strike and won the right to work a maximum of an eight hour day - that victory has been the reason for the long weekend celebrated every year in October. Although not everyone in every industry got that privilege, for the most part, folks are not expected to put in the sweatshop hours of the eighteen hundreds anymore.

Black sand and driftwood on Castlecliff beach.

Our 'Hamilton Family' - the Bothas, surprised us with a weekend visit and spent a couple of days with us escaping the rat race. We had the most glorious weather and made the most of the sunshine and calm, windless days - strolling along Kai -Iwi beach on Sunday.

The driftwood on the beaches near us makes the most fascinating study. This is the first time we have seen such a spectacular creation.

Having been here for almost 21months now, travelling behind this vehicle shouldn't have one thinking Bethlehem anymore - you would think!

And the centre line should be yellow and the road edge line white- you would think!

Dis al!

PS It's pink!

Te Rewa Rewa Bridge

Sometimes on a Friday, if Jo has some travelling to do, I will accompany him, armed with the camera in the hopes of capturing something interesting for our faithful blog readers to see.

Last Friday, there was some quite scary work to be done on a mountain pass outside New Plymouth (thankfully dayglo jackets are VERY visible) and once the work was done, we ambled past this bridge which Jo discovered in the course of his travels a little while ago.

Admittedly, it's just a pedestrian bridge over the river and no doubt is not called upon to support any kind of dramatic weight, but even so, we thought it had taken someone with a little imagination and willingness to do something different to erect this quite artistic feature - this tiny corner of New Zealand now has a few more folks stopping off to have a look than they ever had before, since there is really nothing else happening for miles!!

There is definitely something in the culture and/or history here in New Zealand that makes much of this sort of 'ribcage motif' - we have seen other sculptures in other places around the North Island which are equally reminiscent of rib cages.

Knowing that there is a plethora of engineering enthusiasts in our circle of family and friends, means that this bridge could fill the 'mildly interesting' category for the blog entry this week!

Dis al!

P.S. Still don't know if it's pink or blue!

The Owl

Eagle Encounters Garden Route is hosting an amazing Art evening with the view to raising much needed funds for the rehabilitation and release work which they do with Raptors - (Eagles, Hawks, Kites, Falcons, Owls etc etc).

Here is the contribution from New Zealand - Acrylic on canvas.

Hope you guys raise loads of money and that folks really support you - with attendance, purchase of art works and general donations which are needed to keep these magnificent birds in the skies and in the wild.

This owl is 'winging' it's way across the ocean to you, courtesy of New Zealand post! With a smidgen of luck, it should be there in time for the big event.

Dis al!

Museum visit

The weather over the past few weeks has been decidedly unpleasant - very wet and very windy and very constant!
Cabin fever sent us out on a 'avencha' and we wandered out with the view to visiting this museum which we have been threatening to do for ages.
The pioneers in New Zealand have, it appears, faced the same struggles which peoples all over the world have faced and have settled themselves, for the most part, as best they could and with all the knowledge which they brought with them from 'home'. The life-size models in most of the exhibits are really well done and we particularly enjoyed the humour which has been so skillfully incorporated into the museum without having any of the pioneering spirit disrespected in any way.


There are so many thoughts which come to mind when one considers why this fellow is looking so incredibly distraught and 'moedeloos' - we, of course, have our own opinions about that. After all, 'as jy rêrig so graag daardie fiets wil ry, dan moet jy maar die gevolge daarvan dra! ' and more to the point - 'as jy dom is, moet jy suffer'!









The chappie up on the wagon has the little guy's teddy bear, by the looks of things - and there is a tantrum going on which Mother is studiously ignoring while she pours herself and farmer Jack a cup of koffie kapitaal!

One of the 'founding mothers' of the Taranaki area spent her life here and although she never married, was right up there with the upliftment of genteel society as a whole and this 'outpost' specifically. As a result, on her passing, a large part of her house and it's contents have been incorporated into this part of the museum and set up (behind glass of course) pretty much exactly as they were in her home. We just so enjoyed the sense of humour which is evident in most of the exhibits - in this case, the child is ruining the train mechanism once and for all!

It was mentioned on the plaque for this exhibit that she was particularly fond of the 'parlour singing' that folks engaged in at the time and it was felt that any exhibit without these fellows would be incomplete. We have our own reasons for being amused by these gentlemen!

We wandered around the museum for a couple of hours and then took shelter in the coffee shop while the weather raged outside - rain and wind and hail!

Definitely worth the visit!

Dis al!

Parikawa Beach north of Kaikoura South Island.

This seascape was finally finished over the weekend to make place on the easel for a painting that I would like to do for the fund-raising auction to take place in October at Eagle Encounters Garden Route.


Although we haven't actually been to this particular beach, I chose this picture because it's fairly representative of west coast beaches in New Zealand - volcanic 'sand' and very green hills alongside. The snow-capped mountains behind are just an added bonus!

Dis al!

Bikes, blossoms, boerewors and braaiers

The 'old' Honda motorcycle is considered to be vintage and Jo was invited to show the bike at a vintage bike event in Palmerston North last weekend. There was an amazing assortment of bikes from all eras and all makes - particularly British and Japanese. However, some folks take these sorts of events painfully seriously, whilst others tend to park their tongues firmly in their cheeks and 'show' a bike like the one pictured here which was standing amongst some quite dramatically impressive bikes of the motorised variety! The card on the front was obviously written by the owner of the bike and reads "Blaze's bike No 500"
I did notice that some show-goers were not amused - which just made me enjoy the situation even more!
(Note that the bike beside this one is parked over a mirror - very serious competitive showing wouldn't you say? A dab or blob of oil on that mirror could put the owner in line for a serious bout of depression or a brush with OCD at the very least!)






Those of you who know me well will know that this having come up unplanned, 'unplanted' and unannounced in an 'empty' bed in the garden was a brilliant surprise and made my day!








Our plum tree has burst into amazing blossoms and I took a couple of photographs with the view to setting up a still life picture for an acrylic painting sometime in the near enough future.

There are two butcheries within striking distance of Wanganui which sell decent enough boerewors - this one is in Stratford and as you can detect by the sign out front, is owned by ex South Africans. Whenever Jo is out and about on the roads in the vicinity of this little town, he calls in for boerewors and a big bag of sliced biltong, which may or may not arrive home intact - depending on how ravenous the purchaser was at the time!

We bought a Cadac portable braaier which folds up and packs away neatly into a bag just big (or is that small) enough to fit into one of the cases on the bike. This means that we can waft off anywhere we fancy and set up the barbeque beside a road somewhere, as we did in this photograph. The blue bag pictured here as well, is a little 'chilly bin' so meat and salads stay cool and fresh. Called in at a local supermarket en-route and bought a couple of fresh, crispy breadrolls and voila - dinner done!

PS - Cadac has only very recently been introduced in Wanganui - the locals are most impressed with the product range.

Dis al!