Sacred Architecture

It seems that the architecture around church buildings in the South Island of New Zealand is extremely diverse. We have found the buildings generally to be of interest, but thought you would like to see a sort of thematic group - so here are just a few of the churches we happened to see on the South Island.

This one - The church of the Good Shepherd - is in huge demand for weddings - set beside a spectacular lake, it is remote, peaceful and intimate - and of course, limits the number of guests you can invite since it is really small. A little windswept on the day we visited, but even so, still breathtaking views of the mountains and lake.

The Anglican Cathedral, up on the hill in Nelson is fascinating in that it was designed, originally to have the whole soaring spires and buttresses number, however, the money ran out on completion of the first floor and so the resulting 'solution' was what you see here. The design was

most definitely something 'different' but we were glad to have got inside to see it - and play the beautiful pipe organ which arrived by ship from 'the continent' at enormous expense.

The main focus of Cathedral Square in Christchurch - this beautiful old building has miraculously sidestepped major damage with the recent earthquakes that have hit other, similarly aged buildings in the city. Some of those others have their spires 'taped up' or 'shored up' with scaffolding and the like and are somewhat depressed and frantic looking - this one, still to all intents and purposes, perfect for the tourist photographs which are constantly being taken. The square was the venue for the New Year celebrations this year and is a hub of the city with the i-site for us happy wanderers, the tram 'base stop', a good few souvenir shops, plenty of talented buskers and a Starbucks cafe with tables on the square for watching the world go by while enjoying a coffee over a map or two.

We had to wait a little while to get this 'lonely' looking photograph - the place was literally overrun by camera-clutching tourists - mostly of the asian persuasion and in groups of never less than it seemed like fifty!

We spied this Catholic church sort of through the sidestreets and round the back of tiny Hokitika - it was a bit of a trudge to get there, but there it stood in all it's splendour - in spite of New Zealand being very 'un-religious', these dramatic church buildings are dotted about all over the place.

Now this one was a little harder to find - we had heard about a really old German settlement outside Nelson and followed the Neudorf road to find it - after getting our lady-in-a-box totally confused (who by the way, speaks fluent Afrikaans and doesn't mind the motorcycle in the least) since the roads have changed since the maps were set up! Eventually came across the Lutheran church set in a really tiny town amidst rolling farmland and sheep dotted pastures. All very pretty and pastoral.

The founders village in Nelson (where we sampled the beer and found Castle beer listed in the International Beer Bible) has a 'functioning' church too - used for weddings - especially the kind with horse drawn carriages and sepia like photography with bridesmaids issued with pretty parasols and groomsmen in top hats and tails - you get the picture.

Queenstown - so named apparently, because it's beautiful enough to entertain Her Majesty - has this little church tucked away right in the middle of the 'city' - also just a little 'round the back'. Since it was raining and really miserable and the town was filled to more-than-capacity with extremely well heeled folks spending obscene amounts of money in the outrageously expensive, designer boutiques - we didn't hang about for too long. Very glad to have visited the town - will definitely go there again, but off season and mostly to see the spectacular lakes and mountains. We agreed that you can keep the shopping!

This is a really sad church - you can see by the condition of the spire that it's no longer in use as a church - like so many of the churches around New Zealand, it has been 'converted' - this one is now a funeral home. Not quite as sacrilegious as so many others that have been re-designed in upmarket paint jobs and are either coffee shoppes or top end craft shops. This particular one was built about a hundred years ago by the Methodists to serve their growing flock after the missionaries did such a sterling job of converting the 'heathens' they found here!

Timaru has some really magnificent churches - for a coastal, holiday town which hosts a Christmas carnaval on the beach every year - this year being the Centenary Christmas Carnaval - the town appears to be only a little larger than Wanganui - but lo and behold, there are these huge churches - Methodist, Catholic, Anglican and Presbyterian - most all the major denominations are represented and have dramatic buildings to prove it!

Here is the Sacred Heart Basilica in Timaru - there was a service in progress on the morning that we took the photograph so we didn't go in, but judging by the sounds emanating from the building, there is a large pipe organ in use and a fair few congregants with 'oh my goodness, listen to ME' voices!

Also in Timaru - one could be excused for thinking that this was the hub of all things sacred in the South - a church round every bend!




And our little congregation hires a first floor conference room in the centre of Wanganui for the moment - still think it would be better to hire out the churches than to sell them and convert them into commercial premises - but that's probably just a personal opinion.

Dis al!

Welcome Matilda Amelia!

Here she is folks! Matilda Amelia van der Spuy, born 12th January 2011 - weighing in at 7lbs 11oz, beautiful daughter to Andrew and Claire of Vancouver, Canada.
Thrilled grandmother will continue to post photographs and snippets of interesting information for evermore!
Huge CONGRATULATIONS Andrew and Claire - we are absolutely over the moon for you!

A taste of the South

We have just returned from a fabulous trip to the South Island on the motorcycle - 3,000 kms in ten days! There are about three hundred photographs and a couple of video clips to sort through and put up for you to see, but we thought you would like a little sample so here is a small taste of the South. And, Happy New Year to you all! Our 'New Year's News' will follow in the not too distant future!

The 'interislander' ferry is not the only one that gets folks safely across the Cook Straights back and forth from the North and South Islands of New Zealand. We discovered the Blue Bridge ferry does exactly the same job for a whole lot cheaper - they don't seem to advertise - we found them by chance and saved a pretty penny!

Known as 'high viz' - the yellow and orange fashion statement over the biker jacket does flap about quite a bit and gets irritating sometimes, but makes sure that we are seen from behind. The headlamp on the front of the bike hopefully makes sure we are seen from the front too!

Sometimes you ride on by and other times you get up off your tail and take in the magnificent scenery - photograph taking also a good excuse for a bit of a stretch of the old bones!

We wanted to see a particular bay near to Kaikoura - one of the scenes which I have painted, and en-route, came across this little rocky bay full of seals basking on the rocks and lolling about in the shallows. They seemed totally unconcerned with all the fuss made by tourists, campervans and cameras.

The sign inside the viola case says - saving for airfare to the USA to audition for the Julliard School of music! We made as much of a contribution as we could - she was doing such a fine job, we hope she gets there!

Cathedral Square in Christchurch has of course, a magnificent cathedral, but also the tourist information site and loads of shops selling all sorts of things that are light or ludicrous or fit into an envelope. The starbucks cafe was particularly welcome and we lolled about outside under leafy trees sipping iced coffees! Bliss!

Chose this particular picture of the tram in Christchurch which does a circuit around the historical points in the city, and which we rode on when our bones got weary of trudging around the town, because in the background you can see the scaffolding and suchlike in front of one of the older cathedrals which has been declared unsafe after the devastating earthquake in September and the subsequent 'aftershocks' which number in the thousands now. We just missed one by a day or two which had folks scurrying for cover again!

After settling on a motel, we would head off to a pub or similar eating establishment to tackle the 'where are we now' and 'what's there to see' and have a bite to eat. This picture was taken at a charming pub in the suburbs of Christchurch and from where we were sitting, we could see an advertising board for Nando's chicken - the first we have seen in New Zealand. Apparently, they are springing up all over the show!

Spectacular South Island scenery! We were continually amazed by the clarity and particularly the colour of the water in the lakes and streams - some serious blue, others so turquoise that you are tempted to keep checking if your sunglasses are not perhaps squiffing the colours!

There is a 'founders' village just outside of Nelson which has it's very own brewery - who knew there were so many different beer 'flavours'! The immense claim to fame there, is the fact that this little family run brewery has made it into the International 'Bible' of brew masters and has won numerous awards for it's beers

Be that as it may - we were much more interested in discovering if there were any South African beers listed in the prestigious book - and lo and behold - there we found Castle lager and Castle Stout! We were somewhat surprised that there was no mention of Black label or Windhoek or any other SA beer for that matter. Interesting.

Sometimes, if you are extremely lucky and happen to be in the right place at the right time, you can get to play

a big old cathedral organ and fill the place with sound!

The top of the high street in Nelson with the dramatic Anglican Cathedral up on the hill.

Dis al vir nou!

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!