1 September is the first official day of spring and to celebrate this significant milestone in the calendar, the sun has put his hat on and started to shine. The last few days have been glorious with plenty of sun, leaving me a little red face still wearing my winter coat. By the end of [...]

Taking up swimming in New Zealand was my antidote to lack of exercise in my last months in the UK. You’d think that it was a harmless enough pastime. You’ve probably heard of road rage or air rage but now there seems to be a new phenomenon, lane rage. That’s swimming lane rage – a [...]

It rained for 13 hours solid yestrday (Saturday) and caused more chaos on roads and rail. Our local train between Wellington and Johnsonville was de-railed close to Khandallah because of a landslip. We saw them cleaning up the debris when we headed off to Kaitoke to see whether the bridge had been swept away. It [...]

Yeay, I thought spring has arrived at last. But, no the daffodils sprouting up on people’s jackets as I walked to work were because of Daffodil Day. Daff’ Day is always the last Friday of August and the main fundraising vehicle for the New Zealand Cancer Society. They expect to make around $4 million from [...]

It’s been all change in our house since the UK football season start last weekend. Him indoors has signed up to video highlights on the internet, started scouring the sports channels for programmes and generally getting overly excited about a few men kicking a ball about a field. Somehow I should have known better that [...]

Tuheitia Paki has been named the Maori king hours before the burial of his mother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu after a six day tangihanga on her marae at Turangawaewae in Ngaruawahia. This role is not a heridiary right but he was chosen by the Maori iwi (tribes) across New Zealand as the best candidate [...]

I am almost bursting with the extreme frustration with the development of the house. To cut a long story short, weather has slowed progress on the infrastructure increasing delays. Intransigence on the part of the land vendor to commit to a firm plan moving forward is only adding to the painful process of planning. Nevertheless [...]

Being so far from family and friends, makes you appreciate them all the more. As I learn more about Maori culture I’ve started to think about some of the concepts of family. Whanau is the concept of family – its more than just your immediate family but the extended family where people may also be [...]

Seven days of mourning has started for the Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, who died yesterday at age 75. She has reined as Maori Queen for 40 years and has been a driving force for maori issues over this time. Dame Te Ata is directly descended from the first Maori king, Potatau Te Wherewhero, who [...]

No time for photoblogging this weekend, we’ve been catching up with chores. However, my mind has continued on the landslip theme, but this time because we had a newsworthy earthquake today. There are about 15,000 recorded earthquakes in New Zealand every year, with between 100 and 150 big enough or shallow enough, to be felt. [...]