Maori king named

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...

Extreme frustration

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...

Families, who’d have them?

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...

End of a Maori era

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...

Did the earth move for you?

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,...