Two Roads Worth Travelling

From Turanganui-a-kiwa to Te Wairoa: on the inland road… From Gisborne, the inland road leads across plentiful plains, up into rugged hill country , and then descends into Tiniroto, Frasertown and Wairoa. A side road took us to Tiniroto village – pub, school, community garden and a couple of houses clustered above the lake.  A hospitable publican […]

Te Wairoa…(Wairoa)

Te Wairoa itself has all the charm to be a thriving town.  The shops and cafes stretch along the edge of the river, colourful and cared-for.  Houses are plentiful – and unbelievably cheap, around $100,000 for a modest bungalow .   But there aren’t enough paying jobs.  The Wairoa Freezing Works, once a major thriving employer […]

Kotare Village and Koanga Institute

We’ve known Kay Baxter and Bob Corker for more than 25 years.  They did design plans for our land at Awhitu, and our orchards were planted with Kay’s recommended varieties of heritage deciduous and subtropical plants.  We have a huge respect for their work over the years.  So we decided to go to an Open […]

A new voice in Grandpa Herald

We are enjoying the frank, provocative columns by Rachel Stewart, recently recruited by Grandpa Herald from the Taranaki Daily News.  She has just won the 2016 Opinion Writer of the Year  Canon Media award.  Her powerful statements about male predators, and farmers who abuse the environment, have made this Whanganui Dairy Farmer and falconer somewhat […]

The Bird Watchers…Himali McInnes © 2016

  …as read at Going West by author Himali McInnes They think they come here to watch us, with their peculiar glasses glinting in the sun and their field books for lost creatures. Little do they know that we watch them even more closely. They are so ugly, with their plucked skin, their croaky voices, […]

Spring Equinox greetings from Earthsong…

A rhythmic chorus of frogs and a coloratura tui wake us at 5 am each day here at Earthsong.  As Tanya’s photo above shows, the frogs are afrogging in our pond.  And the tuis are acrobatting in the tallest trees. Auckland in spring is tempestuous – sudden gusts and showers, days of rain followed by frosty nights […]

Inside Out

    We’ve had four very different experiences in the last week which could all be called “Inside Out”- very fitting for spring weather, this time of challenge, change and new growth: • Gurmon Sup (“Dark Forest”, an installation at Te Uru Gallery by an Auckland-based Korean artist and tomato grower) • New Voices (readings […]

Inside and Outside the “Dark Forest”

  Gurmon Sup (translated into English as “Dark Forest“) was an extraordinary installation at Te Uru Gallery in Titrangi by Jae Kang, an Auckland-based Korean artist and passionate  tomato grower.  She used recycled irrigation materials to create sinuous snakes and coils, piles of black polyethylene tubes, pipes and fixings invading rooms, hanging down the handsome golden spiral staircase […]