Happy Helpful Honda!

We’ve just been thinking how lucky we are to still have our 2001 Honda.  She is now almost 20 years old, has seen us from the farm days through to the city, has done 456,120km, has a few mended scratches,  bangs and rust patches, and has faded somewhat from her original marvellous mauve.  But she […]

Busy in the City…

  Before our Northland journey, we’d had a rather busy month – a mix, as usual, of supporting NZ drama, films,  music and books, indulging and learning…as well as gardening (Tanya) and Isaac Body Corp Owners’ Committee (Charmaine) Three very different films: Rose Matafeo’s Baby Done –  a riotously funny journey with a top woman […]

Reflections on Westminster-style democracy..

Our government structures are based on those of England, unsurprisingly.  Early settlers from England, Scotland and Ireland assumed their right to install the systems of government they were used to.  After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, they flooded the country with immigrants (historian James Belich describes the settlement process as a […]

Protest Action…Saving Trees

  Save Canal Road Native Trees… For more than 100 days now, protesters have been occupying a property  in Canal Road , Avondale, to prevent the felling by a property developer of  the remaining twenty-three 100-year-old native trees.  The surviving trees include rare natives like black maire and kawaka; half the trees which grew on […]

Books and Writers

  Four more really interesting autobiographical books by women authors in Aotearoa have been published this year:   Alison Jones, a Professor in Te Puna Wānanga, the School of Maori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Auckland, and early in her academic journey she did important research at AGGS , which helped to change […]

4. Tanya’s Journey in Te Reo me ōna tikanga

As a 75 year old Pākehā woman I feel privileged to be able to continue my journey of learning Te Reo me ōna tikanga. I have appreciated many different opportunities to learn te reo over the last 50 years, but the last 2 years have been different. I have had the good fortune to participate […]

1. In the south…Whakatū-Nelson

On 22 June we took off to the South Island for 10 days, to catch up with friends and explore an area we hadn’t visited for some years- Whakatū (Nelson) and Mohua (Golden Bay).  Of course, we were doing our patriotic duty too, at PM Jacinda’s suggestion, supporting AirNZ and a range of small businesses […]

2. In the south: Mohua-Golden Bay

After our stop at Mapua we drove over  Tākaka Hill to Tākaka township, which still has a distinctively ‘alternative’ atmosphere, with its gentle pace, organic shops and old-style hippy culture.  Tākaka  obviously also continues to have a strong community focus, and a more modern political focus too – a clear Black Lives Matter statement on […]