A lion, a light & another festival

The lion was in Opunaki, about 45mins down the coast. He was there as part of a one day sculpture project that happened all over the country. It's kind of difficult to explain how a live lion is art but it worked.

The light is the replica lighthouse at Cape Egmont. The education team did a term of classes there for primary aged children and I got to go and visit. It was fantastic, you can climb all the way up to the top, look up and down the coast, see the real lighthouse and how the light works.

The multi-ethnic festival is an annual extravaganza of food, music and fancy costumes. Who know there were so many cultures represented in New Plmouth?

Oh, and as documentary evidence that it is actually me telling you all this from downtown NP & not faking it...

I survived Womad

3 days, 6 stages, 30 hours of music and I made it all the way through. Haka, Flamenco, French a capella, Bedouin jerry cans, the Oud!
I went because I'd been told it was a must do and to try and work out if it was worth going next year. The answer is absolutely yes.

The weather was stunning which helped and the setting was fantastic. It's held in the park and the biggest stage is a huge grass amphitheatre surounded by a lake.

They had 40,000 people through the gates over the 3 days and most of them were dancing for most of it.

Wellington & Womad

Last weekend it was the rugby, this weekend it's Womad and in between I've been to Wellington. The trip was partly for work, to hear Shelley Bernstein from the Brooklyn Museum speak and to meet some people at the National Library but mostly to help sort out the stuff from my Grandmother's house now that it has been sold. It was really nice to visit it one more time and to bring home some of the memories, a cup we always took on picnics, a coffee jar for my favourite biscuits which is how they were always stored, books (of course).

It was also nice to go for a really long drive. The car is great for long trips and really solid on the road - a fact I was very greatful for on the trip home as a southerly came through and windy Wellington well and truely lived up to its name.

And now I'm off to day 2 of Womad.

This is my 3 day pass so I can come and go as I like, you also end up in the shortest entry queue which is good. Last night I heard Pakeha (Anglo Kiwi), Maori, Cuban, Arabic/French and Aboriginal - fabulous and only a tiny sample of the whole programme which includes food, craft, film and at least 3 performances on at any one time.

A perfect Naki day

Sunshine, rugby and a clear view of the mountain. The Hurricanes won too!

I made jelly

This may not sound like a noteworthy event but jelly and I have not been a happy thing. I can do turkey with all the trimmings but setting jelly has alluded me to the point where I have not even attempted it for ages. Anyway I ended up with some fruit juice after making a trifle to take to a bbq so I decided to try jelly again rather than waste the juice.

And it worked.

And that's boysenberry ripple ice cream, runs a close second to hokey pokey.

Kulcha and Cuture

This week Americarna (no it's not a spelling mistake but very crafty marketing) came to town. Over 800 cars and well over 800 car nuts not to mention the locals who turned out in droves. They did road trips to surrounding towns and then had a big street parade here on Friday night. I tried to take photos but they didn't work out, darkness and motion are not a good combo for my phone camera, but I did snap this lovely example parked outside my place last Tuesday.



Friday was also the opening of the latest exhibition at Puke Ariki called Culture:Fresh out of the box. The exhibition takes 25 treasures from our collections which were given to 15 contemporary artists with Taranaki connections to interpret. The results are widely varied but all totally stunning. The day started with a dawn blessing by our Kaumatua or Elders at 6am and finished with an official opening for the artisis, sponsors and staff. Yesterday we had the public opening. Unfortunately it was tipping down rain and a howling gale but the foyer was still packed to see the the entertainment including the Patea Maori Club who are iconic and had the place jumping.


There were also historic walks around town scheduled. The walks were relocated inside and as you can imagine some of the library patrons were a little suprised to come up the stairs to non-fiction and see these welcoming fellows.



Those on the tour were escorted by RedCoats and so were quite safe.



Actually quite a few people took the chance to play the good poeple of New Plymouth and it was wonderful seeing some familiar faces in unfamiliar kit.