Domestic arrangements

I went to Rotorua yesterday to catch up with some of the whanau and we went to Whakarewarewa, the Thermal Village. We did the tourist tour and because it's a real village (people live there) we got a look at...

baths with a view

tonight's dinner straight out of the oven (seriously straight over a vent and it smelled great)

and we also had a mineral facial

and this is us

Going all arty

I spent yesterday on a bus tour run for the Wars exhibition visiting historical sites around south Taranaki. Really interesting but as photo ops go it was just lots of standing around in cow paddocks looking at ditches, you kind of had to be there.

On the way home though we stopped at Patea and did a walk along the river from where the freezing works used to be to the river mouth. Much better photo ops.

William Webb Ellis meets our shark

Up bright and early this morning to head down to work for the Rugby World Cup 2011 Roadshow. The William Webb Ellis Trophy (yes, the real one - there was a guard standing 3 feet away at all times and he would have done ok in a scrum) is travelling to all the host cities and today was our turn.

Signed by the authors

Tonight we launched the book that goes with the exhibition. It isn't a catalogue but a fabulous collection of essays on the topic of the Taranaki Wars by all kinds of experts, edited by Kelvin, our Manager Heritage Collections.


Wine, nibbles, lots of chat and most of the authors available to sign, et voila - collectors item

Labeling my life

Anyone who visits me any time soon is going to learn the Maori words for all the things around my house and where they are like...

the microwave

that the forks, the knives and the spoons are in the drawer

the cups are in the cupboard

and here they are, nga kapu

And those conference freebies are useful after all - post it notes thanks to LexisNexis the legal database

Return of the feijoa

Yup, the're back! It's feijoa season again but thankfully later and less abundant than last year. As you can see I also have apples and some dodgy looking oranges.