Watch out...

there are gardeners about! (Soon to be joined by my Mum & Dad)

Rhodofest has kicked off and their offices are decked out accordingly in a verticle garden.

Cool eh?

Guess where this is

You get proper coffee at the hair dressers in New Plymouth!

The door on the right is on an old refrigerator which currently houses magazines.

Hangi hands

The 3 Te Ara Reo classes went away to Puniho Marae last weekend as part of our course. It was a fantastic weekend of workshops and all kinds of fun but the best bit was Saturday dinner.

The wahine (women) got the do the hangi which is normally a job for the tane (blokes) only. So these hands (note impressive amount of dirt under nails) with these friends dug this fabulous hole...

built a serious driftwood fire which produced a pile of seriously hot rocks...

which go into the hole, a flax mat goes on top of the rocks and then a huge basket of food goes on top of that. The whole thing is then covered in water soaked cloths and sacks, the dirt is piled back on top and you wait for 4 hours.

and when you take it all apart you hang up the washing before...

the cooks sing in the dinner which, according to very reliable sources was one of the best hangi ever. Yay us!

I know where a Taniwha lives

Taniwha (Tar-nee-far) are either monsters or protecting spirits depending on your point of view. They are generally associated with water and are basically pretty scary things not to be trifled with. We have one who lives in our basement, which is below river level, has a sump that collects and drains ground water. As part of the school holida programme the kids made scales for our Taniwha (underwater lighting care of the exhibitions crew) - he's pretty cool isn't he! He goes all the way around the pillar too.

Patience pays

One of the things I have not been able to find here is my favourite tea, Twinings Russian Caravan. I have been bringing it back with me from Aus and using it sparingly.

Imagine my pleasure when I scanned the tea shelves at the supermarket today and found not just my fave tea but loose leaf to boot!

One bag limit

The 24 hour book sale is on again, yeah!

I have a self imposed 1 bag limit but it's amazing what you can fit into one standard green shopping bag.

And just to prove it, here it is packed up. You can see that i even had a little room to spare - what will power.