7 Sleeps

The tree is up, the presents are wrapped, the baking is done and the packing has begun.  Only five working days and one flight to go 'til Christmas!

Tea Te Arawa style

I spent the weekend in Rotorua for a big family event. Our hosts were the Te Arawa branch of the family, they are fabulous cooks and do everything big - incluing tea. Seriously, look carefully. I have one of these jugs and it holds about 2 litres. It was gone in 15mins.

2am - the finale

If you hold your head just right an look really carefully, in the middle of the photo you will see the accommodation pod loaded onto the ship for it's trip to Bass Strait. It's sitting between the big yellow crane and the red hull, not looking quite so big now.

2am - the sequel

Yesterday I was down at Ngamotu beach for a BBQ. This is right near the port and there, in all it's glory sits the accommodation pod patiently waiting for it's ship to come in. It's a bit easier, being further away to see exactly how big it is.

2am roughly

One accommodation pod, one massive trailer, 3 trucks - two in front and one behind, 12kms from start to finish, rain, wind, axle problem, 5000 spectators. Geek factor - very high. Worth getting up at 1.30am for? Absolutely.
Yes, it seriously turned a right angle corner, two in fact. I have video but it's a bit like watching paint dry only slightly faster. I could overtake it at normal walking speed. The entire trip took over 10 hours. I was back in bed at 3.15.

Noho Marae

We had our marae stay for Maori class on the weekend, this time with two class levels and extra teachers meaning much more fun. As with last year a group of Yr1 ladies did the hangi on Saturday.

The Supervisors, the fuel and the crew:

Getting creating - weaving the mat to put on the hangi between the hot rocks and the food basket and my putiputi (old and new)

and lastly my taonga puoro a traditional flute. Yup, we made our own musical instruments, how cool is that and yes, it works!

And another one!

This time from the Wellington waterfront (during a break from a conference)