Much Pomp and Ceremony

This week saw the opening of the new exhibition at work, He Tohu, celebrating 3 landmark documents; the Declaration of Independance, the Treaty of Waitangi and the Women'sSuffrage Petition.  The were moved from Archives NZ in the wee small hours of the morning a month ago with a huge amount of ceremony and care.  Yesterday the public exhibition was opened by the Govener General and an impressive array of significant others.

The crowd gathering prior to the arrival of the official party

Some of the wonderful korowai/cloaks worn on special occasions such as this.

 I've only had a quick look but the documents, all from the 1800s are in a beautiful wood lined room with all the mod cons; light and humidity control and state of the art cases.

Sleeping under the Mountain

I spent most of this week at the annual Māori Librarians conference in Rotorua.  We stayed in a beautifully carved whare on the marae at the local Polytec. I managed to nab a sleeping spot underneath the poe carved in Taranaki style, all curvy and with the pointy head that honours Mt Taranaki.  Lots of great sessions but one of the highlights was listening to one of the master carvers that Rotorua is famous for, particularly surrounded by work like this.

I'm Back!

March and April have disappeared with a combination of a lot going on and nothing really happening.

In March I returned to New Plymouth for Womad.  Having had a pretty average summer it was wonderful to have 3 straight sunny days and, as you can see, I managed to get my food list ticked off too - Hungarian fried bread plus goat curry and dumplings, great accompaniment to fantastic music and catching up with friends.

 April was a bit all over the place with Easter and Anzac day plus a very, very early start to take part in the moving of 3 historic documents from Archives to the National Library, more on that in a few weeks when the new exhibition opens.  April also saw lots of weaving and, as you can see I still have my 'helper'.

On Anzac morning I went to my closest commemoration, at the local railway station where there is a flagpole that was the focus of the very first Anzac remembrances on 25th April 1916.  The flag was raised and wreaths laid, the one on the far right was laid by families from the local kindergarten and is made of lots of little red handprints (and a few green ones).  Having been up at 1.30am a few days before 6.30 was a snap!

Slightly More Normal

The building over the road from work is now almost completely gone, what's left is foundations and a bass relief mural that used to be at the back of the foyer.  Those in the know are very relieved that it survived and eventually it too will go but to a new home rather than the tip with all the other deconstruction mess.

There has also been another small step back towards normal.  My usual bus stop came out from behind the protective fencing a couple of weeks ago and as of last week is functional again so I'm back to a quick dash across the road at the end of the day rather than a trek (a whole extra 5 mins) down the hill.

Quiet but busy

January has been pretty quiet, partly because the weather has been awful but also because of being back at work and really just keeping on keeping on.  I have however caught up with a friend down from New Plymouth and gone to the football/soccer.  Wellington lost to Brisbane but the most interesting thing is this...

trees - if you didn't know it you would never guess you were in a capital city.  In other news the weaving continues.  All of this

has become this, a Pākē or cape.  It's not really flash but it does make a lovely sound when it moves.

A Quiet Break

A quiet Christmas and a quiet New Year have given me lots of time for weaving prep.  My 'helper' is still keen so I'm thinking that my next project might need to be a cat nest.

Deconstruction Continues

The building over the road from work is dwindling, carefully 'supervised' by a fairly constant contingent of construction geeks.  On Thursday the road was opened so it's feeling a little more normal, albeit accompanied by a shipping container barricade.

Tuesday

Thursday

Friday, with Supervision crew front & centre