Visit to Australia

I had a great time in Australia on my recent trip there. Even though I have been to Brisbane several times already, I still enjoy the central area round the river. We hired tandems and rode along the cycle pathways that follow the edge of the river... until our muscles started to hurt.

A few days later we drove up to the Sunshine Coast and stayed at Mooloolabah (in photo). I really enjoyed all the Aboriginal place names on that coast – we also visited Eumundi, Maroochydoore, Yandina to mention a few. The weather was perfect with temperatures of around 30 degrees C, which I find quite pleasant and this meant that swimming wasn’t too cold! We also had a trip on the river ferry up at Noosa, an afternoon wandering round the Australia Zoo (of Steve Irwin fame) and did lots of walking as well as plenty of shopping at various markets – a wonderful holiday all round.

Bhutan

Although I lived in Darjeeling as a child and have been back there several times, I have never actually visited Bhutan. I would love to go there and found this site useful http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/493.html for ideas of what to do there. I like tramping, and the Himalayas are a great place to trek - although there is a lot of up and down!
It seems as though the Bhutanese government are genuinely interested in protecting the environment and their local culture, so it would be good to learn about how they plan for this.

I liked this photo of Punakha Dzong http://images.travelpod.com/users/gypsymichelle/nepal-2006.1160073480.punakha_dzong_003.jpg and I am interested in seeing how crafts such as this weaving are made. http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/56/11/22571156.jpg I love going to craft markets anywhere in the world.

I have friends who live in Bangkok so going through Thailand would be good as I could catch up with at the same time.

A memorable birthday

For my 40th birthday my husband organised for me and two of my closest friends to have a ride over Auckland in a hot air balloon. It was a complete surprise when he woke me around 5 in the morning and explained what was happening. I was too excited to feel scared. As we watched the gas flames heating the air and 'blowing up' the balloon, I did feel a little nervous. The balloon was HUGE! I hate heights, so as we drifted away from the ground, I was very careful to look out rather than down! We had a wonderfully clear morning and could see right across the upper harbour area. After a while in the air, I started to feel much more comfortable.

However, coming down was interesting. Obviously, controlling where the balloon landed was something of an art and our man was an expert. But he still managed to land rather bumpily in a field full of cows on the side of a hill. A few months later, the very same balloon that we had been in actually landed in the mudflats in the harbour and the passengers had to be rescued by boat! I'm glad that it wasn't us : )

Ellen MacArthur

Wow! She is an amazing sailor! And she hardly needs any sleep, either.

I don't think I would like to be at sea all by myself for a long time, even though I do like my own space.

Check out YouTube to see her sailing, and her blog to keep you up to date!

Work and beyond...

I have worked at Unitec for the last 7 years teaching English across different programmes. I trained originally as a primary classroom teacher, with my speciality being music. However, my masters degree was in teaching English and I spent a few years doing this overseas before coming back to NZ. So I guess I've been teaching for the last twenty five years or so. My husband and I took a year off to travel overseas in our twenties, the Kiwi OE (overseas experience), and we worked in London for a few months during this time - NOT teaching!

I love spending quality time with my family, although at the moment I am doing some extra study and so it is hard to juggle everything. However, I'm lucky that I work part-time as this gives me a bit more 'space' in my life. Time to read (other than study books) and make music. I also enjoy socialising with friends - getting together for a meal or going out together.

And the other thing I try to do in my free time is to keep up with the several blogs that I have...

Families

I guess that I am really lucky as all my extended family actually live in
Auckland on both my side and my husband's side. This means that we get to see each other quite frequently and that my children get to play with their cousins, which is nice. My grandmother (on my dad's side) only died last year at the ripe old age of 96! I don't know whether I want to live quite that long!

In terms of my siblings, I have two brothers and so does my husband. However, Mark (my husband) is the youngest in his family, while I am the oldest in mine. We sometimes joke about the differences between us in relation to this. I think it is interesting that my own three children
reflect the birth order of my own family - first a girl and then two boys. The gap between oldest and youngest is the same as well ie. five years.

We enjoy being together as a family and have regular gatherings, which are usually for birthdays. These are most often pot-luck dinners, where we all bring food to share.

ANZAC Day

We celebrated Anzac Day last Wednesday. For many New Zealanders it is more than just another public holiday.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps - soldiers in WW1 who came from Australia and New Zealand. One of the places that they fought was at Gallipoli, which is in Turkey. They landed there on the 25th April 1915, which is the date that we remember today as Anzac Day. It was a very unsuccessful battle that lasted around nine months. Many Kiwi and Aussie soldiers were killed and in the end the British forces had to leave the area.

However, Anzac Day is more than just remembering what happened at Gallipoli. It is a day for reflection on the wars that our country has been involved in. It is a day when we remember the people who died or were injured fighting overseas - in WW1 and 2, as well as other wars that the NZ armed forces have supported. Many people attend services on Anzac Day - one of the most popular in Auckland is at dawn outside the museum. There are also parades. I went to one this Anzac Day in Brisbane, Australia - the parade went on for more than two hours and thousands of people lined the streets to wave flags and applaud the people marching, which included many veterans.

AK 07

Something to be aware of is the Auckland Festival which is happening over the next couple of weeks. It's an Arts Festival which means that it includes not just Art (as in painting, drawing etc) but the Arts - dance, music, drama. Sometimes these are called the Performing Arts.

Not only will the Sky Tower have fireworks this Thursday (8th) but it will be lit up by orange lights for the duration of the Festival. More fireworks can be seen for free in the Auckland Domain on Sat night (10th) when it gets dark. There's some music beforehand. Put on by French Groupe F, and looks like it will be very cool.

I'm particularly interested in the Festival because my daughter is involved in putting on an event there for young people. She is one of the Young Producers, who won a competition last year to be able to put on this concert. Ripped is a five hour event with all sorts of different bands and craft stalls, not to mention an air band competition. It would be great to see some of you there... Sat 17th March, Red Square, Downtown Auckland, near Britomart.

Pasifika

Talofa lava! Fakalofa lahi atu! Malo e lelei! Ni sa bula vinaka! Kia orana! These are all different greetings from Pacific Islands such as Samoa, Niue, Tonga, Fiji and the Cook Islands.

Auckland has the biggest population of Pacific Islanders in the world. Sometimes Kiwis call them PIs for short. They come from islands scattered all over the Pacific Ocean, but a lot of them now call New Zealand 'home'.

Pasifika is an annual festival held at Western Springs in summer. This year it is on the 9th and 10th of March. There is a concert on the Friday night and then during the Saturday you can walk round stalls and displays for each of the main island groups. It's free and there's loads of entertainment and Pacific island food and goods to buy. It starts at 10 in the morning and goes through until 5 pm.

Last year my husband and I strolled through a variety of different areas at Pasifika. We enjoyed some of the performances, but when we got to the Niuean area, my husband ended up being dragged up to dance with some of the Niuean women. He got given a lei, and his partner won the competition!

lei = necklace made of flowers as in the picture above

New year celebrations

Whoops! That was the sound of a Valentine's Day arrow whizzing past - I missed it. I guess I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day although I like the idea of being able to tell special people that you love them. My 15 yr old son informed me last Tuesday that since I was in a long-term stable relationship (25 years of being married!), I didn't really need to do anything in the roses or chocolate department!

And now it is Chinese New Year. Gong xi fa cai to all my Chinese students. I expect my pronunciation is shocking - and maybe this is the Cantonese version?

I learnt lots about Chinese New Year when I went to live in Brunei (see map if you have no idea where Brunei is). The date was just a few days after we arrived and we were still living in a hotel. One night we were woken out of our sleep by all the firecrackers being let off just under our window. I enjoyed seeing all the Chinese shops and homes decorated and visiting Chinese friends who always had delicious food and those lovely easy-to-peel oranges. And my kids liked the red envelopes with crisp dollar notes inside!

I actually have to confess that I don't know when other Asian countries celebrate New Year. Maybe you could add a comment below or on the podcast to let me know? And what special celebrations do you have? And if you are Chinese, is it difficult celebrating away from home?
I'm hoping to catch the lanterns and maybe a lion dance this weekend at the celebrations in Albert Park...

Listen to this on my souNZ English podcast.

Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day is a pretty low-key affair for most New Zealanders.

It is our national holiday, and commemorates the day that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between Maori and Pakeha. Well, really it was between the representatives of Queen Victoria and a large number of Maori chiefs.

How do we celebrate? Usually there are ceremonies at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, which is where the treaty was actually signed. In the recent past, the ceremonies have sometimes been disturbed by political protest.

It's summer, so most Kiwis are glad of Waitangi day as a holiday, where they can relax at home, go sailing or go for a swim and maybe have a BBQ with friends.

Overseas this year, about 300 New Zealanders gathered on a beach in Los Angeles to make a huge 30 metre long silver fern in the sand. In Afghanistan, some NZ soldiers were digging a hangi so they could have some Maori-style food.

Vocab
a low-key affair - an event where not a lot of fuss is made
commemorates - is an official reminder of ...
silver fern - a NZ plant, sometimes used as a symbol for NZ eg. the Silver Ferns is our national netball team
a hangi - food that is cooked by being steamed in a hole in the ground

If you would like to listen to this, go to souNZ English.