Playing with words helps me to learn them – Marama keke means it’s a piece of cake – or it’s really easy! Easy Peasy!

Summer came – a hot, hot walk in the bush with tempting streams to quench our thirst! Jo and I ran and Rob and Nigel biked the Waihaha track. It was a beautiful trail with really varied terrain. Unfortunately, I wasn’t 100% when I started and totally lost my voice later that day and it didn’t come back for a week! Talk about ‘kill or cure’!

Gin cocktail in the evening sun. Nigel is a great concocter! #dontmindifido #summerishere☀️

Third day of no voice! Reading was one of the remedies a colleague suggested! I decided to take a sick day since I was feeling miserable!

I had never spotted this hitching post from 1877 on Grey Street before! Interestingly neither had this reporter in 2018 www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/life-style/107507297/histor… Even more interesting is that it appears to have moved and also has a different plaque on it. This one reads “1877 Hitching Post, Australian Hardwood, sponsored by HCC Streets Unit”.
On closer inspection of the photo in the paper, they are clearly not the same post – now I need to go on a mission to see if there are two!

So this hitching post is the one referenced in the link in my previous photo – much more modern – placed in 1936 but some mystery over its provenance as the butcher’s shop it refers to doesn’t appear to have been at this site. On the other hand the shoe shop on the other side of the road, with the large boot above it has been there since 1915 apparently.

It’s such a shame that this exquisite workmanship will be destroyed. Wee waspy has been working so hard but we don’t really want wasps in the garden. For one thing, they sting and they also scare the honey bees away.

Dad’s Day out has become an annual event. This year our surprise was thee U2 concert at Mt Smart. My two boys looking like their grandfather, my Dad.

My companion in the garden today as I dismantled the old compost heaps! Quite unbothered about my proximity – clearly the bugs were good!

I am always amazed by the skill of creatures to build their own whare. I’m not sure if this one was ever finished – it looks like it might have been abandoned or maybe it fell from the tree in the wind before the birds had a chance to complete it.

Aunty Chris and Nigel cooking us up a treat. Chris brought the recipe with her because she thought we might like it and then acted as Nigel’s Commis chef as he cooked. It was delicious!

25 years since this beautiful young man came into our world. Happy Birthday, Lachlan! How has time flown by so fast?

I am never sure what to call these roses but we have a whole bed of small bush roses that seem to flower profusely however badly we seem to neglect or over prune them.

There is something beguiling about sparrows or ‘spuggies’ as we grew up calling them – definitely the scavengers of the urban bird community – they have learned where the next feed is coming from and are not afraid to get it. I think the cleverest thing I have seen is the way that they open the sugar packets.

Kaiako trying out sorting networks. So great to work with inspiring educators who can take an activity, run with it and change it up.

The Aunt. The woman. The myth. The bad influence.
Aunty Chris always has an adventure when she comes to stay with us!

Yellow Roses – yellow is such a happy colour and I love this rose. They are in a vase that was my Mum’s and I love the whole retro blue bubble glass. The vase is sitting on our new garden table – long story…!

When the only photo you’ve taken all day is of a receipt for expenses because it was pouring with rain and your nose was to the grindstone!

Christening the new table. Gus working on perfecting his unsmiling, being cool pose!

Running today to support #outruncancer and Caroline’s 1000 day run streak. Inspirational. I couldn’t make it to the group run around Lake Rotoroa in Kirikiriroa because I was working down in Porirua so I did my own run in support along the Hutt River.

More adventuring with Chris. One of the pleasures of having to work in Porirua is being able to stay with Chris while I’m there. We went on a wee evening hikoi…a bit of an adventure exploring trails in the rohe that she didn’t know about.

Pauahatanui Reserve. I decided on the way back to stop and explore this rohe. After a morning of talking I felt the need to sit and reflect and have some quietude. While I was sitting on a bench looking out across the lake I received the news that my cousin’s son had taken his life that morning. Another beautiful young man lost in depression. What is it that makes our babies struggle so much with life that they feel the need to take themselves out of this beautiful world? Devastated.

I really can’t take her anywhere! Our favourite Aunty!

A splash of colour on the beach at Eastbourne.

The promise of summer!

Rangiriri Pā – I was driving back home and looked left to Rangiriri and saw that there were more pouwhenua. Pulled over to have a look. There are now 16 pou – the original 6 face towards the pā the new ones face the river Waikato.

“Belf is born”! I decided that since my Elf from last year was kidnapped that I’d make a new one rather than buy one. She is called “Belf” because she was gifted a bell from my friend Jo which was on her walking pole when she climbed Mt Fuji earlier this year.

A rather alarming colour for a beer but it was actually very tasty – a refreshing sour!

That bloody bird is at it again! Tonks hasn’t moved for an hour despite being verbally harassed and dive-bombed! #battleofwills #whosincontrol #catsandbirds

The boy has bought himself a keyboard – that necessitated moving a few bits of furniture around. We now have a ‘music room’!

A great start to the month! A cup of delicious coffee in a wee cafe in Three Kings, Auckland. The Buckley Road Foodstore has a selection of locally made and antique bits and pieces as well as delicious cakes and food. Oh, and great coffee!

It shouldn’t be an adventure using public transport but it really feels like it. It brings back memories of childhood going shopping with Mum – not clothes shopping – grocery shopping to Leeds Market. I am full of admiration now of how she managed to get three little girls into town on the bus and then back again with bags full of shopping as well. No mean feat! Then memories as a teenager travelling to and from school, to and from the gym taking two or three buses to connect across the city and then on outings with friends. Then as a student travelling to and around Europe. Then in my first two years teaching taking buses and the train to get to work in Huddersfield from Leeds. It was just what we did in a city, a country and a continent that had (has?) an effective and usable public transport system. Having said that, I was mightily relieved once I could afford to buy a car and dark, early mornings and evenings waiting at bus stops in all weathers became a thing of the past! Since my early twenties, I have really only used public transport for tourism and during short interludes when I didn’t have a car. One of those interludes was when we arrived here in NZ, to Kirikiriroa. Expecting a bus service we were used to, we were first of all surprised to find that buses didn’t run on Sundays, and then that pretty much all services went through the central bus station which required two buses for any trip across the city with a wait in between them. We soon worked out that we could walk to most places more quickly than we could get there on a bus!

Anyway, this is getting to be a blogpost of its own! So, these tickets are from the train from Wellington to Silverstream which seems like a very efficient system, clean, quiet and regular. Makes perfect sense to use it!

Following the theme – this is the early morning view from the wee bridge over the stream (Silverstream, perchance?) looking towards Silverstream Station. Off I go into Wellington to Nethui19.

This was a panel of awesome people at Nethui19 discussing how we can make the internet more inclusive. Very powerful korero. Watch the “Building an Inclusive Internet” debate here.

These are wee podfuls of promise! Lachlan bought Nigel this plum tree for his birthday 2 years ago and after leaving it in its pot for 6 months while working out where to plant it, we decided to put it in a half-barrel so it had space to grow until we prepared a space in the garden. Looking forward to the fruit – just got to make sure the birds don’t get them first!

October means birthdays and most importantly Aonghas’! Another milestone – no longer a teenager but I still can’t get them all to smile and look normal at the same time!

Birthday caramello cupcakes!

Our Powhiri for uLearn19 was held at Tunohopu Marae. It was highly emotional as this was where we farewelled my dear colleague Maria Tibble at the beginning of this year. I was unprepared for the raw emotion I felt as I walked through the door and into the wharenui. You can read more about her amazing mahi here. I had the privilege of learning so much from her.

Your openness to my voice laden with legacy and tradition is the one response that my heart will recognise, that my soul will rise to, that my being will open to as a mokopuna of iwi. Maria Tibble

uLearn this year is in Rotorua and it is magically MC’d by Stacey Morrison (@formerlydaniels) who keeps us all very entertained.

We love uLearn but it is hard mahi and so Anne and I decided to ‘escape’ for a wee bit of hauora in the Redwoods. I so totally take our environment for granted and hadn’t even considered that tree ferns here grow so much bigger than in Dunedin. Nor had I ever touched the bark of the young Redwoods and realised how soft it is. It’s always magic seeing the world through other people’s eyes.

And when it’s all over – what else to do but jump into an A!? Two Annes in an A.

My first (only) 50km run. It was hard, I wondered many times why I was doing it when all I could feel was pain! But the end is always worth it! I am writing this two weeks after the event and already the memory of the pain is fading – it’s a bit like childbirth! I was pleased to finish in 7 hours – didn’t quite make it under 7 – I wonder if I could have pushed just a wee bit harder somewhere to make up those 55 seconds!?

A long soak in the hot pools at Wairakei was definitely the thing for our muscles after running yesterday. The tūī were out in force.

My wee man! Well, actually he’s my big son but he’s always been my wee man!

It rained today.

I was challenged to one of those challenges to take 7 photos of everyday life in black and white, post them but not give any commentary. I only managed this one! A view through the bus window as we wait at Christchurch airport to head into the city.

This is quite sad – a spineless hedgehog. We spotted him on the way home from the pub, wasn’t sure what it was. Turns out it is likely to have mange and we should have taken him to the animal shelter but by the time we went back out he’d scurried away somewhere. I’m relieved – I’m not very good with sick animals, especially ones that I don’t own and have an attachment to. Just not that kind of person…. I feel a bit bad about that, but not bad enough to find it and take it to the shelter!

Okay, yes. I admit it. I didn’t manage to take any photos today so this is a screenshot that I sent to someone to show them what I was doing. Things you shouldn’t do on a marae…. learning te reo Māori means you learn so much about the tikanga or culture of a people as well. You just can’t separate the language from the culture…the language is the culture!

Noho Marae is one of the essential ways of learning about a culture and its language. As part of my learning, we have had a couple of weekend noho and several day noho (stay). This weekend we had a cooking competition and this is Rōpu Rāapa (team Wednesday) preparing Parakuihi (breakfast) for 60 people.

This wee poppet was helping his Nana pick up all the tinselly stars that had been shaken out of the tablecloths after dinner. It’s everyone’s mahi at the marae to clear up and keep the place tidy.

Rangiriri is always a good place to stop to rest my eyes, wake myself up and just breathe on my way home from mahi in Auckland. It’s a place with a lot of history which is only just being remembered. It’s the place of a significant battle in the New Zealand Wars which had been conveniently ‘forgotten’ by the victors but which is now being given its rightful place in the history books and the awareness of New Zealanders.

Buttercups everywhere. Brighten up my day. There is something about buttercups that reminds me of my childhood – my Mum holding a buttercup under my chin to see if I like butter – the golden yellow that promises of summer….

And I looked out and my Dublin Bay Rose has erupted! No matter how much we neglect this rose, over prune it or simply hack away at it, it just keeps blooming. Every year and often twice. I love it!

The art of storytelling is in all our bones. I love going to listen to bands and hearing the stories behind the songs. We had the pleasure of hearing Shooglenifty this evening.

Heading north for Labour Weekend. The road was surprisingly clear. I love the cityscape view of Auckland from the Harbour Bridge.

So many photos to choose from today. Holiday weekend at the beach and it was a stunner. Golden beaches just an hour from the city – that’s the beauty of Aotearoa. We walked half the length of Pakiri Beach and managed about 10,000 steps!

We walked out from Ti Point around to this spot to have a picnic lunch and basked on the rocks in the sunshine as we watched gannets diving into the ocean to catch fish. The water called me and it was a bit hard to get into it off the rocks here so we wandered back round to a small beach where I floated, weightless in crystal clear water with starfish and sea dollars beneath me. Heaven! Tōku wahi harikoa!

When there’s been a day without photos, there’s always a cat!

Chives. Simple really.

My boy must have been really bored or he wanted something because I didn’t have to ask more than twice and he was up there, cleaning out the gutters.

Last day of the month. Tired, sick, hungry. I had to go to the information evening about my te reo class for next year. It ended up being great fun as Aroha showed us one of her teaching methods. “Te Ataarangi is well-known for the use of coloured Cuisenaire rods as a learning tool.  It’s  an effective language-learning technique that encourages you to speak.  It has supported more than 50,000 people to speak Māori in homes and communities.” When I looked further into it, I found that this is also a language teaching tool used by the British Council but more commonly used as a way of teaching maths. Fascinating!

Winter in Aotearoa. The 1st July saw me in Porirua and I took the opportunity to explore after work. I walk/ran up through the bush and out into open hillside on The Colonial Knob walk which is part of Te Araroa Trail. It was good to get up high and blow out the cobwebs after a day inside. I cut the loop short as the light was fading and the wind was increasing. The rest of the trail is there for another day.

Children in this classroom were playing games that help to develop computational thinking. I watched a wee girl work out the instructions to get from one square to another, checking her initial thining then debugging and trying again.

A cat. That is all.

A glass of beer. That is all!

Our local beer and wine store is offering gift baskets for Dry July. They look pretty tempting.

As part of my te reo Māori class we have to attend some wananga days on Saturdays. We had fun today learning how to use rākau – definitely took quite a lot of concentration!

One of my favourite walks and the view is always different. Pukemokemoke yesterday and today the Waikato River trails for another regular.

This was the view from the building where we worked today. Facilitating a design thinking workshop with teachers today and tomorrow in this inspiring space called The Grid.

It was a cold and misty wintery start this morning. Early breakfast at Wynyard Quarter.

It’s the weather for a warming dark beer!

He waka huia – a treasure box. I have been working on a project with some colleagues as part of a course I am doing on cultural responsive pedagogy. We are looking at the idea of culture and history being a taonga, or treasure and the idea of time capsules holding the stories of the past, the present and the future as treasures. I thought of using my Mum’s jewellery box which contains treasures from different generations as an analogy.

Crater Rim track, Christchurch. Taking the opportunity to spend the weekend with Moira and Terry before our facilitator hui on Monday & Tuesday. I hired a car and drove out to explore the trails. What a stunning day and the views were amazing.

Sunday meanderings with Moira and Terry; first the Old School Collective which is housed in the former primary school at Waikuku for a coffee and a browse of the shops, then on to the Brew Moon at Amberley for a wee beer! Grabbed a takeout to share tomorrow.

I just love how Christchurch has incorporated so much fun in the re-design for all! We had great fun playing on the swing #chchswing.

Part of our hui over the last two days has been participating in creating a raranga (weaving) together. It was part of incorporating hauora (wellbeing) into our mahi (work). I spent half an hour working on it and it reminded me of the sense of calm that I experience when I am absorbed in anything creative.

Home after a few days away so I took my boys out for coffee. I spend my life trying to get photos of them together when both are smiling. They know this and conspire to ensure I am never successful. One day, I’ll write a whole post just with photos of these two!

“He Tirohanga ki Tai: Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery is an exhibition featuring both leading and emerging Māori artists, who have created a completely sovereign space, supported by Indigenous funds, to hold a conversation critiquing the Cook invasion, the ensuing colonial experience, up to and including the TUIA250 events.”

It is a powerful exhibition of confronting artworks and I spent my lunchtime browsing with Nigel up at the University of Waikato.

Sometimes we end up at the WonderHorse – usually dangerous – and I love watching the cocktail masters at work!

Lime glut! I made lime meringue pie which was delicious! Also lime cordial and marmelade!

Went for a wander in Pukemokemoke with Nigel and there were loads of these basket fungus around.

Excited to browse this book – full of whakatauki and the stories that sit behind them.

I got really excited after I watched Horomono Horo playing at WINTEC – he is a master at playing traditional Māori wind instruments. He played alongside Jeremy Myall who creates music on the computer as Horomono plays. He also talked about the stories and skills that are passed down through generations and who has the mana to retell them. One of the other things he talked about was that we have to recognise that rangatahi might want to tell their stories in different ways – possibly digital and that given that storytelling has always happened in different ways over millennia, they shouldn’t limit them. I had so many questions then about how that fitted with tikanga, tradition etc… 

Planning!

We spotted these paintings all over the city – turns out it was from an art class that was run in the city somewhere! Love it!

Sometimes working in the cafe down the road helps me concentrate and the coffee is so much better than at home!

Trailrunning – training for Taupo 50km – I must have thought entering was a good idea at the time! Great to be out on the trails in such stunning scenery though!

This sculpture is sort of hidden along the river trail through town unless you look up or out of the museum window!

Dodged the rain for a run along the Whanganui River. Turned around when I reached the field full of cows and calves. River level very high after the rain.

Art in the city.

Peeking! The life of a teenager with no responsibilities!

Ko te Ngahuru tēnēi wāhanga. We dodged the Autumn showers today to walk around Rotoroa which is the wee lake in the middle of Kirikiriroa, Hamilton. It has struggled over the last 50 years as a result of poisoning to reduce the weeds that caught in the rudders of the yachts. A massive ecological disaster for a wee lake! But it is recovering slowly. Once upon a time children swam in the lake but now the water is too toxic. I wonder how long it will take….

Ko te Hōtoke tēnēi wāhanga. The mighty maunga of Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngarahoe covered in snow seen across Lake Taupo. It’s definitely winter here. I’ve been practising adding the te reo I am learning by adding text to photos. This says ‘There is snow on the mountains. It’s very cold”

Same mountains from a different spot on the same lake. This is just such a beautiful place to run.

More te reo practice! Asking where things are…. This is the Hairy McLary sculpture in Tauranga. The characters created by Linley Dodd are much beloved around the world and these sculptures just capture the essence of them beautifully.

A midweek trip up to Auckland to see Sharon Van Etten didn’t disappoint. Definitely worth the drive in the rain to get there!

I’ve been working in a school over in Tauranga which is on Cameron Road – there is a story behind that name and much dispute about how street names glorify or remember colonial opressors and hide the real history of this place. Gate Pa is the site of a battle between Māori and the British in April 1864. It is now a park and information boards tell the story.

This weekend is our noho marae for my te reo course at Te Wananga. We are at Poihakena Marae in Raglan. Here we are waiting to be called on.

We had the privilege of listening to Eva Rickard’s daughter, Angeline Greensill, telling us the story of Te Kopua today.

And of course, the inevitable team photo! The Wednesday Night Champions! He Pī Ka Pao!

This proverb “Kua huinga te tōtara i te waounui-ā-tāne arohanui.” translates as a great tōtara has fallen in the forest of Tāne meaning that someone of stature has died. This week, a third friend and colleague this year passed away. Feeling very thankful for my health and my family.

This is my favourite rose and it keeps on blooming. The plant only ever has one rose at a time but I love the colour.

We’ve reconnected the Wii! Fun and games as a family!

The evenings are drawing in and I only just got a couple of times around Pukemokemoke before the darkness started to fall.

The variety of gin that is around right now is incredible. Indiginous is a New Zealand distillery that distils gins full of botanics and spice. The artwork is pretty impressive too.

Tidying up my wardrobe, (definitely a wet weather activity!) I came across this handkerchief pouch which came from my Mum. I have no idea of its story. Did my Mum make it? She was gifted at needlework but I think that the sewing on this is machine worked. So it is more likely to have been a gift.

This Sunday we had the privilege of participating in a cookery class organised by a group called Home Kitchen. Local immigrant communities are invited to share their culinary culture and teach us how to cook their favourite dishes. As we learned how to cook Afghani chicken and bread we also heard about the stories and cultures of the chefs. And we got to share some delicious food! Home Kitchen also works with Yalla Yalla restaurant.

“Home Kitchen is a social enterprise focused on empowering former refugees to flourish by providing work and training opportunities whilst showcasing the diverse cultures that exist in the mighty ‘Tron.'”

Aonghas bought me a cat tower for Mother’s Day. Grey cat has started to show some interest!

I went to my first Seed Waikato event last night. Some interesting speakers telling us their stories of failure, resilience and success.

I love that brightness of a wintry morning sky as the sun rises.

It is Friday 20th of June. It is winter. It is very cold today. There is frost across the land.

Winter is here! I think the landscape down in Taumarunui and its valleys makes me feel at home. This morning I drove down through foggy valleys but when the sun burned through, it revealed a beautiful frost and blue skies.

Excitement today as we were able to drive in a T3 lane in Auckland as we had 4 people in the car. Though it was a hikoi that we really didn’t have the heart for. Heading north for the tangi of our friend and colleague, Hazel.

Another clock tower – the basin in Whangārei. A long awaited reunion with old friends Chris and Ross who are now living in the winterless north after leaving Wanaka to monitor and educate about plastic in the Pacific on their ketch Sula.

My big son came for tea tonight. I always enjoy his company.

My boys have gone back to basics with gaming – race tracks and dodgems! They keep asking me to play and so I do. It wears me out – so much concentration and my hands hurt from gripping the controller so hard!

Evening training run around the lake and along the railway pathway. Cold but clear. Love these sort of winter evenings.

Lime season!

It’s like Christmas but it’s not! Winter in Tamaki Makaurau. Dad’s evening out to see the War Horse. What an amazing spectacle!

The things I love about trail running is being able to stop and take photos and have a breather. I always keep an eye out for opportunities for neat photos. Feathers and leaves and water….

My first visit to the Kāhui Ako I am working with down in Wellington. I flew down on Sunday and spent the afternoon with Chris. Our walk out at Eastbourne was in better weather than the last time we were there! Beautiful sunshine although there was a biting breeze.

These are my favourite doors. They lead to my favourite garden in Hamilton Gardens. The Concept Garden has been inspired by two traditional Whakatauki and an old land use map. 

 Whatungarongaro te tangata toituu te whenua
 As man disappears from sight, the land remains

Autumn means mushrooms! These are nestled in amongst ferns and moss in the forest on the way to the Waihohonu Hut just off the Desert Road.

Lake Tikitapu – Blue Lake. When I started running the lake was completely covered in cloud but an hour later the clouds had lifted. Just. A bit of a cheat – Northern Hemisphere 3rd May, Southern Hemisphere 4th May!

Day 2 of a weekend away with running buddies. Same lake, almost the same view! That’s Autumn for you. Actually was 4th May!

Day 2 of the weekend away again! The beauty of time travel. This is Rotokakahi or Green Lake. It is tapu which means no swimming, fishing or boating. https://www.rotorua-travel-secrets.com/blue-and-green-lakes-rotorua.html

McCavity, McCavity….. cats just rule the world!

Working in a school to support teachers and students to learn about digital technologies. This boy adapted an origami activity to create this moveable star.

Every Wednesday I have my te reo class at Te Wananga in Glenview. This is one of the sculptures outside the building.

Haven’t had a beer picture for a while! Being arty with skates and almost empty beer glass.

It’s feijoa season! Unfortunately, they all fell from the tree on the same couple of days and so we have a glut – frantically baking, eating, bottling!

There is something about the noise leaves make as you run through them. Though they can also be lethal – newly fallen leaves hide the slimy, wet, slippery old ones underneath!

Mother’s Day! Me and my boys – it took many photos to get one where we all looked remotely normal! They make me happy.

After work hauora. It’s always good to blast the cobwebs of a day inside away with a hikoi up high. This is Papamoa Hills – it might become a bit of a haunt when I work over that way this year.

The most photogenic cat in the world. And she knows it!

The beauty of a day at home is the opportunity to venture out for the best coffee in Hamilton. Demi Urgos

Ko te manu e kai i te miro nōna te ngahere, Ko te manu e kai i te Mātauranga nōna te ao. The bird that feeds of the miro berry owns the forest. The bird that feast of knowledge owns the world.

I love how limes fruit and at the same time blossom is blossoming!

I’ve driven past the turn off to this walk countless times and today I decided to stop and take the time to walk to the Omaru Falls. Just as I got out of the car the heavens opened! It’s only a short way through winding forest tracks along a stream until you come to an area that has been felled after having crossed the stream on a swing bridge. A turn around to the right brings you to the edge of the river which you follow for a while. Then turn away from the river and climb to a viewpoint where you see this impressive waterfall. It can be heard from a way off but is still a surprise when you see it. It’s a shame that there seems to be no way down the the pool at the bottom.

Why is there a street named Chanwai Lane in a Central North Island railway town? After some digging I found that this street was renamed in honour of the Dong family who were Chinese fruit and vegetable growers and sellers, for their service to Taumarunui. Fascinating history.
www.facebook.com/fruitshopsnz/photos/a.1807393342892844/2…

There is said to be a connection between rainbows and angels. I received a phone call as I was driving along the road from Taumarunui. I pulled in to take the call. It was a from a friend to let me know that another friend and colleague had just died. It was expected but still a shock. I sat for a while thinking and crying and then something made me look up.

I spent this afternoon working with some students using photo editing apps. They had a great time playing and creating images.

We decided to paint our fingernails pretty pink in honour of Alannah.

After a big week of travelling and the sad news of Alannah, I needed to rebalance. Getting up high is my go to to find my wairua and balance hauora. Pukemokemoke is a favourite. Not far from Kirikiriroa and a short circuit gets you to this beautiful view.

This old church is now a quirky Craft Beer bar! There’s something about Beer and churches….

The Centre of New Zealand... so named because it was a central survey point in the 1800s. It isn’t actually the centre of Aotearoa but it is a pretty cool spot! It has an impressive trig point, and given that it is the most central and possibly the most important trig point, I did have to do a handstand. I asked a passerby to take the photo and he didn’t quite get it but here it is as a bonus photo for May.

We had the pleasure of listening to Vincent O’Malley telling us the story of Wiremu Tamihana this evening at the University of Waikato. The history of Aotearoa is an interesting commentary on the evolution of British colonialism. Vincent talks about us needing to own our history, facing up to what happened, acknowledging it, accepting our role in it in order to move on and rebuild relationships.

Boy at work. Aonghas has been working at Starbucks for the last 8 months or so. Chris and I went in to see him at work today.

This week at Te Wananga we have been learning about counting and numbers and colours.

It’s always good to catch up with the Aunties. Chris stayed with us and Moira stayed over at Tauranga with David and Keri. I took Chris over for the day and we went to the Hairy McLary sculptures.

Another family game to play!