Hiya!

Pasifika was fab as were the fireworks and fire display!

It was a swelteringly hot, hot day and we set off excitedly with our bottles of water to Western Springs for the Pasifika festival first.

It was GREAT! We were immediately greeted by grass skirted dancers shaking their hips etc along to very Pacific Island type music. Here you go....



Isn't it all so very colourful?!

These girls were very good - really enjoyed watching them. They came all the way from Tahiti:


Had to drag husband away from this very stunning young lady - Miss Pacific Islands something or other:





Very pretty young lady.



Lovely Tongan art.



Some more Tongan art.


Tongan lady making the tapa cloth from the bark of the mulberry tree.



Tongan man roasting a very yummy pig! Very popular stall this was.....



Remote controlled dinosaur - what this had to do with the Pacific Islands I do not know- but it was really fun!

After an exhausting afternoon of visiting the variety of islands around the Pacific (consuming huge amounts of roast pig, chop suey, chicken drumsticks, ice-cream, pineapple, coconut milk fresh from the coconut etc etc), we boldly ventured onto the Domain and proceeded to further stuff our faces with a yummy picnic and bottles of wine.

The display was FANTASTIC! At one point, the fireworks were so bright that we saw blue sky instead of dark night and stars! Here you go:









What a lovely day! My friend Helen was at the firework display too! And once again - completely free (the day's events I mean)! Apart from the food and drink we bought and petrol of course! It was so lovely to enjoy it all with friends whilst sharing our picnics and wine - great!

This weekend, was much calmer due to being VERY tired from all the other weekends - I just pottered about, visited the market, caught up with friends and generally chilled out - very nice.

I read the local paper tonight and have decided to venture out and meet (being a new immigrant) friendly New Zealanders in order to chat and improve my English. Should be fun!

Hope you all had a fabbie St Paddy's Day (thanks for the card) and (for all you UK mums) an even better Mothers Day. I did.

I love the CD Cossa!

We're having Duffy Day tomorrow at school - a famous New Zealander will be visiting and handing out free books to the kids. (Reminder to myself - 'must look professional'). I'm sure we'll give her a rousing sing of the Duffy Song!

Have been eating lots of cape gooseberries from plants that look like weeds in my garden - very yummy - just growing madly here - much to daughter's disgust (she loves them and they're quite rare and expensive in the UK).



They are called physalis - I have finally found out the name! Kept calling them the syphallis fruit cos I knew it sounded something like that, but couldn't quite remember it correctly!

Well - on that note, I'd better go and eat more!

Tara.

x Sue

Hello again

Here I am in cyberspace to let you know what I've done etc etc!

The cultural festival was FAB! Quite a large affair celebrating the variety of cultures that go in to make NZ the multicultural place it is!



Here is a HUGE paella - full of mussels and very large prawns - yum (if you like seafood).



Yummy French crepes - mmmmmmm. I had a raspberry one and duly said 'merci'!

I also bought a very cool hat - no photos available - but tis very nice indeed - trust me!

If fact, I am wearing a hat all the time at the mo - the sun is soooo strong and one burnt scalp is enough warning!

There was looooads of food on offer - it was great! Indian, Chinese, Etheopian, Greek, Finnish - you name it - it seems that it was there - wow!

Of course - I did enjoy the cultural side of the day too! Ahem.

The following weekend was a very busy one for me too - I spent the day dressed up as a children's book character (Mrs Wishy Washy - Hilda Ogden style headress) - as you can imagine, I looked fab! Yes - you guessed it - it was the Otara Literacy Day (boosting literacy skills of the children of South Auckland) - do you remember Bob The Builder of last year!

And guess what - I met Helen Clarke (NZ PM) and shook her hand - and it was an ACCIDENT! Sooo funny! This is what happened.......

Well - I was headed for the door (to exit the building after watching our yr 3's and 4's come 3rd in the competition - well done them!) when someone asked us all to stand back due to the imminent arrival of our Helen. So, there I was standing right next to the door just minding my own business, when a little girl I had taught last year walked by and greeted me - I returned the greeting with a cheery 'Hi!", when who should walk through the door, but Helen, who immediately walked up to me and shook my hand with the cheery salutation of "hello Mrs Wishy Washy!" I was a bit stunned at that point (cos I was talking to my little pupil and not Helen), but very proud to shake her hand! I quickly recovered and gave her my Mrs Wishy Washy smile nonetheless!

Ha!

Anyhoo - here she is - having just arrived:



Can you see her minder? Curly wire, dark sunglasses, black suit!



Another photo:



Telly people waiting for Helen:



I watched it on the evening news that night! Didn't see me though - probably just as well, given what I was wearing!

Well - that's enough of Sue's mixing with the rich and famous - here are some photos from our trip to Welly.


A lovely spinning top thingy - they had art sculptures like this all over the city and they were really very good - it was lots of fun just coming upon them in the most unexpected places!


I really liked this - the back view.


The front view - isn't it good?! We came upon it whilst walking around the botanic gardens.


An arty farty shot of a fern in the gardens.



Going up the very steep hill in the tram!



Lovely views of the city below.


Some more lovely views!


Me sat in a tram in the museum (most of NZ's major cities used to all have trams - inc Auckland!) We watched some old black and white movies showing the trams being used in NZ - interesting and fun!

A lovely steam engine! Sorry for that girly comment - but can't remember much about it except that it was something to do with trams I think!




These are for you mum - look where it's made!




This was a really cool bridge!

Well - tara fer noo.

Have got some more photos to download for you pleasure - so will go off to do that. Went to the Pasifika Festival yesterday - plus an AMAZING firework type display thingy. Will talk more of that anon.

See ya!

x Sue

Going for a barbie later as it is still absolutely beautiful weather at the mo!