Christmas cheer

Well, thats Christmas Day over for another year and what a lovely day we had. Nice traditional roast dinner with Christmas pud and After Eight mints then play board games and watch DVD's all afternoon. Then eat more at supper time, play more games and finally go to bed with chronic indegestion. I love it!!
I can't get into the traditional New Zealand Christmas BBQ lark. Neither can I see the point in spending Christmas day on the beach. The weather was sunny in the morning and rained in the afternoon but just in our street we saw the neighbours packing everything up and going to the beach just to return again 1/2 an hour later. Sometimes I think people feel as if they should spend Christmas on the beach because thats what your meant to do but in reality they would probably prefer just to sit around the house or in the garden.
Anyway, I hope everyone out there who celebrates this festive season also had a good day.
New Year is fast approaching and The Mount is gearing itself up to the fun New Years Eve celebrations. The whole area is a liquor free zone, there is a temporary prison set up called Alcatraz and extra police officers have been drafted in. You will be arrested if caught carrying any alcohol (even an unopenned bottle in your bag). There are a couple of live bands playing and some fair ground rides for the kiddies. Every year hundreds of people descend on the Mount to see the new Year in but the authoritarian control gets heavier every year. We were quite surprised by this and were told it was because of the 2003 riots. Riots? In New Zealand? On further enquiry we found out that in 2003 the police were arresting people who were having a wine or beer with their families while using the public BBQ's which caused a lot of bad feeling and some peole went on the 'rampage' round the mount upseting the neighbours. So as a result
strict bans were introduced and enforced. Its the usual story of over zealous authoroties enforcing laws to the letter which causes more trouble than turning a blind eye would. I agree that any kind of huge gathering should be monitored and action taken at the sign of trouble but surely it would be better to difuse a situation instead of charging in and arresting every one.
The council seems to have got its act together though, and has put on a bus service that runs through the night getting people to and from the Mount for $10 return.
As for us, its the busiest, hassliest night of the year but hopefully we should be able to shut the doors at 10ish and get home for a glass of champers in our own back yard.

dancing and goodbyes

This week Georgia finishes junior school and will start Intermediate School in February. The junior school held a year 6 leaving assembly on Friday and as usual the teaching staff and pupils pulled out all the stops to ensure it was an enjoyable and entertaining occassion. If we ever have any misgivings about the education system in New Zealand, these are always displelled at these events.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the assembly was held outside in the ampitheatre. We were entertained by some lovely singing by the kapa haka group. Next, Emma, the pianist with a lively rendition of the Can Can, Kayla the flute player and Andrew on the clarinet.
Georgia was in the dance troup who performed an excellent cha cha routine. She had been practicing really hard for this and although she said she was a bit nervous it didn't show. It was very professional.
After the entertainment, the Headmaster, Mr Shinnen awarded each student with a certificate. Mr Shinnen is a really nice, laid back guy and he had something special to say about each child, reflecting on their personality and wishing them luck in their futures. He is a casual dresser and relates well with the students and the parents. It was lovely that he seemed to know each one of the kids personally and he knew who all the parents were too. He also gave out his own extra award to certain pupils who had shown extra kindness and caring during their time at school. I think it was brilliant that he didn't base these awards on academic achievement. Each child at that school assembly was made to feel like a special individual person whether they are bright, quiet, sporty, studious or whatever. He talked of one girl who had organised a 'Hugs' day and how he had been honoured to be number 29 on her list. I could never in a million years imagine hugging my headmaster or any of my teachers when I was at school!
We have found the New Zealand education system so far to focus on building happy, confident individuals. They are not brow beaten to achieve certain accademic targets but encouraged to learn at their own pace. Teachers are not burdened with masses of paperwork so have more time to spend in the class room doing what they are paid to do - teach. Georgia loves school here and is looking forward to Intermediate next year.

treasure hunting again!

On Tuesday we all went to the beach to help Norman run a field test on the new pulse induction metal detector. Michael was designated camera man as he was going to put together a video of the test to put on the website http://www.treasuredetectives.net/ I am new to metal detecting and this piece of equipment looks like nothing I had seen before. Apparently it is designed to detect large pieces of metal buried deep underground like cannons and treasure chests full of gold and other such exciting hoards but it ignores small items such as tin cans, ring pulls and other rubbish that you usually collect while out hunting. Its something to do with the size of the pulse induction sound waves it emits. Whatever! For lots more information and technical stuff http://www.deeptech-bg.com/

Norman brought along a cast iron umbrella base as we were certain we wouldn't find any cannons on Papamoa Beach, and a small piece of scrap metal. As well as videoing the test Michael, with the help of Georgia, also dug a 1 metre deep hole in the sand to bury the metal in. All went well. The detector found the base and ignored the small piece of scrap metal. I was the helper following instructions and we drew quite a crowd from the locals wondering what we were up to.

The detectors are made in Bulgaria and Norman is the first person in New Zealand and Australia to use and distribute them.

I know the daughter of the guy who makes them, Sylvia, visits this blog so hi Sylvia!

Anyway, after the test we were happily congratulating ourselves on a job well done when we remembered we had to retrieve the umbrella base. I can assure you this was no easy task. We almost lost Georgia and Norman down the hole and we did seriously consider leaving it down there but Norman couldn't think of a decent enough excuse to tell his wife Linda as to why they couldn't put the umbrella up in the garden. Then we suddenly realised that the beach was swarming with sand flies!! There were millions of them and they were biting! The little devils are only the size of a grain of sand but that didn't stop them making a tasty lunch out of our legs. We must have had signs on our heads 'fresh meat'. Michael fared the worst and he has 150 bites on his legs. Norman insisted he never got bitten by bugs but he did that day! After a lot of digging, sweating and heaving we managed to get the base out of the hole and made a hasty retreat off the beach to the pub as I was sure I had read somewhere that an ice cool beer was the best cure for sand fly bites. Well, it was worth a try, anyway.

This Saturday was Downtown The Mounts Christmas festival. Now I like a good festival. Unfortunately this one wasn't really a festival, Christmas or otherwise. But there were some great Brazilian dancers doing a capoeira demonstration. This is a form of dance/fighting. Its very energetic and athletic and performed to a hypnotic drumbeat. They were very good. We watched them for quite a while but for some reason Georgia and I had decided to wear our roller boots into town and although Georgia is an expert, I am somewhat of a novice. So I spent most of the time trying not to crash into cafe chairs and pavement signs or skate over peoples toes. I think I managed to maintain an air of confidence whilst standing, holding on to a lamppost and Michael very kindly dragged me along through the crowds.

There were also other live bands there playing blues and hip hop also a candy floss stand and the shops stayed open late. It would have been nice to see some Kapa Haka dancers and singers but they weren't on the agenda. At 9 pm there was a huge fire work display out on a barge on Pilot Bay. Right on queue it started raining then but there was still a decent crowd turn out to see it.

It was a pity that the local town planner hadn't done her research very well as the Mount festival clashed with at least 2 others in the local area and there just isn't the population here to sustain more than one event at a time. I spoke to a couple of the shop owners in the town and they were a bit annoyed about the timing of the event.

Georgia and I put the decorations up in the house this weekend. Why is it that no matter how carefully you put the fairy lights away they are always in a huge tangled knot when you get them out again? Anyway, the tree looks very pretty. Some people here go mad with decorating the outside of their houses with lights and they can become part of the local 'light trail'. They put their addresses into the paper so people can drive round and have a look at their lights. The best one wins a prize (I hope its some money to pay for the electric bill). A local bus company runs trips round the houses and charges $15 per person for the privilege!! I wonder if the house owners get a cut of that! I love to see a town decorated with Christmas lights but it doesn't seem to happen much here - I guess the rate payers would be up in arms!

Well, I'm off to the library now to get a book on 'beginners roller blading for the over 40's'

Heres a couple of phtos for you to compare. The one on the far left is of Oxford Street in London, but of course it could be any city centre in the UK. Don't they all look happy!? The other one is of Tauranga town centre on Tuesday. A nice big inflatable Santa watching the throngs of shoppers fighting their way through the busy shops. Yeah, right.

It was a lovely day on Tuesday so of course everyone heads to the beach instead of the shops, which is how it should be. I love the understated hype of Christmas here. Christmas is, after all, just one day. In the UK the commercial build up to Christmas starts in September where the pressure is turned on for you to spend, spend, spend. You had to buy stuff and more stuff 'seeing as its Christmas' just to feel that you were joining in with the festivities.

People in New Zealand look forward to their summer holidays rather than the day itself and thats great. We had a lovely day strolling round the uncrowded shops, no hassle no pressure.

We used to live near a huge shopping centre called the Metro Centre and it was so busy around this time of year, the traffic queues to get in would reduce the surrounding roads to total grid lock. Then once you got there there it took hours to find a parking space then after a harrassing trawl round the shops would take another hour to get out of the car park. What a waste of time!!

Its fantastic that its only 19 days to Christmas and people here are lying on the beach, getting out on their boats or going fishing.

sunshine and sand

Firstly, being English, I have to mention it. The weather. Its been pretty fab these last few days. Every where looks gorgeous when the sun shines, lovely bright colours and clear blue skies. It really encourages me to keep up with my running in the morning and today I ran the furthest ever. I went to the local shopping mall to get my hair cut at a barbers run by 2 girls, Marilin and Denise, from Liverpool. (Yes, I did say barbers and they really only do men's hair but being multi talented they do me a sneaky cut out the back). The mall is about a 25 min run away along the beach and I felt pretty good that I managed it without having a heart attack, until I looked in the mirror and discovered my face was as red as tomato from that beautiful bright sun!

Now, talking of multi talented people, take a look at the most recent tour Micheal has just completed http://thevirtualviewcompany.com/49athena its lovely house, close to the beach.

Well, moving on. There is a strange phenomena in the shop at the moment. If you sit on the chair out the back or stand on a certain tile next to the fridge you get a strange wobbly sensation. Michael has, on occasions, been bounced out of the chair. Its a bit like on Jurassic Park when the jelly starts to wobble indicating the approach of a dinosaur. Vaguely wondering if it was an earth quake or that perhaps the Mount was thinking of reactivating itself, I decided it must be the building works that are underway out the back of the shop. There are 2 huge building projects in competition with each other. One is directly behind the shop car park and the other just over the road from that. You may not be familiar with Mount Maunganui, but it is basically a huge sand bank with an volcano ( The Mount) at one end and the ocean on both sides.So when foundations are dug out they are basically digging out a huge sand pit. There is no bed rock or clay. The builders are using a huge munching machine from Germany(see photos) which digs down into the sand then mixes it up with tons and tons of cement and water which in turn forms the retaining wall around the site. We have been assured that this method causes the least disturbance to the surrounding buildings but I must admit I have checked the shop insurance as I have a feeling the whole street is going to fall down into these 2 huge holes and be swallowed up by the sea. The holes are way below sea level. The buildings are going to be high rise apartments. The Mount is fast developing in to an even more popular holiday destination and it really is starting to come together but in the mean tine we have huge lorries, diggers and cranes driving round the streets and the sand and dust flying about is unbelievable! But at least the workmen come in for pizza! The buildings should be finished by 2009 then all the millionaires can enjoy their drinkies on their decks 2 inches from the next buildings deck while craning their necks to have a peep at the sea. Lovely!!

Well, to change subject a bit you will be pleased to know I managed to down load a new French tutorial onto my mp3 player. So now I have moved on from Monsieur Albert in the cafe to listening to Michel Thomas. If you are familiar with this guy you will know he has a unique method of teaching a foreign language which is very good and works for me. The only problem is I wish he would clear his throat! Either he is a heavy smoker or his false teeth don't fit properly. If you are not familiar with the guy then lets just say I feel the need to clear spit out my ears. Well, I'll leave you with that thought.....aurevoir, mes amis

photos

Above photo of the deserted Papamoa Beach at 9am
View from the mount summit. Papamoa Beach is off in the distance.



We had an impromtu climb up the Mount last week and as usual I was well prepared for these occasions with jandals on my feet. We climbed up some deserted old goat track which was reminiscent of a mountain path on some Greek Island. At this time of year different parts of the mount can be completely diverse from lush native bush to baked Mediteranean hillside to English forest.
We managed to get to the summit ok and enjoy the views and get down in time for a nice cold beer before openning the shop for the teatime rush!