Mar 20
Something a little more real time… this weekend is the CubaDupa street festival in Wellington, centered around (and inspired by) the lively and diverse Cuba Street. The festival debuted last year to replace the Cuba Street Carnival which had been absent for a few years due to lack of funding. We popped along for a couple of hours yesterday to join the rest of Wellington in soaking up the occasion.
Read more
As the Anzac Day dawn service commenced yesterday at Gallipoli, a reciprocal commemoration began in Wellington at the Atatürk Memorial.
Located on a Miramar Peninsula clifftop, it is a powerfully symbolic site chosen for its resemblance to the Gallipoli coastline. Consequently the Chaplain remarked that being here was the next best thing to being there, 17,000kms away. As I heard this from the fringe of the packed crowd, unable to see any of the ceremony, I realised he was right.
Apr 2
The First World War centenary commemorations are gathering much steam here especially in the approach to ANZAC Day later this month. Back in August, to mark the start of WW1 and very close to where NZ’s declaration of war was made on 5 August 1914, a Field of Remembrance was created in the grounds of parliament.
Today we took Mike’s boys and our bikes to Queen Elizabeth Park on the Kapiti Coast.
Another year has been archived and a shiny new one has started.
2014 was great in many ways but all in all, I’m glad it’s goneburger. I’m proud of the odds and sods of travel that I achieved though the majority has yet to make it into this blog. I need to find a faster way of posting! Anyhoo, I’ll keep chipping away and in the meantime there’s new stuff to plan and do.
A big thanks for reading and at times providing the motivation to keep this labour of love going! Happy New Year – I hope 2015 is good to you 🙂
Wellington Harbour from Seatoun, New Year’s Day 2015
An interruption to the China series for something a little more topical. Hello from my hometown of Helensville (technically, the small adjacent settlement of Parakai) where I’ve spent Christmas with my parents and grandmother. Christmas nowadays gets shared between Wellington and Auckland in a mixture of new and old traditions. Read more
If you want to get up close and personal with Wellington’s rugged terrain in a civilised fashion and at the same time be rewarded with stunning vistas, moments of peace and beauty in the beautiful town belt and a sprinkling of heritage finds, then the Southern Walkway is for you. Read more
I left Mike and boys watching the ‘bird man’ competition on the waterfront and set off on another quest to find street art. Read more
Like many other gleeful people, I’ve finished work for the year and have a two week break before cranking into 2014.
Read more
The other weekend I went for a walk, the only real objective being to find some hills – not a difficult task around these parts.
I took myself up to Maupuia, a suburb on the hills above Miramar, along the Maupuia Walkway (which I’ve belatedly found out follows what was the old Prison Road) and further on up the hill to Mt Crawford.
Read more
tall tales 