Interlude

Whilst we are packing and moving we don't really have a whole lot to share, apart from the various merits of different boxes....

There are a few blogs sharing the unpolitically correct adverts from the 50's encouraging people to smoke and women to look after her man. So I was wondering what un-PC'ness I could share from when I grew up in the 70's. And for some reason this rhyme kept going around in my head... and so for a bit of an interlude and some cringe worthy entertainment - here is the rhyme...

(insert first name and surname)is no good
Chop him/her up for firewood
When he's/she's dead
Boil her/his head
And make them into gingerbread

Happy day
If you have an unPC memory from your childhood, share away :-)

Bon Voyage Tzipi

For her last day we did a little bit of shopping; Tzipi is continuing on her travels with an extra bag (a girl can never have enough!) It’s a Kete which is a woven Maori bag.



And she also got some slightly kitsch kiwiana bag jewellery which consists of a kiwi bird inlaid with paua (shell) and a silver fern which is seen on lots of New Zealand sports team shirts.



We’ve loved having Tzipi visit and think that she has enjoyed her short time down under and we look forward to hearing about the rest of her worldwide travels.


On a totally different tangent, check out the Royal New Zealand Ballet - they have a great u-tube hit choreographed to Lady Gaga.

In 2 weeks we will be living south of the Bombay hills in-between 2 wee places called Mercer and Pokeno. We have found our country lifestyle only 45km from my new job. So we’re busy packing…… it’s amazing the amount of craft stuff and yarn that I have!

Re-location, re-location, re-location

I started my new job today, and so this past weekend was spent in Auckland looking at new places to live.

As part of our house-hunting we also showed Tzipi some of the city.



One Tree Hill is fairly famous, U2 have a song about it, and it is now noteable for having no tree after an activist tried to chop the tree down fairly successfully. It is also one of the many (inactive) volcano's that Auckland is built around. From the top there is a fabulous view of the city and it sits in the middle of a gorgeous park.

Tzipi and Andrew then flew back to Tauranga while I am now living with my sister and her family during the week until the house hunting is a success :-)

Kiwi Kulture

Yesterday we had a bit of New Zealand culture.
We went to the Tauranga Art Gallery and saw a great exhibition by a local artist. The gallery is a great place to sit and watch the world go by (we weren’t allowed to take photos in there, so this is a picture of Tzipi with the program)



Then we went to see an ‘o for awesome’ New Zealand movie called Boy. www.boythemovie.co.nz



Tzipi has since taken to calling everyone she meets an ‘egg’ (an affectionate way of saying dumb) and wants to learn how to do a haka.

To show her to some Maori culture we taught Tzipi how to do a hongi (a greeting where your squish noses) and we visited the waka (canoe) and some carvings that are on the Tauranga waterfront.

April Sun

Sunny days in Autumn are the best, the sun isn’t too strong to burn, yet it’s hot enough to wear tee-shirts and warm your bones through :-)

Each season has its own special advantages for a walk on the beach.



Autumn means the last holiday makers and the last swim in the sea and then the surfers with the extra thick wetsuits take up residence once again.



Tzipi enjoying autumn sun at Mount Maunganui

Poppies at the beach

The 25th April is a half day holiday in New Zealand.
Anzac Day is about honouring the memory of WWI veterans who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey.
ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
here's more info – thank you Wikipedia :-)

Tzipi and I had all the best intentions to get up early to go to the dawn parade, unfortunately our hard day of house hunting yesterday caught up with us, and the best we did was to hear the air force plane do its fly by at the end.



We did pop down to the Cenotaph later on in the morning to see the poppies.

And then Andrew took us out to Yum Cha for lunch.



Which was a nice relaxing end to a frantic weekend!
Tomorrow we're out for lunch with friends, maybe a spot of shopping or to the beach if the day is as lovely as today :-)

Tzipi's 1st day Topsy Turvy

Tzipi arrived safely from France yesterday, luckily missing the big volcano ash hoohah in the Northern Hemisphere.

After a great nights sleep to help with the jet lag her trip down under started with a couple of tastes...

a taste of the outdoors, a visit around the orchard and a rest in an avocado tree



and a taste of classic Kiwi lollies, she's currently enjoying a bag of Pineapple Lumps for tea (she's on her hols so it's okay!)



And she caught up with a fellow flutterbutt - Clear sky, (currently convalescing after loosing an arm in a car accident, he's just waiting for it to be found, learning to do everything with the other hand has been fun!)



For the next wee while we will be sharing all of Tzipi's experiences of being topsy turvy :-)