Politics and summer in NZ

After our drought we've had two days of serious rain...20cm (about 8 inches) in 48 hours, surface flooding and lots of wind... my niece Mia's 6 camping friends came round and slept indoors for a night, joining Ian, myself and our French HelpX guests - Gael (from Brittany) and Benedicte (from Leon) - making a full on return after my week in the Hokianga.

At North Tec summer school in Rawene (on the Hokianga Harbour in the far North) I did the Flaxroots low budget film making course again... this time taught by Murray Nathan (my Godson's father) and Lavinia Kingi.  I must get to know the editing software, and to this end did the course and will do again, probably.  Together, each of the nine people in the course made a short film  Mine was my first episode of Sundays with Sandra, which I will post before too long.

Another pleasure of being in the Hokianga was spending time with my wee Godson, Kahu, and watching his mother Jessie and her team members train for the NZ National Sprint waka ama (outrigger canoe) championships (held last week) where they (the Hokianga Solids) made the semi-finals!
 

 

Anyway, regarding politics, this morning I was watching Al Jazeera news regarding the Palestinian Papers that were leaked to the station and have been released to the public via their website.  These have to do with Israeli/Palestine negotiations, mediated by the US.  There are riots and bombing and lives lost, futures at risk.  I changed the channel to New Zealand's TV 1 where the talk show was covering a nudist group seeking new members.


Hmmmm, same planet?

Summer fun

It's been full on at The Glorious Tangle with guests, gardening, music, swimming, making cheese, cooking, dancing and going to concerts.

Here are some photos of Angie and Rowan cooking (in a light rain, hence the umbrella) and Angie with the Brazilian cheese we made, it's hard to see white cheese on white plate, but was tasty.

My niece Ruby and her friend Sofie from Sweden were here and we took them to a KatchAFire and Black Seeds concert, thanks to Sarah and Craig (Black Seeds manager). Sofie was pretty excited to meet some of the Black Seeds on her 21st!






I've spent this morning watering and pulling kikuyu grass and after vacuuming and a computer tidy up I'm off to a video editing course.  I did one a documentary making course a few years ago but need HELP with the Adobe editing software so Monday through Thursday this week that is what I'll be doing.



I had a guest a couple of days ago... a surprise guest I hadn't seen in 14 years or so..an Israeli woman from Auckland, Tame Vazey... who has opened up a new group of friends here in Waipu with middle eastern ties who make delicious food and have built a Moroccan castle up in the hills.  I am so often amazed by the circles life makes here in New Zealand, but more about that later as I must concentrate on getting ready for my course tomorrow.

Spare a thought for the poor Aussies and Brazilians and the rescue crews helping them.  What a nightmare mother nature can be.

Ciao for now,
xS