Tales from the Trunk # 9

A Surfer Dude

While chatting to my cousin Graeme recently, he showed me a photo (the one below) of my grandfather.
Now, Granddad, was born in 1880 and died in 1965. At his death he was living in Gisborne.
It seems he was many things:  a bible-ridden Christian, a narrow-minded, somewhat intolerant and proud man, fiercely independent, son of an Orange Lodge-supporting Ulsterman, musical (see his flute), a storeman/warehouseman, a public servant; as he aged, he was crippled by arthritis and diabetes.
What I hadn't counted on was that he was also a 'surfer dude'! See what I mean for yourself:

Uh, oh - major revision of family stories required!

Titokowaru's Dilemma

I was in Invercargill recently, and visited the Southland Museum.

I was very taken by one of their displays, called Titokowaru's Dilemma. It is an exhibition of prints by Marian Maguire, which actually comprises 3 print series: Titokowaru's Dilemma, A Taranaki Dialogue, and Colonial Encounters.

What is so striking about these images is their re-purposing of 'ancient' or classical forms and imagery. Thus she presents what is unmistakably a greek vase decorated with imagery derived from colonial Taranaki! Fascinating.

Have a look for yourself:

Our Southern Sojourn

You can see by looking at the list of previous entries that I had a lot of photos from our holiday in January to publish.

But I was also conscious that flicking between entries doesn't let you get a feel for what other photos might be worth a look.

So I thought I'd put them altogether in a single array, and include a couple of brief videos.

So I did, and you can see them at our family site.

Graduation

Our Jayne has finished her time at University - at least for the present! Who knows what the future might hold.

And so it was time this week to officially acknowledge the end of that era, and to reward her for the work, effort and success of the past 4 years.

So, we all attended Victoria University's Graduation ceremony for the Faculty of Humanities. Jayne was to receive her Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours (first class). Needless to say we were all thrilled.

And to cap it off (yes, pun intended) also graduating were Himself, our Jack, and Best Friend Nicky. So we captured a few photos (of course) and I have some video footage of the ceremony which I'll publish here as soon as I can get it processed. Have a look at the pix.

Big Dowse Out

Our Gareth is a member of Newtown Rocksteady, and blows a fine trombone. They played at Lower Hutt's Big Dowse Out in mid-March this year. It was a lovely day, made better by great performances. See your yourself.

A Southern Sojourn # 16

In which we are in Dunedin.

Again this is a mainly family history visit - video interviews with cousin Margaret (of the Manapouri family) & Aunt Pearl - my mother's sister-in-law.

But we also visited the Hocken Library, where both found documents of interest and collections of photos relevant to us both.

The Portait Gallery in the Settlers Museum
Apparently the Edies don't qualify as 'settlers' (and the Clearwaters do!), ...
... so we're not too sure just who this 'Edie' is or how she fits in.
The Etrusco Restaurant has lovely ambience.
And so does The Craic in the Octagon
An exhibition in the foyer of the Hocken Library

And that was our Southern Sojourn! It was time to go home.

A Southern Sojourn # 15

The drive from Invercargill to Dunedin takes about 2 hours. We made it last all day, by going the long way around and making a sizable detour.

Firstly we went up Highway 1 to Gore. The iconic Sergeant Dan graces the side of large food processing plant where Creamoata Rolled Oats are manufactured. Sergeant Dan has been around for a long time now, and has, over the years, been subtly re-shaped to meet modern body-shape perceptions and to de-sex the character.

Then it was on to Waikaia, the home & last resting-palce of James Bryson - aka 'Jimmy the Packer' - who may or may not have been one of the original Bryson party on board the Sir William Eyre. He was the 'other' possible mysterious James Bryson, although it now seems the one in Eastern Cemetery might be the relation. Waikaia, or Switzers as it was also known, was quite a long way out of our path.

The Museum at Waikaia
Tourist Information display
The Bottle House

Having not really got any value from the diversion to Waikaia, we retraced our path to Gore, and then headed to Lawrence via Edievale. At Lawrence we stopped for coffee and a wander about the museum, and Desiree became a 'citizen' of Lawrence in honour of her family history. En route we made the obligatory stops at Edievale Road, the shop and entrance to Springfield.

The last stop, after Lawrence and before Dunedin, was to divert into the Waitahuna Valley to the Miners' Memorial.