BTFF: More Waipukurau Memories

Well, unless or until I can take the rest of my slides into be scanned OR my Dad remembers how he did it and helps me, this will be my last story about my 1989 NZ trip for a while.

These last photos are all from Waipukurau. I fell in love with the quaintness of that small city. Green, lush, rolling hills. Sheep dotting the landscape everywhere. It was really out of a storybook. Especially the people there. Just genuine, good-hearted people. I really didn't want to leave.

My host family was just fantastic. Just the nicest people ever and their kids were so sweet. It was so easy to feel like family with them. Here's proof I even helped out with the family chores. And here's their home.

I mentioned before about mixing gin & tonics for the New Zealand Grandpa. That was a first! Well he also took me to my first horse races. Here he is getting ready to take me.

Here I am betting. Can you see me, I know I'm SHORT!!!

Here's his wife, my New Zealand Grandma, in her kitchen. See the tea in her hand? I loved having "tea-time" everyday @ 10 a.m. and in the afternoon. The cookies (bikkies) weren't bad either but were NEVER homemade. Sorry you had to hear that Mamasita.

Here's the neighbor kids. I know the one of the boy isn't very good but I couldn't leave him out. I love his freckles too much.

As I've talked about in previous BTFF posts such as Remembering Rotorua. My Waipukurau family took me to see some really cool stuff. One picture I left out before was from Rotorua. These are Maori men and women doing a traditional dance. They took me to something that was similar to a luau. They did a performance and we had a delicious feast!

Something else my Mum took me to do was to go to a Meat Packing Plant (aka slaughterhouse) where they process (kill) sheep. The lamb industry is huge there and outnumbers the people (at least it did in 1989).

Anyway, you vegetarians are going to think I'm really sick. But I loved it and took tons of photos. I know, I'm dememnted. I even showed them to the old-timer Lions Club here in town when I got back. I am so sick that I loved to hear the OOOOH and the YUUUUCCCKKS from the audience. That is primarily why I searched my attic to find the rest of my slides that my Poppy hadn't scanned. I knew I was missing my beloved meat processing photos. To me, it was fascinating. Wait and see when I get them up, maybe we'll all come to the conclusion that I was just a sick-0 back then.

On a more civilized note, these lovely Maori women were basketweavers. They came to the Waipukurau Lions Club meeting to talk about their craft. The bag right in front of me they honored me with by giving it to me. I still have it!

They take the leaves from the Flax plant to weave with. Fascinating.

Last but not least, this was the best thing I did by far on my whole entire 6 week trip. Maybe it was the same day we went to Takapo, I can't remember. But it wasn't just because I was surrounded by B-O-Y-S! These guys attended a Maori Boys' School. We had the EXTREME pleasure of watching them performa a traditional dance. If you have ever seen Whalerider, it was just like the scene in the movie. Tongues out, grunts, the whole nine yards. And with their deep voices, their chants were just enough to give this poor girl chills! I will never forget their voices, it was mezmerizing. If you ever go to NZ you absolutely have to take part in watching a traditional dance performance by the men. GOT TO DO IT! Also, if you have never seen Whalerider, I suggest you watch it. It's an awesome movie and my kids loved it too!

Since you have to scan over every word in my posts to be able to see if words are linked or not, I will just copy and paste the url's for past posts about New Zealand if you want to check them out. This way you don't have to search through the archives.

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/02/back-to-future.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/02/back-to-future-fock-who.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/03/back-to-future-remembering-rotorua-nz.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/03/btff-back-to-future-friday.html

http://troublealwayshasadoor.blogspot.com/2006/04/btff-auckland-nz-and-bay-of-islands.html