A New Zealand Trip .....

[DavidWW]

Hi All

At the suggestion of a few of you, I'll do a "Mesklin" in terms of my trip, but only once I find the bits of paper on which I wrote down my notes for my thankyou speech to the President of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists at my last-but-one lecture..........

Davie

via, just recently .........

LA (met Ina)
Auckland
Nelson (NZSG Conference)
Collingwood
Picton
Wellington (lecture)
Hastings (lecture)
Rotorua
Hamilton (Lions match )
Napier
New Plymouth (lecture)
Tauranga (lecture)
Auckland (lecture)
Dunedin
Cromwell (lecture)
Invercargill (lecture and Lions match )
Balclutha (met Stephan and Marion)
Dunedin (lecture)
Omaru
Timaru (sp??) (lecture)
Christchurch (lecture and First All Blacks vs Lions Test)
Whangarei (lecture)
Waipu
Auckland (lectures)
Papakura (lecture)
North Shore (lecture)
LA (crashed out at a Howard Johnston )

...with lectures in most of these locations, or visits to remarkable places such as the incredible centre in Waipu recording the emigration of Scots to Nova Scotia, and then, some decades later, to Waipu and surrounds, led by the Rev Norman McLeod.....................

Appleologies to the places missed out, but after about 2,500 km in the passenger seat of a car I became a bit zonked.

Watch this space............... dww

[DavidWW]

It’s the 1840s in Scotland with much debate over the policies of the Established Church of Scotland in relation to their position with respect to the state and, in particular, the right of heritors to have a say in the appointment of ministers, - a situation that ultimately led to the major disruption in the “Auld Kirk”, - the Established Church of Scotland, - with the breakaway in 1843 of the Free Kirk, - “The Disruption”.

One minister in particular has never adhered strictly to the tenets of the Established Church, - Thomas Burns, - a nephew of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns…….

So what does he do but persuade his congregation and adherents to undertake a 6 months sea journey to New Zealand and found a new city in the South Island of New Zealand, - “Dun Edin”, or “the castle of Edin”, or “Edinburgh” as it might be known back in Auld Scotia…………. with the intention of establishing a society in accordance with the values of the Scottish presbyterian church as typified by the 1843 breakaway Free Kirk ………………

Had it not been for the Otago gold rush a couple of decades later, with the major influence that this had on the strict presbyterian society foreseen by the Rev Thomas Burns and his followers, who knows what might have turned out to be the modern day situation of Dunedin, NZ.....

Davie

[JayPee]

Hi All

At the suggestion of a few of you, I'll do a "Mesklin" in terms of my trip,
[...]
via, just recently .........
[...]
Hamilton (Lions match )
[...]
Invercargill (lecture and Lions match )
[...]
Christchurch (lecture and First All Blacks vs Lions Test)

Can't help thinkin' that the trip was scheduled with some fine thinkin' aboot Lions matches ...
- JayPee

[DavidWW]

Hi All

At the suggestion of a few of you, I'll do a "Mesklin" in terms of my trip,
[...]
via, just recently .........
[...]
Hamilton (Lions match )
[...]
Invercargill (lecture and Lions match )
[...]
Christchurch (lecture and First All Blacks vs Lions Test)

Can't help thinkin' that the trip was scheduled with some fine thinkin' aboot Lions matches ...

JayPee
- JayPee

You got it, but it wasn't the trip scheduling that presented the problem, it was getting the tickets, - obtainable as single tickets only by New Zealand residents (apart from buying a full tour package starting at £4,000 in the UK...) ....

Davie

[DavidWW]

Essential Background

I’ve been in NZ several times between 1977 and 1986 on business visits, but not since until this trip, and never previously had the chance to see so much of the country.

Please take the comments as a pawky series of off-the-top-off-my-head bullet type reactions. In t’other words, if there are any Kiwis out there who take offence, - tough, - you obviously don’t understand my Chick Murray style sense of humour. (But then, despite the ephemeral appearance of a Scottish hooker in the final test, I just have to get my own back not only for a 3-0 series whitewash, but also the weather at the Christchurch Test!!)


Aotearoa = Land of the Long White Cloud.

I’m a very observant chappie, and, after some initial experiences, kept a close count, and wish to suggest that the country now be renamed, -

“Land of the Dual Flush Toilet”,

…..as I came across less than 10 old-style single flush cisterns in my 5½ weeks in the country, - “home hosted”, so I saw a few ……….. extremely impressive environmentally.

(Can some kind Kiwi translate that into the Maori, please!

On the subject of Maori, I caused numerous jaws to drop in my opening, plenary lecture at the Nelson NZSG Conference when I started off with two sentences in Maori, as opposed to the “conventional” ‘Kia Ora’, - BTW wis that no a type o ginger in the West of Scotland??….. )

Now to the bullets


Impressions of Aoteroa (to be substituted by the new name when available)

Nelson conference, just a blur
Hi-tech presentation problems, - power supply no plugged in, and hotel broadband
Blue skies
Cold
Rugby and sheep
Dancing sands which didn’t
Friendly smiling people
Cook Strait horrors, - it was a relatively calm day, and I’m normally a good sailor, but ............
Rugby and cows
Confusing landscapes, - very familiar to a Scot, - on many occasions I could have been in Ayrshire, or Galloway, or Perthshire .......
Best car museum in the world (near Wellington)
“De Laval” (I used to work for Alfa-Laval, founded by Gustaf De-Laval………)
Rugby and sheep
2 x McDONALDs and a McALLISTER in the NZ Maoris team vs the Lions
A supposed international level referee who couldn’t set a scrum
The “interesting” (tut! tut! frightening!!) combination of torrential rain and a tin roof
Rugby and cows
Jetlag !!, - all the effects of an 11 hour time difference
Jan Gow’s new kitchen
The capital that wasn’t (Collingwood)
Rugby and sheep
Spectacular scenery
Good wine, although the reds have slipped a bit since the 1980s
Podocorps
Rugby and cows
Hawks everywhere, - many each day hovering over the road (over 3,000 km by car….)
Pavements outside shops with canopies or whitiver Kiwis call them
Flat white/long black (coffee types)
Rugby and sheep
Climate, - no problem for me as a Scot………
Km not miles, very confusing
Wooden houses and buildings
Rugby and cows
Winter sunshine
Now very few old cars (in the 70s/80s they were the norm, - “Look!, - A Renault Dauphine!!")
Houses on precipitous hillsides, - e.g. Nelson, Wellington, Napier …….
Rugby and sheep
Variety of house styles, very few similar to the adjoining house
Speed traps (see 3,000+ km reference)
Te Papa (national museum in Wellington, - incredibly good, - worth several days’ visits)
Generous with service
Rugby and cows
Place names, - familiar (Scottish) and unfamiliar (Maori)
Green country, - has to be No.2 after Ireland……
Great wee cafes everywhere (see 3,000+ km reference)
Rugby and sheep
Tauranga surfers, - midwinter !!
Personal allergy problem, - NZ tops the world league for asthma ……
Some places, - 2 nights in the same bed !!
Old tractors
Rugby and cows
No old ruins
Very few dry stane dykes, - mostly fences
Rugby and sheep and cows………

Just in case you think that I’m exaggerating the repeated reference to rugby and livestock, the latter were ever present all over the country, although there’s been a massive decrease in the sheep population in the last decade or so. As regards “rugby”, the following tale is highly relevant……….

On the Saturday evening of the Nelson conference I ducked out as early as was diplomatically possible after the formal conference dinner as (a) I was knackered, and (b) I was interested in seeing the delayed transmission of the first Lions match, - live on Sky, but then transmitted in full on NZ Channel 3 an hour or so later ……….

…… during which I fell asleep with the TV on …….

… to wake up to the delayed transmission of the NZ Maoris vs Fiji match…

…… during which I fell asleep with the TV on …….

...to wake up to the live transmission from Twickenham of the final round stages of the Twickenham International Sevens……

…… during which I fell asleep with the TV on …….

To wake up to the live transmission from Twickenham of the Martin Johnston – Jona Lomu testimonial match, during which I had to go and have breakfast !!!

Need I say more ?????

Davie

[StewL]

Davie

As for the decline in the sheep poplulation? Nah! there all just in hiding, New Zealand, where men are men and sheep are nervous

It also Rugby season, and sheep get fed up with being tackled by a potential all black.

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings.

Oh to see ourselves as others see us.
Glad to see you were flushed with success while in NZ.
Dual systems can be essential if you rely on rain water collection.
But if truth be known - lift the lid - and ye shall find - many a bridged union link between half and full !
It seams it's only when city folk finally get their, "life style block" acre or two of rural and, are they forced to appreciate the "dual flush."
The alternative being a stained bowl, from less than perfect bore/ well water.

You were lucky, there was no long drop. Perhaps back in the 80's visits.

But it takes an Aussie, to make a full length film about such matters. Kenny's job being one I know a bit about, fortunately though, but once a year, and as a volunteer.

Glad the trip was such aussess. Do come again.

[eNZedFred]

The water for our property is all captured from the house roof. It goes into an underground tank along with the bird droppings, flakes of paint and dead insects. The feed pipe pulls from about 12 inches off the bottom, so only the real small stuff gets sucked up. In the winter the fire causes the water to taste a bit sooty. In the summer when the rain is a bit scarce we rely on the dual fulsh toilet to save water, and when water is really scarce we fall back to a country tradition....... If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down ! Cheers from Downunder.