Lest We Forget

Tommorow marks a special day for Australia and New Zealand.  Its a public holiday, where many shops will be closed for the morning and many services will take place all over the country beginning with the Dawn Service.  Its a day known as Anzac Day.  The Anzacs were the Australia and New Zealand Army Corp and were the group of soldiers from these countries who went to fight in Gallipoli (in Turkey) during World War 1. The beach where those Anzacs first landed has been named Anzac Cove.  Many soldiers from both countries were killed at that place (over 10500 in all), but the day has since expanded to remember all Kiwis and Aussies who died at war.   It is usually remembered through the services where parades are held and returned servicemen wear their badges and stand to honour their fallen comerades.  Wreaths are also laid in memory of the fallen and the Last Post is played during a time of otherwise silence.  Poppies are the symbol of rememberance for those who lost their lives - as can be heard about in the poem 'In Flanders Fields' by Lt Colonel John McCrae:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow 

Between the crosses row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly 

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago 

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 

Loved and were loved, and now we lie 

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw 

The torch; be yours to hold it high. 

If ye break faith with us who die 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 

In Flanders fields.  

The tag and the train

Well my computer is finally letting me copy and paste - so I can actually join in on this one!

THR3E!!

3 things you did today: Went to Takapuna Beach, Took a sorta tour of Auckland, Came back to Hamilton (for those of you who didn't realise I left Wangas 3 days ago and have been in Auckland from then til now)

3 things you want to do: Go to America, Go to London, See snow (even if some people don't like it - it would be interesting to see it at least once)

3 people you'd like to meet: Bluey, NetsirK, Katie

3 people that annoy you: Chris Tomlin, Peter Mortlock, and Brian Tamaki 

3 favorite animals: wolves, dogs, cats

3 things to put on a sandwich: Cheese. Cheese. More cheese. 

3 favorite things to do: things relating to music (concerts, keyboard, singing etc), talk to friends, read

3 favorite TV shows: Get Smart, M*A*S*H, and Monk

3 things about yourself: My hair colour is about identical to Bluey's, I love Mac computers and will always prefer them to windows ones, Many would say I have too many books and CDs

Something I said I would show you sometime - here are a few pics from the train journey down to wangas 2 weeks ago.  

the Raurimu Spiral (you can't really see the spiral - its hidden in the bush, but this is where it is located - if you look carefully you may see the poles sticking up marking the next level of the route.

One of the viaducts - the rails at the bottom left are part of the viaduct we were crossing, towards the top you can see the old viaduct which I think may have been reopened as a walkway

About to cross one of the bridges

Crossing one of the 4 viaducts in the Rangatiki region.  The lowest of these viaducts is about 58m high - this particular one in the pics above and below, is the South Rangatiki Viaduct which is 315m long and 78m high.  Its the second longest viaduct in New Zealand

If you look carefully in the second pic, you can see the sheep and cattle on the grass far below the train (sorry bout the shadow)

I do have more pics too - will look at putting them online in a few days time if anyone is interested.

Follow the signs

Well I don't know if you all do this outside NZ, but over here its becoming more and more common for churches to be using signs to get peoples attention, - like this particular sign I saw outside one of the churches, which said 'Give Satan an inch and he'll be you're ruler'   other ones I've seen include 'Kiwi saviour - apply within' (NZ has a retirement savings scheme called kiwi saver which is what is the point behind that one) and 'God always answers knee-mail'.  Once inside (or occasionally on advertising at other locations) theres  the ones like 'Don't give up - Moses was once a basket case' and 'Don't be afraid to try something new - remember Amateurs built the Ark, Professionals built the Titanic'.  One of the ones we drove past the other day was One things for sure - it will definitely be interesting seeing what they come up with next!

From Easter til now

Hope you all had an awesome Easter.  For me, it was really cool cause for the first time that I've known, there was kids church so I got to lead the kids after all (I'd been thinking I was going to miss is this time due to the fact that Easter is the only Sunday I'm here for this hols) 

On the afternoon of Easter Sunday and again on the Monday afternoon I decided to do some baking for a change since I haven't been able to in a while.  Ended up making 1 batch of biscuits (if you don't remember what they are look back at my post bout NewZild), a double batch of fudge, 2 batches of scones, 1 batch of muffins and pavlova.  Now the only problem is what to do with it all.....   after all I only have 2 more days here (and we're going to Palmy North for one day so there's really only one day left)

This hols really have gone fast.  Only half a week left now - and then straight back into assessements.  Still trying to save money to pay for everything I'm wanting/needing within the next few months.  Didn't help that my loan for fees was delayed so thats one more thing I've had to sort out (not great considering I find out just before Easter meaning theres been the delay there while they're not open and therefore it still hasn't been sorted yet) Hopefully will all work out soon tho.

The trip and Wangas

This week has just gone by so fast.  I only have one more week down here before we head up to Auckland for a few days, then I'll be back at Uni.  Got a few assessments on currently and a few are on as soon as I get back which is kinda annoying but at least it means they'll be out of the way.

I did take some pics of the view from the train on my way down here for all you non-kiwis out there who are interested in NZ.  Will get then up as soon as I figure out how to get them off my phone.  May also try to take a few pics from around Wangas while I'm here so you can all see where I'm from. 

Oh and the H debate is going to be put to referendum again.  This time supposedly binding - and will supposedly happen within the next 3 months.  the stupid thing is this is the 3rd time ratepayers have had to pay out for a referendum, yet cause the first 2 weren't binding we're now going through the whole mess again - and no matter what the outcome, one group isn't going to be happy.  I don't think this debate will ever end.

Anyway since I don't know when you're all going to be online in the next few days (or if you are) hope you all have a Happy and safe Easter. 

Homeward bound

Tomorrow is the day I'm catching the train and going home.  Back to Wangas.  It's been good being in Hamilton for semester, but Wangas has a totally different atmosphere, and its home.  Its generally a pretty good journey on the train, but it is a long one.  Bout twice as long as driving there (mainly cause of all the hills that are too steep for trains and thus that we have to go around - with the exception of the Raurimu spiral that we go up.   As well as the spiral, there's also several bridges and viaducts including the bridge at Tangiwai - the site of New Zealand's worst rail disaster which occurred on Christmas Eve, 1953.  Anyway, so the train will be taking me from Hamilton to Marton tomorrow, then I have to go by car from there to Wangas (a trip of about 1/2 an hour to 3/4 of an hour in length) . 

 I would have been going today, only there's the running of the sheep in Te Kuiti (the shearing capital of the world - according to themselves) - basically a large number of sheep are set loose in the main street of the town, in the largest sheep run in the world - so as a result the train was already fully booked to that point (and that's between Hamilton and Wangas). Should be an interesting time for those who are going to it. 

The one annoyance about going tomorrow, rather than today, is that I'm going to miss Palm Sunday at our church in Wanganui.  Its usually a really neat day there, with the church decorated with palm branches, and you get given palm branches when you go in that you can wave during the worship if you want to, and then at the end there are palm crosses available for you to take away.  One other small thing thats kind of frustrating is it also happens to be daylight saving tonight.  Our clocks go back an hour (so the opposite way to all of you in the northern hemisphere).

Also one negative of heading down to Wangas at all is I won't have my keyboard for 2 weeks.  That being said, I will have my organ again, and I could possibly borrow the church's keyboard if I needed to, so its not entirely bad news.  Just hope that everything will work out with my student loan/allowance now.  Would be nice to find a way to earn/get a little more money while I'm down there cause the cost of things I want/need for this year is just so expensive. 

 Anyway I'd better leave this at this point and go finish packing. Got a long train trip ahead.

The H Debate

The war of 2 sides is on in full swing in my hometown.  Not a war with guns obviously but rather with words - and all over 1 letter - H.  This is no April fools joke - it's really happening - one letter is causing controversy that is costing thousands to decide, and may cost even more before its finished.  See Wanganui got its name from local Maori, however at the time, Maori did not have a written language - only an oral one - so the spelling came from the pronounciation by the local tribespeople.  It is a derivitive of the words Whàngà nui - meaning 'big harbour' however due to the fact the language was only oral, going by the local's pronounciation, the H was not included in the name of either the town or the river (Wh is usually pronounced 'f' in maori).  

In 1991 the local Maori successfully managed to change the name of the river to include the H, and the name of the region also took on the spelling Whanganui, however our city has always remained Wanganui, much to the dismay of the local iwi (tribe).  In 06 a referendum (survey of people old enough to vote) took place with over 80% who voted choosing the current spelling without the H.  That didn't stop the debate however.  2 months ago, the iwi took a claim to the NZ Geographic Board, and they have just released their view that there is a good case for the name change.  Now, beginning in May, we have 3 months to comment on whether we want the change or not.  

Personally, I don't want it.  Our city is Wanganui, and to add the H now, would likely change the whole pronounciation.  The city's nickname(s) given to it by the youth (Wangas/Wangavegas) would be irrelevant, not to mention our title as Wanganuians (again a youth saying).  And it would cost the businesses tons - we're not the biggest town and it's more than likely that many may not be able to afford it.  Besides as it is, those who want the H just use it anyway.  It's made no difference that they use it - they're free to if they want, but if over 80% of us who live there don't want it changed, its really a bit excessive to go ahead with it - particularly since those who just made this ruling aren't even from our city.  What do you think?  Should there be an H or not?

One things for certain - with neither party backing down, the H war is not over yet - not by a long shot.