Going Up to Cambridge

Our move from Waikenae near Wellington, to Cambridge near Hamilton (our location for the next three weeks, to be followed by two weeks at a beach house on the Coromandel Penninsula), was full of unexpected pleasures. On Sunday morning we bid goodbye to Joy and David at Saddle Creek Farm and headed northeast to Napier. This coastal city is famous for the fact that, after being almost entirely demolished by an earthquake, the whole city was rebuilt in a deliberately Art Deco style. All the downtown shops, and the pedestrian seafront buildings are examples of this lovely fashion, and they hold a very popular Art Deco weekend every year (which we chose to avoid--too many crowds for us) when everyone dresses up and drives vintage cars etc.. We enjoyed a stroll along the beach, admiring both the gorgeous blue sea and the pretty buildings.



Leaving Napier, we backtracked a little bit southwards in order to spend the night at Mynthurst, a farmstay accommodation. My American friend Sydney Eddison, the garden writer, had written asking me to look up the proprieter of Mynthurst, Annabelle Hamilton, who was a former student of hers back in her drama teaching days in the 1950's. I got in touch with Annabelle, and she graciously asked us to come for dinner and an overnight stay. Mynthurst is a large sheep farm, but the house is very luxurious and full of wonderful original paintings done by Annabelle's artist grandparents--really inspiring. We had a wonderful dinner with the Hamiltons and a couple from California who were also staying there, and slept soundly.

The next morning, however, brought a special opportunity to watch as the first of a thousand sheep were 'crutched'--the dirty wool from around their backsides shorn in order to prevent fly infection--not too elegant an operation, but fascinating to watch the shearers' skill and speed! Here are some pictures from our time there. This picture shows the view from the back terrace of the house. Although it looks as if the sheep are right on the lawn, in fact they are in a lower field, separated from the lawn by the clever use of what the English call a "ha-ha," a drop in height that is invisible from above, giving an unimpeded view of the stock grazing pastorally in the field at the bottom of the garden.


For the crutching operation, the sheep must be brought up from the fields the night before so they are not wet for the shearers in the morning. Then they must be driven, in groups of about fifty, up the ramp to the holding pens on the upper floor of the barn--that's Annabelle's husband David herding them in there.


Then the shearer opens up a door into one of the pens, bodily lifts a ewe and drags her outside the pen, gets her in sort of a headlock while he shears her bottom, then gives her the heave-ho down a ramp behind him to the counting pen (they are paid by the number of sheep shorn). All this is done at top speed (remember, a thousand sheep done in one day by two shearers) and the ewes seem completely indifferent--no bleating or panic at all.


The "dag-ends" as this wool is called, are swept up and sold to an operation that will clean and comb them, and then they are sold to be used in rugs or insulation--not clothing, as only the final fleeces are used for that. This operation is the source of the New Zealand expression "rattle your dags" (i.e. move your behind!).
And that's Frank with Annabelle.

The next morning we headed out on our way to Cambridge, but were distracted by a lavender farm along the way. We enjoyed the beauty of the fields of lavender, listened to an explanation of the distilling process, bought some lavender oil, and then stopped into the cafe where I just had to try what they called a "Foveaux Storm"! This concoction combined lavender syrup made from a lavender variety called Foveaux with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, topped by a double shot of espresso coffee! It was not only beautiful, as you can see, but amazingly tasty--quite an experience. Yum!


We arrived at our new accommodation, Antoinette's Annexe, at Chiddingfold Garden just outside of Cambridge, in late afternoon and have spent the last day settling in. More details about this locale in the next post, but in the meantime here's Frank on our balcony--it's a great apartment

Food, Glorious Food!

These last few days have offered us food for thought, food for the eyes, and LOTS of food for digestion!! On Wednesday, we travelled back up to the UCOL (Universal College of Learning) campus in the town of Whanganui in order to work on the draft articulation agreement between our Fashion programs. We stayed the night at the home of Bruce Osborne, UCOL's International contact. Bruce and his wife Diana have a beautiful home and 90 acres outside of Whanganui, where they farm beef, lamb, and fallow deer. Before dinner, we had a tramp around the farm, and enjoyed the spacious views around this very deeply rolling countryside.

For dinner, we were offered a feast of flavours, all of which came from the property: venison steaks (delicious!); kumara (a kind of sweet potato) salad; fresh lettuce, avocado and tomato salad; sweet corn (the favourite variety here is 'honey & pearl' instead of 'peaches and cream'); and new potatoes with mint. The meal was incredible, eaten outdoors in the sunset, and we tumbled into bed more than satisfied. Next morning, we enjoyed this view of gorgeous delphiniums outside the kitchen window as we tucked into bacon and eggs as if we hadn't been fed only hours before.

Next stop was back in Palmerston North, back at the home of Sheila Grainger, UCOL's VPA, for more work on the memorandum of understanding between our colleges. On the way, however, we stopped for lunch in the village of Bulls. Not surprisingly, the locals capitalize on their unusual name, and the main street is full of plays on the word--the police station displays a huge "consta-bulls" sign; the litter bin implores passersby to be "responsa-bull" and deposit trash here, etc. A punsters' delight! We had lunch in--yes, you might have guessed--The Bull's-Eye Cafe. Scanning the blackboard menu, we opted for the Bull's-Eye Works hamburger, which the waitress assured us had "Oh, y'know, everything" on it.

Our lunch seemed to take a long time to arrive, but when it did, we were dumbstruck. On a bun the size of a frisbee sat the expected (but huge) hamburger patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, onions, and mayonnaise--but ALSO a slice of roast beef, a dollop of HP sauce, a fried egg, a slice of ham and, the crowning touch, a ring of pineapple (presumably the above-named bull's-eye)!! The entire concoction sat about 8" high and definitely required a knife and fork to tackle. Some burger! We both immediately discarded the pineapple, but the remainder was amazingly good and we polished them off with relish--or, no, actually, they don't HAVE relish here--the only thing missing from the burger! With a side order (uh, well, actually a bowl the size I might have mixed a cake in) of potato wedges with sour cream (oh, we're gonna miss these when we go back to Canada)...well, let's just say we waddled outta there quite awhile later.

We were warmly welcomed back at the Graingers in late afternoon (there's Barry and Sheila with Airedale Charlie below) and offered yet another fabulous meal--BBQ'd surf & turf (steaks and prawns)! This morning, Barry requested a feed-up of banana pancakes, as we'd been discussing the finer points of Canadian maple syrup the night before. Oh my--we won't need to eat for a week!


Before heading back to Waikenae this morning, we stopped at a lovely estate garden just outside of Palmerston North, and feasted our eyes on these gorgeous blooms.


So much to enjoy! The four weeks in this area have flown by. We head for Napier to check out the Art Deco buildings on Sunday, then off to our next location in Cambridge (near Hamilton) for five weeks. It will be fun to be in a new locale, but we will have wonderful memories of our time in the Wellington area.

WE-T-A DAY!

Warning: LOTR alert--non-fans skip this posting!

Well, WHAT a day! Some you will know that, back when we were making our original plans for this trip to New Zealand, I wrote to Weta Workshop, the company that created all the prosthetics (such as elf ears and hobbit feet), weaponry, miniatures and artifacts for The Lord of the Rings, offering our voluntary labour on any project they cared to assign--we were keen to simply be part of this amazing company for a time.

I received a warm letter back from Richard Taylor, the head of Weta, thanking us for our interest but saying that it would not be possible to accommodate our offer due to confidentiality concerns. I was, needless to say, disappointed, but kept Weta employee Tracey Morgan's email address 'just in case.' Last week, I emailed her again, reminding her of our original correspondence, and asking if there was any way we could even have a tour, now that we were in the area. No response for several days, and my hope waned, but then, suddenly an email offering a tour, with Richard's blessing, Monday at 4 p.m. Would that be convenient? Oh, yes, it would!!

As it happened, we were booked to spend the day in Wellington anyway, the morning with Dr. Kathryn Sutherland of Victoria University at Wellington, of their Teaching Support Centre. I had corresponded with Kathryn while in Canada, as we have mutual colleagues in the Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education. We had a great chat for several hours, finding we had much in common, and sharing resources--very worthwhile. We also met Dr. Tom Angelo, co-author of the book Classroom Assessment Techniques, which we use frequently at Fanshawe. See, I do clean up and go to work some days!


In the afternoon, we visited the same university's School of Architecture and Design, where we were investigating both their Masters of Design program for some Fanshawe faculty, and the potential for degree completion programs for our Landscape Design graduates. Daniel Brown, an award-winning professor in the programs, gave us a wonderful tour and a thorough briefing--again a very worthwhile discussion.


But, now for dessert!! At 4 p.m. we duly presented ourselves at Weta Workshop, in Miramar, a commuter suburb of Wellington. Behind the low-key facade of the Camperdown Studio building lay a treasure trove of LOTR artifacts and history. We were met by Tracey, who had us sign a confidentiality agreement, signed us in as visitors and gave us special badges. Then, alas, they confiscated my camera (nicely!). No photos in the studio! But they promised photo ops at the end of the tour, in the so-called 'trophy room.'


Our guide for the 1 1/2 hour tour was Mike Grealish (above), a master leather worker who had a hand (literally) in the making of almost every suit of armour and costume in LOTR, as well as major work on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and King Kong among other movies. Mike was a friendly, warm, and funny guide, full of insider tales and memories. As we walked around, I did plenty of rubber-necking and excited whispering to Frank--"That's Tania Rodger!! And THAT's Gino Acevedo!!"as I recognized people from the DVD documentaries. It was a bizarre feeling to actually see the real people that I've been watching on screen for almost 5 years now. When I asked permission to get their autographs in my book on the art of LOTR (conveniently on sale in a bookshop this weekend!), I was warmly received and each person happily wrote a lovely personal note in my book.

At times we were steered firmly away as a door shut tantalizingly on 'top secret' current work. Mostly, though, we were allowed to see everything from foam model-making through miniatures to scale model maquettes and, most impressive, the 'weaponry wall' where everything from the The Last Samurai swords through a WWI helmet replica (plus all the Narnia weaponry) were displayed on one side, and all the LOTR weaponry on the opposite wall. Yours truly has now held Aragorn's sword Anduril, and drawn the white knives from Legolas' quiver!! (OK, never mind the Freudian implications here, guys--keep your mind on the movies!). These were the actual weapons used in the film-making, not models or prototypes--pretty cool to be allowed to handle the real things! They are truly works of art, with incredible detail. My hands were itching for my camera, but...

Our last stop was Mike's leather shop, where, among many other fascinating things, he showed us a huge emu-like bird model that originally had a part in King Kong (which was later cut). The model's feet and beak were wired and we were allowed to make it move--eerily realistic! As our tour came to a close, Mike presented me with a key ring and a bookmark made of leather, stamped with LOTR designs, that he had made for me--what a lovely souvenir!

Back in the reception area, we went into the trophy room, where the case holding all Weta's Oscars for The Lord of the Rings was opened, and we were allowed to actually hold one! We were allowed to take photos of this, but not for publishing on the web--personal use only. I am here to say that those gold statuettes are REALLY heavy! You could brain someone with one!

I was then allowed to photograph anything in the reception area, so herewith is a selection of some of my favourite artifacts. LOTR fans will have no trouble recognizing these characters!


We left the building reluctantly--I could have stayed for hours examining all the wonderful 'things'. We made a quick photo stop at nearby Stone Street Studios where all the 'backlot' sets were filmed, and then headed further around the coast to the village of Seatoun. Here we stopped at The Chocolate Fish cafe, known as the only retaurant in the world with a road running through their dining room (they have tables set up on both sides of the road along the beach). This cafe was highly recommended by the actors in LOTR, as most of them lived in Seatoun during filming. Sadly, the cafe was just closing for the day, so a photo was all I got, but nevertheless it made a good ending to a very exciting day. Today will be a cherished memory and will be great fun to share with future students in my Tolkien course.


When we got back to Saddle Creek, David had moved his herd of highland cattle into the field directly behind our residence--they seemed as curious about us as we were about them!

"Of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings..."

Well, almost. We can't claim all of the many odd things that "the time has come to speak of" according to the Walrus in Lewis Carrol's poem, but our day did include ships and cabbages and kings, anyway.

In the morning we had the privilege of being guided on a tour of the Otari Native Bush Reserve by Olaf, a friend of native plant growers Arnold and Ruth Dench, whom I mentioned in a previous post. Olaf, now 81, has devoted much of his colourful life to the preservation of NZ native plants, and proved a fount of fascinating information. During our walk through this beautiful place, Olaf showed us the world's smallest pine (Frank is examining it below); a shrub that uses its sticky leaves to trap and kill small birds to nourish it (eek!); a stinging nettle whose sting can kill a small child (we gave this one a wide berth); an rare view of the kaleidoscopic symmetry of tree ferns from above, via the elevated boardwalk (see below); a lancewood, whose strange downward-pointing leaves resemble Maori lances (see below); a plant from the Three Kings Island named after one of the Biblical three wise men/kings (Melchior); and some gorgeously colourful new hybrid flax (phormium) plants being created for the garden market here (see below). There was also a whole garden of New Zealand cabbage trees. My head was spinning with new names and images by the end of the two hours--quite a challenge to try to learn a whole new range of plants. I was pathetically grateful when I recognized something such as a maidenhair fern!

After lunch in Wellington we had a very useful meeting with two gentlemen at the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnic Association, who look after quality control in the colleges here. We learned a number of things of interest to Ontario, where we are just beginning to implement similar processes.

Duty done, however, we strolled down to the harbour to have a look at the ships which have just arrived on this leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. This race will keep the crews at sea for over a year and goes from Spain, around the world and back to Germany. There are several NZ ships in the race (one is currently in the point lead), and also one sponsored by Disney, "The Black Pearl" (from Pirates of the Caribbean). The ship that won this leg of the race beat the next ship by a mere 9 seconds over a 1500k.distance! The ships are certainly lovely (see below) and we enjoyed the colourful harbour scene. Just as we were preparing to leave, several sculling teams practicing in the harbour sent up a shout and our attention was attracted to three dolphins playing around their boats. I'm not sure if you can see the dolphin fin in the shot below--they surfaced only briefly--but it was a delightful end to our day.

Evening Edition

Just wanted to share a delightful experience we had this evening on our sunset beach walk. We came across a young lad creating art, with nothing more than wet sand, a garden rake, and his imagination. Enjoy!

Did the earth move for you?

Aha, you'll have to wait until the end of the blog to understand that title!

This week has been one of visits with a variety of contacts related to postsecondary education--most interesting and useful. Last Sunday we visited Margaret and David Woodbridge at their cottage in a little beach town just south of our location here. Frank met Margaret in Chandigarh, India, where she was adminstering the Nursing program that her polytechnic (UCOL) delivers there. We had a wonderful visit and a fabulous lunch, which we attempted to walk off afterwards with a 'stroll' on the beach. However, the weather changed here this week, and the previously placid ocean was quite different! That's David Woodbridge and their dog Daisy, below.

We visited our 'own' beach in Waikenae on the way back, and enjoyed the silvery effect of the obscured sun, and the antics of some 'wheeled wind sailors' on the beach (not sure where the pink angel effect came from--peculiar!).


On Monday, we traveled up to Palmerston North, a small city about 100k north, where Margaret's college, UCOL (the Universal College of Learning) has their main campus. We had some very fruitful meetings there, and spent the night with their Academic VP, Sheila Grainger. Sheila and I found we had lots in common and are now working on a co-written paper about applied research. Sheila's husband Barrie is a marine engineer--he had lots of fascinating sea stories to tell!

While at the UCOL campus, we were invited to visit their other campus in Whanganui, again a bit further north, on Wednesday, to observe as a film crew from Vietnam conducted interviews and obtained footage to use in a promotional film/TV ad for the Vietnam market. Fascinating to be a part of, and we also enjoyed walking the pretty streets of Whanganui, where the hanging baskets are truly magnificent. Not sure if Frank qualifies as an 'antique' or as 'elegant junk' (below sign).


Oh--a side note--the original spelling of this town's name is Whanganui. The Maori pronunciation of the 'wh' construction is a soft 'f' sound, so the city is, traditionally, "Fanganui." (This tradition is also at play in the name of the famous Whakapapa ski fields where some of LOTR was filmed--say that one a few times and try not to giggle!) However, over time, the name came to be spelled Wanganui, and people began pronouncing it with the 'w' sound. Now, with the resurgence of interest in and respect for Maori culture, there's a call for changing the spelling back, and many (including UCOL) have made the change. Yesterday, we heard a debate on radio, in which the Prime Minister was involved, about the correct pronunciation--ya gotta love a country where how to say a city name is the most important task of the day for the leader!

On Tuesday, however, we had a day free of meetings, so we drove to Mount Taranaki. This volcano (still active) was named Mount Egmont by good 'ol Captain Cook, but more recently it has reverted to its Maori name. It is very unusual in that it sits alone in the midst of a flat plain, as opposed to in a mountain range, and that it is an almost perfect cone shape, like a child's drawing of a mountain. It is so striking that it has stood in for Mt. Fuji in several movies, including the recent Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai. It is indeed impressive both from a distance and up close. While there, we took a walk through the cloud forest about halfway up the slope. The constant mist and moisture have caused an intensity of plant growth, and every inch from ground to treetop is covered in a tapestry of mosses, ferns, lichens, and a myriad other plants. Quite fantastic--if I had been location scouting, I think I would have placed Lothlorien or Rivendell here. The hike also brought us the delight of this beautiful waterfall and the surrounding cliff-face, also upholstered in emerald mosses. Magical.

Afterwards we had an amazing dinner at a little cafe overlooking a pretty lakeside park in Whanganui. The meal was so beautifully presented that I had to snap a photo of it--but Frank is unwrapping his knife here, and looks pretty serious--so I only took one picture! As it got dark, a fountain came on in the lake, lit with various coloured floodlights--we loved the orange effect.


Tuesday evening we again stayed with Margaret and David Woodbridge, but this time in their house in Marton, between Palmerston North and Whanganui. We had a wonderful sleep, but I awakened at about 5 a.m., clutching at Frank and asking why the house was shaking! He grunted that it was just the wind rattling the bedroom door--but we learned at breakfast that in fact there had been a small earthquake (our second since coming to the Wellington area)! It being Valentine's Day, we thought it only appropriate that the earth moved for us (so now you know why the title) ;)