Easter

We had a pleasant Easter - - D wanted to stay home on Good Friday and have a quiet day which I found a very boring prospect, so invited friend M over to go to the Good Friday ceremony at our local church which has a big Polynesian population - lovely singing, tho very long and hot. She came back for a game of Scrabble and some games of Uno before sharing some Lenten fare.
Went up to Orewa on Saturday , did a bit of shopping for food seeing the supermarket was going to be closed then helped D clip the hedge with the electric hedgeclipper. He did not appreciate my hovering round anxiously giving instructions. That was his penance! I did have a wonderful swim beforehand. Elisabeth came up on the bus after all the hard work was done and we had a night and a day together which was very pleasant, being a family again, albeit for a short time. Had 3 more swims on Sunday and a nice Easter dinner of smoked chicken and salad with lots of Easter eggs - I have had 4 pinkie Easter eggs since Saturday. None of the cream or solid chocolate ones. I will be able to resist those.

The pictures are from Dieter's sister's Easter in Germany. Her son Christian bought the Easter eggs . The Germans like to bring Spring foliage or blossom such as pussy willow or forsythia inside and hang Easter ornaments on them.

Opotiki to Hicks Bay and on to Gisborne, then Rotorua

The real part of the trip was when we went round the coast of course. Wonderful scenery and beaches. We stopped to look at a couple of Maori churches which were open to the public. The one at Tikitiki had a stained glass window with two Maori soldiers in uniform kneeling at the foot of the cross. We stayed a night at Hicks Bay in a big motel, having a lovely roast lamb dinner in the traditional dining room there. Then on the next day to Gisborne with a stop at Tolaga Bay for lunch and a walk down the pier. On our arrivalk in Gisborne we went straight to this amazing Museum of Technology - Museum of Junk really but so much of it in various states of decay and rust. This elderly man with Parkinson's , the owner showed us around proudly. He had collections of absolutly everything, a man after after my own heart. Tools, fire engines, cars, washing machines, toasters, biscuit tins, prams, chocolate boxes , long drops, an old Post Office, a derelict church and much much more. It is a private museum and the only job he and his helpers are on top of is the lawnmowing. This was a very hot day and it was stifling in the big corrugated barms most of this stuff was housed in, so the beach was very tempting once we were ensconced in our tourist flat at the camping ground near the beach. The water however was several degrees colder than at Orewa or Waiheke, but exhillerating all the same.

The next day we headed back to Opotiki through the Waioeka Gorge and on to Rotorua, stopping at Hell's Gate for a look around the thermal area there. Lots of steaming pools and boiling mud and the usual overpowering smell. Stayed in a nice motel with a heated swimming pool, which Dieter and I took advantage of rather than the thermal pool . Dinner out with the group at Valentine's, seafood night with lots of delicacies like oysters, mussels, seafood mousse, even some mini crayfish , maybe they were lobsters, which we couldn't bring ourselves to try.

The next day was Friday and the day we returned home. Our first stop was another interesting museum at Tirau, a bloke's museum that grew. He had most of his stuff behind glass, nicely displayed, clean and tidy. Many of the same sorts of things as the Gisborne
Museum but not in such overpowering numbers of everything. He started collecting as a boy and had carried on right through life. This is also a private museum and on the outskirts of Tirau coming from Rotorua , well worth a visit. He had honey for sale too. Some of the things I remember were his collection of tables made out of slabs of marble and old Singer sewing machine legs (we have a couple of these), a collection of coins , banknotes and tokens, bowling memorabilia from the local Bowling Club, an old dentist's chair. I really should have made a few notes when I was there. We were there for over an hour there was so much to see. Lunch at Tirau with its great selection of cafes and antique shops then back to Auckland in slow motion along the motorway to Orewa, dropping people off here and there as we approached. I think we were the last to get off but we are not ones to complain or moan. I was doing my knitting to keep calm and while away the time.

Had another lovely swim in the wabe at Orewa the following day and did the usual things like shops, library, internet cafe, catching up with my neighbour, G, and the local gossip. She like op shopping too and as she has a big house chokka full of everything and doesn't see very well, she often buys things that don't fit her and she passes them on to me!! They don't often fit me either!!But it is the thought that counts. She has a lush garden and brought me some grapes. I was going to make some grape jelly for us both but havent got round to it yet. I note with horror that our guava tree is laden with ripening fruit too. And her quince tree is full of large golden fruit so there is more jellymaking in the offing.

Home again on Sunday in time for the Palm Sunday Mass at the Cathedral.

The pictures are of some of our own bits and pieces. Dieter has a number of these paintings of Vietnamese people , a couple we have got framed, the rest are waiting for their turn. The map is a a 1969 reproduction of Cook's map of 1772, showing Stewart Island attached to the South Island and Banks Peninsula as an island.

Edna Boon - a little family history from Waioeka

While in the Opotoki Museum I saw a book "Waioeka School Centennial 1884-1984". This is the school that my Aunt Edna worked in with her husband Ernest Boon from 1932 - 1934.

She was my father's elder sister born Edna Gabb in Christchurch. She was a talented pianist and teacher. We had visited Waioeka on our previous visit to the area some 15 years ago but don't recall seeing this book. It says Ernest was a keen sportsman and took swimming lessons down at the river after school. They also set up a rugby team from the Pa, which Ernest coached and they had also a Waioeka choir with weekly practices being held. They organized a tennis ladder with pupils and residents alike permitted to make use of the facility during weekends and after school.

Edna organaized concerts at the Pa during the winter, the profits being spent on a piano for the Pa. So popular were these concerts that many residents from town, including the mayor , attended. In October 1932 the children and locals put on a concert in Opotiki which received a very positive review in the local paper.

A 50th Jubilee Committee was set up in November 1933 for the celebrations February 24-25 1934. Edna was secreatary. The programme on the Saturday started with a haka of welcome, roll call and inspection of the school, followed by luncheon at the pa , then a concert by locals and a display of Maori crafts.

In the evening there was a dance from 8-12pm.

Sunday at 2pm there was a church service.

According to the school log and a newspaper report the celebrations were well attended and a great success, with the concert in the hall being the highlight for many.

Now the sad part . As reported in the book "unfortunately Mrs E Boon accidentally drowned in the Waioeka River during the weekend's celebrations which did put a damper on the weekend".

My grandmother did not go to the funeral and did not want an inquest to be held. According to my aunt Dorothy, Edna , Ernest and another female teacher had been out walking near the river when this accident and drowning ocurred. The family thought it was suspicious.

Their first child a girl named Fleur after Galsworthy's Fleur had died in infancy and both are buried in Opotoki Cemetery. I remember when I first saw her monument there was this broken pillar which I thought was damaged, but apparently this was how it always was , a symbol of her being cut down in the prime of life.

Later in the year a plaque to commemorate her death and contribution to the school was unveiled and was still there on the wall when we went there in the early 1990s.

Ernest took time off in 1934 after her death "to recover" and "accepted a transfer to help him over his grief" in April 1935.

My father never spoke of this incident and my aunt only in the late 1980s - early 1990s.

The photo is probably that of Edna, taken by Tyree Studio. It is not Auntie Dorothy who hated having her photo taken. In the school photo I think Edna is on the far right.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig!

As some of you may know we were away for a week with the Silverdale Historical Society on a bus trip round the East Cape. It was a very cruisy week sitting back in the bus with everything arranged for us and an interesting list of places to see en route. Being a hisorical society we looked at a few museums and took in a bit of history as we went along.

First stop after the morning tea break at Drury was Paeroa with the usual array of cafes, op shops, antique shops, library, arts and crafts and museum. Had time to look in most of them except for a quick look in the museum. They have a lot of china of the Royal Albert ilk and the Society is thinking of making a special trip later on to go to that museum and also to Katikati to look at the murals.

Then it was on to the Mount, looking rather built up - and with a lot of tourists sitting at beachside cafes. Went for a quick swim for old times sake and was immediately transported in my mind's eye to 50 years ago when we had a family holiday at the Mount, staying in a bach near the beach and going swimming on that stretch of beach. It was exhilerating and worth the rush. The water temeperature was just a few degrees cooler than Orewa.

Then on we went to Ohope Beach, a wonderful, deserted, windswept beach, miles long. Stayed at a very pleasant motel Surf's Reach right along the far end of the beach. Had along walk before dinner at the Ohope Charter Club - a tasty smoked fish casserole which I must try and replicate - and cheap drinks.

The next day was the actual start of the East Cape tour - driving first to Opotiki for our look at the historical Anglican Church where Volkner was the missionary amongst the Maori population in the 1860s.
The Hauhau were in the Bay of Plenty and the people warned him not to come back after his trip to Auckland. They reckoned he was up there to report on activities but he came back and was killed. I won't go into details. The British took cruel revenge burning crops. Later Kereopa was hung. I think he was pardoned posthumously a few years ago. All very sobering. Went to the little church op shop next door and bought an old book on NZ interiors, a magazine and a set of 4 thin knitting needles to cheer me up.

Had been to the Opotiki Museum (Shalfoon and Francis Museum) which was housed in 3 big shops with many of the original fittings and stock of the general stores of these two people. They were originally from the Lebanon and the shops were in busiuness up until the late 1970s I think. there was a great array of everything under the sun - pots and pans, old scales, bottles. There was a sweet sshop set up as a grocery store with all the old tins and packages. They sold peanut brownies and sweets , traditional crafty items to raise money for there new building three doors up the road. It is already set up with a marvellous photo display.