Forgotten World Adventure…

We haven’t forgotten our adventure, 4-8 March – our 16th annual trip with our longtime friends, three other lesbian couples who manage land projects- small or large.  Steph and Annette are on  Seahorse Farm near Whangarei , Jenny and Lesley have Pokaiwhenua Tree Farm near Putaruru, and Joy and Jill have been developing their extensive […]

Closer to Home…

… the opening of Pacific Sisters, an amazing exhibition on loan from Te Papa  at the Auckland Art Gallery– ” a collective of Pacific and Māori fashion designers, artists, and performers, the Pacific Sisters electrified 1990s Auckland, bringing the ground-breaking style of an urban, New Zealand–born Pacific generation to the mainstream. Through pioneering, daring shows, the […]

Friday 15 March 2019: a day to remember with pain

You will all have heard about the terrorist attack on Muslim people praying in two Christchurch mosques last Friday, 15 March. Our hearts go out to the families who have lost dear ones, and to all Muslim people in Aotearoa, whose hopes for a safe country to live in have been so cruelly shattered. E […]

Friday 15 March 2019: a way to look forward with hope?

On this same day, before the evil erupted in Christchurch, tens of thousands of young people in Aotearoa left their schools to demonstrate their deep concern about climate change and the future of our planet. We went to Aotea Square in Auckland to support them. It was inspirational- thousands of young people of all cultures […]

A Capital Visit

Charmaine’s cousin Audrey had her 90th birthday at the end of January , and we took a trip to Wellington/Whanganui-a-Tara  for her party.  We  have quite a few lesbian friends in Wellington whom we hadn’t seen for some time,  so we stayed four nights, and caught up with several of them.  Our AirBnB purpose-built cottage […]

Tai Haruru

Soon after our return from Wellington we went for a few days to North Piha to stay in the lovely Forest and Bird house, Tai Haruru, again.  It’s a very restful place in the bush, old-fashioned and well-furnished for five in the house and another four in a separate self-contained flat. Tanya had her 40th […]

Waitangi Day on Awhitu

For almost thirty years we’ve spent Waitangi Day on the Awhitu Peninsula, mostly at Tahuna Pa, near Waiuku,  for a celebration of Ngaati Te Ata young people’s achievements, and sports and music. This year was very different.  We were invited to the opening and blessing of an ancient path at the Manukau Heads at 5am […]

Friday 8 February

34 years ago today Tanya came to dinner for the first time at Charmaine’s little cottage in Clarence Street, Ponsonby.  And that, as many of you know, was the beginning of our relationship. We still share strong  political beliefs and values in common, and mostly enjoy each other’s very different strengths.  So we happily weave […]