5. Reflections on Institutional Racism

  While we celebrate the progress being made in reclaiming te reo Māori, and the many exciting Māori projects which are enriching  us all, we are also deeply concerned about the depth of institutional racism  which undermines justice and equality in Aotearoa. The most recent public challenge to institutional racism has come from  senior and […]

August News and Views..

    This month we’ve experienced an Auckland Lockdown, pre-Election Politics, a Climate Change event, some Celebrations…and Spring is on its way here with Tanya’s photos of a burst of magnolia blooms in Grey Lynn… [ngg src=”galleries” ids=”56″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″]and a celebratory bike ride by Tanya into the West… (past Western Springs, through the Te […]

Lockdown/Rahui  again…

We’re in Level 3 for 12 days because of a new cluster of Coronavirus cases detected  in Auckland City,  and  since  a few cases in Tokoroa and Rotorua.  The whole country has been put into Level 2:  https://covid19.govt.nz/covid-19/alert-system/alert-level-2 Here in Auckland, we feel for the smaller shops and cafes that can’t afford to become delivery […]

De-Carbonise Auckland by 2030!!

( please consider signing the open letter on their website) On Monday 10 August We went to an excellent meeting at The Grid in downtown Auckland, organised by Bike Auckland and Generation Zero and chaired by Lucy Lawless. The purpose of the meeting was to publicise the campaign, “The Race to Decarbonise Auckland Transport”: https://www.generationzero.org/decarbonise_transport_2030?mc_cid=58df924e64&mc_eid=264f2bbd2d […]

Elections 2020

The Prime Minister has chosen to delay the every-three-year Aotearoa election from 19 September to 17 October 2020 to provide a full month  for all the parties to launch and explain their policies. We both feel very lucky that we have a Prime Minister who is so highly competent and reassuring, and a Director-General of […]

Celebrations..

Tanya’s 75th birthday We managed special outings for Tanya’s birthday-she turned 75 on Sunday 16 August.  On her birthday, we climbed her childhood maunga, Ohinerau (goddess of whirlwinds), previously known as Mount Hobson, with magnificent 360 degree views over Tāmaki Makaurau and the two harbours.  We also discovered the newish walkway (previously a wild impenetrable […]

Ngā mihi o Te Mātahi o te tau

 Greetings for the first fruits of  the Māori New Year!   We had a special celebration this year during Matariki- a lunch at Manee Thai with our Shakti friends, because the   birthdays of  two of their older supporters happened to fall during Matariki this year: Retna, mother of Shila (July 14), turned 84, and Charmaine […]

1. In the south…Whakatū-Nelson

On 22 June we took off to the South Island for 10 days, to catch up with friends and explore an area we hadn’t visited for some years- Whakatū (Nelson) and Mohua (Golden Bay).  Of course, we were doing our patriotic duty too, at PM Jacinda’s suggestion, supporting AirNZ and a range of small businesses […]