MATARIKI

 Matariki is the Maori new year. In 2022 it became a national holiday in New Zealand. On last Wednesday night the second year students (Iris's class) had a celebration in her pod. The pod contains 3 second year classes with 3 classrooms and a common area. They sang several songs and showed friends and relatives around their classes. Some Maori games were played. We also were served a soup and sausage dinner followed by hot chocolate. Granny Jo (Annie's mom) was up from Dunedin to celebrate Annie's birthday and Iris's class celebration. Phoebe and Malcie were also present but attended reluctantly.

On Friday, Gene and I walked over to Dan and Annie's house and joined Annie and Iris. Iris was not in school as she had a cough and runny nose. We then went to lunch at Pembroke Patisserie. We sampled several of the pastries after a great lunch. Excellent! The best in town!

Saturday was the Matariki celebration at the beach at Lake Wanaka. In the afternoon we visited Puzzling World (www.puzzlingworld.co.nz) for a few hours of illusions and puzzles. Gene and I chose not to do the maze as it was raining but Annie, Malcie and Iris were not so afraid of the rain. Dan picked up Gene and me at sunset and took us down to the lakefront for the festivities. It was very crowded as people milled about waiting for the fireworks at 630pm. There were bonfires, booths with Maori food and activities for kids. As we were huddled around one fire waiting on the fireworks we stuck up a conversation with a couple with a 6 week old baby who were standing near us. The woman was from Scottsdale and went to Chaparral High School. Small world! The fireworks were outstanding but a shorter program this year from the last. The fireworks were set off not even a 100 feet from where we were standing. Something that would never happen in the US.

Malcie came over Sunday morning and spent several hours working on his Lego. The rest of the family came over later in the afternoon with their dog, Molly and we all took a walk around the neighborhood. We came back here for dinner. Gene and I had sampled earlier in the week a pastry when we stopped for a hot drink. It was called Date and Ginger Slice. We both loved it so I made some for dessert. It was a big success. We introduced the kids to the Abbott and Costello comedy routine "who's on first" which Gene and I performed after printing the script. They were laughing uproariously and took the script home to memorize.

A good week...

                                                        Date and ginger slice