Festival Windows

 We have had a warm week with temperatures 5-10ºC higher than usual for this time of year. The breeze has been cool at times, but by the end of the week it turned to a northerly, and kept up the temperature.

Nicky returned from Auckland on Monday having had a lovely weekend with Stella. We have concluded that flying from our cute little airport is way better than going by bus. On Tuesday she had pizza for lunch cooked by NZ’s most recently appointed archbishop, along with 50-60 of others out at Castlecliff. They had a service of blessing at a couple of the prefabricated houses that the Wellington Diocese has had built on St Luke’s land. Nicky staffed the Aramoho library on Thursday and had a prayer ministry training session which was very good.

On Tuesday we had Phil and Kristina over for dinner, so there was much discussion about the paddle steamer. I served crumbed fish with new potatoes and sautéd veg. Our apple, pear and lemon curd flan was accompanied by a tiramisu that Kris had made. We enjoyed the evening together, as much as the food.

The Whanganui Heritage Festival is being held for a fortnight, and we have attended a few of the events. At the Alexander Library we had a virtual historical tour of Victoria Avenue, the main street in town. This was a series of photos from the late 1880’s to the 1970’s, illustrating the development and change over the years. One of the striking things we learned was the number of buildings that had upper stories, towers, domes and turrets removed after the 1931 Napier earthquake. With Whanganui being in an area that wobbles from time to time the measures were deemed prudent. 

We followed this with a stories of Whanganui exhibition at the War Memorial Centre. These had been put together by local groups and were interesting and informative. There was a map from 1922 which showed the roads around where we live. I’m not sure many of the existing homes date from that period, but I was interested to learn that the area had been settled early in the 20th century. We also enjoyed seeing the stained glass windows at the War Memorial Centre as it is the first time that we have been there in daylight, and they are quite something:

Our third event also featured stained glass windows. The circular Council Chamber has a series of panels around the room that depict various aspects and stories of Whanganui. One of the artists who created them was involved in the presentation which added interest and information about their development and production. 

To conclude our Heritage Festival outing we had lunch at Mischief, a café close to the council building. We both ordered spicy potatoes (with added bacon) which I enjoyed, but Nicky found a little to hot for her palette. We were interested to note their lean towards vegan and vegetarian dishes.

I have sailed three river cruises on the Waimarie this weekend so far. Today was straightforward, though busy with 102 passengers. Yesterday was more eventful. We had a challenge for 30-40 minutes in the morning removing a large and heavy log from the starboard paddle. Fortunately it didn’t delay our departure, but did mean we didn’t really get a break between getting the boat ready and sailing. We also had an evening sailing with Papaiti Gin tasting and a jazz band. Our usual bosun wasn’t on the boat, so I was in charge of the deck with two inexperienced deckhands. Things went OK, but when parking up we unexpectedly had nobody on the wharf to throw out the rope. I asked the skipper to move in close to the wharf slowly so that I could get the spring rope with a boat hook. This is not something I had done before or seen done, so I was pleased it turned out alright. On a positive note, I had a great conversation with a young English couple who had graduated from Loughborough University 31 years after Nicky and I. They have moved from England to Whanganui to work at a local school.

Our skipper for the weekend, young Ronan, came back home with me today for a cuppa and to have a look at our home. Having seen it from the river when he was working on the boat last year he had said that he would like a closer look. I had made some fruit bread before going to work this morning, and it was good to sit and chat with Nicky and relax after work.

Take care, Rick and Nicky.