We just got the result of Miya's music exam.
This year Miya has been working towards her Grade 5 Trinity clarinet exam, and two weeks ago she sat it. It was her first ever music exam (and first ever in our family) so it was a new experience for us all.
The result came in the post, and we were delighted with her mark of 84 (out of 100), which earned her Merit. (Merit is 75-86, and Distinction is 87+.)
Congratulations Miya!
Over the weekend we were down in Inglewood for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Athletics Champs. (And by "we" I mean just Mulan and me; Mama and Miya stayed back home.) This is different from the club national champs, which happen at the end of the season in March.
We left home on Friday morning and arrived back on Sunday evening, the drive each way taking about five hours.
We were there because Mulan had signed up for the junior girls (under 16) 80m hurdles on Saturday morning and triple jump on Sunday morning. (Mulan decided not to compete in the long jump on Friday morning as it clashed with a ballet event happening on Thursday evening.)
It was a very satisfying weekend, with two new PBs (personal bests) in the two events.
First up, into a slight head wind Mulan ran the 80m hurdles in 14.61 seconds. Overall she came 17th out of 22 competitors. What's even more satisfying is that there is still room for improvement; Mulan's main comment was that she jumped too high over the hurdles and this slowed her momentum so she had to add an extra step between the last few hurdles.
Here she is in lane 6, running in the early morning mist:
I didn't get a video of Mulan's triple jump on Sunday, as there were too many people crowding around the runup. You'll just have to trust me that her second jump of 9.70m, also into a slight head wind, was spot on. This earned her 10th place.
But you can see her third jump (which was not so good) on the YouTube livestream. The livestream was focused on the senior competitors, but it just happened to catch Mulan jumping in the background. Having already got 9.70m, Mulan decided to go hard with her final jump, but she slightly twisted her ankle on the hop landing and didn't get a strong jump into the pit. (Her ankle is okay now.)
The competition results are here, and Mulan's personalised results are here.
Saturday was quite busy.
First up, at 8:30am we were in Te Atatu for the Christmas Parade.
West City Youth Concert Band, which Mulan and Miya play in, set up in the park to entertain the crowds. They played one-hour-ish sessions both before and after the parade.
(Mulan's in the flute section on the near side, while Miya is on the far side with the clarinets.)
When it finished at 1pm we headed off to Pakuranga for our usual McKinnon Shield interclub athletics competition. The results are here.
For our first event, Mulan and Miya were in the same 80m hurdles race together. Into a strong head wind they both had pleasing times, with Mulan getting 15.05sec and Miya getting a PB of 16.70sec.
I pushed myself with a 60m sprint (8.64sec) quickly followed by a 100m sprint (13.81sec).
We all then finished off with a triple jump together.
Delightfully, Miya got a new PB of 9.02m while Mulan got a solid 9.41m (again into a head wind). These were good enough to get both Mulan and Miya onto the Auckland ranking lists (they are now on the ranking lists for two events each!). Still recovering from my sprints, I only managed 9.60m.
(At the same time Mulan's two-year-old Under 14 Auckland record of 9.32m was finally beaten; the new record 9.67m could be a challenge for Miya to beat!)
It must have all been too much for me. Arriving home around 6:30pm I had a migraine, which put me out of action for the next 36 hours.
We were at athletics competitions on both Saturday and Sunday.
First up, on Saturday we had the regular McKinnon Shield competition. Mulan and Miya both competed, while I decided to have a rest day. The results are here.
Miya cleared 1.35m in the high jump
and just missed 1.40m:
Mulan got a new wind-assisted PB of 4.59m in the long jump:
Both girls jumped well enough to get onto the latest Auckland ranking lists. Miya's 1.35m is on the Women's Under 14 high jump list, while Mulan's fourth best jump of the day (4.29m) had a legal wind and got on the Women's Under 16 long jump list.
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Then on Sunday Miya competed at the CNW (Central-North-West Auckland) children's interclub relay competition.
Our club, Takapuna, has a lot of competitive girls in Miya's grade (12), and Miya didn't make the team. But we don't have many Grade 14 girls, so Miya was offered a spot to make up the numbers in a fun team.
They competed in the 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay and field relay. Miya did the shot put section of the field relay, getting a new PB of 6.88m. And since there were only three clubs competing in the grade, Miya's team came away with three bronze medals!
On Saturday, once again Mulan, Miya and I competed together at athletics. This time it was the Dick Quax Memorial Meet.
The results are here.
Miya ran her first ever hurdles race -- first time over hurdles on rubber and first time completing a full 80m! For her first race it went pretty well. The big thing for her to work on is getting familiar with the stride lengths between the hurdles. About halfway through the race she had to chop a stride very short to get over a hurdle, and consequently on the next hurdle she was off balance and fell. But she quickly picked herself up and still managed to finish well.
Delightfully, immediately after that Miya got a new PB in the high jump, clearing 1.37m and getting very close to 1.40m. She's also adjusting well to throwing a heavier shot put this season (3kg up from 2kg), and got it out to a solid 6.56m.
Mulan is de-rusting well, getting very pleasing results in her first long jump (4.39m) and hurdles (15.27sec) competitions of the season. What was especially good about the hurdles was that it was into a strong head wind (2.4m/s) yet she kept the momentum going and mostly didn't need to add an extra stride between hurdles.
Finally, I did an okay-ish long jump of 4.88m. The main thing is that I'm still doing something to keep fit, though it's a bit sad to feel the body getting slower and flatter each season. One of the big pleasures of athletics is the feel of speed, and aging takes that away incrementally every year.
Yesterday was a day of firsts for us.
It was our first interclub athletics competition of the season. (Though we've been having clubnights for a few weeks now.)
It was also the first time that 12-year-old Miya has ever competed at a senior competition, not to mention her first proper triple jump competition.
It was also the first time that Mulan, Miya and I have all competed together in the same event and at the same time.
This was the McKinnon Shield competition, and we all signed up for the triple jump.
Miya is newly competing in the "Women Under 14" grade. She had a great start, jumping both well and consistently to get three of her six jumps over 8.70m and a best of 8.76m.
Miya will be in the Under 14 grade until the end of 2023, and if she continues to improve in the triple jump she'll put pressure on the Auckland record of 9.32m (currently held by someone by the name of Mulan Riseborough!).
Mulan was feeling a bit under the weather all day yesterday, but thought she'd have a jump anyway. She was looking very flat and couldn't get much bounce going, only getting 9.02m.
I was also feeling flat (and old), and only managed 9.90m. Really hope I can do better this season and it's not permanent old age deterioration!
The results for all of us are here.
Mulan and Miya's dance school, Mainly Dance Studios, had their end-of-year show last night.
It was a great chance to see some of the other dance styles in action, since often we don't see those other classes. Alongside Mulan and Miya's ballet and contemporary dance, we also saw jazz, tap, hip-hop and musical theatre.
Miya was in two dances (ballet and contemporary), while Mulan was in three (solo contemporary, ballet, and neo-classical).
Finally, each style of dance had three awards presented. Mulan was recognised for most dedicated contemporary dancer, while Miya was recognised for most improved contemporary dancer.
Several weeks ago the girls also did their usual yearly dance exams.
Mulan:
Miya:
Classes have now finished for Mulan at school. She's on study break, with NCEA exams happening over the next few weeks.
But first it's been prizegiving season.
Last week the music department had a semi-formal prizegiving dinner at McHugh's. It was an enjoyable night out for the combined boys and girls schools, and Mulan got a new dress for the occasion.
Along with a yummy dinner, Mulan received a certificate and badge recognising her involvement in the school orchestra.
And then on Wednesday night we attended the senior academic prizegiving.
Mulan was there for two reasons. First, she was again playing in the school orchestra (she's front right).
And then she was called up onstage for Distinction in Accounting.
We're still not quite sure what "Distinction" means in the language of Westlake Girls' awards. But at least in this case there seemed to be three girls out of five-ish classes recognised for their accounting skills.
The funny thing is that Mulan had earlier been planning to drop Accounting for next year. Back in August she'd even booked it in as just her backup subject. But a few weeks ago, after talking about it some more, she'd decided to change her 2023 choices, continuing Accounting and dropping Biology instead.
We're now (semi-)joking that Mulan should be an accountant when she grows up, sitting in an office all day.
Way back, a couple of months ago, we planned a skiing holiday at Mt Ruapehu for the recently-passed school holidays. We'd booked our accommodation and everything.
This would've been my first time skiing in over a quarter of a century, and the first time ever for everyone else in the family.
But unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, and the ski fields ran out of snow. Apparently, the managers of the ski field decided to not maintain any beginner slopes during the school holidays, and only maintain intermediate and above. (No idea why they didn't try to get the school holiday kids business.)
So, with no slopes suitable for us we had to cancel our holiday trip.
Instead we decided to try out indoor skiing much closer to home, at Snowplanet.
Three weeks ago today, during the school holidays, we had an evening of skiing. Mulan and Miya skied for four hours, while Mama and I had two hours. (Cost: $41 each, including equipment.)
We'd watched a few YouTube videos introducing how to ski, so we knew what to do. Very quickly, Mulan and Miya took off on their own on the beginner slope, while I stuck with Mama helping her. Towards the end of my two-hour session I tried out the steeper intermediate zone, and after a while Mulan came up with me too (though she fell over lots!).
After a half-time bite to eat, Mama and I relaxed and watched the girls keep going on their own. Here's a couple of videos of the girls:
It was well worth it, and the time on the slope was about right for us beginners.
But then we heard that the homeschoolers were organising ski lessons during school term time, again at Snowplanet. $28 each, including gear, for two hours.
Miya and I jumped at the opportunity, while Mulan was grumpy that she missed out and had to be stuck at school.
I thought I may as well try out snowboarding (first time ever), and Miya got another ski session.
By the end of last Tuesday's session Miya was much steadier on her skis and was going up beyond the beginner slope and into the intermediate zone.
Meanwhile, I was getting slightly steady-ish on my snowboard on the beginner slope. I found my introductory lessons (alongside the homeschool kids) really useful to get me started.
My verdict? I enjoyed snowboarding, and it was great to try it out, but I prefer skiing. If we ever go skiing/snowboarding again, I'll probably opt for the skis rather than the board.
Time to compare and contrast.
Last Wednesday we did our usual rock climbing session, bouldering at Northern Rocks. Here's Miya doing a couple of new climbs:
Yesterday (Monday) we spent about five hours doing roped climbing at Birkenhead Pool and Leisure Centre. (We last went there back in February of 2019.)
Miya did a Grade 19 climb:
While I ran out of puff at the second to last hold,
and had to rest on the rope a bit before completing it.
Mulan completed Grade 15, and almost did Grade 16.
Which means that according to this chart Mulan is mid-intermediate while Miya and I are low-experienced. (In contrast, our bouldering levels suggest Mulan is mid-experienced, I am high-experienced and Miya is low-expert.)
And the verdict?
While I enjoy both bouldering and roped climbing, for now I prefer bouldering.
Why?
Personally, I found the higher wall of the roped climbs mostly challenging for my endurance fitness. For the grade level that I was at, each move by itself was relatively easy; I was reaching my limit mostly because my muscles got too pumped and stopped working. So, while it was a good challenge for the body, it wasn't as challenging for the brain.
In contrast, for me, bouldering is a mental challenge as much as a physical challenge. It's about problem solving and creativity. On the shorter wall there are fewer moves, but each move needs to be thought through to figure out how best to do it using one's unique body type and skills. That aha moment of finding the right trick to a move can be very satisfying.
So, while we definitely plan to do more roped climbing, we probably won't do it so regularly -- maybe just every several months or so.
Oh, and I've got to repost a pic of me with a few friends 25 years ago at Birkenhead climbing!
And see those ropes? They are doing absolutely nothing to protect us. This was a posed photo for a local newspaper, and we simply free climbed up with the ropes dangling off us. Scott and I were trusting Steve and Matt to not pull us off the wall!
Mulan is on school exam study break at the moment, so of course we all forgot about study and went climbing today.
(Actually, Mulan had all her exams early, so she's now got a short holiday until next week.)
And Mulan got her first ever green climb!!!
A few months ago we agreed that if (and when) Mulan gets a green we'd have a special takeaway dinner together. So the girls had Subway and Fanta tonight.
And then it was time for photos.
Here's Miya cutting loose with a one-handed dyno:
And here's Mulan showing off her splits. (Pity we forgot our good camera -- we had to use my phone, which has a scratch that looks like a mark on Mulan's face.)
I've slowed down with reading the Bible.
The other day I said I had read Genesis. I've now finished the books of Exodus and Leviticus, as well as Numbers up to chapter 19.
Unfortunately I've now caught up with Hemant Mehta's reading and commentary, so from now on I can only read a chapter a week.
According to Wikipedia there are 1189 chapters in the Bible. I've read 136 chapters, which means there are another 1053 chapters to go. At a chapter a week that'll be another 20 1/4 years; I'll be retired before I get to the end!
As a churched child I was pretty familiar with the stories in these books, repeatedly reading various sections dotted throughout. But up until now I'd never read all these books completely and continuously, and that gives a very different feel.
Reading continuously gives a better sense of the percentage of words spent on various topics, and hence the priorities. And genuinely equally reading each chapter -- not merely skimming over the boring bits and focusing on the well-known bits -- has been really important for this.
I feel that this has allowed me to get a much better sense of the character of God in these books. Not only can we often read directly what God says and does, but we can also infer values by looking at what is included, the amount it is included, and what is excluded.
What stands out for me is the amount of words spent detailing both the rituals for worshipping God and the various penalties and punishments for failing to correctly adhere to those rituals. By far, the focus for human right action is on how to interact correctly with God. Comparatively speaking, there is very little on how humans should interact with each other or their environment, except inasmuch as it affects God.
The impression given is that the God of these books doesn't care much about people, as people. He is not so interested in their feelings, their loves, their lives, their interests, their relationships, their families, their wellbeing, and whatever is personally important to them. He cares even less about non-human animals.
The character of God, as portrayed in these books so far, is self-absorbed, insecure, quick to anger at perceived insults against himself, and with a tendency to lash out with violence when angry. This violence is often lethal, with both spontaneous and pre-meditated killing and torture of individuals and groups of people. Often his victims had absolutely nothing to do with the supposed wrong and were merely innocent bystanders. A significant aspect of what appeases him is the torture and killing of animals, the burning of their flesh (and its smell) and the splashing of their blood.
In other words, the God of these books comes across to me as morally repugnant. Of all the characters portrayed in the Bible so far, God easily stands out as morally the worst, to the point that if we were to call anyone evil it would be him. If such a being existed in reality I'd be opposed to him.
What I would like for Christians to do is, when reading the Bible, look at what it says God does, and imagine how you would feel if a human did those exact same things. Can you honestly say that what God does in the Bible is good and just and right? Is the God of the Bible really worthy of worship?
(Of course, the Bible makes much more sense if it's seen as a collection of different texts written over many hundreds of years by many different people and compiled and edited by many others. Matt Baker at UsefulCharts has some excellent videos on when the various parts of the Bible were written and compiled, including this summary chart.)
UPDATE 7/11/2022: Matt Baker has just uploaded a combined YouTube video of the earlier multi-part series on when the various parts of the Bible were written. Well worth watching.)
We're counting down the days to Mulan and Miya's dance show this Saturday 17th.
This is Classical Collab's performance of Reframe, which they've been rehearsing for the past several weeks.
They've uploaded a few promo videos to their YouTube channel, including some teasers of what Mulan and Miya are doing.
Tickets are available here.
I'm not sure if, for blog consistency sake, I should name this post Book review: Genesis. But I'm going with the more clickbaity/shocking one for the family.
Yep, I'm reading the Bible.
I should qualify that. I've just finished Genesis, the first of 66 (give or take, depending on your version) books of the Bible, so there's still a way to go.
I think I last read Genesis in full over 30 years ago, so there's a lot I didn't remember. I'm now continuing on with Exodus.
I should qualify that some more. I'm actually listening to someone else read aloud the Bible, while I follow along to the text.
And some more qualification: This person reads the text then provides a commentary on it, all in a handy YouTube series, one Bible chapter per video.
So, averaging something like 11 minutes per video-chapter, you can do the maths for how many hours I've already spent listening to 50-chapter Genesis.
Occasionally Mulan or Miya sit with me too, and Mulan especially enjoys it.
On to my thoughts:
The commentator is Hemant Mehta, whose YouTube channel is called Friendly Atheist. This Bible series is called Everything Wrong with Genesis in the Bible. So, yeah, with names like that we're not likely to be glossing over the Biblical oddities.
But Hemant's friendly and entertaining, and somehow even the long Bible family tree name lists are not too boring with him.
Hemant approaches the Bible as a person of today, raising questions that most of us would likely have when reading the Bible. As Mulan said, he points out the obvious things. Eg:
But overall, reading along with Hemant is a great way to read the Bible. For non-Christians it's an enjoyable intro into something that everyone should be familiar with. For Christians it's worth stepping back to get a fresh perspective. And for ex-Christians like myself, it's a comfortable back-to; rehearing the familiar childhood stories while also recalling why it was all best left in childhood. Highly recommended. Here's the start of the series:
I acquired on my bookshelves two Samuel Beckett books, which I've just got around to reading.
I'll keep one, but the other I'll deposit in the local book exchange.
Based entirely on reading these two books, the big thing that jumps out at me is that Beckett is incredibly good at writing at length, and with great fluency, on nothing. The way he focuses on the mundane and trivial, going around and about for multiple pages and yet getting nowhere, is impressive.
Sometimes it's amusing in a dry way, and it sort-of works in his play, Waiting for Godot. There are enough witticisms in the short book to keep me turning the pages.
But it's also often incredibly boring.
In my opinion, Malone Dies doesn't have enough to keep the interest, and it was a painful read. I felt compelled to complete it, and while the last 20 pages or so were better, overall for me it wasn't worth it.
I guess the works are supposed to have an existentialist point, in the sense that they focus on the characters' small everyday activities, blowing them up to high importance compared with an outside world which is seemingly incomprehensible. The characters' persistence and narrow focus on their concerns is rhetorically exaggerated, showing at the same time their subjective importance to the characters but also the objective triviality and meaninglessness. The characters' serious fight for the pointless is both pessimistic and blackly comedic. That is, the works seem to have built into them the key existentialist thoughts of (a) existence before essence and (b) absurdity and rebellion with respect to the characters' intentions when compered to the world around them. The one existentialist thing missing for me, though, was self-awareness. As I understand it, existentialist authenticity is about recognising the human condition, but persisting anyway. Beckett's characters persisted but showed no self-aware recognition; the awareness was at best only on the part of the writer and reader.
But as I see it, reading fiction is also about simple entertainment, and if stories don't have that then it's rare that philosophic points alone will make it worth it.
Waiting for Godot passes the keep-it test, in part because it's such a well-known classic and in part because there's enough thoughtful humour in the short work. But for me Malone Dies is not worth keeping.
Here's a couple more climbs that we videoed Miya doing yesterday. We don't usually bother to video Miya doing greens, but this was a more interesting and challenging one with the dyno.
And here's a good pic:
This year Mulan is doing Year 11 Music at school, and is sitting NCEA 1.
Along with music theory and history there is also a practical component, where the students prepare and perform pieces, which are assessed. One assessment is a group performance, while another is solo.
The school does not tell students which instrument to use, or which pieces to play. The students choose the instruments they are personally most skilled at, and over a number of weeks practice and polish their pieces both in and out of class (and often with their private teachers).
In other words, one aim of Music at school is to assess the students' specialist areas at their best.
What would school Music be like if, instead of this, the students' practical component was assessed by looking at how well they learnt a new instrument they'd never played before? What if the school chose the instrument that all students were required to play (intentionally choosing a more obscure instrument that likely no one has played before), gave the students a few weeks of in-class lessons, then evaluated their performance playing that new instrument?
This year Mulan is also doing Year 11 PE at school, and is sitting NCEA 1.
Similar to Music, PE in school has both a theory and practical component. (Although one difference is that the theory component of PE is entirely internally assessed, whereas Music has some external assessments.)
This year Mulan's school has decided to assess all Year 11 PE students on both gymnastics and handball. Students do not choose the sport they are assessed in.
Last term Mulan's class went out of school to have gymnastics lessons at North Harbour Gymnastics. During class they prepared routines, which they then performed for assessment. Some students had never done gymnastics before, and so the lessons and routines were fairly beginner level. Mulan was lucky** that for a few years and up until about a year ago she'd casually learnt gymnastics. Consequently, Mulan found the required gymnastics skills both familiar and easy, and she comfortably achieved excellence on that assessment. (**Or was Mulan unlucky that those school lessons were a bit of a waste of time for her?!)
This term the students will be introduced to handball, an Olympic sport that's popular in Europe but almost unheard of here in New Zealand. Mulan's PE teacher told us that this sport was intentionally chosen as likely none of the students have done it before. Teachers will observe and assess the students as they learn this unfamiliar sport, getting to know the rules of the game and acquiring the basic skills. As part of the assessment students will also need to reflect on their learning experience.
What would school PE be like if, instead of this, the students were assessed in sports that they were most skilled at? What if the students chose their own sport, worked on polishing their skills, and then were observed and assessed performing at their specialist best?
Why is it that at school Music is seen as a subject in which students are encouraged to perform as skillfully as possible in their chosen specialist area, whereas in PE one is assessed more on one's learning attitude, reflections and teamwork spirit?
The KBB Music Festival is happening all this week, where school orchestras and bands perform and compete.
Yesterday Mulan was there with her school orchestra, so the rest of us family went along to sit in the audience and enjoy the music.
Mulan was involved in three 30-minute sessions:
First up, Westlake entered the non-competition Pupuke Pops Players. This was then followed by a huge multi-school play-in.
Then after lunch the Westlake Symphony Orchestra did their competition pieces.
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(Mulan is front-right with her cello.)
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The final Gala event is this Saturday, where the best four bands in each category (symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, concert band and jazz band) play again. We've bought tickets for the evening show, as WSO will be playing.
Suddenly it's music season, and we've got a busy several days.
First up, last Sunday Mulan and Miya played in the West City Youth Concert Band, at their Unveiled show (I wrote about it here).
Then on Friday night Westlake Girls and Boys schools put on a combined Gala show with all their music groups performing. With so many groups the show was over five hours long, and split into two sessions. Mulan, playing her cello in the Westlake Symphony Orchestra, performed last, which meant that she didn't get home until after 10:30pm.
Mama bought a ticket to watch the show, but Miya and I stayed home. No, it's not because we don't care about Mulan. It was just that we wanted to sleep, because ...
Yesterday (Saturday) morning we had to leave home at 6am to drive to Hamilton. The New Zealand Concert Bands Association are having their Nationals competition this weekend at Waikato University, and West City Youth Concert Band had their 30 minute slot at 9am. The livestream worked, and you can watch their performance 39 minutes into it here. Mulan's on the left playing her flute while Miya's on the right playing her clarinet.
After lunch, at 1pm the Band had a 40-minute workshop, where they got some tips on how to make it sound even better.
Looking ahead, on Tuesday Mulan is back with her school orchestra, playing at the KBB music festival. As the Pupuke Pops Players they are performing at 11:30am, and then as the Westlake Symphony Orchestra they are on at 2:30pm.
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Meanwhile, dance is still continuing. Today Mulan has over six hours of ballet, while Miya has two. On Friday Mulan will sit her RAD Advanced 1 ballet exam.
It feels like 2022 has barely started, and yet Mulan's school is already requesting that students lock in their choices for next year.
Yesterday, Mulan and I spent about an hour looking at her subject options for Year 12 (NCEA 2) in 2023, before submitting her choices.
Mulan still doesn't have strong opinions about what she wants to do after school (in just 2.5 years!). So, it's about keeping her options open. She may want a music career, or possibly something in sports science. She still enjoys doing a lot of dance. Or maybe something completely different.
Music was an easy first choice. It's by far Mulan's favourite subject, and the learning environment at Westlake Girls is excellent. From the sounds of things teachers and students are passionate and motivated and they're having fun learning at a high level.
Mulan quite enjoys science, despite teacher troubles in the first half of the year. Westlake has been having difficulty getting enough teachers, and Mulan was stuck with relievers who were not very skilled communicators. Mostly, the students were teaching themselves. It was so bad that we contacted the school about this; the person we talked with was very understanding, but said it was the best they could do. Fortunately this term Mulan's class has a new science teacher, who seems good. For Year 12 Mulan has decided to take three science classes -- Biology, Chemistry and Physics (with her preference in that order).
Mulan finds maths relatively easy, although she has never been that interested in it. While homeschooling, and before starting school, Mulan was consistently working at about two years ahead of her age. Since starting school a year ago Mulan's maths has stagnated somewhat. Often the school work has been easy, or with familiar content; she sometimes comments that class lessons progress too slow. On the other hand, one assessment dropped below excellence, suggesting that the learning environment for new content is not ideal. For Year 12 Mulan has decided to take Maths Progression, which is the second tier course (behind Maths Extension).
Mulan dislikes English, but it's still compulsory in Year 12 (she's looking forwards to Year 13 when she doesn't have to take it!). This year Mulan was selected into the extension English class (English Writing), which includes some work that's a year ahead (NCEA 2). For Year 12 she's again applied for the English Writing class, which will do some NCEA 3 work. (If she doesn't get in she'll do English Literature instead.)
Mulan is taking Accounting this year, and has selected it as her 2023 backup option. We were wondering about doing this instead of three sciences, but Mulan enjoys science more than accounting.
Mulan is also taking PE this year, but has decided to drop it. It has been very interesting to contrast PE (and Dance, which Mulan did last year) with Music. In our experience, the motivated musicians choose Music as a school subject, and the class lessons work at a high level. On the other hand, it seems the motivated sportspeople generally don't take PE, and neither do the motivated dancers take Dance. My impression is that school PE lessons are not as high level as non-school-subject sports lessons and training. (Similarly, school Dance classes are not as high level as non-school dance classes and training.)
After submitting the subject courses we looked at Mulan's mid-year school report (which came through at the same time). So far this year she's got a couple of merits and the rest excellences. The main teacher comment is that she needs to ask questions more when she doesn't understand something!
At our usual climbing session today Miya videoed me on a new green. (Greens are commonplace these days for Miya, so we don't bother to video her completing them, but they are still significant for me.)
Mama and I enjoyed a date without the children yesterday.
We started with a pleasant nature walk around Te Atatu Peninsula,
and then followed that up with a concert in the evening.
West City Band performed their Unveiled show, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. First up, their Youth Concert Band performed four pieces, then their String Orchestra performed three, and finally their Concert Band played one piece. The concert programme is here.
Relatedly, there were a couple of familiar faces in the Youth Band. Mulan was playing her flute, while Miya played her clarinet. (We'd dropped them off a few hours before the show.)
If you missed it, they're playing again this Saturday (6th) in Hamilton. If you can't be there, then check out the livestream. The Youth Band (with Mulan and Miya) will be playing at 9am.
On Thursday Mulan was called up at school assembly to collect her Auckland Champs triple jump gold medal that she earned back in March.
And a blue sky meant today's a good day to snap a brag photo of our winnings this year.
So, on the right is Mulan's collection. Alongside the school medal, there're three Auckland club Champs medals -- silver in the U16 triple jump, and bronzes in the Grade 14 long jump and 80m hurdles. They're hanging off her Takapuna Club cup with the club ribbons.
In the middle is Miya's silver medal in the Auckland Champs Grade 11 high jump. (Miya's club ribbons are pinned to her wall.)
On the left are my Auckland Champs gold medals (M45-49 triple jump, long jump and pentathlon), hanging off my Takapuna Club cup. In the middle is my Auckland Masters pentathlon trophy.
We're into the second week of the school holidays, but the girls are still keeping busy as ten out of the 14 days Mulan and Miya are doing ballet.
In the first week they had a workshop for a new Classical Collab show, which will be performed in September. Last year's show was the classical Romeo and Juliet, while this year it's more contemporary. Miya tells me that she will be one of Banksy's rats.
This week it's more about preparing for ballet exams, which will be held next month. Mulan will sit Advanced 1, while Miya will do Grade 5.
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Yesterday was a break from ballet, so the three of us went rock climbing. Here's Mulan falling off a green climb. (Considering how she doesn't get much time to climb, progressing to projecting greens is impressive.)
I've got too many books on my bookshelves. 📕📖📗📘📙📚
Whenever I read a book I have to make the tough decision whether to keep it or donate it to the local book exchange.
I just finished reading Keri Hulme's 1983 book, The Bone People; it's a borderline case.
Hulme is a skilled and beautiful writer, and the book deservedly won the 1985 Booker prize. The language and the world Hulme created is deep and evocative, and it's a pleasure to read. It's a shame she didn't publish more. Hulme's also a New Zealander (who died just last December), and the book is set in New Zealand. All strong reasons to keep the book.
On the other hand the subject matter is questionable, given that in some ways it minimises the seriousness of domestic violence and child abuse. Related to this, I felt the story resolved itself too easily, inappropriately introducing fantasy elements to conveniently solve deep and long-lasting character-driven psychological problems. More below.
So I really don't know. Writing this review will be my decision-making process. Future me will make the call. As always, this is a personal reaction and I do almost no scholarly work to read others' opinions.
Personally, for me The Bone People was both closely familiar and somewhat distanced. It is essentially a New Zealand story, populated with familiar New Zealand places, landscapes, ways of life, language and people. Set in the early 80s, it is a deeply recognisable New Zealand of my childhood, and many aspects felt comfortably homely. Hulme was one eighth Maori, and for me that proportion of English/Maori infuses the book in the same way that it infuses New Zealand life. Many characters are Maori, or part Maori, and Maori language is used naturally throughout the book (with a dictionary at the back).
On the other hand, the story is distanced from me personally in two ways. Firstly, it's distanced in geography. It's rural/small town, centred on the West Coast of the South Island; I'm more suburban/city, and so my childhood was a bit different. Secondly, it's distanced in time. Some of the unquestioned attitudes of the 80s are uncomfortably jarring to 2020s me.
The story is about three people, Kerewin, Joe and Simon, and they are intertwined in a way that makes it hard to introduce one without the other. All three characters have past issues, which we're only gradually made aware of, and only ever partially. All three are lonely, relying on each other to satisfy the need to love and be loved, but at the same time struggling to deal with the consequences. Towards the end of the book Kerewin, who is an artist, sculpts a work which has their three heads merging together and each facing outwards.
Joe first: Early thirties, he's recently lost his wife and young child. He gave up his study and works as a labourer. During a storm a boat sunk off the coast and Joe was part of the local search party. Joe finds the sole survivor, a young (three-ish years old?) boy, who he calls Simon.
Simon's previous family is never found, and no one seems to make much effort either to find people who know him or to help him recover; more by default than anything else Simon lives with Joe. Simon cannot speak, and though extremely bright is traumatised in many ways. He communicates using his own self-made sign language, and also writes when necessary. At the beginning of the book Joe and Simon live together, though Simon sometimes stays with Joe's extended family while he works. Simon is supposed to attend school, but often he wags and wanders the streets unattended.
For me, one of the downsides to the story is the lack of realism about Simon. We never really know how old he is (though at the end official reports say he's seven). Nonetheless, he often acts too mature, and I can't help feeling that maybe Hulme didn't know children. Simon knows too much, and his writing is too good, despite getting very little education either from Joe or school. He comes across as more of a fantasy character than a real boy. It also feels a little jarring that the police/doctors/social workers/psychologists/etc weren't more involved in helping Simon. It's certainly not the New Zealand I'm familiar with, though maybe it's 1980s rural life?
Finally, Kerewin Holmes. With a name very similar to the author, we can't but help imagine there is some personal overlap. Kerewin's a wealthy overachiever with a mysterious past. She won her money from the lottery, but has pulled away from family and career. At the start of the book she's recently moved to the area and built herself a dream home (self-designed tower***, with a mix of both fancy and simple features) to live an off-the-grid life. She fishes, farms, builds and paints, and then pays for anything else she wants from her seemingly bottomless bank account. She's eloquent and literate, while at the same time down-to-earth and blunt. She enjoys company, including drinking at the pub and playing the guitar, but doesn't like touching and is asexual.
(***I wonder if Hulme considered how uncomfortable a tower would be to live in for everyday life. I've lived in a four-level townhouse for a few months, and it's very inconvenient to have to walk up and down stairs when you want to get things from another room!)
While I guess Kerewin is supposed to be an idealised or exaggerated or twisted version of Hulme, to me her skills in too many separate areas are unrealistic. Similar to Simon, she is more fantasy than real. Kerewin is a formidable fighter, after a year spent in Japan. She's a talented artist. She's built some kind of solar perpetual motion machine, which she doesn't tell anyone else about. She too well-read in too many different areas, to the point that she seems to know better than experts (though it helps her that Hulme often portrays townie-experts as theoretical fools).
The three characters get together when Simon breaks into Kerewin's tower. Simon likes Kerewin's blunt/wise/caring attitude, Joe likes that Kerewin accepts/understands Simon, and Kerewin grudgingly enjoys their company.
The three appear to be getting closer, as we, the reader, also get to know more about them. All three characters are sympathetic and we care for them and hope they get together as a family.
But then we learn that Joe is repeatedly physically abusing Simon. Joe, in his outdated and wrong 1980s way, sincerely believes that hitting is the best way to correct wrong behaviours in children. When he's calm and sober he merely smacks. But he drinks far too often, and when he's frustrated he severely beats up Simon, knocking him unconscious and leaving scars over his body. The extended family and Kerewin are aware of this and are angry with Joe, but since he's mostly loving to Simon they don't intervene.
Joe, Kerewin, the extended family and the local community are also heavy drinkers and smokers. It is so normalised that Simon sometimes drinks and smokes alongside them. Simon joins them sometimes in the pub, too (the barkeeper points out that it's better than kids waiting in the car while the parents are in the pub).
At heart this is a tragic story. We've got to know characters who are smart and mostly decent people and who we sympathise with, and yet they make horrific, though contextually understandable, mistakes. There's a combination of (a) ignorant child-raising practices, (b) a culture reliant on heavy drinking, (c) no social support when things get tough, (d) friends/family unwilling to intervene, and (e) a culture sceptical/hostile of outside professional help.
On this point I have mixed opinions about whether Hulme's tone of voice hits the right mark between sympathising with the characters and culture versus pointing out who and what was the cause of the tragedy. To some extent I felt a little uncomfortable that Hulme's tone was too accepting and normalising of a broken society that creates broken and hurting children. Even while describing the horrific consequences, it still seemed largely positive of the drinking culture that nurtured the brokenness. And it seems to support the distrust of experts.
Finally, things come to a head when Joe beats up Simon so badly that he is hospitalised with permanent injuries and Joe is sent to prison for three months.
Sadly, it's at this point where I think Hulme's storytelling goes wrong.
The first 330 pages are a brilliant hard-hitting morality tale, and I think the story would have been stronger if it just ended there, with Joe in prison, Simon in hospital and Kerewin physically tearing down her dream-home and reflecting on her place in the tragedy.
But I guess Hulme wanted a happy ending, and Part IV, the last 110 pages, feels like an inconsistent add-on.
To me, the final quarter of the book feels like an odd change from realism to a fantasy-style Miyazaki-ish world, with gods and spirits influencing the everyday world. That's fine for Miyazaki, because his world-building is consistent from the beginning. But I felt it didn't work in The Bone People, as to me it was too much of a jarring change. (I get it, that this is supposed to be a Maori spiritual worldview, but if we accept that then we lose the impact of the book's social-psychological morality-tale.)
To explain my thinking I'm going to have to give some end-book spoilers. If you don't want spoilers, close your eyes while reading below.
In Part IV Joe and Kerewin separately both encounter supernatural forces, which apparently cures them both of their problems. Joe encounters a dying man who has been looking after a god, and as he dies he charges Joe with continuing the guardianship. At the same time Kerewin almost dies of cancer, but is cured by a mysterious person with potions.
Both stories are presented as quick fantasy cures of deeper long-term psychological issues, and it feels uncomfortable that things are resolved so easily.
The story ends with Kerewin building a new house, Joe joining her, and Simon, who had been put in foster care, returning to live with them. The extended family is all there with them. The tone of the book is that of a mostly happy ending.
It was that final part, to me, that was most offensive. Hulme created a world in which it was seemingly okay for a severely abused child to be put back with his abuser. It was as if Hulme had shown us the seriousness of family child abuse, and the complex social causes, and then she said it's right to return a child into that same environment all over again after a quick spiritual encounter.
Finally, my decision. As much as I want to like Hulme's book, it's that offensiveness that gets to me. I'll drop the book off at the free book exchange. Others may read the book differently.
Mulan's school just got a brand new hall (which they're calling the Event Centre).
While it's been fully operational all year, they had their official opening ceremony last Thursday. There were plenty of speeches, as well as several music performances.
The latest school newsletter tells us all about it and links to a YouTube video:
Mulan was there too, missing a half day of classes while playing her cello in the orchestra (see if you can spot her!).
Unfortunately we couldn't be at multiple places at once last Saturday.
The place we chose to be at was a music camp for West City Youth Concert Band.
Both Mulan (flute) and Miya (clarinet) are in the band, and they have weekly practices. But with two upcoming public performances (a concert on the 31st, and then the nationals in Hamilton in a month) they needed a full weekend camp to polish up the pieces.
At the end of the camp on Sunday us parents enjoyed a sneak-preview pre-concert performance. To my inexpert ears it's sounding pretty good.
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The other place we wanted to be at, but couldn't attend, was the annual Boulder Bash rock climbing competition at Northern Rocks (which Miya did last year).
The rules of the comp is that everyone has a couple of hours to climb as much as they want. Each climb is worth points (more difficult climbs = more points), and we add up our best eight climbs. There are three levels of competition -- Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.
So today at our usual climbing session Miya and I did a bit of calculating to see how we would have done based on the results just published.
I pushed myself with a pseudo-comp, and my eight best climbs today added up to 252 points. This would have placed me about three quarters of the way down the Intermediate Men ranking list.
Miya videoed me on eight greens today; here's a couple:
Miya was working on polishing climbs today, and she didn't try to do a pseudo-comp. But she added up her best climbs she has completed recently, to give her an idealised score of 326 points. This likely would have got her into the finals (top six) of the Intermediate Women section. (And considering that there were only six women competing at the Advanced level, that's pretty impressive!)
Here's Miya on another yellow today:
We're really hoping there are no clashes next year, and that we both get to compete at Boulder Bash 2023.
This is a thought-provoking article about Susan Stebbing and her 1939 book Thinking to Some Purpose.
As I see it, what's especially interesting is how directly relevant many of her ideas are to our current situation.
For one thing, Stebbing distinguishes between political/economic freedom versus "freedom of mind". She writes:
If it were in fact true that we were all politically and economically free, still it would not follow that we were possessed of the freedom of mind without which, in my opinion, no democratic institutions can be satisfactorily maintained.
That's an interesting thought, that democratic institutions cannot be satisfactorily maintained without people knowing how to think freely.
Thus, the aim of her book is to help people become more free in this more fundamental sense.
The aim is to help people to become better thinkers, by training them in thinking skills and giving them knowledge of how thinking failures happen (though 80+ years later it's a bit dated!).
The article gives an example:
What does thinking clearly involve? One important step, Stebbing argues, is to train ourselves out of bad habits of thinking. For example, she describes what she calls ‘potted thinking’. This is oversimplifying ideas using crude characterisations or slogans. While slogans aren’t always a bad thing, Stebbing thinks that they have a tendency to oversimplify more nuanced or sophisticated views and to hide the intricacies of an idea behind a catchy phrase.
When I read this I couldn't help thinking of the "freedom" protests against the Covid mandates. Too often, the "freedom" slogans drowned out more nuanced views. Too often, the protestors' crude characterisations of freedom meant they did not acknowledge the increased freedoms that Covid mandates gave. Too often, the protestors lacked freedom of mind.
Yesterday, a Sunday, we had to get up barbarically early.
Mulan had signed up for a have-a-go rowing session with her school, and we had to be lakeside (Lake Pupuke) at 8:15am. I went along with Mulan for the initial intro talk to parents, before leaving them to it.
But apparently this was a sleep-in for rowers. If Mulan wants to continue with school rowing, the beginner "learn-to-row" winter training is three mornings a week, including a 6am start. Over summer it's several training sessions a week and most days before school.
School rowing takes an all-or-nothing approach to activities. At most, students may fit in a winter sport alongside rowing, but there's no way that they could do other activities over summer. They boldly claimed to be the toughest sport training-wise, and said participants need excellent time-management skills.
Competitively, this makes them very successful, but I do wonder if it's healthy for teens to focus so much on one activity at the expense of a more well-rounded learning environment. It's a shame they don't offer a slightly more part-time option.
Clearly, school rowing is not going to suit Mulan. She'd likely have to give up most of her music (three instruments in two bands), dance (eight lessons per week), swimming (two lessons per week) and athletics (multi-events).
But nonetheless it was a fun morning for her and a great experience to try out the boats on the water.
When we asked Mulan if she'd like to sign up for more school rowing she said no -- she wants her morning sleep-ins.
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Today Miya and I went climbing as usual. We videoed Miya on two new yellows:
I've just finished reading two excellent books. Both are highly recommended.
The first one happened because at the moment Mulan is writing an essay for school. She has to choose four works that are connected by a single theme, so I was enlisted to give her reading suggestions.
With works and theme completely open, Mulan had a hard time narrowing her choices. First up, she chose Dune as her first book (she simply likes the book). She then needed a theme, and eventually settled on fictional works in which the author has a political intent.
Over the school holidays, while we were Covid-isolating, I scanned our home bookshelves and gave Mulan:
(She had already read a couple of these, and she read the others during our family lockdown.)
Why did I give Sophie's World later? Because I wanted to read it first! While I'd heard great things about it, I'd never got around to reading it.
What stands out for me is that it's a very cleverly written book.
First up, Gaarder attempts to explain the history of Western thought, from the pre-Socratics through to the existentialists, to teenagers!
Yeah, how many teens are going to want to read a textbook on Parmenides, Aquinas, Hegel, Sartre and so on?!
So, the first clever bit is that we meet soon-to-be-15-year-old Sophie, who starts getting mysterious letters from an unknown person.
The letter-writer turns out to be a philosophy teacher, who posts mini-lectures to Sophie, and we get interested in the dryer details of Plato, Aristotle and so on because Sophie gets interested in them. We also have the mystery of who this teacher really is and how/why he is writing to Sophie.
But just as we're getting comfortable in Sophie's world, and getting to know the teacher, Alberto, we are introduced to another almost-15-year-old, Hilde, and her father who works for the UN in Lebanon. But there's definitely weird, spooky stuff happening in Sophie's world.
By halfway through the book our philosophy lessons have moved through the ages and we're dealing with issues such as how-much-can-we-really-know and what-is-ultimate-reality-really-like in Descartes, Kant, Berkeley, and so on.
And then we get to the first of the two main twists in the story. Without giving too much away, what we have in places is a book within a book, with the author teaching his readers via another author teaching his reader via another author teaching his reader.
What I especially like is how Gaarder is able to clearly explain the challenging ideas of these brilliant historical people in ways that can connect with normal life. A big part of the story is the connection between the mini-lectures and Sophie's experiences in her world. The ideas are made real to the reader (while at the same time challenging the reader to think about what is really real!).
If I was to be picky I might occasionally critique Gaarder's understanding of some of the ideas, what the historical writers were really saying, and which historical writers should be covered.
But at heart, this is an introductory book for complete beginners. Of necessity it's sometimes going to be cartoon versions of the complex ideas. But the historical names are the standard ones that all undergraduate philosophy students should be comfortably familiar with. For any teens who like this kind of stuff the book will give them a head start before they enter university.
Most importantly though, this book is essential reading for all teens, to help them enter, and become participants in, that long conversation of human thinking.
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The second book I've just finished reading is Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True, which I borrowed from the local library.
Reminiscing alert: I distinctly remember, back when I was 12, a conversation I had with a school friend.
I'd grown up in a moderately conservative Christian family, and it was simply part of my unquestioned worldview that God created the world from nothing. I'd never even considered any other possibility than that he'd formed the plants and animals and us at some unspecified time in the past.
But somehow, and in some way, by the time I was 12 I'd heard about evolution, that humans had evolved from other animals rather than being created. To me at the time it was a weird and curious new idea, so I mentioned it to my friend one day. He just looked at me like "yeah, of course."
His reaction made a lasting impression, because his apparent "of course evolution" made me reflect on my earlier "of course creation." How is it that we can have opposite reactions when we both live in the same world and see the same things?
A sizable chunk of the next 15 years of thought for me was reconciling this and reorienting my worldview to match the best evidence. It was about spending time listening to experts.
Coyne, as a biologist, is one of those experts. His 2009 book is an excellent summary of the evidence.
In multiple ways, with innumerable examples, Coyne explains how the physical evidence around us perfectly fits the theory of evolution by natural selection. In fact it fits so perfectly that for practical purposes we can call it true, and we can treat it as true to the same extent that we can treat atoms, gravity and germs as true. Its predictive and explanatory power has been extremely successful.
He also explains why the physical evidence does not fit creationism. A big part of this is showing how biological structures are often imperfect and non-ideal make-do add-ons and adaptations of existing structures. In multiple ways they are not what we would expect to see if biological creatures were made fresh from nothing. Instead, they're exactly what we'd expect to see if creatures evolved.
Coyne plausibly replies to creationist objections against evolution, showing how the objections fail to disprove evolution.
All of this is written in a very readable way for non-experts like myself. It was an enjoyable read, with plenty of examples well-picked to fit the clear and explicitly labeled argumentative structure.
I'd picked this book to read, in part because I occasionally browse Coyne's blog, but also because P Z Myers, who is also a biologist, recently again recommended Coyne's book. (Here's Myers' review back in 2008.)
What Coyne's book reinforced for me is that the world around us shows abundantly that the only way creationism could be true is if God was a malicious trickster-god. Firstly, if God exists he must have intentionally set things up to try to fool us with all the evolutionary evidence, and secondly he must have intentionally set things up to cause lots of unnecessary pain and suffering in his creation. In the very unlikely event that a personal creator-God exists, his creation shows us that he's in no way worthy of worship.
Again, I'd recommend this book for all teens and up, and especially those who are interested in science and religion but prefer to get their facts right.
Sunday was about the music.
In the morning Mulan had her usual recorder lesson.
We followed this up with a very enjoyable two-hour concert at the beautiful St Matthew-In-The-City church, listening to the St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra.
Miya's clarinet teacher, Brendan Dalton, plays clarinet in the orchestra, and suggested we come along. It was definitely worth it!
In the evening, Mulan recorded herself playing one of her latest recorder pieces. Last week we learnt that her school is having a soloist competition, and video audition submissions were due by end-of-day Sunday.
Yesterday morning, Miya and I did our usual climbing session at Northern Rocks. Here's Miya completing another yellow:
Then in the evening we attended the Takapuna Athletics Club end-of-year prizegiving. Miya, Mulan and I were all called up to receive awards.
Mulan got the Grade 14 girls cup, while I got the Veteran Men's cup. Mulan was recognised for getting the women's under 16 triple jump club record, while I was recognised for getting six men's 45-49 club records (200m, 400m, 1500m, high jump, discus and javelin).
Mulan's back at school today after two weeks of school holidays.
After a week isolating with Covid, the second week of the holidays was about easing slowly back into the exercise.
A couple of sessions of rock climbing was a good bit of variety (the last time Mulan climbed was back in December), and she did pretty well on the new climbs, getting eight new purples over the two days.
Here's Mulan on a pink:
Meanwhile, at our climbing session today Miya did a review of her current best climbs, completing two yellows and 12 greens.
It had to happen sometime. With all our activities it was just a matter of time.
On Saturday, Mulan woke up feeling a bit yuk, so she did an at-home RAT.
Sure enough, she was Covid positive.
So, she was promptly quarantined in her room, while the rest of us donned masks, sanitised and socially distanced. We're all self-isolating at home for at least seven days.
Mulan's temperature went up to about 38 degrees, and for about half the day she was dozing on and off with a sore throat and achy. By Saturday evening she was mostly feeling back to normal. Now she's got a slight snuffle and feels not so energetic.
So far the rest of us are feeling fine, and our tests are negative.
But the extra precautions around the home are making life more interesting.
We talk to Mulan through her door and window. She's got plenty of books and her devices, and so far she's coping okay. In some ways it was ideal timing, coming as it did right at the start of the school holidays. Hopefully she won't miss any of her activities, and she was ready for a bit of de-schooling on her own in her room with books anyway. The biggest thing she's missing out on (besides cuddles!) is exercise/training. The recommendation is to have a graduated return to exercise after Covid.
Mama has organised her students back to online lessons for now.
I've done the notifying duties, emailing close contacts and adding Mulan to the Ministry of Health statistics.
We're not sure where Mulan picked it up from -- school, dance, swimming and music all happened as usual Monday through Thursday, while we all relaxed at home on Friday (except when Mulan delivered her Friday papers -- hope she didn't leave any Covids in anyone's letterboxes).
Here's hoping the rest of us don't catch Covid from Mulan, but in the end it's just about reducing the probabilities as much as possible and relying on luck.
UPDATE 2/5/2022: None of the rest of the family caught Covid from Mulan, and after a few days she was feeling back to normal. On Day 7 we all tested negative and Mulan came out of bedroom-isolation. By Day 10 we all stopped wearing masks around home.
It's been a while, but finally here's what we did during our summer family holiday travels. Similar to last year, the focus was initially on the girls' athletics competition (this year in Wellington) before then exploring the local area.
5 January
We took it slow driving from Auckland to Wellington, with an overnight stop halfway🚗. As usual when driving south, we stopped off in Huntly for a property inspection of our investment property there.
(The Huntly Power Station across the Waikato River. Not our investment property.)
We discovered a secondhand book fair in progress on the main street of Tirau, one of the small towns on the road south. We had to stop and browse. Nothing jumped out at us in the pay section, but Mulan picked up a couple of books in the free box, which she finished in a day or so📚.
At Waiouru we stopped to stretch our legs outside the National Army Museum🚛.
Our overnight bnb stop at an old farmhouse in Rangiwahia produced mixed feelings. On arrival, Miya was not impressed by the dozens of flies that had discovered the open windows, and she worked hard to evict/eliminate them all. On the other hand, apparently its rustically inspirational feel means it's also sometimes used as an artists' retreat.
6 January
An easy few hours of driving and then we were in Wellington, where we stayed for six nights. Our flat was up a hill in Karori. Everything in Wellington is up a hill.
7-9 January
For the next three days we were busy with the girls' athletics competition. I wrote about it here.
10 January
Then it was onto the sightseeing part of our holiday.
First up, we occupied Parliament grounds with some freedoms-lovin' disruptions. Mama is such a rebel with her other hand up.
We ate our lunch and enjoyed the playground.
It was a really weird feeling, just a few weeks later, to see the anti-Covid-mandate protestors occupying and damaging this same area we'd so recently enjoyed. And it was sad to see the barbaric vandals set fire to the playground, then cheer about it. For too many people at the protest it was not about the issues; those who trashed the area and abused others clearly weren't interested in genuine freedoms. (And those who were peacefully well-intentioned in their beliefs got their thinking wrong.)
Next, we walked to the old Wellington Cable Car, and took a pleasant (overpriced) ride up to the Botanic Garden, where we had a view over the city.
While walking through the garden, Henry Moore's opinion on art got more minutes of attention from me than his art itself.
His writing is as unclear as his sculpture, but he seems to be suggesting that for all art it's better to be intentionally unclear, to make the viewer have to work harder to try to understand the artist's meaning. Artists shouldn't give away any hints in the title of what they're trying to show in their artwork. This forces the viewer to stay longer in front of the artwork, and forces the viewer to struggle with trying to figure out the artist's meaning for longer.
Personally, I'd rather he at least gave a bit of a hint of what he was on about with his abstract shapes. Entice me with a bit of context so I bother to stay to look at his Bronze Form.
We then drove to Mt Victoria to get a different view of the city from above,
before taking a scenic tour of Island Bay and the coast.
11 January
This was our museum day. It was also a public transport day, as we decided to leave the car at the flat and try out the local (overpriced) buses.
Alighting at Parliament grounds (again) we walked to Katherine Mansfield's house.
Mansfield is amongst my all-time favourite authors. I read many of her stories several years ago while living in China, and we especially enjoyed Prelude during our move to New Zealand. It was fascinating to wander around where she was born and get a glimpse into her life and times.
We then walked to Te Papa, where we spent most of the rest of the day. As much as I'd like to like Te Papa, I didn't find it to be an especially comfortable or relaxing place. My personal feeling (at least on this, my second, visit) was that the designers tried to be a bit too clever with their style, and that created the wrong atmosphere and frame of mind to appreciate the works.
We visited the World War 1 Gallipoli exhibit, and while it was technically impressive, I wondered whether it was more war-porn than worthy. Yes, we should remember our history, and yes, we should understand the horrors of war to the point where it is only ever a genuinely last-resort action. But there is a fine line between understanding and gratuitous detail. Walking through the exhibit I wondered if Te Papa had crossed that line and got too caught up in the graphic details.
I still think, in any discussion of World War 1, more emphasis should be placed on telling the stories of the true heroes, the conscientious objectors who were abused and tortured by their own governments for refusing to participate in killing other people for no good reason. (I wrote about this on Anzac Day a few years ago.)
12 January
It was time to move on, and after a final morning sightseeing at Wrights Hill Fortress,
we headed off to Napier where we stayed for two nights.
13 January
The main reason for stopping at Napier was to see the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers. But this did mean a painfully early start to catch the low tide for the beach walk to the colony.
The tide of the day meant we were advised to start the walk by 6:39am, which we almost managed to do (after a 40 minute drive from our accommodation). This gave us a window in the tides to do what the guidebooks told us was a five-hour there-and-back walk.
Our plan was that we'd walk continuously there at a relaxed but decent pace, and on the way back we'd go a bit slower and stop occasionally to take photos with the better lighting.
It didn't go to plan. Here we are at 7am, soon after starting out:
The walk was pleasant, and the cliffs were awe-inspiring (a bit like our home beaches on Auckland's North Shore, only way huger!).
The advice is to walk along the water's edge, as far from the cliffs as possible, and don't stop. Rarely, but occasionally, a chunk of cliff crashes down onto the beach. It's mostly safe, though as I write this the walk is closed because about a month ago there was a "large rockfall event". In 2019 two tourists were seriously injured.
After two hours walking we arrived at the smaller of the two main gannet colonies, Black Reef:
Soon after the colony we came to a section of the beach where we had to take off our boots and roll up our pants to wade around three sections of rock, even at low tide.
For those who prefer not to walk five-ish hours, there's another way to get to the birds -- by guided tour vehicle. On the return journey we followed a group around the wet sections.
Finally, about two and a half hours after we started, we got to the end of the beach walk. But that wasn't the main bird colony. From the Department of Conservation rest area it was still another 30ish minutes up the hill to the lookout.
This is where we had a small disagreement. Should we push hard and risk it, to see what we had walked all the way to see? Or should we play it safe and turn around without seeing the main gannet colony. Mama reluctantly followed my opinion, and we paused for a quick bite to eat before heading back the way we'd come.
Despite it still being 30 minutes before the advised last departure time (10:39am), we didn't want to risk anything as we'd already walked slower than expected going out (and we didn't know the beach/tides). So, it was a fast return walk with few stops for photos.
But we still got a few more photos of the small-colony gannets:
In the end, the return (fast) walk took around two hours from the DOC rest area, and we returned to the start around midday, about five hours after setting out. The hardest bit was the wading sections, which were slightly deeper on the return because of the incoming tide. I wouldn't have wanted to go through that much later, but once past it we probably didn't need to walk as fast as we did.
Next time, we know to start slightly earlier and walk fast on the outward journey. Mama said next time she'll go by guided tour vehicle.
14 January
We spent the morning checking out the town centre of Napier, before heading off to our final stop, Waimangu. We'd booked our final two nights at a farmhouse bnb not far from Rotorua,
where we could visit some of the thermal areas.
In the evening, we took a local walk to the Rainbow Mountain (Maunga Kakaramea) crater lake.
15 January
For our final big activity we booked in at Waimangu Volcanic Valley.
We enjoyed a very pleasant walk through the thermal park, followed by a boat ride on Lake Rotomahana, the location of the Pink and White Terraces.
We took far too many photos of steaming lakes,
boiling pools,
spurting geysers,
and various other geothermal scenes:
That evening, Mama and I abandoned the girls at the farmhouse while we went for a walk together to the Rainbow Mountain summit.
16 January
Then it was time to drive home, where the girls were immediately onto their next activity, music band camp.
