Picnic for the Scots
On December 27, 1840 the barque Blenheim arrived in Wellington Harbour with more than 200 Scottish settlers and landed them at Kaiwharawhara. They founded the "Scotch Village" of "Kaiwarra", built the roads from Wellington to Petone and Porirua and brought their traditions and culture to a
new land.
To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the arrival there will be a picnic on December 27, 2015 at Onslow College, Johnsonville. All are welcome and entry is free. People are invited to bring their picnic, wear their tartan, enjoy Scottish dancing and music, join in traditional children's games, and view the displays.
Events will kick off at 11am with a welcome and opening ceremony, including a march of the Blenheim families and a haggis ceremony. Entertainment will include a display of Highland dancing, performances by members of the City of Wellington Pipe Band, children's sports - running and novelty races, and (modified) tossing the caber and the sheaf toss, gumboot throw and haggis throw.
The related website is at www.blenheim175.wordpress.com and the Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/Blenheim175.
Eventfinda at http://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2015/blenheim-175th-anniversary-kaiwharawhara-picnic/wellington
For further information contact Hugh McPhail at blenheim175@gmail.com, phone 04 970 9851 or 021 705 817
RICHARD EWEN GRANT
WANGANUI
Paris lives
Dumas' D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers, swashbuckling heroes and the evil Cardinal Richelieu; the Count of Monte Cristo, a tale of romance, pitiless cruelty and suffering and inevitable revenge; and Hugo's hunchback lurking in Notre Dame. Stories full of adventure for a boyhood life to be lived. Louis and Napoleon separated by the gruesome guillotine. Bastille Day and the French Revolution, where the poor rose against the privileged with blind fury. Did this place exist or was it a fiction?
Touchdown Charles de Gaulle, then a hair-raising taxi ride past the Stade de France, complete with fists and raised voices accompanied by the blare of horns; to Montmartre with its Basilique du Sacre Coeur, an ethereal cloud overlooking Paris! Seedy streets and brimming cafes full of the intoxicating aroma of coffee and croissants, while the Red Mill beckoned with can-can allure.
The maze of streets leaves me without any sense of direction and I panic! My friend Google Maps then whispers the way. "I feel the pulse!"
So much to see, so little time
"Where's that travel agent?" The Arc de Triomphe with its wondrous boulevard Champs Elysee, as I play bullfighter to get a camera shot. Le Tour d'Eiffel and La Louvre, with a kaleidoscope of people, babbling their excitement, while the enigmatic Mona Lisa looks on in mild amusement. "I feel the pulse!"
The Seine with its array of boats drifts past Notre Dame Cathedral. It is midday and I capture the chime of the bells on my camera recorder. Ahh, technology. Then speeding on to look at the boutiques and the former art museum, Galleries Lafayette. There, money has no limit as it spirals upward in a glittering splendour of chic; from Champagne, Dior and Gucci to paris St Germain. "I feel the pulse!"
As the time approaches to leave for Nice, at 300kph on Eurostar, I ponder how much the land of my Grand Mere must have changed. But, as I gesticulate with my hands, I realise Paris is in my soul. Paris lives?
"I feel the pulse!"
KEN CRAFAR
Wanganui
