Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
The Manu Aute Kite Day is part of the Matariki (Maori New Year) celebrations at Orakei Marae. Kite flying was popular with ancient maori and used particularly during Matariki. Kites were believed to make a spiritual connection with the gods.
The sun was out for a change so a great time to check out the impressive kites of all shapes and sizes in action, the most impressive being an enormous stingray at least the size of a bus. A word of warning for those thinking of going next year though - make sure your kite is well sorted in advance - don't do what we did and and turn up with an untested kite that is only interested in crashing headlong into the ground - unless you enjoy being the butt of some good natured kite humour.As well as the kite flying there was moko designing, hangi food and kapa haka performances on offer. We had a great time with the kids building a traditional style kite of toi toi and raupo in the whare kai, but not such a great time trying to fly it - it would need a lot more wind to get airbourne due to it's weight!
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