The beautiful new highway that replaces the Manawatu Gorge Road: Te Ahu a Turanga
Today is Sunday 25 October 2026, Kia ora!
We drove to Hawkes’ Bay for the weekend before Labour Weekend, for the Hōhepa Family Day and Spring Market. This was a really doubtful journey because JD had had a heavy cold (which I tried really hard not to get), and our daughter had a medical appointment on the following Tuesday which I wanted to attend. So it involved a lot of argument about whether we should indeed go, seeing that we couldn’t reschedule. The weather here was not great; we got an email on Thursday evening from Hōhepa to say that it was really cold in Napier, but they hoped not to cancel!
So we set off on Friday morning, taking warm clothes as well as summer clothes, since it was supposed to get warmer on the following Monday and Tuesday. With the two new roads, Transmission Gully highway and the new road that replaces the Manawatu Gorge, Te Ahu a Turanga, the journey only took four hours, including a stop to have lunch in Shannon.
On Friday evening we were due to have dinner at the house where our daughter lives, together with staff and other parents and family members. It was a lovely occasion, and our daughter was thrilled to see us. We ate baked chicken with vegetables, two salads, baked carrots in bacon (a new one on me!) and some beef steak. For dessert JD and I had brought some ice cream and dairy-free gelato, and the house manager had made an Indian dessert with grated carrot, cardamom and various other ingredients: I couldn’t really tell what it was made from! It rained really heavily that night in Havelock North where we were staying.
The next morning we were due at Hohepa at 9:15. There were various presentations, and then the Hohepa Family Association AGM after a break for morning tea. It was lovely to see many old friends there. One of the presentations included filming of the funeral we’d recently attended: it was very moving, again. We also sang the lovely Hōhepa song.
Afterwards there was the Spring Market, and stalls and tables and port-a-loos were set up outside, but it was really cold and windy: although I was wearing a woollen jersey, a warm jacket and a raincoat, I was still very cold. We looked unsuccessfully for our daughter, but I am ashamed to say that we retreated back to Havelock North, where we had lunch at Diva by the gas fire: waffles for me and a chicken parmigiana and chips for JD. That evening we walked up to Alessandro’s where we shared a delicious pizza and I had a passionfruit mojito mocktail. It was warmer than earlier, but I was glad to have brought my wrap from our visit to Florence earlier this year. I had forgotten to bring any scarves!
The next day, Sunday, we were due to meet our daughter at All Saints’ Church at Taradale, and take her out for lunch after that. At that church they are amazingly tolerant: there are several folk from Hōhepa who tend to wander in and out during the service; afterwards some of them spoke about the Spring Market at Hohepa Clive the previous day. The congregation are very welcoming to us all.
We took Vicky to Hapi for lunch: it’s really hard to find gluten-free, non-dairy food in Napier! Afterwards we went to the sea front to have dairy-free sorbet (our daughter) and rum and raisin ice cream (JD and me).
On our walk back to the car we passed an amazing shop full of beautiful things with sequins (imported from China): head bands and decorations, cardigans, wraps, and dresses. Needless to say, JD bought some things there: our daughter chose a beautiful headband.
Then we went to the National Aquarium again. It’s always such good value! We were in time for feeding the sharks and stingrays at 2 pm. We watched the two divers feeding the fish: the two divers waved at us, and then put on quite a performance with blowing bubbles at each other! Such fun! What a performance! Then we sat down for a while until the little penguin feeding at 3:30 pm. Although we’ve seen this before, it’s always fun. Then we took our daughter back to her house. On the way we visited the lovely shop, and she chose a soft toy: a pink teddy.
That evening JD and I ate at Diva again: fish (trevally) and chips and salad for me, and a chicken hamburger for JD. JD wrote up a summary of the presentations at Saturday’s Family Weekend.
On Monday morning we had a meeting with the Manager of Hohepa, Hawkes Bay. It was very good to talk with him and recollect our reactions to Saturday’s presentations. While we were there, two of the PWS (People we support) knocked on the door and came in! They were very respectful.
We visited our daughter, and learnt that there would be a Eurhythmy Concert that day in the Clive Hall at 1:30 pm. So we drove into Napier to have lunch before returning to Clive for the concert.
The Eurythmy Concert was performed by a group from Auckland. It comprised dancing to music, for the most part: some classical music, such as a sonata by Boccherini and the second movement of Ravel’s Sonatine (our eldest son used to play this on the piano); there were also several Māori items. The dancing and miming were very simple and elegant and graceful. It was a very enjoyable concert, enhanced by the fulsome participation of the Hohepa residents!
That evening we did not go out to dinner; instead we bought pies and salads from the local New World supermarket in Havelock North. What a wonderful range of products they have there! This was going to be a cheap meal, but of course JD wanted to buy lots of things.
The next morning I was to attend a medical appointment for my daughter. I knew where it was – I’d been there before, but I got a late text from the Cluster Manager asking if we were to pick my daughter up from Hōhepa Clive! Very confusing, but we got to the right place on time! Afterwards we drove back to Wellington, in the beautiful sunshine.
A few days have passed since we returned to Wellington. On Wednesday morning I went to my Shakespeare Group, where we read the rest of Twelfth Night. Afterwards I had coffee with some of the group at Arlo’s Café in Willis St. That was a very enjoyable occasion. One of the women also went to Wellington Girls’ College, where I was in the same class as her older sister. But they’re a lovely group – our discussions ranged from plays by William Shakespeare, films, teaching and the new play by Stuart McKenzie called After God. There was some talk of overseas travel as well.
On Friday morning I went to the Classics Group. My usual cleaning lady from Access was away, so I didn’t need to hurry home. We’ve moved onto the great Roman poet Horace. Our leader has given us bound booklets of the first book of Odes, with particular emphasis on the rhythms, which are largely borrowed from ancient Greek lyric: poets such as Sappho and Alphaeus. He’s given us his translations, of course. I took a book of translations of my own. Again I felt like a a pupil: I’ve studied Greek lyric poetry, and one of our number has lectured on Greek! But we weren’t asked if any of us were familiar with this literature. We were then supposed to colour-code the different rhythms. I did not see anyone doing this. I actually found my lovely Horace texts the day before, and again I am quite charmed by this poet. He’s very self-deprecating, but amazingly brilliant and adept. Again, I kept most of my responses to myself, but again the sexuality is so interesting: in terms of language used (“puer” vs.” iuvenis” – boy versus young man), whom he’s addressing, (Lydia? Pyrrha?), and the subject matter. We looked at the beautiful Ode “Vides ut alta stet nive candida Soracte?”, famously quoted by Patrick Leigh Fermor; we also looked at a poem which was a very polite refusal to write an encomium on Agrippa, the Emperor Augustus’ famous general; at present I’m reading Robert Harris’ new novel called Agrippa. It would have been nice to talk about this, but we did not.
As always, I enjoyed my morning tea at Smith the Grocer café afterwards: an oat latté, and, this time, an apple and date scone. I wore my beautiful coloured jacket which we bought in Athens, and was complimented on that several times.
Afterwards I walked down to Farmers in Lambton Quay. They have some good specials on at the moment, but I resisted temptation and did not buy anything.
Yesterday afternoon JD and I went to see Taika Waititi’s new movie, Klara and the Sun at Pauatahanui. It has received terrible reviews, but we wanted to see it nonetheless. We are big fans of Taika Waititi, although he hasn’t made a film for a while. Did marrying Rita Ora have anything to do with an apparent lessening of his talent? JD of course is very interested in robots and AI; this film is not quite there….yet. The only robot I’d be interested in is one that can load the dishwasher, or change the sheets on my bed. AI is always offering to write for me – hey, I can do that myself! And plan my trips. I am quite capable of doing that too, when the opportunity arises And I can read my emails without having them summarized. Where is the conscience, one wonders?
This film started off well but it seemed to drag in the middle. There were very few of us there to see it. Perhaps it seemed to drag because I was very tired. Jenna Ortega is a wonderful actress, but I had trouble with other forms of being human, like eating and aging. What was the message of the film? Can an AF (Artificial Friend) substitute for a human daughter? I prefer not to think so. I don’t think you can defy death by an artificial/robotic replica of likeness of appearance or of voice. Note: there is no internet in this futuristic environment, That’s surely worthy of thought.
Talking of death, I went to church this morning. The service was taken by David Dell. We read a great deal of Luke 18, culminating in Jesus’ prediction of his own death, although his disciples are in denial. David reminded us that there are no shortcuts to faith, and the only way to faith in Jesus is through his death, and resurrection. There are no shortcuts to grief, but God will be with you every step of the way. At the end of the service we sang We have a Redeemer, which was very heartening.
That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.
