Road to Onga Onga
The road to Onga Onga is paved with lavender and deep purple-coloured roadside flowers, groaning plum trees full of summer bounty and straw coloured grass more beautiful than gold. I stopped by the roadside to take it all in. It smelt like open space, wide as it was
All Boxed In
Today is Boxing Day. The holiday’s roots can be traced to Britain. In New Zealand Boxing Day is the day after Christmas Day, 26 December, a public holiday. In other parts of the world it’s also known as
From Me to You
Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete ki a koe. Warm Christmas morning greetings to you all. My family have gathered though we’ll all have our Christmas meal together this evening. The morning is last minute prep, a little gift opening or alot by the look of the pile under the tree. Mostly, it’s time to
Christmas Crack Up
When you stop and think about it, the Christmas Cracker is a really strange tradition. A tube of card wrapped in paper which when pulled apart goes “bang” and releases a small treat. Where did such a bizarre Christmas custom originate? The nearest equivalent would seem to be the
Stocking Up
Like all good legends, the story of the Christmas stocking has many versions. The original story has evolved to allow for differences in culture, time period, and good old fashioned story-telling. So it’s hard to know exactly how the
