World Buskers Festival guarantees fun in the sun

Seeking fun in the sun for your summer holidays? Then make a beeline for Christchurch and the World Buskers’ Festival.

Each year at the end of January the Garden City hosts the world’s best street performers for a 10-day extravaganza that leaves the city’s residents and those lucky enough to be visiting Christchurch with big grins on their faces and an extra spring in their step.

The festival seems to get bigger and better every year and the 2010 event has been put together to provide 11 days and 10 nights of non-stop fun in the sun. Some 450 shows will be staged over the course of the festival which is held in the streets and parks of central Christchurch. The shows are non-ticketed and free although audiences are encouraged to give donations to the performers at the end of each show.

The line-up for the 2010 festival includes four-time world juggling champions, The Raspyni Brothers, of the 2008 Toronto International Circus Festival, the Acrobuffos, acrobat and Cirque Du Soleil performer Reuben Dot Dot Dot, the strongest lady alive, Betty Brawn, contortionist and escapologist Chris Cross, and former circus clown and elephant jumper Joe Dieffenbacher.

“These guys know how to work a crowd and are the best in the world at what they do. If people are still tossing up what to do for their summer holidays then I strongly advise them to make their way to Christchurch so they can see these guys in action – they really are incredible,’’ says festival director Jodi Wright.

“We’ve also got some of New Zealand’s best comedic talent booked to perform in the festival – the likes of Brendan Lovegrove, Michele A’Court and Jeremy Elwood – so it’s a great opportunity for people to get together with their friends and family and start the year off with a good laugh and some harmless fun.’’

For music lovers the 2010 festival also includes performances by a swag of Kiwi bands and international street musicians.

“It’s going to a be a full-on 10 days but all the shows are staged within easy walking distance of each other and are scheduled so people can work their way around them all. If you want, we can have you laughing from 11am in the morning to 11pm at night,’’ says Ms Wright.

The World Buskers’ Festival starts on January 21 and runs through until January 31. People wanting to book accommodation or travel to Christchurch for the festival can log onto www.christchurchnz.com. For more information on the festival programme log onto www.worldbuskersfestival.com.

see other blogs on this site re the world busker’s festival

New Zealand – Summer 2009 / 2010 highlights

New Zealand’s native Christmas tree, the pohutukawa, is breaking into flower marking the start of the country’s favourite season where festivities and fun are the hallmark of summer.

While universities and schools are winding down to the end of the academic year, businesses are gearing up for the Christmas party season and families have begun priming their baches and camp sites for the long holiday season ahead.

December is Santa season, and almost every city and town in New Zealand prepares a parade to celebrate Christmas. Protected from the hot sun, hat-clad, cheering children line the streets to watch festive floats, street performers, marching troupes, pipe bands and musicians bring a light-hearted touch to what has been a challenging year.

Much anticipated and always the focus of the Kiwi calendar, summer in New Zealand tends to be a relaxed affair where the emphasis is making the most of the weather and the environment.

Events also focus on the outdoors and the 2009 / 2010 season promises national and regional happenings that cover a broad spectrum from sports, music, arts and culture to food, wine, nature and the outdoors.

New Zealand 2009 / 2010 summer events

Christmas lights - Auckland Sky Tower
1 – 31 December 2009
On 1 December a celebratory lighting ceremony takes place on Auckland Sky Tower’s Sky Deck when the winner of a competition to choose the colour combination for the season, will ‘hit the switch’ and turn the city’s iconic landmark into a festive spectacle. The tower will have a green base with silver, red and green flashes for all of December.
Sky Tower – Auckland

TSB Bank Festival of Lights - Taranaki
19 December 2009 – 7 February 2010
Pukekura Park, a 52ha domain with majestic trees, unusual planting, waterfalls and lakes provides a dramatic backdrop for this lighting festival in the heart of New Plymouth. Since 1993, the annual light festival has been attracting visitors to Taranaki but the origins of the festival date back to 1953 when a lighted fountain was installed to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll. This season’s entertainment highlight is the only New Zealand performance by Fleetwood Mac.
Festival of Lights

Rhythm & Vines - Gisborne, Eastland
29 December 2009 – 1 January 2010
This popular New Zealand festival is internationally famous as ‘the place to be’ for the dawning of a new year, Rhythm & Vines is held in a vineyard near Gisborne, on New Zealand’s east coast – the first place in the world to see the sun each day. A crowd of 20,000 gathers for the three-day outdoor festival to hear bands from all over the world and see the new year in. Top emerging and established rock, roots, jazz and dance artists perform on the Waiohika Estate’s four natural amphitheatres.
Rhythm & Vines

Black Barn Open Air cinema - Hawke’s Bay
27 – 30 December 2009 / 2 – 6 January 2010
One of New Zealand’s best known vineyards – Black Barn – in the foothills of Te Mata Peak, Hawke’s Bay, has become a popular outdoor venue where, for nine summer nights, a big screen shows popular movies. Movie-goers can relax on grassed terraces with a glass of wine, sample local fare provided by the in-house caterers or picnic with friends while they watch.
Black Barn

Parihaka International Peace Festival - Taranaki
8 – 10 January 2010
This festival celebrates the vision and example of Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi, the founders of Parihaka – a small Maori settlement on the Taranaki coast, 55km south west of New Plymouth. Situated in a volcanic landscape, the unassuming village is a site of major historical, cultural and political importance in New Zealand. The 2010 festival celebrates its fifth anniversary.

Waka Ama Sprint Nationals 2010 - Waikato
12 – 16 January 2010
Up to 3000 paddlers, from 7 to 70 years, will descend on Lake Karapiro, on the Waikato river, for the Waka Ama – or outrigger canoe event – that’s the biggest Waka Ama event in the world. There will be 320 races in distances ranging from 250m to 1500m. This is the venue for the world rowing championships from 31 October to 7 November 2010.
Waka Ama New Zealand

see lots more events all over NZ this summer 09/10

Winona Ryder ‘Enough’ for Hallmark

Barry Pepper to co-star in ‘Lois Wilson Story’

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

Winona Ryder and Barry Pepper have been cast to star in the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie “When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story.”

Production starts this week in Toronto; the longform will air later this season on CBS.

Movie is based on the true story of Lois Wilson, the co-founder of Al-Anon, and her relationship with alcoholic husband Bill Wilson, one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The couple enjoyed an upscale lifestyle in the 1920s, but his drinking eventually led to their downfall. Eventually, her husband became sober — but Lois Wilson still struggled with her own issues surrounding his alcoholism.

She eventually helped start Al-Anon in 1951 to assist people whose loved ones battle addiction.

E1 Entertainment is producing the movie with Hallmark Hall of Fame Prods. John Morayniss, Ira Pincus and Brent Shields are exec producing, while John Kent Harrison is the director. Telepic is based on the book by William Borchert, who also wrote the script with Camille Thomasson.

Ryder’s upcoming credits include “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” while Pepper was seen in “61*” and “Flags of Our Fathers.”

There’s more info about the Lois movie on: William Borchert.com

Native Clematis flowers in the Seaward Kaikaora mountian ranges

I took this photo when hiking NZ’s highest guided walk – Kaikoura Wilderness Walks, Shearwater Lodge. Nov: 2009 I will be bloging about it soon

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I have to let you know about another great NZ film by one of my local NZ Society of Authors branch members. ( I am the local chairperson so get bragging rights)

Kathleen Gallagher’s latest film Earth Whisperers/Papatuanuku was shot at spectacular locations around New Zealand by acclaimed cameramen Alun Bollinger and Mike Single. This absorbing feature documentary focuses on 10 visionary New Zealanders out to prove that a shift in consciousness can heal our environment. You’ll be inspired, and never look at stinging nettle in your garden in quite the same way again!

In the words of Nick Smith – NZ Minister for Environment and Climate Change:

‘This inspirational film weaves together NZ”s stunning landscapes, eclectic characters and unique

sounds in a poetic message of protection for Planet Earth .’

This is a movie that doesn’t just rock the boat — it rocks the world!

Check out the link above to see a trailer of the movie and hear Kathleen too.

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said he was “humbled” to be named the best rugby player on the planet for the second time in his career.

The 28-year-old New Zealand openside picked up the IRB’s prestigious Player of the Year award straight after leading his side to a comprehensive 39-12 victory over France at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille today.

He joined Ireland’s Declan Kidney (coach of the year) and the Springboks (team of the year) in picking up the three major senior awards announced by the IRB on the final weekend of the official autumn season in the north.

McCaw also won the player of the year gong in 2006 and is now the first player ever to have picked it up a second time.

read more here

and see his blog here and read more stuff in the ‘rugby“ categories on this blog .

NOTE: Richie is also a big part of our local Canterbury team, and yes I am a one -eyed, red & black wearing Cantabrian

In Search of Simplicity A true Story that Changes Lives By John P. Haines

As someone who has read many, many books on various belief systems, religions, self-help plans and  the rules of abundance and prosperity, this book sits alongside many of those. I can do no better than describe the book in the authors own words.

“The story is written in the first person. Although it is factual and autobiographical it only covers a portion of the author’s life, beginning in 1984 with a two year stay in Saudi Arabia as an advisor to Saudi Telecom. At the end of a vacation in Kashmir, John’s Indian Airlines flight is hijacked to Lahore in Northern Pakistan.

After leaving Saudi Arabia the author’s world tour is cut short when he lands in a hospital in Norway with a spinal meningitis-induced coma. Waking from the coma just long enough to prevent a potentially lethal injection of penicillin (to which he is allergic) leaves John with questions about the nature of existence. This changes his trip into a journey of discovery that spans two and a half years and every habitable continent save South America. A remarkable, almost unbelievable, chain of coincidences leads the way and shows the author when he’s on the right track. Travels initially range through South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Meetings with remarkable individuals ensue, including Mark, the ex-advertising executive from America, who gave it all away to plant trees in the Australian hinterlands.

In Papua New Guinea the author is profoundly touched by the simple, harmonious way of living of the Trobriand Islanders. During a freighter trip up the Fly River, also in PNG, John begins to clarify his vision of creating a simple, self sufficient lifestyle. At the end of that river journey John sees the devastating environmental impact of one of the world’s largest gold mines, Ok Tedi. He then goes off the track to come face to face with some of the last people on the planet untouched by Western civilization.

After a brief poignant interlude in the Philippines and a return to Canada to attend a wedding, the story resumes in China. Here John gets an appendicitis scare and encounters the insanely apathetic Chinese medical system. Strength of will propels him forward and upwards over the Khunjerab pass into fabled Hunza in Northern Pakistan. Deteriorating health and further coincidental meetings in Nepal and India propel John to seek the assistance of the great Tibetan healer, Dr. Yeshi Dhonden, in Dharmsala in northern India. It is also in Dharmsala, home of the Dalai Lama and a thriving Tibetan community, that the author experiences a profound spiritual awakening that leaves his life transformed and his purpose clear. At this time he meets Lucia, his future wife, and begins to receive a series of coincidental messages pointing him in the direction of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

An eventful return to the Hunza takes on a surreal quality through an encounter with a ghost and beams of light projecting from the mountains. All told, eleven months are spent in the Himalayas before that undeniable chain of coincidences leads John through Africa to Europe for a reunion with Lucia before heading to New Mexico to meet his destiny at a unique property outside Santa Fe. Here, this story ends and the sequel begins. That book is due to be released later in 2009.

In Search of Simplicity is the extraordinary story of an ordinary man, told with a blend of humor, penetrating insight and adventure. The book is no mere travel saga. It is an adventure into the very heart of life that leaves every reader transformed. There is a message of ecological oneness and of the unity that exists at the core of all religions and beliefs. There is a message of hope and personal healing and finding one’s personal mission in life. And the story is all the more real because it is true and is tempered with sometimes humorous incidents and flashbacks to earlier times in the author’s life.”

I especially enjoyed the Indian parts of the book – especially learning how Jesus is part of the Jian story, something I had not picked up on my time in India. Comparing this book to the many other books I’ve read, and despite the glowing reviews I have read of the book, I believe this one needed more editing. There is too much detail and, for me, it became repetitive, almost the opposite of the title, not simple enough. Perhaps if all this description needed to be told, the manuscript would have better been published in two books.

That being said, I am sure “In Search of Simplicity” will be, and has been of benefit to many readers who are searching for an inner peace and simplicity. I passed my review copy onto a man who is searching, and he has found it helpful. This absolutely sums up how subjective reviews are – and why I rarely accept a request to write one – the bold statement that the book “guaranteed to change the way you see the world” did not apply to me.

©Heather Hapeta 2009

I’ve been diagnosed with diabetes!

This means I need to get healthier and loose weight so have decided to blog about it .. ‘they’ tell me I’m as sick as my secrets so will let it all hang out so to speak, and hope that reporting on my successes and failures online will keep me on the straight and narrow.

Sign up to follow and support me here — my blogspot blog.

Should travel writers go to, and write about, countries which whom their own country has travel warnings or sanctions against?

For instance, think about – CUBA: FIJI: ZIMBABWE: MYANMAR/BURMA and other such places.

What do you think? Do you go to such places? Why? Why not?

Comments and discussion please

A small collection of photos of my time in the NZ Southern Alps (November 2009) hiking with the unique Kaikoura Wilderness Walks,  and the fabulous Shearwater Lodge.

This is just a little taster — watch for stories, blogs and articles of my time in these mountains. See more here too