Kiwi Travel Writer talks food, travel, and tips
Heather Hapeta lives in Aotearoa-New Zealand: real travel, real adventures, real stories, real photos. Recent destinations Vietnam, Cambodia, Taiwan and Hong Kong – now NZ destinations due to COVID travel restrictions
Every Monday I join a U3A group ( University of the third age) for a walk in Wellington. Sometimes we bus to one of the outer suburbs or beaches but often we prefer to wander the inner city and learn some of our history, go to the botanic gardens, see artworks, or just enjoy the sights.
These photos were taken yesterday – from the Wharewaka beside the lagoon to the National Art gallery café – coffee is the high point of our walks
Join me on a wander through parts of the botanic gardens – from native tree ferns to blossom to tulips – in New Zealand’s capital Wellington. Taken during my regular Monday morning walk 2 days ago 🙂
Enjoy my wanderings yesterday … my regular Monday morning walk … around my adopted city.
My Monday morning walk produced lots of great sights … we went up the cable car to the botanic gardens, had coffee and walked back into the city.
Back in the city there were events in Civic Square to celebrate Māori Language week – Te Wiki o te Māori , so I bought a hangi for tonight’s dinner . . .
. . . and then, walking back up Cuba Street I spotted my local Green MP (James Shaw) being interviewed about mental health issues and the need for an inquiry into past wrongs.
The recent CubaDupa festival – based in Wellington’s funky Cuba Street – included a wonderful show of “Reynard the Fox” with Orchestra Wellington performing in Hannah’s Courtyard.
Renard is the main character in a literary cycle of 
many allegorical European fables. Those stories – about Reynard an anthropomorphic red fox and trickster who deceives other anthropomorphic animals for his own advantage – or tries to avoid retaliations from them.
The core of these stories – written during the Middle Ages by multiple authors – are often seen as parodies of medieval literature such as courtly love stories and satires about political and religious institutions.
On my recent trip to Xiamen, China I was interested to see local art and, as our Kiwi tour leader, Janet Andrews, had attended the Arts Academy at Jimei University as an exchange student just a few years ago we were lucky enough to visit the Fine Art College there.
She was treated like a visiting rock star and we rode on those coat-tails. An exhibition of the students end of the semester work was very different to our preconceived ideas about Chinese art.
Here are some of their work and the fantastic artwork around the University grounds.
If you have the chance to visit this Uni, grab it!
My next post will be about the Duishan Art District and some of the artists, who graduated from Jemei Uni, and have studios there.
NOTE: thanks for the assitance to travel in this region as part of the cultural delegation from Xiamen’s sister city Wellington, New Zealand.
See more here –http://www.wellingtonxiamen.com and check #Xiamen for photos on Instagram, and in this blog for many other posts about my great week there.
Quanzhou city, southeast Fujian Province, and east of Taiwan, has been called the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road and is a city with a long history and rich culture, it also has many religions. As a trading port people came to Quanzhou from many places and Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism can be seen there.
Over the last couple of centuries, Quanzhou was also a migration source of many Chinese now living in South East Asia. Evidently some 6 million people, whose ancestors were from the area, now live abroad – mostly in Southeast Asian countries: a tenth live in Hong Kong.
The climate is warm and humid, comfortable for year-round travel, making it a popular tourist destination – mostly Chinese – and during my week in the province I saw only one western couple, and woman from Taiwan. Because of this, I have ever been photographed so much, nor been in so many selfies with people I don’t know!
As well as the rock carving of Lao Jun (this link is to an earlier blog) we visited Kaiyuan Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Fujian Province, and which is a major historic and cultural site and under state protection. With a history of over 1,300 years, the buildings in the temple are of course magnificent.
The Grand Prayer Hall has 86 huge stone pillars, while the most famous attractions are two pagodas standing west and east of the temple. They are China’s highest stone pagodas (about 40 metres) and are a good example of Chinese stone architecture.
Quanzhou Maritime Museum, is evidently China’s only museum dedicated to the history of the counties overseas exploration. The exhibition hall, designed like a huge ship, was set up in 1959 and exhibits the components of a Song Dynasty (960-1127) ship discovered in the seaport of Quanzhou. The East Lake exhibition hall (1991) shows the history of overseas exploration, religious stone sculptures, and the folk culture of the area.
NOTE: I travelled in this region as part of a cultural delegation from its sister city Wellington, New Zealand. See more here – www.wellingtonxiamen.com and check #Xiamen for photos on Instagram.
Kiwi Travel Writer talks food, travel, and tips 
