Bay of Islands- Paihia

Haere Mai!

Welcome!



One of the most beautiful weekend trips you can make in New Zealand: Northland!

Day one: Auckland Mangawhai. Sleep in this beach. Don't forget to go for a coffe in Mangawhai with Margaret Fish at her Sea Rock Café!


Day two: Stopover in Whangarei to watch the cascades, beautiful.







On the way to the Bay o Islands, found a beautiful cascade.

In the evening, head north to Oceans' Beach. It is a very windy road of almost an hour. But really, it is worth it!

Oceans Beach, in my Top-3 beaches of New Zealand

We saw two dolphins playing in front of us! Amazing. I could not take the pic, though. But...

Sleep in a nice DOC campsite, in your way to.... Paihia!

Then take a one day trip boat to visit the Hole in the Rock with 3 hours stopover in the beach.

Not this on, though (este es el caro)

They assure you can see dolphins in 90% of the occasions.

And here they are!

The Hole in the Rock

Sandra, Nabahet and me

Again, hole in the rock

Beautiful beach where we spent around three hours.

I hope you enjoyed the pics, it is really a beautiful place. See ya!

Reina per un dia

Si això fos un conte

Si això fos un conte
buscaria un lloc segur
per amagar el meu cor.

El posaria dins una maragda
amagada al niu d’una àguila
a la torre més alta d’un castell.

I el castell estaria en un país llunyà,
a moltes muntanyes, boscs i rius de distància.

Als camins hi hauria posat de guàrdia
llops i bruixes, gegants i dracs.

Sota cada pont hi viuria un troll,
amb un enigma per endevinar.

A cada bosc habitaria una fera,
intel·ligent com la fam.

Cada casa on passar la nit
seria un parany.

Cada tasca que acceptessis
una prova impossible.

Cada poma que et fos oferta
tendria un cuc a dins.

El castell fóra inexpugnable,
defensat per un exèrcit invicte.

I tot això seria inútil
perquè les princeses com tu
sempre se surten amb la seva.

Josep Lluis Aguiló

Gràcies Albert V., gràcies, gràcies.

Volverán las oscuras golondrinas

Volverán las oscuras golondrinas

en tu balcón los nidos a colgar,

y otra vez con el ala a sus cristales

jugando llamarán.

Pero aquellas que el vuelo refrenaban,

tu hermosura y mi dicha al contemplar;

aquellas que aprendieron nuestros nombres,

¡ésas no volverán!

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Die Lorelei

Ich weiß nicht was soll es bedeuten,

Dass ich so traurig bin;

Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten,

Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn.
Die Luft ist kühl und es dunkelt,

Und ruhig fließt der Rhein;

Der Gipfel des Berges funkelt im Abendsonnenschein.

Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet

Dort oben wunderbar;

Ihr goldnes Geschmeide blitzet,

Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar.
Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme

Und singt ein Lied dabei;

Das hat eine wundersame,Gewaltige Melodei.
Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe

Ergreift es mit wildem Weh;

Er schaut nicht die Felsenriffe,

Er schaut nur hinauf in die Höh.

Ich glaube, die Wellen verschlingen

Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn;

Und das hat mit ihrem Singen die Lorelei getan.

Heinrich Heine

La Serpiente

La serpiente se escabulló
de por debajo de la alfombra en la que estaba escondida
y con gran gruñido de dolor
atenuado en parte por su dulce figura
regurgitó el fuego viejo y eterno
que le bullía en sus entrañas.

Los atravesó uno a uno con su lacónica mirada espartana
desplegó sus alas
y echó a volar.

La vida es sueño

Sueña el rico en su riqueza, que más cuidados le ofrece,
sueña el pobre que padece su miseria y su pobreza,
sueña el que a medrar empieza, sueña el que afana y pretende,
sueña el que agravia y ofende, y en el mundo, en conclusión,
todos sueñan lo que son, aunque ninguno lo entiende.
Yo sueño que estoy aquí de estas prisiones cargado,
y soñé que en otro estado más lisonjero me vi.
¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.
¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción,
y el mayor bien es pequeño;
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son.

Calderón de la Barca

Aprendre de l’après

Tant de dolor a les espatlles,
per poder sortir endavant amb un somrís.

Aquesta última punyalada,
te la dedico a tu.
Tu que em vas saber estimar una etèrea matinada
nusos sota la pluja, en mil trocets estelada

Quina sensació agredolça
que sé que passarà,
per tornar amb un somriure
a confiar en tu, lluna del meu cor.

Rhythms of Nature

Main Caravan

Rythms of Nature es un festival que se celebra anualmente en la Península de Coromandel, en el fabuloso espacio natural en Ohui.

Es un espacio enorme en medio del bosque, dotado de una privilegiada playa de aguas cristalinas en la que a menudo se pueden vislumbrar delfines, como en muchas playas de la costa este de Nueva Zelanda.

Mi profesora de Bollywood, Anji Dessai

En el festival habían talleres de todo tipo:
ritmos chamánicos
talleres de jembé
trance
pintura para niños
bollywood
danza africana
yoga

Taller de jembé con Pete the Drummer

Sandreta

Yo misma

Pescamos este snapper con Ryan, the pyrate, y lo cocinamos con Catrina y compartimos con el personal dle festival. Es mi pescado favorito de Aotearoa.

Cada día habían conciertos por la noche. Pero el más esperado fue el de la última noche, en que se bailaron ritmos chamánicos al son de más de treinta jembés i tambores africanos.

Algunos danzantes parecían poseídos, en trance.

Esta chica americana es muy maja. Katrina estaba presente, al haberla yo invitado, por supuesto

POLY FEST

Tena Koutou, Talofa Lava, Malo e lelei, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Greetings

The Auckland Secondary Schools Maori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival (Poly Fest) has become the largest of its kind in the world. This event is proudly hosted by Manukau City, on Mara South suburb of Auckland where almost all the Maori population is condensed, and I had the immense pleasure to attend, invited by my school, St. Cuthberts' College.

Maori

The Maori, the first inhabitants of this land, the most proud of it, the hearthy people, the maori.

The traditional dance performed by the iwhi is composed by several parts:

The entrance, the boss and couple of the tribe do their thiumphal entrance, showing their respect to the audience. It is astonishing.

Titi Torea, the art of hitting double sticks.

There are many forms for playing titi torea, starting from the simple ones where a player learns to change hands with the sticks they have, through to the sticks coming from behind and having to be caught. Both children and adults play titi torea. Competitions are sometimes held, with the aim being for each team to complete a certain set of patterns without going out of beat or dropping any.

The Poi dance

The women of the tribe will then chant for Papa and Rangi, songs inherited of lines of ancestors. They will dance offer a dance of poi.

There are different thoughts on the origin of the poi. The flexibility and dexterity of the poi have, in the past been a means of training warriors.
The long poi represent the oars of our Tupuna
Women of High rank were trained in the art of the long poi, manipulating up to 4 at a time.

The KAPA HAKA, the war dance

The most impressive of all the dances I've ever seen. It makes you tremble, it transports you 1000 years ago, it is scary, it is defiant, it is great.

Timing Each item will have a certain beat and speed, some items have tempo changes. It is important to ensure that the timing is accurate. The change from one action to another is also part of the timing. A good group have the actions synchronised as well as the foot work.
Footwork Footwork helps with timing. Different areas have different styles of footwork, some areas lift the foot and some areas don't. It is important to recognise and appreciate different areas' styles, as this reflects their tikanga.
Stance The way a performer holds themselves is also important. Confidence, comes over time.
Wiri - trembling of the hands. The wiri is a side to side movement of the whole hand and is not a wriggling of the fingers. The wiri represents the world around us, from the shimmering of the waters of a bright sunny day, to the heat waves rising from the ground to the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.

Unlike other indigenous dance forms, kapa haka is unique in the fact that the performers must sing, dance, have expression as well as movement all combined into each item.

Kapa Haka could be seen as sign language, as each action has a meaning, which ties in with the words. For example, if the hand is by the ear, this would probably tie in with the word whakarongo which means to listen.

Showing the tonge to your opponent shows how strong you are and defies him.

COOK ISLANDS
The Cook Island dance is a kind of "Hawaian" dance. You know really beatiful girsl moving their bumps and hips very, very fast, at the rythm of the strepid drums and sticks.

The maoris in Aotearoa are believed to came principally from the Cook Islands, as you can see, the ressemblance is huge.

The dances of the Cook islands are renowned throughout Polynesia for their expression and sensuality. Cook Islands dancing dates back thousands of years with many of the dances being based on ancient stories - stories that tell a tale of love or adventure and in some cases both

TONGA

Toonga is another beautiful island of the Polynesia with white sand beaches, waterfalls and native forest. It is a kingdom, the economy is not the best, based primarily in fishing and tourism, therefore lots of people emigrate to New Zealand, country with which they have a Seasonal Work Permit agreement, easily awarded to the Islanders keen to work as Fruit pickers and harvesters (and why abandone a beautiful life in a hut, fishing and hunting for emigrating to a deshumanized city where everybody will treat you as a foreigner, even worse for not being white, and it will be tremendously difficult to achieve anything? Misteries of the modern times).

Anyway, dancing in the Kingdom of Tonga is a dignified, graceful portrayal of the choreographer’s art. Another characteristics of Tongan dancing is the importance of two kinds of hand clapping each of which is named – a flat high pitched (called pasi in Tongan) and a cross clap with cupped hands which emits a lower hollow sound (fu).

Soke(ball de bastons a Catalunya) is a Tongan group dance performed with sticks which the performers hit against each other on the beat of the drum. As with most Tongan dances, the whole performance is to dazzle the spectators and to please the chiefs.
It is performed by both men and women. Each of the men have one long stick, about 2 meters, both women carry short sticks, about 40 cm, one in each hand. Occasionally this assignment is exchanged. On the beat of the music they hit the sticks against each other in a repeating pattern.

Kailao is a dance of foreign origin (from ‘Uvea – Wallis) and is a standing dance usually performed by men only.

The dancers, of which there can be any number, wear fanciful constumes including hats decorated with crepe paper and anle rattles made of large seed called vesa pa’anga. The men, bearing stylized clubs (pate kailao), dance in a fierce manner that emulates fighting, all to the accompaniment of a beaten slit drum or a tin box, which sets the tempo. Unlike most other Tongan dances, the kailao is performed without singing. The sequences of movements to be performed by the group are called by the lead dancer, who will give the name of the sequence, then will signal when to do it. The dance displays the dancers’ discipline, obedience and skill with their weapon.

The day in which the Poly Fest was hold, March 19th, 2010 means it is the end of the summer, Autum, though, so the sky of New Zealand announces rain constantly...

Aotearoa means Land of the Long White Cloud

Preparing to go on stage.

Boring wait... school uniforms. Cool, ei?

Cutie one!

Well fed!

SAMOA

Samoan dance is possibly the one area of Samoan culture which has been least affected by contact with western civilsation. Whereas Samoan music has adopted guitars and other musical instruments, dance, which relies solely upon the performers body (with some exceptions - fire dance, knife dance, etc) still requires the performer to retain grace and move their arms and hands in the approved fashion. However, Samoans who are members of the Seventh Day Adventist church do not practice Samoan dancing because it is proscribed by their religion.

Unlike several of the other Pacific Islands you will not normally fnd the dancers performing in grass skirts, nor is the hula a dance native to Samoa. More often than not performers will were lavalava, but in some cases the women will wear matting made from the Pandunas and turned into ie toga and the men will wear necklaces or anklets made from leaves. The clothing made be decorated with feathers or frreshly cut flowers and lei.

There are different types of dances which are performed by individuals or groups and either sitting or standing.The best time to see Samoan dancing is at a fiafia, a traditional Samoan meal accompanied by various performers both singing and dancing.

Sait Cuthbert's College girls. Sweet as!

The fa'ataupati, (pronounced: "pha.cow.paké") sometimes called the "Samoan slap dance," is one of the most fun and energetic dances in the world.