Maori culture tour - Hangi

An wonderful evening. Really lucky to have the chance to experience the hospitality provided by a group of local maori artists. They have wonderful voices, and superb waving skills, not to mention about the unique tattoo pattern.

This will be a very long post!

That evening, we are all here for the hangi, which is a type of food that is cook in the Maori people way. Using the steam, buried the food underneath the soil and cook it, something similar to "beggar's chicken" a famous Chinese dish.

The hangi pit - food underneat the soilEnjoying the evening river before the hangi dinnerGreat view of Whanganui riverThe Close Quarter's Gang

After enjoying the evening view of whanganui, the others finally arrived. They have the trampoline not sure how it was spelled. Walao eh ! grow so big first time play! It was really really fun.

Lemon Tree with alot of lemon

It's a game call 'break the egg' 

Finally, the food is reaady!

While Digging the food...

While waiting for the food...

OMG IT SMELL .. SO GOOD

Food Revealed !

One full table of food !

The host family

enjoying our dinner

Can't wait to dig in those hangi

Its warm inside, damn cold outside

The mother of the family

And finally, the karaoke session. Some of the girls went up to sing a few songs. Then ! the host rocks the house, superb-ly, amazing, powerful voices ! they can make people cry by singing ! Sorry for the bad video lighting! but still Strongly recomend you to LISten to their beutiful voices ! sang in both english and maori dilect ! Worth the loading time !!

They compose the song
The beautiful voices are Anituatua Black, Rangitunoa Black and Marama Smith.

Lizzie and the shop owner
Beautiful voices !

A song inspired by her father

An Introduction..

Great memories back then in Whanganui close quarter.

The girls

The Boys

Slacking off from helping to cook.

it's 2.50am !!! sleeep !!

Random moment

Our Tui collection

When the fire alarm run off..

Oversea student gathering.
Play 123 pass kena hantam powder

Wanganui air port

In a fine morning, Me and my housemate went cycling for the morning kick-start. We cycle from the center of the town, all the way to air-port the estimate distance is like 12km only. On the way we saw cow and sheep, the biggest challenge is to cycle up hill like 1 km distance.

On our way to airport, while waiting for my housemate to snap pictures of the sheep and cows, I stand infront of a field, then ! suddenly the horse just walk towards me making 'geerr..gerr' noise which scare me abit at first. It is actually a very friendly horse.

And finally of all the struggle cycling through the mountain, the air port of wanganui,

National Geographic Magazine - Oldies version

It's Saturday again, morning market again. As usual cant wake up at the time I planned and always a rush during the visit to morning market. One of my friend manage to rent a place in morning market to sell her handmade stuffs, pretty cool stuff but I think its a little bit too expensive.

On my way to morning market, I went to the garage sales to look for treasures. I found some really old national geographic magazine, one of the magazine caught my attention, deeply, a 1988, hologram ( I think this is what it is called.) book cover magazine.

1988 National Geographic Hologram Front and back cover

It is really a cool book. Also I have bought a 1964 and a 1956 national geographic issue.


It is very interesting to flip through the magazine as you can really see what is going on at that time. The fashion is totally different, the way they design the books are mainly using illustration. I found something that is particularly interesting which is the Kodak's advertisement. It has a few lenses quite huge and very laser gun looking( like what you see in cartoon) camera. You can somehow see how the culture evolve into what it is right now.

An Introduction To Wanganui

Wanganui have about 46 thousand of population, a lovely little town with alot of heritage buildings. Great scenery, such as the famous Wanganui river, you can get a superb overview of the town when you walk up to the tower on top of the durial hill.

This is where Wanganui located, On the North Island of New Zealand.

The River City stands proudly at the mouth of one of New Zealand’s great historic waterways.

Wanganui is a delightful provincial centre 2.5 hours drive from Wellington and 6 hours from Auckland. Its 46,000 residents enjoy a laidback lifestyle and their civic pride is evident in the city’s restored colonial building and beautiful parks and gardens.

For the visitor it is well worth the effort of diverting from SH.1 and becoming immersed in the history, culture and ethos of this pleasant riverside city. It was one of the first towns to be established on the New Zealand coast and an important hub of early commerce. The 329km Whanganui River (note that the river and national park carry an aspirate ‘h’) was part of the main ‘highway’ from Wellington to Auckland in colonial times and missionaries and travellers often took two weeks to complete the arduous journey.

Wanganui is a rich amalgam of both Maori and European cultures. The museum and art galleries are amongst the best in New Zealand and the central city shopping areas have been revitalised in recent years in keeping with the colourful colonial past. Kerbside gardens, gaslights, wrought iron seats, palm and plane trees and hanging flower baskets, decorate the main thoroughfare, Victoria Avenue. The restorations are beautifully done and the whole floral effect in summer is blooming marvellous.

The heritage theme extends to cafes, specialty shops, an art deco cinema and English style pubs. Wanganui is so compact that you can easily walk to most attractions including Trafalgar Square Shopping Centre, Taupo Quay and the Queen’s Park and Cook’s Gardens. Art and craft outlets are prolific and fine dining and entertainment are readily available.

Altogether Wanganui is a fascinating amalgam of old river heritage and modern lifestyle without the pressures of big city bustle. As the city’s slogan says ‘Well worth the journey.’
Sourced from:http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/wanganui/

Saturday House Cooking

Last few weeks ago , we decided to team up and cook some Philippine delights. As part of the cooking team, I ran out to catch the "miss wanganui competition" with tommy, yup we ran there with all our saliva dripping all over and then foong chase us up with her camera. Managed to snap some of the 'miss wanganui wanabe'. I call myself the god of frying chicken, see the picture below and feel the tastiness of the chickens.

The Opera House Of Wanganui
The fried chicken god and the fried califlower god

The outcome of my fried chicken man dont play play
Our COmbo dinner of the night
Ta Danngg!!