Monday's confirmation

I didn't need more confirmation of my imminent Aussie return than my meet-up with Ann this morning at Memphis. She happily arrived at ten as agreed and she had the delightful Thana with her from Ballarat. Gloria joined us soon after and they had an interesting if short, conversation where it became obvious that we three were on another spiritual path and not amenable to converting to Gloria's brand of evangelical Christianity.

 So be it.

Here is Ann smiling waiting for her long coffee at Memphis

With Thana who did not convert to Christianity at Gloria's behest!

Kiwis laughing at Kevin Rudd, and with just reason

The madness has only just begun....

It's about time that Te Reo became compulsory teaching in all primary schools.

Netball is the female counterpart to the religion of Kiwi Rugby.

In now feel I am in low gear revving up for my soon departure to OZ to make my final decision public about my return to  Gosford in October. The ten days I spend there will be filled to the brim with meetings and plans for my return when I will certainly be in top gear.

 I will wait till I am settled before I even think about the purchase of another vehicle as I suppose I will still need one, just for my independence if nothing else. I will all the same be travellng on train and bus in my return to OZ.

Sunny last day

Well the Seminar is over, and it was a success for all who took part. The final day dawned sunny which was great as the venue shifted from Flashdog Studios to Te Wharewaka on the wharf. It was a beautiful outlook and we had to draw the blinds as the glare was so strong reflected from the water. Again Rodney our guest speaker drew us all in with his inimitable speaking skill but above all fascinating and inspirational  stories. The morning finished at 12.30 and we adjourned back to the studio for a delicious pot luck luncheon. 

Before the luncheon I even fitted in a short visit to find Pam and Ellie fit and well with Ellie's brand new beautiful babe Mia.

Gathering with Rodney after his great talk....

The view from Te Waharewaka...

Two Eckists from Nigeria, Sola and Ebun.

A selfie to end them all, with Rodney.

Visiting Brooklyn with Pam with Ellie's new daughter Mia.

The smaller group at Te Wharewaka.

Freezing Day two

Just up in time to get to Flashdog for an early 8.30am start, but also just had time to grab a takeaway coffee at the petrol station nearby, and it was a good one! 

The day was full as always at ECK Seminars with a great buzz surrounding the place.

The talks and workshops were excellent and I felt totally reassured about my decision to go back to  OZ later this year even disclosing it to a few special Kiwi friends but insisting it was not yet common knowledge. I will announce it soon after the seminar terminates so everyone will hear it from me and not from others I hope.

Dropped Aussie friend Ann off at her hotel last night after the end of the day's talks.

She is a good friend and I was her very first ECK teacher over ten years ago now and she is indeed an ardent ECKist.

Here are Gwyneth and Sheree giving an excellent workshop on using spiritual skills to help one in life's travails.

Just realised my new friend Kumar from Nelson is the best friend of my good friend Murali in Singapore...see the photo!

Seminar day one

Up ealy to grab a quick sustaining coffee at the Salvation Café near to Flashdog Studios.

It was a mocha coffee for a change, but it still got me going to be there for the eight-thirty start to a long but stimulating day.

Cafe Salvation...

A young Kiwi who scrimped and saved enought to buy a double unit for his future home or as a solid real estate investment. Very wise and astute Scottish boy!

Here are the older Kwis using their cell phones...

...and here are ten filthy rich Kiwis celebrating their wealth....

Toby and Joanne at front desk receiving the early    arrivals....

...our own Viva with US guest Rodney Jones preparing a song for everyone. Rodney is a guitar professional with many CDs and also a professor at Juillard School in NYC.

It was a very interesting mix of speakers and we all adjourned at midday for a wonderful locally prepared lunch at the studio.

Home for a short break before the evening session starting at seven-thirty. It's going to be a full and very varied weekend finishing on Sunday afternoon with a potluck lunch at Flashdog.

Gwyneth and Vince preparing a balloon welcome for ECK attendees at Flashdog Studios.

Wet 'n Windy Wellie

Well the city turned on its best worst weather today for the arrival of our New York friends.  But tomorrow will be fine and sunny, that's just how it is in this changing city.

So this mornng it was straight to the Studio to prepare for the seminar, Memphis is missed but replaced by an excellent coffee near the studio, with very homely decor.

David Jones comes to NZ and opened today in blizzard conditions. Next week I will certainly check it out.

Classy people at a classy shop....

Hillary getting ready for the White House....

The couch for coffee this morning....

..with an excellent barista.

The Kiwis vanquished the Aussies in hockey in 1976 Olympics at Montreal - the Aussies were too cocky!

The country has high hopes for Ko....

This is the state of siege in Turkey, really no country for a free person and I really feel for my Turkish friends who are totally anti the dictatorial government of Recep Erdogan.

Arrived from Melbourne for the ECK Seminar is good friend and Eckist Toby, always good to catch up with him he is such a positive energy...we are now gearing up for three very highly charged days of spiritual development.

Autism and Toastmasters

Busy at the very tastefully renovated Memphis this morning, my trio of regulars, Tom, Gloria and Anita, all have a coffee with me as I prepare for an important day at Toastmasters, my first 'Evaluation Day'.

 It went relatively well, although I was in strange territory being thrown in the deep end as I was the General Evaluator - I still have lots to learn about Toastmasters' techniques and whakapapa

Gideon at the new bar....

Eddie looking at new floor....

Such is one person's obsession.. Ghetto blasters!

Now a madman in Japan stuns the Japanese killing fifteen in a nursing home.

Russians are very unpopular in Rio since their 'blanket ban' was lifted.

Another great documentary at the fab film festival called 'Life - animated' using Disney cartoons to unlease the speech of this young autistic 23 yo Owen Suskind. Owen is the miracle product of two loving parents seeing only possibilities and no defeat, and the important documentary maker who accidentally made Owen into a celebrity is US director Roger Ross Williams.  The movie was fascinating and all the moe interesting as Roger came over from New York to talk about it after the showing. 

All Americans love to visit New Zealand, and tonight at my Wednesday night HU song we had another New Yorker, Rodney Jones, with his daughter Laura, who were both here for the Eckankar Seminar this weekend.  They were typically warm and unpretentious, Rodney being a professor of music at Juilliard School in NYC. I'm looking forward to hearing Rodney speak at the Seminar.

Below a distant unlit shot of director Roger Ross Williams at the Q and A after his film was loudly greeted and greatly appreciated.

Tuesday Neruda

It is a perfect winter's day today in Wellington. The bay is like a mirror, the air is crisp and I walk the ten minutes around Point Jerningham just enjoying the spectacle of this beautiful city unfold before me.

Memphis is closed again, renovations not finished yet, with the newly polished floor still settling down. So I have a coffee from the their  'little sister' cafe around the corner. Gloria comes to join me and stays only a minute outside as it is not her wont.. The warm sun caresses me gently as the boys, aka Paris and Gideon, are sitting totally animated at the table next to me on the outside space, dragging on their ubiquitous comforting smokes. A perfect day for them too, a day off work and still in the sun drinking coffee. But they do work hard these boys.

Front page news is disturbing, that is, for the pea farmers. A two year ban because of an insect outbreak and they can't risk it being propagated. NZ is vey strict in its quarantine laws. So no local peas for two years, but all imports are still there there so consumers only suffer in their pockets.

Gideon expounding....

Russia wins the roulette to the detriment of world sport and Putin must be rejoicing quietly at home. The drug lords (read Putin!) win again.

Bernie Sanders still has staunch followers and Hillary loses some..it's getting scary! Trump might triumph after all, awrrrgh!

A friendly dog joins our merry band....

Aussie series worth seeing on TV OnDemand. I must remember to have a look. It is an Indigenous led production which looks very, very interesting.

Post Cards from the Edge....

Kapa Haka  group, the champions from Queenstown.

I find these four Maori postcards on my walk to the Paramount to buy yet another pair of unmissable cinema seats. And on the way I drop in for a second cofffee, risky, at MoJo's, but it is nice so I have some toasted gingerbread to accompany it.

Another excellent coffee from St James' MoJos.

Down to the NZFF and I luckily beat the queue to acquire two premier movies, one French and one American, but more later about them. 

Well as is always the case here, I got the two tickets, one to see Isabelle Huppert in her acclaimed  'Elle', and the other is Jim Jarmusch's movie called 'Paterson', about a simple bus driver. But of course with Jarmusch nothing is that simple. They will be a fitting farewell to the festival for me, being on the last two days.

So home in time to catch my all-favourite radio program by Eva Radic, 'upbeat' always interesting and she has fhe best guests ever on her show. So today she has an American director on who is black and gay, who has directed a movie about an autistic boy. It sounds just too good to miss so I jump ontothe website and get a ticket for tomorrow's showing. After all, I don't have a movie for tomorrow anyway, but that makes fifteen films in total and I refuse to succumb to any more temptations although each time I read the fabulous program I see another unmissable film. Really, it is a superb festival and it is obvious that all the cinephiles in Wellington go crazy at this time of the year

One of my favourite Hispanic actors Gael Garcia Bernal has obviously not taken the eponymous role in this important movie about the eventual Nobel Peace laureate, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda who was probably murdered by General Pinochet in the 1973 for having been such an outspoken communist and beloved by so many Chilenos. Bernal, still a young man, took the secondary but fascinating role of the detective appointed to cover Neruda's movements when he was exiled and escaped to Argentina. It should be a great movie and worth the drive out to the Brooklyn Penthouse at 8.30 pm for a late night home. 

It was absolutely fantastic, evoking the times and the craziness of this incredible artist and his rather full  

sexual and political life. A great document recording a great man in Chile's history whom both France and Picasso enormously admired.

Coffee at Café Home

Well yesterday's Aussie documentary called 'Another Country' was well worth attending the Film Festival for, and I met the director who also wrote it after the show, Molly Reynolds, who now lives south of Hobart near Cygnet in Tasmania with her husband, excellent writer/ filmmaker Rolf De Heer. They are a powerful artistic couple and there is no doubt this marvellous documentary about the sad state of Indigenous polices in Australia will make its important mark. 

It was told by Aboriginal Icon David Gulpilil and he was the perfect conduit to show just how the Australian government has been wrong for two hundred years on Indigenous issues. In the documentary David and Rolf had collaborated on the script to make it as authentic as possible. And it was just that, and the footage was shot so beautifully and poignantly it made you feel as though you were there. And as well I had actually been there as it was very close to the Tiwi Islands where I had recently visited my nephew who was teaching there for two years. A very important movie for sure.

At Home cafe at the National Library..Memphis is closed for renovations.

The sport which is their Kiwi religion, and in the mud!

On the trail to the White House....

Local magazine examining diets...paleo etc, I wonder how I eat so well with no diet to speak of. I think it is just something I have learned with years of experience, also it is a matter of listening to how the body responds to food and it is is a long time since I have eaten red meat at all. I think I am a natural piscatarian.

Below, The Homeboy collecting the cups....

Later today I am seeing an interesting looking movie from Tunisia at the film festival. A love story set in the awakening of the Arab Spring which began the social unrest of North Africa. I do have a soft spot for Tunisians as my very first lover was a Tunisian in Sydney in 1967.

Browsing through this NZ Fashion Quarterly and I discover how the luxury peole live in these beautiful islands.

This is one way of living at Havelock North

Everything is of the highest quality here....

..even the models are good!