Telling Taihape

At the end of staff meeting on Monday morning:
Leif: "Just want to share the fantastic news that Rach and I decided to get married..."
Staff: "ouh, ahhh, congratulations! etc etc"
Leif: "... so we got married on Friday"
Staff: "!!!!"

A great way to start the term! Wonderful having all the congratulations from all the kids too. Although three of the more notorious Year 10s had recently decided that they were going to be my bridesmaids so I copped a bit of flak from them.

Kids are pretty flexible: immediately they adjusted to "Miss Hansen" - whilst I am having a bit of an identity crisis! ; ) Each time I hear "Miss Hansen" I want to say to them: "AHHHHH, that is me!!! that is my name now!! - how can you possibly utter it so nonchalantly?!". (I have explained to them I am Miss Hansen - 'Mrs' sounds way too grown-up). I am sure by next week I will be much cooler about it. Although I am enjoying saying "my husband" as many times as possible each day.

Taihape is the new Vegas!

It's official: we're married!

Once we had decided to get married (Monday evening), we wanted to do it as soon as possible. July school holidays? - too long to wait. Leif suggests - "how about this Friday, it's supposed to be perfect weather"... So Friday 20th April, 2007 it was.

Marriage is a very important step in our lives and we decided it was something very personal that we wanted to do just for ourselves. We wanted the day to be simply a celebration of our love for each other - a time to celebrate with our friends and family would come later. It was hard not to tell people but luckily I just had three days to make it through. We are exceptionally happy and in love and got married in the way that was perfect for us.

Friday dawned a perfect blue sky with a heavy frost. Not a breath of wind and unlimited visibility. We got a helicopter to the top of Mt Ruapehu, an incredible view across the countryside - perfect views all the way to Mt Taranaki. Following pagan traditions we created a wedding circle in the snow with marigolds and herbs from our own garden. We read letters we had written to each other and exchanged vows. It was absolutely beautiful and couldn't have been more perfect. I thoroughly recommend eloping! ; )

We headed off to Whangamomona for the night (http://www.whangamomonahotel.co.nz/) - no luxury lodge, but classic New Zealand!

After a night in the Whangamomona Hotel and navigating 'The Forgotten World Highway' we headed to Palmerston North on Saturday afternoon to tell our families. To say they were surprised is a bit of an understatement! We celebrated with pizza and bubbly at my parents house.

It's Sunday night here and after a big weekend I am pretty tired. I have promised a few people the photos will be up tonight so will post this now - will put on a few more and edit this in the next couple of days. So check back again soon! From a very happy Mrs Hansen (!)

Taihape Times

Every Tuesday every household in Taihape has the 'Taihape Times' delivered and this is crucial reading if you want to keep up-to-date with what's going on. (Actually, it is called the 'Central Districts Times' but I have never heard it referred to as that...) It is a wholesome read - births, deaths, marriages, playcentre news, golfing results... The monthly court news is a good round-up with what's been going on in a number of our students' families! Last week I was intrigued to see this advertisement in the classifieds. So much so that it's now on our noticeboard. 5 hours all at once? She only services farmers? She offers her services as the farmers work? (multi-tasking practice??)

Me, the 'defendant'

In December, for the first time in my life I was issued a 'traffic infringement notice'. In an instance this brush with the law had tarnished my blemish-free (?!? well, officially) record. My sub-conscious mind was in denial as I ignored repeated official warnings to pay up. Now I have a court hearing scheduled and I am being referred to as 'the defendant'. ! . I felt quite indignant at this so once again delayed fronting up. Realising the fine was quickly escalating, I fronted up this morning with my sob-story. The Registrar wasn't that interested in all my excuses, but I finally won him over (amazing what a smile and simpering words can achieve). But such was the impact of being referred to as a 'defendant' I took a photo of this traumatic occasion. So here, in all it's glory, is the Taihape District Court.

A few overseas friends have asked me what Taihape looks like - I took a photo of the main street this afternoon.

nb: In case you are wondering, I got the fine for having an unwarranted trailer. Borrowed Dad's trailer to move house without checking the WOF. The story constructed to get off the fine is far more elaborate and flowery of course.

Getting started in the blogging world...

I had better start as I mean to continue - semi-regular postings... This afternoon produced some amusing specimens from our first carrot harvest. Good thing I am confident of our organic methods - otherwise I would be worried about Monsanto's influence in Taihape. Happy to hear any carrot-rearing advice for next season.

I spent the afternoon in 1980s style backyard bliss chatting to the neighbours on both sides over the fences as we pottered in our gardens. I gave lettuce to one neighbour and received many cuttings from another neighbour for our new garden. This neighbour is classic - heart of gold - and well worthy of a few stories. They'll come later.

I had bought a packet of leeks which said it contained 30 seedlings... there were 71. And I forgot I had planted 40 seeds. So in a few months we'll have well in excess of 100 leeks.

This evening we dined on freshly collected wild mushrooms, garlic from the neighbour and our own zucchini. Plus a salad of neighbour's radishes and our own carrots and lettuce. A good life.

Hello world!

(I have been told by a multi-blogger fanatic that 'hello world' is the greeting with which to enter the blogosphere. She would consider me truly 'birthed' as a blogger now)

But why a blog?

(it feels a little arrogant that I post one - let me help me justify it to myself...)

Curiosity - everybody else is getting one, maybe I should...
Empirical research - so what is it REALLY like to give up the fast-paced London life and years of world travel to set up home in...Taihape? Here I am - finding out!
'Professional development' - I have decided to teach a class this term that involves the students creating their own blog to detail their learning. I thought I had better learn how to do it myself first...
Bulk emails are SOOOOO 2005 (or so I have been told)
Humour - life in Taihape is quite amusing. Share the joy.

People ask me all the time - but what do you DO in Taihape?! Read on...

nb: If somehow you have ended up at this page and don't know what 'Taihape' is: A small town (popn 1800) in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. Famous for gumboots. Not a tourist destination. Not enjoying the property boom. But very friendly. And soon-to-be-opened brand new public toilets made out of the iconic kiwi corrugated iron. Well worth the stop-off en-route to elsewhere. And fantastic dusk skies. Some lovely historic buildings. And the home of 'New Zealand's Finest Country Cinema' - more on this later.