Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

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Best of New Zealand

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Kia Ora, Hello again, unfortunately now back home in what is a sunny Stafford, the final few days of the New Zealand trip were spent in the beautiful Bay of Islands,from the 19th - 22nd,  although the weather was not the best, torrential rain and gale force winds .... we did manage to enjoy it. After leaving Auckland we crossed the harbour bridge, and made our way to the Kauri Museum, at Matakohe. Here we had time to experience this fantastic museum, and learn all about the Kauri tree and its uses. The afternoon drive was through a native forest, where we stopped to view the oldest largest of the Kauri trees, Tane Mahuta (the big tree), it is said to be over 2,500 years old, and stands tall in the forest (see pics below). Later we travelled through to our destination of Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, when we arrived we met with Lena, our guide from Culture North, she took us on a short orientation tour ending at the Waitangi Treaty Ground, where we had a vi...
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Finland - Nurmes - Bomba House - Wednesday 26th

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Hello, nice to be back to live internet again !! yesterday journey from Kuusamo to Nurmes, on the way we made a stop at an outside art gallery of sorts .. to view the "Silent People" -    The Silent People moved to their present home in the autumn of 1994. The peat-heads are kept in good shape and have their clothing attended to twice a year; their heads come straight from the field, their clothes from organised collections. The Silent People are made and clothed by the Suomussalmi Youth Workshop, which also takes care of their maintenance.   People often ask what precisely is the idea behind the Silent People. A state of psycho-logical withdrawal? The mute Kainuu soul? A forgotten people? Reijo Kela refuses to provide any answer. Each viewer is free to come to his own conclusions. It may, however, be of interest to learn that if the Silent People were to be completely undressed there would remain some one thousand wooden crosses standing in the field. The Silent P...
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