Whanau Day

Whanau is family in Maori.

My school, Point Chevalier School held her Whanau day and invited parents, grand parents, uncles, aunties, children and babies to our school.

It was great to see about two hundred visitors to join us today to share in some of our activities. Our students are always very enthusiastic about having their families come into school and see what fantastic learning is taking place here.

Visitors were welcomed with a powhiri in Te Whare Pupuritanga led by Emerson Nikora and our kapahaka group. This solemn event is an eye opener to me as I had not been closed up to a Karanga or a call to welcome the visitors. As a respect, during the Karanga, there were no further entries into the Te Whare Pupuritanga or Auditorium. We remembered our students who died in the WW1 and WW2. The formal ession ended with a Hongi, which is a Maori greeting by rubbing noses.

Throughout the day, our mini showcase gave visitors the opportunity to view some of our bands, our Jump Jam aerobic teams, both of our choirs and to hear about some of this year’s projects from the Envirogroup. Visitors were welcomed to attend class time with their children. I had a mum come to my ESOL room to see what her son was doing with me.

In the evening, we had a Rock concert in our auditorium.Featuring School Rock Bands from neigbourhood schools featuring :Pasadena Intermediate (The Wild Cage Creatures), Ponsonby Primary (Workbench), Point Chevalier School (The Dynamites, The Chevrolites, and The Pt Chev R&B singers) and LE Rock Tutors. I took Sam and his two friends to the concert. We raised food for the City Mission. The music was loud, I wished I was young again.

http://www.ptchev.school.nz/

Mussels in New Zealand.

This delicious green shell mussels of New Zealand grow in the pristine unpolluted cool ocean waters of idyllic fiords and coastlines.

You can eat them raw, or "cooked" in lemon juice, the way my Tongan friends serve their mussels or a quick saute, boil, fried in a batter or steamed or in New Zealand, made into fritters. I like mine sauteed in oil fried fragrant with shallots, ginger, garlic, spring onion, chilli flakes, and lemon grass if I were in Singapore. Once in the heavy pot, I cover it for a few minutes. Mussels are best eaten as soon as they are cooked.


Mussels are vibrant green and gold shell in colour. Some time you get tiny barnacles growing on them. You can easily scrap them off. Before cooking, a good clean and remove the beard.

Once the lips comer ajar, you know it is ready. If you cook them too long, the meat will toughen. The plump tender meat is creamy white when the mussel is male and apricot to orange when the mussel is female.

Mussels are relatively cheap compared to oysters and scallops. In our local supermarket Foodtown, you can sometimes get them at $1.99 per kilogram.

There is another type of mussels, the big horse lip mussels. Harvesting them in Whakatane in 1980 near my cousin Henry's place was an experience that I will never forget. This is will leave for another post.

*** These photographs were taken in 2007. During the Chinese New Year, there was this food festival where Princess Street turned Mardi gras, all sorts of ethnic food were sold. Here Maori mussel vender demonstrate their culinary skills. You can see Sam and I salivating at the yummy food.***