Signposts – a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

During the REAL New Zealand Festival, which runs alongside Rugby World Cup 2011, our Jock is roaming the country and blogging about it for the REAL New Zealand Festival Insider blog.

Te Radar with dog

With the notable exception of the punning James Belich, us historians are serious types. We sit back, fold our hands and take time to pronounce laconically on the great sweeps of history, or search with furrowed brows in archives and libraries to nail an elusive fact. So, to spend an evening laughing with Te Radar at his most enjoyable history show, Eating the Dog, represents a breakthrough and a significant reflection on where New Zealand culture has got to.

In a laugh-a-minute solo show, which is playing at Downstage in Wellington until Saturday, Te Radar (aka Andrew Lumsden) tells some weird and wonderful stories from New Zealand’s past. He does not need to embroider the facts, for the subjects’ eccentricities speak for themselves. Te Radar has combed the evidence to uncover the strange and bizarre; and what he has found is a tribute both to his dedication and to what can be found on the web. Taking many of his leads from Te Ara, he has then drawn on Papers Past to uncover the telling details. It is all presented with the help of a clever PowerPoint display, some deft ad-libbing, and a bottle of Emerson’s beer and giant snifter of red wine.

There are some great stories:

• The title of the show refers to Thomas Brunner‘s mammoth 550-day journey in 1846–8 along with two Māori guides and their wives through the Buller Gorge down the West Coast and back again. At one point they were so famished that Brunner killed his dog Rover and ate it.
• here is the wonderful tale of the two septuagenarian prospectors who were combing the West Coast for uranium in 1955. They stopped at Hawk’s Crag in the Buller Gorge to relieve the call of nature, and suddenly their Geiger counter went beserk. For a time they were the stars of the coast, which proceeded to issue uranium ice cream…

Read more on the Real NZ Festival blog…

During the REAL New Zealand Festival, which runs alongside Rugby World Cup 2011, our Jock is roaming the country and blogging about it for the REAL New Zealand Festival Insider blog.

Yesterday was Palmerston North‘s first Rugby World Cup 2011 day, and the city had a challenge. How do you make a game between Romania and Georgia a really exciting affair? There are about 2,000 people born in Romania in New Zealand; far fewer than that born in Georgia. There were not a lot of Romanians and Georgians following the team around; and neither team had won a game at the world cup so far. There were no passionate compatriots that I could find to add spice to the proceedings. No singing Irish here. So what did Palmerston do? They encouraged everyone to adopt one of the teams, and they had a great big party in The Square.

Romanian and Georgian flags

In encouraging the locals to become Romanians or Georgians for the day, Palmerston North was doing what other communities have done; but they did it more extravagantly. I have already noted that Main Street became Romainia Street and George Street, Georgia Street. They offered red Georgia T-shirts and yellow Romanian ones at ridiculously cheap prices, or gave them away as prizes. Most inventively they encouraged people to wear red or yellow buckets on their heads. The buckets looked totally ridiculous but people did actually wear them. And there were flags of the two countries in almost every shop window in town. One place had done a chalk drawing of the flags with a quiz question about each country underneath. Palmerstonians will know rather more about the two countries than they did before – they will probably know that hello is ‘salut’ in Romanian, and ‘gamarjoba’ in Georgian. It really is impressive and cheering the way Kiwis have been ready to learn about their visitors and put a second flag on their cars.

Palmerston North’s second strategy was to use the best thing about the city – the huge square in its centre. Here is seven hectares of grass and gardens and memorials. I first saw the square from the train, for the railway line used to go straight through the middle…

Read more on the Real NZ Festival blog…

During the REAL New Zealand Festival, which runs alongside Rugby World Cup 2011, our Jock is roaming the country and blogging about it for the REAL New Zealand Festival Insider blog.

Museum ticket front

‘Brilliant’, ‘magic’, ‘a very interesting history’, ‘wonderful experience’, ‘fantastic artefacts’, ‘amazing history and terrific displays’, ‘fabulous exhibition’, ‘Merci for le bel hommage au rugby. Vive le beau jeu!’

Museum ticket back

These were yesterday’s comments in the visitors’ book at the New Zealand Rugby Museum in Palmerston North. The museum is officially opened by the prime minister, John Key, today. According to the woman at the entrance (who handed me a ticket with a replica ticket from the first international played in New Zealand on the back, a nice touch), all but 10% of the visitors were from overseas. They were World Cup fans; and the Romanian team was present signing autographs while I was there. All the visitors were male, except for my 95-year-old mother who reluctantly accompanied me.

Why did the fans enjoy the exhibition so much? There are certainly some interesting objects. In a case entitled ‘Rare XV’, you will find:

• a Great Britain jersey of blue, red and white stripes from that first 1904 international;
• a beautifully illustrated early edition of the famous song ‘On the ball,’ which was written by a Manawatu man Ted Secker in 1887 to improve team morale and was always played at provincial games at half-time when I was a kid;
• a collection of dangerous objects (glass, pins, tacks and fish hooks) thrown onto Lancaster Park during the controversial 1981 Springbok tour.

The organisation is clear and logical, with each decade given a glass cabinet. The period is introduced with a good summary of developments in the wider society. There can be no complaints from a political perspective – excellent coverage of Maori rugby, quite a lot on women’s rugby, no attempt to hide the Springbok tour conflicts…

Read more on the Real NZ Festival blog…

During the REAL New Zealand Festival, which runs alongside Rugby World Cup 2011, our Jock is roaming the country and blogging about it for the REAL New Zealand Festival Insider blog.

Rotorua local with Irish fan

‘Isn’t this wonderful?’ said the volunteer. ‘Ever since the first game this town has been pumping. I have never felt it like this before’. ‘What are you, some kind of perv?’ said her Irish mate, and then grinned broadly.

Ever since I had been to New Plymouth and heard about the legendary Irish fans, I had been looking forward to seeing them in action. I was not disappointed. It was match day in Rotorua. Ireland was playing Russia, so I cruised the streets with my camera.

The centre of the action was Hennessy’s Irish bar, where the Guinness flowed freely and the songs were loud. The dress-ups were spectacular. There were huge hats.

There were people with bright green hair and green wigs; and there were others with orange wigs…

Read more on the Real NZ Festival blog…