Readers tell it how it is
Tales of the
paranor
it’s fateit’s fate
do’ feeling!
a ‘can-
There was
Safe
event:
Kidding
around
the Haka
loved
My boys
w
34 Chat it’s fate
I
scrunched up my nose,
wiggled, then rubbed it,
but still the smell lingered.
WhatÕs that stench?
It was summer 2015, and
I was walking my dog around
Market Rasen, Lincolnshire,
where I lived.
We walked the same stretch
most days. But, enjoying the
weather, I’d taken a longer
route home. Ended up at
a manor house.
That’s when the strong
scent wafted into my face.
Cigar smoke, I realised!
‘Pooh!’ I said, flapping my
hand in the air to shift the
unpleasant aroma.
As I did, I turned full circle,
but no one was there.
Where had the smoke
come from?
Without a clear explanation,
and thinking nothing more of
it, I forgot about it.
Until a few weeks
later,
my nose
twitched
as I could
smell
cigarette
smoke
while I was
stood in the
middle of
a deserted
road.
Spooky!
Then, later
that month,
H
ey look, Mummy,’
my 7-year old
son Isaac said.
‘There’s someone
swimming in the lake!’
Hip-hop act De La Soul
were on the main stage,
which was separated from the
audience by a natural lake
- and there was
indeed someone
swimming
doggedly
towards them!
It summed
up the
spontaneous,
can-do
feeling of
the whole
festival.
It was March
2016 and I was
at Womad,
in New
Plymouth.
Known as
‘the world’s
festival,’
there’s a
Womad in
30 countries
around
the world,
including
the UK,
Chile, Spain – and New
Zealand, where
I now live, having
married a Kiwi!
Held in the stunning
Brooklands Park, there was
a focus on world music – we
saw the amazing
Ladysmith Black
Mambazo perform, as
well as British folk band
Spiro and local acts Bic
Runga and Katchafire.
Te Kapa Haka o Te
Whanau a Apanui opened the
weekend. Kapa Haka is Maori
performance arts – essentially,
‘the Haka’ is part of Kapa Haka.
There was lots of music and
stories, and it was culturally
very relevant. The kids loved
the living library – where you
could loan ‘human books’ for
30 to 60 minutes to
tell you a story.
I enjoyed
several visits
to the Asia-
inspired
Kunming
Garden
retreat, with
healers,
naturopaths
and tarot
readers.
What I
liked best
was how
local it
all was
- half of
Auckland
turned out!
It was
so safe
that the
kids could
go off by
themselves, with a
pre-arranged meeting
time and place.
For a world
festival, it really
made me appreciate the
unique culture and spirituality
of the country I live in.
Mary
Cook, 74,
from
Lincs
Ô
Whiffy warning
Jai
Breitnauer,
37, A u c k l a n d,
New Zealand
World class!