All posts tagged: New Zealand

How do you like your Hobbitses?

Living in New Zealand, and especially Wellington, it’s impossible for me not to be aware of and interested in Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth films. I first came to New Zealand as a student the year that The Return of the King came out, and Wellington had its first international film premier. I really didn’t come for that – I was probably the only American student to come to NZ on foreign exchange that year who wasn’t madly interested in either LotR, extreme sports, or rugby. In face, I barely knew that any of those things were happening until I got on the airplane (the rugby and extreme sports were a bit of a nasty shock actually). But in New Zealand I was constantly thrown in the company of students who had specifically come so they could visit all the LotR filming sites and attend the premier, so I travelled with them, and did all these things. And took lots of pictures, which I’ve illustrated this post with, because I’ve been really lazy and haven’t …

White Camellia day

Published by The Dreamstress

Today New Zealand celebrates White Camellia Day, also known as Kate Sheppard Day, or Suffrage Day. New Zealand was the 1st country in the world to give women the right to vote. Universal suffrage was achieved on 19 September 1893: 9 years before Australia (1902), 27 years before women in the US were given the right to vote (1920), and 35 years before women in Britain could elect their own representatives (1927). The campaign for universal suffrage was led by a few notable women, including Kate Sheppard, who is commemorated on the NZ $10 note. For two decades leading up to 1893 these women wrote, campaigned, and petitioned, finally in 1893 assembling a petition with 31,872 verified signatures: the largest petition ever assembled in Australasia up until that point. Pretty impressive considering that New Zealand’s population in 1893 was just over 700,000! Those who signed the petition and supported women’s suffrage were given a white camellia as thanks and to wear to signal their support, and the white camellia is still linked with women’s rights …

Island maid, or what I learned this week

Published by The Dreamstress

I guess this is the week for quirky confessions. Yesterday I told you about my ignorance regarding the Prisoner of Zenda, today I’m going to tell you about my geographical ignorance. You see, I have never in my life been more than two hours drive from the ocean. Really. Never, ever. I am an island girl. I was born and grew up on Moloka’i, Hawaii, an island so small that you could drive from end to end in less than an hour. And then, all you could do was turn around and drive back. Then I went to school in the SF Bay Area, where I was never more than a few minutes from the ocean. Once we drove inland towards Sacramento as part of a birdwatching excursion for an Ornithology class, and that was as far as I ever got from the sea. After university, I briefly worked in New York City, and that’s just another island. And, of course, now I live in New Zealand, which is also an island, albeit a much …