Built in 1929 this gracious home, owned and operated by Rural Women New Zealand, provides excellent low cost accommodation in central Wellington. 

Honda House, 32 Hawkstone Street, Thorndon

 My upstairs room, with one double and two single beds, looked out on Tinakori Hill.

View from Konini Room, Honda House

Bed and breakfast is $65 for a single room with shared bathroom and $75 for an ensuite.  There was a well-equipped kitchen, with a small stove and microwave ‘available for cooking of light meals’.  On my first night, having snacked at a Mayoral Reception, I was content to buy a frozen fish pie at the nearby supermarket and eat it in the kitchen.

For my fourth night (which was a later booking) I was moved downstairs to a room with an ensuite.  Ironically Saturday morning’s breakfast was served earlier than that of weekdays – not the House’s intention, simply a different staff member being more diligent.  I liked the way places in the dining room were set so everyone sat together and chatted.  Two women told me they were from ‘Wanganui without the H’, and I didn’t feel it was the place to pursue a political argument.

Unfortunately Honda House is up for sale and accommodation may not be available there for much longer.  With the Country Women’s Institute and the Mercy Centre no longer available it seems that good cheap accommodation in central Wellington may soon be a thing of the past.

“Where will the rural women stay 
when Honda House has gone away?”

Seeking dinner on Tinakori Road I found this hotel which was built in 1870 and well maintained.  All the tables had Reserved signs on them.  On closer inspection the signs showed ‘Reserved for the Southern Man’ which  I gather is a ploy to stop drinkers from monopolising tables intended for diners.  At 6.30pm few tables were occupied, but they soon filled up with mainly mixed generation groups.  The music was louder than I prefer but the tunes were pleasantly familiar, and I was easily able to ignore the TV sports screening in the corner.

My ‘Pacifically speaking’ terakihi with gourmet potatoes, salsa, and salad was most acceptable and reasonably priced at $21.  It was good to have table service and I would happily return to this Ale House.

“I liked this House of Ale of Speight
where fish and chips were what I ate.”

Wellington’s City Gallery has gone dotty.

Dots for Love and Peace 2009

The outside is covered with brightly coloured vinyl ‘Dots for Love and Peace’ and the inside holds an exhibition of further work by Yayoi Kusama.

There are large dots, small dots, close together and far apart dots.  Dots mirrored to infinity, along with their viewers. There are multi-coloured dots and monochromatic dots.  Dots that have the appearance of pulsation and dots that adorn attractive shapes.

There are drawings of faces and eyes, creatures and plants, repeated again and again.  The whole effect is joyous.  I would never have imagined that a wall of orange-dotted shapes could be so attractive.  This is an optimistice exhibition that cannot fail to lift the spirits.

“I must have seen one million spots
and loved them all, the darling dots.”

Last night there was a lot of noise from groups of people on the footpath outside the Cottage.  As it was 31 October I suspect these were revellers celebrating the northern hemisphere Halloween in the wrong season.  When I got up this morning I discovered that someone had deposited a traffic cone on top of our Shuttle.

Traffic Cone on Shuttle

Perhaps they thought it looked like a witch’s hat?     They’d also managed to remove the grille from the gutter on the corner:

Displaced gutter grille

Luckily the corner’s well lit and no-one had fallen in during the night.  Those grilles are VERY heavy and I bruised my thumb turning it over to replace it.  Did any readers experience other Halloween Hijinks?

“Autumn’s true time for Halloween
when ghostly spectres may be seen.”

After her success with the Tudors, Philippa Gregory has moved on to the Plantagenets.  This is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, mother of the Princes in the Tower.  The first half of the story held my interest, but it ebbed away after the death of Elizabeth’s husband Edward IV.  Is it just that the earlier period is less well-known, or has this author run out of steam?

“Plantaganets have lesser fame
with less-known history to claim.”

I recently read that old people choose “cheap haircuts, comfortable clothes, and sensible shoes.”  Well, excuse me!  I’ve been choosing these things since I was in my twenties.  I think that makes me sensible and Green rather than Old!

“Consumer goods are not my style
advertisements do not beguile.”

A PhD student at University of Canterbury is doing a project on the effects on happiness of practising various activities over time.  She wants volunteers to take part and you can find out more here.   Completing the questionnaire made me think about what makes me happy.  Some of the contributing factors are:

• Having a loving and supportive partner
• Having work that is satisfying and worthwhile
• Being healthy
• Spending regular time with friends
• Enjoying my garden
• Having things to look forward to.

If something depresses me I use the mantra “Whatever happens is perfect” and I sometimes stop and think of five things I have to be grateful for, a technique I learned from Sarah Ban Breathnach.  She wrote that a French proverb reminds us “Gratitude is the heart’s memory”.

What makes you happy?

“I hope that you are happy too
with lots of fun-filled things to do.”

This is an amazing book about an amazing woman.  Elsie was a woman of total integrity, ‘walking the walk’ of socialism and feminism throughout her 88 years.  Maureen’s book gives a detailed account of  her life, starting with her pioneering grandparents, through her work for the Communist Party, for Family Planning, for Peace, for the Environment, and for the Avon Loop.  She was an acclaimed author,  yet remained a humble ordinary woman.  One of my neighbours told me that she first met Elsie when she appeared on her doorstep bearing gifts from her garden, and never giving a hint that she was  famous.  When I first moved into the Loop and met Elsie, I told her I’d been attracted by a chapter about the area in a book about communal living in New Zealand.  She told me it was a relief that all those alternative people had moved out.  Yet she was herself most definitely not of the mainstream.  She was a fierce non-consumer, and an inspiration to us all.

Canterbury University Press have done Elsie proud with this handsome volume.  With glossy pages, many photographs, and a ribbon marker, it’s much too large to be comfortably read in bed.  I found its 500 pages impossible to put down, and am sure others will find it equally fascinating.

“This tome provides a great tribute
to one whose life deserves salute.”

We found these toadstools growing along the path at Waimairi Beach. 

Unidentified toadstools

I haven’t been able to identify them but think they may be some kind of puffball.  Does anyone know?

“They simply spring up overnight
providing an unusual sight.”

This book is beautifully written with wonderful language and detail.  It realistically conveys the emotions of four Jewish women who, having each survived unspeakable horrors during the Holocaust, meet in Palestine in a British internment camp.  Having lost everything and everyone they hardly dare to hope that they may have a future in the promised land.  The story of how that future begins is based on a true incident and the author gives authentic insights into the determination of those who settled modern Israel. 

“Each woman has a tragic past
which led her to become outcast.”