D-DAY, THE WINSORS & A2 CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH EXAM

Today, The Winsors & The Grandma are in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. After some days enjoying New Zealand, the D-Day has arrived and The Winsors have an interesting adventure to live: an A2 Cambridge English Exam.

 

Good luck family!

You are the best!

 

Thanks Mima for coming!

 

Winsors forever!

 

Cambridge Assessment English or Cambridge English develops and produces Cambridge English Qualifications and the International English Language Testing System (IELTS).

The organisation contributed to the development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), the standard used around the world to benchmark language skills, and its qualifications and tests are aligned with CEFR levels.

Cambridge Assessment English is part of Cambridge Assessment, a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge which merged with Cambridge University Press to form Cambridge University Press & Assessment in August 2021.

Each Cambridge English Qualifications focuses on a level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

English qualifications designed for adult learners. A2 Key, B1 Preliminary and B2 First have the same exam format as the schools versions of these qualifications, but use different topics and content suited to adult learners.

In the 1980s Cambridge Assessment English, the British Council and IDP Education formed the international IELTS partnership which delivers the IELTS tests.

More information: Cambridge English

In 2010 Cambridge Assessment English and the English Language Institute Testing and Certificate Division of the University of Michigan agreed to form a not-for-profit collaboration known as CaMLA (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments). Cambridge Assessment English owns 65% of the venture.

Since 2011 Cambridge Exams Publishing, a partnership between Cambridge Assessment English and the English Language Teaching (ELT) business of Cambridge University Press, develops official Cambridge preparation materials for Cambridge English and IELTS exams.

In 2013 Cambridge Assessment English formed a joint venture with the Box Hill Institute to deliver the Occupational English Test, known as OET.

In 2019 Cambridge Assessment English acquired English Language iTutoring (ELiT), an artificial intelligence developed off technology from the University of Cambridge, to support new English language assessment products.

Cambridge Assessment English was involved in the early development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and all Cambridge English qualifications and tests are aligned with the levels described by the CEFR.

Each Cambridge English Qualification targets specific CEFR levels but the exam also contains test material at the adjacent levels. For example B2 First is aimed at B2, but there are also test items that cover B1 and C1. This allows for inferences to be drawn about candidates’ abilities if they are a level below or above the one targeted. Candidates are encouraged to take the exam most suitable to their needs and level of ability.

More information: Cambridge English

In 1913 the exam could be taken in Cambridge or London, for a fee of £3 (approximately £293 in 2012 prices). The exam lasted 12 hours and included:

-Translation from English into French or German: 2 hours.

-Translation from French or German into English, and English Grammar: 2.5 hours.

-English Essay: 2 hours.

-English Literature: 3 hours.

-English Phonetics: 1.5 hours.

-Oral test: dictation (30 minutes); reading aloud and conversation (30 minutes).

The main influence behind the design of the exam was the grammar-translation teaching approach, which aims to establish reading knowledge, rather than ability to communicate in the language.

In 1913, the first requirement for CPE candidates was to translate texts. Translation remained prominent in foreign language teaching up until the 1960s. It was a core part of CPE until 1975 and an optional part until 1989.

However, CPE was also influenced by Henry Sweet and his book published in 1900: A Practical Study of Languages: A Guide for Teachers and Learners, which argued that the most natural method of teaching languages was through conversation. Due to this influence, speaking was part of Cambridge English exams from the very beginning.

-1209. University of Cambridge founded.

-1534. Cambridge University Press founded.

-1858. University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) founded.

-1913. Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE) introduced. Now known as C2 Proficiency.

-1939. Lower Certificate in English (LCE) introduced. Renamed First Certificate in English (FCE) in 1975 and now known as B2 First.

-1941. Joint agreement with the British Council-British Council centres established.

-1943-1947. Preliminary English Test (PET) introduced. It was reintroduced in 1980 and is now known as B1 Preliminary.

-1971. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) initiated.

-1988. The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Examination Board becomes part of UCLES.

-1989. Specialist EFL research and evaluation unit established.

-1989. IELTS launched. A simplified and shortened version of ELTS launched in 1980.

-1990. Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) founded.

-1991. Certificate in Advanced English (CAE) introduced. Now known as C1 Advanced.

-1993. Business English Certificates (BEC) launched.

-1994. Key English Test (KET) introduced. Now known as A2 Key.

-1995. University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) becomes part of UCLES

-1997. Young Learner English Tests (YLE) introduced. Now known as Pre-A1 Starter, A1 Movers, and A2 Flyers.

-1997. BULATS launched.

-2001. CEFR published.

-2002. UCLES EFL renamed University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL).

-2002. One million Cambridge ESOL exam candidates.

-2010. CaMLA established (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments).

-2011. Cambridge Exams Publishing joint venture with Cambridge University Press established.

-2013. Cambridge ESOL renamed Cambridge English Language Assessment.

-2015. Cambridge English Scale introduced.

-2016. Linguaskill reading and listening introduced.

-2016. Linguaskill writing introduced.

-2017. Cambridge English Language Assessment renamed Cambridge Assessment English.

-2020. The University of Cambridge announces it plans to merge two of its non-teaching departments, Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press.

-2021. Cambridge Assessment and Cambridge University Press merge to become Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

More information: Cambridge English

Cambridge is heaven, I am convinced
it is the nicest place in the world to live.
As you walk round, most people look incredibly bright,
as if they are probably off to win a Nobel prize.

Sophie Hannah

FOX & FRANZ JOSEF GLACIERS, WESTLAND TAI POUTINI

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma are flying to Barcelona where they are going to do an A2 Cambridge exam tomorrow morning. It is long flight and they are seeing some photos sent by Tonyi Tamaki, who is spending her day visiting Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe.

The family has thanked Tonyi for her company during this amazing travel to New Zealand that has been an unforgettable experience.

After this, they are going to sleep a little and later they are going to practise their last A2 Cambridge test on line.

More information: Cambridge Assessment

 

Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe is a 13-kilometre-long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.

It was named in 1872 after a visit by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir William Fox. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Fox Glacier/Te Moeka o Tuawe.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

Fed by four alpine glaciers, Fox Glacier falls 2,600 m on its 13 km journey from the Southern Alps down to the coast, with it having the distinction of being one of the few glaciers to end among lush rainforest only 300 metres above sea level. 

The glacier was advancing between 1985 and 2009, although retreating throughout most of the last 100 years. In 2006 the average rate of advance was about a metre a week.

In January 2009, the terminal face of the glacier was still advancing and had vertical or overhanging faces which were continually collapsing. Since then there has been a significant retreat, with the 2009 high level clearly visible as vegetation line on the southern slope above what is left of the lower glacier today.

The outflow of the glacier forms the Fox River. During the last ice age, its ice reached beyond the present coastline, and the glacier left behind many moraines during its retreat. Lake Matheson formed as a kettle lake within one of these.

More information: New Zealand

Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere is a 12 km long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Together with the Fox Glacier 20 km to the south, and a third glacier, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300 metres above sea level.

The area surrounding the two glaciers is part of Te Wahipounamu, a World Heritage Site park. The river emerging from the glacier terminal of Franz Josef is known as the Waiho River.

The first European description of one of the west coast glaciers, believed to be Franz Josef, was made in the log of the ship Mary Louisa in 1859. The glacier was later named after Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria by the German explorer, Julius von Haast in 1865.

The Māori name for the glacier is Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere, The tears of Hine Hukatere, arising from a local legend: Hine Hukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Wawe, to climb with her. Wawe was a less experienced climber than Hine Hukatere but loved to accompany her until an avalanche swept Wawe from the peaks to his death. Hine Hukatere was broken-hearted and her many, many tears flowed down the mountain and froze to form the glacier. Following the passage of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the glacier was officially altered to Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

Franz Josef Glacier is currently 12 km long and terminates 19 km from the Tasman Sea. Fed by a 20-square-kilometre large snowfield at high altitude, it exhibits a cyclic pattern of advance and retreat, driven by differences between the volume of meltwater at the foot of the glacier and volume of snowfall feeding the névé.

The glacier advanced rapidly during the Little Ice Age, reaching a maximum in the early eighteenth century. Having retreated several kilometres between the 1940s and 1980s, the glacier entered an advancing phase in 1984 and at times has advanced at the phenomenal, by glacial standards, rate of 70 cm a day.

The flow rate is about 10 times that of typical glaciers. Over the longer term, the glacier has retreated since the last ice age, and it is believed that it extended into the sea some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago.

This cyclic behaviour is well illustrated by a postage stamp issued in 1946, depicting the view from St James Anglican Church. The church was built in 1931, with a panoramic altar window to take advantage of its location. By 1954, the glacier had disappeared from view from the church, but it reappeared in 1997. This is due to the highly variable conditions on the snowfield, which take around 5–6 years before they result in changes in the terminus location.

More information: New Zealand

The glacier was still advancing until 2008, but since then it has entered a very rapid phase of retreat. As of 2018 it is again rapidly advancing. As is the case for most other New Zealand glaciers which are mainly found on the eastern side of the southern alps, the shrinking process is attributed to global warming.

There have been some incidents of jökulhlaups, outbreak floods from water-filled ice tunnels, at the glacier, with one destroying a bridge on the access route in 1989. Based on past variations, scientists expect that Franz Josef Glacier will retreat 5 km and lose 38% of its mass by 2100 in a mid-range scenario of warming.

The Waiho Loop is the terminal moraine of the glacier, and indicates the extent of the Franz Josef Glacier, about 12,000 years ago. Too rugged to be cleared for farming it remains covered in native forest.

More information: Glacier Country

 

The alpine environment is very delicate. 

I've been able to see change in the mountains 

in the 20 years that I've been climbing full-time. 

Glaciers have receded. The tree-line is changing. 

That's very rapid to see nature 

changing in a 20-year period.

Conrad Anker

VISITING ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK & COAST TRACK

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma want to visit Abel Tasman National Park at the north end of the South Island guided by Tonyi Tamaki.

They want to kayak. They are spending the last days in New Zealand and they want to discover some natural places that they haven't visited yet.

They have got only one day to visit this wonderful site and they have decided to rent a helicopter to fly over the Abel Tasman Coast Track, a 60 kilometres long walking track within the Abel Tasman National Park.

 

During the travel to the National Park, the family has been practising a new A2 Cambridge test on line.

 

More information: Cambridge Assessment

 

Abel Tasman National Park is a New Zealand national park located between Golden Bay and Tasman Bay at the north end of the South Island. It is named after Abel Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European explorer to sight New Zealand and who anchored nearby in Golden Bay.

The park was founded in 1942, largely through the efforts of ornithologist and author Pérrine Moncrieff to have land reserved for the purpose. Moncrieff served on the park board from 1943 to 1974.

The park was opened on the 18 December 1942 to mark the 300th anniversary of Abel Tasman's visit. Those in attendance at the opening ceremony at Tarakohe included Charles van der Plas, as personal representative of the Netherlands' Queen, Wilhelmina. The Queen was made Patron of the park.

The idea for the park had been under consideration since June 1938. The Crown set aside 15,225 hectares, comprising 8,900 hectares of proposed state forest, 5,809 hectares of Crown land and 554 hectares of other reserve land for the national park. The Golden Bay Cement Company donated the land where the memorial plaque was sited. The area's primary historic interest was the visit of Tasman in 1642, D'Urville in 1827, and the New Zealand Company barques Whitby and Will Watch, and brig Arrow in 1841. The site was also of significant botanical interest.

More information: Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

By 1946 the park had reached 15,534 hectares in area with additional land purchases. A further 844 hectares at Totaranui, formerly owned by William Gibbs, was acquired from J S Campbell in 1949 and added to the park. About 6,100 hectares have been added since. In 2008 an extra 7.9 km2, including the formerly private land known as Hadfields Clearing, were added to the park.

Covering an area of 237 km2, the park is the smallest of New Zealand's national parks. It consists of forested, hilly country to the north of the valleys of the Takaka and Riwaka Rivers, and is bounded to the north by the waters of Golden Bay and Tasman Bay. It contains some of the islands off the coast including the Tata Islands in Golden Bay, and Tonga Island, Adele Island, and Fisherman Island in Tasman Bay.

The park does not extend beyond Mean High Water Mark on the adjacent coast. Between Mean High Water and Mean Low Water Springs, the beaches are gazetted as a Scenic Reserve, covering 7.74 km2 in total. The Tonga Island Marine Reserve adjoins part of the park.

Some of the birds that frequent the park are petrels, shags, penguins, gulls, terns, and herons. Possums, wild pigs, deer, and goats also frequent the park.

 

More information  Department of Conservation-Te Papa Atawhai

 

The Abel Tasman Coast Track is a popular tramping track that follows the coastline and is one of the Department of Conservation's Great Walks; the Abel Tasman Inland Track is less frequented. Other walks in the park, such as the Wainui Falls Track are considered short walks.

Access to the park is usually via the small settlement of Marahau. The nearest large town is Motueka, 20 kilometres to the south.

The Abel Tasman Coast Track is a 60 kilometres long walking track within the Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand. It extends from Marahau in the south to Wainui in the north, with many side tracks. It is one of two main tracks through the park, the other being the Abel Tasman Inland Track, which stretches for 38 km between Tinline Bay and Torrent Bay off the main coastal track. The coastal track is well sheltered, and with mild weather in all seasons, it is accessible and open throughout the year.

As one of the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) Great Walks, the coastal track is well formed and easy to follow. It is the most popular tramping track in New Zealand, with most of the approximately 200,000 visitors to Abel Tasman National Park walking at least part of the track.

 

More information: New Zealand

It can be walked independently or with commercial operators with guiding, camping, lodge stay and boat stay options. Following a protected coastline, many people combine walking and sea kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park.

To walk the entire track takes from 3 to 5 days. Single-day walks are popular, as many points are accessible by boat from beaches along the track. The only road access other than the start and end points, is at Totaranui. One of the most popular sections for walkers with limited time is from Bark Bay to Torrent Bay, a distance of 7.8 kilometres, which incorporates some steep paths, beautiful views over the two bays and a crossing of the Falls River by a 47 m swing bridge.

To stay overnight in the National Park, visitors must use officially recognised accommodations. Independent travellers use DOC campsites and huts that must be reserved in advance during the most popular months. A small number of commercial properties occupy parcels of private land within the boundaries of the National Park and provide lodge-style accommodation. Some backpacker accommodation is provided by boats moored off the coast.

With one of the largest tidal ranges in New Zealand, the coastal track includes some tidal crossings that can only be negotiated at low tide. Independent walkers and sea kayakers need to have information on tides in the area to plan their trips.

More information: New Zealand

I always like to look for adventure when I go away. 

I have gone on several horse adventures with my wife. 

We also went along the Hurunui River 

on horseback in the South Island of New Zealand.

Antony Gormley

HOBBITON, ENTERING IN THE WORLD OF J.R.R.TOLKIEN

April 23, is Sant George, so Sant Jordi in Catalonia. It is a Catalan Cultural Festivity. The Grandma, Tonyi Tamaki and The Winsors want to celebrate this important day with the Catalan Community in Auckland. 

In New Zealand, there are four Catalan Communities: Auckland, Christchurch, Tauranga and Wellington. All of them are formed by Catalan expatriats and New Zealanders who are interested in Catalan culture.

 

After meeting with the Catalan community, they have travelled to Hobbiton. The Grandma is a great fan of J.R.R.Tolkien and she's very excited today visiting the world of the Hobbits.

 

More information: April, 23. Saint George, Books & Roses in Catalonia

 

During the travel, the family has practised some writings on line to prepare their new A2 Cambridge Exam test. 

 

More information: Write & Improve with Cambridge

Hobbits are a fictional, diminutive, humanoid race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction. They are also referred to as Halflings.

Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, whose titular hobbit is the protagonist Bilbo Baggins. The novel The Lord of the Rings includes as major characters the hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck, as well as several other minor hobbit characters. Hobbits are also briefly mentioned in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.

According to the author in the prologue to The Lord of the Rings, hobbits are relatives of the race of Men. Elsewhere, Tolkien describes Hobbits as a variety or separate branch of humans. Within the story, hobbits and other races seem aware of the similarities, hence the colloquial terms Big People and Little People used in Bree. Hobbits considered themselves a separate people.

At the time of the events in The Lord of the Rings, hobbits lived in the Shire and in Bree in the north west of Middle-earth, though by the end, some had moved out to the Tower Hills and to Gondor and Rohan.

Tolkien believed he had invented the word hobbit as a speculative derivation from Old English when he began writing The Hobbit, it was revealed years after his death that the word predated Tolkien's usage, though with a different meaning.

Tolkien's concept of hobbits, in turn, seems to have been inspired by Edward Wyke Smith's 1927 children's book The Marvellous Land of Snergs, and by Sinclair Lewis's 1922 novel Babbitt.

The Snergs were, in Tolkien's words, a race of people only slightly taller than the average table but broad in the shoulders and have the strength of ten men. Tolkien wrote to W.H. Auden that The Marvellous Land of Snergs was probably an unconscious source-book for the Hobbits and he told an interviewer that the word hobbit might have been associated with Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, like hobbits, George Babbitt enjoys the comforts of his home.

However, Tolkien claims that he started The Hobbit suddenly, without premeditation, in the midst of grading a set of student essay exams, writing on a blank piece of paper: In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. While The Hobbit introduced this comfortable race to the world, it is only in writing The Lord of the Rings that Tolkien developed details of their history and wider society.

 

He set out a fictional etymology for the name in an appendix to The Lord of the Rings, to the effect that it was ultimately derived from holbytla, plural holbytlan, meaning hole-builder and corresponding to Old English. 

In the language of the Rohirrim the hobbits were called kûd-dûkan, which had rendered the autonym kuduk.

 

More information: Hobbiton Tours

In the prologue to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien writes that hobbits are between two and four feet, 0.61–1.22 m, tall, the average height being three feet six inches, 107 cm. They dress in bright colours, favouring yellow and green. Nowadays, according to Tolkien's fiction, they are usually shy, but are nevertheless capable of great courage and amazing feats under the proper circumstances.

They are adept at throwing stones. For the most part, they cannot grow beards, but a few of the race of Stoor can. Their feet are covered with curly hair, usually brown, as is the hair on their heads, with leathery soles, so hobbits hardly ever wear shoes. The race's average life expectancy is 100 years. Two Hobbits, Bilbo Baggins and the Old Took, are described as living to the age of 130 or beyond, though Bilbo's long lifespan owes much to his possession of the One Ring.

Hobbits are considered to come of age on their 33rd birthday, so a 50-year-old hobbit would be regarded as entering middle-age. Hobbits are not quite as stocky as the similarly-sized dwarves, but still tend to be stout, with slightly pointed ears. Tolkien does not describe hobbits' ears in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, but in a 1938 letter to his American publisher, he described them as having ears only slightly pointed and elvish.

In his writings, Tolkien depicted hobbits as fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life of farming, eating, and socializing, although capable of defending their homes courageously if the need arises. They would enjoy six meals a day, if they could get them. 

They were often described as enjoying simple food, though this seems to be of an Oxfordshire style, such as cake, bread, meat, potatoes, ale and tea. They claim to have invented the art of smoking pipe-weed, and according to The Hobbit and The Return of The King it can be found all over Middle-earth.

In their earliest folk tales Hobbits appear to have inhabited the Valley of Anduin, between Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains. According to The Lord of the Rings, they have lost the genealogical details of how they are related to the Big People. At this time, there were three breeds of hobbits, with different physical characteristics and temperaments: Harfoots, Stoors and Fallohides.

While situated in the valley of the Anduin River, the hobbits lived close by the Éothéod, the ancestors of the Rohirrim, and this led to some contact between the two. As a result, many old words and names in Hobbitish are derivatives of words in Rohirric.

The Harfoots, the most numerous, were almost identical to the Hobbits as they are described in The Hobbit. They lived on the lowest slopes of the Misty Mountains and lived in holes, or Smials, dug into the hillsides.

The Stoors, the second most numerous, were shorter and stockier and had an affinity for water, boats and swimming. They lived on the marshy Gladden Fields where the Gladden River met the Anduin, there is a similarity here to the hobbits of Buckland and the Marish in the Shire. It is possible that those hobbits were the descendants of Stoors. It was from these Hobbits that Déagol and Sméagol/Gollum were descended.

 

More information: Tolkien Gateway

That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me.
It was discovering New Zealand. 
And even more precious were the people,
not at all like the Australians.

Ian Mckellen

WHAKAREWAREWA, MAORI VILLAGE & MOTHER NATURE

Tonyi Tamaki continues guiding The Winsors and The Grandma across New Zealand.

Today, they have visited the thermal lands where they have seen some of the most amazing geysers of the planet and The Living Maori Village where they have enjoyed the Maori culture.

Before arriving to these destinations, the family has practised their last A2 Cambridge Test.

 

 

Download A2 Cambridge Sample Test (Listening)

Whakarewarewa or Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao, means The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao, and it's often abbreviated to Whaka by locals. It is a geothermal area within Rotorua city in the Taupo Volcanic Zone of New Zealand. This was the site of the Māori fortress of Te Puia, first occupied around 1325, and known as an impenetrable stronghold never taken in battle. Māori have lived here ever since, taking full advantage of the geothermal activity in the valley for heating and cooking.

Whakarewarewa has some 500 pools, most of which are alkaline chloride hot springs, and at least 65 geyser vents, each with their own name. Seven geysers are currently active. Pohutu Geyser, meaning big splash or explosion, erupts approximately hourly to heights of up to 30 m.

Many of the thermal features at Whakarewarewa have been adversely affected by Rotorua residents taking advantage of the underlying geothermal fluids of the city by drawing shallow wells to extract hot water for both domestic and commercial heating.  

A bore closure programme in 1987-1988 resulted in 106 wells within 1.5 km of Pohutu Geyser being cemented shut, with another 120 wells outside the radius being shut due to a punitive royalty charging regime.

There has subsequently been a pronounced recovery in the geysers and hot springs at Whakarewarewa. Most of the currently active geysers at Whakarewarewa are located on Geyser Flat and aligned on a common fissure. This is a highly complex system, with the activity of one geyser affecting another.

Kereru Geyser, about 2 m above Puarenga Stream, located at the head of a small apron of blackish sinter, erupts every few days or weeks, in a fan-shaped jet 15 m high. No large eruptions occurred between 1972-1988, and it seems its recovery was directly linked to the sudden reduction of well drawoff in 1987. Kereru Geyser is probably independent of other springs on the fissure. 

Prince of Wales Feathers Geyser, Pohutu Geyser, Te Horu Geyser (The Cauldron) and Waikorohihi Geyser are on a sinter plateau about 6 m above Puarenga Stream.

Prince of Wales Feathers Geyser, Pohutu Geyser's closest neighbour, always precedes Pohutu, a feeble jet at first but gradually increasing in power until a continuous 9 m high column is ejected at an angle, when Pohutu usually erupts also. Sometimes Waikorohihi Geyser erupts a discontinuous 5 m high jet, then Prince of Wales Feathers will commence, later followed by Pohutu.

Until 1972, Te Horu Geyser erupted 2–7 m high as often as 10-15 times each day, but after that time eruptions and even boiling ceased. The water in Te Horu's vent began to overflow again in 1998.

A very direct connection exists between Te Horu and Pohutu, with air-cooled water erupted from Pohutu largely falling in Te Horu's vent. This may explain the popular belief that Pohutu is more active when there is a south wind, because most erupted water is then blown away to the north, whereas with a north wind much is returned to cool the system and delay the next eruption.  

 

More information: Te Puia

  

Mahanga Geyser, also called the Boxing Glove, is an old geyser not known to erupt until 1961. Its 3-4.5 m high eruptions occur quite independently of its near neighbour Waikorohihi.

Wairoa Geyser, acclaimed as erupting 60 m high, last erupted naturally in December 1940 after which its water level fell to 4.5 m below overflow and the water became acidic. However, in early 1996, its water level rose to 3.2 m below overflow, with continuous powerful boiling, and it remains so to date.

Beyond Geyser Flat is Waikite Geyser, which forms the apex of a prominent sinter mound 260 m south of Pohutu. This last erupted in March 1967, and since then the vent has remained dry and weakly steaming. 

In June 1996, its previously 8.5 m deep and dry vent suddenly filled with boiling water which rose to within 2.3 m of overflow. In the past Waikite tended to erupt after prolonged periods of excessive rain, suggesting that the level of water in its vent is dependent on rainfall. It is hoped that Waikite may one day erupt again. Meanwhile, Pareia Geyser, just beyond Waikite, has recently reactivated.

Papakura Geyser is the other notable dormant geyser at Whakarewarewa, last erupting in September 2015 after a 110 year period during which it was known to have faltered very briefly only three times.

Near the thermal area, you can experience the traditions of Maori life in an authentic living village and discover its people's centuries-old culture. 

You are going to enjoy your visit to the unique setting of Te Whakarewarewa lets you see how its people use the geothermal springs to cook, bathe, and heat their homes on a daily basis.

When you arrive, you meet some of Rotorua's iconic Maori cultural performers and get a chance to see the Haka, a traditional dance, along with harmonious songs that tell of Maori stories and legends. 

A guided tour through the village gives you a look at life within a living Maori village, as your guide shares the traditions, history, and legacy that has been passed down through the generations.

You also can complete your tour of Whakarewarewa with a unique, traditional hangi meal, cooked with the geothermal vents that dominate the valley.

Don't forget to enjoy an entrée of mussels cooked in the geothermal pools and marinated fish in coconut cream; a main course of beef, chicken, and vegetables; and then a steamed pudding served with custard, fresh fruit salad, and cream.

More information: Must Do New Zealand

 

 

 Tangata ako ana i te whare, 

te turanga ki te marae, tau ana.

A person who is taught at home, 

will stand collected on the Marae.

Maori Proverb

MANAWATU, KNOW THE LEGEND OF HAU AND WAIRAKA

Today, Tonyi Tamaki has guided The Winsors and The Grandma to Wanganui in the North Island. They have visited amazing places and have discovered some Maori legends. 

During the travel, the family has practised an A2 Cambridge Test.

 

Download A2 Cambridge Sample Test (Reading and Writing)

The Manawatu District is a local government district in the Manawatu-Wanganui Region in the North Island of New Zealand. The district is based on the town of Feilding and includes most of the area between the Manawatu River in the south and the Rangitikei River in the north; stretching from slightly south of the settlement of Himatangi in the south, to just south of Mangaweka in the north; and from the Rangitikei River to the summits of the Ruahine Ranges in the east.

Manawatu is said to have received its name by Hau, the great Māori explorer. On his quest to find his wife who had left him for another lover, Hau is said to have pursued her along the south west coast of the North Island. 

As he travelled, he came across and named river mouths including Whanganui, Whangaehu and Rangitikei according to events that befell him at the time. He came across a large, wide river mouth. In awe of the sight and in fear he might not be able to cross it, he stated Ka tū taku manawa, My heart stands still.

This tale includes names of some ancestors of the Maori folk, but, as in other cases, many marvels have been credited to those old Polynesian colonisers.

The following table shows the position of the two leading persons in this legend. The ancestor Poupaka was, we are told, a daring Polynesian sea rover concerning whom several sayings have been preserved.

His daughter Aparangi was taken to wife by Kupe the sea rover, he who came hither to New Zealand, and whose surprising adventure in Cook Strait is related elsewhere in this chronicle. In as much as two near descendants of Kupe were named Haunui native speakers always add the name of the mother, as in the table, in order to avoid confusion.

Popoto in the table came to New Zealand in the vessel Kurahaupo with Whatongo, grandson of Toi, according to traditions preserved by the Ngati-Kahungunu folk. Tauira, an elder brother of the Hau or Haunui of our story, seems to have been the eponymic ancestor of the old-time tribe of the Wairoa district known as the Tini-o-Tauira.

According to a mean of sundry lines of descent Tauira and our hero Haunui-a-Nanaia lived twenty-seven generations ago. The two wives of Hau are shown in the table, Wairaka being the hapless one who yet stands on the drear, storm lashed coast of Pukerua, where Poawha looks out on lone Kapiti.

Hau and his elder brothers are said to have returned to the isles of Polynesia, if so then they may have gone with Tama-ahua, also a Kurahaupo immigrant, and who sailed back to Hawaiki. Hau left his wife Wairaka here when he sailed away; these folk seem to have lived somewhere about the Mahia, and we know that Whatonga of Kurahaupo settled at Nukutaurua in that district. 

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Some time after Hau and his brothers sailed away to northern isles his wife Wairaka was carried off by two slaves or serving men named Kiwi and Weka. They seem to have taken her across the island and down to Pukerua, just south of Paekakariki, Wellington district, where they were found by Hau on his return from Hawaiki.

Meanwhile Hau and his brothers had reached the far land of Hawaiki, where they heard of one Rakahanga, daughter of Tumataroa, a young woman famed for her personal attractions. Here Hau was deserted by his brothers, who set off to visit the home of Tumataroa and his daughter Rakahanga, where they proposed to entertain their hosts by performing a posture dance.

Some time later Hau followed his brothers, and, on reaching the village, found the men of the place collecting firewood, whereupon he asked: For what purpose are you gathering fuel? They replied: To furnish light for the posture dancing. Said Hau: Give me some of your fuel. They did so and he took his burden of fuel and entered the village with the others, where all deposited their loads of fuel, while Hau hastened to enter one of the houses to escape notice.

All the people assembled in order to witness the dancing, and Hau entered the big house with the others. He now took steps to secure the famous Rakahanga for himself by the exercise of the powers of white magic. He caught an insect, a kind of fly, and repeated over it a form of love charm or atahu, after which he placed it beneath the threshold of the door.

When Rakahanga arrived to join the assembled people, as she stepped through the doorway the powers of the charm affected her and caused her to look favourably on Hau, the worker of marvels. When she did so enter, Hau made his way to her and she made no demur when he claimed her as his wife.  

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On the morrow it became known the Rakahanga had taken a husband, and so her parents asked her where he was. She replied: I do not recognise him among all these people, for as dawn came, he hastened to conceal himself. Her parents said: When you come together again be sure to detain him when day dawns, should you not be able to do so then mark him by scratching his face. The woman now understood what to do.

The next morning her husband attempted to withdraw again ere daylight arrived, whereupon Rakahanga strove to detain him, but he broke away from her, though not before she had succeeded in scratching his forehead. 

Again the parents of Rakahanga asked where her husband was, would she point him out. She looked around her but did not see him, and said: I cannot see him now. Again she looked for him: Ehara! Yonder he is, sitting in the corner. Behold my husband; see the scratches I made on his forehead. 

Then all looked at the man, and brothers of Hau saw that it was he who had gained the love of Rakahanga and had been baffled by her.  

Those brothers then rose and returned to their own place, where they at once set to work to prepare their vessel for a sea voyage, that they might return home to Aotearoa, New Zealand. They were angry with Hau for having won Rakahanga and intended to desert him and so return home by themselves. But a nephew of Hau informed him of the decision that his brothers had come to, and that the vessel was being prepared. Hau told him to return and make a hiding place for him in the forepart of the hold of the vessel, wherein he might conceal himself and so return to Aotearoa unknown to his brothers.

When the vessel sailed for Aotearoa, Hau was in his hiding place, while his friendly nephew was in charge of the baling well of the forepart of the vessel. So they fared hitherward across the Ocean of Kiwa. In nearing the coast of Aotearoa Hau's nephew left his post at the forward baling place, whereupon one of Hau's brothers proceeded to bale out the well.

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While doing so he discovered the stowaway in his place of concealment, and at once attacked him. Hau managed to escape from his brother, but was forced to leap overboard in doing so. He at once resorted to his own strange powers and so called upon the fish of the ocean to assemble and succour him by bearing him to land. Ere commencing this last and most extraordinary part of his voyage Hau found time to repeat a matapou charm in order to stay the progress of his brother's vessel, and render it immovable on the face of the waters.

Hau reached land at the beach called Rarohenga, at Kahutara, near unto Nukutaurua. Now when morning came Popoto came forth from his fortified village, and, on looking down on that beach, he saw some object bethronged by sea birds and concluded that it was a stranded fish.    

He sent a man down to the beach to examine the object, and, when the man reached it, he saw the eyes of Hau looking at him, but the body of Hau was hidden by sea-wrack. The man returned and reported to Popoto: The stranded object is a man who says that you are his father, and he desires that a fire be kindled to warm him. Then Popoto took fire, and fuel, the same being wood of the maire tree, and descended to the beach; a fire was made on the strand and the body of Hau was warmed thereat, and many say that the remains of the fuel are still seen at that place.

Hau was conveyed to the village where his mother, Nanaia, enquired of him: Where are your elder brothers? Hau replied: They are out yonder on the ocean, observe the sail of their vessel like unto a small cloud far away on the horizon.

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Then were performed the strange acts of yore, a tapu steaming pit was kindled, and food was placed therein to be cooked, then the firebrands were taken and utilised in a singular ritual performance whereby winds were caused to spring up, in this case a wind favourable to the vessel of the brothers of Hau.

That vessel now approached the land, and Hau went down to the beach to meet it. As the vessel neared the beach the elder brothers of Hau looked at him as he stood there; said Te Matawharite: Yonder is Hau standing on the beach. But Tauira remarked: How could a man cast overboard at sea be here. So the brothers of Hau came safe to land in their vessel, Papa-huakina. Hau then returned to his father's home where he questioned his mother about his wife, and Nanaia replied: She has been taken away by your two servants Kiwi and Weka. Then Hau rose and went forth into the south in search of Wairaka his wife, and her two abductors. 

He came to Taiporutu but found her not, and Hau signed as he thought of his lost wife. At this time Kiwi, Weka and Wairaka had ascended Taumata-hinaki, where Wairaka heard the sighing of Hau, and so said her companions: The sound that comes to me reminds me of Hau. They remarked: How can the man who went over seas be here.

Hau now proceeded on his way and crossed over to Whanganui whence he turned southward and so came to Whangaehu, a name said to have been derived from the fact that he baled water out there, though we are not told what it was baled from. Turakina was so named because he overthrew something there, a tree in one version, and Rangitikei from his striding over the land. Other names given by him were Manawatu, Waiarawa, Hokio, Ohau, Waikawa, Waitohu, Otaki, Waimeha and Waikanae. At Paekakariki he reached the end of the sandy beach. Ere long he came to a barrier of rock through which he forced a passage by means of his powers of magic, and so we have the Ana o Hau or Cave of Hau.

Again Hau fared on, and, on reaching the beach at Wairuapihi, below Pukerua, he at last came upon Wairaka. He asked her where Kiwi and Weka were, and was told that they would return in the evening. Hau awaited their return, and, when they arrived, he attacked and slew them. Hau then commanded Wairaka to go to the off-shore rocks and gather shellfish, when she had waded out some distance he recited the dread matapou spell and thereby transformed Wairaka into a rock. Thus when you look down the iron road of the white man upon the bounds of the sea of Raukawa you will see the storm lashed rock that represents the hapless Wairaka.

In the above we have what may very well be an historical tradition into which Maori narrators have worked a number of their beloved marvels. So it is with the records of scriptless man, and not with such only.

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Mauria te pono.

Believe in yourself.

Maori Proverb