When you look at the word Ngaruawahia it looks very intimidating. The ‘Ng’ is pronounced like ‘ng’ in song, and the ‘r’ has a bit of a trill like the r’s are pronounced in Spanish, and each vowel is pronounced separately like you do when you say Hawaii [huh-WAH-ee].
So after you break the word up phonetically, [Nah-roo-ah-WAH-hee-a] and say it slowly a few times, you kinda get the hang of it.
Ngaruawahia is a small town of 5,000 residents, just north of the city of Hamilton, and about an hour and a quarter drive south from Auckland.
The Waikato and Waipa rivers converge in Ngarawahia making it a valuable location for early Maori and European settlers to travel to and from other locations.
There’s a fair amount dairy farming in the area, and the cows are celebrated in the nearby town of Morrinsville.
These were not all the painted cows in Morrinsville, these are just a few out of the 60, that I was able to snap pictures of from the car window on my way into class on Sunday morning.
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Saturday
On Saturday, I taught Tea and Ephemera to a class of 24. The textile arts group in Ngrauawahia is so lucky to have a great big space to work in, which made it easy to accommodate several extra students who wanted to join the class and had traveled from other locations that I taught at earlier on the trip. I have to say it makes my heart so happy when I see those familiar faces show up when I’m teaching in other places, and it happened several times on this trip. 😊❤️
There were a lot of really great tea and ephemera collage pieces from this group!
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While I was teaching, Phil took a drive to the west coast to the town of Raglan, a spot favored by many surfers. He took some nice video of surfers riding the waves, but unfortunately he didn’t get any photos of them in action.
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Sunday
I had 21 in the class on Sunday, and a lot of wonderful paintings too.
After class on Sunday, Phil and I packed up the car and drove to Auckland where we met up with our friends Barney and Pat, who had just arrived from San Francisco that morning. More on that in my my next post. In the meantime…
Keep creating,
Judy
I’d love to spark your creativity at one of these upcoming events:
I’m not sure how many of these events will take place due to impact of the corona virus, but I’ll post cancellations and updates as they occur.
2020
May 27-31 Woodland Ridge Retreat, Menomonie, WI
Tea & Ephemera and Painting Imagery with Textile Paints
Australia!!! Cancelled
Berry, AU- June 27, 28 Berry Quilting Retreat 2 day Tea & Ephemera
Adelaide, AU- July 2, South Australia Quilters Guild Lecture
July 3, 4 Exhibition with the South Australia Quilters
July 10-16 Quilt Encounter 3-day Paint & Printapalooza, 2 day Tea & Ephemera
Brisbane, AU- July 18, 19 Queensland Quilters 2 day Tea & Ephemera
August 11-13 Calico Cutters, West Chester, PA
Tsukineko Inks and Tea & Ephemera
August 31 Color Theory lecture Pioneer Quilters Guild, Loomis, CA
September 26 River City Quilt and Fiber Art Festival, Sacramento, CA Tea & Ephemera
October 18-24 Hudson Valley Quilt Retreat, Greenville, NY
Paint and Printapalooza
ABOUT JUDY
Judy is an artist, explorer, image wrangler, knowledge seeker, instructor, speaker, creative alchemist, and purveyor of inspiration, helping others channel creativity on a daily basis.