Bucket o' Gum

We took the kids and popped North a bit further today, to the Kauri Museum. We arrived at 5 to 11, and as Mrs tsuken was paying the admission fee, the woman at the desk asked the ages of the kids, and then suggested that they might like their school holiday programme - which was beginning at 11:00. They prefer to take the kids without the parents, for an hour, showing them all around the museum, the old schoolhouse and church, make toys (windmills, and tractors from cotton reels), and polish kauri gum. Meanwhile of course, we'd be able to wander slowly around the museum sans bored and obstreperous chilluns. And it didn't even cost any more!

Awe. Some.

So we palmed them off and had a lovely and rare adult time looking around at gorgeous furniture, waxwork recreations of the gum digger days, and an amazing collection of worked and unworked kauri gum. This photo is of some chunks of unpolished gum in one of the exhibits. I've put some more photos on my Flickr. I was particularly struck by how well my camera - or rather its 20mm f/1.7 - coped with the low light. Very happy tsuken.

I'm currently sitting on my parents' deck, watching the clouds and the moon, and talking with parents and uncle about music: rhythm and melody (uncle contends that rhythm is primary, and can do without melody; I disagree).

We are now discussing (and, inevitably, quoting) the Princess Bride.

Perfection.