NZIB Christmas Party Brussels Friday December 11

A BIG THANK YOU TO DONNA AND BRIAN FOR HOSTING THE WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS PARTY ON FRIDAY NIGHT!!!

Invitation from Frank and Sue... FAREWELL DINNER December 19th

Dear Joyce,

Frank and I are planning a farewell dinner out in Zaventem, (venue depending on response) on December 19^th to say goodbye to those who wish to attend.

Would you please send this info out to members.

RSVP directly to us best so we can plan, and inform people of the venue.

RSVP: frank.suze"at"gmail.com

Two films on New Zealand from ARTE TV

Dear Kiwis,
You can see these 2 films on New Zealand from ARTE on the 2 links below. You only have one week.
Happy viewing,
Joyce

Voyages ferroviaires en Nouvelle-Zélande

07/12/2009 à 19:00

Réalisé par Jürgen Hansen et Simone Stripp

Durée: 43min

http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/1697660,CmC=2965948,scheduleId=2938618.html


Voyages ferroviaires en Nouvelle-Zélande

08/12/2009 à 18:15

Réalisé par Jürgen Hansen et Simone Stripp

Durée: 43min

Documentaire court, Documentaires, mardi 08/12

http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/1697660,CmC=2967572,scheduleId=2938680.html

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A TIP from Andrew

I note that Arte are repeating the two shows at the following times:

14.12 09:10
15.12 09:10

So if people missed them on TV and want to record them, they can do so next week.

Cheers, Andrew

CHRISTMAS CAROL CONCERT BRUSSELS 8pm Sunday December 13th

Mary Gow invites you to

Brussels Museums Late-Evening Openings 2009

Every Thursday evening at least six museums* will be extending a warm welcome to visitors. This year they are offering:

Follow the guide: guided tours, story-telling, masterpieces trails, meetings with the curator, discoveries behind the scenes.

interactive activities, workshops, studio, lab.

Please note that advance booking is required here!

Entry: € 2,50 per museum (€ 1 up to 25 years of age).

In this museum the late-evening opening is free.

* Except on 24/09: free opening evening at the Cinquantenaire Museum (RMAH) and on 17/12: closing evening at the Museum of Musical Instruments (MIM).

http://nocturnes.brusselsmuseums.be/en/index.html

History of immigration - Last and loneliest

John Rutherford, the tattooed Englishman
For over 150 years after 1800, most people who migrated to New Zealand were from Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) and Ireland. Yet for them, New Zealand was the most distant place on earth. The journey by sea took 100 days, and voyagers endured rough seas, cramped conditions and illness. Unless they were offered free travel or other rewards, many people were reluctant to emigrate.
Via Australia
Some came because they had already reached Australia as convicts or settlers. Those who went the extra distance across the Tasman Sea included:
* whalers and sealers, New Zealand’s earliest non-Māori settlers
* gold miners, who often came from the goldfields of Victoria to Otago and the West Coast in the 1860s
* labourers, who arrived in the early 20th century, when New Zealand was prospering and Australia was in depression.
Assisted migrants
Others came because they received assisted or free travel on ships from Britain and Ireland. These included:
* settlers (brought out by the New Zealand Company or its off-shoots) mainly from England and Scotland in the 1840s to settle in Wellington, Nelson, Wanganui, Taranaki, Canterbury and Otago
* people given cheap tickets or offered free land by New Zealand provinces in the 1850s and 1860s
* people recruited and given cheap fares by the New Zealand government in the 1870s, early 1880s, and before and after the First World War.
Some also came as a result of war – soldiers brought out to fight in the New Zealand wars of the 1860s, or war brides who came with New Zealand soldiers who had fought overseas.
Non-British
Until the Second World War most came from Britain. Some other groups were:
* A few French people at Akaroa in 1840
* Germans, who came to Nelson in the 1840s
* Scandinavians, who settled in Manawatū and Hawke’s Bay in the 1870s
* Chinese, attracted by the gold rushes
* Dalmatians, working the northern gumfields.

After the Second World War
In the 1950s and 1960s more people were helped to migrate. They included many Dutch and a larger number of English and Scots.
From the mid-1960s on, people began to come to New Zealand from Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands and other Pacific islands, attracted by work opportunities.
In 1975 and again in 1987, New Zealand changed its immigration policies to admit people on the basis of their qualifications and not their race. Since then there has been a large flow of immigrants from Asia, and some from Africa.
New Zealand has become much more multicultural. In 2006 about 67 out of 100 New Zealanders had an exclusively European background. The others had Māori, Pacific Island or Asian ancestors.

Source: 'Origins and arrivals', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 13-Aug-09
http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/history-of-immigration/shortstory

Scientists find dinosaur footprints in Golden Bay

ONCE UPON A TIME: An artist's impression of what a sauropod would have looked like. These enormous plant-eating creatures were roaming New Zealand 70 to 80 million years ago.

The Nelson Mail Last updated 10:37 07/11/2009

Scientists say they have found 70 million-year-old dinosaur footprints in Golden Bay, which they believe are the first dinosaur footprints to be recognised in New Zealand, and the first evidence of dinosaurs in the South Island.

Geologist Greg Browne of GNS Science found the footprints while investigating the properties of the rock and sediment formations in Whanganui Inlet.

He said they were in six locations spread over an area about 10 kilometres long. At one location, there were up to 20 footprints.

Dr Browne said he carefully considered all the possible geological and biological explanations for the features in the rock, and was able to rule them out one by one.

His investigation included comparisons with dinosaur footprints in similar-aged rocks in other parts of the world.

He concluded that the most plausible explanation was that the markings were made by sauropods – large herbivorous dinosaurs with long necks and tails and pillar-like legs.

Paleontologist Dr Hamish Campbell of GNS Science said: "This is hugely exciting. It gives us food for thought and we will now go and examine rocks of comparable age."

Dr Browne said the footprints were made in beach sands and were probably quickly covered and preserved by mud from subsequent tides.

"What makes this discovery special is the unique preservation of the footprints in an environment where they could easily have been destroyed by waves, tides, or wind."

The depressions are roughly circular, with the largest about 60cm in diameter. Most are smaller, typically between 10cm and 20cm in diameter and were probably formed by dinosaurs between 2m and 6m in length and weighing several tonnes.

While paleontologists know that dinosaurs were present in ancient New Zealand, which they refer to as Zealandia, the record of their presence is sketchy.

Dinosaur bones, mostly vertebrae, have been found at three locations, in northern Hawkes Bay, Port Waikato, and the Chatham Islands.

Dr Browne said the footprints added a considerable amount of information about how dinosaurs moved, how fast they moved and how big they were, as well as how soft the sediment was.

"This discovery opens the way for further study on a range of dinosaur-related issues in New Zealand."

Northwest Nelson was largely submerged under the sea between 70 and 20 million years ago and the footprints would have been covered by hundreds of metres of marine sediments, he said.

With the development of the modern plate boundary, New Zealand was uplifted and northwest Nelson emerged from the sea. During the past 20 million years, the overlying sedimentary rock has been eroded to expose the footprints.

Dr Browne's discovery will be published in next month's New Zealand Journal of Geology & Geophysics.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3041524/Scientists-find-dinosaur-footprints

New Zealand Day 2010 - looking for volunteers

New Zealand Day will be on Saturday 6th February next year.
This will be a good opportunity to hold an NZIB event.
Would anybody willing to organise or host an event, please contact Joyce at : nzersbelgium"at"gmail .com.

Many thanks in advance

WALES v NEW ZEALAND (RUGBY UNION: INTERNATIONAL) Saturday 7th November 2009, 17:15

The All Blacks will play Wales in November as part of a five-match tour to Britain and Europe.

The New Zealand and Welsh rugby unions on Wednesday confirmed the match would be at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on November 7, forming part of 10th anniversary celebrations of the stadium's opening.

The All Blacks will follow the Wales match with tests against Italy at Milan on Nov. 14, England at London on Nov. 21, France at Marseilles on Nov. 28 and a match against the Barbarians at London on Dec. 5.

New Zealand beat Wales 29-9 when the teams last met at Cardiff last November.

AP

http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/news/all-blacks-to-play-wales-in-november/2009/06/24/1245522867299.html

BROADCAST DETAILS

S4C (16:45-19:30)
BBC2 (17:00-19:30)
BBC Red Button (17:00-19:30 excluding Freeview)
RTE Two (17:00-19:35 Ireland only)

source: http://www.livesportontv.com/rugby-union/international/wales-new-zealand-31831

BUDGET PARIS in 24 hours

Last week I whisked my KIWI visitors through Paris in 24 hours.

9.13: We took a morning train (25 euro ticket bought exactly 3 months ahead) from Brussels Gare du Midi and arrived in Paris Gare du Nord around 10.30.

10.30: We used our "carnet" of 10 metro tickets (bought from the vending machines which take Maestro cards) and took the no. 4 metro line direction "Porte d'Orléans" to "Odéon" station. Save your metro ticket as you need to exit the metro stations with the ticket sometimes.

12.00: Then we walked two metro stops along the Bld St. Germain to our hotel "Hotel du Commerce"
not far from the metro station "Maubert-Mutualité and checked into our 75 euro hotel room in the Latin Quarter (one single and one double bed, free internet, kitchen facilities for breakfast, luggage store, clean toilets).

13.00: Walked to Notre Dame and visited the cathedral. Found a plaque commemorating Commonwealth soldiers during the World Wars.

14.00: Took metro to Montmartre and the Basilica at metro station "Cité" line 4 direction "Porte de Clignancourt" to "Barbès Rochechouart" and then changed to line 2 direction "Porte Dauphine" for one metro stop and got off at "Anvers".
After fortifying ourselves with a late snack of "croque madame" and salad and a "carafe d'eau" (tap water is free in French eating places) for 8 euro we tackled the steps and souvenir peddlars leading up to the Basilica and Montmartre.

16.30: Wandered down the hill from Montmartre and took the metro line 2 from "Anvers" direction "Porte Dauphine" to "Charles de Gaulle Etoile" to the Arc de Triomphe and a stroll down the Champs Elysées.

We continued to the Place de la Concorde, Jardin des Tuileries, the Louvre and crossed the footbridge "Pont des Arts" over the Seine in the setting sun.

We wandered back along the Seine towards the hotel via the restaurant area in St-Michel.

Next Day
8.00: French breakfast at the hotel after searching the local boulangeries for a delicious assortment of fresh "pain aux raisins", mini "brioches" etc.

10.00 Checked out, stored our luggage at the hotel and took the metro line 10 at Maubert Mutalité to La Motte Piquet Grenelle, direction Boulogne Pont de St Cloud for our visit to the Eiffel Tower.
On Tuesday morning there was an interesting market (open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) at Maubert Mutualité.

At La Motte Piquet Grenelle we strolled down the centre of the Champs de Mars towards the Eiffel Tower.
We simply passed under it and didn't attempt to tackle the enormous queues waiting to go up the tower and walked across to Trocadero, the fountains and the gilt statues.

12.00 At Trocadero, we took the metro line 6 direction Nation and changed at La Motte Piquet Grenelle for line 10 direction Gare d'Austerlitz and got off at Maubert Mutualité for our hotel and a quick lunch before collecting our luggage and walking to the Gare de Lyon for our afternoon train (25 euro Paris to Lausanne if you book exactly 3 months ahead) to Switzerland.

BON VOYAGE
Joyce!


metro
http://www.ratp.info/orienter/f_plan.php?loc=reseaux&nompdf=metro&fm=gif&forced=gif&lang=ang&partenaire=ratp

markets
http://www.paris.fr/portail/marches_parisiens/Portal.lut?page_id=5675&document_type_id=5&document_id=10926&portlet_id=12148

trains
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/

hotel
http://www.commerce-paris-hotel.com/