A vote was taken, and the children chose these favorite pizzas:
*Cheese and shrimp
*Three Cheese New York (this is so large that you must fold it over sideways and eat it from the point)
*BBQ chicken with cheese in the crust (lucky coincidence!)
*Gluten Free Pepperoni and cheese
(*and one more, only I've forgotten it.)
I am so sorry no photos of the pizzas and children were taken.
Before eating pizza, the whole 10 of us visited Howick's Historical Village, a village that depicts how life was lived in New Zealand in the mid-1800s. A historical and very clever Kiwi told me that ships were once used to transport convicts from England to serve prison time in either New Zealand or Australia (a debatable practice). When that stopped happening, they used the ships to transport military retirees to New Zealand as 'Fencibles' to help defend the territory. (Get it? Fencibles?)
When the settlers wanted more land than they had been given, the indigenous Maori peoples were so nice that they just gave their land up to them. (Oh. The historical and very clever Kiwi said it was actually settled by war, during which pretty much nobody was nice).
The houses we saw in the village today had been moved to this spot in the 70's and 80's from several miles away. It wasn't as dramatic as moving a house would be today because they had no electricity and no plumbing to mess with. Still, it was a labor of love setting out the homes, the church, the post office, the government building, the laundry, and everything that needed to be placed inside of each. The pictures we looked at showed brightly smiling workmen having what appeared to be the time of their lives.
All of this might sound a bit dry and historical if not for the four children dashing with excitement from place to place. Every little bit or piece was looked at and exclaimed over: the ancient furniture, the clothing that might just fit someone their own size, an old fashioned laundry process complete with a lady in a cap and apron from the 1800s, helping children wash, rinse, and hang out the family's clothing.
Especially interesting was the way the women did their ironing. They put something hot inside the iron to make the flat surface hot enough to de-wrinkle their shirts, kitchen towels and even the sheets! We wondered if perhaps they might put boiling water inside the iron. Or maybe they placed hot coals in there, to produce the same effect. One of our young mothers went in and asked the colonial lady, who told us it is the hot coals that go inside! We were SHOCKED because of the possibility that coal dust might creep out and onto the white shirt, and then somebody's husband might get cross...
(and the matter might actually be settled by war, during which pretty much nobody would be nice).
See you along the way!
the SconeLady
Extra info about the Historical Village:
"European settlement began in 1847 when three companies of the Royal New Zealand Fencibles were assigned to a defence post. They were retired soldiers enlisted to serve for seven years in exchange for a cottage and an acre of land. Howick was the largest of the Fencible settlements, with 804 people in three companies in 1848. All Saints (Anglican) Church was built in 1847 and is Auckland’s oldest church. After the 1860s New Zealand wars, cropping became the main activity, with wheat and oats the major exports."
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