Góðir Íslendingar!
Our annual reunion was held at the Waiteti Trout Stream Motor Camp in Ngongotaha on March 2nd and 3rd, and in spite of rather miserable weather I think it was a big success. Around 64 people attended at some stage through the weekend, and I think this must have been the biggest crowd we have ever had.
Most people enjoyed the good selection of the Icelandic finger food on offer and I want to thank all those who went to the trouble of making or bringing all the lovely stuff. This makes our reunions really special.
Big thanks must go to Finnbogi who went to the trouble of grilling a whole pig for us to enjoy on the Saturday night. (He had to make the grill for the spit roast before he did the cooking!). Also big thanks to Nicola, Ingi, Marie and Marit for organising and preparing the rest of the food. Last, but not least, thanks to all the others who also helped out, and did the cleaning up afterwards.
It was great to see so many new people at the reunion, and I hope you enjoyed the weekend enough to want to come back next year. There are quite a number of Icelanders here in NZ at the moment, in connection with geothermal drilling around Taupo, and hopefully we will get to see more of them at the next reunion.
The issue of a web page for the NZ Icelandic Society came up at the meeting, but we don’t appear to have anyone willing or capable of setting this up for us, so in the meantime we have to make do with the current blogspot. It would be nice to see more people contribute to it… Halldora has offered to put us on Facebook, and I understand anyone keen on getting in touch with the Society will be able locate us that way.
Our book exchange seems to grow every year so if you have any Icelandic books you are happy to pass on, please bring them to the next reunion. There is demand for Icelandic children’s books too, and if you have them lying around, there are quite a few bi-lingual children who may have need for them. Viv Hognason has kindly offered to be our “librarian”, and I’m happy to be a “go-between” too.
Scandinavian Festival. This will be held in Dannevirke February 22nd 23rd and 24th 2013. We won’t be officially involved, but I’m sure Viv and Petur Hognason will be there to represent us, if they can. I have explained to previous organisers that we don’t have the finance or sufficient number of people to be involved, and they seem to understand that. We have also found out the hard way that there is very little interest among our members to be a part of this. However, everyone is welcome, and those of you interested may wish to keep up with www.scandinavianfestival.org.nz
The next reunion will be held at Waiteti Trout Stream Motor Camp, yet again. The food preparation will be in the hands of Gilli, Vera, Thury, Vignir, Runa and Arana. We are really lucky that Michael, the camp owner, is very happy to have us, and he has asked me to pass on that he thinks we are a great bunch of lovely people and he doesn’t understand why we have had issues with other camp owners in the past! Hopefully we will live up to his high opinion of us next time too! He is keeping all the accommodation for us at this stage, same as last year. He is keen on giving people re-booking the same rooms again a priority for the time being, but I think those re-bookings should be made no later than mid-April. After that it is “free for all” and “first in first served”. I understand he is planning to do up some of the lodge rooms in the near future, and make them more in line with the facilities of the cabins, so there may be more cabin-style accommodation available next time.
Kær kveðja,
Sigrún Edda
