Auckland Heritage Festival

If only I had time.

I was sorting paperwork that has been mounting up, and the old John Rowles song – If I only had time – popped into my head. The lyrics are fitting.

Just when I was wishing for more time to do all the things expected of me, as well as the things I really want to do, I found a wonderful flyer reminding me about Auckland’s Heritage Festival that I’d missed last year.

Time is an insidious little beasty. We never get any more of it never mind how hard we try. How many times has someone said to you, ‘sorry can’t catch up now, I haven’t got time. Maybe later’? But it doesn’t happen, and you drift a little further apart because there isn’t the time to make the connection.

Yet time isn’t something we can manufacture, we have to prioritise to make the most of the time available to us. So, the necessities get done and in the rush and bustle of life, we miss out on so much more. And often we miss out on what makes us human: people and their stories.

As an avid reader, I struggle to understand when people tell me they haven’t time to read. I would give up a television programme any day of the week to read. I fill in every spare minute I have with reading, but that’s me. I don’t write because I read, or read because I write, but both are an essential part of who I am.

Genealogy, as I’m sure you know by now, is also a part of me. I love to know about people, what happened to them, what struggles they had, and how their life impacted on future generations. As ours does today.

This year the theme for the Auckland Heritage Festival is From Waterways to Motorways – the heritage of transport and travel in Tamaki Makaurau.

I’ve had to learn a lot about how people got around in the past and how quickly they adapted to new ideas.

The Festival runs from 30 September until 15 October 2017

Check out the website – Heritage Festival

I love Ponsonby – Heritage Festival

There are over 200 events: demonstrations and workshops, displays and exhibitions, entertainment, performances and films, and walks and talks. And if you want something a bit different, there’s something of offer for you too.

Many of the events are free, some are ideas to do things that are always there but we don’t think about and some events are specific to the Festival and designed to cater for all ages. Take a look at this list as an example

It’s in the school holidays. Grandparents, take the children out for the day, and discover how much each generation has to offer the other when discussing a past event. You will be surprised.

Then please, please, come back and tell me what you discovered. You never know, it might appear in my next book. Two of my characters are already conspiring inside my head.

The Festival is on until 15 October. Be surprised.

By Vicky Adin, 

Read more by Vicky here.