Dedication And Celebration Mark National Day

Every year in mid May Norsewood welcomes the world into its small community to commemorate the National Day of Norway.

Visitors from elsewhere in New Zealand and from abroad converge on the heritage village to rekindle cultural associations with their original land or to enjoy the efforts of a quaint rural community keen to promote itself.

This year – Sunday May 17 – was no exception.

It was a day of celebration and national pride, with a flag raising ceremony, church service, Scandinavian dancing, a parade to the township’s memorial oak and traditional cooking. There would have been some trolls somewhere.

Present were the Norwegian Ambassador Canberra-based His Excellency Mr Lars Wensell and Mrs Wensell, and the Honorary Consul General Mr Graeme Mitchell.

Present also was His Grace Bishop Peter Cullinane who came to bless and to dedicate a special small wooden chapel or stavekirke built to represent the traditional stave churches of Norway.
On site at Norsewood’s visitor attraction ‘Johanna’s World,’ the chapel is believed to be the only one in the southern hemisphere.

It was built by Peter Barrow, Dannevirke and masterminded by Maria Andressen wife of Oystein Andressen, author of best seller ‘Johanna’s World’ and creator of the visitor complex that replicates a Norwegian village.

On hand to film the event and others during the day was an Auckland-based film crew tasked with transmitting the footage back to Norway for a synchronised international viewing of other national day celebrations around the world. More than 20 countries participated.

The film footage was transmitted courtesy of Dannevirke’s new high-speed fibre connection via a link into the Dannevirke service centre.

Tararua community development manager Troy Gerbich who assisted with the data transfer said it was an ideal way to test the efficiency of the new initiative and was a “highly successful operation.”

“It took about an hour to transfer a huge amount of data and was broadcast in Norway at the height of the celebrations around midday Norwegian time”, he said.