Ah coffee...

A couple of days without coffee means I am really enjoying the excellent coffee at a little warehouse type coffee shop called Emporio Cafe in Wellington!

Emporio Cafe

Waitangi Day music

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, and a public holiday. It is day 6 of the music festival and I am pacing myself, staving off exhaustion. It is a familiar feeling about day six as the concerts and sketching combine to keep.me going beyond capacity.

I looked at today's program and wondered whether I had the stamina to attend: 10am - talk about recently (last 30 years) rediscovered Maori instruments and 2pm concert of NZ composers for those instruments and string quartet. 

I should have trusted the curators. It was one of the most moving concerts I have heard for a long time. I found tears welling up as the Maori flute (pūtõrino) and another long hollow instrument, both played by Rob Thorne, created sounds that seemed to connect the audience with eternity. He also played a conch instrument that sounded human and ethereal at the same time. These instruments were accompanied by string instruments played by the NZSQ to great effect.

Rob Thorne is an anthropologist and had been part of the group of four (including composer Gillean Whitehead and carver of instruments, Brian Flintoff) who explained the instruments this morning. I found his answers to questions thoughtful and nuanced. He is the sort of teacher you wish for every child (or, in our case, adult).

Addendum (8/2) : how you feel about music has so much to do with context. An Australian told me yesterday that he thought the 'piece' played at the concert was too long  and he was sorry the Maori music had not been more integrated with the western music. In fact there were 6 pieces played one after another (all described in some detail in the program). He looked very doubtful when I said I thought the music had been very successful in integrating the two cultural traditions but that the melding seemed to me to be the western musicians responding to the Maori instruments rather than the other way around.

Birdseye views

On a clear day, a flight from Wellington to Nelson offers wonderful views of the terrain below. The plane is small and flies low enough for good visibility.

The plane takes 40 passengers  plus hostess

Leaving Wellington

Leaving the north island

South island, heading for Nelson

The photos were taken by my seat neighbour, a young Dutch woman on a two year work visa. She was snapping photos out of the window so I handed her my phone and she took a few for me as well.

Huka Falls, NZ

The most tranquil of water will turn into a torrent if you force it through a narrow enough channel and so it is with placid Lake Taupo which turns into a heaving tumult as it passed between the narrow gap in the rocks at Huka to flow on as the Waikato River, feeding power stations on its way to the sea.

 The force of the water at Hula Falls has to be seen to be believed.

Lake Taupo at Hatepe

Huka Falls

New Plymouth

New Plymouth is an interesting place. It has a wonderful coastline, perched at the eastern tip of New Zealand's North Island but the town seems to thumb it's nose at the sea, with light industry assigned coastal real estate. New Plymouth Burnings must have the most stunning view in New Zealand.

The information service is on the busy coastal road in the city, across from the seashore, but I couldn't find any parking there. After a long and windy (though beautiful) trip from Turangi I was tired and an inaccessible information center was an inauspicious start to my New Plymouth visit.

Crossing the coastal rail line

If you cross the busy main road from the city and then the railway line which is still in use, though only local, you finally find yourself on the seashore.

It is a majestic vista, crashing waves on big black rocks.

Shoreline at New Plymouth

This morning I gave up the idea of finding a cafe with a sea view but instead I found a very good alternative, a cafe/coffee roaster called Ozone. The coffee was excellent, the atmosphere quirky and the staff friendly. If I was a New Plymouth resident I think I would become a permanent fixture there.

Coffee being roasted at Ozone

Then I discovered the retro yellow roof.

I don't know if it has a name, but in the middle of the city stands a large yellow structure with no apparent use. A passing resident told me that there had been a building there which was demolished and that the council asked the residents what they wanted in its place. This yellow roof was what had been chosen. My informant said with some embarrassment that it had been 'very expensive'.

Retro yellow lid

 





I'm not sure of the artistic or other value of the yellow structure but I think a population that chooses such a thing surely deserves the famous Len Lye museum as a reward.

The Len Lye Museum of Contemporary Art is as stunning as the photos that had made me want to visit New Plymouth in the first place. Even seeing the exterior was worth the trip. My photos speak for themselves (yes, this is really how it looks!)

Len Lye: Four Fountains

1977 News

A random paper blowing down the street turned out to be the NZ Evening Post from 1977.

Appreciating each moment

View from Point Clare

I joined my local art group for a paint-out today but it had been so long since I had used my portable painting kit it was lacking essentials, like a water holder, borrowed for other projects. But I had a picnic cup with me and there was plenty of water in the inlet we were painting.

This is Point Clare on Brisbane Waters. As the tide receded, mangroves roots poked out of the mud and little flying insects joined the painters.

The foreshore is popular with walkers and today they included a long lost work colleague who told me he is undergoing chemotherapy. I was left looking out over the view and thinking how short our time is, each moment to be appreciated.

Toi toi at the seaside in Waikanae, NZ

The previous sheet on my watercolour block had been painted last January in Waikanae, New Zealand. It is a view over toi toi plants in a garden overlooking the sea shore, painted from the top floor of a friend's house. The weather had been so inclement, with such strong winds that it had been almost impossible to paint outside.

Not that you would know from the painting.

Art Deco in Napier

I was in Napier last week for Verdi's Requiem.
"Lovely building this", I said to the bank teller.
"Yes, we get a lot of Art Deco tours through to come and see it", she replied.

Ceiling in bank building in Napier, NZ

At the cafe on the marina there is a different sort of art deco.

Art deco-ration - pot plant in Napier