Night at the bach

Notice the constellation of orion here with his sword pointing up. Upside down from the Southern hemisphere.



Not a very good photo of the eclipse but the cloud covered everything until it was nearly over. It had been a total lunar eclipse.

Short holiday at Sanctuary Lake Bach

A few days pre-Christmas rest at a rented bach in the Dome forest near Warkworth, north of Auckland. A small house in 38 acres with it's own lake.



The rain came down for the first couple of days but didn't dampen the spirits because we had a super bubble blower. Then when the weather cleared we had plenty of exploring to do.



The bach is Eco friendly, powered by a small hydro generator set below the lake and topped up with solar. Here is the hydro generator down in the forest below the lakes. The water has been split into two pipes and comes in from both front and back onto the turbine. Above it, the spinning aluminium drum, is the generator.


The house and lake are surrounded by forest which provided some great walks over tree logs and amongst the ponga trees. Ponga's are NZ tree ferns.




Family photo on the pier by the lake. One night Joe took a torch to the water's edge and we discovered that splashing the water and shining the torch into it attracted some quite large eels which bobbed up to the surface in the torch light. I wonder if we'll be swimming in it tomorrow.

Multi-Storey series

'level 2' | oil on linen | 120 x 170 cm | 2010

'restricted access' | oil on linen | 76 x 137 cm | 2010

'upper ramp' | oil on linen | 76 x 137 cm | 2010

'untitled [CP5]' | oil on linen | 120 x 170 cm | 2010

'rooftop access' | oil on linen | 50 x 91 cm | 2010

'untitled [CP3]' | oil on linen | 66 x 112 cm | 2010

'reserved section' | oil on linen | 83 x 106 cm | 2010

'untitled [CP1]' | oil on linen | 102 x 152 cm | 2010

Wallace award finalist 2010

The Waikato

The longest river in New Zealand, The Waikato flows through Hamilton on it's 425 km journey to Port Waikato on the west coast, south of Auckland.
The river is important to local Maori regarding it as a source of Mana or pride. It is a beautiful and impressive river which also supplies electricity from nine hydro-electric stations along it's course.
In Hamilton, we went to the National Contemporary Art Awards exhibition at the Waikato museum a few weeks ago. This is one that I didn't get into. However a friend from AUT did get a painting in.
Several bridges cross the river in Hamilton, the most central two I have photographed here.

West Coast walk

I'm trying out my new camera. Last month we went over to the other side of Auckland, the west side, and out of the city. As you come out of the sprawling suburbs which go on for ever, you start climbing gently up to a village called Titirangi. This is the start of the Waitakere ranges, a modest range of mountains forested with native NZ bush, a great place for bush walking. You can get very lost here.

As you descend on the other side of the hills you come down steeply to the coast, the wilder side of the Auckland isthmus which has black volcanic sand and was made famous in the film 'The Piano' years ago, but like many parts of New Zealand, has now been used as locations for many films.

On this trip we went to Muriwai beach and the coast between Muriwai and Bethells beach (Te Henga). The Waitakeres are where Sir Ed trained for his jaunt up Mount Everest, and a new 4 day walk has been marked for keen walkers called the Hilary Trail. Our walk on this day was along a section of it.





Back at Muriwai Beach to see quite a few surfers around sunset. The waves on this side of Auckland are bigger; there aren't any sheltering islands out on this side to break up the waves.

Run, swim, run

Joe competing in the school biathlon at Remuera Primary.

Always have a supply of sunnies in New Zealand. The sun can be very bright you know.

Holiday at Church Bay bach

Barbecues on the deck are part of the New Zealand way of life.


Matthew had a day diving at the Poor Knights Islands.



The Poor Knights on the horizon.

Cruise ship at Princes Wharf, Auckland

There seem to be more regular visits to Auckland from cruise ships like this one, the Queen Victoria. Looks like fun!

Ken Carter Fireplace relief

Untitled (Fireplace Relief)
Ken Carter, 1969, Triptych, Cement Fondue and resin aluminium.
218 x 152 cm

The relief shows Adam and Eve at the gates of an orchard with a figure of a man climbing over the gate to get to the apples. It is in three sections, the standing figures (Adam & Eve) are cast in cement fondue while the section above is made in lighter resin & fibreglass. All have an aluminium gelcoat.

Installation

Reliefs from Figgins

We've unpacked the crates containing the reliefs from the lounge at Figgins which surrounded the fireplace. They are in three pieces and here we are trying the two standing figures against a wall in our lounge at Bassett Road.
The plan is to put in a fireplace here.

Ambury Farm

Ambury Farm near Mangere Bridge in South Auckland. Here is a lava tube that has collapsed showing the void space where the lava once flowed when Mangere Mountain was erupting.

The reserve looking over to the Manukau harbour. Sheep roam around the beach.

Graduation Ceremony

The AUT graduation ceremony started with a procession around Albert Park onto Queen Street to the Civic Theatre. I am in there somewhere amongst about 400 graduands including Certificates, Diplomas, Bachelors and Masters.

The weather was beautifully hot and sunny and the procession was great fun. Traffic in Queen Street was closed off, there was a bagpipe band leading.

The Civic is an 'atmospheric' theatre which has a star field of the Southern sky on the ceiling consisting of tiny lights. One of only seven remaining atmospheric theatres in the world.

After the ceremony outside the Civic on Queen Street.

Takapuna

The walk from the North of Takapuna Beach is a favourite on a Sunday afternoon. The rocks along the way are, I think, volcanic scoria from Rangitoto Island (shown above) which is the most recent volcano in the Auckland region having erupted about 600 years ago.
Scoria is very light, with many bubbles having formed in it as the lava cooled, and most of Aucklands kerbs stones are scoria.

Kayaking at Puhoi

The Puhoi river is a great place for Kayaking at the weekend from Auckland. We did a one way trip downstream to the sea from Puhoi (where a delicious cheese is made) and were picked up by the people who rented the kayaks and taken back to our car.



It did get a bit cloudy later in the day and it rained on us in the estuary approaching Wenderholm Regional Park, but it was a great day. Next time we'll go the other way and end up at the pub in Puhoi.

Various activities in August

Charlotte left to go back to Tahiti after staying with us for 9 weeks. We had enjoyed her stay again for the second year running. We will all miss her. Photo by Joe.


Many hours were spent playing Gran Turismo 4, which resulted in one of the worst back injuries I have had!



Joe was five on the 10th and here Anita's cake for him. Lego plane built by Charlotte.

Whenuapai Air Show

We had a day out at the air show at Whenuapai, (half an hour from Auckland) during the summer. NZ don't have very many jets and had to borrow a couple of F14'a from the Australian Air Force for the show. They were extraordinarily loud, even with the earplugs that were handed out to everyone, but very exciting.

NZ air force do have some interesting planes though. Look at the size of the tailplane on this transporter!