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Most of photos taken this holiday:

Our New Plymouth trip

Our New Plymouth trip

New Plymouth - 28 July

New Plymouth 29 July

Warning! There are literally hundreds of photos. None of them are captioned, some aren't any good and since both D.C. and I were taking photos many are similar. But still, you'll be able to scroll through as fast as you like and won't have to pretend to be interested when you look at them. It's also a backup for us.

Two drowned rats

Who cares that it's contantly raining...

... we stil made it to the other end of the coastal walkway. (That's the marker at the end of the car park to my right.)

We're not stupid enough to pose out in the rain getting our cameras wet and us even more saturated!

Rhana Davenport giving the opening speech for "a library to scale".

D.C. with (in increasing scale ;-) ) Betty and Martin Smyth.

Ann Shelton and her partner Duncan Munro. Finally able to relax.

New Plymouth 28th July 2007

28 July 2007

We’re in the paper! Our picture, holding Uncle Fred’s quilts in by the banner and a full page article on Uncle Fred on page 13.

Couldn’t stop coughing when I went to bed last night. Just a nagging tickle. At 12.30am I eventually got up and got a Fisherman’s Friend and sucked on that. No problems after that.

Went into town this morning. D.C. bought a postcard and a stamp for Aunty Isabel and we bought some souvenirs for ourselves and as gifts from Puke Ariki.

Then we kind of wandered around town. D.C. wanted to buy a cheap black satchel and we were just checking out other souvenirs. D.C. found a satchel at the Warehouse, that was supposed to be $9.92, but was only $1.95 when she went through the checkout.

We’re weren’t sure what to do next, so went back to Pukekura Park and had a wander through in the opposite direction to the way we went last time. Tried to take photos of a fantail. May have got a couple. Had lunch at The Tea House again. $43 – for two stuffed chicken breasts (we liked that last time so thought we’d have it again), two hot chocolates, and we shared a kiwifruit cheesecake. Just as well we’re walking everywhere – the public transport service is supposed to be useless and I’ve only seen buses parked under the ‘air-bridge’ between the two buildings of Puke Ariki and driving along that street.

1.21pm: We’ve come back to the unit for a short time to have a cup of tea and wait until a walk starts from Puke Ariki at 2.00pm.

The pedestrian crossings in New Plymouth are different to what we’re used to. A lot of them are only a car length from intersections and so you get cars turning out of intersections and stopping so you can cross. Quite unnerving at times. Especially since some of the pedestrian crossings have signs saying “Pedestrians Give Way” which seem to be directed at pedestrians, not cars.

5.26pm: Sitting here waiting to go over the road to the Govett-Brewster to the opening of Ann Shelton’s exhibition.

We went to Puke Ariki to go on the guided tour at 1.30pm, only to discover that it started at 1.00pm. So we did it by ourselves using the book we’d bought the other day. But first we went up to check on Uncle Fred’s quilts. There had been a box added that contained Govett-Brewster invitations for tonight, and a potted biography of Uncle Fred (incorrect. It said he was born in 1904 when it was 1903 – correct on the other side of the wall. It also had phot0grapher.) Some people were admiring them and seemed quite taken by the quilts. We tried a bit of eavesdropping but couldn’t hear anything. One elderly couple were spending a long time there so I asked if they’d seen where Puke Ariki had done a bit of conservation work. They hadn’t so I pointed it out to them. Turns out he’d been to Uncle Fred’s place at Sentry Hill. We didn’t let on that we were related to Fred or that the quilts belonged to us, just said that we’d known him.

Then we went on our walk. We skipped the first few points of interest because we’d seen them earlier in the week. Then we started the Tiki Tour, having a good look around St Mary’s Pro Cathedral. What the heck is a PRO Cathedral? The mind boggles. Perhaps the oldest stone church in New Zealand, it was impressive to look around. It had a stained glass window of a Boy Scout, complete with Boy Scout Pocket knife… and God’s hands pointing at him as if miming shooting a gun. I’m sure there must be some other relevance to that.

Then we went up Marslands Hill and saw the Carillion (haven’t heard it properly yet, just in the distance) and tried to see Mount Taranaki. He’s still not co-operating. We could see his knees, but nothing else. Only a couple more days available to us, so I hope he co-operates.

Then we followed the rest of the walk, ending up back at the motel. I ironed my blouse and we got ready for Ann’s opening tonight. It’s 5.36pm so I’d better start packing up. More soon.

10.51pm: Well we are certainly doing things we’d never done before. We went to the opening of Ann’s show, which went off very well. We were treated like royalty and were introduced to numerous people (most of whom we’ve forgotten) as if we were important dignitaries, even though Ann was the star tonight. One was Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins (I think. *blush*). Ann introduced us to some of her friends as well (so she had plenty of support, which was good).

Betty and Martin Smyth came too, so we showed them about and told them about Uncle Fred. In some respects it was nice to have some nice, non-arty people with us. Not that any of the ‘arty’ ones made us feel unwelcome, it just that it’s a whole different world to what we’re used to.

The ‘powers-that-be’ kept on making sure that we were happy, had enough to drink (pineapple juice), and were happy with the way that Uncle Fred was being portrayed. We were expecting to, and would have been happy to, turn up to the opening, blend into the background (videoing it for Ann’s records, which I did anyway) and then go back to the unit again.

I videoed the opening speech (given by Rhana Davenport – the director of the gallery. Must check on these names) and she pointed out Fred’s relatives Frances and Sereena Burton. I think I must have gone as pink as my blouse and D.C. started coughing.

We were invited to the after opening dinner at PaNKaWalla (I’m not sure if I’ve got the right number of capitals there) and had our meal and drinks paid for. It’s an Indian Restaurant and everyone was served the banquet meal – entrée dishes, pompadoms, main (narn bread, rice, butter chicken, a lamb dish and a vegetarian dish – all nice and not too hot. The only thing that was too hot was the butter chicken and that was in a ‘straight from the saucepan to burn the mouth’ type of way.) Dessert was mango ice cream. I sat next to Ann, across the table from Duncan Munro and D.C. was next to me with Helen Telfor (assistant director of Govett-Brewster) opposite and Ann’s friend, Debby, who’d helped her with going through Uncle Fred’s books at our place.

We left at about 10.30pm and came home. I had a kiwifruit (not much in the way of veges in Indian cooking) and had a cup of green tea. The time is presently 11.16pm.

By the way: Uploading the photos in 'small' format makes them postage stamp sized in the blog (on my computer) instead of playing card sized, and made no difference to the size of the clicked on photo. Sorry about that folks.

The rag

Taranaki Daily News
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dailynews/4143438a6551.html

But they don't have all the photos, including the ones of us (me in my Thunderbirds jumper ;-) - the seam of which is coming unstitched, I'll have to fix that when I get home.)

Sorry

Was I the only person who didn't realise that if you click on the photographs in my blog then you see an enlargement of the photograph?

I'm using Picasa 2 to upload my photographs because it's so easy. You select the photo you want to blog and then you push a button saying "Blog this". But then it asks you if you want the photo "small, medium or large". I've always chosen medium, thinking that it would be a good size to show on the blog, but never noticed any difference in size between the three options. Now that I know the difference (thanks, Doug) I'll upload as 'small' and hope that the photos are easier to see.

By the way. We're in the paper! Page 13 of the Taranaki Daily News and, apparently, the article's going to be in the Sydney Morning Herald!

Fame at last

27 July 2007 New Plymouth

27th July 2007Discovered this morning that the Lantern Parade was on last night along the walkway, which would have been why the searchlight was in the sky. We would have rather seen that than the show, but if we hadn't seen the show we would have been with the Smyths anyway. And that was certainly an enjoyable evening.

Today, being basically a ‘free day’ we decided to do the Te Henui Walkway along the waterfront. (It was free too.) At 9.30am we decided to pop into the Govett-Brewster to see Ann Shelton, but it was shut – until 10.00am by one sign and 10.30am by the one next to it! Go figure.

We went to Puke Ariki at 10.00am and met Suzette Goldsmith who is keen to write a biography about Uncle Fred, if she can get a grant to do so. We are more than happy to let her since he got no recognition when he was alive, and he was a remarkable man. It’s only been 25 years since his death before Taranaki has started to realise what an asset to recollecting his history he was. She gave us a couple of her books “A Potted History of Tea” and one other (which D.C. has packed away to read later) so that we can check that we approve of her work.

Then we started on our walk at Len Lye’s wind wand (a better bit of art than his films). The full walkway is about six kilometres long, but we started about a third of the way into it so didn’t do the full track. We missed out one bit because they were doing repairs after the tornado two weeks ago. We saw the Placemakers that had lost its roof when the tornado hit. They had these huge machines repairing the rockwall by the walkway. The guys who operate them are craftsmen.

We called into Placemakers because D.C. wanted some glue to fix up her shoe. A brand new shoe, (not one of the boots) and she’d caught it in one of the New Plymouth District Council footpaths and separated the toe from the sole (they are ‘Commando M’ sandshoes – very comfortable). So we got some ‘elephant glue’ and stuck it together again – along with our fingers.

D.C. was pleased because she finally got to see and touch a bit of beach. Being on the west coast of the North Island it is iron sand.

Yes - that is my pink bag.

We can’t complain about the weather. I brought all these warm clothes – scarf, woollen socks, leg warmers, thermal spencer and leggings, polar fleece vest – and the only thing from that list that I’ve warn is my ‘vest’, and I’ve abandoned that over the last few days. I haven’t really needed to wear my waterproof over-trousers and used my raincoat more for warmth than dryness.

When we’d got to the end of the walkway there was a slight shower, but not enough to really bother putting raincoats on, so we didn’t bother. We sat on a seat on the way back (I wrote a couple of postcards) and got wetter from the seat than we did the weather. We stood and watched some ducks and let the seat of our slacks dry.

It was about 2.00pm when we’d got back, so we undid all our good work and had lunch. Apricot and chicken in pastry parcels with a nice salad. D.C. had a hot chocolate and I had an apple and fejoia juice. We shared a chocolate fudge brownie. *yum!*

Then we went to Puke Ariki to find out where the post boxes were and the newspaper. While we were there we had a look at where Uncle Fred’s quilt exhibition is going to be held. There were only two things to do so they let us look around. Diana Gibbons came down and had a chat and let me take photos. We are thinking about letting them keep them, either as a long term loan or a gift.

Then I posted the postcards. The $1.50 stamp is of Mount Taranaki. That’s the only time that we saw it today.

Then up to the Govett-Brewster. Ann’s happier now because it’s coming together. Debbie had arrived so we were happy to see her again, as well as Ann’s boyfriend, Duncan Monro. Ann let us take photos and video of the setting up, so it’s been interesting to see behind the scenes of both exhibitions. This hasn’t been a touristy holiday, but it has certainly been interesting, exciting and different.

Because we’d had lunch so late we weren’t hungry, so we thought we’d get a small hamburger or pie. I’d discovered a couple of potential places in the yellow pages so we started working.

Let me say here and now that if you ever only want to have something to eat to keep you going through the night, then a Burgerfuel burger is NOT the thing to have. They are huge! Imagine a bread and butter plate sized bun and beef patty (1/3 pound). I’d only heard about them on the news when they were going to sell shares to their customers, and since it’s a New Zealand company I was keen to try one. They are good! So is the ice cream. We are very full now. D.C.’s already sleeping it off.

We stopped off at New World on the way home and I bought some milk for my breakfast.

I had thought it would be a really early night, but it’s 9.50pm and I haven’t sent this to the blog yet. Better go do it now.