Allez Les Tous Noirs!

Saturday 5 July

A big day in Ōtepoti Dunedin - pouring with rain when we woke and pretty grey much of the day but we didn’t let that get in the way!

First stop was Moana Aquatic Centre for Louis to have a swim, while I wandered down into the Octagon to visit St Paul’s Cathedral and the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

The cathedral was an interesting mix of traditional, biblical stained glass windows and some more modern pieces including the glass cross hanging over the altar and and the very blocky wooden pipe organ. I had a lovely chat with the cathedral sacristan Margaret who was in charge of the souvenir shop and was making the most beautiful lace bookmarks using traditional, decorated wooden bobbins and a card template. She asked where I was from and what I was planning to do in Dunedin, and we discussed the weather, the rugby (should I take a hot water bottle to keep warm?!?), her lacemaking skills and the joys of discovering amazing places in Te Wai Pounamu, the South Island. God's going to be busy though - the prayer wall was full to bursting with rolled up prayers and wishes jammed into the chicken wire screen - I wonder if any were asking for an All Blacks win?!

Outside the Cathedral in the Octagon, Rabbie Burns was sitting in full splendour, likely appreciating the dire, cold weather which would have reminded him of his homeland - the street behind him just disappearing into the low wet cloud!

Between the cinema and the art museum I got lured into an alleyway which had murals all along on either side, depicting the various cultural influences on Dunedin as it was founded - Janet Frame, the poet, represented the Scottish heritage, there was a Chinese aviator, William Wong, a Lebanese businessman, Gabriel Farry and an unknown Māori woman and her tamariki. And the iconography surrounding them was also influenced by these cultures, nature and Kiwiana - really fascinating.

My next stop was the Dunedin Public Art Gallery housed inside a cool modern building. It was interesting to see a Ralph Hotere there, which hearkened back to the piece we had seen in the sculpture garden in Port Chalmers in its design - polished corrugated metal, etched with burned marks. The piece was one of a number of protest pieces he created against the 1990s roading design for the region which included the demolition of his studio there.

The Nom*D design exhibition was kinda cool - apparently this fashion design label was created in 1986, based in Dunedin and has international recognition, including being worn by Rihanna in a Puma ad and showing at British Fashion Week. The style is eclectically punky, with a focus on interesting shapes and reimagining of classic tailoring, with a dollop of stencil printed T-shirts and fabrics. Pretty cool, and a few steampunk vibes thrown in.

The final exhibit I had time to see was "Unutai e! Unutai e!" Unutai e! Unutai e! harnesses the power of contemporary art to shed light on an urgent environmental crisis: the deteriorating state of fresh water across Ngāi Tahu tribal lands. In 2020, Ngāi Tahu filed a statement of claim with the High Court in Ōtautahi Christchurch, seeking recognition of their rakatirataka (authority) over wai māori (fresh water) within their takiwā (territory).

To support this claim, Te Kura Taka Pini, the division of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu responsible for the case, enlisted photographer Anne Noble to capture and document the crisis. Her role was to provide an impartial perspective—capturing the people in their chosen waterbodies while also revealing the widespread environmental degradation we witness daily across Te Waipounamu. What began as a photographic assignment evolved into an extensive visual archive, illustrating not only the devastation but also the resilience of whānau, hapū, and iwi striving to restore wai māori, uphold rakatirataka, and protect mahika kai practices. There were very few positive stories to report - most involved the draining of waterways for irrigation, the blocking of waterways by detritus and slash washed downstream during floods, the pollution of waterways and their resident species due to farming practices, industrial practices and general abuse of the natural resources, and the necessity to work to reverse these tragedies.

Late lunch back at Banjo, where I baked a batch of cheese & thyme scones (thyme picked from our last stay with Jonny & Debs and happily growing in my herb pot!) then we packed up a picnic for the evening… cos we were off to see the All Blacks take on France for their first match of the season!

Took the free bus to the Forsyth Barr Stadium and squished ourselves into the smallest seats ever in the cheap end. The stadium is quite impressive with its roof protecting the pitch, players and supporters from the elements, though not the cold - it was freezing inside! I went for a wander as we had an hour to kill before kick-off and found the Sky sports team on the sideline (ex ABs Kieran Read, Mils Muliaina and Israel Dagg, plus Rikki Swanell), some fun French supporter outfits, a cool spot to watch the ABs warm up drills, and apparently I just missed Louis' old school friend Mark Dolan who was in the seats just above my head as I was watching the drills!

National anthems, the haka and kick off were all as they should be - rousing and exciting - and the first half got under way with an early French penalty.

It was a good match - France took an early lead but we fought back and after two disallowed tries in the second half, still managed to beat them 31-27 - yay! 🎉 🇳🇿🏉🇫🇷

Queuing for the bus back was another matter - we all piled out of the stadium and Louis & I made our way back to the dark corner of the docklands where the number 14 bus had dropped us off, and found about 20-30 people waiting there so we joined them. Turned out we had missed the first bus by about 5 minutes so had almost half an hour to wait - by which time around 30-40 more people had turned up and NOT joined the queue in an orderly fashion so when the bus finally showed up about 10 minutes behind schedule there was a bit of argy bargy as we all scrambled to get on board! I think we all squeezed on eventually (the driver turned a blind eye to capacity quotas I reckon) and we had a fairly riotous ride back out towards Port Chalmers... and were delighted when we recognised our surroundings and managed to push the bell in time!