Sunshine & Culture on a Gorgeous Spring Day - at Last!

Thursday 25 September

Yay! Our long awaited sunshine delivery arrived!

We took advantage of it with an early walk a km or two down the beach and back - this time heading south first. There were so many shells along the way - classic Kiwi pipis, gorgeous spiral shells, glistening peacock horse mussels, Shell Oil scallop shells, and some beautiful barnacle tracery on some of them. There were also some fascinating bone fragments - one large piece looked like part of a vertebrae, and there was a strange mini skeleton that looked like it was made of tictacs!

Back at the campsite, we sorted ourselves out and drove up to Whangārei to visit the Hundertwasser Art Centre. This amazing structure was built from the Austrian painter & architect’s plans 20 years or so after his death and has very Gaudi overtones in its rejection of straight lines and colourful creativity. He made his home in NZ for the last decades of his life and I love this joyous celebration of his creative thought. The art centre not only celebrates this European visionary, but also has a Māori gallery, and Māori culture is represented in one of the welcome pillars, standing in contrast to the vibrant shiny Hundertwasser structures.

Up on the wiggly, wavy planted roof we climbed up to the pagoda under the golden dome to look out over the Whangārei basin. The black railings along the stairs and around the pagoda were interspersed with interesting shapes and metallic items, and at one point the name "Louis" was spelled out in black ironwork! Very appropriate, especially as we had already been given a $5 discount as the docent on the ticket desk was also called Louis!

Back at Uretiti for lunch, the sun was still out so Louis scrabbled in the tunnel boot and pulled out a boogie board. We bought them with great gusto last summer, but then headed inland so never found a wave to ride them on! He managed about 15 minutes in the waves before declaring it to be too bloomin’ cold and gave up!

Warmed up with a shower and hung at Banjo as the sun went down - dinner of leftovers and couple more episodes of Only Murders to round off a great day!