We're still moving slowly. We spent the day after our cliff walk holed up in a campground: rain and winds of 25-35 mph were (correctly) forecast for the next 24 hours, and we figured, why bother? Today, Wednesday, the 11th, was far better, so, after a bit of shopping in Mangawhai, we drove on, partly inland, partly along beautiful beaches and seascapes, to Whangerai, and parked in an approved overnight spot in a carpark near the regional stadium.
Here I must remind the reader that the "wh" in Maori is pronounced as an "f." Seriously. So if someone says "whuck you," be offended, or at least attentive. And pronounce "Mangawhai" and "Whangerai" correctly. But I digress.
After lunch, we walked into the old town area, and, somewhat to our surprise, wandered into the Hundertwasser Art Centre. As students of this blog will recall, Friendensreich emigrated to New Zealand late in his life, built a farm near here, and lived out the rest of his days (except for consulting gigs) in harmony with Nature. He also designed the Hundertwasser Toilets in Kawakawa, something we've seen a couple times before, and had resolved to bypass on this campaign. We'd seen his toilets in Vienna just a couple months ago, not to mention other things, and think that we have discharged whatever obligation we may have had to further appreciate his work. But we had to look into the Art Centre, designed by Hundertwasser himself in the 90s, but not built until more recently. It is indeed recognizably authentic. The museum gift shop, I might add, easily surpassed anything we saw of the sort in Vienna. FWIW.
On the way back to the camper, near some of the older historic buildings, we came across one of the more unusual plants we've encountered, a Gomphocarpus, from Africa, aka the scrotum plant or the bishop's balls. You saw it here first...
PS...a very loud rock concert at the stadium caused us to move to the TI out on the highway; lots of musical refugees here tonight.
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At an RV/marine store in Whangerai...why there's a kettle shortage
in Auckland |
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Seeing the dome in the distance, we thought it might be an orthodox
church |
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| But no, it's Hundertwasser Art Centre |
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Undulating tiled floors, just like the other Hundertwasser buildings
we've seen |
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| The aforementioned excellent museum gift shop |
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| Hundertwasseresque snail teapot |
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| Fuller view |
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| Tiny house adjacent to the museum/centre |
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| We think the flag on the right is the Hundertwasser flag |
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| Getting bilingual at a playground; Maori is still not on Duolingo! |
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| The plant: Gomphocarpus |
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| Thank you, Google Lens |
2 comments:
oh wow! love that art centre--and especially the tiny house. so charming!
Had you only known, you could have bought your tea kettle in the Hundertwasser Art Center!
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