Working the NZ International Arts Festival

This is a shot of the 8 foot tall wall we built to help protect the Crystal Palace venue from the strong winds that often whip up here on the Wellington Harbor. The ocean is about sixty feet on the other side of this wall, right after the board walk. You can see the 'L' shaped steel frame that sits between the wood framed sections. The steel is either bolted to the concrete deck, 3 bolts per steel post, or weighted with these 1000 lb concrete  blocks. The piping supplies the water and electric services. All of this is temporary and will be taken down in three weeks once the festival is over.

This is the long section of wall that runs parallel to the harbor board walk. Once the wall was faced with decent ply the advertisements were posted. Gregg did the figuring to sort out the wall set up. I just did a lot of 'skillful' grunt work with a varied crew of four others, including a great guy named Tony, of Maori descent, another of Gregg's friends.

Behind the big wall we built is the Crystal Palace where several shows take place during the three week International Arts Festival. There is only a small portion of the Palace visible just above the spik and span adv. on the portable toilet trailer that sticks up above the wall. The cool looking roof with many triangulated sections is the war canoe house which also has several small shops and cafes in it. Behind from where I took this picture the board walk drops off into the harbor sea. One day the wind was near gale force and the rain made it difficult to see. Even when the rain had stopped the wind drove the salt spray so hard it was difficult for me to see for a while, but the weather changes quickly here.

This is the Crystal Palace from the outside. The horizontal wall sections that are covered with corrugated steel, on the inside they are covered with beveled mirrors, and the windows above that are stained glass. It is very striking atmosphere from the inside and I will try to get a picture later.

This is a shot of the civic center, a short walk from the Crystal Palace. The suspended fern sphere is very cool. The civic center area is loaded with art and creative spaces. Gregg was generous and gave me two of his festival tickets, which of course were the best seats, to two shows. The first was a British theater group that did an original "The Wild Bride" which was a great blend of acting dancing and music, with all the central actors being very accomplished in all three skills. The next show was a Brazilian modern dance group that was quite amazing in their use of modern music and of course sensual dance. If I am lucky I will see some more of the festival shows this weekend.

My official crew badge for helping out with the Arts festival. Two of the top dogs in the technical end of setting up the festival zoom around on Segways between the many different venue areas. They make it manageable to get around quickly but still have their risks. Over the weekend  one of them had a mishap catching a curb and broke his leg in two places. For two nights we were put up in a penthouse apartment in the center of the city, a place reserved for some crew, which saved us nearly three hours of travel time daily. So we ate out a lot and I got to see some of the social scene in Wellington. It is a very attractive place this time of year. They even have work crews that spray wash the cobble and brick side walks here in the city, so it is very clean.

That week began with a long haul of prepping and sanding the 1000 square foot floor for Gregg and Carla's marae, and ended the following weekend with more intensive sanding, about 22 hours worth, but most of the bad wear and staining was gone.

This week we hope to get at least two coats of urethane on the floor. We hand sanded after the first coat last night. Today we will put the second coat on, so far so good. I am out straight daily here between the sabbatical work and helping Gregg, but its all good. Yesterday I was very happily surprised to get an early birthday card from my coworkers back home, good on ya!

Along side the work site for the festival was a lot of activity in the harbor. Here school groups practice and have mock competitions in long boats.

Here is the other side of the war canoe house.

This boat shed on the left was a place that Gregg did a lot of work on when I was visiting 14 years ago. I helped him install a large set of new stairs in it at that time. Below is more of our daily harvest from the garden. I think I have not eaten so consistently well as I have here, for many years. I am inspired to get a garden finally going when I get back home.

On the road and trail.

 Ready for another commute to sabbatical land and beyond, skewed helmet and all. Gregg had recovered this bike from the scrap heap. I was able to resurrect the brakes and so far there are three gears that are usable, plenty for my commute along the coast. It's about ten miles from home to the train station, so twenty miles road trip on the bike most days this week.

 Here is a shot of the most common trail side flowers in the pasture hillsides, gorse. There were several butterflies that seemed to like it but that may be the extent of its local fans. Gorse is very prickly so the grazing animals leave it alone.

 Here we see the island of Kapiti from the south coast point of Colonial Knob, just above the Porirua and Kenepuru area where most of my last week was spent learning from the CATT ( crisis assessment and treatment); HBT ( home based stabilization treatment ); and Acute Day Programming services of Capital & Coast Board of Health.

 Along the ride back, off the main highway that makes up most of the bike route are lovely farms. Here are some local lamas, which made a good excuse for a brief break from peddling.

The island here is Mana, reportedly the first place sheep disembarked in New Zealand, with Kapiti in the upper right .

 It took a little over an hour to hike up to this vantage point from the Kenepuru Hospital, which is about  twenty minute walk from the Porirua train station pictured below.

 Above you can see the underground passage that allows people to get to the correct side of the tracks for boarding the north and south bound trains.

 The south island is the cluster of mountains in the upper left horizon, then Mana and Kapiti islands on the right side as seen from Colonial Knob. below are more of the wonderful strawberries from Carla and Gregg's garden. They have been going strong the entire past month that I have been here. The high bush blueberries are also producing heaps. So breakfast is always full of great fresh berries.

 Below is the view back toward Wellington and it's harbor.

 There are about five dozen large windmills in this photo along the ridges just outside the Wellington area and the southern coastal range of the north island.

Last Day of vacation period- KAYAK FISHING!

The sun here is intense more so than the northern hemisphere due to the thinning of ozone down this way. So we lathered up with 30+ sunscreen for a few hours of solar radiation coming from all directions. 

We paddled a good ways before setting our lines with bait and then drifting with the rhythms of the sea.

 A large Kowhai in the ice chest and a smaller snapper on the cutting board

 A stilt below is also looking for it's next meal from the bounty of the sea.

 After a brief preparation Nils and I paddled out for a couple of miles and began fishing. It was the clearest day so far since I arrived almost a month ago. After four hours of paddling and drifting we had managed to catch two snappers each and Nils also caught a larger fish called a kowhai, kind of like a fat mackerel. So we have eaten fresh snapper the last two evenings with great salads. I also caught a young shark the measured over three feet long but let him go along with a couple of other fish too small to keep. In several of these photos you can get a good sense of the nearby mountains. In the first photo you can see Kapiti Island and faintly some of the mountains of the southern island that surround Marlboro Sound.

 The bait board remains ready for re-baiting as we keep catching more fish and drift with lines dragging bottom.

 This one is too small and has great fins that are very brightly colored, and the first fish caught by Maori custom has to be released to honor the sea spirit.

 Just beyond the high tide mark, these stones, and large drift wood, are the small dunes. The Tararua Range dominates the background, a high place I hope to travel on another beautiful day in the near future.

New work on Carla's marae and other distractions of late.

 This is the other half of Gregg and Carla's home, known as Carla's marae, measuring about 20 by 46 feet, an old portable school chemistry classroom. Gregg and I moved everything, including the walls for three rooms, out of Carla's marae in two days, leaving just enough for a friend who would visit for two days from France, Eric Noel, who is one of the world's top technicians for pyro-techniques. He has been involved with the design and set up of many huge pyro displays for world events and other big celebrations. I was able to start scrapping areas of the floor that were the worst for paint and grime on top of the wood. Some sections need repair, and we traveled around seeking materials and tools for the repairs. Eventually we will sand and urethane the floor. This is a project Gregg and Carla have wanted to do for many years and I am pleased to be able to help make it happen.

 This an example of a section that needs repair.

This is a panorama of Kapiti Island about 3 miles off the coast, set aside primarily as a bird sanctuary.

The tractors here are modified so they can get out deep enough in the surf when launching the sturdy boats. Note the dual rear chain drives that are part of the modifications on the tractor.

The wind in these parts gets strong coming across the Tasman Sea. Here a weather vane is made of rugged rocks, and a smaller version for the lighter winds sits atop, built by G&C's friend Hamish McIntyre.

This is Hebe, part of a hedge at Gregg and Carla's, hosting a honey and bubble bee at this moment. A couple of days ago Allen McShane, a friend of Gregg's, pulled a large lot of honey from the hive he has kept in Gregg's orchard, and he left us a big bucket of this fresh honey.

For the past couple of days Eric Noel has been visiting from France (seated in the light shirt), and here he is visiting at Danny and Sara's home where Gregg and I caught up after a morning of shoveling concrete for a new patio at John Harper's home down the road. Danny and Sara are long time friend's  of G&C's who work in the theater and arts community here, and are very busy getting ready for the New Zealand International Arts Festival that starts in a couple of weeks. Danny and Sara's home is very near the ocean beach, with creative collections and displays of driftwood, seashells, and many other fine details of the ocean shoreline environment. Danny takes care to grow a very versatile group of trees, bushes, flowers and vegetable foods. Like G&C they live paying attention to their impact on the environment and continue to create a simple but very interesting and comfortable home.

Eric and Gregg at the grill, cooking up home grown eggs and bacon for lunch.

These are the seed pods for the flax plant. The seeds are a favorite of the local bird called Tui.

The flax plant in my shadow.

Lavender abounds in G&C's lawn and garden.

A native New Zealand Sulfur variety butterfly on a squash leaf.

Nasturtiums go into our nightly salads, and the flower below is another beautiful variety in the yard. I am making plans to go out on the sea tomorrow morning in a kayak with another friend of G&C's, Nils Melchert.

 Here you can see the computer den in 'Carla's marae'. Below are several shots of the 'before' captions of the three big rooms in the marae before Gregg and I move everything out so that the original wood floor can be  sanded and sealed. The marae originally was built by students in something like a vocational program and then used as a mobile school classroom, in particular a science/ chem lab. Gregg bought it after it sat vacant for many years and had it moved to his orchard along with the smaller one that is joined to it that houses the kitchen, bath, living and dining areas.

 this is the hall created by the large movable petitions that separate off the three rooms. Gregg being very experienced in stage set  construction made these 'flats' as room dividers and on a couple he attached cabinets for storage, all on wheels. I was glad he had not made them any bigger, as the hefting and transport by foot was a lot for this middle aged stage hand stand in.

 Lots of art work and books to move besides beds, bedding and clothes.

 This large marae is great for all the light it gets and it warms up nicely from the afternoon sun.

 The blue room where I stayed the first few days before I shifted out into the garden with my tent just prior to the cider party crowd arriving.

 Here you see the west end half of the marae has a great set of sliding doors with an overhead rollaway for security when they are gone or want more privacy in the evening. These doors made it much easier to get everything out, especially the large flats once disassembled.

 Gregg's orchard tractor and trailer made the eight or so loads move much quicker to the storage area in his work shed.

 Taking time in the early evening to 'smell the roses', in this case a dahlia, and visit with the natives.

 In between the marae transformation we whipped up a garden shed (yesterday) for Gregg and Carla's friend Cathy who lives quite near the sea in Otaki and for whom Gregg will soon build her new home.

Another shy and elusive native.