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.
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