27 years and awesome artwork

By -

Friday this week was our 27th wedding anniversary. We had decided to celebrate by visiting Gibbs Farm on the Kaipara coast. The farm is only open for public visits for one day a month, so Nicky booked Thursday and Friday as annual leave as Thursday the 21st was the June open day. We arrived around 10.30 after a pleasant drive up Highway 16 and were met at the gate, given a map, and told that they let the lions out at 2pm so we had better be away by then.

Gibbs Farm is around 4 hectares of undulating countryside owned by Alan Gibbs, a NZ entrepreneur. He commissions artists to produce big works for his "farm". There are also animals (giraffe, alpaca, ostrich, hairy cows and sheep) on the "farm", but it was the sculptures which attracted Nicky and I. We had seen a feature on TV back in March of the latest work to be installed which reminded me of Anthony Gormley's "Angel of the North" (for those not familiar with this have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_the_North). I contacted the farm and booked us in for the June open day.

My biggest concern prior to the visit was the weather, which had been quite wet at the beginning of the week. We did have some rain, but most of the time it was fine and we also had a couple of long periods of sunshine. The sculptures were incredible. The hard-standing paths which meander round the farm make walking an easy option, but to see the sculptures up close you have to leave the path. The scene changed every few minutes as we walked round, taking our time to enjoy the views over the Kaipara and to explore as many of the sculpture as possible. The pictures below hopefully convey a little of the incredible nature of the artworks.








It was a fantastic experience, one which we hope to repeat and can strongly recommend. We enjoyed our picnic too, but the sculptures stole the day.

On Friday we had a more leisurely day. Claire is suffering with a cold so we popped in to see her for a while on our way to Galbraiths Ale House for lunch. Nicky kindly offered to drive home so that I could have a pint of their excellent Bellringers Best Bitter with our fish and chips. We had a very quiet afternoon and enjoyed the warmth of the sun in the lounge, and I slept off the effects of the chips and the beer. In the evening we watched "Endeavour" which you have probably already seen in the UK - a drama about the young Inspector Morse. We thoroughly enjoyed it and hope that more will follow.

Saturday morning dawned bright and fine and a little warmer due to their being very little wind. I was very pleased about this as I had agreed to join a skinny-dipping Polar Plunge to celebrate the winter solstice and to promote naturism. I drove up to Hatfields Beach, just north of Orewa, and met up with four others, one who was there to record the event for posterity. The sea was quite cold but the swim was invigorating, and the sun came out for awhile to warm us up as we got dry. Non of the passers-by seemed at all concerned about us skinny dipping and had a friendly chat with us. The only down side was the sand flies using my feet for brunch, and at the time of writing my right foot is quite swollen but my left foot isn't so bad. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and was very pleased that the weather made it so easy.

In the afternoon we went to MOTAT (Museum of Technology and Transport) to take advantage of their free visit in June promotion to celebrate the work of all their volunteers. We had not been to the aviation display before and enjoyed that before getting the tram (also free) round to the main site.

Today we have had a quiet day at home, Nicky sewing and my keeping my feet up, while experiencing both sunshine and showers but still getting some laundry done.

As for the beginning of the week, I had some Mac work and Nicky was busy at the library again. I drove to Ranui on Monday to pick up Nicky's iPad as she had inadvertently left it there last Friday when delivering the quilts for the show. The weather wasn't so good with quite a bit of rain, but we are seriously getting into winter time now.

Take care,
Rick

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Challenging week

By -
Image
 It has been a challenging week. At the beginning of the week Nicky was still getting worse, so she arranged an appointment with the GP on Tuesday afternoon. The GP confirmed that Nicky had bronchitis and sinusitis, but that her chest sounded clear. With the infection being viral, there was no medication that could be prescribed, but some additional painkillers were in order to manage the symptoms and assist with the pain caused by congestion, coughing and vomiting. As the week progressed Nicky started to improve slowly. The periods of incessant coughing and coughing induced vomiting started to subside yesterday. She was able get a little more sleep and keep a little more food down. The washing machine has been very busy with regular changes of PJ’s, dressing gowns and bedding. Some of the laundry has been dried outside but the winter weather has deteriorated over the last couple of days. While Nicky has been unwell she has cancelled all her commitments. I have been running errands...
Read more

Tea and Tissues

By -
Image
 We have had a quiet week at home, doing jigsaws and listening to Harry Potter. Nicky seemed to be getting better at the beginning of the week but it was short lived. As the week has drawn to a close she has actually started getting brighter and felt like doing some things round the house. Nicky got dressed for the first time this week on Friday to go to the hospital for a blood test, and we did a little shopping on the way home. Yesterday she made a couple of lemon cakes and delivered one to Eleanor for her birthday. Nicky found the few minutes walk there and back exhausting. Meanwhile, I gradually got worse through the week until Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday I ploughed through a whole box of 240 tissues, and most of a packet of throat lozenges. Paracetamol helped with the general aches and temperature fluctuations. This weekend is the first time I have done my morning exercises in over a week, and I even managed a short amble this morning in the lovely (almost spiring-like) ...
Read more

Easter

By -
Image
 Steve continued his convalescing with us at the beginning of the week, and continued to improve each day. He decided to start the journey home on Tuesday by driving to Te Kuiti. As Monday was going to be his last evening with us he provided another take-away dinner from the Spice Guru, which we enjoyed as much as the previous one. Steve and I were a little early collecting it, so while we were waiting I was having a look at the buildings at the bottom end of Victoria Avenue and spotted this: I think Whanganui rivals Napier for the quality of its Art Deco architecture. Before Steve left on Tuesday morning, he and Nicky went to the Splash Centre to have a wallow in the thermal pool. This had been recommended by Nicky’s physio when she had seen her on Monday. Nicky had a short swim too and they both enjoyed their time. We were very pleased that Steve felt sufficiently recovered to start his journey home, as it was not good seeing him in as much pain, as when he first arrived. It was ...
Read more