Tuesday October 25
Depart from our hotels in Wellington (with some crazy wind action happening) and a bracing walk to the railway station heading to Masterton arriving mid afternoon. Scenic ride passing the waters edge with the Rimutaku Ranges in the distance and then the suburbs of Lower and Upper Hutt passing us by before entering the dark tunnels to then be greeted by Lake Wairarapa. The green hills roll into a landscape scattered with yellow gorse and sprinkled with sheep and cows entering the fertile valley.
Greeted by the Director of New Pacific Studios and a quick shop at the supermarket to stock up on food and other resources. Then it was a drive of 20 minutes to our residence at Kaiparoro Historic Homestead on the base of Mount Bruce. We settled into our rooms and decided on our studios. Poppy’s choice of living was in the Cottage with attached studio and my room – the Mason - in the house and the Old Garage Studio adjoining the carport but still very close to the residence was settled.
A tour of house and yard along with a walk over the stile through a neighbour’s property led us to a shallow flowing creek. The evening was about getting acquainted over our pork and caraway meatballs in tomato sauce and
some local wine.
Wednesday October 26th
Morning coffee with Poppy before heading off to our introduction to Pukaha Wildlife Centre – a 942 hectacre property in Mt Bruce Forest. We saw some amazing wildlife including the feeding of the baby kiwi – not white kiwi as she was in hospital having small stones taken out of her tummy – some prehistoric reptiles that link back to dinosaurs and birdlife as well.
Birds included the kiwi, kokako, huia, kaka, kakapo, tui and the hihi. We watched eels in the clear waters, water birds in the wetlands as well as the kaka’s at feeding time. Walking through the trees was amazing - rainforest smells and birdsong too.
Thursday October 27th
A 20 minute drive with Kay to Masteron today to visit Aratoi - the Wairarapo Museum of Art and History. We met up with Gil, a board member and Sheila, a past director of NPS. We needed to check out the space in readiness for our artist talk for Saturday with other local artists Turi Park and Sheila too.
After the gallery we visited King Street Art Workshop and purchased more supplies before heading back to NPS again. Later that afternoon we arranged our studio spaces in readiness for a bit of work.
Friday October 28th
Poppy and Kay drove to Palmerston North while I stayed back at NPS. Kay was working on a research paper presentation about links to the Danish community in the area and Poppy spent some time visiting galleries in the city.
My feet and legs had been swollen since my arrival and I needed to rest and elevate the feet and as much as possible. I worked in the studio for a while and started on a small series of textile pieces in response to maori capes. Also started a small series of works on paper relating to the surrounding landscape.
Saturday October 29th
A visit early morning by Turi Park and his Mum before our talk at Aratoi - was good to meet and chat as well as talk about Turi experience as a short resident at NPS earlier this year.
Turi works in both graphic design and as a landscape inspired painter. A beautiful sunny day here as well after some very cold, windy and wet days.
Busy to then get prepared for the artist’s talk in a slideshow format. The talk was moderately attended but there were good questions and we met more artists and people from the community. After the talk I was sent off to the doctor to attend to my feet – fluid tablets hoping to ease the swelling.
Sunday October 30th
A morning visit to Eketahuna – a short drive to a small community about five minutes north on highway 2. It is one of those idiosynchratic country towns that hold memories of the past. We visited a local art and craft display and the information centre then headed off to a local cheese maker – Biddy and purchased some fine cheese made from the milk of Molly the cow.
Later that afternoon we headed down Kaiparoro Road heading towards a track along a river meeting a hunter and his dog as he parked near us. We told him where we were heading so he would’nt shoot in our direction.
Poppy and I explored all along the waters edge and got some great video footage and photographs. This was also the first day we noticed the pink tags on the trees and were puzzled by their positioning????? We thought maybe fishermen tagged certain good fishing spots as pathways from the road side.
Monday October 31st
Today we had the car for a while so we headed out to Mauriceville to gather more footage and photograph more of the landscape of the valley. Great views of rolling green hills and the Norwegian Church high on the hill.
Then headed off to Masterton for more supplies – picked up some treasures to work with at the Op Shop and a favourite coffee mug too. Had brunch at The Strada café then headed back to work in the studio.
A quick photo session was taken after a request for an urgent photo of the visiting artists. We captured an interesting mug shot of us both us in Poppy’s studio to send off for an article by Anne Taylor for the local paper in readiness for the Open Studios Sunday November 6th.
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