The coolest toilets and other things we saw on our last day in New Zealand

Before I start this post, I want to acknowledge what a tough couple of weeks it has been, on the heels of 3 difficult years. I’m so proud of everyone who has taken a stand day after day, during a pandemic no less, demanding long overdue change. It’s been painful to witness so much police brutality on peaceful protestors at the behest of our own president. That is not democracy, that is fascism. Black Lives Matter, it’s time for systemic change and true equality. Enough is enough.

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Now, take a moment and a deep cleansing breath…

The day before we began our journey home, we drove north with Kerry and Bob to the site of the Waitangi treaty which documents the founding of New Zealand’s independence in an agreement between the Maori people and the British government.

Then we had lunch in the town of Kerikeri overlooking this lovely sheltered cove on the river.

Isn’t this the most gorgeous portrait of a Victorian period Maori woman? It hung in the dining room of the restaurant.

After lunch we poked around the first store in New Zealand, and saw the oldest house behind it on the right.

This fabulous book caught my eye in the store and is now on my wish list. If I hadn’t been so concerned about the weight of my luggage I would have bought it. It’s a hefty book. The illustrations and photos in it are gorgeous, and the author wraps the stories of the people, history and geology of New Zealand with its plant life. The author has a very nice blog of the same title that the book grew out of.

On a side note, I want to know why no one in the US makes rhubarb flavored drinks? I had this fabulous cider in New Zealand, and this delicious rhubarb soda in Germany. Why don’t we have rhubarb drinks? All the soda’s here are so sweet, blech.

And speaking of tasty things in other places…

In my opinion, fresh passionfruit is like nectar of the gods; alone, in yogurt or in a dessert. Many people who are not used to eating fresh passionfruit object to the slimy nature of the nectar (that looks a bit like frogs eggs, lol) and it’s crunchy seeds that you just chew up and swallow. I admit it is a bit unusual at first. It’s one of the ugliest fruit when it’s ripe, but I think it’s one of my favorite flavors, like a very tart peach. I’ve tried buying them in the US several times, but they never taste as good as the ones I’ve had down under. I think I need to grow a vine.

After lunch we stopped in Kawakawa at the most famous toilets in the country, designed by Austrian born artist, and kiwi immigrant, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928–2000).

Hundertwasser, an artist and designer whose passion for spirals and organic lines, were largely inspired by Viennese artist Gustav Klimt once said “Today we live in a chaos of straight lines, in a jungle of straight lines. If you do not believe this, take the trouble to count the straight lines which surround you. Then you will understand, for you will never finish counting.” 

The entrance to the public toilets have big tufts of grass growing over the entry, like a shaggy head of hair.

The floor and walls are organic and irregular covered with pattern and color arranged in freeform design.

Colored bottles set in concrete bring a soft light in from the outdoors.

I look forward to one day visiting the new Hundertvasser Art Centre that’s being built in Whangarei. It looks like such a fun, colorful, interactive structure. Here’s a very nice short video about Hundertvasser’s art, philosophy, and the new museum project.

Here are some wonderful examples of Hundertvasser’s architecture in other parts of the world.

On our drive back to Whangarei, we stopped to admire several more beautiful beaches

and scenic look out points.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, flax plants are in the foreground of almost any photo you take in New Zealand. When I came back from my trip a couple years ago, I couldn’t wait to get into the studio to paint a flax plant on black fabric to try and capture that particular way the vegetation in New Zealand looks with its bright greens and deep dark shadows.

I started with white paint, and let the black fabric create the shadows.

After painting the light values with white, I painted over the top with color.

One of these days I’ll take this concept further and do a large painting, but for now I have too many other things going on.

And so my journal of our adventures in New Zealand come to an end. As you can tell, it’s a country that I love. It feels similar to California geologically (it’s about the same size), but it landscape is more extreme. It’s far more green because the rainfall is spread throughout the year, unlike California with its distinct wet and dry seasons. There’s so much more I want to explore, most notably the south island. I look forward to getting back again someday.

BTW, I’ve restocked the skull embroidery kits that sold out in 2 days a week ago. I’m going continue selling the 2-pack kits and I’m dropping the single fabric option.

I also have 2 more variations on this theme in the works to make up as embroidery kits, that I’ll print up as soon as I get more fabric and burn a couple new screens. Everything’s taking a bit longer than usual due to Pandemic supply chain issues.

Keep creating,

Judy

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ABOUT JUDY
Judy is an artist, explorer, image wrangler, knowledge seeker, instructor, speaker, creative alchemist, and purveyor of inspiration, helping others channel creativity on a daily basis.