Dad, this one's for you.
tree in Albert park, Auckland
Waipoua (us sleeping in the Marae, a Kauri tree, the outside of the marae, Manos Nathan and his kiln, and the walk from the beach to his house)
Rarotonga (making eis, Muri beach and picture from the cross island hike)
Hey folks! First blog entry from the south pacific, woo hoo!!
I think I may have waited too long to blog because now I have way too much to cover in one entry.
We spent the first week in Rarotonga, a tiny island that takes only 45 minutes to drive all the way around. The early morning snorkels (at around 6:30 am) were definitely a highlight of our stay. It was very shallow allowing for easy snorkeling and I saw some of the most brilliantly colored fish of my lifetime. We were staying in rooms of three and the meals were left almost entirely to us. Meaning we all had lots of fun experimenting with exotic foods. I expanded my fruit repertoire. My new favorite fruit is the star fruit, although the passion fruit is a close second. I also found that, surprisingly, I like coconut milk.
During the day we spent most of our time drawing (surprise, surprise!). Although I've now grown accustomed to the drawing-all-day-long thing, at first it was novel and it took a while for me to come down from my initial high. I just kept thinking to myself as I was sitting on the beach shaded by palm trees -- "this is school."
We also learned a lot about Cook Island culture. We made tivaevaes, quilts made to celebrate weddings, hair cutting rituals, etc. and we went to a dance performance. (we also had dancers model for us on a number of occasions, which was great because half of the time was spent watching them dance and the other half drawing). I really enjoyed going to church in Rarotonga. The singing was overwhelmingly beautiful.
The one low point of Rarotonga was when we lost two girls on the cross island hike. First of all it was the most challenging hike I've ever been on. At one point I was climbing up steep rocks with the assistance of chains and my waterbottle fell out of my backpack and went careening off the cliff. I was thankful that it wasn't me. ALso it started raining halfway through, making it even more difficult. Anyways, Fred sepnt the night searching for them, but even with the help of the police they had no luck. The girls ended up spending the night on the trail. The next day however a few people on our trip found them. Surprisingly, they didn't seem all too battered, unlike the rest of us who were traumatized by the event. We all spent the whole night worried out of our minds. As a result of our restlessness an entire pot of boiling spaghetti got spilled on one girl's leg--resulting in a pretty serious burn. It was a bad night, however, on the positive side it did bring us together as a group. The group as a whole is amazingly friendly and caring.
Anyhow, after Rarotonga we spent a night in Auckland and then stayed at a Marae in Waipoua. We all got to experience the Maori culture first hand, which was amazing. We actually spent the night in the Marae (the meeting house). We brought our sleeping bags and slept on the floor of the room. We were staying with Alex and Manos Nathan, two brothers, one a metalsmith and the other a potter. Although it seemed like their real jobs were protecting the forest. Over the years the Kauri trees have been cut down and now pine trees (an introduced species) take their place. Timber is a major industry in New Zealand. During our stay we swam in the river, made a giant sandcastle, drew, played Maori games (despite being games taught to Maori kindergartners--they were quite difficult), watched Manos work with the kiln, and walked through the Waipoua forest, where we saw Kauri trees, some of which were over 1,000 years old and were MASSIVE. Apparently at that age they're usually hollow on the inside..which is interesting. By the time we left it felt like we were leaving home. The people welcomed us in as if we were part of the family.
Now we are back in Auckland, where our focus is print making. Our studio is in an art school that used to be an insane asylum. THe place is incredibly creepy. There's this long, narrow hallway that says in yellow letters on the ground that this is the skipping hallway and imagine that you're skipping through daisies (I'm paraphrasing). There's also this really tiny room that is covered with Chinese characters scrawled onto the wall with black ink and there is a red, see-through fabric covering the window giving the room a bloody feel. I'm doing my prints on the asylum. I was planning on doing them on trees in Auckland but I had such a strong reaction to the asylum, that I knew I had to do it. I want to capture how a place can carry so much emotion. Personally I find the hallways and rooms to be almost suffocating. Even though the patients are long gone I still feel their presence.
On a more cheery note I absolutely love Auckland. When I'm not in the asylum, I'm walking around the city or hanging out in one of the parks. The botanical gardens in Domain Park are gorgeous as are the trees in Albert park. K road is the equivalent of Portland's Hawthorne street. There are lots of small independent shops and many thrift stores plus a lot of hip cafes. Also there is a lot of street art all over the city.
Okay, that's all for now! Keep in touch!
-Erica
