January 24 - New Plymouth, New Zealand

It’s a partly cloudy day here in New Plymouth.  This is the major city in the Taranaki Region  on the west coast of New Zealand’s north island. It’s also the only deep-water port on this side so it’s important for commerce.  We’re docked in the port which is mainly industrial and there are piles and piles of timber waiting to be loaded and shipped someplace.  Additionally, this area is known for dairy farming and oil and natural gas exploration.

Just a few logs waiting to be shipped

This place had been settled by Maori.  Beginning in the 1820’s the Maori began having contact with European whalers and traders looking to buy flax for cloth.  A trading post was set up here by a Brit named Barrett.  He negotiated with the Maori and helped to facilitate the purchase of land from them.  Back in England the Plymouth Company set about finding settlers from the western part of the UK, specifically around Plymouth in Devon, to immigrate to this new place.  To help induce them to come they named the new settlement New Plymouth.  (As an aside, we Americans learned about a Plymouth company who settled in Massachusetts.  This wasn’t the same bunch.)

The first settlers finally arrived around 1841.  Not unexpectedly land  and ownership disputes erupted with the Maoris and in 1860 New Plymouth became a fortified garrison with the arrival of 3500 Royal troops.  They fought the first Taranaki War and the disputes were settled.  I’ll leave you to figure out who prevailed.

So it’s very pleasant outside today.  There’s a little breeze and the temperature is about 68°.  I’m going on a short tour this afternoon.  I’ll have more to say about this place later. 

I’m back.  The tour was not very good; in fact, we all went and had a talk with the Destination Services manager.  I won’t go into detail; suffice it to say it was not up to snuff. I think the area outside the city is probably very pretty, but New Plymouth (pop. 67,000) is unremarkable except for the art center  which I’ll tell more about in a moment.  Our driver took us to what was supposed to be a 360° panoramic viewpoint.  Not so.  We pretty much saw the dock with lots of timber waiting to be shipped to China (of course) and our ship.  Our drive through town passed nothing picturesque and we came to a man-made lake with the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge which was interesting to see.  On the lake there were water-skiers and people swimming.  

The panoramic view that wasn't

The Te Rewa Rewa Bridge

Our next stop was the Len Lye Centre and it was the highlight of the tour. Len Lye was a New Zealand artist known for his experimental films and kinetic sculptures. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like his work.  The sculptures which he called “The Tangibles” consist of various pieces of flexible metal which is moved by I guess electricity and makes marvelous shapes as it’s rotated and spun and also makes interesting sounds.  I really can’t find the words to describe it.  If I can figure out how to upload one of the videos I made I will; otherwise you’ll have to look at some of the still photos and take my word that it was amazing.  The building itself is spectacular The exterior is undulating walls of what looks like mirrors.

The mirrored exterior of the Museum

Well, I've worked and fiddled and I can't figure out how to get a video to work in the blog, so I'm just posting a few still photos of these strange kinetic sculptures.  You'll have to take my word that they move  as a result of electricity and magnetism, and they are very interesting. So sorry!

This was called progression and was a flexible metal (steel?) band that wobbled back and forth on the table beneath it banging the little orange ball above as it did and making a gonging sound.

This is a black and white striped rod that begins to spin faster and faster and as it does flexes to make all kinds of geometric shapes.  It's called Zebra

This is Storm which flexes and wobbles and makes a crashing noise like a big thunder storm

There are about seven very thin rods in a circle with one in the middle and they begin to spin and make lots of  shapes.  It's called "Witches' Dance."  

This is a column of white albatross feathers with a cascade of light coming down through them.  The feathers have some symbolism in the Maori culture and the blue lights represent the waterfalls of New Zealand.

I'm not sure who this fellow is except that he is a Maori and I thought he was interesting.

I do have to confess that while I thought this was all interesting, I'm really more of a Monet, Van Gogh kind of girl.

We came back to the ship and had our discussion with the Destination manager which turned out to be productive for me.  During the course of the conversation I learned that the tour I had booked in a couple of days, the Journey to Middle Earth, involves a little over six hours on a bus with limited bathroom facilities along the way and a sandwich in a “rustic” setting for lunch.  I’m sorry to say that as much as I would like to see where the Lord of the Ring films were made, that sounded unappealing. Katie, you’ll just have to Google to see some pictures.

Back aboard we played trivia late afternoon and were only ten points shy of winning.  Tonight I’m dining with the sand artist I saw the other night.  That should be interesting.  Then the entertainers on the ship have a show and of course dancing