Dunedin

Dunedin Train Station

I went to Dunedin on two separate occasions, but only did a bit of visiting the first time around. Some travelers had described it as nothing special, but I found it really charming, with pretty buildings and an interesting city center. The downtown area is called the Octagon and is actually shaped in that way, with two main streets forming an inner and an outer Octagon. Sitting at one of the many cafes in the Octagon is a good way to people watch and get a feel for the city.

I stayed at a backpackers called Hogwartz (obviously named after Harry Potter), only really worth noting because of its beautiful architecture and sense of isolation within its walls. Its located in a wooden area, but close enough to the center of the city as not to feel cut off. Dunedin, as many cities in New Zealand are, is quite hilly so expect to puff a bit. Good exercise though!

Hogwartz backpackers




One of tons of cathedrals in this city

The Otago Museum is a must see museum, rife with exhibits from around the world as well as some interesting facts about the Ngai Tahu Iwi of the South Island and extinct birds of New Zealand's past. I skipped over the stuff not directly related to New Zealand because I didn't have the energy to see every exhibit, but even the two exhibits I did see took me a couple of hours (and I didn't comb through every single thing as I usually do).

It was fascinating to learn about Moa, the largest flightless bird in the world, and other flightless birds that have become extinct since the arrival of Maoris. An interesting and somewhat unbelievable fact about New Zealand is that apart from the bat, New Zealand does not have any native mammals. This is why there was such a high concentration of flightless birds here. There were no natural predators so they thrived. Really cool exhibit!

Back in the Octagon is the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and they had an exhibit on Dunedin born Frances Hodgkins. I wanted to see what she was about. She was a watercolor painter who went and made it big in Europe in the early 1900s. There were quite a few things that I loved, but again I couldn't find most of them on the internet. Isn't that just a pain in the butt?

Hope you do like what you see below!

John Bevan Ford and Julia Morison

Back in January, when I was exploring Tauranga, I went to the Tauranga Art Gallery and they had an exhibition on two well-known Kiwi artists. Again, as with other parts of the country, it was free entry with the option of a donation, which makes me want to pay because I like being given the choice.

It took me two days to get through the exhibitions. There were others of Samoan artists, but the ones that impressed me the most were the Kiwi works.

I absolutely fell in love with John Bevan Ford's work. He believed in the land and it's mana, or prestige. He used a lot of Maori symbolism in his work and most importantly (in my perspective) he "painted" with such incredible detail that I would stand in front of one of his paintings for a good 10 minutes, just looking at the detail. He specialized in using felt pen and pencil to draw tiny little lines, kind of like pointilism (I think that's the word, where tiny little dots create an image once you've stepped back to take a broader look at it). He did that with tiny little squiggly lines and it awed me. My favorite painting, "Flying Clouds", is huge and amazing but I couldn't find a representation of it on the net. Below are some of his works.

John Bevan Ford


Also on exhibit were works by artist Julia Morison. She's quite interesting. I believe she has a background in design and you can see the exactness of her lines and the almost sterility of her approach to the work. I didn't feel the passion, but the discipline? Yes, very much. The particular exhibit was called Myriorama which was a card game played during the Victorian period. The idea is being able to join different panels together in a multitude of ways and have the pieces still fit together. An interesting concept (hopefully I understood it correctly).

Below, some of her work, though not the exact works from that exhibition. Same style, though.

Julia Morison