Whangarei

Bruce and I have been to Whangarei many times, but the last was four years ago when my dad was ill. The most notable drawcard this time was the Hunderweisser Art Gallery that was still being built the last time we were here.

First though, a trip to Quarry Gardens. Again, the last time we were here was just to the cafe, as Dad and Betty were not particularly mobile at that stage. Since then Cyclone Gabrielle has done a fair bit of damage and some of the tracks as unpassable, and some of the gardens eg. the Arid Garden, have been wiped out by a land slip.

The orchids in the garden were prolific and stunning.

I also fell in love with this little cascading Rata

Another thing that took my fancy was a bronze statue of a baby kiwi being held in someone’s hand. So beautiful.

The cafe at the gardens wasn’t open today, so after a stroll we headed in to town to visit the Hunderweisser Gallery. What and amazing place – not a straight line to be seen, and lots of colour.

The roof was planted in garden to blend in with nature, and again it was a lovely place to stroll around.

We perhaps did not have as much time to look around as we might have because the gallery shut at 4pm so it was with reluctance that we moved on to the next attraction, and that was the perpetual rolling ball clock.

This clock had us fascinated and we could have watched it for a long time. I was unfortunate in that it was encased in glass paneling so it was difficult to get pictures without reflections. The clock was run by a robot cyclist.

As she (I call it a her because she carried a handbag) cycled away her momentum pushed balls around the clock, dropping 4 balls per minute into the tray that told you what the time was.

We decided, after a delicious ice cream that it was time to head to our camp for the night at Parua Bay. Bruce and I have stayed here several times before and it was still as nice as ever.