Team effort

Mr Millicent Crow and I made this poster last week, for our show at the Inch Bar in Dunedin which is coming up soon.  Next week!  I drew the pictures and Sam put it all together.  Any Dunedin recommendations welcome, we're going to catch up with some old friends, have some nice coffee at Modaks, do a bit of op shopping (hopefully for some nice old woollen blankets), go to Tunnel Beach or maybe Seacliff, and marvel at the beautiful Victorian houses!

A cottage named Surprise

Seeing as I spent the earlier part of February charging around the South Island playing my ukulele I thought I'd show you a few photos from our tour.  These are from Gunn's Camp in Fiordland, where we stopped on our way out of Milford Sound and where the cabins were named after racehorses.

Photo by Mark Orbell

Photo by Mark Orbell

I loved this creepy unfinished mural and the way the guy in the butcher's apron looks a bit like Elvis!

Wayfaring stranger

 February so far for me has been all about playing my ukulele around the South Island with The Bitter Years - I've travelled from Invercargill to Picton and many other places besides.  I've met a miniature horse that's allowed inside the house, participated in a mystical wedding and played songs to the regulars at Formerly the Blackball Hilton until 3 in the morning.  But one of the parts of the tour I was most excited about was visiting the Grainstore Gallery in Oamaru, where some of my prints are stocked.  Here is a little peek into the beautiful gallery, and spot some Millicent Crow bunting and prints!

No rest for the wicked; I am heading off to Splore this weekend to help with some creative embellishment in the Sew Love Tea Do sewing tent.  More on that soon!

Signs and arrows

Dunedin was a visual feast of hand-lettered and neon signs...here are some beautiful fading ones:

 

 

 

 Having just seen the Sign Painters movie I was very excited!

Dunedin buildings

One of the things I love most about Dunedin is the way it feels like being in a fairy tale, with beautiful old buildings covered in rambling roses, iron lace and fretwork.  When I was down there last week I had my camera pretty much glued to my eye the whole time taking photos of all the pretties.  Here are some of my favourites, some of them taken on the way to an uncharacteristically early morning swim!

 

You can see the turret of the house from the movie Scarfies peeking out behind this one!

Blue iron lace.  So beautiful.

And another thing I love about Dunedin is this view!

Victoriana

I've just got back from Dunedin, Waitati and Oamaru, where I had a stall at the Victorian Fete, played my ukulele on stage for the first time, met my friends' new baby, sold merch at the Explorers' Club in the opera house, watched a pennyfarthing race and took about a bajillion photos of nice buildings.  No wonder I nearly fell asleep on the plane on the way home!  Here is my bunting at my stall (I was lucky enough to be able to take over the bar at the Loan and Merc with all my prints) and at the Opera House, which was decorated for the weekend like a Victorian Explorers' club, with taxidermy aplenty. 

 And some other Oamaru sights:

 

I'll have to find a Victorian frock for next year, and brush up on my pennyfarthing riding skills!

If you find the good oil let us know

That's the cryptic inscription on the under-renovation Govett Brewster art gallery in New Plymouth.  I spent Wednesday night in New Plymouth, where Mr. Millicent Crow was playing at the Taranaki Arts Festival.  I stayed in a hotel for the first time in my life, played the ukulele under a bridge and got to see my artwork projected on the big screen at the Mayfair.  New Plymouth has especially beautiful street art so I wandered around in the rain taking some photos while the band sound checked.

 Walking around at night we stumbled upon Tiffany Singh's beautiful installation What is the Colour of the Breeze, a carpark taken over with a rainbow of windchimes that she had got kids to decorate.  At night they were chiming gently but the next day when I went to take photos of the rainbow colours in the light they were rattling in a frenzy.  Beautiful.  Tiffany Singh also did this installation in Aotea Square back in the summer.

 So long New Plymouth, it was a lovely adventure!

Wanganui je t'aime

Mr. Millicent Crow and I were laughing the other day about how our holiday destinations are ah, less than exotic.  Give us a nice backpackers, a place to walk around taking photos and we'll be happy.  And last weekend was no exception.  We'd been meaning to go to New Plymouth, but our favourite place to stay was unavailable.  So I suggested we head further south, to Wanganui.  We drove all day, past the snowy mountains:

And stayed at the Tamara, which had the best camellia bush: 

and the best deck for ukulele playing:

 We roamed around taking lots of photos and drinking lots of coffee.  We found a wallaby skin (not pictured, too gross) draped ominously over a sign at Castlecliff  and puzzled about its origins.

We made up a new rule that if you see a circus you have to go to it.  So we did, and found ourselves sipping hot mugs of tea ringside at Circus Aotearoa.  I was terrified that I was going to be chosen to be sawn in half, but instead had to massage an acrobat, and had a clown steal a hair from my head!

And we went up the mysterious Durie Hill elevator, up the 176 spiralling steps inside the war memorial:

 
and were rewarded with this view:

and Wanganui's best kept street 1972-1977.

Which was exotic enough for me.  Paris next time maybe?