Waitomo Caves, NZ

New Zealand - Aotearoa. Aotearoa is the Maori name meaning 'Land of the Long White Cloud'. New Zealand is also known colloquially as 'The Shaky Isles' because of it's geothermal activity and numerous earthquakes. Well, all that activity helped make the cave systems in Waitomo. I took a 'black water rafting' trip through deepest darkness on a crooked narrow underground river. Often our only illumination came from the unique glow worms shining above like stars.

PS Photos from google images because my camera's not water proof.

Milford Sound, NZ

Piopiotahi, the Maori name given to Milford Sound, means thrush or place of the singing thrush. Legend states that when Maui lost the treasure of immortality for mankind to the goddess of death, Hine Nui Te Po, a thrush flew into Milford Sound to sing and mourn the loss. Maori legend also says it was the god Tu Te Raki Whanoa who sculpted the mighty landscapes of Fiordland, using powerful incantations and his magic adze.

After having been delayed for days due to a large avalanche blocking the road there, I was worried that it wouldn't live up to the the legend. I needn't have worried, Milford Sound's saturated color pallet alone was breathtaking.

honey production, NZ

Bees are crucial to New Zealand’s primary sector, pollinating around one third of their food sources. Bees also produce many different types of honey (clover, manuka, thyme and many other varietals) as well as a variety of other bee products such as beeswax, pollen, propolis, and live bees for export. Best of all, Bees are among natures coolest designers. Although New Zealand is only a very small honey producer on the world stage, I found this great little honey production facility in the pastural country side.

Wellington, NZ

Wellington was such a treat; I spent hours on the water front, in the museums and in these great little cafes on Cuba St.

Paper Making, NZ

I had the opportunity to go to this little Maori paper making shop in Nelson. This paper is made with the same 'flax' plant fibers that are woven for clothing and bags in the strong Maori culture here. The Flax is boiled down and left to soak to a rich pulp that is then spread on screens to produce a light textured brown paper. Shapes can also be produced with 3D forms. I love all things that are made from stuff you can grow in your backyard!

Coast, NZ

I've spent woefully little time since I left Santa Barbara looking at the ocean. Jostling between the Tasman Sea and the South Pacific as I traversed north to south this month gave me plenty of make up time.

Print Residency, NZ

John and Alison Brebner at Homeprint, http://www.homeprint.co.nz, showered me with hospitality and knowledge during the week I spent in residence in their large and incredibly equipped work spaces. It would take years to learn all the ins and outs but John tirelessly schooled and inspired me!

From Letterpress printing to Solar Plates, from Book Binding to Intaglio Printing, and much more, Home Print introduced me to the tools, methodology, and long history of printing.

Let there be no doubt about it, traditional Print Making is an intensive and deeply rewarding hand craft.

now, if I can get my hands on one of the presses, either historical or newly innovated by John himself, I'd obsessively be printing artworks and textiles and who knows what!

I'd start by printing a million Thank You cards to go to my generous hosts!

forests NZ

It's striking from the moment you step off the plane in NZ, kiwi's take their nature very seriously. The native flora of New Zealand is unique having evolved in isolation for millions of years.
A whopping 80% of their trees, ferns and flowering plants are endemic (found only in New Zealand).
I have had ample time to hike through and learn a bit about New Zealand lands covered with native flora, from tall kauri and kohekohe forests to rainforest dominated by rimu, beech, tawa, matai and rata; ferns and flax; dunelands with their spinifex and pingao; alpine and subalpine herb fields; and scrub and tussock.

Nelson Felting class, NZ

Mary Andrews of Spiral Studio, www.spiralstudio.co.nz,opened her beautiful studio and lifetime of felting knowledge and enthusiasm to me on one beautiful Nelson day. Mary dies the washed raw wool she gets from a local farm into a vibrant rainbow of colors. The wool seems to 'want' to felt with a little water and agitation, shapes both functional or whimsical are limited only by the artist's imagination. The scales on the wool swell, rub against each other and bind together, creating a denser, shrunken fabric. The only tools we used were a carding wheel that pulls the raw wool into a looser more workable material, a felting needle to coax the wool into a rough design, and a net to help snag the fibers during the wet phase. I can see lots of felting in my future! thank you Mary!

Punakaiki NZ

At the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes at Punakaiki, horizontal sheets of limestone and mudstone have been chiseled by rain and sea into curious stacks, ridges and chasms. Best time to be impressed is around high tide and with a big running sea, when big waves rolling off the Tasman Sea surge up into the undercut cavities and erupt like booming geysers from the chimney like fissures. It's not possible to photograph the sheer exhilaration witnessing the display of power.

Paihia Sailing Day, NZ

 For some its the sound of the wind and waves, others the salt smell and sea spray, for me it's all about the rigging. Oh how I love sailboat rigging (the other stuff isn't bad either).

Maori Flax Weaving

When Māori arrived in New Zealand, the clothing they wore in the Pacific would have been totally inadequate in winter. This provided the spur for the development of garments that must be considered to be amongst the highest artistic achievements of Māori.

Māori devised a method of producing fine thread from muka (flax fibre) from which they wove garments and other items of extraordinary beauty. At Te Rito, students are not only taught the skills of the art form but also the traditions and tikanga (protocols). In earlier times, learning weaving was a tapu (sacred) and intensive activity. As well as learning how to weave harakeke (flax) and other materials, students learn the stories and designs unique to each iwi (tribe) in New Zealand.

After visiting several important Maori museums and galleries, I've decided that the Maori tradition is quiet poetic. For example, Te Rito is the Maori name for the baby shoot that sits deep at the heart of the flax. That baby is protected by two outside shoots, the mother and father. Weavers learn never to touch the inner three shoots when cutting the flax as they are the nucleus - the family unit, too precious to be broken. Without these shoots, the flax will lose its identity.

Maori Wood Carving

In some respects, carving is the written record of a people who, until the nineteenth century, knew nothing of writing. Carvings preserve much of the history and culture of Māori.


Though Māori carving differs substantially from other Pacific carving it seems certain that the basic patterns were brought to New Zealand by the Māori from their ancestral homeland of Hawaiki. The distinctive style of Māori carvings is partly due to the isolation of the Māori from the rest of Polynesia. An abundance of timber such as tōtara and kauri provided a perfect medium for carving, as did an ample supply of pounamu (greenstone or jade).

The highly competitive iwi (tribal) system in New Zealand which existed at the end of the eighteenth century probably acted as a spur to the production of superior houses, canoes, ornaments and weapons as a matter of prestige. However, the greatest advance for the art of the carver came with the introduction of steel tools in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Carvings cannot be ‘read’ in the European sense. They are a record of tribal affairs and pay deep respect to ancestors, history and the people for whom they are prepared. The protruding tongue, as used in the haka (war dance), is intended as a symbol of defiance, determination and strength.
TEXT CREDIT: tepuia.com

North Island, NZ

it's been a gorgeous morning hiking in the North Island.

Boiling Mud Pools, NZ

Kayaking NZ

Ocean Kayaking off the northern most area of NZ. There was only 3 of us and we found this great little island perfect for exploring (and getting my land legs back for a moment).

Glass Blowing Demo NZ

I have plans to take a Glass Blowing class in the near future but I wanted to get my head around the process. I went to the masters at LAVA glass and had them walk me through the process. It was like watching a dance, these guys really had it down. They were making an elaborate goblet every 10 minutes!

Gushing for Geysers NZ

Bone Carving Class NZ

I'll fill in the history of traditional bone carving when I have a chance to sit down for a bit. I'm off to a bee farm today before I hit Wellington. Much more to come!

These were some of the ideas I wanted to carve...

The work place was simple but had a wonderful view....

after learning how to get the right kind of cuts, I got to work on the real deal...

The final product of my 6 hours of work: a strange little wrist band....