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Nori art photography

Our tour began with a hillside walk through the sculpture gardens of the Wellington Botanic Garden. This sculpture by Henry Moore looks over rows of historic hillside homes in the Thorndon district.

Nori art photography

Along the way is this quiet sanctuary, where a duck walked up and posed for photos.

Nori art photography

A view of the rose gardens and greenhouse. You can see the Henry Moore sculpture on the hillside above the gardens.

Nori art photography

Inside the greenhouse.

Nori art photography

Turn of the century houses along the Thorndon Heritage Trail in Wellington's historic district.

Nori art photography

Michael Fowler, architect, artist, and former Wellington mayor, inside his shop workspace on historic Tinakori Road (Michael Fowler Gallery). Our convention was held at the Michael Fowler Convention and visitors Bureau, which he designed. He paints local scenery, including commissions.

Nori art photography

A beautiful gingerbread house in the Thorndon historic district. Our guide for the artists tour was also from Flat Earth New Zealand Experiences.

Nori art photography

Norm Brown, co-founder of the Atrium Gallery on Tinakori Road. His wife, Ami (not present when we visited), envisioned the gallery as a place to showcase emerging artists. Her work is also on display in the gallery. The green painting over Norm's head is one of her works.

Nori art photography

A picturesque gate leading to a house that needs a cable car. Hopefully, there is a back entrance, because it looked like about two hundred steep cement steps behind this gate.

Nori art photography

The Westie is not for sale, but the Tinakori Road shop has some inviting antiques. We also visited the Millwood Gallery on Tinakori Road, which is an art gallery and book shop.

Nori art photography

Moving on to another part of town, we visited several galleries. This is the Page Blackie Gallery.

Nori art photography

James Blackie, director, discusses the work of his showcased artist, Ngatai Taepa.

Nori art photography

We also dropped into the Avid Gallery to see beautiful hand made jewelry and art objects.

Nori art photography

Nicola Dench, artist and instructor of the Clay Penguin Studio, gave us a pottery class. We visited her on 11/11/11 at 11:11 a.m. and she put us to work making things out of clay. At that hour of the morning, the sun was coming in at an angle that illuminated her hands. None of this was planned; it all happened spontaneously.

Nori art photography

This is the national Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. The Museum hosted our group of 450 people for the final night gala dinner event. Weta workshop co-founder Richard Taylor addressed our group, and actors from their studios were seen performing in the resounding halls of the museum before dinner.

Another dinner event was at The Rock, a convention space inside the Wellington airport. The Rock hosted a World of Wearable Art fashion show for us. We witnessed creations such as a living dream catcher outfit, a colorful sea creature dress, and the "American Dream—I'll get my kicks on Route 66," which was a car dress made out of vinyl, leather, paper mache, builders' foam, and plastic.

This photo of the American Dream, by New Zealand designer Sarah Thomas, appears with permission of World of Wearable Art.
American-Dream






Nori art photography

Nori art photography

One of the great places to stay in Wellington is the Museum Art Hotel. We had lunch in the Hippopotamus Restaurant & Bar. They offered a delicious vegetarian green salad of roasted baby winter vegetables, watercress, and crumbled goat cheese, served with balsamic syrup and Wairarapa olive oil.

Nori art photography

This is high tea at the Hippopotamus Bar. It takes a special kind of genius to make a cup of tea like that. This is the bartender and creator of the recipe.

Nori art photography

The hotel building once sat across the street, but was slated for demolition to make way for the Te Papa Museum. Chris Parkin, the hotel's manager at the time, asked the government to sell him the building, which he saved by moving it across the street.

Nori art photography

This model shows how they moved the building. They built train tracks to move it south, and tracks to move it across the street. Go to the museum website to learn more about moving the building.

Nori art photography

This is a prime location for a hotel, with a view of the marina.


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