Compare and Contrast Day

First full day in New Plymouth: it was cloudy, it was warm and humid, it was windy.  We walked the west coast.  There is a seawall here that runs from the working port in the south, through the city, to a beach called the Bell Block in the north.  Starting from our hotel, we walked 4.5 kms north to the Te Rewa Rewa bridge, then back.  That was a wonderful morning walk.  And, yes, it wasn’t unlike the Stanley Park Seawall except, perhaps, there is a real sea here, surf lapping at the edges, and multiple volcanic mounds, like Siwash Rock, which rim the southern point, and so on and so on in a comparative trajectory.  Yawn.

Bridge esoterica: There are architectural awards for bridges.  No kidding.  And, Globes-BAFTA-Oscar style, the Te Rewa Rewa has won five awards; best new road project at the NZ Roading Awards (!).  At the International Bridge Conference Bridge Awards (yes, they exist) held in Pittsburgh, the bridge took home the Arthur G. Hayden Medal, awarded to recognise a single recent outstanding achievement in bridge engineering demonstrating innovation in special use bridges.  Not to be outdone, at the Ingenium Excellence Awards, held in Wellington, the Te Rewa Rewa bridge won the award category for projects $2 million to $10m.  And then the bridge was named the best little bridge in the world at the International Footbridge Awards in Poland, winning the 2011 International Footbridge Award in the aesthetics category (medium span).  And to top it off, it won the Taranaki Master Builders supreme award for a commercial facility. Thank you Architecture Now for that fascinating trivia.

After lunch, in the afternoon, we walked the seawall south to the port, then cut up into the southern fringes of the town and walked back a series of residential streets.

 

Mid-afternoon Stephen popped into the local museum, solo.  The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, which has a repository of Len Lye material (he was a not so famous modernist known for making films without a camera, but rather painting and modifying blank negatives with various media).  Here are a few shots from that excursion.

And a couple of video clips he took.

There’s actually a very cool documentary on the dancer, Loie Fuller, Obsessed With Light.

That very strange video clip is actually a visual translation of soundwaves from the Pacific Ocean.  Also, if you’re in the mood, Monty Python’s It’s the Arts.

For dinner we walked over to a brew pub.  New Zealand may be known in Canada for its wine, but down here the beer reigns supreme.  And SS has his choice too.  We stopped at a wine bar a few nights ago, where you don’t expect much of a beer selection, and there were four zero alcohol choices from craft brewers, and eleven craft beers under 3%.  Message to BC brewers: There’s a huge market for low alcohol beer with flavour!