Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
From what I can find online Fale Pasifika is the second largest fale (Samoan style house) in the world. It's part of the Pacific Studies department at Auckland University (my guess is the Samoan parliament building in Apia - but don’t quote me on that).
The fale is basically surrounded by an outdoor art gallery with a soaring archway by Tomui Kaloni, Jim Vivieaere’s frigate bird sculptures and a large glossy red pou by Fatu Fe’u’ amongst others.
Definitely worth a look next time you’re riding the Grafton Gully Cycleway, it’s probably a 100 metre excursion up Alten Road, then left into Wynyard Street. Cruise past the Waipapa marae with its beautifully carved whare whakairo and the Fale Pasifika is just on the left.
Definitely worth a look next time you’re riding the Grafton Gully Cycleway, it’s probably a 100 metre excursion up Alten Road, then left into Wynyard Street. Cruise past the Waipapa marae with its beautifully carved whare whakairo and the Fale Pasifika is just on the left.
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