NEW ZEALAND - DEC 22 - NELSON WANDER - ART TOUR

After our breakfast, we decided to walk around our piece of town.  We walked to historic South Street. The houses here were built around 1860.  Some of them are quite lovely, but most of the rather small.  We walked passed the ring artist who created the Hobbit movie rings.  Apparently, the original jeweler died after making the first few rings.  His son and the man who trained with the original jeweler made severall hundred more.

The beginning of South Street

South Street itself

One of the houses for sale!

Hotel Rutherford

We then walked down Rutherford street until things became dull.  We noticed that the Hobbit movie was playing in town.  We'll wait until we get home.  We stopped at a Starbucks and I tried to pay with a Starbucks card.  Not here.  Somehow, it was a Starbucks, just not one that you can use any Starbucks cards for.  

We got back to the hotel, and waited for our 11:45 pick up for our Artisans Tour.  The Bay Tours van showed up, but the driver didn't have us on her list.  Somehow, a Claudia had signed up, asked to go on a wine taste as well, but wasn't even booked into the hotel.  We took Claudia's place.  I suspect she'll  try the tour tomorrow.  Bit of a scramble that ended well.  We went with a family from Miami. We began the tour talking about the estuary.  We went to an overview and talked about the area.   The rest of the tour consisted of wandering into various art galleries around the area.  We went into a so-so metal work gallery, and a few other not interesting places.  We then went into a fabulous glass blower's gallery.  We really didn't need or want much, and ended up buying some nifty bookmarks.  Our next stop was a water color artist that were really nice.  There were some beautiful landscapes, and many humorous paintings of heavy set women.  We then stopped at Mapua for lunch.  We had wanted to eat in a cafe, but the sandwiches didn't look great.  We ended up at a fancier than we wanted - but shared a tapas plate.  

The sand bar in the bay is a naturally occurring sand bar.  The break in the middle was man made to get the ships in and out more easily.

After lunch we stopped at a wood workers gallery.  He made wonderful garden oddities - a photo of some are below.  Then we stopped at a potter.  This guy came out to say hello, and was told I did some pottery too.  He had a Japanese wood fire kiln and was enthusiastic to show it to me.  It was huge.  His stuff was rough, and superb.  So was his garden.  Full of interesting plants, pots, and walkways.  

Matua ferry and the harbor - the waves are actually the water rushing out.  The land in the distance is Rabbit Island

Wood designs from garden artists gallery

Japanese kiln

Potter's lovely garden

The pioneer's cabin 

Our final stop was at a pioneer's cabin.  It had been restored, and had many original items in it.  It had three rooms, a main room, bed room and small kitchen.  Then back to the hotel.  I got a shot of the cathedral out our hotel window.  It was originally built by Queen Victoria.  Although it was restored, it still retains some of the original English cathedral look.  It's built on a hill to one side of town.

We wandered down to Hopgoods for dinner tonight.  Nice dinner.  Back to the hotel. Watched Piha Rescue.

 Bed.