the last chapter!
after jack and vicky picked up leah and i from the hospital, we went to our backpacker's, the missing leg in egmont village. it was the kind of place where i could live there and never leave, alas if only i had a job and a car there! it was a little bit like a big lodge, with a large open space in the front room with smaller rooms off to the side and back, with comfy couches and wood panelling and, best of all, a wood stove! which brian, the owner, lit just before we arrived. we were the only occupants of the entire place that night, so we exploded all over the front room, taking over the laundry as well. it was beautiful, especially as the next day was just pouring down rain. that evening, after drinking our bottle of millton's muscat (delicious!) in celebration of both our leaving of the mountain and vicky's birthday, we headed into new plymouth for a dinner at burger wisconsin, and picked up a movie and some more wine.
the next day both leah and vicky headed back to rotorua, while jack and i stayed in new plymouth. after checking into a new backpackers in town, we headed towards city center. first stop was the real tArt gallery, which focuses on artwork by new area artists. there were a couple of good artists, but overall i was not impressed. most of it was paintings of local landscapes which was not particuarly aesthetically pleasing and technically not that good either. there were some decoupaged boxes i did like, and some possibly pastel drawings by another artist, though. we headed separate ways then, and i had lunch at a tea and coffee place with the most fantastic iced coffee i have ever had. instead of ice in the coffee they used ice cream, which meant that at the end it was more of a coffee shake than watered down coffee. and of course i took a photo of it! i then went in search of a maori art gallery i read about in my lonely planet, but it was a bit of a walk out of the main part of town and i just didn't make it there before i turned back. i'm a little sad i never went, but at the same time sometimes it's just too much work. ah well. i did go to the govett-brewster gallery which is "renowned throughout new zealand". it was probably my favorite place. they had a show of artwork from indigenous australians up, which was similar to some work i'd seen in auckland. i really like the work, even though they draw on their heritage which is thousands of years old, it's still very contemporary.
my absolute favorite though was "five fountains and a firebrush", an exhibit of six pieces by new zealand artist len lye. i'm very keen on kinetic sculptures, and these were no exception. i even dragged jack back the next day to show him, but i don't think he was quite as impressed as i was.
after heading back to the backpacker's, and another unsatisfying meal of dried soup, we went back to the festival of lights. i got to look around a little more this time, and it was still as fun as the first time.
the next day was pretty much more of the same, lunch, looking at artwork, and a few hours at puke ariki, a museum. it wasn't the greatest museum, but it was free, so i was okay with that. we passed through the warehouse (where everyone gets a bargain) and i managed to NOT buy anything, and had some dinner before going back to, yes, the lights. this time it wasn't so much to see the lights as it was to hear the music: there was a bluegrass band playing that was fairly good, but their sets were interspersed with another group that was sort of celtic-y, african-y, new age stuff that i wasn't so into. but overall it was fine, and there wasn't much else going on that night.
and then the next morning i got up, said goodbye to jack, and got back on the bus to rotorua!
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