Monday, May 14, 2018

QUARRY GARDENS

The Quarry Gardens is a subtropical garden in an old quarry created by volunteers.  It is where we went for our weekly Parkinson's walk this morning.  Doug stayed home as his neck is still very sore. One can walk around the gardens themselves or up the hill and I went with the smaller group who tackled the hill.

There was fog in the morning at home which had cleared but as I drove the short distance to the Gardens it got thicker but quickly dispersed to leave a lovely sunny day.





There was work going on at the top of the carpark so instead of going across the bridge I was able to photograph it and the gardens behind.  Going up the hill I didn't get to walk through the actual gardens.


Before we went up we saw the new sculpture by Chris Booth






 Whangarei Quarry Gardens was generously gifted funds by a local philanthropist to go towards a permanent sculpture for the gardens.

Gardens manager David McDermott said the sculpture represented a new chapter in the gardens' story, one which staff, trustees and volunteers were excited about.
"The impressive scale, considered materiality and symbolic kaupapa of this work aligns beautifully with the gardens' aesthetic and vision. We wholeheartedly thank the donor for her generosity. We also thank Chris and Rata for sharing their passion and craft while on the site at the gardens," McDermott said. 

Booth said the piece was fifth in a global series of Varder living sculptures. Varder is an old Nordic word for cairn.
Varder I and Varder II were built in Denmark in 1998, 20 years ago, and are still being consumed by the greatest recycler, fungi, as planned.
Varder I had moved only about one metre in that time.
Varder III and Varder IV are in the Netherlands, III is 14 years old and IV is 2 years old.


We got high up quite quickly.  Our cars look small looking down.

4 comments:

  1. I like the lower part of the Booth sculpture; not so keen on the upper part.

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    1. The top part is, obviously, designed to keep the lower part in place as the fungi takes over. Chris Booth's original works are in stone - the Wave and Waka that I have photographed at the Town Basin being one of them. Others can be seen here :
      http://www.chrisbooth.co.nz/works/

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  2. I've never been there, only to the one here in Tauranga. Hopefully when we move up north this will be one of our favourite spots.

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    1. There is an excellent cafe there now but, unfortunately, it is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

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