Driftwood and Hundertwasser

Driftwood...
A lot of people will find our passion for driftwood a bit weird - but too bad! A week ago we went driftwooding at our favourite haunt on the river among the mangrove trees. There is a spot where everything washes up, and we always come back with a boat load - mostly bigger pieces for garden edging or for adding to our driftwood fence.

Driftwood fence - a work in progress

I just love the sculptural effect that the tide has on the pieces we find...I wasn't really fully able to capture how cool this big piece is, but you'll get the idea.

When out fossicking, we also pick plastic and rubbish out to try and clean up our part of the world. This is a pic of last week's rubbish pick up.

Better out of the marine environment.

For Seaweek this year Derek registered us as a group who clean up the coast with CoastCare Northland and we were sent a package containing lots of marine and eco information, plus rubbish bags to help us dispose of what we clean up. There is also a place to log the rubbish collected if we want, which then gets collated to help with environmental study. 

The Hundertwasser Building Debate

Whangarei District Council has plans to revamp an old building at the Town Basin to create this tourist attraction/ gallery/ cafe. It has caused huge heated debate in the region, as it will use a lot of taxpayer money.
Despite the fact that I love Frederik Hundertwasser's work, and I think the building would look awesome, I was/am opposed to it. I felt they were just trading on his name (he originally drew a small sketch, which, in his lifetime the Regional Council,who owned the building, showed no interest in), and the gallery is only to be for Maori artists -(what about the rest of the local talent?), Plus the entry fee proposed seems quite high so will exclude a lot of people.
In a local creativity brochure takeflight, I read of a great proposal that would have me do a total about face if the ideas were adopted - so I will be letting the mayor know my view, and hoping that hundreds of others feel the same way.
The proposal was to use the Hundertwasser building as an environmental learning centre, with composting toilets, and as a centre for giving away fruit trees for people to plant. I'm sure some of that might be challenging to carry out - but worth looking in to.
Now that would meet Frederik Hundertwasser's approval if he were still with us.