New Plymouth love

I had such a nice weekend. We stopped at second-hand shops on our way up to New Plymouth; who knew Eltham had so many great second-hand shops! One in particular had heaps of amazing hats.



We stayed in a super cute cabin at Belt Road Seaside Holiday Park.


This was our view. Our little self-contained, shiny new cabin was right on the edge of the park by the water.


Tash said we had to go to Pukekura Park. I thought the entrance looked a little bit old Hollywood with the palm tree.


There was a strange natural feature...also known as bubble mixture of some kind poured into a waterfall.


The park was really pretty. And we escaped the bad weather forecast for the North Island; it didn't rain on the way up, in New Plymouth, or on the way back - until we got to Wellington. Of course.

On Sunday morning we went and did some knit tagging on the main street of New Plymouth.



These message tags were given to Tash by someone she met while she was in Sydney. The two tags below are Tash's own handiwork.



We had an amazing breakfast at Cafe Govett-Brewster. Of course we took photos of our food.


Then everyone gathered to hear Melanie from the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Tash talk about guerilla knitting and OutdoorKnit. Melanie explained that the guerilla knitting afternoon was in response to Yin Xiuzhen's 'China in Four Seasons' work currently being exhibited at the gallery. You can see a bit of the work hanging from the ceiling in the image below. She has used knitting, crochet, material and fibre to create her works (I was very naughty and took photos in an art gallery, I might post them tomorrow along with a rant about how much I loved the Govett-Brewster).


Everyone was then sent outside to decide what they'd like to tag and came back ready to knit their hearts out using a massive pile of donated novelty yarn and big knitting needles. Some people had come with works already in progress which they finished that afternoon...





The tag above was made by a man who came along with his wife and son. It was his first ever scarf but he decided he wanted to donate it as a tag.


As well as the parking meters out the front of the gallery, people attached a whole lot of leaves and flowers to a metal carpark gate and dotted them in trees and around the exterior of the gallery.

I made my very first tag ever - novelty yarn and big needles are awesome, you can make something vaguely substantial in such a short amount of time! I even got to practice moss stitch while making it, which was appropriate considering the colour.


I also made my second tag ever! Much smaller and fluffier.


Tash knitted a green pole cover and donated some of the leaves and flowers left over from 'It's a Tree!' at TheNewDowse.


I pointed out that the mushroom looked quite phallic...unintentional but amazing.


Other memorable moments from the trip - driving through Patea and seeing a barefoot woman riding bareback down the main street on a horse, she casually stopped outside someone's gate for a chat. Patea (home to the famed Patea Maori Club and the song Poi E - I was actually secretly really pleased to bear witness to the town) also had a scarily real meatworks display in one of the shop windows and is where I first got a glimpse of Mount Taranaki. That is one giant and beautiful mountain. I wish I'd gotten a photo but taking photos on a crappy camera while in a moving vehicle is not the easiest thing. It's so huge and amazing. I've seen it from the sky while in a plane but when you're on the ground you realise how big it is. Also Bulls has the most amazing kebabs. You learn something every day.