Painted Boxes: Nikau and Kereru (Monique Endt)
(Wednesday is for painted boxes.)
This transformer is outside 13, Forest Hill Road, Henderson. It depicts New Zealand Wood Pigeons gorging themselves on the ripe berries of the nikau palm. The backdrop is the sea and the volcanic Rangitoto Island.
Painting by Monique Endt. Monique is a local artist and has featured here before.
Edit: This box has been replaced by another, also painted by Monique Endt.
Nikau Palm, New Lynn
The construction of the New Lynn Railway Station and Bus Interchange was accompanied by extensive landscaping. Native Nikau palms were planted, creating a tropical feel. Sometimes these plants can look a bit scruffy, like in this example, but they will shed the old leaves and look like new.
The rust-clad building is part of the Merchant Quarter development, probably a parking building. An apartment tower is planned to go on top, and apartments are being pre-sold now.
Merchant Quarter, New Lynn
Nikau Flowering
Nikau palms (Rhopalostylis sapida) are NZ natives. Their leaf base encapsulates a bulbous growth cone, and when the leaf falls off, a flowering bract is revealed. In the picture above, the flowers have just emerged from the protective sheath. From our “garden”.
Nikau Flowering
Location Sign: Cornwallis
Artwork by Chris Hunt.
Location Signs: Glen Eden
Why is there no reference to the Waikumete Cemetery? The answer appears in minutes of the New Lynn Community Board:
“Much debate was held over the inclusion of an image based on the cemetery, when the main intention of the “logo” project was to assist with revitalisation of Glen Eden. It was agreed that an appropriate and acceptable image of the cemetery would be very difficult to choose and was therefore excluded from the final design as presented
here.”
[Obviously, ‘revitalisation’ and cemeteries don’t mix.]
The design of the logo is by Graeme Gash, a local artist.
Location Signs: Ambrico Place
Ambrico Place (map), New Lynn, is a no exit street off Rankin Avenue, oposite of the Monier Brick Factory. Its entrance is flanked on either side by such a mosaic sign – seen here in the light of the morning sun with the background totally in the shade – recalling some of the local features: the kiln (subject of yesterday’s post), stacks of bricks that would have been produced here, pottery items, and creepy-crawleys like gecko and centipede, as well as nikau palms.
Artist unknown.
Dean Buchanan, Pararaha Landscape (2006)
Dean Buchanan is one of about 40 artists participating in the Waitakere Artists’ Open Studio weekend 2010 next weekend (27/28 March).
Below is a view of the overbridge, seen from the Japanese Garden at Waitakere Central. The nikau palms of the window are faintly visible on the left.
Waitakere Central Overbridge from Japanese Garden
Painted Boxes: Bush Scenes (Monique Endt)
(Wednesday is for painted boxes.)
This transformer is outside 75 Royal Road, Massey. Painted by local artist Monique Endt with bush scenes, there was also some involvement of Royal Road School, coordinated by Kelly Knowles.
There are birds: kakariki(?), pukeko and NZ wood pigeon above, pukeko, fantail, tui and wood pigeon below. Plants:ferns, kowhai with the yellow flowers, nikau with red berries, cabbage tree with white bloom (bottom left).
Painted Boxes: Bush Scenes (Monique Endt)
Painted Boxes: Bush Scenes (Monique Endt)
Bush and Birds: Monique Endt
This transformer stands outside 13 Forest Hill Road, Henderson. It appears to be a replacement of an earlier transformer, also painted by Monique Endt, the new box sitting on a stately concrete pad, elevated from the ground. Again, New Zealand Wood Pigeons feature prominently, with one of their favorite food sources, the Nikau palm. Ferns and manuka/kanuka trees and kawakawa (whose round leaves always seem to have holes eaten into them) illustrate the bush. A typical pose for the pukeko (swamp hen) shows the almost human hand-like claws. And round the corner a trio of fantails flits about in search of insects.
Painting by Monique Endt. Monique is a local artist and has featured here before.
The Pukeko
Fantails
Nikau Leaf Unfurling
On a recent outing to Forest and Birds’ Matuku Reserve above the Bethells wetlands, I noticed this beautiful colour in amongst the predominantly brown/grey and dark green tones: The young shoots of the Nikau palm (rhopalostylis sapida) start out as tightly packed spikes which then open out gradually, harmonica style, revealing these unexpected hues.
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