Kulcha and Cuture

This week Americarna (no it's not a spelling mistake but very crafty marketing) came to town. Over 800 cars and well over 800 car nuts not to mention the locals who turned out in droves. They did road trips to surrounding towns and then had a big street parade here on Friday night. I tried to take photos but they didn't work out, darkness and motion are not a good combo for my phone camera, but I did snap this lovely example parked outside my place last Tuesday.



Friday was also the opening of the latest exhibition at Puke Ariki called Culture:Fresh out of the box. The exhibition takes 25 treasures from our collections which were given to 15 contemporary artists with Taranaki connections to interpret. The results are widely varied but all totally stunning. The day started with a dawn blessing by our Kaumatua or Elders at 6am and finished with an official opening for the artisis, sponsors and staff. Yesterday we had the public opening. Unfortunately it was tipping down rain and a howling gale but the foyer was still packed to see the the entertainment including the Patea Maori Club who are iconic and had the place jumping.


There were also historic walks around town scheduled. The walks were relocated inside and as you can imagine some of the library patrons were a little suprised to come up the stairs to non-fiction and see these welcoming fellows.



Those on the tour were escorted by RedCoats and so were quite safe.



Actually quite a few people took the chance to play the good poeple of New Plymouth and it was wonderful seeing some familiar faces in unfamiliar kit.