A very merry Christmas to family and friends. We have three days off to gather strength for the inundation of holidaymakers and to enjoy Christmas and egg nog with family.

May the New Year bring you all you desire.

Still struggling to keep up my postings. My day starts around 6am when I make the daily bread and cakes and prep for breakfast and lunch with extras such as opening mussels and filleting fish. Then it's feeding the holidaymakers until 3pm when we close the kitchen but are open for coffee and cake while I prep up for dinner service which lasts until the last person leaves, sometimes 10pm, sometimes 1am.
It's hard yakka at this time of year but most satisfying making people happy. About 80% of our customers are regulars or have been recommended so we know we must be doing something right.
Our long range weather forecast is not good with a humid and wet summer and the possibility of a cyclone or two which usually means people don't come to the beach.
Maybe it will be a quiet one and I'll be able to go skinny dipping at Lonely Bay without scaring anybody!

A Pregnant Thought

The winning sculpture 'A Pregnant Thought" by Lauren Kitts which will stay in our permanent collection

'Medusa' by Anna Korver

'Ohinau Sunset' by Donald Buglass

Scene from the balcony with my, as usual,
unfinished wooden sculpture

A few images from the symposium. We are enjoying lovely rain at the moment, washing the dust from the leaves and ripening plums and returning the garden to some semblance of normality

Unexpected visitor

So we were quietly (well we don't do anything quietly!) cleaning the restaurant when this large road roller skidded out of control down into our front garden, coming to rest on Dr. Margot Symes lovely sculpture 'Four Elements' (stone, water, fire, air) which now can be called 'Five Elements' with the addition of steel! After much discussion with the sheepish driver we decided it (the roller) didn't add much to the ascetics of the place so they towed it away leaving a tiny scratch on said sculpture and a large dent on said drivers ego.

Never a dull moment!

Wow what a week! 17 sculptors with 9 inch grinders competing with graders and rollers fixing the road. We feel like we have been in a quarry and now are praying for rain to wash all the dust away. We've sold six pieces so far, not brilliant but only one behind last year and the quality is better than ever so are confident of more sales. A customer last night asked how much it would be to ship a big head (1200kg!) to California. I shudder to think but it's worth a try. I am in the process of placing them in suitable positions round the garden.
I started a big wooden sculpture but ran out of wood so started on stone but with feeding and looking after a group of tempremental artists didn't get anything finished as per usual. They aren't really difficult. As a group they work hard and get on very well and we had some wonderful nights of music and fun.
Hope to have some images tomorrow.

Sailing

Four boats, one beach, 100 kids and lots of wind all add up to thrills and spills and screams and beams.

The Waterwise programme has been around a while teaching kids how to sail and become wise on the water. With our very long coastline, I'm guessing about 4500 kilometres, having fun on the water is a big part of our Kiwi life and the ocean can be very unforgiving as our drowning stastictics show. Our own Hot Water Beach is the second worst in NZ for drowning because inexperienced people become hot in the pools and then rush into the surf and are carried away in the undertow.

So the local Whenuakite School invited donations to buy four boats and Eggsentric is proudly displayed on one sail and I trained to be an instructor. The kids get 90 minutes each time and learn to rig the boat, go through it's safety features and their own such as life vest, sun block, warm clothes etc. and understand a little of how to read the weather such as clouds and wind on the water.

But the real fun and for some the real terror is on the water when they are in control of a bucking little boat with the wind whipping the sails. We teach them to capsize, right the boat again and bail the water out and that usually gives them confidence when they realise nothing bad can happen.

The real joy for me is when they finally get a feel for it and I can take them out into the Bay where the wind is true. A line of little boats with grinning skippers

Lauren Kitts working on her piece that is now a headstone in the local cemetry

The stone delivery - what potential!

Naughty boy, I haven't posted for a week. It's amazing how running a restaurant fills up your days and nights. Plus I had to deliver an address to artists this week about owning a gallery, teach kids from the local school sailing, arrange the rock delivery for the smposium, tutor at the art school and read the paper! Merlot the dog and I are both putting on weight because our walks in the morning are getting shorter and shorter.

It's always an exciting time when the lovely blue/green rock from Maratoto arrives. I choose the pieces in the quarry but it's not until they are here away from the quarry that they really start talking. When the sculptors come and choose a rock they are of two schools. Some have an idea in their mind and choose a rock to suit that idea, others look at a rock and see an idea. The former is perhaps the safest way because it's not easy working under your peers and the publics eyes. You have to have something finished and acceptable at the end of the week. I am one of the latter but I get it easy, if I don't finish it I blame the sculptors for having to look after their every whim and feed them and listen to their stories. My last years effort is still sitting under the trees, I'll have to hide it and pretend it was sold over the summer!

We are not looking forward to the fine talcum powder like dust that spreads through everything because the gardens are looking fantastic at the moment but it's all part of what we do and who we are.

Still have time

Beautiful this morning after three days of rain. The sun has just come up (ie. the earth's gone down) and the tide is full and still and clear. My coffee is hot and long and the list for today is mercifully short.

I'm still finding time for sculpture so have the best of both worlds - able to feed the family and indulge in fantasy at the same time!- hopefully one day the art will do both.

I designed the arches above to sit flush as an entrance to my exhibition but after storing them in the basement staggered I like them much better. They seem to compel you to walk under them, cathedral like.

The other picture is a new design leaving gaps in the timber, feeling much lighter and the shadows make it change as you walk around it. The front figure will be taller when I get my errant nail gun back from the doctor and I will probably add three more figures, two smaller as if children.

The design permutations are endless. Perhaps I can be laid to rest in a box made from little pieces of wood!

Rage against the night

Pictured above are the committee, with my seat vacant of course, testing the wine and the venue for my upcoming 60th on Jan 3rd and the picture of a picture above that is Chookstock 1998.

We were back on the farm when I turned 50 and I built a big stage and organised 5 bands and called it Chookstock! We had a water slide down the hill and a bouncy castle and B-B-Qs and 450 people turned up with their tents and caravans. It was a blast.

Now 10 years later and 3rd Jan is one of the busiest days of our restaurant year with 200 lunches and 100 dinners so the possibility of much organisation is very small. However we are going to close for the day and my fellow musos are going to perform on the outside stage with hopefully Kokomo Blues who played 10 years ago rocking us late into the night.

What more can a man ask for as he 'rages against the night' than friends and relatives and music and madness and mayhem

Sex on the Beach

A beautiful patch of weather has finally arrived chasing away memories of incessant cold winds. Swam yesterday in Flaxmills cool, clear waters, bracing to be sure but so good to be alive. Son Sam got offered a ride on a charter boat today to the Alderman Islands (named by Cook after his local councillors at home) 15 km off shore and after a successful (for him!) debate of school or fishing he said "Man I've got a good life". At 16 we have to be happy with that. He wants to get his first crayfish free diving and of course big snapper and kingfish on his rod.
The first shining cuckoo made his presence felt this week. They winter in the Solomon Islands and after the long flight their distinctive whistle is a sign that summer is on its way. Lots of other pairings on the beach also. The oyster catchers are long time residents, Mr Smith still favouring his gammy leg, hatching a brood every year. The mallard ducks have already hatched, not sure about the paradise ducks, the white headed female and dark male with their alternate hee haw honks are still flying around. Our little rare dotterels are back this week. They are the same colour as sand and shells and it's only when they move that you can see them. It was a real success for us to see them hatch last year. Many other seagulls and terns but they nest elsewhere and use the water and beach as their dinner table.
So the seasons change, as do the tides of life....

Memory

I've always had trouble with childhood memories and reading Janet Frame, one of our best writers, I am amazed how she seemed to have total recall, showing the world through a childs' eyes.
I remember my elder sister and I, we were very young, coming home and into the kitchen where Father was cutting a big loaf of white bread saying your mother wants to see you in the bedroom.
Mother was sitting up straight backed in bed in a blue nightie with a dead baby, our little brother John, in her arms. It was a wasp sting she said perhaps because menengitis was too unpalatable and that day was never mentioned again even though Mother and Father are long gone. It's strange that I can't see the face of John, only the big loaf of bread.
I remember too Father saying no to me using the dinghy and I got up early and dragged the heavy boat inch by inch into the estuary that bordered the farm and tried to row upstream. They found me gone and I couldn't understand the fuss.
And the anger and beating and no dinner when I walked home 7 miles in the dark after rugby practice.
And my younger sister rolling in the surf at Buffalo beach with her eyes closed and thick sand in her hair and Mother running down the beach... running... running.
I understand the anger now of course, coming from the desperation of losing a child, but then it only created a distance of misunderstanding.
Now I see it in other mothers eyes, that quiet, watchful desperation of loss

Eating and Drinking

The weather has been very cold and windy and traditionally people come down for the long weekend just gone, open up their summer houses, dust off the barby and have the first swim of the season. Yeah right! Just too cold. Didn't stop them coming though with a 7 kilometre wait at the one way Kopu Bridge on the way home. We had a big weekend with a wonderful buzz of conversation and eating reminding me of why we are in the business of providing food and drink for the masses. It's an appreciative business, when you get it right they tell you and come back and they pay before they leave. Also most of them are on holiday away from their busy city lives with no agenda and so are pretty easily pleased.
My menu has been working OK but what seemed a good idea on paper doesn't necessarily work when the pressure is on. I changed the fish dish yesterday to seared bluenose on risotto cake with lemon carrots, wilted spinach and chilli prawns and it sold well. Bluenose is a type of groper and being a big fish has nice thick fillets which I can cook medium rare. Must work on my duck croquettes today they are not selling. Sometimes it only takes a change in the wording and away they will go. The scallop entree is still the most favourite with a lot of people having them as a main.
Well back to the bread dough.....

The Wind

The Wind

Thought I would post the above gem of a video after hearing that we are to have one of the largest wind farms in the world built on a remote part of the west coast of the North Island. It still needs some consents but I'm sure the Govt. will make sure it is fast tracked so they can add it to their green image. It will produce enough energy to power 250,000 homes.

I hope little old NZ doesn't take off with all those propellers going round!

Curvachair? Chair Leader? The Sculpture that Dreamed of being a Chair?

Finally back to the desk after a busy weekend. Already it's as if we haven't been closed. So nice to see all the old friends and customers (it's hard to see the difference these days!) dropping in and eating the old favourites and leaving the new alone. I don't know why I worry about making changes. It's probably more about keeping me interested. WWoofer Jana who has been my prep chef is enjoying herself so is staying longer, Aurilie leaves on Wed. to pick strawberries and Chris and Emelie leave next week after being with us for 5 weeks. An artist and musician from Hawaii comes on Thursday. Long Live The WWoofers!

My sculpture chair is aired to the public for the first time on Thursday in the new Whitianga Gallery. I love the packing up of a work that has taken a lot of lonely effort and delivering it to a nice public space. It's almost like taking your new baby out for the first time and everybody goes goo ga ga but you don't really know if they like it because they would say that even if it was as ugly as sin! The gallery owner has asked for a bio which goes something like this

History - Delivered – 1948
Deflowered – too long ago to remember
Enlightened – 1965
Haircut (after hippiedom) – 1978
Corporate – NEVER
Enlightened again – 1979 –83 –87 – 95 etc.

Future - Continuation of enlightment (with dark edges)
Aging rock star
World reknown artist (just in case you are worried about
your investment!!)

Dorothy Waters

The image above is Dorothy Waters with a portrait of her painted by friend and near neighbour Rachel Olsen. Dorothy is a well known NZ artist who painted vibrant, semi abstract canvases but unfortunately now is almost blind and so unable to continue. She is living with her daughter in Napier but used to live here in our little community and when the picture came up for sale we felt it should stay in the area in a public place so bought it and now Dorothy resides on a wall at the Egg meeting and greeting just like she used to. A real character with a mischievious twinkle in her eye she used to wander down to the shops with the 'old school' hat and parasol and we sadly miss her.

You can view Rachels art here and other Coromandel artists here

The Rugby!!!

I can't believe I want to talk about sport on my very cultural blog. Don't get me wrong I've done my bit with rugby, tennis, sailing, squash and surfing with a lot in between but the national obsession with winning or in this case losing to determine whether you get out of bed in the morning has somehow passed me by. However this time it seems different. To be number one in the rugby playing world for four years and go out in the quarter finals is bad enough, but the unfolding of the game itself was somehow tragic and beautiful and at the end numbing (I can't believe I'm saying this!). Strangely I can liken it to 9/11 (of course I do know it's not as important) which although tragic was absolutely beautiful in concept and in the way those massive symbols of power meekly accepted the planes and their own destruction.
Also the American people, confident in their impregnability, for the first time felt what it was like to be vunerable and have lashed out since at anyone and everyone they think is to blame.
So the coach will go and some of the players will go and the management will be shaken up and probably there will be more family violence and two weeks later people will wake up and realise that it really doesn't matter.
But the pyschology of putting your dreams into a national sports team fascinates me. It's almost as if it is fulfilling the old warrior need of vanquishing a foe which is not available anymore. That works of course when you win but then you lose and whamo!
The game was beautiful though with passion and courage, exaltation and heartbreak, and although I felt I had gone through a wringer I feel that I have gained something.
It would make a good abstract collage!

Phew!

With a sigh of relief we are over our first day. It is always difficult after being closed for 5 months because everything has to be made and ready down to the last little garnish. I worked hard to concoct new recipes for lunch and dinner but again most people opted for the old favourites (sigh again). I don't have a prep chef yet so was teaching wwoofer Jana while cooking and she will probably be moving on in a couple of weeks, it's lucky we are still reasonably quiet at this time of year.
We had a wonderful surprise when our good friends Paul and Mata walked in after driving all the way from Auckland to wish us well and then driving back again so they could open their jewellery shop (Brighouse Design, very innovative - great black pearls) in the morning. You owe me now m'boy, this is beaming out to all of three homes around the world!
The singing voice was pretty damn good, if I say so myself, maybe because it hasn't been used for so long. I'm playing along with 16 other acts in Tairua on Sat. to raise funds for a little girl with cancer and on Sunday we have our open jam session with the Whitianga Music Club.
So now it's consolidating time, tweaking sauces and changing what doesn't work and just enjoying the fact that we get people coming to see us every day looking for fun, food, art and music.
It's got to be good for you!

New Art School

I spent yesterday tutoring collage at a new art school in Whitianga. Set up by a friend Judy Meehl it includes classes of painting, pottery, doll making, life drawing and of course collage. The method was taught to me by Swiss artist (and dear friend) Felix Obrist who came to NZ to recover from an illness and after numerous black coffees and discussions on art he used my studio and let me into his secrets (which aren't secrets any longer sorry Felix!). It involves constructing by glueing on paper such as pages from magazines ripped or cut and then deconstructing by sanding back and then adding again in many layers. The sanding back blurs images and makes it more like a painting.
Our little town of Whitianga has always been well blessed with galleries and now another friend (yes I have two!) Andrea is setting up a fine art gallery which will replace the Upstairs Gallery which closed last year. Interestingly, Tauranga a city twenty times larger, (I'm guessing) has just got it's first gallery. What comes first the gallery or the artists?
Off to Auckland now to pick up supplies for our opening and to see the grandchildren for their birthdays and then it's nose to the grindstone for seven months. Whoopee

Opening the restaurant

What the restaurant should look like!

The countdown to opening the restaurant again has begun in earnest. It's our 10th year and are by far the longest running establishment in our area which boasts about 20 eateries. It's a cut throat business with the two cafes closest to us each having eight different owners since we started and many other venues failing. Maybe prospective buyers see them in the summer time when it's completely manic and imagine how much money they can make but the reality is less than ten punters in the winter time is the norm and that's only if you are popular. So our decision to close for five months has been a good one economically and it's given us a life outside of the business which is important to our survival.

So it will be good to open again with seasonal products like asparagus and strawberries (not together!). The Coromandel green lipped mussels are fattening after spawning, the scallops from our bay are small but of good colour and a fisherman is now catching paddle crabs which haven't got a lot of meat but are and subtle and sweet. Crayfish are plentiful and have only gone up $2 to $38/kilo for second grade (loss of more than two legs), the first kingfish, my preferred fish to cook, have been sighted and the oysters are fat. Add these to the local fruit, oranges, tangelos, mandarins, tamarillos, avocados, macadamias and free range eggs (from our old business) and organic milk and you have a wonderful canvas to paint a menu.

There has been a big shift away from out of season and/or exotic foods but we have always used as much local as we can get because of isolation and courier charges and it made sense.

So now we're busy changing the restaurant from sculpture studio to eatery and where do we put eight big sculptures!