17th December 2009
In more ways than one.
We woke up to clear blue skies again this morning, so decided to head over to Founders Heritage Park which is a replica historic village containing many of the old historic buildings and artefacts of Nelson. Unfortunately it was all closed up when we arrived, with no indication that it was due to open any time soon. We managed to slip in a side gate and snap a couple of pictures, but didn’t linger for too long.
Instead we made our way round the coast from Nelson towards Richmond and beyond to find Rabbit Island. Whilst we didn’t see any rabbits, it did have a lovely beach where we sat and read our books for half an hour. The sun is a little too strong here to stay for longer than that, especially since neither of us had any suntan lotion.
Then we made our way back towards Nelson and WOW, or the World of Wearable Art and Classic Cars museum, where our first port of call was the cafe for a lovely spot of lunch sat on the sun-drenched patio.
From there we first visited the World of WearableArt Gallery. This is a collection of the garments entered into the annual Montana World of Wearable Art Awards show. The show itself is an amazing two hour theatrical extravaganza which showcases these incredible garments with stunning sets, dance, music, lighting and choreography. The whole concept is to take art and make it into something wearable - some of which have to be seen to be believed.
I had watched part of the awards on TV over the weekend and was looking forward to this wonderful gallery immensley. I wasn’t disappointed, the the historic garment collection is simply spine-tingling, infused with the theatrical atmosphere of music, lighting and movement, everything was put together wonderfully, designed specifically to accentuate the beauty of these wonderful creations. We saw clothes made out of everything from aluminium foil to used zips, feathers to old tea bags. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any photos of this year’s outfits, but some of the older ones in the Classic Car Gallery give an idea of the concept.
Having had our fill of teabag dresses, we stepped next door into the Classic Car Gallery. This was another treat. An eclectic mix of cars from New Zealand’s largest private automotive collection.
A whole range of cars feature in this stunning collection, some of which have undergone extensive renovation. There are cars from all years, pre-world war 1 to a modern day SMART car, and varying price brackets, from little old Minis to top of the range Maybachs. There was even an XJS which I just had to get a picture of for Rod :)
