
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
There are some new decorative pieces in Cathedral square from when we were here last.
I have a bit of a “thing” about trees and leaves at the moment, and keep a small box of dried leaves, acorns and a few twigs so that I can practice drawing.
I also take more than my fair share of photographs of trees for the same reason, it’s a fascination of form, texture and colours that for me at least never gets old.
It therefore pleases me to see a tree as one of these decorative forms, and in a way two, because the second “tree” is a sort-of-Christmas tree form, made of sheet music.
There the appeal is just the “old paper” look, it’s like viewing an old book, the kind in which the reader had to cut the pages before they could read.
The sheet music “tree” even has a top which extends past the top of the roof of the little kiosk it is located on. On the third side is another “tree” this time a very stylized one, consisting of a triangle made up of smaller triangles all in different colours.
It’s possible to walk inside this little booth, but stupidly at the moment I was going to move around and photograph the inside a tour group arrived and I got distracted. They all took up position just a few metres away from me, so naturally I could also hear the tour guides commentary.
I have to confess at this point that since it was early morning, quiet and with not too many other people around, I became guilty of eavesdropping on the information provided and it was a very interesting commentary too.
Much of it I already knew: the history of the “First Four Ships” that bought the original white settlers, their journey over the steep bridle path track over the Port Hills, but there were other snippets that were new and since they were literally metres away from me, well, my ears could not help but flap… just a little. A short time later when I was inside the “marae” (Maori meeting house structure covered in grasses, directly in front of the Cathedral, I ended up answering a few questions of several of the tour group as they explored around this area of the Square on their own. It was a mixed nationality group of mostly younger people and they were on a whirlwind tour of the city as part of their trip. They would have an afternoon to themselves later so I recommended the Gondola on the Port Hills as a possible excursion. Meanwhile the group had split up and were busy looking at the Cathedral, murals, information boards and statues in the immediate area.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)