Land of the Long White Cloud – Mementos and Postcards

Memento hunting
There is plenty of beautiful things to admire and if lucky, bring home. There seems to be a booming ceramic and pottery market, and plenty of intricate Māori inspired carvings, jewellery, drawings or paintings. I didn’t feel I knew enough about the symbolism of the Māori themes and maybe it was all too new and I couldn’t decide on a piece. But I was happy to find a couple of books, prints, postcards and more bowls to add to our growing collection. So here are the places where we invested in the local economy:

Auckland
Ariel Books was a fun place to spend some time and find my first book in New Zealand by a local author: ‘Sing to Me, Dreamer’ by Shonagh Koea.

Wellington
Cuba Street has some lovely stores and here, we found Minerva with some beautiful scarves, made of refurbished kimonos. When we arrived in Wellington, near our hotel, I saw the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and on the last day we spent some time looking at their exhibition and left with two beautiful pieces. One by Merle Bishop, titled Adoration which successfully blends dogs and ice cream, and the second, nature-inspired by Angela Walker. The Te Papa Museum store had some lovely collections of jewelry, wood carvings, ceramic and pottery. We easily managed to find a few more pretty bowls, made in Nelson by McGlashen Pottery.

Christchurch
The Canterbury Museum store was again a good source of pretty things where we found some gorgeous tiles made by Jenz Studio. They are 5 pieces, white and green, matte and glossy inspired by plants and flowers. I found another book, ‘Man Alone’ by John Mulgan in Scorpio Books in the new container shopping centre. There are a lot of local artists around the area and with many items singled out as made in Christchurch to revive local businesses.

During all the drives we did there were a lot of signs towards local pottery shops or artists’ studios. We didn’t stop since we really tried to limit the items we bought but I am curious to revisit that next time we go.

Postcard Revival
It has been a hobby to keep on the lookout for postcards for a long time, since right before high-school. Travelling around we seem to end up in antique shops looking through stacks of old postcards. We have some fun postcard exchange tradition with a few of our friends and we keep finding some real gems to send to each other. These are the ones we found and kept for ourselves.

Postcard.
Postcard.
Postcard.
Postcard.

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