Driftwood Art

Leo and I often wonder what our kids will remember about this trip and what they will remember about us as parents.  I suspect one memory will be that we took them on some random stops.  One that made us laugh, imagining the "do you remember when mom made us..." stories was the stop in Hokitika.

Hokitika is a little seaside town on the west coast of the South Island.  Earlier in the trip I picked up a brochure for Hokitika and while perusing it on the drive I noted an add for the "Beach Art Festival Driftwood & Sand" with the statement that it happens in February.  I love driftwood, rocks and fleeting art installations in nature, so I immediately thought "how cool" and "wouldn't it be great to land there during the festival."  As was the case for much of New Zealand, we were without cell or internet service, so we couldn't check the dates, but we crossed our fingers and  tucked away the idea of the art festival in the back of our minds.  A few days later we were driving into Hokitika when a sign at the edge of the road announced the dates of the Driftwood Art festival for 2019.  And it was happening that day!  Leo and I were so excited.  The kids were perplexed. 

As we meandered  to the beach we picked up the vibe that Hokitika is a cool little town with an active art scene.  There is public art scattered on the waterfront with the twist that it is art you can sit on.  Small placards suggest that much of the art, including the driftwood festival, is supported and run by a volunteer community arts group.

Making our way to the festival at the end of the beach.

The festival had been "on" for the past two days and there were many art installations on the beach.  As we understood it, the festival was open to anyone, artist at heart or artist by profession, and you could use anything you found on the beach.  The final day of the festival there were prizes and awards for different categories.

Rotisserie.

Google map pin.

A chance to talk about "what is art" ... or maybe they were just talking about gaming PCs ... it is a toss up.

Looking at the bear cub

The entrance to the festival was behind this boat and the "zoo"

Zoo friend the snail.

Zoo friend the octopus.

This one is a downed plane representing the crash landing from 1931 of Guy Menzies.
At the time we didn't know what was being referenced, but the next day we passed through the small town of Hari Hari and saw a sign for the site of Guy Menzies' crash.  Apparently he made the first solo flight across the Tasman sea, was blown off course, and landed upside down in a swamp. He survived.

As is our style we took our time and savored the experience.  We looked at ALL the installations.  We talked about what we liked and what we didn't.  We decided that we should definitely get something like this going back home.  Which then led to conversations about what beach would be best suited to such an event.  It was a fun, free and totally random stop.  It was also a wonderful and accessible way to experience art in a raw form, and a reminder that we can all be inspired by our environment to create something beautiful, provocative, or silly.  It will also likely go down in the annals of "random stops mom/dad made us do".