Tag: Sydney

Last but not least, Sydney, the cruise and New Zealand

On June 16, 2026

Kiaora. I have been pondering how to do one last blog about Anne and my travels in Sydney, on the cruise and in New Zealand. Particularly New Zealand, Aotearoa. It made a deep impression on me but it is hard to pinpoint exactly why that is so. We saw and experienced so much while we were there, from cities, Wellington, Auckland, to natural springs flowing from deep in the earth, and natural hot pools, used only by locals and lucky travellers. So I have decided to predominately use pictures.

First the cruise.

Lincoln in our bathroom. About a 6” x 6” tile, high up on the wall. Why?

It was a very strange mixture of styles.

We had just seen this original in London, by Seurat, and this,

both in his Pointillism style. Note the strange pink spots beside it, which were everywhere. These pictures were in the stairwells

The stylized women were in the corridors. Not sure which decade they represent, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s.

Just the length of corridor from our door.

And to top it all off, as if there were not enough styles, I think that some of the ship was refurbished while Pirates of the Caribbean was popular.

Notice the pink pearls, just like the stair wells. I have no explanation for the completely mixed up styles.

Sydney was amazing.

Dangerously Modern, Australian and NZ women painting in Europe between 1890 and 1930

Iconic. Way ahead of it’s time and still awesome.

And on to New Zealand

Hot springs in the middle of Rotorua, fenced off of course. And no entry fee.

More water bubbling up from a spring in the Hamurana Golf Club, Rotorua, and such a lovely walk through more trees, redwoods included

Redwood tree walk in Whakarewarewa Forest, Rotorua, Bay of Plenty. They are young yet, an introduced species. The walkway is hung in such a way as to prevent or minimize harm to the bark. Timber is a major export.

The ferns were amazing, this one is at least 10’ across, but I don’t seem to have a good picture of the silver leaf fern, their national plant and the symbol of the All Black Rugby Team, and on the NZ team shirts during the current World Cup.

The mineral springs, steam and boiling mud of Puia Maori Village

And the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute in the same place, funded by the entrance fees. The picture is straight, the roof is slanted. 2 – 4 year apprenticeships in wood carving, stone carving and basket weaving, free for participants.

Napier and the Art Deco Festival, around which all of the trip was planned, and was as great as hoped for.

Such a great shot of Anne

And another

Illusive, scurrying, solitary Kiwi at the National Aquarium in Napier

A lovely day at the Mission Estate Winery

Ohau Channel, near Rotorua, more skyscapes…..

The Maori name for the New Zealand is Long White Cloud

The Ladies Rest, Memorial Square, Napier

Sky scapes never get boring

The Moko artist, Te Wehi Preston and a piece of Maori art I brought home with me.

I had the large paw done first, it was supposed to be subtle, but they persuaded me it would not be seen in brown. I should have insisted. So later I added the small paws but it still did not feel finished. Te Wehi spoke to me for a while and we chatted about life and my dogs, etc and he picked up a marker and drew the design. Towards my elbow it is about strength, and life’s ups and down, with fine lines to protect from negativity. They represent the stockades around their villages. The other half is about love, for my dogs, they for me and all the others who I love and love me.

Maori are very present in every day life, and I think that is a large part of what impressed me. Maori is one of the official languages, and signs are often in Maori and English. Their presence is very much present in conservation work and many acres of land have been preserved or are now used in a way that serves many people rather than being exploited. To them the land, water and soil are treasures and sacred, and they are the guardians. And it is evident. They have been able to exert their beliefs in an effective way.

These are small examples, but I got the feeling that not much happens regarding the environment that they are not included in. There is a right wing government in power at the moment, and there has been push back against some progress achieved, but I think it has too much momentum not to continue in the future.

Dangerously Modern

By Maggie

On February 14, 2026

In Posts

Way back at the end of January, on my second day in Sydney, Anne and I walked to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see the exhibit Dangerously Modern. We knew it was about Australian and New Zealand women artists living in Europe from 1890 to 1940. After a hot walk, we were delighted to be inside a cool building, but not prepared for the scope and depth of the exhibition, 220 pieces of art, all by women from that era. Many words can describe our reaction, inspired, intrigued, educated, delighted, and overwhelmed. But can’t quite capture the feeling.

This post has been on my mind since seeing the exhibit. I was not very far into it when I realized that I wanted to create a post. I had no idea these women existed, lived in Paris, London, the French countryside, the English countryside, Ireland, following their own creative dreams, learning from each other, experimenting with new art forms, cubism for example, and of course co-existing with all the other creative artists that are so famous from that time, writing for instance. Virginia Woolf, Earnest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the bookshop, Shakespeare & Co. So I started taking pictures, and that is what this post is, the exhibit through my eyes. And no, it is not all 220 of them, but a lot. (Still can’t believe that we can take pictures of the art.). Maybe it is for me, so that I can see it whenever I want to.

This piece was very small and intriguing, painted on ivory.

Some artists stayed in Europe for the rest of their lives, others returned to Australia or New Zealand and continued their careers, changing the art culture at home.

Is this how artists of the era do their sketches, paint them in the back of the box? Seems a sensible idea.

I love the way that two of the women are looking directly at you, one happy, one glum, while grabbing fabric. I can put myself in that picture, in a French market, or a sale where speed is of the essence in getting the choicest item. I didn’t photograph the next picture, but wanted the information about Iso Rae’s connection to other artists and her community in Etaples

I can feel the damp and cold bleakness in this picture in my bones.

Sadly this copy does not do the original justice. Standing in front of it I could feel the difficulty of working on a boat in a wind that made the Thames choppy, and how cold and miserable that would have been.

We took a break after about an hour and a half to give our brains a rest, they were full of art. We had a lovely lunch in the restaurant, but don’t ask me what, I have had so many lovely lunches since.

We have become quite familiar with the modern Circular Quay. The cruise ship began from there, and there is a fleet of commuter ferries that always seems to have at least three boats coming and going at once, and completely un-phased by the cruise ship sailing away, dodging this way and that around it.

I didn’t take a photo of Van Gogh’s room.

I really enjoyed the background information throughout the exhibit. It really added depth and understanding of the women and their art and lives.

She is painting the next picture.

The above refers to picture above. Oh, what English, but as you can imagine, keeping everything in order while I was there, then when I uploaded them to laptop, editing them and putting them into the WordPress app ready to put them here was quite a challenge, and time consuming. But I think worth it. It must have taken at least a couple of years to research the artists, assemble their work and then present them in an understandable way. And as far as I know an original, dare I say, unique exhibit.

Refugees. A horrendous human effect of man-made conflict. How can we not support their efforts to find settled lives? They did not ask for their misery

This room was much more interesting than Van Gogh’s.

Loved this one, stood for ages looking at the very humanness of it, but don’t seem to have recorded the artist. It was getting late in the show.

The star of the show. Anne and I have spent time trying to pin down the affect. Unapologetic. Saucy. Attitude. Self-confident. Defying convention. Would love to hear what she says to you.