The Adlington Post

After a busy winter I have finally edited the video footage I shot in February - including some scenes on a bright and sunny Waitangi Day. Browns Bay February 2017 part 1: A look at aspects of Browns Bay in the summer of 2017 - including the Peace Tree, windsurfing along the beach, a musical interlude at the Sunday market, and lastly a trash issue.... https://youtu.be/8z3aVzgEE4g Browns Bay February 2017 part 2: More summer views: closing shops, and demolition work at the Maureen Plowman rest home...... https://youtu.be/dRJvdCgryBU Waitangi Day - Browns Bay 2017 https://youtu.be/IHwwe-b4lyU

The winter season appears to have been such a poor one that several Browns Bay have either closed, or are about to close, their doors: Unfortunately “The Sanctuary” coffee spot only lasted six months or so - after a long and expensive fit-out. This is the old “Coast and Country” and Best of British shop. OWL lasted longer, but homeware stores just don’t seem to be able to stick it out in the Bay - this is the third one to go under recently. Old-timer Candeliere also went this year after many years in Bute Road. At the Anzac Road end of Clyde Road things are really looking grim - the bag shop closed last month, and very soon both the shoe shop and the Mega shop are going.

Demolition work on “The Victor” (“Prepare to be Amazed”) stopped more than two weeks ago, and there doesn’t appear to have been much (if any) activity on the site since then. This hulk is now even more of an eyesore than it was before.

As part of Auckland Artweek 2017, I will participate in LOOK@KRd with a pop-up installation in the window of the shop Buana Satu 229 K Rd, Auckland. As an environmental artist living on the North Shore in Auckland, and am honored to be able to present this installation as part of my long-standing and on-going body of work entitled “Our Dying Planet”. My installation will have an environmental theme - the rapid and continuing extinction of species in NZ.  Entitled "Steampunk Explorers and Moa Bones" this piece is intended to be a wake-up call as to what we have squandered and lost comparatively recently in this once-pristine land. Brief Artist's Statement: "The story suggested by this installation is that in 1888 a group of steampunk explorers fly in an airship to unexplored Fiordland in search of the last of the moa. Unfortunately, the extinction of the moa had been rapid - it is estimated that within 100 years of Polynesians landing in New Zealand the entir...

The puff promotions concerning the marketing of the proposed Victor (“prepare to be amazed”) apartment block in Bute Road, Browns Bay include a considerable down-playing of the physical impact this monster will have on the local community. Whoever drew the architect’s impression below obviously forgot (?) that perspective lines converge at the horizon. I have roughly amended the false image using the more authentic perspective as applied to another similar-sized development. This correction gives a somewhat more realistic impression of the looming presence of this “amazing” giant. . (Unfortunately my Photoshop skills do not extend to correcting the perspective of the original image)

The site of the old Beachside gym on Anzac Road has been vacant for some time, now that the development of the million-dollar units has been canned. It looks as if the blank canvas of the concrete wall to the East has proven too much of a temptation for someone armed with a bunch of spray-cans......

Changes to the Auckland Council unitary plan have enabled the latest owners of the block of land along the cliff top walkway at the South end of Browns Bay beach , to fell a large, well-established pohutukawa tree on the property and open-up the view northwards over the bay. The mayor is talking about planting a million trees, but no consideration seems to be given to such existing ancestors as this. Are we facing development at any price? See the video at: https://youtu.be/tb4supnEM-A

According to press releases, work on turning the old New World site into a large square block of glass, concrete and steel is projected to begin around the middle of the year. With the provision of only 78 carparks for the 64 apartments (plus 5 or 6 retail outlets) it looks as though this development will a make a considerable contribution to the growing parking problems facing Browns Bay. Staff in the Victor office in Clyde Road informed me that each of the 6 penthouses will have two carparks, the two-bedroom apartments will have one each, and the one-bedroom  habitations will not be provided with any parking spaces whatsoever. This week a wire fence has been erected around the West and part of the South sides of the old structure, however there is as yet no evidence of preparations for any demolition work.

The Sanctuary cafe has recently opened after a lengthy makeover of the old English Shop. This makes the 17th such establishment in Browns Bay, and we can look forward to any deficit of local coffee/bakery needs being filled shortly by the opening of #18 - Hollywood Bakery.

The wild weather whipped up some foam over the last few days along the beach, and especially at Taiaotea Creek. Further north it a dingy has washed up.....