This weekend, a group of 10 of us pulled into the Plateau Lodge in National Park and got settled into the evening. We had met earlier in Taupo and had a beer at a lake side pub. The sun was still shining perfectly. This was when we met the others, the new people who we had not met yet, they seemed pretty animated and were good fun.
So we arrived, and settled in at the table for full on vegetarian pasta made by Jenny and David. Yum, after which we tucked into a nice cake that Catherine had brought with. We all went to bed early since the shuttle to Tongariro Crossing was leaving extra early at 6 am to get us out of the bad weather which would later approach. We woke up on time, surprisingly and everyone was ready, I felt like a snow goer since I had every type of protection on, snow jackets, seal fur (fake) jackets, thermal underwear, long sleeve tops, beanie, scarf, buff and whatever other warm thing I could think of.
Bags packed with loads of food, wouldn't want to be caught without something to eat otherwise two steps in and I would be starving. We started off as a group and then gradually we lost six people in the clouds and they left us behind to our own devices. Slow and steady and sometimes very unhappy and challenged, we slowly worked ourselves through the course. We walked up to the saddle, it started to get very windy, and we all had to put on out jackets that the previous stretch had striped from our bodies. There finally came a loo. A long drop, but do not dare to not use it as 11 km later or there abouts is the next one! The clouds started to come in over the top of the mountains and there was a fine mist dewing on our clothing. Then it turned to a soft irritating drizzle and that meant that when we got to the awesome stuff it was, well lets say, white and puffy and well cloudy, and we saw nothing. We missed the red crater, well we saw where it was but not what it looked like, we found the three emerald lakes and completely missed the blue lake, because that was covered too, by cloud.
We stopped for a lunch of hot dogs and lollies, and ate under a rock while people passed us by and this is when we realised we'd missed the blue lake completely!
We trudged along, all the while the toilets being the primary motivator to get to the hut, finally, relieved, we went on to find some very murky volcanic water, stenching of sulphur. This was on private land and we weren't allowed off the track. Finally on the last stretch we got a txt message telling us that the others where at the hut and we thought they had climbed a mountain, and were now behind us. We tried to reschedule the shuttle so that they could catch it later.
We rushed throught the forest, where a river had stollen our footpath for a bit and then frustrated finally coming out of the end and we realised that the bus had left without us and poor old Erick had run to catch it only to be 2 minutes late for the bus. We sat in the rain, waiting for the others, waiting for the shuttle and finally it came. By this time I was very tired and not really able to move.
We hopped in the bus, went home and we took a really very welcome shower, and then promptly plomped onto the couch and didn't move. After a short nap, we went to the station restaurant and we had really good food while real trains would go by and the entire restaurant would vibrate. We ate the best steak I have ever eaten, since I was in desparate need of protein for the poor muscles, it was a sure winner. We went home, climbed into bed and woke up next morning and made pancakes, with limited tools and a warped pan.
We then hopped in the car and drove like banshees home to Auckland. We stopped for lunch for 30 minutes at the The Thirsty Weta. We couldn't really climb out of the car without looking like geriatrics!
We are back and we are stiff but it was worthwhile and I did it!
We came home to a blackend chrystalis. Two hours later we had a fully fledged butterfly. Pictures speak louder than words so I will show you a picture. if you look carefully you can see the other butterfly at the back. This is the part where ideas take flight!
We have been watching them for some time now, and they have basically been eating the entire tree. There are very few leaves left and they are chomping away like there is no tomorrow. There is one hanging curled in upside down in the process of turning into a chrysilus (pupa). These little green pods house the butterfly inside in its development stage. They are beautiful, they have a gold thread across the green pods. Inside, there is a butterfly which breaks free after a couple of weeks, after development and then stretches and dries it's wings and flies away and starts all over again.
I have included a couple of videos, I also have some photographs of the caterpillers, inbetween stages and the chrysilus. There were also aphids on the plant, and where there are aphids there are ladybugs. No adult lady bugs to be found but I managed to find 2 larva stage ladybugs.
Now you have to notice these things, basically stop and smell the roses, and with us we are watching carefully. I think what astounds us is that these caterpillars are always in a life cycle. Like these caterpillars, every work of art also starts off as an egg, an idea being incubated, it comes out, you gather everything you need, this is where you munch and munch until you eventually have to go into a "pod" and the end product, although it's taken weeks to get there, is something beautiful, something graceful, majestic and vibrant.
I will keep you all updated on our little life cycle's process.
When I start to design a logo, I need to start thinking about what message it needs to send out. I want to create something that truly gives the idea it needs to communicate.
Isn't it interesting how ignorant we are of our surroundings? Why don't we notice the minor details and if we can't notice the minor details, why don't we notice the bigger ones?
I have come to realise how ignorant I am with regards to my environment. I have just moved country, been living here for a year and I have picked up on a few things. In New Zealand, the natural environment has a very big role in the designs that happen. For instance the pahutakawa's on the Southern Motorway's concrete walls.
I was just at a recruiter and she made an interesting mention that the Australian design is so much more desolate, dry, scorched, just like their surroundings. They use the red earthy colours and the deep blue sky and all the shades inbetween. Living in New Zealand, is a different environment. It is a little island in a remote place with soft cloudy skylines and a plethora of green and chocolaty rich browns. The sky line offers a pastel artwork reminiscent of a Monet. Everywhere you look there is a open area of water, which ranges from a deep blue, to turquoise, to a soft white foam. If you look at the beaches, you get Piha charcoal volcanic colour to the white purity of Pakiri Beach not too much further up North.
From now on, I am going to try to echo the environment in my designs.
Look around you and notice the colour.
You'll be surprised!
