Gibbs Sculpture Farm

And the final blog from out Northland travels. Click on the photos to enlarge. 

You'll recall I was offered a free ticket to an open day at Gibbs Sculpture Farm by our neighbours at the Muriwai Holiday Park. They'd bought tickets for two days just in case the weather wasn't great on the first day. 

Gibbs Farm, Kaipara Harbour

They headed off on a lovely sunny day, the next day- my day- wasn't so good; overcast, grey & threatening rain but I hardly noticed. I was out the door early & one of first in the car queue through into a top paddock carpark (no surprises there). 

Rakaia 1996/1997. Peter Nicholls

Gibbs Farm is an expansive open-air sculpture park on the edge of the Kaipara Harbour, north of Auckland. It has the greatest collection of large-scale outdoor sculptures in the country with works by some of the world's most renowned artists. The sculpture park took 24 years to create & employs over 28 people.

‘Horizons’ (1994), Neil Dawson

I once heard Neil Dawson, the artist of  Horizons talking about his work. He said it like a curved piece of corrugated iron, from an old farm tank, that has sprung loose and blown in the wind to settle on the hilltop. And it sure looked like that. Added to the surreal scene, yaks & rare breeds of horned sheep grazed on the slopes below the sculpture.  Dawson is also famous for The Chalice in Cathedral Square, Christchurch.

‘Te Tuhirangi Contour’ (1999-2001), Richard Serra

Gibbs Farm, Kaipara Harbour

The park is only open to the public a few days each year and the owner Alan Gibbs (entrepreneur, businessman & art collector) generously allows local charities to run the open days & fundraise selling tickets.

Red Cloud Confrontation in Landscape 1996. Leon van den Eijkel

Pyramid (Keystone NZ) 1997. Sol

It was great to get there early to take photos before there were too many people swarming in, around & over some of the more popular sculptures. Although a few hundred people soon disappear in the landscape.

Tickets Please- Otis the Ostrich 2019 (I named him)

By far the most popular exhibit, going by the strung out rows of tiny ant like people making a beeline for it, was 'Dismemberment', looking like a gigantic red megaphone high up on a hill.

‘Dismemberment, Site 1’ (2009). Anish Kapoor.

The farm covers over 400 hectares of rolling hills & a good level of fitness and sturdy footwear are required if you want to get up close & personal with the sculptures.

‘Dismemberment, Site 1’ (2009), Anish Kapoor.

I wonder how many people noticed the art work 'Green & White Fence (1999-2001), Daniel Buren', it contains fence posts painted, well, green & white, & placed at 4 metre intervals and is 3.2km long. I found it pretty hard capturing the whole sculpture but you can see it in the two photos below! 😁

At the top of the hill- Sea/Sky Kaipara (1994) Graham Bennett

Sculptures are located high on hilltops, down on slopes, tucked into gullies and in paddocks beside the harbour. 

A Fold in the Field (2013) Maya Lin (yes, it's those mounds in the paddock)

There is no public entry to this part of the farm but it looks like there's a fair bit going on down there. I wonder if that is where the private full-scale wild west farm complete with saloon is located. Although it looks more like a island resort to me. Someone will know.

And there's that fence again.

It is a large farm and it takes at least four hours to follow the sculpture trail.

‘88.5° ARC x 8’ (2012), Bernar Venet

There are even a few sculptures located out on the Kaipara harbour mudflats that can be viewed from a few locations along the walk- I didn't manage to see any. 

Gibbs Farm, Kaipara Harbour

‘Te Tuhirangi Contour’ (1999-2001), Richard Serra.

The farm also includes quite a surprising number of exotic animals such as zebra, bison, buffalo, yaks, giraffe & an assortment of rare & unusual breeds of cattle, sheep & goats.

Buffalo- Mumma & her son

One of us is not like the other- Jeff the Giraffe gets a lick from the Gibbs Farm dominant real life male giraffe (salt forms on the sculpture from the salt laden Kaipara Harbour air). There are 3 male giraffes, they are big animals and very tall, it's just that Jeff is much taller!

Giraffe (2011-2012), Jeff Thomson

The giraffe are the only remaining Rothschild giraffe in New Zealand and Gibbs Farm is a registered zoo with suitably qualified staff taking care of all the animals.

I'm sure the animals hate open days- they are contained in smaller paddocks & yards

The ponds have fish in them and various types of waterfowl congregating lakeside. 

Easy K (2005) Kenneth Snelson & Red Square (1994), Richard Thompson

I had a fantastic time exploring the farm, visiting most of the sculptures and saying hello to some of the more friendly animals...

Umbrella Ostrich 2019

Towards the end I wanted to reverse my route & revisit some of the sculptures again, see them in a different light, capture them at a different angle but sadly time was up and groups of tired, bedraggled people dragging their feet (it had rained on & off), slowly made their way back up the hill to the top carpark. Those that were in the bottom carpark had already climbed to the top in the morning. 

‘Dismemberment, Site 1’ (2009). Anish Kapoor.

If you ever get the chance I'd highly recommend a visit to Gibbs Farm. The farm & artworks might be privately owned by a very wealthy businessman but he very generously shares this magnificent landscape with visitors through the open days. You won't be disappointed. 

And a huge thankyou to the lovely visiting Dutch couple who gave me one of their tickets, it was very much appreciated & enjoyed. 

‘Dismemberment, Site 1’ (2009). Anish Kapoor.

‘Jacob’s Ladder’ (2017), Gerry Judah.

Floating Island of Immortals (2006), Zhan Wang

What do you think? Did I managed to capture 3.2km of THAT fence?

‘88.5° ARC x 8’ (2012), Bernar Venet

Two Bays, Two Camp Sites- Northland

Catch-up

Well, that short break became a long one. Unfortunately we had to delay our plans for a couple of weeks when David became ill while we were out on the boat. Luckily & thank God we have been able to stay on at our friends place in Kerikeri while he's been recuperating, parked up (like friendly gnomes) at the bottom of their garden. 

It has truly been a much appreciated life saver and especially being on power and able to run the air-conditioning during the hot & humid days we've been having. It was a worry when our tanks were getting full and David was not feeling like he could manage to drive the rig across town to the dump station. The solution? The shortest trip yet to a 'dump station'; across the lawn to connect up to our friends septic tank. The perfect solution!

David is on the mend although he does get very tired so we'll be doing much shorter trips as we head south down Northland's west coast.  But anyway, back to a blog (which is now a long way behind!)...

From Puriri Bay we headed south back along the long & winding dusty road, back towards Whangarei. The alternative was to continue on along the Old Russell Road to Russell and cross on the ferry to Opua but that involved a bit of co-ordinating; we needed to arrive at the top of a high tide so we could drive onto the ferry and not scrape our bum. It was also quite expensive for a 5 minute ride for a rig of our size, and besides, we had another DOC camp to check out before we went further north.

Otamure Bay is another beautiful little bay just over the hill from Whananaki, which is the seaside settlement on the north side of the longest pedestrian bridge in the Southern Hemisphere, which you may recall, we visited a few weeks earlier from Whananaki South.

The white sands and sparkling blue waters of Otamure Bay are fringed by huge pohutukawa trees which provide shelter and shade for visitors to the public reserve.

The large DOC campground, which stretches the full length of the bay, is behind the reserve.

Unfortunately, the boundary fence between the camp and the reserve would made it difficult for us to inflate the Takacat and get it down to the water so there was to be no fishing for David during this stay. He could have perhaps inflated it on the other side of the fence but then he'd have worried about it parked up over there at night and also it was still quite a distance to haul it down to the water.

As it turned out the fish weren't biting that hard anyway. Jocelyn & Murray (and one of their family members with a new 5th-wheeler) were also parked up at Otamure Bay when we arrived. That's Murray, 'fisherman extraordinaire', who manages to feed a camp with fish. Well, he wasn't having too much luck this time, just the odd one here and there.

The campground shared the bay with just one other property, a lovely holiday home tucked into the corner and surrounded by bush. This little folly- a tiny boat house and jetty- was at the front of their garden overlooking the beach.

And when the owners arrived for a few days the flag went up, the deck chairs came out and the lifebuoys were added to the hut. It looked like the perfect spot to relax, have a cool drink and enjoy the views.

At the other end of the bay a beautiful stream (naturally stained with tannin) flowed under the overhanging pohutukawas and out to sea. This is where I'd be swimming if the weather was a little warmer! 

Just along the road and across the bridge over the stream, is the entrance to a gorgeous hidden gem. It does involve a short sharp 200m walk up and over a bluff but it's well worth the effort. 

The Watkin Powell Track delivers the walker into the beautiful & secluded Tauwhara Bay with its white sand, emerald green waters and magnificent gnarly old pohutukawa trees. 

This would be the perfect place to take a romantic picnic for two, to sunbathe & have a swim and out of season you’ll most likely be the only visitors all day.

There are a few secluded holiday homes tucked into the bush and flax above the bay and at the far end, a large mown grassed area under a pohutukawa with this old dinghy waiting patiently for the summer.

We drove through Whananaki (north) on our way to Otamure Bay and of course I had to pop back over the hill to check it out in more detail later in our stay. 

I stopped at the top of the hill to take a photo looking down over the estuary. I also wanted to check out a camping ground after I'd seen a sign and a glimpse of it out the window as we were passing earlier in the week.

And wow, what a fabulous looking camping site, and this, according to the farm's website, is only one of several sites on the farm on both side of the headland that forms the northern border to the Whananaki estuary. I do see that it only mentions tenting on the website & I wonder if campervans and motorhomes are welcome too. I can see that access may be an issue to some of the sites.

Further on down the hill the small village- made up of permanent houses,  luxury holiday homes and classic kiwi baches- sits on the edge of the large estuary.

And this time I approach the pedestrian bridge via the front door!

Any road with 'wharf' or 'church' in its name is a major magnet for me when I'm exploring and of course I have to check them out hoping to find something interesting to photograph.

I drove to the end of the Whananaki Wharf Road which was rather short... and onto the bumpy part where it said it was no longer maintained by the council. There are a number of baches along the edge of the estuary here and it must be a worry for them during king tides and with the global warming threat hanging over their heads.

I walked to the end of the track and out onto the old wharf...

...which overlooked the estuary entrance and Ocean Beach which we visited from Whananaki South the other week.

This is looking back into the estuary, you can see the ute parked at the edge of the photo (click to enlarge)...

...and oh look, there's that bridge again!