p.s.

a very big thank you to Lisa from Israel who actually made it
to the post office and sent us a copy of the Time mag. We got it!!!
Lisa, if you are reading this, something made in the Hokianga, is
on its way to you. xxxx ; )

'photo works' a show by cathy tuato'o ross

a great show we are inaugurating the new year with.
a collection of 17 photo works by Northland photographer
Cathy Tuato'O Ross. Some would say we are pushing our luck
with peacocks and the number 17 - but we're in the Southern
Hemisphere - & everything is upside down and reversed
(as opposed to the Northern one)- so we should be ok.

the photos are beautiful from two different series
'Monuments to Good Intentions' and
'Pictures from the Suburbs' (above)

Best Wishes for 2009

All the best to you out there.This is a beautiful
gouache by Harmen Hilkema of a white heron in flight over
the still harbour waters.
Its all gonna be good when you spot one of these.

hokianga heart

This is the third Heart Trail brochure -
all things proceeding smoothly - they will be
ready on Tuesday.
I love the jewel like quality of this cover - the
blue is a picture of the Hokianga sky on a
summers' day.
Artwork by Lynette Bradley

Ted's Jersey

Ted's Jersey - an exhibition of paintings and photographs
by Barbara Strathdee tells the story of a group of friends
on a tramp into the Arawata River valley in the summer
of 1962. On the trail of legendary prospector William O’Leary
and armed with poetry, supplies and a solitary rifle, the friends’
experience and reaction to the stark beauty of this remote
landscape manifests itself in very different ways.

Strathdee painted these works in 1973. Using fragments of
the poems written on the tramping trip and Ted’s jersey as
a metaphor – Strathdee deftly explores and converses in
different painting styles with a playfulness and wit that runs
counter to the grain of the subject matter.

On show at the Southland Museum of Art, Invercargill until
January 25, 2009.

The set of five postcards of this series is available for NZD 17.50
plus postage - the original artworks will set you back rather more.

Above : portrait of the artist.

Romeo returns !

I was thinking about Romeo yesterday - as
it was his birthday. Wondering how he was and
what he is up to. Great news to find out that
he's back on track with a new line 'io ipse idem'.
I wish him all the best for this new venture.

gold folk

Necklace by Australian jeweler Lucy Folk.
I love everything about it.

post > the tagging

The four taggers got found and 'fessed up to the local cop.
The Outpost walls will be repainted. All will be well.
Tagging is a big issue in NZ.
A man is currently awaiting a jury verdict -
he stabbed and killed a teenager tagging his property.
That's an extreme reaction.
Random acts.

random acts

This is an invitation to the Dead Letter Office Christmas
sale. I got it on Friday and didn't fully engage with the
message. Well its now Monday and I turned up to an
Outpost whose back exterior walls have been totally
tagged. Really badly. It looks like sh* t and frankly it
makes me feel like sh*t. This destructive energy of
vandalism (it could have been art instead) is all about
unleashing boredom and anger. Today is tough sh*t day
at the Outpost.

STINGRAY LAUNCHES

It's official - STINGRAY - has launched today.
I've heard she's looking good.
The launch party will be in Whangarei
on Tuesday December 16th.
If you're around drop us a line and we'll send you
the details.

cowboys

The thing about living out west is that there are alot
of cowboys. In the building trade it's an insult to be
one - but say you've got a huge hairy wild pig lunging
towards you then a cowboy who can shoot straight has
gotta be your saving grace.

Karen R. & R.

The after show afternoon party back home.
The tequila sunrise living room took on a new
meaning with Karen's purple poly, pucci-esque
combo. It was a $ 5 find at the Kaitaia op-shop.
Mint condition - Ozzie design.

foya collective - Massey Graduate Show

I was really privileged to see the results of
four hard years punctuated by that killer
final semester stomping down the catwalk.
A bumper crop for design talent this year at Massey.
Shown here in order from top :
Gabrielle Futter - 36.24.38 &
Harriet Sharpe - Fiband and Nemhain

new in from Niue

My mother just got back from a week in Niue.
Outside the old school buildings in Hakupa village,
on the south side of the island. The wee hut is where
lunch is being prepared - no longer dug into the ground-
the food is cooked in a tin with coral rock and bricks.
Large leaves are then placed over the food.
Click on the image to savour the island pace.

As Time Goes By

Photos of last weekends' amazing fashion & art graduate
shows will be posted as soon as the download cable is located.
In the meantime we now have government agencies, family
& friends tracking the latest Time Style & Design issue.
Its somewhere out there. We suspect the cover is as above.
The Fed Ex parcel sent from Time HQ NYC has not yet made
it to Rawene.
The last time something arrived from Fed Ex, someone had
scribbled directions for the driver on the outside of the parcel:
" Drive to Whangarei and keep going north ".
It may be that this particular Fed Ex truck did keep on going
and has either turned left into the Tasman Sea or right into
the Pacific Ocean.
Or maybe the truck got stuck in the mangroves and mud and
the driver just gave up.
WE HAVEN'T !!!
If you can get your hands on a copy please pretty please
post it to:
Outpost Hokianga - 5 Parnell Street - Rawene - 0443 -
Hokianga Harbour - Northland - New Zealand.
Our posties wear gumboots so don't worry - they'll be safe.
Put your return address on the envelope and we will send you
something amazing.
True.

flying around

Nothing better than to be boarding queues and all -
( especially after the inevitable unexpected departure delay)

I just love the way this guy wears his backpack kete on top of a nylon canvas sports jacket.

And this other guy with his laptop / camo / trousers tucked in & the genius touch - mud!

Truly effortless style - totally unselfconcious.

currencies of life 1, 2 & 3

I flew back from Samoa on the 15th of September.
Since then both the property market and the share market
have lost their value. Money is still worth alot but it is also
worth nothing. People with money are buying something
they think will hold value and people without money are
selling to pay for money they didn't have in the first place.

These seed necklaces are endemic to Samoa, they aren't used
as currency but they have value. The value isn't a monetary
one, its cultural. I like the fact that you can wear a currency
and also that it comes directly from plants.

Is there any point in wearing more than one necklace at a
time?
If you plant the tree and look after it you can have an endless
supply of currency and everyone can wear it. Does cultural
currency value diminish if there is a regular supply ?

enchanted

An image I'm enchanted with right now which I am
going to use for our advertising this summer.
Its from a walk I took in the Waipoua Forest - this is
the image of what it felt like.
click on the image.

Tick Tock Tiki

It has been ticking Tiki for some time now
some here may even claim to be tiki'd out...but look -
This beauty flew in today.
By Bay of Islands artist Lester Hall.
I'm working on this great new arts and culture magloid
STINGRAY - first issue due out and about at the end of the month.
Nothing like finding out about what's going on around you...

TIME OUT

Word has it that the Outpost has been featured
in Time Magazine. Last week? This week?
With so many time zones and editions its hard to track
the exact when and where in the world.
If you have the time - stop! and drop us a line -
would love to hear from you :)
shop@outposthokianga.com

wonder wahine

Our wonder wahine belts are now also stocked at Te Papa
Tongarewa - the National Museum store in Wellington.

Made to order by master craftsman Patrick James
exclusively for the Outpost -
these are, for me, the ultimate waist clincher.

I've designed them with adjustable snap fastenings at the
back - because then you can wear them empire, waist wise or
hipster.

My favourite one is the koru motif in oxblood - I'm wearing it as I type!

Trick or Treat ?

You decide!

From Eros & Design featured in I Piaceri Della Vita
Style : Lise Strathdee Photo : Toni Thorimbert
2005

Our Daily Commute

In its essence I've always had time for the commute;
I love the daily transition from life to another.
Flying out of London and over the Alps every week
was beautiful but by 2005 my lifelong love affair with
with airports was over.
Now I catch a ferry, crossing the Hokianga Harbour
every morning and hopping off in downtown Rawene.

Last summer, someone undid the ferry moorings
over night. Luckily the tide was incoming and the
ferry drifted upstream instead of out into the wild
Tasman sea. That next morning, there she was
lodged amongst the mangroves looking like a scene
out of Fitzcarraldo. Enterprising locals offered to
get us across and the harbour was alive with boats
whizzing across it like mosquitoes.

These two gentlemen were on last nights' ferry :
Mr Elegant due south on his way to a ball and
Mr Casual due north on his way back home.

pacific zen

gimme some more!

well after a blogging holiday - i've come back from
a great place - where they open shops in trees and
where dudes cruise downtown wearing their favourite
lava lava for all to see. it was pick up central !

nostalgia

I came across this random image of Milano roof tops
the other day. Such a familiar sight to me - the colours
emanating silently from the palazzi walls,
the endless rows of terracotta tiles, the white gray light of the sky.

Like that close friend from your schooldays - the one
with a dysfunctional family darkness in the background
and the irritating playground neurosis - and now you realise
that they are the ones that warmly stick in your mind and
think of fondly.

from Boliva with love

i've been looking at techno-cosmo-hip
blog sites all morning.
sometimes we get so occupied with being forward
we forget its all in the moment.

still life - warm

someone described yesterday's stormy weather
as wild and woolly. these are hibiscus and lemons
i picked in my garden just over a month ago when
it was more like mild and silky.

planet pacific

I look at people wearing clothes and often
am underwhelmed simply because I have always
imagined 21st century dressing to have a visible
touch of a surreal. The reality of future is often so
bland.
Not the case with this lady attending Ascot.
there is even a hibiscus tucked in there.

natural mechanical

I've not yet met the man. Although we stock his
Cloud Books. I did see him once stroll by downtown
dressed as a tent in the desert tank camo fabric.
Topped by a Fedora. The mystery man.
Except I knew it was him because he was wearing the
same outfit on the cover of an art mag.
With a cappuccino on the table. He wasn't drinking it.

waka boy

This is one of my favourite images from the
new Hokianga Tourism brochure.
We're about to go to print. It's pretty exciting.
Mixing design with tourism.
I hope we've managed to do it in a subtle way.
Fantastic support from photographers.
You'll let us know if you pick one up.

for online folk

Let your hair down and kick up your heels
on 27th June as NZ's first online community
for women in folk Noblewoman throws its launch party
at the Dogs Bollix.
Pictured Feak fiddler Louise Evans.

home made

I left the Hokianga a week ago and have plunged myself
back into the urban world. These images from a photo series
taken by Rosa May Rutherford are a document of an era
and a way of life but they are also about a place where there is plenty of space
to
just be.

home less

I don't know why I love this photo so much.
I was told off by a woman whilst I was taking it.
She was probably right - aesthetics shouldn't
over ride moral considerations. Obviously this
person doesn't know they've been photographed.
What's private in a public space ?

overs

overs are the shots that don't get chosen for the story.
doesn't mean they don't have something to say.
Outpost Rawene is going to be closed over winter,
we'll be working on our online store - and I'll be immersing
myself in fashion academia. keep you posted.
photo by Melania Newport Karaitiana.

girls on clay

Opening 3 of June at the ECWC.
European Ceramic Work Centre - an international
workplace where artists and designers explore the
technical and artistic possibilites of ceramics located
in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Crescent

Beautiful work by artist Daniel Blanshard.
Preview at Lane Gallery, Auckland on May 27 from 5:30 pm.
This piece measures 1189 MM and is made of handpolished
stainless steel etched in tar and lacquer.

Prime Time

Outpost's TV debut was on Close Up last nite.
Robyn and Dave put together a great story.
Good initial content is key ingredient - for sure
but the edit is................................... everything !!!

sky over rawene

a couple of weeks ago i found a note on my verandah -
signed Fi.
a friend i vaguely knew in London - was passing thru.
a few years had gone by since we'd last met - out on the
benches at South Bank.
Fi sent me this beautiful photo of the clouds rushing over
Rawene.

close up

The ebullient Robyn Janes and calm camera man Dave visited Outpost Hokianga in Rawene last week.
A grand finale to an incredible 07/08 summer season.
The afternoon filming will result in a tight 5 or 6 minute edit which aprox 700,000 kiwis will see around mid May.
Although the Rawene Outpost is closed over winter - the online Outpost is always open.
Did I mention the website??