Grey Lynn Tapa

This is the Williamson Av wall of the Grey Lynn Medical Centre.

The artwork is by "Niuean-born painter, poet and writer John Pule ... one of [NZ's] most talented and influential contemporary Pacific artists."

The design echoes traditional Tapa cloth patterns & symbols. Grey Lynn was, for a long time, the centre of Pasifika immigration in Auckland. Time and gentrification, has shifted this South to Manukau, and West to Waitakere. Nonetheless, the Pasifika presence remains strong in Grey Lynn, with several Samoan and Tongan churches, and the annual Pasifika festival down the hill at Western Springs Park. Certainly, if this wall is ever painted white (or the currently trendy grey), the churches close, and the Pasifika moves to Orewa, I will feel that the Country Road clad, 4WD Audi driving, Remuera escapees have won, and Grey Lynn will no longer feel like home to me.

I left Warkworth today at 7am, to ensure that despite unpredictable morning traffic I would be in time for a flat viewing in New Lynn at 9am. I had another, on the same street, at 4pm. Since it takes 10mins to look at a flat, that left me with slightly less than 7 hours to fill in between. It's surprising actually how easily a handful of phone calls and emails chewed up the morning. Then picked up drawings from the printer, a cheque (for building control) from the client), and met a friend for lunch at the Food Truck Garage at the old Council Works Depot - which deserves the very good reviews it has been receiving. Then on to the council to lodge the consent. That left a little more time for emails before I had to head out to New Lynn again. Then a few errands before the drive North again. A full day, but I don't really feel like I achieved an awful lot.