Gisborne

The Friends of Te Papa is an organisation devoted to providing artworks and other support to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (usually shortened to Te Papa). Among their many activities are organised trips to the provinces to talk to their regional museums and cultural groups, as it is a museum for all of New Zealand, not just Wellington. They organised a trip to Gisborne, which we signed up for.

Gisborne is quite a way from Wellington, and many of the group were flying there. We decided, however, to drive, and stayed the first night in Napier.  After a dinner at Napier’s premier Indian restaurant, Indigo, we headed up to Gisborne the following day. We’d booked the night at the Emerald Hotel, in order to be there ready and early for the first item on the agenda at 10:00 on Thursday.

This was a visit to Pultron, a manufacturer of FGRP (that’s fibre glass reinforced plastic to you), an unlikely candidate for us, but an important employer in the area and also with an international presence. They make the rods that are the key component of all-enclosed trampolines, amongst other things. We learned more than we could ever possibly want to about the process and uses of FGRP. No pictures, as we had to sign non-disclosure and secrecy agreements about it to ensure we weren’t spying for their competitors.

In the evening we went to dinner at the Bushmere Arms, a country garden, restaurant and function venue, run by Robin Pierson who singlehandedly maintains the gardens and chefs the kitchen. We toured the gardens which included a lot of produce, which would end up on our plates. Hors d’oeuvres were provided, then dinner was a choice of beef fillet or hāpuku (I had the beef, Nicola had the fish), both very good.

After dinner we were bussed back to our hotel. Tomorrow morning: Art and museums.