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From: WADE DOAK
Date: 02-04-08
Time: 10:12
LOW LIGHT: Tutukaka Coast Seascape Photo Exhibition 7th-30th April, Old Library Building, Rust Avenue, Whangarei. Jan and Wade Doak
On a black and starless night, all the beauties of the Tutukaka Coast, from Sandy Bay to Ngunguru, are still present under the pall of darkness. Like the Mona Lisa when the lights are out. After forty years of loving this coast, its forests, headlands and estuaries, Jan and I have come to realise that capturing its essence is all a matter of lighting and atmospherics. If we wanted to celebrate it to the utmost we had to pull out all the stops. We had to seek that low, crisp lighting of midwinter, at dawn and at dusk. We had to get up in the dark and be ready with our tripods and cameras as the first rays peeped over the horizon. And do it all again, late in the day. “What would it be like if…?” motivated us on those wintry bookends of day when home warmth was more attractive. But the rewards were huge. The photos we gained have a unity and a purpose: a celebration of a very special part of New Zealand. South Islanders by birth, we have now explored this coast below water and above; all its wildlife, from fishes under the Matapouri bridge at night to clumps of orchids in pohutukawa trees hanging over the Ngunguru River; the geckoes, butterflies and birds; the vines and the trees. As full-time students of nature we have had the luxury of stepping back from it all, gaining an overview of the ‘big picture’. We hope our focus on the preciousness and special qualities of its land and seascapes may motivate people to care for and protect all these fragile treasures we live amongst from bulldozer and possum. The nest of the New Zealand dotterels that raised two chicks on Woolleys Bay beach this year had tractor tyre marks and huge dog paws close by their nest. Those at Matapouri had their nest sites levelled by dozers. Ngunguru’s iconic wilderness areas, the Sandspit and Whakairiora [‘enhance well-being’] mountain are faced with a rash of massive suburban development. ‘Orewarisation’ threatens the headland coast of Northland. Opens Thursday 7 April, 2008, 5-30 p.m.
Last changed: 02-Apr-2008