Saturday 22 March 2014

Geraldine: More Than We Bargained For Or Will Ever Forget

It started on a glorious weather day as we made our way northwards from Lake Tekapo towards our destination of Akaroa.  We experienced some characteristically country things like …

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being brought to a complete standstill for 20 minutes by a flock of sheep crossing the road
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interesting patterns made by the hay making boys
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and an irresistibly low price for top quality fertiliser

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as we approached the delightful town of Geraldine, we noted a lot of activity and not only was there a Saturday morning market with craft stalls, but all the local farmers and busybodies were attending the highlight of their month – the “bring your oldest, crustiest, rustiest bit of farm tack  along and we’ll auction it” event.

we thought nothing else could be quite as riveting, but oh, I put it to you, just HOW wrong can two Jaffas be??    NOTHING prepared us for, wait for it, The Giant Jersey and the (Monstrously Manic) Medieval Mosaic (loosely translated as “the thing that has done both of our heads in and will probably never leave our memory”)

204b The Giant Jersey is 7 feet tall just to give you an idea of it’s size.  It was knitted my Gillian & Michael Linton in a matter of a week, on a manual knitting machine.  Wow.  It even has it’s own Guinness Book of Records Certificate.  Wow again.  What could possibly top that we are thinking. Well, as luck would have it we didn’t have to wait long for an answer to that question as we stepped into the rear of the shop only to be completely staggered by what we saw there …..

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let’s show you this first – these are metal discs from an old industrial knitting machine.  Those little bits of metal just above the paintbrush are the teeth from said disks.
THREE MILLION NO LESS of said teeth have been removed, arranged, and stuck on to masking tape, then formed into bigger sheets, then rubbed with shoe polish to hide said tape. 
Why go to all that trouble??  A very good question indeed.  But one we will never be able to answer.
BUT WAIT

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Over a period of 33 years, Michael has made a replica of the famous Bayeux Tapestry which tells the story of the Norman Conquest in 1066, except he has hand-painted the scenes with that very same little brush.  Gosh, he’s even added extra bits to the story because he wanted to.  Nothing like making your own version of history I say. 268b

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Michael’s version of events takes up the wall space in an entire room, (partly shown in the background) and believe us when we say, this man could not believe his God given fortune when he found out that his Saturday morning casual guest is none other than a Medieval History256b lecturer at Auckland University who happens to know an awful lot about the Bayeux Tapestry.  After 45 minutes, I had to feign sickness and rescue Linz from his clutches or we might still be there.
We are still shaking our heads in disbelief and wonderment

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