Ok so this isn’t really a post about somewhere we went or something exciting we did, but I wanted to post these pictures anyway.

On one of our drives around Dunedin, mum and I passed by these sculptures in a little reserve near the sea. We looked at them a bit. We got confused. We scratched our heads. We drove past again the next day. We looked at them a bit more. We could not, for the life of us, work out what in the world they were supposed to be! o.O

After having talked to my cousin who lives in Dunedin, I now know what they are, but I’m not going to tell you. I want to know what you think!

What the heck are these sculptures supposed to be!?
EDIT: If you’re my FB friend, and have seen the answer, please don’t spoil it! ;-)

I am kiwiholly in Instagram if you’d like to follow me! :)

1. Caramel Hershey’s Kisses, which have been sitting on my kitchen counter taunting me for DAYS!
2. Me!
3. A ridiculously adorable photo of my friend Erika and her new husband cutting their wedding cake/cupcake tower!
4. Why is it that the most awesome and cute shoes are always the most uncomfortable?
5. A Pinterest printable that I actually printed! No more sad and empty frame! Yay!
6. A very cute and chilled out cat sleeping on a chair in the Boatshed Cafe.

This may possibly be the strangest and most eclectic blog post I have ever made!

Today Jenny and I went to the museum. Our reason for going to was to see an exhibition about WOW (World of Wearable Art). This exhibition was awesome, and the thing that stood out to me as the most memorable was definitely this…

Yes. This is exactly what it looks like. A bra made from two taxidermied budgies. The story behind it was that the designer’s two pet budgies both expired at the same time (goodness knows why) and for some reason it occurred to her to create a bra out of them? I know. It creeped me out a bit too – but apparently it won a prize at the exhibition, so someone must have liked it!

Aside from strange and impractical underwear, we also visited the Antarctic exhibition. Christchurch is the closest decent sized city to Antarctica, and therefore it’s where all the planes flying there leave from. We have an International Antarctic Centre here, and also a section of our museum dedicated to it.

I have to admit that it’s not something I’m hugely interested in. But, you may have noticed that I am also a very large child cleverly disguised as an adult, so I WAS hugely interested in this. A skidoo. That you can sit on. When we first walked past it, there were some children on it, so Jenny and I just kind of loitered around waiting for them to move on so I could take the following photo (edited in Instagram since the flash made it very dark) for your blogging entertainment. Yes. Surely you can see just how excited I was!?

Also on the back of this awesome vehicle, was the above sign. "No penguins allowed?" "Keep from freezing?" There was no explanation of it anywhere nearby, so I’ll leave it up to you to try and work out what they meant. I have no idea.

The winner of the Strangest Thing We Saw Today award? This.

For people who cannot read the description, it says that this is a photograph of an "Earthenware butter-cooler in the form of a lettuce, Spode. c. 1770 – 18??" I think I need this in my life – just because it is so STRANGE.

Finally, and most awesomely, we saw this exhibition, inspired by the blog Hearts for Christchurch. I went a little crazy with the photo taking here, but I just think this concept is so awesome it’s worth all the photos. I could not imagine starting with this tiny little idea on a blog and having it grow to something so huge and worldwide that it warranted a museum exhibition.

For those of you who are wondering what Hearts for Christchurch is about, here is the text from the first photo…

In the days after the devastating earthquake that struck Christchurch on 22 February 2011, the whole of New Zealand felt a huge sense of disbelief and sorrow.

It was a time when everyone’s heart went out to the people of Canterbury. From this, and idea was spread amongst the stitch-craft community, of a small gesture that could be made in this difficult time. These crafty people began making hearts, the universal symbol of caring. Two heart shapes sewn together, stuffed or not, embellish, embroidered, quilted, plain or fancy, felt or fabric, basically anything goes.

The word spread that Evie Harris from Nelson would be gathering these hearts for Christchurch.

"I don’t think there is a minute in the day when the word Christchurch isn’t in my head – sometimes with nothing other than the word. It is what is in the hearts of other that have helped launch this journey and the gathering has begun."

What started, at first, as a gentle trickle soon became a torrent, as hearts started arriving from all over New Zealand and shortly after, from all over the world. Stitching groups from New Zealand, Australia, Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Pacific have amassed over 4000 lovingly crafted hearts.

Christchurch our hearts go out to you.

If, by any chance, any crafty types happen to be reading this and want to send hearts (she’s still collecting them!), her address is

Hearts for Christchurch
C/- Evie Harris
523 Main North Road
Bay View
Napier 4104
New Zealand

If you send a heart, please let me know (take a photo), and next time I am in town I will go to the museum and see if I can spot it for you! :)