Reporter’s diary

Press, 25 February 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Getting the bird

EVER SINCE she went camping by Lake Sumner while her husband mustered in the backcountry more than 40 years ago, Mrs Nurse, of Christchurch, has tried to identify the many birds which were plentiful round the lake shores. Her husband, a backcountry musterer for many years, was unable to help her, going only by. her description of "birds -in Christ's College football jerseys.”; Last Friday’s edition of “The Press” gave the solution: a picture of a banded dotterel was recognised as one of the birds. Mrs Nurse ruefully comments that where there used to be wildlife such as kiwis, bellbirds, and stoats,

“sometimes now there are helicopters and trail bikes.”

Twin city CHRISTCHURCH’S twin city in Dorset, England, has invited people from Christchurch, New Zealand, to join them for a repeat of a successful Victorian week-end which was held during the 1986 borough centennial celebrations. Last year, 23 people from Christchurch down, under went with letters of introduction from the City Council to join in the 10-day festival and celebrations at Christchurch up above. Anyone who will be visiting England between June 19 and 21, and who would be interested in taking part in the Victorian week-end,

should leave their name and address with Mr Dennis Morgan at the Christchurch - Civic Offices.

Photography as art

THE 34 PHOTOGRAPHS in Paul Caponigro’s exhibition at the C.S.A. Gallery are not your run-of-the-mill holiday “smile please, auntie” snapshots — the cheapest is for sale at just under $3OOO, and the two top photographs are priced at $12,500. Such high prices are not unusual in the United States where photography is more accepted as an art form, says the gallery’s director, Mr Chris Taylor. Paul Caponigro, considered to be one of America’s top photographers, specialises in landscapes, and monuments, both natural and man-made. The exhibition will be open until Sunday.

Mis-sighted

A KEEN local fisherman may be angling for a new pair of spectacles after his latest expedition. Wallowing in the chill waters of the Twizel River, the fisherman of 25 years experience could not understand why the trout he could plainly see was not nibbling at his hand-tied flies. After 20 minutes the truth dawned: he had. been patiently casting at a willow-tree root. Just so SOMEONE at the Tongariro National Park headquarters has a grim sense of humour. Beneath a magnificent colour poster of Ngauruhoe in eruption, with billowing black smoke towering over the countryside, is the stand-ard-issue sign: “Warning: Smoking may be dangerous for your health.”

—Jenny Feltham