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Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Strong winds force ferry cancellations
Bluebridge has cancelled three sailings while the InterIslander has also cancelled the Aratere's crossings. Photo: RNZ Cook Strait passenger ferry sailings have been cancelled due to strong winds and large swells. MetService was forecasting four-metre swells and winds of over 80km/h in the Cook Strait today. InterIslander cancelled the Aratere's 4pm sailing from Wellington and the return 8.50pm trip from Picton. Kaitaki sailings had also been delayed by almost five hours after the rough weather added to crossing and turnaround times. Bluebridge cancelled two sailings earlier in the day as well as their early morning sailing due to depart Wellington at 2am tomorrow.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Drawing From Memory: Auckland-Based Tongan Artist Brings Pacific Nostalgia To Life
Coco Lance, RNZ Pacific digital journalist Auckland-based artist and animator Luca Tu'avao Walton is an emerging voice in the Pacific creative landscape, with a distinctive style rooted in memory, identity, and the 'nostalgia' of island life. In fact, his work resonated so strongly that one woman messaged him directly, saying his portrayal of Pacific women inspired her to cancel a plastic surgery appointment she had made to change her "wide-set nose". Now, Walton's work is making its way to the big screen as part of an upcoming, yet anonymous New Zealand-Pacific feature film. From Tonga to Aotearoa Born in Lautoka in Fiji to a Tongan mother and a palagi father, Walton spent his early years in Mata'ika, a lagoon-side village in Tonga where his imagination bloomed. "We used to live right on a lagoon, which was just the best upbringing, among my cousins and family, swimming and kayaking all the time." It was there that Walton began to dream up the wondrous worlds that now define his art. "I would sit lagoon-side and just imagine all the mermaids that lived there, so I would draw mermaids a lot growing up. "My drawings bring to life a lot of what I imagined as a kid, growing up in Tonga, and a lot of my work is born from this idea of, what did I want to see as a kid? Then filling that gap." At age 10, Walton moved to Aotearoa for school. "Moving there was definitely a switch-up in my pace of life," he said. "I went from island life, which is slow and thoughtful, to being in the city and taking 40-minute buses each way to school." Despite the change in pace and lifestyle, Walton stuck with what he had always been good at - creating. His trajectory began early, nurtured by a supportive whānau. "My family likes to pretend I sprung up out of nowhere, because I draw and illustrate. But all my Tongan family are creative, they're singers, dancers. They make traditional toi (art). I'm the black sheep in that I am the only working creative, but they've all nurtured and rooted for me." Walton's memory is central to the creative process. Drawing on nostalgia, he said, is central to the Pacific island experience. "A lot of my work is about memory…belonging, nostalgia, feminism, recontextualising the past and imagining a new future. When I go into making a piece, I trawl through my memories. I don't try to be relatable, and yet I think when I tap into my realities, our people engage in that art." Family, especially the wāhine in his life, have inspired much of Walton's style. "My mum never put any expectation to be anything other than an I'm just drawing what I know at the end of the day. I think that's what a lot of artists do. "If I were to draw cool race cars, it would be a falsehood, because I was raised with my mum in front of the mirror, doing her makeup, her bangles clunking together, her GHD straightener sizzling her hair." "I was raised in a very feminine environment, I'm a feminine person myself, so my art is an expression of that femininity for me, which happens to be through a Pacific lens." Walton wasn't prepared for the response to his work, but it has been motivating nonethless. "It's always beautiful when you have kids, aunties, other creatives coming and saying, your work reminds me of home, makes me think of my Nana, or 'this looks like my mum back in the day. "Our people are such yearners, such sentimental people, and we're all family orientated. I feel there is a real hunger for work that feels familiar and is made with alofa and 'ofa. People can tell when it's made from within the culture, not just about it. People are craving more than just tokenism as well; we want the depth, the humour, the mamae, a bit of the sadness that comes with, you know, balancing our identities." Now, Walton's vision has led to his involvement in an upcoming film. The project is being spearheaded by Sāmoan-Māori creative Jessica "Coco" Hansell in collaboration with local animation Studio Ki'i'Pili (a Pacific take on Studio Ghibli), and is based out of Ōnehunga's creative hub, Wheke Fortress. Although it is still in its final stages and many details are yet to be revealed, Walton said it involves a collective of talented Pacific creatives, with the kaupapa being a Pacific-centric animated short film. "It has been a dream kaupapa, not just in what we are making, but how we are making it. It's an active experiment in the decolonisation process, working at a pace that honours the people involved. "I've been able to fully lean into my strengths without leaving anyone behind, a communal way of creating," Walton said. Looking forward, Walton emphasised animation as an accessible and important tool for equity in storytelling. "The government's putting big funding into animation right now. Pacific people need to take a big slice. "Individualism isn't natural to our people…being able to make myself useful to something bigger…turned my practice into a life path."
1News
2 days ago
- 1News
'A bit like Star Trek': Politicians take City Rail Link test run
There's been another milestone in Auckland's City Rail Link with people from outside the project allowed on an underground test run for the first time. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was aboard along with senior ministers, city leaders and other officials. The train journey started at the revamped Maungawhau Station and headed into a tunnel to arrive at Waitematā or Britomart Station. "We were just saying it's a bit like Star Trek, warp speed up there the way the tunnel is lit," Luxon said after standing with the driver. City Rail Link's first test train. (Source: ADVERTISEMENT Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown stayed seated and chatting with the Finance Minister during the trip and maybe didn't see the warp speed lighting. "We don't really see exactly what we've got here just yet, but it's good, this is a good step in the direction," he told RNZ. In a speech before getting on the train, Brown said getting to today had not been cheap or easy, with Auckland enduring a decade of construction that has been tough. He warned future projects needed to be done better and faster and could not be done on what costs were now. There have been more than 1600 test train runs in the new City Rail Link tunnels so far. Vince Ahkuoi was the driver. "I haven't driven a train that is that important, I don't think," he said. ADVERTISEMENT Today showed just how far the City Rail Link had come, another driver Grant Dowie said. He said test trains had run more than 5000km since February and 50 drivers had been trained. "And if you think that the tunnel is only 3.5km long, to get over 5000km of test running we've been running backwards and forwards multiple times," he told RNZ. He said the VIP test train on Friday showed that testing had done its job, but there was still much more to do. "We started at walking pace, and then we went to 3km [an hour] and then we went to 10km and then we went to 25 and then 40," he said. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the City Rail Link's first test train. (Source: Trains now run at 70km/h and a key test was making sure the trains actually fit. ADVERTISEMENT "I know it's a silly thing but in other parts of the world there have been situations where they've built a tunnel and then the trains didn't fit," Dowie said. "I know people are thinking 'well why aren't we opening the tunnel' but it's a journey that we have to go through to make sure it's safe before we open." City Rail Link officials are hailing Friday's VIP test run as a milestone but say there is still a long way to go before the public can have its turn. CRL chief executive Patrick Brockie said testing and commissioning was the most complex part of the $5.5 billion project. "There is still a lot of work to do before we know when exactly passengers will ride," he said. Several politicians attended City Rail Link's first test train. (Source: Another on the train, Finance Minister Nicola Willis was happy with what she saw. "The feeling I have is it looks like when you're overseas and you go in a proper underground subway and that's an experience many New Zealanders have had and now they can have it here in Auckland," she said.
