Sunflower Crew: The dream of living outside the box...

On Queen's drive, there is a house that has always made me dream! It has a wind generator twirling above it.. tufts of grass sprouting from the roof... it's roof is curved and pointed in strange, organic directions .... and it makes me dream , and imagine.... and think of things that might be! I love this house, and if someone were to knock it down, the world would be a sadder place, because it , like the houseboats , represents dreams, imagination, a world where things are not set in stone, but possibilities are boundless.

A girl I know, who grew up all her life on Waiheke, but was living in New York , when I told her that the houseboats might go, cried and told me .."as a child, the houseboats on the causeway were like my fairy tale", she said.. " I always looked out to them when I drove across the causeway and wished I could live in one.. they are a landmark of my childhood, and what Waiheke means to me! A place where people can be themselves , a place for dreams"

I was thinking about this, the transformative power of art , beauty and imagination, when I drove through Kawakawa in the holidays... the artist Hundertwasser transformed the spirit and pride of a whole community when he brought art and imagination , with his beautiful buildings to the depressed community of Kawakawa and turned it into a tourist attraction because of its beautiful toilets! Who would have thought!? That's thinking outside the box!