On the Penguin Trail

On my way to Akaroa I called into the Air Force Museum of New Zealand, formerly called The Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum, is located at Wigram, the RNZAF's first operational base, in Christchurch, in the South Island of New Zealand, to hunt down a few more Penguins. Here is were they all will be on display at the end of the month. Then they will be auctioned to raise money for Cholmondeley Children’s Centre.

The Penguin Top Right is Brushy Slushy and was created by: Ina Johann.
Design Inspiration
Ina has applied bold, abstract, painterly and drawing marks in a selected range of colours on an icy blue ground. Colours ranging from light to dark blues and spurts of bright colours referencing life and growth above and below the water surface. The clusters of markings in different sizes and colours are like microcosmic gatherings of things alive. They are all connected and wrapped around, animating the object to form a fun and lively 3-dimensional canvas – vibrant, vivacious, fun and playful.

The Penguin Middle Bottom is Pāua – the little penguin that flew to Antarctica. Created by: Morgan Mathews-Hale (Kaitiaki Studios)
Design Inspiration
In September, we were introduced to Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Tellez, Commander of the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron from the US Air Force who is the Commander of C17 Antarctic Operations. The 304th generously offered to take one of our little penguins on an adventure to the Antarctic and we couldn’t deny them all that fun!
Morgan Mathews-Hale was commissioned to bring a little penguin to life and within a week, Morgan had created Pāua. With the thought of him standing on all that snow, Morgan thought a penguin covered in a realistic pāua texture would look amazing and as he was going on a big trip she packed him off with a little kete backpack. “It’s almost like sending a true NZ souvenir down to the snow” she said.
During the trail Pāua is going to stay close to the airplanes under the watchful eye of the team at the Air Force Museum. Many thanks to the 304th EAS for making this happen– what a story!
Supported by: Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Tellez and the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron from the US Air Force.

The other four are Waddles created by school children. For all the information on the Waddles.

It was raining when I left the Air Force Museum. When I reached Akaroa the sun was shinning.