Last night, I finally got around to paying the Upper Riccarton War Memorial Park a visit. It's recently been opened on the site of the former War Memorial Library, utilising a few heritage items from the former library in its design.
What was most surreal though was standing there trying to photograph this "most Kiwi" of artworks (complete with a Buzzy Bee, Anzac Donkey, and Red Poppy), while smelling the fragrant dinner-rush exhaust from the nearby Chinese restaurants!
Some additional detail snaps from the War Memorial Park
1) The iconic "War Memorial Library" sign, with its two rows of text, and all the curly scroll bits around the frame holding it.
2) Sign describing the purpose + history of the park
3) I was most surprised to see this blue and white China pot with koi / goldfish painted on it as part of the mural! According to this article, this may be to tie the mural in with the local community (given that this park is situated in the "unofficial Chinatown")
4) Of course, I loved seeing the bellbird as art of the mural too, though it seems not all the local birdlife agrees!
Something else I didn't get a good photo of (given the lighting conditions at the time, and also since I initially didn't realise there was any writing on that plaque at all (!), was the list of names of fallen soldiers from this area. Maybe that can be slightly improved in future...
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