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Splash and Dash Searey Seaplane Delights

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Posted By: Hal Brown

Date Posted: Mar 8, 2014

Description: “We want you to fly to Gibbs Farm and take the owner for a SeaRey ride.”

I had a feeling this request was coming. The SuRi’s owner was flying out to the farm later in the helicopter. I had already scoped out potentially SeaRey suitable landing sites on farm.

There were only a few possibilities. There were several ponds, but all were pretty small. There were paved roads throughout the property, but it was pretty hilly.

The adjoining vast Kaipara Bay was much too shallow even for the SeaRey. Though nominally the largest harbour in the Southern Hemisphere, at low tide there are several kilometers of exposed tidal flats adjoining the farm.

After a more thorough survey I picked one of the ridge roads. I had to share the right of way with the local residents.

Date Taken: Mar 8, 2014

Place Taken: Near Makarau, NZ

Owner: Dan Nickens

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Category: 446, Yacht Tending NZ

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Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Fortunately, Alan Gibbs, the patriarch of the farm, was there to ride herd on his oxen friends.<br /><br />The curving sticks next to the SeaRey’s runway are sculpture by Bernar Venet (titled “88.5° ARCx8”, made of Corten steel). Each arc is 27x0.75x0.75m. Here is way it is described in the farm’s brochure: “The vertical orientation of the eight curved steel columns contrast with the broad horizontal planes of land and sea below the sculpture. They also capture the distinctive Kaipara light; as Venet says of his work, ‘I am thinking about the sunrises and sunsets, and the golden light that steeps the Corten steel in red and brown hints.’”<br /><br />I can tell you about what the oxen think of it. They love it. “Use it as an expensive scratching post,” Alan laughed as we watched them interact with the sculpture.<br />		Attachments: Parking Priority

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	While Alan had plenty of staff to watch after his exotic herd, he preferred to leave them in peace. He suggested the pond down by the clubhouse would make a better landing zone. It was a pretty tight fit for the SeaRey.<br /><br />Just beyond the clubhouse pond are a series of arches sculpted by Andy Goldsworthy. “Arches” are made out of pink Leadhill sandstone blocks stacked into eleven free sanding arches7m long. From the farm brochure: “Built with stone quarried in Scotland not far from where Gibbs’ forebears came from, and formed from ancient Roman arches, this work looks back; yet its tidal site brings the viewer face-to-face with the ever-changing character of its surroundings and the here and now.”<br /><br />Their significance to me was that I saw them as beautiful approach guidance to splash down on the pond from the bay side.<br />		Attachments: Pond Prospects

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	My mission was to take Mr. Gibbs on an aerial tour. Alan was insistent, however, that he first take me on a ground level tour. A big bear of man, he was not someone easily refused. I didn’t.<br /><br />First stop on the tour: the Giraffe. It was sculpted by Jeff Thomson of corrugated iron and steel. It stands 6m high.<br /><br />And, yes, there are real giraffe in the background. If the real ones were standing still, it would be difficult to discern the difference between art and life. The farm brochure says this about the sculpture: “Jeff Thomson’s objective was to create a generic giraffe in order to capture the elegance and wonder these creatures occupy in our imagination, rather than copy the particular creatures that wander the slopes below the sculpture.<br /><br />At this point I was kicking myself for leaving my Canon in the airplane. Who knew I was going on the royal tour?<br />		Attachments: Tall Tour

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Next stop on the tour: Te Tuhirangi Contour by Richard Serra (56 Corten steel plates 252m x 6m x 50mm). From the Farm’s brochure: “Serra’s 56 steel plates lean out by 11 degrees from the vertical and trace a single contour line across the land in a way that, in the artist’s words, ‘collects the volume of the land.’”<br /><br />The steel plates are not as tough as they look. They were purchased in Europe and shipped to New Zealand. Contrary to explicit instructions, the ship’s captain stacked them too high. They shifted enroute and were distorted. They had to be returned for repair. Patience must be one of the rewards of such serious art.<br /><br />Alan’s comment on the wall: “The sheep rub up against the base. That’s why the rust is rubbed away in a line there.” Though it isn’t immediately obvious, the top of the wall is dead level.<br /><br />Mr. Gibbs was once described as having a “fairly developed taste for abstract minimalist art.” He commissions and then builds the works. A collector and producer. Quiet and unpretentious.<br /><br />		Attachments: Sheep Rub

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	“You’ll like this one,” Alan said. “It moves with the wind.”<br /><br />Yes, I did. It was in constant motion. It was one of the George Rickey sculptures (but not the best I saw). It’s called “Two Rectangles, Vertical Gyratory Up (V)”, 1987. From the brochure, “Rickey has very successfully combined movement with the aesthetic and is one of the few artists who has managed to bring them together into inseparable synthesis. This elegant work never appears to repeat itself in its response to the wind.”<br />		Attachments: Wind Paddles

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	When Mr. Gibbs bought the land in 1991, it was rough, neglected scrub land. He had no idea what he was going to do with the 1000 acres, but he proceeded to transform it. Removing non-native vegetation. Sculpting the contours. Adding ponds. Adding art. Importing some 30 exotic species to populate it.<br /><br />The result defies description. Same as the man behind it.<br />		Attachments: Exotic Garden

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	There was no way I was getting bored looking at the sculpture but Alan took a detour. “I want to show you one of my favorite places.”<br /><br />Cutting through a narrow road into thick woods we emerged into the old West. There was a full scale wild west town in the New Zealand woods!<br /><br />“Welcome to Grief,” Alan said. Grief indeed! It’s a cowboy town hidden in eucalyptus forest with a bank, saloon, whorehouse, and chapel. “We have parties down here,” Alan told me, “but the most fun are paintball battle with the grandkids.” <br />		Attachments: Wild Wild West

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	“Now I want to show you something you don’t often see.”<br /><br />No kidding. I was completely incredulous. “You have your own tank?”<br /><br />“Yes. It’s a M41 Walker Bulldog and it’s fully functional, too. I put it to good use cleaning up the property.”<br /><br />Ummm…fully functional? I was afraid to ask exactly what he meant.<br /><br />Alan started out his adult life as a socialist working for government. Then he got into the financial industry and drifted right into conservatism. Now he is a libertarian, financing that political party in New Zealand, and having five members elected to national office. If he decides to secede from NZ and establish his own country as a dictator, he is well equipped.<br />		Attachments: Big Boy Toys

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	“We’ve had full scale battles out here.” In fact, on his sixtieth birthday his guests were surprised by a battle on the farm, including the tanks, machine guns, explosions and helicopters. A jet fighter bombed the forest. Seriously free-spirited craziness. <br /><br />I was in total awe. <br />		Attachments: Ready to Rumble

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	I wasn’t going to say anything about a seriously unsophisticated wooden structure. He must have sensed my artistic naivety. “It’s for a bonfire this weekend.”		Attachments: Ready to Burn

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	We were still wandering around when the SuRi’s helicopter showed up. “Looks like it’s time for lunch,” Alan told me. The new arrivals were picked up and shuttled off to Alan’s place overlooking the bay.<br /><br />Out back he showed us his giant Tesla coil. “At night we produce our own lightning show,” Alan told us. <br /><br />Someone said, “It looks dangerous.”<br /><br />“Not really. It is set far enough off the porch that it won’t strike the house.”<br /><br />3 million volts of electricity. 40’ bolts of lightning. “Electrum (for Len Lye)” was built by Eric Orr. From the farm’s brochure: “There was little in the way of existing engineering precedents to draw on when this sculpture was conceived. The primeval artificial lightning it creates is a fitting tribute to Orr as his last major work, and to the pioneer electrical engineer Nikola Tesla.”<br />		Attachments: Electric Blue

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	“That’s my favorite,” Alan said, pointing to polished plates gyrating in the breeze. I could have watched its convoluted movements for hours. The “Column of Four Squares Eccentric Gyratory (III)” was sculpted by George Rickey. The farm brochure says, “The movement of this smaller of the two Rickey sculptures seems skittish, random and chaotic; constantly teetering; though in very high winds it mimics nature and acting like a yacht lies flat against the wind.”<br /><br />I can’t confirm the high wind configuration and I didn’t see skittish, random, chaotic movement. What I saw was a beautifully smooth and easy dance of flashing brilliance.<br />		Attachments: Twisting Plates

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Talk about a lack of job security, when the boss gets a gun it could be termination with extreme prejudice. Fortunately the host had the good sense to make sure his guns weren’t loaded.		Attachments: Bad Toys

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Lunch was served while we watched the tide roll in. It was hard to focus on conversation with the view. The conversation was interesting though, with two titans of finance analyzing the vagaries of various economies. Their discourse was a level way above my pay grade.		Attachments: Bay View

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	First stop after lunch was the gigantic red tube.		Attachments: Titanic Tube

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	This is the bay end of the big tube. Inside it’s like being in a gigantic trampoline turned into a tunnel. Alan said in some of the big, prevailing westerly winds, it is impossible to stand up inside the mammoth venturi. I was told it wails and moans like a giant’s trumpet.		Attachments: Oval Opening

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Looking out to the west.		Attachments: Inside Out West

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	This is what managers of billions of dollars look like.		Attachments: High End View

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	After lunch there was time to play with some of the aquatic toys. The Aquada is one of Alan’s long term projects. He wanted an amphibious car for his yacht, so he started a company to develop one. His goal was to have a sports car on the road and a jet boat on the water. The Aquada was launched in 2003.<br /><br />In 2004 Sir Richard Branson broke the cross channel amphibious car record in an Aquada. He was supposed to stay behind a large boat to minimize wave impacts. That plan was quickly ditched by Sir Branson who proceeded to repeatedly jump cross the wake. When Alan asked him what he was thinking, Sir Branson told him that there was no worry. If the car sank, the second attempt would generate even more interest.<br /><br />The amphibious car didn’t sink. Unfortunately the drive train for the car was based upon the Range Rover. In 2004 it looked like that company might go under. After building 25 Aquada’s, Alan put the project on hold.<br />		Attachments: Aquatica

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	If you want to go fast, you must first raise your landing gear. That’s just basic aerodynamics (or hydrodynamics). Who checked this guy out anyway?<br /><br />		Attachments: Slow Boat

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


Soon to be SuRi’s latest toy.<br /><br />Alan has a whole line of amphibious vehicles, including trucks.<br /><br />We’re going to need a bigger boat.<br />	Attachments: Amphib Trucks	Attachments: Toys R Us

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


Amphibious Personal Water Craft. It’s a Quadski. I can tell you from personal experience it’s faster on the water than I wanted to go. The real problem is where I’ll park the SeaRey when there are two of these and an Aquada on board.	Attachments: Quad Ski	Attachments: APWC

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


This is what the brochure says about Neil Dawson’s “Horizons” (1994): “Dawson’s is one of the few works that can be seen from the road, which is fitting for its trop l’oeil suggestion of a giant piece of corrugated iron blown in from a collapsed water tank on some distant farm.”<br /><br />Um, well, okay.<br />	Attachments: Cartoon Landscape Cartoon Landscape 2	Attachments: Cartoon Landscape 3

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	It looks like a giant’s puzzle to me. It is supposed to represent landscape confrontation. It’s Leon van den Eijkel’s “Red Cloud Confrontation in Landscape” (1996). The brochure says, “Tried and true colour harmonies based on three primary colours of red, yellow and blue, are pitted against what van den Eijkel calls his ‘Pacific colours’ in a dialogue between European modernism and the southern hemisphere environment.”<br /><br />Yeah. Right.<br />		Attachments: Puzzle Piece

Frank A. Carr - Mar 09,2014 Viewers | Reply


	In such a beautiful natural setting, I'm surprised that NZ allows this.

Dan Nickens - Mar 09,2014 Viewers | Reply


	From what I observed, Frank, the Kiwis are avid environmentalist. There are a couple of factors that would be in favor of the farm. It's on the wrong coast (the west coast of the north island isn't as populated or geographically dramatic). It was previously badly managed farm land with lots of invasive vegetation. And, Mr. Gibbs has good lawyers.

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


Molten silver erupts from a quiet pond? No. It’s the “Floating Island of the Immortals” by Zhan Wang (2006), sculpted from stainless steel. As the book says, “Inspired by monumental office block sculptures in Beijing and feng shui landscape gardening traditions, Wang’s scholar’s rock is an enlargement of the so called “Chinese miniature landscape.” In the past, people would search for an idealistic world of immortals within these landscapes.”<br /><br />Alrighty then.<br />	Attachments: Silver Eruption	Attachments: Pond Path

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	It might be good art, but it’s a bad fence. Daniel Buren painted green and white fence posts and planted them at four meter intervals around the grounds. He calls it “Green and White Fence”. The farm book says, “Daniel Buren worked directly on the first 544 metres of this sculpture as working fence along a single ridge line and since then the theme has been extended until it will be the main form of fence inside the property.”<br /><br />Being a polite and diplomatically inclined guest, I did not ask Mr. Gibbs what he paid for the painted posts.<br />		Attachments: Bad Fence

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	The property is not all about art. There is a water polo field laid out in the pond. And there is a bent up blue foot bridge. Or it could be a mermaid. It’s called “The Mermaid” by Marijke de Goey. As the farm book says, “The work bridges an artificial lake that has been coloured ‘a lovely intense blue, using environmentally friendly pigment’ as the artist says, and marks the culmination her cube-skeleton series, which range in size from tiny brooches to monumental forms.”<br /><br />I’m guessing the lovely blue pigment has faded with time.<br />		Attachments: Not All Art

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Not a friendly face. Alan is on a first name, friendly basis with most of the 30 exotic species he keeps on the farm. The exception might be his water buffalo.		Attachments: Big Pets

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Alan was not the only one flying. His son-in-law and two grandsons all hopped in the SeaRey for a survey of the property. Flying from the small pond was pretty exciting with big guys. It was just a rush with the grandchildren.<br /><br />The son-in-law, Noel, is the man behind the scenes at the farm. He is the operational manager. All of Alan’s ideas, requirements and demands are fed through this quiet, unassuming man.<br /><br />The grandsons must surely be warped by the environment they live in. If so, it wasn’t apparent to me. They were as polite and unpretentious as the butler’s children.<br />		Attachments: Farm Family

Dan Nickens - Mar 08,2014 Viewers | Reply


	The neighbor’s place wasn’t quite as fancy as Alan’s. It must be tough living next door to such a force of nature.<br /><br />After a day of touring, gun slinging, jet skiing cars and fine cuisine, I was headed off to join the Clubhouse in the Bay of Islands. I had thought it to be one of the best flying locations on the planet until talking with Alan.<br /><br />Flying is another passion of Alan’s. He has flown in 100 countries by helicopter. I asked him which was the most interesting. Without hesitation he answered, “Ethiopia.”<br /><br />“You have got to be kidding me. Ethiopia?”<br /><br />“It’s no joke, mate. They have history dating back to the dawn of man. The country’s stark landscapes are amoung the most dramatic on the planet.”<br /><br />I let that sink in for a while, then asked, “Okay, then what is number two?”<br /><br />“Afghanistan.”<br /><br />Incredulously I asked, “When did you visit Afghanistan?”<br /><br />“In 2003. I was visiting New Zealand’s troops in a chartered Russian helicopter. While I was there I was invited to a warlord’s house up in the mountains. We were told not to go, that it was a trap. We went anyway. When we arrived it looked like just another dusty compound. Inside, however, it was as opulent as a palace. We were treated like kings.”<br /><br />Alan said he has visited 160 countries, including North Korea. He circumnavigated South America by helicopter.<br /><br />Somewhere in the conversation there was reference to life well lived. Businessman, inventor, merchant banker, philanthropist, art collector, adventurer and world traveller, Gibbs’ life has been particularly well lived. His review: “It’s been serious fun.”<br /><br />There aren’t too many people I admire or would aspire to be. Alan Gibbs is my new hero.<br />		Attachments: Not Quite Art

Wayne Nagy - Mar 09,2014 Viewers | Reply


	ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE ,DAN!<br />

Buck Bray - Mar 09,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Thanks for sharing your incredible adventures and photos. The world is full of interesting <br />people and places.

Frank A. Carr - Mar 09,2014 Viewers | Reply


	When you first began fooling with the SeaRey Dan, did you ever imagine the <br />places it would take you? <br /><br />Another super travelog for us home steaders.

Dan Nickens - Mar 09,2014 Viewers | Reply


	I had no idea, Frank.

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Leaving the sculpture farm behind instilled a bit of desperation to look for art in the landscape. The sky didn’t disappoint. It was strange: darkly curved bottom topped by little cumulus eruptions and bounded on top wispy white curves. I didn’t know whether to be concerned or comforted.		Attachments: Layered Sky

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Moving north the cloud layers started piling on.		Attachments: Deeper Layers

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Soft colors surrounded the brilliant green grass of a well-rounded point.		Attachments: Point of Land

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	That big lump is obducted rock. Heavier oceanic rock was pushed on top of the lighter continental crust during Miocene times. The Maungaraho Rock north of Tokatoka should have been pushed down into the earth. Instead the remnant of an early Miocene andesitic volcano still rests on top of the surrounding land.<br /><br />Is it art? It is topographically dramatic, dominating the flat coastal plain in a way the human sculpture of the farm never will.<br />		Attachments: Ocean Rocks on Top

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	A smooth river matching the smooth sky runs through the landscape. It’s a perfect arch, too big for the narrow view of the camera.		Attachments: Smoothly Running River

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	This ground was nicely speckled with trees. The farmer left just enough shade trees in his pasture to produce a polka dot effect for the airborne. But, maybe it’s not great art if it is too common. There are many such scenes across the New Zealand countryside.		Attachments: Tree Specked

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	When the rumpled ground combines with polka dot trees all growing into hills the effect is more uncommon.		Attachments: Ruffled Ground

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Brown water fringes the tan of the Upper Wairoa River making for a chaotic mix that would be difficult to reproduce. Ultimate abstraction indicative of the long running rivalry of the sea interacting with land?		Attachments: Splotchy Water

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	If complication is indicative of art, the waterways on the upper reaches of the river qualify. It was too complicated to contemplate a SeaRey splash in the corporate plane.		Attachments: Complicated Waterway

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	It seemed to me that the complicated ground could qualify as Process Art. It certainly focused my attention more than some artist’s circled jetty might.		Attachments: Complicated Ground

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Though the rough ground was concerning from a SeaRey pilot’s perspective, it was easily overcome by the native stock. They just make rings around it.		Attachments: Green Grazing Ground

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	A SeaRey bath was welcome relief from the unwanted post of amateur aerial art critic!		Attachments: Fresh Rinse

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	It’s a Goose! It’s a Duck! No, it’s Shelduck!<br /><br />Okay, so I think that’s what it is. If so, it’s endemic to New Zealand. But this white winged beauty don’t look like no duck to me. I didn’t stop to see if it quacked.<br />		Attachments: Paradise Duck

Dan Nickens - Mar 15,2014 Viewers | Reply


	It’s rough ground around an old volcanic core. Maybe it’s not art on the scale of Gibbs Farm, but it makes me think about how it was formed and its reason for being here. That’s kinda like art, right? And, best of all, I like it.		Attachments: Lumpy Ground

Dennis Scearce - Mar 16,2014 Viewers | Reply


	Thanks again, Dan for sharing your experience with the great pics and commentary. Sure looks like art to me. On a grand scale!!

Wayne Nagy - Mar 25,2014 Viewers | Reply


	i agree....beautiful..........

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