Takahe, Tuatara, Rangiora, Kawa kawa, tree weter, Kaka, Bellbird and a Rimu tree at Zealandia … The Piano Ballet. 

We had a slow start spending the morning catching up on rest and laundry.  Then we set out with the McInerneys for Zealandia.

When it was discovered that an earthquake fault went right through a local dam, a new dam was built and the area turned over to a trust for conservation.  This ecosanctuary is one of several spots in NZ that are trying – and succeeding – to reestablish native plants and animals.  There is a fence surrounding the entire property and it is checked daily.  The fence blocks out rats, rabbits, and mongooses who are non-native predators of the native birds.  We learned that since there were no animals other than birds native to the islands, many of the birds live close to the ground and are defenseless.  In sanctuaries such as Zealandia endangered species are multiplying and then reentering areas beyond.

After the 3 hour guided tour, we cleaned up for a lovely pre-theater dinner at Capitol.  All very good.  Then off to the ballet.

The Piano by the Royal New Zealand Ballet opens at the St. James Theater. 1930s interior with two balconies, heavy ormolu plaster carvings in the ceiling and balcony walls and the heaviest, tallest red velvet curtain David has seen in 55 years (something in New York that his grandmother maybe brought him to?).

The curtain opens and the stage is two curved screens with waves plashing from both sides of a thin black divide where the screens meet at the center. The black divide opens a bit and a boat with a woman, her daughter, the piano, and some sailors  emerge. The plot sticks pretty much to the book but the opaque black center, throughout the ballet, opens and closes, disgorges new scenes and themes, lets you into depths you had not imagined were there, symbolizes, perhaps, an unknowable darkness from which the future and ambivalence and passions of the many relationships in the story … in life … begin and dissipate.

Another day in Paradise.