New Zealand Odyssey: Town Houses, Napier Street, Auckland

'New Zealand Odyssey', published in 1989 by Heinemann, was authored by Don Donovan (who did the text and illustrations) and Euan Sarginson, who did the photography and design. In this series of blog posts, I will publish some of my drawings.

A friend of mine was a part investor in this hideous row of pseudo-Mediterranean townhouses. They replaced a number of classic kauri cottages and villas that had stood on the site for over a century. I not only knew the investor, I also knew one of tenants - he thought they were wonderful. Takes all sorts...

Meanwhile I also knew a young woman who lived in one of the remaining crumbling old villas further down Napier Street. It was her firm opinion that this line up of neo-Coronation Street hutches 'brought the whole tone of the neighbourhood down.'

As for me: I'm just a simple artist recording what was expressing the New Zealand character in the late 1980s.

© DON DONOVAN
donovan@ihug.co.nz

Open 7 Days 4. Supa Rupa, Freemans Bay, Auckland

I wrote and illustrated ‘Open 7 Days’. It was published in 1991. It’s a series of freeze-frames of some historic New Zealand general and convenience stores as they were preserved in the last decade of the 20th century. Bit by bit, on this blog, I re-publish some of the entries from that book.

SUPA RUPA

103 Wellington Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland.
Proprietors: Dilip and Sarda Rupa

I’ll lay a pound to a pinch of Mrs Rupa senior’s special curry powder that this is the most photographed store in New Zealand. It’s on calendars, in books, films and television commercials. It’s a joy to an artist’s eye, a delightful dilapidation, but Dilip Rupa is ambivalent about it.

On the one hand, he has a deep attachment to the place where his parents made their home in 1953 after moving from Wellington. On the other, he and his sister Sarda regret that, although conscious of its historic charm and despite insisting that designs for a new store retained the frontage of both buildings, they were prevented from redeveloping on the site in 1987.

The wooden portion was erected around 1890, and the cement-rendered brick structure followed about twenty years later. It seems odd that in an area of fashionable rediscovery and renewal this old store should survive, but by doing so it adds enormous character to Freemans Bay, a neighbourhood of extreme contrasts, from low-income council tenants to wealthy townhouse residents. They all patronise Supa Rupa, and in return Supa Rupa, abundantly stocked, makes sure their needs are satisfied.

I asked Dilip how the store got its name, and he told me that when his sister, Pam, was a nurse she had a young patient who called her Super Rupa. Super store, Supa Rupa!

© DON DONOVAN

donovan@ihug.co.nz
.