Lost Gypsy Gallery

Blair Somerville has spent decades in Papatowai, a settlement of a few dozen people on the Catlins coast, building automata out of whatever washes up or gets thrown out - bicycle parts, driftwood, old telephones, computer keyboards, kitchen implements. The front of the operation is a 1950s house bus parked by the road, free to enter, packed with small devices that you press, turn and pull yourself; nothing is behind glass. Behind it is the Winding Thoughts theatre garden, a ticketed area of larger installations, restricted to over-fourteens because it needs the kind of attention children in groups do not give delicate mechanisms. It is one person's work, so opening depends on him being there - it closes for winter and on days without notice, and the bus is the whole of it if the garden is shut.

Highlights

• The house bus - free, packed with hand-built devices you work yourself.
• The theatre garden - the larger ticketed installations behind.
• The materials - driftwood, bike parts, telephones, kitchen scrap.
• The mechanisms - everything operated by hand, nothing behind glass.

When to go

October to April - it closes over winter. Hours depend on one person; check before driving out, since the Catlins are a long way from anywhere.

Things to know

The garden is over-fourteens only. Opening is unpredictable - one person runs it. Small; an hour or two. Cash is often preferred and phone reception in Papatowai is poor.

Nearby

Purakaunui Falls and Cathedral Caves are along the Catlins coast; Nugget Point is east.