Hundertwasser in New Zealand

The Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa

Not many destinations are famous for their toilets... Kawakawa does have steam locomotives and an old train station, but the Hundertwasser toilets are a must stop for everyone travelling through Northland.

They have been voted the 'best toilets in the world', since then many tourist shops and cafes have created a small boom around those arty toilets. They are located at the pedestrian crossing in the middle of the tiny town.

Since 2020 there is a new attraction in Kawakawa, a new cultural center, the Te Hononga Hundertwasser Memorial Park! The building has of course been fully designed in the Hundertwasser style and symbolically connects different things: the village of Kawakawa and Hundertwasser, the visitors with the locals, Maori and non-Maori, the past with the future and the people with the environment. Like the famous toilets the building is also especially worth seeing from the inside, it houses a library, a community office, more crazy toilets and an art gallery.

Hundertwasser himself lived not far away, on his property called Kaurinui at Waikare Inlet, near the Bay of Islands. His home is gradually opening up for tours, you can also see his boat (La Giudecca) and visit Hundertwasser's grave in the ‘Garden of the Happy Dead’ cemetery.

Te Kakano in Whangarei's Town Basin

Te Kakano means 'The Seed', it was a kind of experimental building for the Hundertwasser Museum. Here the local construction experts have adjusted their building know how under close supervision and according to specifications of the official Hundertwasser Foundation in Vienna. The art of how not to build something with straight lines!

It is located in the Whangarei Town Basin, next to the beautiful marina and the later Hundertwasser Museum. You can climb the small ramp to the viewpoint, ideal for a souvenir photo!

The Hundertwasser museum in Whangarei

The last Hundertwasser house in the world - only the second museum in the world dedicated to Friedensreich besides Vienna! Its name: 'Hundertwasser Art Center with Wairau Maori Art Gallery' (Maori: 'wai' = 'water' and 'rau' = 'hundred').

A must-photo stop for all tourists, seen up close the unusual organic and colourful building is much more three-dimensional and larger than you'd expect, full of beautiful and funny details.

The museum inside is an equally fascinating world of wonder, exhibiting up to $20 million worth of original Hundertwasser artworks loaned from Vienna, addressing the history and underlying ecological and artistic philosophy of Hundertwasser in a highly topical and touching manner.

The integrated 'Wairau Maori Arts Gallery' follows his demand that Maori art had to be a mandatory part of the arts centre. It is New Zealand's first modern art gallery dedicated exclusively to contemporary Maori artists.

The onion dome roof is covered in $50,000 worth of 24k Italian gold leaf and the 4,000 plants on the grass roof were twice that price - the biggest rooftop garden in the southern hemisphere - a gift from a local nursery. Access via the tower stairway to the lookout is included in the ticket. The museum also hosts an interesting restaurant.

For current information and events see www.hundertwasserartcentre.co.nz.

How the museum came about

Friedensreich wanted to realise some further projects in his chosen home country New Zealand and Whangarei as the next bigger city (the capital of Northland) was an ideal possible location for such ideas.

A new indoor swimming pool for the city was discussed, but more tangible was his suggestion in 1993 to transform an existing ugly building in the Whangarei Town Basin into a Hundertwasser house.

Unfortunately, with his ecological mindset and ideas he was too far ahead of New Zealanders at the time and the support for his idea was modest.

The old building was still there in 2008, unused for many years, in a prime location in the beautiful Whangarei marina. The project was somehow resumed and new plans were put in place with support from the official Hundertwasser Foundation in Vienna.

Once again the population was divided, opponents were just as passionate in the fight against a weird building in their city as enthusiastic supporters. After the project was more and more successful with the first pledges for donations, in 2014 a newly elected council stopped everything again.

Disappointed business people and artists finally took matters into their own hands and developed an ambitious plan for a realisation - after a successful public referendum in 2015 the council finally renewed its support - the last Hundertwasser House in the world shall be built after all!

In June 2017 the wonderful news came that funding for the overall construction of the museum was secured, a proud $30 million. 40,000 red bricks from the old building and tens of thousands of handmade ceramic panels were used in the construction, of course none of them in a straight line.

The city soon sported lots of murals, Hundertwasser mailboxes and artwork in the galleries. The long awaited opening finally took place in 2022, and Whangarei went 100% all out with the Hundertwasser theme! The contrast to the previous ugly building could not be greater, hundreds of children and volunteers have been involved in the project - a reconstruction in the original sense Friedensreich intended.

The original vision:

Why Hundertwasser in New Zealand?

Hundertwasser is not really famous in New Zealand, most people know his name only because of the toilets in Kawakawa, but have no idea about his artistic life and the rest of his art. For most, 'Hantawassa' is just a funny hippie whose designs have little to do with New Zealand.

Hundertwasser actually chose this to be his new home country, even becoming a New Zealand citizen in 1983, and just as with his natural environment in general he started to include the local Maori culture into his projects. His proposal for a new New Zealand flag found some fans, but not quite enough when New Zealand really did vote on a new flag. The depicted Koru symbolises an unfolding fern leaf, for Maori a symbol of new beginnings and development.

Hundertwasser permanently moved to New Zealand in the 1970s, quite a distant home for someone who did not like planes! He once sailed here on his yacht Regentag (‘rainy day’), later on he mostly travelled with cruise ships until he finally died on the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2000 while on the way to Europe. Friedensreich finally found eternal peace on his New Zealand property.

Come for a visit: