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Kiwi Take On The Franklin Rd Lights

Auckland, 1 December 2015 – Wander down Franklin Rd this year and listen for the sound of native birdsong. Nestled at the bottom of the hill is a Kiwi Christmas garden, featuring native metal birds created by a kind-hearted Ponsonby local.

A baby pohutukawa (trucked in for the month) is home to the subtle steel birds of New Zealand, including tuis and fantails (piwakawaka). They are the handiwork of Ponsonby local Phil Walters.

The garden, created by light artist Marcel Allen for Localist, is designed to celebrate the natural beauty you find around yourself during the Christmas season in New Zealand.

“We’ve chosen to celebrate the Kiwi Christmas tree,” says Localist General Manager Christina Sayers Wickstead. “The sound of native bird song, the beautiful artworks and the native tree, we hope, all of these things will create meaningful conversations with families.”

The installation, which features both light and sound, evolved after Localist noticed beautiful native birds being gifted into the trees of Auckland.

“We heard about the work of a local artist who puts native birds in trees around the Ponsonby area at Christmas time and decided to create an installation inspired by New Zealand’s natural beauty. Christmas is about thinking about what really matters,” explains Sayers Wickstead.

The birdsong, which features in the installation, is to raise awareness for the conservation work done throughout the year by Forest & Bird, an environmental charity, which works to protect New Zealand’s native plants, animals and wild places. Localist will be donating the pohutukawa featuring in their Franklin Rd installation to Forest & Bird after the Christmas lights are finished.

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Background
The Franklin Rd lights will be turned on at 8.30pm on Tuesday December 1. It is the 22nd year the residents of Franklin Rd in Freemans Bay have decorated their houses in lights for the Christmas season and it is one of the country’s most iconic places to view the Christmas lights.

Localist is New Zealand’s largest nationwide recommendations platform that gets 550,000 visits a month and has the largest database of SMEs in the country as well a highly-engaged social media community of 25,000+.

As the home of the LOVE LOCAL movement, Localist has launched the first of its limited edition LOVE LOCAL designer t-shirts, created by Adrian Hailwood. Like its Franklin Rd Christmas installation, the design also features a well-known NZ bird, a Kea. Adrian chose the unique native bird because it captures the spirit of Localist and the LOVE LOCAL movement.

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