Musician’s rotunda tour not without hiccups
A WELLINGTON musician will not let a Cromwell ‘‘rotunda blunder’’ stop her from bringing her unique tour through the South.
Primary teacher Gillian Henderwood played a folky original song at the Dunedin Botanic Garden yesterday as part of her quest to perform on 50 band rotundas in a year.
‘‘Leading up to my 50th birthday, friends were saying, ‘What do you want to do for your birthday?’
‘‘In the middle of the night one night, I suddenly realised what it was I wanted to do.
‘‘I thought, ‘I have to keep this to myself or Dave Dobbyn or someone will do it before me.’’’
She travelled during school holiday periods to reach the goal, and would return to Wellington on Tuesday.
Mrs Henderwood had help compiling her map from a Victoria University professor, who had taken pictures of the structures around the country.
She mistakenly thought there was a sunken rotunda in Lake Dunstan, and members of the local Lions club were organising a boat for her so she could float above the structure and play.
However, there was no such rotunda.
‘‘They were talking among themselves about who could take me out. I thought they were very kind, but it wasn’t needed.
‘‘I call it my rotunda blunder.’’
Dunedin was home to her 26th rotunda. The stage at the garden was very ‘‘grand’’ compared to some.
Every performance had at least her friend, Mitch Jordan, and a few birds in attendance, she said.
They were now heading to Invercargill, though its rotunda recently became a construction site, covered in fencing.
She referred to this as a ‘‘redunda’’.