Buddha at Kaukapakapa.

 
 
Perhaps 40 minutes drive north of Queen St
in Auckland there is a Tibetan Buddhist community.
They are builders, and in this case very active.
 
When I was in my mid 20’s perhaps, and living in a John Goldwater
house in Campbells Bay on Auckland’s North Shore, Erika, to whom
I was married at the time, and I, invited some Buddhists from North America
to stay with us while they sought land here in New Zealand to establish a community.
While not Buddhists ourselves we thought that it would add texture
to the religious make up of New Zealand. There are now, of course,
many Buddhist temples in and around Auckland of many different persuasions some of whom don’t get on, but this was early days.
 
Eventually the two who had been living with us, one a nun, bought a run down farm at Kaukapakapa and began setting up what they had come here for.
 
I have visited there often since then, they don’t evangelise, the temples are very special,
and the Buddha is, I believe, the biggest in NZ. The Dalai Llama has visited here.
 
Meanwhile about 10 years ago I took this photo and it was quite popular. This one is on a wall in Devonport.