Friday 4th May 2007. The Crescent City of New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans was first sighted as an Indian portage to Lake Pontchartrain and Gulf in 1699 by Bienville and Iberville. Founded by Bienville in 1718 and named by him in honour of the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France; it is called the Crescent City because of its location at a bend in the Mississippi River.

After a somewhat epic journey from San Francisco I arrived this morning in New Orleans to be met by my friend Joanne. My first sights on the drive out to Stonebridge are of the Super Dome (made infamous in Hurricane Katrina) and crossing the Mississipi River Bridge.

We head out to make Algiers Point our first port of call as we tour around the neighbourhood of stunning historic homes before heading back across the bridge in a most atmospheric thunder and lightening storm.

Now Algiers Point derives its name from the stockade for slaves who had just arrived from Africa.

Our drive takes us through the warehouse district as a torrent of water floods from spouts. Crossing Canal Street, Joanne drives me around the somewhat flooded streets of the French Quarter. One can easily see from the river like streets just how easy it must be for this city to flood.

Off to the IMAX to see Hurricane on the Bayou, which was actually in production prior to Katrina as a potential warning about what could happen. Part way through filming these predictions came true and this is a prophetic film that you all should view to see the people factor in such disasters.

Focusing on the significance of coastal erosion and the loss of the wetlands, I learned from this film that the levee's built earlier in the Twentieth Century to prevent the annual flooding of farmland infact are the main cause of the increased threat from hurricane activity today. These coastal levee's are not to be confused with the levee's built to protect the city.

Interferring with Mother Nature the levee's mean that the soil deposited by the annual flooding is no longer available to rebuild and strengthen the wetlands which subsequently vanish due to erosion.

This erosion was further enhanced by the building of canals for boat navigation which brought with them the salt water that killed off marsh grasses etc.

This is all significant when we consider that every 3 miles of wetland reduces the power of the hurricanes surge when it hits landfall by 1 foot. In effect the wetlands act as New Orleans natural speed bumps.

The recovery as we all know was too late in coming and whilst many flood victims were indeed Afro-Caribbean and the bulk of victims were poor, the film also shows that in reality colour was no discriminating barrier.

As the huge costs of Katrina show, good stewardship of the environment is good economics too!

Our next stop is Woldenberg Riverfront Park and the Holocaust Memorial (2003) by Yaacov Agam.

Agam is a pioneer of kinetic art and this work operates on many levels...

from the central Star of David (a symbol of persecution and humiliation) to the dark colours symbolic of a dark period in human history (a period devoid of light, hope, morality and compassion).

Then there are the bright colours that symbolise the souls of the 6 million victims set against the chaos in these colours that hark toward the absence of empathy and religious and moral values in this period...values such as reverence for life itself.

Yet the bright rainbow of colours are also a biblical symbol of hope and renewal.

With the Menorah symbolising the faith and spirituality of the Jewish people, the rainbow is seen as a covenant between God and all humankind.

This memorial is full of symbolism right down to the all seeing eye that I could see there too.

Situated in the same spot, though hardly high-profile, was the Navy Landing memorial.

A real must-see though is the Immigrant Memorial that evokes liberty; but check out the fantastic sculpture of the immigrant family at the back.

As we walk along the river to strains of Summertime and the livin is easy, the muso quickly changes to Ain't She Sweet just for Joanne...we could be back in New Zealand with all the men just eating out of Jo's hand!

Over into Jackson Square which commemorates Major-General Andrew Jackson of
"The Union must and shall be preserved" fame...
This area when New Orleans was the capital of the Spanish province of Luisiana (1762-1803) was known as the Plaza De Armas. Indeed, in French Colonial times the square was known as the Place D' Armes and it was where the flag ceremonies took place transferring Louisiana from Spain back to France on November 30th 1803 and then from France to the United States on December 20th 1803.

We take a lovely stroll through the French Quarter and I get to see the cornstalk fence before we head over to the Cafe Du Monde (the original French Market coffee stand) for beignet's and a traditional local coffee with chicory.

From here I am off to the Cathedral of St Louis, King of France.

Louis IX, the Cathedral's patron was born in 1214 and became King of France from 1226-1270 being canonised a Saint in 1297.

It was in this Basilica that Pope John Paul II worshipped on September 12th 1987 and fittingly for a city often divided along racial lines...it was as Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans (1965-1991) that Harold R. Perry became the first African-American Roman Catholic Bishop of the Twentieth Century in the United States.

The stained glass was lovely but the highlight of this building are the superb frescos. Whilst I understand the reasons, in today's society, I do find it offensive that you are told to leave a church when you are engaging both with the building and its spirituality just because we have reached the witching hour of 4.30pm.

Tonight Jo and I will dine at Irene's which is an institution in the French Quarter. Tradition declares there are no bookings and so all comers queue outside for the doors opening at 5.30pm to secure a highly prized table...and we did!!

Then it is off around the myriad of art galleries in this area. highlights for me were the Fredrick Guess Gallery, Natalie Fine Art Gallery where the work in slate, glass and oils is really unique (nataliefineart.com), the work of Marcus Akinlana at the Royal Heritage Gallery and our preview tour of the Elisabeth Estivalet exhibition at the Axelle Fine Arts Galerie Royale.

Estivalet's work is not to everyone's taste with its angular perspective and its definitive lines, but her application with a palette knife gives her work a distinctive quality.

...And no Friday night in New Orleans would be complete without a visit to Bourbon Street topped off with a large Daiquiri...and then it's home...Oh, those Southern nights!