The Hamilton LDS Temple

On a rainy day through Hamilton we drove past the Temple belonging to the Church of the Latter Day Saints. The temple is the 13th constructed and the 11th operating operating temple. The building was completed in 1958, it was the first temple built in the Southern Hemisphere and the 2nd to be built outside of Canada and the United States. More information here. FYI I don't belong to this faith/religion, we just drove through this area out of interest.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Daisies everywhere!

After being sick on and off for the last couple of weeks I finally got out yesterday and enjoyed a long beach walk. Lots of sun and warmth and when I sat on the sand above the beach in amongst the grasses I was surrounded by these lovely orange Gazanias and Freesias. Just lovely!

Karapiro Power Station

This is the Karapiro Power Station just out of Hamilton, the Waikato River has 8 other hydroelectric power stations - this one is the last of them. Construction started in 1940, the building certainly looks vintage, and was completed in 1947.

It's purpose is to maintain the flow of water in the lower part of the river during catchment and low electricity demand. To keep the river flow and a reasonable level only 2 turbines are needed - the third is used for peak generation and maintenance on one of the others. Mercury Energy operates all the hydro electric power stations on the Waikato River.

On this day we visited this place it had been raining on and off all morning, the stormy skies reflected in the background show how temperamental the weather has been.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday :-)

Road trip to Bridal Veil Falls

So Spring here feels like a rewind of Winter. When we left home Sunday morning the skies looked overcast as usual, we've had so much rain here lately but the forecast was that it would clear up by the afternoon.

After a 2 hour drive (at least) we got to this place just out of Raglan...Bridal Veil Falls, and you can see why it's called that right?

We walked through native bush from the carpark for about 10 minutes then got to the upper viewing platform, I was too scared to look over (being scared of heights).

Then walked down to the middle viewing area and finally the bottom viewing area, about roughly 260 steps in all, I'm sure my knees and legs were crying out by the time we got there.

And this was what we saw at the bottom, I think it was worth all the effort, don't you? Oh and the minute we got back in the car it started raining and hailing. Was quite a cold day.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Small oil tanker at Pilot Bay

I was having a look through some of my photos I've taken around the area since we moved here in January 2016 and I found this one of a small oil tanker coming into Pilot Bay in early Autumn. The night was quiet and chilly and not many people were out and about yet we were enjoying the scenery.

Thanks to all your well wishes when I was sick last week, I'm up and about again but it seems to be doing the rounds as I know alot of other people who are now down with it. One of those change of the season things unfortunately...tomorrow on my day off we're off on a road trip, not sure where we will end up :-)

Angel of the morning...

It's been almost constant Spring time rain here and I've been down with the flu, seems to happen in those change of seasons. Today I can see blue skies out the window so here's hoping it lasts for a few days.

Photo: Angel on an old grave at Te Puke Cemetery.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday :-)

The dreaming stone...

The dreaming stone - Te Puna Quarry Park...

The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened. ~James Arthur Baldwin