Kawakawa's street lamps

When I visited Kawakawa last Spring with my 2 adult children I noticed this street lamp sitting next to a mosaic brick wall near the end of town.  Apparently this one is a replica made by the Lions Club of the original 3 that use to sit along the main street in 1904. The acetylene gas was housed in the base and lit by the gas lighter. 

Linking up with The Weekend Roundup and  Weekend Reflections.

Auckland Harbour Bridge at night

 I'm one of those people who always has my camera on hand, I managed to snap this one night while we were staying in Bayswater in Auckland. This is our very own harbour bridge all lit up. Enjoy

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

The signalman's house

In Devonport halfway up Mount Victoria is this cute little period house now named "The Michael King Writer's Centre". Michael King was New Zealand’s most prominent writer of non-fiction. He had a great sense of humour, huge curiosity, and a scholar’s intensity, but always with a popular touch.

His histories appealed, beyond any specialist audience, to the wider New Zealand public. This house can now be used by writers who need a quiet place to work.  Originally this house was known as "The signalman's house" though. The first signalmen lived in a tent or a raupo hut on the top of Mt Victoria and later a house was built on the summit. The summit was fortified because of the Russian scare in the 1880s and it was eventually taken over by the Defence Department. In 1898 the Auckland Harbour Board decided to build a new house for the signalman on the current site, about half way down the southern slope of the mountain. 

The first signalman started in 1842 and the 4th and final one lived here in 1934. 

Linking up with Our World Tuesday, Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My Corner of the World and Wordless Wednesday.

Kaikohe Berries

 Another mural spotted in Kaikohe recently, this one was painted by Charles and Janine Williams named "Kaikohe Berries" with paint donated by the Kerikeri Colour Centre. They also regularly paint other murals around New Zealand including one in I posted about in 2017 from Tauranga.

This particular mural tells the story of the town which was named after the Kohekohe fruit that sustained people in times of hardship. The diamond background represents a bird's eye view of the maunga (mountain) Tokareireia or Kaikohe Hill. 

Linking up with Mural Monday.

Belmont street view

 In between Bayswater and Devonport in Auckland is the suburb of Belmont, which means "good view or hill" from a farm estate of the same name  that was subdivided in 1885. It's a popular area to live in due to a well known high school "Takapuna Grammar" being nearby. I snapped this street photo while we were in town briefly on our holiday when B popped into one of the shops in this photo.

This week has been pretty full for me. I've ended up giving notice at the garden centre that I work weekends in. I've been working since I was 16 when I left high school and most of the jobs I've held have required me to work either a Saturday or a Sunday or both so I'd kind of like to see what having weekends off is like. I've decided to instead work 4 days during the week with my support work Tuesday to Friday instead which will mean a bit more money too. But I'm ready for change.

Linking up with The Weekend Roundup and  Weekend Reflections.

Whakamaharatanga Hoia o Te Arawa

This rather interesting memorial located in one corner of the Government Gardens in Rotorua caught my eye recently.  The original idea for this came from the Ohinemutu Native Patriotic Assocation in 1919. Later the Te Arawa Trust Board took over the project and still cares for the memorial today. The board hired sculptor William Henry Feldon to design it which he did alongside local iwi (tribes).  He then created the memrial with architect Edward La Trobe Hill overseeing the project. The statue of Rangitihi, at the bottom is a replication of the original which was vandalised in 1936 created by Rakei King in 2018.

King George stands on the pedestal, below him is the star Rehua which is said to have guided the Arawa Waka (canoe) to New Zealand. 

Under this section are a tier of panels which depict: King Edward VII, Queen Victoria, King George V, a white marble cross, a navy seaman, a red cross nurse holding a floral wreath, an army soldier in a mirrored stance to the seaman.

Under another tier is a section of panels depicting: Maori weapons, local missionary Reverend Thomas Chapman, governor Hobson signing the Treaty of Waitangi under the watchful gaze of Ngati Whakaue chief Tanira Te Tupara, the God Puhaorangi looking down from the heavens at the beautiful maiden Kuraimmonoa. 

Another panel shows the Maori Regimental Badge which has 2 Maori weapons crossed under a crown, a further 2 panels which list the names of those men from Te Arawa who died during the war. The figure standing on the stone block on the steps is the Te Arawa chief Rangatihi, on the front stone block is an image of the Te Arawa waka (canoe) and lastly the Krupps field gun is thought to have been captured by the Maori Pioneer Battalion at Le Quesnoy, northern France.

Phew so that is alot of information!

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

The energy of Opepe Cemetery

 

B introduced me to this place, tiny Opepe Cemetery just off the Napier Taupo highway where he said not many people knew about which is maintained by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. 

Opepe was a settlement in New Zealand, a few miles southwest of Taupo. It was the scene of an attack between European militia and Maori on 7 June 1869 in which nine members of the militia were killed.  The Opepe Maori settlement was at the intersection of two major pre-European walking tracks (Taupo-Napier and Urewera-Tokaanu). It was the birthplace of the Maori leader Te Rangitahau. 

During Te Kooti's War, in early June 1869 Te Kooti and about 150 of his supporters moved towards Lake Taupo in the center of the North Island. At Opepe, just short of Taupo, they ran into party of fourteen Militia, who were camped in the abandoned village. Nine of the militia were killed with no loss to Te Kooti. One of the men, who was drying his uniform, escaped completely naked across rough country in mid-winter, and was awarded the New Zealand Medal. A military stockade was built at Opepe in 1869 but closed in 1885. The township thrived for several years in the late 19th century. 

We walked through a 10 minute native bush walk before we reached the cemetery and strangely enough we could both feel the strong energy in the air.  At one point as I was rounding a corner a huge fern frond dropped to the ground next to me and nearly made me jump.

There are 2 tracks that lead off from the main entrance, one that is about 90 minutes long and the one we took. Two of the graves hold the bodies of the nine members of the Bay of Plenty Cavalry who were killed on 7 June 1869 by Te Kooti's advance guard: Alex McKillop, Charles Potier, Hector Ross, Michael Slattery, Ernest Lawson and Charles Johnson.

The other three are the graves of later settlers: Edward Andrehen, Henry G. Leslie and W. Turner.  The totara headboards are the original ones, which have been repainted several times over the years. However, they were showing the effects of time, and it is suspected that water ingress was causing the paint to peel and crack. This process has been completed and the headboards were re-installed in the little cemetery at Opepe by Department of Conservation staff on Christmas Eve 2010.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday, Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, Travel Tuesday, My Corner of the World and Wordless Wednesday.

Made in Italy Mural

 On a recent stop in South Auckland, Bombay to be exact just off the motorway is a group of shops. This whole area has come a long way lately, it use to be only a farming area but now has a number of fast food outlets including this clothing shop named Made in Italy - Sallie Clough where this wee mural on the side is of 2 well dressed women, I'm guessing it's advertising her business and attempts to find out the artist have come back empty. 

The Bombay Hills are between Auckland and Waikato close to Pukekohe. The region is named after the ship "Bombay" which first landed here bringing settlers originally called "Williamson's Clearing" in 1863. The ship itself was named after the Indian city of Bombay, now "Mumbai".

Linking up with Mural Monday.