A farm scene worth remembering.....

Last weekend on our camping/wedding excursion to Hamilton, this was part of the view we saw from our caravan in the middle of the paddock. A farm tractor, cows in the background enjoying munching the grass - this is the sort of scenery I feel comfortable in. After living in a small rural town in Northland, NZ for 8 years this is something I'm use to....hope you have a great weekend :-)

Hot hot hot early morning Summer skies in Hamilton

Last weekend we were at a wedding in nearby Hamilton, as per my previous post. The other half's sister and brother in law bought their caravan and we camped out in a paddock on his daughter's farm. Despite a humid hot Summer's night we woke up to the sound of cows mooing in the distance and these skies overhead. The one above is the moon at in the sky at one end of the farm and the sunrise below as in the opposite direction.

Best time of the day to be up about about I think, nice and quiet. For more Skywatch Fridays click here :-)

Water lillies at Hamilton Gardens

Over the weekend we travelled to Hamilton, a city just over an hour or so away for a wedding that was being held at Hamilton Gardens in the Victorian Glasshouse. Very hot sweltering boiling hot Summer's day, one of the highest on record here and in the shade while we waited for the ceremony to start I couldn't help taking photos of the view, and this just part of the whole area.

In the above two photos are shots of the water lilly section which is based upon a Victorian Flower Garden, nearby is a greenhouse, very well clipped grass lawns and curved gravel walks. All in all a delightful place to visit.

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Santa's still hanging around...

A couple of weekends ago on my rainy day adventure through the Tauranga Mission Cemetery, we walked across a bridge over the train tracks near the Strand area. As you can see on the photos the skies were murky and dense but if you look close at the photo above you might be able to see something on top of the Trinity Wharf Tauranga Hotel building.

 Can you see it? It's Santa's legs still hanging around...

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Light on the edge of the rocks at Mount Maunganui

On one of my walks a while ago I chose the bottom of Mount Maunganui to walk around, what a lovely place. Along with little bays, sandy shores and rocky areas this little spot appealed to me - if you can see into the distance there is a wee light on the edge of the rocks - very handy obviously for ships or boats at night. Now that I work full time sadly it's difficult finding time to get back here but it would be well worth it.

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Early morning skies over the caravan

It's been such a crazy week that I'm extremely happy it's Friday today - my two teenagers have been here visiting for the last two weeks and today they go back up North but in a fortnight my youngest is moving here permanently.

Anyway we've had a caravan we borrowed for one of them to sleep in and its come in very handy so here's the skies above it that I snapped this morning. Have a great day :-)

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Horse riding at Oropi Bush Farm

Last weekend, I took my daughter and step daughter horse riding at Oropi Bush Farm - about a 25 minute drive from here out into the country.  Although neither of the girls own horses they are both horse mad and have been since they were little. We were very impressed by the range of horses there were to choose from and Fiona was a lovely host to them. They came back very tired but very happy at the end.

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Windsurfers out and about after the storm

Sunday gone eager to get out and about after 2-3 days of rain we drove around and ended up stopping down by Sulphur Point which is near the Port of Tauranga. With quite a bit of wind still in the air we watched these windsurfers in the shallows. The guy walking out of the water looked like he was teaching the girl on the board what to do.  I like days like this as you get to see people making the most of the outdoors after being stuck inside - lots of action!.

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The Sea Princess is in town!

Over the weekend we had over 2 days of rain and with 3 teenagers in the house we were all starting to get cabin fever so while a break in the weather we ventured out for a drive around town. One point we stopped at was at Pilot Bay where of course I shot across the road to take a photo of this scene. If you ignore the yellow boats in the front of the photo you can see a large ship called the Sea Princess which was in town.

Around the Summer period, which is what we have here now we get alot of cruise ships come and go - this one is quite a beauty. Not only is it 857 feet long and 188 feet wide, it also has a crew of 910, 15 decks, 3 swimming pools, 1008 guest cabins, 6 spa pools and much more. I'm starting to wish I could win lotto so I could try one of these out myself!

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Tauranga Mission Cemetery - Otamataha Pa

After nearly 3 days of rain we decided to venture out into the drizzle, cabin fever was starting to creep in. This morning we had read about a local historical place not far from home, the Tauranga Mission Cemetery. Located in Marsh Street it's apparently the oldest European burial ground in the Bay of Plenty area, and has approximately 100 troops and 14 Maori warriors who perished in while on active duty during the NZ wars.

This place has a lovely outlook through the surrounding trees of Tauranga harbour and is near The Strand. The site was once used by the Ngai Te Rangi Pa of Otamataha.

In the 1820s the Church Missionary Society missionaries visited from the Bay of Islands searching for supplies but left after most of them were killed in 1828 by Ngati Maru raiders from the nearby Coromandel Thames area. 

In 1838/1839 Reverand Afred Brown bought the land and started up the Te Papa Mission Station and the pa site (above) became a cemetery.



In 1908 after the cemetery fell into disrepair, with land erosion playing a major part a trustee contacted the Under Secretary for lands. They decided a type of retaining wall needed to be built, concrete slabs were made to replace the wooden headboards on most of the graves which were then in time replaced by memorial plaques on the ground surface - some of which we saw today.

On 20th May 1884 a notice was issued in the Bay of Plenty Times that no more burials were to be allowed here.

37 men have been commemorated with name plaques but the names of 11 were not found on casualty lists. The cemetery also contains graves of 7 British soldiers who died between 1864 and 1870.

As you can see these are the fences and railings are still in fairly good condition, although moss has grown in places they are not falling apart.

Although Mission Cemetery was officially closed in 1881, some of the early settlers and their families were also buried here. In May 2014, one month after the 150th commemoration of the Battle of Gate Pa, the cemetery was part of a 7863 square metre site transferred from the New Zealand Mission Trust to the Otamataha Trust - the Hapu of Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho.

More information at Papers Past, Tauranga Memories, NZ History and this post at Timespanner is alot more well researched than what i have done :-)