Tuesday 27 February 2018

All Saints Anglican Church, Edgecumbe




One of the things I love to photograph are churches, the older the better. On our way through Edgecumbe recently we stopped outside this one - the All Saints Anglican church.

This diocese of Waiapu was founded in 1858 and in 1859 the first Bishop was ordained named William Williams (how about that name). This diocese was first named after the river flowing under the sacred mountain of Hikirangi and has both Maori and Pakeha strands together since it began with Maori and their missionary evangelists.

Unfortunately in 2017 this area of the Bay of Plenty suffered catastrophic flooding due to Cyclone Debbie and the stopbank protecting the town from the Rangitaiki River burst on 6th April. Flooding hit the town and some of the houses were ruined, residents were evacuated and some were unable to return.  Luckily the church hasn't been affected.

Sunday 25 February 2018

A nice quiet afternoon at the beach


Day 1 of my 2 days off each week. Most Sundays we like to amble down to the beach for a few hours with our deckchairs, a good book and some cold wine and enjoy the sun, sea and sand...


Doesn't it look tempting?

Friday 23 February 2018

Coffee and fresh bread!


Sunny morning skies are back, late Summer fresh air - I snapped this photo on my phone this morning while walking to warm up for my run. Sometimes there's nothing better than a hot coffee and fresh bread to start off your day. What do you like to do do start your morning?

Linking up with Skywatch Fridays :-)

Tuesday 20 February 2018

Braemar Water Springs


First time I've ever been to this spot, thanks to the other half introducing me - known as Te Waiu o Pukemaire or Braemar Water Springs. What a unique place! Unfortunately I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I'm not racist towards anyone else at all, I like people from all walks of life and ethnicity but during the brief time we were there I felt nothing but animosity and judgment.

Sadly it seemed like we were the only European looking people there and when we were walking towards the area people were looking at us and talking about the white people. I'm not sure if any of you know but about a year ago I took a DNA test through ancestry.com - my results came back as extremely mixed from British, Scottish, Irish, Spanish/Portuguese, Scandavian, Filipino, Iraqi, Syrian, Russian, Armenian, Greek/Italian, Pacific Island and Polish - I am anything but plain old white European and it saddens me that people judge others based on how they look.

Needless to say we quickly left after a few minutes...

Sunday 18 February 2018

Clear water at Lake Okataina


Road trip today and once of the spots we stopped at was lovely peaceful Lake Okataina which is the largest of 4 lakes between Lake Tarawera and Lake Rotorua. This lake has native bush all around it and there are signs up saying no overnight camping, there were only a small handful of people while we were there. Scorching hot day so we paddled our feet in the shallows.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Friday 16 February 2018

Mount Maunganui public library


Another sunny late Summer's day here, this morning on my run past our local library it was good to many of the Sunflowers and Rudbeckia still flowering - these had been planted about a month ago.

Hopefully for those in the northern hemisphere you have a bit of thawing out going on. Linking up with Skywatch Friday :-)

Wednesday 14 February 2018

The fountain at Memorial Park


If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.....

Wow it has been so humid and sticky here this week. We've had some rainy days and that has bought on some major warmth. While my car was at the mechanic's on Monday my 17 year old son and I walked down to local Memorial Park to try and cool down and while we sat under a tree to cool down I spotted the fountain nearby. There were a few children playing in it after I took the photo but there is a sign on it saying no dogs allowed in the water. I think the water was probably very refreshing though.

Sunday 11 February 2018

Sunny day at the Whakamaru Dam






On our travels last weekend we stopped at a nearby lake and drove across the Whakamaru Dam. This baby is hydro-electric and owned by Mercury Energy.



It began being built in 1949 and took 3 years from start to finish. Power is sent from via 220 kv lines to the Bay of Plenty (where we live), Hawkes Bay, Manawatu and Hamilton.



Apparently there are some walking tracks around this area where people have sighted such birds as fantails, grey warblers, waxeyes and tuis.



The control center for the North Island of NZ was first established in 1964 and continued to operate until a replacement facility was found in Hamilton in 1992.



In 2013 a project was started to refurbish the turbines and generators. In 2016 the equipment arrived and was installed in 2017.



Along with ducks and swans this is a perfect place to fish for brown trout that average around 1.5kg.

Thursday 8 February 2018

Summer is nearly over...




Summer always ends with good memories.....

As mid Summer turns into late Summer we are starting to get some cooler morning temperatures and red skies signalling that the season is turning here. In March Autumn will make it's way into our world and we will start to see some bronze/red colours but until then we will make the most of the sun and blue skies.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday :-)

Monday 5 February 2018

Visiting a best friend at Tihoi


Today we drove nearly 2 hours to visit one of my best friends who lives out at Tihoi (pronounced tee-hoy), she lives on a farm but has decided to sell it and move closer to the city.


Our ultimate goal was to help her sort out what she needed and didn't need so after the teens and both the other half and myself shifting bits and pieces around in the garage we set off inside to fill up rubbish bags.


The neat thing about her farm is that it's so quiet, it's about 20 minutes drive from Taupo. Happy chickens, happy dogs and a happy horse.

 
My daughter is a horse fan so after a bit of teamwork between her brother and herself she was off for a short ride.


Good day in all. Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Friday 2 February 2018

New kid on the block


Every now and again I change the area where I run each morning. For the last couple of weeks I've been running through residential streets, through a park and back along the main road past this new building. This is an apartment block that was built a few months ago, looks kind of minimalistic to me but underneath there is a coffee shop on the corner, next to that a travel agents and some offices further down, next door in a smaller building is a backpackers and next to that are the golden arches of McDonalds (where my daughter works).

Cloudy skies with quite a bit of rain this morning, places of NZ got more flooding - seems to have been a rather wet then dry Summer this season. Looking forward to tomorrow as I have a wedding to attend with the other half in which I have been asked to photograph so a bit nervous about that.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday :-)

Cobden Observation Post

  We've been living in Greymouth nearly 2 years now and we finally got to complete this walk to the Cobden WW2 Observation Post . It too...