Coming Up Close

 Last November during our holiday in Nelson, the other half and I drove out to Mapua Wharf which is about a 25 minute drive out of town. Unfortunately we were there in early Summer while it was very overcast and drizzly so it wasn't very busy there but usually the shops in and around that area are active with visitors. There are cafes, a bicycle hire shop, a boat club, a real estate office, a wine bar, a maritime museum, an art gallery, a homewares shop, a restaurant and a hat shop.  We were 2 of the very few people around that day so we each took turns standing behind the sign while the other took a cheesy photo. The creature artistically decorated on the bottom right of the sign is what's known as a Taniwha . Up until February this year I had long hair so this was just before I had it all cut into a shorter style. Pretty interesting really. Linking up with Skywatch Friday .

Purely my accident my daughter and I found this in our town set up in our park.  They were only there apparently for one day and the Glow Show Company , as they are called are a magical glow in the dark giant scale puppet show for 2-10 year olds - since we were both adults we just had a look around. "Tuia Matauranga" from what I work out is something to do with knowledge in the Maori language and the whole show focuses on "Takutai Moana" or coastal sea and "Te moana nui a Kiwa" or the Pacific Ocean with it being all about our "kai moana" or seafood.  Inside the trailer there were diagrams, illustrations and boards set up. Because we were so interested we were given a colouring book and pencils which we were pass onto my brother's children.  So as it's rich in Te Reo Maori langage, it's an upbeat show with catchy music and has a question and answer session afterwards.  The show runs for about 45 minutes, the trailer has been designed f

I had 15 minutes to spare yesterday in between jobs so I walked down to our local Rainbow Falls for a brief sit next to the waterfall. Also known by it's Maori name of Waianiwaniwa, it has 3 different viewing platforms before leading along a short path to the water.  At 27 metres tall it's made from an erosion of soft rock and sited on a hard basalt layer of rock.   Of course I had to take a short video of the waterfall. Linking up with Skywatch Friday .

  Yesterday B and I visited a local business called " The Parrot Place ". We've heard about it and decided it was worth a peek.  Above on the left is a yellow ringneck Parrot and on the right are 2 small Cockatiels.  Click on each image for a larger view.   Not sure what the guy on the left is but B has a Blue Ringneck Parrot and a Green Ringneck Parrot on his shoulders. We were given a small bowl of food to feed them.   Some of the birds were in large aviaries depending on their type and other hand reared ones were in a large aviary together. On the left above is a Long Billed Corella who kept saying "hello" to us and on the right is a Crimson Winged Parrot.   On the left is a Eclectus and on the right is a pair of Black Feathered Cocktatoo named Elvis and Priscilla.   A pair of Galahs on the left and on the right was a very very noisy Blue and Gold Macaw near the front entrance.   Me feeding a Blue Ringneck Parrot on the left and on the right a Ruby Macaw.   A

 This photo came up in my memorites on Facebook, I'd forgotten I had it so herewith this bear on the side of a building in Mount Maunganui was painted by artist Mica Still  who seems to have an afinity with bears from what I can see on the Facebook page. It's bright, it's colourful but I'm not sure what it's all about. Well as of this morning we have a Labour led majority government and we couldn't be happier. With roughly full election results it looks like Labour is on 49.5% which means they can govern alone without teaming up with any other parties. I think Jacinda really has done well leading us through Covid so hopefully the next 3 years we can bounce back even stronger. Linking up with Mural Monday and Through my lens .

 Te Kopuru, just out of Dargaville is one of those old kiwi towns filled with old villas and bungalows from when it was first settled in the mid 1800s.  Last time we were up that way I got B to stop next to an old church I saw from the roadside. St Peter's Anglican Church is on the Heritage List and was built in 1902.  It has a square belfry tower with a pyramid shaped roof and a wooden cross on it's northern side. It was designed by priest/architect Henry Barnard Wingfield who came to NZ when he was a boy and settled in Dunedin with his family. He studied architecture before being ordained in 1897. In 1899 he was appointed the first vicar at Pokeno, South of Auckland and in 1904 he was appointed to St Alban's in Balmoral, Auckland where he served for 22 years. In 1926 he was appointed vicar this time to the Holy Trinity Church in Devonport, Auckland remaining there until his retirement in 1931. He devoted his time to ecclesiastical architecture and has been credited with

 Just after our first lockdown on one of my walks I saw this illustration painted on the large ramp at our local skatepark. I've tried to work out what each face is of and the only one I can figure out is one of them looks like a type of cactus - can anyone else see anything? Linking up with Mural Monday  and Through my lens .

 Our town has about 8 waterfalls in total - this photo is part of the track that leads to one of them: " Charlie's Rock " which we visited in 2018.  I can see the pink Spring blossoms near the bend in the river and the Toi Tois on the right with their big white plumes - those things when the wind blows them give me hayfever. At the moment we have our country's general elections about to happen so the different parties have been visiting towns around NZ on their campaign trails. After the voting booths opened last weekend we chose to vote early before the big day in 2 Saturdays time. Neither B nor I do crowds so it was nice and quiet for us. But we have had perfect sunny Spring days so on my days off I have been out in the garden planting new Osteospermums, Lavender and Daisies I've bought online, those are plants I know that will handle the Summer heat well.  Linking up with Skywatch Friday , Weekend Roundup and Weekend Reflections .

 I walk past this mural most days just inside the gates of one of our local primary schools and finally got a decent photo. I haven't been able to work out who painted this one but it depicts the sun rising over the land the some of the Maori words say: "Where is the pillar of the earth", "The pillar of acceptance is the earth", "The mountain is dark" and "Who longs for the river".  Linking up with Mural Monday .

 Another photo from Auckland City - this one was taken near the top of the city while we had stopped at the traffic lights. Most of the buildings there are modern new ones like these but thankfully there are still some odd heritage ones about. Yesterday morning on my day off I was out the door before 8am on a mission to take my younger son's car back to VTNZ to get it re-checked. He had taken it in for it's 6 monthly warrant of fitness earlier in the week and it had failed on a minor issue. After him and B managed to replace the broken part that was at fault he asked me to take it in as he was working late last night. To say it was nippy outside was a bit of an understatement. We are in Spring here and so far we've been fortunate enough to have mostly warm days but my phone said it was 5 degrees celsius at that time so coming back home afterwards was a relief. Linking up with Weekend Reflections  and the Weekend Roundup .

My brother was visiting us this week while he was on holiday with his family. He usually works in Auckland City but according to him it's more like a ghost town these days as more people are working from home.   Although I grew up in Auckland I'm happy now that we don't live there. In the last couple of weeks they've had really bad wind, so bad that a large truck apparently got blown onto one of the scaffolding structures of the harbour bridge causing significant damage, then 2 of the lanes were closed bringing traffic to a gridlocked standstill then yesterday the whole bridge was closed due to high winds. Seems they're not having much luck there. Linking up with Skywatch Friday .