Organic Murals

When we lived in Mount Maunganui I use to go for a run most mornings before work and in amongst the various shops/cafes/restaurants/boutique shops is this stand alone little organic cafe.

I never got a chance to order one of their meals but I would've been interested to see what their coffees tasted like compared to my shop bought coffee sachets.

The shop owned by Vitality Organics also sells products such as hemp seeds, essential greens and other proteins. Not my cup of tea but I guess you don't know until you try.

Edited to add: Our PM has decided to move us into alert level 3 next week. We seem to be down to a low rate of 9 people with covid 19 as of yesterday - it feels like we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Linking up with Monday Murals and Our World Tuesday.

Back to Whakatane

Well it looks like we may be moving to Whakatane. The other half grew up there, his parents and sister are buried there so when he applied for a job there just before Christmas we kind of thought if it happens it happens if it doesn't it doesn't.  I quite like the town, it's about an hour out of Tauranga and which I hated living there but Whakatane is pretty and a bit of a nicer place.

Last time the population was counted there was about 19,000 people living there and is the 3rd largest urban area behind Tauranga and Rotorua - other local towns are Opotiki and Kawerau. It's been a toss up between here and Greymouth but on going through the costs involved it's become obvious we would need more money to move there at this point.

For us, this year has already been eventful with family things going on. My oldest son who is nearly 25 years old has moved out in what was quite a stressful situation. Things have been brewing for a few months in regards to his attitude towards the rest of us, there is a thing called respect and while he has mild aspergers there is a limit to how much you can take from people - he certainly wasn't raised to be disrespectful but I think with stresses going on at his work he hasn't handled it very well. I'm hoping once he cools down he will be in contact again as I don't like having animosity and anxiety hanging around - it festers and creates hate.  I miss him but at his age I think he's at the point where living at home with the olds was cramping his lifestyle and he needs to get out there and spread his wings.

We will see what happens....linking up with Skywatch Friday.

The eruption of White Island

I don't know how many of you heard the news from last week that Whakatane's White Island or Whakaari as it's known in Maori erupted - apparently it was the result of a blocked vent which exploded with no warning. People who were visiting with tour operators, many of them tourists were burned or killed and there was a rescue mission afterwards to pick up the bodies that were left on there.

My other half grew up in Whakatane's Ohope Beach so he knows the area well and when we lived in Tauranga for 3 years we visited this area a few times - his parents and sister are buried at the local cemetery. It's such a lovely spot with good fishing.

For us it seems like our plan to move to the west coast has fallen through. The company that the other half wanted to work for have been mucking him around so we have switched our focus to either Whakatane or Nelson - either one would work for us so we are waiting to hear what happens.

btw the island in the background of this photo is Whale Island not White Island which is 30 km off the coast.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Opotiki Maori Pou

This rather impressive carved pou (post) sits in the middle of one of the main streets of Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty. Apparently it represents a variety of activities from the 19th century settlement of the town including including agriculture, horticulture and trading.

Behind the carving is a historical building known locally as the Old Bridger's Building and was once a drapery store. Over the years it has been used as a government office building, for education, dental surgery, factory workshop and a restaurant/cafe.  These days there is a small mural on one side and a jeweler's on the other side but there are various buildings in this town that look just as empty and unused.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday and Wednesday Around the World.

The spell of Mayor Island/Tuhua

In Tauranga is a wildlife refuge named Mayor Island - Maori name is Tuhua meaning "Spell" and I can understand why. The photo doesn't do it justice but the water colour is see through green and blue. The island has a history of volcanic upheaval and the best feature of the rock is the black Obsidian which was used by early Maori for cutting and scraping tools and also for weapons.

These days it is owned by local Iwi and you can only visit/step foot on this island with strict permission. Some of the birds that live there are bell-birds, tui, wood pigeons, morepork, fantail, kaka, grey warbler, waxeye, kingfisher, pied stilt and kingfisher.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Tauranga Festival of Lights

Before we left Tauranga I made sure to visit the Festival of Lights which was happening along the waterfront from the 11th to 16th July. The teens and the other half standing in front of the Matariki Display.

This is usually a display of different types of plants - at the moment it looks like there are some Calendula and other shrubs shaped and lit up like a boat.

These palms are lit up from the base near the railway tracks.

And this playground area for the kids were lit up almost like a space rocket.

This was my favourite - two people dressed up as cats - so futuristic!

The last one was different trees were wrapped with different likes of lights. I think for us we wanted to see more so it seemed like there wasn't enough. Good to experience though.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Ice on my car...

We've had some pretty nippy nights here over the last few weeks, sometimes the temperature has gone down to 0 deg celsius. We don't get snow here but when my car is parked out on the road it does sometimes receive a coating of ice. The morning I took this photo I had to take my 2 teens to the bus stop at 7.30am and it took me a took 5 minutes of pouring cold water on the windscreen to melt the ice.

We are continuing to pack here and there's been quite a bit of decluttering going on. The other half was cleaning out a cupboard area under our stairs that's been used as a sort of "can't find a home for whatever is in there" storage place and he advertised a few items on a local facebook page - a couple of people came by and took most of it and an unused bed frame was taken to work by him then picked up by a colleague.

This morning I made some chocolate cupcakes to take into work tomorrow as it's my 2nd to last day there, half of them had quite a bit of whiskey added and the other half had rum added so they are a little bit boozy to put it mildly - I think they'll be enjoyed greatly.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

In the octopus's garden

Kind of like a Beatles song right? Across the road from our apartment is a group of shops and first in that block is a small cafe called The Octopus's Garden. It looks small and quaint but invitingly cosy when I run past it most mornings. I checked out the menu online and from an article I found in the NZ Herald the pulled pork tacos look ultra yummy.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Cold crispy mornings...

We are starting to get some real cold crispy mornings here. If you check out this link you can see from our local webcams what it's like here.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Crisp fine Autumn morning

I'm enjoying this fine crisp Autumn morning. Pilot Bay here in Mount Maunganui is normally a hive of activity but at the moments it's quietened down as it gets cooler. I have one down with some sort of weird flu and I'm hoping the rest of us don't get it. How's your week been?

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Making headway...

Photo taken last Friday morning at McLaren Falls, Tauranga - at the start of Autumn.

Well...lots going on here. For about 5 years now I've been working on all sides of my family tree, and believe me there are lots and lots of sides to go through. After getting a DNA test done last year I've found out that I have Armenian, Scottish, Irish, British, Scandavian (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish), Polish, Filipino etc. For my mum's mother's side I had assumed they were only Scottish and Irish. After spending 5 years trying to find something out in the weekend I made headway and ended up going through various Scottish royalty through to English/French/Hungarian royalty back to 1st century Norway.

Now I'm working on the Polish Jewish side...

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Colours are changing...

Colours are changing, days getting shorter and temperatures cooler. Think I need to get back up to our local McLaren Falls Park soon...

Our day of Dolphin exploring

A few weeks ago my sister bought me a ticket for our local Bay Explorers who take people out on their boat to search for wildlife. At the time it was too windy so we postponed it to yesterday. The other half bought a ticket for himself so we got to the wharf bright and early (guess who left their coffee in the car).

The sun rising as we sat waiting for the rest of the people to arrive. Looked like it was going to turn out ok.

Scenery as we headed out through Tauranga's port - these are the cranes alongside the wharf, the area is lined with containers everywhere.

The area runs for several kilometers - these containers can be hired as far as I know.

Out on the open water, the sea was fairly calm and in places the depth of water got to between 40m and 90m deep, we sailed over several reefs as well.

After 3 hours on the water we arrived at Mayor Island which is owned by local Maori Iwi. Apparently you need a permit to set foot on the sand so we anchored offshore and heard all about how it is a pest free island with no dogs, cats, goats, rats, mice or stoats and is used as a breeding ground for endangered birds such as our native Kiwi.

On the way back we saw fur seals playing in the water and the skipper heard there were dolphins nearby, I think these were our common variety of mammals. They followed our boat and these ones I captured on my camera were part of a 200 large pod - such beautiful creatures, it saddens me when they get caught in fishing trawler nets or killed purposely.

And along our main Mount Maunganui beach these Orcas were seen hunting stingray on the coastline. These were 3, a dad, mum and a bay - the dad apparently had a bit missing from his fin but they were happy to hang around for a good 15-20 minutes.

All in all a fantastic day, the other half and I came home tired and sunburned but happy.

Tauranga Art Gallery

This morning for my birthday (I turned 47 today) we visited the Tauranga Art Gallery.  I have mixed thoughts about this place. My grandfather was an artist and painted paintings in water colour and oils, he held exhibitions in Auckland city during the 1960s so I guess that's what I'm use to.

This section "Future Islands" was alot of fun, in particular I liked the Maori storage hut (above) which appears to have a small ornament of the white house inside it, possibly made from bone, we weren't sure.

This area produced by Charles Walker and Kathy Waghorn represents real and imagined projects that show the diversity of our architecture.

The "road at the end of the universe" was a lit up section in another room, we couldn't quite figure it  out but it's creative nonetheless.

I loved this one titled "the space between" by James Ormsby. To me it shows the ground and what's under the sky.

The gallery as we were walking up the stairs with a resident artist illustrating a long scroll from his perch.

This one was cool. "Postcard to Doctor Jacoby" by Hannah and Aaron Beehre was interactive. You can't see in this photo but there were tiny fireflies swarming around the picture whenever you put your hands near it.

I looked at this and had 3 thoughts....what a huge mess, I like the colours and I pity the person that has to clean this up. Weaving Forest by Super Nature.

These bowls were made by The Bowl Exchange and called "Ace Firers".

And just behind the bowls were the Resolution Series of Captain Clerke and an unknown Maori person by Tane Ma. The person behind the wall was exploring a virtual reality of Maori images.

All in all I think although it was interesting for us to see how much art has come along, in particular digital art we were a bit disappointed as we had expected perhaps more paintings by local artists both historical and modern.

The Pepi Toot beach express

This little train is like an icon here in our town. The Pepi Toot train express regularly gives rides to locals and tourists around our area. It has a 20 seater carriage and train and does a 30 minute circuit tour. I'm not sure who the lady in the pink hat is, I assume she's a friend of the train driver as they were both talking when we walked past.

2 cruise ships in today

Thank goodness for days off. This morning we walked a total of 6ks and on our way we stopped to take photos of 2 cruise ships that were in port - the Queen Mary and the 7 seas voyager.

The first cruise ship is a transatlantic ocean liner and can hold 2695 passengers. The second is a cruise ship for Regent 7 seas cruises, is a bit smaller and can hold 706 passengers. Beautiful stunning late Summer's day out there though.

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.

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...

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 :-)

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 :-)