The long distance train in Te Maunga, Tauranga

When I'm at work there's a train that rattles past 2-3 times a day, at night when I'm walking out to my car around 5.30pm it goes past again and last night I managed to catch it - this one was loaded with many wooden logs.  Since it's winter here we've been getting cold cold nights and sunny days - this shot I caught a sunbeam directly in my camera lens.

This one is when it had gone past, the track goes for quite a long distance through the countryside via several towns and includes the bridge in Tauranga city itself near The Strand.

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Brrrr winter has hit Tauranga!

I haven't been on here for just on a week as I started my job and by the time I get home at night it's usually to late to post. However I'm now settling into it and thought I would share bits of winter - as it's been down to minus 2 degrees celsius at night I snapped this shot (above) of the car with ice coating the outside of it, usually it calls for a few jugs of water to melt the ice so we can see through the windscreen.

This one I snapped on the way home from work as the sun was setting and there was a definite chill in the air. At the traffic lights with the other cars around me it was quiet and peaceful, very good to get home though to the warmth of our heat pump.

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Winter lights at Auckland Museum

Last Thursday night the other half and I drove up to Auckland with his teenage daughter and two of her friends for a music concert. I was on the outer end of the flu I'd had all last week so I thought I was feeling better, but after dropping the girls off we headed up to the Auckland Museum -  one of my favourite places ever! This is somewhere fascinating and historical and it's somewhere I have been visiting since I was little when my parents use to take me, my brother and sister there for outings - and now my 3 teenagers love to go thtere too.

Unfortunately when I hopped out of the car I started coughing uncontrollably in the cold air so this was the only shot I got. If you look closely you can see a group of young people sitting on the steps chatting amongst themselves.

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