River walk-autumn afternoon

My reward to myself today once I had finished my Massey assignment, was a walk beside the Manawatu River. The forecast was for rain.... but it seems that once again the rain mostly visited the eastern side of the ranges.

It was mid-afternoon when I walked, with the sun pushing its way through some sombre clouds.
Here are some of the groynes in the river that are designed to help push flood flows more towards the other bank. We humans have tried to 'cheat' nature here by moving the whole course of the river over away from the town. But when the water is in full flood, it all wants to find its way back to its previous course.

The water is so very low at present, it makes it hard to believe that this river can ever be badly behaved...
Today it was just a gentle river under a steely sky
Autumn giving the promise of winter.
A glorious place to stand and gently be.

Square Sunshine

It was far too glorious today to stay indoors, so I walked down to the Square and took some more photos.

And yesterday I discovered how I could export a slideshow with sliding panels.... so..... I have uploaded a version to YouTube. (This is lower quality as upload speeds in NZ are sloooooooow. If any of my teaching buddies know a local teacher doing anything on the Square or Palmie.... they are welcome to contact me for a higher quality copy!)

Anyhow.... here it is: summer and autumn sunshine in the Square..... Enjoy!!

Flying South

This weekend was a special event down in Christchurch. I had booked window seats on my flights, and was fortunate to get magnificent views in both directions. Leaving home, there was a splendid view of the Manawatu River snaking its way across the floodplains.

Once we had reached the South Island, we traveled over the sea for much of our journey. Here Kaikoura pokes out into the ocean.

I saw several large braided rivers twisting through hill country until they reached the sea.

There were special times with my friends in Christchurch- and two of us walked along the beach near New Brighton on a calm, sunny Saturday morning.

There was also time to just walk slowly and take some photographs of autumn trees. This group of coloured leaves was lit behind by the sun for just a short time in the afternoon- and most of this tree remained green.

Monday morning I was homeward bound again, this time over land in the south. Surprisingly, there was a dusting of snow over the Kaikoura Ranges.

At Lake Grassmere, where seawater is evaporated to leave salt, the colours of the pools were intriguing from the air.

It seemed like we were passing over the Marlborough Sounds in no time.... and soon we were touching down back in Palmerston North, on North Island soil.

Colour in the city.

I finished work early today, a glorious autumn day, so I decided to head out on a wee bike ride with my camera.
First I stopped in the Square, where they often have banners hanging from the heavy-duty industrial light fixtures. Sometimes these banners advertise an event, and sometimes they just seem to add colour, as these ones did.Not far away a new kinetic wind sculpture has been installed near the Convention Centre. The sun shone and it moved gently in the breeze today. I spoke with a man passing by, who works in the city council offices overlooking this sculpture: he said that last week in the strong winds it really opened up. I will have to go back one day when the wind is really blustery and watch it again.

Next I visited Rangitikei St. There are some interesting old buildings still dotted around the city, that have escaped being destroyed and replaced by bland modern buildings. Recently while on a bus I noticed the higher levels of the facades on these two buildings, that I have always missed seeing from the lower vantage point of bicycle or car wheels. So here we have a white tui, and a fascinating bit of history with a Jersey cow.
And for fun, just a bit of modern colour:
Lastly I called into St Pat's on the way home, and saw purple covered statues and crosses for Holy Week. But it was the purple and green of grapes in this stained glass window that took my eye.

In the Square on a summer's day

As soon as I saw the sun shining early this morning I knew it was going to be the day I headed out to practise using my dslr. No point having an expensive camera I am not sure how to really use properly! I needed to try out different things with the aperture priority and shutter priority settings, so I could grow to be in charge of the camera, rather than the other way around....The Square in the middle of town was where I decided to go: there is an abundance of different inspiration for the camera here.

There is an old fountain that has been restored, and now the lions really do squirt out water again.

This sculpture is almost 'outside' my brief, as it is just beyond the pedestrian's 'square'. There is a group in Palmie that is placing more sculpture in the city. And there are some pieces I love- one day I will have to do a post on some of them- but this one is not amongst them- seems awfully 'puerile' to use a polite word.

In the heart of the Square is an area of 'peace'. I loved the cloud behind this Maori sculpture today- the colours all spoke of summer.

This is one of a group of sculptures carved by a visiting group of international sculptors. (I think it is in andesite, but would have to check that...)

I always love finding 'reflections' and taking photos of them... this one is on the Council building.

Again, colours of summer, in the view looking across from the Marae of peace to All Saints church.

When 'they' re-did the Square at horrendous expense a few years back, there were some things that were done that I think are simply ugly. Fortunately they had more sense than to remove the fountains in the corner where the ducks and the families hang out... It was a great place to experiment with varied aperture and shutter settings, and then to see the results back at home...

And Palmerston North has always been famous for its roses... here is just one example...

So, did I learn what I wanted about the camera? Yes, I grew in confidence. I realised there were times I made the aperture too large in landscape shots. And often I was nervous of making the shutter as fast as it could be on this sunny day... It was instructive when I got home to compare the settings the camera had used as 'normal' when I used the automatic settings. I will have to use this as a 'control' for every shot next time and see what I learn....

Taranaki Daytrip

This poor blog has been quite neglected- but I am finally reporting here about a daytrip I made up to Taranaki some weeks back now- mainly so I can show off Mt Egmont, that wondrous volcano that dominated my childhood landscapes. (You wonder how I could walk a Camino? I became quite beguiled as a child with landscapes outdoors- who wouldn't be living under such a mountain?!)
It was a bit of a tiki-tour down memory lane. Here is the headstone of my parents, with the mountain behind.
And here is St Joseph's Church, where I remember singing in Latin in the choir loft with my father when I was 5. Apparently the choir loft is now 'dangerous' and they are raising funds to repair it.)
Here is Arohanui posing outside my old primary school. (Arohanui was going to have a post all her own about this trip, but it seems a little bit too much time has gone by since the adventure now!)
This is a beautiful statue of Our Lady in St Joseph's Church, New Plymouth.

And now we return to the mountain. Here is Arohanui posing in front a view near New Plymouth, just to prove she's been there, done that, doesn't need the guidebook!

And now my beautiful Mt Egmont, complete with lush fertile grass growth in front, befitting such a wet spring.And here is a slightly closer version: yes, I was experimenting with the telephoto lens on my new camera.

Red Rocks, Wellington

For the second part of our bus trip we were heading to Red Rocks on the South Coast if it was fine (or Te Papa if it wasn't). Amazingly, in the midst of the all the **** weather we have had recently, the weather seemed to behave itself 'sort of' so we could explore the coast!

First up we had a talk from a Forest and Bird Marine person who had come down on her Saturday to a place she is passionate about: a marine reserve was created just over a year ago on part of this coastline, and she explained how it had come about and the rationale for it.

This coastline is quite wild- Cook Strait has a confluence of various currents, and the wind is able to whip through the gap between North and South Islands.
As someone who grew up near the coast (Waitara) and who now lives 'inland' in New Zealand terms, I was glad to have the chance to be near the sea.
And even more so I revelled, as there was a chance to see the waves doing some wild things in the wind!
The bus driver told us we were lucky it was a northerly. We might have got windblasted at times as the afternoon moved on, but he said if it was southerly we would also have been drenched and cold!
I didn't walk as far as where the seals were reported to be: in the time we had I preferred just to make it to Red Rocks and then to spend some time watching the wild waves!

There was a Visitor's Centre where there were displays explaining various aspects of the reserve, including how the rocks in just a small section came to be red, when most of the surrounding rocks were grey sedimentary greywacke. It seems that in the midst of the sedimentary layers under the sea millions of years ago, there was an extrusion of volcanic basalt. So some of the rock ended up having iron included in it, and some of this has oxidised to red...
I asked this Brit tourist to pose, so you could see some of the red rocks are quite large. She offered to take my photo, but I am certain you would rather see her!!!
So that was my Saturday: thanks to Forest and Bird for all the organisation that made this trip possible. I found both places fascinating, and will make my way back to the Karori Wildlife Centre before long for sure!

Karori Wildlife Sanctuary- Zealandia

I had to set the alarm on Saturday morning earlier than usual..... had to be in town by 7.20am for the Forest and Bird bus trip down to Wellington. First off in the morning we were visiting the Karori Wildlife Centre, then it was going to be a walk to Red Rocks and maybe some seal viewing. For photo purposes I am breaking the day into two posts....

I first heard about the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary two years ago when I was studying a paper in NZ fauna. A "mainland island" has been created, with an extensive anti-predator fence, so that some species that have disappeared from this area might be able to live here again. It is a dream that has 500 years of restoration ahead.....

Here is the piece of the fence that you see as you enter the sanctuary. The fence disappears up a hill and you lose sight of it in the distance: this sanctuary really is quite vast.

There is a low level sealed track that has been made accessible for pushchairs and wheelchairs. After you have walked a little way, you come to another area where they have fenced it off so they can keep weka out while they establish a population of tuatara and also lizards. Just past this fence I had a lovely conversation with Erin, who was working nearby. She told me two places where I might see tuatara if they had come out, but it seemed it was a bit windy for them today.

The sanctuary is also interesting for its historical role in Wellington. There was a display that recalled old goldmining efforts that I had been completely unaware of happening in Wellington. And you could walk along the dam.

A swing bridge linked to some other trails across the valley. This sanctuary has been conceived on a grand scale!

I didn't try to take many bird photos- time was a bit short for my experimental efforts- but I did take my dslr out for these shots. I know I missed the tip of the duck's beak, but I was excited to see how much feather detail I could capture.

And I will just leave you with this kaka perched on a feeding station....