Taranaki Falls

When lockdown was over and we were in Level 2, the Chateau Tongariro was advertising special deals to stay- and I decided to take advantage of their offer. The weather was brilliant, and I was able to walk the Taranaki Falls track, perhaps my favourite New Zealand track as it has turned out beside the Hooker track in Mt Cook National Park.

The track started not far from the Chateau itself. It was a loop track, and by accident really, I took the lower of the two tracks first, which in hindsight I am quite pleased about. It descended at times down to streams, and so the views up higher came as a delightful surprise.

 It wasn't long before I was noticing icy deposits near the path.

 You could look back past the alpine scrub to see the Chateau.

 The stream that I walked alongside in places had icy stretches in the shade. The patterns in the ice were quite beautiful.

 Then all of a sudden I found myself climbing a little out into more open alpine scrub. The three young men in this photo were from France- so had obviously been with us through lockdown.

 Up high I came across a stream that was pretty much completely iced over, and frozen into stillness.

 The Taranaki Falls came into view, and were stunning.

 The white 'circle' around them was ice, as you could see when you went closer. Not a pool to plunge into midwinter!

 I sat beside the waterfall on a rock for ages, just soaking in the unbelievable sunshine and blue skies, listening to the sound of the water falling.

 But then came the return loop. There was a bit of a climb, though not unduly harsh, and soon you were seeing the stream away from the falls from above.

 And above on high you had views of Mts Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu, and also in the distance, Mt Taranaki.

 Later, back in the Chateau I could relax in deep armchairs and enjoy the art deco windows...

 This view of the sunset was from the terrace of the Chateau building, right beneath my window.

 Next morning I drove home via the road near Rangipo and over to Turangi. There was a frost, and the drive was somewhat scary in places with icy roads- but it was so worth it just to see this icy spidersweb- a first for me!

Snowy Monday

I am not sure how I missed posting these photos of our snowy Monday! I think I got so busy sending photos by e-mail to friends and family that I knew would find it hard to believe we had snow, that I quite forget to put any here! Anyhow, here you go- snow at my place- something I am unlikely to see again!~

And this last photo shows you the ranges the next morning...

229: snow remnants

There was some light snowfall yesterday evening- not much settled- but there still were a few signs of it around this morning.  And maybe that is its swansong....

228: snow on ranges

There was still some snow lying on the ground this morning after yesterday evening's most surprising amount of snowfall- and the ranges were draped in snow to low levels. The sunshine made it all look very pretty, even though it was -2 degrees...

227: Snow at Home!!!

I have lived here in Palmerston North since 1984, and have never seen snow here ever before. But this afternoon it snowed steadily for at least an hour and it settled!

PS: Some more snow photos and video are on my Nomad Blog.

220: cosy bedroom

It's taken a wee while for all the current advertising about keeping homes warmer to sink into my brain- but finally my bedroom has lost its winter 'fridge' feeling. A friend helped me install this econo-heater on the weekend. So cosy now, it's a wonder I got to work on time this morning....

Himatangi Beach People

The holiday break is coming to an end- and this Sunday morning was quite glorious outside- so I wasn't the only one who headed down to Himatangi Beach for a walk. Here are a few of those breathing in all that sea air.

 This little lass was having a ball dancing away on the edge of the waves.

 And this was one of many couples walking together.

 Not everyone walked of course...

 These feet belong to yours truly.

 First little girl was still out there when I came back again- this time looked like she was with her Dad.

 Another child dancing barefeet with happiness into the waves.

And these three weren't stopping just with the feet. Brrrrrrrr- how could they jump in like they did??

And just to finish off- Kapiti Island in the distance...

210: winter church

Doing the 365 project this year has made me 'look' at all kinds of things more closely. I have come to notice how the intensity, colour and angle of light changes on some of the buildings around town. The late afternoon 'colour' of the light on this local church has changed markedly since summer, and I seem to remember that fewer 'faces' of the building saw the summer sun. But I will have to keep watching when summer comes around again to see if I am right...

Volcanic Plateau

This photo shows Mt Ruapehu with Mt Ngauruhoe in the background- as seen from the Desert Rd last week, before the latest snow storm.

Thanks to my photography tutor I was able to stitch photos together for this landscape :-)

201: Mt Ngauruhoe

Today I traveled north on the Desert Rd, and the volcanoes of the Volcanic Plateau were looking resplendent in their winter snow-cover. Here is a photo of one of those volcanoes, Mt Ngauruhoe.
Later I visited the thermal park of Orakei Korako- and there's a Nomad post coming about the treasures there!

200: riverside sunshine

Down by the riverside on a gloriously sunny winter afternoon.
And this is the 200th post for the year!

198: Magnolia

Spring is in the air..... a magnolia flower at the Esplanade today...

Music in the City

It's been winter storm time here in Kiwiland- at least ten days worth of it... but just in time for the Rugby World Cup Roadshow outside in the Square here in Palmy yesterday morning, it cleared. This first photo is of the MAD group- Manawatu African Drummers- performing before the daylight had quite arrived. They are being filmed for TV... The Manawatu Community Choir also performed, just a little bit later.

One of the other tents in the Square had the UCOL students cooking a free breakfast. Yum! Thank you- the early start meant I had left home without breakfast.

This morning brought a super frosty surprise:

...but there was another special event on downtown, that fortunately didn't require quite such an early start. It's lunchtime, but the foodcourt at the Plaza is looking suspiciously full all the same don't you think?

Hmmmmmm what are all those people looking at?

Surprise! I think it's a Flash Mob!!!!! Yeeeahhhhhahah- such fun. I have always wanted to be part of one of these! Where's the next one Jen??!!

And with the Flash Mob over and done with, we all just 'melted away' as you do with these things. I imagine some thought it weird- but hope that many enjoyed it as we did. I crossed over at the Square to see this lovely bed of polyanthus being cared for by the Council gardeners, who bring us colourful joy even in winter...

I carried on walking up Broadway to find an international event in full swing outside Downtown. Here is the Japanese drumming team from IPC in full swing.

And this dancing group was also from IPC: this dance is a traditional one performed to 'cheer people up'.
After our recent storm, such a dance was great to see while standing outside in the sunshine. It made me think of the seismic events that have affected lives in Canterbury and parts of Japan so badly this year, and the many people that are in need of something to cheer them up.

Just to finish, a small bit of movie of this dance:-