Man-made walking sights

Today I headed out on the Turitea Walkway again- this time 'backwards' from the Old West Rd carpark, then uphill through the Massey campus back to my car. On the way I took a few photos of things that were 'man-made'...

This decaying old fence-post always seems to catch my eye.

 I realised that I seldom see the 'beauty' in power pylons- but with sunshine and blue skies behind it, this small pylon also caught my eye today.

 I always enjoy noticing how shadows fall, and how they change through the day. I loved the way the shadow from these fence posts enlivened the path this morning!

 Then there was this woman-made shadow as I crossed one of the pedestrian bridges over the Turitea Stream. It reminded me of some of the obligatory 'shadow photos' I took on the Camino in 2008!

 It's very pleasant walking up through the Massey campus. You can make a toilet stop or sit or have a snack-break on a seat. There are not many students back for the year yet so it is almost too peaceful on the concourse.

There are lots of buildings to walk past of course, some a bit ugly. But even this ugly one surprised me with the wonderful reflection in its windows!

reflection

I always like noticing 'reflections' when I am out walking. Saw these reflected fence-posts alongside one of the city walkways near Palmy today.

Manawatu Gorge

Now that I am 'seriously' into the countdown, I expect to walk the Manawatu Gorge track at least once a week until 'departure'. It's the 'best' (ie steepest, hilliest, longest) track near to home. By NZ track standards it's actually not all that steep, and the track has been graveled so it's easier walking, but it was perfect training for the kind of hills/tracks I walked on last time in France.

When I walked the Camino I used to carry little pieces of paper in my shorts pocket, with quotes on, that I'd read and think about during the day. Today I took a couple of short quotes. and one was: "We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake." ~Sir Francis Bacon. So I was pretty 'switched on' to noticing little things around me, and enjoying them, being aware of their passing beauty. There were raindrops on leaves, fungi of various kinds, sunlight on ferns...

 Then when I reached my 'endpoint' for the day at the "Windy Point" lookout, it was the big view that took my breath away. At this point you can look back along the Gorge, or look over to Woodville and the landscape beyond. Today the weather was in the process of 'changing', with real drama in the clouds above.

 I retraced my steps back to the newish lookout over the wind turbines, and had lunch at the picnic table. The turbines were really humming in the wind. The 'front' was really obvious, stacked up from the eastern side, with little clouds lower down scudding over from the west.

 Not so many people have been on the track since the Gorge road has been closed- and there's a patch where ongaonga (native stinging nettle) is growing well. It is every bit as vicious as it looks, but fortunately I never banged into it today!

 I was a bit surprised to see this bridge. Maybe I have daydreamed my way across it before- but I couldn't find an old track- so perhaps it just looked different with new planks on it...

 Some of the little fungi were quite well 'camouflaged'.

One really nice surprise today was to see these nikau palms flowering. There's quite a big patch of nikau, but I've seldom seen them flowering. I know they are doing quite a bit of 'pest control' on the track, so maybe these flowers are a sign that possum numbers are being reduced.

Ten Week Countdown

Today most people I know are back into the teaching year -whether for a Teacher Only Day or the New Class- while I still have lots of time to 'please myself'. Regardless, the start of the school year has really galvanised my thinking, as it makes my departure date very concrete! It's just over 10 weeks before I leave for Paris and my walk from Cluny, and the school term of 10 weeks seems to provide the perfect 'number' for a countdown.

I've already walked many of the nearby hills, so I keep trying to find ways to put variety into my training. Today I decided I'd walk the Turitea Walkway uphill from Massey, but as a variant I would start near the bridge and cross the river first. Then, instead of my usual combo of city walkways from Old West Rd, I decided I'd turn right along the road until I reached the Massey entrance, and come back downhill that way.

There was a spot of 'variety' right where I parked my car, as work is being done on the stopbanks near the bridge.

 I love the flat beginning of the track on the edge of the Massey campus, as there are bridges that cross the Turitea Stream several times. Today with the sunshine, there were some lovely reflections on the water.

Once I was out onto the more rural part of the track, I passed some of these berries. They looked quite yummy, but I had no idea what they might be, and whether or not they might be poisonous- so I had to leave them alone. They were another reminder that the season is progressing, even though we are all moaning about the mostly lousy summer so far.

When I reached Old West Rd, I had my last view of the stream as it passed under the bridge, before I headed up the road for my return journey via the Massey campus.

It was quite warm by then, so I was glad to find some sheltered seating under trees near the Massey library, and gulped down plenty of my water. It was an easy descent, and return to my car. Week 10, Walk 1, done.

unexpected error

There's a lot of cabling being done underground in my neighbourhood at present- for broadband I think- so there are lots of 'barriers'. On one of them my 'teacher nose' couldn't help but spy this spelling error. I wonder if it was sold for a cheaper price? And how many faulty ones were produced from the mould before someone realised? Is it only teachers who can't help noticing things like this? Have I been teaching too long?

These feet are made for walking...

Having a rest after some 7-8km of walking this morning, before the climb up the metalled part of Turitea Rd and onto Green's Rd. Another place where these feet went a-walking. Good hill climbing and descending practice!

And a second shot of the same feet, once I had reached the top end of this climb.

It's a variation on an earlier theme....

I think it's time I added a 'feet' label... I know it's all a bit self-centred- but I like the slight quirkiness of it all :-)

Meandering in the Esplanade

It's a public holiday in the old Wellington provincial area here today- and though I usually think it's a crazy time for such a 'day off' when school holidays are still 'on', it was great to wake up to sunshine, after a weekend of grey skies and rain.

I decided that a relaxed wander in the Esplanade was what the morning called for, and it's a place that always has new pockets of beauty to catch your eye. I first walked next to the bush along the river track, and this was the first piece of the flower gardens I came to, with the hydrangeas in dappled light under trees. 

The gardeners at the Esplanade have every right to be proud of what they do: this is just one of the beautiful colourful gardens dotted around. It was great to see some many people wandering through as families, looking relaxed.

There are a few 'crinkum crankum' trees in the Esplanade, and the branches on this one were reflecting the sunlight in an eye-catching kind of way.

First time for ages, I also took a wander in the rose gardens, and there were lots of 'raindrops on roses' left over from last night- seemed to suit the 'favourite things' kind of morning.

 I can never get quite enough of raindrops on roses....

 ...but they weren't restricted to just the roses....

In summertime they have many varieties of dahlia in the Esplanade, coming in all sorts of colours and shapes. The monarch butterflies seem to especially like the orangey-red ones, but I like all of them...

I finished my walk back along part of the river path... passing many others out walking and relaxing.

Pork Chop Hill and Esplanade

Mostly these days when I head out walking, I am aiming for some up-and-down hills that will get my heart pumping, and mostly it seems like I am not getting much fitter yet, despite all the effort. Today I had a more leisurely walk planned, though it still had one 'big' hill in it, 'Pork Chop Hill'- or Anzac Park. (I had checked this out by car before Christmas, when the police dog handlers were up there putting their dogs through their paces.) Yeehah, I was pretty pleased to find that this morning's climb up here was 'easy'!

This is a view over to Wharite from the top of Pork Chop Hill. The cloud coming down from the east reminded me of cloud you could see in the valleys below as I descended O'Cebreiro in Galicia- happy memories.

 When I realised the walk and climb was just 'short and sweet', I decided I may as well make the rest of the morning's walk a 'dawdling' one, and so took out the camera. Fennel was flowering all down near the river, so I took (quite a few) shots of it- such a dramatic looking plant that reminds me somehow of all the wild places from my childhood.

 An old man  passed by on the track and was surprised to see me taking photos of what he said was 'only a weed'...

 Maybe so, but it does have a beautiful flower...

When I crossed back over the river, I took a short walk in the Esplanade. I had to check out if there were still monarch butterflies near the dahlia patch. 

 And there were- but last year they seemed to be more numerous.

It was a very relaxing morning. I drove home via the Lagoon and fed the ducks- and now it is time to have a shower before heading out to see a friend and her two young children... Holidays- ahhhhh- gotta love them!

Upper Kahuterawa Rd

Yesterday I walked 4km- 8km return- up the lower end of Kahuterawa Rd as far as Green's Rd. Today I walked the next 6km- 12km return- from Green's Rd up to the bridge over the Kahuterawa River, where the Sledge Track starts.  As soon as I parked the car at Green's Rd, I was immersed in a beautiful morning. A tui was eating from flax flowers right nearby, and I hadn't walked far before I saw a hawk flying up in the sky.

Yesterday's route had more hills in it, so in a sense was more use for 'training'- but the upper part of the road feels so much more wild and remote, and mostly follows the river quite closely. You get to listen to the sound of the river over rocks below as you walk by on the road above- very peaceful.

 This is a view of the river from the bridge at the top of the road, where the Sledge Track and Back Track both begin.

About 2km from Green's Rd is a riverside park, with a few facilities for a bbq etc, and I sat there for some morning tea on my way back down the road. Very peaceful place to sit, just listening to the sound of the river as it flows by. It strikes me I could make a series of photos of my shoes/feet at resting places. (Here is a similar shot from a month ago!) Ok, you can comment- not everyone is as interested in my feet as I am!

Chemin Prep

No excuses anymore- in three months time I will be packing for my flights to Paris- ready for walking the Chemin from Cluny... Yesterday morning was very wet and the evening brought what seemed like gale-force winds. But today dawned fine and sunny, so I walked up one of my favourite routes, Kahuterawa Rd. I always love seeing this line of letterboxes, but they are often in more shade than this as I walk past: today there was this lovely dappled sunlight on them. On the way up they are a sign that I am reaching the 3km mark, and if I've walked a long way, on the way down they say that it's 'not far to go now'.

Today I walked up as far as Green's Rd -just over 4km in an uphill direction. I sat down and rested at the top, and a couple of swallows flitted down onto the road nearby. They made a couple of attempts to pick up a strand of dried grass lying on the road- then finally one grabbed it, and they took off together, presumably to their nest. We mostly take our homes for granted, but each strand on their nest must be hard won.

Akitio Beach Road Trip

Today I decided to take a little 'road trip' over to Akitio beach on the east coast. Though I've explored some of the other beaches and settlements in this area-  eg Porangahau, Herbertville, Pongaroa- I have never before made it down to Akitio.

I fell in love with Akitio Beach as soon as I arrived there. The pohutukawa were in the early stages of flowering right on the beach front- the flowers seem late this year after a grey November. I don't think anything shouts out 'summer' quite so loudly as pohutukawa by the sea.

It was a lovely beach to visit, with a peaceful, relaxed 'feel' to the settlement, and I must go back there sometime soon with my tent and stay a night. It is quite 'far away', and you have to travel on narrow, windy, hilly roads to get there, so even though it is peak holiday season, it wasn't too busy. There were quite a few people fishing, and boats were being taken in and out of the surf by tractors, (including some very ancient ones.) As I walked along the beach, I kept meeting friendly, relaxed people, keen for a chat. All very pleasant and low key.

The whole journey there and back was through a part of rural New Zealand we tend to call the 'heartland', and several times I met up with a 'traffic jam' along the road. It seems that this is a busy time of year for sheep farmers, getting their sheep into the shed for shearing etc.

I came home via the rural town of Eketahuna- and this lovingly knitted nativity scene was in the information centre.

And outside the information centre, was quite the largest Kiwi I have ever seen. Remarkable!

Merging blogs...

Apologies to anybody who has been flooded with posts in their reader today.... I have just merged posts from my 365 photo blog for 2011 - where I took a photo a day- into my Kiwi Nomad blog. So the overload is just a 'oncer'. (It could have been worse- I did delete some posts before the merge!!!)
Happy New Year!!
It's interesting. When I got back from the Camino in 2008, I had a big clean-out/ down-size of 'stuff'. I feel an urge to do the same this time, before I even leave the country....

365: looking ahead to 2012

Well, I had hoped to end the year and this 365 blog with a beautiful sunny landscape- but rain seems to be our lot today, so you are getting an indoor shot to finish. But though you may not be looking at a sunny landscape, this is a 'looking forward' shot to the Chemins I plan to walk in France in 2012. Eventually, on the Festina Lente blog that I will compile, mainly after I get home again, you will see some of the sunny and not-so-sunny landscapes that I walk through. (And if it seems too long to wait for the blog from the new Chemins, here is the retrospective blog about my first Chemin/Camino in 2008.)

Last night I had two friends staying the night, who plan to walk the Camino Frances in a few months time, so we were comparing equipment for 'packing'. New adventures call us into 2012...

Well, it's been a great adventure, but this blog is now 'ended'. I will leave it here -as is where is- for another month or so, then will merge it with my 'occasional' Kiwinomad blog. See you over there sometime perhaps. One blog may have ended, but it seems I am an inveterate blogger, in one place or another, and you won't get rid of me just because 365/365 has arrived!

364: on holiday

The year is nearly at an end, and I am very much in holiday mode at present- as are my little toys- resting at home after a busy time in the reading corner at school, at the beck and call of five year olds. They all look very relaxed too, so life is at it should be just prior to New Year...

363: Esplanade

Only three days to go now to show you photos in my 365- and this might be the last outdoor photo, as rain is forecast to end the year. The blue skies of previous days have already been replaced by grey cloud cover, though it is still warm enough at 24C. This photo was taken at the Esplanade, with bright summer annuals in the foreground, and the avenue of phoenix palms behind. It's a great place to relax and enjoy a short walk anytime of the year, as there are always different things in bloom.

362: homegrown salad

 

I have a friend who is not only a superb cook, she is also a wonderful gardener. Most of the veges in this salad have come from her own garden. Fresh and delicious!

361: wind turbines

Whenever I do the Manawatu Gorge walk, I always feel like I am walking in forest that is quite wide, and I feel a long way away from the everyday world. But such is not quite the case. There's an extra lookout since I was last at the Woodville end of the Manawatu Gorge walk- that gives you a view over these wind turbines. And there is a very short walk off the track to reach the viewpoint. Things are not always what they seem!

360: swimming time!

Another lovely summer's day. I've already been to the Lido for some lane swimming. Now my togs are drying off outside in the sunshine, and maybe there will be another swim later...