holidays - part one

It's the school holidays again, and we have a two trips planned - here's part one. On Saturday we got up bright and early and drove to Greymouth. It was a quick trip at that time of the morning, so three hours later we were getting ready for the first of Miss L's dances at the competitions.

L danced five times over three days, and blew us away by winning her demi-character, barefoot, jazz, jazz championship and the most promising ballet dancer under 12 years of age. All that nagging to get her to practice was worth it!

As the dancing was spread out it gave us time to catch up with friends, drive down to Hokitika for lunch, take the kids to the swimming pool and visit a local beach. I even got some op-shopping in!

With the hubby taking a couple of days off, we had a  leisurely drive home yesterday. The weather was warm and summery, so we played at being tourists.

First stop was at Punakaiki to see the Pancake Rocks. A few metres into the walk we came across a weka family, the chicks were the cutest little fluff balls. I never get tired of taking photos of the nikau palms either.

The high tide meant that we actually got to see the blowhole blowing - not something you see everyday.

The rock formations at Pancake Rocks are quite unusual, but with a low battery I didn't take many photos.

After a quick coffee and a wander around the craft shop we were back on the road. Next stop was a small beach at Fox River, which is a favourite of mine. It's featured before here.

Before we got to Westport we took a detour to Tauranga Bay to visit the seal colony. It's a short walk to the viewing area, and you can smell the seals before you see them.

At first it's actually quite hard to spot them, as they are camouflaged against the rocks. But once you start looking you see more and more. They don't all lie around asleep, some were chasing each other, while others hopped from rock to rock. The photos below all have three seals in them, some are harder to spot than others.

After that we stopped in Westport for lunch (and more op shops) and were home by 3 to check all our animals hadn't forgotten us. Part one of the holidays is over, now I'm looking forward to this coming weekend's adventure.

a road trip & books

Last week hubby and I had a quick road trip down the West Coast and back to collect some meat from my brother's farm. We are lucky enough to know exactly where our meat comes from but not have to deal with any of the gory bits.

We left at 6.30 and were back by 3.00, which meant it was a quick trip with only an hours rest at the farm. As we travelled south the dawn greeted us and we drove past hills dusted in frost so thick it looked like snow. 

 Once on the West Coast it was a lovely sunny winter's day. I took all of these photos out of the car window, which is a bit hit and miss, but can give some nice surprises, as long as you ignore the crooked horizons.

 It was nice to spend some time together to talk and enjoy the amazing scenery.

My husband is a hard man to buy presents for - a task I dread almost as much as he dreads buying for me. So with his birthday looming I was clueless what to get him until I walked into a shop and saw Maddie. If you haven't come across Maddie the Coonhound before do go and check her out here or here. Theron takes the most amazing photos of his dog Maddie on a road trip across America. They are sure to bring a smile to even the most dedicated cat person.

A couple of days after his birthday I did find a book in an op shop that he really was pleased about. He'd told me years ago that there was a book on Wellington which had a photo of his dad in it, but didn't know what the title of the book was.

When I picked up this book by Ans Westra, I did go through it looking for my father-in-law, but couldn't see him. Still I brought the book as it was full of fantastic photos and was only $2. When I told hubby I'd found a book on Wellington, he said the photo was taken in front of a movie theatre, and straight away I knew I might have the right one. When I turned to the following page, there he was on the right looking straight at the camera.

When hubby had a look he was amazed to find his mum, aunty, uncle and grandma also. He'd never remembered that they were in the photo, as he'd only seen the photo once many years ago. His grandma is right on the edge of the photo next to his dad. And somewhere in the throng there would have been three very excited boys about to see a James Bond movie on a Saturday afternoon with their extended family, similar to the three hamming it up in the middle of the photo.

Ans Westra is a very well respected NZ photographer, there's a great interview with her here. This book on Wellington was published in 1976 and while I don't recognise all of the places, I do remember the times (just!). Here are a few of my favourite photos.

Meat workers picketing the offices of the company, with a bit of light reading to pass the time.

Two chaps enjoying a bit of a bogey.

Mowing lawns on steep sections in the city is still hard going, this guy has a rope to stop the lawnmower getting away. He was also working on his tan, something you don't see so often now with the Slip, Slop, Slap campaign against skin cancer.

Two girls with ice creams sharing a pair of wooden Japanese jandals, hence why they need walking sticks?

Love the kid wearing gumboots a few sizes too big, and the writing on the footpath.

A typical pub scene, I didn't started frequenting such fine establishments until the late 1980s.

These guys were getting ready for Friday night. The council was a bit lax on repairing the footpath in this street, or is it a construction site? That might explain the helmets too.

A typical backyard scene, rotary clothes line, wheelbarrow, trike. It could have been me on the left playing in the dirt.

Business men enjoying a beautiful lunchtime on the waterfront, one has taken his shoes off for extra sensory delight.

 

Sorry about the long post, I really should have done two, but hey I didn't - so hopefully you made it to here.

instagram love

Finally us plebs with android phones can get with it, and get Instagram! As soon as I heard this amazing news I downloaded the app and started clicking away on my phone.  We went down the West Coast for the weekend so there was plenty to click at.
 

 

Photos all taken at Barrytown:
1/ old shed 2/ looking north at beach 3/ window of Barrytown Hall 4/ Miss L on beach 5/ horses at beach 6&7/ my brother's cows 8&9/ Barrytown cemetery 10/ matai tree 11/ paddock with nikau palms

Although I have to admit once a photo has left my phone I'm not really sure what to do! I have managed to sync my Instagram with my computer so I can get the photos back! But that's about it. Lots of fun, and another great time waster.

Follow me if you like here!

time is flying

It's almost been a month since my last post - a very naughty and slack blogger here! But it's summer and the kids are off school, and well I haven't actually done much. There have been lots of BBQs and catching up with friends and family, hubby had three whole weeks off work (amazing!) so we had a lot of chores to get done around the house and garden. I haven't taken all that many photos when I look back over the month. No more excuses I have to get back on the horse, and start the ball rolling. So without anymore metaphors here goes for my first post for 2012!

 We've had lots of spectacular sunsets. The sunrises are still great too, just think I'm getting a bit more blasé about them and not taking any photos!

 On New Year's Eve the sunset was gorgeous, turned the hills pink, which was the first time I'd seen that here. The twinkling lights of Nelson city are just visible.

 There have been lots of trips to the beach. My favourite time is in the evening when it is cooler and the light is softer.

It hasn't all been sunshine and sunsets, we have had a few rainy days too!

 The kids have been having lots of fun playing with Mumbai our pet goat.

 We even managed to get away for a night, it's hard when Mumbai is still being fed a bottle of milk a day! Popped down to the West Coast to my brother's farm. The kids had fun flying kites with their cousins.

It was another lovely evening, with the sun setting over the Tasman Sea!

I'm not into making New Year resolutions, but maybe I need to try and take more photos so I have something to blog about!