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RuthsArc

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Tag Archives: New Zealand

#2020 Photo Challenge – Kiwifruit Orchard

20 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in 52 challenge, one with nature, photography

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

New Zealand, trees

I need a few challenges for this new year, so I was delighted to read that fellow blogger Jude has set a 2020 Photo Challenge to “try out various photographic techniques, skills or concepts”

The theme for January is Composition and Framing. I didn’t know about the challenge when I took these photos earlier in the month during our NZ holiday. But these photos seem to fit the bill, taken on my iphone. I have cropped them to straighten and frame them. I need to get away from the Instagram habit of square images.
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Whilst visiting the Bay of Plenty we stayed with friends of friends whose house overlooked this kiwi fruit orchard and I was able to get up close and stand underneath the trees / vines of hanging fruit.
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I like these photos, looking straight down the “tunnel”. But .. the big leaf in the top left of this one is distracting.
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I like the hanging vine in this, but it hinders the sense of distance and there is not so much fruit in the picture.
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The fruit were not quite ready for harvest, but workers had been there earlier, thinning the leaves and removing damaged fruit.

The orchards are bordered by very high hedges which act a wind breaks.IMG_7648IMG_7662

Have a look at Jude’s photo of Godrevy Lighthouse here and links to other bloggers contributions.

Auckland NZ

16 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in days out

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

New Zealand

We started and ended our holiday in Auckland.
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We enjoyed the views from the Sky Tower. We did not bungy jump or walk around the outside!
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We visited the Auckland Museum at the Domain, a fascinating building with exhibitions arranged into Peoples, Natural History, Warfare and Memorial.
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Thank you New Zealand for a wonderful holiday. We took a while to plan the trip, didn’t try to fit too much into the time available. We met up with friends, relaxed over delicious meals, enjoyed the local food and wines. We walked city streets, sandy beaches and bush tracks. We saw tourist sights and local hidden gems. It was a true escape from our everyday lives.

Coromandel NZ

15 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

New Zealand

The road around the Coromandel Peninsular takes you close to the water, over the hills, through a gorge. The towns are picturesque, but were busy on the weekend closing the Christmas and New Year holidays. We struggled to find a parking space.
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We had some blue skies but on Sunday 5th January the skies turned an eerie orange, due to the bush fires in Australia, over two thousand kilometres away. These photos are straight from my iphone, no filters, no edits to the colour.

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Rotorua NZ – Forest and Lake

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

beach, New Zealand, trees

Whilst in Rotorua we visited the Redwood Treewalk. A walk across twenty eight swing bridges, with information on each tree platform about the hundred year old redwood trees and the tree ferns below.

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We were staying near Lake Rotorua so took a walk along the banks at dusk.

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Rotorua NZ

13 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in days out, one with nature

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

New Zealand

Rotorua is an extraordinary place. A geo thermal area with geysers, bubbling mud, pools of boiling water, steam rising into the air. There is an underlying smell of sulphur but you soon get used to that.IMG_7476

We toured a Te Puia, a geo thermal park with an interesting guide. But we also found steam, boiling water in cracks in the earth, whilst strolling around the city’s streets.

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Maori culture is on show here. Buildings, such as Maree meeting houses, food stores. canoes, totems. Traditional crafts are taught, such as carving and weaving.
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The Church on the Lake has beautiful Maori carvings and a memorable glass window with Jesus etched, walking on the water. The bodies in the graveyard are interned above ground level due to the heat of the earth.
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Piha Beach NZ

12 Sunday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in one with nature, remembering / musing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

beach, New Zealand

We’ve just returned from a fabulous holiday in New Zealand. A highlight was returning to Piha Beach after thirty five years.

This secluded ocean beach was just as I remembered. It’s black sand and the towering Lion Rock, remnants of its volcanic history.

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The Brit in me still found it amazing to be in such a beautiful place, in such weather, on new year’s eve.

Happy New Year from New Zealand

01 Wednesday Jan 2020

Posted by RuthsArc in all about me, photography

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

me, New Zealand

Wishing everyone a safe and happy 2020. May we all “live our best lives”.
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12 days of Christmas – Kiwi style

16 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in creativity

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Tags

New Zealand

I have to thank my friend Den in Auckland for the following. She shared this after I posted the Aussie version from my weekend carol concert.

~ ~ ~

We have a New Zealand version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

It goes like this:

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My true love gave to me

Twelve piupius swinging

Eleven haka lessons

Ten juicy fish heads

Nine sacks of pipis

Eight plants of puha

Seven eels a-swimming

Six pois a-twirling

Five – big – fat – pigs

Four huhu bugs

Three flax kits

Two kumera

And a pukeko in a pong tree

 

For a translation of the Maori words –

piupiu – a traditional skirt made of flax originally, and worn in Maori cultural performances by women;

haka – that war chant thing at the beginning of a rugby game;

juicy fish heads – a delicacy in Maori cooking;

pipi – a shellfish;

puha – a green leafy plant that is boiled and usually eaten with pork; eels – long slippery fish with fins – also called tuna in Maori, but not the same tuna as the deep sea fish;

poi – a ball that is swung either on a long or short string between the hands and is only used by women in cultural performance;

pig – they like pig as a food source (think of hangi);

huhu are a beetle that looks quite prehistoric, has a bit of a bite to it, long feelers, long body, and is brown in colour;

flax kits – a commonly made handbag usually called a kite (keete); kumera – a sweet tasting root vegetable;

pukeko – a red beaked and blue feathered bird that lives in swampy/marshy areas;

ponga – a tree fern.

This version is attributed to Kingi Ihaka and was written in 1981.

~ ~ ~ ~

I’d love to hear any other “local” versions of this Christmas favourite.

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Back in 1985 – Coromandel and goodbye NZ

06 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in back in 1985

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in 1985, New Zealand

On this day in 1985 I left New Zealand.

At the end of July I had been on the road again, this time in a hire car for a few days as I travelled around the Coromandel Peninsular.

As I left Rotorua I visited Mount Tarawera, a volcano that last erupted in 1886, burying a village eight miles away. The village has been excavated with buildings and artefacts on display. There was a lovely bush walk from the village to nearby  water falls.

I stopped at Maketu for views along the coast, towards Mount Maunganui along miles of sandy beach. The journey took me through Te Puke, through regions of kiwi fruit and citrus  orchards to more stunning beaches, perfect for water sports, surfing as well as swimming. I stopped at Tauranga, a pretty harbour town, then on to Waihi Beach, through the gold mining town of Waihi, on to Paeroa and finally to Thames. 

The drive up to Coromandel was beautiful, along a windy coast road, in and out of different bays. The views were magnificent and constantly changing, at some points the road rose up high with views out across the islands, at other times at sea level with the road hugging the land.

The road across to Whitiangi was extremely windy, steep and at times, unsealed, just a dirt track. I met two huge graders on the drive, laying a new surface of stones. Again there was beautiful scenery but this part of my journey was a bit too much like rally driving for me to enjoy it. I was very pleased to get to Whitiangi and spent time strolling around the busy harbour.

The drive down the east coast of the peninsular and back across to Thames was uneventful, then I travelled non-stop back to Auckland, over the harbour bridge for a final few days in my NZ home. I’d enjoyed the freedom of having my own car and being able to travel in my own time and to my own route, as a change from bus journeys.

It rained and rained for those last days. I saw so many rainbows in Auckland. I enjoyed family time again and on the odd sunny afternoon we ventured out to the West Coast beaches of Piha and Bathalls Beach. I went shopping in the city for final gifts and souvenirs, visited the museum on One Tree Hill and went to the cinema a couple of times to watch the films “Witness” with Harrison Ford and “Mask” with Cher.

My six months in New Zealand had come to an end. I’d fallen in love with the country and it’s people. It was an unexpected bonus to my gap year, not part of my original plans at all. I was so glad that I had adapted my plan to spend time here.

I had a final view of Auckland as my flight flew out over the city. Thanks for a wonderful time NZ, see you again sometime I hope.

Back in 1985 – Geysers, boiling mud, haka and hangi in Rotorua

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by RuthsArc in back in 1985

≈ 3 Comments

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in 1985, New Zealand

On this day back in 1985 I was in Rotorua, in the middle of my tour of New Zealand’s North Island

I had travelled via Palmeston North and the picturesque Manuwatu Gorge. I continued north to the east coast town of Napier, via rolling countryside, sheep, cattle and deer farms, beautiful rivers and valleys.

Napier seafront was lined with tall Norfolk Pine trees, grass areas set up for picnics, then a gravel beach and huge waves crashing onto the shore. It was too dangerous to swim in the sea here, but safer, sandy beaches were close by.

I visited a Nocturnal Wildlife Centre and saw real kiwis wandering around collecting food in the artificial nightlight. I also joined a wine trail here and visited four vineyards, sampling some lovely NZ wines. A local tannery gave demonstrations of the process from pelts to sheepskins. I bought three sheepskins here, which I still have.

From Napier, I took the train around Hawkes Bay and up to Poverty Bay and the town of Gisborne. It was the first place in NZ sighted by Captain Cook and the Endeavor on 7th October 1769.

I was enjoying lovely warm sunny weather, sitting out in the various gardens in town, sitting on the beach. It was not the sort of winter I was used to. I think I had better weather here than the UK was having in their summer.

The journey took me through agricultural low lands were kiwi fruit, grapes, citrus fruits were grown. I wasn’t used to seeing oranges, lemons, grapefruits growing on trees. 

The landscape changed as we approached Waioeka Gorge to Opotiki on the northern Bay of Plenty, then on the Whakatane, then back inland to Rotorua.

My first impression of the town was … “Rotorua stinks”.

My ten year old kiwi friend was right when he stated … “Rotorua is where the world farts”

My lasting impressions – An amazing place. A beautiful place. A weird place where the Earth and nature does not act as one expects. A memorable place.

Rotorua is on the edge of a lake, in the middle of a geothermal region. After a few hours you get used to the sulphur smell that permeates the air.

I was again lucky to be staying with friends of friends and had use of a car. I explored the area, saw the blue and green lakes that are next to each other but totally different colours due to the natural chemicals in the water.

Whakarewarewa is a Maori village in the midst of geysers, hot pools, mud pools. You walk along set pathways, through clouds of steam, past huge jets of boiling water forced ten feet into the air, past mud pools with the weird deep sound of mud bubbles boiling and exploding, past lakes where the shore water is boiling and steaming. It was one of nature’s most amazing displays. Several geysers are linked together, performing to a set cycle. One plays every three minutes, shooting water ten feet high. Another plays every half hour but shoots water ninety feet high and lasts for five minutes each time. Spectacular. Another plays only four times a year.

There is a strong Maori culture in the town and region, with arts and craft centres and lots of traditional buildings. I went to a Maori concert, which included a meal, dancers and singers in traditional costume, and a haka. The hostess for the evening explained the songs, the dances, this history and traditions. It was a wonderful evening.

The meal was a “hangi”. A traditional Maori method of cooking where food is wrapped in leaves (or foil) and buried in a pit in the ground on hot coals. Here in Rotorua the food cooks from the natural thermal heat of the ground. The hangi at this concert was exceptional – served like a carvery with a choice of smoked ham, lamb, wild pork, chicken, venison, smoked eel, mussels, potatoes, pumpkin and local sweet potato called kumara. There were salads to accompany the hot food.

I made use of both public and private pools, all natural springs, at varying temperatures. A large pool big enough to swim across was comfortable at 38 degrees, whereas the pool at 43 degrees was far too hot. You came out of that one looking like a lobster.

Rotorua was a wonderful experience, I hope I come back one day.

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