Tuesday 31 March 2015

Tide's out, boats moored at Pahi Wharf




Another one of my favourite places to visit. Pahi Wharf on the West Coast of the Kaipara District where we live is a small seaside town that has a small settlement of resident houses and holiday houses. In this shot are some dingies moored on the shelly shore with the tide out in the distance. I think it looks rather dramatic don't you?

For more Our World Tuesdays click here and have a great day :-)

Sunday 29 March 2015

Whakapirau Wharf with views of Pahi




One of my favourite places ever - Whakapirau wharf with a view of Pahi and the old Pahi Hotel in the distance. This is one of most scenic, peaceful, captivating areas in the Kaipara district where we live. Just stunning!

Saturday 28 March 2015

Early morning Autumn reflections over Mangawhai estuary




This one is a treat this week! When I was leaving for work Thursday morning around 7.45am I spied some colours peeping through the clouds, knew i'd get a great result at the beach so made a detour to the estuary and took this great shot of the sun "just" coming through over the horizon making a great reflection over the water. What do you think of it?

For more weekend reflections click here :-)

Friday 27 March 2015

Welcome Autumn's misty foggy morning skies




This is what we've been seeing out our lounge window this week, along with it cooler temperatures, colder nights and dark mornings but you know what - I love it. This is my time of year and very soon you're going to be see leaves changing colours and some really nice skies.

It also means rugby season, time to hibernate on the couch with some warm blankets and good movies - have a great week. For more skywatch Fridays click here :-)

Thursday 26 March 2015

Sand dunes, rocks, dandilions and footprints





Some more shots from my wander along Mangawhai surf beach the other day...it's not often it's this quiet up here, nice to see I wasnt the only one up there as you can see from the footprints in the above shot.

Hope your day is going well :-)

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Bye bye mangroves




For the last few months one of our local contracting businesses has been working very hard removing the foreign mangroves from our local estuary. This species has been extremely invasive so far. in this shot you can see a small mangrove bush to the left but most of the sand here was originally covered in them. The removal is part of the Mangawhai Harbour Restoration scheme.



And in this one you can see bare sand which was also once covered and an area of mangroves left in the distance. I think it's fantastic what they are doing, hopefully people and wildlife will be able to enjoy more space and room to move now that they are slowing going.

For more Wednesday around the world click here :-)

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Just me and Mangawhai Surf beach




Yesterday on my day off I ventured up to our local surf beach for a walk in the fresh air. On the way back I sat on the wooden bridge that use to be one of the entry points down to the beach but which is now covered in sand - the storms we've had over the last few months have disintegrated most of the dunes along this way and erosion is widespread.




And some snippets of the sealife that seems to have washed up on the shore after our recent Cyclone Pam - shells, driftwood, seaweed, sea grass and sponge.

More more Our World Tuesdays click here :-)

Saturday 21 March 2015

Sand reflections at Mangawhai surf beach




Last Spring on one of those "hey it's great to get outside" days I wandered to our local surf beach - noticed the tide was out and along the walk to the end of the beach I noticed that the tide had left these wavy shaped patterns in the sand and the reflection of the blue skies was left over...pretty cool huh?

For more weekend reflections click here :-)

Friday 20 March 2015

Gravel Roads, fences and farms in Matakohe




A while ago I did something new, I went out with my friend Liz to some back roads of the Kaipara district where we live. This is farmland in Matakohe, about 40 minutes from where i live consisting of miles and miles of gravel roads, farmlands, fences, cattle like cows and sheep. On this particularly late summer day it was very overcast but nice, not too hot not too cold.

For more skywatch Fridays click here :-) also linking up with Good Fences...

Thursday 19 March 2015

Pa Harakeke




So, while it was my birthday yesterday unfortunately it was a very sniffly sneezy day as I've now come down with the flu. Today is a sick day so I've been looking through the archives on my external hard drive and I've found this one of our very own Paua shells here in NZ.

This one is among many that is on a fence just down the road from me - you don't tend to find many of them around, they are sold in gift shops as kiwiana. Its one of my most favourite shells due to the colours on them - they sure are fascinating!

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Cyclone Pam - antics at the beach





Over the weekend parts of NZ were on the lookout from Cyclone Pam which ravaged Vanuatu. Luckily we came off quite well, apart from some rough wind and some nice rain there wasnt much else.

Of course only crazy people like me venture up to our local surf beach in this torrential weather - in these two shots the one above is a local kitesurfer who looks to be enjoying the wind and waves - perfect for him I'd say. In the second one is the view of head rock and the rough waves.

For our Our world Tuesdays click here :-)

Saturday 14 March 2015

Surf life savers at Mangawhai surf beach




Welcome to another Saturday of Weekend Reflections. This shot is one I took at the beginning of Summer. These guys consist of a group of happy volunteers who spend most weekends supervising swimmers at our local surf beach. They are purely unpaid but do a wonderful job of keeping people safe - the flags are situated where it's safe for people to swim. Because the surf gets so rough sometimes there can be unseen rips. Every once in a while to work their way around our town asking for donations and I have no problem giving them what I can :-)

Friday 13 March 2015

Billows of early morning smoke clouds




Last week we had some spectacular colours in the sky above my house, this one I think looks like billows of smoke in the sky. In the change of seasons at the moment - from summer to autumn it's much cooler here and very welcome I must say. Is it the calm before the storm? who knows - this weekend we have Cyclone Pam forecast so we're expecting lots of rain and wind. It's still so dry here, farmers will be pleased to have some irrigation for the brown parched grass I see to and from my travels to work.

For more skywatch Fridays click here :-)

Thursday 12 March 2015

Waipu public loos




Last weekend the teens and I drove through Waipu and stopped off at the beach. Couldn't help but notice this artistic piece of artwork and after some research found out it was created by muralist Daniel Mills in a competition in 2008. Not only does it display the local Scottish history of the area but also includes surf lifesaving, surfing and fishing catchment limits.




This area on the side of the building is covered in flowers, at first I wasn't sure what type of flowers they were but later concluded they are in fact New Zealand pohutukawas which flower here over Christmas.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Paparoa Historical Methodist Cemetery










Last week on our travels my friend Liz and I stopped in at this very old historical Methodist cemetery in Paparoa. There's alot of old names in this place, descendants of whom are still around in the area today like Wilson and Brooks.

If there's one thing I love photographing its cemeteries, such quiet peaceful places full of history. I found it quite sad though that the place is in disrepair, it's been mowed but the ground is shifting and slipping down the hill. The oldest resident we found there died in 1868 so this would have been when the region was roughly first settled by immigrants.

For more our world Tuesdays click here :-)

Sunday 8 March 2015

Seagulls are such funny creatures!







While out at Whakapirau beach last week with my friend Liz we saw the most funny sight - I use to think Seagulls were quite silly creatures but this has started me thinking.

We saw a flock of them watching us eat some treats we had bought with us, nothing unusual there right? Two birds in particular caught our attention....one was a baby gull squawking away at what looked to be his mother. Not only was she ignoring him but she was running away as fast as she caught - she almost reminded me of what a harrassed parent who needed a break would look like. A couple of times he threw a bird like temper tantrum, was stamping his little webbed feet and getting in her face. Eventually he gave up, swam into the water and started ducking under the water looking for sprats. It really was the most comical experience!

Saturday 7 March 2015

Reflections over Whakapirau Beach






A couple of days ago a good friend and I took a road trip around the Kaipara district along back roads looking for an old abandoned cemetery. On our travels we stopped at one of our favourite beachs: Whakapirau which is a very quiet area at this time of year. Summer people come here and swim and over Autumn/Winter it completely quitens down. In the distance of this photo you can see a building and a wharf - that's the old dairy factory which has closed down now and along the shore were a flock of oyster catchers waiting for the tide to go out so they could pick at shellfish and sprats.


Being here, just sitting, pondering, looking out on the stunning coastline makes me happy. For more weekend reflections click here :-)

Friday 6 March 2015

Early morning sunrise reflections


Earlier this week after I had taken my dog for her morning walk we came back and saw these reflections of the late Summer/early Autumn sunrise on my lounge windows. I had to quickly run inside and grab my camera.


And here is the sunrise in question at around 7am - beautiful isn't it?

For more skywatch Fridays click here :-)

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Who's this guy? Is he a Karoro?



This big guy hangs out in my backyard most mornings looking for crusts of bread and tasty morsels. He's larger than a seagull, and believe me when you live at the beach like we do there are millions of seagulls except this one's different. Look at his beak and the colour of his feathers. I think he's a Karoro also known as a Black Backed Gull. I think he's lovely!

For more Our World Tuesdays click here :-)

Sunday 1 March 2015

The last days of Summer




Next weekend us peeps downunder will be putting our clocks forward an hour signalling the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn. Cooler temperatures are slowly creeping in (thank goodness) and are making way for changing skies. These two above are just a brief example of what I see when I look out my lounge window some mornings. All sorts of colours ranging from orange to pink to red to yellow greet us when I first get up. Can't beat living in the Kaipara!

Cobden Observation Post

  We've been living in Greymouth nearly 2 years now and we finally got to complete this walk to the Cobden WW2 Observation Post . It too...