Friday 13 August 2010

FSO - Roads and Paths

I've decided to be a purist this week.  Oh, all right, I know that is a stretch of the imagination but all my photos this week have been taken in the past week and all are of the roads and paths I travel frequently, in most cases daily.

Every week day morning I travel to work along this road.  It twists and winds all the way until it reaches the highway.  On a very frequent basis I give thanks that I have such a lovely drive to town. 


When I first arrived in New Zealand, after living for seven years in the Outback, in North West Queensland, I was horrified about the number of corners, thought surely the early road surveyors were paid by the corner.  Now I find long, straight roads and highways boring to drive. 

I much prefer my roads to meander.  This next photo is the same road, taken just back around the corner, heading home towards Maungakaramea.  The tower on the highest hill is the one that features in nearly all my photos on the farm, as we live very close to it, more or less at its feet. 


Once you turn off the sealed road, the side roads also snake along, the only difference being a lot of them (such as ours) are not sealed.


Our country roads feature a lot of one lane bridges:


On Wednesday afternoon, as I was going home to the farm, I came across a council vehicle and two workmen spreading metal into the potholes.  Our road is a frightful mess at the moment, full of corrugations, muddy, slushy areas and potholes.  This is a good part of the road, compared to other spots.  The workmen wanted to know what I wanted the photos for before agreeing to me taking the photo.  Some local residents have been getting their photos in the local newspaper lately by collecting mud and metal in buckets and dumping them on the council doorstep as a protest.  I take a different approach, if I want to complain I will do it privately (and I have done so on occasion) but basically I'm happy to put up with the state of the road in exchange for the privelege of living in such a lovely part of the country.  There's always tradeoffs, I figure.  I choose to live here, crap roads are the price.  Once they knew I wasn't from the press, these guys were happy to have me take the shot and, although they looked serious, were all smiles once the photo was taken. 


Tuesday was a beautiful day, sunshine and blue skies, a lovely change after a lot of rain.  Mid afternoon I set out for what turned into a two hour ramble.  This is the path I followed.


When I was nearly back to the house I decided to visit once again the bottom waterfall.  There are three and I have very imaginatively named them top, middle and bottom.  If you look carefully you will see it and appreciate that finding a path to it was not easy.  I was aware of the fact that if I tripped and hurt myself no-one would find me for goodness knows how long, so I picked my way carefully.


Kate, the cat, had been my companion throughout the walk and, sure enough, there she was showing me the easy path through the undergrowth.


Finally I came to the path back up to the house from the creek.



The path turns to grass, widens and here we are at home again.


Thank you, Lena, for a great topic.  I've really enjoyed it. 

Oh, and I've discovered it's not that easy to be a purist, when you know you have photos in your archives you can use.  So I suppose I should rename this post "My roads and paths this week."  With my propensity to wander, they could be different next week. 

To see the road and paths of others just click here.  I'm sure they will be much grander but they won't be mine!

12 comments:

  1. Oh the Uppity Downity Mountains and a lump came into my throat. I so so so enjoyed that journey with you along the roads and paths of your part of the country. I do miss it.

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  2. I am glad you liked the topic. Where you live is so beautiful; I always love seeing your pictures of it. I really love that winding road! Your pictures are really wonderful.

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  3. When I ask for permission to take a photo I always quickly assure the person that I am part of a "photo group" doing an "assignment." Which is quite true, and usually works well.

    Curving roads are so much prettier and inviting than straight ones, aren't they?

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  4. What a beautiful part of the world. I love a winding road - and it's a good thing as I live on an old logging road that was paved just as it went.

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  5. Lovely, lovely shots. You really nailed the theme this week.

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  6. Awesome county roads with such beautiful view surrounding them! love that shot of the curvy road best.

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  7. Hello Pauline, love those country roads,not a multanova in site. Glad you got home from your walk safely. Have a great weekend.
    Bev.xoxo

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  8. What magnificent paths you have. I'd love to live in a place like that.

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  9. I have seen this kind of road in West Virginia. It's kind of fun at first but later on it makes you feel frightened specially at night or snowy day/night.Happy weekend!

    Roads & Pathways

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  10. heheheh, may be the man is afraid you are taking his photo to send to Fair Go or Target?

    You are right, when I take photos with they knowledge, they want to know why. Often, with workman, i take them secretly.

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  11. I love your curving roads! I agree they are much more fun to drive on. I also adore little paths, like the one leading up from the creek.
    Thank you for your comments on my FSO post, I love to watch the salmon run too :o)

    Sarah-Paige
    Nitty Gritty Photography

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  12. I am with you Pauline. I rather drive a curvy hilly road than the straight-a-way. the first two shots are fantastic! cute companion for your walk.

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