And the highlight was ....

.... hunting for lizards.  The highlight of Georgia's seventh birthday party, that is.   Three litle boys and three little girls with two sets of eleven year old twin girls organising games for them and the party disintergrates into a lizard hunt.  Talk about best made plans!  

As soon as all the guests had arrived they all wanted to go for a walk to see the ostrich.  But once we got there, Georgia wanted her friends to see the foot bridge, so we traipsed down to the creek crossing.   I stayed on one side and Heather crossed to the other side and back with the kids.  When we were walking back up the hill the little boy in the red jacket told me he was scared of heights.  I think he was very proud of himself for crossing the bridge without anyone suspecting. 

We were lucky with the weather, most of the day it was sunny but every now and then a big black cloud would creep up behind us and the kids would have to scarper back to the house for shelter. 

There were lots of games, lots of noise - seven year old boys are loud creatures, seven year old girls aren't far behind.  But in none of my photos do they look like they are being noisy.  Guess I'm not good at capturing the moment.

 \

My grand-daughters know there are lots of little skinks around here but it was one of the boys who discovered the first one today, I think.  And after that, the only time they all stopped hunting was to cut the birthday cake. 

Could there be any more little fingers trying to catch one tiny little creature:

Neave, the little girl on the right above was heard commenting, "This is the best party ever.  We get to take live lizards home!"  I hope her parents are equally impressed!

I think it's clearing

My kitchen has been a busy place today with my three grand-daughters and me preparing our contribution for Georgia's small seventh birthday party tomorrow.  The girls didn't really have much choice, they were housebound anyway.  Yesterday the weather was very wet and windy, today was just very wet.   Perfect weather for baking!  Georgia was very proud of the cup cakes she made and iced.  She said, "Can you take my photo and put me in the paddock."  It was a minute before I realized she wanted to appear here.

There was a little break in the weather and Georgia was quick to suggest a short visit to the waterfalls.  Krystal and Shyade came with us briefly but kicking a ball around is more their style.

This was the first time Georgia has seen froth in the creek and crept closer to touch it. 

But when we ventured down to the middle fall she had to promise me she would hold on the a tree.  I didn't have that little branch in mind either!

I have convinced Georgia that there is a little fairy by the waterfall.  Maybe when she's older I will tell her the fairy looks like this:

Just after Heather picked up the girls I noticed signs that the bad weather is clearing:

However, the Weather Bureau hasn't been looking at what I have and predict lots more "wild weather".  I wonder how I will feel this time tomorrow after the party, especially if we are all locked inside.

FSO - one more for roads and paths

I really intended to work this photo into my FSO post, this week. 

Sometimes in rural areas, if you wander off the beaten track, you come to the point where the roads are no longer maintained by the council and become private roads.  The council stopped maintaining this road so long ago, they haven't been back to put the sign back up.  If I hadn't turned around at this point because the road had become so narrow and the road hardly fit for a regular sedan, I wouldn't have even seen the sign.

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!

Puddles and a new bridge

The weekend weather wasn't ideal and by Sunday evening I was feeling a bit cabin-feverish.  So when the rain stopped around 4.30 I was quick to grab an umbrella and go for a short walk.  Well, quick until I got down to the creek, I can never walk quickly along a creek. 

There were puddles everywhere, even in the hollow at the base of a tree.

Just as well I wasn't intent on a long, fast walk, I was constantly seeking a dry path.  When there are puddles everywhere ...well, you just have to take photos of puddles!

During the week Kevin, one of the guys who works here, was busy repairing the footbridge.  I must admit it looks a whole lot safer than it did a week ago.  You can see how old and almost rotten the old planks (laying in a heap at the bridge approach) were.

Back to a Church on Sunday

Of all the many churches of the northern Hokianga district, the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Motukaraka is the most prominent. It sits on the northern side of the Hokianga Harbour.  Our first sighting of it was across the harbour from Rawene.  It's an impressive sight, towering as it does above the harbour with the Ngai Tupoto Marae snuggled at its feet.

We were lucky to visit when we did as it had been renovated for its Centennial Celebrations at Easter.  The original church was entirely funded by the local Maori community.  It's hard to imagine the celebrations of its original blessing and dedication which attracted more than 2,000 people.  New buildings had to be erected at the marae to accommodate the large number of guests. 

Catholic missionary work began in the Hokianga as early as 1838 with the arrival of Bishop Pompallier (we will visit his resting place next week).

The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and the Ngai Tupoto Marae are located on marae reserve land owned by Ngai Tupoto ki Motukaraka.  The church is especially important to Ngai Tupoto, who built it and has consistently maintained it for 100 years.

From the steps leading up from the marae and harbour landing, the church beckons from far above.

A beautiful war memorial stands to one side:

On the other is the church water tank:

It's lovely from all sides, including the back:

But, I think the beautiful stained windows at the front are surely one of its loveliest features.

Inside, past the uniquely New Zealand holy water font:

is a truly beautiful church, well used, much loved:

Yesterday's wander

Coming home from work yesterday there were major roadwords where I usually pull off the road to sit and take in the scene.  I knew I wouldn't enjoy stopping with all that activity around me, so carried on thinking about where else I could go for my daily dose of beauty.  It's been ages since I last went out to Portland to take in the sights and that's where my instincts lead me.  At a T in the road, instead of turning left down towards the beach I turned right up towards a quarry, a road I have never been up before.  It just lead to the quarry and I had to turn around, but then I stopped and looked down over the harbour, from a different angle to my usual stopping place. 

Sitting there I started to think about next Friday's Shoot out with Roads and Pathways as the topic.  Being me I got it wrong and thought about roads and tracks and thought about my route home that would take me past railway tracks, so I went the long way home.

By then I had 'the wanders" and drove along every side road I hadn't driven before.  I know when I do this I will always be rewarded and, sure enough, down a little side road I discovered this beautiful little valley with my beloved mountains in the background:

And then it just got better.  Right beside the road were the first lambs I have seen this year.

Finally content, I went home.

FSO - Smells

The smells that let me know I am home are a bit different from those around town.  To spare the more sensitive amongst us I have not attempted to capture the most prominent of them.  A fresh cow pat has its own unique smell and from the right angle can even look beautiful.  A sight and smell close to it is often experienced around the farm, as effluent is spread on the pasture: 

I love the smell of freshly turned earth:

Down by the creek where I am house-sitting at the moment is the unmistakable smell of damp:

During the week Georgia loved the smell of her birthday dinner:

I'm just as happy to bury my nose in the comforting smell (not to mention taste) of a cup of coffee.

Thanks, NanU for the topic.  I look forward to lots of French smells.

To enjoy the smells of the rest of the team, just click here.

Rain? What rain?

Looking around the garden this afternoon it's hard to believe the past couple of days have brought lots of rain.  Today the sky is crispy blue with a few puffy white clouds.

Down at the waterfall the water flow has eased off but it's still a bit murky and flowing a lot faster than it was at the weekend.

Below the big fall (which I haven't managed a satisfactory photo of yet) what looked like swampy wet lands last weekend now looks more like a pretty lake.  The blue of the sky looks even darker in its reflection.  It wasn't until I looked at this photo that I realized there's a couple of peacocks and ducks in the background. 

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Changing light after the rain

We've had heavy rain today.  It seems strange to not know how bad the flooding is down our road, to be living in a place where flooding is not on the radar.  But I still have an interest in how much water is flowing down out of the mountains as there is a little stream at the foot of the garden here where I am staying.   When the rain stopped around 5.30 pm I went for a stroll to check out the waterfall.

The easiest to access waterfall is a pretty spot.  I took the photo above last weekend and the one below this evening.  There's a marked difference in the amount and colour of the water.

I've been watching a little tree in the garden, wondering what it is, the buds seem to grow each day.  Spring is approaching and I look forward to seeing it burst into life. 

I took this next photo within minutes and noticed how dark the sky was becoming.  More rain on the way I thought.

But when I looked off to the east a weak sun was touching the top of a distant hill.

Aha, I thought, the rain has gone.  But, as if to say, make up your mind the sky to the west, in the next few minutes, just before dark descended looked like this:

Guess I will have to check the weather forecast, I'm confused.

Surprise photo

Lately I've got into the habit of stopping at the lookout/picnic area just south of town on my way home from work.  It started when my back was sore and I needed a little stretch and walk around before facing the drive home.  Now I just stop there to sit quietly and look down the harbour, every day it looks different. 

On Monday I wanted to capture the different colours and textures around the picnic area.

But the first photo I took was of the tree with the yellow leaves and berries (what is it, Chris?)

However, I took the photo before checking my camera settings and look what I got:

Now I'm wishing I could remember how I did it!