Not long ago – within my own 65 years, I think – the ground on which I stood at 12.30 pm on March 17, 2019 – would not have been visible, much less fetchingly clad in lichens, mosses, et al…
One CommentCategory: New Zealand
They were ducks, not geese, they were not “in chevron flight”, and they were almost certainly not beginning a seasonal migration.
Nonetheless, a certain longtime-favourite Joni Mitchell song leapt into my head.
Comments closed
These Pacific Ocean waves are breaking between Lion’s Head Rock and the shore of Sandfly Bay, on New Zealand’s Otago Peninsula.
Comments closed
I took this post’s photo late on the afternoon of 14 July 2010, just below a small waterfall on Oahu Stream, near Kaikoura on New Zealand’s South Island.
Comments closed
Our hero/heroine was not delighted by his/her (temporary, brief) removal from the “motel” which s/he shares with an even more astonishing animal.
Respectively, reptile and insect, the Southern Alps gecko and the Mountain stone weta are two of many reasons that visitors to Wanaka ought ensure they visit Mou Waho; as well as scenic splendour, the island offers crucial sanctuary to vulnerable species.
Comments closed
The featured image shows a New Zealand bellbird, Anthornis melanura.
(photos copyright Doug Spencer, all taken on Mou Waho, 21 March 2019)
However, this post’s star is a less “glamorous” but altogether more curious bird – in both senses of “curious”.
Comments closed
New Zealand’s South Island has a number of large, deep, glacier-carved lakes.
Each is jaw-droppingly beautiful…but all are far from pristine.
Only long after ancient Rome’s “fall” did Aotearoa/New Zealand first “enjoy” human presence; available evidence suggests that Maori settlement began a little less than 750 years ago.
Comments closed
“My” local daily paper – The West Australian – has recently become relentlessly parochial and adopted inane journalese as its house style.
Its headlines especially grate: almost all are prime examples of what smug dullards consider “clever”, of what twits mistake for wit.
The West‘s editor may or may not be a bona fide idiot; perhaps he is just a bright young lickspittle, fulfilling a brief to “dumb everything down, cut every cost and cross-promote the linked TV station, endlessly”.
So, it was a particular joy/relief to encounter some actual journalistic flair…
Comments closed
Photos are copyright Doug Spencer.
Featured image shows New Zealand’s highest peak, viewed from its inland side, at 4.34 pm on March 27, 2019.
I suggest you zoom in on the high ridges to see the windblown fresh snow streaming into the air, like sand off a dune.
Comments closed
Sitting beside a very rustic little jetty in a hamlet on New Zealand’s South Island is a delightfully “unlikely”, internationally renowned restaurant.
Fleurs Place (pictured above) is a one-off.
Fleur (real person) serves teethsqueakingly fresh seafood, cooked simply and superbly, without pretension.
However, the “diner” closest to us preferred to catch and prepare his (or her) own lunch!
Comments closed