Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
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 closedSitting 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 closedThey are very close, as the proverbial crow flies – if the proverbial crow chose to cross New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
Equally beautiful, but quite unlike: the stark contrast between coastal side and inland side is reminiscent of Patagonia.
One CommentAfter days of almost-continuous rain the clouds suddenly lifted…and the nation’s two highest peaks revealed themselves.
One CommentChapter Two is international, and includes a musical bonus – audio of two of my favourite rain songs. (one of them is an “unissued” version)
Comments closed16.12.2017 was a pleasant South Australian summer day.
At dusk, the sky over Aldinga Bay foreshadowed today’s unpleasantly hot weather.
When I downloaded this image, the cybergods surprised me, twice.
2 CommentsTheir makers are almost blind. They precisely tune their webs, via which they “see” their “world”, most especially their potential prey, potential mates and potential threats.
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The shortest of the “big three” that dominate the central plateau on New Zealand’s North Island is Tongariro. The more “perfect” Ngauruhoe deserves an Academy Award – not just for its role as “Mt Doom” in The Lord of the Rings, but for so convincingly presenting itself as an independent entity, when it is in fact Tongariro’s “parasitic”, secondary cone. Ruapehu is the North Island’s highest peak and only currently glaciated mountain.
Comments closedFormed by a landslide around 10,000 years ago, Rotopounamu is a forest-fringed little gem – a lovely contrast to the more starkly dramatic, actively-volcanic landscapes that attract most visitors to New Zealand’s Tongariro National Park.
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The name is a “terminological inexactitude”- Ninety Mile Beach is “only” 88 kilometres long – but it is huge, and beautiful.
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