Windows

"Across the headlands
The forest masses
Under gray skies
And mist
Into a solid wall
Of muted gray
Through which cars
Glide skirting noiselessly
The rocky edge.
Through a window
I watch, windows are
For watching -
Square pieces of life
Ever changing."
-- Donovan Holtz

Let's go fly a kite...

Ferguson Park, the main park in one of Tauranga's most prestigious suburbs - Matua - is a hot spot for kite surfing - one would assume because of the sheltered waters of the bay. It's not uncommon to see tens of giant kites billowing into the sky whilst kids practice their soccer. Here's a shot I took of one of the surfer's boards lying on the shore.

"It's not the waves you catch,
How hard or how strong.
It's the wind in your hair,
The ocean's song.
Knowing you can't,
Almost certain you can.
Endless blue, With a bare sight of land.
Getting to know the oceans,
Dolphins and fish your friends.
Too many mistakes,
That you need now not mend.
The loss of all worries,
The bad, the worst.
Nothing is practiced,
Nothing rehearsed.
The surfer's only knowledge,
Of what's going on,
Is the coming of the waves,
In the wake of the dawn."
-- Sasha Walker/Mills

Long Time Past

A browse through the galleries of Flickr (and in particular this group) last night got me thinking - what would happen when you blended the present with the past? I tried it out on an old image I took of the Tauranga Post Office.

"Like the ghost of a dear friend dead
Is Time long past.
A tone which is now forever fled,
A hope which is now forever past,
A love so sweet it could not last,
Was Time long past.
There were sweet dreams in the night
Of Time long past:
And, was it sadness or delight,
Each day a shadow onward cast
Which made us wish it yet might last--
That Time long past.
There is regret, almost remorse,
For Time long past.
'Tis like a child's belovèd corse
A father watches, till at last
Beauty is like remembrance, cast
From Time long past."
--Percy Bysshe Shelley

Credit to Tauranga City Libraries for the original photo, c. 1910.

Sunset

"As I searched for inspiration
I pondered in deep thought

The sky was marbled and smeared
Like a painter and his canvas
Its fiery blaze caught my eye
formation of an eagle of clouds
it seemed complex and marbleized
yet it seemed to hypnotise
an inspirational pen
to write its poem
you now have read"

--Manasseh Bailey

Ode to Autumn

"The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on."

-- Emily Dickinson

By Candlelight

Here's another part of Easter that I got to witness - the Easter Vigil by candlelight. A beautiful, moving experience - even if it did leave me a little tired afterwards!

The Sound of Summer's End

My favourite image of the Jazz Festival - a fantastic way to bid farewell to summer! Easter is the final public holiday (save for ANZAC Day and Queen's Birthday) until Labour Weekend in October and people have certainly been making the most of it. It truly is an amazing sight to see people of all ages dancing in the streets. Happy Easter to all!

Jazz Steams into Tauranga for Easter

Happy Easter! The Jazz Festival is on again in Tauranga and things are starting to heat up! The festival was opened with a tribute to Peggy Lee by the sultry songstress Erna Ferry and six-time Grammy award winner Dr. John is in town to seduce the bay with his unique sound, described as "an exotic brew of jazz, soul, blues, funk, R&B, boogie-woogie and Creole roots."
And on Friday and Saturday, the Port of Tauranga Youth Jazz Competition showed off the best of our musical talent, with Pukekohe High School, from the Franklin District, taking out the New Orleans Trophy for Best Big Band. Congrats! The Jazz Festival is the oldest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and the third oldest in the world and has been running since 1963. It attracts several well known acts every year, including many from overseas. A recent addition to the schedule is the Jazz Steamtrain, which cruises into town on Thursday for a five day stay, taking passengers for a picturesque ride around the bay's many sights (it's probably one of the only places you can go from city centre, to Mediterranean paradise to rolling countryside in the space of an hour!) whilst a band serenades you with sweet sounds of classic jazz (am I sounding like an infomercial yet?) More from the Jazz Festival tomorrow!

A Colouful Life

"Oh I dream of a colourful life
Full of wonder and devoid of strife
I paint the sky green
And the clouds baby blue
I sing of things unseen
Write stories of me and you
I splash colour on every wall
And paint songbirds eight feet tall
And when it comes to the end of it all
My coloured life will never fall"

-- Anonymous, c. 1965

Theme Day: Red

Today's DPB Theme is "Red". Here's my entry, a silhouette painted on the side of a red barn in Te Puna, just outside Bethlehem. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Grey, grey sky

"Someday I will ride the great bird
Into the sky, into the grey
And will take a great secret of mine
Into the grey, grey sky
And the light will come piercing my eyes
Out of the sky, out of the grey
Come blinding and searing these eyes
Out of the grey, grey sky
And I will find comfort in this
In the wide sky, in the wide grey
In the painful dark brightness of light
Light of the grey, grey sky
My secret will fly away home
Into the sky, into the grey
And the great bird will follow it there
Into the grey, grey sky
And I will be riding that bird
Bird of the sky, bird of the grey
And I will come home once again
Home to the grey, grey sky
But for now I am weighted, earthbound
One of the mud, one of the ground
And I write this sad song to sad sound
Girl of the pavement sighs"
-- Grace Hutton

The Tauranga Jazz Festival is coming up this Easter weekend in downtown Tauranga and the Mount. I've charged up my camera batteries and will be down there for the whole weekend taking photos. There's even a steam train coming into town. Hope to see you soon!

Another walk on the Beach

Apologies for not posting as regularly as I intended. It's been quite hot and rainy here over the past few weeks. The other day, after a break in the weather, I took a walk on the beach in Papamoa with my camera. I'm not a particularly big fan of seagulls, but they're so ubiquitous these days, why not make the best of their picturesque qualities!

In the eye of the beholder

This is another shot I took with my macro lens during the other day's rain - my sister's dog Kado. Thoroughly distracted by the calves wandering in a nearby paddock, he stood still long enough for me to take this shot! Thanks Kado!

Forecast is for more rain tomorrow (but 25 degrees Celsius will be our high, go figure) so hopefully I'll manage to get some more great photos of the rain. Until then, Hasta la vista!

A Walk on the Beach

Summer, oh how I've missed you! The very poor light yesterday (on account of the copious amounts of rain - it turns out that though every cloud may have a silver lining, sometimes that lining can clock out the sun) made it rather difficult to take photos, but I made up by taking extra today! And where better to welcome summer back (again) than at the Mount? I found this abandoned pool lounger on an equally abandoned main Mount Beach. I think it could be quite good for an advertising campaign, don't you? Something like "All that's missing is you". Though just quite how you would operate a pool lounger in the surf I'm not quite sure!

Our second photo is a sign you'll find at almost every beach in Tauranga - Tauranga is a tourist town by the beach, so our council takes the upkeep of our beaches very seriously! I liked the laid back, offbeat look of this photo - it's not much to look at but it makes you wonder!
As I said before, Tauranga is a tourist town, so cruise ships are regular visitors in our harbour. Today we had the Nautica, back for another visit after leaving two days ago. I've always loved photographs of silhouettes against the setting sun, so when I saw the opportunity to take one of my own, I jumped at it! The result is pretty good - if rather off kilter. I'm just a little annoyed I couldn't get a good shot of the cruise ship at the same time! Ah well, we can't have it all can we?And finally, a photo that I've been dreaming of taking for a long time. I saw something similar elsewhere and have always loved the kind of essential Kiwi-ness of the idea. Many thanks to Giorgio from Venice (I know, I'm jealous too ;) ) for letting me borrow his very Italian Vespa - apparently he was so worried about missing it that he had it shipped over to New Zealand for his six month holiday too!

I have loved the past few days of rain, but having the sun return was a very welcome relief. If only the weather could change on my whim! *sigh*

Through A Looking Glass

I don't know about you but I'm fed up with the endless sweltering heat here, so yesterday's rain was a welcome relief. It also gave me a fantastic opportunity to dust off my macro lens and get some shots of the rain. A visit to my sister's farm in Pongakawa (about a half hour drive out of the city centre) allowed me to get these fantastic photos. I'm very proud of the first one - what you can't see in the photo is the very inquisitive calf who wandered over and had a go at eating my camera! Despite the rather unwelcome distraction I managed to get the shot. I must have nerves of steel! Although, about ten seconds after I took the photo, the featured dandelion was gone! The second photo was just me playing around but I love the result - the reflection of the sky (during a break in the weather) in the raindrop is beautiful.
I love summer but I think the rain was just what I needed!

Sublime state of mind...

It's Thursday and nearly time to bid goodbye to what has been a very busy fortnight in our family!
Yesterday I experimented with closeups and some different compositions (I've got some fantastic macro shots to share). Here I present my two favourites!
The first is of the Old Post Office on the corner of Harrington and Willow Street in Downtown Tauranga. Construsted in 1906, for years Tauranga residents visited this building to mail their parcels, send telegrams - even to appear in court before the resident magistrate! The post and telegraph offices occupied the ground floor and the court was located on the first floor, with wonderful views over Tauranga Harbour. In 1999 Grasshopper Properties renovated the building (using all original colours and designs) to provide four office suites. This is the beautiful restored entrance and lighted clock tower at night. A wonderful example of Tauranga's original Edwardian Baroque architecture.
The second is a photo of a water fountain against the sky of the setting sun. I've darkened the water to give a slightly for dramatic style, and I think result works quite well. What do you think?

On the road again...

One thing I love about summer is that the climate is just right for taking a road trip around our beautiful city. This morning our family did just that - we started the day up in the Kaimai Ranges, to the south west of Tauranga, taking in the sights (and taking a dip!) at one of the many beautiful waterholes. On the way back we stopped at the lookout, over looking the way to Auckland (and acres of beautiful farmland that stretches out for miles), where an interesting sign caught my eye.
Next we were lucky enough to commandeer a friend's boat as they made their way out into the Tauranga Harbour for a fishing trip. These two windsurfers must have had a lot of fun - even if my photo does make it look like they're on a collision course!
We ended the day back at Minden, where I spotted a lone pink flower growing amongst the grass (which is not entirely visible in my photo, unfortunately) and managed to snap a few photos as the sun began to set.
So ends another beautiful day in paradise!

Happy New Year!

Apologies for neglecting to post lately, it seems I let the Christmas rush get on top of me! As a consolation, I bring this scene from sunrise at Minden on January 02 (It was meant to be January 01 but in the rush to get up in time to see the sunrise I forgot to take my camera, so had to compensate). The photo is a bit blurry as I didn't get that tripod I asked Santa for (my birthday is coming up soon though, so perhaps then!) but I think the overall look manages to make up for the lack of professionalism in the photography. I intend to post some more photos I took that morning in the following few days, so keep an eye out! In the mean time, a very happy New Year to you!