Almost Christmas - more Lily's

Queens Parade

The Lily's are coming out at home, Christmas must be approaching

Now that's what I call French toast - The Square Cafe - Auckland

The New Zealand Christmas tree- Pohutukawa

Covered in beautiful red flowers every December, a coastal evergreen native to New Zealand. I have a large specimen in my garden perhaps 10m in height but compared to some in the large regional and local parks it is but a juvenile.

Truss Bridge Waikino

Duders Regional Park - one of many Auckland Parks

Maraetai Beach

Totally awesome Auckland day.

The Redwoods . Rotorua.

Mamakau Blue - Blueberry Experience

Maraeroa Road , Rotorua.

Www.mamakublue.co.nz

3km off State Highway 5.

Don't  miss this on your trip to Rotorua.

Epic incredibly reasonably priced food from the attached cafe and an array of blueberry and gooseberry products.

Very good hosts.

The Wild Rice Thai Cuisine , Rotorua

1114 Tutanekia Street,

(In the closed street)

Came here twice while on holiday , hard to imagine you could get a bad meal here - highly recommended.

"High tea" for five from the Esplanade Hotel in Devonport.

Somewhat lacking the delicacy of the one I shared with Mum at the Flower Show in Christchurch and to be honest the tops of those sandwiches were drying out , but the scones were excellent as were the mini desert. Tea itself was awesome and the tea sets very cool but on the whole probably not value for money if you had paid full price which we didn't (their self confessed error) . That was a shame because their sit down evening meals are really good. Eaten there many times in the past. 

South Piha beach

Very popular beach with surfers but dangerous for swimmers who stray from the surf patrolled area. Home of the famous TV series "Piha Rescue" and the location of one of Taylor Swifts videos.

My dad used to travel all the way from Christchurch in the 1930's with his younger sister and mum to stay with friends who had a house on the beach. That must have been some trek back then as just the trip from the beach over the Waitakere Ranges would have been a challenge.

Murawai Regional Park

Two view of Devonport , Auckland

Looking west towards the Harbour Bridge and east towards Rangitoto Island .

Kiwi music of the week. SJD "Saint John Divine"

I think this is the seventh SJD offering , I own four of them and a couple of the collaborations. Each is different in its own right. 

He has some very good videos on you tube - some of them made with the help of NZ on Air.

In the habit of creating some very catchy riffs on each album. I have not seen him live - my bad 

If you want to start somewhere the album " Southern Lights" is hard to go past, and "Songs from a dictaphone" is excellent.

Sunset over Auckland

The Esplanade

Very good place for a drink, meal or "high tea". Devonport. Auckland. 

French toast from The Square Cafe , Queen St Auckland City.

Simple food done well, this cafe sets the gold standard for this and the coffee, tea and breakfasts are reliably excellent.

William C Daldy age 76, the only remaining steam tug of its type left.

Lovingly restored and maintained by volunteers from the preservation society. Bought for $1 at the end of its working life .

Web site for Daldy

Steering mechanism and what I assume is the manual emergency wheel.

Starboard engine - cylinder  is above direct drive shaft at bottom.  

Engine room - coal boiler is forward of this area

Seven o'clock Devonport

The cruise season is upon us.

More from Middle Earth

Arthur's Pass

Castle Hill

Peak hour traffic in Middle Earth

Welcome to middle earth .

Very dramatic over the city

Not so bad for a walk home..

Miserable Wellington day - freezing, rainy and windy just as I remember it living here for 12 years!!

In Wellington a hard day at HQ - 8%

Ferry commuter

Spring is here

Grey morning

Happy birthday my beautiful wife

Fathers Day

My Dad died three years ago but this was one of his gifts to me --The ability to work out the problem and fix stuff, preferably with the minimum of expense and using materials kept in jars because they "might come in handy later" - and they do. 

His workshop was a little tidier than mine but I definitely have more screw drivers  !!