photographing New Zealand: February 2010

2/23/10

Hollard Garden

Hollard Garden is a free garden that is full of wondrous beauty. We usually go on a weekday and, sadly, we are usually alone.

They have begun to have classes and events there which helps to spread the word about this great place.

It's in Kaponga, just south of Stratford. If you're ever in the neighborhood, make plans to stop by. You won't be disappointed!

Hollard Garden, click here for their website.

Click here for peeks into other worlds at My World Tuesday.

2/17/10

the patio garden

We brought a few favorite plants with us when we moved. Although it's not at all the same as the garden we left behind, I am still finding things to photograph.

Here is a favorite succulent we weren't about to leave behind.

I never really thought about strawberry plants being pretty, but with a closer look I find them very photogenic. Of course, I find them delicious when they are ripened!

I bought this plant a year or so ago because it was suppose to do well with little water. I don't know what it's called, but I love the detail on each of the blossoms.

This fella was caught crawling up the patio door.

2/12/10

Sandy Bay Beach panorama

I used autostitch to put together series of photos at Sandy Bay in Oanui.

The large amount of sand dunes is not as usual for NZ coasts as it is in the US.

Click for larger view.

Click here for more Skywatch beauty.

2/10/10

Sandy Bay Beach, Oanui

If you didn't know where you were going, you would never find this beach.

It's just behind the gas processing plant in Oanui, down a narrow paved road with helicopter warning signs.

But, of course, Hubby knew exactly where we were going when he took me there yesterday!

We both wondered about the rocks on this beach. They are not worn down and smoothly rounded like the rocks at New Plymouth-or any other beach we could think of. So, Hubby speculated that the rocks here might be of a different kind of rock composition. I think he's right. He's good like that, you know.

This lava rock was obviously still a bit 'warm' when it fell into the sea.

Doesn't he find the most entertaining things?!

And, when I told Hubby that I wish I could find some more sea anemones to photograph (the only ones I had photos of were white ones in Christchurch), he started turning over rocks and...voila!! Red ones!