New Zealand holiday: week two

So, week two of my trip back to New Zealand, and I'm definitely seeing the place with fresh eyes - maybe because I've been away for 11 months, though I've been away for longer before, or maybe because I've been doing so much photography this year that I've learnt to see more clearly, and look up and down and in every other direction. Here is what I saw during my second week ...

366/98 April 07, 2012

This was taken when my friend Rosie and I went for a long walk around the beaches of the Manukau harbour, There was no one else around so it was wonderfully peaceful and great for fossicking along the tide line and checking out the rockpools for little sea creatures.

I love this image! It was not staged or manipulated in any way - except for a little cropping, this is SOOC (straight out of camera). A sea snail has formed the perfect question mark ... but what is the question?

366/99 April 08, 2012

This is one of New Zealand's iconic symbols - a fern frond.

366/100 April 09, 2012

I've just been staying in Hamilton for a few days with an aunt and uncle (I managed to catch up with 18 relations in 3 days - pretty good going, I think, and so lovely to see them all), and one morning we went out for a long walk along the banks of the Waikato River. It was a beautiful clear day and there were lots of ducks scattered along the river bank. These two were still slumbering.

366/101 April 10, 2012

A sign that winter is coming here in New Zealand - the crab apples are ripening. I love their bright red colour!

366/102 April 11, 2012

Today I had a short drive around my home town of Ngaruawahia (and I challenge you to pronounce that name correctly!). Ngaruawahia is the home of the Maori king and this is one of the carved wooden gateways into his marae (sacred tribal meeting place).

366/103 April 12, 2012

Considering what a lousy wet summer everyone's been complaining about here in New Zealand, I've been really lucky to have enjoyed hot sunny weather during my holiday so far - or, at least, I was until late yesterday and most of today, when it has rained rather a lot. Still, the rain brings its own delights ... like these reflections on the deck here at my friend's house

366/104 April 13, 2012

Auckland architecture, old and new. When I posted this on google+, someone commented that it was like Inception, and the photo got more hits than almost any other photo I've posted. It's the glass wall at the back of Britomart train station in central Auckland.

New Zealand holiday: week one

Either I used my return ticket to New Zealand, or I would lose it. No contest really! I also needed to use my annual leave or I’d lose it. And, though I hadn’t really missed much about New Zealand – no great cravings for peanut slabs or pineapple lumps like some people do – I yearned particularly to see the sea again. I hadn’t realised how much I would miss living close to water until I lived in land-locked and mountain-enclosed Cusco. And I knew it would be wonderful to catch up with friends and family again.

Plans were made, flights reserved, accommodation booked in – THANK YOU SO MUCH, dear Rosie, for welcoming me into your beautiful home so I could enjoy the delights of Titirangi again.

So, how has it been? Well, this year one of my projects on Google+ (where I am daily inspired by the amazing images of my photographer peers, have been welcomed into their photographic community, have been co-opted to co-curate a daily theme page, and frequently contribute my own humble pictures) has been to take one photo every day and post it to a special album. For me this has become something of a personal diary, as I’ve taken images that show aspects of my life, where I’m living, what I’m doing, what surrounds me, what I see.

To document my holiday in New Zealand, I thought I would share the images I have been taking as part of my 366 project, so here’s week one.

366/90 March 30, 2012

I lost a day travelling here to New Zealand so I'm adding two shots for one day to make up for it. Both epitomise my first day back in Auckland, as the friend I'm staying with lives in the bush (NZ's name for forest) so we are surrounded by greenery. This is looking down from her deck into the top of a huge fern (punga in the NZ Maori language).

366/91 March 31, 2012

One thing I have greatly missed living in Cusco has been water! Coming from New Zealand, an island nation, I have been surrounded by water most of my life. It was so amazing yesterday going to Piha beach, on Auckland's west coast, for a walk along the beach.

366/92 April 1, 2012

Another day, another beach ... this is the long long beach at Waipu Cove, on New Zealand's east coast, just south of Whangarei. It feels like you could walk forever!

366/92 April 2, 2012

This is the bark of New Zealand's most famous tree, the kauri. They grow straight and thick, and have very dense hard wood so, when the Europeans arrived in New Zealand in the early 1800s and quickly recognised the value of the kauri, there was mass felling of the trees for use in ship and house building, and for making furniture. As a result of this mass destruction of the kauri forests, it is now a protected species and cannot be felled. The largest kauri tree in New Zealand is approximately 45 feet (14 metres) in circumference and 169 feet (52 metres) tall.

366/94 April 03, 2012

Winter's coming ... but isn't it pretty?

366/95 April 4, 2012

This is one of the oldest buildings on Auckland's waterfront, the former Union Steamship Company office. The architecture of the newer buildings is not particularly inspiring, so I'm glad they haven't demolished some of these older ones.

399/96 April 05, 2012

A sunhat ... an essential accessory in New Zealand, which has the second highest rate of skin cancer in the world.

366/97 April 06, 2012

It's been a glorious Good Friday here in Auckland so my friend Rosie and I joined the throngs at Muriwai, a stunning 60-kilometre-long west coast beach not far from the city. A superb day for a long walk on the sands!