Paul Tombleson

This is my first blog post using WordPress and I happen to be down under in Aussie. I spent time in New Zealand catching up on family and spending time with my dad who was also visiting there from his island home in Rarotonga and he had a little prostate problem which we all hope is now under control after a hospital visit for a little plumbing clean out and flush…

It was a great visit to kiwi land and time well spent hanging out and traveling with my 85 years old dad. We took side trips to visit his boy hood home on a secluded beach of Ohawe and Opunake beach were he spent his honeymoon. Asked what he remembered of the honeymoon at the beach… he thought for awhile and in his dry rye way said… exhausting! It must have been the long walks on the sandy beach and climbing the dunes that exhausted him me thinks? I took this picture of dad smoking and looking out to sea while he remembered his life here 70 years ago. And no this is not the remains of his house! It is drift wood and my skinny dad is the one in black!!!

So to the real reason for starting this blog… Photography! It was great to have been in Aotearoa… “land of the long white cloud”  albeit for a short time. I had forgotten how green the landscape is. The towns and cities look different as they have grown tremendously but the countryside looks the same with its lush forests and ferns to the rolling hills and majestic snow covered mountains. I was fortunate to be able to stay on two different farms belonging to relatives. The first farm at Mahoenui (large Mahoe Tree) is a vast sheep farm with massive vistas, magical forest, airstrip, home of the giant Weta insect and thousands of woolly things running around.

Oh! and yes… sheep are stupid

Next stop was onto Taranaki province and the dairy farm at Whakamara (garden shyness) and a flood of memories  from my youth running through the pastures with the working dogs Fly and Tip to round up the cows for milking. We arrived during haymaking and the resulting hay bales made interesting foregrounds for shots of the landscape and the ever present Mt. Egmont that stands as the center piece for all the Taranaki area. This mountain is often confused with the iconic Mt. Fujiyama in Japan and you can see why.

Then it was on to New Zealands largest city Auckland, sometimes referred to as the City of Sails and the place of my birth many moons ago. The old neighborhoods have changed somewhat and the traffic has increased many fold but the same casual and good nature of it citizens can still be felt. This city sits on an isthmus between two oceans with the Waitamata (sparkling waters) harbor on the east (Pacific Ocean) and the Manukau harbor to the west fed by the Tasman Sea. But there is more! Auckland is also unique because this isthmus sits on a volcanic field one of only a few such fields in the world with nine extinct volcanoes on the surface and scientist say there will be a tenth one day…

And now I’m in Australia… Mango season!!!! YES

You can check out more pic’s on my website www.pearlphotography.biz

Later

This entry was posted on January 6, 2010 at 10:15 am and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.