Another 'Wow!' kind of day......

The pics speak for themselves. I had my feet very firmly on the ground!!

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Boulder bank and back again......

Spotted this cute wee Kingfisher when I was driving back from the Boulder bank...

...then he flew off.....

I also spotted this Heron having a mid-afternoon feed....

Seafarers Memorial - Sunderland Marine Pier

This poem inscribed onto the Seafarers Memorial is a great dedication to the regions seafarers (click the pic to see a bigger version!)

A magical flight...

Today's totally unexpected invitation to join a friend and her learner-pilot husband on his training flight over some of Nelson and Golden Bay's beautiful countryside was a totally brilliant way to spend a few hours. These pics say more about how beautiful it was than I ever could........

1 Nelson Haven


2 Mapua
3 Mapua

4 Motueka Coastline 5 Biggles!
6 Abel Tasman National Park

7 Abel Tasman National Park
8 Abel Tasman National Park
9 Return to Nelson

Duck!! No, plane!!

This pic was a hasty snap as I stumbled round the perimeter of the airport in total darkness.

Do you know how close those planes get to the perimeter fence when they come in to land?!?!? I swear I saw the pilot shake his fist at me!!

Smoke Tree....

...the original, unadulterated version!

This is the Smoke Tree pic before I tweaked it. It looks pretty blah in this state!

Good ol' PS eh?!

Funny....

More bloody sunsets!!

Well - maybe not bloody so much as golden!

Mr Fantail

I was so pleased to have met a fantail who actually enjoyed having his picture taken!!! He hung round for ages and seemed very happy to be there!

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ANZAC Day

A very moving service, reminding us all once again of the human cost of war...

Busker man...

The original pic before adding PS 'Poster Edges' filter.

The Ancient Mariner mk II

My alternative mariner........

The B-I-G boat...

The pictures hardly do it's size justice!

This ship doesn't just carry planes - it can carry the SHIP that carries the planes!!!

See here for some details about the Blue Marlin........

Welcome to winter......

Got up early to head to town to see the big ship come in and was shocked to find winter had arrived. Couldn't resist this bit of frost-graffitti on my sunroof!!!

Lake Matheson

This is a very typical and very much reproduced (but nevertheless, beautiful!) view of the reflections of Mount Cook and the Southern Alps in Lake Matheson. You have to be up very early to get to the lake before even the lightest of breezes begins to scoot over the lake if you want to get perfect mirror-image reflections. I was in no rush this morning so had to settle for the slightly more wrinkled reflections! Still, it's gorgeous anyway - and I was pretty lucky to see the top of Mount Cook which is usually shrouded in cloud.

Arrowtown cottages

OK - so it's a cliched pic - but i still love it! These are old miners cottages from the Arrowtown gold rush in about the 1860-70's. They're mostly businesses now and, because of their historical nature they're protected buildings. Very quaint!

Duck!

I've included this ducky pic simply because I like the reflection and the fact that you can see her body under the water.

She'd made a duck dive to go get some grub from down below and I decided to pan with her and see if I could catch a good shot of her swimming under water. This pic was by far the best, although the focus is poor. I still like it's unusual aspect though....

Both sides of the camera..........

I enjoyed taking this 'alternative' to the beautiful, scenic shot....... I'm not sure whether this guy was shooting the beauty or the ducks!!

Old farm building.......

An old Wedderburn farm building that looked pretty cool. Don't think I'd want to venture into it though with that big crack right through it!

The view from the top.....

This is the view from the 'high point' of the Rail Trail............a massive 618m above sea level and 448m above the start at Clyde (which, by my calculations, means that we'd climbed a humungous 170m through the 75kms ride!!)

How many sheep can you spot??