The Big Blog
The Last Post First
As you can see the bike we have bought is red and British, let’s hope red doesn’t equate to embarrassing moments. Our first week on the road has gone relatively smoothly, adjusting once again to a tiny “suitcase” in which we still seem to be able to manage...
30 June 2019
We're doing it again!
Well we have decided to do it again, ride around Europe on a motorcycle for a few months. Before we head off I thought I would remind you of our earlier 2009 and 2013 exploits, two 15,000km tours of the continent and the UK two up on a motorcycle, a different...
4 June 2019
The skull cap
My interest in trees extends to parts of trees, flowers, bark, branches, fruits, pods, and in the case of gum trees, flower caps. When the flowers open the caps are shed and fall to ground. The caps themselves vary in size from several centimetres across to...
9 April 2019
January's art
The last few weeks have been frightfully hot. So far this month our local weather station has only recorded 3 days with the maximum below 30 degrees and with six days above 40 degrees. It's hot alright, and very dry. At this time of the year a lot of gum trees...
23 January 2019
Social Media
It has been really interesting sharing images on Facebook and asking people to comment on them. These images are ones I have posted and asked people to describe what they think in one or two words, and I have then added those words to the images so you can...
1 December 2018
A reverence for trees - Tane Mahuta
Seemingly appearing like Lilliput’s children at the foot of the majestic giant, visitors come from all over the world to worship this tree.The world of Tane Mahuta must have been quite something. There was a time when there would have been hundreds of thousands...
10 September 2018
Trees - A matter of perspective
It is easy to walk or drive past a tree without giving it a second glance. How often do you actually take a second look or even spend a minute or two just taking it in? In my case I do it quite often, both as a tree appreciator and as a photographer. Trees...
20 June 2018
NZ - We made it to Southland
The south has a lot of charm with swathes of coast and lovely long bays, wildlife a plenty and a long long history of settlement, whaling, fishing and farming.
11 February 2018
Visit New Zealand - It's free!
Tourism here seems to be mostly about the natural world, the scenery. Mountains, rivers, lakes, caves and glaciers. And it’s also about what you can do with all those topographic and geographic features, climb up them, jump off them, dive into them, walk across...
6 February 2018
NZ - Riding the Glacier Highway
It was then a scenic and fun run down to Haast, through Bruce Bay and Knights Point. As there were still a couple of hours light left after dinner we decided to take a ride down the coast to Jackson Bay. It was a fast (flat and straight) run but the scenery...
5 February 2018