Wednesday 3rd April 2013, 11.10am (day 587)
This particular one didn’t hit Point Lookout (where we reside) although one did come along later in the evening.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Landscape
Helicopter in front of the Three Sisters, Katoomba
Tuesday 12th March 2013, 9.50am (day 565)
This is an early post today but I did all my walking and photographing before 1.30, out over the gorges that lie to the south of this town. Having shot this pretty much straight into the sun I was having real problems getting the colour balance right until I experimented with not having colour at all, and, well, here you go. It’ll do.
Incidentally this shot brings to an end a run of no fewer than 21 consecutive afternoon shots on this blog. The last time I posted a photo taken before noon was on 18th February, in Dunedin. The last time I posted a photo taken before 9am was on 17th January, which also happened to be the last day I went to work in Manchester prior to my sabbatical. I really don’t think the lack of pre-9am photos since is a coincidence, do you?
Anyway that’s the end of my four-week road trip: back to Brisbane tomorrow.
Near Wagga Wagga, sunset
Sunday 3rd March 2013, 7.35pm (day 556)
Left New Zealand today and was mildly grumpy about it. Wanted more time in that beautiful country, where the climate is more agreeable and the beer better than in Australia (well, it is). Wasn’t particularly motivated about going back there to go to work tomorrow morning, wasn’t bothered about spending yet another few hours in a plane and then coming out into some little town stuck out in corn-chewing country.
And then as we flew in – bloody hell. What a glorious evening. What a brilliant view. Happy to be back.
DOC worker near Twin Beach, Heaphy Coast
Thursday 28th February 2013, 1.40pm (day 553)
DOC is the Department of Conservation, the body who look after New Zealand’s wonderful environment, and are trying to continue to do so in the face of the same old funding pressures foisted on us by the moronocracy. Be nice to these people, who are basically trying to help the world. Mind you, they do get to work in some pretty attractive locations.
Last day walking the Heaphy Track – usually people take five days, I did it in three, including a 37km (23 mile) last day. My feet hurt. But I’m happy to have done it, and now I’ve caught up with this blog: however, more photos from the walk, and details on the experience, are shortly going up on my walking blog.
The James Mackay hut
Wednesday 27th February 2013, 4.25pm (day 552)
Seven of these huts are spaced along the Heaphy Track, providing shelter, gas for cooking, and companionship – at least, if you don’t mind being woken at 6.30am by a large group of middle-aged hearty types making tea and strapping on their hiking boots. Oh, hang on – that’s me, these days. Still, not a bad view is it?
Historic cemetery, Collingwood
Monday 25th February 2013, 1.55pm (day 550)
A day killing time in Collingwood before heading down to the start of the Heaphy Track. This graveyard sits on a hill above the town, and most of the graves date from the 19th century. The engravings etched onto the headstones are often a story in themselves, highlighting the harsher nature of life in the past: the graves of three teenagers, one who drowned trying to cross the nearby Aorere River, and two brothers who died within three days of each other (presumably of the same infectious disease), were the most touching.
As we are at another 50-day milestone – day 550 – I have added some photos to the ‘Best of the Rest’ page. I also note that today marks the end of 18 months of doing this blog since I started on 26/8/11.
Evening scene, Collingwood
Sunday 24th February, 7.25pm (day 549)
I’ve not posted for a few days due to being on a long walk, the Heaphy Track – which you will hear about presently. This seems a long time ago, therefore. This scene is in Collingwood, a small town in the extreme top-left corner of North Island. I had another nice shot of a sunset, but that seemed rather cliched the more I looked at it, and I like the composition of this one.
Sawyers Beach, Stewart Island
Thursday 21st February 2013, 7.10pm (day 546)
This is pretty much how I imagined New Zealand was going to look. I had to walk several miles north of Oban to find it, on the Rakiura Track (see my post here, on my other blog), but here it is, on a spectacularly beautiful evening.
Melbourne, under the thunderstorm
Thursday 14th Feburary 2013, 5.40pm (day 539)
Things you don’t necessarily want to hear from the pilot as you’re coming into land: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re turning the seatbelt sign on, there seems to be some thunderstorm activity around the airport”. Cue one of the bumpier landings I’ve ever experienced. But we made it.
Hog Bay, Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island
Tuesday 5th February 2013, 4.20pm (day 530)
A thoroughly prosaic name for a very beautiful spot. Penneshaw is a little town (population 1,500) at the point where the ferry arrives on Kangaroo Island from the mainland – which can be seen in the very far distance of this shot, this being the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide.
When I arranged to have my sabbatical here in Australia, and spend the first part of it travelling while I started on my book, this is pretty much the kind of place where I pictured myself. I’m here until Saturday. This is good news.
Being 42 