Night

 

One night after work I stopped on one of the main streets in town to take a night shot. Not many shops except for supermarkets are open at this time of day, hence no one around. The lowest temperature we've had at night so far is 5 degrees celsius but it will get down to -2 in the next 3 months at night. Winter coughs and colds are starting to do the rounds, lucky I got my whooping cough vaccine last year as the 90 day cough is part of that strain apparently. Anyone else find since having covid your immunity is almost non existent now like us?

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's Signs.

Fun Fungi

This morning B and I were out looking for Fungi. April is the perfect time to search and we found some beauties.

This one and the one below it are a poisonous toadstool named "Fly Agaric". We walked around in roughly 11 degree celsius temperatures so not too bad.

All of the others are a mix that we saw along the trail which was about 30 mins there and back.

Linking up with Tuesday Treasures, All Seasons and Happy Tuesdays. 

Happy

 

These are popular vehicles in New Zealand. We saw these 2 at Fox River last weekend sitting in the carpark. Many tourists will rent these campavans from various companies to travel around in. 

I'm pleased to say that this particular weekend was stinking hot and throughout the year we see alot of them travelling but in Summer they increase. Tourists are always nice people who love to chat with the locals.

Linking up with Weekend Reflections, The Weekend Roundup, All seasons, Shadow Shot Sunday and Mosaic Monday.

Friendly

 

Last week I was in town checking out a new shop named "Ginger Rose" which has been in business for a while but I'd never been in. I have trouble finding a decent shampoo for my hair so I was pleased to see they stocked herbal shampoo bars so I bought one to try out.

On my way back to my car I was stopped by some very friendly but anxious tourists who had just come off the Tranzalpine train who were searching for a taxi as there were none around so I called the local ones who were very quick and picked them up within 5 minutes. It's nice to help others.

Summer is nearly at an end when March comes although we have had some amazing hot temperatures over February. I heard from a friend who lives further south in Ashburton, she said they had snow a few days ago with 2 degree temperatures at night. Summer in the Southern Hemisphere has been weird this year.

Linking up with Weekend Reflections, All seasons, The Weekend Roundup and Mosaic Monday.

Crafty

 

Down Mackay Street which is one of the main roads in town is my favourite shop "Pins and Needles" - I usually buy my crochet wool here and they have lots of other crafts too. We've had such nice late Winter/early Spring weather here that it's been a pleasure to walk around without wearing a warm coat.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's Signs.

Kererū

 

Lately I've been seeing 3 fat Kererū aka wood pigeons out in my backyard. We are just about to go into Spring in September so they are no doubt waiting for berries on trees and for my Kowhai tree to bloom as they like to eat the nectar from the flowers. 

It was a bleak late Winter's day in the top photo so I found the above photo online to show whar the bird's colours look like.

This video is a view of my neighbour's shed and plum tree which overhangs my backyard. The bird singing is that of a Bellbird aka Korimako.

Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world, Wordless Wednesday, All Seasons.

Blue Ice

 

Last time we were in Franz Josef we were hoping to try this restaurant "Blue Ice" but they were closed on this particular day, shame because I'd heard they make mostly Asian style Thai food (my favourite), after looking at their menu they seem a bit overpriced, probably because this is mainly a tourist town. We ended up going to another cafe which had great food with great prices. Nice sunny Winter's day with a high of 10 degrees celsius, so quite pleasant.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's Signs.

Wind

 

I took this photo of B's greenhouse this morning to shower how the cover has come off - that's how much wind we've had. He's got each end fastened down so hopefully today now that the rain has eased off he can get out and sort it out. Today, the 1st of June is the 1st day of Winter.

I haven't done alot with the vege garden lately because when the 0 degree temperatures hit (we are due for those later next week) the produce doesn't like the cold. So I'll wait until later in the season to reorganize it.

Linking up with All Seasons.

West Coast

 

One of my impromptu photos taken in town outside the railway station which picks up and drops off passengers from the Tranz Alpine, the Speights restaurant is across the road.

So, our new neighbour has moved into the house next door which was for sale and he's been tidying up the backyard including pruning trees. Perfecting timing really since it's Autumn. He asked me if I wanted the 3 rose bushes in the backyard otherwise he would be throwing them out so B and I went over there and dug them out. They look like they have been there for a few years so I replanted them against one of the fences in the full sun and gave them a good pruning. Hopefully they will flower nicely come Spring.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All seasons and Tom's signs.

Autumn colours

 

This photo above is taken looking down my street and the rest are photos taken here and there between Ngahere and Stillwater.

This photo taken while we were waiting at roadworks of the Grey River with mist over the mountains just outside of Dobson, about 10 minutes from home.

This one was taken from the side of the road about 15 minutes from home near Ngahere (this is not where my house is, we are nearer into town). 

Other news: we have a new neighbour. A blue house on one side of us had been on the market for about a month. The previous elderly owner was a blind lady who went into a care home, her family spent a couple of weeks tidying up her property. The new owner is a middle aged man by himself and so far he has been pretty quiet which is nice, no parties. I gave him some fresh eggs from my chickens after we introduced ourselves.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Coffee

 

A couple of weeks ago while my daughter R took her dog Bug to the local dog park for a play I ventured up to one of the local beaches in Cobden for a walk in the fresh ocean air.  Near the rocks was a coffee cart with some cars, kayaks and surf boards.

And further back in one section of the car park were a bunch of campers. Greymouth is a small town that is a throroughfare for people travelling to the alps, Arthurs Pass and Christchurch so there is some great scenery to be seen.

And this is the beach on a quiet Autumn day.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Canada Geese at Moana

Another part to our Moana mini road trip last week. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, only my cellphone so I tried to get some decent photos. At one of the smaller lakes (there are 6 apparently) there was this run down jetty that had a closed sign on it. 

It was such a still quiet Autumn day that this is what the water looked like - a mirror.

These birds were just taking off as I stopped there, I think from my research they are Canada Geese, it's a bit hard to tell but they are mainly black, white and brown.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

A fine Autumn day

 

We've had 2 days of hardout rain with the rest of the country and turbulant wind to the point where the chicken run was partially lifted off the ground with it's stakes. Luckily the chickens were just wandering around the garden pecking at the ground so it was easy to get them back into their run by dropping a trail of mixed grains for them up to the door. 

Yesterday we had lovely warm Autumn sunshine again so I spent 10 minutes before work sitting on a seat in town just enjoying it.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Overcast

Photo taken Autumn 2024 in Westport

We are starting to get a few more overcast days here and there. Earlier this week I noticed a slight chill in the air. The Winters here tend to be dry and cold not damp and I think by April/May we will no doubt we using our fireplace a bit more. But our Autumns and Springs are usually catching up on the rain we don't get over Summer. This week much of the country, not just us is being inundated with rain. We live 5 minutes out of town so semi-rural and there is a portion of road on the way in that seems to lift up with rain and as usual the road contractors just smooth it over and relay it instead of putting drainage under it and fixing it properly. sigh.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Liquor free zone

 

Photo taken Summer 2025

One of Greymouth's main streets with a sign that says "liquor free zone" - many towns around the country have signs like this to discourage people getting drunk in town and being a nuisance.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Talking

 

So strange seeing tourists in the middle of Summer wearing puffer jackets and warm clothing in 30 degree temperatures. Photo taken in January this year.

We actually got a good day of rain earlier this week and the temperatures dropped quite considerably. I was at work and wishing I'd worn a long sleeved top underneath my work shirt but I put the heat pump on for a while and that helped. Winter is on it's way...

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Autumn skies

 

Sunset over the Grey River

Photo taken by me on the way home one night around 8pm after work - Autumn sunset over the Grey River. We've had to order our first load of firewood today, luckily we have loads of kindling in storage next to the garage so if we run short we can just order another load.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday and All Seasons.

Sunset

Photo of a part of Greymouth near the Grey River taken around 8pm at night so not many people around.

It's been a funny week so far. I've been rearranging my vegetable garden to get it ready for Autumn. One end of it has more soil than the other so I've had to dig parts of it up to even it all out. I've had an abundance of spring onions coming up due to scraps we've thrown into the compost along with some Broccoflower and Purple Cabbage. I like to pass things along to other people sometimes so I gave a bag of mixed veges to a Maori lady that comes into my work. Finances are tight for everyone so hopefully it made a difference to her.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons, Shadow Shot Sunday and Tom's signs.

 

Dark

Photo taken when we lived in Tauranga 5 years ago.

We are now in the days of late Summer/early Autumn - soon it will be time for the mornings to be darker and the nights to be colder. I remember when we lived in Tauranga in 2018, I stoppedbefore work along the waterfront to take photos of how bare the shops and restaurants were in the early morning.

I was driving home from work last night when I decided to stop in at my old workplace and buy a packet of my favourite lollies. On the way home 5 minutes later I, and alot of other cars had to stop on the side of the road as someone had only just had an accident in the pouring rain, I'm not 100% sure but speed was probably a factor. I had missed it by less than a minute - scary stuff.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.

Mackay Street

 

Mackay Street is one of the main roads in town where the shopping district is. Mostly old buildings full of real estate, clothing, discount, food, appliance and op shops.

Yay we finally have had some rain. Most of the town and surrounding areas like where we are, are now on water restrictions. The rain we have had is a start but we need a wee bit more. I think in the 3 years we have been living on the West Coast this has been the hottest most driest Summer we've had so far.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday, All Seasons and Tom's signs.