Graffiti in Topuni

I had a bit of cabin fever on Saturday so I drove around Topuni which is mostly a forestry area with lots of trucks that go in and out of side roads loaded with timber.

I've driven past this bridge/railway line next to the main highway numerous times and each time it seems to have new graffiti added to it. I have no idea what any of it says but it seems to catch my eye.

Not sure if you could class it as a mural but I'm adding it this week to Mural Monday and Our World Tuesday.

Mokofusion Tattoo Studio

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During our last trip to Whangarei while my daughter was busy with her appointment I took my camera and went walkies. A couple of streets away I spotted this painted mural on the side of a tattoo studio, I can only work out a portion of the words which say "Barbers and Tattoos".

This particular studio, Mokofusion Tattoo and Barbers is located in Walton Street and seems to have no particular style they specialise in. I really like this one. I have 3 tattoos on my body that were very carefully thought out before I got them. The first one on the back of my neck is mostly coloured orange and is 2 koi fish swimming in the opposite direction because of my star sign, the second one I got was on my upper chest, a small one of an Irish 4 leaf clover in honour of my Irish ancestry. The third one I got was on my right arm of a mermaid, I plan to get the whole arm coloured in different types of ocean creatures as I really love the sea but this takes money that I don't have.

Linking up this week with Monday Murals and Our World Tuesday.

btw I have some more news for you...

Kaingaroa Village Unity Project

Back in 2017 the other half took me to the small forestry town of Kaingaroa Village. A very quiet small place with not alot of action, there was plenty of graffiti, vacant lots, broken down vehicles, barking dogs and unused/boarded up shops and buildings.

On the side of this Four Square building (the Kiwi equivalent of a corner shop/dairy/store) was the graffiti. I've done some digging as to who the artist was and all I could find was that it could've been done by Azah Wirangi as part of the Kaingaroa Unity Project back in 2017 so we must've visited the area just after it was completed.

This town was once a thriving forestry area and although there are still plenty of trees around, the forestry company that was once there is no longer and in it's place are abandoned empty buildings and sheds.

In the 1980s the government sought to sell the forests to private buyers but several Maori Iwi went to court to prevent the sale arguing that they were still the traditional owners of the land. After 20 years settlement was reached and the lands were returned but the forests themselves are still owned by Kaingaroa Timberlands Ltd.

Linking up with Mural Monday for this one.

The tunnel that never was

We drove through Okaihau a couple of weekends ago - this is a very very small town, kind of like blink and you miss it. This old tunnel caught our eyes and so when we got home we both looked up the history on it.

What we found out is that apparently this short tunnel is called the Okaihau or Kaikohe branch - it was a branch line railway that that joined the Auckland rail line of the National Rail Network of NZ and Otira.

It was the most northerly line in NZ and was intended to run all the way to Kaitaia - it opened in 1923 and closed in 1987. The work started in 1910, opened in 1914 and finished in 1923 after the end of the first world war.

The great depression in the 1930s proved to the downfall and the continuation of the line was abandoned in 1930. After the line closed the NZ Railways Corporation retained ownership of the trackbed in hope that forestry proposals would happen but in the 1990s most of the rails were removed. It is still owned the the crown.

More information here.

It's fun to go fishing!

I spotted this group of people surf casting around the rocks from the beach last week - fine Summer's afternoon around dinner time.

The old Petrol Station of Pongakawa

On one of our road trips not so long ago we drove past this old building on the corner of the road leading into Pongakawa a small town about 40 minutes out of Tauranga. Old buildings especially those covered in graffiti catch my attention so we stopped briefly so I could take some photos.

According to people who have lived around the area this use to be the old petrol station, not sure how old it is or when it was last used as there seems to be very little information available online about this. It's kind of a pity it hasn't been used for another purpose but then again the building doesn't look very stable anyway...

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)

Poor little abandoned house...

On our last road trip through Rotorua, we drove through various parts of the city. This was one area the other half wanted to show me in a poorer section of town. An old state house from what looks like the 1960s/1970s era when it was fashionable for the government to build properties like this for families of a low social economic background. These days most of them are being torn down in favour of newer houses but unfortunately there are still alot of them that have been used to make/use drugs so they are unsafe and unhealthy to live in. This poor little abandoned house looks like it's been left in a big decaying state with broken windows and timber along with gang graffiti.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday...

Colourful train carriages at Te Maunga

Funny the things I see on my travels, even to and from work seems to find something on a weekly basis. This week twice now I've seen this long line of train carriages parked on the train tracks near my workplace, I can't make out what alot of the graffiti says but I do think people that do this are rather clever don't you?

For more Skywatch Fridays click here :-)