Spring flooding in Raglan

 I was going through some of my old photos and found this one of Raglan when we visited there about 3 years ago. Usually Spring here in NZ throws out some wild weather and occasionally we get flooding/cyclones/storms/snow in various places. This particular time they had had huge amounts of rain and by the time we arrived there most of the flooding had disappeared except this one portion.  At the moment we are waiting to see what this season brings for us before Summer arrives in November/December

I have been spending alot of time in the garden this week and less time online like I usually do.  I planted some marguerite daisies that I bought from my work and also am propogating several cuttings off it as they are so easy to grow along with Fuchsia, Hebes and some succulents. I have also been following several tutorials on how to crochet, so far I've just started learning how to make a throw/blanet after buying half a dozen balls of wool. I discovered our town has a local wool/craft shop which I visited yesterday with my daughter - that has been very dangerous as they have so many things that appealed to us, so far I've bought 2 different sized crochet needles off them.

As for Corona news here I think people are getting more and more over it. Auckland has had one more death and is now in level 2.5 with level 1 being the lowest. I think it's going to be quite some time before life goes back to normal. The instructions from HQ has been wear a mask as much as you can but it's easy to see most people are taking it as not serious and with this weekend bringing more fine weather there will be less social distancing and more people thinking they can do what they want.

Linking up with Weekend Reflections. 

Wiremu Neera Te Awaitaia

I'm one of those people who have a fascination with old things, houses....cemeteries. I don't see them as morbid or useless...I see them as places full of history and memories.  On our recent trip through Raglan it was a blustery freezing cold Spring day, New Zealand had seen alot of rain that almost seem to keep going and going so this area was flooded in places. This small cemetery and monuments are in honour of Wiremu Neera Te Awataia, who was a Maori chief when the first ever contact was being made with European settlers.

He was born in 1796 into the Waikato Tribe of Ngati Mahanga and was known as a friend of the Pakeha (white people) and a person of great influence in Raglan. His name in the English language means "William Naylor".

Sooo do you ever visit historical areas and what are your favourite places?

btw I'm home from work for the rest of the week, seems the flu has developed into a chest infection leading to Laryngitis. Anti-biotics are now being taken and boredom has set in. Can't wait to get back to real life.

Raglan skies on a freezing day...

Last time we were in Raglan, a couple of hours away, it was a very Spring-ish day. Here in NZ, we have weather known as "4 seasons in 1 day". We had looked at the weather forecast beforehand and it had said rain in the morning but it would clear up by lunchtime - all looked promising. Once we arrived there we stopped off at this part of the beach, got out of the car into freezing cold blustery wind - definitely  not something to enjoy. I managed to hold my camera steady enough for a minute to snap this photo of the road going past the coast, to the left was one of those quintessential kiwi baches that people sometimes still holiday in. Looks like the owners would get a great view on a sunny Summer's day - definitely not this day though.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday :-)

Road trip to Bridal Veil Falls

So Spring here feels like a rewind of Winter. When we left home Sunday morning the skies looked overcast as usual, we've had so much rain here lately but the forecast was that it would clear up by the afternoon.

After a 2 hour drive (at least) we got to this place just out of Raglan...Bridal Veil Falls, and you can see why it's called that right?

We walked through native bush from the carpark for about 10 minutes then got to the upper viewing platform, I was too scared to look over (being scared of heights).

Then walked down to the middle viewing area and finally the bottom viewing area, about roughly 260 steps in all, I'm sure my knees and legs were crying out by the time we got there.

And this was what we saw at the bottom, I think it was worth all the effort, don't you? Oh and the minute we got back in the car it started raining and hailing. Was quite a cold day.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday :-)