My hometown where my grandparents raised me. Nan was actually the first official women woodchopper in NZ (Margaret Leach), and grandad (Elliot Leach). Obviously in the pioneering days near everyone knew how to swing an axe up home, they lived in the forest with Taane Mahuta and family undisturbed with townie politics for years on end!
A weekend of pure bliss in TeKaha with good friend Bing Page. This shot was underwater with the stingrays wing hooked on our long line. The bummer of this particular day was that I just missed taking "The Shot" of a Black Striped Marlin that launched out of the water behind us! As I reached for the cam and turned to shoot...back down she went, but we were there, we know what we saw, and we settled for the stingray shot.
Our new sub division at Waikawa, Strathnaver Glen, there's a few more dwellings since this shot was taken...quite a few more, which is excellent to see not that the "old-click" seem to agree; but hey...thats progress for you, everyone has to die sometime as NO ONE lasts forever don't you agree.
Just another great shot before leaving the mouth after a great days whitebaitng last September eve.
I have my grandfathers tobbacco tins with all the lovely pictures of women doing gardens, and men mowing lawns, pushing rollers, or just seated having a good old cigarette with each other while children are seated around them (some 30 years old now these tins), and the political irony to these lovely pictures? Well they are emblazoned on tobbacco tins, bold as brass with the stupid headings that read..." Smoking is good for your health", "Smoking is refreshing", and even a "Smoking does not damage your health" title...YEAH RIGHT! It looks as though there will always be a black market for smokers now that the govts have been promoting our sporting arena for decades using these tobbacco comapanies to a). promote healthy sporting events, and b). addict people with their poison along the way, remember the ads on telly..."The Benson & Hedges Tennis Open", "The Winfield Cup NRL", "The Rothmans Grand prix" and so on & so on. But today it is sacrilige, a big no no because they need our money to pay for roads, obesity, cancers, but most of all...That KYOTO Protocol crap, we are all going to pay for that one you can be sure! the govts the world over have finally found a tax they can impose on their entire nations, keep an eye out for more govt trends as they go about their affairs at our expenses.
If I could I would.
Plenty of room for a barbie down here mate...straight from a dive and straight onto the barbie...Literally hard to beat!
I love Graphics, and Digitals. I can't draw for nix...but I can "photchop" in Photoshop! To "Pukana" is to "Challenge"... something we all do when we wake each and every morning to face lifes' challenges. The trick to life is in the "how" we face the Pukana! Winston Peters says it best when he said: "There are different levels of clarity for each and every one of us" Whew! Thats a classic if ever I heard one! Beat that one-liner ''ya all. Moral of the story is simple enough though..."Work smarter - Not harder".
Nice and orderly with everyone using their manners...a rare moment at Waikawa beach I can tell you! "Townies talk about rules & regulations...Tangata Whenua talk about manners and ettiquette because the townies don't do the "recycle" thing like Tangata Whenua; they won't even know what that means!!! Unfortunately; some find out the hard way!
Now that my daughter has got the bug, my whitebaiting years will never be the same again! She has very good spotting techniques I must say. Thats James esquire riding the trap.
Sunday morning, up with the larks! Always refreshing to greet a new day in person! Taken at the Ohau river mouth.
The WhiteBait ran like...during this flood, and not many came out to play that day!
The digital is real, I just added the Orca because this is the line they travel down. My daughter, wife, and I were strolling on the Waikawa coastline one afternoon when we all spotted a pod of Orca doing their thing not 2kms off the tide line. Of course I missed the shot because the camera was at home (not anymore, now that we have seen with our own eyes!).
I use this shot as a benchmark to the passing of my mother-in-law the late Beryl. Ada. Mackie. Pukehou Hill lay down when Beryl lay down.Beryl was a queen in her own right, as local folk will nod to. Anyway, this was a weekend like no other! Absolute mayhem from the hills to the ocean, damage and chaos was everywhere. Newspaper reports stated flood patterns not seen since 30 years! The interesting thing about this photo was a scholar chap from down Otago university was sent up this way to research Pukehou Hill, and the question in moot was: "where did all of the soil go to when Pukehou fell like she did?" His findings were quite interesting; his theory is that: " the soils were totally washed away because there was so much rainfall that weekend near everything was awash.! " There was no damage to fencelines, nor soils along any of the fenclines along the bottom of the hills. I am familiar with this hill as I also worked on this Deer Farm with Rodney Lind, and lived in both farm houses at the foothills, she's a beautiful view from the top skyline by the way! It was here that I bumped into the scholar from Otago one day, we started chatting, and these are the resulting pics. This hill is also a historical site in terms of way back in the Mäori war times when Te Rauparaha and his people lived all through the district. The hill is known as "Ihaia's Leap" or, "The hill of Dedication" where local körero (talk), states a member of the Muaupoko tribe (Ihaia), was found up a tree as Ngati Raukawa people were travelling through that area. They gave him the option to jump; and if he survived...he may leave, yet, if he died...most unlucky in terms of the practices that were in place way back then! Thus; Ihaia survived; and as local talk would have it...this is one line of how the Muaupoko tribes numbers rose again through Ihaia who has direct lineage to the whänau Taueki resident throughout Levin. I do not wish to get into the politics of the actual matters here. This is just an overview of how the story has evolved locally, from whence I came, and no malice is intended throughout this text.