New Zealand Out-Takes, 5

Damn! We missed the speed-shearing contest!

Incipient boot-tree

Elsewhere I featured "Headstones on Broadway" (Matamata?)
These just to show it was no fluke...mortuary stores are a
main street business here

Thus

New Zealand wit

So there we were, minding our own business, driving along
the North Island's Pacific coastal highway, not concerned
in the least about wandering stock

When, just as we are taking a picture of the sign, this
insolent steer walks up and says "You gotta problem with
wandering stock, human?!" "Not all stock who wander are
lost, you know!" he added.

It's a major problem here; of course we reported them

Tane/wahine...

The signage is always interesting

Bathrooms with roof garden...Hundertwasser country

Ubiquitous...on the coasts

Tough people, but gentle and always interesting

New Zealand Out-Takes, 4

Lingua Gangsta...I should have done a post on it...you see
it here aplenty...campas, backa packas...

But the best instance, so far, is this

Picnic table for people with concave butts

In Thames...the Central Chambers building and the adjacent
Off-Center Building...love the sense of humor these people have...

International symbol for dental/podiatry offices...

Sic transit, Gloria

Outdoor sculpture everywhere here

"Beryl, they've taken the begonias, again!

Utilities are very often decorated here

Art Deco bridge?

More entries for "Stick-man's Very Bad Day"

Not at all sure what to make of this

Town so small the mailboxes are at the liquor store...

New Zealand Parting Shots

As we sit in the Auckland airport awaiting our (delayed) flight to Fiji...

One of the sorrows of international travel is that, with today's luggage weight limits,
you can't always take it with you; and sometimes it's dear things that are left behind...
here, a bottle of 100% DEET Viet Nam-era Campmor Neverbite, which we have been
carrying and using since, well, we think, 1972; used sparingly it lasts a long time, is
really hell on mosquitoes and sand flies, and, in larger doses, will remove paint from
your ice axe, your car, etc. Probably not so good for your skin...

Well, I'd read most of it...I'll get another copy and keep it next
time

The Manukau Top Ten Holiday Park is both an entry and exit point for people
touring New Zealand by RV or tent or otherwise backpacking; people exiting
leave behind all their unused food, camping equipment, clothing, whatever won't
fit; Monday morning's haul at Manukau...

If you're camping in NZ, stop here first to stock up on staples, herbs and spices,
oils, coffee, tea, some perishables, some canned goods, camping chairs and
chilly bins and other accoutrements; our last day I scored two unopened bottles of
(good) wine and two beers; of course, we left a bunch also...

And so we checked out of our cabin

Turned in our rental car...I drove nearly 5,000 miles without incident...upside-down
and wrong side of the road, too

And are here at the airport, pondering what life will be like
not in Middle Earth; but knowing we'll be back soon, a lot
sooner than the previous interval...

Waipu And Mangawhai Heads

Our last touring day in New Zealand, as it turned out, included the town of Waipu and a walk on the beach at Mangawhai Heads. After that--we had other irons, other travels, in the fires--we drove straightaway to Auckland and the Manukau Top Ten Holiday Park and there commenced the usual reorganizing/repacking operation in preparation for our departure on Monday the 31st.

Waipu is a major historical site for Scots in New Zealand;
some 900 Highlanders settled here and then fanned out, in
the mid-19th century; the McKays, Vicki proudly notes,
among the Clans

A bit of the story...

There are building murals all over NZ, and I probably have not
represented them well; here is one, anyhow, in Waipu

Another beach--Mangawhai--another school field trip

The head

Mineral-laden boulders along the beach

And nice houses and wind mobiles

Looking south

And north; low-tide of course

Dunes beneath the cliffs

Island and sea stack across the bay

Uretiti Sunrise

After the glow worms, we camped at another DOC beach campsite, Uretiti. Next morning, not very early actually, I watched the Pacific sunrise from there.