Palmy North, 2: Team Superstock Car Racing

Thus encouraged by the prospects for amusement afforded by the Gypsy Fair, we proceeded on into the heart of the downtown...

Noticing oldie cars cruising about, generally in the direction of the
growing crowds and automotive noise

Motorcycle side-car racing? Might be unusual anywhere but NZ

Obviously we're on to something

Selling T-shirts, caps, and other goodies by the truckload

No, we've wandered into the annual New Zealand Superstock
Championship: basically, heavily souped-up and armored stock
cars that race around a dirt track, knocking each other off the
track, into the infield, off the wall, whatever...sort of a motorized
rugby but without a ball (read the linked article and be amazed);
"bang racing," which we'd encountered near Canterbury, England,
is sort of a poor-man's version, except it's more combat than a
race...anyhow, the gents to the left, above, are the races' "scrutineers,"
who examine each contestant vehicle for issues related to safety
(people get killed in these races...)(not surprisingly...)

The cars race in city teams, with some designated as racers, some as
chasers, some as blockers...

Here's a team lining up to be scrutineered

Note the subtle differences in powertrain, armor, etc.

I think this might be the racing car

Another team massing to be scrutineered

And another

This would be fun to drive, although not in countries where
drivers are armed and spoiling for a shoot-out

And you thought NASCAR was barbarian...

Palmy North, 1: The Gypsy Fair

In all our trips to New Zealand and wanderings therein, we had always missed Palmerston North. Always somewhere else to get to, not on the way, whatever. Indeed we had gotten to Palmerston South way back in 2009, near the Moeraki Boulders. But not Palmy North, and it was a blemish on our travel record, especially since Palmy is twinned with Missoula, Montana, our last best home, from which we retired in 2008. Sister cities. Once, while working in Missoula, I met with a delegation visiting from Palmerston North. "Oh yes, my son was an orc," I remember the woman saying when I conveyed my interest in LOTR and its having been filmed in NZ. I'd have a lot more to talk about now.

Anyhow, on February 4th, following the climb on Mt. Cleese, we drove into Palmy North, parked, and, even for a sunny Saturday afternoon, found a city bursting with activity and sights, to which this and the next two posts can hardly do justice. First, in a big park-like square right downtown, there was the Gypsy Fair...

We'd encountered the Gypsy Fair once before, near Nelson,
South Island, in 2014, and thought it was mostly about home-made
Kiwi RVs

Here it was about Kiwis traveling about in their RVs and doing
business from them; the RVs were rather less of interest

Recycled roadkill?

Oliebollen! 

Movable futurist entrepreneurship

Itinerant blacksmith

The only interesting rig

Ascent Of Mt. Cleese

There remained another mountain I wanted to add to my list of New Zealand ascents: Palmerston North's legendary Mt. Cleese. Of course, I did it by the direct north face route, direttissima, alone, solo, un-roped, unaided, and without (supplemental) oxygen. It was a fine day for climbing, and I took a number of pix.

Cleese is of course a living, growing mountain, and so it is now
probably a bit higher that 45m; alas, my excitement was such I
forgot to look at my phone's altimeter

At the base of the mountain

Foothills

Looking toward the north face

Palmerston North in the distance

Still on the approach

On the north face

Crux of the climb, this couloir

On the summit plateau

Treacherous footing

Now on the summit

Summit views

Not sure whether this is extracting or injecting

Souvenir found near the summit

The sea birds celebrate my triumphant return

Feilding [sic]

We were so grateful for the freedom camping provided by the city of Feilding that we spent an hour or so in the downtown looking for more art deco buildings. We found a few, but it was a misguided search, as it turned out: Feilding [sic] was founded in the late Victorian era (before spell-check, I might add), most of its historic structures are Edwardian, and the city actually has ordinances encouraging and preserving Edwardian architecture. Whatever that is. Nonetheless...

As noted here, one of the architectural heritage buildings
burned in the 90s, but was faithfully rebuilt...

Struck us as art deco nonetheless

As did the one across the street

Same block...the dates on this building structure us as art nouveau,
something one does not see in New Zealand...

Back to art deco

Another curiosity...

Detail: sort of a Guimardian sea horse?

Nice place, Feilding; BTW, it has won the "most beautiful town"
in New Zealand award 15 (fifteen) times