marsland hill, New Plymouth, NZ

Marsland Hill is in New Plymouth, Taranaki, and affords a great view of the city and shoreline. The hill has an interesting history for those interested. You can click here to read about it.

There are memorials to fallen soldiers all across New Zealand. This fountain on Marsland Hill was dedicated to those in the Boer War (1899-1902). In 1979 it was moved to a pedestrian mall and then back in 1997 when the mall closed. For inscriptions, click here.

This memorial is for those lives lost in the Taranaki Land Wars. Click here for the story.

This carillon was built by George Kibby as a memorial to his wife Mabel. It plays 4 times a day and has a range of about 25 songs. Carillon photos by Hubby.

Ohura, NZ

Ohura is a tiny town, off the beaten track, that thrived on coal mining.

This photo down the main street seems like a normal town, but, sadly, when the last mine 

closed in the 1970's, most residents left.  

Now, all the stores are deserted.

So, I converted all the photos to sepia to fit the street.

Click here and here if you want to know more about the town.

Merry Christmas!

I pray that your Christmas season is filled 

with love and peace!

depression era hut

At Pioneer Village in Stratford, I found this quite ingenious to make a house from metal drums.

The little sign on the door says 'whare' (pronounced far-ay), a Maori word that means 'home'.

st george anglican church

This is St. George's Anglican Church in Patea. The church was built in 1885. Click here for more information.

Orakei Korako

Back in 2010, Hubby took us on another of his awesome 'out of the way' road trips, where we visited 

this thermal area between Taupo and Rotorua called Orakei Korako or the Hidden Valley. 

The mineral formations are amazing, when you think that the water is near boiling point.

The white is silica, the darker color is caused by microbes, not rust.

A diary entry for 11 March 1850 recorded that Maori lived

in this spot, 'to spare their women the trouble of procuring

wood for fuel'.http://www.orakeikorako.co.nz/history

For any questions, you can  find out more about it by clicking here.

If you are in the area, you will do yourself a favor by visiting.

Red roses

 Hubby brings me flowers every now and then for no reason...

A different kind of visitor

Over the 5 years we have rented this house, I can count the number of visitors on one hand. It's OK, I like it that way.  I don't have to put on a bra unless I'm going out somewhere :)

Well, yesterday, I got up earlier than usual and put on a bra so I could let in a visitor who came bearing gifts. Lots of rolls of insulation! 

A while back, NZ passed a law that all rental houses have to have insulation in the roof and under the floor by the end of 2019. For those of us that had absolutely zero insulation anywhere in the house, it will be a big change. We are quite chuffed about it to see how warm the house will stay next winter.

It didn't take the guy very long to put in the insulation. His biggest problem was getting it through the attic access, which was quite small. He ended up having to take off the frame around it and cutting the rolls of insulation in half, but he got it done. 

And it was all finished in time for me to take off my bra and take a nap. Life is good.

Strange news

I found this posted online.

The Lonely Graves, Otago, NZ

It's amazing how big the human heart really is and this is one instance that has withstood the passage of time, even if it isn't all true. 

Click here for a letter that explains the graves.

Old habits die hard

When I stopped working at the casino (just before moving to NZ), I thought the things I had to do there were gone--like 'clearing my hands' for the camera after I had touched somewhere that money could be.

To do this, you put down anything you are holding, put your hands  up to shoulder height and spread all your fingers and show both sides of your hands to the camera. At any store, you could always tell who worked in a casino because we ALL did it when we put things back on a shelf.

Unfortunately, it became a habit that would take a while to stop doing. I would catch myself doing it even putting clothes away in drawers.

So, after all this time (12 years and counting) I can't believe that I just 'cleared my hands' so my cat could see that I don't have any more cheese!

The really funny part is that it seemed to satisfy him and he went back to taking a nap.

Yay!!

It seems that the comment moderation has returned!! Thanks for your comments and opinions to help me find out.

It seems I was looking in the 'post' settings instead of the 'email' settings to try to fix things. That's what happens when you can't 'think outside the box'!

I feel much better about the whole blogging thing now.

Still working on things.....

I found some articles that are suppose to make comments moderated again but I'm not at all sure if they will work.

I am sill thinking about what to do. Part of me wants to start another blog that would mainly be historic places that I have seen and researched--along with any other things that I might find interesting.

The other part of me just wants to stop blogging, as I have pretty much covered the cultural differences in 12 years!

If you would leave a comment here to let me know that you stopped by, I'd appreciate being able to see if the moderation has returned. And, do give me your opinion about these things...thanks!

Blogger sucks

It has been a while since I could moderate any comments on this blog, so I have no idea if you are commenting. If you are, thanks so much! (But I have no idea where they went!)

If the problem isn't cleared up soon, I will start a new blog as a continuation of this one as I'm sure I will still find things to say and show you.

I will let you know if I do and will leave a link here for you.

Thank you, my faithful followers! Here's a photo of my cats.

Stratford Municipal Buildings

Before it shut down, I taught at Stratford SeniorNet a couple days a week. The classes were held in the SeniorNet rooms in the old Stratford Municipal Buildings. According the this article, the present building was built in 1916.

These photos are of the ceiling of what was once the municipal library.

It's sad that this space just sits empty, but, I suppose, that's the

price of progress.