Supporting Team Aotearoa

 

Good morning from a cool, but sunny day in Hastings.

I am feeling very patriotic this morning.  The All Blacks won a bruising encounter last night against the Spring Bocks, much to the delight of my husband.  So this morning it is the turn of the sailors on Team Aotearoa to win at the America’s Cup in San Francisco.  When the Louis Vuitton Cup was being sailed it was a real farce with no real challenging races.  But now it is a lot more exciting.  And we are winning.

I just love this photo of the ferns.  This was taken the other day when I had to go out into town, but stopped off at Cornwall Park to take some photos as you do.  I started off feeding the ducks and then went around to the native bush area actually just to take photos of ferns as I wanted to use them for embellishments,  When I got home I found this photo.  It really stood out to me and I wondered what I should do with it.

I am developing a range of Kiwiana papers which features images of ferns which I have used as background and also as a card behind the photo.  This is a smart template to start with so it was just a matter of clicking and dragging the images where I wanted.  I also deleted elements that I didn’t want as I felt the photo was too strong on it’s own.  I was up to late last night wondering what I was going to do with it.  Then early this morning I thought of our national anthem.  So it was onto Google too get the actual words, for both the English and Maori version.  The Maori version is not an literal translation of the English version –

O Lord, God,

Of all people

Listen to us,

Cherish us

May good flourish,

May your blessings flow.

Defend Aotearoa.

Actually when you hear this being sung you can really feel this.

So go the Kiwis.

Cheers and have a nice day

Impressions of Hasting’s Blossom Parade

As I woke up this morning my heart sank as I heard the rain falling.  Today was the day of our annual blossom parade.  We just didn’t need the rain.  No need to worry.  By 10 AM the rain had stopped and the sun was out in full force by lunchtime.  By the time the parade started it was sweltering.  What a relief.

I was totally impressed with the spirit of the participants and the time and effort along with imagination that was put into the floats.  My husband takes part every year with various groups.  For the past 3 years he has been entering for his work place.  This year he constructed a pirate ship on top of a tandem trailer and because he works at an early childhood centre the them was pirates and princesses.  So far he has only managed a highly recommended but this year he improved on that by coming runner up in the schools section.

What impressed me the most was the colours.  The primary colours were everywhere, predominately red.

I loved the colours in this sari.  It is hard to see but the spangles really glittered in the sun.

There were plenty of red vehicles such as this old fashioned firetruck.  What I latter saw when going over the photos is the fireman in the passenger seat is playing with his phone.  What a contrast of technology.

This red mini was sooooo cute among the flowers.

This float was the winner of the school section.  Each of the large flowers was a hat for the children with only their faces showing.

This float won the peoples’ choice award.  I love the way the balloons make up the grapes.  There was definitely a lot of work that went into that one.

This year we had some horses, these are from the Clydsdale Horse Club.

These are kaimaramara horses.  A special breed.  It was funny when we were looking at the programme and found an entry for the Harleys and Horses.  These were the horses, while the harleys were the Harley Motorcycle Club.  Rather a contrast.

Then there was this shetland pony.

As well as this fibreglass horse.

But this horse wouldn’t have hooves and hair like the Clydsdale.

Blue and yellow was around as well.

Balloons were everywhere.

These were amazing.  Balloons were joined together to make up a child that sat on the shoulders of the walkers for this kindergarten.  How do they get their ideas?

This was very impressive.  As Hastings has a sister city in China this float by one of our city councillors always feature a Chinese flavour.

The soft colours on this float stands out against the square building in the background.

This  bubble float is always the last one.  It is a real crowd favourite.

As I was walking through town to get some lunch when it was finished I noticed these flower arrangements in the fountain right in the middle of the CBD.

All these photos were taken with the Fujifilm XS1.  Today was a photographer’s heaven.  So many photos to take.  I was surprised to find that I had only taken 680 photos.  I thought I had taken more.  I did bump into another photographer who had two cameras on hand, one the ZS1 and the other MX1.  He said he liked the versatility of have a fixed lens but also one with the zoom.

Time to go.

Cheers and have a good night.  Go the All Blacks!