Cee’s Oddball Challenge: Careful Driving Advice

Good morning from a very cloudy Hastings day.

It is always fun to go back over my archives to see what I can find.  This photo was taken in January 2007 in Auckland at the Kumeu car show.  I am surprised I didn’t take that many photos, compared to now. I think the card was really small and it didn’t allow me to take so many.

Anyway this is perfect for Cee’s challenge over at Cee’s Photography.  Monday for me means showcasing those great photos that don’t fit any category.

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: 2015 Week 35

https://woollymuses.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/cees-odd-ball-challenge-wk-35-2/

https://sillarit.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/odd-ball-bottle/

Paddles

https://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/cees-oddball-photo-challenge-2015-week-35/

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A Serendipitous Story: The Rainbow Warrior

The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique,^[1] was an operation by the “action” branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE), carried out on 10 July 1985. During the operation, two operatives sank the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, the Rainbow Warrior in the port of Auckland, New Zealand on its way to a protest against a planned French nuclear test inMoruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship.

France initially denied responsibility, but two French agents were captured and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder. As the truth came out, the scandal resulted in the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu.

As part of a plea bargain, the two agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison, but in fact spent just over two years confined to the French island of Hao before being freed by their government in breach of its treaty obligation.^[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Rainbow_Warrior

In January 2007 my family and I were in Auckland when the Rainbow Warrior was in port.  Not the original one, which was bombed in Auckland Harbour on 10th July 1985 – 30 years ago now.

I remember the bombing really well.  We couldn’t believe that terrorism had reached our shores.  And it was later found to be sanctioned by the French government.  The death of  the Portuguese-Dutch photographer, Fernando Pereira was lost among all the anger at France.

It changed our policies – The failure of western leaders to condemn this violation of a friendly nation’s sovereignty caused a great deal of change in New Zealand’s foreign and defence policy.^[11] New Zealand distanced itself from its traditional ally, the United States, and built relationships with small South Pacific nations, while retaining excellent relations with Australia, and to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.

For me personally it had some long term ramifications.  A couple of years later in 1987 I left New Zealand to travel to Europe.  Entering France now meant having to get a visa, which was only valid for a short term and was rather costly.  Our Australian neighbours, along with the Canadians and Americans on my tour didn’t need to  obtain visas.  It also meant long waits at the borders while we were looked at very carefully.

It took a long time for relationships to thaw out between France and New Zealand.  Even now we are still dancing around each other a bit.

The Rainbow Warrior was refloated for forensic examination. She was deemed irreparable and scuttled at 34.9748°S 173.9349°E in Matauri Bay, near the Cavalli Islands, on 12 December 1987, to serve as a dive wreck and fish sanctuary.^[10] Her masts had been removed and put on display at the Dargaville Maritime Museum.

I prefer to see the dove carrying the olive leaf on a floating ship.

I found these photos while digging through my archives this morning and thought they would make a good photo story for Marilyn’s challenge over at SERENDIPITY.

SERENDIPITY PHOTO PROMPT 2015 -19: NIGHTMARE ON YAWKEY WAY

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Travel Theme: Grey Travels around New Zealand

Good morning from a grey and miserable Hastings day. We have snow on the ranges and the day is expected to be wet and cold.

 So it is appropriate that the Travel Theme this week hosted by Ailsa over at Where’s my backpack? is for our grey photos.  So today I am travelling around the North Island.  First stop is the mud pools at Wai-O-Tapu in Rotorua.  I think I spent hours there just trying to catch a good splash.

Then we are off to Taloga Bay which has New Zealand’s longest wharf.  The two children running are mine.  It was very long and you can find out more about this

http://www.gisbornenz.com/about-eastland/heritage-and-historic-information/tolaga-bay-uawa/

Then we head up to Auckland where I found this grey New Zealand Navy frigate at the Devonport Navy Base.

Finally we head home for some grey stones down at then Ngaruroro River.

Travel theme: Grey

https://woollymuses.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/travel-theme-grey/

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One Word Photo: A Humid Auckland

This week Jennifer from Jennifer Nichole Wells has asked us for our humid photos.  I did a bit of digging in my archives and found this photo of Auckland.

I grew up in Auckland.  The summers are very hot and humid.  When I trained and worked as a nurse we found it really hard.  We wore starched white uniforms.  We had to wear petticoats and tights/stockings.  If we didn’t we had to go home and put them on.  It was a nightmare working in the old hospitals with no air conditioning.  It was always a relief to get home and strip off.

This photo was taken in January 2007.  Hastings can get humid, but it still was a shock to feel the humidity again in Auckland. Coming out from the air conditioned shops into the fresh air the humidity would just hit you.  It was a relief to get back to Hastings.

One Word Photo Challenge: Humid

https://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/one-word-challenge-humid/

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Cee’s Black & White Challenge: Ships at Auckland

Good morning from a cold Hastings day.  Yesterday my son came up from Wellington by bus and it snowed for him.  He didn’t expect it.  It was veeerrryyyy coooollllldddd.  I saw that Te Mata Peak in Havelock North, just a few kilometers to the east of where I live, had a few flurries of snow.  I could see the clouds were getting blacker and heavier.  I had to go and pick up my son and wanted to take some photos but was driving.  By the time I got home the clouds had changed again. It was just way to cold to even go out and take photos.  The wind chill factor was bone chilling.

So onto Cee’s Black & White Challenge over at Cee’s Photography which is large objects. So I found these photos when I was going through my archives yesterday.

The first photo is of a New Zealand navy frigate at Devonport Navy Base.  The second is looking over towards Auckland’s iconic skyline.  I was told yesterday that it looks different again to this photo taken in 2007.

And here is a photo of the largest object ever. The moon.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Large Subjects

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One Word Photo: A Serendipitous Visit to Auckland

Good morning from a freezing Hastings day.  There has been quite a lot of snow north of us, closing the main road from Napier to Taupo.  But we generally don’t get it where I live.  But it still means a freezing time for us too.

So onto something a bit warmer.  Jennifer from Jennifer Nichole Wells has asked us for our photos of sandstorm.

Sooo, where do I find photos of sand.  Or storms.  I thought about it all day yesterday.  Our beaches here in Napier tend to be stony and rocky, very little sand.  Plus I wanted to have some different photos.

Sooooo, this morning I did a bit of digging.  I started searching right back in my archives on my hard drive.  At least I still had photos going back to 2006, when I brought my first big digital camera.  It was a great camera with a leica lens.  I had some money from the sale of my house so used it for a new computer and decent camera.  My ex-husband used it a lot for his work, so I had to do a bit of deleting while I was going through them.  My hard drive is fulling up fast so that is not a bad thing.  It was funny seeing my children from back then too.

These photos are from a trip to Auckland in February 2007.  My ex-husband loves classic cars and we would go up to a big car show in Kumeu, north of Auckland.  We did a bit of sightseeing too.  I grew up in Auckland, so I wanted to show my children my home town, so to speak. These photos are taken at Takapuna beach, the first one looking over to Rangitoto Island.  An extinct volcano.

Someone had some fun driving around on the sand.

And you can just see some sand right in the foreground while looking over towards the CBD.  This skyline is so different to what I remember from growing up in Auckland. It was fun doing the touristy things that one normally doesn’t do when you actually live in the city.  That meant for me catching the ferry from the CBD to the North Shore and wandering around the beach.

So I hope you enjoyed my little visit to Auckland which is also my photo story prompt for Marilyn’s challenge over at SERENDIPITY.

One Word Photo Challenge: Sandstorm

One Word Photo Challenge: Sand Storm

SERENDIPITY PHOTO PROMPT 2015 #13 – ON OLD CAPE COD

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Steve’s Snap & Zap: Old

This is a great challenge from Steve. I love editing photos, just to see where it goes. I had to think of what to use for old. A selfie was out of the question. Steve used his old iPod.
Then I looked over to my china cabinet and found my oldest possession. A rather old battered vase that is conveniently engraved “Auckland Exhibition 1899”. I found it in the neighbours plot as the were building a house. How on earth it got there I don’t know. So I have had it for some 40 or so years. Even with all my travels I still have it. It is just like the leaning tower of Pisa – falling down more like it.

With Snapseed I first added the Drama 2 filter.

Then the nature HDR filter.

Then the old lens filter.

Then I headed to FX Photostudio and added the pencil paint filter.

Then I added the vintage old photo filter.

For my final image I added a glow.

Snap & Zap: A Trusted Old Friend…

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