Search This Blog

Some Photos from my Hometown Wanganui

Posted
The Waimarie paddle steamer Wanganui New ZealandWanganui, the town I grew up in New Zealand, is not exactly "on the map", but perhaps that's because it suffers from an inconvenience of its geography; it's not on the beaten track. Most people, if they aren't flying, make a bee-line down the center of the North Island when driving from Auckland to Wellington. To visit places like Wanganui, New Plymouth, Napier, Hastings etc. means a side-trip to either of the coasts, and since everyone is just trying to get from A to B in the shortest and quickest manner, the cities on the east and west coasts of the North Island miss out on a lot of casual visitors.

But if you ever get to visit New Zealand and you have the time, a side trip to a place like Wanganui can reward you with some surprises not available elsewhere. Wanganui is known as "The River City", a claim that many towns and cities in New Zealand could make, but I guess Wanganui got there first. It is the only river in New Zealand that is designated as a national park, I believe, and the river is rich in both Maori and early white settler history. At one time the river was such an active means of communication and travel that a fleet of 12 steam-powered river boats plied up and down its navigable length

Wanganui water towerThe city also sports two towers of notable architectural significance, and neither of them lean - eat your heat out, Pizza! The main street "Victoria Avenue" is graced by well-maintained Victorian era buildings adorned in the summer months with bright displays of hanging baskets of annual flowers. The city is also home to a vigorous polytech that focuses on the arts and design.

So if you ever get the chance, check out my home town.


In the photos of Wanganui that I have posted, you'll get to see the river steamer the "Waimarie" which sails daily in the summer and most weekends in the winter. Then you'll see a view of the volcano Mount Ruaphehu as seen from my brother's place, and then some shots of the Wanganui water tower. Oh, and there's a photo of "me mum" too. Enjoy

Some useful links if planning a trip to Wanganui:

Information about Wanganui

The Waimarie river boat

The Wanganui Regional Museum

Fodor's Guide to the Whanganui River National Park

The Sarjeant Art Gallery

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Samoan Youth

Posted
This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year. Samoan Youth Canon EOS 20D 1/30sec at f/20 ISO 200 Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
Image

Before and After: Two Joshua Tree Photographs, Two Painterly Reworkings

Posted
I want to try something a little different in this post — a working walk-through of how two of my Joshua Tree photographs from April of 2011 became two of my newest painterly artworks on Redbubble. Same compositions, same landscape, same afternoon in the Mojave. Very different final pieces. The Raw Photographs Both photographs were taken on a single afternoon trip to Joshua Tree National Park, shot in Canon raw (.CR2) format on my Canon EOS. Raw files are, as any photographer knows, deliberately flat — they carry the maximum amount of information the sensor recorded, without any of the punchy contrast, saturation, or sharpening that a JPEG would apply automatically in-camera. That flatness is a feature: it gives the photographer the widest possible latitude to make choices in post-processing. But it also means a raw file, straight out of the camera, doesn't look like the scene the eye remembers. It looks like the scene the sensor saw, drained of atmosphere. Here are the two r...
Image

Young at Heart: The Active Seniors Collection + Massive Redbubble Sale!

Posted
Ollie Grandpa Stepping into the freedom of retirement after a long, 45-year career completely shifts your perspective. You finally have the time to let loose, hit the road, and truly embrace the fun side of life! That joyful, unrestrained energy is exactly what I wanted to capture in my newest Redbubble collection. I'm so excited to introduce my new " Active Seniors " series, featuring designs that perfectly embody the "young at heart" spirit. The series features a vibrant, adventurous little old lady tearing it up, and a matching active grandpa catching some serious air on a skateboard or cruising on a bright orange motor scooter. Complete with flower-adorned helmets, flying striped scarves, and big, beaming smiles, these characters are a tribute to everyone who refuses to slow down. These make fantastic graphic tees, travel mugs, or stickers for your own "Fa...
Image