Day 59 'Tsunami Alerts'

Today was an interesting day, we packed up our bags, left our motel room to go to reception to pay our account and heard the lady at the front desk saying on the phone "We can't take any bookings at the moment as we are on Tsunami Alert, the roads are closed, beach access is prohibited and the ferries are not sailing!"
Once she got off the phone she told us that there had been a very severe 8.8 earthquake in Chile and that the beach in front of us was due to have Tsunami in 20 minutes and that she had been trying to ring us to tell us to leave!
We promptly paid the bill, grabbed our bags and headed for higher ground.
It ended up being a non-event but you still had to follow the procedures and the police and locals were very good in keeping us informed. Of course my iPhone filled me in on all the latest updates around New Zealand.
Because my camera SD card got corrupted the day before, I had to use my iPhone to take photos, so this is the photo when the tsunami supposedly reached us.

And this next photo was when we went back to the beach. There were a couple of ships and dozens of yachts just sitting out on the horizon, not moving. They are hard to see in this iPhone photo.

Day 58 'Camera died'

My SD card got corrupted and deleted all of the wedding photos I took today!
I have tried to recover them but it hasn't worked...technology fail!

But technically I have not  missed a day of the 365 challenge because I still took the photos (about a 100 of them), I just couldn't download them. A techy cousin of mine is going to have a go, so you never know...

Day 57 'Onetangi Beach, Waiheke Island'

Over in Waiheke for a wedding. this is the night before...

Not quite Sunset!

Day 56 'Can you feel the steam?'

I pass this mud pool everyday walking to the Rotorua Event Centre! It was steaming well today!

Day 55 Rotorua Museum

The photo of the day has to be of the picturesque Rotorua Museum. The Museum is in the historic Bath house building in the Government Gardens.

 

and then I had to include this one...

Restoration in progress

Day 54 Hamuranga Springs

I went for a walk with my sister-in-law to the Hamuranga Springs in Rotorua. It was a one kilometre walk in striking scenery. It is most famous for its clear fresh water springs and Redwood forest. It is the deepest natural spring in the North Island.

Day 53 View of Lake Rotorua from Good Life Vista

This is the view from my brother and sister-in-law's house in Ngongotaha, Rotorua.

Day 52 'The Teardrop'

My cousin's baby had her one year old birthday party today.

It's tough being 'one'!

Day 51 Celebrating Chinese New Year in Auckland

In the some of the streets  in the Auckland CBD, you will see evidence of Chinese New Year celebrations.

Day 50 The Playground'

This is the playground at New Lynn Primary. In the background you can see the school vegetable garden which they won an award for last year.

Day 49 Growing New Horizons

This is the school emblem for 'The Gardens School'. All of the tiles were made by the foundation students when the school opened. The motif stands for "Growing New Horizons'.

Day 48 Crazy Steps

 I have been at Mangawhai Beach school for the last few days, a large rural school with 15 teachers. It was a real privilege to work in this school with a forward thinking principal and enthusiastic staff. But no wonder, the past two posts are photos of where these people live, it is a hidden paradise!
I stayed at Milestone Cottages, a place I will definitely stay at again. The environment was spectacular and it was only a 5 minute walk to the estuary, and today's photo of the day is of the 'Crazy steps' that lead down to the estuary.

Day 47 Mangawhai beach

We went down to the surf club and photographed the amazing scenery.

 

 

Day 46 Mangawhai Estuary

Stunning scenery, gorgeous landscape and only an hour and half away from where I live!

Day 45 'Princely'

This is our younger German Shepherd 'Prince'. He loves gardening and hunting for rabbits! I think he looks quite 'princely' in this photo!

Day 44 Valentines Sky Tower

Sky Tower lit up specially for Valentines!

Day 43 'Slow Down!'

The Gardens School in Manurewa, Auckland have a great way of reminding drivers what to do in the school driveway!

Day 42 Classroom signs

I will never get lost in this school!

Day 41 Ivy covered

I love the way the ivy grows up the trunk of this tree.

Day 40 'Rustic Fence'

I wanted a sunset photo tonight but it was very dull. This shot is of my macrocarpa fence a few hours before sunset, the light was amazing and cast great shadows.

Day 39 'MAGs'

Mount Albert Grammar School is affectionately known as MAGs. Established in 1922, it is one of New Zealand's leading co-educational schools.
Famous alumni are:
Sir Robert Muldoon (Prime Minister 1975-1984
Sir Peter Snell (triple Olympic gold medalist and double Commonwealth medalist)
Dr Allan Bollard (Governor of NZ Reserve Bank)
Sir Keith Sinclair (Historian)
All Blacks, Rugby League players and many others that can be found here.

Day 38 'Ponga Fern'

These cut ponga logs have been sitting around for a while, and the ferns still grow on them!

Day 37 Patriotic Pumpkins

When walking in the garden this afternoon I noticed that our pumpkin patch is growing in the form of the North Island!

Day 36 'On Guard'

Here is 'Merlot' on guard in his favourite spot, where he can survey all who arrive or leave.

Day 35 'Still with us'

This is a photo of our older dog 'Merlot' who is 11 years old. A month ago he had a stroke. I saw it happen and it was not a very pleasant experience. I have owned dogs all my life and never realised that dogs could suffer from this human ailment!

Dogs recover from strokes extremely well,
Merlot was on his feet two days later, after a week he was ready to chase the younger dog around even though he was still tipping over to the left side.
He looks a picture of health now and is almost back to normal, something I would not have believed a month ago!

Day 34 Adventure Playground

All schools have adventure playgrounds of all differing designs.
I liked this photo because of all the different lines and perspectives.

Day 33 'Seen better days'

I must really replace these candlesticks!

Day 32 'Spinning Suncatcher '

It is quite windy today so I had to take quite a few photos to get a reasonable one of the suncatcher.