Wacky Letterboxes

I've always had a fascination for letterboxes out of the ordinary so on my walks & trips I've taken photos of lots of them over the years. These are just a few of them!

Christmas is looming fast...

I recently took part in a holiday recipe collection at DSP and thought I would post my recipe here. There are two versions for those who live in different parts of the world. I always use glace cherries (maraschino), soak them in the rum or coffee liqueur overnight (or longer) then use the liquid to make the truffles with mmmmm - don't forget to keep them away from the toddlers though!

Leaving comments

Thank you to everyone who leaves comments, I love to get them as I guess everyone does, I really should leave more myself. Susan, that face of Harry's is a Vegemite face - all good kiwis are brought up on it, it's a yeast extraction spread. Yes, I do have lots of photos of the restored lighthouse, a layout on them is coming soon.

Peacocks at KatiKati

While we were having lunch at the bird gardens I noticed the male Peacock eyeing up the female one at the bottom of the hill and all of a sudden he burst into bloom LOL. So in my hurry to get down there to get a few photos I didn't set the camera on the right settings and all the photos were a little blurred, I've fixed them the best I could but I was so disappointed, it's not every day you get a chance to photograph a male displaying his finery. These two LOs are actually a combination of two different males, one of them was at the Zoo but he didn't give a display while I was there.

KatiKati Bird Gardens

As mentioned before, on the way home from our weekend in Tauranga I saw a sign that said KatiKati Bird Gardens so we went down that road to have a look. We spent an idyllic two hours there having lunch and walking around the beautiful gardens, feeding a lot of the birds by hand and even walking through the cages of some of them. This LO really doesn't do it justice, I'll post a few more photos later. BTW if you're wondering about the Moa bird, it is now extinct although it used to roam NZ many hundreds of years ago. Bones of the Moa are always being found and there are skeletons of it in some of the museums, this one is just a statue!

A few photos...

These are a few photos I've taken over the last month or so with added captions.

This one was taken early in the morning before normal people were up and about - on the beach at Mount Maunganui the weekend we were in Tauranga. We stayed at a hotel across the road from the beach and for that time of year the weather was perfect.

This one was taken at Cornwallis Beach which is just 10 mins drive away from where we live in Waitakere, Auckland.

This one I took at the Auckland Zoo the day we were there, Labour Day holiday on 22nd Oct. Yes, I was in the cage with them, people were allowed to walk through their cage which was a large open air one with a netting roof, it was fascinating.

Another bird one, this one DH took at the KatiKati Bird Gardens which we called into on our way home from Tauranga, more on that later.

One of the walk way ramps going down onto Mount Maunganui beach through the sand dunes.

And this one is right on the beach.

I took this on one of the many stops on the way to Tauranga. On the way there is a long haul up through the mountains called the Kaimai Ranges & this was the view from the top.

DGS Harry one weekend when we had him while his parents took off to Sydney for the weekend.

This cute little family I think had only just hatched because they walked around in this group the whole time they were following Mum. They were in the backyard of son's house which backs onto the coast of Waitakere.

Another one taken at Cornwallis Beach with DGDs Lauren & Becky. The large frame is one that is put there by the council to frame your photographs, there are lots of them dotted all over the country.

And finally this one I took near Matamata just after we stopped in at Hobbiton.

It's Monday again...

Okay, well the weekend flew by so fast I barely saw it! So where was I up to - oh yes the end of October. On the 27th we drove to Tauranga (a 3 or more hour drive depending on how often you stop, we stop a lot to take photos!) for my niece's 40th birthday party. On the way we stopped for a coffee in Matamata which is famous for being where some of the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed. Their information centre is built in the shape of a hobbit house!

Don't forget, to see a larger version just click on the photo or layout.