FNWF results

I did manage to get some sewing done after sorting my bag at Waihi

That is a shocking photo, I will have to try and take another one..a day time on will hopefully be better

The two purpley coloured stars I did Thursday night at Mums, the others on Friday night

My little star family is growing.

To see what the other FNWF'ers got up to, pop over to Cheryll's and have a look, there are lots of interesting things happening.

Thank you Cheryll for hosting us.

Waihi

Today we have driven from Tauranga

This beach is 5 mins from my Mums home, I spent a lot of time here when I was young,  it is very different now, there was no retaining wall back then and not so many houses,  there used to be horse paddocks down here. Looks much better with the tide coming in.

We went into town and to the Info centre and I found a card with a statue of Hairy Maclary on it, so,we had to go and have a look. I love these books when my boys were little

Hairy Maclary and friends has the cat bailed up!! While we were looking a toddler wandered up and gave the cat at the bottom right of the photo a hug and a kiss!! So cute.

From Tauranga we headed off to Katikati to show Eve the murals there that show the history of the town, and then we continued on to Waihi as Eve was booked on a gold mine tour. There was a very active open cast mine here but they had two major landslides in the last two years and so the mine is not working until they sort it out. There is other mining happening underground, so far only one house has dropped into a mine shaft...they are now back filling as they go.

Is a huge place. All along the fence here they have poppies to remember the men who went away from this area to WW1

You can't see the names here very well, but in one place there were 4 men with the same name, and none returned,I wondered if they were brothers. How very sad for the parents.

This is the old Cornish pump house that was used many years ago when the original mining was done here

And this Maori warrior was nearby, I don't know why her is here I couldn't find any info about him at the site.

*Update* courtesy of Mrs Perry 

RANGATIRA STATUE: A life-size bronze statue of a rangatira was unveiled and blessed in a ceremony at Waihi on 31 May 2001. The statue, the work of sculptor, Michael Weir of Glen Eden, is situated above Seddon Street, opposite St John’s Anglican Church. The rangatira is depicted standing, stooped and striking the ground with his taiaha to reveal water gushing from the ground. This commemorates the naming of Waihi. According to legend, the rangatira shouted "Waihi hi", meaning gushing water.

On the highest point on the Matha Pit Rim Walkway over looking the Matha Gold Mine in Waihi 

Thank you Tracee.

We are now at the motel, and have wrestled with getting everything back in our bags, Eve is having a pick me up

And may I say she enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we head for the airport in Auckland, we will probably be there when you are reading this,  we will be gearing up for the flight back to OZ.

I am of to do some FNWF sewing now.

Happy sewing.

Tauranga and FNWF

Yesterday we drove from Gisborne to Tauranga. ..I was told it would take three and a half hours, but it took us a whole lot longer...it was about 288km which in Aussie terms doesn't sound like much, but when you drive through many kms of a gorge is takes forever!!!!!

We stopped at this camp/rest place and found this old tressle bridge way up the back

This what we were driving through, lots of windy road with towering hills on either side and a river near the road...this was through the Waioeka Gorge.

We stopped for a look at Opotiki, Eve found postcards in the museum, the on to Whakatane where we had lunch by the river

Whakatane is build between the end of a bluff and the river

And Captian Cook must have been here at some stage of his travels, maybe for lunch at the cafe?? Lol!!

From  here we went on to Tauranga, took Eve to an antique shop, and then went to my mothers house.  She is 91 and fiercely independent, except when she needs the neighbours  and friends to do things for her, she has a very strict routine and finds it hard when people come to the house. So we got takeaway for dinner and then Eve and I went down the the beach to watch the sunset

The tide was way out so we got the sandy beach

This place is called Ferguson Park and behind me taking the photo is 20 acres of playing fields, there was soccer training happening, adult soccer games happening, people walking dogs and people just walking, people sitting watching...there is always something happening down here.

Heading back to Mums now.

Happy days.

PS..Dont forget tonight is Friday Night with Friends, you can sign up over at Cheryll's , she is the hostess with the mostess for a night of virtual stitching and fun. You can see what many like minede people are doing over there on the weekend.

Gisborne

This mornign we were up  right and early and on the road from Napier to Gisborne. Our first stop was at Whirinaki Beach, to bet a photo looking back at Napier, we were a bit far away but took it anyway.

Black sand and lots of tree trunks washed up on the beach

Looking towards where we are going

Lake Tutira

Sadly this lake had lots of green algae growing on it, but the reflections look pretty good. We continued on along narrow and windy roads until we got to Wairoa, where we stopped for a drink.

It was lovely down by the river.

More narrow and windy road and we found a look out and had out first view of Gisborne

Up here we could here tui and bellbirds in the bush.

More windy narrow road followed and we finally got to Gisborne, we had a extra tiki tour as we couldn't find the info office.....this town must be the only town I know that has their info signs in green, I am used to them being blue!! Gives us an extra challenge!!

We finally found it got some maps and then went and had lunch by the beach

This is Waikanae Beach. So nice to sit here and watch the world go by.

We drove up Kaiti Hill to see the view

Looking over the port and to the surf beach

Isn't that a beautiful bay?

Bay, port, surf beach and town. 

We stopped and had a look at the statue of Captain Cook, as he landed here in October 1769. I read that the statue is most likely of some Italian gentleman as the uniform is not an Engligh naval uniform and the face does not look like Captain Cook.....debate rages here as to whether it stays or goes...makes for good photos though!!

The wrong gentleman!!

The plaque commemorates the beginning of  New Zealand as a nation.

We have been so lucky with the weather, sunny days all except one and then I think it was half a day.

Off to Tauranga next.

Happy days.

Napier

Our next port of call was to Napier, which was pretty badly damaged by an earthquake back in Feb. 1931. The earthquake destroyed a lot of the CBD, what didn't get destroyed in the earthquake, was destroyed in the fire that followed the earthquake. Apparently a bunsen burner used in the chemist shop was shaken over and the chemicals nearby caught on fire. There was no water to fight the fire as the earthquake damaged the water mains. So, the city was rebuilt in 1932 and in the Art Deco style and many of the buildings have been retained and restored.

These houses however are known as the Six Sisters and were built in 1897 by a sea faring man who had six daughters and wanted them out of his house! !!! So to do that he built them each a house. They are currently a coffee house, 2 B&B's and the others house businesses

We went on a tour of Napier and stopped at the top of the hill behind the city and this was the view over the Port. The area to the left all came up out of the sea during the earthquake and so solved a problem for the people of Napier as they didnt have anywhere for their town to expand to before the earthquake. It is one of the worst disasters in NZ, as 256 people lost their lives and thousands were injured.

I had a walk around after the tour and took many photos of buildings,there are Art deco styles, some Art Nouveau and Spanish Mission,

My favourite, a combination of Art deco and Art Nouveau.

Buildings built on the corner had to have angled corners at the front, the two men in charge of the rebuilding said the pace of life was getting faster, more cars were on the road and people in cars had to be able to see around the corners.  

Art Deco and Spanish Mission style along side each other. 

Pretty fancy top of the building for the Kiwi man cave!! Lol!!

Great door way.

Lots of lovely lead light around the town centre

There is a lot of this street art all over Napier, encouraged by the council,  all the art done last year had to have a sea theme, a new series is starting this week.

We had a great day out and about, Eve found an antique shop with loads of postcards so she was very happy.

Imhave managed to get a little sewing done

And some more stars

Last night all I could manage was glueing fabric to the paper, pretty exciting stuff!!!

Ok that is enough for today, more to come tomorrow.

Happy days.