The southerly gets as strong as anywhere on the coastal side of the Otago Peninsula near Cape Saunders as these trees suggest!




Here is the full slide show.

The recently opened Chinese Garden in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Dunedin's Chinese Garden

Some info about the garden is provided in the album caption on Webshots.

This rather spectacular sunrise (unadulterated by software) on the 25th of June 2008......


and through the cherry tree...

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ANZAC day sees us taking a short trip down the peninsula to Portobello. The autumn light can be unusual at this time of year and at times has a heavy pastel "feel" as well as colour. That afternoon mist fought with sun streams and dark clouds scudded across the lower reaches of the sky.

Here is the slideshow. Other views in webshots show the captions.

The ANZAC day tribute is here.

This spot was a favourite when we were small and remains peaceful and interesting. The walkway has recently been repaired and improved. These photos during an Easter of good weather at the end of a glorious summer.
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More volcanic landscape - this time just south of Dunedin City at Tunnel Beach where lava once flowed into the ocean and the sea has since eroded it back, differentially, leaving spectacular cliffs and rock formations.

Tunnel Beach

Popular walking, climbing, swimming and picnic spot.
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While the role of rail has changed over the last three decades in New Zealand with the disappearance of steam, the deregulation of road transport, the privatisation of NZR and most recently attempts resurrect rail as an urban passenger mode, it is easy to forget the full extent of the infrastructure which once surrounded rail - even in the deep south. At the time I was involved in the split up of NZR in 1989 around 2 of every 3 goods wagons moving from South to North was empty - as far as we could tell then - reflecting the North to South "imports" for consumption while "exports" moved by other modes.

This link takes you to the album of shots from the Steam celebration of October 2006 in Dunedin.

Some indication of the amount of shunting that was involved in early days is given in this photo (click read more) from March 1950:

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