Category: Oceania
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Fern trees
For millions of years New Zealand has been isolated from the rest of the world. That’s why nature could develop on these islands without much interference from outside. The result is that about 80% of the plants and trees in New Zealand are only found there and nowhere else on Earth. Interestingly, certain species can also…
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Charming Creek
From 1928 onward, the Charming Creek Valley on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island became the scene of industrious coal-mining activity. A small railway track was built through the valley along the creek to transport the coal from the mine, which was about 10 kilometer inland, to the coast. After 30 years the…
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Battlefield after the battle
Judging from the stumps that are left of them, the trees that once inhabited this little valley must have formed a nice and green copse. Something like the one nearby in the picture below. But alas, they were no match for the army of humans that came and felled each one of them with their chainsaws…
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Treacherous Cook
At the foot of the Cook massif there is a big stone cube carrying dozens of brass-plates with the names of climbers that have fallen to their death on the treacherous slopes and glaciers of this high mountain peak. You’d better stay down and look up in awe at Cook from below, while contemplating the tragic…
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Enchanting Alexandrina
I visited Alexandrina early in the morning. A slanting slope of yellow grass beneath; a field of little white clouds fanning out in the sky above; and in between, Alexandrina stretched out in all her serene beauty. From afar, through a dip in the mountain range, Cook craned his neck and cast a covetous eye upon…
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See-through blouse
And even see-through underwear! All suspended on a clothesline. Meanwhile Aphrodite seems to be anxiously waiting till they’re dry. Photo of the week: Driftwood at Hokitika beach, New Zealand 2013
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Painter’s palette
Aboriginal artists from Arnhem Land in the north of Australia don’t really use a palette. Most of the time they work while sitting on the floor and the space around them gradually gets more and more stained with the clay paint they use for their barks. On the photo we see a worktable at the…
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Clay art
Unlike the wonderful creations of the termite or the crab that we could admire in last two weeks’ posts, the creations of man can sometimes be called art. This is because of man’s capability to reflect, to think about himself and the world. The creative works of man are to a greater or lesser extent,…
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Ant art
Ant hills can be impressive, but these termite structures in the north of Arnhem Land qualify as amazing works of art. Many a bird’s nest may leave us equally awe-struck because of its ingenuity, but it’s the sheer size of these termitariums that’s so amazing. More than man-sized, they evoke images of castles or cathedrals,…
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Mardi Gras
This is again the weekend of the big Mardi Gras Parade in Sydney, attracting masses of LGBTQIAP people from all over Australia and the world. Two years ago I happened to be there with my wife, two simple H’s looking on in amazement. ….. Mardi non, Gras oui ….. LGBTQIAP: LesbianGayBisexualTranssexualQueerIntersexual (whatever that may be) AsexualPansexual. And…
καιρός remembered 