Category: Oceania
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Fern trees
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…
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Charming Creek
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…
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Battlefield after the battle
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…
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Treacherous Cook
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…
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Enchanting Alexandrina
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…
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See-through blouse
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
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…
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Clay art
Clay art Unlike the marvellous creations of the termite or the crab, which we have been able to admire in the posts over the past two weeks, human creations can sometimes be called art. This is due to humanity’s ability to think, to reflect on itself and the world. Human creative works are, to a…
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Ant art
Ant art Ant hills can be impressive, but these termite mounds in the north of Arnhem Land are nothing short of astonishing works of art. Many a bird’s nest can fill us with equal awe because of its ingenuity, but it is above all the sheer size of these termite mounds that is so astonishing.…
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Mardi Gras
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…
καιρός remembered 