New Zealand: Cathedral Cove trees and textures
Probably the most visited bit of nature on New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula
is Cathedral Cove, where we spent several hours three years ago today.
Leaning out over the cliff in the first photograph are pōhutukawa trees, Metrosideros excelsa.
Me being me, I was taken with all the appealing rock textures.
I took dozens of pictures, of which you’re seeing a few.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
All beautiful and love the colours and hues.
Leya
March 7, 2020 at 5:24 AM
Now I’m wondering if the Swedish coast has similar places (minus the pōhutukawa trees).
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 7:28 AM
Oh we do, up north, called “the High Coast”
Leya
March 7, 2020 at 9:31 AM
I hadn’t heard of it, so I went searching:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Coasthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Coast
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 11:03 AM
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/898
Leya
March 7, 2020 at 11:35 AM
Thanks. Now I’ve got another place to put on my wish list.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 1:01 PM
♥
Leya
March 7, 2020 at 4:18 PM
so many interesting and beautiful colors and textures here
beth
March 7, 2020 at 5:36 AM
I had a good time there, photographically, and we were fortunate to finish up not long before the rain came down.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 7:30 AM
I find the layers of texture and color quite fascinating. I wonder how trees manage to cling and survive the sometimes harsh elements on those cliffs?
Littlesundog
March 7, 2020 at 6:25 AM
Pōhutukawa trees are famous for clinging to cliffs that way. I assume they have large and robust roots. Here’s a closer look from our first New Zealand trip:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/new-zealand-one-more-picture-of-pohutukawa-trees/
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 7:33 AM
The final one is fascinating – like an illustration.
susurrus
March 7, 2020 at 6:49 AM
How interesting that you see it as an illustration. I don’t think that ever would have occurred to me.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 7:35 AM
It would be a cryptic one, I agree, but as I look at it I seem to see echoes of all kinds of things – an elephant here, an alligator there, a hanging spider…I probably just need to stop drinking coffee for the day!
susurrus
March 7, 2020 at 7:38 AM
You do have a fertile (or caffeinated) mind!
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 7:46 AM
It would be impossible to resist those rock textures, and they yielded some gorgeous photos as we see here.
melissabluefineart
March 7, 2020 at 8:09 AM
Your word resist reminded me of Irving Berlin’s song from Annie Get Your Gun:
My defenses are down,
She’s broken my resistance,
And I don’t know where I am.
Actually I do know: I’m in Austin.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 8:43 AM
Ah, Irving Berlin. Such a delight.
melissabluefineart
March 8, 2020 at 10:16 AM
Yes, one of the 20th century’s great songwriters. I suspect most Americans under 30 have never heard of him.
Steve Schwartzman
March 8, 2020 at 10:30 AM
My family likes to watch Jeopardy (sigh). It isn’t that bad…I have noticed though that the categories are increasingly about entertainment, because the sweet young things haven’t got a clue about history, geography, culture, literature. They know their TV characters, though!
melissabluefineart
March 8, 2020 at 10:53 AM
Let’s hear it for history, geography, culture, and literature!
Steve Schwartzman
March 8, 2020 at 11:06 AM
Cheers!
melissabluefineart
March 10, 2020 at 9:38 AM
Am I beginning to see things? The little creatures on the rock wall of your last photo are amazing, Steve.
Peter Klopp
March 7, 2020 at 8:10 AM
You and Susan (susurrus), above, saw plenty of little creatures. My pareidolia was asleep this time. The right center part of the last picture now reminds me of what Greece looks like on a map.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 8:45 AM
Beautiful colors, I was seeing some animal shapes, too, but wasn’t sure I should mention it. so I am happy to see in the comments, that others were thinking along the same lines.
Robert Parker
March 7, 2020 at 9:48 AM
Shall we say that pareidolia rears its (imagined) head?
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 11:04 AM
Sandstone? I see Japanese calligraphy in the last one. And I have not yet had a cup of coffee this morning.
Michael Scandling
March 7, 2020 at 10:42 AM
Not knowing what kind of rock it is, I searched and found a site that describes the “chalky white and pink limestone cliffs” there, so you were right. Japanese calligraphy strikes me as a reasonable thing to see in the last picture.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 11:57 AM
It’s good to know that I am semi-accurate and reasonable.
Michael Scandling
March 7, 2020 at 1:09 PM
That’s much better than inaccurate and unreasonable.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 1:45 PM
Beautiful colours and textures. Textures being the subject of my photo topics this month. Like others have mentioned the last one is intriguing. I see a group of dancers 🙂
Heyjude
March 7, 2020 at 11:49 AM
And now you’ve made me think of Carl Maria von Weber’s “Invitation to the Dance”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_the_Dance_(Weber)
“Textures” is a great subject for photography, as you know so well and are dedicating yourself to this month.
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 12:00 PM
Love the textures and colors, Steve. I loved it here!
Jane Lurie
March 7, 2020 at 7:49 PM
And with good reason!
Steve Schwartzman
March 7, 2020 at 7:50 PM
I love it, Steve, thank you! 🙂
bluebrightly
March 9, 2020 at 1:29 PM
You’re texturally welcome.
Steve Schwartzman
March 9, 2020 at 1:47 PM
The last photo is my favorite. It’s a wonderful abstraction; every detail seems to fit with every other. It feels more like a sculpture than a painting, and it’s wholly delightful. It’s one of those that doesn’t look “like” anything else to me. It just is what it is.
The post as a whole intrigued me because of its mention of the Coromandel Peninsula. One of my readers, from India, posted a poem on her blog written by Sarojini Naidu and titled “The Coromandel Fishers”. I wondered if there was a connection between the poem and the peninsula, and that’s when I found the information you also linked to: that the Coromandel Peninsula was named after HMS Coromandel, and that the ship itself was named for India’s Coromandel Coast. What a great connection.
shoreacres
March 9, 2020 at 9:23 PM
That last formation turned out to have more life in it than I realized. Your statement that “It just is what it is” reminds me of the last line of Archibald MacLeash’s “Ars Poetica”: “A poem should not mean / But be.”
European colonists did a lot to spread things around the world. Some foods that we think of as typical of a certain country actually originated elsewhere, like tomatoes in Italy, which came from North America. Names, too, got moved around, as you noted with Coromandel.
Steve Schwartzman
March 10, 2020 at 8:30 AM
A great place to visit .. wonderful shots Steve ..
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 13, 2020 at 2:29 PM
I certainly had a good time with nature there.
Steve Schwartzman
March 13, 2020 at 5:13 PM
Gorgeous pictures for a wonderful place to visit. Thanks for the pictures.
Geri Lawhon
June 2, 2020 at 1:57 PM
Sure thing. If you haven’t yet been to New Zealand, I hope you’ll get to go. We’ve gone twice.
Steve Schwartzman
June 2, 2020 at 2:07 PM