New Zealand: Contrasting rock patterns from Little Manly Beach

Here are two patterns with different color schemes and configurations from Little Manly Beach on the morning of February 27th. The first is swirly, while line-like elements call for attention in the second one.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Small shells aplenty

You’ve already seen several pictures from February 26th showing natural features along Little Manly Beach on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. On that late afternoon I’d worked until the declining light forced me stop, even though there was more to do. On February 27th, my last morning in New Zealand before having to head to the airport around noon, I walked back down to the beach at dawn and picked up where I’d left off. Here you see the chaos of little shells and rocks I found in one spot.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Last late afternoon in the country, part 2

Here are two more colorful images from Little Manly Beach late in the afternoon on February 26th. If you compare the pale blue-grey structures along the bottom of the first photograph with those at the top of the second, you’ll see that they are the same stratum of rock. I looked back at my archive just now and found that I took a few broader views that include both colorful areas in the same frame, but artistically I prefer these closer, separate abstractions. I don’t know what the chartreuse in the second picture is—perhaps moss—but it and the rock patterns around it certainly caught my attention.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Last late afternoon in the country

February 26th was our last full day in New Zealand, and late afternoon found us back at Eve’s niece’s place on the Whangaparaoa* Peninsula north of Auckland. More specifically, the house was just a few blocks from Little Manly Beach, where I spent time racing the declining sunlight to photograph intriguing patterns and shapes and colors along the shoreline. Here’s one structure whose pastel shades particularly appealed to me.

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* It’s been a long time since I reminded you that wh in Māori words represents an f sound.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Two more views of the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki on the 17th of February

And let’s hear it as well for the native vegetation atop parts of these scenic rocks.

Today’s post marks the end of the fourth and penultimate* sequence of pictures from my February trip to New Zealand. Tomorrow it’ll be back to central Texas for a while (where the rains have been back, too).

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* Some people have a mistaken idea of what penultimate means.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: One second in the life of the surf at Mount Maunganui

Thanks to my camera’s burst mode, these four consecutive frames cover approximately one second in the breaking of a wave on the coastal rocks at Mount Maunganui on February 25th.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Southern black-backed gull

On February 20th along the Wellington foreshore we noticed that a bird (which turned out to be an immature southern black-backed gull, Larus dominicanus) had found a fish (which turned out to be a spotted stargazer, Genyagnus monopterygius). At first glance the fish seemed dead, but as the gull kept pecking and pulling at it, the fish occasionally wriggled and proved that it was still alive, even if its stargazing nights were clearly over. To say that surviving in a state of nature isn’t always fun is an understatement.

Thanks to Dr. Colin Miskelly, Curator for Terrestrial Vertebrates at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, for confirming that the bird is an immature southern black-backed gull and for identifying the spotted stargazer. Dr. Miskelly hosts a blog dealing with New Zealand’s animals, and by coincidence a recent post showed a southern black-backed gull egg and chick.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Rough and roughly pyramidal

While exploring the shore along Moa Point Rd. near Wellington’s airport on February 20th, I stopped to photograph this rough and roughly pyramidal rock on Fitzroy Bay. Getting to a good vantage point was a little rough as well.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

New Zealand: Lichen-covered rocks at Pukerua Bay

Heading north from Wellington on the overcast morning of February 22nd, I stopped along SH 1 in the vicinity of Pukerua Bay and took pictures of the jagged coastal rocks. Contrasting in color and definition with those prominent lichen-covered rocks in the foreground is a greyed-out and grey-cloud-covered Kapiti Island in the distance. Though there’s no chalk in the scene, you can chalk up one more vertical landscape.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman

Different coastal rocks in close proximity

While we were waiting for the ferry from Tiritiri Matangi back to the Whangaparaoa Peninsula on February 8th, I browsed the shoreline and was surprised to find rather different (and differently photogenic, and differently wet) sections of rock in close proximity.

These were close not only to each other but also to the lichen on dark rocks you saw here a few days ago.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman