Geothermic Rotorua creates an atmosphere not to be forgotten easily. Smells and steam abound.
Category / Creation
Changing everything
Today we enjoyed a long walk midst the wild beauty of Ahipara beach.
Last night we watched ‘This Changes Everything’, a documentary based on the book by Naomi Clines. The cinema was full. We saw challenging stories from around the globe calling for a new post industrial story in which we humans are not the rulers of creation taking whatever resources we want from the earth and in the process devastating vast areas of land as well as people’s lives.
Naomi offered a different story in which we, who are part of creation, need to take greater care of it, now, before it is too late. This is a story about the power of local communities working together to ensure the poorest and most vulnerable do not end up paying for the greed of the corporate and wealthy world. Given the imminent climate change talks in Paris, this challenge is timely.
For more information search ‘This Changes Everything’
Kerikeri River
Walked in the shade of the wooded river path to Rainbow Falls. We ate our picnic whilst dipping our feet in the cold water, narrowly missing a foot long eel.
The day afforded us the sense of stillness that comes with living more fully in the present moment.
Rangitoto
Took a walk up to the crater of this volcanic island with its landscape of rugged lava, Pohutakawa forest, flowers and ferns and the amazing sound of the Tui bird.
Black Mountain dragon
Loved the strongly contrasting colours of the earth and flowers in the Red Centre of the Botanical gardens on the lower slopes of Black Mountain.
Had our first sighting of a wallaby and got very close to a lazy dragon lizard.
Koala
Late afternoon and this Koala was dozing nicely. Cuddly as he looks you would not want to get in the middle of two males fighting. Check out those claws.
Seeing this fella and two more koalas capped the end of a great day in the nature reserve. Thank you Shona for sharing your deep wisdom and passion for this place.
3rd country, 4th flag
The flag of the Aboriginal people of Australia. It was created as a symbol of unity and national identity for Aboriginal people during the land rights movement of the early 1970s.
Yellow represents the sun the giver of life. Red represents the red earth (the relationship to the land) and the red ochre used in ceremonies. Black represents the Aboriginal people.
Wide brown land
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!
Dorothea Mackellar – from her poem My Country written in 1908
The metal sculpture, based on Dorothea’s own handwriting, spans a wide vista at the National Arboretum in Canberra.
‘Roos and ‘toos
Saw our first kangaroos whilst walking in Mount Ainslie Nature Reserve this afternoon. Also a brief encounter with a lone cockatoo. Maybe a duck-billed platypus tomorrow?!
Words for a traveller
‘Smile, breathe and go slowly.’
(Tich Nhat Hanh)
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