Ohope, part 2

Let's start off today with the view from our balcony. I realize that my video skills are not the greatest, I shake and vary my panning speed. I wouldn't make it in Hollywood. I took this short video the first evening. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWcsdWG0gLk&feature=youtu.be

Some of you who have read many of my posts and watched lots of my videos might have noticed that when I pan, I usually move clockwise, or to my right. I wonder if I were making such a video in the northern hemisphere, if I would pan counter-clockwise? Hmmm.

This post will show you mostly cloudy skies, but don't despair for us. The temperature was in the 70's, farenheitedly speaking, so we didn't suffer at all. In fact, because of the cloud cover, we didn't need to worry so much about scorching in the sun. 

Here we go.

 So, what do a couple of inquisitive lads do when the weather doesn't cooperate? They go to plan B. The boys discovered that under the house was a sort of open slat-sided basement with a unlocked door. They explored it and I caught this picture of them. They discovered too that our house came with a gate at the end of the balcony that gave access to a downward sloping sidewalk that encircled the front of the house at the basement level.  

 In between heavy downpours, we headed for the beach. This path was right across the street from our house.

 I didn't expect to see black sand on this eastern beach, but that's what we found 

 The skies were so changeable.

 This is what the beach looked like.

 In this picture, we've just returned to our street, Pohutukawa Avenue, from the beach path that I showed you earlier. You can see the roof our our house way up there. 

Here is a better shot from just down the street. 

The skies and ocean changed by the minute.

 A rather interesting green color I thought. 

 And at times, the sun broke through. When it did, we got busy again.

 Here, Arram is searching an inland beach, still salt water of course, for crabs. He found one and caught a shrimp as well, which he kept in a bucket to study for a while before releasing them again.
The sign in the park that borders this area said that sea grass is abundant here and is a favorite habitat for crabs. 
We got chased back inside by the rain shortly after this shot was taken. 

 What sort of trees do you think grow in the park along Pohutukawa Ave?

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for some sun.   -djf

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A Retiree ponders...

I've been thinking about the sand on the beaches here. I've shown you pictures of black sand beaches and of white sand beaches and of the patterns that result on the beaches where both the sands are present. The patterns are beautiful. But I got to thinking just yesterday, why do the patterns happen? After all this time and all the mixing of sand on the beach that happens because of the wind and wave action, why aren't the two sands evenly mixed? Why don't we have grey beaches? 

I thought about it yesterday because of a little container of sand I brought home from Ohope Beach. 

Years ago, Allie started a collection of sands from many of the beaches she has visited. Since I love collecting shells and driftwood and all manner of beach treasures, I always pick up a little sand wherever we are in case she doesn't get a chance to pick some up herself. She's busy with the boys afterall. I'm busy with me. Here's a photo of some of her collection. (Shown with her permission)  It now contains a few other things besides sand.) 

When I get home from any beach with a sample of sand, I always clean it before putting it into whatever containers Allie and I might use. Sand has organic matter in it of course, and if we were to simply fill a jar with it, that matter would shortly begin to smell. I therefore sift the sand to remove the material I don't want, and disinfect it with heat. That heat also serves to dry it completely so the sand doesn't clump up in our bottles. Because of this process, the sand is thoroughly and repeatedly mixed. There should be no discerable patterns in the sand, right? 

Wrong. I subjected the batch of Ohope Beach sand to my process and as I delivered the container of sand to Allie for bottling, I noticed that there were patterns visible in the container!  Take a look. 

 A very well-mixed sample of sand

That is amazing to me. 

I can think of a few explanations. The particle size of the white and black sands might be different. The surface characteristics of the individual particles might vary. Maybe for example, the white sand has a smooth surface while the black sand surface is jagged? We know that the black sand has a very high percentage of iron. Maybe that means that the black sand is much heavier than the white sand? Are similarly colored pieces of sand actually attracted to each other because of some of the reasons I've mentioned, or for other reasons? Is it because the water helps to stick similar grains of sand together? But, the sample of sand in the picture above is perfectly dry. Is it that the black sand forms the bottom layer and all the patterning is due to the white sand on top? 

I haven't done any research into why this separation of the sands happens. Some one might have done a paper on it for all I know. Maybe I'll get around to looking for such a explanation some time, but for now, I just wanted to share the idea. Maybe you have another sort of theory. 

Personally, while I don't understand it, I am thankful for whatever mechanism it is that produces our beach patterns. I know I wouldn't like a grey sand beach nearly as much.

  

Our holiday in Ohope

Allie surprised us at Christmas with news of our family gift for this year. She arranged for us to spend four nights in Ohope at a three bedroom holiday home. And, we were to take a ferry out to White Island, an active volcano about 30 miles out in to the Pacific for a tour of its caldera.  

Ohope is a small beach town in the eastern Bay of Plenty. It's just over the hill from the city of Whatakane, (Fah tah kah knee) which I'll tell you a little about as well during the next few posts. 

This area is reputed to have the sunniest weather in all of NZ, and we saw some of that, but we also happened to get a dose of rain and choppy seas. It turned our trip to the volcano into a bit of an ordeal. It didn't ruin it. But we were certainly tested. 

And we came through it. I'll talk more about it during that post, but I've got to say that I am one proud grandpa. Amiri and Arram did not behave as children when the going got tough, they dealt with the adversity as adults would have and rose above it. 

Let's get started with the trip. Ohope is about a four hour drive from our home in Henderson, but we made a couple of brief stops along the way to see some sights, so we were on the road about six hours. 

Our first stop was in Paeroa, the small town where, back in 1907, lemon juice was added to the local carbonated mineral water, and L & P was born. It is now owned by the Coca-Cola, but continues to be "World Famous, in New Zealand." 

 We are heading up through the Karangahake Gorge. We'll see more of this area on our way home. 

 The road winds between cliffs as it climbs. Beautiful to look at, but you don't make much time along this stretch. 

 Our next stop was in the town of Waihi, which was the center of the gold mining operations in the area. This town is located at the base of the Coromandel Region.
I noticed the Cornish Pumphouse information on this sign. It made me feel as though I had been transported to Michigan's 'Copper Country,' or to Iron Mountain. Both boast Cornish Pumps. 

 I felt right at home as we explored the ruins...I told the boys about hiking in the woods in Castile Location in Wakefield, Michigan as a boy and 'discovering' old mining buildings that had been reclaimed by the forest. 

I remember walking past the Engine House on Castile Road and seeing the cables running over head that lifted the mined ore from the deep tunnels.  

We've now walked up to the rim of the pit. 
 Gold was mined here both in underground tunnels and in this open pit. I told the boys about the even larger open pit in my home town of Wakefield, Michigan, where iron ore was mined. 

 As we stood looking down into the pit, we could also look up into the hills above us. As I said earlier, these are the beginnings of the Coromandel Range. 
Since Hobbiton is not too far away, Allie has always referred to these as the Misty Mountains, which featured prominately in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  And misty they are. 

 We're back on the road again and are now down along the eastern coast, getting close to our destination. The mists that we first spotted high in the mountains, seem to have followed us. 

 We have stopped at the Whatakane Yacht Club. Just yesterday, Allie read of an elephant seal that had come ashore at the club and seemed intent on staying for a visit. We really hoped that he would still be here when we arrived but were disappointed. 
Check this out:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12185144


This statue we found at the club of Kiwiboy seemed to be trying to spot the seal for us so our guys joined in. 

 We made it! There's our house. It's the one highest up in the center of the picture with the greenish roof and white balcony. 

 The view as we step from our car. It doesn't look it, but that driveway is about the steepest I've ever ridden up. 

A view to the west from the drive way.
 I think of them as palm trees, but they are really black fern trees. And that is Moutohora Island, a preditor-free bird reserve. 

 We've settled in. We've had a full day. Allie is planning to pick up Thai takeaway for dinner and we'll spend the evening watching the surf from over the rooftops of those few houses between us and the beach.   -djf

"Now is the winter of our discontent."

Okay, I know that Shakespeare wasn't referring to U.P. winters when he penned his opening line of Richard the Third.  I suppose some scholars might take exception to  my use of it to open a post designed to combat the effects of such winters. To them I apologise, but point out that in my opinion, Shakespeare himself would not be much offended by me using his famous line in this way. He was the one that publicly joined the words winter and discontent after all. He clearly did not care for winters overmuch. He had no inkling of course that in  the distant future, Yoopers and many of their neighbours would know from bitter experience that the words winter and discontent are naturally linked.  Duh! (I think Shakespeare might translate 'duh' to be, "the observation we have made of it hath not be little.") **

Whatever his thought on the matter, I thought the phrase was perfect to open a post of beauty and color during a season when so many northerners are yearning for some of that very thing. 

I hope this peek into the plants of N.Z. will give momentary relief, if you happen to be suffering in a white-outed, thermostatically challenged, world. 

Above and below, flax plants at the Duckpond. 

This is one of my favorites. I call it a splash plant. Unfortunately, when the Te Aroha Church put in new driveways, these were destroyed. I've never seen any others. 

Just a note about this flower. I learned about it just recently, by reading A Forager's Treasury, by Johanna Knox. It is Carpobrotus edulis, aka the ice plant. It is actually an invasive species from South Africa. (Yes, it's listed as edible, depending on how hungry you are) 
(I bought the book from our library for 33 cents. I love a bargain.) 

Like miniature fireworks going off, I think, frozen in time. 

I wish I could have misted this flower before taking this picture.  This was taken at Amiri's school, Glen Eden Intermediate, when we toured it before he started his first year there. 

Hang in there, Northerners. Your days are getting longer already. Spring Is coming.   -djf

**  Shakespeare translator site:

https://www.shmoop.com/shakespeare-translator/