A new New Year's Eve cave at Muriwai

Okay, the cave I'm going to show you today is not really new. It has always been there at Muriwai. It's just that we have never been able to explore it before because the tide has always filled it when we've been here. Take a look at how it has appeared to us in the past. This first picture was taken on 12-31-2017.  Notice that an arrow points at an indentation in the rocks that the level of the water makes obvious.  I'll explain that shortly.


BTW, the pictures on this post and on the one that follows were taken just before the sunset pictures that I published on New Year's Day. You assumed that I'm sure.  

Now, take a look at this picture I took on 12-31-19. 

Same cave. The first picture was taken from the top of the rocks on the left side of the cave.  I'm now standing on the sand between the two sides. You can readily see how much the tide varies here. 

Someone cut steps into the stone on the right side outside of the cave. That top step is the indentation that I point to with the arrow in the first picture. 

 Allie and the boys have joined me.  Notice that Arram is pointing at a place on the wall. 

 He was pointing at this. Just above the center of this picture is another sort of stone buried in the rock.

A closeup. Something carried along within the lava. Amazing. 

 We're father inside now but there is still plenty of light here.  

 But not so much here. We are at the back of the cave, or almost anyway. My flash can only light up the center of my field. There wasn't enough to reach the walls behind them and form an image. 
It was so much fun in there.  I must just be a silhouette in Allie's picture. 

On our way back out. 

Getting back to the well-lit portions.

 I really dislike graffiti, but this caught my attention. I was born in 1951.  

 We're back to a world of color.       

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonus cave picture gallery. 

Many of the pictures I took in the cave failed because it was just too dark. The cave was large enough that, even with my flash on, I couldn't light it enough to get a good picture. 

That's where an editing feature on the computer came in handy. You can add light to any picture, so that's what I did to enhance my dark cave pictures. 

I'll show you a few 'before' and 'after' shots. 

 We're already well in to the cave here, but after you go through the passage just ahead, it gets much darker....

 Above - natural light   Below - enhanced

 Above - flash    Below - enhanced flash

 Above - flash,   Below - enhanced flash

 This is the very back of the cave. You can see the sand that is just left of center that makes up the floor of the cave.  (Note that is has both white and black sand components.)  If I were a much younger and slimmer person, I could have wormed my way around the rock in the foreground, and crawling on that sand, extended my arm through the narrow opening between the sides and possibly touched the back wall at the very center of this picture. I don't know if my arm would have been quite long enough, but I could have done it with a short stick. Hopefully, that gives you some idea of the scale of the cave. 

Above - flash    Below - enhanced flash

 This is a closer view of the very end of the cave. 

This is an enhanced view of a picture I showed you earlier.  This shot makes me remember how it felt to stand in there.      

(Notice that there appears to be graffiti carved in the rock near the upper right corner of the picture.)

As if going to the beach, exploring the cave, seeing the gannets, the blowhole, (in the next post) and the sunset weren't enough. I also dug my fingers down into the sand as far back in the cave as my age and girth would allow, and brought some home.  What a treasure.  

I think you can see that this sand is a mixture of white and black, just like you saw in the picture of the back of the cave. 

One last word about treasure...

I have recently acquired a treasure of a type that very few people have ever even heard of, much less seen. It is something new, something just recently named, (and you know how I like unique names.) It is so special that I need a special device to properly see, or display it. I have ordered one. When it arrives, I hope I can get some pictures that will do this treasure justice. You'll be able to see it as it really is, not just how our limited senses can perceive it. Keep watching....              -djf

Romeo and Juliet

We have just attended our last play at the Pop Up Globe Theatre. (It will be dismantled and reassembled in another city)

Romeo and Juliet was performed by the same troupe of actors that gave us Much Ado About Nothing just a few weeks ago. It was a little weird at first seeing each actor playing their new role, but we soon became accustomed to them. 

While watching this play, we verified that this troupe likes to bend Shakespeare's works a bit, sticking faithfully to his words, but mixing period costumes and settings with modern dress, music and weapons when it suited them.  

In Much Ado About Nothing, instead of Sicily, the setting was the South Pacific, and contemporary English constables played a part.  With Romeo and Juliet, a masquerade ball with modern costumes, the tune from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and thugs with guns all appeared amidst the Italian period costumed players.

Probably because I'm old(er), I would have preferred to see the plays performed as close to the original as possible, but I admit that using modern touches did provide some laughs that would not have otherwise been.  It was very clear from the audience's reactions that the modern touches were appreciated. 

Here we go then.

We start with one last look at the art in the gardens.

(Trixie's gaze is every bit as direct as Henry's.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wriothesley,_3rd_Earl_of_Southampton

On stage, Romeo and one of the Capulet guys were circling one another with swords drawn. They took turns singing the tune from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, as each sought an opening in the other's defences. 

I had my choice of taking a picture of the intense sword fight taking place on the stage, or the reaction of Allie and the boys. 
Blood was realistically spilled.

The aftermath of the fight.

Romeo and two of his friends, while in disguise, have gatecrashed a Capulet masquerade ball. Here, Romeo and Juliet dance. 

 These were excellent seats. I was in 54.

 I've absolutely got to include this shot. 

 Juliet drinks the knock-out drops that will make her appear to be dead. 

Romeo says, "She's dead? That's it, I'm drinking poison." 

 Juliet wakes up and discovers Romeo dead. She's rather upset...

 ...and stabs herself with Romeo's knife.

"For never was a story of more woe,
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

 "Our time hither wast joyous, full to the end.  
All liveth restored, hence homeward we didst wend."   -djf

                                                                                                                          

I'm going to miss this place. Thank you Allie for all the good times here.  

January 1, 2020 finds Jeanne's garden flourishing.

When I named my blog Strangers in a Strange Land, I hadn't been here very long and I hadn't had time to give thought to all the ways that Aotearo could be different from our little piece of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  

Today's post will make obvious one huge difference.  

First, let's take a look back to late December in 2010. This was taken around our yard in the early morning.  

From the kitchen window

Now, let's jump ahead a decade....

We'll set the stage in this hemisphere by showing you a sunrise over Rangitoto and the warm waters of the South Pacific. 

Then, we'll focus on our yard...



Take a walk with Jeanne around her garden plots. She took all these photos on New Year's Day, 2020.  I still have trouble getting my mind around that fact. 

Jeanne's gardening angel and the tui bird Arram gave her for Christmas, parsley that's gone to seed behind them, geraniums, and swiss chard.

Peas

An avocado tree and a volunteer pumpkin in the foreground, volunteer potatoes and Amiri's avocado tree in the distance. 

The first zucchinis

A row of beans. She has another row that are just coming up. 

Tomatoes in the cages getting fat.

A veritable forest of little green onions. (remember to pronounce onions as if you had a French accent)  

Sage, mostly

A pepper plant in the company of basil, left and sage, right.

One of eight pots of cherry tomatoes. The boys love these. 

calendulas

Passion fruit

The current state of my figs.  

Thanks Hon, for taking these pictures.                                                           -djf

Sunset at Muriwai Beach, December 31, 2019

It's our tradition to spend the last evening of the year on a beach, hopefully watching the sun go down. The weather doesn't always cooperate, but it did this time. 

The gannets are nesting now.

I held my sunglasses up in front of the lens for this one.

Here is a video of the sun's last few moments and a look around the beach. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr78QDiLwdQ

We saw the last moon of the year too.  Good-bye 2019.         

When we got home, Jeanne and I toasted the year's end with a glass of wine and called it a night. Allie and the boys stayed up to see the new year in and snacked on chicken wings and carbonated white grape juice. 

My plan was to rise early and get shots of the first sun of 2020 coming up. Unfortunately, clouds had moved in and it was impossible. The best laid plans.... I didn't really mind too much when I checked at 5:30 am. It felt good to sleep in.                           -djf