A side of country
Today we left the lovely farm and homestead and drove back through the parched landscape to Wellington, New Zealand. 
This (above) has to be my favourite image of the New Zealand I saw this time..
New Zealand country. We were driving through the Wairarapa. They have not had rain in a while and it shows. Many of the dairy farmers are irrigating. I am in two minds about irrigation of fields to feed overstocked farms and Dairy is even bigger business in New Zealand now. It is a bit hard on the land and the rivers. Living WITH the land and the rivers is a very different thing from feeding OFF the lands and emptying the rivers.
Having said that, we all had an excellent swim in the river, yesterday!
River slime and all…
My friends are crazy! I love that.
The New Zealand landscape has the rolls and angles of a beautiful robust woman.
I very seldom manipulate images. My promise being that you will see what I see. But this image demanded black and white.
And so the journey continues.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Your friend,
celi
40 Comments on “A side of country”
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Awesome photos.
Lovely! Although had a giggle as in one photo the hills look like they have a hair net on!! Sounds like you are having a great time – enjoy my friend, the weather is shite back here and getting worse!!
It looks very much like northern California, don’t you think?
So nice to see again what New Zealand looks like in the summer! Get ready for cold weather back here, with big storms on the northeast coast!!! Just loved the river shots!!! And crazy friends are wonderful!!! xo
The photos remind me of the eastern side of my own state here in the USA. The livestock photos make me anxious for your return and some updated pictures of the farmy animals. It seems you are returning to blizzard conditions near home so put away all those summer frocks and pull out the boots, mittens and layers.
Oh, there’s not a day goes by that I don’t miss NZ and the missed opportunity of living there ! It’s a beautiful country as I’m sure you know. E
Lovely photos! Do you know what kind of orchard is in the picture of the hills with the hairnet? I love that. Looks a bit like apple orchards I saw in WA State. Rainy and cold here in Northern VA, the snow has missed us so far.
Those are pine trees, grown to be milled by the next generation…. c
Enjoy every minute of the rest of your visit! Wonderful photos of a very beautiful place, drought and all.
This area of rolling grassland and what looks like oak forest is so much like Southern California – particularly Orange And San Diego County, it could be twins. I like that in one picture it looks like they have planted trees! This is the BEST way to bring water back to an area. Using Permaculture Design principles it would be a good idea to terrace with swales and berms (shallow ditches and low lying long mounds perpendicular to the ‘fall line’ of the land) throughout the hilly landscape to capture dew and rainwater so the water, when it does fall, stays on the land. I have seen this work as it also makes the top soil stay on the land rather than wash away in heavy precipitation. There are many ways in Permaculture Design to bring water back to an area. Geoff Lawton, famous permaculturist, has some really good videos where he has done that in extremely arid landscapes as well as normal pasture land: http://www.permies.com/t/3922/organic/Restoring-agricultural-land and one on keyline swales: http://permaculturenews.org/2009/11/30/keyline-swales-a-geoff-lawtondarren-doherty-hybrid/ You might share these with your farmer friends. Geoff is from Australia and is familiar with the aridity of your land.
Love how open the landscape is!
Enjoy your trip.
Diann Dirks – thegardenladyofga.wordpress.com Certified Permaculture Designer
Dearest C,
I feel I have missed out on so very much since being on holiday while Pete was home. It was fantastic having him home for the extended period but it seems an impossibility to try and go through every ones posts from the last month.
Have a wonderful and happy day friend.
🙂 Mandy xo
Great pictures of a country that I know little about save for tourism images and Eden Park!. Your belief that a jpeg represents what you actually see is, to my mind, flawed. it works as a principle but the jpegs that I see on my screen after I’ve shot some pictures don’t represent the colours and feeling that I remember…and so it goes on. I love the pictures any way, so I don’t know why I started that;)
Hey, I got really excited at that photo of some wonderful silviculture going on. At least I hope that that is what it is. But it sure does stick out like a weird hair net over your beautifully voluptuous girl, but so very important to the Earth. 😀 It’s lovely there. So reminds me of the Okanagan, which is the middle of BC, past the coastal mountains and before the Rockies begin, and where my daughter lives. Rolling hills, meadows, lakes and rivers, vineyards and orchards. Love the country. (and, secretly, am greedy for even more photos!)
And the way dairy farmers are being forced out of busiess by the supermarkets, that NZ-produced milk will soon be travelling all the way to rainy Britain. The world is crazy.
Have a safe journey home.
Beautiful. I love all the rolling hills of New Zealand —my favorite photos from our visit there were of a “sheep jam” on the road we were traveling. They did not move very quickly but it was all good—we weren’t in a hurry. Enjoy your time.
Great photos of New Zealand and yes it does look little Northern California. Enjoy the rest of your stay .
Beautiful country and beautiful animals. Love the “River Slime Monster” too. Safe travels.
I say the “crazy” friends are the best saviors you can ask for! I love that you are in coasting mode now… I love the carefree-ness of your photos and narration. 🙂
Very funny guy with seaweed head. And the sheep grazing.
Very funny guy with seaweed head. And the sheep grazing. Pretty.
We irrigate…but all the water is used from the reservoir to the farm, to the next farm, to the next farm, until it reaches the river. The river then flows and joins to the Colorado River which flows through several states then joins the ocean at California. How we irrigate does not deplete the water.
Although, those that pump from underground aquifers do deplete the aquifers. Those farmers have a catch-22…irrigate or watch everything die. Irrigate and hope for a miracle to fill up the huge underground lake.
Sigh!
Linda ❤⊱彡
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
The “parched landscape of Wellington” looks very similar to southern Washington in the summertime. And that cow with all the hair?? I just wanted to hug and kiss it. Adorable. I would be a hopeless farmer!
Nothing wrong with irrigating if water levels and use are monitored. Most goes right back into the river (or aquifer) i suspect – all nicely filtered through well-managed (hopefully) pastures. Kiwis are world-renown for their managed grazing systems. They do look parched – too bad – part of the cycle. Sometimes ya gotta destock.
beautiful photos
the river looks like a good place to fish
i would not leave there untill it warms back up here in the spring
enjoy every minute while there
Hey. Celi, lovely pics .. Im with you on the farming though
I never ever thought of NZ being so dry and brown. It is a wonder that cattle and sheep can find anything decent to eat.I prefer my grass green…on this side of the fence!
Wonderful photos, I feel refreshed just looking at them. I am going back for a second look!
You have the eyes of an artist, Celi. The photos made me a little nostalgic for great mature temperate climate trees and gentler light….
Interesting, your comment on non-manipulated photo images…the very reason I often manipulate mine is so that you will see things as *I* see them! 😉 Joyful travels, my darling! ❤ K
I think what I meant was that i don’t go artsy often! Like the black and white.. though it is my favourite medium.. c
[biggest smile] Well, if you ever wonder what it looks like where I live – for around 20 kms all around me it exactly resembles your favourite photo two. Except it has been raining for weeks and showers promised all this week: so our ‘brown’ has totally disappeared. [No bushfire threat hereabouts either!!] But the same hilly countryside! Beautiful photos all . . . Daresay you are just about to kiss Sophie goodbye for this time and then it is only 24 hours for you: may all the landings be soft!!!!
I hate saying goodbye to her.. so i am feeling a bit sorry for myself at the moment.. c
Hugs across the Tasman Mom . . . . next time to Kiwiland you’ll just have to stretch the time and the dollar and come to Melbourne 🙂 ! You’ll probably have half your Down Under readers meet you there . . .
What gorgeous landscape, your photos are beautiful. Now I shall go back and see what I’ve missed.
Love LOVE these photos of New Zealand!!! When we traveled there we were yuppies with one kiddo. Now we are in France with four and all these damn cows … I have a new perspective. I look at pasture and cows and land.
I suffer terribly from paddock envy when i am here.. these beautiful rolling fields!.. c
… and funny friends 🙂
Beautiful and am still chuckling at your River Monster!!
Pretty cows, and sheep. Interesting landscape shots. I’ve never seen anything that looks like NZ.
Oh dear my comment disappeared. I love the photos; you capture our beautiful landscape so well. The pine-planted hills look like stubble, curious. I laughed at your Neptune friend rising out of the river.