Now that is a sand bag!

Waihi Beach is a little different than the ones that we usually one on in our neck of the woods. Our beaches just kind of begin at the end of the land.  Just a gentle slope and you are there. Waihi probably was that way also with homes built on the bluffs above the beach. Then slowly the beach began to be washed away during big storms. To prevent damage to the homes etc and further erosion of the beach the city brought in sand bags.  I thought these were pretty fun but I really wanted to show how big they are.

So I asked Michael to stand next to them. 

These areas where the sand is a bit unstable they post these signs so everyone knows what is up. Looks to me that they need some more vegetation here.

After get do all that they can with the sandbags then they bring in large boulders.

According to the local folks this house has been moved back on the bluff twice!  Now it just kind of sits right on the edge of these big boulders!  It looks like a nice home and certainly would be a sweet place to live!

How Old Are They?

The morning we were at Waihi it was cool and wet. It had rained for three days. In our walk we came upon two men and their children. They were brothers so the kids were cousins. They were the second people that we had stopped to chat with and both of the people were from Hamilton. It is about 90 minutes from Hamilton but they always come over to Waihi Beach on the weekends. Obviously they were not members of the church with Sunday responsibilities. We stopped to chat with them just as their three kids ran out into the surf with their boards. They all had on wetsuits.

It looks to me though that the water is chilly and they are not sure if they really want to be there. The little gal on the left in pink is six, the boy in the middle is eight and the girl in purple is seven. They were having so much fun.  Notice that the water is not very deep here and that is the way the beach is for a long ways out.

He rode this wave in for a long time. This is the only picture where you can see his face and it was too good to pass on.

This is a pretty nice ride by the six-year old. We were amazed and wondered if our Grands would want to even try this is they were here. We decided that they would.  It is nothing like that amazing 100-foot wave that that man rode earlier this week but we thought this was AWESOME!

A Picture Worth A Thousand Words

When we went to Waihi Beach a few weeks ago it was all because of a painting we had purchased from a gallery for local artists. We took it home and saw on the back the notation that it was Waihi Beach. We decided that it was only appropriate to go and check it out and take a photo from the same vantage point. And that is what we did.

This is the photo that I took.

And this is the painting.  She took a little artistic license and added a closer pathway and the over-head tree.  They were there but just not in the location on the painting. The island out in the water was there. The day we were there the sky was not as blue but that could be because when we were there all it did was rain!  The birds were there as well but I could not get them to cooperate and sit on the posts like that.

Maybe I need a different lens for the camera or something.  

Sister Suzie sells sea shell on the sea shore.....

One of my favorite things to do is to pick up sea shells on the sea shore. When we were in Waihi the weather was not very friendly. It had not been nice for a couple of days which always brings up a wide variety of shells on the sand.  I had so much fun picking them up. Here is a sampling.

I have looked for this type of shell the entire time that I have been walking the sands.

This is the biggest one that I found. I know that you can find this kind in all sizes as the motel had a display of them but this was the only one like this that I found. 

I really like these.  They remind me a chocolates. Each one is very unique.

The big one here is about 3.5 inches long and the other about three-quarters of an inch long. 

This is an assortment of the kind that I found. I have never seen the brown ones or the blue ones or the almost black ones. I was really excited when I found all of these.  I have decided that I am going to get a big glass jar and display all of my shells that way. What memories!

Cast in Bronze

When we went to Waihi over the weekend we took a stroll around the town. What a quaint little place it is. We saw several statues cast in Bronze. I was fascinated by them and could not help but take photos of them which means I get to share them.

This was out front of the library.  I loved the detail in the clothing and faces.  

Saturday night bath in the big galvanized tub!  

Look at the face on this little boy?

What would be more fitting for a mining town than for there to be a miner?

Certainly my favorite (I think...that little boy in the tub is pretty cute) is this one.  I especially loved the inscription at the base of the statue.

A Fish To Fry

Certainly Kiwi's love the water and one of the main reasons they love it is for the joy of fishing. Owning a boat or having a good mate that owns one is almost a requirement for being a native here. Some love the thrill of the troll while others just love all the new innovative ways to go about the sport. We saw three examples of how to pursue the hobby.

The first, and certainly the simplest fishing right off the dock or rocks. Nothing too interesting that it would warrant a photo.

The second is fishing from a boat. This man drove his truck and boat right down to the water's edge to launch his boat and now he is trying to get the boat out of the water and back on the trailer. We saw this action repeated several times.

This is a rather humble boat but they all seemed to enjoy the activity. We saw much fancier outfits but they were all happy with the results.

The third way was fishing from the beach.  And we saw two examples of it.  The first is for an individual who likes to say he caught the fish and eat the fish but maybe does not have the time or means to be on the water.  This is like a very large reel. I have not figured out how it is cast but he connected about 20 hooks to this reel and cast it into the ocean.  He let it run out for about 20 minutes and then stopped it.  It sat there until he was ready to reel it in and the hope was all of those hooks would have something attached to them. I saw him setting this up and then fifteen minutes later I saw him come back but never saw him bring it in.

The next photo is a more sophisticated version of the above one. 

It is kind of like a big shotgun. The white cylinder on the front has a propeller with a battery and a timer. They get the reel all set with all the 20 hooks and then they would shoot it, like a gun. The battery was on a timer so you could set it to just keep going on this battery power for up to 45 minutes. So you shoot it in the ocean and it runs out for 20 minutes and then it turns off. They you reel it in, just like the other one and hope for a good catch.  

We came across this man and his two sons. They are reeling it in. You can see the reel and the man is holding on to it with a cloth so it does not get tangled. It takes as long to reel it in as to the time the battery was running.  They usually do it at low tide.  This time they only caught three fish. One was a snapper which is my favorite to eat as fish and chips. This is the other one that they caught. It is called a grunard. They have wings on both sides of their body. The young boy wanted to be sure I saw how pretty and unique they were.  They don't fly but I think they use it to stir up the bottom of the sea since that is where they usually reside. 

Miss Bossy

I grew up with advertisements for milk and milk products that featured Bossy.  This weekend we really saw the Bossys of New Zealand. Unlike other places that we have visited that have been sheep country this part of New Zealand has to be a favorite of the dairyman.  Cows, cows everywhere!  We saw them of every kind and color. We passed one big field. On the right side of the road was a field that was full of cows and calves. Across the road on the left hand side was a big bull.  He was standing at the fence, staring, maybe too intently, at all those cows on the other side.

A bit further down the road we saw a long, long line of cows, three and four deep, following one another to a distant milking barn. They walked towards the right, on the left hand side of the road, under the road and then continued on to the barn. There had to have been 300-400 cows, all ready to be milked. Later we were told that there are no humans involved in bringing these cows to the milk barn. They just know when they were full and it was time to head for the barn.

It was kind of a cool, rainy day when we were driving from Hamilton to Waihi Beach. Maybe you remember in a different blog I mentioned how they keep blankets on their horses? I speculated as to the reason why one of which was to keep them warm.  Well, in one field, a bit in the distance, I saw a herd of cows, each with its own blanket. Or so I thought.  This is what I saw:

It took me a few moments before I realized that it was not a blanket at all but the actual cow. It is called a belted galloway cow.  They originate in Scotland and it is some sort of cross breding. We saw many herds with all sorts of different cows. There were brown ones and other black and white cows, like the Chick-fil-a cow but never was this belted galloway cow mixed in with the other breeds.