Hand water pump

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This is an old hand water pump for pumping water up from a well. This stands outside the Cambridge, NZ, museum.

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Amusing police sign

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This amusing police sign was spotted in a shop window in Cambridge, New Zealand, a while back.

Speedboat on the Waikato River below Cambridge town, NZ

The Waikato River narrows here where it flows through Cambridge, which is not too far away from the Karapiro hydro dam and electricity generating station, the last one down stream of several generating hydro stations on the river.

This photo was taken when we explored Cambridge to find out how to get down to the river, which was not difficult, as we found out.

Cambridge town is about 20 minutes drive from Hamilton and is the next town upstream on the Waikato river from Hamilton.

Christmas tree at the Base, Te Rapa

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The Base outdoor shopping mall always have a huge Christmas tree at Christmas time. Here it is in all of it's splendour! It looks magnificent and I would estimate is about 30 feet tall.

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Click on picture to see a larger image. Happy Christmastime.

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Wrought Ironwork

Wrought Iron on a building in Cambridge, New Zealand.

I liked the look of this as it added character to the building. This piece doesn't look too old and is made of cast iron. The original casting shape to make the mould would have been very ornate and probably made of wood.

The shape in the 'circle' near the corner of the moulding we used to call the "Prince of Wales Feathers."

White butterflies . I am a little perturbed this year at the lack of white butterflies around my garden. I shouldn't be as they lay eggs on my broccoli plants, the eggs turn into green caterpillars which then eat the leaves and get into the florets of the broccoli and are hard to remove before cooking, but though the white butterfly could be labeled a pest they can also be beneficial. You see, white butterflies also pollinate flowers which in turn form seeds that help the plants to propagate or form fruit such as tomatoes. . These butterflies I have found also to be very intelligent and learn from experience, such as avoiding harm when there is a risk to them. They will also assist another white butterflies which they think may be injured, and will fly off with them. . In my garden I do not worry unduly about them as I also have paper wasps that build honeycomb-type nests on my house or fences and they eat the butterfly caterpillars and help to keep their population down. But this is not the reason for the sudden drop in butterflies. . This year I have only seen one white butterfly around my garden, and am mystified as to why. I have phoned several organisations which I think could give a reason, without success. . As the start of our spring and summer has been so cold this year the lack of butterflies could be due to a climatic change as I have no other explanation. . I do hope that they increase in numbers as our summer hopefully warms up. We shall see. .

Yachting on the Hamilton Lake (Click on picture to enlarge)

The Hamilton Lake has the Maori name 'Rotoroa' and is very popular for small-yacht racing. This photo shows such a race. No prizes for guessing who is winning!

Victoria Street, Hamilton

This old photo was one which I took as a youngster over 50 years ago when the Railway line ran through the main street of Hamilton.

The lines can be seen in the road, and the railway warning signals, and this picture is looking across the lines towards the south of Victoria Street. Ward Street runs off to the right just behind the white van. The Railway Bridge over the Waikato River is to the left of the picture out of frame.

The railway lines now run underneath the road so as not to hinder traffic flow.

The Bank building with the Waikato flag flying above

The Bank building, Hamilton.

The Bank of New Zealand opened for business in Hamilton in 1875. At that time this building was located in a very prominent location at the southern end of Victoria Street, the main street in the town, and Hood Street, just above Grantham Street which lead down to the river below the Victoria Bridge and the river landing where most of the activity of the early settlers took place - river transport boat landing and other activities.

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This photo shows some of the ornate architecture of the building.

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The Bank of New Zealand left the building in 1986. It was vacant for some years before it was refurbished in 1994 as a bar and café, which was appropriately called "The Bank." The outside of the building was painted this colour and later it was repainted grey and it remains an imposing building.

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To prove it's importance to Hamilton's history it appears in many early photos of Hamilton and is very much an important part of our city.

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Tirau Public Relations Office

This building is one of two in Tirau, New Zealand which is built in the shape of animals. One is the shape of a sheep and is a wool shop (what else?) and this one is of a sheep dog and is the Tirau Public relations Office. The buildings and shapes are made by a local man out of corrogated iron.

Tirau has many corrogated iron signs also located around the town.

Beneath Hamilton's Victoria Bridge at night

Some of Hamilton's river bridges are lighted with electric lighting at night to give them some character in the evenings and they really do look good. This is the Victoria Bridge at the southern end of Victoria Street, which used to be the main street of town. Now the centre of the city has been changed and the street altered so that it is no longer the main street so far as traffic access is concerned. The Victoria bridge is still a major access bridge though and receives traffic from several approaches on the town side. This photo is taken from the town side.

Lake Taupo and Mountains

This is Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in the North Island of New Zealand, and the source of the Waikato River which runs north and to the sea just south and west of Auckland. Hamilton, my home town straddles the river about 2/3 way down on its journey to the ocean.

Alfie's first Christmas

It was a fair call as to how the baubles of our Christmas tree came to be lying on the floor that Christmas! Yes, our young cat Alfie, shown here caught in the act, was responsible. We didn't really mind though as it was his first Christmas and he either learned quickly not to do it or he grew bored of the activity. I can't remember now but suspect boredom was the reason.

Camera study, Taupo Community Centre

I took this photo because I was interested in the variety of structure angles and shapes.

Hamilton SPCA Kittens

Here is a short video taken of two of the three small black kittens we collected today from the SPCA to temporarily adopt until they are heavy enough to be desexed and permanently adopted to new homes.

We love cats and kittens and these little guys, two males and one female, are real fun to have. See the video above.

An early New Zealand classroom mock-up

This is what classrooms looked like in my day - around the later-half of the 1940's and the 1950's. Of course the desks were only big enough for younger children.

I was interested to see the sample printed-alphabet on the blackboard.

This mock-up was done by the wives of local farmers for an antique farm machinery show in Hamilton last summer. Click to enlarge the photo.