April 2, 2013 … bridges and houses, hedges and ditches*

Unscheduled travel, especially when there is some urgency, does not lend itself to photography.

Napier is a pleasant destination, but yesterday’s trip was marred by a heavy and persistent overcast, as well as the circumstances that made it necessary. For much of the way I was driving, so with one exception, my images today were taken from the car at speed.

A grey dawn and a red sky promised no great miracles for the weather. And so it proved to be.

Red sky in the morning …

We swapped driving at Pahiatua, so I had my camera in my hand as we passed that New Zealand icon, the Tui brewery at Mangatainoka. No glamorous or scantily clad workers were to be seen as we drove past, and this shot was taken through the front windscreen.

Perhaps it was the long Easter weekend, but the glamorous women of the TV ads seem to have had the day off.

Farm buildings are a source of fascination to me. This one was somewhere to the south of Dannevirke. In days gone by, it may have been a milking shed. I doubt it would meet the required hygiene standards of today, but it remains as a testament to the make-do organic style of architecture seen on so many of the long-established farms.

Organic architecture

Another aspect of driving through the country is that you get to see a lot of quirky places. This extraordinarily cluttered back yard is somewhere near Te Aute, South of Hastings.

Throw nothing out … it might be useful one day

We made good time, and things were not as bleak as we first feared.

* “… and charging along like troops in a battle, all through the meadows, the horses and cattle” From a Railway Carriage, by Robert Louis Stephenson