Fern

Went to the West coast today, with its wind swept beaches and large kauri forests and continued ticking off the AA 101 Must-Do's for Kiwis in the Northland, with the Waipoua Forest and Hokianga.

I have a great shot at Hokianga showing the beach, bay and sand dunes in the distance, but it is similar to yesterdays shot to be Blipped and I was after a "natural" NZ shot for today. (Also, it will really piss off Janet - she loves the huge sand dunes at Camber Sands and they hold a very special bond with her - if she saw the dunes at Hokianga, the Camber dunes would pale into insignificance - I couldn't do that to her!)

We visited Tane Mahuta, the largest living Kauri tree in New Zealand, in the Waipoua Forest. In Maori Cosmology, Tane is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother and is Lord of the Forest. Tane tore his parents apart, breaking there primal embrace, so to bring light, space and air and allowing life to flourish. Tane is the life giver and all living creatures are his children (so say thank you). I had great photo of Tane to Blip but the photo allows no perspective of size and therefore Tane looks like a normal, although slightly different looking tree, but not the enormously impressive tree that I saw today.

Looked down, instead of up, I hope I achieved the NZ natural theme I was after, with this small fern living below the branches of a Kauri tree. The fern is often used as the symbol for New Zealand, most famously on the All Blacks shirts.

Lazy day tomorrow, so it will probably be a picture of the Lemon tree in the front garden!