Goodbye 2023...

 Only two hours until the year is over. I just realised I needed to write something here before my blog is deleted. 

I've been thinking about coming back for a while and this holiday period is just confirming it. 

I went for a walk today and saw what I thought was possibly a blue heron down by the Silverstream. I didn't have my camera or my phone with me and thought to myself that I haven't been taking a lot of notice of what's about me when I go out lately. Since I stopped blogging really. 

So...watch this space...

DIANA

A royal visit

 We were visited by a couple of beautiful

 monarch butterflies a few days ago.

Gentle surf

St Clair beach

 Dunedin, NZ

An oldie

Ringlet?

I was on top of a small mountain a few days ago when

 I spotted this butterfly. I think it is some sort of 'ringlet'?

 Does anyone know? It's not the best of snaps, sorry.

Water tower

Built in 1898 the tower provided Invercargill with

 it's first pressurised water supply. Unfortunately you 

can't go inside because it needs to have work

 done to bring it up to earthquake standard.

Petrified forest

Petrified forest,
Curio Bay,

The Catlins,

 Otago, New Zealand

What looks like rocks is actually the petrified forest. 

This is under water at high tide and stretches for 20 k's around the coast.  

Near the top centre of the photo you can see the stairway down the cliff face, 

this gives a little bit of size perspective to the photo.

If you are interested in reading more about this forest
 follow this link and scroll down to 'Fossil forest'.