A weekend journey

The weekend just gone had us travelling to New Plymouth to see Fleetwood Mac in concert. Rather than drive all the way we broke up the journey by staying a night at Jerusalem, situated north of Wanganui on the Whanganui River. The road from Wanganui follows the river and is at times narrow and winds underneath tall cliffs and around twisting corners. The views are great, rolling hills covered in old forest and river, wide and slow, looking peaceful in the valley.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Looking upriver from an early viewpoint

Jerusalem, otherwise known as Hiruharama, is the founding site for the Sisters of Compassion and my Aunty Sue is one of the Sisters in residence who look after the management of the grounds. We parked and walked past the old convent to the church where we found Sister Margaret Mary cleaning up. Margaret Mary took us up to the Sisters’ house where we found Aunty Sue and were sat down for a chat over drinks. We had beds in the old convent and Sue took us down to show us around.

I wandered around with my camera and took shots of things, inside and out. Here are a few shots, there are more on Flickr (just click on any of the photos):

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

One of the upstairs dorms in the old convent

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Interrupted munching

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Inside the Church

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Looking out over the valley from upstairs in the old convent

Steve, Debbie and Tess turned up later in the afternoon and we all had dinner together in the convent kitchen. In the evening we helped out with some small things, setting up a scanner and some other computer related queries.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

The Church in the morning

We didn’t leave in a hurry the next day and Keryn assisted with making some lemon-honey while I gave some scanner tutorials. The nativity scene was put together and I took a few photos for Sue and while the sun was out I took some more shots outside as well. We set off as the sky clouded over, our drive back to Wanganui accompanied by infrequent rain.

Keryn’s parents were coming down to see Fleetwood Mac, and Steve and Debbie were also coming for the concert (Tess staying with Sue for the night). We arrived at the accommodation in New Plymouth mid afternoon, and by 5pm had been joined by Phil & Elaine and Steve & Debbie. Wendy, one of the owners of Lothlorien Cottage where we stayed, had given us some walking directions to the Brooklands Bowl where the concert would be held. A slight map reading error meant we arrived via a non direct route, but still in plenty of time. We found a spot on the grass and had a something to eat while waiting for the music to start.

Fleetwood Mac were excellent, they seemed very happy (I guess I would be too at the last concert of a series of 83) and energetic, especially Lindsey Buckingham who sang and played guitar with vigour. The band played for a couple of hours and closed with some of their more popular numbers, the crowd enthusiastically joining in.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Fleetwood Mac at the Brooklands Bowl, New Plymouth

Keryn’s parents had to head back to Auckland the next morning. The original plan was to follow us down to Lower Hutt but their newly purchased car developed a fault which meant it stayed in Auckland and their insurance paid for a hire car. So they headed back to Auckland to pick up the (hopefully) repaired car. Steve and Debbie were heading back to Wanganui where they would meet Sue and Tess. I had convinced Keryn we should go for a walk so we drove towards Mt Taranaki.

Our destination was Dawson Falls. We drove through the Goblin Forest, thick and verdant vegetation with warped trees laden with moss rising above. We parked and piled on the clothes, it being cool and misty. We had a discussion about which walk to do and eventually headed towards Wilkes Pools.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Walking through the bush

The track headed up but was very well formed and not too steep. We did have to cross a rocky stream bed but this was done with little difficulty. Arriving at the pools Keryn took a seat while I pottered about taking photos.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

The base of Wilkes Pools

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Keryn patiently waiting

I climbed further up the rocks to the pool above the one photographed above and then clambered down to the pool level to take a photo. That was the idea anyway, one step in the wrong place had me falling forward into the water and initially worrying mostly about not falling down the waterfall. My second worry, about a second later, was pulling my camera and tripod out of the water where it had landed while I righted myself. Carefully I climbed back up to flatter ground and took stock of my gear. A dripping camera and lens is not a happy sight.

After towelling off the camera and lens it still wasn’t looking good, and a tentative attempt at taking a shot didn’t go very well. Funnily enough I wasn’t in the mood for any more shots so I packed everything away and we headed back to the car. At the carpark the clouds lifted enough for us to get a shot of Mt Taranaki’s peak and then we were heading homeward.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Mt Taranaki

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

The road through the goblin forest

Many hours later I unpacked all my gear and gave it another once over. The Camera wasn’t working very well, the LCD obviously affected by the water and the dreaded Error 99 appearing on the top display. While taking out everything else from the bag I noticed the big lens was rattling…not a good sign.

Photo by Brendon & Keryn

Why to use a filter

Turns out that my camera bag must also have hit the rocks when I slipped but thankfully the filter on the front of the lens took the brunt of the impact, the lens itself is fine. I’ve since spoken to the Canon service centre and they have suggested leaving the camera to dry out in a warm place for a few days to see if it recovers. If not, it’ll be off to Canon for an insurance quote. Looks like I’ll be using my old camera when we go down south.