Architectural plan for the ground floor of Manuka Pool, 1930.

NAA: A2617, Section 83/14829

Postcard image taken from Red Hill. c 1950s.

Dale Steyn is a South African right-arm fast bowler.

Dale Steyn is the only fast bowler who has taken five-wicket haul against all test playing nations. Dale Steyn is the fastest player to take 400 Test wickets, based on balls bowled.

Ad for manuka honey in Germany!

Manuka State Wayside Park

Southwest Slope of Mauna Loa

Hawaii, USA

An upmarket area.

Unedited image taken with and uploaded from my smart 'phone.

Otari-Wilton's Native Botanic Garden and Forest Reserve is a must for any lover of nature visiting Wellington. There's a fine garden of often endangered native plant species and a large 'bush' with trails and tracks. The area has been gazetted as a scenic reserve since 1906.

Here are two native denizens. It's been said that Anisotome is a 'boring' and 'drab' plant. I would disagree; the foliage is very nicely green and the small umbelliferous flowers are quite pretty if you look at them closely. Morevover, these plants attract lots of insects.

This particular Anisotome was labeled 'haastii', but I'm not quite sure that's the right specific because its leaves seem to me to be less 'frilly' and multi-faceted than might be expected of the plant named for Johann Franz Julius von Haast (1822-1887). A German geologist, he was sent to New Zealand in 1858 to size up prospects for German immigration. He stayed. He was a universalist: not only a geologist and geographer, also an enthnologist and anthropologist and naturalist in general. Moreover, he was a musical enthusiast. 'Back home' in Düsseldorf, Haast had played the violin under Felix Mendelssohn; he continued in Christchurch's orchestra. It has been said that 'through his achievements and his encouragement, science in New Zealand came of age.'

The Bush Gadfly feasting on Haast's Carrot is a Scaptia, probably an 'adrel'. There were lots of its sisters on the lovely scented Manuka - Leptospermum scoparium - shrubs. But I took honoring Haast as a pleasant duty and hence this pose on Haastia. Scaptia is also a native of New Zealand. It's a bit difficult to photograph well because it's so darkly colored. Appropriately perhaps in Mâori natural religion 'ngaro' - as this Gadfly is called - stands for God of the Flies, a kind of Beelzebub. But this morning all was light and bright, and even Gadfly turned out nicely. And just look at that tongue. I was told - by a schoolboy also photographing insects - that these flies don't bite...

Now the party's over..

Unedited image taken with and uploaded from my smart 'phone.

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My latest creation:

-Papaya (homegrown)

-American Grapefruit

-Oats

-100% Raw Manuka Honey (New Zealand)

Strobist Info:

Alienbee B800 top left fired @ 1/8th through 36" white umbrella

Triggered by Calumet Pro Series

A new hybrid form of the white flowering native NZ 'Tea tree" or Manuka. (Leptospermum)

Title ideas welcome

A favourite of the honey bees...the making of Manuka Honey, A New Zealand natural remedy, a gift from the honey bees, to us all....