Bitter/Sweet Memories

[Colin Southern]

Hi Folks,

Just back from a 5 day holiday in my home town of New Plymouth, on the occasion of my Mum's 90th birthday. It was filled with bitter/sweet memories of "days gone by" and, of course, I had my camera with me ...

(Note: Click on the images for a bigger version) (Recommended!)

[Colin Southern]

Some time ago this mountain was renamed from Mt. Egmont to Mt. Taranaki, but it'll always be Mt. Egmont to me.

I've climbed her 3 times - once when I was 6, Once when I was 7, and again when I was 9. I thought that I was the youngest person ever to climb her, but my older brother (who has now done over 250 ascents) doesn't think so. Either way, there can't be too many who were less than 6 years old at the time who have climbed her!

8260 feet.

Not a great shot -- would have preferred to shoot later on in the day, but time was against me on this occasion, and I had to shoot in full sun, with hard shadows ... so best I could do at the time ...

[Colin Southern]

We took my Mum to Pukekura Park for a 90th Birthday lunch - it's a beautiful park, which additionally features the Bowl of Brooklands stage where many a famous artist has performed -- I must even confess to remembering concerts by Cilla Black and also the Black and White Minstrals from my youth!

This composition caught my eye on one of the many walking tracks - some of which I used to run through in my younger days.

[Colin Southern]

And this was another that caught my eye, from the same location ...

[Colin Southern]

With a rare opportunity to capture a shot of 4 generations of our family - and with me being the "designated professional photographer", the pressure was on to come up with the goods ...

... hope I didn't disappoint!

[Colin Southern]

... an impromptu portrait session by "the scary" Uncle Colin.

It's been said that photographers should never work with children or animals, but I disagree ... the animals are fine!

[Colin Southern]

My Dad flew on the Stirling bombers during WW2, and being a pilot myself, I was intrigued to have a look through my Dad's logbook (unfortunately, my Dad passed away over 20 years ago, so I'm lucky that some of the momentos have been kept).

I'm not an expert in World War history by any stretch of the imagination, but it's my understanding that many of the ground troops endured periods of intense fighting, interspersed by sometimes long periods of relative inactivity, whilst in contrast, the bomber aircrew literally got the cr^p shot out of them night after night, with somthing like over 30% failing to return.

My Mum tells me that entries in red were for flights over occupied Germany ...

[Colin Southern]

I also discovered that my Dad was "into" photography as well, although we're not sure just who some of the girls in his album were!

I only had access to the album for an evening, so I pressed my SLR into action, and photographed avery single photo ... this is one chosen at random ... I thought they came out pretty darn good.

[Colin Southern]

All good things must come to an end - including holidays, darn it.

The 2nd to last leg of the journey home was a 3 hour ferry trip between the islands ... only one photographer on deck, freezing his fingers off whilst in search of the "killer shot" ...

... luckily I got it

[Colin Southern]

PS: Discovered this on my travels!

[ktuli]

Colin,

Stunning. Absolutely stunning.

- Bill

[Donald]

... luckily I got it

You did indeed.

Lovely set accompanied by wonderfully informative text.

[jiro]

This is really nice. lots of good pictures and memories. Thanks for sharing, Colin. I hope we can see some more of this stuff from other members as well. Something that we can call or categorize as "journeys".

[Nicola]

Colin,
thanks for sharing your pics and memories... it' a very interesting and instructive work!
the best of the serie is the last one for me (on the ferries), and on the second step there is the first pic
cheers
N

[dje]

Hi Colin

Wonderful set of pictures and stories. Thanks for sharing your "bitter/sweet" memories - mainly "sweet" I would think.

Cheers Dave

PS I particularly liked the two of the little girl who I assume is your grand daughter. Gee i wish I could get my grandkids to pose like that.

[Wirefox]

Now thats what I call a set of holiday snaps

Pukekura Park II is simply beautiful

[arith]

Perfect lighting and very clever landscape. Mmm incredibly sharp.

I think almost everybody got shot at during the war; my granddad was a Sergeant in the army and got a fractured skull from a bullet on the beach, but he didn't know until he was seventy.

Bomber crew is definitely not a good job though. The only ones to escape being shot at were the rich who scarpered to the USA until after the war, and my Gran used to call my dad a white feather because he worked down the pit.

Interesting time.

[Katy Noelle]

I know that I miss your posts because of time differences but, I was really starting to wonder where you were. You were missed but this definitely makes up for it! Lucky family to have to chronicle things!!! Wonderful photos (but, of course!)

[Colin Southern]

Colin,

Stunning. Absolutely stunning.

- Bill

Thanks Bill.

Still a lot more to process, so hopefully another short series after the weekend.

[Colin Southern]

You did indeed.

Lovely set accompanied by wonderfully informative text.

Thanks Donald!