R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 79

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating New Zealand; Napier Favorites 2

National Aquarium sculpture

It’s Fun Photo Friday, and here are my Part 2 picks of Napier favorites:

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Napier Architectural Detail

Napier, New Zealand

Believe it or not, Napier is known as the Art Deco Capital of the World (although, for my money, Miami Beach deserves a shot at that title as well). You may think that strange that a city founded in the middle of the 19th century would find fame in the Art Deco movement that came to prominence in the 1930s, but there’s a reason.

Art Deco inspired building

This seeming incongruity derives from an event that occurred on 3 February 1931 — the devastating Magnitude 7.9 H...

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Napier’s Sunken Gardens

Napier Sunken Gardens

Today we backtrack a little from our first look at downtown Napier by going back to our northbound trek along Marine Parade and the shoreline. Just before reaching downtown you’ll stumble across Napier’s Sunken Gardens. As you can tell from the right side of the photo below, the gardens truly are ‘sunken’, in that they reside below Marine Parade street level. This provides one with a sense of removal from the bustling city just a short distance away.

Napier Sunken Gar...

Fun Photo Friday — Circumnavigating New Zealand; Napier Favorites 1

Buick Roadmaster with some Chicago-style

Here is today’s gallery of Napier favorites:

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Six Sisters and Downtown Napier

Side of building at 159 Marine Parade

In addition to the walk along the beach, make sure you also take in the sights on the parallel Marine Parade. If not, you’ll be missing some pretty interesting sights. One of those sights is an impressive group of Victorian-style homes called the Six Sisters:

Six Sisters — 1891

These houses were built in 1891 by architect Robert Lamb for his six daughters. Today these beauties are occupied by businesses rather than home owners:

Six Sisters — 1891...

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Six Sisters and Downtown

Side of building at 159 Marine Parade

In addition to the walk along the beach, make sure you also take in the sights on the parallel Marine Parade. If not, you’ll be missing some pretty interesting sights. One of those sights is an impressive group of Victorian-style homes called the Six Sisters:

Six Sisters — 1891

These houses were built in 1891 by architect Robert Lamb for his six daughters. Today these beauties are occupied by businesses rather than home owners:

Six Sisters — 1891...

Circumnavigating New Zealand — Arriving into Napier

Napier, North Island, New Zealand

Wellington, on New Zealand’s South Island, is where our two cruises diverged. Our 2020 cruise departed South Island and headed back to Sydney, Australia. But our 2019 voyage aboard Majestic Princess headed to North Island, with our first stop being Napier.

Pretty Birdie

So, for the rest of this series on New Zealand, I’ll be concentrating solely upon our 2019 voyage aboard Majestic Princess. And as for today’s article, most of the photos you see today w...

Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings to One and All

More Christmas Lights of Eastridge

In Monday’s article, I gave tips on how to photograph Christmas lights. Since then we’ve been seeing how to put those tips to use. Every year, the Eastwood neighborhood in El Paso decorates like no other. The following photos of Eastridge Christmas lighting decorations were taken in 2012. I hope you enjoy the show:

Christmas on the Pecos Favorites

Christmas on the Pecos

Every December in the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico river cruises are available for a very special Christmas lighting special.  Before you get to the photo gallery, however, here are some particular favorites of mine.  The next photograph is a rather abstract reflected light image from our Pecos River voyage:

Christmas on the Pecos

I particularly enjoy the symmetry of this next reflection shot:

Christmas on the Pecos

And this next shot would make a great Christmas card, I w...