Thames School of Mines

Having driven past the sign advertising the Thames School of Mines many times recently we finally got curious about what a school of mines actually is. Turns out it was the school where people went to qualify for one of many tickets needed to undertake mining operations in the 1800's. One of those fascinatingly unusual things you find off the beaten track

Part of the collection of hundreds of samples of the many different kinds of rocks that are found in New Zealand. Mining students needed to learn many of these

Of course one of the things they had to learn was what gold actually looks like (its the gold coloured flecks in these rocks)

There are other unusual rocks in the collection. These rocks (gizzard stones) would have been in the gizzard of an extinct moa to help it grind up the plants it ate. Moa apparently selected the hardest rocks before swallowing them.

And who would have thought (let alone had the time) to carve a 30 centimetre tall model of London's Tower Bridge from Kauri Gum (amber)??

The famed wooden rose - deformed roots of trees caused by infestation by a parasitic plant. This plant is now rare, partly because people used to look for it and cut out the root and remove the parasite by boiling. Wood rose (Dactylanthus taylori) is now thought to be extinct in the Coromandel, but it is so inconspicuous that some plants are likely to still be present, particularly where possums are regularly controlled such as at Moehau

Further info on the NZ Historic Places website here

Yogyakarta's new bird market

We've recently returned from a few days holiday in Yogyakarta after working with Indonesian scientists at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriensis in Bogor (near Jakarta).

For a challenge I visited Pasar Ngasem Baru/ New Bird Market armed only with a wide-angle 16-35mm lens. Using a wide-angle lens means you have to get up close a personal with whatever you're photographing. People definitely know you're taking their photograph as you're often only 2-3 feet away and sometimes less than 1 foot away!

They do things differently in Indonesia - like dyeing their chickens different colours!

The number and diversity of birds on sale is staggering - this is shop 12 of about 60. All selling birds and wildlife.

 Many of the cages are highly decorated.

 And of course all these birds need to be fed!

Some stall holders are very friendly - this man asked for me to take a photo of his son and him during their lunch break.

One surprise was this man - patiently hand-making individually-numbered coloured aluminium rings that are slid onto the bird's legs so that they can be identified.

In Indonesia it is considered lucky to own wildlife, particularly a bird that sings loudly and most larger towns have a bird market. The birds are mostly caught in the wild and come from throughout Indonesia. This white-rumped shama is still common in parts of Indonesia, but not on the main island of Java as most are caught by bird trappers. The bird trade is one of the major reasons for many of Indonesia's birds being evaluated as at risk of extinction. For sale in this market was a subspecies of the endangered red and blue lory which is only found on the Talaud Islands - 2240 kilometres away! Scientists sometimes use the bird species they find in the local market as a guide to which rare birds occur in the surrounding area.

Having to get up so close to people to take photos was great fun - even if they obviously thought you were a bit strange. It did lead to interesting conversations carried out in a mix of broken Bahasa Indonesia from me and broken English from them!

And in case you're wondering why it is called the new bird market - the old bird market was situated next to the food market, but was moved by the government following the bird flu outbreak. Tourists still turn up a the old site looking slightly bewildered by the lack of birds!


We also took the opportunity to visit the famed Borobodur temple. From a distance it looks like a large pile of rocks on a lawn:

But on closer inspection it is an intricate maze of carvings and stonework:

Temples are a feature of village life throughout Indonesia and they're frequently used by local children as a playground and sports field:

a few shots

Been pretty busy, but here are some photos I've taken recently.

We had a holiday in Singapore. In the Little India area are several gold markets packed even at this time of night (10pm) with Indian people negotiating for shows of wealth. There are no prices on any of the pieces, just the weight of the piece - its all by negotiation. I didn't know if I'd be allowed to take a photograph with all that gold, but thought someone would start yelling if they didn't like it.

Also in Little India are very large sari shops. I found these mannequins somehow an eerie way of displaying the expensive outfits

 Singapore is a shrine to shopping and consumerism, some of it taken to 'unusual' extremes such as this sheep in a christmas display

 I've also been playing around with taking photographs out of helicopters:

We went chasing rare plants in the Ahukawakawa Swamp nestled between Mt Taranaki and the eroded volcanic cone of the Pouakai Range

On the way back we passed through Patea, the home of my favourite memorial: the concrete Aotea waka (canoe) and concrete Maori paddlers. I remember this from long car trips when we were kids. It didn't mean we were close to anywhere, but it was something to look at.

Some people might remember the Patea Maori Club and Delvinius Prime's hit song Poi E

I'm an individual (part I)

It's the time of the year here in Thames (the migratory bird capital of NZ) when flocks of oystercatchers (these are South Island pied oystercatcher, or SIPO to their human friends) start moving up from their South Island homes. Later in the year, when winter hits down South, there will be huge flocks using the Firth of Thames estuary, together with wrybill, pied and black stilts. I've got a few plans being hatched photograph-wise to capture this spectacle - watch this space. But in the meantime this flock of about 200 was enough reason to start practicing.

About the photograph: first you need to know a bit about oystercatchers - during high tide they get crammed onto the beach between the rising tide and the houses behind. This is useful when you want to get a "crowd' shot. This was taken hand-held using Canon's 100 mm f2.8L macro lens (who says you have to use a lens for what its designed for) at ISO200 and f11. To add foreground interest I waded into the sea and waited for a small wave to give an interesting shape. (I also got badly bitten by sea lice - invertebrates that are known to strip the flesh in a matter of hours from fish caught in nets).