Holiday pics: Vintage cars and Huka Falls

[vilakins]

First lot of holiday pictures--a month after I came back, but I've been so busy at work.

.
Seen in Cambridge on the way down: a 1933 Packard Super 8 Vic Coupe.


A 1928 Packard , also a perfect thing of beauty. It had a trunk on the back. Behind it is the converted church now containing a very good souvenir shop and a cafe we ate at.


Our apartment in The Village, this year a ground floor one. On the way, we also saw two Lotus 7s like the one the Prisoner drove (one even being yellow!) so there must have been a vintage car rally somewhere. Very appropriate, considering where we were staying.


Huka Falls. Yes, the water is that colour: a clear turquoise because of its purity. The yellow flowers reminded me of the ones in 'Killer' which Vila and Avon rise from. :-)


The rapids after Huka Falls, facing down river.

Comments

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

Wow, that water is amazing!

The cars are quite splendid too. :D

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've been white-water rafting in rapids like those, a few years ago!

The Aratiatia Rapids were more spectacular, but Greg, who wanted to have a go, took all close-ups which just didn't show their majesty. [rolls eyes] I'll post a small selection sometime.

The cars were absolutely gorgeous. Every detail was perfect.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

You sure do take fabulous vacations from time to time. A shame that you don't have more majestic photos of the Aratiatia rapids though. Ah well! I know the feeling. I lost 95% of my photos to Japan in 2001 in a harddrive crash. Sigh.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Bum.

I was really annoyed that he took over 100 but they're almost all useless. "Why didn't you get any shots of the whole thing?" I asked. "Because it didn't look like much in the viewfinder." Well, no. It's a very small display. Sigh.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* That makes no sense, especially if it's digital! If you don't like it later, just delete it. Aaaaugh. Oh well. I get frustrated when I don't handle the camera on an event myself. Blaugh.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

He got annoyed because he was taking AVIs and recorded me saying, "Give me it back, I want to take some stills!" I wish he bloody had.

[vandonovan.livejournal.com]

*headdesk* I wish he had too!

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

Pretty, pretty. Pretty cars and pretty river.

*envious*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Don't be. You can go to other countries really cheaply, even for a weekend; we can't even get cheap domestic flights. We really are on the edge of the world, and can't really afford much but local holidays.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

The red car in front of the red church is a particularly nice photo.

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if the church was that colour when it was still a church.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I doubt it-- I have a hunch most churches don't have the money to afford anything other than white paint, even if they wanted something else.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's money; it's just being conservative and going with colours that are acceptable to most people, esp the older ones. The deep pink looked great though, and also made it obvious it was no longer a church.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I suppose there's also the idea that white=purity.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You might have something there (though there's a very dark stone church just down the road). You know, brides could wear any colour before the Victorians made white so popular that not conforming was tantamount to saying you weren't pure. Pity. All the colours had significance, e.g. yellow for happiness.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

It's weird what makes traditions-- a royal bride chose 2 pieces of classical music for her wedding, and *EVERYONE* wanted to do the same thing, which is how those 2 pieces wound up being used for 'Here comes the bride' and then the music after the ceremony.

(Don't remember *which* royal bride it was-- just that she was English royalty.)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't have either! And neither did I wear a dress: it's an ivory silk trouser suit (harem pants and a flowing tunic) which I've worn since.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you're an original. :^) The world is full of sheep.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't. :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The church was actually a really deep pink. It was such an interesting place inside, we went there on the way back too. Good food and friendly staff. :-)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

OOh, I'm so jealous... you can eat out without gettin' pizened. :^)

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Those cars are beautiful and love the rushing rapids.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The cars were just perfect; things of joy and beauty, and the rapids were great. The Aratiatia ones were so good, we saw them three times. :-D

[kalinda001.livejournal.com]

Did you have a favourite car?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Not really; they were both so beautiful. I love the dark green and detailing on the 1933 but the big travelling trunk on the 1928 had such vintage charm: touring adventures in the days of the Raj!

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Wow, the colour of that water is spectacular. It's so lovely to see photos of sunshine!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And I have a lot more to come!

We've had a lot of sunshine this summer which is the longest and hottest I can remember. We get a lot of wet ones--I've been rained out on holiday--so we were due for a good one, and it's still going strong. :-)

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

So I hear from my flist! Conversely, we have had one of the longest, most miserable winters on record *g*.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Well, a couple of winters ago, it rained every day for five months, and summers usually have a fairly high rainfall. We were so due a decent one.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

These are all fab, but the ones of the river are stunning.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And I haven't even posted the ones of Aratiatia Rapids yet! :-D

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

I love vintage cars. These are gorgeous and so welllooked after too,very shiny!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They were utterly perfect. So shiny and beautifully maintained, with not even a speck of dust on them, so they can't have been driven far.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Shiny cars!

Although I think you mean Lotus 7s (I see loads of them round here -- usually several every week -- but most are the more recent Caterham 7s, or other replicas).

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I did mean Lotus 7s. :-P I'll fix that. Greg thinks the ones we saw were Caterhams too. First one in yellow on the way, then a red one as we drove into town.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Absolutely smashing! Both the cars and the waterfalls - thanks!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Absolutely smashing!

[delighted grin] You sound like someone from Swallows and Amazons! :-D

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

wow, what beautiful water!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I've been white-water rafting in water like that. So much fun!