Tuesday, April 16, 2019

WEP: Jewel Box

Apologies for a lack of polish and all the usual info about the amazing WEP (Write, Edit, Publish) Challenge! And I’m on the road again, so I’ll be commenting as I can on the everyone else’s posts. If you are a participant, I’ll be around to see you before June :).  If you aren’t, consider joining in!



I originally mixed this up with last April’s challenge (the road less traveled), which made me want to do a photo essay. Even though that’s not what the challenge is, I could see the jewel box working for some of my photos, so here goes...

New Zealand itself is a jewel box of fantastic scenery, so I had to narrow this down. I decide to share photos of... some beautiful rocks I’ve found here! We have spent most of our time in the mountains, but we did get to the beach a few times. When we did, I wanted to pick up and take home every stone and shell I saw. Mostly I took photos and put them back. Here are some of the “jewels” I left behind.





“I left my heart in New Zealand”

 And a few shells, too.


Some of the best rocks you just can’t haul home.
Harris Lake/Harris Saddle on the Routeburn Track





47 comments:

  1. Wonderful Rebecca - enjoy the rest of your journey around ... I'm sure there'll be plenty of jewels to be found ... flowers, pools, or shiny sea ... it's difficult leaving stones behind ... cheers Hilary

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    1. I find jewels everywhere! If I’d had enough time to really sort through for the best of the photos, I’d have used New Zealand as the jewel box and shared the real gems we visited :)

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    2. Well a story or more for another day ... I've never been - but can see the beauty ... just enjoy the travels - which you obviously are ... a jewel of a trip to a bejewelled country ... cheers from a sunny England!

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  2. Beautiful! I had a rock collection as a kid - still stop and love them, but thankfully I stopped bringing them home! :)

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    1. I’m getting better at leaving them. I have only a very small bag of rocks and shells I’m bringing home :)

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  3. Glorious. I grew up with 'take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints' drummed into us. Some of those gems would have sorely tempted me though.
    Enjoy your travels.

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  4. Best of treasures are always found in nature, not in man-made boxes.

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    1. Yes. Though I did buy a lovely necklace of carved wood and bone :)

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  5. Those are really great stones! You rock. (Did I just leave a comment pun?)

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  6. I've always wanted to visit New Zealand. I've heard so many great things about the country. I hope one day to visit and see some of those beautiful rocks in person. Thank you for sharing.
    Shalom aleichem,
    Pat G

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    1. Save your pennies and do visit NZ! Such a beautiful country.

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  7. I found some wonderful greenstone on the beach on the way north to the Franz Josef glacier. I think I was good and left them there :)

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    1. Gillespie Beach, where I found a lot of those, is near the mouth of the Fox River, so not far away.

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  8. I love the treasures we can find in the natural world, the jewel box of nature. Beautiful photo essay!

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  9. Great to see another photo-essay. Nature's jewel box beats man-made any day. Loved your take on the prompt.

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    1. Thanks! Photo essays are pretty much all I’ve been doing the last month or so :) If you need to look at pretty pictures, just browse back :)

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  10. I loved the photos of these jewels of the land and the sea. Well done!

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    1. Also—I wanted to congratulate you on your wonderfully creepy story, but couldn’t locate the comment form. Well done!

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  11. Nice photo essay. Is the multi-coloured thing you are holding in the 8th picture a stone or a shell?

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    1. That’s a shell. I think it’s broken, maybe just a mussel shell, maybe something more interesting. I can’t recall and may not have been able to tell even at the time.

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  12. These photos are lovely, and they work quite well for the prompt. Jewels do come from the earth, after all. Nicely done!

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    1. Thanks! I decided that rocks would be totally appropriate. I’m glad people seem to agree :)

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  13. Beautiful shots of natural jewels. I'm glad you left them behind for others to enjoy them. That's the word these days -- leave it where you found it. NZ is so beautiful. Lived there for 18 months. Never went walking along this particular trail. Happy travels!

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    1. Most of the rocks were from assorted beaches, not on tracks. The scenic shot is the only one we hiked to, I think.

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  14. What lovely pictures! It would be tempting to leave all those behind. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.

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    1. Flying out tomorrow! We’ve had a great stay here, and it’s been long enough that it’s strange to think it’s ending.

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  15. I've always dreamed of going to New Zealand. Now, thanks to your beautiful photos, in a way I have. :-) I just posted my entry: https://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2019/04/weprif.html

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    1. It is nice that we can look at pictures of places we may not get to visit. But if you love mountains, jump if you get the chance to visit the South Island.

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  16. As a retired photographer, I loved those photos of so many rocks and shells - jewels in themselves. I once used 'Beautiful Shells' as a title of a short with shells and more. Precious finds.

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    1. I’m a sucker for nice rocks and shells :). When I was a kid we had a tumbler to polish them.

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  17. Such wonderful treasures! I would love to visit New Zealand, but my lack of both health and funds means that this is something which will likely never happen. Thank you for sharing your photos!
    You should consider sharing your photos on the blog hops at magicalmysticalteacher.wordpress.com
    This isn't my blog, it's just a nice place for those who enjoy photography to share their work.

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    1. Thanks, I didn’t know about that blog hop. I may share some, though having some real photographers in the family I am keenly aware that I’m mostly trading on great subject matter, not great photos!

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  18. Lovely rocks. Stones can be jewels - like Tiger's eye, Onyx, jade, etc. Would love to visit New Zealand, especially since I once wanted to move there, but it would have been so far from family. Thanks for the photo study!

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    1. I was thinking that—most jewels are stones!

      As for moving to NZ, it would be a temptation, but a) it IS too far from family, and b) they won’t have us (they don’t want retirees).

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  19. Excellent images! (One of our members, Kate, lives in Wellington, New Zealand.) Hope you enjoy your adventure.

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  20. Such beautiful stones!
    Hope you had a wonderful holiday.

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  21. I really like the shells and the view. Cool!

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  22. Those rocks and shells are gorgeous! I've always loved collecting rocks and seashells. For rocks in particular, there's so much history absorbed into every pore. If only they could talk, they'd have such stories to tell.

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    1. Seriously. If you are a geologist, you can read just a bit of that hidden history.

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  23. Wow, those are gorgeous. I love rocks too. Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos.

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    1. Love looking for special rocks. Learning to photograph them and leave them has been the next step, though I still like to keep some to put in a little bowl.

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