Friday shootout:October 30 - landscapes - Mt Roskill Memorial Park

In this park, there are two market days on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is an International Market where the vendors come from all over the world.

Families come to support in a game of soccer.

American influence less the ghetto blasters in the skateboard and cycle rink. These kids are very young.


Auckland is the Polynesia capital of the world. Sports and church play a very important part of their culture. You see men and women wearing their lava-lava even when playing sports.

The park is very big, and there are wild life, birds and ducks. I was surprised to see a hedgehog.

One for the kids and the young at heart. I saw this hideaway hidden among the hedges.

One of our many bridges in this park. They are all sorts in design and lengths. The water are storm water, and eventually flow into the sea.

It must have been the influence of the water engineer, when I saw this round thing with a hole in the centre, I was curious.

The sign satisfied my curiousity. The hole above it a catchpit. It collects the rain water and the area has filter bags. Since then, I keep an open eye and see many other catchpits. We have a lot of rain in Auckland, but we are doing a good job in not wasting our water.

There are many foot bridges which makes this park a very romantic place to stroll. I photographed many bridges, but am posting only two.


What is a park without toilets. These sleek stainless steel toilets came about ten years ago. I was told, I am not sure if it is true. They were invented in New Zealand. You press the green button to enter, and when you are inside, you press the button to lock. I was also told, you can't linger too long, indeed, I went into one which allows you ten minutes. Otherwise the door will open. It's intention is for you to use th etoilet for that purpose and not anything else. A friend asked what if he was constipated and he needed more than ten minutes. I was also told that it is a self cleaning toilet, I guess after a certain number of flushes, water comes down from the wall and then it is dried automatically. My kids then were very curious about this new Kiwi invention.

The Wesley community centre, a people's place where you can learn the guitar for free.

This is only part of the children's play equipment. In the evening, it is fully utilitised. I see even grown ups playing there. There are monkey bars, swings, see saws, slides.

Sandpits, you don't need to go to the beach to make sand castles.

Americans will not feel totally out of place in this Down Under Country. People do play baseball here.

This park hosts Auckland's annual International Day. We have many people from many nationalities. Some are refugees, some are new migrants. This makes Auckland a very colourfuland vibrant city.

On International Day celebration, many ammenities like the fire serivces, police, Trade aid, VSA and St Johns were there to do their PR.

This is my cup of tea, Zero waste was there to teach people to recycle. I wasn't actively involved on that day, but I went to say Hi to the volunteer.

There are many refugees from the different continents. This group was from Eritea in Africa. I have students from Somalia, Tanzania, Ethipia and Kenya.

A must for the children.


I wish they had such things when I was young.
http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/

October 30 - Park landscapes - by JarieLyn -

"When I think of park landscapes, I think about the design of an entire park. This could be a local park or a state park. A park landscape not only includes trees, plants, grass, ponds and bushes but also could include functionality such as playgrounds, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, skateboard parks, tennis courts, swimming pools, etc. Some parks also have decorative items scattered about such as statues, monuments, benches, courtyards, buildings, etc. What makes the parks in your town special and/or fun? Tell us in pictures what it is about your park(s) that captivates you. ... here is a photo of one of the state parks located in my town of Las Vegas, Nevada." Jarie Lynn

The citizens of Auckland are very lucky. We have many parks, big and small for everyone to enjoy and in some to make a living.

I am featuring Mt Roskil War memorial Park. It has a Wesley Community centre where all kinds of courses and activities are conducted, every Tuesday and Friday morning, Mt Roskill War Memorial Hall, there is an International market, a lovely play ground for the children, a soccer field, a rugby park, a baseball diamond, running track, bike and skate board rink, and lots of green for other games like the Samoa Kiri Kiti