Under the macrocarpa tree

Another slightly slow start to the day; still catching up on a little sleep I guess after the departure of small persons to their own homes. On what is my last run of this holiday (work starts in earnest again tomorrow), I tried some different shots, and am relatively happy with the results.

However, towards the end of this course, I climb the 300 - 400 steps from Algies Bay to the Highfield Garden Reserve, which sits atop the promontory separating Snells from Algies. After running the first 30 or so I walk the rest. There is one section where the path runs around part of the perimeter of this paddock, and it is level so I can run again. This morning I saw that the donkeys mentioned a week ago were in the paddock where a macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress) was planted many years ago for shade after the Pakeha farmers had removed all the native forest. Many have since been felled.

These poor donkeys have suffered from the very wet ground of the last couple of months, and last week we noticed that their hooves are cracked, and chipped. One or two were limping. Their coats were very dusty. I believe that they used to give rides for children, but I haven't seen that in the last few years.