Relic

Yesterday, during a traffic jam on state highway one, I snapped this photo (click on it to enlarge it) of a barge which has been lying on the banks of the lower Waikato River since the invasion of the area by Auckland-based colonists and British troops in 1863. The barge was used to supply the 12,000 man army that advanced into the heart of the Waikato kingdom; it shared the river with the armoured fighting ships that bombarded the Maori fortifications at Meremere and Rangiriri. In the field behind the barge you can see maize growing, probably to feed a herd of cows, along with cabbage trees and a grove of kahikatea (white pine).

On our side of the river somebody had painted a series of toi tois pink. Boredom is a terrible thing.
I've written about the lower Waikato region here.