One more from New Zealand

Whilst driving through the North Island, at Waiotapu, near Rotarua, we came upon a boiling mud pool. At a quick glance, the pool looks like a large pond, albeit steaming a little. Take a closer look and it is very muddy - and the mud erupts and explodes from the surface!

It is very easy to spend a long time there, listening to the gurgling noises and watching a mud patch suddenly explode, sending balls of mud airborne, sometimes as a thin jet vertically, sometimes as an exploding ball! I took lots of photos there and have all sorts of explosions, but I decided just to put one image on the site - in 'landscapes'.

To the anonymous person who said I should put links to the photos - New photos are always at the beginning of a gallery, so I see no need to add links, when a couple of clicks gets you there...

More from New Zealand

I've just added another few images....

From the South Island, a view of the Fox Glacier and a couple of shots of the Moeraki Boulders. These boulders have washed out of the sandy cliff face over time, vary in size from over six feet in diameter down to the ones in the images which are around three feet. An oddity, but an interesting and photogenic one!

Also are a couple of shots from the Craters of the Moon, a volcanic area at Taupo on the North Island. Photos in 'landscapes'....

I have also added a 'portrait' of one of the giraffes at Auckland Zoo. We spent the day of Christmas Eve at the zoo and had a great day. Photo in 'nature'.

Hong Kong

Our holiday started with a couple of nights in Hong Kong, so we had one full day there and two part days. We were lucky enough to have a friend who offered to take us on a sightseeing tour on our full day there.

I had decided that I wanted to see the Giant Buddha at Ngong Ping and the harbour at night, so that's what we did. Unfortunately, our free day there was a Sunday and it seems the whole of Hong Kong goes out for the day, so we had huge queues everywhere.... To get to Ngong Ping from Kowloon where we were staying involved a ride on the MTR (underground), followed by a ride in a (glass bottomed) cable car to Ngong Ping. The system consists of three long cables with automatic switching from cable to cable, the journey taking around 25 minutes.

The Buddha is impressive, standing 34m - 112 feet - high. Photo in 'landscapes'.

The light was starting to fade as we were getting ready to leave and I spotted a view I liked, so the next photo in 'landscapes' shows this.

We then went to The Peak on Hong Kong Island to photograph the harbour at night and although I took many images, I couldn't do the scene justice, it is awesome! There is a photo in 'night time'.

More to follow....