Some Chinese Pulp...and a bit more scenery

 Not any of the recent arrivals - I am trying to apply a level of painting discipline here, doncha know - but some of the Copplestone figures that arrived a few weeks ago,

First up. the mounted version of the Senior Chinese Officer/Warlord/Emperor

He is painted slightly differently to the dismounted version, so can be used as a different character if required

A Warlord commander for the grey and yellow "team"

The second figure in the Copplestone four pack

The third figure - and probably my favourite

I painted him with Tong/Triad tattoos on both arms

Where is the fourth figure I hear you cry.....? Well, IF you had been paying attention at the back there, you would recall the other figure was a female wearing a straw hat and brandishing a cleaver like weapon, and she was painted some time ago!

Now, as we have had a few days off from bush walking, I only have a few images taken over a week ago to share, and then we will be all up to date.

Walk One isnt a bush walk at all!

Its a (relatively) recently completed pedestrian walkway along the side of the main Auckland Southern Motorway

View from the halfway point, looking south back at the suburb of Papakura

Plate explaining the significance of Takanini Point - Takanini is the next suburb to the north, and where the walkway ends. We had a coffee at a conveniently located cafe and after half an hour, headed back in the opposite direction to pick up the car

View of the estuary and suburb of Karaka in the distance

I thought this was a nice touch - a memorial to a guy who obviously spent a lot if not all of his working life improving this stretch of road

A couple of days later, we headed over to Thames, on the Coromandel Peninsula, and did this rather nice bush walk 

Wet feet right from the start as we had to cross this ford

Sign explaining the name of the valley - Thames and the Coromandel experienced a "Gold Rush" in the 19th century and there is still at least one commercial gold mine in the area.

The remains of a "battery" - not what you are imagining, but rather a site where the gold bearing rocks were "battered" to retrieve the ore!

I thought this feature had a very "Lord of the Rings" look to it!

The terminus of our walk, an impressive Kauri tree atop a relatively high position - we climbed a couple of hundred steps in the last 5 minutes before arriving at this point.

Off to a family wedding tomorrow but I promise not to share those images! Might get one more walk in before I go back to work on Monday 17th...sigh!