top of page
Midlife Madness Memories
Photography’s like a disease. You catch it by accident – then, before you know it, you can’t go anywhere without a camera slung around your neck! The photos below are random Cooney favourites, capturing special moments on our Mad Midlife adventures. We’ve added a brief storyline (just click) to each of these pix – to help you enjoy them, too …
“My absolute best travel experience ever!”
-Anne
Cinque Terre (Italy)
This beautiful stretch of coastline is one of the world’s hottest holiday-spots! And, after a slap-up outdoor breakfast on our hotel terrace, we went in search of five higgledy-piggledy villages. Set on the clifftops amongst terraced olive-groves and stone-walled vineyards, these eye-popping towns date from the Middle Ages, and possess an olde-worlde charm. In a cluster known as Cinque Terre (Five Lands) they cling to cliffs along the Italian Riviera, their crooked lanes lined with multi-hued houses stacked haphazardly on top of each other.
Girl in the Rice-Paddy (Vietnam)
She was down low, squatting on her heels in the rice-paddy, her face shielded from the hot sun by a conical straw hat. I couldn’t see what her hands were doing in the damp soil, but I’ve no doubt it was what her mother, grandmother and generations of Vietnamese women before her had done. It was her eyes that got to me. And I couldn’t help wondering what stories lay behind them?
La Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)
Look, no exaggeration: I’ve seen plenty of cathedrals in my time, and they all start to look the same. But there’s one astonishing, fantastical, unfinished cathedral that never fails to take my breath away: Antoni Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia (the Sacred Family). Its bell-towers already jut more than 100 metres against the sky. The whole exterior is encrusted with stunning sculptures – which tell the Gospel story and breathe life into this mountain of stone and steel. And the inside is another world altogether – a kaleidoscope of light and colour and inspiration that defies description.
Tiger! Tiger! (India)
It was a chilly early dawn, and we were bouncing along in an open-top jeep, wildlife-spotting in India’s famous Ranthambore National Park. But when the driver braked hard, asking us to ssshhh, we saw this huge male tiger walking towards us on the track. We watched, scarcely daring to breathe, as he got closer and closer … finally passing alongside our truck, squatting for a pee in the grass, then disappearing back into the undergrowth. And, in case we had any doubts him being really wild, the guide warned that this magnificent cat had recently killed a villager and a park ranger! Gulp! He’d been so close we could’ve touched him!
Cock of the Rock (Peru)
Should you ever find yourself in Peruvian Andes, high up in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, don’t visit Machu Picchu without also stopping in the village of Aguas Calientes. Why? Because the ‘cloud forest’ around here has given birth to magical gardens, lush greenery, bromeliads to-die-for, and an staggering variety of native orchids. And twice, now, while going ga-ga over all this, we’ve been treated to rare close-ups of the gorgeous, orange-red Cock of the Rock (Peru’s national bird, bigger than a Tui). Wow!
Malachite Kingfisher (Africa)
Oh, the birds! You’ve gotta see East Africa’s birds! Fluffed-up ostriches all in a flap … saddle-billed storks sporting red-and-yellow … ground hornbills with their scarlet necks … ugly marabou storks with pink airbags under their chins … and crowned cranes, looking like they’d stepped out of a hair-salon. But my favourite? This tiny, beautifully-coloured pygmy malachite kingfisher! Barely 10cm long, he was spotted clinging to a reed – then, just minutes later when we came back down the track, there he was again, with a tiny just-caught fish in his mouth!
Endangered Cheetah (Africa)
Cheetahs (like this handsome teenager) are not only the world’s fastest land-animal – they’re also take-home gorgeous. Unfortunately, that’s what too many poachers do (to earn big bucks). And some of the game-parks post 24/7 guards over endangered cheetah families. We’ve had cubs playing tag around the wheels of our safari vehicles – and their mums will sometimes climb up on the bonnet to gain a higher lookout across the grasslands and spot their next meal, usually a small gazelle. Worth protecting? Without doubt!
Fiery Containers (Vancouver)
I don’t know what you were doing in mid-September that year, but we spent some lovely leisurely days in one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Words simply cannot convey the gorgeousness of this place – a scenic dream, with rainforests and mountains towering over mirror-glass skyscrapers everywhere you look. And in the late afternoon, as we sailed out under the Lion’s Gate Bridge, the sunburnt glory of this container terminal caught my eye. If you’re wondering where it is: try Vancouver, Canada.
Thirsty Giraffe (Africa)
We spent our last two nights on safari under canvas at a luxury campsite. It overlooks a popular waterhole, and we watched with pleasure as lumbering elephants, grumpy buffalos and yipping zebras came and went – drinking and bathing, foraging and arguing just across the ditch from us. An elegant ‘tower’ of giraffes drifted in at one stage, nibbling sweet shoots from the tall acacia trees. Then, as if on cue, this lanky youngster stepped forward, spread his legs like a giant tripod, and quenched his thirst …
Gondola Serenade (Venice)
It’s a crime to hurry through Venice. So we spent the afternoon wandering and meandering, strolling and sauntering, then soaking up the ambience with a Gondola Serenade. As we drifted along magical canals, the darkening waters lapping against the sides of our boats, stripey-shirted gondoliers leaned on their poles … musicians with accordions, guitars and magnificent voices “Sole mio-ed” us in traditional fashion … and we Kiwis sang along at the top of our lungs: “Volaré, oh, oh …!”
Butterflies, Flutterbyes (Iguazu Falls)
Want a free travel-tip? Don’t overlook the little things! I mean, you probably know about South America’s world-famous, jaw-dropping Iguazu Falls – right? You’ve probably heard about the sheer, raging, overwhelming roar as 23 kilometres of churning water crash down into this giant gorge where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. But has anyone mentioned the little things that inhabit this humid jungle-zone: the tiny, intricate orchids … the darting, irridescent hummingbirds … the multi-hued moths and butterflies? This little beauty emerged from the waterfall-spray to alight on a fence near my wife’s camera …
Chateau de Villandry (France)
Way back in the 16th century, competing French kings, queens, nobles and hotshots chose the lush green Loire Valley (west of Paris) as their royal battleground-cum-playground – filling it with extravagant forts, castles and châteaux. We eager Kiwis inspected some of the best: one, a chunky, multi-turreted affair … another, straddling a river and built by women … the third, an architectural jewel … and a fourth, Château de Villandry, boasting one of the most photographed gardens in Europe, an artistic maze of decorative box-hedges.
To Market, To Market (Vietnam)
It’s in the countryside of Vietnam more than the cities that you see things you never see back home. A wizened old man ploughing knee-deep mud with plodding water-buffalos. His toothless wife on a rusty ‘moped’, herding tidal-waves of noisy ducks. Giggling girls scooping water from one ditch into another with bamboo buckets-on-poles. Squabbling boys pulling handcarts piled with dung. This farmer taking pigs to market passed met us on the road to I-can’t-remember-where – pedalling shyly past on his three-wheeled ‘cyclo’. His pigs slept like babies, resigned I guess to what lay ahead …
Oom-Paa-Paa (St Petersburg)
St Petersburg takes a bit of getting used to. For a start, this showcase Russian city’s had too many name-changes: from St Petersburg (1703), to Petrograd (1905), to Leningrad (1917), then back to St Petersburg again (1991). And can you work out the Russian alphabet? The sign below the familiar Golden Arches reads “МакДоиалдс”. (Imagine having to order a “Вчз Мак” …) Also slightly weird is the Russian fondness for brass bands playing ‘oom-paa-paa’ music. Bearded men in tired blue uniforms blasted us loudly when we got off the ship. And their brothers, in green-and red, greeted us with an old Russian marching tune at Catherine’s Palace. It was, well … different.
Jumbo Orphans (Africa)
We dropped in on an elephant orphanage – home, that day, for 26 bumbling, tumbling, cute-as baby elephants from all over Africa. Many were orphans, their parents shot by poachers; others were found lost and hungry, separated from their family by man-versus-wildlife clashes; still others had fallen down waterholes or got caught in traps (like one tiny little fellow whose trunk had been almost severed by a wire snare). Here, in this sanctuary, they’re fed and cared for, allowed to play roly-poly with their friends in the red dust, then adopted back into wild herds at the age of three. Nice, eh …
Lady with Cigar (Hoi An)
You haven’t experienced the real Vietnam until you’ve fought your way around a crowded farmers’ market. Stalls groan under the weight of live poultry, twitching fish, slabs of meat, unidentifiable fruit’n’veges, frogs, snails and other delicacies. Housewives poke at produce and argue price. Kids play around your legs and mothers breastfeed babies. Old ladies snore in their chairs and old men nod hello. Talk about photogenic! And my favourite pic? This lady with the cigar who didn’t look thrilled to see me.
Bamboo Grove (Japan)
On the outskirts of Kyoto, one of Japan’s insanely busy cities, we strolled through a silent other-worldly forest. No skyscrapers, no traffic, no crowds, no noise – just the rustling of leaves as the wind blew gently through this towering grove of thick emerald-green bamboo. And the rickshaw that overtook us simply added to the atmosphere …
Pointing Skyward (Istanbul)
The enticing Turkish city of Istanbul is truly unique. Spanning two continents (Europe and Asia), and known previously as Byzantium, then Constantinople, it is today crammed with stunning mosques, amazing mosaics, crowded bazaars, and dazzling sultans’ palaces right out of ‘Tales of Arabian Nights’. We were woken early this morning by the amplified wailing of a muezzin (holy man) calling the faithful to prayer from the top of a nearby minaret. And, when I snuck out onto our hotel balcony, I could smell the thick black Turkish coffee they serve here in the streets. Moccona? Not quite. But …
Leopard-at-Large (Africa)
Few people go on safari without wanting to see the big cats. And, while leopards aren’t the largest African cats (lions take that honour), they are the hardest to spot. Masters at stealth and camouflage, these solitary hunters are barely visible when stalking their prey. And it’s often a tell-tale tail hanging from a far-off tree that first alerts a sharp-eyed safari guide. Which is how we got we got to see this beautiful female. She had climbed high into a big tree, dragging her dinner (a gazelle) with her …
Gardens by the Bay (Singapore)
I dunno how Singapore does it! This showpiece city of 5.5 million people is crammed on an island the size of Lake Taupo – along with far too many cool attractions. You can shop-until-you-drop in Orchard Road … enjoy a sampan ride on the Singapore River … visit Haw Par Villa or Chinatown or Little India … meet feathered friends at the stunning Jurong Birdpark … catch some fabulous views on a giant ferris wheel … and order a ‘Singapore Sling’ at Raffles Hotel. But don’t go home without visiting these super-sized, hi-tech, space-age Gardens by the Bay …
Terracotta Army (China)
There’s a spooky, silent place in the middle of China where an ancient emperor once buried 8,000 fully-sized, fully-armed clay soldiers. Lifelike, battle-ready, and attended by horses, chariots, the works, they stayed underground, unknown, for more than 2,200 years … discovered only yesterday (actually, 1974) like some eerie, long-forgotten army! I’m not often left speechless, but I was that afternoon as I looked down on row after row of terracotta warriors, looming up out of the mists of history. Talk about goosebumps!
Girl in Red Shirt (Africa)
We stopped off this morning at a Masai village or kraal. I’d seen some of these proud nomads in the distance, dressed in bright red blankets and carrying a fistful of spears. But now, here we were up close! Their low huts were encircled by a fence of thorny branches, to protect them and their precious livestock from lions and hyenas. And I felt strangely humbled as the men showed us how they make fire from sticks, the women showed off their colourful beads, and this shy wee barefoot girl with chocolate skin showed off her red shirt and waved at us from her hiding place in the goat-pen …
Falkland Islands Penguins (South America)
Last night saw us sailing the wild Southern Ocean around the South America’s treacherous Cape Horn. And when we woke this morning, our ship had dropped anchor in Port Stanley, on the desolate Falkland Islands. Climbing into 4WD off-roaders, we lurched across peaty, rock-strewn farmland to a remote penguin colony – where several thousand Gentoos, plus a few King penguins (larger, with bright orange collars) nest along a windswept beach. Gorgeous, curious creatures, they waddled about like royalty … feeding their chubby chicks, and begging to be photographed.
Flamenco (Spain)
Somebody warned us: you don’t watch flamenco – you feel it! So, pulling on our skin-tight muscle-shirts (men) and hitching up our truffled skirts (ladies), we rendezvoused at the Corral de la Moreria for an evening of high-speed guitars, frantic hand-clapping, and passionate foot-stomping by Madrid’s super-energetic flamenco dancers! This particular sizzling song was a Spanish classic (I was told) about a beautiful gypsy girl who brings tragedy to her family and her village. But don’t ask for details. It was all an exuberant blur, and I was spellbound!
bottom of page