Autumn Colour in Alexandra

These golden apples grabbed my attention when I was walking from the town centre to the Shaky Bridge. Actually, they stopped me in my tracks and I had to detour across the road to take a closer look. A wonderful crop of golden crab apples or crabapples; the tree was on the street edge of an open public grass area.

Alexandra, Central Otago, New Zealand. Photos taken 19 April 2018

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While exploring around the vicinity of the Shaky Bridge I walked a little uphill from the bridge and into a subdivision. I liked the view of this property with the iconic Alexandra Clock high on the hill behind. The flax in the lower-centre is probably ‘Cream Delight’, a very attractive cultivar of our native flax. I like the curved end on the stone wall, helps to soften all the angles on the house.

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When I wandered down to the bank of the Manuherikia River I found these beautiful red hawthorn berries.

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Views of Alexandra from the subdivision

Immediately below the houses is the Shaky Bridge over the Manuherikia River.

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Many properties in Alexandra are in a very rocky landscape setting …

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Golden yellow trees lighting up the rugged landscape

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We stayed the night at Rockview B&B on Airport Road, in countryside just out a little way from the township. This was the view from our balcony looking out over the owner’s sheep paddock. The popular Central Otago Rail Trail (cycling trail) is immediately behind the fence on the far side of the paddock – we could see cyclists riding along it.

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A beautiful aerial photo looking down on Alexandra and showing the current autumn colours and the confluence of the Manuherikia and Clutha Rivers was featured in the Otago Daily Times on Thursday 26 April. The photo was taken by Joy Bennett of Alexandra when her husband took her for a flight. See Rich colours of autumn

Text and Photos by Liz; Exploring Colour (2018)

23 thoughts on “Autumn Colour in Alexandra”

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  2. Pingback: Decked Out in Pink – Exploring Colour

  3. I’m surprised those trees could bear the weight of all that fruit! Wow! The remind me of mine and Tom’s quince tree in NZ… It had so much fruit on it that the branches were touching the ground. 😛

    -Emma

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    1. Quinces are heavy fruit and like you say, they can bear a LOT of fruit. My mum used to make quince jelly, her and dad would collect the fruit from a roadside quince tree they knew of. Her quince jelly was so yum on toast!

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      1. Ooohhh, quince jelly! I love that! A school I taught at in Japan had a lot of quince trees. One of the teachers there gave me the recipe. I’ll have to make it again next season once we’re back in NZ :D.

        -Emma

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        1. A recipe from Japan! Wow! Do you follow the Sakura Junction blog? Mutsumi does these awesome Japanese sweets for a cafe in Notting Hill, Mutsumi is so clever and creative. If only I was visiting London !!!

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    1. Crabapple blossom is beautiful! These are golden crabapples, the only other colour you’d be seeing is the ones that are rotting which gives the multi-coloured effect. One to the far left is half yellow and half brown. You’d get different colours on one tree if you grafted different varieties on to one tree – which would provide an interesting effect!

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  6. That is one magnificent crab apple tree! I remember a few of them interspersed among the apple trees in my Gram’s orchard, but I don’t think that the fruit was eaten as they were very bitter and small. I really like the hawthorn berries, but know nothing about them. They do look as though they might be tasty. I spy that clock up behind the photo of the gorgeous curved stone wall. I am drawn to that rocky landscape and the homes are lovely. You have shared so many beautiful photos and I just love seeing your Autumn. Thank-you!

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    1. There was a hawthorn hedge near the last place we rented and the birds liked the berries. Hawthorns have beautiful blossom in spring, usually white but there’s some lovely pink and red ones as well. Sometimes they have been grown here as hedges by paddocks in the countryside and their blossom is wonderful in spring. Once place here that comes to mind is Kaitangata near Balclutha where we occasionally do a little detour in the spring to look at the hawthorn blossom. I’ve seen recipes for using hawthorn berries, in jam or jelly I think, but thats probably more a UK thing. Crabapples if harvested are made into crabapple jelly (like jam that you put on toast). Its delicious – my mum occasionally made it!

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    1. I have tasted crabapples at times and they’re a bit floury, not yum like a good eating apple. My mum sometimes made crabapple jelly (to eat like jam) and that was lovely. Near the end of our Central Otago visit we went to Lazy Dog Vineyard and they had a whole group of crabapple trees with large red crabapples that were stunningly beautiful. I asked about the variety and they were called ‘Jack Humm’. If you harvest crabapples they are normally made into crabapple jelly.

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