Rata vine (Metrosideros albiflora)

Rata vine (Metrosideros albiflora)is one of the more showy native flowers, and it has been in full flower for about a month now. There are some nice big vines of it growing up a couple of big trees on the road side, but these have been covered in dust for most of their flowering.
So I went looking for some flowers today to photograph, so took the pups and headed off to the Skiddaw Reserve. I knew of some vines that grow on the banks just above the beach in one little bay. Some of the flowers are nearly finished, another week and I would have missed out.
I took some 'me' time today, and had a play with photo editing. Found how to do vignetting, so have put a touch of that around this photo.
We walked down the road, then cut down onto the beach, and came most of the way back home on the foreshore, before taking a track back up onto the road. The pups seemed to be able to find things that had once been alive; part of a skeleton of a fish, the top half of a beak from a gull or shag (or similar) and the bottom jaw from a goat, sheep or such. Luckily all were long dead, and no rotting meat left on any of them. But why couldn't they just pick up a dry stick?
The Other Half & I took them up the back ridge yesterday evening, so they have had plenty of walking (and me) in the last two days.
First fire of the year last night, most likely another one tonight. Real chill in the air.