Mission San Juan Capistrano

During the recent visit of a friend from New Zealand, I took him to see the Mission San Juan Capistrano. The mission was founded in 1776 by Franciscan priests as the 7th of 21 missions spread throughout Mexico's Alta California (modern-day Southern California) and connected by the Camino Real, Spanish for the Royal Road or the King's Highway.

The ruins of "The Great Stone Church" (which collapsed in an earthquake in 1812) are one of the main highlights of the mission. In addition, the Fr. Serra Church, named for Junipero Serra, is the oldest standing structure in California that is still in use today.

The Mission is celebrated in Leon Rene's song "When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano" which recounts the annual spring return of the swallows to Southern California, an event traditionally observed at the Mission San Juan Capistrano every March 19 (Saint Joseph's Day).

In 1984, a modern church called the Mission Basilica was constructed just north and west of the Mission compound, patterned after the old stone church, but twenty percent larger.

Slideshow photos of the Mission San Juan Capistrano

Map and directions to Mission San Juan Capistrano

Wikipedia: San Juan Capistrano Mission

Karekare Beach Location for "The Piano"

Many of you will have seen the Oscar-winning movie "The Piano" which opens on a beach in New Zealand with a piano being unloaded from a ship onto the beach. The beach in the movie is Karekare beach on Auckland's west coast. Auckland is surrounded east and west by ocean. To the east is the blue island-filled Hauraki Gulf, and to the west is the Manukau Harbour. After the Manukau spills into the Tasman Sea to the north you encounter the Waitakere Range which hugs the coast. Karekare beach is one of the beaches that the Waitakere Range plunges to on its western edge.

The sand on the beach is black iron sand, testament to New Zealand's volcanic activity past and present. And with prevailing westerly winds blowing across the Tasman Sea that separates New Zealand from Australia this coast is frequently buffeted by strong winds and storms.

A Kiwi friend of mine has a very nice beach house nestled in the bush above the beach which is available for rental. (Send me an email if you are interested in renting the house and I'll forward it to Gregory.)

Anyhow, I thought I'd share some photos I took of the beach on my visit there back in 2005.

Karekare Beach slideshow

Karekare Beach static photo gallery