Marmite (the New Zealand edition)

Today’s image is a bit of a fun, sad and tragic reflection on a number of events – some being trivial and others quite the opposite. For readers who do not know of Marmite – it is a yeast spread, often loved or hated. Also made in England and South Africa, ‘Sanitarium Marmite‘ is a New Zealand only product that sadly halted production with the tragic Christchurch earthquakes  (the November quake being responsible for Marmites halt).

I took this image not long after the halt to document my supplies, which tragically (on a trivial level) have now run out – I’m in the ‘love it’ camp. On a more serious level, I was reminded of this when at a presentation in the conference I attended over the last few days.  Watching a video filmed a few weeks ago, almost two years on the city is slowly recovering, but is still in a state of disrepair. Some suburbs are still using portable toilets, roads are still broken up, the central city still half closed, and plans for repair moving, but not at the pace all would like. Residents still suffer regular aftershocks as they wait to find out if their homes can be repaired or are written off. Unfortunately, with no ‘new’ news it falls from our vision via the media. I was quite shocked to see the troubles some residents face two years on.

Image wise, I took it on my Samsung Galaxy 3 (not S3) using vignette and upped a contrast a little in Gimp.

Aroha Christchurch Aroha being the Maori word translating to much love)