Many of you know that I love dragonflies. I actively search for them not only in Northern Virginia, where I live, but also on work trips to Belgium and Austria. Liz, a fellow blogger from New Zealand, knows that I suffer from dragonfly withdrawal during the winter and posted this image to help me deal with my symptoms. Be sure to check out the other cool postings on her blog, Exploring Colour and also The Wandering Moa, a blog on hiking in New Zealand that was the source of this image of a really cool dragonfly.
Click on the photo to enlarge (you may need to click again for full-size). Photo used with permission from The Wandering Moa
Apparently spelt “humongous” for Americans. I admit I’ve got some particular readers in mind as I post this: Mike Powell who photographs dragonflies in Virginia USA and young Benjamin who follows Mike’s blog and with the help of his Gram enthusiastically inspects all the detail of Mike’s photos.
Just two days ago I found a New Zealand blog newly started in early January – The Wandering Moa. Lili published a post about her first alpine tramp (serious hike) and her story included the encounter with this fabulous dragonfly as she was walking through an area of native beech forest. She kindly granted me permission to share the photo. The orange triangle is the standard plastic symbol used to mark walking tracks here. This is one massive dragonfly!
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Mike Powell 
When I opened this post and went right to the photo, Benjamin was delighted because the only thing better than one dragonfly is two dragonflies. Then upon closer inspection, he noticed that “This is Ms. Liz’s Dragonfly, but how did it get to Mr. Mike’s place? Did Ms. Liz send this to Mr. Mike cause he loves them just like me!” I decided that was close enough to the truth of the matter and he was quite content to examine this dragonfly again. He really loves the tail! Thank-you, Mr. Mike and Ms. Liz!!
You can also tell Benjamin that I was so excited with Ms. Liz’s dragonfly that I wanted to share it with all of my friends who may not be friends with Ms. Liz. 🙂
Thanks for the reblog Mike! Its fun to share this lovely dragon with you, Ellen and Benjamin, and all others who love these amazing creatures!
I figured that it would be great to share the posting with folks who might view my blog and not yours and also to give a slightly broader exposure to the original source of the photo too. A while back I purchased the Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand and have had fun reading about some of the great hiking and wildlife opportunities. The maps also help me to orient myself when I see some of the places you mention in your blog postings.
I love to think of you looking up some of the places I share about! I’ll be posting about Dunedin soon.. in that city’s public library right now catching up on WP. I had the most amusing little incident happen this morning while we were still at our motel, will post about it once I’m back home. It centres around a real cute little Pomeranian dog. More to come in a future post…
A dear friend indeed to help you with your withdrawal like that! 🙂
These rare beasties seem to be attracted to light (see top of pole). Met one in “bush” on the Coromandel Peninsula years ago, put my hand out into a patch of sunlight and it landed on the back of my hand. The wingspan is about 5 or 6 inches and they make a whirring sound when they fly.
Wow. It is always amazing when a dragonfly lands on me. It has happened to me a number of times, but most often with smaller species.