Classic Fighters

2017-04-17. Travel. Rating 1. ID 1847.

On Saturday I went to the Classic Fighters Omaka 2017 air show in Blenheim, New Zealand. I had been intending on going to this show since it first started, but being at the opposite end of the island I just never quite made it. This year I was visting my in-laws in Nelson, so I thought the 90 minute journey to Marlborough would be worth it.

And despite the bad weather a lot of New Zealand (including Marlborough) has experienced recently, the day was brilliant. There were almost no clouds, a light (to moderate) wind, and a temperature of 22 degrees. Great conditions for watching warbirds (although maybe a bit less wind would have been good).

I have been to the other big South Island, New Zealand air show, Warbirds Over Wanaka, several times in the past, and have put reports from all of these, including photos and movies on my web site, so I will do the same for this one over the next few days.

Both air shows have a variety of aircraft, but Wanaka seems to specialise in World War II planes and Omaka in World War I. So there were plenty of Fokker Triplanes, Sopwith Camels, and other aircraft from that era (all replicas, of course) plus Spitfires, a Corsair, a Kittyhawk, and some Yaks from World War II.

My favourite display was the Yak 3 Steadfast, powered by the 1750hp Pratt and Whitney R2000 radial engine and capable of over 650 kilometers per hour. It had smoke generators on both wing tips and left twin smoke trails which formed all sorts of cool patterns and smoke rings in the deep blue sky.

The saddest part of the show (apart from it taking over an hour to drive the 100 meters to the car park exit) was the A-4 Skyhawk sitting in a hangar. This one had it's engine stripped out of it to use as a spare part when the other New Zealand Air Force Skyhawks were sold.

I remember watching the Skyhawk displays in Wanaka back in the 1996, 1998, and 2000 shows and they were awesome. Of course, they were a bit of an obsolete aircraft by American standards, but at least the NZ planes had updated avionics and weapons systems.

So I'm glad I went to the trouble of watching this show. I really didn't like it quite as much as the best Wanaka shows, but it was still very good. My only regret is that I didn't get there a little bit earlier because I missed some of the first WWI displays.

As I said above, I will have a report on this show with photos and videos on my main web site (ojb.nz) in the next few days so check there if you are interested (and I apologise in advance if it takes longer - it's surprising how much time the photo and video processing, researching facts, and general writing of those reports takes).

Xmas Travels 2012

2013-01-07. Travel. Rating 1. ID 1483.

Before I get back on to my regular blogging topics such as politics, technology, religion, etc I will report on my holiday activities over the last 3 weeks. I just got back from a break in Nelson. If you are from another country you might not know that Nelson is a popular New Zealand holiday destination with some of the country's best weather, beaches, etc.

Because we had some extra time this year we decided to make this a more leisurely trip instead of trying to do the almost 800 kilometer (500 mile) journey to Nelson in one day (I reported on this in a blog entry "Christmas Update" posted Christmas day 2012).

So we stopped overnight in the small Central Canterbury town of Geraldine on the way up, then spent 2 nights at Hanmer Springs before arriving in Nelson on the 24th. After a few days in Nelson we travelled over to Golden Bay for 3 days then back to Nelson and finally home via Hanmer Springs again.

The day in Hanmer and the first two days in Nelson were really hot - about 30 degrees - but then we had a bizarre mix of weather which is quite typical of New Zealand. It never got really cold but there was some rain and wind and cooler temperatures. The rain was only heavy once over night but on the West Coast - just a couple of hundred kilometers way - there was enough to cause major problems.

In fact, on the way home we had to take a detour because the main road from Nelson to Christchurch was washed out at Shenandoah Hill. But that was OK because we took a road I had never used before through the Buller Gorge and Reefton instead.

By this time the weather was really hot again and stayed that way to Hanmer, Canterbury and even back home to Dunedin where we were told it had reached 35.

So that describes the trials and tribulations of New Zealand weather, what did we do during our time away? Just the usual typical things really: sitting in the thermal pools at Hanmer, a few rounds of mini golf, some bush walks, exploring the local scenery, riding a giant flying fox, and a bit of "fishing".

The main attraction of Hanmer Springs are the natural hot water springs and you can relax in pools ranging in temperature from about 34 to 43 degrees. During the winter when there's snow on the ground the hottest pools are particularly appreciated, but in summer the cooler ones are usually preferred. There's also a range of adventure tourism options available but these can be quite expensive.

Happy Valley Adventures near Cable Bay near Nelson operate a flying fox system where you fly 3 kilometers over a valley at a height of up to 150 meters and a speed up to 100 kilometers per hour. The view is great and it can be quite scary for some people. We hoped to ride quad bikes up to the top of the hill but there weren't enough free so we took a mini bus up instead. There was also an informative talk about the native tress in the area.

If you are in a hurry and don't have the patience for the traditional form of fishing you can go "fishing" at the Anatoki Salmon Farm where you really can't help but catch a fish. We stopped at three fish which the staff there clean and smoke for you. It's not real fishing, of course, but at least you get some results - unlike my 10 unsuccessful years of "real" fishing, trying to catch something in the Te Anau area many years ago!

When I get the time I will put photos and a full description of this trip in my web site. But first I need to get back to some more controversial blog entries so stand by for those!

Christmas Update

2012-12-25. Travel. Rating 1. ID 1481.

Over the last few days we have had a leisurely trip from Dunedin to Nelson where we are spending a couple of weeks holiday over Christmas. Generally when we are making this journey (a distance of about 800 kilometers) we try to do it in 1 or maybe 2 days, but this time we decided to take our time. (For those of you from outside of New Zealand, two points: first 800 kilometers is about 500 miles; and second, distances here take longer to travel because our roads tend to be quite windy).

So on the first day we stopped overnight in Geraldine, then took the "scenic" inland route through Methven, Oxford, and Rangiora out to the main road and on to Hanmer Springs. We spent a day at Hanmer just doing the usual causal things: mini-golf, thermal pools, etc. The temperature started getting up to what you would expect for a real New Zealand summer (almost 30 degrees C, 90 degrees Fahrenheit) while we were there and we got the same driving through to Nelson the next day.

I'm writing this Christmas Day (as all true bloggers do) and it looks like it will be warm again today. I love Southern Hemisphere summers!

So it's all pretty relaxing so far but a computer geek's work is never done and I am currently in the middle of upgrading an old original iMac running Mac OS 9 to a much newer (but still kind of outdated) G5 iMac running OS X. Should be a fairly significant improvement for the user!

It did remind me of how far computers have come though: the flash drives I used had 10 times the capacity of the old iMac's hard disk! And the general reliability of Mac OS 9 could have been better. I've had more crashes this morning than I would have in a year running OS X!

My friends and family seem to know me quite well: for Christmas this year I have received a whole pile or chocolate, some wine, and a variety of chilli sauces. Of course there was also the most useful gift I received: cash! Yes, that will be very useful to help out with home renovation projects.

As expected it has turned out to be hot again today but according to the weather app on my iPad we might be about to get some rain and thunderstorms for the next week or two! Yeah, New Zealand gets some great warm weather on occasions but it can change fairly quickly too!

A Few Days in Auckland

2012-01-19. Travel. Rating 2. ID 1353.

As I write this I am flying at about 10,000 meters on my way to Auckland (there’s my traditional opening for travel related blog entries, although the destination is not always Auckland of course). Yes, I have been back at work for a total of two days and I am away again already. Well, unfortunately, that isn't quite true. The fact is that I am spending the next three days in Auckland doing some work on the computers at the Auckland Centre of the University of Otago, so it's still work I'm afraid.

Interestingly I have spent a lot less time in New Zealand's main city than I have in some similar places in other countries. For example, since I spent any time in Auckland last I have been to Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney (several times), and San Francisco. I hope that I might have a few hours to look around between the time time spent sorting out computer issues, but that will have to wait to see just how dire the problems actually are!

It sounds sort of unpatriotic but I can't see a lot of point in spending time in Auckland because anything it has Sydney also has, but more. And the travel time and cost to get to Sydney isn't that much greater. But they say a change is as good as a holiday and Auckland's weather has finally improved so it should be quite pleasant.

On the subject of the weather, I will be in a good position on that front during my visit. Generally our friends from the more northern parts of New Zealand like to make subtle (and not so subtle) comments regarding the superiority of their weather in comparison to ours near the more southern, cooler part of the country. But this year the south has got great weather over the holiday period so I can reverse the trend on them this time.

This second part of the entry is being typed from my hotel room on the second day of my visit. There has certainly been plenty to do here and I could probably stay a week to get everything sorted out properly but instead it has turned into a frenetic burst of activity to get as much done as possible.

I have also had a chance after work to have a bit of a walk around the city and down to the harbour and I have actually enjoyed being here more than I thought, although I still think Sydney's better!

I'm flying out early tomorrow afternoon so I have about 3 hours in the morning to get a few tasks finished. I also hope I have configured enough remote access services so that I can administer some of the servers, computers, and other devices by "remote control" from back in Dunedin. Or maybe I should avoid that technique and aim for another trip here in the future!

Fiordland Adventures

2012-01-01. Travel. Rating 1. ID 1350.

As I write this blog entry I am returning from a few days in Te Anau. For those of you not familiar with New Zealand, it is a small town on the eastern edge of Fiordland National Park in southern New Zealand. Fiordland is well known for its wet weather, and is mostly covered with rain forest, but on this occasion the weather has been quite brilliant (it is mid summer in the southern hemisphere of course) which is particularly gratifying considering the poor weather in the rest of the country.

Fiordland is mostly wilderness and covered with dense forest and it has some of New Zealand's best walking tracks, including the Milford and Kepler tracks. We aren't into serious tramping but we did do a few shorter walks along these tracks and I got a few photos which I will post on the relevant sections of my web site when I get the chance.

The main walk involved a bus trip from Te Anau to a small harbour half way up the lake, followed by a boat trip to the head of the lake where the Milford Track begins. The track is about 50 kilometers long and usually takes 3 days to complete but we just walked a couple of hours up the valley and didn't get as far as the big climb up to the pass and out to Milford Sound on the other side.

I walked the whole track many (and I mean many, like about 40) years ago but it is hard to remember what the experience was like so it was good to have a small reminder of it. Of course, I would have loved to have got up the pass for the awesome views and gone down to Sutherland Falls on the other side (one of the tallest waterfalls in the world) but that will have to wait for another occasion.

The main purpose of the visit was to catch up with the rest of the family and to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday. So we had 18 family members for meals and other events including a rather pleasant al fresco dinner at an Italian restaurant where we enjoyed some good New Zealand wines in the sunshine until quite late.

I can write this blog entry now instead of driving like I usually would because my daughter is driving. That has turned out to be quite useful and she is not too bad a driver. Good enough anyway that I feel reasonably secure sitting in the back typing on my iPad.

Yes, I took my iPad on holiday with me but it does get worse because I also took my iPhone and laptop, plus we had another iPhone, two other iPads and two other laptops there as well. I don't think it's bad using technology like that as long as it doesn't keep you too much out of the sun enjoying the great outdoors. And knowing Fiordland it could just as easily have rained most of the time and then the technology would have been really welcome! As it happened I just used the laptop to process photos in the evening after we got back to the house.

So that's by quick report on my summer holiday. Unfortunately the rest of my summer break is most likely going to be spent more on programming work than relaxing but that's my fault for starting too many projects I guess!

A Week in Sydney

2011-07-12. Travel. Rating 1. ID 1314.

I'm writing this blog entry on my iPad as I fly back from a conference in Sydney. The conference ran for 3 days and I organised to have another 2 days after that. I have spent time in Sydney before of course, but I hadn't been there for a while and this time I was unencumbered with family who usually seem to complain about two "annoying" activities I often indulge in while on holiday.

The first is my wish, while on holiday, to experience the place I am visiting instead of spending half of my life in shops (which are often very similar to those we have back home except bigger). In addition to that terrible proclivity I sometimes want to do things which might be a bit geeky (sorry, there's the geek stuff coming up again) such as visiting technology museums and that sort of thing.

My second dreadful habit (which I must agree could get a bit tedious after a while) is wanting to take photos of everything, often from bizarre locations (just to get an interesting angle on the subject) and occasionally at odd times as well (I like doing photography in challenging lighting conditions, such as sunrise and sunset, where the lighting can give an unusual mood to the image).

So on this occasion I had the freedom to do what I wanted, except I was on a serious budget so it couldn't cost too much. Well I wasn't really on a budget but I did feel a bit guilty about going to Australia and leaving the rest of the family at home in the middle of the New Zealand winter (yes, it is winter in Sydney too but you would hardly know it because the weather was just beautiful every day I was there, although it did get quite cold once the sun set) so I decided that spending as little as possible might assuage my guilt somewhat.

Anyway, here's a list of what I did in my two days...

I visited the Opera House and Harbour Bridge twice - once in the late afternoon and once after sunset - to get the quintessential great photo of those landmarks. And yes, I think I got some really good ones! I love that part of Sydney because it's so scenic (not naturally scenic but scenic from a city perspective) and there's always something interesting happening.

The last time I was in that area of Sydney I still had a film camera (yes, it was a while ago) so I was limited in the number of shots I could take. This time with the digital SLR I probably took several hundred photos with various exposure compensations, ISO values, apertures, and other settings. Of those I kept about 10% and trashed the rest. Because I didn't have a tripod all of the shots were hand held which is quite challenging once the light levels went down. I should report that I was quite successful though.

I also visited a couple of museums: the Powerhouse Museum which has exhibitions of old technology (railway engines, steam engines, old computer equipment, etc); and the Maritime Museum which has exhibitions of stuff related to the sea.

Maybe the best exhibit was the "Spirit of Australia", the fastest boat on Earth. The story behind this was pretty cool. It was built in a Sydney backyard by a relative amateur, Ken Warby. He had acquired a J34 jet engine (as you do) to power the boat but was worried it might not produce enough power - so he ordered an afterburner for it! Wow, I would just love to call someone and order and afterburner. So this engine was a fire breathing monster and he set the world speed record on water with it, then went on to set another record of well over 500 kilometers per hour. After that he retired from racing which was probably a good decision if you consider the death rate of people trying to go fast on water!

There's an Apple store in Sydney so naturally it was compulsory to visit that. Now this fact should impress you: I didn't buy anything. Of course, as I said to the staff there, I own almost every product Apple has ever made already! The store is very impressive though with a completely glass front, a glass staircase, and plenty of cool Apple products with lots of people playing with them.

I also visited the Centre Point Tower which is the tallest building in Sydney. I got some spectacular views from the observation deck which unsurprisingly resulted in another pile of photos to sort through. The biggest problem I had in that situation was taking photos through the glass of the windows and avoiding the reflections and smeared hand prints.

I'm sitting in Auckland airport while I complete this entry and I have just heard that there will be no flights leaving for a while because of lightning in the area. It could take a while to get home yet! We often joke about how changeable the weather in New Zealand is but it's only after spending a week in somewhere like Sydney (I had a similar experience in San Francisco) where every day is the same (sunny and warm during the day) that you realise how true that really is.

There was only a short delay for the weather and I am now in the air again. I will be back to work tomorrow and that could be a bit of a shock even though I've only been away a week. I'm not sure when I will be in Sydney next but I already have some more geeky and some scenic locations I want to visit when I do!

I Forgot to Mention

2011-04-25. Travel. Rating 1. ID 1290.

I recently spent a short time (5 days) in Brisbane, Australia. Even though I wrote two blog entries while I was there (or flying to/from there) I didn't say much about the journey itself, so now a week later, I thought I'd better do that.

I went to Brisbane for a three day iPhone programming course (which I have written a blog entry about, but haven't posted yet) and only had half a day free at the end to look around. Unfortunately it rained heavily that morning (the rest of the time the weather was good) so I didn't get to do much. Still, it had been many years since I had been there so it was nice to at least have an hour or two each day after the course to take a few photos.

In the short time I was there I grew to like Brisbane. It seems safe but is still lively, it is big enough (population 2 million) without being too big, and the climate is very nice (apart from the occasional tropical storm or flood). I like other Australian cities too: I have spent short periods in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide (but not Perth yet unfortunately), but places always seem better when you visit them, and what New Zealander hasn't at least considered moving to Australia?

I got some quite nice photos of the city lights at night reflected in the water of the Brisbane River with the Victoria Bridge in the foreground. I have included a small version of one here (if you are on my main blog) and I'll try to find the time to put some in the photo section of my web site in the future.

I got quite short notice of the trip and I found my passport had expired, and a new one only turned up a day or two before I left which caused a certain amount of consternation. But apart from that it all went well. The new passorts with electronic identification can make checking through customs quite a bit faster and I didn't have much waiting in queues at either the New Zealand or Australian airports.

The iPad helped a lot. It is just the right size to use while flying (I find the laptop just a bit too big). I watched movies on it and wrote some blog entries. I also revised some basic programming courses (although you can only actually write programs for the iPhone and iPad on a Mac).

I had to resort to reading a real paper magazine during take-off and landing though because of the odd civil aviation requirement of turning electronic devices off at those times. I'm sure there is no real risk on a modern aircraft and I suspect the rule is either left over from older navigation systems or is designed to maintain the passengers' attention if there was an emergency.

So that was my time in Brisbane. Most of it was spent in that rather intense course but that was also worthwhile so I guess not having much free time didn't matter that much.

Back to Civilisation

2009-02-03. Travel. Rating 2. ID 938.

I just got back from 4 days on Stewart Island. For those of you who don't know, Stewart Island is an island to the south of the two main islands of New Zealand at 47 degrees south. It has a population of just over 400 and mostly consists of New Zealand's 4th largest national park.

Because its so far south the weather is often less than perfect! Even in summer winds can blow up from the Antarctic (there's only ocean between Stewart Island and Antarctica) and cause the temperature to drop. It never got really cold while we were there but it certainly wasn't as good as I would expect for mid summer.

Yesterday we took a charter boat out for some fishing and to explore Ulva Island. We caught plenty of blue cod, plus a few other fish. Also saw a large (3 to 4 meter) shark circling the boat! And the weather stayed good for most of the day.

When I got back into an area with cell and Internet coverage I found 3 texts, 8 voice messages, and 163 emails waiting. Vodafone have no coverage on the island (they really are pretty useless) so my cell phone didn't work, but I did find one Internet cafe where I spent a few minutes. Basically I was isolated from computers and the Internet for 4 days - that's the longest time without technology that I can remember!

But its back to civilisation again today and work tomorrow. At least I had fresh blue cod for dinner tonight!

Stewart Island

2009-02-01. Travel. Rating 1. ID 937.

I'm sending this blog entry from an Internet cafe on Stewart Island. We flew in yesterday (that was a fun trip - only 20 minutes but plenty of cool bumpy flying) and we have been enjoying life on the island so far. Unfortunately the weather isn't too great: very windy and wet last night, but some sun this morning at least.

Not sure what we will do today because of the weather but we are going fishing tomorrow and the weather is forecast to clear so we remain hopeful!

Who's Complaining?

2008-06-16. Travel. Rating 1. ID 795.

Since I got back from San Francisco people have asked me about the journey and whether I enjoyed it. I reply that the destination was great: San Francisco is a nice city and the conference was brilliant, but the actual travel was really tedious. But then I think about it a bit more and wonder should I really be complaining?

I travelled across the Pacific from New Zealand to California in 12 hours. How long did it take the early explorers to make this journey? Several months, no doubt, and in a lot less comfortable conditions, even though I was in economy class and didn't have a huge amount of space I had fairly good meals and wine, got to watch movies and listen to music, and could even use my laptop. So who's complaining?

And even though people seem to have a lot of concern about air travel safety that is really unfair. When an air accident happens it can be quite spectacular and tends to get a lot of attention, but the chances of being involved in one are tiny. Its probably a lot more dangerous crossing the road.

According to a web site dedicated to air accidents, Delta Airlines is the safest with 2 fatal events from almost 17 million flights over the last 20 years. They quote this statistic: the probability of a passenger being killed on a single flight is approximately eight million-to-one. If a passenger boarded a flight at random, once a day, everyday, it would statistically be over 21,000 years before he or she would be killed. You've got to have a lot of confidence after reading that!

So on balance and despite the tedium of queueing to get through ticketing, customs, security, etc, no one should really complain about the process of flying. If they don't like it they should try going back to the days of Captain Cook and seeing how much they enjoy a journey across the Pacific stuck in a sailing ship!

A Bit Cool

2008-06-08. Travel. Rating 1. ID 789.

Yesterday I left Dunedin in sunny but cool conditions on a flight which was supposed to take me to Christchurch, then Auckland, then across the Pacific to San Francisco. As we landed at Christchurch airport the weather conditions didn't look too great. There was a lot of rain and a cold southerly.

So I transferred to my flight north and looked out the window of the 737 to see a lot of snow fluttering past! I though it didn't look too heavy and the cabin crew said we would just wait a while until it cleared. After another 15 minutes it didn't look like it would be clearing much. There was now 10 or 15 cm of snow on the wings. But the ever optimistic Air New Zealand crew said we would just wait a bit longer then we should be off.

But after an hour and a half the flight was cancelled. Apparently the flight to San Francisco from Auckland was also cancelled for some other reason, so I didn't really miss out on anything.

Well the conference starts tomorrow (New Zealand time) so I should still get there in time, but I have missed a trip down to the Napa Valley to try some wines, so that's a bit disappointing.

I'm Back!

2007-12-25. Travel. Rating 1. ID 660.

I can't believe it. I've had almost two weeks away from the Internet and my usual activities such as blogging! Well that's not quite true, because I have connected to the 'net from various airports, but most of the time I have only used my computer for processing the photos I have taken while on holiday in Australia. Actually, I could have connected much more often but I deliberately avoided the computer because I needed a change while away from work.

So I spent ten days touring around parts of Victoria (Australia) in a camper van (what Americans might call an RV) with my family and my mother and father in law (don't laugh - we usually get on fairly well). We started in Melbourne then took the coastal road and returned by the inland road. We only travelled 1200 ks which isn't far in Australia. From Melbourne we visited: Geelong, Apollo Bay, Otway, The Twelve Apostles, Warrnambool, Halls Gap, Ballarat, and back to Melbourne.

Maybe the best "genuine Aussie experience" was when we sat on the porch of our unit at the caravan park in Halls Gap while cockatoos and rosellas perched on the rails (and on us) and kangaroos munched on the grass close by. There had been rain overnight and the valley was quite misty but the sun was breaking through and it was already getting quite hot.

So now I'm sorting through photos and ready to make various presentations (web, DVD, slide show, etc) from them. Back to reality!

Last Day

2007-12-13. Travel. Rating 2. ID 659.

Well its that time of year again: my last day of work for the year. I'm finishing a bit early this year because I'm off to Australia for 10 days, and then to Nelson (back in New Zealand) for 10 days over Christmas (in the Southern hemisphere most people have a long holiday over the summer Christmas break). I ranted last year at this time about how an atheist justifies celebrating Christmas (its really a celebration of mid-summer) so I won't bore you with the details again here.

Hopefully I will be able to blog abaout my adventures in Australia and post to my web site regularly, but I have no idea what sort of Internet access I will have, because I will be touring around in a campervan! But if I seem to disappear for a couple of weeks that will be why.

As the end of the year approaches I start setting goals for myself regarding installing system upgrades, optimising servers, and getting important features in databases working properly. But as the time starts running out it usually turns out that more new problems arise than problems disappear so I've got to the point now where I accept that as I leave there will be plenty of things still left unfinished.

At least the start of the new year is traditionally a quiet period at the University I work at so there will be a chance to catch up with unfinished tasks.

A Short Break

2007-12-04. Travel. Rating 1. ID 651.

My many fans out there (yes, all 2 of you... and one is myself... and so is the other) might have noticed I have gone several days without making a blog entry. This is because for the first time in many years I have been away from access to the Internet. I have been taking a short break at a remote resort in the Marlborough Sounds (at the north end of the South Island of New Zealand) where there was no cell phone access!

At first this was somewhat disconcerting, then very liberating, and finally - after returning to "civilisation" and having to read through a pile of text messages, phone calls, and emails - quite distressing. It was all worth it though because the short holiday was great.

The rest of my brothers, sisters-in-law, and nieces flew in from different parts of the country to meet at Christchurch where we took the Tranz Scenic train along the Kaikoura Coast to Picton. Then we took a water taxi out to Punga Cove, where we stayed for the next few days. So we got different views of the country travelling by road, air, rail and water.

Marlborough has a couple of good things going for it. First, it is New Zealand's biggest and most important wine producing area, something we didn't take advantage of much on this journey, but we have in the past! Second, it has a great climate and will probably have the highest sunshine hours for the country this year (for the last few years this honour has gone to neighbouring Nelson).

While at Punga Cove we did a bit of sea kayaking, mountain bike riding, and generally relaxing. Then we took a day trip on a boat to do some fishing for blue cod which we cooked on the barbecue that night. During that trip we encountered a pod of dolphins which seemed to enjoy playing around the boat and raced ahead of the bow of the boat generally showing off!

The worst part of holidays seems to be returning home, but at least the weather was fairly good (and is again today) so things don't seem quite so bad. And it is only two weeks until we have another holiday in Australia so I'd better get my backup systems, servers, databases, etc all working properly before the Christmas break.

Back Home

2006-11-28. Travel. Rating 1. ID 434.

We arrived back today from our long weekend at the Bay of Islands. It was a good break but I'm not looking forward to tomorrow when I have to catch up with work which has been waiting for the last 4 days. I've just checked my email and there are 252 new messages waiting. That's going to take a while to deal with for a start. At least by using email so much I avoid getting too many cell phone calls while away from work, so I shouldn't complain.

The weather is fairly typical Dunedin: some rain and hail earlier on, scattered cloud, some sun, and a cool breeze now. That's about normal: four seasons in one day.

The Bay

2006-11-26. Travel. Rating 1. ID 433.

Today we took a full day boat trip around the Bay of Islands. We stopped at several of the islands in the area, including Urupukapuka Island at Otehei Bay for lunch. There we also viewed the sea floor and local fish from the "Nautilus" which is effectively a glass-bottomed boat but looks more like a submarine - the passengers are underwater and they provide "realistic" sound effects like sonar - very amusing!

Inside the shelter of the bay the sea was very calm and the weather was pleasantly warm. But then we headed out to the open sea to the highlight of the trip, the Hole in the Rock, which is a 150 meter long hole carved into the solid rock of Motukokako Island. Its big enough for large boats to travel through.

Well as we got out of the shelter of the islands the sea got quite rough and was occasionally washing over the top (third) deck of the boat we were on. A few people got rather sea sick and the whole thing was looking a bit unpleasant. Luckily it was only a 30 to 40 minute trip back into more sheltered waters, so most people treated it as a bit of an adventure. We were on one of the bigger boats that do that trip, so I dread to think what it was like in the smaller ones!

So another day exploring the Bay of Islands was complete and we headed home for a well deserved barbecue dinner!

Russell

2006-11-25. Travel. Rating 3. ID 432.

This morning we visited and explored Russell. Russell is a small town, across the bay from Paihia, which is another small town we are currently staying at. Russell was an early settlement, and New Zealand's first capital. Today it is a quiet little tourist and historic town. The quickest way to get there is take a ferry. Russell can be reached by road, but its a fairly long journey around the sea shore and on some gravel roads. Travelling by boat is almost the norm here, anyway.

We did all the usual touristy things: looked at the historic buildings, walked up the hill to the flag pole that Maori chief Hone Heke chopped down 4 times about 150 years ago, and enjoyed a cold drink and snack while sitting in the bright sunshine.

After lunch we travelled back across to Paihia and drove the short distance to Waitangi. This was where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed which ended the war between the British settlers and the indigenous Maori tribes when New Zealand was settled. Some people refer to it as New Zealand's founding document which made the two groups of people here into one, but in my opinion this is a dubious claim.

The grounds at Waitangi are actually quite interesting. First we watched a brief video on the history of the area. It was a bit politically correct for my liking, but not as biased as I thought it might be, and fairly informative. These productions tend to have a bias towards the native people. When the Maoris murdered (and ate) the settlers it was for honour and revenge (utu) but if the British did the same it was implied it was because they were obsessed with power or naturally violent. Anyway, as I said, it wasn't as biased as I had feared, so I didn't walk out in protest!

We wandered around the grounds looking at James Busby's house, the Maori meeting house (there's a photo of some carving from it included with this entry), and the Maori war canoe (waka) that are displayed there. Then it was back to Paihia for dinner at a local restaurant.

To Kerikeri

2006-11-24. Travel. Rating 1. ID 431.

Today we travelled to the Bay of Islands in Northland, New Zealand for a few days break there. Northland is the warmest part of the country (in the southern hemisphere, further north usually means warmer - the opposite of the northern hemisphere, of course) so we are looking forward to a break from the somewhat erratic summer we are experiencing further south.

It took most of the day to get here, so there isn't much to report yet, except that it is quite warm, even at night. Watch for more blog entries over the next few days for a report on our activities here.

Riverton

2006-10-09. Travel. Rating 1. ID 405.

This is the final entry describing our "adventures in the deep south of New Zealand". We were supposed to return to Dunedin on Tuesday but decided taking an extra day and following the Southern Scenic Route through to Invercargill might be a good idea.

We took the road through from Te Anau, through Manapouri, to Tuatapere, stopping at the Clifden Bridge and limestone caves first. We weren't equipped with enough torches, etc to explore the caves properly unfortunately, but we did follow them for the first 10 or 20 meters. At Tuatapere we stopped for a snack of whitebait. This delicacy was rather expensive (it sells at about $70 per kg) but worth it! We all visited the famous Tuatapere sausage shop where we bought some gourmet sausages and steak for future meals.

From Tuatapere we followed the road through to the previously sleepy little seaside town of Riverton. It has enjoyed (or suffered depending on your point of view) a wave of interest because of the number of people wanting to live next to the sea. Properties are selling for 10 to 20 times their previous value. We just hope it isn't spoiled by commercial exploitation like many other small towns have been.

We stayed overnight in Riverton and spent the next morning exploring some beaches. The weather was very sunny, with just a light cool breeze. From there we drove through to Invercargill, where the weather was even better (don't let anyone tell you the weather is always bad in the south of New Zealand). We had lunch at Anderson's Park, a beautifully kept park north of the city, then spent a couple of hours with my parents, who live in Invercargill, before taking the main road back to Dunedin.

Manapouri

2006-10-06. Travel. Rating 1. ID 404.

One of New Zealand's most impressive engineering achievements is the underground power station at West Arm on Lake Manapouri. Manapouri is a smaller lake about 20 kilometers south of Te Anau. A 45 minute journey across the lake from Manapouri township is necessary to get to the power station. On the way there is spectacular mountain scenery on every side, and we enjoyed sunny weather, although the air temperature was a bit low. Of course a dedicated photographer such as myself endured the cold so I could get the perfect photos!

The power station was completed in 1971 and is 178 meters underground, a 10 kilometer tunnel takes the water to the sea at Doubtful Sound after it has passed through the turbines. A rather precarious road, which is used by powerful busses with extra brakes goes over the same mountain the tunnel goes under. At Doubtful Sound there are cruises, bush walks, and wildlife viewing.

We arrived too late to do the full trip across to Doubtful Sound - but several of us had done it already anyway - so we took the shorter tour to the power station and back to Manapouri, which took about 3 hours in total.

At West Arm, the bus tour enters a tunnel which spirals down into the solid granite below the lake level. The machine hall - which is 111 meters long, 18 meters wide, and 39 meters high - has 7 turbines (producing 142,000 horsepower) and generators, which generate about 850 megawatts, and is mostly hidden beneath the floor - the machinery visible is just a small part of the turbine and generator system there. When we were there there was some work being done on the equipment from under the floor and it was possible to see how big the normally hidden machinery really is.

Its a strange feeling to know the surface of the ground, and the lake, is 178 meters above you, but you are actually at sea level with the nearest sea 10 kilometers through the rock. When the station was first built a lot of the modern tunneling equipment we have now wasn't available and the hardship and danger endured by the workers was significant. But they only lost 16 workers during the whole project.

One of those died as the result of a fight in the pub, another was accidentally blown up when he wandered around the road building site without anyone else knowing, but the most dangerous part was construction of the tunnel through to the sea. A photo shows the final blast which joined the two halves of the tunnel. It was witnessed by several dignitaries but the charge was a bit too much and the photo (taken with exquisite timing) shows all of their hard hats being blasted off by the explosion!