Down Comes the Scaffolding

Since we arrived at the Gateway Apartments, there has been a scaffolding on the northeastern face of the building for the painters. Happily, their work is done (without anyone being blown off this rather delicate framework), and we awoke to the sound of the scaffolding being dismantled by 2 workmen-- also without safety belts or ropes of any kind.

This is truly a job you could not pay me enough to do. But this fellow gave us a cheery wave through the window as we sat slack-jawed, and he went about his work seemingly without a care in the world.

And once the scaffolding was gone, did we ever have a magnificent unobstructed view facing north/northeast towards the Miramar peninsula and beyond the harbor to Eastbourne. The tanker in the photo arrived this evening and headed towards the airport at the end of Evans Bay, presumably to unload aviation fuel.

(Posted by Joan on Dec. 23)

The morning walk for the newspaper

Out the 'front' door of the apartment on the eastern side of the building.
The walkway leads to the lifts.

Starting down the hill opposite the church.

The road down to sea level is very twisty. Two 180 degree

hairpins and a few wiggles.

You do not want to meet a bus on a corner.

17a Maida Vale Road. A very modern house.

Flowers in a garden by the side of the road.

The New Zealanders all seem to be zealous gardeners

Down the hill.

Into the walkways.

The hills are laced with walkways and steps.

Easy to go down but needing a lot of effort to get up.

Further down the walkway.

Whoops-I have duplicated a picture.

...and further still--spooky Lord of the Rings trees.

Nearly down.

Down to Oriental Parade.

Along Oriental Parade.

Our nearest shop. A convenience store--run by a subcontinental Indian.

In NZ these shops are-for historical reasons--referred to as dairies.

The beach--people swim here in rough seas and what seem to me

like freezing temperatures.

Modern apartments--they come in all shapes and sizes.

Norfolk Pines line Oriental Parade.

They are wreathed in lights for Christmas.

Another modern apartment building.

Through the marina.

Each boat owner has a boat shed.

The supermarket where I buy my newspaper.

The walk takes about 20 minutes to get there and a little more to get back

as the climb to the apartment building up the walkways is much slower

than the downward walk.

EXPLANATION OF DANCING CONDOMS

Dancing fingers wearing condoms are inoffensive, the Advertising Standards Authority says.

Five people complained about the New Zealand Aids Foundation's television advertisements showing condom-covered forefingers dancing in unison to a song, which included the lyrics: "You want me to be wanting you, to be wanting me."

When a bare finger tries to join in it is rejected until it reappears wearing a condom.

Complainants said the advertisement was offensive, unacceptable and breached decency. Others said showing the "sexual content" at 8.25pm was inappropriate.

But the authority chairman ruled the advertisement carried an important health message.

REPRINTED FROM THE DOMINION POST

Experimental cut and paste:IT WORKS

This is David. I wanted to try to cut and paste from other web-sites. So I tried with a couple of paragraphs from the paper I pick up each morning--The Dominion Post. And low and behold, it worked.

A truck driver feared being fried by electricity if he tried to leave his cab, after a wooden power pole he hit snapped and fell across his vehicle.

Karl Anderson, 29, of Auckland, clipped the top of the pole in Aro St just after 2pm yesterday. It brought down trolley bus wires and phone lines and Aro St was closed to traffic between Willis St and the bottom of Ohiro Rd opposite the accident site.

Mr Anderson said a car had been in a right-turning lane as he headed towards the city centre. As he tried to squeeze past, the camber of the road started to tip his truck and he "collected" the top of the pole.

Now we can sometimes give you more than a headline. Today's headline was:

Watchdog Clears Dancing Condoms

Clarification on timing

FYI--the blog is still on Washington Time, so those photos I just posted are shown as being posted at 4.27pm. The time here was 10.27 am---this accords with the rule for NZ time to US time. Add six hours but it's yesterday. Is that clear?

Random Photos--Minimum Text

Lots of spooky forests like this on our hikes.

Whahui Falls

The forests are full of these beautiful ferns.

On my daily walk to get the newspaper

Contrasts--old and new on Oriental Parade--my morning walk

Lots of wall paintings here.

This is a painting on a wall beneath our apartment building

We have not cracked the mysteries of Wellington parking.

(Photos and text copyright David Cutler)

Tasman Trekking

The moa (shown above) may be extinct, but backpacking is alive and well in New Zealand. This is truly a mecca for 20-somethings from all over (we met kids from Germany, Scandanavia, US, France and UK, in addition to Kiwis) who are keen to get out into the wild (with the occasional stop at an Internet cafe), toting large backpacks filled with their sleeping bags, food and clothes in tow. Of course, some splash out to rent a van (see below). The van rental companies promise adventure with such names as Cheapa Camper, Jucy Rentals, Maui Campers, Tui Campers, Cruzy Campers, and the simple Britz. Many are colorfully decorated, shades of Ken Kesey:

Of course, the attraction is the hiking (or "tramping", as it is known here), through Abel Tasman National Park. The park is named for the Dutch navigator who "discovered" New Zealand in 1642, only to have an ill-fated encounter with Maori natives, who mistook the sound of the trumpets on board the ship as a war cry, and responded by ramming a Dutch schooner with their canoes and clubbing four sailors to death.

Today's journey is rather more peaceful, as one wanders through thick tropical growth of palms, rata trees and ferns above the Wainui river. The park includes Wainui Falls, one of the coastal waterfalls that is reached by crossing what the guidebook describes as a "spidery but sturdy" swing bridge. The sign by the bridge warns that the "max load is one person", which you can well appreciate, given its width (see photo).

The highpoint is the trail itself, which meanders along the coastline on a path levelled out of the mountain itself, affording incredible views of the many inlets of Golden Bay (sorry to get touristy again, but this is truly a visual wonder).

The other end of the park is accessible both by foot and sea kayak, both of which give access to small beaches that are otherwise unreachable, and totally undeveloped. Apple Tree Bay was a particularly inviting destination for the few who ventured there.

Heading back east (more or less) brings you along an estuary to Havelock, the self-proclaimed greenshell mussel capital of the world. At the marina, there are large sacks of ropes from which the mussels have been stripped off to take to market, which will be reused to harvest more mussels.

And just what is a greenshell mussel? See my dinner below, at the Mussel Pot.

South of Havelock is the famous vineyard area of Marlborough, where the hot flat Wairau Valley produces grapes that make superb Sauvignon blancs, as well as Rieslings and Pinot Noirs.

There are many excellent wineries to visit and sample, including Nautilus (see their symbol below), Cloudy Bay, Allan Scott, Montana, Stoneleigh, Hunters, and Wairau River (no, I didn't sample all of them, and after a while, one sauvignon blanc tastes pretty much like another).

Thus did our South Island adventure end back in Picton, with a return ferry ride to watch the sunset as we headed back to Wellington.

(Posted by Joan on Dec. 20)

Computer problems

AAAAARGH!!!!

Again and again the computer has been freezing. We try to switch off--and bloody Microsoft tells us it is up-dating something in three stages, which it does for several minutes. Then it does a few contortions and a screen appears that says the computer could not start up again. There then appears a dialogue box which tells us that Microsoft is trying to repair the problem. That proceeds for several minutes, many minutes, and eventually the computer shuts down. You can then start up again in the normal manner, and hold your breath until you have typed a long e-mail--when--KERRPOW!!--the beast freezes again, and all my two-finger-typing comes to nought.

It must be an Explorer problem, we think, as we seem to have no problem using Google Chrome as the browser. As we are doing now.

Sorry to bore you all, but I want John Peter Cutler to give us an idea what the problem is.

It would be an exceptional blog from Wellington if I did not once again mention the wind. (Oh, not again, the readers groan). We came back from an expedition and the sea was as flat as a pancake, with just the slightest breeze. We did laundry and hung it outside to dry (the green method in this apartment building--no dryers). About fifteen minutes later the wind slammed into the building from the south and within minutes the waves coming from the airport had their white caps and the planes were landing in a southerly direction. Just amazing the speed with which the wind came up.

Posting by David

Sunday Reflections

This is David on a Sunday morning, taking some pleasure in the fact that Washington DC is in the grip of a blizzard, while here we have a gloriously sunny day--though the wind still whistles around our apartment. Yesterday we noted winds at 50 kph gusting to 80 kph. Impossible to open the car door on the driver's side for fear of getting a broken leg if a gust slammed the door shut.

I am planning a major essay, with pictures, of the public toilets here in New Zealand. Let me just say briefly that no country I have been in has greater quantity or better quality of public toilets than New Zealand-----STOP PRESS--Joan has just burst into the room carrying my GLASSES, which she found stuck in a hedge down by where we park the car. They are somewhat the worse for wear, but servicable. Joan had set off to run, and then thought--"why don't I just check that hedge for David's glasses," And she found them.
This was just going to be sundry reflections on things NZ.
First a headline: "Fight youth crime by crayfishing and art, says judge." Combine the two possibly--The New Zealand College of Crayfishing and Art.
Then a factoid--New Zealand is a huge producer of HOPS and exports all over the world. Last year's crop was over 800,000 kgs. And domestic beers number some 240.
Tourism has overtaken wool as a foreign exchange earner, and on our trip to the Soth Island we were struck by the many nationalities we were meeting on our hikes--lots of European backpackers--German, Dutch, Scandinavians, Italians. And there is a huge camper rental industry--not usually the huge motor homes you see in the US, but more the VW bus size and shape. And the campgrounds we saw seemed to be excellent, with all sorts of facilities.
Plastic bags in the supermarket come in a variety of forms and require considerable perseverance to open. In cafes, one is handed a knife and fork wrapped tightly in a paper napkin. It is impossible to find the end of the napkin in order to unwind it from the cutlery--you end up having to rip it apart.
Baristas serving coffee draw patterns on the surface of the liquid (what with and how, I know not)--yesterday we were handed 'flat whites' with little Christmas trees on the surface.
Joan back from her run--she ran into the Salvation Army band playing Xmas carols in the park by the harbour.
Breakfast is indicated...
I know you will all be waiting with BATED breath for the Public Toilet blog.

South Island Adventures

We've just returned from five days on the South Island. Since the appropriate adjectives all seem terribly cliched ("spectacular", "breathtaking", etc.), I'll let the photos generally do the talking and simply throw in some reference points along the way. Needless to say, we enjoyed the incomparable scenery, coupled with superb weather and lack of crowds (having come before the summer onslaught in January-February, when you apparently need to book your lodging a year in advance).

First, a word on the ferry crossing of Cook Strait. Fortunately, it was quite calm and smooth in both directions, which -- coupled with ample doses of Sea Legs pills-- prevented any seasickness during the 3.5 hour (one way) trip.

After arriving in Picton, we headed west on Queen Charlotte Drive, skirting the winding inlets of Marlborough Sounds, a tangle of bays and hidden coves with a few isolated enclaves of vacation homes.

The route takes you through the city of Nelson and then climbs up and over Takaka Hill, known as "the Marble Mountain", along the one paved road that provides access to the appropriately-named Golden Bay area.

Our destination was Pohara which, although it is one of the most popular vacation destinations for Kiwis, is pleasantly "sleepy" and offers little in the way of restaurants or accommodations (we had a cottage directly overlooking the beach; see below). There is, however, one surprisingly tidy camping ground for holiday vans, complete with Internet facilities.

The beach at Pohara was largely empty, and there is no commercial development of the area whatsoever. What a contrast to Ocean City!!

A visit to Farewell Spit (shown above) is a must. At the northern tip of the South Island, Farewell Spit is a 22-mile long sandspit that sweeps eastward into the Tasman Sea, providing a breakwater for safe anchorage. It is a nature reserve that attracts thousands of migratory birds; to protect the area, access to the spit itself is restricted to guided tours.

You feel compelled to go out of your way to visit a place called the Naked Possum, which offers venison burgers and Speckled Possum ale for lunch. ("Naked" refers to the method of treating the possum leather to turn it into clothing, as the possum is NZ's biggest pest, and the forests contain traps to catch the little varmints, whose only value is their delightfully soft fur, which is woven in with merino wool to make incredibly warm clothing.)

Thus fortified, we visited an unusual construction known as the Pupu Hydro Walkway, a path that has been ingeniously constructed along a water race, which a cross between a small canal and an aqueduct. Water flows at an even speed down the race until it vanishes into a pipe descends to a powerhouse. The race, about 2 miles long, was originally built in 1901-02 to give the gold sluicers sufficient working pressure in the water flow, which is now used as the energy source for a small hydro electric power station. The walkway follows the race on one side and a steep drop-off into the heavily forested valley on the other.

More on fantastic walks, or "tramps" as they are known here, in my next post.

(Posted by Joan on Dec. 19)