Iran tragedy

Kudos to the BBC World reporters for their coverage of this horrible event.  It's one thing to see the wide shots of areas reduced to rubble, and the digging, and rows of shrouded bodies being buried, but when they tell the personal stories of individuals it brings a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye.  And once again I realise how fortunate I am that I live where I do.

The view from the top

Being a determined soul, I went back up the Makara Peak track yet again with fully-charged batteries in the camera - I'm getting to know this climb quite well now.  This picture shows how the road stretches enticingly onward into the distance. (Note: In case anyone's wondering, this is not the top of Makara Peak itself - I'm not that fit yet. It's an easily accessible lower outcrop of the hill.)

Today I went back to the Makara Peak track, as promised.  My reward was to see a pair of tui feeding on flax flowers; one of them flew away before I could get my camera out, but this one stuck around long enough for me to get a few shots.  This is the best one I got - a little fuzzy because I was zoomed right out.  I did't want to move closer in case I scared it away.  Alas, I still can't show you the view from the high point of the track, because the camera batteries went flat.

I can see your house from here...

I'm feeding K's cats while she is away on holiday.  And because her house is within spitting distance of an entrance to the Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park, guess where I went walking.  It's one serious climb...  er, in walking terms that is, not mountaineering (crampons? pitons? carabinas? what are they?).  I had been partway up before, but this time I got to the point where it stops going up and starts going down for a bit (I'm sure there's more "up" further along the track).  From there you can see all of Hawkins' Hill, Wright's Hill, and the Brooklyn wind turbine. . And if you know where you're looking, you can see Stewart's house, Lloyd's house, and Helen and Peter's house.  I'm going back with the camera sometime in the next few days.

Obligatory Xmas post

Xmas turned out to be a reasonably nice day for a walk around the neigbourhood.  I wanted to find a good pohutukawa tree since it's kind of our national Christmas icon-tree.  Lo!  It comes already decorated.  Although, you can't cut one down and have it in your living room because they're protected and it's illegal to cut them down - you wouldn't to anyway because those flower stamens would be worse than pine needles - much better to admire them in their natural habitat.  So anyway, I went down to the main road because I know there are some there... turns out the best specimen in the vicinity is actually the one outside the neighbours' place, so here's the second-best.

Scary stuff

A close family member has been found to have excess blood-sugar levels in two consecutive tests, and therefore almost certainly has diabetes.  From my point of view, of course, that means that my risk of contracting the same disease has just taken a major hike, so my need for exercise and fitness has taken on an extra level of urgency. I found another way through to Broken Hill Rd.  There's not a lot in the way of picturesque subjects in that rather sad-looking industrial area, but one of the businesses has a row of young bottlebrush trees along the boundary which provide a welcome splash of colour at this time of year.  I persuaded one branch to hold still while I took a close-up. I still have a few retrospective posts to finish off.  Why bother? Because this is my way of keeping tabs on my efforts - one day I'll be able to look back and say "this is where I started and that's what I did".  Plus, I took the photos, what else am I going to do with them?

Progress report

I'm churning through the updates - up to Nov 23 now, which actually means Nov 29 because that's the next day I have photos for. The Tall One left for [undisclosed holiday destination] today, he'll be gone for two weeks which is long enough for me to wreak havoc on the house - tee hee! This is the second day in a row that's been too grotty for walking.  Much more of this and I'll have to clear a space in the lounge and do some yoga, 10BX and suchlike.  Now, where did I put those hand weights?

A quick plug

I've just read this book - it is inspirational.  The author dropped out of the rat race, took a year off work altogether, and transformed himself from a massively overweight advertising executive to a real person, by getting lots of exercise and e.a.t.i.n.g right.  Three cheers for Paul Jeffreys, let's hope he's started a trend.  It makes fairly light reading (I read it in less than 24 hours) but it chronicles a significant achievement. Um, no walking today, dance practice plus Xmas shopping was enough to wear me out.

Broken Hill Rd

At the cul-de-sac end of our street there are several vacant sections, and one of these has a long dirt driveway.  Today I found that there is also a path that goes from the end of the driveway to the road above, which is in the industrial area on Broken Hill Rd.  Hmm... Broken Hill... sounds like it should be in Australia really; I don't know if it's named after the well-known Broken Hill or if somebody thought they saw some sort of brokenness about the hills in the area at the time.  Anyway, its a Good Thing (TM) that I can get through to that area on foot, because that means I can get to my favourite stomping ground of Colonial Knob Scenic Reserve without taking the car, if I have enough time. I didn't take the camera, so here's a photo from a previous excursion to Colonial Knob.  This is one of two reservoirs that used to supply water to the hospital in days gone by.  The other one is no longer there, its dam collapsed about this time last century (don't quote me, I'll have to check the date) and this one has a purely picturesque function these days. (Posted retrospectively)

Somewhat less strenuous

Sue and I went for a stroll in the Botanic Garden.  It was quite a contrast to the effort of two days ago!  I didn't take any photos this time but here's one I prepared earlier (from one of my previous visits).  Although we didn't go and look at this sculpture we did get fairly close to it.  It's on the top of a place called Druids' Hill (don't ask me, there are no Druids there that I can see) and it's like a giant ear-trumpet, looks as though it's made of coiled tube, and mounted in a swivelling frame so that it can be swung around.  It's large enough that even a stout person such as myself can stand with head and shoulders inside the bottom of it, I imagine that if one was to shout it would make quite a noise.  According to a nearby plaque it's a "Listening and Viewing Device" created by Andrew Drummond in 1994, a joint project between the Wellington Sculpture Trust and Wellington City Council.  It's kind of interesting and I like that it can be played with, but somehow I still don't really see the point.  Maybe that's exactly what the point is. (Posted retrospectively)

A longer expedition

I'm rather pleased with myself for successfully completing this one. I went with Dad and Judy on a walk from Pukerua Bay to Plimmerton.  We left my car at the Hongoeka Marae which is at the Plimmerton end, and carried on to Pukerua Bay in their car to start the trek.  The first part, to Wairaka Point, is easy.  At the point itself is a gate that hasn't been opened for a good number of years, judging by the amount of driftwood piled up against it.  It has a built-in stile, but as you can see in the picture below, that's been made redundant by the said pile of driftwood.  [Aside: This is the area where Peter Jackson filmed parts of Bad Taste.] Shortly after this the going gets more difficult - you get onto a long shingle beach that goes for miles.  It appears that there was once a track just above the beach, but large parts of it have been obliterated over the years and the bits that remain are a bit hard to find.  Consequently we found ourselves walking on the difficult shingle most of the way. At the end of the long beach you get onto the quarry road which also seems to go on forever and is less interesting, but at least it's easier walking.  By this time my feet were getting rather sore and I was very glad indeed when we came to the quarry buildings and then the marae where my car was parked.  We felt we'd earned an ice cream by then!  After that there was just the rather anti-climactic drive to Pukerua Bay to pick up the other car. (Posted retrospectively)