Back to the Colonial Knob reserve again, about an hour of walking, not too energetic.

A prickly situation

Today I revisited the circuit where I took my poroporo picture that's now been attached to a Wikipedia entry. Sadly (but unsurprisingly) the road has become overgrown with gorse and in some parts it's only just possible to walk through without gardening implements. I didn't notice any poroporo along the way, it's probably been overcome by the gorse. Anyway, it was a good solid walk of about an hour and a half, with uphill bits. Step count: 4533 = 2.4km

Aotea Lagoon

Today I decided to check out Aotea Lagoon, since I hadn't been there before. It's an artificial lagoon, cut off from the rest of the Porirua harbour by the railway line and motorway. The park is a reasonably nice place, with a small formal garden at one end, the lagoon in the middle with a (disused?) mini-railway line running around it, and a children's play area at the other end. I spent about an hour exploring the park thoroughly and taking photos, then decided to do a quick non-stop lap around the lagoon itself. At least that was the plan. I slowed down to have another look at part of the railway line and stopped for a minute or so to watch some ducklings pottering about. According to the city council web site, the distance around the water's edge is 732 metres, and my nearly-non-stop lap took 15 minutes. I haven't yet looked to see how the photos came out. In the meantime, here are some I found on someone else's blog.

I'm being watched

Thanks for keeping an eye on my blog, Hugh, it helps to keep me honest. Yours makes good reading too - I love that snake, I'm going to copy the idea when I have a place of my own to put it in. I seem to have given myself a day off from being good. I have done no job-hunting activities or walking, and I spent the afternoon playing Ratchet and Clank on the playstation and had fish and chips for tea. I didn't even update my blog - I'm faking the timestamp, because I'm really doing it after 1am but I want it to appear with the right date - should show up as November 4, 23:59. Tomorrow I will do better, I'm thinking of doing a long flat walk along one of the main roads, just going as far as I feel like going and then catching a bus home. I had better do something job-hunting-wise too. I got home this evening and found that my lastest application has not been successful, so it's time to get some more on the go.

Back to the bush - hooray!

Walked about 50 minutes today, back at the Spicer Park end of Colonial Knob for the first time in ages. There have been a few small changes: access to the track is now officially gained via Spicer Park, and some new footbridges have been built - in particular, there's now one across the stream that I wrote about nearly two years ago. Lots of birds, even a kereru close to the track - I didn't see it but I heard it at close quarters when I startled it and flew away. I got a good close look at a fantail (piwakawaka) when it sat still long enough - that doesn't happen often - and decided that must be what I saw when I went to Belmont Park last week. I even caught sight of a wax-eye flittering about. 2532 steps for today, or 1.37km. No brownie points, apparently.

Another walk around the local suburb, much the same as on Friday, but extended a little. About 1hr 10min, I think. It must be working, because I only stopped 4 times on the last uphill stretch back home, last time it was 5.

Today's walking

No special walking expedition today, but I did some walking around town, with a backpack and too much stuff in it. Railway station to National Library (uphill, 10 minutes) National Library to The Terrace (flattish, 10 minutes) Lambton Square to a coffee shop on Willis St (flat, about 15 minutes) Back to the railway station (probably 20 minutes of walking) In the old days, I would have used the bus for some of those trips, so I'm doing better than I used to.

Photos from yesterday

It's always hard to choose which picture to post from a walk. This time I've decided to boast about what a good effort it was by showing the steepest part - the stairs. You look at the bottom of the stairs as they ascend and then disappear under the trees, and you think maybe it wouldn't be too hard, so you start to climb. You climb, and stop, and climb some more, then you look back and think you're doing pretty well. Then you look upwards again, and realise you're less than halfway, and there are a lot more stairs to climb yet. You climb another level and look up again, and you can just make out a little corner of a white car in the distance - you hope that means the end of the climb. You get to the car and are relieved to find that it is indeed parked on a street, and there are no more stairs. All that remains is to complete the loop by finding a different way back down. I should have counted the steps. Maybe I'll go that way again sometime soon.

I feel good!

A good, serious walk today (see street map). Starting from nearly the bottom (western end) of Norwich St, I went uphill to Mairangi Rd and turned right, left into Euston Rd (uphill again), right into Edgeware and all the way to the end. Back almost to the corner and then up, up, up the pedestrian access steps to Cecil Rd - it doesn't look far on the map, but it's up all the way and it feels as though the vertical distance matches the horizontal. Then left along Cecil Rd to another pedestrian accessway - equally steep, going back down to Mairangi Rd and coming out just before Rutland Way. Back along to Norwich Rd and down, back to my starting point. A distance of about 2km according to my pedometer, and it took about an hour and a half including stops. Step count for the day: 4397 = 2.4km. Still no brownie points, but of course the gadget doesn't know how much uphill was involved.

Mea culpa

I didn't go rock'n'rolling last night after all, I was too tired. So this evening I made sure to compensate by making a serious effort. I spent about an hour walking up and down the streets in my suburb - went further than I expected in the time, too. It must be doing me some good, I no longer get lower back pain when I go walking.

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Today I went to the dietitian found that since last month my weight is.... [drum roll...] down by a whole 100g, the weight of two chocolate bars. I don't put a lot of value on weight measurements, though, they don't fairly reflect progress if you start replacing fat tissue with muscle due to exercise. So I've decided to use another yardstick, I will record my hip measurement each time I go for a weigh-in. Today the distance around me is 146cm, or 57.5 inches. Or to put it another way, only 4.5 inches less than my height. On second thoughts, let's not put it that way.... My exercise for today will be retro rock'n'roll dancing at Ricky's gig at Bodega.

No walk today

I have come to a realisation that if I want to go my genealogy meeting tonight AND finish the re-write of my CV before I go to bed, I do not have time to go for a walk, or process photos, or do anything else except maybe eat. The CV must come first! Partly because I need a job, but mostly because I promised my recruitment agent she would have it first thing in the morning.

At last, a proper walk

Well, a reasonably proper walk, anyway. After delivering Esther and co safely home, I decided it was well past time for me to pay a visit to Belmont Regional Park. I've only lived in the Wellington region for about twenty years, I had never got around to going to this reserve that's so close to where I used to live. Anyway, I went there for the first time, pulled up in the carpark and was pleased to hear the sound of birds - early evening is a good time for them. There were lots of tui, kereru and magpies in residence, and some other birds, the sounds of which I didn't recognise. I had a lovely time, pottering around, looking at things, taking photos. The track that I explored had a gentle uphill gradient, barely noticeable - except at this part, where it appeared part of the original track had been washed away due to flooding, and a new track had been laid around the uphill side of the washout. That theory was confirmed when I found where the new track rejoined the old one, and I followed the old track back along the stream to the washout. Time flies when you're enjoying yourself, and I spent half an hour ambling along the start of the track, and another half-hour ambling back. At one point I caught sight of a small native bird fluttering around in a tree right beside me. I think it might have been a stitchbird, but we'll never know because this is the best photo I managed to get. I took a few other photos as well, but this will have to do for now, as it's late and I need to go to bed! No pedometer reading for this walk, I haven't got a new battery for it yet.

Ferry duty

I collected Esther, Jimmy and Liam from the ferry terminal. This is me waiting for the ferry... ...and this the "new" ferry coming in. Formerly known as the Pride Of Cherbourg (I can tell, because the lettering is still there on the side) she's now called the Kaitaki, or Challenger.

A restrospective entry

As the day drew to a close I thought I had better do something in the way of a walk. I went and found a piece of suburbia that was still collecting a few rays from the setting sun. That's nice thing about walking up hills, if you pick the right piece of hillside it keeps the sun longer. Anyway, I walked uphill for about twenty minutes (including pauses) until I found what was clearly going to be a dead end. I thought was going to have to go back the way I came, but then I spotted a shortcut straight down the hill, a well-hidden pedestrian access-way that took me most of the way back to where my car was parked. My pedometer told me I had walked less than 100m, but it was found to be lying when I checked the distance by driving up in the car - it was more like 500m. I know, it's not a lot, but at least it was uphill! I think the pedometer needs a new battery.

Rewarded for going out on a windy day

Yesterday I ran out of time for walking before it rained - but I had a good excuse, I was working on my CV so that I could apply for a job. Today the weather was windy and I nearly talked myself out of going for a walk. But I decided, on the way home from the shops, to stop and see if it was sheltered enough in my old hang-out, the Colonial Knob Scenic Reserve. It wasn't too bad, so I headed up the track for ten minutes then turned around and came back. When I got back to the car, my reward was waiting for me, in the form of two big fat kereru (NZ native pigeon, see the Wikipedia entry too) feeding on the foliage of a small tree. So I spent another ten minutes sneaking up on them and trying to get a decent photo with my phone-camera. These birds are pretty easy to sneak up on, so I suppose it's no wonder they're a threatened species. Unfortunately it was late in the day and the camera does not perform well in low-light conditions. These two are best I got, and I've had to adjust them. From now on, I'm going to start keeping my real camera in the car.

Revisiting the roadworks

It's been a few weeks since I finished at Datamine, so today I went back for another look at progress on the so-called bypass. At present the most interesting part is the bridge that's being built in Ghuznee St to let the bypass pass underneath. They've poured a few more slabs of foundation/support, and it looks like they might be getting close to putting the actual bridge part in.

The importance of safe sox

Yesterday I didn't do a serious walk, but I did a few little bits here and there, from the supermarket to the library and suchlike. I was down to my last pair of emergency socks (because I hadn't done my washing). Alas, one of the socks finally developed a definite hole in a spot at the back of my heel where the edge of the shoe is the most irritating, so now I'll have to perform daily contortions to apply dressing strips. This will cramp my style a little, but I'm determined not to let it stop me walking. It's pretty minor really, just an annoyance. I discovered a new thing to console myself with today - at least I don't have Guinea Worm. I saw an item about this hideous sub-Saharan parasite on BBC World and I can't even bring myself to describe it, so just go and read the Wikipedia entry if you want to know about it. I'll just say that if you ever go to impoverished remote parts of Africa, be very careful about the drinking water, make sure it's filtered.

Starting again, again

There has been a hold-up in proceedings. I have back-slid and now I have to start again, again. It's really embarrassing when you have to make people wait because you're hyperventilating after climbing three flights of stairs with a bunch of young fit people. It's even more embarrassing when you're puffing and panting after climbing a few steps up from street level to somebody's house. Never mind that asthma was a significant contributor to both incidents, enough is enough and the asthma will go away when my fitness improves. As will a few other medical issues, I hope. So, on with the show. A couple of days ago, as my first step to getting back into it, I walked down to the bottom of my street and back. 3 minutes to get down there, and three or four times that get back, with several stops along the way. It's a steep street, and I thought it might have taken longer.

It's a bypass - you've got to build bypasses

A nice long walk this afternoon, with a couple of side detours to look at progress on the overbridge. Yesterday they were swinging a large pre-formed concrete slab into place, and today they've hooked it up with another one to form a box reminiscent of the monolith from 2001 - which obviously is going to be one of the bridge support columns. I must remember to go for my walks earlier. By 5pm the light is fading and my photos tend to look as though I had used a blue filter. I'm posting this one anyway, because it amuses me to see manhole covers and their associated pipework sticking up out of the ground, way over the heads of the works below. I know, small things amuse small minds. Anyway, I finished my circuit and was on the verge of going back to work when I decided I would go a couple of blocks in the other direction and pick up a Subway for tea. After all this, my pedometer registered 625 steps. I must be doing something wrong.

Yesterday

The circuit was easier again this time - yay! A few more days of this, and I'll be able to extend it again. This time I used my cellphone to take a couple of pictures along the way. The first one shows the beginning of the motorway where traffic leaves Vivian St for more northerly places and the earthworks that are slowly becoming the new so-called bypass. The second photo, just a little further along, shows the hole in the ground that is destined to become the new Ghuznee St overbridge. Step count for the day: 3392

I walked around the slightly longer, slightly uphill block again. It was slightly easier. Today's step count: 2977. Step count required for 1 WW point: 4910

Not the best day on record

Not to complain too much, but I hate Dell's website and their ordering system when it doesn't work. However, I did go for a walk. I just went around the block again, but this time I selected a block that contains a small amount of slightly uphill. Damn, it felt like hard work just going up that gentle bit. I'll just have to keep at it, I guess. During the course of the day I have walked 3043 steps or 1.674km if my pedometer is to be believed. That's not even enough to earn me 1 weight-watchers brownie point. I can see I'll have to put a bit more into it.

I just fished out the tape measure and found that it takes 9 paces for me to walk 5 metres. This means that I have somehow managed to walk 880m during the course of the day, and that's without going for that walk around the block that I was supposed to do. Tomorrow I will do it for sure.

Back to square one

It's been over a year since I posted here, and in all that time I've only done a handful of semi-serious walks. This is not good - my fitness has gone downhill badly, and my weight has gone up accordingly. So it's time to bite the bullet and start all over again. I have bought a pedometer, although I'm not sure it's counting my steps correctly, and I still have to find out how long my pace is so it can translate steps into approximately correct distance. My objective for now is go out during the day, every day it doesn't rain, and walk around the block. I've done that twice so far this week.