31/365 End of the month

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30/365 Picnic at Percy's

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29/365 Magic in the Gardens

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28/365 Biscuits and muffins

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27/265 Curious motorcyle

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26/365 Muffins

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25/365 Celestial Wines

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24/365 Hutt River outflow

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Silt outflow front from the Hutt River diffusing into Wellington Harbour, as viewed from our place - looking across to Days Bay and Rona Bay. A result of the rainy weather system that cancelled day 2 of Wings Over Wairarapa the previous day.

23/365 Airshow washout

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All dressed up and nowhere to go: plane sits with a cockpit cover on... it's not going anywhere. Wings Over Wairarapa : day 2 was a washout! Highly disappointing for my son and nephew - and me. But it was a nice visit to the half-sister-in-law's place in Masterton.

22/365 Story with the (toy) animals

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My son's construction of animals, cloths, and a cousin (or is it a footstool) as part of a random little story he was making up. Love his imagination at setting this up, and his attention to details.

21/265 Garden flowers

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The nicest arrangements can be made from flowers straight from the garden. Those orange ones always catch my eye - and seem prolific at this time of year (although I understand they're actually a pest plant...?)

20/365 Expensive bit of plastic

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Picture of motorcycle horn switch which broke off. This small, insignificant bit of plastic is going to cost $65 + installation to replace! (that include the switch assembly) Rip off!!! So I'm trying to figure out a way to reattach it.

19/365 Two computers

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Picture of nephew's new laptop next to my parents' real computer (the Apple iMac /grin/)

18/365 Moody sky

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Picture of cloudy skies over Wellington, with a magical mix of light and showers.

17/365 Men at work

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Picture of son tidying away toys with big earmuffs on!

16/365 Lake Taupo

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Lake Taupo.

15/365 Happy reunions

Definitely the highlight of my holidays today: meeting a friend who I'd known at primary school: Kirstin Anderson-McGhie. I didn't know what to expect... a positive, friendly personality and 'vibe' came across via Facebook after we reconnected about a year ago, but what sort of people would we be like after half a lifetime? I was thrilled to discover that we still 'clicked': we had an excellent yarn, and our respective families got along really well too.

I'm sure Kirstin won't mind me borrowing her photo in the meantime... I have yet to retrieve the ones from my niece's camera (and I hope I find one of myself without arms crossed! Looks a bit sort of stand-offish /grin/)

Why was I so happy about this? I'm guessing that it's due to the realisation that, even after half a lifetime of taking on all the cares and stresses of adulthood, each of us apparently still has those positive aspects that we liked about each other. In other words, that part of me (and of her) hasn't changed after 25 years. No reason I can see why it won't be the same after another 25 years.

In a word: awesome.

14/365 Water under pressure

Why have I posted a picture of a pipe with a joiner in it? Because this thing is basically what took nearly 2 days out of my holiday. This is the finished result of my efforts : the two halves of the joiner screwed into each side of the pipe using a pair of very heavy, 'he-man' pipe-wrenches. I was extremely pleased with myself!

How did this come about?

My sister-in-law has a Pelton water-wheel on her property, fed by water taken from a pond using a 50-mm LDPE plastic hose, which drops quite a way down the hill to aforementioned wheel...

... so anyway: Mr Helpful here decides he's going to tramp the length of the hose, to check for any  dirt/rocks/trees fallen onto the hose, and clear it. With a spade. A metal one. It's amazing how much pressure was behind the water, even though it was only a relatively short way down the hill. It was also amazing how fast I was able to crash my way up the steep craggy bush slope in heavy gumboots, to pull the hose from the pond before all the water got wasted by draining away.

Anyway: it was worth it in the end: right where I cut it, a collection of fallen rocks plus a tree stump had pushed quite a bend into the hose. This is a Bad Thing for power generation, as it increases friction to the water, which reduces available water flow at the bottom... = less electricity. The net result was that after I rerouted the hose around the obstacle (and around the very narrow craggy stream bed below the obstacle, necessitating quite a large deviation), my sister-in-law subsequently reported a slightly increased power output! All's well that ends well.

13/365 Bonkers

Visited my uncle in Kaikohe today, and met his two dogs: a couple of fox terriers bursting with energy, and totally bonkers! Frustrating in that I like dogs and was keen to make friends with them, but they just weren't into it. This picture captures it well: the two crazy sods were jumping and bolting around like they had springs in their legs!!

12/365 off into the bush

Off for a walk into the bush, on the 25-acre section we stayed on. My son in front, and further ahead my nephew and niece.

11/365 Lunch by the sea

Lunch in an idyllic spot: under some pine trees between Omapere and Opononi. Picture speaks for itself: just awesome. A scramble down a sand bank finds a lovely beach, with inviting water just waiting to be swum in.

10/365 Twin tunnels

OK, this picture was from the 9th... but I don't have a picture from the 10th (drat). So here's a picture of how they should build motorways in NZ... properly! Tunnels, big sweeping European/American style bridges ... cost be darned! Toll it if you really have to. This was an absolute pleasure to drive (if a little bland), and worth every cent of the $2 compared to the clogged drive of the past through Orewa. Well worth it.

9/365 A brick caravan...?

Stopped for a rest break in Tokoroa, and saw this caravan sculpture made from brick! Quite fun. We also discovered a bakery that sold really good-value pies and sammies... I couldn't resist a steak and cheese pie. It. Was. Good.

8/365 Twin gates of Whanganui

(or whatever they're called...)

Stopped in Whanganui (recently renamed from "Wanganui") for dinner. I found the place quite nice: lots of picturesque old buildings, heaps of nice planting along the city streets, and really quite neat and tidy. This bridge goes over the Whangaui River to join up to State Highway 4, which is the route we took to Waiouru where we stayed the night.

7/365 Roadtrip begins

Today we began the drive to the Far North for our holidays: a visit to Alice's sister, who lives in the Hokianga. I was a bit short of pictures from this day: this is about the only one I took. The North Island Main Trunk Railway begins its journey about here, disappearing into a tunnel underneath Khandallah. Upon reflection, I suppose it's sort of symbolic: it sort of goes along with the start of our roadtrip...

6/365 Birthday dinner

Nice dinner for my wife's birthday this evening at Shepherd's Arms, with my parents. Lovely outdoor seating position - and even though it was by a main route between Thorndon and Karori: surprisingly peaceful.

5/365 Misty evening by the airport

This evening, fog rolled in from the southeast. Upon seeing that it was persisting into the evening, I abruptly decided to scoot off to the airport in the hope of getting some nice photos. By the time I got there, most of the light was gone. So I thought I'd get a time-lapse photo of the roundabout at the eastern end of Cobham Drive. Mt Victoria is in the foreground, and the TV aerial lights of Mt Kaukau can be seen behind to the right. There's still a bit of the original reason for going there (ie: mist), but not much! Hopefully the light reflections in the water make up for it.

3/365 Stick insect

I rescued this little stick insect from a spider's web on the side of the shed this morning, depositing it into the leaves. I then had a chance to watch it, and wondered for a moment what is it actually like to be a funny-looking creature like that? You can see plenty of awareness of all the vegetation around: it would reach across to the next leaf, climbing it's way across without any trouble. And the 'face' formed by those two eyes and two antennae has a surprising amount of character! Quite neat actually. (But it's surprisingly hard to get a good picture of a tiny, moving creature like that...this probably isn't technically the best - but it's probably the best view of the way the insect was reaching across to the next leaf...)

A good reminder of the richness of the world going on around you all the time, if you just pay genuine, quiet attention, for but a moment.

2/365 Somes Island

Today we visited Somes Island in Wellington Harbour (Maori name is Matiu Island). This picture is taken from the top, looking south to the harbour heads.


Some points of note:


- the World War 1/2-era bunkers, now mossy and unused.


- the white dots: these are seagulls, and it turned out they weren't very pleased to see us! My son was the first one to realise they were diving at us... good ol' Dad was far too busy taking photos, and didn't realise until it was pointed out that the angry birds' screeches were abruptly peaking in volume as said bird would swoop past right above our heads. Translation: "GET LOST! /SCREECH/". Classic.


And... did you know you can actually camp overnight there? No, neither did I. That would be kind of neat I reckon...

Ref: Matiu/Somes Island Scientific and Historic Reserve: Wellington area places to visit

1/365 In the sunshine with family

First dinner of 2011 was down at the park opposite our house, Homebush Park. A lovely spot sitting up over the harbour: 180+ degree views, heaps of light, sky, sea (and the 8 lanes of road + interchange joining state highways 2 and 1 + 3 railway lines, all strategically hidden just out of view /snigger/).


In this picture is myself, Gemma (niece), Lukas, and Alice. Lovely mild day, a bit of a fresh breeze to keep things clean (in typical Wellington style!)... and that hot strong sunshine. 

Welcome to my blog

Hi, and welcome to my first ever blog.

I've had the idea of starting a blog for some time now, but haven't quite known where to start. I've been keen to express all sort of ideas, musings, and questions... but there seems like any number of things to talk about... so I always "outthink" myself and stall before I've started! However, on Jan 2nd I found inspiration from a friend who has started a blog "2011 Through My Lense". This seems like a good place to start: a blog with a simple, well-defined, easy to meet (I hope) objective: a blog stretching over a whole year; one post per day, marked with a picture from that day. I anticipate it would be interesting to look back on in years to come, especially as it covers the year leading up to my 40th birthday, a major milestone in our culture. It also nicely addresses my huge interest in photography, providing a good excuse to post some of the pictures I'm amassing over time.

I guess that, to somebody who doesn't know me and happens randomly to find their way to this blog, it's a glimpse of merely one person among billions in the world... a fairly average male at the end of their 30s, working a private-sector office job in the I.T industry in Wellington, New Zealand. Even so, I sincerely hope that it helps someone else in the world feel like they've made a connection of sorts - tiny though it may be - to another person elsewhere on this amazing world we live in. And if someone gets even a little inspiration, interest, or ideas, from what I've posted here, my efforts in this regard would be more than worth it.

Best wishes
- Ralph.

4/365 Splish splash

A picutre of my son splashing his feet in the fountain at the Rose Gardens, in Wellington's Botanical Gardens. Me and him always have fun chasing each other through the square-shaped rose plots!