Europe Trip 2013: Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

I've been in the UK for a few days now [and tomorrow I head off to Finland], but I'm just getting around to putting up a couple of posts about what I've been up to...

On 3 June my father and I headed off to Portsmouth to see the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. As its name suggests, it is an old dockyard [they say about 800 years of history!] and [as far as I can tell] is part of the current Royal Navy base at Portsmouth.

There are a number of attractions, including the HMS Warrior from 1860, the HMS Victory [launch in 1765!], the May Rose [being preserved after hundreds of years under water], as well as a 45 minute harbour cruise, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and much more. Well worth the 25 pound entry fee - especially since tickets appear to be valid for a whole 12 months.

 

Anyway, here are a few photos. Top to bottom are:

Outside then inside of the HMS Warrior

Outside then inside then front on shot of the HMS Victory

The Mary Rose under restoration, including a preserved cannon

Various pictures from the harbour cruise, which included a lot of commentary about the royal Navy vessels and the current port

Deck done!

After only 2 weeks, the deck has been completed. In this photo you will see that the decking and safety rails have been replaced.

It's looking good, and I'm very very happy that it's 99% done. Apparently, all I need to do now is to punch all the nails in a little, and there's a wee bit of painting to be done. The decking itself may [but it's not decided yet] be left unpainted. We will see.

Anyway, here's the picture.

Still renovating

The renovations on the deck are continuing, with good progress being made. I'm really glad that the work has started, as there was a reasonable amount of rotten wood and rusted nails found in some parts, which would only have gotten worse over time.

It seems that any maintenance in the past was a bit piecemeal, but it is being done properly this time - restoring 'like for like' - it'll be strong as once it's all finished.

Anyway, today's picture is symptomatic of the issue... rusty nails... and yes, these were important ones!

Renovation time!

After completing the interior renovation of my home about 12 months ago [bathroom, new kitchen, paint, carpet and lino, double glazing and a heatpump], it's time ot do something on the outside.

The deck is well past needing a lot of work, so before it becomes even more urgent, my neighbour and I have started by surrounding the building with 'DANGER KEEP OUT' tape then ripping off most of the decking. What's left could not safely be removed without scaffolding.

Anyway, here are photos from the first day's effort. I'll try and keep things up to date as the work progresses, although I would expect that there won't be much visible progress for a few days at least.

More zoo photos!

Here are a few more pictures from our visit to Wellington Zoo earlier today!

As you can see, there's plenty to see - it's a good place to fill a few spare hours. See if you can name the animals in each photo... Not so many friends and family photos in here :-)

Mum and Dad visiting and off to the Zoo

Yesterday and today I had the pleasure[yes, pleasure!] of a visit from Mum and Dad. We had planned to go for a flight, but with the winds being too strong, we went to the Wellington Zoo instead.

Despite having been in Wellington for about 7 years, I have never been to the zoo! Anyway, it was a good walk around with plenty to see, although I have to say, some of the enclosures seemed a bit small, especially for some of the more active animals, but certainly a lot better than what zoos used to be like.

Anyway, here are a few photos from today. Several of these photos have friends and family in them - see if you can guess who is who [hint, the first picture is Mum and Dad up on Mt Victoria just before going to the zoo!]!

Long weekend in Whanganui

This weekend has been "Wellington Anniversary Weekend" and the extra day off work has been very welcome. I took the opportunity to pop up to Whanganui overnight last night to visit my young-looking parents [Hi Mum!].

Whanganui was having a "Vintage Weekend" comprising mainly of old cars and a very old tractor. At the risk of never being allowed back in town, I think that the cars are about the same age as the average resident :-)

The other event worthy of note was the downhill go-kart racing. It looked like a lot of fun - would have been nice to be in the event :-)

Photos are of some of the vintage cars and then the go-karts. My favourite kart would have to be the last one - making a good attempt at camoflaging itself against the trees... it helped that it lost a wheel on the way down also... very funny!

Red sky at night...

The last few days have been fairly windy in Wellington. No surprise there, and today was no exception.

Thankfully my house is sheltered from the prevalent northerly winds, and often it just results in interesting days watching the clouds go by.

Today's photo was taken at about 9pm this evening. Red sky and some low clouds scooting past. I should have taken some photos earlier today where there were a lot of lenticular clouds hanging around at higher altitudes. Anyway, here is the outlook from my home looking south-west.

My very own "Unexpected Journey". Hobbits not included.

I arrived home this evening to find some mail in the letter box. Opening it up, I found that it was a letter from the BNZ with my new "netguard" card [which is used as a second factor of authentication when accessing their internet banking].

Unexpected, and surprising. Why? You'll see why soon.

I immediately phoned BNZ to discuss this development, and while on hold, I then tried logging into BNZ's internet banking site. It accepted my access code, my password, and prompted me to use the new "netguard" card, which I did and it was accepted.

The following page then appeared:

BNZ Internet banking error - click for a larger version

In short, it wouldn't let me in!

It's a pity, but not altogether surprising, since I have not been a BNZ customer for about 12 months now! It appears that when I closed my accounts, my internet banking was not shut off properly. Still, it didn't actually let me in, so that is good.

Funny thing is that they still had to verify my identity before properly closing it off. banking access code [yes, I could remember it!], name, address, date of birth, phone number, email address [and not my "normal" one] and drivers licence number [also remembered], so that went smoothly.

It appears to be all shut down now. Darn. I was hoping that I had won some money and could retire young :-) Yeah right!