More Fog!

As I had predicted, the fog returned this evening. At this point it is no where near as bad as yesterday evening. I had to go shopping, so I took the long way to the supermarket [via the airport :-)] and took a photo from a couple of beaches at Lyall Bay and Island Bay.

I've converted to these images to monochrome... they just look better.

... still rolling in

... and now the visibility is well under 100 meters. This photo taken at 8:07pm this evening and I imagine it will get worse...  Welcome to summer :-)

Here comes the fog

After a really nice, dare I suggest even hot, day in Wellington today, it was obvious that was about to change as evening came. Bussing home, the fog was rolling in from the south over the airport and now it has arrived at home. What follows are two photos taken at 6:36pm and then two more at 7:30pm.

What a difference an hour makes. At least it won't be too hot tonight :-)

Repaint time... initial tidy up is done

After a couple of weekends, the initial tidy-up of the grounds has been done. While it hardly meets the definition of "tidy", it is good enough for the painting to go ahead.

Compared to the previous photos, it is quite different. Now it's just a couple of weeks until quotes are in for the painting. If you don't hear from me again, maybe the quotes were too much of a shock! :-)

Anyway, on to the photos:

Repaint time... the prep continues

Following on from Thursday's start to the trimming of trees, the skip bin arrived yesterday and we started filling it today.

Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating... but we have the bin for a whole week, so plenty of time to get it filled up. If the photo makes the skip bin already look full, it's no problems because the plant material will crush down a lot... just as well, as we have flax bushes with designs on world domination :-)

Repaint time... preparation

It's well past time, but the three owners [myself included] of the block of flats I live in are about to get the exterior of the units repainted.

We've just sent out a request for tenders to a couple of painters and perhaps a couple more to do in the next couple of days.

First up though is a bit of a general tidy up. One of my neighbours [and unit owners] and I have been ripping out excessive vegetation. With the skip bin arriving tomorrow, the weekend should be a busy one!

Anyway, here are a few photos. These show the current state of the land; showing the what has been ripped out and what is left to remove or trim back. Hopefully there will be some more photos in the next week or so.

Christchurch visit: Holes, carparks and damaged buildings

Having not been to Christchurch since the big earthquakes, there were a few things that stuck me as 'very odd indeed' in a city.

The first was the number of still cordoned off buildings. It's a bit weird to think that a couple of years after the earthquakes, there are still a many buildings which are cordoned off, doomed to destruction or awaiting a decision about whether to try and save them. On one hand it seems very slow 'progress'... on the other, it was a huge event, so it's not surprising.

Secondly, there are a lot of carparks! Sad when you think that there used to be buildings on these spots, but I guess at least the space is being used.

Next up are the number of holes where buildings used to stand. Some of these have been 'remediated' as best as I guess they can for now, and some of them have just had the rubble removed, but the remains of the basement structure left.

One place I should have taken photos of but didn't was the 'restart mall', which comprises a lot of [heavily modified] shipping containers... lots of higher-end shops, plus banks, food outlets and the like - pretty much everything you would expect to see in a city mall.

Anyway, here are the photos... hopefully fairly self-explanatory...

Christchurch visit: The Cathedral

I visited Christchurch yesterday, and thanks to my 'tour guides' Mel and Andrew, I got a good look around. I hadn't been to Christchurch for many years [and certainly well before the big earthquakes in 2010 and 2011], so I was very interested to see the CBD and surrounds.

This first post shows the damage to the old cathedral in Cathedral Square. It's just like the pictures in the media, although somewhat larger when I'm standing right there.

The first photo is the entrance to the viewing area at the front of the cathedral. The next two are the cathedral itself. The final picture is the temporary 'cardboard cathedral'... looking good!

The Brooklyn Wind Turbine

It's a public holiday today and despite the less than ideal weather, I decided to get out of the house and go do something. This ended up being a visit to the Brooklyn Wind Turbine.

You'll see a couple of things from the photos... I'm not particularly skilled at photographing the scenery nor coping with bad light [I think I do much better with photographing planes...!].

Anyway, the Brooklyn Wind Turbine was [according to its owner, Meridian Energy] New Zealand's first viable commercial turbine. As you see in the photos, there is a small information display and a bit of shelter for when it's windy [which is most days...] :-)

Europe Trip 2013: Tallinna Teletorn

In addition to Fat Margaret and the other attractions I visited yesterday, I visited the "Tallinna Teletorn", or Tallinn TV Tower. The Teletorn is about 30 minutes on one of the Hop-On Hop-Off bus routes and despite being so far out of town, it offers great views back to Tallinn and the surrounding areas. The tower was started in 1975 and finished in 1979, in time for the 1980 Olympics. This of course was during the occupation by the soviets. The tower was shut for a few years recently when it was refurbished.

Anyway, on to the photos. They are fairly self explanatory. The carpet was woven with names and distances to capital cities around the world, hence the picture of the carpet with "Wellington" in it.