Friday, December 30, 2011
Rugby World Cup 2011 Auckland
Here are a few images from 'Party Central' on Queen's Wharf. The place was alive with people day and night during September and October with all games showing on big screens, and music on various stages when there were no matches on.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Flight lesson
Ardmore airport is a small but very busy airport about an hour south of Auckland. I had a flying lesson at Ardmore a few weeks ago which was a birthday present for the 50th and it was a lovely hot fine day.
The plane is a Grumman American, 2-seater. It has the look of an old fighter plane about it. First there is some checking to do. There are so many checklists for pilots. One of them is to check various things outside the plane, like taking some fuel from each tank into a glass vial and looking for any water or contaminants.
I was invited to check for stone chips on the propeller. The cost to replace one propeller is around $30,000 to $60,000!
The hot sunny weather creates updraughts from the warm air rising from the land. This makes for plenty of movement (turbulence). Great fun.
Perhaps foolishly the instructor, Tim gave me control of the aircraft for take-off, most of the flight and landing except when taking a couple of photos. Landing can be tricky! Awesome.
The plane is a Grumman American, 2-seater. It has the look of an old fighter plane about it. First there is some checking to do. There are so many checklists for pilots. One of them is to check various things outside the plane, like taking some fuel from each tank into a glass vial and looking for any water or contaminants.
I was invited to check for stone chips on the propeller. The cost to replace one propeller is around $30,000 to $60,000!
The hot sunny weather creates updraughts from the warm air rising from the land. This makes for plenty of movement (turbulence). Great fun.
Perhaps foolishly the instructor, Tim gave me control of the aircraft for take-off, most of the flight and landing except when taking a couple of photos. Landing can be tricky! Awesome.
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Night at the bach
Notice the constellation of orion here with his sword pointing up. Upside down from the Southern hemisphere.
Not a very good photo of the eclipse but the cloud covered everything until it was nearly over. It had been a total lunar eclipse.
Short holiday at Sanctuary Lake Bach
A few days pre-Christmas rest at a rented bach in the Dome forest near Warkworth, north of Auckland. A small house in 38 acres with it's own lake.
The rain came down for the first couple of days but didn't dampen the spirits because we had a super bubble blower. Then when the weather cleared we had plenty of exploring to do.
The bach is Eco friendly, powered by a small hydro generator set below the lake and topped up with solar. Here is the hydro generator down in the forest below the lakes. The water has been split into two pipes and comes in from both front and back onto the turbine. Above it, the spinning aluminium drum, is the generator.
The house and lake are surrounded by forest which provided some great walks over tree logs and amongst the ponga trees. Ponga's are NZ tree ferns.
Family photo on the pier by the lake. One night Joe took a torch to the water's edge and we discovered that splashing the water and shining the torch into it attracted some quite large eels which bobbed up to the surface in the torch light. I wonder if we'll be swimming in it tomorrow.
The rain came down for the first couple of days but didn't dampen the spirits because we had a super bubble blower. Then when the weather cleared we had plenty of exploring to do.
The bach is Eco friendly, powered by a small hydro generator set below the lake and topped up with solar. Here is the hydro generator down in the forest below the lakes. The water has been split into two pipes and comes in from both front and back onto the turbine. Above it, the spinning aluminium drum, is the generator.
The house and lake are surrounded by forest which provided some great walks over tree logs and amongst the ponga trees. Ponga's are NZ tree ferns.
Family photo on the pier by the lake. One night Joe took a torch to the water's edge and we discovered that splashing the water and shining the torch into it attracted some quite large eels which bobbed up to the surface in the torch light. I wonder if we'll be swimming in it tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
