Merry Christmas, I am off...

I am off to the South Island for a few days, just with the car and my tent. Fingers crossed that the weather will stay as it is now (sunny, warm). I will be using the Dept of Conservation camp sites and the first one will be Kerr Bay at the Nelson Lakes. From there to Arthur's Pass and then on to mount Cook to do Muller's Hut. Looking forward to do some walking and getting some fresh air. In any case a Merry Christmas to you all and an enjoyable New Year's Evening!

Antonello da Messina

I walked to the water front this sunday, found myself a bench to sit on and started (and finished) reading my library book (something I haven't done for a while). It was fiction but it was about the theft of a painting by Antonello da Messina. The name of the stolen painting was made up but I did an internet search on the painter and found the above painting instead. This book also talked about IFAR, an (non-fiction) organization that keeps track of stolen art works. Anyway, yeh, weather is getting better over here.

River & Eastern Walkway

In the last post I mentioned a scenery that reminds me of a Dutch landscape. Well I went back there and by the time I got there it was raining cats and dogs which actually added an extra flavour to the similarity to "land van Maas en Waal". Just to clarify, the river is on the left, on the right (what looks like water) is a wet foot path/cycling lane (in case you wondered whether I had acquired any special magic walking powers)

It is labour weekend so I went for a walk in the neighbourhood and discovered the "Eastern Walkway". Here are some pictures







Last but not least, I discovered the "slow food" web site (http://www.slowfood.com/), some interesting thoughts, just FYI :-)

Dan Mills

A couple of weeks ago I went to Eastbourne. It is on the other side of the water from where I live and there is a tiny ferry boat that goes courageously from one side to the other. So out of curiosity I took the car (I could not find the ferry time table and had only one day left of my weekend) and drove all the way round the water front. It was a lovely drive, once off the motor way it was like driving in the country side, actually it brought back some memories from a road trip along the Mediterranean to Nice, not quite the same but something was familiar. Anyway, once I reached Eastbourne I parked my car and walked around, through the main street (which was perhaps 100 meters long), onto the pier (looking towards my house which was just a dot in now where) and along the beach which was deserted. By the way, the main street had perhaps a handful of occupants, just to give you a sense on how metropolitan this community is. When I got off the beach I found myself on a walk way along some lovely houses which led me to a little sports ground and a community centre. And there I found this large but beautiful mural that was painted by Dan Mills. For a change I had a piece of paper and a pen on me so that I could scribble his name down. It is only now a couple of weeks later that I find that piece of paper again. Anyway, hope you enjoy those visuals as much as I do.

Going back from Eastbourne to my home on the other side of the water one passes through Petone which is a slightly bigger community and has also more small businesses. Two of which have attracted my attention. One is the Dutch Shop where I can buy 'hagelslag' and 'oude leidse kaas' (and where I can practise my Dutch), the other shop is called "On Trays' which I think is a terrific name since it is a delicatesse store with lots of delicious food on offer. So one of my weekend routines has become a quick trip to Petone to keep me going for the rest of the week. And then (to round this off) I found a lovely walk way in that same area which reminds me very much of my home country. It is along a river with a dyke on either side on it. And it is just the birds that you hear and the water that runs along. The best part is that this walk way leads to a two track railway bridge with a narrow foot path next to it. So you can wait at the midway point for the local train to pass by. The other charming part is that because the foot path is so narrow people say 'excuse me' and 'thank you' when one direction is squeezing past the opposite direction. Anyway, next time I go there I will take my camera so that you have a better idea of what I am talking about.

Morning Walk

Walking from home to work takes about 30 minutes in the morning. However it takes about 40 minutes in the evening when I walk back from work to home. The reason being is that I live up the hill and my work place is in the valley. The photograph hopefully gives an idea about what I am talking about. To be honest, it is taking at that spot where on the way back I need to rest for a while in order to capture my breath, hence the 10 minute difference in commuting time.

Morning View

It has been a while, all to do with changing home (again). Anyway last week I moved into a new place and hope to stay here for a while. I woke up this Sunday morning at an early hour, leaned back on my pillow to see what the weather was like and noticed this big sailing boat that was passing by. Needless to say that I feel lucky to have found this spot!

It looks as if spring has arrived in NZ, last week we had a few days with a lot of sunshine. Today it was the same deal and hence I decided to go shopping for some furniture, something one does on a beautiful day. Funnily enough, NZ does not have an Ikea which is a real pity because that would be the ideal place to get some funky book shelves and the like. The closest shop in respect to the Ikea style I was told is called "Freedom". Well let me tell you, it is definitely not even near the same stuff as Ikea, it is expensive, shop assistants follow you through the store ready to pounce, there is no warehouse with carts where you can collide with other customers, no yellow bags, yes the style is modern but it does not have the "easy" component, does not serve Swedish meatballs either, and they don't have a restaurant which is probably the reason why the meatballs are not on the menu. So no book shelves for me today, fortunately I shipped my Ikea work table from LA and on second thought I should have shipped the rest of my furniture as well, this stuff is not cheap over here, provided one can find it in the first place ofcourse. But on a positive note I did buy a long table for the living room at the "Office WareHouse" which is a cheap chain that sells stationary and office equipment. It was on sale for NZ$199 and after questioning the shop assistant it appears to be called a "canteen table"... what ever, the size is perfect, I put it in front of the window so that I can keep an eye on those big sailing boats while eating my muesli in the morning!

Te Kopahou Reserve

I took the car for a spin today and drove along the south coast (Island Bay, Owhiro Bay) till I reached the end of the road (and the world). It appeared that I had gotten to the entrance of Te Kopahou Reserve, it felt like a portal to a different universe. The sight was just spectacular, just a massive and bare rock formation all the way to the horizon. Their presence gave me a strong sense of "don't mess with us". Just another moment that I was touched by the New Zealand scenery. It was a bit late to go for a stroll along the ocean side but that is definitely something that I would like to do at another time. There are walking trails and there were quite a few people out there (considering the number of cars in the parking lot).

On the way back I visited a colleague of mine who lives in a converted warehouse on the water front in the city. Very high ceilings, looked like a loft with an extra floor in the middle. Very nicely done, very different than the many old and drafty old houses in Wellington.

Yesterday I took my car back to the garage because the clutch had a wee bit play. Since it is under warranty it was better to take it back to the place where I bought it which is about 18 km north west of Wellington. Once lesson to be learned from my car buying adventure is that next time it might be better to buy the vehicle locally. Anyway the owner was happy to look at it and to fix it. Once he was done he asked me to test drive the car, just to make sure that everything was fine. Well that was an interesting experience, it was like being back at the driving school. "You should take your foot off the clutch, I see that you keep your foot on the clutch between the first and second gear, your foot should not be on the clutch at all, keeping your foot on the cluth will wear out the clutch much quicker than usual and (and here is the key part) it will affect the warranty". Well Cliff, I hardly put any pressure on the clutch, I just keep my foot in position for the next gear shift... Yes but any tiny touch of the clutch will wear out the clutch and the clutch may need to be replaced much sooner than expected... Cliff I don't apply any pressure on the clutch... by the way it is pretty cold and wet today, I take it that you have very few customers today... not really... you have to let go of the clutch between shifting gears... yes but I DON'T apply any pressure on that pedal Cliff. Needless to say that I was relieved that my driving lesson was over. Perhaps his tactics is to put me off for a next warranty issue... well Cliff don't count on that too quickly mate, I may take you up on that :-)