Flew to Wellington, stayed overnight in Wellington at the Cambridge Hotel near town. Visited Te Papa, Parliament (doing the Parliaments Highlights tour), Botanic Gardens (Taking the cable car up), Mount Victoria. Weather was wet pretty much the entire time I was there, with some brief periods of the sun trying to break through.
Sunrise while flying to Wellington
Next day, decided to leave the wet weather behind, grabbed a hire car from the Wellington Thrifty Branch and headed north, via Wairarapa before staying the night in Palmerston North / Manuwatu
On the next morning, the Wet weather had caught me up, visited Manawatu Gorge then drove onwards to Whanganui before heading to Taumarunui for a snooze.
On the final leg, stopped by Ruakuri caves and then headed directly back to Auckland.
23rd June 2020: This plant is no longer in my possession and has since been given to a relative down country.
Have been receiving the occasional inquiry about where to possibly acquire this plant (or clippings of) from site visitors both locally and overseas. If people know of any Garden centres (or otherwise) in New Zealand that may be able to supply this plant or otherwise assist, please do state in the comments below to help out fellow Netizens :o) Thanks!
A while ago, there was a project involving setting up some sort of Forum for arranging social events outside of Meetup and Facebook for a group of friends.
Webs Domains were purchased, web space was purchased and Multiple Examples were set up for evaluation including Oxwall, Adhoc BuddyPress, PHPBB3, Family Connections, and some cloud hosted services such as Google+, Google Groups, even a try of Meetup itself (Seriously derailed).
After capitulating last year and allowing myself to be assimilated into the Face-borg collective, I now have an understanding what they really meant by “Forum”, it wasn’t a web based forum at all that I assumed many were thinking of, it’s basically a chat / instant messaging program they were talking about.
After reviewing Slack, Mattermost, Tox Chat among others, came across Riot.IM / Matrix.org. The Riot.IM product appears to cover most of the main points I’ve been looking out for…
Federated open inter-operable standard. (Can host your own server and get it talk to other servers), much in the same way Email is currently.
Open Source
Option to Encrypt the group chat.
Option to make it private or public.
Ability to attach pictures
Emoji’s (All important to some)
The example chatroom I set up “Tarawera” seems to work okay on my Windows 10 Desktop using the Google Chrome Browser and also using the Riot.IM app on my Xperia Z2 Android device.
Riot IM Web-based Interfrace
Now, apparently there’s voice chat available. There’s an Icon on the web-based interface for it, but haven’t tried it out yet,
In short, this is probably my best chance so far at trying to release the grip that the proprietary corporate platforms (Such as Facebook and WeChat) currently have on my friends for communicating with one another.
If anyone would like to try, please contact me and will send you an invite.
Short little walk around Ngaruawahia and up to Hakarimata Summit again. This track gains around 300-350m elevation up mostly stairs. Popular with Waikato locals as an exercise and fitness training track.
Conditions were cloudy on the walk up to the summit, then later started clearing as I made my descent back down.
Easier stream bash along Mokoroa Stream (Goldie Bush). Pictures uploaded to Mokoroa Stream Track album.
Beware, the trail head of this reserve now has parking enforcement at the Horseman Road End. Avoid parking on the side with the “No Stopping” / “No Parking” signs. Upon our arrival, we saw a Parking warden going around issuing tickets.
When to explore Moirs Hill Walkway before the Pine Forest surrounding it gets deleted. Including an explore around Pohuehue Falls. Photos posted to NUI.NZ.
Moirs Hill Walkway
Walked to the Moirs Hill Road end, returned back the same way back to Beverley Price Loop Track and returned down the other way to complete the loop. Although several cars were parked there at the Pohuehue Car Park, I did not meet anyone on the trail itself… Most cars had just pulled off to have a rest.
Have to admit, struggled a little with 25°C heat which I found zapped my energy levels (hence, won’t be doing any hiking tomorrow as it has been forecast to be higher than that.).
The Pine Forest behind Pohuehue Scenic Reserve is going to be logged in preparation for expanding the Motorway North, hence the closure of Moirs Hills Walkway.
Total time spent on trail about 4 hours, includes a few bush bashes and side tracks (to explore).
There was talk of doing a Kaimai Ranges walk around Karangahake between a group of friends. The plan kind of then evolved to discussing doing Te Aroha Loop, Some discussions of Tui Mine and doing the tunnels there included.
I do a search about Tui Mines and end up at a thread on Game Planet Forums, then go searching for Tui Mines on Youtube… which then leads me to viewing some Urbex videos, where I then end up watching a YouTube video discussing “UrBex NZ” Q&A…
I then discover the video is laced with unusually abusive comments and a rather unusually high thumb down rating for a what appeared to be a fairly orderly video.
After more mindless surfing, it appears there are in effect two different Urban Exploration groups “Urbex Central” and “Urbex NZ” with the later being run by a guy named Nathan Harpur. The two have quite DIfferent ideologies… One is “Take only photos and leave only foot prints” and the other group appear to have openly admitted to tagging the places they visit (Urbex NZ). This I would see naturally concerns Urbex Central as potentially getting all UbEx’ers being tarred with the same tagger brush.
Now I at least know what’s happening, but blooming hell, Initially, these petty squabbles had completely no context to an outsider, or curious Joe public like myself (until I investigated).
Anyway, I don’t think I’m thrill seeking enough to do the sort of things they do. Will leave it to Urbexers to record and post videos of their visits. From there, will watch in the relative comfort of my chair.
Photos have been uploaded here for Stewart Island and here for Humpridge Track. Will write up trip reports for them both at some point. For some reason feeling really zonked out… Sleeping for about 12 hours straight. Will also get around to uploading the Road Trip photos (that were taken on side trips outside of the Two main Hikes)
Merry Christmas all, Season’s Greetings! Be sure to take some time out of your busy life to enjoy the magic of the holidays this season with friends and loved ones.
May this holiday season sparkle and shine, may all of your wishes and dreams come true, and may you feel this happiness all for the coming new year.
21st December 2016 – Photos from a nice and easy short little walk around St Heliers with the Auckland Hiking Meetup Group Wednesday walks series. Hosted and led by Ruth Donde whom gave excellent commentary on the history of the area throughout. Walk concluded with an excellent public performance by the Auckland City Brass
Archilles Point, Looking back towards the CBD
Announcing a brief Historical overview about the area
Looking out towards Rangitoto Island from Archilles Point
Tarawera Terrace, St Heliers, joint (clan) acquisition. Pictures before it gets lived in. Much of my liquidity is now gone. Undoubtedly we’ve bought at the top of the market.
Tony Alexander, while a well respected and highly regarded Auckland housing market commentator (and perhaps champion of) in his 1st December 2016 Weekly Overview does not speak for me individually in this regard…
Young people probably don’t want space for three chainsaws. They have grown up amusing themselves indoors with technology and its progression rather than seeking open spaces and adventures outdoors which physically and spatially challenge them. They have looked down their noses at outside work and hut building and seem to want an adult life quite different from what earlier generations aspired to. Older people bemoan the lack of new houses with big sections. Young people and probably most immigrants instead want something low maintenance and handy to transport routes. If that means small then so be it. Creation of lots of tightly packed small houses/townhouses does not imply the societal dystopia many older people fear. Get with the times.
I regularly get cheek for my rather slow adoption of new consumer technology, despite working as a computer geek as a day job. Will admit, that I now finally have a Faceborg account (going on 1½ months)… After much shirt tail tugging and escalating annoyance at me from friends at my lack there of.
As an aside. Noticed that the Weekly Overview it self seems has perhaps gone from reasonable and broad economic commentary to predominantly commentary focusing on Auckland’s housing market and dare I say, Bubble denial (I sense a possibly dangerous level of over confidence based on how his columns are worded), with economics merely becoming a side snippet. Not really my cup of tea I have to admit (have decided to unsubscribe). If he gets back to a more broad based economic commentary, will decide to resubscribe then and there.
A little, very short stroll around GIlls Scenic Reserve in Albany. Pics uploaded to nui.nz
Started from the Lower end of the reserve at GIlls Road entrance and did a figure eight type of loop. There’s a possibility to enter the park at the Carol Lee Place end instead though car park when I walked past seemed to be full, however for some strange reason, I didn’t encounter anyone else in the reserve while I was there.
Apparently there’s some board walk section to this reserve, however, didn’t manage to find it.
Did a spontaneous walk along Pararaha… Heck I wasn’t actually going to go all the way, (was going to stop at the log jam then head back) but continued on anyway. Weather conditions were showery initially while I was walking down Buck Taylor track, but later cleared up once I embarked on the Pararaha Stream (after the Pararaha Campsite)
Grippy footwear really is a must for this. You will most probably get your feet wet. Dry bags for your more sensitive gear (e.g. Non-Waterproof electronics) is highly advisable.
Log Jam can be a little daunting, particularly the bit where you get through past the logs and then climb up a moderately sloped rock. Thankfully the rock is fairly grippy
While it is technically possible (after the log jam) to continue directly up the stream, there are 3 (or may be 4 Points) where it may be better to scramble up the side of a cliff for those who wish to avoid a full immersion swim. The cliff routes are failry well worn in, it’s just a matter of finding them… If you find that a section of stream is deeper than chest height, then there’s most probably an alternative cliff trail somewhere.
Regarding Still Gully, (According to the map posted to Auckland Hiking Group meetup, it seems they are planning to go up this). In short, It’s easy to miss, which may not be a bad thing because it’s difficult to go up it. There’s a small stream and lots of thick bush and according to the Topo Map, it gets quite steep. Tried for about a 100m then gave up. There doesn’t appear to be much to see there (except dense vegetation). I believe you are better to continue up Pararaha stream till you get to intersection of Odins TImber Trail and then turn left on to it to Odens TImber Trail and head back to the car park from there.
Using the Latest version of the Meetup App for Android…
Test Run #1: Upon RSVP’ing “Yes”, Got all 3 questions presented. https://peak.nz/2016/09/30/meetup-rsvp-bugs/#jp-carousel-3755
Answered Only the first question while leaving the other two blank and clicked ‘Continue’
The Answer was successfully Saved.
Test Run #2: Updated RSVP and answered all 3 Questions (change answer to first question.) and then clicked ‘continue’. None of the Answers were saved… Was still showing the answer I had given in #1 with questions 2 and 3 blank.
Test Run #3: Updated RSVP and changed the answer to the first question, leaving the other 2 blank. Answer was successfully saved.
Appears if you answer just the first question, you should be Okay, answer the other two along with the first question. None of the Answers get saved.
