Offensive

It has been a bit too cold for me to go walkabouts for the last week or so, so I stole these photos off other blogs. I hope their owners don't mind. I think they're great!

Sold!

So a while back I talked about buying a motorbike again. Well I went ahead and did it, but lost interest soon after, largely due to an unfortunate meeting with asphalt. This week I sold my darling Nighthawk for more than I paid for it, and am back to being a one vehicle person. It was fun while it lasted but I didn't have anywhere near as much fun with it as I had on my old Volty (May-November 2005). I still think motorbikes are fun and look cool but I think riding is out of my system again, for now at least.

It is looking likely that I'm going to head to the States in October for a Southwestern road trip. I was originally planning to go to Chicago or possibly even further, but due to my limited resources and incessant obsession with the southwest, I don't think I'll make it that far this time. Current itinirary goes something like this:
Wellington - San Francisco - Yosemite National Park - Death Valley National Park - Las Vegas - San Diego and Tijuana - Los Angeles - San Francisco - Wellington.
I have most of the month of October off work so should be able to spend 2-3 weeks over there. My friend Laura is interested in coming with me, and my friend Brooke is heading to the US at roughly the same time, so will probably meet up for part of the trip, and a couple of my Colorado friends are going to drive out to California to see me while I'm there too. While I still haven't booked my ticket, it has all come together so nicely that it feels like theres no going back really.

In other news Miss Avalon has this week won the crown of Miss Hutt Valley. I kidd you not. I wish I was kidding. It never ceases to amaze me how they manage to find contestants for Miss Hutt Valley, I thought self-respect would prohibit anyone from competing for that title. The Hutt News did a big story on it. Apparently one of the contestants, whose name was possibly Shazza, answered the question on World Peace with: "I'm very passionate about protecting our planet, and global warming is a great concern to me." I really do congratulate the new Miss Hutt Valley, but really how much competition was there? Miss Taita? Miss Naenae? Miss Waiwhetu (shudder).

And speaking of 'global warming', I note with sadness that weather guru Augie Auer has died this week. I think he was a really cool guy, and hearing of his death really saddened me. He had the courage to go on national TV and be his quirky self and deliver the bad news about the weather night after night, and he really knew his stuff. He also courageously stood up against the 'global warming' movement, as part of a knowledgable minority (who I suspect will be proved right) who realize that the scaremongering science surrounding man-made climate change just doesn't stack up. RIP Augie!

This morning was one of those mornings that just make you happy to be alive. The sun shone brightly as it rose above the hills to illuminate the city after a night where darkness ruled. The streets filled with people and cars, the chirps of the birds soon to be drowned out by the chitter-chatter of commuters as they made their way to their cubicles.

I was at a champaigne breakfeast with my collegues after finishing nightshift at 7am. Overnight between the group we had dealt with two home invasions, a stabbing, a drive-by shooting and the bruital beating and murder of a five year old (as well as countless low-level emergencies) on what was a fairly quiet Tuesday night.

The practice of having drinks after nightshift is relitively rare. In my year of shift work, I have only been to three such gatherings. Normally everyone is too tired to go out after being up all night and eagre to hit they hay. But every now and then second (or third) wind hits you at just the right time and the time is right. A unique atmosphere is created during drinks after nightshift, and if going out to a resturant (as we did this morning) it is always funny to watch the waitress's reaction as you order a heineken or bourbon with your flap jacks.

Chilean tunnel vision

While driving to work last night I noticed some giant pirate-ship like masts of one huge sailing boat towering over Queens Wharf. Thinking this was a strange sight in the 21st century I went to investigate, and found a large Spanish navy ship which seemed a little bit confused over whether it was a modern warship, or an 18th century explorer. It was metal hulled and clearly had engines to power itself, and yet it boasted magnificent sails bundled up at the base of the masts. Intermittent commands were issued over loud speaker in a language that I couldn't understand (Spanish), but which sounded cool.
The ship's name is the Esmeralda. And even as I research the ship to write this paragraph, I have discovered it is not a Spanish ship at all. It belongs to the Chilean navy. It is the second tallest and longest sailing ship in the world and carries a crew of 390. When sailing, it is powered by 39 sails on four masts. I should try and get on board to look around, afterall I did used to deliver pizzas to Carlos, the Chilean ambassador to Wellington.


The other day I went biking in Tunnel Gully, north of Upper Hutt. It is a stunning area of native bush and parkland, made more interesting by the leftover infrastructure of the old Hutt Valley to Wairarapa rail line, a winding and narrow incline used before the 8.9km Rimutaka tunnel was completed in 1955.
Pictured is the Mangaroa tunnel, built in 1878. It's 200m long, and it gets pretty spooky in the middle when you can't see the walls of the tunnel (let alone the bike you are riding on) and can only focus on the pinprick of light at the end and keep riding towards it, hoping you don't collide with the walls or any monsters/trolls that happen to be lurkng.