Traffic and Turbines

It was a day of getting out and about around the suburbs and hills of Wellington today with our SLG friends.  It was Calvin’s turn to plan our outing, and first up was a visit to the offices of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) Highway Control Centre.   We were unsure if photos would be permitted inside the building, so we made sure we took a group photo outside.

Our group outside NZTA

Our group was taken to a meeting room (which doubles as the Civil Defence headquarters in case of emergencies) and we had a slide-show presentation explaining the role of the Wellington Area of NZTA.  They are responsible for 3000km of State Highway, stretching from Wellington as far north as New Plymouth, Tamaranui and Opotiki, including the Desert Road.  The day to day job entails monitoring traffic, tunnel management, traffic signals, weather monitoring, co-ordinating road works, and travel information for road users. 

Traffic management involves using technology to provide road users with a safe and efficient state highway network.  State highway traffic management centres in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch use a network of remote cameras and sensors to enable NZTA to monitor traffic flow and respond rapidly to conditions or to incidents that are stopping or slowing traffic. These centres are capable of backing up to the other in the event of power failure or other emergency.  We were then shown footage of a whole range of bad driving decisions which led to various crashes on the Highways.

Then we were taken to the training area overlooking a vast wall of TV monitors with staff watching the traffic images on the highways and in tunnels.  It all seemed terribly busy to us, but while the traffic is flowing there is no problem, we were told.  The problems occur once the traffic suddenly stops, and banks up.  This was a very interesting and informative place to visit, and we came away with an appreciation of the work which goes on behind the scenes to keep our roads safe.

Photo courtesy NZTA website

After a leisurely lunch we drove along the winding Makara Gorge road to check out the windmills at West Wind  to have a close up look at some of the 62 wind turbines dotted about the hill as they go about producing power out of the abundant renewable Wellington wind.  That was the plan - but it all fell to pieces.  The gate to the wind farm was well and truly  locked.  It was closed for lambing, and would re-open on 1st October, the sign said.  This was a blow for Calvin, as he had checked out the wind farm just two weeks earlier and was not told that the area would be closed when his visit was planned.

No entry past this point

Never mind – on to “Plan B”.  We drove up to the grounds of the Makara Cemetery and could view some of the wind turbines turning lazily away in the distance.  And we saw some of the lambs which caused the gates to be locked, merrily munching on the pasture.

An elusive wind turbine

Twin lambs

It was decided that our group will plan a return visit to West Wind in a couple of months time to find out more about this project.  The lambing would be well and truly over and the gates should be open, we’ll have better luck next time. 

TV viewing back to normal

Whew – it’s been a full-on two weeks keeping up with the Olympics!  We sat and watched the marvellous spectacle of the Opening Ceremony, then yesterday morning (N Z time) watched the Closing Ceremony.  Loved the music, well, most of it.  To be truthful, we didn’t know all of the artists.  How wonderful to see footage of John Lennon and Freddy Mercury – their genius lives on.  And talking of talent, the last remaining members of the band Queen certainly showed how music should be played.  Guess we are showing our age here!

How great it was to see our athletes on the dais, hear our National Anthem played when we collected gold, and see the flag raised high.  It brought a lump to my throat, and a tears to my eyes.  (But then, I always cry in movies too).  It makes us proud to be kiwis.

Our little country can hold our head up high with our medal haul of 6 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze, with a dramatic development occurring just hours after the curtain came down on the 30th Olympiad in London.  New Zealand has won its sixth gold medal of the Olympics after Valerie Adams' rival Nadzeya Ostapchuk tested positive for drugs and was stripped of gold.  Let’s hope it is not too long before the final gold medal can be officially presented to Valerie.

But it’s back to normal now, as far as TV viewing goes.  We are no longer serial TV sports addicts, instead we will be getting back to our usual viewing habits.  Life goes on.

Paekakariki Beach

Saturday’s weather couldn’t have been nicer so most of us ambled off for a stroll along Paekakariki Beach.  We found a group of volunteers hard at work planting out on the sand dunes in an effort to stop erosion.  It was nice to see so many people out enjoying the beach on such a warm sunny day.  We noticed a family enjoying a picnic and building sandcastles.  A little toddler was down at the water’s edge and squealing with delight as the gentle waves lapped against his toes.  And a golden Labrador was in and out of the waves looking everywhere for his stick.

After a short stroll we stopped at The Beach Store for refreshments.  This popular shop serves coffee and ice creams and has an interesting selection of items for sale.  Bridey and John took our orders with a smile soon had the coffees ready for us to enjoy. 

Bridey and John at The Beach Store

There is lots of outside seating provided for the customers to sit and savour their refreshments, both outside the establishment and across the road on the beach front.   

Ice-cream for him and coffee for her

As I enjoyed sipping my coffee in the sunshine, I noticed several kiwi icons across the road.  There was a red combi van all loaded up for a holiday, the holiday van of choice for young kiwi holiday makers  both here and overseas.  And parked in front was a car with a surf board on top – you can’t get anything more “kiwi summer” than that.  A group of deck chairs invite the shop’s customers to stop and sit a while and enjoy the beach, and gaze across at Kapiti Island in the distance.

Kiwi icons at Paekakariki Beach

After resting our legs and enjoying our refreshments,  we strolled back along the beach to camp.  Propped up in one of the camp buildings we noticed a large framed photo taken when the area was used during the war years.  Camp Paekakariki was the US Marine Corp base during 1942 and 1943, the largest United States Marine Corps camp in New Zealand.  The camp housed more than 20,000 men in and around the present park boundaries.  The Marines were put through their paces with intensive artillery training, marches and exercises in the surrounding countryside.  Some of them were at the camps for barely a month before heading off to battle again.

Camp Paekakariki

The camp as it is today

The weather deteriorated overnight and the sunshine was replaced by heavy rain, leaving the camp grounds wet and soggy.  “Houston, I have a problem”, said our new member Selwyn.  One of his caravan steadies had broken and he couldn’t get it back into place.  Could Robin offer any suggestions?  Robin fossicked around his tool box and with a bit of kiwi ingenuity Selwyn tied the broken steady together with a combination of a length of cord and several cable ties.  That should get him home safely. 

Selwyn doing a temporary repair in the rain

Hitching up the caravan we said our goodbyes, and headed for home.  We could hardly see a thing as we travelled over the Hayward’s Hill, with the low cloud rolling around.

It’s hard to see the road

Once safely home, we unpacked the caravan as quick as we could.  Muffy ran inside, settled down to snooze on the couch, not taking any interest as we trudged down to the caravan and back to the house through the rain.  But we can’t really complain, we had great weather for the the most part. 

From the Valley to the Coast

Another weekend – another rally, that’s how it goes sometimes.  It was a misty kind of morning with low clouds hovering around the hills when we hitched up the van and started our journey to Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast.

Clouds covering the foot hills

There was a bit work going on along the river, we noticed.   The Hutt River has stop-banks and introduced willow trees planted in populated areas to stop the effects of flooding.   Some of the willows on the water’s edge had been cut right down, and new plantings had been made.  Graders also carry our regular maintenance in the river bank to keep the water flowing freely.

Grader and dump truck on the river bank

We drove up and over the Hayward’s Hill Road, took a detour through Porirua for some supplies, then along SH1 to our destination at the Paekakariki Holiday Park for the weekend, a total of 55kms.

We’re here for our weekend caravan club rally

The camp is looking nice and tidy, and the gardens are in flower.  The red Kaka Beak bush was covered in blossoms and a tub of daffodils tell us that perhaps Spring is not too far away.

It’s been a while since we have last been in this area, and there has been a lot of maintenance work done down at the beach.  A heavy duty sea wall has been built, to safe guard the coast line, incorporating a new walkway.

Sea wall at Paekakariki

Kapiti Island in the distance

The camp is just across the road from the beach, so hopefully we will be able to take a beach walk over the weekend.

Eruptions!

It’s all happening here “down under” in New Zealand.  First Mt Tongariro erupted on Monday night flinging rocks around locally, and ash over quite an area.  This mountain had not shown any activity for over 100 years.  NASA has released an image of the ash plume stretching out from Mt Tongariro shortly after it erupted on Monday night.  The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of the volcano at 12.55am on Tuesday, which shows the ash plume stretching towards Napier.

Photo from NASA

Ash from the Tongariro eruption coated farms east of the mountain in ash several millimetres thick.  Photo courtesy TV3 News.

More volcanic activity made the news when White Island, which lies 48 kilometres off the Bay of Plenty coast, was raised to a Volcanic Alert Level 2 after a surveillance camera captured a small eruption from its crater on Sunday, causing ash to fall on the mainland of Bay of Plenty.  GNS Scientists visited the island this morning and confirmed the volcano was still erupting with a 300 metre plume of ash spewing from the crater.

Photo TV3 News

GNS Science has confirmed the White Island volcano is in eruption for the first time in 11 years.  Volcanologist Brad Scott says this is the first ash emission from White Island since February 2001 and signals the start of a new phase of volcanic activity.  The activity at White Island is said not to be linked to activity at Mt Tongariro, which erupted on Monday night.

On the other side of the world we heard of fire and flames after an explosion and fire at Kiwi House, where New Zealanders have been gathering to celebrate the Olympic Games.  A bar at the back of the building was filled to capacity when a gas bottle on a barbecue exploded, causing a large fire.  About 300 people were safely evacuated with no injuries.  Kiwi House describes itself as a "haven for friends, family and proud supporters of the New Zealand Olympic Team."

Kiwi House BBQ explosion

After all this we are ready for a nice cuppa to calm the nerves – that’s quite enough excitement for the time being.  There’s no need to worry about us, we are safely out of range and well away from the current volcanic activity.

Rally at the Race Course

It was a close to home NZMCA rally for us over the weekend, with just a short 9kms drive to the Trentham Race Course.  The instructions said “No admittance before 4pm” and we joined the queue of law abiding drivers lining the street outside the grounds.

   Lined up on the road outside

A large group of assorted motor-homes and caravans followed the parking wardens as they placed us in rows on the hard surface in front of the Tote.  Latecomers were tucked here and there into corners and the final count for the weekend was 57 rigs.

On site at the rally

The Wellington Racing Club has been running race meetings on this site since January 1906.  Work started in 1922 on three stands, with one since being demolished. The reinforced concrete cantilevered public and members stands still dominate the race course and provide excellent viewing today.  The records show that in a rush to have the stands completed for the January 1924 cup week, the workers were "compensated" with chocolate and nylons to work extra hours over the Christmas and New Year period which ensured the stands were opened on time. 

Concrete stands from 1924 still going strong

It was a nice sunny Saturday afternoon and a group of us felt the need to stretch our legs.  We took a walk around the block, past the stables and then around the race course.  There were just a few horses on site and they were interested in checking out what this group of strangers were doing on their patch.

Keeping an eye on the walkers

We knew we were almost back at the caravans when the winning post came into sight.  There was just time for a cuppa before meeting up in the hall with the rest of the group.

 

The Winning Post, Trentham Race Course

We enjoyed a nice relaxed rally, with evening entertainment provided for those who were not glued to their TVs watching the Olympics or the Chiefs winning the Super 15 Rugby Championship.

Cross words spoken in the dark

It was a dark and stormy night during the week and we were having words outside in the rain.  Robin was trying to back the caravan into it’s space beside the house.    This was certainly quite a different proposition than deftly manoeuvring the caravan into place in the daylight.   I peered down the side of the caravan in the pitch blackness trying to judge how close it was to the wall.  “You’re a bit  too close on that side”, I exclaimed as I went to have a closer look.  Robin wanted to know why I hadn’t brought a torch outside to help.  Mmm, I never thought of that, but I had donned one of his old white shirts over my dark clothing to stop me getting hit by a car while I was out on the road in the dark.  “You will have to turn a bit that way”, I advised waving my arm at him.   That wasn’t a good instruction at all.  Did I mean left or right, he demanded curtly.  I really meant my left, but what does that mean to him when he is driving backwards?  These things aren’t easy, and doing them in the dark is even worse - you can see why things got a bit heated!

Romany Rambler was returning home from the garage after some welding work on the back bumper.  Our friendly garage proprietor suggested that Robin bring the caravan down to the workshop after the close of the working day.  All the jobs of the day would have been completed by then, the customers would have collected their cars, and there would be room for our rig.  While we were away on our South Island trip, the welds on the back bumper had split, and the spare wheel had to be removed to lessen the weight on the fractured joints. 

It took a wee while for John to do the welding to his satisfaction.  Robin was advised to buy a can of  Fish Oil and squirt it into the gaps to keep the rust at bay.  This was not a job to do at night in the rain, and was attended to in the light of day. 

Now the bumper bar is fixed, the spare wheel is now re-mounted on the fitting.  We had been carrying it around in the back of the 4WD for the last month or two.