2008 March Archive at fryphone nzblog

Monthly Archive for March, 2008

practice practice practice

Published

on March 30, 2008

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every time now i see an athlete performing some amazing maneuver i think of “ronaldo”, one of the kids on our street.

rolando is outside on our street practicing with his skateboard, bike and scooter (the kids kind) for hours *every* day. most days he’s joined by a few of the other homies from the hood, but you can always count on him being there. he has gone over his ramp so many grazzilion times that the sound of zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZ-clomp-clomp-zzzzzzzz has become quite relaxing.

and i confess that ronaldo’s real name is owen - but he frequently has a soccer jersey on with ronaldo (european football star) on the back so he’s ronaldo to me.

up and over

Published

antonyfoster

on March 22, 2008

in new zealand

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[ed. i'll be adding more commentary, but for now i'll let the photos do the talking]

today we did the tongariro alpine crossing.

the crossing is a 18.5km (11.5 mile) tramp through the tongariro national park that travels up and over the tongariro range. the park has dual world heritage for its natural features and cultural importance to the maori. the land for the park was donated to the nation in 1887 by Te Heuheu, paramount chief of the Ngati Tuiwharetoa people.

“Behold, beyond are the fires of these mountains and the lands we have held in trust for you. Take them in your care and cherish them, they are your heritage and the heritage of your children.”

the summits were all formed by volcanic eruptions. at several points along the trek you pass through areas where the mountains are still venting.

Map Tongariro Crossing.jpg

after the alarm went off at 0530 we scrambled to get ready and met the 0630 shuttle bus to take us to trailhead.

what happened next is now referred to as the “key incident” and after today will never be spoken of again. at 0630 it is still pitch black out as we walk from our cabin to the main lodge to met the bus. we’re the last to arrive and the driver goes through the checklist: food? check, water? check, jackets? check, sunscreen? doh!. i say i will run back to the room and get ours. he says we’re out of time so jackie needs to hop on the the bus and then he will drive the bus down to our cabin to pick us up. i get back to the room, get the sunscreen out of the car and as i’m putting the car key back in my pocket notice that i can’t find the key to the cabin. i’m looking everywhere, on my hands and knees outside the door. after a few minutes the driver shouts out that we have to go. so i run back to the bus and ask jackie to get off since we can’t leave for the day without knowing where our cabin key is. we grab out stuff on the bus and step outside just as one of us finds the key. so back on the bus and off we go. we’re not out of the parking lot when i realize in the panic i have not re-locked the car. our car with my laptop in the hatch. 0638 and i’ve already had a full day. nothing to do about it now so off we head to the trailhead.

it was still dark when we arrived at the start of the trail.

this was the view looking back from our first summit at soda springs

the second climb up to the south crater is ahead of us. hey - how did they know about jackie’s gas problem? mt ngauruhoe is on the right. for lord of the rings fans this is mount doom in the peter jackson movies.

the walk across the south crater was a bit surreal.

we stopped at the red crater for lunch even though it was only 1030. after getting this far we definitely needed some fuel.

the photo that just shouldn’t be.

we out on a perfect day on one of the most spectacular walks in the world and i’m on my mobile.

so in my defense i’m not talking work. or to my broker. i’m asking the folks at the lodge to get my laptop out of the unlocked car for safe keeping. hopefully that’s not as bad.

in the we-live-in-amazing-times category, pretty wild that you can make a phone call on top of a volcano, no?

after we crossed the summit at red crater we began the descent down to emerald lake. this was the most treacherous part of the tramp with a steep decent down the scree. a bit of challenge for those not equipped properly. not too hard with hiking boots and tramping poles - a different story if you’re in jeans and sneakers.

along this part of your trail if your hat blows off you buy a new hat.

here we are at the central crater looking back at red crater and mt ngauruhoe.

as we started our descent we could see lake taupo in the distance. ketetahi hut is in the distance in the photo on the right. the tramp that we did was just a small piece of a larger walk that takes several days. there are doc staffed huts with bunks and cooking facilities every 1/2 days journey along the trek. for us it was just a brief stop to use the loo and we’re off.

the trail is so remote that all the trail maintenance supplies have to be brought in my helicopter. you can see a drop zone in the first photo.

we reached the trail end at a bit after 2 pm and we were back at the lodge with beers in hand by 3.

we were quite proud of ourselves for the completing the crossing and through we kept up a fine pace. that said all day we were frequently passed by kiwis that seemed to be just casually strolling along. it is becoming clear that the average level of fitness in nz is a bit above that in the states and that we need to take the estimated travel times quite seriously. we’ve yet to finish a walk in under the time estimated.

forging north

Published

antonyfoster

on March 21, 2008

in new zealand

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in new zealand good friday and easter monday are state holidays so that means a 4 day weekend for everyone. trying to learn from our christmas mistake of not booking early the jboss had planned and booked a trip for us to the tongariro region and a relaxing spa visit for gromit.

tongariro trip.tiff

on our trip up we went the western route through wanganui. since it was good friday the town was locked up tight, but looked like a great place to visit and we’ll put it on the list to return to soon. we did find one cafe that was open and given the holiday we set our expectations low. i was expecting mediocre fish & chips. turns out it was very good. great english beer selection and i had a venison burger with mango chutney. hard to beat.

another great tree lined main street with cafes, shops and a majestic old theatre. almost all of the banks in new zealand are australian owned (like the one above) including unbelievably the bank of new new zealand and new zealand bank.

right past the cbd was a huge park along the river. the children’s area was themed around nursery rhymes with the 3 bears, humptey dumptey, etc. inside the big pumpkin was a prep area, huge grill and picnic tables. most of the public parks here have public grills that gas fueled and free to use. they have a flat metal cooking surface like at mcdonalds and are started just by pushing a button. a lot easier (and safer) than everyone bringing charcoal and dousing it with lighter fluid. at one end of the park was the ultimate tree house.

after we passed through wanganui we decided to take the scenic backroads up to our destination. the guidebook described it as a can’t miss vistas - so how could we pass?

i’m not keen on living out of the city, but if i were the homestead in first photo would be ideal.

two stories behind the second picture. firstly the sign on the cliff. you are entering a single crewed ambulance zone. that means when the ambulance arrives the paramedic can either treat you - or drive - but not both at the same time, so try not to be an idiot and need any urgent medical care. keep that in mind for the photos below. and why is jackie laughing? she is wearing sandals and has just stepped in a pile of poo. guess who’s riding on the roof rack for a while?

the last photo could easily be from vermont, and was a brief glimpse of fall. we had great tall, slender birches lining the road for the early part of the drive.

the drive started out on a nice winding paved road, but the pace quickly slowed as the road turned to gravel and was frequently shared with local livestock.

the first shot is great on several levels. firstly the bulls lining the road. “sure - come on down. we’re nice and friendly. ignore the horns. and forget about the sign reminding you that this is a single crewed ambulance zone. what are you waiting for?” nextly is the 100 kph speed limit sign. 100 kph is about 60 mph and is very fast for a paved country road. much less a gravel road with a steep drop off on one side. or more so for a single lane, gravel road with a steep drop off lined by bulls.

at one point we let a local farmer pass and the visibility dropped to zero. we assumed we’d know when we hit the livestock.

as we emerged from the country road our final destination - mt tongariro - came into view.

the last town before we arrived at tonariro was raetihi. more than a bit depressing since it was clearly struggling and a shadow of its former prime.

yet another former bank of new zealand building shamefully degraded to office for a local radio station.

so when the town elders were sitting around the table in the late 1930’s trying to decide how to celebrate the town’s upcoming centennial, how did the conversation turn to a rest room?

mt ngauruhoe at sunset in another this-is-why-we-moved-here images.

our home for the holidays is the wilderness lodge in national park. yes - the name of the town is “national park”. the first several conversations about where we were staying had a who’s on first quality.

a: “so, where are we going to be staying on our holiday?”
j: “we’re booked at the wilderness lodge in national park”
a: “great - what town is that in?”
j: “national park”
a: “right - but what town are we nearest to?”
j: “the lodge is in in national park”

at this point i give up and don’t see the light until we pass the state highway sign that welcomes us to national park.

after we unpack the car we head up to the lodge for dinner only to find out that they are booked up for the night. this was a bit surprising since the small dining room never seemed more than half full. feeling bad they offered us a bowl of fries. so our good friday dinner was fries & beers on the couch watching willy wonka on the telly.

we were off to bed early after setting the alarm for 0530 so we could catch the 0630 shuttle bus for our big tramp tomorrow.

how we missed the picture of the previously thought extinct moa

Published

antonyfoster

on March 21, 2008

in new zealand

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no doubt that the jboss’ photographic skills are better than mine when it comes to composition and post-production. but i think it is safe to say that i may have the upper hand in the action shot category.

the movie speaks for itself.

let’s just say that yahoo will not be getting a card from me this christmas

Published

antonyfoster

on March 20, 2008

in new zealand

. 1 Comment

yes - during an upgrade yahoo trashed my blog. i think i will ultimately be able to recover almost everything except the comments - but it is a bit labour intensive and we’re off for our 4 day easter holidays.

stay tuned…

artsy fartsy

Published

antonyfoster

on March 16, 2008

in new zealand and wellington

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for the last 3 weeks the new zealand international arts festival has been in full swing here in wellington. held every 2 years it features a wide range of theater, music, dance and visual arts. i think most every local theater, stage and auditorium is booked up for the festival.

so far we have made it to 2 events - black watch and glow. the ukulele orchestra of great britain was also on our short list but sold out too quick for us. some of my work colleagues who went said it was great.

black watch was a play about the a scottish regiment - the black watch - and their experiences serving in and returning from iraq. very well done, although i think they could have trimmed it by 30 minutes and nothing would have been lost. i’m starting to pick up a trend - but it doesn’t seem that the scots are real happy about getting pulled in to the iraq war. as they described it 250+ years of proud service and tradition was trashed in a few short years in iraq.

black watch.tiff

glow is definitely a love it or hate it kinda thing. when i read the teaser i thought i might try and schedule a trip to visit to dentist to conflict with the show. “glow is a fluid and perfectly synchronized relationship between organic being and video world, an intense and concise experience.” oh boy.

turns out i really enjoyed it. reminded me a bit of “tron” for you 80’s geeks.

the show is a 30 minute performance with a single dancer on a small stage that is illuminated from above. the audience looks down onto the stage from seating above. so far nothing special. the magic is that the illumination is generated in real time based on the position and movement of the dancer. an infrared camera mounted about detects that dancers position and feeds it into a specially designed computer that controls the lighting.

glow.tiff

still sounds wacky. easier to see for yourself.

one of the smallest and lowest tech items that both me and the jboss enjoyed was the placement of speakers at a few major crosswalks with short stories being read aloud. seldom else do you bummed when the light turns and you can cross.

più grande è migliore

Published

antonyfoster

on March 16, 2008

in finances, new zealand and wellington

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i’m opening myself wide open for ridicule here - but i’m proud to announce that i am the new owner of a grigio avio (aviator gray) vespa gtv 250i.e.

yes - that would be a second (who can really say how many is too many) scooter

yes - the green (small, little, meek) scooter arrived just 2 months ago

yes - i can only ride one scooter at a time

so in my defense:

two scooters parked outside the house provides better feng shui
just as a sharp knife is safer than a dull one, a bigger scooter is safer than a small one
the new one is quieter, cleaner and more fuel efficient
dark gray is easier to see
and the new scooter was *just such a good deal…*

ok - so really. what made me buy a new scooter when i already had an almost brand new one? when i first started looking for a scooter i was fairly confident that i would enjoy it and use it - but there have definitely been a few purchases in my past that i was sure i would use like crazy and history has shown otherwise. so my plan was to start entry level and confirm that a scooter was right for me. a big second reason was that any scooter over 50cc requires a motorcycle license that i didn’t have. so the vespa lx 50 seemed perfect. and it was. but maybe for not as long as i would have expected.

the lxv 50 is a great scooter and instantly became my nearly exclusive means of transportation. almost every day back and forth to work. jackie and me scooting into town for the rugby matches. a great day out scooting around the peninsula. the only drawback was the 50cc engine was challenged by the wellington hills - even more so when we were ridding double. it’s max speed is 50 kph (30 mph) and that’s with one rider on the flats. on my rides to and from work i sometimes found myself leading a parade up a hill as my speed dropped down the low 30’s (kph). with the limited speed the lxv is not allowed on the motorways and due the wellington geography, you can’t get north of the cbd without traveling on state highway 1. this put a damper in our ability to get out and explore.

(we have really embraced the whole looking young and italian thing)

so when i saw someone on trademe (nz ebay) selling a gtv 250 with only 523km (about 300 miles) for a huge discount i got the go-ahead from the jboss (she could sense this was a boulder already rolling down hill fast) and put my bid in. in parallel i began the long process of getting my motorcycle license. start to finish in 7 easy steps:

1) attend a basic skill handling class
2) take a written test

learners license

3) hold a learners license for 6 months
4) take a road test

restricted license

5) hold a restricted license for 6 months
6) take a road test

full license

i’ve made it past step 2 and currently have my learner’s license.

last saturday i won the bidding and the gtv 250 was mine. the gtv has a 244cc engine and with a top speed of 125 kpm it can easily handle 2 on the motorways. it’s magnifico.

the green scoot went up on trademe today and should have a new owner in 2 weeks. i suggest you get your bids in early.

now that i have become a total scooterista and spend all my time learning italian and hanging out on on-line scooter forums, i stumbled on this posting from vermont.

easy to admit that it made me and the jboss quite bummed. selling our vermont cabin was very hard and this road could very easily be the road our cabin was on. i’m sure we would have had a great time scooting along the vermont country roads.

now i realize that if this photo were taken today the road would likely have snow up past the top of the scooter, but it’s easy to just remember the best parts.

life on a south pacific island

Published

antonyfoster

on March 9, 2008

in gromit, moving, new zealand and wellington

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the biggest surprise for me about our move to nz has been how much i enjoy living on the coast and spending time at the shore.

i’ve never been a big ocean person before despite living over 20 years in boston. and i still have no interest in going to the beach to lie down on a blanket and get a tan - but most of the nz coastline is too rugged for that anyway and is great to walk along. the rock and tides make it a new experience every time. and something that i can’t explain is that if i didn’t know better i would swear that that water was fresh and not saltwater. previously i always felt sticky and gritty as soon as i got out of the water - but not here.

just a few blocks from our house is island bay with the local fishing fleet. island bay is one of the oldest settlements in wellington and founded by italian fishermen. unfortunately there’s not much evidence of the italian culture left in town (i’m trying my part to reverse this with my italian scooter). you can see in the 2 photos below the island bay shoreline is a mix of clear and rocky areas. during the warm weekends there is always a group of local kids swimming and having a great time in the surf.

gromit has become quite the ocean dog - scrambling over the rocks and wading through the surf. his favourite activity is fetching the tennis ball that we throw just a few feet into the surf. what amazing me is how he immediately knew how to time waves and that if he waited the ball would come to him. in the gromit-has-his-long-list-of-issues camp, after we’ve had our fun at the beach and everyone is quite wet, gromit totally cowers in fear of getting rinsed off with the hose. running in the ocean, timing the crashing waves, scrambling over rocks - no problem. a bit of water from a garden hose - no way.

a bit to the west is siren rocks - a very popular place for snorking and kayacking. we take our beach chairs and hang out whenever the weather is good. gromit is on high alert when i’m out snorking.

notice the

the map below shows island bay. near the top of the bay you can see the fishing fleet and counter-clockwise around the bend the pier and then the first rocky bit of our shore. further down where the shoreline bends to the left is siren rocks. the island right off shore is taputeranga. it is the small island visible some of our shoreline photos and movies.