Olive Grove Lodge, 2328 Herbert-Hampden Rd, Waianakarua, $45 for double as single
Monday, March 18: Rain at first, becoming drier but still cloudy, cooler
Was up fairly early to get some breakfast and get my stuff packed up. For some reason PPP had packed in during the night, so the whole directory wasn’t completely developed. Waited around a bit for Ben, but only Lucy appeared, first for a shower and then for breakfast in their bedroom. Had all of my stuff in the car and when Lucy was ready to go, I left with her.
Was too late for the $1 an hour parking, so shopped around for a free spot, but was uncertain about the unusual signage around the university, so went down to the now $2 an hour parking building. Went to the library for some internet including a download of the latest version of the Open Office suite (which took ages to download, thought it would never end – yet again). On the way out visited a camera shop and asked about QR plates for the tripod. They did have some on stock, but had to push on to the Science Communication people, stopping on the way for a supermarket for a banana and was soon at Jenny’s building, security locked. Knocked on the door and there was Jenny.
Nice chat with her, quite a lot of common ground. Students started to trickle in and was then introduced by Jenny and held a slightly modified version of the talk. Quite a number of questions. Afterwards chatted with some students who were also interested in the photography business as well.
Was then on the way to Oamaru. No banks along the way, so had to go as far as town to get some money, petrol, and bread for breakfast, then headed back to the Olive Grove. Quite a nice place, very tidy & clean kitchen, and have a double room to myself. A train was heard in the distance.
After unpacking some stuff went further back down to Hampden to a fish’n’chip place – Lockie’s – for blue cod & chips for $9.9. Quite a big meal, but since I had had no lunch, that was deemed necessary.
The problem with PPP was that when the alignment sequence fails, PPP tried to make thumbnails out of non-existent files. Put in a sanity check to see if files exist before they’re thumbnailed and everything seems to be working fine.
