Wednesday, February 25: Changeably cloudy throughout most of the day, and still warm
Danni’s
Slept almost completely through until 8:30 when Simon knocked on the door with a fresh loaf of his bread. Breakfast had to be improvised from what else was to be found apart from the eggs & butter I have over from last week. Some wheatbix were found, some milk and sugar, so the day could start.
The butter, it must be remarked here, was rock solid out of the fridge and still maintains its buttery appearance and taste despite living for 10 days in my sealable plastic container and melting at least twice during the kayak trip. This must be the test of tests for all concerned, both butter and container.
Today was the first of the two technical days after the completion of the short programme. Last night I had everything ready to be published for the blog, except that two pictures required multiple uploading before they would appear. Today I transferred all of the pictures from the Tongariro Circuit and began separating them according to their later use. Started PPPing them, and already have some nice time lapse sequences to play with. It might be an idea – rather than just to ATM the finished pictures – to put them through: Wavelet denoising, overlaying/screening (dependent on brightness?), purple fringe reduction, ATM, & auto white balance just to see the maximum effect.
Around midday it was time to go to the shops to get some ham, fruit, fruit juice and milk, so that I am set up for the next two days. Called in to DOC to report the camera directly to the office here, and had a look at the swimming pool. Lunch was ham on ciabatta, and after lunch I thought I might go for a swim, but I was too early @ 2:00, because the pool was reserved for school kids – only open to the public after 3:00.
In the meantime I had got myself a place to stay in Raglan for two days just after leaving Auckland, a further place in Waikanae Beach so that I can go out to Don & Sally’s for dinner; and a request is in place for Wellington for the following night. I suppose I ought to get a BBH card fairly soon, just in case it starts raining & airbnb places get rare (not much sign of that yet).
Decided I would go down and try to meet Ina (from the Tongariro Circuit on her way back to Station Lodge) but the bus was more than an hour late again. I had borrowed Simon’s car and put it in a 90-minute slot this time just to be on the safe side. Anyhow, plenty of time to explore town – one rather curious lolly shop with all kinds of lollies in jars spread around, and after walking up and down quite a bit, was able to identify both the Cyprus Tree (sic), which had eluded me for quite some time, and the Bearing Point, both of which had been recommended to me by Roger.
Will see about biking the Old Coach Road tomorrow and trying out the camera harness. Sunset tonight might well be worth shooting.
