Tag Archives: Russell

New Zealand, Photography, Swimming

53. Russell – Mangawhai Village

Saturday, April 4: Fine & warm with variable cloud

Beki’s (airbnb, $50)

The two Japanese guests had gotten up very early to catch the sun rise and there wasn’t much to do for breakfast, apart from also frying the sandwiches for lunch. Showed Nissi and Chisato some of my photos on facebook (startrailing the clouds, and lightning) and they immediately signed up as friends. As I speak no Japanese, their banter was just background, but every now and then they would discuss some English word or grammatical question (“disgusting” seemed to be quite a favourite, and “He’s mean, isn’t he?” was also high on the agenda) indicating that he was trying to show off his knowledge of the language. In any case 10:00 was approaching, so I threw all of my things together, then packed my stuff out of the fridge into the chilly bin. I went and found Ron to pay him for his efforts and we had a chat about walking in the Waitakere. Then I was headed in the direction of Opua. Read more…

New Zealand, Photography

52. Russell

Friday, April 3: Sunny to begin with, clouding over but still warm

Wainui

Redback
Keeping Aussies out, Russell, snapshot

I was first up and through with cooking my breakfast before Christine and Alexander needed all of the available space to get their stuff together (and then they forgot their food in the food bin and a can of coke on the fridge, and had to come back and pick it up). I went on to process yesterday’s pictures and secure them on the hard disk, and then there was clarification of the partial/full eclipse of the moon story, with timeanddate.com (which claimed yesterday that the eclipse would only be partial, and me wondering whether a full eclipse in the northern hemisphere might only appear partial if you were far south enough, or vice versa) now claiming that the eclipse will be full in Auckland as well, which solved that problem. Read more…

New Zealand, Photography, Topo Map, Tramping

51. Rawhiti – Russell (Cape Brett Walkway)

Thursday, April 2: Some cloud came over during the course of the night and there was rain in the early morning, clearing to a fine & sunny day

Tramping: Cape Brett – Rawhiti, 15.1 km

Wainui Lodge, 92D Te Wahapu Rd, Russell 0272, tel.: +64 9 403 8278, double as single, only two rooms, max. 5 guests (BBH, $50 + 3)

Cape Brett Cliffs
Cape Brett Cliffs, snapshot

I had photographed three fixed time sequences during the night: One of the rising moon, one of the moon @ full zoom (A470), and one of the Southern Cross (SX120) until the batteries gave out. The camera was retrieved due to increasing cloud, but the tripod had been tied to the picnic table with a new twist-and-tighten mechanism which I was unwilling to untie late at night.

The hut was still very warm, but there were no bugs so I slept on an open sleeping bag. It started getting light about 6:30 and by 7:15 the sun was rising. Now this would have been a good sunrise to shoot, but I was concentrating on getting out alive. Breakfast was quickly dealt with, the salt shaker seemed to work fine and everything was washed, dried (including the sox) and packed away by 8:30. Swept out the hut (a little bit of grass cuttings had found its way into the hut) and then I was ready to go. Read more…

GPS Tracks, Kayaking, New Zealand

49. Paihia

Tuesday, March 31: Sunny with a few clouds and a bit of a breeze on the bay

Kayaking: Paihia – Bay of Islands – Waitangi, 5.7 km

Centabay

In the night the keys had slipped off the towel rail and dropped onto the floor among the stuff packed there and it took a little while of thinking to work out where they had to be. Was awoken by the manager to get me to move the car and I moved it onto the street where a 120 minute slot was free. About the only business that had to be transacted was printing out the DOC ticket for the walk tomorrow and since the library had banished all wifi users to the park I tried a commercial operator in an “adult” shop. First computer had something wrong with the graphics card, but the second printed out the pdf just fine for $1.6. A couple of things had to be bought for the hike and I thought that – just for the two days – I would opt for bread and have sandwiches made up for both days’ lunches. Short inquiry at the i-site about safe parking – apparently possible at either a camping ground or the backpackers. Read more…

New Zealand, Photography

45. Whitianga – Coromandel Town – Waiau Falls

Friday, March 27: Overnight rain, sometimes quite heavy, lighter rain in the morning, cloud in the hills, a bit of sun in Coromandel

On the Beach

I was up fairly bright and early but the day didn’t look like it was going to be up to much so I waited around a bit, had a look at the surf and could tell that the kayaking would be off again. The alternative was to drive to Coromandel and see if I could do one or two short walks. sandwiches were prepared and off I took at around 11:00 after seeing that my bookings for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were in the bag. Read more…

GPS Tracks, New Zealand, Photography, Tramping

44. Whitianga: Cathedral Cove

Thursday, March 26: Some fine spells in the course of the day but mainly cloudy, and rain in the evening

Tramping: Cathedral Cove, 3.3 km

On the Beach

Cathedral Cove Archway
Archway at Cathedral Cove at high tide. Median pixel of ca. 540 shots

The two Chinese girls were very well organised and after their instant noodles for breakfast and some chocolate they had packed up what little they had and were downstairs on the dot of 10:00 to wait for their bus, which as far as I could see was some time in coming. In the meantime I had gone for a walk in the direction of the outer settlements and had not seen very much, except for one heron who allowed me to get very close.

Tourist trap extraordinaire
Tourist trap extraordinaire. [download id="1966"]
I decided on driving out to Hahei to see what the story with kayaking was, although the waves today looked no smaller that yesterday’s – because the brochure said, “Daily.” Had a quick lunch of some toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches and then took off down the road (~30 km) with most of the equipment I thought was needed. Found the place in Hahei, but no one at home; only a handwritten sign that the morning had been called off but that the afternoon was running. Found some phones at the tiny shopping centre and called but the afternoon tour had also been called off; was advised to call back tomorrow morning. Read more…