2kiwis

Saturday was quite busy. Keryn spent the afternoon baking in Miramar at Kim’s with a bunch of like minded people. I spent a few hours wandering around Wellington with fellow photographers all taking part in the Wellington leg of the Scott Kelby world-wide photo walk. All around the world walks were taking place on Saturday and the uploaded photos would be up for various prizes.

The walk started up where at the lookout adjacent to the Cable Car station at the Botanical Gardens. We made our way through the gardens, across into the city and after passing along the waterfront we headed up Cuba St, ending at the Southern Cross bar. What started as thirty odd photographers quickly turned into little groups going every which way and I ended up walking with four others. Werner and his wife were in NZ from Canberra, visiting their daughter Helen. All three had cameras. There was also Kirsty, a local Wellingtonian who is doing a photography diploma and was taking part in her first online meet up. Kirsty became leader as we left parliament, the rest of us not really sure where our destination was.

The weather played nice and it was good to walk through Wellington with a camera taking photos. I’ve included a few here, there are many more in the Flickr gallery.

A statue in the gardens

Passing through a graveyard

Texting on the waterfront

Last shot of the day on Cuba St

The beer I had at the Southern Cross was very refreshing. We talked for a while and then went our separate ways.

The evening saw me head down to the Petone foreshore to watch the burning of the fire sculptures and the fireworks show, all part of the Petone Winter Carnival. The weather was still playing its part and there was only a light breeze with clear skies slowly getting darker and filling with stars. Sam and Julian joined me and when Keryn finished her baking she came along as well. The sculptures to be burnt were arranged along the beach east of the Petone pier. Shortly after 5:30pm the first was lit and we moved from sculpture to sculpture watching the consumption of each by fire. Some were well designed but lacked the forethought of a flammable component, one a horse made out of driftwood that obviously wasn’t properly dry. Another called Stairway to Success took an age to get going but then burnt down dramatically, the fire consuming the stairs before burning the seaweed figure on top.

One of two commissioned sculpture pipes burns as the setting sun lights up the far hills.

The High Jump sculpture burns

The figure atop Stairway to Success rides the flames

Watching the final sculpture

The following fireworks were very good. Set off from the pier everyone on the beach got a good view.

Petone fireworks

Massed explosions in the finale

We followed up the carnival with dinner at a new restaurant in Lower Hutt called Las Margaritas. The restaurant serves Mexican dishes and I had very high hopes, the Mexican leg of our six month Latin America trip being a culinary highlight for me. While the meal was tasty and the free margaritas went down nicely the food lacked enough flavours to really be recommended, it was all a little safe (I’ll be asking for mucho salsa picante next time). That said the place was quite busy and it was just as well we had booked a table.

Sunday and more lovely weather. The cats enjoyed the sun on the patio outside and spent a lot of time lounging around and rolling on the warm concrete.

Earl and Cadbury (provisionally renamed Whittakers until Cadbury sort themselves out) enjoy the sun.

In the afternoon we drove back out to Makara Beach so Keryn could have a look. Being a weekend with sun there were lots of people out, the car park which was empty when I visited on the Monday past now chocker full of vehicles. We walked back up to the gun emplacements but the trip wasn’t quite so pleasant as there were strong winds blowing in off the sea. Rather than do the loop we returned the way we had came, otherwise we would have been walking in the dark once more.

Fishing off the rocks

Families enjoying the afternoon out

Looking towards the setting sun

Another nice sunset

Heading down we spotted a couple of dead possums, one at least which wasn’t there on the way up. I took a few photos back at the beach but had to give up, the howling wind making it impossible to keep the camera steady even with the tripod. We then drove back to Lower Hutt and spent the evening at the movies watching the latest Harry Potter.

A mystery dead possum

Last of the light

Final shot at Makara Beach

I’m on my eight day break from work and I’ve been figuring out what I should do with my time for a while now. The weather forecast for the coming week is poor but there was a chance of clear skies today and Tuesday morning so I figured I had better get out for some photos. I’ve been meaning to check out some of the wind farms in the region and one of the biggest, the West Wind farm owned by Meridian, looked like a good bet.

The wind farm is situated west of Wellington on the hills south of Makara Beach and I figured that if there was a sunset Monday evening then there was a chance the farm would catch some nice light. The walk itself didn’t look to tough and seemed to get fairly close to the farm so the Makara Walkway was my destination.

The satnav took me from Lower Hutt out through Johnsonville and then along a winding road through hilly farmland. There were a few one way bridges and single lane sections adding to the interesting drive thoiugh I had to remember to watch the road rather than the scenery.

The road ended at the beach, a wide area flattened off on the stoney foreshore. I got my stuff together and headed south down the beach to where a sign advertised the start of the walkway.

The beginning of the Makara Walkway

The walkway heads around Ohariu Bay and then heads uphill towards some old gun emplacements which are remnants of a WWII fort. The path up was easily seen and was obviously also used regularly by sheep. The recent rain left it a bit slippery and it was steep so I had frequent stops on my way to the top. The track followed a fence though the sheep seemed to be on both sides of the divide.

Looking back to Ohariu Bay

There was one wind turbine close to the track but no sign of any of the others until I reached the gun emplacements. There will be 62 turbines once the farm is finished at the end of the year. The sun was getting much lower and while I was looking at the concrete buildings that once housed the guns the light began to get golden. I had a pleasurable twenty minutes or so trying to get shots of golden hills, wind turbines and Opau Bay.

Looking out to the setting sun and the South Island

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Wind Turbines over Opau Bay

I continued on the path, stopping to take some shots before the sun disappeared. The track turned down a valley following an old road, the tarmac beginning to break up and now pretty rough. By the time I got to the end of the road the sun had set but there was still some light in the sky.

The setting sun and the South Island

This part of the Opau Bay beach was jammed up with driftwood which looked quite nice so I took a few photos before heading down over the piled wood and stones to the black sand nearer the water. I was able to get a couple more photos before deciding that the fading light meant I should be heading back.

Driftwood

The nice after-sun glow

The walk back took longer than I had imagined, the disappearing light making me slow down to ensure I wasn’t twisting an ankle or worse. I passed another figure down the beach also taking photos and was later caught up by this man whose name was Lance. He told me I had chosen my day well, there hadn’t been a decent sunset here in about a month. It took about an hour to walk from the driftwood at Opau Bay back to the car. I’ll have to come back here again, next time Keryn can come along for the walk as well and there is a cafe at Makara Beach that looks worth checking out as well.

There are more photos on our Flickr photo stream which can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brendonkeryn/. The photos can also be seen a lot larger on Flickr.