Patrick Dunford

1986 photos scanned

2012-02-04T10:11:00.001+13:00

If you look through my Picasa albums you will see many older photos back as far as 20 years. Taken on film, the majority of these are transport subjects with trains being dominant after about 1985 until the last couple of years. Actually I stopped using film around 2005 with the purchase of my first digital camera. Prior to that I had borrowed one from church occasionally, which accounts for some of the photos from 2002 onwards. Film was cheap to buy but at the time getting it developed was often beyond my meagre household budget and so I ended up with nearly two dozen undeveloped films in a drawer. When I got rid of my Pentax SLR film camera about five years ago I also got all these old films developed at last and they are being scanned with the rest. The main issue for these films is strange colours due to deterioration of the undeveloped emulsion in a few cases. Most of them have produced reasonable photos and the trip down memory lane was certainly interesting.

After a break of about three months I have resumed scanning the films. It’s an ambitious project, mainly driven by the desire to do something with the huge number of negatives I have filed, as I may well decide in future to give them to the museum. Have just about finished 1986 photos. Here are a few samples from an album of about 350.

The railway station at Culverden on the Waiau Branch was unusual in facing the road rather than the rail tracks, due to the fact that NZR passenger services in the area at that time were provided by buses. This building was originally the station at Prebbleton, near Christchurch, and was shifted to Culverden in 1952 after the original station burnt down. This building remained at the site of the railway yards (behind it) for eight years after the line closed, but is seen here shortly before it was sold and removed to a nearby farm.

Kaiapoi had this interesting wooden station building designed by George Troup, better known for his magnificent effort in Dunedin. Seen here in 1986, the building was much reduced from its original size as a result of damage from a wind storm. The container to the left may be on a freezing works siding – the works closed in 1992 and its site was developed for housing, and was subsequently severely damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes of the 2010s. This station closed to passengers in 1986 and the building was relocated to the riverbank nearby in 2002, probably when the freight yards were closed. The site has been completely redeveloped, with only part of the platform still remaining.

NZR purchased five kitsets of these double-ended single-engined shunting locomotives, the DSJ class, in 1985 from Toshiba of Japan. They are a smaller edition of the twin-engined DSG class and are seen here at Addington Workshops in Christchurch, where they were assembled. Initially they were found to be rough riding so that modifications to the suspension were needed. These locomotives like their bigger brothers continue in service to this day at freight yards around the country.

Travellers on the Leader Road between Parnassus and Waiau may spot this abandoned cutting just a little west of the State Highway 1 intersection as the road runs along the south bank of the Leader River. When the Main North Line reached Parnassus around 1912, work ceased until an appropriate route could be found to continue the line north. At different times, the Waiau Branch and this route inland from Parnassus were chosen. The Waiau line was completed in 1919 but demoted to a branch line, while the route west of Parnassus got as far as building one abutment and pier of the bridge across the Leader River, which can still be seen on the opposite side of the road from this location, before it was abandoned. When work resumed in the 1930s the present coastal route was chosen, but the remains of the western route can still be seen today. The Leader Road was a bypass route in the 1980s for heavy traffic until the old wooden highway bridge of the Waiau River at Parnassus was replaced.

The Waiau Branch railway mentioned in the caption of the previous photo left the Main North Line at Waipara and headed inland then north for 66 km to Waiau. Fully completed in 1919 it closed in 1978, but removal was not able to proceed for five years which gave an opportunity for the Weka Pass Railway society to purchase the first 30 km, subsequently truncated to the 13 km Waipara-Waikari section. Like many heritage railways in NZ the Weka Pass Railway has significant reliance on voluntary labour and donations to operate. Here, a “mixed train”(!) is being used to move track parts from the railway depot up to the site of what is now Glenmark Railway Station, the operating base of the railway. Although it looks flat, the grade here of about 1 in 100 meant the light inspection car in the background had stalled with its heavy load, so with some pushing and the tractor coupled on the front, the “consist” finally managed to complete its short journey, seen here crossing Old Main Road.

The Christchurch city freight yards were a prominent feature of the Moorhouse Ave landscape into the 1990s although by that time they were mainly used only by passenger trains. Because of the arrangement of the Main North Line junction tracks at Addington, Christchurch was used mainly to shunt trains to and from the Main North Line, while Middleton freight yards were used to handle traffic on the Main South Line. When Christchurch closed the Addington junction was rearranged to allow all trains to be shunted at Middleton. The brick station building here seen at top left was purchased by Science Alive after the passenger station shifted to Addington. This building was severely damaged in the Canterbury earthquakes of the 2010s and may yet be demolished. To the right the buildings are the yardmaster’s office and C and D freight sheds. Only the former remains today, being the premises of Britten Engineering (of motorcycle fame) for a number of years, and latterly has had an extra story added by a new owner. The Main South Lines now pass through the southern edge of the site, the majority of which is now carparking for Science Alive and associated businesses in and around the station building. This photo shows the JA 1260 steam locomotive from Plains Railway at Ashburton, heading north to Waipara after it had been chartered by the Weka Pass Railway. It ran a few times in the Weka Pass, and then went back to Plains about a year later.

Link to the 1986 Transport Photos A Album

Dick Smith Electronics stores to close

2012-02-01T01:01:00.001+13:00

Now, I can remember back to when the first of the DSE stores were opened in NZ. When DSE started they were up against incumbent David Reid Electronics and eventually bought out their retail operations (DRE continues to this day as Reid Technology). There has been a lot of rot in DSE ever since Mr Smith ceased to operate the stores when he sold them to Woollies. There is enough of a niche for Jaycar to have come in and set up stores around the country supplying the full range of electronic components that DSE once sold. Now Woollies want to close quite a number of DSE stores due to the failure of their flawed vision to reposition in the area of consumer electronics. In recent years I have found the service from DSE very poor. We opened an account with them and dealt online instead of visiting our local store. The problem was every time we bought something they managed to stuff up the order for example by sending the wrong quantity, or the order would be shown as cancelled when we had done no such thing, or they would advertise a discounted product then when we clicked on the link to their website the discount offer had conveniently disappeared. The last straw really was when they outsourced their call centre to the Philippines. Why would any NZ company do such a dumb thing? Customer service went out the window a long time ago.

“Rethinking Crime and Punishment” has no new or innovative ideas

2012-01-31T23:44:00.001+13:00

On Facebook I found the page of this group which is headed by the well-known Kim Workman, supposedly with a “Christian” focus. It hasn’t taken long to discover that their idea of rethinking appears to be geared around abolishing traditional definitions of what crime is, and therefore also abolishing the need for non-crimes to be punished as such. For example on FB you have this group publicising a post by Richard Branson on the web in which he calls for decriminalisation of drugs due to the fact we haven’t managed to win the war on them. We haven’t won the war against drugs because, among other things, we live in a country with a lot of civil liberties, where people are silly enough to campaign for the public at large to have the right to access these illicit drugs pretending they are not harmful when they undoubtedly are. Some of the other facets of their campaign include a statement of seven principles, including the following in particular:

4. Criminal justice policy and practice should emphasise the minimum resort to custody, and other forms of restraint on liberty, consonant with a just, safe and socially secure society.

Now what justification exists for such a statement? Better not impede the civil liberties of criminals. After all they are citizens just like us. It is because of ideas like that that the justice system is being watered down and its deterrent effect being minimised. This is of course why the Sensible Sentencing Trust has garnered widespread appeal, simply because they recognise the value of deterrence. It may well be true that deterrence hasn’t stopped hardened recidivist career criminals. That’s a different issue largely connected to the breakdown of personal morality in general in the current society we have. I would say most people I know would severely question the merit of the above statement. The point of restraint on liberty is that further crimes are impeded and that is a good and necessary thing for the wellbeing of society. I would love these people to justify their case. Whatever their notion is for the beliefs, it is obviously very left-wing liberal based.

Merivale-North City 28-1-12

2012-01-31T22:39:00.001+13:00

Today’s small set resulted from attending an event at St Andrews Presbyterian Church (Rangi Ruru) followed by a visit to Millbrook Reserve for lunch. The geogtagging of the set resulted from an earlier plan to take a trip to Waikuku, which had to be abandoned due to the event and its aftermath taking us longer than expected. The geotagging itself had some issues because some of the locations were a little out of place suggesting one of the cameras’ clocks was slow or fast. There is actually a lot of hassle with geotagging during daylight saving time due to the fact the eTrex H’s clock has to be set to a timezone of +13 when the cameras are set to +12 – the GPS doesn’t have capability to work with daylight saving and changing its timezone is the only way of getting the correct time on its display. Yet another example of the hassles associated with the crock called daylight saving. I may yet set the GPS clock back to +12 and leave it there so as to have less hassles like this.

St Andrews Presbyterian at Rangi Ruru was relocated from the central city some years ago. It is an interesting earthquake survivor, in large measure due to its wooden construction. For a number of years the Rev Roger Millichamp was the resident minister; this is currently filled by Rev Rodney Routledge, better known for heading up the Certificate of Social Work programme at Canterbury University.

An interesting sculpture in the grounds of Rangi Ruru, a Presbyterian private girls school.

An interesting “artwork” at Millbrook.

The light wooden bridge at Helmores Lane, near one of the entrances to Millbrook Reserve, still stands but the approaches have been badly damaged by eathquakes.

Somewhere near the corner of Kilmore and Barbadoes Streets. The GPS sync was a little out, probably because one of the clocks on a camera was out of sync with the actual time.

The now-cleared site of Oxford Terrace Baptist Church.

Deconstruction of the Catholic Cathedral continues, a slow and costly process. The word on the street is that the Diocese has probably abandoned any thought of repairing the building as they had considered to be an option a few months ago.

In the foreground right we have the chapel site. At far left is where the main Music Centre three story building used to be. When I last visited about a month ago. demolition had just started so it has come down very quickly.

8-1-12 South City & 8-1-12 Lyttelton

2012-01-24T00:04:00.001+13:00

2012’s first photo sets.

LWR premises demolition.

Retaining wall repairs near the entrance to the Lyttelton Rail Tunnel. The first collapse occurred in 2009 with the concrete wall section inserted. The sandbagging was added after the Feb 2011 earthquake to further support the wall.

Lyttelton Police Station. It was announced the same week the station building could not be economically repaired.

These two photos show retaining wall damage on Sumner Road.

Just past the junction with Reserve Terrace is this gate across Sumner Road. It has been closed since February 2011 and the closure remains indefinite.

The site of the now-demolished Timeball Station.

The road shoulder propped up along Reserve Terrace.

Hillmorton-Hoon Hay 15-1-12

2012-01-23T23:55:00.001+13:00

Photos of Hillmorton High School and Manning Intermediate School. An interesting study of the use of architecturally repetitive design elements in State school design from the 1960s. Hillmorton is very similar in layout to my former high school, Burnside High, and shares the same design in major buildings such as the administrative and most classroom blocks, although there are some minor differences in detail, such as the steel bracing that can be seen on the outsides of the two story blocks.

This is a typical two-story high school classroom block which is seen in many State high schools of this era. Typically this would be in the junior part of the school.

Side wall detail of another building.

End-on view of two story classroom block. The doors are a modern design, definitely not original. The earlier photo above shows the more traditional doors.

Roller door on ancillary building.

Bike stands. Like most modern schools these are far less numerous than they were when I was at school and are little used.

Back of the staffroom / hall (as this building was used at Burnside).

Side on view of another classroom block. The tower appears to be an addition and is most probably a lift well extension as these blocks are fitted with wheelchair ramps.

This appears to be the senior block (for example Form 6-7) and possibly a modern design which may have been added as the school’s roll grew. At Burnside this was “F Block”. Behind it is a virtually identical replica of Burnside’s “F Block Extension” – which on their site contained the chemistry and physics labs.“

A view of the front admin block at right, with the hall behind it. The admin block has most probably been rebuilt or modernised. To the left is the staffroom. The hall is original, very like the Burnside one in my time there (theirs was rebuilt a few years ago so it no longer exists in the original style).

Roof detail of the modern admin block.

Hillmorton High’s pool hasn’t been used in a long time.

Other similar buildings to Burnside’s not photographed include the library, gymnasium and the block of art / crafts / Home E classrooms. I didn’t see equivalents to the specialist Maths block that Burnside had (X Block) or the music-drama block (M Block). There were a number of prefab classrooms and there is also a specialist block for “Special Needs” students which is equipped for physical rehabilitation with hoists and gym-type equipment.

The rest of the photos are of Manning Intermediate, which borders Hillmorton High.

First photo in this set:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2012ChristchurchA#5700445711009513522

Bedside Table

2012-01-22T20:50:00.001+13:00

As mentioned in the previous post I have spent the late afternoon making this. (It rained today, and as the garage sometimes floods in heavy rain, this was a good incentive to get started on it). The wood of choice being 2400x600x18 Easiplank MDF from Mitre10 and like the bookcase, the width, in this case 600 mm, happens to be one (in fact two) of the principal dimensions of the project to reduce the amount of cutting needed. Like the bookcase, indoors furniture demands a lot of careful skill if you want it to look good.

The principal technique to be learned today is using a straightedge to guide the circular saw. In this case a piece of decking plank clamped to the MDF makes for nice straight and reasonably accurate cuts.

In the bookcase I screwed it together initially by using right angle brackets. Later on I decided I could just screw straight into the edges of the MDF and took the brackets off. This time I used the screws first time so it had to be clamped together with the big sash clamp I recently bought for just this kind of thing. With a lot of patience you can get it clamped together as shown. Maybe it is easier to clamp if you turn everything 90 degrees :).

Here is the finished result, tastefully lit from behind.

Installed and ready to go. Not painted yet. Paint is an extra cost, someday I’ll have a budget for it. The wood cost $48. There are 48 screws which cost about $2, so all up this cost about $50 (with a bit of wood left over). It took about 4 hours to make.

Woodworking

2012-01-22T16:07:00.001+13:00

On one of my previous blogs I wrote about a number of woodworking projects. These posts can be read here. Since May 2010 I took up woodworking as a hobby. In summary here are pictures of all the projects completed to date:

A table with a frame made out of 100x50 timber, 100x50 legs and a top made out of decking plank. Made for gardening but now used inside my garage. First project May 2010.
A plant frame made out of 50x50 timber clad in plastic mesh. Still being used at the new address where nearly all my plants are inside frames for the time being as I don’t have any tables outside. October 2010.
A tall plant frame made out of 50x50 timber clad in plastic mesh. After the February earthquake it was converted to a long drop toilet and then a shower, and it is now used to store taller plants due to the fact I don’t have any tables like I had at my previous address. December 2010.
A table with a frame made out of 100x50 timber, 100x50 legs and a top made out of plywood. Made for gardening but now used inside my garage as a workbench. March 2011, it replaced a table damaged by the earthquake.
A small table for the gas stove after the February earthquake. This was built entirely by torchlight with hand tools as we had no power at the time. It is made to be dismantled and is currently stored for future use. The legs came from an old table and are attached to 150x50 timber which then bolts onto a top made out of a precut melamine shelf. March 2010.
Shelves for my workshop. A vertical shelving unit making as much use as possibly effectively of 1/2 of a 2 metre square shed which I had at the time, 50x50 timber with MDF shelves. Since moving house the two sides got laid horizontally with one very wide shelf on top. January 2011.

A small bookcase made out of MDF (customwood) in June 2011 about 2 months before I moved house. Originally all the joins were made with right angle brackets but the MDF has proven to be strong enough to allow the unit to be changed to being held together with screws. I used Easiplank in a width of 300 mm which means it was already cut to the width needed.

Today I am starting on a new project, building a small bedside table unit out of Easiplank. This time the width is 600 mm. Like the bookcase it will be 18 mm thick and held together with screws. There will be a separate post covering this. I have also acquired timber from a building we are having renovated at school which will be used to build additional shelf space in the shed. As well as these major projects there have been a few smaller tasks around the house. This new project is the first major one since I moved into my new house. The Easiplank cost $48 so it is within my budget because the finances have been tighter since moving.

I have bought a number of tools and learned a number of techniques. The most useful power tools I have bought in the past 18 months are the Bosch mitre saw and the Bosch handheld circular saw.

These are generally alternatives to a sawbench and while there are pros and cons of both, when I started out I did not have space for a sawbench so all my tools had to be portable and the mitre saw on its stand as shown can be folded up and stored in a very small space. Safety is very important when working with any type of power saw and if they are operated with a safety focus then they are perfectly safe to use, it just takes a bit of forethought and awareness beforehand to ensure safe working practices are followed and also using the appropriate personal protection especially noise and dust.

Also I have learned a lot of skills along the way and continue to learn with each new project. Also I thought about expanding into doing things with metal, which would be interesting, but a reasonable arc welder is a bit beyond my budget at present so for the time being I will not be looking further into this.

GST calculations

2012-01-21T18:19:00.001+13:00

Due to GST going from the “friendly” rate of 12.5%, to the “unfriendly” rate of 15%, there is no longer a simple fractional amount you can put into your calculation to work out the GST deduction off the inclusive price. This is how it used to work:

With 10% GST as it started in 1986, add on one tenth and take off one eleventh. That is, 100 add on 10 to make 110. Take off 10 to make 100.
When it increased to 12.5%, add on one eighth and take off one ninth. That is, 100 add on 12.5 to make 112.5. Take off 12.5 to make 100.
Now by making it 15%, the amount you add on is 15/100 or 3/20 and the amount you take off is 15/115 or 3/23. The 15% on is not too bad to calculate manually but 3/23 or 13.043% off is nearly impossible to do without a calculator. Never trust a politician.

A GST calculator you can install on your computer and use can be found here.

Odeon demolition approved

2012-01-12T19:49:00.001+13:00

In the first demolitions approved for 2012, CERA has added the Odeon Theatre to the list of buildings to be knocked down. Primarily I have been interested in this building due to the fact that it has taken such a long time for this process to occur, and that it has been in the red zone with no information about it coming out. There is a similar amount of interest for me in the old railway station in Moorhouse Ave, and a newspaper article says we should be hearing about that one in a month or so.

As I wrote a few posts back the Odeon also used to be the Assemblies of God City church until they put it on the market in I think it was 1999 or so, so it was an interesting building when they were using it and I attended their services a few times.

The work is stated to be a partial demolition, whatever that means, as I showed in Ross Becker’s photo, the roof has collapsed in the main part of the auditorium, so the building would be substantially wrecked, so really what the difference is between a partial demolition and knocking it over completely is a subtle distinction in the present circumstance I think.

Of interest also is the announcement the Convention Centre is to be demolished next week.

Journeying on the Lewis Pass Highway

2012-01-01T23:56:00.001+13:00

One of the reasons I like Google Earth so much (I have a whole blog full of it over here if you’re really interested) is that it conveys a sort of travel for people like me who, through our particular (and in my case temporal) circumstances, don’t get to travel as much as we would like. The combination of the aerial overhead coverage and street-level “Street View” imagery helps to bring back those memories from when I was younger and holidays on the West Coast or in Nelson when we travelled over the Lewis Pass highway. Considering the population of the South Island there are a surprising number of routes from East to West. You can go from either Nelson or Blenheim through the Upper Buller Gorge to Inangahua and from there continue to Westport or head south to Reefton. From Christchurch / North Canterbury you can head through the Lewis Pass to Maruia thence to Reefton or Inangahua. From Christchurch / Mid Canterbury take Highway 73 through Porters and Arthurs Passes to Kumara. And then there are a number of routes, including inland from Timaru via Burkes Pass, or from Oamaru via the Upper Waitaki hydro lakes, the Pigroot from Palmerston or Highway 87 from Mosgiel through Central Otago, or Highway 6 from Invercargill, that will all get you through the Haast, although it is probably the least direct route for someone from the middle of the island; a great scenic trip that people from this far north rarely make. (Technically there is a fifth route: Highway 94 from Mossburn in Southland reaches Milford Sound over the Homer Saddle, from where it is possible to reach the coast by sea, although there are no connecting roads.) I have been through the Lewis many times and it remains one of my most liked trips, a great travelling experience. Here’s my take on some of that Lewis experience between 1975-1995.

View SH7 Realignment.kmz in a larger map

The Weka Pass is encountered very soon after the beginning of Highway 7 at Waipara. It was almost inconceivable in the mid 1970s that there should also be a railway line following the road as far as Waikari, diverging further inland, and then catching up to the highway again at Culverden. The two went their separate ways again just up the road at Red Post Corner, and the rural line finished up at Waiau further north. The line was intended at the time of construction to be the South Island Main Trunk. Railways would become an all-encompassing passion for me a decade later, but at this time I took very little interest in the twin ribbons of shining steel climbing alongside the highway. The route closed in 1978 and weeds soon overgrew it. The tracks north of the Hurunui River were lifted five years later but the Weka Pass section survived to become a tourist operation. Between 1985 and 1991 I travelled to Waipara frequently to help maintain the track. Around 1983 a man was murdered in the Weka Pass and his body dumped on the railway line being found by one of the volunteer staff. The map shows a few road improvements including at left the lengthy route of the “Old Weka Pass Road” which came out in the hills west of Waikari. The purple push pin next to the present highway where it crosses over the railway route twice is the site of where the branch line crossed a wooden viaduct. This was buried in place in the 1930s by constructing an embankment around it in order to avoid having to rebuild it. The Weka Pass road summit is about 250 metres above sea level.

View SH7 Realignment.kmz in a larger map

When travelling through the Lewis Pass from Christchurch, it is not really until Red Post Corner (200 metres altitude) that you actually start to head west, and not until you have passed the Hanmer turnoff that you can truly consider yourself on the Lewis Pass highway proper. From that point on, the road is strictly rural highland, climbing gently but steadily to the pass itself near Maruia Springs at 863 metres altitude. The main relief from the endless rolling hills of the highway came from rest areas which the roading authorities had established alongside. These were quite primitive with the facilities usually consisting of a formed entrance road and a picnic table or two. Horseshoe Lake, a part of the Glynn Wye high-country station at 440 metres altitude, was at that time a rest area and we stopped there almost every time we went through the Lewis in the 1970s and 80s. Sometime in the 1990s the road was realigned and the rest area closed. Today you can still see Horseshoe Lake on the south side of the highway, but further away from it and without public access.

View SH7 Realignment.kmz in a larger map

The next high-country station to the west in the Hope River valley is The Poplars. It is located west of the Hope Bridge where the highway crosses to the north bank of the river and mostly hugs the north edge of the valley until shortly reaching the Boyle River confluence. The highway at that time was located north of the main site and buildings of the station (460 metres altitude). It was sometime in the mid 1990s that I found that the road had been diverted around the south side of the station buildings, which I naturally presumed was one of the inevitable improvements made in the highway as it becomes modernised over time. It was not until researching this article that I acquired the knowledge that in 1994 there was an earthquake at Arthurs Pass, which probably caused a landslip to open up high on a hillside only 100 metres from the side of the road. Eroding soil from this slip was carried rapidly downhill to overtop the highway regularly thereafter. The roading authority tried building a bridge to drain away the waters but eventually they gave this away and rebuilt the road a safe distance south. The old route is still clearly discernable at both ends and the eastern part remains as an access road to the Poplars station. Rumour has it that the old highway may be reinstated in the future.

View SH7 Realignment.kmz in a larger map

There are two other much smaller road diversions to the west of the Poplars, now alongside the Boyle River. One of these crosses a shingle scree/stream bed known as Poplars Fan at 520 metres altitude. It was at a location called “Poplars” that I was travelling to Nelson one holiday season in either 1992 or 1994, when our White Star bus was diverted from the highway onto a narrow windy road crossing, at a lower level, the streambed on a temporary Bailey Bridge and approaches. A crane was at work further up the hill at the site of, I presumed, the permanent bridge to be constructed. Because of the dates and similarity of names, I am unsure if this location was the Poplars station or Poplars Fan, where at some stage the highway bridge could have easily been replaced. At the latter a twisty lower-level road and obvious crossing site remain in place to this day.

View SH7 Realignment.kmz in a larger map

Continuing west from this point, travellers pass the “Engineers Camp” (520 metres altitude) that is used as a base for maintaining the more alpine part of the highway further north and west. About 1 km further on the road begins a gradual turn towards the north, following the Boyle River valley as it passes its junction with the Doubtful River. The road is then undulating for several more kilometres until arriving at a location that is informally known as the Boyle Bluffs. There was in the 1970s and 80s, a rest area at the west side of the highway on the bank of the Boyle River. This was some tens of metres in off the road in a patch of bush and another regular stopping place for our family on our numerous holiday trips throughout the north-west of the South Island. Like the Horseshoe Lake, Boyle Bluffs was demoted from the official highway rest areas sometime in the 1990s, although it is still accessible being on public land. It holds special significance for us as the place where we chose to commemorate the passing of one of our dearest extended family members around 20 years ago.

View SH7 Realignment.kmz in a larger map

From hereon the highway climbs quite gradually to eventually cross the Boyle River and continue northerly now alongside the Lewis River. The final attack on the pass begins as the highway passes the Nina River confluence and climbs the last 200 metres to enter the Maruia River valley. Turning west again the road descends to Springs Junction where it meets Highway 65, which heads north through the Shenandoah Saddle to Ariki Junction in the Buller Gorge to meet Highway 6. Alternatively the traveller can continue on Highway 7 west through the Rahu Saddle into the Inangahua River valley, soon arriving at Reefton, where either Highway 7 can be taken south through the Reefton Saddle towards Greymouth, or Highway 69 northward in the direction of Westport. Springs Junction derives much of its income from scheduled coach service stops and car drivers enjoying a welcome pause either in advance of or as a respite from the assault on the Lewis. Reefton is less than an hour away and was visited quite often either as a destination in its own right or an overnight stop for a longer journey. Apart from various family holidays to Nelson, we also on occasion went to Westport, Karamea, Punakaiki, Greymouth and Hokitika. The Lewis was our byway for the more northerly of these trips, but if one was going to Greymouth or further south, Arthurs Pass was the more direct route. My last holiday on the West Coast itself in 1987 involved catching the train from Christchurch to Moana where I met the rest of the family. We continued south ending up at Hokitika a few days later where I caught a coach service back to Christchurch over the Zigzag. The rest of the menagerie carried on south and eventually through the Haast then back up through the Upper Waitaki-Burkes Pass. Although I have travelled on Highway 7 many times since, I have not been through the Lewis since about 1995. Just writing this makes me nostalgic and I hope it won’t be much longer before an opportunity comes around for another journey through that way in a few short years, as the West Coast has such beautiful landscapes around there.

Reclaiming Our City

2011-12-31T09:26:00.000+13:00

If there’s one thing I could impress as being important, it’s adapting to the situation we find ourselves in. That means adjusting our lives to what is important. In the aftermath of each earthquake, we have to deal with the disruption to everyday life that is caused by these circumstances. A lot of people out there are not adjusting and not coping, because their lives have been shaken up more than they are prepared to admit is good and necessary. Lots of people in general have had to readjust to a life in which they cannot admit to being fully in control any more, in which they have to face up to their own selfishness, with mixed results. Some of the headline stuff that is coming out of certain areas of the city with each new series of shocks is justifiable, but as someone who used to live there, I can’t admit to agreeing with every word spoken. We can’t rely on the government or politicians to deliver the full solutions because they never actually can in all circumstances. That doesn’t mean I’m an anarchist or support some of the fringe associated groups that have sprung up masquerading as recovery campaigns. It just means that I accept that the government will never be able to address all of the needs out there because they are not perfect, as none of us are either.

Some people are going to suffer financial loss or hardship because of the earthquakes. That is as inevitable as it is unfortunate. It tends to be seen a little differently, however, with some of us who don’t own a home or have lots of assets. I could move house as I did back in August very quickly without strings attached. In some ways I was blessed by this, even though I aspire to home ownership one day. But those sorts of realities bring things into perspective, and you have to question whether our priorities are right. A lot of people will come out of this situation in relative financial hardship compared to where they were before the earthquake but it is unrealistic to expect Government to pick up the tab. Aren’t we lucky we are just the biggest natural disaster in NZ’s history and it is not happening all over New Zealand right now because if there was a lot more of it then there is no way the government could afford to pay. In that light, the attacks on the government’s red zone offer are unjustified. People also fail to appreciate the privilege that we enjoy living in the prosperous First World and how massive the gap is between our standard of living and a vastly greater proportion of the rest of the people on this earth. I have been heartened by the way the government responded in the hours immediately following February 22 to get relief supplies and resources into Christchurch. Try and believe that would have happened in Haiti or Bangladesh or wherever.

We all live in a new reality and we have to get used to that, come what may. Life may be unfair but so what, life was never meant to be measured by human standards. What matters is what is important in life and adjusting our present situation to what is most important. It’s not going to be the same in the future as it has in the past. Some people and organisations I know are not adjusting, it is business as usual, trying to pretend it’s not happening or it will go away soon. It’s been happening this year and it will continue for sure. There is or can be found purpose through all of the struggles we have faced as a City this year. But people will have to readjust their priorities to what is important. I support that people are asking questions about whether the political solutions are the best ones and that they are going to work out the best, but that doesn’t mean I support every word that has been spoken in the name of politics or activism which is trying to change certain realities. Life is often not “fair” by our own self imposed standards and it never will be. I could get stuck on a one track record of complaining about that or I can adjust my reality of what is fair and what isn’t and get on with life.

I hope once we’re into the New Year and barring further major earthquakes this blog will soon be back to more photos and less talk, simply put my wish for the year is to see all of us adapt and prosper in spite of the challenges we have faced in 2011, to overcome and to take our place as the people of this City, stand tall and stand strong.

WeCan’s Open Letter to New Zealand

2011-12-29T17:10:00.001+13:00

This was published recently following a campaign march by WeCan (Wider Communities Earthquake Action Network), one of a number of activist groups which have sprung up in response to the issues raised with earthquake recovery in Christchurch. It appears here on Rebuilding Christchurch and can also be found on WeCan’s own website.

In order to give any credence to the claim it has to be separated from the general trend of social justice campaigning that some of its chief adherents are known proponents of. Otherwise it is just another familiar refrain and therefore does not offer anything new in this type of debate in general. Once cutting through rhetoric and ideological cant the following claims can be discerned:

Rateable value in 2007 is not current value. This is the basis of the government’s buyout offer. The government buyout offer is not exclusive. If the offer is not preferable then people can use the alternative of negotiating with their insurers.
Problems accessing insurance and getting payouts – everyone sees the same problems including those in the insurance industry. The situation is complicated with many factors. It is not an easy situation but it will be resolved in time.
Complaints about the zoning process – the work is still ongoing and there is a lot more of it yet, I am satisfied by Roger Sutton’s statements on this matter. A process has had to be invented for an unprecedented situation in NZ.
Heritage building demolition – this is a wrong ordering of priorities. Heritage buildings are nowhere near as important as private homes for people to live in. You don’t suppose the first priority of the early settlers was to build the Cathedral or any of the other major buildings? They built up their homes and very basic improvised public facilities before they thought to build some of the major public buildings that we have today. People campaigning on this issue are being pretentious. It will similarly be many years before attention could be given to rebuilding many such buildings and in the meantime people would not be able to get into the inner city.
Houses and “magnificent trees” being cleared in the red zone – I have got no idea what this is about. See above point. Red zoned houses are coming down for safety reasons I guess. Trees are coming out because they are in danger of falling and injuring people. These are not life and death issues.
Claimed that the Memorial River Park has been ignored – I have no idea if this claim is true or not. It seems to be a pretty trivial issue at the moment.

The WeCan march attracted “over 300” which does not make it especially a large march. I do not know how significant this is in relation to the issues.

The issue of low cost sections for people from the impoverished East is being addressed by a community group with CERA’s support.

The key issues out of all of these, to wrap up what is important or significant, are to do with people’s houses, the insurance difficulties, land zoning and so on – none of these are insurmountable, but the delays are understandable. However, as I mentioned in my previous post, that is how life has changed for many people, so just get on with it. I think some of these people have quickly forgotten the 200 killed in some of these inadequate buildings, including heritage structures, or the potential for those that were empty at the time to have killed many more.

Rev Mike Coleman, who heads up this WeCan campaign, is an Anglican ministry enabler for “Local Shared Ministry” parishes in Christchurch, including St Marys Addington, a liberal Anglo-Catholic fellowship. These associations would appear to me to put him into the social justice gospel strand of Christianity. The Anglican model of “Local Shared Ministry” is generally used where parishes are too small to support fulltime professional ministers.

23-12-11 No Ordinary Christmas

2011-12-24T22:57:00.001+13:00

Confused? In addition to the 24-12-11 No Ordinary Christmas set published today there is a much smaller set taken yesterday immediately after the earthquakes. There wasn’t much to see which is just as well, as I am sure we are all getting quite sick of it.

A bit of liquefaction in St Martins – nowhere near as bad as February or June, and it took the 6.0 to bring it up. This area is TC3 foundation zone i.e. severe liquefaction requiring special foundations or ground treatments. Both of the buildings that can be seen have severely slumped as well as the land they are sitting on.

Liquefaction visible at St Martins New World site. The massive piles driven all over this site (there must be a hundred or more) are intended to deal with just that issue, in a part of St Martins where large tracts including this site are classified TC3 (blue) foundation zone.

Council flats in St Martins – almost completely abandoned in the TC3 blue foundation zone – you can see why, severe liquefaction and consequential slumping.

All photos: 2011EarthquakeB#5689628975728824786

24-12-11 No Ordinary Christmas

2011-12-24T21:23:00.001+13:00

The earthquakes yesterday have resulted in more damage to a number of buildings, some of which are shown in these photos taken on a circuit from my house through the south side of the CBD and Sydenham.

The Catholic Cathedral continues to crumble, here is the southern transept showing severe damage, although it is not new. Every time I go past more and more propping with stacks of containers and other structural supports has been added. However I think it’s time the Diocese got used to the idea that trying to preserve this building and its contents is a losing game that has wasted a lot of money. This, of course, would be easier to accept if the cathedral was simply used as a meeting place rather than the treasure house it has become. Imagine spending $180,000 on a pair of doors and that is only the beginning…. there is a vast contrast between the way this building has been idolised, and the outcome at St Pauls Trinity Pacific in Cashel Street, which was fully demolished a couple of months after February with no fuss.

Demolition of the adjacent Music Centre (a former convent) has begun – a bit more realism here. The chapel on the end has already been taken down.

Further and possibly new damage to the part of the Music Centre that faces Ferry Road. For a time it looked like this part might be stable enough to survive but I doubt that will occur now.

This week’s view of the Hotel Grand Chancellor is brought to you by the number 36… this is the 36th photo in my set of 91. We can here see the bracing that has been put in place in the top few floors which allows machinery to be used to help break down the structure from the top. Compared with last time, at last the physical structure is starting to come down with part of the roof frame dismantled.

And this side view of the Odeon is brought to you by the partial demolition of Penny Cycles’ building to the right. Although there is still no word on the theatre’s fate it is tempting to think the digger will just roll over to the next site once Pennys is completed. Those little square openings at the bottom of the fly tower are windows for the basement below the stage, and around 1995 some idiot used them to start a fire that burned out part of the stage, back when City AOG owned it. Since they had the fire curtain closed at the time, the damage which was not too bad was contained within the tower and didn’t get into the main auditorium.

Compared to my last photo of the Sydenham Post Office, I assume this is the result of demolition work starting recently, rather than the latest swarm of quakes. The top story has all but disappeared.

An older photo of Clarendon Towers. A contract has just been let to demolish this building, which CERA has said is extremely dangerous. This photo was taken back in April, when it was thought to be repairable. With the June quakes and continuing aftershocks substantially more damage has been done and it now looks much less tiday than the almost pristine appearance eight months ago. This demolition will take around 14 months to complete. The Clarendon has been a rare example of CERA having to make use of its emergency powers, which can only indicate that the owners or insurers were opposing the demolition and unwilling to address the issue of future earthquake damage or risk of collapse. This is an example of how some property owners have been acting against the public interest, most notably in the CORE group which has been a high-profile opponent of the CERA process. Due to the fact that further earthquakes could occur at any time, I think the public interest is that such a building which is susceptible to earthquake damage and has such risks associated with it, has to be demolished. The drop zone around it is of such a size that many other buildings which are safe to use, have had to be cordoned off and this has generated associated economic impact for those property owners and also a social impact on that part of the central city.

Photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5689586242006235586

Ross Becker Photo–Odeon Theatre

2011-12-17T20:48:00.001+13:00

This is a recently released Ross Becker Photo of the south of Lichfield area. Although the SOL itself is only covered to a small extent I was more interested in the part of Tuam Street in the bottom right corner.

This is the Odeon Theatre, 214 Tuam Street, about which we have heard next to nothing, and which is within the red zone. Built in 1883 it was known by various names, and the Odeon name wasn’t taken until 1960, when it was converted to a cinema. In 1983 it was sold to City AOG Church, who put it on the market in 1999, one of the problems was the cost of it being earthquake strengthened. It was bought by the notorious Dave Henderson in 2006. It was put up for mortgagee sale in 2009 due to Henderson’s financial problems. It’s not clear to me if a buyer was found. As we can see in this picture the roof has collapsed above the major part of the auditorium. The building as you can see is in about four different sections: the foyer, then the first half of the auditorium incorporating the dress circle, the second half of the auditorium and the right the stage with the fly tower above it. Apart from the roof damage a lot of brickwork has fallen off the outside. Although no decision has been announced I expect the theatre will be demolished.

10-12-11 Lyttelton-Naval Point

2011-12-14T07:53:00.001+13:00

These photos were taken in the course of a visit to Lyttelton which included the Naval Point area where I attended a work end of year function. The photos are spread across three albums.

The cleared site of Holy Trinity Anglican church at Lyttelton. Remaining on site are the steeple just to the left of this picture and the vicarage to the right.

This container bar, the “Porthole”, is being constructed on the site of the former Volcano restaurant in London Street, Lyttelton.

This plaque appears on the side of the road out to Naval Point and is in memory of an early mayor who was also a councillor.

All visitors to Naval Point will at some stage cross this railway line which is seen here going over the main road next to the Lyttelton Engineering premises by the dry dock. The lines have been disused for years and are generally sealed in or built over in some places.

The inhabitant of the drydock on this occasion has proved to be, as a close examination of the bow will show, the notorious Oyang 77. I certainly hope that the inquiry into labour practices on these chartered fishing boats will result in some sort of enforcement being taken against the operators of ships such as these which do not pay their crews a proper wage or provide reasonable living conditions on board.

The Naval Point Club building is right on the water’s edge. The club is basically a yacht club and its facilities are directly adjacent to the Magazine Bay marina.

Links to the albums (first photo in each):

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5684483847574122274

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011TransportA#5684497450014332978

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011ChristchurchA#5684489553703060050

Photos updating

2011-12-13T22:40:00.000+13:00

As I have got broadband connected at home now I am putting all my photos back into my home computer to be synced from that. Unfortunately Picasa has decided that some of the albums it had didn’t match what was already on the website and has created new duplicate albums so I am currently having to unsync, delete and then resync these albums which results in breaking links to individual pictures. The broadband normally would have cost $99 to connect and another $69 for a broadband modem but TelstraClear has paid for both of these costs under their current deal, leaving me just with another $37 a month in data charges over what I paid up to this point for dialup, so it is a pretty good deal. I found dialup so difficult to use that I thought that broadband would have a lot of problems but in fact I am getting speeds around 15 megabits down and 0.7 up, which is pretty good, so it looks like the broadband is going to work well.

Once I get on top of where I was up to with updating the photos the albums especially 2009 on will have more content added and soon I will resume negative scanning as well. Also waiting to be addressed is blog posts over at NZ Rail Maps blog with changes to linked maps, which is unrelated to this issue but is another of those things that really only can be done at home.

Picasa has been syncing photos throughout today and a small number of albums ended up duplicated so they have had to be re-uploaded. This is a quirk of the mechanism that Picasa uses to sync web albums and is just one of those things you work around, generally it is only an issue when moving albums around between different computers that have been used to sync them as is the case here. So 26,000 photos are now on my Picasa web albums. I have just started to add new ones, at the moment I am up to mid 2009 in the digital photos so from there through to the present will be put onto the web albums soon.

More photos coming

2011-12-10T10:15:00.001+13:00

Well I haven’t found it easy to keep up with photos lately but I will be getting broadband connected at home early next week and this will make it very easy indeed to keep up so watch this space.

4-12-11 Cathedral Square & South City

2011-12-06T11:09:00.001+13:00

Well, I took my chance to go through the walkway into Cathedral Square this past Sunday, which as you can imagine is a pretty big deal. However whereas some people have made a big thing about how significant it is to be able to go into the red zone, I’m over it. I have been up into the outskirts of it so many times taking the opportunity as sections are opened up that it’s not so much of a novelty now. Plus, of course, my conspicuous lack of concern about the demolition of heritage buildings or any building means it is not as big a thing as it would be for some. Here are some of the 90 photos that I took with the link to the rest. Each photo has alongside a Google Streetview of the same scene before the earthquake.

	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map
	View Larger Map

Photo set: https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5682276561783278226

5-12-12 Riverside-Remembrance

2011-12-06T10:21:00.001+13:00

Around 40-50 photos in this set across two albums, taken around the Riverside area near the hospital and heading up towards the Bridge of Remembrance.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011ChristchurchA#5682607764201744738

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5682606383356226530

At the moment of writing this not all photos are synced. I am signing up for broadband shortly and therefore the delay in getting photos synced on dialup will become a thing of the past.

27-11-11 South City

2011-11-28T07:34:00.000+13:00

Another visit into the South City area with a set of 30 photos.

More visible progress at HGC.

The Cathedral continues to disintegrate and with new reinforcing constantly being added remains in danger of self collapse.

Another view of HGC across the south-eastern side of the Tuam/Colombo intersection and looking through to Lichfield St.

View Larger Map

Google Streetview’s view of the same location.

The back of the former Smiths City tower block and the associated buildings with the South City Christian Centre building to the far left. The empty site to the centre-right used to be occupied by the Smiths City parking building which was badly damaged in the earthquake and was one of the earliest demolitions after February.

Link to the photos (first photo in set): https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5679768237792559922

20-11-11 South City

2011-11-21T23:13:00.000+13:00

This time I went for a ride in the South City area after having previously visited Somerfield earlier in the afternoon. There are over 100 pictures in this set which has the title as above. Here are some samples. Link below to the first picture in the series.

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5677151834410474882

One of the better views of many of HGC and surrounding buildings, from a lot of angles.

The Odeon Theatre complex. The main part of the theatre is to the left. At right is the fly tower above the stage. Damage to the roof appears extensive and although I haven’t checked I would assume this building will be demoed.

A very large building somewhere around Cashel or Lichfield Street which looks like a demo.

An impromptu memorial at the nearest fence to the CTV site in Madras Street.

St Johns Latimer Square site – complete demo with some stonework salvaged.

I have had to dampen the interest in buying a Powershot S100. It’s a nice camera but for my day to day needs the SX230HS which is $200 cheaper is a much more likely prospect. I will have a look again at a higher end camera maybe mid 2013 when it will be another juggling act as to the likes of the Powershot G14, Powershot S100 or successor, and a bottom end EOS (as usual). The G series cameras and of course the EOSs can take my Speedlite on their hot shoes and the combination of camera and flash together with the enhanced low-light performance of these models make a formidable combination.

18-11-11 Back to the Centre

2011-11-19T13:30:00.001+13:00

Today I was in the city centre area and took about 75 pictures. You can go on the redzone tours or you can just go around yourself and have a look. The red zone is so small now that all you are really getting on those bus tours is closeup views of a few locations like HGC and the Cathedral. To be honest I am not totally sure if I would go on one. I called this post Back to the Centre because we are increasingly being able to go back into the centre of town with the massive pace of demolition.

Here is the link to the first photo in the album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011EarthquakeB#5676741839713500882

Look for photos that have the same caption as this post, this will be the pattern in future with the Picasa albums, the individual photos will all be captioned with the subject of this post. I have given up geotagging these innercity pictures as it’s just too tedious trying to figure out where exactly every photo was taken or what it is of. So that’s the way it is until I get a camera that has a GPS built into it, or on trips where I have a handheld GPS with me, which is how some of the other photos have got geotagged automatically.

This week HGC has had the roof taken off.

The City Council building reopened to the public this week. The blank space in front of it to the left used to be the Old Public Library Chambers.

And this used to be the City Council building before the present one. I’m not sure what is happening with it but this is the first time I’ve been able to get close enough to get a full shot of it.

The famous Popup Container Mall, which is a very clever design indeed.

Part of the new Central Station which replaces the bus exchange. At this time of year an open air bus terminal has some very attractive features to it. We need two bus terminals, a summer one and a winter one

15-11-11 Opawa-Heathcote

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000+13:00

Some photos from the area taken tonight.

Link to the first photo in each album:

The Martindales Road rail overbridge has been completely rebuilt since the earthquakes.

The Valley Inn was demolished after the September 2010 earthquake and was rebuilt during the first half of 2011.

Demolition continues at the old Heathcote Maltworks.

Putting my photos on Google Plus / Picasa

2011-11-18T09:19:00.001+13:00

Well, that’s what I’ve been doing for weeks. Plus has unlimited storage for all pictures under 2048 pixels longest side, unlike the old Picasa limit of 1 GB for all photos (itself typically Google-generous). Before that I had four different Picasa sites with various albums in them. What also brought this about is cleaning out some old stuff at home, and I decided to scan all the negatives I have – which is a lot, and probably there are a couple of thousand of those done as well. The rest of what can be seen on my albums comes from my hefty digital collection and is totalling about 22,000 pictures (with some duplication).

In the site you will see the permanent albums which have a title that starts with four digits, and the temporary albums, which don’t have the four digits. The four digits are the year for albums that cover a specific year, and 0000 for albums that don’t cover a specific year. The temporary albums are there for now – but the content of them will eventually be folded into the permanent albums and then they’ll disappear.

The shape of the site has changed a few times with albums being put up and then being removed again to be renamed, so there have been at least two complete uploads of the content.

The site is at http://picasaweb.google.com/lepidopteranos/

Because of Google Plus being in beta, at the moment this automatically gets redirected to https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305 . But I hope Plus will soon let us use our name rather than numbered URL. Just remember for the moment that those URLs are equivalent, but hopefully soon there will only be the one.

17-11-11 Streets of Sydenham

2011-11-17T23:56:00.001+13:00

This is the third time in the last week I have been out on the bike taking photos. And that is a lot of biking activity in one week, since I moved in three months ago, I have hardly ridden at all up until last Saturday when I rode quite a few km out to Wigram to photograph the motorway construction. Then on Monday on the spur of the moment I went out to Heathcote and took the photos of the Martindales Road rail bridge which are in the previous post. And now, tonight, as an offshoot from a trip up into Sydenham to do some shopping, I took photos of some of the local streets on the way back. So the move has been quite therapeutic. And now I am looking at my garden to see what I can add to it, as well.

Here’s the link to the first photo in the album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/114045016785073872305/2011ChristchurchA#5676727467780560642

When you get to see these on Picasa, they will have captions on them – as I remembered Irfanview can be used to bulk caption photos and also tag them with keywords – so I will be checking that out more, which is a good alternative to geotagging if you don’t want to use it. Once I have a bit more time then probably there will be a lot of mass captioning and tagging. The captions of these photos will all be “17-11-11 Streets of Sydenham”.

Anyway here’s some sample photos:

Bradford Park behind Countdown.

My mate’s house in Huxley Street. Very tidy and a lot of work gone into it.

Something quite modern.

2011-01-28

2011-01-28T07:05:00.001+13:00

2011-01-06

2011-01-06T21:25:00.001+13:00

Long time…

2011-01-04T12:20:00.001+13:00

Well it’s been a long time. Part of the problem is to work out how to share photos – blog, Facebook or some photo sharing service such as Picasa. I’ve got to, I think, sharing albums on Picasa – but only large collections of photos that were all taken at the same time – and individual ones on blogs like this one.

I think the problem for me is that it is a lot of work to organise pictures into albums and I can’t be bothered with that organisation. I did it for a while with Picasa but it takes extra work and time to do the organisation. You can imagine that tagging photos etc (except for geotagging) is a lot of work that I won’t often do either. Generally geotagging is the only kind of tagging I can be bothered with because it can be automated against a GPS track.

So this blog will get individual photos from time to time and they won’t be put into Picasa, nor will they appear in Facebook, because both of those require organisation.

back

2010-08-03T23:21:00.001+12:00

there’s still a place to blog some really arty pictures i think, here’s a few all at once making up for lost time

a visitor to my home

why are the words backwards

another reflection

and another…

this is actually a colour photo in spite of impressions

a school production

Blog Closed

2009-05-09T11:49:00.004+12:00

After much forethought I have decided there are not going to be any more posts on this blog. I now find it much more straightforward to post pictures directly into Picasa Web Albums, rather than blogging them. The frequency of postings on this blog, over some months, has become more sporadic, reflecting this change. The positive aspect of the change is that my creative photography encompasses a much wider range of subjects. Since I purchased my first digital camera four years ago, I have been a prolific photographer, and I now am publishing many more photos in the web albums than have been featured on this blog in the past.

Most of my postings are now being made on my new blog at http://lepidopterophile.blogspot.com/ which also links to older blogs and the different Picasa webalbums that I am using or have used recently.

this rose is red

2009-03-23T00:41:00.001+13:00

the first head about to open on the floribunda trumpeter i planted in my garden march 1st. more are on the way, while the yellow (graham thomas) has just one head sprouting at the moment, will be open in a week or two maybe

urban sprawl

2009-02-20T20:59:00.001+13:00

some new wheelie bins for the city rubbish collection lined up for delivery at a city housing complex

roses are orange…

2009-02-10T22:08:00.001+13:00

and yellow, and pink, and (yes) red (click image to see all the pictures)

poppies over gallipoli

2009-02-10T21:56:00.001+13:00

another visit to judith streat’s well executed tribute on anzac drive (click the image to see all photos)

the work consists of a set of panels displaying kemal ataturk’s well known poem of 1934. the work was commissioned in 2003 and is displayed at the corner of anzac drive and travis road.

aranui sunset [s1-9041]

2008-11-16T00:55:00.001+13:00

aranui sunset

2008-11-09T21:57:00.001+13:00

unfortunately conditions were less than ideal for this handheld shot. i had little time to get to a better position and even in the couple of minutes that it took me to find a better place the sun had all but disappeared. such is the challenge of sunset photography where the lighting changes very rapidly.

sm sunset [a460-2018/2019]

2008-10-27T00:05:00.001+13:00

sm sunset [a460-2009]

2008-10-23T01:12:00.001+13:00

sm sunset [a460-1999]

2008-10-21T01:12:00.001+13:00

sm sunset [a460-1932]

2008-10-13T02:40:00.001+13:00

sm sunset [a460-1921]

2008-10-10T09:57:00.001+13:00

sm deep sunset [a460-1916]

2008-10-09T02:34:00.001+13:00

the sky was actually darker than this picture implies

aranui sunset [s1-8994]

2008-10-04T21:21:00.001+13:00

fourteen years and fourteen months

2008-10-04T12:24:00.001+13:00

early evening [a460-1872]

2008-10-02T00:23:00.001+13:00

first week of daylight saving… half an hour before sunset

light and dark

2008-09-26T17:35:00.001+12:00

subterrany III

2008-09-15T09:44:00.001+12:00

lyttelton tunnel at night heading towards heathcote

sm sunset [a460-1750]

2008-09-10T00:22:00.001+12:00

christchurch snow (19 august 2008)

2008-09-07T00:10:00.001+12:00

snow on the port hills as seen from lyttelton on 19th august 2008

(photo by j h dunford, taken on my old powershot a400 camera)

sm sunset [a460-1679]

2008-09-03T23:07:00.000+12:00

southern alps over christchurch

2008-08-31T19:08:00.001+12:00

the snow covered peaks tower over central city blocks

lotus elite

2008-08-28T00:36:00.001+12:00

worldwide production total of 2535 makes it very rare in nz

lyttelton at night

2008-08-24T14:10:00.001+12:00

lights of the port dominate this late winter scene

sm sunset [s5-0026]

2008-08-22T17:39:00.001+12:00

1st shot on this blog with my new powershot s5 camera. but most pictures will continue to be a460 or s1.

sm sunset [a460-1622]

2008-08-19T23:19:00.000+12:00

snowcloud sky

2008-08-19T23:16:00.000+12:00

big snowfall in christchurch overnight but not enough to linger, mostly washed away or melted by the time this pic was taken.

not many sky photos lately, atrocious weather, lots of rain

sunset over lyttelton

2008-08-04T00:46:00.001+12:00

subterrany II

2008-07-31T00:47:00.001+12:00

christchurch hospital pedestrian tunnel (passes under riccarton ave)

night fog over bexley

2008-07-19T23:36:00.001+12:00

the red spot is my new bright taillight on my bike

sm sunset [a460-1400]

2008-06-29T22:02:00.001+12:00

sm sunset [a460-1345]

2008-06-19T02:19:00.001+12:00

smsunset [a460-1310]

2008-06-12T23:09:00.001+12:00

wilsons road

2008-06-11T18:44:00.001+12:00